yes; it was a tomb, this place, stricken through with light that shone an eldritch green. but it was also shadows, and darknesses with which he blended well. breath hitched in his throat; lasher barely felt the press of the loam beneath his paws as he slipped through the yawning maw of the great forest. it smelled of earth, and moss, and dead things that had returned to the ground beneath his feet, to sate the hunger of the trees that reached toward heaven above him.

taltos released the air hidden in his throat, shoving it between teeth bared in a feral grin. his heart throbbed with the bird-flutter of nerves inside his chest — "but it is a game!" the sable one exclaimed to himself, youthful abandonment extending his forelegs in a parody of a prance. his eyes danced, tail flicking against his heels; he cavorted in a tiny clearing alone, looking quite mad to whoever would happen upon him in this, the belly of the woodland beast.