" - there were some other animals around - are they all people? - but I wasn't really in the mood to be around anyone, so I ran off. About... a week ago, I think. Eventually decided I should - stop that."

"I was informed they are all people, in the context of warning me it would be very rude if I tried to eat them. My name is Mhalir. ...If you would prefer not to talk I will be quiet." 

"Nah. I don't think you're supposed to spend the afterlife being a hermit. Just - wasn't ready, you know?"

"I know." He ducks his head. "- Do you have any questions? Not that I have been here very long, so I may not know the answers." 

"We're - in Nirvana, right?"

"Yes. I was told that the initial shape we take here is based on what Nirvana thinks we need - it is somehow sort of intelligent in that way. Also I was told it is normal to have trouble remembering how you got here." 

"Well, some bastard stabbed me with a greatsword, I'm clear on that part. I just -" Shrug. "I wish we could go back."

"I know. So do I." He doesn't say anything about his hopes that someone will raise him eventually; it seems cruel, and besides, he's less and less sure as time passes that this is ever going to happen. 

"How long have you been here?"

"A day, I think? But I think I died a month ago, so the trial and sorting must have taken a long time." He shrugs with one wing. "I was not expecting to end up here." 

"Well, you never really know, right. I don't - I wouldn't rather be elsewhere except for how I'd rather be home."

"Mmm. I - think here is fine, if I have to be dead." He scuffs at the riverbank with his claws. "I - you do not have to talk about it, if it is upsetting, but I am curious if you know much of what was happening in the material plane when you died. At the point when I died, I was not aware of any violence there yet." 

" - oh. There's a war. Cheliax invaded Rahadoum and Rahadoum turned out to have a massive army in preparation for this and we were - helping them, right, no one deserves Chelish rule- and Aroden's back, or people were saying so - and also there's been awful thunderstorms out of nowhere, tsunamis, stuff like that, because the gods are fighting -"

"- I suppose that is not surprising. Aroden is back, that part is true - not as a god, he came back as a human somehow, he was undercover as the leader of Rahadoum but then Asmodeus found out." He hesitates. "Where are you from?" 

"Andoran."

Nod. "Thank you for telling me. It was stressful, not knowing anything about what was happening in the world." 

"Yeah." He paws at the water. "Why a raccoon. What is that a metaphor for."

"If you figure it out you should tell me! I am still not sure what Nirvana wants out of making me a baby bird." 

"I'd take a bird over a raccoon! You can fly, I assume?"

"A bit. Not very well. I hope I will get better at it with practice." He's trying to think what raccoons are good at. "- You have hands, at least more than I do? You are less tiny and so could carry bigger things if you needed to." 

"...I guess." He frowns at his hands. "I can't really think what would need carrying." He dips his hand in the river, comes up with a handful of pebbles. One of which shows up to Detect Magic as having some kind of faint evocation aura. He sighs disgustedly at them and drops them back into the water.

Mhalir kind of wants a closer look at it, but not enough to go swimming for it. 

"I am going to go look for seeds to eat," he says to the raccoon. "All the plants here are edible, by the way." 

"I guess that's nice. See you!"

He tromps off.

Mhalir goes back to wandering around. He wonders what Carissa is doing right now. If she's still miserable about what happened to Hell and Cheliax. It's not like there's much he could say or do to comfort her about it, but he still wishes he could be there. 

He finds some seeds and eats them. 

Caroline returns only about an hour after she left.