Mongo liked Polaris.

The little Fossa wobbled along the cave, singular eye squinting from the lights. It was so bright, and he wondered if the other caves were like this. Were they all so well lit? He hoped not. Having only one working eye, it was rather painful to be in such a bright room. But he didn't dare leave Polaris yet, he was too small, unable to really protect himself if he needed to.

Ahead, he could see something blue and glistening. What was that? Wait, he remembered it now! Vinnie had gotten a fish from there! And he was rather thirsty... The Fossa wobbled up to the river, ducking his head and flicking out his tongue to begin to drink.

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

Unknown to the small fossa a creature was already lurking in the deep. Swimming, searching... struggling? Without warning a colorful bunny exploded out of the water and flopped onto the shore of the river. Poor little bunny was all wet and cold as it lay there seemingly oblivious to the fossa as it gasped for breath.

As far as appearances it was rather odd, even for being a wind hopper. Its drenched white fur was swirled with patterns of vibrant cyan and even though most had likely been washed clean its fur was glittering with the traces of time spent rolling around in glowing crystal dust. Strangest of all though was its collar; an elaborate network of intertwining strands of pink chalcedony emerging from the back of its neck and weaving into a wide neckpiece that was firmly attached to multiple spots under its fur.

The strange little bunny didn't stay on the ground for long; it still had work to do. Time would not wait. Wouldn't it be nice if time would wait? It would be but it would also be nice if their fiends hadn't rejected them and were able to help out now. Ohhhhhhh but there was no time to be sad about that. No time for anything but work.

Soft pastel bunny stood up and turned to the river again, still completely oblivious to the fossa right next to it. Its gaze was fixed on a faint glow far under the water as it screeched a series of incomprehensible noises as though to try to convince whatever it was starting at to get out of the water.

Something was moving in the water.

The Fossa cub looked up from where he was drinking, tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth, as his singular eye scanned the water.

Only moments later, something came flying out of the water. The Gemling leaped back, bristling the fur along his back, snarling at the colorful creature. However, it quickly became apparent that the hopper was no danger, laying stretched out on the shore. Its fur was drenched, shoaked through, glittering with crystal dust and covered in patterns of vibrant cyan.

"Are you dead?" The Fossa asked, stalking forward. However, as he approached, it became clear that the hopper was still alive, sides heaving as it panted. As he approached, he was surprised to see a collar or necklace of some sort, seemingly extremely elaborate. 'What is that?' he wondered. However, before he could try to figure it out, the hopper was getting to its feet. It didn't seem to notice him at all, screeching towards the water.

Mongo tilted his head, turning to see what it was looking at. He approached, squinting to see something glow under the water. "What are you?" he called to the glowing thing. "Can you come up here?"

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

The glowy crystal STILL wasn't responding it its calls. Did it not want to go home? No, that wasn't right; it was content to sat just where it was. It didn't know yet, how could it know? With the water making it hard to get to it the bunny began to feel sad for the poor crystal. How could they rescue it and take it home?

A noise rose above the sounds of the flowing river, a voice just like the little wind hopper had been using. It had been there before, yes, but now the thing that had a voice was paying lots of attention to it.

Danger, a small part of the bunny told it that this thing would try to eat it, try to keep it from ever seeing home again. Fear. Paralysis. Darkness. The wind hopper's collar shifted ever-so-slightly, though whether that was a result of some small movement of the neck or something else was anyone's guess.

Pain did not come. The voice creature was not aggressive. Fearful rabbit turned and focused on the appearance of the creature, it's attention at once drawn into the deep kaleidoscope of colors within its eye. Relief! It was a lost magic stone too! It just had a bunch of... stuff around it. No matter though, maybe it could help? Maybe it could be a friend? Bunny missed having friends, but the time would come once more.

The wind hopper vocalized another squeak at the fossa and bopped at the water before looking pleadingly at the potential new friend. It tried to hop in and swim to the glow but it just wasn't strong enough as it was caught up by the current and washed back onto shore a few feet downstream.

@Mongo

The white wind hopper seemed distraught, and unhappy. And that made Mongo unhappy. So the Fossa called out repeatedly to the glowing thing in the water, trying to figure out if it was a Gembound. He doubted it, after all, considering he couldn't think of any Gembounds that could survive for so long under the water.

His eye caught the collar on the wind hopper, and he wondered what it was. But it was shiny, and pretty, and he felt something inside him tell him he needed it. But it was the wind hopper's, and he couldn't just steal it.

Seeing the Wind Hopper tap the water, Mongo could guess what it wanted. Did it want him to retrieve the glowing thing? Well, he supposed he could do that. He watched warily as the Wind Hopper jumped into the water, only to be swept back down to the shore.

The Fossa jumped into the water, and swam towards the glowing thing, fighting the current. Once he neared it, he took a gulp of breath, before ducking beneath the water, attempting to retrieve the glowing thing.

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

[Origin Cave]

The current fought back fiercely against the fossa, being stronger than usual in this section. His efforts were rewarded though as he dove under and arrived at a small glowing sapphire crystal. The crystal itself was unremarkable for this section of the cave: further down river there were many of simialar nature lighting the shore. It lay stationary on the river bed, stuck in a slow patch between the current and a large rock. Had it always been there? Most crystals like it were attached to the room's walls or the shore.

Now came the question for @Mongo : would they try to carry the crystal out through the current, leave it in place and seek another glowing crystal somewhere, or dislodge it and follow it until the current dropped it off on a shoreline?

The Fossa panted as he finally managed to make it to the glowing spot, taking a deep breath before diving under the water. He opened his sole eye, squinting as the water stung at it.

But he was rewarded, able to see a glowing sapphire. It was rather pretty, he had to admit, but otherwise ordinary. But the Wind Hopper seemed to want this one especially, so he pushed against it trying, and failing, to dislodge the rock.

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

When the rock failed to move, Mongo kicked off of the ground, flailing his limps and swimming to the surface of the water. He gulped in a breath of air, before diving back under, slamming into the jammed rock. But that, again, failed to work.

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

The Fossa turned, kicking off from the soil at the bottom of the water and swimming to the surface. He took a moment to catch his breath, before getting an idea. The Gemling swam some distance upcurrent, before diving again, allowing the current to boost him as he swam towards the stone. This time, the stone came free, and the Fossa followed it, attempting to push it towards the shore.

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

The anxious wind hopper watched with baited breath as the magical colorful black stone swam out and over under the water. Would they be able to do it? Would they save their friend?

No... they didn't do it. They just went up and down until finally the magical blue stone started to get away.

But then hopeful bunny noticed something. The two stones, they were getting closer! It was a rescue! The pastel rabbit rushed down the shore to meet them, squeaking with glee as they awaited the arrival of the lost one and the new friend.

@Mongo