The sounds of the mines had become familiar; the repeated *tink* sound of pickaxe hitting stone, the high-pitched squeak of full minecarts making their way across tracks to some sort of dumping area or stockpile. Out of all of it though, there was something that was even more ominous and oppressing as the dark figure balanced on a support beam.
His crimson eyes narrowed as he watched several figures in dark brown robes walking among the miners and pokemon that had been hired to help with the excavation. He knew something was wrong, but he couldn't place it. There was something about the robed beings that reminded him of his youth, when he had been part of Team Magma.
He scowled as he watched them, looking for any sign of something suspicious, growing increasingly frustrated as they all simply seemed to bring comfort to those who were tired, The digging team didn't seem fearful of the robed beings and the pokemon seemed to be equally as comfortable just digging.
While he normally would've just passed by the mining operation without a care, the robed figures really caught his attention. Their brown robes, trimmed with a dull yellow color, had a symbol on their back. While he had spent some time figuring out what kinds of creatures these Ponies and Diamond Dogs were that didn't explain the various move sets that each one seemed to have. What stumped him further was that darn symbol, it looked like an angular version of the swirl on a poliwag's belly, curling around only twice. The symbol made his skin crawl, it felt like there was always an eye watching him even if it couldn't see him.
Deciding that he had gleaned enough information from where he was, the figure leapt from beam to beam, barely putting any weight into his steps as his dark navy scarf trailed a little behind him. His crimson eyes continuously scanned the area as he moved, jumping to every possible movement even as insignificant as the flicker of a torch...
...He was deep in enemy territory... and he had to be careful... One wrong move and he could be put to work, blindly digging his way toward whatever the rest of the miners were working toward.
They may not act it, but he knew a cult when he saw one.
His obsidian-colored skin, mixed with his navy scarf easily helped him hide in the shadows as he passed a few small guard patrols. "...Lightly armed... They don't expect any resistance or anyone to poke their nose around where they're not wanted... Confident priests aren't they?" He mused to himself. "Darkrai guide me... Please let me find something that will reveal this cult's plan... He knew his prayers never truly left his own mind, but he always hoped that somehow, the Tortured Martyr felt the respect his clan had always given him.
A strangled gasp nearly escaped him as he noticed that he had lost his footing and re-braced himself against the wall and one of the supports. His eyes darted around, looking for signs that anyone had spotted him. He stayed dead quiet as he listened hard for the sounds of rushing guards. When none came he let out the breath he was holding as he eased himself all the way onto the beam.
Taking a moment to breathe and ease the adrenaline shooting through his heart the figure glanced at his surroundings, He groaned quietly as he realized that his focus had been taken off of the path he was trying to use and more on his prayers. He placed a hand on his face as he sighed.
Waking up as a pokemon had certainly been... odd... While the change in height and general body shape had been jarring at first, it was easy to get over, the webbing between the three fingers on his hands and between the three toes on his feet had consistently felt strange as well, but even that had been easy to ignore. It was the closer sense of nature that had really gotten him when he began to listen around.
As a shinobi he had learned to 'listen to nature' as his mentors had put it. But this new 'sense'? He could feel the very rocks he had his back to growing with each second, he had felt how much energy and strength the water had, even the air he was breathing he could feel coursing through his lungs...
... And it terrified him...
There were few things in the world that a shinobi could truly claim to be afraid of, so it had come as a total shock to even himself when he had first gauged the world around him, the sheer amount of energy stored within its depths, even the air seemed to be filled with the same energy. The feelings had overwhelmed him and caused him to close off his senses to the world, making himself totally 'blind' to the world.
He had never been so parted from feeling the world around him since he had started his training as a ninja, and suddenly being forced to cut himself off from the world like that. It had made him feel vulnerable, and nothing made him more afraid than being vulnerable, unable to defend himself.
He had no idea how long he had waited in the underground pond he had woken up in, but once he had reintroduced his senses slowly to the world around him, he had begun to calm down more and more until he finally had let his senses fully ingrain themselves into the world.
What he finally had seen was glorious... The sheer beauty in the leylines of energy running through the world had been so strange and powerful because they were nothing like the energy that he had called home.
Taking another deep breath, the figure straightened and looked around once again before proceeding down the tunnel, letting his senses guide him to where he would find what he was looking for.