Redsand Canyon dry dry desert

Atjun explored the heart of the canyonlands, patrolling some of the sections where her sisters had already tread, and then choosing to veer down a path that looked usable but abandoned; there were no wolf scents along the ledge as she climbed it, but it was wide enough for at least two, maybe three bodies across. 

It wound down and through the canyon for a time, and emptied into a wide colosseum of stone. There were many places for dangers to hide, here. The shadows had grown long with the time it took for her to climb down to this place, but beyond that - she found more corridors, and some chasms in to the rock.

The woman paused before some of these openings and sniffed the air, searching for anything suspicious, but if anything lived among these apartments she could not find anything.

Only, there was a creature in the folds of shadow, who’d perhaps gone unnoticed beneath his mantle of midnight, and who gave great heed to the other joining him in the terrestrial labyrinth.

“A long way down, isn’t it?” His silken voice reaches for her through the spires. 

The shadows peel back, receding to show how his face hinges and comes apart, dark upturned lips, eyes light-yellow and holding her in spectacle.

A voice did snake from the darkness.The tone was almost playful to her ears, or potentially diabolical; either way, Ajtun was alerted and immediately cautious. Her skin trembled as her fur stood on-end along her spine, and her ears lanced back atop her head, then forward to cup the sounds in case the voice called again - but instead she saw a sharply angled creature emerge.

What do you know of it, shadow? She would be curt, as Ajtun was not versed in social niceties, and spoke in her direct manner. A new god has come to this canyon. She warned. He sends me to learn every path.

“Only that the way back up will be much longer.”

He carries himself with laughter and slips like a trickle of dark water along the rocks to closer behold the form of his stranger. She’s arrayed in common gray but with an unusual stare like a pair of bright desert jades. Everything in her guards against him, and especially her words that speak of god.

Oh, but he held love for the smile of a stranger, if she would let him.

“Rejoice!” He hums in near melody, “a divine being to deliver the canyon from godlessness.”

A new god, what a novelty it is! He knows the scope of old gods, the cruelty that comes of watching infinite generations rise and fall beneath them. His eyes are kindling, gathering their zeal. He smiles at the jeweled lady.

“Tell me, is yours a merciless god?”