The first two days as they camped went almost perfectly according to plan.  They were able to find the limits of the bats' hunting area, several beast skeletons, and quite a few holes the bats liked to come out of.  Clare even happily found some plants to bring back.  The only real problem they encountered was that Ell wanted to bring back more skeleton pieces than she could figure out room for.

After some brief discussion during the afternoon of the second day, they agreed that they were all ready for the next step in their plans.  Sai and Lei grabbed a bunch of bags, holding what Jelin assumed were nets and whatever else Ell had made to help them capture the bats, and headed off to somewhere they had picked out for their part of the whole thing.

As evening fell and the night approached, Jelin surrounded his group with another wind barrier that was slightly stronger than the last time's.  He held it there while waiting for the signal or some sign of all the bats having left and the area being clear.  Soon, though, he felt some tugs and minor panic in the link.

Ell's assistance was requested from Sai as they apparently had come across some minor problem with capturing the bats.  As Ell responded and began heading towards them, Lei also sent a request for Clare to be ready when they were done and returned.  Jelin thought that Clare should have already been ready to help take care of injured bats, but Lei quickly changed his thoughts.  She gave only a brief explanation but apparently Sai had gotten a little more cocky than she should have and ended up getting some nasty wounds and losing a wing.

Clare requested they bring the wing back as well if possible to make the healing quicker.  Without the wing it could take even days or months, depending, for Sai to be fully healed.  Lei responded again that the wing was most definitely gone and would not be retrieved.  Jelin wasn't the only one listening in and feeling a little bad about the whole thing.  He was the one with the final word, though, and he decided to keep up the plans but let everyone know to be a little more careful.

After almost an hour, Lei announced that the coast seemed to be clearing and would likely be fully clear in a matter of minutes.  Zaer and Mel both started to call their swarms from further back and Jelin told Ell and Lei to go ahead and bring Sai back with the bats.  He made it very clear that he didn't mean just to the camp, as well.  Sai tried to argue for a while, but Jelin remained adamant and told her to go back home and recuperate.

With that argument out of the way, he lessened the wind barrier and began moving forward with his group to the nearest hole.  With them there, it should work as an easier mark for the minions who would be bringing back the baby bats and allow them to make the trip back to the camp quicker.  The bees and spiders that were designated to go into their hole arrived shortly after they did and dove down while they all watched the area.

Jelin kept his wind barrier at the minimum possible to help muffle some sounds and scents and Emmy kept her head stuck through it so she could use her ears and nose to their fullest.  Mel and Zaer were both in heavy concentration as they focused on their swarms.  After almost an hour the first spider returned with a baby bat strapped to its back and immediately began heading back to the camp.  Jelin sent a heads up through the link to let them know that the baby bats were going to start coming.  They had apparently already started to work on the baby bats that Sai and Lei had, indeed, capture along with some mothers.

In the span of only a few minute, a steady stream of bees and spiders were coming out of the hole with baby bats to head back to the humans at the camp.  Jelin wanted to ask how many more they could expect but didn't want to ruin the intense concentration both Mel and Zaer seemed to be under.  Trying to pay attention to and control whole swarms to do multiple things at once likely took a lot out of them, mentally.

After about another hour, both Zaer and Mel seemed to ease up a little.  Mel turned to him with a slightly tired smile.

<That should be the last of the rescues.  I don't know about Zaer but I'm going to have the rest of my rescuers start pushing as deep and far as possible.  If they can make it out of the bats' territory then they might be able to search more and find something.>

<No.  I'm calling mine back.  They wouldn't be able to do well in there for too long.>

Jelin nodded at them and looked around while trying to keep track of time.

<That's fine.  We might have a couple more hours still so get the scouts to search as much as possible, too.  For the ones you're bringing back, Zaer, see if they can grab some things from around in there.  If we can find out about the stone or anything else that isn't from the bats then it might help know what the structure was for which could lead us to where things, like the entrances, might be.  You don't have to push it, though, just whatever they can grab will be fine.>

After another fifteen minutes or so Mel looked a little antsy about something but Zaer's bees also started appearing again while holding various small objects.  Most were various rock-like pieces of rubble or something and Jelin took a few seconds to examine each as it came out.  A lot of the stone type things looked a lot very similar to concrete to him, with only a few minor differences.  There were also pieces of some kind of ceramic or clay among other unidentifiable objects.

<Zaer, go ahead and send all of this over for them to bring back home.  Ell, keep the stuff that Zaer's sending over separate for a while.  You're free to look at it but I don't want you doing anything to any of it for a while, even if it's for testing.  Just set it to the side somewhere.

Okay, Mel.  You've been looking like you think you found something for a while.  What is it?>

<I think I found a cave...>

<...>

<I mean a real cave.  It's made of stone and all, right?  It often looks like there are teeth or something all over the place and sometimes they are kind of melted together.  That's a cave, right?  Some of my guys went through a small opening in the side a good ways down and ended up in a place exactly like that.

They also seem to still be pretty high up from the bottom of the structure.  A few tried to go down on the real cave side since it seemed faster and still didn't reach the real bottom.  They had to stop and are trying to find a way back in because the real cave seemed to kind of break into the side of the structure or something.>

<Let me ask this.  In your opinions, both of you, from what you've seen and are seeing, which would seem more likely to be the history of this place?

A long time ago, people from deep underground built a tall tower to reach the upper skies but died off just as they made it.

A long time ago, people were facing something terrible and built a structure deep into the ground before sealing themselves in but died off anyways.

A long time ago, people built a huge structure but something happened and it sank into the ground so they all ran away or died.>

<...> <...>

<Not enough found to make a guess or...?>

<No...I just realized it's probably the third one...> <Same.>

<Right.  What about you, Emmy.  With only as little information as you've gotten, which of them seems most likely to you?>

<The third as well...>

<That's what I think, too.  We aren't going to find an easy entrance into there, most likely.  I'd bet the real entrances are going to be at the very bottom.  With the forest like this and the real caves like that I'd say that whatever happened happened a very very long time ago, too.  That, or whatever happened was cataclysmic.  Maybe both.

We'll stay here for one more day just in case, but have any of your guys that you don't plan on leaving down there start working their way to getting out.  Whoever these people were had more advanced stuff than they should have.  Instead of an entrance we should come back to try and find out either what happened or what kind of stuff survived that we might be able to use.>