That was how Grema found herself in a smoldering hot dessert escorting an over-excited archeologist who forgot to be intimidated by her as soon as the ruins he had been searching for came into view. The man actually put Grema at ease a little since he looked like people she had surrounded herself with for years, the timid, wiry academic type of people, though this nerd was more cheerful than she was used too. Also very weak, which was probably why he hired a mage for protection.
“Beautiful! Marvelous! Grema, come see here this is from the 3rd dynasty with its scripture almost fully intact! How fascinating!” Guy, as he insisted to be called, gushed. The scientist tried to share his enthusiasm, but it was hard while being so grumpy and tense so all she did was nod. She was grumpy because of the heat and her personality, but the tense-ness was something else. This was her first real job that might involve danger of the combative type, which she had no experience for. Grema had her magic and magitech but has never seen combat. So she was a tad nervous about her abilities to keep this man alive. But Guy seemed to have this weird illogical faith in her, considering they had just met.
“Follow me, I’ve already scoped out the entrance a bit, but I hit a snag on the first trap which I need magical help with…” Guy told her, his excitement waning by the end of his sentence. He was probably reminded of the dangers within such a place. While they descended Grema attempted to distract him with questions on his favorite subject, which she had been doing ever since they first met up. They were both enjoying conversing with a fellow intellectual when they reached the first trap.
In the wide hallway in front of them was filled with multi-coloured tiles. Grema could take an educated guess as to what this trap was. Sure enough, Guy stopped her and threw a small stone onto one of the blue tiles, where it hovered in the air for a moment them promptly exploded.
Guy gave a small jump and explained the traps mechanics to you while adjusting his glasses nervously. “The blue, red and green tiles give you damage of different sorts so I would, er, recommend not touching them. It seems only the yellow tiles do not show any danger and there should be a way to disarm the trap on the other side but…” He trailed off with hesitation, and Grema could understand why. While at the beginning the few yellow tiles are close enough for a normal human to dare a jump, there was a large gap of no yellow tiles in the middle. Either someone would have to just take the damage and hope it doesn’t kill them or find a way across.
This was both easy and hard for Grema. "I have a solution, but will need some help practicing.” She said to Guy and he looked are her curiously. Without much further ado Grema took off the cheap bandages around her left arm and leg to reveal her magitech limbs. She then took off her mask to show her one regular red eye and her other glowing mechanical red eye and scarred face. “I am a magitech holder mage, and my limbs give me greater strength and speed to jump that length, but I would rather do a bit of practicing first.” At his positively gawking look, Grema felt a bit defensive. “I cover myself as to not gain unwanted attention, not due to shame. I am rather proud of my creations.”
“And you should be!” Guy gushed out of nowhere, stars in his eyes. “I have never seen such advanced technology before, though I admit I don’t know much about magitech but you must be very skilled to do such fine work!” Grema looked away, mouth in a straight line from trying not to smile and an embarrassed blush on her face. In her head she was repeating ‘I’m not happy, I’m not happy, I’m not happy, I’m not happy, I’m not happy.’ Over and over in her head. She was beginning to like this man more and more.
They tried to give an estimated distance between the two yellow tiles on either side of the gap and went back out of the ruins to practice leaping. After about a half hour or so they guessed that she had practiced enough and headed back inside (or maybe it was because of the heat). The beginning wasn’t so bad, Grema had surprisingly good balance for someone with prosthetics, one eye, and a hunchback. Aka, she barely saved herself from falling over after each jump. “you're not helping!” Grema yelled, for each time she jumped Guy gave out a small girlish scream. He promptly apologized and stuck his knuckle in his mouth.
Then it was time for the big leap. Grema braced herself, pumped some extra magic inter her leg and just like they had practiced before and jumped for the yellow tile on the other side. The good news is Grema made it safely with both feet firmly on the yellow tile. The bad news is that the sand above hid the fact that Grema’s landings had a lot of force behind them, causing a small localized earthquake. Which set off the rigged traps all around her.
Guy screamed loudly, then yelled out a worried “Grema!!” for all he could see was shooting force, flame, lighting, and spikes in the exact area where the mage landed. ‘Oh gods above she’s dead!’ The archeologist thought with horror, sinking to the ground. He looked away from the scene as the traps died down, expecting a charred corpse and not wanting to see it.
But he was wrong. “Guy! Are you okay?” He heard and looked up in shock because there was the magitech mage, on the yellow tile completely unharmed. “Am I okay?! I should be asking you that!” He yelled back, almost in tears with relief.
Grema could hardly believe it herself and was still covered in cold sweat. As soon as the traps went off she went completely still and closed her eyes from the sudden light. During that time one of her main worries was Guy after hearing him scream and yell, then how she would get out of this mess. Then the chaos stopped. Turns out yellow really was the ultimate safe square because not even her clock was harmed. After explaining this and reassuring Guy a bit, Grema easily finished leaping from tile-to-tile until she finally reached the end. There she found a plate it a vague inscription of a hand and after yelling at Guy to take cover she put her own human hand on it. The tiles promptly flipped over and after testing it then finding it safe she escorted a very relieved Guy to the other side.
“No more unhappy surprises?” Guy asks her timidly.
“No promises.” Grema replies grimly as they move forward deeper into the ruins.