Eridanus' black guardian had been hunting.

The encounter with the horse had troubled him - he could still feel his ribs giving way beneath its hooves. They had healed quite a while ago, he had been only a cub then, but he could still remember how it felt. The horse was the closest thing he'd ever seen to a monster - a boogeyman. It had looked like death, with hide stretched tight over its bones, and eerie eyes. And it had attempted to sicken a rat.

He had thought they'd irradicated it. All the sickness, the plague. But the scent, as he was walking through his home, was unmistakeable.

He followed his nose, horror bubbling in his stomach when he came across a fairly large section of plants. They fair reeked of the horse's sickness, and were twisted and mangled, looking dead despite smelling, still, of life.

He knew what he had to do, and he could only hope Rift wouldn't be too mad. His stomach roiled, and he stepped forward, lowering his head over the first plant as though to drink. Burning bile dripped from his mouth like blood and water, landing on the plants and burning them.

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

@Rift if ya want! :D

Scorch had been wandering from the place where he hatched; he wanted to explore this beautiful world and find more interesting things! The cave with the lights and the glowing moss and crystals had been amazing, but now he wanted to see even more. It wasn't long before he'd made his was to a cavern with lots of plants. So many plants! The owlet's wide yellow eyes stared in awe, taking in all he could as he swiveled his head and moved it up and down so he could see everything. His talons felt vaguely achy from all the walking he'd done, he couldn't wait until his wings were flight-capable.

As he walked further into the cave, though, he saw a huge black cat dripping fire onto a patch of very dead-looking plants. "What are you doing?!" he cried, yellow eyes huge with horror. Why was the cat killing the plants? Didn't he understand that live ones looked so much prettier than dead ones?

Ash wasn't sure what she was doing in Eridanus. She had resolved to stay in Cetus, but it had been so lonely in there. She hadn't been able to handle it any longer, and after some time of convincing herself, she left. She hadn't been out of Cetus in so long, it felt weird to be walking out. It was lighter out here, and at first, she feared the virus had come back. But no, it was just that she had become so unused to light.

It wasn't long before she found herself in Eridanus. She'd been here once before, cycles and cycles ago. Not long after she had hatched. So much had changed in those cycles...She'd grown so much. And so much had happened.

Shaking her head slightly, she continued on her way. It wasn't long before she saw someone else. A cat, large and black, spitting fire into a patch of dead leaves. She frowned slightly and was about to say something when someone beat her. Someone so, so tiny, that she loomed over. A newly hatched one, it looked, that spoke up. She looked back to the plants. They were burned now, but she had seen when they looked dead.

"What happened?" Oh, that voice. Not as clear as it once was, and still so very high-pitched. She hated it, wished it wasn't so high. She cleared her throat, hoping that would at least make it clear once more.

"Speech."
Thoughs

@Sebastian @Scorch

Raising his head, the panther licked his lips. The bile burned his mouth, but he had long gotten used to it. Almost all of his learned spells hurt him, and so he had long grown used to the pain of fire.

However, before he could attempt to cast the spell a second time, a voice cried out, drawing his attention. The large cat turned to see a tiny bird, with fuzzy feathers. It had wide, yellow eyes, not unlike the color of his own. The little bird seemed horrified, and he was quick to realize what this must have looked like. So this owl shared Rift's mind?

However, before he could respond to the young owl, another appeared. A massive white thing, with odd-looking wings. A Dragon of some sorts, he supposed. While he'd never seen one, he had heard stories of them.

He looked between the Dragon and the owl, rather taken aback by the Dragon's voice. It was much higher than such a large Gembound seemed capable of. He wanted to cut this off at the root, before it got out of paw.

"These plants were contaminated with a sickness. If I did not destroy them, they would have spread the sickness to other plants, and to any Gembounds that neared the plants, or ate them."

@Ash @Scorch

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

Another voice asking about the burning, this one belonging to a huge... well... he didn't quite know what to call it. It was huge, towering over Scorch, and it was long too - like, really really really long, so hearing that high-pitched voice was surprising. The black cat explained that the plants had a sickness, and would spread a sickness, and Scorch got the idea that sickness was bad. But...

"What is sickness?" he asked. "What does it do? Is sickness what made the plants all dead-looking before you dripped fire on them?" If so, then sickness was horrible and this cat was a hero for destroying it! Especially if it could do bad things to Gembounds, like it did to the plant! And if he was a hero, then why hadn't Scorch introduced himself yet? "I'm Scorch," he said, yellow eyes glimmering with admiration now. "What's your name? And yours?" he added to the white Gembound.

@Sebastian @Ash

Ash listened as the cat spoke. She then looked over as the bird spoke, waiting for him to finish before she did. All this felt...almost normal. When was the last time she spoke to someone? To more than one? It felt like a lifetime ago that she last spoke to anyone. As the bird introduced himself, she blinked. Could she even remember her own name? She thought about it for a moment before saying what felt right, what she was pretty sure her name was.

"I'm Ash." Her voice was slightly clearer that time, though no less high pitched. She let out a quiet grunt before turning back to the cat. "You say there is a sickness in the caves? Do you know what caused it, how it spreads?" She glanced back at the plants, burned to the ground now. Was someone going around infecting plants? She thought back to the virus she had made cycles ago and resisted the urge to shudder. It had been so long since then. And she was pretty sure it had never gone to anyone else. But had someone made this sickness, this disease, and infected the plants, in hopes that it would spread? Or had it been an accident? The questions swirled in her head, but she resisted saying them, at least for now.

"Speech."
Thoughs

@Sebastian @Scorch

Brother, understand whySee it's burning me to hold onto thisI know this is something that I gotta doBut that don't mean I want to

Sebastian looked between the baby bird, and the Dragon. Why couldn't he just be left alone to do his work? He wanted to get to work on destroying the sickness before it could spread, but he could not, in good conscience, let these two leave without knowing the danger they may be in.

First, he turned to the young owl. "Sickness is... well, it's not good. It makes you weak, and unable to do things you could do thing before. It can even kill you, if it's bad enough. It is what made the plants dead, and I'm trying to destroy them before they can spread it."

Then, "My name is Sebastian." He looked then to the dragon. "There is. A plague horse is spreading it. From what I can tell, it is able to spread it through liquid, sickening plants which then sicken others." He lowered his head, dripping more burning bile on the dead plants. "I believe it can also be spread from Gembound to Gembound. When my brother and I met the plague horse, it was infecting a rat."

@Ash
@Scorch

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

What I'm trying to say is that, I love you I justI feel like this is coming to an endAnd it's better for me to let it go now,than hold on and hurt youI've gotta let it burn

Sickness made people weak?! It could kill them? That was so horrible! "Ohmygosh," Scorch blurted. "You're a hero! Like, a REAL LIFE HERO! Destroying sickness and protecting everyone!" He'd met a hero now! This was truly a special occasion! He wished he could help with hero stuff too, but he could only grow stuff, not destroy it. And maybe that was a good thing sometimes, but not when it came to sickness! He wouldn't want to grow sickness, not ever.

So a plague horse was spreading the stuff? Scorch suddenly felt very sorry for them. Being weak, unable to do things, and maybe-dying sounded horrible! Of course, he knew that sickness was horrible. He'd known it since ten seconds ago! But still - poor horse. And poor rat too, and poor plants. Scorch couldn't even imagine their suffering.

When he grew up, Scorch decided, he was going to be a hero, just like Sebastian. He'd save people from nasty things and people would look up to him and become heroes when they grew up too, and then the caves would be filled with heroes and nasty things like sickness wouldn't exist anymore! Yes, that was a good plan.

@Ash
@Sebastian