Beren saw the ichor and lifeblood of the crushed spider oozing off of the remaining bits of broken corpse up in the web, a bit of the thorax sliding off to hit the ground with a wet 'squelch' a stone's throw from where they sat. Beren sat up, rubbing his head. Jocasta's beaming face was there to greet him, in his lap again. 

"Well, usually when you end up on top of me it means it turned out alright." He said with a grin, though he wasn't as animated or mischievous as usual. He seemed a bit wary and off-put, even with the spider dead and the troll's rock's getting caught in the web, keeping them relatively sheltered. He lifted her up and set her down on his feet when he got on his own. 

"What is it?" Jocasta asked, sensing his change in demeanor. 

Beren didn't answer, at least initially. He glanced around at the huge cavern they found themselves in. He was no dwarf or elf, but he had keen eyes for a man and he had a history of being far below ground. The north was a strange, alien place to Beren, the Ero'Dai being far more used to steaming jungle, dangerous wetlands, and the deep beneath the earth.

"That big spider... that's usually a bad sign. The Dwarves call them Mukelob Spiders." He explained softly, scanning the creases and patterns of the stone. The rivulets could tell stories one might never believe. There was a main passageway he was sure Jocasta had seen, but he counted three other potential tunnels, provided they didn't end within a couple of meters. "When you find a big spider, it means one of three things. One, it means there are more, usually within a few miles from here or closer. Two, it's set there as a guard beast by someone. Or three...there's Dorcha around." 

Jocasta's face twisted in panic, but she didn't go white like he might have thought. He wasn't surprised she knew Dorcha meant 'Dark Elves' considering she was a scholar, and he took comfort in the fact she didn't take a lot of things very seriously. It was probably the reason why he jumped earlier. Her calling for him in abject fear was new to him, and he went over without thinking. Though he knew if he had time to think, he'd probably do it again anyway. 

"So...there's no chance that could just be a rogue creepy crawly?" She asked him in a whisper, twiddling her fingers like they were spider legs. 

"You're right, we have the best luck. Nothing ever goes wrong when we show up," Beren remarked facetiously, though his small smile showed it was in good humor. 

"Right," She noted. 

The ground was uneven, as most rock was. If one wasn't careful they could fall down a hole or slip and break an ankle. There were a billion ways to die in caverns, and that was before you factored in the beings that lived there. So far all was quiet now, save the annoyed roars of the troll above them. Beren knelt down and grabbed a coil of rope from his pack, wrapping it around his muscled upper arm. Axe in his left hand, he reached into his top's collar and pulled out a pendant. Sliding his head through it, he wrapped the necklace that held the pendant around his right hand and whispered a small litany with the artifact close to his lips. 

Slowly it began to glow like a rising sun, shining as brightly as Jocasta's spell of light. It beamed as a star would, illuminating the gloom around them at the mouth of the tunnel. 

"Stay close, ok?" He told her. 

"I think we're accustomed to that by now," she admitted, grabbing a bit of his shirt, her smile beaming as brightly as the pendant. "Cool necklace by the way. You're full of surprises." 

"Sexy right?" He joked.