Rising Sun Valley discovery · sunbeam lair

Njal nodded at her words; however, due to his placement in the creeping dark along one wall, he realized she probably couldn't see that. The light flickered back in to its full power a moment later, bathing the boulders in an inviting glow - but Fox was not there. The man searched for her, expecting it to be easy to find the vivacious red of her coat, but there was so much more to look at - to be distracted by - that his attention waned once more. Instead of finding Fox, his eyes latched upon the moss. Unknown to him, Fox was also thinking about how it muffled sound; but Njal was more interested in the earthy smell it held. The brightness of the greens, even in the shadows. He had seen a few caves in his life but none like this; and the ones he had seen usually held some kind of night-glowing plant. A luminous and creeping thing that attached itself to the walls. But as he peered through the darkness - creeping along the natural incline, disturbing a few rocks - he could see nothing really glowing save for the light that shafted through the ceiling.

The area behind the massive boulders narrowed considerably, with forking paths naturally cut in to the rock. "I wonder what caused this." Njal mused aloud, more to himself than his companion; although a moment later he caught her comment about lairs and turned his head, pivoting his ears like radar in order to find Fox's location; he should have been paying more attention. "But a lair could be the home of a great beast. And I imagine a great beast would have to have lived here at some point. Perhaps it is still here?" Maybe only in spirit. But it was enough for the two wolves to notice something off about all the splendour and beauty around them.

With a lift of the eye, Njal could see the shifting and dusty light from over the hill-like rocks; particulate floated through it, like dust through the open mouth of a fresh den. "It is the lair of the sun." And for a moment, as his comment registered fully within his own mind and was sucked in to oblivion by the muffling moss, Njal thought of Kindred - and he felt absolutely content.