A waved paw by Callista scattered the blackflies around the corpse, but shed no light upon the poor victim. The whispers began to dissipate as they fled, leaving them alone with a corpse, splattered blood, and the lingering memory of the urge they had all briefly felt.

Where did it go?

@Aurelle @Eulogy @Coilean @Callista

"Oh, ahh, no, I can't see," Aurelle answered the unfinished question. It was better it was clear and out in the open, anyway, just in case some kind of emergency required working eyes. Incidentally, it was a very casual announcement, in the same tune as saying her name. Blindness was just a way of life, after all, and not something she was particularly ashamed or concerned about.

She thought for a moment as Callista explained what they were looking at. "Does it have a stone?" The elf asked. "Maybe we could revive it and see if it remembers anything?" She did not know that they'd have to wait a month and it likely wouldn't even work like that, but in her mind it was a very fair question.

When Coilean cried out, Aurelle's head turned towards him and Euology. "Ahh, are you alright back there?" She called. "I can heal you if you're hurt."

@Callista @Coilean

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see the light in the shade of the morning sun

As soon as the flies began to disperse, Callista pulled back, blinking. "Oops?" But the whispers were vanishing now, leaving them in relative silence. Her head snapped to the side at the exclamation of pain. Had someone followed through with the impulse? Had they all felt that? But it looked under control, being the little snake anyways. More interested in the body, she turned back and reached a paw forward again.

This time, the golden fur of her arm began to glow a gentle yellow, casting relief onto the body in front of them. She leaned forward, investigating for a stone, her nose crinkling at the smell. "Um...I can look for a stone. But I don't think that's gonna work, unless someone can like. Use magic to look at memories? I don't think kids remember things from their previous life." That's what she'd heard, anyways, from conversations in Scorpio.

That my life would depend on the evening moon
That the night would never comе

The hatchling would just stare at Coilean for a solid few seconds, "Sure!" They weren't exactly sure what 'hanging out' entailed, but they instinctively trusted this friendly knife-dog. They felt a little bad about biting him, even if the whispers had demanded it. "...Sorry." They added tentatively, because an apology seemed to be in order even if Coilean didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by being attacked by a shoelace. "Had'ta. Had'ta Listen."

Upon realizing the whispers were fading they felt a sudden surge of anxiety. They'd slither over to where Callista was, getting inadvisability close to the desiccated corpse. "Hi? Hello?" They'd call out to the dispersing blackflies, "Where'd ya go? Come back? Come back??"

@Coillean

Coilean balanced one foot, kicking the other leg back as he twisted to examine it. He couldn't see any blood yet. "Oh, I'm fine! It's nothing. Just a cut." Setting the paw back down, he felt no pain putting his weight on it again. No problem.

He looked down to Eulogy again."It's okay. Good thing no one else did!"

Coilean padded to join the amateur autopsy, now that he and Eulogy had successfully hashed things out. His own nose twitched, and he made a discontented mmph at the stench of very inedible meat. Callista's matter-of-factness made him feel a little silly for wanting to help - what could he contribute that she couldn't?

Well. He could think of one thing.

"Well, if you're looking for a stone, it could be internal. I can help find it - we're near water I think, and it's really easy to clean my claws. I could uh, cut it open."

He tilted his head to look where Callista was shining. "Are there any injuries? It looks like it died from an infection, or something." Smells like it too.

@Aurelle (response)
@Callista (interaction)

The corpse that lay in the cave was half-rotted from time. It seemed to have been dead for quite a while, perhaps died to illness or predation, but the investigators would notice definite bite marks, where chunks had been torn away. A scavenger, perhaps, picking at a decaying meal. Callista would indeed find its stone, quite easily - a round black sapphire set into the top of its skull.

Keenly aware gembound may notice something else - the blood surrounding this corpse was dark and old. It had died some time ago and its blood had coagulated and dried. But the blood on the wall just beyond was bright and fresh. The splatter led away as well, a trail quite easy to find in the direction of Leo's entrance.

It seems something had been injured quite recently...

@Aurelle @Eulogy @Coilean @Callista

Coilean continued to peer over Callista's shoulder, wanting to get a better look, but nervous about invading anyone's personal bubble, settling on the awkward middle ground of gradually leaning forward.

When he looked up from the withered corpse, the flash of red on the wall snagged his attention. "Oh! Blood! Blood trail!" He jabbed a knife's end at it.

"I guess... We should follow it?" Coilean didn't think that was a great idea, but he got the sense that his present company might disagree - or want to pursue it anyways. But hey, what's the worst that could happen? Maybe there was an injured Gembound in need of help!

Coilean's response confuses them. How could you hear, and yet not listen? Didn't he know how important it was? The first thing to Be, the thing to call them out of the dark? It suddenly occurs to them that Coilean and the others had already been outside of the dark by the time they had broken free. They had not been called into existence by the whispers, they simply Were. Maybe theirs was a quieter existence. That sounded lonely.

It also occurs to them that these three are roughly the same shape as each other. Or, at the very least, vastly different than their own serpentine body plan. There is a strange pang of otherness, of loneliness, that makes the absence of the whispering ring even louder. They don't want to hurt others, to make them bleed, but... but they had to listen. Maybe there was a way to do both?

Eulogy remains largely uninterested in the autopsy. The grim connotations are lost on them- they have a sort of innate aversion to the scent of rot, but the corpse itself was simply an object the other three were unusually fascinated by. As soon as the trail was pointed out they set upon it, regardless of what the group consensus turned out to be. Of course, it would be quite easy to catch up to the little thing and stop them, if one found it truly necessary.

[exit thread]

"Blood trail?" Aurelle echoed worriedly. Blood was usually meant to stay inside the body-- someone was likely injured or worse, where ever the end of the trail lead. "Ahh, I think we should follow it, too-- carefully," (she added, just in case someone had an awful idea.)

A beat. "Could, ahh, someone help me follow it? If those whispers come back, ahh, I might not be able to hear where everyone is."

She loosely offered out her hand to whoever wanted to guide her. And then, she added-- just in case they thought it was best to leave her behind --"I'm quite good at healing injuries."

edited exit w callista

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see the light in the shade of the morning sun

Callista noticed the stone quickly, but waited, for now, as they investigated. Sharp eyes noticed the odd difference in the blood and she noticed the trail just after Coilean announced it. "Oh. So it is. It wasn't this thing that made it, right?" A paw stroked thoughtfully at the long fur of her left side. "Weird..."

She looked down at the snake and realized it was already leaving. "Oh...the kid...uh." She hesitated and then quickly turned back to the skull, grabbing for the sapphire. Her paw closed around the stone and intended on breaking it cleanly away from the skull, but she wasn't quite precise enough with her magic and it ended up just...kinda breaking the entire skeleton as too much energy passed from paw to bone. She flinched back, the sapphire clenched in her paw (with some bits of bone still stuck to it) and cringed. "Oops..."

Quickly stashing the crystal into the pocket of her robes, she stood quickly and offered a paw to Aurelle. "Um, I can guide you there." Oh she was offering a hand already. Callista reached forward to take it and made to follow the snake towards Leo.

That my life would depend on the evening moon
That the night would never comе

@Aurelle (exiting with her)