Drip, drip, drip...

The silence of this tunnel has been interrupted, but not by the hustle and bustle of foot traffic, which has become common. Pillars of ice - spanning from the ceiling to the floor, reaching through the chill - have begun to melt. Or that is what one wall appears to be doing. The ice which once sat there has receded, with a couple of the pillars becoming narrow; beyond them, there is only more ice.

Drip.. drip... crack.

One of the thinning columns abruptly splits, as if there is weight from above, and the thinning has weakened its structural integrity. It is a good thing there are numerous other stands of ice - but still, this surreptitious break has opened up a portion of the wall. Beyond, in the dark, something moves.

Fallah often traveled these tunnels, though now she was wary of them. The silence bugged her, though she didn't grow jumpy. After a moment in the caves, Fallah realized there was a noise.

Drip, drip, drip.

What was this sound, Fallah wondered, and drew closer to investigate. There was a sudden crack, one of the columns opened. Did something move? Fallah peered inside. Was someone trapped in there? Was it trapped for a reason? The lynx stared for a good moment, then called out, "Hello?"

At first there is nothing to greet the curious gembound, with the only response being the constant dripping of the melting ice. But the closer Fallah gets to the exposed wall, the easier it becomes to see a faint light emanating from within the thick ice sheet. Though there is no shadow to imply weight or even a true body, her magicka allows her to sense some kind of entity there; a life force, more or less. To any other observer, the icy wall simply appears to have caught a subtle beam of light - except that too would be strange, as there is no source for that faint glowing.

There was a light! Fallah had seen it. She mewled softly, kneading her paws into the ground while she waited. Slowly the lynx formed an idea. Maybe she could help the thing inside without wholly releasing it at once. Maybe she could use her magic to melt the ice and get a better view of whatever that light was. Approaching slowly, Fallah summoned her magic, her blue-tinged fur and eyes lighting up along with the icy blue of her larimar lower jaw. The water came and she doused the ice, making sure to stay clear in case any ice chunks fell. After a moment, Fallah paused to carefully observe and see if she had made any difference in the ice or if the creature-thing had responded, "You are safe. You can come out." she called once more.

Although Fallah meant well, as soon as the water touched the ice, something changed. The light shifted, first and foremost. It moved the way a sunbeam caught in a magnifying glass would move: quickly, condensing in to one point and shimmering across the surface of the ice. But it wasn't alone. There was a second light, cooler in tone, which paired off with it. The ice melted away and the lights, twinning around one another, danced away from the point of contact where the water hit it. As they shifted across the wall and drifted by Fallah's location, a faint giggling could be heard - as if the glowing was actually alive. Nothing came out of the wall, because there was no solid object within the wall to set free - no living body, at least - and so when Fallah's magical attack ended, all she was left with was the strangely distant giggling, and a new drip drip drip.

-Cat chases the laser-

The lights... moved? Fallah watches as they danced and twinkled and moved to another source of dripping. She followed the lights, her blue eyes wide. What was this? Fallah wouldn't let them get away! Fallah ran a bit, then jumped, aiming to catch the lights between her fluffy paws.

Sorry this is so short. I can only possibly reply if it's short atm.

The feline does what all cats are programmed to do: it watches the movement and becomes enthralled, then attempts to catch the target. Her judgement of distance was accurate, and while her paws closed upon the floating orb of dull light, the landed blow was not going to hold the entity for long. As soon as her paw touched the light she would feel a numb sensation in her toes - and the light would hiss, almost like the sound of bacon cooking on a griddle, except the sound transitions perfectly to a sly giggle. The target slipped away and twirled, dancing effortlessly, with its partner adjacent.

And suddenly, there is a snickering, tittering voice. It is hard to make out the words between the tiny notes of incongruent laughter, but it seems like the lights... Are talking.

"Tehehee - kitty thing," Fallah might make out from above her head, where the lights continue to swirl around one another like little moons in orbit. "Aheheh, so hot, so cold," The voice continued, coming now from the opposite light, but sounding no different. Was there one voice or two? One entity, or a pair? "So cold yes, but hot too, what fun! What fun!" As these last words drift in to existence, echoing through the cave with no discernible origin, one of the lights slips away from the other - it boops Fallah on the nose, numbing it slightly, and then spins around her head.

"Is this the game?" It says, before meeting up with its partner again, and the twin lights hover just out of her reach, as if expecting something.

Her paws would close over the light and the light would emit a noise and... a feeling? Fallah's furry paws almost bubbled as they became numb and Fallah drew back, shaking her paws off- as cats seem to do when their paws touch something unpleasant. The lights bubbled and hissed, though the sounds was not all together unpleasant. Through the bubbling, Fallah made out noises- sounds- words. Did they taunt her, or were the lights friendly? Wide, crystal blue eyes watched the dancing lights as the voice seemed to come from one of them, then the other, then both. Were they two, or were they one? Fallah's ears pricked.One of the lights separated from the other, coming slowly towards the lynx's face. Large eys crossed slightly as the light tapped her nose then drew back. It asked if this was the game? the game? What game? "Tag..." the cat murmured, coming to focus on the light. She reared, her tail waggling as she leaped to gently touch the light with her nose again.

The lights wavered from side to side, as if drunk. One dipped a little too low just as Fallah made her leap and was caught by her paw, and had the entity been any more corporeal then they would have hit the ground. With some lucky pirouetting - as well as the strangeness of their body made of light - Fallah's paw did catch them, but also slid through them. Her toes would bloom with a brief warmth before going numb this time.

"Taaag?" The more stationary light mimicked, before its partner parroted, "tag, tag, t-ay-g?" And then together, they seemed to bounce through the air and whip around Fallah. They stopped referring directly to the feline though, and seemed to chatter between themselves. Their voices mingled and mixed, with no discernible language aside from a bug-like tittering. When finally they stopped drifting around Fallah and righted themselves once more in front of her face, one light quickly admonished the cat with a boop to the nose.

There was a momentary crackle, like a heavy static, as some sort of energy connected to her snout and rebounded to the other light - then both lights, shrieking in surprise, recoiled.

Fallah's face will feel very hot, then very numb, like her toes.

It was tag. She touched the light, the light touched her. Each tough bringing warmth. The lights would dance down and touch, just lightly, her nose. A sound erupted. The energy reverberated. The lights shrieked. Fallah's face felt hot. She sneezed a few times as her face became numb. Bright blue eyes looked at the twin lights questioningly, "Why?" she asked, "Why did you cry?" "speak"