Location The Tunnels (Arriving PC's Post Here!)

[Traverse]

Zinrah has three tunnels that lead down into the nest: the northern, western, and eastern tunnels are carefully hidden and protected, to ensure that the torrential rainfall that is so predominant in the hot summer season doesn't pour in to drown them all. They're disguised among the ruins overhead, in hopes that prey will wander in searching for lost treasures, only to find much more than they bargained for. The main tunnel is the northernmost one, and it's also the largest. These entrances aren't particularly enormous, though they are large enough to fit a couple of horses... if the rough trip down doesn't break their legs. Dark, humid, and gloomy, visitors are descending into a trap that has no easy way out. These winding caves get deeper and steeper, the wet, rocky bottom wet and slippery, making falls very, very easy. These tunnels are usually patrolled by some snakelings, who are supervised by an adult who is more than capable, combat-wise, looking to catch any prey before it has a chance to escape. Unless they are a Constrictor, those who venture into the tunnels must be wary... including Vipers and Rattlers, and should be prepared to be intercepted.

[Ayszel]

31rst Winter 514 AV

Ayszel preferred the canopy created caves of the overworld to the dank stagnant caves of Zinrah, especially in the winter. The only time of the year she could spend much of her day comfortably crouched by her hearth tinkering and toying with plant limbs, winter was both one of the most loathsome and beloved times. She rapidly ran out of stores and was forced to either purchase more or when her store of Bikka proved to low, amuse herself in other ways. Either way, she found herself far more frequently in the bowels of her home.

The ruined stones of a large structure lay atop the eastern tunnel through which the Dhani so often entered. Each stone was a murky grey shadow beneath the scrambling vines and ferns that now created its walls. Every time she passed she felt the cold shiver as the gaps and grooves created monstrous faces watching each tenacious movement. It began at the nape of her a neck, a cold slithering shiver, like the first droplets of a torrential storm that had seeped through the many layers of the canopy. Each one niggled its own individual way down the length of her back and along the thin fat scales that lined her tail. Slowly, as she neared the entrance her heart would begin to stutter with anxiety and she’d slither more quickly, like a human child who would dash into bed, feet hardly touching the floor as they threw themselves among the sheets terrified of the creature that lurked beneath their bed. However, neither would she (nor the child) break into a run, for that would be submitting to the fear, and make the night all the more difficult to get through.

The lip of the entrance was hidden beneath a dense crop of ferns. As soon as they grazed the tips of her fingertips she was soothed and slowed to a halt. She always hesitated before leaping in to the tunnel of night before her. It was like leaping into the nighttime sky but upside down, and always left her a little queasy. The ferns along the edges were a capricious sort with a sticky residue that clung to you for a moment after touching it. However, its flexible reeds were frequently used to disguise the entrances as they rarely were bent or rent permanently by the rapid entering and exiting of the Dhani and so rarely betrayed their hiding hole even as it disguised it.

The humidity of the tunnels was hardly that different from the humidity that lingered year long in the jungle but it was thinner from lack of light and settled on the skin like tiny pricks instead of beads. It was a steep descent, even for Ayszel, one she was relatively accustomed to though she could hardly be mistaken for a common resident with her awkward slithering. Her narrowed eyes broadened, collecting the faint scratches of light that were rent from the surface.

The caves moved further downward, water trickling through the crevices of the cylindrical shaped body. It was as if, long ago a serpent herself had carved through the stone, her long serpentine body creating the weaving wavering ways of the caves. If she hadn’t been raised among the familiar rubble she would surely have been lost.

A patrol emerged from a connecting tunnel. Clambering snakelings shushed their shrieks when they saw the intruder and stiffened for a moment wondering if this was their chance. A story they could return their mothers and siblings about. Each would have a different tale about how they themselves, alone of course, had taken down a creature of immeasurable strength and cleverness. Ayszel grinned wryly remembering her own days as a snakeling. Her own excitement, stories and delightful vengeful innocence. It was adorable.

Though she recognized none of the snakelings the deep green scales of the Dhani that led them were as familiar as the entrance though not nearly as soothing. Sikisenka was a powerful and admirable Dhani, as talented with her tongue as her body and as loyal as any. However, she had never taken a fondness to Ayszel and luck should always have it she frequently patrolled the east entrance.

“Aysssszel…I ssseee you’re back again. Ssso sssoon?” Though the words were kindly enough her annoyance was as evident as the markings that so heavily adorned her face.

“Yesss…I heard there wasss sssome trouble amongssst the tunnelsss. I thought there might be sssome use for poulticccess or brewwsss.” Ayszel replied equally as kindly, though her words were spoken slowly, mocking the intelligence of the inquisitor.

Sikisenka scowled silently before speaking, “There wassss a collapssse. Many were injured thisss time. Though do you really think calming teasss will be of much ussse in ssuch an inssstance?” she glowered, making Ays blush self conciously. She was hardly an experienced or capable Herbalist but she could certainly bring some solice to the families, if not the hurt themselves, people often overlooked by the healers during times of duress.

“I’m sssure I’ll be able to find myssself sssoomething to do…” Ayszel replied before slithering past the guard and deeper into her home. Though she may not live in the cave next door these people were as much hers as Sikisenkas and she wasn’t going to do nothing with her store of Lillian and Rosemary.