ORIGIN

The death of lights meant little to Yuma, with his large eyes and large ears he was practically built for roaming around in the dark. Even more than that, with a little help from his magic potential, he found he was able to cast a little light into what might have been unnavigable darkness even for him.

Thus the small aye aye found himself wandering the edges of Marrowbound territory, shrouded completely in rolling shadows with only glowing eye and glowing scar-like gem shining out from underneath. Though he should have been out attending to his task of cleaning up the caves he really couldn't be othered to act on that duty, especially now that there had been such a large change in the atmosphere. A loud yowl interrupted the silence coming from the tunnels, indicating the start to what would doubtlessly turn out to be a grand spectacle of unknown phenomena.

With shadows trailing behind him and red light illuminating his path Yuma rushed toward the origin of the sound. Was there an enemy of the kingdom, come to try to kill everyone in the absence of light? Was there a spectre from beyond the grave who took offence to their desecration of the dead? Perhaps it was just an interesting looking bug.

The actual source of the sound was not particularly exciting, he knew that cat, but it seemed to be studying a hole in the wall. Had that been there the whole time.

"Hello, friend." his attempted 'be friendly' voice rang out as he contorted his face into a toothy smile. Of course from behind the shadows that continued to wash across him all that could really be seen were those glowing red eyes and hints of his teeth. "What mysteries have you found on the edges of our land?"

The ghostly aye aye didn't react at all as Aeroth had their little freak out. Curious. Why did these talking creatures so often display emotions of fear when they saw him? Wasn't that usually reserved for encounters with larger creatures that could cause conditions they were already averse to? Obviously it would be a long while before he would truly understand how these alien entities functioned.

"A tunnel?" Yuma parroted, dropping down to slink across the ground right past the big cat's legs and toward the hole in the wall. He hadn't quite entered yet but something felt strange about it. Indeed it appeared to be perfect for a small creature like him but would have given the larger feline no end of trouble.

Aeroth spoke again, but this time with a tone that Yuma wasn't sure he'd ever heard from them before. Honey drizzled words, sending out promises of power and appeals to group loyalty. Of course Yuma had very little deep interest in becoming the king of the janitors, especially as he was the only one he knew of at the moment, and at the end of the day the group could thrive or crumble to dust for as much as it would actually affect him. Still, he was trying to play the role of an automaton like the rest of them and it would be a shame to quit the game so soon after starting it. He'd play along, show 'loyalty' and 'courage' in the face of the unknown.

Plus it was indeed an unknown; that alone piqued his interest a bit. "I won't let the kingdom down." he spoke in an attempted 'happy to help' tone. Shadows continued to roll off Yuma as he crawled into the odd tunnel and pressed ahead, his way lit by beady red eyes shining out from the dark.

"Hmm..." Yuma mused as he shuffled a bit, trying to gain a bit more distance into the schism. This was a mystery that needed to be solved! Pain of an odd kind thudded through the tiny creature's body as claws scratched at the sides of the tunnel and head searched for any way to continue on. What an interesting sensation! It wasn’t at all like the kinds of pain when he'd gotten in fights with bigger creatures or the kind of pain from when he got bored and started breaking his own bones for amusement. This was a kind of dull pain that seemed like it would probably get more and more noticeable as time went on. Of course, there was the possibility of getting stuck, and that would probably be really boring until he lost enough weight to squeeze back out, but there was no adventure without risk, right?

"The tunnel speaks the song of the serpent." Yuma worded absentmindedly at the sizzling. This pain of discomfort was now being accented by a small difficulty in breathing as the stale hot air burned away at his lungs. What was that thing in here, and what did it have to do with the creation of such an odd atmosphere? "The tunnel writhes away from our attempts to rip open its secrets, but such efforts will end in failure."

As much an attempt at poetics for his own amusement as a message to relay his experiences to the cat outside. Even if Yuma probably was not skilled yet at simile and wordplay it was interesting to try now that he had an audience.