Chapter 2: Into the Caverns

Aoax awoke all at once to his attendant, Jote, shaking his paw. Aoax’s crusted eyes and blurred vision attempt view the younger muzoval, one that is not too unlike himself. The young boy, barely grown to maturity, has turquoise scaethers. A color much less common than Aoax’s typical muted sapphire. The boy’s wings are folded tight to his back, his commitment to Aoax taking the forefront of his thought. Aoax pretended to focus by looking him in his four green eyes. “I’m up, go get me breakfast while I try to get myself truly awake.”

The boy dutifully turns and leaves Aoax’s tent. His tail’s scaethers swaying in a joyous flitter to his new task. Aoax, stretching out his four limbs and wings, wonders if the boy is excited to see Aoax off, or if he thinks he is going to go with. He was assigned to accompany and attend to Aoax’s every need. Maybe the young one thought this to be his foray to the profession of a Delver.

As Aoax’s thoughts drifted from topic to topic, waiting for his morning meal, commotion from outside his tent provoked him to investigate. He dons his haln and emerges from his tent. The soluar ring, just turned to day, broke through the trees only to shine directly into Aoax’s eyes. The voices are of Jote and an older gentleman.

“No, I’m to attend to seir Aoax, there is no reason for me to stay here while he’s in the caverns.” Jote sounds confident in his words.

The older humi chastises Jote, “I’m telling you boy, it will be only the delvers who enter the caverns. I’m amazed that when they hired you they didn’t fully specify your duties.”

Aoax, not wanting his attendant to bother the poor man intervened, “He’s right, I will be going only with the other delver’s into the cavern. They should have told you this either in the job description or at the orientation, I’m assuming you just didn’t pay attention.”

Jote, now flustered, tries to persuade Aoax to his view. “B-but, I can help too. I’m an excellent flyer and swimmer, and I’m proficient in many ghoa. I-”

Aaoax cuts Jote off. “No, It’s not your job. Your job is to make sure I’m comfortable before I do what I get paid for.”

“I don’t need pay, I-”

“Boy,” the older man said with a hint of ire. “There’s a reason you need a license to be a delver. It’s incredibly dangerous, even more dangerous than the naioqjak comiv. As seir Aoax and his other delvers well know, they are not guaranteed to come back from delving.”

“Thank you good seir,” Aoax bowed slightly to the man, “now boy, hand me my food then let Vroljez know I’ll be with him shortly.”

Knowing his duty, Jote swallows his contention and scuttles off.

“By the by, how did you manage to get a license,” the man queries.

“Seems a bit personal to ask that of someone.” Aoax was slightly alarmed by the man’s impromptu question.

“I’m just curious, would you kindly indulge this old man?”

Aoax observes the man, “My Nya, that’s how.”

“You’re Nya?”

“Yeah, I can make wind with my wings.” Aoax was never comfortable with talking about his Nya, most people in the past were afraid if he demonstrated it. Hopefully the vagueness of his answer will satiate the man. Aoax had done enough, the man didn’t ask for a performance. He bows and leaves Aoax to eat his breakfast alone.

Vroljez, Frauch, Mangal, Kmna, and some workers were waiting at the mouth of the cavern. Despite Frauch’s copious amount of drinking the night prior, he was as talkative and as lively as ever. It was a very one sided conversation as Frauch boasted of a previous venture of delving.

“...We had na idea the place uz a home t’ escaped convicts, boy ‘er they surprised to see us run’n up on ‘em.” Frauch pauses his story to greet Aoax, “Hey, uz just tellin’ these guys ‘bout the time I had t’ fight through sum escapees”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt, please carry on,” Aoax assures. Carry on he did, with obviously over-embellished detail. Aoax peers uneasily to Kmna with a peripheral eye. The drake is back to her stone-expressed self. Aoax wants to say something to her. Not entirely sure what to say but something.

It wasn’t long before the final delvers came. Thisher and Drvkauh look as to rather be back in bed than out to work. It is customary to allow for pleasure before delvers are to perform, a (possibly final) night of repose. But Aoax never thought it a good idea to become hungover or exhausted before work. Obviously the couple did not take this idea into much consideration.

Vroljez clasps his hands together, “Well now that we’re all here, shall we get started?”

The mouth of the cave is heavily overgrown with foliage. It’s a wonder the scouts were able to find it, it seemed to be no more than a cliff at first glance. Vroljez ushers a group to cut through the thicket, a task that looks to take more time and effort than anyone had hoped for.

Slow moving, Aoax and the other delvers have time to mingle and get to know each other better. Though they had been part of the same band for so long, the exhaustion of moving all day, the amount of fluff Vroljez had brought, and them rather wishing to be amongst their kin, had kept at least one member apart at any given time, until now.

Frauch, Thisher, Drvkauh, and Aoax himself turned out to all be from @Thwiunde. Though fellow countrymen they may be, more different they could not have been. Frauch and Drvkauh are oqmi humi, but Tisher is an olmi humi, his furry face and thin dexterous tail leaving little to hide about it.

Frauch wares little on his astoundingly average physique, save for a crimson sash across his chest. No tattoo, piercing, or other eccentrics adorn his figure, a pure humi if there ever was one.

Thisher dons a white gown with thin pieces of colorful cloth draping like prismatic feathers. He has piercings holding more colorful streamers along his cheeks.

Drvkauh wore blue and brown earthen-styled boots and gloves as well as a hazel belt. Her colorless skin is decorated in yellow and red tattoos snaking all around her curved body.

Mangal, another oqmi, had been from Born (a neighboring country of Thwiunde). He wears not but his haln, as it was almost purposeless due to no one looking directly at him. Neither does he don any modifications, his short stature leaving nothing interesting to look at.

Kmna, is slightly larger than most other dragon drake. Her plated scales shone azure in the morning light. Her letheren wings bob loosely to her sides as they strode onward. Aside from her red and decorated veil, she sports a single emerald anklet her right foreleg.

Aoax himself wore no cloth but had many tattoos etched into his scaethers. A story of a brave delver scrawled across his right side, and family crest etching across his left. In addition to the tattoos, he covered himself in jewelry. What others might call gaudy, he embraced. Silver bracelets, golden ringlets hanging from his neck, gemmed rings, and even a golden beak cover.

Aoax had gotten to know Frauch the greatest, his tenacity for conversation would not allow a silent moment go by while he was around. He had been a delver for most of his short Humi life, and has no signs of slowing down. Though talkative and friendly to most, he has clear disdain for Kmna.

The design of Frauch’s haln matched his personality perfectly. A marigold-metallic base, with the bound Murn sporadically placed. It was surprising how many different Murn Frauch had, leading Aoax to gesture that some of his stories might not be so far-fetched. How else could he have enough money to buy so many Murn if he didn’t have good luck with his work.

Through their travel Thisher and Drvkauh clung tightly together, their union having taken place not long before this job. Thisher was the primary one to retort to Frauch’s extraordinary feats, he himself a self indulged individual. Drvkauh, as gloomy as ever, clung to her Thisher’s arm.

Thisher’s haln complemented Drvkauh’s. While the base of his haln was a deep purple, almost the color of the night sky, Drvkauh’s was ivory white. Their Murn were sorted in the usual fashion, with the most useful towards the front and the larger towards the bottom.

Mangal is currently the most mysterious to Aoax, his voice only emerging when something needed to be said. He seemed kind enough, his astringent aura emanated tranquility. Mangal’s haln was simple and had few Murn. Somehow, despite his unknown aspects, he fit goodly into the group as though he was the most talkative.

Kmna, on the other hand, seemed to almost refuse to acknowledge their existence. Her gaze was dead set on the task at hand, keeping well behind the group and only looking to the workers cutting down the foliage at the head.

Aoax enjoyed the banter with his compatriots, yet Kmna’s presence never let him feel fully at ease.