Pallas was not one to be seen outside of Mother's sphere of influence anymore. To many it would be a clustering living experience, and yet for the linsang it was nothing but freedom gifted to him by his liberating family. He was useful to them, he taught them, let them grow.

And today, he had in his mind to branch out. Connect, as the others have, though it hung in his mind the dangers of not one but two siblings lost to them. He would not be out long, but he would establish a connection where they would not see, where the clogging senses around would allow Mother to fade into them, where life would be able to be consumed by her.

And here he brought Daughter with him. Solis had been making great strides in showing her his ways of patrolling, of infecting Cetus and spreading out, and Pallas followed suit in taking the child with him to the sea of greens. There were so many places to hide a Hive.

She needed to learn how to keep up her own node of Mother, to spread the infection and to construct from him. She would not be tasked with this so soon, not while she was yet a kit, but the information would exist within her mind to be used for later, for when it was needed.

The trek to the trench was long, but they were left unbothered by their scent, able to follow thorough-ways without the deer who trailed them trampling over them. 'We are close.' The place had been plucked out of someone's memory- who's did it matter anymore? A lesser, Solis, any of the others may have passed along the vision of an old den that some lessers carved out for themselves.

The ferns would provide cover. The bones, protection. He did not marvel up at the new sights as he passed under green dappling over his tawny coat. They were here, and that was priority. The opening was around a particular bend in the wall, one he saw in memory, albeit one that was closer to the ground. The nature around them would soon be their's.

'This is a good spot.' His thoughts were clarified here now that they were farther from Mother, though the rumblings of activity still clung to the back of his mind. 'It is a cave. Not too damp,' he noted, rattling off positives as he looked in. 'Mother will be pleased. Allow her to take root and we will find organics for her.' The idea of both food and an extension of her vision was here, now.

He stepped back and glanced to the cluster of Mother in his sister's jaws, ears flicking up as he watched to see what she would do. When she was done, he would teach her how to cover Mother with a natural piece of construction and to utilize what she knew from Solis. For now, this was the task beset upon them, and two Gembounds helping to grow this secondary Hive was better than one.

Daughter, the living echo chamber she is, only amplifies Pallas's minute thoughts- when he has them, and he nods mentally at the response of her assessing the area. Good, good. She should learn to recognize what Mother liked, what Mother desired in her planting.

The magic does not send a thrill down his spine like it would've once before. Instead, he takes it in, takes note of it, and looked back down to the place Daughter has picked out in particular, smiling back to her with such warmth, adoration, and pride that it overwhelms even his own senses. It would be wise to leave the coverings outside for now. While the mental image of Mother eventually growing up to the broad leaves impresses in his mind, so does the shadow of danger lurking and seeing the then-vulnerable node they'd just planted. His sister could help fashion camouflage to prevent that future.

With tendrils of Mother grabbing hold of the rock, consuming the plants around her, he returns to the light and glances up through plants to the green 'sky'. They would need to hunt and expand their eyesight here, but their primary focus today was to leave food for this part of Mother to consume. How much do you know of hunting? He pushes to Daughter, looking to her imploringly.

There were a number of meanings backing the word 'hunting'. The most of them focus on hunting for anything to feed Mother with, be it meat, plant, other fungus, or anything outside of those spheres. They come second to that.

They shouldn't disturb the trench too much- shouldn't over-gather from a specific area, and Pallas works out mentally mapping the area and cataloging things he'd seen on the way to this area as Mother builds this node.