Marshmallow did not stop. Marshmallow did not rest. Marshmallow was going to get this message to Tahi as soon as possible! Luckily it was a short trip from Tunnel F to Pegasus, or else she would have collapsed from exhaustion mid flight. Her eyes darting around, remembering Arwen's description of Tahi. Brown deer, antlers, crown.

@Tahi-shei

He was there. Currently, he was working on laying a bed of Spores around the perimeter of James's house. He was planning on putting some around the chrysalises as well, but at present, he was a bit more concerned with this. As it were, things were going rather poorly, but perhaps he'd catch a break eventually. Honestly though, he was highly recognizable -- white eyes, crown, and his own form. He was not the only stag in the caves, but he was easily the smallest. Also, he was brown and not white, and lacked the fungal cape across his back. Tahi-shei didn't know of any other deer off the top of his head, but he figured there couldn't have been too many.

He noticed a disturbance in the latent (ie, non-magical) spores in the air, and looked up. Something quite small was flying rapidly -- how interesting. He paused, looking in its general direction. "Hello?" said Tahi-shei, figuring it was probably a Lesser but wanting to be friendly, just in case.

@marshmallow

Her eyes zoned in on tall pointy things: antlers. She immediately started flapping in that direction, and when she arrived, she saw that the gembound met her other two search criteria too: Crown and brown deer. The deer spoke, and Marshmallow only flew faster. "Message! Message! From Queen! Queen!"

@Tahi-shei

Ah, alright. "The Queen of Lies?" he clarified, glancing back down at what he was doing as he tried again. "Stay back," he warned lightly, "I'm casting spells at the moment. I'd hate to catch you by mistake." Fortunately, even if he did, he'd have been able to see it. "What does she have to say?"

The magic still wasn't working with him. Oh well -- he imagined he'd have slightly more opportunity, all things considered, and glanced back over in... more or less the direction he was assuming Marshmallow was.

@marshmallow

Marshmallow stayed back at Tahi's warning. It wouldn't do if she couldn't carry out the rest of her duties! "Yes yes! Queen! Lies!" she started flying in a circle above Tahi's head, far enough to be away from the spores but close enough that her wingbeats could be heard. "Plague ready! Only test needed! Plague ready plague ready! Good good?" Confirmation was needed that Tahi had heard what she had said.

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei tilted his head slightly as he mulled it over. "Alright, thank you." He considered his next words somewhat carefully; as politely as possible, Marshmallow didn't seem very intelligent. "I'll go in a little while," was what he settled on. "I have chores to do." That was probably the best way to explain it, if he were being entirely honest. "While you're here, let me get you something as payment."

That struck him as something one of Arwen's faeries would like. He headed inside to retrieve an acorn he'd found a while ago and set it down. "Here, you can keep this. It's an acorn -- isn't it nice?" He hoped Marshmallow would be able to see it, because he couldn't. In the meantime, he took a few steps back (mostly so he didn't step on her, because he was barely aware of where she was, but also so that he could try and set up some spores). Thankfully, the spell finally worked with him, and he laid a bed of healthy spores around James's yard.

@marshmallow

"Go! Little while! Have! Chores!" Marshmallow repeated, continuing the flap around in circles around his head. The acorn that Tahi offered as payment was gleefully accepted. She already knew she was going to give it to Arwen as a gift! "Good! Good!" and with her mission accomplished, the little bat flitted off to tell the Queen of Tahi's response, repeating it in her head all the way.

"Exit Marshmallow"

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei nodded at Marshmallow and returned his attention to his garden. He made his way to the other side of the house, just in case someone came from the other side, and tried to build some more spores. It made him more comfortable here, extending his senses like this -- it wasn't quite seeing, but it was the same as it was when he got closer to fungal growths.

More spores were shed from his pelt, and he shook himself out as he moved to try and make sure that, definitively, he wasn't leaving any more than he needed to on his own body. They were kind of sticky, and a pain to remove. Anyway.

He didn't need to turn his head to know that Marshmallow was gone now; he'd heard her flapping fade away. He mulled over for a moment how long to wait, before ultimately deciding that it wasn't good to keep a Queen waiting.

/exit tahi-shei
@marshmallow visibility