Dumb
There was a drawn out silence as they fell down the shaft, the only thing she could hear was the rushing of air past her ears which curiously grew louder the longer she fell, not only from the accelleration but as if the atmosphere actually grew thicker down here. However, that was not the only thing that changed, as she fell for a good minute, she began to notice things others with lesser senses would've likely overseen during the fall, thin red veins were embedded upon the otherwise perfectly smooth and black walls, soon turning into thick tendrils and eventually patches of what looked... eeriely familiar. It did not look like they actually corrupted the structure, more like they were part of it, had grown with it, as if the tample now far above was merely an appendage of some far underground beast, like a horn someone chiselled into shape.
Though before she could contemplate the implications of that... the fall suddenly stopped.
She couldn't detect any slowing of the fall, yet she stopped almost immediately, as if some strange power had suddenly just taken away all inertia, more than that, even now, at the bottom of the shaft, what must be kilometres beneath the surface, the red glow permeated the atmosphere without any apparent source, illuminating the surroundings with its ominous presence.
Ahead of her, stood the guide, looking into an open corridor several metres high and wide, arching at the ceiling.
"He's passed through here.", he pointed at several deep rents in the walls, pieces of flesh charred or gouged out of the walls, whatever had been here to live or protect this place, Hal had already taken care of it.
The walls were a deep crimson red and warm to the touch, emanating a faint radiation even this far under the surface.
It was like the hide of a Cultbeast.
In the meanwhile at the surface, the caravan was almost ready to depart or rather had been until the strange craft came down from the heavens, the native people moved, maintained distance some fearful some other cautious, some curious though all sceptical, keeping to their own groups and sleds, some looking out at the desert, as if searching for a response from the wildlife to teh ships arrival, until several moments later the only one who stepped forth was the one who the Caravan leader had appointed as his stand in.
He did not enter, but he approached the craft, without taking his hood off.
"What, do you want?"
There was a significant amount of distrust in his voice, his head was shifting from side to side as if looking for dangers that could be jumping out of the ship at any time, though without any panic to it.
