[Streets Below] Speak up little man (Mirage)

[Bob Barton]

Borden since the start never showed himself to be too bright so he should be happy than Bob did something to improve on it. At the very least he knew that he should be afraid of fire. Something even mindless animals would agree to so there was no need to call him a little dickwipe. That however was not as strange as the laughing Bob heard soon after. Camel proved that unlike her namesake, she was something more than human and animal or should it be below since she exhibited no fear of fire? Bob who already (did not) run towards Camel found himself taking a steps back from the strange woman at that very out of place laugh when someone thought about its source.

It was only when she stopped laughing and affirmed Bob's claim that he followed after her and tried to take one last victorious taunt at Borden. Turning around to give a grin he saw the man's loser pose and heard that threat but that did not stop Bob from finishing his taunt. If anything it only added to his confidence and with his grin broadening he put a hand to his chest and pointed to it before holding it up to his face where he could see it as if telling Borden that if he ever wanted to see Bob all he had to do was see the scar. It was the perfect reminder as far as he was concerned. If the man was so scared of the scars Camel gave him why not add Bob's one to the list of scars to be remembered?

And if he was going to be remembering that for a long time "let's hope you are right about him being a pushover" because Bob did not need some musclebound meathead hunting him down after building up enough anger everytime he saw that scar but then again "he isn't the first" one to try and get at Bob and he certainly would not be the last. If Camel thought that was good "you should try and see what happened back when I was in Sun..." berth...hey! Why the heck was Bob trying to impress this monster that looked like a cute girl. Habits are really hard to break and trying to get the attention of a woman like Camel would not be too good for himself he felt. Unless he was one of those weirdos who took pleasure in pain. Nope, Bob would rather have it in a normal way with a normal woman.

But then a normal woman would not be able to think out of this conundrum. What was it that Borden said? Even if he was a liar what he said was "pretty straightforward to me" to have any lies in them but it would be nice if his threat was a lie. Speaking of straight..."he said the path will take us straight there and we have been going straight..." so if they only just continued they would not have to make a choice at all or doubt the directions. "If you really think he is a liar then we should go straight unless he already knew that you'll think he's lying and..." Bob was just rambling. He knew that making a choice here was going to be hard and there was no way he wanted to take the responsibility for it.

Which meant that he should push it over to someone else but Camel seemed to be already doing it to him which left..."Jinsen!" Yes, that useless dog which did nothing when its master was being harassed by that brute earlier. Picking up the dog it was now "time for you" to make up for that. What Camel could not have known about it is that "Jinsen is from Sunberth" even before it was trained which meant "it has to be good in picking up danger to survive." Bob was just going to go by its reaction but first he needed it to get acquainted with the different paths which he took it to see and smell as he asked "can you get anything?" After a few moments at the entrance of each path he put the dog on the ground to put on its leash before walking towards each entrance again.

This time with the dog right in front of him. Stepping into each he told the dog to "come on. There isn't anything bad right?" Watching for signs like Jinsen being reluctant or growling Bob should be able to know where they should go to especially when Bob used the path where they came from as a standard. "What do you think about there?" with Borden? Hopefully he would seem a lot like his boss because the more similar Jinsen reacted to the path Borden was at the more likely he would think "it should be this one."

[Mirage]

Camel sighed and looked at the branching paths, tapping her foot impatiently. She watched the animal with eyes that spoke of distaste, but when it reacted with whimpers and lowered its tail the woman smiled, "Well now you said this beast is from Sunberth right? So it knows where danger is?" She chuckled and pointed down the straight path that Jinsen had indicated, "Then THAT is where we need to go!" She looked at Bob, raising an eyebrow, "Well what do you think?" Despite any answer that Bob gave Camel would shrug and turn to walk down the straight path, the sounds of her boots thundering in the enclosed area. While she walked she mumbled to herself, and now that he was closer Bob might just be able to recognize some of the words. It seemed she was practicing a speech of some kind, but the phrases were too broken and muffled for the specifics of it to be understood. As they walked the walls of the corridor would begin to widen, growing farther and farther apart until the two reached the end which lead to a vast chambe that stretched far overhead. It appeared that they had reached the center of the great dome, and the gently curving walls sloped to meet far over head where the darkness obscured everything. The space was relatively empty. No gargoyles dotted the walls, and there were no other structures to be see. However, in the center of the room there sat a group of people dressed similar to Borden. All of them turned to look up as Camel and Bob entered, and every single one of them held a dagger, a sword, axe of other form of weapon in their hands. Camel smiled and looked back at Bob, "I think that was the right path, don't you?"

[Bob Barton]

Yes Sunberth. Sunberth dangerous. Dangerous bad. Don't go dangerous..."what?!?" Bob's internal monologue was quite insistent on his opinion of it and Camel did not listen? It was Bob's own fault. He did not think through that Borden would actually be considered a danger since he was able to give the man some light of perspective. If he was danger...then his employers would be danger too and "arrgh..." what did Bob get himself into? "I think we should try that path" which he just picked up randomly but Camel just did the usual. "Sigh." Bob did not want to go back to Borden alone so he really had no choice but to follow Camel. "Sigh."

Maybe like everyone else in Alvadas, Camel was crazy too. Anyone might find that the way she was mumbling to herself. Bob tried to listen on picking off some bits and pieces of some popular phrases and words from other successful speeches and books he might have came across before. Whatever amount of effort Bob used to try and put together Camel's speech, he was no closer to finding out what he was getting himself into. Granted it was no fault of Bob and Camel. The trouble with Jinsen is that sometimes it was very useful and others it was very hopeless. "Groan." Why did it have to make the switch this fast?

That could be because Jinsen became spooked by the impending danger. Both Bob and Camel already saw its reaction towards the path they were taking and each step they took made the dog more reluctant to continue. At the earlier stages Bob did the same thing each time his dog was reluctant to follow. Pull it along while telling it to either stop wasting his time or to not make him angry. Or something along those lines. Eventually Bob had to pick Jinsen up and start stroking it to calm it down. All while speaking softly for it to relax and quiet so that he can reassure. At least maybe it will not give them away when they reached their destination.

"See? Its not too bad. Its getting bigger" he told the dog when the corridor widened. Seeing that the dog seemed to calm down, Bob put it to the ground again. However it was still agitated and refused to go forward making Bob waste more energy dragging it along. "Oh come on!" he said to himself when he saw the men and their weapons. Like Jinsen that was hiding behind him, Bob took a step behind Camel as though he wanted to whisper to her "what are we supposed to do now?" Fight? No. "There is a lot more of them than us...."

But if it came to that, Bob had his trusty cane sword on one hand and Jinsen...Jinsen in front of him after he dragged the dog to the front on its leash and kept it in place between his legs so that it cannot run anywhere else but forward towards the men. "Stay!" and at least look intimidating so that the men would be less likely to come near him like old Borden earlier.