The black horse that entered Orion did so with familiar ease. This was one of the first caves he had visited after hatching, a sickly skeletal foal with prominent bones and glowing eyes. Now he was a sleek black stallion, wholly plain and carrying none of the powerful bacteria he had done once upon a time: instead he had a small creature perched atop him, with ribbons threaded in his mane.

Each hoofbeat was a soft click, his stride long-limbed but unhurried. The little star chart, a dark metal disc, he had to work to speak around--but if he settled it under his tongue or in his cheek he could talk clearly enough. "This is Orion," he told his companion, soft-voiced. "There are a few things we can see, here--you hadn't been here, yet, yes? There is... a stadium, place... a deep hollow with rows that others sit upon. You can look down into its middle, where there were meetings, I believe. There's a tower, and ruined buildings, and an old stone they call a 'throne.' Many kings have claimed that," he added, quiet, "but most of them have died."

Ahh, but Khloros did have his long history. He tried not to delve into details, of course. He didn't want to bore or to frighten Yellow and in any case, he didn't want his own past linked too much to him. "What do you think of it all?" he asked.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

anyone may join, but primarily for @Yellow

Yellow was in awe. Light sparkled and bounced off of countless crystals growing on every surface, glittering on the walls and dark ceiling like the pinpricks of white on Khloros' metal oval. There were even crystals growing from the ground, like the trees in Eridanus - only colorless and faceted. They wondered what it would be like to climb one - its surface looked rather smooth, without much to hold onto.

Around them sprawled the shattered vestiges of an ancient city. The stone structures were oddly rectangular, with lots of edges and corners everywhere. These looked easier to climb, especially when parts of them had crumbled, but they did not refract light as the crystals did. Yellow fiddled with their music box, perched on Khloros' back and admiring the view as the two headed further into the room. The chiming, crystalline melody it played matched perfectly with Orion's atmosphere, they thought.

"It's amazing," Yellow said quietly. They didn't want to speak loudly, or even at their usual volume; it seemed like it would clash with Orion's quiet feeling. "You know so much about it. How old are you? As old as these buildings? What were the different kings like?" Khloros had to be very old, if he had known many different kings.

Yellow had no interest in ruling anything, so the throne was not very high up on their list of priorities. But the tower they wanted to see. Being in high places felt natural to the sifaka, and they were sure that they could get a great view of the rest of Orion if they climbed high enough! "Let's go to the tower!" they said in an enthusiastic whisper, then added: "Is it climbable?"

@Khloros

"I am... old, Yellow?" but there was a question mark at the end, some uncertainty in it. What was age, really? Old age? Sixty cycles? A thousand? Ten thousand? "...I think I am old. But not as old as the buildings, no. They're ancient. So old that stone's crumbled."

Black legs carried them at that slow and easy pace, turning the pair toward the distant Tower. "The Kings of the past were... misled. Vain. Power-hungry." He considered it, for a moment, remembering the madness in Hasira's eyes, his fear, his desperation to be told there was something more above him and not some yawning empty void. His willingness to call Khloros his God. "They come, and say they're Kings, and grasp for power they don't have, and then they die." The stag that so-often stood near the throne now claimed never to own it and perhaps that was why it had lived this long. The bones laced across the throne's back told enough of its usual sentence: rulership, arrogance, and downfall.

"None of these are really pleasant topics, I think. It's a beautiful cave, though, is it not-? Like lost light from above, coming through glassy stone. And yes, you can climb the tower. I can get a little ways up but I think you'll need to climb most of it on your own: there's a stairwell, hidden inside. It's a long way up, and there's a room at the top. I can wait for you at the bottom, if you like."

Khloros carried them closer, closer, with clicking hoofbeats, and at last came to a halt just at the tower's base, by its own, doorless doorway.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow

Whatever the kings' fates had been, they were long gone. To Yellow, their stories were just that: stories, and hardly relevant to life now. Even if they had died, their lives seemed so distant from Yellow's that they didn't feel the need to be concerned about it. After all, they had no ambitions of becoming a king, and neither did Khloros. Had Khloros continued to tell the kings' story, they would have listened to it just for entertainment, but they had no problem with moving to another topic either.

"It is beautiful," they agreed, and looked up at the tower. It was tall, at least as tall as some of the trees in Eridanus, but unlike trees, it had no branches to hold. It was one cylinder the entire way up - ah, but there was a structure inside that spiraled upward in staggered stages. That must be the 'stairwell'. But while Yellow was curious about the tower and the room on top of it, it seemed unfair to just have their friend wait down here the whole time.

But in the end, curiosity won out. "I'll climb as quickly as I can!" they promised, scampering toward the tower doorway and leaping up the stairs several at a time. They left their gifts from Ursa behind, both so they could climb faster and so Khloros could play with them, if he wanted. "You can turn the knob on the box and it'll play music, if you get bored!" they called as they climbed, completely forgetting that unlike lemurs, Khloros had no fingers to manipulate the key. But a challenge always makes things more fun!

@Khloros and maybe a GM description of the room on top? also i forgot the roll description lol it was for climbing fast

Khloros was generally so lost within his own mind that he didn't think to put himself in another's shoes. It struck him now, as Yellow scurried into the darkness of the tower, that there was something off about this one. Not necessarily bad, no; but it was, like he was, rather "in its own mind." It didn't care for elaboration on half the things he mentioned and this, mind, was not a bad thing. If anything, it was almost... a relief. Though it was his task to spread a certain set of knowledge, he hadn't had a simple, friendly interaction in... Well, since he'd been a child.

Probably since Nemesis, really.

He was tempted to... to relax, to let his guard down and have a little fun, even, but some distant melancholy--some nihilistic sadness--kept him from going quite that far. Still, he was fairly content, amiable, as he awaited Yellow's return.

"Take your time going up--I hear it's far," he called, and then he waited.

The music box he inspected, as suggested. He realized at once that this wouldn't be easy: it was clearly meant for little hands, like Yellow's, and not great hooves and teeth like his own. His ears flicked to and fro as he considered this, liquid brown eyes ranging over the key; eventually he planted a hoof to either side, tipping the key gently skyward. Soft muzzle lowered down, his lips working at the key itself until, at last, quiet music began to tinkle forth.

Khloros pricked up his ears and fell still, to listen, fascinated by this new world of music. It was something that, for all his cycles, he'd never truly heard before.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

The old stone stairs were worn, dusty, but they led higher and higher to a room at the tower's hollow pinnacle. Here, open gaps in the walls--broad windows--looked down upon Orion.

From here, one could see almost the entire cave: the distant charred ruins of the city, the jumble of the Cliffs, the half-forgotten Throne. The dish of the Forum, inset into the floor, gleamed dull beneath the "star" light. Motes of dust drifted down, mixed with the thin moisture of this room.

It might make one wonder what the room had once been for, if anything; or it might simply be a spectacular view, darkness studded by the pinpricks of bright quartz-light sending their ghostly rays streaming down.

@Yellow

Khloros was right, it was far. Yellow had climbed tall trees before, but always there were places to rest: thick branches, places where branch met tree trunk where they could sit and enjoy the view. In the tower, it was stone and brick and spiraling stairs all the way up. There was no view to be enjoyed, no hint of how much progress they had made until they reached the top.

But when they finally did, the view from their was absolutely stunning, unlike anything they'd ever seen. There may or may not have been trees as tall in Eridanus; Yellow wasn't sure. But unlike Eridanus, where each mighty tree could compete with the others in terms of height, nothing in Orion could compare with the Tower's height. All other buildings were dwarfed, and there were no branches, leaves, or trunks to block the view.

Yellow clambered onto the stone windowsill, searching for Khloros far, far below. It took a while - there was so much they could see, and their horse-friend was black and did not stand out very much. "Khloros!" They thought of yelling - after all, it was a long way down and they weren't sure how much their voice would dissipate over the distance. But that would ruin the vibe of this place - so they whispered instead, but magic amplified their voice and made it unnaturally loud.

"I can see everything up here! It's amazing!" Yellow laughed giddily, holding on to the side of the window. "I wish there were more towers so I could jump between them! I wish you could see this!" Why couldn't Khloros climb up here? The horse was plenty tall enough to take the stairs. "Why haven't you ever been up? You should!"

@Khloros

Khloros blinked, twisting his head up to peer at Yellow situated so far up in the window. One ear flicked, turning to continue to listen to the music box; the other swivelled to hear Yellow's unnaturally-loud whisper drifting down.

"Ahh, I have taken those stairs before, but I'm not exactly built for it," he explained. "It's narrow, I tend to slip, and it's hard to turn around up top. My legs..." How to explain that horse legs weren't great on stairs-? "Coming down is difficult." Indeed, he'd almost gone head over hooves.

He paused, peering up for a moment. "Was this a good stop for your... adventure, then? Do you see anything you'd like to visit more closely?" He seemed very composed and solemn, were it not for the ribbons tied into his mane and the silly, steampunk goggles resting atop his forehead.

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

@Yellow

Yellow frowned slightly. Could going down the stairs be harder than coming up had been? It had been a long way up, and they felt tired enough already. But going down should always be easier than going up, right? In their experience, anyway. They didn't see how these stairs could be any different.

As for other stops...

The lemur looked down at the ruined city once more. Somehow, they thought that seeing the crumbling buildings up here made them seem more impressive than they had on Khloros' back. Up close, they were interesting, but ultimately they'd been nothing more than derelict remnants of an age long gone. But when Yellow looked through the tower's window and saw it all at once, they seemed more... relevant, somehow. They were part of a bigger picture; their stories were interconnected. So seeing the buildings, or the Forum or Throne up close didn't seem necessary anymore.

They could attempt to go rock climbing on the Cliffs, but the steep walls seemed like they would make such an activity rather dangerous. There were few horizontal thing to cling to and swing from, and the view from the Cliffs would be similar to the view they were getting here in the Tower anyway.

"I think this can be our last stop," Yellow decided. "But I'll stay up here a little while longer, to rest and enjoy the view." And they would need time to prepare themselves, if going downstairs was as difficult as Khloros had made it sound.

It did not, in fact, turn out to be a struggle - at least, not any more of a struggle than coming up had been. It was still a long way down, and Yellow discovered immediately that crawling forward was not the best way - they always felt like they were tilting forward, and might go tumbling head over heels at any moment. And hopping two-legged down the stairs was risky too; there were no landings and they weren't sure how well they could stop their forward momentum when they wanted to.

The best solution, they found, was walking backwards on four limbs. They continued in this way all the way back to Khloros, feeling rather accomplished. They'd climbed the tallest thing in Orion, and had only nearly fallen a couple of times!

@Khloros exit, and we could assume them to be traveling together off-screen, or they could split up and Yellow could go back to Eridanus?

"Take your time," Khloros called back, just loudly enough to be heard. And then he waited, patient.

He looked around, as he did so, wondering what it must be like to see Orion for the very first time. It offered a long-lost perspective, really. Memories trickled back to him; that little foal tottering in, wide-eyed and sickly.
It's been so long. And so much has happened to me, since. I am not the same creature I was when first I stepped foot here.

And lost in these sorts of thoughts, he waited.

Yellow's eventual return was greeted with warmth, as much as Khloros could manage; the normally stoic stallion offered a nod and a lean down so Yellow could more easily clamber on.

"Have you ever been to Pisces, and seen its waterfall..? Or to Monoceros, to see the storm?"

horse stock by venomxbaby on deviantart

exit Khloros

I'm fine with anything! Just LMK if you want, where they'd have gone, or if you WANT Yellow to have headed back to Eridanus! @Yellow (for visibility)