Surprise encounters

Jp with Lorem, Winteroak and Bandorchu

“No breaking line of sight.”

Alexis firmly stated continuing her search.

“I say we give your making way plan a solid try and if it doesn’t work out, we go back up, look for other entrances in the area. Who knows, we might even run into the mystery camper, and if they happen to be a decent person they might know the area better than we do and give us a pointer. Lots of ‘ifs’, but what else is new.”

She would help Gonyaul once she finished looking.

“And if that doesn’t work out we’ll go straight down this hill and join Boyce and Wim on their end. No one knows if that map Boyce drew is in any way accurate.”

Gonyaul grunted in agreement as he was lifting a rather heavy piece out of the way, rolling it down to the side. He nodded and kept working.

As Gonyaul tried to move some of the debris out of the way, Alexis walked around the edge of the cave looking for any other way they could continue forward.
The obstruction although made of rock and earth it became obvious that it was a man made structure.
As Alexis moved away from Gonyaul she heard him gasp in surprise. He had just pulled a stone to reveal a round vertical hole, about 5 feet deep containing a skeleton.

Alexis hurried to her friend’s side, worried.

As she saw what he had happened upon, her expression softened a little.

“Poor soul… Should we get ‘em out?”

Gonyaul took a second to calm his beating heart. That was unexpected. In the dark , and with the help of his overactive imagination, the human skeleton had appeared like animate person until he figured out it was lifeless.

He took a few steps back and rested for a second from digging and lifting. “I no think it wants to be disturbed?Curious how got there.”

“This thing here was a building at some point. They might just have been caught there as it crashed down.”

Alexis pointed out some remnants of what had once been a structure.

“Which means, this is in fact most likely an entrance to Ypogeios. Just our luck it’s blocked up.”

Gonyaul’s gaze followed her point. He had not noticed any of those clues and was impressed by what she showed him.

He brushed off his hands and a glint of optimism sparked when she mentioned they may indeed be in the right place.

“Let hurry and finish looking around. Must be something”.

“Yeah, let’s.”

Alexis smiled slightly at Gonyaul and pushed the rock he moved back over the opening for the time being. Not the most dignified of graves, but better than nothing.

Suddenly they heard footsteps echoing from the far end of the cave. The glow of light seemed to reach out along with the sound from the opposite end where they entered this cave.

Alexis without further ado put herself between Gonyaul and whoever was approaching.

Since they did make no effort to sneak up on them she saw no harm in calling out, albeit she took a slightly defensive stance and remained wary.

“Hello? Who’s there?”