As Wilder raced through Canis she went over her number of objectives in her head. It had been a long time, maybe a little too long, but she had at last finished the quest that the Collector had given her when she was barely a child.

The Children of Rot - she was one of them now. They lived in Cetus, they were secretive, and something happened with a tree. Bahamut was dormant in his tunnel, Astaroth as well. Kavish was missing, nowhere to be found. And the Bloodberries...they were gone. She had new on other things as well, like the meeting that had happened, although she wasn't sure she should reveal most of what had happened, and the Kingdom of Eridanus rising from the ashes of a war of some kind. There was much to say.

She stopped at the place where she had met the Collector before and meowed as loud as she could. "Collector I'm back! I have news for you at last!"

Wilder turned at the sound of hooves and smiled as she saw her friend coming into view. "Hi, Collector! I did everything you asked me to do!"

She purred and sat herself down, readying her report. "So I went and found Astaroth! He's still living here, but he's not doing anything. He wouldn't speak to me at all and from what I gathered he's been inactive and still is now. I also went to find Bahamut and Kavish. Bahamut was like Astaroth. He had this cave with really gross corpses hanging outside." Her nose crinkled at the memory. "He said he mummified them. But he hasn't been active either, just kind of living alone. I couldn't find Kavish anywhere. Bahamut said she'd disappeared and had not been seen for some cycles. I checked around the caves to be sure and I couldn't find her."

She flicked her tail in annoyance, knowing that the first part of her mission had been a little underwhelming but she brightened up as she got to the last bits. "But I did find the Children of Rot! I joined them! They're led by Dragon and they're very secretive and they want to survive! I also got to meet Aquarian, he was really really big but he didn't want to talk to me. They had some trouble with the big tree, they called it the Divine. They said she used to be a creature and the swamp was once alive but Nemean ruined it. I didn't understand, but they're not really doing much either. There's Dragon and Serek and Septeizal and Eve and Thothaga, I think she's a part as well. I'm not quite sure. Dragon invited me to a meeting - a secret one! He talked with Envy from the Sinful Seven and Aure and Giggle and he also talked to a cat called Rift from the Kingdom of Eridanus." She didn't want to reveal too much, though. After all, the meeting had been a secret one and she realized that even telling the Collector it had taken place might be dangerous on its own. But it was too late now, so she moved on.

Her eyes shone as she imparted the extra knowledge she had found, knowledge that the Collector hadn't asked her for but she had gathered anyways. "In the cave with all the plants there's a whole Kingdom! There's a bunch of them apparently and they protect the forest and help each other. Apparently there was a big fight between them and the Bloodberries." This was where Wilder paused, her mind flashing back to her time in the cave with Blackberry. She wasn't sure if she should tell the Collector about her...but perhaps just leaving out where she had found her would be okay.

"As for them, the Bloodberries, apparently they're gone. At least, that's what everyone thinks. After the fight they scattered. Three of them were kept prisoner, I think. One of them died. Others are sleeping or missing. I found Blackberry, though...she told me that she would never go back, that she wasn't the leader anymore. I searched for them, I really did, but the tunnel they were in is empty now. What's left are in hiding, I think."

She finally stopped speaking but the question was still dancing on her tongue. Her ears swiveled around as she tried to push down what she was begging to ask in favor of waiting, at least, for the Collector's response.

Wilder puffed out her chest proudly and waited for the Collector to reach down, just as he did when they had met. When one of his hands came out of his robe she pushed herself up to meet it, purring with happiness as he stroked down her back. She almost didn't hear his last question but managed to catch just a few of the words, enough to know what he wanted to know.

She was on the verge of speaking of it too when she remembered how insistent that Dragon had been that nobody else knew, no one but the leaders and those that had been invited. Perhaps she hadn't understood most of what was said and perhaps she didn't really care, but one thing was for sure - she wouldn't betray her friends' trust.

"Uh," her brain started whirling, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. "They were, uh, just talking. About being allies. Helping each other out and stuff. Sharing news. Yeah, that's it!" She smiled and leaned back into the stroking, purring once again and hoping that it was good enough for the Collector.

She had hoped that the Collector would pull out another bowl of cream for her so when he did she felt a surge of joy and immediately dove it, licking up the delicious liquid as he continued to speak, all the while purring at top volume.

She was still in the middle of the bowl when it was time for her to make a decision. She licked her lips and looked up at him, her tail thoughtfully curling on the ground. "Hm...I think...the second one sounds like fun! I'd like to be able to cast lots of magic!" Her tail curled happily again and she dove back towards her cream. It seemed that was what mostly had her attention at this point.

She paused, again, when she felt the Collector kneel before her. She looked up and stretched out her neck so that he could slip the blue collar around her. Once she felt its weight settled she leaned back and tried to look down at it. She couldn't really see it, per say, but she could see its soft blue glow against her black fur.

She smiled as she reached up to touch it. It was cool! And if it was glowing then it really was magic! "Wow, thank you!"

She touched along the length of it, still looking at the blue light that it cast on her fur. And she then had the audacity to ask, "Do you have a pink one?"