Kotori had set up two different fires to add more light to the evening or day or whatever time it was.  Sure, fireflies and fauna added light but not enough in his mind.  The darkness was intimidating and he couldn’t even explain why.  He had a headache and while there was a braided rope in front of him Kotori could only stare at it.  He had braided the rope earlier and was going to make a snare except he couldn’t seem to focus.  Kotori had a headache and it was enough effort to just keep his thoughts straight.

Shaking his head as if it would suddenly clear it he looked back to the rope again.  Kotori needed to get better at hunting if he wanted a promotion and traps were one version of it.  Chasing prey right now was doomed to fail.  Kotori kept hearing whispers in his head that didn’t belong to him or anyone else that he recognized.  It was outright confusing.  Regardless, a voice in his head destroyed the focus needed to hunt.  So, that left working on snares.

The horned wolf looked from the rope to one fire than another, making sure they both kept burning well.  A pile of sticks was nearby to keep adding fuel whenever needed.  He had chosen this location as the moon added more light when it bounced off the water.  Truth was, this area was doing a relatively good job of staying bright even if not by the sun’s light.

"Kotori Fatalis"

Callie was drawn by the light, the fire, the brightness she'd been missing ever since the day of her birth. It looked from a distance pleasant, warm, and new! As any other pup her age, Callie was drawn to the new. Oversized paws toddled happily out from the tall grass and toward the bordering plains, where she saw multiple fires, sticks, rope, and a stick-colored wolf. "Hiiiii!" She greeted with an overenthusiastic wagging of her tail, the fire-like markings upon her pelt glowing rhythmically to the beat of her excited heart. "These are so cool!" Callie pounced across the sand toward one of the pits of fire, but the closer she became to the brightness of flame the more it irritated her eyes. Squinting against the heat, she lay her one paw on it's side in the sand and with a heavy push of her paw, attempted to use it to smother the fire. "Too bright though." She amended as she worked the sand onto the flames. "Speech"

Was there anyone besides a bunch of pups in the pack that hadn’t contracted the sickness to some level?  None of them were in shape to work but at least Kotori and some others weren’t as ill as others.  All he had to die was make some damn snares to try and catch food so why was it so hard to do a thing that should be so simple.  

As the pup appeared a bit of ooze from his mouth fell on the rope.  Kotori was halfway through a resigned sigh when one of Az’s brood started kicking sand on his fire.  A snarl came from his chest, pushing itself out even as he jumped up to shove himself between the kid and fire.  She could either move or get shoved away from it.  “Stop it!” The look in his eyes was livid.  A madness of voices or lack of focus wasn’t needed for overreacting in this.  The fear of the darkness encroaching on his space was enough inspiration.

Kotori looked at the large pup and huffed out a harsh breath, glancing off.  “The fire is keeping the spirits away,” it sounded better than saying the darkness away.  Besides, Ikigai pretty much had Kotori sold that it was some sort of evil spirit or spirits doing all of this.  Who said they avoided light and that was why the instinctive fear of the dark?  Was it any crazier of an idea than what all else was going on?

“Sorry,” Kotori grumbled a moment later, and a bit of blue ooze dribbled down his jaw to land on the sand between him and pup.   He would go back to the snare once he knew the kid wasn’t going to try and put out the fire, “you aren’t supposed to get up close to it.”  Like Kotori was to protect it.  The heat was obvious against his flank, his one eye squinting but the fire needed protecting as surely as one's neck in a fight must be protected.

Kotori Fatalis

 

The stick-colored wolf did not take her attempt to smother the flames well, leaping between her and the fire and shoving her aside. Calypso was thrown into the sand with a choked whimper, her lip quivering slightly at the first even slightly negative interaction in her young life. The wolf apologized, but Callie merely hung her head in shame and curled her tail in between her legs, not quite ready to accept the apology yet. The fear and adrenaline from being shoved kicked her heart into a rapid pace, her glow intensifying in turn. Kotori explained what the fire's purpose was and she side-eyed it suspiciously - not fully accepting his story. "What's a spirit? Is it the heat or the glow that keeps them away?" Whatever a spirit was, it must be bad if they were trying to ward it off, right? If it was the light keeping them back, did that mean Callie was safe from them forever because of the way her markings glowed? She got to her paws but remained where she had been shoved, unwilling to step closer to the wolf who had snarled at her. "Speech"

Kotori watched the pup with a kind of glassy gaze as he dull mind tried to decide how to handle the kid.  Kotori was more prepared for fights or arguing and lots of anger.  She was shrunken in and wary.  Kotori let out another slow sigh, shaking his head the boy took a step back from the fire and looked into its flames as if it might have answers.

“I guess I don’t know for sure,” Kotori admitted to the younger pup.  He didn’t like admitting he didn’t know everything but it seemed for the best as he didn’t want to be labeled as a liar later if wrong.  Kotori’s brow scrunched up, “I’m sick you know.” The ooze surely was enough for her to figure that out but she needed to acknowledge that meant unpredictable.  It didn’t matter what he thought of kids in general, it didn’t mean Kotori would ever want to hurt one when it hadn’t really deserved it.

“Anyway, I believe they avoid the light,” Kotori looked about the area then back to the child, “the sickness hasn’t grown worst at least while I’ve stayed in the fire.”  There were flaws in the logic but he was talking to a child who likely had to keep to simple logic also.  He turned to head back and sit down in front of the snare, letting out a slow sigh. “I’m attempting to make a snare for hunting.  Even if most of us are sick we still need food after all.”  It was an attempt to turn the attention to a better subject.

Kotori gave his head a shake, drops of blue ooze had been collecting in his ears and were flung away from him at the shake.  He needed to make a knot but at the moment that seemed impossible.  “So, don’t touch the fire, come over here and I think you’ll see how nice it is from a distance.” See? Not so bad.  

"Kotori Fatalis"

Kotori admitted he wasn't sure what a spirit was and Calypso's face scrunched up in confusion. "If you don't know what it is, why does it scare you?" Her head tilted to the side, regarding him intently. He mentioned then that he was sick and she gave an aloof shrug. "Everybody is sick. Mom is sick, Dad is sick, Grandma is sick. Maybe I want to be sick too." She complained. Everyone had cool glowing ooze or mushroom bumps or crystals and damnit, Callie felt a bit left out. She gave an offended sniff, and then followed Kotori as he lead her away from the fire. "Well if the light keeps the sick away then I should be fine, right? I have my own light!" Callie grinned, her tail finding it's way out from between her legs to wag once more. Her father didn't seem to appreciate her odd glow, but if it kept her safe from this world then that was a good thing, right? She bounded up alongside him - ducking swiftly as he shook, displacing blue ooze - and settled beside his 'snare.' "I can hunt! Maybe I can get us food." The pup suggested. After all, whatever he was doing with his stick and rope didn't seem very edible.   "Speech"

Kotori

You feel something gritty in your eye. As you blink, something falls out. You find yourself unable to see for the rest of the day.



You gain:

• Mushrooms (3)- Used in Firefly's Shoppe, and perhaps elsewhere...
  

Calypso

You feel something crawling beneath your skin.


You gain:

• Mushrooms (x4)- Used in Firefly's Shoppe, and perhaps elsewhere...