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The tunnel was definitely a change.

A big change.

There was no grass, or trees, or water. As she headed in a little further, she realised the entire thing was rock. She heard her talons click gently against the cave floor as she headed even further in.

Then, she stopped and looked behind her, waiting for Adeyemi to follow suit.

"It is good, here," she said quietly, before turning to keep walking. She soon found herself staring at one of the cave walls with huge eyes, watching the carvings intently, as if expecting them to start moving.

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@Adeyemi

Tunnel I was much different from Eridanus, that much was certain. Instead of the muddy ground beneath his wounded feet, here there was cold rock, soothing his burns. Sheets of rock and walls etched with strange figures replaced acres of neverending woods, and the further the duo of fowl walked, the more Adeyemi relaxed, his crest and chest feathers, for once, fully flattening. His talons, especially the gem-formed one, clacked annoyingly on the floor, but he shook it off - after all, he had to keep up a steady jog to stay close to the owl, and she was the only connection he had to any living thing.

"It's certainly better than that bloody forest," he muttered in agreement, voice loud in the empty passageway. Eyes darting from floor to ceiling, he almost ran into the other bird when she stopped, barely missing her as he skidded to a halt. Turning to glare in annoyance, he found her staring, entranced, at the wall, and once his gaze traveled to where hers was pinned, he knew why.

The entire wall seemed to be alive with images, though of what he couldn't tell. They looked... well, they looked like they'd been put there for a reason. Curious, Adeyemi took a step closer, beak almost touching the cold surface of the tunnel wall. "Odd. What do you think they mean?"

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She was silent for a long time, watching the carvings on the wall. They seemed almost familiar to her, somehow, yet she couldn't figure out what they meant or what they were. Briefly, she looked to Adeyemi, still wide-eyed.

"I don't know," she said in a quiet whisper. "A story, maybe? I don't know what it means."

There came a soft click-clack-click as she began slowly wandering once more, making sure she could see all the carvings along the wall.

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The whisper brought Adeyemi out of his daze, and his head twitched to the side, one eye on the owl and the other still studying the wall. "Perhaps," he whispered back, unsure of why. It felt like it would be inappropriate to speak normally, now, when such a grand thing was watching them. "Yes, a story. But of what?" The mumble was more to himself, and he followed behind his companion at a slow gate, tail feathers waving lazily behind him.

The carvings seemed to go on forever, and it took the turaco a few more minutes of silence - aside from the click, clack of their claws - to realise that there was more than just drawing. "Look! There's something... else," he whispered harshly, trying to throw his voice. He traced the etchings, following their loops and curves. Words. The thought popped into his head unbidden, and he clung onto it, eyes brightening in discovery. "Words! These things, they must say what happens in the story," he added eagerly, voice rising a bit in excitement.

Still, knowing what they were didn't tell him what they meant. "Can you..." Read. "Read them! Can you read them?"

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The creature stopped again as Adeyemi spoke, turning to face the wall again. Slowly, the owl's talons lifted to touch the wall - an incredibly (and surprisingly) gentle-looking guesture despite the horribly gangly look of her legs and the unnaturally sharpened claws. The very tip of her talon barely tapped against the wall before she spoke once more in a whisper, as if afraid to disturb the drawings, "I have seen them before. I don't know where. I don't know what they say, or mean, if they mean anything at all."

She was quiet once more, for a moment as she stared at the words and drawings, almost unblinking. Hours seemed to pass before she finally snapped back to reality, shaking her head and lowering her talon. "I cannot read the markings," she said a little louder.

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Adeyemi watched, entranced, as his companion raised a claw to trace the words as he had with a feather. She seemed to be looking through them rather than at them, gaze distant. If she's seen them before, then that must mean I have too. How else would I know what they were? He stayed stuck on the thought, thinking. At her announcement, he snapped back to the present, and lowered his wing, settling his feathers with a thoughtful huff.

"Perhaps this is part of our purpose," he muttered, tracing a letter with his beak, the sound whisper-soft in the tunnel. "To understand this place. To see. To know what it means." He turned to the owl, beak scraping as his head moved. "Why would we know what they were if we didn't know what they meant? We must be missing something," he added, frustration coloring his tone.

He took a few more steps, closer to the owl - but also moving along the story. Now that he examined the carvings, they did seem to be telling a linear tale - the figures moved with purpose, not haphazard in their placement, but meaningful. Still, not matter how hard he stared, no more thoughts came to his mind, and he let out a sharp, angry kraw!, the sound echoing harshly in the enclosed space. "There must be a way to see what it means! You," he said, swiveling to gaze at his companion, "you do not have fire, no. But you have something else, yes? Perhaps something that can help us see what it means."

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"Maybe there is a way to learn," said the owl, but it was clear she was unsure. Perhaps she'd never really know what they meant and it irritated her to an extent. She looked down the tunnel, and then down the way they came. "It starts and ends somewhere."

She looked up the way they were heading - she could barely make out a faint blue glow. Helpfully, she turned her head all the way back to look at Adeyemi again. "There is something ahead."

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"Hm, I suppose," Adeyemi replied, wandering after her, half his mind still on the symbols. "After all, that blasted forest ended somewh-" His sentence cut off with a loud screech when the owl turned her neck fully around once again, and he stuttered for a moment. "...ended somewhere," he finished with an awkward cough, talons scraping at the floor.

He took a few steps ahead of his companion, peering at the blue glow. "It's certainly something," he murmured, hopping forward. The closer he got to the glow, the better he felt - like tremors of energy running through him from toe to beak. "Strange. It's almost like it's alive." He stopped, hesitant to go any further without the owl, no matter how terrifying her neck-twisting abilities were.

Turning to peer back at her, he let out a short croak. "We should investigate, yes?"

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The owl was silent, perhaps startled (though it was hard to tell) as Adeyemi shrieked. Slowly, her head turned forward once more, as if the eye on the back of her head was any better to look at. She seemed to consider his words with a tilt of the head. "Perhaps it is," she said. "We shall go."

So, 'go' is what she did, hobbling forward with the increasingly familiar click-clack of her talons straight into Polaris.

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((exit willow))

Further embarrassed by his reaction to the owl's movements from her reaction, it took Adeyemi a moment to realise that she was turning away and - leaving?

"Wait! Halt! Desist!" The words were barked out as Adeyemi hurried after the owl, determined not to let her leave him behind. Granted, she had yet to do so, but the turaco was distrusting to a fault. "I swear, if this is another forest, I will scream," he muttered to himself, talons clicking against the floor.

[ Exit Adeyemi ]