Seeing Bayo's tongue stop mid-lick almost confirmed his dislike of the idea of grooming himself—and worse, letting someone else do it. Why would you want shit you want to wash off be in your mouth? Even though Bayo said using water would make him wet and cold again, Ein shrugged. Better than using his tongue, and besides, he was already wet and cold.

'Grooming's faster once you get used to it.' "Mm," he hummed a small reply. Yes, it seemed like it would be, but Ein wasn't interested in trying it right now. Maybe never, honestly, at least not without this supposed water method. The jackal pup followed Bayo, with still a bit of distance between them; when Bayo called out, Ein closed the distance to inspect what the other had found.

Ein came up on Bayo's left side—so that he could see him, although Ein was not aware he only had one eye where, normally, he would have two—and sniffed the water as the other drank it. Hmm. It seemed passable. It wasn't perfect. Truth be told, Ein had no idea what he was expecting or what he was hoping for, but it was definitely better than licking the goopy shit off of his fur.

"Thank you," he said quietly, eyeing Bayo with gratitude.

When Bayo was done, tail wagging, Ein carefully stepped into the pool that the collapsed roof made. The water was colder than he thought it might be, but it was refreshing. He waded in and crouched, making sure to get his entire, albeit small, body under the water. Once there, it was a trial and error sort of deal to figure out what worked and didn't work when it came to cleaning himself. Brushing and scrubbing with his paws seemed to work the best, and although it was awful, using his tongue for harder to reach areas.

After he felt relatively clean, he stepped free from the pool, to its opposite side, where Bayo was not, and shook himself as dry as possible. His fur was puffed and spiky, but clean.

A single wave of his tail betrayed his cool composure.

Aaaah... clean. He smiled quietly to himself away from Bayo. Yes, this felt much nicer.

@Bayo

Bayo wagged his tail and sat down, panting gently, looking all the world like he was grinning ear to ear, which he may as well have been. It was a similar action.

"You're welcome!", he said, and lay down, setting his head on his paws as he waited for Ein to wash up, only getting up once to sniff at a mouse hole before determining that it was empty and laying back down.

He looked up as the other walked out, tail thumping on the ground. He watched him shake himself off and stood up, shaking just to shake.

"Feel better?", he asked, sniffing at the water, tempted to drink from it more even though it was dirty now. Flavoring, he reasoned!

He pulled away instead and trotted towards the doorway, his brush waving back and forth as he exited the house, head held high as he looked around for any sign of prey, dead or alive.

"So... food?", he said, "I'm hungry, are you hungry? 'Cause I'm hungry."

He didn't quite seem aware he'd said that twice, but if he did, he didn't care. Bayo was too focused on his task, nose to the ground as he sniffed around, searching for a meal.

"I don't smell anything," he said, "Might just be that the ruins don't really have anything to eat in 'em."

Even a desert had food, but this section of Orion just seemed to be filled with nothing. At least the ceiling was pretty.

@Einsynt

Ein turned when Bayo asked if he felt better, and he simply nodded as a response—but whether Bayo saw it or not was unknown, as the other was sniffing about at the water. When Bayo moved past him, Ein turned again to face the other's direction, but did not immediately follow him out of the ruined house.

Hmm... food? Ein hadn't thought about it until now, but when he did stop to think about it, he did feel pretty hungry. Slowly, he stepped from the doorway and watched as Bayo sniffed for signs of food; but it wasn't long before Bayo said there wasn't anything nearby.

The ruins. He found himself looking at the abandoned buildings again. Were there other places that would be the opposite of this? Ugh. He hoped so.

Out of curiosity, he tried to see if he could pick up anything in the shadows. But the entire place was dark and dim where the stars did not reach.

"Mm, that's fine," he said after a while, stepping out into the lane and looking back up to the ceiling. "I think I will... explore, a little." A quick glance to Bayo. "Have you been other places?" If Bayo knew areas like this did not have food, then he had been to places with food... right?

@Bayo

"Yeah!", he said with a grin, "I come from a cave called 'Canis'. It's so weird! It's covered in bones and water, and there are tunnels and rooms and drawings on one of the walls. Some places have footprints in the mud, but they were from a loooong time ago."

Bayo craned his head and pointed towards the tower in the distance, "We could head over that way, it looks cool. Or! We could head towards Canis and find food there. If you get dirty again you can just clean off."

He padded forward, tail swaying back and forth, still looking for prey in case a bold bird or a rat came currying out. Maybe a rabbit, if he was really lucky.

He paused mid-step as he saw the rabbit. Apparently he was really lucky!

"Shh... don't move. It'll run if we move quickly, we need to corner it," he said, and very carefully started to move around it, aiming to herd it down an alley and into a wall.

@Einsyn

A cave called Canis. Ein tucked the information away and nodded to Bayo's words, but if there was the potential for the cave to be dirty, he was definitely not interested in going there despite the secrets it might hold. He especially did not want to go any places that were so caked with debris that there were still lingering footprints from a long time ago. What did that even mean? It sounded awful.

He followed Bayo's nose toward the tower and squinted with his single eye. How... far was that? Depth perception wasn't exactly a concept he knew about, but apparently his sucked. Ein really didn't want to get dirty again, though. The pup followed quietly behind Bayo until the other's body stopped suddenly, and Ein crouched out of instinct. Was it fear or just a reaction to something unknown that caused him to crouch? He'd have no idea; he was not even entirely aware that it had happened.

But Bayo crouched too, carefully moving around whatever he had seen and alerted Ein to be still. Easy enough. Ein's head turned slightly to keep watch of Bayo, curious as to what his plan was; briefly, he tried to see what Bayo had seen—a small furry creature? What about in the alley behind it?

For a moment, the alley lit up in a strange underlight, in a way that Ein would not have been able to describe, but there was nothing in the alley except a dead end. Which, of course, was Bayo's plan but Ein had not yet caught on to that.

@Bayo

Coyotes, hyenas, and jackals have a few things in common. They're scavengers, they hunt in packs, and they're really frggin' cute. But that last one wasn't really important in this situation.

"Go on it's left, I'll get it from behind and herd it from the right," Bayo said, circling around slowly.

He wiggled his butt and took off, chasing the rabbit, yapping in excitement as he bolted after it. He snapped at it and growled as it veered towards Ein, ears perking forward.

"Ein! Drive it into the alley!", he yelled, the thrill of the hunt always exciting.

He skid to a stop to prevent the rabbit from coming his way, leaving it one exit, the dead end. That rabbit had no idea what was coming for it.

@Einsynt

As Bayo circled away, he gave quick orders to Ein. At first, the jackal pup merely tilted his head. Oh, he didn't want to participate—

Bayo launched toward the rabbit, yapping up a fine mess, while Ein remained where he was with a look between confusion and amusement. Until the rabbit bolted toward him. Aah... He felt his back arch and the fur along his spine stiffen. His lips instinctively pulled back to again show off his little teeth. Fuck around and find out, rabbit.

But the rabbit cared only for one thing. It hopped over him and made a clean escape, with Ein ducking out of the way. He was unsure what to do—was that his fault? Nah. He wasn't ready. He didn't even want to be a part of that. He turned a sour eye toward Bayo and frowned with a snarl. While that was embarrassing, it also hurt his pride, but he wasn't going to say anything. Instead, he was content just to give Bayo a stinky look.

@Bayo

Bayo chased the rabbit for a few more strides, slowing for a moment and facing Ein, about to speak, only to receive a mean look. His head jutted back in offense and he stopped wagging his tail, his ears down.

"Hey," he said, "I was jus' tryin' to have fun! I didn't think you'd mind."

He frowned and looked down, a little hurt, which was silly, because it was just a look. But actions spoke louder than words, didn't they?

"You're weird," he finally said, "Y-you won't lick your own fur or try to catch a rabbit! Is there something wrong with you?"

Bayo genuinely didn't understand, but as he didn't understand Ein, he also didn't get that asking questions in such a way could be called rude. He was actually curious and wanted to know what was up with this weird pup, this pup like him that was uppity and glared and didn't want to do anything fun.

"I didn't do anything wrong!", he said next, confused and upset.

@Einsynt

Bayo looked hurt, defending himself by saying he was just trying to have fun. He went on to say Ein was weird, and asked the jackal what was wrong with him. As Ein was thinking over his answer, Bayo barked up again, claiming he did nothing wrong.

Ein shook his coat out and relaxed his fur, then exhaled a quick sigh.

"I just wasn't ready," he defended himself, eye tracing the path of the rabbit down a separate alley. "Let's try it again." Anyway, if Bayo could do it, then it was probably easy, right?

His single eye squinted into the darkness as he crawled forward, sniffing; but again, the night vision bloomed, illuminating all of the hidden secrets the next alley held—including the rabbit.

"It's down here," Ein whispered, glancing back to Bayo. "Round two? Same plan?"

@Bayo

Bayo blinked and watched Ein moved forward, ears perking up. He trotted after him and poked his head around the alley, spotting the rabbit nibbling on some sparse grass. So they hadn't lost it.

"Same plan," he said, breathing out, "We can block it in, I think. I'll go around. You come in from this side, I'll come in from the other."

Bayo took off at a gallop, dust flying as he rounded the next corner. His head quickly appeared at the other end of the alley, his eyes reflecting in the gloom. He slowly came into view, shoulders hunched. His jaws snapped and he lunged, chasing the rabbit down the narrow alley.

He chased after it, tail wagging a mile a minute behind him, ears forward, a grin on his face. His golden eyes were big and wide, focused only on his prey.

@Einsynt