In the center of Orion, beneath the motionless cascade of false stars, stood a gray horse. Dappled, scarred, one haunch still marred by dried blood, this horse was staring upward as best he could.

He had never been to Orion, before. He had gotten Vee from Hydra, and they would explore. She was... somewhere, close by, and he was glad for it.

Warrior had never really left Hydra--not once in his entire life. And it had been a good life, for the most part, despite edging several times right on the verge of death. But each time the others entered his home, it became a hellhole, a nightmare, and this last one was going to haunt him. All the way through Hydra he'd been deeply upset, alternating sobs and rage, so that he'd had to hide for a few hours and rest before even finding Vee. Now that they'd left he was, for the first time since the Trial, at peace: forgetting the horrors for just a few moments in favor of staring up at the glitter of quartz starlight.

Gatto had been right. It was awe-inspiring to see, and his eyes were wide as he looked it all over. He'd never pictured anything like this. It was cool, dim, and beautiful--without being so dark as to be frightening; and the change was spectacular. Sudden hunger rose in him: a wanderlust, a desire to see more. The forests, the waterfalls--everything that Gatto had laid out.

The cave of bones had been a worry of its own; Warrior had feared that it held portents for the rest of the caves, and he was glad that he was wrong.

The stallion turned again, still staring 'sky'ward, black half-horn glinting in the light--enraptured with Orion.

anyone can join!

Gosh- Haven hadn't been away for so long! She'd been stuck in Pieces with Electrum- though she loved him, she yearned to fly and explore.

A winged silhouette crossed the starry cave ceiling before the dragon swooped down, wings closing as she dove down towards the floor, before snapping out to catch her as her claws dragged against the rock. She flung them forward and hopped along the floor as she landed, much like a bird would, and shook her head and neck out, jaws opening in a yawn.

She didn't notice Warrior's precense until she litterally bumped into his flank, having assumed him to be some weird walk, and having not expecting him to move.

"Sorry- Sorry!" she said quickly, retreating as fast as she could before bobbing her head up and down to get a clear picture, clicking gently as her wing-claws touched down.

Haven made a circle around the horse, unfamiliar with his shape.

"... Are you a rock or a Gembound?" she asked.

@Warrior

Warrior turned at the sound of beating wings, taking a moment to blankly identify the creature hopping toward him. He didn't expect it to hit him, and he was in the process of stepping back swiftly when it did; phosphorescent eyes blinked rapidly in surprise.

She was a strange creature, to be sure, and one he hadn't really seen the likes of before.

It was apologizing already, circling, and he turned with some confusion to watch it. "A--rock? No, I'm--I'm a Gembound. I think?" That's what they called living animals, right? "My name is Warrior. I come from Hydra--the desert cave; I'm exploring. I'm sorry, if this is--your place? Ahh, why would you think I'm a rock?" he then asked, brows knitting in minor confusion.

...A rock. He briefly racked his brain but try as he might, he couldn't figure that one out.

Curiosity was getting the better of him, too, and he tilted his head a little. "What sort of creature are you, then? And--oh. You don't--do you have eyes?" he asked, as he realized that perhaps she didn't.

@Haven

Haven shook her head quickly, "Oh no! It's not! Don't worry- I thought you were a rock because you weren't moving. I sense things using sounds and if something's moving I can pick it up- but I saw one of the moving rocks in the magic cave recently... that was scary."

She ran a clawed wing-hand over her flat head and nodded gently, "I'm a dragon! I don't have eyes- but that's okay! I don't need them."

Haven sat down and drew her wings in, enveloping them around herself. Her tail was straight out behind her, keeping her balanced as she seemed to stare at Warrior, thoughtful.

"So... what are you doing?" she asked, head cocking.

Curiously, she looked up, though she couldn't actually see anything. All she could sense were very faint bumps on the ceiling, too far away to get a clear picture. She could only wonder if there was something there that others could see. But she wasn't jealous.

@Warrior

Poor Warrior felt swiftly overwhelmed. He had been moving--he'd have hardly stood still while a thing was flapping and then bounding toward him--but maybe too late for it to notice? And he was trying to commit 'dragon' to memory, and grasp how the creature had no eyes, and--moving rocks? Magic cave? He hesitated, his mind trying--and failing--to keep up with all of this. "Uh-... I'm sorry this is--it's a lot to take in," he admitted, softly. "Do you have a name, or do I just call you--uh, dragon?" And then, impulsively, curiously: "What's that about a--a moving rock, and a magic cave? I hadn't heard of that." There was confusion there, and then he paused again. He had been about to ask how one might navigate without eyes, but then he realized that--perhaps she didn't?

She had bumped into him, after all.

"How do you--get around, if you don't have eyes?" he asked, at last. He remembered that one of the previous Trial-goers had been blind, but that one had vanished halfway through the trial, only to reappear at the very end. He'd never gotten a chance to try and figure that out.
"

@Haven

Haven would have blinked, had she been able. She attempted to take in all the questions first before answering, mulling them over in her head.

"Well... I'm Haven. And I never got a name of one of the creatures. It was huge! And it tried to attack a gembound!" she exclaimed, "It sounded like rocks grinding together and hummed weirdly- probably because of all the magic that had to keep it together."

She took a break and answered Warrior's last question, "Echos! I listen to the echoes my clicks make and use them to make a rough picture. If I'm just flying like I was I'll put out only a few to get an idea of obstacles. Anything moving drastically I'll pick up, but you were kind of in place- weren't you? Sorry- I'm still not the best at it."

Haven shook her head out and looked at Warior again, "But you didn't answer my question! What are you doing here?"

@Warrior

Echoes..? Clicks?

Warrior hesitated, unsure. It sounded--unlike anything he'd known, before. Oh--and apparently he'd missed a question. He blinked and shook himself, looking around again. Some vague part of him was hoping it wasn't going to turn into a strange ambush, but she seemed pleasant enough.

"I'm just exploring," he answered softly, and for a moment, wondered about stone-creatures hunting Gembound. How odd! Maybe they were like Sandworms-? "I'm from the desert place--I think I said--and... Oh, I already said I was exploring," he said, confused. Maybe she meant more specifically-? "I've never seen any of these other caves. So I'm just... looking around." His voice was mild, friendly, and he glanced to Haven as he realized she probably had no idea that there was something even worth looking at, here.

"Oh--if you don't know, it's, ahh--beautiful, here. There's... The cave's sort of--dim? Where I'm from it's very bright, very hot. But this place is dim, and there's lots of--um, sort of... bright points on the ceiling up above. They shine down like little points of light. I'm looking at them, because I've never seen anything like it, before." There--that might explain a little better-?

He eyed the dragon-creature, for a moment, and wondered if there were some way he could show her, with magic--but he didn't think so. That was... sad, really.

@Haven

Haven looked up and cooed appreciatively, "Electrum's tried to explain seeing things to me... I've never got it, but I understand bright! It's like when frogs croak in the wet forest- not the muddy one, the um... warm one! But they and the other birds chirp and croak and they make these flashes in my mind. I guess it's like that! It's really pretty, then."

"Can I come with you? Exploring? Electrum's my hatch-mate, he's great, but... he's been sleeping a while.
Told me to stay safe and fell asleep, so I decided to map out the caves while he's napping," she said, grinning happily.

She stretched out her wings and one back leg before hopping over to Warrior, nose bumping into him (on purpose, in order to gague his position), and she looked up at him, butt wiggling as if she were a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

"We could be like a team!" she crowed, punching a wing-fist into the air to puncuate herself, "Me and you. Warrior and Haven! Doesn't have the same ring that Haven 'n' Electrum does but that's okay-"

Haven rambled on and on, jumping and leaping in a circle in her excitement to do something amazing!

@Warrior

Warrior watched the 'dancing' dragon-creature bemusedly. "You can... come with me, some, if you like. Oh--I'm not alone, though. Vee is with me, somewhere. She's a snake," he explained. "As long as you're okay travelling with her." He wasn't quite sure where Vee was, though.

And as things stood, Warrior was in no hurry to move on, just yet. He wasn't sure yet what he thought about Haven bounding around him--nor her mention of Electrum, who he knew little to nothing about--but he went back, for now, to trying to stare up at the 'stars.'

"I won't be rushing, though," he told her. "You--all of you, the Gembound who live outside Hydra--it's... crazy to me, that you all live out here. With... the cave full of bones, and the 'masters' with their... games. Why do you do it?" he asked, glancing to her quizzically. "It's--much different, where I come from."

@Haven

Haven grinned, "I have a snake friend! His name's Binh, he has a gem around his head that makes it hard to move, so I rescued him as a hatchling because he fell in mud."

So she was absoutely fine with snakes.

"I don't know why we live where we do. I guess it's nice? Electrum's a water dragon, sort of. He prefers being around it, so we live in Pieces where there's a lot of it," she explained, "So... maybe it's a matter of comfort?"

She sat back down and looked up to so that Warrior wouldn't feel alone looking up at the sky, completely fine with moving slow. She didn't have anywhere to be, after all. Electrum was asleep, would be for a while, and she would be out here learning and growing so that when he came back, she could help him recuperate.

"What are the bright points called?" she finally asked, "Electrum didn't know when he told me about them."

@Warrior