This was a fine mess the exotics distributor had gotten himself into, by Del's estimation.

After hearing from Cirice about a situation was nothing less than a woodworking disaster in Moonglade, Del could not resist travelling down to help fix the issue. While she was none to impressed with the distributor himself for importing the rare, magnificent bears to sell as pets for the wealthy and important (such as that was), she could see for herself that the breakdown in the fencing was, at least, not his fault. Whether or not he bore responsibility for bringing the creatures here in the first place was up for debate.

Del thought yes.

The fence, and a fair portion of forest, had been severely damaged in the earthquake-- one of a series of worrying seismic events that seemed to have spread from Darkveil and throughout Charon now. The bears, having fled in the wake of the earthquake, had loped into the forest proper.

"I haven't been able to find them since. There's twelve in total that got out, fifteen if you count the sows with cubs..." The elvish importer looked between the pair of women, wringing his hat in his hands-- Del stared at him, her gaze withering with disapproval. Sensing the Cirice was probably the more reasonable of the two, he turns to her, pleading. "I really need your help. I can't go out and get them on my own, I have to stay here and look after the other inven-- animals," he amends quickly, "Please, I will pay you both in full. And it's for a good cause!"

After continuing to glower at the man for a few seconds more, Del turns a softer, more bemused gaze to Cirice, leaving the decision to her. "Well. It's not as though it was the panda's fault that they left, right?" That much, she would concede to.

“Of course we’ll help!” Cirice says with a friendly smile, trying to calm the man down, “I love pandas! We’ll bring them home! They’re probably lost and scared! Don’t worry. Just make sure the fence is fixed so they can’t get out again! We’ll be back soon. Come on Del!” She locks arms with the other elf with glee, turning them about to start into the forest.

Once they’re out of the man’s earshot she whispers, “I don’t think that he’s a bad guy, he’s just doing his best, but maybe he could learn to care more for the animals. But what’s most important is getting them home safe. After that we can teach him proper care if we need to.”

She turns towards the forest and frowns, “Everything that’s been going on… Its after a bunch of us meddled with powerful forces… The world seems like its started to fall apart in places. All these earthquakes and things? Ash spreading to Dragon’s Cradle… Massive waves back home… The world is getting… Unbalanced. I worry about whats on the horizon.” She sighs and gives Del a lopsided smile, “But all we can do is help in little ways. I pray. I help where I can and keep up the faith that things will get better, you know?”

They head into the cool shade of the forest and she shakes her arm, “Kevin, help us find them!" The strange bony snake bracelet on her arm animates, its skull looking towards her and seeming to stretch before unwinding from her wrist and slinking into the earth, “Good boy! He’ll help us find them, even if they’re hiding!”

---

1 Baby Bone Naga Kevin

"Right behind you!" Del gives Cirice a warm smile as they enthusiastically link arms, going along with the absolute ray of sunshine without so much as skipping a beat. But, one last warning look is delivered over their shoulders at the exotics distributor, amber eyes narrowed in intense displeasure. He had no right brining these animals from there.

Quickly though, her focus is back on Cirice, especially as she whispers conspiratorially to her. Del chuckles quietly, tilting her head to and fro in thought. "I suppose that if the animals were to wind up anywhere that the jungles of Moonglade would be a closer comparison to the forests in the Isles," she relents, "I am simply... not a fan of where they wind up after this point, I think."

Del looks to Cirice sidelong as she speaks of the things happening in the world, feeling an internal sense of disquiet. She quite agreed; things only seemed to be escalating at a rapid pace, the earthquakes, the waves back home... she wasn't aware that Cirice had been part of the expedition Cyran had mentioned to her, but it did make sense, in retrospect.

"As do I," Del exhales a little sigh, a look that turns into a smile at the younger woman's optimism. Prayed, now that was an interesting piece of Cirice's personal life to reveal, especially since the gods were dead. To whom did Cirice pray, Del wondered? "I think that finding those moments of, as you say, faith and hope, will carry a lot of people through. And does who you pray to ease your mind at all when you do partake?" She inquires.

As the little bone serpent lifts himself to life from Cirices arms, Del lets out a soft, barely audible coo of delight. What a darling; just like his perch. "Good thinking! I'm glad you brought him along; I'm a fair hand at finding things, but I'm not much of a tracker. Though I'm sure there's bound to be signs... they're large creatures, so they should leave like signs, right?"

Beginning to move deeper in to the forest as they wait for Kevin's return, Del turns to Cirice; "Which part of the Isles are you from? I'm from the outer ring, in the mountains." Distantly, Del wondered how much damage had been done to what she had considered her own home town, if any. It was unlikely, but... she hoped not.

“As long as they go to loving homes I don’t mind. I just hope that whoever they end up with loves and cares for them properly.” Cirice shrugs. She isn’t really one to determine where things belong, since she has found such joy traveling Charon, perhaps the pandas might too. As long as their owners are nice.

Cirice’s eyes sparkle with joy as Del asks her about her faith. She stops and turns to look at her, gesturing to the moon on her forehead. “Mother Moon does ease my mind! She tells me how we can help the world! She teaches me magic so I can spread her light and help through the world! She get’s stronger and louder every single day!” She smiles proudly and continues their walk before shaking Kevin off and watching him slink away..

“They should, I imagine they’ll be in the trees and stuff. Eating the bamboo and laying about lazily.” She giggles.

“I’m from Shingetsu, between Moonglade and the rest of the Isles, we’re the second largest trading port after Starlight City. My father is a fisherman and my mother’s family are tradespeople from Eclipse City.”

After a few minutes Kevin returns to lead them into the forest towards what he's found.

Del holds back on her disagreement, pondering instead on why she feel so strongly about it. Was it that they were rare, sensitive creatures, quiet and in need of protection, being used as... as pets for people who had enough money to purchase them? Whether or not they cared about the needs of the creature was dubious at best. Cirice had such a positive, optimistic view of things, though, at least that Del could see. She chuckles along, nodding, leaving her focus on the surrounding forest to look for signs of any large creatures.

It was admittedly hard. The earthquake and subsequent aftershocks either obscured or outright erased many clues she could use to track the pandas.

Her eyes lift to the moon on Cirice's forehead as she gestures to it. There's something about it, the description, that puts an icy little pit in Del's stomach. No, she shouldn't make any judgements; to be able to have faith in anything, especially in times like these, was a rare thing indeed, especially if it was genuine. Though Del was mainly familiar with the main pantheon-- such as it was-- she does wonder. "Oh, she speaks to you? That's fascinating. Most of my previous experience with the gods was very distant and hands off, but given the, ah, situation, I suppose that makes sense." She chuckles faintly. "Were you born with the mark, or was it bestowed to you?"

"Oh! Here's Kevin," She smiles at the little bone snake as it comes slithering back to lead them, and Del continues speaking, her voice quieter so they can listen. "Ah, yes, I think you had mentioned back at the dinner! Your family sounds like they had a very steady upbringing for you. Do you get to visit them frequently?"

“She speaks to me, in me dreams. Or lack thereof I suppose. Actually this is a tattoo buuuut…”

She looks around and makes sure they’re alone before pulling her shirt down quite a ways down her chest, almost low enough to be sensitive, a definitely something that would be hidden by a bathing suit or towel in a sauna or hot springs. There, near to where her heart sits is a small birthmark, a discolored place on her skin that looks almost like a brand. A small dark crescent birthmark with a cross below it lies on the tender flesh.

“This is a birthmark. It used to be over my heart when I was a baby, but you know how these things move as you grow.” She giggles. “We have a tradition on my island, that pregnant women give birth in a moon pool dedicated to Mother Moon. Its said to be quite the blessing and I was born there under an eclipse. I was marked by Mother Moon, even then. It’s my honor to serve her.”

She puts her shirt back to rights as Kevin returns to them and she scoops him up, kissing his skull head. “I try to go see them every few months, chichi and haha get worried if I don’t at least write. That’s why they asked Cyran to look after me, so they could have peace of mind, you know?”

Kevin hops back out of her hand and circles her, clearly trying to show what he’s found.

SPOILER: Click to show

Speaks to her... in dreams. But not dreams. Very interesting. "Less a dream and more like a... a vision, then?" Del looks at where Cirice indicates, almost balking at how low it goes. Holding fast to her professional curiosity and clinical pragmatism, she looks at where Cirice indicates-- a little mark in the shape of a crescent moon affixed to a post and crossbar.

Her eyes lift back to the young elfs in suprise. "It moves?" she confirms the words. Del was no physician-- maybe it did, as skin grew and stretched with time... but something about that strikes an alarm bell in Del's mind. Cirice is so candid, so blatantly cheerful and delightful as she discusses this, so openly and freely. Meanwhile, Del cannot help but feel an icy finger of fear trail down her spine. Something about this is horrifyingly familiar, somewhere deep within the marrow of her. She had never heard of this Mother Moon before speaking with Cirice about it, and was sure that was not the source of the familiarity. It was more the situation itself, possibly, but for the life of her, she could not place the memory to that feeling.

So, for now, she brushes it aside. She is learning much about Cirice, which was exactly as she had hoped to do. The younger elf was important to Cyran and it wasn't hard to see why. She was charming, vivacious, and an utter delight. She also wondered if he was as worried for her as Del was now.

"That truly does seem an honour," Del nods solemnly as they go back to walking. "I was not aware of this custom, though perhaps my location was too far removed. Your parents are part of Mother Moon's faith as well, then?" Her smile widens at the mention of Cyran, and she nods. "He cares about you a great deal. I'm glad your parents have welcomed him, too."

A distraction comes in the form of Kevin circling Cirice, winning a light laugh out of Del. "Think we should follow him?"

“Well they happen when I sleep so I think of them as dreams.” Cirice explains with a shrug. “It only moves as much as I grew silly! You know! I developed breasts and the skin stretched and everything! It doesn’t do laps around my body, its a birthmark!” She laughs at Del’s reaction.

“It is the greatest honor!” She chirps with delight, “I’ll show you the pool sometime if you like! We should go home together some time, I’ll show you Shingetsu and you can show me the Wisteria forest where you’re from! You can even meet my parents! Cyran has, they adopted him into our family! All of Shingetsu worships Mother Moon, once she started doing miracles and speaking through me life got much better on our island.”

“Yeah let’s follow Kevin, good boy!” She skips into the forest without a shred of concern. As they enter the cool shade of the bamboo stalks it isn’t long until they find a few monched leaves and bite marks along the way. Seems the pandas came through. In fact in just a few minutes Kevin stops at a stalk and curls around it. As they look up above them they see one panda lazily munching on a freshly sprouted bit.

“Ah ha!” Cirice cries, “Get down here silly bear!”

"Aaah, I see, that's a fair descriptor then," Del nods with a faint chuckle, a sound that turns into a sheepish laugh as Cirice explains how her birthmark moved. It WAS very silly; marks such as that did not simply shift around of their own accord like that. Of course not. b]"Ahhh, I see! That's my confusion, I thought perhaps because it was, ah... divine?-- Never mind,"[/b] shaking her head, she laughs at herself again.

The idea of seeing Shingetsu, meeting Cirice's parents, the pool, all adds to that steady drip of dread beginning to pool in the pit of Del's stomach the more Cirice speaks on how she grew up. Hearing that Cyran had been adopted adds a unique pang of worry, an ice cold slash to her heart that concerns her. She focuses on the information and the bubbly girl at hand, though. She doesn't have to pretend to be interested; she genuinely is, askign questions as they follow Kevin."The next time you visit, let me know and I will see if I can accompany you. Really? What kinds of miracles?"

Looking up from where Kevin has indicated one of their bears is, Del blinks. Goodness, it was a big creature. She chuffs a little amusement under her breath, and reaches out to give the stalk of bamboo a firm wiggle, to try and encourage it down. "Come on now, friend, you're not meant to be up that high. I wonder..." Glacing around, not that far off are two others, one sleeping contentedly, filled to the brim with bamboo, and the other scratching herself, looking around with a distant blandness. "A couple peas in a pod, these three."

“Of course! I’d love to host you!” Cirice chirps happily, “Oh you know, healing and helping things, just little feats of magic. It’s nothing special to most adventurers, but to normal people who aren’t as inclined to magic it’s the biggest boon I could provide.”

She’s a little bashful talking about helping people, she just does what she can to improve the lives of others, and in return people were always kind to her. Healing was a very useful skill to have, especially when you’re frequently without money, people are always getting hurt or sick and needing help.

“Awww they’re so cute…” Cirice grins at the pandas. “Such big, precious creatures. How are we going to get them back there? They’re a little too big to just carry…”

She chews on her lip a little and thinks. “Maybe… We can get them to chase Ur!” With a flash of the runes on her arms her little wolpertinger pet forms from the shadows, looking at her expectantly. “Go up there and see if you can get them to come down, buddy.”

The wolpertinger nods once and soars up to the panda on the bamboo stalk. He’d slid down a little at Del’s shaking and Ur gets above him and tries pushing him off the stalk entirely. The panda doesn’t want to give up his perch however and Ur resorts to biting him to make him let go. The panda growls, swiping at the winged rabbit who dances out of reach and heads down towards the ground.

Angry, the panda follows. Chasing after its tormentor for revenge.

“Well that’s one I guess, how do we get the rest?”

---

1 Summon Minor Minion: Ur the wolpertinger

The description of the miracles at least seemed benign enough, but Del's internal hackles were still raised; perhaps she was being simply judgemental. Perhaps she was allowing previous experience (what previous experience?) to colour her view of how Cirice described the Mother Moon. But Cirice herself was so sweet and kind... meeting her family would truly be an honour. "I think that's plenty special," Del assures, stepping around the bamboo stalk to narrow her eyes at the panda. The creature Cirice summons-- a curious rabbit-like animal with wings-- Del finds adorable, especially as it flies up to harry the panda an encourage it back to the ground.

"Well done! Oh, poor friend." She chuckles after the little wolpertinger as it sprints through the trees, the irate panda just behind it. Clicking her tongue, she grabs the large shoot of bamboo, bending it thoughtfully. It was flexible, of course, and sturdy, thicker than average. This was a different level of quality of bamboo than she was used to seeing. "...Oh," Del laughs, "They're eating bamboo that you make furniture out of. This must be someone's particular patch, that explains why it's in abundance and why they've come here. I can possibly break off a few of the smaller shoots to entice them with-- oh." She glances down as a pair of little cubs roll out of the folliage towards them. Evidently, the mother who had been hanging from on high and was now off chasing her mortal enemy, had left the pair behind.

They look at Cirice and Del, a little wary, but used to humans, thanks to the exporter who had brought them here. One makes a little, squeaky cry as it trundles forward, bumping against Cirice's leg. It was pretty terribly cute.

"Think if we collect the babies, the rest will follow? If only out of protest? Oh, hey now." Del moves her pant leg out of the mouth of the second little cub, chuckling. "Not for babies. That will be sure to give you a tummy ache."

“Oh I love bamboo furniture…” Cirice starts and her eyes alight as the cubs come rolling up to them and she scoops the one by her leg up into her arms with a cry of delight, “Oh my goddess aren’t you the most precious thing?!”

She tickles the cub’s tummy and hears a low growl from behind her, one of the other pandas is not happy she’s handling the baby, possibly the father. He takes some menacing steps towards her.

“Oh yeah they’ll follow I think! Grab the other, let’s run!” With the little bear cradled in her arms she tries to lure the male back towards the farm, staying ahead of him but not enough to loose him.

Watching Cirice baby the little cub brings a soft smile to Del's face. It really wasn't hard to see why Cyran adored her so much, or why Gerhart had fallen for her. She was a lovely person, inside and out.

She's distracted by the lovely sight just long enough for the approach of the large male panda to go unnoticed, right up until he growls. Del turns too look, eyes widening as she sees the large, angry animal approaching. It was, admittedly, less threatening than when it was one of the pure-white bears hunting along the icy coasts in the Frost Gale, but a bear was a bear, and those claws were certainly no joke. Del starts to move in the path of the bear before it can reach Cirice, though she slows as the young woman calls out an idea.

"Right!" She bends, scooping up the little cub who was still enthralled with trying to destroy her pant leg, she takes off after Cirice, running just fast enough to stay between the young woman and the giant bear, while not losing her forward momentum[1]. It was likely not necessary-- she was certain Cirice was more than capable of taking care of herself. But, she was precious to those who were precious to Del, and as such, Cirice was now precious too. Del didn't want anything to happen to Cirice that she could prevent.

As they run, Del reaches out a hand to drag across some of the smaller bamboo shoots rising from the ground-- they don't break, but she does rip them out of the earthquake softened ground by the root. Dragging this behind her, she hopes, will entice some nearby stragglers to pay attention to the running food source, who were being chased by a male of the same species. Some of the ones not occupied by the bamboo at present seemed interested at least, and the next time Del looks over her shoulder, there are a three more adults ambling after them, much less agitated than the big male was.

"We have some more company!" Del calls ahead to Cirice. "How far is the paddock?"

---

[1] Cat's Grace

“Not far!” Cirice yells, “Goddess I hope the fence was fixed and its open!”

The pair of elves and their party of pandas make their way out of the forest and towards the farm. As they run they can see that the fence is indeed fixed, but the gate is closed! Cirice curses silently to herself and raises one hand, runes along her arm flaring to violet life. A ramp made of light forms in front of and over the fence, acting as a way to lead the bears into the enclosure¹.

“Run over the ramp and trust me, I can calm the bear down once we’re inside!”

The pair run over the ramp with the bears close on their heels. Circe sets the cub safely on the ground inside the pen just as the male comes up to her angrily about to swipe. As claws come towards her face she catches the paw, the runes flaring again as the panda suddenly calms, shoulders relaxing as he falls back to sit on the ground, looking sleepy^2,3.

“Whew… That worked…”

---

1 Wall of Light
2 Steel Catch
3 Calm Emotions

Seeing the gate ahead is closed, Del grumbles under her breath, trying to triangulate if she can haul herself over the fence with the bear cub and unlock the gate in time for the pandas to surge in and get out of the way of the big male-- when Cirice comes up with one, effortless, elegant solution.

As she runs, Del finds her feet striking not the loamy floor of the jungle, but something hard at an incline. Looking down for a second, she sees the bridge of light that has been made manifest, acting as a ramp for them to quickly go up and over the fence without so much as missing a beat.

Whens he touches down on the other side, she laughs, impressed. "Well done! It certainly did, wonderful work--." She pauses as the big male panda takes a swipe at Cirice-- to no avail. She stops it delicately, her touch calming the giant bear as though she had taken away all its rage.

Very capable indeed.

Del sets down the little cub, watching it go flouncing towards the bamboo shoot Del had brought along, before turing again to Cirice with a smile. "Incredible work! You hardly needed me at all. I think there's still a handful of stragglers out there, but at least we know where they are and how to bring them back here safely, yes?"