Lost & Found

Perhaps he was a fool for stepping foot here, but Mikko figured if the haunted house hadn't killed him, surely everywhere else was harmless--even these odd ruins and that field of shrapnel that smelled vaguely of death. Whatever had happened in all these strange places, it must have happened far too long ago for him to need to worry about more than the crooked tail he'd received from the spirits in the house. None of them had reached him all the way in Habari; he had little reason to believe anybody else was at risk.

A twitch of his nose, the faintest of prickles down the length of his neck. Someone had eyes on him. Mikko slowed to a halt in the middle of the field, patchy pelt blowing in the flatland wind as his own gaze skimmed his surroundings. When it landed upon a hawk in the distance, his eye narrowed irritably, his mind jumping to the bird that had followed him from the haunted house. It was hard to tell from so far away, particularly with hindered vision, whether this was the same one, but the question answered itself as different movement caught his attention in the corner of his eye. No. This was a lookout, and it had just alerted its owner to Mikko's presence.

Fortunately, the stranger didn't look much of a threat. More than anything, really, he looked curious, though Mikko was about as keen on reliving memories as he was on getting into a fight. With a flick of a tattered ear, he caught words on the wind, and he turned to face the other brute more fully.

"Strange, to say the least." Crooked tail twitched with the phantom feeling of desperate tendrils stretching and breaking it apart. "But...impressive...as long as it doesn't try to swallow us alive."

""