As the blue fox-boy, clad in a white, hooded vest and dark blue pants, wandered the seemingly never-ending caves beneath Arda's local primary mountain range, the Ered Annon range, he had to wonder why he was here. He also had to wonder if these caves ever ended. He'd been walking for over an hour, which had to have amounted to a few miles, and still there didn't seem to be an end in sight.

And then there were the spider webs that had appeared recently as he'd been walking. As any adventurer worth anything would, he'd avoided them, but he hadn't seen whatever had made them. He had, however, heard rumor of this place: Ungol Felas, the Spider Caves, said to be home to all of Arda's giant spider population not counting Llolth's servants in the drow territory of the Underdark. Realizing the place he was thinking of, he shook the thought out of his head. He'd never been there and he never wanted to go there. Maybe he should just turn back...

But as he sorted through his thoughts, stopping to do so, a severe pain shot through his head, dropping him to his knees clutching it, though of course that didn't make it go away. It continued, a pair of voices at the edge of his mind seeming to come from it, though he couldn't make out anything from them. It was as if the empty space inside his mind that once had been occupied by Darkfire, his old evil half, was demanding something new to occupy it, and perhaps even giving two options for just that. Remaining there on his knees in the depths of the caves, lit only by the occasional light from travelers past, his face contorted in pain, he only had hope that nothing would come by during this most vulnerable time.

Rue observed the wierd fox-thing from his uncomfortable spot on the rock ceiling of the mountain tunnel. He wondered at what ailed the creature for a second. Then he went back to struggling in the most frustrating bonds again. Roland Light was hanging from a spider web. Large wads of annoyingly sticky web glued him to the web at his arms and legs. He was spread out with his limbs pulled as far from his body as they could go without being ripped off. His chest hung forward. Rues bag swing freely as it hung off his body.
This is better, Rue thought, than dealing with the spider that put me here, anyway. It had been ten feet to the shoulder and black and hairy. Rue couldnt remember being more horrified and scared. It had picked him up as he screamed with two discusting front legs and caried him out of his path to this web. What was a quite normal tour through the mountains became torture.
Rue thought he might vomit or faint if he thung here any longer. He yelled, "Hey, Dog-dude!" with such force that his sword fell off his bag and fell, spinning, the twenty feet to the cave floor. It clattered as it landed. Rue's body swung like a pendulum in the elastic web.

A chill emanated throughout the caves as Xoco slunk through them. He was in his human guise, one of his most highly preferred forms. He was clad in blue clothing lined with silver. Inside, his Wraith form was cloaked in the guise of pale human flesh which sported white hair and cold blue eyes. His cape flowed behind him as the draft of the caves whipped it around. One of his favorite wandering spots was in the spider caves, where he could often toy with travelers who had been unfortunate enough to encounter the large arachnids that roamed these dark granite halls.

He also loved the dark, which kept him constantly empowered and ready for action. Never a dull moment. Actually, there were plenty of dull moments, especially when trying to woo exceptionally dense travelers out of their possessions. But it was the thought that counted.

He had picked up the painful screams of one being and the constant, rather boisterous struggling of another. They both sounded humanoid, but one seemed different. He looked on at the strange scene from a safe distance, hiding in the shadows. One was an odd-looking fox-human mix, the other a simple human child. Not knowing what he could gain from assisting them, he started to walk away. Then a pouch fell from where the human boy was entangled in a web. He decided to check it for valuables before he left. He wondered if the fox-man was actually with the kid or not, as he seemed to be in considerable pain. Either way, his curiosity was aroused by the pouch. It was certainly better then doing nothing.

Stepping out of the shadows, he said “Looks like you could use a hand.”

Feeling the pain begin to settle down, and the strange pair of voices he'd heard fade away, Kai let his arms drop down to his sides, giving a sigh of relief. At least that was over...well, for now. Who was to say if it really was.

"Hey, Dog-dude!" Kai's ears perked up, hearing a voice from above, followed shortly after by the 'clang' of a sword into the stony ground not far from him, embedding itself about halfway in with the hilt pointed upwards.

“Looks like you could use a hand," another voice out, and Kai looked quickly over to its owner a little ways away in the tunnel, slightly startled. He was definitely starting to lose it...if not for whatever was going on right now with his mind, he would've noticed both of these people plenty sooner. Grunting slightly, he stood back up slowly, looking up to the boy suspended in the spider-web above him and letting his left hand suddenly ignite in a bright red flame, tossing it lightly up to harmlessly melt away the webs. Well, the fire was harmless, at least...realizing he wasn't quite thinking, he hoped that the boy would be able to land alright, given that right now his speed and reactions wouldn't be as great as normal after spending so much time in these caverns.

"Looks like you could use some help."
Rue looked at the man, and got a quick glance in at the creepily pale face, before he was suddenly falling. The hair on the back of his neck remembered the heat of a fire ball as he screamed and landed, chest first into the rock with a discusting noise.
"OOHFF!"
Rue's vision blurred with warm tears, and he took hard, loud, shallow breaths because the air had been knocked out of him. He curled reflexively into a fetel position, with his hands on his calves, and shivered.
He thought: "This is unlikely of me, to be as unguarded as I am." Rue felt embarrassed, but there was nothing he could do.

((OOc: Don't worry about god-moding me, my character won't stop you.))

“Wandering these caves has claimed the lives of many a capable warrior. It isn’t wise to venture so deeply into the lair of such evil creatures as these spiders,” advised Xoco. He moved closer, taking in both of the two travelers in more detail. One was a simple human boy. How he had managed to survive so long in the caves, Xoco didn’t know, nor did he care. He had a nice-looking katana on him… possibly worth taking to pawn off later. However, it was strapped firmly onto the boy, and it would be difficult to make off with it scabbard and all, even with a Wraith’s stealth. The other was obviously a talented mage, from the show of magic that had just released the human. It seemed to be some sort of half-fox humanoid creature, but he had never seen anything quite like it before. Xoco was surprised at the diversity of the two. The fox had an infernal sword… and a nice one at that. Xoco contemplated taking it, but the fox seemed to be a more difficult target. He doubted his ability to gain an edge on this talented warrior.

Xoco picked up the fallen sack, both to return it to the boy and to test its weight. It was rather light, and he couldn’t feel any powerful auras coming from inside. He sighed. It was probably nothing worth taking.

“Are you two traveling together, by any chance?” he asked. The fox looked more intimidating the closer Xoco got. He picked up the aura of magic from the fox, an aura only emited by people who regularly employed magic. As to what kind, he couldn’t make out, but he still maentally noted the power. This was someone to treat with caution. He considered simply taking off and not risking it, but the chance to at least have some fun with the two travelers and possibly gain some valuables called out to him.

Wincing slightly as he watched the boy fall chest-first onto a rock, he inwardly cursed himself for not being able to think things through a bit more before acting. Though it wasn't completely his fault for not being able to do so...in all honesty, he wasn't sure what was going on with his mind right now.

"Sorry about that..." Kai said, his voice sounding normal enough despite his appearance, though there was a small hint of something leaning more toward the animal he looked like that even his ears barely noticed, and that wasn't there before. He even felt like some new instincts were awakening in him, drawn from his fox heritage, as opposed to humanoid.

Looking over to the other...well, definitely not a person, probably a wraith or something similar, that was here, he watched as the creature, or man, whichever they could be called, returned the fallen bag to the boy, sighing for some reason. A thief, maybe? Even if they were, though, he wasn't worried, he could handle things quite well he was sure.

“Are you two traveling together, by any chance?” the wraith asked, and Kai shook his head.

"Not sure how long he's been down here, but I've been down here I think almost a day now, just trying to make my way out somehow," he replied.

Xoco smiled at the fox’s response. They were not traveling together, and the boy had been down here an unknown amount of time. This meant that the fox would have no real affection for the human, and Xoco could probably take off with something easily when the fox wasn’t looking. However, he sensed that the fox had little wariness for him, possibly because he didn’t seem dangerous, and possibly because the fox was confident. He didn’t seem over-confident, simply well-assured with his own abilities, and that troubled Xoco.

“Not sure how long he's been down here, but I've been down here I think almost a day now, just trying to make my way out somehow” said the fox. Xoco thought for a moment, considering his options. He could attempt to drop the fox quickly while he had the element of surprise. The problem was, he doubted his own speed and wasn’t sure he could pull it off. The second was a little more… assuring. Taking the devil he knew, he said,

“I could lead you out. I know these caves well, and I could help you find an exit. Where are you heading, master Fox?” Xoco smiled, already thinking through his next move. It didn’t do to be just one step ahead of your targets. You always had to be ten steps ahead. He aptly stared into the fox’s calm eyes and awaited a response.