Studying the tunnels

[Jyo]

The tunnels in Pin Forest. Jyo had heard of them and the odd markings within. He decided that during a lull in work, that he would go ahead and explore them a little bit. Who knew, he might actually be able to find something interesting.

Wearing his normal clothing and a backpack filled with different tools and so forth, Jyo descended into the tunnels. He had a light with him so he could see and every so often he consulted from a book he had picked up. Studying the markings, Jyo was highly intrigued. He didn't have an education in these matters, but he enjoyed this all the same.

He had come down here to copy some of the markings and then start inquiring about them in his travels. His idea was that there was a good chance that he would run into someone who could tell him about these marks if he was able to bring them out to show others that didn't travel this way. People moved around a lot, perhaps he would run across someone descended from the people who made these marks. Jyo wasn't in it for anything outside of curiosity. No glory of discovery or competition with anything. He wanted to simply find out about them.

As he was copying some of the marks into a book of blank paper, he thought he heard the sounds of someone approaching. Putting the book and pencil away, he let his left arm tense up so it could get to his weapon quickly. He didn't want to seem threatening, it could simply be a small creature or even just a person doing the same thing he was. Jyo was still not naive and wouldn't let his guard down until he knew who or what he was going to run into.

[Evey]

A small beam of light shone on the wall from a small headlamp illuminating the strange markings inscribed on the walls. A hand brushed carefully across the engravings slowly as dark green eyes scanned over the ancients long lost stores. It was Audra Negron.

She had herd rummors about the tunnels and their mysterious markings and her curiosity had finaly overwhelmed her. She had snuck into Navalen a few nights ago and camped out in the pine forest as she searched for the entrance into the tunnels. "Where do they go . . . " She asked herself as she glanced down the dark corridors. "And why did they build it here?" These were questions that Audra intended to find out.

[Jyo]

Seeing a light in the distance Jyo started making his way to it's source. As Jyo neared the person came into focus. She was a young woman, not far from his own age by her appearance.

Stopping withing easy speaking distance, Jyo figured this would be the best time to say hello, hopefully she had noticed his approach by this point. He didn't want to startle her after all.
"Hello there. My name is Jyo, I must admit that I didn't expect to find anyone else down here." He said. Jyo made sure to flash a smile and be friendly. After all, it wouldn't do for him to be rude now would it.

[Evey]

Audra jumped a little when she herd the mans voice, being to entranced in the markings on the wall to notice the footsteps."Oh, hello." She said looking over at the man her hand frozen still on the hieroglyphs she was tracing. She had a look of curiosity and disbelief on her face.Is this man a artifact hunter too. . . She asked just noticing that the light from her headlamp was shining into the mans eyes.
"Oh, sorry 'bout that!" She said reaching the hand that wasn't on the wall to the light and dimming it down closing her eyes a bit so that she could adjust to the new lighting.

"Well my names Audra. Didn't expect to really see you down 'ear either." She said with a small smile on her face.

[Jyo]

Jyo gave a smile as the young lady apologized and moved the light out of his eyes. It was a nice gesture, but Jyo didn't have the problem many people did with light in his eyes. Another advantage to what he was.

"Well I guess we both get a pleasant surprise don't we?" he asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
"I'm just seeing if I can figure anything out on my own down here, doubtful, I'm a mercenary not a treasure hunter, but it's still an interesting place all the same." He said as he let his hand touch the markings on the wall.
"Incredible isn't it Audra?' He said softly.

[Evey]

Audra smiled seeing the man seemed to share the same curiosity about this place as she did. "Ya . . . this place if full of secrets." She said sticking her hand into a pocket in her cloak looking for a small brush. I'm gonna find out these secrets. She thought as she found the brush and pulled it out of her cloak pocket twiddling it in her hand.

"I'm an artifact hunter." Audra said as she looked back over to the hieroglyphs that were carved in the wall, freeing some of the debris away with the small brush she fished out of her pocket. "This place is very incredible Jyo, these are glyphs are different." She said her voice fading as she got deeper into thought.

[Jyo]

Jyo smiled eagerly.
Someone who's trade is dealing with these sort of things, what luck. I guess school is in session. Jyo thought as he walked over to get a better look at the glyphs that Audra was examining.

"Yeah, highly incredible. That's why I'm down here. So do you know anything about these tunnels. Aside from the common knowledge that is passed around?" He asked. Jyo was very happy to have run into a person who would be able to figure this out.

Even if for some reason, Jyo became little more than an observer, he now had a chance to see what was behind all this. It was no guarantee, but it was better than working on his own out of nothing but curiosity. Here was a person with the skills needed, skills he lacked.

[Evey]

Audra never liked the idea of randomly spouting out her knowledge of history and artifacts for other peoples gain. This man seems different . . . I don't think he seems like a man who would be in to steal my work. She thought to herself shaking her head a bit to clear the random thoughts.
"Well, I probably know about the same as you do, besides the fact that these glyphs are the exact style as the ones in the waste. . ." Audra traced her hands over the designs wondering what seemed off about the carvings. She bit her bottom lip in frustration as she took a hand off the wall and pulled a small pocket notebook flipping to one of the more heavily marked pages labeled with the scribble of ' Ancient Zationian lettering'.

"See this sign." Audra said pointing a finger to a small hieroglyph in the corner of the page. "One of these things just doesn't belong here." She sang with a small chuckle. "Artifact humor." She said as she pointed back up to the wall of engravings.

"Ancient Zationian, mixed in with Ancient Navalen?" Audra scratched her head a bit, freeing some lone strands of her blue hair from the straps of her headlamp.

[Jyo]

Jyo eyes widened seeing the ancient Zationian marks. His father had similar marks on his own sword back home. Jyo never really gave them much thoughts.
"Very interesting. I'll have to speak with you about the ancient Zationian marks in a little bit." He said as he shifted his gaze to where Audra was examining the mixed marks.

"So perhaps Navalen and Zationia once worked together as a unified group? It wouldn't surprise me really." Jyo replied. It made sense as to why some of the marks looked familiar, his mind flashed back to his father's weapon. Jyo looked down at his own. It had once been part of a twin set of weapons. He now held one and his father the other. Jyo would gain the next sword on his father's passing and the cycle would go on. Perhaps he could even find out a little bit about himself and his race here.

[Evey]

"Mabey . . . and I would guess the civilizaion was bigger then it is now." Audra said thinking about the old ruins she found in the desert. "It makes me wonder what kinda things happened to lead to the warring citys we see now in the present?" She asked looking over to Jyo biteing her bottem lip a little as she thought about the markings.

I wonder what these old tunnles were used for, transportaion? Mabey, I little to small. Mabey it was a tomb or a collection of history.

[Jyo]

Jyo gave a shrug as a surge of lightning coursed around.
"I'm not sure. Perhaps a conflict of interest. It would make sense after all. Even in an ideal society, not everyone is going to get along. Perhaps disagreements got a little too serious." He replied. Jyo may not be a historian, but he understood people well enough. And that sounded like the likely outcome.

"I could be wrong though. Unless you find actual records of what happened. It's going to be anybody's guess as to the reason." he said before looking back over the markings on the wall.s
"So you mentioned ancient Navalen and Zationia markings. Are there any markings that don't fit either of them. Perhaps a third type?" He asked.

He was getting more and more interested. Suddenly figuring out about the world's past was very interesting now that he had run into someone who could help him. he had ideas and intuition, but very little knowhow as to proceed in any search for information about this subject. And who knew, maybe a few of his questions could spark an idea for Audra and she would figure something out. Jyo had learned long ago, that asking someone a question might help them out more than the questioner.

[Evey]

"Eh, your guess is as good as mine as to why they started this war." Audra said rolling her eyes a little. "Politics always bored me I never understood why we can't man up and get along." She said shruging her sholders a bit, it was very evident that she lived in the waste with her peace loveing additude.

"I've been looking." Audra replied to Jyo as she loooked over at the surface of the wall. "I've only found a few but they seem random and out of place." She said pointing out three symbols engraved on the wall. "They don't make sence."

Audra thought it out a little looking over at Jyo for some answers.

[Jyo]

"We can't get along because of our nature. Like most other animals, we fight and try to come out on top. There is nothing wrong with it, it's just instinct." Jyo said. He had learned long ago by watching the comings and goings in nature, that races like humans and sub-humans, behaved very similarly to every other race. They just refused to see it.

Looking closer at the symbols she pointed out and sucked in air with a hiss.
"Incredible." He said as he looked at the mark. All of them were on his family crest back home along with several other marks. His father didn't know the source of them though, such history had been lost. The most his father could tell him was that the marks were heavily related to his race, but not his race alone. Jyo was never able to find out any more.
"I cannot guess as to the nature of what they are, but they are on my family crest." Jyo said as he reached out and let his fingers brush the marks.

He knew little about his race, he seemed to be a rarity so far. It often made him feel alone in the world. Just this little bit of familiarity felt comfortable to him.
"Audra, do you know anything about the race known as elementalists? He asked.

[Evey]

"Hmm . . . I guess were all just a little imperfict." Audra said dusting off some more of the ancheint runes carved in the wall carful not to cause unneaded damage. If I could find out what started this war mabey that knowlage can help end it. She thought to herself, that was one of the resons she wanted to be a artifact hunter in the first place.

"So this is on your crest huh?" Audra wondered how old his family line must go back to. She personaly never knew her haratage, so this was different. His great great grandfathers must have seen the beginings of this war.

"Audra, do you know anything about the race known as elementalists?" He asked.

"Hmmm . . ."Elementalists . . . She thought she remembered reading about them once in a old history book on Navalen, and she could remember a few encounters were the word had come up in anchent texts. "I know that there was once two on the old Navalen councel." She said trying to recal some more knowlage for the man.

[Jyo]

"Interesting, that might mean that along with the other races, elementalists made this their home. They might have been nearly wiped out here." He replied before looking over at Audra s a surge crackled around him.
"I know virtually nothing about my own race. I have never seen these markings anywhere else except on my family crest and now here." Jyo said wistfully as his gaze shifted back over to the marks.

"Now I can't help but wonder if they were almost wiped out. My family lives in Zationia, but I know that isn't where my line originated." He said. Jyo couldn't understand why he couldn't find another of his race, now he wondered if he would ever find any others. Once more his hand rested against the markings.

Looking back over at Audra he had a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"Do you know how deep these tunnels run?" He asked. Jyo figured that maybe going deeper they would find more answers.
"I mean, there has to be more than just these writings on the walls right?"

[Evey]

Audra knew how Jyo was feeling, she hadn't met any other shape shifters but she knew that there must be some out there. She shuffled her feet a little and stared down the darkened coredors the light from her headlamp fadeing as it tried to peirce the shadow.

"From the looks of it, I wouldn't be surprised if it went all the way to Zationia." Audra said, her sourse who had informed her of the tunnels had said that there was simlar openings in Zationia. Eh, mabey they do? She thought looking over at Jyo. "You wanna go and check out some more of this place?" She asked with a adventurous smile on her face, he was good company and kept her thinking.

[Jyo]

Jyo matched the grin.
"Sure, I doubt just picking about up here is going to tell us much without looking at the rest." He liked the idea of lending a hand in finding out something no other person had found out yet.
All the way to Zationia, suddenly things are starting to make a lot of sense. He thought. Jyo wasn't sure he would like the answer they found at the end, if they even found one. Though he still felt the need to know.

As they walked along the tunnels Jyo figured a bit of conversation about this would help out.
"So what do you plan to do with the knowledge you may find while in here?' Jyo asked. He himself simply wanted the knowledge for the novelty of learning something. He figured that Audra would do the right thing, if there was such a thing as the right thing to do with it.

[Evey]

"I'm just useing it to try and peace together the past first hand. Although I read the history books, they always seem to be maliformed and missing details. . . I want to someday have enough knowlage to make a history book that includes the whole story, so that we can learn from our mistakes." Audra said hopeing she wasn't rambleing, she got this way when she was artifact hunting.

"Ya . . ." She said as they traveled deeper into the tunnels. "So your in here to find out more on Elementalists?" Audra asked politely.

[Jyo]

Jyo smiled.
"That's good to hear. I doubt we can get a full record to be honest, but you seem dedicated enough to get enough together that I believe you'll at least give people a chance to learn from the past." He said. Jyo knew that after all this time, a complete history was practically impossible. Though he doubted that Audra would give up on it.
"However, I still wish you the best of luck." He added.

He gave a small sigh at her question.
"Yes I am looking for members of my race. he elementalist powers skipped my father for some reason and I haven't heard anything about any other elementalists so far." he said before giving a chuckle.
"Though at first, the reason I came down here was out of sheer curiosity. I didn't imagine I would run into any possible hints as to finding out what happened to the rest, but after meeting you and finding out there is at least a few nuggets of information, I changed my goals to find out everything I can about this place. Thank you for this." He said as they progressed along the tunnels.

"How about you? Anything else outside of this world's past that you are looking for?" He asked. Outside of giving what assistance he could here, Jyo wanted to see if there was anything he could help Audra with. She had giving him hope of finding out about who he was and where his race came from. It was a gift beyond measure to him, and he wanted to repay it somehow.

[Evey]

Audra thought about what else she might be looking for down here, and in all of the artifacts and ruins she had explored. She always wanted to become famous, to be noticed for more then the fact that she was a different race . . . for more then the fact that she was different. "Eh, I guess mabey I'm searchin' for history on my family." Audra said to Jyo as her fingers traced along the walls.

"Not that I really miss 'em or nothin' but just to mabey find 'em and say 'See what I did without you?'." Audra continued as they walked through the dark space suddenly comeing up to a fork in the tunnels. "Oi." She said looking down either way wondering witch one they should take.

"Sometimes I must admit the anchent people could build giant wonderous buildings and tunnels and yet could not provide proper directions."