ORIGIN

"Speech" @Khloros

"Oh... I didn't know that could happen." Todd was silent for a few moments, before a strange look came over his little face. "But... how do you know?"

He looked down at the skull again. "Well... what if they can, they just don't wanna? 'Cause parts of em are still there."

He didn't seem to be taking Khloros' explanation as creepy, but the entire concept of death as odd and alien. But one had to hand it to him, he was determined as anything to make friends with that skull. He poked the skull once more with his soft paw and looked back up at Khloros as he heard that satisfying sound of his hoofbeats.

Reluctantly, the little fox finally raised his head from the skull and took a few paces away, leaving it behind. After a moments' thought he turned back. "I'll tell you all about it when I'm back!" and then bounded after Khloros, slipping occasionally as his stiff paw contacted the ground.

As he reached the area Khloros was investigating, Todd turned to look up at the stallion, craning his neck as high as it'd go. "Yes, yes! I bet there's something new down there!" he droned excitedly, and broke into a trot, his black fuzz quickly fading into the darkness as he snuffled around without waiting for his newfound companion.

Khloros paused as the black bundle of fluff shot by him into the darkness. Clink, patpatpat, clink, patpatpat, clink.

He picked up his own pace with a soft snort and toss of his head, trotting a bouncing, bony gait after the fox. The poor cub had still been trying to speak to the skull--he seemed a bit, well, stupid, that one. But Khloros did not care, nor judge, instead trotting after him, ears rotating to listen about in the darkness.

Another explosive snort, almost a sneeze, escaped him. Wide glowing eyes cast their own eerie light on the stone, but other than that, he was passing through a patch of eerie blackness. He hesitated, unable to see where the fox had gone, and paused, sudden fear passing through him.

In the darkness, full of bones--maybe he isn't stupid. Maybe he's like Louie. Maybe this is a trap.

He shifted his focus at once, instinctively, his magic taking over to guide him where his eyes could not. He felt the world around him change as if a shroud had drawn across it--as if everything were dark--and then he could see... no, sense--the glimmer of life up ahead. It was all around, scarce but present, but there was one ball of it moving rapidly forward ahead of him.

Not a trap, then.

With a shrill snort, the horse broke into a slow canter--yet that was quite fast, considering he was in the darkness. His large frame slipped through the shadows until he emerged on the other side, trotting up alongside the fox.

Khloros looked around, thin neck twisting so that he could look over the distant cave walls, their strange markings drawing his eye.

"What are those?" he asked the fox.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

"Speech" @Khloros

Completely oblivious to the thoughts and suspicions going through the elder's head, Todd looked up, ears pricking again as his hooves sounded, echoing loud and louder throughout the hollow they'd stepped into. then the horse stood at his side and the little cub looked up with big eyes full of excitement, and a faint glow that reflected light from back the way they'd come.

Khloros seemed to notice something first, something that Todd was too short to see. Whilst he didn't seem envious of the stallion for noticing it first, it seemed like he was slightly annoyed that he couldn't see quite that high due to his short stature. He craned his neck for a moment before launching himself up a few times, leaping up and up and then landing heavily on his paws. Then he jumped again, perhaps a little higher, and was just able to glance upon the mysterious markings before he was back on the ground. Perhaps it would have been easier if he'd taken a few steps back, but after some consideration he bounded forward so that he was directly below the markings on the walls.

"I see em, I see em!" he squeaked, little voice echoing. "I dunno what they are, do you have any ideas?" although Khloros had just asked the exact same question, he felt determined that the horse would know at least something more.

Since there was a wall there, the fox cub placed his soft paw on the wall. It felt rough beneath the pad. Then he tried to raise himself up higher, placing both paws equally apart, and one let out a tiny clink!

"Did the things all outside make this?"

Khloros followed, trotting forward with another swish of his matted tail. He, too, came to a halt just before the carvings, eyeing them over slowly and curiously.

He wasn't sure what they were meant to even depict, but something Todd said caught his attention.

"'The things all outside?'" he asked, peering toward the fox. "What do you mean?"

Likely it was merely a childish phrasing that referred to something that the fox imagined was obvious to Khloros. The horse, however, immediately wondered if Todd knew something he didn't; something, perhaps, about others, about something... beyond?

He lifted his gaze back to the carvings, turning his body to walk slowly along, allowing his eyes to drift over each panel. He had no idea what they represented... They were drawn on, carved on. Here and there, on otherwise empty patches, there were far fresher images--painted in blood, he thought--of large and fearsome beasts.

There was a three-headed dog, and a thing that looked rather draconic, he thought--like Raheerah, in some ways, only less intimidating, somehow. But the rest, the older things, he did not recognize.

With a snort and a stomp he stopped, turning to peer back at Todd, wondering if perhaps the fox held the answer to his questions.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

"Speech" @Khloros

"You know, the ones outside. There were hundreds of them. You said they were like us once. They couldn't move or speak anymore. I saw glitters in some of 'em. Like on my paw."

In order to illustrate his point, Todd tapped delicately on the wall so that his gem made a tiny sound. "Maybe they did it before they couldn't move. Or... when no-one was looking." Todd's ears trembled, his fluffy fur starting to puff out. He was getting suspicious, excited and curious all at once, as if he was getting all wound up into one huge and long-forgotten mystery. He seemed determined that these carvings had been here for ages but in truth, the fox cub didn't know how to tell, so another part of him wanted to believe that the creators were still around, and that he could find them, perhaps to ask what they meant.

Truthfully, the little cub couldn't see them at all from down here, and he just peered up as best he could, turning back as Khloros stamped a hoof. "What do they look like? Can you see them very well?"

Todd waved his tail eagerly from side to side.

"The things that made this must have been huuuuuuuge!!"

Khloros stared, for awhile, bemused.

What was Todd talking about? The bones were right behind them, right back up the trail. What did he mean by "outside?"

Khloros gave up trying to understand the kit. It was fluffing back and forth and babbling and racing to touch the images, and the horse instead turned his attention to those. He lifted his head, stretching it to try and reach the paintings and carvings, but he could not.

The red ones--the fresh ones, like the three-headed dog--were pretty easily within reach. So maybe something smaller had made those...? But the vast, strange carvings on the wall... He didn't know what those were.

With a soft snort, he attempted to stir the bacteria within himself, to call upon his magic, to look at the wall through a different lens. Perhaps its secrets were known to plague? Perhaps they were his to see, and not to be seen with normal eyes? Maybe that's what Rafael had meant, all those months ago, by them being different--maybe they could see what others could not.

The magic came to him easily enough, the buzz and bustle of the bacteria easily visible along the wall.

"Very big," Khloros agreed absently--since, to the fox, anything at all must seem enormous, or so Khloros imagined.

He didn't see any strange imagery, in any case--not yet, at least. Just the bacteria, swarming along the stone. It was like any other patch of stone along the outer wall of Canis. The horse turned his gaze back down to the kit, a little disappointed.

"Maybe whoever the bones once were made them, yes. I can't see anything with my magic; do you have magic?" Khloros asked, nostrils flaring with interest.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

"Speech" @Khloros

Todd looked up at Khloros, who was looking at him. The cub took a few seconds to think, looking a little strained as he racked his brains for whatever he might have done wrong. "Uhm... Where... where it ain't dark?" he asked slowly but surely, thinking back and guessing.

But he didn't worry about it. Todd didn't worry about anything, and this was too much of an exciting discovery to let anything bring him down.

He noticed Khloros stretching out his neck, and Todd stretched up as far as he could, but couldn't even reach the lowest carvings. He wondered if the carvings were bigger even than Khloros. But Khloros was huge, too! Anything that was bigger than him, Todd couldn't even imagine. He thought the idea was insane. The horse agreed with him, and Todd began to bounce with glee against the wall, stopping only as his paw slipped and collapsed down onto his side with a pitiful yip.

"What's magic do?" Todd asked, slowly but surely getting up. "I don't think I do it. I dunno. How do I do it? I can try! I wanna go!"

He got up and looked at Khloros, every glint in his eyes asking for a mentoring session.

Magic. The fox was asking him about magic.

Khloros paused again, turning his entire body--shuffling with a tapping of hooves--to face down at the little black kit.

"I think that the ones who know magic," he began slowly, consideringly, "control the little things all around us. I carry illness. Booker--a friend--can see and control the mushrooms all around us. Even grow them, to eat. Do you have a stone? Is your paw a stone? Try focusing on that... it seems to come from that, for some."

For himself, Khloros was still quite unaware of his own gem. It was lodged in the flesh of his side, generally covered, and unlike some, did not glow when his magic was active. So far as he knew, only some had gems, and he did not. His magic, he thought, came instead from all the bacteria--the "friends"--swarming within his body.

As to the fox's magic, he could only guess.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

"Speech" @Khloros

"Oooooohh..." Todd made a small noise, clearly in awe, though it was clear he wasn't certain on the details of what each power actually did. "Show m-!" he began as expected, then broke off and looked down at his stone.

"I wanna do magic too," he said, fur bristling with eagerness. Focus, Khloros said. Focus on the stone. Hmmmmm... Todd's brow creased as he stared at it, turning it over so it reflected what little light there was. Was that Magic? He'd seen that a thousand times before. It was almost boring by now. He narrowed his eyes, all intent on that stone, the fur along his spine bristled.

Magic, magic, magic, he thought to himself, and perhaps muttered out loud. I dunno what I wanna do, but I wanna do it.

There was a feeling beginning to rise in his chest, but it couldn't be sure if it was magic or if he was just holding his breath. But he kept focusing on his gem, and then on that feeling, until eventually he closed his eyes, focusing so hard his fur shook like he was having a scary dream.

Todd kept it there, struggling to keep it, unsure of how to make it actually do something. He opened his eyes to barely slits and glanced around, at some unfortunate bones nearby. He glared at them oddly, wondering why it was they seemed to tremble. As he opened his eyes fully, the bones gave a loud clatter as they burst away from one another and skittered across the ground in all directions.

Todd jumped out of his skin, and ran to hide behind Khloros.

Khloros watched as the fox bristled, and trembled, and muttered. He watched as the bones were stared at, and clattered, and tossed away.

And as the fox ran to hide behind him, he turned his long, sleek head to follow. In fact he fully turned, hooves clicking as he rotated in place to peer down at Todd.

He said nothing, at first.

Instead, he turned again and paced slowly to the bones, ambling with a swish of his tail, lowering his head to nudge through them and sniff with flared nostrils and a blow of warm air.

There is nothing out of the ordinary with them. It must have been the fox, then. Unless someone is toying with us.

But when Khloros listened, ears rotating; when he lifted his head and gazed slowly around, he could find no one. It was just Todd and himself and the bones.

"That is your magic, then, I think."

Khloros turned to face Todd once more, large head tilted, unblinking eyes fixed upon him.

"Try it again? To be sure."

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD