Night 60: Underground Lake

[nobleman]

[From here.]

Just like the last time, Guy's feet hit the uneven sand as he took in that unmistakable smell of dampness. This area was almost dead quiet when compared to the hallway that they'd just come from, but he still could make out the lapping of water and the creaking of the dock. All of those sensations just reminded him of the fact that they were going to have to offer up another toll, though. If they were doing this all fairly, then it was Anise's turn, but what would she have to give up?

Guy figured that they should double-check the rules for that, since he didn't want the ferryman to jerk them around too much. He had already tricked them once, so they were going to have to watch their phrasing.

"Guess we'd better go find that guy," he said with a sigh, making it clear that he wasn't a fan of the skeleton. He doubted Anise and Claude felt any better about it themselves. "Let's be careful with asking him how it all works before we offer up anything, okay?" He doubted that he needed to remind either of them of what had happened last time. With that out in the air, Guy took off across the sand.

Comments

[nobleman]

Despite all the grief that had come before it about the toll, the actual boat ride turned out to be very quiet and very short. That was fine by Guy; he wasn't exactly interested in chatting with the ferryman, and his whistling had been oddly eerie in the way it had echoed off the cave walls.

When the boat docked Guy waited for the others to disembark in front of him, following them off as he stretched and looked around. It was the same as he remembered it. Before he could even respond to what the skeleton said (and he kept having to stop himself from looking over at Claude when he heard that voice), the boat had disappeared from view.

That was probably for the best.

"So..." He drew forward, glancing at Anise because he realized that he'd been mainly relying on her for input, seeing how Claude was temporarily mute. "Last time we went through that door," he said, pointing out to the one that was directly to the left from the dock. It looked like there were three more. Did they have to go through all of them? "Any preferences for where we go next?" It wasn't like they had any criteria to choose, so they might just have to make a random decision.

[gald_digger]

Anise followed Guy's gesture with her eyes, noting the door they'd already passed through. After a moment of consideration, she looked back up at him to answer. "Well... It doesn't really matter, does it? So let's just go through this one," she suggested, waving her hand in the direction of the rightmost door. No particular reason; it was just the one that caught her eye at that moment. All the doors were equally mysterious, so it was probably best if they didn't spend too much time deliberating which to take.

With that, she started on her way to the door, stopping once she was close to allow time for last minute objections or for simply gathering their courage. If the next trials were going to be anything like the last ones, they had to be prepared for anything.

"Let's just, um, watch our feet this time," she advised the others with a light, sheepish grin, remembering that terrifying first step beyond the other door.

[full-score.livejournal.com]

Although Anise had given him some paper and a pen, it wouldn't have been practical to go fishing for all that just to give his opinion about something none of them knew much about. Thankfully, neither Guy nor Anise seemed particularly inclined to think too hard about it. At the end of the day, they were all just making a bunch of guesses down here, weren't they?

Upon hearing Anise's warning, Claude gave a silent nod in agreement. Since they had no idea of what to expect, they needed to be careful. Tightening his grip on his sword, he reached out to push the door open. He led the way inside, but moved slow and deliberate enough that it would be easy for them to stick close together.

((To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1224296.html).))