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ITEM (Nothing To Use!)

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ACT (Choosing To Speak!)

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RUN (Nowhere To Go!)

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Ah.

Thankfully, she decided to break the silence with useful information. His drooping ears rose once again to pick up her voice among the other noises around, like the rustling foliage, finding it all rather distracting. How was anyone meant to put up with all of this? With an annoyed look, he dragged a paw over the side of his head as if he were meaning to pull the sounds out. Where was the peace? How was he meant to go about life like this?

Huffing, Southeast scooched a little closer, leaning forward. I’m.. Speaking a little louder, the boy lifted his chin. Southeast to the Path of Eternity..! Then followed with, Or.. Of the Path to Eternity.. Truthfully, he did not remember which was correct. He only ever really focused on the ‘Southeast’ part. Woofing another raspy response, he spoke softly to keep from ruining his voice entirely. What is that? The boy had never once in his LIFE ever heard of an oh-sheen, but Miss Daiyu seemed to be very knowledgeable of the area they were in. Maybe she could tell him where Southeast was?

Tip-tapping his paws on short grass, he looked around to see if he could spot the oh-sheen, but found it a rather difficult task indeed. Shaking his head, the young wolf finally answered to the best of his ability. I don’t think so. Me and my -Khhf!- family got seal’t up in a cave and we lived there, but I never saw what was.. He knew the word. He knew it! Southeast had JUST been thinking of it. Brow creased, head tilted, he smacked the ground in triumph. Outside! I never -akhhuf khuff- saw what was outside, Miss Daiyu.. And we could not leave any-way, so I could not check. He hoped that was a good response for her. She could maybe use that information to tell him EXACTLY what was going on! She must have been very smart, after all.

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ITEM (Nothing To Use!)

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ACT (Choosing To Speak!)

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RUN (Nowhere To Go!)

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Water. They had that in an area of the cave, yeah. It tasted weird. Flavorless. He was taught to spread his meals between big drinks of water so he didn’t get too hungry, which he figured must have been very easy to do with a bigger pool. All he really knew was that sometimes there would be fish there, which was what his packmates ate for a while. But they all vanished! Maybe they ate them all? That sounds tasty. He didn’t know what salt was, but it couldn’t have been flavorless if it had it. Southeast would like to go, truly! He'd ought to ask her to take him. Watching as she hesitated before she made a sort of strange movement, the boy’s head tilted slowly.

Never left the cave. What did he eat? His lips pursed and Southeast pulled his ears back some, looking at the woman from the corner of an eye. It wasn’t that he did not want to tell her, but his unusual fear had returned. Um, Looking around, he started. Milk. And then fish, -Gkhhk- and then.. Bats and everybody else in the cave. Surely, it was normal. He had no reason to believe it was not, even if the living packmates shamed him for it when it had begun. But what else would he eat? Rocks..?

Brown eyes watched her curiously, warily. Miss Daiyu was smart, surely she had been driven to such lengths before. There were only so many things in the world to eat. Bats and fish and wolves. He had never met a wolf outside of his pack, not once, and he really hoped that they could stay on good terms even if everybody else got angry at this point. Southeast really did want to see the oh-sheen.

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ITEM (Nothing To Use!)

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ACT (No Enemy Present!)

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RUN (Following Politely!)

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He smiled widely, childishly when she seemed to accept what he had said. She had not run away or growled or scoffed! His tail gave a single wag before tucking again, as if he were silencing it. Okay..! I’ll be careful!

Usually, Southeast was not so keen to follow a stranger, but directions were directions were directions. Plus. He had no idea where he was anyway, and he could use this Oh-sheen to try-anga-late himself in the future with some other notable thing. There weren’t any walls as far as he could see, so very deep water would work just as well. Scrambling up to his paws to make sure she did not vanish somewhere he couldn’t follow, Daiyu took the lead across lush green grass and soft terrain. If she pupnapped him, well. What else did he have going on?

The boy would follow happily and close behind, walking with an awkward gait that involved twisting his elbows out and swishing his shoulders in a strange slithering manner. Surely, one could not expect his bones to be any more normal than the rest of him, when he had never seen sunlight! At least they were strong enough to carry him along. Eyes squinted, head low, and his gaze was locked on the woman ahead. Tripping was inevitable, but at this point he could not imagine a fall could get any worse. He had already teleported.

Cuidado cuidado cuidado. (Careful careful careful.) Southeast repeated to himself, as if he would forget. He did tend to have a very paws-on approach to learning.. Maybe it was worth the reminder.

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ITEM (Nothing To Use!)

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ACT (No Enemy Present!)

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RUN (Following Politely!)

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As it got brighter around them, passing by sparser trees and wispier tendrils of leaf and branch, he found it harder to keep his eyes open from the strain it caused. He had moved to duck his head with squinted eyes behind her, using the adult to block the light from above. He found this to be a little less painful.

Southeast bumped into her ankles when she came to a stop on the rocks, suddenly dplaying his paws out to keep him from tipping over on the slippery thing. She called for him to look, and his head lifted.

Blinding white! With a wince he cringed and shut his eyes, rubbing the eyelids meekly. Ow. Trying again, he peeled them open very slowly, only faintly able to separate the blurry pale blobs in the vision. Rocks, and then water. Rippling, swishing water. There was a faint hiss in the area as if it was moving on its own against some kind of surface, but he could not see what it was. It was much, much too bright around here.

Southeast tried to squint again, and though he feared his eyes might never adjust to the scene, it was a little less blurry. Waow, The boy finally said, trying to be nice. It’s so. Blue. He added, despite not knowing what color that was.

When he had had enough of flashbanging himself with sunlight and water, the pup stared back into the forest to lessen the irritation, finding the darker area easier to look at compared to the reflective surfaces. He could only hope that this was not how everywolf saw the world. It was giving him a headache.

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ITEM (Nothing To Use!)

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ACT (No Enemy Present!)

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RUN (Following Politely!)

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She passed by close enough for him to notice and pad after, head tilted sideways. Where to now? Closer to the water? He could have sworn he felt moist ground on his paws. Crunchy ground. Looking down at the silty dirt, he found that he could actually see it a little more properly. Aha! Somewhere darker, that made sense.

He blinked a little more comfortably and then planted himself on the sparse grass, paws digging into the softer terrain and leaning back to sit up against the slope. Much better. He followed Daiyu with a watchful expression, then nodded gratefully. Mhm! He liked fish. Probably. He didn’t exactly know what it tasted like, he had TECHNICALLY still been drinking milk back when they were around. But! It had to taste better than old rickety sickly bats and anything else. Like that one mushroom he ate and then spat up.

The boy now looked excitedly at the water. At the ripples, at the rocks. It looked very refreshing. It was cold in the air. The water had to have been cold, too? Salty and chilly and tasty water. He lifted a paw to wipe away the drool pooling by the corners of his lip, glancing back at the woman. What she would yank out of the oh-sheen, he had no idea. But maybe he would learn how to do it too.