Bremen indeed hadn't been looking at the creature's attempts to pry their light source off the wall, but that wasn't to say the action had gone unnoticed. Though small the lizard-bat's body was quite sufficient to block most of the light the baubled gem had been providing the room, revealing a second source of light deeper in. The tunnel deeper into the den was much more dimly lit than the main room, but something about the quality of light coming from that doorway carried an otherworldly feel.

The hybrid froze in his tracks as his long neck twisted his head side to side in intrigue. Lights came back on as his friend stopped trying to lift the orb from the wall but still Bremen's gaze stayed affixed to the door and he began moving forward, rounding the two corners and entering a long dimly lit hallway.

"Flying friend, are you sure you want to leave this place? It's so pretty." he softly called back.

Stretched out before him was a vast array of smooth dark stone, upon which glowing runes of all different colors were inscribed. Red, blue, green, purple, brown, white... from floor to ceiling in seemingly arcane patterns. At the end of the hallway a giant opaque quartz crystal stood silently, surrounded by multiple layers of lines and symbols in a circle.

To the side of the circle in a pile five drawstring bags- four the size of a large grapefruit and one almost as large as Bremen's body.

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Imp

Imp turned, peering, the rapt wonder in Bremen's voice lost on him. He quickly hurried in, shouldering his way through the tunnel and into the next room. He hadn't even seen this place--and the runes!

"Whoa! Look at these things!" he said--and then, quickly following up with a sidelong glance to Bremen--"I forgot I put those there."

The crystal, he noted at once, was too large for him to carry. The runes were stuck to the damn wall, so he could hardly take those with him.

He hurried over to the bags, instead. "Oh, I almost forgot--the-..." He opened them quickly with curved claws, sniffing at them. Black powder. Black chunks. "...things. Important things," he concluded, and then proceeded to pick up the bag of charcoal dust. He hadn't a clue what it was, let alone what it was for, but a creative (and mischievous) mind could certainly find a use for it.

"I definitely need this one," he concluded, with a sort of knowledgeable self-importance. He'd have taken more, but it was tough to carry things--a box, and a bag--with nothing but feet and teeth to aid him.

He checked the third bag, just to be safe--oh. Whoops. This one was full of glowing sticks. Okay, that was much more interesting. Imp promptly dropped the charcoal and picked up this bag, instead. "...I meant this one," he "corrected" himself.

@Bremen

"You're really talented" the small oddity complimented as he walked up to one of the tunnel walls and lifted himself up onto back paws to get a closer look. It was tough to say if the symbols held any meaning or if they were just pretty designs but they had definitely been drawn with a practiced hand as consistent as they were.

His friend didn't seem to have the flexible forelimbs to allow them to draw very well so they had probably either figured out how to draw by holding chalk in their mouth or were one of those gembound who could move things with the power of their thoughts. Psychic gembound were always intriguing to Bremen as he personally just had the ability to make gusts of wind and bananas and noise and... actually he could do quite a bit now that the thought about it.

"Oh, good idea, you don't want to forget those! You know these are really neat looking. You don't need to be shy and hide your art in here." he encouraged as he hopped over toward the bags and began looking through the unclaimed ones. Weird dried plants, lots of empty space, black powdery... rocks? Oh! He could put the big empty bag on his back to carry those white talc rods and put the black rock bag around his neck since those would probably make good dye too. It was too bad the lizard-bat was taking the glowy talc but they did belong to them after all so it was only fair.

"You have a real talent that the gembound of the caves would appreciate. Imagine how happy it would make people to walk past a pretty mural among the glowy moss in Tunnel N as they traveled from Orion to Polaris."

Not too many people took that route these days though. Probably because of the murder goose. A little art might make the murder goose happy enough to stop murdering so much though. The perfect plan! World peace through lovely artwork.

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Imp

Imp listened. Only the faintest and most distant trickle of guilt struck him, now--they were, apparently, stealing from an excellent artist. He glanced around, one last time, at the colorful runes. Ehh, whoever it is, they abandoned this place a long time ago. My stuff now. --I just hope they don't come back and aren't super powerful or something, he thought, as an idle mental sidenote.

At Bremen's suggestions, however, his eyes lit up.

"That's--you're a genius!" he squeaked, clutching the shining rods closer. He would go forth, into the caves, and draw ridiculous things all over them. Astraea, with poop on his head! Raheerah, sad and alone! Himself, eating Nemean! And no one would ever guess who had done it!

Quickly, he scurried out to grab his box, and into this he shoved the glowing talc rods. He gripped them in his hind talons as best he could, glancing back with a blink toward Bremen. As much of a troublemaker as he was, he wasn't out to get anyone killed, and if whoever this was came back, poor Bremen might get slaughtered. So, he gave the hybrid a warning. "Hey, uhh, don't hang around too long. Sometimes this place--" he paused. "Explodes."

...That'd do.

With an affirming nod he turned, wings flapping as he quickly hauled his way out of the narrow tunnel, and into Monoceros beyond.

exit Imp
@Bremen

Bremen let out a trill of delight as the new friend liked his idea of going out and filling the world with artwork. He'd just come out here for dye ingredients for a bit of adventure but thanks to his encouragement of the odd artist he'd actually managed to make the caves a little brighter.

"I look forward to seeing your work!" he added with excitement as he ducked his head through the drawstring loop of the charcoal chunk bag and let it slip around his long neck. Not too heavy at all.

Now for the big bag. it had a really long leather strap on it that seemed like it might have originally been used to hold all the bags together. With a little work he could probably use that strap to secure the bag to his back. As the new friend scurried away and said goodbye Bremen lay down and began to poke and pull at the project with his flexible feline forepaws.

Wait... explode?

All of a sudden the runes along the wall looked a lot more menacing. Were... were they magical explosive runes? Had they been put there to keep thieves out? Bremen didn't know of any magic that had conditions like 'explodes if intruder is detected' but with as many types of magic as there were who was to say that this wasn't a defense mechanism. How long did he have before the magic armed itself again?

Rip, pull, loop, tie, secure, test, reinforce, cross over. The little hybrid worked as quickly as possible as the threat of fiery death enclosed him, but in the end he was able to reform the leather bag into a leather backpack that would fit neatly between his wings. It might not have been the easiest to get into or out of but having something like this would make transporting small items much easier.

The hybrid rushed out of the tunnel into the main room, picking up armfuls of talc to stuff into the backpack before putting it on and dashing out of the den entirely. He had dark pigment, he had white pigment. With these two components he'd probably be able to make any shade of dye he wanted- a full spectrum of monochrome and the ability to lighten and darken other colors. Surely that would be useful to the ancient one in Fornax.

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Imp

- Exit Bremen -