Board Thread:Mount Myōboku Logs (World Map extension)/@comment-30269418-20161107183345/@comment-30269418-20161115142753

She was feeling an immeasurable amount of awe and a bit of fear; perhaps it would have been much, much better to stay locked away in darkness. She knew that darkness hid your greatest fears, so maybe it was better to stay blinded than to see. Would she come to regret asking Satoshi to be a source of light? She stared at the wall intensely, and recognized the markings from one of the academy's teachings. It was morse code; but why? It was all too confusing. Before she could try and decode a little of it, however, they were already at the end of the tunnel they'd entered.

A flash of crimson caused her to wince; her vision faded into red, then white, then settled out at a pink, and finally returned to normal. By the time she'd recovered, they were already in the next room. The roof was a lot higher than blood manipulation could possibly reach; if they could, she would have used blood platform, but she felt like leaving the boat may be a bad idea. It seemed like the red drops, causing the illumination, may be the source of the illusion in the water. Were there fumes? No, if it was some kind of poison it would have been neutralized by now. This had to be genjutsu.

She thought; maybe it was a test of sorts? Maybe the toad with the scythe wasn't dead. Maybe he was. Either way, she wouldn't have hope that this was some test. Either way, she could assume another thing; this was most likely a protective path to the tree of life they had been seeking before. Whatever they were seeing now must be some kind of trial. It was alike to a test, just not held by the toads... although it might be. She couldn't trust any of this.

As she gazed into the water, faces gazed back, twisted into agony and hatred. It was much more fitting for the people she saw; much more natural. Especially the disgust coming from both Ieyasu and Okami. The sound of a whispering wail came from somewhere, but she couldn't discern exactly where. Her mouth was drawn in a tight smile; perhaps now, they were finally going to meet some sort of guardian.

A loud cry of anguish came from above them. Rena's eyes snapped upwards, but her head moved slowly. There was a woman in white with blue hair standing on the water in front of her. Behind her, there was one in black with red hair. Both seemed to be in some sort of pain; one seemed to be fearing and the other mourning.

The boat jerked to a sudden stop and Rena grabbed a kunai, taking a defensive position. The women appeared inside it, one on her side of the boat and the other on Satoshi's side. They spoke, and Rena made one of two guesses.

"Satoshi, it's a riddle. We're not going to be moving anytime soon unless we solve this; I think they're protecting the tree of life, although I can't be sure. I think this is a test of sorts." It was either a riddle or a prophecy. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that something needed to be discerned before they could move anywhere. She was sure in her analysis of the situation, though. They'd been chased here; either by an enemy who couldn't get past the defenses, or an ally who wanted to test them. She glanced at Satoshi and mouthed, {Do you think someone is watching, listening, or following us?} It was either one of the three; her cautious nature had led her to think this way.

She glanced at the black circle, and jerked her head towards the blue cross. She meant for Satoshi to take this as 'examine the blue one.' Her eyes ran over the features of the black circle; was it just a solid black circle? Nothing else, nothing more? There had been morse code in the previous passageway. These both seemed to represent the two figures found in that cave.

In light, they kill darkness. So was darkness negativity? Or just someone who intended harm? And if she let Satoshi's flame go out, what would they do to 'reclaim light'? Or perhaps they meant metaphorically. As in, in darkness, they'll claim some sort of knowledge or enlightenment? She was hesitant to let Satoshi go out. To be caressed by darkness again was one of her worst fears. There were too many 'ifs'. However, she held Satoshi up enough so that he'd be able to examine the marking on the other wall.

If only she was smarter, then she was sure she'd be able to discern what was going on without having to create multiple theories. For all she knew, she could be wrong. She hated the uncertainty of it all. She only knew that this cave was hiding something and the fact they fell into it was no mistake; it was intended, and whether it was by enemy or friend, this 'trial' was meant to keep darkness out. No doubt that it would be useful to use light to combat light, if you could call them the 'light' side. She mouthed something else to Satoshi. {I think we're being used to complete this riddle,} Her eyes snapped around the room, looking for anything discerning other than the markings on the walls.