Nothing to hide (Private, Cara)

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It was cold. Not too cold, but cold. To be honest, Vortex quite enjoyed the low temperature, the early morning dew on his paws, and the calm song of the morning doves. It was a very tranquil place. He was very close Stormcaller territory, and did not care in the slightest, for they were decently friendly most of the time.... Unlike the Ki'Shan border patrol. So what if he... well, nevermind. He was also enjoying the fact that he had actually been able to sleep last night. He had been troubled with nightmares for the past month, about his past primarily, and it was nice to have a clear mind every now and then. The branches of the trees brushed against his scales as he walked through the forest, weaving through the trees, barely making a sound. Finding a spot he was content with, he sat down on his haunches and looked down at his claws, sighing as he saw there was still blood from his breakfast on them. The masked dragon had to admit he enjoyed the solitude, but was indeed a bit lonely.
(A bit short, but I suck at intros, so yay)

Caramina nodded. "He is," she said, nodding. "Oh? I'm not surprised, actually...he tends to keep the names of his relatives to himself, unless it's asked. Maybe he's just scared that the dragon he's talking to hides bad motives underneath a smile, and with the knowledge of his dear one's name, will come after me. I don't know. No offence intended," she added quickly. Then she lapsed into silence, growing more and more awkward as seconds of silence passed. She wished she could do something to liven up their conversation...but she had none in mind. Sorry for boring you, she thought, looking up at the hazy grey sky, the dark clouds spewing rain and bolts of light, accompanied by loud rumbles of thunder shuddering across the sky.

"I, uh, have something to show you," she said suddenly, an idea coming to her. While exploring, she had discovered something out of the ordinary, but had no time to actually explore it. Maybe she could do it with Vortex now, even though she didn't really know him. "Uh, if you don't mind flying in this weather, you could follow me to it...?" She spread her drenched wings, shaking it dry, before leaping into flight, wind rushing to form a shield above her, to deflect the rain and keep her dry. If Vortex followed, she would take him on a flight that lasted a few minutes, and she would head upwards, towards an ominous-looking mountain whose tip vanished into the sky. There was a hole in its steep sides, a cave, which she would dive into, the abrupt shift of temperature earning a shudder through her body. Here, it was chilly, almost cold, and icy stalactites hung from the shadowed ceiling.

Around the small room were statues, each depicting different dragons. She would say to Vortex, assuming that he came, "Look at these...aren't they cool?" and walked over to the biggest statues, one of a large western dragon with a crown placed crookedly on his head, and an eastern female twisting in the air next to him, a seductive smirk spread across her beautiful face, but her eyes held a sinister look. She shrugged, wondering what Vortex would say about this, as she poked the female's maw, saying, "Wish I were as beautiful as her," trailing off into silence as the female's maw opened, revealing a scroll in it. "Please don't bite me," she muttered, taking the scroll from its place in her icy maw and uncurling it, the faded yellow papers making crinkling sounds as she did so.

Do not laugh, it said.

"Well now, she said, "all this is rather sudden..." and broke into giggles at the simplicity of the note, her laughter scratching through the air. Her laughter seemed to trigger something, a ferocious roar emanating from her bared maw, and the ground beneath them vanished into nothing. Caramina fell, a string of incoherent curses screaming from her throat, her wings flailing as she spun through the thick shadows, occasionally having a feather torn off by something sharp that she brushed against. She shouted in pain, and shouted again as she fell, a bit ungracefully, on her stomach, earning a protesting "ow, what the heck". She lay there, tempted to stay in that position until her breath returned, but she stood, looking around. "Vortex?" she called.

Vortex thought for a moment, before nodding as well. "That does seem like him. Though you would know him better than I would." He admitted, giving a small chuckle afterwards. He didn't mind the silence at all, for it calmed his sometimes damaged mind. Still, awkward silence was awkward silence, and as he was about to say something she spoke. Being a bit bored already, he decided he didn't have anything better to do, so as she took off, he shifted and leapt into the air, spreading his wings to follow. The rain beating against him wasn't a problem, except for the fact that he had eyes. He followed close behind Caramina, half to not lose her and half to shield his eyes from the rain.

As they approached the mountains, Vortex's interest only grew. He entered at a slower rate than she did, thus not affected by the temperature change. Nodding in response, he observed the main two statues for a minute. "Yeah, they are interesting." He said, nearly jumping as the eastern dragoness opened its maw. Tilting his head, confused at her reaction, he wondered what was on the paper, and why it was funny. Jolting out of his thought process as the statue roared, he yelped as the floor disappeared, dropping them into an icy pit of darkness. As he fell, he tried to keep himself upright, but failed miserably, skewering his wing as he landed with a heavy thud. Surrounded by complete darkness, he immediately stumbled upon standing up and landed on something polygonal, which screeched, followed by a dim light filtering through the cavern. Looking around, it seemed to be exactly what he expected, a large cave made of ice. It didn't take him long to notice the stalagmite in front of him, dripping with his blood, as well as the long cut in his wing. Quickly folding it, he gazed around again, finally noticing Caramina. "I'm here...  Are you alright?"

Caramina wished she had a source of light so that she could see through the thick darkness, but with a sudden whir, dim rays of yellow pierced through the cloak of shadows, allowing her to see, but not too well. Vortex was there, a few feet away from her, and although he looked fine, she could see a tiny trail of blood leaking from his wing, even with it folded - he was probably attempting to go all hero-ey and not mention his wound. Flickers of pain danced across his face, even as he tried to hide it, and she moved forward, cursing her inability to heal him quickly. "Your wing is injured," she announced, "thus I must do something to it. Good, of course," she added as she unwrapped the green scarf around her neck, staring at Vortex till he unfurled his injured wing. Binding it as best as she could with the scarf, which quickly turned red as blood seeped into it, she looked him up and down. He was probably a bit sore from the fall...but no other injuries were present.

"I'm fine. Well, at least, doing better than you did," she replied. "I, ah, am sorry for being stupid enough to laugh, but since we're already in this pile of crap, we might as well try to find a way out instead of moaning over it." With this said, she raised her head, looking around, her gaze landing on a small wooden door. Turning, she went to it, opening it and entering, crouching a bit because it was a bit small. Only when she was in did she hesitate, but ah well, whatever, and she continued, the tunnel eventually giving way to a round chamber.

Vortex, you decide what should be in the chamber :3 --

Vortex exhaled heavily, looking down and to the side. Cursing softly as she noticed his injury, as well as announced that fact, he brought his gaze back up, quickly observing her staring at him, with obvious intent. Reluctantly, he extended his injured wing, allowing her to tend to it. "You don't have to... Nevermind." He tried as she wrapped her now bloodstained scarf around his wing. The binding was a bit restrictive on his wing, disallowing him to open it, but then again, he doubted they would need to do any flying down in this icy cavern. "Thank you." He finally said after a moment of silence, some of the pain subsiding.

Nodding a little as she told him her current state, he smiled without a definite expression. "Keh, I don't blame you." He chuckled softly, shaking his head a little. "I agree, the past is the past, lets focus on getting out of here." Shifting a bit, he followed Caramina to the small wooden door, which seemed... odd in a place like this. Regardless, he ducked his head an followed her on through, not exactly knowing how much further into the cavern they could go. It seemed strange... someone must have set all of this up for a reason, but why? Why would anyone go through the trouble of constructing such an elaborate system? Thoughts like these swam around in his mind for a while before leaving, only to be replaced by new ones. The corridor eventually gave way to a large, circular chamber. Glancing around, Vortex noticed the beautifully done carvings in the walls, made entirely out of ice. The carvings themselves were a little confusing as to what their purpose was, but he shook it off before thinking about it, turning his attention to the center of the room. In the very center of the circular chamber was an pillar made of what seemed like some sort of snow. Glancing to Caramina, he slowly approached the pillar and touched it with a single claw, noting that it still had the consistency of ice. The pillar was divided into sections, almost as if it was built out of thick discs. Each of the discs had little symbols on it, which, unknown to him, matched the symbols under the carvings on the walls. "What do you make of this?" He asked, turning back to her.

Caramina frowned, a little crease appearing between her nonexistent eye-ridges. "I'm not sure, actually," came her reply, as she surveyed the room that they were currently in, shivering a bit at the cold emanating from the icy chamber. Going to a wall, she noted its frosty appearance, and the carvings etched into the wall, of long eastern dragons with their bodies intertwined in a pair, resembling a long coil of rope that ran along the surface of the walls, sometimes linking with other pairs and swirling into a pattern before separating and resuming their course to the top. The walls resembled ice, their blue-white surface shimmery and giving off a deep quality, as if there were layers, and what she saw was just the surface. There were words running up the spines of the dragons, sadly in a foreign language consisted of strokes and swirls and dots.

Eventually she moved back to the pillar set in the very center, and as she looked down at the stone (stone??) floor, she noticed circles etched into it, almost like tree rings, with the pillar's base being the first circle, others fanning out around it. Her gaze travelled up to the discs that cut into the thick trunk of the pillar, which had similar carvings to those on the walls - and symbols, she noticed - but the carvings portrayed far more ferocious and regal dragons, their icy eyes fixed straight ahead, crowns atop their finely built head. Their mouths were open, teeth bared in a silent snarl to stay away, and, running her paws along the cool, almost icy-cold surface, she made a soft hum of surprise as a hollow sound echoed when she knocked (gently) on the pillar. Was there something inside? Shrugging, she continued running her paws over its cool surface, hoping to feel something.

She did, a bump that was cleverly hidden, disguised as an orb, and she knocked against it, only to hear a solid thump. A thump? Quite confused, she lowered her face to stare at the orb, many symbols protruding from its rounded surface. One of the symbols reached out farther than the rest, and, tugging on it, she squeaked in surprise as the orb fell out, almost landing and squishing her feet. She backed away with a grimace, glaring at the orb and picking it up, only to have it fall apart into two pieces, revealing...nothing. Which was honestly just very stupid, but she picked them up and stuffed them into her satchel, before peering into the hole that was left behind when the orb fell out. Saw nothing but darkness, and growled in frustration, straightening and looking up, only to see a set of gates set into the ceiling. The ceiling, of all things! A set of buttons were there, just within reach, and different symbols were on each. Doing this purely on guesswork and hope, she flew up and pushed the buttons according to the symbols that scrolled across the orb's surfaces.

The gates creaked open, into another room above them.