To the Voidcrawlers, the presence of Sunny's familiar -- the blue kooru with the swirl patterns -- was not unusual. The animal toted around their lovable leader and helped her move long distances, and had been named Voidstrider in turn. She was an honorary member of the Inner Circle, and it was not uncommon to hear the Voidmother refer to the blooru as her daughter. And, notably, the feeling was seemingly mutual -- the kooru, for a variety of reasons (mostly coming back to something along the lines of "Greaters don't eat me when she talks at them") was never seen without Sunny.

Thus, it was strange when the notoriously skittish animal came barreling into the camp, her eyes wild and notably Sunny-less. She brayed loudly, a startling cry of KOO-ROO!! and moved immediately to where the strange serpent slept so she could harass him. The kooru was the most familiar with this one -- her Mother loved him, she knew, and she had carried him before.


---

Voidmother is not present. Her kooru has returned to the Voidcrawlers camp alone, and panicked.

@voidseer is who she saw fit to seek out, but all other Voidcrawlers (present and prospective) are welcome to join to sort out this mystery!

The rumbling had alerted Madhukar to new caves. She had wanted to enter them, to explore as soon as possible, but the last thing she had done for her final cycle before adulthood was sleep... and she felt new magic within. She felt she still needed time in Eridanus. Or, well, Cetus now... she guessed. Urgh. Well, anyways, these new caves, they had to be interesting. She felt an itch to go, to see what was there...

So she sought out the Voidseer, Binh. She knew he had the power to see other caves elsewhere, through water. Perhaps he had already peered into these new caves, if he were already aware of them. She hoped he was aware of them, though she knew it was hard for him to move. She hoped, because he was, in essence, her compromise between the two equally tempting forces within her mind.

She sought him out, and in front of his sleeping place, calling and blatantly distressed... Kooru? The one that carried Sunny, the notoriously skittish creature?! What was she doing here, screaming in front of Binh's sleeping place? Madhukar decided to hang back a little bit and watch for now, see what would happen. This was incredibly strange indeed and... Madhukar didn't want to scare to kooru with an approach. Binh could probably handle this, whatever this was, better than she could.

Think "Speak"

Carja- or Voidwing, now, but it was a title rather than a name, whipped her head up, startled. The massive dragon stood, her black scales menacing, only making the bright glowing blue of the rest of her stand out even more. She stared at the Kooru, then at Madhukar, before she gasped.

"Is Sunny- Voidmother in trouble?!", she exclaimed, the sunshines-rainbows sound of her voice totally contrasting her new terrifying appearance.

Has she been kidnapped?

The beast was terrified of her for obvious reasons, so she stepped back and watched, terrified that her friend hadn't come home. If she was lost out there, it could take weeks to get back, and it would be hard to even find her at all. Unless she managed to make a massive sign saying, 'Here I am!'

As far as she knew, Sunny couldn't really do that. And Carja doubt she could write, and Carja couldn't even read, so...

When the Voidseer woke up that day, he was not exactly expecting a ransom kidnapping.

The previous night had been pleasant, actually. Once the group moved to Cetus he was quick (or not-so-quick) to set up a little den for himself. It wasn't anything complex or technologically advanced: simply a muddy hole in the ground leading to a small, subterrarian dugout. His days were even simpler: wake up, talk to his fellows, eat a lesser deer, practice his magic, so on. Nothing too fancy.

But when the kooru, the Voidstrider, woke him up with no rider, he knew there was something wrong.

The blue creature was prodding Voidseer's scales, braying loudly and generally harrassing him. For a few moments he simply curled up tighter and tried to send away the creature. He was too sleepy for this. But when he saw it was bare-backed, alarm spiked through his body. "Wh- whhaaat?" Suddenly Madhukar was there too, and the great dragon-beast, all before he could even raise his heavy head. What happened while he was asleep?!

'Okay, okay. Stay calm' Deep breaths. For a good few moments the massive snake simply stared up at the kooru blankly. He needed to organize his thoughts, figure out what to do. Sunny was his friend. But now she was gone, and this hexapod certainly couldn't communicate what happened to him. He had to find some other way. He had to... he had to....

"Wwaaater," the Voidseer blurted. He slithered past the kooru and into the main clearing, weaving his head slowly around. "I neeed to ffinnnd waaater. Must sssseee... whheree Vooiiddmother isss."

The serpent stretched out his magical senses and strained to see where a clear puddle could be. Sure enough, he could faintly see some, just past the boundaries of the group. "Ttheeere," he hissed, flicking his tail to it's direction, "An unnttaainted puuuddle. Plleeaasee, ssssomeone.... heellp me thherre. Urrrgent mmaagic to complete."

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema woke with a start as Carja startled, accidently letting a growl of pain slip as she tried to stand up. She had slept strangely it seemed, having put too much weight on one of her paws and numbing it completely. Standing had brought sensation back into it, a myriad of tiny insect bites setting her paw on fire and making it impossible to stand on. Tema hadn't set up her own sleeping place yet, really; she was much too busy helping the others settle while she tried to figure out where the best spot for herself would be, so she had fallen asleep near Carja the previous night simply so she didn't wake up alone in a cave she had not spent much time in. Yes, she'd been to Cetus before, but the bear was much more familiar with the plentiful greens and clear air of Eridanus than the low-visibility mist of Cetus which made it hard even to see Carja's blue glow.

Hearing the panic in the voices around her, the bear ignored the pain as best she could and speed-limped her way towards the racket. Voidmother was missing? She hoped she misheard, switching to walking normally as she came into view of the others. They had enough to worry about; she could hide the pins and needles until they settled themselves in a few minutes.

"I carried Voidmother when she was Sunny, I can carry you too." Tema stated more than offered after hearing the snake speak, the shock of it making her voice fall flat instead of tilting with its usual growling sing-song tone. She hadn't had the chance to learn much more about the Voidseer yet since their first encounter, but if they could help then Tema would give them whatever they asked for. She did wonder if one with such a title as the Voidseer could have prophesized this tragedy; the thought was simply out of fear and anger though, one that would fade without being voiced to the snake. They were all family, but when it came to Sunny... It would be clear to her fellow Voidcrawlers that she was moving on instinct; she was never so direct, let alone quiet. This was to be expected however, the snail had secured an emotional hold on her since her birth after all.

She was vaguely aware of Voidmother's mount still screaming as she reached her good paw forward to pick up the snake. Should someone faster than her grab them instead she would stop, otherwise she would dash for the puddle with the snake wrapped around her neck regardless of the state of her other limb.

OOC Notes:

The Voidseer's mind was going a mile per second, despite his largely blank expression on the outside. Where did Sunny go? Could his magic even find out such a thing? What if the waters rebelled against him again, and thrust him down to the deepest corners of their domain? So many things could go wrong with his spells, but he had to try regardless.

The cobra clambered on Tema when she offered out a paw, riding in silence as she hurried over to the puddle. It was quite a short trip, but it would've been far longer if he didn't have help. The moment he saw the clear pond he slipped off, all three eyes trained on the water's surface. He had to get this right. Focus, don't let your mind stray, and meditate on the image of Sunny.

The water rippled once, twice, and Voidseer curled up his scales in anticipation. A murky mirage popped up of a snail jostled around and surrounded by nothing but darkness. The image was blurry and faint, and the serpent couldn't make out where she was. The void? A pitch black hole? Someone's closed hand? The pond rippled one more time and it dissipated.

Well, that was a little comforting. At least she wasn't death. He turned back to the group, slowly, and gave his statement. "Ssssssunnny is aaalive," he hissed, "... Buut I do not knooow wwhhhere. Juuusst tthhatt it is daaark whheeerre she is. Ssssoomething -- or sooomeoone -- hasss taken her."

And that was that.

Permission given by dove for Binh to scry for Sunny!

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Glad for the movement to keep her busy, Tema let out a huff as they arrived at the puddle, pacing to help keep her distracted at the snake talked. Her paw had gotten bloodflow back by the time the seer was done explaining their vision, leaving the bear with nothing else to focus on by their lack of knowledge. Apparently the void wished for them to solve their own problems. Was this a test of their worthiness? Tema could care less as her brow crinkled in frustration.

She sent a clump of dirt flying out behind her as she dug into the ground, preferring to throw mud around over growling when the Voidmother's companion was still panicking. The snail was alive at least, and that meant they had time. Perhaps the Kooru could lead them to where she was before?

"Kooru?" She cooed, approaching the poor thing slowly. She would have shared her plan if she was thinking rationally, but she didn't have any reason to if it didn't work. To be fair, however, her words would make it fairly clear what she was attempting to do anyway. She didn't even know if it could understand anyone other than the Voidmother if she was honest. "Where was mother before?" She asked as gently as she could, hoping that the question came through in some form or another.

OOC Notes:

@Voidmother for Kooru I would assume?

The Voidstrider skittered after them, still shifting back and forth anxiously on her hooves as the serpent (differently shaped, just a bit) looked into the water. She looked to Mother's Sister when she spoke, and the blue creature's watery eyes were wide. She stared blankly at the bear, able to comprehend that she was being asked a question but having absolutely no way of knowing what Tema was saying or how to respond. Mother always just sort of... knew the answer, when she asked her questions.

But the Voidmother could parse the meaning of the sounds the kooru was trying to comprehend (rather like someone was repeating a language they didn't understand), and was glad for her family's quick thinking. Take them to where I was taken, she persuaded, projecting an image of where they had killed the spider. Sunny couldn't have retraced her steps if she'd wanted to, since she'd been wrapped up in Deli's hands, but she hoped that this would make up for her failings. Maybe one of them could sniff her out.

The kooru took another moment to process the request, mentally trace her steps, and then instinctively reached towards the ground with her tails before pausing and making a low, sort of mournful sound. Then, with a quick step (albeit pausing to make sure everyone was following her), she started to lead them all towards the scene of the crime.

@madhukar
@tema
@voidseer
@carja
also, kalaziel and regalia are welcome to join but i won't ping them

A growl left Carja's lips, deep and earth rumbling. Her talons dug into the soil and her wings snapped out, big and blue, framed by spidery fingers, painted black with galaxies running through her scales.

"Whoever took her... will pay," she hissed, letting her wing claws touch the ground again as she walked forward, following the kooru.

Misery would befall whomever thought it was a good idea to steal away her innocent friend.

"Come," she said to the others, "We will find our Voidmother and we will bring her home!"

And then she would go after her family with her war paint and the new vengeance in her heart. One mother to save, the other to doom.

TEMA, the Voidkin
There can be love in Chaos; just follow the Void

Tema let out some sort of strangled howl in excitement as the kooru stepped away, turning to make sure she was following before beginning it's travel again. Momentarily she was back to her cheerful self, trotting after the kooru as fast as she could manage while calling out to her family.

"Yes friends, come! Follow the Voidstrider!" She yelled in agreement with Carja, feeling the dragon's anger fuel her own steps forward. It wouldn't be long before the bear was growling in frustration and anger again as well, but for now this small victory would keep her afloat in the sea of jumbled emotions that swirled through her head. The situation at hand brought back the memory of nearly drowning, not one she wished to recall.

So she looked forward again, eyes attached to the kooru as if it was her only lifeline in the mist-filled cave.
"Let's get her home."

OOC Notes:

//Exit