{DS} Spooky (pt I): Part I

  The birds were in a cave. Again. And to be frank, it wasn't even a pretty one this time! Instead, it was ugly, dripping with slime molds and letting a cold wind whistle through the entrance. Chunks of rock pillars, gathered in strange geometric shapes, closed in on the small group of Stryx as they wandered through, treading over small streams and long-hardened magma.

A low fog rolled in through the mouth of the cave, soupy and blocking their view of the bottom of the cave; obstacles were unbeknownst to them. Still - there was no option but to forge on, to scavenge what they could from this cave and then leave.

    

Yunyue was the first to pluck up her courage and keep exploring, the swan-like Stryx moving through the fog slowly, investigating the texture of the floor with her webbed feet. It was sticky, slimy, and she shivered, the purple feathers on her neck puffing out in disgust, rattling the spines on her tail. Horrid - but at least there were frogs! She dipped her head down to a small rock outcropping, where several of the critters sat. One turned its head, and stretched out a long leg to rest it on Yunyue's beak. Suddenly Kanir and Xingyue were at her side to watch the frog, as it hopped onto her head, and let out a loud croak. 

Yunyue almost sneezed as it got comfortable in her feathers, then settled for a sigh of annoyance. "Really? We wander into a cave and I just have to have a frog on my head." Kanir snickered, and Xingyue jostled him with a silver tipped wing, hushing him. Another croak sounded from the nest atop her head, and another frog joined the first. Yunyue ruffled her wings and sighed again, but didn't shake the frogs off. She supposed this would settle for a treasure to bring home.

 

On her way to lead the rest of the party deeper into the cave, there was a sudden crackling snap from behind her, as Kanir was following: a bone underneath one of his heavy feet, unseen in the mist, had crumbled to dust. He winced as the sound seemed to carry through the cave, and bent his head down to investigate more. Below him, scattered all over the ground and under the fog cover, were many small piles of bones. None big enough to be a Stryx, thankfully, but too many for him to be comfortable. He shuddered and clacked his beak in discomfort, but nodded towards Yunyue to let her know it was alright to go on. Yunyue waddled deeper into the cave, with Xingyue in tow - Kanir was going to take another few moments to investigate. The peaches and blues of his long body and tail seemed garish in this dark environment, but he used his tail to sweep away the bone dust, clearing a path and discovering a small bauble in the process. Sitting now exposed on the cave floor was a very old skull - predator, judging by the teeth. Kanir hummed lowly to himself as he picked it up, deciding to keep it.

 

Ahead, the two other Stryx were muttering amongst themselves, talking quietly as they waited for Kanir to catch up. How much deeper did they want to go into this cave? The trail ahead forked off into two separate paths, so even if they did keep going, would they split up? With Kanir back with the group, Xingyue chose to step forward and take one fork of the trail alone, and with a last look at his friend’s faces, headed into the left-hand tunnel. It was entirely dark once he had left the low light of the main cave, but a small light grew in front of him as he continued on. Mosses, stuck to the walls and growing from the drips of the ceiling, had lit the tunnel with an eerie green hue, turning Xingyue’s normally shining feathers into a sickly mockery. He peeled some off the wall with his beak, choosing to keep it - a light source and a treasure. The footing was unsteady as he continued, but this was going to be worth it…he hoped. Sounds echoed all around him, the thump of his footfalls, the steady beat of his own heart. There were other sounds besides the dripping of water, but distorted. It sounded like…whispering, muttering, scampering little creatures. It sounded like danger. Xingyue was tempted to turn tail and find his friends, but tearing more moss off of the wall - and a small snail with it too! - he forged ahead, clutching the only source of light he had tightly in his beak. This was going to be a long, long tunnel.

 

In the other tunnel, Kanir and Yunyue were chattering softly, stepping as quietly as they could, after watching Xingyue’s silver and brown tail fade down the opposite tunnel. They could only hope to find their way out - hope that the path wouldn’t branch again, hope that Xingyue was being led to the same place they were. 

 

If not? Then the Stryx were in deep trouble.