Carvings

JP with Omni and Winteroak

Bidden to leave their weapons behind, Voah hesitantly left her blade in its place on the sand. Squeezing the wrap around her left forearm, she could still feel the pain of the unhealed coyote bite and sighed.

Maybe she shouldn’t throw herself into another subterranean structure so soon and so willingly, but there was an overwhelming compulsion to follow, to know more. Her inquisitive nature would not relent and as she pulled Gonyaul along with her she couldn’t help but think back on Tarmen and how they helped carry each other through the despairing darkness with faux hope and courage.

As you take the stone carved steps down the air immediately turns cooler. There is a freshness to it that you did not expect.

The corridors are lined with small torches every ten steps, flickering and casting wavering shadows against the walls.

The man leads you down for several minutes and when the steps terminate you find yourself in a wide cave. Every wall is carved and embossed with figures and scenes.

The nervous tension rose from her stomach to her throat against her will. Although the tunnel was decently lit and had opened into a wider cave, Voah couldn't help but feel stifled and she had to stop for a moment to breathe and steady herself, one hand on Gonyaul's shoulder and another against the carved stone wall. She looked at him, remembering that happy day he and Alexis had found them in the depths, how wonderful it felt to know they weren't abandoned. She should have seen it then that he would be there for her through anything. His reassuring looks and gentle touch helped to calm her.

When she was ready she began taking in the sculpted works that ran along the walls.

The cave walls depicted several scenes. The first ones to their left, showed scenes of the raging sea, men and women in canoes, holding harpoons and spears. Fishing in some, in battle amongst themselves and others fighting against strange creatures that rose from the sea. The man appeared to want to show them these scenes for some reason. Before they could look at them in more detail or look at other carvings he pointed up to the ceiling.

They gazed up and slowly recognized it to be a large map of Arcadia carve out of the bedrock.

Voah's roving eyes moved from one scene to the next but the sea battle had her momentarily transfixed. She had no way of telling just how long these carvings had been here but intuition told her that there must have been a great sea here once. Or else these priests had somehow pulled the hulking bones into the desert. No... even with magik that wouldn't make much sense. That got her wondering why the land was now so barren. Had it been ravaged by years of drought or perhaps forsaken and cursed by the Pillars? Or their twin gods? Thinking of the skeleton had her remembering the baleia that she had seen during her trip to Sentinel Island. Could it have been the same type of creature?

It was easy to feel dwarfed by such enormity and intricate detail of the carvings and as her eyes drifted up to the ceiling overhead, she found herself recognizing the eastern coast of Arcadia as she had seen it in the Duke's office, and here was the rest of the map laid out before her. She was floored to see just how large the continent was.