Things had gotten weird as of late. Ash felt less stuck than she had in cycles, like something in the caves was finally changing. Maybe she was finally changing...? Was that possible? The thought scared her. She might not always like herself, but at least she
knew who she was... if that changed, she would be walking into the unknown, and that was a terrifying prospect.
Ever since the heatwave passed through the caverns, usually frozen caves were a bit warmer-- which meant that the semi-frozen tunnel between Pisces and Cetus was just completely damp. Streams ran past her paws, water collecting on her nose and tickling her whiskers.
So every few steps she paused and shook the water from her feathers. She was getting used to being soaking wet from her time spent in Cetus, but the water her was actually clean instead of being murky swamp water or just straight mud, so honestly it was nice. Maybe not being covered in muck all the time was a good idea.
The shape of something brown up ahead made her freeze-- what if it was her father, Fisher? This was practically his favorite tunnel when it was cold, but she had figured he wouldn't have stuck around and risked rusting his armor or whatever. After a beat she realized that they were too small to be him and didn't have a gem on his back.
Curiously, she padded forward, up to the marten sitting on the ground. Her head tilted, sniffing at the gembound's damp, musky smell. She expected him to notice her and say something-- only because she didn't recognize who exactly this was. After all, last time she had seen him, they were both much younger.
So, expecting it to be a stranger, she kept her distance a little bit, and extended her wings just a touch in case she needed to dart away really quick. Some gems could be territorial or testy or just grumpy in general-- both of her dads had moments of just attacking random strangers over misunderstandings in their youth, and she tried not to be on the receiving end of those kind of interactions.
Listen to me + Hear my thoughts
