In the last few cycles since attempting to make contact with the creature in the Pit, Anubis had been dormant. Quietly riffling through the pages of his tome and plotting what he would do next with the creature. He was not giving up, but he was still refusing to put himself at risk. Going straight in there to inspect it was a death wish. He needed to be clever. And clever was something he thought he did pretty well.

The bat familiar had taken a good amount of time to properly calm down and return to him, but it didn't do so happily. Only after apologies, food, and rest was Anubis able to get it back on his side. Since then it had served as a glorified servant for him, fetching materials, food, and wood for lights as needed, and very occasionally a new red mouse for Aati; in exchange, it received Anubis's protection and, of course, its intelligence. And a name - Wings, he called it. Very...original, but it served its purpose.

He was preparing, now, to put his plan into action. Sitting outside the prison next to a half-dead tree, he pressed a paw onto the dry bark to do the first thing - create a carrying device. A nice capped mushroom would do the trick. But instead of catching onto the materials he focused on, the spores instead started crawling up his leg, teeny mushrooms sprouting from fur and flesh. With a low growl, he quickly shook them off. What a great start.

Aran can't recall if he's been in this part of the caves before. It reminds him of Orion, in a strange foreboding way. This cave is quite different from Orion however.... It's completely dark, more encased - Like a prison. As he moves through, Aran's antlers flash with short brightness as he begins to sense various heartbeats around him.

There's nothing notable about any of the heartbeats in the section -- but it does give him a note of where things are. As he traverses the cave, something flashes in his vision. Someone, but not someone he's met before.

"Hello?" he calls out, a short distance away.

@Anubis

He took a few minutes to scrape away the last of the fungus that had embedded into his front legs, carefully clawing out the roots so they didn't stick around and glanced upon at the sound of a voice. He frowned. He didn't need anyone bothering him right now, not when he was in the middle of planning and getting prepared for something this dangerous.

He didn't respond at first, but it was obvious he'd heard, from the head tilt up, the pause, and the momentary locked eyes. He turned back to the decaying tree and pressed a paw against it again, forcing more fungus to rise to the surface. At least this time it didn't go crawling up his leg, but the mushrooms that sprouted were pathetically small. They were the right shape at least, but it wasn't at all what he wanted.

Anubis snarled, momentary frustration breaking the cool exterior as he swiped at the mushrooms to clear them out from the bark, throwing a glare at the approaching deer, as if it was their fault for his misfortune. "What do you want?"

@Aran

Aran lets the coyote scrape away the fungus, giving the other gembound time to rectify the issue. He knows patience, Aran has to stop and think a lot. Or stop to calm the burning anxiety tickling his legs begging for him to run. He's feeling it now, but the silence of the two just standing around makes it less terrorizing.

When Anubis makes more fungus, it occurs to Aran that he can use that spell too. He does nothing, though, not knowing what kind of results the coyote wants. It'd be rude to interrupt someone else's work, either way.

"I was just exploring." He snorts. "Didn't want to get in your way." Aran motions to the mushrooms Anubis scrapes off of the bark again with his antlers.

@Anubis

He stared at the weird deer-thing for a while, taking in the sight of it, the...mutations? Goodness, there were so many. He's seen normal deer before, and cave deer, but none of them had those sparkling wings, the strange clawed front-legs, and the patterning didn't look natural. At least, not from what he could tell. His eyes narrowed as he stared at Aran for a moment longer, before turning back to his tree.

Perhaps he should question him. Ask about it. He would, eventually.

His paw placed upon the dead tree at last delivered what he had been attempting. A single mushroom - large, capped, with plenty of space undeneath. He grunted his approval as he very carefully sheared it at the base, and turned it upside down to begin cleaning out beneath the cap, cutting the stem and carving out some of the frills.

"You are not in my way," he murmured as he worked. "Is there something you were looking for, this deep into ruins?" His ears twitched as he glanced out a Cassiopeia - utterly a ruin, overgrown, forgotten.

@Aran