Scorch alighted near the edge of the twin pools of water. Since he had found the crystal flower-grass (Caves, that was way too long of a name -- he was going to call it prism grass from now on) near a waterfall in the other room, it made sense to plant them near water in Eridanus, too. He dug his talons into a relatively empty patch of soil and reached out to the prism grass with his magic, gently teasing its roots from the skin on his talons.

The wispy white roots rose up, then slowly wormed their way into the soil. All in all, the transplanted patch of grass was about the area of his face, maybe slightly smaller. If Scorch's beak had allowed him to grin, he would have. Time to share his discovery!

He spread his wings and took off, looking for someone to tell about this beautiful, refreshing plant. Maybe if they were interested, he could look for more like it -- maybe even start his own garden here in Eridanus!

@Sprig
OOC note: Scorch is going to meet Sprig in this thread, but anyone else is also welcome to join!

Sprig was busy looking wandering around to look for some plants for his breeding project. Currently, he was trying to achieve a variety of fruit that was see through. After that, he would breed them into different shapes and tastes. He wasn't quite sure yet what he would call them once they were done, but that would be in some time, so he didn't worry about that.

Sprig knew that he wanted them to be crunchy, which is why he had found a variety of very crunchy apple like trees already, and collected some of their seeds. He was on the lookout for some more transparent things... something similar to lychee! Although he didn't even know what lychee was. But that's what he was looking for. There was no problem with growing the seeds once he found them of course, he knew the spells for that.

His keen eyes observed every potential fruit before moving on, trying to spot the one he wanted.

@Scorch

There! There in the trees - a feline thing, with markings on its back that glowed like the moss in Polaris! Scorch wondered if they'd used magic to grow different colors of moss on their body like he had with the prism grass-- but no, a closer look revealed that it was naturally part of them. That was so cool!

(There was an idea for later, though-- perhaps he could use his magic to make himself glow with the moss of Polaris?)

"Hello!" he hooted, swooping down to land beside the Gembound. "I am Scorch, and I have made an amazing discovery! Come, see what I have grown by the twin pools: exotic flowers from another cave! They bend the light as if they were crystals, and sharpen the senses when eaten!" A bit more flowery language than he usually used, perhaps, but he wanted to be sure to get the Gembound's attention. "If you are interested, we can be friends and I'll help you grow your own! What's your name?"

@Sprig

Sprig was so surprised by the sudden appearance of the owl, the lights on his back immediately started flashing, and he jumped behind a bush in fear. When he realized there was no big threat, he emerged to listen to the owl's words. "Wow! That sounds so cool!" This gembound seems to be just like him in growing plants and making cool ones! He had never met anyone like that before. The rest of his fears fell away, and now the lights on his back flashed in excitement. Perhaps he could even ask for some of those cool plants to help with his own project? "Sprig! And sure!" he was so lucky to have met Scorch. He was usually never so trusting of strangers, but this one was different.

@Scorch

The glowing feline Gembound jumped behind a bush, startled, and Scorch's heart plunged off a metaphorical cliff with guilt. "Sorry!" he hooted. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Maybe next time he should ease in a little bit. Somehow make some noise intentionally while flying, or allow himself to be seen, before saying anything, just so his voice didn't suddenly pop out of nowhere. It was easy to forget how easy it was to surprise people with how quiet an owl's flight was. He quickly brightened when Sprig expressed interest in the prism grass, though. "Great! I'll show you where they are right now-- follow me!"

Scorch opened his wings and took off, landing beside the patch of grass when they reached it. "Here! Taste one!" He plucked a hexagonal petal from one of the translucent pink flowers and offered it to Sprig, then took a petal for himself: his fourth one today. Hey, if he was going to take stuff from a flower, might as well use all of it, right?

The petal left a cool feeling in his mouth, and he felt a renewed alertness as the light seemed to get brighter and his vision sharper. But when he swiveled his head to look at Sprig, a beam of light bouncing off the water of the pools made him wince and squeeze his eyes shut. That kind of hurt... were the lights in this cave this bright before? He shook himself and opened his eyes again, this time deliberately avoiding looking at the reflections of light on the water.

@Sprig

"It's alright." Sprig tried to calm himself down, and flattened his eyestalks. He always wished he could be braver, and not be scared so easily, but sometimes such instincts could be helpful. "Okay!" happily following the owl, they soon arrived at the area of interest.

Sprig accepted the petal, and inspected it. This was actually... what he needed! It wasn't completely transparent, but through selective breeding it may be possible to achieve. Usually he wouldn't be stuffing random things in his mouth without closer inspection, but he trusted this owl. Placing it in his mouth, he bit down, and smiled at the cool flavor. He hadn't tried anything like this before! It was juicy and yummy without holding too much taste. "Wow this is amazing."

Then came the sharpening of sight. Sprig saw that he was able to pick out even the smallest details his surroundings, but when he turned to look at the water, he flinched. It was much brighter than it had been before, and it hurt to look at it. The owl seemed to be experiencing the same thing. This must be a both helpful and hindering side effect of eating the plant. "How did you get something like this plant? I haven't found anything like it."

@Scorch

"It is, isn't it?" Scorch preened, looking rather proud of himself. "I found it while exploring in another cave. It blends in so well with the crystals there; I wouldn't even have noticed it without magic! Eating it was kind of an impulsive thing to do... I wanted to see what it would taste like, because it seemed like the closest I could get to eating an actual crystal!" He frowned slightly, then added: "Though maybe I should be more careful in the future. This one seems mostly harmless, but there may be plants with more potent effects growing in these caves..." He trailed off, thinking. There must be plants with helpful, as well as harmful, effects. I bet plants could help a lot of Gembound, if I found the good ones and grew them en masse! But how to tell them apart... who knows how badly I might hurt myself if I just went around tasting everything?

It would require magic, for sure. He could hardly see into the future to see the possible effects of tasting something-- perhaps if he could find some sort of plant that could cure poisons? But that, too, would require random tasting, and even poisoning himself first to see if the cure worked. He didn't much feel like staking his life on dumb luck. He didn't have a spell of his own that could cure poisons, but perhaps--

"You know," he began slowly. "I know someone with powerful magic who might be able to help me make an artifact to protect me from poisons. Then I could taste every plant in these caves, find out what they do and which would be worth growing lots of, without having to worry about dying!" He did not yet know of going into the chrysalis to avoid death, but even if he did, that wouldn't have sounded very fun either. "He lives in Canis, which is... kind of far from here. Would you like to come with me?"

Giggle had warned them to be wary of the Collector-- but he hadn't done anything bad yet! The Collector didn't seem at all like Crack, who was the only evil Gembound Scorch had ever known. He would just make sure that he didn't accidentally hurt anyone on whatever task the Collector wanted done, and everything would be fine!

@Sprig

"You can use magic to find plants?" Sprig's nose crinkled in confusion. "I thought you could only use magic to grow them." He had a lot to learn. Hopefully his new friend would be able to teach him! "Yeah, I try to make sure a plant is safe before eating it. But it is hard to be completely sure." Sprig was worried for his friend, since it sounded like he just ate it without thinking. It was good though that Scorch knew his mistake in doing so.

Listening closely to the owl, he nodded. "Something like that would be very helpful. I can help you with growing useful plants." Although something about this seemed off. He didn't quite know what it was yet. "Yes, I would!" hopefully they could work together to convince who that was to give them an artifact like that. But then he realized. Canis. His family had warned him about the Collector before, and he knew that he was bad. But he and Scorch were going to get this artifact for good! Sometimes you needed to make sacrifices. Sprig didn't tell any of this to his friend though. "Should we go right now? I have time." He hadn't been super far from his home cave without family accompanying him before, but something like this was needed. After all, he had to step out of his comfort zone sometime.

@Scorch

"Oh yeah!" Scorch confirmed enthusiastically. "It's like seeing or hearing, except with plants! I can sort of... sense their life force, and a kind of warm energy that they get from the lights! I can also make them move, but that seems to be a bit harder than making them grow or sensing them." He extended his magic out toward a giant fern nearby, making a frond wave from side to side as a demonstration. Then he paused, looking at Sprig's expression. He seemed a bit... concerned? Oh! The possibility of dangerous plants! That was probably why.

"You are very smart to know to make sure that plants are safe! I eat mice or rabbits, see, and they're very agreeable to my digestive system, so I hadn't even thought of fact that some plants might be harmful until I got a headache just now!" Now that he thought about it, though, some Lesser Gembound were dangerous too. But the good thing about animals was that the danger was obvious: you knew if they roamed in large groups, and you could see if they had claws and sharp teeth. With plants, it seemed to be harder to tell. Some had thorns, but others could be dependent on invisible defense mechanisms. Sadly, his magic didn't seem to differentiate between different kinds of plants, so he didn't think it would be much help.

The good news was that his new friend also had the plant magic! They could work so much faster to spread the good plants if they both worked together. And it meant they had something new to bond over! "Sure!" he agreed when Sprig offered to depart for Canis now. But he hesitated, scanning the other Gembound. He didn't quite know how felines aged, but Sprig looked a little young. "Are you grown-up enough? I wasn't kidding when I said it was far, you know. There's no pressure if you don't want to walk that far away!" When he was young, he'd had to ride to Canis on Glory the eagle's back!

@Sprig

"Wow. I think Nia might know how to do that. She's very good at magic." At least that was his opinion. Either way, he made a note in his mind that he should ask her to teach him. Sprig watched the owl make a frond wave from side to side. Super cool! That could be really useful for when you wanted them to move in a certain way.

Scorch must've caught the expression on his face, and he was glad that the owl didn't think badly of him. In fact, it was the other way around. Sprig himself hadn't really eaten any dangerous plants before, maybe because he was careful, or because he was just lucky.

"I think I can do it." he wasn't going to let his age stop him from helping! "But maybe a few breaks in between could be nice." His eyestalks twitched in anticipation.

@Scorch