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Guilt stabbed at Erin as the polite young man asked if anyone was with her. When she'd gotten separated from Rosa, she'd kept moving north. But...Rosa wasn't here. Shaking off fears that she'd abandoned her companion to die in the desert, she shook her head. "There was another with me, but I...lost track of her. We were both supposed head north to map something," here she held up the paper and charcoal a bit, "So I'm thinking she can't be too far behind."

Thinking, not hoping. She hadn't abandoned Rosa.

Shoving that into a dark corner of her mind to fret over later, Erin noted the names she was given (and overheard). Sailor Boreas. Scylla. Pyxis. "Erin," she told those still left at the cave mouth, peering at Pyxis worriedly. "Are you okay? Do you need help getting inside?"

Eager to atone? Maybe.

She stared around carefully, trying to see faint shapes and lumps in the darkness. Little or no success, just like everyone else. When a faint glint caught her eye, it came as a surprise, to be making out something in the darkness. It was a glint of orange. Odd, that it was the only thing she could see in the darkness. Raite was behind her, she felt him bump into her and steady her; Boreas was somewhere in the room downstairs with them.

Scylla moved for the pinprick of orange she saw, careful not to trip over anything. "I see... Something..." the word was slow, her tone mild and hesitant. "Maybe some kind of light?" she stumbled in its general direction, heels doing that eerie click against the clean floor. The light was tiny, a pinprick; like an orange laser pointer. Where was it coming from?

"Is anyone else coming?" she spoke loudly, trying to test if her voice would echo. Trying to make sure she was heard. "Gods, this place almost feels like a mouth rather than a cave."

The teal haired young man smiled at the boy, casually wiping a long lock of his hair out of his line of vision. "As a young man who is frequently mistaken for a young lady, I try to be as careful as possible about the gender of other people, Mr. Pyxis." The latching hug was a bit unexpected, but it seemed more out of a need of support than from adoration. Though, with the way this young man dressed, it might have been a combination of the two.

The young lady explained her own situation, which made his gentle smile flatten out into a more neutral line. Not a frown. Frowns caused premature wrinkles. "I would think that in a place such as this strange desert, that one would make certain to not abandon any other who is suffering in a similar manner as oneself." It was perhaps the wrong time for a scolding, even as mild as the one Howl had given, but then he asked the newly introduced Erin, "How long would you like to wait out here for your traveling companion? Or perhaps, we should wait inside the cave near the entrance, so at least we are not going to get sunstroke."

This was assuming none of them already suffered from such.

He had the young lady's name and he had the young boy's name. Not wanting to hold out on them any longer, he introduced himself as well. "My name is Howl Wickham. In the cave, you will find Miss Scylla, Mr. Boreas, and Lieutenant Raite." In Howl's mind, Lieutenant was a very formal title.

As the teal-haired lad remained standing there, he did notice the display that Nelumbo was putting on. With an understanding smile, he nodded his head. "I understand Nelumbo. I once again thank you for your assistance. Please, remain safe."

Echoing the concern that Erin voiced, he then glanced down to the boy still clinging to his side. "Mr. Pyxis, are you able to move on your own, or are you in need of assistance when it comes to moving around?"

Boreas kept his straight line direction as he moved forward in the pitch black cave. If they were even in a cave at this point. He eventually came to a blank wall, most likely a dead end. And by came to, Boreas ran straight into the wall. The thud barely made a sound as his tiara was pressed into his forehead. After a moment of checking to see if the injury was just to his pride and not actual bodily harm. Boreas then put his hands to the wall and began to search. He felt around to see if there was any kind of any opening or even running water.

Oh water...

The mere thought of a cool drink of water made Boreas even more hasty. The sound of his gloves rubbing all over the wall, as far high as he could reach anyway, intensified as he quickly tried to locate some source of water. His desert dry throat was screaming for some kind of reprieve and he desperately wanted something to ease the harsh effects of the desert he just was wondering aimlessly.

"Come on, come on!"

His words revealed the agitation at not immediately locating a source of water. He had hoped with the absence of sand on the walls, that there may have been some kind of reprieve besides the fact that the cruel sun could not reach them within the cavern. His eyes were then completely drawn to the small speck of light on the adjacent side. He kept his hands on the wall he had just run into and called out to Raite & Scylla.

"Are the two of you checking out that source of light? Find anything useful?"

Boreas hadn't decided if he wanted to break away from a solid bearing and wander into the bleak darkness once again. For the first time since he arrived, he was starting to think before he leaped. Though this was most likely a momentary lapse in judgment.

Scylla reached out, frowning. "It is only a little nook. There is something in there, but I don't know what it is." she ran her hand over the wall; and then she followed it towards Boreas' voice. Or in that general direction, anyway. It gave her someplace to start. Her hand ran over the stone, carefully. She pulled off one of her gloves to increase the sensitivity of her fingers, since there was no light to see by, and felt the shard of stone from the obelisk heavy in her hand. "I'm surprised we noticed the light at all." She must have gotten lucky on her spot check. "Lights!" might as well. "Let there be light!" And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. For the first time, Jada hated the fact that she'd read every book in her library.

"Raite, Boreas, what about you? Have you found anything?" Her slender fingers trailed carefully over the stone, feeling for any telltale dips. The chip of stone from the obelisk was clenched in her left fist, along with her right glove.

She paced the wall, frowning as her fingers ran over flat stone. Nothing. She carefully tugged back on her glove, dropping the stone back inside, feeling the weight again against her pale forearm. And slowly, she took a step away from the wall, stretching her arm out as far as she could in both directions.

The wall was blank for her; maybe there was a device of some sort towards the center of the room? She placed her feet carefully, making sure to keep the fingertips of one hand against the stone wall at every time as the other reached out to seek something in the center of the room.

No rope, no carpet. One little light, in a nook, and she didn't want to stick her fingers in there to see if it was an oil lamp or a touch lamp. nothing yet to set on fire.

Please, please let her stumble across objects in the room.

Her heels clacked dully, slowly. Patience was a virtue, and she still didn't know if one of her companions had found anything.

"AH!" Scylla stumbled into some debris and bumped into the wall, going down with a girly squeal. Her hands landed on the floor, and the rock in her glove scraped along her arm. From her graceless, seated position, legs splayed and rump to the floor, she felt around.

Whatever she had tripped over... the left glove was pulled off, and she reached out for one of the tiny, rough medallions. It felt... like wood? Wood and fire... she kept going. Something rustled under her glove. It felt like... grass? But dry.

Dry grass, wood... fire.

Scylla almost lit up, and in silence, she collected some of the debris from around her, shoving back to her feet. "I'm gonna try something." she said unnecessarily. "Unless you've found something, I think I want to try a little experiment." She made her way over to the light, and took one of the dry pieces of grass, and stuck it in the hole, to see if it was long enough to burn.

It would tell her if the light was a flame, and give an estimate of if the light was just dim, or far away.