"It can't hurt to have a set of fresh eyes, Wingleader," a low female voice is saying somewhere back near the mid-point of the sprawl of the stores. Laeiva, the headwoman, stands with Rielle, clad in her leathers with the jacket hanging open. The teal-eyed brownrider's arms are folded as she considers the headwoman's words, feline-like gaze flickering across the shelves and barrels around them before returning forward. "My staff have investigated, as you know, but most of the time available for that is in the evenings, and…well, venturing so far back unnerves so many of them. Can you blame them?" Rielle shakes her head, stifling a rueful snicker. "No, I suppose I can't, Headwoman, and it's true enough I don't mind having a look." Her natural curiosity is going to win here, of course. Things have been disappearing from the stores for a while, but she's not had the chance to poke around herself until now. "Once my wing second gets here, we'll go have a look."

Z'bor is on his way! promise! In fact the freshly shaven green rider comes walking I. now, responding to the summons from Rielle. "Good Afternoon… " He greets as he enters the stores, catching snippets of conversation.

"Back here, Z'bor!" Rielle calls, lifting a hand to help guide the greenrider further. Once he's there, she gestures to Laeiva. "The Headwoman would like a bit more help trying to track down where various things have been getting to," she explains as the Headwoman dips her head in confirmation. "No one's been brave enough to venture into the darker spaces further back, however." A gently-angled brow arches as a corner of her mouth lifts. "Feel like doing a bit of tracking?"

Z'bor comes into view a short minute later, giving a nod of greeting to the Headwoman as he listens to what Rielle has to say. "Aye, finding I'd put salt in my Klah was not the best of mornings." He nods in regards to the tracking. "As long as its not felines, I'm game." Z'bor gives a chuckle and runs a hand through his hair, running over those rope like reminders of his feline encounters.

"I doubt felines would've been half so considerate," Laeiva notes flatly, and sighs, looking back to Rielle. "Please do let me know what you find, if anything. You know how to track me down." Rielle assures the Headwoman that they'll do their best, prompting Laeiva to dip a quick curtsey before bustling back toward the kitchens. Rielle, trying not to look to eager, quirks a smile at her wingsecond. "At least we have daylight to work with, though who knows how useful it'll be the further back we get. Let's find some glows, aye?" Both to carry themselves and to place along the way, should they need to.

Z'bor gives a bow in response to Laeiva's curtsy, his manners a thing of instinct. He chuckles at the comment the woman madenof felines and turns to Rielle. "Sounds like a good plan to me, always good to be able to see." Z'bor has his hunting knife strapped to his side too, just in case of tunnel snakes. You never know where you might find one. Z'bor goes digging about for the glow reserves and ends up finding a box of cotton cloth pads that are definitely not for male use. Well. Not that box.

Rielle chuckles as she moves over to a huge, stiff basket with a hinged lid, noting what Z'bor just came across. "Here," she says, flipping back the lid. "Things got moved a bit, obviously." Pulling out a small round basket of glows the size of a large fist with a clip strung to one end, she tosses it to the greenrider, then takes one for herself. A few more are pulled free before she shuts the basket again and attaches them to her belt. "Shall we?" If all is in order, she'll make her way toward the back of the stores, the shadows already deepening due to the sheer size of the cave. In the back corner, a dark portal opens up, a small set of stairs leading downward. "Have you ever gone exploring back here?" she asks, pausing to glance back at him.

Z'bor turns blushing a bit and catches the glows, clipping them to his belt and moving to grab a few extras as Rielle had. Better safe than sorry in his book. "Aye, right behind ya." Z'bor follows in relative quiet, watching as that dark portal looms. He shakes his head at Rielle's question. "Don't think I have actually, I've never had too much cause to go past the front of the stores."

Dark Cavern

This area is little more than an anteroom and currently piled high with both rubble and debris, looking almost intentionally so as the two are jumbled together in ways that do not suggest some kind of collapse. In fact, the wall appears solid, if the strip visible at the top is any indication. Whatever it was used for in the past, now it's just a filthy, dirty mess that will take some sweat and strong backs to clean.

Antechamber

Here lies a smaller room between one cavern and the next. It's not so large, just an entranceway really. Glow baskets are fixed to the walls on either side of the tall ornate door to illuminate this space. There are a couple of benches, meant both for a person to sit down on and also as storage. Because we wouldn't want boxes to just straight up sit on the floor, right? The floor is recently dusted and it seems like everything has been scrubbed clean.

Now there's the blush Rielle was expecting! She tries not to make her grin too teasing as she takes point before Z'bor, thumbing open the glow basket in her hand to cast light upon the stairs. It's a short flight down, and she shakes her head at the dirty, rubble-strew room beyond. "Honestly, just some light and a little courage and this wouldn't take too long to clean up," she scoffs as they pass through the space, lifting her glows to see if there's a spot to put and of their spares. There's nothing that looks specifically reserved for lighting, so she opens one of the little baskets on her belt and leaves it atop a pile of debris before moving on. The next room doesn't really feel like a room, but it's much cleaner. The glows are dead here, so she empties the baskets on the wall and refills them. "Seems a bit backwards," she notes, and pauses to survey the benches. "See anything so far?"

Z'bor is definitely confused by the fact that the last room had been sondark and dirty, yet this one seems maintained, at least somewhat. "No but it is odd that there seems to be such inconsistent maintenance down here."

Secret Garden

Ornate brass handles are kept shiny and bright, their age belied by tarnish in deep crevices. Brackets on the wall hold glow baskets to keep the smallish sized cavern lit up. On sunny days light spills through an iron-framed window fitted into a natural break in the weyr wall, invisible to the eye from above.

The sound of running water echoes like a ghost from a small pool set back just beyond the reach of the light. Fed by some subterranean stream that remains unseen, the water is cool and crisp. Small, dark fish dart in the shadows of stones and water plants. All around the little pond a soft carpet of mossy grass and ferns grow, some of it having gone over the carefully laid stone barrier to keep it in check. It would seem this place was at one time an indoor garden, but whether for work or recreation has long since been lost to knowledge. It is now a place of quiet and repose. Retreat. Vegetation abounds in raised stone beds, herbs and flowers alike. Though the growth in beds is wild, there was certainly a lot of thought put into the delicate but functional layout. Chairs, couches, bookshelves and desks fill the space forming clusters of seating areas. In the shadows, there's the outline of another door.

"That's what I'm saying," Rielle counters as they push on through a door with somewhat out-of-place handles made of ornate, tarnished brass. The cavern beyond is a surprise, one that brings Rielle to a halt for a moment. "Now I'm really regretting not having explored back here more. This is beautiful," she says, and starts moving around the pond, quietly delighted by the fish until she recalls the reason they're there again. "Plenty of places to hide things here, but at least it's not a big place. You go left, I'll go right?"

Z'bor follows Rielle in and let's out a low whistle of appreciation. "We should start doing our homework down here." He jokes, already liking the sort of wild serenity that reigns here. He nods at her last. "Sure thing wingleader." Z'bor snaps off a playful salute and begins walking towards the left, keen eyes on the lookout for anything unusual, which, might be a bit of a chore, considering the chairs, bookshelves and couches all look a bit out of place yet not. Z'bor shakes his head and moves to a shelf that has lost war with a creeping vine. He pokes about it's few contents, a broken cup, an old worn out hide, some dust, not much to see here.

Rielle inspects another shelf for possible clues, though like Z'bor, finds nothing. As she makes her way along the wall, however, she spots a new way forward. "Door here," she calls to the greenrider, and sheds a bit more light on the ground in front of it. "Recently passed through, judging by the clean sweep here. Though if other people in the Weyr know about this place…" She shrugs. It could be a clue, or it could just be sign of a regular passerby going to whatever lies beyond. "Let's keep going," she says, and pulls the door open, giving Z'bor a little grin before stepping through. Hopefully they'll come across something more out of place soon, or else the brownrider is going to need reminding about why they're doing this!

Catacombs

The creaky door from the subterranean herbal garden swings open to reveal a steep staircase downwards and into the bowels of the weyr. Debris have been cleared away, yet the area is still dusty and the air stale from disuse. Cobs too are not an usual sight, they feel expected. As if they belong here. Glows have been hung near the surprisingly high ceiling, illuminating an entranceway to more of the catacombs. Pillars flank the tall opening, guarded by the watchful eyes of winged serpentine creatures. They're almost dragon-like, but not quite. And beyond them the tunnels seem quite dim. The build of the walls is smooth, the stone cut by man and not the occurrence of time and nature taking its course.

Z'bor moves over to Rielle when the shelf gives up nothing, nodding as she comments about the door. "Aye, I'm sure this place is probably no true secret, it's not that far in." Z'bor gives a curt nod at the idea of going in and moves in after Rielle, closing the door behind them. "I didn't know it was such a warren down here."

"Neither did I," Rielle says as they find themselves descending a substantial staircase, and coughs lightly as their passage stirs up a bit of dust. Cobwebs become increasingly prevalent, stirred by their arrival and the unfelt whispering of a seemingly source-less draft further on. Then they find themselves in a high-ceilinged chamber lit by glows that are obviously kept fresh by someone. The brow rider pauses, studying the serpent-carved pillars curiously. "This…must be the catacombs," she notes quietly, though isn't sure what compels her to keep her voice low. "I remember hearing about them." There are two possible ways to go: ahead to the left or right.

Z'bor gets a bit of a chill down his spine as they descend the staircase, gooseflesh prickling on his arms and at the nape of his neck. He coughs a couple of times himself on the way down and he feels a bit dusty all over by the time they walk into the large cavern. His brown eyes look around, the serpent carved pillars giving him a bit of the heebs. "Ok….now this place creeps me out." He comments, hand running through his hair. And it does. A catacombs means bodies…creepy. Z'bor's eyes drop to the floor as they move further in, quickly glancing right, but giving full attention to the left first. And good thing he does because,"Rielle, look over here…" , Z'bor gives Rielle's shoulder a friendly swat and juts his chin to the left. "Footprints to the left here."

Rielle has been around a dead body or two in her day…but not this many, and thinking on the number of skeletons that might be down here isn't altogether pleasant. So she doesn't, and is grateful when Z'bor spots those footprints. She crouches to survey them more closely. "Hmm. They're…small," she notes. Smaller than she was expecting, evidently. "Let's see where they go." Forward and left it is!

Eastern Catacombs

The hollow halls of the catacombs are full of twists and turns. There are many paths to take, all having the opportunity to bring a person to the end of their individualized journey. This particular choice brings one into what once must have been a grand old chamber. Tile work rises up from the floor, now crumbled and cracked. A deep square in the floor, banked by old slabs of marble would suggest this was once a bathing cavern. Instead it's just another testament to lost grandeur and what once should have been filled with warm swirling waters, is a nest to vermin. Glows are fixed to the rounded ceiling, allowing for a better visual of the intricacy of the tilework.

Catacombs Tunnels

If a person didn't suffer from claustrophobia before, there's a solid shot of them developing it now. The walls here have been unevenly hollowed out and they seem to be closer to you in some spots than in others. A short set of stairs at the end of the hall leads into a more well lit area, however the hall seems so far. It's unlikely you'll be able to reach it without the rough, cloying walls of scratching your skin. That light and hint of fresh air is so far away. What appears to be shelves have been etched out. And maybe at one point this was just an overflow area used for storage, but right now it just feels like a place for tunnelsnakes to hide. It's almost like you can feel their eyes watching you.

Z'bor steps into the tunnel and near wishes he didn't. It seems a bit….tight, and he's not a small man in musculature. "Well, lets hope it doesn't get much tighter than this, or you might be inching forward alone Rielle." He chuckles, but there's a chilled sweat beginning at the name of his neck. He's never really had a problem with tight places, but this feels like being in a stone coffin.

Rielle is taking her time, not only to be sure they're still tracking the footprints, but also because the changing architecture around them is piquing her curiosity more and more. "This is feeling more like…an old part of the Weyr that just fell into disuse for some reason, not a burial ground. The room before this seemed more like an old bath; did you notice?" she asks, turning to Z'bor and registering just how much he fills the space they're passing through. "Sorry. Are you claustrophobic, Z'bor?" she asks, genuinely concerned. She glances forward toward a short set of stairs coming up, a short bend turning the path ahead more to the east. "The footprints keep going. It might be tight, but I think you'll fit…" She's leaving it up to him whether or not to press on. It'll be easy enough for her…but she'd really rather not go alone, fascinated though she may be.

Z'bor nods. "Aye, whomever decided the construction on these caverns had an odd sense of design." At Rielle's question about claustrophobia, Z'bor shakes his nead. "No, not normally." Z'bor swallows. "But I don't think I've ever been in quarters quite this narrow before. I'll be alright, long as I don't get stuck. Let's go, eh?" Z'bor doesn't like the look of all those possible snake holes.

Catacombs Ruins

Claustrophobia gives way to higher ceilings and the promise, somewhere of //natural light. From that place where light enters, the shadows are drawn long across this expanse of hall. Thick columns provide the support for alcoves that might have once contained benches, but now hold nothing. A disused grate lies against the floor, near to an old ventilation shaft. Echoes and noises from the other tunnels can be heard very faintly. While it's clear that this area has been cleaned up, it's still obvious that time has taken its toll. Crumbling bricks and cracked foundations aren't uncommon sights. At the end, there's nothing. It's a dead end! Such a cruel joke. Except where it's not, a 'trapdoor' is set into the ground. A few good tugs can break it open and lead to a short staircase and a tunnel beyond.//

With a nod and a squeeze given to her wingsecond's shoulder, Rielle takes them onward down the stairs, relieved that they end up in another larger cavern that's being partially lit by grey daylight. More columns, more alcoves, and the cracked floor makes it hard to determine where the footprints have gone. Yet it seems to no avail; she can't see any other doors or passages anywhere. "No! It can't just stop here," she exclaims, frustrated. "I don't even see anything stashed as though someone might come here often or even just…visit. Do you, Z'bor?" Of course, just as she finished speaking, she notes an oddly square shadow in the ground ahead and starts toward it. "Hmmm…"

Z'bor seems just as perplexed by the seeming dead end as his wingleader. He scores at the room as Rielle mini-rants and shakes his head when she asks if he sees anything, that is, until he too spots that odd square shadow upon the floor. He moves with Rielle. "What do you suppose that is?" He asks, jerking his head toward it.

Rielle, now shining glowlight on that dark square, is surprised to find it fashioned of wood that is clearly not as ancient as most everything else in these tunnels. She thumps it with her foot and finds it hollow beneath…and also disturbs a rope handle in the process. She crouches to grab it and pulls, giving a few good tugs before it gives way, tarnished iron hinges moaning in pitiful protest. Once the shower of dust and dirt clears, a set of stairs leading downward becomes visible, much to the wingleader's triumph. "Down the hatch it is, then," she says to Z'bor with a grin, and descends without further hesitation.

Cave Entrance

The stifling, stale air of the catacombs opens up into this lush rich section of the jungle. It's too densely populated by plantlife to be reached by dragonback and secluded enough that it likely hasn't been heavily traveled by hunters. Cool blue waters pool in front of the caves opening, tumbling over age worn stones into an active stream that leads down into the river below. The expanse of Southern's bowl wall looms overhead, contributing to the shadowy atmosphere of the area. Mossy rocks cluster around the water, soft and inviting to a person that's just spent too much time underground in the dark. An enterprising person has begun the work have chopping a path around the wall, leading to the main drag of the weyr's territory.

You see Thieving Kiddies' Camp here.

Thieving Kiddies' Camp

Here's a tent, though it seems to have been made from a couple of bedsheets and slung over a rope between two trees, with pulled-up grass on the floor inside. There's a little fireplace outside the tent. The kids that made it have been creative as well as busy: there's a table made from sticks, and a rack to store their goodies. They've equipped their home-from-home with tools and supplies: a knife, plates, spoons, a cooking pot, bottled fruit, jars of jam… and a number of other things that have been missed from the Stores recently. If you're in luck - or maybe out of it - you may also find the little villains themselves, a trio of angelic-looking nine-turn-olds called Verika, Biffon, and Suzie, whose innocent appearance belies their inventiveness in mischief and skill in making adults feel totally helpless.

Z'bor lifts his eyes in surprise when they find the trap door. He gives Rielle a wry grin, and follows her down. What they find at the bottom has the Serval wingsecond wide eyed and surprised. "Well… I think we can rule out adults…" He quips as his eyes take stock of the miniature camp. He goes looking around, hunter's mind checking for tracks and signs of a cook fire. Tracks he finds at any rate. He follows those too the tree line. "I'd say there's at least two of them, maybe three."

It's a good thing the camp's occupants happen not to be there, or else they'd be dealing with a wherry chase at the very least! "I'm inclined to agree," Rielle says as she makes her way forward through the greenery, breathing in the fresh air that's so welcome after all that confined, dusty space and noting the sound of falling water nearby. She moves to the makeshift tent, noting what it's made of and what's sheltered beneath it. "I think we found our missing supplies." Jam, fruit, dishes and utensils - yep, it all adds up. "We ought to head back and tell Laeiva. But I think we might actually want to leave everything here and set up a way to snare whoever it is when they return." She glances back at the passage they just emerged from, then ahead toward where rain-shrouded daylight beckons. "Though lets go that way, not back through all that." It was certainly interesting, but she's not all that interested in a repeat trip right now.

Z'bor nods. "I could set up some snares?" Z'bor questions, though he nods to everything Rielle says. "I'll have to get some rope first." And Z'bor is more than willing to take the scenic route home than go back through all that musty space. "I think that's the best idea I've heard all day." He chuckles and looks around once more, taking a peek into the tent and then back to Rielle. "Let's get at it then, they probably won't be gone for long."

"Z'bor!" Rielle exclaims with a laugh. "If they're kids, we're not going to set snares for them like they're tunnel snakes or something!" She tugs at his arm to start them toward the mouth of the cave and the waterfall beyond. "Come on. I wonder where it's spit us out at." It'll be a little surprising - and very convenient - to find that they've emerged at a rather familiar waterfall below the river cliffs. It'll make calling their lifemates easy as well as returning to the Weyr to give a report to the Headwoman…and figuring out what comes next.