2023.06.27 Subterranean Musings

2023.06.27 Subterranean Musings
While Xiu relaxes in a hidden cavern, Wulfra splashes upon her... and proceeds to be taught many things about the world
IC Date	2023.06.27
IC Time	Evening
Players	Wulfra, Xiu
Location	Caves - Natural Cavern
Spheres	Mage, Bygone

Even in the depth of the forest south of Prospect, it can be hard to really shake the feeling of civilization nearby. Just out there. Look in a direction, and you know it is *there*, if you just head far enough. Thankfully, there are places that are deeper, older, and even more remote. This cavern seems to be one of them. And it is traveled by a certain witch-creature. Xiu is moving in that horned, tailed, four-armed and strangely-legged form of hers, at times triding, at times crawling through the cavern system - simply being. The spoils of a hunt are still on her breath and teeth. A cavern critter she found and ate - but now, she is following a sound that many are attuned for - the sound of water. Those feline eyes of hers work with the smallest of light, the witch otherwise relying on her other senses for the most part right now, as she moves through these dark bowls of the earth. And she feels quite at home and relaxed, doing so.

The sound of the pounding water winding through the expanses of the cave flows uninterrupted, the vibrations of its intesnity growing from a subtle thrum to a rumble of pure power. How deep in the earth is it? How far does this place truly go, and how would one lucky... or unlucky... enough to find themselves here get out? For one not so attuned... or blessed with something else... it would be nigh impossible. And, thus, Xiu can make her way over within sight of the waterfall undisturbed. There doesn't even seem to be any of the usual critters around its area either... on 'land' at least.

And once the waterfall comes into view in the darkness - Xiu's eyesight a mere cat's eye of monochrome, amplified traces of light - the witch grins a razor-teeth grin. Oh, her tail flicks, and she moves along the shore of this pool with casual motions of her predatory body. Water, deep in the earth. Pure. Untouched. A little spot hidden far away. What primal witch would not be happy? She lunges in, dives for just a small moment before she curls, turns and surfaces again, letting out a happy, beastial shriek before she brushes her hands over her head. Warm or cold - she does not care about the water temperature in the end, and after a short crossing of the pool to the other side, she easily pushes herself out of the waters again with a quick flick of supernaturally strengthened muscualture. she then turns, the strange, taloned feet grasping the edge - before she softly exhales. Relaxation comes...and she settles down, like one might on a nice sunny beach, gazing up at the watefall for a long moment, licking those sharp teeth with a long, strange tongue.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Xiu rolls Perception + Alertness vs 8 for 1 successes. 3 5 6 7 7 +8 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

How long does Xiu's moment of just -existing- here last... a few seconds? A few minutes? An hour? Whatever it is, it does not truly matter... because, eventually, past the aimless pattern of the water falling across the dozens of hundreds of feet, there's something... unusual. In the near pitch blackness and shrouded by the spraying water, it's hard to notice at first... but within the first few seconds, Xiu seets it. Up near the top, where the water comes from, there's a -shape-... a shape that's blacker than the stone of the tall cavern that looks from this distance like a glob of tar. And, whatever it is, it's fallen off that oh-so-high ledge... and is coming -very- quickly. If she wants to get out of the splash zone, she'd better act now.

And act, she does. She is fast in this form. Even stronger than usual. And she does not care about elegance, when raw efficiency usually just does the job - so she lunges, backward, four arms spreading behind her to pull her further backward as soon as those hands touch the ground. Legs pull up, her knees at her shoulders while the upper body swings backwards - legs stretching to make her end on all sixes, staring. She does not scream, yell or snarl as she performs this - just a silent, fast series of motions, while she watches, listens - even sniffs.

As the shape falls, and falls, and falls... it becomes clearer. What once looked like a simbple black blob now looks like a black... asteroid? There's an indefinite, craggly shape shrouded in a -trail- of smoke. But there's not much time to examine the thing before there's practically an -explosion- of said vapor... then the coming crashing cacophony of water. The force of it coats the entire chamber in droves of splashing wetness like the world's most daring cannonball, it taking several seconds for the entirety of the water-sent-airborne to finally all fall. Once to the relative 'quiet' of the roaring waterfall alone, Xiu can see the surface of the water -bubbling-... like a freshly forged blade being dunked into the blacksmith's water bucket.

Xiu blinks a couple of times. Even as the water splashes up, even as it comes raining down and runs in drops off her predatory body. She ignores the water running so very close to those feline eyes of hers. No, she pays *attention* to the important part - whatever fell int othe water there. For a moment, she simply holds still, waits for the sounds of the dropping water to quiet down - at least, until it is simply just the water fall again. The silence of this room. Only then does she slowly, slowly crawl forward, sniffing again, nostrils flaring - before she dares to peek into the waters, tense, those claws of hers scratching the surface of the rock beneath.

The water's surface is a bit choppy... pristine, but shrouded by the white bubbles brought on by the waterfall. Even with that, though, there's no mistaking the very large sized black shape at the bottom of the basin, several yards deep. Lines of bubbles trait up from its edges, coming to the surface to emerge into the air as steam. For those long moments, it is still... but then... eyes. Many eyes... familiar eyes. Eyes which shine like roiling magma in the depths as they all individually look around... before focusing up on Xiu.

And Xiu grins back, a wide, amused grin. Her long, human-skinned tail flick-flicks, before she lunges again! And this time, she actually dives deep twards that shape, propelled by powerful, snakelike motions of that body of hers. Her plan? Not much of one. Who needs plans in situations like this? She simply dives down to Wulfra, then swims around her with playful motins, nuzzling, brushing herself along the creature - saying hi in a natural, though silent way, given the water. She, for one, does not need words right now.

The eyes follow the witch-thing as she makes her way down to the sunken Wulfra. She can feel the heat of the steam rising up as the contained vapor caresses her, Wulfra's own movements still... other than their eyes. Getting closer, though, it seems whatever shape Wulfra was in before is quite different now... though more akin to the 'natural' form she saw last time. Rather than her multiple wings, she instead seems to have even more 'legs', and, in place of her smoky-fibred tufts of fluff, they're tipped with fins that wave and flutter about almost like wide strips of seaweed. A large one goes from crown of the head to the tip of the tail, others along the jaw, and many auxilliary fins along the limbs and sides of the tail. At first, the fins served as a shroud, almost molding together, but when she finally -moves-, they all stretch out, showing themselves off. In greeting, Wulfra gives a deep rumble that stirs even more bubbles around them, eyes trailing over the surroundings in addition to some focusing still on Xiu.

And Xiu sure explores those fins as she continues to brush along Wulfra, sliding around, brushing herself between some of them before she finally swimns in front of the other - and then moves forward, to give a 'smooch' of sorts onto that snout. A grin, treading water with slow, patient motions - before she glances up and swims up once more for a moment - just to return beneath the water again, close - and actually this time using the chance to explore what she can see with her eyes down there. All told, it is probably not much at all in the dark waters, but that is at least one of the reasons she brushed over Wulfra so much, aside of simply personal touch - exploring the other's shape. she now does the same with the pool's walls and floor. Carefully, much more slowly.

The fins are, like her mane, extremely soft to the touch, the edges carrying up trapped vapor as Wulfra starts to stir more. Although, in place of the swathing obsidian-like plates of before, their flesh is more... fishy. Smooth, very soft, almost like a shark. Across its surface, however, there's -cracks-, like the ground after a drought, where from that orange-red magma glow shines as the eyes do. There's several more deep rumbling sounds as Wulfra pushes to their 'feet' and starts drifitng up int he water more, showing off just how -long- their 8-legged body is right now as their tail stretches out and the 'cracks' over them start to seal themselves to a complete silky black body once more. Then, half swimming and half digging their claws into the side of the rock, they pull themselves up and up out of the water. The first set of legs grasps over the side of the wettened rock as their fangs drip and eyes study the new place properly. There's an unbridled sense of... something within them, something almost wondrous in their curiosity.

Xiu does not immediately rise. Oh, she watches Wulfra rise of cours, all over - but then, she examines the pool's floor itself a bit more. A couple minutes pass - one or two - before she finally resurfaces as wel, with a loud exhale and a couple long inhales filling her lungs again with fresh air. She does not climb out of the pool on the edge however - no, she climbs up Wulfra's back, making sure not to use claws as she lets out a soft laugh that echoes in the chamber, only interrupted by the sound of the waterfall. "Hello there, Wulfa!" she softly shouts to be better heard, and thne leaps onto the shore before turning around, lowering onto all sixes again - her tail twitching and flicking above and behind her. "Fancy meeting you here."

As the Xiu-thing climbs onto Wulfra's back, there's a bit of a scrambling as Wulfra's claws start to slide along the stone... which they quickly correct by splashing up two more clawed limbs to dig into it as they climb out more. Their head turns a bit to the side, looking up at Xiu with several narrowed eyes. `At first, I did not know if I had stumbled upon your lair, and you were about to come defend it... is it? Are you just giving the... hospitality?`

"No," Xiu says, and lets out a soft laugh. "I wish I had found this place before I had my lair. This is.." she softly inhales and lifts her hea, peering up before she peers forward at Wulfra again. "A wonderful place." She lick her lips. "Has some food, too. And nobody from above to disturb things. So much that you can even show your forms here." Plural, now that she has seen this one.Her tail flicks again, before she moves forward on those sixes, then leans towards Wulfra, and nuzzles the other's neck for a moment. "Mmmh..it is much softer. Have the days treated you well?" she wonders, that tail flicking again.

`Mmmrrhmm...` Wulfra purrs as they pull themselves fully, save for their lengthy tail, out of the water. They take a few steps, looking up, down, all around, casing the place. `Not your lair... good... that is... good...` But, that thought it cut off when Xiu comes forwards to nuzzle the fishy form's neck. Some of the eyes trail down to look at the Xiu, but most stay looking around. `You are not the first to say that... I should keep what is well liked in mind....`

"Mmh, does it not feel softer to you?" she wonders. Her own experiences in shapeshifting, at least, have kept the wits to preferring skin over scales. well. Hard scales. Her eyes then drift up as well, glancing about the room again before she gives the neck another nuzzle, and moves to brush along Wulfra's side for a moment. More non-verbal saying high. Perhaps even scent-rubbing, before she settles back into a crouch, her long tail sliding over the floor like a snake. ANd her eyes narrow a bit as she grins. "Somebody is thinking of making this *their* lair, yesÃ?" she takes a guess there. `I am not exactly able to be in two forms at once and touch myself as you can... but in the being touched, it is most similar to how my wings feel... only wrapped around my entire self. It's very... containing... like the human form is. I am not sure if I like it or not yet. Perhaps you can try being condensed vapor, for once, and see what I mean?` Wulfra says, eyeing Xiu's form more as their own tail snakes out of the water basin. Moving along the rock, up onto a higher place, the alien creature stares over the other places within the caverns that they can see... silent, unmoving. `It... reminds me of home... the vast tunnels suffused in and out between vistas of the twisting abyss. Where the cracks of energy could bubble through the lines and meet the cold rock... dark, enclosed, safe. But this is... more solid. More complete... somehow. This... water... is a sign of it.`

"Hmmmh." Xiu tries to contemplate that. Becoming..something that is *not* normally alive. The witch, considering all the things she has tried before with her body, has never done that. Yet. "I cannot imagine it." she finally admits when it comes to that strange, imagined feeling, but then lightly grins. "But yes, I like that form of yourse." she says and looks it over for a moment, even as Wulfra speaks of the nature of her home. "It had no water?" she finally says, and glances at the pool. "That is sad. Water is wonderful." she says before she crawls towards Wulfra, pushing herself up into a stride along the way - and then reaches out to brush a hand over Wulfra's head. "Why not make it your lair, then? Or at least..." she says and cants that horned head of hers. "Our personal little hangout spot? It is not like anybody else will find their way here anytime soon."

`Yes... now water. At least not like... this.` They mumur, looking over the various pools. `But... yes... maybe this is what I've been looking for. The surface is too... bright. Crowded. Eyes everywhere, stakes everywhere... this merits further investigation. Deeper...` They turn, pushing a bit into the hand touching their head. `This place is expansive... it is good for the hanging out, yes. I am not sure how you made it down here, considering where I came from... I'd like to go that way when we depart to see.`

"Eyes everywhere." Xiu echoes, before she begins to crawl a bit - a sound of frustration leaving her. Eyes, metal, steel, glass. Pollution. The world is being ruined..." she murmurs, before she circles around and returns to Wulfra's head - smiling, rising as she reaches out and brushes the hand over the oher's head again. "Does it feel different in this form?" she wonders, canting her head, before she adds, with a shrug.. "It is a cave. It has an entrace. I went in and looked around." Simple!

`Ruined? Ruined how? This world is a... paradise. It is no wonder it has so many in so small of places.` Wulfra mms, head hanging down to glance at the low-crawling Xiu. They soon lean into the touching, closing some of their eyes. `Yes... it is... closer in a way? But also like being felt through... clothing.` They adjust their legs a bit over the rocks, claws digging in and scratching the stone slightly. `Entrance... yes... multiple. Of course. I found a cave in the deep waters as I was doing the fishing... followed it....`

"It is not." Xiu murmurs - and there is a sad tone in her voice. "It is a former shell of its beauty and nature. Imagine, all that steel and stone and glass of the cities, the noise, the many eyes, gone. Imagine the stench and dirt of pollution, gone. A green world, nature and magic as far as the eye can see..." she almost whispers. "Large forests, deep clean waters. a couple settlements, sure. But humans living with nature, not against it. A world where you could move about freely in your true form" She softly, deeply inhales. "It has not been a paradise for a long time." She scritches over the head some more, and then moves along Wulfra, all four hands now delivering strokes and scritches along the side and back. "It is long gone. Merely a teasing about the paradise it once was."

Wulfra's eyes open fully once more, staring into Xiu for a long time... even after she finishes speaking. There's no beathing, of course, but the 'flesh' of the creature subtly ripples under Xiu's touch with an unseen current. `Compared to here... the amount of places I can fly in my 'true form' are vast, limitless. Places where there are no human eyes. So... why, then, was that time so special? The magic...? Were there more Mages?` Then, all the eyes glance away, a plume of that smoky vapor softly rising from the 2 sets of paired nostrils on their snout. `And what do you mean by this... pollution....`

"I will show you." Xiu says, brushing along WUlfra. "But first, explore the forest more. its beauty. Its serenity. The animals and plants. And imagine it, large, much more beautiful and thriving, covering the whole planet in it. It and the jungles and steppes and all the things in between.." she murmurs. "And once you have explored and imagined it, I will show you what happened to it all." She softly inhales, stopping at Wulfra's right hindleg..well, the two of them, on that side, and she lightly pats. "And you will see what I mean. Sure. You have the luxury of being able to travel to the umbral realms. Most human do not. This is our home. And you will see what happened to it. To you the current state is maybe a paradise. But only because you have not seen yet what most of it looks like."

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Wulfra rolls Intelligence(3) + Cosmology(3) (6 dice) vs 6 for 2 successes. 4 5 5 5 +6 +6 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Wulfra's eyes follow Xiu as she makes her circles... and, once done, Wulfra pulls away, stepping more towards the pond. With a thorough, full body -shake-, Wulfra becomes swathed in smoke as the fins burst into those bushels of not-fur... and their skin breaks apart into sections of smoothness suspended on the smoke. The middle legs, what would normally be wings, stay as extra ones, however, as they walk over to the pond and stare down at its reflective stillness. `Pangea... Pangea sounds like what you describe. Have you been to it?` Wulfra's head moves back up to look at Xiu fully. `Your home... a strange thing to ponder. I wonder how much more exploration I will have to do before you will show me what you mean....`

Xiu watches the transformation there with unhidden curosity. She remains standing on her legs - tall, straight, one pair of arms lightly crossing as the other just hangs. A shake of her head is the reply to the question. "No. I do not know pangea. I have never traveled to the umbral worlds. Just the penumbra f this one." Another light shake of her head. "I never was interested in exploring them. Not much. This is the world I care for. My home. Our home. And I wish to stop and reverse the destruction and misery that was brought to the Goddess' creation." she says. "It really is as simple as that. Perhaps there are other worlds of beauty. Perhaps also made by her. But this one." she softly inhales and brushes one of her taloned, strange feet over the rock. "...this one is the one crrently in need of saving. No matter how long it takes."

`Saving...` Wulfra mutters deeply, head pulling away from their own reflection to look up around the room at seemingly nothing. `You wish to defend your territory. Yes. It makes sense... but it is too bad. Have you never looked at this world from the outside? It is... the first way I saw it. A round whole.` Then, they turn from the pond more... and step towards Xiu with part of their lengthy self. Staring. `Goddess.` They rumble, smoke drifting up from inbetween their jagged fangs, the glow betraying their fire flaring up.

"It is...more than defending territory." Xiu murmurs as she just gazes across the chamber in the dark, not really focused on anything. "If I could sacrifice myself to turn it whole and beautiful again, I would. So..no. Not about defending territory. Not quite." One of her four hands is playing with some braids, before she softly smiles for a moment. "And yes, it is. A pretty, round world. With so much life left. But it is so rapidly windling, and getting corrupted..." A longer inhale follows, before she turns a bit, glancing at Wulfra - stepping towards her, canting her head a bit. "Goddess?" she echoes the word - not quite sure just what Wulfra is referring to.

Wulfra tilts their head one way... then another... taking a long time in regarding Xiu. Then... they lean their head forwards, pressing a tongue out of their sharp maw that glows like hot magma and drags it up and over the whole of her face. The tongue pulls back, but the head stays close... some eyes staring at her while others glance around, as if looking for something else. `rrrrhhmmmmm... rhheearhhrrhgh. I... ssee. Tell me ssomething... what is your adversary? What is this... corruption?`

The witch-beast draws closer, and she reaches out with two arms - brushing them along Wulfra's back as she passes her again - Xiu's side brushing along the other. "They call themselves the Technocratic Union. The Technocracy. And they have hunted us for hundreds of years. Have suppresed our magick. Have shunted us into the shadows, as they started to cover the world in metal and steel and asphalt and glass.." she murmurs. "Taking the wonder of the world and nature in people's minds, and replacing it with a spectacle only seen on television, or watched from a safe distance. Coddled in concrete homes, away from it all. A 24 hour fake life of merely pressing buttons to receive food, sleeping and waking at the commands of others, and repeating the cycle of more and more greed and removing nature for 'safety'." She reaches Wulfra's end, brushing two hands over her tail. For a moment, she ponders peeking again. But then thinks different of it, her mind too preoccupied by that sad image of the world, while she slips over the tail and then makes her way along the other side of the creature.

Wulfra listens quietly to the story, their 'scales' subtly moving inwards when Xiu presses upon them. As the witch-thing reaches the lengthy tail, the end of the thing begins to gently curve around until Xiu is wound up between it and their side. It curls around like this several more times until the fibres utop its length begin to tickle at Xiu's upper body and head... especially the huge bushel of the stuff at the very tip. The stuff dances over her skin, flickering at the ends and filling her nose with that deep smoky scent. `It is weighing on you. An impossible mass on your shoulders. You dedicate so much of yourself to the lifting....`

Xiu can't help but let out a soft laugh as the tail wraps around her - and she stops walking, and instead leans into it, all four hands brushing slowly over it. "It is, yes..." she says, a mixture of sadness and happyness at once in that voice. Sadness for what she has to face. Simple happyness in that tail. "But I have dedicated myself to it. I am...fine with it. I had many years to come to terms with that. And I gladly serve her.." she murmurs, before she lets out a soft sneeze from the bushel. Her own tail flicks beneath, mostly sticking to the floor now, as she glances over at Wulfra's many eyes. "This is cozy." she murmurs.

The end of the tail pulls back a bit at the sneeze, Wulfra staying still for a few moments... before going right back to it. The fibres along it brush up against Xiu in many places all at once... if the witch-thing is ticklish, this would surely be a form of torture. Wulfra doesn't say anything whilst doing this... not in normal words anyways... rather, there's another series of deep, rumbling noises mixed with growls and clacks of the teeth. Something about it feels... oddly deep. Like it's more than just normal noises. Wulfra says in Reptilian, "A strange thing... so much bound up into flesh... but very healthy flesh. What do you hide?"

Xiu shows no signs of understanding it - but, also, she does not seem to be really ticklish. Thankfully! Perhaps it is simply years of feeling the forest brush all over you. She smiles, gazing at Wulfra's head, and listening to those sounds. It is hard to miss that it is, probably, some language - but she does not reply, or ask what is being said. She just lets her hands roam over that tail in little carresses, while she is being held, and lets out a soft sound before she brushes one cheek over its surface, the horned head lowering a bit and turning as she moes it over that strange 'skin'.

`This form. Did you make it, or did you gt it from somewhere else?` Wulfra mumbles, eyes glancing up and down the wrapped Xiu. Then, just as quickly as the tail wrapping process began, Xiu can feel the fibres begin to settle down... and, right after, there's a surge of warmth around her as the tail seems to wrap more completely, yet doesn't become -tighter- at all. The hard, smooth plates seem to slip away as, rather than properly unwinding from her, the tail just -passes- right over her like she wasn't even there. Wulfra turns, the tail that pulled over Xiu in an intangible cloud of smoke reforming as soon as it's passed.

"I made it." Xiu easily enough answers that question - and when that warmth comes, in the dark, she leans against it more. Almost enough for her to stumble as the tail becomes non-solid. She lets out a laugh of surprise, but her reflexes are oh so fine right now, the witch straightening - before she turns slowly around herself, spreading her arms, turning them, bending a bit, twisting along her waist as she shows off her changed body and the changed musculature of..well, many parts. The torso, front and back, adjusted for the changed skeleton that comes with the additional two arms, and the need to move them proper. And those legs of hers, changed in the way they are. "Over time I tried many things. Other animals, of course. But also simply changing myself in just parts. Adding. Changing. I found this form to be very useful overall. My personal little..." she murmurs. "Evolution. Adjusting to my needs."

Wulfra faces Xiu, a bit of ember-sparkling smoke kicking up around their pelvis and backmost legs as they suddenly lift the entirety of their upper body up, three other pairs of claws hanging in front of them as their length tail balances the weight. `Your own... evolution. Do you mind if I try it?`

"Who am I to deny another creature any changes to itself?" Xiu simply replies, her horned headtilting back a bit as she watches the other rise. Her tail now off the floor, it slowly dances through the air behind her - and then flicks a couple of times, as she smiles. "Go right ahea. Experiment. Play with yourself. Try a little other thing every day, and see if you like it or not. It is a little piece of personal freedom to enjoy and learn from."

Soon after Xiu's words, Wulfra's form kicks up totally ino that mystical cloud again... which grows smaller, until it's roughly Xiu's size. When the cloud clears, Xiu can see a creature much like her... only their face resembles that of a completely different human, long black hair mimicking the braids. The horns, too, are Wulfra's own... as are the slit eyes that bright orange color. Wulfra takes a moment to look down at herself, rotating her limbs around and clenching those clawed feet and second arms. `...interesting. I admit, I have not experimented much with altering a human shape like this... other than the inbetweens I went through when learning to take one for the first time.`

Xiu's eyebrows rise as the smoke condenses. She expected something like this - but for Wulfra to actually push herself through that has her lightly grin. "Oh, if you felt like wrapped in cloth before.." she muses as she steps towards her not-quite-sameish twin.. "..then you must feel like in a compressed bandage right now." She steps around the other, circling her, before she reaches out and brushes two hands over this new shape. Eyeing it closely. Noticing where Wulfra made small differences, and where she has not. "How *does* it feel in actuality?" she wonders, as she continues to move around the other in silent steps, fingers here and there. "It *looks* mostly...well. Rather well done for a mimicry of my own. Good work."

Wulfra glances down between them as Xiu steps forwards, bringing her tongue over the new teeth and shaking her hair out. `Thank you... yes, human flesh is something else. But I am decently used to it, by now, living in it for a large portion of the day. I have several items of clothing stored in here as well... but I do love the extra pair of arms... that's one of my biggest dislikes of the human form. So little limbs. Not to mention the tail... though this one isn't much of anything.`

Xiu grins - and opens her mouth, her own tongue extending there. Long. Glistening. Not human, but coming to a fine tip - and about a foot long. "You miffed thif." she remarks, before she pulls the tongue back and lets out a soft laugh. she stops circling, and instead reaches out, each of her arms taking one of the other's. "They are definitely the most useful change in my own mind, yes. So very, very useful. By now I miss them every time I...revert." she admits. "They are just so very convenient." she then lifts her tail and flicks it. "What do you mean, not much of anything?" she remarks, lifting her chin. "It is very good for keeping balance, if required. And it can hold things. Not too heavy things, but it can gold a deal. Also useful."

Wulfra's eyes narrow, betraying a bit of annoyance. She lets out a huff of smoke as the tongue melts out to a black length the same as Xiu's, then pulls it back into her mouth. `Probing your insides wouldn't ahve been very nice, would it have?` She mmms, glancing around at the tail, flicking it around a bit. `Just... look at it. So small... more of an afterthought than an actual part of the body. It is better than none, though.`

"Depends on how you probe." Xiu remarks and smirks, though then lightly nods, playfully curling and twirling her tail before she relaxes iat again. "Well. Many creatures have thinner or smaller tails.." she remarks. "You will find that a larger tail, in a bipedal stance, will throw off your balance instead of supporting it.." she says, and brushes her finger's over the other's as she lets go of Wulfra's hands, stepping back and to the side. "Try it. I know your body as weigfht to it." She nods towards the tail. "Make it as larrrrge as you want. But better lean forward in time.."

`Hmph. Another reason why the stance is so stuffy... but I'll try it.` Wulfra mumurs, bending forward a little before trying a running leap onto the rock by the pond. They sail through the air, right towards the rock... but as they try to land on it, they stumble for a moment before totally losing their balance... and fall with a splash into the pond.

Xiu lets out a hearty laugh as Wulfra slips and falls righti into the waters - and she follows, with a fast run and a leap into the pond. She dives into the water, arms at her side as she turns and bends like a snake to flit upwards again, her eyes looking for Wulfra before she resurfaces and begins to tread water. "And thaaaaaat..." she sing songs there. "...was veerrrry familiar. I had to go through so many days of getting used to things, every time, back then.." she explains - not even sure if Wulfra can hear her yet. "It gets easier over time. Faster."

Wulfra pulls herself out of the water dejectedly, hair drenched and dripping with the water. `Seems I still have a lot to do in terms of coordinating myself with things here...` she mutters... before suddenly shaking herself out, a sizzling sound emanating as her flesh and hair grows momentarily smoky and steamy. In a few econds, the wetness is all gone. `How long have we been down here? Perhaps it is time I should get back up to humaning... where was that way you came in from, you said?`

Xiu smirks, and then pushes herself out of the pool with a swift, easy motion. She does not bother, this time, with shaking herself or anything. "Come on, little four-armed sister." she teases with a razor-teeth grin. "Let me show you the way. It takes a while, so memorize it well." she anonunces, before she begins to lead Weulfra towards the exit of the chamber - and through that maze of corridors, crawlspaces, steadily up and up...back towards the surface.

When Wulfra finally emerges from the cave systems, they take a moment to scan around at where they are... eyes narrow from the sudden abundance of light. `Oh... this is -here-....` After the moment of adjustment, she stands tall in the strange form, stretching more for a bit. `Seems I have work to do... I thank you for the hanging out.`

"Yes." Xiu says, as she comes walking out of the cave, drops onto all sixes, streeetches and rises again. She glances over at the creature looking so similiar to her - and slips over, before she does something she could not do with Wulfra before. Hipbump! "I will be seeing you, Wulfra. Do not let yourself be seen in that form.." she warns, just in case. "But enjoy it as long as you can." Her expression softens. "And yes, it was nice. Thank you for the hanging out, indeed." The smile of hers turn into a grin. "I will go hunt now. Stay safe!" And with that said, she turns and slips forward, between the undergrowth and trees. Silently, gone from sight in a matter of moments.