In any case, Raisa was already starting to miss her whiskers. She fell into line behind and to the side of Riza, tail flicking this way and that. There were signs of the bear's recent habitation; a heap of leaves drawn up into a crude nest. The cavern sloped downward, with a few tumbled heaps of stone in the way, but progress was otherwise still easy.
"I don't hear any more ominous breathing, at least."
Her ears stayed in almost constant motion anyway, turning to identify sounds as she heard them. That was a cluster of bats, over there was a drip of water, and as they went further and further down--a change in the echoes, like a room had suddenly opened up above their heads. A moment later the entire party could see, with the torches illuminating a much, much larger cavern.
It seemed like the mountain had been hollowed out on the inside, at least from Raisa's point of view; miles of stone probably still stretched above their heads still. But still!
The cavern walls were riddled with yet more holes, warrenlike; some were shallow, some were deep enough to be proper tunnels leading off elsewhere. The sound of dribbling water had intensified; a collection of fanciful stalagmites grew up from the floor, as if they were trees. The occasional drop of water splashed down on them from above, but the ceiling was too tall for the flickering torchlight to reveal much in the way of details.
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In any case, Raisa was already starting to miss her whiskers. She fell into line behind and to the side of Riza, tail flicking this way and that. There were signs of the bear's recent habitation; a heap of leaves drawn up into a crude nest. The cavern sloped downward, with a few tumbled heaps of stone in the way, but progress was otherwise still easy.
"I don't hear any more ominous breathing, at least."
Her ears stayed in almost constant motion anyway, turning to identify sounds as she heard them. That was a cluster of bats, over there was a drip of water, and as they went further and further down--a change in the echoes, like a room had suddenly opened up above their heads. A moment later the entire party could see, with the torches illuminating a much, much larger cavern.
It seemed like the mountain had been hollowed out on the inside, at least from Raisa's point of view; miles of stone probably still stretched above their heads still. But still!
The cavern walls were riddled with yet more holes, warrenlike; some were shallow, some were deep enough to be proper tunnels leading off elsewhere. The sound of dribbling water had intensified; a collection of fanciful stalagmites grew up from the floor, as if they were trees. The occasional drop of water splashed down on them from above, but the ceiling was too tall for the flickering torchlight to reveal much in the way of details.
"Well. Left or right?"