Ambria

[Ambria Imwe]

"Aaargh!!" echoed through her cave as she tried, once again, to get the potion to formulate as intended; but all she got instead was a tendriling of smoke from the antique bowl. The bowl was of a rock she could not name, passed down from mother to daughter since her family had begun. It was unremarkable by sight, but the "feeling" it had was one specific to the person with whom it was associated. For now, it was "her" bowl. Like a pet, but not. Her frustration mounted, and as it did so, the plants in her cave tightened, the branches creaking as they rubbed against one another, the leaves seeming to almost furl. The cave walls seemed to all but creak, dust rained down in various places causing Le'ehah to look up from where she was reading in the corner. She stared for a moment and frowned over at Ambria. "You know"... a nervous glance about the inner dwelling as she listened to the creaks and groans strain further "one of these days you're going to bring your domicile around your ears and it'll serve you right. You really must learn to control your temper." Her voice was quiet as she spoke to Ambria, her ambered eyes staring in disapproval at the young girl. A frown rest its place upon her lips as she watched the young girl carefully. Ambria's crimson marbled eyes shifted over to her mentor, her countenance bearing the same expression of disapproval. Her eyes held the frustration and ire she was barely containing before she let out a woof of air and closed her eyes. Her tightly clenched hands relaxed - obviously with effort - and the creaking and groaning of the flora and cave eased. The tendriling of smoke from the bowl ceased and the heaviness in the air lifted. With slow, meditative breaths she forced her calm, slowly opening her eyes to reveal verdant hues. Reflexively she swallowed and licked her lips, speaking quietly as she glanced down at the old bowl "I'm sorry. I just... " she gestured helplessly to the bowl and the ruined contents "... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm following your instructions. I've followed it the same way every single time and every single time I fail." Tears of frustration filled her lowered gaze as her lower lip then quivered. She stopped speaking for fear her voice would break, making her also seem weak as well as a failure. Le'ehah rose from the chair she had been lounging in and came over to the table, to perch herself half upon it. With slender fingers she pushed a lock of Ambria's reddish hair behind the pale shell of an ear. "Child. You must listen. It is not simply the ingredients, or the bowl, or the words you utter that make it come to fruition. It is the same kind of what causes you to make it storm, or demolish your cave, or put out fires." Her gaze took on a more maternal look: empathetic, compassionate, patient. Ambria snorted and turned slightly away, not in petulance, but still wrapped within that same veil of frustration "I don't know how. Noone does. I'm simply a freak that you put up with since my parents died" The warm look hardened and Le'ehah pulled her hand back "Now you listen to me, Ambria. You are no freak. Granted none of us have seen your talents in who knows how long, but you are not a freak. You simply need to learn how to harness your gifts and channel them into your studies." She stood up and looked down at Ambria and frowned, slightly shaking her head "You have never been a burden. You are my sisters daughter. And now mine." A flare of pain entered her gaze and stiffened her spine. Ambria watched her as she left the cave and walked away, rounding a corner. Every so quietly, she sighed.

"Great. Good going, Ambria. You've done it again. Hope you're proud of yourself" She sank down into the chair by the table and stared at the bowl. Ambria was young, around 56 years by all accounts. Her skin was quite pale, her hair a reddish colour. Her eyes stormed between red and green, darker of the colours. Apparently her eyes varied in colours depending upon her mood what she was working with at the time. She was slender of build and stood 168cm. She was considered small for her race, even though she was not yet done growing. She would never be as tall her the rest of her people. Noone knew why and noone dared to question. Her aunt, Le'ehah, had been taking care of her since she was 16 after her parents died. She did not know how her parents had died, only that it was tragic and noone spoke of it. Everyone around her - in her clan - stayed away from her. Her existence was a lonely one and she longed for adventure, to be away from resentful attitudes she did not understand. The feeling she got from everyone around her, her aunt was an exception, was hostile.

[Ambria Imwe]

A rolling fog surrounded her. Her eyes narrowed as she strained to see through the haze and darkness "Ammmmmmmmbriiiiiaaaaa" melodious was the voice, urging her forward as her name was spoken "Commmmeee to meeeee Ammmmmmbriiiiiaaaaa". She did not want to move forward. She was afraid, but the voice beckoned so beguilingly that she just *had* to. A figure materialised in the swirl of shadows, a beautiful image of a woman whose power made the hair on Ambria's arms stand up at attention. She was dressed in hues of black, with a bejeweled high ornate collar banding about her slender throat, the cape it stemmed from billowing out behind her. Prickles danced along the nape of her neck, causing chills from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Involuntarily she shivered. "Ammmbriiiaaa" a seductive whisper then from about 25 feet away, but she could see the red of the woman's eyes. So intense. So .. so...enrapturing yes? Yes.. yes, yes please.

***

Her eyes rolled beneath her closed lids, Le'ehah bursting through the entrance of the cave, her eyes opened wide in fear, the colour drained from her tanned face. "Ambria!!" She rushed over to the unconscious girl where she lay slumped in the chair, gripping her shoulder hard to give her a shake "AMBRIA! WAKE UP!"

***

Images flipped through the fog like a slideshow, though fast and quick - hundreds of images. Ancient temples. Odd structures in space that moved with what looked like fire behind them. Relics. Fighting. Obelisks. Then... death. She felt it as surely as if it were her own, the breath sucked out of her like she'd been sucker punched in the stomach. She groaned from the feel, her whole body tensing as she began to retch; shivering so that her teeth chattered while her stomach tried in vain to empty contents that weren't there. She couldn't breathe...her breath was caught.. stuck.. and she couldn't gain a new breath or exhale the one pent up.

***

As soon as her hand touched the girl, electric shock raced up her hand and into her arm shooting her backwards against the wall. She oofed as the air was ejected from within her, her eyes still opened wide as she stared at Ambria. Ambria lay convulsing in the chair, her throat working as her eyes continued to race beneath their closed lids. Le'ehah made to get up from the floor, her back and ribs aching as she struggled for breath... and found she could not move. Sweat stood out on her skin as she strained, her body striving to lean forward to get to the writhing girl. She closed her eyes then and allowed her body to sag, releasing the fight as she concentrated...

***

The woman moved closer, an apparition of evil beauty and it emanated from every pore. "Please" Ambria choked out, her eyes fastened to the approaching figure. The woman spoke in the rich silkiness of her disembodied voice, each syllable clinging to Ambria like warm honey "Liiiissssssten to meeee" The eyes closed off the crimson ambivalent hues before reopening "Listen to me Ambria. You must listen" Jerkily Ambria nodded her head, her brain clinging to every cloying word. The fog beheld the old bowl she worked with, fragments of it - the whole of it - centuries of its use and passing. Her gaze shifted to it and then back to the woman "That is of our world. Ambria. Your namesake. My greatest accomplishment and disappointment" The woman's figure shifted, fading before coming back again "You will leave Jaguada" Ambria stiffened and the woman's gaze filled with fire "YOU. WILL. LEAVE. JAGUADA." The image shifted again.. faded. And as though static had interfered, she was abruptly gone and Ambria was released. She sucked in a breath, it loudly filling her lungs.

***

Ambria's body arced upward as she was... for lack of a better word.. released. Sweet air filled her lungs and her eyes opened, the tension still holding her limbs tight. She shuddered out that tension and sort of slithered out of the chair to the ground, leaning against the rubble of the table. Sweat drenched her body, the flimsy material clinging to her quaking form. Le'ehah also opened her eyes and crawled over to Ambria, pulling the trembling girl into her lap to cradle her. Carefully she swept the damp strands of her hair from her face, speaking softly in a tone of awe "The unnamed sorceress. It has to be. Nowhere are you now safe". Tears sluiced down her cheeks as she rocked Ambria, her words gone unheard as a deep slumber overtook the exhausted and mind-numbed girl.

[Ambria Imwe]

Weeks had passed; and in that duration Ambria had tried to sort what all had occurred. It hadn't been until days later that Ambria had awakened, her aunt having been vigilant at her side. Ambria didn't remember much from her experience, but she had this new compulsion to leave the planet, one that left Le'ehah going out of her mind. There came a point that Le'ehah stopped fighting Ambria's drive to get off-world, so she resolved to teach the young girl mindful meditation and how to control her urges. Le'ehah wasn't keen on teaching Ambria anything more than that out of fear of reprisal from those they lived amongst. Too, Le'ehah had no idea what was going on as far as politics - the place she was at kept themselves pretty much in the dark; and she had wanted it that way for both of their safety. Weighing heavily on Le'ahah's mind was the fact that the unnamed sorceress had supposedly reached out to Ambria, unsettling the older woman to her very core. What did this mean? Ambria had been destroyed for almost two milennia... how could this possibly be?

"I want to go" Ambria suddenly voiced, drawing Le'ehah out of her reverie. She looked at antsy as she felt and her youthful countenance betrayed her impatience. "There's nothing more to do here". The older woman looked to her and she sighed... nodding her head. Ambria was right. There wasn't anything more to do and Le'ehah had been stalling for more time.

"We will go, when darkness falls" and with that, Ambria began packing her things. Le'ehah watched her with mixed feelings, knowing that this was most likely going to be good-bye. She could feel it. Le'ehah rose and packed her belongings, meagre possessions they were... and formulated a plan of exit. She figured she would take her to Si'laan, Jaguarda's moon. Lush in life, it was a contrast to the planet in which it orbited.

***

Darkness fell and she could not be contained. Her eyes danced a crimson rainbow as she thought about getting off this foresaken planet. Le'ehah had mentioned something about going to the moon, and her ears had clung to every word her aunt had uttered about it. She kept firing off questions until Le'ehah lost her patience and told her to be quiet.. and the force of the words had left Ambria literally unable to speak for a few minutes. She for hours she just kept to herself, her imagination running wild as she thought about the forests and lakes and oceans and rivers.. and the life that abounded. Unlike here.

Without words Le'ehah had left the domicile with her belongings, letting Ambria pick up the cue that it was time to go. Ambria had no idea why Le'ehah had stopped speaking or what was going on in her head, and while Le'ehah had always been the quiet sort, she was most unusually so at this time. In that wealth of silence, she followed Le'ehah through the caves.. of which were familiar, until she came to a part of the cave system that she did not recognise. It seemed for hours that they walked, until finally coming to a large opening where there was a lake. The cave had ended and it was a cave mouth that opened up to the spanse of water. Foliage had overgrown the area and there was a barely visible path that they now followed. The heat was sweltering and the foliage grew more dense, in a most unnatural way. With a wave of Le'ehah's hand the mass of tangled tree limbs and foliage released.. to reveal a ship.

Ambria stood in open mouthed awe. She looked from the ship to her aunt, comprehension slow to come as Ambria had - quite literally - never before seen a ship before. The one before her was a small representation of the images she had seen in her enounter with the Ancient Witch and she was rooted to the spot. Le'ehah glanced back at Ambria and opened the ship to be entered.. her form disappearing into the bowels of the vessel after walking up the loading ramp. Ambria stood there a moment before looking around and then getting on the ship, the opening closing.. her aunt apparently gone to the front. "Stow away your stuff here" the suddenness of Le'ehah's voice startling her. She turned to see her aunt walk down a corridor toward a door.. the door hissing open to reveal a room. There, they stowed their belongings.. her aunt leaving her to go to the cockpit. After a few tries, the ship hummed to life... and after she was strapped in, off they went.

***

The trip wasn't a long one, and when Ambria asked why they went only to the moon instead of somewhere else, Le'ehah mentioned something about a damaged hyper drive.. and smoothed that over with Si'laan being the most realistic place to go within the system. "Why?" Ambria queried, but she was met with no response. They stayed on the ship until morning.. and with torches in hand, exited the ship and headed through the vegetation. Le'ehah seemed to know where she was going, although she paused several times to look around before going in another direction. Broken obelisks staggered across the floor of the forest and they passed small ruins. "What is this place.. " Ambria asked, trying to keep up with her aunt. But this gained yet another batch of silence in return; and after a time, Ambria just followed and kept her questions to herself.

Soon they arrived to a large temple looking structure. Some obelisks had toppled over and there were blackened burn marks on the outside of the building. Steps led up to a wall of stone and it appeared there was no way in. Only, when Le'ehah approached it, she ran her hand over an oval looking glyph and the marking turned red. A rumbling began that hummed through Ambria's legs, dust showing down as a grinding could then begin to be heard. Slowly the wall of stone opened by way of a door, revealing a black cavern beyond. Le'ehah flicked on her torch and Ambria did the same.. and then the both went inside the temple.

[Professor Mors]

Static. Five days, sixteen possible crash sites, and still not a sound apart from the grating buzz of radio silence. Captain Doren Vassyl glared through his macrobinaculars as if to pierce the reeds and marshland with his gaze alone. It was getting close to a week since he'd arrived behind enemy lines, and so far his search had brought about nothing but exhaustion and hysteria. The Jaguada moon, much like its planetary antecedent, was steeped in Sith culture, as well as their violent history. That ancient bloodshed was all but forgotten by most, overrun by the ruins of Separatist siege engines and other relics of the Clone War. Now, it was much more of a graveyard than any sort of functioning outpost. And yet, it was still a world deeply entrenched within the realm of the Empire's fiercest foe. Now, what promised to be a simple extraction was turning into a safari, and the longer the Imperial's lingered, the worse off they would be.

Rising onto his knees, Vassyl grimaced as the wet earth sunk under his weight. Were it not for a sturdy branch nearby, the young officer might have well lost his footing and fallen over. Despite his saving grace, the disgruntled Vassyl motioned his eight companions forward, listening to the awkward "plorp" of flying mud as his compatriots waded on ahead. High Command had lost contact with an advanced recon group somewhere on the southern hemisphere, and though Doren's team had encountered their wreckage earlier on, much of the equipment and physical personnel continued to elude them. The party continued their agitated march for some time, until one of the Captain's scouts softly called out over a helmet commline, "Sir, structure to the east". Vassyl froze where he stood, and signaled for the party to halt post-haste. Slowly, he retrieved his macrobinoculars once more, and peered out at the alleged landmark.

True to his comrade's word, the Captain quickly zoned in on a worn stone building several clicks to the right of their position. Overrun with vines and foliage, the ruinous sight might have been overlooked, were it not for the sheer height of its main tower. "I want an energy scan of that area, now", Doren hissed, his eyes unwavering on the distant building. One trooper, further back than the rest, opened a small, short-range power recorder, and began to wave it over eastward with an occasional metallic tick. At last, he hurried up to his superior, and presented his find, "Two or three potential signals Sir; we're experiencing slight local interference". Vassyl paused and let slip and angered sigh, "It's probably getting tripped up by that generator we found back a ways. Regardless, let's have a look shall we?". The equivocally frustrated scout retorted with a crisp, "Yes Sir", before falling back into line.

After another long, swamp-ridden eternity, the party eventually found their way to a vaulted entrance into the temple. Before embarking over the threshold, each of the Empire's finest took care to prime their slew of weapons, with Doren himself toting a slim and lethal force pike. The jungle-like half of the moon was lousy with critters of various carnivorous origin; despite the usual reliability of blasters, beasts of a thicker hide proved more problematic when it came to the leaps and bounds of modern weaponry. Such being the case, more archaic tools were needed for the sake of self-preservation: a virtue not lost on most. Addressing his posse in full, the Captain started, "Split up and comb the main floor; if you discover any unidentified individuals, you are to hold position and call for backup. Do not engage unless otherwise ordered". One more timid trooper glanced into the darkened depths of the temple, and weakly offered, "Sir, what do you suppose is in there?". Reading his polearm in the forward position, the Captain shrugged, and made his way forward, and whispered back to his comrade, "Sith, beasts- Seperatist war droids perhaps. And maybe, just maybe our missing away team".

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden continued to comb the landscape, using both eyes and built-in helmet scanners in an attempt to locate the missing team. He listened to the Captain's reports and moved off to a reasonable position and looked out. He could see the building easily, and zooming in from his position he could see too the other group of Imperials preparing to investigate.

"Haly, get over here and watch them." Rhoden said, she nodded silently and moved up, readying her sniper rifle should the need arise. "We'll standby here, if they need us we'll need to get over there quickly." he said gesturing to the fairly well concealed YT-2000 a bit behind them. "Until then, keep looking." Rhoden said, scanning in another direction and getting absolutely nothing. Sighing he began to regret accepting the little mission to such a desolate rock.

[Ambria Imwe]

Their footsteps quietly echoed in the cavernous structure. She followed silently behind Le'ehah, looking at the demolished statues that once towered but were now either defaced or shorn to ruin upon the temple's floor. You could tell, even among the dirt and debris, that this had once been a beautiful and rich place. Le'ehah would turn at corridor junctures; and it happened with such frequency that she soon lost bearing and any ability of how to get back. Now, it seemed, they were on some descent. The air grew cooler and for a moment Le'ehah stopped and looked upward, as if she were listening. Chills prickled all over Ambria's skin and she looked upward as well, fully expecting to see some sort of apparition, but there was nothing. The older woman tilted her head as if trying to hone in what she was listening to, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly before her lips drew into a firmed line. Le'ehah let out the softest of sighs and her honied gaze flicked to Ambria, glancing behind her before looking back to the perplexed young girl. "We will part ways soon" the woman glanced away and struggled to contain the expressions that sought to crumple her features. Abruptly she turned, but kept speaking.. forcing Ambria to strain to hear as their footsteps rapidly continued, soft gravel and dirt crunching underfoot "There are others who are now here. You must control your fear and your temper Ambria. No matter what happens."

Ambria paused in her following, shifting the pack that was upon her back as she watched Le'ehah's form continue on into the dark swallowing shadows. "I don't understand... " she fully expected her aunt to stop as she did; but she didn't. She simply kept going... and vanished, as if the shadows had consumed her into their nothingness. Fear hummed in her veins, causing her heartbeat to race as she surged forward to find her aunt. The light of the torch cast eerie glows about the stone walls, the beam flicking along the walls, toward the depths of the passage as she started to jog "Aunt Le'ehah!" her voice cried, tight with unshed tears as her heart sought to choke her voice. She saw a pattern of glyphs much like the ones that had gained her aunt entry in the temple.. and she approached them, running her hand along one and then the other as she had seen her aunt do. But nothing happened.

The fear was making her mind hamster wheel inside her head, ridding her of rational thought. She should have been thinking of focusing on her aunt and finding her. She should have tried to figure out what it was her aunt had been sensing. But since she entered the temple, she had been sort of blinded - or muted - by the feelings of despair and pain and fear that resided within the stone structure. Shivering as if cold, the hand holding the torch lowering so the beam was directed at the floor and her other hand lifting to her forehead, rubbing a spot between her eyes. Fear coiled and tendriled in the pit of her stomach, causing her to feel nauseous and unbalanced. Small showers of dust sprinkled around her, dusting her auburn hair in white. The stones around her rumbled, grinding against one another; and it wasn't until she pressed her fingers more into her forehead that she realised what was happening around her. "Control your fear" she whispered to herself, rubbing that spot.. trying to erase the lines of worry from between her brows. She was shaking so bad, tears hot and alive in her eyes as she struggled for a calm she certainly did not feel. Suddenly, the rattling about in the corridor stopped... and she took a series of deep cleansing breaths before looking around her once more, trying to gain her bearing on which way to go and what to do next.

[Professor Mors]

All was silent within the large anterior of the temple. The only break in the quiet came from the occasional wheeze of the wind, and the pensive impact of moisture droplets that fell from cracks in the antiquated ceiling. Doren, for his part, shuffled down a dimly lit hallway, or what remained of one anyways. The bleakness of his surroundings might have stirred fear in the young officer normally, yet the twin engines of exhaustion and frustration rendered him bolder than usual. Coming across a set of stairs, Vassyl paused, and looked down into the depths below. Even with the addition of his helmet's night vision filters, his gaze did not make it far. The Captain continued to stand in thought for a time, before beginning a slow, methodical descent. Unfortunately, nature had other plans for the Imperial, as a one particularly greased step soon robbed Doren of his balance. With a panicked yelp, the naval officer plummeted down the remainder of the flight, before crumpling uncomfortably on his back.

Groaning, Vassyl forcefully rolled onto his bruised abdomen, and propped himself back up with the aid of his weapon. It was just one thing after the next with this trip. Slowly, the Captain began to churn out excuses to abandon the current leg of the expedition. Surely, in a place as a forgotten as this, there could be no one left save for whatever rodents crawling about the causeway. Perhaps the signal was a fluke, or maybe the trooper's equipment was malfunctioning. Doren was just about to settle on that last explanation, when a distant outcry faintly echoed towards him. Bending his knees, Vassyl outstretched his pike in anticipation of an attack, though no aggressor was to be seen. Recalling the timbre of the noise, Doren gauged it to be that of a humanoid, possibly female or a small child on account of the pitch. Regardless of Vassyl's great urge for departure, it appeared something, or someone was indeed here.

Doren mentally prepared himself to encounter whatever lay ahead, and thrice depressed a button on his wrist module. That specific switch sent out a short-range comm ping, which would alert the Captain's allies of his situation, depending on the number of blips that sounded. One denoted a possible target, two described an oncoming attack, while three entailed the cautious pursuit of a potential hostile. His situation thus made known, Vassyl started to traipse forward into the lower level of the complex. It did not take long thereafter for Doren to identify the writing on the wall, if it could be called writing anyways. Tracing his free hand across the mottled stonework, Vassyl stared intensely at what seemed to be some sort of bygone script. For all his studies, the young Jaeman could not identify the text's origin, though one detail was not lost on him: whatever this was, it was not a Sith dialect. With another scrutinizing glance, Doren focused back on the dilapidated tunnel, and pressed on, wary of whatever lurked around the bend.

[Ambria Imwe]

She paused as she heard a noise. It sounded like a noise of pain, but she could not be sure. Her head canted ever so slightly as she tried to tune her hearing to the sounds she thought she heard, hearing then the scrape of something upon stone. Her aunt always said she had hearing better than most and said it was one of her many gifts that she had yet to realise. Ambria always became so impatient when her aunt tried to tell her anything, instead she had been anxious to get on with it and actually know what all these "gifts" were instead of having to take steps that supposedly led up to them. So far, it had taken an eternity just to learn mindful meditation. Agitation rifled through her as thoughts of her aunt now seemed haunting, fluffing her ire.

Her mind was allowing her to digress, to move away from the issues at hand: of her being lost and of her not being alone down here - the other presence certainly not her aunt, she knew. Her thumb depressed the button at the top of the torch to turn it off; and with the faintest sound of the softest click, darkness swallowed. Convulsively her throat swallowed as well, audibly trying to work through the cloying dryness. Rapidly her eyes adjusted to the murky dim, and she realised it was just one other down there with her. She listened to the steps that approached and she found that she was involutarily moving backwards as those footfalls came forward. Who was it? Why were they here? Did they know she would be here? Were they looking for her? Had her aunts fears come to fruition? And then a realisation happened upon her: her aunt had never divulged anything. Keeping her in the dark - which now seemed a detriment. Or was it. She thought she saw the shadow of something, but in the shades of black and grey it was hard to discern. Her eyes narrowed as she focused, the normally green of her gaze beginning to swirl with those shades of crimson. She wanted to speak, her mind whispering "Hello?" whilst her voice remained silent, unsure if what was before her was amicable or otherwise. Her shoulders twitched, shifting the pack upon her back that held her meagre possessions whilst her hand holding the torch tightened, feeling the metal ribbing bite into her skin. Her free hand rested palm flat to the cool damp stone wall, as if to hold her steady, her gaze mostly unseeing to what was creeping closer.

[Professor Mors]

Down the corridor, Vassyl could have sworn that he'd spotted a glimmer of light at the far end. However, upon a reflexive blink, the luminous spark seemingly vanished. Had he imagined it? The Captain slowed his gait, once more anticipating an ambush that never seemed to arrive. Puzzled by the flicker by before, Doren halted completely, and scanned out into the darkness as best he could. Were that some armed enforcer lay in wait, if they had possessed a blaster, they ought to have used it by now. Nothing in the hallway obscured a shot on Vassyl, and the sweeping shadows made for a nigh-impregnable cover. Alas, night vision would only get Vassyl so far, and anyone else in this area was just as likely, if not more so capable of getting the jump on him as opposed to the alternative. "Fierfek", Doren muttered under his breath, as he resumed his march. After another several feet of uneven cobblestone, the Captain had all but reached his limit, when something struck him as odd.

On the back end of the right-hand wall, a shape seemed to be disrupting the outline of the individuals slabs that constituted the structure. From what Vassyl could detect with visual augmentation, whatever the blur was, it wasn't anything natural like a crack or physical erosion. No, some form or rather was blocking, or rather clinging to the side. Maneuvering over to the opposite left, Vassyl leveled his polearm at the unknown entity, and began to comb over the possible outcomes should his presence become known. Having ruled out projectiles weapons, if they creature possessed some sort of harmful tool, it must comprise some melee aspect. Furthermore, as the hidden other had not announced themselves thus far, there was a chance that they were equally as frightened, or shrewdly cautious of their own wellbeing. Indulging a long, low sigh, the Captain took an assertive step towards the figure, and called out, "You there: step forward nice and slowly".

OOC: Didn't expressly mention it before, but should you turn that torch back on I may look a touch frightening; jet black armor and all that jazz.

[Ambria Imwe]

Ambria's eyes strained to see in the darkness and there, as the footfalls grew closer still, she could make out the outline of something. Her brows furrowed as she tried to discern what sort of creature cautiously approached.. her mouth and throat sticky and dry with her crawling fear. That fear marched up and down her spine in a series of shocks, and she felt the stones beneath her feet sort of vibrate and subtly shift while the vining tendrils of encroaching roots furled and further gnarled. Tightly she swallowed, feeling her breath fan rather quickly over her parching lips. In the still of the awkward and thick silence, she heard the mutter of something unintelligible to her, not long followed by a sigh of.... aggravation? Perhaps consternation would be more apt. Her head performed that slight side tilt once more, her brows still gently furrowed as she heard you speak.

"What are you?" slipped past her lips unbidden, said at the same time as her torch lifted and her thumb depressed the button, shining the bright light into your face. She was shocked. She was sure she radiated it as she blinked at you rapidly. The black armour, the black helmet. You looked like more machine than life form to her; and involuntarily, she took yet another step backward, seeing then the odd looking thing you held out before you. The sight of you distracted the rest of her and the gnarling of roots and vibrating of stones ceased as she simply stared at you, most likely with her mouth slightly agape. The light that had been shining in your face roved down the length of you and back up again, resisting the urge to poke at you with her free hand.