Kitsune shivered in the wintery cold night. Seating alongside the border, looking sullenly out at the swamp. What were the chances of another anaconda finding her if she stepped over the border? She couldn’t sleep, and she couldn’t imagine anything better than sneaking out and seeing Iho. perhaps even stealing a spot beside him, and snuggling up against his warmth. Watching the glowing stars beside her best friend.

She huffed a soft sigh, and shivered again, hunkering down at the border's edge. She would also have to cross the river to get to him, and it was cold. If only she had her farrier around to give her a ride across…

She glumly looked up at the moon again. Most of the swollen overgrown orb peeking out at her beneath the tree tops. Could a moon look menacing? It definitely looked menacing to her. She blinked, finding it brighter than usual to stare at and lowered her eyes. Hurm. she must have spots in her vision from staring at it, she could still see glowy white floating about to the side of her.

No, wait… she turned her head suddenly, and the glowy white was gone. Hmm. trick of the night. The darkness was clearly getting to her. She yawned, stretching, and getting to her feet. Best get herself to bed then, and she could see Iho in the morning. She turned back towards the pack - and shrieked- standing right behind her was a big glowing coyote, and white and wispy as the moon. She jumped like a startled cat, heart hammering in her ears. Expecting the glowing white figure to disappear… but it didn’t. It stayed there. She bit back another squeak, and swiped a paw at the ghostly figure. Did she misjudge? Surely that should have hit it? The coyote snarled at her, and Kitsune took a step back. Oh no, she wanted nothing to do with that…

It was blocking the path between her and the pack, she took a step backwards. The coyote snarled, and stepped closer towards her. She gasped, and took off like a rocket. Racing across the stream with a great big splash. “Iho, Iho!” she squealed, “you’re not going to believe wha--” [/b] she started to turn back as she spoke, but there was nothing there. It was gone.

W/C: 391

"Speech"

Giant moon, fog during a bitter cold night, bizarrely-colored fireflies all over the place... Something was very, very wrong with the world all of a sudden, and Kumiho didn't like it one bit. He was ordinarily a wolf who turned in fairly early, preferring to spend his nights curled up in his warm bed and rise with the morning sun, but in this particular instance, the wintry-coated wolf was up and about investigating the strange goings-on in the world. He hummed under his breath while he gazed at the swarm of blue and purple fireflies, the insects lighting up with every shade of blue from cyan to aqua to sky blue to navy while the purples shifted between indigos and violets and plums and lilacs. He raised a curious paw to try and let one land on him to get a better look at the insects, but none of them ever did. It was as if they ere consciously avoiding touching him. How curious...

Iho wandered through the mist and trees of the swamplands, alternating his gaze between the millions of glowing insects and where he was stepping, not wanting a repeat of the incident with the snake. Wandering out to the middle of a clearing, Iho gazed up at the giant moon covering the land in bluish-silver light like it had a filter placed over it. The moon was so large and close, it looked like it might crash into the world at a moment's notice. Ah, but that was ridiculous! The moon would never crash into the earth! Humming again, the young wolf began to make his way east toward the shore, being careful to not squish any fireflies as he went. As he moved through the throng of glowing insects, he noticed how they seemed to part and move out of the way for him, as if they were one sentient being. "Uh, thank you...?" he said to the bugs when they allowed him to pass, his brow furrowing while he tried to reason why he was apologizing to a swarm of bugs.

Roaming nearer the border, the wolf became acutely aware of just how silent the night was. Even in the cold of winter, there were no other bugs, no birds, no animals to speak of. The world was deathly silent, unsettlingly so, like all the life had just been ripped out of it. The silence didn't last forever though, and out of nowhere the voice of Kitsune squealing and screaming for him caught his attention. Without a second thought, Iho bolted through the dark swamp in the direction of the girl's voice, catching her nearly-iridescent form just as she came splashing across the stream that marked the border between the wild lands and Ashen. He was quick to intercept her, trying to discern her flurry of words while she looked back and then fell silent.

"Whoa, hey, easy! What's going on, Kit?" he asked, following her gaze across the stream to the empty world beyond it. He furrowed his brow as he scanned the opposite bank, spotting absolutely nothing. "Are you okay? What are you doing out here so late?" Iho looked back down at the small antlered girl, double checking her to make sure she wasn't hurt.

WC: 543
Total: 934 / 2500



"Speech"

For the second time in a short period, Iho answered her scared cries. He was just… suddenly there. She crashed into him. Half on purpose, half by accident as she closed the distance between them. She pushed her nose right into Iho’s coat, and looked at him with wide blue eyes. Clearly, she was thoroughly freaked. “A ghost, an actual ghost!” she whisper-hissed at the older wolf.

She kept casting glances behind her, expecting the thing to show its face again any second. Now that she was surrounded by Iho, she could breathe again. She felt her chest slowing, her breathing evening out. She did give one one ruggard gasp before pulling herself under control. She was a Princess, why was she running from ghosts? Surely it was a trick of the light? But she couldn’t dismiss it from her thoughts. It had been standing right beside her, as real and visible as Iho was now. “I was looking at the moon, thinking how strange it looked, and for a moment I thought it put spots in my vision, but then it solidified. There was this coyote, but it was glowing and I swiped at it. I- I might have missed, but I swear my paw went straight through it. It growled and chased me out here Iho. Away from my pack” what would she have done if Iho wasn’t here? Likely kept running and never looked back. She shuddered softly and leaned the side of her head against his chest. Careful not to poke him with a stray antler. “Can you… can you help me find it? I need to know what I saw.” If he wasn’t here, she never would have had the courage.

But she couldn’t just turn her back on this mystery, she had to understand it. She pulled back slightly from Iho, looking about her. Half expecting the coyote to magically appear again. “uhhh… Why is it so quiet, and what's with the rainbow fireflies?”

W/C: 340
Total: 1277

"Speech"

Kitsune was in such a state of terror that Iho didn't know what to say or do at first. He listened patiently while the girl tried to hide herself away in his fur, gasping for breath while she told him the tale of her fright. He stared at the pup in bewildered confusion, the story getting more and more complicated and nonsensical. A ghost had chased her across the stream? He looked back over the water again and found nothing sinister looming in the shadows. Kumiho knew Kit was a rational and logical young girl though, and something had clearly spooked her bad, so whether it was a legitimate ghost sighting or not, something had freaked her out.

"Hey, it's okay now. You're safe with me," said Iho to Kit, reaching a large paw up to gently rub her back and bringing his snout down to go to nuzzle the top of her head, careful to avoid any unexpected pricks from her antlers. The little Ashen princess asked him to help her find it, and with a bright and confident smile he nodded to her. Anything to make her feel better. "Sure, Kit. You stick with me, I'll keep you safe from any ghosts." The wayfarer continued to comfort and embrace the princess until he felt her tremors begin to subside and knew she had calmed down some before he finally released her. He just prayed that the girl's parents didn't notice she was missing and come looking for her. If they caught Kumiho wandering a dark forest at night with their very underage daughter, he was as good as dead.

Kumiho rose to his paws once Kit had gathered herself up again, intent to start scouring the banks of the stream with her until he found out what it was she had seen when she asked about the quiet and and the strange colored fireflies. Iho looked back up to the sea of blue and purple insects, wondering the exact same thing himself. "Y'know, I'm not really sure," he answered her honestly. "I've never seen fireflies like this before—not this color, anyway. Just stick close to me from now on, okay, Kit?" He didn't believe the fireflies were a danger to them, but he also didn't trust the unnatural silence or the otherworldly things that seemed to be taking place around here. "Can you show me where you saw the ghost?" If she could point him in the general direction she'd seen the specter, maybe he'd be able to pick up a scent trail and together they could figure out what she had actually seen.

WC: 436
Total: 1713 / 2500

"Speech"

Whether he believed her or not, Iho offered instant comfort to the Princess. Gently rubbing her back with a soft paw. The conviction in his eyes telling her everything she needed to know - they were in this together. Ghosts or not. He would protect her - Not that she would let him do all the work. If it came to a fight, they would take it on together. Just like the anaconda.
She could take on a ghost. Really, she could. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Ignoring the water hanging on to her most of her lower body, and her muddy paws.

She did however wrinkle her nose at the fireflies. “Just so long as they aren’t ghosts, too.” she said, and then gave a nod. “This way” she instructed, and began to lead Iho back the way she had come. Her muddy splashing was a trail easy to follow, and she had started off pretty close to the stream before that. So finding the exact spot she had found her ghostly coyote wasn’t difficult.

“It was right here” She informed him, coming to a stop near the pack lands. “Or… actually, it was over there.” she decided, pointing to a spot further to their right. “Or was it… Oh. It was near here, anyway.” She said with a huff. One bank looked just like another at night. She hadn’t exactly been paying close attention to where she was anyway. Too distracted first by the moon, and second by the ghost. She looked up at Iho, a little expectantly - like she just knew he would be able to figure out where she had started and what he had seen. She had rather a lot of faith in him.


W/C: 301
Total: 2014

"Speech"

Through the darkness, Kumiho diligently followed Kitsune as the small girl led him back to the location of her apparitional assault. Although he was still highly skeptical of what the Ashen princess claimed to have seen, he would go if it made her feel better. Following Kit's splashing footsteps was easy enough, and once they were on the opposite side of the stream near the Ashen border, the fiery little girl declared that they had arrived. Iho looked around the barren area, putting his nose to the ground and sniffing. Only traces of Kitsune could be found, and he only saw her tiny tracks. No signs of any coyote here.

Kumiho was about to state as much to Kitsune, but then the Ashen girl corrected herself, pointing to an area further down the bank and up on a mound. Iho followed her directions, arriving at the spot and finding more nothing just as Kit pointed out another location. The arctic wolf raised a questioning brow at his littler companion. Did she have any idea where she had been when she'd seen her ghost? This was starting to turn out to be a wild goose chase. "Near here" was not exactly helpful in locating tracks or a scent, but he didn't blame Kit. She was young, she'd been scared, it was dark, she'd gotten turned around. There were many adult wolves that would have a hard time recalling finer details from an encounter like that.

"Well, there's no signs of a ghost or a coyote up here," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. But just as Iho turned to start following the slope back down to the bank from the mound he was on, the young brute found himself face to face with a pallid white coyote, its eyes empty and blank. A cold chill emanated from it, taking Iho's breath in a shocked gasp. The coyote bared its teeth and lunged for Iho, making the wolf yelp and stumble back in an attempt to defend himself, only to wind up tumbling down the mound head over paws. He hit something on his way down, making him yelp again as a pain seared through his leg. A few seconds later, Iho came to a stop crumpled up on the bank of the river.

Iho gasped and thrashed about to right himself in preparation for a fight, turning steely eyes back up at... nothing? There was nothing where he had been standing a moment ago. Confused blue eyes narrowed as his head jerked about, looking all over for his foe. But... that was impossible! Where did it go?! A stinging pain in his foreleg made the man wince and glance down, seeing the cut in his leg from whatever he'd hit on his way down, most likely a sharp rock. Blood was oozing down his leg, and in the moonlight it almost appeared perfectly black. Shit! "Kit!" he called out for the princess. "Kit, I need your help!"

WC: 498
Total: 2512 / 2500

"Speech"

Kitsune watched as Iho investigated the area. He had a keen nose for these sorts of things, and if anyone could find her ghost, it would be him. Kitsune’s ears were pricked, and she was weary watching the area around them. She didn’t like how the fireflies seemed to have followed them. Dancing aerily in the sky above. She gave them a suspicious glare, drawing her attention away from Iho that she missed exactly what happened in that moment.

All she knew was that Iho had yelped. She turned her head so fast she heard it click, frantically looking for him. She saw a glimmer of a flailing paw falling over the other side of the mound. She darted forward, even as Iho was calling out for her. Did she see a glimmer of white? It was that damn coyote, it had to be! She let out a furious snarl and ran up the mound. Prepared to fight off the coyote, even if it was a ghost. Iho was her subject, her friend. No ghost was going to take him from her!

But when she appeared above him, snarling and snapping her jaws, there was nothing there. The coyote was gone. She could only conclude she had frightened it away with her furious charge.

She shook thoughts of ghosts away, and turned her attention to Iho. “You're bleeding!” she exclaimed, placing a paw over the wound to apply pressure. “Come on, let's get you to the stream so we can wash it, and find something to bind it” she said, moving to help him to his paws.


"Speech"

Kitsune & Kumiho

As Kitsune gently cleans out Kumiho's wound in the stream her paws pass over something sharp, expecting to find some grit that got into the wound she retracts her paws to see instead a tiny glowing crystal, confused she lifts it to show Kumiho but his attention is held raptly over her shoulder. Turning to look the pair notice the ghostly Coyote watching from the treeline, in the blink of an eye its shape changes grotesquely, growing wolf-like, familiar, and yet somehow wrong, before it vanishes once more, leaving only a slowly rising trail of misty lights.