Hidden Colony Part 4

They left the ruin hurriedly.  Moon threw one last look at the statue as the others climbed back up the steps. Jade caught his arm and tugged him along.

Once they reached the upper hall again, it was a scramble to get the Arbora out. Jade tossed Bramble at Moon and hissed, "I can't believe this is happening again."

Moon caught Bramble, who said, "We don't know that it is yet!"

Moon agreed, but he wasn't going to argue with Jade. If this was a forerunner ruin, they needed to make a better plan for searching it.

Once they were outside, in the relatively bright green light of the upper canopy, they retreated to a platform on the next mountain-tree. They settled in the sparse grass near a pool, and Balm sent several warriors up into the branches above to keep watch. The others gathered around Jade.

She sat down on the moss, folding her tail around her feet, making it clear to the Arbora this was not going to be a quick decision on her part. She said, "You've all heard the stories. We know the forerunners left dangerous things in their abandoned cities. We need to think carefully about this."

The Arbora seemed a little heartened by the fact that she hadn't immediately ordered them back to the colony. Sitting next to Stone, Moon wrestled with conflicting impulses. Jade was right, the ruin was dangerous, but he still didn't think they could afford to turn around and leave it.

Balm said, "It would be nice to see something like this without something trying to kill us the whole time."

"We don't know that there isn't something that wants to kill us in there," Moon felt compelled to point out. "It just hasn't met us yet."

Jade tilted her head at him and Balm. "That's not funny."

"It's a little funny," Chime said.

"No, no, it isn't." Jade transferred the head tilt to Chime.

"Are you going to tell us to leave the place alone?" Moon asked, already regretting knocking the conversation off on this tangent.

Jade's spines drooped in frustration. "No. It's already too late for that."

That was a relief. Moon settled his spines a little.

Stone agreed. "Warriors would be sneaking off here, daring each other to go, and Arbora would be talking warriors into taking them here. Until somebody gets killed or they release whatever's in there and it kills all of us."

"We don't know there's something in there," Chime said. "It just doesn't look like the other forerunner places. I don't get any sense of anything from it. Not that that's a guarantee it's safe, or anything, because it obviously isn't. But--" He shrugged his spines.

The other Arbora had been talking among themselves, spines flicked in agitated interest. Merit turned to Jade and said, "I had a thought--"

Rill, crouched next to him, said, "Uh, Thistle had it too."

"So did I," Gold protested.

"The Arbora had a thought," Stone cut through the incipient argument. "Now tell us what it was."

Merit said, "We were thinking that this might not be a forerunner ruin. It might be a ruin from the time not long after the forerunners died, and the statue was just to remember them."

Jade considered that, her brow furrowed. 

Bramble added, "This place wasn't sealed. That's not very forerunner."

Stone countered, "Right. But there might be a sealed place deeper inside."

"It might not even be sealed," Moon said. "Just hidden." He still thought they should search this place, but he wanted the others to be just as cautious as jumpy nerves could make them. It was the only way to be safe in a place like this.

"But it's unlikely there's some sort of trap, isn't it?" Bramble said persuasively. "This place is so different. It's not like the other forerunner places we've seen, not like the foundation builders--"

"Unless it's covered with writing we can't read," Jade reminded her.

"Well, that," Bramble conceded. "But there's something about it that feels...like us."

Chime was flicking his spines in agreement. "I think so too. It just looks like it's native to the Reaches." He made a frustrated gesture. "But it's hard to tell if the stone ruin came first or the mountain-tree."

Bramble said, "We can't walk away. Walking away doesn't do any good."

Moon could tell that point had hit home. Jade eyed her grimly. "Bramble."

Bramble angled her spines in deference. "But you know it's true."

 Jade glared at her a moment more, then sighed. Moon knew what that meant, and so did the Arbora. They all twitched in anticipation. Chime flicked his spines hopefully. Jade said, "So we're going to search the place. Now we need to make a plan."