In Fornax, on an island that wouldn't have been there if the tide had been out and among the ferns, a stone had been washed up on the beach. That had been some time ago -- presumably, whatever had been inside before had either been a water-dwelling creature or especially unlucky. Now, though, the fire opal was in the form of a chrysalis. It was pretty small, all things considered -- especially considering the creature inside was only a few inches long.

The chrysalis was cracking.

At first, it was hard to notice -- just a web of green from the light above growing sharper and sharper until suddenly, a visible crack was forming on the outside of the shell, and then the whole thing was splitting open. The neonate inside seemed a bit distressed -- automatically, it grabbed for one of the chunks of gemstone and pulled it closer, reluctant to leave the chrysalis even as liquid flooded out around him. He was wet, which meant he wasn't dying, but it was still somewhat uncomfortable. Mostly, he was attributing this to no longer being in chrysalis.

Unfortunately, he'd need to move into the water soonish, or face a rather unfortunate fate. The neonate, however, wasn't really bright enough to figure that out just yet.



@blackwing

Blackwing was circling above Fornax, wings flapping idly as they just wasted the hours away, fish filling their belly. Hellfire yawned and shook out his head, snorting gently before leading them closer to the water.

"Nice day," he mumbled, the other two heads grunting in agreement.

Koi spotted something in the distance and veered them towards it, making the other two heads look at her questioningly, brows raised.

"I saw something," was all she said, and they landed, the chrysalis in front of them.

"Hello?", Luci asked, poking their head forward and snorting, "Are you alive?"

Hellfire and Koi looked at him with blank disappointment.

"What? I was just asking," Luci scoffed.

@Paul

The newborn froze. There was a voice -- voices, actually. Plural. His gemstone shell was drawn tightly to his body, a natural defense mechanism of the octopus (though usually done with shells). He hesitated, his hearts beating rapidly as he mulled over the words. He... kind of understood them. More or less. The intentions, at least -- the one speaking said alive, and was asking a question.

He considered it for a moment, and finally squeaked back a reply of "Hello." The voice was tiny and muffled. After another few beats, the chunk of chrysalis moved slightly, and his eyes looked around wildly as they adjusted to the sudden uncomfortable brightness before finally settling on the massive (comparatively, anyway) three-headed creature before him. He slowly pulled the stone back into place.

Mostly, the little Gembound was wishing he could go back to being in the chrysalis now. The air was cooling his skin and making it uncomfortable as his gills worked overtime (for the first time, anyway). Bad business all around. Instinctively, magic pulsed out, but nothing happened in the meantime.


@blackwing

The hydra's heads bobbed up and down curiously, even reaching out a hand to offer to the creature, Hellfire perking up, "Hello new one. Are you okay?"

Luci squinted and peered at Koi, "Isn't it weird that we keep just finding children? Don't you think that's weird?"

Koi rolled her eyes and Luci continued, "Oh come on, it's a little weird!"

"You're kinda like a fish," Hellfire said with a grin.

Luci squinted at him and looked at Paul, then back at Hellfire, "Are you stupid? No they don't. They look more like us than a fish."

Koi lifted a wing and thumped Luci on the head, making them squawk and snap at her, grumbling. No one appreciated them.

"Anyway," she said, "Do you need anything? Water, food?"

@Paul

"Gray talks," the child said from beneath his shell, absolutely no thought whatsoever behind the words except the fact that the tone was somewhat exasperated. There were a lot of words coming from the gray mouth, and the newborn was honestly struggling to keep up with them. They picked up weird and children and the fact that the other heads didn't seem to get along with this one. He would have mused on how strange it must've been to have three brains, but would have been one one count a hypocrite (while he only technically had the one, he did have various clusters of neurons in various places) and on the other been unable to actually scrape such a though together just yet.

Another moment of silence, and then the child echoed, "Fish?" He sounded a little offended (or perhaps amused) at the observation, but wasn't able to articulate why. Then, the kind voice came back -- it was softer than the others, with a sort of harmonic curl to it that the others didn't have, and the child stuck an arm out from under the gemstone shield. "Water..." His arm pulsed red for a moment and he tried to gather some of the wet fluid from his chrysalis that had gathered in the grass. "Water," he repeated, sounding more annoyed this time, and then pulled himself back inside totally. "Was water. Now's gone. Won't stay in." It almost sounded from his tone that he was pouting -- strange, how much expression could be held in the simple tone of one's voice.


@blackwing

Blackwing picked up Paul as carefully as possible, making sure he was hanging on before using his wings to walk towards the shore, the three heads holding their breath before setting Paul in a little pool connecting to the rest of the sea, where the sand had washed away, revealing rock.

"There, now you have a lot of water," Hellfire said with a relieved sigh, "Is this better?"

For once, Luci was silent, peering at Paul curiously, their yellow eyes inquisitive.

"You're so tiny," Koi mumbled, lifting up one of their paws, "Smaller than our fingers."

They lay down and lowered their heads, tucking in their wings and tail to try and converse with the tiny creature more easily.

@Paul

The child let out a squeak of terror, but was not so stupid as to try and do anything other than cling to Blackwing. Then, however, he was dropped in a pool, and... it was much better, all things considered. He let go and let himself submerge totally, the piece of opal forgotten now. "... Better," he admitted, squinting up at them himself. It was so bright outside of chrysalis, but touching them had given him an interesting insight -- octopods tasted with their skin, after all.

"Warm," he mumbled, mostly to himself. The spotted head, the one with the soft voice, held up one of her (their? he was not sure) paws to compare him in size. "Gonna get bigger," he explained, wondering if she knew that or not. He himself wasn't sure of how big he'd get, but he was sure it was true, considering that he could barely even swim at the moment.

He pulled his arms close to him, and then changed colors -- and textures. Suddenly, he looked rather like a pebble in the bed of rocks.


@blackwing

Hellfire reared his head back and gasped, "Woah!! Where'd you go?!"

Luci shoved his snout into Hellfire's and scoffed, "They're still right there you idiot, he just changed color."

Hellfire made a noise of understanding and nodded, peering into the water with wide eyes. That was so cool how the octopus had just... done that! No spells or anything.

"You're amazing," he said with a toothy grin, "We certainly can't do that."

Koi locked their fingers together and hummed, ignoring the two idiots beside her, "I'm certain you will get bigger. What's your name, small one?"

@Paul

He flinched at the sudden noise and motion, pulling back slightly when Hellfire startled but relaxing again shortly after. At the amazing thing, the child held up one of his arms to his face and then, after a moment, turned totally black and smooth. Then, more slowly, he went to a purplish color, and a white, and then returned to looking like a rock. "Guess so," he finally said. He'd never thought about it before. He hadn't thought about much, period.

Ah, but then, the all-important question. He mulled over it for some time, his skin starting to slowly transition between various colors as he lost himself in thought. Finally, he looked up at Blackwing and stretched one of his arms out. "Hi. I'm Paul." It was borderline silly -- incredibly human and mundane, but therefore rather unique in these caves. "You?"


@blackwing

Charmed, they reached forward and ever so gently took the other's tentacle with a talon, shaking gently, smiles on all their faces, even Luci's.

"We as a whole are Blackwing, but I'm Hellfire," the center head said, showing off his array of impressive horns, grinning again.

Koi purred gently, "My name is Koi, it's lovely to meet you, Paul."

"I'm Lucifer, or Luci," the grey head said, and balanced them on their wings, offering the other hand, "You're a curious thing."

Aside from themselves, they'd never seen something so strange and... alien. Eight legs that could tie themselves in knots, no bones or anything to hold them up. They were so weird and it was fantastic.

@Paul