R. A. T. H

Thirty vol.2

The scent of water lingered in the air. The wind howled, blowing its rage across the realm the trio found themselves in. Thick, dark, clouds covered overhead. The dancing of water droplets, falling like a pulse storm, blanketed the moody sky in gloom as white lightning filled the atmosphere and thunder rumbled. For a moment, Rose thought the element of nature was frowning at her earlier attempt at borrowing its power, laughing at her once more.

"Oh come on," Elsa snarled those words out, finding herself completely soaked in an instant. Her black hair, though short, was long enough to stick to her cheeks and the base of her neck as water rolled down her shorts and knee-length socks. She gritted her teeth, breathing out to the realization that her breath lingered in the air, cold and frigid, before dissipating. "Goddammit."

Naturally, she had lived in the desert her whole life. Wetness? Rare beyond a shower. Coldness? Only if not dying of a heatstroke counted as 'cold'.

"It seems we'll have to brave the weather and the terrain as we track down the guardian or door of this floor," Lilias commented besides her, breath also lingering in the air momentarily, tail swinging lightly about, annoyed perhaps, splashing rain from its smooth, now glistening, surface.

Rose nodded as she squinted into the distance.

The terrain wasn't kind. It was murky, muddy even. There were trees, overgrown grass, and vines draping over branches and dead logs. Then there was the lurking beasts in the storm, crimson eyes far, but not too far for her own. If she had to place a tag on the land, it seemed like the entire 3rd floor was a dim marshland that lost its luster molded together with a swamp. A first for her, really. She looked below and moved her legs to the realization that they were located deep in murk and grim. She frowned, hating the feeling, almost enough to recoil. 'This is far worse than sand.'

Still, she wasn't one to be deterred. It was simply one more thing she had to step through and face.

"Let's get started," She spoke as she reached a hand forward. Flame sparked, dancing atop her right palm, glowing in the mingling of orange, like the soft fluorescence of a campfire. Warmth and light pervaded their small area, a little cove of murk smacked between intertwining, dying, trees that stuck out of the nearly knee-deep filthy waters and the odd islands of muddy grass.

"I don't want to stay here longer than needed," She added.

Her ponytail and the flap of her hood blew with the rainstorm as she took a long drag of a step forward, feet rising from mud before plunging back down into the unknown of the waters beneath them. She could feel small waves, tingling sensations perceivable thanks to her heightened senses and tension. Clearly, there were animals swimming there.

"That's it," Elsa's voice came from beside her, arms close to her body, hugging herself as she trekked. The wetness of the rainstorm did not go well with the low temperature of the dungeon's floor. Her figure changed in the next moment into a white wolf that gingerly stepped beside Rose. Even the color of its fur seemed drained in the murky atmosphere, highlighted only by the luminescence of the homunculus's orange flames.

As they winded between small islands of mud mounds, dodged past a floating log, dragged their feet through the low waters, and waded past decaying trees, Rose eyed her friend's shifted form with a raising brow.

"Are you sure you can maintain that?" She asked.

"As long as I don't go shooting off my abilities," Elsa revealed her canines, grinning, "I should be able to stay this way for a long time."

"Ah, the slight convenience of being a hollow." Rose smiled.

Elsa rolled her eyes.

"And I suppose you're staying in wolf form for its fur?" Lilias questioned, wiping a lock of sticky hair blocking her eyes. With the longest hair among the three of them, and wearing shorts with normal-length socks, she seemed to have it the worst between them, yet her face showed nothing of the sort. She was perpetually placid, even more so than Rose, who was rather disgusted by her surroundings.