A frown briefly flit of Maia features as Speaker told them that Maia was going to work with the malform Kula. Maia  had nothing against the girl, she even understood how beneficial their dietary habits were, but for someone like Maia who had been surrounding by a certain lavishness it was hard to come to terms to. Still, Maia mustered herself and offered Kula a gentle smile.<i>"Thank you, I might have to take you up on that. I'm afraid my climbing skills are a little limited. As for the height? Is it really that bad?"</i>Maia probably lacked a natural fear of heights due to her aquatic origins. A sudden chasm or drop-off isn't quite as frightening if you can just swim down or back up.<br/><br/>The water naga caught both Juleaan staring at the fellow naga as well as his question. A polite smile was turned towards him as she slithered between them while answering the man's question.<i>"The birds would implode if they had hollow bones, mr Trekaar. They probably use a lighter than air gas to offset the gravity's pull. After all, gasses are denser due to the gravity. A balloon of the same volume has a lot more lift and air displacement here. They probably use methane produced by the digestion process."</i>It was easy to forget that while Maia's chosen field of study was planetary geology, she had studied other topics to. The water naga was probably qualified become an omni-disciplinarian. Physics and chemistry did play huge roles in geology.<i>"Maybe they use that methane as a defense mechanism like certain species of fire-breathing flying lizards."</i><br/><br/>-----------<br/><br/>The first section of the climb down posed it's own challenges to Maia. A tail wasn't as useful as feet when it came to small footholds. At least between Kula and Speaker the worst that Maia suffered was a bruised nose and pride. The water naga slowly got the hang of it though and by the last stretch before the A'virala Maia had more grip to easily crawl down. Rather than delaying the group like she had at the start, she now could keep up and actually take the time to take in their surroundings.<i>"Botany isn't my forte, but don't leaves discolour when they run out of photosynthesis? You usually only get carnivorous plants in nutrient-poor soil. With the amount of plantlife competition, maybe those leaves also take in the nutrient-rich droppings of those insect hunters? By attracting more of the flying wildlife they can thus win more resources."</i>Maia answered Kula's and speaker's theories with her own while silently appreciating the multi-colour cloud covering. After taking an athmospheric sample, Maia took a few pictures of the sight. Every world had their own beautiful scenes and  Maia loved collecting them.<br/><br/>-----------<br/><br/>Where A'virala felt foreboding and dangerous to others, Maia suddenly felt at home. At Kula's request, Maia took the lead from the malform. Offering the protected tip of her tail for Kula to hold onto while Maia navigated the swirling thick mists. The protective tip cup kept Kula's touch from rendering Maia into a moaning snake pile, super erogonous spots were only fun during play.<br/><br/>Others had to turn on their lights and breathing masks as they dived in that dark, green sea of clouds Maia instead moved with more certainty. Her eyes were adapted to low-light environments like this and the heavy moisture meant that Maia could turn her gill moisturizer off and properly breathe through her gills. Her comfort and ease in this mist a glimpse of the royal naga's aquatic predator origins.<br/><br/>------------<br/><br/>Once the group reached the cavern, Maia stretched her arms. For her, the climb had gone from grueling to a comfortable 'walk'.  It had been quite a while since she had been this active though, and Maia knew her tail and muscles were going to be stiff when she was finished resting. The water naga glanced at the human engineer. They had not had the chance to become properly acquainted back aboard the ship due to the human's duties. Maintaining a ship in this heavy gravity couldn't have been easy. Maia slithered over, and offered her coils to Alicia to rest in. "You can probably rest and relax for a while, miss Miranda. It's up to our guards likely but I think this is the best resting spot we'll have for a while yet so we best make good use of it."<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>