Lion Head Mesa [mp] glowing and growing

Was she near home? It certainly did not feel so. Lights, camera, action! The young wolf bounds and stomps amongst a large cavern. She was the main character in what was quite the spectacle of a show. The spotlight was on her, given by the good graces of glowing worms that stuck precariously to the ceilings, dripping off the stalactites that would otherwise look threatening.

Her calls bounced off of the walls, causing her to erupt in a fit of giggles. Miho wondered what these glowing bugs were meant to do? What was their purpose? Her center of gravity struggled as she stretched wayyy up high to attempt to paw at a few that were busy making cocoons on the walls. Just out of reach! She snapped tiny jowls in a sign of frustration. How badly she wanted to take one down and see why it glowed.

after shelving his prizes, covering them for later, khusobek sauntered back through the darkness. 

faint light caught his eye in the darkened catacomb, and when the mazoi had slunk closer it was to find a child. one of the former lake children.

he cleared his throat, gliding into the spectacular light. "why are you alone?"

The man's entrance took her by surprise, but she appreciated the way he made himself gently known before speaking and she knew him to be one of Akashingo. Still, the child pressed firmly against the wall in which she was trying to pry light-bugs from. "Dunno." Miho mumbled with eyes focused on her paws, looking as if she had done something wrong. Had she done something wrong? Should she not be here? 

The sparkle of overhead lighting once again caught her eye, and her jeweled gaze shifted up and away from the floor of the cavern, then to the giant figure cloaked in reds and shadows. "I want." She pointed to the bugs, very serious in nature. This was her mission. Perhaps he could help?

"i simply thought you would be with your sibling. or your nursemaids." khusobek glanced around and up, and spotting the little scarabs glinting above, he nodded.

he did not know why he chose to indulge, but the crocodile began to scale the side of the room, using redstone footholds as he moved up and up.

streams of sand fell to the floor below.

"Nope! Alone." She replied with gusto, feeling very much like a big girl recently. She had many responsibilities, you see. Like watching after her sister... and as of right now, catching a bug. So in the moment of feeling confident and independent, Miho mirrored the large male, unsure of how he would take her disregard for personal space. No matter, she needed the treasure.

"You is close!" Her stubby paws glided against the red stone, closer to where he placed his. "Name?" She must know this fellow adventurer's name, for future recruitment of all things fun and awesome.

not immediately did he answer, not until a final leap upward caught the thing entire in his jaws.

he dumped it onto the ground before her, where it buzzed indignantly.

"i am khusobek, one of the mazoi. what is your name?" did she remember the lake, the man wondered, waiting to see what she would do with her prize.

Immediately, as the glowing prize smacked onto the cold stony floor, Miho raced to greet it. To look it over methodically, prod and poke at it, and mouth it slightly for the taste... which was a mistake. Offended by the flavor, the child narrowed her eyes under furrowed brows as she thought about batting it away. She would have too if this adult didn't just go through the trouble of getting it for her. So she simply placed a paw over its wriggling body to bring it closer to where she stood, giving it stink eye all the while.

"Miho." Her tiny paw left the bug for a moment to gesture to herself before slamming it back onto the prize. There was a slight crunch, but she ignored it. "Khu-so-bek." Nailed it. "Khus play? Want dis?" The presentation of the bug, now hanging on for its dear life, was not an aesthetically pleasing one. Glowing goo seeped from it's cracks, reaching farther and father from the body. She placed the mess in front of her new friend, which to Miho was a thing of beauty. A treasure he would surely appreciate her sharing with him, and so she beamed up at him.

oh. miho inexpertly tortured the bug, and khusobek watched with a mixture of disgust and fondness.

once his own children had been this age. he could not remember so many times he shared these moments, but their smallness, their curiosity about the world around them, he recalled these things.

the insect was in its final throes. khusobek peered at it and turned it over to expose the wing-case. "it reminds me of a scarab. do you know what that is, miho?"

The child observed politely, with a whip of her tail in interest, as the mazoi exposed the creature further. On her tip toes she peered over it, as if needing to stretch above an invisible wall. 

A scarab, she did not know. She did, however, know how to scare. Were they related? Miho did it to her sister all of the time. But the soot-ball would not pretend to know what she did not, and shook her head in response. "No. Dis scare-wib?" Accidentally, Miho squished it beyond repair after losing her balance while patting at it. It's feeble attempt to flee was thwarted by an otherwise innocent soul. "Oops..."

the insect was now quite dead, and khusobek moved to push it gently away. "it is said each night, the sun dies and is reborn in the morning. once it was also thought that the scarab beetle, a little like this, rolled the sun across the sky from one corner to the other."

a soft, fun story. for once, he found himself in enjoyment, taken again with thoughts of the children he had left behind. they might see him as stern, but never hateful, for khusobek had found ways to show his adoration.