desert awakening

arroe took note of Ru's look women are so fickle... I just wish i could find 'Her' already.

arroe was just tired of being stuck in that cramped spot that he was starting to become clostrophobic, and annoyed at the fact that he couldn't do much to help,since he obviously didn't know what he was doing.

arroe went and sat in a corner just to cool off from emotional fighting, and thinking deeply.

Ru watched Arroe go sit in a corner. "Where're you going, Arroe? I thought we were going to try and find a way out of this place?"

Xyn-lea shrugged. "Just let him rot there. I'm all for ditching him."

arroe sat with his knees up and his head down" I don't know anymore...." he muffled.

" I should've just stayed back in Myhdeia.... then at least i could've had someplace to stay.. even if it was destroyed..."arroe said as his hope was deminishing.

arroe stood up walking back to them. i have to go with them its the only way i'll be able to find 'Her'. he thought for the rest of the way he followed behind silent as if he was mute, with eyes that wandered.

Ru and Xyn-lea followed down the path, Arroe following silently. Ru saw that he was on the same sort of behivor as when he'd first run into him the other day, but ignored it.

Soon, however, Ru started to hear footsteps of something not quite human. Ru pulled out his sword. "I think I hear something," he said, in case they hadn't.

arroe soulessly bumped into Ru. but didn't say anything. he only drew his sword. waiting for whatever it was.

Ru looked ahead. "I can't see anything.... Xyn-lea, you go and look, okay?"

She nodded and disappeared into the shadows.

He looked over at Arroe. "You keep an eye out behind us, okay?"

arroe nodded with his back facing Ru." I got it.... "he said with his competitiveness coming back.

arroe felt slight shaking on the ground knocking him off balance." heyyy! Ru... She find anything Yet ?.... I tihnk i might have just found whatever might have made the recent cave in..." he said driving his blade into the ground for stability, among the tremendous shaking.

Ru had to steady himself against the wall to avoid falling during the shake.

"Yeah, but what's causing the shaking?" Asked Ru. Then he called up ahead. "Xyn-lea! You should probably get back here!"


-------meanwhile-----

Xyn-lea had gone far ahead into the second cave, trying to figure out what the footsteps sounded like. However, with the deceptive echoes and her unfamiliarity to her surroundings, it was hard to tell.

Up ahead, she could see some sort of opening, but it was faint; it seemed her enchantment to see in the dark was failing. Instead of re-doing it, which took time and lots of magic, she quickly enchanted a knife of hers to glow.

She stepped into the large cavern, a single spot of light in the massive darkness, and stopped. She could her the feet more clearly now, something that sounded like.......

"..Insects," she said, uninterested. She turned to go back and inform the others, when she heard it get louder, louder.....

the clacking of insectile exoskeletons and seemingly too thin legs was all around her. She made the knife glow brighter and put her hand on her sword, fearing that these weren't any ordinary bugs and wanting to be ready to attack at any moment.

She was right.

Xyn-lea stood face to face with a monstrously sized sand termite.

She felt the ground shake beneath her, and, nothing around her to steady herself with, ended up falling to the ground and dropping her glowing knife. She heard Ru's voice echo for her, carrying far along the passageway, and she was happy to oblige. However, the termite had other ideas.

She turned to run away from battling an unknown amount of foes, but the termite spit some of it's glue-like saliva to the floor at her feet and she was stuck.

She reached for the knife, but it was too far away to reach, its light fading. Knowing that the sound from this cavern wouldn't carry down the tunnel, she didn't yell. She pulled out her sword, hoping the others would look for her, and got ready for an interesting fight.

arroe removed his blade from the ground." she's been awfully quiet for some time now .... " arroe spouted taking off in the direction xyn-lea was.

arroe ran down the catacombed hallway dragged his sword against the wall making sparks fly off lighting up the area for a partial second with each pass.
"how much further do these tunnels go on for ..?"he yelled overtop his sword scraping the wall to Ru.
" Xyn-lea!!.... if you can hear this ... we're coming .!" he yelled foward.

The termite clicked its pincers and leaned closer. Xyn-lea slashed at its face with the sword, and it dissappeared back away from her.

She then tried to cut away at the cement like slime holding her foot to the ground. However, she was out of luck; it was dried.

More clicking came from behind her, and she turned to slash with her sword, but was shot with more slime, sticking her hand to the sword.

"Shit!" she said loudly, still slashing despite that. By now the knife had stopped giving any light at all, and all she had to go by was the noise of many insect legs.

She felt something at her feet dissolve, and was being pulled. This isn't good! she thought.

--------meanwhile-------

Ru followed Arroe down the hallways, not sure how far ahead Xyn-lea had gotten. Soon, they got to a large cavern.

arroe continued down the hallway hmmm... no answer ... thats always a sign some thing wrong is happening he thought to himself.

arroe stopped smelling something rather bizarre,squating down touching the substance which felt hard in texture." whats this...?" he said crumbling a bit of it in his fingers.

" it seems we have .... unwelcome guests..." he said dramaticly, and calmly.

"Well..." said Ru, "Maybe we're the unwelcomed guest...."
He went closer and looked at it. There was some hard, crumbly stuff on the ground, and some goopy stuff on it that seemed to be disolving it. He, without thinking, grabbed some.

It was quite slimey. "Ew..." he muttered, trying to shake it off his fingers. That not succeeding, he wiped it on Arroe's shoulder. "What do you think it is?"

stood up when, Ru wiped some of the substance on his shoulder." arroe sighed being displeased.
" need i remind you ... we should be looking for ...Your Fiance!....and watch the clothes... i only have one pair."he said wiping off the substance on his shoulder thanks to Ru's doing.

" it's probably some creature's doing by any means... other than that is all else beyond me.." he said walking forward again.

Ru nodded, taking another look around and seeing one of her knives on the ground. "Looks like she put up a fight," he said, grabbing the knife. He wasn't that worried, since there was no blood on the ground, but the lack of any other trace still bugged him.

He looked the cavern over, off into the distance of it, and saw large, mound like shapes.

"Hey, Arroe... those look an aweful lot like......."

arroe looked closer, as he stopped not to make a sound." hmmmm..... i wonder..." he paused. he walked closer to examine the odd mound, touched and felt it move.

he backed up" the... hell ? is this..." he said. as arroe was backing up to Ru he slipped in some of the substance they had found before only it was fresh.
"aghh.... " he yelped landing on the cave floor. he got up to a squating postion to check out what he slipped in, dipping his fingers in it." hmm Ru .....this stuff is fresher.... which means the closer we are to finding Xyn-lea, and possibly a way out of here..." he said standing up and wiping the evidence on the cave wall.

" come'on we don't have the luxoury of wasting time here..."he said walking away from the disturbing mounds.

Ru walked closer to the mounds as Arroe led the way. He paused for a moment, looking them over. "You know what.... I'm pretty sure these are termite mounds," said Ru.

He thought back to the goop. "But...." he said, thinking out loud. "For that much gross stuff on the ground, they'd have to be huge....!"

"ickk... i don't care if they are termites....that's just not sanitary...." arroe commented leading Ru down the path.

"we should be getting closer to her by now ..... shouldn't we?"he asked still wandering down the long rocky tunnel.

"whatever.... i just hope Xyn-lea hasn't run into trouble.... with these things."he continued, while looking out of the corner of his eye to see Ru still following him, making sure he wouldn't fall behind.

Ru followed, nodding in disgust to the slime.

He only followed, using both his eyes and ears, but also his nose. Although since he was in human form his sense of smell wasn't much more acute than a normal humans', he knew Xyn-lea's scent well enough, and it was recent enough, that it would be of help.

Following Arroe for a while, he suddenly noticed that the scent had stopped, and was behind him.

"Wait.... Her scent stops here, something's weird...."

He took a step back, and just as he did, something dripped down, some of the disgusting slimeyness, and nearly landed on him.

"Huh? Wha.....?" Ru looked up, and what he saw wasn't pleasant.

At least fifty large slimed sacks hung from the ceiling, dripping occasionally, and from what he could tell, they contained large-ish animals mostly.

"That's....... That's just......."

arroe looked up seeing the pods hanging on the ceiling." that's just nasty...." he said covering his nose and mouth to cover up the smell, as well to keep his lunch from coming up.


" she's not here?.....but... where else would she be since she should have been right here..... unless...."arroe pondered aloud as he crouched down,feeling the slime that was close to him, like last time as he looked up to the ceiling.

what the hell... this place is creeping me out....arroe thought inwardly not showing his fear of massive bugs. this is not the time and place to have a stupid fear like this....

arroe pulled his blade up to reach one of the pods and cut it down, as it fell he could see sometihng moving in it squirming, disturbingly, arroe turned away from the ungodly sight that lay before them.

Ru pulled a disgusted face at the fallen.... .whatever it was.
He, however, was curious, and cut along the end with his sword. A slime covered, half starved coyote wriggled out.

"That is nasty...." he said, pausing. "I wonder what those things keep animals in here for?"

arroe turned around squating down to get a closer look at the slime, as well feeling its texture. " its the same from... before...." he looked back up to Ru puzzled.

" it probably is something we should definately check out... in case the same thing might have happened to ....xyn-lea..."arroe stopped short, standing up, cracking his knuckles.
" well it looks like this could get a little more.... interesting "he said with a a little enthusiasm.

" we should hurry...." arroe said picking up his pace into a trot.

Ru started to follow Arroe, but soon started leading, deeper and deeper into the caves, each echoing footstep pounding worry into him like a mallet onto a nail.

What could these bugs have done? He was thinking, as he skidded to a halt at a five way fork.

"Shit! Which way is the right way?" he asked out loud, stopping.

The scent of Xyn-lea had stopped back in the pod-filled chamber, but that was most likely due to the slime the termites seemed to excrete. He tried to listen, any hint at all.

Not waiting for an answer, and getting quite impatient, he charged in to one of the tunnels, yelling Xyn-lea's name.

The passage, tiny once entered, twisted and turned, and suddenly Ru found himself in a large chamber filled with a slough of angry termites.

He drew his sword just in time to block a large set of pincers from taking off his head and sliced the bug in half. He then backed up towards the tunnel.

Oh...... Shit......Not good!

arroe following behind drew his sword for the oncoming combat.
he stopped behind Ru " you go on ahead and looking for xyn-lea ....I'll hold these bastards off to give you time.... Now GO!" he screetched pushing Ru forward.

" now its my turn to have soome fun...." he smirked as he jumped into the fray of termites. arroe danced madly yet with stunning grace as he slaughtered them one by one. as he finished he whipped the sword through the air to let the excess blood fly off it, then sheathing it. " that should give him a little time before i catch up....." arroe stately remarked to himself, as he walked down the tunnel to catch up with Ru.

Ru shot him a single look to say thanks before running closer, deep within the dark.

He dodged the termites that came at him from the side, trying to head further in. Something inside him told him it was the right direction.

At first, Ru thought that for some odd reason, his night vision was fading, but then realized it was adjusting again, that there was light shooting in through somewhere ahead.

All of a sudden, at a turn, a large light filled chamber shot through him, the roof open to the sun. The blast of light stunned him for a moment, and he had to shield his eyes.

He moved his arm down to see and it appeared that the roof of a chamber had entirely collapsed. What was more, there were hundreds; no, thousands of termites scurrying around the massive hole, frantically trying to repair it.

And he saw why.

In the center was a large, fat queen, slowly being killed by the exposing light. Near by was a pile of what looked to be animals, assorted slime covered pods and....

"Xyn-lea!" he managed to keep himself from yelling it, but the name still escaped him. Ru glanced around to see if any of the insects had heard him, but they appeared too busy in their frenzy.

She was laying unconscious on what appeared to be a pile of sustenance for the queen.

"So that was what the pods were....." he said under his breath. "Gross..."

arroe walked down the tunnel finally arriving to the place where Ru had ended up, as he too had shielded his eyes from the burning light. arroe came up behind Ru tapping him on the shoulder not making any noise to attract the attention of the bugs.

" so.... i take you,ve found her.... this looks pretty bad..." he whispered to Ru.standing there with displeasure running through his mind at the depicting sight.
i need to get out of this god forsaken hellhole.....he thought to himself putting his hand up to block the light from blinding him.