He couldn’t remember getting here. Laying on the dusty earth, he didn’t even know where he was until he’d lifted his head and peered out through the narrow crevice that opened up the rest of the world below him. Orion stretched out from corner to corner, its crumbling buildings as jagged, looming shadows in the dark. He pulled himself to the edge, peering down, but the darkness wouldn’t permit him to know how high up he was. Still, he had a feeling he already knew, as thoughts and memories slowly trickled back into his awareness.

The smell of this place was suffocating. It smelled like him. But worse, it smelled like her.

Bartos backed away, his hind paw catching on a smooth stone. He jumped, alarmed - he thought his old den had been cleared out of its treasures. But when he turned to examine the object, he found that it wasn’t one of them, one of the stones he’d plucked in his searches before everything turned bad. The smooth, round pearly citrine sat gleaming even in the absence of light. A glow clung to it. Or maybe he was just imagining that.

The cat swallowed, reclining back onto his stomach. He couldn’t tear his eyes from the stone. He didn’t remember prying it out of her skull. Surely, this must have been the work of Senka; he felt a swell of anger at the thought of her violating the doe’s skull. But he would have done the same, as much as it hurt him. He would have one anything to rescue her from that pit in Eridanus. She didn’t deserve to decay there.

A long sigh left his chest as he lowered his head again, no longer certain of what he wanted to do. She was with him again. He reached out, probing for a sign of her, wishing that he would hear her voice again. But there was nothing.

@Astaroth

Astaroth yawned, he had been sleeping beside the entrance of his friends' den, or at least, the one he considered to be his friend. He could smell the lingering scent of it even outside of it. he had been looking for anyone he knew for the past few days, though the company of the little fox always with him was also very nice he longed to catch up with some of those others that he knew, he thought that maybe he would come by the den. He hoped he hadn't missed the cat while he was asleep though, he sniffed again and thought the smell was stronger now than before. "Bartos?" He said in barely more than a whisper, something made the air feel tense, he felt like he shouldn't be there but he wanted to know if his friend was here.
"Speaking."
Thoughts.
tags: @Bartos
notes:

The cat, with his eyes closed, stirred only slightly in the looming doldrums of sleep. The silence closed all around him. It had never made him feel lonely before, but now as he searched, wanting, hoping to hear something, the nothingness reflected back enveloped him in a feeling of smallness. Like he was a single heart beating at the bottom of a lightless chasm. He sniffed, sighing, flicking his tail. Maybe sleep would consume him again.

Only it didn’t - the voice he finally heard wasn’t his own, and it wasn’t Clover’s. It was a tentative whisper just outside the entrance of his den. Bartos twitched an ear back, thinking maybe it was an illusion. Senka was haunting him again. But the more he dwelled on it, the more he recognized its resonance as belonging not to the shadowy figment of a feline, but a Gembound he was actually quite familiar with. Bartos opened his eyes and blinked out into the darkness, but could see nothing. Still, he knew the voice. ”Astaroth,” he acknowledged lamely, lowering his head again. Clover’s stone remained nestled against his chest, touching his own of unpolished, dusty benitoite. ”Leave me,” he added with a sigh, shoulders sagging.

@Astaroth

He could see plainly that his friend was upset. Then he saw the gem, he looked up at Bartos and put two and two together. "Is that from someone else? Did you know them well?" He felt by how his friend was acting that this was part of what the cat hadn't told him when he had taken him to get his name. He tried to grasp that power that he knew so well but it slipped through his grasp. he layed back down then, setting his head down on his paws, gazing up at his friend. If only he trusted me enough to tell me.
"Speaking."
Thoughts.
tags: @Bartos
notes: