Snow.

Snow.

The word filtered into Zookeeper's mind as gently as a snowflake. Which was fitting, considering he was currently surrounded by the stuff. He shivered. The cub wandered here from Leo, playful bounds across a tunnel of fire and ice leading his footsteps to this desolate wasteland. Looking across the barren field of snow, he wondered whether there was even anything worth coming for.

But look. Zookeeper's sky-blue eyes focused on the ground. There was plenty to be seen, hidden in plain sight. Like over there-- the tracks of some lesser wandered to the distance. Or by the entrance, where the ground suddenly dipped down into a deep indent half-buried under snow, as if something (someone) had smashed into the floor. And let's not forget the twin silhouettes of mountains on the horizon, shrouded by clouds. This place ain't half bad, he thought. Even if it's bloody cold.

Now he was intrigued. What animals (yay, animals!) could be hiding in this place? Well, there was only one way to find out, right? And that way was obviously running around and screaming at the top of his lungs until he spooked something out of hiding.

Guess what Zookeeper did.

"LARRIKIN N' LOLLIES!" he yowled, a cloud of snow rising behind his paws as he charged toward the mountains. "BILLABONG BILLY! ESKY FACEY FLANNIE FO! WOOP WOOP!!"

Now it was time to wait for some unfortunate calamity to befall him. Or not.

The cub's cry seemed both muffled by the snow and to echo over it, an odd effect like shouting into a large closet.

The lack of any reaction in most of the white expanse would give the cub a tidbit of information: Ursa's wildlife was scarce indeed, widely-spread in this inhospitable landscape.

But that wasn't to say there was no reaction whatsoever: a small cluster of fluffy white birds erupted from a hollow in the snow, spiralling away into the freezing fog with a series of bright, trilling alarm calls. These Mountain Sparrows flew off toward the mountains, leaving behind the small hollow where they'd been resting: a divot in the snow, clustered with a few tiny white down feathers and the remains of old, frozen grass--and the shells of the few seeds the birds had managed to pluck from it.

@Zookeeper

Sergei had no idea what a 'flannie fo' was, nor a 'larrikin' and 'billabong' was most certainly beyond him. It gave him pause, then, when a distant voice called these words, their sounds carrying shrill but faint, like a whistle of wind up the mountain pass.

He stood for a moment, nose working, brow furrowed and steam pluming from his nostrils.

It sounds, he decided at last, like a child.

The bear had been avoiding other Gembound since the 'mother' incidents. He'd been careful about what he ate, freezing everything he could first and always discarding anything with even a hint of white fluff; he lived off his own magic bananas whenever he could, and hunted and fished elsewhere now and then too. So he was hesitant in approaching a distant call, but...

...but if it were a child, it would need to be warned.

With a low grumble he started the long trudge down the trail: a narrow path winding down into the snowy plains. He stood upright, massive paw with its single thumb wrapped around his spear-haft, each lumbering step thudding puffs of snow into the air. The leather-clad armor clanged against his chest.

The other paw, eventually, came to shade his eyes--and out past the expanse of blinding white, he at last spotted something.

Something... tiny. Something brown, a mere speck against the icy wastes. "...HYELLOOO," he bellowed, the single word twisted with an unfamiliar accent. "LEETLE ONE?" Target spotted, his slow lumber broke into a shuffle, as he hurried to reach the child before something else--anything else--did.

@Zookeeper

Zookeeper's face broke out into a grin at the sight of the snowy birds. "Oi! Oi!" he shouted, running towards them like a man on a mission. But he was too late-- as soon as the birds heard his words, they took off in a flurry of frightened chirps and feathers.

"Wait! Come back!" He batted the air after their shadows as if he could still catch them if he really, really tried. It was futile. "I just... I just want t' be friends!" The smile fell from his face. Maybe there wasn't anything good in this bloody cave after all. Maybe...

Oh, look! Zookeeper excitedly turned towards the sound of bellowing, sadness forgotten. His ears perked up like little radio dishes. The image of a large, brown, furry something made itself seen in the distance. He looked like he was in a hurry. Hurrying towards the cub, specifically. Should he be worried about that? Of course not, silly! Everyone was a friend!

"Oi! Oi!" Zookeeper shouted again, this time directed towards Sergei. He started trotting in the direction of the bear, shrugging off accumulated snowflakes from his pelt. "Who b' you? I'm Keeper!"

@Sergei

Ahh, that--those words, there--"friends" and "back" and all that. Those were understandable, though they were but distant cries. Sergei, squinting against the light of the aurora cast back from beneath by the sheets of snow, could now make out something bounding toward him: long limbs, oversized paws... Cat? he thought. But as each of them closed the gap in their own way--the cub trotting to him, he shuffling as fast as he could on two feet--he thought, No, no. Not cat. BIG cat. Another squint, and: ...but a baby.

A baby big cat, then.

He was out of breath by the time he got there: his hefty bear bulk rarely hurried. His was usually a slow and plodding pace between fishing holes and sleeping-dens. "I-" (huff, puff) "-am Sergei." He studied the cub briefly, and gestured at him with the crystal-tipped spear. "You are baby, yes? I came to warn," he said carefully, coming to a halt a few safe feet away. "To warn you of-" Eyes faintly narrowed, belatedly, and his gaze did a cursory search of Zookeeper for any sign of white fluff, maybe sticking out of ears or between big toes. He found none, but he hesitated nonetheless before pushing on. "There are many little creatures here. Some of them have... white things. Like..."

There was a long pause, Sergei's big head lifting to stare vacantly off at the horizon, as he struggled to think of something similar. "...Fluff of dandelion," he concluded at last, looking back down again. "Like white fur, little bits. Like white feather. Fluff." Big, padded fingers lifted, his free hand rubbing those fingers together as if to indicate just how soft the fluff was. "Is dangerous. If you find animal with white fluff, do not eat."

His accent was thick, each "r" rolled. Sergei's speech had been halting at the best of times, but he'd been alone for many cycles, and he found it now harder to find the words he was looking for. "They are sick," he tried to explain, studying Zookeeper's big endearing eyes and remarkably large ears. One hand leaned on the haft of the spear, the barbearian taking another big breath; the other hand pointed a clawed finger down at Keeper. "You eat one, you also get sick. Yes?" he asked, hoping that the cub understood.

@Zookeeper

Zookeeper's smile only widened as the two of them got closer. When they were finally an acceptable distance apart, he skidded to a half and began to pant in the frosty air. Man, running over solid ice and snow is rough. But no matter-- he had a new mate to meet!

The cub took a few moments to examine who, exactly, this mysterious figure was. Let's see: brown fur, hulking form, stands on two feet... Oh, he knew! He must be a veerrry large cave mouse! That was the only other furry thing he's seen so far that vaguely matched the description. You know, the last one he saw was in the tunnel on the way here and--

Oh right, he's talking.

Zookeeper put on his best listening face and tried to catch up with what the bear was saying. "I-- am Sergei." "Hello!" "You are baby, yes?" He took a moment to ponder this new word, before answering with a "Yep!"

And then the serious stuff began.

Most of it flew over his head, even when dumbed down to kid terms. He had never seen a dandelion before, for example. But he tried his best to fill in the gaps. From what he understood, there was a Bad Thing, a "sickness" of sorts. And when you get it, some of fur turns white. Zookeeper thought of those little white birds he saw earlier. 'Were they sick?' If so, that was absolutely horrible! Those poor birds! He wanted to do something to help them get better, if anything.

"Crikey," he mewed at last. At this point it sounded like he was just making up words. "So white fluff, no eatin'? Got it! But wait--" his eyes grew to saucers. "How much 'white stuff is there? Is it everywhere?? Is it on me?!" He suddenly examined his body, hopping from leg to leg as if the white mold would start growing from him any moment. After he had thoroughly determined he was as brown as ever, he looked back to Sergei with a puzzled expression. "And how come you're not sick? Are you..." he took a moment to find the right word. "... Immune?"

@Sergei

The big bear stood stoic, but internally he was a little uncertain. He didn't like anyone this close; he was not, as the cub suggested, immune and he truly feared a reinfection. I am not immune... yes? he wondered. It would be lovely if he were; it might explain why he'd gone this long in Ursa without getting Mothered all over again, but... He had his doubts.

Best to play it safe.

"Urh-" he began, unsure, as the cub's words tumbled out. "-No--I do not think so--not on you," he offered hesitantly, taking a crunching step forward to peer over the cub. "It is in many places? It is not fur. But! It look like fur!" he added, one claw skyward. There was, of course, one other bit of information to be offered and so Sergei did. "If you get the white stuff on you. You can sleep in stone, and then it goes."

The bear paused, frowning as he tried to parse one final piece of information.

"What," he asked, more slowly, "is a Crikey?"

@Zookeeper

Zookeeper breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief at Sergei's reassurance. He already knew he was safe, but it still felt good to hear it from someone else.

The next bit of information piqued his interest. Sleep in stone? What did that mean? He thought back to his first memory of waking up in the crystal tomb. That must be what the bear meant. But how does one go back to sleeping in stone? It was a mystery he wouldn't figure out until later.

And then was the inevitable question: what the hell is a crikey?! Zookeeper's face spit into a wide grin. "Crikey," he explained, "is a little somethin' I came up with! Doesn't really mean a'thing." He laughed, though it wasn't clear what he was laughing at.

"By the way," he said at last, in his trademark childish voice, " 'ave any place near here? I should be getting 'ome before the white stuff gets me, but I can stay a little longer."

@Sergei

Sergei shuffled from one foot to the other, leaning there, a little disconcerted. The child was fast--fast-moving, fast-talking, fast-acting. He had arrived, he was about to leave--the bear was used to things that did not go so fast.

Like rocks. And snow. And ice.

"I have... cave. Den?" he offered, hesitating. "Fish, there. It is warm enough." He had lined it, over the cycles, with the fur and feathers of his past few non-fishy kills. It wasn't exactly clean, but even the solitary barbearian felt bad leaving a mere cub out here in the cold to fend for itself. "Or I can... show you ways out," he suggested. That was good, too: ways out of the cold, ways to places a lone cub might survive. It has many fur, though. Perhaps cold is all right, he noted.

A spear gestured off in the vague direction of various tunnels. "That way, goes to hot cave with water. That way, to magic cave with big glow-crystal. That way goes to white castle. Big place. All places perhaps have white stuff. Have the Mother," he explained. "But maybe not so much like here."

Maybe the cub would have other questions, or maybe not; Sergei was content to answer, or to guide him, or take him back for a meal. He was a little pleased at the company, but also a little wary: so he held no preference, and didn't try to push Zookeeper in any specific direction. But he did offer one last thing: "If you have other question, leetle Keeper, I answer, before you go."

Then, Sergei puffed out his chest. How very noble of him.

@Zookeeper

Fish. It was a new word, and one that tempted Zookeeper. Was it a plant, or an animal? Did they have legs? Ooh, how about poison spikes everywhere that killed you! That would be awesome!

Wait, where were we again?

The kitten shook snowflakes off his pelt as he listened to Sergei's words. "Hot cave with water... oi, I know that place! That's where I 'atched!" The other places piqued his curiosity, and he mentally stashed them away, labelled as "explore later." But for now...

"Hmm.. hmmmmm... yeah, I think I'll stay!" he decided, jumping a little into the air with enthusiasm. "Your den, you said? Can you lead me there? Oh! And the question: do you know anyone else? I mean, besides me? You're kinda the first talking mate I met out 'ere, you know. 'Just hope we're not the only ones."

@Sergei