Zuri, Abby, Strips ~ Private

[petdr89]

Strips winced; people were touching him, he didn't like it. But at least he was on land now; he felt safer on land. His pupils adjusted to the new light in the cave. He sat down and rested his back against the opposite wall, leaving Abby and Zuri to figure things out on their own.

"Pft! I can see in the dark. I just can't see anything that doesn't give off heat.... which is about 98% of this cave." Abby muttered the last part of that sentence; Zuri and Strips were about the only things she could see right now, that and the mass of flaming red in the corner, and she couldn't even see them every distinctly. She had an idea about the touch; Zuri wasn't the only one who could make fire. She threw both of her arms to the side, and as she did they both engulfed in a purple fire. Purple fire wasn't nearly as bright as the red fire Zuri had made, but she figured it would work if they couldn't find anything else.

[zash]

"That'd work. I can't exaclty make my arms glow like that. Unless we get dead lucky and fine a shrub down here or something then I doubt we'll really have anything for me to lite. But yeah, I can't really see anything other than a long dark tunnel. I can see pretty far and thats about the extent of this cave. So I guess we're just gonna walk all the down it and find out whats at the end then?" Zuri just figured thats all they'd do. It seems to be all they ever do. He could fly down it but there are stalagmites and such and that'd be a problem. He gave a sigh and looked between Abby and Strips.

[petdr89]

"I don't really know. I don't see anything else in this part of the cave, so I guess we'll just have to walk down the tunnel" Abby replied.

"Erm, hey guys. What's that box over there that's about ready to catch fire?" There was a small wooden box near the part of the cave Zuri had caught on fire. Strips didn't know what it was, but he figured it might be important to them. If it was important, he figured he better say something before it caught fire, but he was too lazy to get up and grab it himself.

Abby looked over at the fire, which she had been avoiding because it hurt her eyes. She had to revert back to her regular form before she could look in that direction. Only then did she see the box, but now her hands were on fire so she couldn't grab it. "Uh, Zuri, you wanna get that?" If Zuri were to grab the box, the only thing he would have found inside was a small piece of paper with some writing on it.

[zash]

Which he did. Zuri looked over and saw it. "I'll get it." "You lazy bums." Zuri thought, which the thought was mostly towards Strips. He ran over and grabbed the box before it caught on fire. He enjoyed the heat over there so he just stood there. It was a good way to dry off and get warm. "Hmmm, seems to have a lock. I'll fix that." Zuri just smashed the lock with his hand, it wasn't to hard, it was obviously old. He opened it up and found a piece of paper. He looked at it and tried to read it. Which was kind of hard. So he decided to be lazy himself and walked over to Strips and gave it to him. "There you go bud." Zuri then walked back over to the fire to keep warm.

[petdr89]

Strips just had to chuckle. Lazy bum he thought.

"What is it?" Abby asked, curiosity overtaking her.

"Hang on a second, I gotta read it." Strips squinted, and then opened his eyes real wide. "Geesh, this person has terrible handwriting; looks like it's in old English or something. But here it goes." He cleared his throat before he began to read that the note said.

"Deep to tunnel
Fire burns red
Purple ‘til dust
To the witch
Death now life
Here you stay
Rot away
‘Til the end of days"

He couldn't help but laughing, "Ah, just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo."

"It can't just be mum...whatever you just said." Abby thought for a minute. "I bet it's a riddle; a clue for where we have to go next."

[zash]

"Something about going deep in the tunnel and with red fire something or other and Purple fire and to a witch we will go. Like a witch of death and we'll rot away down here forever. Thats my guess. Though it probably doesn't make much sense either. So I guess we should just continue to walk the rest of the way down there till we see something I guess. Unless you guys have any guesses." Zuri just sat down and pondered. He was still near the flame. He had his sheath sat beside him and his back was practically in the fire. He likes fire. Its warm and toasty and its a good way to dry off quick.

[petdr89]

"Well, there's only one witch of death that I know of, and if this tunnel supposedly leads to her, I don't think we want to go down there." Abby pondered, "but if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. 'Deep to tunnel' I think clearly means that we have to go deep inside the tunnel; that part's pretty easy. 'Fire burns red' is a little harder, but... if you're right Zuri and this tunnel leads to where I think it does, then that kind of makes sense too. Erm, let me explain. When I teleport into the underworld, the lakes of fire are indeed red, but the minions burn purple. I think that's where 'purple 'til dust' comes from. When people die they become dust... I dunno, it only half makes sense. I think the next part says that we're supposed to go to the 'witch', or more correctly, the being who rules the underworld. She acts like a b**** so I guess it's not that far of a stretch. Um, the 'death now life' part could be talking about people who die; the theory being that people who die live again in another realm. And I guess they would have to stay in their realm unless they were permitted to walk the line, sooo, yeah. The only problem with all of this is, there is no way any mortal can enter the underworld; they would incinerate within seconds." She sighed, shaking her head. "Never mind, forget everything I just said; it was stupid."

[zash]

"Uhhhhh alright." Zuri had a bewildered look on his face. "Either way, I guess we go forwards." So Zuri just started to walk forwards again. During his walking he summoned another breath of fire and blasted it far ahead. "There, now we know to go atleast that far. Well that the cave is that long I guess." The fire was blasted some hundred feet ahead. Zuri was able to blast it so it went inbetween all the rocks and such and land further ahead. "You guys coming?"

[petdr89]

"Are you f***in' crazy?! Weren't you listenin'? We go down there we may not come back out alive." A better question was, had Strips even been listening? Here he was getting on Zuri for not listening, when he hadn't been paying full attention himself.

[zash]

"Nah. I'm not afraid of death. Plus if we want the treasure then we'll have to." Zuri said, his voice echoing throughout the cave. He didn't stop walking. He just kept on going. "You guys better catch up. Plus, I'm interested to see how this'll go." Zuri manovered around rocks and such as he walked. Being sure not to hit his head on anything. He began to whistle as he walked.

[petdr89]

Abby shook her head; she had heard that line before. She looked back at Strips to see if he was moving, which he wasn't; he just had a very cross look on his face. She had to agree that going down this tunnel was a bad idea, but she also didn't like the idea of the group splitting up. "Come on, Strips; I'll let you hold my hand."

Strips rolled his eyes, "I'm not a child". It appeared to him that he didn't have a choice in this matter, so he got to his feet and started walking toward Abby.

"I know you're not, but you can't deny the fact that you want to hold my hand. Do it for me, at least, 'cause I'm scared?" She smiled softly as the fire surrounding one of her arms fizzled out.

Strips half smiled, "Oh, alright; for you". He took her hand in his, and she then led them down the tunnel after Zuri.

[zash]

Zuri continued to walk forward. Being able to see in the dark made it not that hard. Eventually he turned back around and saw that Strips and Abby were following him now and were pretty far behind him. So he found a nice round rock to sit on and waited. He really had no idea what to do or how long it was gonna take. All he knew was it was either forwards or back into the water and them trying to swim back up the lake, which he preferred the going forwards part. It was more interesting and wouldn't be a waist of their time. "Alright, so are we all in for going forwards then? Becuase its either this way or us having to swim back up the lake, which going up the lake would be twice as hard as going down it and it'd be us going under water again." Zuri said as his voice echoed and as he waited on the other two.

[petdr89]

Strips narrowed his eyes. "That guy ain't too bright" he muttered so that only Abby could hear him. "Going up isn't twice as hard as going down, you moron. At least when you're going up you can just float to the top; if you're going down you're swimming against gravity."

Abby was impressed; she didn't think Strips had that kind of intelligence in him. Of course, he wasn't saying anything that she didn't already know, but it still amazed her that he knew that stuff.

"Come on; get cher lazy a** up" Strips said as they walked past Zuri; it was his way of answering Zuri's question.

[zash]

"Well for me its hard." Zuri thought. "I'm the big one. I'm the one that constantly sinks." He thought. "Alright then. Lets get going." Zuri then stood up and and began walking behind them. "I'm so tired of us walking all the time. Why does it always have to be somewhere dark and gloomy and long that we have to walk through. And its always has to have something to walk around and avoid." Zuri thought to himself. So he just kept on walking through the cave. Atleast they were moving forward and doing something.

[petdr89]

Yep, walking is pretty boring, so let's fast forward to the good part. They all walked for two hours down this tunnel-thingy; they didn't talk to each other, as was the nature of their relationship. Abby's arm lit up the path the entire time, and Strips's and her's fingers were interlaced as they walked. After two hours, Strips noticed a drastic increase in the temperature; it felt like it was about 100 degrees hotter than it had been when they started. Strips also noticed that it was getting easier to see; like there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.