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Character: Lithian
Stage: Apprentice
Luck: 25 1/3
Creature: Borgnah x 6
Success Rate: 6 - 100

Win x 6: 30 x 6 = 180 (LUK +6)

Total: 180exp + 6 LUK, levels to 51 with 26/51exp left over, +12 stat points to distribute, +6 x Brown Spikes

Word Count Required: 1,800+
Current Word Count: 2,685

“Again.”

Lithian winced, chewing at the inside of his cheek as he pushed his strenuously objecting body up onto his elbows again and ignoring — as best he could — the grit and sand that had by now seemed to have created a second earthy, caked skin atop both his clothes and all bared patches of his actual skin. Sand and finely ground clay ground at him like sandpaper with every movement he made. It stuck under his scales, around his horns, in his hair, and honestly in every imaginable crevice around his body. It was a wonder to him that anyone managed to stand living on the continent for more than a day at a time.

Then again, he reminded himself as he rubbed at the sore muscles on his arm before pushing tiredly up to a stand, there were unimaginable beauties here also to match its multiple issues. Things he’d never witnessed on the Plane. Perhaps they balanced out in the end, but it did not the issues much easier to deal with when it came to them.

Across from him, Ysette raised her eyebrows, expression mercilessly blank. Pitiless. “Tired?”

Lithian opened his mouth.

“You will be when you’re faced with your greatest challenges,” she snapped before he could answer, and she slung her next ribbon of fire at him like a whip.

Lithian yelped, sloppily ducking and cocking his stance, pulling his palms up and splaying his fingers to guide his water into a messy sheild. It only halfway worked, his performance weak with his exhaustion — she’d been working him for hours now, probably the result of her lingering panic after their close encounter with the flock of dragons on their trip over — and he cringed as the heat of her fire singed through.

Thankfully, she was going ‘easy’ on him, the body of her attacks for show, but it still hurt plenty enough to remind him how poorly he’d set up his defenses, and immediately after erecting his shield, it faltered, breaking apart with his stance. He groaned and shut his eyes, resisting the urge to curl in on himself.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. “I can try agai—”

“Enough.”

Lithian blinked upwards, surprised. “But I—”

“You’re tired,” Ysette said, something in her expression softening, though there was still a pinch of fear there. The desert encounter must truly have shaken her. “No use beating you beyond your resources. You’ll perform better later. Go wash. Then relax. We’ll work your stances more tomorrow.”

Lithian breathed out, and tried to keep the bulk of his relief out of his expression, but probably failed. “Thank yo—”

“Bow.”

Lithian flushed, and dipped, bowing as instructed while his sister returned the gesture. Then, she motioned him off and he relaxed, failing entirely to hold off a grin before darting off in search of a much-needed source of water to bathe some of the worst grit off of his body. He was far too unaccustomed to being this dirty.

Lithian smiled, shaking his still barely-damp hair and tying it neatly back as he dressed. It was growing gradually longer, and having it at least partially off of his neck and shoulders while in the desert helped. He also felt immeasurably better after washing. Though the scarcity of liquids in the desert had necessitated a limited supply of bathing water, his ability to manipulate it had thankfully remedied most of that issue, letting him clean thoroughly without waste, and he felt refreshed.

Since Ysette had relieved him of training responsibilities for the rest of the day, too, it left him with the remainder of the evening to do with it what he pleased, and — despite his collection of negative experiences with ‘wildlife’ as of late — his mind still itched to explore some of the surrounding more mountainous region. He’d never laid eyes on, let alone set foot in, such a landscape in the Plane, and as he tugged on his shoes and stepped out from the bathing tent, he wondered if any of his siblings would be interested in exploring with him. Or even Ara might—

A soft, distant boom of sound caught his attention, and Lith blinked, eyes twitching to the source. After venturing uncertainly out towards the edge of the camp and then squinting into the distance he found — at least perhaps — the source of the noise, and after a very brief debate, he jogged out over hard clay littered with small pebbles nearest the camp and towards the outcropping of larger boulders that Araceli had settled near.

If it turned out she didn’t want his company, he rationalized, he could simply leave. But no harm in asking. Perhaps the extra show of energy and magic meant she was feeling well and would take him up on his desire to do some exploring?

Lithian blinked, stalling seconds into the process of opening his mouth to ask her if she might want to explore with him, and her words, after she finished, threw him for a complete loop. He’d not even considered that Ara might have blamed herself, and immediately after thinking it, he felt ridiculous for not having thought of it, but he hastened to shake his head, regardless.

“Of course it wasn’t your fault — none of us blame you! Think if you had been there but felt as awful as you had, been as sick as you were? What if something had—” Lithian cringed, holding off that thought before it followed through to fruition, and he shook his head again instead, gravity filling his voice. “My sister was terrified for us, but she and my brothers fought well, and we had help. I can’t imagine what Ysette…what any of us would have done had something happened to you because you’d been unwell. I think it is fate that Abronaxus protected you and Adela from battle when you were not ready to fight and Ysette not ready to carry so much responsibility on her shoulders all at once…”

Lithian grinned, mood lightening immediately at the more relaxed change in topic and shaking his head. “I’m sure you didn’t bother anyone. You don't look that messy, and I did hear you, but I wanted to come find you anyway. I—” He flushed, stalling and suddenly wondering if his request were silly after all. Perhaps she was worn out from practicing and wouldn’t want to go anywhere at all. Or perhaps—

He chewed at the inside of his cheek, fingers twining uncertainly through his hair, but managed to convince himself to shove his thoughts away and swallow, blurting out, “I was wondering if you might want to go a bit into the mountains with me? It’s alright if you don’t want too. You might be tired. Or still sick. Or just not interested. It’s just, I’ve never seen mountains before — maybe you have? But I would love to see more of them and I don’t know where my brothers are and Adela never wants to go exploring and Ysette is always busy but if you don’t feel like it I completely—”

Lithian flushed warmly. “Sorry. It, er…”

He glanced back towards the encampment. He desperately wanted to get out for a bit, he fully intended to be careful, and he knew Araceli was an experienced fighter — more so than he — on the off chance that they happened to get themselves into trouble. On the other hand, he also knew Ysette had been brittlely on edge ever since their trip over. The last thing he wanted was to agitate her concerns or get a flat ‘no’ from her, and while generally he edged on the side of caution…

His eyes flicked out towards the mountain, and he smiled sheepishly upwards at the older girl beside him. “I’m sure Ysette wouldn’t mind? I also wouldn’t want to bother her, she seems ah…” He rubbed at one of his horns. “A bit tense. And she’s probably distracted with her friends in the camp by now anyway. I could ask Syrikk to come along too if you want more company?”

Immediately, Lithian nodded, grateful that she hadn’t pushed the subject of speaking to Ysette. Worst come to worst, he wouldn’t have put it past her to have changed her mind about letting him rest for the remainder of the day and used his presence as an excuse to pull him — and perhaps Araceli as well — back into a practice session.

He noticed the pink to the girl’s cheeks and considered, for a moment, lingering on the subject of his brother, but soon decided it wasn’t worth it. As Syrikk and Accucius — and even Darakka, for that matter — had pointed out more than once in the past, ‘understanding girls’ was not, apparently, his specialty yet. So if she said she was fine with his company, why second guess it?

Besides, he wasn’t particularly interested in stalling their progress forward just to see if Syrikk wanted to be pulled along anyway, so he simply smiled and nodded at the suggestion, and off they started.

Though the temperature did not immediately change, the scents, sights, and even sounds of the outer edges of the Expanse were different from the body of the desert as soon as they got just a small distance in. Lithian found his eyes eagerly taking in the scenery, noting the gradually shifting shades of rock, and the increase in — and shift in variety of — plant life. He wasn’t entirely certain how long or how far they planned on going, and though he knew they oughtn’t logistically progress too far, it wasn’t the first thing on his mind when they began to climb.

It must have been over a half-hour in when they spotted their first cave. It lay off to the right, a decent bit of a “free climb” to the side of their path, but easily doable from the looks of things, if they decided to approach it, with several shredded, silvery strands of — plant life? — dangling loosely from one side of the entrance and catching occasionally in the wind.

Lithian’s eyes flicked to Ara, trying to gauge whether or not to even ask.

“I’ll stay close,” Lithian promised readily, and immediately he started a nimble but ginger trek over the slope leading up and sidelong away from the proper ‘path’ and towards the cave, trusting Ara to follow. His genuine enthusiasm surprised even himself as he moved, and he blinked as he thought on it. Though it seemed so long ago now, it couldn’t have been much over a week ago that he’d left the Celestial Plane for the first time in his life, and after his initial, embarrassing experience with the leklans, he’d thought at first that he may never develop into any sort of warrior.

Everything had frightened him. Or, at the very least, intimidated him more than his curiosity inspired him. Now, on the other hand, while he still knew full well that he had massive progress to make, and ‘a capable warrior’ still felt like a title he was centuries away from attaining, he did not startle and run at every shadow, and on occasion, his curiosity did win out over his fear.

He had faced dunkels, a raging baowi, mad hastars, and over fifteen dragons total — granted, not all his own victories, and he certainly would never have been capable of facing them all alone — but with such experiences in his past, facing off against the potential of a few small critters in a cave did not seem quite so daunting as it once might have.

As he took hold of one of the last boulders nearing the mouth of the cave, Lithian glanced briefly behind him, making sure Ara was close as promised before flashing her a quick smile and hoisting himself up the rest of the way. The cave was a bit dank — more so than he anticipated, given how bone dry the desert was — but after many days of nothing but heat, sand, and silt, the dankness was almost welcome, and Lithian drew a quiet breath, keeping his stance at a low half-sit as he waited for Ara follow him up and let his eyes adjust to the change in light level.