If you'd asked him, before he'd washed up on the shores of the land, if he'd ever find himself willingly living in a desert, he might have asked if you were high. And then asked you to share. He supposed Andal, and Aarani, were to thank for his current living situation, and the soft spot that was developing for the desert as a whole. The oasis had its comfortable places, and she'd been kind enough to take him in rather than letting him bake in the sun. Once he got past the uncomfortable heat of the day, it really was a pretty landscape.

Didn't mean he wanted to spend all day out on the sands. The wind-worn caverns had been a relief to find, offering shade and a cooling breeze. He figured he could spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the area, and head back to the oasis once the sun started to set. Deserts, he was learning, got cold fast after dark. He wanted to be curled snugly in his den before the temperature dropped too far.

Currently, he was sprawled out on his back against the refreshingly cool stone floor of the tunnel, letting the heat built up in his fur seep away.

@Kito

code by corvus

This land was vast and varied, and yet, the woman still didn't have a name for it. It was a strange thing to be able to explore it at will, however, most often used to the deceased tethered to one place or another. Perhaps because these were unfamiliar lands, they had different rules. Whatever the case, Kito was uncertain how long her freedom might last, and so the grey woman was keen to explore as much as she could. There had to be something here that was the reason for her appearance. A family member maybe? But nothing here was familiar. How could she hold any connection to a place she didn't know?

The thoughts continued to wander and stew within the mirage's head as she navigated through a desert. It was actually quite night to be able to explore without feeling the heat or the need to drink. There was a beauty to the dunes that would otherwise be missed by the need to find shade and water. When she reached the canyon, however, that blissful feeling was quickly lost. Even after all these years, there was never escaping the image that a canyon brought back to her -- of her son falling to his death. Or at least he would have, but the impact had not been enough. Knowing there was no saving him, the ashen healer had had to mercifully release her son of his pain.... That image would never leave her.

But in Coatl's memory, Kito was determine to brave this canyon. It was not the same one, and thus did not deserve her disdain. He wouldn't want her to live like that forever, especially not in the beyond. Much to her surprise, as the maned lioness made it to the bottom of the canyon, she discovered little caverns along the walls. With the dimming light of the tunnels, and her gaze meandering the cavern walls, the Hodari hardly noticed her footing as she walked quite near an unsuspecting @Haros relaxing nearby.

© Moose, table made for Kito

It was actually really comfortable, laying there, sprawled out against the stone. He'd started considering a nap when movement grabbed his attention and he squinted as the upside-down figure drifted closer. No scent...no sound...His stomach sank. Thus far, he'd been left blissfully alone by the dead - he'd even been tempted to let himself believe ghosts didn't like this land for some reason. But there was visible proof they did exist here.

Haros rolled to his side and squinted at the transparent figure. Didn't feel like a dream or hallucination, which meant she was really there. Pointed ears fell back against his skull, "Please tell me you're not one of those angry, vengeful, 'help me finish my unfinished business' ghosts." Or the depressed and desperate ones who liked to beg him to help them do something impossible, like get revenge on someone who was also dead.

"I didn't know anyone was haunting here, I can leave..." Please also don't be one of those territorial ghosts that liked to scream 'get out' in all manner of terrifying voices. He just wanted a place to relax, he hadn't expected to encounter the dead.

@Kito

code by corvus

It was quite a reversal of typical roles for the ghost to be surprised by the living, but jump did she at the sound and sudden realization of having wandered so close to someone. @Haros' question was nearly missed due to her own surprise in noticing him. Once Kito finally laid eyes in the starkly marked male, it was a wonder how she could have possibly missed him at all. Did she have unfinished business? Maybe that's why she was here, but what could she need to finish in lands she knew nothing about? "Can't say I know of any unfinished business I might have. I don't even know what lands these are." Kito was truthful to the stranger, finding no reason to hide herself or lie. It wasn't like he could do anything to her, after all.

As for her "haunting" the place, the ashen woman smirked in response. "Sheesh, do I look that bad?" The maned woman chuckled with a question. "I may be dead, but I'm not one of those dreary, wallowing ghosts. You're as free to be here as I am... Wherever 'here' is..." Nope, the Hodari had no interest in haunting a particular land. She was simply curious to explore.

© Moose, table made for Kito

He relaxed as she spoke, reassuring him she wasn't going to ask impossible things. Or generally annoy him by trying to be scary until he decided to give his ears a rest and leave. It was really hard to be scary when you couldn't actually touch anyone, and he'd found it was extremely rare to find a ghost strong enough to affect their surroundings. "Oh, good."

She seemed nice, at least. He didn't mind the nice ghosts - as long as she didn't end up following him around forever, meeting here and there might not be so bad. He hated it when the dead got attached to him to the point of hanging around every hour of every day.

Haros shrugged one shoulder - which just happened to be the one still against the floor which resulted in an awkward wiggle - and chuckled softly, "Not all hauntings are super creepy, some just...are." Sometimes, yeah, you did run into ghosts that had been twisted beyond recognition by time and despair and whatever else. Some were just...echoes of a former life left on repeat. "'Here' is..." he tried to remember what Aarani had told him when he'd stumbled on the oasis, "well, the whole land is Amaryllis and this is...I dunno, some kind of desert cave system." If it had a name, he hadn't yet learned it. It was a cave system in a cavern in the desert and that was all he really needed to know to get back to it if he wanted.

@Kito

code by corvus

Yeah, sure. Kito was nice. For now. Maybe not always, back in the day, but what was she going to do in this state anyway? If she wanted to learn anything about these lands, she might need the locals to cooperate. And you get more bees with honey, or some metaphorical statement like that. Kito couldn't help but chuckle at his wiggle as well, though. "Fair enough," the Hodari nodded. "Well, then still 'no.' I'm not the haunting type, I don't think." It wasn't like she had been a ghost for very long, after all, so the verdict was still out on what the silver woman might do with her time, however long it should be. In the end, she would end up haunting a particular swamp, but that was still yet to be seen.

Finally, the place had a name. Kito would have found more comfort in it, though, if the name Amaryllis meant a damn thing to her. "Never heard of it," she shrugged, almost looking disappointed. It mattered little what the caves were called, then, if the whole land was foreign to begin with. It only furthered the mystery as to why the Hodari had appeared in these lands in the first place. "I'm Kito, by the way," the maned woman offered out of sheer politeness towards @Haros, fully expecting that's likely return with his own name next.

© Moose, table made for Kito

This was interesting. And he preferred interesting over scary, so as far as ghost encounters went, he'd call this a good one so far. No new nightmares after today.

It was interesting because she didn't seem to have any idea why she was even in the area to begin with. Not entirely unusual, really, but what made it odd was that it wasn't just the specific area, she didn't know the land as a whole. Haros rolled further, to put his belly to the ground instead of his side, and fixed her with a curious look. "That's suuuper weird." The fact she hadn't heard of the land she was haunting, that is. "I've never known a ghost to just pop up in a strange land." A paw lifted and he rested a cheek on on the back of it, "Maybe you have family around here somewhere you're still attached to." He couldn't help her there. He barely knew anyone outside his pride so far.

She didn't look like anyone he'd met - but, then, nobody he'd met really looked like anyone else, so it was really hard to figure out who was related to who. Then there were things like adoption to factor in and, honestly, it was way too much work for his semi-fried brain.

@Kito

code by corvus

Well, at least this guy was nice enough to keep talking with the silver woman. Kito let her haunches settle as @Haros rolled over to better look at her. "You're telling me," she smirked. Yeah, it was super weird to be in a land she had never step foot in while alive. What the heck, spirits? "Me neither. Any spirit I had ever encountered when I was alive always had to be summoned or something. And usually, they were stuck to one specific spiritual location within the lands unless you could figure out how to summon them elsewhere." The afterlife was such a fickle thing with strange, hidden rules. How was she supposed to figure out the laws of this land she knew nothing about?

The strange male then suggested that maybe she had family somewhere in the lands. Yeah, that thought had crossed her mind at some point. It made the most sense, though she didn't even know how long it had been since she died. Who knows if she would even know whatever descendants might be around. "I thought that might be the case. You wouldn't happen to know any Hodaris around here, would you? Or maybe Livius, Satoshi, or Glakel?" She'd mention whatever name she could think of that might tie her to these lands, whatever name any of her children might still hold on to. There was no knowing if it was even a direct descendant that might live in these lands, but then even if it was like a niece or cousin out there, why would Kito be the one to appear? It was that thought that would convince the ghost that it had to be at least a child or grandchild that might be in Amaryllis. Somewhere along the lines of a direct descendant, at least.

© Moose, table made for Kito

Ooooh? She could communicate with the dead, too? He perked up a little at that, "You could see 'em, too?" Curious, interested, she'd definitely gotten his attention with that little tidbit. "I've never met anyone else who could!" At least, not as far as he was aware. If others could do it, they hadn't told him - and it would have been nice if they'd shared that information so he felt like less of a freak. And if he'd helped out all those prides with their ghost problems, and they'd actually had a member or two who could also deal with them...well that was just rude, wasn't it? Why put all the pressure on him when they were just as capable of doing it themselves?

He was getting off track here.

She listed names, and he mulled them over, staring off into middle-distance. Actually, about half a second was spent actually thinking, and another ten completely spacing out, but eventually he blinked, and shrugged, and gave a light grin and slight chuckle, "Nope! Or if I do, I don't know that I do." As in, they'd never told him their family name. "Maybe the land's just weird?" Seemed like lions had been living here a while, though, so he couldn't say if this was normal weird - like, weirdness that was expected - or weird weird. New weird. "I dunno, I'm pretty new to the place myself."

@Kito

code by corvus

At the male's surprise that Kito had conversed with spirits before, the silver woman couldn't help but chuckle as she nodded. "Yeah," the maned woman confirmed with a cheerful grin. "There were quite a few back home, actually. Mostly old kings and queens. My father was good friends with some of them. I guess that's where I got it from, the interest and ability to talk to the dead." Had it not been for Ademt's familiar relationship with so many spirits while Kito was growing up, she probably wouldn't have felt so comfortable around the ghostly lions. Heck, even before her aunt and uncle officially adopted her, Kito had run into a ghost that had prophesized grand things for the orphaned teenager, a few of which had actually come true, now that she was thinking about it. But, yes, there were other things she wanted to focus on, not that she minded sharing her spiritual experiences with this stranger.

Though it came as a disappointment that @Pharos didn't know anyone related to any of the names the silver woman had mentioned, it also didn't come as much of a surprise. These lands were so foreign to her. The possible scenarios that would have brought any member of her family to these lands were vast and hard to imagine. It would have been too easy to stumble across someone who could put the pieces together so quickly for her. If Kito knew anything, it was that her life was never that easy. "It appears that way then," the maned lioness offered with a bit of a sigh. "I'll just have to keep exploring the lands while I have the freedom to do so and figure out what brought me here." Pharos mentioned that he was fairly knew to Amaryllis himself, so she didn't know how much information he could provide her. At the very least, it was still nice to meet someone who had an affinity for the dead like she had had before. "Do you know if there is anywhere specific in these lands that seems to be a beacon to the dead? We had a tree where I lived that seemed to house our spirits." Considering her experience here so far, Kito wasn't confident that these lands would have any sort of set 'rules' to the afterlife, but she could still hope towards finding out her next step.

© Moose, table made for Kito