[color=lightsteelblue]Lia grinned as Mr Helmet Man dropped into the mouth of the cavern below. Not a yes and not a no. How shrewd! It seemed a running theme with these underground hunters. She yanked her claws out of the cliff face and fell into a dive. By the time she’d joined him, her hand had shifted back to normal.

She would have [i]liked[/i] to fly ahead – the thought definitely crossed her mind – but as wide as the passage was, stealth and flying just didn’t mix. Her boots landed gently on moist stone; she made a face at Mr Helmet Man as he gestured at her to be quiet, but said nothing, her wings folding up behind her. The floor was slick with moisture that could’ve come from the river raging at the bottom of the ravine... or other means. Judging from the handprints all over the walls, Lia was willing to bet the latter. She moved forward, one hand on the crossbow on her belt.

The light from the outdoors was quick to fade. Still, that didn’t mean the cavern plunged into darkness. In between the handprints on the walls weaved cracks in the stone, where soft blue glowed from the crystallised mana that lay within. The cracks ran through the ceiling too, with that same blue glow. The further in the two of them went, the more the handprints grew in number until they overlapped and merged into a smear of pale smudges on the walls.

Then the passage opened up into a cavern far bigger than the one that had greeted them at the mouth of the cliff wall. The tips of drooping stalactites were all that could be seen of the ceiling, swallowed in the darkness above. The sound of flowing water could be heard echoing through the space, even though there were no immediately apparent bodies of water anywhere. The whole space was aglow with the baby blue of mana. Where before they had been tucked away into the walls and the ceiling, raw mana crystals jut out of the ground in scattered clusters. Some glowed fainter than others. There were quite a few with dulled edges, as if worn away by constant touch.

‘[b]Hey[/b],’ whispered Lia to Mr Helmet Man, ‘[b]thanks for the teamwork.[/b]’

She took to the air, pulling her crossbow free from her belt and cocking it with practised swiftness as she went. A twist was all she needed to line her sights up with Mr Helmet Man. 

This Old One did so seem to love its hoard of mana. No better way to get its attention than this!

She fired. The cluster of mana crystals nearest to Mr Helmet Man shattered on impact. Wisps of magic rolled off the broken pieces like smoke. Half-hidden in the shadows of the ceiling, Lia waited. 

A rumbling sound – almost a voice, even – broke through the depths of the cavern. The walls trembled. Mana crystals shuddered. Lia looked down happily at the underground hunter.

[i]Make some noise for me, Mr Bait.[/i][/color]