Myth of Immortality [Open]

Krix looked down to regard Ambr as she greeted him, giving her a nod of agreement to her question as he continued walking. Krix would feel the vibrations, and took careful note to keep them readily present in his mind. He did at one point live underground, and vibrations were something that just about all diamond dogs learned about early on. After experiencing one cave in, Krix wasn't soon to forget it or the warnings leading up to it.

When Ambr looked back to greet Carbon, Krix turned his head back to the path. One of his ears however did swivel back to listen to what the other two might say, especially if any of it was directed at him.

Auftrag stood up, and found that moving wasn't going to annihilate his muscles now. He silently cursed the drawbacks of predicting the future. He realized that he forgot to inform the others about the heavy wind. He sighed and went down the 'Rumble' path. Auftrag put his hood back up, and kept a steady pace as to not strain anything.

Quimia stumbled as she proceeded down the path, the wind strongly buffeting her. She kept her balance, precarious as it was, and moved forward slowly. Auftrag hadn't warned her about the strong wind on this path. She was singularly unprepared for it. Her cloak was whipping in the strong wind, but at least it didn't fly completely off, attached to her as it was. Her progress was slow, but she only fell twice by the time she reached the pillars.

She hesitated here. She wasn't sure if she should try to jump or not, yet. Ordinarily it wouldn't be that hard, but with the wind she was somewhat less certain of her chances. She waited for the others to attempt the jump, or at least see what they would do.

Shatter had stopped when he reached the pillars, his ears pressed against his head to protect them from the wind. He regarded Quima with respect, surprised she hadn't fallen or at least grabbed one of the chains. He shrugged silently and leapt from one pillar to next, silently demonstrating where to land if you didn't want to fall to your death. He smiled as he reached the top, and sat down with a small 'poomf', watching the ponies behind him.

Frost circled around in the sky, looking for anything that might spice his day up. He did not want to spend another day in his boring cave on top of a frozen mountain. He then noticed the group of what seemed like ponies down below, splitting into two groups at the crossroads. He continued watching over the two groups a bit longer before the groups were well apart from each other. He decided to fly down and join one of the groups, that was attempting to cross some pillars.

Frost Scale continued closing in, now spotting the zebra, which was standing out of the group the most. He landed behind the group with a loud stomp, the ground freezing up around his feet. "Well, well, well, what do we have here..." He half-growling and half-playfully asked the group, knowing that he shouldn't be expecting an answer from the busy ponies. If they turned around, they would see a dragon with most of his body made out of what seemed like pure ice.

Carbon sped up his pace, moving up to Ambr.  He returned her smile.  "So, Ambr, right?"  A brief pause, and he seemed to notice that Copy wasn't there to speak.  So he continued,  "I think your introduction got cut off.  Tell me about yourself."

Copy had taken out a set of crystal climbing shoes, enchanted to have a higher grip.  Definitely useful for mountain climbing.  He made his way across the pillars, using the chains when he could.  Although he almost lost his balance a couple times, he didn't slip at all, even with the wind. He turned around to check on Quimia's progress, and his eyes widened at what looked like a dragon made of crystals. "Who are you?"

Going through the path of Rumble; Krix, Ambr, Carbon, and Auftrag.
Going through the path of Breeze; Shatter, Quimia, Copy, and Frost.

Rumble

As it had been shown in Auftrag's prediction, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, well nothing dangerous for them at the moment at least.

Ambr looked at Carbon and she smiled. "Oh lil' ol' me? Well let's see here." she licked her bottom lip and looked up to her right as she thought wondering what exactly should she said. "Well first, off my first name's Ambr. Without the E, ya 'ere." she noted out as she pointed a hoof at Carbon. "But still I prefer if yah called me Ms. Osia. I like the ring of it, call me other wise and I'd have a right mind to sack you faster than an apple can drop from a tree." she chuckled a bit and looked toward's Kriz and continued to talk. Barely even breaking her rhythm. "I'll let yah two fella's in on a lil' secret 'ere." she smirked as she looked towards the ground. "I'm sure, yah startin' to feel it now, the rumble's I mean. Comes in about every few minutes or so, but the reason for that being are the smoke mole's that live underneath this area here. Fairly harmless lil' critters." she giggled. Of course what she just told Krix and Carbon could only be heard by them because they were the only one's standing next to her when she said it.

Auftrag was still a bit behind because he decided to head the rumble path a few minutes after Ambr, Krix and Carbon did.


Breeze

The Breeze path would come in with a strong gust of wind every few minutes or so. Nothing much else can be added as the traveler's there have been joined by a dragon, Frost, on their path.

Quimia stared at the next pillar cautiously. She supposed her ability to make the jump was not in question, especially considering the relatively small distance she would actually have to cross in order to succeed. The wind was quite strong, certainly, but nothing she shouldn't be able to compensate for given the proper angle and strength of the leap. She took a deep breath, a few steps back, and then made the jump.

Midway in the air was when the dragon suddenly appeared behind them with a loud stomp. Quimia was momentarily startled, and then moment of shock was all that was needed for her to lose her focus and goal. At that point she landed awkwardly on the pillar and fell unceremoniously off the side, beginning her descent towards the base of the mountain somewhere far, far below.

Well. This is not good.

Shatter yawned as he caught sight of the dragon flying towards them. Dragons were not an uncommon sight where he lived, amongst other, just as dangerous beasts. When it landed however, his jaw snapped shut. The zebra, Quima, had been mid-jump and was now tumbling down the mountain.

"... I have to save her, don't I?" A claw dug into his back, and he sighed, leaping off the cliff. His hooves struck the side of the cliff and he buckled his knees, his horns glowing and removing his resistance to the wind. He narrowed his eyes, aiming his body for the falling zebra, whilst also trying to find something to stop their descent. "Worst comes to worse... My wool might make the fall survivable."

"Oh by the gods, are you for real.." Frost thought as he watched Quimia fall and starting to slide down the mountain, and Shatter following her in attempts to save her. Worst of all, neither had wings. Frost took up in the air and zoomed past Shatter, then past Quimia before breathing some ice on the mountain below them, using his magic to shape his frost breath into a ramp to slow them down high enough that they would not slide off it. He made sure the ice was smooth enough to not make the slowing down painful, before he landed on the edge of the ramp, awaiting both Quimia and Shatter to reach the ramp and safely slow down and eventually stop on his handiwork.

Quimia landed a little hard on the ramp, but slowly she began to lose her momentum as the ramp evened out, eventually slowing down enough that it didn't seem nearly fast enough to finish her off anymore. Or give her a heart attack, for that matter, but her heart was probably stronger than that. At last she drew to a halt on the part of the ramp just in front of the dragon. She eyed him curiously and stood up, almost slipping and smashing her face on the ice but managing to maintain her balance well enough to give her saviour an appreciative bow.

"Thank you for the rescue." She said. "Thank goodness you happened to be nearby..." She cringed slightly at the thought that he was the one responsible for her falling off anyway. She turned around to see Shatter behind her. "Are you alright?" She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a vial of healing elixir, in case anyone happened to need it.

Shatter landed on the platform lightly, skidding to a halt next to Quima with a laugh. He shook himself, a few small pebbles clattering onto the ice with a 'tinkle' before he turned to look at the cat on his back. "You enjoy that Mittens?" He asked, the cat responding with a hiss. "Was your idea," was all he said before he faced the dragon. "Nice catch buddy, though it kinda was your fault." He tapped the ice and grinned. "A nice build indeed."

He glanced at Quima and blinked. His expression didn't change, but he almost chuckled. "Nah, I'm fine thanks. Are you alright?"

Auftrag decided to pick up the pace and caught up to the group in front of him very quickly. He thought he heard something from the Breeze route, but dismissed it as nothing. As he caught up, he decided to speak. "Hey, I'm kind of concerned about those who took the breeze route... and the split up ahead....." He looked slightly off to the side, embarrassed at showing weakness earlier.

Krix listened to what Ms. Osia had to say, and he nodded in acceptance of that explanation. This however didn't provoke a response from the big dog.

Then Auftrag caught up and while he MIGHT have heard something, Krix did and his swiveling ears reflected this. However he kept quiet from what he heard about the situation already somewhat resolving itself, and possibly with the presence of something new. Then there was the bit of information that Ms. Osia had provided, but again he remained silent instead of offering up the presence of the smoke moles to Auftrag. Krix just continued his quiet march up the rumble path to the regular jingle of his armor and the occasional clink of his shield against it.

Copy let out the breath he had been holding.  They were safe, it seemed. Unfortunately, based on the chill in the air, the dragon had ice instead of ordinary crystal.  A pity.  Copy turned back to the path, made sure his shoes were on tight, and moved on to wait for the others somewhere less dangerous.

Carbon's smile slowly faded, at both the reminders of the unicorn's presence and the split path. Not to mention, the smoke moles seemed... actually, he didn't know quite what to think of the smoke moles. But he stayed quiet, and appeared to be concentrating; it wasn't easy trying to get Copy through the pillars and keep up a steady pace. He idly fiddled with the crystal around his neck.

Going through the path of Rumble; Krix, Ambr, Carbon, and Auftrag.
Going through the path of Breeze; Shatter, Quimia, Copy, and Frost.

Rumble

It's safe to say that nothing exactly exciting occurred at this point in the trip. Ever so rarely do terrible thing's happen at this part of the mountain. The Smoke Mole's lived underneath quite happily, normally undisturbed by anything that happens above.

When Auftrag caught up with the group and stated his worry, Ambr's response was with a laugh. "Oh that's a good one. Look here, silly bean." she cheerfully stated as she looked over to him. "There isn't anything to worry about. Just relax and let's keep moving, we'll meet up with them again real soon." she stated with confidence.

The rumble's definetly did get stronger which meant, if going by what Ambr said, meant that they must be walking over a smoke mole home of some sort. The split was coming up ahead and was well within sight. The sign itself had two arrows, one that pointed further up and another that pointed towards the cave. The one that pointed up said 'Warning; Danger' and the one that pointed toward's the cave said 'Safe Route'.

Breeze

The breeze path only led to one direction, which was into a cave.

Auftrag assumed a bipedal stance and spun Ororboros with one of his forelegs. He came to the realization that he couldn't see out of his left eye. Not that this didn't happen before, but it also meant that he couldn't look into the future for now. Any Nyctores created by Tyrannus had it's breaking points....and he had pushed Predestination to its breaking point. It would reach the end of its cool-down cycle in three more minutes. Auftrag smirked at the sign. "Well, for all I know, it could be a trap. Or either direction could be dangerous. It could be that the 'Safe Route' is an ambush and route labeled with a warning could be the safest route. Either way, I can't predict either outcome right now, and I'm probably not going to."

Auftrag coughed a bit, then made Oroboros disappear. He sat there weighing his options for a second before starting down the Danger route, switching back to his normal stance.

Frost remained still, as if he did not acknowledge the zebra and ram in front of him, talking to him. Instead, he kept looking straight at the hill behind them before digging his claws deep into his own ice ramp. His eyes started slightly glowing as the ramp started slowly moving upwards back to the pillars. Frost also made sure to make fences on the side of the ramp, so the two couldn't fall off it while it's moving. Upon coming back to top, he lazily flew off the platform and over the pillars, the ice from the platform moving to the pillars while pushing the ram and zebra on the mountain, until the platform was completely changed into a path of ice over the pillars. Frost was standing at the entrance to the cave, waiting for the others, without saying anything.

Carbon seemed to have three options. Number one, the safe path. Boring, but safe. Two, the dangerous path. Fun, but there could be a chance he might not make it through. And of course, he could cheat and take both. This seemed like the best course of action. He gestured for the others to go on ahead. "I need to check on some stuff."

Copy just went into the cave.

Quimia dusted herself off as she waited for the dragon's response, but it was evidently not forthcoming. She shrugged, gave Frost another appreciative bow, and then turned around, all but skating across the ice in order to reach the cave. She moved as carefully as she could, and thankfully only faceplanted once by the time she stumbled onto solid ground.

And then the cave loomed before her, almost forebodingly. She waited by the mouth of it for the others to enter before she would do so herself.

Apparently fine with being ignored by both zebra and dragon, Shatter yawned and trotted across the ice bridge, lighting up his horns as he lifted his book out and began to read. The horns glowed brighter as he entered the cave, providing sufficient lighting for him to read in. "Come on then. Best not slow down."

Frost released a slight sigh, the ground around his claws slowly transforming to ice as he looked around at others, and slowly followed them into the dark cave. He was glad that dragons could at least slightly see in the dark, but he still relied on the glowing horns of the ram. He decided to remain silent for now.

Pausing just long enough to give the sign a quick read, Krix turned towards the 'safe' path as designated by the arrow, then looked back to the arrow pointing towards the 'danger' path. While the danger path certainly seemed the more direct route, it was also clearly marked against travelers. A simple saying he'd recalled to mind then, 'those who go looking for trouble often find it' and if all the marks across his shield and armor were a sign at all, Krix had found a good deal of trouble along his travels.

Another thought also entered the dog's mind as he started down the 'safe' path, 'it'll be good to be underground once more.'

Going through the danger path; Auftrag.
Going through the safe path; Krix, Ambr, Shatter, Quimia, Copy, and Frost.
Undecided; Carbon


Ambr upon arriving to the sign, didn't even bother reading it, almost as if she knew where she was going. She followed after Krix into the cave, the one labeled safe. When she passed by Auftrag she would say "Yah think to much, yah know that, right?" she didn't even let him answer as she continued on into the cave.


Danger

So far Auftrag was the only one that had decided on what choice he was going to make at the sign. This path continued upward and was theoretically the most straightforward route to get higher up on the mountain. Though as Auftrag would start to experience the further up he went, the more the ground beneath him trembled, it was more noticeable as one can almost just feel where the vibration's were moving as if something was under the ground moving about.

It could been seen from where he was standing, but there were mound's starting to show up along the route, some of them covered up and a few had openings in them.

Safe

The cave would come together bring the rumble path and the breeze path traveler's together once more. Stalagmites and Stalactites formation's can be easily seen within the cave. Both entrances would lead together, where each sides met a third, and only other path led further into the cave. The lighting within the cave was low, but not all too terrible since there were already torches set inside. It gave enough lighting that one can see where they were walking and the general area around them.

As Krix wandered deeper into the cave, his ears swiveled towards the members who'd split off earlier as they rejoined them. This however still didn't prompt a reply from the rather quiet dog as he continued his heavy steps. Nor did it draw his eye from reminiscent scenery of the cave. It'd been a long time since he'd been underground and it was nice to enjoy the scenery of such sights. Despite his situation, there was still something about the underground that was familiar and relaxing and it showed slightly in his posture and step.