Sunspire Mountains fox fire

The lonely ghost would have been more at home haunting the dark wood, yet here he was lingering on the edge of a precipice, unable to focus on anything for long. The lightheartedness gave way to vertigo as he got back up to his aching feet. He swayed in place for a second or two, took a step that nearly pulled him off-balance, and then made himself sit down again. He knew he wouldn't be going far now - it would be safer to wait through the night, and maybe in the morning his body would've adapted to the strange qualities of the mountain. The boy took a deep breath and hoped to steady himself, and as he exhaled again he thought he heard someone cough - his large ears twisted, and soon enough he noticed the repetitive (but quiet) sound of claws against stone. When Mou turned his head his blind side aligned with the stranger and for a moment, he thought he'd been set upon by something nefarious; but the unease shifted with his dizziness, and a heartbeat later he was staring at a pale girl drifting closer to him.

Mou thought of all the faces he knew, and couldn't place this one. The slanting aubergine light of sunset caught upon the belly of the drifting clouds overhead, muddied what he could see of the forest around him - and of her - and for a split second he thought she was enrobed in a near blackness, her eyes catching the shifting colors of the sky for a brief moment - a vibrant pumpkin orange - and Mou thought he had been found by another demon, or something else incomprehensible. The fur along his narrow shoulders began to prickle; yet the moment transitioned further, and as the sun finally nested along the horizon there was a greying effect to the world. He watched her, and saw that she was not some amorphous black shape after all - just a traveller, like him.

He tried to chuff back to her as she drew close, but there was no sound that came from his ruined throat; he felt the odd constriction of the collar around his neck and swallowed, as one might if a lump had settled there. The boy ducked his head as a sign of submission and waved his tail-tip as a friendly little hello in lieu of words, considering he had lost his voice entirely since his awakening by the river - and odd quirk he had yet to explore.