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"Look at all these plants."

Up, in the understory: a small golden shape could be seen vaulting between the trees. Her nicely groomed fur shone in the sparse sunlight, her crystal glittered over a scrunched-up child's face, and her delicate fingers moved swiftly from vine to vine. She was built for this.

They came from the First Cave, following the clusters of growing plants through a stony tunnel and into a cave opening. There was more greenery here than she ever imagined. The birdsong was nothing she experienced before. Even the texture of wood beneath her hands was new and interesting.

A splatter of water landed on her nose and she cringed. Definitely a lot wetter than comfortable, too.

Here and there her head flicked back towards her companions on the ground. It was nice having other people to exist with. Even if her stony face didn't show much. The Researcher scrambled atop a stalagmite and asked, "How large do you think this location is? Could it possibly--

--Umph!"

Researcher's voice cut off as her hands slipped, sending the gibbon skidding to the ground. Her paw reached out to push herself up, then clutched back as a dull pain started in her stomach. Weird. That never happened before. Maybe it had something to do with trees. But what caught her attention more than that was the massive clearing in front of her. Dirt! Stones! Weird, boxily-shaped trees! A far cry from the loud, noisy, crowded jungle surrounding it, but beautiful in its own right regardless.

Her foot crept over the sandy trail boundary, then stepped back tentatively. She tapped on her stone. "Do any of you know what this is?" her babyish voice echoed. "Looks weird. And interesting." Her finger waddled playfully at Assistant. "I dare you to go in first. That way we see how safe it is."

@Assistant @Cortex @Thalia @Karyo

INCIDENT REPORT:

Cortex clambered up the trunk of a tree, nowhere near shellacking Researcher in terms of climbing skill, but he could hold his own. He was partly arboreal, but seemed to be perfectly comfortable on the ground too. The best of both worlds, it seemed.

He trotted across wide branches, leaping from bough to bough as he followed his friend, still iffy about the Assistant... maybe it was some prey drive, but he didn't like them, at least not yet. Only time would tell.

"They're different than what was in the glowing-stone cave," he said plucking a leaf off of a branch, "Many are waxy in texture... perhaps to prevent water from weighing the leaves down?"

He dropped it and ran after Researcher, skidding to a halt as he watched the gibbon take a tumble, his face neutral. He climbed down and approached his fallen comrade, about to offer a hand before he looked up.

"This is... interesting," he said, and walked forward fearlessly, ears perked forward as he stood on his back legs to peer around a corner, "This isn't part of the forest... look."

He approached a ring of rocks and tapped his front paws against a log, "This was cut and moved here, and some trees have been cut down too."

Stumps ringed the camp, some more ragged, as if toppled, while others were flat. It was so... weird.

> Observation: Stumps have been arranged in purposeful patterns, there is evidence of burned wood within a stone circle, and there are structures that seem deliberate. It all seems to be artificial.

@Researcher

Thalia had been cleaning up, a little. The night before-... well, she didn't really remember it. A little fermented fruit, a lot of wooden flute, and way too many regular ol' fruits had left her snoring, sprawled out, on her back across a log.

She'd woken up to seeds everywhere, fruit pulp smeared all over, her flute in a tree (she still wasn't sure how it had gotten there) and scraps of leather and charcoal all over. From what she could piece together, she'd been trying to draw, or something, but possibly had been dissatisfied with the leather she'd found--because she'd strewn pieces all across the camp in a search for... something.

She was still reorganizing things (bleary-eyed and tangle-haired) when the sounds of quiet voices reached her.

Thalia stifled a yawn and--brushing the nearest tangle from her face, and tucking a leather scrap beneath her arm--headed over to see who was there.

"Hello?" she called out, as she pushed her way past a low-hanging branch. "Dad? That you?"

@Researcher

This place was warm! Much better than the glowy rock room already, Karyo decided. She and Rockface were joined by a second Rockface—so this must be why the cat had thought her face was weird! The yellow-furry-friend swung from tree to tree with her friend the dark striped one, and oh, Karyo was so jealous. What she would give to be like them! But no, all she could do was bound after them on the ground, whining eagerly and jumping occasionally to mimic their leaps.

There was so much life here! So many pretty ferns, and hidden creatures chirping in the canopy. The more diversions, the better! The Saluki strayed from her friends' path every so often, sniffing at a pile of dirt or lunging at a fluttering insect. Her tail whipped from side to side, and she laughed manically when she charged into a bush and startled a pair of green rabbits. "IT'S HUGE!" she yelled in response to Researcher's question, delighted with herself. "I BET I COULD—"

Karyo never got to finish her sentence, as Rockface II fell to the forest floor. "FRIEND!" she cried, rushing to Researcher's side. "I LOVE YOU," she declared, as if that would fix whatever was wrong with her friend. She was determined that it would, as she concentrated with all her might on...

Growling loudly?

At least, that was what it sounded like. But the Saluki meant no aggression by the sound; in fact, it was the opposite. PURRING! To make her friend feel better! And she stared intensely at the gibbon, too, which might also help. FEEL BETTER, Karyo's mind demanded, and her magic responded as best it could, though she didn't really notice it happening. Instead, the puppy leaned in to try to lick Researcher's head for good measure. That would certainly make her feel better, if she was the one who had fallen.

"DARE? OF COURSE I DARE!" Karyo replied immediately, not seeming to notice that Researcher was addressing her cat-friend. She turned toward the clearing—how odd, she thought, distracted from her excitement for a moment by curiosity. It wasn't like the rest of this cave at all! It was... sandy, and it had lots of... rocks?

Then a tall purple friend approached, and Karyo was immediately distracted from her previous distraction, running up to the stranger and wagging her tail. "FRIEND!!!" she barked, growling as enthusiastically as she could. Dad? What was that? Was purple-friend looking for a dad? Karyo tilted her head quizzically. "Am I dad?" Then— "I'm not dad!" she decided after the barest of pauses, barely giving Thalia any chance to respond. "Are any of you dad?" she asked, turning back to her friends.

OOC Note: i have no idea what post order is anymore so i'm just gonna subscribe to the thread now. no need to ping.

While they technically could climb, they chose to run on the ground alongside Karyo. Both to keep their new friend company and because it was just fun! They slipped through the foliage, occasionally disappearing from sight completely. They were just as in their element as Researcher was- just slinking through the undergrowth rather than leaping through the trees.

Their breathing echoed faintly from their gemstone-crusted face, the air within already beginning to feel stuffy. They slowed down as the others did, watching as Researcher clambered onto a stalagmite-

-and them almost immediately tumbled off.

They certainly weren't alone in their concern, though a lot less.. forward about it than Karyo. They stayed out of the way as the puppy attempted to 'heal' their friend. Their concerned "Are you alright?" nearly drowned out by Karyo's 'purring.'

Their attention quickly (but not completely) shifted towards the strange clearing just ahead. "Doesn't look like the rest of this place. Do you think someone put it here?" Ears alert and twitching, they peered curiously at the clearing.

They were just about to eagerly accept Researcher's dare with Karyo went sprinting past them into the clearing. They made a brief, surprised squeak that meant an unsaid 'Wait, I wanted to be sneaky!' As they watched Karyo very excited (and loudly) investigate the clearing. Then a two-legged purple creature began making their way towards their little group.

..Well, it wasn't too late to try to regain some amount of stealth. But try as they might to stick to the shadows, it was almost redoubtable they'd already been spotted, unless Karyo kept enough of the attention on herself for Assistant to go unnoticed.

@Researcher

Researcher smiled politely as the saluki dog came over to help, giving her a few measured headpats in return for the licks. She wasn't terribly injured, barely injured at all even (her downy fur saw to that), but the moral support was still nice. 'Karyo,' correct? Well, Karyo was making some weird noises with her jaw, but the child figured it wasn't anything bad.

... And there she went, zooming off into the clearing. Along with Cortex. Assistant only squeaked.

Researcher wiped off the rest of the dirt from her body, shouting: "Hey, be careful! We don't know what's in there!" It seemed the universe was intent on answering her concerns, because right then a strange purple shape emerged from the underbrush. She gaped behind her stone. Purple flesh, shaggy fur around the legs and head, horns emerging from her skull... she looked like nothing she saw before. She looked like...

"Me!" her youthful voice blurted, seemingly out of context, before stumbling into the path with the rest of the gang. Except for the black cat, who seemed to be more interested in standing in shadows. "Ehem, you look like me!" Her attention spun between Karyo's barking, Cortex's stone-investigation, and the bleary-eyed faun in front of her. "No, none of us are designated 'dad'-- hello, are you an ape? At least, that's what I refer to my body shape as. Did you construct this location? How? Cortex says the trees were cut down, did you do that? Are there other locations like this? What is a dad and should we fear it?" Throughout the whole flurry of questions she was pacing about, hands bouncing with excitement and eyes locked on Thalia. She wanted to know everything.

@Assistant @Cortex @Thalia

INCIDENT REPORT:

Cortex looked up as the weird purple thing entered the clearing, eyes narrowing.

"Coloring doesn't match any known natural patterns," he said, walking back towards Researcher and Assistant, his outlook on the latter slightly more positive when she'd assisted (ha) Researcher.

> New subject present. As of now, designated 'purple thingy'. Danger level yet to be identified.

"How did you make those?", he asked, pointing directly at one of the tents, made from animal hides and branches.

Cortex walked over to it, making a wide berth around Thalia, put off by the smell of rotten fruit on her. Why would anyone drink such a terrible thing? Didn't it taste bad? He couldn't wrap his head around it, and so investigated the tent instead, taking mental notes.

> Structure seems to be made from animal hides of which the fur has been removed and the skin stiffened. It is held up by thick branches.

But how did the furs get to be this way? Wouldn't they rot after a day or so?

Post order is: post after Researcher lmao

The pup came bounding up, and Thalia grinned, leaning down to offer it her hand in greeting. It was an instinctive movement, and hopefully not a rude one; but when she stretched and yawned languidly, it didn't exactly have grace in it. She seemed unconcerned to see the strangers (at least, those she could see; Researcher she didn't seem to notice, slinking along as they were in the shadows. "Oh! Hey! You guys, um. ...Babies?" she tried, unsure, but happy enough. They were small, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. They did have that sort of uncoordinated, or maybe unproportioned, sort of movement that the younger ones tended to. Not to say they were clumsy, exactly, but they just sort of struck her as "maybe-young."

The one had bizarre speech patterns--oddly formal, even moreso than Pride--and she peered at it, slightly hungover mind struggling to parse it. Her grin turned into a slightly quizzical smile as she struggled with the--ape's?--words. "Oh, um--no? I don't think so. Dad--Attikias, uh. Okay slow down--dads are fathers, uh, it means he's someone who gave me life." (Or stone, but really that was neither here nor there.) "I'm half stag? And half elf? And Dad--uh. Attikias. He's the elf and he lives here. My name's Thalia," she offered, gesturing with her free hand (the one not still offered down, perhaps seeming a little random, to Karyo).

"I'm still a little sleepy, so, uh--just don't--break anything, okay?" she asked, glancing over to where Cortex was investigating the tents. She brushed a long strand of black hair from her face, pushing it behind one ear, and blinked back at Researcher.

"Anyway our family lives here, and Dad--yeah, Dad made those?" (Silver eyes strayed back to Cortex.) "It's, um--a little... detailed, but if you guys wanna come in and sit down I can get you something to eat? Or drink? And answer your questions. I'm just, uh--you caught me at a weird time. A little tired," she explained, apologetic but grinning again.

'Hungover' wasn't a word she used really often, but damned if she'd tell them that.

(I guess Karyo is next, so I won't tag!)

Careful was a word that rarely crossed Karyo's mind. They turned belatedly at Researcher's warning, but then purple-friend was reaching down a hand and they leaned into it and she was harmless, they were sure! So it turned out fine after all! But I'll remember next time. (There was a significant possibility that they wouldn't.)

The puppy listened intently to Thalia's answers, all the while shoving their face against her outstretched hand in a very insistent gesture of PET ME LIKE RESEARCHER DID. Fortunately for their friends, a flash of consideration managed to make it through Karyo's head, and they toned down their growl-purring accordingly. Now they could all listen!

"Is Elf Dad Attikias really big?" they asked, blinking up at Thalia. "He made a lot of trees fall down! I could never. Are you a baby too? How long does it take? What about the stag? Oh! When I'm tired I go to sleep! You should try that, it works so well!"

@Assistant

Luckily with all the chaos going on around them, the purple stranger hadn't seemed to notice them quite yet. More time to investigate their surroundings. Researcher and her friend were already doing so- apparently far more bold than Assistant was. The stranger didn't seem particularly mean, on the contrary she appeared to be quite nice. That didn't prevent Assistant from sneaking around, though.

Why? Well, it was kind of fun. It make them feel stealthy and cool! Sneaking around and discovering the secrets of this place like a real explorer! So, while the others talked to the stranger about 'dads' and other things they didn't know anything about at all. They could ask Researcher about 'dads' later, anyways.

They split away from the main group, and using their super sneaky instincts crept along the shadows towards their target. They were surprisingly stealthy, likely a combination of their dark coloring and a cat's natural stealth.

Regardless of how sneaky they actually were, they crept towards one of the many urns. They circled the urn before sniffing it, and then, just to be sure, sticking their head inside of it. Yep. Completely empty. But the object was still odd enough to keep the kitten's attention.

@Researcher