The boy was pale and shaking. Unless he had contracted the fastest acting case of a stomach virus Alex had ever seen, then illness was not the cause for his current state. He'd come running like a hunted beast, and hurled violently. While sometimes after an unexpected run this could happen to some people, Alex did not suspect Balmung to be the type. More over, Ursula had not once seen that happen to an adventuring player character. No, the shake in his voice, the uneasy laughter, the aversion of his gaze. It all spoke of something else, something frightening. What had he seen? Were they in danger? Balmung collected himself and tried to change the focus to the cave, which made Alex only more reluctant to investigate it. Something was being hidden from her, something that felt important. It did not sit well with her instincts to ignore the matter so she planted her feet more firmly where she stood and let her gaze go from Balmung to the direction he had come from, and back. “If there is a threat to us, friend, it would be better to tell me. Remember I came with you to protect you, not be shielded by you. If someone has threatened you, or you have found some danger, hiding it from me would only worsen the matter.” Alex insisted in her strictest lecturing tone. Its sternness seemed only amplified by the metallic resonance of her helmet. “However if you are certain that our best interests are in searching this cave, then I will lead the way, gladly. Without trust our alliance is doomed to fail after all. Have you a source of light?” Alex had a few torches in her inventory but figured with her diminutive stature, holding the torch would put it nearly in the eyes of her human sized companion, thus ruining his ability to see through the darkness in any capacity. It would be an inefficient arrangement at best. If he were to lead then similarly she would be blinded by his standing in her path and obscuring her view. Alex waited to hear if the human decided to confess about what had happened to him, or if she would have to trust the relative stranger's judgement and venture into the cave instead.
He felt a bit of guilt tug at his throat as he swallowed, attempting to get the terrible taste out of his mouth. He sighed after, and ran a hand through his hair. He fixed his eyes on the armored one's helmet, hoping they could see him looking them in the eye. His gaze faltered for only a quick instant, but he was sure that anyone who wasn't completely blind would have noticed it. He built up the breath in his chest, hoping to find the words to say that would keep him from having to venture back through the woods to that terrible scene. It had not been pleasant to view the first time, and he intended to not find out how it was to see it a second. It wasn't as if he wanted to keep something from Alex. They had proven to be a decent enough companion, if not just a tad too noisy for Balmung's preferred taste. But they had stayed with him since he left town that morning, even hiking a mountain which wore hard on their endurance, without him even asking for their accompaniment. He was sure there was no one else in all of TerraSphere with that sort of dedication. Balmung "Not trying to be rude. Getting late though. Need to search the cave. Go back if we find proof. I fear he is not a farmer. I suspect you do, too." And with that he began to walk towards the cave. He stopped caring if they followed him or not. If the armored one wanted to go traipsing through the copse to come upon that dreaded aberration then he would not stop them. He did hope, however, that they would not put themselves through the same trauma that he did. The fear that such a lifelike game as this could provoke was a cause for fright all its own. When he reached the mouth of the cave, the man in white touched the roots of the twisted timber that framed the opening. The bark was bumpy and coarse. Stroking it felt as if running your hand over the points of thousands of tiny little needles. Indeed, the tree was as sinister to touch as it was to gaze upon, and the lower the sun dipped into the sky and more foreboding the tree looked. He looked to his hand and navigated through the menu that appeared there. A few moments later and a small glowing rock appeared in his palm. The light it gave off was sparse at first, but it began to brighten as he tightened his grip upon it. He peered into the cavern, looking as deep as the light would allow him. The way was a steep descent into the mountainside, but it looked easy enough to walk down, roots from the tree breaking up the stone to create a decent enough tread. He paused before going down, giving Alex one last chance to decide to follow after.
Alex still felt like there was something she was not being told. A niggling feeling in the back of her mind that wouldn't let go no matter how blindly trusting she tried to be. There was just some things that did not add up. Still, it was her job to protect, not doubt or investigate, so she let the matter drop. Alex let out a small sigh and then hustled past Balmung trying to lead the way into the cave, before he charged off with her in tow where her shield would do him little good, again. He was right after all, the farmer had seemed more suspicious to her than even Balmung was being now. One mystery at a time. She didn't make it far into the darkness of the cave, neither of them did. Just as Alex slipped past the blonde human, she only made it a few steps into the darkness when the growing light from Balmung's stone allowed her to catch sight of something moving in the darkness. Alex raised her shield just in time for something to slam in to it. In the dim lighting she caught sight of something horrific. “FALL BACK!” Alex only barely managed to shout something sensible rather than scream in abject terror as the thing was upon her. A fetid, pungent odor overwhelmed her senses and threatened to upturn her stomach as Alex tried to scramble backwards out of the cave without turning. It seemed the frustrated abomination in the darkness was more than willing to help her with her retreat by way of violent force. Alex was struck in the darkness with such force that even her weighted armor and hefty shield could not absorb the entire blow and it sent her in to the air. Alex skidded on her back in the mud and was still reeling from the blow when she attempted to sit up. The thing's squid-like tendrils emerged first, slipping out of the blackness and spreading out on either side of the cave entrance like a sudden rapid growth of some twisted vegetation, or unnatural fingers preparing to pull a much larger body. Then like a wave preceded by a fleeing tide it surged out of the opening. Its body resembled a collection of tooth filled maws and a malformed bloating corpse in equal measure. Eyes of different sorts were scattered among the collection of gaping mouths and mottled flesh, some seemed blinded in the daylight, while others, more fully formed, seemed to focus on both the wayward adventurers. A horrible multi-tonal shrieking bellow issued out sending horrible unnatural shivers through Alex's entire body. The unearthly thing seemed at once too large for the opening it emerged from, and yet pliable enough to have impossibly pulled itself through. There were teeth everywhere. Mouths, everywhere. The mouths were elongated and stretched out along the base of the tendrils that emerged all over the form, and the further along the tentacles they were, the less they resembled mouths and the more they simply became protrusions of random teeth barbing the whip-like appendages. Those very appendages twisted together two form two thick tangles of limbs which swung simultaneously at both potential targets. There was no time for Alex to dodge far enough to shield Balmung, as she barely had time to raise her shield to protect herself. He was on his own for this one. Alex wanted to scream, wanted to run, but all she could do was brace herself against the blow and try to ask “What is this thing?” just as the abomination let out another hideous screech. Even as she asked the question Alex was not sure she wanted to know, wasn't sure she COULD know. What mattered most was that they find a way to fight against it. The alternative was death, at least.
