would anyone like to join a puppy-deer in an adventure?

Acheron had decided on a few adventures. One of those was to head here--deeper into Orion, where she already lived (which made it a nice, short trip, really)--and to explore among the crumbling, burned ruins. Her father'd told her about the dragon attack, but beyond that he hadn't known where these buildings had come from, nor why they had been built.

And the pup was a curious sort, so here she was, racing for the dark alleys. It seemed ominous, the shadowed places between the stones. Ominous, but also exciting. She paused, before entering, to try and prepare a little of that magic she'd learned--something she could set in place and then forget, but that'd provide her just a little bit of defense if it came down to it. But she didn't think much could possibly be lurking in this old city.

It looked... empty. It smelled empty. Dusty, lonely, cold. It wasn't cold, but it was cooler today, at least, the stifling heat of previous days having faded.

Acheron paused, dropping her nose to the ground, sniffing along the corner of one building; her little triangular tail waggled behind her as she focused on the smells.

What else--or who else--might be in here? Adventure called, and so she called back, howling a little "Hello?" into the shadows ahead.

Poltergeist felt as if he came into being in a wave of violent hunger and turmoil which ebbed away after a few moments. These sensations were strange, no, everything was strange. The dark walls, the glowing crystals. Immediately he felt as if he needed to hide himself and a flicker of shadow crawled up his leg for a moment. Did I do that? He wondered. Considering he looked with both his eyes, ears, and nose around thoroughly, it seemed it had been some sort of failed magic.

Padding through the damp cavern, Poltergeist couldn’t keep his dark amber eyes away from the ceiling. Once he even bumped straight into one of the crumbling ruins around him, causing a loud crash. He skittered away from the spot, not wanting to be slated as the offender. His eyes now cast nervously about him, he spotted something not with his eyes, but with his nose. A predator? A herbivore? He wasn’t sure as their smells seemed to mingle to the point that it could be one creature.

Creeping forward, Geis tried again to call the shadows along his body. He hoped they would cast him into darkness so he could play a trick on the unsuspecting. He spotted the pup, barely as old as himself with twin horns atop his head. He let forth a haunting “OooOooOoo,” into the cool air. He held in his cackles to watch the pup’s reaction.

...and the shadows answered.

She had almost given up--had listened to the muffled echo of her own voice twisting through the long-lost ruins, then pressed into the darkness--when the eerie call threaded toward her.

Acheron froze, ears pricking up. Her nose worked, searching for some sign of company; ears pricked to listen for another call, but none came right away. The fur along her back bristled, just a little; who or what was that? More importantly--were they dangerous? Had they seen her? What if they'd seen her, and she hadn't seen them?

Uncertain, she called out again. "Hi?" and then waited for a beat. Maybe I should use magic, she reasoned, suddenly very glad for her shield.

The stone between Acheron's shoulder blades glowed for a moment, and then she was stepping forward. She gave a big fawn's leap, and when she hit the ground she bounced: not as high as she'd have liked, but high enough that she could peer down into the ruins. She didn't see anything at first, only shadows, so she bounced up and down a few more times--just in case.

@Poltergeist

Poltergeist watched this display with a wide grin on his face. He enjoyed teasing others and sometimes took it too far, but he decided not to scare this pup anymore. He clutched his belly and laughed heartily, removing his shadow magic at the same time. Tears leaked from his eyes as he cackled. He even fell to the floor and rolled about for a bit, laughing at the youngling.

“Oh heavens, that was hilarious,” he said finally getting up and stepping forward towards the bouncing deer-dog. “The name’s Poltergeist, thanks for the laughs.” His tone was a mixture of demeaning and friendly if that was possible. Geis thought for a moment why this kid was able to jump so high, but shrugged it off as ‘magic’. He blamed magic for a lot of things. He slinked across the ground, placing himself with his back against the wall.

@Acheron

Acheron turned, startled, as a stranger came slinking from the shadows. Shadows twisted away from him as he dropped down, laughing, and she settled at once, realizing he was no threat. Surprised faded in favor of curiosity; she wasn't offended, didn't feel insulted, but rather wanted to know more. As he flattened himself back against the wall, she clicked over with careful hoof-steps.

"Poltergeist?" she parroted, head tilting a little. An unusual name, longer than usual; most of those were descriptive, like 'Giggle' had been. Then again, wasn't Acheron a little odd-? She'd just been born with an innate knowledge of it; she wondered if her own name, or the fox cub's, held any sort of meaning.

"That was you making noise?" she asked, after a moment. "Why were you doing that?" It wasn't a demand, upset; she was just interested. Did the sound, the weird and eerie almost-howl, have some sort of purpose?

She glanced around; she wondered if the smoky-furred, spooky-sounding little cub lived in the shadow of these ruins. That would be cool! she decided, and peered down at him again. "Do you live here?" she asked, pondering. "And was that, uhh--were you using magic?"

Acheron was just full of questions, for the moment.

@Poltergeist

The dark-colored wolf drew back with each question. He had just barely been hatched and yet he was the one being asked questions. Maybe they should just both admit they are pups who know nothing and be done with it. Geis wasn’t especially serious about this and set about the task of answering all of the curious deer-horned dog’s questions.

“Geis, Geis works better,” he said quickly, he didn’t like how long the word sounded in the young dog’s mouth. “I made the noise and I did it because I thought it would be funny to scare you.” He let out a puff, making noticeable how annoying he thought this was with a drawn-out look. ”No I do not live here, I don’t even know where we are. Yes, it was magic.” He took the moment to make the shadows cloak him as they had before. They swirled up his legs and along his back and tail until just his face was visible. Then he had them subside.

”Now it's impolite to not even offer sir fox your name madam dog-deer.” He said in an obnoxiously stuffy tone. A sly smile spread across his face and he bowed as if mimicking some gentlemanly sort. He quickly devolved into snickers though.

@Acheron

"Geis," she repeated back, friendly and easygoing. Sounded fine by her. "'Poltergeist' sounds cool, too," she hastened to reassure, just in case her puzzlement had somehow come across as disapproval. And it was a neat name. Kinda special, even.

"Why would scaring me be funny?" Her question, as before, wasn't demanding. She just didn't understand the humor; she'd never had a prank played on her before. Fear sounded bad, right-? Acheron's father was rather... stiff, and as rigidly moral as a blessed wooden plank. Mischief, though intrinsic to her very nature, hadn't had much chance to take root as yet.

The shadows, though--that distracted her from her confusion. Pale eyes widened a touch. "Cooool," she breathed, leaning a little closer to peer at the coiling darkness. She wanted to learn that-! "How do you do that?" she asked, hoping that Geis could give her some sort of hint as to the nature of this magic.

For a moment she nearly bridled at being called dog-deer, and then realized that she really hadn't given her name--an oversight!--and could hardly be mad at being called that. Still, she snorted a little, ears sweeping back. "I'm Acheron," she answered, with a nod. "My name's weird, too."

It didn't occur to her that she was calling Poltergeist's name "weird;" she really did think his name--and hers--were cool. There was, indeed, a note of pride in her statement. She was just too young, too inexperienced and immature, to realize it might be misconstrued as an insult, were Poltergeist liable to take it that way.

She glanced off at the ruins, nose working briefly, and peered back at the fox. "So... if you don't live here, what're you doing?" she asked, again curious. "I was about to explore. It looks..."

Her gaze drifted back to the ancient, crumbled buildings steeped in shadow. Dangerous? Ominous? Mysterious? Those words were mostly beyond her daily vocabulary, as yet. "...Fun," was what she settled on, and for the most part, she meant it.

@Poltergeist

Geis wasn’t particularly worried about whether his name sounded cool or weird. He knew it was both of those things. He was pretty sure it meant something like an evil ghost, which begged the question, why had someone given it to him? Oh yeah, because he is an annoying trickster just waiting for the perfect opportunity for a prank.

”A prank, my dear Acheron, is the peak of funniness,” he said with a broad smile on his face. ”Scaring, it's all about the reaction, it's fun to see people’s wide eyes and surprised expressions. You’ll just have to try it sometime to understand.” He hoped she wouldn’t take this newfound knowledge and use it on him. But he had to be able to take a prank if he was dealing them out.

Poltergeist leaned back as Acheron leaned in, uncomfortable to be so close to the larger creature. He puffed up his patchy, thick fur to try and bolster himself from any fear he felt. ”I have no idea how my magic works,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. A small frown crossed his lips at the thought. But it felt natural to have the shadows conceal him as if it was just more of his own fur.

” I just arrived, fresh out the rock, and was just wandering about.” He tried to seem jolly about it, even though it made him a bit uncomfortable to not have a hideout. ” Want to explore together? Ghosts are scared of Poltergeists.” He chuckled, he wasn't sure if Acheron would take him seriously or not. He secretly hoped she would and would go around spouting the information to everyone. He gestured to the darkness with his paw for her to lead the way.

@Acheron

She considered, filing all this information about "pranks" away for later. She didn't quite get it, but... maybe she could ask her dad about it later. Or try it for herself.

For now-?

Well, she was a little disappointed he didn't know how his magic worked; but she hardly understood her own, herself. So she accepted that answer, though wondered if maybe someone else out there could teach her more. Still--Geis seemed up for adventure, and that was good!

"Yeah, I'd love to," she answered, nonchalant, and stepped back--shaking out her coat and stretching. "I don't know what's in there! My dad says a dragon burnt a lot of it, once, and that's why loads of it's black, but he doesn't know who built any of it. He says it was already old when he was hatched!" And so far as Acheron was concerned, her dad was probably the oldest thing anywhere.

She started off, moving aside to make room for Geis--whether he wanted to stroll alongside her, trail behind or whatever, she didn't mind, but she took his gesture at face value.

Her initial progress was slow, cautious--she moved as though expecting another scare at any moment, but with excitement rather than any real fear. Her head kept dropping low, nose sniffing at the ground as she crept into the first of the narrow alleyways.

As she did so, she asked another question that came to mind; it was accompanied by a glance at Geis.

"What's a ghost, anyway?"

@Poltergeist

“A dragon?! There are dragons here?!” Poltergeist said in surprise and perhaps a bit of fear. A dragon could scorch him and then swallow him whole. Suddenly he wasn’t sure about exploring. But considering Acheron said it so casually, he mustered up the courage to follow her. ”I had no idea there were dragons in these caves,” he said cautiously, trying to sound confident again. He couldn’t imagine a dragon crossing through some of those tight passages, let alone flying through the caves. He looked up at the ceiling imagining a dragon soaring under the pseudo-starlight.

Poltergeist thought for a moment it might be best to follow behind Acheron, let her experience all of the crazy stuff first. But he decided to be brave and walk beside her, his skinny legs struggling to keep up with her. Watching Acheron sniff the ground, Geis decided to sniff the air instead to cover all of their bases. Also, he didn’t want to impede his vision.

“Ghosts are the souls of the dead,” I think. He didn’t add the last part. Confidence was key when scaring others. ”You can’t touch them, but sometimes they can touch you and scare you.” His eyes went wide to express his point as if he was scared too. He wasn’t sure how dying worked here, after all, he hatched from a freaking rock. But he doubted every soul remained or else the place would be crowded with other animals.

Poltergeist slinked along, his footsteps nearly silent as he had practiced his whole life. It wasn’t perfect, he was still gangly and awkward after being born. But he was certain he was quieter than the dog’s heavy footfalls. Suddenly, Poltergeist heard a small scratching noise behind one of the walls. He assumed it was a mouse or other small rodent. But he still stretched his neck out and pointed his head at it to alert Acheron.

@Acheron