Taking the Initiative [Dark]

[Dark]

Right, then.

Minh dumped out the water, wrapping the needle up carefully in the silk and stuffing it in the cup--which she shoved in her bag--for safe keeping. It was easy to get turned around in a forest with no distinguishable landmarks, and they would probably have to check their bearings rather frequently to keep from getting so horribly lost again.

She puttered around a moment, picking up the scraps of fabric and trim she had tossed so carelessly just a moment before--never knew when it all might come in handy--and tossed the kit back at Mnem.

"Shall we get going, then? We have a lot of ground to cover, unfortunately."

Minh was really beginning to wonder why they had come all the way out here to begin with--besides for the fact that Shinrai was a sexist pig, and needed to be taught an important lesson. She sighed, and shouldered her pack.

Seriously--with everything that had happened, what else could go wrong?

[Bee]

A lot of ground to cover, indeed. And as they walked along, Mnem noticed a gradual change in the scenery. It was still thick forest, but it was becoming even gloomier. The moss was thicker on the trees, and the chitter of small wildlife and even insects was dying off. It was...chilling, in an indefinable way she almost felt silly about. There was a new odor slowly making itself known, as well, pungent and smelling quite a bit like rotten eggs--sulfur.

She didn't want to know what in the area could possibly be making that scent. Even Monty seemed more on guard than usual, sniffing constantly at the air and hopping madly around their feet as though looking for something.

"I've got a bad feeling," said Mnem, rather more quietly than usual. Something about the area seemed to demand hushed tones. Perhaps because it was so terribly and tensely noiseless, like a library, except creepier.

[Dark]

Minh was also experiencing feelings of intense unease, and she glanced nervously about at the suddenly too-dark woods. When had it gotten so quiet? Her answer was spoken in the same hushed tones as Mnem's--it just seemed the thing to do:

"Yeah. Definite imminent-doom vibes. How about we relocate to a more defensible position, hm?"

The was a cropping of rocks not seventy yards from where the stood, and Minh figured it was probably a safe bet. The mad rush to safety, however, did not go as planned.

What looked like solid ground gave out under her paws, sucking her down. She was in up to her waist she she even realized what had happened.

"Quicksand? You've got to be fuckin' kidding me."

She looked up at Mnem with a disgusted sigh, knowing the odds of escaping this particular situation.

"Will you, uh, look up my brother when you get back to civilization? Tell him that my will states that he inherits everything, and who cares if I got the money selling pot to kindergarteners, he will use it to open up that restaurant he always talks about or I'll come back, and, uh, like haunt him or something. m'kay?"

[Bee]

Mnem sighed deeply as she took in Minh's predicament. Of course she landed herself in a pile of quicksand. This part of the forest was apparently death, and falling into quicksand was just the sort of thing that happened to Minh.

"You're not going to die," she said exasperatedly, keeping her worry out of her tone. She raised an eyebrow. "Not even I dealt drugs to kids. Okay, let's try to find you a way out of here..."

She looked around the immediate area. She might be able to find a long and strong enough branch and possibly pull Minh out. As she searched, Monty hopped gleefully around the quicksand hole, leaping from one end to Minh's head to the other end, and back again. Hir effortless bouncing over the danger spot seemed almost like...taunting.

Finding a sufficient hunk of wood, Mnem pointed one end at Minh. "Let's see if I can get you out." Mnem was not actually terribly physically strong (just quick and sneaky), and she hated breaking a sweat unless she was either having sex or taking part in the occasional brawl, but it wasn't like she was going to let Minh die.

[Dark]

Minh suffered in relative silence as Monty jumped, back and forth, using her head as a convenient stepping stone across the sopping, foul-smelling pit of Death.

It really was sweet that Mnem was trying to save her, and she had the right idea with the lever, but it all boiled down to an issue of mass. There wasn't anything to use as a fulcrum to help boost how much work Mnem could put out, and even in her bipedal form, Minh was still heavier and bulkier than the slim canine.

"Mnem, honey, I really don't think that's a very good idea. One of us dead is quite enough for today, I think."

Keeping still only delayed the inevitable for a time, and she felt herself slide down into the disgusting goop just a bit more. She was going to suffocate, and wasn't that a cheery thought.

[Bee]

Mnem took a deep breath, face settling into a scowl as she exhaled. She was not cut out for hard manual labor. She was already feeling tired, muscles protesting trying to move something that simply wasn't going to budge.

She hated acknowledging limitations. Hated it, hated it, hated it. And in this instance there was more than her own pride at stake. Mnem pushed harder, threw all her strength into trying to pry Minh out with the branch, and--failed quite spectacularly, actually, as her grip slipped and she pitched forward. She barely managed to turn herself enough to avoid going in face-first.

Her sudden surge forward even threw off Monty, who had just leaped in the direction of Minh's head again. The bander landed wrong, slipped, and fell into the quicksand alongside Minh and Mnem, shrieking madly and flailing her tiny, viciously clawed paws.

"Well," said Mnem, looking down at where her body met sinking death. A cool feeling of resignation chilled whatever panic might have wanted to start simmering. "At least we won't die alone."

[Dark]

It was an odd sensation, knowing you were going to die--enlightenment in its purest form, and you almost welcomed it at the end--and when Minh was finally dragged under the surface, it was with a quiet kind of acceptance and a certain amount of peace, knowing she had died surrounded by friends on a quest of epic proportions.

So imagine her surprise when she woke, retching foul, slightly salty gunk out of her lungs. When the heaving had subsided, she rolled away from stinking mess, breath coming in short, panicked bursts of air as she stared up at the rocky ceiling of a subterranean cavern. What in the world had happened? Wasn't she supposed to be dead, right about now?

She struggled to her feet, her movements sluggish, both from nearly suffocating and the heavy crud caked into her fur.

"Mnem? Monty? Please, please tell me I'm not down here in the spooky cave all by myself."

[Bee]

Mnem rolled over and tried to fight the urge to be sick--she despised vomiting more than most things. One would suspect that such a heavy drinker would be accustomed to hangover puking, but Mnem had long since developed a remedy for that. It didn't completely kill the headache, but it more than took the edge off, and she hadn't thrown up after a night of boozing since she was seventeen. But she was not successful, this time, in keeping the disgusting mix of silt and salt water down.

After expelling the contents of her stomach and waiting for the last of the queasiness to pass, Mnem felt well enough to talk to Minh.

"I'm fine," she said, trying to brush some of the filth away. She wasn't getting to bathe near enough out here. "Monty is..." She looked around for Monty. She was a few feet away, drenched in wet dirt, twitching and sputtering. "Monty will be back to her charming old self shortly, I think."

She took a good look around. This wasn't what she imagined the Underworld to look like at all. So obviously they could not be dead. Dark cavern walls, damp and dripping. Lots of rocks. Curious little lumps of dirt in the ground that--

Monty wailed in anger. One of the lumps had shot up a small stream of fire.

"Where the hell are we?"

[Dark]

Minh caught a waft of sulfur right before the tiny mound ignited, sending a spectacular burst of flame shooting up towards the distant ceiling. Another shortly followed, and Minh in her curiosity barely escaped. As it were, she was probably the worst she had suffered was a serious-case of burnt whiskers.

Fascinating.

"Well, I'm not a geologist by any means, but I'd hazard to guess that we're over some sort of hotbed for geothermic activity. The gas is probably leaking through the cracks in the rocks, and igniting when it hits the air."

She peered around, the view lighted by a persistent, rather disturbing haze of red. The cavern they were in disappeared around a bend, so she couldn't be certain how large of a structure they were talking about, but it seemed consistently damp, and mucky, and one-too-many-degrees past comfortable where temperature was concerned. There were also some rather freakish flora growing that Mnem was sure to enjoy.

"Let's call it a Fire Swamp."

She barely dodged the hot blast of fiery death.

[Bee]

A fire swamp. Of course. Though Mnem could not really argue that it certainly did fit. While Minh and Monty were apparently making some kind of game out of barely avoiding flames of death, Mnem was inspecting the cavern's walls. There were a few vines, thin and knotty and an alarming shade of red, that clung to the walls with tiny, thin brown hairs. In certain spots, the vein-like threads bunched together, and at these bunches grew tiny, blood-red flowers.

When she leaned in to get a closer look, the flowers snapped at her nose. She jerked back. Her kingdom for a damned specimen jar. She wanted to take this thing home and study it. It was obviously semi-sentient. The flowers bore a resemblence to poppies; if Mnem were extremely fortunate, the plant would have psychotropic properties.

Maybe she could just slip it into her pack and...