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A tall, very slender doe walks carefully through the tangle of roots and debris as she follows the warmth and soft glow of a salamander as her guide. She walks slow enough that should her leg bump a root she doesn't fall flat on her face like a foal but her step remains confident.

"Yes," she whispers softly. "I'm right behind you."

Sometimes, when the night was dark and the moon was dark, Velvet felt embraced. The darkness around him was a comfortable companion, a reminder that now was the time to be relaxed, and quiet, and sleepy. With so much energy to face the day with, he often laughed and talked the day away, using every shred of sunset and twilight he could before finally tucking himself away to sleep.

But tonight, for some reason, light was coming early. It bewildered him at first-- the warm halo of warmth registered through his eyelids as a sort of false morning, and grew steadily larger. Had he really slept so long that the night was coming again? If so, it was probably time to start for the day. If he wasn't feeling well-rested after the whole night, then it was his responsibility to find extra food and a cozy place to shelter, just in case he was coming down with something.

Something about the sunlight, however, felt... off. For one thing, the morning choir he was accustomed to hadn't started sounding off yet-- and secondly, something about the quality of the light belied the steady, rising light source he knew was the sun. Something about it was wrong... and whatever was throwing his sense of daytime off was heading straight towards him.

Nighttime was easy to get around during with the help of the fire salamander guide as the creature created a focus to follow that the washed-out light of day didn't provide. It made it her preferred time to travel but it also meant she wasn't as accustomed to running into other kin during her trips. The salamander guided the slender doe along the path of the zikwa and the doe followed along without any realization of the fact.

She walked over twigs without caution, the sounds of the dried branches snapping under the weight of her hooves.