"Aw, it likes you Eli."
Xazt sheathes his sword and smiles at the beast. "Carys, does it understand us?"
Eli carefully stoops and hesitantly pats the creature on the head.
As Eli stands gazing at the lizard, it quietly closes its eyes, tail whipping gently back and forth across the surface of the water.
Suddenly, Carys' spellbook seems to be having another fit. It flies from her bag and hovers a bit in front of her, pages flipping of their own accord, then flops down at her feet, turned to page 249 (or 257, if one believes the goblin diary's most-likely mistaken page numbering).
"...times to be the movings on now, she said..."
"...and there it be'd..."
"...throughs the big hole that we found..."
A bit surprised, Carys cautiously grabs the book from the air. She seems to have forgotten that other people are around and have asked questions. One look at the text and her mind is made up. She slowly wades the rest of the way toward lizard, makes a half bow and cautiously attempts to climb on it's back.
Seeing Cays climb up, Lucas shouts, "I knew it!" and bolts after her, slowing quickly so as not to agitate the beast.
As Lucas shouts and runs toward the lizard, it twitches a bit, but calms again when he slows down, and lets him approach, still focused on Eli.
"Damned if this isn't the strangest..." Eli trails off.
He waits until Lucas and Carys are settled, then cautiously climbs onto the creature's back.
Lucas vaults onto the lizard, which seems not to notice his weight. Indeed, he looks small compared to the giant beast's huge, scaled form. Eli falters a bit, scrambling up the lizard's face to its back, but not without putting one of his boots in its eye and desperately grabbing a dripping nasal passage for support. If possible, the lizard looks slightly annoyed.
Xazt looks back at Carys and Ariana, then rolls onto the lizard's nose, gracefully sweeping up its scales without causing so much as a sound.
Ariana looks cautiously about, and atempts to follow the others.
Ariana and Carys easily make their way up to the lizard's back!
No sooner have they done so, than the glowing symbols pulsate and disappear. The lizard makes its way to the shore, then skirts Keller's basin and begins to climb with huge webbed, clawed feet. It pulls back when it strikes the sunlight, but keeps climbing steadily upward toward the opening.
As it reaches the first ledge of the waterfall, our escapees catch a glance of what awaits them outside the cave mouth: giant dunes the size of mountains stretch into the distance, radiating heat in wave after wave of icy mirage. The sand itself is pure white near the cave entrance, and then stretches away into a multitude of browns, greys, and shifting pearl.
Just as they are beginning to feel the warmth outside, the lizard falters a bit, losing its footing on the slippery rock! At the final ledge, it is unable to hold onto the rock in the heat much longer, and is struggling to keep the group upright against the force of the rushing water.
The lizard climbs a bit further to a portion of smooth alabaster stone, still inside the cave's shadow, but above the waterfall. The heat seems to be wreaking havoc with the lizard's translucent white skin, and it throws its tail wildly about as it climbs even further.
Then, its back foot gives way, and its front...it begins to slide down, back toward the cave entrance!
"Hup!" Eli bellows in surprise. As the great lizard begins to slide backward, he scrambles and vaults to land on solid ground. Hopefully , the loss of his weight is enough to help the creature regain its grip.
Eli's quick reflexes and a surprisingly powerful jump land him over ten feet away from the struggling lizard. As he rolls onto dry ground, the beast gains a bit of stability, trying again to push against the water to reach the dry land. But again, it flinches and nearly loses its footing when the light strikes its back. It struggles against the water, neck writhing in the heat, and lands a clawed front foot near where Eli lay, bracing with its back feet against a ledge, and is stable for the moment. The heat seems to be taking its toll on its sensitive skin, however. The once pearly-white scales are quickly turning clouded and brown, as it continues to writhe in pain.
Eli springs to his feet. "Lucas! Ariana! The creature suffers! Throw me a rope so I can pull you off!"
Lucas reacts in the blink of an eye; his rope flies to Eli's hand.
"Ari, go!"
Xazt's survival instincts play out in a totally unexpected manner -- he pulls his bedroll out of his bag and attempts to cover as much of the creature as possible. "Help him! He helped us!" Xazt yells quickly.
Ari grabs her bedroll, lays it over the creature next to the one Xazt put down, then climbs the rope up to Eli, shouting to Xazt, "Hold on to mine too!"
Ariana is able to hang on to the rope, putting hand atop hand until she is safely to the smooth rock with Eli. The lizard seems to gain some strength back from the decreased weight, and pulls itself and the remaining group up and over the falls, gaining a firm stance near dry land. Its head and legs are still uncovered, however, and it is shaking in the heat.
Lucas leaps off and turns to catch Carys if she wants the help.
Carys uses prestidigitation to move water from the waterfall onto the lizard's back. Grateful for the more stable platform, she leans toward the lizard and says, "maange taak du." [spoiler=celestial] Thank you very much. [/celestial]
With a nod to Eli she grabs the rope and attempts to climb down the rope.
Carys, the last member, takes Lucas's hand and makes it easily to safety. The water which she conjures seems to soothe the lizard's burnt skin a bit, but the second that she is safe the beast dives beneath the river waters, swimming a bit upstream toward the evident spring, and taking shelter under a (very) large rock about 300 meters away.
The group stands on a small stretch of smooth, white rock which gives way to mountainous dunes which now seem to be impossibly large, some nearly 6-7 thousand feet tall, by estimation. The large outcropping from which the water springs is where the lizard has taken refuge, and is the only shade to be seen. The sun beats down with penetrating force. At midday, it is nearly 115 degrees, or thereabouts, on the rock.
Our heroes seem to be out of the frying pan, but will they survive the fire?? STAY TUNED FOR THE NEW SERIES, "The Third Continent," which begins on July 2nd!
"Thank you for saving that lizard, guys. He didn't have to risk his life to save ours, so that was the least we could do."
Xazt just nods at the brawler's suggestion for travel.