OOC: This is Scorch's Collector task, but anyone is welcome to join him!

SCORCH

Gemini was like a maze, even from the air. It had been better last time, but now that he was actually trying to find the ceiling, the smooth crystals made it seem like the room went up infinitely in spiraling fractals and reflections upon reflections. Of course, that was not the case, and Scorch had already found out the hard way how unpleasant it was to fly into a crystal spire at speed.

He was more careful now, having learned his lesson with some fresh bruises on his chest and an ache in his shoulders. Pumpkin-orange eyes scanned the crystals above for irregularities… a hole, perhaps, like the one the Collector had described.

There were several honeycombed spaces between the taller spires of the interlocking crystals. Some of these looked like tunnels--and if Scorch followed them, it would take long minutes to squirm through their smaller gaps, and fly through the larger spaces, only to find dead ends.

Undoubtedly, there would be trial-and-error; there would be a great deal of time spent in the simple act of searching, and ruling out this direction and that. The labyrinth of Gemini was just that, and its high ceiling was hardly any exception.

It would take time--hours, even days of searching if he were checking throughout the entire ceiling--but if Scorch thought to search near the place where the waterfall poured forth, up in its higher reaches, he might speed his search up a tad. Either way, he would find another space: a few gaps here and there, almost forming another little tiny tunnel. Only this time, instead of a dead end, there was an overhang; and a long, narrow gap, stretching from the crystal into dull, damp rock beyond, up high along the outer wall.

It would take exploring to see where this one went; if the owl had a decent sense of smell it might have given him warning odors of faint must and rot, but alas, he did not. He would hear distant, quiet dripping, likely moisture beading and falling away farther down the darkness; his owl's eyes would pick out the shape of the tunnel where it stretched away into shadows.

Though... to call it a tunnel would be misleading, perhaps. It was only a crack, a gap extending the natural structure of Gemini, and it likely didn't go very far. It was only perhaps two feet wide, and three feet wide--impossible to fly through, and a squeeze for a large owl--but only exploration would tell how far it stretched.

@Scorch

SCORCH

By the time Scorch thought to look by the waterfall, he had been squeezing into holes and dead ends for the better part of the day and the orb-lights were dimming. He tried his best not to feel daunted: after all, it would take this effort and much more if he went without the cane in his exploration of plant properties! He reminded himself of this each time he wormed his way into yet another dead end, but it was hard to keep his spirits up as time drew on.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious—plants (or anything really) needed water, after all—and Scorch laughed softly to himself for not thinking of it earlier. But he was finally at the right place! ...He assumed.

Scorch bobbed and wove his head, trying to get a better look at the space beyond. It would be cramped for a full-grown owl like him, and caution would be the order of the day here. The Collector had warned him of danger, but beyond that, he didn't want to scare the plant creature by squeezing himself in and thus cutting off the tunnel. If it was nervous and easily spooked, like Last Legs, it would make this a lot harder. And he had no wish to frighten the poor thing.

Extending his magical sense, Scorch felt for the warm, soothing presence of plants making their food. How had the creature come to live in such a shadowy place, anyway? In his experience, plants needed orb-light to grow.

There was, indeed, a faint sense of green beyond. It was far up the tunnel (if the nondescript fracture in the rock could be called as much) and spread out, as if a small area had been carpeted in grasses or, perhaps, mosses and the like.

@Scorch

SCORCH
Wherever the plants were was close enough for his magic to reach, but too far away to see. Could there be light beyond? Scorch wondered, but the fractured crystal only stretched onward into darkness. Perhaps it was around a corner, or his magic was stronger than he'd thought.

Either way, he knew what he was looking for. Scorch squeezed himself through the gap in the wall, wincing as feathers and flesh were momentarily compressed by the tight space. He was smaller than the Collector, but large for an owl, and he hated the feeling of being trapped by rock on every side.

The green magic beckoned to him, and Scorch followed it, talons clicking softly on the crystal 'floor'. He only stopped briefly a short way in to preen his feathers so they would lay flat, hoping that it would make him look smaller and less threatening, before continuing the cramped walk.

Here, in a forgotten alcove, a little bit of greenery had flourished. At its heart, it was just a cluster of moss and ferns that had somehow taken root in this gap above the crystals, a crack in Gemini's wall. And it took a little squeezing--or a smaller creature--to get into, so it was no wonder that it had gone untouched for so long, even by Lesser hands.

...For the most part.

The moisture beading up here was in part due to the nearby waterfall, whose rush echoed in this narrow space.

It was pitch black here, this deep in; the orb-light could not reflect this far even a little. If Scorch had no method of creating light, it might be wise to go and get some. Otherwise, he would need to search by touch alone, and that might be unwise; it would be impossible to pick out any particular plant from this carpet of greenery through plant sense alone.

There were, after all, at least mosses coating the floor; vines hung from the very low uneven ceiling just a few feet up above, and ferns were packed into every available open space. If there were anything more, Scorch would need light--or risk feeling his way around--to find it.

@Scorch

SCORCH

It was totally dark, here, and Scorch wondered again at the green decorating his magic sense and the carpet of moss beneath his talons. How did they feed, without any light? The answer, he decided, must be magic: the Collector's plant-creature must have done this somehow.

But there was no way to search without light, so he reluctantly backed out of the tunnel, grimacing at the pressure of the rock on his body as he squeezed out of the crack back into Gemini. He didn't have any light spells, and he didn't think he could drag an orb into the ceiling fissure, but he did have a spell that might work given a lot of patience with running back and forth.

Or, well, flying.

--temporary exit to Polaris, fade back in a few hours later...

Here Scorch was, back in Gemini with newly-grown glowing moss sprouting from his talons and flourishing in a v-shape over his eyebrows. He was exhausted by now, having flown such a long distance without sleeping, but the excitement of finding the plant-creature outweighed it all. Even he, with his magic, had not figured out away to grow plants in total darkness...!

"Where are you?" he murmured, squeezing his way back into the plant-covered alcove. There was so much life here; it was truly awe-inspiring.

The glowing moss revealed carpets of... well, moss; tufts of grass sprouted here and there, with small ferns unfurling in the dark moisture.

Tucked into a back corner was a small, sickly-looking sort of plant; or was it a plant-? Perhaps a foot tall (and thus barely small enough for Scorch to carry, if he could even get his talons safely into or around it), this thing seemed thin and lacking color. Parts had gone yellow or brown, and looked distinctly soggy. But overall it had the appearance of a large pitcher plant: a tube-like central organ rimmed with redder lips at the top.

Its eyes opened, gleaming in the light of the glowing moss, and watched Scorch with wary weariness.

Scorch has discovered the Crystal Pitcher Plant. This creature is a Lesser Gembound plant mimic, and the last of its kind. Its fate lies in Scorch's hands, though for now, it may be found in the Lesser Gembound Guide.

@Scorch

SCORCH

Scorch's eyes would have passed right over the pitcher-creature if it hadn't been for its eyes. He had only ever seen so many on a single animal (and was it an animal?) once before, and that had been Thothaga: a distinctly different creature from this one. He blinked at it, unsure what to make of this new discovery.

The task at hand was to get it to the Collector somehow, but the question of how remained unanswered. Unlike the rest of the plants here, it did not seem to be thriving--it looked tired and rather limp. Too dark, or perhaps too much moisture? In any case, Scorch didn't dare carry it in his talons in case he damaged it even more, and he wouldn't be able to fly back through the tunnel with it anyway.

Could he, perhaps, get it to follow him?

"Hey there," Scorch hooted softly, taking a few steps back toward Gemini and looking expectantly at the creature. "Why don't you follow me? Let's get you out of here to someone who can take care of you, yeah?" He swiveled his head first toward the pitcher plant, then toward the fissure that led back into the open, doing this several times and hoping that the creature would at least get the general idea.

For a long moment, the pitcher plant-creature simply sat there, looking like... well, a plant.

With eyes, of course, that stared blankly at Scorch.

At length it pushed itself slowly forward: an eldritch, shuffling shamble of some weak few inches, roots and vines pulling up from the rock and dragging along behind it. It wasn't clear if the thing was trying to chase Scorch--to try and eat the larger Gembound--or if it was doing something else entirely.

But for now, at least, it was following... if very, very slowly, and very weakly.

@Scorch