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Scerams smiles and nods at the buck's question. "Yes. There's First Ghost, who's been with me so long I don't remember her first name. Only that she is a mongoose." She stops, taking some time to gather their names. "Twisted Root is the first Kimeti ghost I met. Then there are Forgotten Bones and Glinting Pebble, they are Kimeti too." Another pause, while Screams thinks. "I could list all my ghosts, if you want. But it is a long list. Most of them are animals, foxbuns, mongooses, lynx. Any pet animal, I have at least one." She looks down again, then nods. "Of Kimeti pets, that is. I don't know anything about the not-Kimeti or their pets."

Scerams gives this question serious thought. "I'm not really sure. My father talks to bones, but as far as I know not ghosts. That I know, none of my other family can see or hear ghosts. I was getting to that." She says to the side, giving an irritated tail flick. "For me, every time I see someone dead I get a new ghost. Sometimes I see the ghost near the corpse, and others a new one just pops up a little while later." Screams twitches her ear, and seems not to notice - or doesn't care - that a spider is there. The twitch doesn't dislodge it, but after a few more it descends on a bit of silk.

"After the first few I decided to collect them. I spend a large part of my time looking for the dead. Even just bones, if the skeleton is intact enough, will have a ghost." She shifts her hooves, unknowingly crushing the spider that just escaped her ear. "I don't know why they follow me. I've always thought they were just lonely. With me they have someone to talk to. And each other, of course." Screams plops down into a sitting position. "What about you. Do you collect anything? What is it you like to do?" She leaves it at that, not wanting to bombard him with questions all at once. It's very rare she meets Kimeti she's not related to.

Bitter Heartbeat wasn't sure he could or would want to do that -- looking for the dead -- but he admired her for it. He imagined with so many ghosts she would always have company. That thought left him a little conflicted. Rather than continue thinking, although it was all he ever seemed to do, he gave his head a shake.

Briefly his eyes trailed over to the other kimeti in the room but the moment his ears heard the word swarm, he was quick to turn his attention back to Screams. He couldn't see ghosts and they had never hurt him. That made them much more welcoming than insects. He shuffled swearing he felt something bite his back. "He talks to bones?" he asked because that seemed rather odd. Did the bones talk back? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Oh, I-I don't collect anything..." ...except doubt and insecurities... he murmured even as he silently finished the sentence in his head. Those weren't the kind of collections she meant and he saw little reason to say such things aloud. The next part made his mind fumble. He liked to listen, he liked to help if he managed to get enough courage to do anything -- he liked not failing in the rare moments it happened. "I like to listen and help when I can..." he ended up saying. That wasn't at all interesting like collecting ghosts.

The droop of his ears at his less-than-exciting self was lifted as the buck came upon them. He seemed to find the fact there were two -- more than that according to her -- of them interesting or surprising. The time to consider that was later as he then asked if they were leaving. His ears fell again. How many times was that going to be asked?

Rather than open his mouth, he merely shook his head. He hoped dearly that Screams liked the cave and might stay. At least he'd have a reason then besides cowardice.

He blinked at the buck's doleful look - well, there were more pressing issues than considering the fellow's motivation for staying when he was so miserable about it. The doe though, was rather more chipper. "Fair enough," he admitted, "though I doubt - or hope - the entrance wouldn't be as buggy as this place still is, what with all the dead ones about too." Privately, Pieces thought that the insects which found their way to the entrance would certainly disperse into the wide swamp, and the earthworms on the floor were still writhing about in the same place; she certainly didn't seem too bothered though, so he nodded pleasantly and said "I think we'll be taking our leave, so um, enjoy yourself?"

A shuffle back to his sister and, combining his force with that of the beleaguered eaglehound, he started to herd her odd self out of the room.

Screams had wandered into her own mind when the second buck mentioned dead bugs. Do I have any bug ghosts? She asked herself, and ran through a mental list of all her companions. Nope, not a single insect in the bunch. She grins and starts off to go search out said deceased bugs. She's only halfway up when Bitter Heartbeat speaks, and with a sigh - and a look of longing at the darkest corners - Screams plops back down. "Where who got to?" Dead bugs can wait, the living might need help.

"Turtle.. what color is he?" Screams doesn't stick around, though, she gets up and starts poking her face into every nook and cranny low enough for a turtle to get into. "C'mon, the bugs are gone back here. Maybe that's where your turtle is." She says, shoving her nose into another low opening. Almost immediately Screams is backing up, a new mini swarm of bugs following her snout out. "Or not.. uhh why don't you look over there." She says, nodding toward a bug free patch of ground littered with rocks of varying sizes.