Rilana too, flinched at the sound of the scream, guessing it to be Lyle's as the foolish drunk met with an unfortunate end. The burden of leadership was heavy on her shoulders as she forced herself to believe that her responsibility was to the group as a whole and getting involved in such a one-sided fight over one man would have been courageous, but a disservice to those she had promised to lead. The argument sounded good in her mind, but she still felt guilty for leaving the man behind.

Entering the cave was of no particular concern to the Moon Fey, as she'd been spelunking some in the past, and watching the glowing sword (as well as Svarak's powerful back) was a pleasant distraction from the monotanous walls. Bruin was nervous in these close quarters, but Rilana reassured him often, knowing that these hard floors would be better than slogging it through the snows. Ortha in particular seemed to be happier in here than the outside, sliding from the saddlehorse to slink along on the ground, investigating.

It struck her as odd that the temperature seemed to plummet around them. Protected from the wind and ice, caves were usually a bit more pleasant than the outside. Paying slightly more attention to the path ahead than the sounds of those behind, Rilana missed the moment when half of the party vanished. She was too concerned with the roots above wondering if they belonged to treants like the ones they had recently left.

When the walls opened up into a larger cavern, Rilana turned back to say something to Alya, only to discover that the mute musician was no longer there! Startled, her breath catching in her throat, the Envoy reigned Bruin to a halt.[color=00aeef] "Alya?"[/color]

[color=00aeef]"Stop!"[/color] Her exclamation was not overly loud, but urgent with her concern. [color=00aeef]"Alya and the rest are missing. Did anyone see if they turned off back there?"[/color]

When it inevitably turned out that no one had, Rilana wheeled the horse around, ready to plunge back into the root-filled maze.

[color=00aeef]"Check the entrance and tell me what lies beyond. Are we almost to the other side here?"[/color] She eyed the suspicious drow woman, at least glad that this one wasn't the one who had looked daggers at her in Stone Crest. Perhaps Drisceya had killed the other one while they were scouting in the woods. Rilana had no way to know how much of this underground passage they had left to traverse and had to rely on the dark elf to tell her.

Moving her horse around to stand near Svarak's ram, the Moon Fey glanced at the charr, frowning worriedly. [color=00aeef]"We should look for them. I didn't see any side-passages on the way but the roots were so thick."[/color] She couldn't stand the thought of Alya wandering around in the darkness, even if she was with some armed knights.

Rilana considered sending Ortha to hunt them down, but the balauradon was still terribly young, and their Bond was still too new.

[i][color=fff200]Send me?
[/color][/i]
[color=00aeef][i]Not unless I have no other choice. I'd rather go myself.[/i][/color]