Sora had no reason to cancel on Pride without first needing to explain her family drama to him, and so here they were. She had been expecting resistance as they'd warily approached Tunnel P, and had been surprised to find that none of them were there. Scent and footprints lingered, but they were gone, and not even yelling into the Tunnel had revealed anything particularly amiss.

She'd shuffled in with Pride, having already delivered a bland excuse of everybody else was too scared to come with me as they approached the marsh, grateful for the light of day and the heat that came with it but increasingly worried that something was going to lunge for them from the skies. At the very least, the darkness had no place to hide. "We were in the marsh," she grunted. "Smokey quartz and chrysocolla are the ones I'm looking for." Sora was, in fact, carrying the diamond basket around her neck as well -- to protect the back of her neck, but also so they could carry them since they were seeking four stones total. "We can carry them in this," she grunted.


--

@pride
simon's stone is recoverable, but mair never got back to me so they won't be able to find orenstein's. sora has probably briefed pride, and she isn't totally opposed to nabbing a couple extras if they find them

He'd told the Seven, quietly, of where he would be going. And why. The solemnity of it--the danger they would face--had his heart hammering in his chest. The dread of finding--or worse, not finding--the remains of Nassir, of Fireheart... it had his mouth dry before he'd even set one delicate hoof into the desert.

It was hot--blindingly so, each sweep of the dusty wind taking his breath away. Pale eyes half-closed against the onslaught, and he could already feel the burning heat against his skin. "Caves, it's hot," he breathed, and looked around. "You'll have to show me the way to the marsh. I've never been here." A warning he'd already given, but it was time to follow the pig's lead.

He tried to not think about the fact that the rest of her clan had been too fearful, had refused in searching for the stones. And he wondered, too, if it were even the truth. He'd only met Sora, out of that group; what if she'd turned on them, somehow? What if she wanted the stones for some other sort of... nefarious purpose, or the like?

Pride tried to idly tune in as he turned to follow, head low and ears back, grimacing against the heat. It was just a check--a half-idle one--but if she had some reason to come alone, something she wasn't saying, he wanted to know what it was. And if it were the truth..?

Then he wondered at her friends--and what horrors they must have seen, here.

@Sora

For now, the heat kept the worst of the dangers at bay. It helped, too, that the pair would be travelling the length of one boundary of the cave; they were not venturing out through Sandworm territory, nor crossing beneath the breeding grounds of the Eyehooks.

In the sweltering mirage-shimmer above the parched earth, all they would see were the distant dead trees of the Dead Marsh, and two or three smaller black Eyehooks hunched among them.

She shrugged vaguely as they transversed the desert. "Heat's better than the cold." If it had been cold in Hydra, cold like ice and darkness and shadow, she might have very well just gone back home right that second. Scars from icy claws (and far more recent scars from avian talons) raked all along her body, and she felt them sting at the mention. "This way," Sora said softly. It was easy to remember, even now that it wasn't dark. "Keep your voice down and try not to irritate the locals. No telling what sort of monsters live in this place." She swallowed hard and kept moving forward.

That was all she'd done before, as she watched her family die. Watched strangers die. She didn't like it. Didn't like this. And while anxiety prickled at the back of her neck, like she was being watched, she did not notice the vultures. Perhaps things would have been different if she'd been actively looking.


@pride

One ear flicked toward Sora, but he was already doubting her words. Cold he could manage. This blistering heat was baking him alive, and already his mouth hung slightly open, a grimaced panting escaping him. At least her words about the others weren't... well, they weren't true but he sensed no betrayal from her. She felt that she had been betrayed; he could sense her thoughts straying to grief, to her friends, and he averted his mind to the task at hand (as much out of a sense of respect for that as anything).

He had spoken at length to Warrior, when the other had visited with that dragon-creature; he'd asked extensively about the dangers of Hydra with specifically this journey in mind. So when Sora professed ignorance of the 'monsters,' he was already running through the horrible possibilities.

Sand worms. Eyehooks. Hypnotic, venomous spiders. "If you see blue spiders, don't look at them," he murmured, his gaze lingering warily on the distant, hunched silhouettes of Eyehooks on the dead trees.

He let her lead--for whatever information he had gathered, maps hadn't been among the rest, and he had no idea which way was what. As they made their way from sand into sludge, the warning, too, of 'toxic gas' returned to him. That, and the unnatural quicksand, here. He placed every step with care, head held high, each inhale cautious--difficult with the heat, and his panting.

At length, suffering the stifling atmosphere in silence, he cast out his magic preemptively. It was a broad canvassing, nothing particularly precise yet, and for now he grunted and lowered his head, ears sagging miserably. It wasn't even grief; he felt wrong, about that. He should be mourning, thinking of his friends, seeking closure or even justice: instead he just couldn't stop thinking about how damn hot it was.

"There's stones ahead. Far, scattered, but I think I see a few," he informed Sora, voice already cracking with the hot, dry air. "Once we get closer I'll take a better look. But I can't guarantee they're the right stones," he warned. There was no telling how many died in Hydra. "Watch your step," he added, grimacing.

@Sora

Her head inclined slightly to him. Apparently he'd asked other Gembound with more experience questions about this place; she was content with that. The only hazards she'd faced were environmental, and while she'd been happy to tell him about the dangers of the marsh and of the shadows, only one of those things was still trying to kill them. "I'll be able to recognize the stones of my family," she said, quiet. Firm. She'd watched them fall to the ground, especially Simon. Watched them die. "And assuming nobody has moved them, I know where Simon's is. The others should be close, I think."

Sora felt a sudden rush of nausea, wondering if the Oil still lay there. So she added, gently, "There... might be Oil," and left it at that. She'd been careful to not give Pride the gory details -- certainly, she'd have preferred to not know them. Sora looked around, trying to sort out if this was the right place as they approached it.

She wouldn't be opposed to picking up the stones of other poor, lost souls while she was here, either.


@pride
(idk if she'd be able to see them or not; i'll let you decide since you're the gm)

The way was long. Even with Sora knowing the route, even with the blinding daylight to allow vision to guide them from place to place, it would take an hour or more in the blazing heat to cover the Trial's full course. The current temperature, if they'd held a thermometer, was one hundred seven degrees.

At last, however--through the mirage-shimmer (and rising steam--and who knew how much was caustic, toxic-?)--the shape of the first torch would become visible.

Little more than a blackened, twisted stump, now: what had once been something like a cross between a dead tree and a scarecrow, a twisted tangle of dead limbs and fire-ready pitch. Now it was smoldered, charred down to ash at the top and broken, blackened wood at the bottom. It stood alone, a stark silhouette against the bright.

It looked ominous.

It looked... alone.

The battering of feathers as a walking eagle sank abruptly into the sucking sand. A glowing figure cutting through the dark: the panther Nassir. His glow winked out. Brown wings flapping as she was thrown free. A final cry of 'Help-!' as his sleek onyx shape vanished beneath the mire.

A wind swept through: a hot and quiet breeze, ruffling their fur, rippling the thin layer of water that now stood atop where Nassir had died, not far from the Torch itself. No bones stood to show where he had fallen; no monument to the dead. Only empty desert--empty marsh--and the bodies hidden beneath.

Pride will have sensed three gemstones near this location. Nassir's is close; two others, long ago lost to the marsh, also lie somewhere close by. Sora might recognize this location, via landmarks, as the place where Nassir died.

Pride paced forward, regarding the first torch with a slightly furrowed brow. He had no idea, of course, that it had somehow been related to the Trial; he glanced to Sora. "Any idea what that is? What happened? It looks like a burnt tree-?" Had someone ignited it, for some reason, during the Trial? Or was it older damage? Did fires break out here, in the strange gases of the Marsh?

He realized, then, that he was ankle-deep in the thinner layer of stagnant water that stood atop a marshy bit of sand. It had looked solid, but now the silt was disturbed and he'd sunk a little. With a faint grimace he pulled himself free.

He wasn't sure what she meant by 'oil.' "Oil-? What happened--what do you mean?" he asked, tone mild instead of urgent. He didn't assume she meant typical decay--he had no reason to imagine he'd need to be warned about that. Had oil somehow... come up and burnt them, drowned them-? Did he need to watch out for that? Warrior hadn't mentioned it, but it would be important to be aware of.

Backing to the edge of the pool, and bearing Sora's alert in mind--that the others should be close--he attempted again to cast out his senses.

Almost at once the already-considerable heat seemed to stifle, closing in, crushing around his head. It was as though the attempt to cast was pushing his body too far; that the acrid mist filling his nostrils left him dizzy. It was over a hundred degrees, they were in direct light-... He'd never experienced anything like this elsewhere in the caves. Pride stumbled, and suddenly he was on his knees without remembering falling. His head dipped, vertigo wheeling the world around him, and with a grimace he closed his eyes.

"Do you have any magic?" he asked, bluntly but quietly. There was no room for polite chitchat. He'd need some help if he were to both find, and recover, these stones--preferably something in the form of a cold bath.

@Sora

"... First torch," she said, looking up at it. Recalling the fatality of the trial, grief churning through her. "I think Fireheart lit this one." She was pretty sure he'd lit the first two, actually, but the details were a little foggy. She hadn't really been paying attention to the torches until she'd had to light the last one. "Nassir died here. Saved my brother. Stone should be nearby." She'd have been a fool to not remember his sacrifice -- Simon died trying to rescue him, and so had Owlface and Kini in a way.

At the question about Oil, she looked at him strangely. "People died. Figured you'd want to be prepared if we had to look at corpses." Her voice was tinged with a distant morbidity, she began to look around. Hadn't he had some kind of spiky crystal on his tail? She could handle that. Sora squinted at the water, and swore she saw a glimpse of shine in the murk. "Might be down there."

Pride's question about magic made her skin prickle, and she looked over in alarm when she heard him hit the sand. "I have healing magic, but it'd make us both tired enough to pass out. I've, uh, also got no idea what the success rate is on this. Do you want me to try anyway?" Had she really been casting magic when she'd tried to help Tenzin? She wasn't sure. Maybe. Either way, she moved closer to Pride to try and help him to his feet, should he need the aid.



@pride
i'm still not sure if she'd be able to see any stones in the water, much less nassir's specifically, so feel free to have her just see the light catch the water weird or something!

Pride glanced at Sora, blinking, trying to focus on her words. And on her--she was doubling before him, his vision swimming. He didn't have the energy to explain that he thought the oil would be long gone, by now. That they'd find nothing but bones. The stresses of the heat didn't allow for real small talk--even thought.

The white stag grimaced, and with a renewed surge of determination, looked down at the water. "Step away from the water," he managed, twisting to shove himself weakly back up. He stumbled back, lowered his head--ears hanging--and concentrated.

A long, trembling, blinking moment, and his magicka swarmed. The water itself rose before them, slowly drifting skyward; the sand, too, began sprinkling upward like the grains in a broken hourglass. Up, too--ghoulish, ghastly, ghostly--came the skeleton of a big cat; some bones still connected, some falling away apart.

The last vertebra of the tail held the cluster of sleek quartz, stained by the quicksand, and Pride felt his heart drop. What were his last moments like? Grief, regret, guilt roared through him. Could he have stopped him-

-the magic faltered, and Pride was quick to shove the thoughts away, to redouble his efforts on the magic.

"Get the stone, Sora," he said, his voice strained. "I can't hold this for long. Just... use your momentum; you'll come out on the other side." Everything was floating--no longer drifting higher, but hovering there. The bones--the stone--were free for the taking, but Pride could only do one thing at a time.

He might have said 'please'; he would surely say 'thank you,' but right now all he could do was struggle against the heat, against physics itself, with little more than willpower.

When I get you home I will lay you to rest, and commune with you as best I can. I am sorry, Nassir, he thought. His pale eyes lifted to meet the empty sockets of the skull, and misery blinded him, for a moment, to all else.

@Sora