[BasilFox]

Cabernet Sauvignon, or 'Chigaru' as Basil called him, stared at the dark, cold entrance to the Caverns. For a moment he hesitated. Underground was the place he was least accustomed to. He'd rather be anywhere but where he was now.

A figure appeared beside him, Basil the dragon anthro. Her ashy grey scales gleamed in the the slight light, and her donkey-like ears twitched at the occasional sound.

Chigaru's own ears twitched at the sound of swishing fabric; Basil dark grey hooded robe. The silly thing was cut off at the shoulders, hardly suitable for the coldness of the Craiss Caverns. The Imeut started as the anthro placed a comforting claw on his shoulder and crouched down to his level. "We don't have to go in if you don't want to."

"No, no. We're here already. It would be a waste to go back now."

Basil dusted off her grey cargo pants as she rose. "Alright then, in we go." The pair strode into the Caverns, the darkness quickly swallowing them up.

[BasilFox]

As the pair walked through the darkness, guided only by the slight glow of Chigaru's scarab, Chigaru's thoughts drifted to the ranch that was now his home. He sighed. The Imeut hadn't recieved the best welcome in the world. Apparently Willow and Faren, a lucain and elder Kuhna traded to get him, had been well-liked, despite their personalities.

Given the circumstances of his arrival, he supposed he would hate himself too, if in their positions. Of course that didn't make him feel any better about it. Thinking back to the hate-filled glances, he couldn't help but wonder what his purpose was. Why was he even there? He wasn't sure about Basil either. What would possess her to do what she did?

Still, he followed his new master deeper into the darkness he hated so much.

[BasilFox]

The pair were now deep in the Caverns, darkness all but swallowing them.

Chigaru shivered. His coat, perfect for desert weather, was ill-suited for the cold of caves. He glanced at the dragon anthro beside him. With the clothes she had chosen to wear, surely she was as cold as he was. Chigaru could barely contain his disappointment. Basil seemed unfazed by the cold of the underground. He sighed. But as he brushed past Basil to go ahead a little, he felt her scales. They were as cold as ice! Perhaps she was as cold as he. But how was she doing it? Maybe she was using the 'imaging' technique used for calming.

The Imeut envisioned a desert, dunes of sand rolling, moving. It was as if the dunes were waves and the desert an ocean. A hot ocean. He smiled as he felt the cold seem to melt away. Running through the sands, feeling the hot wind through his short fur...Running....Running....

SMACK!

The hound yelped as he walked right into a cold hard wall.

"Are you okay?!" Basil ran up to the Imeut and felt his head, searching for injury.

"I'm fine....Why didn't you warn me?"

Basil smiled. "I tried but you ignored me. Day-dreaming? Perhaps I should call you Ialu*"

He blushed. "I was just trying to take away the cold."

"Well the important thing to remember is to keep enough consciousness that you know where you're going." The dragon smiled. "Come on, we've quite a bit to go.

*Ialu- Egyptian; 'Field of Dreams'

[.:Random Event 2:.]

"Is it that you know where you are going then, new friends?" The voice was soft, almost musical in nature.  Where it was coming from was a mystery (unless you counted "It was coming from the darkness all around" as a sufficient location).

"Most Sun Dwellers don't know the caves, being Sun Dwellers and all," the voice turned from words to amused laughter, the sound tinkling like broken glass as it comes to settle on the pavement.
"Do you truly know what your journey is, or do you pretend to know?" There was a pause and when the voice started again it sounded as if in wonder or purhaps "simple" contemplation, "Or perhaps it is not a journey of the body but of the mind? Or soul?"

(( ... I think I like this character. ))

[BasilFox]

The pair jumped slightly, they hadn't expected to find anyone...

Chigaru twitched his ears. Such a beautiful voice found in such a dark place..."It is a journey to...I don't really know. Basil requested that I accompany her and so I did."

"It is a journey for him and I. I heard of ruins and runes deep within this place and I hoped that by visiting them I could achieve spiritual enlightnement. I'm afraid I ca not say what I hope Chigaru gains from this...That is a matter for he and I alone, or perhaps just he." Basil turned around, her eyes scanning the darkness for the speaker. "I also came in search of an akail. Flynn grows lonely without any of his kind around. While he is away I hoped meet someone he could talk to." She laughed. "I probably should have brough him along though."

The Imeut pondered for a second. So that was why he had been asked to come along! It all seemed to fit together now..."If you are a friend...Then perhaps you could help us to get to the ruins?"

Even as he aid this Chigaru noticed another prescence. Who might it be? He looked to Basil. She hadn't said anything about it, but maybe she knew. Let them step forward when they wish, Chigaru. He shivered as he felt Basil's mind make contact with his own.

[BasilFox]

"I don't see why not." Basil gestured for Rune to come closer. "Would you like some food? Rather would you all like some food? We brought plenty." She brought out a satchel filled with rolls, fruit, and jerky. "I'm not sure if you'll like it, it's sun-dweller food...But then again, maybe you will. Flynn likes it and he is a cave-dweller, but I shouldn't assume you will." She turned and twisted her head as she spoke, unsure of where to address the mysterious voice.

Chigaru removed a plump fruit from the bag, careful not to puncture it with his claws.

[.:Random Event 2:.]

The voice ws silent a long time as it listened to the Sun-Dwellers speak to one another.
"Why not travel to your Sun-Dweller temples? Do they not satisfy your needs of enlightenment?" another tinkling laugh, "Though if you do not believe in your gods and seek ours it seems rather possible.  Your Gods are peculiar. Yesfa? I heard he was your Godess of knowledge," The name was a little off but then this creature didn't study under Sun-Dweller gods.

"Ah... The runes are special, my people visit their often.  You would be far from safe there," another pause, "I too would be something of a betrayer, though I've never much cared for their laws." Another laugh from the rebel.  It sounded more and more like this must be an akail but the voice kept to being a voice without a physical form.  For all they knew it could have been a ghost or some other spirit. There were many a strange thing in the Caverns.
"Though the offer is tempting I will have to decline your offer.  I have been fasting for some time now and I feel close to reaching..." there was a long pause that stretched out for ever and ever.  The thought was not finished but the presence of the voice still hung in the air.  Whatever the voice was it had not left.

[BasilFox]

"It is good to venture from what we are familiar with. I at least, tend to learn better that way." The dragon paused before continuing,"I don't have that much concern for the consequences that might befall me if I go to the runes... However if it would bring harm to /you/, then I won't insist you come or show the way. I'm sure Chigaru and I will stumble across them eventually."

Chigaru didn't like the sound of leaving their journey to chance, however he didn't voice his opinion. Instead he ventured a question. "If it isn't too personal, may I ask what you are close to achieving?"

[.:Random Event 2:.]

The voice laughed again, glass tumbling to the ground once more, "I'm not quite sure, but I'm almost there.  Self exploration of desperation I think..."

".... Though I don't much like some of the laws and beliefs of my people," the voice said, sounding thoughtful, "I don't want to let you pass through here knowing you seek the runes.  You may, in your defense, hurt them.  It would be understandable if they attacked you first in the caverns, but at the runes... It is sacred to us and we will fight for t... To intrude and then harm us... Well I don't like the idea much... Do you under stand, Sun-Dwellers?"

[BasilFox]

"Of course. Then I shall abandon my search for the runes."

Chigaru stared in shock at his master. "B-But we came all this way! We can't turn back now!"

The dragon anthro cocked her head. "Yes we can. It would be wrong of us to seek something at the risk of its destruction." The Imeut nodded, though he still seemed disgruntled.

Basil's ears perked up as though she had remembered something. "Excuse me miss...or mister...disembodied voice-"

"From one danger to another. Have you no sense of self preservation?!"



"Flynn! I thought Basantha Shrines would keep you occupied." Basil didn't seem angry or surprised at Flynn'Delmar's arrival.

"Basil, Basil, Basil. Haven't you learned you can't keep secrets from us? Surprises can never be surprises. Besides...If you were to bring someone home, wouldn't you feel better knowing whether or not we will get along? Hm?" Amusement shone in the akail's eyes. "Would you mind coming out? I would very much like to meet the one who managed to steer Basil of all Sun-Dwellers from at least one danger."

ooc: Garsh I love Flynn... <3

[.:Random Event 2:.]

There was a small clattering of stones as they fell from above.  perhaps a hidden ledge withing the caverns.  Where ever the rocks came from it seemed clear that they had been caused by the disembodied voice which made itself less disembodied.

"A Wondering-Shadow, welcome back to your true home.  Visiting Sun-Dweller ruins and runes? Interesting indeed," The akail was peculiar to say the least.  perhaps it truly was a ghost akail, with such a pale body.  She seemed to glow against the pitch background and the all around.

(( OH~! Wow, You're the first to run across a Pale Akail, congrats on that.  But you haven't claimed the first to tame an akail yet {Pale or otherwise})

[BasilFox]

Chigaru gasped. Such beauty…The akail’s body contrasted with the darkness of the cave, she seemed to glow…

It was Flynn; however, that voiced the awed trio’s opinion. “I shouldn’t be surprised that such a lovely voice belongs to such an elegant form. But there is more to you than beauty, yes? The laws of those who dwell here… our brethren… You are unsatisfied with them? ...And you're different. Not just your radiant color, but something deeper. Not a bad different, in my opinion, but a good different.”

"And your name...Might we inquire what it is? His-" Basil patted the Imeut, "-is Cabernet but we call him Chigaru, and this is Flynn'Delmar or Flynn for short, and I am Basil."

EDIT: Forgot to add something.
EDIT: Spelling.

[.:Random Event 2:.]

She was thin, showing that she had been fasting for quite some time now.  It was not a beautiful thinness, to be sure.  But her radiant colours seemed to hide that little fact.

"I abandoned my name a very long time ago. It meant "sickly one" in the old tongue.  People judged me on that so I decided to be without a name a much better fate. I'm not really seeking to adopt a new name. Names bring uniqueness, but those without a name may stand out even more in ones memory. At least, that is how I see it," her attention turned to Flynn, "Are you home sick Wondering-Shadow?"

[BasilFox]

"Iam and yet I am not. Sometimes my heart yearns to return to the place of my birth, and whenever that happens I am free to leave Basil for a while. Free even to stay away..." He paused as if in thought, then continued, "Yet in the time I have spent in the land of the Sun-Dwellers I have seen much. I have seen the light of that which they call the 'Moon', a light that baths the world above in silver. I have seen the sun and how in its golden glory spreads life and color. I still know the feeling of a pack, but one that accepts one for who they are." The akail turned to Chigaru now and said, "A pack that will accept you in time no matter the circumstances of your arrival or your history. And Chigaru, if you give us a chance, truly we will try to overlook the loss of our friends and accept you. Not as a replacement but as a new friend and a comrade worth having. Do not try to find reason for our foolish hatred and do not try to justify it. And most certainly, do not try to accept it. Trying to bring reason where there is none in this case will bring you only grief. Chigaru, let me be the first to ask your forgiveness and welcome you."

"The second!" Basil chirped in. It had been her who greeted Chigaru first.

Flynn tipped his head to Basil. "The second to welcome you then."

The Imeut's heart soared. For the first time since his arrival he felt truly happy. "There is nothing to forgive, friend. You are right. It is time for me to stop dwelling on the bad and move on to the good."

The akail turned to the pale. "Come with us Oh-Nameless-Beauty. Know new lands, see new things, experience the freedom of no boundries!"

Again Basil chirped up. "Well there is a rule or two. I understand a longing to return to one's true home whcih is why Flynn is able to visit here when he desires. However, I don't like my comrades to be away for very long. I worry."

Flynn chuckled. "She tends to tag along for that reason. None of us really mind though. If we left her alone to explore, surely she would manage to find the most dangerous place and get herself into the most dangerous situation."

"Th-That's not true!" She said, glaring at Flynn'Delmar. Amusement sparkled in both hers and Flynn's eyes though. The anger was not true. She turned to face The Nameless One as well. "Will you come? Will you accept our offer and join our family?"

ooc: Sorry for the bit of rambling at the beginning. I needed to wrap up Chigaru's segment. 83

[.:Random Event 2:.]

"I was once the Sickly One, but no more," she dipped her head, "as for the reason, is that not clear? My colouring is very peculiar for my people. They assumed there was something wrong with me. That is not the case but my name stuck until I shed it like a dead skin,"

She flicked her tail, "As for your offer to join you, Wondering-Shadow, and your companions I will have to decline. I have seen the Great-White sphere in the Dark-Twinkling-Cavern as have I seen the Glaring-Circle in the Suspended-Sea. I have seen enough of the Sun-Dwellers world to satisfy my need. I am told many great tales by wandering travelers such as yourselves and any need to travel myself has yet to form. Perhaps one day I shall leave these Caverns but for now the darkness suits my needs,"

She laughed again, "I'm sorry if I raised your hopes. If you'd like I shall keep your company for a time?"
So she wouldn't go with the new comers, at least not to leave this place, but if they still wanted her company she would stay.

(( Aww, seems she's not interested. But who knows, if you walk with her for a bit, maybe she'll change her mind? ))