Pitch Black [Private with Ducita]

He hated adventures. And caves. And exploring. And going out with strangers. And strangers with risky blood colors. And a bad attitude. And pretty much everything that he was about to do. Why was he here again? Oh, right, visions of the imminent death of his friends lured him into finding a way to save them. Jesus, none of this would've happened if he had just stayed at home and turned away from strangers instead of openly, cheerfully, stupidly, greeting them with a smile, and apologies, and food. See, this is why being social will get you nowhere. Nowhere but straight into problems, at least, and in his very own personal (but genuine) opinion.

But he was here now: he had borrowed bombkind from a neighbor and had spent most of yesterday's night practicing in the nearby forest how to properly use explosives. Silently. Or mostly, because really, these were bombs, Ducita would have to deal with them making noise.

He slipped his feet again and rolled down the exact same way he had done when Aarush had found him, and he growled. Small rocks were stuck on his hair and his body, making some of the red grime that flew on his veins come out. Out in the open. Where there may or may not he highbloods lurking. Shit.

He stood up in one jump and, as fast as he could, climbed all the way up to the cave. Once inside, he panted, and placed his backpack on the floor, inspecting the small cuts. They weren't bad, nor mortal, really, it was like being scratched by paper, but they showed his blood color when he was wearing a black shirt. Well, now he was confirmed for the clumsiest adventurer ever. Good thing at least he had bombkind.

He sat at the entrance, waiting for her to appear. He didn't get the brown shirt, in the end, his fudge neighbor was culled just briefly after asking him for bombkind apparently. So he got her a black one that belonged to him. If she got pissed, then that was her problem, see if he cared if she got called out on her blood color, little Miss "I Hide My Blood Color By Hemo Typing And Confesing It Up When Asked".

The trek up this mountain seemed to get easier and easier every time you ventured up it's side. Your bag wasn't even causing you anymore problems as it had previously. Oh, the perks of having a moirail that lived in that lived in the mountainside! That was about one of the few things good about this job, because this Rubedo character was not making it easy. Besides being a generally useless prick, he was also poorly financed. His cooking better be up to par or you will leave him here!

Last morning you made sure you had enough supplies for the two of you, curse your polite consideration. The weight still did not bother you anymore with the extra stuff for Rubedo. As you told him you were already prepared for such explorations, but you can't have your customer dying on you.

You stopped by Aarush's hive to have a familiar location to map from before heading to the cave that you needed to go to. It was a fair distance away, so Rubedo would have to wait. You found it soon enough and marked to location with an A as Rubedo had asked you to do. You see a troll sitting inside the cave and move close enough to be with in earshot.

“Are y0u Rubed0?” You ask confidently

"Are you Rubedo?" asked a voice, making you lift up your face, interrupting you from glaring at one of the several small cuts on your arm like it had done you a very personal offense. Well, aside from putting you in such a compromising situation.

So this is Ducita. You nod, slowly, and raise your hand to greet her, standing up and shaking the peebles and dust away from your clothes. But you really are just watching her, and that's because she is a limeblood. Your lusus told you when you were a wiggler that they all were extinguished because they were all too powerful, and represented a menace to the highbloods. Something that even the highbloods feared, and it was right here, in front of your eyes, when she shouldn't even be there at all. Like watching a ghost, but much more... real. You better be cautious.

So you smile at her. You don't particularly like her, granted, but you really didn't need trouble. "Yes, I am. And I brought you a black shirt, because my fudge neighbor got culled. And besides you told me you didn't really want to wear brown." You tell her.

She brought a lot of stuff, and a little, tiny, minuscle pang of guilt pinches your stomach, because chances are she wouldn't be carrying that much stuff if it wasn't for your clumsy ass. On the other side, though, she's probably used to it already.

"Nice to meet you face to face, Ducita."

So this was Rubedo. The strange troll that contacted you out of the blue. You went over to the cave trusting that he actually was who he said he was.  You looked him up and down judging his appearance. Yeah, he was a low blood definitely you just hoped he didn't run his mouth about your blood. He had some small cuts on him, they looked very fresh as well.

“Y0u mana9ed t0 9et cuts bef0re we even started.”

It was a statement you made to yourself. He was obviously very clumsy, hopefully his luck didn't rub off onto you. His story about the shirt didn't convince you otherwise.

Thank y0u. The shirt is 0nly a precauti0n in case there are any accidents.”

You weren't wearing anything to show your blood color, but if this Rubedo character does indeed give you his bad luck you will need it.

“Nice t0 meet y0u t00. Shall we 9et started?”

You glance around and look for any important landmarks to make it easier for your customer. Seeing none you decide to calculate the location from Aarush's hive. You start scribbling on some parchment as a reminder to do so.

He felt a little pang of annoyance reaching his eyebrow, making it tick, when he heard Ducita's critic. Yes, he got injured, so what? This wasn't his field of action. He bothered enough to get a book on the matter, at least, but it was still not something he enjoyed nor something he'd ever enjoy. Jegus, he wanted to take a break from her already.

"Yes, a precaution." He said biting his tongue so nothing rudder would come out, but he gave her the shirt either way. He was half expecting her not to take her and hopefully he'd get to see her struggling to get into it if they encountered a highblood middle way, all hurriedly and shooting glares like daggers at him.

Rubedo, focus.

Right. This was not the time nor the place to feel. At all, good or bad.

"Sure. Let's get inside and check." He took the chance while Ducita was distracted writing something down on her map to step inside the cave and take a look at the inside. He had been here before, and so had she, so this shouldn't be that hard... or it wouldn't, if he wasn't really, really sure that the cave hid more inside it than they were aware of. Somewhere, deep inside here, was a code for a game powerful and dangerous enough to make Ducita dump his stupid ass right there and leave him alone. Of course he wasn't going to tell her that.

He stepped inside and checked for the walls, placing the first bomb in a weak enough site. This should suffice to make an explosion happen if they went out in a hurry, all he had to do was to press the button. "I'm leaving the first one here, in case we need to escape by running. So don't step onto it, it might explode in your face."

You finish writing and fold up the note and put it in your pocket. You see that Rubedo is holding out the shirt for you. You quickly grin at him and take the shirt.

“Thank y0u.”

You trade out the other paper for the main parchment you are using to chart out the cave. You sketch darker lines of latitude and longitude now that you are actually present at the cave. Perhaps it'll help Rubedo out somehow...whatever, you just need to make sure it looks like a quality map. It isn't hard for you.

You enter the cave slightly after Rubedo and mark the place on your map where he is setting up a bomb. You roll your eyes at his statement to remind you to be careful.

“0f c0urse.”

You knew how dangerous bombs were. It didn't take much to know that going near one would most likely activate it. Let alone make it "explode in your face.”

As soon as Ducita took the cloth from his hands, the rustblood scooted away, contemplating the various forms that formed the cave. He would be lying if he didn't admit that he was at least slightly nervous: it was like going on an adventure with some sort of very precious relic. A relic with bad attitude, too: limeblood was rare, and she was the moirail of a highblood. He didn't want to think of all the things that could go incredibly wrong if he as much misplaced his strategical bombs.

And if she got riled up quick, then there was high chance she wouldn't stop to contemplate every little bomb on her way.

Why was he doing this, again?

He made sure everything was fine. Backpack and everything. Well, there he goes. Adventure awaits! Yay... except no. And if they didn't find anything and she only got more pissy? Eugh. He wanted out. Now. "I'm ready, Ducita. Can you lead the way?". He asked (a really roundabout way of buying time for himself) as he silently and mentally prayed for an early cave-in.

But no one up there granted his wish.

You nod and moved ahead of Rubedo. Against your better judgment though. It was dumb of you to allow him to get behind you on a request. You gritted your teeth from the anxiety of suspicion and willed yourself to stay in front of him. Your suspicion got the best of you when you turned your head to glance back at him, just to be sure he wasn't planning to attack you. You are pretty sure a glare was on your face.

Inf0rm me when y0u are placin9 an0ther b0mb s0 I can mark it 0n the map.

You turn away from him sharply and continue moving forward. Something about him nags at you. You don't feel like addressing what. The last time you decided to address the emotions that were plaguing you concerning a troll you literally blurted out a request to be moirails. It worked out, but you did not want to be this guys moirail. No way, no how would you allow that to happen.



To distract yourself you grudgingly decide to spark up a conversation. You are so smart.

What are y0u l00kin9 f0r exactly? It is n0t 0ften I'm 9iven an assin9ment ar0und here f0r searchin9.

You casually equip your new and improved collapsible staff to prod at the ground in front of you with. Your brand new metal staff was denser and stronger than your old wooden one. It was currently extended to half it's height which was perfect for you to make sure there weren't any pockets in the ground. It was also a comfort to have a weapon ready when another troll was with you. You wouldn't let Rubedo know.

She glared at him as soon as Rubedo did as much as step a foot inside the cave. And he noticed, of course, that look of hers had been strong enough to penetrate through his soul and make his heart beat faster and furiously. What was her problem?! Rubedo merely smiled back at her, even after her poor piss excuse for looking back, and glared at her nape as soon as she turned around again.

Now, this was nothing personal... there was no reason for it, he had been looked down countless times before and was actually pretty used to it by now. But there was something about Ducita, about the way she talked with words cut like piercing diamonds, or maybe about the way she so ruthlessly acted, that forced him to pay attention to her instead of brushing her off like he would with any other annoying trolls.

Ugh, why. (At this point, this was going to become his new catchphrase).

Oh, a distraction. Great, you were just DYING to hear her voice asking precisely about what you were looking for. Hopefully, she would only pay half attention to your vague explanation now that she was distracted with her stick or whatever that was.

"Worry not, I will tell you in advance. And I'm looking for a hidden passage. There is more to this cave than what it lets see". You half hope she doesn't think you are teasing her. Because really, you have no idea about geology, but you don't want to tell her "I saw it in a dream" either, what kind of idiot would pay attention to that.

Except it was a prophetic daymare, not just your average dream, so that made it a lot more different.

That smile gave you more suspicion than comfort. You were sure that he was glaring right back at you when you turned, but he needn't have hidden it. You don't need trolls who hide their true emotions behind smiles behind you. He was putting on an act. That is what is bothering you! He's faking and you have now made it your duty to get him to stop. You were probably going to need to keep up this repelling demeanor, not that it was hard. Everything about him already irritated you.

Rubedo is proving to be just as useless as you expected him to be. There are bound to be several hidden passages in here! Where did they lead? Hopefully not too far north or you both would be screwed over. And of course their is more to the cave! There is more to every cave! Jeez, his inexperience is all too apparent.

"Yes, but is this passa9e marked s0meh0w? D0es it have a peculiar f0rmati0n? D0es it 0pen fr0m the ceilin9, the walls, 0r the fl00rs?" You get more animated with each question evident by your increasing hand movements. However you irritation is showing in your voice.

'There is more this cave'. Hah! You were fully aware. Not because you frequented this cave, but no caves simply presented their secrets without some time invested from the explorer. Rubedo has a habit of insulting your intelligence and experiences. It's a bad one and it makes you want to knock some sense into him. First with the blood danger, now with the caves. You cease prodding the ground and hold you staff by you side. Your grip tightened the more frustrated you get.

"Caves are usually like that. What d0 y0u kn0w 0f this 0ne?" You half expect him to be as helpful as he was last time.

The more questions Ducita threw at him, the more uncomfortable the rustblood grew, and it wasn't because he didn't know the answer or something: He actually knew where they had to go, but... he HATED hunches. He couldn't just answer "trust me on this one, I know where we are going, I have a hunch and I saw it in a dream"... even if that was exactly what he was doing now, Ducita would kill him and he'd give her all of the reason in the world, because that was exactly what he would do if he was in her situation. One didn't just GO on caves expecting for the best because of a daymare, but he had to, and to make it worse, he had to hire someone to go in there with him because he had no idea of what he was doing.

Pro helper-barkbeast right there. He'd suck as a lusus. Why did he even think this was a good idea, ugh, he was letting a bunch of negativity and ugly feelings against himself project, he barely even noticed Ducita anymore.

Ugh, why. Whatever, just roll with it. He took the map and practically dragged himself over to Ducita, already pretty embarrassed before he even had the chance to speak.

"Ok. Here you marked a camera inside this cave, full of holes and pretty deep and dark. We actually... have to go our way down there..." (and he pointed to a place on the camera) "...on a very narrow, uhm, looks like an irregular tunnel made from rock formation... looks like a closed sledge, I don't know the term for it in geology." But he could tell that a sledge made of sharp rock, a narrow one, was going to hurt him. A lot. Because he was no explorer and he was really going to bruise and cut a lot, good thing he brought a personal first-aid kit, lousy burgundy blood that bled out faster than anything else in the spectrum. "And there... at the end, there is going to be a little entrance."

A little entrance carved with a frog that is very probably going to be sealed, he forgot to mention. "Forgot". But it was too soon to allow Ducita to slap him, and he didn't want to give her the pleasure just yet. Good thing they brought explosives... and good thing Ducita knew enough as to not provoke a cave-in!

You didn't enjoy him being this close to you, but it was better than him being behind you. Well, it wasn't his fault...this time...you just didn't want to be close to strangers. If there was one lesson that were engrained into your brain it was the 'stranger danger' one.

It must be a miracle! He can actually answer questions! So you just need to bombard him with questions THEN he'll answer at least some You don't know how many more times you will be assured that Rubedo is in fact stupid, but you'll add him not answering all your questions to the list of assurances.

You didn't mind him not knowing geology terms. As long as he described the formation it was fine with you. Its not like you knew the terms.

"D0n't w0rry ab0ut the terms. I am starting t0 questi0n y0ur intelli9ence...Y0u did n0t answer my first questi0n. S0 I can 0nly c0me up with the c0nclusi0n that y0u are stupid."

You stop and lean nonchalantly against your staff. You watched him with an annoyed expression. Now was the time where you observed how long it would take you to anger and to see what he did. If he was going to make things hard for you, you would do the same to him...and you would enjoy yourself.