S E R E K
you kneel before my throne
unaware it was born of lies

Serek tilted his head back as the vision washed over him, eyes shut tight in a reflex to prevent his head from swimming too much in the memory. Well- at least, he was swimming in a sense. He could feel his muscles twitch in the present as if they were reacting to the cold he felt enshroud him.

The vision felt like it lasted forever. In the mere moments it took for it to parse through his brain, the experience of laying still for eons unnerved him. He felt like an ancient tree, like a twin to the Divine they were under.

He rapidly blinked as the memory passed, brought back to the present just as quickly as he left. His paw persisted in resting on the cluster, but with his head craned up he searched the boughs of the frozen dryad. The back of his mind alarmed at the wrongness over it all- he shouldn't feel like his control was being ripped from him- and yet... Everything felt right. He had nothing to complain about. This is what they were made for, and with a warm glint in his eye Serek returned his attention to the wolf.

He knelt at the offending cluster as she spoke of it. Absentmindedly, he prodded at it with his wet nose before tucking his paws under him in a herbivorous manner. Surely, she didn't mean to hurt one? She loved them, as he was beginning to- that much was clear.

He nodded along with her as she spoke of them being protected and shared. "They do," he muttered, his voice off in another dreary place and eyes lidded. At the mention of nest, though, he rose his head once more to gaze at the wolf. "Do- you want help with that? I tend to- uh.." He couldn't say wander in boredom and depression to someone he just met. "I tend to explore around here- I could help look?" His head tilted to the side, ears flopping. He couldn't be bothered to hold them up anymore. "I know what it's like to carry around stuff all the time. It'd be best to take them home and keep them safe." Absentmindedly, Serek's paw pulled from his chest to run a gentle claw over the broken cluster, feeling the odd fuzziness and waxiness under calloused digits.

@Adèlaide

He was acting odd, doing something that left wonder to fester in her mind, her own head tilting back in a mocking stance of him just to see if it would do anything spectacular. It just left her feeling disappointed, nothing happened. "What are you doing?" Was it not stupid to have your eyes shut? What if something came out from behind the tree and decided to steal the clusters? The tree was large enough to hide someone and she was there to protect them, sure, but he was larger and would be more useful. Couldn't she do whatever it was he was doing and he stand watch? How rude. His blinking left even more questions for her. "Did you get something stuck in your eye?" Her eyes narrowed and started flicking from one side of his face to the other, head twisting at all sorts of angles to see if she could spot anything. "Are you just odd?" That would make sense, even though his weird reaction to touching the cluster only lasted for a few seconds.

She grinned when he eventually looked back to her, there was no hatred now, only joy and understanding that they were sharing something special. The compulsion was not lessened though, there were so many more that needed this too. Sadness and regret eventually overcame her though as she watched him kneel and prod. He seemed so entranced by it, so was she, she was just so curious and she wanted to see what they were, maybe he would look after them better. "You can't have that one." A shake of her head, the broken one was definitely hers, but she had a few others. Her paw pushed one of the unbroken ones towards him, hoping his paw would switch over to it so she could snatch the broken one back. "But you can have this one."

Her excitement grew so much that she actually yipped a little, the pup inside of her coming out to play. "You could help? That would be great! Although...she didn't really have much to go on. The worry ate at her, she definitely made a den somewhere high and with trees. and some weird small particles. "I can't remember much, and I don't know when I did it but there were a lot of trees so it had to be around here right? I think it is in a tree somewhere? I was going to use some really small balls of something, although when there's a lot of them it's like water but doesn't look like water. There was water too. I think I was making something with the water and the small ball stuff." She wouldn't actually admit that she was confused or that trees, high up and stick stuff was all she really could remember. Her mind felt blank as if there was nothing else in her mind connected to that memory. "I also used something furry and green or maybe grey, it was very soft, is there a place where only that stuff grows? and and, I don't know, something long and hanging and green maybe?" Her memory of this was really just fractured images, she had to keep stopping when she spoke to think about it. They couldn't just search every tree, could they? "What did you have to carry around? Were they as nice as the Things?" She had begun to look around him as if she could see something he was carrying but there was nothing around them other than the huge roots of a tree. She didn't know what home was either, was it another word for a nest or den?

@Serek

S E R E K
you kneel before my throne
unaware it was born of lies

"Hm?" He paused, not realizing that he may have looked odd to the bystander as he lost himself in the cluster's memory. "No, and I'm not odd," he spoke with an emphasis on the word odd, shaking his head. "I was uh- looking at its memories. It's a spell like the one my mother does, but... More object based than bone?" He shook his head. "Giggle, if you've met her."

He didn't know why he was blabbering on about family to this wolf, but instinct drove him to trust around her. He... Actually felt happy for once. Not upset for the tiniest, thing, not lost or apathetic, actually pleased with himself. "Uh- sorry if I'm getting personal," he coughed out, clearing his throat and moving his mind from the awkwardness clouding his mind and back to her den.

His ears sagged when she denied him the cluster, yet elated immediately after at the offering of another. As expected, he let off his grip and tightened his shoulders when she snatched it from him. Well, that's fair. That one may need some extra protection after being damaged so much. Instead of crying about it, he only dipped his head to the other and began running his paw over this one instead.

He listened as she explained her dilemma. The memory wasn't much to go off of, but it got him thinking. Pausing, he brought the ankle of his free paw to his mouth, eyes searching the ground. Balls that acted like water? ... Sand? Pebbles? Sand was too small to be balls, though, and pebbles were too heavy to act like water. Mud? He squinted. The second thing did sound like moss- was there moss in the Crags? He didn't expect the wolf to be able to climb one of the Grove's trees, and the swamp was generally flat as far as he could remember.

Was her den even in Cetus? It would probably be- with the water she described, it could only be in here. Pisces and Fornax weren't great places for resting spots unless you were amphibious or aquatic. Eridanus? No- she'd have remembered more than just moss. The digits of his paw drummed lightly against the cluster as he grew in frustration, unable to place the instructions into a specific location.

He nearly didn't notice the next questions. Blinking, he looked up blankly, letting his brain shift over to talking instead of trying to map out Cetus. "Uh-" He started, trying to think. "It.. Was a gem that held magic. There was a creature in the groves that had it, but he gave it to me when.." He paused. "I don't really remember why we fought, but he threw it at me and I took it. I think I left it in Canis somewhere." His shoulders rolled in a shrug. "Not nearly as nice as these things." He brought his head down to the one he owned, raking his eyes over it. "I don't think I know where your den is, I'm sorry, but it does sound like it's in this cave? Maybe you can get up higher by the Crags," he pointed with his muzzle to the peaks in the distance, "and see if you see any landmarks? A lot of trees, though, sounds like the Groves." He turned his head to the thicker woods about the Divine, turning this way and that before deciding where the closest point of finding it would be. "When the water's black and the trees are high up, you'll be in the Groves. You could've made your den in one of the trees- they're so thick there that an elephant could probably curl up in one of the trunks."

He had no clue if that was completely true, but the place unnerved him enough to keep his visits there brief. Still, perhaps that would be a good place to start?

If only his spell could work on Gembound, too.

@Adèlaide

He's not odd, yeah right! He was in denial, she'll let him live in his fantasy world for a bit longer. It was quite amusing. Then memories caught her attention. He could actually do that? Did they have memories? "What did you find out? How many memories did it have? Could you actually see something? Did it ever say anything? What's it doing here? How long has it been here? Why are we only finding them now? Did they look any different before?" The questions poured out of her, a tumble of words that her tongue could hardly keep up and, at points, she ended up falling over her own sentences before picking herself back up and starting again. She almost missed the part about him talking about his mother, Giggle, whatever a mother or a Giggle was. Too busy trying to get caught up in the attempted assimilation of new information. Yet, she felt some sort of familiarity with the word. She had heard the word mother before. Being shouted, screamed, into her heard: a memory, a dream, she didn't quite know but she hadn't liked it. This mother thing must be bad. "I'm so sorry." The words was saddened, for the first time she felt her heart contract and her face soften into one of sympathy, she had only ever heard mother once and it was full of fear and pain, she could not comprehend what the hybrid must have been through to use the word mother against this Giggle. At least it gave him something useful, she knew about magic but not everything there was to know, at least this Giggle gave him a useful spell.

She took a few steps closer to him and edged slightly around the large banana so that her clusters were almost behind her now. "I don't mind! I like having a lot of information." For some reason having some information on against him made her feel more fulfilled than usual as if it was more important to know. She could have probably sat there for hours listening to anything he had to tell her as long as they had the yellow food which made her feel so good and energetic and the clusters under their protection and a good place to sleep - under the roots of this large tree would do - all would be well. She didn't have to worry about him harming her or her Things, she didn't know why, he was a stranger, but that didn't matter, they could share now. The being in her head seemed to agree, she could feel him there, watching everything, and he did nothing to stop her so it must be fine.

She waited as patiently as possible as he seemed to think through whatever sort of clues she had given him. He said he travelled this place a lot so he must know more about it than her, yet even she knew that her memory wasn't good enough. That's something to question later, if she didn't have a lot of memories because she was young it would make sense that she remembered the memories she did have better, right?

She perked up at the mention of gems and creatures and arguments, what exactly happened? Why would he just leave it as well? "Who was this creature?" You see, one could not tell her anything if they did not expect her to question almost everything about it. So much to know, so much to learn. Maybe she should be more considerate and less nosey but that never really entered her mind, what was the point in talking if you couldn't learn stuff, and he wouldn't have told her anything if he didn't want her to know. "Do you want me to look for your gem whilst I look for my nest? Is this Canis?"

Following his pointing with her head she nodded, trying to peer through the mist, although it was futile, at least she knew which direction to start in now. With black water? How cool was that! "Thanks! I don't know why I can't remember more if I made it, I should be at least able to remember more than just running through trees and picking up stuff and feelings. Ah well, at least it's something to go off." She was more confused than elated at having more information this time for it couldn't really help her. "Even if I found it, I don't even think I remember what it actually looks like, just that I built something somewhere." Maybe she was saying too much, but that unnatural feeling of trust was mutual, she didn't feel quite like herself, not that she had a lot to go on in that department either, but that was fine.

Was this his way of telling her to leave him alone to go search now? Nah, probably not, a feeling of pure calmness and serenity had washed over her as they had talked. Her limbs were starting to ache now though, and if she really did want to leave she would probably need to take a few more bites of that banana if she didn't want to sleep on her travels. It didn't even actually taste all that bad.

@Serek