The Howling Cave

Diitzy: The beam blurred her vision after she heard the words, 'I think you are right'. Magical moments were something the phoenix knew could happen around her, but happening for her was different. She pulled back into Axis's frame as the enchanted willow expanded to form a dome within its trunk and boulders crumbled and shaped to frame the wooden walls. Nature structured itself to protect them and the phoenix shimmered in a glow feeling the energy around them bloom. Nature was always a dear friend to Rayuu and she asked nothing more but to grow and live beside her, yet it provided a home for them. She took a step forward and the ground wasn't quite finished in its breathing of movement she stumbled back to the shift of ripple opening a flood of water to stream down the center of the cave. "How beautiful" she muttered and her eyes gleamed taking in the sight. "Can we live here Axis?" She turned to him with a smile. Seemed like she wasn't the only one excited about a home, the chicken trotted right past them and found a spot to start making a nest. Bawking in chatter he claimed his spot and somehow believed pebbles were straw as he placed them from one spot to the next and forgetting the previous piece. Rayuu chimed in a light giggle and took Axis' hand. "Let's go. We got work to do."

Judge: For a moment, Axis was blinded by the light as well. Turning his face away from the light, his nose and forehead brushed against Rayuu's shoulder. He wasn't used to bright lights or even changes in colors. Being blasted out of purgatory, a place where everything was shades of red and grey and black, it took him a while to adjust to multitude of colors that was life all over again. The brighter the light, the harder it was on his eyes. But the sound of the earth literally moving and reshaping had him lift his head to watch as a cave formed in the husk of the tree. Axis pushed back to keep from falling in and heard Rayuu whisper about the beauty they saw before them. It was. There was nothing like this in purgatory; everything was rundown and rotted. The strange chicken that had been with them since they reunited didn't hesitate to jump through the glowing hoop and start to make themselves at home. When Rayuu asked him if they could live there, he took her hand in his and nodded. "I think it'd be rude not too." Lifting her knuckles to his lips, he moved through the circle as well, lingering enough to help her down if he needed too. He wasn't sure what work they had to do, he'd only hands for a short time. He wasn't even sure footed being upright yet.

Diitzy: There was something about enchanted forests that made time just seems limitless and non-linear. The phoenix was used to measuring time with memories but from stepping foot into this cave felt like time just sped up. They built furniture similar to what she remembered she made with Aleksey. They gathered supplies together but she didn't even know if the hound needed food like Alec did. In a moment of rest in the mix of making this their home, she sat there perched on a rock while she dipped her toes into the water looking at the tiny fish swimming around her feet. "Do we need to get you something to eat? I know what it was like over there in Purgatory but, what is it like in the living?" She tilts her head in wonder as she watches the small crystal shimmer in the crystal-clear water. "Alec used to eat so much food. He knows how to fish. I am not really that good at fishing. " She giggled and the sound echoed through the cave. The harmony of the phoenix surrounded the cave as it seemed to provide a natural force for the green planetary around them the more she was calm and happy the more nature seemed to vibrate in life.

Judge: It seemed as soon they were down in the cave, work began. Treated as a dog and left in full hound form in purgatory, Axis' only comfort was a bed of spirits that wailed incessantly. So, all the things Rayuu wanted to make were strange to him, conjuring up dusty old images of nothing in particular but brought feelings of a life he'd long forgotten. Each piece of comfort she selected came with a story about a dragon, each time piquing Axis' interest in the man. The phoenix beamed each time she spoke of him, thrilling happily with story after story that he could only nod along too. She painted a pretty clear picture of this dragon yet somehow left him still curious. When they took a break, Axis sat on a rock beside her and put his black feet in the water, startling the fish. He was still getting used to the feeling of cool substances against his internal flame. Leaning forward, he put the palms of his hands against the surface of the water and watched her small feet created ripples on the water. Her question had him thinking. His memory only clearly went back to purgatory where he was never fed anything other than creatures for Marcus to torture. In purgatory he felt hollow, always starving but the moment he found Rayuu again under the full moon in the world of the living, he felt full. She sustained him. His heart was full, his soul happy. She was all he needed, she sustained him. "I don't think I need to eat." Rayuu's laughter was like chimes on the wind which the world seemed to pick and harmonize with. Axis' sharp upper canine curved over his lower lip when the corner of his mouth turned up.