Spring 52, 519AV
Adriana knew the Rotten Ruins district pretty well, at least she liked to think so. She had been living here for a few seasons now and she thought it necessary to know the layout of the neighborhood. She had spent many a days wondering the streets, getting to know the different dilapidated houses and crumbling structures. This was how she found her current home, as well as the entrance the two stood at today.
Taris and Sparrow had met up a few times since they first met last season with the successful stall heist. She liked the boy, but he concerned her. She was very distrustful and while Taris had not done anything to prove to her that he was worthy of such distrust, she found herself wary anyway.
This feeling was still present, but rather dull now since another feeling usually arose when Taris was around. He pumped her up, made her excited and hyped. Honestly, when he was around, Adriana felt like a kid again, a teenager, someone who did not have to worry about their next meal or where they would sleep that night or if someone was watching them from across the street -- all the things she fretted about on a daily basis.
They had gotten to talking recently about the maze of old mining tunnels that had been dug underneath Sunberth, back when it was a mining city rather than the filth pile it was today. Everyone knew about the tunnels, most seemed not to care. It was obvious that they had been abandoned a long time ago, probably because they no longer held the value they were originally created to find. Adriana did not know much about mining but it made sense they were no longer worked if they no longer had the mineral the miners were looking for. But still, she was curious.
She knew they were probably filled with rats and other vermin that might not take a liking to their intrusion. She knew it was dark and they ran the risk of getting lost in the maze, even though she held her lantern at her side. She knew the two of them would more than likely not find anything other than rocks and dirt and that it would be a completely waste of an entire day they could have been using to find food or steal coin. Yet, she didn't seem to care.
She was filled with adrenaline looking into the dark abyss of the mine entrance. Taris, at her side, she felt exhilarated. Adventures were not things Adriana had the time to go on, she was extremely excited, almost to the point of jitters. The lantern shook a tiny bit in her clenched hand.
The cave entrance was completely dark. She had already lit up the lantern and it burned at her side. Her satchel swung towards the ground off her shoulder, her boots pressed firmly into the dirt ground beneath her. She brought her coat with her today, despite the temperature outside, she knew, living in a hole, that the underground could get much colder than the outside.
"You ready for this?" She asked Taris, still staring into the nothingness before her. "What do you think we will even find?" Her tone somewhat doubtful, but her face sported a large and anticipating grin.
Code credit to Itt.