ORIGIN

Sprinting out of Polaris with a limping gait, Kera began to slow down as she came to tunnel N. The place held little memories for her, but important ones-- of the fight, of claiming this place for her own, and filling it with her own things.

The first things she had filled it with had been her mushrooms. At the time, they illuminated the tunnel with an eerie blue-green glow; a glow that had meant the world to Kera. Now, with the lights back on, the tunnel was bathed in yellow and reds and blues from Polaris and the orbs above.

Tail wagging, she moved along the tunnel towards a small, smooth alcove in the wall. Within it had been a sleeping place-- a place filled with mushrooms and soft, dried-out grass from Eridanus to lay on. Within her nest was a faintly-glowing rock that Alan had given to her, and now this one would have to join it.

She set the topaz down among the grass and the other rock, before hiding it. She would have to return to guard it and to ask the Black Dog what to do with it next, but first she had to see Giggle-- but before even that...

The rats and the cave deer had eaten at her mushrooms. They always did-- but she'd have to fix them, even if their light wasn't necessary anymore. Content, Kera left her alcove and moved to a cluster of half-eaten fungus, putting her nose to the ground.

It took a moment-- no doubt Polaris and the storm incident had still left her shaken and unsure, but the gradual feeling of her beloved mushrooms caressing her face calmed her down a great deal, even if she hadn't thought of this. She had, in fact, completely forgotten of the events that just transpired, and she was ready to make her way to Canis to tell Giggle everything.

For a moment, Kera only watched her mushrooms with lingering pride before she heard something behind her, somewhere else in the tunnel. A soft, hissing voice-- though the words themselves weren't audible.

Then, footsteps. She blinked and turned around, only to be facing the... goose.

Is that..?

It was. The beast that had given Kera a life-long distrust of birds-- alongside Aka the Thief, of course --the thing that Kera had chased from these tunnels and the thing that had, somehow, broken her leg. And the thing that witnessed her biting a rock.

That was not one of Kera's finer moments.

Often, Kera was a patient and friendly creature. She liked friends more than anyone else, but for the first time in a long time, she felt immediate rage rising in her chest. Fur bristling, her snout crinkled as she began growling. "It was you that left," she spat. "You left and this is my place. Go away."

She was not afraid. She had just turned the lights on and saved the life of a snake. The half-grown wolf paced briefly, head low and eyes sharp. She could kill this thing-- that much she knew. She also knew it would make the caves a better place.

No cave should have to house a goose, after all.

There was no particular 'yes' or 'no' answer-- merely... a lot of speaking. Kera only half-listened, frowning, while the growl began to fade out from her throat. She was fairly sure that by the time the goose began cackling, that Blackberry had completely lost it.

She stopped listening completely around 'pathetic loser,' fur going flat. She straightened, staring off into the tunnel at her own dimly-glowing mushrooms for a moment, then flicked her gaze up to the lights with a distant smile. She'd done that. Her. Not with help from another dog and a snake, not at all.

She almost forgot Blackberry was even there, until she mentioned a follower. Aka? The owl? The immediate assumption-- though wrong --made perfect sense in Kera's mind. Birds were not to be trusted and both Aka and Blackberry were, in fact, birds.

She shook her fur out. Without so much as a word, the lanky half-grown wolf looked down and began to focus on calling down a blinding beam of light directly into the goose's eyes in an attempt to briefly blind or stun her-- or, at the very least, perhaps shut her up...