Ronan was no stranger to the dark, he couldn't say he liked it, but he was familiar with it and the dangers that lurked within. He'd already come to a conclusion of his own, one he was staunchly tight-lipped about, but found himself checking dark crevices all the same. Just in case. This one was unlike the others, unnatural in a way that was unfamiliar to him, all stone and no metal.

Something, or someone had died down there, he could smell it. Not a fresh stench that made his nose wrinkle in distaste, but something old, long dead, desiccated by the passage of time. Probably had been gnawed on by the rats, he couldn't see them but he heard them easily enough, how they skittered out of view, reacting a moment before he even moved.

The stone felt worn under his paws, almost marble smooth and good thing too as he couldn't see shit. It'd be easy to trip and get turned about in this place, he wouldn't have been surprised if the corpse was someone who'd gotten turned about, couldn't find their way and just died. Either from lack of water or starvation.

table coding by bunni ♥

Kiela had never been a fan of subterranean lands and if she'd never found Heiðinn she expected she would never have come down here. But since her pack had claimed the crypts to the south - seemingly not accessible by the same side of the mountains as these caves were - she was intrigued by what might lie beneath these mountains. Though the pack had been hard at work making the crypt suitable to live in more permanently, marking off the unsafe passages and tidying those that could be used, she wanted to be sure that there wasn't a reason they ought to stay out of these caves - any of them. The mines that weren't far off from this cavern had signs of life that this did not, proof that creatures far different from wolf had once roamed the tunnels. This place, though, was desolate. The smell was strange, though told her not much life could be found here, likely nothing but small cave-dwellers like bats and spiders. Kiela wrinkled her nose as she carefully tested the stone beneath her with each step, though something made her pause. A sound up ahead, much louder than a rat or mouse scurrying around in the darkness. Already it was growing difficult to see. She thought to turn around soon, though she knew if she remained oriented properly she'd know the way out regardless of light - or lack thereof. "Someone is here?" She called out, her accent slipping out a little stronger than usual, maybe due to the fact that this place was deeply unsettling.

Ronan paused for a breath, not quite sure whether he'd heard a voice just then. He was inclined to think that he had, simply because the alterative was somewhat troubling, that after not even an hour in the dark and isolation he was already hearing voices. It helped that from what he'd caught the voice had an accent his mind couldn't make up on its own accord, a strange lilt he couldn't have put a name to if he'd even tried. That was grounding, if nothing else.

He stepped forward then, ears flicked forward, straining hard to hear. Somewhere rats scurried, a continuous drip drip drip was hard to drown out, the noise insistent and nagging. His gaze flickered up briefly, saw the shadows of what looked like some sort of foliage, would have thought it was ivy adjacent, except how could anything but fungus and maybe moss could grow here. Though if he'd been able to see a little clearer, he would have realised they weren't plants at all, but bats hanging upside down and sleeping soundly.

Still, he thought if they were to be found there'd be here, in the deep and dark, somewhere to grow undisturbed. If that's how it even worked, he wasn't entirely sure, no one was.

"Yeah." He finally said, had let the silence settle a little too long. "You lost?