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 Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:23 pm
 "All right, let's go!" He banged at the side of her den with his paw before walking away. They weren't late, they were going to be on time he had made sure of that, but he might as well give her a jump. There were going to be moments when she would jump until she was accustomed to the disposition of some of the band, now was as good a time as any to acclimate her to that.
Thus, he had elected to wake her up 'early'. If she wasn't entirely all there, she might not immediately pick up that she had plenty of time... alternatively, she might cotton on quickly and tell him off in much the same fashion as his sister. Who knew?
Either way, today was the day that Xochi would be taking her first official steps back into the Roguelands.
It hadn't actually taken much for his Captain to agree, evidently his reasonable performance in the last series of outings had given him some measure of credibility. Thus, on the very next Viking that his Captain had planned to take, he had also expressed an interest in bringing the 'new blood' along. Tethys had been accommodating enough to go and retrieve her.
...Now she just needed to make herself pretty and follow after him before she got too far behind!
Hopefully this Viking wouldn't be too dramatic.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 1:59 am
 She had spent the morning shifting restlessly in her den, not able to truly relax because she was afraid she would sleep too long. Well, that and because of the excitement of what the day would hold for her. Her first outing into the roguelands with a band of brothers and sisters! She had so much to prove and the nerves were starting to get to her. What if she made a fool of herself? What if no one liked her? What if she was laughed out of the group and never taken out again?
She was just being silly, of course, but old anxieties were hard to be rid of. Perhaps, once she was more familiar with the ways of life and the faces, she might start easing into life a little more confidently.
So, despite being half-awake, she still startled at the voice calling outside of her den and scrambled to exit as quickly as possible - pulling herself short just before running into him.
"Ready!" Her voice sounded a little hoarse but she was good to go. A little scruffy, maybe, but perhaps that would stand her in better stead with her peers.
She took a few more steps, then case a look across at Tethys, "do we have any details of the raid today?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 2:16 am
"Last raid didn't go so well, we didn't find anything even remotely interesting," Tethys replied and motioned for her to follow as he strode towards the gathering band. "Captain has decided that we're going to head up along the coast, generally speaking there's parts of it that are uncharted," he paused and turned back to the red lioness.
Had she actually had enough sleep?
Well, no matter, there were situations when sleep wasn't possible and if she wanted to show she was worth half her salt then she was going to have to do it regardless of how she might feel.
"We're aiming for abandoned lands," he came to a halt near the gathered lions, a number of which had taken to eyeing up the lioness. She was new blood, they had reason to be curious, but Xochi was fortunate in one thing... This band were typically more open to questions and more accepting of a screw up. Nevertheless, rather than let her become too aware of their gazes, Tethys continued along his train of thought and began to draw into the mud beneath his paw.
"According to the captain we deliberately avoided these lands before, it used to be home to mermaids," he indicated as best he could, the route that they would be taken. He wasn't sure where the 'camps' would be, but he could at least make rough guestimates based on the landmarks. "We're not sure why they left, but they don't appear to be there anymore," he raised a brow and smiled at Xochi.
"...So it's about time we found out what they might have been keeping to themselves."
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 2:24 am
Ah, hearing that some raids bore no fruit was a little dissapointing. She really didn't want her first outing to be nothing more than a walk out with new companions. It would be far better if they found something worthy - something to talk about!
The disappointment didn't last long, either. Not when Tethys began to explain where they were heading. It sounded daring and exciting and possibly even dangerous. She had no idea what 'mermaids' were, but perhaps it didn't matter if they'd all gone anyway. Maybe they had died or moved on to new territory. Either way, if that part of the coast were previously avoided it seemed hopeful that they might find something out there.
"Sounds good to me. We might even find the reason behind their departure." A good fight was also as good a find as any. Her blood was up and she was ready to prove herself.
With nods to the group, she introduced herself to those who looked less intimidating and then followed Tethys' lead. Though it was the Captain she should have been following, he had not yet earned her trust and she preferred to stick closer to someone she knew.
"What is the most exciting raid you have been on in your time, Tethys?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 2:35 am
"It would certainly be useful information to have," Tethys tilted his head to the side. Her excitement was obvious, she was coiled so tightly he was almost certain if he wound up her tail she would probably bounce all over the immediate vicinity. Fortunately Xochi was capable of containing herself!
"After all they might come back and it would be useful to identify how they were shooed away the first time," he chuckled and shook his head. Traditional means of unseating the mermaids had not proved successful. According to the stories his band had told him, there had been something dangerous about the mermaids. As the vast majority hadn't even risked entering their territory, he had never really found out exactly why they were dangerous though!
Apparently a pride full of females was something to be wary of.
Maybe they performed witchcraft, who knew?
"It depends on your definition of exciting I guess?" he smiled mildly and cast his eyes ahead. The band were moving and covering reasonable ground as they were often inclined to do, when it came to their expeditions they really didn't like to waste time. "Are you talking about war, acquisitions, general oddities?"
Truth be told, most of his current 'excitement' was something he couldn't speak about at this time. Not yet anyway, he needed to figure out how best to broach the subject with his Captain first.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 2:53 am
Xochipepe was breathing hard as they moved - not quite used to the pace they were setting but clearly eager to keep up and not say a word to suggest that she might be struggling a little. Talking helped pass the time, in any case, and took her mind off of the journey ahead. She had no idea how long it might take, or how long they would be gone. These might have been more useful questions than asking about stories, but somehow she thought she was better off not knowing.
When Tethys spoke more of the mermaids, however, she wished she had brushed her pride away to ask more about them. Maybe it would become clear once they reached their abandoned territory.
"Hm," she pondered the question, "honestly? I'm not sure. Perhaps just something unusual?" It seemed the best of the options he had given. War stories were good but usually samey and perhaps acquisitions might also come under the 'general oddities' section. "The rogue lands are full of strange things - well, in my experience. But as you go looking for them, you must have come across far more than I!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 3:24 am
"I met a god once," he didn't specify that it happened to be his mother. There were some things that didn't really need to be clarified, but it was certainly an 'interesting' encounter. "Had wings and everything," he smirked and ducked under a low slung branch. At some point, the terrain had shifted and what had once been rocky outcroppings had shifted to sand. Before either of them had realised it, they were touching down on their chosen location.
"Then I found myself in a cave network where the entire floor consisted of bodies," he murmured softly. Again, he didn't elaborate, he wasn't prepared to at the moment as he was still processing the entire series of events himself. He had received counsel from a number of people, including his sibling, but he was still struggling to work through it all. It wasn't that he was traumatised by it, but it was an awful lot to take in and there had been a lot of changes.
"Oh, fancy that, we're here..." He remarked as they'd come to a halt.
Unsurprisingly, the location was what one would expect from a coastal pride. A series of cave networks, possibly dens? Ample beach, some islands and outcroppings beyond the shoreline. Shells, seaweed, he would have assumed there was a sufficient amount of food to supply them. Even off in the distance he could see what looked like a tree line.
"This looks exactly like every other beach," he murmured, largely unimpressed, he couldn't see how the place had been so dangerous.
"I guess we best take a look around, eh?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 3:41 am
She listened in awe as he spoke of things that she could barely imagine. A god. In her mind's eye she imagined a giant lion with blazing eyes and immense wings - so big that they obscured the sun and cast the world into shadow. What would it be like to meet one? To be faced with a timeless thing that could swipe you down with ease if it so desired? She'd not ever been truly sure that they had existed - though she had heard the stories. But what reason did Tethys have to lie about it? He didn't seem the type who would lie about something to impress.
She was lost in thought a moment, considering what it would be like to see something so amazing and then something so awful. Eternal life in physical form and then a floor of death.
Xochipepe wasn't sure whether it was something one would be pleased to witness or not but she had no more time to linger on it.
They had arrived.
She drew to a halt beside him, surveying the land and coming to much the same conclusion. It did not look threatening or, in any way special, but perhaps that was only from this view. Close up, it might start revealing secrets that they could not even begin to imagine!
"I guess we had," she replied, pushing away any hesitance and stepped out across the sand, enjoying how it gave way beneath her paws. It was still cool to the touch - as if the tide had turned not too long ago - and brought her respite from all the walking they had done that morning. Turning inwards, she began to head towards what looked to be dens in the rocks. Maybe whatever they were looking for was hidden. It made sense right?
"If you had a treasure of some kind," she thought out loud, "where would you hide it?" She paused to peer into the entrance of a small space in the rocks that disappeared into darkness. From the texture of the sand she fancied that the sea cut off this particular entrance when it was in.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:01 am
"Are we talking me personally, or the now absent residents of this area?" He asked rhetorically as he watched the lioness work through her first treasure hunt. While she admired the smaller of the entrances, one he probably wouldn't stand a chance of wriggling through, he clambered up a series of juts to reach another peculiar entrance. It was big enough for him to walk through, but turned to face the sea in such a way that it wasn't visible from a distance.
"Because if we're going for the former residents I'm going to hazard a guess and state the obvious," he winked from above her and soon, his soft paw steps could be heard wandering into the depths of the entrance he had found. Perhaps it was a network of caves? He knew that such things existed, he had been in a few, but when it came to this one he couldn't be too sure. If they were indeed connected, then perhaps he would meet her inside...?
Quite the fortress if this was where they hid.
He clucked his tongue as he wandered further in, admiring the mud drawn 'paintings' on the face of the wall as he went by. He certainly didn't know what they represented but they probably told some sort of story... Once he'd explored a little more he'd come back, see if he could find any clues in them!
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:27 am
She lifted her gaze as he made his ascent, watching his claws take firm grip of the rock as he found his way to another entrance - above the one she had been inspecting. She grinned up at him again and watched as he disappeared into the cave he had found.
Setting her mind back on her own search, she looked over both shoulders before entering the cavern. It was a tight squeeze, even for her - the rough rocks dragging across her mid-section as she sucked in her gut to make the passing easier.
It was dark inside - and damp - and somewhere up ahead was the steady drip-drip of water, its sound echoing down the narrow passageway she was traversing. There were no fresh scents here now, just the hauntings of ones long gone. Lionesses, she realised. Not mythical creatures from the sea or any strange monsters that she thought would be the only thing that would ward of a warband. Still, perhaps they had been females of great strength and aggression. Who was she to judge?
She found the source of the dripping - sea water running through the rocks and dripping down into a cavern below. From the sound of it, it was flooded - and perhaps always had been. Xochipepe fancied herself an adventurer but she certainly didn't want to get more than her paws wet if she didn't have to. Leaving the sound behind her, she followed the tunnel around to the left and then clambered up a jutting of rocks that had created rudimentary rocks. The rocks had been cut by claws of those who had come before her.
After a somewhat tricky climb, he emerged into a larger network of caverns that were drier and airier than those below.
"Tethys?" she called, wondering if she could find him in this maze, "found anything yet?" Her voice seemed to carry far, though hers was not the only sound to be heard. More drips and strange noises (likely the wind rushing through the hollows) greeted her and lifted her nerves just a little.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:39 am
Paintings, paintings...more paintings. They were certainly an artistic sort that was for sure.
He had rounded several more corners before locating one or two of the dens. In them, he had managed to find a number of trinkets, obviously jewellery that might have adorned the fur and limbs of those who had dwelt there. He wasn't easily spooked by strange sounds, but after a while they did become rather exasperating to listen to and soon he could be heard humming throughout the cave as he rifled through what remained.
He had already begun to toss the jewels out into the corridor into small piles, eventually, he had progressed so far down this particular corridor that it was clear that at the very least they would get a reasonable haul of nice presents for females. Suffice to say, a number of Reavers may find themselves with company when they returned, quite a bit of it.
He had begun to explore another corridor when he heard the echoing voice behind him. It wasn't nearby him, it it had come from somewhere in that general direction, bouncing off the walls from wherever she might have been. Well that confirmed the suspicion that they were definitely in a network of caves, he had to give credit where it was due, this was an incredibly smart place to live.
"Depends, do you like shiny things? I've found a lot of those," he called back before turning to move down another dark corridor.
"Nothing interesting though, nothing that would tell me where they went anyway."
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:05 am
Ah good, he wasn't in sight, but they could hear each other, at least. She wondered, briefly, if other members of the warband might have found anything, too. Maybe this would be a good haul. They'd have lots to carry back with them and everyone would look on in wonder.
"I do," she replied, though she had not found many in her time, "let's see if I find some where I am. I have no idea whether we're on the same level or not, anymore. I hope we can find our way out. Don't fancy being stuck in here for the rest of my life."
She bumped her head as the ceiling suddenly sloped downwards and crawled through another narrow space, hind paws scrabbling as she tried to avoid getting stuck. Another sucked-in breath and she was through, into a room that was leaking sunlight from a hole above her head. In these conditions she could see that the earth had been broken up by the roots of a plant - or tree - and were hanging down like a curtain. On some of the thicker roots, trinkets had been tied, but none of them seemed particularly valuable. Threaded shells, bundles of grass, dried flowers. It was pretty enough to look at, but the fresh smell such things would have brought to the caverns was long gone now.
Behind the root-curtain the chamber came to an end, but not before curling back on itself a little. In this alcove, beneath a spotted scrap of fur, she finally found some shiny objects of her own.
One appeared to be a string of teeth - perhaps once worn as a necklace - that was draped across another fur. This one, however, seemed to have been crafted into a carrier, of sorts, and inside, amongst dried flower petals, were three beautiful pearls.
"I found something!" she declared excitedly, picking up the string of teeth and depositing them in the little fur bag she had found. "Looks like they've hidden lots of interesting things in here. Might even be able to dig my way up and out of this section of cave if I can't find a better alternative." It was only then that she noticed the drawings on the walls, moving closer to inspect them. "Have you seen these pictures? What do you think they mean? Maybe a message for any mermaid left behind?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:16 am
"There are paintings everywhere," he called back as he felt his way down the tunnel towards the next set of caves. This particular stretch was devoid of any further 'dens', he could only assume its purpose was to connect them together. "I can't say I've looked at them, but they go the whole way down this part," he added, and it was true.
This place had been well used, very lived in, and they would have been heavily sheltered so why had they left? Something had caused them to retreat from the area and without a single mermaid to quiz, it remained a mystery. For all intents and purposes this place was a perfect outpost.
...Perhaps they should claim it as their own, no one was using it and this would make a fantastic guard post.
For a while his humming continued, intermingling with Xochi's chatter of excitement as she made her discoveries. They certainly would have something to show for it by the time they got home, that was for sure.
However, while things had been going well for them both, there soon came a time when Tethys's humming was abruptly cut short...
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:42 am
She smiled as he hummed, finding the noise a comfort as she dragged her body once again through the narrow passageway and back out into the corridor. The next room, once again, seemed to possess a few treasures. Some pelts and feathers and even some extravagant looking loops that, she supposed, could be worn around the legs. These ladies did like to dress up. In fact, it seemed that they liked shiny things even more than the Stormborn.
"Maybe they are just for decoration," she called back whilst she rummaged. "they have so many belongings to wear themselves that it's hardly surprising they'd want their homes to be pretty, as well. If you ask me, I'd say they left in a hurry, if so much remains. If they'd had more time, I think they would have taken more with them."
Perhaps it was the sea that had chased them off. The tide, when in, reached a portion of this place. If the wind was ferocious enough, she had the horrible thought that lionesses could have been drowned in here with no quick escape. She swallowed, trying to discard that thought as soon as it appeared. It was fine. They were safe. All was good.
And then, at that moment, Tethys stopped humming.
She paused, eyes widening, and then called out, "Tethys! Are you ok?" She tried to keep the tremor out of her voice, "can you hear me?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:47 am
"I can hear you," his voice seemed strange and he could be heard moving away from whatever location he happened to have been in. "Whatever it was, something made them leave," he continued stiffly as he turned back towards the dens he had previously been at. "Keep your back to the light," he ordered vaguely - she wouldn't understand, and he wasn't even sure if the warning was necessary, but it was better to be cautious.
Still, he did regain his composure rather quickly. It may not have been enough to shake any suspicion she had, but it would be enough to reassure her that he wasn't hurt.
"We might as well haul some of this out of here, the thralls we brought with us will have to work out how best to carry it all," he pointed out. The band's thralls had always been very capable, but even they would have to puzzle over the best method of transporting quite so much jewellery. He would suggest they use some of the furs to wrap them up, but then again... they would also have to take care not to ruin them!
"If down there is anything like up here, it'll probably take a few trips."
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