Excavation: Completed

[Mistress Guendolen]

The word "investigate" finished snapping Brenna's mind back to reality. "Rope? It's back at the site, right? Ooo, can I check it out first?" Now apparently fully recovered (being of a resilient nature), she scampered over to the edge of the hole, peering within. "Wow! Come check this out! Little tiny crystals everywhere!... Hey, you all right there, Prof?"

[Mitera Nikkou]

"Never been better..." Donald replied wittily, wincing as he sat up. "Although I think that my back doesn't agree with me..."

Looking around, he soon found Brenna where the rock had been.

"Perhaps we shouldn't disturb what you found in there... After what just happened, I don't want to risk anything happening to any of you."

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily shakes her head. "Archeology is about risk. We can't simply abandon a find like this. The rock started glowing, shot us with beams of light, and then disappared. Plus, with the forest as strange as it was...We can't just abandon something with so much unknown knowledge. If we turn back because of fear, how can we call ourselves men? Er...women in many cases."

[Mistress Guendolen]

She offered him a hand up. "There you go! Guess you've been in this field so long you're indestructible, huh?... And how can we figure out how that happened if we don't investigate it? I mean, this was something really weird! We might have found a new element or something!... We promise we'll be careful, right?..." Even as she spoke, her eyes went back to the crystals. It was quite obvious that she was itching to check them out, and only holding back out of respect for the professor.

[Mitera Nikkou]

After accepting the hand and being helped up, he sighed, saying, "Look, I understand what you both mean, but... The risks that archaeologists tend to come across, are tombs collapsing, or having a bad encounter with a local animal, insect or native people. This isn't anything that we can prepare for, because we don't know the risks. At the very least, let's leave it for now and take some time to consider what we can do, after what we have just experienced. If we should retrieve that crystal, it will only be because we have taken at least some amount of precautions. And I'm afraid that I will not budge from my position about this."

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily sighs. "Darn. Well, we should at least get some rope and climbing gear ready, since that is the most obvious precaution."

[Mitera Nikkou]

"A means of reaching the crystal, you mean." Donald quipped, raising an eyebrow.

Donald looks down the hole to inspect the glowing crystal.

"Hmmmm... Whatever we do, it won't involve touching it with our hands, even with gloves on. It all seems to be intact, so we could probably extract it with some extension... I'd like to wait until tomorrow to see if the glow goes away. If it does, it might be a good sign. If it doesn't, well... That kind of property tends to be bad, if you're exposed to it."

He turned away from the hole and climbed out of the pit.

"So, let's all retreat to our tents and keep our distance for now. If we risk exposure to something, it's best that we avoid being exposed."

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna was very disappointed that she couldn't go check out the crystal immediatey. "Rats. And here I got my hopes up...." She cast a longing glance over to the crater. The shiny crystal was so beckoning.... But if she wanted to be able to stay in this site, she figured she'd better go along with this. At least for the present.... Maybe she could talk him around....

[Mitera Nikkou]

(OOC: Oh, I thought I had put this in my last post... <.<; I won't post until Stellar's next post, just so you know. I need more input from her. :O *Stamps a 5 on Stellar's head* ;p)

[Stellar]

(Curse my lack of internetness. I'll fill in what Holly was doing while time lapsed XD)

"Oh crap!" Holly yelped and jumped back as the stone flashed and dissapeared. For a few moments she sat on the ground waiting for the blur in her eyes to fade away.

Once her vision was normal she got up and moved to the pit over hearing the discovery of the crystals. Her eyes lit up at the new find, wanting to dig them out. Holly looked to the professor and knew by the look on his face he wouldn't let anyone go down the hole.

Holly turned, tapped her chin, and made her way back to the camp. At the pavillion she took a cracker and munched slowly, thinking. "I've never heard of a dangerous crystal.. The rock didn't do anything to me, and I was sitting on it," Holly sighed and finished the cracker. She gazed out to the dig site seeing Donald lay down the law, and the dissapointment in Brenna and Lily. "Hm."

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna saw that Holly was just as disappointed as she was about not being allowed to poke at the crystals yet. She casually wandered over in the other girls' direction. "Hey," she said quietly, "what say we try to work out a plan of action to try to persuade him to let us dig up those things after all?"

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Lily heads back to her tent, and gets some rope and climbing gear together. She also looks through a guide on how to use it, and sees if there are any precedents on handling fun glowy crystals.

[Mitera Nikkou]

(OOC: I hope you understand why I'm doing this, though it shouldn't be anything but a summary of what would have happened post for post.)

Throughout the rest of the day, discussion over the glowing crystal, and the events that preceded it, continued. By the time the sun had set, Donald had reached a sort of compromise with the adventurous youths: if the crystal stopped glowing by the next morning, or the glow had faded significantly, he'd allow them to procure it as they wished. However, if it still glowed, he would retrieve it himself and move it away from the camp, as a safety precaution. First and foremost was the safety of his charges, and he would rather others handle the unknown crystal.

While he knew that they understood his position, he was worried if they would listen to him or not. However, he decided to place his trust in them, and felt that he could go to sleep without anyone going to the unguarded/unwatched crystal during the night.

In the girl's tent, in the twilight hours of the morning, a lantern was lit.

(NOTE: Okay, at this point, either it's someone going to the bathroom, or someone going for the crystal. Or it can be a group effort. Or even someone going to the bathroom, accidentally waking someone up, getting into a conversation about a crystal, and then deciding to go to the crystal. or getting up, intent on going to the crystal, and you wake up the others to ask if they want to join in. It's up to you; it'll work no matter what anyone chooses to do.)

[Mistress Guendolen]

Brenna's stomach was rumbling loadly. She rolled over, mumbling, "Soo... hungry...." It growled again, louder and more insistent. Well, she hadn't had anything to eat in a few hours, so.... "All right, all right...." she muttered, rolling sleepily out of bed. Because she hadn't figured out just where all her limbs were yet, this resulted in her landing face-down on the floor. "Oh, yeah... glasses'd be good...." she murmured, voice still thick with sleep. A hand groped around on the little camp table near her bed; after a few fumbling tries, she was able to grasp the glasses and put them on her face. Her vision cleared. "Tha's better...."
Another insistent tummy-rumble. "All right, all right, I'll get y' a snack. Jus' hold onna minute...." She grabbed a shirt and threw it around herself as a token to the fact that she was going to be ambling across the campsite; she might not expect to meet anyone at this hour, but hey, you never know. And while she really didn't care who saw what, she knew other people sometimes got awkward about it, so she tried to watch it.... But she was still too bleary and sleepy to bother buttoning it, or even pull on a pair of pants or her boots; it was a long shirt, after all. And she was just going to get a snack....
After a few tries, she was able to get a lantern lit. With it in hand and still yawning, she wandered out of the tent in search of a snack to sustain her until actual wake-up time the next morning. As she meandered along, there was the pit with the crystals in the distance.... And after all day of being denied exploration, it was still compelling.... "Snack first. Then 'splore," she told herself, rummaging for something to munch on. Still eyeing the pit the whole time....

[Stellar]

Holly had been up for a couple hours now. In respect to the elder she took it upon herself to guard the pit from anyone trying to feed their adventerous ambitions.

It probly would have been disproved by the professor, where she was at guarding the crystals, but they were such a beautiful sight, especially in these hours of the night. So there she sat, on the ledge of the hole the rock created the day before, gazing down at the formation.