Smoke on the Road (open)

[Saturos Prox]

“Well that’s a peculiar way to look at it,” commented Saturos as he shot Locke a lazy glance from the corner of his eye. “You complain people are too busy killing each other over it, but the first example you give of a metal’s value is its ability to create weapons of war?” He shook his head then went back to his sword. If there was one type of person Saturos could not stand, especially as a man who made people his trade, it was holier-than-thou types that didn’t know their audience. This was a group of miners looking to make a living by giving some rich noble what he wanted. Nobody cared what some wandering hermit thought about their work, or his opinion the baser natures of man. It was the type of attitude that could make anyone unbearable.

That, and just didn’t like the nasty way the man said “you”.

“People want gold because it’s beautiful. It glitters and sparkles like any gemstone, its softness makes it easier to craft with than any steel, and unlike silver, its luster will last through the ages. Sure, a king can’t make his house of gold, or clad his armies in it, but he can definitely ornament either with it, and if he does he can create a brilliance like little other. Men like gold because they can appreciate its beauty. Sure, you could say that valuing anything based on its beauty is shallow, and in some ways I would agree, but that’s just how people are. I’ve known men who’ve made it their life’s work to create beauty, whether it be through paintings or songs or poems, and I wouldn’t say they’re wasting their time.”

“And on top of that, gold is rare, which gives it high value because it becomes a beauty that not all can have,” the Etrurian continued. He lifted his weapon and looked down it, using what light he had to verify that he had created a nice polished sheen. “Is it selfish to horde it? Sure, but like anything, there will always be people who abuse the good things in life.”

“Ultimately, though, you're missing the point,” Saturos said, still speaking as he ran his oilcloth up and down his sword. “It’s not the gold that makes people crazy. It’s about the power that comes with it. If it wasn’t gold that we traded with, it would be something else, and people would kill over that instead.” The swordsman placed his sword upon his lap and tucked his polishing cloth back in his sack. “We're just miners looking for a wage. There’s no need to be an ass about it.”

[Smoke]

Mmhmm... That was interesting. Smoke enjoyed the verbal sparring going on back and forth between "his guests". He loved evaluating shortlives. Encouraging their growth skills had been a habit of his in past years. Now, measuring their worth was more of a past time for the bored dragon.

The woman had made an argument for the value of gold, and how it could be used, but the blue-haired one had shown that he was catching on to its uses. Gold wasn't valuable in and of itself. Instead, it was valuable because of people's envy, and while Ryker had told of its power in buying your will into being, Smoke would make an amendment to that statement: The power of gold was in people's envy for it. Ryker claimed that the lust for possessing the metal drove people mad, but that was simply another tool in the arsenal it provided. It was a powerful thing really. Gold was used everyday in crafting, in trading, and by some of the most patient, it could be used to ovetake the very mind. More than a few warlords over the years here had succumbed to its invasive touch on their senses, and had either risen above all others, or been smashed to pieces when they lost track of their rivals in a bid to gain more.

Ironically, it was Locke that refused to accept this and denounced it: The Earth Dragon, among all people. The slip ups using "You" instead of "we", was simply a final weight tipping the scales of thought. Slips like those would be fine for now, since they were thought of as wilderness travelers, but they could get suspicious given more frequency.... Not that anyone would expect a dragon these days. Delusion would probably be attributed as the cause of the odd phrases, and he already sounded a little melodramatic.

"Personally, I like gold, and its uses. It's a powerful tool which has been wielded handily by those in power, but it can buy peace just as easily as war. Sometimes, it can buy someone a way into a better life as well." Smoke paused in his speech. These men were bound to their task. They'd come to mine gold, and were working under someone else's pay. Myscha wasn't among them though, and despite his inclusive wording, there was something that set this Ryker apart from the others. Ryker either understood the binding that most people lived under by working for gold, or was nearly to that point. Nearly everyone in this world served gold in some way or another. As long as they relied on it to survive, they would be its slave. Smoke couldn't remember a time that he had lived like that. Of course, being a dragon helped considerably with that, but there were humans who had done it as well, and not simply by living in the wild. Any of those who had truly made something out of themselves had done it. Their abilities trancended simple wealth and position. Their power came from who they were and what they did with themselves. Leave that power dormant for even a little while, and it would begin to falter.

"So tell me, if you know the answer to this question: Which is right? Serve your master and take the wages he gives, or serve gold.... Hunt it. Hoard it. Sculpt it. Spend it...."

[Charlotte]

Peeling her soaked socks from her feet, Charlotte nearly froze as this man, this hermit passed judgment on them. Well, the scorn went mostly the way of Ryker and his men, but as Charlotte listened to the reactions of the two foreign men in front of her, she could see the disdainful gaze from the green-haired fellow. She could almost feel it bury itself in her skull, which infuriated her. The nerve he had judging the lot of them, not to mention the way he tried to elevate himself from them by addressing them with such disparagement, made Charlotte sick to her stomach with anger.

Lucky for her, before she could lash out Ryker stepped in to the defense of his men, his approach to Locke’s accusation a much more level-headed response than Charlotte would have been able to muster. In the end it was a similar message to what Charlotte had tried to convey: that it was the power behind it, not the gold itself, that motivated people. But Charlotte had had enough of the conversation already. Even when Smoke came in with a fairly tame opinion in the face of all the other reactions, Charlotte could not find it in her to say anything at all to the group, fed up with the assumptions and frankly useless questions that were being thrown around.

A weighted and frustrated sigh finally erupted from the blonde woman as Smoke posed his question. Charlotte rolled her eyes, lifting herself from the rolled out mat and stepping away from the small group. She was mostly looking to cool off, so she decided to take a moment and check on her cloak, which she had carefully laid out to dry on Aeron’s cart. The men were asleep by now, so Charlotte did her best to step quietly, which wasn’t hard considering she was barefoot now.

As Charlotte tip-toed over to where her cloak was drying, yet another crack of lightning illuminated the mouth of the cave, the following thunder roll seeming to shake the ground she stood on. She looked up, seeing some loose dust falling from the ceiling of the cave, though it didn’t appear to be anything major. Despite the horrid conditions outside, the cave seemed stable enough to stay in at least for the night. Of course, nature had its ways of being unpredictable, but Charlotte prayed that wouldn’t be the case tonight.

The woman ran her hands over the damp fabric, frowning as she did her best to squeeze what little moisture she could from the hood’s fur lining. This trip was slowly turning out to be more trouble than it was worth; her cloak would likely need to be relined, and the leather traveling boots would crack once they were dry, for sure. Not to mention, her once smooth and slightly wavy hair was now damp, frizzing slightly as it dried thanks to the warm moisture in the air. She sighed, knowing it would be a challenge to look her best for her meeting with her client.

“Myscha, what are you doing still up?” Charlotte turned to see a groggy Gabe looking up at her. She waved him to lie back down. “Go back to sleep, Gabe, everything’s fine. Just checking on my thi-“

CRACK! A bolt of lightning struck somewhere incredibly close to them, shaking the ground under them and causing the deafening bang to echo through the cave. Charlotte jumped, instinctively looking up to see more dust shaken loose, though this time debris came with it. As the sound of the lightning faded, a different kind of juddering rumble began below and above them, growing louder extremely quickly. Charlotte was by no means a mountain man, but she knew enough to know that what she was hearing was a very bad sound.

A layer of dust began to snow down on them, but it was the first large piece of cave ceiling dropping from above and crashing into the top of one of the carts which spurred Charlotte into action. She dropped to her knees, grabbing Gabe and Aeron's shoulders and wrenching them up while looking over the other sleeping men. "Wake up," she screamed as she stood up, pushing Gabe and Aeron towards the mouth of the cave, "Wake up! MOVE, MOVE!"

[Locke]

"Heh. Heh, heh, heh. The earth hears your ignorance, and the earth passes its judgement. You speak with a fleeting foolishness that I am glad I do not possess. Regardless of my disdain for your ridiculous attachments, I will assist you. You may yet prove interesting... Especially you, Smoke."

As the rumbling intensified, Locke dropped to the cave floor, spread-eagling on the stone for a brief moment and laying perfectly still. Then, getting up, he ran to the cave entrance, taking the time to casually bat at a falling chunk of rock and sending it clattering to the ground. Standing silhouetted in the entryway, Locke looked left, then right, then up and down before turning around and speaking with a calm and unhurried attitude that seemed extremely out of place for a stressful situation.

"STOP. Your foolishness will get you ALL killed! Now, heed my words. The center of the cave seems likely to collapse, along with this front entryway. The rear section will be safe, although you'll then be blocked in. Moving out of the cave seems to me like an unsafe endeavor, as the resulting rock slides will no doubt crush you and send your wagons into a heap of ruin. Do not doubt me. The earth is very clear on this matter."

As he finished speaking, there was a jarring motion, and a large stalactite hanging over his head fell. The manakete did not move except to raise his hands, grabbing the large rock spike, and then lower them to the ground, dropping the dangerous thing to the floor.

"Be careful for these, of course."

With nothing else to say, Locke moved to the rear portion of the cave, grabbing a small stone and then crawling on the floor, tapping at intervals and nodding as if having a conversation with the rock itself. It would no doubt seem perplexing and incredible, and more likely than not, they'd refuse to heed his warning. Well, then, their deaths would be their own. He had offered, after all.

[Saturos Prox]

Saturos could only sigh as Smoke gave his opinion on the topic at hand. The large man was proving to be of the complete opposite opinion of Locke, which was nice if only because it made the green haired man “wrong” by popular opinion, but the question he posed afterwards made him sound like some sort of psuedo-intellectual revolutionary. What was he hinting at? That the miners should go take over the mine? Wonderful. So here one man was worshipping the ground like it was his god, while the other worshipped the shinies inside it. Saturos was coming to be of the opinion that Fibernia was just filled with a bunch of kooky mountain men, which probably explained where all the dragon rumors came from.

The Etrurian could tell that Myscha had had it with the conversation when she rolled her eyes and silently dismissed herself, walking over to the miners sleeping over in the far alcove. He watched her step lightly around the men before making her way over the cloak and attempt to wring out the last of the moisture trapped inside of it. It was a nice cloak, so Saturos couldn’t help but feel a little bad that it had probably been ruined by the mud and the rain. Part and parcel of the whole Western Isles hiking experience, unfortunately.

“Well, I’ve said my piece,” said Saturos, rising to his feet. He nodded to the two men, politely dismissing himself. “I’ll let you two hash out the specif-”

A loud crack tore through the sky, and a bright flash of light flared at the front of the cave. Unlike the other, more regular bolts that had been echoing through the mountains throughout the storm, this one was loud. Really loud. It was so loud it had sounded like it had struck the front of the cave, and judging by the frantic way Myscha was moving and yelling, coupled with the rock that had just fallen from the cave ceiling and crushed half of a cart, it probably had.

Cave in.

The swordsman ran over to the sleeping area and began pushing the equipment-filled carts out of the way. Some of them had been awakened by the lighting bolt, and were either running away from the falling rocks, still asleep, or just too slow to realize what was going on.
“Get up! Get to the back of the cave!” he shouted, jostling sleeping miners as he walked through their sleeping bodies.

“You think!?,” he shouted back at Locke, who was advising them to move to the back of the cavern because the front was collapsing. Way to state the obvious. If he was actually looking be helpful, he’d get over here and help move the miners, instead of blathering about at the back of the cave like an ass. Ugh, the man’s uselessly know-it-all attitude was really starting to piss him off.

“Don’t worry about the carts!” Saturos shouted, trying to organize the frantic men. “Get yourselves and your packs to the back of the cave!” He adjusted his own satchel over his shoulder, just to make sure it was secure. “And somebody deal with the horses!” He jabbed a finger at the three horses whinnying and rearing in panic. Two particularly alert miners went to go drag them out of the immediate vicinity, but one of the more frightened beasts went darting out of the cave, narrowly dodging a falling rock that would have crushed it in two. The danger becoming all the more apparent with every passing moment, Saturos grabbed a nearby sleeping man, who happened to be Garvan, by his shoulders and tried helping him to his feet. A futile effort. The wannabe foreman was still essentially asleep, and merely grumbled loudly as the Etrurian tried to lift him. Damn, this man slept like a rock, and was just as heavy! The swordsman, no time to waste, kicked the wannabe foreman squarely in the side to wake him up. That did it.

‘Wha...What!? Ryker!” Garvan spattered, flailing his arms like a surprised cat. “What the hell are you doing!?” He looked up at the teal haired man, who merely kicked him again.
“Cave in! Get up!” Saturos shouted before turning to glance back at Locke in disgust, only to see the green-haired man casually catch a falling rock with his bare hands before tossing it lazily aside. The Etruian's eyes widened in surprise as his heart leaped in his chest. It was like the feat he had seen outside, where the figure had taken a boulder head on. Locke had been wet when Saturos had entered the cave so...it was him, the dragon! The rumors were actually true. Imagine that.

A rock came falling down next to the swordsman, almost taking his arm off. He snapped back to reality. He'd have to worry about his mission later. Right now he needed to try and keep everyone alive. He ran through the sleeping circle one last time, kicking everyone at least once to make sure they were awake, then grabbed Garvan by the neck of his shirt and began hauling him toward the back of the cave.

[Smoke]

Unfortunate. He'd just been beginning to have fun toying with the shortlives, and already they'd tired of his questioning. He was about to give one last parting comment when there was a sudden peel of thunder loud enough to cause his ears to ring, and a rumble of the earth beneath him. He shot a scorching glare towards Locke and his eyes could almost be seen to glow red for a moment as the man accused him of foolishness. He drew slightly on his dragonstone and he could feel his muscles surging with greater power, but even now, he kept it minimal. Only small changes would have occurred so far: Toughening of skin and nails. Brute strength increase. Eyes shifting to reptilian slits for pupils. Things that would be noticed in the calm, but not when you were dodging rocks from the top of a cave that you had dinner and a nap in earlier!

Smoke practically snarled in wrath as Locke said to head further into the cave. He wasn't surprised to see the man lightly catch the falling stalctite out of the air just before it crushed him. The man was some sort of draconian. There was no doubt anymore. Smoke was beginning to suspect that he was a manakete, as they tended to be more in tune with the mysticism that their people believed in when it was present in the culture. All this talk of listening to the earth was spot on with their type.

He headed to the back of the cave, footsteps stomping on the stone as he went, but cut off his steps short. With a growl, he turned himself around and caught sight of the others near the front of the cave. He was vastly more interested in self survival than in playing hero, but there were a few things in the cave that he thought were worth saving. He glanced to Ryker, and saw the man heading towards the back of the cave with his weapons the Loud One. That made one that he wouldn't have to worry about. His eyes scanned the cave until he saw the other. Myscha was making an attempt to escape, but she was heading further out of the cave, towards where Locke had said the danger was. While he wasn't a fan of the traveler's superior behavior, the storm outside wasn't about to abate for their troubles, and the word of an earth manakete would bear listening to, even if none of the others thought so. His senses would be keen to things that many of these others would be blind to.

Moving to intercept Myscha and the two men she was helping, he moved swiftly to catch up to the three before wrapping his arms around all three and dragging them back away from the collapsing cave mouth. Taking another step back, he pivoted on one foot, and flung them all towards the back of the cave where the rock was stabler, before falling to the side and rolling out of the way of a stone nearly his size. Dust choked him for a moment, as he wiped the annoying film from his face and scrambled forwards, away from the mess of falling rocks.

Near the back was the hole in the floor. He'd heard running water in it before, and had thrown the carcass of the grizzly bear he'd torn apart there after taking what he wished from the beast. It wasn't a deep drop. No more than twenty or thirty feet down the hole from his estimate, but that had been before all this ruckus started. Now, the best thing to do would be to wait and hope that he wasn't buried alive with the rest of them in this earthy tomb. Afterwards, he could worry about getting himself out.

[Charlotte]

Ringing. That’s all Charlotte could hear as she tried to get the still groggy Aeron to his feet, the old man’s stiff bones having not been given enough time to get moving from his short rest. As she struggled to pull the Aeron to his feet, her eyes darted around, seeing Ryker moving Garvan to the back as others tried to bring what they could with them, away from the collapsing rocks. Ryker yelled something to the men, his movement’s ushering them towards the back of the cave, but all she could hear was this damnable ringing in her ears.

Finally the two of them were on their feet, and they rushed over to their cart, where Gabe was shielding his head as he tried to loosen the bindings that kept their horse tied to the cart. “Leave him!” Charlotte yelled as she moved to grab her small pack from the cart, coughing as she breathed in the loose dust in the air. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, the harried woman tried to loose Gabe’s pack but found it was too heavy. Struggling, Charlotte looked up, only to see a particularly large chunk of stone falling towards the cart. She could tell she wouldn’t be able to move out of the way in time. Was this it? Was this really how it was going to end?

But suddenly, strong arms encircled her middle and pulled the young woman away from the cart just as the boulder crashed down to its resting place where she had just been standing. Covering her head with her arms, Charlotte screamed as she and her rescuer crashed into the ground. Just as soon as they hit the ground, Charlotte felt herself being pulled up again, though this time she was being scooped into Smoke’s arms along with Aeron and Gabe. In an instant her feet left the ground as the incredibly strong man hauled the three of them to the back of the cave, pitching them towards the rest of the miners who had made it to the back.

Charlotte stumbled forward, crying out as she felt a sharp pain in the bottom of her right foot. Ignoring it for now, the woman pushed forward, huddling close to where the rest of the miners now crouched with what little they had been able to grab. Charlotte looked back over to where their carts had been, wincing as she saw Aeron and Gabe’s cart. Of course the cart was destroyed, but the horse that Gabe had been trying to free was collapsed on the ground, a large rock having crushed his head beneath it. Charlotte was sure she would have seen blood pooling underneath if it weren’t for all of the debris.

About thirty seconds later, the rate of the rock-fall slowed, most of the large rock now settled. As the dust settled, it looked like the mouth of the cave was entirely covered now. The cave would have been pitch black if it weren’t for one of the miner’s smartly grabbing a torch in the commotion, providing at least a bit of light source to the people in the back. Nearly everyone had made it, only three of the miners missing. Garvan was already grumbling about something to Ryker, who had dragged the lumbering oaf from his deep sleep, but Charlotte couldn’t focus on what he was saying, feeling the sharp pain begin to sear the bottom of her foot again.

“Myscha, sit down, you’re bleeding.” Charlotte tore her eyes away from the crushed cart, looking to Gabe as he lightly grabbed her shoulders, trying to get her to sit down. Charlotte looked down, seeing a small pool of blood beginning to form under her right foot. Oh. She’d been hurt. Charlotte leaned her back against the cavern wall, looking at the bottom of her foot and seeing a nasty gash going from the ball of her foot, through the arch and ending at her heel. She must have hit her bare foot on a sharp rock in the confusion. She reflexively curled her toes, causing pain to sear through her foot bringing tears to her eyes. Not good.

[Locke]

"Careful. This ground isn't completely solid. It should hold... But we may want to try and get out sooner rather than later. The stress on the cavern ceiling... What we consider the floor right now... May soon prove to be too great for it to bear. And then you'll all get to go swimming in an underground river."

Locke chuckled strangely, his voice echoing and reverberating against the cavern walls.

"I smell blood. Is it bad? I do have plant compounds to help clean and seal wounds, but if it's quite bad, you may be better off cauterizing it. It will hurt, but it will seal the wound."

What a group. How had he gotten himself into this mess? If he really wanted to, he could always leave and take the river to where it dumped into the sea. But that would draw attention. No, he'd have to help them all clear out the rubble and hope they didn't die trying.

"All who are able, begin removing the fallen debris. Place all small rocks down that large chasm in the back of the cave. The water will carry them away. Leave the larger rocks to me."

If anyone had the intelligence to act on his advice, the job would move much more smoothly. For now, Locke grabbed the largest chunk of stone he could find and began dragging it laboriously to the side of the cave, out of the way. They had to clear a path somehow.

[Saturos Prox]

Saturos sighed as he surveyed the destruction left by the cave-in. One of the horses had escaped the cave, while another had gotten crushed along with its cart by the falling rocks in panic. The third horse was spooked, although physically safe at the back of the cavern, and it’s wagon stood just feet away from where the innermost chunk of the ceiling had fallen. Of the two wagons left, one was untouched by anything more than a little dust, while the other had lost a wheel and was currently spilling its contents out onto the cave floor. Fortunately the contents inside the latter cart were still in good enough condition to be salvageable, but with no horse to pull it, replacing the wheel probably wouldn’t be worth the effort.

One good thing though was that it seemed that most, if not all of the miners had made it out from under the falling rocks alive. Still trapped, obviously, but alive. Saturos would be more worried about the the cave-in, but knowing that the he was among a group of miners with at least some of their mining tools helped assuage any concern he might have. As long as they didn’t trigger another rockfall, they’d probably be able to get out of this mess.

And that was when Locke began talking. Once again, in his usual arrogant fashion, he began telling everyone what to do. Saturos just rolled his eyes. It wasn’t bad advice, he was just getting tired of it. The man had sat in the back of the cave while the rocks had almost killed their group, spouting off like a nob. At least the Etrurian had a strong suspicion why now. The uppity attitude, the odd earthiness, and the now the inhuman strength… signs pointed to a dragon. All the reports that had been passing through the hands of the Prophet’s intelligence of the dragon Marcus months back had held mention that the dragon could masquerade as a human, but Saturos wasn’t sure if that was a unique situation among dragons or not. In reality, if the rumors were true of a dragon being out here, he had fully expected to come across a full grown wyrm of legend.

Of course, to confirm this deduction the operative would have to find both evidence of a dragon stone and make sure the man wasn’t simply wielding the power of Ivaldi. And even if he did confirm, Saturos decided it would be best not to let the green-haired man know that he had deduced his identity unless it was in turn revealed to him. It would arouse suspicion that Saturos was looking for one dragons, which he of course was, but the last thing he wanted was for the thing to feel threatened. This was reconnoissance, nothing more. That being said, the bishop wouldn’t be happy knowing that there was a dragon out here. Saturos imagined this place would be swarming with soldiers not a week after he gave his report.

Dropping a still stunned Garvan from his arms as the miners began to get to work as per Locke’s direction, Saturos walked over to their special guest. Kneeling down next to the woman, he smirked.
“Are you alright, Myscha?” asked Saturos, despite the fact that he could clearly see she was bleeding. He’d let her decide whether she was looking for concern or not. He then looked up at the tall Smoke standing over her. “Thank you for saving this one.” The man had been getting on his nerves earlier, but it was nice to see that had been more willing to act than Locke had.

[Smoke]

"Yeah, well, when someone is as easy on the eyes as she is, I generally try to keep them from getting smushed by the big rocks. You're too fair for this island to take you for its own." Smoke groused out a rough answer, completely unabashed by what he was saying.

"He's right about the floor though. There's a hole in the floor near the back of the cave that I found earlier. I'd guess it's at least thirty feet down. I didn't explore far enough to judge the width." He took a moment to inspect Myscha. A foot injury. He looked at it flatly, giving off little expression. THen he moved back towards the supply wagons with a heavy step.

"Ryker? Where did you keep your supplies? I'm sure someone had a healers kit packed away, or something of the like." Still waiting for an answer from someone, he started rummaging through the pile of supplies. He found mining equipment, but was also on the lookout for whatever else they may have been carrying through the wilderness.

While looking, Smoke glanced back over his shoulder, and tossed an offhanded comment to the Earth Dragon.

"Locke, if you're so concerned about the cavern floor busting through, and you've got that much physical power, why don't you put it to use smashing the rocks into smaller ones. Then you can drop them all down the hatch and into the drink." The humanoid firedrake was doing his best to avoid giving away his draconic nature. Too many witnesses for his taste. Locke was going to create enough stories around here to last a decade or more, if he wasn't careful. He'd already be a local legend for a few seasons as is.... Smoke grimaced and felt his temper spiking as he realized that he was going to have to take even more caution in the coming months after this.

[Charlotte]

Charlotte hated blood. She hated the look of it, hated the consistency of it, hated the metallic taste of it. Hell, it was one of the reasons why, in her line of work, she did her best to avoid killing. Just the sight of it made her clam up and feel nauseous. But for some reason, she couldn’t look away from her foot, her eyes wide and round as she stared at the split skin and the oozing blood. Each passing second, the woman’s usually peach skin seemed to be drained of its color, becoming ashen and pale. She wasn’t the best at tolerating pain from injuries, but the sight of all this blood seemed to only amplify what she was already feeling

Gabe shoved some sort of rag at her; it looked clean enough, but she was no doctor. Her eyes broke from her foot to meet Gabe’s worried gaze as he took her hands and placed them over the rag which now covered the gash. She grit her teeth, unable to contain a sob that broke free from her chest. Tears brimming at the corners of her eyes, Charlotte could barely hear past the growing pulse in her ears as Ryker asked if she was okay, nor did she really register Smoke’s frank reasoning for getting her to safety. Ryker’s expression told her enough, though, so she shook her head, a pained “Not really” escaping her as she slid her back the rest of the way down the wall until she was finally sitting on the cool, damp cave floor.

Head flung back, Charlotte closed her eyes and held the rag as steady and with as much pressure as her shaking arms could muster. She wondered if they would even be able to find something to close the gash that damn rock had opened in her. Granted, she probably shouldn’t have been walking around barefoot in the cave, but how could she have known the ceiling would collapse? She would have been ill for weeks sleeping in damp boots.

It didn’t matter now, though. Charlotte tilted her head down again, seeing the off-white rag having turned mostly red now, the blood beginning to stain her own hands. She was skilled in many things, but injury knowledge was not one of them. She assumed the gaping wound would need stitches, but would any of these miners even be able to do something like that? “Can anyone stitch?” she strained, tilting her head in the direction of the pack on her back but keeping her hands on the wound. “There's... a sewing kit in my pack. Just need help stopping the bleeding.” Having offered just about the maximum healing knowledge she had, Charlotte hoped for someone to confirm or deny what they needed to do to stop her foot from bleeding.

[Locke]

"Here, quickly. Chew these. It will dull the pain so you do not ruin your sutures by jerking."

The manakete tossed her a small skin package filled with what appeared to be a broad leaf, now curled and firm.

"It is tough and spicy, but it will work to numb your feelings."

Turning to Smoke, Locke shook his head. And here he'd though perhaps this man was a friend, a fellow... He must have been wrong. What a shame.

"No. That is a foolish suggestion, Smoke. Small rocks will be moved by the current... Larger rocks will block the flow. I cannot pulverize these large pieces suitably. I will have to distribute the weight around the perimeter, or simply dig faster. But to compromise such a large underground waterway would be very unwise... Not only for us but also the region in general."

Shaking his head again, more vehemently, the manakete resumed dragging the large stones to the side, shoving them in a crude ring around the trapped miners. It would be so much simpler just to blast out, but that would reveal his identity... Maybe he should take the river again? No, also a giveaway. Damn, he didn't want to stay here. He had to find Kyle!

"Work quickly."

[Saturos Prox]

"The doctor's kit should be on that cart," replied Saturos, pointing a finger at the wagon with the destroyed wheel. "Unless it was unfortunate enough to be the one sack that got crushed by a rock, it, and everything in it, should still be usable." He eyed the sack he was talking about, then turned his gaze to Locke.

"I'm surprised you can even 'pulverize' these rocks at all," he said, shaking his head as he knelt down next to Myscha. The Etrurian wasn't going to say anything, but if Locke was trying to keep the fact that he was superhuman a secret, he was doing an exceedingly poor job of it. Indeed, a good portion of the miners just stood and watched the green-haired man as he single-handedly dragged the large stones across the cave floor. It was a feat that would have been difficult, impossible even, for any of them, but he seemed to do it with very little effort. Oh well, as long as Locke didn't try to turn into a giant scaly beast and devour them, it wasn't really a problem. Saturos could deal with a bad attitude, even if it was annoying as all sin, but the teeth and scales of a legendary flying lizard were another thing entirely.

"Most of our tools survived the cave in," the teal haired man continued, nodding towards his "fellow" miners. "Crushing rocks is no problem. Break up into two groups: one to move the smaller rocks into the water and another to break up the larger rocks into smaller rocks. If we all work together, this should be done in no time." A couple of the miners nodded, while others began to root through the remaining two carts for their tools. Some, however, just stared at the rock wall, or at least what they could see in the much reduced light, and contemplated the task ahead. Garvan in particular struck a torch and used the light to guide his companions as he began directing the digging efforts. For all his personal weaknesses, he was a good task master. A perfect role for him if there ever was one. Task masters didn't have to be well liked to be effective.

Satisfied, Saturos looked back down at Myscha. Hmm, this dim light wouldn't do. He pulled a smaller torch out of his pack then called Garvan over to come light it for him. The gruff man sighed, frustrated that he was being interrupted, but did it anyway before resuming his current task. The Etrurian then propped the torch up against a rock and then got a good look at the woman's foot wound. It was a nasty cut, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. Myscha would probably have to stay off of it for a few days, but it would heal.
"I had to do quite a bit of stitching in my bookbinding days," said Saturos, giving the injured woman a wry smile. He knew she was suspicious of him, but only because she was sharp as a tack. All he could do was stick to the same story. "I can probably get you patched up if you'll let me."

[Charlotte]

Charlotte groaned as Ryker as it seemed to take a lifetime for Smoke to do what Ryker had asked. Damn, why was it taking Smoke so long to find the pack?! Sure, there had just been a cave in, but Ryker had pointed him in the right direction, hadn’t he? Charlotte wasn’t a very patient person to begin with, so the fact that everything would take much longer in the midst of all the ensuing chaos caused by the cave-in left Charlotte with no patience at all. Luckily Smoke was out of earshot of her, now, though, otherwise she likely would have some choice words in an attempt to speed up the process. Locke had tossed something her way, but she was still concerned with keeping her bleeding to a minimum to do anything but offer a not Locke’s way.

Once Ryker had finished directing the men, his attention turned back to the blonde sitting on the ground. At this point, her complexion was pallid, at best, as it seemed the color in her skin had all but drained from her with the blood coming from her foot. Honestly Charlotte didn’t even know a foot could bleed this much. What a great time to get a lesson in the body.

Despite her pain, she weakly returned Ryker’s grin at the mention of his “bookbinding” profession, the knowing remark welcome in the midst of everything. She was almost certain that, at this point, the two of them had an unspoken knowledge that Ryker was not who he said he was. Then again, there had been a mutual realization regarding Charlotte’s story as well, which was why neither seemed to push the issue.

“Sure you’re not rusty after all this time?” Charlotte grimaced, moving one of her hands from her foot as she shrugged her pack off of her shoulder. She did her best to unbutton the appropriate flap, but her fingers too shaky, she sighed, moving the pack closer to Ryker before moving her hand back to foot.

“There’s some cotton thread and a few needles in that pocket… if you can unwrap some of whatever Locke threw over before you do it, though, I’d appreciate it.” While the hermit may not have been the kindest of men, he seemed in tune enough with his environment for Charlotte to trust that what he had thrown over to her was meant to help. She was in pain, and she was willing to do whatever she could to be out of pain as quickly as possible. Her attention back to Ryker, Charlotte sighed again.

“Just – make it quick, alright?”

[Smoke]

Smoke poked through the wagon, listening to the sounds the workers made as well as the explanation from Locke.

"Could'a fooled me with the way you caught that big rock earlier. Looked like it could have smushed you good... You did catch that right? Or maybe I'm unconsious with a bad case of food poisoning." Smoke said as he dug a bit and found the right pack. He was partly playing the fool now, but Locke had made clear his reverence for the earth. Reducing the cave's formations to "big rocks" could set him off again. Or not.

Extracting the bag calmly while holding the other stuff out of the way, he lifted it up for Ryker to see, before giving it an easy toss across the way to the blue-haired man.

""Ryker. Catch.... I'll leave the "book binding" to you and see if I can help Locke with the big rocks."

Smoke let out a low whistle as he came up on one of the boulders and reached down to give it a heave. It was a big one, and it was questionable whether a normal man would be able to shift it at all. Crouching down on the far side of the boulder for moment, he drew on his draconic heritage and, for lack of better phrasing, clawed dragonscript into the rock's side, before dropping his strength and using his own natural strength to tip the boulder onto its side, message side up. Smoke gave a low growl from the back of his throat as the rock rolled to its side.

"Maybe you should get this one after all, Locke. Dunno how you're doing it, but I guess I won't question as long as you get us out of here."

The message carved into the face of the rock, for those familiar with the old tongue read:

"Your lack of care in hiding your nature is disturbing. Do you intend to kill them?"