Speech // thought // Serbian

Her tail frisked behind her as she approached the gaping maw of the cavern. Morwenna had pulled Kaija along with her, teasing her with another cavern adventure. She had noticed this one when she was previously exploring the regions around the old haunts of the Raiders. The smell of seawater tickled her nose and the black sands whispered below her tucked dainty pads. The late morning spring light streamed around them but didn't seem to penetrate far at all into the cave. She looked back at Kaija with an eagerly excited look right before she stepped into the darkness with a giggle.

Immediately every noise echoed back to her. Her nose was twitching as she aimed to pick out the scents around her. It was certainly different from the first cave she had explored with the sturdy woman. This one was damp, seawater and fish were the strongest scents within. Her toes brushed through thin pools of salt water, and the edges of the cavern seemed smooth and waterworn.

"What do you think we'll find?" Mowenna whispered to her companion, as she wove around a large smooth stone pillar, seeking the deeper recesses of the cavern. The tide was far from shore, they would have no danger from the seawater for quite some time. Was that a light ahead? It was strangely blue!

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Had she been here before? It was hard to say for sure. The tall woman tended to not spend a lot of time near the edge of water, for no reason at all other than that the beach just wasn't really her favorite kind of landscape, so she thought if she had been here she'd probably remember. Maybe. Though with each year that passed, she found memories of her youth growing hazier - she imagined that was just a normal part of life, but admittedly disorienting.

She was content to trail after Morwenna, nose low to the ground as she tasted the scents that lingered here. The smell of briny ocean water was strong, mingled with the scent of crustaceans and kelp that had washed ashore. The cave itself didn't small all that different from the outside, like the sea water only a little stronger. More stale.

Kaija moved slowly as they slipped into the darkness, letting her eyes adjust. The stone floor beneath her paws was smooth, and she made a note to be careful as they moved through. The sitting water inside was proof that the tide likely washed water in here periodically, so the rocks were likely slick where they hadn't yet dried. "Some dead fish, maybe?" She suggested, only because that was exactly what she saw, a few tiny minnows floating dead in one of the pools. The fishy smell hit her nose and she abandoned that spot in lieu of going further with her friend, happy to leave the rotting minnows behind.

The light ahead caught her attention as well, and her pace picked up just a bit as she plunged further into the darkness.

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Speech // thought // Serbian

Her eyes were glued to the strange blue glow as she stepped gingerly over the salty pools and avoided the slick limestone walls.

The wolfdog chuffed in reply to her companion's unimaginative suggestion.
"Oh come now, surely we'll find more than-" her voice trailed off as her lavender gaze took in the ethereal glow of an astral projection along the walls and ceiling. Climbing above them strings and strands of dripping dew drop necklaces clung to the ridges of the cavern rocks. Her mouth was slightly agape and her body became still as she looked up. It was a massive colony of this glowing structure, it kept going and going and going as far as the eye could see into the deep recesses of the darkened cavern.

"Kai..." She whispered in awe. She had never seen anything like this before. The stars were in the cave somehow and they dripped into the pools of water like an unsteady rain. The luminous clusters were gathered in varied sizes, some were in large sprawling structures and others were separated by vast space between them like stars in the dark. She swung her tail behind her, coiling it a little at the end as she lifted it up. What a divine experience. She couldn't place the smell, it was intense but nothing she could compare it to.

Wait... did one of the stars move?


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Though she was always eager to explore somewhere new, and enjoy new experiences, Kaija had admittedly grown a little cynical as of late. She certainly didn't have the happy-go-lucky optimism she once had as a child. It was better - safer, maybe - to expect the worst of people and places and be pleasantly surprised when things didn't turn out so bad. Maybe that was why her mind was fixated on the slightly foul smell of this place as they crept inside, though the thought was short-lived.

The darkness was abruptly broken by a glow up ahead, which only grew brighter as they took a few more steps. It reminded her of that cave she'd found when she was just a kid that had glowing mushrooms all over the walls. That was a place she'd never forget, that was for sure. This place seemed pretty similar to that one, so she was tempted to keep exploring it.

Once they moved along further the sights took her breath away completely. The glow was not just coming from the walls, but something that seemed to be draped all over it, like an intricate tapestry laid across the stone. It was fucking beautiful, at least to her. It'd been awhile since anything had really caught her eye like this and she felt her jaw unhinge slightly as she looked around and took it all in. What the hell was it? Did she even care?

It almost seemed enough to just enjoy the scenery, but she couldn't help but be curious too.

A few more slow steps were taken and Kaija paused on one of the puddles below. One of the glowing strands fell, just barely catching her eye as it dropped into the water below. "Oh-" she started, nose wrinkling as she lowered her head and tried to examine it. And then, much to her surprise, it moved, just a little bit but enough to make her realize just what it was. "Worms," she said after another beat. "I think these are worms, Wenna. What the-" It moved again in the water and she prodded it with her paw, watching the way it wriggled. The singular worm was nothing in comparison to the hundreds - thousands? Millions? - that lined the walls.

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Speech // thought // Serbian

Kaija pulled ahead of her a few steps as Morwenna looked up with mouth slightly agape. The glittering walls of the cave held her in rapture. She noticed the larger woman move toward a puddle and the slender wolfdog followed her. She was drawn to the woman's side, still drinking in the higher surroundings as Kaija looked down. How deep does this go? What were all the strings? They almost looked like dew drops but... slimy.

As the other spoke Wenna looked down at Kaija's creature.
"Worms? Really? I've never seen anything like this." She murmured as she watched Kaija prod it with her paw. It did indeed move like a slender semi-translucent glowing larva.

She couldn't help but giggle at the audacity of it! "Who knew something this pretty could also be.. so gross! Almost ruins the romance of the experience." She huffed lightly squinting at the tusked woman with barely contained mirth, while also brushing her tail over the other's heel.

The pools around their feet were cloistered tightly around them, barely a dry spot to sit and ponder. Another giggle erupted from her slender maw as one of those dangling glowing strings slowly descended over Kai's head to drape over her. She honestly didn't know if she should be grossed out or still enchanted.




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Cynical or not, this place was cool - even a real grumpy bastard had to admit that. It was easy enough for Kaija to get lost in her surroundings, eager to explore more of this place now that she decided it was pretty damn cool. "Can't say I have, either," she was quick to admit. Glowing places, glowing mushrooms, sure, but nothing like these worms. Where did they come from, anyway? Had they always been here or was this some strange new phenomenon?

She didn't have a damn clue and she wouldn't wonder about it for long. Not unless everywhere started getting all wormy like this, then maybe she'd have to try to understand why. "Ah, you can find romance in just 'bout anything if you look hard enough," Kaija jested, leaning twisting around to bite playfully at the tip of Wenna's tail as it brushed past her.

Worms were a little gross but it was hard to be really weirded out when these particular ones were so pretty. It was easy enough to look past that and focus in the tapestry they made across the cavern's wall. Well, at least until one lowered itself down on her head. Not that she could've felt the tiny thing but it deftly began to crawl down her nose, the fur there much more sensitive - not to mention the way the glow impinged on her vision immediately.

A quick jerk of her head sent the worm flying, right toward Wenna's face, which earned a snort of amusement from the tusked woman. "Better you than me," she teased as she moved to head deeper into the cave, wondering how far these worms stretched on for.

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Speech // thought // Serbian

Morwenna giggled at her comment and Kaija's attempt to snap her tail, side-stepping back and forth. She couldn't help a shriek escape from her maw as she danced backward and shook her head to clear her face from the worm!

"You devil!" Morwenna called out with a laughing grin, skipping over the pools after the woman. Her mirth was palpable as she tugged at the fur behind the larger woman's ear and dashed ahead, weaving through the glowing strands around her. The ethereal glow cast a delightful play of light over their pelts as if they found a magic wonderland, all their own.

"I don't think I have to look very hard for romance here in that case." She replied, referring to Kaija's comment, alluring her with hooded wildflower eyes.

It'd been awhile since she'd really felt this free, this full of life. Kaija liked that about this raider woman - she seemed pretty willing to not hang on to bullshit and just have a good time. A quality that seemed rare in others, one Kaija very much appreciated. Her laugh rang out loud and clear as her friend shrieked at the sudden worm attack, the mirth in her tones plain as the glow that came from these weird little worms.

The tugged fur earned a playful growl. For a moment Kaija couldn't help but feel as though she was teleported. Ophie's familiar face flashed in her mind's eye. She'd been so happy then - she hadn't had all this cynicism that she held onto these days. The thought disappeared as soon as it arrived, refocusing on the present. She made to snap again at Wenna's tail as she leapt forward, though she missed and nearly face planted, spinning around fast on the slick smooth cavern floor.

Regaining her balance, she moved forward and closer to Wenna. "No? Didn't think I was really your type," she half-jested. She was being partly serious though, hoping she was masking some of those pesky insecurities that suddenly were creeping up by sounding more presumptuous than most might. Wasn't like she'd had a whole lot of experience in that department, as much as she liked to pretend otherwise. Really she was just used to being on her own; her fierce independence wasn't exactly always the best thing.

Speech // thought // Serbian

Morwenna couldn't help holding her tongue between her teeth as she grinned mirthfully at Kaija's near fall into the pools after trying to snap up her tail.

"My type?" Wenna responded, leaning in and looking up into the matching wildflower eyes of the husky woman. Hmmm... Could she see a hint of trepidation? Hadn't she been flirting this whole time? The touches and tugs? The flickers, the glances? The tail trailing and teasing comments?

"What type do you think I'm into? What kind of type are you into?" Morwenna stepped around, gliding gracefully to encircle the powerful tusked woman. Did Morwenna truly have a type?

The glow set the scene beautifully, the blue light falling around Kaija like an ethereal magical gilding of her edges. Her strong muscles cut as if from black marble.