She didn't understand why Vola was laughing, but it was good enough that they still could laugh. Get it out of their system. Let the adrenaline run its course. And, presuming the answer was accurate, it was good that there was a 'force multiplier' for magic. It must have been a Fire Bolt that triggered that explosion. Maybe something along the lines of a creature inside the cave that had...

Hah.

...that had plenty of gas built up its bowels.

Akeno, however, was correct, the roar that resounded just moments after she had called out about whatever inside the mountain being away of them enough of a signal that a [i]true[/i] monster was present. A screech that reverbrated into her bones, nothing like the wolves that howled into the night, the rumbling of bears starving after a long winter. It was more of a chicken with some guts, screeching out with a damaged throat. Esfir's gaze followed the trajectory of the cave's path. The ceiling dipped down, and then rose upwards, leading perhaps to the den of the awakened monster. Could they outrun it? Dive down the slope that they had spent so long climbing up? Was it time to cut their losses, with nothing but a handful of rocks, and try a kinder hunting spot?

Why hadn't she simply taken those Elwets and returned to camp like that?

[i]Esfir Kosova, a spinster withering away in an abandoned shack in the middle of a barren forest, two hours away from civilization.[/i]

She had an Elwet beak, within which she stored smouldering embers. Some foul-smelling berries and leaves. Two antlers. A sparkstone. A set of unnnatural abilities. And ninety years of keeping her head down, of believing in smart choices, of trusting in promises made by those above her. Her memories were making her reckless, perhaps. Her left toe was scratching against the ground, her sunken eyes staring deeper inside the mountain cave.

She drew her line in the sand and treated it as a groove in concrete.

[b]"Leave if you don't have anything else to give. Hide or run; I'll keep whatever's inside busy enough for you three to do so."[/b]

Stupid way to reclaim her youth, ambushing something that sounded like it was ten times her size. But all it took was a satchel of peppers to chase off a beast. How much more could a monster take?
[@Unkown58][@Crusader Lord][@King Cosmos]