Ookey Spooky Creepy Crawly

*Milo* · 10-13-2020, 07:07 PM

It was easy for Milo to speak around others—it had always been a natural gift for him—but something about the way Nausicaa listened to him and encouraged him on despite his sometimes rambling tangents made him feel just a little less silly when he went off on one. He gave a barking laugh when she asked how anyone could chase away someone like him, remembering all too well the events that had led up to that story. "Oh, believe me, it's quite easy to chase someone off when you see them as a threat or if they've disrespected you somehow, which is what I definitely did that time." He smiled unabashedly. "You see, this particular pack of wolves was highly territorial, and very, very aggressive. I had been warned about them prior to meeting them, when another pack told me where I could find more of these ruins. It just so happened that those ruins were in the heart of this pack's territory."

Milo glanced down at the sand beneath them and began to draw a circle in the sand, then placed a dot in the middle to illustrate his story as it unfolded. "These wolves had claimed a fairly large stretch of territory around the ruins, you see. They weren't even using them for anything or even living in them, they were just there! I thought that because of that, perhaps they'd let me in for a couple of days to study them. Boy, was I wrong..." He chuckled to himself as he drew an angry wolf's face next to his diagram. "See, these wolves had an extremely rigorous structure and poisoned view of outsiders. I went to their borders to parlay, but they were... ah, let's say less than excited about my proposition... Basically they told me that if I didn't start walking away, they'd gut me and leave me for the buzzards."

"I suppose that should have been my first hint to turn tail and get out of there, but I'm a stubborn wolf when it comes to my research, and I just HAD to take a look in there! So, one night, I snuck into their lands and into the ruins." A wide smile spread over the male's face. "I still have no idea what the building was once upon a time, but my goodness, it was huge and lovely! I spent hours just poking around every room, every space I could squeeze into, finding artifacts galore! I was so wrapped up in my research, that I didn't realize how long I had been there until the sun started to come up..." Milo drifted off, a wry smirk replacing his smile as he continued. "...and I heard growling behind me."

"Turns out that pack had a patrol route that ran through the ruins, and when they smelled me, they tracked me down. I ran as fast as I could, trying to navigate my way through the labyrinth of corridors and hoping to lose them somewhere in the ruins. I jumped over holes in the floor and scaled crumbling ceilings to get to different levels in a desperate attempt to escape! Finally, I managed to bail out of the ruins and somehow evaded my pursuers. I ran straight for the borders and didn't look back." Milo finished his story with a sigh and brushed his paw across the sand, covering up his doodles and letting the tale recede into his memory again. "I almost lost my bag during that chase! It fell off me and dropped to a lower level at one point. It had all of my artifacts in it, so I couldn't just leave it behind! I doubled back—in hindsight, probably a very stupid decision—and managed to grab it on my way out. But there you go, that's the story of the time I was nearly killed for studying dusty old ruins!" He reclined back onto his side, casting his gaze towards Nausicaa to try and interpret her reactions and figure out how she had enjoyed that story instead.

"Speech" — Thoughts

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