Weeks had passed since Genesis had found itself in these strange lands. Not that it had retained much of its memories of its mysterious origins, having been conjured not much sooner, and then cast away soon as it was. Despite its young age, however, the aberrant being had grasped plenty of knowledge about its surroundings, even though much of it the creature failed to understand.

As it sat atop a thick branch protruding from a nearby tree, obscured by its leaves, it cautiously observed yet another new and exciting ritual, where a robust, hairy creature leaned in towards a bright-green spherical body, which had then quickly disappeared below the beast's elongated head, the event of disappearance accompanied by munching and crunching.

Although Genesis could understand that its current whereabouts were relatively peaceful, it could also not help but see that it was out of place here, as evidenced by lack of other beings bearing even remote resemblance to it. Sure, a few past sightings and experiences showed that its body leaks stuff as its tissues are damaged, just like it was the case of a creature like the one it was seeing below him - being felled and ravaged by a pack of other fuzzy creatures, speedier and leaner in their appearance.

The aberration might not yet fully realise that, but it had learned a good share of the anatomy of these lands' creatures while watching the scene unfold before it. With all the events being recent as they were, it was most likely that the half-eaten boar carcass was still nearby, and that the thorny shrubs growing a fair distance away were still tainted by the aberrant being's own purplish blood.

"I will find you, Mr. Snipe! You might have escaped me last time, and the time before that, and the time way before that too–but I will not give up! The great and magnificent Myouga never gives up on the trail of a discovery! Now–allons-y and away, Kuroguro!" A strange sight was on the grassy golden plains around the lake as someone mounted atop a large black dog with stubby legs was controlling the creature's direction with a dangling snack tied to a stick. A trail of low-lying smoke blew into wisps behind them as the girl steered the enormous corgi. The smell of a fresh kill piqued the krampus corgi's nose, and it began running in a completely different direction while letting out a cackling hyena-like laugh. The rider was soon yanking on a makeshift harness around its body constructed from a special kind of rope, flapping behind it like a flag in gale-force winds. "Wha–hey! What are you doing?! Stop! Bad corgi! No, you're gonna scare the snipe awaaaaay–" 

The small oni's voice trailed off as her yelling was drowned out by the barks and giddy laughter of the black, horned corgi as it ran head-on towards the smell of fresh meat. The wolves that had been eating the boar soon took notice of the hideous mutt bounding towards them, and began to snarl. However the krampus corgi was no coward, being born and bred by the ugly horned goat-fiends who had tried to kidnap children earlier in the colder months. Its maw full of nasty teeth and unsettling laughter drove the wolves off to flee. Stopping at the remains of the dead boar, Myouga came to a crashing halt when Kuroguro's momentum ended. She was flung forward, and losing her grip of the rope-harness she went careening into the tall golden grass. The stick with the piece of jerky she had been luring her corgi with fell to the ground unnoticed by the coal-black canine who was shoving its snout into the bloody mess.

A few minutes passed before the arcanist stood up, and shook the dust off her clothes. Grabbing her hat from the ground, she put it on after shaking dirt out of its folds. "Ugh…ow ow ow. I should've bought that saddle." Turning to look behind, she saw Kuroguro snuffling with his face in the ground, and ran over to her naughty pet. "Hey!!! Stop it Kuro, you don't know where that's been! Eww…well at least it's not like a few days old or anything. Hey, spit that out! What am I gonna do if you get fleas or parasites from that thing?"

Taking her wand, she rapped it on the backside of the krampus corgi until it let go of a bloody rib it had been chewing on. She puffed herself up and made the angriest face she could to show that she was not pleased. After she had absconded with him from the krampus hideout, Myouga had been working on training the beast to listen to her commands. Not being terribly creative, she named him after his appearance. The krampus corgi was almost as impish as she was, and for once she had to put her foot down repeatedly to keep it from doing as it pleased. None of her other pets were as fussy, so it was a long process of trial and error in finding what worked. Today she had brought him along as a bonding exercise, and since he could fly that meant she didn't have to walk on her own either. After being persuaded out of feeding on the carcass, Kuroguro began sniffing the air again, making a half-snorting sound like a dwarf with clogged up sinuses. It began trotting away as if followed the new scent it had picked up, with his owner not too far behind. 

It gradually was getting closer to where the hidden being was perched, with its snout firmly against the ground. The little arcanist was now in view as well, though she was not aware that they were not alone.

The spectacle the aberration witnessed came to an abrupt halt when loud sounds coming from someplace behind it scared away the boar. Curious, it navigated its way through the thick foliage, and climbed up to have a better view of the scene.

As Genesis had found out, the commotion took place where he earlier witnessed another boar being ravaged some time ago, and where it wounded itself on a thorned shrub. Although his thin, translucent skin had mended a while ago, a dark purplish mark still remained visible underneath. The blood he had spewed smelled rather foul, perhaps because its body was still tainted with the residue of his home planet's atmosphere.

As for the commotion itself, it had appeared that another pack of wolves had been helping themselves to an easy meal, before they were chased away by yet another creature, somewhat similar to them, yet still different. Further examination revealed that yet another being had been riding atop the canine creature. The aberration's interest was further sparked when the canine's rider, having been thrown off its back, stood on her feet and went on to trot around the scene, manipulating matter with her hands. Not unlike Genesis itself!

The aberrant creature made a bold decision to make contact. As it thought of the best way to do so, it decided on contacting her in her tongue. For all it knew, its efforts to commune in its language had proven to be unsettling to these woods' other inhabitants. Its crest protruding from its cranium and large eyes gave out a faint yellow glow, when Myouga could hear a distorted voice in her head:

"I will find you!"

Soon enough, she could hear the same voice speaking more:

"Hey, spit that out!"

She could tell that despite the voice being distorted as it was, it faithfully replicated her intonation as she spoke the same words earlier. Meanwhile, Genesis continued to observe, unaware that its glowing features were giving his position away… and that his scent had been picked up by her mount, until it leaned itself against the tree the aberration was holding onto.

Myouga skipped as she was right behind her krampus corgi, humming to herself while she kept a careful eye on what Kuroguro was doing. The black stubby-legged canine was now at the base of the tree where it had tracked down the strange smell, making odd chuckling noises with snorts. It began digging around as if looking for whatever that foreign scent had come from. Catching up with the corgi, the arcanist stood on her toes to see what he was doing. "Whatcha doing little buddy? Digging for treasure? Oooh, maybe it's a truffle! Do truffles grow all the way out here? Hmm…but if it is a truffle, how lucky would that be, huh? Buuut you'll probably try to eat it, 'cause that's what you did with the last three things you dug up on the way here."

It was then that she heard a voice inside her head. "I will find you! …Hey, spit that out!" Surprised, she straightened her back and looked around to see where it was coming from. A puzzled look was on her face and she scratched the back of her head in confusion. That was weird, like really weird. She could've sworn that it was like somebody had parroted her own words while mimicking her voice, but it sounded different somehow. "Huh? Who said that?" The arcanist said aloud. Narrowing her eyes, she began to carefully scan the nearby landscape. Was she hearing things? Nah, that wouldn't make sense. But why was she hearing what she said a few minutes ago in her own head? Taking her wand, she moved her hand slowly until she saw what she perceived as a rustle in the bushes. Thrusting her arm forward, she pointed at it and yelled: "AHA!" To her disappointment, what came out was a squirrel. 

Slumping her shoulders, her pouting was interrupted by the cackling yip of her pet. The large ugly dog was now up on its rear legs looking straight up the tree, doing a funny looking dance as it snuffled and barked at the thing above. "Hey, what gives?" Following the corgi's line of sight, her eyes soon found something absolutely extraordinary! Staring at the thing, the little arcanist took off her hat and held it in her hands as she feasted her eyes on a new and unusual sight. "…Whoaaaa. That's so coool!" A face broke into a cheeky smile as she grinned at the pinkish-skinned, glowing humanoid being in the tree's branches. Speaking directly to the mysterious creature, she yelled back: "What are yooooou?!"

Genesis was content to see that the stranger seemed more curious than hostile. Perhaps the same was true about her mount, but its fearsome appearance made the aberration hesitant to come down and examine said stranger more closely.

It tilted its head, as it listened to her words, the meaning of which it had yet to decipher. As it had assumed, however, it would not do anyone harm, if it were to repeat after her:

"What are yooooou?!" - Myouga could hear in her head as she saw the aberration's eyes and crest light up again. Having given it a closer look, the oni could notice that it had no mouth to speak with. Nor any other visible orifices.

"That's so coool!" - it added, yet again resonating within her head. It had then looked down at her canine companion, as attentive to it as Myouga was. The lack of distinct facial muscles, and even eyelids, had concealed what would be a worried expression.

Hearing the strange voice in her head again, Myouga deduced that it was coming from this thing in the tree. Her eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect of discovering a new kind of being, and she did a little dance to express her joy. As she studied the being's face more closely, she noted that it just had a pair of eyes. And when the thing 'spoke', its eyes and crest-shaped protrusion would glow. Clapping her hands, she answered back to the creature's parroted question. "I'm Myouga and I'm an oni! See?" The little arcanist pointed to herself when she mentioned her name, and flipped up her bangs to reveal two small pointed bumps on her forehead that were underdeveloped horns. Smoothing her hair back down, she continued. "I get it now! You don't have a mouth, so you used telepathy to talk to me in my head! That's really neat!"

It then looked at Kuroguro, which was giving a toothy smile to the thing. The krampus corgi's stubby knob of a tail was wiggling back and forth, and it tried to jump higher to get at the mysterious being with its short legs. Thankfully it didn't get very far, as Myouga tapped him on the nose with her wand. "Hey hey, no barking at the pink-glowy guy! Here, have this. You sure eat a lot for a dog." Taking out what looked to be a hand mirror, she stuck her hand inside of it and pulled out a strip of dried meat jerky from the mirror's surface. Tossing it a little ways from the tree, the hideous mongrel dashed off after it with a high-pitched chortling noise and snapped it up into his jaws. Gnawing on it contentedly, the corgi was distracted from the psionic-gifted being and gave them both some privacy. Watching her pet eat, Myouga shook her head. "Sheesh, you eat almost as much as I do. Well I guess we have something in common–snacking!" Looking back at the stranger, she waved to it with a smile.

Seeing the Oni's mount speeding away towards a piece of meat she had thrown aside, it had answered her wave by descending carefully onto the thick underbrush underneath. The aberration's head was tilted to the side in an inquisitive manner as it slowly inched towards her. As it did, it was much apparent that even with its protruding crest, Genesis stood significantly shorter than Myouga. Given her small frame, it was indeed saying something.

"I'm Myouga and I'm an Oni!" - she heard blaring in her head as the aberration lit up once again, pointing its elongated finger at her. Having done that, it looked her over, distracted by the many distinctive features of her body. It seemed to be particularly intrigued by her face, which beared so many more features than its own. Since its eyes had no visible pupils, the Oni had hard time telling what in particular had drawn its attention. While her soon-to-be horns might have distinguished her from other humanoid beings of this realm, the aberrant being, a stranger to the sight of a humanoid from a foreign planet could have picked specific interest in pretty much anything. Be it her hair, nose, mouth, eyes…

Well, she could be sure that there was something about her that the aberration took notice of, and liked it. So much, she could hear a distorted voice in her head, exclaiming: "That's really neat![//i]"

Somewhat hesitantly, Genesis had extended its finger towards her cheek, intent on poking it, seeing what it feels like. Seeing its finger up close, Myouga could notice that its hand was peppered with dark, purplish spots, similar to a mark it still bore on the side of its protruding belly.

The little pink-skinned being was just as curious about her as she was about it. The little oni wasn't very tall, and in fact she wouldn't get any taller from her current height. She had been born with a developmental disorder that meant slowed physical growth. Her underdeveloped horns were a tell-tale sign of that, despite her small but proportionate features. Mr. Pink-Skin, as Myouga chose to mentally refer to the mysterious thing, reaffirmed its understanding of what she said to it by pointing to her and repeating her self-introduction. Nodding her head in agreement, she gave a thumbs up. "That's right!" She then stood smiling as it studied her face with great interest, just like how she would when meeting a new person. Mr. Pink-Skin had very big, bright eyes but no pupils or irises. It didn't have eyelids either. She wondered how it saw the world around it. Did it see things the same way as she did, or not?

"That's really neat!" Came the telepathic voice of the being again. "Aww, thank you!" Myouga replied back verbally, happy to talk to this new life form. It then raised a finger, reaching out as if to touch her. Unlike most people, Myouga was very open-minded and didn't mind a poke or two. Waiting for the inevitable moment of contact, she saw Mr. Pink-Skin had a bunch of freckle-sized spots sprinkled all over his fingers. They were purple, and reminded her of those brightly-colored frogs in Apoy that came in call colors of the rainbow. Did that mean Mr. Pink-Skin was like a frog? Maybe the term 'amphibian' would be a more accurate description. Come to think of it, Mr. Pink-Skin did resemble a frog if it walked on two legs and had no mouth…

Her mind filled with 'what-ifs' and 'maybes', her focus shifted back to the clear skies above. She had so many questions she wanted to ask it, one of them being its name. She didn't use telepathy often, since people complained about her being noisy enough as is, but it should be ok this time. Now, all she had to do was remember how to work that spell again. Hopefully she wasn't to rusty. She'd been a bit lazy since Ryokuto already knew telepathy, and didn't know how to speak animal. The arcanist wasn't sure if this being understood other languages either, so it was best to stick to her first option. In the background, Kuroguro was rolling around while chomping on the remainder of his meat jerky. Puffs of smoke floated around the krampus corgi as it flattened the golden grass and sent various insects flying.

The alien went on to poke its finger against her cheek and hair, reveling in the odd sensation of the latter, even though his featureless face was not showing it in an overt manner.

"Myouga. Oni!" - it went on to parrot her words in her head as it continued to poke her gently. Genesis was quick to realise that the Oni's introduction had called for that of its own, and it was willing to give it a try, despite its earlier experiences with the wildlife. Having poked its thin, elongated finger against his own, seemingly emaciated chest, it went on to "speak" into her head:

"I'm Genesis!" - it exclaimed. Except it did not actually pronounce its name in the local language, but in that of its own, that it had known from its home planet. The sound of it resembled, for the lack of a better descriptor, a high-pitched shriek of a microphone. Of course, with microphones and speakers being absent from these lands, Myouga could not describe it as such. She could tell, however, that it was a jarring, perhaps even a painful sound to hear, having been made even much more so by sounding from inside her head.

Not to mention it was most likely far from anything she could replicate by mouth. Some cute nickname had to suffice for now. Having been occupied with the exchange of words, the aberration paid little, if any attention to her mount, which was nearly finished with its snack. While it seemed passive now, who knew what it might be up to next?

"Hehehe~ That tickles!" She giggled as she was poked. Even though she anticipated it, the sensation still made her wriggle. Mr. Pink-Skin sure was smart; he was already picking up things she was saying and using them in the right situations. Watching closely, the being then pointed to itself and spoke to her in her mind again. "I'm @#%&#@#$_*-!" The first part sounded like an introduction, which was quickly followed by some sort of distorted signal that made the arcanist grab her ears and close her eyes, jumping from the unexpected shock. "Nice to meet yo–AGHHHH!!!" Clutching her head until it was over, she was pressing her hands against her temples as she tried to get the ringing out of her brain. "Ow ow ow ow owwwww!" Groaning until she felt better, the small oni held her breath and tried to equalize the pressure in her ears. Having more or less recovered from that psionic outburst, she turned to give the strange being the best smile she could muster afterwards.

"Ok…um well apparently I can't understand '@#%&#@#$_* ', so I'll have to give you a nickname. Hm…what about Spotty? Nah, that's no good. What about Amethyst? 'Cause your skin's purple-y and it's kinda see through!" The arcanist was quite pleased with herself and her naming abilities. Though quite frankly, she was a bit too literal when it came to choosing names. One look at what she called her pets and it was very obvious that she should not be allowed to name a child. Focusing her magic, she sent her first telepathic message in a long time to her new unusual friend. 'Hello? Testing, testing! Can you heaaar me? Hey, look! I'm talking to you inside your head too!' The way she mentally spoke was no different than her verbal communication, which meant that she naturally spoke her mind without a filter. A loud snuffle caught her attention, and she looked over just in time to see trails of smoke again. "Uh-oh." 

Kuroguro was done with his snack, and he was now bounding towards the little pink humanoid! With tongue flapping and snaggle teeth visible, Myouga knew she had to do something. She couldn't keep throwing food at him; sooner or later he'd get bored of eating and would want to play with something. And for the krampus corgi, that meant chewing on what he was playing with. "No! Bad dog! That's it–you're getting a time-out!" She shouted as the fiendish mutt was getting closer. Whipping out a small snowglobe, she pulled her arm back, then hurled it forward with all her might! Right before the snowglobe hit the krampus corgi square in the nose–there was a bright flash of light, forcing her to shield her eyes. The light faded, and the snowglobe fell onto the grass with a few wisps of smoke coming off of it. But what happened to the dog?

The small oni then marched up to the snowglobe, bending over to pick it up. Cleaning the glass with her sleeve, she pressed her face up against it until she spotted a small black four-legged thing running around inside. There was a miniature version of the same creature in the glass confines of the snowglobe! Shaking it up a few times, she then tucked it away into her bag. "Whew! That was a close one! I didn't think it would work, but it did!" Sighing in relief, she grinned at the little pink-skinned being. "Kuroguro's not gonna bother you anymore! He's been naughty, so he's getting a time-out until he calms down." She then showed the snowglobe to Genesis, which had a miniature city white like a snowy Glaciem day.