Excavation: Completed

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily looks to Breena. "Let's go get Holly before she gets eaten by a bear. Or an Owl. Or an Owlbear."

[Mistress Guendolen]

"An owlbear?... Oh, heck. I always thought those were a myth, but given how weird today's been...." She hefted the pick on her shoulder and stuck the stone in her shirt pocket. "Let's go. I just hope I don't have to resort to the 'fall over and crack heads with it' technique.... That hurts."

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily lights a torch and leads the way, making sure to mark her path.

[Stellar]

I'd like to note Holly still has her lanturn. But she does stop walking. Holly stands where she is wondering why she doesn't feel like proceeding further. She looks around to what is visible infront of her looking for any will to go deeper.

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna had been following on Lily's wake, pick at the ready. She managed not to trip over anything, but she certainly left a trail of broken and snapped branches in her wake.... Almost instinctively, she got the little stone back out of her pocket and cupped it in her hand. It felt good having it there. Something was telling her it was better to have it at the ready.... She stepped up behind Holly, not as quietly as she would have liked, but approaching all the same. "What is it?" she whispered. "Do you see something?

[Mitera Nikkou]

Holly still feels like she shouldn't continue any deeper into the forest, and Lily and Brenna begin to feel it as well as they get closer to Holly's position. The pebble began to shift to a red color and stayed that way.

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna looked down at the stone just as it shifted color. She yelped, jumping- then proceeded to stumble backwards until she tripped over a fallen branch and landed squarely on her behind. "Ow! Just missed sticking myself in the ear with this pick...." She awkwardly tried to clamber to her feet. "But- but the stone- it changed- look! It's red now! And not blinking anymore!"

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily freezes at the mention of red. "Doesn't red mean danger, stop, human blood, and other things like that?"

She takes a deep breath. "HOLLY!!!!!!!" Dang. This place is not for us to tread, not now at least...

[Mistress Guendolen]

"Not always! In some countries far away, red is a sign of life and luck and other positive things-" Brenna realized she was gabbling, and smacked herself in the side of the head to shut herself up. "But what d'you think this stone is, then, nature's security alarm or something?"

[Mitera Nikkou]

The pebble began to get hot, almost too much to hold without getting burned. And while it may not burn, it may still be too hot for comfort, for Brenna to hold. At the same time, the wind began to pick up a bit, and through the branches a slight howling could be heard. One might get the impression that the trees were sending out a warning.

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily looks Brenna in the eye. Her face is pale, and there is no warmth in her cold stare. She says but a single word, for no other is required. "Yes."

[Mistress Guendolen]

"Ow! It's hot!" Brenna tossed it wildly from hand to hand, trying to do that without dropping the pick, but instead manages to drop both of them instead. "And stop looking at me like that! I had no idea, okay? Since she doesn't seem to want to move-" she angled a head towards Holly- "what say we each grab an arm, then make like a tree and leave?"

[Chibi MitchellTF]

"Good idea. But first..."

Lily rips off a bit of her shirt, and uses it as protection to quickly drop the hot pebble in her pocket. Then she gets close to Holly, near her left arm. She turns to Guen, and holds up three fingers. Then two. Then one.

With the timing, when she would hold up zero, she instead lunges for Holly's arm.

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna nodded; it was obvious that Lily wanted to be silent, and at this point, she wasn't going to argue.... On the count of three she too leaped- well, half-leaped, half-stumbed- forward, grabbing for Holly's opposite arm....

[Chibi MitchellTF]

(Let's wait for Stellar to do the rest.)