ORIGIN - firefight

Elspet had wished her beloved well on her journeys, her adventures beyond the reaches of Eridanus. Ever-so-protective, the gorilla had followed, trailing as best she could from the shadows. It took some time, but she came to a realization — perhaps it would do her well to travel independently, as well. Ayr could survive well on her own, without the looming figure that was Elspet was persistently at her side. She had sniffed derisively at the thought, initially. Her mind, seeking and craving some escapades and shenanigans — her fingers, too, as they itched to conjure up some magicka and adrenaline — had unintentionally justified the action. When she and her beloved met once again, they could exchange stories and treasures found along the way.

So, she set off in the opposite direction of where Ayr seemed to be going — Polaris. No, Elspet would arrive in some offshoot of the tunnels leading away from Eridanus and the Core. This was an odd tunnel, full of jutting shelves and confusing staircases. A snicker came from her as she noticed that this was the cave she had sparred with Pride in, so many cycles before. 'I wonder where that lad is nowadays.' Yellow diamond glinted in the half-light as she swung her head; each movement was in time with her sideways shuffling up the steps. She was, for once in her life, slow and purposeful. Taking in the sights, as one does when faced with a winding staircase to Orion.

Brown stone and dust were all the sights really were, but, oh well. It was something compared to the green of the maw of mosses. Besides, boring tunnels like these tended to portend some neato-burrito discoveries.

@Kera

Where Elspet was slow and purposeful-- even if it were a rare occasion --Kera was quick and had only one working brain cell. To patrol all of the caves in record time, and make sure she didn't miss anything, you had to gallop about as fast as you possibly could.

Which is exactly what Kera was doing, scarcely looking in front of her in favour of looking just about everywhere else, nails clicking rapidly against the cave floor. She liked running, at least-- she liked hearing the blood rushing to her ears, the rhythmic thumping of her paws, gasping for breath. What Kera did not like, however, was ramming face-first into a Gorilla.

Luckily, Kera's one brain cell managed to notice.

She planted her paws firmly in front of her and came-- quite literally --skidding to a halt, nails scratching against the stone underfoot. She'd managed to avoid a collision, for now, at least. With a heavy breath, the dog padded out to regard the gorilla.

Kera had never seen one before, but she was fairly sure the horns were her gemstone and not, in fact, part of a regular gorilla's anatomy. "What up?" The wolf panted, tongue lolling out. "Are you evil?"

It was a reasonable question, of course.

It seemed just about everyone was evil, these days.

What Kera meant, specifically, however-- was 'are you a Bloodberry?'. Which was also a reasonable question. The Bloodberries seemed to take their home in the tunnels surrounding Polaris, particularly tunnel N. This was not tunnel N, but it was close enough that they might be patrolling either way.

Then, without asking, the wolf ruffled out her fur and took to introducing herself. "I'm Kera, the Lightbringer, 'cause I brought light back to the caves, and I'm gonna kill Blackberry and her murder-dumplings." She liked murder-dumplings. It rolled off the tongue fairly well.

@Elspet

Kera's running sounded a whole lot like someone dropping a whole bag of marbles all over the ground. Wolf-nails echoed down the tunnel long before Elspet even saw her. The gorilla stopped in her casual stroll, whirling around to see a small, white canine manifest out of nowhere. Without even any prompting, she started right in: what up? Elspet furrowed her brow, piercing yellow eyes staring in blatant confusion. Oh, and was she evil? Oh, she could answer that. "Nah," she hooted confidently, with a shrug of her broad shoulder.

Well, Elspet supposed a conversation was happening. The great ape turned fully to face Kera, settling down onto her rump and balancing on beefy forearms. With a grin, she offered a hand for some handshaking, "m'name's Elspet! I don't really have a title but I do fire and lightning and stuff." Elspet paused, though, encountering the thought of two things: a.) Blackberry and b.) dumplings. "Who's Blackberry? I don't get out much, yanno? Also, uh… are the murder-dumplings her kids or somethin'?"

@Kera

Kera nodded a few times, because Caves knew that villains liked to monologue about how evil they were. Although Kera knew there was a possibility that Elspet could be smarter than your average bad-doer, and was merely saying she was not evil, Kera trusted her word enough.

She'd just have to kill her later if she was lying.

"Hello, Elspet," the wolf panted, hunching over onto herself. She listened, ears flicking and a tongue lolling out to swipe along her jowls. "Blackberry is a fucked up goose who likes to kill people. I'm trying to find her so I can kill her before she kills anybody else."

There was a pause, a thoughtful one. "Sometimes I wonder if that makes me as bad as she is," Kera said. "Y'know, wanting to murder. That's all she wants, you know? But she's a really bad person, and I like to think I'm a good person." The wolf paused, then shrugged. "I think so."

"I think," Kera added, "she just sort of, uh. Brain-washes kids, including her own, to murder. It's really bad."

Kera lifted a paw and started itching her side. "You got any kids?" She asked, conversationally.

@Elspet

Elspet settled herself down on a nearby rock, propping her elbow up like it was a goddamn bar counter. It was time to chat: butch to butch, about a fucking goose, apparently. "A goose is a bird, right? How in the Caves is she killin' people? With magic or some trash manuever?" All answers would come in time, it seemed.

"Well, eye for an eye and the world goes blind, but anyone who's manipulatin' kids --- holy shit, dude," the gorilla blinked, horns glinting in the orb-light as she drew back with a grimaced, "I'd kill 'er, too!" Then, casually, "nah, no kids yet. My beloved and I haven't had the chance to talk about all that, yet."

@Kera