Sunny and Tema had been traveling for what felt like days. Not that time was so easily understandable by Sunny just yet, but along the way the young gembound had stopped to eat several times and even sleep once or twice. Mostly because they were traveling on raw instinct and had no real clue of where they were actually going. But recently, they had both noticed the smell of plants and earth, and Sunny had directed Tema (who seemed to be distinctly worse at telling when there were other Gembound around) towards the entrance to this new cave.

The snail's senses were assaulted by green everywhere she looked, but that was scarcely the most interesting part. There were other gems nearby, that much she could sense, but no -- Sunny could taste a slime trail. "Slime! Slime! Slime! Slime!" she chanted, head raising excitedly from where she was seated between Tema's shoulder blades. "Adventure-kin snail-finding??" she nearly begged, hoping that Tema would understand. It wasn't like she could cover much ground on her own, which meant she was totally at Tema's mercy if she wanted to get anywhere fast. Sunny had never met another snail before, but the taste of a slime trail big enough to be sensed even from the air had to mean someone big enough to speak.


@tema
@madhukar
@oka
@carja

Carja was a good bit bigger than she had been only a cycle prior, and was growing faster and faster as the days passed. By now she was around the size of the average sheep, with large wings and short horns rather than nubs. It wouldn't be long until she was fully grown!

The she-dragon darted through the trees adeptly, having basically been flying nonstop since she'd become a part of the Monoceros thunder. She loved flying through the trees and hunting down a meal to eat every now and then. She perked up as she heard voices, her head swiveling downwards to try and pick up where they were coming from.

She arced downwards and perched on the branch of a tree, tail flinging out to balance as she peered down, cooing softly.

"Hello!!" she called down with a squawk, her tail lashing back and forth happily.

  


TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart

Though the adventure had take a while with no real goal in sight, Tema hadn't tired. Well, she had slept a few times, but she wasn't bored. There were so many new steps to take and places to smell... Even if they did a couple circles along the way by accident.

The talking on the journey led to Tema increasing her speaking skills, making her words more... like words. Though she still growled and grunted as an indicator of mood from time to time, she was starting to get a better grasp on the concept of conversation.

"Slime? Other kin-snail?" Tema wasn't quite sure how Sunny had seen another one her size from atop her back, but she spun around slowly looking for it anyway. Before she could even complete a full turn however, a voice caught her off guard and she whipped around to face it. Regret filled her as she checked to see if Sunny was alright before even acknowledging the newcomer.

OOC Notes: Do I tag everyone involved in something like this or just...?

Oka had gotten rather used to its quiet life in Eridanus. It spent its days chewing on vegetation, or attaching plants of particular interest to itself. It was one of a few gembound that lived her, and rarely got visitors. A pair of carollers twittered from its shell. Calming, at first. Then grating, upon the hundredth time hearing them.

It tried to ignore their songs, concentrating on the vegetation in front of it. Oka was either going deaf or it would be soon from the carollers. Oka paused, head raised. It shooed the carollers, who twittered angrily before settling once more.

It had thought it had heard something. But whatever it was, Oka was too far away to tell. With the snail equivalent of a shrug(imagine that however you will), Oka went back to chewing on its extremely tasty grass.

Madhukar was really, really, REALLY quite sick of other creatures by now. Seriously, this was supposed to be a happy place. She was always happiest when NO ONE ELSE WAS AROUND. So why were there people here?!

Like, for example, this incredibly bizarre gathering of creatures of all shapes and sizes she had accidentally stumbled way too close to. Who were these suckers?! What were ANY of them doing here, or talking about, and WHY?! Madhukar just could not understand what the deal with "slime" was. One thing kept repeating it over and over and over again like it was a complete sentence. It wasn't. And she didn't want to care what it meant.

She was going to go check on the bugs that buzzed. That's where her path was. She was super done looking around, she just needed to stick to those soothing bugs and figure out more about them. You know, get some alone time. But these fools were directly in her way, talking about... slime, she supposed. It didn't matter. She was moving past them. Right.... now.

Nope.

NOW!

Still nope.

Okay, what about now?!

Nah. The noise was going to cover up the buzzing. It was agitating and nonsensical. The very presence of these creatures was just too infuriating to ignore. So, naturally, Madhukar did what Madhukar does best.

She got loud.

Well. She had meant to yell at them, perhaps trying to summon a boom to amplify her message of YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE, LEAVE ME AND MY BUGS ALONE!!! Instead, her attempt to use her spell had backfired spectacularly, and all she could hear was a clamorous ringing that seemed to pulsate throughout her whole skull. A clamorous ringing that, surprisingly, only she would be able to hear. So she was yelling at the top of her lungs, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" but she could barely hear a thing.

What an excellent start.

@Sunny @Oka @Tema @Carja

Sunny had been preoccupied with her excitement when Tema whipped around suddenly, which sent her tumbling off. Surprisingly, her slime wasn't the best at hanging onto fur, especially when she wasn't at all thinking about hanging on. She pulled into her shell quickly, and landed on the ground relatively softly. It wasn't as though she had any bones to jar, and a gemstone was generally stronger than a normal snail's shell, so she was fine -- especially on soft ground from such a short distance. Not that it wasn't startling. Once she was sure she wasn't falling anymore, Sunny reemerged only to be greeted by a strange gray-blue thing with far too many limbs and a creature with roughly the same shape as Tema, albeit much smaller, screaming at the top of her tiny lungs.

Sunny frowned as best she could, although the gesture was probably only noticed by dear Tema for what it was. "Little-stone? No fright, Little-stone. Tema and Sunny are friend-kin. No need for shriek-saying, Little-stone. She hadn't quite noticed Carja beyond an absentminded anecdote that her form was likely compatible with that of a snail. Instead, she was far more preoccupied with... this. Loud noises didn't effect Sunny very much because her hearing was less... hearing and more a sense of vibrations, but she was still concerned for the kitten and was hoping that she could hear Sunny over all the noise she was making.


@carja

Carja didn't know what the heck was going on, but that was okay! She didn't mind all the chaos, seeing as she herself was very chaotic.

"HELLO!!!" she squawked over the din, looking at Tema, "I AM CARJA!! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

If she was being honest, talking with being that a. could talk, and b. weren't writhing slabs of meaty flesh was pretty great! Oh, and not dragons who napped all the time. Svartis was boring, though she loved her father with all her heart. She wanted to explore! And fly! And eat! And sniff things!!

And meet people, hence why she was so eager to fly down.

@Tema

  


TEMA
The bravest creatures are often the softest at heart

Where had the simplicity gone? Tema wondered briefly as she tried to watch all that happened around her. She was especially thankful when the winged thing flew down, making it much easier for her small eyes to catch the full view of everyone. From a screaming little-bear to a bouncy winged thing and finally a fallen kin... It wasn't hard to see Tema's confusion as she figured out which way to look.

Tema was relieved to see her snail kin okay on the ground, happy that her gem kept her safe when she tucked inside. She was even more pleased when her kin somehow silenced the screaming little-bear.

Finally getting herself together again, Tema focused on the winged thing that was speaking directly to her. Name? Oh, yes! Tema! Tema was what she was! Oh, wait... She would have to speak it for it to be known. After her moment of silence, she lifted her head and looked directly at the winged thing... Carja, she corrected herself.

"Tema!" Though she couldn't help the rumbling behind her voice, she was happy the word came out clear. "Kin to Sunny-snail! Carja is pretty blue!"

Though Tema was still finding a hard time correlating all her thoughts into proper words, she was proud of herself for getting most of it through. She sat back and smiled, her tone clearly showing her excitement.

OOC Notes:

@Oka I do believe?

The birds roosting upon Oka had quieted, settling down. And within that pause of noise, Oka heard speech. Other gembound, it was unmistakable! Considering how long it had been since it spoke to another, its not a surprise that, upon the prospect of another speaking gembound, Oka got really excited.

Oka's head raised, eyestalks stretched toward the sky as it searched for the location of the sound. From...somewhere behind it? It swirved around. The pair of carollers roosting on its shell took to the air, twittering at their disturbance.

Oka idly shooed at them with a tentacle. They didn't leave. Oka ignored that. But oh, this was fun! Gembound! Actual other gembound, the last it had seen was Qiziux, and thay had been a while ago. Oka followed the speech, their shell creaking and rustling with the whisper of vegetation. Picking off greenery to munch on the way.

Oka pushed and pulled branches from their path, ducking their eyestalks as they pushed through the underbrush. Oka knew they had made it when the speech became clear, and pushed through the towering brush. They lazily swept their gaze over the gathered gembound. Everything looked young here. There was a dragon there, a small, tan kitten, a bear, and. Wait, there was something on top of the bear. A parasite? Oka slithered from the brush. Well someone had to tell the bear about it. No way to sugar coat it.

"Hey, I'm Oka! Welcome to Eridanus. So. Bear kid. You... you, uh, you got a--" she paused.

The thing on the bear looked familiar. A shell, feelers, and eyestalks. Her eyestalks shrunk in suprise, before extending fully.

"Hey! You're like me!" She said pointing a tentacle at the small snail.

@Madhukar

In the midst of Madhukar's pain and screaming, a voice got through to her ears, clear as a crystalline day. She was a little awestruck at the fact that those sound waves had managed to reach her ears in the first place. Something about those words, the way they were said... something about them was comforting in a way Madhukar couldn't immediately understand. They didn't make sense-- it wasn't that they made sense. She wasn't scared, and her name was Madhukar. But somehow that wasn't upsetting. That was because of the tone... the intention. Like music to calm a wailing beast.

Madhukar's wailing ceased.

Madhukar looked for the source. The one who called her "Little Stone". It must've been "Sunny and Tema"-- one of the two. Tema, the brown one, spoke. That wasn't the voice. Something was close to Tema, something small, as small as a bug. Tema called it "Sunny Snail". Sunny. Sunny snail. Madhukar's eyes locked onto it, and she attempted to draw closer to it (and Tema by extension). She, like the much, much larger creature in the room, seemed to be enamored by this tiny "Sunny" creature.

"Sunny is... friend-kin?" Madhukar wanted to understand. Her body felt still, her heart calmer than it had ever been before around strangers. What was this... "friend-kin"? Why did it sound so... hm.

On the side, Madhukar's ears catalogued two things it heard in bits while the eyes weren't paying attention to the surroundings all that much. Apparently "Carja" was pretty blue, and this whole place was... Eridanus.

And Sunny and Tema were "friend-kin". Friend-kin. What?

@Sunny