[Featured characters: Alanis, Rhett] Budehuc Castle: Sublevel ??? What's this? A long, winding cavernous tunnel beneath the castle? Boxes and various weapons line the tunnel as it continues on- there being almost no illumination at all. Whatever this place is, it's not been in use for a very long time. Perhaps an old shelter? What could be at the end of this vast tunnel? ===== Yes... she's back. Alanis isn't one to listen to reason when she has her mind set on something - especially when that 'something' is her magic. Adult reasoning really doesn't mean much to her these days, when she has proven time and again that she can take care of herself just fine down here. Her parents told her to stay away, Geddoe told her to stay away... and while it may be a little scary, and there /are/ monsters roaming down here, it's not like she's the only human in the caverns. Eike comes down here quite often from what she's seen, and while Landis is more a pain than anything else, he's not above saving a girl in distress. At least... she doesn't think he is. And he's not human either, technically, but that's beside the point. The point is, she needs to practice, and since no one will agree to teach her, she has to do it on her own. It's slightly depressing, especially since she doesn't feel herself getting any better, but she has to try. Thus, she has walked a little distance into the tunnels, to the first fork. It isn't far from the elevator, and there haven't been any monsters this close to the castle entrance that she knows of. The exercise she's entertaining herself with right now has no visible results, beyond the flashing of her rune now and then as she charges its power, and then pulls it back in, trying to perfect her control over the spells. It would be frightening for anyone with a good sense of magic, and incomprehensible to anyone else. Impatiently clanging his spear up and down against his shoulder, repeatedly, it was obvious that Rhett was annoyed with something....or, in this case, someone. "Where is that Wilder....," He said to no-one inparticualr, and made a disgruntled sound, slashing his spear into the ground swiftly, but with a touch of calmness. "Since when is it his job to be late? I'm always the one to be late.....no I can nag at him for once," Rhett rambled on. Then he saw soemthing glowing from around the fork's corner. Alarmed, Rhett turned around swftly, which loosened some feathers in his tail and made them catch the air. "Hmm....is this....an orange glow? No....red? This can't be Wilder. Wilder has not magic like this.....could it be....a monster?" Rhett said, half angered, has smiling. "Well, I came here for training anyway," Rhett readied his duck feet, and dug them into the ground twice like a bull ready to run. Then he shouted, "CHHHAAAAAAAARGE!" and run around the fork with frightening speed, madly swinging his spear. Sound echoes terribly in these caverns, and that battle cry makes Alanis's head snap up in surprise, eyes wide. There aren't supposed to be any monsters here! With her concentration ruined, and the spell trying to release itself only half complete, she aims the energy at the roof of the cavern above her and releases it with a shriek, running and ducking just around the curve of the walls. Maybe that will scare it away! The explosion certainly scares her, but she holds the heat back with her rune, crying out again when dirt and fragments of rock start pelting at her. Rhett halted dead in his tracks when he heard the noise. A huge, monstrous and ferocious fireball came whipping around the corner and smash!! into the cavern ceiling. Rhett immediately started panicking, instead of covereing his head and ducking like a proper duck should do. He started running around in circles and frntically flapping his wings. "AAHH!! RED ALERT!" he screamed over and over. It was then that a flaming piece of rock hit his main tail feather. It immediately burst into flame, which made Rhett panic even mroe and run faster. He maniacally flapped his wings and blew on his tail to help subue the flame. It was then taht he crashed into something...or someone?? Alanis was on her feet in a few moments, as soon as the dust stopped falling, but just as she was rounding the corner again to see if her impromptu tactic had worked, something skinny and white knocked her to the ground again. The impact knocks the air out of her lungs and she coughs, struggling to get up. What /is/...? A duck? She blinks up at him, trying to catch her breath, and blinks down at his burning feathers. Her eyes widen, and since she can't say anything suitable like, 'Oh no! Your tail's on fire!' she tries to scrape up enough concentration to put the fire out with her rune. What she really does is draw the heat out of his tail and channel it into the wall, but it doesn't really matter to anyone but her. At least she knows what she's doing, now. Everythign happened so fast. Rhett was so confused and rushed, it made his ehad spin. All he could gather was that he had just collided with some human from the castle...and she had somehow taken the heat from his feathers. Then, he felt the wall beside him heat up fastly. He stepped away quickly, hopefully to avoid another explosion of some sort, and looked down at his smoking feathers dipleasingly. Ash was SO hard to wash out. But.....what was this girl doing? "Are you... okay?" Still coughing but otherwise none the worse for wear, Alanis stands up and brushes her clothes off, sighing a little at the dust. It leaves soot all over, as scorched things tend to do, and her mother isn't going to be happy about washing that out. So really, what Alanis really needs to start focusing on is how to wash her own clothes, so her parents won't get so irritated with her when she comes home dirty. Elliot and Melville don't really take that kind of thing into consideration when they take her along on adventures, and honestly... neither does she. "Sorry... thought... you were a monster..." Rhett laughed at the girl's comment. "As did I...." he chuckled. "I'm......sorry about this.." he said, squinting his eyes and wiping a sweatdrop from the back of his head with his feathers. "I was waiting for someone, so taht I could do some training....and I decided to cease the oppurtunity......and....and," Rhett tried to explain, waving his feathers this way and that. Alanis's eyes move up to the ceiling, worried, but thankfully there isn't much damage. It's nice, sturdy, /non-flammable/ rock, after all, and the spell wasn't powerful enough to do much at that stage. Hopefully no one upstairs noticed, or it might not be just her parents that get irritated. "Don't worry about it, sir," she assures Rhett with a nod, when she can speak more or less normally again. She should have brought some water. "This place can make people nervous." Never mind that this's the second person she has attacked by accident while down here. Oops. >>> Unfinished <<<