Catch a Falling Star

[MadEmperor]

[ @DragonSong ]

[ OOC: Continued From ]

The trio took just over two weeks to get to Stonegate, a large town located in the foothills of the Terrins. It protected the entrance of a pass that led not through the mountains but to the Crystal Gorge, building its entire livelihood around mining and catering to adventurers eager to prove themselves in the treacherous Crystal Gorge.

"This is... more popular a destination than I thought," Grav commented, looking at three different equipment vendors.

[DragonSong]

Kiara gave a low whistle and nodded in agreement. "Makes me wonder if this Star Tear stuff is actually what we're looking for," she muttered as she looked around. "I mean, surely some mystical substance so fabled it's written of in faerie lore would be, well...less popular?"

Kit grumbled as he lowered himself down so the two could more easily dismount. "You're assume that is what everyone else is here for. Crystals on their own have plenty of value in the right market."

[MadEmperor]

Grav hopped down with ease. "And there's supposedly a lot of treasure lost in the mountains. We might be the only ones looking for it."

He reached up to ease her dismount. "Though it doesn't bode well for making some coin while we're at it."

[DragonSong]

Kiara let Grav take her weight automatically as she slid down from Kit's back, used to the routine after the time they'd spent traveling together. "You've got a point," she sighed, landing on the balls of her feet with her hands braced lightly on his shoulders. "Although I suppose we should just be happy if we can even find the damned thing."

Kit snorted agreement, giving the few passerby who were eyeing the sudden arrival of two travelers on dragonback a hard stare. Most of them dropped their eyes and hurried on.

"We should probably start with finding a place to stay," Kiara said with a tired sigh. "We should start exploring the gorge methodically, make a plan and search a particular section each day." She sounded less than thrilled about the idea--while it made logical sense, she was not exactly the sort of person who typically enjoyed methodical planning.

[MadEmperor]

Grav's face fell just a little as the tedium of exploration sunk in. "Well, that takes the fun out of it."


Exploration #1

Grav stared in wonder at the giant, glittering cleft in the earth stretching out before them, yawning up at the sky like a mouth full of jagged crystalline teeth. He hadn't imagined it would be so beautiful.

"Daaamn. This is going to take a while."

[DragonSong]

Kiara sighed, shoulders a little slumped. "You've got that right," she muttered, pulling out the map of the gorge that they had purchased before finding an inn the day before. "Okay, we can search this first sector here--" she gestured to the slight curve on the map that indicated the beginning of the gorge-- "and that shouldn't take us all the way to nightfall. Then Kit can fly us to the next section tomorrow..."

She looked up at the crystal cleft and sighed again. "...I hate this already."

[MadEmperor]

"Your amulet doesn't happen to reveal hidden passages, does it?" he asked hopefully. "Because any readily apparent paths have no doubt been picked clean by no. Except maybe the monster-infested areas further in."

"Gods, maybe we'd be better off with one of those scammy treasure maps people are selling in town."

[DragonSong]

Kiara snorted and shook her head. "Don't I wish. Best it can do is get me through to the Fae realm without a proper gate."

She said it casually, as though that wasn't in and of itself the sort of thing usually reserved for bedtime stories.

Kit seemed to have spotted another problem. "Kia." He craned his neck to peer deeper into the gorge. "There's...a lot of tight spaces down there."

Kiara looked as well; though her eyes weren't as good as a dragon's, she saw what he meant. "You're not going to fit..."

[MadEmperor]

Grav followed her gaze and sighed. "Sorry, big guy."

"Too bad you can't take human form." He turned back to them. "Some dragons can actually do that, right?"

[DragonSong]

Kit grumbled and flexed his claws in the earth, clearly not liking the idea of sending them down alone; Kiara nodded in answer to Grav's question.

"Yeah, some can, but there's a lot of dependent factors. There's near about as many types of dragons as there are humanoids wandering around Le'raana, and some of 'em can take a human avatar easy as winking. Some learn to do it, some can't do it just by virtue of what they are." She shrugged. "Kitharyx couldn't do it, but I'm not sure he ever tried to learn—oh, Kit's sire," she explained absently. "My mum's old partner."

Kit flexed his wings in a dragon shrug. "Don't actually know if my dam could do it, but I don't think so. Besides, I know it's not inborn in my line—I'd have to learn it, and that can take decades."

[MadEmperor]

Grav gave the dragon's shoulder a pat. "I'll bring her back in one piece. I promise.  And myself, hopefully with no extra pieces this time." He punctuated the statement with a sway of his tail.

[DragonSong]

"Hey. Don't knock tails. They're very useful," Kit chuffed lightly, though there was still a bit of worry in his tone.

Sighing, he cocked his head to fix them both in his bright gold gaze. "Just promise you'll call if you need me. I may not be able to get into some of those cracks, but I can certainly fly you out of there."

Kiara smiled and reached up to par his jaw. "Hopefully we won't need you to—but thanks, mate."

He crooned and nuzzled into her hand briefly.

[MadEmperor]

Grav smiled. "We promise, big guy; we won't hesitate to bug out and call for you if we get in over our heads."

It was a while before fate made him a liar.


~Exploration #9~

It was had been a lucky find, Grav happening to catch a glint of light peeking out of a small tunnel that would have been impossible to see from the path without close inspection. Now inside, sunlight filtered down through the ornate crystal formation that hung from the ceiling like a chandelier, illuminating the cavern in a rainbow of colors.

Eyes wide, Grav sai, "Whoah..."

[DragonSong]

A little over a week into the search and Kiara was already thoroughly sick of the place.

Or she had been, until Grav all but stumbled into a cavern that was lit up from just a fraction of a sunbeam with a thousand different colors.

"Wow," she agreed softly, turning slowly in place as she tracked the dance of light over the walls. "It's...I mean, wow."

Under the refracted light of the crystals, her dark eyes were suddenly the bright, flickering green of the hottest part of a flame.

[MadEmperor]

"And just look at all the natural gemstone. Nobody has... even..." Grav turned to face her, when he was caught by the way her eyes sparkled. "... mined it."

He turned away before she could see him blush. "Ahem. Yeah, let's... try to remember why we're here." He walked farther inside, looking for a passage onward.

[DragonSong]

Kiara trailed after him, still a little distracted by the dazzling splendor around them.

"Okay, so. The story you found said that the Tears were in the mountain, right? So...at the very least, we have to assume further in from the gorge..."

She reached out to let her fingers trail over the crystalline wall of the cavern. She squinted. "Gods, its certainly gorgeous, but it's impossible to make out details in all this. I could be staring right at a crack and have no idea..."

[MadEmperor]

He suddenly stopped without warning, wobbling as if on the edge of a precipice. "Gah! Holy hells!" he cried out, waving his arms to recover his balance.

[DragonSong]

"Grav!" She snatched at the back of his jacket automatically, prepared to haul him back, though she couldn't actually see what it was he'd nearly fallen into, or over. "What is it?"

[MadEmperor]

The adventurer stumbled back with a "whew" and pointed. If she got any closer, the natural illusion that the ground continued flat would be lost. Instead, there was a slanted crevasse angled towards them.

"One-way trip." He gulped.

[DragonSong]

"Gods." Kiara gulped as well as she peered around him at the drop. "Good catch..."

She looked around, realizing that the cavern was narrowing around them at this spot.

Oh.

Oh fuck.

"Grav..." she said slowly, eyeing the dip in the ground with distate. "Do you...see any other ways we could get deeper into the mountain?"

She had a horrible feeling they had just found their entrance.