Mal cast his right hand forward and sent a giant light beam into the cave. It hovered in the cave for a moment, exploded like a firework and before disappeared.
“There’s a dry landing in there. I can see it,” yelled Mal.
Several lightning strikes followed a large boom of thunder.
“It’s too dark!” Replied Maeve.
Obscuring without fully being able to see your destination was incredibly dangerous.
Mal took Maeve’s hand and exhaled loudly, preparing himself. The sound of their disappearance couldn’t be heard over the storm. Maeve’s stomach twisted in a knot, and then they landed safely inside the cave, soaking wet. Her lux charm illuminated at once.
She looked up at Mal. His brows flicked up. She nodded in admittance of being wrong. She snapped her fingers, drying them both instantly.
Maeve cast small flames ahead of them, lighting their way and attempting to stay warm as they ventured into the cave. Much of the cave was flooded, as Maeve expected. She lowered her hood.
They Obscured from dry landing to landing, going deeper into the mountain. The cave walls split off in two directions, creating two paths. One was dry, and one continued like the path they were already on, where small patches of rocks peeked out above the water.
They decided to explore the dry path first. This path turned narrow quickly. After sometime it opened into a large cavern with many openings and crevices. There was a giant, pitch-black lake at the center of the chamber. It was so flat and still that it looked like slick grease on the ground.
Many of the openings were small dark holes in the walls, with nothing in them. They walked through the larger opening, exploring each smaller cave inside. They continued deeper into the cave. The pathway became wetter the farther they traveled.
Maeve was getting too cold for her liking. The bottom few inches of her cloak was continually soaked, and the farther they traveled, the colder the cave became.
They searched all morning and all afternoon. It was likely dark outside by now. Their path turned back to deep-running waters, and they Obscured to small rocks that emerged above the water.
They came to a fork in the cave that looked familiar.
“Is that the way we came in?” Asked Maeve.
She followed Mal in the opposite direction from which she was pointing. It opened up into the large cavern with the dark lake in the middle.
“We’ve made a circle,” said Mal.
Maeve took off her cloak and dried it quickly with a spell.
“Now what?” Asked Maeve.
Mal thought for a moment before answering.
“I want to be sure all of these caves in here have been thoroughly searched, and I’ll go check the conditions outside.”
Mal disappeared with a POP. Maeve threw back on her dry cloak, wrapping it tightly around her. He reappeared a moment later.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to travel to the next cave in this storm tonight. The rain and wind are washing out the path, and I can’t see enough ahead to Obscure,” said Mal.
“So we’re staying here for the time being?” Asked Maeve.
Mal nodded.
“I’ll start searching again over here then,” said Maeve.
She made her way over to some of the caves. Mal went the opposite direction. They called it quits after carefully searching for any hidden holes or areas, to no avail.
Mal seated himself on the ground, and crossed his legs underneath him. He studied the map, playing with the stone in his other hand. Maeve pulled out a tiny glass plate and placed it on the ground between them. She pointed two fingers at it and it grew in size. She kneeled down and placed her palm on the glass. She yanked her hand away just as a fire burst forward, traveling to the edges of the plate.
She seated herself next to it on the floor of the cave and watched Mal intently.
The ground in the cave wasn’t comfortable to sleep on. Maeve didn’t actually remember falling asleep. She rolled over onto her back.
