Lil' 'Ol Fishin' Trip!- (Semyon, Aurora, Eved)

[Kidney]

The Old Road carried on and on, and Aurora and Semyon's feet carried them down it. The salty air poured into their noses, though Semyon seemed unphased. The trees began to thin, and the endless woods grew weaker, sicker than before, thin, bark-stripped trees bordering a small cliff. Semyon peered over the edge, a bundle of sharp rocks at the bottom, seawater licking the edges, froth rising from the cracks like the mouths of rabid beasts. 

"Why does the water look angry here?" Semyon said, face conveying a smidgen of panic. He pointed down the decline, where the cliff ended and the water scratched at a smallish beach. "This is where scouts last been." 

The small man set his backpack down, kneeling in front of it and rifling through its contents, a bundle of mint falling to the ground near it. Quickly, with a waft of herbal air, Semyon ripped forth a map from the depths of the pack. He yanked it open, new-ish paper widely displaying a map of the surrounding area. Semyon's eyes glanced over it in a curt manner, and with a grunt, he pushed a finger against a crude drawing of a cliff. "There. Us." His digit drifted across the paper, tapping a small bit west, where a spectral scrawling of a cave, with a red X painted across it. "We go there, X marks the spot." 

Without much ceremony, or concern for Aurora's viewing, Semyon rolled the map up and shoved it back into his backpack, and in the same motion of closing it, drew it up and across his back once more. He surveyed the area before him, the thinning forest pushing against many small cliffs. Semyon began to trek down the decline, and by proxy, the beach. 

[rosallora]

She doesn't really have much of a choice, does she. She's saddled with this oafish imp (or impish oaf, whichever it may be) until the task was done. Catch a damn fish. That's all she needs to do. Of course she'd never caught fish before: it was clearly the work of those lower on the social ladder than her. But she needed this money if she was going to spend the night on a soft mattress, unless she wanted to fuck her way into one. And she didn't need to do that every night. Hardly. She woman shifts her hips at the thought of the night prior, and puffs a breath of both satisfaction and slight, bodily ache.

She figures she doesn't need to be completely anti-social. After all, he was here. She was here. They were astoundingly and unfortunately together. Aurora doesn't get that good of a glance at the map, but it's sound enough to see they were going a ways. If something were to go sour, she wanted him to at very least be more on her side than not.

"So. How long have you been here, exactly?" She steps down the path after him, her shoes sinking slightly into the silty sand.

[Kidney]

Set on his course, Semyon moved just a little faster than Aurora, gaining on her slowly, and having to stop so she could catch up. He looked a bit impatient, though this feeling melted as she drew nearer. She was a pretty woman, Semyon could admit. "Hmm. I have been here for...two weeks." He said, proud of himself for remembering what Weeks meant. 

Ahead of the two of them the path turned back on itself, silty sand riding the edge of the cliffs, sliding down and around a corner. Semyon took to this path with a happy stride, boots tapping the rising and falling water lavel, carrying a little morsel of foam on the right foot, leaving bits of cloudy froth in his sandy wake. Semyon continued, "How long have you?" 

[rosallora]

"Couple days." Barely a week. And yet in that time she'd been drained of most of her gold just from the cost of the inn's beds, trying to avoid the sweaty and crowded sleeping conditions in the barracks that only looked half-decent. She huffs lightly to herself. "I've found everything to be sorely lacking. It's terrible. The other musicians, the lovers, even this - are there not supposed to be haunted tales and cursed melodies? I was promised madness. Instead I am carrying a lure to go and catch a fish in a little... cave."

She nudges a rock with the toe of her boot, hrming. The salt air whisked about her, sending strands of wild white hair fluttering in the breeze. "It seems this place isn't as horrible as they made it out to be. I should have known. Everyone loves to exaggerate."

[Kidney]

Semyon scoffed, kicking aside a small pile of sand, scattering chunks of it across the sea foam. "Ha!" He barked, shaking his head in disappointment in Aurora, "If you want madness, you should not have done this expedition." He was slightly proud of himself for putting together such a long sentence, looking towards the rest of the sandy trail, slowly rounding the corner and excitedly checking for the fabled cave that would contain a legendary fishing spot. 

The Cave that presented itself was nothing of the sort. Small, unappealing, and rocky. Though, strangely, the silty sand trail turned directly into it, running into its depths, and my, it was deep. Semyon was silent, for a time, slowing down, steps heavy, trawling. He looked puzzled and angry, confused, enraged. "W-what?" 

He scuttled over to the cave's entrance, "What...the FUCK!" He yelled, beginning to rave in an ancient tongue, cursing and scowling, staring into the mouth of the cave in a fit of rage, pointing into it, "They LIED to me!" He yelled, looking to Aurora, "CONMEN! Scoundrels!" 

His voice, booming, echoed down into the cave, and if Aurora drew nearer to it, she would see the cave continuing deeper into the rock, growing tighter, but not too tight. One could traverse into it. 

[rosallora]

"What- what are you even talking about." She rubs the toe of a boot against one of the rocks, dislodging a piece of seaweed that she had stepped on and subsequently gotten stuck there. "Calm the hell down, would you? It's a cave. It's big enough for me to fit through, though it looks a bit tight. What, did they advertise it as being able to hold your Girth?" She chortles to herself, pushing her way past him.

She pokes her head inside. Black.

"Light a torch." She snaps her fingers. "We're going to need it. And stop shouting. You'll scare the fish."

[Kidney]

Semyon's shouting had indeed scared the fish, this much was true. Whatever small dogfish or some other kind of creature had fled the sharp rocks nearest to the cave, their pale, slimy bodies unseen by neither Semyon or Aurora, but nevertheless, as Semyon's voice fell to a whisper, "Sorry." It sounded like, all creatures present, from the crustaceans just below the sand, to the small whelps in the water, drew a unanimous gaze to the two. This, to the greatest effect possible, made them both feel watched. 

Semyon's face crunched to a tough grimace. He did not want to follow Aurora's lead, nor let her have any seniority above him, but he allotted her just enough to light a torch at her command. He did not offer much of a response to her barbs, though he held them in mind, for just retribution later, or out of habit, he couldn't decipher why. The cave lit up a small bit more with the addition of a torch, and where the sunlight failed the torchlight took up a righteous mantle.

As both drew nearer to its medium-sized maw, the rocky inside poked inwards like the many throat-teeth of a great eel, or deep-sea beast. Though, in a nearly straight line inwards, the spikes had been broken to bits, then to powder. A sort of pallid-gray sand that acted as some sort of eerie trail into the depths of this 'fishing spot.'

Semyon gave a quick look to Aurora, and hucked the torch a small bit inwards, the torch's bright oil-fire casting a greater zone of perception within. With this added light, both Aurora and Semyon could decipher, just between the spines throughout the cave, small runes of an alien nature. Semyon said just about what Aurora thought he would say. Something entirely unauthentic and the verbal equivalent of grasping straws. "Trolls." 

[rosallora]

She looks at him with such an expression of disgust that she doesn't even register what her own face must look like, ridged and outlined in torchlight. "This is not trolls, you oaf. Someone else was just here before us." She walks further through the cave, trying to draw her own conclusions. "I'm guessing that what we're actually looking for is beyond this. Some grotto, correct?" She looks down at the shallows, the little creatures in the water no longer able to track them as her feet shift in silty sand.

"Just stop saying things that don't make sense. If you're going to do that I'd rather you just be quiet."

[Kidney]

Semyon's manners nearly failed him. His look to Aurora was once more one of small rage, and he nearly struck her out of frustration. But, as with life, he forced himself to continue along the path with her, "I could be saying things much more confusing. Like how I got this scar." He said, pointing a small scar behind his ear, looking like something akin to a cat-scratch, or scrape on the edge of a carpet. 

He grabbed up the torch he had left, and continued down the path. (A small, 20-sided prism hits a hard wooden surface. 13.) He noticed something in the sand. An echo of some sort of movement, something had definitely been here before, though Semyon could not see what. All the more reason it could have been Trolls. Semyon looked to Aurora again, but vowed to never say the words in her presence, lest present himself for another verbal lashing. 

The spines began to drip. The first few slapped quietly on Aurora's head, and the next few on Semyon's nose, both leaving small foggy trails of mineral-enriched saltwater on the places they touched. Something eerie found its way into Semyon's mind, something...alien. He felt a strong sense of urgency in his mind, but quickly shoved it aside, and looked down, shook his head, and continued walking. He looked to his hand, finding a strange semi-clear blackened streak of water across the back of it. 

"I do not like this place. It better have good fish at end." 

Beyond the two lay more cave, though the spines looked to be retreating back into the rocky walls, their longness seemingly taken from them the longer the cave progressed, replaced by slick stony walls that seemed to have patches of slimy, foamy oil on it. Black like the night sky, and quivering with the steps Semyon and Aurora took. 

The sand began to go away alongside the spines, replaced by a similar material as the ceiling and walls, though less moist and more extremely dry. The smell of it all was revolting, but a optimist's reminder of good things, as it was overwhelmingly fishy. Though, it was a pessimist's cruel punishment for entering such a cave so far from The Hamlet. Semyon's torch cast light upon it all, though it did not reveal anything more, anything less. Ahead though, the stony path gave way to a pool of murky water, and on it's edge, settled a mostly obscure silhouette. From it, though, was several murmurs, and a wet, gross set of heavy breaths.

The pool looked more natural the trail, though off kilter, its center obscured by the stony walls. The figure was turned towards said center, something of interest had claimed its sight, and the arrival of fledgling adventurers seemingly did not command an ounce of its attention.  

[rosallora]

She can see the figure, though its form was vague and blurry at the edges, almost as if it was deliberately obfuscated. She doesn't like that at all. Its form wavers in its own reflection, water-gilded stones looking unseemly to her. She doesn't like the sound of its breath - rotty-lunged and squishy.

Aurora wheezes a breath, then takes up her hurdy gurdy. If there was anything to break the tension (and see if this was a living, truly breathing thing or not), it was music. She starts up a drone, walking quietly around the edge of the pool. She's careful, pressing keys in the beginnings of a melody.

[Kidney]

Semyon's face grew dire, and he attempted to wrench the Hurdy-Gurdy from her hands, but as she stood, and she walked, Semyon could not stop her. He dared not move, and his eyes remained locked on the individual ahead. He slowly brought forth his rifle from his back, pulling back the hammer ever-so slowly, and aiming ahead with his breath held.

The notes of the Hurdy-Gurdy bounced off the walls pleasantly, and the music did hold sway in this dark, deep place. But, as if in wait, a usurper, a terrible crab, a crustacean of evil...it crawled ahead of her. As Aurora walked, the crustacean kept pace just a little ahead of her, but, as quickly as she began, she dropped the instrument, the great and heavy thing falling like a stone. 

The crab did not have time to run, the giant wooden object cracked his shell like the red sea, spreading his innards across the gray sand, and ahead of the now fallen crab-compadre, the creature on the bank of the pool stood. The figure did not seem to move, it did not seem to stir. Just, suddenly, as Aurora turned her attention from her falling Gurdy to the creature once more, it was simply standing. Facing her. 

The creature's pupils glowed like candleflame, and its shoulders heaved alongside its heavy, cumbersome breath. Beneath it, fish from the pool dragged and pulled themselves from the depths, flopping around the creatures feet, one or two slowly moving less and less, and as Aurora picked her instrument back up from the ground, a few of the fish had already expired. 

A feeling filled the room, and effected Aurora and Semyon together, a feeling like gentle womanly fingertips caressing the inside of their skulls. "Hmm..." It began, the figure looking as if it were deflating, shoulders slumping. "Ratcatchers." It said, an intake of breath re-inflating the silhouetted figure. There was a sound alike to a hiss. And, with a breath, the figure dissolved into the surrounding air, smoke and gas pulled apart by an unseen force, but what remained for a moment were the creature's glowing ember-like eyes, before they too were cast into the cave-atmosphere.  

Semyon let out a small whimper, "Ghosts!!" He yelled, putting the gun down and running to Aurora, "Aurora! That was a ghost!" 

[rosallora]

"Christ," she gasps as the little man bounds himself about her, her eyes wide underneath the mask. "I- get the fuck off of me- that was not a ghost. Ghosts... ghosts aren't real." She fumbles as she goes to pick up the hurdy gurdy, pausing as she sees the mess of viscera on its back. "I don't know what that was. Some sort of sea-vision, most likely. We're just having... a bit of a time. That's all. This is nothing! Ha! Nothing!"

The way that her voice bounces off of the cold, glistening cave-stones did nothing to soothe her fear, her heart pumping in her chest like it understood how much she needed blood.

She doesn't want to wipe the crustacean blood off of the instrument with her own pristine gloves, so she shows the back of it to Semyon while she looks towards the hollow of the cave, and the fish flopping on the far shore. "...Will those fish do. Can we just grab those and go, Sempyon."

[Kidney]

Semyon's eyes locked on Aurora, and as she spoke to him, he took a step back and adjusted his hat, yanking the brim so low it covered his eyebrows. His eyes locked on the blood of her Hurdy-Gurdy. "Aurora...ghost juice..." He pointed to her instrument, covered in viscera at the moment. "Don't touch." 

He reached into his backpack like a fearful raccoon reaching into a bee's nest, scrabbling for something, before pulling out a white-powder-caked leather bag. "Chalk. Salt. Yes." He pulled a pinch from it, and ran over to the fish on the shore of the pool. Before he aimed to drop it upon them, his eyes fell upon the centre of the pool itself. 

Held deep below the clear saltwater, and surrounded by a school of fish, a blue crystal shone. The fish, against nature itself, looked unanimously in one direction to it, entranced by its blue color, which glowed periodically brighter and dimmer with time and the fluctuation of the waves in the pool. Dark tunnels on the far end of it suggested it was a partial flood from the sea itself, though clear as day, and filled with an abundance of fish so preoccupied they offered no resistance to any would-be fisherman. Semyon was alight with excitement, throwing the powder in the air in a great shower, and leaving the bag on the shore. He looked to Aurora again, "Glowing stone trapped all the fish! MAGIC IS REAL!" He screamed so loud the echo reverberated a clear three times, and continued down a now revealed passage to the immediate right of Semyon, a similar tunnel to the ones they had been travelling down. 

Semyon yanked the hat from his head, and began to take off his outerwear, all the while returning to his pack, and pulling forth a fishing rod. "I'm going..." He paused, english failing him for a moment. "to get stone!" 

The caressing feelings returned. They touched Aurora's mind like the gentle touch of tongues on her inner thigh, and did not abate. It was almost...orgasmic. "Kill him. Take the stone. Feed the Hamlet with your endless bounty. Be revered. Be their savior, and their god." 

[rosallora]

She feels compelled, of course, to kill Semyon. But this was not a new feeling for her. Her disgust for the horrid little hairy thing does compound, naturally, as he disrobes and shows his intent to jump right into the water. But of course, there was a keenness to the woman's mind that makes her smirk and giggle to herself, perhaps a bit manically. Let him dive to the bottom. Let him risk his lungs. And when he comes up to the surface with the sapphire, then she will snatch it from him with authority, and claim it her own! Yes. Yes, of course. This was the way to do things. Let him struggle, let him writhe in cold water. She could benefit from him, if she plays her cards correctly.

Her gaze is drawn to the second passage. They were here for fish - yes. Perhaps there were some down this way. Then again, there were plenty in the glassy-looking water.

Her eyes go to where the figure had been, amber-eyed and attentive. But the whispers in her mind play tricks on her, and she thinks it is none of her concern where spirits are, or are not. And also, ghosts definitely, definitely don't exist. She picks up Semyon's discarded shirt, and wipes the back of her hurdy gurdy, content to watch him plunge into the depths below.

[Kidney]

The voices were displeased. "Why must you ignore us, Goddess? Treat us this way!" They beat the back of her skull like carnivorous fans, clawing for an ounce of her attention, though what superseded their presence was the splash of Semyon, in his underwear, diving past comatose fish, and reaching for an avocado-sized stone. His strokes were like that of a beaver, the intensely hairy Rus running through water like an otter, snatching the stone like nothing. His face grew alight with purpose and vigor, and as soon as he ripped the thing from the bottom of the pool... the fish were upon him.

They all slapped themselves upon him. They drew him to the bottom of the pool, and they held him there, some tried their best to swim into his ears, to his nose, to force the soul from him. To tear him from life. His screams could not be heard from the bottom of the pool, but Aurora could see them, assaulting the Rus like a thousand tiny soldiers. 

"You could save him." The voices whispered, coddling her. "Or...you could let him die. Explore this place, take all the credit, hm?"