This wasn't the first time Theo had opened a door and found himself staring into a place that shouldn't have been there, but it was the first time he hadn't slammed it shut again and gotten on with his day. He'd never had a curious skunk by his side when the otherworld had come calling, a skunk who waddled forward into the dingy drizzle like he was late to a party.

"Toto," Theo warned.

Toto didn't take the hint. Most the time he was eager to answer to his name now that he'd been given one, but at the moment he was more interested in causing trouble. He didn't even turn around when Theo addressed him, sniffing at the nearest tuft of scraggly grass before continuing on.

Theo narrowed his eyes, preparing for the discomfort he felt and the effort he usually spent to push his mind into the skunk's, but instead of finding the act a struggle, his mind slid into Toto's so smoothly that he was sure he had just lost himself. Dead forever, stuck in the mind of his familiar. He told Toto's feet to move, and he could hear his claws go pep pep pep on the dirt both ahead of and underneath him.

"Weird."

As Theo breathed that single word, the sound of his own voice nudged him out of the link. He tried to summon the irritation he would have normally felt upon finding himself stuck on this side of Ashdown, but things were foggy and strange and the feeling wouldn't come. The door behind them had gone, but that didn't bother him either.

"Toto." This time he was acknowledged. "Come this way."

He led the skunk to a quiet corner of a nearly empty shop, taking a seat on a metal crate. Once he was settled and mostly certain that no one else was nearby, he called his familiar again and offered his mind. Theo felt himself grin when Toto made the noise he had come to understand as I'm excited, and then they were off, bounding out of this room and into the next.

The handful of times he had shared the skunk's eyes prior to this had been fraught with the problems of inexperience, but now that there was nothing hindering their bond, Theo could see just how shitty Toto's eyesight truly was. He couldn't really see more than ten or twelve feet in front of himself, but to make up for it, Toto spent a lot of time with his nose to the ground, presumably picking up other cues that Theo couldn't share. Sure enough, when Theo thought flowers at the skunk, Toto obliged, venturing several rooms away to find a pale blossom that looked vaguely like a daisy. It was growing out of a crack in the ground, and it was all alone.

He relinquished his grip on his familiar's mind and joined him and the flower. "Thanks, stinkbomb." As he kneeled to scratch behind Toto's ears, he couldn't help idly wondering about his peers, Horace and Nasir and however many other wargs there were in this town. Had they practiced this kind of stuff on this side? Could they do even more? Was there a way he could gather them all together so they could share what they knew? A couple of silent minutes later, he had the makings of a plan.