Hidden Ancient

While perhaps not the most lonely or faraway of mountain ranges (In fact, these mountains were rather close to Station Square) the Vulpes Mountains were quite the tourist destination. Recently, however, they’ve been attracting more adventurous types due to a small earthquake that triggered landslides, opening up several previously unseen cave entrances. Despite warning from officials that the caves were unsafe (and rightly so... several had collapsed as sudden as they had appeared. Nobody was hurt, thankfully), many still went in to explore these caves.

These mountains have quite a few mysteries surrounding them, with disappearing hikers and some reports of odd magic. Of course, these reports were scarce, and weren’t really enough to scare people off. But in truth, these mountains hid something powerful away. Something deep within the mountains began to stir, seeming to call out to someone to break her seal, to free her from her chains... Of course, many didn’t act on the odd feeling to explore deeper in the caves. But someone brave enough might go, right? Perhaps it was time, after eons, for the Black Sun to rise once more...

There was one particular cave entrance (The biggest, coincidentally) that seemed to have an odd pull, with many visiting to take pictures, but none entering any further than the first few feet. There were even what appeared to be extremely ancient engravings a bit further on, but both an odd feeling and the fact that several of these caves had collapsed kept most from following them. It was later in the day now, and not many people were around the entrance. Perhaps someone would be brave enough to enter?

"Winter, Winter, hurry up!!" A femine voice echoed through the mountain range as a scorpion jumped from boulder to boulder, trying to get to all of the cave entrances as quickly as she could. "Come on, slowpoke, we gotta get there early! I heard the view is amazing from the big one!"

Following quite quickly was a rather fluffy feline. She seemed to be struggling to keep up with the scorpion, but once she found her footing again, she sprinted off and quickly overtaking the girl in front of her. "Ha, looks like you are the slow one, Cherry." Aleks chuckled and kept climbing as quickly as she could. There were some ice shards growing on the back the cat's jacket without her even noticing. It must have been the influence of the magical aura in the vicinity. Aleks would be lying to herself if she said she didn't feel the odd pull of the caves, almost as if they were calling to herself and her friend. 

Taking a small second to catch her breath, and to allow Sarah to catch up with her, Aleks stopped on a flat platform in front of one of the collapsed cave entrances. They were nearly there. One of the scorpion's hands slammed down on the floor Aleks was standing on before the rest of her body followed suit. With a tired sigh, Sarah flopped down to the ground and laid down for a while, panting heavily. "You're... too fast.. slow down..."

"I thought you said I was too slow? So I speed up. Now I go too fast? Make up your mind, silly!" Aleks exclaimed in faked surprise and laughed out loud. "You can do this. Get up from your lazy butt. You should gym more." Now it was Sarah's turn to laugh. "I should 'gym' more, yeah? Alright, alright, I get it." 

After they both had caught their breath again, they set off on the last small part of their ascend. It wasn't too far anymore, and they both were silent for the climb, focussing on not losing their footing. Sarah did however start to notice all the ice covering Aleks' body, and started to grow a little concerned. It seemed the closer they got to their destination, the more ice started to grow. "Hmm, strange.."

Finally, the two of them reached the entrance of the tunnels at the top of the mountain. It had taken them quite a while, and the trek hadn't been the easiest, but man was it worth it to see the view from the platform they were currently stood on. "It is.. so beautiful..." Aleks quietly uttered. "Yeah, you can say that again! I wonder if you can get some good echoes here.." Sarah turned back to face the cave and smirked. "ECHO!!" -echo echo echo echo..- "Awesome. I should totally shoot a short film in here." Sarah was the first one of the duo to step into the cave ahead of them, closely inspecting the murals surrounding them. Then, as Aleks followed, something in the back of the cave, all the way in a deep, hidden corner, something almost seemed to wisper to them. "Come seek me out.."

....

"You heard that, right?" 
"Indeed I did. Must have been the wind, I have heard it can be common in these caves."
"Hmm, you're probably right."

The two of them continued into the cave, and Sarah pulled a flashlight out of her small backpack, shining a light on the path ahead of them. The cave wasn't extremely large, but it was big enough to fit the both of them standing up straight without problem. 

When they reached the back of the cave, Aleks finally noticed the ice growing on her body, since it was now starting to cover her arms. "I did not do this? What is going on he-" She abruptly stopped talking, her eyes almost becoming glazed over with a strange fog. 

"Winter, are you okay? Winter?" Sarah started waving her hands in front of the cat's face, but Aleks didn't even flinch. Instead, the woman reached out her hand towards the cave wall in front of her, and when her hand, now covered in ice as well, made contact with the wall, a bright flash filled the cave, and a surge of magic knocked the both of them unconscious as they fell to the floor.

The surge of magic was not harmful, of course. Merely just an overload to the senses. The two were likely going to wake soon, laying amidst the rubble and debris that had come from the reaction of Aleks’ hand against the rather particular spot against the cave wall. It seems that the magic had created a large archway, or perhaps it was always there and just blocked? Whichever was the case, it did not matter now as it was open, the previously sealed chamber beyond revealed. Lit with torches, it was highly decorated, with extremely old and faded purple banners and the like hanging around. In the center of the chamber, however, was the most interesting thing in this chamber. A person.

They were lying on what looked like a cushioned bench (with purple cushions as well), and looked human. Well, mostly. It was obvious that she was a bit different from your typical human, as she had both large fox ears and nine massively fluffy and purple-tipped fox tails. A kitsune. She was unconscious, and seemed to be giving off light wisps of purple smoke, especially from her tails and ears. The magical aura coming from her was strong, no doubt, and could be identified as the magic that had made Aleks open the chamber. The kitsune was breathing shallowly and was motionless. It seemed that doing whatever she had done had taken quite a lot out of her.

It had taken a while for the whipped up dust and small debris to settle again, and when it did, a thin layer had covered the two women currently sprawled out on the  rocky cave floor. Thankfully neither of them had hit their head or hurt themselves on the sharp stones below them, and the worst injuries either of them would sustain would be a slight headache and possible dizziness while trying to get up. 

After a few minutes, Sarah was the first one to stir. "Hnnggh..." she groaned as she scrambled back up to her feet, holding her head with both her hands. "Winter, what did you do.." she quitely uttered before noticing her friend was still on the floor. It seemed as though the magical surge had taken a lot of energy out of her, almost as if the interaction between the two sources had created a short circuit in her body. The scorpion slowly got down to her knees and shook the cat's shoulder. "Winter, wake up. It's not safe in here." 

Not long after that, Aleks did indeed start to wake up. "No, let me go. Do not do this. Помоги мне!!" Suddenly, with a jerking motion, her body shot straight up from the floor, almost as if she had just woken up from a nightmare. Small icicles formed on her face where sweat would normally be, and her breath was freezing cold to the touch. It certainly seemed like what had just happened had brought back some memories, but Aleks would try to hide that as best as she could. 

"Cherry, what happened?" It only took a second for Aleks to notice what Sarah hadn't yet, and that was the new passageway that had opened up right before them. "This does not seem good.." The cat quickly tried to get up to her feet, but stumbled a little before her friend caught her. "Winter, you need to take it easy. Take a drink of water, please." However, from this new angle, Aleks could now also see the figure in the middle of the new chamber ahead of them. 

"I am fine. No worrying about me." She reassured the scorpion girl. "Wait a minute..." Aleks furrowed her brows. "What is this.. Sarah, stay behind me." Armed with a short knife made of ice, Aleks started approaching the figure on the  bench. The person seemed odd, almost as if a mix between Mobian and Human. She'd never witnessed anything like it before. 

Once the woman made it over to the stranger, she gently but firmly placed a hand on their shoulder, giving her a gentle shake. "Winter, this doesn't seem smart-"

Akari was… drained. That was it. She had latched on to the presence that was able to free her and had them be the final push to free her from her cage… but she knew that she wasn’t the same as she once was. In her semi-subconscious state, she could tell that the seals placed on most of her powers were still there. They hadn’t broken… but that was for later. Right now, she had more pressing matters to attend to. Being shaken at the shoulder, the fox woman made a small, unintelligible mumble, seeming pretty out of it.

Soon, however, the shake woke her. Opening her purple eyes and spotting the two, attempting to clear her head by shaking it, she began to sit up before a cushion on the bench slipped, spilling her off the opposite side of the bench to Sarah and Aleks. With a loud ‘EEP!’ As she tumbled to the floor, Akari laid there for a second, mentally cursing the bench for its convenient mess-up. Standing up slowly and shakily, she glared at the bench with her ears pinned back, her cold purple eyes seeming to wish death for the bench and all of its descendants. She slowly brought her head up (although not that much) to meet the eyes of the two Mobians, saying nothing for a moment, her face rather haughty and her tails flicking behind her as though agitated.

Her face soon softened, however, and Akari gave a deep bow to the two Mobians, Aleks in particular. “Thank you… you have done me a great service…” the kitsune said, her voice accented in a way that could indicate some Eastern countries. “…I would reward you, but… I am afraid I am unable to.”