Thought i'd kill two birds with one stone here and invite everyone, but if you want a different/private thread, let me know and i can make one, otherwise this thread is open for @Equinox @Septiezal and @Aeroth and any other prospective Aethers! As usual @Lituus is also invited!

~~~~~

As far as Ghanyarah figured, everything was beginning to come together nicely. The idea of his gathering, which he had further elaborated to Lituus as he continued to muse and mull over it, had evolved into a syndicate with a purpose. He wanted to surround himself with friends and family, yes, but he needed a reason for them to stay besides the promise of protecting them. He wanted to give them a reason, and he wanted to expand his purpose from just protecting to something greater. After showing Equinox how to produce drawings, Ghanyarah realized that he enjoyed teaching others his hobby. He was excited to see what Equinox could potentially create if she had taken his advice to heart. More than that, he wanted to see creation in general. The caves had grown so dull and he no longer had desire to wreak havoc like he did in his youth. He no longer had anything to prove - except, perhaps, wisdom and a desire for camaraderie.

He was planning on venturing out and searching for those who he thought he had made an impression on. But first, Ghanyarah needed what he felt could make a good home for them. His first choice was, obviously, the place where he himself lived. It was strange - to think that he suddenly had to make a home and prepare to care for these Gembounds as if he had already taken them under his responsibility. Ghanyarah had never been a leader. But he’d observed Dragon, and he remembered those qualities of his friend that made him admirable, and those that made him questionable. Dragon had provided them all with a home and the security of closeness. Ghanyarah wanted to do the same.

So he busied himself clearing out the space that had overgrown around his tree. His gem collection - Netil’s chrysalis, Lituus’ shard, and Odin’s shard, sat cradled still in its roots. The crude bark sketches loomed overhead. But the trees closed in around, which made it cramped for any more than two of three Gembounds, and Ghanyarah wanted his tree to be central. First to go was the low undergrowth that he could easily dismantle and dig out of the ground. Mud sloughed up his legs and chest, and stray leaves littered the ground, but he was making headway - soon, the space surrounding his tree began to open up a little and Ghanyarah stood back, admiring his work with a proud huff.

Lituus still hadn't gained control of her wings just yet, but she had certainly become great at climbing. Dexterous thumbs and backwards-facing feet allowed her a surprising range of movement and allowed her to cling and crawl over any kind of surface- even ones that were vertical, or upside-down. You know, bat things. She hangs now from one of the creases of Gracie's carving. Folding wings hug the bark just below it as she watches the restless reptile digging through the wet earth around the tree's roots.

The bat is just grinning at him as he goes on and grows muddier in the process. Silly lizard. Her chiming laughter rings the space above his head. What a proud thing he was, and she admired that about him. Seems he was set on his desire to form this coalition. The idea of creating a nest for family and friends alike filled her with untold amounts of joy. Would that she could be of more help.

"Let me know if you think of something I can do!" In truth, she'd just get lost in the mud, or accidentally buried under several layers of foliage. Then stepped on. None of that seemed appealing to her. In silence, she wonders if she had magick at all, and if that magick would have been able to make things easier for him in some way. Like the ice Ghanyarah had formed in the river to help the little bear cub. Ice.. Maybe she could make ice too! Not that.. ice would be good right about now. Maybe she could make the area a bit less wet? She wasn't sure how she could help, so she folds her wings tighter to her body, and stares longingly at the soil directly below her. Yara's gemstone collection glimmers from their nook, resting against a sturdy root, and their light catches her attention, if only for a moment. Lituus closes her eyes and concentrates on.. something. Anything.

Unbeknowst to her, a secret power rises and rumbles... The earth tremors, however slight, and ceases almost as suddenly as it starts. Concentration breaks following her immediate surprise of the odd vibrations crawling up the trunk of the tree. "Gh- Ghanyarah!" she stammers."What was that!" A loud whisper just barely catches in her throat. The hooks of her thumbs cling more tightly to the bark at her sides, praying something wasn't going to jump out of the trees and gobble them both up.

@Ghanyarah

Equinox was on the move. She'd come all the way from Polaris and had somehow wound up back at her birthplace, the sludgy swamp of Cetus. It'd been so, so long since she'd seen this place, and it brought back a feeling of nostagia... although, because of the changes she'd been through, everything seemed dramatically different. the trees that had loomed over her when she was born were far smaller, and the mud that she'd struggled to wade through upon emerging from the swampy depths reached only her ankles. Going from a 2ft whelp to a 17ft long dragon in the time since she'd come here was a dramatic change, for sure.

Now, Equinox needn't worry as her paws sank into the mud, for if it got any deeper she could feel it, and it generally only got deeper by a foot at the most. Equinox felt at ease here- perhaps it was the fact that her slime trail was lost as it sank into the mud, or the moisture that hung heavy on the air. Or perhaps it was the isolation; company wasn't something that seemed common here, and she could certainly see why.

That being said, though, as Nox wandered, a small voice reached her through the mist. Her great head raised, and turned in its direction, a long pause taking a hold. It was a child's voice, and sounded like the creature that it belonged to was so very small... Were they lost in the bog?

A sudden nerve gripped her... As afraid as the could be of her own abilities, Equinox knew that she could never just sit by and let something happen if there was the potential for disaster. A rumble beginning deep in her chest, the elusive beast slid forward, pressing deeper into the bog until a great tree loomed out of the mist. And there, far below her at its roots, she caught sight of a familiar face...

"Ghanyarah?"


@Ghanyarah

Ghanyarah spent a moment surveying the flattened, cleared space before Lituus' voice rang out. The lizard twisted his head, spying her clinging to the details of Gracie's portrait. She was always eager to assist him, but her diminutive size often restricted her from doing much more than clinging to him and observing, or providing a helpful opinion. Ghanyarah looked at her thoughtfully then cracked a smile. "Perhaps you can go move that tree for me." The reptile suggested, pointing at a large tree just off to the side of the clearing. Obviously, she wouldn't be able to budge it, but he just wanted to see her reaction.

She closed her eyes - something he could barely see from the distance he stood away from her - and he thought she might have been trying to move the tree. Instead, it was the ground that trembled, if slightly, enough to startle Ghanyarah into standing at full height with his tail vibrating furiously. Lituus soon echoed his surprise and he fixed his eyes back on her, momentarily confused. "I am unsure." He answered, gaze now flicking all around him. The likely suspects would have been the Divine, or even Aquarian moving around in the swamp, or...

Just as quickly, Ghanyarah found himself distracted by a manifestation of curling darkness between the trees. Ghanyarah jumped again, backing closer to the tree while reaching for a grip on his magic. Only the creature that emerged spoke, and it spoke the name that belonged to him. He realized immediately that it was no threat that had caused the trembling - whatever the cause was, it would remain a mystery, for stepping before them was the intriguing slime dragon he had met not long ago. "Equinox." He greeted, flicking his tongue to taste the warmth that her body naturally generated. Ghanyarah's body relaxed as he stepped forward again. "It seems you have found my tree."

@Lituus

The tree's refusal to move, and the ground shaking in its stead, filled her with a worry that begged her to scurry higher up the tree. Instead of giving in, she clung tighter to Gracie's likeness and shook it off. Or, at least she did for a small while. A dark shadow undulates between the massive trunks of the trees surrounding them and a small gasp pushes from her lungs when it crawled closer to her morganite-crested friend.

She had not seen anything that large yet in her few days of life. Why, it was even more massive than Ghanyarah! It was almost incomprehensible, and if that didn't make her want to scurry up the ragged bark of the tree, nothing would! But her survival instinct kicks into gear, and tiny feet and claws help her climb higher. And higher! And higher! Only... she isn't moving very quickly. At all. Being only four or so feet high off the base of the tree still put her well within range of the long neck of the ominous beast.

This small pang of fear steadily subsides with the exchange of voices. Apparently they knew one another? Oh. Oh, good. It didn't help her racing little heart slow down any quicker, however. Her childlike mind refrains from letting a series of questions fall from her snout. Remaining still as she could- though noticeably jittery- she sinks the slight curve of her claws into the portrait above Gracie and hangs down from it. Long ears unfurl as her head lifts to get a better look at the dark being. For now, she listens. If she could be the toddler hiding behind its mother's leg right now, she would be.

@Equinox @Ghanyarah

Equinox came to a halt some distance away, so that the owners of the voices she'd heard would be able to relax in the distance between them. that, and the fact that this was Ghanyarah's tree filled her with apprehension. "I... didn't know that," she rumbled quite warily, although not as nervously as she could have been. In addition, she'd heard a tiny voice in the mist, and did not want whoever it belonged to to be afraid. She didn't want to scare a gemling if she could help it. But perhaps Ghanyarah would help her out on that one?

Even so, Equinox didn't want to set this tree on fire, especially when it belonged to someone. "I'll keep away. I don't want to ssset thissss one on fire." Equinox let out an anxious laugh, before returning her gaze to the lizard at the base of the tree.

"I wasss born here," Equinox explained to Ghanyarah. "My ssslime ssssinkss into the water here. The missst feels so sssoft. For ssome reasssson, I feel at home here."

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Ghanyarah @Lituus
notes: here

MORTHOS

His white pelt was splotchy and stained from the dark mud and brackish water, but Morthos found that he didn't care one bit. Wandering about in the shallower areas of the swamp and gifted with a fearlessness borne of naivety, the pale fawn felt his fluffy tail slap happily against his hind end - who knew mud could be so fascinating? Days ago, an irritating itch had began to worry at the apex of the youth's skull, as if something was attempting to wriggle out from beneath his pristine flesh, and he had discovered after taking a tumble into the swamp that the mud had a rather soothing quality to it.

Though as he moved carefully on stilt-like legs through the thick mud, those satellite ears of his picked up the sound of voices through the thick mist. Swiveling his ears about in conjunction with cocking his head and turning every which way, the youth attempted to pinpoint the location of the conversation...

~*~*~*~

It took a little adjusting, but Morthos found that the voices were coming from his left. Grin breaking over his muddied features, the fawn moved as quickly as he could through the swamp and toward the strangers, curiosity peaking. As he neared and the swamp waters gave way to mucky land and the mists thinned enough to make out figures, Morthos called out, ebon eyes alight with excitement, "Hello! Hi! Are you here for the mud, too?"

ghanyarah

The reptile curled his lips in a slight smile at Equinox’s modest answer. He wouldn’t have expected her to know that this was his tree unless he himself had led her to it, but he did recall inviting her to see it. He was glad that she had made her way here. The reptile twisted his head slightly and peered over at where Lituus clung to the bark, but the bat didn’t speak. Had she suddenly become afflicted with nerves? His tongue flicked tentatively before he looked back at Equinox, who then promised to keep her distance. “No, no,” Ghanyarah said, stepping closer. “You needn’t keep distance. Please, come look.” He invited her warmly.

And he listened as she explained that this was where she was born. The mud felt good on her slimy skin, and he could only imagine how nice it must have felt to mingle oneself with the wet dirt when they were constantly sloughing off ooze like that. It sunk deep in the water, and he imagined that that was what helped to contribute to the weight of the murk surrounding the swamp, too. “Yes. Cetus is our home as well. I am glad to share this place with you. What did your chrysalis look like? Where did you emerge? Perhaps you could show me.” He suggested, eagerly chasing the thought of nabbing a shard of hers, too.

Yet only seconds following, Ghanyarah had noticed the arrival of another behind Equinox. He tilted his head and peered over at the youth, who gleefully asked if they were here for the mud. How strange! Two mud-lovers in one day. His smile remained, if not grew wider as he looked over at the deer. “Yes. In a sense.” He answered. “Though I am here for much more than just mud.”

@Lituus

The bat meets Ghanyarah's gaze when his head twists to examine her location on the tree. So[i/] her nerves may have gotten the better of her, but this goopy black [i]mass and her caretaker were obviously acquainted. She felt a of shame in her initial fear, but she could not have known. Long ears unfurl as the two continue to exchange words, and her noise points to a moving figure further back. More cave deer? No... This one had fur like she did, and didn't wear brightly glowing stripes. What was it?

It spoke too, asking about mud. Mud, she knew, was something that would get her all matted and gross and possibly stepped on! That wouldn't be any good. When she could help it, the bat did all she could to remain off ground level in Cetus. Unless she saw a shiny beetle skittering past or a worm rising forth from the moistened soil, she is happy to remain perched in Ghanyarah's tree. The 'Defender of Faces' as she thought to call herself. For the figures sketched onto the thick trunk's bark by the reptile's own claws are something she has grown fond of. The bat strives to memorize each face in the hopes that one day she would be able to recognize their likeness, should she come into contact with them in face to face.

"Are those wings?" The small voice speaks out a few feet up from the root of the tree, directed at the seventeen-foot-long slimeball. "... can you fly?" All the questions. She- too- is eager.

@Equinox

Equinox's head turned as another youthful voice emerged from the darkness, and Equinox was able to make out the vague shape of a deer in the dark, her glowing eye flitting and quivering as she struggled to focus. "M-mud?" she stammered at first, the fright at there suddenly being so many beings getting the better of her. But she forced it down, instead lowering her neck slightly so that she seemed far smaller to any newcomers. "Well... I sssuppose I am." It was true, the mud was a far more comfortable terrain to her than sheer rock, moss, or anything really. The mud here hid her slime trails, something that she was still rather self-conscious about.

At Ghanyarah's invitation, Equinox stretched out her neck rather than actually walking closer. She was able to come close enough that her neck was rather taut, and yet they were almost face to face. Slowly, her body followed, her paws squelching as they sank into the mud. Ghanyarah's questioning of her birth brought some uncertainty to the surface. "I emerged within the bog... ssssomewhere where the mud isss deep. I remember, my first part of life was to ssstruggle to the sssurface and take my first breath. Perhapss I will find it here ssssomewhere, beneath the sssurface."

The thought was accompanied by nostalgia; how simple the world had seemed back when she was merely a little slug. Equinox had begun considering just whereabouts her chrysalis might be located in the bog, when another tiny voice asked a question. It was a new voice, unfamiliar... yet they spoke with the sort of tone that suggested they'd been sitting here, watching, the entire time!Equinox raised her head from Ghanyarah, seeking out the source of the voice and finding something... which looked like a growth on the tree. She stared at them, eye softly glowing in the dark, staring dumbly, all the while not realizing that this was some sort of creature. "I... I've never tried," Equinox admitted, turning her gaze away from the lump to continue her search for the source of the voice. little did she realize that the 'lump' was in fact the source of the voice. they were just so tiny that her single eye could not find them in the dark.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Lituus @Morthos @Ghanyarah
notes: here