In her creepy way, Ortha watched Echo with one head while the other focused on the other Moon Fey, the nostrils in her boney skeletal face sniffing at the 'almost but not quite Rilana'. Both of the balauradon's jaws were grimy with guano from where she had snacked on the way in, hungrily able to eat just about anything and delighting on the occasional fallen bat corpse half-buried in the acrid refuse. The extraplanar monster hunkered down on her legs, creeping through the moss, grumbling as it slid across her leathery hide. Once she was close enough to Moira she stood straight and turned back towards the entrance in that classic non-verbal posture that meant [i]"Let's go!"[/i] -- Deeper in the cave system, Rilana looked around curiously as the group spread out into the rounded cavern, watching the light of their torches glitter across the ice, looking for anything that might help them solve the riddle Lady Moira had left them. Turning, she glanced down thoughtfully at the Songweaver, listening to Alya's voice that no one else could hear. [color=00aeef]"A heartbeat?"[/color] [i][color=fff200]Follow thine heart? [/color][/i] [color=00aeef]"Do you still hear it?"[/color] But apparently it had died. Just then, several things happened at once. Ortha was reaching out for her, but the eerie and unnerving hiss of plantlife moving at speeds that were unnatural raced towards them, the sounds echoing and rushing along the tunnel. This sound was nearly lost completely, however, as the walls of ice fractured and burst, the pressure and noise battering at Rilana's senses. The Moon Fey had nothing to hide behind, but crouched quickly, throwing her arm up to protect her face from the shards of ice she expected to wash over her. It was this arm that Alya grabbed, and Rilana followed her friend readily, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that the others were following, her gaze sweeping over the tidal wave of purple moss. She never even heard Echo's howl shivering up from the depths, but as soon as Alya told her that the direwolf had found something, Ortha's sight flashed across her mind. [color=00aeef]"It's Lady Moira. They've found her. She looks..."[/color] She didn't have to finish, her worried expression would relay the troubling condition of the other Moon Fey. Rilana berated herself. [i][color=00aeef]How could I have been wrong, again! My instincts are terrible.[/color][/i] There was no way to reach Lady Moira right now, not by going back the way they'd come, anyways. Apparently Kona didn't have time for his Druid's poor self-esteem, however, because the gryphon replied simply, [i][color=fff200]Heart must give life to ice, When heart is lost, become hare.[/color][/i] Rilana glanced back at Svarak again, her face grey with uncertainty and fear, but she didn't want to tell him what she was planning to do. What they were to each other, she wasn't sure yet, but she didn't want to add to his burden, and she didn't want to be the kind of woman who needed coddling and comfort. [i][color=00aeef]"Alya, I'm going to change. I won't be able to talk except to you."[/color][/i] And Kona, but the gryphon was nearly as mute s the flute-player. Rilana pulled her arm free of the half-elf's grasp but didn't quite stop running, just slowed a little as she concentrated. [i][color=00aeef]Kona, if I die I don't want you to die with me.[/color][/i] [i][color=fff200]If you die, I won't want to live![/color][/i] He protested angrily, and for the first time ever Rilana had to force him to un-Mark, until he appeared again in the tunnel, incorporeal at first but suddenly solid and as large as life, his wings tucked tightly to his back as he hurried along, tufted tail swishing. But Rilana wasn't done yet. She clambered up on the grypon's leopard-spotted back and began to change. Her already-white skin erupted with snowy fur, and her ears crawled up the sides of her head to poke out her hair, which slurped back into her head like so many noodles. Her whole body shrank rapidly, her clothes blending in to a hide of solid white (except for black at the tips of her long ears), until the tiny round shape of the most adorable snowshoe hair ever ([url=http://www.skolaiimages.com/stock/albums/wildlife/smallmammals/snowshoehares/09_april010.jpg]pic[/url]) was struggling to keep a grip on the gryphon's mighty back. [i][color=fff200]That riddle better be speaking figuratively,[/color][/i] Kona grumped.