WE FOUND A CAVE THAT WAS NOT DANGEROUS... PROBABLY

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

Did I tell you that I HATED the warlock lands? Yes? Oh, well, I've just started hating it all over again.

Ki and I shimmied our way across the very narrow ledge. It wasn't impossible, but I would have felt better about it if we had some kind of rock wall climbing gear.

Anyway, we made it across the first part, and as I pressed myself along the hard rock wall and watched Ki make the first leap to the rockery jutting out further up front, I sort of remembered doing this before. But we were on a tree branch was double in width, sneaking into the Lorents', by using the back shed as a landing platform.

I was barefooted then too.

Just before we had attempted this stunt though. Ki has stripped off his warrior jacket and tie. But he kept his suit jacket on - I was going to write it off as a Lorent thing, but then he held up my warrior jacket for me to put on, "The jacket is protective gear. It would keep you safe in case of unforeseen mishaps, goddess."

Oh, so the betamen jackets gave some practical excuse, I mean, reasons for being worn to our graves now. They were "protective gear". Of course, if we did land in our graves, then our protective gear wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

And I would like to point out that right now was already the time of unforeseen mishap, but I didn't want to make a fuss about it since Ki was acting like we were about to go for a walk in the park. I could play it cool too.

Anyway, I refused the jacket, "It's too hot."

Ki considered this and compromised by draping my betamen cape over my shoulders.

Okay. I can compromise too. I guess a bit of bullet proofing wasn't all that bad.

Then Ki produced a square fabric thing which he unfolded. It turned into quite largish bag with a single strap and sturdy clip - like a giant fanny bag.

He put in all the extra stuff we weren't wearing, including my boots, "The strap is adjustable and can be clipped around my wolf form. Perhaps I can shift and carry you back once we're down, goddess."

Oh! That was brilliant!

And then, as if to prove just how brilliant he was, Ki simply dropped the bag with all its contents down the side of the cliff for us to pick up when we got down.

It turned out that Ki magic was not just limited to around my house or wardrobe.

Thanks to Ki, my plan was not only working out better than I had hoped, it was getting carried with all the grace and style of Lorent Royalty.

Well, at least from my point of view. From Ki's point of view, he was stuck with a blue hair, wolf eared, barefoot barbarian girl. Poor Ki. Hahaha.

But nevermind the style factor. We were in warlock wilderness! The point was that we got down successfully to the ground. I felt quite proud of myself for clearing that last jump from the jut of rock to the ground. It was all thanks to my ability to mimic cobra's cat like jump. I didn't even sprain an ankle!

Ki made it down too, but he had to use his upper body strength to hang off the rock jut and then swing himself to another smaller jut, before half jumping and half scrambling down the rest of the way where it was not quite so steeply inclined.

I don't think I'd be able to do that.

Ki dusted his hands off and glowed to heal up the scraped skin, "Are you hurt anywhere, goddess?"

I shook my head and proudly declared, "Nope! Not a scratch!"

Hahaha!

"I'm tougher than I look, you know!" I couldn't resist showing off a little.

Ki smiled then. Which made me realize that Ki hadn't quite smiled as much since waking up earlier. With Ki, it was always like this. He hid his feelings so well, I never notice his discomfort until it was over.

But now, he was smiling in a way completely unique to Ki, his natural smile. Despite his hair being ruffled and his suit being a mess, this smile had to be Ki's best look.

I smiled back purely by instinct.

"Well..." Ki looked around, "Apologies, goddess. I can't seem to find our belongings."

Oh right. I looked around belatedly, "It should be somewhere here."

Ki searched the cliffs for our rock jut. It was harder than it sounds, the entire giant cliff looked the same from bottom up. But eventually, we figured it out and found our stuff on the other side of a rock column.

We hadn't seen it because there were a few large boulders lying around, and the bag was just behind one of them.

Ki excused himself to run over and retrieve the bag, "I will undress and shift. Apologies, goddess, but I'll have to trouble you to keep my clothes and fasten on the bag to my wolf later."

"Sure." I waved Ki's apologies off. Why did he have to apologize for needing my help? Because I was the alpha and the head so he shouldn't be asking his head to lend him a hand?

I waited for Ki by the rock column, to give him space to change behind the boulder, but not wander too far away so he didn't have to worry.

The ground below me was weird. It was like a large slab of raw hard rock, not grass or dirt or even sand and rubble. Just rock. I looked down at my bare feet, and realized something even weirder about this rock. There were scratch marks - like multiple scratch marks in a curve.

Nevermind that it was solid rock (what could scratch lines on a rock like this), why were the scratch marks curved as if someone was trying to draw a rainbow?

The rainbow shaped scratch marks stopped at the rock column. It wasn't a very large rainbow. In fact, the way the scratch marks ended by this rock column made it look like...

I looked at the scratch mark on the ground, and then at the rock column on one end.

"Ki!" I called, "Ki, don't shift just yet!"

But I was probably too late. I had to wait all over again for him to shift back and get dressed.

He returned to me, fully dressed with the bag strapped across his shoulders, "May I help you goddess?"

"I think I found a door." I pointed to the rock column. It was just a hunch though. I took out the crystal key from my pocket and pointed it at the rock column. Nothing happened. I waved it in front of the column. By now I was feeling pretty stupid, "No, nevermind..."

And then the stone column creaked open!

I was so surprised I jumped a full metre backwards.

"It's opening, Ki!" I pointed at the door.

Ki's response was to stand guard in front of me, in case anything dangerous popped out.

I was beyond excited, "This is it, Ki! This was probably where Dad and his wolves mined for rocks. You know, the rocks they used to lay the foundation for the packhouse! You know the rocks that you see on our dungeons. They caught a baby gyaara from here. I bet there are gyaara in here! Maybe even a whole nest of them!"

Meanwhile, Ki was regarding the newly opened hole in the cliff silently and cautiously. I stopped yapping and stuck my head in to check out the cave.

"It's a cave." I marveled stupidly. I mean like duh. It was a hole in a rock cliff, of course it was a cave!

Quite a large one too. It reminded me of the one on the no man's land at Black Forest, except that this one wasn't dank and creepy.

"Would you like me to reconnoitre the inside of this cave, goddess?" Ki offered.

To what now? Was that a fancy word for recon? Tomayto, tomahto, reconnoitre, candance, al dente, depuis pendant, and insert whatever other confounded fancy word you can think of here.

But fancy words aside, I shook my head, "It's okay Ki."

I was going to make the sensible and responsible decision here, "Let's go back and report to base. We still need to make sure everyone else is okay."

"Understood, goddess." Ki stepped back from the cave entrance.

I gave it one last look and took out my key, "With this key, we can always come back again another time."

Just as I stepped back, I thought I heard the cave make a sound. Like a burping noise. I paused, "Did you hear that?"

Ki stepped back into the cave, "Hear what, goddess?"

And then he heard it too, but by now, the cave wasn't just making a little burp, for some reason, the little burp was quickly growing into a full on rumbling and then roaring sound...

"Something's coming." I told Ki.

Boo couldn't quite tell me what, which meant whatever it was, it wasn't a wolf or rogue or vamp.

Ki had stepped out in front of me again. I had long given up expecting my betas to realize that with my hair, it would really be safer to stand behind me.

We waited, scanning the dark recesses of the cave.

Maybe we could just go back out, shut the rock column door, and be on our way. Actually, we probably should.

It seemed whatever was coming, was still quite a long way off. The tunnels that ran into this rock cliff had to run forever!

I reached out and tugged on Ki's jacket sleeve, "Come on, Ki. Let's just..."

Buy just at that moment, I thought I heard a human voice. I froze, "Someone's in trouble."

The noise was coming closer, and by now we could hear it quite clearly, I could even recognize the voices that was going, "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!"

"River and Keanu are in trouble!" I dashed forward, I couldn't quite place which tunnel their unmanly screams were coming from with all the echoing in the twisting tunnels, so I let my lucky sense of direction lead.

Ki naturally followed at heel, "Goddess, please stand back the moment you sense danger!"

Which was funny because I didn't sense any danger whatsoever. Maybe my danger sensor broke when we were falling off the cliff.