Lost and Forgotten

Maria slowed her spinning enough to allow Sarah to get her feet on the ground. Maria stumbled a bit from dizziness, but a few twirls in the opposite direction set her right. Her aim would be a bit off as a side effect from the spinning, but she took aim with Awe and emptied the remaining 5 rounds at the leapmafoo to act mostly as a distinction to cover their retreat. "Fine! Can't get any money if we're dead." The pair sprinted along with the rest of the group, Sarah failing to go top speed to avoid outrunning her sister. "Well that's not true! We can still get paid, we just wouldn't be able to spend the money is all!" "You really think we'd still get payed if we die..?" "Well, of course!"

"Retreat! What the hell is this?!" Athenasia pouts and turns to run sheathing Aswrey and running away following the others. She turned back looking at the Goreilla thinking to herself. "I really want to kill it...so tempting."She turns her whole body around readying a full sprint at the Goreilla but changes her mind last minute and continues the retreat with the rest of the group. "Damn this..."

Maria grunted as she was taken by surprise, she screamed a little as she fell, but found herself on solid ground with little more than a sore shoulder and some hurt pride. Meanwhile, the offending leapmafoo found itself with Sarah's hand pinning it to the ground. A moment later, Sarah activated her semblance on the poor monkey, unleashing all manor of terror on its tiny mind. In its eyes, Sarah's face cracked open like a giant mouth, lined with thin, bloody teeth. Its snake-like tongue waved around as it shrieked and gnashed. A moment later, the illusion changed and from Sarah's chest, a set of long spider legs erupted with a spray of blood and guts. Outside, the leapmafoo shrieked and panicked, trying to escape from Sarah's onslaught. When Sarah could no longer keep up the illusions, she pinned the grimm down by the throat with her shin and revved her saw. Meanwhile, Maria ogled at the brick as if it were some kind of precious jewel. Cautiously, she took steps toward it until her face was but an inch away from the brick. "Ooooh... I like this brick..." As if trying to steal the brick for herself, Maria sneakily pulled the brick out of the wall and cradled it like a baby before realizing what she was doing and dropping the brick on the ground. She shook her head and called up to the rest of the group. "Hey guuuuys! I found something! I think you may want to see it!"

Athenasia walked over to where the wall crumbled and looked inside the hallway filled with vegetation. She poked her head inside and looked around staring up at the ceiling where small spaces let in light. She looked down the hallway to see if she could see anything but saw nothing. She left the tunnel to turn around and see where he Goreilla was and if it was catching up at all. She readied a hand on Aswrey ready to strike when necessary.

Rien slid down the ravine and noticed the new entrance.

"Hey, nice job." He said, patting Maria on the back in a friendly way, "Got some strange luck going there, but it works."

Roan couldn’t help but stare in awe at a moment before leaping down the ravine and landing on his feet. He gave a nod to Maria and looked into the hallway. "I don’t assume anyone has a way to light the path?" he asked

Sage was at the rear of the pack and thus the object of interest for the Goreilla. "That thing is still here!" he shouted as he jumped down the ravine, the Goreilla in hot pursuit. "INSIDE NOW!" He ran into the hallway without pause and disappeared into the darkness.

Before the group had a chance to react, the Goreilla was upon them. The beast sent a shockwave at the group knocking them into the mysterious hallway. It followed up with a crushing punch, accidently collapsing the entrance to the hallway, trapping everyone inside and narrowly missing those who stood near. With the entrance blocked, the hallway grew even dimmer.

"Wow! This is fantastic!" Sage's voice echoed in the distance. "Wait until you see this!"

Rien looked to where Sage's voice came from. His blue eyes an uncharacteristic yellow, "What are you...oh."

Athenasia is pushed into the tunnel at the last minute and she sighs once the tunnels collapses."Wait until you see what?" Athenasia asked inquisitively. She walked around in the thin hallway and tried to feel around for something when she felt what felt like a person. "Hello? Who is this?"

Sage clashed the Crucibles' blades together creating sparks and lighting a piece of wood. He lifted his makeshift torch to find that Athenasia had her hands gripping his jacket collar firmly. "Lass, I swear this isn't my fault. Could you please release me? I'm choking," he managed to say with sufficient effort. Once free from her grasp, he turned back around and faced the large door-like structure he had happened upon. It stood all the way up to the ceiling, and many pictures had been carved into it. The drawings depicted a crudely drawn figure lacking a face surrounded by Grimm-like creatures. Beside each creature was a small, harmless animal, each of a different species. At the center of the door was a circular stone that jutted out from the rest, as a button would.

Even while fighting or in a serious moment, Maria always wore a grin or smile, her optimism could light up the most grim situations. Not right now, though. Maria stared at the newly formed wall, sweat forming on her brow as she silently panicked. She was separated from Sarah, something she never did because she was scared for her. Maria placed her hands on the solid pile of stone and flashed back to the last time she was blocked off from her sister. Meanwhile, Sarah was left behind, still atop the ravine. She lit up a new cigarette and sighed, exhaling smoke. "Real nice, assholes. Yeah, just leave me back her. Don't worry, I'll catch up. ****ers." Sarah looked down at the big dumb ape below and shook her head. "Damn it all. can't even enjoy a smoke." Sarah sighed before reluctantly putting out her barely burned cigarette and taking several steps back. She swore under her breath as she did a bit of mental math and sprinted off the side of the ravine, tucking her legs so her whirring shins faced downward at the goreilla's neck.

Roan unlike the others could see perfectly thanks to his faunus blood. He took note that his mouth-masks filter was running low and held his breath before removing the cartridge and sliding in  a new one and tossing the cartridge in the corner  of the darkened room in hopes that nothing decided to make it a meal. He ran his hand along the walls inspecting the drawings on them before spotting the girl who was obviously panicked. He moved behind her and attempted to give her a little hope "From what I have seen of your companion she seems capable enough to catch up so I suggest for her sake that you follow us so that you can see her when we find her once again."

Rien could see just fine as well, though for different reasons from Roan. Taking in the artwork, he let out a low whistle.

"Well, at least whoever made this place knew what they were doing." He commented, running his hand along the wall, "But, odds are, there's probably a few traps around. Like pressure plates, trip wires, falling axes, trap doors....Anything else?" He asked no one in particular.

Athenasia let go of Sage's collar as she apologized and walked around the place she was now in. She looked at what seemed to be some sort of carvings in the ceiling. She looked up marveling at the pictures. She could make out what looked to be a creature and a person lacking a head. "What is this stuff?"

Sarah's calculations were spot on, and she sliced clean through the Goreilla's neck. At the sight of their fallen pack leader, the Leapmafoo fled hurriedly into the trees. With the threat gone, Sarah was now free to roam the area surrounding ancient hallway for a new entrance.

Inside the hallway, Sage stood bewildered by the carvings. "I have no idea. I haven't seen or read about anything like this," he replied to Athenasia in amazement. As his eyes made their way down the door, he spotted the stone that jutted out from the center. "Huh? Looks like there's some kind of button here," he said to no one in particular. "Welp, I don't see any other way out..." he continued as he reached out and pushed the stoned inward.

At first, nothing seemed to happen after the stone had been moved. However, a faint rumbling sound could soon be heard. Before anyone could question its source, the door slowly rose up into the ceiling revealing a room draped in darkness.

Sage entered slowly and lit a nearby lamp triggering a chain reaction that lit up several others revealing the entire room.

In the center of the room, shallow ruts formed a circle before branching off towards two more stone doors on opposite sides of the room. The door on the left was covered by rusted metal bars and bore a drawing of sand dunes while the door on the right bore a drawing of rocks and lacked any covering. Gratings were placed were the ruts met the doors and drains could be spotted in the center circle. Straight across from where the group entered was a staircase leading to two large doors that lacked handles. Etched into the doors were depictions of coins and jewels and carved in the center of them was....the strange, faceless figure from before. A faint hint of sunlight could be seen leaking under small cracks in the doors. In the center of the circle, a poem of sorts was written on the ground:



Underneath the poem, one could faintly see another phrase, though the work on this one was quite shoddy, and it had faded greatly:

Athenasia walked into the dark room after Sage following him as he had the light. After the other lamps were lit she walked around the room inspecting one thing after another. She walked to the center of the room inspecting the drains. She finished inspecting the middle and moved on to the stone doors. She noted the images of coins and different jewels. She read the poem line saying "Turn on the water, to open the wall...That means the drains may be used to drain the water..." Atehanasia attempted to make out the text under the poem. she said, "Hey Sage, I need you to come read this for me!"

"What's that?" Sage asked as he approached Athenasia. He leaned over and strained his eyes in an attempt to read the text. "I can really read that in this lighting," he said as he stood back up. "Must not be too important if it is carved in such a poor manner," he assumed.

Rien looked at Sage like he had grown two heads, "Are you insane? If it was written like that, it meant whoever wrote it didn't have the time, or energy, to write down something fancy like the rest of this place. It's a warning."

For a while, Maria was silent and still, lost in her unpleasant memories. Suddenly, she snapped back into reality, panicking for Sarah's safety from herself. Her breathing grew heavy and she fell to her knees, her hands pressed against the solid stone wall. Tears fell from her eyes and she quietly wept to herself. Meanwhile, Sarah kicked and revved the blood off her legs as she wandered around the ravine. "All right, just disappear on me. **** this job, and **** all of you bastards!" Sarah stuck the crumpled cigarette she had earlier and lit it up again to calm herself down. Looking around, she realized Maria was gone too. That said something different. "Okay. You're not total assholes. MARIA!!" Sarah wasn't all to surprised not to get a response, but that only made the usual pit in her stomach even deeper. She sat unknowingly at the entrance to the cave, smoking and frowning. "She wouldn't abandon me... She wouldn't. She wouldn't."

Roan observed the writing for a moment and attempted to read it. His faunus eyes gave him an advantage in reading it over the others but that didn’t mean it didn’t take him quite a while to completely read it. "You walk on cursed grounds" sarcasm was laced is his voice as he spoke. He had seen his fair share of "haunted" areas in his travels and all had just turned out to be hoax. Of course he noticed the girl still near the rubble and moved to her before placing a hand on her shoulder and trying to help calm her "Im sure Sarah will be fine".

Rien glanced at Maria, and raised a callous eyebrow, "Why are you crying? Your friend is right outside. Hell, I heard her call us assholes from all the way in here. You can probably go speak to her right now if you go back to the entrance."

Sarah flicked away her crumpled cigarette before standing to take a look around. "Alright. If I were a Maria, where would I be...? On my left side probably." Sarah sighed to herself and started walking down the base of the ravine, opposite the side of the goreilla's corpse. She shoved her hands into her pockets and kicked loose rocks as she passed them, whistling a grim tune to herself. Maria usually carried their only scroll, so communication was out of the question, Yelling any more might attract more grimm, and Sarah was only half as good a fighter without her twin. For now, she just kept walking. Inside the cave, Maria straightened herself up wiping her eyes and putting her happy face back on, though it did a poor job of hiding her worry and fear. "You're right. S- she's probably fine. Let's keep adventuring! Without Sarah..."

Rien shook his head, "Well, the sooner we get through this, the better." He said, "But first things first, we need to get through this door. Any ideas?"

Roan inspected the room further until Rien drew his attention to the doors. He thought for a moment "We can always try forcing it open...or there may be a mechanism to open it somewhere around here" he offered his suggestion while he began to search the room the the mechanism that would hopefully open the door.