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Sing You Home wanted to bond with the locals. It was a very important process. After all, she was new here and if she wanted in integrate properly, she would need friends. The Acha had heard from one of her ‘brothers’ that he was planning a bit of fun. Fun of course, sounded like a wonderful thing to take part in. So it was with high bouncing steps that she arrived at the entrance. “Cuddles…!” The Acha called out in exasperation as a chocolate brown blur suddenly shot past her and into the mouth of the cave.

Cuddles was oh so excited, so very very excited! As far as training was concerned, she’d had none. Sing was nowhere neared as talented at such things as Rouge was, which meant her coddled little Sanddog was likely to react however her excitable instincts desired. She burst into the cave, barking her happy little head off and racing around the hooves of the closest Kimeti she could find.

[Just playing for funsies!]

Sing You Home hurried after her errant dog; not exactly worried about what sort welcome her pet would receive. As far as she was concerned, her little puppykins was the most adorable creature there had ever been and could be forgiven all wrong. “Cuddles! Cuddles come here!”

The Sanddog continued to romp around, getting up under Blinding Light’s hooves and generally just making a ruckus. The bucks’ fear and attempts to shoo her off only encouraged her antics. It was only after Sing You Home finally arrived that she started to quiet down, but her tail continued to waggle as she met her owner with a happy whine.

Sing cooed happily at Cuddles and then moved to get a good look at Blinding Light. “Well met cousin. Cuddles seems to like you.” She bounced around to face him. "I am Sing You Home."

The rather loud entrance of the muck-covered thing caused River to jump slightly, and he practically levitated to the left, but he was proud to admit (inside his head, at least) that the scream he would have given had not come. True, it was because he had bitten his tongue, but that was neither here nor there.

"Hullo," he told the creature--it turned out to be an Acha under all the grime and stench--once he had managed to calm his heartbeat. "What it is haunted by?"

River Stone had been curious about this cave for quite some time, but had never been brave enough to enter all by herself. Rumors said that it was haunted, and on the evening she heard a multitude of voices coming from within she had gone inside to see of there were any ghosts. Surely they would be lonely too, and could need a friend like she did. When she was greeted by a sizable group of kimeti she shyly walked over to a wall and pressed her shoulder against the smooth rock, not even sure of what to do next.

She watched the others from the far side of the cavern her interest falling on an acha a lovely shade of green with a little dog following her, but she was much too shy to venture over and try to start a conversation. "If this is a scary place... then I will be brave. I will make it through on my own," she whispered to herself, not wanting to seem so desperate for a companion like she truly was.

((forgot to mention -- just playing for fun, not for the acha!))


When Havemercy had overheard other kimeti talking about the haunted cave, she knew immediately that it was something just for her. Laughing excitedly, she had gathered up her two mongeese -- Rook, who was rather skeptical of any sort of adventure his master was this enthusiastic about, and his daughter Pawn, who followed along willingly wherever they went. The two mongeese took up their customary positions atop Havemercy -- Rook nestled among her backspines, Pawn standing on Have's neck with her forepaws between the red doe's horns, watching excitedly where they were going -- and they all headed off.

When the trio arrived at the cave, there were already quite a few 'meti -- and a couple of acha, even -- clustered in the large entryway. Have trotted in right as what looked like it must be an acha under all that mud and dirt started speaking in what it must think was a 'creepy' voice about the haunted cave. Laughing, Havemercy made her way over to an orange buck that must have gotten splattered by the acha's mud. "Well, this certainly looks interesting," she commented to the orange buck, grinning excitedly and looking around at the other rooms branching off the main cave. "How does this work? Do we just go in wherever we want?"

"Oh goodness, oh Swamp Mother, this would happen to me!" Dreams-of-Dawn spoke aloud to himself, huffing and puffing for breath between prancing around the other kimeti on nervous hooves. To say Dreams was superstitious was an understatement. He was something beyond, and on days such as the Day of the Dead, he much more preferred to be safe somewhere far away from creepy caves and bad omens and spirits. The spooky stories he could occasionally tolerate, but this - this was way out of his comfort zone.

Dreams-of-Dawn had been perfectly content in a little hide-y-hole halfway across the swamp. But noooo, some small critter had taken it upon itself to steal (the nerve!) one of his best berries. The strangest part though was that it wasn't even edible to any creatures he knew of. It was absurdly rare and he wanted it back.

Even if it meant following the tiny thing (what exactly it was, he wasn't even sure - Swamp Mother have mercy if he found out) into the creepy looking cave. Why all these other kimeti were standing about the cave was a puzzle to him.

In midst of all his jittery pacing around the cave, he nearly knocked over the mud ghoul standing outside the cave - MUD GHOUL? Dreams startled immediately and dashed into the gaping black entrance nearest to him, tail between his legs.

No response - but that was okay, because no one had even looked at him. He hadn't been rejected! Pleased, Humble puffed out his chest and placed himself in the middle of the group, glancing around and shooting smiles at anyone who made eye contact. Perhaps he could find someone to go inside with?

Ah, there was a good candidate! A pretty brown doe, standing off by herself and looking a tad worried. Humble made his way back out of the crowd and approached her, still smiling like an idiot.

"Hello! Are you going to go in? Do you want to go in with me? I've never been here before, and it's so daunting really, so many options..." He bit his tongue - he was babbling, no sense in scaring her off! That was what the cave was for.