gameofmana | [log] Sword of the Skeleton

Idly, he wonders how much that’s true. What sort of things are the locals around here desensitized to? They hadn’t even batted an eye at a giant pumpkin causing havoc in their backyard. Would a giant dragon really be all that different?

It’s something to figure out another time. For now, he carefully approaches Skyfire and tentatively sets foot on his wing. Tsukishima would never count himself as the heaviest person around, but he’s still a tall teenage boy. “This doesn’t hurt or anything, right?”

While it might be true that the locals here might be desensitized to some of the more unusual things, at the same time, Skyfire wasn't ready to take too big of a risk yet by just walking into town. After all, being used to something wasn't the same as being friendly or welcoming to it.

"Relax, it's fine. As long as you don't start trying to pull out feathers or fur on purpose, it's not even slightly bothersome." Even at his reduced size since arriving here, Skyfire was sure he'd have no issue carrying a human. He was still made of metal and synthetics, no matter how organic he seemed at first, or even second glance.

Skyfire chuckled softly. "Who knows, you might even manage to help me work out the kink in my neck."

For a second, a smirk flickers across his face at the bit of humor. “I’ll let you know if I feel anything,” he responds before pressing on forward. It’s not a smooth journey, as unused as he is to walking on the structure of a wing- hard bumps in some places and softer thinner sections in others- but it’s a lot steadier than he would have first thought. Definitely not like the fragile wing of a bird as he was first imagining. After a point, he settles down onto his knees so that he doesn’t go tumbling off, coming up to Skyfire’s back.

Now…. the question is what way is best to settle himself up here? Kneeling down on Skyfire’s serpentine back, Tsukishima surveys his options. There’s no real way to sit behind the wings, not in any way he would say is advisable, and he could sit further up in front of them… But, as he cranes his neck to look around, it might get in the way of his front legs. Maybe… He adjusts himself right at the wings, stradling what he can of the before carefully lowering himself forward to grip Skyfire’s mane. “Does this feel too uncomfortable?”

Once he's up on Skyfire's back, Skyfire twists his neck around to try and still manage to speak somewhat face to face. "It's fine, but are you comfortable like that?" He paused and started to shift his wings a bit, trying to settle them in a position that could act like 'railings'... Without knocking Tsukishima off of his back or getting feathers in his face.

"We might have to see if we can find some leather or rope to make you some grips to put your feet in..."

“I don’t think there’s any way for this to be immediately comfortable, honestly,” he replies simply, trying not to react too poorly as Skyfire’s wings suddenly move. A pity he’s a regular high school student from 21st century Japan; they don’t exactly teach leatherworking as an elective. Although now that he’s thinking about it…. This would probably cost too much if they tried to figure things out in town, but- “Maybe we could ask one of the others in the tree if they know how to make something to help with this, if you were interested. But for now, I think so long as I grip tightly enough and with the help of your wings, I won’t be in danger of falling off so long as you don’t do anything ridiculous.”

"You might be right about that... This was certainly easier to do on occasion when I was larger..." Skyfire wasn't a stranger to giving a human the odd lift, and he had ideas on how to make things easier... but lack of materials was a problem.

"I wouldn't worry about it much. If we end up doing this on more than this occasion, we'll figure it then." He shifts a bit and starts moving slowly, trying to see how having Tsukishima on his back affects his ability to turn... without accidentally flinging him off.

"You up for a ride around the area to see how well this works?" Because better safe than sorry, right?

Having Skyfire move is definitely an experience. Despite the fact that his school and team have been teased on being “country boys” by Kuroo, he’s never really ridden any animals in his life before. So just this alone- the shift of powerful muscles beneath him, the constant small movements that aren’t anywhere smooth unlike a bike- is fascinating.

The downside is that, with no equipment, it’s all on him to keep his balance, although the position of the wings helps a little bit. “Yeah, I think it’d be for the best before we head out anywhere,” he agrees, still adjusting himself a little bit.

"Tell me if I move too fast, or if I shift in a manner that causes you to loose your grip? This is the first time I've actually done something like this without any kind of rope or harness..."

Skyfire is clearly a bit unsure about this, but he's still willing to give it a try. While he had given the odd human a ride before, it wasn't 'bareback' and when he was much larger. Depending on how observant Tsukishima is, he would eventually realize that Skyfire isn't quite as organic as he seems. His breathing is too regular, and some of the muscle movement may seem 'off' from what one would expect.

When Tsukishima seemed settled, Skyfire would start to walk slowly in the direction of one of the more open fields.

It’s definitely hard to ignore the strange shift of something not organic beneath his body, all the more telltale whenever he has to grab on tighter or straighten his position and there’s something sturdier than bone beneath his fingertips. Less flexible.

It raises up a lot of questions, but Tsukishima tries to keep them to himself for the time being. It’s something to ask later, when there aren’t more important things to focus on. For the rest of the afternoon, he focuses on working with Skyfire to find the exact right seating arrangement for both of them, pointing out if something doesn’t feel right or ways for either of them to improve. Only when the two of them find something that works does he call it quits for the day. So by the time the next day comes, he’s…. Somewhat confident that they’ll be alright.

Still. On the way to the caverns, he insists on walking there. His body will be sore if he stays on Skyfire bareback for too long, he’s pretty sure, so it’s better to stretch his legs out when he can. A good thing that it doesn’t really take that long before the cavern opening is looming before them, and he adjusts his sports bag that he’d brought along. “I’m pretty sure this is the place.”

It's easy for Skyfire to tell that Tsukishima has questions, but he won't pressure him into asking. While he's more than happy to answer nearly any question, he's aware that not everyone is comfortable asking said questions.

After they separated for the night, Skyfire spent some time looking around and scrounging for supplies. Managing to find some old canvas and some rope of questionable strength... but it would do as something to pack anything up they collected to haul back.

Even if he has no issues with Tsukishima walking for as long as he wishes, he does offer to carry his bag... since it weighs nothing to him. When they actually got to the cavern, Skyfire tilted his head and tried to get a sense of just what sort of task that they had in front of them.

"What are we looking for exactly? I don't want to accidentally bypass it or destroy it..."

“Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘the walking dead’?” Tsukishima asks, even as he presses his hand along the stone and peers into the darkness. To his surprise, it’s not that far from what he can see to get into the cavern itself- just a couple of steps downwards before everything opens up into enormous areas composed of plateaus and steps, all made of that same deep green rock. “It’s a walking skeleton, apparently. They wear armor and have swords, and it’s the latter that the person in town was interested in getting. I asked, and apparently they’re no bigger than most normal humans, so…”

Nothing compared to a dragon, is what he’s saying.

Skyfire grimaced at the words 'walking dead' and then sighed as Tsukishima finished the explanation. Really, after the monster pumpkin he shouldn't be surprised but...

"Lovely..." Peering into the cave a bit more, he huffed and drew attention to his back with a ruffling of the feathers on his wings. "Climb on up then. I'd rather not see what will happen if you go in there without any armor... and then we'll see just what's in here."

His claws leave a few deep gouges into the stone as he tries to settle himself, because who knew what else they'd find in there? Skyfire wouldn't say it, but he's actually a bit nervous. If it was just himself going in, he'd be less worried.

Well, this is already the whole point of why they teamed up, so Tsukishima doesn’t complain as he carefully makes his way onto Skyfire’s back once more. Already he can tell that the descents and curves of the cavern isn’t going to make things as easy as simply travelling along on the flat grassy areas of Home, but… Well. They’ll manage.

Although it’s not escaping his notice how unsettled his companion is. Gouges in pure stone are kind of a dead giveaway. So as he shifts into position, he gives an awkward pat to the dragon’s long neck. “We’ll be fine, if some of the things in there are anything like the pumpkins from that one weird event. I have a friend who I know has never used a sword in his life, and he was able to deal with them just fine. If anything bad happens, even if I can’t fight, I’ll be able to get out of here if nothing else.”

That much, after all, he can do. Sure, he’s not a fighter, but he’s an athlete. He has good reflexes, stamina, and knows how to run. That’s all he needs, as far as he’s concerned.

Skyfire settles himself a bit and nods, it's a bit of a mental fight to calm himself, but he manages. The terrain in the cave would make things a bit more difficult, but nothing he didn't think they couldn't manage.

"Alright... but the first chance we get that there's a weapon and armor that you can use, we'll find a way to rig something that you can wear. Even if you can run, I'd feel much better if you had some kind of defense besides hiding under my wings."

Still, once Tsukishima is settled on his back, Skyfire is very cautious as they enter the cave. He pokes his head in and looks around before ever stepping in. He looks for any kind of visible traps and not seeing any asks "So, you ready to get this show on the road?"

No traps are in sight. The further inside they go, even just a few steps, and the massive depths of the cave become more obvious. Certainly large enough in some places for a dragon, although there are just as many routes that only a smaller creature like a human could go through. Tsukishima hopes, as his eyesight adjusts to the gloom of the cave, that it won’t be necessary to do that however.

“Yeah, I’m good to go.”

Huffing a deep 'breath' Skyfire started walking, keeping his pace slow and steady. While he didn't see any traps, he was going to treat exploring the cave as if he'd seen signs of them. Making a mental note of the smaller tunnels, he sniffed at the air and tried to search the area for signs of 'traffic'.

"Did you happen to ask what the sword is made of? I might not be as good at tracking as I could be, but I can still sniff out metal fairly well." He wasn't that great at it, since he couldn't translate the information as well with so many of his systems still down, but it was better than nothing...

Good thing he’s the type to ask follow up questions. Making sure to keep an eye out for anything low hanging, although it doesn’t seem like a problem with how massive the caverns are, he starts to answer.

“I wasn’t expecting to recognize the metal on sight, so I just asked what it looked like. He said that any armor and weapons on them would likely be covered in rust- they’re apparently ancient, and this place can be pretty wet.” The soft dripping in the distance, echoing throughout the caverns, seems to support this fact. Tsukishima has to wonder about it. He hadn’t seen any sort of river above ground, so where was the water coming from? Is there a lake under the earth?

Maybe he shouldn’t think too hard about it all. Just getting to this place at all seems like it’s impossible, so what’s one more impossible thing? Instead, he looks around, raising an eyebrow as he sees the shell of something dull pink peek out from amongst the many rocks: a large crab with a doofy looking face on it, although not large enough to be of any threat to either of them, really. “I guess at least we know creatures live in this place…”

Tsukishima won't really have to worry about anything low hanging taking him by surprise, as Skyfire is mindful not to walk anywhere with anything hanging down at his height. Still, Skyfire is already thinking of planning a return trip to do some investigation into places not safe for humans.

At his comment about rust, Skyfire gets thoughtful and nods. "Rusty weapons? Well that should make them a little easier to track down..." He sniffs the air, then puts his nose near the ground to sniff there as well. "Rust on forged metal does have a fairly distinctive odor..."

Skyfire does stop when he sees that crab creature and looks at it curiously for a moment. He'd never seen anything like it before and he was curious, but then again, they weren't here for him to investigate the wildlife.

"Do you know anything about the creatures here?" The crab didn't seem like it was anything to be concerned about... but sometimes the smallest things could be the most deadly.

“The guy was from out of town,” he explains, watching as the crab creeps back further into the rocks after apparently deciding to not get involved, “so I don’t think he knew as much, but Mark, who sells weapons in town, he mentioned some things. There’s some wild animals that live in caves like these, like something called Bloodsuckers- basically big bats from what I can tell. The most concern he showed was that there might be bigger creatures way down at the deepest parts of the cave… but I don’t think we’ll have to go that far.” At least, he hopes not.

Watching the crab retreat, Skyfire lets it go, not wanting to disturb it further as it clearly wasn't interested in starting a confrontation.

He starts walking again, occasionally stopping and sniffing both the air and ground to try and find the scent of rust. He hoped that the scent of rust would let him track it and would lead to finding their objective sooner.

"Hmmm... well the bats shouldn't be much of an issue at least. Hopefully we won't have to go that deep the."

In the cool wet environment of Mekiv Caverns, it’s easy to pick up scent and, soon enough, Skyfire should be able to find the bitter smell of rust winding faintly into his nose. It’ll take a bit of a journey, but it’s definitely somewhere nearby, and doesn’t seem to go farther down into the cavern. Small blessings.

“We can only hope,” Tsukishima says dryly, keeping an eye out for things possibly flying through the air any way. It’s better not to put all his faith in just one other person, even if that person is a giant dragon. He can watch after himself too. “It’s probably not the best idea to go deep into these kind of places anyway. I’d rather we not get lost just trying to find the exit again.”

The moment he scents the tang of rust, Skyfire's ears perk a bit and he sniffs at the air again to make sure. "I can smell rust, and I believe it's coming from that direction." He turns towards the scent and moves to follow it. Having the ability to track light, almost nonexistent odors came in handy sometimes.

He did pause a moment when Tsukishima mentioned getting lost and looked sheepish a moment. "Ah, as long as we don't go running around blindly we should be fine." Turning a bit so Tsukishima could see behind them, where he could see that Skyfire had been marking their path with small arrows gouged into the stone floor or walls as needed. They weren't large or deep, but he thought they should last long enough to help them find their way out later.

Twisting back to look where they’ve been going, Tsukishima has to admit that the dragon has a point, one that makes him grin dryly. It looks like, through complete coincidence, he managed to get the perfect partner for this little journey.

“I guess I can’t complain about that… They’re a lot more reliable than bread crumbs.” A pause as he considers something. “Although I guess you won’t get that reference..” Shaking his head, he adjusts himself again and watches the gloom up ahead. Now and then, he can hear the click hard crab legs against stone off in the distance, echoing from the cavern walls, and sometimes the flap of wings-

Actually, those are definitely not off in the distance, as something about as big as his torso and a dark purple suddenly flaps down from the large ceilings and starts to shriek at the pair of them, soon followed by a few more. Grimacing as he clasps his hands over his ears, Tsukishima glares up at the creatures.
So. Bats. It looks like that’s unfortunately a thing.

"You're right... I don't get the reference. Why would anyone use breadcrumbs? That seems, a rather odd choice." That was going to be something for him to ponder for a while if it didn't get explained.

The screech of the bats has Skyfire fluffing his wings and moving them to protect Tsukishima if needed. All he'd have to do was flatten himself against Skyfire's back to let them cover him fully.

When it came to the bats, Skyfire started to growl and swat at them with the fluffy end of his tail, trying to drive them off without hurting them. He'd actually attack them if they didn't back off, but he figured that they were just startled... how true that was though was up for debate. Until they did more than screech at them, he'd keep his actions defensive and non lethal.

Curled up against Skyfire’s back, Tsukishima tries to bite back the feeling of annoyance that flickers through him. Not at his companion, or even at the bats, but how much he needs to be protected for even just a journey through a cave. Now, he’s starting to understand why Kuroo was so intent on figuring out how to use a sword. When you can defend yourself, at least it feels like you’re doing something. At least he could see what’s going on.

Meanwhile, the bats flap about ineffectually, shrieking all the harder from being swatted at. One makes a daring dart to to try and bite the mechanical dragon, only to meet hard metal. Bewildered, each Bloodsucker starts to slowly retreat, although not without loud protest.

It’s when the screeches start to quiet, seeming suitably more echo than anything else, does Tsukishima slowly start to raise his head. “It sounds like they didn’t know how to deal with someone so big.”

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Do we want to do a bit of a time skip to get them to the adventuring part of things?

sounds good to me

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