can i sleep on your couch? i just need a place to stay for a while...

Chaos-Two had bolted the moment they'd been able to. They'd left everything, knowing that they were prey in that moment. Draco was no longer a home to them (had it ever been?) and they needed to leave before the Sleepless Chaos caught up to them.

Using everything they knew about tracking down prey, they flipped it around. They'd left quills leading to the tunnel to suggest they'd gone that way before veering in a different direction. As they reached their destination, where the river ended, they heard her voice echo. She was loud, noisy, terrifying.

Fear drove them forward as they sought their little nest out here, stumbling around on exhausted limbs and struggling to find anything.

They swallowed, half-choking for a moment as their throat spasmed, the fear gripping their heart squeezing with a vengeance. They ran instead, trying to find the furthest corner they could to try and hole up in. If they could find a hole, that was.

Collapsing against the roots of a tree, they curled up, shivering and shaking, trying to stay quiet lest she hear them somehow. It was an irrational fear but in their state there was no way to try and convince themselves with logic. It was best to just try to stay quiet here, watching glowing bugs dance around in the dimming light. At least they'd see something pretty before they died.

Clenching their eyes closed, they curled up, hoping that if they just kept them shut they'd avoid having to see her wretched maw as it closed down around them.

Now, she certainly knows what you're thinking: There's a rampaging Valkhound soon to be about, Meissa! Now is not the time to go gathering flowers for your old man! And she, by the power of not at all being omniscient or any more aware of her surroundings than a newborn mole rat, did not heed those thoughts. The bouquet of flowers clutched delicately in her little baby mouth begged to differ: all pastel, multicolored blooms shot through with some incandescent cyan sprays—just like her dad's lightning bolts and magical tail!

She could barely see past the whole bunch, but that was just alright. Any obstacle she tripped over, she could flutter past by way of her wings. As long as she kept her head down, most of it could be avoided, and Pegasus was nice and open over here—

Ears pricked up.

What's that noise? she thought with a small 'mrrp?' purring out of her chest. Someone's sad? Oh no!

Despite being warned time and time again of stranger danger, the noodly fox bounded closer and skidded to a halt upon finding a... great big lump settled against a tree. There were some pointy bits on it, but... it sounded sad. ... but, oh! She knew just what would help!

Meissa deposited her flowers on the ground, and ever-so-delicately pulled one from the bunch. Holding it carefully between her teeth, she half pounced, half slunk forward and then straightened up. "Do you want a flower?" She chirruped all too loudly, and held it out in an outstretched paw.

Chaos-Two screeched as Meissa spoke, not even registering the words, jolting forward and away. They were unable to help the fresh tears that spouted from their eyes as they lunged over the roots of the tree, gasping as their front leg caught and sent them tumbling to the ground, the feathers and beads they'd tied to their quills falling to the ground.

"Nonono- please don't ki-kill me!!", they wailed, covering their head and sobbing into the grass, "P-please I w-won't fail again!!"

They'd blocked their link with Khavur after telling them to grab their things, not wanting their sibling to be in their head if they were to actually die. But it hit them that they were terrifyingly alone in the moment of what they thought was their inevitable death.

On any other day, Chaos-Two would turn to Meissa and happily accept the gift, even offering one of their own. They'd maybe even start a conversation with Meissa, talking about their sibling, the butterflies, everything and anything positive they'd experienced in their short life. But not today.

Chaos-Two screeched as Meissa spoke, and her reaction was equally as instantaneous. Butterfly wings beat through the air as she went ramrod straight, hopping a good five feet away. An involuntary squeal bubbled from her lips ("EEK!") as the lum—no, no, big scary monster started to uncurl and jolt.

She spun on her heels without hesitation, tail hiked high in the air like the flagging of a whitetail, and ran straight towards the solid wall not even twenty feet away. With fluttering wings barely lifting her off the ground, she passed through like it were nothing but the air one breathed.

Every one of the flowers was left behind in the grass, abandoned in her panicked flight.

A flash of movement and then Meissa disappeared into... nothing? No, not nothing. A wall.

Chaos-Two panted into the grass as they trembled, seconds, then minutes passing. When the ringing in their ears stopped, they finally looked up and saw... no one. They heard nothing, any wildlife in the area having fled at their cries.

"... H-hello?", they sniffled, collecting their trinkets and slowly standing up.

Their heart didn't pound so loud as they walked on unsteady legs towards the rock, back hunched and arms wrapped around themselves.

"I-I'm sorry!", they called out, looking to both sides for any sign of a den, but there was nothing. This was where the dragon-creature had gone.

A shaking hand was brought up, reaching out to touch the surface, hoping in some small part of their mind that they'd slip through. That they could follow the stranger and apologize.

V-Chaos-Two reached, and found only the repelling force of two poles of a magnet being pushed together. Not particularly strong, but persistent. The barrier warped minutely around the creature's hand before growing solid again, as if it were merely a hologram.

"I-I'm sorry!" They'd cried out, to no response for a long few minutes... until—

A triangular, foxish head stuck out from the barrier, nearer to Chaos-Two's hooved feet than their face. "Are you nice... ?" Honey-silver eyes glimmered upward from the looming shadow of the beast. They flickered nervously between them and the hand reaching for the barrier.

If the big monster couldn't get through, then... Meissa half-retreated again. But, she almost sort of kind of recognized them. They weren't exactly a hundred-percent familiar, but—

Out of nowhere, the noodle-fox asked waveringly. "You... like pu-pumpkins? R-r-right?"

Chaos-Two's heart clenched as they were denied entry, and stepped back, arms falling to their sides. They raised a hand to touch their stone, their ears slowly drooping. They were unwelcome.

They jumped as the head appeared, startling rather than panicking, and stepped back, staring at Meissa warily.

"... I'd like to think so," they said, "I-I try my best, at least. Are you nice?"

The valkhound's ears twitched at the questions, tilting forward once again. They didn't recognize Meissa by sight, since they were blind at the time, but her voice seemed familiar. Instead of an answer, they tried for a spell.

Chaos-Two cast their hands over the ground and pushed their magic into the soil, relieved as a small orange pumpkin sprouted, its vines spreading across the ground and curling before it stopped. It wasn't very big or impressive, but it was there.

"I like pumpkins," they said, "You were at the festival, right? I was there but I was um... different, then. I didn't know what you looked like until now, you're very pretty."

They stared for a moment at her wings, noting that they were those of a butterfly. Well, Chaos-Two loved butterflies, so maybe they could talk about that?

Meissa tilted her head by a few degrees. "You think so?" came her incredulous whisper. Her oversized ears pricked up, though; "of course!" she was nice! "I like being nice. It's good—woah!"

Eyes flew wide at the sight of the pumpkin, so perfectly plump despite its smallness. Her dad made bigger and better ones, but that was obviously because he was big and strong—and there was no way she was about to say as much to this... potential friend? Yeah, yeah, friend!

Still marveling at the squash, the fox-dragon eked her way out from the wall. If she could've blushed, she would be bright red. "O-oh, thank you!" She averted her gaze a little, and then scanned Chaos-Two's own form. "You are... very pointy! And furry!" Both astute observations, if she said so herself. "And good at making pumpkins! How did you learn to do that? I thought my dad was the only one that could! That's why I" and she puffed out what little was visible of her chest at this, "thought we should share them at the... the Festival? You called it?"

Chaos-Two swallowed and nodded, "Yes, well... I kind of did just run away from something and yelled at my um... life-giver. So..."

They winced and watched Meissa peer at their pumpkin, a flush rising to their own cheeks. No one had ever complimented their magic before. It was just a pumpkin but it felt nice either way.

"I am," they confirmed, looking down at themselves to see that they were indeed pointy and furry, "And yes, the Festival. I think a few people mentioned as such, and there were many sharing various things. I think it was to celebrate the leaf-fall. Everything was orange and spooky, it was fun."

Chaos-Two walked away a few steps and started to pick the flowers that dotted the ground all around, carefully creating a bouquet of yellow, pink, and blue. Not the same colors as Meissa had, but they felt bad.

"Here you go," they said, holding them up to the other, "I'm really sorry I made you drop your flowers, I thought you were someone else and I was... frightened."

They were so done with being scared.

Meissa's eyes widened, like golden saucers on a lord's ornate feast table. "Away from something... ?" She tried to glance past Chaos-Two, though to no avail. "Um, is it following you?" Should I hide? Dad would want me to hide—

But, regardless—! Besides that little potential hang-up—"leaf-fall? I didn't see anything like that!" Pearly whites flashed in a grin. "Pegasus is always green and pretty. The leaves don't ever fall." Nevermind that a lot of the trees were conifers and more needles than leaves, of course... "'m glad you liked it, though!" As if she'd played any part other than dragging her dad into growing a pumpkin patch for everybody.

She simply stared as the big monster-friend plodded away, brows knitting in confusion; were they done talking... ? A little pumpkin and that was it? But, no... they were presenting "o-oh! A gift... ?"

The faux wall wobbled as she padded forward, front end clipping through the wall. An avian foreleg stuck out to take the bouquet—with just the slightest amount of hesitation—and she immediately brought it up to her nose to smell; and smell she did, with no less than a dramatic swell of the chest and dreamy little sigh. Her fears forgotten, Meissa chirruped eagerly. "They're beautiful!" Her dad would like these—"o-oh, it's okay! There's lots of flowers, but... these are special ones now."

"Because they're from you," she added matter-of-factly.

Lightbulb! Ears pricked straight forward, and she halfway scrabbled back into the wall before remembering to actually speak to her idea: "do you mind if I take these to my dad? He'll love these, too... and maybe then you can come in." It'd be perfect, if Lyn said it was all okay... !

She practically vibrated in place.