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Noelani stopped when Kaimana stopped and held out her hand to keep the other two back. “Hear something?” She asked with a frown, the hybrid moving forward with her body on alert. There was something that her antenna seemingly sensed, a vibration of some sort but Noelani didn’t have enough time to ponder before ducking as something swooped past her head. “Oof!” A curse left her lips as she glanced about. “What was that?!”

[Noelani 16]

Ami had to cover her spreading grin, the Kawena giggling quietly at Noelani’s reaction to the familiar creatures. They had ones that looked slightly different in Kahi and some that even got as big as her forearm if not larger so she was all too accustomed to the bats' antics as they swooped around. They were just lucky that it was one of the smaller types! “There must also be a larger cavern nearby where they group up. Bats tend to sleep in clusters along open ceilings with maybe only a few in tighter passages like this. Nothing harmful though, hopefully.” She confirmed as she started forward again with the others and noticed that the path was indeed opening up into a wider cavern once more. Were they almost at the next turn in the riddle? This time going right instead of left?

[Nanami 16]

“Not pleasant indeed.” Noelani was already flustered from being startled by the bats, her cheeks still warm from the flush that had decorated her face whenever Ami and Kaimana had obviously been laughing at her reaction. How embarrassing! Still, she was thankful that Kaimana had spoken up since she needed to adjust her own step to avoid slipping down towards the pitfall. Thankfully though it didn’t look purposeful, just a natural hole that the cave had created over centuries of dripping water from the ceiling above with stalagmites growing from the years of calcium deposits building up in the limestone. While those would hurt to land on it hopefully wouldn’t pierce anything, unless you went at a really fast tumble and broke a rib or two from the impact. The very thought made Noelani wince as she made certain to be extremely cautious and even offered Ami a hand to tug her onto the safer path.

[Noelani 17]

Ami took Noelani’s offered hand and jumped over the slight ledge around the pit. “It truly is.” She agreed with a shiver as she glanced towards the stalagmites. “I was raised near so many caverns like this one and once an apprentice slipped into a similar pit and his leg completely shattered.” It had been one of her first studies as a future doctor, the bone jutting out where she had to watch her father repair it so that she could take notes. Perhaps that was one of the first times that Ami had realized she would rather prevent such damage than waiting around to heal others afterwards.

[Nanami 17]

Noelani couldn’t help shivering at the thought of such a painful injury. She had been fortunate to only sprain a wrist and her ankle a couple of times so she couldn’t even imagine actually having to recover from a broken anything. “I’ll make sure to avoid such pits then, not unless I have my climbing kit prepped.” She did have ropes in her belongings but so far they were fortunate and the path hadn’t been too hard, probably because whoever had left treasure here had at one point intended to come back for it. “As for treasures? I think it would be nice to find some rare statues or artifacts to give us a better idea about its origins and story. Gemstones and a pile of gold would be nice though.” She was after all a treasure hunter at heart and gold and gemstones brought in money a lot easier than relics, as much as she enjoyed learning about the history of the areas they explored.

[Noelani 18]

“A rare weapon would be wonderful.” Mused Nanami before being stopped by Kieran’s sudden words, the Kawena frowning as she tried to peer ahead. Did she hear something rattling in the distance? Was that even possible? It was on the right path as well! “What do we do?” She tried to see in the darkness, her lights briefly catching sight of something weaving its way along the cavern floor. Magic tingled at her fingertips, the Kawena ready to lash out at anything should it dare to attack them. The worst part was that it was blocking the correct path and it looked like there was more than one of them!

[Nanami 18]

“Keldari?” Repeated Noelani, her hands gripping a dagger as she prepared to fight back against whatever dangerous creature came her way. The revelation of the creature though had her stumbling back in shock as she didn’t expect that type of answer. “No way. How could they get all the way down here?” She whispered back towards Kaimana, the hybrid carefully edging along the edge of the path to try to avoid the creatures. That would also explain why they hadn’t lashed out yet since the creatures preferred to warn others away instead of attacking.

[Noelani 19]

“Kieran…” Ami started forward but stopped herself whenever she saw him actually getting the keldari to slither around in a slow circle, each snake taking a crystal after some hesitation. When there were a total of seven around him she couldn’t help but to gasp softly. How had he gotten so many to circle him and be so calm about it? Was it the melody? She had never seen anything like it! Maybe there had been something on those bolts earlier and she had been hit? It almost felt like she was hallucinating this whole scene, that’s how hard it was for Ami to believe it was real.

[Nanami 19]