Follow The Leader [Vanator]

[Hex]

::46th of Winter 509 AV:: "Where is Endrykas at this time of year?" Hex asked, mounted atop the axeman's horse. Her words folded into themselves as her senses suddenly perked up in response to the energy of a far away stampede. Whether it was Endrykas itself or one of nature's own animals running from prey she was uncertain, but it was distinct and clear across the crystal clear atmosphere of the desert. Sounds and auras that traveled without resistance along the smooth and open grasslands were typically magnified, and able to carry across great distances. When she concentrated enough, she could just barely track the smell of what may be Endrykas, but how far they were was beyond her knowledge. Being only half Chaktawe, Hex knew the organ in her body that stored water long term would only be able to carry enough water for five days. Early afternoon brought on a heat that whipped winter from the surface of Cyphrus, scorching the grasses and animals while incalescent sheets of energy that tremor-ed through the earth, reaching desperately for the frigid space beyond. The surroundings were bright and reflected so much sunlight that they both had to squint and shield their eyes against its blinding spears. The perspiration that beaded along Hex's back soaked into the leather skin of her dress, leaving dark spots that contrasted heavily with the lighter brown of the dry leather. She lazily wiped at her brow before grabbing handfuls of hair to twist and wrap into a bun at the bottom of her neck. A winter wind blew in through the heat, sweeping the dusty odours of leather, metal, and dirt against their sweat slicked skin; reminding them that winter was not quite over yet. A shiver erupted through Hex's loose shoulders, making her cover herself with the cloak that had been laying folded on the saddle behind her. The monotonous flat grasslands was pulling her into a trance that eliminated the perception of time and made every second appear to be as long as a day. She was on brink of dozing into a sleep when her peripheral vision caught an image that willed her to react by snapping her head up and better focusing in its direction. There, standing in the grasses was what Hex immediately recognized as a ghost - mainly by its distinguishable soulmist that billowed and curled delicately around the stalks of grass before dissipating with the rest of the air. Hex made no effort to hide the gasp that accompanied her seeing it, and even rigidly nudged Vanator, prompting him to be as aware of the ghost as she was. Lacking a human form, the whites and purple swirls of its aura were the only indication of its identity to Hex and even then, her skills were limited and unable to decipher the ghost's intent. Memories of chasing ghosts in Eloab flashed before her as she slid from atop the horse, almost entranced by the floating mist of light. Hex swatted at the grasses that waved in her way, nearing the ghost with increasing speed; but when the mist was just within the reach of her extended hand, the ghost sped off through the grasses away from them, leaving the gentle stalks undisturbed in its wake. A twinkle of curiosity played across Hex's face when she looked to Vanator, "lets follow it, quickly now!".

[Vanator]

The rhythmic plod of Backlashes gait had lulled Vanator into a state of semi-consciousness. His eyes were open, seeing on some sublime level, but his memory had no recollection of the past few leagues. The warmth of the sun's rays, even amid the cool late winter, coaxed his eyes into a heavy lidded stare, and provoked a thin sheen of sweat upon his face that caught stray strands of hair and secured them to his skin. The Drykas was vaguely aware of Hex's question and he became lucid enough to recall the last reckoning he had performed. "East, about ten days, I think." He wasn't sure at the moment how many days had passed since they had parted ways with the others. His...their.. intention had been to intercept Endrykas. He had invited Hex to accompany him and was grateful for her intriguing company, even if only to know there was another sentient being besides himself amongst the endless waving grass. In truth, she had made the journey so far an interesting one. He felt Hex shift in the yvas, heard the rustle of a cloak. Their conversation had died out a bell ago, and the sudden ring of her voice and movement served to roused him temporarily. Vanator's eyes began to slip closed again when Hex's gasp forced them open, his foggy brain stirred to clarity by her abrupt jolt from behind. He twisted in the yvas to look at her sternly, only to find Hex gazing intently into the grasslands. In the little time he had spent with the woman, he had discovered she could see things, sense things, that he could not. He was growing to trust her mysterious abilities, they may save their lives. Vanator squinted in the direction of her stare, finally detectiing only a strange vapor that seemed to linger over the grass, coming in and out of his view. Suddenly Hex was off the Strider and moving quickly through the grass. He thought he saw the wisps dissipate, by the slight breeze he guessed. Seeing Hex pause, looking off, he almost called out to her, then she turned to him. Even at the distance, he could see the mischief in her bright eyes. She summoned him to follow....to follow what, he had no idea. Grumbling, he jumped from the horse and slid the battle axe from his loop on the yvas and ran after his companion. "Hex," he called, trying to catch up with her, "Hex.....what exactly are we supposed to be following?"

[Hex]

"You don't see the ghost?" Hex's eyes widened at the thought and she stopped momentarily to look the confused Vanator in the face. "It wants us to follow it, its leading us somewhere!" she bellowed as she took off once more, eager not to lose the ghost's fleeting trail. Bounding through the tall grass with blades of grass scraping at her skin and whipping at her face, Hex pursued the mist as it fled at full speed up a small hill and then down the other side into a grouping of boulders and broken rocks. Barely visible amongst the grassy landscape, Hex examined the rocks carefully having watched the ghost materialize down into the ground beneath them. Some ghosts played tricks on her, was that one of them? She waited for Vanator to show up with his steed in tow as she searched the rocks, using her auristics to try and locate the ghost by leaning her body against the boulder and stretching her palms out face down. As she grunted through the effort of searching through large bouts of rock, she gasped in relief when her ability located a hole, a tunnel even, through the middle underneath the pile of rock. Radiating towards her was an aura that broke the darkness inside with a tiny pin of light. "There's something down there" she proclaimed, her eyes closed shut as she hugged the rock, tingling sensations traveling through her finger tips. Erratically she tore away at the smaller rocks, pulling them from their place against the ground and launching them a few feet away to make room. As she excitedly moved each rock, she had a flash of auristic energy that bombarded her senses. Someone had been there before she thought, and immediately felt the imprinted memory of someone filling the hole with rocks. What warning there was to cease discovery of the place Hex ignored, and she feverishly dug at the ground to spread the opening wider. Dirt clung beneath her fingernails and her hands were painted brown with sticky earth. "The soil here is moist!" were the words that escaped her in a most puzzled fashion. The soil in most other places of Cyphrus was dry to the preference of the grasses, who enjoyed the stiff sandy texture. This unearthed detail made Hex uneasy; something was living in there. But not a something that gnawed bone and tore flesh, this was a different foe, or friend. After heaving one last large rock out of the way, Hex stumbled backwards and fell to a seated position, panting from the effort. Before her was an opening on one side of the rock group, a stream of sunlight breached the path, almost pointing the way for them. A carefully constructed tunnel of rocks burrowed further down on an angle, the end invisible and streaked with a dark uncertainty. Hex looked at Vanator's horse, who's size might fit into the tunnel if he bowed his head. The opening was large, but mysterious and possibly dangerous. "I'm going down there. Will you come or stand watch here? It is up to you."

[Vanator]

Vanator raced after Hex, the woman propelling herself with unexpected speed and abandon as she pursued her apparition. Running headlong behind her through the tall grass, he raised his voice in reply. "Ghost?" He had seen something, he thought. There was no doubt that Hex had. Without slowing his pace, he whistled to Backlash, the buckskin Strider joining the chase with a jaunty trot. When he finally caught up with the woman on the backside of the low hill, Vanator could see she was practicing some of her mystical reading. Leaning on his battle ax and panting, he watched curiously as Hex embraced the rock, her fingers splayed wide across its surface. Without glancing at him, she pronounced that something was down there. A question hung in his throat when her sudden, fervent excavation began. Vanator, confused, had to step back as the woman flung fist-sized rocks blindly behind her. The Drykas man had a bad feeling. As Hex expanded the dark opening, a primal disturbance tingled along his spine. He could think of no good thing that dwelt in such a place. The horseman, sighing, leaned his weapon against a boulder and crouched to aid in clearing some of the larger rocks, his assistance stemming more from a need to help Hex than any desire to see what awaited beneath. After clearing the last large rock, Vanator stepped back, watching Hex stagger and land unceremoniously on her seat. He laughed shortly before following her gaze to the opening in the rocks. The portal was foreboding, even more so when Vanator realized that the tunnel was not natural, but carefully constructed. His head snapped back to Hex at her bold declaration, his eyebrows knit together sternly. Her announcement that she was entering the dank corridor was clearly resolute, her matter-of-fact tone made clear her determination regardless of what Vanator chose to do. His shoulders fell in acquiescence. He met Hex's bright eyes, the desire to explore smoldering within them. The mysterious woman seemed to defy all his efforts to define her. During their time together, she had revealed very little about herself. Vanator could not discern her origins, though he suspected strongly she was part Chaktawe, and possessed many Drykas qualities. He could see that Hex lived off of the land and shared a bond with the it, read the earth and air and knew how to harvest nature for great benefits. And, at times, he knew she saw into a world humans were not meant to view. He respected the brave woman's wisdom, relied on her senses, and sometimes simply found himself staring at her dumbfounded. This moment fell under the latter. She appeared small sitting on the ground, her leather dress and boots smeared with dirt, her hands caked in soil. The hair bundled at her neck seemed to be coming loose. A long moment passed, interrupted only by Backlash's impatient wicker. Vanator's eyes darted to the horse, then fell on the opening, finally landing again firmly at Hex. He inhaled deeply, perhaps a bit overdramatically. "Alright Hex, I will go with you." He certainly wasn't going to let her go by herself. As resourceful as she was, she was not invulnerable. He walked over the scattered stones to his mount. From his bags he grabbed a torch and fished out his flint and steel. "But I am not going down there in the dark." Besides, somehow he thought fire would ward off a spirit when his weapons surely would not. "We will leave Backlash to stand guard." He patted the mare on the neck and nuzzled her strong cheek.

[Hex]

Hex's head buzzed as she considered how she had been led to discover such a place. The black air inside the tunnel looked almost like thick smoke, ready to envelope them and carry them to the deeps, never to be seen again. Her actions to follow the ghost looked careless and erratic to an outsider, but a feeling of significance and destiny lured her in, speaking to her in a language she knew well. Her hand touched the rock and she attempted to read the vibrations before entering the the tunnel. Whether there was a creature with a racing heart or a concentration of energy, Hex pondered the high frequency vibrations that returned to her. She looked to Vanator who seemed just as puzzled as herself, and then bravely stepped down onto the tunnel's rock floor. Without the torch in hand, the darkness was all around her, and when adjusting her sensory systems, she felt a cloud over the end of the tunnel, one that prevented her from seeing through it's haze. Whatever lay before them was a force not to be reckoned with. The fear that had shaken Hex remained, perhaps it was more of a cautionary reaction, for she never felt it in her heart - this pushed her to go on. The air was thick with what felt like electric currents, fizzling and cracking but never seen or heard. Looking back up the tunnel, the only thing visible was Vanator and his burning torch, and beyond it the entrance to the tunnel stood unclear and cloudy. What smelled like crisp water clung the air and pressed into their nasal cavaties, cooling their insides like breathing winter air. But no moisture presented itself, making the nature of the atmosphere inside the tunnel raising more and more questions in Hex's mind. Finally the tunnel came to an end, and they had to squeeze through a smaller opening that led down into a concave room, lined from ceiling to floor with what appeared to be stones of a crystal formation, their jagged heads pointing and reaching to the air overhead. "What is this place?" Hex whispered through an exhaled breath after holding it in for several seconds. They both stood, dumbfounded by the contents of the tunnel's belly. Without any writings on the wall or spiritual warnings to claim the stones as protected, Hex approached a group of stones along the wall and gingerly laid her shaking hands over them to read their auras. A fuzzy amount of information was shown to her about their composition, but she remained dumbfounded as to their purpose, and more importantly why they were led there."They're all different, they have different energies, or purposes. I don't know." Hex whispered as if attempting not to abruptly 'wake up' the stones. "These stones might have a power of some sort. Would our people know of this place?"[/b] Hex searched Vanator's face Hex felt a vague uncertainty grow within her, or maybe she thought it came from Vanator, but she erased all doubt that where they were was an evil place. Hard to explain to the Drykas warrior, she understood the energies as neutral and ever-changing; "I think they might tap personal power within us. It's alright. The stones, they are guiding us." Some small enough to fit inside the palm, the crystals Hex approached sat packed together neatly before her, their fuzzy vibrations cutting the air like a sword through smoke. With a delicate hand, Hex wiggled one stone independently, attempting to dislodge it from its rocky roots. After a few minutes of investigating, one of the smaller stones let go and shifted loosely underneath her searching hands. After palming the smooth weight and discovering its smooth texture with her fingers, a feeling of calm tranquility pushed Hex down from crouching, onto her bottom with crossed legs, taken a back by the mystery of the ghost's appearance and the even more complex presence of the hidden pocket of earth. "I think...someone or something chose us Vanator."

[Vanator]

Just a few steps into the strange tunnel, the chill in the air increased and darkness became almost palpable. Vanator followed Hex tentatively as the woman crept down the corridor, hands running along the wall, head tilted as if listening for something human ears could not hear. His left hand held aloft the torch, his right hand gripping the haft of the battle ax. Both exhibited a telling whiteness to the knuckles. Though Hex squeezed into the room blindly (or so it appeared to Vanator), the warrior thrust the torch in ahead of him before negotiating the tight portal. Once inside, Vanator held the torch aloft, assessing the width and height of the chamber, revealing the strange formations along its surfaces. Leaning the ax against one wall, the Drykas reached out with one hand hesitantly towards some of the curious dark crystals. His fingers hovered inches away when he heard Hex mention energies. Vanator looked back at his hand, withdrawing it quickly. "I haven't heard of anything like this Hex. I remember vaguely the elders talk of tunnels, once maybe, but never anything like this." He spoke in an awed hush, eyes wide and jaw slack. Vanator believed her assessment that there was no immediate danger, but the hairs still stood up along the nape of his neck. "Guiding us?" He questioned. Though Hex seemed comfortable handling the crystals, Vanator was still unsure. He stepped closer behind Hex as she crouched over a group of the crystals, dislodging one. He heard her breath in sharply. "Hex, are you alright?" He crouched quickly next to her, placing a supporting hand on her shoulder as she slid to a sitting position on the cold floor. Her face appeared...serene. Then she spoke softly. Chosen us? "Hex, what are you talking about, what happened?" Vanator's voice had taken on a nervous inflection.

[Hex]

"The most wonderful sensations..." she whispered through a gaped mouth as her eyes dashed around the cave, both overwhelmed and joyed. "It this is no ordinary cave, there is an energy here that is unknown to me but feels so alive." She felt crashing waves within her of emotion, thirsty for the possibility of a power ready to be tamed and known with the right knowledge. With the dark crystal clutched in her left hand, she reached up and grasped Vanator's arm, steadying herself as she rose to her feet. "I don't know what these stones are but that ghost led us there, it wanted us to see it. Now I know some ghosts will play tricks but I feel something here. I wish I could describe it but it is something bigger than even the both of us.", she held up the stone she had plucked from the cave wall, both intimidated and excited by its possibilities. An air of disbelief swept through the cave, both unsettled by what was presented to them. If the magic within the crystals was indeed something to be harnessed, they would have to take great caution in discovering its limits and dangers, of which there could be many. All was so uncertain still. "I felt drawn to a single crystal, maybe it is tuned to the person searching. There must be a stone for you! Follow your intuition Vanator" Hex spoke softly, egging the Drykas warrior to follow what she believed was their collective destiny.

[Vanator]

Vanator took a deep breath, absorbing Hex's breathless words. "What is this place?" His question was whispered, directed more at the crisp atmosphere around them than to Hex. He unconsciously placed a hand on her shoulder, only to slide it off as he turned to step towards the center of the chamber. The woman, whether through her Chaktawe blood or her mysterious arts, could feel, hear the supernatural sentience in the room. She believed that there was something for him as well. He wanted to sense it too. The Drykas closed his eyes and commanded his breathing to a relaxed rhythm. He focused his attention, much like he did as he prepared to practice Webbing. He coaxed the warrior, the man tied to steel and leather, the tangible, to fade, and began expanding his awareness. After a moment, Vanator's head swiveled, eyes fixed on a cluster at eye level across the room. Those. He crossed the space to the far wall and without hesitation reached out to lay his hand upon the collection of cool, angular crystals. His fingers gripped one of the shards, wiggling it until it came free of the rock. Just as Hex experienced, Vanator felt a subdued peace wash over him. He turned to look at Hex, a perplexed look crossing his dark, gold-flecked eyes.

[Hex]

In silent awe, Hex backed up to the mouth of the cave's space and sat upon the entrance. Watching Vanator let go of the exterior guard around him and open his spirit to the magic of the cave, Hex's heart raced as she related to her own experience of learning the stone's language. They both were to be vigilant with their patience and consult higher sources of information before attempting to wield whatever power had called them. Hex smiled at the look on Vanator's face. The hard expression carved by sadness had dissipated, if only temporarily, and revealed a part of Vanator Hex didn't know existed. Even not having known much of Vanator, Hex had the ability to sense the emotions boiling beneath a person's surface; translated into specific facial expressions. Shaken from her dazzled stirring, Hex held the stone tightly in her grip as she gently massaged Vanator's right shoulder and whispering to him that they needed to get going. Unsure of how long they had been down there, Hex inserted the stone into the side of her boot before she crawled through the hole and into the tunnel that lead to the surface. The tunnel had gotten especially smaller the deeper it went, but now that they walked up the opposite way, their backs progressively straightened as they edged towards the exit. Heaving herself through the opening at the top, she rolled out over the grass and settled for laying on her back, spirits high and electric as she soaked up the azure blue of the grassland sky.

[Vanator]

The reassuring touch of Hex's small hand on his shoulder stirred Vanator from the enthralling embrace of the crystal's enchantment. He turned, nodded with a slight smile and reluctantly dropped the translucent stone into a pocket. As his companion slipped through the cave's opening, he stooped to pick up the torch and retrieved his battle axe before following Hex out of the chamber and up the short tunnel. Emerging into the bright sun, Vanator squinted, looking back down the tunnel. The crisp air, the scent of new grass sprouting, the vast horizons surrounding them, already made the mysterious crystal cavern seem like a dream. He leaned down to extinguish the burning torch in the cool dirt at the tunnel's entrance, then let it lay. He dropped his weapon nearby and collapsed to sit in the grass next to Hex, his knees propped up, arms resting on them. The two travelers sat in silence for a spell, the whisper of the breeze through the tall grass and the distant mating call of some ground bird the only sounds to be heard. The experience with the magical crystal left Vanator somewhat awestruck, but not distressed. Quite the opposite, he felt strangely serene. He unconsciously reached down to feel the shape of his crystal through the fabric of his breeches. He would be patient. He knew someone, or some entity, would reveal its secret to him. He turned his head to look at Hex, the woman's bright eyes gazing skyward, her midnight hair spread out around her head like a feathery black halo. She appeared content, more so than she had since he joined her at Din. Vanator had learned very little about Hex, besides her half-blood origins. She did not converse much, meting out her words carefully, and when she spoke, it was with purpose and insight. Vanator gleaned much more from Hex by her gestures, expressions and physical contact. It was an unspoken language he was learning to interpret. He laid back on the grass to join her skygazing. "I... I have never seen anything like that, Hex, never experienced that sensation, even while Webbing. I wonder who, or what created it, if there are more out there somewhere. And how did we happen across the place where our crystals were hidden?" He voiced his questions, softly offering them but knowing neither he nor the woman next to him could answer them.