To say Gloom had ever recovered from Audra's death would have been a lie. As time had gone on she'd continued to deteriorate and eventually had even slipped away from the Hallows. At some point she'd decided to try and find Spirit, try and find the only wolf in the world left she thought could help her but even that seemed too hard for the woman. As the sky had darkened, going red, she'd been too afraid to go back to Boreas. Instead cowering wherever she could find shelter without being disturbed.

She did not know what brought her to these shores, but Gloom stood staring out past the sea. Looking like shit and feeling worse. Where once she may have been eager to explore the strange blue lights that swirled at her ankles now she felt numb to it all. She didn't even know where she was.

"Speech"

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It was a blessing (and maybe a curse, who knew yet!) that Makara had found her way to Auster by the time the next wave of phenomena happened. There had been whispers of more strange landscaping appearing off the coast of the Shimmering Shores, just a ways inland, but it was hard to rip her gaze away from the beautiful lights. Phytoplankton caused the reaction, she knew, but that didn't make it less beautiful. Her gaze snagged on an older, small woman cowering just off the shoreline, and she adjusted her goggles and picked her way across the sands towards her. "Hello, hello!" she called, boisterous as always, even though the stranger's mood seemed somber. "I've heard talk that the lands here have begun to change again, possibly in relation to this strange light - or, lack thereof - " she waved a paw to emphasize the blank, starless sky. "Care to come inland with me and investigate? Two sets of eyes are always better than one!"

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Maybe the biggest sign of Gloom's state was how understated her reaction to another's presence was. As the chipper greeting went up where Gloom in the past would have dropped to her stomach and tried to make herself as small as possible instead now she simply startled. Eyes growing wide in uncontrollable panic and tail tucking instantly between her legs. So yeah she still wasn't good with strangers, still felt uncontrollable fear around them but she didn't even have the energy to panic the way she used to.

Dual-toned eyes turned towards the younger wolf, the fear evident as she watched silently, unable to find words to respond with beyond the terrified expression. The last time things had started to get strange she'd had Audra there to help with the physical damage she'd recieved... And the time before that had been how they'd met. Her heart twisted painfully. The heartache overpowering her fear for once, she didn't want to be alone with weirdness and her gaze lost some of the panic, though replaced with her pain. Gloom gave the young woman a nod and turned to let herself be led away. Her eyes hitching over the strangely disturbed terrain. Even for someone who'd never been here before she could see it was wrong, like something had disturbed the surface of the earth here.

"Speech"

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Makara had always been good at reading landscapes and uncovering archeological secrets, but she had never developed the finer points of her social skills. Even though Gloom shrunk from her introduction, she looked at her with the same placid, bright-eyed gaze she had for everyone. She didn't alter her behavior much to accommodate the smaller, older female, but she slowed her step so that they were more nearly matched. Gloom's silent agreement to follow her didn't stop Makara from talking her ear off.

"It's always better to have another set of eyes," she continued, more to herself than to Gloom, "I'm an experienced researcher, but there is something to be said for a different perspective! Everyone has something to bring to the table, no matter where they come from. It's all about your history, yes? The sum of your experiences? Your life has taught you certain things that mine has not, and vice versa." Mak could talk the ear off a stone wall, and poor Gloom was no different. "Have you spent much time in Auster?" she continued, this time pausing long enough for her to answer. Makara's eyes were cast down, focusing on the soil ahead of them. The way the earth was disturbed further inland was truly strange. It was as if a great serpent was winding its way beneath the surface, creating small ridges and valleys.

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If there was an upshot to someone who talked a lot it was that it didn't leave Gloom feeling pressured to respond much at all. Honestly she liked that better than someone who expected her to contribute a lot. Something she'd never had the ability to do, even before she'd fallen to the cloud of grief. The biggest problem now as that, frankly, Gloom would have rather just followed behind the younger woman but clearly she was making an attempt not to get too far ahead. All things considered she was even listening to and absorbing what the bigger woman said. As they moved Gloom found her attention moving slightly downwards, feeling the uneven distribution of sand beneath her paws. It didn't feel like the sort of natural distribution of terrain you'd get from paws moving across it. Something wasn't quite... Right.

There was silence for a moment and Gloom realized with a start that she'd been asked a question. She searched her mind frantically before she remembered what had been asked. To which Gloom nodded, then realized too late that the stranger wasn't looking at her to see the answer. When Gloom spoke her voice croaked with disuse as she managed a soft. "N-not really..." Sure it had probably been over a year since she'd returned to Boreas for any substantial time but she didn't consider Auster her home, that would be Abaven, which by extension meant Boreas. She just... Didn't really have anything, place or one to go back to. "Y- You?" She managed back, wanting to just go back to trying to puzzle out what it was about the terrain that felt off, silently praying the younger woman would start rambling again.


"Speech"

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Gloom didn't have to wait long for Makara to fill the silence again. Really, it was what she was best at. She made a soft noise of confirmation at having heard her speak, but her eyes were still trained intently on the furrows in the ground. Mak was lost in thought until her companion's hoarse voice returned her own question, and she peered up back at her through the fogged lenses of her glasses. "Well, no, I can't say that I have. An unfortunate by-product of being a lover of ancient objects is that you become sort of a... vagabond. There isn't any place I've stayed that has satisfied my curiosity enough to stay once I've rifled through all I've wanted... but it seems these strange happenings have called me back to these lands." Her tail swished decisively and Makara bent down again, studying the ground for a time. The silence chafed at her, and she felt her skin crawl.

"I was a pack wolf once, belonging to the Armada," she mused. Flashes of her father's disappointment and her mother's growing disinterest as they aged flashed in her head, aching like a phantom limb she'd lost in some long ago war. Hm. She hadn't thought about any of that in quite some time. But there was some small light, wasn't there? Races with Levi. Moving north for the first time and realizing her allergies weren't quite so bad in the frigid air, although the ground was too hard to excavate most of the year.  "But I was always more interested in what might be lying beyond pack borders, like this - these furrows in the ground almost look naturally formed, the kinds of tracks I'd see from some sort of tunneling animal beneath the ground, but never quite like this. Almost looks snakelike, and I don't know of any subterranean snakes, although I suppose that doesn't mean they don't exist..." Man, it felt good to have a captive audience.

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Gloom was glad for the silence to be filled once more. She almost envied the younger woman. Gloom had always felt at her best when she'd been out exploring, beyond the eyes of the strangers who shared her name but little else. Well, at least until she'd met Audra. That short time had been probably the best of her life. Sure she'd been away from her mother and brother, whom she'd still missed dearly but for a moment she'd felt a true connection to someone who wasn't them... Had felt... Joy.

Now not even exploring could bring a shred of happiness. She was simply existing. Couldn't even call it living. If she'd been younger, if she hadn't been beaten down by losing two of the most important wolves in her life in quick succession, she could almost imagine a world were she and the younger woman could have been friends, travel buddies. Ignoring she'd never not been afraid of strangers. The name of the pack the stranger spoke aloud was one she was vaguely familiar with, had heard it in passing a few times. Knew they'd shared a bit of a relationship with her last home. "I was in the Hallows for a bit, until recently." She really hoped that it would be left at that. Gloom was pretty sure if she had to explain what had happened to her she'd just break down right then and there.

Luckily something else caught her attention. The other woman was right, the furrows did look like something subterranean was moving about under there. Gloom frowned and lowered her head to listen. Was something... Making noise down there? Almost on instinct, as if something was telling her to do so Gloom dug her paws into the sand, scraping away the top layer, and then digging deeper. What she was looking for she didn't know, maybe whatever was moving around or maybe nothing at all. But it was the only action that made sense to her.

"Speech"

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Makara made a sound of recognition at Gloom's mention of the Hallows and busied herself with continuing to inspect the ground. "Ah yes, the Hallows! Famous for their Carpathian steel. I've heard that their walls have never been breached - " and on and on she droned, her voice taking on a distant, professorial tone. It was comforting to recite facts and figures in the face of the unknown. She kept half an eye on Gloom and the other portion of her attention on the ground beneath her.

She noticed Gloom react before she heard that strange noise herself. Makara turned to study the smaller woman, curious what had gotten her attention, but Gloom was already digging with abandon. "Ah! Is this it? Have we come upon a eureka moment?" she chirped, then quickly followed suit and began to dig furiously beside her new companion.

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What Gloom knew about her former home could be easily counted on one paw. Just another depressing thought to toss onto the pile. But Makara helped to fill the silence which meant at least she wasn't being left alone with only the depressing thoughts as company. A small mercy.

Soon enough the younger woman joined Gloom in digging, but before Gloom could do so much as even shake her head or nod in response to the question she felt something beneath her forepaws. Or rather, nothing. Open air greeted her, as if she'd discovered an air pocket beneath the sand. And just as that thought occured the thrumming beneath the ground became much much louder and the whole beach seemed to give way.

Panic, good old familiar panic, took hold of Gloom and too late she tried to scramble back, stop herself from falling into the earth. She'd been underground a few times in her life and she couldn't say she tended to like it. But the cave in (was that what it was?) was much bigger than just herself and she tipped forward into the hole.

Ouch... Her muzzle was sore, having face planted basically by definition. Gloom was starting to think maybe she just wasn't meant to be, like in general. The world certainly seemed eager to knock her over and then keep kicking. Still she rose slowly to her paws, drawing in the sight of the hole (now she could see it was a tunnel) she'd fallen into.

"Speech"

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The ground began to give way beneath her in a suspiciously familiar way. What had initially separated her from her family was an ill-timed cave in during a deep, deep spelunking expedition. By the time she'd come up to the surface again, she was leagues away from where she'd started and she had figured it was a blessing in disguise. It wasn't like Azure would come looking for, he had been disgusted by her physical short-comings... and Hana had politely lost interest in her well-being as she'd grown older. Makara had always wanted to explore, and it that cave in had just become a convenient excuse.

But it didn't mean she had liked it or that it hadn't been one of the most singularly terrifying experiences of her life.

She saw Gloom go down first, which alarmed her. The woman was old, if not a little frail seeming, but her concern was short lived as Makara quickly tumbled after her through the open air until she landed hard on her right side. It knocked the wind clean out of her and jostled her goggles hard against her skull, the metal digging in painfully. A cut opened up above her right eye and she felt the blood, warm and fresh, slide beneath her head gear. She laid still for a long time, making sure all of her limbs were in working order. Once she'd deemed they were, Mak slowly stood and stumbled in the dark towards Gloom's fallen body. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. It was more than she could handle. Memories of months spent alone, eating strange pale bugs and sightless moles to survive danced in her head. At least maybe this time she'd have company.

"Miss, miss? Are you okay?" Makara rasped, coughing to clear the dirt from her lungs. Her throat began to itch, a mild allergic reaction. Fear prickled up her spine. She needed every clear breath down here she could get. Shame followed in short order, as she realized she'd been so caught up in the thrill of this expedition that she hadn't even asked her companion's name. "I'm right by your side, and my name is Makara," she added in what she hoped was a soothing tone, stepping closer to the small stranger. It wasn't often that she had to tend to the feelings of others, but she knew what it was like to be alone underground, and she wouldn't wish that panic on anyone. At least they had each other.

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Gloom groaned as she started to slowly lift herself, she blinked against the sand trying very hard to get into her eyes and realized she could something warm beading along her cheek, under her left eye. As Gloom hefted herself to her haunches she coughed, finding her voice was not helped even a little bit by all the dust. "I'm fine." It was basically the most honest answer she could give, at least about having fallen. He lifted a paw to gently dab at her cheek and felt her stomach flip as she saw it... Blood.

The woman had to put her paw down and look away, her cheek was warm but it didn't hurt too much, so she had probably just scratched herself. "I'm Gloom..." She offered her own name, doing her best to distract herself from her- Nope, not thinking about it. Though it still made her skin crawl.

Gloom tried to give Makara a weak reassuring smile but it fell the moment she realized there wasn't just a way out of the hole they'd found themselves in... Did that mean? A lump had formed in her throat and she tried to swallow it down. Gloom looked into the dark and shuddered, she wasn't sure she wanted to go in there, under so many miles of earth, and yet was there another choice?

"Speech"

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