Nothing, but there was a faint odor in here. Nothing tangible, nothing even fresh, but something... acrid, like the scent of a beetle or a millipede. But it was long gone, now, and the sort of faint, lingering odor that seems to permeate all around, impossible to pinpoint, leading no particular direction.

@Comet @Esther

Finished with pushing the mace to the entrance of the tunnel, Comet returned to the maned wolf looking around the cave. But there was nothing other than the skeleton, which had a lot of bones. Mmm, bones. Perhaps she should take some of the bones to show James when she got home? That would be cool! The pup picked a smaller bone and carried it outside, dropping it next to the mace. With that one side cave finished being explored, it was time to continue along the tunnel.

"Let's keep going!" she ran down the tunnel to see where it led, and what other things they may encounter.

This tunnel led, winding and cold, on a slippery upward slope. It remained smooth-walled and -floored, slippery: and it was soon plunged into pitch dark as the faint aurora-like light from outside failed to reach in any farther.

Either the pair would need to turn back, or feel their way through, or find or create some source of light.

@Comet @Esther

When Comet followed them back into the tunnel, some kind of smell hit their nose. They didn't know what it was, either. Frowning, Esther's dark-sensitive eyes scanned the area, not really finding anything. It was odd, really odd. Esther couldn't find the location of where the scent was coming from, either.

"Do you smell that?" they questioned through the dark.

Surely the other canine's nose would be able to pick it up, they weren't much different either. If they were to go in further, it would be too dark to see though. Esther did have fire, which would dimly light the area.... but it could cause some harm to the both of them if they weren't careful.

d̶̖͓̩̥̻̝̜̹̭͘ô̴̢̳̹͍͕̘̼̝̤͋̿͋̆͒ ̸̛̫͕͔͉̯̖̣̎̔̌̓͐͊́̆͝͝ị̸̻̘̱̱̞̍̎̍͗̍̍̍̅̕͝͝ţ̶̣͚̠̤̼̮̒̃̏͛ ̶̮̗̫͔̬͇̰͍͈̿̓͂̂͒̽̾͒͋͆̽́̈́̆͜͜͜a̶̧̨͕̳̖͇̬͎̫͓̖̺͈̗̒͜ǹ̸̲̞͈̹͔̖͒͊͌̂͊̍̀͑́͆̽̀̕y̶̨̗̩̱̯̦̺͈̎̊̽̃͠ẁ̸̬̤̣̰͈̽̐͒̌̊̒̂͐̈́͒̏͆̚͘ä̸̡̯͇̜̙̝̜̫̣͌̃̈́̈́̇̀͆̾̕y̶̻̙̜͓̣̜̿̅̀̿͘͘

The shadow next to their head whispered. This time. just this time they would humor it. Even if it wasn't exactly catching Comet on fire.... it was close enough. Nothing else looked flammable except for the two gembounds anyway.

"We need light to get through here." they said with a pause, head turning to comet. "Do me a favor and bring me one of those bones" They said.

If Esther could get Comet's fur to stick to the bones then they could use it for light. Even if the smoke would be... Less than satisfactory.

@Comet

"Hmm, yeah. It smells like a bug-- but different." Comet looked around, but the scent was dispersed evenly in the area. Something wasn't right about this, and she wondered if they should continue going.

The tunnel ahead was even getting dark, but luckily the maned wolf knew how to make fire. Not real fire of course, the weird kind. Comet didn't know what exactly that kind of fire was, but there was something wrong about it. She fetched a smaller bone from the skeleton, which wasn't saying much, considering the bones were huge.

The pup could already tell that Esther would be burning something, so she decided to make a bubble around her nose.

@Esther

The wolf brought them the bone, and Esther looked around one again to see if there was anything besides the two of them they could burn. There really wasn't - which was kind of an issue. One of them should have grabbed a couple of sticks or something before going to the area completely devoid of plants. They moved their mouth to chew at the end of the bone... if they broke it just right they could use it to carry the fur of one of them. Which meant light.

Hearing a crack, esther moved their mouth away from it - the ending of the bone was a jagged shape, but the inside was also going inwards. Meaning it worked! Turns out they weren't useless for most things after all. Still, though. Esther didn't have much fur to spare after their stupid body decided to catch a flame, and still does catch aflame at random points and time. (They really hoped it wouldn't happen here).

"Hold still." They said, moving closer to the wolf, leaving the bone on the ground for now.

Claws went to scrape at the pup's fur, pulling out some of that precious undercoat that trapped warmth inside. Comet would be fine, of course, but hey, something flammable, right? They then turned to pack the fur into the bone with those same claws. It took... Quite a bit of fenangling before it worked right, but it did.

And then Esther tried to put their magic to work.

The fur lit and the light coming off of it was a deep purple in color. If anything, the flames made the area the two gembounds were in colder, somehow. And it emitted black smoke that slowly wafted off of the flame - the bone was in Esther's mouth, upturned so the fur didn't fall out and somehow cause a bigger fire. Well... This would work for now.

@Comet

Comet watched the maned wolf break the bone into a jagged shape. Her eyes followed their claws as they scraped through her fur and picked up some of her loose undercoat that was going to shed anyway. Ah, yes. Fire needed something to burn on.

The deep purple flames burned cold, but provided a source of light for them to see better in the dark tunnel. Even her eyes that were made for seeing in the dark could not see this area without some light.

The fumes of unnatural smoke drifted to the top of the tunnel. It was a good thing she had a bubble around her nose. "Let's go." Comet stayed behind Esther to allow them to light the way.

The single tunnel ran farther and farther into the dark: sometimes narrow, sometimes broadening, sometimes filled with jagged protrusions melted and refrozen or sometimes smooth and slick, slippery to walk across.

It seemed to go for miles, though in all likelihood its mysterious curves spread only a few hundreds yards in a twisting path.

It came to several branches; whether the two Gembound would choose to take any would be up to them. It seemed a maze, this cold, dark place... Perhaps with time the tunnels could be mapped out and marked, but if there were as many as it seemed, it might be a fruitless endeavor. Still, a place could be arranged to serve as a den, or home.

Whatever the case, they certainly hadn't reached an end.

@Comet @Esther

This place was a maze, and that became more apparent by the two of them moving through it. Twists and turns all over - this place really could be turned into a nice home, though. They wondered if this place lead somewhere else - or if there was a path that lead to one of the other caves through the tunnels. It would be nice to remember if so. Perhaps not, though. Maybe the tunnels just spanned the mountain.

But that meant something was most likely living inside of them... A scary thought that Esther didn't want to think about.

Esther's dark-attuned eyes looked at the paths they could choose... Well. This was a predicament. Esther bumped Comet with a leg before motioning to the many paths, as if to ask which one they should take. Esther couldn't talk through the bone in their mouth.

@Comet