[h3]Darkwood Denizens[/h3] Two shapes darted through the Darkwoods like shadows in the night. Clad in large cloaks of forest-kin fur that still grew despite its former bearer’s demise the two elves stalked, the rest of their forms covered in simple leafy wraps for modesty, while the rest of their skin lay exposed but not bear, for it was instead covered in delicate patterns of blue woad and red bloodroot that allowed their pale skin to blend with the shadows, while also allowing for a bit of personal expression. One was covered in swirling fronded strokes of her namesake: Fern, while the other, Stag, had depicted a leaping deer upon his own chest. The pair also wore crowns of branches, Fern’s a ring of thorny spikes while Stag had stolen the wooden antlers of his naming for headgear. Fern thought that was going a bit overboard on a singular aesthetic honestly, and sometimes teased him about it for fun. Less fun was his constant skittishness, which presently resulted in a hushed conversation between the pair. “There it was again!” Stag hissed, sharpened branch raised towards a patch of shadows, “I swear something following us” “This is the third time now. Keep it up and you’ll end up like Acorn, mauled by a barkwolf after people stopped listening to her crying out about them” Fern replied, lowering her own spear, having not quite gotten to that point with him yet that she hadn't turned the moment he had cried danger. “It’s not a wolf it was… person shaped” stag replied, before saying “Maybe it's an outcast?” (banishment, temporary or permanent, was the favored form of punishment by their tribe) “Or one of those ghosts the Prince sometimes talks to?” “Oh so your pretty eyes are as good as a god’s now?” Fern teased “No but... Come on I’m not the only one who’s seen things” Stag insisted, a touch flustered, “shadows in the distance, here one moment, gone the next” “Ehhhh. I don’t know…” Fern replied, less certain about this point. Prince Termas had explained ghosts to them after people started thinking he was going nuts, and soon after people had started to see things too, but no one was sure if it was real ghosts they where glimpsing or just tricks of the light creeping through the leaves “look let’s just keep going, apple trees are close” They were, indeed only a few steps away, but so was something unexpected: The pair suddenly found themselves stepping out into the evening sun where it should have still been hidden by the apple trees, the pair squinting hard at its sudden intrusion. So much so that they almost fell into the pit that had replaced their gathering spot. “What? Where? Did we get lost?” Stag asked, standing upright front he stalking stoop they had been taking through the forests, and raising a hand over his brow to look around “I swear there wasn’t a clearing anywhere near here” “I don’t think so, look” Fern replied, pointing down into the pit where, half buried in rock and soil, she had spotted the crushed remains of several apple trees. “What in the world?” Stag said as he pampered down at them, before looking back to Fern only to find her half way through clambering down into the pit. “What, I don’t want to come home empty handed, do you?” she called up to him before continuing downwards. Stag glanced back and forth for trouble, sighed, and then followed suit, sliding down into the pit and helping the more daring elf with salvaging whatever apples they could from the ruins, each picking over their own half of the ruins to increase harvesting speed. A little later Stag, a leafy gathering bag full of dirty and bruised apples, met back up with Fern, finding her standing before a gaping hole in the deepest side of the pit, one they’d missed at first due to all the shattered lumber clogging it up. “Guess this is maybe why everything collapsed?” she said to him as he approached, rubbing a pointed ear thoughtfully before noting that “Now that I see it, I think the whole pit leads down here?” “Do you. Do you think something dug out? Like some sort of massive root viper?” Stag said, suddenly worried that whatever it was might be coming back Fern shook her head “Doesn't look like anything’s scraped against the edges or something… maybe god made it?” “Why?” Stag asked the obvious question, to which Fern replied with the equally obvious answer “So we could explore it of course!” “What. Now?” “Yeah! What are you, scared?” Fern leaned in to tease “No!” Stag replied, unconvincingly due to a voice crack “but… Ok hear me out. What if instead we go back and tell people about it, and then we explore it once people know where we’re going?” “Oh. Smart. That way they can come explore too” Fern agreed, somewhat missing the point “Sometimes your cowardice is a blessing Stag” “Thanks… Hey wait!” turned to glare at her for the insult, but Fern was already racing up and out of the pit, pausing only to stick out her tongue at him before continuing to hurry on upwards. “Hey come on! Wait up!” Stag called after her, before chasing on up after her as darkness fell upon the land. Into that darkness came a shadow, abandoning its curious stalking of the elves as they hurried back home, and instead slinked down into the pit to investigate it instead. First things first, the Umbra phased its head through the ruins of the trees to find the apples the elves had missed, before turning physical in-order to dig them out and consume them. Then, once sated, it drifted towards the deep dark entrance to the underground the elves had found and put off investigating till they had supplies and had told people about their discovery. The simple minded shadow had no such thoughts, only curiosity: where did the hole lead? There was, of course, only one way to find out. [hider=summary] A pair of elves, stag and fern, are on an apple collection run in the darkwoods. After a brief discussion about ghost sightings prompted by stag thinking they are being followed they find that an entrance to the underground has opened up under the apple trees, causing them to smash down into the pit like entrance. The elves scavenge what apples they can find, think about exploring the cave, and then wisely decide to let people know about the entrance first. After they leave an Umbra that had been following them out of curiosity drifts into the pit, snatches some apples the elves missed and then goes into the underground to have an explore. [/hider] [hider=mp] Jeon De Termas: 1 mp/2 ap None spent [/hider]