Chardonnay groaned and crossed his arms, clawing his hands into his black robe. He hated patrols, the time between them almost seemed to evaporate and they were so tedious. Always the same tunnels and the same nothingness, unless something happened. Which usually, didn't. Not that he wanted anything to happen... the only person he would want to be in the tunnels with if a hostile showed up was Syrah, who wasn't here at the moment.
Well... if he had to choose between the rest of the group he would have chosen Zinfandel, at least she could hold her own in a fight. She wasn't as good as Syrah but she was still handy, if a bit creepy. Come to think of it, both the adult women in the Insurrection were creepy. Zinfandel looked the nightmare of mages that lurked in most of Connlaoth's mind: tall and wraithly pale, with long silver hair that almost floated around her, mad eyes that shifted constantly between light brown and green and a host of terrible monsters at her beck and call.
One such creature, a lizardlike thing she called Grey the War-lizard, marched ahead of her now, stopping every few seconds to lash the air with its black tongue. The thing was longer than he was tall and had a row of spikes from the tip of its nose to the end of the thickest part of its tail. It gave Chardonnay the creeps, and that one, according to Zinfandel, was the weakest.
After one tongue-flicking Grey made a deep rumbling noise in its throat and turned its head around to look back at them. Chardonnay flinched and saw Zinfandel stop and look over her own shoulder at him. "Grey's scented something," she said boredly.
"What?"
Zinfandel shrugged. "Something, we'll have to find out what. Onward Grey, take us to it."
Grey continued down the tunnel, both mages walking after it. After ten or so feet Zinfandel stopped suddenly and sniffed the air. Chardonnay slowed down when she stopped, looking up the trail at Grey and then at Zinfandel. "Zin?"
"Can you smell it?" She tilted her head up a bit, sniffing again.
"Smell what?" Chardonnay sniffed.
"The air is fresher here, we aren't close to the surface."
Chardonnay sniffed again and his eyes widened. The smell here did seem a bit different, he'd gotten used to breathing the air in the catacombs. "Soldiers?"
"No, we would have heard an explosion, felt it at the very least."
"Is there a hole to the surface near here?"
"You've been down here more often then I..."
Chardonnay scowled, not liking the reminder of just how many times he went out on patrol. It wasn't fair, just because he was a Healer didn't mean he had to go with everybody that moved two feet away from their base. "I don't think there is."
"Ah, we need to keep moving then, or we'll lose Grey," Zinfandel trotted after her creature, who'd stopped before it got out of eyesight.
Chardonnay groaned and ran after Zinfandel, following them straight to a dead end. He looked questioningly at Zinfandel, who summoned Grey back to the bracelet she wore around the arm that would have connected to her missing right hand.
"There," she pointed.
Chardonnay followed her pointing hand. There, about seven feet down from the tunnel they were standing in was a girl and a creature that looked like a rabbit. He perked his eyebrows and leaned forward, reaching up to brush a few locks of green hair away from his silver eyes.
"Watch yourself... Chardonnay!!"
Chardonnay cursed, feeling himself lean too far forward through some odd factor and go tumbling off the ledge. He hit the ground hard on his left shoulder and went rolling another foot or so before coming to a halt. Ouch... he felt sore all over and laid where he was, waiting to see which parts would numb down. Zinfandel could handle the duo if they were hostile...
