[crow]

A lion?! What the hell was a lion doing down here? He was not getting paid enough for this. "Holy shit," he whispered, unable to hold in his reaction. He was already backing away. Did he run? Would it chase him?

"Hey, I think that's... What are those gargoyle things called? Grun... Grondalith?"

"Mel, now is not the time. I think I'm about to get eaten," he hissed.

"No, listen to me! It's a Grondalith!" Melanie insisted, her tone beginning to color with annoyance. "They're made of stone, and they don't eat. They just... guard stuff. I think if you get away from whatever it's protecting, it'll leave you alone."

[Processed up to here]

[crow]

"So you're saying I should run," he murmured, still afraid to speak too loudly in case he provoked the thing into attacking him, somehow, by being too loud. The fact that they were made out of stone really wasn't as comforting as Melanie seemed to think it would be, and the fact that it was guarding something meant it had other reasons to try and kill him, even if it didn't eat.

"In a word yes," said Melanie.

"Great. Just making sure." That was all the excuse he needed to make a run for it, back up the way he came.

[crow]

It was a pretty good thing this path was flat and not sand, all things considered. It would've been pretty good regardless, but if he'd had to run uphill through sand, he wasn't sure he'd have made it out in time. Or alive, for that matter.

He wasn't really worried about seeing where he was going anymore. He'd mapped it; he knew if he ran straight, he could run for a bit, and right now his priority was getting away from the freaking lion as fast as his legs could take him. What had Melanie called it? A 'Grondalith'? Whatever it was, he had not signed up for this.

[crow]

"Coming up to the wall soon," said Melanie.

"I knew that." He wasn't even bluffing this time. Fabio was already slowing down, angling his flashlight forward properly again. He came to a stop just short of the wall, then pressed a hand against it, meaning to lean on it for support as he caught his breath. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong spot. He felt it give under his hand, and snatched it away with a start. "Ugh," he said feelingly. He'd inadvertently placed his hand on one of the growths carpeting the walls, and now he didn't know whether he needed to wash it, disinfect it, or burn it off.

[crow]

As he stared stricken at his hand, Melanie's voice came in over the comm again. "That was a close one for you, huh? Guess they weren't kidding about the cave beasts after all."

"For the record," said Fabio, still a little winded, "I never thought he was kidding about that. I just thought he was mistaken, since we haven't seen or heard anything until that thing showed up." His hand wasn't tingling, so maybe washing it was going to be enough. He'd do it if he had to, but he wasn't exactly jumping at the prospect of amputating his hand. He liked it too much for that.

[crow]

"What is this stuff anyway? Can you tell?" he asked. He was pretty close to the wall, so Melanie could probably make out the stuff growing on it fairly well. "I just touched it. I'm not about to die of some horrible disease, am I?"

"I didn't peg you for a hypochondriac," said Melanie. "I guess the dark must be getting to you."

"Hey, I'm not being a hypochondriac, I'm taking a genuine and totally reasonable concern in my health. I don't cave, and I don't know what you can find in caves, and the guy who sent us here didn't exactly look like the picture of wellness and hygiene. Would you call me a hypochondriac if I asked you to look up a snake after it bit me?" Fabio said.

[crow]

"Yes," said Melanie, immediately. He sighed. She would say that. "But okay, fine, I'll see what I can--- Hey, actually, hold on a second. Turn off your flashlight."

He could hear her typing over the comm, the quick excited kind that told him she might concievably be doing actual research on this. There was always a chance she'd just found a great sale or that she was playing a game instead, but given the context, she was probably looking it up. "Okay," he said, though he couldn't keep the dubious note out of his tone. "Here goes nothing." He switched off the flashlight, and waited. At first, nothing happened, as far as he could tell.

[crow]

He was about to ask her what the big deal was when he noticed that some portions of the walls seemed a bit... less solidly black than the others. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, he could see it more clearly. There were definitely patches of wall that were giving off a faint sort of light. It wasn't very strong--- certainly not strong enough to see by, meaning he was better off just using his flashlight anyway. But that certainly wasn't what he'd been expecting.

"Is this stuff... glowing?" he said.

"You bet, champ. Glow in the dark moss," Melanie replied.

Fabio rolled his eyes. "Don't call me 'champ', it makes you sound like a dad."

"I make no promises," said Melanie.

[crow]

"Anyway, it's completely harmless, so your hand is fine," Melanie said, which was all Fabio really needed to hear. Glowing moss was interesting, but ultimately not worth sticking around to watch once he'd seen it do its thing.

He made his way to where that last, slightly difficult to see tunnel was. "Guess that leaves this one," he said.

"Does it? You don't know whether the lake or the chamber with the Grondalith, was a dead end," Melanie pointed out.

She was right, but he shrugged. "I'm not going for a dip, especially not after finding out about the kind of things that live in this mess. And as for the Grondalith, if they're so curious, they can send someone else when I give them my map."

[crow]

"Where's your spirit of adventure?" Melanie said. "Or your work ethic, for that matter? If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well, you know!"

"Look, if you want to do it so bad, you can come down here and get mauled yourself," he replied.

"Nah. I just wanted to hear you scream again," Melanie said. He could practically hear the smirk in his voice, and bristled indignantly.

"I did not scream," he said.

She wasn't interested. "Yeah, yeah, just get on with the caving," she said. Much as he would have liked to argue his point further, he reminded himself that he did want to leave here today. He did as he was told, and started walking.

[crow]

He didn't stay walking for very long.

It started off as... just a bad sort of feeling. And then he became aware of an unpleasant smell. He kept going, hoping it would go away, but it didn't. It just... got stronger. It got so strong that he was holding his sleeve to his face, just so he wouldn't have to smell it anymore.

"Ugh, what is---" he said, just as he felt his boot crunch into something. He looked down.

Well, it was probably a good thing he was wearing boots.

It looked like... He'd seen rabbit poops, when he was a kid. It was like that, but smaller. If it didn't smell so bad, it might have been a lot like a pile of rice. But he was pretty sure it was just poop. "Ugh," he said. Then he looked back up, and realized with slowly dawning horror that an entire stretch of cave was filled with this stuff.

'Ugh' didn't even begin to cover this.

[crow]

He couldn't even rush through it. He had to pick his way through carefully, since there was so much of it, and the possibility of losing his footing here was very, very real. As it was, he proceeded as quickly as he could humanly manage.

About half-way through this nightmare, Melanie chimed in. "You've been pretty quiet for a--- Oh my god, is that guano?"

He didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. To open his mouth was to invite all these revolting little particles into it, which he wasn't going to do, because he wasn't an idiot. He focused on hurrying through, and eventually, eventually came to the end of that wretched stretch of tunnel at long and miserable last.

[crow]

"UGH," he said running away from the last of the guano and breathing in his first gulp of mostly fresh air. Or, well, stale air, but no longer scented with bat poop. It was a relief on multiple levels, since he'd been breathing as little as he could get away with thus far, even with his sleeve held over his nose.

"So, that was definitely guano then," Melanie said.

"Yes, thank you Professor Mel, very helpful," he retorted. He was absolutely not in the mood. "I cannot wait to get out of this stinking cave. Literally stinking," he added, for emphasis.

"Well, you're in luck, I think. Isn't that light up ahead? Maybe it's a way out," she said. And lo and behold, she was right! It did look like light.

"That's the most useful thing you've said all day," he said.

"I try," was Melanie's reply.

[crow]

At this point he didn't entirely trust it not to be some sort of trap. The caves were certainly giving him the run-around. Or... wait, no, that was for if people were lost, right? He wasn't lost, he had the map, even if he did have to draw it himself. And as much trouble as this place had been thus far, nothing was big enough for him to be lost in just yet.

Well, whatever was up ahead might change that.

[crow]

But it was light, and Melanie was right; it could be another exit. He hoped it was. He was starting to be pretty tired of being underground, and he wouldn't have said no to a way out if it was presented to him right this minute, that was for sure.

Whatever it was though, he hoped it wasn't a nasty surprise. A nasty, feces-related surprise. Was there glow feces? He didn't know, but he didn't want to be the first one to discover if it was.