A dog-sized, wing-armed black Gembound was slowly picking his way through one of the thicker parts of the jungle. Pale blue eyes flicked here and there, intently focused, and he touched and then disregarded a number of plants as he went. This fern wasn't right; these grasses weren't quite the right thing, either.

It wasn't clear what he was doing--or seeking--but after a few moments he seemed to find whatever it was he wanted. He came to a stop before a particularly fluffy fern plant, and very carefully he dug it out, uprooting it completely. He murmured to it quietly as he picked it up--and on he went, pushing his way through the narrow gaps in the brush.

There'd been a fire, here--the cave was again burnt in places, with entire patches of trees and foliage reduced to charred black earth. Oliver was skirting around these areas, sometimes stepping into their open clearings to sniff over this half-burnt plant or that, though he left many of them alone. Carrying his fern, he finally stopped near another bit of greenery: a young tree sapling, barely more than a sprout, less than a foot tall. But it was one of those that would grow into a vast fruit tree--mango, he thought. He set the fern down and dug this up, too.

And on he went, adding to his strange collection: a bushel of grass, complete with roots; tubers he'd dug from the ground; a long and creeping vine he wound over his shoulders to make it easier to carry. The farther into Eridanus he pushed, the more foliage he wound up carrying.

He did not appear to be eating it, so the natural question might have been--"why?" Whatever the reason, he seemed to be handling it all very carefully--and still murmuring to it, now and again.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Rift

The fire that had ravaged the forest hurt Rift almost as if he had been connected to the plants. He had lived here for so long, practice plant magic so much, though, that he almost was, in a way, connected to the trees. His own fur, once covered with greenery and plants, branches and flowers was now covered with ash, the burned plants still desperately clinging to his skin. It stung where it had burned and some of his fur was singed - as usual he blended into the forest - a walking charred bush.

When the dog passed by him he had been working to set seeds he had collected into patches of ash-covered earth. He knew, at least, that the burned forest would regrow more beautiful then before - he just had to start the process. But the sound of someone pushing through the undergrowth some ways away vibrated through his gem-ear. He perked up and abandoned his job for the moment in favor of seeing this stranger. He didn't recognize the faint smell so he climbed up the nearest living tree, slipping a bit on the ash, and began picking his way through the canopy, making sure not to jump onto the branches of the worst burned tree.

Eventually he found himself above the dog-thing and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. What on earth were they doing to his beautiful home?! Digging plants out of the ground? Carrying them around like prey?! A shiver of anger went down his spine as he watched him continuously dig through the earth to pull plants out of the ground. How dare they?!

With a low growl he leaped down from the tree and into the dog-crow's path. As his feet touched the ground the roots of the nearest tree lifted out of the ground and surrounded him, creating an impassable wall of tree. Rift's fur was bristling, bits of ash rolling off of his fur, and he snarled darkly at the hybrid. "What do you think you're doing?!" His claws slid out and dug into the earth. "How dare you uproot the plants of this forest!"

@Oliver

Oliver had been so absorbed in his task of choosing and gathering plants that he hadn't noticed the cat. In his defense, the cat looked exactly like--well, everything, here.

When Rift leapt down, he was utterly unprepared, and flinched down and back with a sharp yelp of fear (a yelp that held a crow's sharp croak). His ear-tufts flattened back against his head and he stared up, wide-eyed.

Rift was about his size--perhaps a bit larger--but at the moment, with his fury and his magic, he seemed to Oliver to tower to the sky. "Wh-what?!" he cried, clearly alarmed. He glanced around as if hoping for help--or to look for an escape--but all the while clutched the plants protectively to his chest with one clawed arm.

He then blinked at Rift, and in the same panicked voice, asked--"Are you a tree?!" for it seemed to him that somehow, this bushy green cat must be some kind of tree-spirit come to life. As a... cat? Kind of. Oliver had certainly seen stranger things. His words then tumbled out further as he hastened to explain, for fear of being torn apart by this--angry tree-cat. "I think I'm--um--picking out plants to move?! To--the bone cave! --Please don't eat me?" He crouched back, blinking up at Rift, his body language completely unthreatening and submissive. It did not even seem to occur to him that he could try to defend himself; he instead seemed plainly and completely afraid.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Rift

As the dog-thing spoke, Rift narrowed his eyes with disbelief. A few more dead, charred leaves gently detached from his body and fluttered to the ground. He growled again at the question. "I'm not a tree but I speak for them. I am Rift, the guardian of Eridanus!"

The dog was stammering and tripping over his words so much that it made Rift believe him less and less. And this bone cave he was apparently speaking of couldn't exist. Rift did not believe it at all. He thrashed his tail and scoffed. "Yes, and then you're going to take them to a cave filled to the brim with water or one that's covered with blood. I don't believe you." Perhaps it was his frustration of the forest burning that angered him so much or the exhaustion in his bones from all of the regrowth he'd had to do but Rift was completely illogical and unreasonable.

@Oliver

Panic threatened to set in. Why didn't the tree... cat, believe him?! And Eridanus had a guardian?!

"It has a guardian?! I've been in and out of here my whole life, I didn't know!" he protested. But ignorance was never an excuse, was it? "I'm not taking them to Pisces, and--wait, there's a blood cave?"

The hybrid appeared distinctly alarmed by this, so much so that he almost seemed distracted from his fear of Rift. A cave full of blood..? That was--horrible. "...Whose... whose blood is it?" he asked, crouched motionless, his voice a hushed whisper and his eyes wide.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Rift

Rift's mouth gaped in disbelief. He didn't realize that this creature was stupid. Pisces was not filled to the brim with water - it was one of the few other caves he'd been to before and he was sure that it wasn't just one big water cave. "There isn't a blood cave just like how there isn't a bone cave! I might as well ask you whose bones they belong to!"

He took a step forward so that he was standing over Oliver, even though he was barely bigger then the dog hybrid. "Why don't you tell me the real reason your stealing from my forest?"

@Oliver

Oliver stared for a long moment, his tufted ears slowly rising up, his face twisting into a faint--if still-frightened--frown.

"I don't like you," he said, a little sadly--as if this was a revelation, to him, that he could dislike anyone. And an unwelcome one, at that. "You're very rude, and mean." He said this the way a child would knowingly inform another child--matter-of-fact, and a little righteous, if diligent--and then sat back on his haunches.

His head tilted as he registered something Rift had said. "You've never been to Canis, before..? It's dead and full of bones. I told you, I'm bringing plants there. So it's not so dead. This place has been on fire twice, and if it really burns all the way down, all the plants will be gone! There needs to be another green cave. ...With plants," he explained, as if that could possibly have been unclear.

He seemed to have resigned himself to being attacked, possibly killed--and was just a little bit sullen about that. His ears flattened back again, and he stared resentfully at Rift, waiting as if annoyed by his own potential impending murder.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Rift

Rift felt something hit a nerve. Despite the dog's statement being childish, Rift felt it actually hurt. He was mean? Was that what he'd come to? A rude and vicious guardian that attacked anyone that stepped foot in Eridanus? What was wrong with him?!

He opened his mouth to respond but whatever he had to say died in his throat. His eyes widened and he took a step back, visibly stung. "I'm not...mean!" It was as if he, too, was thinking as a child would, trying to convince himself that the other child was wrong! That they were telling lies!

And the word Canis rung a bell as well. He tiled his head, confused. "Canis?" His mind was so muddled and dark from the smoke and ash around him. For a moment he turned his attention away from Olive and closed his eyes, opening his magic to the light coming down through the thin trees. Across his body he felt the light soak into his skin, going deep into his veins, filling his body with light and warmth and his mind cleared like fog would in this wonderful light.

When he opened his eyes, he felt fresh, rejuvinated. The hunger that, perhaps, had made him so crabby, that he had no noticed before, was gone now. And he didn't see an enemy trying to wreck the forest, he saw a scared dog confused about why he was being attacked. His ear drooped with shame. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be like that. This whole fire thing has really been stressing me out." He sighed, his tail flicking behind him. "Sorry, I should have believed you. I know Canis, but I forgot that it was a room of bones. I've never been there myself but if it's as you say, then you're doing a good service. Is there anything I can do to help?" He wanted to make up for his rudeness and his harsh tongue. Now that his energy had been restored, he was feeling a lot more understanding.

@Oliver

The bird-dog listened, ear-tufts pricking up and head tilting. Easily, in just as childlike a fashion, he immediately forgave Rift.

"It's okay," he reassured. "fires are pretty bad." With this ingenious assessment he looked around, blue eyes travelling over the damage done here and there to the forest. At Rift's offer, he whipped his head back so hard that he disbalanced himself and almost fell over, blinking and staggering on his plant-hugging wing-arms. "Oh that's--really nice of you to offer. I'm sorry I called you mean? Um. ...I mean you could help me bring plants, if you want? I have a garden there. I could show it to you maybe."

And then, still childlike, but now with enthusiasm, he began to regale Rift with a tale of his garden. It was the sort of rambling a small hatchling might embark on, but born purely of his innocent, genuine excitement. It wasn't that he was stupid, even, or simple--he was just very happy. "I spent days there just purifying some of the water pools. They get really gross/ Sometimes they turn dark, even, if I do it wrong or maybe--they just have to darken before they clear up but now there's some clean water in the garden. And there's lots of grass and ferns and I was even trying to grow flowers, but I'm not that good at it, yet," he admitted. "But--you could come with me and see it? Or help but--if you wanna stay here that's fine too, I mean, you're the guardian and it's probably um." Slowly, Oliver looked around again, at the burnt patches and the still-milling smoke. "I can get that it probably still needs help," he said at last, as tactfully as he was able.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Rift

Rift's ear perked up and his whiskers twitched nervously. He was asking him to leave Eridanus and follow him to Canis, the room of bones. Rift did not know where the room of bones was, how far it was away from here but that was the least of his worries. "I haven't...left this cave in almost 10 cycles..." he whispered. He didn't know if he should accept or even how to respond. He would need more time to think about it.

He tried to think of something else to say before Oliver started asking questions and he thought about everything that it took to grow plants. "What kind of light do they have? Is it bright in Canis, I've never really been there before. I can grow you some plants to take back with you as well, or I can find you some seeds to spread!" He wasn't sure what other kind of help he could offer at the moment, unless he directly left the cave. But one glance around him made him even more unsure of leaving Eridanus, his beautiful, burnt Eridanus that desperately needed his help. "Yes...I think I need to stay here a while longer. But what kind of help can I give you from here?"

@Oliver