Well, we had figured out this flying business but we weren't very good at it. No longer were we in that odd Colosseum type thing, instead we had made it to the supposed 'outskirts' of this strange area. Fallen structures and decrepit buildings seemed to be the baseline for this place. Not much else was going for it. Hunger gripped our stomach and in between our spurts of gliding we had decided to come in to land. Next lesson was hunting. Now we had never tried hunting, we weren't going to be good at it just as we weren't good at flying to begin with. Feathers ruffled, there didn't appear to be anything of use to us within the area and we let out a harsh cry to try and startle whatever would be hiding within the cracks.

Nothing.

Irritated our first attempt hadn't work, we scraped our talons along the ground before taking flight once again with a heavy beat. One. Two. We were high enough to gently glide back down. If we had some food in us, maybe we could go higher but as it was we were too hungry to expend much energy on it when we could just as easily waddle walk. 'To dungeons deep and caverns old.' Ahead, we could see the vast expanse of a dark tunnel and we came down to rest on a rock, merely peering into the blackness out of curiosity.

Positivity wasn't something we experienced. Yes, it was a great thing to be alive and breathing, but was that necessarily a means to be positive? Our talons scraped along the rock beneath us as we drew them in and out, but they clenched together when a foreign light begun to illuminate the cave wall in front of us. Where the hell was that light coming from? Crest raising, we whipped around to look over our shoulder, black eyes immediately needing to be shielded from the obscenity of the dancing creatures.

They weren't real, that much was obvious, but the fawn in the middle appeared to carry some substance so perhaps, she was. In order to attempt to counteract what she had done, we shrouded ourselves in shadow. Much better, we figured it was best to address this creature rather than ignore her. First, we needed to assess the beasts in the cave before we could begin to "ignore them" and opt for a more solitary life. "You. Light one." Adopting the words that Usui had given to me, the supposed names of others, we weren't sure what else to address her by. Not entirely sure if she had seen us, and no being shrouded in shadow, we were interested to see how she would react to being addressed.

After spending some time seeking us out, she managed to fix her bright gaze on us. We met it with our own dull one, but we didn't have words of mirth to return as she bowed low to us. It was wrong, it was an odd gesture and right now we did not appreciate it. "That's an odd thing to do light one." Complimenting our shadowy figure, we fluffed up out of pride. At least she had done something right.

Nameless storyteller, our dark acquaintance. This creature spoke in riddles, but they weren't hard to decipher so we decided her intention wasn't to confuse us or blindsight us. Since she gave no name, we would continue to address her as light one. "Why then, light one, do you travel this way?" Those distracting balls of dancing light were beginning to fade, our gaze was hard to keep focused on her as the squirrels and small lesser gembound frolicked with such enjoyment. Not up to our full size, weight and wingspan, we felt naked next to her. Just coming into her prime, that was the only thing we found we could admire about her. Admiration for something else wasn't something we usually experienced, but we could acknowledge and appreciate her newfound adulthood.

She shook her head. She had stayed in Orion for too long and she needed to go.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, keeper of shadows. I do hope we will meet again, under better circumstances to properly talk, but I must away. I need to get back to Pounce."

She called a polite goodbye as she continued her brisk pace down the path.

[Exit Clover]

"This is how I speak."