Alejandro had wanted to show Vera the abandoned barn where Kepler's body had been found, it wasn't in a territory that Vera could identify as having any particular meaning within the community. Even some of the smaller and argued older small magical communities called this place home. Instead it was just open farm fields and the broken down old barn. "I had hoped having a second set of eyes might give us an advantage."

Vera walked around the barn seeing rays of light peeking through the beams. There wasn't much inside, a chair sitting in the middle of the barn, a mess of chains hanging from the rafters, and an old pitchfork rested against the back wall. There was a hay loft above them though the ladder to get up was missing. Getting close to the chair where Alejandro said he'd found Kepler Vera started kicking back some of the straw looking for any clues that could lead them towards what had happened to her friend. "Oh Bitsy." Vera reached out to touch the chair but something inside her told her to stop.

She felt a tingling in her fingertips, standing there motionless as Alejandro turned to look at her. "Vera? Is there something wrong?"

Vera felt a sharp pain through her stomach, grabbing her side she let out a gasp and backed away from the spot. "Yes." Alejandro walked over to the chair reaching for it to move it away. The moment he grabbed the chair however an explosive magical charge ended up going off throwing them both across the floor. Vera was knocked off balance rolling through the straw and trying to recover from a ringing in her ears. What had he not understood about something was obviously wrong? Vera shook her head and started getting back up trying to reprimand Alejandro. "I did say something was wrong which normally means do not touch it."

Looking around Vera brushed her hair back seeing Alejandro had vanished. "Alejandro?" Vera turned around to see if he hadn't been tossed behind her. "Next time I say something is wrong I seriously hope it's left alone." Standing back up she walked over to the chair which was the only thing still in its original spot. "Runes, just as I thought." She brushed her hands off and then pulled a piece of straw out of her hair. "Let this just be a very early lesson to you little one, always check for runes. Such a rookie mistake." Outside Vera saw a shadow moved across the wall breaking up the beams of light. It was silent as it moved but it was circling the barn and inching closer to the door where it stopped.

Vera almost spoke but stopped when she could hear a low growl, that wasn't Alejandro. With the first bang on the door Vera raised her hand "Obstruatur" The creature outside roared with pain as it slammed it's body harder into the door splintering wood. Another bash and the doors came down as a large creature rushed inside shaking its head. It was about as large and as bulky as one of the wolves but rather than the brows, greys, and black of the wolves it was a bright gold with black spots covering its body. Once it showed its face Vera knew exactly what they were dealing with, "An Aztec Jaguarman?" There wasn't enough time for her to be awed by an otherwise extinct creature before it was charging at her. "Avolentur."

The jaguarman went flying back, much further back than she thought was possible. It's body crashed through the front of the barn sending splinters of wood out behind it. "Alright." She paused a moment. "Look at you with your powers on steroids." If the whole 'my baby has powers' wasn't concerning enough then the added factor of 'my babies powers are really really advanced' brought just another level of concern. Despite her ability to throw the beast a hefty distance from her the creature just shook off the attack and was up and running on all fours back to the barn. Vera took a few steps back then suddenly feeling the floor vanish from under her feet. With a sharp cry she dropped down to a tunnel system below and landed thankfully on some old sacks of flour. Vera looked up seeing a trap door had fallen open. Perhaps during the blast. Waving her hand she slammed it shut sealing herself off in the pitch black.

Above she could hear the creature scuffling around and clawing at the floorboards. It sniffed trying to locate her but luckily it hadn't discovered the trap door just yet. After a short search it let out a frustrated bellow and slammed it's claws down into the floor spraying shards of wood down over her shoulder and sending ripped flakes of straw floating down over her. Vera nearly sneezed, catching her breath and covering her nose as the beast walked away. Just for safety she held her breath a little longer before finally letting herself sneeze. The only light bleeding into the dark tunnel system came from the four claw marks overhead giving her just enough light to see what was immediately next to her.

"Lux tenebris." Vera raised her hand trying to create an orb of radiating light but instead of making a nice subtle orb the spell more so blew up and turned into a near flashbang. It brightened up the tunnel for a brief moment and nearly blinded Vera forcing her to shield her eyes. Once the light had gone out Vera finally pulled her arm away from her face. "Well, thank modern technology." She pulled her phone from her pocket and turned on her flashlight. "We are going to need to have a serious conversation with your father once we get home." Vera aimed the flashlight ahead of her looking around at what appeared to be some old mining tunnels. That was odd since there wasn't any mining done in this part of the county as she recalled. The soil and rock was too soft for any form of safe mining and it was a great reminder to get out from underground sooner rather than later.

Last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a cave in two months pregnant with a dwindling oxygen supply and from the look on her cell phone no reception. Vera was slowed down a little from the pain that still stabbed her in the stomach from time to time. A strange but constant reminder of 'danger' or at least that was what Vera had taken it as when she had gotten close to the chair. Perhaps it was a little like the Knights ringing they heard when bad magic was being practiced but in this case it was 'dangerous' magic strictly to her and subsequently to jr. "Calm down you." Vera scrunched up her face smelling something awful up ahead, something like rot and decay. It was bad enough that she was forced to stop in her tracks and cover her mouth to avoid gagging or throwing up.

She didn't need her super mom senses kicking in right now while she was trying to get out of this murder mine. Covering her nose with her shirt Vera continued onward shining the phone's light over two skeletons, human skeletons. However that hadn't been what was making it smell in here. On the ground just a little ways ahead was a deer, a large buck to be exact. It's guts had been ripped open with its intestines spilled out over her path. Vera tried to keep her eyes off the carnage as she stepped over the oozing rotting mess. Fly's jumped around across the deers white eyes and hanging tongue. Swatting her hand she tried to keep a few from landing on her until she had cleared the dead animal completely. Once it was behind her Vera picked up speed marching onward until the tunnels came to a divide.

"Great." She cursed looking at both paths. "Vident viam" Vera spoke hoping that the ceiling didn't come crashing down overhead. Instead the cave remained fairly calm as bright collared footsteps started walking down the left trail. "That's a good start." Vera followed the footsteps feeling like it might have been a poor choice since she distinctly felt like she was going deeper underground. The air got cold and thick feeling heavy in her lungs. All she could smell now was wet earth and a lingering undertone of bone. When Vera finally saw light up ahead however she realized she'd come to the right spot.

Running forward the tunnel opened up into an underground cavern, rocks hung from up above her with towering pillars to either side of her. Water trickled down into a small pool at the bottom, hardly deep enough to get her ankles wet and yet about fifteen feet above her was the opening. "Oh perfect." She threw her hands up. "And here I am without my climbing gear." Vera looked down at her phone feeling a little excited now. Finally, she had a few bars on her phone. Vera was quick to go through her contacts and find the number she needed. Putting the phone up to her ear it rang maybe twice before Hamish picked up. "Hello, Hamish? So funny thing is I'm trapped in a cave right now…"

Pulling the phone back from her ear she cringed a little still hearing his loud and shocked 'WHAT' on the other side. "Alright Hamish I know it's alarming but please refrain from shouting in my ear. I've already fallen into a mineshaft today and been attacked by a jaguraman so…" Vera pulled the phone away again to another loud 'WHAT'. Finally putting it back to her ear she tried to calm down his rambling now. "Listen Hamish, I just need you to come and get me out, I can't climb to the top of this hole, it's really too high and if I fell I'd probably die. Oh, also bring rope." Before Hamish could continue to panic Vera hung up on him and found herself the most comfortable rock nearby. Sitting down on it she rested her hands on her knees and clicked her tongue. "And now we wait."

Time went by as Vera waited, at first sitting on the rock and then later walking around in the cave when she got tired of sitting on the rock. Vera turned to look at her exit when something shut out the light briefly. Turning around she saw a figure approaching and ran under to call up for Hamish but instead what she saw was the large catlike face peering through the hole. Backing up Vera watched as the jaguar clawed through the hole and snarled at her but luckily for her it was too far away to actually get her. That didn't stop it from trying. It clawed at the rocks and hissed spitting on her and making her clear a little more space just in case it got brave and jumped down. The thought seemed to occur to it as well, bringing its second claw into the hole before it let out a loud pained roar.

The jaguar was practically ripped from the hole, just a flash of grey appearing to let her know Tundra was up there and she wasn't happy. The wolf snarled as it slammed the other beast into the ground, the two scuffling above though Vera couldn't see anything. All she could hear was a yelp from Tundra and a rabid cry from the cat as they fought. Finally a loud howl reached her ears, a victorious howl while the sounds of the cat were finally quieted. Vera walked under the hole again seeing Hamish peek over the edge. "Are you alright?"

"No, but I will be once you get me out of here." A rope fell down towards her.

"Step in the loop, I'll pull you up." Well, if she was going to trust anyone's strength it was going to be a werewolf's strength. Vera grabbed hold of the rope and slipped her foot in the loop while Hamish started to raise her out of the pit. Once Vera reached the ledge she reached out feeling Hamish grab her arm and gently help her up. Once she had a foot on solid ground Hamish grabbed hold of her, pulling her into a tight hug and kissing her over and over again upon the cheek. "I was so worried about you, I wish you would have let me come with you, then none of this would have happened."

Vera stepped back, "Are you scolding me?" She looked off towards the direction she had heard the fighting. "Come on." Vera didn't have time to let Hamish worry about her now, they had to restrain the cat. Hamish led her up the hill overlooking where he'd left his foe but by the time they arrived it had already fled.

"I swear, I left it right down there."

"Well it's not down there now." She could hear Hamish growl as her phone pinged with a text. Vera picked it up scanning over the text quickly. "It's Alejandro, he's lost." Vera sighed. "Hamish, you go off, look for the damn cat. I'll go find Alejandro."

Hamish was reluctant to leave her alone again. He stepped closer to her kissing her on the cheek again. "You two be careful."

Vera sighed again, "I'm sure Alejandro is fine."

"No Vera." He paused and put a hand on her stomach. "I mean you two."

"Believe me Hamish, you don't need to worry about us. I'll tell you more when we get home." Vera smiled as she stepped away from Hamish and went to track down that moron.