He woke up from the same dream, falling backwards, backwards.

(Further and further, out into the sea of crawling chaos. Hands, taloned and sharp, glowered from the tumultuous mass of dilated pupils and the focused outer ring. From its heart, a spot of white, stark against the endless black-grey sludge. Cold, merciless white. Light pried of its warmth, stripped of any indication of such. This was no sun, as the universe believed it to be. It was—)

Again, waking up from the same dream. Mercurius jolted awake, his neck crick!ing as he did so. Lifting his head, blinking blearily but wild eyes, the storyteller searched about. Age-old instinct drove his overgrown claws out of their sheathes rather painfully, gripping at the mosses and the earth. Silent and eternally, the Monarch swayed overhead. The edge of its sweeping cap sat against his spiralling horns. Arsu was long-gone, by now, and it seemed he had fallen into fitful, restless sleep. The great mushroom's light did not compare to the nightlights in his grove; it was rather cold, lifeless. Silvery, pure. Mercurius's many baubles held a warm, golden light that bathed him in security.

He rocked up to his feet, stretching tired old bones as he went. Tail arcing high in the air as he did the downward lion, Mercurius yawned. He needed to go to his lights, to distract himself, to banish the cruelly persistent memory of his nightmare. While his pace wasn't the fastest known to the caves, he broke into a rather brisk walk — Power Walking, if you will: the most efficient of the gaits.

White limps moved through the tunnels, slowly due to how uneven the ground was. Yurei was lost and barely knew where to go. She was a mere pup, whose time in existence was less than a week and there were many things the girl didn't know and being in a place she didn't recognize was terrifying. And an earthy scent filled the whole place, and as she walked she noticed gree stuff on the trail's sides. She could help to stop and sniff it. Was that edible? For mere experiment she licked it. But soon after an expression of disgust formed in her lips. Quickly she would resume her walk, and after some time she entered a place she saw a figure moving. She would stop her pace and stare, unsure about the image. She felt the need to walk away, she was afraid and slowly attempted to hide behind a wall still observing from there. From there she debated if to come closer or not. Actions "SPEECH"

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@Mercurius

The shadows were making him anxious, setting a worried pant upon his face. Mercurius's jaws cracked open involuntarily, tongue spilling past inky lips. After a few moments, he could barely breathe and had to take a rest. Moonlit gaze tore away from the darkened pits beneath the rocks surrounding him and the deeper jungle. His head tilted up to the orbs, eyes closing for a moment as he conjured up magicka. When he opened his eyes again, a glimmering orb hovered just in front of his face. It danced away some distance, easily within sight. Like a firefly, it glowed and pulsed with reassuring light.

Slowly, but certainly --- with assistance from the deep breaths he was taking to ground himself --- the pale beast managed to soothe himself. The orb seemed to move freely, of its own volition, as he commanded it to check each and every little shadow for beasties within. In one shadow, it seemed, was a small wolf pup; it was as white as Kera, sans the seemingly perpetual warm glow about her fur, and the pink eyes. There was, in addition, a piece of black stone between burning red eyes. Mercy would have jumped at the sight, had there not been clear signs of apprehension all over the young one's posture. That... and this was most certainly a neonate, of sorts.

"Do not be afraid, little one," he rumbled, drawing his shimmering light closer to himself, "my name is Mercurius."

@Yurei

The wolf kept observing from her hiding spot, silently as she didn't want to catch their attention, fearing harm coming from them. Despite being a newborn she still had her instincts. And as her red eyes stared, she maintained her body behind the wall, only her head popping out. But then she noticed a light coming her way. This made her ears pinned against her skull, and a yelp of surprise came from her maw as it was something she didn't expect. And then some words rushed to her ears, but she couldnt understand them at all because of her lack in own speech. "Do not be afraid, little one," Her head tilted to the side in confusion, and slowly her fear started to fade allowing the curiosity to take control over her actions. And thus she gradually left the "security" of the place she was in and starts walking a bit closer to the creature but stopping about ten feet still unsure about them. "my name is Mercurius." She sat and looked at him, but she didn't talk back. She just didn't know how to use words yet. "Yurei..." She said the only word she would know, her name but no more came from her mouth. Actions "SPEECH"

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Mercurius's ears lowered, eyes softening as a soft yelp came from the poor pup. Perhaps he had been a tad bit aggressive in his searching, and dismissed his shimmering orb. It dissipated with a minute pop! "I did not mean to frighten you --- terribly sorry," the pale beast rumbled, rocking down to his elbows. Contentedly lying down, he felt comfort in the presence of this little child. Perhaps, it is due to a sense of duty, he mused, to ensure children are not as lost and scared as I once was, still is.

"Yurei, you say?" The old storyteller tilted his head rather exaggeratedly, before continuing, "would you like to hear a story? I've quite a few."

@Yurei

As she was sitting in front of the feline, her eyes firmly focused on him wanting to know what was he, what were those weird things on his head. Curiosity pondered strongly through her veins, and her ears were now perks in interest. Her tail remained curled around her legs. "I did not mean to frighten you --- terribly sorry," She titled her head again trying all she could to understand what he said. She would lay down looking up at the lion's pale eyes. "Yurei, you say?" She nodded affirmatively. "Mer..Mercuriohs." She tried to pronounciate his name but it didn't come out so well but it was a start for her. "would you like to hear a story? I've quite a few." Nods again even if she didn't know what a story was, but since the lion had an interesting look for the pup she had all of her attention on him. Maybe what he had to say was interesting too or that was what she thought. Actions "SPEECH"

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@Mercurius

The pup seemed to be very attentive, but not the most responsive. No matter --- Mercurius was good at filling the silence with rumbling speech. Yurei attempted to pronounce his name, to no avail, eliciting a soft, mirthful laugh from the old beast: "you can call me Mercy, if that's easier."

Again, the pup nodded, in response to his storytelling offering; and so, the old storyteller obliged, drawing up magic from his reserve and casting it out into the world as he spoke, illustrating each concept brought forth. Or... it would have, if his spell had worked. Mercurius moved on, regardless, pressing to tell his tale. It was a simple one, really, rooted in the lore of the caves themselves (which he had gleaned from Pride's musings, of course.)

"There is a deep trench within this cave, carved out by a great black serpent. This serpent was not known by a name other than as the Architect, for he alone dug these caves and these tunnels. His eyes were white-hot, filled with fire as he bore through. Though, as time passed, he became sleepy, losing the spark in his eyes. Eridanus, this cavern full of mosses and ferns, was the last --- and smallest --- of his creations. It was a nest, of course, for him to reside in. The fern trench served as his bed for quite some time, only recently reawakened to continue his work, as it seems."

Not that Mercurius knew anything more on that topic.

@Yurei