OOC: Memory Crystal (Sight, Touch, Taste)
Wet. That was the first impression of the situation Cara had--wet bangs hanging into her eyes, wet ponytail dripping cold water down her neck, clothes hanging heavy and wrinkled like she had just climbed out of a pond. Wet and cold; she could feel herself shivering while at the same time trying not to. And the water had really gotten everywhere. The taste of it in her mouth was impossible to ignore, not clear and crisp like rain but heavy and mineral, a chalky metallic sensation mixed with a trace of blood. But the source of that was easy to discover; she could feel the cut inside her lip fitting in with her teeth.
Bartz and the two women had obviously shared whatever experience she had, hair plastered to their skulls, water dripping from whatever point it could on them. The four of them stood in a wide, circular cavern of smooth green stone. A waterfall gushed down the far wall in utter silence. Cara could feel the water in her boots as they began walking down the steps into the cavern, squishing through her socks in a way that was less than pleasant. Moving presented aching muscles all over, a variety of twinges of mild pain and itching from rapidly healed wounds, but nothing that hindered her movement. They walked around the broad ring of an island surrounded by a taller ring of the same greenish rock. She could see what looked like an altar in the center, a stone tablet resting on it. More stairs led down... this place had clearly been built deliberately, but the water-worn edges on everything made it impossible to guess the age.
Kneeling down, Bartz picked up the stone tablet. Words were written there in hieroglyphics that didn't seem touched by the erosion everywhere else in the cavern. This must have been what the four of them had come for--they headed back up, Cara falling into place in line behind Bartz.
But when they reached the top of the steps, they suddenly stopped and moved into battle stances. Cara's spear dropped into her other hand with effortless ease as she shifted her soaking feet. The reason why became apparent seconds later when a demon flickered into view in front of them--a good several feet taller than them, its yellow eyes and claws standing out against its scarlet hide. Tentacles writhed around its head as it leered at them, saying something she couldn't hear. It was time for battle, clearly.
Before either side could make another move, the chamber shook. All of them looked around wildly at the tremor--Bartz shouted something and pointed, but there was no need. The falls at the far end of the chamber parted, and a huge serpent, pale purple and blue, rose up from within. Slicing forward through the water with the inevitability of a glacier, he reared above the demon. The air seemed to become liquid, rippling as a jet of water shot from his jaws, slicing the demon to ribbons before washing it clean away.
Cara's mouth dropped open as she gazed on the... thing. The serpent was no demon, she felt sure of that. There was power, one she could almost feel. His mouth opened again, clearly in speech this time rather than destruction. She could feel the weight of his words, yet there was no way to understand what he was saying with the silence.... whatever it was, it was an indication that battle was inevitable. Once again, the four of them prepared to fight.
[ooc: Video reference for this memory is here, from 4:45 to 5:50. As for the hieroglyphics, I kinda think that the Ancients in Final Fantasy V were something like Ancient Egyptians + Steampunk.
Memory was originally Sound/Taste/Touch, Sound swapped for Sight with KK's permission. :) ]