It isn't late at night, but it is late in the year, and the sun went about its business quickly ere it departed.
Jacqueline Somer walks beside a busy road, with her back to oncoming traffic, which she's read you aren't supposed to do but it makes the stupid LED headlights somewhat less unbearable.
She flinches every time a car passes her.
Cars are loud, and she has enhanced hearing.
She'd be much happier, she thinks, in a world without automobiles.
"When was the last time someone had a fatal accident on one of these ladders?"
"Huh, I don't think that's ever happened before. It's not that hard to hold onto a rope. If your foot slips out or something you should still have 3 points of contact."
"Ohhh, that's what you're worried about. No need to be scared, that's magic rope, put in by our ancestors, it keeps itself in the same condition as when it was made."
She had more questions about the rope! Do they think they could cut it if they tried? Is rope-making a lost art? Can she have a rope attached to something up here to catch her if she falls?
Owl peers over the edge and doesn't see the bottom. The two warriors have climbed down about twenty feet, and seem to be slowing down. The ladder ends about 30 feet down onto a small piece of rock jutting out from the canyon wall. The two of them look up.
The rope is clean and dry and has about as much elasticity as one would expect from rope.
Upon reaching the bottom Owl sees that the outgrowth of rock sticks out just a foot below the entrance to a tunnel underground. Seren drops down besides Owl, after trailing close behind.
She'll follow them into the tunnel--and away from the ledge!
She's along because she can see in the dark. Do the Apex members have their own source of light?
They do not, but it doesn't seem to hinder them as they progress, avoiding uneven terrain and not running into any walls. They walk with the confidence of those who can also see in the dark.
Owl feels their battery cap drop to nigh nothing as they enter the darkness.
It was already pretty near zero, to be honest.
But this whole scenario is starting to weird her out.
When she was asked to go into a cave and "find a reasonable place to set up tents, make sure we have access to water and whatnot", she'd assumed that she'd be going into an unexplored cave, and not one with a magical ladder outside.
She doesn't know what's going on. She should figure out what her companions think is going on.
"What's the plan?"
There's a growing sense of unease.
If they can see in the dark, what did they even need her for? She's not saving them any smoky torches.
Call it paranoia, but unless and until she has a better idea of what's going on, she's going to hang back from these strangers and be ready to break for the exit.
"We are going to do a sweep from here up to a surface entrance, clearing out any hazards on the way and deciding on which cavern to set up in. There tend to be streams that run on either side of the tunnel at certain points before they dip back underground, but the points they emerge change over the weeks it takes us to get to each new plateau and we are not sure why. We want to find a cavern that has surface water for the caravale as well as another one for the tribe."
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