Majir glanced over his shoulder at the moving wall of darkness behind him and shifted his large backpack on his back to a more comfortable position. The cave only seemed to have the small lantern held by the guard ahead to light it. Every step she took shifted the small sphere of safety forwards a few feet. It felt like the group had waked for an age before the two of them had split off to venture on ahead. His logical mind however pointed out that they had hardly stopped, it was the eternal darkness and lack of people which was damaging his internal clock and leaving him bewildered. He really didn't mind the lack of people, the constant flow of footsteps and din of conversation he could do without, it was the absolute silence that he had never been exposed to. The shadows shifted again and Majir jumped slightly as his imagination placed strange creatures from his childhood books into the sides of the tunnel. He forced himself to calm down, his eyes returning to the bodyguard ahead. He watch for a minute or two as she looked about the tunnel's sloped sides, her eyes constantly scanning the surroundings for danger. She seemed to be on-the-ball at least. The only noise apart from the occasional drip of water from some far-off underground creek was the oddly distorted sounds from the main group far behind. 

The two of them had split off some time ago. Majir looked down and watched where he put his feet as they crossed over a slightly rougher patch of ground and counted off time since they'd wandered ahead on his clawed fingers as best he could. Nope, he had no idea. It felt like they'd been out for a good two hours at least, but time was playing tricks on him down here and he could only turn to the strange younger woman in front of him for guidance on when they ought to head back. Majir has thought it would be wiser to pair off with Voska than stay with the troupe. He'd wanted to pick her brain for information about the things they could encounter out here, but he'd quickly grown tired of his questions and bid him silent. Her answers had been growing lacking in details as he'd gone on, so he supposed she'd had enough for one day. Yet his head was still swimming with questions, it was becoming harder and harder to just continue walking in this strange silence. She clearly had a lot of experience by how she'd been acting so far. Not to mention that Majir had stolen a look at her file before they'd headed out. She looked like she'd been out a fair number of times, although they were all more recent trips. He'd assumed that she'd been transferred from another area to here, for better opportunities or a new contract were common reasons, but one look at her age implied that her file was perhaps complete. But the guild trusted her, and so he'd have to submit to their judgment of her abilities. 

Voska slowed ahead and Majir instinctively stopped in his tracks. There was a short flash of concern as her machete was gripped tighter in her hand, before he spotted the reason for her concern. Majir's heart fell as he watched her flick her machete, likely killing the small fern where it sat. He hadn't even noticed it until she'd acted, though it looked somewhat familiar. The botany book was out in a flash and he instantly flipped through to the carnivorous plants section. Ahh yes, he'd seen one of these before. The guild had an actual live specimen in the library, he'd spent countless hours simply watching it feel about it's small glass jar. He'd helped the plant specialist on more than one occasion re-pot it when it had gotten too big. He'd come in one day and walked over to greet it as he always did to find a far smaller, almost sapling in it's place. Apparently the 'parent' plant, once it had reached some designated size, was almost killed to force it to spend it's energy on regrowing crucial parts before it could waste it on getting to large. The larger specimen's were of course not allowed except under special circumstances. He'd wanted one for a while, but found out he'd need to prove that he'd take proper care of it before he could even apply. What better way to do that than to discover a new species? Or at least, if fortune didn't smile on him, bring back more samples than the guild 

The two of them began to move on past the now-limp fern. It seemed small enough to not pose a threat. He wondered silently why she'd bother killing it. He decided after a few moments mulling the thought over that he ought to deffer to her judgement. As he gave the stump a wide berth he looked it over carefully as he passed. It looked like one of the legally permissible species, assuming the owner had the right papers of course. He wondered what the odds of running into another one around that size on the way back to the city after all this was over. He wouldn't mind surprising them with a few live samples, they always were worth immeasurably more to the researchers anyway. Majir cleared his throat weakly. 

"Uh, could we stop for a moment? I think I'll need my shoes now, the rocks are getting quite sharp." Majir had stopped close by the small vanquished fern and had already slipped off his pack to dig out his boots before he'd finished speaking. He chose a larger boulder to sit on while he sorted out his shoes and socks. His mind cast about, looking for something to break the unnatural silence. "Um, was that a Carnivorous pteridium?" He ventured, already somewhat regretting his choice to speak. "I wouldn't mind a few live samples on the way back if we could." His tail swept back and forth at the thought of actually being allowed to keep one if he brought back enough.