The world is waiting for the sun

[Anonymous]

Bríathar couldn't help but smile at her raw enthusiasm, while taking a moment to lean against the dungeon wall. While he had traversed through many dungeons in his time, this was his first time ever bringing anyone along with him – especially someone who could not fight or cast spells. But what Panya lacked in swordsmanship or sorcery, she made up for tenfold in her positive attitude. In a way, her smile was more useful to him than any magical spell.

As she flexed her arms, he laughed a little, standing straight up again. "Let's keep going then, while you're still as fit as the water," he said with a laugh, standing close to her once again while making his way down the hallway. A smattering of torches still lit their way, but there weren't as many torches down this hallway as there had been before. It made him a little uneasy, and kept him on his guard.

When she spoke about magic being draining, he nodded – she was right on the money, of course. His decision to wear armor made it more of a nuisance to use it. "Don't worry about it, it's my job to be quick," he assured. "You won't be turning into a kabob on my watch." He said so with a small smile on his face – it was weird, for him to be so calm while making his way through a dungeon. Then again, he never had company before.

The hallway was getting a little darker with every step, and less and less torches could be found lit along the wall. He bit his lip, unsure of what lay ahead. "Stay close to me, Panya," he advised, his violet eyes keeping watch for any nasty surprises.

[Anonymous]

Panya was happy to stay close. She wrapped her arms around Bríathar's, pressing against him, "I like this part! Going into dark rooms with attractive men ends well!"

The fact it could end in messy death really didn't occur to Panya much. She had the calm of someone who didn't have any clue what nasty surprises might await her. Her bare feet made soft padding noises as they walked, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dark.

The hall came to a split and Panya peered at both passages, "Uh oh! Which one is the one?"

[Anonymous]

Bríathar laughed good-naturedly at Panya's enthusiasm. "Not if the dark room is in a dungeon, it doesn't," he joked, smiling, despite being cautious. He had been joking before, but it was true – when dungeons got dark, that usually meant they had more to hide. Whoever had built this place, or rigged it of traps, probably did not expect travelers to make it past the arrows. In fact, he wasn't sure how anyone without a druidic ability to control wind to reflect the arrows would've gotten out of that situation with their heart still beating. Panya didn't even seem worried though...

He placed one hand on her shoulder to make sure he didn't lose her – while she may be confident about this venture, ultimately, it was Bríathar who had to make sure that she returned to the surface safely. As they came to the fork in the road, however, Bríathar stopped, pursing his lips. Which way indeed... When it came to these sorts of forks in the road, only luck would get them by, since there was really no way to tell what lay down either corridor.

"Hmm..." The druid hummed under his breath for a moment, before making up his mind. "This way," Bríathar decided, turning to the right corridor, his voice firm and confident, despite his decision being nothing more than a random guess. The 'right' was always right after all, right? Right.

As they traveled down the randomly selected corridor, light began to peek back into the ruins, albeit slowly. By the time they arrived in the dungeon's next room, light had graced the area.

This room wasn't kidding around. It was a long area, and thorny vines coated most of the ruins floor. Except for the floor they stood on, and a patch of floor over on the other side of the room, where the door out of this area lay, the whole floor looked treacherously impossible to wade through. Bríathar looked up, and noticed that vines also hung from the ceiling, but these vines weren't adorned with thorns, like the rest of them.

An idea came to mind. "Are you any good at swinging from vines, Panya?" Gods, he wasn't, that was for sure, but Bri adaptive, if anything.

[Anonymous]

"OOOOH! I've never tried, but I'm gonna learn!" Panya grabbed a vine and tugged on a vine. She had actually swung on vines before, but never from one vine to another. As a child they had used them as swings and the like.

With a whoop and without waiting for Bríathar, she took a running leap and swung out over the vines. Shrieking with laughter, she grabbed for another vine. Almost missing, Panya spent a moment suspended between the two vines before shifting onto the next one.

"THIS IS SO FUN!"

[Anonymous]

Spirits above, so help him.

"Wait, no, don't—" he began, but it was too late, Panya had already climbed onto the vine. And she was swinging with vigor, nearly missing a vine, but still plucking onwards nonetheless. How fearless she was, and yet, how close she had come to missing that vine! What would've happened, if her grip had slipped? She'd have fallen down into the thorns and... and...

Biting his lip, Brí realized he didn't have time to stand there and watch in horror. He was supposed to protect her, but he was beginning to see just how hard such a task was going to be. He grabbed onto a vine, swinging his way over to her, but still lagging behind a little. "Panya, be careful! Try to take it slow!" He was almost certain that his words would fall on deaf ears.

Gods, oh gods, please don't fall, please don't fall...

[Anonymous]

"Slow?" Panya gave another bright laugh and swung onto another vine, "Relax! I'm fine! This is fun!" She shrieked in delight, getting the hang of the vines now. She swung toward the wall, using it to push off from when one vine was just out of reach.

She was almost to the other side now, her long hair whipping around her as she moved through the air, "You worry too much! This is the good part!"

[Anonymous]

Okay. Okay. So it seemed like Panya wasn't going to fall or anything, despite how scared Bríathar was of the possibility. She was so full of energy, nothing bad could possibly happen to her, right? He was basically living on a prayer as he swung through the labyrinth of vines, keeping close on Panya's trail. She had said to 'relax,' so he would do his best to try — his violet eyes watching her all the while.

She had a point though — there was some fun to this, swinging, feeling nearly invincible as you managed to grab hold of the next vine, clearing the area with relative ease. He was quiet, though, mainly because he was using all of his energy to concentrate — in the off chance that she should fall, he could probably summon a strong wind to pick her up and save her from the thorns below. He had always to take that one extra step of caution.

Finally, he made it to the other side of the room, landing promptly on the dusty floor under him. He smiled up at Panya, having a blast on the vines. "C'mon, Panya!" he called. "Jump down, over here!" She probably wouldn't want to — she seemed to be having a lot of fun over there.

[Anonymous]

Panya was in fact, having way too much fun, swinging around and shrieking like a mad person. Once you got the hang of it, it was pretty easy! She had been planning on playing more, but Bríathar called out and she glanced over, noticing his worried expression.

With a sigh, she swung over to the clear space, feet touching down and she skipped forward, the momentum of the swing carrying her forward and she had to grab onto Bríathar for support, "That was fn! Will we get to do that on the way out too?"

[Anonymous]

He had figured that Panya may not want to stop swinging around up there, but eventually, she jumped down, staggering into him. Brí winced, but placed a hand around her for support, to steady her. He looked back, at the den of vines, and nodded.

 "Probably," he noted. "If we're lucky, we can leave the same way we came." Sometimes, he wasn't so lucky. Sometimes, as soon as he touched the artifact he was looking for, no matter how careful he was, he set off some trap that caused the cavern to rumble around him.

Granted, that only happened rarely, and there was no reason for him to believe something like that would happen this time around. Such a thing would be very unlucky indeed, and there was no way it could occur to him today. None at all. Absolutely not.

"You were pretty agile on the vines. Are you sure you haven't done anything like that before?" he asked, laughing a little. He was moving forward now, down the corridor, which was properly lit this time around. Thank goodness — he would've hated to be scrounging around in the dark.

[Anonymous]

"Oh never! Well, I mean, I've played around on vines in the jungle. I am going to have to find another place to do that!" She was flushed and her hair tingled and windblown. She danced along next to Brí, almost high from that adventure.

"That was so fun! I wonder whats next? We'll have to be careful that there aren't more of those arrows!" At that moment, Panya stepped down on a piece of stone and there was the sound of something sliding before the floor suddenly dropped out from under them.

[Anonymous]

As soon as Panya had brought up the arrows again, out of nowhere, the floor seemed to fall out beneath them. His stomach did backflips as darkness enveloped them, and he could think of nothing except wonder what awaited them at the bottom. And it was so dark; even as his eyes adjusted to the seemingly never-ending pit, it still felt as if the darkness was enveloping him. "Panya?" he called out, and his voice echoed off the walls, bouncing back at him, as if to taunt him.

And then, with an oomph, he finally landed — on a soft, mossy floor, but the fall still hurt like hell nonetheless. He blinked back his eyes — torches, again, lit up this dank part of the ruins, but the torches were dim, as if someone had stingily applied fire to each base. The only sound that could be heard in this darkness was the crepitation of those small flames — an eerie crackling that bounced off the druid's ears.

He got up, dusted himself off, groaning. "Panya?" he called again, getting used to this new shade of darkness. "Are you alright?" He looked up — the smallest of lights could be seen from the ceiling, where they had fallen. "Talk about a nasty fall..." They still had to continue on, despite everything.

[Anonymous]

Panya had an impressive set of lungs and screeched like a banshee the entire way down. It was only when she landed and the breath was knocked out of her that she stopped. She had landed hard on her leg and there would be an impressive bruise there, but nothing had been hurt too badly.

"Ooooow! That was not fun at all. Well, actually, the falling was very fun. But the landing was not." She blinked, trying to see, "Where are you?"

[Anonymous]

From her response, Brí could tell that Panya hadn't been badly injured, at least. He couldn't help but smile a little at her response to the surprise — she had a knack for taking everything in stride. "At least you had some fun out of the ordeal," he noted, smiling a little.

The only light source down here were those torches tacked to the wall, dim and barely lit at all, their flames on the verge of dying out. At her query, Brí snapped his fingers, and a small ball of light appeared in his left hand, enough to illuminate their surroundings, and for him to find Panya. "I'm right here," he noted, stooping down to where she had fell. "You haven't broken anything, have you? Are you okay to carry on?" Worse case scenario, he could carry her on his back, if need be.

[Anonymous]

"Oh no! I had plenty of padding! Good I landed on my ass!" Panya let Brí help her up, gingerly testing her leg. The bruise hurt, but it wasn't that bad and nothing she couldn't walk off. And of course, she had to hike her shirt up to reveal the bruise and poke it with her finger, "Owwww. It's going to be a big one, huh?"

[Anonymous]

Bríathar couldn't help but let out a laugh at Panya's comment. She was so unashamed about making a comment about her backside — really, he was sure he had never met anyone who was so casual about that before. Not all druids were prude, but the company he kept had been — which probably had rubbed off on Ash, he was sure...

But this wasn't really an appropriate time for laughing. As Panya hiked up her skirt — again, unabashedly — she revealed a bruise that had occurred from the fall. Brí frowned a little at the sight, and without much warning, placed a hand over the bruise. A warm aura emitted from his hands for a brief moment, and when he took his hand away, the bruise was a little smaller than it had been before. If his connection to the earth hadn't been weakened, he probably would've been able to heal it in its entirety. But this would have to do, for now.

"It shouldn't be too big for you to handle now," Brí said with a small smile. He held up his hand, which was still emitting that soft, warm yellow aura. "If anything else hurts, I may be able to relieve a little of the pain."

[Anonymous]

Panya stared at her thigh, where Brí had placed his hand and healed her. Her large, dark eyes lifted to his face and she gave him an eager grin, her cheeks slightly pink, "Can you do that...anywhere?"

[Anonymous]

Brí nodded, lowering his still glowing hand down to his side once more. "Of course, anywhere that hurts," was his straightforward answer, not sure how to regard her question. He furrowed his brows, a worried look painting his features. "Why? Were you bruised elsewhere?" He was doing a horrible job at keeping her safe and unharmed, it seemed...

[Anonymous]

Panya was still watching Brí's hands with desire written all over her face, "Hurt? No. I'm fine. But that's a wonderful trick. You're lovers must be very happy with you."

[Anonymous]

Brí's eyes widened at her complement of sorts, not really sure of how to take it. He shook his head, as if he wanted to clear up a misunderstanding. He was oblivious to that look on Panya's face, mainly because he was looking everywhere but at her at the moment. "Ahh, I don't— I wouldn't—"

He cut himself off, letting the aura around his hand drop, looking towards the tunnel. "...Come on, we should get moving." He pointed toward the tunnel's end. "There's a light down there, I think. If we keep up a steady pace, we might be able to find out what it is."

[Anonymous]

"You wouldn't?" Panya felt puzzled, not understanding the reason for Brí's upset. She trailed after him, fingers absently poking at the healed bruise, "Can you not enjoy sex then? I know sometimes men have problems getting their snakes to harden."