Way up along the wall, there was a jut of rock sticking out over the cave, slick with moisture, stained dark gray, almost black. Against the dark, cool colors, Arcturus's bright, flashy wings were visible from any spot below, as the cat itself crouched at the edge of the rock formation. Glowing eyes were fixed on the waterfall in front of it, tail lashing excitedly behind, gas trailing behind, desperately trying to keep up with the solid body it clung onto. It wondered what was about to happen to it - what would happen to its mane if it got drenched?

It didn't have the same instinctual fear of water that it did to fire, so it assumed that it wouldn't have the same kind of danger (not that it actually knew what would happen if it was set on fire) but still, the unknown was a scary thing that put all creatures to their knees. Arcturus was no exception.

But it had always wanted to do this. Every since it had first seen the waterfall as a child it had always craved to test its flying by flying right into it. It was fully grown now, a good flier, and it was here in Pisces. Why not?

It had been perched there, gathering its bravery for a little while now, but it was time. It took a deep, shaky breathe and bunched its muscles before leaping off the edge. It immediately began beating its wings, gaining altitude for the eventual dive, flying closer and closer to Pisces waterfall. It was going slow for now as it rose up in the air, but there came a point that it had calculated before, where it pulled its wings in closer and angled down.

Now it was gaining speed, diving forward at a sharp angle, its wings reflecting light, making it look like a shooting star flying right towards the waterfall. As it got closer, its heart beat faster and faster and it held its breath. Suddenly, everything happened extremely fast. It slammed right into the water and icy cold shot across its body. It suddenly felt bare - the gaseous mane had immediately dissipated upon entering the water and for a fraction of a second it was, for lack of a better word, naked.

The water was heavy and beat down hard against its back. Thankfully, it was going fast enough that it shot right through, but it threw Arc's flight off balance and as it emerged on the other side, it found itself beginning to fall through the air. It yelped, trying to steady itself as it fell towards the grown, just managing to keep itself from crashing into the rock and stumbling into a messy, but safe, landing.

It stood shocked for a moment, adrenaline pumping through its veins, and it distantly realized that some of its gas had rejoined its body and the rest was slowly recollecting around it. Arcturus didn't react immediately, too busy trying to calm its racing heart, shivering on the spot as it began to calm down from the thrill.

Once it could think again it looked back at the waterfall, a huge grin spreading across its face. It yelped with joy, bouncing along the shore of the lagoon, still hopped up on the adrenaline that had been surging through it moments ago, zooming out its excess energy and meowing loud its elation.

@Maximus

This was home, now. It was completely different from Draco, which was the best thing about it. It was cool and damp, good for the lungs, but it did mean the chill set into Max's very bones much quicker than anywhere else. But that was fine, they'd grow a thicker coat eventually.

They'd found a nice little cave to call home, a crack in the wall that extended much further than it looked. It was about as tall as they were and narrow enough that their shoulders just barely fit. But that meant that anything larger than them couldn't fit through, and anything larger than them were being they didn't want to encounter anyway.

As they collected mosses and lichens off the rocks to build into a warm nest, they saw a flash of light from the corner of their eye, catching their attention. They watched in awe as the creature streaked through the air like a comet, heading straight for the waterfall. They seemed to falter on the other side, and Max was quick to drop the pile of mosses and run after them, dropping to all fours for speed.

"H-hey! Are you okay?!", they cried, cresting a hill and coming to a halt before the water.

They were... dancing? Laughing? Well that obviously meant they weren't hurt, and that was good, at least. Max was at a loss for words, having no idea what to even say. They were fine, right?

"... So... um... you're not injured, right?", they asked, healing magic brimming at the ready, "Are you okay?"

@Arcturus

Arcturus, currently, had a pretty major case of the zoomies, zipping around the edge of the lagoon in their elation, jumping almost rabbit-like every few steps, celebrating its victory over the waterfall and making a lot of noise. It felt like a balloon, as if it opened its wings it would fly without any trouble. It would shoot towards the ceiling like a rocket and never come back down.

It stopped suddenly when a voice cried out, turning its head and trying to stop quickly. Unfortunately, it forgot that the rock underneath was slick with water and it slipped, feet skidding across the ground and wings desperately flapping to keep it upright. It fell backwards, almost comically, and crashing to the ground in a bundle of thrashing legs and feathers.

It scrambled back to its feet, trying not to slip again, and shaking out its drenched fur, sending droplets of water scattering over the ground. "Sorry, sorry, yeah I'm okay!" Once it felt a little more secure on the ground, it folded its wings back in and sat itself down firmly so that it didn't slip again, finally taking a good look at the stranger.

They were...woah, they were tall! Standing on two legs, with light colored, fluffy fur, and big paws. An interestingly shaped face as well, it noted. It couldn't tell what kind of creature it resembled, but that didn't matter much. Arc could barely tell what it was itself!

A smile broke across its face. "Hello! Sorry if I worried you! I just always wanted to do that and figured there wasn't a point in waiting any longer." It didn't seem embarrassed at all about its stumble a moment ago, now switching its energy to being really interested in the creature in front of it, nose twitching. It had only been sitting for a couple of seconds before it was bounding forward to sniff the stranger curiously. "Who are you?"

@Maximus

Maximus watched the display of clumsiness, swallowing as they slowly stepped forward, much more careful as they walked across the slick rocks, careful of any slime or moss that could loosen and cause them to fall too.

"Dive through a waterfall?", they said, peering towards it, "Well... I suppose the worst that could happen would be chrysalizing. But that doesn't mean you ought to do things because the worst that will happen will be that. It's still not good."

They moved forward to check Arcturus over for bruises or anything, worried that they'd hurt themselves and were hiding something.

"Oh, I'm Max," they said in response to the question, "Uh... who are you? What's your name?"

A banana suddenly appeared in their outstretched hand and they took the time to meticulously peel it, tossing the peel off to the side before offering it out to Arcturus. "Here, have something to eat."

@Arcturus

Arcturus stood tall and huffed indignantly, but still good-natured. "I didn't just do it because it was dangerous, I did it because it was fun! And I knew I could do it, anyways. I'm a good flier." As Max moved to look Arcturus over, it took the opportunity to do the same, more out of curiousity for this strange gembound's form. Two legged, tall and elegant, with quills, horns, and glowing green eyes that struck a chord of familiarity in the back of its mind. It raised a paw to poke curiously at one of their legs, wondering if the fur was spiky, on account of the quills, or softer, like Arcturus's own. Or kind of course and rough like the deer they reminded it of.

At the introduction, it lowered its paw and stepped back to look at them in the face, face bright and tail high. It'd come down from its adrenaline high by now, but it was still excited and in a jubilant mood. "I'm Arcturus, but you can call me Arc if you want!"

Its glowing eyes nearly popped right out of its skull at the banana that suddenly appeared in Max's hand. It'd never seen magic like that before! Magic to make food suddenly appear?! That was amazing! In awe, they stood up on their hind legs to get a better view, their head barely reaching Max's waist, but it was enough to watch them slowly peel the banana from its casing.

When Max offered it out, Arc gently took it with a nimble paw and sat back down again to inspect it, holding it in front of their face and sniffing the fruit curiously. "That was amazing, how did you even do that? And...what is it? I've never seen it before!" It was very sparkly!

@Maximus

Max's fur was indeed soft, something that they rather prided themselves about. All the better for hugs and comfort, of course.

"Apparently," Max said with amusement, ears flicking up at their surprise.

Was it so surprising? They'd seen plenty who could do it... perhaps this particular gembound hadn't.

"I don't know. I learned it based off of my former peers," they said, trying to hide their amused grin as the banana caused Arcturus to begin to sparkle as well. Well, sparkle more. Their mane was pretty sparkly already.

"It's called a banana," they said, and attempted to summon another, only for their attempt to fizzle out in a shower of sparkles. Whatever, they meant to do that!

"What brings you to Pisces? Just the waterfall?", they asked.

@Arcturus

Arc inspected the banana for a moment more before tentatively reaching forward to lick the soft fruit. It was delightfully sweet so it took a large bite, realizing that it didn't even need to be chewed - it could just smash it against the top of its mouth if it wanted! It scarfed down the rest, humming happily at the flavor. Sparkles began dancing across their body, multiplying their already existing shininess by many times.

They looked up at Max, wondering if they had any more. "Oh, could you teach me? I'd love to make them too!" They could just imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to make their own and share it among friends - or maybe new friends? - and to spread the same joy.

Max didn't create them another banana, but instead spread a puff of sparks in the air, which immediately had Arcturus reaching up to catch and bat at them. They had such fun, delightful magic! "That was beautiful! I wish I could create sparks like that! I'm not too good at magic, though."

The last spark they lunched forward to bite it before it hit the ground. Only then did it sit back and pay attention, again, to Max. "Yeah, pretty much. I thought I'd stick around for a bit, see how I like it. I'm a bit of a wanderer at the moment. Do you live here?"

@Maximus

"Of course!", Max said in delight, "I would love to try. Some spells are harder than others to learn, I've found, so don't be disappointed if you don't get it or can't do it at all. I still struggle with my own magical element and it's supposed to be the easiest to cast."

The sparkle fell and they saw jaws open and snap, instincts telling them to get the hell away from them. They leapt backwards and scampered behind a rock, breath caught in their throat. The last time something snapped at them was when corruption addled their mind and Draconua tried to shove him into the Black Spire.

"D-don't do that," they said, eyes wide, scared despite being a 12 foot tall monster.

Maximus had spent their life surrounded by monsters. Their reflection showed sharp cheek bones and terrible green eyes taken from their life-giver, the worst monster of all. Jagged teeth, a cruel disposition, and no care at all for his own spawn.

If Arcturus didn't look so vastly different they'd have turned and ran for the hills the second their jaws closed. It was about then that Maximus realized that the Chaos Forge had affected them more than they'd initially thought.

"Sorry," they said immediately, breath hitching as shame flooded their body, "I just... got scared for a second."

@Arcturus