set right after Guess Who's Back (Back Again)

His paws had begun to ache as he had to slow from a run to a sludge through muck, desperate to get to his destination. Not long to go-

The Divine loomed far, far above, and yet it was changed- Spider webs draped here and there, and his skin tingled unhappily. He wouldn't want that over his pelt.

But, he couldn't reach that far up to clear them away anyways. He'd assumed it was the debris of a lesser. After all, what greater gembound would sully the Divine's gorgeous boughs? It was lost on him that he'd met their creator before, back when they were saving her. No- he only though of the semantics on the whole 'what makes nests like that' thing.

No matter. If the Divine hadn't rejected them, she must be okay with them. And, besides, he was here for her. Approaching her took some more trudging through mud, but he soon found himself by one of her great roots, gazing over her hardened bark. Please,please, she had to be awake, she had to know of this danger she- that they were all in.

"Divine-" He sounded like a child when he first spoke, voice wavering in fear. Desperate to connect to her, he pressed his forehead and horns against the trunk of the tree, his muscles twitching from the sprint here. "Please. You have to hear me- Raheerah has returned. There has to be some way to keep you safe, please-" He choked, shoulders shaking with sobs being held back. Careful to not scratch her, he tilted his head and nuzzled at the rough bark with his snout. "You have to be there. Please- There has to be something I can do." He didn't know what he could do for her. He was desperate, now, and he felt like a mere pebble rather than a thinking, living being.

A silence fell, a hush--not the quiet buzz-and-chirp of a swamp with nothing else happening, but an unnatural, strange stillness.

It felt almost as though it were listening.

Then came a quiet rush of wind, a gust that tumbled the mist in whorls and wisps through the trees, the sort of brief chill to stand the fur on the neck on-end. And a whisper, carried with it.

Keep him far from here. Keep him from us, child. It was soft. Urgent.

The wind swept past, and sound came back. The insects' hum picked back up, tentative at first but growing, the chill, the presence, fading back away.

@Serek

The quiet hit him like a sledgehammer. He paused, his head peeling back from the Divine as his ears perked for any noise, turning this way and that while his body froze. A sense of reverence had fallen over him. Was... Was this her? She did this so long ago, hadn't she?

The spell was broken by the wind, his muscles relaxing yet drawing himself up more at the cold. A message- almost like a plead (or, how he interpreted it), had echoed through it. It sent shivers over him. Keep him away? How could he do that? He was just one tiny creature. Yet- he had to, for what else could he do? Quiver and wait for his death?

He would round the others up and put them in hiding, but them in safety before chasing after the dragon. He would be the knight to defeat Raheerah, or he would die trying long before he got to Cetus. This- this foolhardiness- was a task he'd set in his mind, even as life returned around him.

"I will keep you safe," he murmured, pressing his cold nose to one of the Divine's roots.

Raheerah couldn't be given the chance to murder this forest if Serek had anything to say about it. Perhaps he could acquire help in sealing the cave- would a rockfall do anything? Or he could wait where the tunnel diverged. There were a lot of things, things he could mull over as he searched for more to warn. What would Dragon say if he saw the hybrid risking his life without making sure the others were safe first? What would Serek think? Although he was typically a coward in the skin of a carnivore, this was a particular calling to him, something he felt in his heart that he had to do.

For those who could not flee, he would protect them. Protect the Divine, and smoke out this overgrown beetle from the caves before it got to sink its fangs into the dryad.

Taking in a breath of Cetus's rank air, Serek took a few steps back, a sense of calm having washed over him.He didn't have anything to say- what was there to say? Instead, he simply turned and paced away, giving one last glance to the tree before passing into the mist once more.

;exit Serek (f tiny thread)