Recovery and continuation

     Oolah slept until the next morning, arising in the greying dawn. At the first sign of her stirring, Van started preparing the spikenuts, still warm by the fire. It wouldn't be a standard breakfast, but it was obvious spikenuts prepared this way was one of her favorites, and there were many. The soup he'd made had long since grown cold and mostly fed to the Erlokas.

     When Oolah was ill from poison and lay unconscious, Van, who was eaten up with concern and care, had thought only of efficiency when he prepared her for sleep, stripping her to her shift. It was a loose white dress generally worn between the undergarments and gambeson. Now that the immediate crisis was over, Van was seeing her as a woman again, One he had long since decided was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known, and Oolah saw no reason to rush back into her armor considering the heat.  Van Glancing over as she stretched upon her waking, turned a deep shade of red and looked away, like it would do any good. She could feel the waves of lust rolling off him. Smirking, she made sure to swing her hips, when approaching the meal he was quickly preparing, trying not to steal glances. The unique bone structure of Brin Mal gave their females hips a little extra width and it was a quality Van, and most human men, appreciated. He almost filled her lap full of still smoking Spikenuts when trying to place her plate in front of her. He stuttered and fumbled through the meal, Oolah just acting nonchalant. He did manage to tell her his plan for the next few days. 

     Now that she was awake and alert, he would leave to seek out the source of the shadowmen. Before that, however, he wanted to try something. He hung an ebon plate on a nearby tree. "OK, try it." he requested, retreating to the other side of the camp. 

      Oolah approached the tree, mercifully walking a bit modestly. She was done picking on him, for a while. Tapping on the plate, then looking at Van, she spoke into it, "Van... can you hear this?"

     She saw him move something to his mouth, then heard his voice coming from the plaque, "Hello, Oolah. If there's an emergency please use this." He tested it several more times throughout the day as he searched.

It took him several hours to find what he was looking for, much quicker then he expected. It was, as he suspected, in the same general direction they had come, and they had passed by it less then a mile away, having had the view obstructed by trees in the area. It was the ruins of strange buildings. They were a variety of sizes, all square, but had no means of access, no doors nor windows, and the tops were, of course, solid as well. They were all made of the same strange smooth red metallic material with a darker wavy pattern. It must not have been as sturdy as it seemed, as the corner of one of the buildings had been smashed open by an old tree that had fallen.

     First, he decided, some preventative maintenance was needed. using his saw blades he cleared the area of trees, lest another one fall on one of the strange buildings, creating another problem. That should buy at least another hundred years, probably more, for a tree to grow to maturity and find a reason to fall. Looking into the broken wall, he could see a spiral staircase ending at the wall across from him. He cast light on a rock, tossing it down the center. He thought he heard scurrying. Then he ventured into the building, himself. He floated down the center, dropping light rocks on the steps as he went. He was pretty good judge of distances, and he guessed he must have gone down around 200 feet. Everything was made of the same red substance the outer building was made of. Walls, roof, floor, even the spiral staircase. At the bottom was a single room with a single corridor. This would simplify things. He walked down the corridor, tossing light rocks ahead of him. Eventually one lit up a room, small, round, with a black floor. when he tried tossing a rock onto the black floor, it went through, and went out, as though being tossed into a puddle of mud.

     He'd been getting a sickening feeling since entering the strange building, which at first he thought to be some sort of vaults, then prisons, now vaults again. protecting these... portals? Are all of them like this one, or are they all different? Van was caring less and less. Eventually the glow rocks would go out, then there'd be nothing to keep the shadows at bay. There was no way of knowing how many was in there, if not an entire world full. Maybe the ones that got out were all of them, but why take that chance? 

     Arriving back at the staircase, he summoned multiple spinning blades, and as he rose up, he brought them up under him, covering his face with a cloth. He didn't know what this stuff was, so why breath in its dust? once he was back out of that place, now knowing he could cut that strange material, that turned out to be more mineral then metal, carefully cut off the top, and set it aside. He removed the walls to just where the damage ended, and recapped it. He didn't like this. He'd have to let people know about it. Perhaps someday a group of people with the proper knowledge and skills could return and destroy this place. Who knew what hells could be revealed beyond hidden sepulchers in an unexplored land. Sighing deeply, it was time to return. He'd been wearing a piece of his hardened negative energy on a thong around his neck. He held it up to his face, tapping. "Oolah..." he said. No answer. He said it louder, slightly over conversation volume. No answer. Finally he shouted, and after a few moments came the answer. relieved, Van said to her, "Thank you. I was making sure you weren't staying too close. I'm still terrified of the effect this stuff has on other people.

     Everything was going swimmingly, now. He got to leave that tainted place, Oolah was safe and staying safe, and he'd see her soon. They could commence their journey in the morning if Oolah was well enough.