CARAMEL CRUNCH BLIZZARD && return

time had passed... much too quickly for her liking.

days had gone too fast. her little ones had entered the world, and indie had uncharacteristically kept herself private from then on. the sense of reclusion was not uncommon, but actually going so far to stay away was a rare occurrence for her. she had kept herself close to her cubs until they were ready to see everyone else. indie herself didn't make much of an appearance between kydobi's visits, though.

when the cubs had grown enough to be alone for a bit, she had made her decision. her mission had been put on hold for far too long. with the creature out there, looming around the corners... indie didn't feel comfortable with unfinished business. it wasn't a good move on either end to simply ignore it. she had promised brynn and piers she wouldn't be long. she couldn't tell them much else, unfortunately.

this was between her and the hound.

she had come to figure out the mechanisms in the library that made him seem to disappear. the bunkers were quite a feat and she wondered if the residents even knew of it. and if they did... if they were aware of its occupant.

the corridors were long and the air was stuffy. her body kept close to the walls, vision minimal in the complete darkness. one of the corridors ended with a dimly lit room, the creatures presence felt more strongly at the end of it. indie took a deep breath as each step brought her heart pounding in her chest. she held her breath once she reached a few feet from the door, the light flickering menacingly from inside. the only thing missing was... the presence. it wasn't inside of the room.

"znalazłeś mnie"

indie turned around to find the beast towering over her. he didn't look vicious or cruel, though. he appeared rather solemn. he looked worse than when they first met, if it was even possible. emaciated. eyes edging to entirely black. something had chewed his ears and legs harshly. what was he doing?

"i've played your game long enough, dog. months. i've won." indie had grown impatient with this game of cat and mouse. she had a family to care for now. priorities beyond herself. it was time to end things. they both knew it, from the way he broke their stare.

does he even want to?

there was no going back now. he had called upon her, whether it was from an impulse or not, they were bound together until she completed his wish.

he's scared...

mikolaj released a long, defeated sigh before nodding his head. she allowed him to move past her into the room behind them, hesitantly following.

the shepherd dragged a small leather bag out into the center of the room and opened up to its contents. a single silver spike and an old, tattered picture of what she could only assume was him when he was alive. "kill me."

indie's blood ran cold.

"what?"

he looked at her quizzically.

"now? right now?" he nodded.

indie padded closer to him, brows furrowed together in suspicion. he seemed quite serious. he even picked up the silver spike and held it out to her. when she grabbed it, he held her paw and guided it to his chest.

"here." she felt no warmth from him whatsoever. he may not have been a spirit or poltergeist. he may not have been some benevolent entity roaming its lost lands, but he was... dead already in some sense. halfway there at least.

mikolaj let go of her and held the picture close to him before giving a soft grunt. indie swallowed hard, her breath caught in her throat. she felt her heart racing in her chest as she looked between the silver spike and mikolaj's face. he seemed to not be present anymore... lost in whatever memories he still had.

indie reeled back before forcing the spike through the shepherds chest, gasping as she heard bones crack from the penetration. decayed blood splattered across her face, making her flinch. mikolaj's expression seemed momentarily pained, then blank. his body swayed before slumping against her, causing the caracal to gently place him on his side. the blood from the wound had covered most of her face and chest, now her paws as she moved him away from the door to the center of the room.

"oh... okay..." indie took a deep breath and scooped up the picture, now noticing his name had been etched into the back. she carried it through the corridors and back to the entrance of the bunker, rising to the library floors once more. she set the picture down once she came outside of the library, not really sure what to do with it. it felt wrong... leaving it there.

with her purpose here done... perhaps she could properly enjoy tanglewood now.

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[glow=#000,1,400]WE'VE BECOMES ECHOES BUT ECHOES, THEY FADE AWAY — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Kuroba never really saw Indie around, in fact, he wasn't sure if he ever saw her around. She seemed to be in her own world. Which was fine, if she wanted to be, that was fine by him. Still, he ought to be a good clan mate. Because, he needed to be, if he didn't want to be suspected of being Kaitou Kid by anyone in this awful swamp.

So, when he sees her, he decides to say hello. The Turkish Angora makes his way over, smiling. "Hello, ojo-sama! How are you?"

Indie... God, Aurum had missed Indie. Like many others that had come and gone in his life, Aurum had become attached to Indie, thinking of her as an amazing friend and someone he cared deeply for. Aurum had a habit of loving too deeply, and too quickly. He ended up caring for so many, and it usually ended with his heart being broken, but had it ever truly stopped him before? It hadn't, and it probably never would. The alternative, becoming cold and cut off from the rest of the world around him, seemed so much worse than just accepting the possibility of losing people, and Aurum preferred to take his chances, because it meant that he could be happy in the moment. Even with all of this in mind, however, that hadn't made it any easier to see Indie slowly vanishing from his life. It hadn't been an instant process. No, in fact, it had been quite the gradual one. He had gone from seeing Indie nearly every day or every other day to seeing her only a couple times a week, and gradually the numbers had become even more dire, until eventually he just grew used to not seeing her around. He hadn't known if she had vanished from the territory completely or had been wandering aimlessly around it as Sam had been doing recently, but it didn't really matter much. Every time he went to try and visit her, he didn't receive a response, or only received a confused look from Piers. Perhaps that had added on to why it felt so awful for Piers to be leaving his Mother's home and moving out. It felt like, if even Piers wasn't willing to stay, what was to say that Indie would ever return and become a regular presence in their lives again?

Aurum had tried his best not to dwell on this, even though it did feel like a punch to the gut whenever he looked over at or passed by Indie's house, peeking inside only to see no one there. Thankfully – or, well, arguably thankfully – Aurum had plenty of distractions as of recently. Crowley, Roy, being promoted, Sam returning, getting injured by Uriel... all of it had made it so that his mind was hopelessly full of information at all times, and he had little time to worry about where Indie had disappeared off to, or why she was locking herself away. Aurum himself had been very slowly recovering from the deep wound in his chest that Uriel had recently inflicted upon him, and it had led to him being out and about a bit less often than usual. No longer was he constantly patrolling or flying around the territory, instead forced to just lay down and relax for a bit so that his wound actually had a chance to heal. However, this didn't mean that he never left his house. No, if he never left his house, he probably would've gone crazy with the feeling of being stuck inside one building. Instead, he confined himself mostly to the town and the surrounding area, occasionally going on long walks just to stretch out his legs when he wasn't feeling too exhausted. More often than not, these walks ended up at the library, since the tall and old building was a favorite hangout spot of both Aurum and his son, and where he often went to just rest and read books. Up until recently he had been avoiding it because of the building being the scene of Leroy's death, but with the hound now once again alive and back in action, Aurum had been very gradually allowing himself to relax inside it once again.

The proxy had been on one of these walks when he heard a voice that made him raise his head as he grew close to the library. It was Kaito, greeting someone in a friendly manner. Not that out of the ordinary, but Aurum still found himself curious, and before long his large paws had brought him over to the scene. When he saw Indie, however, he froze. Not only had he not seen the female in ages, but now she was emerging from the library with one of the audreylings in tow, the front of her body stained with what appeared to be blood. The lion found himself stiffly standing in place for a moment before he finally moved forward, quickly finding his place beside Kaito. He just stared for another long moment before he finally spoke, croaking out softly as he let himself rest back on his haunches, "You... Indie, where've you been...? What... what happened to you? Why do you have one of them?" He pointed with his paw back at Ridley, still seeming utterly stunned with the whole scenario. It was all so surreal that the proxy wasn't even sure he wasn't just dreaming all of this during one of his injury naps.

she had been caught off-guard when another approached her, a bit too deep in her thoughts. indie took a small step back when kaito approached her, looking down at herself then back to him. "oh- i apologize. i'm indecent at the moment." she refrained from getting too close as she normally would, not looking to get anyone else messy. she had to go clean herself up before anyone else saw her like this. she would hate for her grand entrance be bloody.

it appeared perhaps a tad too late, though. she saw aurum come closer to the library and heart began to thud in her chest. not from any fear from before, this time excitement. she hadn't seen her friend in so long. she felt guilty for leaving him out to dry so many times but hopefully... hopefully he would understand her reasoning. she never wanted to get anyone involved in her affairs. it just made things harder to get done.

"i've been... um..." alone. she wanted to be alone but why did it sound so selfish to say that? she was so used to entertaining others and providing. it felt strange to say she didn't want to be around anyone else but her cubs. her gaze shifted to ridley as he pointed to it, looking back confused. one of them? there were more?

"I... I took it with me from the bunkers. did you know there were bunkers below the library?" she pushed ridley toward him. she wasn't exactly too fond of having it around herself. "well, whoever's in it... died."

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Despite the slight hurt that had grown in Aurum's chest ever since Indie had essentially become a recluse, he couldn't find it within himself to be too terribly mad at her. After all, much like the other recent return of Vathmos, Indie was one of his best close friends, and he had missed her dearly. He didn't want to prolong them being able to interact and have fun together again because he was clinging on to some bitter feeling. So instead he just smiled softly at her, trying to show her that he forgave her even as she hesitated in her explanation of where she had been. After this, Indie seemed to remember the plant creature behind her, turning to look at it before she answered. Nodding his head, the proxy rumbled plainly as he eyed Ridley, wondering for how long it had been down there, "Yes, I know there are bunkers underneath the library. They're not used for much anymore, but they're there." He then reached out a paw to gently touch Ridley's pot as it was pushed towards him, watching the plant slowly shift and "look" at him. When the lion heard Indie's next words, however, he froze. Looking up at her, the male mumbled softly, stunned, "Wait... died? You mean... Mikolaj died?" He and Mikolaj had never been particularly close in the past, but it always hurt to lose a clanmate, particularly one that had been around since before he had even joined. As a hurt look flickered over his face, the male said, numbly, "What... what happened to him?" Faintly, in the back of his mind, a voice whispered as well, was Red in there with him?