What Kera needed right now, was fish.

She had not really touched the crystal river since Aka betrayed her-- hell, she hadn't really touched the river since she and him fell into it and almost drowned. The very thought of that entire incident frustrated her regardless-- she had saved his life and he thanked her by being an all around-- what Kin-Kin had called --asshole.

She lay on the floor of Polaris, close enough to the river itself where she could hear the water and the fish splashing within it. She missed it-- she missed being crouched by the surface, waiting for fish. She missed the victory of catching something and eating it.

Fish was more satisfying than rats. Kera hated rats.

Yet, she did not move for a long time, sprawled out on her side. She knew she had to move on eventually-- for the sake of a decent meal, at the very least. There was likely also some statement about how it's "mentally healthy" to move on and forgive someone, but Kera couldn't really do either of those things. Strangely enough, Kera still didn't consider herself the type to hold a grudge.

Eventually, however, without thinking, the half-grown wolf found herself lifting to her paws, almost involuntarily. She barely felt the sensation of her paws hitting the cave floor as she padded towards the riverbank.

Within its murky depths, she saw herself staring back. She looked considerably different than she remembered last-- taller, older, and the scars along her muzzle had long faded. She did not question what had happened to her as she craned her head down and drank from the cold water.

And then, as if she had never left, she sank down by the water and waited.

@Asimona

Asimona had been traveling through the caves, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the room with the ice walls and the red dragon that Envy couldn't see. But he seemed to be following her. Every so often, she felt his presence brushing against her, heard the faint sound of his laughter, the glint of his evil eyes in the dark. She was always on edge, always nervous that he would reappear. So she kept moving, hoping that he would eventually leave her alone.

But as she reached this new room with lights and a river, her stomach grumbled loudly, reminding herself that she hadn't eaten. At all. Ever. An instinct told her that there would be food for her in the river, she just had to catch it first.

She climbed onto a crag near the river and perched herself at the top, glaring down at the water, watching for movement somewhere underneath the surface. After a few moments, she just caught a flash of silver and immediately pinpointed the fish swimming the current. She carefully lifted her wings and hopped into the air, soaring over the river, tracking the fish as it swam downstream. Once she got in position, she pulled her wings close and dived forward.

She didn't notice the wolf just at the shore where she would meet the fish; she was too focused on her prey. As she reached the surface of the water, she reached forward with her front claws and grasped the fish firmly, sending a large splash from the water, before taking off, flapping heavily with her wings. She crossed to the opposite shore and dropped the fish on the ground. A quick bite and it stopped flopping around.

Satisfied and proud of her perfect catch, she dug into her meal with ravenous bites.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Kera
notes: notes here

For a time, Kera only watched the surface of the water, waiting, watching. When she saw a fish lazily approach, paddling by. She licked her jowls, paw lifting over the surface, until a much larger shape suddenly swept by the surface.

THAT'S NOT A FISH.

As a spray of water was sent out towards Kera, she heard a sharp, near-incessant cry as she scrambled back away from the water. It took her several long moments to realise the cry was coming out of herself. She was screaming. Loudly.

Scrambling and half-flailing some more, she stopped shrieking and turned to stare, wide-eyed, at the dragon across the shore.

WHAT?

Confused-- and mildly terrified --Kera looked into the water and immediately dove her front paws into the icy river, trying to grasp at anything below the surface. She grasped and swing and ripped at the water blindly for a while.

Eventually- after a few seconds --she snagged something, burying her claws deep into it and then slamming it into the shallow water in front of her before hauling it out. She huffed, unsatisfied, eyes darting between the fish and the dragon across the way.

Some competitive side of her told her, for some reason, she had won whatever... this was. She had not. She was wet, and up until thirty seconds ago, was screaming. "Who are you?" The half-grown wolf asked before she bit into the fish, ripping away at scales to eat the cold flesh.

@Asimona

Asimona didn't hear the scream beyond the sound of the loud splash, but if she did, she would have thought she imagined it. However, she very much didn't imagine the voice calling from across the stream. She looked up from her meal and just noticed the white wolf standing on the opposite shore. She blinked with surprise, wondering how she hadn't noticed them before.

She looked down at her fish, realizing that she had probably stolen their prey. They didn't sound very happy. But, then again, they could be mean, like Envy and they were just pissed at her for the hell of it. Her face hardened and she turned back to the wolf, replying evenly, "I'm just a traveler. Sorry if I stole your prey."

This time, she wasn't going to give them the chance to be friends right away. That obviously didn't work.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Kera
notes: notes here

Alarmed, Kera shook her fur and took a few more chomps out of her fish. She paced, if briefly, around the half-eaten carcass with her head lifted to stare at Asimona across the other side of the river.

"I have prey," she said-- which was true. She was eating it right now, though she had mysteriously lost her appetite. "You scared me-- where did you come from?"

Her tone was more of concern than one of anger or demanding. Kera, as it happens, was not a particularly angry or demanding creature; especially when it came to non-birdlike-beasts. Which was a category this one definitely fell into. No, it was a creature that looked more like Dragon, though this one had wings.

And much like Dragon, Kera would prefer to remain on the safe side if that creature began spewing fire out of its mouth.

Kera was silent for a moment, only watching. "I'm Kera," she offered after a time. "I turned the lights back on."

@Asimona

Asimona glanced down at the fish, surprised that she hadn't noticed it either. What was going on with her? She was so scatterbrained and absent minded all the time now. Ever since the dragon had appeared she had seemed not herself.

But she didn't need to tell Kera that. She didn't need to expose a weakness to a stranger. She didn't seem too bad, but she could be hiding something underneath, just as she was. "Yes, I see. Sorry about that. I came from up there." She gestured with a claw to the crag some ways away that she had sat upon to watch the fish. It was fairly high up and she didn't blame Kera for not noticing her. She didn't exactly notice the wolf.

But then she looked at her with shock. "The lights were off? When? How?" Had it been a long time ago? She didn't even think about the possibility of the lights ever going out. They were always there shining bright at all hours, giving light to a place that, now that she thought about it, were probably naturally dark.

She looked over the dog. How had she done it? Did she have some great power that couldn't be seen? Had she done it on accident? How did the lights go off anyways?

She then realized that she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Asimona. I, uh," She paused for a moment. Kera had given herself an introduction so it only made sense for her to as well. "I make things cold, she finished lamely.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Kera
notes: notes here

For a moment longer, Kera stared. She grimaced, shook her fur out, and turned her head to look up towards the ledge that the dragon gestured towards. The half-grown wolf was silent for a moment, thoughtful, doing the math in her head.

Kera, of course, didn't know actual math.

Regardless, she thought. The crag that Asimona gestured towards was out of the way and high up, and Kera was looking down. It would make sense that she wouldn't see the dragon-- but surely the dragon would have been able to see her? Perhaps she had bad eyesight, or perhaps it was just hard to see from there.

Kera did not know.

Her ear flicked as a familiar subject came to fruition. "Oh, not long ago at all," she said, her chest swelling with some pride as she began to speak theatrically. "When I came around, it was really dark and nobody could see. So I made a vow that I would turn the lights back on because it was terrible for everyone and they were sad."

"There's a thing," she continued, lowering her voice dramatically, "called Nemean, the Betrayer. She turned the lights off and she's still out there somewhere. But I turned them back on, because I'm good." She shook her fur out briefly, contentedly, and bit into her fish, chewing for a few moments.

She continued speaking after swallowing. "She'd thrown a stone into that thing over there, you see?" The wolf nodded towards the generator down the river, half-submerged in the water. "So I got it out, and once I did, the lights turned back on."

There had been, of course, two others there-- which Kera was fairly quick to add. "I mean, there was more than me. Someone else went in there to try and get the rock-- it's really deep, you see? But she got caught in the thing once it started moving again," she frowned, eyes darting back to Asimona. "She almost died, but I saved her life, and turned the lights back on."

The wolf shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

It was a very big deal.

She bit another few times into the fish, finishing it off, and swallowed. "You make things cold?" She asked with some gentle confusion. "How do you do that?" She supposed a little bit of cold wasn't as intense as Dragon's fire that billowed straight out of his mouth. Kera could handle the cold, even-- better than most gembounds, in fact. Her thick coat kept her good and warm.

She licked her jowls briefly. "I mean, everyone makes things, you know? I make mushrooms and light, and you make... cold," she offered. "Maybe you need to find a thing for yourself. I know a 'hero of the caves' and a 'terror of the caves' so many you can be a something-else of the caves?"

@Asimona

Asimona chuckled against her will. Kera was certainly proud of her achievements. Of course, she had nothing against that - if she had turned the lights back on and helped everyone living in the caves, she would be proud of herself too. She was happy that the wolf was proud of herself. She wondered if she would have the same confidence.

"Wow, sounds very dangerous. You must be very brave." Asimona was genuine. If the dog deserved admiration, then she would give it. She didn't see how much this would contribute to Kera's massive ego, so she said it without a doubt in her mind.

She took a deep breath and waited for the air to cool around her again. Frost tickled her skin as the air dropped a couple of degrees. "Can you feel the cold? I just cooled the air."

There was a flash of red and her heart leaped, feeling an oppressive pressure on her chest. No! Not now!
He was there, behind Kera, his wings spread wide, his strong muscles rippling beneath his scales. His eyes glinted, filling her head with the same dark fear. Her heart began to race against her will and the world seemed to become hazy, unreal and unnatural. He was grinning his evil grin, raising a claw as if to bring it down on Kera's head.

She leaped to her feet, her eyes wild. "No! Get away from her!" She cried, opening her wings to leap to the wolf's aid. However, he was suddenly gone, as if he had evaporated into the mist now clouding her vision. Confused and terrified, she whipped around, trying to find where he had gone. His laughter was filling the room, mocking her, trying to scare her. "Come out and face me!" She yelled into the air, her voice quivering.

But he did not. He just continued laughing.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Kera
notes: notes here

The wolf's tail began thumping against the ground as she heard the dragon laugh on the other side of the stream. Brave wasn't a word Kera had ever used for herself-- but Asimona was right! Kera was very brave. Preening with pride, Kera smiled widely.

"I'm very brave!" She said with a good-natured grin, pushing herself up and sniffing the air once Asimona began to breathe in, considering. It was a little cold-- she could feel it just under her fur.

She ended up nodding a few times. "I can feel it," she said. "I know a person who calls himself Dragon but he makes things hot and sets them on fire-- you're the opposite, and you--" She was interrupted by the dragon abruptly shouting and her eyes went very wide.

She hadn't heard anything, had something snuck up on her while she was bragging? Was it Aka? Was it Blackberry? The wolf spun around urgently, but saw nothing. Alarmed, she turned her head back to Asimona-- who was visibly afraid.

Kera's mind raced-- what the hell was it? Could it be the Dog, who stayed with the shadows? The Eyes? Something else? It must have been hiding, surely-- maybe it was Nemean? "It's okay!" She said reassuringly, wide-eyed as she began to concentrate.

Her gem glittered for a moment, then died out as her failure to make light-- well, failed. She looked around a little frantically; was it stopping her from making light? It must have been the Eyes, surely. "Don't worry!" She said, puffing her chest up as she stood up. "I can make light-- if it's hiding I can find it, and we can chase it away, okay? What was it? Where did it go?"

@Asimona

Asimona looked around, trying to find the source of the laughter, but she couldn't see anything beyond the haze. No flash of red, no glinting eyes, nothing but a heavy fog. She could barely even see Kera anymore, just on the opposite shore. "Yes, yes," she replied, her voice fast and breathless, "Light will help. But I don't know where he went. One minute he was there and the next, he was gone!"

She was relieved that Kera believed her, unlike a certain weasel she knew. However, that didn't make things any less terrifying and any less urgent. They needed to find him before he attacked.

She turned around and around, trying to see through the mist. "I don't know which way his laugh is coming from. It seems like its all around us!" She growled deep, her claws flexing, desperately desiring to sink them into his red scales for the torment he was causing her.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Kera
notes: notes here