Two Eyes Cenote mercury

Tag just for reference :) Open to anyone!

It is with small, tentative steps that the girl ventures into the red hall for the very first time.

She pauses every so often to take in the towering cavern, eyes tracing the floor before following the walls upwards. Behind her is the room where she and her siblings had spent their entire short lives so far, where @Nazli had taken them in as her own – not that the siblings knew any better. To Asenath at least, she was their true mother. At the thought, she hesitates, casting a glance over her shoulder to see if the woman, or even her brothers or sisters followed.

Her focus snaps back to the area immediately before her as a tall fellahin skirts by, casting only a brief, inquisitive glance at the child before continuing on.

Asenath stares back, blue eyes wide with trepidation.

Nokht stirred the moment he felt his sister leave the pile, and peered curiously through wide mis-matched eyes at her as she wobbled out of the dark and into the light—a hallway soon to be well known to them, for now, inconceivable. The boy would spare a final glance to the security of the bed, and then rise.

He tilted his head once he reached her, over-sized ears suddenly widening to the sounds that bounced off the walls of the larger space.

She is quickly joined by her brother who she did not notice at first. Asenath's gaze is instead fixed upon the walls. In colour, they were not too dissimilar to the ones surrounding the den, but they were nearly triple in size, all the sounds of the halls swept up and ricocheting off the tall cavern's roof.

The girl's sensitive ears fell back, her initial awe turning to discomfort as the noises echoed around her, before she catches the dusky-hued coat of her brother out of the corner of one eye.

"'Ohk!" she chirps in greeting, her pronunciation of his name clumsy from an inexperienced tongue. Still, she is happy to have his company on their first adventure, and gives him an appreciative nose-bump on one cheek.

He meets his sisters headbutt with a half-hearted one of his own. He is daunted by their surroundings, suddenly so open and overwhelming. He shrinks, what little he had of a tail tucked between his back legs. Nath.. He echoes meekly. 

He would not leave her side, frozen as his limbs tried to be. The boy trails alongside her, willing his paws to keep moving. He wouldn't let his sister go off alone. He was far more apprehensive in his pace, and in the constant swivel of his head at every clack of a pebble or whistle of a breeze.

His fear was shed for a moment as he adjusted to the space and sounds. He couldn't help but feel a tinge of curiosity rise in the hairs along his nape. The cave walls towered up and over, much bigger than the nest they shared with their mother and siblings. Brilliant flowers and hanging vines crept around the halls and strung through the cracks, Nokht wondered if they held the place together.

She picks up on her brother's unease and feels a bloom of courage in her chest. Well, she couldn't have Nokht being scared; she'd just have to be brave for the both of them! As if to test that, a loud noise comes from somewhere in the far-off halls – something wooden clattering to the stone floor. She jumps, short tail sticking right up in shock.

"Wha's dat?" she whispers in surprise to Nokht, as if he knew any more than herself. It was then her gaze and attention is stolen by the flowers adorning the walls her brother spied just moments before. She gasps in delight. "P'etty!"

Wide ears flattened to his head as a clanging rang throughout the halls; unlike his sister, he was not entirely keen on finding out what it was. Luckily, her attention seemed quickly diverted, and Nokht took the opportunity to keep them in this nice safe little spot- even if it wouldn’t last long.

Using the wall to leverage himself, unpracticed, pudgy hind-limbs to hold him up. He plucked the lowest sprouting of the flora, and offered it to Asenath.