Holy hell was this place cool! Like... ridiculously cool. If her tusks were cool this place was like... she didn't even know a word to describe it but she was really, really into it. Kaija had decided to head off on a little adventure but once she'd seen a cave and started exploring it, she had no idea it'd be this neat. Actually she'd been told to be careful around caves - they could be dark and they could be slick and dangerous, and full of spooky scary monsters - but she wasn't great at heeding warnings. It wasn't like a real sense of wariness of the world around her had been bestowed upon her by either of her parents. She just knew if she got into trouble far away from home she'd have to find her own help and that if she called for someone they might not hear her, but those little warnings were easily cast aside when she found a really neat place to explore.

The cave had been dark and boring at first but as she kept on descending, eventually a strange light piqued her interest. She definitely hadn't expected what was up ahead once she scrambled further down, pausing as the tight hallway she'd been traversing suddenly opened up into a wide cavern. It was still dark in here but the walls were glowing blue and purple, almost pulsing rather than static. What the heck? Kaija sniffed at the air but the air was full of the same heady scent of moist earth and stone that filled her nose already from her trek down here, with no sign of what the glow was coming from. Though she was rarely cautious in any scenario, she had to pause here, having never experienced anything quite like this before.

Okay, if Sparrow thought the crypt was cool, then this place was amazing. She had heard of places- even wolves- that glowed, sure, but it's one thing to hear about and another thing to see the whole cave alight with a bioluminescence. Sparrow was eager to see more. The pulsating glow of the walls made the cave feel alive and Sparrow let herself get a little lost in the idea that she could be inside the belly of a giant underground fish. She pushed past the tighter caves and right through into a large, cavernous room with stalagmites and stalactites jutting into the open area.

Sparrow was so busy eyeing all the wonders that she didn't notice when the floor sloped downwards. She missed her step and slid over the cool, slick floor until she tumbled right into one of those glowing stalagmites with a resounding thud. "Ah, well fuck you too big guy."

Kaija was completely stunned by the sights, almost too awestruck to even properly register what she was seeing. All she saw was color and glow, a stark contrast to the dark caverns she'd been exploring, and it was entirely overwhelming - in the best way possible, of course. All she could do was gawk, jaw slightly unhinged as she stared and wandered, gaze skirting from one wall of the cave to the next, until her attention was captured by someone else. All she heard was the scraping of claws against stone and then someone - a big someone, by the looks of it - tumbled into the cave, not far from her. She exclaimed something rather foul and her interest was immediately piqued. "I'm not a guy!" She retorted sharply, brows furrowing tightly together. Maybe the stranger had just been mistaken from across the room? She didn't know, but it seemed obvious she was talking to her. "And I didn't do nothin'. Just looking. Isn't this place super cool?!" Her tone had been defensive and a bit standoffish, but it quickly shifted at the prospect of having someone to explore this place with. She wasn't afraid of doing much of anything alone, but... she was quite social and liked the idea of having someone to (hopefully) help her escape potential trouble, if she happened to stumble into it.

After Sparrow's tumble, a voice piqued up and Sparrow was convinced for all of five seconds that the cave was talking to her. Her eyes peered around as she held her breath, the breathtaking site suddenly more ominous and spooky than it was beautiful. What if the cave WAS alive? What then, Sparrow, you god forsaken idiot? She could have sworn the walls were shrinking in on her, like a beast's stomach ready to digest her. She took a step around the giant stalagmite and a pup was there, peering at her as it continued talking. Sparrow drew back, resisting the urge to punt the little fucker across the room.
"Shit, fucking gremlins- where are your PARENTS?!"

Sparrow blinked as the pup's words slowly clunked into recognition. Why was there a pup here? It smelled like a pack- ugh was this gonna be a rescue mission? UGH even more- was this going to be an "omg we thought you kidnapped our kid" moment? Sparrow let out a heavy sigh, her eyes meeting the pup's, "Yeah, super hekin cool. Now... where's your family?"

Kaija took on a look of total indignant at the stranger's words. "No!" She all but shouted, giving her tusked head a firm shake. "I am not a guy OR a gremlin. I'm Kaija! Fiercest.. warrior - uh, future warrior - that Valhalla's ever had!" There was an indisputable (at least to her) certainty to her tone. "My parents are home," she explained a bit more patiently now, her voice lowering a notch. Maybe there were monsters in this cave and that was why it was glowing - or maybe not. But either way she didn't want to disturb any potential-monsters. And she didn't want to answer a bunch of questions either, but she felt like she had to. Kaija sighed heavily before opening her mouth again.

"I go where I want, when I want. As long as I get back before sunset and don't bring any trouble back home and blah blah blah," she tried to mimic something her mother would say. "My mom's probably home, glad we're out of her fur, and my dad's probably off doing... I don't know, dad things. Why does it matter, anyway?" Her nose wrinkled as she eyed the larger wolf, full of annoyance now that would no doubt be very temporary. Though Kaija was definitely showing signs of having a fiery Jarvela personality as she grew older, she was just as manic at times as her father could be, jumping from one thought to the next with little intermission. "Do you think I should take one of these and bring it back home as a gift to my mom? Or d'you think maybe it's poisonous?" She veered over to the cavern's wall and poked at a glowing shroom with a big paw, quite unsure yet if collecting one was a good idea.

The pup rattled off something about being all fierce and from Valheim or something and Sparrow had to hold herself from rolling her eyes. She said her parents were probably at home or something and doing parenty stuff and while Sparrow could respect the pup because she'd probably had done something very similar, she was also half tempted to scoop the thing up and drag it back to its pack and chastise whoever was in charge of... well... everything there. Who was guarding? Who's parents just let their young pup up and walk around out of pack? She asked why it mattered and wrinkled her muzzle and Sparrow mirrored her, "Because what are you gonna do if a Big Bad comes your way?" Sparrow stuck out her tongue at the pup- very mature. She leaned on one of the larger stalagmites, "What if one of these bad boys fell on you and crushed you to death?"

The pup asked if they were poisonous and Sparrow shrugged, looking at the glowing fungus. There were lots of glowing things- even glowing wolves- so what would make it poison other than it being a mushroom? The pup prodded at it and Sparrow took a moment to just look at how many there were. How did plants like this grow without any light? Or was it because they made their own light? Could other plants make light for other plants that needed lights? Could they grow an orchard down here? Sparrow wondered as the pup rattled on, drawing her attention back to the pup.

"Yeah, you should definitely bring one back to her. Y'know? I'll even follow to make sure you don't get eaten by some mushroom-loving bear or something."

As far as Kaija was concerned, she definitely didn't need to be looked after. Or maybe she'd just been lucky thus far and hadn't gotten herself into much trouble. She didn't really think about that kind of thing though, which was why she found Sparrow's questions so absurd. Why'd she care about her parents and stuff? Talking about boring things like that seemed like a waste of time when they could be exploring. "A Big Bad?" That sounded kind of freaky. Her eyes widened a bit as she very seriously thought over her question and considered what she'd do. She was reminded of when she'd met Askell and they'd seen that freakishly tall bird. "Run away I guess. Or fight it maybe, unless it's bigger than me. I ain't stupid," she clarified sharply, suddenly feeling quite defensive with all these questions being thrown at her.

But.. if one of these things fell? Kaija wasn't sure what she'd do then. She bristled slightly, glancing upward. "What would I do? If died?" She rolled her eyes. "I'd just be dead, I guess. I don't know. Does something happen after?" Clearly she had no grasp on her own mortality, instead suddenly bewildered at the thought of what came after. "There are bears in here?" She cast Sparrow another naive, wide-eyed stare. "Well... if you'll help protect me I bet we could fight off any bears." Kaija nodded sternly, gaze darting occasionally to the cave's ceiling as she padded over to one of the cavern walls, leaning to gingerly pluck a glowing mushroom from the wall with a paw and watch as it rolled to the floor.

The pup was so confident and flippant Sparrow was tempted to take her in as one of her own. Sadly, kidnapping was probably one of those lines she shouldn't cross yet. But really, if they let their pup come out here in a GLOWING CAVE, then what could they say? Would they even know where to find her? She could totally keep this rascal as a pirate kid.

No, bad Sparrow. No kidnapping today. Sheesh.

Sparrow shook the idea from her mind as the pup asked if something happened after she died. Sparrow just shrugged, "I dunno, maybe if you're lucky. I personally just hope I get to come back as a tiger or something."

The pup finally seemed scared by the idea of bears, so Sparrow rolled with it. Looking around the cave, there COULD be bears. They liked caves right? Or did they dig caves? Wait, good one, Sparrow. "Oh, for sure. They say all caves were dug by really big bears a long time ago, like how wolves make dens, bears make caves." Perfect logic. She closed her eyes and nodded firmly as if to seal in the information as fact. "Yeah, don't worry, kid. We got each other's backs, so I doubt any bear will come and get us." She hoped, at least.

"You got what you came for?" Sparrow looked around. Which... direction did they come from?

There was a chance she could turn into a lion? Holy heck that sounded cool. Ridiculously cool. Kaija gawked at Sparrow incredulously for a moment, jaw going slightly unhinged. "A lion? Oh man. Or maybe like.. a shark. Ooh, ooh! I could swim around and bite all the bad guys with my big teeth!" Well, when they were in the water, which might be tricky. She considered it for a moment, deciding maybe that wouldn't be a horrible thing after she died, only as long as her siblings and mom and dad came with her too.

But oh yeah, back to the bears. But this big, strong girl promised to protect her - well, at least that was how Kaija took it - and it made her feel a lot better. "Holy crap. They must be BIIIIG bears," she gestured wildly around with her tusks as if emphasizing just how big they must be if they dug caves like this. It was a reminder of the fact that she probably should get moving. She prodded at the fallen mushroom before nodding and gently picking it up. Wait.. she had a better idea!

Carefully, very carefully, she set it back down and pressed one of her tusks straight into it. It kind of ruined it, except not really - it was still glowy and cool, just a little more holey now. And she didn't have to worry about it being poisonous or anything. "Yep!" She chirped, mushroom-capped tusk bobbing around as she swung around toward Sparrow. "Let's go!" She was still, looking a little expectant as she clearly stood and waited for Sparrow to lead the way.

Sparrow nodded proudly as the pup's mind got filled with all kinds of wild ideas. Good, see what happened when you left children alone? They got ideas. The pup went on to talk about the bears and Sparrow continued to nod, "Yeah, real big. That's why we oughta stick together." Sparrow threw in a suspicious look around for emphasis, as if a bear might come around the corner any moment.

When the pup speared the mushroom through one of her fangs Sparrow huffed with amusement. Clever little shit. And here she was hoping to see if the mushrooms were poison or not. Ah well. Sparrow rolled her shoulders and looked down at the pup as she said it was time to go. Sparrow led the way and MAYBE they took a few wrong turns and MAYBE the pup would have been a better leader, but in the end they got out and that's what matters. Squinting into the sunlight, Sparrow took a long breath of fresh air.

"Now lets get you home before any bears decide to get hungry."

OOC: Wanna continue this at borders?