A Cavern of Chaos

[Vinn]

64th of Spring, 514 AV

“What the petch?”

The sky was a deep shade of maroon, a colour Vinn admired with such intensity. She loved colour in general, but the colour of maroon or a dark teal gave her gooseflesh. She was a colourful character, though she proved in not showing it all the time. It was a gift, yet a curse and she was just fine with accepting that.

She had remembered falling asleep, surprising given the huge amounts of exhaustion that had pulsed through her veins and arteries before she dozed off. Her pillow was hard, she remembered that, and her bed wasn’t much of a comfort either.

“I need ta ge’a new pillow, that’s for sure,” she said, watching the clouds around her. They were shifting colours, changing from a strange aqua to a vibrant blood red, continuously until a vivid light green decided to join the party. Soon pink was involved until all the colours of the rainbow plus more were involved.

“What the petch is going on here?”

She was sitting on the ground, grass flowing in the mild breeze that caressed the back of her neck and sent her short and messy hair flying around. She blinked rapidly, witnessing the colours of the clouds change yet again. They transformed into a nasty black, much like her sore toe, for she had jammed it into a door only a few days ago.

It was the pillow, she knew that much for sure. The pillow must have been causing these strange dreams, because soon it started to rain and heavily.

She sprung up like she had just been bitten in the rear by an animal with fangs and dashed in terms of finding any form of shelter. Upon running like the maniac she was, she came across a small cave, its entrance resembling much like the maw of a dangerous creature.

She was hesitant at first to walk inside, but once the sound of crashing thunder and the sight of flashes of yellow were both heard and seen, she obliged. Once she had stepped through, she as welcomed with the sight of stalactites and stalagmites that littered the space of the cave.

She couldn’t help but smile. There was possibly another adventure waiting for her with this cave! She could see through the darkness, as surprisingly as that seemed. Vinn was able to see that the cave continued on, growing larger and larger as her vision progressed further down.

She was tempted to follow it. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? This was a dream after all, right?

.

[Wanda Endust]

oocSorry for the wait! Having some computer troubles.

They had to be on the road still, somewhere between Syliras and Nyka, right? Weren't they supposed to be in Nyka by now? No, that was tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next. Well, it was sometime. Either way -- where was the caravan? Where was Yarvis?

Oh. A sass-filled snort and the heavy weight of his muzzle against her shoulder alerted Wanda to his presence. Yet she turned towards the motion and saw nothing Her horse was invisible, but she could sense his gentle yet mischievous presence. Right... there.

He brought an unseen knee up to her backside, urging her forward.

"Oi, best keep movin' little lassie," he stated in an accent that sounded familiar, though Wanda couldn't quite place it. "Storm's a-brewin'."

"How do you know?" the teen huffed back. If they weren't with the caravan, she didn't know where they were supposed to be going. But she did know she was in no hurry to get there.

"I'm a horse. I know these things."

"Right."

"Look at the sky, too."

She did, and her gaze was met with an odd sight -- though one not particularly alarming. Cloudy colors swirled across the sky and Wanda found herself hypnotized by the wondrous display, until the breeze began to pick up and blew her cloak open. She snapped her eyes back down to her body, grasping at the edges of the fabric.

"So what?" she shrugged, clasping the garment closed once more. "Probably some kind of weird rainbow. Or something."

"What, you're just goin' ta leave it at that? And here I was thinkin' you were brighter'n that."

Now what exactly was that supposed to mean? Wanda scowled at the air where she presumed the creature was standing. Sure, she was being a bit more apathetic about this whole thing than she normally was, but shouldn't that be expected? "Sixty-something days on th' road and you expect me to be just as chipper as day one?"

"Yep. Oh, and I don't particularly hate ta say 'I told you so', so I told you so. Here's the rain."

"What're y--" Not moments after he'd spoken, a steady downpour decided to plop into existence. Wanda sat in exasperated silence for a few more ticks as the water snaked its way through one layer of clothes, then the next. It wasn't long before she was soaked to the bone, blonde curls drenched and clinging to her face and shoulders. A moment more, and Wanda exhaled a heavy breath of resignation.

"We should find shelter, shouldn't we?"

"Yep." Oddly enough, the rain was clinging to the horse's invisible pelt, creating a kind of glassy "skin" to outline his body. "That 'un down there has got the right idea."

Wanda turned away from her companion to where he gestured with his translucent head, just in time to catch the sight of a stranger streaking across the open, grassy landscape. She was about to voice another question, but it answered itself as soon as she saw the figure duck into a gaping hole in a nearby rock structure. She hadn't noticed the cave before, but now her tunnel vision zoned in on it as if it were the only thing that now mattered in the world. "We have to get there too," she stated matter-of-factly.

"No rush though, girlie. We're already practically swimming in our own skin. Don't think a little more water'll do either of us much harm." They both nodded, setting off at only a brisk walk in as straight of a bee-line to the cave as they could possibly manage. Then, of course, the lightning began, giving their legs a significant boost in urgency until Wanda had to grip onto her horse's mane as he toted her along, both trotting side by side.

The structure must've been closer than it had at first appeared. They arrived, sopping wet, in only a matter of chimes. Yarvis's wet hooves clopped against the stone floor as Wanda wiped the water from her eyelashes, peering around. Her breaths were labored, though not enough to cause worry.

What did worry her, though, was how dark the cave was to her own eyes, almost as if the shadows were desperately clinging to everything they possibly could. The stranger from earlier had to be here somewhere, even if Wanda couldn't see them.

She took a few steps forward, the echo of her movements reverberating in such a way that took her by surprise. Wanda wasn't at all heavy-footed, yet the sound of just those few movements seemed to be magnified to an extreme. By the gods, how big was this cave?

"Wanda..." Yarvis began, the warning evident in his voice. The layer of water that was his outline glistened faintly in the low light that the open moth of the cave provided, and Wanda could see his tail sway nervously when she glanced back over his shoulder.

"Pfft, it's just a cave, Yarvis." Wanda moved further into the shadows, giving the invisible horse no choice but to clip-clop along beside her.
oocDon't worry, she'll be able to see fine in a few moments

[Vinn]

oocYou're fine! Take all the time you need. It's only a dream thread!

“Aye, who be you, stranger?”

There was a voice from behind her. Vinn had been hearing random voices for the past several chimes although to her they felt like bells. It was grating on her nerves, the same repetitive sentence over and over and over again.

“Aye, who be you, stranger?”

“Aye, who be you, stranger?”

Vinn tried to ignore it, neglect to give it any form of attention, for that was what it craved and she hated to give people what they wanted when she didn’t want to. But she couldn’t help it- “Aye,”- the noise was- “who be-“ unbearable and she couldn’t- “you, stranger?”- sit around and wait for it to stop.

“Shut the petch up you irritating little-“

She turned around, raising her fist in terms of smashing the first thing she saw when she was faced with a fluffy animal of sorts. It was actually rather cute with its floppy ears and tiny feet. It had a long rat-like tail and claws that looked like eyelashes, but what really caught the woman off guard were its eyes. It had three of them! Yet, she still fathomed it and frankly, she was willing to steal it away and claim it as her own.

“I… what?” she asked, bewilderment grasping onto the section of her brain that controlled emotions.

“I said, ‘aye what be you, stranger?’”

Vinn glared at the creature, her eyes narrowing slightly before she opened her mouth to speak rather cooly, “I’m a hybrid. What be you?”

The creature paused and hopped onto her lap, startling her into crying out in surprise.

“I be something of which you don’t see every day.”

“Ain’t that be the truth?”

“It be the truth alright. And I be here to show you the way.”

She was confused. What way? There was nowhere to go besides out of the cave and there was no way she was willing to go out in that storm that continued to rage on. She wasn’t courageous enough to trample into the darkness of the depths of this cavern in the dark either, now was she?

“Yer gonna show me the way?”

“Why, it be true that I am.”

It was speaking riddles to her and that she did not like. “Stop speakin’ ta me-“ she hushed herself, causing silence to fill the clammy air. She had heard something or someone entering the mouth of the cave.

Footsteps echoed down the stretch of rock and into Vinn’s open ears. She folded her arms over her chest and hugged her knees closer to her breasts. She wasn’t cold, but neither was she frightened, so why was she maintain such a sensitive position? She hadn’t a clue. But it was a dream, right?

"Pfft, it's just a cave, Yarvis."

Yarvis? Who in gods name was Yarvis?

“Oi, who’s out there? Don’t be meanin’ ta cause any harm no foul to me, don’cha?” she called into the darkness, hoping that a beast wasn’t waiting to claw into her skin and rip her flesh into a thousand pieces. She only had one heart and whether it was cold and worthless or not, she still admired it very much.

.