"Don't-!"

A hand slammed over her feathered shoulder.

"Don't ... Go down there."

Looking back she saw the light-hued hair, white like snow, with the vivid blue eyes framed in a face of perfect, pale peach. His lips were two thin lines, curved together as he perused the long, dark tunnel ahead of them.

"Don't," he repeated as he drew her back to him.

Stare allowed the step to take place. She felt the weight of his tall form press against her back. Looking back to the mine shaft she clacked her tongue against the inside of her beak, lightly adjusting her eyes to be able to see further into the gloom.

She saw more tunnel, curving deep into the side of the hill and into the landscape of stoney night. It was where she had seen the men from the ship go to, where they had built their tunnel in the pursuit of fortune. Perhaps they had found it, with this strange new substance, or perhaps there were other things that waited besides. Stars, caught in the material, like she had seen in the cut by the village. Bugs, frozen beneath the ash. Villages, strangled to death by this swathe of dark rock they called obsidian.

"It was where they went," she grunted, raising a clawed hand and pointing down into the depths. She knew that he could see into the dark as well. The long, dusty path into the earth, with wooden struts to hold up the ceiling. If it needed it.

"Indeed, but it does not mean it is where we should go," Vitruvion said slowly.

Again, she glanced back at him. This time, however, she saw that he was deliberating, considering. Personally, for her, she saw no harm in beginning down a mine. Especially with him. Though she had been back and forth from death and been through a thousand hells recently, it had not dulled her spirits. Instead, it had made her more determined to face what the world had to give, even if they were away from all they had known, preparing to start life anew.

Away from everyone and everything else.

"You brought us here, my lord - Vitruvion," she pulled away from him enough to turn and stare at him. "Brought us here to begin again. And we came to the source so that you can know the dangers directly. Well, here is a potential one," she nodded her beak at the tunnel. "A way even to make money. That is what you are good at, is it not?"

His brow raised. "I am good at many things my dear, making money is one of them."

"Okay, so ..."

She smiled with her eyes.

He narrowed his, as he glared at her. For a moment he was silent, and she could tell from his expression that he was considering it. Thus, she remained silent, agitation coming into her, the need to just know what was down there irritating her.

"Fine," he grunted and set a hand on her shoulder again. This time he moved her, pushing her lightly out of the way as he took the first stride down the tunnel.

"But I am going first."