(Earth) Chasing Shadows

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

What: Searching for Whatever Maleficent's People Are Up To
Who: Mabry, Medrau, Others
When: May 6, 2011
Where: Earth, Oregon, Gummi-Ship, Wherever the Trail Takes Us

Mabry hesitantly landed the borrowed gummi-ship at the agreed upon coordinates. She was still only an indifferent pilot, but necessity had forced her to it. She felt lonely. She had left Ashlyn at home, and while it wasn't the first time, it wasn't yet something that seemed routine. Just last week, they had celebrated Ashlyn's second birthday with cake, ice cream, presents, and her first pair of "big girl panties." Leaving her just now was especially difficult. And then there was Songbird. Mabry had just as strong an inclination to go to Twilight Town to be there for her younger sister.

But this had to come first. There was no avoiding it. So she flashed the gummi-ship's lights and settled herself to wait for Medrau.

Comments

[medrau.livejournal.com]

Medrau was leaning against a fence, practicing with her meager bit of magic even though earth made it even weaker. That was annoying. What caused the dampening effect anyway?
Well, there was time for that later. She pushed herself off the fence and jogged over to the ship and stepped inside.

"Thanks for the lift. Do you know where we're supposed to be?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry popped a tylenol and shook her head. "I'm afraid not. But I assume that if one of Maleficent's people is on Earth, they're probably stirring up trouble wherever they are, so maybe we should try looking somewhere with trouble. I haven't been keeping up with Earth's news much, aside from things that are so big my parents mention them on Facebook. You probably have a better idea of what to look for than I do. Any thoughts?"

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"What kind of trouble? Do they do political trouble? Social trouble? Natural disasters? I mean..."
She took a seat.
"If they did Atlantica, what if they wanted to poison earth too? Can Maleficent do earthquakes?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"I'm not certain if Maleficent was involved in that or not, and I'm not entirely certain what she is capable of. Any of it is possible." Mabry frowned. "I suppose she could do an earthquake."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"Hmm... maybe that is a bit much. How 'bout India?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"What's happening in India?" Mabry inquired.

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"There's always stuff happening in India. Naxalites, thuggies, revolutions, resistances, poverty..." she looked at Mabry from the corner of her eye. "Would it sound crazy if I said I've got a funny feeling about India? I think we should take a look."

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"Alright," Mabry agreed. "At least English is very widely spoken there, so we'll be able to get some answers most likely. Do you speak any languages other than English? In case our search takes us anywhere else."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"'Fraid not. Cross your fingers and hope we find it easy."
She leaned back and waited for Mabry to take off.
"Does this ship have a way to scan for who or what we're looking for?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry frowned. "If there is, I don't know how to use it. I know the very roughest basics of how to pilot, I'm afraid."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

Med raised her eyebrows. "And you came down here to search with only the newbie as help why?" Okay, that was a little rude. She waved a hand to stall response. "Nevermind. Betcha we find it. You refugees have some kind of crazy luck, right?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"You're a refugee too," Mabry pointed out. "You may not have joined us when it began, but so long as you stand with us, you're one of us." She rubbed the bridge of her nose wearily. "But it's true. There weren't exactly a lot of volunteers to check out this lead. So we'll work with what we have. We've done it before."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

Medrau smiled. "Well, you know what they say; do your best and leave the rest, it will all come right some day or night. Though... I guess it's more like do your best and leave the rest, it will all come right or the world will go boom, but whatevs."

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry laughed. "I suppose. Well, we'd better go." With which words, she focused her attention on the gummi-ship's controls. "You'd better strap in. when I pilot, things get . . . pretty interesting."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"I like interesting," but she did as told, and then fell silent while they flew.

((skip to India?))

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

(Yes.)

Some time later, Mabry again landed the craft. As promised, the landing was bumpy. "I'm not certain exactly where we'll need to go now though. I wish we had more information about Maleficent and her intentions."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

Medrau leaned forward, squinting at a viewscreen. "Well, good job avoiding those villages. I don't think too many people noticed us." She unstrapped herself and hopped up, heading for the hatch. "And thanks for letting me navigate. I know it sounds like a wild goose chase, but I've just got this feeling..."

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry nodded. "Well, we don't have much else to go on. I guess we should look around and see if we can find anything that seems to be amiss. there have to be some clues."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

The dark-haired girl was already hanging out of the gummi ship to check out their surroundings - which consisted of a lot of trees and a low cliff.

She then stepped down and reached into a pocket to pull out a blackberry phone. It had a silly little paopu fruit charm attached, which swung on its short ribbon while she did a quick check on something.

"Well... that over there is a cave temple, according to the internet." She pointed at the tan cliff which did indeed have the shadow of a wide entrance at its base, mostly hidden by the trees.
"Good hiding place, ya think?"

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry nodded. "It's a good starting place. Let's go take a look." She followed the younger girl, grabbing a small shoulder bag on her way out. She stopped briefly, when the warm air caused her glasses to fog, and polished them briefly on her shirt. "Just in case there's trouble . . . do you have a weapon?"

[medrau.livejournal.com]

Medrau paused. "I've got Thunder...and I've got this." She pulled a small hunting knife - sheath and all - out of her heavy army boot and grinned sheepishly. "I always wanted a reason to carry a knife in my boot. If I'd known we were doing jungle, I'd have grabbed a machete too."

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

Mabry herself wore a shortsword on her left hip. "I ask, because there's a trunk on board with a moderate assortment of weapons. I'm not sure if there's a machete, but you could look. I just want to be sure we're prepared."

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"If we don't find anything in the temple, I might come back for that hypothetical machete. For now I think we can do without. It's not far.." She marched on, apparently in a hurry, talking while she went.

"I've read about these temples. History major, you know. I've dabbled a bit in archeology too, since it's really the same subject. I love the East. China, India, Japan... Great history here."

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"So what information do we have about this temple?" Mabry quickened her short strides to keep up.

[medrau.livejournal.com]

"See, that's the funny thing. I don't know which one this is. Lists of them are easy to find online, but if your ship's navigational computer is correct, none of them are in this region. Or at least... none are listed in this region."
A few more steps brought her past the thickness of the forest and presented a better view of the cave - a wide, rectangular entrance complete with carved pillars.
She flashed a grin in Mabry's direction. "Sounds like a proper mystery to me."