As he made his way back to the Stone Steppe with his brother, Scald was stopped by the flash of green light that filled the realm. What could that have been? Nearly blinded, his eyes blinked rapidly as he took in the sight of green flames licking the edges of the sky. "Let's go check it out!" He would say to Rexx with a quick nudge of his shoulder before racing off to where the festival had been held. The closer they drew to the Stone Steppe, the more the feeling of reality shifted around them. Were they even in the real world anymore? Glancing around, he couldn't tell if the wolves loitering were alive or... dead. Well, he'd never actually seen a dead wolf or much less a ghost before so he couldn't be sure, but something definitely was off here. Feeling unsure and hesitant, Scald glanced at Rexx with a timid expression before looking away and continuing further onto the stone grounds. In one area, a table fixated with different materials caught his attention. Wandering over, he watched as others grabbed different things. Familiars lingered, explaining how each of the different tools would allow them to speak with the dead. Fascinated, Scald grabbed a bag of "bones" before turning to Rexx and leading him to a spot off to the side where they could practice together. "You wanna go first or should I?" Energy emanated from him as he set the bag on the ground. Excited, curious, and also scared, Scald stared wide-eyed at his brother. S C A L D

Rexx blinked instinctively as the flash of green light filled his vision, then fading to reveal the strange sights that were ahead. They'd wandered quite a ways from home this time, in lieu of the celebrations - but they were slowly becoming seasoned adventurers, and he was more than willing to continue observing what lay beyond if it meant sticking close to his brother. The tusked boy glanced over as Scald suggested checking out the source of the flash, nodding his head with a sharp vigor and a wag f his nub tail. "Yeah, let's go!" he agreed, loping over the quilled boy as they reached the stony structures and the flat plain of grass where the feast had taken place. It was..an odd sensation. The whisps of fog that curled around him, as if beckoning him one way or another. His tusked lips twitched in some level of uncertainty as they continued, the shifting silouhettes of wolves and half-transparent wolves surrounding them, moving about in a most ehtereal manner. It was unreal. Am I dreaming? Rexx had to ask himself, furrowing his brow. Still, as Scald glanced to him with a worried expression on his face, Rexx tried not to mirror it as he wanted to, instead offering a confident smile of his own. Even if the looming ghosts and billowing, strange, and unnatural fog and whisps had his stomach churning. The two brothers managed to locate a table, surrounded by familiars similar to the ones encountered at the altar they'd been to. The creatures explained that the items sprawled on the table's surface were for contacting spirits of the dead, and Rexx felt a prickle down his spine. Did..did they really want to mess around with that stuff? It was dangerous to meddle with the things that were supposed to be dead, right? They were gone from this world for a reason, but at the same time, the invisible veil between reality and the spritiual felt incredibly thin at this time. Especially here, in these steppes. As Scald picked up the bag of bones and they found a secluded spot away from most of the fog and apparition-like figures, Scald asked if he wanted to go first. The wide eyes told him Scald wasn't sure what to think. Rexx played the confident brother by nodding and saying, "Yeah! Let's see if we can arrange the bones in a way that'll make a ghost talk to us." He shook the bag and the small pile of various leg and arm bones from some creature spilled onto the earth, and Rexx used his bulky forepaws to gently arrange them in the appearance of the skeleton of the creature it once was. Maybe..maybe that's how it worked? "D'you think if I replicated its skeleton it would wanna come over?" He inquired towards Scald, tusked lips curled into some semblance of a curious smile. JUst concealing the uneasiness he was feeling. "speech"

Secretly, he was pleased that his brother was fine pretending to be the confident one. He would admit that while he was brave while they adventured around the surrounding land, he was nowhere close to brave when it came to spirits. Should they be messing with the likes of the dead? Was that a safe thing to do? They were pirates though and pirates were risky and reckless and dared to do things normal wolves didn't! So they had to play along, right? Even as his bi-colored gaze shifted around to glance at the ethereal figures wavering on the edges of reality. His attention was brought back to the clacking of bones against stone as Rexx dropped the contents of the bag. Letting his ears twist back and forth, he wondered if shifting the bones to resemble a skeleton was how this worked. Scrunching up his face, he looked at his brother's curious smile and he couldn't help but laugh. "Rexx, if putting the bones back together brought the dead back to life, why would they take the skeleton apart in the first place?" He asked but had to admit that it was a good idea. Maybe it was like a puzzle and if they figured out how to put it back together, it would conjure the spirits... Glancing around to the other groups, he did notice that others were pointing at the bones and saying things. Scald's face lilted to the side as he looked at the nearby familiars. Did he see them laughing? "What's so funny? Are we doing it wrong?" The boy looks back to the bones and then to the familiars. Instead, a raven hopped over and stretched a wing out toward the scattered bones. You read them, pups. If one faces a way or two overlaps, it means something. The raven squawked at them before returning to the other familiars. Scald stared at the bones and then at his brother, more confused than before. "Well, what is this supposed to mean!?" He asked as he pointed at the bones. S C A L D

Admittedly, Rexx wasn't what you'd consider scholarly, much less a deep-thinking intellectual. Even more so when one had to think outside of the box for some things - or rather, outside the bag of bones they had been given. So when he had suggested putting the bones back into the creature's original skeleton he believed he really was on to something. But he noticed Scald's poor concealment of a laugh, and looking up from his work, he narrowed his deep purple eyes at his brother suspiciously. What's so funny?" He asked genuinely, brow knitted in confusion. It wasn't until a familiar approached them, explaining how they should properly read the bones. Wait a minute.. read the bones? What did that even mean? He practically said the same thing his brother did, but the quilled boy beat him to it, pointing to the bones and clearly as bewildered as he was. The tusked boy huffed, almost a tad disappointed that his super smart genius idea was, in fact, foiled and not the correct way to make a ghost greet them. Shifting in his seat, the tusked child scanned the wolves around them, seeing how some took their bones and just poured them onto the earth, staring deeply into the random pile as if it said something interesting. Well, fine, if it meant they could interact with a real spirit, he'd try it. "Alright, uh..guess I'll just shake 'em up and scatter them out," Rexx said, tilting his head as if wondering why this would work, and not his original idea. Yeah, not exactly the quickest to catch on, was he? The burly boy grasped the bones and swiped them back into his paws, shaking them and then scattering them onto the ground in an almost dramatic sweep. He grinned a he waited for this ghost to magically appear in font of them. Yes? No? He squinted at the pile, looking up at Scald. The gears in his head were really turning, but whether it held any length of substance was debatable. "So, uh..d'you see anything?" "speech"

If his brother wasn't the deepest-thinking intellectual, Scald was right behind him. Perhaps it was the lack of parental guidance. Not like he knew the answer to that. Puzzling the bones back into a skeleton had been a good idea to him too, but no ghost was appearing. Maybe the familiar was right. Frustrated, he shared the exchanging look of confusion with Rexx as they headed the raven's instructions. Didn't make much sense because they hadn't ever been taught how to read bones. How did one read bones? Weren't they for chomping and smacking each other? As Rexx shook up the bag of bones and scattered the bones across the ground, Scald leaned down close. His bi-colored gaze flicked from the bones to their surroundings. No ghost, yet. Why not? His own brow furrowed deeply as he leaned back. Maybe a faraway look would reveal a big picture sort of thing. Still nothing. Tilting his head back and forth, he gave it a shake. "All I see are bones," he grumbled as he looked up to the familiars for guidance. None paid them any mind. "Maybe it means something bad and they don't wanna tell us," Scald whispered under his breath. S C A L D

Scald was really on the dot about Rexx’s intellectual foundation, if there was any to begin with. Their parents weren’t the most involved in theirs or their sibling’s lives, so it was difficult to really gauge just how much critical thinking the two of them could actually do in a given situation. Besides maybe the occasional flicker of devious cunning they certainly inherited from their dad, at least. Rexx scattered the bones across the earth, and was just as disappointed as his lanky brother when the bones did not just magically turn into a spooky apparition. Now what was this, some kind of scam? The tusked boy frowned, as if trying to muddle through his thoughts to figure out just why what they did - even with the familiars’ advice - bore no fruit. Or in this case, a really coll ghost they could talk to. Scald shook his head, wondering aloud if maybe the lack of response meant they’d summon something evil instead. Rexx glanced up at his brother from his clearly super intellectual gaze into the pile, his brow knitted in concern for a few seconds before a mischevious grin curved his lips. "Ooh, maybe we’ll get to talk to a demon instead, Scald! Wouldn’t that be cooler than a ghost, technically? ‘Cause they have, like, horns and..and stuff,” Rexx said excitedly, his voice trailing off as he gently nudged one tilted arm bone from its perch on a series of tiny ribs. Was he tempting fate a little? Quite possibly so. "speech"