Zalia considered her two options for exploration. The first was going back out to the open land outside, the second was going further into the cave. Each idea had its merits but Zalia eventually decided to check out further into the cave first. She still didn't know if those haunting figures in the sky were hostile or harmful or not and she wanted to see if she truly was safe in these caves or if some unknown danger lurked further within. While her instincts told her that such good shelter would never be left uninhabited when possible danger lay outside, she didn't know if there were even any creatures here other than the shadows.
Standing before the dark hole in the ground, Zalia focused on her heat vision, compliments of her bond with Boreal.
“It doesn't seem like there is anything down there,” Zalia said to Boreal as they both crouched before the opening.
Boreal was watching intently as well, searching for signs of life. They wouldn't necessarily even create heat so the heat vision might be useless.
“Wanna go first?” she asked.
Boreal looked at her as if she was crazy, then walked behind her waiting patiently in line.
“Rrright,” Zalia said.
She considered for a moment before summoning her bow. She shot an arrow through the hole and watched the flight of the dimly lit, magical arrow. It ricocheted off a wall before sinking into the stone wall some fifteen metres away. It looked like the tunnel was narrow all the way through with jagged walls. She would have to crawl through the space if she wanted to fit and wasn't super keen about the idea. The light of the arrow at the end of the space was slowly fading so she made her move. Getting down on her hands and knees she began crawling through the small gap.
“I’m really too old for this,” Zalia complained as she scraped her barely protected knee on the floor.
Her healing ability was easily able to take care of the small scratch but it still hurt. Boreal followed behind, being able to move much, much easier than Zalia could. Luckily for the feline, she wasn't fully grown yet and had quite a ways to go before she would be.
“One day you’ll be big enough I can ride around on you instead of having to carry you around everywhere,” Zalia muttered.
She smiled at the idea as she finally reached the end of the tunnel. It split in two different directions, one side looking like it widened out enough for her to stand whilst the other remained just as narrow. She summoned her sword to provide a little more light, the mixture of her low light vision and heat vision allowed her to see quite far with just the tiny amount it provided. The narrower path curved around out of view while the wider one started to angle downwards into a slope. Deciding to explore the more difficult path later she started crawling towards the sloped path. She was thankfully able to stand hunched before long and with a straight back shortly after that. Boreal, who had grown so much she now reached Zalia’s mid-thigh in height, followed along as easily as before.
The air started to cool significantly as she descended, to the point where a small frozen stream broke out of the rocks to the side and followed along the path. It made the going much more treacherous but Zalia and Boreal were well accustomed to walking on ice. The narrow path widened out further as Zalia reached another cave. The space was similarly lit with the mushrooms she had found in the first cave above, providing a dim purplish glow to the whole space. The space was relatively large, the far end taken up by a half frozen lake into the depths of which Zalia could not see. There didn't appear to be any other way out other than where she had come from and she looked around the space with a critical eye. In terms of a safe and hidden place to stay, this was probably one of the better places she could have lucked out in finding.
Boreal carefully walked around the space, smelling the air and Zalia realised that the sulphurous smell of the air above didn't quite reach down here. The aura of corruption was also lessened, though not gone entirely. Boreal seemed to like the space, the ice likely reminding her of her birth place. Though she didn't have particularly fond memories of the mountain top, it was still her natural environment.
“What do you think, good place to set up?” Zalia asked.
Boreal meowed in what sounded like agreement.
“Alright, I’ll need to go get that pouch and we need to explore the other path as well but it’s a good start,” Zalia said.
She didn't really need a traditional fire to cook anymore, the use of her heat manipulation being all she needed to create a smokeless fire and cook nicely. She would have to test the water but if it proved to be fresh then it could be a good source. She might even be able to grow some of the water lilies in the water as a method of purification if it wasn't. Now all she needed was a source of food.
Despite her ability to ignore having to eat for a few days, she hadn’t eaten at all during her imprisonment and was actually starting to feel hungry for the first time in a long time.
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“You don't think we can eat those floating shadows can we?” Zalia asked Boreal.
Boreal gave her a look that told Zalia she thought her to be an idiot.
They probably didn't taste good anyways.
She hadn’t seen any tracks in the lands above when travelling here so maybe her best plan was to find some sort of plant life to live off of. Boreal would most likely need to eat some sort of creature though, being more of a carnivore than she was. She pulled out some of the water lily stems and chewed one, putting one down for Boreal. She didn't seem excited about the prospect of plant stem but ate it without complaint. She sat down as far from the lake as she could get, eyeing the deep waters with suspicion. The deep ocean had been something she had an interest in before she had moved far from civilisation back on her own world and she knew what horrors could dwell in those depths. Especially when she was now in a magical world's version of Hell.
Thinking back, the ocean might have been the start of her fascination with moving away from all civilisation to somewhere untouched and untamed by people. Thoughts of her childhood brought her mind to her parents. She hadn't thought about or talked to them in many years and didn't plan to now. That way lay trauma and a whole host of issues she really didn't have time for at this moment.
Breaking free of those thoughts she brought herself back to the situation at hand.
“Right, let's go see that other path!” Zalia said, standing up.
Boreal scrambled to her paws at Zalia's quick stand and followed along. They made their way back through the cave until Zalia had to crawl once more. She arrived at the T-section and moved past towards the other path.
“This might get real old, real fast,” Zalia grumbled as she crawled along.
It was one downside to staying here but at least she would be somewhat safe. She hoped.
She moved slowly through the space, trying to remain quiet once more as she entered the unknown tunnel.
“Does this place have night and day?” Zalia questioned.
It probably wasn't the best time for such thoughts but it made her realise that there weren't any stars either. No prayers to the starlight wolf would be heard here.
The tunnel finally changed, growing wider and taller but as it did, Zalia felt something slimy on the wall. She stopped as her hand came down in the disgusting goop and looked down. She could barely see it with the lack of light but could definitely feel it. She looked back up and carefully examined every sight before her. As she inspected the walls around she saw a flicker of movement and looked closer. Further into the tunnel she could see a flat stone coloured creature hugging the wall. It had slightly jagged patterns across its back so it looked almost exactly the same as the wall on which it hung.
? - Iron rank
She got some relief learning it was of her rank but that quickly faded as she started noticing more and more of them ahead. She slowly and very carefully backed up, shuffling quietly backwards until she reached the T-section once more.
“That could be a problem,” she whispered to Boreal, who had turned back around and moved ahead after sensing Zalia’s distress.
Boreal sent a questioning thought and Zalia tried to send one back. Most of the time she had tried to use their bond to communicate she had just used words but she now tried to send an image of what she had seen. The fur on the Boreal’s back pricked up a little and Zalia could see her claws extend.
“Too many,” she thought to Boreal, who looked like she might be getting ready to fight.
And while that was true, it was also promising. Those grey creatures could very well mean a source of food. She would just have to learn how to hunt them in the most efficient way. She eyed Boreal, the feline small and fast enough to act as bait for a few of the creatures. She didn't like the idea of using Boreal that way but put the idea to the back of her mind in case it became necessary. Luring a few of them into a space where Zalia could fight properly might prove useful. She would first have to learn if the creatures were predator, prey or if they obeyed any of the traditional rules of wildlife that she had learnt at all.
“I guess you can even find wildlife in Hell,” Zalia thought.
Despite the place being called that, so far it seemed more like just another world. It had a different atmosphere and wildlife. The corrupt aura permeating everything may well just be another natural occurrence of the place. At first sight it was definitely hellish to the standards of someone from a world like her own but to the creatures living here it might just be normal.
“What caused those men to go mad then?” Zalia wondered.
It was after rituals that the soldiers of Endaria’s army had gone either mad or corrupted, so if it wasn't the sight of the land that did it, what did?
She remembered the words the man had spoken over and over in his madness, back in the building within the rebels camp. How could she forget them?
“Fire and death and fire, the lands below where they stir in their torment. Terrible, oh so terrible are the lands below. They speak in whispers and murmurs, murmurs and whispers, always in pain, so much pain,” the man had whispered.
He had repeated the same words endlessly and she now thought she might know of what he spoke. Did he mean the shadows floating through the sky, croaking and crying until they formed a sound akin to a chorus of torment?
Well, the sight had not driven her mad but maybe her healing protected her mind as well. If it wasn't that then there was something else out there that could drive someone insane, break them so thoroughly they sat scratching at the walls muttering. Something that Zalia really did not want to meet.
She sighed.
“Immediate problems first Zalia,” she scolded herself.
It wasn't something she could solve or do anything about right now.