@Draconian Had she considered the realm in which she stepped she might have reconsidered her venture. An adventurer, even a man, would find traipsing along the Ash Field Flats as more than a challenge. There was a host of species of dragons that went from small, ones who were poisonous and crawled flat on their bellies, to the grand scale ones who took to the skies. But she was a stubborn woman, who paid quite a large some of money (and her own personal time (years even)) into finding out just what was the man after, wanted to gain, from her father's death.
She knew it was murder, certainly, but she had no idea how far Opus Dey's reach had stretched. She was beginning to second guess her mission, as her men began to thin out and abandon her through each new hurdle tossed their way. They had an easy amount of twelve men when they had begun, which after the near clip with a fire breathing dragon, left her down to eight. And crawling through the black ice mountain pass brought her numbers down to five.
The AshField Flats had elicited a death from poison from the bite of one of the numerous lizard-dragons that scraped around. It was around this time all of her men were calling for her to turn around. There was a still the tar pits they needed to cross and the Dragon Tooth Mountain pass, but she made no agreement nor disagreement, only settled on making camp well outside of Ashfield.
But here, just half a mile from the tar pits, the terrible echo of dragon roars kept her away most of the night. It sounded like a war with thunder. It was a terrible thing, and where they camped it was nearly pitch black due to the sudden onset of clouds.
Come the morning, Miss Warner had awoken to a second death, and her men already packing their things. Although once they were ready to head back, it was here Beatrice asked if they wouldn't mind waiting just one more day here. She knew they were close.. and it was foolish, but she felt she could hve enough strength to go further on her own if she at least had men back here to support her on the journey home.
The men hesitated, but eventually agreed to giving her three days on her own.
"But if we don't see you come the third moon... We leave."
Beatrice nodded, and drew in a careful breath, tossing her back over her shoulder and looking out towards the road ahead. It wasn't going to be easy, and perhaps now she felt it more a fool's quest than ever....
But something fueled her forward. Hope. Revenge. The insatiable quench for just having answers met. She didn't even know what she'd do by now were she to find the answers he sought-
Perhaps that was enough all in it's own. And though these ideals continued to roll through her mind, she was suddenly torn from anything except the sudden hot sticky tar pit she found herself slipping into.
With a gasp, she frantically fought the powerful suctioning force that wanted to drawn her. She felt panicked, her mind rattling as she looked around for anything to use as a crutch. A sharp rock jutting out towards her back seemed the only feasible thing in reach, and she scrambled to pull out the rope in her sack, keeping both well above her head before making a hasty lasso and tossing it out.
But her heart dropped the moment the lasso missed, and came undone. And shee had to be quick, to pull the rope back in such a way as to avoid dragging it into the tar that seemed to be making a tighter hold around her the longer she sat (or sank). She quick retied it, double checked her knot and drew in a careful breath. She sized up the rock as best she could and tried again.
Then again, until finally, she could have cried when the loop hooked.
Giving the rope a heft pull she found herself needing to use an incredible amount of stretch just to get her legs free of the muck. But once she was able to get out to her knees, it was a lot easier to drag herself onto shore.
She dropped down onto the dry lands surrounding the pits and just lay there, exhausted and staring up at the thundering skies. This time it wasn't just the dragons making noise as she noticed a few blue streaks of lightning crack over head. She sighed, welcoming the smell of rain.
She felt filthy and the sudden down pour was relieving. But it was also enough of a force to perk her up and get he to move. She was soaked to the bone, and most of the tar washed well enough away, but it still felt as though it clogged her pores and other nooks and crannies within her body that just made her feel soiled.
It was hard to see, and she had to take advantage whenever the lightning flashed over head. But the tar pits were steaming and with the constant streaming of rain it was still hard to see, to move forward and just as she thought she'd found an area free of the pits-
She felt a hard crunch. The ground beneath her began to split. And as she tried to step off of the crumbling land, she was thrown off balance as the entire
world seemed to shake. She managed to fall into the rocky edges of a cliff side, only to find herself becoming scraped and bruised, and only clinging onto it for a short time before her grip slipped away and she fell-
becoming swallowed into a darkness beneath her that felt eternal-
Until she succumbed to that darkness as well.
She was surprised than when she awoke, there was nothing to see. Pain was evident, which was at least a reminder enough that she was alive. Cluthcing onto her head, she began to feel herself down, seeking out her pack which she seemed to have lost in the fall. But some frantic scrambling around her made her realize she hadn't dropped it too far from herself and clutched the thing close to herself in painful fists.
Blindly, she rummaged through the bag until she felt the familiar, smooth pearls and brought one out, cracked a finger nail into it before holding it out and watching the enchanted object take light. And as she realized from what it's faint light would show, is that she had fallen down a long way from the world ahead....
And the only thing before her stretched enormous caves of an unfamiliar pattern.
And she felt the plight of her decision.
Dare she try to climb up? An impossible feat, even she knew that. Or take her chances in the labyrinth ahead.