[Silversky]

Asteri resisted the tempation to roll her eyes. Not everyone knew how to climb, she supposed. The Imperials had sent her scrambling up and down rocks and things often, so it was second nature to her. Unfortunatly, it seemed as if the Preitor Kuhna didn't really share her confidance.
Skirting around his question, she sighed, and explained, "Veritas, you have to put your paw on the rock first to make sure it will hold your weight, and then you can step onto it. Always keep your balance, and make sure that there's a way ahead of where you're going."
She scrambled down to another ledge, adding, "If you always concentrate on where you're going, you're never going to fall."
As soon as she said those words, Asteri stepped forward and her paw slid off the side of the ledge into a hole. With a yelp, the Kuhna slipped over the edge and started to slide down the crumbling stones.

[Silversky]

Veritas's eyes widened in alarm.
"Asteri!" he yelped, and tried to bound down the slope after her.
Of course, he only ended up falling.
The night whirled past him as he skidded down the rocks. Dust slipped through his fur and rocks scraped at him, rolling with him uncontrolably down the slope. Up ahead, a wide, level rock stuck out of the stones. Veritas skidded to a halt as he scrabbled with his paws to slow down. His tails hung off the edge of the ledge, and as he swung around to look out, he realized that he had almost fallen straight down off the ledge.
At first it was all he could do just to get his breath back. But then he remembered why he had almost fallen off the edge of a cliff.
"Asteri!" he called again, panicked and spinning around in circles, looking for the Reiz Kuhna.

[Silversky]

The Reiz Kuhna fell with a yelp of fear. Out of control she slid down the rocks, scrabbling for a pawhold but finding nothing. Asteri's heart raced. Somewhere above her she heard Veritas call out her name, and she hoped he hadn't tried to follow. It was bad enough that she herself was in danger.
Suddenly the stone leveled out, and Asteri finally had a chance to partially catch her breath. But then the ground fell out from under her and the Reiz Kuhna freefell into open space, the wind driving her breath into the chilly night air as whisps of fog.
She managed to look up for a second, and she spotted Veritas tumbling onto what, she now realized, was the edge of the slope. She hadn't known when they started climbing, but the crumbling stopped a ways up the cliff and Veritas was standing at the edge of a sheer rock face.
Asteri realized that she would never find the fallen star. She was going to die.
It's about time. I caused so much hurt for the others that it's only fair. Fate brought me here to get revenge.

[Silversky]

The darkness was a good thing. It kept the peace and quiet and it alowed Omega to process things more quickly and succesfully because there weren't as many distractions.
His 'eyes' flickered and a quiet whirring sound filled the small cavern he rested in. The size of the cave was decieving, however; Omega knew the complicated, winding, extensive  layout of the tunnel network in the cliffs by heart. Or by... well, by whatever it was that functioned as a Khalmar heart.
The Khalmar MK IV peered out of the opening to his cave. He didn't care about the stars or the night sky; why would he, with no feelings? No emotions? But this one night, something disturbed the normal workings of the darkness.
As a blurred shape fell past him, Omega reached out a tentacle and wrapped it around this... creature.

[Silversky]

He couldn't see Asteri anywhere.
Veritas bounded forward to the edge of the cliff, dreading what he might find, but there was nothing. She had simply dissappeared.
The Preitor Kuhna knew that he had to find her. It was the right thing to do, and he couldn't keep going after the fallen star untill he knew one way or the other.
Veritas looked at his paws, his head down, his tails dragging behind him. She had to be okay. It would be his fault if she wasn't.
He stumbled backward toward the rocky slope. She must be somewhere up there, he figured. She must be somewhere between here and the top. She was a better climber than he was, Veritas knew. Maybe she had managed to find a pawhold on the rocks when she slipped.

(...I really need to start keeping track of post count. Counting any posts they are mentioned in.[[V.19, A.20, O.1]])

[Silversky]

Asteri closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable darkness. But the impact was of a different source all together. Something curled around the Reiz Kuhna and pulled her from the side, out of her fall.
Her eyes shot wide open. Before she had time to react, Asteri was enclosed in complete darkness.
She opened her mouth to yell, but something held it closed. In the darkness, she could only make out something glowing in the darkness, an amber glow from somewhere in front of her.
A voice echoed through the cave. "I am not an enemy," it said, somewhat disjointed and mechanical. Asteri had never seen anything like this before. Desperately hoping it was telling the truth, she stopped strugling and the creature released her. It had stopped her fall, after all.

[[V.19, A.21, O.2]]

[Silversky]

Omega blinked his eyes and stared at what he had rescued. It was smaller than he was, and it was covered in fur. Why would you want to cover something in fur, rather than metal? Nature was flawed sometimes, he decided. Whoever had created him had done a better job.
The newcomer seemed scared, despite the fact that he had just saved its life. He attempted to reassure it, knowing that this helped most creatures trust you more. It would never work on him, of course. It appealed to emotion, while Omega had none.
"I am Omega," he said. "I am a Khalmar. What are you?"
It was best to learn all one could about something that was in a position to be either an enemy or an ally. Even though it seemed unlikely that this creature could hurt him in any way, Omega deemed it best to take a few neccissary precautions.

[[V.19, A.22, O.3]]

[Silversky]

Veritas decided to try climbing. Maybe that would help him find Asteri, if she was higher up the slope than he was. He padded toward the slope, seeing a route over to the side that was slightly less steep than what he had fallen down.
Then the ground opened from under him, and he fell a few feet below the Earth.
It happened so quickly that Veritas had no time to react. One moment he was walking on the stone, the next he was under it, looking up through a pitch-black darkness, and seeing no hole above him. He was sure, even though it made no sense, that he had fallen through the rocks.
Experimentally trotting around in a circle, he realized that the ground under him, at least, felt stable. But how could he have fallen through solid rock?

[[V.20, A.23, O.3]]

[Silversky]

"I... I am Asteri," stammered the Kuhna. "I'm a Reiz Kuhna. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, where- where exactly are we?"
It was a bit disconcerting, to be in almost complete darkness, with those eyes glowing, looking like they were staring right through you. By now, it was obvious that this thing, this Khalmar, was completely mechanical, but why would someone make a creature like that?
Asteri shivered as a chilly wind blew through the cave opening. She could barely see the stars from here, since they were so low to the ground that the trees were right outside.
Veritas! What had happened to him? Had he fallen too? Was he still on the rocks, looking for her?

[[V.21, A.24, O.4]]

[Silversky]

"We are in a cave," stated Omega. These creatures really were somewhat dim, if the couldn't figure that out. But then the Khalmar saw the Kuhna glaring at him, and he realized that she probably meant his answer to be more specific.
"We are in a cave that is part of a network of tunnels under this cliff," he ammended.
Asteri rolled her eyes. Apparently, the creature had gotten over its fear of him. The fear didn't make much sense in the first place, Omega decided, since he had saved her life.
The creature seemed to remember something. Its whole body tensed, and it looked out the cave enterence at the few visible stars.
"Veritas," it said. "Do you know where he is?"

[[V.22, A.25, O.5]]

[Silversky]

Veritas padded down the winding, twisted paths. This was going nowhere. He had barely even started, and he was already completely lost. The tunnels twisted and doubled back and split in all sorts of ways, and Veritas felt like he was in the world's largest, most complicated maze ever created.
He was getting tired now, too. He had no idea how to find his way back to where he had started, and he didn't know where Asteri was either.
Finally, in desperation, he called out, as loud as he could, "Hello? Is anyone out there? Help!!"
This might just bring harmful monster creatures, but at this point Veritas didn't really care.

[[V.23, A.26, O.5]]

[Silversky]

"Do you know where he is?"
Asteri waited anxiously for the Khalmar's reply. Her tails whipped around nervously, illuminating the cave with their fire. She squinted, looking at the mechanical creature carefully. Omega's aura was pure gray, at first, no more and no less than she would expect from something mechanical. But there was a light blue tinge around the edge, and a hint of dark red at the center. This surprised her; Omega seemed to be completely devoid of emotion. Maybe there was something deep in his programming.
"What is a Veritas?" asked the Khalmar.
Great. "He's my friend; he's a Preitor Kuhna."
Suddenly a call came from deep in the tunnels. "Hello? Is anyone out there?"

[[V.24, A.27, O.6]]

[Silversky]

"Veritas!" sqeaked the Kuhna, scrambling out of the cave and down a random tunnel. Other creatures could be so illogical.
Omega thought for a second, this being a very long time for him since he was a computer. He turned and followed the Kuhna. It would need assistance, to be able to get out of the mountain alive. The tunnels were difficult to navigate, especially for normal creatures.
Plus, the Kuhna was going the wrong way.
"As-ter-i?" called Omega. Amazingly, he actually heard the Kuhna slow down.
"It's the other direction."

[[V.25, A.28, O.7]]

[Silversky]

Veritas's ears pricked as he thought-- as he barely dared to hope-- someone called his name.
"Asteri?" he breathed. "Asteri!" the second call was louder, as he started running as fast as he could in her direction; anything to get out of these twisting, winding tunnels.
His paws carried him in what he was pretty sure was the right direction-- at least, until he heard something else speaking. He couldn't quite make out the words, but it definatly wasn't his new friend.
Taking a deep breath, he skidded to a stop, stinging his paws on the stone as he halted and waited to hear more.
"Asteri?" he called again, but this time it was almost a whisper, for fear of alerting whatever else was around.

[[V.26, A.29, O.8]]

[Silversky]

Asteri sighed and reversed her path, scrambling along through the caves and trying to hear Veritas again. Wait- there it was! He was calling her name!
As she barreled back down the corridor, she noticed the squid creature, Omega, slide out of the first cave and follow behind her. She didn't bother stopping to wonder why; she just kept going.
Suddenly, she skidded around a corner and ran right into something. Both Asteri and whatever had become her inadvertant speed bump tumbled onto the ground, and it wasn't until Asteri got to her paws that she realized that she had found Veritas.

[[V.27, A.30, O.9]]