((Madhukar is investigating the freeze in Polaris!))

((Next thread might be a magic duel uwu))

This room was really good for magic practice. Magic just... felt better, here. That rush of energy that burst through Madhukar whenever she entered... had anyone ever gotten tired of that? Could they? Didn't feel like it was possible.

Another thing that didn't feel like it should be possible was the cold erupting from the northern side of the room.

Madhukar had noticed the temperature here seemed different, but she didn't understand just how drastic it was until she got closer to this side. She wasn't sure what would happen if she went deeper than she already was right now. There was like... white stuff everywhere. Her breath was starting to don a form of some kind. It was weird, super weird, and she did not like it, not one bit. She would rather be back in Eridanus right now...

...but then if she went, she would never know what the heck this was. Goodness she was getting far too easily sidetracked. Well, there was much to do! It's not like she knew how to garden, anyways. She'd still have to find someone to help her with that. Her mind wasn't ready to move on from this, though. Was it permanent? Would she need to find another room to practice magic in?!

What was hidden underneath all that white stuff?

The kitten sat, staring out at it, furrowing her brow and pouting at seemingly nothing but a color and a chill. Maybe she should wait for someone to come along and explain this to her... someone like Tahi, maybe. Yeah. Some talkative nerd who knew stuff. That would be helpful.

Speak of the devil (though Tahi-shei didn't make a half as handsome bachelor), her wish was granted. Truthfully, Tahi had also been coming to Polaris to practice magic, and had found himself greeted by an unusual sweep of cold. He did not like cold, but the strange white stuff... that caught his attention. Well, that and a shock of color contrasting sharply against it. He knew that shock of color! "HI MADHUKAR!!" he called, a fairly long way off. Tahi-shei trotted over, stopping dead once his feet touched the snow. "What the--"

He recoiled from it, frowning down at the wetness at his hooves. "Yuck... why is this so cold? What's going on?" He frowned, cantering up to settle near Madhukar. "Do you know what this is? It... hang on." He licked a pile of snow, frowning as it settled on his tongue. "It just tastes like water. But it's so cold! And it-- it's white, not clear. Do you have any magic to help you figure out what we're looking at?" he asked, already forming theories.


@madhukar

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet's paws trod on the ground of the tunnel that connected Orion to Eridanus. It was just another day where she went exploring-- by herself. In the part that curved towards Polaris before goes towards Eridanus, Comet noticed the air was cooler than usual. Weird. A split second decision later, her mind was set on exploring Polaris instead of her usual hunting in Eridanus.
She walked into the huge cavern, and was immediately hit with a strong surge of magic. Amazing. She directed her attention towards the part of the cave that was cold, and headed towards it. This was one of the times Comet felt lucky that she had such thick fur. The cold didn't seem to affect her as much. Soon, the ground was covered in white stuff. What is this stuff? she spotted another animal who seemed to be investigating it too. She walked over. Hey, any idea what this is? Comet carefully put her paw on it. Woah it's so cold!
That was when something burst from the snow. Comet did a back flip in the air, and landed head first into the white stuff.

@Madhukar

Madhukar would soon come to realize that there was, in fact, something hiding under the snow.

That something was Carja.

The dragon burst upwards from the powdery substance, letting out a loud, shrill screech of joy as she soared into the air, snow sprinkling down from all over. She dove into another drift, making a Bugs Bunny-like trail as she scuttled underneath.

"SNOW! SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!", she yelled, prancing all over the place before flopping over with a giant explosion of white, wiggling around and laughing in pure glee.

Carja's head shot up, a pile of the stuff on top of her head, tail wagging back and forth, "HEY! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SNOW YET?!"

She pointed at Madhukar, "ISN'T IT GREAT?"

Carja disappeared under another drift, her tail lashing back and forth as she tore ass across the landscape, tongue lolling out of her mouth like she was a dog unleashed in a field. She galloped back and forth, a wake of snow trailing behind, so hyper that she just couldn't contain herself.

"SNOW!!!!!!"
Hunter had never seen snow before, but he knew of it, deep down in some magical way. Excitement raced through him as he scrambled toward the falling flakes, purple scarf streaming from around his neck and fluff puffing up to keep him warm. He threw himself into the mounds of snow that had started to accumulate already, squeeing the whole time, and rolled through the downy white piles with excitement.

He didn't really notice anyone else was about, just yet... He was too busy being in his own personal wonderland! He threw the snow into the air, letting it fall back on to his face with a giggle, and fell back to lay in the snow and let the flakes drift down on to his tongue.

This was amazing! "THIS IS AMAZING!" Oh, but he heard someone else yelling too, and he wriggled on to all fours and scampered toward the dragon as she pelted across the landscape. "Hiii!" He called to Carja. "Wait up!! Hey!! I remember you! From the Olympics!" Someone else to play in the snow with! Oh-- and she had friends, too? "Hi, everyone!" With the same amount of zoomies as Carja, Hunter pelted through the snow, kicking it up everywhere she went.

Tupu had tracked her way back to Polaris. Sorda and Poco were not here. Whom she only knew by the names short brown gerenuk and short black gerenuk. The antelope shivered. The cave felt different to Tupu. Cold. A semi arid mammal, the feeling was unheard of. Bewildering. Her ears flicked forward. A herd was forward. Tupu shot forward in a gallop. They came into vision then, a group of gembound running about. And one of them looked like her. Especially like her. She sped forward.

COLD. A single sharp bark. The gerenuk's front legs stopped as soon as they hit the cold substance, but the rest of her body kept moving. She was sent sprawling, tumbling into a pile of snow with a 'pomf' noise. Leaving a gerenuk shaped imprint in her warpath. Her head popped from the top of the snowpile, a snow hat upon her head. It took her a moment to process everything beyond COLD COLD COLD but when she did, she let out a long confused scream.

Madhukar nearly jumped out of her own skin when Tahi appeared, yelling out a greeting and her name. She turned her head to watch her friend recoil from the white stuff. "Is cold," she affirmed. She looked a little disappointed at Tahi's question. She had hoped the mushroom deer would've known. Then Tahi ate some of it. Had Madhukar had hands in that instant, a facepalm would've been inevitable. Instead, she just trotted over to Tahi and attempted to bonk her head against one of Tahi's front legs. Tahi asked another question. "No," she responded. If only she did. She couldn't think of anything that might work.

To Madhukar's introvert-induced ire, another creature showed up. Another remark of how cold the white stuff was, another question as to what it was. Why did they think she knew??

And then it was time for Carja to make her dramatic entrance. POOF! With a comedic abruptness, white powder was in the air and its name had been very enthusiastically given. Snow. Snooooooow. This stuff was snow.

Madhukar watched in bewilderment as what she figured out was Carja, now gigantic compared to her original size, wriggled around in the 'snow'. Madhukar didn't answer her question. Madhukar was done answering questions for now. Another creature came in to writhe in the snow, and then another. They were all wild, and loud, and goodness why were there three already?! Did the snow make them LOUDER?!! Even more annoying?!?

"STOP! Stop." She hoped they wouldn't overpower her with ruckus. "Wha' IS snow? Why i' here? Wuzzn' here b'fore." Since they knew so much about it, these raving mad 'snow' lunatics could answer her questions.

@Tupu @Carja @Hunter ((she askin' you a QUESTION))
@Tahi-shei ((she tried to bonk your leg!))
@Comet ((this is gonna be very hectic and very fun ;u;))

((OOC: PEOPLE CAN STILL JOIN! Consider Madhukar like a marker for the beginning of each Round of posting!))

Carja ran forward towards Madhukar, "I know you! From the Olympics!! Snow is frozen water, but reeeaally small! My dad makes it all the time!"

She pranced back and forth, before picking up a wad of snow and grinning menacingly, forming it into a ball.

"SNOWBALL!!!!" she yelled, aiming it for the nearest person, who happened to be Hunter, "HI HUNTER!!"

The snowball went flying, soaring through the air and missing Hunter by a mile, but Carja was quickly gathering more, forming a pile, intent on completely bombarding everyone here with her projectiles. Her tail kept lashing back and forth, throwing up more snow and providing a bit of a hazard to anyone nearby.

Tahi was equally skittish, letting Madhukar hide behind his leg. He had an instinctual nervousness towards Comet, which confused him, but more importantly, Carja. "Woah," he said, looking her over glassy-eyed. He'd never seen a dragon before. She was... big. Tahi-shei shifted awkwardly, eyeing Hunter, too. He also wasn't fond of the feeling of not knowing what something was. "It kind of looks like ice," he offered. "Like in, um, Tunnel M."

Tahi-shei paused and turned into the snow, sniffing around and trying to push a little further back into the drift. He tripped in the snow and face-planted at an awkward angle. "Owwww," Tahi groaned, rolling onto his back and making sure nothing was broken -- yet. "I hate snow. I hate ice. I hate cold. I want to go home."

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet watched the scene, all of a sudden there seemed to be a lot of animals investigating the 'snow'. She pressed herself to the ground as she watched the crazy dragon start throwing the balls of snow at everyone. It seemed that many of the other animals did not like this snow, probably because they did not have thick fur like she did. Especially amusing was the deer, who looked a bit nervous when he looked at her. Comet felt quite at home in the snow. Other places always felt a little too warm to her, but here the temperature was perfect.
Unlike the dragon, she did not have hands she could use to ball up the snow and throw it at others, although she really wanted to. She wondered what she could do. Perhaps-- dig and see what is under the snow? Yes, making a little underground hideout would be fun. Then the dragon's snowballs would have a harder time hitting her. Her paws set to work on digging through the snow. The snow was very soft, and easier to dig than dirt. Her paws soon hit on hard ice and she worked on making the hole wider. Soon, she had a very comfortable hole to lay in. Comet jumped in and curled up.