Never had he thought there’d come a time when freezing limbs were a welcome sensation. But long cycles away from Pisces made the cave’s climate a fond greeting, the chill air numbing his tongue a blessing upon a wayward son returned. The sound of the great waterfall crashed upon him, yet he did not flinch. Fahl inhaled deeply and savored the sight of crystalline, icy waters. He was home, and home was good.

If it’d been a normal day and the words of travels abroad weren’t bouncing off the walls of his skull, he might have paused to observe the usual habits: warmed himself and grazed upon the algae draped over sunken rocks. Instead, tail lashing, the iguana eased himself into a nearby pond, cold biting into scales. Eyes watched for a glint of scales, and claws swiped to pull a tailfin closer to an open mouth. Slippery and cunning, it wriggled out of his grip.

That tactic might have worked in Leo, but here he was sluggish and out of practice. A disappointment, but he'd try again. It wouldn't do to start discussions on empty stomachs; what's more, he had progress to show.

Fahl swam to the shallow end of the pond and rose above the surface's ripples. His head lifted to the cave ceiling, searching for a shadow—signs of movement above.

"I—" He faltered, hesitant, before speaking again, hoarse echoes straining to be heard over constant background noise. "Imp. You there?" A pause for breath. "It's Fahl."

Doubt weighed his head down to witness the waves lapping at his legs. While he waited, apprehension gnawed him from the inside out. If not for the possibilities of onlookers, a swear or two might have slipped free from his agitated mind, the perfect solution for pent-up emotions.

@Imp

Imp was there, as it happened; he travelled between caves often enough, these days, though more often than not he sat and sulked in Cetus.

Today, though, was a travelling sort of day, and he was lounging in a hole up along the ceiling--low down, where it touched a wall. The call jolted him, a little; against the backdrop roar of the waterfall he hadn't heard anyone arrive. He didn't like Pisces all that much, for that reason--didn't come here as often because of it--but it was still good for fishing.

He squinted.

He hadn't heard that voice since Fahl was just a kid. And he still didn't know exactly what Fahl looked like; but the sound--the voice...

"OH!" he barked, eyeless sockets springing wide (and thankfully still 'closed'). Wings unfurled, Imp dropping out from his hiding-spot to glide downward.

"FAHL, was that YOU?! Keep talkin', buddy!" he shouted--he needed that voice to zero in on.

@Fahl

At the response, Fahl jolted. A jerk of the neck snapped his gaze up, and a figure descended into sight. Familiar brown feathers caused a tentative smile to waver across his face before bursting into a widemouthed grin. Thoughts tossed about in a hurricane of emotion, he fought to organize a flood of words into a steadily stuttering stream.

“Yes! I’m… down here. In the water.” Struck upside the head by the unhelpfulness of such a statement, huffing annoyance at his own incompetence, he splashed around. Moving feet and swishes of the tail churned the pond. Tempestuous waves smacked over rock. “This way. Can you hear? Follow.”

Attracting attention was not something to be done halfway. Magic sparked over his tongue. Scales tingled with the sensation of power spread over them and radiated outward. Dulled by disuse in warmer climes, the increase in temperature was minor but perhaps enough to notice at a closer range. Fahl gulped in air and shouted again.

"Imp. Should be warmer where I am. Heated." Forelimbs drummed upon the water, maintaining sound in the pauses when his voice could not. "You'll feel it when near."

Already the cold was beginning to seep back in. He shivered, prepared to force his will upon his surroundings again if need be.

@Imp

Water. He'd fished before, with Fahl, but still--"Ah fuck, these feathers are awful for it," he called back down, but it was an idle sort of swearing. He glided down, a few flaps of those weird bird-bat wings carrying him to about where Fahl was.

He lowered himself to the water cautiously, hoping he wasn't about to smoosh the lizard into the water or something, speaking as he did. "How've you BEEN? You okay? You need anything? -You a master of fire yet?" he rattled off, cheerfully.

It was good to hear a friendly voice; he just hoped Fahl was doing well.

And wasn't, like, another agent of Nemean sent to betray him now, or something.

@Fahl

Faced with how many pounds of winged gator looming overhead, the iguana darted away from Imp’s landing spot with a propelling thrust of legs and a snap of the tail. Naturally the touchdown did not leave the water undisturbed; as it rippled and swelled, Fahl rode the resulting waves with the unblinking calm of experience. Once serenity reestablished itself over the pond, he swung round, at ease with the idea of conversation.

“Fine,” he said. “Been out. Visiting places. Finding new fishing spots. Speaking of, here—” Failure of an attempt forgotten, Fahl whirled this way and that to present a fish he’d never caught. And upon realizing so: “Shit.”

Call the influence positive or negative, but vulgarity came easy in the presence of a like mind.

Without explanation for the outburst, he dove underwater. And reemerged, a host of squirming fish trapped within his jaws, silver scales flashing between teeth as they struggled. He swam closer to the shore to deposit them onto ground, a foot planted upon their tailfins to keep them in place. Mildly pleased, he continued to talk as if there'd been no interruption on his end.

"Want your fish toasted or plain?" The comment was casual, but a bitter taste entered his mouth at the mention of being a master yet; lazy and just recently feeling like he'd been advancing his skill, Fahl couldn't help but feel like a disappointment. Especially when his eyes lingered over close-lidded empty ones and recalled mocking laughter in a tunnel from the one who quite possibly had stolen them. Nevertheless, he did not air this resentment—killing the mood with a pathetic attitude wouldn't be right. Most he could do was show off what he actually knew and hope it was enough.

@Imp

"Oh, shit, dude! You caught a fish THAT fast?" He paused, head tilted--"Wait, is that more than one fish?! DAMN! Nice job! You've gotten GOOD at this," he crowed loudly, his own voice drowning out the sound of multiple flopping fish.

He didn't catch anything of the bitterness, or maybe it just wasn't audible; either way, Imp was oblivious, praising Fahl good-naturedly instead. "Oh whichever. The white slimy shits aren't in Pisces, right? They're the only ones you really gotta burn that slime off. Still, how many was that?!" he cried.

"What kinda places you been visiting, anyway?" he went on, wings pulling in. He 'looked' blindly around, listening for the shoreline, then started off toward it; it was shallow enough, here, but fucking cold, his feathers quickly soaking.

@Fahl

Fahl took to praise as well as water though perhaps with less grace and more egotism. Heightened spirits lifted his chin, and agreeable boasts flowed freely. “Yeah. Fastest fisher of Pisces. Five in ten seconds flat.”

Never mind that not long ago the fish had been far swifter than him. And that half of these ones were small, likely juveniles. They were an impressive catch nonetheless, and he had zero intentions of downplaying this.

“Ah, warm places. Lots of water. Plenty of fish to catch and sights to see.” He leaned forward, bending down to hover his mouth over a squirming fish. “Believe one’s called Fornax. The other’s… Leo? Messy place, but good swimming to be had there. A bit busy—” One of the other fish wriggled out from under him. A claw hastily pinned it back down. “There. Uh, give me a moment. Fuckers won’t stay put.”

He inhaled, tingling magic crawling down his throat, and exhaled a rippling wave of heat. The targeted fish sizzled, steam rising in a vicious cloud from its slicked scales. The threat of a burn nipped close to his toes but, thankfully, did not manage to touch him. Teeth grabbed the fish and lobbed it in Imp’s direction with a sharp jerk of the head.

“That should do it.” Fahl nodded, more decisive in tone of voice and words than he actually might have been. “Where was I? Fornax and Leo. Those are good spots. There’s this place though. Near Leo.” The next, he said with every ounce of emphasis poured into the statement. “Awful. Got stuck in there. All these re… flections. Couldn’t see where to go.” Disdain huffed out from him. “Pretty. But a shithole.”

“Mind,” he followed up, “I’ve been shittier places. Least I’m sure it wasn’t trying to kill me.” Silence fell upon arrival at this thought, a combination of contemplation and needed rest for his tongue. Despite himself, he stared at Imp, debate rising inside him as to the next turn in conversation. It didn’t—shouldn’t—seem fair to not mention her. Not when it concerned his blind teacher most of all.

Could he have approached the matter delicately? Yes, by easing into the events of the festival and the tunnel he’d happened to visit. But stomach swelling with knots of anxiety, impulse took hold, and he blurted out, “I saw Nemean.”

@Imp

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

strong language

Imp listened quietly, and he felt the blast of nearby heat as it roasted the still-living fish. Well--still-living for a moment, not for very much longer. He was wholly unaware of one being tossed his way until it landed beside him with a dull splash, and he turned, poking around until he found it. He snapped it up and swallowed as he listened to Fahl speak.

It was with an unfamiliar sense of melancholy that he realized Fahl was grown. That was a good thing--right? But somehow he felt like a stranger, suddenly, and Imp was reminded that he--in his blind hell--could barely exist and survive while others grew, explored, and changed all around him. It wasn't really a thought so detailed as all that, but it was a feeling more than anything: a faint sense of loss, of bitter frustration, and of grief. Of jealousy, almost; Fahl could do things, could see places, he never could and never would. The new caves that'd opened up? Imp had heard about them, vaguely, but he'd never experience them the way he could have before that shitbag-

"NEMEAN?" he brayed, nearly choking the fish back up. Everything else Fahl had said--the mentions of the new caves, his fantastic skill as a fisher--things Imp had planned to remark on... They fled now in the face of the memory of her leering, sneering grin. Her smug little shit laughter. "Was she fucking dead, at least? FUCK her! Is she alive somewhere? I'll fucking kill her!"

Imp's claws curled into the rock, fury contorting his face.

How dare she... uh, still... exist!

@Fahl

Expecting Imp to take such news with any amount of calmness would have been ridiculous. It’d be like a fish taking kindly to the idea of being another’s meal: unnatural. And as they were both beings of fire, Fahl predicted nothing less than figurative or literal flames being spewed, deservedly so. However, it was one thing to know a reaction and another to experience. Hatchling days had preserved the image of a flying jovial beast with a penchant for dramatics, but the displayed fury caused it to slightly unravel. Though sensible for the situation, the change of demeanor pressed the iguana back. He lowered into a deep crouch, claws reflexively strengthening their hold upon the remaining fish. Warmth flickered over his scales, a protective blanket he clung to by instinct.

This was what Nemean did. Used Gembounds for her sick amusement and left them broken. What if that sadistic creature had decided to make the tunnel a more dangerous place? Maimed instead of frightened and fooled around? Fahl imagined pain, the loss of a sense, a conversation carried out in complete and inescapable darkness—he doubted his musings held up to the awful reality.

Spine rigid, jaw stiff, his words shortened to bites. “Alive. In Polaris. During this… festival. Don’t know where now.” He snorted, water streaming from his nostrils, and shook his head. “Probably finding more victims. Saw one there. Said she tricked him. Sent him off a cliff.”

No doubt with the same squeaking laughter. Despite how long since it’d been, the obnoxious sound could be easily recalled. “She had a tunnel. Was daring us to go inside.” His teeth ground. “Should’ve burned her.”

But would it have even worked? Imp—well, he could just look at him and know his own odds. They didn’t look great.

“If I find her again… Make sure we both can.”

@Imp

It was with bitterness that he listened.

His rage, red-hot for a moment, had flared and simmered, and was down to coals: bitter, angry coals but there was no point now in open flames. Was there?

"I'll kill her," he muttered. Sudden resolve--born from hatred and nothing more--flickered up in him. What did he have to lose-? He could--would--wander the caves, with his too-large bat's ears open for any mention of her.

"Polaris, huh-? That's a place to start," he muttered.

Imp had long been a selfish creature, and he had no real reason not to be, but he still held the helpful urge toward Fahl. It was an urge leftover from having helped a hatchling, really, but it was there nonetheless. He struggled, then, to remember what else Fahl had been saying--to change the subject, and not be a total jerk.

"...Anyway, you were saying... uh. Something about--Leo?" It was a halfhearted question--one intended to be polite. But Imp was curious, too; it was one of those places he'd had no chance to visit. Yet, really.

Why was he letting his eyes stop him? Because I'll never fucking see it. Oh, yeah. There was that.

@Fahl