Lamia stared out of the water, nothing but her head visible above the waves. She eyed the surface without trust and a small twinkle of fear. She had tried once to breach the water, and that was only with her head. The sudden inability to breath with the vents above her mouth had scared her but this was something completely different. She was going to jump out and test herself out of water.

All her instincts screamed against this. She wanted to go and hide, dive into the deepest depths, go back to the place where Tenzin dwelled, perhaps, and find herself a nice cave. It would be a nice, quiet, and lonely life. Catch herself food, only have to worry about herself, and survive. But these caves, the magic that flowed through the stones and the water, it begged her to do something more with her life. So something more is what she would do.

At least she had discovered her magic. Tenzin had helped with that and she'd done a few tests - sticking her head out of the water and using it to breathe through her face as if she was underwater. It wasn't as comfortable, of course, but it would work. Hopefully it would.

She was stalling now, just sitting stationary in the water, staring at the pools which, to her, seemed a lot farther away then she realized. She took a deep breathe through her gills and dove back into the water. At a distance below, she paused and faced the surface. This was it. This was her test. Her heart was racing and that made her worry a bit. She didn't want to be breathing too hard - the fewer breaths she took the better. She breathed in the water deeply, to both calm herself and to take in as much water as she could, before she tensed, spread her tail fin, and pushed off as hard as she could.

It took her a second to built her momentum but by the time she reached the surface she was shooting through the water. As her hands breached the surface, she slapped them to the side and pushed at the top of the waves, giving her the last burst of speed that tossed her from the water and sent her tumbling onto the rocky floor.

She didn't waste anytime upon hitting the ground. She held her breathe tightly as she began to crawl across the floor, using her hands to propel herself and wiggling her tail to try and make it easier to move. About halfway there, her lungs began to strain and she began pulling in water from the air. It was pretty easy, with Pisces being so damp, but through her pulsing adrenaline, it was barely enough for a few breaths before her gills tightened with displeasure.

But it was enough to get her there. Just as her lungs began to complain again, she leaned forward and dove into the first pond, taking in a huge deep breath. The water was dirtier then the crystal waters of the lagoon, and there wasn't a lot of space, but she felt a great sense of accomplishment - she had survived out of water for the first time!

"Speech"Thought

After meeting Huckleberry, Imperia felt almost a little...odd. It had been almost weird seeing them, seeing their side of the story that was so similar to theirs with Aaliyah. It made them realize that they had never stopped to think about how she might feel about fighting nearly everyone she came across and killing.

For now, though, they didn't want to think about that. It didn't matter, anyway. Aaliyah was gone. She had left them, and seemed to be doing just fine on her own. Which was fine with them. They're doing just fine on their own.

As they walked, they realized they wandered into Pisces. This was as good a place as any to be, they supposed. They continued walking when a splash interrupted them. They frowned, looking over to the Ponds where the sound had come from.

And in the Ponds, they found a creature vastly unlike any they had ever seen before. They couldn't even began to describe its features. They walked closer, if only to get a better look. But even that didn't help. They just stared down at it, eyes narrowed.

What was it?

Speech Thought

@Lamia

At first, the little sea creature didn't even notice Imperia walking up to it. It was busy taking breathe after breathe, slowing its heartbeat and preparing for another jump. This water felt different then the lagoon's water, a lot heavier and rough. The shadow falling across the pond was the first warning that someone was close and a glance up was all she needed to see the creature standing there.

Her first instinct was to swim backwards and hide but there was little in in this tiny little pond. Some weeds, but that was it. She wouldn't be able to go anywhere if it decided to attack. But then her heart skipped a beat as she stared at this thing. It was very much unlike anything she had ever seen. Unlike herself and the fish that swam around the lagoon and very much unlike Tenzin. Although she had a feeling that there would be very few things in the caves anything like Tenzin.

It didn't look too threatening, it was just staring down at her with an expression she couldn't describe although it wasn't showing teeth or lashing at her. Perhaps that meant it didn't want to eat her. Not that it could, though, it was barely bigger then her.

Slowly, she swam towards the top of the pool until her head breached the surface. The few strands of kelp-like hair behind her waved gently in the air, although no breeze or water was there to lift it off her shoulders. She stared up at Imperia with curiosity gleaming in her dull amber eyes. "Hello. You are not a water-fish. Are you a land-fish?" While she thought she was, in fact, speaking quite clearly, all Imperia would hear was a chilling noise - a series of strange grunts and moans and echoes along the rocks. The water quivered beneath her voice but it would be impossibly for him to have any kind of intelligent understanding of what she had just said.

"Speech"Thought

@Imperia

Imperia continued to stare down at the creature as it stared up at them. At first, they were somewhat content with just watching it, but then it started to swim closer to the surface. And they definitely weren't okay with that. As its head breached the surface, they scowled down at it.

And when it spoke - if it could even be called speaking - they disliked that even more. They growled slightly, eyes glancing around them as they distinctly heard the sounds echoing along the rocks, before looking back, their eyes now narrowed at the creature.

"What are you?" Finally, they couldn't bear to not know and asked. But they weren't sure if the creature would be able to understand them, much as they didn't understand her.

Speech Thought

@Lamia

The sound it made was a bad sound. It wasn't speaking, it was just sounding at her. A warning sound. Like her hisses but deeper, guttural, rumbling instead of high pitched and rasping. She didn't like it. She flinched and dipped her head back in the water, taking breath after breath after breath, trying to calm herself.

But then, it said something else. She could hear it through the water. It was a little muffled, a little distorted, as sound did at water's touch, but she heard it all the same. Curious, she swam back up, her head slowly breaching the water, the strange, twisted strands of kelp-like hair waving behind her, completely defying the natural gravity above water. She stared unblinking at the cat and opened her mouth, revealing many rows of pointed teeth.

From her throat came a horrible noise, much much worse then the echoing question she had asked before. Hoarsely, painfully, she tried to speak as the cat was speaking. It was the worst sort of scratching, too many tones at once. A voice not meant to speak in the tongues of the caves said its first words above the water. "Whaaat...aaare.....yooouuuu..."

"Speech"Thought

@Imperia