[火]tab Ash tab Sea tab[火] Valley tab of the tab End
______________A r e a tab D e s c r i p t i o n || tabOnce the sight of a great battle that rocked the world of the Shinobi, the Ash Sea is all that remains of Konohagakure's Valley of the End. Where once the statues of the founders of the Shinobi Village stood there is now lake of ash that stretches for miles. Ash that twists and writhes in the wind, and at times when there is no movement, no stirring or wind, it shifts by itself. A sea of ash mixed with the vilest of water, the Ash Sea reflects the ruddy light of the nearby volcano from which its ash is borne. The sky sheds grey snow in a quiet, silent fall, giving the Sea a quiet that is not experienced elsewhere in the world. For those who venture close they will see that things still yet live in the ash, and touching it? Well, that's perhaps best left to those who should try to discover.
______________P o i n t s tab O f tab I n t e r e s t || tab • Heroes Stand → What remains of the statue of an Uchiha warrior, Heroes Stand is an outcropping of blackened stone three hundred meters across besides the half-melted remains of the Hero. Reaching it is difficult, as the cliff face that serves as the blanket for the mighty Hero is nearly shear. Here large pillars of salt stand mightily, clawing at the sky, their figures obscured by the ash that has built upon them and stained their white surface gray. Strange, though, that the figures look so human-like... tab • Hell's Maw → The center of the Ash Sea is difficult to reach without the proper equipment or mount, but to those who brave it? They get to witnesses a strange, otherworldly sight: a rent in the water blacker than any abyss. Twenty meters wide, seeming to almost be a space that decided to annex itself, the Maw absorbs whatever enters it. Fish and other creatures that live in the Sea give it a wide berth, and those that get too close...they are never seen again.
______________N e a r b y tab L o c a t i o n s || tab • Serene Forest → to the Southeast tab • The Battlements → to the East
______________D e f e n s e s // D a n g e r s || tab • It is quite easy to catch something when fishing in the ashen waters, though sometimes it is a question of which creature is catching which. Crocodiles, piranha, and otherworldly creatures frequent the waters. tab • Fog Divers, wind-controlling descendants of ninken, may hunt in the area. tab • Some of the outsiders living in or around the Ash Sea are sentient and cunning, for better or worse. tab •
______________R u l e s || tab • Posting → When entering the area please contact a moderator. tab • Breathing → The ash falling from the air is lethal if inhaled directly. Mouth guards will be needed, or simple coverings, to last for any length of time here. tab • Chakra Usage → The Ash Sea has an abnormally high background concentration of chaotic chakra. Techniques or items utilizing Chakra are reduced in cost by [5], to a minimum of [5]. tab •
______________R e s o u r c e s || tab • Fish (various) [Durability 15] Fishing 2 | Foraging 5 tab • Ashen Crocodile [Durability 20] Foraging 15 | Hunting 6 tab • Ashen Leather tab • Ash [Durability 999] Foraging 1 tab • ???Diving Bell Stone (bottom of the Ash Sea) :: Creates a bubble of purified air around the holder that lasts for 1 hour before requiring a refresh [15 Chakra].
______________C l a i m i n gtabR e q u i r e m e n t s || tab • Secure shelter from the falling ash. tab • Close Hell’s Maw.Doing so removes the Chakra cost reduction effect in the area. tab • Secure the Ash Sea.
”Royal Taorito”
[Editorial Log] [ZephyrsBlade] | [9/1/2018] | → Updated to new format, added additional information to Rules, Resources, Claiming Requirements, Defenses // Dangers.]
Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 6:00 pm
_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
tab Ghosting through the black, iron forest proved difficult even with the path. The heat was oppressive, radiating off of the metal trees not unlike an oven trying to bake a potato. In this case, unfortunately, the potato's names were Miyuki and Xion. Every step seemed a chore, every breath taken drier than the last, until at last there came relief in the shape of the world changing around them, becoming something...else. tab Something strange. tab The two suddenly heard the sound of water, but before the pair Miyuki could see a white and yellow lake that stretched far into the distance, where steam obscured the majority of the other end of the lake. To the sides it looked like the forest was gone, replaced by mountains that turned this place into a deep, sheer valley. While casting her gaze about she would catch sight of the worst this place had to offer: the monstrously large volcano spewing ash into the sky overhead, likely less than a few miles away given how prominently it steals the view from the sky. tab For xion, the sights were clearly enough to take her breath away...or would had the ash already not been trying to do so for it. Each breath brought with it soot, and the smell? Salt, brine, and foul gas lingered here, a stark contrast to the world they had left behind. Here, however strange it may be, the place felt cool, the air something one might find in a wetland and never a volcanic wasteland.
┏ n i n j u t s u|p e r f o r m e r|k i r i g a k u r e| e - r a n k | f e m a l e ┓
『 c h a k r a 』215 // 215 『 s t a m i n a』100 // 100
x" Hanasanai de|Gyutto te wo nigitteite|Anata to futari tsuzuku to itte "
The pair traveled for a long while, Miyuki leading the way and doing her best to make sure Xion didn't trip. The paths between the trees were winding, and the heat only made the journey worse. At some point, the rose-haired girl was certain she was dying, and with it also came the memory that she had the Suiton element. She could produce water via a technique and direct it into a container... right? She couldn't recall ever actually drinking something made from her own chakra.
Or at least those were her thoughts until the lake came into view. Its waters were yellow and white, and certainly didn't look very healthy. She couldn't see the opposite shore through thick mist that likely rolled off the mountains to either side. Or maybe it was the water itself that produced it. The proximity of a fire-spitting volcano decided for her that those waters were anything but safe to drink. Still, the oppressive heat here was a bit more bearable; cool almost, and that in itself was a relief.
It was back to plan A with her idea of using a Suiton technique to fill a waterskin she found in her bag. With a few quick hand seals, several tendrils of water sprouted from her, which she stretched forward into the open waterskin in her hands. Once the container inflated, she cut off the technique and let the remaining water dissipate. She turned first to Xion, convinced she needed it more, and carefully placed it in her hands. "Water," she explained. I figure you could use some." Once she was sure Xion was going to drink, Miyuki took a better look at their surroundings, in search of the cave the masked man had mentioned.
" Tsunaida sono te wa atatakakute|Yasashikatta "
HeadlessKoko
Lanfaer
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:10 pm
Enter from [火] The Battlements || West Gate
Xion hated to agree that she needed the water more than Miyuki but... yes... Xion felt like a puddle. In fact, the moment Miyuki stopped moving, Xion had collapsed to the ground and looked very much like a puddle of blues and whites and silvers. She was face down and was distinctly reminded of the first time she had climbed the stairs of Kumogakure all the way to the Raikage's office. Except, right now felt maybe Z times worse. There was water, though. Water nearby. At least, Xion thought she heard water. At this point, she actually couldn't be sure. She hadn't even been able to properly walk straight for the past few hours. Echolocation didn't help none if Xion was too exhausted to even keep her "eyes" open.
Having established that Xion was a complete and utter weakling, it should be clear why Xion gratefully took the water without a word and began to weakly chug at the liquid. She didn't have to hold back, right? After all, that wavering mirage of water sound remained, so they were certainly near a lake right now. Though, the smell, once Xion had the strength to pay any heed to it, certainly turned her stomach.
She stopped mid-gulp when she realized what the smell could mean, most likely meant. Bringing the water skin down, Xion swallowed her final gulp and took a moment to assess her surroundings. The temperature here was almost pleasantly cool, which explained why she had been able to recover so rapidly.
With a polite, "Thank you," Xion handed the water flask back to Miyuki before suddenly being overtaken by a bout of coughs caused by the influx of ash in the area. Without any further ado, Xion untied the ribbon around her neck and tied it around her face to work as a makeshift mask against the ash.
The place was quiet... too quiet... No, really, with so little sound, Xion could make out nearly nothing beyond her immediate surroundings. Supposedly randomly, she mused, "This place makes me want to scream."
tab The cool air fresh upon your skin, your eyes searching through the ash flurried sky, it takes a few passes before you spot something nearer than you might have expected that grabs you attention: tab Something black, large, and clearly cave shaped. tab Even from this distance it's apparent that the entrance has an overhang and is protecting the inside, mostly due to the fact that it bears an enormous pile of ash above it and not beneath. While the ash falls heavily you can estimate that it will only take five minutes or so to reach that crevice, but it would require covering your airway to avoid any more ash than necessary to get there unharmed.
Solas Crua
_______________The Narrator Whispers...Xion... ||
tab The scent of rotten eggs under lays much, with the blood and bile that once covered and now sticks to Miyuki's flesh obscured almost entirely. With the soot touching your skin it's obvious that in the current situation your senses become your enemy. To detect everything was to detect the waves of sound that bounces off of the soot itself, causing a sort of resonation in the air that feeds back on itself in an ever incessant look that never quite stops. Silence there was, at least until you arrived. Perhaps with practice you can learn to focus these resonations here, and give yourself sight where others would find only gray and dead. tab That would require finding a nice place to breathe first, of course. tab Somewhere ahead there comes a low rumbling that makes the ground quiver at its passing. Geological, or biological, remains for the moment unclear, but either way it comes from ahead, unknowingly from the very cave that Miyuki had just discovered.
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:42 am
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀M i y u k i F u j i m o t o
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┏ n i n j u t s u|p e r f o r m e r|k i r i g a k u r e| e - r a n k | f e m a l e ┓
『 c h a k r a 』215 // 215 『 s t a m i n a』100 // 100
x" Hanasanai de|Gyutto te wo nigitteite|Anata to futari tsuzuku to itte "
The ash that has until then gone mostly unnoticed was really starting to get to Miyuki as she observed her surroundings. Perhaps thanks to having turned into the wind at some point. It was getting into her eyes, and, worse her mouth and nose. She doubted Xion faired much better, especially because the pale-haired girl didn't have any sort of protection against it. As a Jiongu, Miyuki didn't necessarily need to breath for her tendrils to sustain her; as long as she fed them, she would stay alive. Still the will to survive versus her humanity to help made her hesitate. It would be easy to leave someone behind so that she could get to safety quickly. But that also wasn't in her personality. Not this personality anyway.
Finally she decided to do whatever she could to help the blind girl she was leading. Removing her cloak, she hefted it over Xion's head, with a brief, "Here," so that she could pull it up over her face. While Xion got situated, Miyuki glanced around once more, this time in search of any form of danger. There's a cave in that direction," she added, pointing without thinking about it. She scowled slightly when she realized what she was doing, and dropped her hand again. "I think that's the cave the masked man was talking about." Another look at her surroundings. "Or, at least, I don't see any other caves." Making sure Xion was ready to move, Miyuki pulled the collar of her own shirt over the lower half of her face and, taking the girl's hand, started forward once more.
Of course, if she wasn't ready, Miyuki would wait until she was. Regardless, they needed to get to safety quickly.
"Oh?" Xion questioned the sudden cover she found on herself, touching here and there. Where did this soft, plush clothing come from? She could only assume that it was a cape worn by Miyuki. Xion was about to initiate a cape-based iteration of the game tag to whimsically return the protective layer of clothing to its owner when Miyuki started talking business. If it hadn't been for the blasted ash, no business would have stopped Xion's antics, but alas, with the scattering of ashy echoes interfering with her "sight," whether or not she had a cover over her ears mattered little.
Though, it wasn't like Xion had to try to appear silly. An entire lifetime's worth of being eccentric ensured that. She visibly struggled with arranging the cape after having accepted it, her unfamiliarity with clothes that were anything but maid style coming through as... somehow... she had twisted the cape around her neck and head like some sort of very thick and very messy head scarf. This is what she was meant to do with it, right? In order to protect her face?
In this bizarre manner, unless corrected, Xion was led by Miyuki to the source of the very suspicious rumblings. "What a coincidence," Xion commented lightheartedly. "I was just thinking the ground in that direction was feeling hungry~". It wasn't long before she explained herself. "The ground is a-quivering and a-rumbling in that direction for a mysterious reason. Is there a particular weapon you'd like to have?".
tab The travel towards the cave brings you closer and closer to a cooler biome, as odd as that seems to be given its proximity to the volcano. And yet as you approach you gain the intense feeling that something is watching you, though not in an offensive way. Something curious. Strange that it felt you, stranger still that you sense it back. What is "sense"? The feeling is as someone walking by quietly, whispering something to you under their breath in passing that was difficult to make out. The ground trembles a moment later as you near the mouth, and before you the ash finally splits, revealing to your eyes something...unexpected. tab A tower, likely four to five floors tall, with a mansion at its fortress at its feet and, perhaps worse, a field of steaming holes between you and it. Steaming, but not hot, it is clear that something cools this place. Near the walls distant, likely another few minutes walk at least, you see a crystal, intact, attached to the side of the entrance almost as one would if they were a sentry. tab How could you not see it before? It is large, so much so at this range that you need to lean back to take it all in with one glance.
Solas Crua
_______________The Narrator Whispers...Xion... ||
tab Silence, and then...hissing. tab The world before you slowly comes into focus as sound reverberates off of the stone walls around you, painting a picture of a large space, true, but also one with something hidden within. All around you the ground trembles, but quietly, only your vision and sense of hearing allowing you to detect the subtle nature of the earthen melody. Before you is an enormous structure that hums silently with the earth, becoming a stark outline within your gaze. This is what alerts you, too, to the fact that something is inside, for you can see a human-like figure standing atop the main building of the fortress's roof. Whether the figure lives is difficult to tell with it standing still and deciding you didn't really need to know that answer.
┏ n i n j u t s u|p e r f o r m e r|k i r i g a k u r e| e - r a n k | f e m a l e ┓
『 c h a k r a 』215 // 215 『 s t a m i n a』100 // 100
x" Hanasanai de|Gyutto te wo nigitteite|Anata to futari tsuzuku to itte "
Miyuki helped Xion fixed the clothing she had let the blind girl borrow before proceeding anywhere. Managing her was a little harder than the rose-haired girl anticipated but she couldn't exactly blame Xion for being blind. That wasn't her fault, and while her feet liked to carry her places against her will, Miyuki cared enough to have the patience necessary to help.
Once the cloak was corrected, Xion spoke up, mentioning the ground being hungry, and that the ground was rumbling. Without hesitation, she skipped to a different subject, asking Miyuki what sort of weapon she wanted. The same question she had asked 'Cheetos' before they charged headlong into danger. "Um..." Miyuki started forward once more, and patted about her person in search of her fan, which she then recalled leaving at her hip. Good, it was still there. "I... don't use weapons very often. But usually a steel fan if I do. Oh and that rumbling is a volcano. Or I assume that's where it's coming from."
She fell silent once more as the cave rose up before her, and with it the massive fortress came into view. How had she not seen it earlier? Brows furrowing slightly, she searched for the source of the feeling of being watched. But the only thing she could find was a strange crystal attached to the entryway of the hidden castle. Regardless, she was almost certain that was where the sensation came from. However, between them lay a field of steaming holes. Although it was cool here, she wasn't so sure if they were safe to approach, or if she was walking them into danger. While the concept didn't bother her, she didn't want to drag someone else into her recklessness. "There are holes in the ground, so uh... watch your step?" The terrible joke was followed by a nervous laugh before she proceeded forward, albeit carefully.
tab Each step brings with it the strange feeling of bouncing, though only...marginally. Almost as if the ground is pushing against your feet with every step you take. As you walk towards the tower the stench of sulfur reaches you, but only mildly. Even here the air is chill despite the roaring heat above, so cool in fact that steam seems to rise from your body from the residual heat from outside. Impressive, given there really hadn't been any to begin with. Still every step towards the place seems to bring it just a bit colder. tab And then you see something before you, in the air, though only barely catching it. tab Turning you face to view at an angle, out of the corner of your eyes you see what looks like a small line in midair, bisecting space in a jagged tear. It's difficult to see at best, and when looked at directly won't be seen at all. Perhaps it is this that makes the place so cold?
A steel fan? Okay, but it appeared that Miyuki already had one. Was two better than one? Usually, Xion would agree. However, right now, her vision had expanded, catching a humanoid figure way, way, way up above her, standing atop a towering something-or-other that she assumed had been obscured by the plethora of tiny specks of interference that had been in the air up until now.
You see, this humanoid figure warranted something very important from Xion. She smiled up at the statuesque mystery and gave a hearty wave, large only so that it was easier to see from the distance. Normally, she would have gone with a bow, but depth would probably be difficult to perceive by those who had to see with their eyes.
Xion had to take Miyuki's word on the rumbling. Perhaps it was just the ambient movement of whatever was within the gut of the volcano. It certainly was a lot of constant, melodic trembling, though. Granted, it was helping her right now, so was Xion in any position to complain?
Yes. Yes she had reasons to complain. There were holes everywhere, and though she successfully navigated across them thanks to the super-vision of vibrating ground, it was also starting to get colder. Xion fumbled with the cape that Miyuki had just corrected for her, possibly ruining a good portion of the work in her effort to share the cape with Miyuki, too. Poor child must be freezing without her cape considering that she had held up just about as well as the capeless Xion in the sweltering heat before the world's thermostat started to go haywire.
Xion was marginally worried about messing up Miyuki's work. However, being blind, she was not at all worried about obscuring Miyuki's vision. There didn't seem to be anything important around them, after all, except for that figure all the way on the roof. "Come come. It must be cold," was about the only explanation Xion would give to what she was trying to do.
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 7:47 am
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀M i y u k i F u j i m o t o
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┏ n i n j u t s u|p e r f o r m e r|k i r i g a k u r e| e - r a n k | f e m a l e ┓
『 c h a k r a 』215 // 215 『 s t a m i n a』100 // 100
x" Hanasanai de|Gyutto te wo nigitteite|Anata to futari tsuzuku to itte "
From blistering heat to freezing cold. It seemed the pair just couldn't win. At least Xion had her cloak, and Miyuki didn't exactly have blood thank to her tendrils, so body temperature wasn't too much of an issue. Blood vessels constricting was what caused numbness, she vaguely recalled hearing at some point. It didn't mean that she didn't feel cold though. And as she watched her breath billow out in front of her, and steam rise from her body, she was almost tempted to retrieve her cloak back from Xion. But she decided against it in the end in favor of the normal human being with blood in her body that needed the bit of warmth.
Approaching the fortress and the weird crystal that guarded its entrance, not unlike the crystal they emerged from before, something caught Miyuki's attention out of the corner of her eye, causing her to stop abruptly as the white-haired girl behind her offered the warmth of the cloak. Miyuki didn't respond immediately, her gaze on the air beside her. There appeared to be a jagged line just hovering in the air. It didn't look to be attached to anything. Brow furrowing slightly, she tilted her head to the side in curiosity, but facing it, she couldn't see it anymore. But the cold definitely seemed to be originating from there. "I'm fine," she finally answered Xion distractedly. "There's... something here. Hang on." Releasing her grip on Xion's hand, Miyuki stepped cautiously toward the spot she had seen the line, and reached out to grab at it.
tab The tear in the air before you is freezing to the touch, so cold that frost nips at your fingertips in an instant. Yet before you may withdraw your hand the cold latches onto you, and the world around you bleeds away, leaving behind a similar darkness to the world around you, but with a hauntingly blue cast. The air is warm here, though you feel cold within, a stark contrast to the world from which you just came. In the distance you see the same fortress, the same pathways, the same crystals, except here they are terrible, hideous things, for in the place of crystal there stands instead what looks to be a man in robes, twisted, contorted with misery and rage clear on their face even from this distance. Their body is likewise twisted, exposing the architect of this madness to be a cruel mistress indeed, for the body is barely recognizable as human. tab Worse, however, is what lays behind and above it. tab Behind the figure you see a boy with shockingly blue hair bound by silvered chains to the horribly disfigured body sitting upon the ground with knees pulled up to his chest. Ignoring the clothes, which look to be shredded and yet was clearly something you'd never seen before even before that, he looked otherwise healthy, save for the incredibly pale skin. The despondent stare into nothingness might well illicit pain in your heart if you know it well, for loneliness is a bitter, terrible thing. Above them both is something else entirely, something potentially worse to see: a great, titanic being of black armor and thorns, with horns that rose from the brow to circle back and pierce the back of the helmet, extending beyond it from within in the place of eyes. From its back great tendrils of black light flicker like a veil, the tendrils whispering through the air enough to bring you to the fact that this place, despite the warmth and the steam rising from the ground, was almost entirely silent. tab For now.
Solas Crua
_______________The Narrator Whispers...Xion... ||
tab Your vision is as always strange, but even you have to doubt yourself when Miyuki steps forward and simply vanishes from your perceptions. The cold air echoes in an impossible way, almost like a ripple across a pond as something disturbs its center. These ripples of sound are mournful, and carry with it a disquieting tune that would fill your stomach with dread, though whether you truly felt this or recognize it for the illicited response that it was from your brain interacting with the sound remained to be seen. Either way, Miyuki was gone. tab And the ground trembled around you. tab A voice whispers nearby, a light voice that sounds eerily like the wind speaking, but with a metallic hiss. Somewhere in the distance a vibration comes, revealing something of the proportions of a horse, but with a body of distended design that clicks and whirs with each step it takes. From the fortress it comes, where the gates, silently, seem to have opened.
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 3:45 pm
No. Miyuki was not fine, at least Xion wasn't willing to agree to that. However, she did stop trying to force the cloak back on the poor, cold child. Yeesh. Kids these days needed to just let the adults take care of them, but whatever. Xion just pouted off to the side.
Then Miyuki suddenly disappeared. Seriously! Kids these days! Up and coming and going as they pleased! Did they have no respect for their elders? Not even a goodbye! No respect for their surroundings, either. Xion could hear the mournful echoes coming from where Miyuki disappeared.
Xion shivered. The ripples of sound coming from the disturbed center made her uncomfortable on top of giving her a reason to nag Miyuki. Man, Xion missed having someone to nag and worry over. She felt fear and apprehension. Though for what, her mind decided that it was either the concern for Soraru finally showing up finally or it was concern for the more immediate Miyuki.
Well, between the two choices, there was only one she could act on.
That is, if this silly ground would stop rumbling and making Xion feel like it was going to heave just as she tried to take a step. Also, the metallic wind whisper was really not pleasant to hear. Admittedly, better than nails on a chalkboard. Uuuugh. nails on a chalkboard was just terrible, so looking on the bright side, Xion figured she should at least be glad that the large, mechanical snake-horse thing she made out in the distance didn't make nails-on-a-chalkboard sounds.
Xion turns to face the horse-thing. The ripples of dread warned her from approaching where Miyuki had disappeared, and it was yet too soon to charge in after her. As for this horse, it was yet unknown whether it was friend or foe. Also unknown was the pronoun it would prefer to be called by. "Hello," Xion called out, cutting straight to the point, "Are you a boy or a girl or do you prefer another pronoun?". She stood straight, polite, and ready to run for her life at a moment's notice.
┏ n i n j u t s u|p e r f o r m e r|k i r i g a k u r e| e - r a n k | f e m a l e ┓
『 c h a k r a 』215 // 215 『 s t a m i n a』100 // 100
x" Hanasanai de|Gyutto te wo nigitteite|Anata to futari tsuzuku to itte "
"Ah...!" The sound escaped Miyuki as the world around her was engulfed in a blue-tinged darkness. It was warm wherever she was, although she still felt incredibly cold, the hand she had reached out with nearly getting frostbitten just from the touch. Were she entirely human, she would probably be risking hypothermia. She watched her breath puff out before her in a small cloud and then looked around. She was still in the same place...she thought. The layout was the same, but the outpost and even the ground were both terribly distorted and grotesque. Where the crystal sentinel stood was instead what looked to be a man in robes, a terrible anguish upon their face that filled Miyuki with a sense of sadness. She couldn't explain why, though. Regardless, he looked like he had suffered horribly before fate reached him, and what she assumed was the Plague took over. Or that's what she guessed from what little she remembered.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The one thing that wasn't distorted there was a boy, the unusual bright blue hair about on par with strangeness with her own rose-colored hair. He appeared to be chained to the disfigured form in front of him, huddled with his knees pulled to his chest. By 'boy', it was closer to 'young man', as he appeared to be in the latter half of his teens. He was incredibly thin and pale, but seemed otherwise healthy. What was most striking about him, however, were the eyes. Red enough that they nearly glowed with their intensity, they were somehow dull at the same time, as if they were soulless. In their depths was a profound sense of loneliness that made Miyuki's heart hurt. His gaze didn't even shift at her presence. Beyond him, a massive humanoid creature wearing black armor covered in thorns seemed to command this space, and she didn't like it at all.
Miyuki swallowed the negative emotions she felt and called out to the boy. "Hello?" she asked softly, though her voice echoed in the utter silence. At the same time, she finally dropped her hand from where it had hovered in front of her, and the world returned to normal.
Miyuki blinked, disoriented briefly, and then recalled the Xion had been behind her. Turning to make sure the white-haired blind girl was alright, she caught sight of something else moving, and even with her less sensitive ears, she could hear the metallic hiss and whirring parts of the strange mechanical beast before them. It was probably about the size of a horse, with defining cat-like features, maybe like a lion or a tiger. And it looked about as hostile. "Oh..." she said, her eyes widening in surprise, and then she laughed nervously. "Ahaha... Hey, um..." She reached out to take hold of Xion's hand again. Assuming there was no resistance, she backed away cautiously. "We... should go." Without waiting for a response, Miyuki turned and ran for the side of the fortress, hoping maybe there was another way in, or better yet, a sign of the door they were supposed to be looking for.
If it came down to a fight, she would fight, but she didn't feel her body was strong enough at this point to risk her life.
