The fox stepped forward cautiously to examine the lantern with nose and whiskers, sniffing over its wooden frame and peering at the steady flame within. Did the monsters only trouble those within the barrier? he asked curiously, remembering a book, a memory, a child in the snow. Death had come that Long Night as well, but not from a monster's raking claws or maddened cackle in the dark. No, the monsters of that first Long Night had been safe and snug inside the houses, not out in the unnatural darkness. The ones who haunted the Hollowed Grounds had come later, then...
Troubled how? Is there a way I can-- But the god had drifted up into the shadows, the faint music of their passage all that remained in answer to the fox's endless questions. He hesitated only a moment longer before stretching into a canine bow before the Shrine, then flowed into his human form to lift the lantern and scoop Isuma into the cradle of his elbow. "Be well, Ludo," he said softly into the returning silence before turning and making his way home again. For now he would lock the lantern into the Sentient Book vault in the Guildhall, the one to which he had the only key, and learn from Remi's mistake: to keep its secret until such time came that he could use it for its intended purpose.
Troubled how? Is there a way I can-- But the god had drifted up into the shadows, the faint music of their passage all that remained in answer to the fox's endless questions. He hesitated only a moment longer before stretching into a canine bow before the Shrine, then flowed into his human form to lift the lantern and scoop Isuma into the cradle of his elbow. "Be well, Ludo," he said softly into the returning silence before turning and making his way home again. For now he would lock the lantern into the Sentient Book vault in the Guildhall, the one to which he had the only key, and learn from Remi's mistake: to keep its secret until such time came that he could use it for its intended purpose.
