Rain Dance

Voltaire took a few moments to note Trevor's chirping.

That's right, she said Trevor would know where the tournament was, Voltaire remembered. He also remembered she said she would go back at this point, but that obviously wasn't happening now. He carefully picked her up in his arms. Had she been this light before?

"Lead the way, furball. Maybe we can get some treatment for her when we get there."

Trevor nodded and started forward again. He made sure to go slow enough so that they all stayed in the barrier.

Kimi's head rested weakly against Voltaire's chest. It bounced lightly with every step he took but it didn't look like she was going to be waking any time soon.

Voltaire tried not to show what a nervous wreck he was. He was worried both about Kimi's sudden collapse and possible attacks from either humans or demons. Of course he couldn't really attack himself, because that would burn Kimi and he didn't want to hurt her. It would also probably result in Trevor eating him alive.

Ava was on one side, one wing unfurled to cover Voltaire and Kimi in case the barrier fell. Adair was on the other, expression cautious and back straight as he watched for threats.

Trevor led them straight to the caves, a little more than an hour's walk from where they had landed. He sat patiently by the entrance and didn't drop the barrier until all of them were inside.

Kimi groaned and stirred lightly.

"Oh hey, you awake?" Voltaire asked. "Feeling better?"

"You scared us," said Ava, sounding both concerned and annoyed.

"Yeah," Adair agreed. "You just collapsed and then didn't wake up."

"Volty was especially scared," Ava added.

"Was not," Voltaire stubbornly insisted.

Kimi's eyes flickered open and then shut again. "I'm so tired..." She mumbled. "Where am I?"

Trevor chirped at her.

"We're in the cavern system at Noirbrook," explained Voltaire. "You were out for a good hour."

Voltaire looked ahead. He knew it was only a matter of following the cave route until they either found the tournament itself or some of the-

A teenage girl ran over to them, her semi-long brown hair a mess as usual. She wore a cape of silver fur. Her brown eyes lit up at the sight of Adair. Adair looked nervous.

"Yay! Fiery's here!" she cheered, abruptly shifting from human to wolf. She bounded over to Adair, jumped up, and knocked him over.

"...Hi Belle," Adair greeted, trying to keep the now-wold from licking his face off.

Voltaire snickered at the sight. They couldn't be far now.

Kimi weakly tried to sit up in his arms, but couldn't even do that. "I'm sorry you have to carry me." She murmured, her face, blushing green slightly.

Trevor made an abrupt direction change off a side tunnel. The air smelled humid.

"It's fine. We've put you through enough hell for one day," Voltaire answered, turning to follow Trevor.

Adair had finally gotten free of Belle's enthusiastic welcome, and was wiping off the excess slobber of his face. Belle, still in wolf form, was following Trevor and sniffing at him curiously. Ava remained behind all of them, since she took up a lot of the cave space and found it slightly awkward to move.

Voltaire wondered where Caleb, Belle's fellow werewolf changeling, was. He guessed that he was either checking out the tournament area or was exploring another part of the cave. There was no point in asking Belle right now since she couldn't talk in wolf form.

Trevor growled everytime Bella got too close to him. Finally he stopped at a sharp turn in the tunnel, one that Ava would never be able to get through. "WILL YOU GET AWAY!" He yowled, causing everyone a start.

"Trevor... You... Can talk?" Kimi mumbled in shock.

Trevor hunched his shoulders moodily. "Medicinal hot springs" He grumbled, pointing down the bend. After that he fell silent again.

Well, at least that explained why the air smelled so humid.

(ooc: Scrabbits are intelligent. They just choose not to show it and be mindless killers.)

Belle suddenly skittered back, eyes wide. She bumped into Adair, who himself was shocked, and gave him a questioning look. Of course the redhead had no answers or explanations to give.

Voltaire found himself cracking up once he got over his surprise. This reminded him of when he first found out that Raizin-the-guild's-pet-cat was in fact a nekomata, one with advanced vocabulary and theories on life on top of that. He suspected the two-tailed black cat demon was at this tournament as well. He wondered if those two would get along.

"Um...it's too small," Ava chimed in, referring to the tunnel.

"It's alright, just stay here. We won't go too far," answered Voltaire. "This wouldn't be the main way to the tournament anyway. Most of the demons would be able to join otherwise."

Ava seemed unhappy about this idea, but settled down to wait anyway.

Kimi looked up at Voltaire. "I thought you couldn't get wet?" She asked "Why would you keep going to the hotspring?"

Trevor turned and started back down the tunnel, vanishing around the corner.

"I still need to carry you there, don't I?" Voltaire replied. "Besides, we're okay in hot water. Worst part about getting wet is that usually the water's cold. You coming, Adair?"

"Maybe later," Adair answered. "Me and Ava are going to follow Belle to the tournament area and find out where we're supposed to stay. You can use Trevor to find us later if you need to, but it shouldn't be too far.."

"Suit yourself," Voltaire replied, walking on.

Kimi blushed green again. "Oh... Well... I suppose..." She looked away, embarrassed. She was unused to having someone fuss over her like this, even a little. Even her brother would have only carried her to the turn. He would have waited until she could walk on her own.

Trevor had paused for them until he was sure they were still following. He led them a very short way until the tunnel widened out into a large cavern filled with multiple springs, each spouting a good amount of steam from the water. Some were even bubbling.

All the steam in the air made it a little hard to see, but Voltaire didn't mind. He preferred the temperature in this area compared to the rest of the cave. That was the problem with most caves; they were chilly. But this wasn't about him.

He kicked off his boots and checked the nearest pool with his foot. Seeming to be a good temperature and not too deep, he placed Kimi down beside it. Then it occurred to him that she would probably want to undress to enjoy the spring, which meant that he needed to be elsewhere.

"Uh...right," he said with a slight flush, starting to leave. "I'll give you some privacy now."

"Um... Actually, before you go?" Kimi pulled her outer cloak off, revealing bandages wrapped tightly around a tunic. "Could you help?" She mumbled. "They were to help hide my breasts but that didn't work so well, and brother tied them too tight for me to get off." She blushed lightly.

Voltaire did not blush lightly, He blushed deeply.

"Uh...sure, give me a sec," he answered. He brought out a small hunting knife and carefully cut the bandages off. "There. That better?"

"Yes. Thank you Voltaire." Kimi murmured. She emptied her pockets, setting them on top of her cloak.

Trevor grabbed a large purple gem almost as soon as she let go. He nudged Voltaire away and to follow.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. I'm not a pervert," Voltaire replied with annoyance, before remembering that Trevor was actually an intelligent creature. It reassured him overall, since intelligent beings were less likely to kill you for no apparent reason, but that also meant that he could actually understand what he was saying and might get angry at too much belittlement. It was the small ones you couldn't trust.

He wondered about the gem as he followed Trevor. A shiny bauble used for trade, or something with magical properties? He knew demons, including Ava, were attracted to the most random objects, including gems, necklaces, broken pottery pieces and torn teddy bears. He just didn't understand demons sometimes.

Once they were far enough away so that Kimi was just out of sight, Trevor turned and sat on his haunches. He motioned for Voltaire to take the Gem from his mouth.

Kimi finished stripping and slid into the pool. From her stomach down to her shins were thick, overlapping scars. The thicker more violent ones were on her abdomen, hips and thighs. She sighed in pleasure at the nice warm water, It felt like the springs at home...

"For me, huh?" Voltaire asked, carefully taking the gem from Trevor and looking it over. Seemed ordinary enough, but so did many supernatural things at first.

"Just crouch down here and hold it still" Trevor grumbled "It isn't for you, its a magis stone."

"Magi's stone?" Voltaire asked, sitting down and trying not to fidget. If he was hunting something this wasn't a problem, but if someone told him to stay still for a ceremony or formality or whatever he suddenly found it downright impossible.

"Magis stone. Its like a demon's travel pack." Trevor explained, standing on his hind legs and putting both front paws on the stone "It can store almost anything, except food and water." The gem glowed black and Trevor closed his eyes in concentration.

Voltaire watched the stone's odd illumination with curiosity. A travel pack that could store almost anything. He wouldn't mind having one of these himself.