The thunder had drawn him.

Like a moth to a flame, he h--

-ad been immediately washed helplessly back down the tunnel.

...Shango lifted back up halfway down the tunnel of ice, and managed to wing-beat his way with scale-feathered-wings enough into the air to ride out the rest of the icy surge. With a quiet shriek-roar he flapped onward, half-scrambling along the wet ice, half lifting his way over sections with his wings.

He didn't stop to talk to those in the entrance--bar a brief, green-white ghostlight glance, he didn't even acknowledge them, nor slow as he charged past.

Instead he hurtled into Fornax, and--oh that's ocean--

...turned back again immediately, landing among the Gembound at the cave's mouth.

Shango, despite his wings, was incapable of sustained flight. Instead he stared out, along with the others, and hissed--catlike and feral--out at the brother-storm that he could not join. At length he leapt in anyway, and began paddling out into the icy darkness, calling out to the thunder above.

________________

I AM THE STORM

Something was... very wrong. Something was wrong. And not like Kreool-wrong. That was impossible, now. That monster wouldn't hurt anyone ever again. Wrong wrong.

The currents were stronger than before, sweeping her sleeping form to and fro. Unlike those of pure orca lineage, she was able to sleep with both eyes closed and continue to float easily at the surface. Breathing steadily, Iris was at peace. Of course, aside from the vicious storm beating down on her scales and back. So much for floating serenely. As her eyes snapped open, she realized the waters were dark, murky, unintelligible aside from an ominous glow further out. The reek of death and rotting fish filled the air, and she grimaced. She wanted to be on land. The enormous hybrid slipped eagerly toward what she remembered to be the shore nearest to Fornax's exit, cutting through choppy waters like a hot knife through butter.

She contemplated just taking a deep breath and diving down to the hottest vents at the bottom of the furnace and hiding, but she heard the eager calls of some strange creature at the surface. The cotton-candy seabeast turned abruptly in the waters, rising so that her enormous crown resided just next to the hybrid. A spray of water erupting from her blowhole, she whistled in greeting. "Hello, weird thing! Need help getting to land?" Despite the frantic paddling of the other Gembound, Iris's head simply bobbed up and down in the fierce waters and storm. Blinking away water from her eyes, she bellowed over the rain, "where are you going? I could give you a ride!" Already preparing to, she arched her back to the surface, enormous dorsal fin emerging from the waters and back coming into view.

Valeria giggled at the spindly, goat-like gembound as they waved at her. She raised her folded wing and waved back. They seemed friendly. Valeria relaxed a bit and watched as a raven joined them. By their questions, it seemed that they too were drawn by the distorted death.

"I don't think this caused by any disease I know.." She added timidly just as the storm from Fornax groaned. Valeria glanced at the Fornax's entrance, along with the goat-like gembound who seemed very worried. She could hear it in their pulse. They mentioned something about closing a door.

"Huh, what door--?" Suddenly, the lights dimmed and and they were interrupted by a horrible groaning noise from Fornax and the growling of thunder that was so loud she felt as if her ears were going to explode. Valeria's squeezed her eyes shut, in fear and braced herself against the wall, clutching it as tight as she can. A suffocating darkness enveloped her and she felt the roaring beneath her. Then, as she opened her eyes, the lights came too, and to her horror, she saw that fierce wave had swept most of the others away.

The ringing in her ears were awful, she could barely make out what the goat-thing was say before he bolted away. "W-wait! Come back!" She cried, but she wasn't sure if they could hear her. Valeria could barely hear the sound of her own voice. Totum's words came out muffled: "got to go...…….investigate the storm.... careful...….". Valeria began to panic. She took off from the wall and began to flap in circles. A million things were soaring through head faster than kytes. The storm, the door, the eerie light, the other gembounds swallowed by the waves. She knew she had to help them, but how, and which way did they go? As the ringing in her ears ebbed away, she heard a noise from inside Fornax. It sounded almost like yelling. Valeria banked and headed straight into Fornax, straight into the storm.

I'm gonna die! The thought kept popping up in her head as she battled the wind and rain. This is stupid! I'm gonna die!

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Ejder @Mosiac @Pollux @Ceicei @Shango @Iris // OOC:

OF WISPS AND WHISPERS

FORNAX — Storm Warning

The thunder cracked, its deafening peals rolling over wet stone and surging sea-spray. The torrential rain continued, and periodic flashes of localized lightning illuminated the fearsome waves, the faces of the Gembound present, the thick fog, in brief brilliance--only to flash away again into the pitch-black.

Out over Fornax's sea, the ghostly blue-green lights again appear: three of them, round, seeming to hover in formation far above the waves as they flash rhythmically twice, three times--and then vanish once more.

@Pollux @Mosaic @Ejder @Iris @Valeria

The kitten tumbled helplessly by the surging waters. It took all of his effort to grasp for air in the few moments his head broke the surface and quickly clamp his jaws shut as he was tossed underwater again. He quickly became disoriented and left with levity, relying purely on what instinct he could. Up to this point he had relied on pure rationality. And that rationality was not an option as thinking would delay the split-second decisions needed to survive the raging currents.

Suddenly he was smashed against the wall of the nearby tunnel. A weak cry caught in his throat as his slim body made impact against the icy wall. It hurt.

The ice was a sharp cold against his already freezing body. More than that, a strange feeling crossed his side where he had hit against the ice-covered stone. He gasped when trying to stand up. For whatever reason, his side now hurt terrible. Even just breathing made it hurt. What was wrong?

Ejder closed his eyes, trying to calm the confusion of his mind. He was a creature of logic and relied on such like a clutch. He tried to take a deep breath, winced, and then took a few tiny breaths instead. He reminded himself of what he knew:

There were lots of gembounds nearby.

Fornax was flooding and filling with ice and dead fish.

There was a strange creature who seemed to know what was going on.

He now felt the worst pain in his short life.

It was a short list, but it was a start. He opened his eyes and looked out into the cave from the mouth. There danced a few faint lights above the waters surface. They were almost pretty if he could fully understand the idea and wasn’t aching so terribly. And then he realized another thing to add to his list.

Pain would make it difficult to swim back. How would he get back to the others now? Dusky lavender ears flicked back against his head. Now that was a real puzzle.

____________________
"Speech"
"Thought"

Tags:
Notes: Congrats, due to terrible rolls Ejder now has a few broken ribs and possibly other damage as well. Yay...... D:

Shango squalled--loudly--as he turned and saw Iris approaching. She was calling out, something he could barely hear over the storm, but her genial demeanor could not be misinterpreted.

It could be a lie, but Shango was quite frankly too unintelligent to suspect. Instead, he clambered unhesitatingly onto her, and then, a captain of his own new ship, pointed his face into the storm and yowled. His spined tail lashed behind him, wings spreading and beating.

Excitement surged through him, and his magicka gathered, roiling and dark; all around, the pouring rain intensified, the clouds lowering--black and thick--to churn around him and his mighty Iris-steed both. Lightning crashed around them, yet avoided their close proximity--as if Shango's magic was now directing the storm nearby, keeping them safe while exulting in its power.

CRASH. BOOM. RUMBLE. FLASH. CRACK. RUMBLE.

"STOOOOOOOOOORM!" the hybrid squalled.

________________

I AM THE STORM

@Iris @Valeria @Pollux @Mosaic

Well, as it turns out, this Gembound wasn't much for conversation. That, or she was just not yelling loud enough over the storm. The latter idea seemed a little more logical, considering she could barely hear herself think over the thunderous calamity pelting her back. Regardless, though, the strange hybrid eagerly clambered onto her back and began to yowl loudly (what a strange sound!)

As if on cue, the storm churned and shifted around the duo. If the spectacle wasn't terrifying, it was actually gorgeous. The chaos surrounding them was absolutely something else. Had the lights at sea not flashed and vanished, Iris would have stayed to just watch the "STOOOOOOOOOORM!" crash on and on around them. But, the cotton-candy seabeast had to go toward the lights, no matter how much she wanted to swim away from the stink of death and tons of rotting fish. After the whole gem-encrusted leviathan and Kreool Cerulean disasters, she wasn't taking risks.

"Hang on!" Iris keened over the storm, carefully navigating the waves and pushing through to the trio of lights, ensuring that her back stayed somewhat balanced and straight so that the captain did not fall off.

@Valeria @Pollux @Mosaic

"I-" cough "hate you all." Mosaic seethed. "Just - what is even going on?!" Her chest hurt. Breathing hurt. Everything hurt. She thought she heard someone else cry out earlier, too, but why bother caring about that if nobody was bothering to care about her? Despite that, though, the voice still seemed oddly familiar so maybe she should try to see what was happening? Groaning, Mosaic scrabbled at the slippery ice and somehow managed to regain her footing.

Everything still hurt, and it was difficult to hear anything over the thunder and the waves so Mosaic got the feeling it would probably be very useless to try to listen for the source of the cry or try to talk to whoever it was. She tried anyway, swiveling her ears around before finally accepting that it was a futile effort. "Where are youuuuu," she groaned, trying to see in the darkness. Oh - "Ow!" she yelped as a sudden flash of lightning lit up the area and made her eyes hurt. And now she couldn't see anything at all and there were weird flashes of light in her vision, or maybe those were actual real flashes of light. She couldn't tell. Maybe I should use the heartbeat thing again - but considering what happened that time with the cat, I don't think that's a good idea anymore. She did not want to end up with ringing ears again.

@Pollux @Ejder @Iris @Valeria

OF WISPS AND WHISPERS

FORNAX — Storm Warning

Amidst the black and churning waters, a shape suddenly rose. Long, slender head. Delicate, pricked ears. Eyes without pupils, glowing an acidic green in their entirety--and a likewise-glowing lolling tongue hanging from a many-fanged, crooked, grinning jaw.

The creature appeared before Iris, and Iris would suddenly feel transfixed, hypnotized into inaction, though she can attempt to break free. The thing didn't seem to belong here. It was a land creature, its movements eerily wrong in the water--perhaps on land, too--yet it rose smoothly to its chest, to its elbows, as if flying rather than swimming.

It drifted slowly toward Iris, intentions unclear, ignoring--for now--those closer to the exit of Fornax.

@Iris @Shango @Mosaic @Ejder @Pollux @Valeria @Cecei

The approach was surprisingly smooth, given the immense and tumultuous winds and the waves crashing higher than her head. She was careful to break each wave with her head and neck so that it didn't knock her passenger off into the depths of the sea. The deeper she got, the wilder the waves got, and she even felt rip currents threatening to suck her beneath the waters.

Ahead of Iris, there was a strange creature rising from the waves, acidic green eyes peering out above a smile with far too many teeth. Meeting eyes seemed to suck every bit of conscious thought from her, and her swift approach fell to a sudden and complete stop. Transfixed and rather loose, she distantly felt the waves grasp around her ankles and tail and try to drag her down with all their might. Unheeding of where Shango went, the sea-beast slipped beneath the waves without taking a breath and her lungs filled with water. Self-preservation, fortunately, won out and she sputtered back to reality. Iris pushed herself toward the surface, pointedly looking anywhere but the slender-necked creature, searching for her passenger. "FRIEND!" She keened, eyes scanning the choppiness of the waves.

@Shango