Perils of Adventure Ch. 01 - Silke

With a grunt of undisguised displeasure, Silke's oldest friend dropped her wet clothes beside the fire and proceeded to slip out of her cloth pants as well, flashing her bare rump and snatch at her companions without a second thought. The smirking thief shook her head as she watched the sorceress tug new, drier clothes out of her pack and hastily pull them over her curves. In a traveling party devoid of men, most of their comrades had quickly become quite casual about baring themselves to change clothes or take a dip in the occasional stream, but Vissi was especially shameless. In all likelihood she would behave no different even if there were a few cocks around. The girl had never been shy, after all, and modesty was a luxury their rough and tumble adolescence had seldom indulged.

For her own part Silke decided she would swap tops as well, but her own leather leggings had held up well enough to the few minutes of rain they had been subjected to not to need replacing. After changing and double checking they had everything they might need handy, the pair joined Keire where she was crouched peering nervously down the passage they were meant to explore.

"You ready?" Vissi asked, not bothering to hide her irritation as she handed each of the other women a freshly lit torch.

"Yeah," Silke replied with a grin.

"I think so," Keire answered, her voice notably less certain.

"Alright. Let's get this over with. I'm tired enough already."

The trio of adventuresses had only taken perhaps two dozen steps each before a voice called out after them. "Hold up!" Frowning, Silke turned back to see Faye standing at the edge of the party's camp, a worried look on her face. "Here."

Without saying anything more, the minstrel swung her arm forward. It was easy enough for Silke to catch the small object Faye had hurled her way, even despite the dark. Well honed reflexes, after all, were something of a job requirement in her line of work. When the curious thief opened her hand she saw a small white stick resting on her palm, its powder already dusting her skin.

"Use that to mark your path so you can get back," the pretty blonde suggested. "Who knows how many tunnels there are down there."

"Thanks." Silke kicked herself mentally for not having the same idea first. Getting lost underground would be the perfect way to make an already crappy day a hundred times worse. So frustrated was she by her own sloppiness that the thief nearly missed the warm smile and cute little wave Faye sent her way, just barely managing to raise her hand in thanks before the bard had turned away. Of all the girls in their company save Vissi, the blonde had certainly proven herself the friendliest towards Silke. And she always seemed to know how to cheer anyone up. Perhaps, the thief momentarily mused as she watched Faye stride back towards the fire, shapely backside swaying slightly as she went, it might be time to reconsider her stance on the merits or lack thereof involved in the prospect of taking a lover.

Realizing all of a sudden how long she had been staring after the retreating bard, Silke spun back around a little too abruptly, nearly stumbling over a loose rock beneath her feet in the process. By that point Keire had moved a little farther into the tunnel, an arrow already knocked on her bowstring. Vissi, on the other hand, was staring right at Silke. The thief cringed as she saw the playful smirk which decorated her friend's face and the way one eyebrow was raised curiously. "What?"

"You want that little songbird, don't you?" the sorceress chuckled quietly, her grin only growing wider as Silke felt her face start to flush. The two former street urchins, it must be said, knew one another far too well for either to miss such an obvious display on the other's part.

"Don't be stupid, V." The thief quickly looked away, her hand clenching tight around Faye's chalk. Knowing her friend, it would be a long time before she was to hear the end of the matter. Not that there was even anything there in the first place. It wasn't like... would the blonde even be interested? She was probably just being nice...

"Awww," Vissi cooed, reaching over to ruffle Silke's hair. "You're adorable. But since when do you like 'em all sugary-sweet?"

"Oh, shut up already," the thief managed to spit out, her cheeks fully blazing as she hurried off to join Keire.

The sorceress's smirk showed no signs of abating as the two friends reached their scout. Armed with torches and chalk, the trio finally set off to explore the dark of the cave beyond. Blissfully for Silke, they walked in silence for the most part, making as little noise as possible in an effort to better hear anything that might be lurking ahead of them. The longer they walked, the more clear it became that Faye had been right to worry. The cave grew gradually narrower, frequently branching and spitting off smaller offshoots most of which seemed to angle sharply downwards, perhaps in pursuit of veins of ore that had long since dried up, or so they supposed.

It was hard for the three young women to be sure how long they spent exploring the maze of tunnels their company had stumbled into. Suffice to say their travels were long enough to dispel any notion that their environs could ever have been considered comfortably secure. There were simply too many nooks and crannies for danger to lurk in. Regardless, they pressed on in their search for evidence of life within. What progress they made was slow, hindered by sharp curves, thin passages they could barely squeeze through, and an increasingly uneven floor. Some passageways seemed to be worked stone like the entrance while others seemed entirely natural with little apparent rhyme or reason to the transitions between. That is not to say the signs of such were entirely absent, more experienced explorers would have had little difficulty recognizing the sort of craftsmanship at play, but alas our heroines passed each one as oblivious as the last.

As the trio advanced through the caverns, Silke took great care in marking every junction they came across with a sign of their passage and an arrow indicating the direction they had come from. While she did so, Keire kept her attention focused forward and Vissi periodically closed her eyes and mumbled an incantation or two. As far as they could tell, though, they remained alone, and with a safe return assured their confidence grew the longer they went without encountering any hint of occupation.

The first sign of the predicament our lovely trio were soon to find themselves ensnared in came when they reached a junction at which Keire silently held up one hand to signal for a stop. Silke yawned widely, letting her eyes stay closed for a long moment before trying to discern why the archer had called a halt. Vissi just shrugged when they exchanged a look, though, prompting both girls to turn towards Keire. She was too busy glancing around the cavern like she was searching for something to pay any attention to her comrades, though, only falling still and letting out a quiet grunt right as Silke finally opened her mouth to inquire as to what she was looking for.

"What?" The thief tried to follow her comrade's eyes. "Do you see something?"

"I thought this spot looked familiar," Keire answered in a murmur, "and now I'm sure. Isn't that the thing Vissi thought looked like a face?" her voice trailed off.

"Rocky?" the sorceress asked, turning to look where the huntress had just pointed. "Huh. Yeah, that looks like him..." she mused as she stared at a small outcropping near the ceiling.

"It can't be the same. There wasn't any chalk when we got here." Silke frowned, her eyes sweeping across the stone all around them in case she had somehow missed a marking on her first check. If only she had.

"Are you sure you didn't forget before?" Keire asked, her voice tense.

"Of course I'm sure," the thief retorted, scowling and folding her arms in front of her chest as best she could while holding a torch. Which is to say not very well.

"Alright..." the archer sounded skeptical, but she didn't push the matter. "I guess its just a coincidence. We should keep moving."

There was no further discussion, but Silke made sure both of the others saw her marking the junction before they set off. The trio continued on for awhile longer, weaving through tunnel after tunnel but still they found nothing to indicate any danger in the caves save that of boredom. Nothing that they recognized as such, at least. Finally they decided they had gone far enough. If there was anything lurking in the dark, it hardly seemed keen on showing its face.

Only once they made the decision to return did the three adventuresses finally discover how much trouble they were in. Retracing their steps to the previous junction was an easy enough task, as was reaching the one from before that. When they arrived at the third, though, that was when they at last knew something had gone terribly wrong. The spot was certainly marked, there was no mistaking that, but the chalk arrow which should have led them back to camp was instead pointing down the tunnel they had just emerged from. Thinking, or perhaps hoping, they had somehow misread the previous directions, the trio turned around and begrudgingly trekked back the way they had come. But they had made no error. When they emerged from the other end of the passage things were exactly as they remembered. Somehow, the markings they had counted on to see them back to safety were instead aimed directly at one another in a perpetual loop.

"Uh... Silke?" Vissi was the first to find her voice as the three women stood nervously looking down at the chalk arrow in question. To any observers lurking just out of sight, their befuddled expressions must surely have been quite the amusing sight, though one not fated to last. For very slowly, the redhead soon lifted her head to stare at her friend, one eyebrow cocked inquisitively.

"Don't give me that look, V," the thief countered sharply. "You've both been watching me, and don't pretend you haven't. I didn't fuck up."

"She's right," Keire confirmed in a quiet voice. "I watched both times."

All three girls exchanged long, uncomfortable glances before it was again Vissi who finally broke the silence. "Then, who..." The sorceress didn't finish her thought, instead gulping visibly. At her side, the fingers of her free hand curled into a fist and Silke could see it start to subtly glow.

"We're not alone..." Keire finally muttered, a tone of dread certainty in her voice. Though she could see them not, in the darkness a solitary set of lips curled into a wicked grin at that pronouncement. Ignorant she may have been as to where exactly her unseen observer lurked, the huntress turned all the same to stare down the tunnel opposite of where the altered mark was pointing, half-drawing her bow as if she expected something to charge out of the shadows at them.

"Fuck me..." Vissi mumbled, herself and Silke each turning to look down one of the other two tunnels.

For what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, the trio of adventuresses kept a silent watch, their eyes peering into the darkness all around while their ears strained for the slightest hint of movement. But there was nothing there. They were all alone with naught to hear but the beating of their own hearts. Or so it seemed.

"So... how do we get back?" Silke eventually asked, more alert than she had felt for hours as fear and adrenaline held her exhaustion at bay. The girls had already explored enough of the underground complex to know it was massive, even with the newfound possibility they had been left to wander in circles. Thanks to the chalk, retracing their steps had once seemed a simple prospect. Now that they knew the markings not to be trustworthy, however, the return journey had become a far more daunting endeavor. It might well take days to reunite with their comrades if they had to resort to blindly fumbling through the twisting passageways without any means of guidance.

"Give me a second," Keire murmured. The huntress closed her eyes to think while her companions exchanged a worried look. Silke could feel herself beginning to sweat despite the damp chill all around.

"Okay," Keire finally opened her eyes after a few long moments and took a deep breath. "What we need are landmarks. Vissi, can your magic make anything that won't be erased or altered as easily as the chalk?" Her eyes were hopeful as they fixed on the sorceress, but Silke could tell she was just as nervous as they were. None of the three young adventuresses had been blessed with the luxury of a carefree youth, yet neither had any of them ever felt so imperiled as they did in their current predicament.

"Uh..." Vissi glanced up and to the side, chewing on her lip as she racked her brain for possibilities.

It wasn't the sorceress who came up with the solution, though. No, that particular flash of inspiration struck Silke instead, the gasp when it hit catching both of her comrades by surprise. "How about fire?" she asked, a wild grin spreading on her face.

"Fire?" Keire asked, her voice skeptical. "They could just snuff it out. And we don't have any kindling..."

"No, no, she's right!" Vissi grinned. She always had liked solving problems the fun way. "Like the time I tried to sign my name on old man Daleth's warehouse."

"Exactly! It took him ages to wash the scorch marks off those bricks." Understanding slowly dawned on Keire's face at the thief's explanation and she started to nod her head in agreement.

"Yeah, alright, that... might just work." The elf-blooded archer smiled, tension visibly draining from her body as she worked through the possibilities. "Alright, here's what we'll do. Vissi, leave one scorch mark right here. It doesn't have to be huge, just enough to recognize it later. Every five junctions from here we'll leave more marks. First two, then three, and so on. Got it?"

The childhood friends looked first at one another then back at their scout, both of them nodding. For the first time since learning their trail markers had been tampered with Silke felt a little hope, not to mention a newfound appreciation for their party's resident pathfinder. "Got it."

"Alright. We'll try to keep our route as straight as possible and if we hit dead ends or passages that are too tight then we just go back to the last marker and try a new direction." As Keire outlined her plan her voice seemed to grow in confidence until she sounded as if nothing at all had gone wrong. "This way we'll gradually eliminate paths and keep from repeating any. And we don't need to find the entire route back. We could hear the storm for a long time, remember? We just need to get far enough back that we can hear it again, then follow the noise out. Worst case we find a different entrance and once we're back on the surface I can get us to camp from there."

"I like it," Vissi agreed, a newfound edge to her voice. "And if we find whoever or whatever's been fucking with us, we burn them to a crisp."

Silke nodded along, as always unable to resist her friend's enthusiasm. That particular failing of hers had, on many an occasion, led both street kids into far more trouble than they were prepared to deal with. It was perhaps the memory of one or another such misadventure that prompted a kernel of doubt to surface in her mind. "Um, Keire?" she asked, anxiety coiling around her heart like a snake once more. "What if the route we start with takes us... further in?" At that suggestion, Vissi's rampant grin faded a little, the sorceress also turning towards their guide.

Keire put on as brave a face as she could manage, one convincing enough that Silke couldn't be sure whether or not the huntress had already considered the same possibility. "I don't think that'll happen," she declared after just a second too long. "I think we've been going in circles for awhile. If this place really is big enough for us not to have been..." Keire trailed off and Silke caught herself gulping. That wasn't a scenario that bore thinking on for too long. If they were truly that far from safety then they were also well and truly fucked, more likely than not to wander aimlessly until exhaustion finally overwhelmed them and they collapsed, becoming easy prey for whatever foe was stalking them. Not that they had been particularly challenging prey to date, of course.

A moment later both thief and archer were shaken out of their mutual dread by the unexpected roar of flames. Blinking away the sudden rush of light that had assaulted her eyes, Silke turned to stare at Vissi. The redhead was a foot away admiring a freshly formed scorch mark which now decorated the center of the small chamber they stood in and dusting her faintly glowing hands. She let her comrades stare for a few moments before looking up and fixing them with a determined look. "You two ready to get going then? I for one still intend to get some fucking sleep tonight."

Silke couldn't help but crack a grin as she nodded, seeing Keire answer much the same way out of the corner of her eye.

"Alright. Then get going before I decide to use you as tinder." The thief chuckled but didn't hesitate to start walking. She had, after all, witnessed her friend make good on too many threats to ever assume anything the curvy redhead said was mere jest.

And like that the trio had set off once more, stopping periodically to allow their ill-tempered sorceress to mark her territory. Only a few times were they forced to stop, retrace their steps, and select an alternate route. At first they kept encountering chalk marks which sought to divert them this way or that, but those quickly dried up as their unseen shepherds seemed to realize the ruse was up. Eventually, to their great relief, the distant sound of the storm above began to tickle at the edge of their hearing. From then on the adventuresses grew increasingly confident they would make their way out of the labyrinthine tunnels unscathed. Should one find themselves pondering that age-old proverb about unhatched chickens at this point in our story, well, I fear that such a concern would be all too fitting.

It would hardly surprise such a cunning reader to learn that the trio's confidence had grown so high and their pace so fast that they entirely failed to notice what had to be one of the most blatant traps Silke had ever laid eyes upon until it was too late. Proceeding with all haste down a section of tunnel which had clearly been carved out of the rock, or at least expanded from whatever natural passage had once existed, Vissi, who had rather unwisely forced herself to the front of the pack, abruptly froze midstride and let out a loud gasp of surprise. Silke was barely able to prevent herself barreling into the sorceress, a narrow miss which proved quite fortunate as the redhead promptly drew her attention to the cause of her sudden halt.

A ragged, slightly discoloured patch of the cavern floor centered almost perfectly on Vissi's foot had sunk perhaps an inch below the neighbouring stone. Had keen-eyed Keire or the experienced and wary Silke been in the lead, either would most likely have detected the poorly disguised pressure plate with ease allowing them to guide their companions around it. In her haste to be reunited with her bedroll, however, the impatient sorceress had nearly sprung whatever nasty surprise the girls' unseen hosts had prepared in their honour, an error which it would fall to her best friend to correct.

With all the caution of an illicit lover tiptoeing past the slumbering husband they had just cuckolded, Silke dropped to her knees and began withdrawing a handful of delicate tools from her pack. A quick inspection was all she needed to confirm the obvious supposition that the discoloured patch was indeed a pressure plate, but, in what had become a rare stroke of luck, it at least seemed not to be a particularly sophisticated one. Had she a sufficiently heavy object at hand with which to replace Vissi's weight Silke could and would have simply pinned the plate down and moved on. With no such object available and no way to be certain just how sensitive the plate in question was, however, she was going to be forced to disarm it. Such an operation would naturally have been tricky at the best of times, even with how simplistic the trap seemed, but after a day that began many miles away and an evening spent in tense subterranean exploration Silke was far from at her best. There was no other choice to be made, though, so she got to work.