His travels led him deeper into Auster than he had ever planned on going. There was a whisper on the wind that drew him far south through ravines and forests unknown to him. A delicate tickle of a voice nudged at the back of his brain. He couldn't help but follow it. It said had said his name multiple times, but any other words hadn't been discernable to him. An underlying fear of going crazy stewed in his belly as he tried to figure out what really was going on. Carving out a path toward a place that glowed subtly, Gil's eyes widened when he saw the myriad of crystals and mushrooms pulsating along broken rocks and stone. This place was indeed interesting and the whispers seemed to grow louder here. Gilgamesh. His attention turned toward the center of the garden as he paused along the outskirts. No way was he stupid enough to just go waltzing up to it. Torn between investigating and ignoring the volume of the voice harassing his ears, Gil waited for something to show him a clue. SPEECH

The garden was intended to be a reprieve from the steadily increasing discomfort the woman had been experiencing. Ever since her pleasant firefly experience turned badly on the starlit plains, she could barely trot past those lands without a sour feeling in her stomach. Yet, despite placing as much distance as possible between that place and her body, the whispers continued. And when they continued, they become more relentless, but not any more discernable. The only whispers she could pick up coherently were a trilling LaeLaeLaeLaeLae that steeped in the warm breeze like a sickening pulse, pounding against her temples. The monochromatic femme winced as a tickling sensation crept into her inner ear again. Damn, she shouldn’t have gone to the plains that night. The air had a funny feeling about it as it was, and she had been foolish enough to escape there. She even ate some of those blue bugs whilst snapping at them, and that clearly had an effect of some kind. As far as she knew, she felt unwell. Abnormal. Still, she desperately attempted to drown out the humming of her nickname by the now tormentous insects but humming to herself. Ot was barely a scratch compared to the sly whispers that brushed against her, but she kept going. Padding at an erratic pace along the gardens, she spotted another wolf in her path. The calico patterned male seemed in a trance, staring at the glowing creatures that began to huddle over their figures like a slowly moving fog. She despised them, and the anxiety within her brewed as the thrumming of her heart against her ribcage increased. That, and the tickling sensation in her inner ear didn’t help. Keeping her distance, the woman called out softly, "Er, are they bugging you too?" No pun intended, of course, and Laeta’s seriousness in her voice was emphasized as she pressed a paw to her tickling, buzzing ear with a wince. "Speech"

Distracted by the bouncing orbs flitting about him, Gilgamesh barely heard the monochromatic female approach. Giiiilgaaamesh. There the voice was again. A soft, barely audible whisper made his head turn. Where had it come from? Flattening his ears, Gil took a few steps closer to the bundle of fireflies centered around the garden's middle. When Laeta's voice spoke out, his fur bristled as his already anxious body shivered. Turning his chin over his shoulder to stare at her with wide yellow eyes, he nodded. "Do you hear the voice, as well?" He asked, quite ominously. It was obvious that the bugs were bugging him, but it wasn't funny enough to earn a chuckle. Reaching his own paw up to his ear to swat away one of the fireflies, he turned his attention back to the bugs. Why don't you come closer? They were taunting him now. The lurid whisper of the voice drew him closer. Coming from all directions, he couldn't discern where to even go.

As the calico male took another step closer, it seemed the two of them were surrounded in the twinkling glow of the fireflies’ embraces. It would’ve made for a pleasant experience otherwise, but it was anything except that. No, the flittering of the pulsating insects made Lae’s own obsidian pelt bristle. Her body flinched as some of the bugs got too close to her body, in an instinctive reflex. It didn’t help that the tickling sensation in her ears intensified suddenly, as she rubbed her head almost frantically on her leg. ”Do you hear the voices as well?” He had asked, only briefly interrupted the escalating hum that made it feel as if her skull was vibrating. Trying her best to hone in on a verbal response, she replied in a pained tone, "Yes..unfortunately.." She barely drew out the last word as the pulsing of the crystals and mushrooms seemed to pulse in the rhythm of the fireflies’ lights, and the whispers began to hiss more harshly. The woman groaned softly as the whispers clustered together, clenching her eyes shut in obvious pain. It was likely the other wolf felt the same. It didn’t matter who he was to her, stranger or otherwise - she was too overwhelmed to think about introducing herself at the moment. "Speech"

The way she uttered the word, unfortunately, worried him. If she could hear it too, then what was the thing luring them in? Confused and stricken with a fear he wasn't able to comprehend, Gil looked around carefully. Even as the whispering voice taunted him, urging him to go closer to the fireflies, he tried to resist. At the edges of the garden square, mushrooms and crystals were pulsating with a soft glow. As if they were breathing. These types of things didn't normally do that... Did they? Sucking in a deep breath, Gil gave a hearty shake of his head. No, this can't all be happening. Worried that something bad was going to happen soon, he looked back over at the girl once more. "They haven't said anything bad to you, have they?" He questioned, his eyes wide with the same feelings she was feeling.

"They haven't said anything bad to you, have they?" The male had inquired. Lae mentally fought tooth and nail for her thoughts to quiet down, and for the whispering to subside, albeit slightly. She glanced up at him with a pained expression. Clearly, there didn't need to be a foul word in her ears to make her suffer so. "So far, no-" She was interrupted as a harsh whisper seemingly slithered into her skull. Coward, it sneered, making her body stiffen as if someone had poked her hind end. The calico wolf's inquiry had a new response, then, but Lae could only let her eyes widen with a veil of fear as the whispers collected in bunches, like poisoned berries. Coward. Idiot. Stupid. Bitch. Good for nothing. Shut up. Like a dogpile of insults, they pounded on her head like the pulsated of the sickening blue glow about them, like some malevolent tune played out -- and they were the reluctant players. Stifling back a sob, the older woman struggled to conceal her pain from the stranger, craning her head towards the crumbled stone path beneath her feet. Her lithe body slumped down, seated, and she began to gulp in deep breaths to stave off an inevitable wave of panic. "Speech"