Modo Animalium

Torix padded through Zool slowly, taking in the sights as best he could. A few looked at him oddly, unused to seeing a silver-furred kitsune wandering casually. Most of the younger ones seemed only curious, not having seen any of his kind before, while the older ones mostly disregarded him for being young enough to only have one tail. Watching a lion and tiger cub play together made him want to join in for a little while, but he knew he didn't have the time.

He was glad he arrived early, since there were so many sights and smells that were very different from the Kitsune Kinships. He paused at an armour shop run by an armadillo and a spellcrafter's workshop managed by a coyote before deciding he had wasted enough time. Ignoring any further stares or arrogant taunts about his age or fur (it's been years since he heard any good jeers about that one anyway), he bounded towards the Great Den.

There was a white snake waiting at the doors when he arrived, an unusual sight to be sure. He slowed to a brisk walk, readjusting his stance and walk like he had learned. Silvers were guardians of the peace, protectors of law and contract. He'd rather relax and make things pleasant, but he didn't have a choice right now, not with business on two ends. Clearing his throat to catch the snake's attention, he made sure he spoke clearly and slowly. "Greetings. Do you have business here?"

Naosu looked up at the one tailed kitsune. His eyes widened when he saw the foxes fur color. A silver fox hadn't left the Kitsune's lands in over a century. It seemed this truly is a desperate time if the Kitsune councilor got the Kitsune kinship to send a silver kitsune. Even at one tail he was sure this fox would be strong.

"I am Naosssu. It hasss been sssome time sssinccce i sssaw a sssilver fox like yourssself. It was about five yearsss ago when i wasss wandering the fox landsss and assisted the leader of the large village of Gintoboe. Consssidering the village'sss name i wassn't sssurprisssed to sssee so many Sssilver foxesss. Ah but i've digressssed. I have been called here to lead this group the counccil isss building. However I am awaiting a mercccenary my father hired to assssisst uss."

Naosu stared into the kitsunes eyes with his own crimson eyes. He searched for something within. Did this kitsune have what he was looking for he wondered.

A crosswind fluttered the banner on the wall above the great doors behind the pair, where a careful eye might be able to discern the fluttering was damped in one section compared to the rest of the fabric. Carefully hooked against an illustrated shadow on the banner was a real shadow, eight black and hairy legs aligned as best as they were able with the design so he blended as close as possible. Outside their breeze and silent as a stone, six eyes continued to surveying the area as her central pair stayed locked on the couple in front of her. By what she heard them talking about, the snake was her contact and the kitsune was to be a coworker. Deciding it was time to 'meet' her employer, she stretched out her legs, the limbs gliding over the fabric with maintained quiet as she descended the wall. With what most animals would consider still two full body heights she dropped, a soft thud being made just to the side of the snake as she gracefully landed.

She bent two legs down in a curt form of bow to her employer. "I would be that mercenary. I hope you will forgive that I waited to make sure you were my contact, as most creatures tend to have a somewhat... exaggerated reaction to the presence of a spider, and the last thing we need is a spectacle to draw attention to us. The ensuing pandemonium can be tiresome. My name is Octavia. Would you care to brief us on what the current job entails?"

Torix froze as soon as he saw the spider, terrified of them. He had hoped that it would just be moving on and leaving them, but no such luck. While he was able to manage for a little while, knowing the spider wasn't leaving set him over the edge. He screamed, high pitched and shrill, before jumping up and behind Naosu. His tail flicked around, a decent sized fireball flying from the tip and narrowly missing the creepy-crawlie going above it, scorching the wall beyond with a permanent burn mark.

He was visibly shaking when he landed, barely standing up. "S- sp- Yo- A- Ta- Bu- S- Sp- Spi-" Before he could pull himself together enough to finish a sentence, Torix collapsed, fainting from fear.

Naosu had been partially shocked when the merc his father hired appeared. His shock quickly disappeared but his eyes widened when the fox freaked out so badly at the spider's appearence. Naosu shook his head. He turned from where he was looking at the unconscious to the spider.

"Ssso you are the merc my father hired. Itsss been a while Octavia. I'm not sure if you remember me but we helped each other when we were both captured by that rogue sssnake lord Figoran. He captured usss both in his cassstle you for your bounty and me for well I'm sssure you remember."

Naosu tasted the air back toward Zool and smelled an incoming scent. It seemed the next member of the group was arriving soon.

He swung among the supple branches of the trees expertly, singing to himself as he went. "New Baans cry as de old men dai an the dead dey be walkin in da eevnin. I walk tah deh bodies and i sprinkal me powdah and deh dead walk once moah. I be deh reeper mon the reeper o deh damned but me brain dey be full o rocks." He never was a good singer but he did nonetheless. It seemed to keep his mind occupied from his thoughts and that was a blessing. His name was Rik'Tik and he was a witch doctor from the Colobus clan of primates. Witch doctors were rare in the monkey world. The colobus clan produced just one every generation. Newborns that bore the mark were quickly taken from their mothers, both for their own protection and for training purposes. Monkeys are a superstitious race and those born with the mark are seen to bring bad omens when not trained properly. There are some that would rather see these newborns dead than be trained in the mythic dark arts. Therefore the babies are removed and trained in special monastaries shortly after birth. Newborn Colobus monekys are pure white and grow to be black with spots of white upon their faces in strange patterns. When Rik'tik was born he was pure whoite except for his face with was detailed with a black skull. Later in life these colors reversed. Immediatly he was ushered away in the dark of night to train among his predecessors. Like all before him the training warped his mind until he spoke in riddles. He finally came upon the city of Zool and swung among the many trees quietly singing to drown out the thousand voices which haunted his brain. He saw the fireball fly into the air and he immediatly changed his direction. "Der be sum strange winds blowin mon" He grabbed a small lemur skull from his belt and held it to his ear and seemed to listen to it as if it was saying something nodding once or twice. Suddenly he pulled his head back shaking it in surprise. "You be crazy mon...remembah der be a reason you be hangin here on me belt an not versa visa..My motha be a saint...I don need tah know her to know dat mon....off with ye ya crazy devil." When he was done arguing with the skull he replaced it back on his belt besides the many skulls that he had collected over the short years he had lived. He came upon three animals by a great door, one of them had fainted. He swung down from the tree and sidled over to the fainted kitsune and tapped on its skull and listened closely for a sound. Talking to himself completly oblivious to the others he said, "Dis one here be out cold mon, He be dead?...no no he be live....Ah he be sleep den....yes yes sleep." He moved from the Kistune to the spider and began to examine her as if she were an inanimate object picking up legs and sniffing them and counting the eyes all while muttering to himself. "Ah dis one be a dangerous one mon...yes yes be givin her dah wide berth...female?...ya ya mon female dis one be." He moved on to the snake and picked up its tail and started counting the scales and then opened its mouth looking ta the big fangs. "One...two...tree...eh close enough mon...What how be dis a snake...i be showin ya mon...lets just open dis here AHHHHHHH.....lets just close dat dere. dem be big fangs..." He closed the snakes mouth and sidled to an open spot and sat down stroking the many skulls hanging from various belts around his body. He began to sing, "Rik'Tik Tik Tik tiki taku tak tik."

Naosu's mouth quirked in a serpent's smile and then he began laughing. This was a monkey witch doctor. He had heard rumors and had even met one once before and this one was just as crazy. He shook his head.

"Well it ssseemss we are all here." he hissed more to himself then to the others. He slithered over to the unconcious kitsune and hacked up a bag of herbs and pulled out some smelling salts. He waved them over the kitsune to wake him. As he saw the kitsune begin to wake and turned back to Octavia.

"Ssooo how have you been ssince we got away from that lord?"

Octavia hit the floor as the kitsune's tail came up in a classic gesture. It might have been a benign action, but given the panicked state of the fox in question she wasn't about to take any chances. Sure enough, as the tail was passing a fireball came flying off. It was a knee-jerk reaction not even really aimed, but she silently was thankful she could still see it coming- a more malicious attack could have been dangerous. The reaction was short lived though, the Kitsune's energy seemingly expended with the effort leaving the spider to roll all eight of her eyes.

She turned to her old friend, comforted by his remained composure. "Speaking of excitable. It's fun to be able to cause a reaction on occasion, but daily life simply becomes hampered by the drama. You say there's..." Her voice cut off immediately as a clamor could be heard approaching them, a Colobus making it's way into their view. A quiet sigh could be heard from her as he approached, staying still during his inevitable inspection until he withdrew back into himself chanting. "Well that explains everything I suppose. The Colobus might not be known for their subtlety, but that's what you have me for." She smiled as the conversation made it's way back to their past, the encounter a fond memory of hers. "Figoran, the rat. I do remember that encounter, a learning experience if ever I had one. Unfortunately for him, he got in over his head with the enemies he made, didn't he? But I digress. Now that we are all here, what is the current job?" She kept to the side of the Kitsune as he stirred, trying to keep as friendly an expression as she could on her face- unnatural though the position might have been to her. "Good morning snowflake. Welcome back to the living"

Torix groaned and sneezed as he woke up, grimacing as the full scent of the salts hit him. He was still groggy as he started getting up, not quite recognizing who was talking. "Snowflake? Sister got the ice, I'm air and fi- AHH!" Realizing the spider was still there, he jumped back and cowered behind the Colobus, only vaguely noticing the paraphernalia the witch doctor wore. "Please don't drink my blood and lay your eggs in my brain. I like staying in the land of the living."

Naosu tried not to laugh. He shook his head at Torix's reaction. He turned and saw Octavia's amusment.

"Yesss you got quite the reaction no? The current job iss to be disscussssed with the council. Oh on a ssside note I don't know if you heard about it but Figoran died ssshortly after we essscaped. Hisss ssson isss not pleasssed and has sssworn to take our headsss. Ssstill it's niccce to know that poissson we created on sssuch ssshort noticcce in the thick of essscaping worked ssso well on him." Naosu said amusedly. He turned to Torix.

"You need to be careful with what you sssay. I guessss your not to pleasssed with having a ssspider asss a teammate but we have to work together."

Rik'Tik laughed as Torix took shelter behind him. "Don be playin dah reggies in dah silvah ones spain dere mon...or is it brain...HOOHAHAH...." Just as quickly as he lapsed into insanity Rik'Tik jumped up calming himself noticeably to the point where he no longer even looked insane except for the crazy gleam in his eyes. "Dere be a great dangah dat we be facin mon...it aint deh time tah be meddlin aroond with teh fears...and tears..and jears...HOOHOOHAHAHA" And once again just as quickly he fell back into his insane rambling and laughing which quickly quieted into murmurs to his various skulls. "yes...dat...yes mon...yes....hoohoo....yesss...."

Octavia snickered at the Kitsune's reaction, offering him a playful wink. This might have been reassuring coming from any creature other than a spider, but she wasn't bothering with that detail. "You're too big to eat sugar, and while the egg laying part is true you're being a bit presumptuous. We only lay our eggs in our mates, and while you're cute and all you're just not my type." She was somewhat startled when the monkey had a lucid moment, her humor instantly vanishing as quick as the Colobus's insanity. "Pardon my playfulness, but the intent isn't to tease. He simply needs to face his fear of spiders if we are to work together as a team, and a serious spider is something that those in their right mind SHOULD be fearing." The tension broke instantly as Rik went back to his skulls, a soft laugh coming from Octavia before she turned back to Naosu. "Well in any event, it wouldn't do to keep the council waiting. Lead the way my friend." Her voice dropped after that, the rest of their conversation in quieter tones between her and the snake. "And yes, I thought that the way we dealt with him was a nice touch. It was a fitting end for the blight to be killed by a refinement of his own clan's poison. The public thinks it was infighting and those who know better have all the warning they should need. So let the whelp come, we can find an equally fitting end for the upstart."

Torix relaxed a bit from the spider's reassurance, but was still very uncomfortable being around her. He was breathing slowly to try and keep from panicking again as he stepped closer to the doors. "If we work together, then we work together. A horrifying fear of your kind isn't going to stop me from doing my job. But I'm still keeping the crazy monkey voodoo man between us during the meeting."

She had said something he didn't quite catch, but he wasn't about to ask her to repeat it. He just waited for the snake to lead the way to the council so business could actually begin.

Naosu was slightly suprised at the Colobus' moment of sanity. Wise words none the less. Then Naosu smirked in the way snakes smirk when he heard what Octavia said. He bent himself closer to her to whisper.

"Oh yess my father knowss what really happened and he found it hysssterical. And yesss let the fool come. Though i ssstill can't believe the idea you came up with after what we did to that guard. It went againssst everything i'm sssupposssed to do asss a doctor but like hell i wasss going to let him ussse me to get my older sssissster to be his prissssy little ssson'sss mate. If the little fool comes after usss we could always give him the ssssame treatment." Naosu said his voice slightly angry at the end. God how he hated Figoran. His son was twice as bed with only half the strength.

After hearing what Torix said Naosu smiled a little. He nodded.

"That'sss good that you can still work with her. Though on the ssside ssshe is one ssspider you do not want to sssee get ssseriousss. And yesss we sssshould get going to enter the Great Den. Isss everyone ready?"

Alsashun stuck her tongue out in a heavy pant. She was already late, but it was a long trek down to Zool from the Direlands. She would miss her home that seemed to be on the edge of everything. The Direlands were small compared to the other wolf territories, but they couldn’t be beat in terms of seclusion. One had to climb, swim, and brave a volcano to even come close to finding them. If those obstacles were braved you’d have to get past the guards that constantly patrolled the outskirts of her home.

She managed a sigh through her panting. The beginnings of the city were coming into view. Finally she was where the pack’s wise wolf had told her she needed to be. The wise wolf and the warriors were the only wolves in the pack allowed to keep all of their tails. It was dire wolf custom that wolves assigned to other jobs got varying bits of their tail chewed off before they were old enough to remember the pain. Hunters got to keep half of their tail, foragers a third, while some didn’t get to keep any at all.

Suddenly Alsashun remembered the blood on her muzzle. She had forgotten to wash after lunch. She wondered if this was something that was looked down upon in the city. “Ah well it’s just a little blood, surely this is common, there must be tons of predators in Zool.” She thought to herself. Though she did notice how small everything was. Her enormous 174 lb frame felt awkward in such a delicate setting.

“Find a creature with the same stark white color as your own fur.” The wise wolf’s words echoed. “He will be accompanied by a shadow, a speck, and a bit of flame” It hadn’t made any sense to her at the time and it still didn’t, but when the wise wolf spoke, you listened. The details would come together, they always did.

Over by some impressive doors she saw an odd grouping of animals. A monkey paying with some skulls, a kitsune, and something small she couldn’t quite make out. “Well that’s almost it.” She thought. “Now if only there was a….” and there it was a white snake. “They’re it, They’re it!” Her blind faith had been repaid. She walked up boldly into the mix. “Excuse me,” she started, lowering her head so that her inviting bright blue eyes looked into the snake’s red ones. “but I think I’m supposed to be here.”

Naosu looked up at the new arrival. He met her blue eyes with his own red. He held a steady gaze with her. Naosu felt a twitch in the back of his mind he used his ability with hypnotism to counter act whatever is was she was doing. His tongue flicked out to taste the air.

"I sssee you are a dire wolf. I assssume that you were sssent here by one of your eldersss. By your coat you mussst be one of the lassst of the Ssstonewater pack from the village of GreyCoat." He shook his head.

"Well come along we'll do full introductionsss after the coucccil meeting. Octavia we'll finish our conversssation later." He turned toward the doors and pushed them open with his head and tail. He waved the others past.

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When the group entered the Great Den they came into a single lighted cavern where along the walls there were steps and on these great steps were the coucil many different beasts. They took there place in the center of the room.

"You know why you are here yess?" Spoke the serpent councilman. He looked into Naosu's eyes. "There isss a great plague upon the entire land."

"And you have been gathered together to find out where it came from and who unleashed it." The wolf councilor continued where the snake had left off. He met Alsashun's eyes glad that the elders had taken his advice and sent her.

"There is one other thing. There have been rumors about of an army of old myth beasts wandering the land." The kitsune council vixen seemed skeptical even as she said it. She watched young Torix do his best to keep the Colobus between him and the spider.

"So you all need to be careful got it? Find out what you can about this army if it exists." Said the female baboon that was the councilwoman for the apes casually as she always did. She watched the Colobus with a bit of suspicion.

"Young Naosu will be your leader.That is all you may all leave now. We would suggest you gather supplies and leave tomorrow morning." said the Lion councilor. Clearly a dismissal Naosu nodded out the door and left the others following him. When they were outside once again he turned to the others.

"Well that wass informative." the snake hissed sarcastically. "it ssseemss the honorable councccil don't have asss much information asss i wasss lead to believe."

He looked at the dire wolf.

"Well you are our late arrival. pleassse introduce yourself. Then i want your'sss and everyone elsssesss opinionss" he said calmly.

"My name is Alsashun, I hail from where our leader has said." She looked everyone over. "Well it appears the wise wolf misspoke, you don't seem to be a speck." she spoke looking at Octavia. "I'm very pleased to meet all of you and lend my assistance in anyway possible." She looked back to Naosu. "As for my opinion, it seems strange we were given so little instruction. Our purpose is clear, but not very detailed." She thought for a moment before adding "Our wise wolf is often vague, but this is... all a new experience for me. Maybe this is how things are done here?"

Octavia listened to the newcomer after they left the council, not having gained as much information as she would have desired but such often seemed to be the case. Her eyes seemed to twinkle as she looked up toward the wolf. "A speck is a viewpoint- someone of your stature might consider me such, especially if I'm curled up asleep. With most of my size in my legs I can make myself seem a lot smaller if needed." She brought her eyes around to her party, two eyes for each of them, considering it proper courtesy and useful to maintain eye-contact with everyone. "Well you heard the council. It's not the ideal intelligence we were looking for, but that's field work for you. I think now would be a good time to get familiar with each other's strengths?" She focused on Naosu for a minute before returning to the whole group. "There might be some better appraised than others, but it doesn't hurt anyone to double check information. I tend to handle anything covert- getting in, getting out, that sort of thing."

"Myth beasts..." Torix was still making sure to keep someone between him and the spider, but he was more focused on old stories than the terror with eight legs. "Living slime are probably the most well known. But those are isolated locations..."

He looked up at the wolf and nodded politely in greeting, flinching slightly as he turned to address the spider. "And taking time to learn what each other's abilities are is a good idea. I'm a genie kitsune; the majority of my magic is focused on defenses and support but I can still hold my own in most fights."

"As for what the council said, there might be a direct connection between the army of myth beasts and the plague. I'll have to do some research first, but it should be enough to get started for my supplies. It's not a whole lot to work with, but it should be enough to at least find a destination to start with."

Rik'Tik watched the council's expressions more than listened to their words. They were afraid and they knew less than they were trying to lead his group to believe. No matter the spirits new all and what matter was it to him if the first council lion had blue eyes. The spirits were helpful but most of the time they were so excited to have someone to talk to they just babbled about nothing and all of them talked at once. One way to get real answers was to bind certain spirits to totems created from the skulls of beasts shrunken through a special process.

One such skull, one belonging to a particularly strong wolverine, began to shake and rattle. Rik'tik picked it up and held it to his ear. A cold whispering voice that sounded more like it was inhaling than exhaling spoke to him. "The answers....to which you speak....shall be made apparent...as soon as they are ready..." Rik'Tik replaced the skull and began to laugh rolling around on the ground. "HEHEHOOO...as soon as dey be ready mon hoohaaaa dat be a good one..." He ceased his rambling and picked up the spider and placed it upon Torix's head and then climbed onto Alsashun. "TEEHEEE time is of dee essance mon deh darkness be closin in onward doggay onward."

Alsashun was surprised at first when Rik'Tik jumped onto her back. Her fur bristled, she pushed her ears forward and curled her lips back, exposing her fangs. Once over the spontaneity of it she remembered her manners. She relaxed her warning posture, realizing how much sense it made for everyone to hitch a ride. She was certainly big enough and her endurance would probably outlast most of theirs. Pushing her pride aside she offered her service. "Would anyone else like to ride?"

Torix froze as soon as the spider was put on his head. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't notice the Colobus moving. He tried to keep from panicking again and repeated "She's and ally" as quickly as he could to try and ignore how close she was at the moment. It felt like forever to him, but in a very short amount of time he reached his limit and shrieked in fear again.

He let his energy drift in two directions, one just at the top of his head and the other at his feet. Anyone who could see the trails would see two different spells at the same time and would notice two glows along his hips. The spell above him finished first, the sigil pulsing visible to everyone before sending a gust of wind straight up from it in an attempt to knock Octavia off him. The one at his feet finished moments later, pulsing as a light fog surrounded his paws.

Torix ran in a few circles around and through the rest of the group in a panic, not yet noticing if he had knocked the spider off him yet. The second spell let him move faster, as if gliding just above the ground the entire time as he screamed. "GETITOFF GETITOFF GETITOFF GETITOFF GETITOFF!"

Naosu twitched as he watched the chaos unfold thanks to Rik'Tik's actions. Now he would prove why he was the leader.

"Enough!" he snapped. His tail shot into the air and caught Octavia. Then he lashed out and caught Torix by his tail biting hard pulling the fox to a stop thanks to Naosu's strength. He released the fox but stopped him from moving again with a glare. then began to speak.

"Thisss ssstupidity sstops now!" he hissed angrily. "Rik'Tik i care not how sstrong you are it isss dissresspectful for you too be on Alsssassshun'sss back like that. You resspect the ssspirritss of the dead but you sshould also resspect the living."

Naosu was annoyed before the antics were funny. He was sure things like this would continue beyond his current reprimand but right now knowing that the council misled them and also said so little had irritated him beyond belief. It also didn't help that it was just about time for him to start shedding. So he was annoyed, itchy, and short tempered.

Octavia froze as she was lifted by the monkey. She wasn't having a fear reaction, but given his being prone to fits and a lack of danger she figured it was best to let the antics run their course. Before long she was on something solid again, the warm feeling of another creature and the colobus's cheeky expression made her think... surely he wouldn't be stupid enough to...

"AAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Shit.

If the Kitsune had a fear of water, right now he'd be lost at sea. As the object beneath her began to flail and move in the pure chaos only a panicked animal could manage, she did the one thing any sensible creature would do- hold on tight until she could get away. This didn't help the fox's reaction any, but being hurled uncontrolled from that high up could injure her, and that was the last thing she could afford before a mission this important. Thankfully before long she could feel the scaled tail of her friend dart out and grab her, extracting her from the frantic creature safely. Glad that was over, she made herself scarce, disappearing behind the one other person on their team who wasn't being emotional. She calmly whispered to the newcomer from the safety of her shadow.

"Ah hell. Looks like it's Naosu's time of the month."