Fantasy Ascent into Madness

[Lyro]

Gniss nodded her thanks as she accepted the strip of cloth. She cut off a small section of it and began wrapping it around her head. Then what Cyell had just said finally registered, and she looked at him once more. "Without what enchantments? What are you talking about?" She turned to look at the rocket, trying to see what he was referencing. "Did it damage the shielding?"

"Not so much damaged it as reverted it, as far as I can tell," answered Kytrek as he got back to his feet, gun still in his hands. "You can go see for yourself. Whatever hit us seems to have wiped the rocket of all its enchantments. The magic-based engine went completely silent when it hit, so I assume it's dead too." He paused to take a look at the rocket, then continued in a graver tone. "Look, I don't know who your enemies are, and, right now, I'm not that interested. I don't suppose they would have access to such tech, would they?"

Gniss shook her head, her mouth slightly ajar in disbelief. "No... something like that... it'd be known. But, if what you're saying is true, if the rocket's enchantments are truly... gone, it's not moving from here. It was designed to withstand a lack of fuel or insufficient radiation, not this. Whatever this is." She finished tying the bandage around her head and stood still for a moment, thinking. "We have to keep going," she said at last. "We need to find whatever caused this. At this point, we are closer to the Surface than we are to civilization - never mind a friendly civilization. Maybe there's something up there that can help us? I don't know, I don't know..." Her voice faded towards the end, and her expression became troubled.

"We can figure that out later," said Kytrek quickly, as he moved towards Argis. "You've got the right idea - we still need to make sure this place is safe. Hopefully we'll also be able to find a cozier place to sleep than our seats aboard the rocket. Let's go. You," he added, looking at Cyell, "stay with our captain. Watch the rocket. We'll let you know via radio if we find something." Without waiting for an answer, he turned and began to walk away from the rocket and towards one of the cavern walls.

 

[C.DEX]

Argis nodded. "Okay ... I'm not sure the kind of man or creature that trawls up here. Maybe you can give me something a little more formidable than my dagger?" he asked, looking between the two. With Cyell having been stuck with the ship - and neither group entirely sure which had been in more danger - he sighed, reaching into his scattered possessions to find his own blade. With a snap of his wrist, the hilt had extended, making the item look more like a blade on the end of a polearm. He took his own pistol out for himself, handing the naginata over to Argis. They traded weapons, with Cyell taking the Voldur's dagger. "Thanks." he said.

Cyell looked to Gniss, who had been particularly troubled at the revelation that their rocket was as good as dead. "Is there some sort of signal for help we can send?" he asked, looking down the sight of his gun to assure that it was in working order. "To our employers. They would be looking for one, right? There'd be a way?" he asked, looking for any and every reason for them to have hope. "Do you have ... the enchantment script that they used to make the rocket? It'd take a lot of time, but Kytrek is good at that sort of stuff. He might be able to do something. If this place is safe."

"There are no animals here." Argis said. "Now ... I haven't ventured much past the level you had found me on, but ... there's a lot of plantlife. Spores ..." he said, looking up and around. "Naturally where you find plantlife like this, you at least find grazers. Animals have a way of directing those less attuned to nature to safe places. If we could find passive animals we might also find a place to stay. It probably won't be comfortable, but I also assume none of you brought blankets on your scientific expedition, either."

He eyed Kytrek's supplies. "Though I have a hard time believing you didn't bring everything under the sun."

"Just ... calm down. There's always a way down, and there's always a way up, too." he said. "Or that's what the Guild of Adventurer's had lead me to believe. I guess studying the material doesn't matter at this point."

 

[Lyro]

"Careful, there," Kytrek answered, climbing on top of a nearby rocky outcrop. "You're trying to apply natural science reasonings up here. That doesn't always work out. Maybe there are grazers here. And maybe these trees feed on each other." He added, pointing to a forest in front of them that stretched out all the way to the cavern wall.

"Or maybe those spores are in fact macroscopic bacteria and this entire cavern is alive. It's hard to tell up here sometimes. Though," he continued as the rocky outcrop stopped to reveal a valley beneath them filled with various crystalline structures, all of which seemed were moving and swaying in what appeared to be a complex dance pattern, "truth be told, I've only been this high up once before." A wind blew past them, producing a clear, melodious sound as it passed over the group of dancing crytals, accompanied by the rustle of the leaves in the nearby forest. "I'm no more an expert of this place than you are. Hence the supplies," he concluded, patting his bag.

There then came a slow, unagitated bellow from the forest, and Kytrek turned to get a better look. After searching for the source for a few seconds, he eventually spotted what appeared to be a herd of large animals moving ponderously through the trees, knocking them down as they made their way through. "Well, then, looks like you may have been right after all. Let's see if they are indeed passive," he said as he began walking towards the creatures.

Gniss simply repeatedly shook her head at all of Cyell's suggestions. "No signal would reach them from this high up. Too much rock. No blueprints either. Too complex and too valuable to risk losing into enemy hands. There's nothing. Nothing." Her last words were practically whispered. She sat silent for a few seconds before she seemed to realize what she sounded like. "I'm sorry," she said, looking back at Cyell with the barest hint of a smile. "Don't worry about me. I'll be... I'll be fine." She sighed and straightened herself. "There is something. Assuming what hit us didn't fry the electronics, the conventional engine should still be fine. Problem is, we don't have enough fuel to go very far, and it's not like it's easy to synthesize up here. I could move the rocket a bit higher, that'll make it easier to take out some of the equipment."

She began to move back towards the rocket, but had to stop herself when a sudden dizziness overcame her, forcing her to sit back down. "Maybe... maybe not just yet, though," she said, fingers on her temple and eyes closed. As she sat down and stayed still for a few seconds, she seemed to get better and opened her eyes again. "Let's see what your mentor and our newest passenger come up with first. I could use some rest. How about you? How are you holding up so far?"

 

[C.DEX]

"Confused. This doesn't feel real. Maybe it's the mana." Cyell said, sitting down next to Gniss. "If you want to go back in the rocket I could always bring you, but ... I just have a feeling that if something did that to the rocket once, it could do it again. Maybe going up isn't a good idea." he added, hoping that Gniss would consider going back down. "I know that's not the mission directive, but could we actually survive going further up?" he asked.

The bloodmage freed his other arm from the suit and rested backwards, using the loose upper half as a horribly uncomfortable pillow. His pistol rested on his chest. "I could use rest, too. I don't think being passed out for half of the ride actually counts as rest, so. I'm also not really confident in your piloting skills right now." he said as she swayed.

He sat up for a moment, looking in the direction that Kytrek and Argis had gone. "Are you guys okay?" he asked over their radio, suddenly getting a wave of paranoia over setting Argis off with Kytrek, and arming him nonetheless.

The transmission came through Argis' end quickly, and he wasn't sure how to even activate his radio. They couldn't afford to scare a massive herd of creatures, so he kept quiet, his hands gripping around the weapon Cyell had given him a little tighter.

"Be careful." Argis whispered. "Watch to see if they eat the foliage. Even if they are passive, something tells me that these creatures don't need to find the best hiding places. Unless your theory is right, and this place has creatures even larger than that. If it is, finding a place to rest is the least of our problems."

He followed Kytrek close behind, his eyes glued on the beasts.

"Also ... Maybe I underestimate these beasts, but these things couldn't have been responsible for the incident with your enchantments, right?"

 

[Lyro]

"No way some simple beast did that," he muttered. "That was something that shouldn't even be possible. It's a direct violation of Eudycrates's Third Law of... nevermind. Point is, no beast made that happen." Kytrek then activated his radio and sent back a hushed reply. "We're fine. Currently tracking wildlife. Talk to you in a bit."

As they observed, one of the animals seemed to stop in its tracks and consider one tree in particular. From this distance, it was hard to see exactly what was going on, but it looked for all the world like the creature deployed several trunk-like appendages which began to scour the tree's branches, devouring any leaves they came across. Within a minute, the tree had been stripped bare, and the creature simply pushed it down and walked over it.

"I'm going to guess herbivore, then. You seem to know something about animals. What do you think? Safe to follow them? Or should we search elsewhere? That forest seems like it might have some good hiding spots, so long as it's not in their path."

Gniss sighed again and looked away from Cyell. "Normally, we should keep moving upwards. Especially now that there is an unidentified threat to future exploration attempts that needs to be found. We still have the suits and the rest of our equipment. We could do it. At the same time..." She paused and moved to lie down on her back, looking up at the cavern roof. "At the same time, the loss of the rocket is a major blow. I am not too keen on leaving it behind either. I take it you would rather we head back down, then? Because I have the feeling that's not your mentor's stance."

 

[C.DEX]

"It's not." Cyell said, his hesitation obvious, even if he had been trying not to reveal it. "The old man wants nothing more than to see the surface. There isn't anything I could say to convince him otherwise. I'm not sure what you want to do ... I don't even know why I'm entertaining the idea." He said. "With or without the rocket and the crew he's going to try to keep going upwards, and I'm not going to make him do it on his own."

Cyell sat upright, looking a far amount more tired than when he had began the trip. "...it's better that we continue upwards like you said, then." He concluded, scratching his head. It was particularly odd how quickly the mage had changed his viewpoint on the matter, but he had moved on from the subject before Gniss could even question him. "Not sure how we'd combat against something all the way up here that can dispel enchantments and sap mana like that, even if we did find it. If it does to the rest of us like it did to you then we're really not making it down ... unless we all sleep in our suits. I'm not sure how many times I can do that without making myself sick. Still feels weird."

"Grazers tend not to respond to non-threats, as they lack the energy to do so from low-nutrient diets ... usually. These creatures are devouring entire trees, so there's no telling, but if I had to bet, I would say they won't waste their time on us as long as we don't look like threats. But they're big enough toward where causing a stampede would mean death, so ..."

Argis paused. "Lets follow them. Do your best not to look like food." he said, leading the way toward the beasts.

 

[Lyro]

Kytrek snorted softly but followed without protest. He deferred to Argis's judgment in this situation. While he had occasionally found himself stranded in the wilderness for short periods of time, his situation had never been quite so desperate. He would never have admitted it, but there was a comforting simplicity in simply obeying somebody else's orders.

They had reached the edge of the forest by now, offering a much better view of the creatures. They were truly massive, the bigger ones almost as tall as the rocket. Their skin seemed to glisten slightly in the dull glow of the cavern, a kind of slick, reflective dark sheen. Beyond that... it was difficult to tell anything definite about the creatures. As far as Kytrek could tell, they had legs, though those might have been very long arms, and those five glistening orbs on the ends of thin, tentacle-like stalks might have been eyes. They moved ponderously, their legs seeming to wobble as they hit the ground with force. When they fed on the trees, some of the leg-arms reached up, grabbed an assortment of leaves, then dragged them down below their bellies, where they disappeared soundlessly. The overall impression was of a mixture between a squid, an elephant and a starfish.

Kytrek looked to Argis wordlessly, awaiting the next set of orders.

"Hmm." Gniss turned her head to look at the rocket. It was hard to say, but she thought she could tell something had changed about it even from this distance. "It is... concerning. Especially since we are completely in the dark with regards to its nature. It might even be some hitherto unknown natural phenomenon. After all, very little is known of this Level and those above it. It's a big world." She frowned as she tried to remember. "There is one thing, though. Something I felt when it hit. I got the impression that whatever it was, it came from far above. I think it was something about the way it seemed to move through the rocket, like it had fallen on top of us." She turned her head back up to the ceiling, searching the distant rocky roof of the cavern. "Or had been thrown."

 

[C.DEX]

"Fascinating." Argis said, as he watched them. He had spent what was probably an annoying amount of time doing so, but he hadn't seen anything quite like it before. After a while, he had stepped out from behind the tree they were hiding behind, the weapon Cyell had given him not in his hands. One of the tentacle stalks had moved in his direction as if offering the odd, shifting green thing to Argis, but the beast had continued to graze, its actions differing from what it had been 'looking' at. He didn't make any harsh movements, and as a result the stalk that had floated for quite a while mid-air had eventually returned to its host.

The ponderous animal moved to the next, though it had slowed down, the herd also taking slower steps and eating less. They had cut a path through the forest, leaving a line of treetops that had almost certainly lead back to the pack. Any smart predator would have just followed it, and with just how slow they had been, it was a wonder they had existed at all.

"They remind me vaguely of the Coratropis Caverns." he said, looking back to Kytrek and lowering his hands. "Animals there never developed the instinct to react to predators due to them ... simply not existing. I visited them before they had been destroyed. I wish I had catalogued the wildlife I had seen there. I don't know if this is the same situation, but they don't seem particularly jumpy."

As if on queue, the alien beasts began to rock themselves to the floor, planting themselves exactly where they had stood. The stalks on their heads began to lower to the ground. While they each had five, four of them on the soon-slumbering beasts had been tucked underneath their bodies.

"I ... can't tell you definitively, but I would guess staying by these creatures would provide some deal of safety. We could chance it in the forest as well, but if slow, lumbering beasts with no instinct to react to threats can simply plant down and assume themselves safe ..." He smiled behind his visor.

"Maybe the Surface doesn't want us to get up there." Cyell replied, aware of the ridiculousness of his own statement. "I'm ... not sure. Kytrek doesn't even know."

The blood mage looked to the shaft adjacent to them. "If we do have to leave the rocket here, would it be safe to stay near it? If we're being followed, I mean."

 

[Lyro]

Gniss shook her head. "I very much doubt we were followed this high up. They..." She caught herself and stopped, before resuming in a more guarded tone. "Their earlier ambush was unexpected, yes, but I believe that was because they had acquired the location of our refueling point. I do not believe for a second they have the technology or the magic to track our vessel all the way to the Twelth Level. Even if they did, a part of the ship's wards was dedicated to analyzing and repelling spells thrown against it. If they had managed to hex us before we left, I would know. At least, I would have known - back when the ship still had its enchantments."

With a light groan, the pixie got to her feet then, dusting herself of the tiny pink dust. "Still, we'll need to get moving sooner or later, and there is some equipment that needs to be unloaded. I agree with you that now is not the best time to test our luck in flying it upwards, so I'll just have to throw it to you. I'm feeling better now, really." She began to walk briskly back towards the ship. "And then maybe I'll just wait inside until our self-designated scouts find something. All this pink is making me nauseous."

Kytrek looked uncertainly at the beasts setting themselves down for a rest a short distance from the forest they had come through. The ground there certainly looked comfortable enough, being covered in a filmy, silky grass that seemed to slowly change color over time. He thought he even spotted a small cluster of rocks in the center of the herd that formed a slight overhang, allowing for relative darkness in the perpetually pleasantly lit cavern. "I can't say the idea exactly fills me with glee, but it seems as good an option as any. Safety in numbers after all. Let's give it a try." With slow, careful steps, he began to approach the rest of the herd, careful not to make any sudden movements.

 

[C.DEX]

"Alright." Cyell said, climbing to his own feet as well. He dusted himself off the same, wondering briefly if the spores in the environment were at all toxic. Then, he glanced to the forest again, wondering just how Kytrek and Argis were doing on finding a place to rest for the night that wasn't an inert rocket. He walked to the edge of the hole the ship had made, peering down at the rocket, which had looked a far amount less mystical now that it had been stripped of its magic.

Throwing was an easy solution as long as he didn't drop anything she had thrown, as he wasn't exactly excited at the opportunity to jump back to the ship. They had carved a long way down, and falling had inevitably meant death if that were to happen. He waited at the edge for Gniss to prepare to throw their supplies, eyes slipping often back down to the abyss below.

Argis and Kytrek had meanwhile stumbled upon a large herd of tree-eating herbivores. They had seemed particularly docile, but there was no telling what any of them would do, especially in an environment so strange. The Voldur approached the herd with Kytrek, moving slowly and attempting to keep his eyes off of the stalks that had tracked their movements. He walked between the herd, the stalk-like green eyes that each of them had left out as sentinels tracking the two of them as they moved.

The Voldur had seen the same overhang that Kytrek had, a small distance away from the herd, but the mass of them had blocked it off. Unless something or someone had moved through the herd the same way they had, no one would be able to get to them. It was safe enough, and apart from the curious eyes poking out from the odd creatures, none of them had gone out of their way to attack either Kytrek or Argis.

Argis quieted his own laughter, finding the experience much more exciting than Kytrek seemed to.

"This works. Shall we get the others?"

 

[Lyro]

"Yeah," Kytrek replied, slowly unwinding from the tension of having walked through the herd, his gun held tightly the whole time. He looked around the area, making sure they hadn't missed any hidden threats. Satisfied, he activated his radio, still speaking softly. "Captain, Kytrek here. We think we've found a spot. Now, this may sound unusual, but allow me to explain..."

Several rationalizations and thrown packages later, the ship's crew gathered beneath the rocks, their unfurled sleeping bags lying behind them. While the cavern's ambient light had not dimmed since their arrival, the pink hue had since shifted into cooler tones, and the cavern was now bathed in a soothing blue light. Around them, the massive creatures had all settled down by now, and, if the regular, low rumblings the crew was hearing were any indication, they were also all asleep by now.

"I still maintain giant land squid is a perfectly valid designation for these creatures," muttered Kytrek with an irritated look at Cyell. "Not that I want to restart the debate," he added hastily, briefly glancing at Gniss, who simply scoffed lightly and continued fiddling with the piece of pixie-sized armor she had taken from the ship's storage. "Anyway, my point is that our rations won't last forever, which is why sooner or later we'll have to hunt for food. Our first priority is to find a passage leading out of here, yes. But it would be a shame to let all this easy game go to waste on our way out."

 

[C.DEX]

"We should avoid tampering with the ecosystem as much as possible." Argis said, narrowing his eyes at Kytrek. "I would rather take my chances with the foliage, anyways. Taking a small amount won't be harmful to it, but killing these beasts might be. We don't know how rare they are, or if their meat is even edible, let alone how they react when aggressed on. These could be beings that only produce children once in a century, and that on that case even one would harm the local population."

"No way." Cyell said, grimacing. "Killing one won't hurt and it'll be enough food for all of us. You want to sit here and chew on leaves?" he asked, mocking the Voldur slightly. "That's insane. We won't even make it out of this cavern if that's what we're eating."

"I understand that your people are used to capturing and killing live prey, but -"

"It's not about that." Cyell said, interrupting Argis. "It's about the fact that we don't know how long we're going to be out here, and what kind of things live here. I'm not going to munch on grass like a rabbit and then be too weak to fight if that's what we need to do. This is about survival, not being eco-friendly." he said, causing Argis' mouth to curl slightly.

"Reasoning like that is why the wildlife in the Coratropis Cavern is extinct." the Voldur fired back. "Upon finding a new ecosystem you don't just immediately attempt to consume it because meat is more filling. You don't know what's poisonous, and what's safe to eat. They could very well be poisonous. And what if the herd reacts in kind? We could potentially be trampled to death."

"We could get poisoned by the plants, too. And killed by them. Nature works differently in the higher levels." Cyell bickered, causing Argis to let out a frustrated grunt. "Plus, when does the random randomly get authority on what we do here?"

 

[Lyro]

"He doesn't," interrupted Gniss, still not looking up from her work. She picked up the bracers she had been adjusting and attempted to slide them on to her arms. "But he's right for the wrong reasons. I don't care about this cavern. I care about finding the thing that stranded us here." The bracers still weren't tight enough. She removed them and once more began to fiddle with its straps. "Every minute we spend down here is one more minute not spent looking for it. I don't know if it can move, but assuming it can, I don't want to risk letting it slip away from us." She tried the bracers again, and this time they seemed to fit. Satisfied, she put them away with the rest of her equipment and looked up at her crew. "We set out first thing tomorrow morning. We look for a way to climb up there. We find that thing. We won't have the time to hunt - too risky and too time-consuming. Even just cutting up one of those beasts is going to take way too much time. We'll just have to hope the local flora isn't poisonous."

 

[C.DEX]

Argis was pleased with Gniss' conclusion, even if it had been made for the wrong reasons. Cyell spared a glance downwards, partially angry at the situation, before taking his own rations out of his pack. They wouldn't be tasty, in fact, they had been downright inedible, but they had been better than eating potentially poisonous plant material. Argis reached up to his helmet suddenly, apparently having gotten sick of the feeling of having it around his head.

"-Wouldn't do that." Cyell said, looking up from his meal for only a moment.

"Well, I was kidnapped before dinnertime and I haven't eaten at all before that." Argis reminded them. "Unless this thing happens to have some sort of port that I can eat through, I'm going to need to take it off." He said, easing his hands away from his helm at the mage's insistence. "It would also certainly help with collecting flora, getting out of this thing." He said, looking to Kytrek, who had initially instructed him not to do so. "I presume I'm not going to be stuck in this the entire time, and he seems to be fine without it on." He gestured to Cyell.

"I'm also a trained Uptrekker. Well ... half-trained." The blood mage said.

"Reassuring."

 

[Lyro]

Kytrek looked longingly at the nearby animals, thinking to himself that it surely couldn't take that much time to hunt down just one, but otherwise accepted Gniss's judgement without protest.

"I'm not going to stop you if you want to open that helmet," he said as he resumed eating his dinner, "but you should know that it won't be pleasant. Your body is still attuned to Seventh Level background radiation. Maybe Eighth. But at this altitude, the shock of direct exposure would be enough to make you nauseous, delirious and, finally, unconscious. Since you lack training, you'll just have to either grin and bear it, or progressively expose yourself to it in little bursts - for example, taking a bite of your meal. In a few days, you'll be fine." He shifted to a more comfortable position as he finished his meal and looked back to Argis. "Your choice, but if you decide to be sick, do it far away from us. We don't need to add the smell of vomit to our list of problems."

"Seconded," added Gniss as she finally dug in to her meal - a special preparation for herself she had provided no explanation for and one which nobody had inquired into. "We can't afford to lug you around either until you wake up. We will only sleep for a few hours, and then begin our hunt. I flew up earlier to get a better view of the cavern, and apart from some small fissures leading downwards, the only way out appears to be the river we heard earlier, which enters through a tunnel from somewhere up above. We'll start with that."

 

[C.DEX]

Argis was blank for a little while, looking annoyedly at Kytrek. Of course, it hadn't been the human's fault that he was stuck in the god-awful contraption, but ... a few days? Was he really expected to sleep in the horrible thing? He was already overheated and feeling restricted, and he wasn't entirely sure he could even begin to drift off in it. His stomach rumbled, though, indicating that sleep wasn't what was on his mind.

The mage had drifted off from the conversation, proving his mind to be one-tracked. As he had finished his meal, he moved to lay down on the silky grass floor, putting his pack underneath his head and pulling off his suit. "If we're only getting a few hours of sleep, I'm starting now." he added, crossing his arms over his chest to bare against a slight nip in the air.

The Voldur stood. "Then I'm going to find something to eat. I hadn't exactly prepared rations with the intent to go on some sort of rocketship later on." he said, moving away from the group. "Unless one of you wants to share. I would hate for any of you to have to come with me to assure that I didn't run away, or anything of that sort." he suggested, intending on shouldering his annoyance with the situation with someone else.

 

[Lyro]

Gniss looked up from her meal and looked at Argis. She seemed to hesitate, then picked up her plate and carried it over to Argis. "Here. Eat this. I'm not that hungry anyway. Don't let the size of it fool you - if anything, it might be too much for you. Don't ask what's inside."

"I'll keep watch tonight. I imagine whoever attacked us would have approached us by now if that was their objective. I suggest you all go to sleep soon. You'll need your energy for tomorrow."

"How's the grass, boy?" Kytrek asked Cyell somewhat chidingly as he put down his plate, removed his glasses and started to lie down on his sleeping bag. "You're sure you want to try sleeping on that instead of one of the bags you got from the rocket?"

 

[C.DEX]

"Comfortable." Cyell replied, in full pretend that it had been more comfortable than the sleeping bags. His eyes were closed already, though he had poked one open at Kytrek as time passed.

Argis had taken the meal from Gniss, placed neatly on a comically tiny plate. He was possibly the largest of the group, so it had been about a coin-sized thing to him. He stared at it for a while, then looked up to Gniss. She was - and had always been - completely serious. Well, it hadn't been out of the realm of possibility. After all, she had more than enough strength and energy to drag him from his hiding place. She had to get it from somewhere.

The group had quieted down, with Argis lowering his visor momentarily to eat his 'meal', and Cyell waiting until the telltale steady rise and fall of Kytrek's chest had indicated he was asleep, only for him to quietly take a bag from their supplies to rest in. Argis had lowered his visor after he'd been done, feeling a little nauseous and weak as the mana filtered in and then was abruptly blocked out, with a strange amount of energy.

"Thank you." he said, graciously, to Gniss, though it had felt off to say so considering their situation. "I'll help gather in the morning."

 

[Lyro]

Within minutes, the gentle sound of snoring could be heard from the sleeping adventurers. Above them, sitting cross-legged on the rock, the pixie watched the sleeping cavern, her black eyes sweeping the surrounding area for potential threats. Nothing would get past her, she told herself, not while she stood watch.

And nothing did. So it was only when she finally collapsed from exhaustion and unwittingly fell asleep that the creature made its move.

Kytrek's eyes fluttered open halfway through the night, and for a moment he struggled to remember where he was and who had left this awful blue light on. Then he remembered, groaned internally, and tried to turn over and go back to sleep. As he closed his eyes again and began to count land squids, however, he heard a light rustling sound coming from behind him. After initially trying to ignore it, the sound quickly became too much to bear, and he turned back around to see what was its source. He froze.

Hunched over their supplies, a dark humanoid creature was going through their belongings. It was roughly human-sized, albeit a small one. Its features were hard to make out - the eye tended to slide away from it, leaving the viewer only with the impression of a shadowy, indistinct figure. It made no sound besides the rustling that had bothered Kytrek, and did not appear to have noticed him, as its back was turned to him.

Kytrek didn't know what to do next. Who was this? A native of this cavern? That seemed unlikely. A spy from below? Gniss had not seemed concerned by the possibility. Their mysterious attacker? Maybe. But if so, if this was a being who could stop a rocket and incapacitate a pixie in one blow...

Moving as discreetly as he could, Kytrek sidled up to Cyell and began to nudge him, his hand hovering over the infernal's mouth in case he made any noise upon waking. All the while, his eyes never left the back of the creature.

 

[C.DEX]

Cyell had unconsciously reached up to smack Kytrek's hand away, but when he had continued to be nudged, he had woken up in annoyance, only to find the wizard's hand clamped over his mouth. A panicked glint was in his eye, leaving the infernal mage with an eerie feeling as he tracked it to what Kytrek was looking at. It took a moment to dawn on him that it hadn't, in fact, been a dream. With Argis and Gniss slumbering quietly, and out of reach for them to wake, they had to do something that hadn't been guided by the express command of the Captain.

He kept quiet, his eyes shifting in dull blue sporelight to the side. There had been a clip of rock hanging over a notch in the ground - a place where he had decided was wise to keep his pistol. He reached for it, doing his best job of not pulling himself out of the excessively noisy sleeping bag - it had decidedly sounded like crumpling paper when one moved inside of it - and his fingers grazed the grip of his gun.

As he pulled it out, the small magical core in the top glowed. Of course, there had been the debate of whether they would benefit from letting the creature rummage through their supplies if it had been the thing that stopped the rocket, but it was a debate that Cyell and Kytrek were unable to have out loud. His thumb traveled to the hammer, then he decided against it. They didn't need extra noise. But he did need to get the safety off.

Staring at it was weird - it was almost as if he was unsure whether he would truly be able to aim at the thing or not. But he did. His hand went to the safety of the gun. He looked to Kytrek momentarily, before looking back to his weapon. Then, he flicked the safety off, the only action that had required him to give off a Click.

 

[Lyro]

There was no initial reaction from the creature to the click of the pistol. It continued its rummaging, moving from one package to the other. And yet, just as other Cyell and Kytrek were beginning to think it safe to approach it, it slowly swiveled its head to look directly at where the two adventurers were lying down. Much like the rest of its body, it was impossible to make out any features on its face, shrouded in darkness as it was. Kytrek thought for a moment he could see a faint glint reflecting the ambient light where its eyes should have been, but before he could linger on the impression the creature turned its head back and resumed its search, apparently unconcerned by the gun pointed at its back.

Kytrek stared at it in disbelief for a second or two, glanced at Cyell, then rolled on to his back, extended his arm to grab the rifle he had lain aside next to him and got to his feet, facing the creature. "Hey!" he shouted, somewhat uncertainly. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Who are you? Captain? Gniss? We have a situation here." Throughout his outburst, the creature continued its search languidly, moving slower if anything through their valuables.

Gniss awoke with a start above them as Kytrek began to shout and looked around in confusion, before silently cursing and scrambling to her feet. She looked hurriedly around the cavern, searching frantically for the threat she had failed to spot. "Where?" she demanded of the professor. "I do not see anything." "Below. We have a... a visitor."

With another silent swear, the pixie ran to the edge and jumped off, landing with a roll that quickly brought her to her feet, facing the dark figure. She instantly assumed an aggressive posture, baring her fists and staring up at the creature's back. "No sudden movements!" she warned in her high-pitched rasp. "State your origin and purpose, now, or you will be treated with extreme prejudice."

The creature paused in its movements, and Kytrek thought for a moment the pixie's threats had gotten to it. However, it turned out it was only because it had spotted a book in the bag it was currently searching, which it extracted and began to peruse delicately. "Hey, that's mine! Put it down right this instant!"

 

[C.DEX]

Cyell climbed to his feet as the others had, his gun still aimed down at their 'visitor'. Argis had awoken as well, though he didn't know exactly what to make of what was happening. Still trapped in his suit, he peered down at the figure. Then, he realized it was not only their belongings that had been shifted through, but his own as well. The Voldur stood, towering a decent amount above the others. The mage's eyes shifted toward him for a quick moment, before looking back down to the thief.

"Doesn't look like he cares." Cyell said, low. Of course, neither of them wanted to fire off any shots; more than a little used to the bustling life of the Depths, violence upon others wasn't something that any of them had jumped to do. Did they have a choice, though? Maybe one that would result in less injury. Shooting someone was rash, regardless of if they had been picking through one's things or not.

A shot blazed through the air, trickling mana off of the sides of it as Cyell fired his pistol - a warning shot, perhaps a foot away from the head of their interloper. Because they had to do something. It wouldn't harm them - whoever it had been - but it would certainly broadcast a message that apparently hadn't been clear enough to start with. Argis had taken his own route, sliding down from their sleeping spot to where they had kept their supplies.

 

[Lyro]

The creature ignored the warning shot as it had ignored everything else up until that point. It seemed to finally lose interest in the book it was holding and placed it back, making sure to close the bag's flap as it did so. Its head swiveled around, as if it was looking for more packs to go through.

"I'll make him care," growled Gniss once it was obvious the shot had had no effect, as she flew up right into the thing's non-face, drew back her fist and punched it with all the strength the Twelfth Level had imbued her with. There was a terrible sound, not unlike that of metal being struck, yet somehow muffled, and Gniss recoiled in pain, falling back to the ground. Where her fist had connected with the creature her fingers were covered in black blood, slowly oozing out of fresh bruises on her knuckles. She grabbed her injured fist with her other hand, her face contorted in pain, before looking back at the creature with narrowed eyes. "Like hitting a mountain," she muttered, getting to her feet with another wince. "What the hell are you?" she demanded of it, with unusual intensity for the pixie.

The creature had not even flinched when it was struck. In fact, Kytrek thought it hadn't even interrupted its head movement, as it scanned their affairs. Even now it stood, hands to its sides, casually looking around as if none of them were even there. "What are you?" repeated Gniss, practically shouting now, her entire frame trembling with barely-suppressed rage. Having seemingly finished its survey, the creature then turned towards Gniss, and began to walk past her without sparing her a glance. "Stop! Stop right now!" she screamed at it. Spotting Cyell and Kytrek's guns, she pointed to the visitor's legs and added, "What are you waiting for? Shoot it!"

"Captain, I don't..." began Kytrek uncertainly, eyes locked on the creature as it began to walk away from them, his grip on his rifle tightening.

 

[C.DEX]

Where Kytrek had failed to press the trigger on his gun, Cyell hadn't. He aimed lower, not particularly worried about having his hand broken from firing on the creature from afar. He couldn't exactly see the injuries Gniss had taken, what with her size, but the fact that she hadn't been able to do quite literally anything to it was ... disturbing, to say the least.

Argis reached down, tearing his belongings along with the others' away from the creature, dragging them away as he looked down to Gniss, careful to avoid clipping her. "I don't believe it's a good idea to engage this ... thing." Argis said in wonder, gesturing for them to back away from whatever had been sifting through their things. "We should move." he said, a deep pang in his stomach that something was wrong, other than the obvious. "Maybe we're intruding on the home of another, it doesn't inherently look host-"

Shots rang out through the air, except now they hadn't been warning shots. Regardless of whether Gniss had given the command under duress, she had given it. There had been an intruder, it had been going through their things, and it could have potentially been the thing that had stripped their rocket of all of its enchantments and stranded them on twelve. They couldn't afford to let it get away.

The shots were mana-infused, depleting the charge on Cyell's gun nearly instantly, but the small mana core had begun to refill again due to the ambient mana in the environment. He lowered his gun as Argis jolted, stepping back at the loud pop of the blood mage's weapon.

 

[Jeda Teq]

Gniss' shouts jolted Kniges from his slumber. He sprang to his feet with his weapons in hand and wings spread and full length. (He felt the suit was suffocating him so he opted to sleep without) "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" The creature that Cyell shot was approaching his direction. Mana began to gather under his wings and the eye patterns on them began to shimmer. To all those who could see the scales, Kniges had become a rather large dragon blocking off the creatures exit. "You're not going anywhere scrub!"