[Kitsumi]

Once she had the picture of a cave lake monster in her head, Artemis didn't want to leave. She wanted to sit there and wait until such a "magnificent creature" appeared. In the end, Sawyer had to literally grab her and drag her backwards, threatening to throw her in the freezing water if she didn't come along with him. Finally, crossing her arms and pouting, she turned away from the lake and followed her partner.

"I don't see why we couldn't stay just a little bit longer," she grumbled. "Did you even get enough pictures? I thought you wanted to get pictures of actual creatures. But you keep paying attention to all the boring stuff, like glowing moss."

[Kitsumi]

Sawyer clenched his teeth together, trying to keep from showing his exasperation. The two had only just started going on these adventures together, and he had yet to become used to Artemis' little...quirks. Normally Sawyer was a pretty patient guy, but by the gods this woman seemed to know just how to push him to his limits.

Luckily, Artemis managed to keep her mouth shut on their way back, and the two retraced their steps in silence. A they came back to their starting point, Sawyer pointed to the path to the left. "This was the one you wanted to take, right?"

Artemis nodded happily. "Yup! Do you want to lead the way this time?"

Sawyer shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

[Kitsumi]

With Sawyer now in the lead, the pair had to rely on his single small flashlight to illuminate their path. At first, there didn't seem to be anything interesting ahead. The tunnel just seemed to stretch on, and on, and on. But when the light ahead of them was suddenly reflected back towards them, the two realized they had stumbled upon something interesting.

"Diamonds!" Artemis screamed. "We're going to be rich!" She sprinted forwards, blocking out some of the light with her body. "I told you I had a good feeling about this path!" she called out behind her.

While equally interested, Sawyer was pretty sure that the reflecting stones were far from diamonds. He moved closer, running his fingers gently over them and shining the flashlight on them, admiring the sparkling effect.

[Kitsumi]

"Sorry to burst your bubble," Sawyer said, placing a gentle hand on Artemis' shoulder. "But these aren't diamonds. They aren't even valuable."

Artemis' face fell. "Really? They aren't even some sort of semi-precious stone?" Looking closer, she realized that he was right. "Oh, wow. This is, what, quartz or something? I can't believe I thought it was diamond." Grinning sheepishly, she said, "But hey, they are pretty, right?"

The man nodded. "Yeah, it's definitely pretty." He lifted his camera. "Do you mind if we stay a bit so I can get some pictures?"

"Knock yourself out," Artemis replied. "Even if they aren't diamonds, I don't mind staying here a while. Hey, the way it reflects light, it's kinda like a disco-wall. Get it ? Like a disco-ball?" She didn't really expect Sawyer to answer, so she wasn't disappointed when he didn't.

[Kitsumi]

While the photographer got to work, Artemis began doing a little dance in the middle of the stones. She had turned her wrist-light back on, and she spun around, causing the light to reflect off of the stones back towards her. Closing her eyes, she spread her arms wide,spinning even faster.

When Artemis' light began messing up some of Sawyer's photographs, he turned to ask her to stop. But the sight of her, with all the lights reflecting around her and her expression one of pure joy, caused him to stop. Instead of reprimanding her, he raised his camera once more, this time making her the main focus of his photos.

[Kitsumi]

After a little while, the woman opened her eyes. When she noticed that Sawyer's camera was pointed towards her, she quickly stopped spinning, blushing bright red. "Uh...what are you doing?"

Sawyer, embarrassed to have been caught, also blushed. Instead of dropping the camera, he kept it in front of his face, hoping to hide the color rising to his cheeks, and pointed it behind her. "I'm just taking pictures," he said, a slight defensive tone in his voice. "What do you think I'm doing?"

It was obvious that he had been taking pictures of her, but Artemis didn't press the matter. She wasn't ready to be stuck in a cave having that sort of awkward conversation. "Well, hurry up and finish getting your pictures," she said instead. "I want to keep exploring."

[Kitsumi]

Getting back to the original subject of the pictures, Sawyer continued clicking away with his camera. He got some pictures of the stones alone, some of them with the light reflecting, and a few other various shots. He honestly didn't need quite so many pictures, but he was just waiting for the awkward moment to pass before putting down the camera.

Finally, he lowered his hands and let the camera drop back against his chest. "Alright, that should be plenty of these photos. Onward?"

"Onward," Artemis echoed. "Who knows? Maybe we'll actually find diamonds or treasure or something in the next area." As they began moving forwards, she recorded their recent progress on the map.

[Kitsumi]

"Hey, is that more of that glowing moss up ahead?" Artemis pointed towards two glowing spots in the area ahead of them. "These ones must give off a purple light - cool!"

Sawyer narrowed his eyes, and then immediately reached for Artemis' arm, pulling her back. "Don't!" he said in a quiet voice. "Those are eyes, Art. There's some sort of creature up ahead." He began backing away, pulling her along with him. "Come on, let's get out of here before it notices us."

"Are you kidding me?" Artemis gave him an incredulous look. "I thought you were a wildlife photographer! Here's your wildlife, right here in front of you, and you want to leave?!"

[Kitsumi]

Sawyer looked from the glowing eyes to his partner, and nodded. "Yes, I want to leave. Those eyes look like they belong to a creature big enough to do some serious damage. How do we know the creature isn't hostile?"

"How do we know it isn't friendly?" Artemis countered. "Look, can't we at least see what it is? Maybe it's harmless. If so, you can get some really good pictures and then we can be on our way. If it turns out to be something nasty, we can shoot it with a tranq dart or something."

The man rolled his eyes. "Artemis, do you see a gun on me? I didn't bring any freaking tranq darts!"

"Well, I did!" Artemis proudly held up a small handheld device. "This thing shoots a rather concentrated dose of tranquilizer. It should work for even the biggest of creatures within seconds."

[Kitsumi]

The man appeared to be weighing his options. Finally, he sighed. "Alright, we can get a bit closer. But if it looks like that thing is going to attack, don't hesitate to tranq it! I don't intend to make this cave my tomb, and I don't want to be eaten, either!"

Artemis grinned from ear to ear, and began moving forward. Dimming her light so that it wouldn't blind the creature, she shone the beam towards it. "Hey, it's some sort of Grondalith!"

The Grondalith, finally taking notice of the two humans, took a few steps back. He didn't appear as if he was preparing to charge, but he also didn't look ready to trust the two strangers who were intruding in his space. He stood up to his full height, spreading his wings in an attempt to appear larger and more menacing.

[Kitsumi]

"I've never seen a Grondalith with those colors before," Sawyer gasped, quickly forgetting his earlier fear. "This must be one of those rare species that quack was talking about!" Holding his camera to his eye, he began taking a few pictures.

The Grondalith didn't seem quite fond of the clicking noise. He reared up on his hind legs, letting out a low growl. The sound was enough to cause Sawyer to drop his camera and back away.

Artemis, on the other hand, simply shot Sawyer a scathing look. "You're scaring him!" she scolded. Turning back to the creature, she held out her hand, bending at the knees so she would appear smaller and less threatening. "Hey, pretty guy," she cooed in a soft voice. "His camera is annoying, I know. But we don't mean you any harm."

[Kitsumi]

"Art!" Sawyer hissed, reaching for his partner's arm but missing as she moved further ahead of him. "What are you doing? You don't advance towards a creature when it's already feeling threatened! Leave it alone, and let's get out of here!"

But the woman paid him no mind. She continued taking small, slow steps towards the Grondalith. The stone creature had stopped growling, and was now watching Artemis. His head was cocked, obviously more interested in the woman than afraid of her. Whether it was her smaller size or her gentle voice, something about her seemed to put the Grondalith at ease.

As Sawyer watched in a mixture of fear and wonder, the creature began moving towards Artemis as well.

[Kitsumi]

The two grew closer, Artemis' hand reaching out towards the Grondalith's outstretched head. Finally, the creature had bumped his head against the woman's hand, initiating contact. This time, he didn't seem to mind too much the click of the camera as Sawyer captured the moment.

"That's incredible," the man breathed. "Stay right there, Art, I want to capture this from a different angle." He moved to the left, getting a beautiful shot of the two.

Artemis, still keeping her gaze focused on the Grondalith, sighed. "Really? We have this amazing, rare Grondalith right in front of us, and you just want to take pictures of it?" As she spoke, she slowly ran her hand over the creature's stony head, and then scratched behind its ear.

[Kitsumi]

When the Grondalith let out a loud rumbling noise, much like the purr of a domesticated cat, Artemis giggled. "Do you like that, boy? Huh? I bet you've never had anyone down here to scratch behind your ear before."

The stone animal was no longer wary at all, but was instead eating up the attention. He rolled onto his back, wings spread out behind him, exposing his stomach. Artemis happily obliged, petting the cold, rough stone that was the Grondalith's stomach.

The Grondalith wasn't the only one enjoying the encounter. Sawyer was ecstatic to be able to capture such a rare moment, not to mention such a rare beast. He continued taking pictures, mumbling to himself as he did so.

[Kitsumi]

Several minutes passed, during which the Grondalith tried to climb into Artemis' lap, causing her to shriek with a mixture of laughter and slight pain as he stepped too hard on her leg. Finally, she stood, brushing off the dust from her pants and smiling down at the stone creature. "Well buddy, I hate to say it, but my partner and I still have a lot of the cave to explore."

Sawyer nodded. "Yes, as interesting as this is, we do still need to map out the rest of this cave." Peering past the Grondalith, he saw nothing ahead but a wall of stone. "This doesn't seem to lead anywhere, so we should probably head back the way we came. We'll take that last path - the one straight across from the entrance."