Welcome to Gaia! ::

So his power had worked.

"Let's head a little deeper this time," Dilahi cajoled. "Your ability is well-suited to the bog, anyway, and you've got me to guide you."

Well, Guitian hadn't exactly been protesting in the first place. He was fairly certain he didn't like the bog, of course, but it only felt right to use his gift. He was, he supposed, a noulicorn, and he'd been born to do it.

It wasn't like he and Dilahi were heading right into the metaphorical heart of darkness, anyway. There was still a lot of bog between 'deeper' and the actual center of the bog. Here at the edges there was still some semblance of foliage, though most of it was half-dead reeds and strangely grey mangroves. It was much wetter, though; even the islands here couldn't avoid wetness, and the ground here could barely be called solid.

Dilahi had roused Guitian early this morning for this. "It may be muggy, but at least it's cool," Dilahi had explained. Better, Guitian supposed, than humid heat, but as a stargazer by nurture, Guitian wasn't exactly a morning noul. Still, his new friend had yet to steer him wrong. And Guitian was more sure of his power than he'd been before. He knew how it moved in his body now.

Neither noulicorn nor scuttle scale was looking out for strangers right now. They were much more interested in finding a suitable location for their next experiment. Only here, where everything looked wet and black, and the fog had shot the visibility into some obscure hell, it was hard to tell which parts of the landscape were actually suitable without stepping in it themselves.

"Let's split up," said Dilahi quickly.

"There's no rush," Guitian remarked, surprised. "Isn't it easier, on my back?"

"The sun's not getting any lower."

"And when it emerges we'll be able to see."

The argument was comfortable, not tense. Dilahi got their way, largely because Guitian did absolutely nothing to prevent them from scurrying down his shoulder. He even stood still, once he sensed them beginning to make their way down. He stayed standing a few seconds later, as their tiny form disappeared into the fog, and then he cleared his throat (a mistake; throats did not get clearer, in the bog) and turned in a different direction, testing the ground methodically as Dilahi had drilled into him as he went.

He was fully absorbed in his search for whatever it was, on the ground, and hardly had time to notice any passers-by, whoever they might be.