Quix kneaded the dog's shoulders with her little paws as he asked her. “I don't know," she shrugged. “He wanders. But lion easy to find." The girl hopped off his back, and smiled at him. Her job was done here, and she was so tired Cancer would be mad if she stayed out for too long. Besides, who knew what Usui was up to? That boy was always setting paw everywhere, a nomad he was. Perhaps Black would find him if he was lucky. With that, the girl nosed Void's leg tenderly then skitted off at a pace faster than he could run. “S' long, Void! Cya!" and left him all alone in the room full of antique things.

-exit-

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Black peered quizzically after the fox as she bolted away, then shook his head, clambered off his boulder, and looked back to the carving.

He felt a bit swamped by all of this, but not overwhelmed; he just had to take it logically, one step at a time. He had to find this Usui, he had to sort out what he'd seen in the carving, and he had to search other tunnels for the odor of the sickly-sweet thing-that-had-fled. He would do the latter, and ask any he encountered about this lion he was meant to find.

He sat, for awhile, slowly lowering himself onto his black haunches to stare up at the carving for awhile.

What does this mean?

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The images that flashed in the dog's head would be that of bumbling creatures; they were small, and made of inky blackness. They chipped away at the wall, chattering quietly amongst themselves. They were alert and leery of the sounds that echoed from nearby rooms - distant screams and shouts, the sound of footsteps drawing nearer. Another creature appeared from down the tunnel, the direction of Orion - at the sight of it, the smaller creatures fled, abandoning the carving they had been working on.

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Black stared at the carving for awhile, reliving the scene over and over in his mind. Hmm.

He would search the other tunnels, and then he would go back to Cetus, and he would speak to the Aquarian. Perhaps this knowledge would be useful to him. Or perhaps he could enlighten Black as to what, exactly, the dog had just seen.

Small things. Shadow things. Things of darkness. He said we were darkness. I am darkness. Perhaps he meant it truly. Perhaps what-came-before was all of shadow. Perhaps I am... primordial.

Black felt a flicker of darkness stir within him, but it didn't emerge, didn't engulf him as it had before. It was just a twinge, a shimmer of not-light, of void.

He leaned up and forward once more, pressing both paw and nose, now, to the rock. Then, slowly, he dropped back down--and made his way toward Orion, black coat as inky as the things he still saw flickering in his mind.

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((ooc -- exit Black))