What Sleeps In Caves? (Group 2)

Underground series of tunnels. Check. Strange disappearances. Check. Monster underneath the city. Check.

Great. The perfect setup for any generic horror story. But the one thing that wasn’t going to be generic was the characters, strictly speaking yours truly. Alaren arrived with a flourish, following along in his internal narrative. For some reason, though, the half-elf had been thrown into a lot of dark, underground-y business lately, but he didn’t mind that much. The person who did mind was-

‘I do not like this,’ Fenliel muttered from on top of his head. The wyrm’s tail flicked the side of Alan’s face. ‘Dude, you don’t like anything. Just shush and the whole thing’ll be done in no time. Then you can go back to basking or whatever it is that you do,’

He strolled to the place that they (a couple other people were gonna join in, too) were supposed to meet up and started as he saw a familiar figure. Well now, wasn’t this a surprising turn of events. He’d lately been running into her a whole lot as well, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing (…or a good thing).

‘Hey, Koine!’ Alaren called out to his ‘friend’ (alright, find, take out the apostrophes). ‘Fancy seein’ you round these parts, eh? Wait, don’t tell me,’ He came up to her and struck a faux-scandalized pose, wide eyes and hand-at-mouth and everything (you could practically fee Fen rolling his eyes). ‘You’re a part o’this quest thing, too? I am shocked!’

‘Anyways,’ Settling down beside her, Alaren nudged Fen off of his head and idly petted the wyrm. ‘Who’s left? Or is this it? Stars forbid I have to work with you. Alone.’ He snickered, and made a face, assuring her that he was of course, joking.

Ah, so here was the last of their little brigade. A teacher, well, that was pretty expected. Couldn’t have two kiddies gallivanting around all by themselves now could we? Alaren regarded the redhead adult with the narrowed eyes of cool curiosity and vague mistrust. Fenliel nudged his hand warningly, and the half-elf brushed him off. After Koine had so scathingly flung back the teacher’s biting comment with such a witty one of her own, Alaren found that he should probably intervene.

‘Mae govannen, teacher,’ He gracefully leapt to his feet, flicking bits of gravel off the seat of his pants. Sketching out a half-bow and simultaneously raising his eyebrows (he couldn’t help it, don’t blame him), he added politely, ‘Alaren Wreath,’ With another bit of consideration he indicated the girl beside him. ‘And Koine Savaski,’

It was funny. Usually he thought adults in authority were supposed to be straight sticks in the mud, not sarcastic arses. Or maybe it was just this guy. Either way, the half-elf didn’t really mind, since he’s had his fair share of not-so kind remarks in his life. But he’d need to keep an eye on Koine, as it looked like she would snap back at absolutely anything. Not that he thought that it was disrespectful, no. It was that her comebacks were in terribly bad taste.

‘Fairly ironic, wouldn’t you say? A cheeky voice spoke up from inside of his head, the owner of said voice flying up to settle around Alan’s shoulders again. ‘For once, you are the one keeping someone else’s attitude in check, and not the other way around,’

Ignoring the wyrm, the half-elf smiled at the party. ‘Well, now that all the formalities are out of the way, maybe we could get a move on?’ He thought to lead the way, but then paused to let the older man do it. Let them think that they got a hold on the situation; otherwise adults were wont to throw a grumpy fit. Although it looked like this guy didn’t need any help in that department.

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Mae govannen - Well met