sure :D i'll tag you!

He had fallen back into comfortable silence. Most of his senses branched out to monitor for signs of closeness to the Divine. But he kept an eye on the swamp too - one could never truly guess what might emerge from the darkness, the folded ferns and murky waters. Aquarian haunted this place, but nobody knew where the serpent could be at any time. There were moments in their visits to the Heart that they served the shoreline with mountains of rotting carcasses, and nothing stirred. And yet, once, as Ghanyarah drove a cave hare into the water to drown it, the serpent had emerged screeching and stolen his meal. He was unpredictable.

Such dangers existed in other creatures, too. His run-in with the spiders had taught him not to underestimate the strength of larger lesser Gembounds. True Gembounds were capable of everything and worse. His thoughts ventured back to the white dog, the ghost that he sometimes saw drifting through the trees. She frightened him, but he had learned to avoid her.

His thoughts were interrupted by the bat's unprecedented request. For a moment, he couldn't remember what a song was, and he searched his memories for instances of it. There were distant sounds, words gently lifted in the air, that he could remember every now and then. Temoria's face would come to mind. But he himself had never sung. He could change that.

"I do not know any songs." Ghanyarah answered. "But I can make one up. You can sing with me." And again he searched his memories until he could withdraw a faint, archaic tune somehow embedded between the fabric of his thoughts. A melody he'd heard in passing. Slowly, his gravelly voice summoned a low din of a hum, shifting meticulously between notes that may have existed before. He didn't know the words, or if words belonged. All he knew was to make the noise and follow through its rhythms like carefully crafted instruction. Deep into the forest they walked, the stillness illuminated by his primitive song, rugged and nubile.

(exit into next thread!) @Lituus

The threat of the surrounding fog and the uncertainties it obscured melt away as their journey goes on. While he steps, the subtle rocking motion to and fro lulls her into a state of calm, and ceases her anxious fluttering. That low hum fills her ears, and she is almost able to feel its vibrations, resonating from his throat and into the sensitive cones of her ears. It's only for a short while that she listens, letting herself be inspired by his sound. Words wouldn't come to her either, but she did join him in his hum. A higher pitched lilt accompanies Ghanyarah, alternating notes as he does in attempt to sync the sounds.

This was expression. It was creative! Something she- quite obviously- hadn't done before. The bat wanders from the main tune to go off of her own humming monologues that might have served as some kind of poorly planned chorus. It didn't matter if it was good or bad. She was practicing. Warming her voice and getting a feel of the various sounds she didn't know she could create. A squeaking giggle fumbles forth and makes their dank surroundings less imposing than they were supposed to be.

((Exit Lituus to new thread! @Ghanyarah!))