Submission (#2281) Approved

After their earlier debacle with Caspian wandering off and falling asleep in some unknown cave, Nautilus refuses to let the blue kittom out of his sight for even a second. Zevija is just too big and dangerous a place to let him wander off like that again. Plus, he might have been able to snap himself out of his panic the first time, but he honestly isn’t sure if he could do it again. His heart was just too weak. One day, he wants to get stronger… he just doesn’t feel ready.

Some days he wonders if he ever will be. Or if traveling and seeing the world is even what he truly wants in life. He never would have considered it before meeting Caspian, but every time he looks at his friend, he feels something pulling deep within his chest. A yearning that he can’t quite place or even explain. If he didn’t want to do it, would he let himself be so easily pulled along with all of Caspian’s antics? Or was he only doing so because he enjoyed the other elnin’s company so much?

“Naut, I’m hungryyy.” The kittom in question drawls from his place beside Nautilus and breaks him from his train of thought. As if on cue, the latter hears a loud growl come from Caspian’s stomach. It’s the next day following their initial exploration of the safer parts of the region (Nautilus still didn’t feel ready to get too close to the volcanoes just yet) and the pair of kittoms are padding down the city’s main street.

He couldn’t stop himself from giggling. “It’s a good thing we’re on our way to breakfast, then.”

“Oh! I almost forgot; I got you a present!” Caspian chimes excitedly.

“A present?” Nautilus is more curious than excited; a present from Caspian could mean a variety of things. Sometimes it’s food, sometimes it’s a rock. Others, it’s some kind of small creature. Whatever they are, though, he always accepts them and appreciates the gesture, especially when it makes Caspian so happy… even if he doesn’t always keep every single one.

The blue kittom spends a few moments searching through the bag strapped to his side, but then frowns when he can’t seem to find it. “Wait… It’s gone.” He deflates like a balloon.

“Oh… Well, that’s okay. Just the memory of being with you is enough; I don’t need anything else.” His words were meant to be reassuring, they held truth; he really didn’t care about physical objects. He just wants Caspian by his side.

But his friend didn’t seem to accept that answer. As if the weight of what happened suddenly dawns on him, his eyes widen and he stands up straight. “No! We have to find it! It was special…” His voice trails off, small and weak, and he looks like he might cry.

Nautilus feels his chest tighten at the sight. “Hey, don’t get sad!” He’s not always sure what to do when Caspian gets like this, in these moods that come and go so quickly like a switch, but it’s usually not very hard to calm him down. He wants to help him the way he always does for him. “We’ll find it! Let’s try and retrace our steps, okay?” Caspian seems reluctant before he nods sadly, eyes still glimmering with unshed tears. Smiling, Nautilus leads them away from the marketplace and back to where they’d explored yesterday.

First, they check the hot springs. The pool of water is steaming and admittedly kind of inviting after all the activity Nautilus has gone through the past few days. Before he could even look around, Caspian dives straight in. “What are you doing?” Naut laughs at the unexpectedness of it.

“I need to check if it’s in the water, of course,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. They didn’t even go in the hot springs yet, but he supposes one could reason that it could have somehow fallen in as they walked by. Not wanting to get his paws wet, he continues his search along the sand and rocks lining the springs while Caspian bobs in and out of the water.

“Any luck?” He calls after a good bit of searching. The look on Caspian’s face is answer enough. They

Next, they go into the cavern Caspian had been sleeping in. There was a hidden mineshaft down here, they’d found, that led to what looked to be a small abandoned city. The walls were encrusted with glittering gems and crystals of all colors, some as small as Nautilus’ eye and others larger than his entire body. He wondered, at the time, how much some of these jewels were worth. The air is strangely cool in the caves, despite the fact that magma runs through the region’s underbelly.

It takes them a good while to retrace the steps they took in these tunnels. There’s so many hidden niches and cracks in the floor and ruins of old buildings they weaved in and out of that it seems like an impossible task to find anything that might have been lost. After what feels like a couple of hours, they decide to leave the caverns and check elsewhere.

As they head back into town, there’s another elnin sitting across the road. She’s got long flowing hair and a tail to match, with an almost ghostly atmosphere about her. Nautilus didn’t think much of the stranger, but Caspian immediately freezes in his tracks and stares at her. “She’s got the present!” He suddenly exclaims.

“What? Are you sure?” Caspian’s gaze is fixed on the pendant she’s holding in her paws and he confidently nods. He then looks back and forth between Nautilus and the elnin, an unsure expression on his face. It’s as if he’s intimidated by the adult and doesn’t want to go near her. She does look kind of grumpy, with the way her mouth is set in a firm frown and her eyes are narrowed into slits while she inspects the object. He doesn’t know if he wants to talk to her, either...

But this is important to Caspian. Steeling himself, Nautilus makes his way toward her. “Um, excuse me, ma’am,” his voice sounds as nervous as he feels and it’s hard for him to keep it from breaking completely when she actually turns to look at him. “I- I, um, think you might have something that belongs to... to my friend!”

An eyebrow raises slightly in apparent surprise, but she still looks so mean. “Is that so?” Suddenly finding it hard to speak, Nautilus settles for pointing a shaky paw at the pendant. “This?” She makes a displeased click of her tongue when he nods. “I just discovered this in the ruins.”

“W-we were there yesterday,” he continues, unwilling to give up. “I think we might have dropped it there…” At this point, Caspian has come up to stand by his side.

“Yeah, I found it as a gift for Naut. He’s my best friend!” The loud declaration makes Nautilus feel just the slightest bit shy. “So please can we have it back?”

She looks between the two of them, hardened eyes searching for something Nautilus didn’t know. Whatever it was, she must find it, for she eventually heaves a sigh and tosses the necklace towards Caspian who catches it around his neck. “Fine, keep it. It’s junk anyways.” She doesn’t spare them another glance as she walks away and disappears back down the road to town.

“Here, Naut,” Caspian’s cheerful voice brings his gaze back to him. He’s holding out the necklace expectantly, so Nautilus lowers his neck and allows the other to slip it over his head. “Do you like it?”

He looks down at the pendant sitting across his chest. It’s a unique piece of jewelry, for sure- at the end of a rustic golden chain sits a bright blue stone with a pattern on the inside, almost like a twinkling star. “See? Now we match!” Caspian points to the marking on his own chest. “Doesn’t it look kind of like me?”

Nautilus squints, unsure if he would put it that way, but Caspian seems so pleased by the idea that he smiles back. “Yeah. It kind of does.”

“Now, even if I’m not with you, you can look at that instead of the sky.” Nautilus’ smile grows brighter at the thought, and he’s glad they managed to find it, after all.