The quakes had begun while the troop of Tojo-kai yearlings were in hot pursuit of the biggest buck he'd ever seen. By the time they'd realized it was the earth itself trembling and not the great waves of the defrosting ocean slamming against the shores, they were more than halfway across the land bridge to Boreas. Kat, normally the last to speak up, screamed himself hoarse to continue on to Boreas. The other continent was much closer now... if they turned back, who knew what fate awaited them. His sides were heaving with exertion and his fur dried stiff with sweat. They had hunkered down for a few hours, getting their bearings, disoriented in the strange new red light that suffused the land. Katsurō wasn't sure he had it in him to lead anyone anywhere, but luckily, he was spared. A steady stream of traffic became apparent, creatures of all shapes and sizes drawn to some location in the West. The tide had come in for the strait and the land bridge was once again mostly covered by water. Without many other options, he chose the path of least resistance: follow the crowd. Foreboding stone spires stretched towards the sky, taller than any tree he'd ever seen. Kat thought of the shining ring of runestones in Auster and searched for some thread of familiarity but found none. Beneath the red light, his hackles slowly rose. He shivered despite the blazing summer heat. Kat spun around to see if any of his siblings had followed. "I... I'm not sure what to make of this." "speech"

If it were up to Seiko, they would probably stay tucked inside Tojo-Kai's bamboo maze for the rest of time- but that wasn't feasible. They couldn't grow stronger like that, couldn't gain the skills they needed to be as strong as they needed to. It wasn't like they hated seeing the world beyond their home, they just knew home was superior, and vastly so. They'd gladly agreed to join their siblings in a hunt, especially one that proved to be such a challenge. They'd never hunted something quite so large, so it was no surprise just how far they'd tracked it. Seiko had crossed this sandbar once before, though they hadn't expected to make the journey again so soon. What happened next though was even more surprising. The world begin to tremble and shake in a way that terrified even the normally-unshakable Seiko. Together the group ran, hard and fast, abandoning their hunt entirely. Food could come later. Being so far from home when the unthinkable happened was enough for Seiko to lose their appetite completely. Surely their siblings all felt the same. They hunkered down for the rest of the night, only getting bits of restless sleep, stirring immediately when dawn broke. The sky was blood-red, unlike anything they'd ever experienced. It was threatening, foreboding in a way that Seiko didn't quite know how to comprehend. The land they navigated too was just as ominous. They'd never seen anything like it before. Those tall stone spikes reached higher than even the trees in the dragon's blood grove near their home, something that Seiko fixated on for a long while. Tilting their head toward Katsurō, they breathed in a slow breath, feeling the humid summer air tangle in their throat. "I'm not sure either," Seiko admitted, feeling strange admitting any trepidation out loud. "This place- something about it doesn't feel right. Have any of you seen this place before?" Most of the yearlings kept close to home, but Seiko didn't keep tabs on where they went. Maybe one of them had been here before.

Kaizen didn't think he was a particularly nosy person, but it was hard to ignore the ground shifting beneath his paws. Tremors so fierce it could be felt all the way at the end of the world, even the bamboo shook- a fortress that was unyielding trembled. Kaizen had to know. And so the Hattori's travelled beneath the red sky, like the sun had been cut open and was bleeding. Their sire had been quiet, not in displeasure but an emotion Kaizen couldn't parse. If he'd known Hanzo better he would have realised it was an inkling of fear. Those who survived the Long Night dreaded its return, even if they wouldn't say as much.

It was only on the way here that he had met up with his kin, a coincidence but not a happy one.

Kaizen paused, brows furrowing. He did not like change and he didn't like this, a whole entire brand of different. Wrong.

"Did Father ever tell you about the Long Night? Is this it?"

Kina couldn't sleep that night as tremors rolled through the land. Something was wrong. She gathered her things, calling to her companions before slipping out into the maze. She sat there for awhile, gazing up at the sky, searching for signs of volcanic activity or anything else that might indicate what was happening. Instead she was greeted by a strange red light cresting over the horizon.

Usually obedient it was not like her to leave without notifying anyone but she knew a couple of her siblings had been out hunting and she felt like she needed to find them immediately. Luckily her egret caught sight of the group and she was able to catch up with them as they arrived at a very strange looking location with large stone spires reaching out of the ground like they were piercing the sky.

She padded over to Kaizen as he mentioned the long night. "He hasn't said much of it to me, but it sounded bad. Do you think the sun will rise all the way? I don't like that it seems so… red." Kina stepped toward one of the spikes, noting how it looked old and weathered. She hadn't been in Boreas enough to know if these spires were always here but she knew Jynn had been all over both continents and had never mentioned anything like this in her stories. That was uncharacteristic to leave out something this fantastical. Her eyes narrowed. "Has anyone been here before? Were these always here or did they… did they grow out of the ground and cause all that shaking?" She peered down at the base of the nearest spire, trying to get a feel for its structure.

Asahi had been in the area. Her quest had taken her beyond the borders of Tojo-kai and ever closer to Elysium and Hemlock. She had been given the task by their father. She would travel some and reconnect every so often with their brother Jiro.

Then the darkness consumed the sky and she cowered beneath an outcropping alone and afraid. She didn't know if she was cut out for this. The earthquakes started before she could get any rest. She stayed out in the open, feeling the world tremble beneath her until the morning broke. The sky a blood red. She caught the familiar scent of her own kin nearby and quickly set about finding them.

She came upon the party at the edge of the strangest terrain she had ever seen. A couple of her siblings were there. Her golden eyes wide as she looked up at one of the spires. She wiggled herself between Katsu and Seiko, too terror-stricken to make any mischief. She looked to Kaizen for answers, her gaze flicking to Kina as she wondered aloud. Asahi had nothing to add.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

The hunt had taken a sudden turn. More than halfway across the land bridge, what she thought was the water against the earth turned out to be something much worse. The earth trembled and groaned, thrusting the world into chaos seemingly overnight. They had no choice but to get across and look for safety. Following Kat's lead, Hinata hunkered down and waited it out. The sky, however, was cast into a red glow. A sense of foreboding came over her, washing fear over her body. Of course, the first time she decides to leave home and this is what happened! Perhaps it was a sign...though when her siblings mentioned the Long Night...

She didn't know much about it. Father seldom talked about it. Was this it? Had it returned once again? While she desperately wanted to return home, she decided instead, it was perhaps best to remain with the group that steadily grew bigger. She followed them toward the West until the reached large stone spires that towered into the heavens. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before! She was wary. Her steps careful. "I've...I've never heard of these before...I've never heard of the sky turning red, either. And father hasn't said much about the Long Night...do you think this is the start of it? Has it returned?"

"Speech"

He felt more of a sense of security with each further sibling that appeared. Kat breathed a deep sigh once they were all assembled and peering over the blood red landscape together. Surely, between all of them, they could figure this out. A thin, keening cry began to sound throughout the land as the wind whipped up and careened between the spires. Katsu flattened his ears to his skull, peering around from spire to spire to try and pinpoint where it originated. The sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at all once. "No, I haven't heard tell of the Long Night," he admitted. "But I'm not sure if this is night at all. It's as if we're trapped in a permanent twilight." His pale yellow eyes scanned the surrounding landscape, noting that other groups had trickled in and begun to inspect the bases of the spires. Some wolves seemed to make up their minds and begin to dig at the base of them. He may have felt braver with his siblings here, but Katsu was never one to stick out of a crowd. If everyone seemed to be digging, maybe they ought to get to it as well. "Perhaps we should..." he trailed off, approaching the nearest spire and beginning to dig carefully around its base, as if he was afraid it might topple down upon him. "speech"

Kaizen didn't like any of this, even with his siblings by his side he felt...if they weren't strong enough to beat the Hemlock wolves in a raid, what made them think they were ready for this? Different and strange and... he walked slowly, his steps uncertain with furrowed brows. What was- Kaizen sucked in a startled breath, he was digging? He felt his heart rate pick up in his chest, was that a good idea what if-

"Be careful-" he insisted, as if he had any right to be so pushy. Kaizen took a few steps closer to the spire, tilted his head up as he observed it, the pointed tip looked sharp with rust. "Should we tell Father?"