New lifestyles. ...any issues? [Mature]

[WolfEnchantress]

Sarora nodded.
Luck go with you both, she said, and opened her mind to the surrounding area. She could feel the presence of other animals - many others. It was hard to them apart. There was no way for her to tell what kind of creature it was, just that they were there.

Saira grinned.
"That's what I was talking about actually - the stones. But it's good to know other things to look out for, too." She wandered along, scanning along the ground. Would they have to dig for the stones? She glanced at the foreboding hole in the rock face.
"Are we going in there?" She asked curiously.

[Omio]

Len nodded. "As I said before, anything, technically, does the trick, but clear stones are the best. As to going in there..." And he paused to give genuine thought, before is decision rang clear. "Why not? Might as well peek around, and see if we can find something." Never know what anything could hold until you're headfirst into it.

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira wandered towards the opening in the rock face. It would take some climbing on her part, but that was fine. Sarora could lift them easily, but she rather liked climbing, and Len could doubtless just jump.

She placed a hand on the rock, testing it, before scaling the jagged face rather easily - there were plenty of holds to grab onto.
"It's really dark in there," She said. "But from what I've heard, farther in there can sometimes be glowing moss. It might be not true, but we can hope, otherwise we don't have much hope for seeing anything, let alone things to make Keystones."

[Omio]

Len chuckled before he waved his hands a little, creating an orb of Coldfire. "So forgetful of Wildmagic? You should look though your books, and make your own. It'll tire you out a bit, since you don't have a keystone, but it'll help you see." The whole process of it was something that came with Keystones. "I'll explain more tonight; about keystones, Wildmagic, and the whole deals that come with it." And Len waited for Saira to so as such after she climbed up. His climbing work was nicely cut out for the first bit, but from there, his climbing seemed to be a little sluggish now and then. "...Have to hand it, this is much trickier than climbing walls and rafters."

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira opened her book and flipped through the pages slowly until coming to the one that read "Coldfire." She read over how to do it once, twice, before attempting it. The first time, she failed. And the second. And the third. She sighed in exasperation, but on the fourth, she succeded, and a small orb of light sputtered into being, though it wasn't as bright as Len's. She hadn't expected it to be, really. She blinked, surprised by herself, then grinned in tirumph.

"Caves are closed in," She said afeter a moment, catching her breath from the climbing. Len was right- it had gotten harder. "But what if we get lost? I mean, there are probably dozens of passageways and turns we could take. And because of the caves being closed in, we cant just climb up a tree and find our way out."

((Sorry for any spelling mistakes - spell check is being stupid. I read it over but probably missed something.))

[Omio]

Len smirked, taking out a vial of strange-coloured substance. It was simple paint. "I want you to draw a plus sign-" And he made the gesture, showing what it was. "-on which ever intersection - one on the route you came from, and one on the route you're going. Paint on the right side, so you don't confuse your directions. I'll be drawing a circle on the right side as well, so if you see a path with a circle, that is the route I have chosen." And he handed Saira a vial. "I've got one more vial of paint with me, so we can both paint at once - just dip your finger in, draw on the wall using your finger, and close the vial up. Take care not to drop it." And he went through his bag to get the other vial of paint he had, putting it onto his belt. He was going to let Saira go first, since she had more experience with climbing.

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira grinned.
"You're obviously the brains of the two of us," She said, looking curiously into the bottle.

She wandered off, the orb of Coldfire following obediently. The cave was rather large, for a cave. Not dragon- sized, but big enough that the ceiling was higher than her reach.
She took several turns, remembering to mark the tunnel wall with the paint. In a lot of parts, she had to climb up to reach a small opening in the wall, again always remembering to mark the wall with the plus-sign.

She climbed her way into one of the tunnels that was set farther up on a Wall and found it was a longer opening, She crawled through on her stomach - she was barely big enough to fit - and ended up on the other side in a mini pond of icy water. She scowled at now being soaking wet, but searched around the bottom of the water anyways. She came up with a stone that was roughly quartz - like, and fairly small sized. It probably wouldn't work, but she didn't want to return empty-handed. She searched the bottom of the frigid water for a while longer until it got too cold to feel the rocks at the bottom, then crawled back out.

She wandered some more, searching sometimes on hands and knees in a particularly rocky spot, or closely looking over the walls of the cave. As she got farther in, it got colder, and being wet wasn't helping, but she kept going. Eventually, taking another few turns, she found herself at the first tunnel she'd taken, and had come up with nothing.

Sarora sensed her irritation.
nothing? The dragon asked.
Probably not. Almost everything just a big chunk of cave wall. Can you ask Len if he had any luck?
Of course. Len? She said, switching who she spoke to. Have you had much luck?

[Omio]

Len had beendeep in search, finding the occasional nice stone here and there, but finding very little - except for occasional sheddings. As luck had it, Len's choice of route didn't meet Saira's at all at any point. As soon as Sarora reached him, he was thinking of getting a hold of Sarora.

Rather uncanny timing. I'm finding the sheddings of a large reptile of some sort. In stones, I've found three.

And that was when he began to hear breathing. Long and gusty breathing. That could only mean one thing. ...Great. I think I might've just found Mr. Large Scaly Murdering Boa-Python Hybrid... ...Just... ...great... ...Don't let Saira come down this way, she'll just get sniffed out and targeted if she comes out this way. And then the breathing took an abnormality. ...And it woke up. F@#%!

He backed up, drawing his knife. No wonder the caves are large... This big fella's livin' here, luring small food down... "C'mon. I know you smell me, but can't hear me..." And he was right. The snake didn't respond to the sounds. It seemed deaf. It did, however, go straight for Len. Len managed to move aside, and his dirk sliced aling the side, Len surprised as the damage was easier to incur than expected. Then something caught his eye. Something he didn't expect at all. His thought was with his speech on the matter. "A partisan? Yoink!" And he grabbed it, spinning it around to check it out.

It was old, but built very well. Perfect for the job. The snake managed to go through a roundabout tunnel, and came back for Len. Len, however, was ready. He stuck the blade into the ground, and launched himself at the snake, taking the partisan with him and burying the whole blade section into its head, rouchly where the brain was. It was a perfect and lethal - though messy - shot, as the snake dropped, and irked a few times. Len pulled the partisan out, sheathing his dirk. Len: Two. Snake: Zero.

[WolfEnchantress]

Sarora did nothing. She listened to Len's narration of what was going on inside the cave. And, with Saira listening to Sarora, she sensed something going on.

Sarora? Is Len okay? She asked uncertainly.
Nothing he can't handle, The dragon answered mildly.
What's going on?
Just cave-serpent scum. The contempt was thick in her thoughts - to her, they were the honorless filth of the reptile world.
Sarora had successfully - and without her suspecting anything - kept Saira from running off to where Len was taking care of the thing until it was dead. Nonetheless, Saira took off her shoes- the wet leather made the cave floor slippery - and, carrying them rather than leave them there, she took off at a run through the tunnels. She followed Len's painted signs on the wall until she managed to find him, the bloody remains of a massive snake behind him. She stopped, panting, and caught her breath a moment.

"You're allright?" She said, seeing that it was true even as she asked it. She slid her shoes back on - the floor was littered with rocks farther in. She eyes the dead thing warily.

[Omio]

Len chuckled, smiling as he spun the partisan to his side, the blade closer to the ground. "I'm fine, actually. Had a little snake troubles, but honestly, it was pathetic. Then again, I found this partisan laying around, so I guess some inexperienced fighter came in here and got owned. That could've make the snake a bit thingyy, which would explain why it managed to fail so horribly in even making a mark on me." Really, you'd swear the thing would learn to back off once I picked up that partisan... "Either way, I didn't find much. Only three stones. How about you?"

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira grinned, eying the dead serpent.
"It didn't seem to be a long fight, that's for sure," She said. Then she dug in a pocked, pulling out the one meager stone she found, offering it out.
"This is the only one I found. It was in a pool of water. It probably won't work, but it's the only thing I found remotely close to your description of what you were looking for." She shrugged. "We can always try other places though."

She sent another glance farther into the cave, having no doubt that farther in were bones of humans as well as animals.
"Maybe we should head out - One serpent is easy enough, but if there's an entire colony of then infesting the tunnel - or tunnels - that would be a whole different story."

[Omio]

Len nodded. "Actually, yours will be perfect; it's already cleaned and ready to go. Tonight, we'll use that one as an example. As to the serpents, they're easy. Let 'em come at you, and slice 'em open. Nothing to it at all. I'm just checkin' out this 'pool of water' for a second before we cruise out, and call it a night." And he smiled. "And if you need to borrow my knives, go right on ahead. I've got myself this nice baby, so I'm set." And he gestured to his partisan. "Later on, though, I'll have to get that dumb metal, and get this thing refurbished in case the worst comes to be, and I have to come to your aid, should another dragon attack us. I doubt it happening, but it's best to be prepared, no?"

(( Len's already treading on icy ground on that... =/ ))

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira was mildly surprised.
"Really? Well, that's convenient." She began walking back, stopping at the hole up in the wall. "It's a small tunnel, so if you're claustrophobic, I'd advise against going in. Ann the water is ice cold. But that's where I found it."

"What kind of metal do you need to refurbish it?" She asked curiously. "I always thought you needed to know metalworking to do things like that." She shrugged - Len seemed to be able to do a lot of things, why shouldn't refurbishing a blade be one of them?

"Yes, I suppose it is always better to be prepared. If it did happen we'd probably get some kind of warning, too." She checked her own knives. "And unless I lose mine, I shouldn't need yours." Of course, if there was a battle of some sort, it was easy to lose things.

[Omio]

Len shrugged. "I have the polishing mineral needed, Adamantite, but I need Orichalon, and it's rather tricky to find. I'd have to go back into a large town to get what I need just to see about finding it. It'll be something to bother with when it's most convenient." And then he began to lead the duo back, using the symbols, though he remembered his path fairly well. "You'll have to lead once we get to where your trail is spotted, so I can really diagnose things." Who knows? I just might use three minerals to turn that cold water into an underground spa...

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira nodded, and once they got to where her trail markers started, lead the way back through the winding tunnels. It was a few minuted before she found the small hole up on the wall, and when she did she stared for a moment. It was smaller than she remembered it being.

"This is it. It's about as long of a tunnel as I am tall, and it's a tight squeeze, as you can see. The drop into the water on the other side isn't far, and the water's not too deep - I can stand in the bottom and it would teach my neck at the deepest part." She clawed her way up to it and peered into the gloom of the short passageway, making sure it was the one they wanted.

"And, its uninhabited. No snakes or demons or anything." She grinned, dropping back to the floor. "Probably not even fish, though, if there were, I'd really wonder how they managed to get in there."