This RP leaves off from a story of Toranohi (Tora) and Byakkonomizu (Byakko). The background includes Tora and Byakko being training partners and 'adopted' sisters looking to better their techniques. An old tale of 7 elemental stones of power is said to bring its barer great strength and knowledge in that element. Bringing all these stones together will provide a wish, so they say.

Since Tora is of the fire element, she's most interested in finding the Fire Stone and pulls Byakko into a treasure hunt that brings unexpected trials, tribulations, and opportunities for growth. At this point they don't know of the legend of all the Stones brought together, just that each single stone provides great elemental power.

We last saw our adventurers in a cave by following a map that supposedly leads to the fire stone. Tora was left fighting a large slug due to hunger pains and Byakko found an underground water-way to explore. She finds the Fire Stone, but upon removing it, a cave-in ensued. Byakko swam back to where she left Tora. At her return, Tora and Byakko were separated by a wall of rock. Only a small crack in that wall let them know of each other's safe existence.

Additional backstory:

Byakkonomizu and Toranohi, although quite opposite in appearance, are legally cousins; Byakko's father and Tora's mother were brother and sister, who each respectively fell in love with half-whyns. These being half human and half Whynos, which are animalistic beings who hold either spiritual or magical powers. Byakko's lineage is of a tribe of ice kitsune who dwell upon the high mountains of Tsuki. Not but a few dozen miles from the base of these however, lie the plains of Mihoshi- where Tora's lineage lies. The plains are guarded by a tribe of tigers, learned in the art of fire and strength. The tribes had a long relationship of ill will towards one another, and were on unsteady terms with the humans who lived in the valley nestled between their two territories. Due to the unsettling birth of the new quarter children (Byakko and Tora), they attempted to created an alliance to keep the peace between their people, and make a safe living for the upbringing of the cousins. The two young daughters were sent to live in the valley, and became fast friends without any biased feelings towards one another's differences.

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Cova's Backstory

Cova was born into a clan of Panther Half Whyns. While she was like any other Half Whyn, she was constantly left out of activities and ceremonies. When she reached The Age of Knowledge, her clan abandoned her and she was left to fend for herself. While scavenging for food, she was found by an old Mage nearing his last years of life. He taught her basic magic, even a tad of dark magic, all of which she accepted openly. The tale of seven Stones of Power intrigued Cova and she left on a journey to find one, even after her master warned her against it. A month later, victorious as she found the Dark stone, she returned to their humble abode only to find the hut all but destroyed. A charm that represented her dear friend's life force lay on the ground, cracked. Sorely aggravated at this turn of events, she took of after the rest of the stones, hungry for the power; for revenge.

As she neared the shrine the Fire Stone was guarded, she was found by the guardian monks. Because she possessed the stone of darkness, she had been tainted and thought of as evil, so the guardians sealed her away inside the temple.

(bluezjessi)
Byakkonomizu, "Byakko"
Female
19
5'7''
Hair: Dark Tan/Amber
Fur Color: White and Light Blue/Cyan
Main Weapon: Bow/Arrows
Secondary Weapon: Ice/Water Magic, Speed, Hearing
Quarter Whyn: Kitsune

(Befu)
Toranohi, "Tora"
Female
20
5'5''
Hair: Red with Maroon streaks
Fur Color: Tiger Stripes (Siberian)
Main Weapon: Daggers
Secondary Weapon: Katana, Fire Magic, Strength, Smell
Quarter Whyn: Tiger

(Angel Naomi)
Cova
Female
21
5'8''
Hair: Black with Auburn Streaks
Fur Color: black
Main Weapon: staff
Secondary Weapon: Dark Magic, telepathy
Half Whyn: Panther

(Photo References)



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(Childhood Pictures)
Sleepover: x
Food: x

(Battles)
Unfinished Picture: x

(Tora)
Human Form: x
Tiger: x

(Byakko)
Sketches: x
Walking: x

(Cova)
Human Form: x
Panther Whyn: x
Panther: x


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Everything went black. She could still hear the rocks sliding down around her, but they were now slowing to a tinkling rain of debris. Byakko's body was tense and shaken after running frantically to catch up with her cousin. She knew it was futile now, for the only thing before her was what was left of the ceiling before it caved in. Panting, she closed her eyes and forced her breathing to slow so she could concentrate. Upon opening them again, they glew with an unearthly shimmer. She placed her hand against the large boulders, feeling the cold earth under her fingertips. Her sight was now more acute, and she could see the faint edges of the blockage. A small pinprick of light reflected though a crack, and her ears strained to catch any sound from the other side.

"Ne, Tora, you alright? Can you hear me?" Byakko leaned over to listen for a response. Back behind her, she could hear the rushing of water tumbling over fallen stalactites. Even though she had no problem with water, the idea of her end of the cave flooding was an unpleasant thought; especially with the possibility of there being more creatures in the water than before and no way to escape them. She twitched and listened quietly.

The cave-in still echoed in Tora's ears. Dust was heavy in the air as she tried to breathe, coughing loudly and scrambling to her feet. She winced as pain shot through her ankle, though she knew it wasn't broken. As she sat down to rest and gain her bearings, she thought she heard a noise. "Is that you, Byakko?" Though it was hard to see, she could tell there was no way through that wall of rock.

I hope Byakko's alright.. I wonder if she was able to find that fire stone, Tora thought to herself. She snapped her fingers, creating a small flame. With it, she looked around the tight-spaced room. Something didn't feel right...

Byakko's ears twitched again with the sound of the familiar voice. "Tora!" She pressed herself against the rock, trying to shift it but with no avail. The light from the crack flickered more than before and she was able to assume her cousin had lit a flame. "Hey, if you can see anything with that candlestick-sized magic of yours, look for a way to budge this."

She heard a noise from behind her again, somewhat louder than before. Growing uneasy, she tried to peer though the crack to see her friend.

Hearing the sound of Byakko's voice, she turned toward the small crack that was now apparent with the fire-light. "Hey! Are you alright over there? It's a bit crampy over here, more than I'd like. >_>" Trying to find any other cracks in the wall, she felt with one hand while steadying the flame in the other.

Byakko shuffled along the edges of the rocks too, looking for openings. I wonder if I could loosen any with.. hmmm... Grabbing ahold of a promising rock, she let a small amount of ice snake from her fingers into the cracks. She was unknowingly in the same place her cousin was; the ice leaked though to the opposite of the obstruction, completely unhelpful with shifting the rocks, and began creeping over Tora's own investigative hand.

Tora's spine, as well as the hairs on her neck, stiffened. "Byakko! You're freaking me out! D< But wait... Try freezing some rocks in the area you're nearby. I'll try to break it once it's frozen. See if you can get in the cracks inside of the rocks as well." Tora put out her little flame.

She retracted her hand quickly, realizing she wasn't being effective that way. "Alright, I'll try." She turned nerviously to look behind her. "Let's make it quick, I don't reckon we have long before something else comes about. At least you're on the far end." Byakko stretched, focusing her energy once again towards the rocks. She placed both hands on the weakest points and let loose with small pulses of energy and ice. There was still the possibility that too much force at once could worsen the cave in and that wasn't something she wanted to have happen. "Get ready over there, they're fillin' in." Ice caked itself over the earth, leaking though the gaps and crevices.

While watching the ice form, she formed the largest size of fireball she could muster, which wasn't very large, and waited for the right moment...

Her senses tingled and she blew the fire toward the rocks, also pushing with all her might against the cold, yet warming rocks. She withdrew, panting, and stepped a few feet backwards, ran toward that weakened part of the wall, and kicked it as hard as she could, feeling part of the wall giving away. It didn't occur to her what she was doing could worsen the cave-in until after her already-aching foot started to smash the stone.

The rocks began cracking and shifting away, making a small gap between the two rooms. "Finally-" Byakko started happily. But before she could finish her statement, the sound of water and rock became notably more audible. A small stream was now running about her ankles and through the newly made hole. "Oooooooooh crap, that's not good is it?" Turning she could see the far ends of the cave collapsing in as water rushed towards them. "Awww man get me out of here!! Why did we even come here anyways?? D:" She dove towards the gap and scrambled to fit though but to no avail. As a human she was still far to big for it. Crap crap crap... She thought to herself. I'm too tired for this, but I suppose I have no choice. At once she began changing and shrunk to the size of a large silvery blue fox. It took a lot of energy to do so but it was worth it; she was finally able to squeeze though, and telepathically called to her cousin to hurry away from the danger. "Come on, we have to move- it doesn't matter where this takes us now, as long as it's far away from that!"

o_o; Tora turned on her heels, concentrating on turning into her mini-form of a tiger and ran as fast as she could away from the wall, from the loud noises beyond.

The tunnel seemed endless, but they still had to run. The noise grew ever louder though she could tell Byakko was about to collapse. Using all her senses as best she could, she tried to sniff a way out, but all she could smell was a damp cave.
She stumbled on something.
A rock had placed itself so inconveniently at Tora's foot and she tumbled head over heels down the hollow corridor, which turned into a pit. She was falling and couldn't grab on to anything.

"BYAKKOooooooooooooooo...~"

The air around her seemed to grow thicker by the second. They could undoubtedly run faster in these forms, but it was such a waste of energy to flee like this. Byakko kept putting one paw in front of the other hoping for an end in sight, but none came. Vision blurred, walls twisted, and the sound of water rushed by chaotically. Amidst all the commotion however, the loud yelp immediately caught her attention. "Tor-!! gghrrh-" The kitsune had turned to find where her cousin had fallen, but was suddenly swept up in the current. It had caught up to them, now pouring down though the open pit and rushing over the rocks ahead. The walls swirled about in a blur no matter how hard she kicked and struggled against the current. Gazing ahead with wide eyes, another gaping pit opened up in the floor before her. Byakko was unable to react as she too was swept over the underground cliff. Everything went black.

When Tora awoke, she found herself sopping wet; her biggest pet peeve as she hates water above all things. She made a disgusted face and tried to shake it off, though she quickly found herself in her original form, not the little tiger she had remembered transforming into before she fell. She looked around. Where's Byakko? More importantly, where am I? Her head spinning, she awkwardly tried to stand. Her ankle would not let her reach that goal. Crying out in pain she examined the wounded ankle, much worse than she had thought. How the crap was I able to run with this? She sighed and tried calling Byakko's name.

Without any answer, she sighed and finally looked around the room. It was a large cavern-like room. She was still in the same cave, but the structure was a little different... The walls seemed to be made of sandstone rather than the hard, dark rock from above. Perhaps we've stumbled into a cave within a cave? She snickered. The water in the lower troughs of the cave looked to be shallow, but she was surprised how uneven the ground was. If water regularly flowed through this cave, wouldn't the ground be smooth? Then again, I never did know much about water.

A soft dripping noise could be heard. "Uuugh.." Byakko groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Her head was pounding as she lay in a small pool of water, little ripples lapping at her face and tumbling into her mouth. Shivering she sat up and coughed. "I don't care how much I like water, that was downright unpleasant." Everything seemed blurry at first, but her eyes slowly readjusted to the darkness. She didn't feel as weak as before, but instead incredibly sore.

"Tora?" she said aloud quickly, finally remembering the last things that had happened before her sudden plummet. "Toraaaaaaaa...?" Byakko's voice trailed off as she looked around, the noise echoing off the walls and high ceiling. "Dang it, where in the world did we end up?" Standing up unsteadily she noted the pools of water around her. The floors hidden beneath their surface were uneven from the earlier tremors, and the water was draining steadily out through cracks in the foundation. She looked up. "Wow, I can't even see the opening from here... I guess the water was deeper earlier and started to drain out by the time I woke up." Byakko rubbed a cut bruise on her head. "I suppose that's lucky then, or else I might have not had such a nice landing."

She began walking uphill though the long tunnel, guessing if her cousin fell sooner than she did, she was probably farther back in the ruins than Byakko. And ruins they were, (or appeared to be), for the walls were much more intricate and detailed here than above. The kitsune even realized the same type of rock structure here was what she saw earlier- back when she was locating the fire stone. "Which was why we were so inclined to come here in the first place." she thought with a sigh. Patting her drawstring pouch to check that the treasure was still there, she continued on her search.

After what seemed like a half hour of yelling and crawling around trying to find some dry dressings for her ankle, she finally just sat down and closed her eyes. "Sleeeep....." she muttered under her breath. But just as she was about to drift off, she heard something.

"Byakko? Is that you?" She tried to stand, forgetting about her ankle, but soon was reminded of the pain. Sighing, she got down on hands and knees and crawled towards the sound. "Byaaaaaakkoooooou~?" I HATE CRAWLING THROUGH THIS!

A slithering sound could be heard ahead. It grew unto a low hissing, gurgling murmur, as the electric eel snake made its way towards the unknowing prey. It watched though blank, opaque eyes as the large creature ahead of it struggled with it's ankle, seemingly dragging itself along. Long, slinder teeth protruded from the eel's jaws, curving outward in a demonic smile. It tasted the wet air, hungry, and in a flash bolted towards the injured girl.

Tora tried to get her bearings, but with being sopping wet, she just wasn't alert enough to care about anything but getting to dry land. She could hear a noise growing louder. "Byakko, this isn't funny. Please respond or I'll toast you. >_>"

The slimey creature was now just a few feet from her, jaws twitching in anticipation and flowing with voltage. In the last second it reared up threateningly, towering above her as it screeched out a loud hiss before the strike. As it did this however, the shadow of a figure appeared behind it. A thrashing choke could be heard, and within a moment it lay on the ground twitching. A small knife was skewered though it's head, pinning it to the cave floor. Byakko stood by Tora now, looking annoyed at it. "I see you met what was chasing me earlier. :D Sucks I can't get the knife out now without being shocked. >_> What was that about toast?"

"I like toast? @3@" she sat there for a minute, trying to let it sink in what just happened. If Byakko hadn't been there, Tora would have been the one toasted. Her brain hurt a bit, but was reminded to ask what had been on her mind since she last saw her cousin.
"DO YOU HAVE THE STONE?" She stared wide-eyed.

"Yeeeeees, I have it. No way in heck we would have gone though all this and left empty handed." She loosened her drawstring pouch and carefully plucked the small, egg sized stone from its folds, holding it up for her cousin to see. It was somewhat of an amber color and shimmered in the glow of their eyes. It even gave off a slight aura of heat, and uncomfortable with how warm it was Byakko causally tossed it to Tora. "Yours now, hot stuff."

She caught it, excited that she finally possessed the fire stone, a stone with untold secrets and power. "Erm... Now what? I thought the knowledge would all just... pulse through my mind and I'd automatically know better spells. >_>" She stuck it in her pocket and tried a stance she already knew, being careful of her foot, forming heat slowly in her hands. As she created a fireball, it was a little stronger than she normally conjured, but not by much. "Aw come ooooon. D: How the fruit does this work? I'm getting hungry again. ._." She sat down in a huff, accidentally hitting her ankle on the ground. "Ouch. >.<"

"Psh, like I have any idea how it works." Byakko laughed. "I'm not even sure why we listened to that crazy old man. Big mess it got us into, all for some dinky little stone." She distinctly remembered eavesdropping on his conversation, and peering over his shoulder as she passed him by; a map had been laid out in front of him, denoting an unmarked trail though the mountains. Not like it was her fault, it was out in the open. Sorta. Kinda. Not really. But she didn't need to go into all those details here anyways. They were here in a dank cave and he was back in some town, telling his crazy stories about ancient magic.

"Aaaanyway. Why don't we find ourselves a way out, mhm?" She noted Tora's injuries, and ripped one of the tattered sleeves off of her shirt to bandage her cousin's ankle with. "What the heck did you do, try to eat your own leg? D:" Standing she braced her friend as they walked cautiously and hurriedly along the path ahead of them.

">_>;; I was hungry." She waited for Byakko to look at her before she added, "Just kiddiiiiiing XD You actually think I'd eat myself? I'm not THAT crazy. Though that eel is looking pretty appetizing right now.. Want me to barbeque it? @3@"