Word Count → 000

Jackson had been holed up in his family’s den the last few days, brooding and tending to the minor wounds he’d received from the scuffle he’d unexpectedly wound up in. He didn’t know what the hell he had been expecting in the first place, running around like he had been. That was the first time he ever had to really face the consequences of his frequent trespasses. Needless to say, the youth was feeling a little bitter that his streak of fun had been abruptly put to an end. Not to mention his wounded pride from winding up on the losing side of his little fight. Whatever. He didn’t even want to think about it anymore.

He needed to get back to work and stop sulking around like a spoiled little puppy. It would at least provide a nice distraction. He figured he could poke around the ventilation shafts around the caves, make sure none of them were being blocked off or anything. The hybrid grabbed a torch from his room and lit it using the fire that was settled into the main room of the Acidic den. Then he made his way out to the familiar winding tunnels, cerulean eyes idly scouring the cave walls and ceiling as he walked. He paused at one of the junctions where the tunnel split into a forked path, eyeing the cracks in the ceiling that filtered in small shafts of sunlight and faintly howled with the wind that gave the caverns its name.

Sorry for the delay!

Word Count → 304

Checking out the caves was probably something Jackson should be doing a little more often, he decided. It could get dull after a while, sure, but wandering about the caves always felt sort of relaxing to the youth. It almost reminded him of all the days he spent wandering around the winding tunnels as a pup, off on ‘adventures.’ The caverns didn’t hold that same sort of magic for him anymore, but they were still comforting. And hey, at least this gave him something to do, gave him some excuse to get away from Agony for a while.

Jackson took a moment to settle his torch into a crack marring the cave wall in front of him. He reached up and tapped idly at the crack in the roof. It went up quite a ways, but it was still just as clear as ever, from the looks of it. Good. He didn’t think he’d want to deal with that particular one if it really had gotten all blocked up. As he looked down, there was suddenly another canine approaching, nearly bumping into him. Startled, he took a step back as well, but her embarrassed laughter caused him to relax. The beginnings of his own embarrassed smile crept to his lips. “Hey, no worries,” he said. Cerulean eyes took in her features, the light brown of her fur and the way her violet eyes stood out in an enchanting way.

“I’m Jackson,” he said in turn, dipping his head in a bow of greeting. He summoned up his most charming smile and tilted his head to the side slightly. “Don’t think I’ve seen ya around before.” His fault mostly, he was sure. He hadn’t exactly been the shining example of a social butterfly when he was younger. But hey, there was always room to change.

Sorry, pulled another of my disappearing acts.

Word Count → 250

There was something about the way she spoke that was almost sort of enchanting, but the male couldn't quite put his paw on why that was. Regardless, he was suddenly finding himself quite glad that she'd bumped into him. With practically everyone getting up and leaving around here, it was nice to have a friendly face show up and prove to him that things weren't as lonely as he made them out to be. That shy smile of hers prompted a grin to blossom on his own features.

It seemed she'd been around Anathema long enough to have once lived in the caves before moving on down to the reconstructed village. "Hey, that's cool. You like it down there? Haven't really checked it out much, myself," he said. He'd lingered around near the old sawmill a couple of times before, but that had been before the Anatheman's gave themselves the goal of making the old village livable again. He was interested in the place, but he couldn't see himself moving out from the comfort of the darkened caves.

Analise questioned him on what he was doing, and that grin of his turned into something more sheepish. He glanced at his torch and shrugged a bit. "Heh, I'm just kinda checking out the ventilation here in the caves. I take care of the fires, so this kinda falls under my duties. Nothin' real exciting, you know?" He gave another slight shrug and a short laugh. Jackson Acidic: the definition of smooth.