Progress had been made, while it had been slow the essential steps were there and he quietly made his way through the tunnels, careful not to disturb any of the dirt on the ground in his travels. An appropriate lackey had fallen into his clutches and with that he was finally secure in his position in this tiny little hell-hole of a place. In fact, he was almost certain he had found the heart of it all when the distinctive tugging on his fur gave indication of the twister that was around the next corner. Behind him, he could only assume that the unnamed creature was following but his attention was preoccupied with the aggressive feeling of wind as it howled through the nearby caves. While it was in a furious rage, he found himself oddly capable of being able to withstand the pulling forces.

Not one to stick around, his attention was lost on the twister and he moved around the edge of the cave until he came to a relatively quiet place. Only instead of a twister, it possessed a narrow winding path up to the various ledges near the top of the cave. Still in proximity of the eternally struggling tornado, he began to make his climb, "Keep up," he snapped at his newest companion as he attempt to fixate the golden gaze of his on wherever this path was leading. All he knew that it would get them both out of a potentially dangerous area. Being higher was always better, and the narrowness of this path confirmed that no large creatures could follow.

The little creature tried to keep up, but it wasn't as pronounced in its movements yet as Louie was and he found himself stumbling over its paws far too often. All it wanted to do was sleep off the initial hatching drama, find a nice place to curl up, but its newest friend didn't have that in mind and it was eager to be there for its new friend. In the dark, it was quite happy to follow along with its buddy as long as it didn't get too far out of sight. Un-enhanced night vision only did so much for the foxes. Also able to feel the pulling at its fur, it watched as Louie disappeared and the next corner and gasped, scampering to keep up with the male. Upon coming into the room with the tornado, it could hardly see the wind lines, and instead was only witness to the feeling of it.

Once more, its dearest guide made off and it followed, oblivious to the annoyance behind his words. It was in that moment as they began to make the careful walk up the ledges that the lights came on. Brilliant as it was, X shied backwards down the slight elevation they had climbed and fell down the edge landing with a slight thud. All the bright lights were causing its photosensitive eyes to react harshly and it whined, covering its face with a paw. If it hadn't been so sudden, maybe it would have been able to keep itself going but as it was, the lights hurt it and it was not happy with them.

Still. Eager to please, it stumbled back onto its feet and tried to blindly navigate to the start of the path again.

Such a strange place she found herself. It was a room of wind with a strange tornado twisting and turning in the middle. The force at which the wind pulled at her fur worried her a little but she figured that as long as she didn't get too close she would be fine. So, giving the twister a wide berth she carried on in her investigations. Her dexterous paws searched through the rocks and dirt of the ground, looking. Looking for what she didn't know, perhaps some sort of treasure but so far she turned up nil. No matter, there were other places to search.

The thief was about to end her search when she stumbled --quite literally-- upon a shiny object. In reality what she found was nothing more than a tiny piece of quartz, tiny enough to fit in the palm of her hand but to this little one it was a treasure to begin her career in hunting. She wiped the thing off on her fur and with a beaming smile, grabbed it up in her mouth before heading up a winding path.

The path lead up to some ledges that looked like a pretty good resting place. Well, a treasure hunter like her deserved a good place to rest so she found a spot in a nice warm gust of wind where she curled up into an almost undetectable ball. The quartz she tucked into her tail while she allowed her eyes to close.

Until a voice caused them to open again.

Uncurling herself the moongoose took a look where the voice was coming from. Up the trail she'd previously traveled came two creatures that were like each other except for fur color. Ah, new creatures... that meant new possibilities.

The mongoose grabbed the quartz up in her paw and moved closer to the path, standing up on her hind legs to watch the approach more easily. For a moment she studied the orange creature and his snowy companion before deciding to call out a greeting. "Howdy!" She liked saying this far more than "hi" or "hello", it made her feel unique. "Seems as if you've lost your friend, there." It had taken her a moment to notice but the snowy creature had taken a tumble all the way to the bottom of the trail. "Need any assistance, friend?" She smiled, a false smile. She liked to help others... then they were entitled to help you later.

The thought occurred to her that this larger creature could probably be hostile but she had to try and be friendly. After all, she was stuck on the ledges with him and it would be better to make an ally than an enemy that would try to eat you. Besides, if she showed fear what would that get her? Scorn and shame in her own belly.

---

words: 411+
tagged: Louie, The X
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

The wind here felt amazing against her body. Even when some of the surges of wind nearly swept her right off her paws. A grin marred her feline features as she sat on her rump just below the ledges she was staring up at. She wasn't exactly sure about her desires of the ledges, but she wanted to climb it. It seemed like so much fun. Her tail moved behind her as if it had a mind of it's own. An occasional 'clank' of her stone when the pretty turquoise struck the ground. Just as she made up her mind to get up and find her way to the pathways entrance a loud thud startled the kitten and she jumped right up into the air with a mewl of fright, before she landed uneasily on her paws a short distance away. "Whoa!" she cried out when a sudden stream of wind came swooping through and knocked her right off her paws.

With a thud Amaria sighed with a frown, but it was quickly forgotten as she recalled the previous thud. Pushing herself up she looked around and finally spotted the form. It was strange and nothing like her, with the pelt a strange pink tinted white. Worry quickly enveloped the clouded leopard and she was quickly bounding over to the fox that was picking itself up and began moving again. "Hey, you alright?" she mewed at the thing as she thoughtfully averted her gaze up towards the winding path above, wondering if the thing had fallen on it's attempt up towards the ledges.

Turning her gaze back towards the fox she kept step with it, looking it over slowly to see if it had injured itself or not. It didn't seem hurt in anyway. "Are you going up to the top?" She inquired thoughtfully, "Want some help?" She continued to blabber on at the creature, not even bothering to remember just maybe there should have been some kind of introduction as to who she was. Nor did it occur to Amaria that maybe this canine creature didn't want to be bothered and had the potential to be hostile towards her. Regardless of any outcome, Amaria would help the thing if it needed it. If not, Amaria would continue her way up the ledge. Behind the canine in a secret way of giving her assistance. She didn't want to see the thing fall from the path again as it made her hurt just thinking about it.

"Can you hear me?"