<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: andale mono;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Arianna Davenport</span></span><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;">Someone get me off this thing!</span></span></div><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kokotigress/Elliquiy/Ari2-1.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: andale mono;"><em>She would NOT look down. She would NOT look down. She would NOT – oh hell she'd looked down!</em> Nausea rolled through her in thick waves and sweat beaded along her upper lip and at her temples. Her tunic was beginning to stick to her clammy skin and her hair hung limp down her back as a testament to the hours they'd spent on the water. <em>Gods above, when would they get off this boat?!</em> The motion of the vessel as it sliced through the water combined with her ill advised glance down at the surface had only intensified her terror. Images of their group sinking like a rock to the bottom where likely some creature would feast on her were playing with her mind and kicking her stomach back and forth like a rubber ball. <br/><br/>Needless to say, Ari was not happy with their current situation. She hadn't been told that this journey would involve crossing water. Truthfully she hadn't been told much at all about what this journey would entail but still, had she known about this she wouldn't have come, treasure or no. It had taken a miracle to get her in the gods damned boat, especially as she'd watched Millicent use some sort of power to drag the thing upward from the bottom of the lake. <em>If it had already sunk how was it supposed to hold them?! And why was no one else concerned about this?!</em> Much to her embarrassment she'd completely freaked out and refused to get into the thing. Eventually her companions had gotten her on though she was too mortified to think about their methods, especially since there had been clinging, cursing, and crawling involved. Not one of her finer moments, but she didn't particularly care right now. She was going to be extremely pissed if this treasure wasn't worth it. <br/><br/>So far this adventure had turned out completely different from what Arianna had expected. They'd traveled endlessly through a dark cave system with nothing to guide them but Cell's intuition and the flickering light of the torches she'd lit for each of them before they'd entered. Her powers were still relatively new to her in comparison to the others and their gifts and it showed. She possessed a great amount of raw power but lacked the finesse for more subtle uses and when lighting the torches she had been worried she might set someone on fire. Thankfully she'd managed the task just fine and for a while she had felt oddly comforted by the shifting play of light and heat as they walked. Of course those feelings had been dwarfed entirely by her terror once they'd come to the edge of the lake. <br/><br/>They had been traveling across the expanse of water for quite some time now and Ari might have fallen into a trance like state beyond her paralyzing fear if not for the sudden jolting of her sack. It sat balanced upon her lap, full of everything she could possibly need while on her journey --and possibly a few things she didn't but they comforted her so she brought them. Her mind had just allowed itself to be lulled, her eyes squeezed shut and her hands gripping the sides of the boat for dear life, when her bag practically lept off her lap to fall in front of her. Pretending that she hadn't let out a terribly girly squeal of fear she pried her hands from the wooden frame of the boat, ignoring the singed hand prints she left behind, and poked at her bag. For a few seconds it did nothing, but as she reached down to seize it the damned thing jumped again. <em>Okay somebody was frelling messing with her! So not cool!</em> Not wanting to look inside and risk falling out of the boat if something decided to jump up and startle her, she merely placed her foot carefully upon the bag and resumed her grip upon the boat lest she tumble over the edge. <br/><br/>No one else seemed to think anything of the movement in her bag, or else they just hadn't seen it, so she remained quiet even though she could feel something moving about within it. Thin tendrils of smoke began to drift upward from where her hands had again taken up a death grip on the rickety boat and she forced herself to calm down. <em>Not a good idea to burn the boat up while you're in it, Foxy...  ...and still on the lake no less.</em> Thankfully it was only a short while longer before the boat came to a jarring halt when it hit land. After hesitating only a second to be sure they were indeed on land, Ari sprang from the boat, moving with surprising speed to get out of the apparatus should it decide to randomly drift off again with her in it. She didn't kiss the ground, though the urge was certainly there. Instead her attention turned immediately to the rucksack she held in her small fist. <br/><br/>Pushing her cape back over one shoulder she dropped to one knee and opened her sack. Having put out her torch earlier she was forced to move closer to one of her companions to see but as she checked her bag she sensed that the movement within had ceased. Frowning to herself, she chalked it up to terror induced delusions and instead pulled out her gloves and slid them on before closing her bag and standing. With her fear sliding away under the relief at being on solid ground she was better able to focus. It was then that she turned her attention to the large doors that seemed to whisper to her in the darkness. What she sought lay beyond them, she was sure. The real issue was what else might lay in wait. <br/></span></span>