The thick darkness has settled through the Col, it's oppressive air had been undeniable, like a warning. His wolves had hunkered down in their warrens, waiting to see what this would mean. The following earthquake had rattled the mountain,and when that top cleared at last Basilisk had sent a bird to seek signs of the damage. 

What the bird returned with only added to the mystery. A new land had appeared aa if risen from the deep. He packed a bag and grabbed his Consort.

“We have to investigate, and I need any experience you can bring to the tables on earthquakes. I need to understand why this happened, and if it will happen again.” He warned her. He wasn't sure the mountain could take another tremor. The thought of his wolves, trapped in their warrens should ceilings collapse made him shiver. 

No time to waste. He led Ignita out of the pack, following the bird to the ‘new’ land.

Speech // thought

Something had felt off that night. Everyone was on edge, she couldn't figure out why until she looked up into the deepening darkness. No stars... No Moon... No clouds...

Though he was good at hiding his trepidation from the pack, a stoic figure of power, she could see it in his eyes. Ignita knew him. And even as she pressed in close during the earthquakes, she could see the fear in his eyes, determined worry.

When morning finally broke she watched him send out the bird, the red sky ominous and looming. She liked to keep the children close to her for as long as she could but alas of course they didn't. When the bird returned with the mysterious news her worry deepened.

She swallowed as he hefted the bag over himself and she glanced at her babies. She didn't want any of them near this strangeness. She couldn't stop Mort and Hikaru from taking their daughter but felt a catch in her chest when she found out they would.

As Bas pulled her along she felt her heart ache as she left the packlands. It was the first time she was leaving them since they were born.

She sifted through her memories about earthquakes and could envision the book she read about the formation of the planet, and several geographic notes. Funny enough it was one of her favorite books next to the one about the human medieval age. Days as a lonely pup reading six times her weight in books were really paying off.

"Well, my love, there's not much to control in an earthquake. It most likely will happen again." She replied as they followed the bird.

She had grabbed a few of her maps, one was quite detailed for the route down to the Hallows. First, she noticed that they were taking the same route they would take down to the Hallows. The red light grew more ominous the closer they got.

As they walked she tried her best to explain the mechanics of tectonic plates, the formations of mountains and valleys and how their own Dreamers Col was probably formed by an ancient glacier. She mused to him how the earthquakes could be volcanic in nature or just the shifting of the earth around them. It was curious there weren't any aftershocks.

They drew closer to the Glowshroom caves and that was the second thing she noticed. Great spires rose up, taller than the trees. The like she had never seen before in any book she had read. As they drew closer she grew silent, her brow creasing in confused wonder and passionate curiosity.

He flicked his ears towards Ignita to show he was listening, but his eyes were forward. Scanning the horizon, and the area around them. Larimar rode on Ignita’s back, and Orso stuck close to her other side. Thunder remained in the skies above them, and all of them remained on high alert.

When Ignita fell silent, he bumped his shoulder gently against hers, though still his attention was on the area around them. The strange spikes rose from the ground, looking weathered and old despite the fact that he knew this territory had not been here just days before. “Could something cause this to… rise from the earth?” he glanced over at Ignita, whos od bits of knowledge had often come to good use.

"Basilisk Fatalis"

Speech // thought

She had grown used to the companion's presence around her and close to her side. Feeling coiled Larimar on her back gave her the security of being grounded as they walked ever closer to the red ominous light and towering spikes. Oso sandwiched her with Bas on her other side.

Her golden eyes darted about trying to drink in every detail but she was drawn to the massive ancient spires. She felt his gentle bump on her shoulder bringing her attention briefly up to him but then back to her observations of the details on the strange spires. Taller than the trees back home, the spires nearly reminded her of the obelisks of her birthlands.

"Rise up? Not... like this..." She said as she looked at the edge of the new land. "The rising would be a land already here, and it would just be a kind of plateau. This... This is something else." She mentioned and looked carefully at the plants at the base of the spires.

"They're weathered. The plants have grown as if they have been here for ages... I've never seen any trees like this either. They're not trees." She was completely lost but drawn in. Deeper...

"What is that light?" She mentioned taking several steps closer to the center.

Ignita’s confusion did not instil confidence in him. His expression set into a frown as he let his eyes move from pillar to pillar. How to confirm if this strange phenomenon was a threat to him and his? Her attention turned to light, and his eyes followed hers, but he didn’t move forward, not just yet.

He paused by one of the stone pliers, and used a claw to gently attempt to flake off a piece of stone, trying to get a feel if the material was the same all the way through - or if it reacted to his investigation. He could feel his companions tense around Ignita, prepared to harry her away if necessary.

He waited a moment, and nothing happened. Hmmm. if there was something to be ‘activated’ here, he needed to know it. He looked to the light now properly, and nodded his head to Ignita. “We’ll go further in.” Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought Ignita with him, but she belonged at his side.


"Basilisk Fatalis"

Speech // thought

She slowly crept forward, the companions bracing themselves to turn her back but she was drawn over the ground to explore. She paused, just as Bas was rejoining her side,
"Wait-" She said out loud to halt him. Rocks skittered down into a deep crevice, a crack in the earth stretched out either side. She took a step back, those were much deeper than the dry crackling plates of the desert. It was thin enough for Bas to simply step over, but she would have to leap.

Her fur rose as goosebumps ran under her fur, alarm at what this could mean, the leaning slope of this strange new land to a sunken point.

Her breath caught and grew shallow with fear.
"This could be a sinkhole. The very earth on top could move without any warning, there could be a huge space beneath us carved by years of water shifting the water table." If she glanced around she could see a few more cracks here and there. She hadn't initially read about that in a book, she had heard tales of one showing up randomly on the edge of the desert kingdom. Then it had scared her enough to heavily research it. They were close to the glowshroom cave, which was already an established cave system around here. They had explored it even. It was their first night.

She didn't know what to do.

He halted at Ignita’s hurried warning, and then moved carefully forward, looking at the strange cracks she had seen in the earth. His frown grew, and he knew beyond a doubt that he didn’t want Ignita to attempt to jump that gap. He was not about to lose her to this strange land.

Gritting his teeth, he nudged Ignita, a little forcefully, on the shoulder. “Let's look for a way around.” He said, debating the sensibility of turning around, and leading her back home. He wanted and needed to explore, but he needed Ignita safe more. The whole damn world could burn for all he cared, so long as his Ignita made it through.


"Basilisk Fatalis"

Speech // thought

She watched him warily as he inspected the crack before her. He had no idea of the danger. She looked up at him, a question of doubt in her eyes for following him even just around the gap. The other side could be unstable... But she could be wrong... She felt his nudge on her shoulder, it jolted her back to moving. She clung to his hip as they skirted around the edge.

The sun continues to rise but the warmth doesn't break through the stain of red above them. As if the sky was bleeding.

They neared one of the spikes and she noticed the ground grew more stable and compact.

"The spires, they seem to have more stability to the ground..." She said quietly, loud enough for him to hear her. She sees the base of the spire and it seems as if long ago it had been etched with some sort of design but it had been weathered and the surface was scoured from any defining details.

She hears it before she feels it, the low ominous sound. Then her fur is gently teased by a strange slow breeze. The sound comes from the spires, but she gathered it's from the wind playing with the strange bracers and measured holes in the massive spikes. She feels herself trembling and pressing against his side.

Basilisk kept his steps slow and careful, mistrustful of the ground and area around them. As if expecting… something… to strike at them at any time. If that was the ground itself crumbling away, or a more tangible threat like something bursting from the ground. His mistrust spread to the spires themselves, and he kept an eye on them as well.

He felt his fur react to the strange, eerie sound that whistled through them. Ominous, like a warning. The red glow that touched every surface from the bleeding moon did not help the sense of foreboding. When Ignita pressed closer to him, he raised a paw, drawing her even closer. His companions pressed around them, watchful and wary. “Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea” he growled.


"Basilisk Fatalis"

Speech // thought

She pressed against him. Their fur touched, her eyes wide.

Is there anything underneath the spikes? Where did they come from? Her mind ran all kinds of scenarios. Ominous warnings howled above them through the spikes.

They pass another spire and this one had etchings of a grotesque monster. The scene sent shivers up her spine. The soil was soft as they passed between the spikes.

"We should stay close to the spikes. The soil is too soft between them for my liking." After he mentions that maybe this wasn't a good idea. She wasn't about to "no shit Sherlock" him, they had no idea what was in store. She couldn't figure out which was worse, the unsettling appearance of these strange spires or the howling noises, or the blood-red sky, or the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach about it all.

Basilisk’s eyes studied each spike near them. Lingering slowly on their forms. Did that one look a little like a snowman? No, Nyx was lying about that. His eyes continued on, searching for meaning in the strange landscape.

His eyes followed Ignita, hyper aware of her, as her eyes landed on a spie with a depiction of some sort of monster. He frowned, pausing to examine it for a moment. A clue? Perhaps. If there was some sort of threat, a monster, he needed to keep Ignita safe.

[b] “Understood.”[/v] He said softly, knowing that her knowledge through bookwork was more extensive than his. If she thought the land unsafe too far from the spikes, he would take her warning


"Basilisk Fatalis"