Mappin' Some Routes

[stelmarisa]

Elias rolled his eyes good-naturedly as Chris started ordering him around - they weren't back on ship yet! His intrigue at the mention of the cave overtook his amusement though, and he folded up the map with care. It wouldn't do to lose such a precious object, or let anyone else see it. Before he left the room he took care to tidy the mess of papers and books, shuffling them into a neat pile on the bed.

"Alright, lead the way then!" He hurried out of the room and locked it, ready to follow Chris to the cave.

[Winters-Feather]

Chris waited patentially for his friend to tidy up his mess... somewhat. It still didn't strike Chris as 'clean', but the man supposed it would do for now. This was not the time to be making a fuss about unorganized books. After the door was shut firmly behind them, the pirate quickly marched straight out of the pub and headed straight towards the beach.

The walk took them around seven minutes. Chris didn't stop or slow his pace; if anything, it only seemed to quicken with each passing minute. They finally reached the beach, standing atop of  a small , but rocky, hill.  Chris jumped off of it with ease. It was barely five feet high. Most people would attempt to scale down it, but heights were his life; this was nothing. He pointed towards the cave in question. It was on top of it's own isolated hill with a steep incline. The path leading up to it looked shiny and a bit slippery, as  parts of it were underwater during the high tide. The cave was as  foreboding as they came; there was a reason why most of the locals and tourists avoided it.

[stelmarisa]

Elias had kept up with his friend easily as they hurried to the beach, but he balked somewhat as Chris leapt off the hill. Unlike him, Elias had spent next to no time up in the heights of the ship, instead spending most of his time firmly on deck. Not to look inept, he crouched and jumped down the hill - but in sections, rather than one fluid motion.

This way of getting down to the beach left him some way behind Chris, and it was a few moments later that he caught up and came alongside him.
"Blimey. It doesn't look very inviting, does it?" He surveyed the cave critically, his nose wrinkling as he saw the slippery patches of slime around the opening.

[Winters-Feather]

Chris suppressed a smirk as Elias took hops down the thing. If anything, that was more dangerous than leaping off of it entirely, but the man didn't say anything. Instead, he waited patiently until his friend  reached his side.
"Not at all," he eagerly replied,  "Come."

The man practically sprinted towards the  base of the rocky hill and began to slowly climb it, clinging to the walls.
"Careful not to slip," he warned as he slowly made process.
Chris frowned; this was a lot more trickier than it had looked.

[stelmarisa]

Elias followed keenly, hanging on to rocks that jutted out of the cave walls.
"Ugh," he wrinkled his nose as his foot slipped, landing in a pool of slimy green algae. He shook it off, wiping his boot on another rock before continuing along the passage.

"How do you even know about this place?" he asked Chris, curious. He'd never seen the cave mentioned on any maps of Cerenis or its beaches, and it was well out of the way, but Chris seemed to have led them straight there.

[Winters-Feather]

"Careful," Chris sharply warned again when Elias stepped onto the algae.
The higher they went the more potentially  parlous it became. A death by falling off a little old cliff did not suit Chris' fancy, and he didn't think it Elias saw it as suitable, either.  The man was too focused on the ascend to bother even shrugging at his companion's question.
"Every local knows it exists," he simply replied, "But none usually venture here. Ach!"
The man drew his hand back from a particularly sharp rock he had grabbed. He wrinkled his nose at the cut on his palm but continued on, careful to not let the blood get in the way too much.

Finally, after a few minutes of hard effort put into climbing, they finally reached the top. Chris reached out his non bloody hand to Elias to aid him gain his footing.

[stelmarisa]

Elias gave a distracted grunt in answer to Chris' explanation, supposing that that was why he had never heard of the cave. He had grown up far from Cerenis, and rarely spent any time there - especially not exploring. It made sense that he didn't know about this place, then.

He shook his head as he saw Chris cut himself and carefully avoided the same rock. They would have to patch up the cut when they got out of here... if they ever did.
Luckily it wasn't too long until they reached the top of the hill, and Elias scrambled up the last few feet gladly, grateful for Chris' hand.

"Well, then." He looked ahead at the mouth of the cave, dark and uninviting. "We going in?"

[Winters-Feather]

Chris nodded.
He frowned as they began to walk into the ominous mouth of the cave. It was dark. Too dark. How were they going to see? Chris could always use his magic eye, but that would only spot out the magic, not the walls of rock. No, there had to be some way....

Thankfully, there was. A torch was hoisted on the wall of the cave. With some difficultly, Chris managed to pry it out of it's position, shaking away the cobwebs and dust. With a small flint set he always carried with him, the pirate set the thing ablaze, illuminating the interior.
"Keep close," he muttered as he did a sweep through of the room with his eye.
There wasn't anything, though he sensed something further down into the cave, and stronger...

The man quickened his pace.
"Found something!" he exclaimed.

[stelmarisa]

Elias shivered as they headed into the cave, partly from trepidation, partly from excitement. He had none of Chris's magical abilities, but even he could sense that something unusual and exciting was going to happen. He followed instructions and stuck close to Chris, gazing around the cave curiously.

"This is creepy," he remarked, to the air in general, as he stopped to examine some markings on the wall. They were probably meaningless - and more than likely natural - but they caught his attention long enough for Chris to get a lead on him. The exclamation caught his attention back to their mission, and he hurried forwards towards the light.

"What is it? What have you found?" He slowed to a stop behind Chris, peering over his shoulder.

[Winters-Feather]

"I don't know yet," Chris impatiently replied.
He walked briskly, occasionally throwing a glance back at his friend. As they walked deeper and deeper into the cave, it began to grow colder and darker. Every now and then, an echo would emerge. Water would drip from the ceiling, or a strange sound in the darkness would cry out. Chris appeared unfazed by all of this. What was so frightening about wee drips of water and harmless bats?

Once they reached the back end of the cave, the man paused in his tracks, his gray eyes widening at the sight before him. The entire back wall.... yes, he could feel magic through it, scattered about. But one didn't need magic to see the wonder before them. The wall was painted in bright golden yellow, red, and blue hues. It was a giant story, told in crude pictures accompanied by the strange, cryptic letters they had examined before. In the dead center of it all was the seal.
"Elias," he said, quietly, his voice full of awe, "What do you make of all this?"

[stelmarisa]

Elias bounced along behind Chris, excited to find the goal of their journey. He fell to considering the poem he had translated, wondering if there would be another clue in this strange cave - or even, perhaps, something more. Maybe this would be the end of the treasure hunt... although that would be a little disappointing.

He almost bumped into Chris as he stopped, but caught himself just in time. Edging around his friend, he felt his jaw drop in an astounded gasp.
"Wow..." He moved forwards, reaching out to touch the paint tenderly. His artist's eye was gazing over the images, trying to make sense of the huge story.
"It's the same language from the map," he commented unnecessarily.

"Do you think this is the tale we were meant to find?"

[Winters-Feather]

Chris nodded at Elias' question.
"Maybe," he said as he moved closer to examine the wall.
The man reached out his  wounded hand and began to trace the details with his finger tips. It appeared to be a story of a journey, particularly of a crew on a boat. As the pirate followed their path, he noticed how each stop had two things in common: a figure holding a symbol of some sort. They were all different of both magical beasts, beings, and of strange traps. The most curious of all, however, was a dark shadow of a monster with foreboding yellow eyes and large claws.

"Can you read it now, without your books?" he asked as he peered at the creature, "Or shall we take notes?"
The man's fingers trailed down to what seemed to be a glowing stone in the creature's paws.
"Hello," he muttered, "What are you...?"

[stelmarisa]

"Let me see..." Elias traced the lines of the letters carefully, quickly becoming absorbed in the writing. He was frowning deeply, trying to puzzle out what they said, and spoke more to himself than to Chris.
"I should be able to get the gist of it, at least... but it might take a little while..."

Pulling out a spare piece of parchment and a pencil from the pack he always carried, he started jotting down markings, creating a makeshift chart. Certain words stood out, to be translated immediately.
"I think it's more of the poem," he muttered. "But it doesn't make any sense." Random words were leaping off the wall to him, but with no coherence to the words around them, as far as he can see.

"I think it's jumbled up, but how or why, I don't know." He glanced over to where Chris was touching the stone.
"What's that? Do the pictures make any sense to you?"

[Winters-Feather]

Chris nodded at Elias' assessment and moved over to stand by his side so that he would have firelight to write by. The pirate sometimes looked down at the chart and markings his friend was writing down, but he was mainly interested in the picture and the map that was sprawled before them. He found his eyes always returning to that curious looking beast. Chris didn't know why he was so enthralled by the fantastic creature, but there was something about it that drew him in.

The man arched a brow at Elias' statement about the poem being jumbled up. Of course everything was heavily coded, though the question still remained; why?
"Not really," he replied, though Chris had perhaps spoke too soon.
Against his fingers brushed a bump, a crack in the middle of the beast's paws, where the shining star  which he held glowed. Curious, the man pressed against it to find that it was a button. The rock wall began to tremble and moan as it pushed the beast forward, revealing it to be a magical drawer of sorts. Alarmed, his hand instantly drew back to draw his sword until the wall finished shifting. Quietly, he looked down into the drawer to find himself being presented with a queer looking dagger, still shiny and new, despite the hilt being covered with dust. He turned to Elias before reaching out to grab it. The blade was ragged and made of steal, it's hilt mimicking the beast. With it came a fragile  slip of paper. Surprisingly, the note was written in Common, if not the handwriting messy because it was rushed.
"'To those that seek a fallen star, beware'," Chris read aloud, "'For not all that is fair leads to fair endings...'"
Though there was more to the slip, the man paused.
"A fallen star?" he muttered, his eyes turning towards the knife in his hands.
His heart practically skipped a beat.
They were treasure hunting for a star!

[stelmarisa]

"Hmm..." Elias frowned and continued jotting, making marks on the paper that to him made perfect sense but would look like gibberish to anyone else. Soon he had grouped together similar looking words and was translating them, half from memory and half by logic. It didn't take long before he had a short string of words translated.
"Youth... young, life...find... seek, forever, madness, life, woe, time..." He frowned in disappointment as he muttered the words aloud. "They don't make any sense, it's not even a sentence. It seems completely random."

He stepped back and sighed, looking at the other words painted on the walls. Already he could tell that many of them were repeats of the ones he had already translated... but hopefully the remainder would help him to make an intelligible text.
"Youth, young, and life, are repeated over and over," he remarked with some interest.

It was just then that Chris opened the drawer, and his eyes lit up. A star? What did that mean? And what connection did it have to the words on the wall?

[Winters-Feather]

Chris frowned at those combination of words. Star... youth...life...forever..madness... time.
Time.
His eyes danced over the surface of the dagger before turning his attention to the beast in the drawing. Was it a result of the star's effects? Or was it guarding it, using its abilities...
Whatever it was, the man was starting to piece the pieces together, though the result seemed almost absurd. Was it possible that the star offered eternal life to its wielder? But if so, how was that possible? Chris decided to keep such thoughts to himself for now; they had the answers they needed and they needed to get out of the dreary cave before the tide would rise. They could debate this in the comfort of Elias' room.
"Let's go," he gruffly replied, a hint of disturbance in his tone as he turned around and briskly began to lead the way out of the cave.

[stelmarisa]

Whilst Chris was working through the mystery in his head, Elias was quickly jotting down the words he hadn't managed to translate, careful to keep the original placement and organisation of the text. In one area he found what looked to be an entirely different language, full of strange accent marks, and copied it meticulously, making a mental note to find a translation for it when he got back to the room. He also made quick sketches of the figures and symbols that appeared on the walls. He expected that they would come in useful when they pieced together all of this information.

"Alright, I'm coming." He straightened up, carefully packing away his materials and started to follow Chris when something caught his eye.

"Wait..." he spoke softly, distracted by what he had seen, so low that it was unlikely that Chris would even hear him. Ducking back quickly, he copied down three words that were scrawled at the bottom of the wall. Written in Common, they sent a chill through his spine as he transcribed them, but he hurried after Chris in silence.

[Winters-Feather]

Chris nodded at Elias' request to pause. His eyes scanned the walls once more before his attention turned back to his cut open hand. The wound stung, and was still bleeding a little, though most of it had caked up. Upon closer observation, he noticed that his clothes were a little soiled, which annoyed him; it looked rather unclean and very un-uniform. He had dealt with much worse in his day, so such a small thing was merely but a trifle. Still, there was no denying that it needed fast treatment, but that was just going to have to wait. As Elias began to follow after him, Chris promptly turned around and began to lead the way out of the cave. He noticed that his companion had lost some of his cheerful air and seemed a bit more closed in and rather silent.
"What was it that you read?" he asked as they were finally graced with the light of the sun once they reached the mouth of the cave. The pirate hung the torch back to its previous position before walking out and observing the water and tsked. It was raising fast; they needed to go.  

Without waiting for much of an answer to his question, Chris began to slowly make his way back down the cliff.

[stelmarisa]

Elias was turning the words over in his mind, puzzling over their inclusion on the wall as they walked. He barely heard Chris' question as he concentrated on that, and getting out of the cave safely.

"I'll tell you when we get back to the room," he answered tersely. The words hadn't been any big secret - indeed, perhaps they were of no actual value at all, but all of this - the hidden map, the cryptic clues, the tucked-away cave and the use of an old, dead language - all of it had seemed so secretive up til now that he had difficulty forming the answer in the bright light of day.

He followed Chris down the cliff, scrambling on the rocks as they hurried to beat the tides. He remained silent as they crossed the beach and headed back to the inn, still deep in thought.

[Winters-Feather]

The two somehow made their way down the cliff safely and without much more harm. The journey back to the inn was a rather silent and glum one as they both were lost in the depths of their minds. Chris particularly was  still haunted by the images on the wall and the dagger he now possessed.  He was rather impatient to return to the privacy of Elias' room, where they could discuss the details of their findings freely. As they walked down the road, Chris saw his orphanage from atop of it's hill in the distance. He gave it a weary glance momentarily before pressing onto the inn.

With the door shut and locked behind them, Chris found himself able to breathe a little more easier.
"So," he finally said, breaking the silence as he pulled out the dagger and placed it onto the table, alongside the map.
That being done, he turned towards Elias and crossed his arms.
"What was it that you needed to tell me?"