Welcome to Gaia! ::

The raven cocked its head as the two spoke to it, hopped to one side on the branch and twitched its head again, and then hopped another step and twitched its head as birds tended to do.

It had a gravelly voice, for a bird. For a human, really. "You're really not from around here," it informed Ares. "This is Carpathia. Don't tell me you haven't seen the signs?"

The bird seemed to disregard her, and instead talk to Ares next to her. Which, only seemed fair because hey, the other girl had certainly asked more relevant questions than she had. The names meant little to Calintha, but she tried to commit them to memory nonetheless. You never knew when name dropping was going to be important, after all.

"What exactly does being in Carpathia entail, Mr. Bird?" The psychic signs were interesting, though not quite as handy as a piece of psychic paper anyways. Less portable, and all. Either way, the bird proved interesting. It still creeped her out, after the presence of a similar bird in her dreams, but Calintha was just trying to stand her ground. Though, without trying, the blonde girl took a step closer to Ares. She felt marginally safer around the woman, who seemed to be comfortable taking charge.

The raven choked out a squawking, odd laugh. "It entails allegiance," it stated in its funny gravelly voice, "to His Lordship. All roads lead to His Lordship. All roads lead to allegiance. All roads lead to Rome. All roads lead to the Emerald City."

It spread its wings to take flight, then seemed to take pity on Calintha, at least, who had so courteously addressed him as Mr. Bird. "While the lord sleeps," he informed her, "the Lord reigns, and that's the long and the short of it. You'd have to wake the lord to oust the Lord. Or is it oust the Lord to wake the lord? In any case it's impossible, so, Miss Johnson," it clucked its tongue, "I'd suggest you get moving. Night falls fast around here."

Indeed, it seemed to have gotten darker already.

She let out a smile when the bird paused to answer her question. "Thank you for answering, Mr. Bird." His answers didn't make a lot of sense, but it least it gave them a purpose- find the sleeping lord and oust him or wake him up! It seemed simple enough, anyways. It was a bit disheartening when the bird said it was impossible, but plants withstood the test of time and so would Cali...hopefully anyways. The blonde was already involved in what was happening, so she might as well start caring a bit more.

After all, Ares had never mentioned anything about what happens if you got injured or died in Tartaros; Calintha didn't know if it would carry over to the waking world as well. The sooner she left this world, the better. She looked at the other members of their little group.

It was a smart question, asking the bird to guide them... but she wasn't sure if it would get them anywhere. The bird didn't seem to be the guiding type, and then from what Ares had said, not everything was to be trusted. Calintha found it weird that the bird was ignoring Ares, even though the girl seemed to have some kind've tie in with this place. Apparently the black moon was important? She waited for the bird to respond.

Well, if the Senshi was going to ask for directions too and the Bird wouldn't answer anyone but the civilian...
Moonstone shook her head, it was getting dark she though and an absurd part of her wondered if the sun would ever rise again once it did.

She shook her head and gave up, nega wasn't welcome anywhere and obviously Princess Lea there didn't believe in giving and taking help even if it -was- a survival situation by the look of things.

She started again down the bloody trail and just kept walking.

Calintha watched the bird fly off, after it had ignored their direction questions. It was a bit sad, but how did they know they could trust the bird anyways? From what Ares had said, it was all up in the air here.

The other girl started walking down the trail caked with blood that made her shiver a bit. But moving was better than staying here and waiting for dark to fall, in any case. Her brown eyes turned to meet Ares magenta, shrugging towards the trail. "Shall we follow it?" It was a question that probably didn't need to be asked; the pair didn't have much of a choice.

The blond re-gripped her makeshift weapon and headed down the trail, trying to avoid stepping on the blood on the ground. "Have you been here before, Ares?" She seemed knowledgeable enough about it, in any case. The senshi knew its name, who tended it and what it was all about.

Moonstone led the way, and Ares was happy to let her do it. Tartaros was a wonky place, and she didn't even know the half of it. Her brief visits with Cassandra had not been full of questions of Tartaros. They were from the same existence; they knew each other. It was like visiting a cousin on their territory.

Careful to keep Calintha close, Ares did the only thing she felt she could: she followed the bloody trail. "We'll play 'Follow the Nega' tonight." It was not her first time doing this. One way or another, it was bound to lead them to something, and something was better than nothing.

As they walked, she talked quietly to Cali. "This is a place from my homeland, and it is watched over by the Priestess Cassandra. I... don't know where she is. I haven't spoken to her since I came to your Earth." This was probably confusing Cali a lot. Ares didn't stop to explain. "I've never been in here unguided by her." Without Cassandra at her side, Ares felt uncomfortable in Tartaros. It had always been a creepy place.

The bloody tree and unhelpful sign did little to aid in her comfort. Ares crouched down and lifted the sign. "Vetrel." She glanced to Calintha, and then slowly to Moonstone. "Mean anything to anyone?" It didn't mean anything to Ares. She wasn't much of a scholar beyond physical combat and strategy, and Fallon was pretty focused on cooking.

Magenta eyes trailed to the woods ahead. "We should split up. Calintha and I will take one path, and you can take the other. If we find something, we'll shout for the others. Tartaros has games to play. It won't matter if we are together or apart." She shot a look at Moonstone. "Nega. I'll even let you choose your own way." Sailor Ares was not afraid of the ramifications of Tartaros... well -- so long as she could get the hell out of it.

In the past, Cassandra merely led her out. Where was the Priestess now? Perhaps if they found her, they could go? And what of this sleeping lord? The Pyrite Crystal was incredibly powerful, but in Ares's experience, she had never had the pleasure (was it?) of being in this particular situation.