I Don't Mind a Little Unfamiliarity

“@Mordecai”

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 The island was just what he'd hoped for, at least so far. Mordecai and he had only just arrived, but so far Crux was loving what he saw.

 After they'd passed through the initial thick section of trees and underbrush and broken through to the clear area, they'd found a large mostly clear area. To the right rose a hill with a large tree with fronds that trailed like wet fur, lighting up a bright orange amidst the red trees of the forest. Had the forest opened up previously and at a slant, he was sure he would have seen at least some indication of the clear area and that fiery tree. “Oh, that's mine,” he said, almost to himself. Something about that hill with the tree, its underside hidden from view by the fronds... it reminded him of home. A faint memory of his mother, sitting under a tree at the top of a hill that she herself had claimed...

 He cleared his throat, shaking his head. “Let's check this place out, why don't we?” He turned to Mordecai, wherever the brown wolf was at this point. “Look for burrow-holes and potential densites. Here... we could expand here, but I want to make sure it's perfect first.” Perfect and safe. If there was some sort of viper pit or otherwise death trap here, they would have to move on, but in the meantime he wanted to settle in. He glanced up at the darkening sky, noting that sunset would soon be upon them.

+2 Discovery Points

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 The rather dense warrior had remembered to wait until Crux had walked a little bit away before shaking himself off. After his coat was adequately shaken, he bounded after the star-speckled male so that he could walk in his usual spot near him. The brown fellow looked around at the scenery as they passed. More trees of red, perhaps a few birds flitting by overhead --he wished they'd land near him so that he could have a bit of a snack-- and oh, a very different looking tree than all of the others. His ears pricked forward at it while his mouth opened slightly at its beauty. Fire-tree. Was what his brain said.

 His ear twitched when he realized that Crux had said something... that he completely missed. Was it a remark about how pretty it was? That had to be it. What else could be said in this moment? "Sure is real pretty, ain't it?" He chimed in, not realizing that he'd completely not heard what Crux had said.

 Although he heard loud and clear the next thing! Mordecai turned to the male and nodded his head. "Righto, Prince Crux!" He said with a wag of his tail. With that, he bounded away and began to do a, more-or-less, solo search of the area.

 He noticed that there were leaf piles, red ones, just as on the mainland. He began to search through them, wondering if there were any treasures hiding underneath. His first find was a burrow nestled in the roots of a tree. It smelled faint but pungent. Badger! He knew those creatures but it seemed as if this burrow was abandoned... for now. Hmm... could this place be expanded into something, perhaps? Ooohh, or maybe a food storage spot. That'd be nice.

+2 Discovery Points

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 Mordecai had clearly been paying attention to everything and nothing and did not react specifically to his claim on the tree. “Yes, it reminds me of my childhood, in a way.” He chuckled, “The good parts, anyhow.” Either way, Mordecai went off to do as he was told and Crux split away, wandering towards the hill but taking care to observe the edges of the clearing as well. There were several trees with thick roots here, sturdy ones. He pawed at the earth beneath one, feeling the soft soil give way under his claws. After scraping away for a short while, he noticed the earth begin to thicken but not become too rocky. It was solid enough to hold the tree roots in place if a den were dug beneath, but not rocky enough to bleed the claws of any wolves who attempted.

 He glanced over his shoulder to look at Mordi, who was also mulling about the roots of a tree and had seemed to find something. He watched for a moment before moving on, avoiding some bushes as he made his way up the foot of the hill. He passed a rocky crag that pointed away from him and noticed it curved down away from the rock into a sandy pit. He hopped down into the pit and sniffed about, turning to find himself face-to-face with a cave opening that angled downwards. Sniffing at it, he didn't smell anything recent, but he did notice some faint scarring on the rocks. Bear?

 He clambered up the rocks to the soft earth of the hill above the pit. “Mordecai, there's a cave here!” He glanced back down into the pit, “I'm going to check it out!”

+2 Discovery Points

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 The brown wolf found himself completely entranced with his discover. He continued to snuffle and extended a paw to try to dig out the small burrow so that they might be able to utilize it. His tongue poked from betwixt his jaws as he began to grunt and dig and--

"Mordecai, there's a cave here!" Huh? He blinked and began to scuffle backwards. Dirt clung to the fur on his head as he turned to look at Crux. His mouth shaped into a curious "O". "How big of a cave?" His tiny tail thumped behind him, as he glanced back at his own discover and then decided to temporarily leave it to see what sort of discovery that the prince had made.

The large, rotund fellow trundled over to the pale star-studded man. He began to ascend the hill with a few grunts and huffs of exertion. Smaller rocks dislodged under his paws but he managed to keep his footing as he walked up and up and plopped down next to Crux. He looked down into the pit, tongue blepping from between his two eye teeth as he blinked.

 Sniff, sniff. He could smell that scent, it smelled like bear! He wasn't afraid of bears! He was also curious to see what was inside! "I wanna come too!"" He rose to his paws, prepared to accompany the man down if he was so allowed.

+2 Discovery Points

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@Mordecai

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 “Doesn't look too deep, the entrance is kind of steep though!” His mind was already milling around with possibilities, though he would have to fully check out the cave before he could say his thoughts. If the cave turned out to be full of vipers or something, he wouldn't want to have anything to do with it. If it had some hole at the back, it'd need to be filled in again, before his thoughts could come into fruition.

 Crux chuckled as he watched his friend make his way slowly up the hill towards him. Thankfully, the cave was only about halfway up the  hill, but he supposed it could be a lot for one not used to mountaineering. Either way, there was no judgement in his smile as he shifted to make space for Mordecai to plop down next to him. He peered back into the hole, ear flicking as he noted his friend sniffing. Yes, there was bear, but it was so stale as to barely be there. Ha, barely.

 The speckled male nodded approval and carefully picked his way down. The initial drop was about two feet in height, he noted as his feet touched the bottom. From where he landed, the cave sloped downwards at a much smaller angle. The cave was about two bear's shoulder-widths wide here, though he could see that after about ten feet, there was an almost hollowed out section that then sloped upwards. He couldn't see much further from here but he was almost certain that any water inflow would end up in that hollow and hopefully not go further into the den.

 That meant that anyone in here could likely find some fresh drinking water after a rain but would not be flooded out. He'd have to check around but he waited to the side for Mordecai to enter before going any further, allowing his eyes to get used to the growing darkness while he waited.

+2 Discovery Points

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 It seemed as it Crux would broker no argument about him going down and accompanying him. Which was good, he might have been just a bit upset if he'd be forced to go his own way.

 Mordecai watched as his companion dropped down from their spot and landed down below at about a two foot drop. The brown wolf eyed the distance himself, bunched up his muscles in anticipation and then let himself drop after Crux had cleared a little bit of a way for him. The resounding plop was a bit louder than his friend's and the bit of dust and dirt that kicked up after he landed down in the cave.

 He saw the incline, the width of the cave, and began to look around with an interested expression. "Oooooo. This is a nice place!" He walked to one of the walls and began sniffing around, poking here and there to see if there was anything he could find that was dangerous. So far, there seemed to be nothing of the sort. Only dust and rocks and-- oh!

 "Prince Crux! I found some ants! Look at how busy they are." He chuckled as he watched the trail wander out of the cave, carrying some tiny piece of food back to their nest. What fun little creatures!

+2 Discovery Points

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@Mordecai - Also, I'm addicted to glow worms and bio luminescence in everything so don't mind if i do

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 The speckled male waited as his friend jumped down and made his way deeper into the cave. He followed at his shoulder - for there was plenty of space within here for the two of them and even a third or fourth to walk side-by-side. He was sniffing at the small amount of water at the base of the incline when the voice brought his attention up.

 He chuckled and came up to Mordecai, peering at the ants as they moved about. “Incredible!” he smiled, “I hope that means that this cave is a safe place...” He patted Mordi on the shoulder with his tail as he turned back to head up the incline at the end of the cave, turning to peer into the darkness.

 The darkness ended up being not nearly as dark as he expected. The walls of the cave seemed to almost glow in patches and when he approached one to sniff at it, he noticed the sleek glimmer of movement. Glowing.... worms? They were tiny and left trails of what looked like glowing liquid to trail down the walls. “Check this out!” he called over his shoulder. The cave ended here, from what he could tell, but it was spacious. Evidently this portion had been part of a shallow natural cave before the bear had made this its home.

 He hoped that it wouldn't come back. “What do you think... a nursery?” The glow of the walls would make it so any wolf caring for pups in here would be able to see them and the children themselves wouldn't be afraid of the dark. He looked over at Mordecai with upturned brows, tail wagging slightly.

+2 Discovery Points

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 Yeah! He felt accomplished! Crux observed his ants and came to the conclusion that it might mean that it was safe here! Gosh, Crux was so so smart! To top it off, he got a nice pat on the shoulder which made him feel practically over the moon! His tag wagged behind him and grinned to himself happily.

 He watched the ants for a moment longer after Crux had walked away, he wondered if bears ate ants. Was it difficult? Did they sting on the way down? He'd never thought about them as a food source before. Would they be tasty? Would they taste like anything? He crouched down on the ground, nose inches from the busy-bodies as he contemplated poking his tongue out to slurp them up. He'd actually gotten around to licking it out when he heard Crux's call. His ears perked upwards and he was on his paws in mere moments. "Coming!" He called out to the prince before trundling over to his side... but not before he saw the strange glowing creatures.

 "Whoooaaa..." He said aloud as he stared around them at the glowing worms and their trails. It made the dark look not so dark! He could imagine that all sorts of younglings would love to be housed here. Heck, he wanted to be housed here. Was it too late to rethink his career path? "I think that's a real good idea!" He said with a nod. "Kids would love lookin' at these walls and the bugs."

 Then, another thought occurred to him. "I've never seen any bugs like this before!" A pause and then. "If... if you ate one... do you think your insides would glow?" Or... your poop? He kinda wanted to try and began eyeing some of the lower bugs and trails.

+2 Discovery Points

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 Every time his friend reacted like a puppy to any act of kindness or pride, it warmed Crux's heart.

 The so-called-prince grinned at his friend as he inspected the little cave-room. “I think so too! They won't be scared of the dark in here,” and with the tunnel to the entrance being so much darker, he doubted the younger ones would want to flee this little space. Even if they could manage to climb up the two-foot-drop all on their own. All in all, it felt like a perfect place to have young pups and nesting mothers. He wandered around the area, scraping at the ground, which was covered in a soft soil. A few inches below the soil was hard rock - perfect. He checked a few more places to find the same, then he sniffed around the walls and ceiling of the cave, which he could almost reach when rising up on his hind paws.

 Perfect. The majority of the wall seemed to be rock, covered in those glow worms and even some patches of moss. His mother's voice whispered in his memory, Safe from snakes and large burrowing pup-predators.

 Mordi brought up a good point and he looked over. Thoughtfully, he turned back to the nearest and leaned in to sniff, instantly recoiling. “Up close, they don't smell too good.” He suspected he would need something strong to clear out the taste. “I bet they taste really bad.” But if Mordecai wanted to taste one, then by all means!

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Fun fact: Glow worms glow to show that they're toxic! One google source said that they have a poison called lucibufagin which I think tastes super bad to chase away potential predators like birds. I don't think wolves would get sick if they tasted one though

+2 Discovery Points

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 Didn't smell good? Curious to see for himself he dipped his nose closer to one of the worms and found that, yes, it smelled quite foul. Almost like garlic. Which he'd eaten a few weeks ago and had had a little bit of stomache-ache afterwards. Plus he had smelled to high heaven whenever he'd opened his mouth. 10/10 totally would do again. Although, was it worth eating these things just to see if his poop glowed?

 He sniffed again and then tentatively stuck out his tongue to lick one of the worms. He'd intented to only lick the worm and leave it be but he was a little too rough and ended up with the creature on his tongue. Along with its rather foul taste. Like licking up a combination of mud, smelly feet, and old onions all at once. The smell assaulted him on all levels and he wasn't sure if it was worth making his tongue glow.

 He almost seemed to grow pale as the taste hit him. His eyes bucked out in extreme displeasure and he made a gagging noise before sputtering and spitting the worm out with a firm "Patooie!" onto the cavern floor. The poor thing seemed disoriented as it scuttled and inched its way back up towards the wall while Mordecai stood with his tongue sticking out but it had successfully picked up a little bit of the glow.

 "I don't think I wanna try that again..." He said with a laugh, words muffled by the fact that his tongue was still sticking out. "Did my tongue get glow-y?" He asked the prince. After this he was going to need to stuff himself with a lot of berries. Maybe he should even go out and hunt for some strawberries.

+2 Discovery Points

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 Crux watched Mordecai's reaction and pressed his lips tight to stifle the laughter that now shook his chest. He couldn't help it and the laughter burst out of him, tears growing in the corners of his eyes. “The look on your face!!” His laughter was not unkind, but he couldn't help it. It had just been too funny to get away with not laughing.

 At the question, he nodded his head, “A little! I bet we could do some cool stuff with it.” His laughter had settled down into a grin. He was sure any children would have a hard lesson if they ever tried tasting it, which he knew inevitably they would. They would learn and he would hopefully manage to see a couple pups squealing in disgust. He was certain it would become a dare between pups and which he'd eventually learn about from one of the "victims" but frankly, it was worth it.

 It could even be a punishment for naughty pups.

 “It's pretty late,” he mused with a residual laugh, “How about we claim this place for the night and keep checking the place out in the morning?” His brow raised, “If you want to eat something to clear the taste out first, by all means.” However, Crux was feeling pretty tired and the soft soil here was looking mighty tempting. Plus, they would soon find out how well the den kept for the nights. After all, if it was to have pups in the future, it would need to be secure and comfortable at night.

 Unless Mordi was to suggest they keep moving, he'd smile and make his way to one of the shallow indents he'd dug, covering it up and turning several circles before plopping down onto the mossy earth.

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Finished for me!

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 Mordecai blinked in surprise at first, of the monochrome royal's amused outburst but then he began to laugh himself. He probably looked real silly, huh? Cool stuff with the glows? "Like... put it on us? Like, not our tongues?" Like their bodies? He hadn't thought about rubbing it on himself, he'd only tried to taste it. As he did most things.

 "Sounds like a good plan, Prince Crux!" He said with a nod of agreement. He would not turn down the opportunity to go wash his mouth out. "Hehe, I'll be right back." He said before beating a hasty retreat to a blueberry bush that he knew wasn't too far away. He'd bite into some blueberries and then wash his mouth out in the river. That would be perfectly fine. After that, he'd come back here so that they could settle down for the night. Sounded like a plan.

+1 Discovery Points

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