Many of the caves are dangerous, and frankly, Esther is quite tired of it. They've seen gembound around taking chunks of white, puffy fungus off of the walls and plants before. Surely they must be removing whatever is causing all of this harm? Esther's come to investigate themselves.

What do you know, it's everywhere. Esther must be right, then. What to do about it, though? Would their fire cause too much damage? Scowling, they turn around as they feel a press on their back. But it's nothing - just corruption.

They like their magic, but really, sometimes this gets annoying. Whatever. What to do about this? They wonder if Vargas is having his members get rid of it. Maybe they'll go ask another time.

They let their magic get up and going, and a spark turns into flames among the fungus. Yes, this will work. The deep purple, cold flames slowly turn the danger to ash.

@Sprig

Sprig had not successfully managed to remove all of the fungus from his previous excursion in Eridanus. But it was not something that he could easily push away from his mind. This cave was his first home, where he had grown up, where his family had lived. Sure, he resided in Orion now, but this place held a lingering sense of nostalgia. There was also the hope that one day it would be safe enough for his children to visit one day.

The lion stumbled upon Esther, who he watched burn up fungus as he approached. Someone friendly then? Yet they did not seem to be normal. Were they... corrupted? That was a bit concerning. He did not know how to feel about corrupted gembounds. But if they hated Order as well, that was good for his current goal anyways. And who was he to judge someone before knowing them? "Hello! I'm Sprig, it's nice to meet you. Are you clearing the Order fungus here too?"

He used a paw to rip off a clump of the white fungus hanging off of the bark of a tree. Some of it came off, but there were still a few remnants in the area.

@Esther

Esther lived here at one point, so seeing the fungus taking over is particularly painful. Something they don't know Sprig and them have in common. Well, Esther did try to burn the forest down at one point. Maybe it was good they left, even if it resulted in a brain that doesn't quite work right due to corruption.

"I am Esther. Yes, I came to purge this area of the fungus."

Esther didn't realize all of this was common knowledge, but news spreads fast in the caves. They shouldn't be surprised.

"There is a scary amount of it, all over." Though they're sure Sprig knows this already.

They let Sprig take care of that spot on his own, they're not sure what causes it to infect a body. But Esther is sure the lion knows what he is doing, at least... It seems that way. So they move to a different area with another patch, not particularly worried about starting a fire here. Really, Esther is considering burning the whole place down to purge the whole area of it, and then put it out with their other spell. It would be so fast, so easy. Corruption is a worry though, and the hate that would probably come from burning an entire cave full of nature. (Esther would probably try to do it if they knew fire is good for nature.)

Eyes on a white patch, Esther scowls. Why is it everywhere? Pitiful, really, that they have to go through such ways to bring others to them.

They pull from their magic, only to pull too much and ignite their own body. Fur patches on their back, and neck, burst into dark, purple flames. It hurts! It really does, but having known this magic all their life, Esther is familiar with the pain. They've learned to mostly ignore it. Perhaps the adrenaline from the corrupted magic itself.

They hiss, and rub against a rock to try and put it out, not really familiar with the whole, well. Stop drop and roll.

@Sprig

Esther looked familiar for some reason, but he could not quite recall where he had seen them before. His memory was usually better, but Sprig found that it was much easier for him to memorize things like plants rather than faces. "Yes, there is. This is my second time trying to get rid of it all." It seemed like a monumental task. An impossible one even.

He was about to ask Esther about their fire which seemed to have strange properties (did it burn plants?) when they caught themselves on fire. "Are you alright? I mean- of course you aren't let me see..." Sprig drew on his knowledge from when his fire from cooking occasionally grew out of control. His eyes scanned the area before he picked an area devoid of plants and started digging up the dirt to fling it onto Esther. Or tried to at least, it ended up missing them completely.

"Did that work?" he looked back, only to see that the dirt had gone elsewhere. He put out cooking related fires, not the kind on a gembound that was rolling around unpredictably. This was all really quite a disaster already.

@Esther