Muzrothun was observing the monarch, a huge mushroom inside the Eridanus cave. She always wondered how it got there and it seemed more than a ordinary mushroom. She would sometimes come to watch it, seeing whether it would move or not. All the times she came to see it, it was ever so still. The okapi stood a good few feet away from it each time she would visit. As she stood there to observe the mushroom, she forgot about her surroundings for a quick second.

Strange, how Eridanus came to flutter between periods of activity and quiet; how it seemed that little clan of Attikias's came and went as easily as the cycles. Such was the reason Astraea even bothered to venture to this cave, given the emptiness of the Eyes and lack of much else.

He huffed, tail (something he'd never get used to, for all his conversations with the aforementioned dark elf about family and old comforts) flicking as he passed by the Monarch's sweeping, silver cap. The rubies of his eyes barely glanced over to the enormous fungus; and why should he? He'd only seen it several thousand times.

Hooves clattered delicately, at least, as he rounded the Monarch and stepped back onto worn-smooth stone. Ears cupped toward the strangely-marked creature and her rapturous staring, and he could not bite back a huff of something between amusement and bewilderment. "What a sight, yes?"

The habit of these to be so fascinated by old scenery.

@Muzrothun

Muzrothun broke out of her trance as voice brought her back to reality. She turned her long neck to see someone she thought she'd never see. It was Astraea, the famous master of the caves she had heard so heavily about. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she spoke ever so respectfully. "You must be Astraea, master of the caves! It is such an honor to meet you! My name is Muzrothun." Since he was standing in front her, she used this opportunity to ask something important. "Astraea, I have something important to ask you. I know there is a lot of history gembounds don't know. But I wanted to ask something specific. I see in Orion there are a lot of crumbled buildings, and I'm quite sure it used to be a kingdom of some sort. What is the history behind Orion, and why is it destroyed?" The okapi listened carefully wanting to know every detail.

@Game Master Navy

Ah, this one was polite. Greetings before all else! Astraea nodded with a slight dip of his antlers, smiling as best one could with such a terribly long snout. "I am Astraea indeed, Muzrothun. The honor's all mine." Heh. Pay no mind that he was a singular Master; let the grapevine talk him up.

The okapi's earnest attitude was not lost on the stag, lacking fear and reservations about approaching a Master so blatantly; but, Astraea waved off his own need for perceived superiority. This nest was meant to produce, not inflate his own ego, as much as he might wish it. It wasn't as if he was too busy to answer such a simple question past a rather derisive huff: "a kingdom?"

How had these Gembound come saddled with such notions, he pondered often, of Kings and Queens and royalty?

Ruby eyes softened, and he shook his head. Pivoting to face Muzrothun a little more head-on, he hummed. "No, it was not a kingdom. Once upon a time," (here he paused to chuckle, because how that made it sound like he was telling the world's most anticlimatic fairytale) "those buildings were merely housing for workers. Builders, laborers, all that." Perhaps those few who could spare to lie idle and feel rewarded by a roof over their head... though that was a boon Vargas decided to offer on his own, as Overseer.

A hoof idly scraped at the moss underfoot, and he sighed without much nostalgia. "I suspect time is all that is to blame for their falling into ruin. Certainly no one has thought to keep them intact throughout the years." As if anyone had been awake to. Hah.

@Muzrothun