The earth had shaken, had trembled beneath them but it had stopped and for better or for worse they were still mostly intact. Rumors had started not to long after of a hole opening up in the ground and her curiosity had been piqued. Canta had set out early that morning not wanting to be gone for too long lest her mother need her. The entrance of the underground cavern had yawned open in front of her, a gaping maw waiting to eat her whole. This place though? well it was a lot less ominous looking. All around her growing out of the loamy soil were glowing fungus. The ground beneath her paws was soft, wet, muddy. She walked through the glowing cavern wide eyed, not really looking where she was going. One moment she was taking a step forwards and the next she was slipping, her body falling to the ground. Cold wet earth sticking to her fur where she landed. Speech, Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire, Thank you Nine!

The thought of glowing caves was too much for the boy to resist, he had heard members of the pack talk of the opened crags within the earth. This one just so happened to contain glowing fungus, and who could say no to that? Though the earth quake had been rather alarming, the ground moving so fluidly beneath him had been too much for the boy. He tried to be brave though, like his dad who didn't seem afraid of anything. He'd stood and protected his siblings and his mom as best he could, but had been rather difficult because of the shaking ground.?

He had set out the night before, when his family was still sleeping he would slink past them and out to the battlefield where most of it had happened. His black form would finally find the entrance to the mystical cave, mud would cake his paws as his dual toned eyes would take in the amazing glow of the fungus. With widened eyes he would push onwards, curious about the depths it held. He would find himself exploring, his eyes upon the ceiling which held amazing galaxies of light upon it. His paws would loose their footing, and before he knew it he would be tossed down a hill. He must have hit his head somewhat hard as the next thing he knew Canta was right beside him. He would blink repeatedly as he thought she was a trick of the mind, but she was most certainly there. And both were as covered in mud as they had been when they first met. "Um, hi Canta. Nice of you to drop in." he didn't know how they'd get out, he hadn't tried yet. Still, it was nice to have found a friend in such a place and predicament.?

Canta had grown quite a bit since her last meeting with Mercury, she had bloomed into a young woman. Even if bloomed was not the word she would have used. (More like an explosion of already awkward limbs and more weight than she was happy with.) But still she was obviously physically different, the tallest of her remaining family, what with two of her sister and her father gone, and though not the most graceful of wolves she was now able to carry herself with some confidence in her new found body. It had been the emotional and mental part of growing up that she had thought she had mastered, or at least it had been; but that had been before she had found herself once more with the son of her adoptive-grandmother. She felt a bump and grunted, the mud giving way beneath her a little more and shoving her deeper into it. She turned, gaze landing upon the familiar boy. It was then that she noted a difference in herself. Their first meeting she had thought his face marking unique but now she thought it attractive as well, and those violet eyes of his that she had already found alluring? now she wasn?t sure she had ever seen such amazing eyes. Not only that but she was overtaken by a completely irrational desire to run and hide, at least till the image of herself, covered in mud, was whipped from his mind. This all happened in the span of half a second, just long enough for him to start speaking. It was so ridiculous, so absurd that she started to giggle, uncontrollable bubbles of laughter shaking her shoulders. ?So Mercury, She finally managed, the laughter finally subsiding, a light teasing taking hold of her usually soft voice, ?What may I do for you?? Speech, Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire, Thank you Nine!