The long trek across the swamp to the mountains was exhausting. While it is summer, the weather here is colder than many kin are used to, with winds that whip between the mountains -- and is snow that tops the highest peaks, places where it falls in clusters down one side of the hills, flakes catching them now and then as they travel.

The landscape here is more bleak than lush, even the greenery that overtakes the base of the mountains starting to fade away as they reach their destination: a clearing in a valley that tastes of something wrong, of nature warped, that sets teeth to buzzing and where everything seems to be giving off just a faint glow.

In the center of the valley stands the Obelisk they were expecting, but instead of the pristine tower that kin discovered at the other sites, this one is...damaged. It's still a tall, smooth tower, shimmering white like the snow this time, but on one side it has been struck, and shattered, with great chunks missing and ragged bits of stone poking out of the crater in its surface. This is the source of that sense of wrongness, for sure, and as the group grows closer, the feeling gets stronger, more uneasy.

It puts them on edge, makes their teeth rattle, and as it slowly begins to infect their hearts, it will narrow their eyes as well. It fosters an aggression inside of them, a sudden itching need to fight, to do bloody damage, to avenge what has been done here, to take a chunk out of the world around them to match that in the obelisk.

It makes them bloodthirsty.

If nothing else, Merry made sure she and Until Nest Time were easy enough for Badger and Nighteyes to find after the pair of them would wander off to forage and hunt.  She sang, she hummed, she whistled sweetly as they continued on her journey, Skybird trilling on in accompaniment.  Perhaps to the chagrin of some of those around her, but she paid them very little mind in the end.  Until and Badger didn't seem to mind, and that was all she cared about.

The air was beginning to get colder, day after day, but especially night after night.  Temperatures Merry wasn't used to, and certainly wasn't prepared for.  It meant curling up close to her traveling companions, and on the fifth night, huddling up against Badgerlock's dark side.  The buck was warm, a comforting presence, but even more than that, he'd been protecting them, providing for them.  If the doe hadn't found him intriguing before, she certain'y did now.

And more than ever as she caught a glimpse of that startled smile.  It put a pause to her humming, steps slowing as she stared.  Then all at once she was stepping in to nose up under his chin like ascent marking cat.  Rubbing along his throat before the feathers of her tackle flicked his nose as she trotted ahead of him.

Those the frolicking wouldn't last much longer.

@blue @AMItotic

Until Next Time was a dreamer, not a fighter, but she managed to make do with an eagerness and at least a moderate amount of scrutiny for 'plants that were edible'. In the silence between tasks she made idle chatter with Merry, speculating on the future, speaking fondly of her children, newly grown and thinking of children of their own. She did not have a loud voice for singing, but she hummed along with Merry all the same, jovial even as the temperature started to drop.

She stared with pale eyes full of wonder when the first flakes of snow began to fall. "Oh...does this happen every year?" She hummed to herself, something light and airy taking hold in her chest. Even in reverie as she was, she couldn't miss the look in Badgerlock's eyes, and in response she gave something of a knowing smile. For all that he had his walls and his silence, he wasn't so unknowable. Likewise, she saw the way Merry looked at him in kind. It spoke of a bright and promising potential future.

But it wasn't meant to last...

...Something about the obelisk they approached was...wrong. The others had all been smooth, but this one was...jagged. Broken? Someone had broken it, and it broke Until Next Time's heart. ...She didn't like this future. She hated it, actually. Couldn't it be changed? Until Next Time paced, pawing anxiously at the ground. All this reckless, angry energy...it was like a wound on the world, and it itched under her skin. Until Next time snorted: there had to be some way to vent this steam.

@blue @Beejoux

Nothing she's ever imagined or heard of about the mountains prepares her for the sight of the Obelisk. Not even the strange dreams she'd had about others like it.

This one is different - fundamentally so, and it feels threatening, almost hungry, pulling at instincts within her that she's only ever felt while defending her children from the threats of the swamp. It urges her to fight, to let loose, to draw blood, to feed (it).

Hush gasps softly, her eyes widening as she takes it all in. It's *massive*. Bigger than any tree she's ever seen in the swamp, by far, and the way it glows is somehow ominous.

"....So... we've made it," her voice sounds almost awed, but there's a tremor in it, too. A mix of awe and fear that she can't quite hide, and something else.... something like anticipation.

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/images/starry/sightseer_uncert.png[/imgleft]

Sightseer had grown used to the comforting hum of Swarm's presence, even as they left the swamp. She knew she didn't dare venture too far from the group. It was strange and scary to think that if she strayed just a little too far, she would know that terrible Ache. The conversations of the kin around her also contributed almost a sense of normalcy to the situation, like they were all heading for some standard celebration.

This near-complacency was replaced with something else as they approached the Obelisk. The buzz within her shifted and changed. It went from a sense of comfort to one of unease and edge. Something about the towering stone and its shattered shards started a roiling inside her.

While careful to remain within the herd, she backed away from the Obelisk, shaking her head to try to shed some of the discomfort it had given her.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/images/blue/murkcrow_tia.gif[/imgright]Murkcrow stared up at Obelisk in mingled shock and horror, completely at a loss for words. If he thought the Obelisks were wrong before, this one must be the wrongest of them all. The buzzing in his head increased to a fevered pitch and he suddenly felt angry. Very, very angry.

- And he realized with a start that it was exactly as he had dreamed it.