open :) this is a patrol of Zoey, V-Labradorite-One, V-Opal-One, Khavur for the Chaos Forge!

Returning to Canis. There were so many memories that overlapped here, a flood of emotions that Zoey stewed upon as she led the patrol into the dusty, dry air of the bone cavern. She craned her head back to sweep her gaze across the cave, part of her expecting to see that towering white silhouette.

She did not see the drone she half-expected to see. Relief and grief played chase through her carapace.

"Have you been to Canis, Opal?" Zoey asked, turning her attention away from such feelings, "Labradorite and I grew up near here. A lot of our training happened here... well, by those bone structures over there. We were small enough to hide there, once."

"This is the home of the Bonebound. They were good allies, when we lived between here and Hydra." She remembered the presence of the Bonebound as a distant family, one that mostly wanted to be left alone, and one that had never caused strife with her own family. They were neighbors that she wished she had spent more time getting to know, before they had moved away. "They are mostly birds and dogs, I think. Good gembound."

Other groups had been more problematic, despite being farther off threats. Worrisome rumors of deadly dragons and the group that had come out of Hydra traumatized and angry, violently striking out against the Sentinels. It seemed that now that the Forge had settled far away, tucked into a room framed by the Black Spire, they rarely had large groups coming to bother them.

That was... probably for the best.

@V-Labradorite-One @V-Opal-One @Khavur - zoey makes small talk with the "baby" in the group. tee hee

Cicero did not have roaming rights, so legally speaking, Cicero hadn't gone further than Pegasus. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do NOT check her thread list, please. You see nothing.

In reality, he'd been in caves adjacent to Canis, so when he said "...Noooo." Understand that this wasn't a lie. Even if it sounded like one. It was not.

Canis was boring. The stuff Zoey was telling it: Also boring. It was a fight to maintain the barest shred of attention, and not run off to do something more exciting. And stupid. But it liked Zoey, or appreciated the effort she was making, either one, and managed a (barely sarcastic) "Wow. Cool."

Khavur had only been... partially caught up on the ongoings of the Forge during its seemingly quite long absence. He wasn't sure just how much had happened, exactly. Not a lot of information made it through while he was recovering from the rat injuries he had sustained... a mere day ago. As a result, he was not entirely aware of what precisely what dangers lurked in Canis; merely that Mother was involved. He took this as a sign to be ready for just about anything.

That was not a comforting concept. Regardless, he persisted in pursuit of... well. You can probably guess who.

He hoped he would not spook them as he brought up the rear of the group. Someone should probably tell him that intending not to spook and coming from behind are, in fact, polar opposites.

He overheard the Zoisite's explanation of Canis. Small, indeed. It almost opened its mouth to speak, but memories floating in an amorphous pool overtook it. They were only a background to the centerpiece of his attention, however: the Zoisite it(?)self. Khavur's surroundings almost completely dissolved as a sea of thoughts washed over him.

Bigger now? Is it...? Stronger...? Is there something ... different? Who is that...? Is it... are they familiar...?

Khavur blinked and shook its head a little, clearing its heads of all the jumbled thoughts. It offered to face its heads in more helpful directions. Like the almighty Janus, one head remained locked on the group while the other scanned the perimeter for trouble.

Upon hearing the Opal's remarks, Khavur (utterly failing to pick up on the sarcasm) floated his own thoughts on the region towards them. " 'Cool'-er still is... the reason we must be here. Or perhaps only... curious. Why Order would choose this cave, eludes me. It is only a bottle neck, that leads into Hydra. And to our old hatching grounds... What does it stand to gain?" Each word came steady, slow and swaying. "Unless it chose here for a people more so than a strategic position...?" Very, very idle wonderings. Khavur, evidently, still found them to be relevant enough to voice.

@V-Labradorite-One pspspsps

To be completely honest, the main reason The Labradorite was here was because Zoey had volunteered. It had.. rather mixed opinions on this cave. Not that those feelings should prevent it from serving the Forge, of course! But it couldn't quite relate to Zoey's more fond reminiscence.

At The Opal's less than convincing "...Noooo." its gaze swung towards it and narrowed slightly, before quickly returning its focus to surrounding the horizon. It was concerned, not only because The Opal had broken the rules, but it would've had to have come here while the cave was still infected. And Canis was a LONG way from Draco, nearly a day's travel. Was it really so unobservant it wouldn't notice its spawn being missing for days at a time, potentially being in danger the whole time?

It would frown briefly before schooling its expression and turning its attention back to the task at hand.

It didn't have any spells that could detect the presence of mold, but it did have another that it figured would be useful. The heartbeats of its patrol-mates and the surrounding lessers echoed somewhat disorientingly in its ears. But it couldn't hear anything that would pose a threat to its group.

"I don't sense any large threats nearby." Would be its only 'contribution' to the conversation.

@Zoey

Zoey might have noted the lie on another day, but today she wasn't probing for real answers from Opal as much as conversation, and so the falsehood and barely contained sarcasm slid past her attention like oil across water.

Khavur's words brought a larger question to the forefront, one that she thought she understood. "I think, she clicked, "this is a place that has seemed easy to defend." Her talons brushed one of the nearby pieces of bone, and she delicately picked up the small femur to hold up. "This was a sanctuary, once. A safe haven." It had not lasted, clearly. That was a heavy thought. She went on: "The Hive could have seen it as a place they could fortify. Their goal is survival."

She turned her attention to Labradorite's report, and her quills rattled soothingly as she placed the bone back where she had found it. "That's good." She didn't think they would run into trouble here. Master Vargas's plan was one of prevention, not of active concern. He had taken heavy measures-- insisting that they go in groups of three or more-- but that was reasonable, given...

"We'll want to check the local lesser population. It would be easy to hide a source of infection among them..." That seemed like a good direction to point them in. She twisted her torso, angling her head to look again toward Opal. "What do you think, Opal? You want to take the lead for a bit?" Encouraging. With Labradorite keeping an eye out, it should be fairly safe.

@V-Opal-One

Khavur was an object of some interest, at least. It was hard for him not to draw attention, generally. (He smelled REALLY good. Opal had no idea how to communicate this in a way that wouldn't come across as incredibly, irreparably weird, even by its standards. It was a constant weight on its mind.)

War strategy was a little more engaging than a backstory Opal had to fight to care about in any regard. "They wanted Leo too, right?" And bad, considering they chrysalised Lab for it. Maybe they'd ask it how it felt to lose that hard later. For fun!

"Okay, sure." She was less than enthusiastic, mostly because of her difficulties with hunting. It DID want to do something, and murdering some half-dead mushroom zombie would suffice.

And hey, it had three whole relatives to back them up - and at least ONE of them was good at fighting.

(It did not know about the rat incident.)

@Khavur