Speech Thoughts

Alone. It seemed like only a while ago she was with the newborn Tamelyn before the little fawn had decided she wanted to go do some exploring. Arkrael was unsure which way Tam had gone since she had chose to stay behind just for a bit longer. Eventually she would find her friend again, but for now it was the beginning of her exploration. With her head held high and her ears perked up into attention Arkrael stood before the yawning entrance that led away from the familiar Fern Trench. Her tail swayed slowly behind her, lightly expressing her excitement to finally begin searching and learning everything she could find. It was rather daunting she would admit and her little puppy paws seemed glued to the moss that covered the cave's entrance. Strange shadows stretched up along the walls, deterring Arkrael in moving as she had no idea what they were and could not truly figure out what exactly they were.

Squaring her shoulders and straightening her shoulders, Arkrael took a deep breath to ease her rattled nerves. She would not give into the fear of the unknown. If Tamelyn could make her way out of the trench then so could she! Finally releasing the breath she had been holding the young pup took her first step. With each step further into the tunnel Arkrael felt an enlightening sensation coursing through her very being. Excitement. Her tail was beginning to move a bit faster behind her, picking up speed the further she traversed into the darkened tunnel. It was only a matter of minutes before her little paws were racing along the tunnel, all the while trying to be careful as to where she stepped just because she could only see a certain distance in front of her. She hoped there wouldn't be another trench like the one Tamelyn had been trapped in.

In her excited haste, however, a sudden dip in the floor of the tunnel made Arkrael yelp loudly as her front paws landed awkwardly further down than normal and withing a moment she was sent rolling forward. Arkrael yipped and barked as she finally skidded to a stop. An annoyed huff escaped Arkrael as she pushed herself up to sit upon her haunches and slowly looked around. The tunnel had grown larger, the room expanding significantly and Arkrael was not mistaken she could see several different tunnels that she had not come from. "Oh..." she mumbled as she slowly looked between each different tunnel entrance, her nostrils flaring out with each scent searching sniff she took. "Wonder which way Tamelyn had decided to go..." She murmured to herself thoughtfully before shaking it off. Just as she began to stand up a strange sensation vibrated through her being and her breath hitched in her throat. Her fur stood on end as the sensation rolled through her and she looked around quickly.

Post Roll Edit:

A strange vibration began, causing a soft hum to emit from the stone upon her chest. Someone was here. It was exactly as she had felt when she stumbled upon Tamelyn. Her head flung side to side, desperately trying to locate where the sensation was coming from, and finally her heterochromia eyes settled upon a certain tunnel entrance. Something was moving. Her fur bristled as she subconsciously bore the front of her tiny sharp puppy fangs. "Who's there! She called loudly as she tried to ignore the plethora of emotions that were running through her. Excitement, in only the sense that maybe it was Tamelyn. Fear and uncertainty, because she did not truly know who or what it could be. Whatever it was, she would face it head on and she would handle it accordingly.

Blue had decided some time ago that it was time to start learning. But the Cetus was… creepy. She’d left the place as quickly as possible and was now inside a tunnel somewhere, though there was a larger opening coming up ahead of her. Blue could see green things starting to pop up here and there. Plants and things. She’d found out through instinct that some of the plants tasted good when she put them in her mouth and others didn’t. She was glad to see the green here, because the cold drafts of wind and the constant moisture in this tunnel, with its drip-dripping of water was slowly driving her crazy.

She kept herself occupied by focusing on walking, knuckles pressing into the ground one at a time. Every once in a while she would glance down at her sodalite stone, embedded into the back of her right hand. She was always tempted to sit and just stare at it, for she thought it was beautiful, but she made herself press forward. Her insatiable scholarly curiosity about the world made her want to keep moving and looking and experiencing. Even if sometimes it was scary. She was really shy so meeting others was a frightening experience for her…

And speaking of… she heard someone call out from the big room ahead of her, ”Who’s there?!" She let out a small whimper of surprise and felt her magic well up inside her, wanting to release it on something. There was a good-sized rock on the path in front of her and her magic wanted to push at it… But nothing seemed to happen. All at once, her magic fizzled out and disappeared like it had never been there at all. Her brows furrowed in confusion and she temporarily forgot about the creature who was in the other room. Her magic had worked before. So why wasn't it working now?

He grinned a little to himself, feeling proud that his ability to walk was becoming so fine and good! Look at him! He barely fell over himself anymore, though stubbing his paws on pebbles and crystals was still an annoying problem he faced. He hadn't quite mastered the talents of the she he met, the one that could make light come, but he would. He was sure of it. He was so sure in fact that he knew that whenever he saw her again he would show her what he had learned and make things brighter than she ever had, just to show her that he could do something cool, too. And she'd fall all over herself in awe, giggling and laughing like she had because he was so grand...

Though when he considered it, what happened when it was dark wasn't so bad...

Grinning to himself as he thought about her little nose on his chin, his tail wagged a little. It had felt very nice...

Saudade was drawn out of his thoughts when he heard something tumble down deeper in the network. Pausing in his stroll in the dark, he listened carefully before another noise came: someone shouted loudly - Who's there?! and then someone else cried and whimpered very quietly.

He could all hear this, you see. He had very big ears and they were very nice at hearing things. He could hear anything and everything, he was quite sure. Everything and anything worth hearing, anyway.

What in the world? He wondered, more curious than anything else about the commotion he heard. Carefully he came closer, seeing the shadow of a rather bulky figure lost in thought. What a strange looking thing it was, he thought to himself, admiring the silhouette of (what he would eventually learn to be) the gorilla. Thoughtfully he grabbed a glowing plant that was attached to the wall, pulling it out with his teeth and coming closer to the big moving rock (Blue) then after.

He knew she wasn't the one that made the loud noise. She was too... soft, even if she was a rock.

Saudade cleared his throat as he approached her, his brows lifting and his head cocking in the direction of the loud noise, the person that wanted to know Who was there. Though silent, his expression spoke for itself: 'Shall we go see who wants to know who we are?'

Speech Thoughts

She heard the movement before it went quiet and Arkrael tensed even more. What on earth was over there?! Soon she heard even more movement and her ears pushed forward again. "Hello?" She called out again, this time a little less aggressively. She knew someone was there. She was, however, unaware that another had approach. The humming in her stone gem upon her chest seemed to increase and her spine stiffened. If they were not going to show themselves! Then she would approach first.

Paw after paw, Arkrael moved closer to the tunnel entrance. Her head was held low, as was her tail, in an instinctual sign of 'hunting'. Not that she even realized what she was doing. Her breath seemed to be stuck in her throat as she came closer and closer to the tunnel. The Musty smell that drafted in from the tunnel's yawning entrance made Arkrael scrunch her nose. How unpleasant. She was oh so happy that the place she had been first awoken had smelled so lovely. Shaking her thoughts away Arkrael moved quickly this time.

They came into view quickly and Arkrael halted instantly. One was covered in dark fur, much like herself, and was simply sitting there staring at something she wasn't even sure what was. The second creature had crazy funny long legs and it took Arkrael a moment to process the fact the legs were bigger than the actual body. She finally took note of the glowing foliage within the long legged creature's mouth and tilted her head. Soon the mushroom was forgotten and her eyes landed in his strange large ears. "Wow, those things are huge," She awed for a moment almost as if to herself before she huffed and shook it off.

"Erm...are you two....friends?" She questioned with a tilt of her head. Maybe they knew each other like how Tamelyn and herself knew each other. Or did they not? Arkrael guessed she was about to find out. She sat back on her haunches, curling her tail about her paws. Her gaze flitted back to the darker colored creature and she pondered just a for a moment what exactly she was. "Oh! You have one too!" She exclaimed as her eyes landed on the stone upon the gorilla's hand. She instantly grinned as she was suddenly on her belly inching closer to the two as if in an attempt to get a better look at it. She would be the third creature Arkreal would have met that had a pretty stone some where on their body.

Blue was so entranced by her sodalite stone that she didn’t even notice the maned wolf until he was basically right next to her. She let out a very gorilla-like shriek and scooted on her butt as far away as she could from the almost-foxlike-creature. Her back hit a crystal jutting from the ground, and her small brown eyes widened in – not quite fear, but more just complete shyness and embarrassment. The creature looked friendly enough. She noted the kindness in his eyes. But even that wasn’t enough for her to let go of her fear of meeting new people. Gorillas are naturally social creatures, but that doesn’t mean that all of them are exactly… socially adept.

Her eyes moved to the glowing plant in his mouth. What on earth? She leaned forward to get a better look, thinking maybe it was… growing out of his mouth somehow… but then another sound caught her attention and she curled up into herself with shyness as another gembound entered the room. She listened to the new wolf say some things that she didn’t quite follow because she was too busy freaking out. And then the wolf’s one green eye (for she thought there was no eye in the other socket) landed on her. She let out a whimper.

”Oh, you have one, too!” said the wolf, lowering herself onto her belly and crawling forward.

Blue’s immediate response was basically, “What the fuck are you doing?” except she didn’t say it out loud. Her brows furrowed, and she tried to follow the creature’s eyes to see what it was looking at. When she realized the wolf was focused solely on her Stone, she suddenly felt self-conscious and shoved her hand behind her back. Her magic flared up again as she felt just a teeny bit threatened. After all, whether she knew it consciously or not, wolves were predators, and gorillas were prey, and now she was surrounded by two wolves.

It wouldn’t protect her, she knew, but it might scare them off if she maybe made a rock move or something. She spotted a pebble on the floor of the tunnel and focused her attention on it, trying to ignore her fear… A few seconds later, the pebble did, indeed, move. Like... an inch. No one had probably even noticed it, and the effort had exhausted poor Blue. She curled into herself even more, feeling hopeless, terrified, and just about ready to give up and be eaten.

Alright. So. Maybe his theory that coming with a plant-in-mouth worked. Sort of. And sort of not. But surely if anything was a 'I come in peace' gesture, it had to be a green glowing plant... right? Especially considering he was very certain his sharp teeth were not meant for nomming on plants.

Hmm. He eyed the arrival of the other she, pursing his lips gradually as he sized her up. She had such short legs, and little ears. Could she hear anything with them? Maybe she wasn't done growing yet? But...

There was something very interesting about her. He looked at her intensely, fascinated by the arrangement of her face and figure. She was a rather handsome looking creature, he decided, even if she was a little stubby. He had yet to see any sort of canine in his life - but this girl, she was a looker. Someone did something right when they made her.

Unlike...

The rock.

Saudade was rather surprised when the beauty asked 'them' a question and then began on a tangent about... rocks. Asking a rock about a rock? Now that seemed a little heavy-handed, he thought, glancing away from the girl to the furry rock he stood next to.

Or, had stood next to. He looked at her as she whipped away, quickly scurrying from his side to... To where? To sit beside a rock? His ears flicked forward and he looked at the pebble. Surely she must have nudged it with her foot. He could do that too, and in fact, did. Dropping the glowing plant Saudade skipped a rock towards the gorilla... it had after all, been the way he made a "friend" before... but she curled up and...

He sighed. In much the way a predator could sense a wounded or fearful prey animal, Saudade was very aware of the sickly scent of anxiety that became thick and thicker still. it was sticky and yellow and nauseating in intensity. The big rock was a fearful rock - how silly! What on earth did the rock have to be afraid of? Surely the rock wasn't afraid of him?

Glancing back to the beauty, he gave her a pointed look. One that said 'This is obviously you're fault' and 'Fix it.'

Speech Thoughts

Arkrael nearly pouted when all the big ball of fuzz did was scoot away and curl up into herself. Neither of them responded to her, which made her huff with slight annoyance, but it quickly rolled off her shoulders and she hopped up to her paws once more. A small brow lifted in question when the long legged thing gave her a look and she soon rolled her eyes when she realized what he was accusing. She walked right up to the two, eyed the funny big eared creature for a moment before looking to the one pressed up against a rock. It was about then that she heard a rock or something skid along the cave floor and it drew her attention quickly.

It took her a moment to regain her attention but she finally set a friendly smile upon the gorilla. "My name's Arkrael! What is yours?" She lifted up her leg and pawed playfully at the little gorilla before she didn't hesitate to move closer and just slob her tongue right over the gorilla's face up along her cheek and all the way up to the top of her head. Hopefully the creature wouldn't react too negatively and she would see for herself that Arkrael was meaning no harm. She knew her puppy fangs were sharp, but she would never dig them into anyone.

Blue wasn’t paying much attention to the two wolves at this point. She was much too anxious for that now, and instead was sort of rocking back and forth. Actually, she was trying to give herself a bit of a pep-talk. Clearly, the two of them didn’t want to her hurt, or at least, that’s what she hoped. She thought that if they did they probably would have already. So maybe she could just… talk to them or something. Maybe she could figure out what they wanted. Her adventurous, scholarly side began to come out a little more, and she felt her fear melting away.

And then something warm and wet and pink slobbered all over her face. Blue let out a bit of a shriek and spluttered. If her back hadn’t been up against the crystal behind her, she probably would have fallen over. When she felt the wet thing get off of her, she slowly opened her eyes, and saw the female wolf (though she didn’t know it was called a wolf) smiling at her. ”My name’s Arkrael! the wolf said. “What is yours?” She blinked, still trying to figure out what had just happened. She wrinkled her nose. This… sticky stuff on her face smelled like… dog breath. Had the wolf just licked her?

“Blue,” she said to it, not knowing whether to be annoyed or grossed out or both. Slowly, she reached out a hand and attempted to pat it on the head with her giant gorilla hand. With her other hand, she tried to wipe the slobber off of her face, grimacing at the feeling of it on her.

Being huffed at be 'she'-creatures was becoming a repeating phenomena in his life. So much so that was getting used to it - and he hadn't even hit puberty. The future held great things for him on that front, he knew, as he moseyed behind the duo and mused on what exactly was going on.

Keeping his distance seemed like the proper thing, given that his attempt at being close to the rock was construed as offensive. If there was some other way to interpret how she scurried away from him he was at a loss, but seeing how things were progressing now, well...

Saudade grinned a little, chuckling some at the one creature drooling all over the other. The rock was almost less like a rock now with those big eyes and big hands and rather odd arrangement of limbs. And he thought he looked funny. Why was her snout all smashed together? Why were her paws so curled? And she had tiny ears, too, even smaller than the wolf.

But she spoke. Blue. She said and he couldn't help but wonder what was so blue about her. And the other one? An Arkrael? What on earth was that? He'd need to ask the Wolf-That-Was-Not-A-Wolf about these names creatures selected for themselves. Some were absolutely bizarre.

Speech Thoughts

Arkrael grinned when the gorilla's big hand patted against the top of her head and she was given a name in return. Blue. She hummed over the thought of it as she settled right back to her belly right in front of Blue. Her tail thudding against the cave's floor. She looked at the brown and black creature again with a curious look. "And you? What's your name?" She inquired thoughtfully flicking her tail back and forth. They weren't Tamelyn. How she was already missing that little deerling. She would find her again at some point, but right now she was here. Here with new possible friends.

"Are you guys headed somewhere?" this time she questioned both of them, looking from Sauded to Blue and then back again. They were in the same spot when she first found them, but judging by the way Blue was acting it was like she didn't even know this big eared creature either. That was okay. They all three varied in sizes, and were definitely not the same things. She was a wolf she knew. Whatever Blue was, was definitely beyond her. And the big eared thing standing just over there was definitely no wolf. There was no way he was with his odd legs and gigantic ears.