It looked like a hunk of scrap metal, half-submerged in the river that wound through the center of the room. There was no way to see within the stone, to see what lay within- and likewise, the being curled up in that little cocoon of gemstone had no awareness of the outside world.

Until the stone began to crack.

Water seeped in, and the little pup let out a disgruntled cry, flinching away from the unwelcome trickle of cold. This slammed their shoulders into the side of the chrysalis, which only created MORE cracks, which let in MORE water, which made the pup even more furious to get out. One strong kick sent the stone shattering into the stream, the shards scattered among the rounded river stones.

The pup was nearly washed away by the river- or it felt like it, even though the river was incredibly slow and shallow. They'd clamber onto the shore, shaking their pelt disgruntledly. That was not a very good wake-up call...

@Mosaic

Mosaic had once had a misconception that no green paradises could possibly exist beyond the dreary snowy wasteland that was Ursa. She'd been young and foolish, and completely wrong. Obviously, since she was walking in one now.

The long story short was that she had finally gotten bored of the rest of the caves. No one did anything anymore. She needed something new to freshen up her dead brain cells and get her excited about life again. Something more to her life than catching stringy rats and eating them day by day. The sad part was that she didn't even have any hunting buddies, so she was just out here chasing rats all by herself, because rabbits were too fast and deer were too big and she wasn't as good at swimming as fish were.

But for some reason, Pegasus wasn't inspiring that spark of life she wanted either. Sure, it was pretty, but so was Eridanus or Polaris or whatever. What could she find interesting about it?

... a puppy?

Mosaic squinted at the little shape shaking water from its fur, then trotted closer. "Hey!" she barked, more surprised than anything else as she got close enough to really take a good look at them. "You look like me!"

This was... unexpected. Mosaic was kind of unsure how to feel or what to do next. Be offended that someone looked like her? No, that was stupid. Nothing wrong with having pretty patches and lots of earthy, natural colors. Maybe... they could be buddies? Bond over their visual similarity?

"Uh..." Not the greatest conversationalist, Mosaic. "Stupid river, am I right? Can't believe it got you wet like that."

@Scrap

The pup was sitting there, being disgruntled, when a bigger version of them came out of nowhere. Grumpiness turned confusion, they'd turn towards Mosaic. "Whuh?" partially because they didn't understand but mostly because of the general emotional whiplash they were feeling.

"Yeah! Stupid river!" They barked in agreement. The river WAS stupid for getting them wet. Nevermind the fact that the river had little agency on the matter- the river should've just stopped being wet. Obviously.

"Why're you big?" They'd ask. It was kind of unfair that this other dog was so much bigger than they were. Especially considering the fact that Scrap was small, even for a pup. Even fully grown, it was likely that Scrap would always be smaller than Mosaic- yes, thats something he'd always be a little salty about.

@Mosaic

A flood of inexplicable warmth washed through Mosaic's innards as the pup barked in agreement. It'd been too long since she'd decried something as stupid with someone else. Maybe it'd been forever, actually; Mosaic couldn't quite remember. It seemed to always be her alone doing the yelling at whatever object offended her. It was so nice to be able to gang up on the river, so to speak, with this smaller version of herself.

"Uh..." Mosaic tilted her head at the question. Really, she'd been big for a long time, but she tried to remember how she'd become this way. Finally, she gave a coarse shrug. "Well, I ate a lot, I guess. And ran around some. And I just became big over time?" She flicked an ear aggressively at a group of gnats that had gotten too close. "Hey, you know how to hunt? That's pretty important for, like, eating."

@Scrap @Doctor (not sure when you want to commence with the kidnapping! jump in whenever, I guess?)

The river was pretty pathetic compared to The Black City, but it was water, so in the water Soh'ling stayed. The main perk to Pegasus was that Things Happened here, which made it good for reconnaissance. And Reconnaissance was good because Soh'ling enjoyed Knowing Things. It had been eyeing a particular rock, a large one that disrupted the flow of the river. It could swear the rock hummed with Life, so it sat and watched. Sure enough, a tricolored little pup popped out.

And INTERESTINGLY enough, a larger version of said pup came over to investigate. A child? Children rarely looked THAT much like their parents, though. Identical creatures were rare in the cave, and it mulled this over as it slithered closer, listening in on the conversation. Boring with nothing to really note- except for the mutual scorn of The River, which struck a nerve within the Valkcat.

It wondered... if two were so similar, could they become One?

This morbid question, which was definitely NOT fueled by the violent whispering in their head, nor their spite against the water-hating creatures- just HAD to be answered. So it slunk out of the water, looming over the two pitiful normal hounds. "You are two of a kind." It hissed out, "That is unusual. I have a gift, to celebrate this rare occasion." And so, Mosaic would be overcome with the 'gift-' a pounding in the head and a spinning of the vision, nerves going haywire with confused signals of numbness and pain. It would make the transportation much easier, hopefully.

-------
@Mosaic ((I need to decide what Soh'lings Disease does, but lets say... disorientation, headaches, alternating numbness/shooting pains, potentially fainting spells? Also probably dehydration, but that'd be a longer-term thing that probably won't come into play this thread))

The bigger version of himself was nice! His tail wagged as he listened intently to Mosaic's 'wisdom.' Eating? Well, there wasn't anything to eat, so he best get to the second suggestion- running. He ran in circles until he heard Mosaic's second statement, as which point he stopped so suddenly he nearly face planted. "I wanna hunt! I wanna eat!" he barked. He'd chomp at the cloud of gnats. It was like eating air.

He was about to tell Mosaic that there was nothing good to eat here, and that they ought to go where the food was. That was until a large slimy, ugly creature slide out of the Stupid River. It loomed over them both, making his hackles raise in response. However, it's promise of a 'gift' made his demeanor change into eagerness. Gifts were good, right? Maybe the gift would be food!

"A gift? I want!" He'd yelp, blissfully unaware of what 'the gift' really was.

Mosaic laughed. "Good, kid! I--" She cut herself off, mouth hanging open slightly in fear as a skeletal, slimy thing bubbled up from Pegasus' river. Stupid river indeed, birthing stuff like this...

Her paws scrambled beneath her, instinct taking over even as she wanted to keep staring in awed terror. First backing away on unsteady feet, then turning around altogether, about to make a break for it. Maybe she would have made it, too, if Soh'ling hadn't been like ten times longer than her and also armed with magic.

"Stupid kid!" she yelped, suddenly remembering the literal newborn behind her and partially turning back around as Scrap greeted the monster. "You don't want its stupid gift! RRRRRRU-rrr-uuuuunnnnn...." Suddenly, Mosaic wasn't feeling too good. "Idiot," she mumbled indistinctly, wobbling and then falling onto her sides. Why did her legs feel like jelly? WHY WOULDN'T THEY HOLD HER UP WHEN SHE NEEDED THEM THE MOST?! She tried to lift her head, but pain stabbed through her skull along with a wave of dizziness so fierce she wanted to vomit. A second ago she'd been yelling, terrified, and now-- now all she could do was lay on the ground and groan. The pounding headache took away her focus. She couldn't even think for long enough to do magic.

@Soh-ling

Thump! went the big one, down like a corpse into the grass. And like a whalefall, they'd be vitally nourishing to Soh'ling's curiosity. Ideally, the hound wouldn't be upgraded to an actual corpse- that would be a waste of such experimental potential. Though if Mosaic died during the mission for knowledge- well, that couldn't be helped, could it?

It's what she deserved for scorning it's domain.

"Thank you for your compliance." It'd say smoothly, stooping to pick up Mosaic like a normal cat would a normal mouse, "Your contributions will be greatly appreciated."

It looked down at The Small One, who was being a pain in the paw- literally. The little pup was biting futilely at one of it's paws, gnawing at the protruding spike like it was a bone. Well, it WAS a bone, but they were still using it, thank you very much. It sighed before carefully scooping the pup up, and awkwardly placing the pup on it's back. Scrap resumed his valiant battle on one of the spines of it's neck fin.

It moved painfully slow- both to not dislodge it's tiny attacker and because it was rather disused to walking. At least it knew it's destination. And it knew EXACTLY who could help with it's little research project.

Hopefully he was a like-minded individual.

@Mosaic (Exit)

"'M NOT STUPID! 'M NOT RIVER!" He howled furiously. That fury turned to terror, however, as The Bigger Him dropped to the ground, and the Big River Creature leaned down to pick her up. "HEY! SHE NOT FOOD!" They growled, bounding over to the Stupid River Creature and attacking it viciously. His victim raised the paw he clung to, stupidly moving him to an Even Better attacking spot. He growled, "Let go! Let go now!"

Then the creature began moving, but that didn't stop him in the slightest. He kept attacking until it gave in- but it seemed like that was going to take a while.

((Exit thread))

Mosaic growled under her breath as she was lifted bodily into the air, in a rather uncomfortable way no less, but that was about the extent of what she could do. Oh, she for sure knew that getting picked up by a giant slinking monster she'd just called stupid was NOT GREAT AT ALL! But resistance was, to put it plainly, futile.

She could yell, but noise made the stabbing pain in her skull worse. She could struggle--and she did try at first--but each movement brought another wave of dizziness, until she was so disoriented she couldn't tell if she was actually in control of her legs or if she was just excessively motion-sick from being carried in Soh'ling's jaws.

"Puuuuuumeeeeedowwwwwwwwn," she slurred, but what self-respecting Valkcat would heed that?

exit