[AnimeTheia]

Once Yume finished having his drink, he stretched and yawned loudly. Then bounced up on his feet again and pranced over to the faintly mushroom lit tunnel, looking back over his shoulder he glanced at the others and raised one ear giving them a look as if to say 'Are you ready to go on?'.

Maji meanwhile had curled herself up into a soft fuzzy looking ball, and was gently snoozing as she waited for everyone to be ready, some sixth sense seemed to tell her that Yume was up and eager to go on, and she opened her eyes just as he was looking over his shoulder. Stretching and yawning silently she stood and started to head over to join Yume.


((Ach, sorry I have been so slow at replying recently, I really don't have any good excuse for being so lax , and sorry the post is so crummy too))

[Knightdaniru]

((Don't worry about it. I've been a tad lazy too. XD))

The thing with putting mushrooms in the lantern, they hardly held still like the flame. Once she put the glass cover back over it, the mushrooms rolled and rattled as she walked. They weren't horribly loud, but it sure made her want to run. Why not the much more savage akails? They lived in  nothing but shadow, surely their hearing was better than hers.
When she kept reminding her self to move the tail it was hooked onto as little as possible it helped though, so she sighed and nodded at Yume in reply to his unspoken question.

Gail shook her coat off when she was done drinking and watched the others head to the enterance to the next tunnel before following. This place was interesting. Surely they were getting close.

[AnimeTheia]

It got darker as they entered the tunnel, though both the sparse mushrooms dotted along the walls of the tunnel and the mushroom lantern certainly helped and at least they weren't walking in the pitch darkness again.

As they walked Maji's ears kept flinching at a strange sound that seemed to be coming from behind Zeira, every now and then something rattled quietly and Maji didn't like not knowing what it was. Scowling darkly she trotted ahead next to Yume where she felt safe and tried her hardest to ignore the noise, though her ears twitched faintly every now and then betraying her. Yume however wasn't paying any attention to the rattling noise, he had noticed the mushrooms rolling about before so unlike Maji he knew what the sound was, he was pleased that she had joined him and a big grin found it's way on to his face.

[Knightdaniru]

((Sorry it normally takes me so long. Lack of sleep has been getting to me, I guess))

Zeira was now almost in the back, only infront of Gail who was still trailing behind. Not that she cared much. It would be a while till they found something, and it was best to just pad along silently, or as silently as they could get, and hope to find some clues to aid them on their hunt. So far, the odd mushrooms were staying lit and she hadn't needed to change them as of yet. Though she still wished there was something to tie them down, or atleast pad them in the metal container.
Gail seemed to have gotten over any fear. This wasn't the dark cave she had come to fear. This wasn't the cave where it was empty and cold with nothing but blank stone walls forming an impossible labyrinth. No, this was something from those fairytales she heard on occasion when she was a kit. Magical in a way. Glowing decomposers and a crystal pond of cave water? Surely they were getting close to some amazing discovery, whether it was the Akails they were looking for, or something undiscovered intirely.

[AnimeTheia]

The magical feel to the place seemed to have calmed Yume down immensely, he walked at a sedate pace and did not hum or chatter. It was as if the cave had called to his very nature and soothed away his odd quirks. Maji however seemed to dislike the place, yes it was beautiful and yes she did like being able to see but there was something about it that unnerved her and it wasn't just that rattling noise that she had still failed to place. She stared keenly ahead ignoring the beauty that surrounded her looking for Akail trails or indeed trails of something unknown, she felt that this place could easily hide some unwholesome monster without anyone even knowing of it's existance for eons. However she hid her dark suspicions and made it look as if she was merely being very attentative and looking for Akails as that was the reason they were here after all.

[Knightdaniru]

Everyone seemed to have calmed down, Zeira noticed. Yume was actually staying back with them instead of prancing way off ahead. Maji seemed to have stopped trying to get under Gail's skin for the time being. Even Gail seemed to have stopped freaking out, and actually now had a look on her face like a kid on their first trip to a carnival or something. Pure awe in wide eyes.
Something was unnatural about this cave though. Gail knew this well enough. Most caves were unpredictable. Randome spears of rock hanging from the top or stabbing from the floor. side tunnels that wound and curved and went absolutely no where but no one cared because they would be too narrow to climb in. And not only exits to the side, but top and bottom as well. She knew legends of there being cities of crystal in these caves, but this seemed like the whole set was manmade (or something made) instead of carved out by water or what ever was supposed to make caves.

[AnimeTheia]

Dissapointingly Maji still had not seen any evidence of Akails or any other kind of creature that may be living in these deep dark caves and it had been so long since Yume had mentioned finding some tracks; which had then led them all the way down here. She was starting to wonder if Yume had been wrong, or if they had somehow missed a side tunnel back when they could barely see. But then maybe she was wrong, maybe they were heading in the right direction and the Akails were more skilled at hiding their existence than she thought, she would have imagined that such big creatures would be incapable of simply vanishing without a trace, but evidently they were more capable of doing that then she thought, otherwise they would have found the Akail's lair by now.

[Knightdaniru]

Maji and Yume walked on, and Zeira would've if Gail hadn't alerted her. "Zee? What's that?" The feline had whispered at her friend as she noticed an odd pattern in the wall. The glow from the mushrooms seemed to dim out too quickly. Like how it looked on the air, not on the wall. It was on oddly shaped opening that looked more like a slight concave instead of an actual path, but upon further inspection, the two found it was another path. It would be a bit narrow for the likes of Gail, but her fears were begginning to subside a bit from this experiance. And it could be a neccissary place to look.
"Hey! Maji, Yume! Hold up!" Zeira called ahead when they were certain it was an branch off. "We may've found something!"

[AnimeTheia]

Maji halted as Zeira called her and Yume's names, turning she looked back to see what the others had found, it seemed that they had missed a side tunnel in the dark. Yume sprang over and began sniffing all around the entrance his ears pointing towards the hole hoping to pick up some sort of trace of sound or smell. Standing he shook his head slightly dissapointed, but it was no real surprise as they hadn't found any Akail evidence for a long time and it didn't mean that they were on the wrong track just that they couldn't confirm it was the right one. Joining the group Maji stared into the new smaller tunnel "Well we may as well give it a go".

[Knightdaniru]

((So sorry it took so long. Lack of sleep is not good on my ability to be accountable and come up with something good to post @_@ XD))
Zeira happily found her place instep behind Maji going down the side tunnel. It was an advancement from the boring corridor that she would never remain in forlong if she was an akail. So Yume didn't find anything of interest at the enterance to it. It wasn't like Zeira knew him well enough to trust his sences anyways. They would find something down here. She had to keep thinking that.
Gail remained to the back as the others went through. Just because her fears were starting to subside did not mean they were gone. But she followed none the less, the thrill of the search getting to her still.

[AnimeTheia]

Maji moved silently down the tunnel, she felt odd down here, like the air itself was different, like the pressure was either dropping or increasing as they walked further and further into the earth. Images of molten rock and brilliantly lit caverns full of towering stalagmites and precarious looking stalagtites came unbidden to her mind, she had heard strange stories about what the centre of the planet was supposed to be like (though she didn't know how anyone knew if nobody had actually been there) and her imagination was starting to run away with her. She felt as if she was stepping into the realm of fantasy and legend. Pausing briefly Maji shook her head violently trying to clear the feeling and strange sights from out of her mind, then she continued on with a troubled look of fierce concentration as she tried hard to stop her mind from straying where she didn't want it to go again. Yume hurried forward and lay a wing upon her head, somehow he managed to keep walking without faltering as he entered Maji's unconscious and rounded up the stray thoughts for her and secured them in a deep dark corner of her subconscious; where it would take them a while to break free again. Maji sighed with relief and smiled up at Yume, a rare genuinely happy smile.


((I was wondering where you had vanished off to XD - and sorry I know this is a pretty random post, it's all my mind could come up with :/ ))

[Knightdaniru]

((XD, no prob. I'm sorry I'm not very active lately, but I doubt I'm doing much better creativity wise.))
It was getting tireing. Zeira found herself trying not to revert to the complaining little pup. I'm tired, I'm hungry she would whine. Yeah... no. But it was pathetically boring. They weren't finding what they were looking for, and her paws /were/ getting sore. She was giving up before Gail? No way that would happen. Sure theres a first time for everything, but this wasn't going to be it.

The cave was beggining to look more like your cliche cave, Gail noticed. Stalagtites and stalagmites surrouned, though for the life of her she couldn't tell which was which, and she found herself watching who ever was in the lead to make sure they didn't fall down a hidded bottom-side tunnel. She highly doubted someone would be kind enough to put a latter in one of those in this cave...

[AnimeTheia]

Yume and Maji were still walking side by side as they wound their way through the stalagmites that spiked up from the floor of the cave, as the walked Maji stared upwards at the stalagtites hoping that they wouldn't just randomly fall and crash down on them. Yume however did not seem concerned, in fact he started behaving childishly again, prancing around and gliding with his wings, he seemed happy as if he had known that Maji was upset with him from much earlier, though he couldn't fathom why, and she seemed to have finally forgiven him. Maji was indeed much happier than usual, despite her concerns about where exactly they were headed, she had forgotten her anger over the Invert Myu Reaper back at the zoo and had even given up bickering with Gail, all in all she was practically ecstatic if you took into account that this was about as happy as she ever got...

((Ahh, i'm soo sorry, for some reason I thought I had already replied to this and that I was waiting for you to reply   ))

[Knightdaniru]

((Ah, don't worry. Atleast I'm no longer the only one feeling guilty in slowing this thread down. XD))
Even gail noticed the mood lifting in her traveling companions. It deffiantly made Maji seem like less of a threat. Though as they were in cold depths of a cave-like cave now, the source for such joy was quite unknown to the still nervious feline.
The glowing mushrooms were still lighing the lantern well. Up ahead, the Younyuu seemed to be darting about at the edge more like a shadow. Back to being hyper? But the seemingly contagious mood, though Gail was appearantly immune, affected Zeira. More with optimism than just joy though. They had to be getting so close...

[AnimeTheia]

Yume pranced about, dancing around the large stalagmites that seemed to grow up out of the floor, every now and then he would flutter up to the low ceiling and study the stalagtites and then glide in a winding path between them back to the floor, he was getting well ahead of the others again.

The cavern seemed to have grown quite large and with the aid of the mushrooms that created random pools of blueish light in the otherwise pitch black and the cold damp air the place was rather eerie.

Maji shivered, she had difficulty keeping herself warm at the best of times and the damp in the air seemed to be getting into her fur, she considered wrapping her long warm tails about her body but seeing Gail out of the corner of her eye thought better about it, knowing that if she did she would look like a most comical walking fluffball. So she struggled on feeling the cold and damp creeping deeper and deeper into her fur.