Bundi was very drowsy the next morning. There were now very pale white streaks running through their hair, which worried Craig, Peri could feel it. He enjoyed watching Craig hum to himself as he replaced the bandages around their forearm while making use of the surprisingly plentiful supplies they had here on Thanatos.

     "Did you..." Bundi slurred, "did you do your thingy again?"

     "Yeah, sorry," Craig replied, looking up at them.

     "S'okay, I'm getting used to it." Bundi smiled, then their eyes rolled back into their had and they fell asleep once more.

     Craig let out an amused huff, not quite a laugh, before tying up their dressing again and holding out a hand for Peri to step on. Peri could feel the tensions in his muscles, the unease. The small iridescent green bird peek into his thoughts and found Craig was going through what he had seen in Bundi's mind again. That wasn't good, so Peri walked along his arm until he settled to the familiar crook between Craig's hood and his neck. He made sure to give him a gentle bite on the ear to distract him.

     It was still raining when Craig stepped outside. He pulled his hood up over their heads and walked in the squishy mud back to their tent. Peri crouched back into Craig's neck as a drop bopped his beak and stared out at the tree line.

     "You ever think of going back to check out the cave?" He tilted his head slightly.

     "Mm, no? I think I would need like, parental supervision," Craig puffed.

     "Responsible, I dig it. You don't mind if I leave you to get a snack, do you?" Peri jumped off Craig's shoulder and onto one of the poles of the tent.

     "Yeah sure."

     "Don't get up to any hanky panky while I'm gone," Peri winked at him. "Have fun being unsupervised."

     He chortled as Craig turned a few shades darker in embarrassment, then hopped off the tent and soared through the air, letting his tail spread behind him. The rain was annoying to fly in, but Peri was a jungle bird, so it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. He was just heading towards the tree line, until he spotted a dark shape below him keeping his pace. Peri swooped low, and discovered it was Opey with Moriah on his back. Moriah's eyes were clear and beady with intelligence, he looked like he was feeling better.

     "Are you going back to the cave?" Moriah asked.

     "I was thinking about it," Peri admitted.

     "Us too, mind if we tag along?" Opey said cheerily.

     "Feel free," Peri chirped encouragingly.

     The three of them made off through the woods, Opey maintaining a constant speed, as familiars don't really need to rest, but they often will put on a show for both the attention and peace of mind of their humans. The rain hit the leaves of the trees, masking their sounds, but also masking the sounds of others. When they finally stopped, Peri shook all the water from his feathers, there droplets still pouring down the two mammals faces. The clearing in front of the cave was empty. Moriah scuttled along the ground, taking in deep breaths. Bundi's blood had been washed away from the front of the cave, but it was still open, and the inside fared a much poorer fate.

     "Can you feel that?" Opey said, lifting his head as his deer-like ears swiveled around.

     "Yeah," Peri admitted.

     There was a slightly hum in the air, not the auditory kind. Peri could feel it in the tips of his feathers, in his beak, in the back of his mind. This was a place of deep, deep magic. Fauna magic, the familiar kind. There was strong spiritual energy here and there was only one place where it could be that powerful.

     "Is this... are we standing in a summoning circle?" a new voice asked from the entrance of the cave.

     The three other animals turned around to see a very wet looking falcon shaking out his wings under the entrance. Lafayette glanced at them nervously, wondering if he had overstepped his boundaries. Peri clicked his beak to himself, hopefully he wouldn't be rude this time.

     "Yes, I think so." Peri finished. "At the very least, I believe we're underneath one."

     "Deep magic," Moriah said, the dark corners of the cave filling the space in his eyes, "is present in this place. Makes sense as to why she got Bundi so easily. I can smell the scales of her familiar here."

     "Hopefully we can prevent it from ever happening again," Opey dipped his muzzle down to press it gently against Moriah's head.

     "Yeah, good thing we have a green-hand here to open up the place." Moriah turned to Lafayette, "I don't know if you missed it but since the rest of us have fire-handed humans, we don't know this existed."

     "Oh, we except me of course. I'm just normal," Lafayette laughed nervously, his head dipping below his shoulders.

     "Uh, Fay?" Peri shot him a sympathetic look. "We know about Jason."

     Lafayette's feathers stood up on end like a cat's fur, "wh-what?"

     "Huh... you know now that I think about it you kind of smell like smoke." Peri tilted his head as he walked up to the falcon.

     Lafayette was significantly bigger than he was, but comically more afraid. He was a spirit in the body of a bird meant to hunt by falling towards the ground at two hundred miles per hour. He was in every definition a creature to be feared, a beast made of pure courage and speed. Peri was just flashy, that's all he had. He was small and colorful, a bird of paradise. A lavish animal, and Peri supposed that reflected him quite well. Maybe he didn't have to be as hard on Lafayette as he was.

     "It's fine of course," Peri assured, lowering his voice as the other two familiars went deeper into the cave.

     "It is?" Fay's big eyes got, if it was even possible, bigger.

     "Yeah," Peri flashed him a smile, "you think you'll tell the others?"

     Fay shrugged, "I don't know, it's Jason's decision I suppose."

     Peri bobbed his head up and down. "Of course."

     Moriah hopped out of the cave. "Come on, let's not be away for too long, we're not going to find out any more until we find out who lived in this cave."

     Peri looked up at Lafayette, whose stressed demeanors slowly lessened. This was better. Peri was thinking... he was thinking he could possibly even maybe be good friends with this big feathered oaf. Maybe. He was sure Craig would find that amusing.

     He took off into the sky, trailing Lafayette, the cave far behind them. They would find who had lived there, and they would make sure they never hurt another one of their humans again.