Lion Head Mesa are we the sons of seth, and the daughters of cain?

Medusa had not known much kindness in her life. But she also did not recognize its counterpoint for what it was. And so, as far as she could tell, life was good. Today was a day meant to escape from darkness, but unlike most children Medusa kept away from any light. Once, and only once, had she been interested in that new thing that illuminated the floor. But she did not like being uncomfortable, and after enough times of enduring such a feeling from that (of which she would only remember the once), Medusa had learned to stay away. 

She and her brother were reared by @Jawahir. It was not a warm upbringing. But Medusa did not understand it to be cold. She did not understand a lot.

Tonight... There was a different kind of light that illuminated the dens floor. Her muzzle had been resting atop her forelegs as she idled, but as time passed the light stretched. Medusa looked to her brother, who was not moved by it. 

Ky-eht, she called to him, the sound timid. A name provided by Jawahir (quiet, they had actually said), spoken enough that it stuck. It was but one of many that the two of them had. All things were names, and none of them commands. If he stirred, she did not wait to see it as the moonlight ensconced her face. 

This... was... not uncomfortable. 

Ky-eht, she repeated, louder now. Medusa stood, and stepped forward. But she waited for @Midas now, unwilling to go further without him. Hm. Maybe he needed encouraging? She turned to stand at his side, and would move with him, an unwitting guide. 

Medusa did not know he could not see.

Always in the dark. For Midas it was normal. His life was smells and sounds. Those that were most familiar to him were those of his sister. Which was still a concept to him that wasn't explained. There always seemed to be an 'other' around him, one that behaved like him. One that could mimic his sounds. He felt comfortable. He knew the smell of food. The smells he needed instinctually.

The boy lifted his head when he heard the tones of the other. He knew the place he was, was not endless. It smelled damp, with their scents mixed. He had found out that there were places he couldn't go, where he was stopped for some reason. She came to approach him and called him again. The child pushed himself to his paws. He took a step forward. He turned 90 degrees and then stepped closer.

He had lifted his chin, as it followed along her back against her fur until he was standing next to her. Midas stepped forward a few steps conscious of the fact that there was a point where he would be stopped. His chest was puffed out and tail was up. He took another step forward, his confidence dripping off him. Waaa?

He met her, his familiar way of navigating one that she thought was normal. She stood still up until he was beside her, and then she took a step forward, and then another. Medusa paused at the threshold where normally they were stopped. Something held her there for a moment. Medusa was not a disobedient girl, not intentionally, but she was a curious one. And this light... it called to her. It demanded exploration. 

Of them both. 

Medusa took another step forward. No reprimand, no obstacle. She blinked and said, nooo, as they had been told many times before... but took another step. 

When no one stopped her from there, Medusa smiled. No one had come to collect them, to bring them to the rendezvous. But Medusa did not think for one moment it was because they were forgotten. Such a concept did not exist to her.

No, what Medusa thought was that this light had granted them an opportunity. One the other light, the light of day, had not. So she said, ...hmmm... 

And then made to leave the rendezvous. ...us go, she started, and then, we bye! looking to her brother, nodding encouragingly (not that he could see), making sure he was with her for each step. To the hallways!

Midas noticed no difference. Perhaps if this had been during the day, then he might have felt the warm sun on his back. However, the moonlight did nothing for him. While he moved confidently forward, it wasn't a fast pace. Each step that he took was a conscious one. He slowed as the ground seemed to slope up. It was different under his paws. He pushed forward, and realized he was going ... up?

The boy took it step by step with the other one by his side. He liked that other one. It made him feel even more confident. He stopped at her 'Nooo'. He had heard that before. But often he chose to ignore that word. However, coming from her it made him pause a little. We go?, he mimicked. His nose was starting to pick up new things as he took a step forward.

The male brought his nose to the ground and then took in the scent. He started to follow it. There were so many smells!! He was almost a little overwhelmed by it. The strong scent of the den laid behind them. This time he hadn't been stopped. Aha! He puffed out his chest. We bye!, he repeated with an air of arrogance. Smells! He brought his nose to the ground and started to follow one particular scent, step by step. Midas didn't run, or jump. He walked.

As he did he walked into a bush, not a hard stop. The boy paused and tried to continue but he was still stopped for some reason. He let out a growl and leaned into it. It didn't really budge. He moved his nose into it, it smelled like earth but different. He tried to bite into the branches, but only after a few nips he got one between his jaws. The twig snapped. Midas spat it out, it wasn't tasty. Yuck. Stop why! he demanded.

Midas was soon preoccupied. Medusa watched him, but only for a moment. When he said, smells, Medusa scrunched her nose and then decided to do just that, because there were some interesting smells. But she left her brother for a moment too long. He was bumping into something, she heard. And as she turned her head to look, she watched him continue his struggle against one of the catacombs underbrush items, thick and tangled. 

Medusa made her way back to him, and squinted up at the underbrush, bigger than them both. She pushed gently against it, and saw it for what it was: an obstacle. Bad, she admonished, not knowing it would not understand. 

Medusa looked down at the stick. She picked it up, but was quick to realize (like her brother) that it was not for eating. But...

Her tail wagged. She said, trkke, between her gritted teeth. With him holding one end, perhaps... perhaps she could ensure he did not hit these things in the way. Or maybe he wanted to play with the bad thing, but it did not seem like that. She was not sure, but she did not question him or it.

Midas' ears twitched. He was still getting used to the fact that they both could produce sounds and say things. The young boy often mimicked what his sister said. Hence why he chirped another Bad! after his sister.

The boy turned to the sound of his sister. Her voice sounded different and he wasn't sure why. He stepped closer and sniffed. He could smell the sap from the branch by the other. He brought his nose closer to her mouth seeing that was where the smell came from. He offered a little nudge, though he couldn't see her play stance. No eat. He warned to warn her that it wasn't good.

Completely missing his sister's cues he continued to explore one step at the time, taking in the information that his feet, ears and nose were giving him. His tail was up, feeling the rock under his paws. The child continued, his nose to the ground going his own way, not sure where he was headed.

@Ramesses or @Jakoul or even any of the fellahin also welcome in this at any point! they're wandering around, but still haven't made it very far from their starting point. 

 

Medusa watched, smiling around the branch he had told her not to eat. Her tail wagged to know of his concern, and she determined that if he did not wish to grab the stick she would not force it upon him. Unless he wanted it for himself, she would not push it against him. Instead Medusa did what she had grown accustomed to. 

She clumsily moved toward his side. His other side would be the wall, but should he move too close to it (and too quickly), she would drift toward that side to act as a buffer to prevent him from stumbling into anything. Medusa felt braver and more comfortable here herself, but kept the branch in her mouth. Her gums felt good against it. 

She did not know where they were going, either, but as long as she was with him she felt it would be alright. Medusa was used to the shadows, and comfortable in the slivers of light the moon offered breaking through sand rock above.

Her state of being had nose dived, considerably.

She stirred only in the dark now. Maegi's old rooms were haunted by her and closeness was not often welcomed. Only the pharaoh could have say in these matters of her being.

She understood greatly now the dismal air of mourning that had hung over Akashingo that day the queen had been laid to rest.

It was a feeling that took harbor in her heart now.

She slunk around in the moon and starlight. Uncertain what to do with herself now. But, oh, what was this? Little prey?

No, it was worse.

Pale parasitic reminders of Maegi. She stood in their path, a few feet away. A shadow within shadows.

Midas felt his sister next to him. She was always there to feel her by his side. It was quite pleasant. He was already confident, not really bothered by his disability, but with his sister next to him it made it even better. The blind pup continued to his path. His sensitive ears taking in the surrounding. Without his vision he listened, smelled and felt. Where the ground stayed stable and hard under him, there was a light scuffle catching his ears and a faint wisp of scent.

Midas stopped and listened. Now the sounds seemed to be gone. Had he been wrong? He checked his nose, wanting to know if something was there. He sniffed. There was definitely a scent. He curiously stepped forward. Did he know this scent? Did Medusa know it? He was unaware of the concept seeing, as far as he was concerned he could 'see'. "Usa! Smell?" The boy was curious if she noticed it too.

That her brother could not see was not known to her. All that he knew, she knew. That was what she believed. When her brother paused, she did the same. For the same reasons as he did, though he had noted it before her. Her reaction was a little delayed. 

A gentle nudge to his shoulder. He would know this as, there is someone there. Usually, the nudge was provided when @Jawahir was back from wherever it was she went. A nudge meant to bring awareness, and create stillness. Jawahir was not always so patient with their noisemaking. 

But this was not Jawahir. 

Medusa was too young to know fear. Her curiosity was great. That this wolf might be a danger to her, or to her brother, was unknown. She just knew that the wolf before her was a comforting color, a color that she often kept to. So Medusa ambled toward Jakoul with a we go, to her brother.

There was hatred.

There was love.

There was the gaping chasm of her sorrow, on full display in the sunken shape of her eyes. It would have been so horribly easy to cause harm. To snuff out reminders of a lost life. It would have been even easier to latch onto these babes, cradle them and coo to them.

The last reminder she had!

The spoke, it seemed as if they might approach.

She lowered down to her belly and stared at them with her moon eyes. A warm note slowly built in her throat.

Midas stepped forward when Medusa said that they would go. To him it was like he was seeing. Because he could smell and hear the other. The bold young man moved forward. The scent was stronger, and he could soon sense something before him, mostly because his snout bumped into the other wolf.

His tail was excitedly wagging. His nose being pushed in the other's fur. This was a new one. He didn't know this one. Midas was pressing his nose against the other's chest, curiously going through it. His mouth ever took a few nips on strands of hair to taste as that was how he explored.

The other became their size in an instant. 

Medusa moved with Midas alongside her, tail still but eyes bright. She looked into silver. It was like comforting light that encompassed her then. It was not bad, but good. So she did not stop until she got before the others face, and then pressed her nose against the others because it was there, and because so was she, and Medusa sought to feel as Midas did.

The sound she made was one Medusa blinked at. She had never heard such a sound. Not from their milk bringer, not from any visitor (yet) that she could have recalled. But it caused Medusa to tilt her head, wondering at its meaning... but not pushed away by it.

They explored her.

Nothing more than clueless babes, not a blip in there mind of who she was. Of who they had come from and what their very life meant to Jakoul.

She shifted, softly shuffling so she laid on her side now. Underside exposed to them. Plenty of scents would hide there, the dust of places further in Akashingo and beyond laid within her fur.

She could be a source of enrichment for them, if nothing else.

Midas moved with his sister, but soon the scents of the other wolf triggered him to explore further. The child moved his nose into her fur, he tried to take in all the scents that the female carried. He recognized the scents from the place he lived, but also other smells.

Midas nose trailed all over her. He was still clueless that he was blind. As for him, this was normal. His eyes had opened but only showing a milky film over them. ”Who?.” Midas wondered who this was.