ORIGIN

Today, Kera was tired. Tired of running after rats and trying to catch them. Tired of fishing and getting her paws wet. Tired of practising magic and failing-- though, to her credit, she was getting better at that, at least.

For now, she just lay on her side in a ring of bioluminescent fungi (blue had been her colour of choice today) and she did what she did best.

Absolutely nothing.

It wasn't too bad. It wasn't like she was waiting for something, or that she was bored. She dozed on and off in the same spot for hours, or what she assumed were hours. She knew she was near a wall in the darkness. She could feel her tail press against it if she moved it in the right spot.

She knew there was a storm up above, too- but she didn't want to pay attention to that. It freaked her out just a bit, more than aggressive geese and taunting rats ever could. More than being swept away by the river could. It left her alone as long as she did nothing, so she did just that.

Absolutely nothing.

Now, her eyes were flicking open again for the third time in some... very long time, perhaps. Kera did not know. She could see the gentle blue glow of the mushrooms around her, but beyond that, only darkness.

She slowly rolled from her side to her belly, yawning and stretching her burly limbs. Perhaps, Kera thought, it was time to actually do something.

Kera was still half-asleep when she heard the sound of nails scrambling against the cave floor, half-assuming it was a rat. She had no time for rats. She instead quietly considered what she would do until it was time for her to go back to sleep, but her mind came to a slight blank.

She could talk to Aka, but he'd probably just ask for more food, and Kera didn't want to go hunting. Not right now. She could go to the river and take a drink to clear her throat perhaps, and clear her mind in the process, but that required... standing. Kera did not want to get up. Not yet.

She yawned again, and then realised something was behind her. One of the mushroom-lights had gone out and there was the smell of something bird-like. Her mind flashed immediately to the Goose Incident, and it did not help when she was touched.

She jerked, initially, but she was quick to realise that the thing-that-was-touching her did not have a beak, nor were they biting her. How strange. She craned her head back to look once they started speaking. "What?" she was more quietly confused than anything else, heart beating rapidly from the scare of assuming the goose had come back and was looking for another fight. "Who are you?"

She turned, careful not to damage anymore of her carefully-grown mushrooms. "You stepped on one-- be careful," she said worriedly, nosing at a spotted cap. "They're very tiring to grow."

Pink eyes flicked back up towards the creature. It looked.. a little like the goose, but a little like Kera did, too. "I'm Kera," the pup offered. "I'm going to fix the lights."

Confusion melded into realisation. They couldn't see. Kera pushed herself up at once and slipped away from the ring of mushrooms, though not before she first extended her nose out to where the mushroom was crushed and dying. She yanked it out the ground with her teeth. "Hold on," she said through a mouth full of fungus, offering the still-shimmering cap out. "Eat it, if you want. It's safe."

She pushed her nose against the soil, concentrating quietly. From the soil sprouted new clusters of the same mushroom, replacing what was lost. Kera moved back, watching the mushrooms push their way out and grow into six-inch high plants that dimly illuminated the ground. She sighed.

"It's a mushroom," she said. "I grow them. You can get ones that glow and ones that don't. I like the glowing ones because they're like little fake-lights. They'll light things for people until I can get the lights back on." She eyed the mushrooms sadly, for a moment. "Come here, so you don't stand on them again."

Her tone was gentle, not unfriendly. She shifted about a foot away from the ring of pretty (if foul-metting) mushrooms, itching her shoulder with a hind leg. "Buzzing? That sounds weird. How do you get around now?" She glanced around briefly, then sniffed the air.

Except for some rats, they were alone. Why was Kielo alone? Who would leave something blind on their own? Kera did not know, but the question started bothering her. What did they eat? How did they eat? Could they even hunt?

"Are you hungry?" the pup asked. "The river is close, if you like fish. We can try to hunt rats?" As much as she hated rats, she still offered-- giving people a choice was polite, but she also didn't want to try hunting with a blind creature for too long, least they get lost.

"I'm the best at growing things," Kera said quietly, fairly matter-of-factly. She didn't move, allowing Kielo to sniff and touch the ragged fur on her back with her tail lightly thumping against the cave floor. She didn't particularly mind it. She didn't have much of a concept of personal space to begin with, and she had quickly gotten the idea that nosing and touching would help them see, somehow.

She thought of the goose. If Kielo touched the goose while it was asleep, they would have been attacked. The might have died. The wolf bristled faintly at this thought, though tried to put it out of mind as the hybrid continued speaking.

The lights. "I don't know," she said. "I've never even seen them on, but I've seen small lights. They're pretty and they're bright. I think it'll be alright." A pause, that lasted two or three beats. Kera licked her nose. "If you can't see, you can guide others through the dark, can't you? You're used to it already. You can help that way."

Kera wasn't even sure if this would totally work, but it was polite to suggest. There was surely some truth in it, too-- if they were already accustomed to not being able to see, they would know the most about it.

Pink eyes flicked towards her mushrooms again as Kielo explained the buzzing, ear flicking. "Maybe it's away helping other people," she suggested. "Maybe it trusts you to use your nose and find your own way. I don't know." She twisted her head towards the river now, grimacing faintly.

If they fell in there, they would be swept away and have no idea where they were. How did they even survive in these caves?

Her head turned back to the faint silhouette of the hybrid. "You should try sometime," she said, though she imagined that eating plants and mushrooms were better for them. If they got addicted to the taste of blood, they'd never be satisfied, or they would get hurt trying to satisfy themselves by hunting. Kera breathed a heavy sigh. "Or I can grow more mushrooms for you. I don't know what ones taste very good-- they get stuck in my teeth. We can find out?"

She pondered, though briefly, the meaning behind eating something alive. It didn't entirely bother Kera, really. It was natural for her to hunt and to eat. She had to do it to survive. "But if they're dead, they'll go to waste," she said. "They don't speak or try to try to be social either. Some of them are really, really violent.""

Like the goose.

She sighed. "But it's okay. You don't have to eat anything you don't want to." She remained still, close to the hybrid. This friend was different from the likes of Aka-- dependant, but for more than food. Kera was okay with having friends who needed help. She was a hero. Helping people was what she did.

Kera considered, briefly, and then nodded. "I'm very proud," she said as she pushed herself up, looking around briefly. "I've seen some lights, but not the big ones. I've been stones and gems that glow and give light, but I don't think they're actual lights. They're just... things-that-are-light." She considered, then shrugged.

She started moving off, though she moved slowly and carefully; positioning herself very close to Kielo so that they would know where she was going. "We're just going here. A little away from the other mushrooms so they don't interfere." She stopped not too far away, only a few feet, and then reached out through the darkness to touch her nose to the ground.

Making mushrooms grow was tiring and difficult-- but she did get there eventually. Perhaps it was because she was trying to grow a different kind of fungus than she usually does, a kind that doesn't glow or shimmer. The certain type of mushroom that came out from the soil were simple, of varying size and shape, but they all had white-grey caps.

They smelled considerably better than the glowing mushrooms she liked to grow, but they didn't smell good. She sat back on her haunches. "Can you smell them?" she asked. "Try some."


She lifted a leg to scratch at the shaggy fur clinging to her skin. She hadn't considered if eating meat was gross or not-- she just did it. "It washes off," she said. "The sticky stuff. It tastes good too, but it washes off in water and stuff. It smells good, too-- but if it's been lying around too long, it'll smell bad."

She considered. "Don't eat things that smell bad," Kera offered this snippet of wisdom with a nod of her white head.