[Video]

[coimiceoir]

[Well, someone's looking a bit more mature than usual... Aisling looks at least 13 instead of 6-8 years old - something about the shape of her face and the proportions of her hands as she brushes her hair back from a gilded tiara engraved with oak leaves. Unlike her normal, generally care-free attitude, she's actually looking a little worried.]

Does anyone know anything about something kidnapping animals and killing trees? There was some damage done yesterday, but before I could get there, the culprit was gone! One of my friends didn't come home last night, and no one around the damaged area is home either.

Comments

[thneed]

Maybe the animals ran away somewhere.

[Audio]

[coimiceoir]

Some of them, but not all of them, all at once, and my friend wouldn't have run off without telling me! Lách would have at least sent a messenger or three.

[audio because he's petting lach on the head like a bond villain ]

[thneed]

That's worrisome.

[Audio]

[coimiceoir]

I need to find them and make sure they're all right. I don't know what did this, but it's not natural.

[audio]

[thneed]

Not natural? It doesn't seem so bad.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

Of course it's bad! All these living things, cut down before their time, driven out of their homes, upsetting the balance of nature! I don't even know what's caused the blackness... It wasn't fire.

[audio]

[thneed]

[ HUMS LOUDLY OVER THIS ]

Hmmmm. How do you know it wasn't their time? Maybe it was. Something else might replace it. Natural selection and all that.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[She's getting a little sharp now, irritated by his complete lack of comprehension.]

I know this forest better than I know anything else. This is not natural selection. This is willful and unnecessary destruction.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[It takes a moment longer than it ought, but it's clear when she recognizes the sound - She makes a short, strangled noise of shock.]

What's going on?

[audio]

[thneed]

Nothing. I'm redecorating.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

With what?

[audio]

[thneed]

Guess.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[Her voice goes breathy and higher pitched, but flat, with no inflection. There's the impression of teeth and claws behind the sweet Irish lilt.]

Where are you.

[audio]

[thneed]

[ He pulls out this malicious tone and there's the sound of something else falling down that shouldn't be. ]

I don't have to answer that.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

I will find you, even if you don't tell me.

[She's off and running, probably through the treetops, faster than humanly possible, judging by the rush of air - though not as fast as she had been last week. A moment after this transmission, a howling chorus of wolves on the warpath will rise.]

What have you done with Lách.

[audio]

[thneed]

What are you doing blaming me? I didn't do anything to him.

Maybe Lách just likes me better.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[Anger ripples behind the flat tone of voice, like a soft hiss.]

He wouldn't leave without telling me, even if he did like you better. Something isn't right - he's blocked from me. If he is with you, you've done something to him.

[thneed]

He looks fine to me.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

You don't know anything about him. You've shut him up like a child - he can't speak, can't go anywhere. Nothing about that is normal.

[audio]

[thneed]

He's behaving.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[She doesn't answer right away, even if she doesn't stop moving. The longer she keeps him talking, the more likely she can find where he is this time. And behaving doesn't make any sense.]

He isn't behaving like himself.

[thneed]

[ inhale. exhale. ]

This is the new him. He's got a new perspective on life.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

Then let him tell me. If he has chosen this himself, that is his choice to break with his pack. But let him say so.

[audio]

[thneed]

He doesn't want to speak to you.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[Short, sharp silence.]

I don't believe you.