Bnirin latches the gate of the pulley cabin closed after Umirin and Shani have stepped inside, prepared to descend. Umirin glances at the sky, the sun is high in the afternoon. They will hopefully, Divine Beast permitting, return before dark.

"Blessings with you," Bnirin nods, and then grabs the lever and begins to crank it.

Umirin grips his spear tighter as the pulley begins to descend, his home up high disappearing as they are lowered further and further away from it.

For a few moments, everything becomes blissfully dark as the pulley descends through the massive hollowed out tree trunk at the top of which it's been built. Umirin takes a deep breath in the darkness and pretends he is in bed with Shani, burrowed so tightly against his chest he can see nothing else.

"We don't need to travel far to reach our spot, this won't take long," Shani smiles at him, yet again so assured.

Umirin nods, "I hope so too," he agrees.

Moments later, the pulley thumps softly against solid ground, and a shudder passes through Umirin's body. A deep sense of wrongness blooms in the hollow of his chest every time he is down here.

This Forest doesn't belong to them anymore after all, and its new keepers don't take kindly to intruders.

Shani unlatches the gate and pulls it open, stepping out into the dim entrance to the tree trunk, shadowed by a curtain of vines and hanging ivy. Umirin follows mutely, the soil beneath his boots feeling strange when he steps off from the elevator.

So used to walking across hard, sanded wooden planks and slats, the soft mush of the dirt is an unwelcome difference. With each step it feels like his feet sink ever so slightly into the ground, as if the Forest wishes to suck him deep into its bowels and digest his bones.

Umirin shakes his head to discard that mental image. If their Forest has become their enemy, that is their own fault. Humans are foolish, and far too rash. And unfortunately for that accursed hunting party generations ago, and everyone else since them, one misstep is all it took.

Shani sweeps aside the leafy curtain and steps out into the day beyond. Umirin squints momentarily as he walks behind him, glancing around as soon as he can. The underbrush is still. He can hear birds chirping from branches above them. Hopefully, that should mean relative safety. Living things know better than to announce their presence if a Soulbiter is nearby.

"We should, uhm...head south," Shani says slowly once he gets his bearings. It is not the easiest to orient one's self from ground level, with so many obstacles in the way of view, "I...think?" he meekly finishes his sentence, very unsure.

Umirin cannot help but smile at his husband's adorable attempt at figuring out where to go relative from where they are. He had never been the best at that, "Our gathering spot is by the pond we often hunt at," Umirin explains, "so that would be northwest from where we are," he turns as he speaks and estimates the direction, then points his arm along it to show Shani. He had spent many hours studying maps and learning orientation with his mentor as a trainee. She had drilled proper bearings into him relentlessly until he'd become skilled enough to tell where to go no matter where he found himself starting from.

Shani nods, "I don't know why I keep trying," he jokes, chuckling lightly, "I can just never get directions right like you," he shakes his head.

Umirin feels himself melt a bit as he takes Shani's hand and brings it up to his lips to kiss the back of it, "Oh love, don't fret over it for a moment. I shall find our way every time," he smiles.

Shani's eyes round off, full of fondness. He squeezes Umirin's hand, smiling, "Thank you, I'd get so lost without you."

They set off northwest, following Umirin's going. The pond isn't far, but the foliage is dense and slow to push through. Perhaps they could slice their way past the brush with their spears, but that would feel wrong. Senseless destruction and killing is against Wezrin Sah beliefs. They only kill when they must, for food. And Umirin's people do their best not to waste any part of their hunts. They use everything in some way, but for the heart of the animal. That is never to be consumed or damaged. The heart is holy, it holds the spirit. And so they bury it instead, return the life to the Forest from whence it came.

Now that burying is not an option in the same way, they fill pouches sewn from leather with soil and nestle the heart within, then leave it as an offering at the temple  for the next time the temple's priests take a pilgrimage out to the Split. They bring all the pouches people had left with them and turn them out into that massive ravine. The Split is so deep they can not see the bottom, and they believe it may lead all the way down to the core of the Forest. And so there the offerings are sent.

Umirin only hopes the Forest appreciates these gestures of repentance, that it may forgive them their sin someday.

It takes an hour of trekking through thick brush to reach the pond. When they finally clear the last of the greenery and emerge on the shore, Umirin lets out a woeful groan. He is covered in soot and leaves, and all the branches and vines grazing against his skin have left him itchy. He cannot fathom how their ancestors ever lived down here at all, for he truly loathes it.

"We're here! Yay!" Shani happily pipes up in stark contrast to Umirin's dour mood. Oh Heart, he is far too sweet for this world.

His husband immediately goes to the edge of the murky water and crouches down, swinging the basket from his back and setting it down by his side. He pulls out his scoop and starts to shovel fresh soil, very eager in his task.

Umirin smiles and joins him, albeit with much less enthusiasm. He scoops soil into the basket, quickly covering the bottom of it with the dark earth. He already dreads the journey back, having to lug the extra weight along. If it was not so necessary to their people, Umirin might have been selfish and only filled his basket halfway, the councilmen's scorn be damned. As it is though, he continues to scoop more.

"You know, I still think I'll gather more than you," Shani jokes after a bit of silence, grinning his adorably wry grin.

Umirin chuckles, his mood lifting easily at that sight, "You will indeed try, my love," he teases in turn.

It is not so bad, doing this with Shani. Then again, nothing is bad with Shani. His husband is just that lovely. And he always had been. They'd met when they'd both still been training, as their mentors had been friends. They'd gotten along off the bat, went together so easily, something Umirin had been pleasantly surprised about back then. It had helped a lot with his lingering fears of being unlovable and difficult left over from his family's disowning of him.

Large as the baskets are, it takes a while to fill them, and Umirin mostly spends that time automatically shoveling, drifting off into his thoughts. It's a blissfully mind numbing task, with so much repetition.

He doesn't pay enough attention, and doesn't realize until it's far too late that something is so very wrong.

The birds aren't chirping anymore. They've fallen quiet.

Everything has fallen quiet.

Umirin snaps out of his daze. The Forest is never quiet. It can't be. Unless...

He swallows a thick lump as he turns his head on a swivel, checking their surroundings. His heart begins to thump in frightful disarray.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary, but looks can be deceiving.

"We need to go," he tells Shani in a harsh whisper, afraid to speak any louder in this unnatural silence.

Shani looks up and frowns, "But we haven't..." he trails off as he glances at their partly filled baskets. But his sentence goes no further when the same realization hits him too.

Umirin nods and stands up, hoists his basket onto his back and grabs his spear tightly, gripping it to his chest. He turns about their surroundings again while Umirin gathers himself and gets to his feet too.

There is a lot of shadows and darkness between the thick trees and bushes, and it makes Umirin's skin crawl. The cold, unyielding slither of fear mercilessly coils around his heart as he flits his eyes over the shadowed tree line. He checks everywhere, gazes all the way across the pond, unsure if he is more unnerved by seeing nothing there or not.

Shani grabs his hand and tugs him along to start walking when he's ready, and Umirin doesn't delay. He turns away from the pond, from that awful sinking dread of being watched by something he cannot see, and sets off back through the brush the way they came hand in hand with his husband. It feels imperative to be touching Shani at all times now, to make sure he is still there next to him.

What Umirin doesn't see as he turns his back, is the flash of pure silver now shifting between the trees, a mass burrowing steadily around the pond, senses set on its prey on the other side.

"H-Hungry..." it whispers.