The trip to the falls really shouldn’t take all that long but with Misery letting a child carry supplies as they went it certainly made the task take longer.  The boy had plenty of spirit but Misery was watchful and keen on details.  The eagerness and desire to seek out everything was still there but there was no doubt the boy was getting tired.  Tired kids were less likely to get stupid ideas in their heads and a lot more likely to behave just because it would take too much effort to think something up.

Misery had indeed planned to come out here even without the amusement of having his little brother carrying items.  Misery wanted to look at how the growths behaved around the water and vegetation here.  He needed to see if there were differences in how much had grown in different areas and if the wildlife over here seemed to have any different variety of effects they suffered from or lack thereof.

It would normally be nighttime if Misery was keeping up correctly but it hardly mattered since it was now nighttime all of the time.  There was no longer the snow of winter on the ground but without the sun it still seemed a bit chilly.  Of course, the only Spring Misery had experienced before had been even colder than this one and snow had still packed the ground.  How he missed the snow whenever it left!

Fireflies were dancing about, and whenever the wind gusted by it appeared they would skip in the air as the current pushed them along.  Even if not for the light of crystals and mushrooms, the moon’s reflection on the water seemed to double the lighting.  As they had traveled Misery had spotted bits of broken mushrooms suggesting some animals did try eating them but as far as he could tell the crystals, for the most part, were left alone, there was still the occasional exception.

Once they got to the base of the falls he looked to Mac, “Alright, this will do”   Misery stalled in his speaking, glancing about with his brow furrowed.  Something was different and that was possibly a good or bad thing but the problem was he couldn’t decide what.  Something in the air felt different and right now it was a sign not to ignore. “So, Mac, tell me what you’ve seen so far,”  the words kept light and entertained.  Misery hadn’t intended to quiz him on a report this early but it would give the boy something to focus on while Misery tried to decide if there was trouble.  None of his senses said anything was wrong more than normal but in the back of his skull he could tell something was different.

What Misery hadn’t seen was something neither of them would smell either.  The ghost was all too real in appearance yet carried no scent and showed no signs of affecting the water's course.  It appeared solid yet had no effect on the world.  As it heard Misery speaking it swam forward a bit watching wolf and pup curiously.  The dead did only have so much to do after all.

Word count: 528/1500

"Misery"

Mac was all too eager to please his older brother, that was for certain. In his courageous, but still naïve little head, Misery was all that and a bag of chips - the image of all that was awesome and impressive. The mere vibes of his older sibling gave the speckled boy great pride to be next to him, and he had a lingering feeling that he felt that was where he belonged. Right next to big brother Mis. As the two trekked up the rocky terrain by the falls, Mac struggled to keep up, mostly because of the items of his back. Misery had given him a variety of things to carry, citing that he needed them for their first adventure together. Mac didn’t complain, nor would he start now - even if he was exhausted, he continued. He wanted to make his brother proud, after all. Otherwise, he wouldn’t think he was capable of being a strong and capable warrior someday.

Mac had to practically drag his paws at this point in the journey, feeling the weight on his back and shoulders press down even more than they had before. In the beginning he was so excited to start the trek, and be away from his mother’s grasp, that he hadn’t noticed the weight for quite a while. Now, though, that tiredness was getting to him. A flicker of discomfort crossed his grey eyes as he focused on pushing forward, though the gap between him and Misery was slowly, but surely, beginning to widen. Would he even make it? He began to pant, pink tongue lolling from his lips as they got closer to the falls, which glowed a vibrant flourescent array of colors in the moonlight.

While he hadn’t talked much at all this entire journey, having been too focused on keeping up his strength and endurance to follow his brother, the boy’s eyes were constantly looking around, taking in all the details of their glowing landscape. It also helped to distract him from the strain upon his back, and he kept tabs on some of the interesting things he’d seen along the way. By the time Misery stopped and said Alright, this will do, Mac stopped to catch his breath, but realizing his brother was likely watching his every move, the speckled child composed himself quickly, straightening his shoulders and taking in even, deep breaths. Couldn’t look too weak, after all. After a few moments, the items on his back suddenly felt less important, and even less heavy, as Misery asked him, So Mac, tell me what you’ve seen so far?

The boy rolled his shoulders, offering his complete attention his older brother. Just as something in the older male’s face indicated something was a bit off, the child felt it too, like a breeze that flowed between the two of then. It was hard to ignore for him, too, and he felt like something was going to happen - good or bad, he didn’t know for certain. He shifted the stuff that sat on his back a bit before saying, "Well, first of all, there are fireflies everywhere here. They’re all over, sure, but they’re practically lighting up the place." He looked behind him, recalling the mushrooms and crystals he’d seen on their way here. "The mushrooms look like they’ve been eaten at by the animals around here, but the crystals aren’t touched. That tells me the animals can eat the mushrooms, but they can’t bite into the crystals because they seem much harder." The boy paused, suddenly letting his soft grey orbs cast themselves on a figure that drifted slowly towards them, likely doing so as Misery had been talking to him. There was no denying its presence now, or if this was the thing that had given their surroundings a strange atmosphere.

Mac tilted his head st the thing. It was some strange creature he hadn’t seen before, and it was semi-transparent, looking as if you could walk right through it. Not that the speckled boy would try, though, and he watched it with an intense curiosity. It didn’t even seem to affect the water, normally an animal should create ripples. He didn’t scream in terror. He didn’t flinch or panic. A certain expression of both curiosity and apprehension crossed his features, though, his muscles tensing up as if ready to launch himself at this transluscent entity. He slowly turned his head to his older brother, looking for guidance on what to do. Could he fight it? Should they run off?

He blinked, not super calm, but he maintained a strangely intact composure. "Misery, what is that?" He asked, lowering his voice. After all, he hadn’t seen it before - nor did it have a scent. What was it, and did it pose a threat?

Misery listened to Mac’s responses even as he tried to find the source of his concern. He felt a mixture of curiosity and caution. Something was up and but it wasn’t something he knew how to react to since there was no sign of the problem.
“You made an assumption and sated it as fact,” Misery stated as a neutral comment, “You were quick to decide why the crystals weren’t broken up.  How can you be sure that’s the reason?”  Mac would need to learn the dangers of assumptions at some point. “However you did prove to be paying attention.  Good observations.”

Speaking of the kid paying attention Misery turned his head where Mac was looking and spotted the beaver.  A ghost beaver?  Misery wasn’t sure how to feel about it but he did turn so he was directly facing it.  “It’s a beaver, though this one appears to be a ghost.”  Who knew ghosts really existed?  Well, there was no denying what they both saw.  “So,”  Misery stepped forward, “Hey, beaver, do you speak?”

It was after all a ghost so maybe it was smarter or more willing to communicate than any beaver he’d seen in the past.  Admittedly he had never tried talking to a live one.  Misery couldn’t smell it which made sense if it was a ghost but it still seemed strange to see something but not smell it.  This explained why he felt strange for sure.

The ghost beaver spoke up, “Did you do it? Did you do this to my water?  These mushrooms aren’t right.  These are the plague ones! Did you put them here? I want the white ones, the round white ones you fool!  Bring them back and get rid of these things!”

“I guess it can talk,” Misery muttered sosftly. Plague mushrooms? “What do you mean plague mushrooms?”

“My mom told me all about it.  She heard about them from her mom, who heard about it from, well someone else.” The ghost beaver really had no idea how far back the story had started but it certainly had to be true. “Those things bring on the dark days.” The beaver had assumed in past the ‘dark’ was referred too as bad but perhaps it truly meant dark sky.

“Hmm, and the crystals?” How much did this beaver know versus assume anyway?  If it had an idea of what caused it then perhaps he knew about fixing things also?

“Bah! I don’t care about rocks, it’s the mushrooms boy the mushrooms!” If there had been rocks in the story he didn’t remember them. “Now quickly, you have to get saltwater and pour it over all of them so that they wither.  Then you can get rid of them with the curse gone.”  Had he remembered that right?  It had all been a story he had assumed and slept for parts of the story but that sounded about right.

"Misery"

Mac couldn’t help but grin at his older brother’s comments about his observations, save for his assumption about the crystals. It made sense to him that the crystals looked hard as rocks - therefore the creatures that foraged on the vegetation here wouldn’t be able to bite into them. His grey eyes shimmered in thought. Hmm. Misery was good at poking holes in his logic at times, but it was necessary to develop his mind. Or something like that.

When the ghost creature came about, Mac had no idea how to react, but his brither explained it was a "ghost beaver". A ghost? Those were things that were long dead but still roamed the land, right? He’d heard about them because Ghoul’s name was similar to the word ‘ghost’, though a ghoul was a different type of ghost entirely. Not that he cared much about the differences - point was that this spirit was very odd looking. "A beaver?" He asked, scrunching up his face as he attempted to figure out why it looked so odd. It had a flat tail and a face like a squirrel’s. "It looks funny," He added. Children were painfully honest, and Mac was no exception.

It did surprise the speckled child when the beaver appeared sentient, responding to Misery’s questions. It spoke of white mushrooms, or, the "white ones". But the mushrooms here were all colorful and glowy - or as the ghost called them, "plague mushrooms" - the only kind he knew. Whatever world this ghost was referring to, in Mac’s mind, was as strange as this world was to the older wolves.  

It continued to blabber on about how they needed to pour saltwater on the mushrooms, and how the bioluminescent fungi were to blame for the way of the world right now. Macabre snorted softly under his breath. Since when did a ghost know anything? Wasn’t it just a retelling of how the creature was in its life? Or at least, that’s what he had heard, but maybe some ghosts were different then others. He turned to Misery once the spirit finished speaking, also having blocked out parts of its rambling. "Where can you even get saltwater?" Wasn’t it water that was salty? Where did one even acquire it? The boy was left with more questions than answers after the encounter. He was sure Misery knew more than he did, or maybe he just as confused.

Misery had nodded in a distracted way to Mac to confirm that he had indeed said a beaver and another nod for the fact it did look funny.  Most of Misery’s attention was on a creature he had never expected to see but in case there was use out of the creature he gave it his full attention.

“Saltwater…”  Misery mused slowly over the word, “saltwater comes from the ocean.  It’s a ways north of home, the closest location at least.”  Even as Misery spoke the angry ghost beaver was swimming away and somehow, even just watching its rump that was visible it managed to look irritated.

“That was unusual,”  Misery glanced at Mac, “It’s a ways off but I guess I can send someone off to grab a bucket of saltwater to test the theory.”  Misery waived a paw, “alright, look around the place, have fun if you want.  Don’t drown.”   Misery’s eyes skimmed the surrounding area, trying to see if there was any spot more interesting than another to give a more careful eye.  Nothing better for a puppy than getting to explore some new strange place.

Misery made his way towards the water’s edge the beaver had come from, inspecting but not touching the mushrooms near it, scenting the area then following the edges of the water.  It would be interesting to see if Mac thought to conserve energy for the hike back when they were done.

"Misery"

As Misery explained that saltwater came from the ocean north of here, Mac nodded intently. The ocean. A strange word that held some essence of something formidable. Little did he know, the ocean was a vast and deep body of water, appearing infinite when gazing at it from the shoreline. It truly was, in some sense, formidable. Not that he'd know, not yet, anyways. He was moreso interested in how water could be so salty you had to call it saltwater.

Watching as the transparent beaver swam off, leaving ripples in its wake, Mac's face lit up with amusement. It was a funny thing, was it? Just sounded a bit crazy when it talked. Were all ghosts like that? Now he had to see a real life beaver, and maybe ask it about that curse stuff with the mushrooms. Maybe it was just a beaver belief, or something more.

As his older rother waved him off to freely explore, Mac excitedly chirped, "Alright!!" and scampered off, hoping to encounter more ghost beavers, or any creature really. He didn't think too much about how he'd conserve his strength - given that he was also tasked with hauling a bunch of items on his back - but he figured looking around at a steady pace and pausing here and there would be sufficient. Eager to look around, he crept around the pools, making sure to stay a decent distance from the waters as he let his gaze take in the sights. It really was a a sight to behold, and his cool brother bringing him here made it one of the best days he ever had so far.