ORIGIN

Kera was hesitant to leave the light and the warmth of the fire, but she picked herself up and followed the moving alligator through the marsh, trudging through black water. "Okay," she said. "I've killed rats before. None of them have ever hurt me."

As she got closer, half-swimming and half-plodding in the marsh, the rancid stench of rot hit the roof of her mouth and threatened to make her throw up. Dragon's father would surely get sick from eating this-- Kera knew that eating things that smelled bad usually made you sick.

Dragon knew better than she did-- but it didn't seem entirely right. Regardless, she scrambled up onto land and shook mud and water off her fur before reaching out near the pile, concentrating.

Growing the mushrooms were easy. Kera had expected it not to be. The pile of rot and stench didn't seem like a good place for her fungus to grow, but the spores took to the ground like a moth to a flame. Bioluminescent mushrooms burst out the ground, dozens of them, and supplied the same eerie green-blue glow to the rotting pile and the reeds as it had before, by the fire.

She wondered if life thrived among death. This pile was definitely death, but she didn't linger on the thought for very long, turning around to Dragon again. "They usually see the light and come running towards it," she explained, slinking away from the light and back into the darkness. "You just need to catch them while they're distracted."

Dragon watched as the pile grew a ring of growing fungus around its outer edges. He was fascinated; perhaps this could be used in the long-term? Then again, it might attract those who would steal the offerings while he was away--but he could always destroy the fungus, he supposed, if he had to leave, for whatever reason.

"Now we must wait."

Ever-patient, the black-skinned alligator slowly sank beneath the surface of the swamp, floating forward a bit. Once or twice she spoke, but he warned her to keep silent--because she would frighten the animals.

He was hoping for a cave deer, large and crunchy--but what came was one of the oversized, snaggle-toothed, red-eyed, scraggly black rats. The beasts were huge, and two had nearly killed Dragon when he had been young. They were savage things. To this day he felt some faint twinge of fear; but he knew, logically, that he were now far too large for them to kill him. ...Easily, at least.

The alligator slowly slipped closer, silent. The rat was sniffing around the pile, and then paused, turning to eye over the mushrooms. Dragon exploded from the black marsh in a spray of water, jaws lunging wide for the rat. His jaws slammed shut with a loud clack over its hind leg, and it curled rapidly over itself, squealing and chittering and biting at his broad snout. He rapidly hauled himself back into the marsh and beneath the water, leaving only a ripple--and then a few bubbles of air--where the pair had been.

He waited for the rat to stop fighting, and to drown, before finally re-emerging--it took several minutes. He laid the now-drowned rat onto the offering pile, and turned to look at Kera.

"That worked well."

Now we must wait.

Kera hated waiting. In her mind, what had to be done must be done in the quickest time possible. She'd tried to converse with Dragon some more-- smalltalk, really --but he told her to be quiet, that she'd scare away the animals with too much noise.

They would be scared of her regardless of how much noise she made. Rats should fear her no matter what. She was Kera, Hater of Rats and Birds. Dragon, however, knew this place better than she did. She lay where she stood, and shut her eyes.

Time passed. She didn't know how long, but when she opened them again there was a gentle scuffle and, illuminated faintly by her mushrooms, she saw a rat. Bigger than what she was used to. Before Kera could even react, there was a spray of water as Dragon burst through the water.

Both he and the rat vanished.

Where did they go? Kera had not seen. She thought, fearfully for a few minutes, that history had repeated itself. She'd been used for help in hunting, only to have prey stolen from her. But, surely not? Dragon had seemed willing to call for his father, and the food was for him.

He wouldn't eat what wasn't his, would he? Would Aka?

Before Kera could have a full-on panic attack, Dragon raised once more from the depths. Stunned, eyeing the dead rat, she nodded. "If we need more, we could keep waiting. I could grow more mushrooms if you think maybe it's hard for them to see it?"

Her tail was wagging excitedly now. The hunt had gone near-perfectly, and another gross corpse was added to the stinking pile, which somehow smelled worse now than it did a half hour ago.

Dragon considered, watching the rat. It was possible that they could catch a few, but it would hardly be a meal for Aquarian.

No, what they needed was a deer. Something larger. He knew that there were deer, here--they had rubbery skin, and glowing markings that flickered across their dark pelts.

"How is your nose, little one?" Dragon asked, turning to peer at the wolf. "If you can find the trail of a deer in the marsh, and we can draw it in with your colors, then I can kill it. And then we should have enough to summon our Father, and ask him of the lights."

The big alligator rumbled thoughtfully, dipping his head to blow bubbles from his nostrils into the marsh water, thinking.

Her nose? Her nose was fine, thank-you-very-much, black and perfect and Dragon didn't mean physically at all. Her nose, in that regard, was beyond fine. She could smell many things, though mostly, she could just smell the rot.

"I can smell," she said helpfully as she got up, moving away from the pile and pushing her nose down against the dirt, sniffing carefully. There were many smells to smell in Cetus-- there was dirt and water and mud and most of all, rot.

She had to move a little further away from the pile before she was able to smell other things. There was the recently-deceased rat, a fresh scent, and a slightly staler something-else. She could identify it as a deer, but not a deer as she knew it.

She supposed it didn't matter. "This way," she said before heading off into the marsh, trudging through water and trying to keep her nose focused on the scent of deer. She forgot, briefly about Dragon or where he was, hounding through marshland and sniffing up trees as she came to them.

It took some time. She moved slowly, and twisted around as she tried to follow the scent, occasionally rounding back towards the pile again, where she could start to smell the rot again. Eventually, she paused, and said quietly-- regardless if Dragon was even still there or not --"It's nearby."

Dragon followed along as best he could as the wolf pup led him on a long traipse through the marsh. His hind leg dragged, a bit, and he hissed once or twice in irritation. Alligators were not made for long, steady movement, but for slow wandering or short, fast bursts, and this was straining on him.

At length, however, Kera stopped. "It's nearby," she said, and Dragon looked around.

There was no real place for him to hide, here; no cover, and no water. He'd have to do his best to simply remain hidden in the grass and in the dark like a log, and use his fire from a distance. And if the deer was moving away, well... it might not come back merely for lights. Or might it? They did glow, after all. Perhaps it would think it to be another deer, in the darkness.

"Grow them here, if you can--and then move away. I do not know if it will come, but perhaps it will," he rumbled quietly.

Kera couldn't quite see the deer, but she knew it was close. She could smell it quite strongly here. She paid little attention to Dragon's irritated hissing as they moved, but once she stopped she immediately dipped her head down towards the ground.

She had no idea what these deer looked like, but she only hoped it was dumb enough to be attracted by light and come running towards it.

From where she touched-- gradually, this time, perhaps Kera was getting tired --there came more bioluminescent fungi that sprouted out of the marsh, glimmering quietly in the darkness. She observed her work critically for a moment.

They were not as bright or as many as the mushrooms by the pile, or by the bonfire, but it would have to do. Dipping out of the way and into the darkness, Kera nestled her burly white body down close to the ground and watched the cluster of glimmering mushrooms carefully.

She had lost sight of Dragon again, or perhaps she didn't care enough to keep an eye out for him. She only focused on what she had to do, with the assumption that the alligator would do the same.

Dragon watched in approval as the mushrooms sprang up, and he settled down to wait.

As it turned out, he was left waiting a long time; an hour or more, at the very least. At last, he determined the experiment to be a failure, and made up his mind to turn and call the white she-wolf out of hiding. They would need to move on, and--

A rustle came from ahead. Dragon remained wholly still, motionless, as a cave deer--perhaps drawn to the light, or perhaps merely crossing back this way by chance--passed behind the ring of lights. Its movements were cautious, jerky, ears flicking, legs twitching into the air and freezing there as it looked over the glowing fungus. Dragon waited, cold, calculating, for it to draw slightly closer--and as it did, broadside to him and about to pass back into the darkness, he slowly opened his jaws.

Light--this light bright orange and gold--welled up within his maw. Pain seared along his throat, and before he could react, the deer--perhaps spotting the light, or hearing his slight accidental hiss of pain--turned and leapt into the darkness. Dragon bellowed after it.

"CHASE IT!" he roared--and then he was up, too, running after it as fast as his stubby legs would carry him.

The pup was attentative for ten minutes before she began to drift off again. Hunting with Dragon was a good way to get naps in, at the very least.

She didn't get to dream at all before something stirred her awake. A whine, bright light, and Dragon shouting. Her eyes snapped awake and she scrambled to her paws, half-asleep and confused, looking around before spotting a faintly-glowing hide in the distance.

Chase it? If you say so.

At full speed, with an injured paw, Kera began to sprint after the marsh deer. She caught up to it fairly quickly despite all odds, mouth hanging open as she gasped for air while she bounded through the muddy grass. A faint growl left her throat before she leapt.

She didn't know how, but she had caught onto the deer's haunches by her teeth and claws. It shrieked and began thrashing, trying to throw the pup off. With blood filling her mouth, Kera did her best to stay clinging to the deer, raking her claws along its glowing hide while waiting for Dragon to catch up and finish it.

Dragon huffed as he chased, forelegs flinging all manner of mud and reed about. He knew how swift these deer were, and how agile, and how little a chance the little wolf pup actually had at--

There were sounds of a scuffle ahead, a quiet growl and then thrashing in the marsh. Dragon charged in--perhaps the deer had stumbled in the muck?--but there was no time to think about that now. He lunged, throwing his bulk for the animal, jaws wide and waiting. His intent had been to snag a thick hind limb or even a neck in his maw, and then roll away, twisting and ripping the creature to death. But even with the wolf attached, the animal was flailing wildly, wide-eyed and mouth open, and sprang sideways.

Dragon crashed down in the muck, and turned, hissing.

Hopefully the wolf could wound it enough, or keep it slowed for a little while longer.