The caves had fallen silent again. Gembounds disappearing or just ultimately remaining to themselves. Unsure of the cause of such things Arkrael had spent a lot of her time slumbering or roaming the silent halls with her son. Much to relief, that was all changing. Things were returning to normal and Arkrael had found time to venture out from Eridanus and perhaps look for those she had once called friends. Tied lightly around her neck, weaved from the vines of Eridanus, a stone swayed to and fro. It's slate colors just barely visible against the beasts onyx fur.

It seemed like forever ago since her...sickness. Since a strange darkness had consumed her and poisoned her mind. Ever since her insanity. She remembered the day as if it were only yesterday. Makyna had shown up...and with her appearance a fight had erupted. One she was so grateful did not fall into her favor. Her 'death' had been her rebirth into a creature even she was unsure about. The ultimate change in her body, the loss of much of her thick fluffy fur changing into it's short velvety fur she had now save for a few patches along her elbows and down along her hackles. Her eyes and tail. All of it was different and she was sure no one would recognize her.

The flutter of wings sounded above her and her onyx, garnet ringed, eyes lifted to the tree she had found herself venturing too. A dragonbat swooped around the eerie branches high above. Screeching about something and a smile curled across her features. Pheo. Her precious companion. Without him she was sure she'd be lost to her madness still. A rumbling hum left the beasts chest as she dropped her gaze and glanced around her surroundings. She had never been to this tree before and her curiosity had got the best of her. It was indeed a site to see. The roots she carefully stepped over writhing and twisting in horrified screams.

Ears flicked about before she soon called upon her magick. Her gem quickly glittered to life, humming lowly as Arkrael searched for other gembounds around. Whether she felt anyone familiar would be the decision to go looking for them.

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"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...
@Ghanyarah

The beast lurked in the waters, watching, searching. His large clawed hands with their fringes of pink membrane caught the water and swept it under his heavy body in lackadaisical, agile motions, his long body making elegant s-curves near the surface. Ghanyarah glided with ease through the swamp, his hungry stomach compelling him to take to the wilds and hunt. Somehow, he was brought back to the area of the Divine, where the trees opened up and circled the monolithic figure with its writhing roots and twisting, shaking branches.

Above he saw a dragonbat soar between the trees, idly wondering if he’d be able to take it down with a sharp shot of water or ice. The temptation to test his own archery skills had him pausing for a moment, observing it, then deciding against it; he didn’t want to invoke the rage of a dragonbat if he missed. He ducked his head under the surface again, pushing through the murk until it thinned enough that it brought him back into the mud. Pulling himself onto the squishy ground, Ghanyarah paused to flick his tongue in the air and taste the warmth of the swamp. Life lingered nearby. Then he moved, ignoring the water droplets as they eddied off of him, relishing the chill that came with his fresh emergence.

Before long he spotted the creature his senses alerted him to. It stood before the Divine as if in reverie, and the komodo stopped, looking them over from behind. He had been quiet thus far, but seeing now how much bigger the canine was than he, he decided that it likely wouldn’t serve a decent meal either. More likely, it was sentient. Another stranger in his swamp. Another potential friend, he supposed. Ghanyarah raised his head and spoke. “It calls, does it not?”

@Arkrael

A sigh had escaped the beast as eventually she could only just barely detect other gembounds. There was no telling if they were anywhere close to her, so it left her in no desire to go sloshing through the mud. Then again it shouldn't even matter as she was already covered in mud from her belly down. She looked up, searching the trees branches for Pheo, but he had disappeared somewhere up in the branches. She grinned as her thoughts quickly moved on to her familiar.

It didn't last long though as a voice quickly rose up from just behind her. She nearly jumped right out of her fur as she flew up onto all four paws and turned half way around to look and see who the culprit was. It was only when her obsidian eyes landed upon the creature did the voice finally register in her memory banks. Ghanyarah. A wide grin quickly spread across her features as her ears pushed forward. Her long, whip like tail swaying about behind her.

Arkrael wasn't at all surprised of the look on his face. He didn't recognize her. Of course he didn't. It didn't matter though. He would remember even if she had to slobber all over him just to get him to. "Yara! It's been a long time, my friend," She hummed pleasantly as she took a few steps closer to the dragon and simply plopped right back down onto her haunches. Her grin remained on her features as she looked the brute over. He had either gotten much bigger than last she saw him, or it really had just been forever since she lay her eyes upon him that she had forgotten about how big he really was.

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"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...
@Ghanyarah

Many times had the Divine reached out to other Gembounds, drawing them towards its massive trunk out of intrigue for the voice it spilled in the air. It wasn’t so much a voice as it was a whisper, and it couldn’t really be heard, but felt, deep in one’s bones and under their skin. What voice could be heard was the rippling leaves and the water lapping against its roots. A song that it sang for anyone that listened carefully enough.

Ghanyarah believed that the Divine had messages for everyone if they listened hard enough. He had taken Lituus here to retrieve her name, and it sang them a song; they sang with it, Ghanyarah’s deep baritones, untrained and jagged, underlying the fanciful trills of his young bat companion. It was then that he decided he had wanted to pursue something greater. He’d always known, but that was the moment that drove that want deeply into his heart. He wanted to hear more of those voices. He wanted to witness more of that creation, that synchronicity between souls that existed in expression. He wanted to bring together a family not just to protect, but to grow with, to love with. The Divine taught him that, so he had come to laud the tree, even if it held no care for him.

So it left him wondering if that creature was here to seek the same thing. And when she turned, startled by his approach, Ghanyarah didn’t move or apologize for his suddenness, his inquiry too focused. She settled green eyes on him that looked familiar in a way he couldn’t place. And she spoke, reciting his name with ancient practice and warmth that could only be dredged up from a history shared, but as he looked her over, he found himself faltering.

Whose face was this he had carved into his tree? Whose voice was it he’d entrenched in his thoughts so long ago?

Ghanyarah’s eyes narrowed, taking in her smile, the black charcoal of her fur, thinned from some mutation. The ridges on her spine that portrayed a change he hadn’t been aware of. “Arkrael?” The name came to him with a breath. “Where… where did you come from? Where did you go?” He asked, unable to comprehend her presence as if she had manifested from nothingness before his very eyes.

The look within his eyes made Arkrael laugh ever so softly. Emotions were torn and split in how she should honestly feel about him not recognizing her. Alas, the only thing she cared to feel over it was happiness. Happiness that she had finally come across someone who held a cherished spot in her life. She had met him as a puppy. During the first few days she went out to explore her new world. Things had definitely changed significantly for both of them it had seemed.

A smile warmed her expression once again as he finally uttered her name. Her tail sloshed through the mud behind her as she couldn't contain the joy that flitted through her. His questions echoed through her mind, causing her thoughts to turn and attempt mustering up a reply so that she may answer him. "Eridanus is where I come from," There was laughter in her warm voice as she teased the brute. Of course she knew it probably wasn't her birth place he was asking about.

Though it was his next question that she faltered on. How was she to explain to him that her disappearance was because Makyna had 'killed' her? And the reason why the lioness had done so? She felt her mouth go dry as the hesitance to admit the reason of her disappearance. Though finally the she-beast let out a heavy sigh and set a frown to the dragon as her ears splayed out to the side. "I got...sick..." She began slowly trying hard to best word what had gone on with her. As calmly as she could she began to explain to Ghanyarah what had gone on the best she could. Even now there were things she could not recall. The memories dark and shrouded from recognition.

Soon she came upon the fight between herself on Makyna. Explaining how she had been the one to start the fight and the quick outcome of it. Arkrael couldn't find herself to bring her gaze to his. Too ashamed of the incident. Quickly she moved on, however, and spoke of her rebirth. How she came back to find herself changed and mutated. "It's been a long time since then...but this is the first I have left Eridanus since then. You're the first I've seen," Finally her smile returned as she brought her gaze back to him. "But enough about me. How have things fared with you?" Her ears pushed forward with curiosity.

Her attention was only momentarily pulled away when a swooping sound was suddenly heard and before she could react a large dragon bat now clung to her neck. his large size nearly making it where he couldn't even fit where he normally rested when he felt the need to hang off of her. Her ear flipped before she turned her eyes to Ghanyarah with another grin. "This is Pheo by the way. He is my familiar." She introduced the two as Pheo finally decided it would be better suited if he perched along the back of her neck and draped over the top of her head.

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"Talking"
Thinking looks like this...
@Ghanyarah

Wide-eyed, she delivered him a straight forward, if obvious answer that Eridanus was where she came from. Yes, he remembered. She was a creature of the forests and the jungle, and he was a beast of the swamp. But where had she been between that time - the time he had seen her last in that forest, and now, when she had reappeared in his swamp? No matter, she eventually relinquished the answer even if it was a little vague. He watched the movement of her ears, interpreting her dismay over admitting that she'd been sick. Ghanyarah stepped back to get a better look at her, noting that it must have been a pretty bad sickness - she'd lost a lot of her fur, for one. This sickness changed her.

Ghanyarah remained silent as she explained further that she had been hiding in Eridanus this whole time. This whole time! Every trip the reptile had made she was there, somewhere. If only he'd looked harder. He felt a pang of guilt before inhaling slowly and swallowing it down. There was nothing he could do about it now. The reptile mulled over her last question, but before he could answer, the dragonbat from earlier descended and landed on her neck and head. Her familiar? He didn't know what that was, but he meant it as belonging to her. He nodded. No shooting it out of the sky and eating it, then.

"I have been well," Ghanyarah began, but as he delved into his own life, he realized that there was a lot he had to tell her. A lot had transpired since the last time he saw her. He almost didn't even want to discuss it and just listen to what happened to her. "I am no longer alone. A bat named Lituus, my good friend, lives with me at my tree. And others are beginning to congregate as well. I still deeply miss the Children of Rot, but their lives have moved on, and so must I," the reptile lamented. "But we are drawing, and painting, and singing. It is not so bad."

He lingered silent for a moment. Ghanyarah had never been particularly close to Arkrael, though he had enjoyed her companionship - albeit begrudgingly at times. Still, she was among those faces that he'd always wanted to see again. Her, and Dragon, and Gracie, all of whom held an ambiguous place in his heart. Her presence brought him back to older days, times he wasn't sure how he felt about anymore. Where she had friends, closeness, and he didn't have much. He didn't have anything, really, except for the Children of Rot but... even that felt like distance. "Are you still among friends?"

@Arkrael

Hearing that the Children of Rot had disbanded was a bit of news for Arkrael. She hadn't honestly interacted with the group, outside of hearing news about them, but that was the extent of her knowledge about them. It mattered only for the fact it had meant Yara had lost what she assumed had been his family for a time. A small frown graced her features, but it was gone as soon as it came. "Lituus, hm? You will have to introduce us sometime," a friendly smile finally caught her features as she glanced around, almost as if she expected the little bat to come flitting over from some direction within the darkness.

Ears twisted and perked towards Yara again upon his last inquiry and Arkrael paused for a long moment. There had been a time. Her family had come together, began to build something...and then nothing. She can't honestly remember what had happened. The disappearances was beyond her knowledge yet she had not fought to find them. Cure had found her, but had soon went off in search of her twin and mother. Arkrael respected that child and sent her along her way with blessing. "No. It is just myself, Salethyr, my son, and Pheo."

It left a dark hole in her chest to admit that her pack had dwindled down so low. Alas, Arkrael was content also. As long as her son was happy and safe, that was all she would ever need. Especially now that the bane of her heart no longer wreaked havoc among the caves. His stone was safely around her neck and she would be damned to allow anyone to have it. She was frightened to find out what would happen should someone try to revive it. A shiver fell down her spine just thinking about it before she quickly shook it off. "I am happy to hear you have gathered a new family though. I am quite intrigued in this art you have mentioned," she hummed pleasantly, tail lightly sloshing through the mud again. The singing sounded intriguing as well. Though Arkrael did not sing words...but the howl song of her species was beautiful enough for her own ears.

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tagged: @Ghanyarah
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"Talking"
Thinking looks like this...

The subject of her fight with Makyna remained among his thoughts, but Ghanyarah tried not to dwell long on it. He considered Leon and Makyna to be his friends, especially since they had aligned themselves with him now among the followers of love and creativity that he called his Aethers. Ghanyarah still remained frightfully envious of Leon for everything the bear had, for his courage and heroism and constant love, but knowing that something bad had happened with Makyna made him feel... at least a little better. That nothing was all sunshine and butterflies around them as they made it seem. It did concern him now though. He was fond of Arkrael - would it cause a rift with Makyna if she were to see the wolf here?

Ghanyarah's grin returned as he bobbed his head. "I am sure you will see her before long. Lituus is never far," the reptile explained tilting his head slightly as if he'd meant to look at where she usually hung off of the ridge of his eyebrow. If she wasn't with him, it was most likely that she was back at his tree.

Something tugged at him when she told him that her company had dwindled. Her and Pheo, and a son, Salethyr. How strange. He'd never known that Arkrael had a son, but there was a lot that he'd missed in the time he was in his chrysalis and when he locked himself away in Cetus, dwelling on his confusing mess of emotions. There couldn't be someone so important in her life that she'd procreated with, could there...? And at that, Ghanyarah felt another pang of jealousy, similar to what he felt for Makyna and Leon.

"Oh, yes. Would you like to see it?" he asked, straightening up and shoving his jealousy to the back of his mind. "When I was young, I carved the faces of those I remembered in the bark of my tree. Yours is among them," Ghanyarah pointed out, angling his body in the direction of his tree distantly in the jungle. "I had always meant to show you. But I suppose in my youth I was... too callous to make the effort. I regret that." His voice began to trail away with thought and his body sunk back into the mud.

No matter. She was here now and he could show her. Ghanyarah smiled and lifted himself, preparing to take a step as soon as she agreed. She would agree, right?

@Arkrael

"Oh, very much so," Arkrael chuckled lightly as Ghanyarah offered to show her the carvings he had long ago placed within this tree of his. She rose to her paws and out of habit her body shook. Mud and dirt slinging off of her fur in all directions before she suddenly paused. A sheepish grin curled across her features as she could just imagine some of that mud had splattered over Yara. Hopefully it wasn't something he would mind. She'd have to apologize for it later.

"Ah, we all made decisions while we were young that we could have made differently. There is no need to feel regret. You're showing me now right?" Arkrael flashed a warm smile at him, but she wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to see it with what the lights being off and all. She shook her thoughts away before following after Ghanyarah the moment he began his way towards this tree he had spoken of.

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"Talking"
Thinking looks like this...

The reptile barely registered the mud flinging onto his hind end as he walked. In the darkness, it was difficult to really tell what was going on around him. He lacked the echolocation that allowed Lituus to navigate in the dark and he couldn't smell very well, save for what he detected on the tip of his tongue, the familiar warmths of others. He couldn't hear very well either. Most of his detection was based on sight. He didn't even have any spells that could reveal other bodies to him, though as he thought about it now, he wondered if there was a way he could use water to reach out and feel. No, that would probably overload his senses - there was too much water here.

She made a point, and though he didn't see her smile, he could hear it lifting in her words. The reptile flicked his tongue again and cocked his head towards her. "Yes," he confirmed with a bob of his head and pushed on. The tree wasn't too far, though in this moment he found himself wishing that he'd picked one just a little closer to the Divine. Then again, so long ago he'd feared that massive, magical tree. "I am glad that you are here, however. I have made a great change." He didn't just mean the change of his body from emerging from his chrysalis, either. It was more of a change of heart than anything. "I have come to accept that there are stirrings that cannot be physically sated. The heart wanes and it waxes, and in the quietude of the cave I have realized that there are many I miss. I never quite realized it until I was faced with their absences. I believe I took them for granted. You included."

He sighed slowly as he spoke; it was more than he usually did, though even that was changing. For a creature that had once been so primitive, Ghanyarah found he was maturing into quite the intellectual - as intellectual as a reptile could be, at least. He tried. He learned and he tried. And maybe he was just desperate to prove to somebody that had known him once before that he no longer was that beast. Maybe he just wanted Arkrael to see how much he had changed, and maybe he just wanted to be appreciated for it. He wasn't sure if that was the right feeling, but if it was, he wouldn't hesitate to admit it. Ghanyarah fell thoughtfully silent again, shifting his gaze back to the darkness ahead.

@Arkrael