For all intents and purposes, Drake was against the idea. It was Vela who fought tooth and nail for the expedition to happen, despite her condition, and Raile even agreed to it so long as Drake did the majority of the work. And so, they found themselves at the entrance to one of the most impressive structures that the draconian had ever seen in his entire life, which wasn’t much in all fairness.

Still, even Vela had to have been in awe at the ruinous city that they had marked. The skies above were filled with shards of giant chunks of earth, floating above the numerous bridges and structures leading to the grand palace farther along. Glorious waterfalls fell from some of these, creating miniature rainbows dotted across the skies, while other rocks held mini forests, and some even small mountains.

“The endemic life must love this place,” Drake said as he looked farther on. “Since you don't have use of your wings, I’d say take it easy and let me test the weight on a lot of this…” He looked at her for a moment, and turned his attention back to the path ahead. Despite it seeming sturdy, the stone structures had vines and grass growing up between bricks. Some of the stronger plants had caused large cracks and crevices to form, and there were parts of the bridge head that had already crumbled and fell below.

They had camped out a little ways away, and left just before sunrise, which left them both a little awestruck at the scene before them. In the morning light, it was finally easier to see that Drake had changed into a short sleeve tunic and leather vest, his cloak left back in the tent as it might snag on just about anything. There was a backpack strapped to his back with various tools that he thought they might need, as well as a few ‘borrowed’ items from Raile.

“Well…let’s get going then,” Drake said as he started forward. “Just…let me know what needs to be done. Where to first? Some of these smaller structures? Or do we head straight for the palace?”

Raile had managed to get her quite the intricate outfit of yellow, red, and maroon. It had a long skirt like sash, dancer-like pants, and the shirt was off-shoulder. Only one of her arms had a long yellow finger-less glove with one of her fingers ringed into the glove. The only hand had a short glove that looked much the same. The material was made of silk though which caused her to be more careful. “God damn Raile and thinking ahead.” She was getting dressed in her new wears as she tied her long white hair up into a ponytail.

Vela nodded to him as she looked around, “This place is gorgeous. It’s the prettiest ruins I’ve ever been in.”

She tilted her head at Drake and nodded, “Fine since I’m still in trouble for wrecking an entire tavern. Come on dragon boy.” They walked across the first bridge and she was taking a look. “There should be a series of caves here somewhere. We should set up a base camp here in the city though. We can use one of the houses that are still standing.”

Vela helped herself down as she tied some rope to lower herself into town, “Well do you want to go first, or do you trust me? On second thought~” She grabbed him and threw them both over as she activated magic and they were weightless as she held him like a distressed princess as they slid down the rope. “See I’m romantic.” She held him bridal style at the very end. “Oh… The magic is…” It cut short and she fell to the ground with him on top of her.

It was a shock and surprise to have been thrown off the side of the edge, and he was about to spread his wings until Vela caught him, handling him like he was the bride in a wedding. Still, she seemed to have misjudged her magic, and the two of them fell the last bit with the draconian landing solidly on top of her. It took him a moment to reorient himself and stand up, and he groaned.

“You know, I can fly, right? Just…warn me next time and I can save us the pain.” He held out his hand to help Vela up. The two settled on a two story house-like structure with a second story, open balcony as the base, and it wasn’t long before they were standing on the balcony, scanning for the cave system that Vela was talking about.

“Not seeing it yet,” Drake said as he looked with his draconic eyesight. “Where did you even hear about these caves? Are we sure they even exist?” He wasn’t exactly too sure about how Vela got her information. He wondered if her contacts were of the unsavory kind of life. Vela did seem like the kind of woman to get into trouble and have ambushes set out for her.

“Oh, wait…what’s that there?” he said as he pointed off in the distance. “Is that it?”

“I know you can fly. That wasn’t the point. We can’t always be so serious~ We gotta have fun together too! By the size of that medical bill, we’re going to be together for a long time.” She took his hand so he could pull her up.

Vela had pulled out a scope and was looking around with him since her eyesight wasn’t as good as his. “The library.” She looked up at him. “Is that shocking?” She followed it up with a shrug, “Got the name of the ruins through strip poker though. I’ll have you know I only lost my socks. I’ve played poker with Raile too much to lose to anyone else.”

Vela turned to where Drake was pointing and she checked it out through the scope. “Looks like it. Alright, we got daylight to burn and this place isn’t the best at night. That gives us a few hours to get in and start to light the way and hopefully start finding stuff.” She coiled the rope up and put it around her shoulder before taking his hand and pulling him.

“There’s no guarantee you can fly in here. We’ll have to be careful and rely on each other. You know teamwork.” She got them to the entrance of the caverns and looked down in. “We might need to fly in and see where a good spot is to start. This is almost a straight drop down.” She kicked a large rock down in and listened. There was a faint knock from it hitting the bottom. “A long way down.”

Drake looked down the hole and whistled as the sound of the rock hitting bottom echoed back. “A long way down indeed.” He sighed, crossing his arms. “Too tight for my wingspan too. Didn’t think we’d hit this so early.” He was visibly frustrated. It was obvious to Vela that he was used to having unrestricted access to his wings. He shrugged, though, and tossed another rock, closing his eyes to listen.

“It’s far enough that I can drop without an issue. Want me to go ahead while you climb down?” Even without his wings, he was still a dragon, and could take quite a fall. Climbing up, though, was a different story. “I can at least set up some lights as I head down. Maybe dig into the cavern walls and set some climbing holds?” He was half talking out of his ass. He had no idea what to do, and his limited experience in free climbing was usually with the safety net of his wings.

“Just let me know…you’re the expert here.”

“As long as you think you’ll be safe,” Vela smiled a bit and got the rope ready and secure. “Just catch me if I for some reason fall.”

She watched as Drake set up lights on the way down. Once it was lit Vela sealed her wings with magic so she could squeeze down without hurting herself. She slid down the rope and landed next to Drake. “See? Not that bad.” She patted Drake on the shoulder as she lit her own torch.

The temple below lit up and there was etched stone everywhere. “This is amazing right?” She smirked at him. “Even better than tavern brawls! We got a few hours before we need to climb back up and go back to camp so let's at least set up a little space here for when we go exploring tomorrow. How does that sound? A work station would be a good start.”

She put her bag down before she started to make some make-shift tables out of discarded wood and large stone. “What do you think? Think it will hold?” She pushed on it before she vaulted herself up onto it and sat down kicking her legs out at Drake. “And it’s safeeee!”

There was a look on her face though, “Hey… if for some reason a group of angels show up… You don’t know me okay? This is going to be important for our partnership. I don’t exist if they show up asking about me.”

Once they both hit bottom, Drake was aware of their closeness, and moved deeper into the cave. There was a small alcove at the start, which Vela used to conveniently set up a small table, to which she immediately sat on, kicking her legs out. The draconian flushed, glancing to the side.

“Looks sturdy enough,” Drake replied, walking over to a smaller table and setting down his supplies. He didn’t have much; just what Vela had told him to bring. For the most part, it was his physical attributes that would be the most useful here. “So we set up a little base here, and use this as a staging point for the rest of this section. Ultimately, we go back to the camp. Seems to work.” He looked over at her curiously, “Angels? I guess…I don’t see why that’s a problem.” He had a feeling she wouldn’t tell him anything.

He sighed, sorting out the materials. “So let’s get to work, then.” Drake walked out of the alcove, and motioned for Vela to follow.

The first part of the cavern was fairly basic, with a long tunnel that sloped downward. Off in the distance, Drake could hear the sounds of dripping water, and the skittering of small creatures. “There’s a food source of some kind. Probably an opening too,” he commented. “Any chance of danger?” He held the torch high. “Is that…” He saw something glimmering off in the distance. “The first find?”

Vela nodded and smirked, “Good. Just keep up that attitude. Normally, I get out of the area but thanks to my wing I can’t… fly fast enough to get away from them.” Vela wasn’t sure if she should be more honest with Drake. “I’ll tell you why at a later date… Only Raile knows. He got it out of me by getting me black out drunk of all things,” she rolled her eyes.

Vela set up torches that they could light on their way through either with fire or magic fire. “These will come in handy later if we want to go on a late-night expedition.” Listening to the animals she nodded, “Yeah, definitely somewhere down here. There are lots of underground plants that are edible here in Onnen.”

The angel got down and inspected the shiny, “Looks like…” She brushed it off and brought it up taking time to blow on it. “Ruby gold ring. Very fancy work. Delicate. Woman’s it looks like.” She held it up to him. “Very cool find. It’s the first of many. Since you found it first you should keep it to hold onto.”

She took his free hand and put it into it. “I have a stash all of my own for my first finds. They are important memories.” She patted his hand and continued on her way.

“Oh… and for what is dangerous down here… These lands are cursed by the dead. We need to be back at the safe house by night to be safe. Set up a bunch of light and avoid the windows."

The ruby gold ring was his first find, and Drake had a strange, warm feeling about it. It was strange that he felt the way he did about something so small, but when his memories were so fragile, he wondered if having mementos around might help him. He pocketed it and thanked Vela as they started to go deeper into the cave.

“Cursed by the dead?” he repeated. “Zombies, ghosts, reavers?” The draconian scoffed. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in them, but more that he wondered just how much of a threat they could be. Even though he had only recently remembered that he was a dragon, he knew that the force behind that would be more than enough to take care of anything that came his way.

“Though…this is a tight space,” he mused aloud. Drake sighed. “Well, if we do get caught out here, I can at least get us to safety. I’m not too worried.”

As they descended, they finally met a forked path. Vela took the lead, and chose to move down the left. Drake followed behind, wondering what made her pick this choice. His eyes wandered around the cave at the edge of the illumination that the torch provided, and finally to Vela’s back. For a moment, his eyes flickered down, if only to watch his step. He realized how that must have looked, and glanced away, blushing.

“Do we travel this whole path, and then double back? Or did your intuition tell you this was the only real path?” Drake asked.

“More like dead gods. Kanuri was the capital of the gods long before their fall and before they became rare. Gods were the first race of the world after all.” She held up her own torch as she checked things out. “They probably don’t have any power. Legend has it they got greedy and the World Tree wiped them out in a single night… all that remained were people like us and from us, the Tree chose the new gods but only a few.”

Vela was following her instinct she felt something, smelled something, and her eyes were focused. “Well, I always follow what feels right. It’s not always right.” She looked back at Drake and smiled at him. “However,” she continued around a corner and held up her torch to a huge door that looked locked. “I think… We need to come back tomorrow morning.”

She set up a string of torches so they could easily find their way back to the door. “Who knows what is behind there and… We do need to get back.” She took his hand and led him back and went through a small crack in a wall she found. “I’ll be right back.” She popped her head out of the crack. “Checking this out for a second.”

From the hole flew a skeleton at Drake and she began to laugh hard as she fell through the crack, “You should have seen the look on her face…. Ahhh I shouldn’t make fun of the dead when in the land of the dead… It sounded funny…” She made a face as she looked up at Drake. “There’s a mechanism inside this room here. It should open the door tomorrow but it doesn’t look good. If I open it there’s a chance the wall might collapse and I won’t be able to get back to you. What a pain.”