Moving from the Passage, Gostir left with some interest (though vague on what) and found himself in the Labyrinth. He had never come here. Not even as a young child he had stayed within the Cove to keep an eye on his sister and brother and yet neither were around. Or so he thought. Ladon had long since vanished and with that Gostir's ever growing disappointment that his brother would be a true Tollaire. It was something that Gostir would probably always feel towards his bigger brother. So for now, he went deeper into the Labyrinth though he wasn't sure what he was here for or why, but his paws led him here for a reason.

irish

Vilde was nestled away deep within the labyrinth's many winding and twisting chambers. She was here in search of a particular herb that grew only in the darkest, dampest and most depressing of places. She had brought a nice femur with her, something to help her test her samples as she worked rather than making several trips to and fro.

Finally, after several hours of tedious searching, up on a rather moderate ledge, she found the dark fungus she had been looking for. The stuff was cold, slimy and rather disgusting if she was being completely honest... but it was very important to her work.

She took the femur and laid it up against a nice set of rocks so that it stayed upright and anchored itself nicely. Then she lifted her torso, and while putting weight on her left paw as she placed it carefully on the cavern wall, she reached with her right to try and take a nice little chunk of that nasty dark slime.

@Gostir

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Walking at a pace that he enjoyed nicely, Gostir would move through the labyrinth using his whiskers and other senses to keep himself from hitting the stone walls that surrounded him. Ears twisting on top of his head and in his growing mane as he listened to everything around him in the dark. His yellow jewels flickered and gleamed but there wasn't much that he could see at the moment but hear? Oh yes, he heard something that he was unsure of. Nostrils flared as he picked up a scent and began to follow it until he came into a tunnel with a woman doing.. something? But Gostir didn't say anything he just stood there in silence and watched her.

@Vilde

irish

Vilde strained to reach the ingredient, extending her claws but only able to scrape the smallest of samples. It wasn't going to be enough. She stretched and strained before suddenly her dark ear swiveled to the sound of paw-steps approaching. They stopped a far enough away, but with a dark scowl the black-pelted woman shifted her cold blue gaze to glare in his direction.

"Do I look like some damned entertainer to you?"

She snapped, her voice rather put out by the way he was staring like that. It was creepy... and he'd better not get any funny ideas. She'd just as soon rip apart his manhood just for skimming past her rear. Her ears flattened against her skull as she leapt down from where she had been propped up against the wall. She turned to face the man, head on, tail swishing behind her in confidence and a show of strength... yet she stayed where she was and held her ground.

She didn't know him, and where she came from... all men were a threat until proven otherwise.

@Gostir

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Ah, so it seemed that he wasn't going to be able to stand here and admire the unknown female for to long. Well he wasn't really admiring her but instead interested in what she had been doing. So when her snappy tone came to his ear drums, Gostir's yellow jewels flashed to her cold ones as he stood there. His head was lower to the ground but not in hostility, that was just his natural stance. Ears flickered on top of his head as he chuckled at her. Not you but what you were doing. He would muse at her question and his own answer.

@Vilde

irish

Vilde was not amused by his answer... nor his chuckle. He was younger than her, but not by much... and though she had taken on a defensive stance, his had hardly changed if at all. Instead, he stayed where he was and his posture remained non-threatening... at the very least. Vilde hiked a brow before realization seemed to hit her eyes. She then smiled a toothy, almost sheepish smile as she shook her head and put a paw her cheek, her tone adopting a certain warmth and sweetness.

"Oh, how silly of me... YES, of course -"

She feigned with a rather convincing fake chuckle that nearly echoed his own before her false smile fell away and was replaced with a rather dark and devious curl of her lip. As she dropped the act, her tone transitioned into one of borderline disgust.

"- because it's most definitely any of your business, eh Young Man?

Tell me, do you often stare at lionesses in silence until they feel uncomfortable enough to confront you?"

Vilde asked with a sharp edge to her tongue as she gathered up the femur in her maw and went back to stretching up the wall of the cavern, this time attempting to scrape that gooey substance onto the bone. Damn... she should have brought a rib instead... would have been much less of a hassle.

@Gostir

code by corvus

Instantly, he picked up on the difference in her tone. How it changed from threats to sweet and warm. It caused his fur to bristle up and a twisted feeling in the pit of his stomach. Though none of those emotions came to his face or across his features, Gostir still watched her closely as she went back to doing whatever it was she had been doing before he came along. No. He would answer simply and straightforwards. He was never good at being social and this was a perfect example of it. He wasn't entirely awkward but it showed that he was in an unfamiliar area.

@Vilde

irish

The younger male's answer to her rhetorical question was simple, and she allowed it to ring through the cavern, bouncing off the walls as the environment faded back into silence.

Finally some success! The bone was able to reach the slimy substance and with a jolt of excitement in having solved her dilemma she cracked a smile. The smile was for herself, but quickly it fell away as she remembered the male nearby. Oh yes, that's all he needs....

Encouragement.

She rolled the Femur in the gooey substance before carefully bringing it with her back to the cavern floor. The quiet between them was becoming unnerving, in and of itself. She looked between her work and the male as he remained where he was, looking a bit lost as to what he should do now. Clearly social interaction was not one of his strong suits. Charming.

Still, she started to feel a bit bad for how she had initially spoken to him. Sure, he deserved every bit of it... but... She sighed, turning back toward him as she lowered herself into a sitting position.

"If you really must know, I'm gathering this."

She gestured to the dark matter that now coated half of the femur she had previously had in her maw.

"It's a fungus... a kind of mold."

She explained, wondering if that little bit of insight might help his situation. She gave him an inch... now, let's see how far he can go with it.

She then took the femur and placed the dark portion on a rock that seemed worn in the middle. Clearly she was not the only one who utilized this place for her concoctions. That stone had been used by many others in her profession... the signs were quite obvious.

@Gostir

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Silence came between them besides the scraping of bone on stone. It caused his ears to twitch against the rough noise but he still had no idea whether he should leave or not. Though it had been obvious from the start that he shouldn't have arrived to begin with, he was here now and that was the problem it seemed. @Vilde continued to work on her.. whatever, as he stood there awkwardly and as he finally made up his mind to leave is when she began to talk and caused him to stop. Though he hadn't really moved, a paw had lifted from the ground when she had started to speak and now had his fully attention. Speaking of a mold, a fungus. Interesting. Can you hurt others with it? He was curious indeed.

irish

Vilde had begun scraping the mold off the bone with a claw as the male's curiosity piqued. He seemed interested and even asked her a question. Indeed, it was progress. She looked up at him as his voice rang through the cavern and she smiled darkly.

"Oh yes. That's my specialty."

She answered with a pride that knew no bounds. She then turned her attention back to her work, scraping the last of it into the "bowl" before taking the femur away and setting it down nearby.

"In it's current state, it is of no use to me. Wet and damp places hide this mold's true potential, but when it is dried... ahhh, it is a force to be reckoned with."

Vilde explained, taking a nearby stone in her maw and plopping it into the center of the one that held the mold.

"I generally grind it here, just to be safe... but once it dries one need only inhale it to become plagued with a very serious respiratory upset."

As Vilde spoke she used a paw and twisted the stone sitting on top of the mold. She looked up as she worked, searching for a reaction (if any) from this new information he had just been given. She wondered, abstractly, why he asked if the mold could hurt others instead of simply assuming it was meant to help them. Surely he was more familiar with the most common kind of herbalists... healers.

@Gostir

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