"Sort of!" he signed. He thought for a moment, then added, "I'm looking for Riku, so I came here. I thought he might be here before I came, but I don't think he likes jungles all that much."
His shoulders slumped, but the answer had been expected. He never really ran into Riku. Obviously, he was going to keep searching. But it was a little disheartening to not have found him again, or even have gotten a clue or two...
"I didn't really think he'd be here," he sheepishly and hesitantly admitted. "I haven't found him yet, and I think he likes islands better, anyways..."
Amy grinned a goofy wolf grin. "Of course," she said, puffing out her chest and sitting up tall. "I'm only the best sniffer in these parts-" her eyes opened wide for a second as she realized the fault in her statement. "-Or uh, well, I'm almost the best sniffer. I can think on one who's probably better, but it's not like I can ask them... or uh, it."
Amy ducked her head a little, and scooted just a little closer to him.
"Uh. There's a gigantic predatory panther that roams this jungle. It's very dangerous. I came up with a name for it though. I call it -" she leaned in a little more, meeting his eyes with intensity, "-the grangor."
There was a small pause where she held eye contact before she pulled away and her tongue stuck out of her mouth. "I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with it."
"That sounds scary," he signed with shaking fingers, somehow making himself appear quite small despite his actual size. "...But I like the name."
He looked around the forest with a nervous glint to his eyes before turning back to her. "Are you sure you don't want to come home with me?" he asked. "There's no giant panthers there - the only scary thing is spiders, and I'm getting braver about killing them with the broom."
Amy scooted a step away from him again and rubbed her head on her shoulder. "Uh... well, not really. I... I'm kinda out here for a reason. I wouldn't wanna go back into towns or 'nothing around here."
"But I'm not from around here," he signed in protest.
He sat up a little straighter, as if he was trying to make his argument seem more credible as he stared at Amy. He wasn't confused about not wanting to be around certain people - he understood that. He felt the same way when people saw his eye. But it wouldn't be a problem if his home was in a different place, right?
"My home's far away," he added. "Very, very, very far away. I don't have a ship so I don't know how far far is, but it's longer than you could ever imagine!"
Amy had to admit that she was still very confused. She tilted her head to the side again. "I don't want to go on a ship anyway. I don't really like being on the sea."
"Not that kind of ship," he corrected her. He thought for a moment, then mimed the movement of the ship with his hands - it wasn't the type that went on the ocean. It was the type that flew through space and went to different worlds, so his movement was large and sporadic. "It's that type of ship! Like the G-U-M-M-I ship. I've never been on it, but Riku has-"
He suddenly froze, hearing a noise in the somewhat close distance. It was a loud noise, too, like something giant with four legs was moving through the jungle. He slowly turned to face the direction of the noise, only to immediately turn back to Amy with tears beginning to form in his eyes.
"Panther?" he signed, too startled to get any other words out.
Amy missed his hand movement before he even heard the sound. She could hear the faint shuffling in the trees before it grew louder. Her nose was picking up the familiar scent. The hairs on her back started to stand up slightly, and she looked out into the forest where the grangor was coming from.
"..Grangor," she said in a hushed voice. "We need to run. Now."
Hearing confirmation made him even more terrified than before, but he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He tapped into the darkness within, urging a corridor of darkness to pop open right behind him and Amy.
He scrambled to his feet. Just as he could make out the shape of the grangor in the distance, he grabbed onto Amy - limbs screaming out in protest - and went darting through the corridor.
But he hadn't placed the other one all that well, so he and Amy fell right onto his bed with a loud creaking noise. He let go of her the moment he collided with the mattress.
Amy's four legs kicked in the air as Kirux pulled her backward, and she kept her eyes fixed on the grangor's shadowy figure in the distance.
That was - until it disappeared in a shrinking circular window of vision and out of nowhere she was in a room. On a bed. With the guy she'd found in the forest who spoke sign language. She let out a loud scream.
Her ears flattened on the back of her head and her hair stood up as she spun around, looking around the room and at the children's toys, and the drawings of people on the walls, and glowing dots on the ceiling that were kind of like stars.
In confusion and panic, she jerked around towards Kirux and let out a low growl. "What did you do?!" she shouted, louder than intended. "How did you do that? What kind of magic is this?"
Her anger terrified him, and he went falling off the bed as he hurried to scoot away. He scrambled to his feet and stared at her with wide eyes - he had helped her! Why was she so upset with him?
"I opened a corridor of darkness," he signed with shaking fingers. "I'm a Nobody. It's what I...what I do...I was trying to run away, just like you said to, and the first place I thought of was my room. I'm-I'm sorry..."
He ducked his head down, eyes welling with tears as he tried (and failed) not to cry more.
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