Cave exploration. It seemed like an interesting prospect to Aurum, albeit a slightly anxiety inducing one. Although, the lion had never truly had any issues with claustrophobia in the past, it was undeniable that he was one of the larger members of Elysium at the moment. With his staggering height – for an African lion, at least – and broad wings, he had a tendency to take up a lot of space, even when he didn't mean to. Despite this, the thought of allowing his new friends and groupmates head into the caverns all on their own didn't sound particularly appealing either. After all, what if there was something seriously dangerous within the echoing stone tunnels? He knew that his fellow Elysites were far from useless in combat, especially considering their semi-regular encounters with the gods, but he couldn't help but want to protect them all. With his claws, wings, fire elementals... anything he had was constantly at the disposal of his friends.

With this in mind, the angel soon came padding over to where Rin was sat, shifting one of his red and gold wings in greeting to the magna before he sat down. His long tail came to wrap around his paws, and his jaws parted slightly, trying to parse out some kind of particular scent from within the cave. Unfortunately, all he got in response was the dusty scent of rock and dirt, with no signs of what could be further inside. It made a frown come to his face, but he recovered quickly, shrugging his shoulders before he spoke, "I'll help with the exploration, Rin. Might be best for me to stay at the back of the group, though." Not only would it hopefully solve the issue of his bulk, but it would also mean he could be the first to deal with any potential threats approaching from behind. He wouldn't put it past one of the gods to try and attack them while they were so vulnerable.

Clony's arrival to the group of cave explorers was... problematic. It wasn't that Aurum disliked Clony – no, he actually found their antics quite entertaining at times – but he knew that they were rambunctious. Far too rambunctious to take something like the sensitive assignment of cave exploration seriously. As if just to prove his point, they almost immediately began to babble about explosives as soon as they arrived, causing the lion's heart to sink in response. He knew that Rin would never allow such a thing, but just the mental image of the cave exploding and collapsing inward was enough to make the angel wince. Hell, even Marr's presence wasn't a huge deal, despite the fact that the other consistently seemed to dislike Aurum – with seemingly no reason why, even now. At least Marr didn't seem like he was the type to cause outright trouble, and Siborno's presence was comforting enough that Aurum didn't feel stranded or uncomfortable in the back of the group. Still, just as he had predicted, Rin shut Clony's idea to use explosives down, causing the golden male to let out a sigh of relief before he muttered, "Rin is right... explosives could easily cause a cave-in, and we really don't want a bunch of rock collapsing on us." The lion was fairly sure that, in the worst of scenarios, he could use his elementals to stop a cave-in from outright killing them, but he had no faith in his ability to get them all out afterwards.

Once the group finally began moving, Aurum smiled and lightly brushed his tail along Siborno's side, gesturing the other male along as they followed in the back of the party. The angel made an active effort to keep a bit of distance between he and Marr, more for the other's comfort, rather than his own. His pawsteps were heavy and faintly echoing as he followed Rin's lead into the caves, resisting the urge to snap his jaws firmly shut when the musty air of the caverns filled his lungs, feeling uncomfortably claustrophobic. Still, it wasn't enough to cause outright panic, and he was soon distracted by Clony rambling, once again. A heavy sigh left Aurum before he spoke again, keeping his voice low as he chided Clony gently, "You know, noises that are too loud can cause cave-ins as well. Such as voices." He wasn't genuinely afraid of Clony's voice causing any sort of collapse, but they really needed to pull it back a bit.