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Jove often appreciated a good sleep. It made him feel more like a living thing, curling up with his brother or with his foxfires, and letting himself drift off into that unthinking void for a few hours. It recharged his batteries too. Ghosts such as himself didn't need sleep, but he felt more rested after a good nap, and that was a good enough reason to sleep at night instead of staying up and studying, or wandering around the woods.

Well, most of the time it was a good reason. Sometimes the pup just didn't feel like it. He was a puppy after all, and had that same restless energy all scarelings annoyed their parents with. So tonight, he was wandering.

Usually he didn't pass by the lake, but he had been following a bizarre-looking toad through the woods, and found himself at the edge of the water. He patted the still water with one fluffy paw, sending ripples out as he tried to tempt the toad back out onto land. He remained oblivious to Lizzy's presence nearby while he tilted his head, and batted the water once with his other paw. Nope, the creature wasn't coming out for a tiny, puffball-shaped predator such as himself, even if he had no desire to actually eat the thing.

This moment was a perfect example of why his brother did not want him in the woods in his natural form after dark. He had been so focused on the water that he didn't hear Lizzy's creeping, and found himself hauled up into the air with a loud YIIIP!

After a half second of panicked writhing, the pup realized the hands holding him smelled familiar, and the voice was doubly so. Pleasantly so. And without so much as glancing over his shoulder, he licked one of the fingers. What was Lizzy doing out here?

The realization came with some embarrassment, but he tried to push it down. Lizzy had seen his little natural form before, there was no reason to be bashful. He was what he was. And unlike some other students, she wouldn't tease him for being so tiny and un-frightening.

Invisible tendrils curled around her wrists as the ghoul shifted him to a more secure position. Jove wouldn't object to hugs when being dangled in the air was the alternative!

He made a little huffing noise, as though saying "You didn't scare me, I was only startled a little." His childish pride necessitated such a response, really. But he didn't put up a fight like he might have if Lizzy were one of his boil friends, he just tilted his head at her questions. Wasn't it normal to be out wandering around?

The pup shrugged a little, a gesture that was entirely out of place in the little foxfire body. It made him look more like a really tiny student in a fluffy parka. By now he was an expert at not settling down, he knew the woods just as well by moonlight as he did by day. But his glowing gaze remained focused on Lizzy. If she wasn't sleeping, that was a problem. He knew living things needed to sleep. A pair of fluffy ears perked into listening mode, if she told him what was up maybe he could fix it!

Had he been aware she was comparing his cold, fluffy body to a stuffed toy, Jove might not have sat so comfortably in her arms and accepted her confessions. It baffled him how easily ghouls would just talk to him, since he didn't talk to his own pillows or minipets when something was on his mind. But Lizzy had just chattered away before, and even Riley once too... Was there a ghoul out there who wouldn't take advantage of talking to someone who wouldn't talk back?

The pup remained unbothered though, he kinda liked being talked at.

He tilted his head. He had nowhere to be, he was just out being... himself. But that was something he could be regardless of where he was, and if she was getting cold they should go somewhere warmer. Jove didn't know what happened when living things got too cold, but he knew it couldn't be a good thing.

As usual, Jove's fluffy ears swiveled left and right, and his sniffing nose revealed his attention to the demon dorms. They were just as opulent as ever. But had they changed things recently? Could they afford to change decoration on a whim?

Finally in Lizzy's dorm, he took a couple prancing steps on her bed as he shook himself. But at the mention of hunters, the fur along his back rose even more than usual, and a little growl escaped his tiny body. Hunters... Lizzy was right, they had no peace since the island. And it was one thing to suffer through that field trip, but they had to come right into Halloween and hurt them!

The pup bared his sharp teeth, remembering how they had come and gathered minipets merely to cut them open. And then suddenly he was being picked up.

The snarling expression disappeared, although he was clearly disgruntled as he nodded. He supposed he was going to prom... But he would have to wear the same thing as last year. He just couldn't imagine doing something normal like going to the maul, after all that had happened to the students, he just felt out of place with so many people going about their day to day lives.

The little pup fluffed up with grumpy displeasure, letting Lizzy do what she wanted with his thick fur. Turning everything upside down seemed to be the least of their worries as far as he was concerned. But how could they not let it disrupt their lives? Weren't they all just waiting for the next battle? Wasn't that the reason they were all learning now, not for fun or for hobbies, but for the strength to get rid of the hunters for good?

Perhaps the struggles and turmoil had been too much for the little boil, he was long past doubting his purpose at the academy. He saw no choice but to turn himself into a soldier, and perhaps he wasn't aware he had a choice at all.

"Caught..." He said quietly, barely audible. If it had just been him who had been caught, it might have been easier to adopt some semblance of normalcy. But he had seen a minipet gutted that day. And the rainbow hunter had been training the student-hunters how to gut minipets too.

His little chin dropped to Lizzy's lap. He didn't want anyone to get hurt anymore...

That little growl rumbled through his fluff once again, before he sighed, almost in a defeated manner. Then he shook his head. "Hurt pets..."

If he could only block that memory out, maybe he could be normal. But that poor thing, all it's insides coming out, and he knew that the foxfire he led home would have suffered a similar fate. As it was, poor Hairless was still missing the fluff on his tail and backside. But that one was lucky, it wasn't half as smart as Jove was, and now that it was safe and happy it seemed to forget it had been through something scary. It didn't dwell on it's capture.

Jove buried his face against Lizzy's leg, turning himself into a formless ball of fluff.