ORIGIN

The last few cycles had been refreshing to say the least. Sure the small bat still blended in with his lesser gembound cousins flitting about the cave, and sure for the most part he didn't involve himself with the affairs of the others below, but now there was always some purpose to his cataloging. He would explore, observe, and then after a few days find his path had brought him back to that foggy swamp where a creature as reclusive has he resided. Now rather than being information for its own sake his observations had become a way of finding topics of conversation.

Of course he focused on the positive events happening around the cave for the most part, but even the more frightening aspects of his reports prompted interesting conversation with this fellow recluse. Talks of life and meaning and wonderment at the diversity of minds that seemed to inhabit this world. Of course all of that was second to the main goal- planning out an expedition together to seek out the Painter.

The trail to the Painter itself had gone completely cold, but there might still be hope of finding that which he left behind. The static picture in Pisces that Zeno had found in his meeting was long gone by now, but Selena had seen a moving picture. Surely such a mural would be made of stronger magic than just an image of a bird flying toward the air.

Zeno waited patiently within the nook of a dilapidated building, watching the area around Tunnel I. They had planned this route over the past few days after finally deciding to take action. It would be the first time in a long while that Selina wandered this far from her home and he had to make sure it was as safe as possible.

No sign of the Berries. No sign of other wandering gembound of the aggressive variety. They were almost certainly far enough away from the shadowy ancient's layer that its terrifying presence wouldn't take them by surprise.

Finally a tawny feline appeared from the tunnel ahead and began to pace around. She had made it, and none the worse for the wear it seemed. The small bat shifted to the crumbling structure's edge and dropped into the air once more, flapping his wings furiously to gain altitude and acquire one more good look at the path around them.

After a few seconds the fluttering creature took a deep breath and relaxed his mind, sending intention toward the friend below. The transmission would start with a soft sing-song humming tone, a habit he had picked up to let her know he was near without startling her too much, before transitioning into mental words like an otherworldly version of his own voice. "It is good to see you, friend. I exist above and see no danger. Approaching now."

The small bat clicked its wings a few times as it descended. With the lights flickering as they were there was no telling how long the next blackout would last. Indeed just as he landed the lights did give way for quite a bit longer than he would have preferred. This was no great darkness of a hundred days, but such an event might still come to pass again.

For this Zeno was glad to have even a crude form of echolocation for navigation and a friend he could talk to for sanity.

"You would think that it would be easier to get used to as often as that happens." he commented, gazing up intensely at the momentarily stable stars above. "I just hope they stay on long enough for us to find what we're looking for before taking another rest"

Much easier to think of the periods of darkness as the lights sleeping. Obviously that wasn't what was going on but what else could they do? Surely someone would investigate if they got too bad, and now that he had a bit more knowledge of how the caves worked perhaps he would try helping out in the endeavor this time. For now though they had a different task ahead of them.

Zeno crawled forward on the rock he had landed upon, having to look up at an angle to see the great feline before him properly. "It is good to see you, Selina. How was your journey to this section?"