Gracie was getting larger by the day, her awkwardness was melting away into a stronger, less tipsy being. It felt like only yesterday she hatched from her crystalline egg, but now it was nearly two months ago. She had spent her days munching and browsing various vegetation, eating more than her fill till it felt like she could roll away with her troubles. She had seen her deer friends in passing, never longer than a day it seemed. They were busy, she was busy. It was a lonely world and the panda longed for more interaction with gembounds such as herself. She had wandered out of Eridanus in search of life and ended up in Cetus, a cave she visited only a couple times before. It was creepy here, but not too much unlike her home cave. Clouds touched the ground here and spooky gemless owls hooted in their depths, their screeches made the girl shiver unintentionally.

Poking her charcoal nose into a hollowed log, sniffing a lungful of dust and wheezing. Gracie didn't know what she expected from that, but maybe not so much dust and a little more surprise goodies. It was a silly, mindless move. Something to occupy her time. Lowering her head further she checked out the inside of the log, hoping to see someone else staring back at her but the occupancy was empty. Purple eyes struggled against the darkness that encompassed the inside, "Hellooooo?" she called out, surprised to hear her voice echo and boom out the other side of the log. Gracie giggled and stomped her paws in glee, that was a fun game, yes it was. She went for round two, "Echooo-ooooh!"

Squeezing inside the log because no one had answered her calls, Gracie made it in just fine but to her horror quickly found out she was stuck inside, her rump hanging out one mouth of the log! She struggled frantically, squeaking in her efforts. It was mildly amusing but more sad that the girl managed to get herself into such a situation.

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Ghanyarah was beginning to grow more receptive to the sound of Gembounds in the cave. What presence had once frightened him soon turned into a game of hide-and-seek, a game of investigations and learning, a game of trying to know these strangers more than they knew him. The reptile was larger now, enough so that he had begun hunting the small critters he once identified with. Rats and mice, fish, even small lesser lizards were all on the menu and Ghanyarah didn't spare a second thought to consider that he had once been in their position. It was a dog-eat-dog world, and after Ghanyarah had grown out of being prey, he took advantage of his newfound position in the food web. Prowling the jungles had become a more common routine, and when he heard the sounds of other Gembounds, he had the confidence to go seek them out. Either they'd be small enough for him to eat, the same size as he such that he could forge new allies, or bigger than him - in which case, Ghanyarah had his magic to prove that he was still a veritable foe.

When he heard the sound of a Gembound yelling out into the air, Ghanyarah couldn't deny his curiosity. The komodo dragon sauntered away from his path, a route that usually took him to the divine and then back to his tree. The gently falling pain pattered against his hide, providing him the comfort of familiarity, but his muscles were still cold and sluggish. He took his time reaching the other Gembound, until her delighted yelling had turned into frantic squeaking, at which point Ghanyarah's curiosity truly piqued. He quickened, waddling through the undergrowth until he found the source of all the commotion. A large panda had gotten her fat head stuck in a log. Ghanyarah really couldn't help but snigger at the sight.

He walked an arc around her, surveying her while his eyes lit up in amusement. Ghanyarah flickered his tongue, tasting the air. She didn't smell like she belonged to Cetus. Was she lost? She certainly was too big for Ghanyarah to eat. The dragon continued to circle around her until he ended up on the other side of the log. Then, he lunged towards it, sticking his head on the other side. "HAH!" Ghanyarah shouted down the log, hoping to startle the panda.

Gracie squirmed back and forth, back and forth trying to free herself from her newly found prison. The damp fur only seemed to muddy the dirt surrounding the inside of the log, the friction made it more difficult to pull back. Over the sound of the falling rain and her struggles she didn't hear the stranger approach from the other side of the log.

What she did hear was his claws on the opposite opening and a loud, resonating shout. Yelping in fear, she pull back with all her strength but to no avail. She was stuck firmly in place. The more she struggled, the more it hurt. The outside edge of the log was rubbing painfully against her ribs and shoulder blades. "D-don't hurt me!" she stammered, purple eyes wide in terror. She couldn't see the figure at other end, the light was dulled as soon as he entered the log. "I'm stuck!" she wailed.

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As soon as he shoved his head into the log, the panda yelped and recoiled, only managing to painfully wrench herself against the log and struggle even further to escape. With his head slid into the other opening of the log, Ghanyarah uttered a wicked, chattering laugh, obviously delighted by his mischief. His tail thumped and swept behind him with amusement until the panda wailed, crying not to hurt her and that she was stuck. The lizard blinked and tilted his head, flicking his tongue into the air. Sure enough, the moldy air inside the log was saturated with the stench of fear. After getting his kicks, maybe Ghanyarah could actually be... A decent guy. Besides, her shrill whining hurt him, physically.

The beast withdrew from the log and focuses, pulling all his magic in and trying to focus it on shard blades of ice. The moisture that gathered on top and inside the log began to harden into gleaming crystals, and then the komodo snorted gruffly and spires of ice suddenly burst through the bark, ripping it apart. The blast sent debris flying in every direction, but perhaps that would be enough to free the panda bear. Ghanyarah stepped back, pleased with the execution of his magic.

The log that touched her torso began to feel cold, the stranger had been cackling and her suspicion was growing. Was he a cohort to the golems she had recently heard about? Was he signaling to the giant walking stone masses to squish her? Gracie's childlike imagination fueled her fear and she wiggled franticly pulling back with her hind legs. "No! Wait!" the panda pleaded, words labored by her heavy breathing. "Stop, what are you doing?" The log started to crackle as it froze from his magic. Gracie's struggles against the hardened wood shot a crack along the length.

The thump of the stranger's... something against the log had shattered it like it was nothing. Pieces of cold bark rained down on her as she flew backwards and rolled from the force of her own frantic energy. Cetus was damp and the mud from the forest floor caked to Gracie's fur in layers. She could almost pass off as a brown bear just by how dirty she had made herself that day. Opening her purple eyes, which had been squeezed shut throughout the ordeal, she blinked and studied the reptilian male before her. His tongue lashed out of his mouth like the little squirmy lines-- snakes. But he had legs, not a snake.

On the top of his head stood two pale pink spikes of gems. He was a gembound like her and his magic was icy it seemed, her first witnessing of that sort of magic. She shivered remembering the coldness against her damp fur. Pieces of bark were still frozen, but slowly melting, to her body from where the damp fur had been pressed against the log. Clearing her throat, she thanked him meekly with an embarrassed little smile.

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Her panicking had not gone unnoticed, Ghanyarah simply opted to ignore it. She wanted to get out of the log didn't she? Then she'd be wise to just let him do his job. Ghanyarah could easily spear her by accident if he wasn't paying attention. He shut out the sound of her crying and whimpering until the powerful points of ice exploded out from the log, bursting it and sending pieces of bark in every direction. The komodo dragon turned his head away, blocking his eyes from the spray of splinters, and then slowly turned to look back at his work. The log was shattered, chunks of bark missing with long icicles sticking out of it. In the rain, it was difficult to lose the ice, but it was also a lot easier to control it. Chuffed, Ghanyarah stood proudly and waited for her to realize what he'd done.

Slowly, she seemed to regain her composure after having been knocked back into the mud. He couldn't imagine having mud would be too pleasant when one was covered with fur. Ghanyarah on the other hand was covered in a thick, sleek hide of tough scales; mud easily washed right off. She thanked him and the lizard cocked his head, sneering. "You were making so much noise, scared all the food away." He then rolled his shoulders in a shrug, dismissing her thanks. It was less about the food and more simply the fact that Ghanyarah wanted to save her life then lord it over her, but whatever. A good deed was a good deed, right? The lizard looked out to their surroundings; the rain fell gentle and cool, quietly pattering against the leaves, but otherwise the jungle was fitted with silence. "Do you live here?" He asked suddenly and looked back at the panda bear.

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Gracie studied the gembound before her with curious interest in his species. She still couldn't decide what he was, this was the first speaking reptile she had met here in the caves. It was all deer up to this point. And he was also the very first of his capabilities to have met her, Gracie's purple eyes wandered away back to the shattered log where spears of ice still gleamed tall and violent looking. If he wanted to hurt her with that cold, cold magic he could have done it easily just then. She felt like thanking him too for not decapitating her with frozen water, but somehow she knew he wouldn't find the humor. In fact, she wasn't too sure he wouldn't take it as a suggestion and try taking the misunderstood advice and attacking.

"Scared.... the food...?" She repeated, confused. What did he mean? The plants here had feelings like she did? That was a scary thought, how many families of sugar cane had she slaughtered now... too many to count.

"I live near here, it's not wet in my home though," Gracie scrunched her face in distaste, not particularly fond of the water falling from the misty sky. It made everything smell the same. And it made the dirt slippery and difficult to walk through. The fact that she was practically brown and ten pounds heavier in caked mud seemed to speak for the fact that she really wasn't at home here in Cetus.

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When she confusedly repeated his accusation, Ghanyarah slowly narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, staring at her like she was stupid. Her eyes had traveled to the plants, but thats obviously not what he was talking about. She was a big predator too, wasn't she? With her sharp teeth and forward-facing gaze, he expected that she would eat other critters just like Ghanyarah did. How would she be confused about the concept of scaring food? It was so obvious! Yet... Well, maybe it wasn't if she hadn't realized that she'd done wrong. "Yeah. All the mice and rats. They don't like the noise." He elaborated and rolled his eyes as if it was literally paining him to have to explain it.

The komodo dragon settled down, tilting his head as he stared over at the panda. In the fleeting moments of silence between them, he tried to understand what she was, what she ate, what kind of a creature she would be - if she would be a threat to him. But it seemed she was just a big, pathetic ball of fur. Fair enough. He took on an expression of being offended as she mentioned her home, and that it wasn't as wet. "Whats wrong with the wet?!" He scowled. Sure the rain was kind of inconvenient... But the rain was part of his home so that instantly made it better than everything else. Good job Ghanyarah, hypocrite of the year. "So you don't live in Cetus?" He followed up curiously. "Where then?"

She couldn't help but scrunch her face in disgust at the idea of eating something that was alive and had a brain, a heart of it's own. Gem or not, Gracie had too much respect for the struggles of the other living creatures in the cave. The panda didn't know her sharp teeth were what made her an omnivore, the only thing she'd been introduced to for a diet was veggies. And she didn't plan on trying anything else any time soon. Her stomach rolled in her belly the longer she pondered the idea. "Oh, okay," she muttered, trying to not throw the stranger too far off the "friend" course. She didn't want to dismiss him as unfriendworthy just yet, since he did just save her life and everything.

"Nothing, nothing!" she piped, the water wasn't too much of an issue. She just wasn't fond of the mud that came with it. Dirtying her fur all up. Gracie would have to find a nice swimming pond to dip into somewhere in the caves, which was unfortunate. She hadn't found any large enough to swim in just yet in her travels. "The dirt, it's kind of sticky when it rains so much. Good for life though?" she pondered, aloud. She placed her paw down slowly with a furrowed brow, concentrating the magic within her pink diamond gem to an active, growing force. A dull pink light flashed from her black (muddied, as well) chest and when she lifted her paw a tiny sprout struggled to the surface in the middle of her print. A satisfied smile crossed the girl's face.

"I came from Eridanus, it's like here... but different?" She didn't know how to explain the differences, there were differences. There wasn't as much mist back home, it seemed a little more cheerful. It was only suiting that this grumpy lump of scales called such an ominous place home.

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He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her as she suggested that the rain made the dirt sticky. Well yes, that was true. But Ghanyarah never really had an issue with the mud. In fact, it helped him to blend in even better since the mud was dark and clung to him pretty easy, and when he needed to lie in wait for some prey he could just cover himself in it and then strike. When it dried, it caked up in around his scales, but it also washed off pretty easy. He didn't realize that having fur would make things a lot more difficult. The komodo dragon grew even more suspicious as she said that the rain could be good for life. At this, he tilted his head and took a step closer, watching as she pressed her paw down in the mud. There was a disturbance in the air, a sudden surge of energy he could feel down to his bones.

Then, she lifted her paw. In its place, a small, struggling sprout emerged from the mud. Ghanyarah blinked and then gasped, looking at the tiny plant. That was SO COOL. He had no idea that other Gembounds could do stuff like that! Growing plants and stuff, how cool would that be, how convenient? What kind of plants could she grow? Could she grow trees? Could she make flowers blossom? The lizard had a multitude of questions for her, briefly interrupted as she talked about where she came from, Eridanus. It was different. Well, he from what he'd seen in his initial pilgrimage from Polaris to Cetus, most of the cave was a stark and stale brown. This room was the only jungle place he'd encountered and that was why he stayed.

Ghanyarah huffed and scampered closer to her, sniffing and flicking his tongue down at the plant. "How'dja do that?" He asked, cocking his head to look at it with one eye up close, and then the other. The lizard sat back and reached out with one of his clawed hands, pawing at it before looking up at the panda.

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