Warmth surrounded her. It was the first thing she was aware of as her consciousness dared to stir, a thick limb jostling in place as a red-hot nervous system slowly started back up. The machinations of her muscles did not strain. Her body was isolated in the sap of amber encasing her, and she drifted in and out of sleep through timeless endeavors.

There were no dreams, no sounds or sights other than the faint stirrings of honey moving as she did, her body twisting in place as it struggled to find the spark of magic that it held so dearly onto. It was a soft yet constant drip, however, that truly stirred her mind. Ears flicked as one sense returned to her in the sea of void. Was that a blessing or would the constant tapping drive her mad, now that she could finally hear it?

She would find that it would make no difference as she drifted back unconscious.

When she next awoke, the drip was louder, a drumbeat rather than a tap upon the top of her shell. It pulsed behind her eyes and through her heart, driving through her veins as her body twisted once more. There was no up until then, but as she turned the drip faded; she had turned away from it. Was it a drip? Who was to say what anything was, truly?

Her face contorted, ever so slightly, a sign of returning thought under that thick skull of her's. It was soon washed away, though, as she tossed again, rolling to try and get away from the constant rhythm above her head. Touch was another sense that had been stripped, she discovered, as its return was unceremoniously dropped onto her with a flash of discomfort at her snout busted against a hard surface.

Hard? Drunk on sleep, her eyes blearily struggled to see through the fluid she lay immersed in, a paw raising before her and pressing gently against where she discovered her limit. A wall was laid bare before her in the murky waters. She wasn't awake enough to contemplate, however, eyes fluttering asleep once more as she propped herself against the golden wall before her.

Her personal clock had become a steady stream when she came to notice it next. It pulsed under her paws and against her skin, thrumming through the walls of plastic-feeling amber and reverberating in her skull. Its music had become discordant through age. The vibrations brought to her attention weary muscles borne anew, her jaw flexing as her eyes shut hard. Her body was returning to her, slowly through eons, and she felt the consequence of her stirring forming as fluids flowed over her fur. It persisted everywhere, and her scales ached, her teeth ground anxiously as her body hiccuped in a full restart.

The jostle pushed her constricted body against the confines of her cubicle, and soon she felt the sheer cold it brought with a crack, too. It rivaled the swathes of heat and it curled like frozen tendrils on her skin. Frustration bubbled up and she brought her claws together as close as they could get and strained, reaching for… Something. Warmth? In a heavy sigh her lungs began to spark back to life and her attempt of magic was forgotten with old muscles straining anew once more.

A cough brought more cold over her like a wind. Shuddering, she only managed to choke on water- fresh water, from the taste, but she didn't have time to mull on it. An instinctual panic set in as the sense of drowning enveloped her. Up was a wall, one she shoved through with a few pulses of her arms.

As much as she could have looked like a hair care ad, she burst from the pool of water like a drowned horse, broad torso panting as her head came upon the stream of a waterfall that had woken her. Coughing and sputtering, she dragged herself from her chrysalis, drenched in the amber of it and the freezing wet digging under her skin. Who's idea was it to chrysalize in a pool of water?

She hadn't realized that perhaps the water wasn't there when she had fell asleep. Also- she wasn't sure what made her chrysalize, but dredging through memory she only chalked it up to something foolish that she thankfully didn't remember.

With thousands of years of memory, there's a lot of wiggle room for gaps, after all. And here, too, there was room for more of a gap in the side pocket she'd sequestered in. If she got in before, it must have not been so small the last time she saw it? Sediments had latched to the walls of this wet cave to create a prison cell, one that she made to go through only to find her shoulders bumping against its edges. "C’mon," her deep voice grumbled, the magic she reached for previously flaring underfoot before she tried to shove through with an overheated paw.

Despite the heat, the wall was too slick, and her paw fell away unable to grasp on the surface. Had she lost her strength? Blinking wearily, she looked down to her burning paw and pushed again, finding no grip on the smooth surface.

She grunted and tried a different method, pushing her shoulders into to no effect, barely panting at the effort it brought to her freshly awakening body. She'd just have to use some of that classic Amber tenacity, that's all.

Imp was wary about Pisces--the stupid thing that had tried to eat him lived here. Or well, it'd attacked him. Well... it'd thrown a rock, and that was almost the same thing.

Anyway, he was wary! -But fish lived here, and being blind and all, Pisces' shallow pools were the easiest way, now, to get food when he didn't feel like a steady stream of fucking banana. He kept cautious, though, and crept along outer edges and in cover as best he could sense--sometimes out in the open, creeping along like an idiot, sure he was hidden. But he kept his senses open: hearing and magic both, wary for attack, for ambush.

He hated having to live like this, but the others in the cave had proven their... assholishness. He had to be careful.

Sensitive ears picked up... something unusual, but he couldn't pinpoint it and, when he tried to cast out more magical senses, he found nothing. It was a sort of... a distant, muffled... thump? A gurgling, like water... but where was it?

The hybrid turned, peering this way and that, at least warm within his weird feather-shroud (and what was that about, anyway?). And at last, when whatever-it-was didn't jump him, he called out.

"Hello-? Who's there? If someone's thinking of jumping on me, I can fly, you know." ...And hopefully whoever it was, if they were stalking him, couldn't also fly. Wouldn't that be embarrassing.

@Amber

Amber had backed up, teeth gritted with her horns presented to the gap. If she could just find the weak point of this rock--

Her head jerked at the call, startling herself before struggling to soothe ruffled fur. Minuscule ears pulled back as she brought her crown to the valley that blocked her way to the outside world. Someone else was here, too. Instinct brought her to respond to the questioning almost immediately, with a quick "Amber Eight." It came out rough with disuse and- the 't' in particular had been accented by a quick snap of the teeth.

They could fly, they had helpfully added, and Amber huffed as she raised back on her hind legs. Alright, just aim there- and hope that wherever they were, they weren't right in front of the rock. Steeling herself (and her muscles), she let gravity take control of her weight and drag her down into the barricade built, reveled in its acute shattering with a sigh and a thankful dip of the head. "Thank goodness."

Now that that was over with, she finally got to scan the room clearly, head still bowed low, and-

There, something brown, something fuzzy. Curious, she faced towards them as she drew her head up, head cocking to the left as she abruptly continued conversation, as if she didn't just burst right out of the wall. "I'm not going to jump you. Who are you?" Her nostrils flared as she made to step closer, her long claws scraping on the rocky floor.

@Imp

Imp squinted--a sort of instinctive, habitual movement--at the sound of the voice, and all the cracking and smashing. He didn't have eyes, but his brows came down and his head tilted, a little, as he listened. The shatter of rock had his constantly-trembling ears flick back, his limbs propelling him away in a quick jump that set him safely away from the chrysalis.

"Holy shit, what was that?" he asked, head turning this way and that as he fought to gain some acoustic knowledge of the situation. Which--didn't help; not really. "Are you okay? Did you just break some bones or something?" he went on, alarmed. His body tensed at the sound of approaching footfalls, and at the assurance that 'Amber Eight' wouldn't jump him, his tail curled up, ready to sting... just in case.

"Me?" Imp asked, and his voice squeaked, broke. He cleared his throat and immediately tried to sound Very Tough instead of Very Nervous. "I'm Imp. Two-Time Champion of Hydra and, uh, grandson of Aquarian," he tried, lamely.

He fidgeted, briefly, edging another foot or two away... just in case. "I can't see you 'cause I don't have eyes 'cause that dipshit Nemean--she's one of the masters--had 'em ripped out. She's an asshole," he added, very matter-of-factly. Some spiteful part of him hoped that word got back to her about all his insults, eventually. It wasn't like she could take his eyes again. "What was all that noise, anyway? And why've you got a number in your name?" Vague and distant bells of recognition rang at the corner of Imp's mind--the other Champions, some of them had had number-names--but as yet didn't quite register, because Imp's mind was also thinking about fish, and the fact that he could and probably should fly, and how his voice had so embarrassingly broken...

@Amber