Nakatei's gloomy face lighten up as the cramped tunnel opened up. She could feel her back thank her as she stepped out of the tunnel and stretched her body. After hearing her bone snap after a long period of being stuck in one position, the mutated fox woman sat down and observed the cave.
The glowing mist showing their path meandered down before continuing its journey. She could see the misty path stretch far into the distance where she could barely make out its blue glow in the darkness.
"This is a very large cavern." Nakatei said to herself as she marvelled at the sheer size of the area in front of her. Although she couldn't see anything beyond the small radius around Spark the fact that she could see the pale blue mist turn into the size of a grain of sand was impressive. The shaman's emerald eyes continued to scan the part of what must have been the lower stratum as she nervously bit her lower lip to take her mind off the things ahead.
"Are we there yet?" The finger with a ghastly pale skin asked not hiding she wanted the woman to hurry up.
"No, and we will not be until we reach it." Nakatei responded to Kia while rolling her eyes as she stood up and placed the necromancer on her back.
Nakatei heard the feather-light human woman groan in response. Kicking a rock nearby, Spark jumped up as he realised it was time to go and quickly hurried to catch up with his contractor. The path which the shaman followed zig-zagged down a steep hill.
"What the-!" Nakatei shook as she felt something sharp touch her neck. "Kia?! What are you doing?" The fox screamed as she pulled the strange behaving human off her back.
"Hssss-" The human hiss was cut short as she seemed to be confused by her own action. "I'm bored." Kia suddenly said after looking like she had forgotten about hissing at the fox.
"And you decided to bite me because you are bored?! Are you a weird vampire or something?" The young shaman barely contained herself from violently shaking the wounded necromancer who was driving her insane with her responses.
"Iris would have let me bite her?" The girl answered while sounding very unsure about her answer.
"Would she?"
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"..." Nakatei almost lost her grip on the flat-chested girl as she watched Kia touch her collar while her pale cheeks became pinkish. *Purr*
"Kia?" The shaman asked the nekos like humans who seemed to be remembering something.
"Ahhh! Don't scare me like this." The girl quickly covered her face from embarrassment while her ears got pinkish red.
*Sigh*
The shaman's long red skirt flared out as she spun around, repositioned Kia to the front and shook her head not wanting to know anything to do with the crazy human for now.
"What's that." Kia's finger pointed at the wall on their left.
"What?!"
"That line there." The fearless girl answered.
Nakatei's green eyes looked up toward where the girl was pointing against her better judgement and saw a long sediment line running all around the cavern.
"Hmmmm, that would explain why the rock around us is so smooth. There used to be still water here but it's no longer here. Thankfully." She looked down and saw that Kia sagely nodded her head to her words.
When they reached the bottom Nakatei got low to the ground expecting some sort of monsters to be prowling the empty lake bed but the stone partially covered in muck showed little to no signs of anything being here before her.
The shaman ordered Spark to be vigilant and to walk in front of her, in case of anything lurking in the darkness. The young demi-human thought about that if Spark found it mean that she would put him in front as bait if something were to happen. On one hand, Spark wasn't real or at least not from this world and couldn't die, also he did agree to make contact with her and was obliged to do what she ordered. On the other hand, Spark was aware enough to realise what was happening. Waving her hand in front of her, she scattered the weird thoughts fogging her mind and focused on the darkness around her.
Getting to the other side of the old lake was taking more than Nakatei expected and from the way she shifted restlessly in her arms, the little white lie she had told the necromancer was getting closer to biting her ass. Spark on the other hand was unknowingly mocking her as he seemed more energetic than ever.
"Are we there yet?"
"Were you not meant to be silent?" The beast woman tried to buy a little bit more time to think of a convincing story to tell to the cold girl.
"You haven't specified the length of my silence." The tired-looking necromancer began to stare at the beast woman with an elven frown.
The defenceless mage resembled Iris too well for the young shaman's comfort causing an awkward silence to hang above the fox.
"Hello?"
"You said something?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, I see you haven't said anything that's good then."
"How far are we from the destination." Kia's quiet voice was like thunder as it bounced off the cavern walls. The girl stared at the fox with emotionless eyes no longer resembling the terrifying undead elf or a hopeless human.
"Eh..." The shaman felt her tail become stiff as any lies and half-truths coming into her mind which could allow her to potentially weasel her way out of this were like rocks, sinking further down unable to leave her mouth. An aura of utter dominance suddenly hit her body as her sweat froze on her skin. On the edge of her vision, Nakatei saw that Spark was trying to grab her attention but her eyes were anchored onto Kia's two glowing gems.
"Oh-"
The shaman saw a wall suddenly appear at the edge of her vision. She tried to stop but she was unable to shift her body mid-step. Expecting to smash into the wall, the red-furred fox closed her eyes before stumbling in the darkness as the foreseen impact never came.
"What's happening?" Nakatei asked aloud as she suddenly found herself in a completely different cavern with colourful crystals growing out of the walls in large patches. "Am I saved?" She muttered as a pool of what looked like liquid metal welcomed her with its silvery gleam.