Studying the tunnels

[Jyo]

Jyo listened closely as they moved along the tunnels. it seemed that they had something in common with their reasons here. They both wanted to find out a little bit about their own past, not just this world's.

They came to the fork and a larger surge crackled along Jyo as he looked down the left hall. It didn't dissipate either so his eyes narrowed and a grin flashed across his face as he looked back to Audra, the eagerness clear on his face.
"Something tells me we should go left." he said with a chuckle.

"So what is it about your family that you're looking for, why do you want to prove something to them?" he asked as they walked along. Jyo was getting more curious about her.

[Evey]

"Left it is." Audra said seeing the eagerness eched on Jyo's face and watched as the lightning ached across his body in waves. It made her smile a bit as she thought about her own powers over the element of lightning. Hmph something we have in common. She thought knowing that the man probibly had more control then she has over his power.

"So what is it about your family that you're looking for, why do you want to prove something to them?" Jyo asked her.

"Well it's mostly 'cause I never knew my parents." Audra said looking ahead her thoughts back to the orphanage were she was forced to grow up. The place were she was looked down upon because of her shapeshifter powers. "They abandoned me."

[Jyo]

I wonder what's down this tunnel thats causing this reaction. Jyo thought as he noticed the arcs increasing while they headed down the tunnel. He looked back at Audra when she mentioned her reasons.
"I hope you won't feel that I'm prying too much by asking if you know why they abandoned you." He said as they progressed. Jyo didn't want to touch a nerve out of his curiosity. Though he knew that sometimes a person found talking about such things to be comforting.

Jyo really didn't want to make Audra feel uncomfortable around him, but it seemed that if they shared their reasons for being here and the things pertaining to those reasons, they would likely work together much better.

[Evey]

Audra had a hard time trying to tell Jyo about the fact she was a shapeshifter. It had always bothered her a bit, mabey because she was always teased and harassed about it when she was little. "Eh . . ." She started pauseing, wondering how she should word it. "I'm a shapeshifter." She decided after a wile. "They didn't want me for that," Audra explained." and cause I electircuted my mom once." She finished laughing a bit as she opened up her hand letting blue archs of electricity flow from her fingers .

Audra staired ahead, her headlamp shineing on a wall. "I think we might have found a dead end." She stated walking up and examineing the wall. She knocked on it with her knuckle and listined. Wait a minute. She thought with a mischevious smile looking over at Jyo. "I think I might need some help with this."

[Jyo]

"A shapeshifter eh?" Jyo replied. This explained a lot. He had never met a shapeshifter, it seemed that he had a hard time meeting humans lately, not that he cared mind you.
"So that explains a few things." He said as Audra showed she had some grasp of lightning manipulation.
"Well it seems I'm not the only one who can control such an element.

They reached what seemed to be a dead end and Audra examined the wall. It really wasn't needed, arcs of lightning started jumping from Jyo to the wall. He gave a grin as he she asked for a hand, something was clearly behind it.

"Well take a step back." He said as he stood in front of the wall and drew his weapon, he let a charge build up and slashed, the impact created a small explosion and split the wall. he sheathed his weapon and gave a shrug.
"I'm not for bashing up history, but sometimes the simplest method often works the best." He said as the dust cleared. He stepped through and looked around the room they had uncovered.

Jyo noticed the buildup of lightning across him had reduced itself to the normal occasional crackle. His green eyes looked around the room they were in. The room was covered in artifacts of what seemed to be every race, extinct or not. Jyo's attention was drawn to a particular area
Along one of the the walls were several crests. one of them belonging to his family. Under it was a thick book.
"Audra, have at it and do your thing, but that book is mine." He said as he made his way to the wall.

[Evey]

Audra stepped back as Jyo took a distructive blow at the hollow wall, uncovering a large room full of artifacts and books. "Wow." She explained as she looked around seeing the beutiful architecture and the runes engraved on the walls. She smiled and danced from place to place admireing the structures and artifacts.

"Audra, have at it and do your thing, but that book is mine" Jyo said as he walked towards a wall full of Elementalist artifacts.

Audra thought that was fair enough but she thought she would like to at least get the title and log it into her notebook so she could keep track of all the items found here. "Jyo whould you mind if I could have the title of it before you go take off?" She asked politely pulling her notebook out of her pocket as well as a small pen to write with.

[Jyo]

Jyo gave a nod as he walked.
"Of course. I was going to let you do that as it was, for how much you've helped me. I'll even lend it to you, though I'm taking it to Zationia." He said as he reached the old tome. Blowing dust off of it he looked over the leather bound book. He let his hand rest on it and sighed in pleasure. Finally, something tangible about his family line, he could touch it and actually feel it.
"I can't thank you enough Audra, I would have thought to look this deep unless you had shown me those marks on the wall." he said as he picked the book up as if it were a child.

"The title on the book simply says 'Mashima', my family name." He said as he opened it. The first part detailed exactly what his elementalist line was along with their abilities. He flipped through the book quickly but carefully so as not to damage it. It had records of all the members of his line and what they had done in life. There were logs of events in the past that his family had participated in and the other families that had been married into the Mashima line.

"This is exactly what it looks like. A record of my family." he said softly as a smile appeared on his face while his fingers brushed the pages tenderly, a small tear ran down his face. Jyo felt closer to what he was than he had ever felt in the past.

[Evey]

"Thank you, but I'm not one for Zationia and I think that you really diserve that book. I hope it helps you." Audra said with a smile as she wrote down the title of the book in her log labbleing it with 'elementalist origins'.

She looked around the room with a content smile on her face. "I can't belief we found this place" she said as she started at one side of the room begining to log the artifacts in her notebook before prepaireing to move them outside for better examination.

"I aprechiate the help you have givein' me Jyo." Audra said as she continued logging what looked to be some old Neko artifacts. This was probibly her biggist artifact find in her whole carrer as a artifact hunter.

[Jyo]

"Don't worry about thanking me. I asked a few questions and bashed through a wall. I've gained something which has an importance to me that cannot be measured."
Jyo looked back to Audra and smiled.
"I won't leave for Zationia for a couple of days. I have a few things to take care of. I know it isn't much, but you are welcome to copy whatever you can from this book until I leave." He said as he walked over to where she was jotting things into her book.
"So what else have you found?" He asked.

Jyo was highly interested in the other artifacts, not as much as the invaluable treasure in his hands, but interested nonetheless. Who knew what else they could find here. he had found a way to find out what happened to his race. But what about the rest of this world, and what about all these artifacts here.

[Evey]

Audra smiled thankful to be able to be loned the elementalists book. She was very curious about the race and wanted to know more about them.

She quetly looked at the artifacts with a percise eye, she grabed her small brush from her pocket and gently brushed a statue of a cat like human, adorned in gold and presious gems. "I'm sure that this is a old Neko artifact . . . when they were all held togather in pack like stuckures." She said to Jyo as she gently stroked the statue with her brush. "I'm guessing this was there leader . . . cheif if you will." She said as she set it down on the granite shelf, silently admireing the small structure.

"They were . . . and still are very facinateing race, I enjoy there abstract artforms." Audra said smileing at Jyo.

[Jyo]

Jyo gave a small nod at Audra's explaination.
"I've run into a Neko before. She was part Hyena instead of cat." He said. His run in with Katrina had been his first encounter with a neko. he had seen them before, but he had only spoken to one.

"So do you know if there is any real limit to what a neko has a base in? I know of cat and now hyena. I think I saw one in a crow with a fox side to her." He said. Jyo wanted to hear anything Audra had to say. She seemed to enjoy talking about the things she knew, which wasn't a surprise.

[Evey]

"Ya they seem to carry different animal like characteristics, but are all feline in nature." Audra said as she looked meaningfuly at the artifacts. "I've only personaly met one Neko myself . . . she was a race fan." She thought of Katrina and how they had talked about her interesting love life. With a small sigh she cleared the thought from her head and looked on to the other artifacts.

[Jyo]

"Interesting. I figured in your line of work you would have met more than one." Jyo said as he let his eyes wander around the other artifacts.
"Of course in my line of work, I would have guessed the same about myself." He added as he took some time to closely observe some of the other artifacts around the place. He didn't touch anything, he didn't know if he would mishandle it or not, and he didn't want to damage anything.

Looking back over to Audra he gave a grin.
"You realize that even if you aren't after the fame, this is likely to make you one of the most widely known people in archeology." Jyo said while giving a chuckle.
"I would use every resource that might crop up after this. You could do a lot of study on these things with what this discovery will open up for you."

[Evey]

Audra thought about what kinds of races she had met since she started to become interested in archiology. Not nessisaraly a whole bunch.Audra thought as she blew off some dust from a shelf of books. "I don't nessisaraly travel the world . . . this is actually the first time I have been outside of the waste to collect artifacts." Audra admited blowing some dust carefully off of a shelf of books.

"I guess fame for this sort of thing wouldn't be that bad, I'm actually used to it." Audra said with a smile thinking to herself about her carrer as a buggy racer. Evem being a rookie she was still noticed by the public eye for her raceing achevements but never for her side job as a artifact hunter.

[Jyo]

Jyo couldn't help but chuckle a little.
"Who would have thought, the vagabond mercenary has traveled more than the artifact hunter." he said before composing himself again.
"Not that it's a bad thing, I just didn't see that one coming." He said good naturdly.

"So what makes you used to fame?" Jyo asked. He wouldn't be surprised if he never heard of it. Though he traveled alot, he didn't catch the word on things going on in the world outside of the situations between the countries in this world. Audra could be world renowned and if it wasn't in a matter that pertained to what Jyo did, it was likely he wouldn't have heard about it.

[Evey]

"Eh, who woulda knew." Audra smiled knowing that she rather just stay in the wastes, there was enough artifacts out there to go around for everyone. With a crooked smile she remembered about Xander. I bet he is still worryin bout me. She thought even though Audra knew she told him she wouldn't be back for a week or two she knew that the thought of being away made him nervous. Rolling her eyes a bit at the thought of him smokeing on his cigerettes worrying about her she started to answer Jyo's question.

"I'm a racer out in the waste. Well a rookie racer really, so I'm kinda used to all the people goin' 'Thats Audra Negren the racer chick.'" With a small chuckle she pulled out her log so she could begin entering the artifacts.

[Jyo]

Jyo gave a grin.
"Well that explains why I haven't heard of you. I never had the chance to get into racing or anything about it. So you race and hunt artifacts. You certainly don't lead a dull life do you?' He replied. Jyo was slightly interested in racing, something he might get into one day. but he was still content with being a drifter and letting the jobs and his whims carry him across the world.

"So what did you start with first, racing or treasure hunting?' he asked. Jyo was interested in the person he was exploring these tunnels with. She had asked him only a little about himself, but she might only be interested in asking when they were out of the tunnels. After all, she was doing work down here.

[Evey]

"Actually I got in to artifact hunting first while I was travleing and then I got in to raceing afterwards." Audra replied whipeing her brow with the sleave of her cloak. " I don't think I could live without all the excitement though, it definately keeps you alert." She smiled thinking of all the side races and times she had just gone out with Xander and Tray to go and hunt for artifacts. It's defidently never dull with those guys around.

"So do you travel to the Waste often or do you usually stick to Navalen and Zationia?" Audra asked trying to come up with some sort of conversation topic, she was really couldn't help the fact that she always got sucked into her work but she felt bad for not trying to ask him more things about himself. He must think I'm rude . . .

[Jyo]

"Mostly between Navalen and Zatonia. I go into the Waste enough to know my way around pretty easily though. it's just that there isn't much need for a sword for hire there. I normally travel there to relax in the woods." He said as he examined a statue of some beast or another that he hadn't seen before.

"So what brought you to Navalen? Was it just the tunnels that you wanted to explore?" He asked. Jyo himself had simply completed a job here and would have moved on earlier if it hadn't been for Katrina. He was eager to see her again. he figured the tunnels would have been interesting to explore until he met her again, and so far he was right.

[Evey]

"I have to agree the forest is a very comforting place. . . It's a nice place to unwind. I actually go out there before a big race to just colect my thoughts." Audra said thinking about the tall oaks and maple trees that circled around the Waterfall Canyon. Thats where I met Katrina . . . She thought with a smile remembering the neko with the excessive laugh.

"I came to Navalen just to see the tunnels really . . . I heard about them and read about them and my curiousity got the best of me. " Audra said thinking about all the times she was around in the forest as a kid and never saw past the moss and bracken. I guess thats the way all kids are . . .