General Mayhem

[pirateoftherings]

In Kjan's mind, there were two types of running: fun running, such as the kind that took place in games of tag and races, and not-fun running, which usually went hand-in-hand with fearing for one's life...or at least one's freedom for the next few months. As he was pulled after Phaerin in an attempt to escape the ever-formidable wrath of Lady Grey, Kjan reached the conclusion that there had been entirely too much not-fun running for one day.

At least he wasn't restricted by shoes like he normally was - running from his bedroom in terror while still half-dressed had seen to that. He glanced down sympathetically at Phaerin's feet, which seemed to be already causing him pain. A shame, really. Feet were a far too wonderful thing to covered by shoes. He would've taken off his stockings as well, but he suspected there would be even more trouble if he lost those. Of course, his mother probably wouldn't be overly thrilled by the dirt, grass, leaves, and small twigs sticking to them now, either, but ah well.

Finally, they were safely within the shelter of the forest, hidden from view by the numerous trees. Leaning against one of said trees, he looked around with a grin of contentment. "So, where to first?"

[Meldawen]

"Well," began Phaerin, a rogueishly independent look in his eyes and a decidedly crafty tone in his voice, "it depends what we'd like to accomplish." He bent to push dry bracken out of the way and scratch a few lines in the dirt. "If I remember correctly, whe se are here -" he made an X "- and the manor is here. Over here is that cave we visited last summer, the one with the slugs -" another pause while they gave that auspicious event a moment of respectful silence "- and over here is the river. You can cross it there. Nothing here except trees, and poison ivy. So the only place we haven't been is here." He circled a large blank spot and sat back on his heels, one eyebrow raised and already grinning. "Seem obvious to me. Oh, and we could angle past there, and pick up a water snake or two. For emergencies."

A wink indicated just what sort of emergencies he meant. "Unless, of course, you'd like to be on time for the ball?"

[pirateoftherings]

Kjan made a noise of disgust that was mirrored by his expression. "And face the wrath of a Vest-wielding Bibsy?" he asked incredulously. "No thank you. Best let her calm down a bit, first, I think. A few years ought to be enough."

He looked back down at Phaerin's impromptu map with an almost comically serious expression, running over Phae's proposal in his mind. It was a pretty far walk, but he estimated that it still wouldn't take more than a few hours if they didn't make too many...detours. "Water snakes and uncharted territory...sounds good. Just so long as we're back before dark, I don't think I'll get in too much trouble." Well, any more than I'm already in, he added silently to himself with a wry grin.

[Meldawen]

"Off we go, then," declared Phaerin, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket in a preparational sort of manner and pushing black hair, grown slightly long, out of his eyes. The effect was slightly ruined by the fact that he had no weapon to flourish heroically, but he managed a good imitation nonetheless.

About an hour into the expedition, snow had begun to drift down from an overcast sky, and Phaerin was congratulating himself on the wise act of not abandoning his waistcoat - besides being white and starched (bad qualities) it was quilted inside (a good quality) and kept him reasonably warm against the rapidly cooling air. It wasn't cold enough for the flakes to do anything more than melt promptly upon hitting the ground, making Phaerin squint at the sky hopefully, wondering if there was possibility for the prankster's best friend - namely snow of the right consistency to pack into balls useful for just about everything.

The ground sloped steeply down, abruptly in front of their feet, and Phaerin leaned over to crane his neck down at whatever was beneath. "Has there ever been mining activity on your property?" he inquired thoughtfully, carrying off a flawless imitation of vaguely interested young lord until the grin spoiled it.

[pirateoftherings]

Kjan, for his part, was not enjoying the snow so much. The lack of excessive layers that had been so liberating only an hour ago was now making him all too aware of how quickly the temperature was dropping. The tunic he'd pulled on wasn't the warmest thing he owned, and -much as he hated to admit it- stockings were only so effective when it came to keeping cold air away from one's feet. Still, as long as they made it back well before dark, it wouldn't get so cold that he couldn't bear it.

Moving a few steps forward, he stood up on his toes to peek over Phaerin's shoulder. "Not that I know of," he replied, making a show of looking around to survey the land. "Well, now we know what's here. That was fun, no? Now we can go get those water snakes and head back." Even as he turned around to go, he knew that Phaerin wouldn't be that easily deterred.

[Meldawen]

"There could be treasure," said Phaerin enthusiastically, leaning precariously over the steep edge to squint into the uncertain bottom. And then, with the boyish fascination inspired by the gruesome, "or miners buried in a cave-in - maybe that's why nobody mines any more!"

He turned halfway around. "C'mon, Kjan, I thought you didn't want to be back for the ball. All we have to do is look."

Anybody who knew Phaerin very well would have had every reason to point out the many occasions in which the phrase "All we have to do is look" had resulted in near-decapitation, severe punishment, or (that one time with the snails) a sudden and disconcerting lack of light. He did such a good job of it, however, that it was nearly impossible to resist the lure of seeing what was around the next corner...and the next...and eventually the bottomless drop into dark oblivion. But you never remembered that at the beginning.

He tossed his jacket at Kjan and buttoned up the waistcoat in preparation. Mines meant dirt.

[pirateoftherings]

Kjan, unfortunately, did know Phaerin quite well, which was why his gaze continued to shift uncertainly between his friend's face and the long drop below for several seconds after Phae's rousing motivational speech. There was a narrow semi-path that offered a less steep (and deadly) means of reaching the bottom, and Phaerin had apparently already started down it. Finally, ignoring the strong suspicion that he'd later regret it, he pulled on the too-large jacket and grudgingly began to follow. One of these days, he was going to learn to stop doing that.

"You really think there's treasure down there?" he asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of his voice as they began their descent.

[Meldawen]

"Why not?" said Phaerin, his tone taking on a secretive air. "Gold and silver and maybe Elvish-smithed things..." he trailed off, obviously enthralled by the possibility. They made it to the bottom after a precarious slide down a slope of scree and pine needles, and were met by the sight of the long narrow gorge stretching out in front like a path. "C'mon. It's probably this way."

It was less chilly out of the wind, but the sky was darkening very slightly. Dusk was a ways off, but it was approaching nonetheless. Phaerin made a triumphant noise as the path ended in a darkish sort of hole in the dirt slope, but he stopped with a rather bemused expression after one duck down to glance inside. He looked back at Kjan hopefully, searching his own pockets. "You wouldn't happen to have stashed any matches anywhere, would you?

[pirateoftherings]

"Yeah, let me just pull out that pack that I grabbed on my way out, along with my vest, my coat, and my shoes," Kjan replied casually before joining Phaerin at the opening. "You didn't bring anything?"

[Meldawen]

Phaerin was searching his pockets, a thoughtful look on his face. "I did have some," he was saying. "For that candle that mother said smelled bad...and I was going to light it...aha!" he resurfaced from an odd contorted angle conducive to efficiently poking his fingers into the lining of his collar with exactly three slightly bent matches. "Now we need something flammable."

They were, of course, surrounded by dry leaves, but he looked less than satisfied by those - and indeed, didn't assume his previous adventuresome attitude until he'd constructed a complete torch made of a stick, twigs, dead plants, dry leaves, pine resin and held together with a piece of string that looked suspiciously like thread from somewhere important. It begged the question as to how a twelve-year-old nobleman's son knew how to do these things - but he only ever did them with Kjan, who knew the same things, and therefore never asked. His mother thought him sadly untalented, in fact. If only she knew, reflected Phaerin, and balanced the impromptu torch between his knees while searching for something to light the match on.

He found a rock and struck a flame, which ignited the torch a little too enthusiastically for Phaerin's taste and made him jump back with a yelp, attempting to balance it.

[pirateoftherings]

Kjan (wisely) kept his distance as Phaerin struggled with their impromptu torch. Some of the flickering light found its way into the previously pitch-black hole, giving Kjan the chance to have a look of his own. There were rocks, obviously. And something that looked suspiciously like bat droppings. Oh, and look over there...more rocks. He thought he might have seen something sparkling in the distance, but it was hard to tell with the limited light.

"A few days ago, Aran told me this story about some dwarves who were trapped in a collapsed mine," he said suddenly, turning to face Phaerin with wide eyes. "They waited and waited for help, but no one ever came, until finally they all went mad and killed themselves. Now their spirits haunt those mines, for all of eternity. Supposedly, on nights with a new moon, you can still hear them calling out for someone to rescue them." Of course, this was the same Aran who had once convinced him that the elderly garderner's wife was a witch who would eat his toes at night if he didn't recite his letters three times, turn around twice, and sleep with his tunic on backwards. But that was a whole two weeks ago, and besides, stories sounded so much less credible when one included details like that.

The very thought of making such a discovery sent a tingling sensation down his spine as he shivered in anticipation...or maybe he was just still cold. Either way, any qualms he had earlier had about exploring their new territory seemed to have all but vanished.

"All set, then?"

[Meldawen]

Phaerin looked skeptical. "Wasn't it Aran who failed to notice that he was hunting a boar instead of a deer?" he asked, warily poking at the torch. "Don't know if he's quite the one to ask."

He thrust the flame into the low opening, peering in himself. A rough tunnel reached back into the ground, sloping down very slightly. It wasn't a particularly refined attempt at a mine - the walls were chipped roughly and haphazardly propped up by rickety planks here and there. If Phaerin hadn't been Phaerin, he might have been slightly nervous about the possibility that implied; but he was, and therefore had absolutely no qualms about that subject or any other. Something dripped slowly in the distance, echoing wetly against the walls. "Keep an eye out for slugs," Phaerin said over his shoulder, voice oddly loud in the stillness. "'Specially the big ones. My mother hates those."

There wasn't much more conversation as they advanced slowly, the light behind becoming faint and eventually nonexistent when the tunnel turned sharply. The only sound was their breath, which sounded strangely amplified by the bouncing echoes. Phaerin stopped, one eyebrow arching, to trace a rough arrow in white chalk on the wall. "What d'you think that's there for?" he asked, in hushed tones (though he wasn't really sure why they were hushed).

[pirateoftherings]

Kjan, who had been following closely behind Phaerin - not because he was scared or anything; he just needed the light of the torch to see where he as going - nearly ran into his friend as Phaerin came to an abrupt halt. "Dunno," he replied, matching Phaerin's quiet tone. No need to speak loudly when it was just the two of them, and besides, it was a little weird hearing his voice coming back at him whenever he said something. "Probably just directions for the miners. If I had to spend all my time underground like this, I'd never be able to find my way around."

A short distance ahead of where they stood, the path split off into two directions. Inexplicably curious, Kjan ventured forward a bit until he stood at the fork. From one of the passages, the dripping noise seemed to be growing louder, and Kjan crept forward to investigate. In the faint greenish glow, he could see that a small pool had formed at the end of the path, though he couldn't tell- Greenish glow? Curious didn't even begin to describe Kjan's thoughts as he quickly closed the remainder of the gap between him and the water. Mischievous might have been a better word, especially when he discovered the cause of said unusual greenish glow. Scattered along the walls were an abundance of small, slimy, green reptiles that each gave off a faint light of their own. Imagine Celeste's face if she woke up face-to-face with those....

Eagerly, he edged toward the nearest creature and scooped it up gently into his hands. "Phae, look what-"

Without warning, his captive let out a loud shrieking noise. One by one, its companions joined in, until Kjan was forced to drop his prize in favor of covering his ears to drown out the deafening noise. It was loud. Really loud. Louder than Celeste during her phase of the moon, and higher-pitched than Dante when he'd unexpectedly discovered an abundance of frogspawn in his coat pockets.

Hands still over his ears, he ran back to where Phaerin was, but the noise persisted. "I didn't do anything!" he shouted, anticipating the question. It was getting louder and louder, when suddenly, just as Kjan was sure his brain was going to start leaking out of his ears (an interesting concept, to be sure, but probably fatal), there was nothing. Utter silence. Too much silence, almost.

Kjan let out a sigh of relief and opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by a low rumble. He cocked his head slightly to the side as he listened to the noise.

Ouch.

Looking up at the ceiling in confusion, Kjan suddenly concluded that the offending object had been a pebble. A loose piece of rock. Which fell from the ceiling. Which, last he'd checked, was not comprised of loose rocks.

Uh-oh.

Kjan realized what was happening roughly one-and-a-half seconds before he and Phaerin found themselves in the middle of a storm. Except instead of water, it was raining rocks. Painful rocks. Diving to the ground, Kjan covered his head until, abruptly, it stopped. One last malicious pebble pelted him in the back of the head, and then nothing. No shrieks. No rumbles. No rocks. No light. Somehow, in the midst of it all, their torch had decided to go out. Convenient, that.

Rubbing his head, Kjan sat up slowly and blinked in the darkness. "Phae?" he asked tentatively. "Phae, where-"

Cold. Sharp cold. On his neck. And then, a low voice: "You move, you die."

[Meldawen]

"That doesn't make sense," came Phaerin's voice indignantly. "I can't move, so there's no point - ow!" He cut off sharply, panting a little for breath.

Light flared palely, white in the darkness, and the next instant a disgusted female voice. "You idiot, Jair. They're kids."

The cold blade left Kjan's neck. A second ball of light, this one tinted blue, sprang to life, and Phaerin twisted, squinting, to look up. The first sphere of light was suspended over the palm of who he assumed had also spoken first; from what he could see she was wearing a decidedly unimpressed expression. Opposite her was a sullen young man, who was illuminated by the second sphere of light, which was held by -

"Are you quite done?" someone drawled. The light flashed through several other colors, and he heard a suppressed sigh from the female. From what Phaerin knew of Celeste, this particular female was probably also rolling her eyes. "Oh," the voice continued, "how perfectly brilliant. Well done, Eledhe. You've managed to catch..."

Here Phaerin found himself confronted by the blue ball of light, rapidly losing altitude until it hovered in front of his face, which was a few inches off the ground. The face it illuminated was male and loftily skeptical. "...a pair of dimwit adventurers."

"Shut up," said the female - what had he said? Eledhe? - and then, "It was Jair, anyway."

"I'm not a dimwit," piped up Phaerin, again indignantly. He struggled to stand, shedding bits of gravel, and warily swiveled to assess the three. His conclusion after doing do was that politeness really couldn't hurt here. "I'm Phaerin Grey," he said, and bowed. "And this is Kjan Armadur and - why are you pointing that at me?"

[pirateoftherings]

"You talk too much," the person to whom Phaerin was referring replied evenly without lowering his weapon. "Keep talking, and I might do more than just point-"

"Give it a rest, Cain," the arrogant one interrupted.

"I seem to recall a young man earlier stating that 'one must always be prepared to fight,'" Cain retorted. "Oh, wait that was you, Liell."

"Nevertheless, you don't need a weapon. It's a dumb kid. It's not going to attack you at all, much less without warning."

"A very good point," Kjan spoke up suddenly, warily eying the knife that had been at his neck only moments before. Ordinarily he might have taken some offense at being called 'dimwitted' (even if he heard it quite a lot), but if it meant getting out alive.... "We're stupid! Idiots, really. I'm almost eleven, and I hardly even know my letters! And Phaerin...well, all one has to do is look at him, really. How do you think we wound up in an abandoned mine to start with? It's pathetic. So, if you could just point us toward the nearest exit, we'll stop wasting your time...."

They weren't buying it.

"Noble brats, the both of them," Liell stated flatly, surveying the two boys with a detached sort of air. "Even given the short one's manner of dress, that much is evident. Well-bred, well-mannered, but ultimately stupid." He seemed about to add something else when he reluctantly recalled that this was supposed to be a team mission. Grudgingly, he ground out, "Any thoughts as to what we should do with them?"