• Closed • [Ishallr]Another Fine Mess

[Vega]

9th Saun
Arc 717

"Well, I feel silly," Vega had said as they had walked towards where they would get the boat to the island of Ishallr. Could her father have taken them over? Yes, probably. But she hadn't asked him to. Maybe she was overthinking, but she didn't think that Arlo had seemed entirely keen or happy with the idea of meeting her father and doing so when asking for a favour probably wasn't the best move. Her father could be... tricky, so it was probably best not. "I mean, it's 'ot an' I'm packin' my woolies. I know, but this close to a volcano? You sure that it's not just this lady friend of yours pullin' yer leg? You sure she's married? I mean, she might be fancying herself a little snuggle with you in the 'ice caves' or something?"

She'd brought, of course, her sword and her bow and, whilst Vega had been half of the mind that Arlo had missed some random woman making a pass at him by inviting him to her 'ice caves' when they set off, once they'd got there she was under no illusions at all. The chap on the boat had been clear and Arlo had gotten to see that, indeed, her seasickness had disappeared. Not right in the head was her explanation for it, and she smiled as she thought about it. "Alrigh'," she said, as they stepped off the boat. They were the only two exiting here and she shouldered her pack with a grumble. He'd said they should leave the horses at camp and she'd scoffed. "There is a slim possibility that you were right an' I was wrong. That there is a bloody great ice-block near that bloody great volcano. Just a slight chance, mind and I'm probably right in the long run."

As they made their way towards the ice caves, a small entrance that was a little off the beaten track, Vega glanced at him and spoke. "Listen, I've been thinkin' about last night," she sounded, because she felt, a little awkward. "I should've told you my Papa's here, it wasn't fair. I'm sorry. An, if you do meet him an' my cousins, well, I think they should come to us. At the camp, maybe? We can cook somethin'," She grinned and bumped her shoulder against his. Yes, she considered, he was at least the same height as her. Damnit. "If I do the starter, they'll love you so long as you do the main." Vega's grin was self depreciating, but then her cooking ability was non-existent.

"So, there's the main entrance to the main camp an' stuff, or there's like, little entrances dotted around the island." She figured that she knew exactly what the answer was, but Vega had to ask. "So, then, Cassion's Hat Wearer, the Travellin' Scholar of Scalvoris. Where shall we start?"

[Arlo Creede]

"You won't be sorry," Arlo assured her after they'd gotten off the boat and were headed in the direction of the ice caves. They said it was an unnatural cold in there, he'd told her while they were pulling their warmer clothing from the bottom of their belongings and packing them into their sacks. "And besides, the volcano hasn't blown in ages far as I know." He snorted though when she mentioned the woman who'd given him the map. A little snuggle? He shook his head while picking his way across rocky ground. "She's not a lady friend. She's a lady, and maybe a friend. And she's married. Happy to be so far as I can tell."

"She showed me some things though that I think we ought to look into while we're in the area," he remembered. "She had a sack that held things it ought'n't, never seemed to get full and hardly weighed anything. Wood from a yellow dragon tree that stayed hot on its own, ice that doesn't melt. And some orange sand that stays warm. That might be useful for the cold season you know if we were to store some of it in sewed up pouches." But when Vega reminded her about the meeting with her father, and apologized, Arlo shook his head. "There's no reason to be sorry. I was joking about the sneaky part. You're still the sneaky sort," he added with a grin. "But still, I don't mind. If he wants to come to the camp and your cousins too, it's alright. And your cooking will make mine seem all the better. I'll impress him right."

So where did they start? First, they'd need to dress the part. He'd come armed, more than just a little, and stuffed his rucksack full of all the things he thought he might need. But Arlo had also dressed for the weather during the trip over from the big island. Sleeves taken off of an old cotton shirt, old trousers cropped off at the knees, and sandals. That wouldn't do once they got into the ice caves and Arlo had no qualms about stripping down and changing out in the open. Layers upon layers, thick socks, gloves and boots.

They were outside and by the time he was done and shoving his other clothes back in his sack, he was already sweating. "This looks like as good a place as any, I say," he said, gesturing to the small entrance they'd stumbled across. It was on the map, he'd noticed, so even though it wasn't the usual way in, they shouldn't have too much trouble navigating their way through the tunnels.

[Vega]

9th Saun
Arc 717

Vega had glanced sideways at Arlo as he'd described some of the most bizarre sounding things that she'd ever heard of. Did this friend who was a lady but not a ladyfriend offer him any strange substances, she wondered but did not say. Instead, she simply raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Shame they don't do cold sand, too. Sleepin' on that would be good right about now." Although looking at this enormous block of ice they were about to enter, maybe not. "Or, you know, when we get back." Vega grinned at him, her eyes orange with small flecks of bright blue. She'd missed these adventures the two of them went on together and she would have told him so, but that would be gushy and so, instead, she thumped him on the arm and grinned.

Vega was somewhat less inclined to stripping down and getting dressed in the open, but she'd prepared. She was wearing a pair of shorts that were a lot shorter than his, leaving most of her legs bare and a cropped vest top. Her long hair was tied back from her head because, frankly, it was too warm to do anything but keep it in a high ponytail away from the back of her neck. Which meant that, as she got dressed she did so by pulling things on over what she currently wore. Like him, thick socks, lots of layers, big warm boots and, as they stood outside the entrance, she grinned at him and put on her wooly hat, which he had tormented her about so much in Desnind. As she did that, though, her expression changed and she stopped the comment about elephant ears and did a double take at him. "You look so different than las' time I saw you dressed like that." It was like looking at the difference between a teen and a man, she realised and Vega shook her head.

Chucking that bunch of awkward thoughts aside, determined not to be stuck with serious thinking all trial, Vega nodded when Arlo suggested the smaller entrance. "A'right, that works for me." It was cold outside but the trill that they went into the caves, the temperature dropped even more. There was a long winding tunnel ahead of them which seemed largely natural. Vega frowned, though, as she looked down into that tunnel and she glanced at Arlo. "Is it jus' me," the young woman asked from behind her thick scarf and buried in her hood, "Or should this place not be... " she gestured to the tunnel and then looked back at Arlo, "lit?"

Because, of course, it was. A long and winding tunnel which should be pitch black and yet, wasn't. Further on from there, according to the map, there were a series of caves. "You sure you've got everything you need? Sleeping bag? Some of that warm sand?" She grinned at him and bumped shoulders. "It's good to be back doing this, innit?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Maybe they do," Arlo considered while hopping about on one foot in an effort to pull his boots on. Cold sand, that was. "Apparently there's different colors of sand in different places, that's different in other ways too. It's a matter of finding it, I guess." But if she was skeptical about any of the things he'd heard about the place before she arrived, he'd informed her that the sand was the least of it. She wouldn't be so quick to scoff at it all when she looked to find a rabbit flying over her head, through the air as natural as a bird. He hadn't actually seen one yet, but he'd tasted one and it would be worth seeking one out for themselves.

He looked at Vega a little strangely though when she commented that he didn't look the same as the last time he'd dressed in winter gear. "How is that?" he asked. "It's only been a few seasons since then. Either I've gotten taller or my old clothes shrank up. Still me though," Arlo insisted. But then he thought that she might have changed a little too. Not in the physical sense so much, but in other ways. Or maybe it was just that for the several dozen trials or more, they hadn't seen each other at all. Whatever it was, Vega seemed bothered by it for some reason. He'd missed her though, and missed their adventures together. Even if some of them had seemed a little misbegotten. If he was honest, he'd say that he'd missed those the most.

Once they stepped inside the entrance to the small tunnel, Arlo felt a shudder run through him. Talking about the cold in the caves and knowing it in advance was one thing. But feeling it firsthand was another matter completely. Immediately, he could see his own breath in front of his face. But that wasn't what really caught his attention. He'd expected it to look different than other caves he'd explored. It was made of ice after all, presumably cut into a glacier by eons of running water, springs and the like. The real wonder if it all though, just as Vega said, was that it was lit. The walls, the ceiling, even the ground they were standing on was dotted with brilliant blue like stars scattered across a night sky.

"That's a marvel isn't it?" he wondered aloud while gazing up at the ceiling. "I wonder what's causing it. It seems natural, but not." And as the toe of his boot brushed against something he reached down and picked up a small, blue glowing stone in his gloved hand, and watched how it glowed and put off a soft circle of light. He handed it to Vega, and picked up another. "That's a find. Sure we could find a good use for those."

"What?" Arlo said with a grin while heading off down the tunnel, aiming for a place where the passage seemed to spit into two different directions. "Us finding trouble as often as we didn't? It's not nearly as much fun doing this sort of thing alone. It's good," he agreed before stopping to reach into his sack. Pulling out two small pouches he handed her one that was as warm as warm could be. Presumably, it was packed and sewn up with the sand he'd told her about. "Drop that in your pocket, and you'll see. It'll stay as warm as the trial it was picked up off the beach." Presumably, Arlo guessed, since he wasn't the one that had collected the stuff.

[Vega]

9th Saun
Arc 717

Either he'd gotten taller or his clothes had shrunk? Vega grinned at Arlo and shook her head. "It's not that. I just don't think I can get away with callin' you a kid any more, Arlo. It's irritating." Vega grinned at his words though, "aye, true that. Yer still you, though and that's what's important to me. Means, I can't torment you about being a kid any more, but you'll always be annoying." She skipped out of the way of him, just in case and then shrugged. That was alright then, that shrug seemed to say. He was still him, she was still her. All good.

As they stepped into the ice caves, Vega grinned and nodded. "I bet you Cassion would love this place. What's that?" She looked at the stone and nodded. "It's... well, it's glowing. That's weird. I'd name it Arlo, but that's taken." It was useful, no doubting it and Vega slipped it into her pocket. However, when he handed her the pouch of warm sand, it had to be said she looked doubly impressed. "Well, that's amazing. Really? That's sand in there? This place is well weird, Arlo." There was a definite air of approval when she made that assessment.

The tunnel wound and they followed it, then it opened out into a cavern. Vega gave a low whistle at the sight of it. "Xiur's elbows, Arlo, it's big, innit?" There was a large empty space in front of them with a high ceiling. It looked far too perfect to have been made by nature, Vega thought and she motioned to it. "You sure this weren't made by people, Arlo? It don't look natural to me." Her voice was low, almost a whisper. There were a number of things to go and explore, but Vega looked down at the tracks that were on the floor. "Hey, look."

They might have the only feet with shoes on, but there were a number of tracks in the snowy ground. Vega knelt and frowned. "A'right, this is gonna sound ridiculous, Arlo, but these look like deer tracks?" There were others, also, which she could not identify, but even the deer ones seemed just a little odd. "Sort of. What do you think?"

[Arlo Creede]

Always annoying? That Arlo could do, and do well, since she'd seemed to miss it. The young man shrugged as he dropped the stone into his pocket and took another long look at the strange ceiling overhead. Vega didn't need to duck away and he didn't need to take a swat at her. His sense of wit hadn't changed, and some things hadn't changed at all. "You can call me kid all you like, if it makes you happy," he shot back. "After all, you'll always be older than me."

"And why would you call it Arlo?" he asked as she examined the stone that he'd handed her. "Because it's as fair and brilliant as the sun?" Lacking in ego, he wasn't, but he was joking nonetheless. "Like two suns even, now that it's Saun." On a more serious note though he considered the things and wondered. "Do you think they'll stop glowing when we take them out of this place?"

He'd been in plenty of caves and underground places before. But the cavern they wandered into was the largest and most impressive he'd ever seen. Even more the case, with the walls, floors and ceilings all aglow. It gave him pause and Arlo reached into his pocket and drew out a leather strand strung with colorful river beads and bright colored feathers. He dangled the thing off a rough patch along the wall and silently dedicated this particular outing to Cassion himself. "I'm not sure, but it looks like it, doesn't it?" he said. The ceiling in the tunnel had been too smooth, he added. The only thing he could think of in nature that could cause that, was if fast moving water, and lots of it, had spent an awful lot of time carving and smoothing it out. But the rest?

"Nature's a hell of an architect, but not a very good builder," he considered, but then Vega's discovery of the tracks distracted him. Crouching down and pushing his hat back on his head, Arlo took a closer look. "It looks like deer tracks sure. But why why would there be deer in here?" he wondered. "They don't sleep through the winter like bears and it's the hot season outside anyway. And there's no grazing in here." Standing up again, he frowned, but then frowned deeper when he spotted a flash of movement from the corner of his eye.

It crossed the opening to an adjacent tunnel, as quiet and pale as a ghost. Just as quick as he looked it was gone, but tendrils of steam hung in the air, as if through a horse's nostrils breathing out in the cold. Laying a hand on Vega's shoulder and with his free one, reaching for his pistol crossbow inside his coat, he asked her, "Did you see that?"

[Vega]

9th Saun
Arc 717

"Shurrup. When I'm 80 an' yer only 78, maybe then you can hassle me. But the difference between eighteen an' twenty is just..." What was the point in arguing with him, she thought and she grinned. "Shurrup."

Her response to his teasing question though was a snort and a very clear answer. "No, I'd call it Arlo cos it's funny lookin', a bit spikey and with funny knobbly bits. Also, it's a bit bright but really even that's a bit... dim." Was her very sure response. When he asked if they'd stop glowing when they left, though, she shrugged. "I don't see why, but maybe. We'll find out, I guess."

When he started hanging things off the walls, that was Vega's cue to do something else. It was an act of worship to Arlo, she knew, and she made sure that she was out of the way for it. He got weird about her only experience of Cassion, which granted was that he was a damn fine kisser, and she had no wish to intrude on a private act of worship so the red haired half-breed made her way and looked at the tracks. "Wot?" Architect, not a builder? Vega shook her head, turning back to look at the tracks. They looked like deer, she thought, but at the same time they weren't quite right. She was busy examining the tracks when she felt Arlo's hand on her shoulder.

Vega lifted her head and looked at him, then shook her head. "No," she whispered and was turning to look where Arlo had spotted it when something caught her eye from another exit, the other side of the room to where he was looking. "But I jus' saw somethin' white movin' over there. Did I ever tell you the story of the snow-monsters what eat naughty kids?" Pulling an arrow, Vega readied her bow and moved so that she and Arlo were more or less back to back, although with enough room for her to pull back and fire.

As movement became apparent in both exits, there was a sound unlike any other Vega had ever heard. A horrid, hissing snarling noise which caused fear to creep up her spine and she let out a slight whimper. And then, from the far edges of the room came white, squat deer. With glowing red eyes and fangs, making the snarling sound which hit them both with fear. There were at least four of them. Vega loosed an arrow, aiming for the neck of one of them. She hit, and then Arlo would hear, quite plainly. "Knickers! It bounced. They're armoured, Arlo. Get 'em in the eye!"

[Arlo Creede]

"Well I think you've reminded me already," Arlo had argued, "that I'm not yet eighteen. And besides, the difference between a newborn and a two arcs old child is walking and talking. The difference between two and four is reading and writing. Two arcs is a lot," he'd teased again. In truth, it was hardly anything so far as time lived between them. But since it was her that had first teased him about his young and called him kid, even now sometimes, Arlo wasn't quite prepared to let the ages old debate lapse between them. Not just yet anyway. It was that give and take, push, pull and shove that he'd enjoyed and if he was honest, had missed.

As for the stone? And him? Arlo shrugged and as innocent as you please, shot back, "Some girls like those knobby bits, you know." And then he was quick to duck out of the way in case Vega took a swing at him. At any rate those rocks could be useful, especially if they kept glowing and didn't melt away once they left the snow and ice behind them. Something like that would have been useful, back in Desnind when they were trying to outrun a lizard in the dark and Asari had gone and broken the only lantern they'd had.

But then there was something more to worry about than glowing rocks and who was younger, who was brighter. He wasn't quite sure that they should be concerned. But things that lurked and circled rather than strolling right in, tended to be more concerning than not. "Snow monsters," he scoffed under his breath but never took his eyes off the perimeter of the cavern. He wasn't doubting Vega's story, even if it was as good as a fairy tale made up by her father. They'd seen far stranger things, the two of them, than that. He cut his gaze in the other direction, to the other exit, but whatever she'd seen was gone. Or seemed to be. Which meant that there was one thing circling around them. Or a number of them surrounding the pair.

"Deer don't do that," he'd uttered, making sure his crossbow was loaded and primed. "They don't hunt in packs. They don't hunt at all." But deer didn't sound like that. Like snarling wolves preparing to pounce. And they didn't look like that either. The skeeterwampulus came to mind when he saw them. All beady red eyes and dripping fangs. Not that he had much time to consider it. Back to back with Vega, Arlo couldn't see her loose her area. But he heard it, along with the strange thud and clatter of the shot when it bounced off and hit the icy floor beneath their feet. He'd been aiming for the middle of a single creature's broad and squat chest. But in an instant he adjusted his aim accordingly.

She didn't mince words. She was as bossy as ever. But maybe he'd missed that most of all. When it worked, it worked, and they worked well together. He fired even as he caught a glimpse of another charging at the side of them. Arlo had been practicing, and it was only now that he was grateful that he'd taken the time and made the effort to work on moving targets. The thing charged straight, but it also lumbered. He'd gotten better but he was no expert. The shot didn't necessarily strike as true as he'd like. It missed the center of the glowing eye but struck aside of it and passed through the eye socket just below the brow bone. And for a split second he dreaded the thought that it wasn't enough. The thing kept coming, almost reaching him and as he braced for impact it suddenly stumbled, its legs buckled and it dropped dead.

But Arlo didn't have time to wonder. He reached for another bolt, loaded it and trusting that Vega had taken care of the one that her first shot had bounced off of, the dreamwalker swung his bow to the side to fire at the one coming at his right side. There hadn't been enough time to aim properly however and his bolt struck the thing in the leg. It bounced off, but the deer nonetheless stumbled and got tangled up in its own legs, giving him time to load another bolt and fire. That one struck true. Or at least true enough to do the job.

[Vega]

9th Saun
Arc 717

Vega was prepared to ignore him in a haughty and derisive manner until he bit back to her, with a face that he wore when he told his mother that he'd slept well, or hadn't eaten already or no, it wasn't him that had swiped that slice of pie. Some girls liked those knobbly bits? She snorted and her response was, as he had expected, to take a swipe at him. Damn him, he was already out of the way. In that moment, she decided, this would be one she'd get her revenge for. Later.

Banter, joking and jostling aside, though, as soon as they caught sight of whatever it was, they both descended into serious and Vega, too, turned and tried to spot how many of them there were. She couldn't tell, but she didn't think it was just one, circling. No, it seemed much more likely that it was more than one, hunting.

"Well, no one told 'im that," she snipped as he said that deer didn't do what they were, in fact doing. As they charged, though, these white vampire-looking, weird-faced, glowing-eyed deer which were really starting to scare her, Vega was half glad that her shot had bounced; it meant that she could tell Arlo about it, could warn him. Because then, she had to focus on keeping herself alive and that meant killing these white critters.

Pulling another arrow, Vega took the time she needed to aim. She had to do that, she was not as good with a bow as she'd like to be. She was competent enough, but that was it and she needed to take time. Better to do that and make the shot, she knew and so that was what she did. Breathing out with the shot, Vega released and was already pulling her next arrow as soon as the first one was free of the bow. Not until then because otherwise she knew that she risked knocking her own shot off aim.

Which would have been a shame, she considered, as she had done quite well. The deer which was really not a deer in her mind fell with a screech and she quickly loosed a second arrow at his mate, charging at them from her left. It wasn't as well aimed and she knew it. No sooner had it left the bow than Vega had dropped it and drew her sword. She didn't expect the arrow to kill the thing and it didn't, flying past it's ear by a good inch.

The thing was, though, whilst Vega wasn't fantastic with a bow, with a sword she knew she was good and she'd gotten a lot better. So, the young mixed blood woman waited and then, as the creature charged at her, she stepped gracefully to the side and thrust her sword forward with a fluid movement. Aiming at the eye she struck and, when Arlo turned to check on her, Vega was standing with her sword in the creature's eye. Pulling it out, she glanced up at him, after looking around and making sure that there were no more.

"You alright? Know what this is?" Vega asked, a grin on her face once she was sure that he wasn't injured. Motioning to where she was pulling out her sword black fluid flowing freely from where the eye had been, she sounded gleeful. "It's a bad eye deer. That's what it is." She couldn't hide the delight on her face as she said it.

Then, she motioned. "If we store the bodies over there, we can keep explorin' an get them on the way out, or clean 'em now?" She shrugged, not bothered about which they did. "That was brisk, weren't it?"

[Arlo Creede]

Four deer had charged them, and four were now dead. They did work well together, Vega and him. A good thing. Had it just been one of them, they'd probably be dead themselves by now. He didn't like to show it. He liked even less to admit it, but a chill had run up his spine at the sight of those things. There wasn't much that Arlo thought to be afraid of. It was the prerogative of the very young. But these creatures were as outside the natural order as Arlo had ever seen. But then as he crouched down on his heels, bow in hand to examine one of the things, Vega had to break the tension with one of the worst jokes he'd ever heard.

Nonetheless he snorted and shook his head while standing back up. The young man had any number of witty comebacks on the tip of his tongue, but instead he looked down at one of the things and gave a nod. "That's exactly what it was. And maybe if we're the first to ever come across one of them, you ought to have rights for naming it. You'd be doing one better than whoever it was that named the other deer I've heard about, off in the forests. Oh deer," he told her.

"Let's drag and store them there," Arlo added when she suggested it. "They'll be safe enough until we get back. And it's cold in here, enough the meat won't spoil." Grabbing one by the hind leg he began to drag it off towards the wall, he frowned before going back for another. "I don't know if the meat will be very good. But those white hides might make a couple of good winter cloaks." And then? Well apparently there was a whole underground world to explore. "Which way now?" he asked, pushing the map back into Vega's hands. They'd never see it all of it of course. But it would be a shame to turn back now.