Overseer Garnet-Delta made a habit of going on trips. Lately its attention had been on learning Pegasus and other caves closer to Chaos Forge's nest... But, it had reason to visit old haunts, to trace pathways and keep its own mind fresh. It had practiced going through Orion; something it hadn't done in just over a cycle, reminding itself of its passageways and escape routes.

Once it was satisfied that it still remembered Orion-- finding only a single stone structure had been changed since it last came through-- it made its way home. It stopped to catch a rat in Canis, and it wasn't until the heat of Hydra blasted through its fur that it realized...

... It had gone to the old Warren, not... This wasn't where it had meant to be going. It had gone on autopilot, and now its toes landed softly in the dusty tunnel, peering up at the rigged walls that it had practiced flying in for cycles of its youth.

Its tail twitched. This was strange. It should turn back, and head back to Draco. But it hesitated, just for a moment. Was anyone still here? Had anyone taken up residence in the Warren? Nose twitching, the aliencat checked for scents on the air, and paced down the tunnel with a strange sense of... What was that? Nostalgia? For what? There was nothing to miss about this dusty old hole.

The moment Mosaic had walked into Canis, she had decided for certain that she wasn't going to stay there. So many bones! The creepiness of it all! Onward she'd gone, without a second thought for either the glorified graveyard of a room or the hunger that was beginning to gnaw at her belly. She hadn't wanted to stay a moment longer if she could have helped it.

Now that she was in this tunnel, though, she was beginning to question her decisions. The hot, swirling air reminded her unpleasantly of Monoceros. As far as Mosaic was concerned, Monoceros was a no-good, stupid, rock-filled void. She hoped that whatever lay at the other end of this tunnel was a more promising place than anywhere she'd been so far.

A winged furry thing approached from the other side, and Mosaic squinted at it. "You there!" she barked harshly, spitting the teardrop seraphinite out of her mouth in order to yell better. "What in the world are YOU supposed to be?!" It had four legs and a pair of wings, which was just plain unfair. You were either a stupid bird with one or two useless legs, or you were a land creature like her who excelled at running, dammit! What gave this one the right to have the best of both worlds? Hadn't it ever heard of moderation?

@Garnet-Delta

Overseer Garnet-Delta was distracted from the strange feelings as its magic alerted it to the presence of another living creature. Not a lesser.

Someone was here. Quadruped. Canine? An ear twitched, and red eyes turned to lock upon the mottled, spotted dog. For a split moment, the patterning reminded it of Garnet-Epsilon. Then, it noticed all of the differences. Fluffy from head to toe, definitely some sort of canine, dark brown eyes. She had a stone, which she spat on to the floor, and Overseer Garnet-Delta tilted its head as she began to bark at her in a threatening, defensive manner.

"I'm Overseer Garnet-Delta," it answered simply. "I was born in this tunnel." As though that gave it a stone-given right to stand in the place they had abandoned. While it spoke, it could taste acid on its own tongue. Magical venom formed in its teeth, as crimson eyes stared flatly at the challenger.

"What do you want, dog?" It inquired in return, perfectly neutral as it assessed the situation. It knew this tunnel intimately, and with magic behind its own teeth, it felt not even an ounce of fear from the loud mouth. Though, the thought flickered in the back of its mind that this could be a distraction. It did not slip into ease, but remained standing, poised at the ready.

@Mosaic

Mosaic closed, then opened her eyes in one slow, incredulous motion. "What the HECK is an OVERSEER GARNET-DELTA?" she had time to get out before she burst into laughter. "HA! HAHAHAHA, AHAHAHA, AHAHAHAHAHAHA…!!! This tunnel? HERE? That's so lame!!! Man, I feel so bad for you..." She trailed off again, wheezing with laughter. It was unclear exactly how long she'd keep laughing, but if the catbat thing allowed her to continue, she'd run out of breath and come near tears before she could talk again.

"Y'know," the painted dog gasped, voice still high pitched and short of breath. "Are we the same person or what?! I hatched in a hot horrible windy place too! We're both stupid idiots, aren't we, coming back to places like these a second time?" This was said perfectly amiably, a rare moment for Mosaic. For once, she wasn't actually intending to insult the people she was insulting.

"Lemme tell you," she continued, "the rest of the caves might not be perfect," and maybe some were TOO perfect, "but you should know there are places WAY better than here! —Just avoid that weird deer cult. Hey, since you were born here, you know what's on the end of the tunnel? Save me the trouble of walking the rest of the way to find out, would ya?"

@Garnet-Delta

Overseer Garnet-Delta's ears eased back to flatten against its skull as the dog began to laugh. At it? Maybe. It slowly blinked, feeling as though somehow it had already met this creature before in another lifetime. Why was it that it only met complete morons? It was as if the caves had a message for it: These creatures are not worth your time.

It was patient, however, letting the dog laugh herself silly. The sound was grating, but it slowly determined that there were no others in the sparse tunnel, and finally sat back on its haunches.

"I assure you, you have more in common with the dirt than with me," it commented dryly, though the stranger's comment that it returning here was idiotic was not misplaced. It didn't belong here anymore, and there was nothing left for it here. It had gotten distracted, and it accepted its fate of putting up with the dog as punishment.

She went on, and the feline snorted, tucking her wings neatly behind her. "Weird deer cult?" It inquired in spite of itself. It knew plenty of the caves, but it didn't know what she was referring to with this. Any chance to learn more about a group that had formed would be valuable, even from someone as moronic seeming as this gembound.

"Hm. I'll tell you what. You tell me about this cult, I'll tell you what's on the other side of the tunnel. Regardless, you don't want to go that way. It would only mean your death." The words were simple. Matter of fact. It was actually showing the dog some shred of respect, if only for the information it held.

@Mosiac

Mosaic paused, then narrowed her eyes, her ears flicking as if she wanted to pin them. More in common with the dirt than it? Was that an exaggerated, but harmless, comparison, or had it been an insult? Because if it had been an insult, then this dude was SO on. No one insulted her and got away with it! …She'd give it the benefit of the doubt, though, just this once, since it seemed to be less of an idiot than the cat in Polaris. Look how big of a person she was being.

Then she frowned again, harder this time. "My death?" Had that been a threat? Nah, what kind of stupid winged cat thug would threaten her like that, out in the open? She'd kick its butt a hundred times over. More like a warning, if it had any sense. But if it WAS threatening her, she'd show it the power of Mosaic!

"HA! Nope, that's all I need to know," she decided. "I'm not planning on going in anyway! What kind of moron does that? HAHAHAHAHA. But you know what, because I'm so manganese—magmaesque—magnamus—BECAUSE I'M SUCH A GOOD PERSON, I'll tell you anyway!"

"So yeah! Deer cult!" she went on enthusiastically. "They look just like the deer people eat, except they were super huge! And they wore pieces of the corpses of their own kind, like, uhhh, costumes or trophies, I think? Fur and antlers and stuff. Anyway, it was all super sinister and creepy! And they were going around tapping this thing on the cave walls: some kind of demon worship ritual?" Mosaic paused, watching for the creature's reaction. Would it be suitably horrified, or would it be just as stupid as that other feline?

@Garnet-Delta

Garnet-Delta's ear flicked dismissively as the canine laughed it off, saying she wouldn't go down the tunnel anyway. Well, it mattered little to the Overseer; after all, if she did, it was her funeral. If she didn't, good for her.

Luckily for her, she had the sense to at least tell it about the cult. The feline creature listened intently, tail curling neatly around its paws as it stared dead ahead at Mosaic. It memorized the description: like lesser deer, but large and wearing pelts and antlers. Strange, but were they a potential threat? Its eyes narrowed.

"Where did you see them?" It prompted, "I would prefer to avoid them." Which was only a half-lie. It would need to investigate, certainly, but it would not want to have a direct confrontation with them if it could help it.

And then, because the Overseer was being generous, it twitched its tail toward the other side of the tunnel. "Beyond this tunnel is the Hydra. A massive desert where life-threatening trials of survival are held. If the tunnel-sized sandworms and eyehook vultures do not kill you, the heat and lack of water would." It was a fair exchange of information, that way. "I would stay away." It had already said that, but it figured that this strange dog might be the type to take the danger as a challenge, and it simply wanted to make its personal stance clear.

@Mosaic

Ohoho! At last, someone with some sense in these caves! Mosaic liked this Overseer Garnet-Delta. It listened to her advice, and it told her useful things! Maybe not all cat-like things were bad after all. The one with glasses had certainly been stupid to stick with the deer cult instead of realizing how creepy it all was, but this one knew at once to be wary!

"HA! Smart of you. They were in the cave with the Spire--you know it? Glowing crystals and mushrooms everywhere, big fast river right through the middle. It's, uh, like three rooms away from here? Nah, two: the bone cave and the tall crystal geode cave, and then the deer cult cave. Pretty far, but one of them was a giant version of a tunnel runner so who knows how fast they can travel?" She gave her best approximation of a shrug.

Her heart sped up at Garnet-Delta's descriptions of the dangers that lay beyond. Mosaic had never heard of sandworms before, but any worm the size of an entire tunnel... god, she couldn't even imagine it. And eyehook vulture was not a friendly name, either. "Definitely," she agreed, trying to keep her voice from audibly shaking. It didn't work so well. "Staying away right now." She took a few steps back, as if to prove her point, then paused. "Hey, if the dangerous stuff's on that side, then why're all the bones on this side?"

@Garnet-Delta

The dog kept her side of the bargain. She explained, in detail, where this cult was. From the description, she must have meant Polaris. It had been unaware of any major group existing in Polaris, but it supposed it might have missed them on its numerous flights through the crystalline cave. It could investigate, certainly.

But more over, it was surprised by Mosaic's appropriate reaction. What a nice surprise it was. The feline tilted its head at Mosaic, smile curling its whiskers. Someone with wits about them, and not too foolhardy to bravely run into danger?

As for the bones... Hm. "Those are ancient," it remarked, "from back when my Master was only an Overseer." Not that Mosaic seemed to recognize what either title meant, as far as the feline could tell. And not to mention that Master Vargas had only been made a Master in its lifetime. Still, it sounded good. "Those were the bones of rebels, from what I've been told." Which wasn't much. Delta hadn't cared much for the long-dead's stories, after all.

"There's nothing particularly dangerous in Canis-- the bone room-- otherwise. Except maybe the dragon bats." Thinking on it further, there was the Bonebound, but they had proven to be fair weather friends and allies, and Garnet-Delta couldn't picture them doing anything particularly harmful. Canis was a place of the dead, not a place of death, and the distinction was obvious to Garnet-Delta, anyway.

@Mosaic so sorry for the wait ;O;

Mosaic opened her mouth, about to loudly and explicitly proclaim that no one was her master and anyone who claimed to be one could go eat a pile of sandworm feces, and that why did "Overseer Garnet-Delta" let anyone tell it what to do? It should--

"Those were the bones of rebels, from what I've been told."

Her mouth closed.

"Well!" Mosaic attempted, forcibly injecting cheery bravado into her voice again. "Good talking to you! I'll be on my way now!" With that, she grabbed her teardrop seraphinite, turned, and sprinted away from Garnet-Delta. It didn't matter that the bones were ancient, or that it claimed Canis was safe now. Overseers were dangerous. And why should she trust this one any more than whoever had put down the rebellion that might or might not have been long ago? No, this was the best course of action, clearly.

@Garnet-Delta exit unless stopped