Re: Venture of The Spirit [Event!]

[Talcen]

Xaviar watched Monjack interogate the small golden jackalope silently and wondered why the little thing didn't seem able to speak. The small jackalope then tackled Monjack and bounded off further into the tunnels. Well that was just great now they'd have to catch it again. "I wonder why it keeps running. Maybe it's trying to lead us somewhere?" he suggested quietly. He had felt the atmosphere turn darker at the discovery of yet even more skuls and vials.

"Well anyway let's go find the little thing!" He then flitted off with the rest of the group into yet another tunnel. It was much easier to keep up with them now that they were going more slowly. He hoped that soon they'd find these 'spirits' that they kept talking about. Who knows, maybe they'd be of help to Xaviar.

[auntslappy282]

Eridan blinked a few times at Monkjack. He reminded him of someone.... Someone who ended up being a pain in his ass and also someone who was a large help. His eyes widened as it clicked. Karkat. He reminded him of Karkat. The crabby kid who was always yelling about something. One of the shortest in the group. He did miss him, especially since the fact that he helped him through some of him... Mental things. He opened his mouth a few times as if about to say something, but then Essery asked a question. He looked over at Essery, and smiled slightly. "Sure, I'll take the skull if you'd like," He said taking it off of the Jackalopes hands.

He sighed slightly and continued on his way with the rest of the group. Something seemed... odd. Like something important and unexpected was happening. He really hoped it wasn't anything to significant. He pushed the thoughts back as he continued, trying not to think about it to much. Eridan nodded at Xaviers suggestion. It was logical, so maybe it was true.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Kanaya followed after Domino and Diesel. She had a strange feeling that the meeting she was going to have with Eridan wasn't going to be like when you come home from a long journey. She knew far to well that it would be bitter and harsh. She sighed and then she blinked a few times as the bright light shone into the dim cave. She nodded at Diesels idea and then walked forward slightly. Maybe it would be safer if she went in front. If she got hurt, it wouldn't be to important. She had a feeling that Diesel had a matesprit of some sort waiting for her, and Domino had much coming for her in her life time. "If it's a trap, let me go first." Kanaya pushed slightly to the front of the group. She walked forward prepared for anything.

[TheLethalFuzzyBunny]

Shaking off her jump, Domino snatched up her lantern and replaced it on her antler just in time to scramble out of Kanaya's way. Of course, she, too, noticed the bright light washing through the cave, but how could that be? "The tests are over already?" she wondered out loud, some disbelief held in her tone. It didn't quite make sense to her, but who really knew? Perhaps it was just her, after all. Surely, some others would see what already occurred in their adventure to be test enough. Either way, she was still suspicious. "Whatever happened to that pygmy Jackalope?" They had chased one down here, after all, and she had to wonder if the other group had found it on the path that they took.

As Kanaya pushed into the front of the group, Domino's eyes narrowed. "Why are you so determined to have your life put in danger before ours?" She could understand wanting to protect everyone, but she wasn't comfortable with how little the other doe seemed to care about her own safety. After all that had happened to her, Domino was very pro-life, and that was in regards to almost everyone.

[Mousen Heath]

Monkjack's Group:

Monkjack gritted his teeth. "You're probably right Xaviar. It probably is trying to lead us somewhere, though it didn't have to kick me in the head." He rubbed a spot just behind his ear gingerly, probably from where he fell as against the pygmy tackling him. "And I'm okay, by the way, thanks for your concern." He added inaudibly under his breath.

He sighed a little at Essery. "It is just a skull, you know. It won't bite..." He trailed off, a mischievous glint suddenly coming to his eyes. "Then again, I have heard some ghost stories..." It was a pretty terrible attempt to freak the other jackalope out, but he couldn't help it. "Anyway, let's just keep moving. We're probably making some ground on it, it can't go this way forever."

The tunnel turned into a steep incline, and it seemed to be getting drier, it was obvious they were getting closer to the surface. "Hrm. We might have to try a gentler approach this time. I wouldn't want it running into the forest, we'll never find it then."

Diesel's Group:

"Woah," Diesel said, turning to Kanaya. "I'm the leader, I signed up for this thing before any of you. If it's a trap, which I doubt, I'll be the one risking her neck, thank you very much. Your life is no less important than mine." The little doe said sternly, doing her best to sound leader-ly.

Suddenly she put out a paw to stop them walking any further and she turned to Domino. "It seems that are challenges aren't quite over yet. I hear voices." She picked up speed a little, headed for whatever was causing the voices and upon turning the corner, the young doe got the shock of her life when she found a motley bunch of travellers seeking out them! Three jackalope, one aures and a human! What kind of travelling party is that?

Diesel stood open-mouthed at them all, that was until Vincent let out an exited squeak and almost fell of her head. Quickly he jumped down, bowing infront of Oak, the green furred jackalope.
"No need to do that, Vincent, my old friend." Oak's deep purring voice echoed through the caverns, and he held out his arm to Vincent who needed no encouragement to climb up and sit on the buck's head.

"You two know each other?" She asked incredulously.
"From around, yes." Oak replied, simply. "I take it you are one half of the travelling party that left to seek the spirits earlier today?"
Earlier today? It felt like days since they'd first set off. Pushing her confusion to one side, Diesel nodded.
"I thought so. The only thing up there is a hole that leads back where you came from, I'm afraid. We'll have to head back, oh! And I hope you don't mind, there's a few odd travellers in our midst. They are of the highest character though, I guarantee they will a help, not a hindrance."

Still very much surprised, she gestured for Oak to lead the way back towards the beginning of the tunnel system. The white doe was further surprised to find that the gorge that they'd jumped over before, now had a large plank of wood laid across it. She opened her mouth to mention it, but Oak just gave her an odd, knowing smile.

(( I'm merging both Event RPs. The RPers from the second event RP will now reply here and be in Diesel's group! ))

[Wyvern]

As the little Aures arrived at the cave, she thought about their leader Oak mentioning that the came seemed to be one of her own species. It looked a little familiar, but why would Oak bring them here? She thought just following him might solve the question if she´s patient enough. She flew to Oak´s side while carrying her lantern and looked around. She could hear steps of other people around the cave. "I can hear them...Do you know them, Oak?" Skybreeze asked as she saw another Jackalope, Diesel. She seemed to know Oak, so the Aures thought there must be another group with her. Skybreeze turned at her other companions, finding out that her Jackalope friend was missing. She chuckled a little as she walked near the hole they just jumped from.

"England, What are you doing?" The Aures´ voice echoed around, a few steps were heard from afar. A Jackalope suddently appeared at the bottom, with a black cape and books. "Oh, hey England! What are all these books about?" She asked again as the Jackalope got up and picked up his stuff as he cleaned off the patches of dirt on his... clothes. "I apologize, I was just having a bit of trouble up there." Arthur said as Skybreeze took one of the books. "Oh, those are books about, uhm, Magic of all kinds. As I jumped down here all my things somehow fell off." He replied as Skybreeze handed over her companion´s books, and the two walked to Oak, waiting for whatever might come next in their travel.

[Elektra]

Arya landed in a kneeling position, and immediately had her bow in her hands once more. Of course, like the last time, she was forced to withdraw the bow, seeing as the new travellers were friends of Oak's, and there for, were not people she could shoot. With a long sigh, she repeated her past actions, and replaced the arrows and bow into their original positions. She got up, and looked around for Lunosa. The Jackalope had made it down the tunnel fairly well, and was looking around at the cave system itself. She seemed quite intrigued with it, but when she noticed that there was yet another Jackalope, she immediately headed over to introduce herself. Arya simply stood where she was, moving only once to push her hair behind her pointed ears once again.

[TheLethalFuzzyBunny]

"It seems you are right," Domino replied, nodding her head as she looked at Diesel. She picked up on the voices, too, and became quite mentally prepared should they be attacked or something of the sort. Rather or not she looked like it, she was quite willing to fight if she had to and was certainly well enough at it.

However, as the motley group appeared, the tension soon was dissipated by Vincent and Oak, who both seemed to know of one another. If it was all fine and well, she didn't see too much of a reason to fret. It was shocking to see Arya, since Domino didn't feel entirely comfortable with most humanoids yet, but she was surrounded by plenty of other non-humanoids.

Still, after glancing around at them all, she introduced herself, smiling slightly, "My name is D009, Domino. Just...call me Domino." What was a few more travelers anyway? They continued to gain more and more into their party as they traveled, so it wasn't all that shocking any more.

"I see that we're not the only ones that found lanterns," she added, pawing at the lantern that hung from one of her antlers. She had to wonder if they had another purpose, aside from lighting their way. Since it seemed that they had found one also, her curiosity was growing.

[auntslappy282]

Eridan laughed slightly at Monkjack. "We only didn't say nothin' because we figured you were a big boy Mon!" He said with a slight chuckle. He knew it might be a bad move, but he didn't particularly care. He continued on his way listening to the mutterings of Monkjack, but only half heartily. He sighed slightly. Whenever he though about something that wasn't going on, his mind wandered to a few things he'd rather it not. He didn't enjoy it, he didn't at all. He licked his lips slightly as the air was switching to something drier, and he was heading up land, towards the surface.

He looked up the tunnel than looked over at Monkjack. "Well, if it tries to run away again, I can jump it," He said with a smile. He faced the part of the tunnel where it was getting dryer. Something in his stomach twisted up, and he felt like something important was about to happen, though he didn't know what.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Kanaya smiled at Domino. She knew for a fact that it was odd, but she didn't care. She smiled sweetly when Diesel was trying to risk her life over her's, but she nodded and strode back with Domino to answer her question. "It's because I've lived a while, screwed up more times than I can count, and I'm prepared to sacrifice other lives that have more potential than mine. I've already messed up my potential," She said with a half hearted smile. It was true, she came from a doomed timeline, and she was ready to give herself up over any other Jackalope.

She was alert again when the voices could be heard from the tunnel that was lighter. She snapped into alertness, ready to strike if she needed to save anyone. She almost attacked when the large group came down the tunnel, but was eased as the Aures talked to the Jackalope who had an interesting aura to her. She couldn't place it, but she felt like it was different from the others in the group. She was slightly eased, but felt the wariness coming off of Domino. She sighed, feeling the edginess come onto her.

She nodded and followed suit with Domino and decided to introduce herself. "I'm Kanaya Maryam, but just call me Kanaya," She said with a smile and a slight bow. She looked around and observed the others. There was another Aures, and more Jackalopes and a human. She hadn't yet seen a human here, but it was slightly comforting.

[Elektra]

(I'm just gonna go ahead and post this time around, since I'm not sure if the posting order is scrapped now or what. And just to let everyone know, you can call Arya a human, but if you say it to her face, she will draw a dagger on you, since it's an insult, at least to an elf, to be called human. xD Just a warning, since she's... Quick to draw her weapons, as you can see. xDDDD)



Arya looked up when their group seemed to become even bigger, and she shifted again, unsure of what she should do. It seemed as if there were Jackalops and Auras, but there were no other humanoids, as they seemed to be content with labeling her kind. She still couldn't help but feel as if they needed to move, but she also knew that there was still a lot more they would need to do before rushing into the next part of this 'cave' without a second thought. Lunosa, on the other hand, was quite happy to see all of these Jackalope, and it was all she could do not to start rambling on and on to each of them.

[Mousen Heath]

Monkjack's Group:

"Oh, very hilarious. Witty." Monkjack replied, grinning a little. He couldn't help get the feeling that something was off, the creeping suspicion that something wasn't quite right... What was the reason for the golden jackalope taking them this deep into the caverns, was it trying to get them lost or something?
It was then the golden jackalope appeared from around the corner. "Wait for it." He said quickly, he didn't want it to try and run again. There was something different about it though, something a little more sinister about it's expression. It was no longer the trapped little pygmy creature, begging for help.
"How dare you!" It suddenly shrieked. "How dare you tread over sacred ground! How dare you! You're not worthy to be in a mile of this place and yet, here you all are, traipsing through it. Unholy filth. And you," It said, turning to Monkjack. "I could let it go out of pure, dumb ignorance, but you! You knew what you were doing, didn't you? You knew you were leading them into a suicide mission!" The little thing accused, Monkjack looked around hopelessly at the rest of his group. Just to see the expression of surprise on his face was to know that he'd done no such thing.

Up in this part of the cave, part of it was held up by wooden supports. There was little limestone here, so close to the surface. They were probably in a mining shaft of some sort. The feral jackalope looked up at the pygmy, realization dawning on his face. "...You lured us here, like rats in a trap."
"C'est la vie." It replied, with a shrug of it's shoulders. The jackalope went over to one of the wooden shafts holding this particular piece of tunnel up. Monkjack wasn't quite sure how she was going to break the shaft, but he wouldn't put it past her to set fire to the thing.
"You're right. I did lead them all here on a suicide mission, they're all completely ignorant. Let them go. I'll stay, let the tunnel collapse on me instead." He blurted out suddenly. "See? Miss. Psycho-bunny, we can compromise on these things!"
"Fine. The rest of you lot; get out of my cave before I change my mind." She snapped.

Diesel's group:

"Don't say that, Kanaya. Potential isn't a physical thing, it can never run out! You're fairly young still, there's time for more screw-ups yet, there's time for more victories. I don't see why you're different to any of us, we've all done things that are stupid. I mean look at me, leading an expedition into these caves to find some mythical beings that may or may not exist. I don't know what I'm doing really, you all could have died." She spoke in a half whisper, letting her usually confident mask break for a few moments.

Oak came up behind her and introduced himself. "Kanaya, Domino, Diesel wonderful to meet you. There's an awful of alot of does in this group of yours. Well, I say awful, but I don't think that's a bad thing." He said, chuckling to himself. He wasn't flirting, he was too old for that. Far too old to be chatting to members of the opposite species and trying not to look like an idiot. No, he was through with all that.

Diesel really didn't want to explain everything to him, so she just smiled and nodded. "Er, yeah. I guess so."

"I heard legends about the spirit lanterns, or a particular Spirit's lantern. Named Oddin, apparently he was the one that created the temple, it was said he created it over an already existing temple to seal in something evil... He wore a lantern on his antlers and every lantern made after that is a facsimile of his. I don't know why we keep finding them here, though." Oak added.

They continued back the way they'd came, crossing over the bridge that Kanaya had lowered earlier.

(( It's two AM, sorry for the kind of fail-ish post. I'll code later. Hope it's understandable. Elektra: No posting order. I just prefer people to reply once per 'round'. IE, like once between my replies. ^^ <33 ))

[Wyvern]

Skybreeze just smiled at the group as she found the Jackalopes more intersting. They all seemed to know each other and they all had something odd about them. She looked at her lantern for a while. Oddin? Has she heard this name before? She could renember, but then she turned at Kanaya. Arthur started to walk in front of them. "My name´s Arthur, but Skybreeze, here, calls me England. So this, Oddin, is related to the Spirits in some way?" He asked as he had the same thought as Skybreeze, he somehow heard that name before. But the little Aures also renembered seeing someone like Kanaya before, but she decided to keep that mystery for later...

(Eep, failish post. xDD)

[Talcen]

Xaviar screeched loudly and flitted over to the pygmy jackalope. "What are you talking about you psychoatic hare? There's no reason to try and kill us, or anyone for that matter!" He flitted to the ground. He then went over towards the jackalope to screech at it. "You're uttering complete nonsense. Walking in a holy place does not warrent death or violence. You should be ashamed of yourself for believing and say such things. Heck I'm a partial demon and I don't even support senseless violence."

[auntslappy282]

Eridan's ears began to slowly twitch. As the words of the Pygmy hit his ears, they continued to twitch. Faster and faster they twitched... A nervous habit that lead back to his old gills. But on they went... Until he violently turned towards Monkjack, his ears twitching and twitching. After he was done speaking to the group, his eyes got wide with fury. He growled slightly, and then began to yell at the Jackalope. "YOU MY GOOD SIR ARE AN IDIOT!" He began. "You're really gonna just give it up for a useless pile of Jackalopes and a BAT?!? You have a matesprit waitin' for you at the end of this journey! You are just goin' to give it up now?! So your one of those pathetic types that risks they're whole life just because someone threatens to kill you! LISTEN TO THE BAT! LISTEN!" He hissed. His accent incredibly thick.

"AND YOU!" He yelled and hissed as he turned toward the Pygmy. He pulled his wand out from his scarf and pointed it at the Pygmy. "With a flick of my wrist, I will easily kill you. I would walk away from the pillar, or I would let us out of the cave. Actually, you have no choice. The likely hood of me lettin' you live is slim, but I will bargain if you step. Five. Feet. Away. From. The. Pillar. Are we understood?" He said, his voice lowering. He knew very well that his wand wouldn't do anything, except possibly puncture the pygmy if thrown with enough force. His ears twitched, faster and faster as adrenaline kept pumping through his veins. He was ready to dive out of the cave with all of them if the danger was to great.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Kanaya smiled slimly at Diesel. She knew that she was probably right, but what was the point? She had already died at least twice. She sighed and then listened to the group. Something about Oak made her ear twitch slightly. He just had an... Off Aura about him. She wasn't about to mention that, especially because she, herself, wasn't technically, 'right.' She was a Rainbow Drinker, and just that thought made her throat ache. She needed blood at some point in time, and there was one cave she kept smelling it in every night... She was thinking about heading over there, but at the moment, she needed to focus on the path ahead of them. She turned to the Jackalope that talked to her, and she smiled sweetly at him.

"It's very nice to meet you Arthur. Well, I'd assume so, I, myself don't know though. I haven't... Exactly been around for long, to put it that way. But, yes, thats what Oak said so I'd assume it's true," She said. Something on the Jackalopes eyes made her ear twitch. "Is something on your mind? You don't have to share if you don't want, but I'm here to talk to if you want to speak," She said, giving him a motherly smile. She turned and focused more on the route ahead, letting her mind wander.

[Mousen Heath]

(('Listen to the bat! Listen!' is now my favourite quote ever <33 XD You have no idea how much I laughed reading both Talcen's and Aunties replies.))

Monkjack's Group:
The panic that had previously clouded his thoughts receded ever so slightly, he wasn't cut out for making decisions when psychotic pygmy jackalope were screaming blue murder. Oh. He'd forgotten about Diesel, stupid, stupid jackalope, if they got out of here alive she was going to kill him. The buck winced slightly as Eridan shouted, surprised that he actually had a backbone beneath all that... Eridan-ness. Somewhere between Xaviar yelling at the jackalope and Eridan yelling at him, Monkjack seemed to have lost his voice. Running the risk of looking completely pathetic, he nodded meekly at the grey and purple jackalope.

The pygmy glared at Xavier, about to say something in reply when Eridan then turned towards her. She looked up at him, an odd expression upon her face, she didn't reply to his yelling, instead she just pushed the wand away from her, taking a step towards the middle of the tunnel. "The tunnels near the surface are weak. It is not a place for those of pure heart to tread."

"Pure of heart? Seriously?! Are we in a badly-written play now?"

"Shut up, Monkjack, I've got a 'this is a part of your main quest to find the spirit' speech to give and you're being distracting! I'm supposed to suddenly turn all godly and wise and give you information because you offered up yourself to save your friends and they wouldn't leave you behind, then I'm supposed to reveal myself to be the servant of the spirits in this big task-thing you've completed. And now you've ruined it for me!" She huffed at him. "Anyway, my brave and weary travellers, you have walked for many miles and suffered greatly--"

"Brave and weary? We set off this morning and all we've done is get attacked by crazy bats, answered a few riddles and chase after you! And the only suffering was Diesel's for having to listen to Eridan, and then him tripping over himself. Oh, and Essery getting a bat glued onto his head, I suppose. We've hardly suffered! Well, you did tackle me, which was completely uncalled for by the way."

The pygmy jackalope glared at him, and the buck fell into silence again. "Right. Since someone isn't very good at appreciating my wisdom, even though I did threaten to kill you all a few minutes ago, I'm just going to tell you; go back the way you came and find the others! Spirits, do you all have to make things so bloody difficult!"

"Thanks, love." Monkjack replied, grinning at her in an amused kind of way. "Right then. Best go make sure the girls haven't gotten themselves into trouble!" The buck said loudly, waving them on. Once they'd gotten a little way down the tunnel, he looked back to find that the gold pygmy wasn't following them, infact it was nowhere to be seen. He turned to Eridan and Xavier, and dropped his voice down. "Uh, thanks for not leaving me to get killed via a cave-in by the way."

Diesel's Group:
Oak nodded at Arthur. "He is a spirit, himself. He was always supposed to be one of the more powerful, no one really knows how true that is, though. Legend has it, things took a bad turn for him when a plague broke out among the creatures he was supposed to protect, I believe it was his fault. In the end he did manage to contain the plague and the people were saved, or most of them anyway. I think the moral of the story was to not over estimate yourself. To not be afraid to ask for help, when you can't solve a problem yourself."

Diesel nodded at the buck, as they came closer and closer to the beginning of the fork. In the large, almost ante-chamber like space between the two tunnels the jackalope, aures, elves and goodness knows what else had been traversing, every little sound seemed to have it's own echo. Sounds easily rebounded from wall to wall, one footstep could sound like twenty if you put your foot down in the right spot. Even so, there seemed to be a noise that didn't belong to any of their group. As they walked into that tunnel, Diesel looked at them all, as if doing a head count. No... That noise couldn't be them.

She hopped up towards the other tunnel, and for a moment her ears lay flat against her skull as she tried to block out the dripping of stalactites and the sound of rushing water.

"Good timing." Oak muttered to himself, catching what Diesel was looking at. It seemed that they were about to join up with the other group.

[Talcen]

Xaviar sighed and flitted up to rest on Eridan's antlers. "Such crazy hares you all are.....and my sister tells me that I'm insane." Xaviar muttered to himself and he hung upside down and rested. Being in such a small form gave him a high matabilizism rate and he was getting hungry, which in turn meant he was getting sleepy as well. Maybe he could just rest his eyes for bit and he'd feel better. Before he knew it he was out cold and snored softly.

[Wyvern]

Skybreeze could hear steps from afar. Oak was right, there was another group. But she then heard many yells, wondering what was it all about. "Hey England, what was that?" She asked as Arthur wasnt sure what to respond, but Oak's answer to his question was intruiging. Not just that, the fellow British has been like the selfish spirit before. Believing you can do many things is allright, but its not right after thinking you're the only one who's like that. He just nodded as Skybreeze got off his head and flew to Oak. "So all this time, we werent alone? But why are they making so much noise?" She asked as she stood there, hoping the answer would come.

[Elektra]

Do to their own group's lack of action, Arya had begun to think about other things, and was jolted out of her hazy thoughts when she heard quite the ruckus somewhere nearby. Lunosa had been listening to Oak the whole time, but immediately returned to her charge's side when she heard it herself. "Oak, what is it? You said that there was another group that set off before us, is that them? I mean, if it is, shouldn't we try to help them?" she asked, unsure of the whole situation. Arya simply sat there, not sure what to do, seeing as she was the only non-animal in there group, and therefor, somewhat awkward with the rest of them.

[auntslappy282]

Eridan listened to the Pygmy, his ears ceasing they're rapid twitching. Eridan took his wand and hid it back in his scarf. He listened to the rapid and rather smart alecky responses. He chuckled to himself quietly. This Jackalope wouldn't stop reminding him of Karkat would he? He smiled slightly, a genuine smile which was something that hadn't been seen on this Jakcalope's face for a while. He listened to the Pygmy. It would probably be the smartest idea to leave. He followed after Monkjack, and made sure not to knock Xaviar off of his antlers. He followed closely to Monkjack, and smiled at him at what he said. "Yeah! No problem Mon! I wouldn't let a good Jackalope die in such a stupid situation anyways," He said, giving a slight chuckle.

Eridan's ears twitched when he heard the sounds coming from deeper in the tunnel. A voice sounding hauntingly familiar. His muscles locked up. His face fell, his good mood sinking down the drain. He couldn't get himself to move, but he had to try. He wasn't going to run tail between his legs back out of the tunnel. He couldn't anyways, because Kanaya was between the exit and himself. He sighed, taking a deep gulp, and forced his feet forward, hiding slightly behind Monkjack as they approached the group.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kanaya's ear twitched as she heard more Jackalopes coming. Her heart lurched a few times, and a sad look formed on her face. She knew Eridan had to be with them, she could just sense it. She sighed and then took a slow step forward. She knew he, nor herself, would be able to look at each other with out pain. She had killed him after he had killed him, yes, so they were even, but something just... Didn't feel right. She didn't want to have to face whatever breakdown he would have, and she really didn't want to have the others see him, or her, like this. She sighed again. Her heat beat faster and faster as the footsteps began to get closer. She slunk back towards the edge of the group. She knew how obvious she was between the others, considering she was completely white and glowing. She sighed.

When she saw him, a Aures on his antler, her heart sunk to the pit of her stomach. She knew he felt the same by the look that appeared on his face. They had locked eyes, and there was no going back at this point. Her breathing quickened and she bit her lip. She took another step backward and then waited. She saw Eridan quit moving and she tried to focus on the other Jackalope. Her heart was aching with guilt, and she really didn't want to have to deal with the emotion. She closed her eyes, letting a single tear peel out from her eyelids and drip down her face, onto the floor. The guilt was terrible, and so was the great sadness at how sad he looked.

[Mousen Heath]

((Both groups have merged into one. Still no posting order. Please try to post once per round. Thank you. <33 Sorry for the wait, everything I've written has just sounded like absolute tosh the past few days. 'Tosh' is putting it very, lightly. //Yay for slightly Scottish-sounding slang. D| ))

Oak turned towards Arya. "I'm sure they'll get here in their own time, after all they seem to be making enough noise as it is. We'd better not surprise them, lest they bring the roof down on us." He joked. "They're probably arguing about something, knowing them."
"Which you don't..." Diesel said, suddenly turning towards the green jackalope. A frown passed over her face for a moment; he'd never met the other group, how could he suddenly talk like he knew them?
"Vincent has been filling me in." Oak amended quickly, Vincent nodded.
"He needs to know about vhat they are like."

As the group walked towards them all, Diesel gave up trying to interrogate Oak further. Something just didn't sit right about him... The others seemed to trust him, but she couldn't shake this feeling about him. It was probably nothing, anyway.

"Diesel!" Monkjack yelled, catching sight of her pale coat and running towards her. He looked back at her group, which was a very different one to the one she'd had when they set off. "I see you found some friends."
"They, er, dropped in." Really? She'd probably been waiting all day for that.
Monkjack was going to roll his eyes when he noticed Eridan and one of the new comers to Diesel's group. Well, new to Monkjack anyway.
"Who's that?" He whispered.
"Her name is Kanaya, she's a little bit strange but she seems nice. What's with her and Eridan though, do you think they have a history?"
"I don't know. It looks pretty serious, though."
"Should be intervene?"
"I don't know! You're the social one, not me."
"Do something!" She hissed, trying not to raise her voice.

"Er, guys? You okay?" Monkjack asked loudly, hoping that, that would do the trick. "We, er, need to keep moving. So if you've got anything to work out, you'll need to either hurry that up or leave it for later." Oh spirits, he wasn't cut out for this.

"Oak, where do we need to go next? Please don't tell me the caves were a huge waste of time." The female jackalope looked around, surely the caves were the answer to all of this? The golden jackalope, the skulls and the vials of blood, it didn't make sense if they were going to be leaving the caves. Hec, it didn't make sense anyway.
"Quite the contrary." Oak replied simply. In the little ante-chamber there appeared to be three tunnels, one that lead outside and two that went in parallel directions only to spit off different ways. He walked away from both tunnels before heading towards, what looked to be solid rock. Gently he started to scrape at the wall, only for it to come away in his hands. Someone had blocked it off with mud and small stones and by the looks of it, they hadn't done a very good job. The stones started to tumble, and he moved away as they cascaded down into the antechamber revealing a water-logged tunnel. The tunnel appeared looked oddly perfect next to the rest, it was a near perfect circle. Obviously, it had been made rather than formed naturally. Lanterns like the ones they'd been finding throughout the tunnels were fixed onto the wall at just above jackalope head-height. They were unlit, but the slight glow from the other lanterns that had been found sent green-coloured reflections flickering on the walls.

"The water isn't too deep. Let's go." Oak said simply.

As they started to walk down the newly-found tunnel, Diesel turned to the feral jackalope. "Did you find that golden jackalope?"
"It's a long story, I'll explain it to you guys on the way."

[Talcen]

Xaviar continued to sleep soundly until he was jostle from his nap. "What? What's going on now?" He groaned and looked around wearily. He listened to the jackalopes talk and shook his head in confusion. Sighing he closed his eyes again and trie to go back to sleep.

((Sorry for fail post. Muse died.))

[auntslappy282]

Eridan shifted uncomfortable on his feet and pulled himself forward. Kanaya mimicked his movements, meeting him in the half way point. "K-Kan...", Eridan muttered. "Eridan... Glad to see your doing well.. And in one piece..," She said with a halfhearted chuckle. Eridan nodded and attempted a laugh, but chocked slightly instead. His words were stuck in his throat. He needed to ask if she was okay. Her coat didn't match his own, and a glowing came out of her like it did before he was chainsawed in half. She was a Rainbow Drinker now, and it was all his fault. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kanaya interrupted him. "Save it for later Eridan. We need to keep moving, okay? I'm sorry we had to meet again like this," She said, laying a paw on his shoulder, and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

She turned from him and began to follow the rest of the group. Eridan hesitated and then began to follow her. He wondered if she still had a gapping hole in the middle of her body from when he shot her. Would it heal? Did she hate him for what he had done? He sighed and filled in towards the middle of the group, hoping that no one would bug him.

[Wyvern]

Skybreeze and Arthur followed Oak though the tunel, but upon seeing the water, Skybreeze quickly flew and stood on Arthur´s head. The Jackalope didnt wanted his clothes to get all wet, but he just wore on his black cape again, the Aures holding the Spirit lantern as high as possible. "W-where is this, England?" Skybreeze asked as she tucked her head in her fur, but trying to hold the lantern. "This tunnel isnt the way it is. It looks like someone was here." Arthur said as he just concentrated in walking carefully though the place. It looked somewhat suspicious to him.

[Mousen Heath]

The tunnel came to an end and the group was faced with a huge stone staircase. Light reflected down off of the damp stone, it seemed they were finally heading back to the surface. Silently Oak led them up towards the top of the stairs. The only sound was the slight scratch of claws against limestone and the sound of the creature's breathing as they got closer to their destination.

"Oak," Diesel began after a moment. "Can I ask you something?"
"Ask away." He replied.
"How do you know so much about the spirits, really? We've all heard stories, but what you've told us about them seems so... It seems beyond stories and legends."
Oak considered her question carefully for a moment before answering. "It's a long story, but one that will no doubt be revealed soon." He seemed a little bit more urgent now, for whatever reason the jackalope picked up the pace a little to get to wherever the top of the stairs lead them.
"You know what's at the top of these stairs, don't you?" Diesel wasn't going to give up on this.
"Yes, I do."
"But you're not going to tell us." That wasn't a question, she knew asking him would be a fruitless endeavour.
"I'm not, no."

The stairs widened slightly as they reached the top, and it was obvious to see that the'd reached a large clearing within the forest. Huge trees cast plenty of shade into the clearing, their leaves and branches almost creating a roof beneath them. Sunlight streamed through the holes in the canopy creating patterns on the grassy floor. Bluebells and mushrooms sprung up from the forest floor, despite the fact that both of them were out of season and very rarely seen together. The whole place felt like the air after a thunderstorm.

"Where are we?" Monkjack asked after a moment, for once in his life in awe of something.
"You've reached the place that you originally went to seek."
"We're looking for the spirits, not a glade in the woods."
"Unless... Unless the spirits are here?"
"No one's here apart from us, Dee."
Biting back her reply of 'don't use my pet name in public', she looked around the forest again. As if making sure that no spirits were hidden behind the trees. "That's just it, isn't it?"
"What?"
Ignoring Monkjack for the time being, she turned to face Oak. "I've thought about it.... And it only really makes sense if you're the spirit. Tell me, who are you?"

"I knew one of you would figure it out eventually. Infact, I believe that Miss. Kanaya has had suspicions for sometime, perhaps even some of the others had started to realize that I was not quite who I said I was... I am Logmarr, Elder Spirit of Logmarr Forest."

A figure stepped out from the undergrowth. "I am Svanhildr, another one of the Elder Spirits. You see, we were created to protect Aeris, nothing more and nothing less, despite whatever Logmarr has been telling you. At one point in time there used to be many spirits... But now most of them are still sleeping. There was an incident, and it became important that we should all be made to sleep, for our own safety. The danger that once threatened us passed a long time ago, and after waking up we came to the conclusion that it would be wise for us to retake our positions. A spirit guards each area of the island, those are the Elder Spirits, while any other spirits are merely spirits. Though many of them do guard over a particular thing, we used to have spirits of water and spirits of fire. There used to be hundreds of them! It is possible to re-awaken a sleeping spirit... You need one Spirit Lantern, a Vial of Blood and a Skull to do so. Once put together these will create a fixed form for any spirit."

"... Hence why the caverns were littered with such items."
"Oddin!" Svanhildr exclaimed, looking over at the white jackalope. Clearly she didn't expect to see him here.
He laughed, the lantern hooked around his antlers glinting in the sunlight. "I couldn't resist turning up for our grand reveal. It took me awhile to convince Fenris that it was a good idea." His happy expression faded slightly as he added. "He's still angry with me, you know."
"You can't blame him after what happened with Bjorn, even if it wasn't your fault. Give him time, you know how he keeps grudges." Logmarr said. "I assume that's why he isn't here today?"
"Oh, probably." Oddin replied airily, waving his paw. "But he can suit himself, if he's going to be as sulky as a petulant child then we clearly have no place for him."

Both Monkjack and Diesel stepped backwards as two more spirits arrived. Neither of them said anything, infact they were appeared to be slightly overwhelmed. Vincent, who had obviously vacated Logmarr's head, now sat on Monkjack, giggling at his dumbstruck expression.

"What the hell do you lot think you're doing? You've broke their brains!" Compared to the others, Bjorn was rather subtle. Her mousey brown coat flecked with ice crystals that never seemed to melt. The oddest thing about her appearance was her eyes, quite obviously she was blind. "Do you lot ever do anything properly? He's too busy being dramatic, she's too busy acting like know-it-all of the year and well," She said, turning to Oddin. "You, I don't even know what to say about you."
Oddin's expression turned sheepish. "I-"
"Save it for later." With that she turned to face the group, or atleast she turned to where she thought the group was. "I'm Bjorn. Yes, I know it's a boy's name, but that's my name. I knew, I shouldn't have let these guy's handle it by themselves. Anyway, we do exist and it took a hell of alot of gumption and nerve to actually come this far to find us. You should be pretty proud of yourselves all things considered."

"This is amazing." Diesel said to Monkjack after a moment. "This news is going to shake Aeris to it's core, and we're the ones who... We're the ones who get to be... Are you listening?"
"Does it matter?"
"What matter?"
"Whether we're the ones to break the news or not. I don't think we need the fame to be honest."
"Why ever not?"
"It's a bit silly really, and you're distracting me."
"Distracting you?" She echoed.
"Yeah from doing the classic hero sappy-bit at the end of the adventure after he's got the girl."
Diesel leant against the buck, her head finding a comfortable spot on his shoulder.

"I still think fame is a good idea."


(( Okay! So after so many posts, and a whole adventure, this is it! That's all, folks! Feel free to keep rping for a bit, as I'd love to see your character's reactions to this revelation, bit for now the actual plot is over and the spirits have been released. If you've got any questions, please post in the updates topic that will be posted as soon as I've finished writing this. <3 ))

[Talcen]

Upoon feelign a crackling in the air Xaviar opend his eyes again and spotted strange jackalopes of the like he had never seen before. Realizing that they were the spirits he immeadaitely flitted up into the air and smiled happily. They had did it! They had found the spirits! He flew about them and chittered happily as he looked them over and studied them. They were much like the ancient reapers he had met. Wise and kind and just. He introduced himself excitedly and bowed mid air. Once he had chatted with them for a while he finally found that he needed to go home and eat so he waved good bye and flew off to get some grub.

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