This is kinda stressful. She keeps glancing back to check on Magini, grateful that they aren't facing each other.

Hard to tell, really - if Magini is having a bad time, she's not making it super obvious.

It takes less than an hour to get to the area with the caves. Keith's hoverbike makes it a lot closer than a car would—the trail down into the canyon is pretty narrow and rugged—but eventually they do have to get out and walk the last bit.

"Oh good, the ropes held. Alright, everybody off." 

Magini slides off the bike, grabs her bag and flashlight, and... 

...huh. She looks at the waterfall. Hasn't... she seen this somewhere before?

Well, it is quite a pretty waterfall. The sort people might put photos of online. A glorious 30-foot drop down into a pool, from which a crazy staircase of smaller rapids tumble downwards and on down the canyon. 

The canyon walls around them have dozens of dark openings, some low enough that they're partially filled with water, others high and dry. 

"The lion drawings are in all the caves around here," Keith says, standing on a rock at the water's edge.

"Shiro? Do you remember anything that might narrow it down?" 

"Not yet, at least. I'll let you know if I do, but I doubt it. If the Galra knew exactly where the Lion was, they'd have it already." 

Hmmm. Magini looks really impatient. "Keith, maybe lead us to the biggest set of drawings, and we can start there?"

"Sure. I think this one has the most?" He leads the way into one of the dry caves. 

There are, as promised, a whole bunch of carvings and paintings on the walls, starting almost as soon as they get inside. 

Many of them depict the stylized lion they saw in the photos, over and over again in a variety of poses and scenes. Lines of people waving weapons march around the base of the walls, some kind of vaguely kangaroo-like animal hops along in several places, and there's something on a slab near the entrance that could be either a mushroom or a UFO.

Another repeating design is a big circle with a slightly smaller circle inside it. The centre of the ring is empty, and the rim has triangular detailing that almost suggests arrows pointing towards the hole in the middle. 

Magini peers in obvious fascination at the designs, taking photos and notes on her phone and muttering under her breath. 

(More than once, she bumps into a wall while doing so, though it doesn't seem to bother her.)

(Ami winces every time she sees it happen.)

Keith, who's seen the carvings before, is looking around for secret passages and the like.

He's not finding any fast. The cave twists and branches, but all the branches peter out into dead ends, get too small to fit through, or, in one case, slope downwards into water. 

...Huh. Magini could swear she's heard that very specific faint whining noise before. It's the struggling coil whine of an old hoverprojector, one of the small ones that gets put on cameras, kids' toys, and... floatlamps... 

She heads down a passageway, clearly following something.

"...Magini?", Ami asks softly, but if the other girl hears her, she doesn't respond.

"Magini? Did you find something?" 

Oh right, the others. She calls back down the hallway: "Yeah, I think I recognize..."  

And then she turns the corner and stops, because -

Surrounded by a very familiar set of flowlights set to low, Her dear friend Kani is curled up asleep under the biggest set of cave paintings yet.

Eighteen hours earlier...

The Call (it's coming from the Mysterious Blue Lioness, Kani is sure of it) feels like it's been getting a bit stronger (or maybe she can just hear it better, now that she's spent so many nights sitting cross-legged under The Mural).

She doesn't know what any of this means, or why she (and The Red Rider, presumably?) are the only ones who can hear it. She doesn't really care. The Lionness (whatever She is) cares about Kani, helped her when nothing else could. That's all that matters to her.

(She won't admit it, even in the privacy of her own mind, but the long-buried little girl inside her who'd yearned so badly for a life of magic and stories is stirring hopefully, despite -)

Kani returns home from her latest adventure spelunking expedition at noon, feeling surprisingly okay. She'd lost track of time, working on her homework under The Mural, and she'd forgotten to set an alarm to be out by sunrise. But The Red Rider must have slept in or something, because she wasn't interrupted, and for the first time since - in a while, she manages to get all her assignments completed, and not just close enough to get by.

(Thank you, she thinks at The Lioness, as she packs up her things.)

Her fathers are both out at work. She looks at the sandwiches they left out, humming thoughtfully, and then finds herself through the fridge and pantry, taking stock.

She makes a huge pot of her chili recipe that she'd been so proud of, once upon a time. She's eight months out of practice, so it takes a while (she narrowly avoids cutting herself when chopping the onions, and drops a tomato that she painstakingly cleans up), but somehow she manages to stay zen about it, rather than getting frustrated. (It helps that she put on an old comfort show in the background, a magical girl cartoon she's loved since she was seven).

By the time she finally finishes, Kani is ravenous.

She fills a medium bowl close to the brim, adds in copious amounts of hot sauce (Papa can't handle more than a tiny bit, so they cook group meals mild and stock lots of hot sauce for her and Dad), and starts eating. Once she's gotten it properly spiced (and made some room in the bowl), she grabs one of the sandwiches, dipping it into the chili until each bite is hot, slightly soggy, and perfectly delicious. (Dozens of memories of doing this with Mags and - and Thrana - flood into her brain. Her eyes tear up, but it's not miserable, it's - a better kind of hurting).

Heart and stomach full, she heads to bed.

She's dreaming the usual dream; The Lioness, sitting, still towering above her, protecting her. Water flowing around them, countless fragments of memories, some good, many painful, overwhelming to be caught in, but she's safe, protected by this strange presence in her mind.

Then it changes. The Lioness moves, Her head looking up at the night skies above them, tracking a shooting star as it falls to the earth. When it lands, a tidal wave forms, and She stands up, walking towards it with alien purpose -

Kani wakes up with a start, and feels the Call more strongly than she ever has. Something is happening. She gets dressed, heads downstairs, grabs the bag her fathers have already restocked, and heads out. In her mind, it feels like destiny.