Finding The Treasure

"So, dampening the paper didn't work this time like it did with the third piece? How in the world are we going to find it now?!" Sargon growled out, Sirtir watching him stalk back and forth across the room. "We'll find a way, they probably just made it a little trickier to discover." Sakari replied as she sat at the table, Aiolia laying on the floor next to her, glancing up at the man pacing across the room. Kalysta and Adela worked on finding more hints, sitting across the table from Sakari, reading the book they had found earlier and scowering the internet for any information they could find on this particular treasure. Lorelei sat on the rug in front of some couches and the fireplace, enjoying the warm fire that had been started. Eros sat next to his handler protectively, watching her as she worked on cracking the secret of the hint. Isabelle laid on the couch, waiting for any sort of news and trying to stay out of the way, while Arulia sat beside the couch, glancing around at everyone every once and a while and then looking at the fire and enjoying the warmth.

"Have you guys tried overlapping the map pieces?" Isabelle asked, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the warmth of the fire. "Sadly, yes, we've tried it." Kalysta said. "Good idea though." Isabelle just shrugged and went back to relaxing, leaving the other three ladies to come up with more ideas. Sakari tilted her head and picked up the second piece, walking over to the fire. "What are you doing?" Adela asked as she watched. Sakari held the paper up in front of the fireplace. "Seeing if maybe light behind it might reveal something." she replied, looking over the page but seeing very little change. Sargon looked at her and rolled his eyes, then noticed the shadow of the map on her shirt. "Look at the shadow you dummy." Sakari gave him a glare before looking at the shadow. "Huh, would you look at that." she commented, Kalysta and Adela walking over and looking at the shadow. Isabelle sat up and went to grab a piece of paper, then held it up in front of Sakari so they could get a better look. "There, someone take a photo or draw it out." she said. Adela quickly took a picture and they went back to the table to figure out their new clue.

"I hope this is correct." Sargon said as he peaked over the shoulders of the girls and then went to lead Sirtir outside, being the first in the saddle and ready to head out. Isabelle led Arulia to the door and waited for the others to follow. Kalysta and Sakari, along with Lorelei and Aiolia took the lead, with Adela and Eros right behind them. Isabelle and Arulia was right behind them with Sargon and Sirtir in the back. They headed in the opposite direction from the first trip out, heading into the forest and towards the next valley. "Are you positive this is where we need to go?" Kalysta asked Isabelle. "I am positive, it's the only thing in the area like that." she replied. "You better be right." Sargon said with a huff, hating the idea of heading all the way out this far for nothing. "I am sure I am right." she replied, picking up the pace to catch up to Adela and Eros. "There it is." Sakari said as they entered the next valley over and saw the strange caves along the cliffs. "I told you." Isabelle said. "They may match up, but is the map actually there?" Sargon asked as they headed down the path, and then went to find a way up to the caves. They found a winding path leading up the the caves, and one by one, the tokotas and handlers climbed up and into the first of the five caves that could possibly contain the map pieces. "Here, let me look at the clue again." Sakari said, Adela taking out the picture of the shadow and handing it over to the other handler. "While she looked over the clue, let's look around." Kalysta suggested, not wanting to waste any time so that they could get home before it got too dark out. Lorelei followed Kalysta deeper into the cave, and Eros followed closely behind as Adela also followed. Sirtir started to wander the space, sniffing around and watching the others looking around. Aiolia stuck to Sakari's side like glue, and Arulia sat next to Sakari as well as Isabelle started to search around some cracks and crevices for any sign of the map. Sargon sat on a boulder and watched the others, claiming he was tired from the hike out there.

After a while Sakari spoke up to the others who were about to give up on this cave. "I think we are in the wrong cave." she said, turning the picture onto it's side. "I think we should try cave three." she said, handing the picture over to Adela who looked it over. "Why cave three?" she asked, looking a little confused. "Well, if you turn the picture on its side, it looks like a three, maybe it's a clue. You never know until you look." she led the way out of the cave with the others following, leading them up the path to the third cave and inside. It seemed to be the smallest of the three caves by the entrance, but it was large on the inside and had a few separate tunnels leading deeper into the cliffs. "Let's split up into two groups." Kalysta said, looking at the two tunnels leading off from the main portion of the cave. "I'll go with feather girl down the left tunnel." Sargon said, glancing at Sakari and Aiolia who did not protest. "Alright, then me, Adela and Isabelle with go down the right tunnel." she led the way, Lorelei, Eroa and Arulia following them down the tunnel.

"Alright then, let's go and take a look." Sakari said, Aiolia following her down the tunnel with Sirtir right behind him. Sargon followed behind them and looked at the walls around them, flicking on a flashlight he had with him and just barely seeing Sakari's flashlight around the two large canines. Sargon and Sakari's team entered a small cavern that seemed empty except for a pool of water along the far wall, fed by a small crack in the ceiling which water dripped through. "Let's look around, maybe we are missing something." Sakari said, looking around for any place that a piece of map or anything could be hiding. Sargon looked around, lifting a brow as he looked around the space, looking for no hiding places at all, nothing but smoothed out walls and the crack that the water dripped from. He walked over and looked up at the small crevice in the ceiling, seeing it as the only hiding place in the whole room. Sirtir followed him over and looked into the water, and then took a drink as she waited for the handlers to finish looking around. Aiolia joined Sirtir, then tilted his head at the one strange stone laying on the smoothed out bottom of the pool. He stuck his face in the water and grabbed the stone, carrying it over to Sakari. "What do you have?" she asked, taking the stone. "Those holes in the stone don't look natural. Or is that just me?" Sargon asked, looked through one of the holes in the stone and seeing Sakari's eye through it. "Your right. Well, let's head back, it doesn't look like there will be any other hiding place in here." she said, starting back down the tunnel.

Kalysta looked behind some boulders along one wall, while Isabelle climbed on top of the rock pile and searched the cracks and crevices in the walls for anything suspicious. Adela searched another area of the small space they were in, moving some large stones and carefully poking into crevices and cracks. Arulia sat near the tunnel, watching the handlers and listening for any sign of danger. Lorelei was next to her handler, watching over the handlers shoulder and trying to help by nosing away some stones that she could. Eros watched with worry as his handler picked up another fairly large stone and moved it to see what was under it. "I found something!" she said with excitement, putting down the stone. "The map piece!" Isabelle cheared as Kalysta picked it up. "Alright then, let's go and find the others and let them know we found it! Now to just find the treasure." Kalysta said as she walked over and started to lead Lorelei down the tunnel, Arulia following quickly behind and making sure Isabelle was right behind her. Adela and Eros followed in the back and they met up with the others in the main portion of the cave.