The alligator lay quiet beside the black Heart of Cetus.

The waters were still, cool, and shrouded with mist--as they always were--and the offering pile, untouched for weeks, stood high with rotting fish. At the bottom of the pile, the mud ran thick with putrescence. What lay down there was nearly a month old--dead fish, the carcasses of deer, the twisted limbs of half-burnt cave spiders. The Children kept the pile ready for Aquarian--but at the moment, it seemed, he slept.

Dragon's thoughts ran as deep as these still waters. And they were equally as dark.

The new cave--he'd heard about its opening; he did not know what it meant. Astraea had gone in. Nemean, perched atop his head. Betrayer, he thought softly.

But Aquarian remained submerged, and so he could not ask his father what was going on. What it all meant.

Aquarian had told him to survive, in order to learn. For the longest time, Dragon had felt as though they were all playing a waiting game--to survive for a hundred years to gradually uncover bits and pieces. But perhaps his meaning had been far more sinister: perhaps by merely living long enough, Dragon and his Children of Rot were to survive into another era of horrors.

And then there was the matter of Khloros.

Dragon pondered this--pondered what it meant. Could it possibly be mere coincidence..? Was it a tool they could use; a message from a savior, in the nick of time? Or was it just one of a thousand tumbling stones set off by an avalanche already in motion--something far above, and far ahead? And how would we know the difference?

These were the grim thoughts running through his mind as he lay half-submerged in the mud, the black water pooled up to his flanks, his head slightly tilted down so that dark eyes could watch the surface. The rank stench of the pile did not bother him--and he'd be easy to mistake for a log in the mist.

Thread is for Zyros, but other CoR may enter!
@Zyros

Zyros hopped in Cetus as she looked around, the marsh and the mist seemed kind of cool in her eyes. Zyros loved to explore, and see all of what the caves had to offer her. The caves were the home of the gembounds after all, and her home never ceased to amaze her. Though, it was just not the scenery of the caves Zyros was interested in. No, she was also looking for something deeper than that. She wanted to unravel the secrets and history of the caves. Even at a young age the joey knew there were secrets the caves held, and she would be one of the gembounds to find them out. The mud did not bother the joey at all as she hopped, she was a tough one for sure. Suddenly, Zyros spotted something in the water, and she already assumed it to be another gembound. She was kind of lonely, so she greeted whoever was half submerged in the mud. "Hey! My name is Zyros! Are there any gembounds who live around here?" Zyros then cocked her head politely at what seemed to be an alligator to her. "What's your name?"

@Dragon

His ruminations were not, it seemed, to continue uninterrupted.

The alligator turned his head only slightly, eyeing the newcomer--a child, by the looks of things, as they so often were who came here blithely full of joy and life. A few secrets tended to replace that happiness with grim and quiet knowledge, even fear; but then, this one likely wouldn't stay long. Something about it screamed "sunshine and happiness" to the scarred-up reptile. And neither of those things did particularly well in Cetus.

Dragon shuffled a little more, so as better to face the stranger. Ahh, well. Better for me not to get too lost in these thoughts, regardless. He'd never been a particularly brooding type.

"My name is Dragon. And there are Gembound who live everywhere," he replied. "This cave is a dangerous one, child. What brings you here?"

@Zyros

Zyros kept quiet as Dragon spoke out of respect. When he finished, Zyros spoke in a confident, yet respectful tone towards the alligator. "Hello, Dragon. Yeah, I know there are dangerous places in the cave, but that won't stop me! I already know by the looks of it that there are secrets in these caves, and a history behind the caves too. Though I haven't had much success figuring them out, yet." With that Zyros gave a firm nod of her head. She was trying to gather information, but didn't know exactly how to go about doing that. She knew not of the masters of the cave. Though, she did know a lot of other things, like what gembounds were. Though, what really interested her was to be a gembound that knew of its home and its history. "Dragon, can I ask you something. Do you know of the cave's history, or any secrets? I don't mean to get personal." With that the child listened intently hoping the alligator could share what he knew. If he knew anything.

@Dragon

...This isn't right.

Dragon stared.

This kid, out of nowhere, had turned up and first asked about those who lived here, and then about "secrets." That wasn't how Gembound acted. No. Normal Gembound wandered in, not knowing a damn thing--they might ask about the weather, or why there was mud, or why there was a giant fucking rotting pile of fish behind the alligator. But to immediately ask of the Children, and their purpose..? And how had she seen him, in the first place? He was a dark, ridged shape in a dark swamp, a log shrouded in mist, yet somehow she had picked him right out. And there was no way any of his odor was scentable over the rank stench of rot.

This "Zyros" was a spy; she had to be. Astraea, or Nemean, perhaps, had sent her to find out what the Children were really doing. There was no other explanation for this behavior. Quickly, the alligator came up with a plan--and put it into action.

"Secrets? I am sure there are plenty of secrets," he answered in a rumbling chuckle. "But if it is knowledge you seek, why do you ignore what lies in front of you? You are asking of secrets--yet you are not asking about what you can see. Why do you not ask of the secrets of the stinking pile of rotting, putrescent dead flesh behind me, or the unknowable depths of this black pool? Do those not interest you..?"

Answer that, then, spy; we'll see how clever you are. But then--would a spy actually be so stupid..? To come right out and ask these questions? His gaze travelled over the joey's form. Perhaps they know of my weakness, my kindness toward children, and thought to send me one as a spy; but children are only so smart.

@Zyros

The joey looked at the alligator as he spoke, her head tilted to the side in confusion. She wasn't sure why he laughed, but he did make some good points. But when he mentioned of the dead flesh behind him, her curiosity shifted towards that. "Ewwwww. That looks really gross. Why in the caves is that over there?" She shook her head a bit, baffled by why there was rotting flesh there. "I don't know why carnivores like eating that stuff, I sure like plants a lot better. Why is all that flesh there anyways? I hope that flesh isn't an important part of the caves, cause it looks really bad" By bad, Zyros meant gross.

@Dragon

Well, now she was acting more the normal child, at least. Dragon half-glanced back toward the pile.

"It is not a matter of 'liking' to eat it. We must eat it. And that is why the caves are dangerous for ones like you. Not far from here--not far at all--I once killed and ate a creature not too unlike you before I realized that it could even speak. There are predators here, and you are prey--use caution, little one."

As for why it was here, well... If she were a spy, would it be giving out unknown knowledge? Most likely. He doubted that Astraea or Nemean knew that Aquarian was allied--if that was not too strong a word--with the Children.

He sat, for a moment, silent in the muck, debating what to say. At last, he settled on indirect honesty--a sort of misdirection, if not an outright white lie. "Flesh is an important part of the caves. Many of us must kill to survive; we eat what we kill, and by the weakness of our prey, we thrive. It is survival of the strongest, the quickest, the swiftest, the smartest. We, the living, stand on a tower of the dead that have come before us. In their demise, in our survival, death has shaped the living to be what we are now."

Which didn't really explain anything about the giant, rotting pile of fish, but hey.

@Wilder

The talk that Wilder had had with Aure had done a great deal of good for the little kitten. Where she had once been guilty and angry and hysterical that everyone in the caves hated her now, she realized that perhaps forgiveness could be found for her actions. She still held a deep, seething hatred for Pride and Envy for lying and manipulating her and for killing her friend, and she was sure they hated her back, but that didn't mean that everyone did...right?

She knew that Pride would have went to Dragon as well. The alliance meant that he would warn the leaders about such potential threats. She hadn't been back to Cetus for too long of a time in a while and had been all but absent since the incident. She had her confidence back now - it was time to face up.

She stepped into the marshy wetlands of Cetus and plunged right in, seemingly unconcerned with how wet her fur was getting. She thought that she should start by checking around the rotting pile by the water and, sure enough, as she approached, she spotted something there. It wasn't Dragon, something smaller and brighter colored, but as she approached closer, she saw the longer, darker form of the alligator. She slowed as she approached, pausing to wonder if she should intrude or if she should just wait for it to be over. If they were sharing sensitive information, she didn't want to be a part of that. She kept her distance for now, with only a small chirp of "Dragon?" to let him know she was there.

@Zyros

Zyros heard a small chirp come from behind her, and she saw a small black cat. Zyros turned and happily greeted the cat. "Hello! My name is Zyros, what's your name? Hold on, you know Dragon? How? I don't mean to intrude on anything." Then her child-like mind went back to what Dragon had told her. "Dragon what do you mean by flesh being an important part of the caves? I'm trying to understand it but I don't exactly get it? Maybe because it means we're all one or something like that. But I have no clue." Her head then turned back to Wilder. "You sure have very pretty eyes, and your gem is pretty too! I'm trying to get some help from dragon on the secrets of the cave!" Of course, Zyros had no clue of Dragon's secrecy for his group, or his suspicions being she was just a child. Though, she really was trying to learn what few could, which was the secrets of the cave.

@Dragon

Wilder had arrived.

And the kangaroo joey was chattering on just like the kitten had used to do.

Dragon slowly closed his eyes. I am going to hate every moment of this, he thought to himself, dourly. At length, he opened them again, turning to Wilder. For the time being, he chose to ignore Zyros' questions entirely, or rather, dismiss them with a simple--"Perhaps you are too young to understand the explanation I gave. Give it time."

He then spoke to Wilder. The cat had been absent, and he had received, of course, word of her supposed madness, betrayal, all that nonsense. He was more prone to believe one of his own members, but Pride had not been anything but an ally to them, and Wilder had had her share of bizarre, garbled-speech fits of idiocy in the past.

"The goose," he said to her, simply. "Explain."

He didn't tell Zyros to leave, nor explain what was going on; his question was toward Wilder, and he waited in silence.

@Wilder