Gideon watched Beliya with interest even after they shook hands, his sharp gaze tilting 20 degrees as his entire head rotated.
It was an odd sight; his solemn features slanted in a comical show of puzzlement.
"Seems redundant to do it now. I am still functional in a practical sense, and I understand my responsibilities. When we return with an artifact, I will likely receive medical treatment." He said bluntly, though he's obviously trying hard to soften his words, as he followed up with, "Something to look forward to, of course."
A pained smile.
He eventually unsheathed his Mardemdievs the grey blade containing a yellow blade extension that expanded out from the blade, forming a truly long scimitar at 2 meters long. In contrast to the 1.2 meter blades Gideon originally wielded, they appeared much more menacing, though quite heavy with the extended weight. This time, he was much more prepared for the grimm. Hefting the blade with his right arm, he inwardly winced as the damage muscles contracted, but he considered it operational nevertheless. "Keeping in mind that I have very few clues as to where the artifact is, I hope you will keep my suggestion in mind when I advise we head towards the aforementioned train." Gideon's awkwardness shown through brightly as he even added in a few words to signify his cautious submissiveness. He was capable of stringing together polite words, he affirmed himself, but it was such a nuisance that it was almost a physical pain.

By the time Abel turned away from the silken mess to face his partner and acknowledge her, Bridget was already in the tree. After a few moments wasted scanning the branches and scarlet leaves above, he exhaled deeply and turned back to stare into the webs. He absently reached out with the tip of the Ampere to sever one of the threads when he suddenly recoiled, having just remembered an extremely poignant piece of information from the Grimm studies at Pallisade: while he didn't remember the name of the spider monsters, he dimly remembered that they could feel any tugging on their webs and would come running en masse to sort it out. Picturing dozens of huge spiders leaping from the gloom at him caused Abel to back up a few feet from the webbing. The hairs on the back of his neck and hands stood on end.

Fortunately, he hadn't long to wait. In no time Bridget was back from her treetop excursion and had relayed her new information. “Sure, sure. Love caves.” An overly genuine undertone was present in his voice; it seemed that forsaking spiderwebs for the dank dark of some cavern truly tickled his fancy. “Good thing you saw that it opened up near your station; otherwise we mighta run straight into a dead end. Just so you know, don't touch those webs. The Grimm can feel them moving.” The butt of the Ampere lay on the ground, and his hand rested on its hilt. It made a workable walking stick since it weighed just as much on his back as it did on his hand—plus, he still felt uneasy, as if he were being watched. After received indication from Bridget about which direction the cave lay, the pair launched into a brisk walk.

They weren't the only ones on the move, however. Between the forking trunk of a lichen-strewn tree fifty feet away clung a mammoth, dark mass. Having blended into the shadows perfectly thanks to its coloration, the creature managed to avoid detection by the humans, even Bridget's semblance since she hadn't used it during her scouting. As its prey moved away, the huge beast followed through the trees, lumbering quietly despite its massive size. The Ursa Major was on the prowl, a thousand pounds of muscle, ragged fur, and insatiable hunger.

Robert continued to follow Tai. While walking, Robert found a round rock about the size of his palm and began kicking it in the direction they were moving. Every time the rock slowed to a stop, Robert would kick it and send it forward again. Stop. Kick. Stop. Kick. Stop. Kick. Eventually, Robert misaimed and accidently kicked at the wrong angle. The rock flew into a large bush. Robert approached the bush, then moved it aside to see where the rock had landed. As soon as he saw what was behind the bush, his jaw dropped. Several Broodlings crawling on the ground and among the trees. In the center of the mass of oversized-spiders sat the rock that Robert had been kicking. "Nope!" and Robert quickly retuned to following Tai. As soon as he was directly behind Tai, Robert looked back to the bush. "I'll never forget you," Robert mouthed to the rock. "So Tai, what convinced you to become a hunter?"

JACK ORPHEUS | Foot of a Sky Hunter's Nest

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....", these two have been sitting here for at least several minutes. Jack simply sat there, occasionally pacing, standing up, hanging upside-down a branch, standing upright on that branch, and then going back to the little sitting stone, all with his right hand over his chin like he was thinking. Meanwhile, his now-partner Savan did whatever he did for all those minutes, finally he broke the silence.

"I think... Something is up there", oh you don't say master detective. He wasn't sure if climbing this mountain was worth it or not, in that time he found what could be a naturally bored out pathway. A natural formation. Though even that didn't go up that high. He thought he saw something flying away earlier too, turns out nothing did. He did definitely hear some cries every so often while thinking. There must be some kind of Grimm up there.

"Well, I don't know if whatever we're meant to get is up there, but I haven't seen any Grimm all this time and that's a bit boring...", he mumbled to himself... Finally he sighed slightly and turned to his partner.

"Yo Savan, let's go up this mountain. Race you to the top", he yelled, and with very little warning ran towards the side of the cliff and became a blue electric blur as he scaled the mountain with his Semblance.

Auriel couldn't do anything but agree with Emlyn. While climbing a mountain wasn't exactly his style, he figured it would have to do. Blinking that far, even in short bursts, would probably kill him. Nodding at Emlyn, he moved to his own place on the mountain, slowly pulling himself higher and higher. His sword, sheathed on his left hip, occasionally got in the way, but that was a matter of course. Auriel wasn't as nimble as his partner, but he was making his way up in due time.

As the two rose higher, the mountain leveled a bit, and Auriel jumped over to a small ledge to rest. "Damn, I know we're climbing a mountain, but does it have to be such a freaking big mountain?" Sweat was dripping down his arms, legs, and face, and he desperately wiped the moisture away, grabbing at his waterskin and taking a long drink. "There's....there's gotta be a better way up. I can handle this, but it's too slow. It'll be night time when we reach the summit at this rate...."

Emlyn was beginning to feel the strain as well before too long. Mirror was beginning to get in the way of his steps, and more than once did his breath catch in his throat when a hand knocked against the edge, and caused him the slightest stumble. He wasn't afraid of heights, but looking down did him no favors. By the time their climb gained the slightest hint of going horizontal, he was moving slower, holding his place longer.

Auriel's decision was one he was very keen to follow. He watched his partner make a small leap to the safety of the ledge, and shimmied his way over. Carefully, he took Mirror from around his shoulder, and got as good a hold on the mountain face as he could. He reeled his arm back, and then threw the chakram forward, embedding it onto the ground of the ledge a few feet away. Better safe than sorry.

The jump was easy enough; his foothold was solid and the kick off was strong enough. He landed squarely away from the edge, but held onto Mirror as a safety just in case. He pried it from the ground, shook off the specs of dirt that stuck to the blade, and then set it flat on the ground.

"Perhaps this particular mountain wasn't the ideal choice," he said, looking out from their little roost. "We could try working with what we have here, or perhaps try and transition to another mountain. Either way, you're right, we can't afford to let night hit before we get something."

Looking out to the forest below them, Auriel smiled and sighed. It certainly was beautiful. If the place were half as dangerous, he might have considered it a nice place to take a break and perhaps a nap. The sap from the trees was supposed to be delicious, as well. That would have to wait. Slowly blinking, he turned to his partner.

Emlyn was definitely right about one thing: this mountain was far from an ideal choice. There were a few others that could be used, and Auriel figured that there had to be an easier way to their goal. "I say we get to another. One with...less drastic an incline. something less than sixty or so degrees." The fact that they had had to climb this far had been maddening. Even if each step went as far up as it went forward, that was fine so long as they could walk. "I think perhaps the one to our east would be a fine choice." Turning towards the other mountain, Auriel took the lead this time. The descent was exponentially faster than their previous ascent, and soon they were moving on a steep incline, but not nearly so steep as their last had been. He figured that they'd reach the summit in perhaps in hour if they kept a good pace.

"Maybe if we make it back before night, we can have a niiice, hot meal. I'd love that." Looking upwards, he frowned, locking a set of grim determination onto his face. "Either way, if we stay down here and never get an artifact, we'll either be laughing stocks....or we'll get killed. Personally, I'd prefer to find one. We've come this far, and I can't afford to turn around. I don't think any of us here can."

Something felt odd about following Auriel. Not that he didn't believe the other boy didn't know what he was doing, in fact he felt quite safe and assured. But all the same, it was an itch to be behind someone else. Of course he didn't say anything to the matter; he wasn't about to start anything over egos right now, there would be time for that later.

The new mountain was indeed a much easier climb. He set Mirror back around his shoulder and for the most part had no issues as they walked as far as stamina went. But Auriel's words stirred his mind. There wasn't actually a chance they wouldn't find an artifact, was there? Of course they'd find one, that was part of the test. Wasn't it? He'd worked so hard to get here, could this actually just be another way of weeding out initiates? He was not going to be a laughing stock to anyone. He'd earned his place dammit, that would not be taken away from him just when he was so close...

It took him a few moments to realize all of his thinking had stayed his feet along their path, and that he'd fallen a little ways behind Auriel. his cheeks grew hot, and he scrambled up after him until he was walking along side his partner.

"No, no we certainly can't afford that. We're going to find this artifact," he said, determination overcoming his own face too.

"Illusions huh? Interesting. I'd certainly like to see that in action." Gren commented. He was going to talk some more when suddenly the train entered into a tunnel. Gren jumped to his feet with a worried look. "Damn. I didn't expect the train to go through a tunnel. We should leave before we stray too far from the testing grounds." Gren stood up and tried to look around the corner of the box car. It was close to the wall, but what he saw did indicate that though would be a large opening just ahead. Large enough for Gren and Kuhaku to jump out of without getting pasted between the boxcar and the tunnel wall. "We'll have to jump. This also looks like a good place where one of the artifacts might be at, given that it's so out of the way. See you on the otherside!" Gren shouted just as the opening appeared. He was right in a way; it was large enough for him to safely jump out. What he didn't exactly expect was that it was also a deep drop. Regardless, Gren leap out of the train car and into the dark abyss. It was a good thing he had nightvision.

Tai, for his part, didn't pay much attention to Robert or what he was doing, certainly not enough to see him talking silently to a rock. His own attention was focused on their surroundings and making sure they weren't ambushed, and at the same time appreciating the natural beauty of Forever Fall. A pity the place was a hive of Grimm activity. Otherwise he might want to spend some more time here, maybe do some painting. Oh well.

His attention diverted by Robert's question, he looked over to his partner, crafting a response before he gave an answer. "I wanted to help people, to stand against the darkness so someone else wouldn't have to." It wasn't quite some traumatic backstory involving Grimm and slaughtered villages, but it was what made him him. "And yourself?"

Flamelord said
Tai, for his part, didn't pay much attention to Robert or what he was doing, certainly not enough to see him talking silently to a rock. His own attention was focused on their surroundings and making sure they weren't ambushed, and at the same time appreciating the natural beauty of Forever Fall. A pity the place was a hive of Grimm activity. Otherwise he might want to spend some more time here, maybe do some painting. Oh well.His attention diverted by Robert's question, he looked over to his partner, crafting a response before he gave an answer. "I wanted to help people, to stand against the darkness so someone else wouldn't have to." It wasn't quite some traumatic backstory involving Grimm and slaughtered villages, but it was what made him him. "And yourself?"

"I just want to train, be the best that I can possibly be. And the best place to get that training is Beacon. The whole becoming a Hunter thing is just an added bonus," Robert responded. What Robert planned to do with that training he kept to himself. He didn't feel like giving ALL of his personal information to someone he just met. Robert wouldn't lie about any question asked, just avoid any he didn't want to answer. For the most part he was an open book, though. "How about that weapon you got there? Seems pretty cool. Does it do anything special?"

Auriel's grim look only set in harder as the pair climbed higher and higher. At least Emlyn agreed that they had to find something. He couldn't help but wonder what the artifacts even were. They could be anything, but would they know when they found them? This test could also be one of their ability to perceive irregularities. A few blades of grass out of place in a sea of green. A needle in a haystack, so to speak. "Hey, Emlyn. Do you...have any clue what it is we're even looking for? I mean...here we are, climbing a mountain to get a better view of what we're searching for...and we don't even really know exactly what it is we're looking for. This bugs me."

Chancing a look back, Auriel gaped at the sight in front of his eyes. They'd made damn good progress in the time they'd been moving, that was for sure. "Well, whatever it is we're looking for...I hope we find it. I don't mind the view and all, but I prefer flat ground. I'd probably be near useless in a fight unless we find something like that. Much as I love my weapon, they're not made for an uphill battle. You've at least got some range with...Mirror, was it?"

"Alright," Tai replied, accepting that answer for what it was. If there were other reasons, then Tai would leave that alone. Unless it became a problem, he was willing to let his partner be as revealing or not as he wanted. Tai was willing to trust that Robert would tell him when he felt like it, and Tai was willing to wait until then if it actually mattered.

Asked about his weapon, Tai nodded, presenting the meteor hammer in it's barbell form to Robert. "It's a meteor hammer, a traditional weapon as it were," he explained, laying it horizontal and unlocking the two sides, the heads spitting out to slam into trees nearby, spikes gouging at wood. He then unlocked the middle handle which had shrunk in the process, so he held two chains, each with one head, like a flail. "It also lights on fire," he added, before proceeding to show that off by having one of the spiked heads catch ablaze courtesy of fire dust after he removed it from the tree.

Demonstration done, he quickly reassembled his weapon and returned it to his belt before looking over to his partner. 'And what about yours? I imagine it must have a few tricks."

Bridgett was deep in thought so she barely registered what Abel had said about the grimm being able to sense movement in the webs.

What do these artifacts look like? Why were we given so little information about this exam? I know that we are supposed to be trained to deal with these kind of situations, but even this seems a little extreme for an entrance evaluation... No matter, I must push through.

Bridgett looked up and around her surroundings and realized she had lagged a little behind her new partner. She picked up her pace a little in order to catch up with him, "So, Abel, what did you mean by what you have to pro-" She stopped short as the thought she heard something off a little ways in the trees. Stupid, you lost focus, something may have snuck up on you. Can't afford that, not here. She stopped a moment to regain her focus and had just enough time to realize there was something big very close, but as she drew her weapon a large shape burst forth from the underbrush rammed into her.

With a sharp cry of pain Bridgett's flight was stopped short when she slammed into a tree, causing sticky sap to ooze out and dribble onto her cloak as she shook her head, trying to clear it for the situation. She looked up in time to see Abel turning at the sounds from behind him, but she saw he wouldn't be ready to defend himself from the sheer savagery of the attack in time. Bridgett flung the chain of Rakurai as the Ursa Major lunged at him, but her target was not the creature.

Abel heard the sharp claws splitting the air right next to him as the chain wrapped around his waist and yanked him off his feet and into the woods. The Ursa Major let out a vicious roar as it was temporarily deprived of its prey, then turned to glare at the pair in the the woods. "Sorry about that Abel, but I'm afraid its out of the frying pan and into the fire for us." she gestured at all the broken spiderwebs that her flight path had disrupted. "This is one situation where we really need to run." As she said this she quickly helped him back to his feet and took off running as the Ursa Major began to chase after them.

Auriel proposed another issue as they walked -he seemed to have a knack for that. Though to be honest Emlyn hadn't given it too much thought, he wasn't sure what to expect really. He supposed that when they reached the top they'd just...find it. It'd be there, their reward. Something stone perhaps? Or maybe golden? Did it matter really what it was as long as they found it?

"I'm not sure, no..." he mumbled, keeping pace with his partner. "But we're already this far, it has to work. If it doesn't we don't have a chance at getting out of here before nightfall."

The possibility that they might be stuck there was starting to gnaw at him, and with every passing second he could feel his breaths get just a little bit sharper, and his heart beat just a little bit faster with every raw thought. They very well might have to fight something for no gain at all other than survival, and even that wasn't guaranteed. Well, Auriel might have to fight, Emlyn was confident enough in his ability to escape should it come to that. But that thought grew stale, and even gained a twinge of disgust to it. Would he ditch his partner to survive? Why not? They'd only just met, it wasn't like this other boy meant anything to him yet. But could he actually do that?

His attention was directed to Mirror when Auriel asked his second question, and he was quick to find a new train of thought to follow. "Wh...I-yeah, yeah it's got range. I can throw it pretty far," he said. "Shield too if I need."

Cold fear washed over Abel as he realized how close to death he had just come. After taking Bridget's hand and pulling himself to his feet he took off, terror still pumping through his veins like blood. Any incoming Broodlings were left in the dust. The furious bellow of the elite Ursa awoke some sort of primal fear in him, as it did with most people: the sense of being hunted. In light of this gripping sensation, his retreat was very fast indeed, despite his size. He almost went into a panic upon observing the sticky red fluid coating his partner's jacket for the first time, but quickly found out it was sap. The two kept running, the Usa Major growing closer. As soon as Abel managed to regain some composure, an idea popped into his head.

As he and Bridget approached a tree and split to run on either side of it, he swapped the Ampere to staff mode and let loose a bolt of lightening at the chocolate-colored trunk. The huge release of electricity superheated the wood and shattered it. Splinters sprayed across the crimson grass—he hadn't thought of that. He felt a sharp pain in his thigh, but the adrenaline allowed him to ignore it. Nevertheless, the tree collapsed into a smoldering heap just after he and Bridget had passed it. He looked over his shoulder for a moment, he face devoid, to see if it worked.

Without breaking its stride, the black shape pursuing them raised a burly arm into the air. It brought its limb down with a snarling grunt, crushing the tinder like it was paper. Embers and sawdust scattered as the Ursa Major barreled on through. For the first time, Abel got a good look at its face. The creature was terrifying, all bony armor and spikes from the front, with one dark eye. Clearly this was a monster that had seen the rough side of life and prevailed. At a loss of how to handle the creature, there was only one thing the boy could do.

Abel kept running, dodging among the trees with Bridget. Every now and then a cracking noise would sound from behind them, signaling that their relentless hunter had rent another tree in its way. Wasn't that ironic—a Grimm hunting the hunters. “Any...ideas?” Abel panted as he sprinted.

Auriel nodded as Emlyn explained his weapon. He was glad to be correct about its ranged capabilities, and its ability to function as a shield was useful. Slowly, the mountain started to level as the pair continued onward. Relieved at the slowly decreasing burden that walking was putting on him, Auriel walked over to a small grouping of rocks and put one foot on them, as if conquering the mountain. "We're almost at the top. Hah. Just a few more minutes of walking...and we'll be there. Oh man, I'm pretty excited." Removing his foot, Auriel turned around only to have his face darken and drop as if he'd just seen a pack of vicious Grimm about to eat them. Because he had. "Hey, Emlyn. I really hope you're good at fighting Itzamna. Cause....there's some Itzamna behind you."

His arms exploding from his sides to arm himself, Auriel stepped forward to put himself beside Emlyn as the raptors attacked, ducking behind his shield as the first reached him, its massive talons scraping against the metal of his shield. Groaning, he stepped to the side, the Grimm landing harshly after having its balance shifted. As it turned to face Auriel, swiping one of its hands, he rushed into it, stabbing his rapidly spinning sword through its side. Blood splashed over his armor, his face and his weapon as the Itzamna was torn apart by the sword.

Yanking himself out of the Grimm, Auriel spun about, trying to get a sense of where the rest were. It was too late that he saw the feathered beast midair, and he was pinned to the ground, his sword arm pinned at the forearm beneath a massive leg. As the other leg swung down, its hooked talon aimed at his throat, Auriel protected himself the only way he could: by using his left arm, which had still been holding his shield, thankfully. The impact jarred his shoulder and elbow, but Auriel decided now was the time to get out of there. Instantly, he appeared a scant three of four feet to the side, free of the Itzamna's grasp. Quickly launching himself onto his feet, Auriel jerked his head to his partner, hoping he'd be faring at least as well as he did. His arm ached from the two impacts he'd blocked, but he was unharmed. So far, so good. His sword still spinning, Auriel kept his vision flickering between each enemy in sight, to prevent himself from developing tunnel vision. Come on, ya damned birds, let's get this over with!

Indeed the mountain had begun to level off, and it was more than a slight relief to Emlyn's legs. He was used to running, he could even sprint quite well when he needed, but this sort of prolonged strain did his wiry form no favors. So, when Auriel decided to pause and admire their progress, he instead chose to plop down on his rear and catch his breath. Normally he'd be all about celebrating his accomplishments, but that required the air to voice such compliments, and that he would have to recover.

Auriel's voice faded to white noise over the course of his praise, in fact it was the lack of words that caught Emlyn's attention, and he looked up to the troubling sight of his partner's expression. Expressions, he was good at expressions, reading people was imperative to his manipulative tactics. In the brief moments before Auriel spoke again, Emlyn's whole form tensed up, and he felt a fear that jolted straight to his spine. He didn't hear the next words, but simply yanked Mirror up off of the ground, before swiveling around and up. He was vaguely aware of Auriel running up beside him, but most of his attention immediately focused onto the horrifying Itzamna closest to him.

Raw fear locked his arms from action, and it wasn't until the nightmarish raptor took a slash at him that he brought Mirror up. The shield component failed to activate in time, and so instead the talon hooked into the chakram, and with the jerk of its muscle, tossed Emlyn aside. He tumbled backwards and ended up flat upon his back with what little wind he'd gathered knocked once again from his lungs. The Itzamna that had thrown him tossed Mirror aside, and focused back on its defenseless prey, beginning to stalk forward.

Emlyn scrambled back up to his feet, which only seemed to alert the raptor further. It let out a viscous screech, and its slow stalking rapidly evolved into a full on charge. Emlyn wasn't afforded much time to think, and it was perhaps by sheer luck that he caught sight of Auriel using what he could only assume was his Semblance. On reflex, he Coveted it, and his gained the faintest twinge of luminescence to them as they turned back to the Itzamna. He matched its action, and ran forward, waiting until it was just close enough before letting his legs collapse beneath him into a slide aimed directly between the beast's legs. The Coveted Semblance flared into existence, and Emlyn's body flashed forward a few precious feet behind the Itzamna, and he snatched up Mirror. Like a whip he snapped around, and with as much energy as he could muster, launched the chakram forward, and, sure enough, it tore through the Grimm at the neck, beheading it. Then, like a boomerang it returned, and slapped into his gloved hand.

His attention turned to Auriel immediately. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted.

Flamelord said
"Alright," Tai replied, accepting that answer for what it was. If there were other reasons, then Tai would leave that alone. Unless it became a problem, he was willing to let his partner be as revealing or not as he wanted. Tai was willing to trust that Robert would tell him when he felt like it, and Tai was willing to wait until then if it actually mattered. Asked about his weapon, Tai nodded, presenting the meteor hammer in it's barbell form to Robert. "It's a meteor hammer, a traditional weapon as it were," he explained, laying it horizontal and unlocking the two sides, the heads spitting out to slam into trees nearby, spikes gouging at wood. He then unlocked the middle handle which had shrunk in the process, so he held two chains, each with one head, like a flail. "It also lights on fire," he added, before proceeding to show that off by having one of the spiked heads catch ablaze courtesy of fire dust after he removed it from the tree.Demonstration done, he quickly reassembled his weapon and returned it to his belt before looking over to his partner. 'And what about yours? I imagine it must have a few tricks."

Robert looked at Tai's weapon with amazement. When asked about his own weapon, Robert felt a bit less excited to show it off when compared to The Meteor Hammer. "It was designed and built by my dad. It has two forms, blade and gun." Robert switched between both modes to show what each looked like. "When in gun mode a pair of crosshairs appear on my visor to show where both bracers are aimed. I keep extra ammo on my belt, here. My dad never actually taught me how to use these though so for all I know the visor and bracers could have other functions that I don't know about." As Robert finished his sentence, both Tai and Robert walked out of the trees and into a large pasture. "Whoa, that's a large pasture," said Captain Obvious (aka Robert).

"Illusions huh? Interesting. I'd certainly like to see that in action." Gren commented.

Just as Kuhaku took a breath and was about to speak, his words died in his throat and were lost as the boxcar was drowned in sudden darkness. The train they were stowing-away on had just entered a tunnel. As Gren got to his feet, Kuhaku did the same. His tail swaying restlessly from side to side and his brow furrowed.

"Damn. I didn't expect the train to go through a tunnel. We should leave before we stray too far from the testing grounds."

As Gren approached the open side of the boxcar, Kuhaku did the same and peered out with him. Kuhaku turned his head to look at Gren and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, agreed!"

"We'll have to jump. This also looks like a good place where one of the artifacts might be at, given that it's so out of the way. See you on the otherside!" Gren shouted as he jumped out.

As Gren jumped, Kuhaku briefly reached out for him, taken by surprise from his sudden action. "W-wait! Hold on!" he called out to Gren, not entirely sure if he had heard him.

Frowning, he took a couple steps back from the opening in the boxcar and took a few, quick, deep breaths. With a running start, he also leapt from the train. As he landed next to Gren, he did a roll and came to a skidding stop in the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust. Blinking through the dust he disturbed, he slowly stood and waved at the air to clear it away. Looking around, his eyes adjusted and he suddenly realized that it was much darker than he had expected. With his pupils narrowing into thin, vertical slits and his irises giving off a slight copper/bronze glow, he was glad he had good night vision.