The sunrise was splendid, the light glowing the long horizon. Caoimhe rest her chin on the edge of the rock as she kicked lazily in the water. The hot springs that fed the pools where deep in the caverns, so by the time the water rose to the surface and met the air, it was considerably cooled, it was still warm as a properly heated bath.
Thaden sat atop the rock looking down at the shadow of Caoimhe as she watched the sun come up.
"Will you be joining her?" came the deep voice of the tauren from behind.
Thaden jumped a little. He stood quickly, putting his back to the pool and stepping down a little to where Sunukukau stood.
"No,no," he coughed. "I'll wait until she is done." He smiled at the tauren as he came down to meet him.
Sunukukau watched him. Thaden clapped him on the arm as he passed.
"I'll start a fire," he offered.
"Allow me," the tauren countered.
Thaden stood back, "if you insist."
He watched as Sunukukau sat and pulled a small bundle from his bag.
"You are related?" Sunu asked. He struck the flint a few times.
Thaden laughed, "No. We just met."
"Really," he said. "Watching her bath seems quite familiar for having just met."
A flash of anger came over Thaden's face. He stared at the tauren as he calmly stoked the fire. With a flush of indignation, he grabbed a blanket from his bedroll, shook it vigorously and stormed off, the tauren chuckling as he did.
Thaden went a little way around the rocks to the water. The sun was spreading light across the grasses and breaking onto the water. He made a point of holding the blanket well above his line of sight when he said, "How's the water?"
He heard a splash.
"Fine," she said from somewhere near his feet.
"I brought a blanket," he said.
She thought for a moment. "It doesn't make sense to bath then wrap in a dirty blanket," she said. "But it is a lovely gesture."
Thaden lowered the blanket and inspected it. "It isn't that bad, is it?"
He glanced up at her. She had sunk into the water so only her chin and face was above the water, He smiled a little.
"How where you planning to dry off?" he asked.
"I left my things over there," she pointed to a rock that was now fully in the new day sun. "I figured they would dry quickly once the sun came up."
"You washed them?" he asked.
"Just a few things," she said, keeping close to the rock edge.
Thaden lay the blanket down. "Do you mind if I sit?"
Caoimhe's face turned pale, then pink. "I...uhm...I guess not," she said. Her clothes on the other side of the pool seemed very far away suddenly.
Thaden smiled and sat down cross legged on the blanket. He leaned back on his hands and stared at the sky.
"I figure we can get better than halfway to Thousand Needles today, without pressing too hard. We'll stop around midday, we'll want to find shade," he took a glance down. She had lifted her head a little out of the water to listen, "Way out past Thousand Needles there's a desert. The goblins have set up an outpost there."
"Goblins?" Caoimhe's ears pricked up and she lifted herself up on the ledge a little. Not too much, he noticed.
"Yes," he nodded, "entrepreneurial little sons of...uhm. they tend to have a lot of work."
"Yes, they...they seem to be. I...I thought they just ran airships," she wondered out loud.
Thaden laughed, "well you don't think that's all they do, do you?"
Caoimhe blushed and sank back into the water. "Do...do you plan to bathe?" she asked.
"Oh," Thaden stood and started to strip, "yes, thank you."
A mortified look came over Caoimhe face and she was both thrilled and horrified at the same time. Thaden glanced up from unlacing his trousers and caught her eye. He let out a little sigh and smiled, "I'm sorry, again, not really used to sharing the road." He turned his back to Caoimhe and waited patiently. She was glad he couldn't see her turn red as she swam to her clothes, climbed to the other side of the rock and scrunched down out of sight.
"Thank you," she yelled across the pool as she shook herself dry and pulled the sun warmed shirt over her head. There was a splash and she took a quick peek over the rock. Thaden had jumped in , still in his short breeches. Caoimhe sighed, a little relieved and leaned over the rock waiting for him to surface. He popped up a few feet in front of her.
"So Thousand needles by mid morning tomorrow," he said, shaking water about.
She nodded. "But what about the tauren?"
"What about him?" Thaden asked. "He has his own business."
Caoimhe frowned a little at the hem of her shirt.
"What?" he asked.
"Don't you think we should...should offer to assist?" she asked.
"Why? If he needs help he'll ask," he said.
"You aren't curious what...what he's doing here?" she looked up from her shirt hem to see him kick away from the rock in a bit of an angry huff.
"No," he said, "Not in the least."
And with that he dropped back under the water.
Caoimhe frowned and sighed and collected the rest of her clothes. She dressed behind a tree and left Thaden kicking about in the pool.
Sunukukau had a small fire and was boiling water when she came back to the camp. She sat down across from him.
"I have some fruit, if you'd like. And jerky," she offered.
He smiled, "No thank you. I would not want to deplete your store. You and your friend are continuing on, yes? You will want it for the road."
"You are...not continuing? Are you going back to the Crossroads?" she asked, pulling her knees up and letting the fire dry the dampness still in her clothes.
He poked at the fire before answering. "Not right away," he said.
"If...if I may ask," she started. He looked up at her. She took it as permission to continue, "Why did you come here?"
He tilted his head from side to side, evaluating an answer.
"The caves here, they are poisoned," he said.
Caoimhe gasped. She'd just bathed in poisoned water? "Is the water safe?" she asked, "Should I tell Thaden?"
He shook his head. "No, as far as I can tell, the water out here is fine. No, perhaps corrupted would be a better word. Aberrant from the natural order," he looked at her, "Do you understand?"
"I...uhm...perhaps," she said. "I understand why it would be of concern."
He looked doubtful that she did. "Have you ever encountered corrupted spirits?" he asked.
Caoimhe's stared into the fire. "I have...I have seen aberration in the natural order," she said quietly. "What is it you are going to do here?"
Sunu straitened, "I will go into the caves and see what is there."
"And then?" she pressed.
"And then?" he shrugged. "Then I will decide what course of action to take."
When Thaden returned to the camp, prepared to pack and move on, Caoimhe was already dressed, her battered swords on her hip, and her bow and quiver ready. He looked from her to the tauren. Sunukukau had also shouldered what little he carried.
"What's this then?" he asked, tension in his voice betraying his casual demeanor.
"We...we are going to the caverns," Caoimhe said.
"Your friend insisted on accompanying me," Sunu said.
"Fine," Thaden said, sitting on his pack and shaking out his wet hair. "She certainly doesn't need my permission."
"You don't wish to come?" she asked.
"Not really," he said.
"Even if there may be something wrong?" she pressed.
Thaden looked at her, then at the tauren. "Do you need my help?" he asked, putting on his over shirt.
"I do not need it," Sunu said. "And I wouldn't want it unwillingly."
"What?" he mumbled through the cloth.
Sunu had started walking away. "Safe travels to you, should I not see you again," he said in parting.
"Wait, what?" Thaden pulled his shirt on and stood up. Caoimhe looked at him, a little torn.
"If you wait here," she said quietly, "I'll be back." She started to follow the tauren.
The caverns were bordering on hot. Steam rose from pools and moss clung to the walls. As they moved inward, the daylight gave way to darkness.
Caoimhe squinted into the cave. "If you give me a few moments," she said, "I will scout ahead."
A crunching of metal on metal behind them caused them both to turn. Thaden tromped up, still adjusting his armor. He turned sideways, "Would you?" he asked Caoimhe, pointing at the unadjusted straps. She smiled and complied.
"We will need a torch," Thaden said.
Fire leaped to life in front of them, seemingly willed into existence by the druid.
"Does that help?" he asked.
Thaden did not respond.
"That...That does rather make us an easy target," Caoimhe said, "If you are concerned over such."
"That may make our discoveries easier," Sunu said. "The natural creatures here will draw away from it."
"So if we aren't attacked by," Thaden stopped his thought, "Do you know exactly what it is you are looking for?"
Sunu was quiet as he walked. "I had a friend," he started, "A fellow druid, who came here to see the springs. There is spiritual power in these places. He did not come back. It wasn't until I came to the crossroads that I heard of the corruption here."
"So you are looking for remains?" Thaden asked unsympathetically.
Sunu did not answer but continued in silence.
"Spirits aren't likely to care about torches," Caoimhe said quietly.
"Spirits," Thaden mumbled under his breath dismissively. "I'd worry more about whatever could survive down here in this heat."
The hot moist air was becoming oppressive. In the armor, even though he wasn't wearing all of it, Thaden was quickly becoming drenched in sweat. Caoimhe would have thought Sunu would be as well, but he showed no signs of discomfort.
The air became hazy with steam and the smell changed from flat air and algae to stagnation and rot, but they found no signs in the first quarter hour of inspecting and walking that would indicate anyone had been there in some time.
"I think your search may be fruitless," Thaden said. "anything that might have died here would decompose far faster than above."
Caoimhe frowned into the darkness ahead of her. The slime on the wet walls shimmered as it dripped in the light.
"That seems very pessimistic," she said as she watched the stream of goo collect into a pool on the cave floor.
"Pessimistic but correct," Sunukukau said, his voice having no more emotion than if he'd been announcing that it was raining outside.
"Would he have carried anything?" Thaden asked, finally engaging in the conversation without sarcasm or disinterest.
"A hunting knife," Sunu said without thinking, "Possibly a stone totem."
Thaden nodded, his eyes scouring the ground for signs of unnatural rocks or metal bits.
"What...what is that?" Caoimhe asked from the edge of the ring of light. The others turned to where she stood.
Caoimhe had watched the goo flow down the wall, collect into a little pool and then, much to her surprise, the whole small mass started to scoot little by little out of the light.
"Where?" Thaden asked, his sword ready.
She pointed with an arrow already notched in the bow. "There."
Sunu moved the flame closer and they all saw, pulsing and rolling and dragging itself into the darkness a slimy mass of what looked like translucent algae. They all moved closer.
"What is it?" she asked again, pointing he4r question at Thaden.
"I have no idea," he said. He moved to poke it with the tip of his sword. a heavy mit fell on his arm.
"Not a good idea," Sunu said. "Poking a strange animal with a sword."
"Animal?" Thaden was incredulous. "It doesn't even have a brain," he said waving his sword at the visible lack of organs.
"There are plants that eat flesh," Sunu said, pulling a few leaves from his belt pouch, "they have no minds to speak of, but they are dangerous none the less." He leaned over and dropped a leaf onto the moving bubble. They all watched intently.
The little goo shuttered and moved first to one side and then the other, as if trying to get out from under whatever it had bumped into, then with a sudden quick movement it's middle dropped and its sides folded over on the leaf, engulfing it completely. Then, as the ooze stared to move away from the light, the leaf started to break apart and disappear.
"Oh my!" Caoimhe exclaimed, fascinated.
"That would explain why we're finding no evidence of anything living in here," Thaden said.
"This is living," Sunu noted, "However primitive."
"Well I don't see anything else," Thaden said, looking around. He stood and looked beyond the ring of light, just to be sure. He squinted into the dimness beyond. He tightened his grip on the sword.
Sunu and Caoimhe saw what Thaden did not say. The light glinted off a dozen shimmering oozes that crept around the cavern walls.
They varied in size, some looked very small, others looked the size of a dog. None seemed to take note of them.
"Ok," Thaden said camly, "we can go out the same way we came in. It isn't too far. Agreed?" He looked to Sunukukau for confirmation.
The tauren frowned, clearly unhappy with his choices. Finally he nodded, and he turned with the light to retrace their steps.
They all stopped, realizing that the creatures had filled the gap as the darkness had closed around them.
Sunu sighed. "We will have to move very slowly," he said.
And so the crawl started. They moved closer to the creatures, and they would inch away from the light, instinctively. They would wait until there was enough room to move and continue forward. In the firelight, they could see through the translucent bodies of the larger creatures, some with the scattered remains of bones and flesh trapped inside them.
"Ew," Caoimhe made an involuntary noise as she caught sight of a partially digested rat.
Thaden laughed. "Come on, surely skinning a rabbit is just as bad."
"Yes," she said, "but that...that is just unnatural."
Thaden looked at the unfortunate rat as the ooze inched along. "Oh, I don't know," he said leaning in to get a better look. "Not much worse than field stew, really."
Sunu was about to warn him of getting too close to the creatures when Thaden stepped backward, his foot coming down on a small ooze with a sickening squishing sound.
He stopped and looked down, a look on his face that recalled stepping in dung. "Iche," he said looking at the spattered mess. Then a sickly smoke started to rise from his boot. A look of horror came across his face.
"Ach, get it off!" he drug his foot across the rocks.
"Hold still," Sunu said, reaching out to calm him and bending over to inspect the damage. "It did not burn through your boot."
"Thaden," Caoimhe said, her voice urgent. "I think you may have upset them."
Thaden and Sunu looked up.
Whether upset over the untimely squishing of a friend or simply drawn to the possibility of a meal by the scent of Thaden's burning shoe, the rest of the oozes had started to circle around them.
"Uh oh," was all Thaden managed before the closest one attacked.
They never would have guessed by the way they bloobled away from the light that the things were capable of any kind of speed. The nearest blob rushed Thaden, extending a part of its body out to suck in his sword arm, as it was the closest appendage. Thaden had been holding his sword in his shield hand while attempting to get the acidic goop off his foot, but flipped it back into the right grasp expertly even as he deflected the lunge with his shield. Caoimhe let two arrows loose in rapid succession only to watch one slosh right through the upper layer of the thing and the other sink in and stop suddenly, then become absorbed into the thing in slow motion. she reached for a new arrow.
Sunu had thrown the torch to ground.
"What are you doing?" Thaden yelped. The light faded as Sunukakau chanted. "We'll be helpless in the dark."
But the torch suddenly flared, a column of flame wrapped around a carved wooden post and Caoimhe watched as she took aim again as small balls of fire whipped from the column to the hit the oozes.
Thaden spun around and sliced cleanly through the first ooze, which lost cohesion for a brief moment before collecting itself and trying again. A second and a third where attempting to crowd out the first and make a meal of the paladin. His blade smoked as the acid singed the metal. He slashed at it again, and again it slowed, but continued on, more pressed around him.
Caoimhe's next arrows stuck into the ooze, but did not get sucked in, she took it as a good sign, but with so little room in the cave, her shots where slow and near meaningless. More oozes where slushing silently toward them from both directions.
Sunu's chanting had grown louder. With a sudden yell and a tremendous stomping of hid massive hoof, the ground around them shook and a concussive shock wave rolled through the cave. the oozes stopped advancing and shook like mounds of pudding. Thaden backed up behind the planted torch.
"Fire!" he said. "The fire sears right through them."
Caoimhe didn't waste any more time, she rolled her bag off her back and pulled a pouch out from the side of it. With the pull string, she tired the whole bag onto the end of an arrow, notched it, and dipped the tip into the flaming totem. she turned and fired the arrow into the advancing oozes that blocked their escape out of the tunnel.
The little bag sputtered and sparked as it flew and landed clumsily somewhere int he middle of the recovering cluster. Then it exploded. There was a flash and a bang that echoed off the walls. Not as impressive as the tauren's massive rumpling stomp, but this one spread fire through the cavern and the oozes that where not melting in the flames where scootching away from the burning floor as fast as their pudding like bodies could move.
Caoimhe squinted and started runnibng through the dispersing flames.
"Come on," she urged, "It won't last long."
The three of them ran into the scattered blaze, bits of fire flaring as they passed, pools of rapidly dispersing acid splashing up onto the walls. They were much faster than the jellies that pursued them and the things didn't seem interested in crossing the fire line anyway. They ran until the fire was a dim glow behind them and darkness loomed in front of them. Sunu struck a new torch.
He looked at the elves. His eyes fell on Thaden, panting from the run in his armor, and said, "We will treat more carefully this time."
Sunukukau sat at the edge of the cavern entrance staring into a bowl of water. Caoimhe approached him quietly and coughed. He looked up.
"We are leaving now," she said simply.
He nodded.
"Are you certain you do not want us to go back with you?" she asked.
Sunu shook his shaggy head. "Your friend seems insistent that you press on," he said.
Caoimhe bit her lip but didn't respond.
"I'm sorry we didn't find your friend," she said.
"No reason for you to be sorry," he said, returning his gaze to the water. "He may yet be alive, but I will go find other druids to assist. This does not seem a task for novices."
Caoimhe blushed a little and nodded.
"Safe travels, then," she offered and she bowed with respect.
"Safe travels, Caoimhe," he smiled a little at the bowl.
Thaden waited on the other side of the rocks for her. He bathed, again, shouldered his packs and thanked the tauren briefly before leaving the pool for Caoimhe to clean up and do the same.
"Ready?" he asked as she approached.
She looked back the way she had come. "I suppose so," she said.
"He'll be fine," Thaden frowned a little at her concern. "He would have come without us and been just fine." He stepped toward the road, clearly happy to be on his way and leave this behind. "To Thousand Needles and no more distractions!" he announced cheerfully.
"To Thousand needles," she echoed with a hesitant smile.