as written by Steam Wolf and Peachy00Keen
"Wow," Karyyk said, staring into the cave, her voice echoing off the stony walls. "The light dies off pretty quickly, doesn't it...?"
"It does, but your eyes will adjust. We should be fine for a while, then we can talk over the light situation. If you're worried about getting lost, you can just hold my hand." There was a playful tone in his voice.
Without hesitation, she reached out and took his hand. "The last thing I want is to get lost in here." She squinted into the blackness ahead. "Will it be easy to get lost? Are you sure you know where you're going?"
"It would be almost impossible to get lost. I wanted you to hold my hand." He gave her hand a squeeze and lifted her hand to his lips.
Not letting go with her right hand, she pushed against his chest with her left, jokingly swatting him away. "Well, you're lucky I don't like caves." The light from the outside was almost completely gone. "How long will we be in here?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
She shuddered. "I suppose?"
"I told you. About a week."
"I thought that was total, including getting here!" Her voice echoed through the chambers.
"What did the twisted up string say after he'd ruffled his hair, Karyyk?"
Though he couldn't see her face, it was twisted in confusion. "What??"
"I'm a frayed knot."
Karyyk was silent. "Your sense of humor is most peculiar."
"Then you must be quite peculiar for fancying me."
She shrugged, "I suppose I am. I've followed a man I just met into the woods, did things I've never done, and then followed him further into a dark cave system to a land that may or may not exist because I've gotten tired of living the same lonely life."
"Well, you're an adventuress, now, aren't you?" His hand played lightly in hers. "We're both adventure-seeking travelers with mysterious abilities, possessed of skill, strength of character, and a curious nature. We're on a quest for knowledge of not only our own natures and origins, but of the world we live in. Ready?!" She could hear the smirk in his voice.
As the cave grew darker with each step, her confidence began to waver. "I mean, I suppose? But it's not like I've got much choice in the matter, now do I?"
"Nothing worth doing was ever easy." He leaned in and kissed her cheek.
Karyyk sighed, "I suppose you're right..."
They walked in silence for a time before she spoke up again. "Do you have any idea why things might have glowed last night? I've never seen it happen before, and I know I've bled in the moonlight in the past. I've never noticed a glow like that. What if it's the rocks?"
She brushed a hand along the cave wall. Nothing happened. She let go of Greg's hand and reached into one of the pockets of her bag and produced a rock she had gathered from the wall last night and held it in her hand.
Greg, unaware of why she removed her hand from his, slid to her side, putting an arm around her and trying to see what she was doing. "I haven't the slightest idea, Kary. My blood has never glowed before." By this time their eyes had adjusted as much as they could, meaning the darkness around them was pitch, entirely devoid of light from the outside.
Though Greg couldn't see it, she shook her head. "I don't think it was the blood, I think it might be something in the rocks..." She inspected the rock she held in her hands, "I just don't know why. ...Maybe something to do with my blood? I don't know..."
"Perhaps if you concentrate on the rocks the way you do when you use your healing..."
"But... You can't heal a rock, Greg. It's not the same thing...?"
"Just try. Focus your energy on the rock." He hurumphed. "So contrarian," in a good-natured grumble.
"This is so dumb..." Karyyk muttered as she linked arms with Greg and closed her eyes, enfolding the rock in her hands. She took a few deep, balancing breaths and imagined warmth and energy moving from her to the rock. After a moment, she spoke, keeping her eyes closed, but separating her palms a bit so the rock was visible to Greg. "I don't feel anything happening, I'm just getting a little headache," she said, continuing to focus the rest of her attention on the thought of a gently glittering stone, like she had seen last night.
Greg feigned shielding his eyes. "Oh my goodness! It's so bright! Look at it!" In reality, the stone only showed a faint glimmer, enough to light their way without hindering their night vision.
Karyyk opened her eyes with a deep sigh. Sure enough, the stone glittered as it had the night before. She had stopped putting energy into it, yet it continued to glow. As they walked on, the light didn't fade.
"I wonder if it picks up on residual magical energy or something. Yesterday, well, I didn't chop down those trees. That was why I was so exhausted, small trees as they may have been. I could have likely missed the glow of the rocks on the way up."
"True. This level of illumination would be invisible in the daylight. Still, it's a good thing you grabbed these rocks and brought them, isn't it? I wish I could channel my energy like you do."
He brightened, but not literally like the rock. "Oi! In Angrah, there are many old devices, like clock towers and street lamps that are powered by magical crystals. Perhaps this stone is related, somehow."
The bauble of light wavered excitedly in the dark. "I think it is! I've seen this glow before, now that I think about it! There's a village far to the east and up by the mountains called Keno. The buildings there glitter like this at night! I don't know how they power them -- I never thought about it and I only ever visited there once." She paused to think harder, trying to jog her memory. "Maybe... Okay, follow me closely here: Several towns have mill wheels. Most of them are just used to grind flour or whatnot, but the ones in Keno seemed to be turning something else that made lights turn on. I don't know how it works, but it made energy from the water." She paused to let Greg catch up to her train of thought. "Okay, now when I focus on magic, it makes me tired -- it uses my energy, right? What if the energy it takes to power magic and the energy it takes to light a bulb are similar enough that they could both work to make the stones glow?"
Karyyk paused again and mused for a moment. "You know, I remember hearing once, maybe twice, that a long, long time ago, Keno used to be some sort of central place that all other villages and towns were connected to. The routes I traveled from place to place seemed to suggest that they were connected at one point. What if everywhere used to have this energy and what if everything was once connected in one big... super-town, thing... A city? Is that what a city is?"
She let out a deep exhale. "I wonder what happened..."
"I don't know about this ancient city of yours, but that business with the crystals sounds more than likely. It sounds plausible. We can perhaps look into it more when we reach Angrah. For now, I'm just grateful for a glow rock. Relying on torches for a week is no fun, let me tell you." Greg gave her a reassuring pat on the back.
As they walked on the crystal slowly faded to a useless dimness after about an hour of walking, or so Karyyk guessed. "How do we know what time it is if we can't see the sun? And how do we know which way is out?" Her heart leapt and began racing, "Does anything live in here? Are there branching tunnels? Do the rocks creak? What about cave-" she let out a small yelp as she knocked her head against a low-hanging rock.
Greg winced at the sound and pulled her in, doing his best to check her head for injuries in the dim light. "Let me see. Are you all right?"
She rubbed her head where it had met the stone, checking her hand for blood. It came away clean. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just wasn't expecting that."
"It's time to go to sleep when we're tired. The way out is the opposite of the way we came. There are one or two branches, but they are off of large caverns and are to be ignored for our purposes. No, the rocks do not creak. Mostly, they drip. I dug through a pair of cave-ins to get through. We can simply widen the holes for you, dear."
"What if we get turned around," Karyyk asked, her voice tight and her fists growing tighter.
"We'll look for impact craters on the stalactites and we'll know you've been through." He nudges her playfully and lifts her hand to his lips.
Her initial instinct was to get defensive, but Karyyk caught herself before she could act on the impulse. You promised to hold yourself together. It's more open in here than you thought it would be, you have a source of light, and you're going to be fine.
Instead of getting upset, she cupped her hands around the stone again and let her energy that would have been frustration flow into the piece of rock.
Once it had started glowing more brightly again and her vexation had passed, she finally decided to speak:
"If I have to keep powering this glowing stone, won't I likely tire faster? Do you know where the next cavern is?"
Her faith in his navigational skills was questionable at best, though he had yet to lead them astray. She wasn't entirely sure what it was they were going to see on the other side of the mountains. More villages? Nothingness? No, he had said something about a city...
"What's out there, on the other side of the tunnels?" she inquired.
Greg stroked her back in what he hoped was a soothing manner and answered her questions in a reassuring tone. "I don't know if you'll tire faster. If you do, we shall simply have to take more frequent breaks. The next cavern is about two days' journey from the mouth of the cave, so about a day and a half, now."
Karyyk let out a long groan.
"On the other side of the tunnels is wilderness, then towns, the Angrah City. On the other side of those tunnels are friends and adventure, and a distinct lack of xenophobic imbeciles. On the other side of those tunnels is the face of true civilization. You'll see. I'm eager to show you, Kary."
"What if the friends don't like me?" she asked, completely missing the comment about xenophobes. "What if I don't fit in? I am very tall after all."
"Most of our doorways are as accommodating as the people. My friends will like you just fine, though we may wish to attire you a bit differently for when you're, 'in town' to avoid the shock of a leather-clad armored woman in the middle of the city."
Karyyk's disposition brightened a bit.
"Once, when I was younger -- when I was in Keno, actually -- I met a young man and we hit it off. He was from a wealthy old-blood family in the town, and he invited me to a sort of gala-type event with food and music and dancing and romance..." she trailed off in reminiscent thought before snapping back to reality a moment later. "Anyway, for this gala, he had this gorgeous gown tailored for me. It was the most beautiful piece of clothing I had ever worn. When it came time for me to leave, he insisted I take it with me. I told him that I had no place I could possibly wear it outside of that town, so he had it made into a sash for me. I still keep it with me when I travel. It's a sort of comfort item, I suppose you could say." She beamed with the fond memory of her past adventures. "I wouldn't mind wearing something made of soft fabrics again. The closest I get are the cloths woven for me by Saffa, though even those were coarse as hair by comparison."
"In my fifty years, I've managed to put aside a modest, well, fortune. Fortune may be exaggerating." He paused, thinking. "We won't be uncomfortable while we're in the city. That much I can promise you. You shall have, my dear, at least three gowns of whatever fabric you fancy, and I'll not hear a word of protest on the topic."
Her face flushed. Was he doting on her? It felt like doting. She'd never experienced that before. I thought only the pretty young maidens got that sort of attention...
"Really?" she managed to gasp, pushing her fluttering thoughts aside. "I mean, judging by the garments you arrived in, I can only imagine how many wonderful colors and varieties must exist where you're from. More than I can imagine, I suppose." Karyyk bit her tongue, resisting the urge to ramble on further in her sudden excitement.
"That is what is on the other side of the tunnel, Karyyk. Dresses. So many dresses. And matching shoes." He grinned wickedly.
She snorted, "But where would I wear these dresses? What does one wear when they are not going to a gala? What do people, well, do? Are there trades like in Parth -- barkeeps, blacksmiths, and the likes?"
"Do you want me to tell you now to keep your mind occupied? I think I can get you through a decent primer on Angrah City before we emerge."
"Please, do!" she exclaimed with enthusiasm. "I want to know about this place. This trip is like taking an adventure into a tale of wonder and fantasy. I can barely believe it -- I may not truly until I see it, but hearing about it does keep my mind off of what might be in these tunnels or... well, anything to do with these tunnels, really."
"Well, you've never seen a city before, so I suppose I should begin there. Imagine a large town, then surround it with other towns of the same size. Now, that central town has been around the longest. It has the most industry, the most tradespeople, the most shops. As a result, there are people who live in these surrounding towns, but work and trade in the first town at the center." He gesticulates as he continues.
"Over time, that first town builds more, until the shops and taverns are crowded together, flanking the streets. Now, these streets see a lot of traffic from carriages and feet, and we can't have dust flying everywhere, so we make roads using stones that fit together, like a wall on the ground. All the streets are like this."
The main town becomes so important and so full of commerce and activity that it needs to accommodate people all day and night. Then you have the need for street lamps, magical crystals perched atop pillars of metal and encased in glass."
"NOW, imagine that the same thing gradually happened to all the towns around the main town, but to a lesser extent. More towns are built around those towns and so on. What you wind up with it a very busy and compact center that slowly tapers off into what we call suburbs, short for sub-urban, towns that still 'belong' to the city. After the suburbs, things taper off more until you're walking a road to towns which are no longer part of the city."
"Did you follow all that?"
"Like the crystals in Keno, I bet!" she jumped in when Greg mentioned street lamps. Karyyk nodded in the bobbing light of her light-bearing stone. "It sounds so busy! Are people nice? Is it scary? Where do you live? What are the buildings made of? Do they sparkle like Keno?" Her enthusiasm was almost tangible.
"Some people are nice and others are not. I can't promise there won't be people who mention your stature, but I can promise you that most people in the city will be far too polite to comment on it. Some will show obvious interest, others may ask you where you're from and if you know other people your height. None of them will try to drive you out of town or accuse you of being evil."
"The city can be scary, I'll warn you. Not in the sense that you'll fear for your life, but in the sense that the activity and pace of the city may be intimidating. Don't get the wrong idea, though; it's a wondrous place."
Greg took a deep breath and continued. "I live near the center of the city in what is known as a town home. It's narrow, but quite tall. The buildings are made of wood, stone, and plaster. They do not, on the whole, sparkle."
Again, he paused for thought. "The city proper is about ten times the size of Parth, if we're only considering the ground level."
"Ten times??" she gawped. "How is that even possible? How many people must live there? How do they all fit?"
"Oh, probably a few thousand people. Most who live in the city proper reside in flats, which are like small one or two-room homes arranged in a grid and accessible by outdoor walkways and staircases. I live further out and have considerably more space to myself than that. I also own my home rather than rent it."
"If it is your home, though, how do you not own it? Are these flats like rooms at an inn?"
"Yes, but if rooms at an inn were to cost less per day and were charged for monthly. Then you set them up as your home."
"Oh," she mused; "curious." They walked along a bit further. Karyyk had lost all sense of time by now. Had they been in there a couple of hours? Several? Had the sun set?
Another thought tugged at her mind. "Greg, how will I pay for things? Your currency looked so different from mine, when I saw it earlier. Actually," she held the glowing rock in one hand and fished through a pocket with the other, eventually producing the Angrahitian coin and holding it out to Greg, "Here. This is yours."
"You paid for my drink. It's yours. As far as your currency is concerned, we can simply turn it in for the value of the metal and get local currency, if you like. Otherwise, you really shouldn't worry about paying for things. I'm taking care of you for now, and eventually I'm sure our adventures will turn a profit, at which point you'll have your own money to use."
She shook her head adamantly, "I won't let you pay for everything. Teach me a trade or help me find a place where my skills can be useful. I don't want to be dependent or be a burden. I want to be as much a part of this as you are being, or at least as close as I can be."
"Look, Kary. I am not trying to make you feel as though you aren't contributing anything, but what trade would I teach you that wouldn't require years of study? When we start traveling in The North there will be plenty of times when your skills will be necessary and essential. Already, you've helped me by providing all of our food, gathering wood, making rocks glow, mercilessly tearing down innocent trees. Calm down, dear. It's really not as uneven as you seem to think."
"But when I get there, I don't want to stagnate. I've done my sitting time, and I don't want to do it again. Aren't there, I don't know..." she searched for a useful skill of hers that could apply to a more organized society, "healers or something of the sort where you're from?"
"If you insist, certainly. I can introduce you to a healer or two. There's also smithing. Any smithy in town would be chuffed to have you helping them with that strength of yours."
She pondered; "I have helped Jiol on occasion, but other than that, I don't know much about the profession. That being said, I would be happy to learn if they'd be willing to have me there. I do take up a lot of space."
"You're going to live with me, obviously. I have more than enough room in my house."
"Oh..." she replied quietly, sheepishly. "I suppose I hadn't considered that. How very kind of you. Thank you."
"Darling... of course. I have rather a sizable bed, but even if you wish to sleep separately, I'll simply make up the bed in the study for you."
There was another lull in conversation as they walked. It felt like three hours or more had passed since they entered the cave by now.
"Can you tell me more about what sort of fun things go on?" she timidly brought the subject of fun and extravagance back around. "Are there ever any galas?"
"Of course there are. I will gladly take you to any society events you wish to investigate. We'll get you properly attired and I shall take on the task of coaching you in those matters, if that's agreeable to you."
"Can you tell me more about some of them? I like thinking about that while walking. It all still seems so fantastical to me, so unreal." Had there been enough light in that dark cave, Greg would have noticed a new twinkle in her eyes. A glimmer of hope and excitement for a new start in life, or, as it felt, a new life altogether.
"Just... bear in mind that the sorts of people who attend those things also have their bad apples. Your unusual size may draw attention to you, which is why it will be particularly important for you to learn protocol and comportment. It may not be fair of them, but they will be watching you closely."
"And it isn't simply your size, either, but the fact that you are new to the area and culture and hail from foreign parts. Some of them can be rather judgmental. Don't misunderstand, though, most of them are kind people who will enjoy your company a great deal. I just want you to know that a thick skin may, on occasion, be necessary."
"I think you know fairly well how thick skinned I can be," she said, giving him a knowing look through the dimly-lit blackness.
"Well... it'll probably be the women who give you the most trouble, mostly because I imagine you'll get a lot of attention from the men. You're very beautiful, after all, and it'd be difficult to get any man in the room to tear his attention away from a woman as gorgeous as you are who also towers over the crowd."
"I'm kind of like a big tree..." she snickered, "tall, unmoving, and--"
"Majestic." His hand tightened on hers for a moment. "You really have no concept of how incredibly stunning you are, do you?" Greg let out a low growl and suddenly pressed her to the wall of the cavern, capturing her lips with his. "By the gods, Kary. I adore you, you know that?" He took the glowing stone from her and held it up near her face. "You have the most beautiful features." His other hand slid down her torso and the growl in his voice became a silken rumble. "Soft where you aught to be and rock hard everywhere else. How is it that nobody has ever told you this? You're an intoxicating woman."
For once in her life, the large woman giggled. "Probably because I never opened up to anyone enough for them to consider me anything but a threat before." She shrugged, brushing his unruly hair back from his face. "Now, however, I don't believe would be a particularly great spot to stop and explore all those..." she hesitated, "'intoxicating features.' We should probably keep moving for as long as we can."
She sighed. I never imagined expressing feelings would be so difficult...
"As charming as you are, Greg, I will love you all the more if you get me out of this damn cave sooner rather than later. I assure you, I'll be much more... willing once we're back where I can see the sky."
"Ngh. Any spot is a great spot for me to lay my hands on you, Karyyk." He slid both hands down and back, giving her behind a firm squeeze. "As you say, though, we should keep moving until it's time to set up camp for the night. Rest assured, however, that I will be bringing up this particular topic again once we do, my towering vixen." He gave her neck another short peck, then reluctantly peeled himself off her, taking her hand in his and placing the glowstone back in her other.
She let out a sigh of combined relief and frustration as Greg backed away and they continued wandering. Repeating a familiar anxious motion, she passed the glowstone to her occupied hand and rubbed the free hand along the back of her neck.
"So.... Where are we going to rest for the, well, I assume 'night' if the nearest cavern is over a day's walk from here?"
She let go of his hand and spread her arms out, touching both walls.
"Either we walk for another day without rest then catch up on our rest in the cavern, or we sleep here in the tunnel, where it's more difficult for you to evade my amorous attentions. Rawr."
Karyyk brought her arms back to her side, making sure to elbow Greg in the process. "You certainly are persistent... Like I said, though. The sooner we get out, the better. And, I don't know about you -- doubtful you'd care -- but the idea of doing such things in a cramped, rocky environment that I'm absolutely terrified of really doesn't float my boat. Sorry," she hesitated ever so slightly, "dear."
"Mademoiselle, I have methods of enhancing the buoyancy of your craft, I assure you." He gave her a canny grin and bit his lip.
"Stars above..." she muttered, placing her head in one hand, "No, Greg. We keep moving."
"Yes, dear." He gave her an exaggerated pout. "Forced march to the cavern it is, then."
They trudged on through the tunnels for what seemed like eternity, passing conversation here and there and Karyyk avoiding most of the low-hanging rock formations. Eventually, the walls widened and the ceiling opened into a sizable cavern. Karyyk focused on he glowstone and willed it to glow even brighter, but it didn't get any brighter than it had been before. Exhausted, she paused for a moment, thought, and then set the rock down. She was somewhere in the middle-ish of the cavern.
Making sure the ground beneath her was mostly even, she sat down.
"Greg, sit down with me. I want to try something," she said into the darkness.
"I was going to unpack the firewood and start setting up, but certainly." Greg reshouldered the large pack and headed over to her. He wondered briefly if she was feeling any better now that they were in a more open section of the passage.
Once he was sitting beside her, she offered her near hand to him, palm up.
"Take my hand in yours and place the other one on the ground," she said. "I'm not sure if this will work or if I can even explain it well enough to make it work if it can... but here's my idea. If we both try to imagine the cavern glowing like that rock I've been carrying does -- since they're from more or less the same area -- maybe we can get the cavern to light up the same way."
"I like where you're going with this, but considering the amount of energy it took you to light up that rock, couldn't lighting the whole cavern knock us out for days?"
She hadn't considered that. "Maybe... maybe if we only put a little bit of energy into it? Kind of like, well, probing. Honestly, I'm just curious."
"Well, all right. I just hope you're this adventurous in other aspects of our association." He smirks.
Karyyk elbowed him again, "you're so impatient. One thing at a time: experimental glowy rock... things; get out of caves; figure out what's on the other side; playtime." She winked against the soft light of the stone.
He hurumphed half-heartedly. "I already know what's on the other side, and I noticed that your glowy rock experiments and your gettings-out-of caves are taking priority over my very important avenues of scientific inquiry."
"'Scientific inquiry,'" she snorted. "What's to say my experiments aren't also driven by a similar curiosity. You and I both are faced with new opportunities that we're eager to explore the boundaries of. Perhaps we share the same interests, though in varying degrees..."
She yawned. "The sooner we give this a go, the sooner we can go to sleep, wake up, and get out of here."
"Oh, I intend to explore far more than just the boundaries." He gave her a playful shove and pecked her on the cheek.
"Stars and stones," Karyyk muttered as she closed her eyes and settled into her meditative position.
"It's your fault for being so gorgeous."
"Focus, tiny man," she smirked.
"I am focused, just not on the same things. Let's do the rock thing." He stared hard at the ground. "Rocks... activate!" He paused. "Nothing,"
"No, no. Follow my lead."
She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, closing her eyes. "Breathe deep and just clear your thoughts. Imagine the whole cavern just lighting up." She faltered briefly, unsure how to explain the process. "Imagine the warmth and energy moving from your body into the stone..."
Karyyk had no idea if what she was telling him was making any sense, but she was curious to see what would happen, even if that meant nothing at all.
Greg did so without hesitation, not entirely unfamiliar with a few forms of meditation. Once his mind was in a meditative state, he did as she bid him.
They sat like that for maybe a minute until Karyyk squeezed her hand. "Greg, look..."
The cavern around them had begun to faintly glow with veins of shimmering golden light.
"I guess that answers my question," she almost whispered, captivated by the sight. She attempted to stand but found her knees protesting the push against gravity.
Greg, equally drained, tossed the pack away a few feet and curled up against Karyyk. "It's very beautiful. I'm glad we tried the glowing stone thing. Glowstone. The glowstone thing. Anyroad, I'm glad. Goodnight." He fell dead asleep on the spot, nuzzling her shoulder.
Karyyk curled around him. "Goodnight," she mumbled, burying her face in his hair and promptly falling asleep.
