The small fox-like creature--slender, blue, and lit with stars--raced over the mud. Pieces of Mother had been replanted, here and there, but she knew it wasn't over, yet.

The 'Children of Rot.' That's who Reji had to seek, who she had to beg help from, and pride didn't rail against that. She was in very real danger, and she knew it--and so would they be, if they chose to help her. "Dragon!" she called, knowing his name but little else. "Children of Rot-! We need to speak."

This is the Children of Rot Spy vs Spy quest. Only the Children of Rot--and Hive members!--may join.

Dragon was not far off. He rarely was, when it came to the Heart, and when he heard the voice calling, he grumbled. He tried to call upon his magicka--to take flight, and wing his way over there. And this was a magic that had never failed him, before. But it did now, and with a heavy sigh, the reptile resigned himself to plodding through the swamp on foot.

His twisted hind limb slowed him, some, so it was a few minutes before he came to the place, before he saw the star-spangled fox glittering there, staring at him from beneath her halo.

"What?" he demanded, irritably--and then, bellowing, "CHILDREN OF ROT, come to me."

@Septiezal (Sekith, Opal) @Merrow @Phlegethon @Khloros (Sergei, Legion) @Lamia (Azrael) @Serek @Talat @Ghanyarah @Aithaxas @Sizzle @Layla @Eve @Zyros
@Pallas

sorry for the inactive folks who didn't want a tag but you get one anyway

Of course he'd been around. Cetus, his home- where Reji had chosen to fled. Every so often he'd make his rounds about the cavern, hoping to find some starry-blue glimpse of her, or a hint of her voice again. Anything to confirm that she was okay, that she was safe.

So, when her voice rang out about the rocks and between the trees, Pallas knew exactly where to go. His own piece of mother- he'd made sure she was safe- would be fine on her own. His heart had already begun to pound at the thought of meeting her.

First, he had to stumble out of his tree, though. Such a graceful, excited face-plant into the mud below. It didn't matter- she was here! Excitement choked his throat as he leapt between gnarled roots and over thick swathes of mud to reach his now unbound sister. He had to see her, had to confirm it was her.

It was. The moment he saw the streaks of blue Pallas nearly skidded to a stop, stumbling over his mud-stained feet. Almost instinctively he moved to call out her name. No- no, someone could hear. And, besides, this Dragon seemed to be responding to her in kind, gathering up the Children of Rot.

He would've seen some of them before, some may have seen him, if they'd been about the groves before. Was... Was he a Child of Rot since he lived here? No, no- that seemed like a very official thing. He was happy being Pallas with his family through Mother, thank-you-very-much.

And so, he resorted to slink forward instead, his head held low as he paced with claws anxiously withheld tight in their confines. He should say something, but... What? he was standing here with mud covering his face and a dumb glance in his eyes. Might as well wait for Reji to start, instead.

The call came, and he answered. Or rather, he approached.

His mind was still gently curious, still half-lost in dreams and musing, and nightmares still lingered at its edges in a confused and hazy way. But Dragon had taken him in, agreed to hide him here, and so when the alligator called, Khloros--despite his wandering thoughts--came.

Hooves carried him through mud, and his dark body slipped through the mist. The fog parted, and he found others already there.

Curious, he studied the blue creature; something told him that she was important, but how--and whether good, or bad--he couldn't say.

"I'm here," was all he said, softly--and with a brief, faint nod toward Pallas, too.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

He had planted his piece. He had tended it, dutifully bringing fish and rabbit, torn-up rat. It had grown, where he'd nestled it in amongs the roots of the trees; now it was a fuzzy white clot the size of a cave deer. It spoke to him, but he was the only one linked to it. All his being had been consumed by the need to plant, nourish, and defend Mother. Slicked and matted with foul-smelling mud, his own weight a little lessened, the bear was clearly not caring for himself so much as becoming a servant of the fungus.

The call, though, rang through the swamp, and Sergei lumbered to meet it. Mother whispered for him to go, and so he did: he did not know if the others still felt her touch, but he obeyed.

The bear splashed his way to the gathering, but he remained silent, lingering uneasily on the edges of the clearing, his small eyes hooded with suspicious unease beneath his heavy brow.

The buzzing mass of mites was a little distressed. It had planted its samples of Mother, but they were all too small to properly--so they felt--tend to her.

Legion had, at first, tried to separate its swarm, to send some out in many directions to scout and to gather, to leave the rest close to defend her. It was the very first time they'd tried to split apart, but found--to their horror, and dismay--that those mites flying too far from the small speck of Titanite at their core, at their Queen, had lost magic and, in some cases, even life. This was a terror, and though it was busily forming replacements, the fact that they could not operate as a true swarm had been a terrible shock to them.

They were forced, then, to move as a whole, and they had decided (after a humming self-consultation) to carry Mother with them in her tiny samples, at first. They'd brought her along as they sought bits of carrion, or edible foliage, and had fed her as they went. When at last her particles were too heavy to carry, they had found a sheltered rock crevice with moss within, and settled her there. She'd consumed this, spreading and growing, and now the swarm busied itself desperately trying to bring her enough food to keep her alive. Enough to grow her was nearly (for the swarm) out of the question, and it had come to realize that it might need to hunt Lessers to do so. This hurt it, in a sense--none of the swarm liked killing, especially given that their method of feeding was to strip flesh from bones with a thousand tiny mouths.

It had yet to bring itself to do so, and Dragon's call was a good excuse to put it off even further; the swarm swept in, taking its quadrapedal form, blinking two large eyes as it caught sight of Pallas, Sergei, and Reji.

Ahh-... so they were here, too! -Good! This was good. The hive hummed, pleased, hoping that the other portions of Mother had survived along with them, too.

Dragon's call did not go unheeded in the depths.

Phlegethon rose with a surge of water, not unlike Aquarian, if only for the urgency and so-soonness of it. Its jaw immediately propped open, ruby-red eye surveying the crowd that had already gathered as it propped its breastbone atop the shore. Head swiveling heavily on its swan-neck, the slime-beast observed Legion most closely.

Many beings in one. Taking the shape of a singular creature. It was not slime. It inhaled loudly, an impromptu form of sniffing where it had no other method. There was a strong carrion-stink on all of the unfamiliar creaturea here.

Lamia didn't really hear Dragon's call, sleeping in the depths of Cetus's swamp, but she felt the shifting of the water as Phlegethon rose. Sight flooded back into her eyes and she looked up. The darkness was surfacing - perhaps something was going on?

Curious, Lamia turned upwards and surfaced along with Phlegethon, head fully breaching the surface, eyes swiveling to look around at what was amiss. Eyes immediately caught on the blue creature standing before Dragon, as well as newcomers that she had not seen since the sack of Mother's cavern. Joyously, she swam forward to the edge of the swamp, reaching forward with her limbs to pull the top part of her body ashore, making sure to keep her gills submerged. "Reji," she rasped, making every effort to keep her voice down. "Siblings! GOOD." You survived, I'm so glad! she sang into the water, in case any could understand.

Azrael had been laying low in Cetus, having stashed bits of Mother away in a remote area of the swamp. He'd planned on going back to Canis with some more of them, to perhaps find a place there to plant her as well, but he was waiting, for Reji and for his sibling to come and appear. He didn't get close to the Children of Rot, especially after he'd seen the water erupt and reveal a giant serpent, but now, as the alligator called into the mist, Azrael decided to try his luck - get close again, and see if he could see what was up.

He stalked through the darkness, gathering magic around his chest to cover the glowing gem in shade, and he all but disappeared into the shadows, his dark fur blending in with the dark, dreary backdrop of Cetus. He could smell them, a gathering of many, too many to distinguish certain scents, but they all sure smelled of rot.

Once he reached the edge of the gathering, he crouched behind a tree, using the eye in one of his palms to look around the corner. He closed the rest of his eyes to get a good look at what was going on.

There were many there, some that he realized that he recognized with a jolt. And...the blue-furred one, the one that Mother had welcomed. He'd been waiting for Reji and she had returned!

He would not be hiding then, opening his eyes again and standing, stepping out from his tree and joining the group. "You all made it out. Good," he rumbled.

BLACK OPAL
For the first time I'm thinkin' about tomorrow

Finally, she had come.

Seeking the Children out wasn't a total loss. The eel-thing swam to the marshy shores when he heard Lamia's song in the Heart's black water.

"Reji, you made it." Squelch breathed, as he plodded through the muck. Duckweed-like plants clung to his slimly purple skin, covering his back in a patches of green. Good. He feared that she had been killed, that the masters had won again. He could put those fears to rest, for now.

He glanced around with his eye stalk. The family had found each other again. Most of them were here, except two; a white bear and the rat...