The First Benzin

Stalk

...Who was this?

Keeping refuge in the darkness of the cave, he quickly inched his way throughout the pathways; the shadow just kept getting closer. Carcass silently read the details entailed in the shadows as they got bigger and bigger. To whomever this shadow belonged to, the source was clearly feminine, and seemed to have a curly, puffy, and fairly long head of hair, though, this was noticeable even without keen observation. His body oddly felt tense as the figure impended.

Based on these basic details, he could faintly remember meeting an individual with similar traits: she wore a somewhat worn out lab coat, eyeglasses far too big for her face, a striped turtleneck shirt underneath, and a pair of somewhat old fashioned leather shoes. Carcass made connections silently, almost so much so that he lost concentration of what he was doing in the first place. Realizing his negligence, he rekindled his focus, especially after hearing echoing footsteps against the plateau just outside.

"....Hm... so... hold on, you want to go in here, right?" A feminine voice apprehensively asked. Just as the source spoke the question, a pair of leather shoes came into Carcass's sight... yet he stayed hidden and refrained from acting abruptly.

"...Wait, no, no, nononono, you mean here?!" The footsteps suddenly stopped in their tracks, and Carcass jerked in the darkness in reaction to the sudden raise in volume.

"Look, I get it, you're apparently all worried about your situation, and I get it, I know how it feels to be lost, but... why do you want to go in here of all places?! Isn't there a better way..?" Carcass kept quiet and observed the conversation, expecting a response somewhere somehow. After a moment of silence, he heard a faint, yet oddly desperate sounding series of peculiar chirps. He also realized once again the tension he felt in his body, some sort of force trying to drag him toward something, perhaps?

"....I also know I still need info about this place... and... I think I still need you, too, thinking about it?" She paused for a moment. "Okay, look, how about... after you help me, I'll... I'll try to help you get back to wherever it is you're trying to go." ...More chirps. They sounded... approving of her deal.  "Great, but... first things first; we're not going in here without proper gear, so... let's.... let's just go outside and just take samples from the mountain for the meantime. Before he gets here." Once again, more chirping. 

Carcass took a moment to analyze the "conversation" before reaching any sort of presumptive conclusion. It took him little time to understand the situation: the woman he had seen before is conducting research, at least of some sort, but in exchange, would help this peculiar source of the chirping get somewhere, but... where? Were they looking for his crevice? He'd make sure that hole would be the last thing either of their daylights would see if that were so. Or, perhaps, were they going to go deeper into the Fissure itself? Once again, he had the faintest clue as to what was transpiring in either of their heads, but it didn't matter to him. All he cared about was whether or not they would trespass his land or disturb his living space, after all.

He once again observed the shadow slowly fade away from sight, and the echoing of the leather shoes against the plateau slowly dissipate.