Come down, come down sweet reverence

In her eyes the moon seemed to be stealing the sun's light. It seemed to grow continually bigger and brighter and as far as Jynn could tell it no longer set, remaining a constant presence. The sun seemed dimmer, it's light tired and fading. The sun was swift to set, swallowed up by the horizon and leaving Jynn to wander in darkness back to he falls.

When she arrived it was to see the falls spilling not over the usual rocks but rocks covered in crystals. Her ears flicked forward. When had those arrived? What was even stranger is that the crystals seemed to glow a soft blue that would pulse brightly then dim but never quite fade.

Jynn crept up to a particularly large crystal growing at the edge of the pool the water fell into. Could it
perhaps it was made out of sugar like those in the cave?

Stretching out her neck she sniffed at the crystal.

Deciding to explore more of Auster to avoid the bitter chill of Boreas, Audra found herself near a large booming waterfall. Unease had settled into her body as the night threatened to take over the day. For weeks now, the sun seemed less willing to stay up over the horizon. When it was, it was a dim moody color. Instead, the moon, large and awfully bright, took precedence. Around the immense ball, streaks of stars painted the sky. The land around her was changing and she wasn't sure what to think of it. Not only that but the plants changed too. At the beginning of each new sprout, a soft glow emerged where a blue firefly danced by it. Audra only noticed this because she was constantly looking at plants and trying to discover new properties she didn't know before. But now, she hesitated even eating the dried herbs in her pouch. What if they were contaminated with the ick that now grew on these budding ones? Trying to forget the doom that hung around every corner, Audra shook off her coat and approached the falls. Somehow unsurprisingly, her friend Jynn was already there. Audra swore the girl was everywhere she went. Tilting her chin as she watched Jynn reach out to inspect the crystal, Audra's ears fell back. "Do you really think that's a good idea?" Audra called out in a friendly, but worried tone. Making her way with dainty steps closer to the maned wolf, her own golden gaze turned toward the ebbing glow of the crystals.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn was so focused on the crystal she almost missed Audra approach and when the woman spoke Jynn yelped and turned, slipping on the rocks and falling butt first into the water. Her heart was racing and she noticed that he pulsing glow of the crystal seemed to be racing as well. However, when she realized it was Audra and not some giant monster coming out of the woods to eat her she began to calm and hauled herself up out of the water with a grin on her face. "Oh, hey Audra. Well, that was embarassing. Sorry, I've just been really jumpy these past few nights. There's so many strange things happening and it seems like these crystals just popped up out of nowhere. I was thinking maybe they're made of sugar like the crystals behind the waterfall?" That at least would be easy enough to explain. Jynn stepped out of the pool and shook out her coat, sending a fine spray of water into the air.

Jynn's reaction even startled Audra as she stepped back quickly and gasped. "I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, eyes wide and lips now stifling a quiet giggle. Watching the wolf fall into the water really wasn't funny. They had no idea what would come of it. Closing her eyes for a moment as she recollected herself, she smiled when Jynn stood back up and shook off. Water droplets splashed onto her, but she paid no mind for now. "It has been really strange around here lately," Audra mused, her own eyes carrying over to the falls. "I didn't know there were sugar crystals there," she answered truthfully. It being her first time here, she would have assumed the crystals were natural rocks. "Do the sugar ones normally glow?" The smaller wolf asks, her eyes curious as she kept her place a few feet from the water's edge.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn nodded and smiled. "Yea, I found them when I first explored here… but they didn't glow." She gazed at the strange crystals growing around the pool, noting the strange pulsing of the glow. She looked up at the moon then back to the crystals. "I wonder if there's a connection between these crystals and something else. Like the sugar crystals are behind the waterfall, maybe they don't glow until they're in moonlight?" She couldn't imagine that would really be the case but she really didn't have much to go on. "I can't tell for sure what they smell like but I'm gonna give it a taste." She'd never heard of poisonous crystals so surely it'd be fine, right?" Jynn reached out to the nearest crystal and swiftly licked it.

Jynn

As soon as you lick the crystal - and find that it tastes exactly how you imagined - you feel as if the object has sapped all the energy from your body. You feel faint, and hardly even have the energy to continue your investigation now.

Maybe you shouldn't have done that...

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn licked the crystal and was surprised to find it tasted sweet, just like she imagined it would. "Oh weird! It- ohhhh" At the taste she though for sure it was some strange variation on the sugar crystals in the cave behind the falls but those had never made her feel tired like this. Jynn couldn't continue to stand, she felt so weak she promptly collapsed where she was, her hip slamming into the crystal at such an angle the crystal broke. "Ow, ugh… I'm ready to call it a night." She didn't bother to get up off the crystal and just laid there staring at Audra and trying to decide if she should just nap where she was or try to get back to her den.

It Continues for Jynn...

Huh? It doesn't seem like anything happened... Well, maybe that's for the best...