Mar 27 — [Quest] EMERGENT INFLUENCE (READ MORE) Mar 8 — [Event] Spring Regrowth! (READ MORE) Feb 6 — Domain Migration Complete! (READ MORE)
CAVE STATUS
QUESTS/EVENTS
Torrential downpours cause localized flooding and many upset cats. Along with these frequent rain, from gentle drizzles to heavy rainfall, there seems to be a flux of Magicka drawn in particular to water sources. Occasional jet streams of warm air make narrower tunnels harder to navigate. On occasion, the rain intensifies, becoming howling storms with sleet or large hail. However, the temperatures overall are a little warmer, with snow and ice in temperate caves somewhat receding.
Charon had returned to Bone after speaking to Tahi-shei, his mind clear. He was confident in his decision now, in his need for family, in his need to meet the family he'd never gotten to have due to unfortunate circumstance.
But one thing was for sure, he really wanted to meet everyone. Dread, Blight, Svartis. All of them, and he wanted to get to know everyone like he was never allowed to.
”Bone?”,he called out into the cave, dragging a wooly deer with him, ”You here? I got food. Can we talk a bit?”
He breathed out and walked in further, reaching back to drag the deer with him. He'd gained weight in the weeks since he'd seen Tahi-shei, his rib healing and his cough all but disappearing. No longer did he shiver at night, instead burying himself in snow and curling up, blanketed in soft powder like a cozy little nest.
She'd had some idea he was coming--the glimpse, here and there, through Mother's link. It had been nothing concrete and certainly not enough to locate him; Mother herself had had to direct the dragon to go and search, or she'd never have known at all.
For some reason, Mother liked this one; that pleased Bone.
The cave had been... ordered, since last Charon had seen. A few bones--the result of recent prey--were carefully lined up, from smallest to largest, and indents on the floor from claws rending the dirt and ice on landing had been carefully mirrored. It was a questionable 'decoration' but it would have been clear to a stranger that this cave was lived in, owned--perhaps that was the point?
It was, though, only one of several that she used. Mother preached safety, and moving around to remain an unpredictable target (though to whom, Bone had never been told) was important. After Charon arrived, then, Bone happened to sweep in: the heavy thud of wingbeats signalling her arrival. She hadn't been entirely certain which cave he knew, but she was glad to find him in the first she'd thought to check.
"Charon," she greeted, and there was a pleased rumble in her hefty voice. Limbs thudded down in a puff of snow outside the little cave's mouth, and wings folded across pale back. Then she lumbered slowly forward, greeting him with a pleasant expression and a soft huff. "How have you been? -You look good," she added, her tone satisfied with this.
It wasn't that he'd been absent--he'd come back, certainly, and been with her here and there. But he did look well today: heavier, healthier, more alive than he had in awhile.
Bone offered a nod to the woolly deer as she came in. "Can I ask, are those hard to catch if you can't fly?" she asked him, curiously. She'd been offering to hunt for him a lot, of course, during his recovery--when he was around, at least--and it was good to see him providing for himself. Not that she minded, of course; but healthy was good.
Charon rumbled softly as Bone landed, turning around (careful not to upset the bones) to meet her as she walked inside. He ruffled his wings and offered a gentle nose bump of affection, the furthest he generally went if he wasn't in an especially good mood.
”Thanks,” he said, tail swishing, ”I feel good. Not so cold anymore, which is nice.”
He pushed the deer between them and sat, tapping his claws on the ground, ”I've just been... around, I guess. Hunting, eating, sleeping. Not doing anything productive but thinking long and hard.”
He looked down at the deer in thought, blue eyes staring at soft, wooly fur, ”This thing? Easy. I just burrowed under the snow and caught it as it was grazing. If I just lay in wait something eventually pops up.”
Charon was an ambush predator, waiting for something to come along so he could shoot out from his burrow and catch it.
”I've had a revelation,” he said, ”Or two, I guess. The first is... I really wanna meet my family. Dread, Svartis, Blight... everyone. I wanna branch out my family a bit. And the second thing is that I wanna fly. Really, really bad. I can't fly with these wings though, so I need new ones. I just gotta figure out to get them. Any ideas?”
He scratched at his chest and stared at the ground in thought, quills flat against his back and shifting gently, reflecting his thoughts.
Bone had never really asked her brother about his hunting methods, before, and something about this clicked with a widening of her eyes. (The nose-bump was returned only faintly; touching anyone too closely was a bad idea unless she wanted to infect them, though she did her best to always pick herself over and tear free visible fungus.)
"Oh! Like ice worms! That's--quite smart. It must be really effective," she added, thoughtfully. Then she peered at Charon, wondering: "When you burrow, do the worms themselves ever bother you?" Did they bother one another-? Did they see Charon as one of them? (Bone had no idea they ate one another. A worm-eat-worm world.) Did he have to fight them off, or was he just too big?
As for his mention of productivity, she only snorted, softly. "Isn't that everyone?" she asked, with gentle amusement. But it wasn't; she spent her time being productive. Industrious. Hunting, patrolling, high in the white sky on behalf of Mother. He didn't need to know that, though.
Bone considered his final remarks, though, and gave them a good amount of thought. "We can go meet Dad, if you like--Dread. I think Blight's away at the minute, but Dread might also be able to tell you about, uh--growing parts? I know it's a thing that can happen if you go into your stone, but I don't know much more than that. I know Dad gets bigger every time he goes into his, at least. Not by much, but a little. But, he might know more?" she suggested, tentatively. "And we can see if Svartis is there, too."
Maybe his wings could get bigger, or something..? Or maybe his body would just get bigger, and render the wings even more useless... She didn't really know how it all worked.
Charon tucked his legs under himself, loafing in front of Bone and curling his tail up behind him, nodding slowly.
”It is. Conserves energy really well in this cold,” he said, ”I haven't encountered any so far- I think mom told me about them at some point but I just avoid any tunnels that aren't mine just in case. Even if they're ignoring me right now I don't want to risk it.”
He perked up at the suggestion to go see Dread, nodding, ”I'd like that. Do you think he'll like me? He definitely won't recognize me but... I don't know. From how Carja explained it he didn't seem too keen on having a new dragon around, even if they're family. I don't know if that's even what he's like or if the two of them just had a misunderstanding but like... I don't know. I guess I'm just anxious.”
He scrunched his nose and shook his head. He was never anxious or scared about anything, other things feared him! Like the prey he hunted or people who hurt his family. Well, not that he'd encountered the latter, but should it happen, those people would fear him.
”When can we go?”, he asked, tapping his claws against the floor of the cave again, an unfamiliar nervousness making his heart flutter.
Was Charon excited? Nervous? Both? Whatever it was didn't matter, he didn't know anyway.
Bone tilted her head a little, then shook it. "No, he's--nice, to family. He'd never really met her, I think, and from what I understand--which isn't a whole lot, mind, just like... thirdhand from Svartis and Dad--she sort of went in and flipped her shit on him? He was pretty upset; she made a couple of... weird, accusations." Her expression darkened, briefly, into something like distant confusion and faint anger. Once Dread had eventually told her (in one of his typical blurted rants, but threaded with genuine worry, a side-eye here and there, insecure) that Carja had accused him of not knowing or loving his children, Bone had been furious. She'd taken the time to reassure her father that of course she knew that wasn't true. And she still didn't know why Carja would have said such a thing. "Told Dad he didn't know us, or love us, and that we were both really sick. I don't know why, and I don't want to think about it," she added, bluntly.
"But he's fine to anyone family, as long as you're friendly. I mean, you don't need to scrape and bow but he does see it as his territory, so don't stomp all over his nest and you'll be fine--well, you can't reach it now, anyway," she added, eyeing Charon's wings. "Come to think of it, I'll need to go and get him, but that shouldn't take long. We can stop on the beach in Leo, and I can go bring him down to meet you?" she suggested.
"Anyway, I'm glad you've never been eaten by an ice worm," Bone added, amused, "-and that sounds wise. I didn't even know they had tunnels," she added, thoughtfully, but it did make sense. "So, uh--we can go now, if you want? I mean," and here Bone paused, looking Charon up and down with teasing amusement, "-if you think you might want to do that."
Charon admittedly didn't know Carja all that well. From what he could tell she was very emotionally driven, though most of those emotions were positive ones. But what did she mean by sick? What had happened to make her just... freak out?
”She's emotional,” he said slowly, ”Maybe that made her freak out? I don't know what she meant by sick, though. But damn, to go so far as to accuse someone of not loving their kids?”
Now that was fucked up.
”... Maybe after this I'll go ahead and talk to her,” he mumbled, ”She's in uh... Eridanus? Didn't see her while I was there, though, so she might've been out. I dunno, maybe she lashed out 'cause I know she's been missing family as much as I have. Last time we met I saw it in her eyes, she looked really lonely and just... sad. And Carja ain't a sad person, she's always been a ball of sunshine. Maybe I'm just making excuses though.”
He stood up and shook himself off, pulling free a few irritated quills with the tip of his mouth before puffing out his chest and putting on his brave face (which looked kind of silly).
”I want to go see Dread. Should I like, call him anything? I'm not his kid, I'm Asimona's, so would I call him dad or something?”, he said, a little lost, ”Whatever, I can just ask, right?”
He smoothed down his quills and tried to fix them up neatly, picking at his scales to clean off any dirt or grime that may have collected before turning to Bone and nodding slowly.
”Yeah, I got this. Let's go before I chicken out,” he said with a hint of a smile.
Bone gave a little shrug, puzzled herself. Svartis had been just as baffled by it, but already the white dragon's faint anger was bleeding away. It was in the past, regardless of how cruel a thing it had been to say. "Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't say you're making excuses; it seems... reasonable? I just don't know her well," Bone explained.
The description of her as having gone from a "ball of sunshine" to miserable was a tragic one, and she almost felt bad; another little shrug was offered. "That might be good--to go and talk to her. Maybe you can figure it out. As mean a thing as it was to say, if it's like you say I'd feel bad if she's off alone somewhere. Svartis was going to go find her, I think, but I'm not sure if he ever got a chance."
As for Dread? Bone laughed, a little, shaking her head. "Just call him Dread," she answered. "You know where the Leo entrance is? Off that way? Head in, let me go see if I can find Svartis. I'll bring him in, then come get Dad in Leo. We can talk on the beach, I guess," she went on. Charon couldn't fly, so meeting at Dread's nest was out; and Svartis was probably somewhere here in Ursa. It'd take some rounding up to get them all together.
Mother seemed pleased for her, too: an encouragement to meet with her family, a happiness for her unity with them. What a shame it was they couldn't all be together through Mother's link, as well. But-... The thought faded.
Huh!
"C'mon, then! On to Leo. I'll meet you there." Bone turned, heavy thuds of her wings laboriously lifting her into flight.
While Charon made his way to Leo, she'd find Svartis--then the whole family could meet up.
Charon nodded slowly and thought about it for a moment, ”I'll go find her, but for now let's focus on this.”
He shook his head and headed for the edge of the cave, slithering forward and flapping his wings to get a bit of speed, ”I know it, I'll meet you all there!”
He dove out of the edge of the cave and into the snow, disappearing beneath the powder. He burrowed beneath and headed off towards the Leo entrance, easily carving his way beneath the snow. He wasn't as fast as flying, but he was definitely faster than he would be overground. But soon he'd fly, he just had to hope for it.
