Parthenium shivered.

This tunnel was everything she feared, and then some. How was it that a simple stone passageway could feel so empty? She had seen mist and barren rock before, but nothing felt quite as ghastly and wrong as this place. She felt as though if she walked through this tunnel, she might simply cease to exist before reaching the other end. As though anything disturbing the sheer emptiness of this tunnel would be wiped from existence.

The atmosphere set her on edge. It had her teeth clenched and her heart racing, her soft ears pinning back against her head. It scared her. She cast out her magic--using it successfully always seemed to bring her some measure of comfort--scanning the tunnel for the white glow that signified life. Any life. The white stuff was everywhere, gathered into a fierce, bright lamp in the guts of gembound beings and spread into a thin film wherever there was the slightest amount of resources available. It may not have counted as company for most people, but for Parthenium, it was the very basis of her magic. Wherever the white stuff was, she could work her spells, and she never felt totally alone. At least if it grew in this tunnel, she would know that whatever was wrong with this place, it wasn't some toxic substance that would kill anything and everything.

Please, she begged silently as she stretched out her magical sense. Don't let me be alone here. She wanted to explore! --but she was so afraid.

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Anubis

The tunnel was not so much dead as it was utterly devoid of life.

It felt as if nothing could grow here.

It felt as if nothing was allowed to grow here.

The slight prokaryotic growth infiltrating from either end of the tunnel didn't seem to make it very far within--and those few scattered germs that did, were rapidly dying. Perhaps it was something in the air--or magic--or maybe there was just nothing for them to feed on, here; but despite the scattered life, there was nothing at all established and alive in Tunnel K.

@Parthenium

He hadn't left Canis in....a long, long time. Not since before the dark cave swallowed him whole, since the rats became his friends and the whispers of rot and decay begged him to unravel their delicious secrets. But he was growing frustrated. He'd brought every rat he found to the brink, right up to the very edge, held them there and studied them from every angle, every nook and cranny of their tortured existence. But nothing was different. None of them chrysalized. They died and became oil. All the same, all the same!

Why...why did they die? Why did the rats die and the not-rats not die? What was the point in which the not-dying happened? He had experienced it twice now, that sweet brush with death but no! No, the answers alluded him. His memories of those moments were thin and wispy. He needed to see from the outside. That was the only way. But not here, not in Canis where everything was dead. Where everything was old and dusty and either rat or snake or whatever other foul lesser creature tried to hamper his studies.

So. He left. Trotting out with a small mouse clamped gently in his jaws, nervous, but excited. A new step meant...it meant great things, right?!

He hadn't been here before, though. He stepped in and it was...wrong. There was no life here. Was there...death? No more bones on the ground, at least. And as he tried to pull senses in, to see what decay could be found here he received...nothing.

Was it a failed spell? Or the lack of anything. He shivered, feeling a whole sense of wrong and disgust. Did even death fear tred this tunnel? Was it so devoid of life that even its counterpart was swept away?

Without thinking much of it, he swiftly dropped the half-dead mouse and finished the job. A quick nip to the back of the neck and its heart stopped its pitiful beating. A sigh of relief. Death was here. The was good. Aati would await him elsewhere.

Not one to waste a meal, he quickly ate the small mouse in front of him, kicking the bones back into Canis (they didn't deserve to waste away on these foul stones) and continued on. Into the abyss, into the maws of oblivion. And within this void he found...a dog.

A bright one. Bright like the lights. She was scared, though. Like he was, although his fear had left him now. Did she sense it too, the sense of wrong, ghastly emptiness? It wouldn't be just him, then, tasting that foul air. A connection between them, a similarity.

Wait. Were there others? Was she a not-rat, chrysalizing creature like him?

"Hello?" he barked out, softly, before he could help himself. He had suddenly grown excited. Perhaps this was what he was looking for!

@Parthenium

The lifelessness seemed to end, thankfully, at the other end of the tunnel. If she sprinted fast enough, Parthenium wondered, could she outrun whatever desolation haunted this tunnel and reach the other side before it snuffed her out?

But then, a shape on the other side moved! A blob vaguely her sized or a little smaller, glowing so intensely with life it seemed it could light up the whole tunnel, when in reality its color was no more vibrant than that of any other creature carrying bacteria within its gut. Parthenium could even make out the shape of its long, pointed snout from all the microbes living on the surface of its body.

(She always could, if the magic didn't fail her too badly, but this one was special because it lived in the tunnel of Nothingness.)

The shape came trotting closer, until Parthenium could see its actual form: a canine just slightly smaller than she was, and skinnier in build. "Hi!" she woofed excitedly, forgetting her fear as she trotted out to meet him, fluffy tail wagging. "You're alive, too!" She laughed a little, relief and a little awkwardness making it into her voice. "Ah, sorry, it's just that this tunnel seems so empty. It's a relief knowing there are other people here!"

At least now, they were not alone. Would it not have been the worst fate possible, to die alone in this barren tunnel--perhaps to some unknown, terrifying toxin in the mist--with no one to save or comfort them? Thank goodness that wasn't the case!

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Anubis

She spoke - she spoke! She was a not-rat, speaking thinking creature! Perhaps she would be perfect for Anubis's experiment, a subject to chrysalize for him so he could study it up close! Things simply could not have panned out better, he leaves Canis just for a moment and he comes across exactly what he was looking for!

Tail wagged behind him excitedly and he trotted closer, ears perked. He opened his mouth to straight up ask, right then and there, but then reason whispered in the back of his mind - perhaps that wouldn't work. After all, dying was painful and this dog seemed to be of a good sort. She might not agree to it. In fact, she might be put off. Anubis would, if he was her. He would have to be smarter about this, more tactical.

A quick scan of the dog and some thoughts about her behavior led Anubis to the following conclusions: this was a dog that liked company. She had felt scared and lonely in the tunnel without anyone. She feared death, as most did, and perhaps loneliness as well. She was friendly, sociable. Okay, Anubis could...try to be that too.

"Yeah, you too," he offered. "I don't like this tunnel very much. Creepy." He sounded much like how he had when he was a child, now - curious, open-minded, instead of the reclusive stranger he'd become. "What are you doing here? In this tunnel, I mean. Are you looking for something?"

@Parthenium

Anubis's words did not arouse a single thread of suspicion in poor Parthenium. She believed his curious, friendly act completely--she herself was the same, so why should she be suspicious?

"I was scared," she confessed in a lower voice, though a playful glitter in her eyes hinted that she was not really ashamed of the fact. "I wanted to see what was on the other side--I was curious! I wanted to explore more places, but something felt wrong about this tunnel. So I tried using magic to see the small life-forms that usually cover any hospitable surface and any living thing--they glow white for me, when I use the magic--but there was hardly anything in this tunnel before I saw you. I was worried maybe there was something dangerous in this tunnel, or something poisonous about the mist, and it'd try to kill me before I made it to the other side..."

She trailed off. Had she rambled too much? Now that she'd seen the jackal alive and well, her earlier fears seemed silly. Would he think she was cowardly, and not want to be her friend? "Ah, sorry," she laughed awkwardly, trying to brush off the thought. "My name's Parthenium--what's yours?"

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Anubis

Anubis listened carefully, analyzing. An explorer, curious, but scared. Timid. Okay, this would be good. Someone that was willing to take risks, but feared the consequences. He could work with this. He found himself admiring her a bit, the playful gleam giving away how little she feared her own weaknesses. He tilted his head, more intrigued by the moment. How he'd love to take her apart and study her up and down, inside and out!

She also liked to talk. A lot. That was fine, Anubis could listen. It was better that way, to offer few works and take as many as he could. He preferred not to talk about himself anyways, but she seemed to have plenty in return. "You want to see...the other cave? I can take you there. It's very cool, I live there. I can take you there, if you like." He let out a small chuckle. "Nothing in here to kill you, I think. It's just creepy." There was no life in here, and while death could not leave, it did not stalk these halls.

Parthenium. A lovely name. "I'm Anubis. It's nice to meet you!" And he leaned forward to offer a greeting touch of their noses, invisible spores popping up on the surface of his muzzle. He'd pass them to her, carefully, and while they wouldn't take full effect immediately, in the coming hours she would begin to feel their effects.

@Parthenium

Parthenium brightened at the jackal's offer. "Oh, sure! I'd love to see it, if it's not too much trouble." It was so much better to explore when she wasn't all alone, wasn't it?

She stretched out her nose to touch his without a second thought, picking up the sinister spores without so much a sneeze. "It's nice to meet you, too--maybe we can be friends?" she suggested hopefully. Truly, it was good to have friends by one's side in a world as big as this! "How long have you lived in the other cave? Have you been to any others?"

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Anubis

The spores passed quietly, undetected and as Anubis pulled away, his tail wagged with the glee of another subject marked. It was almost with an innocent gleam in his eyes that he responded with a small, ”Yay!” He was, legitimately, excited. This was going to be fun!

”I hatched there,” was all he really gave in terms of his own experience with Canis. But he had become too distracted by the word ‘friend’. He had no really…considered himself to be a friendly guy. His only real friend was the mouse that he had to find a replacement for. To be honest, he wasn’t really sure what it even meant to be a friend. Did that mean that Parthenon knew what he was up to, and was offering herself to his research? Was she asking him to take care of her? Protect her? Keep her close? Those were all things he did with Aati (although protecting her hadn’t really ever been a priority).

But still he wondered what had spurred her to offer to be friends with him. It felt like a monumental things it felt like truly a big deal. They were signing a contract, creating a bond between them. And they had only known each other for such a short time…

But Anubis made the decision then, in that moment. ”Friends. I think…that would be wonderful!” And it was said with all the genuine warmth he could muster, all the sincerity his detached self could offer. Did he truly mean it? Perhaps.

He shook his head at the question and, suddenly, for a moment, playfulness overtook him. Joy at a new friend, a new bond, and an approaching experiment. She wouldn’t have energy for much longer, so…playtime now!

He jumped into a play crouch, tail wagging behind him. ”I haven’t - you should show me! And then we go to my cave! It’ll be fun, an adventure!”

@Parthenium