It was warmer here, Indigo noticed, as she swam through the tunnels connecting underneath the caves. This one was twisted, slightly inclined-- not entirely unlike the tunnel to Fornax.

And Fornax was nice. Therefore, this one would be, too.

The tunnel opened into a deep mass, laced with rocks. The bottom was hotter, almost uncomfortably so. When she rose herself upwards she broke the surface of the water and found the air salty, and a little drier than she remembered Fornax being.

She craned her head back to look at the ceiling, and then towards the bay, with soft sand and rocky structures. And then a geyser exploded not too far away from her, and as the hot water sprayed her face, she vanished underneath the surface again.

Two minutes later, the naga resurfaced closer to the bay, half-alarmedly propelling herself to the smooth beach. When the waves tumbled into the shoreline she came scrambling with them, half-coiled up to herself and half-scrambling at the floor under her, crawling up onto dry land.

Okay. So not a great start.

It took a moment for Indigo to settle again. Her muscles untangled and she unravelled herself from-- herself, sprawling more comfortably out. It was nice on the land, at least-- warm, but a little dry. It seemed mostly ideal for warming herself up, though.

She could stay here for a while-- but not without some precautions. Indigo took a breath and focused, though as unfocused as she was, casting seemed like a challenge. And, also, she felt like she was drying out, especially with the sand.

Nope. Nope.

Nope. Back into the water for her.

Just as quickly as she scrambled onto land she was scrambling back out, pausing only when she was up to her belly (the one nearest her head) in salty water, head twisted to stare at the beach.

Maybe just a few more minutes, then she could try again.

@Haven

Haven was clinging to the cliff face, her head turned towards the surf. Whatever was there was struggling against the waves, and if she timed it right, it would beach itself right about... now.

She unhooked her talons and shot down, wings whistling as she aimed for the shape on the sand, her claws extending as she clicked, making sure her trajectory was right before flashing talons and snapping her wings out-

And crashing into the sand, her talons catching nothing but the surf as she face-planted rather spectacularly, falling head over heels and ending up on her back. She flailed like mad and rolled over, shaking herself out and snorting to get sand out of her nose, shaking herself out.

"Ow...", she grumbled, raising her wings and nosing about to see if she'd injured herself.

There was a gash across her leg, making her hiss as she sensed it, smelling the coppery tang rather than seeing the reddish pink substance. She slowly stood up and shook herself out, tail flicking in annoyance. A lost meal.

Clicking as she spread her wings, something gained her attention. Something in the water.

Head turning, she faced whatever it was, brows furrowed. She clicked again and the picture lit up in silver, facial features making themselves known, with shoulders and arms.

"Oh my gosh-", she gasped, suddenly feeling horrible, "Oh my God I thought you were food I'm so sorry!! I-I didn't see!!"

Haven shrank in on herself, making herself smaller than she originally appeared, her tail flicking back and forth behind her, "I-I'm so sorry- I'm Haven, I'm sorry..."

What could she do to possibly make this up to the other?!

@Indigo

An odd whistle-- not like anything Indigo had heard before --caught her attention as she settled in the warm water, glancing around to spot Haven fall out the sky and crash into the sand. The naga recoiled and went slithering further into the water, watching with huge eyes.

Her first thought-- when Haven picked herself back up and started talking --was that she had no idea what a God was.

The second was she had no idea what made someone food or not, either. Indigo cast a glance over herself, "I could probably be food for something," she pointed out much more mildly than any child had reason to be. Curiously, she started snaking closer.

And then she was tumbling unceremoniously back to shore, eyes on the laceration. Blood. She knew this. "Oh, uhh," she began, half-distracted. "I'm Indigo Eyes." This name likely came from the fact that, as Indigo was fairly certain, her eyes were a bluish-purple.

She barely acknowledged Haven's apologies, however-- perhaps not noticing or understanding, or perhaps just not caring. Instead, the little naga pointed down towards Haven's leg. "Is that meant to be doing that?" She asked, half-certain that no one was meant to be leaking.

@Haven

Haven blinked, "Well- I suppose. I'm probably food for something too."

She cocked her head and approached the child, her wing-claws digging into the sand with every step. She lowered her head and sniffed at Indigo Eyes, curious. She tilted her head to peer at the wound, sitting on her rump and holding her leg up.

"Um... that's a difficult question," she said, "The blood's supposed to stay inside, but I think it comes out to make sure nothing comes back in? Like bacteria. So I suppose in this situation it's fine, as long as not a lot comes out, because then you get ill."

Haven put the foot down again and bumped her nose gently against the sand, the water, and then reached out to bump Indigo Eyes gently, "You smell like the sea- though I guess it's because you're covered in it."

The dragon lifted a wing claw and ever-so-gently hooked it under one of Indigo's hands, lifting it and inspecting it, pressing her nose against the girl's palm and mentally counting fingers.

"Your skin's very soft," she said, "I wish I could see you, but from what I can tell, you're very pretty anyway."

Haven appreciated soft things and small things. Indigo was both, so she appreciated her even more.

@Indigo

And so, Indigo Eyes learned a very important lesson. Everything was food for something.

At least, it was probably important. Indigo was filing this information away for later as her eyes kept going between Haven and the wound on their leg, her lips pulling back into a little frown. She didn't exactly know what to say to this second part (being able to just ask about it hadn't crossed her mind in the slightest), but she supposed that if Haven was certain it'd be fine, then it'd probably be fine.

She was still staring at the wound when Haven bumped into her. With muted surprise, she flinched before turning to look at the dragon. She watched them as they lifted one of her hands-- as damp and sort-of-sticky as it was --and waited for all of twelve seconds before deciding she appreciated her own space remaining her own.

"I don't know," said Indigo, who had no concept of what beauty was like. Her mouth opened and then shut afterwards, as she promptly realised she had no idea how to actually respond to this declaration. Pinprick discomfort touched her fingers as she flexed three of them out, one thumb curling into her palm.

There was a long pause. "Okay," came the reply at last, before she moved quickly on. "How do you see without eyes?"

'Not very well,' she guessed the answer-- surely, Haven had been aware of her presence somehow, though, and as Indigo went shifting back onto the sand, inspecting it, she shuddered a little. Magic, maybe? Speaking of-- she tried to cast again without speaking.

There was a slight sheen of bluish light that glittered against her chest before the very moisture from the air was sucked into her skin. The tacky, sort-of-dampness became a slicker, watery mucus, and Indigo felt some kind of relief.

The naga settled herself down, comfortably. Her long tail went coiling around her and her arms rested on her own spine as she watched Haven, waiting for their answer.

@Haven

Haven hummed and settled herself down, loafing like a cat with her wing claws tucked underneath her, the fins of her wings billowing behind her.

"I hear and I touch," she said, "I can hear sound as it bounces off of things. It's like a wave, you see, or like water. In the air your voice travels and makes ripples."

She reached out and tapped the water, the ripples spreading out and bouncing off of rocks, "The ripples that bounce off of rocks let me sort of... 'see' objects so that I don't bump into them. But to get finer details I have to touch them. Like I can't detect the grains of sand underneath me if I wasn't touching them, or that a rock was rough or covered in barnacles."

Haven lifted up her claws and lowered her face, showing off the light grey on her toes and snout, "The softer spots on my feet and head let me detect heat too. It's how I find prey. They're very sensitive and can feel slight differences in the air. It's very helpful when I'm hunting prey so that I don't pick up a rock thinking it's food or miss prey entirely thinking it's a rock."

The dragon loafed once more and peered at Indigo, "Does that make sense? It's why I touched you, so I could get a better 'look' at you."

@Indigo

Indigo glanced off into the water. It made sense enough, she supposed-- though it was hard to spot exactly where certain things were in the water just by their movement alone. Air wasn't the same as water, though-- maybe it was just easier for creatures sensitive to that sort of thing.

Still, it seemed... inconvenient. What if something were to eat Haven while she was touching them to look at them?

"Can't you use magic?" Indigo asked. Her tone-- unintentionally --was cold, bordering on a lot more demanding than a child had any right being. "It's what I do. You can see them... move, and beat. It helps with hunting." With this, she managed to balance it out a bit. Gradually, subtly, slowly.

A long pause. "It makes sense," the naga murmured, looking between the dragon and the shoreline. "But it seems like a lot of trouble."

And then back again, studying Haven's face, specifically where the eyes should have been. They didn't seem particularly injured, just-- well, not there. Why? "Why does everyone look so different?"

What she really meant was 'why does nobody look like me?' but that type of specificness hadn't quite crossed her mind yet-- just that she hadn't met two people that were capable of speech and also looked the same.

@Haven

Haven cocked her head, "I can use magic to see too. It helps when I'm fighting or too far away to get a good look from something."

She stood up and stretched, her arms incredibly long when not tucked against her sides. She sat down again and hummed, tapping a talon to her bottom lip in thought.

"... We're made for different things," she finally said, "I'm made for dark caves with no light, where the air is thin. Like the ones in the cliffs that I nest in, but I can also roost on the cliffs and fly very easily. I think you're made for the water, where you can easily find fish and food, and where there isn't a lot of competition for it. I don't think I've met another Gembound who can go in the water like you, except for my mate. He only does it for a little bit, though."

The dragon lowered her head and sniffed along the shore, looking for the fish lingering in the still shallows. She snapped up a mouthful and brought them back over, setting them down in a pile. She gestured to them, offering them to Indigo, picking up a few and throwing them back into her throat to swallow down.

"We're all magical creatures," she said, head tilting, "And maybe being different isn't so bad. At least your friends are a lot more interesting."

@Indigo

Indigo Eyes considered this for a moment, only humming in response to the use of magic. That much made sense to her-- she was unsure why it hadn't been mentioned before, but such were the hyperfixations of tiny details when it came to children.

In a moment of unintentional mirroring, a fish-hooked finger went to her bottom lip and began tapping on it, too. She mulled over this explaination and/or theory for a long while as her nail raked along the thin skin of her mouth.

There was a feeling of disssatisfaction with this answer. Of lonlieness that weighed down her heart to her gut. She'd never seen anything other than nameless, mute fish in the water, never anyone else. "Why?"

"Shouldn't we all be made the same, so we can all survive every room? Why can only one other person go in the water, even just for a little bit, when the water is all around us?"

Magic aside-- it seemed... wrong. But if this were a critique on how the creatures in the caves were designed or a child subtly crying about being ultimately alone was vastly unclear, made only more foggy by the fact that she didn't voice these concerns at all, that having interesting friends was all well and good but she could scarcely talk to them without drying out.

... speaking of. Another failed cast and Indigo began to feel a lot more drier than she was. She took to slithering along the sand, closer to where the waves tumbled over onto the cave floor. She sprawled herself out like a prissy 90s teenager on the phone, laying on her belly to let the water wash over her back and keeping her torso and head propped up with her forearms laying flat on the bank.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense to me," she murmured, with the implication that literally anything made sense in her head. It did not.

@Haven

Haven blinked and listened silently, before walking over and laying down in the water with Indigo. She herself could hold her breath for a while, not needing a lot of air.

"I don't know why we're made at all," she said, "Maybe you ought to try and find those answers for yourself. There are people called 'masters' who roam the caves. They're incredibly powerful and ancient, and I'm sure they'd be able to answer your questions."

She was, unfortunately, at the limit of her knowledge. It didn't make sense, Indigo was right, but Haven just didn't know. The gently splashed water over Indigo's exposed back and head, familiar with how fish dried out and then began to suffocate. She made the connection rather easily, at least.

"I could try and go with you," she said, "Or I could bring a master here? I don't know how successful I'd be. Though! There's an entity in Cepheus that's very wise, I think. There's water there that you swim in, but I'm not sure if you can swim there. I could carry you..."

She shook her hair and set her head down, nostrils above the water, "But I'm getting ahead of myself."

Haven giggled as her words became distorted under the water, bubbling up and splashing over her nose.

@Indigo