Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tianara's voice was as startled as her face, though of course Joshua wouldn't be able to see it. "The oceans are alive," she said, sounding as though she were repeating a lesson to a confused classmate. "There's nothing dead in nature. Nothing."

Whether they could speak or think or know, Tianara had no idea - though she thought they could. What were the sea-spirits if not the part of the ocean that knew and thought and could see? - and she didn't really worry too much about it.

But everything lived.

Tucking her hair back, she turned back towards the cliffs. Her own words had given her an idea.

She rested her hand lightly on the cliff walls, and thought she felt a sigh - whether inside her mind or not, she didn't know.

Stand with me, she whispered. Please.

And standing straight and perfectly steady, she headed towards the narrowest part of the path, her hand running along the cliff wall as she walked.

((OOC: *humming Colours of the Wind* XD))

Tianara glanced back briefly, looking as steady and composed as the cliffs towering over them. "Everything," she said. "Absolutely everything."

She tilted her head up to smile at the sun.

"And if you know how to ask, sometimes they'll answer you."

With that completely confusing and enigmatic statement, Tianara made her way across the thinnest part of the path - never even hesitating.

And kept going.

It wouldn't be too much farther to the top now, and she was beginning to think she'd had no reason to worry. They'd be fine.

Tianara went into the cavern entrance, then stopped and waited for Joshua. She didn't want him to get lost in here while she was trying to find out what was new in this place.

Satisfied that he would not fall too far behind, she set off ahead of them, trailing her fingers along the rock as a silent thank-you. Her eyes were distant and dreamy, her magical senses straining for anything out of the ordinary - and so she didn't notice the new wall of rock until she almost ran into it.

"I...No, this can't be right," she said out loud. "This blocks off everything but right here. It even blocks off the supply room!"

She turned her head and sighed in relief when she noticed the sideways tunnel where, she was almost sure, none had been before. "Okay. There it is."

She set off down the tunnel, keeping her steps slow and relaxed so that Joshua would be sure to keep up.

((OOC: Love the new posting deal, by the way. razz ))

"Me too," Tianara said absent-mindedly. "Trust me." She was walking through the winding tunnels, occasionally having to stop and think for a few minutes before taking another path.

"It's harder now," she said ruefully. "I keep thinking I should go one way and then realizing it's blocked. I don't like it."

But she would put up with it if it meant safety.

"On the plus side, any humans who know these caverns will now be thoroughly lost long before they ever find us," she added lightly, trying for humour.

After what felt like hours of winding and twisting and finding pathways and small caverns that she was sure hadn't been there before, Tianara finally walked into their storeroom.

With a tired smile, she turned to face Joshua. "Enough space, do you think?"

"Perfect," said Tianara with a slightly easier grin. "Now," she murmured, looking around, "is there anything left to do here?"

Heaters. Food. People were bringing their own blankets and so on, or so she recalled - she'd ask Joshua later. And safety. More than anything else, this place represented security.

She brushed away her hair and turned to see Joshua. Stepping forward, she took a closer look. "Are you okay?" she asked, frowning. He looked paler, somehow. Like something was...off. She couldn't quite say why.

A little embarrassed to have asked, she stepped away again, looking around the cavern as though it would tell her if they were forgetting something - and if so, what it was.

Tianara hesitated, then shrugged. "Don't know," she replied. "Must have been a trick of the light." Something in her mind was warning her that she shouldn't say anything, nothing, that as long as she didn't say it things would still be okay.

You looked so pale, so tired. You looked like you were dying.

But she didn't say it. Her instincts had gotten her this far. She wasn't about to start ignoring them.

Instead, she forced a smile. "Let's go," she said instead. "If there's nothing more we need here, we should start to gather the news and figure out what our next move should be."

She spoke while already making her way back towards the paths the way they had come, focusing ahead so as not to look back at Joshua. Right now, she couldn't bear to look anywhere but straight ahead at the empty rock.

Tianara glanced back at him once, but then hastily averted her dark blue eyes. She couldn't quite bring herself to look at him, not right now.

So the uncomfortable silence persisted until they finally reached the cavern mouth again. Tianara looked at the cliff path, which had never looked so narrow and forbidding as it did now.

It didn't matter, and certainly didn't mean anything - it was a trick of the light, it was!

(no it wasn't)

With the picture in her mind, the last thing she wanted to do was walk down that cliff path again. But she hadn't been able to find any way out of there that led down to the water - at least, none that wouldn't require extensive searching and tip Joshua off.

Instead, she turned to him and held out a hand. "Walk with me?" she requested. Maybe, maybe if they were together instead of separated...