!! Shadow of the Mountain

Everyone else seemed in such heated discussion, that although he had his own opinion.
The opinion that he'd lied to people enough to be able to tell when someone was telling such a bad one.
The opinion that this was all too suspicious.
All too interesting...

he remained silent, sitting upright as the others exchanged their opinions. Listening and waiting.
He knew he could easily slip by himself but that was less interesting. Perhaps he should consider coming up with a wild counter to the fauns reasoning and see how he combated it. Yeah, he liked that idea.

"That's ok, I'm able to become incorporeal at will now, so rocks wont affect me.. I spose I'll just go on ahead- hey Leon can you warn me when a rock is about to fall??" he acted as though totally oblivious to the lies he was being told, turning to Leon as he addressed him and offering a small secret smile- hoping Leon might get the gist of his facade. of course, he couldn't become incorporeal at will, but that didn't matter.
He could lie at will.


((Sorry I was delayed >>- I totally forgot it was my turn!!))

Leon's eyes thinned into a bland look as he turn to look at Shae. Did he not realize that Leon hated him? What made Shae think he'd help with his lie? And for that matter, why did he even see it fit to lie in the first place? Solasta seemed to be doing a good enough job of intimidating the half-deer. You'd think four people and a big old horse would have no problem getting by him without having to resort to violence or trickery. If you could even call what Shae was doing "trickery".

Leon didn't even particularly cared about the other three. If he wanted to see what was going on he could simply fly over the deer and see. Fly over the mountains, over any supposed "rock slides". Leon didn't even pretend think it over. "Nope." (not the Rendaz nope! X'D) He looked back at Valentin for a moment. He himself had just been in the mountains as well. In fact, he spent a lot of his time in the mountains. They were quiet, and more private than the cliffs or the field.

Leon made no gesture of farewell to any of the others before taking to the air again. The deer had already wasted enough of his time. Kale was going to get away. At the moment, he still wasn't entirely sure why he cared, but he intended to give his curiosity the benefit of the doubt.

((YES THE RENDAZ NOPE >8U))

Solasta looked at Valentin, her demeaning stare obviously unimpressed. Well, she was rarely impressed anyway, but now she had even more of a reason not to be. Her eyes skimmed him up and down - thin, lanky, and awfully nervous too. This obstacle was simply laughable.

"It's not de rockfalls you should be afraid of," she spat, pushing her knuckles into her palm. Cra-ack. Though to be fair, it was really all big talk. No doubt the others would suddenly jump to his defence, showering her with moral reasons why she shouldn't beat up helpless fools. It was something she had to get used to here. Apparently violence was wrong. The very thought! "Yo' too stupid to stand in my way!"

She hardly noticed Leon's departure. Good riddance, really.

Larita rolled her eyes. This whole interaction thing was becoming quite the mess. Since Solasta had obviously taken over yelling at the faun, Larita brought her focus back to herself. She sat up straight and raised her proud nose haughtily into the air. A piece of hair, which had come loose at some point during the ride, hung in front of her face. She pursed her lips and blew it away. When it fluttered back down, she reached up and tucked it behind her ear.

The mention of rock-sides did make her nervous, but Valentin had one of those nervous personalities that always served to make her feel superior. While she didn't think that he was necessarily lying, it did seem as if he was more concerned that was necessary.

Leon left, and no one else seemed as if they were going to back down, so she may as well go with them. It looked as if they were almost there anyway, and she didn't want to have travelled all this way for nothing. She shrugged in Valentin's direction, a confident smile on her lips. "Listen, Antler-boy, we've already come this far and we want to see what that crazy woman is up to." Her lips pursed slightly as she moved on to the next sentence, her voice raising to a helpless, child-like tone. "You can come with us if you want, though. Keep us safe from all the scary rocks." The arch of her brow raised in an attempt to make her appear innocent and in need of his protection.

A look of panic flashed behind Valentin's eyes as he stared at Shae, completely buying the bluff. Non-corporeal? Was he for real? How could he stop someone like that? He opened his mouth, hoping that something useful would jump out because he had no idea how to respond--when the other boy, Leon, suddenly took off into the air.

"Wh--Hey!" He shouted in alarm. His ears flipped back in frustration, brain scrambling and failing to find any way he could stop the winged boy. He dropped his gaze quickly back to the others, looking slightly more unsettled than he had even a moment before as if just realizing how hopeless this was.

Solasta's threats and demonstrative knuckle-cracking earned her a grimace that betrayed her nerves even as they were recklessly shoved aside in favor of desperately trying to maintain his purpose. Then Larita spoken and the faun dragged his eyes to her, grimace pulling into a unhappy sneer at the nick-name. His ears pinned back subconsciously at the manner in which she addressed the science professor.

"Fine, forget the rocks! But there are bears!" He was particularly aware of how lame it sounded. Why would any of these people, as brave and able as they were to be pursuing Kale deep into the mountains, be frightened of a common bear? He quickly realized his naivety and his mouth quickly worked to spew some other dangerous and deadly thing sane-people should wish to avoid. Not that any of these people was of the sane variety.

"And lava! The caves--with the bears. They have lava, and with these rock slides, it's.. It's probably rising!" His glare held steady even he his face reddened from the stupidity of his claims. Why would a bear live in a cave with lava?? "There are lava-bears!"

Shae just couldn't help but burst out laughing. Or rather, he could have if he had really wanted but it was too funny for him not too. Lava bears in caves with rock slides and what? He doubled over slightly, clutching his stomach as laughter poured from his mouth.

"You... I don't know to be amused that you think we might believe that- or insulted that you think we might believe that!!" he brought a hand to his face as though wiping away an imaginary tear or mirth and slipped from the horses back. Right now the large animal was just keeping him from advancing as easily.

He walked forwards to stand directly in front of Val as though sizing him up before cracking up again and rolling his eyes, turning to walk around the faun. Yeah... right. "Out, of the way..." His voice echoed slightly as he let the manipulative quality grow stronger, not too much- like he would bother- but it was definitely there.

Leon stuck around just long enough to hear what would certainly be the faun's final plea. He doubted either Solasta, Shae or Larita would stick around much longer to hear anymore at least. He himself certainly wouldn't.

Leon shook his disappointingly at Valentin's weak attempt to get them to stay and his eyebrows creased. What business was it of his if they wanted to go out into the mountains anyway? Nothing had ever stopped Leon from going to the mountains before. It was spacious and quiet, and he spent a lot of his time there.

Leon was not amused in the slightest, and he turned his body to continue further into the mountains. He didn't care whether the others followed or not. He was going to continue on regardless.

Solasta stared flatly at the faun through his bumbling excuses, with the occasional unimpressed twitch of her nostril, her tail swinging mindlessly behind her. However, at the proclaimed threat of 'lava-bears', she threw back her arms with a feigned, over-dramatic gasp. "Lava bears?!" she shrieked. "I'm tremblink in feah! What're goink to do wi' de lava---"

She couldn't keep her act up for long, and she cut herself off to give a silent, 'is this guy for real?' glance to the others. The same glance was returned to Valentin. "YO' MAD?!"

She didn't wait for an answer before she reached out an arm to the faun's shoulder, aiming to forcibly push him to one side and move past him.

"Lava bears?" She repeated the phrase nervously at first, her brow furrowed in concern. Sure, it sounded ridiculous, but so was this whole island. But when the others reacted as if it were a joke, Larita' frown became a smirk, though she was still too uneasy to break into full out laughter. So, the faun was either hiding something, or insane. Larita was betting on the latter. 

As Shae slid off the horse and began to continue on foot, Larita wondered if he had the right idea. The path was getting rough, not really suitable for a horse. Plus, as selfish as she was, she could see the build-up of sweat on her ride's neck and couldnt help but feel slightly guilty. She swung one leg over the beast's withers and slid off the side, her feet landing lightly in the hard ground. She hugged her shoulders, feeling a bite of wind. 

"Since you're so scared," she said to Valentin, "Stay here and watch my horse." The  she followed in the direction of the noise, closely behind Shae and Leon up above. She would let Solasta deal with Valentin any way the purple beast wanted.

Dolce just shook his mane and bent his head down to pick at the sparse grass. It didn't appear that the horse was going anywhere on his own.

Valentin bristled at the immediate response of laughter. His eyes shot to Shae and he glared heatedly, unable to find words with which to defend his lame excuses. He bowed his head despite his pride clawing at him to stand tall before the other boy, but maintained his glare up through his eyelashes. When told to get out of the way.. he didn't try and stop Shae. He wasn't entirely sure why he didn't, he needed to try and stop them from going any farther! But he felt floored by embarrassment. To his credit, he didn't actually stand aside though, merely remaining still while the other boy passed. But the thought was little to console him.

Meanwhile, the purple best in front of him was openly mocking him. He couldn't really blame her, he supposed. He didn't move in time to try to stop or dodge her hand, the force of which made him stumble a little to the side so she could pass as well. He bitterly kept his mouth shut.

The worst was possibly Larita since she was such a stupid girl to begin with, and he'd made himself look even more foolish than that. He wasn't scared of the mountains, but he couldn't tell the others that. He was scared of what them going forwards would dig up.

The faun slid a hate-filled leer from the brunette to her large horse and snorted quietly. The beast was obviously content to watch itself, so he turned his head to watch them all progress beyond his feeble barrier. It seemed his only option at this point was to follow. He considered slipping to the side and stalking, but with Leon wielding the advantage of an aerial view, and the others already keen on his presence, he doubted his current skills in stealth would be sufficient. He opted to trail after them instead, in full view, and if any questioned him, he would come up with some other lame excuse for them to laugh at. He would just have to swallow it until this ordeal was concluded.

Shae continued to follow the track without so much as a glance behind him- although he did hear the rest of the exchanges that took place. It was really rather amusing- and to think all he'd been thinking of doing was taking a walk today, it really was lovely when things turned out like this, that is to say- someone else suffered at the expense of his amusement. And he didn't even have to try.

To be fair however he was also very curious. What was really going on here and what didn't the faun want them to know? He loved secrets- well no, he loved finding out secrets, not ones being kept from him. That just made it even nicer knowing that there was a chance he'd uncover something interesting and maybe even entertaining. Perhaps it was something embarrassing even, the possibilities were always endless with these kinds of things.

Chuckling he slowed down to let Larita pass him. He was in a good enough mood that he could even be bothered with pretend chivalry- it never hurt to gain a little bit more favour after all.
"Ladies first... in case something tries to sneak up on us from behind, yes? We wouldn't want that now would we..."

((sorry not really doing much lol ^^;;))

Leon continued ahead, not caring about how the other were dealing with deer-boy. He'd tuned out of their conversation. The deer had said nothing interesting, and he didn't want to hear any more spur-of-the-moment warnings. These were his mountains anyway.

When he looked down, however, he saw they were all there. Shae, Larita and the purple thing. He looked over his shoulder to see Valentin dragging behind them. It didn't seem like he had any intentions to stop them anymore, not that they would have made a difference either way.

Leon chuckled to himself then turned his attention back in front of him, in the direction where the sound had come from. He pulled ahead of the group a bit, casting his shadow over them for a moment before lowering and landing not far ahead. He turned to the group and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans, waiting for them to catch up.

The path that the group was taking was relatively straight, thought it's steep was a rather sharp incline. The trees were thinning, leaving pockets of more rock and dirt than foliage. The trail of red raindrops was all but gone, the blood on the harpy having all and mostly dried in flight at this point.

A second, significantly louder, closer boom thundered out. Another rock. The noise seemed somehow confined, as if echoing around in just a single room, bouncing off walls and through a narrow opening, making it louder in only the direct area but nearly mute if outside of it. It seemed carried on as a low wind whistled through the cut in the mountains. A moment of silence hung thereafter before a large silhouette broke out over the tree tops. The figure had obviously just taken off from very near by directly ahead. The form was small, but the wings attached were massive, light filtering through the fine combs of finer feathers. As soon as she had appeared over the tips of greedy branches, she was gone, angled fast towards the castle on the wind of light and wicked laughter.

To the direction the Dean had lifted off from, there was really only one walk-able path at this point. It was old and scraggly, up until a certain point. It seemed to end, but if one were adventurous, there was a way to be traveled, twisting in a rather snakelike fashion around the large rock and down. There were a few hanging natural drapes of leaves, scratches and imprints of talons light in the dirt beneath that looked disturbed by gusts, and it opened up into a rather carved tunnel, angling in a slight descent towards the inner heart of the mountain. It's positioning between peaks and obscure location behind the bulk of the rocky boulder, a growth on the side of the rock-face, would have made it difficult to find from any location but directly in front of it, especially from the sky.

As the faun was successfully pushed to one side, Solasta made a great show of tossing a few strands of hair back that had fallen before her face, giving a sharp cocky look back at said faun as if to emphasize the fact that she was greater than him. With her chin raised high, she strode forward with an extra confident spark to her step.

Glancing back to see the terrible two had finally dismounted from their she gave a smirk. However, her satisfaction crumbled as another loud thump sounded - ungracefully flinching in shock and spinning her head around to see. It had been louder at the last one, at least. However, the fear shown on her expression lasted little more than a few seconds, and she quickly returned to her usual haughty self.

The shape was seen in the distance, and she narrowed her eyes unforgivingly. Following where Leon had landed, she only regarded the unworthy boy with a sly glance before peering at the path before them. Impractical, but not impossible. She started to climb her way ahead - not waiting for any of the others. They were dead weight really, this was more of a solo expedition to her.

"Definitely not," Larita said in response to Shae, and she stepped ahead of him and towards the rough path ahead. In the not-too-far distance, she saw Leon land and was silently glad that he hadn't fully abandoned them after all. No matter what she said, there was something slightly frightening about this adventure, and she wanted as many people around her for protection as possible.

When the loud crash suddenly filled her ears, Larita fell to the ground in an ungraceful duck, catching herself on her hands and knees. Of course, there wasn't much to hide behind. The girl looked up in time to see the massive wing-span of the science professor momentarily mask the light of the sun as she flew almost directly above the small group. Larita held her breath, eyes narrowing on what appeared to be an evil smile on the harpy's face. Larita shuddered.

Then, as quickly as the harpy had come, she was gone. Larita exhaled, then spun her head around towards Shae and Valentin, who were both behind her. "Did you see that?" she said in a harsh whisper. She squinted her eyes suspiciously as she absorbed the new situation. "She's definitely hiding something."

She turned her attention back to the front, where Solasta was currently climbing the rough incline. "And we're going to find out what it is." Larita finally stood back up and walked quickly forward, joining Solasta as the group made their way to whatever it was that they were about to find.

When they reach the top of the small peak, Larita finds herself looking down the path and directly into a narrow-ish cave opening: just big enough for them to walk into, but not much more. As far as what was in the cave, Larita couldn't begin to guess, but she got the feeling that it wasn't entirely safe. Her mind went back to Valentin's fabled lava bears. While she couldn't logically believe that, regular bears seems an all too likely possibility... if bears lived on islands, that is.

She was still standing slightly behind Solasta and Leon, and was glad for that much. "You have got to be kidding me. We don't actually have to go in there, do we?"

Shae watched everything unfold as the Harpy flew above them silently, contemplating with interest.
Indeed it was pretty suspicious.
Very suspicious in fact.

He reached the others within a few steps and peered over Larita's shoulder with a soft, slightly eerie smile.
"Don't worry, it wont be dark...."

Of course not- if they went down there it'd be only easier for him to see, and his light would provide vision for everyone else. It was a convenient part of having a light follow you around- even if it was a light prone to leading people into marshes and bogs he was sure there were none of those down there.

"And..." he held up one of his knives for inspection again, holding them constantly of course considering he was without sleeves to hide them in. "I'm sure all of us together we have nothing to worry about~"

Leon could feel his mood beginning to sour. Maybe it was because of the blood on his clothes or his present company, but he was feeling rather testy. His attention was called as the harpy took the air. His own wings rose a bit as he debated on whether or not he should take off and follow her. It didn't seem to be a good idea though. He wasn't looking for a confrontation with Kale over something that really wasn't any of his business.

Leon turned his attention to the cave entrance. He would have never seen this place from the air. He rolled his shoulders as he retracted his wings. Though they did provide some light, they'd take up too much space in the small area, and if he needed light, he could just use his regular energy. Without looking to her, he addressed Larita. "Nobody's making you go anywhere, Larita." He shrugged. "If you don't want to come, then stay here." Of course, Leon didn't actually expect Larita to do this. Not after she's already come this far. With that, Leon stepped in the cave.

Valentin merely kept pace silently behind the others as they ascended, silently hoping they would fail to find anything up here.

The sudden thunderous boom made him jump and duck into a crouch reflexively. The form of Kale was unmistakable as the harpy soared out above them. She didn't stop, disappearing quickly beyond what the trees chose to show, and Valentin wasn't sure whether or not he should feel relieved. If she had noticed this small gang, it could certainly have gotten ugly, but if not... He looked past the others, recognizing the well-hidden cave as they approached, and a heavy sigh weighed on his shoulders. At this rate, it may be up to him.

He would dejectedly follow everyone else into the cave, maintaining his position at the back, and hoping for the best.

The entrance of the cave was eyed with a cold, thoughtful expression, but no words were uttered. Instead, she looked towards her whinging companion. Everyone else seemed to already jump to answer her question, so she added nothing but a huff and the roll of her eyes.

As Leon stepped in first, she merely narrowed her eyes and followed afterwards. Talk about 'ladies first'... Although the junkai found that she had to stoop down quite a bit merely to fit in the entrance. Even then, the spikes of her hair would still brush against the roof of the cave. Solasta had never been claustrophobic, but even this was uncomfortable.

Reaching to grab the end of her tail, she held it before herself like a torch, allowing the very tip of it to set alight. While it usually should've hurt, she'd used it for this purpose so much that the nerve endings by now had frazzled off. And it provided some light before her, although she couldn't see as quite as far as she wanted to, thanks to a certain obstacle named Leon. Honestly, she half hoped that the fire would 'accidentally' set his hoodie alight.

"Ya comin' or nat?!" It was all she yelled to her slow comrades.

Only a small distance into the mouth of the cave was lit naturally from the sun due to it's location. As such, the length of the cave quickly descended into complete darkness for an undermined distance. Now, with the flickers of the various energies and fire within the caves, the walls were revealed to be rather unremarkable. They were seemingly all naturally formed, maybe with a scrap here or there from something having been dragged roughly crossed it, but it seemed merely the size of the cave had just been too small for some things that had tried to enter.

The decline wasn't particularly steep, though it seemed to increase slightly. It led down, slightly twisting as a natural cave was apt to do. From the depths, there was a slight whistling every so often, and a chilled and dampened wisp of air would flow up the cave. Presumably, there were small tunnels up ahead that opened up to the skies above and streamed in needed oxygen. If one followed the feel of air, they would find that a points along the walls and ceiling were small holes, enough for ventilation, but too small for much more than a mouse or small snake to pass through. While some may have been natural, some were far too measured or evenly space. Too round. Too perfect to be natural. Work had been done to this tunnel, and more so the farther it went. It was less random, more structured, and there were points where the lean tunnel had been intentionally widened to stop it from thinning even more.

Larita hesitated, looking over her shoulders at Shae and Valentin and then back at Solasta and Leon who were slowly making their way into the cave. She stomped her feet and let out a short whine before exhaling heavily and following. She shivered, hugging her arms, but it wasn't because of the breeze.

She walked slowly, taking each step carefully, half worrying that she would fall and break her neck. Or worse, have to catch herself on the purple monster of a roommate that walked in front of her. Her head turned constantly from side to side, wide eyes not wanting to miss any potential dangers. Her mind swam with images of rats and snakes and other crawly things that would likely live in a place like this.

A spider crawled across the stone wall and she screeched, jumping away from it only to hit the other wall with her shoulder. She screamed again and jumped back to the middle of the tunnel, whimpering pathetically.

The whistling was what disturbed her the most, as if something was living down in the depths. "What is that?" she whined, for some reason expecting someone to have the answer.

((OMG I totally didn't realize you guys had posted OTL))

Shae Followed into the cave, his flickering light from both his orb and his eyes seeming brighter now in contrast to the darkness, his ghost light dancing around happily. It liked the dark.

And so did Shae, he could see. See perfectly, everything as clear as night he could see. And his other senses were on hype alert too. His ears picking up each little sound from Laritas less than graceful actions to the weird, whistling that seemed to come from further in.

He didn't speak much, walking almost silently, smirking slightly however at the amusing antics of his distressed, jumpy classmate. He really was ever so glad he had come- and so far he hadn't seen or heard anything to worry him safety wise. Even if there was he had his knives and it was all he needed to feel secure.

"I don't know, maybe it's air whistling down one of these holes, perhaps?" he eyed the wall thoughtfully, his voice only slightly sarcastic.

Once they'd made it a fair way into the cave and it got darker, Leon followed Solasta's lead, summoning some of his energy into his right hand. Being how dark the energy was, it didn't offer a whole lot in the way of light, but it was something. Between his energy, Solasta's fire, and Shae's ghostlight, the area immediately around them really wasn't all that dark.

Under other circumstances, Leon would have laughed at Larita's display, but he was in a particularly bad mood now. He didn't look over his shoulder as he spoke to her, and the sarcasm was only slightly recognizable in his voice. "It's probably the boogeyman." What else could she possible expect it to be?

Taking up the rear, Valentin kept narrowed and suspicious eyes trained on the backs of the explorers in front of him. He was seriously beginning to doubt the chance of any success in attempts to turn them around. His gaze found Larita as she freaked out over something he couldn't see, before rolling away with exasperation. He silently cursed the bravery of the others.

The faun's arms crossed over his chest while his mind repeatedly ran through his options, which were dwindling every moment they continued further down into the mountain. In just a short distance he knew there was a low fishline trip-wire. He supposed either Solasta or Leon would come upon it first. And while the thin line would give way after possibly giving it's subject a small stumble, an alarm would be going off back in Valentin's dorm room. At this moment, he cursed himself for not setting it up at Kale's end instead, because a fat lot of good that rig-up would do them now. He'd always meant to apply some more advanced traps to this tunnel but hadn't yet gotten to it, and he seemed to certainly be paying for that procrastination. Merely because of Kale's involvement, he had always deemed this place impenetrable.

There was one other trap a little further down before they would reach the small antechamber nearing the end of the tunnel. Of course, the required trip wire was also in his room, waiting to be hooked up, and the only way to currently pull the trap was manually. It also wasn't a particularly detrimental trap at this point, as it was unfinished. But it was something to consider.

At the squealing behind her, Solasta tossed a look at the girl over her shoulder. Given the angle that the fire was held at, it seemed to illuminate her face in a rather ominous manner, coupled with the glare that soon followed. However, she said nothing directly to the girl, merely focusing on the path before her once again. "If we get caved in, I vote her to be de emergency food supply," she grumbled.

Her eyes did flicker upwards at the ceiling though at the neatly crafted holes. Despite the fact she generally didn't loiter in caverns often, even she was aware that there was something a little.. odd about them. Something unnatural.

Although the cavern did widen just a little occasionally, the junkai still couldn't really observe ahead. The small fire's light only stretched onwards a few feet, and even then, most of her view was a tad blocked by the kid before her. She reached a hand to aim a rough nudge to his shoulder. "Yo' see anyt'ing, fatteh?"