A wide ravine where a shallow, gentle river flows. Years of drought and silt deposits have built this area into a fertile delta. The river remains low and dry most of the year, staining its waters brown and creating muddy shores.
Dos tilted her head curiously at the seemingly-angry-but-not-quite-angry rant that was immediately levied at her - ohhhh, Elcid thought she was playing a trick? Interesting idea! Dos hadn't ever really considered using her shapeshifting to play tricks on anyone - knew she that some ]other shifters did so sometimes but the only ones Dos was around regularly were her mom and sister, both of whom wouldn't appreciate that kind of behavior so it dropped right out of her mind.
"Sorry! It was a super cool pounce though, I didn't see ya until you were already jumping," she said brightly. She reached up and brushed some of the remaining dirt on the wolf's muzzle to the ground, "And I was super excited to see you 'cause I've been trying to find you for a while for our quest but I never did except now I did so I forgot I was a rabbit!"
As if that was a completely normal sentence to speak and a universal experience for everyone, the vixen dropped back down to all fours and began to prance around the wolf to express her joy. Her fluffy twin tails wagged in delight at the confirmation that her friend was no only feeling better but had access to her medicine and knew where her Zane was! Although she was slightly confused by 'drowned lands' - a lot of creatures had mentioned a really big flood but honestly, Dos only remembers going to sleep in her nest in the ruins and waking up in a more well-furnished den here, in the new forest.
"It's a cool one! Wayyy cooler than the other, kinda stinky one that's weird about every creature for herself or something. I think they're all about 'the strong survive and the weak dies' - you know, old world stuff." Dos said, although her memories from this timeline about that were pretty blurry too. "And the queen here wasn't stupid and didn't just walk up and decide she owns the place. There's weird stuff abouts gods and everything but I think all worlds are like that."
Oh! Elcid wanted to live with them? That would be awesome!
"Oh that would be awesome!" she voiced anyway, wagging her tail. "I think you gotta talk to someone so everyone knows you're with us now and not trespassing but I don't know. Mama always lived here this time around."
Dos apologized and even though it was very unneeded, Elcid nodded her head at it anyways, accepting the apology. "It was a pretty good pounce, and a pretty good dodge. I ate a lot of dirt." Elcid snickered as Dos reached up and helped her clear off some of the left-behind debris. What she hadn't expected to hear, however, was that Dos had been looking for her. She hadn't forgotten about their quest to find the Bad Guy who had originally zapped her away from Oracle and Zane. It had just... become a lesser priority once she'd been reunited with Zane once again. Her life wasn't so touch and go anymore. As long as Zane was around, her affliction could be kept away.
As the fox pranced, her twin tails flowing behind her fluidly, Elcid smiled and felt herself feeling glad and giddy at the reunion. Her anger at Dos moments ago had completely vanished. She wanted to pounce and play and run and chase. She was excited! Nevermind that Zane might beginning to wonder where she was at by now. She had already strayed too close to another packs borders. If he found her lollygagging around... pff, good thing he wasn't her dad.
Dos began to explain the kingdom to Elcid and she found herself frowning as she listened. Gods, why did there always have to be gods involved? The only gods Elcid was interested in were gods that could help her with her enchanting, of which none she'd found yet. "Do they like, force you to do the whole god thing?" Now drawn into conversation, the urge to pounce and play left her and she settled down into a sit, mindlessly lifting a hind leg to scratch at her ear as she did so. "I don't really get the whole point and idea of gods. If they're so amazing, then why don't they ever show up? Why don't they ever do anything? A bunch of stars in the sky, I say." She paused, tilting her head and wincing as she realized that she wasn't sure if Dos was a believer or not, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with those who do the whole worship stuff, it's just not for me or Zane."
Dos circled around her friend merrily, seemingly overflowing with energy now that she was with her - her friend was healed, she had her Zane and she thought Dos was a great dodge-r! Admittedly, it wasn't great that her friend had eaten dirt but that was only because Elcid's pounce was so cool - she was totally going to tell Gabriel about this, he had to know how awesome her friend was. Maybe he'd take her hunting and Elcid would bring down something huge like a deer then Dos could get another special present but one that matches with Elcid's like a vest! A matching pair of vests! And with pockets so Elcid can carry her medicine around when they went on quests because they would be totally questing and-
"Oh, I don't think so," Dos said, thinking on her own life. "I mean, I know these ones are kinda real 'cause they're troublesome but I haven't had anyone be mad at me for not knowing everything. And mom, Uno and I don't mind listening to the shamans or anything but we like our own spirits more."
She paused, tilting her head as she squinted in thought, "I think so long as you're not mean and don't work for the meany goddess that says only the strong should survive, no one would care much."
The vixen offered a bright expression, "It's okay either way though - we'll still be best friends even if you don't live here!"
She thinks. She's being presumptuous admittedly, declaring the wolf her best friend when she could totally have a new-best-friend in this new life but Dos was okay with sharing the title with another creature if she had to.
At her friend's mention of following their own spirits, Elcid sighed a breath of relief. She hadn't accidentally offended her, and in fact, had learned that Dos did keep her own religion, but it was separate from this Kingdom's. If they allowed others to study their own personal beliefs and didn't force it upon their members, then maybe they would be accepting of her and Zane, too.
There did seem to be one restriction, however. There was a goddess that was off limits, but no title or name was offered. Well, it was a good thing that she didn't care about any gods. "Yeah, of course we will! Best friends forever! I'm gonna talk to Zane, though, and see what he thinks. I think it could be great to call this home, but I can't just make the choice to live somewhere else without his opinion. I'm sure I can convince him, though. I mean, I've already got lots of counter points, like... like... there's you here, and there's others to watch our backs here maybe, not that he would trust any of them, and there's probably someone else to do the hunting, and there's probably lots of herbs and stuff that he needs for his experiments, and, and..." Elcid paused in her rambling as she caught her breath, before going on. "and you said it's way cooler here, but maybe I should have some examples to describe to him, like um, like, like..." she paused again as she thought, then suddenly jumped up with an idea on all four paws from her sit. "Oh! Why don't you show me around? You can be my official escort on official business and if anyone asks, you were leading me straight back out of the territory! What do you say? I know technically it's trespassing but I'm with you! And if we do get caught, think of how happy you'll make them, finding and escorting a vagrant out of their lands!"
Dos titled her head, listening to the wolf ramble - honestly, it was great to have a friend who talked as much as she did, now the vixen didn't have to worry about being told to shut up! - about the how it's like to join her 'new' pack. It was good of her friend to always check in with her 'Zane' - ressured Dos that Elcid would probably 'check-in' when they did adventures so Dos can check in on her friend and they'll have each other's backs and it'll be just like the stories! Epic and great!
"There is are a bunch of herbs I think," Dos said merrily, though she wasn't a healer and still only knew a pawful of basic plants that grew in her territory but there were a lot of them so it counted. "And there's the cool river and the special place with the weird gravity and-"
She gasped with delight when Elcid suggest a tour.
"Oh that's a great idea!" she yipped gleefully, wagging her twin tails. "I can show you all the cool stuff! Come on! There's this place where I saw a super huge beetle once!"
The little cross fox turned up river and charged off, static electricity crackling across her thick coat with excitement.
Dos confirmed her hunch that there were probably lots of herbs in the pack's lands and Elcid grinned with an 'I knew it!' look on her face. When she mentioned the weird gravity place, Elcid's grin turned into excited wonder. "What, really?!" She gasped at the same time that Dos did. Dos eagerly took her up on her idea to show her around the lands and coaxed her along with wagging tails. Perfect. If she could tell Zane about all of the great things she'd seen with her own eyes, then there was no way he'd say no. The idea of a huge beetle wasn't exactly what she had meant, but it would be something else she could share with Zane as a way to convince him that this was definitely where they should live.
Elcid leapt forward after her fox friend as she took off up the river. She made sure to keep a distance, however, as she saw sparks of what looked like lightning jumping across her coat. "Dos, uh, is that normal? You're not gonna shock me with that, are ya?" She paced alongside Dos, her gait longer than her fox friend's. "So, tell me about this huge beetle? How, uh, how huge are we talking here?" She hoped that 'huge' was more like 'slightly larger than normal' and it wasn't more like 'the size of a tree' huge. Elcid loved pranks. She loved the idea of justice. What she didn't like, however, was big mean scary things.
"Yeah!" Dos called over her shoulder brightly, her tail swishing happily. She dropped her head to the ground, sniffing along the earth with her nose in their pawsteps. She needed to take some time to memorize the territory a bit better if she was going to be their herald, something she still puffed her chest out with pride. "It's soooo pretty there - it's called Cloud Bend and it's like the sky is hugging the earth there! Everything is light in some spots and heavy in others and its all swirling and sparkly and the flowers are so pretty - I think there's gotta be a spirit there or something. Or maybe a passage to another world!"
She reminded herself to ask her mother more about the place - it would be really cool if she could find a way back into their old reality. The young vixen leapt up onto a log, prancing down the mossy tree as she landed next to a familiar looking gouge in a tree.
"Oh it was huge Cids!" Dos chirped brightly, not catching onto her distress quite yet. She gestured to the jagged mark in the tree that was about the same size of her own head. "It was as a big as a moose and terrifying as a bear! It waved its mandibles around and snapped at the air - I'm not sure why it was so angry but I fought it off! Oh um, Mr. Gabriel helped too but we fought it off together!"
She mimed dodging back and forth, "It was swinging its head all crazy like and I was all woosh! and hah! and I missed by dodge and it smacked me into a river like WHAM!"
Dos threw herself dramatically to the ground, raising her paw up to cover her muzzle like she'd been knocked out although her tails were still wagging too hard to be mistaken as actually hurt.
She rolled back over, entering a play-bow and changed herself back into the hyena that she'd used that time - a mostly black yeen with a series of orange-ish spots across her fur and a distinctive flaming mane.
Elcid listened with interest and her ears perked forward as Dos went on to explain Cloud Bend. It sounded mystical and like a place she'd never seen before, not that she'd seen many places. "Whoaaaa" she softly spoke as she imagined the place with her mind. The idea of a spirit living there, though, gave her the creeps. She hoped it wasn't true. Mentally, Elcid added it to a place to tell Zane about. He couldn't say no then!
Dos leapt elegantly onto a log and Elcid walked alongside it trying to keep pace with her excited fox friend. Her emerald gaze turned to look at the gouge in the tree as Dos pointed it out to her. She'd missed the large mark at first, having been distracted by a new nickname. Cids. The nickname made her body fill with happiness. She'd been given a new nickname from her best friend!
The happiness was fleeting, however, when Dos went on to describe the size of this beetle. Big as a moose and terrifying as a bear?! No thanks. "Wait, you fought off something that scary and huge?" She paused to look at her friend, then back to the gouge. For a moment, her mind mind tried to form the idea of a creature that large, raging around and swinging its deadly mandibles as it tried to crush Dos. She was glad that this Mr. Gabriel had been around to help. She'd have to remember to thank him if she came across him some day.
When Dos fell from the log and onto the ground dramatically, Elcid turned and rushed to her side, peering over her friend to check on her. The wagging tails told her that Dos was ok, but she still worried - worried for her friend's recklessness and worried about what could have happened. Before she could begin to speak her mind, Dos had jumped up into a play bow. Her friend's figure shifted and suddenly Elcid was facing down a hyena. Boy this was all a lot for her.
"That's really cool!" she commented as she stepped forward to check out her hyena figure. It was neat to see how Dos' colors shifted with each form - and even cooler how it looked like part of her was on fire. "Wow, no wonder you were able to defeat it! You're so cool and strong." She folded her ears back, wishing she could be that cool and strong. "I bet it was such an epic fight. Maybe, maybe something like this." Elcid again envisioned the scene in her mind, replacing Dos with her hyena figure instead. This time, though, she tried to share her vision with Dos.
Arcana Roll: Elcid tries to recreate the fight Dos explained with her illusion magic!
Success: An epic recreation (with the wrong colors on the beetle's part) is created. The beetle reaches up and gashes the tree and Dos' hyena figure lunges at it to attack.
Failure: There is a shimmer in the air near the gouge, a figure briefly appears, then the magic vanishes
Character Diceroll 1: Success Diceroll must be above 500 to be successful.
0 was added for Arcana.
550 was added for Level 4.
0 was added for A. No Enchantment.
2 was deducted for C. Vagrant Penalty.
Dos' twin tail wagged happily as she watched her friend - it was so great to not be filled with biting worry at all times for poor Elcid. She hadn't coughed once the entire time they'd been hanging out! She was practically wiggling out of her fur when Elcid praised her combat abilities - see, this was why the she-wolf was her best friend. Uno and her mom hadn't even tried to understand how cool it was that Dos had gone on an adventure and fought off a ferocious beast! They'd just fretted about her scrapes, thanked Mr. Gabriel for helping her and fussed and fussed until Dos begrudgingly agreed to finally lay down in her nest for the night. Sure it had been scary in the moment but the moment had passed! And Dos hadn't died! she didn't understand what the big fuss was about.
"Yeah," she bragged. "It totally got me good but we got it gooder - goodest? We kicked its butt and it ran away!"
The twin-tail glanced toward the other bank and was slightly disappointed to see that the water seemed to have washed away the large prints made in the mud - darn, now she couldn't show irrefutable proof to her friend of how awesome her fight had been.
"Woah..." Dos breathed in awe, watching the battle play out in front of her. She didn't even care the beetle was the wrong color, the vixen was torn in so many directions of excitement: firstly, this fight Elcid was showing was wayyyy cooler than it had been in real life! Dos was a good story-teller, don't get her wrong but there had been a lot more tripping over mud, waiting awkwardly trying not to shock Mr. Gabriel and generally feeling kind of embarrassed that she hadn't yet unlocked her fox-fire. This fight made her look awesome, like a true fox-spirit, with skills more befitting of a five or a six tails rather than her own measly two. Secondly: Elcid was using ox-magic!! Or at least something similar - this was exactly the kind of illusions Dos was working on learning! It was possibly the greatest thing she'd ever discovered! Even cooler than her own fight! "That's so awesome 'cid!"
Dos darted forward immediately, batting curiously at the illusion, utterly infatuated.
"How did you do that? That's so epic! I've been trying to figure out how to make illusions too but I haven't really gotten it to make sense yet and yours looks so real and kinda mystical," the vixen babbled, circling the creation with her ears fully pricked. There was so much presence to the forms! This was an art! She made a mental note to convince Elcid to do her magic for her family - surely Uno and her mom would have to settle down about her if they knew Elcid could use fox-crafts, right? "Can you make sounds with it? I bet you can 'cause you're so awesome already I have the coolest best friend ever, you gotta teach me how to do the illusions I wanna surprise my mama with my skills but in a good-way not the awkward way I surprised her by showing her I found my fox-fire where I was all 'look mom!'"
