Blackfeather Woods the black star

Fellglow Keep — open to anyone, preferably someone that can explain the concept of the DB!

He was still deeply affected by the poppies, but was at a point where he had begun to sober up and movement became more of an asset rather than a hindrance. Titmouse had spent the early morning hours dragging himself around Wolfskull Cave as if he were on the hunt for something, and that need to find whatever-it-was, that's what brought him through a gap in the stone and along a corridor few tread, until the cavern opened up to a segment of stale-air and darkness. He was not afraid because he had no such inclination, his mind numbed by the drugs. Yet the further he went, the more things changed. The darkness became grainy; he thought he saw shadows dancing before him, leading him along — and then, as he came upon the keep, eerie illumination crept in to his vision. The walls were intermittently glossed with dull light, and further along - as he came to the main chamber - the ceiling too. He stared up at the strange shapes painted across the cavern's faceted interior and didn't grasp what he was seeing. They were like stars, and he could've sworn the stars were talking to him.

He moved on, his eyes cast up for a while and then drawn down to the wall by his face; Titmouse followed the curve of the wall and used the light as his guide, not knowing where he was or why he'd come here, having almost totally forgotten his time spent in Wolfskull Cave. What had he been looking for? Probably Maegi; but at this point he was addled and unfocused. His strides continued in short bursts until he felt a chill in his toes, heard the sloshing of water and felt his teeth begin to chatter — Titmouse had inadvertently walked in to a pool of winter's run-off; it likely started outside the cave system, but because of the recent arrival of snow the water level was greater. The pool was overflowing in the dark, not that he'd have noticed the glimmering of the luminous mushrooms around the pool, or the dim reflected light off of the frigid surface.

But he was aware now, sort of. He felt the reaching cold as it sank through his thin legs, slicking the fur of his extremities all the way up to his belly, but he didn't move. Didn't think, rather. His limbs felt so cold and so numb and it suited him fine, matching the numb mind he carried with him.

"Glisten, glinsten, little 'shroom," she sang in a whispery voice while she walked past the glowing mushrooms. The ghost felt right at place here, between the glowing serenity of the mushrooms and the dark murky waters that she would not traverse; they were too wet and cold right now, and her fur was thin and whispy as it were so she did not really wish to risk getting wetter and colder than the winter already was.

"Nobody knows 'n you go boo—" Ears perked and a sly smile found its way to her face as her song was cut short by the appearance of another. He stood looking confused in the waters, and the spirit wondered how on earth the broken bird had survived for so long since their last meeting. "Hey, bird." She called out to him as she casually trotted on over.

It wasn't often that Titmouse explored the woods; he had been a sedentary fixture ever since his arrival, rarely venturing to the borders and too nervous to go anywhere near the caves. But that had been before, he thought grimly. That had been Mou that had the issues with the caves. One would think, having been returned to himself, Titmouse would be filled with dread for being in the heart of Blackfeather Woods in its entirety. I am the sum of my parts, he thought as he stared at the dully glowing mushrooms lining the walls; my parts are scattered in the wind, but the pieces that I have are...

He was roused from his odd thinking by the sound of music. Maybe not music, exactly. It was a voice and it was light, whisp-thin and eerie as it crept through the dark and met his ears. He turned to greet the approaching body with his singular eye, curious of the pale figure. Titmouse felt his heart lurch in his chest, tha-thump tha-thump, but the warmth he'd experience upon seeing Maegi did not radiate through him this time. The cold was there instead, along with the dark.

And when he saw her face he thought, I don't know this face, and for a split-second he thought he was seeing a glimpse of Maegi as a child; lithe and pale, eerie but unblemished. Then she said, Hey, bird, and he came back to reality. Or, as much of reality as he could handle — which morphed this Maegi look-alike in to her true form, the Ghost he thought he'd seen.

Was she haunting him? Ah you hhhantin' meh? He slurred, putting a little too much emphasis on the breathy notes so they'd come out right, but in the end it wasn't clear if he was saying haunting or hunting. It really didn't matter.

There was nothing that thrilled the pale youth more than to see the look on someone's face upon seeing a ghost (or thinking they saw one). A big grin appeared on her face as he asked her if she was hunting him, or haunting him, or something between the two. It didn't truly matter to the spirit child either, not really, for those two were very similar in being. The most thrilling bit of all was that he seemed to believe that she was a ghost almost more than she actually believed this herself, which was thrilling, to say the least.

First, she simply bobbed her head in quiet, ghostly confirmation of the hunt or haunt. Then the spirit slowly lifted her head and said: "Sithis told me to." It wasn't a total lie, because Sithis told her many things and was always whispering in her ears. It was very likely that this was one of those things, and if not, well, call it creative interpretation. She looked at Bird's face, hoping to catch a trace of whether the name Sithis meant anything to him -- and what.

Her admittance - and the spoken name of his chosen god - did not bring rise to any sort of fanaticism within him, but he took her comment as a confirmation and found comfort in it. Maegi had always said that Sithis was the god of the void - he might've been remembering that wrong - but it was Sithis that had led him to the woods, and Sithis who had kept him safe in the caves. He owed a lot to the deity, and if this ghost was an envoy of that same power then he welcomed her.

Although he did not have the energy to smile, Titmouse did relax as much as he was able; he seemed to forget an instant later that Averna was there with him, and began to explore the area with a child-like curiosity and wonder.

There was usually disconcertion on the faces of the wolves that she told these sort of things. Imagine how surprised the spirit was to find that he did not seem to find discomfort in her presence -- for as far as she could tell from his face, anyway. It seemed a good way to figure out who was good wolf or bad wolf, the spirit thought to herself, to speak of Sithis. Good wolves did not mind being haunted, after all.

She let out a short squeal of child-like glee as he continued to explore the area, accepting her presence easily. While he continued to explore the area, the spirit went to explore some of the glowing mushrooms. She liked the way they made the tip of her nose glimmer when she came in real close.