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Post by Renathan on Apr 21, 2019 7:22:32 GMT -6
Not too far away, someone with the knack for it would probably be able to sense a crystal-clear thrumming feeling... Or something like it. Near this particularly nice find lay two stones, both a bit dark and one a bit mossy-looking. [31-35]
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Apr 21, 2019 11:13:32 GMT -6
There was a saying the sphinx had heard spoke several times but never once quite understood the meaning of, and that was having "too many irons in the fire". For one, who would even put irons in the fire unless they were smithing? And two, even if you were smithing, surely you didn't need that many at a time.
In hindsight the phrase was one hundred percent accurate and truthful to the situation she was in, heat and all.
Garnea had her desired stone, which at least seemed to distract her from trying to go at the pocket pet. The gemmorn, having realized resistance is basically futile since it was a much chunkier bodyshape than the slender wyrm, seemed to have decided to conserve its energy for when there was an option to escape. And the sphinx, caught between three things, high blood pressure and unattended belongings not far away from unattended work, was really beginning to miss Ras.
(36) Darky: 36 Garnea: 10 (2/5) / 10 (2/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Apr 21, 2019 11:18:50 GMT -6
Before anything else could befall them, it was time for some housekeeping - first, she returned to their things and let the gemmorn loose near the mouth of the cavern, but since that was preceded with a bit of a treaty snack from her packed lunch, the pocket pet seemed to think she was food vendor incarnate and decided to stick around; second, she chipped away the loose circle surrounding the mind crystal, finally jiggling it loose and inspecting it for any potential flaws or cracks (it wasn't an elemental stone, but never too much care could be taken with things that had some sort of energy, no matter how minute); the previously uncovered stone and mind crystal were safely tucked away into the shoulder bag; and finally, there was the familiar.
Darky hadn't even needed to approach too close before the wyrm was already coiling tighter around the rainbow fluorite, gnashing and grinding the beak in a defensive manner not unlike some flesh-borne species' version of hissing and growling. The sphinx stopped half-way, holding her hands up, considering her options and deciding the definite fight to ensure just wasn't worth the effort.
(37) Darky: 37 Garnea: 10 (3/5) / 10 (3/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Apr 21, 2019 11:25:52 GMT -6
Very well, if the familiar wanted to hold onto the stone, she could, it wasn't as if they were short on them back home, although the aggressive nature of the wyrm made Darky a little concerned. Usually, given enough time, the familiars got used to you and ended up calmed around you as opposed to more riled up. Admittedly, the sphinx had tried to wrangle her with the intent of stopping her from eating the mind stone, and the wyrm wasn't likely to understand the difference (or importance).
But with Garnea it seemed she was every bit as unpredictable now as when they began. This was beginning to look a lot like training was going to have to be on the horizon for them sometime in the future, if that habit kept up. Just as she had managed to finish up with the drakes, hoping for some respite, too..
"Have it your way," Darky said calmly, arms still up and taking a step back before turning around and walking back.
(38) Darky: 38 Garnea: 10 (4/5) / 10 (4/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Apr 21, 2019 11:33:06 GMT -6
Leaving the familiar to her find, the sphinx wandered off to the left side of the path back (as much as could be called a 'path' when it only took 10 seconds to cross), picking up the pocket tool that had tumbled off her belt from the mad dash earlier, almost about to turn back around to head back to the wall when something tugged at her senses.
Thum.
It felt.. familiar.. and yet completely foreign.
Thum.
A coldness in this damp warmth, but somehow stronger for it.
Thum.
She could feel slow, tickling fingers of energy creep up along the back of her scalp, smooth and fluid, but heavy and condensed. She knew this feeling. She also knew where she'd felt energies like that before, though they never came through her. Darky slowly turned her head, the thumming bead along her senses guiding her attention to a calcite deposit between two stalagmites. Kneeling, she took the pocket tool and picked at the top of the stone, chipping away a thin crust that revealed an ever faint glow beneath.
Oh.
(39) Darky: 39 Garnea: 11 (0/5) / 11 (0/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Apr 21, 2019 11:39:43 GMT -6
A pale blue light shone back at her in the complete darkness of the hole. A crystal. A magical crystal. With energies that made her think of oceans and rivers, but especially a certain drake who managed to down her in water on more than one occasion. Truly, a rare find, one she'd almost completely forgotten about in these caves, so focused on gems and ores that she was. Carefully, she jolted the crystal loose from its hiding spot, only to watch two more stones tumble down to the bottom from the hole's walls. Huh, so not just a fortunate find, but a fortunate cache of a find, even.
Garnea's antics forgotten, her hoarding of the rainbow fluorite even more so (though a part of her ever present attention span did register sounds that indicated the wyrm was trying to drag her treasure somewhere in the cavern), the sphinx returned to their things, putting the onyx and heliotrope with the rest in the felt-lined bag, but finding a whole separate one for the crystal itself.
One could thank all the gods in existence the familiar never wanted to eat that one.
(40) Darky: 40 - (added) Garnea: 11 (1/5) / 11 (1/5)
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Post by Renathan on Apr 21, 2019 11:42:28 GMT -6
Perhaps a little less interesting than the previous finds; this clearish stone lay somewhere nearby; not too hidden. [36-40]
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Darky
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Post by Darky on May 5, 2019 3:32:38 GMT -6
There.. that was everything sorted and placed in their respective containers (sans the rainbow fluorite, that is, dragged off to the side by a very possessive Garnea). Glancing around the cavern, the sphinx realized their progress had been fairly limited to that singular wall, with only a certain degree of success to show for it. Most of the really interesting things has come outside of it, either from the gemmorn or due to chasing the gemmorn and stumbling across a cache or two. Perhaps they needn't slam their (figurative heads) into the (not so figurative) wall as much as they had, after all.. If this cavern section had a flow of water, anything worthwhile could have just as easily snagged in uneven pockets of rock as to get stuck in the calcite.
Plus, the humidity was starting to get to her. Heat in the desert and heat in the jungle were two very different things and she was decidedly more built for the former than the rather suffocating latter.
So, she spent some time packing up their things, ensuring the wall didn't get left particularly unstable and, finally, trying to convince the familiar it was time to move.
(41) Darky: 41 Garnea: 11 (2/5) / 11 (2/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on May 5, 2019 3:39:14 GMT -6
One of those few tasks was decidedly more time-consuming than the other.. but, eventually, Garnea's nervous possessive nature seemed to pass long enough for the sphinx to coax her along, using some of the other stones as sort of like a treat-like bait. Her attention was still most on the fluorite, but the mammalian wasn't about to risk lost fingers in trying to snatch that away.
Once on the move, they began to head deeper in, towards the further end of the elongated cavern, variously declining further and further. The crystal torch managed to glint back from a multitude of surface, but all of them just dampness catching the light. At the far end it continued more in the form of a tunnel, beginning to wind and turn a little more, occasional smaller tunnels branching off this way and that, but most too small for the mammalian to fit - likely run-offs of the water currents, dug into the rock over the ages. Garnea certainly wouldn't have had any issue wiggling through, but she wasn't exactly reliable in returning if she found anything of interest.
But in the mouth of one such run-off, something different glinted back.
(42) Darky: 42 Garnea: 11 (3/5) / 11 (3/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on May 5, 2019 3:45:02 GMT -6
It almost went unnoticed as they were passing, the torch's light a similar pale tone, though a little more yellow. But the sphinx's eye caught it from the corner, doing a brief double-take long enough to recognize a pale, jutting form poking out from a crack in the run-off's wall. Kneeling, she took secured the torch nearby and spent a short moment chiseling at the rock to free the formation, before bringing it up to the torch to inspect. A crystal form, to be sure, but nothing anywhere as magical as its elemental brethren earlier. Still, even quartz had its uses and its beauty, so she pocketed it with the others.
Crouched at the mouth of the run-off, the sphinx noticed something else as well - when extending the hand out to the gab, she felt cool air. The other hand was busy holding Garnea from getting past her (just in case she intended to disappear down the small gap) but even so it could feel a flow of warmth coming up further down the tunnel.
So.. where ever the main path lead, it was likely to only get warmer. But these run-offs.. they were cool.
(43) Darky: 43 Garnea: 11 (4/5) / 11 (4/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on May 5, 2019 3:55:07 GMT -6
The longer her other hand hovered over the run-off gap, the more she grew decided - enough of the humid heat, it was time to find a cooler place to continue digging. But first, in order to get down to whatever tunnels the run-off lead to, they needed to find a big enough gap for the mammalian to fit through as well. So, carefully hoisting the wyrm (with stone) into the bag, like a carry case, Darky picked up the pace and began to partly fast-walk, partly jog down the tunnel, eyes glued to the little gaps at the bottom edges. Not for the first time she wished Amonuro wasn't off elsewhere, so he could scout through the cavern walls for her, but manual searching it was.
It was some time, a few offshoot branches and a couple increased degrees of heat the further down they got, when the mammalian suddenly screeched to a halt, spotting a larger spot of darkness in one tunnel wall. Shining the torch through the gap, it lead down a tight way for a little, but seemed to widen out after that. The problem? The entrance was still a little too tight for her.
With a resolved sigh, the sphinx dumped their things on the ground, faced with just a little bit more digging work before the sweet, sweet breath of cold air.
(44) Darky: 44 Garnea: 12 (0/5) / 12 (0/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on May 5, 2019 3:59:44 GMT -6
Grabbing for the pickaxe the concept of a careful dig was disregarded for the moment - she just wanted to leave the damp heat of their present tunnel as fast as possible. Fortunately, the stone forming the walls here was a mixture of granite and slate, more heavily on the slate side. While this made the digging a little easier, it also meant the slide down the run-off was going to be caked in fairly sharp slate flakes if she wasn't careful.
So, the sphinx began hacking at the run-off's entrance, gradually trying to widen it up to allow her to fit through. It was a two-handed work, leaving the wyrm somewhat unattended, even tho she sat quietly in the bag. At least.. had sat quietly. The mammalian paused to wipe her brow and grab a drink from the bag when she suddenly realized it was emptier than it should. Brain catching up with perception, she turned in time to see a red tail disappear into the small run-off tunnel and a scittering-clattering as Garnea's rocky form slid down it into the opening below.
Ah, crap.
(45) Darky: 45 Garnea: 12 (1/5) / 12 (1/5)
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Post by Renathan on May 5, 2019 11:02:59 GMT -6
A beautiful hunk of amber was just waiting to be found; glistening and full of some sort of specimen... How cool! [41-45]
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Jun 12, 2019 7:09:50 GMT -6
Not for the first time in her trips to the Mines had she wished to have in her command a creature who could just.. move the rocks by themselves through some innate force or magic. Instead, she had to pull herself away from staring and begin to hammer at the opening much faster and with renewed vigor with the pickaxe than before. For now there was, potentially, a life on the line. A life that really should have learned to not get herself into deeper trouble than she already was, but life all the same.
While the clanking and chipping of stone went on ahead, the familiar ended her slide down atop a pile of rubble. Some of it was new, from when the sphinx had begun hammering and sending some piece of stone clattering down, but the majority of it was old. Old enough to have been washed and tumbled by a river that no longer existed into smooth, round shapes and forms.
And it was dark. Damp, and cool for once, but utterly dark, given the torch remained in the entrance of the tunnel.
(46) Darky: 46 Garnea: 12 (2/5) / 12 (2/5)
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Darky
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Post by Darky on Jun 12, 2019 7:13:56 GMT -6
For the familiar, this was of little to no concern. She'd been born in the darkness, lived in it her whole life, right until some humanoid or another had dragged her out of it (that whole series of events were a little fuzzy for her, for she didn't really 'register' humanoids are anything else other than an amorphous annoyances). So in a way, this was the most home she felt in a long time.
Stone kibble skid and landed on her head, from the sphinx furiously trying to get the tunnel wide enough to reach her, but the wyrm simply shook her head to get the pieces off and began to slither further away, exploring. Something caught her senses down here before.. she wasn't entirely sure what it had been but not, out of the heat of the other tunnel, it was easier to orient one's self again.
Garnea sidled up a pile of rocks and picked at it with her beak, dismantling the pile and scattering it on the floor.
(47) Darky: 47 Garnea: 12 (3/5) / 12 (3/5)
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