[Origin Cave]

Since its reopening to the rest of the Caves, Fornax had been a shockingly normal place to be, aside from the strange warmth it always had within its waters. However, with the flood of Gembound and magicka entering the room, things have changed. It seems like all of the fish are gone, and the waters are choppy. There must be something in the waters.

But what is it?

Near the entrance to the massive furnace, there is what appears to be a reef made of glimmering crystals of all different colors and structures. Even stranger is the consistent overlap of the stones hosting the gemstones. What will you choose to do?

There was nothing Eve loved more than a good shiny. With the opening of a brand new room that meant one thing and one thing only - there were new shinies to be had here. The room, of course was too strange for Eve to stay in for too long. It was too hot and there was water everywhere - the steam caused her feathers to become damp and uncomfortable. Regardless, the crow had a fine eye for shiny things. Below the surface she could see them: colourful rocks of varying shapes and sizes. Her feathers ruffled in contentment in knowing that they would be hers and no one elses, but there was a rather serious problem here. Eve was a bird, not a fish. Attempts at swimming before had been unsuccessful to say the least and quite frankly, it made the crow sad thinking about what missed opportunities for shiny things she had missed out in her inability to fish out smooth rocks and glittering pieces of junk from water. A ragged croak left the corvid's throat as she paced back and forth along the shoreline, eyeing the stones with keen eyes. Perhaps this was a cruel joke, or karma for abandoning Dragon - who she knew may have fished down at her request to nab them for her. It didn't matter now. Eve would have had to figure this out sooner or later, anyway. table code © rasta 2015

No matter how many times she left, the large tapir always found herself back in the warm water. The calm of it had always soothed her, the trickle of gently moving water with a nice humidity to keep her happy. Today, though, was much different. The air felt off, the water sounding enraged. A place that had once made her euphoric now brought for a sense of unease. Regardless, Penelope tentatively waded in ankle deep before deciding it just didn't feel right to do so... then pushed herself forward anyway, able to hear Louie already, even though he was likely unaware of her current predicament.

A deep inhale and a heavy sigh was followed by the splashing of her legs as she waded deeper in, until her foot slammed into something covered in rough and sharp edges. Most of all, it startled her, causing the mammal to yelp. With some backpedaling, she gathered herself again and tip toed back toward the odd texture she'd never noticed before. What was felt puzzled her very thoroughly. What exactly... was it? Some was smooth, some rough, some pointy, som- wait, were they crystals?

---

"Speech"
Thoughts.
Louie's Bullshit.

It seemed that what would have been an interesting time in their youth was to be kept in secrecy. The hybrid, now fully grown, had gone into solitude when all things seemed to fall apart. The brother she remembered from a past life was no longer around, unsure of what had become of the dolphin Maya had even thought to go check all the underwater tunnels as they could. It helped being part dolphin really. The ability to hold their breath for long moments of time that allowed for a lot of time to spend beneath the surface until they ultimately had to come rushing up for air.

Maya had eventually given up with a heavy heart. There was just something deep inside them that spoke of things, muttering words that spoke of what Maya did not wish to accept. Eeya was gone. There was nothing to do about it. Even her hatch mate was missing, leaving what would have been their small family empty. In most cases being left alone and not knowing where their family could possibly be would quite depressing for most. Not for Maya. Oh no, this little hybrid made the best of it. They explored and explored. Searching for new things to discover. Especially down in the underwater tunnels.

Their exploration had finally landed them in Fornax. The new cavern that she had heard of in rumors. A band of gembounds had found a way to open a doorway, leaving a euphoric place of water to be explored and that was exactly what Maya had been spending her time doing as of late. Maya swam through the water's depths. Their strong tail pushed through the water easily. At the moment he had been searching for a snack, but it seemed as if there were no fish around today? It was the most odd thing they had seen in awhile.

Finally the hybrid surfaced, splashing water about as they crested over the surface. Idly he let out a series of clicks while looking around. It was only then that he realized he surfaced near two others. A strange feathered creature, and another one swimming about. Maya's head tilted as they watched for a moment, curious to see what they were doing. When the tapir seemed to hurt itself Maya moved, swimming closer towards the two. "You alright there?" They called loudly, making sure the creature heard them as they found themselves able to place their paws onto land and pull themselves just a bit further from the water.

Maya paused only briefly to take a look at what the tapir had ran into only to ogle over the shiny items she was now near. "Wonder where those came from..." It was an idle comment honestly. Maya couldn't say if they had been there before or not, but now that they noticed them she was definitely intrigued.

"Speech" 'Thoughts'
Words:
Notes:

@Tag

Eve's initial instinct was to proclaim she dropped a whole bunch of shinies down in the water and that they were hers and hers alone, but something made her stop. The quickened clack, clack clack of her talons abruptly stopped as repressed memories resurfaced into her head, front and center. Staring at the gemstones below reminded her of Polaris, when strange creatures of blood and bones surfaced. She couldn't recall anything else being around in Polaris at the time of their hatching. She pulled her gaze away from the water - not wishing to blow up her other ear before she heard a faint splashing of water. Some hybrid seemingly hadn't gotten the memo from it's other fish friends. But, Eve supposed she could use this to her advantage. "Fish-dog," she started, wide-eyed. "This is a matter of life and death and it's very important. If you can pick up the things in the water I need you to bring them to me. I can't swim. If they're rooted into the ground you have to get out of there, fast." The crow went back to pacing, talons once more clacking against the shoreline as she waited for an answer from the hybrid. table code © rasta 2015

Macawi had never been to the Great Fornax. She’d heard things about it from others. Whispers. Rumors. But ever since the Caves had gone silent for a time, she hadn’t done as much traveling as she used to. Now it was time to change all that! It was time to get back into the swing of things, and that meant exploring every nook and cranny of this relatively new area of the Caves. When she got there, though, it seemed there was a great happening going on. A meeting, perhaps? Odd. She didn’t know there was a Group here. Or maybe there wasn’t, and everyone else had just had the same idea as her — to explore the area.

Let’s see… There was… Ah! A crow she remembered from the Children of Rot meeting some time ago. If Macawi had a super power aside from her Magic, it was that she never forgot a face. Not one she had interacted with, at least. (Little did she know that Eve apparently harbored some deep dislike for her, which would have amused the Coyote greatly had she found out about it.) But the other two in the room… she did not recognize. There was… a hippo-like creature with the nose of an elephant… hm. And also… a wolf with a dolphin fin… Macawi blinked, taking in the odd creatures. Not that she herself wasn’t odd, but… Oh well. She didn’t judge anyone, anyways.

And, what was this? They all seemed quite interested in these… crystals in the water. She stepped up to the edge of the water and peered down at the brightly colored stones. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with them, but… “Perhaps we ought to leave them alone? Not all shinies are for the taking, no?” She had no idea how spot on she was in that that was what Eve was after. Hopefully such a comment wouldn’t cause the crow to go after her.

"Speech"

Words: 327

The room had been open for quite some time since his last adventure here. Back then he was just a cub, eyes full of wonder and joy at every lesser gembound that inhabited the waters. With his trusty bear companion Tolani in tow he led the way as always. Though much to his surprise this area seemed to be as busy as when it first opened! Though with a fairly new place like this perhaps it wasn't much to be surprised. Coming to a slow stop he stayed within earshot of the Gembounds. Assessing the situation before placing both himself and Tolani in it. There was quite a few of them huddled around the water, coming in all shapes and sizes and damn near all of them unfamiliar. Until that crow spoke up. Familiar voice that he welcomed but it held the twang of panic which called for his full attention. Focusing on them he watched her pace around, feathers ruffled and insisting this was a matter of life and death.

That was all it took for Sabor to come walking up, towering over the other gembounds and remaining mindful of his long diamond tusks.

"You need help with something in the water? I will try what I can."

Golden glance shifting from the crow he approached the water. Watching the chopping current swirl about. It wasn't so bad he presumed, wouldn't be that dangerous to take a dive; especially for a tiger his size. A few more moments passed and he began taking in the sights of the shimmering crystals below. How funny, he couldn't remember if those were there when Fornax first 'opened'. Kind to think of it, there was no fish either...debating on if he should continue or not he threw caution to the wind. He would surely be able to handle himself. Right?

"Tolani I will be right back, going for a little swim."

Leaping off the edge Sabor began to descend into the waves, hoping he could help out in any way by grabbing a crystal for the crow, and perhaps one for Tolani too.

There was a distinct wrongness to the waters; the thing that the Orarian had sought to protect, ruined. The fish had fled, the jellyfish retreating to deeper depths, recoiling away from the places where it had known to hunt. They hid, now, and perhaps rightfully so.

For the beast of shadow and starlight, however, it could not hide. Its entire being was called into action, demanding retribution, demanding a fight. There was a great anger to the beast, its long, tapering fingers stretching through the water. Meters long, its almost tentacle like appendages stretched out as it moves with ease through the water, seeking the creatures that had come into the water. It could feel them thrashing, disturbing the waters.

The sea monster wanted to scream, but for now it held back, a giant looming shadow like a shark in the waters-- except the being was more like an eldritch horror than the more normal creatures of the ocean.

With it, it carried the hotter waters of the trenches where it had loomed in wait for this moment. It could feel the euphoric pleasure that the creatures took in, babbling with their joyous, clear words. For now, it moved slowly towards the crystals, not speaking for it had no mouth, no face, no anything. Only a giant plate of starlight among the inky, almost transparent, smokey form that glided through the waves towards its enemies.

They would regret trespassing in the Orarian's waters.

Especially since Orarian wasn't alone...

She'd been trusting Sabors' lead for as long as she could remember, even as her sight on her right side had finally gone dead after so many cycles had passed with simply poor, wavering images. A vaguely familiar scenery, and humid air told the black bear they had arrived in the room of Fornax. Her eye fixated on the trio of gembounds already within, squinting slightly at the odd shapes they'd taken before hearing Sabor.

"You need help with something in the water? I will try what I can."

He'd already padded past her, his golden coat sticking out like a sore thumb as he approached the bank near the small crow, briefly tossing his head back in her direction to speak again. The slightest of smiles curling at the corners of Tolani's mouth.

"Tolani I will be right back, going for a little swim."

"Okay, try not to drown you top heavy goober." Tolani yawned, shuffling further into the room to keep her eye on Sabors' familiar pelt, and yes, she was poking at his diamond tusks.

"Speech"

Iris probably wasn't the first to notice the absence of fish in Fornax, but it didn't take long. At first, she had feared she and Orarian were overeating and killing off the population. The hybrid had stopped eating fish for a while and settled for making meals out of Lesser Gembound, and still yet, the fish were disappearing. Orarian didn't even eat the same kind of fish that Iris did, and they were still just... gone. This aroused suspicion in the amalgamation, and it prompted further investigation.

Already, Orarian and a few other Gembound were on the case. With ease, she glided over the eldritch-esque monster down below and approached the shallow reef that had suddenly emerged in Fornax without any sound at all.

From beneath the surface and from a distance, the reef looked like a mountain of possibly a hundred or so gems wedged into rock. Iris approached it with a bit of a serious scowl on her face, an emotion she rarely displayed, since she was always so darn hyper and excited. Slowly, she prodded one of the stones, feeling the odd warmth of it. In fact, the whole rock formation was warm. A slow groan filled her sensitive ears and she swam over to the other Gembound in the waters and tried to nudge them to land. "I don't think this is a bunch of rocks--!" She was cut off by a keening sound echoing through the air and a massive plume of dust rising into the waters.

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