Emergence went off without a hitch, if the scrapes on the neonate's knees were anything to go by. She had slipped and fallen from her hemimorphite shell. Yet, in mere minutes, she was standing and had walking mastered. Soon came the prospect of trotting and then an eager gallop. Already, she was a creature with quite a knack for activity. Also with quite a knack for name, because she had already figured out that it was Virgil. For some reason, the calf felt as if she should have a second name. But she hadn't figured it out yet. So Virgil it would be, for now.

There were much higher priorities, such as investigating the flow of slushy water she had to slog through to get anywhere.

Completely comfortable in the chill, she splashed around in the muck for a bit before finding a cause for concern. On a single occasion, her little foot had slipped into a crevice and she found herself momentarily stuck in a meter of water. Definitely taller than she was. But life wouldn't end here for her, so by some miracle of fortune, she wrestled herself free and discovered the concept of the classic doggy paddle.

It took a bit of doing, but Virgil found solid ground again and was before the flood's source, gargantuan stone gates that absolutely dwarfed her, even at a distance. Like, absolutely. It was crazy. Looking up with wide eyes, the neonate trembled with sheer excitement and a sudden sense of bravado. First, she'd stop the flood with her own four feet (hooves? hooves.) and then go and wander in this mysterious land beyond the gates. But it was up to her or anything else that happened to wander by to solve this grand mystery of flooding. Because Virgil was already tired of swimming.

So she approached, going against the flow of the floodwaters to find the real deal source and maybe, by the power of sheer determination, stop it. With her own four hooves.

They had wandered between their home and the flooded tunnel for some cycles now, but the most of the Gembounds had been hibernating; there was not much Totum could do alone, and so they waited for the children of the cave to awaken and return. As they made their way back into the chilly floodwaters of Tunnel M, a frown tugged on their face. A neonate bobbing in the water.

They kept a worried watch on her figure as they worked through the water toward her. When Totum reached the neonate, they called out with a quick "Hello!" to announce their presence and unfurled their arms to gently support the newborn's body with their extra limbs as other arms reached out to brace against the wall.

"No need to tire yourself out just yet," they said kindly with a bit of jest. "Our name is Totum. Tell us, who goes swimming right after they hatch?" They smiled, offering a laugh, though were curious why the child was so insistent on diving right into the floodwaters so shortly after hatching.