Layla grinned as others joined her, Dragon, and Aithaxas to become Children of Rot. However, her moment of joy was interupted by a gigantic beast rising from the swamp. It came lumbering towards them, and almost squashed Layla. She looked up, got in a defensive stance, and growled.

"WATCH IT ASSHOLE, UNLESS YOU WANNA FUCKING FIGHT!" The leopardess screeched, not realizing it was Aquarius. Dragon had described him vaguely to her after she was just hatched, but she couldn't remember that time too well. Her tail lashed back and forth angrily, her face trapped in a snarl.

A rush of movement sliced through the water like a claw through flesh. It happened so fast, Septiezal barely registered it, nor did any of the Children, until it was literally on top of them. In a rush of mud and muck, a gigantic, horrible sea serpent broke through the water. In its haste, the crow had been squashed, but the others were lucky enough to dodge its incoming bulk. Septiezal clung to the tree, he had been descending, frozen in awe at the monstrosity before him.

Could that be--?

A thick, brown wave of mud flung towards him, and the python instinctively withdrew his head with a sudden, shrill hiss. It splattered against the tree's lower truck, almost coating Septiezal in layer of mud. Septiezal looked down in disgust, but then his attention turned back to the great serpent.

It appeared to be glaring down at Dragon, and Dragon seemed visibly shaken. This frightened Septiezal. The others were just has startled, some were even foolishly spatting at the serpent, including the crow, how had somehow managed to survive. The voice of a small, young snake drew him out of his awe-induced trance. She asked if everyone was alright. Septiezal didn't answer her, but he did cautiously make his way down the rest of the tree trunk.

He felt a pang of fear for Dragon. He expected the serpent, Aquarian, to snatch the alligator up in his horrible jaw, and that'd be the end of that. Septiezal flicked his tongue nervously as he watched the scene unfold. He hoped Dragon hadn't misinterpreted his Aquarian's intentions. After all those cycles of endless loyalty and talk of survival, only to be cut down by the very Gembound he called "Father", that would be an ironic way for the alligator to go, and the Children of Rot would be squelched before it even began. Septiezal was not sure if he wanted to meet Aquarian anymore.

"speak"

Ghanyarah noticed the ripple in the water seconds after they began to manifest. His eyes narrowed curiously, tongue flicking - he could feel Eve's weight suddenly on the crystal upon his skull and remained still, wary of disturbing her with sudden movement. Still, he felt the need to investigate.

...Which vanished within the following few seconds, as the water suddenly erupted and produced the long, serpentine body of the great beast that lurked within Cetus. Ghanyarah's eyes widened as he doubled back in an attempt to avoid being crushed by the serpent, hoping his movements wouldn't startle Eve. Hoping that she would be wise enough to fly away. And then rescinding that hope as Aquarian crashed down around him, covering him in mud but missing him, only to realize that Eve had tragically been caught beneath the serpent's weight all the same.

"Eve!" he called, long tail lashing nervously as he strained to hear the muffled swearing of the bird beneath the beast. She was still alive, as far as he could tell. His gaze shifted toward the others, all of whom seemed to be able to avoid Aquarian. His gaze landed on the small viper, and he nodded at her question. Then his attention shifted to the snow leopard, boldly screaming obscenities at the serpent for interrupting their meeting.

Was it an interruption, though?

Or an act of fate?

"Hide your teeth," he said lowly to Layla. "This is the Father, Aquarian."

The beast was ignorant to the angry, fearful, and startled reactions of the Gembounds before him. He set his sights only on the alligator - he was the one with answers, he was the one orchestrating this whole thing. And as far as Aquarian was concerned, he was the one who would follow through with his plans. His body elevated slightly from the mud, releasing anybody who had managed to become trapped beneath him (only through sheer subconscious shifting, however - Aquarian truly had no concern for anybody other than Dragon) and listened with keen interest to the alligator's response.

He spoke of surviving.

How the Masters made them their playthings. Intending harm to come upon them.

Oh, the irony!

Aquarian reeled his head back and chortled; a deafening, raucous noise that split through the marshy room with sardonic mirth.

"THE MASTERS WERE LEFT TO THE DEVICES OF CHAOS LONG AGO! THOSE WHO STILL SERVE ARE YOUR TRUEST ENEMIES!" he screeched, his long body thrashing with zeal. "FIND THE ONES WHO STILL SERVE AND DESTROY THEM! ONLY THEN WILL WE BE FREEEEE!"

With a wicked scream, the serpent launched himself back into the lake, sending waves of murky water splashing across the surface. The water churned with a pattern of disarray, cutting and crossing over itself for a few more moments until finally it laid still.

Then, without warning, Aquarian erupted one last time, his gaping jaws aimed for the mountain of rotting carcasses by the lake's edge. He clamped down hard on the pile, each body squelching and crunching, their innards oozing between his teeth as he retreated swiftly back into the water a second time. It was clear that he would not emerge a third.

Exit Aquarian.

Dragon tried his best to protest literally everything Aquarian was saying, or rather, how he was saying it. He listened with extreme interest, of course, but there were just a couple niggling little things that he'd have preferred had gone differently.

For example, he'd have preferred it if Aquarian had not crushed Eve, one of his own most long-standing Children.

"Father, you are crush--" It also did not help that literally nothing Aquarian said told him all that much. He had already gathered that some of the cave's Elders were still in service to ancient masters, and those were the ones that had to be uncovered, hidden from--but who were the masters and what purpose did these Elders serve? After a brief glance at Eve to ensure that she was not, in fact, dead, Dragon bellowed after Aquarian at the top of his lungs as the serpent started to dive away.

"YES! BUT WHAT PURPOSE DID--WHICH ELD--WHAT DO THEY SERVE--FATHER--..." He huffed loudly, letting out a long and hissing growl as Aquarian screeched (prompting the alligator to flinch at the sharp sound) and dove away. He stared without expression as the serpent then lunged back up, dragging down the prey Dragon had gathered for him.

For a moment he stared out at the fading ripples over the black water. Then, at last, the alligator turned back to the Children of Rot. "Are any of you badly harmed. Eve! Will you recover. Can anyone see to her?" It would be useful, he realized, if they had one skilled with mending magics for just this sort of occasion. For a moment he mulled this over, thoughtful. That is something I have not had to consider.

He then lifted his gaze back to the others. "That is our father. I believe he speaks of the Elders! Tenzin the phoenix--Astraea, the stag. Raheerah, the dragon, who has turned, I think, to his own ends. Nemean who has betrayed. I have mentioned them, but I remind you now: do not forget them! Do not speak of our search to them!" After a huff, he continued.

"There is no time to waste. We must begin our gathering of knowledge. Without knowing who these masters were, or what they served, we cannot know which elders still serve them. Thus, I ask this of you: how do you wish to proceed? All of you! There are carvings on many walls that will need to be sought out. Many places that could be felt and tested, touched with magic, in order to see their memories. There is a great tree here with magic and a story, in our very home, that we do not know. And there are Eyes in Eridanus: pools of water filled with cold, cruel magic. I myself will take our brother Ghanyarah to see this: others may come with us, but not too many. If they should kill us, is it up to the rest of you to survive and find the answers. We cannot all go, but some may choose to. As to the rest of you?"

He looked them over. The new Children of Rot. The earnest young maned wolf; the massive serpent, his fiery eyes flickering with intelligence. The open, honest and enthusiastically determined snow leopard. The... crow, damaged and foulmouthed but she would get better, certainly, and she was devoted, apparently, to their cause--moreso than he'd realized. Ghanyarah--his loyal and beloved brother. The son of the Bonecaster, his dark eyes sharp with a hunger for knowledge and a yearning to prove himself. And there--the little, spiny snake who had abruptly offered herself to them.

One he did not know.

"We must make a plan, and decide what to investigate--and when to meet back here to share our knowledge. Where will each of you go? Will you go alone, or with another of your brothers and sisters? You--little snake--what is your name? What has drawn you to us?"

@Serek @Layla @Aithaxas @Septiezal @Sizzle @Ghanyarah @Eve

To understand why the phrase 'is everyone alright' might enrage Eve, you first had to understand her situation. For many cycles, she had become something of a reclusive, only leaving her nest to either hunt or visit her children elsewhere. The decision to leave her nest, to try and socialize with other gembounds outside of her family (sort of, the Children of Rot were, in fact, a family), was a thing that was important to her.

She was also-- as far as she could tell --the only one that had been caught under the serpent.

"DO I LOOK LIKE I'M FUCKIN' ALRIGHT?" The crow bellowed angrily, as if unaware that she was not, in fact, currently visible. She spent a while longer just bellowing and spouting out enough curses to make a sailor cringe away before Aquarian finally shifted.

Like a black shadow, she shot out from under the serpent in mere seconds, wings fluttering and half-shrieking, half-swearing still in all directions. She landed on the closest gembound-- Ghanyarah --and fell limp on his back, wheezing loudly.

Ribs broken, she assessed-- it made it hard to breathe, and one of her legs didn't seem to be entirely responsive. She shut her eyes, wheeze-whistling on the reptile's back for a good few seconds. She heard Aquarian scream himself, and she turned her head upwards to offer a return squawk-scream of her own, at full volume.

Or as fullest volume as she could, with no breath and broken ribs.

Slowly, and rather painfully, the little crow pulled herself up again with a quiet groan, limp-hobbling up Ghanyarah's spine and to the crown of his head, gently tugging at the morganite crest to pull herself up. "I'll be okay," she croaked, her voice suddenly very hoarse from the prior shrieking and swearing. For a time she shut her eyes, only putting weight on one leg and leaning on Ghanyarah's gemstone to keep herself upright.

Everything felt awful. "I'll come with you to the Eyes," she rasped, not liking the idea of leaving her current boat again. Doing so would mean she'd have to move on her own, after all, and that was a bit too painful for her to handle right now.

"Those who can-... Fly? Eve was definitely the only bird here and she was not doing this now. "...climb, should maybe look through the holes in the ceiling in Monoceros." Another glance around, and she decided that none of them likely could.

She let out another croaking groan. "Or I can take a look after a long rest," she grumbled, hunkering down onto Ghanyarah's head-crest and fluffing up her feathers, getting herself comfortable as she began to try and recover from the events that just transpired.

Aithaxas was still young. As it was, he barely understood who all these elders were, much less what they looked like. Then he met Aquarian-- so that was what he looked like-- who crushed Eve and scattered the others. His mind was racing, unable to process most of the events happening now.

The maned wolf barely understood what Aquarian said. Was he saying that they should hunt and kill some of the others? Aithaxas had not been expecting this when he joined. Were they going to do that?

Dragon had begun speaking, though the wolf noticed this only when Dragon was in the middle of his speech. He managed to catch the questions presented, however.

And he wasn't sure if he would go alone or not. Or even where he wanted to go. He decided to ask to come along with the others heading to the Eyes; if he was declined, he would head to Canis. He wanted to learn about the caves, yet he also wanted to simply see them. To see the obvious parts of them. So far he had only seen a glimpse of Polaris, as he quickly left, tunnels he hadn't paid attention to, and Cetus. No matter where he went, it would be worth it, at least in his eyes.

"I would like to see the Eyes," he said, directing it to Dragon. "If you prefer that I don't come, then the room of bones." If anyone wishes to join me, he thought, they can.


"Speech."

Serek stared it from behind the tree, shivering with fear. He could believe that Aquarion was real and he also could barely believe he was so big. He didn't listen at all to what the monster said, his prey instincts causing his brain to go fuzzy. The next thing he knew, Dragon was speaking again.

He stayed where he was, rooted to the ground in shock for a moment, before he shakily began to make his way from behind the trunk and to the edge of the group. He did not want them to know he had cowered so much, too afraid to face the father of the children. In the back of his mind, he wondered who his father was. Or, rather, who his gen once belonged to. If it was even a male.

He held up his head, determined not to show the fear that was raging through his body and stepped forward. He had to put himself out there, prove that he was more then a small little creature. "I will stay here and try to discover the secret of the tree. Perhaps the rot will speak to me."

"I'm screaming submission"
I don't know if I am dying or living

tags:
notes:

The reptile had been holding his breath for the duration of Aquarian's appearance. Only once he finally saw Eve shoot out from beneath the serpent's bulk, a swift black shadow, did he loose the air from his lungs, relaxing as he felt the bird collide with his back. He twisted his head around, half-listening to the serpent's screaming dialogue as he double checked on the crow, tongue flicking cautiously. His skin twitched slightly as she screeched back at Aquarian. Sunset hued eyes turned back to the massive beast, watching him retreat into the water - only to emerge a second time, then retreat again with a mouthful of corpses.

He held still as Eve clambered up his neck and rested on his head. A part of him wished he possessed some kind of magic to help heal her, but at the same time, he feared that trying would cause her more harm than good. He let it be - if it was bad enough, she would retreat to her chrysalis, he was sure. Otherwise, she would heal on her own.

Ghanyarah put his attention toward Dragon and now found himself having to refrain from nodding. There were many points of interest for the Children to examine, though his interest remained firmly in the Eyes. Eve offered to join them, and the reptile frowned with slight concern. The maned wolf, Aithaxas, offered to go with them as well. Frankly, he would have preferred Aithaxas to go in Eve's place - due strictly to her injuries - but he remained silent. Serek offered to stay, and the komodo flicked his tongue in acknowledgment.

Still there were others yet to make their decisions. He gazed between them all, but remained silent. It wasn't his place to dictate who did what - that would be Dragon's jurisdiction.

So that was Aquarian - the Father. She heard the pink reptile, Ghanyarah she'd heard the others call it, say to the young feline. So this was the one they intended to serve? He didn't exactly seem to appreciate it, but what did she know?

The Bush Viper cringed at the sudden, loud sound that roared from the water beast's maw, shreaking and thrashing loudly. She ducked her head to avoid being soaked in mud, only to be carried a short distance away by the wave of mud. Sizzle waited for the ripples to disappear once the serpent had vanished beneath the water, before beginning to move forward.

And then, of course, he came soaring up once more, grabbing the rotting carcasses. She recoiled with a startled hiss, and this time waited until she felt very certain she wasn't at risk of being eaten, before slithering forward once more.

And Dragon continued to speak, addressing them. She wished there was something she could do for the little Black Bird, but the only spell she knew propogated funguses, and she didn't think any were of the healing sort. And so she held her tongue, listening as they all checked in. Thankfully, it seemed, the Black Bird still lived, landing atop Ghanyarah's stone.

The alligator spoke, describing locations for them to look at. The Eyes in Eridanus, she recognized, having spent time there. To her surprise, Dragon addressed her, and she raised her head. "I am Sizzle, and I was drawn to you because I want to help." her tongue shot out, tasting the air. "I can search anywhere you need me too - I can climb fairly high, so long as there are holds for me, and I can fit into places others can't."

@Dragon