Submission (#3837) Approved

The cave isn't warm, and it doesn't need to be: it's out of the wind, and the small anima crystal is burning brightly in his lamp, kept aglow with what little mana he can put into it. It's keeping the shadows at bay and his hot cocoa warm, and that's all he can ask for.
Gemri doesn't really do people, of any species, and it's not that he doesn't like them because they're all awful, it's more that he just doesn't do them, in the same way he doesn't do heat or avalanches or strange howling in the night. It's just not his forte.
So he sips at his hot cocoa and tries to calm down, lay his fur flat against his spine. He had to make a trip into town today, to get more supplies, and so many people all trying to get their shopping done before the snowstorm makes such a trip… bracing, to say the least. But he's warm and safe and alone now, even as he listens to the rumbling of the mountains, knowing it means that an avalanche is going to fall soon.
No sooner does he close his eyes that he can hear a faint whispering, only barely louder than the avalanche. He tenses, cracking one eye open. He's not going to move, in case it hasn't noticed him yet. The shadows dance against the far wall, flickering with the flame of his lantern. They start to move faster, and spin, and jump about the room. His lantern is most certainly not flickering that much.
One of the shadows has a face, something of laughter and mirth and distinct cruelty. He freezes, like the snow outside before the avalanche. If he runs, he might set it off and be swept away. If he stays put, he might get eaten by an evil spirit.
He waits until the dance dies down to mere shadows, and the moment it does, he takes his hot cocoa and his lantern, and he bolts from the cave. There's another one nearby, there's another safe place without evil spirits-
The laughter does not follow him, but it cackles like the growling of an avalanche. It rings in his ears as he runs, until he slams his paws over the threshold of the next cave over. It only takes a few minutes to pile snow over the entrance, leaving only a crack for air.
The laughter leaves him when his panic bubbles and bursts, safe at last, and his lantern roars with sudden power, casting the darkness away and shifting the cave room into a dancing array of light.