Fantasy Unlikely Partners

[Tharivle]

As she got to him his coffee was done. He just chuckled and let her headbutt him. "There is one here that is Green Tea." Chris said as he put the cup into the machine and set it to brew again.
As the Keurig bubbled Chris turned and put his hands on Ilarias shoulders and lightly guided her backwards and sat the sleepy girl on the edge of the bed. Once she was sat down the tea was almost ready and Chris asked, "Did you want some sweetener? There are a few packs here."

 

[Flutterby]

"No, plain is fine," She said softly. Once the tea was in her hand, she blew across the top of it to cool it before talking a sip. Once it was drinkable, she all but downed it, and then she felt like she might be functional.
"Mm. Better. Thanks." Ilaria stood and started scrounging around for clothes, deciding something work-out-ish would be best for climbing down into a cave. Leggings, then, and probably a sweatshirt, because caves are typically a little chilly. She dressed slowly, her body really just wanted to crawl back into the bed and hide from the sun. She tossed a tee-shirt on, and pulled a sweater to put on over it. The chosen sweatshirt was a gray crewneck, with HARVARD printed across it in block letters. Black leggings followed, and now all she needed was socks and shoes. And breakfast. And a potion.
"Breakfast in here or in the lobby?" She asked, as she flipped her head upside down and started french braiding from the nape of her neck upward. Halfway up, she collected it into a ponytail, and then into a bun. Hopefully it would be enough to keep it from falling out.

 

[Tharivle]

"No reason to use our supplies when there is a good breakfast provided. Let's go get breakfast from the lobby." Chris said before taking a sip of coffee. Chris got dressed himself, picking out a set of jeans and a tea shirt. He pulled on his boots and finished off the coffee. Chris looked in the merroir and fixed his hair as best as he could in a few seconds. "Ready to go?" He asked wile opening the door.

 

[Flutterby]

"Right," She said quietly, as she pulled on socks and her hiking boots. She reached down into her pack, and pulled out another vial. She downed it like a shot, but it wasn't nearly as pleasant as vodka. Ilaria practically turned green after swallowing it. She sat on the edge of the bed for a moment before standing, and then stood.
"Let's go," She said, and lead the way down to the lobby. It was a standard continental breakfast, and Ilaria soon had a plate of yogurt, fruit, scrambled eggs, and a muffin. She was really hoping it was a banana nut muffin like she thought. She sat down with a cup of orange juice, at the most secluded table she could find, and started munching on her eggs while she waited for Chris to join her.
When he did, she said, "Are we going to go straight into the cave today?"

 

[Tharivle]

Chris got himself a plate of biscuits and gravy, as well as some sausage patties and some melon. He mixed some cranberry juice and apple juice and went and joined Ilaria. "Yes I thought that was the idea. Elmmriss was going to meet us at the trail head and we were going to go to the cave." Chris took a bite of his biscuit and added, "Unless you had a different idea?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria gave a short shake of her head, and said, "Just making sure we were still on the same page."
She was quiet for the rest of the meal, eventually finishing the food she had gathered. She saved the muffin for last. The muffin was actually banana nut, which made her smile a little. After one bite, she stood and disappeared into the breakfast nook. She came back with a cup of coffee, and plopped down in her chair to finish her muffin. She needed all the caffeine she could get.
"What are we going to do if we get down there, and there's a bunch of demons running around?" Ilaria said softly, glancing around to make sure no one else heard.

 

[Tharivle]

"If we can take them with confidence then we will fight." Chris said bluntly, but also quietly. "If not.. Then you turn into something small and fast. Rex and I will merge. And the two of us will run like hell. Then we can fight outside where Elmmriss can help." Chris went back to the last of his food and whipped his face with a napkin when he was done.
"Chances are, that word would have gotten out that there is a warrior dryad guarding the mountain. And that'll either make the demons leave the area or come in a larger pack. Let's hope they left and whatever might be in the cave is still there." Chris said with a smile. "You ready to go?" Chris asked as he stood and collected the plates.

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria sipped at the coffee with a frown. It was good, for hotel coffee, but hotel coffee is never actually good.
Ilaria let hom speak, and then interjected with, "I'm not sure about walking through that cave in human form. Might be better for me to have better night vision." She lowered her voice as she said it- someone walked past on their way to the food.
"let's just hope they've all cleared out." She muttered, as she stood and helped clear off their table. They went out to the car, where Ilaria re-armed herself- she hadn't felt right about bringing weapons into the hotel, so she had locked hers in the car.
Before long, they were pulling into the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain, as the sun was starting to peek over the ridges in front of them.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris had kept most of his weapons in the car as well. At least the stuff that he couldn't hid easily. He took a few seconds to outfit himself again and as he closed the trunk Rex came around the corner and trotted up to them. Chris looked down at him and asked, "Did you get something to eat?" Rex licked his lips and looked at the ground with a pouty face. Chris smiled and said, "You did? Didn't you?" Rex made another sad face. Chris eyed him suspiciously and popped the truck again. He grabbed a large brown sack that was in the corner and pulled out a couple large slices of jerky and tossed one to him. Rex snapped it out of mid air and started chewing on it with a happy satisfied look. Now get in, you can have another when you finish that one." Chris opened the back door and Rex jumped in.
Chris got in himself and started the car. Soon the were on the road and back at the parking lot. Chris parked were he had the day before. Once again there were no other cars in the parking lot. Chris got out and tossed the last piece of jerky to Rex as he got out. Then he went back to the trunk and grabbed his pack and asked, "You ready to go Ari."

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria climber out of the car, placing her weapons in their holsters and strapping on her small pack. She took a swig of water, and then bent down to tie her shoes a little tighter.
"Yeah, let's go," She said softly as she stood. She was already searching the tree tops for any sign of Elmriss. Although he probably would conceal himself like he had before, she looked anyway.
The moon child too a small breath, and then started up the way that would lead to the mine. Her stomach turned with nervousness- she really did feel like they were walking toward a den of demons.

 

[Tharivle]

They walked to about where Elmmriss had left them the evening before and Chris stopped, expecting Elm to show himself. And he did. A midsized Elm tree to their right transformed and Elmmriss was standing before them. "Good morning." He said pleasantly about half way through changing into his human form. Chris actually jumped a little out of surprise. He had been looking at the Elm trees in the area trying to find him but somehow he made it so he could not be seen. Elm looked like any of the other dozens of trees in the area.
"Good morning." Chris said in return after taking a quick but deep breath. "How do you do that? Hide from us like that?" Chris asked after giving Ilaria an opportunity to greet the dryad.
Elmmriss smiled and gave a small chuckle. "I am older than the spell used to allow sight to see dryads. With age comes knowledge. And with knowledge comes power. There are a great many things that I have taught myself over my long years alone on this mountain." Elm chuckled again, seeming amused by Chris's confusion, and pleased with his non-answer answer.
Chris shrugged his shoulders and gestured up in the general direction of the mine. "Shall we go?"
"That we shall." Elm said. And he turned on heal and lead the way up the mountain. After a few steps Elm said, "The barrier I placed on the entrance was not disturbed at all last night."

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria walked along behind Chris, pulling on a pair of sunglasses as they walked. The trees blocked out a lot of the direct rays, but it was still bright and hurt her eyes. She was glad it was still chilly enough to wear a sweatshirt- that sun was just as uncomfortable on her bare skin.
She could tell that Chris was looking for Elm as they walked, but she didn't really see the point. If she had learned anything the day before, it was that the warrior dryad would be seen only when he wanted to be. That didn't stop her from jumping a little when he finally did appear, and she couldm't help but notice he seemed rather pleased with startling them both.
"Good morning, Elm," She grumbled, moving her hand away from her hip holster. The whole cloak-and-dagger bit didn't do well with her when they were demon-hunting. Ilaria plodded up the slope behind the pair, with Rex trotting diligently next to her like she was a child in need of guidance.

"Well, at least there's not more of them going in," She said gruffly, even though the thought of none of them coming out wasn't very pleasant at all.
Taking a line straight up the mountain took a lot less time than the switch back trail they had taken yesterday, but it was more work. They eventually reached the mine entrance, and Ilaria glanced around at the dirt in the clearing. Just because they hadn't disturbed the entrance, didn't mean they hadn't been sniffing around. But she didn't see anything that looked out of place, and looked to Elm to open up the mine for them, saying, "No reason to waste time standing around out here."

 

[Tharivle]

Elm nodded and waved his hand, and the wood blocking the entrance became less vibrant. Like a dead tree as appose to a healthy one. Elm stepped closer and grabbed one of the edges and pulled the door away in one solid piece and tossed it to the side, like the roughly 300 pound block of wood weighed as much as a feather. Then he held out a hand to each of them, and in each hand was a strawberry. "Eat these. I've infused them with a sight spell. They will improve your night vision, without sacrificing daylight vision." After they each took their berries he grew a stout branch about the size of a baseball bat and handed it to Chris. "This is a torch. Light it with your swords fire and it will burn for up to 6 hours."
Chris took the berry closest to him and waited for Elms explanation with a puzzled look. After he had told them what it was for he took a bite of the large strawberry. It was the best strawberry he had ever had, and as he finished of the last of the berry he could feel the vision spell take hold. He looked into the cave and could see more detail further in.
The branch wasn't anything special, one could have mistaken it for just another stick in the woods. Chris touched the slightly larger end of the stick to his sword and flame tattoo and the end burst into flame. Chris was expecting this to happen, but still jumped and pulled the torch away fast because he had never actually lit a magical torch before. "Thank you Elmmriss." The Dryad nodded in return.
Chris turned to Ilaria, Ready to go?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria gave a short nod, and quickly ate her berry. The better vision wasn't quite as good as she could get with an animal, but it would do, especially with a torch like the one Elm handed Chris.
After a moment of hesitation, she lead the way into the cave, shimmying past some collapsed debris. Once she was inside the wider shaft, she stopped and waited for Chris. The smell of demons was very faint, but it was there- the smell of sulfur and sickness. She took a deep breath, wondering if it was faint because they were long gone, or because they were deep within the mine.
The tunnel she was standing in was barely 6 ft tall, and only about 4 feet wide. It was walkable, but cramped enough for her to feel immediately tense. There was no moon mother down here.
Once Chris was inside, she looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "Looks like we have to go deeper before it opens up at all," She said, and turned to look down the dark, stone hallway. She thought she could see where it opened up, maybe 15 feet away, but she wasn't sure.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris nodded and looked at Rex, "How old boy?" Rex sniffed the ground and the wall and looked back up at him and barked softly twice.
Chris nodded and turned to Ilaria, "One bark is within a day, two is two to three days, and three is four or more days. So either they left as we were meeting our dryad friend, or they are still down here."
Chris stepped forward and Rex slipped in front of him. There was a long flickering shadow as the light from the torch outlined Rex's body as they proceeded into the cave.

 

[Flutterby]

It was more like 20 feet to where it opened up, and her sigh of relief was audible as it did. Their torch lit a good part of the cavern, but she couldn't see where the far wall was before her eyes adjusted to the light being cast further than 4 feet. As it was, the torch seemed to grow brighter in the cavern, tossing red-orange rays onto the farthest walls.
The cavern they stood in was about the size of her entire small cottage, but much, much taller. The smooth cuts in the ground made it clear that there had been many heavy machines in there at one time, maybe even a crane given the height. it was roughly circular, and about ten feet from their entrance was a much larger hole in the wall, but it was completely blocked with rocks and broken timbers.
"They must have collapsed that main shaft when they were done working," She said, pointing toward it.
As they walked toward the middle, there were still some wooden structures, which looked like long, skinny tables but indented screens for tops. Everything in sight was covered in a thick, dark brown dust.
On the far side, there were three black patches- tunnels about the size of what they just came through. They would have to choose.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris was relieved as well as they entered the cavern. Once they got to the middle he knelt down beside Rex, "Which way did they go?" Res walked over to the first tunnel with his nose down trying to find a track to follow. Chris followed him as he walked. Rex stopped at the opening and sniffed a few times before walking over to the other entrance. Rex repeated the process for the third tunnel, then again two more times as he checked the first two tunnels again. Rex looked confused and trotted over to Chris and tilted his head. "O well. Looks like we have to do this the old fashioned way. One at a time."
Chris looked at Ilaria, "Either the trail is to faint to detect, or each tunnel has a trail just as strong as all the others. Which one do you want to go to?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria sighed as she realized Rex wasn't finding anything. It was obvious, from the way that he paced back and forth and tried each tunnel more than once. She looked at the tunnels, and gave a shrug.
"We might as well just start at the left and work right, since there's no clue about which one." She wished it had been easier. Ilaria started down the left-most tunnel. It was roughly level, but the walls were bumpy and rough. She had to duck her head until several large outcroppings from the ceiling. "This wasn't very well cut-out," She mumbled, as she ran her hand along a large bump in the wall. It didn't look like this tunnel had been cut by a machine.
The tunnel began to slope downward, just enough to make her excited. Her steps quickened a little, because of the slope, and then stopped completely. Five feet in front of her, the tunnel was blocked by fallen rocks and large broken beams. "Well. I guess it's not this one." Ilaria turned around to start back, hesitating when she saw the way the torch-light hit his jawline. She cleared her throat, and shuffled her feet as she started to walk again.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris smiled faintly and let her take the lead into the tunnel. Rex slipped up past him to walk next to Ilaria, and pawed at the rocks and sniffed wile he waited for them to turn back around. Chris noticed how Ilaria paused as she turned around, but said nothing and let her walk by before smirking and then following. They walked back the way they came and Chris stopped at the three entrances again, and looked around, making sure nothing changed from the last time he was in the big cavern.

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria paused, when Chris stopped, and then realized he was just looking at the cavern again. She motioned to Rex, and continued down the middle shaft. It was slightly larger, and sloped downhill immediately. The sides were define and had linear gashes running along every inch- this one had been cut by a machine.
Ilaria walked confidently at first, and then when they had reached about 20 feet in, she started to slow down. "This one isn't stopping," She said, her voice not matching the fact that it was good news. She hated being underground. It made her skin crawl. She slowed down a little more when the tunnel took a slight turn to the right, and leveled off a little.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris couldn't see to the ends of the cavern, and he could just barley make out the opening that they came in from. He didn't know what it was, but there was something different. He raised the torch higher in hopes that something would come to light, but nothing was different, yet something was different. Not wanting to get separated and leave Ilaria without a light, Chris turned and jogged a few steps to catch up and started following behind her like before.
"Look down." Chris said in response to her statement about the tunnel not ending. "There are mine cart tracks. This would have been one of the main transport lines from the heart of the mountain to the cavern that was the processing area." As Chris indicated there were tracks under their feet, but they were broken in many places, and there were several spots where the rocks covered the tracks as if somehow the rocks had grown around the metal rails. "That is weird." Chris said as he pointed to one of the spots where the tracks disappeared under the floor.

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria nodded quietly, looking down at the tracks. She had been walking along the side to avoid tripping on them. "This one was probably more supported, and newer," She said, pointing out one of the wooden frames that supported the tunnel. She paused, when he pointed out what looked like rocks that had grown up around the tracks, and frowned. "That really is weird.. could that be from having the Earth shard somewhere in the mountain? Made the minerals grow and form faster or something?"
She didn't really wait for him to answer, but kept walking, as the tunnel swung around a tight turn, and then started dropping downhill again.
After a few moments, the tunnel opened up into another cavern. This one was smaller than the last, only about the size of a living room. But it had six tunnels, including the one they were standing in, branching off into the darkness.
"We're going to have to be really careful. If we try too many of these tunnels, Rex won't know which one is the correct one when he sniffs our way out." Ilaria looked around, wondering if there was a way to mark their exit route that wouldn't depend on Rex's nose. "Do you see any dark rocks? Maybe we can mark the wall."

 

[Tharivle]

"I have just the thing." Chris said as he handed Ilaria the torch. Chris took off his pack and opened the front pouch. There was a bunch of tiny zip lock bags, all held in place by an elastic band. He pulled one bag out, and inside was a large white Crayola piece of chalk. Like one that children would use to draw things on the sidewalk. "You think this will work?" Chris side with a smile, as he held it out to Ilaria. He put the bag back in its elastic bad and closed the pack up, and put the pack back on.
"Which way now?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria watched him pull an actual piece of chalk out of his backpack. She stared at him as he held it out, making the fact she was judging him very clear before taking it from him. It was obviously great that he had it, but who carried a piece of chalk?
Ilaria marked the floor of the cave first, and then both sides of their exit tunnel. She wasn't sure how any of the marks might get scuffed, but she didn't want to take any chances. As she straightened up, she heard the soft echo of a clunk from down the tunnel. She froze, and then told herself that it mustve been a rock re-settling after they disturbed it.
"Well.. We could stick with the tunnels with tracks, since they're less likely to be collapsed, or we could try to pick whichever one goes the deepest. Although, I'm not sure how we would know that. But if the shard is here, it'll be deep." She glanced at each of the new tunnels. It looked like three, including the one they came down, had tracks, and the others were slightly smaller. She stepped toward one of the smaller tunnels on the opposite side of the cavern, and peered down it curiously.

 

[Tharivle]

The room they were in was a direction change room for the carts. They could see where three of the six tunnels had tracks leading to the middle, and various levers that would have been for moving a center piece of track in a circle once the cart was on it. And once again there were several patches where the tracks were covered by rocks, or the tracks were bent or broken. "Matters not, but I think we should follow the tracks to the back, then go off into the cave system from their." Chris responded.
He didn't fully wait for an answer, but paused to give Ilaria time to catch up. He started down the third tunnel, the next one to the left that had tracks. As they walked they went slightly downward and in a slight continuous left turn. Every once in a wile there would be a spot that would widen where there were two tracks that would allow for carts to pass each other and continue in opposite directions, and most of these breaks areas had small tunnels leading off if them. "Miners carried bags to these points and loaded them into carts. This was also where carts could pass if they were going in opposite directions."
As they went deeper and farther in, the breaks in the tracks grew more prevalent and the height and width of the tunnel lessoned. It was a big cut to start with so they didn't notice it at first but after a minute they heard another echo of a clunk, but this one was louder.
Chris stopped and asked, "Did you hear that?" And knowing that she couldn't have not heard it he asked, "Are the walls getting smaller?"