Breaking the Sky (M)

[Lion]

Castor remained silent during her telling of the tale.  He didn't always feel compelled to speak, not like some people that ran at the mouth.  He kept his eyes on the fire at first before peering up at her.  Two people?  He looked her over, as if imagining seeing another face pop out of her neck or something.  That would be a sight. 

"That makes sense.  Why you're so cuckoo, I mean.  Xana and Tala.  Xala," he said with a nod.  He too stood.  It looks like the waiting around was enough for the both of them and now would be a good time to venture on once more.  He stamped out the fire with dirt, covering it up and kicking around the ashes.

"Your sentiments are appreciated.  I'm not sure you can help, but nevertheless...thanks."  He gave a small smile.  He gestured to the path through a thickened wood of dead trees that sprawled out along the mountain side.  Further around the bend, it seemed, they were entering into a cave.

[Draconian]

Well, at least he tried.

Xala rolled her eyes after a moment, a small entertained smile on her face. At least she'd gotten to have her mopey moment and now it was gone. His lack of faith in her ability to help him made her scoff and she followed to where he'd indicated. The dead trees sent shivers down her spine. Casting a glance over her shoulder towards Castor she frowned but continued, staying quiet.

"Oh, yaaaay, we love caves." Xala commented upon seeing the entrance. The sarcasm was heavy on her voice and she grimaced after looking at it. She didn't go in, instead she smiled brightly at Castor and motioned him, "Gentleman first.:

[Lion]

Castor paused and glanced at her with a quirked brow.  "Gentleman first?" he griped.  "I don't see any gentlemen around here.  Splatterbrains first I guess."  He was talking about himself of course, but he did go on ahead as instructed, holding his breath as if somehow the darkness would smother him.

[Draconian]

Splatterbrains?

Xala watched him go on ahead, sighing for a moment about her tossed things. If he hadn't been so rash and thrown her stuff over the cliff she would have had enough stuff to make a decent torch. As it was, there was nothing. Nothing except dead trees and literal fire breath.

After he started to go into the cave, Xala snapped off a rather large branch. Giving a test to the weight she followed after Castor. Finally, engulfed in the darkness she brought the dried dead branch to her lips and blew. At first it was just heated air, the tip of the wood going red and smoking. Then there was fire. 

Xala held up the Soon-To-Be-Burnt-Out-Torch above her head. "Do you know where we're supposed to be going? Our eyes are better than yours," She said softly, which was clearly on display by the blown pupils. Her eyes very much looked like a cat that wanted to play, "If you have a general idea, we can lead."

[Lion]

Yes, leading with a torch was a much better idea.  Castor turned and waited for her to catch up with him, light in tow.  "You stay ahead of me.  The only real navigation I can go by are why I've seen in my dreams."

He took a deep breath and followed behind into the first embrace of darkness.  "The Gate is somewhere deep inside the mountain.  It was only partly revealed to me.  When the ground turns to glass, I saw that much.  Shiny, like steel."

[Draconian]

Xala gave a skeptical look over her shoulder. His dreams. This was from his dreams. Weren't those nightmares? Why would he be headed somewhere that showed up in nightmares. That was like getting naked, rolling in grease and sitting outside a dragon cave- the chances of that ending with you as a snack were too good.

Still, she wanted to help. Gods above knew why. A moment of insanity. Maybe she could get him to throw another tree at her before they parted ways. "The..." She looked down, at the rock ground. Glass. Shiny like steel but glass. "Well, okay." She cleared her throat gently and resumed walking, taking careful steps. Who knew if this cave was booby trapped. Xala wasn't keen on having to regrow a foot, all those scales. All that shedding. Eugh.

"Have you gone to a place in your dreams before?" Xala asked, keeping her voice quiet because maybe bats would happen, "This is new to us."

[Lion]

[Regrow a foot! 8D]

Castor kept close behind her, close enough to watch the light spread ahead of them.  Perhaps it was foolish to go to a place simply because he'd seen it in his dreams.  Well, dreams, nightmares.  They always blended into one eventually.  He never slept anymore.  Not well, at least.  And anything that might result in a dream would lead to restlessness, and voices in his head.

Or that's what he was afraid of.

Castor blinked hard, formulating shadows into ordinary things that would bring no harm.  There was a chitter he heard off into the distance.  One that made him jump a little, at least.  He knew they weren't going to be alone up ahead.  He just hoped whatever it was, was small enough to be squashed with his boot.  It'd be a bad idea to knock something around in a cave like this lest they never see the light of day again.

[Draconian]

[Yup. Regrow a foot. 8D You thought that was a typo, huh? Nooooope.]

Still she led the way, taking careful steps, going deeper into the mountain. There had been little prep on the wooden branch and Xala looked at it as the fire ate the wood at an alarming rate. Soon enough they would be engulfed in darkness. Xala didn't mind it, she could still see to some degree. Castor however. How would he react?

Soon enough, her glove was off, stuffed into her pocket and she was holding the last bit of wood. "Don't move for a moment." Her voice was even as the fire licked up between her fingers and eventually, after a few stuttering moments, it died.

They were surrounded by darkness.

A quiet sigh and she stopped moving, holding an arm out, stiff in case Castor decided to not listen to her and instead bash into her. The dying embers were dropped from her hand and she listened. Soon enough everything was visible, though oh so very faint.

Now that the lights were out, they weren't alone.

Scittering from further ahead.

Xala strained to see, legs. Eyes. So many legs. So many eyes. "How do you feel about cave spiders? Good terms?" Her hand went to her dagger and she pressed her back to Castor's chest in an effort to make him back up and press him between herself and the wall they were following. Waving his arms around would just get him hurt in the darkness.  The cave was slowly branching out and what sounded like an army (which couldn't be to many, eight legs and all) was coming for some fresh food.

[Lion]

"I can't say I'm fond of them," Castor said pointedly and was soon squashed between the wall and Xala and shrouded in darkness.  The shadows suffocated him, and Castor took in a deep breath, holding it in his lungs for a few seconds before releasing it in a slow breath that pushed past Xala's hair.  No, he was not a fan of spiders.

Much less the ones that liked to linger in cave and feast upon their liquefied insides!

Castor shifted along the wall, with Xala against him, flattening themselves so that maybe the spider might not notice them, or maybe if it did would think it too was an eight-legged something or other and leave it the hell alone!  Castor felt something hairy brushing against the side of his arms and the chittering was right in front of the both of them.

[Draconian]

The chittering was right in front of them and soon enough Xala felt things on her leg. A quiet gasp she leaned as far away as she could, before going completely still. A quiet gasp from Xala and the spider made a noise and bolted away. Soon enough the small herd of spiders had passed and her hand went to her thigh, hissing quietly. "Fucker bit us." She gasped quietly before looking down at her hand and giving it a way. The sound of something wet could be heard hitting rocks.

With her clean hand she sought out Castor's metal one and resumed walking. Quickly this time. They weren't too far in, but she could smell less stale air from one of the tunnels the spider's had come from. So she headed that way, they could back track - Well, Xala could. A few turns of her tugging Castor along behind her they finally reached a more cavernous area, less tunnel-ie.

There was some light filtering in through, a ways away. "We didn't go the wrong way, we'd smell it, so we're not at the start." She took a few more steps towards the light, frowning at it. It would be daytime still outside. "Was there an underground ...Mountain Oasis in your dream? We hope that's what's there."  Really. Her leg was starting to sting and she wanted to wash it off. She supposed she could use her tongue but... Reaching her thigh was always such a pain.

[Lion]

"Wait! What?" Before he couls further question her, already she was dragging hi. Along toward another tunnel and he could see light, vaguely, at the end of it.  He blocked his eyes a little when the light strengthened.  "I can't say that I did.  My dreams don't usually show bright places."

But already the smell of fresh air and green spread out before them as they emerged from the tunnel, and out spread a green grove, hidden between cliffs and trees.  But Castor was not taken with that surrounding beauty, and instead looked to Xala.  "Let me look at your leg.  It doesn't look good."

[Draconian]

Her leg stung - giant spider face daggers generally were unkind to flesh - but still she kept on. They were outside. Sort of. Outside in an inside way. Xala looked up at the sky and took a deep breath, turning, slightly shocked, towards Castor when he ignored the fact they were out for now and instead demanded to see her leg. It was just a bite.

Xala sighed and turned around, moving to sit down and show her leg. It was bleeding. Not normal blood though. The colour of this blood was silver the smell was sickly sweet almost begging to be ingested and she winced, getting a look at it. Or not a look at it, if her pants had anything to do with it. Deciding that perhaps not ruining her pants was a better course she shuffled out of those, hissing and grinding her teeth when it pulled past the bite.

Now wearing her pants to her knees, Castor's demand was mostly forgotten about while she looked at her bare thigh. "Do you have a cloth?" Probably not, but she didn't so maybe, just maybe, he kept something from her bag,  "We don't want you to touch this, our blood is very deadly and you might burn your ha..." Xala paused and looked at his hands, his curse. "Well, those might be fine. Can you feel anything with them?"

[Lion]

[Good thing her blood is deadly, or he might've proposed to suck the poison from her thigh 8D]

Castor shook his head at her.  "I don't feel a thing," he said and knelt to inspect the bite.  Maybe it wasn't so bad.  But he didn't know how spider venom would affect blood like hers.  He'd never seen anything like it!  It was fascinating to look at and he poked her thigh around the wound.

"I don't have anything else I'm afraid.  But maybe I can squeeze the poison out.  Would it even affect you?  Kill you?"

[Draconian]

[tsk. Missed opportunity on her part.]

Xala frowned, paused and stared at him.

"We don't know."

Another look at her leg, the bite. Was there venom? There hadn't been as much bleeding as there should have been. Her heart began to beat faster and she moved her hands to the wound, pressing along the skin. "We don't know how venom will work we've never been bitten before." It bit her. That was the first step, did that still count?

Xala grabbed his hand and went tense. Went pale. There was a faraway look in her eyes while she stared intently at something across from where she was half laying. "It's not feeling so good." she gave a half smirk and squeezed her eyes shut, giving a little shudder, a gentle sigh. "Will squeezing the venom out work?" She stared at him for a moment before wincing and turning away, while pain shot through her veins her limbs felt heavy and useless. "Try anyway."

[Lion]

Castor was starting to panic and for no particular reason.  Hadn't it been his intent to get rid of this meddling woman?  And now here was a prime opportunity to see her undone.  He could throw her off the mountain and nobody would ever know!  But...he would.  And something in him could not allow himself to do it.

He snatched her up abruptly, carrying her in his arms as he ran through the grove and stopped at the edge of a small pond that had glistened in the sunlight.  He knelt down and laid her on the grass pulling her trousers from her feet, shoving her boots off to the side.  He took her leg in hand and gently squeezed it, as easily as he could pushing blood outward and cupping one hand and running water over it, watching the blood away.  He continued this method time and again and noticed the blood turned a very different color, almost a metallic green and smelled very differently than that of the silver.

[Draconian]

Xala's head lolled to the side and her arms felt heavy. The tips of her fingers were tingling and she felt her eyes close for a moment, her head jerking up and giving Castor a confused look and was about to yell at him for touching her boots before she remembered why she was so out of it. The cool water made her gasp but soon enough she had her head on the ground and her breathing was steady while Castor did his work.

"Gods above." Xala gasped, clenching her teeth, staring at the blood. "Maybe... Maybe we shouldn't have kept walking." She gave a smirk before wincing again, her fingers digging into the earth. At least he was able to still get at it. Some of the venom had made it's way into her system and she was feverish and shaky. The wound would be hot, the green blood would smell awful. "Castor," it was quiet and she let her eyes droop closed, "Thank you," A small smile played on her lips, "Your hands feel nice against our leg. So does the water. You can touch our thigh anytime."

[Lion]

Castor stared at her.  "Touch your? Oh, right.  Sorry," he said and took his hands away.  He looked at her wound and poked around them.  "Is it still tender?"

[Draconian]

"No!" She grabbed his hand, party to keep him from poking at the wound and partly to press the flat of his hand against it. "It feels good." With her face in the grass she took calm steadying breaths. "We don't suggest being bit my spiders. It stings."

[Lion]

Castor frowned and grew flustered.  "What are you doing!?"

[Draconian]

"Soothing our hurt with your hand," she looked over at him, frowning slightly. "It burns and your hand feels nice. Why?"