Clean Cup

[Rakeleer]

The figure in the blue-tinted shadows knew what a cliche he was.

Nevertheless, in the shadows he stayed, observing the grand spectacle below him, and rubbing his chin.

How did he get here?

Far below him was a city, but unlike any city he had seen before.  Great winged beasts flitted up and down the column of it\'s vast under-sky, illuminated by the glowing blue corona above like aliens moths around an alien flame.

Creatures the likes of which he had never seen (and that was saying a lot, for he was a seasoned traveller into strange places) roamed too and fro, exchanging things and words also foreign to him.

He calculated, he contemplated and he masticated mentally on the situation he was in.

He remembered a strange doorway, and being familair with strange doorways, he remembered poking his head through - just to see.

\"Well, that\'ll teach you, Rake.  Keep your nose out of strange glowing doorways,\" he said to himself, half laughing.

There was a noise from the tunnel behind him, and he couched himself further to the wall.

Just in case, he put his hand on his rapier and mentally prepared himself.

Whatever he, she or it was, he\'d be ready to fight, flee or fast talk his way through the encounter.

He hoped....

[Valfaran]

The noise grew louder, and could soon be distinguished as a sort of singing in a strange tongue, accompanied by the rhythmic patter of paws upon stone. The echoing sound grew until it was almost right next to Rakeleer, upon which point it ceased abruptly.

The inncoent face of a young bipedal cat-like creature emerged from the shadows, big, round golden eyes gazing inquisitively up at the unfamiliar being before it.

In a light, childish voice it queried, \"Maruko, amak dor letheen?\"

With unblinking eyes, it shifted its gaze from Rakeleers face to the weapon he carried, then back again.

[Rakeleer]

\"Alright\", Rakeleer thought to himself, \"Either it\'s friendly, or it likes conversation over meals.\".

He straightened up, and moved his hand away from his weapon.  The creature must have astounding senses, to catch him unwares so.  Best be friendly.

\"Lle quena i\'lambe tel\' Eldalie?  \"Ghurat m?nu Khazad?  iglishm?k?\"

\"I don\'t suppose you speak the common tongue?\"

Rakeleer tried to like as unimposing as possible. Which wasn\'t too hard, considering he looked like a pale Xacha, and the being across from him in the tunnel was essentially a giant feline.

He self-consciouly brushed stone dust off his vest.

[Valfaran]

The creature\'s eyes narrowed with concentration, obviously trying to comprehend what was said.

Unsteadily, it murmurs a few words. \"Quena....amin ai...Eldalie.\" Then, with a sudden look of comprehension, it smiles and utters a more formal greeting in a voice unmistakably female. \"Salutations, traveler. Pray you speak the same type of Common as I do?\"

Stepping forward, she nods and performs a strange sort of bow, crossing one arm diagonally across her chest and placing one foot in front of the other, bending slightly at the waist. The fingers belonging to the hand across her chest were splayed, showing a formidable claws.

[Rakeleer]

Rakeleer mimics the strange bow perfectly, thinking he likes the style, but wishing he didn\'t lack the claws.

\"Pray tell, beautiful stranger, what is this place called?  I\'mm uh..... well... lost.\"

Rakeleer put on his best disarming smile, and hoped it wasn\'t a show of agression or anything.  Learning new cultures can be treacherous.

[Valfaran]

With a slight side-tip of her head at his well-copied bow, she smiled a knowing smile and moved her arm in a sweeping gesture.

\"You do indeed appear as if you are...not from around here,\" she put delicately. \"This is the outskirts of the Stone Labrynth, not far from the city Ylaikum.\"

Examining the strange man\'s clothing a bit closer, she realized that he really wasn\'t from anywhere near here. There had been rumors of cultures on the Surface, and beyond, but you could never trust what the traveling Ylians and Xacha liked to spin tales about in the local taverns.

Realizing that her mind was wandering, the feline woman blinked and looked up once again. \"Excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Valfaran Gilagar of the House Quelfarn.\"

[Rakeleer]

\"It\'s a pleasure to meet you, Valfaran.  My name is Rakeleer Runerunner, and I suppose I can\'t claim to be from much of anywhere anymore.\"

One of the noises of biology caught his attention, and Rakeleer put his hand on his stomach, \"Say, where\'s a good place to find food?  I\'ve been cautious with the local wildlife, not knowing what\'s poisonous and what isn\'t.\"

The question of food that didn\'t have to be hunted brought the question of money to Rake\'s mind, and then he _really_ began to fret.  He tended to travel light, and all his fortune had been left with the banker.

How was he going to eat?!

[Valfaran]

Valfaran smiled slyly. \"Pleasure\'s all mine.\"

Looking around and taking a few carefull sniffs with her sensitive, pantherlike nose, she ran a paw across a slightly damp stony ledge. \"Well, what kind of food are you looking for, the fresh kind, the cooked kind, or the homemade kind?\"

Rubbing two fingers together tentatively, she looked beynd him into a dark passage.

[Rakeleer]

Rakeleer grinned.  He\'d known enough rangers to know what that look meant.

\"At this point, I\'d settle for the edible kind.  I\'m not squeemish.\"

If all the inhabitants of this new place were as friendly seeming as this one, Rakeleer thought,  he should have no problem getting along here.  There were bound to be new adventures, and new fortune to be made.

And home was, frankly, beginning to bore him.

This ought to prove interesting, he thought, and images of what the feline was going to suggest for dinner marched theough his head as \"adventure, the first\".

[Valfaran]

Distantly, she replied, \"Follow me.\"

Stalking down the dark tunnel with the innate silence of a feline, Valfaran touched a paw to one of the stone walls. Alert and ready for anything, she kept close to the cool stone and out of the center of the passage.

The temperature began to grow cooler, and more damp, but the darkness deepened and seemed to envelop the both of them. Valfaran\'s keen eyes even began to fail her in this darkness so complete.

Soon, however, a strange blue-green glow began to shine up ahead. She followed the tunnel towards it, always keeping one paw to the stone.

[Rakeleer]

Rakeleer followed, his eyes shining dimly in the low light, and his soft leather boots making no sound on the cave floor.

He wondered if Valfaran\'s hand on the wall was meant to be a means of navigation, or held some other signifigance, and filed the question away for later.

He wondered also if the cat being was leading him to food, or into a trap - but these paranoid sub-messages were a well honed stream in Rakeleer\'s mind; he aknowledged and dismissed them at the same time.

Since, regardless of the destination, it was bound to be fun!

[Valfaran]

Up ahead, the passage twisted sharply, and around the corner, the blue-green light shone even brighter. A small, sharp trickling sound echoed off the smooth walls, and dampness could now be felt in the air.

Pausing a moment before rounding the bend, Valfaran crouched with her ears perked forward, listening intently. Beyond the noise of running water were small, sharp croaks, accompanied by the click and burble of something unknown.

Satisfied with what she heard, Valfaran stood from her crouch and stepped \'round the corner.

A fairly large-sized cavern spread out before them, grey ledges jutting from tall rock faces, a trickling stream at the far end. The cavern floor was worn smooth, presumably by a previous flow of water. The most quaint thing about this, however, was that the entire scene was illuminated by the blue-green fungi that grew in prolific numbers along the damp walls and ledges of stone.

\"Say hello to lunch,\" Valfaran murmured happily, and she paced forward to further examine a patch of fungi.

[Rakeleer]

Rakeleer grinned and stepped into the peaceful tableu.

\"Amazing!  Is this whole world underground?\"

He went to one knee and cautiously prodded a patch of fungi with the tip of his dirk.

Taking a piece on the end of it, he examined it carefully.

\"If you eat this, that explains your fetching coloration.\"

He looked up and watched Valfaran, to see what the protocol was in this scenario.  No sense in having bad manners.  He had been lucky to find someone willing to help him, the last thing he needed to do was offend her.

[Valfaran]

Removing a small hidden dagger from her boot, she crouched down and removed a few mushroom-shaped morsels with a careful hand.

\"Well, some say that there is a surface, and it\'s even rumored that this Stone Labrynth, as we call it, leads up to it. My ancestors are believed to come from there. But yes, every place that is known for certainty beneath the Azure Sun is underground.\"

Valfaran stood up and turned the bit of mushroom over, examining the underside of its cap. Before eating it, she held it out in the palm of her hand, then touched two fingers to her forehead, her mouth, crossed them shoulder to shoulder across her chest, then picked up the food with that hand.

With a small smile, Valfaran took a bite of it and chewed, its bitter yet somehow tangy taste filling her mouth.

After swallowing, she sat and began to cut off other mushroom caps. \"Perhaps it runs in the blood. My...my mother was the same hue as I am, and her father, I believe. We\'ve all been fond of the Gru\'nek, the Azure Fungi.\"

[Rakeleer]

\"Gru\'nek.\"

Rakeleer tried the taste of the word before he attempted to reproduce the ritual with the mushrooms.

They had a very pleasant taste, something like morels, with a citris tone.

\"Have your people been in the Stone Labyrinth, or under the Azure Sun for a very long time?  That city looked quite bustling.\"

He chewed thoughtfully.

\"My people are called Demi`Dhal, where I come from.  Though really that essentially means \"child who shouldn\'t have been born\" \".

Rakeleer laughed ruefully.

\"But I suppose I will need a better explanation than that, unless there are others of my kind here?\"

\"What are your people called, Valfaran Gilagar of the House Quelfarn?\"