I Don't Like Sand

-Desierto, unknown temple-

Leona had received word from Chief Elijah that their Regudo allies had found a temple in the desert that had remained previously undiscovered. They had found it while returning from a successful ambush of a Crimson Sashes force that had attacked a merchant caravan and had made off with a few captives. They had noted the location on a map and had passed the information along to Chief Elijah, who duly called upon Leona to explore the temple and make sure that the Crimson Sashes were not using it as a base from which to conduct raids.

Leona was happy to oblige because she owed it to the Regudo and Nebdoui's other allies to chase their mutual enemy out of the temple if it was indeed being used as a bandit base. This exploration would be different because she was bringing Ike Fukunaga of Silver Wolf with her for support. Ike was a relatively new member but had proven himself during the Tsak Ordahic expedition and was as strong as Leona, so his help would be invaluable.

The Winged Lion summon landed on the ground and came to a halt, allowing Leona to get off of its back. Wearing her green-and-gold outfit with Adaptable Armor and Argent Gloves plus all her weapons, Leona was ready for exploration. She opted to substitute more bottles of water and leave behind most of her extra clothing, keeping a spare shirt since her shirts tended to get damaged a lot and keeping the desert cloak since it had more than one use.

Leona took a moment to marvel at the exterior to the desert temple, which featured a woman sculpted out of stone holding her hands out with the palms up. Below her waist was a stone doorway with wings carved above it. The exterior was impressive and clearly took a lot of work to create... she wondered who the architects were and why they had made the temple. With any luck she would find out once Ike got here.

The blonde almost facepalmed when the name of Ike came up. She had forgotten about transport for her allies... again. This was getting to be more than a little embarrassing. This was getting to be quite embarrassing. She did not know if Ike had his own method of transportation or just walked everywhere.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE! LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona chanted with her hands raised in the sky. The three winged sisters appeared and stood up in unison.

"Hey girl!" Sylvia cheerfully called out.

"Like, not again! The desert sun's bad for my skin! You REALLY need to take jobs somewhere else, Leona!" Daphne exclaimed in audible distress. Sandy sighed.

"It's not your choice where Leona goes, Daphne. She's the mistress and we have to follow her wherever she goes." Sandy reminded her sister. Daphne huffed in annoyance.

"I know that, Sandy! I don't need you to point out the obvious!" Daphne fumed. Sandy had had enough of her sister's verbal abuse and raised a clawed hand.

"Someone has to point things out because you're such a self-absorbed airhead. You forget who's in charge, and it's not you!" Sandy said in anger. Sylvia sighed. Daphne grew indignant.

"Oh listen to you, you goody two-shoes! You think you're Leona's favorite because you stick up for her, but I have a news flash for you! You're still just a summon! You'll never be her equal!" The black-haired harpy shouted at the brown-haired one. Sandy's face turned red and she clenched her teeth.

"Oh that's it, you obnoxious airhead! I'm gonna give you what's been coming to you for awhile now!" Sandy vowed, taking to the air and diving at Daphne with her talons exposed. Daphne took to the air and avoided the attack, looking shocked that Sandy would dare lift a claw against her for any reason.

"Guys..." Leona tried to stop the fight. Sylvia only sighed in exasperation.

"Guys..." Leona repeated again with a little more urgency as Daphne dove on Sandy and the pair clashed. The soft approach was not working.

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Leona shouted. The two sisters immediately stopped fighting and apologized to their mistress.

"Look, all I want are some eyes in the sky." Leona calmly explained to them, her anger subsiding almost as quickly as it arose. The sisters nodded and took off to gain altitude. Now that the sibling clash had been resolved, the blonde had to wait for her guildmate to get here.

Desert Temple Exterior:

[Word Count: 775]
[Total Word Count: 775/12,500]

"I got my ticket for the long way round
Two bottle of whiskey for the way
And I sure would like some sweet company
And I'm leaving tomorrow, what'dya say~"

A crowd had started to gather in the aisle and seats surrounding a dark haired mage who sat strumming a guitar borrowed from the old man in the seat behind him. To anyone who knew Ike, it was no surprise he was both seeking and garnering attention for himself. The man didn't come off needy or desperate, but he loved to entertain and make his presence known. Definitely wasn't the type to fly under the radar. The train ride from the mountains nearly as far west in Fiore as one could get without sticking toes in a sandy beach to Desierto was a trek indeed. An agonizingly long trek for someone who doesn't fancy sitting still for very long at all. Singing was a good way to pass the time, so sing he would! Ike's voice wasn't as professional as he would like, but the Sprechgesang quality to the song lended well to what existed of his vocal talents. In truth, his command of the stringed instrument was the star of the show.

"When I'm gone,
When I'm gone,
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone
You're gonna miss me by my hair
You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone~"

Where had he even heard this song? As of yet, the boy still making his way through the beginnings of adulthood had yet to write a song of his own that wasn't garbage, so singing others that were more popular and played on iLacs were his targets to cover. It seemed fitting given his current mode of travel and just how freaking long it was going to take to get there. By now the odd person who either entered or exited the train tossed him a jewel or two, something Ike would never turn down. If there was anything he inexplicably loved more, it was riches. Valuables. Shiny things. Anything that was worth anything and could be collected, Ike adored. It was even better if there was a grand adventure to be had in the process, which fed his treasure hunting addiction. So few things could be enjoyed in ones short years alive, and the new Silver Wolf had full intentions of taking advantage of all of them.

"I got my ticket for the long way round
The one with the prettiest of views
It's got mountains
It's got rivers
It's got sights to give you shivers
But it sure would be prettier with you..."

This verse was even more true. Though this was hardly the first song he'd performed on this particular journey, these words fell just as the train passed over a bridge. The lush green of the forests carpeting the base of mountains, locked in by crystalline waters glittering in the sun was a stunning sight indeed, but a peculiar feeling washed over him. The picturesque image seemed to mock him. This was the nearly the exact opposite of what he'd would be seeing soon. The only thing that could be more opposite was the ocean itself. As this song came to an end and the crowd protested, he insisted his voice needed some water and a break. They dispersed and meandered away, so Ike took to sipping some water as crimson eyes drank in another type of refreshment. The last few dots of green before it turned steadily more brown and tan until the only natural progression was sand. How many countries had he passed between Fiore and Desierto? Perhaps he should brush up on geography sometime.

Finally, it was the last stop. Trains through Desierto were iffy, since wind blew sand over the tracks easily and lead to derailments. Not to say there weren't any trains, but perhaps they didn't run regularly? He wasn't sure how he knew that, but Ike shrugged that off. It was either that strange nugget of knowledge or he got scammed by the dude that just rented him a pudgy camel named Abu who sported a tiny little fez in red and a purple mat under the seating apparatus... oh well, it was what it was. Ike was a laid back guy, but by the time he clomped hours across the endless sands to where the map indicted Leona would be waiting for him, he was almost at his wit's end.

This was a horrible time to realize he hated sand! Unable to contain his displeasure that he'd been unable to sanely voice while traveling alone, as soon as Leona was in sight he attempted to skillfully leap from his steed and declare his hatred. It fell flat, though. Literally. His butt was so numb from the uneven gait of the humped mammal that it impeded his leg functions, landing the appropriately cloaked male right on his face in the very substance he despised. Throwing his concern for how his guild master might view him, he wrenched his face and body from the sand savagely and uttered words dripping in venom. "I don't like sand! It's all coarse, and rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere!" he howled, hastily brushing himself off. "I don't regret leaving--" Ike broke off, face losing every ounce of its former borderline rage. It seemed to melt into confusion, then quickly morphed to a blankness that perhaps seemed a little odd. He didn't know why he said that last part. As far as he knew, he'd never been to Desierto before. This was some pretty nasty deja vu he was suffering. Did they make medicine for that?

Sighing heavily, Ike reclaimed his calm and presented himself better upon second try. "I made it, Leona," he said, flashing a weary smile that at least seemed to be regaining its normal energy. Why was he getting excited all the sudden? Because, beyond Leona and her squabbling Harpies was a magnificently carved ruin into the side of a large outcropping of sandstone. The deja vu didn't seem to have any intentions of lifting even as he looked at something he assumed he'd never seen before but the itching in his brain screamed otherwise. That was annoying, but either way he was ready to get started. "What's the plan?"


[1056/12500]

Leona had waited for Ike to arrive and was not disappointed. Ike rode up to her on the back of an obese camel and tried to jump off for a dramatic entrance only to fall flat... literally. He then got up and proclaimed his hatred for sand in a way that was dramatic but accurate. Sand did have an uncanny way of making it into undesired places like boots and mouths, especially during sandstorms. Leona hated sandstorms so much.

If he hated sand, he would not want to visit her home village of Nebdoui because there was sand as far as the eye could see. That was true for most of Desierto anyway. Desierto was known for its bandit population and its unending seas of sand. The Tri-Council cities were popular with tourists who had the fortitude to brave the endless desert and the endless bandits.

"Um... that was like, weird." Daphne commented, her earlier feud with Sandy long forgotten.

"He can hear you, Daphne." Sylvia warned her sister. All three harpies went quiet when Leona began to speak to Ike.

"Hi Ike. I'm glad to see you made it." Leona said to him without the slightest bit of sarcasm on her voice. He was a new member, but he was remarkably powerful for a new guy. He must have had a lot of experience gained from being a Guildless mage before joining up with Silver Wolf. She was glad he was here because exploring unfamiliar ground was always a bit daunting. This job would be a good chance to see what Ike could do.

"The plan is we go inside and explore the temple. It's one that's been recently discovered by some friends of mine who were looking for bandits. It's never been explored before, so we'll be the first two mages to go inside of it." Leona told Ike the story so far. She then recalled Chief Elijah wanting her to check inside to see if it was being used for a base of operations by the Crimson Sashes. Ike had not signed on to fight an old enemy of her people, so it would be prudent to tell him about the Crimson Sashes right now.

"Also, the chief of my home village wants me to investigate the temple to see if it's being used as a base of operations for some bandits named the Crimson Sashes." Leona told Ike. She hated to drag him into the fight with her old enemy. She would tell him about the threat and then let him decide whether he wanted to continue with the job or return to the guild hall.

"The Crimson Sashes are an old enemy of my people. The Crimson Sashes are a violent group of bandits who kill, rob and plunder any desert villages that they can find. My people have been fighting them for decades and I've been fighting them for over two years." Leona started explaining the history between her and the bandit gang. The last encounter with them had been in the temple in the cave while on the mission to retrieve Sand-Splitter and it ended in her victory, but one of the Sashes swore to take vengeance for his younger brother. She did not know when they would pop up again, but they were certain to clash again at some point. With any luck that clash would not be today.

"I don't know if they're inside the temple or not, so I want you to be ready for the possibility of fighting them. If you're ready, we'll go inside and get started. If you don't want to fight them, I don't blame you." Leona assured Ike. She was not going to drag him into the fight against the Crimson Sashes without him having a say in the matter. She looked at the outside of the temple and wondered what they would find within the structure. She wondered if there was a great treasure inside. She also wondered what countermeasures they would run up against during their exploration.

Leona looked at the temple while waiting for his response. Maybe it would be a good idea to send the harpies on ahead as a scouting force so that she could get an idea of what was waiting for them before they went any further. Ramses was best suited for reconnaissance, but Leona did not want to waste time recalling Ramses and sending in the harpies, so she would send the winged sisters in first.

"Guys, I'd like you to scout the temple." Leona said to the three harpies.

"OK, we've got this. Anything we need to be looking for? People, animals?" Sylvia the red-headed harpy asked Leona.

"People, animals, anything out of the ordinary." Leona replied.

"You've got it." Sylvia replied. The harpy trio took flight and headed for the temple to check it out. Leona would let them have some time to check out the area and head in with Ike when it was clear or when her guildmate was ready to go in. Leona stood and watched the harpies fly into the distance and waited for Ike to speak.

[Word Count: 875]
[Total Word Count: 1,650/12,500]

A small sweat drop appeared on the side of Ike's face when one of the harpies commented on how weird it was. She wasn't wrong, but perhaps it made him a little self conscious in Leona's presence, even if she didn't comment on it at all. He wasn't sure where this nervousness and perceived pressure was coming from. Either she and the guild would like and accept him or not. There was little he could do but be himself, even if that self was acting up especially weirdly today. He really did feel rather odd...

The jello mage listened intently as his boss explained the day's mission, which seemed simple enough and right up his alley. Exploration of an ancient ruin! Couldn't ask for a job more tailored to him if he tried, except perhaps in a jungle instead of a desert. But hey! At least these ruins would be much more dry. Being the first two mages inside only fueled his desire to navigate every nook and cranny, to bring all its secrets and treasures to light. Ike rubbed his hands together eagerly, crimson eyes gleaming in that deviously self centered way only a treasure hunter could pull off without looking evil.

His greed-thirst was distracted though she framed in a little bit of extra exposition. Crimson Sashes, hm? So this was more of a personal mission for Leona that she'd asked him on. Not super guild related. He supposed that was a good sign, a good foot to start off on. Might as well keep the momentum rolling. "I'm more than experienced with and prepared to fight some bandits," Ike said with confidence, walking passed Leona to stand before the giant carved entrance the harpies had just darted into. It was a good thing, because as soon as his expression was out of her view it dropped into one of confusion. Why did he say that? He'd never fought bandits, let alone Desierto ones...right? Today was such a weird day for him, saying things he didn't mean to say and having intense deja vu at a near constant rate. Even now as he panicked over his own seemingly declining mental state, he couldn't help but feel both familiar with this place and excited to get inside, as if he deep down knew what was in there. How could he possibly know what was in a ruin no one had stepped foot in for hundreds of years?

Snapping himself out of it, Ike did his best to let his own oddities roll off him so he could continue on without seeming so weird. Perhaps if he stopped thinking about it, his peculiar sudden onset of Tourette-like syndrome would cease. "Scarlet Scarves or no," he started, already forgetting the name of the group, "we're gonna explore the heck outta this place."

Walking closer and up onto the carved stone, he did turn to grin at Leona. "Remember! Places like this are usually booby trapped several ways. Always test the next stone you're about to step on to see if it's a trigger for projectiles or falling floor tiles, and try not to touch anything on the walls. If you see any holes in the walls, don't wait until they are triggered to duck. Despite being old, these ancient people could be ingenious. Invisible wires, motion in light, anything can set off some nasty and deadly traps. Be very careful!" he instructed without much care for rank. Leona was the authority here, but Ike had experiences and didn't know what kind of background in exploration Leona might have.

Turning back to their destination, Ike proceeded toward the entrance. Despite his explanation and warnings just seconds ago, he seemed to toss all precautionaries out of his mind and nearly jogged inside, unable to wait any more to search this exciting locale. "This is gonna be awesome!" his voice echoed from inside. While it might look reckless and in a sense was, perhaps his experience was already showing in his quick but sure movements. If he wasn't good at this despite his clumsiness and impetuousness, he'd surely be dead already. Either that, or his good luck was a force to be reckoned with.


[1756/12500]

Ike seemed determined to explore despite the possible threat of bandit activity, so Leona would not stop him. She did not have the luxury of backing out of jobs just because things got a bit dangerous. Ike likely knew that himself, so that was why he decided to continue. That or he really liked treasure. It was possibly the latter because he seemed to be a treasure hunter, but she did not mind.

It was not like the blonde was entirely blameless in that category. She was thrilled when she found the golden book and disappointed when the sultan's representative came to take it from Nebdoui despite him not putting in a single ounce of work to get the book. However, she could live with what happened because it kept her people alive. If surrendering it to the sultan kept Nebdoui from being burned down and its inhabitants from being slaughtered, Leona could bear to part with the book.

"OK then. If you're ready and willing to explore, I won't try to dissuade you. From the way you talked to me, it sounds like you've been in a few ancient ruins yourself." Leona commented to him as the pair walked up the stairs and towards the entrance to the temple. The harpies did not report anything out of the ordinary to her, so she took it that everything was OK, at least on the outside. What was inside the temple was another matter entirely.

"Do you want us to follow you inside?" Sylvia asked Leona telepathically.

"Not just yet. Keep a look out for Crimson Sashes, please." Leona requested of the harpies.

"OK. Be careful in there." Sylvia requested in turn before the two Silver Wolf mages stepped through the doorway.

-Inside the desert temple-

Leona looked down long hallway lined with red carpet and flanked by giant statues of cobras with their hoods flared out and their fangs exposed. At the end of the hallway was a set of large stone double doors that had a carving of a cobra with its mouth open and fangs exposed. Leona did not like the look of the statues because their eyes seemed to be judging her and Ike while they stood on the carpet.

Even though they were just statues, Leona did not like the sight of snakes. While traveling in the desert with her brother on a trip to get some iron ore, she had been bitten by a rattlesnake when she was younger and almost died from the poison... only prompt intervention from her mother and the village doctor kept Leona in the land of the living. Ever since then she really did not like snakes.

Leona looked around for any Court Heiromesh or other languages that might clue them in as to who originally built the place. Being able to find and read inscriptions was a valuable skill to have when exploring ancient ruins because reading them could fill in an explorer on the significance of the place. Being able to read an ancient language could also provide clues that could keep an explorer from meeting an untimely end by warning them of traps or other hazards. However, most of the warnings were not straightforward; most of them were written in a poetic fashion that required a little bit of critical thinking to fully understand.

Leona looked down at the carpet beneath their feet, then looked at Ike. She recalled his warning about pressure plates and also recalled her own experience in the ruins beneath Nebdoui. Since she was in the company of a somewhat experienced explorer, she would call upon his expertise to help her get through this hallway intact.

"Hey Ike, what kind of traps do you think are in this hallway? Do we have to watch for pressure plates or poison dart traps? Or are we looking at pitfalls?" Leona asked her companion. Since cobras seemed to be a prominent part of the decor, the blonde was thinking that poison would be incorporated into the traps. She was thinking something along the lines of devices that fired poison darts, though poison gas or pits filled with cobras would not be out of the question either. She would ask Ike's opinion on the matter before going any further down the long hallway.

[Word Count: 725]
[Total Word Count: 2,375/12,500]

Ike paused now, considering her question and generally soaking in the decor. There was that nagging tingle in the back of his head again, telling him he'd been here before. It was even more annoying and somehow loud now, despite not making any real noise. Nothing Leona would hear, anyway. No, instead he was going to have to suffer the uncertainty of whether his 'feelings' about this place were accurate. Truthfully, he didn't know what to do. He could risk going with the weird, nonsensical tingle and tell her what felt like fact, but what if he was wrong? What if he really was going crazy? Perhaps his mind had baked out in the desert sun. On the flip side, though, if he purposefully ignored what felt so much like actually knowing something and just went with logic he could be just as wrong and get them killed that way. Fifty-fifty chances were odds he didn't like because there was no wiggle room. There was no solace in knowing you picked what was most likely and if it was wrong, then it was probably a fluke and not your fault. Fifty-fifties were hail marys at best, both equally good and equally bad, and equally horrible on the nerves. Was he truly qualified to make any suggestions with his head messed up like it was?

"I suspect there's a pit fall under this carpet full of venomous snakes," he said, though that felt oddly incomplete. Was this how it was gonna be all day? If so, he was already quite tired of it. Carmine eyes angled up at the cobra statues, squinting a bit. "Some of these statues might have poison darts in their eyes or fangs as well. I'm pretty sure if we stay off the carpet and walk along the stone sides, we should miss the traps even if they trip. It's most likely assumed intruders will walk straight forward down the middle on the carpet laid out for them." With that said, he followed his own advice and stepped off the carpet. A couple clear blobs of jello dripped from his hands and coalesced on the sandy stone below. It formed into a kitten with wide golden eyes, spinning in a lazy circle before blinking up at him. "Run along this edge and check for pressure plates," he instructed, and without hesitation his little gelatinous summon bounded off, placing jiggly paw on each hewn stone. The kitten made it all the way to the end without any pushing down and without any other traps springing, so this was probably about as safe as he could possibly guarantee at this point.

Starting off down the edge, his steps were back to being carefree. Premonitions or no, if the jello kitten made it, odds were good he'd skirted the potential threats. Golden eyes peered back at him as he advanced. He could see through its eyes as well, so seeing himself from a low facing angle was awkward...but a blessing. As he strolled long, through the kitten's eyes he noted a subtle pivoting of the snaky statues, aiming at them as they advanced. Now that he hadn't accounted for. There wasn't even any stone on stone grinding to be heard! Darn ancient engineering. "Leona! Watch out! The statues can aim!" he yelped, now running forward to escape the darts from the judgmental cobras. Jello Kitty hissed and darted out onto the carpet to try and draw the fire, only to fall in the pitfall of serpents Ike had suspected was there.

"I hope the whole ruin isn't like this first hall!!"


[2358/ 12500]

Leona listened to Ike give his opinion on what sorts of traps were waiting for them in this section of the hallway. She involuntarily stepped off the carpet when he mentioned the possibility of the carpet covering pits full of snakes and made sure that she stepped onto solid stone. Leona held her breath and watched as Ike went down the hallway after summoning an oddly adorable kitten made of jello to test the area for traps. Much to Leona's dismay, all of Ike's premonitions concerning the nature of the traps were proven right as the cobras began firing poison darts at the jello kitten, who jumped onto the carpet to dodge them and fell right into a pit of poisonous snakes concealed under the red carpet.

The blonde watched Ike hustle to safety and then started to plot her own path across. Judging from the way the cobras had tracked the jello kitten and Ike, it would be safer and faster to fly across the hallway, so she called upon Rafale.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona called out, summoning the green-armored man to her side. He brandished his weapons and looked for enemies to fight.

"What would you ask of me?" Rafale asked his mistress.

"I need you to transport me across this hallway. The carpet isn't safe to walk on and the floor tiles might be trapped." Leona answered, pointing towards the section of carpet where the cat had fallen through. Rafale put away his weapons and prepared to carry her across the hallway. Leona grabbed onto his right hand with both of her hands and he went airborne.

"Hang on. This may get rough." Rafale warned her as he got underway. Leona held on and hoped for the best as they crossed over the trapped floor. Leona kept her eyes on the cobras that had given Ike so much trouble and waited for them to begin firing poison darts. To her surprise, they were tracking her but had not yet started firing their darts. Leona did not question it and Rafale got her to Ike's position without a scratch.

Leona's feet touched down on the stone floor and Rafale let go of her. The blonde stood up and dispelled Rafale, then turned to Ike. He looked none the worse for wear, which was good considering what he had just went through less than a few minutes ago.

"We made it, Ike. Now we need to get those doors open. I don't see a lever anywhere nearby." Leona said to him, looking at the stone double doors with the carving of a cobra hissing at them. She wondered if it was more of the cobra motif that dominated the first portion of the hallway, a trap that had yet to be sprung, or a clue on how to open the door. She had no idea of what to do yet, so she tried the obvious solution. She walked up to the doors and pushed on both at once using the strength granted by the Argent Gloves. The decoration's eyes turned red and poison darts began to fire from its mouth at a diagonal angle right towards her.

Leona shrieked and jumped to the side just in time. A dart bounced off of her right Argent Glove and bounced around a bit before finally embedding itself in a side wall not far to her left. The blonde was a bit shaken by what had just happened. Pushing the doors open was not going to work, so they would have to try and find another way to open the door.

"Pushing them open isn't a good idea. We'll need to find another way to make the doors open. I wonder if a lever, switch, or button is hidden somewhere nearby." Leona said to Ike. She did not want to keep putting him in harm's way, but he knew what he was talking about when it came to ancient ruins. The blonde would need his help again because she was having a hard time figuring it out on her own. She looked at the cobra on the door, which made her think a little harder.

"I wonder if the cobra has any clues that could help us." Leona said to Ike.

[Word Count: 720]
[Total Word Count: 3,095/12,500]

Watching Leona push on the door had been a painful moment for him. He'd wanted to reach out and stop her, but she was more than capable on her own and didn't need his know-it-all eye on her. However, when the cobra motif started spewing more darts and she screamed, his own body involuntarily flinched and then cringed in empathy for his guild master. The imagination was a scary thing. It was so easy to close his eyes and imagine her full of darts, knocking on death's door all because he didn't step in to try and keep her from doing that she did. His eyes didn't want to open. Ike probably looked pretty dumb all tensed up with his eyes closed, but it was only when she spoke that he realized she had survived and it was okay to face this much better reality.

Heaving a nervous sigh, Ike puzzled over this debacle. Very carefully he leaned down, casting his gaze up into the cobra's mouth. There was a hole for darts to fly out of, sure, but there was another hole slightly below that one. The familiar shape caused his mouth to curl up into a knowing smirk, and shortly after that, it became a full-blown grin. "A keyhole," he chirped, taking his lithe frame out of its crouch to begin a lengthy search of every gap between stones in the wall and floor nearby. Time ticked by as Ike exhaustively searched for a loose brick or a crevice that could cleverly hide a key, but to no avail. Stepping back and placing grumpy hands on his hips, his face scrunched up in a bout of intense thought. "If I were a key to open this door, where would I hide so that it's possible to find me, but also weird enough that not just anyone could pick me up?" asked the treasure hunter, attempting a different route of thought by placing himself in the place of the key. In hindsight that was stupid. The key didn't decide where it wanted to hide! The person who designed this place did. And the person who designed this place needed something to keep thieves out, but allow those in-the-know and worthy in...

The silence stretched on as his hot tamale eyeballs roved to and fro across the door and the areas around it. In frustration, he turned his back to it and cast his gaze over the path they'd walked. The missing carpet agitating the trapped snakes beneath added a creepy soundtrack. He'd unsummoned his jello kitty a while back to save her the suffering, but it did make him wonder how the snakes survived for so long down in there. Did they have a secret way in and out for food and just slept in there? This was probably one of the safest places for a snake to be under that assumption. Moving on from the snakes, he glanced at all the darts scattered everywhere in the hall, all fired at him and his kitten. It was a miracle one hadn't hit him. Some of the small dart carved of stone had cracked upon ricochet and laid leaking a black poison on the stone. It was a marvel that stone could be carved into such narrow, hollow tubes in ancient days...wait a second. Those tubes were the same size as the ones the cobra engraving had shot out at Leona from the same-size hole just above the keyhole.

"I have a crazy idea," Ike said, ending his pondering stretch. Walking forward, he carefully picked up an intact dart and placed it into the keyhole. While it didn't unlock or otherwise do anything to the door, the fit was perfect. "I think among all these darts fired by the cobras is the key to this door. Most would never consider checking after that terrifying attack," the new Silver Wolf mused, starting a careful "Where's Waldo" search for a slightly different looking dart among all the other spent projectiles. "Hopefully it didn't fall into the snake pit. Snakes...why'd it have to be snakes?"

[3040/12500]

"You could be right, Ike. We'll have to look among all the darts that were already shot at us." Leona concurred with her guildmate. What he said stood to reason. If the architects of this temple would go to the extent of trapping doors with dart shooters and hiding pits of poisonous snakes beneath the carpet, then she would not put it past them to hide the key among the numerous darts that had already been expended. However, she would need a little help with this search, a little help that was not as likely to set off pressure plates. Leona dispelled Rafale and called upon another friend of hers.

"PHARAOH OWL SUMMON!" Leona called out with a hand raised to the sky. Moments later he arrived and landed on Leona's left arm. He turned his head and looked at her.

"What do you ask of me?" Ramses asked her.

"I need you to help me find a key, a key that may be lying on the floor somewhere nearby. I need you to look at all the darts scattered on the floor and let me know if there's a key among them. If you find a dart, make a pile of them along the wall." Leona told the owl the purpose behind him being called to her side.

"I will do what I can." Ramses said to her before flapping his wings and taking off to search for the key. Leona stood for a moment and let the owl get going, then began to look at the darts scattered around her and Ike. The darts were slender silver needles that were tipped with an ominous black substance that was a poison, most likely something intended to kill on contact or very shortly after contact. Either way it was not something that people wanted to be voluntarily exposed to.

Leona began to carefully sort through the darts, being careful not to prick her finger on the sharp end of the dart. She sifted through seven projectiles in search of the key and found nothing but poison darts for her trouble. The blonde did not give up; she continued to search as Ramses flew about and used his eyes to discern projectiles from the object he was looking for. It was slow and monotonous work, but someone had to do it. She really did not want to push on the door again because next time she might not be lucky enough to inadvertently deflect a poison dart with her Argent Glove without hitting the hapless Ike.

Leona crawled on all fours, making sure to avoid crawling on the carpet because she had no idea how many snake pits were concealed beneath it. Ramses darted down and grabbed a shiny object around the middle with his talon and held it up. He then flew over to a pile of darts and dropped it onto the pile. Leona was mildly disappointed because she hoped that he had found the key they needed. Still, the plan bore some fruit because Ramses was helping her by sorting out the projectiles and making the area safer for her and Ike to search.

The blonde stood up and looked around the carpet. Ike mentioned the possibility that the key might have been shot into a snake pit when Leona scrambled away from the door earlier. She really did not like to go around the snake pits because she hated snakes. A nearly fatal bite from a rattlesnake when she was younger also injected Leona with a deep dislike of the serpents. She recalled that Ike did not like them either.

Both mages did not like snakes, but someone had to search around the pits. The jello cat was heavy enough to set off traps and move the carpet. Maybe Ike could summon something else that would help them.

"Hey Ike, do you have any lightweight summons that could search near the snake pits?" Leona asked him. Ramses was the only lightweight summon she had, but he was engaged with helping her search near the door. She hoped that Ike could come up with something that could help find the key.

[Word Count: 696]
[Total Word Count: 3,791/12,500]

"Uh...Just the kitten," Ike responded, scratching his left cheek in consternation. He'd really been hoping Leona or one of her summons would come across it because all of his physical searchings had come up fruitless. The guild master was right. It was probably down in a snake pit, which was just all sorts of lovely.

Summoning Jello Kitty again, he peered down into the golden eyes set back in the clear feline's head. It was the oddest sensation, for if he looked through the golden orbs, he was in fact currently looking into his own eyes looking into the cat's eyes looking into his own eyes looking into the cat's eyes...it was a dizzying, never-ending cycle that threatened to make him throw up or his brain shut down. Or both. He violently blinked and staggered back from the moody summon, who flicked her tail in agitation. She had not yet forgotten her earlier trip here, where she had been a scapegoat for the two Silver Wolf mages and ended up in the very snake pit her summoner was asking her to search.

"Please?" uttered the red-eyed man, looking everywhere but the small kitty. "There's probably a key that looks like these darts down in that pit. You're so light and agile that I bet you can get down in there and look if you want. You're so awesome, you can probably even bring it up here to me when you find it..." he buttered the small gelatinous animal up, stroking her pride until her translucent fur puffed up around her chest and she purred an acceptance, just stubborn enough to prove him right. Turning and trotting off toward the hole in the floor, she pounced down into it and disappeared from sight.

Ike watched through her eyes as she navigated down into the pit, finding footing on very small rocks along the side of the hand-carved trap. These inconsistencies would be too small for any human hand to grasp and escape the snakes but seemed more than enough for her to lower herself down above the writhing bottom. The sharp eyes missed nothing. Darts bubbled along the bumpy snake surface, disappearing and reappearing as the noodle-like bodies rolled restlessly over one another. Her presence ignited a hissy choir, adding a creepy roar to the whole hall.

Ike's distant eyes suddenly lit up. "Buttons!" he cried, having apparently named his small companion. "There it is! Two o'clock from your position. That gold tube with the snake carving!" Ike continued excitedly, waving his hands even though the kitten couldn't see it from where she was. In fact, the jittery waving served no purpose at all other than to channel his energy into motion.

The summon locked eyes on it just as it disappeared beneath the snakes again. Crouching a patient, she awaited its return to the surface, and once it did, she struck! Lightning fast paws flounced from danger noodle to danger noodle, never lingering enough to get struck. Small jaws scooped up the key as she flew past, her claws slicing up the one snake coiled to attack. Up the side of the pit, she scrambled, reaching smooth sandstone and racing up to Ike. She dropped the key, sitting back with a haughty purr and awaiting her expected praise.

"Oh, Buttons! You did such a great job! Even better than I thought. You've saved the day," he gushed, scratching her tiny feline head for a few moments before he bade her goodbye and unsummoned her once more. Turning to Leona with a broad grin, he presented the key in a bit of dramatic fanfare, as if giving a hometown hero a key to the city or offering it to royalty. He bent one knee and lowers his head, both hands reaching it out to her with palms up as if simultaneously gifting it and begging she take it at the same time. "You're key, ma'am. Please, release us from this snakey hall and give us entrance to the next exciting puzzle."

[3710/12500]

"Thanks, Ike. I'd be glad to get us out of here." Leona said to Ike after his gelatin cat performed a series of impressive acrobatics that garnered Ike the key to the cobra door. Buttons, as the gelatin cat was dubbed, had saved them both from the unpleasant prospect of going into the snake pit and dealing with the scaly inhabitants. Leona took the key from Ike's waiting hands and put it into the lock. She turned the key right and the cobra's eyes flashed red. Leona quickly jumped away in expectation of another shower of poison darts, but thankfully the cobra did not spit any.

The double door opened and the cobra split apart down the middle, the red glow fading from its eyes as the stone doors opened up to show a large and long hallway decorated with forty stone statues, twenty on each side of the hallway. The bull and falcon-headed statues were in equal numbers and all of them had the lower body of a human. They were all armed with two-handed greatswords or double-bladed axes, which clued the blonde in to the possibility of the weapons being rigged to drop whenever someone stepped on a pressure plate or otherwise triggered the statues.

"OK, it looks like we're leaving the snakes behind and going for a walk between some statues." Leona said to Ike as Ramses returned and landed on her right shoulder. She slowly walked through the door so that she did not stumble right into a trap; the slower pace also gave Ike and Buttons time to catch up to her. Despite his unusual mannerisms, Ike was proving to be quite the asset during the exploration of the shrine because his critical thinking complemented Leona's boldness. While Leona acted, Ike thought things through and was ready with sound advice when the blonde needed it the most.

-Inside the hallway-

Leona paused inside the hallway and looked over the path they had to take. It was simple and straightforward. All they had to do was walk between the statues and get to the large stone double doors on the other side without the weapons falling on top of them and cutting them in two. There had to be a catch for this room; there was always a catch when something looked too good to be true. Now the mages had to figure out the room's special gimmick and avoid activating it.

"Ramses, go fly through the area and tell me what you see!" Leona commanded the owl. He turned his head and looked at her, then stretched his wings to prepare for takeoff. Ramses looked at her again and made a head gesture approximating a nod.

"It will be done." He said to her. Ramses took off and ruffled Leona's hair with the wind generated by his wings, but she ignored it because the state of her hair was far less important than getting herself and Ike through the shrine alive. The owl flapped down the hallway and began looking for clues or triggers for the traps that were certain to be concealed in the area. Leona turned to Ike to make a statement based on her exploration experience to date and to get his opinion on the matter.

"Ike, I'm thinking that this hall's loaded with pressure plates in the floor that'll set off the traps when we walk over them. I'm having Ramses check out the area, but I'd like your opinion too." Leona said to Ike as Ramses soared above the statues with his eyes cast downward. Leona looked at the floor tiles herself and saw that they all looked alike, a design feature that was deliberate because traps tended to work best when they were surprises. The blonde's green eyes looked around for any inscriptions that could be translated and was not yet seeing any.

"I'm also thinking there's a backup trap system in place to supplement the main trap. I don't know what it is, though. My guess is that we'll be facing either more pitfall traps or more dart traps since those are the easiest and simplest traps to set up." Leona opened to Ike. Ramses was not reporting anything of interest yet. The blonde went quiet to let Ike have a chance to share his expertise with her.

[Word Count: 740]
[Total Word Count: 4,531/12,500]

"Mmmm...I agree," Ike hummed, eyes narrowing as he stared down the hall. Everything Leona said seemed right. the swords each statue gripped seemed like they might drop any second, simply waiting on a trigger to release them. The seams in the arms against the torso seemed to confirm it. It was probably pressure plates as Leona suggested.

The man was about to prove his guild master's former thoughts wrong. Ike wasn't known for thinking things through at all. The only times he even paused to try and anticipate the consequences of actions were in this exact situation. Ruins. Tombs. Temples. Ancient caves. Old castles lost to time and history. While the memory of specifics was foggy, he knew he had quite the successful resume of conquered expeditions.

“Let’s test the waters again, shall we?” asked the man, grinning toothily. He made a weird sort of wave, since he didn’t really have a set ritual for pulling his friends from the realm of fruity jiggliness. Most times he just thought about them and said hello internally like he was thinking of an old friend, and they’d just appear...and that’s just what happened.

“Go, my jello dancer~” Ike bade his summon to do his worst. The misproportioned creature smelled powerfully of limes, filling the whole area with the citrus scent. Green in hue, the dancer was horribly stretched into a slender humanoid shape with disturbingly long arms and legs. He had no face but nevertheless seemed to look down with no eyes and see his jello suit was disheveled. He straightened his tie, then began his freakish dance down the new corridor. Ike seemed to get into the inaudible rhythm his summon was following, though that only added to the oddness of the situation. Limbs slung and flung around as the green thing seemed to mimic the movements of a wacky-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube-man one moment, the next he shimmied forward, pelvis thrown drastically forward as each leg wobbled with every step. With all this movement and his much larger size compared to Buttons, it was certain whatever traps might lay in wait would be tripped.

And trip they did! The sound of stone sliding against stone sounded, and predictably the arms holding the axes swung down heavily in a wave. Jello Dancer’s movements became faster as he pirouetted more chaotically down the hall. However, since he couldn’t fly and seemed to only be able to move in dances, soon the blades cleaved through whatever part of them they came in contact with. Fingers, hands, arms, legs, even a shoulder hit the hard ground with a gelatinous splat. Unable to move forward on the nubs left, his summon fell face down in the middle of the hall. The axes seemed to have been triggered in their entirety, so they continued to fall until they reached the very last one.

In a flash, Ike seemed to forget his summon, though certainly reduced in health to the point of being unable to remain in this realm, was not actually dead. If anything, it seemed more of a PTSD incident than genuine concern for his actual summon. Now, don’t misjudge him. He cared for all his jello-y summons like friends, but he also usually knew they didn’t die and could come back. Yet as the green sticky being lay sliced in pieces and slightly melting, the sucrose it oozed might as well been the bright blood of his friends from so long ago. Ike made a sort of strangled sound, scrambling forward and bouncing over the criss-cross of fallen ax heads on jello legs. Once he reached the bigger chunk of the dancer that still had most of its head, he cradled it like a fallen battle partner. “Oh man, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for this to happen!” he lamented in panic, hands clasped over one of the many deep gashes in the green jello. The summon tilted his head oddly, then he and all his scattered pieces disappeared, leaving Ike’s arms empty. Ice blue eyes blinked in devastation and he inhaled as if he’d scream, but it died in his throat.

In an instant, as sudden as it had happened, Ike seemed to return to his wits. His panic dissipated completely and he rose back to his feet, blinking a few times until the blue cleared out and the red returned. A brow puckered in confusion as he looked around where he was, but there wasn’t enough time to get everything sorted out in his mind. The floor under him began to rumble as that second back-up trap he and Leona had postulated and agreed about sprung to life. It swallowed him up into a pit of mysterious, buzzing darkness!

Down in the newly opened depths were waves of buzzsaw blades, spinning angrily and waving on their arms that waved back and forth. Anything that fell in would be turned into sawdust, regardless of what they were made of. It seemed her partner in exploration had met his end!

“I’m okay!” called Ike’s voice after a moment. However did he survive? Well, he’d managed to get enough of a foothold on the sliding floor to kick off at the last moment, sending his body into the blade-free side of the pit above the dangerous rage of the slicers. He could make his body sticky to climb walls a will, so that’s exactly what he’d done. Maybe he was in a strange position for trying to crawl out, but he was glued safely to the wall either way. “Whew, that was close. Gimme a hand, Leona?”


[Personal: 4645/12500 || Thread Total: 9176/25000]

Leona watched as events transpired almost exactly as she thought they would. Ike had summoned a citrus-scented gelatin dancer to dance, pirouette, and wiggle its shaky way down the hallway and its movement had triggered the swords and axes in the hands of the statues to drop down and chop the hapless summon down to size until it had no limbs left. The hapless summon crawled along the floor until it could move no more, prompting Ike to dodge the traps and rush to its side, then cradle what was left of the badly mangled gelatin dancer. The moment Ike reached the summon the temple revealed another unpleasant surprise hidden in the floor... the floor Ike had crouched down on opened up to reveal a pit full of buzzsaws!

Leona involuntarily screamed as her guildmate disappeared from sight after falling into the pit. Her face went pale and she felt faint. Did Ike just die right in front of her eyes? Leona held her breath and waited to see whether the worst had happened, but there was no spray of blood or flying body parts to confirm Ike's demise. After what seemed like an eternity she saw a hand grasp the edge of the pit and a male voice call out to her... Ike was still alive!

Leona immediately formed a plan to get Ike to safety before he fell into the pit for real. She would call her harpies to help him while she navigated the floor hazards and tried not to end up chopped apart like the gelatin dancer. Then she thought about something... why should she run the risk of getting chopped up if all the traps were set into the floor? Why not just fly over them and be done with it? The Guild Mistress raised her hands into the sky and focused her magic, then recited a familiar chant.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE! LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona called upon the harpies and watched the sisters arrive in front of her.

"Hey girl, do you need a lift?" Sylvia asked. Leona nodded in response. Sylvia flew into the air and grabbed Leona by the waist, then lifted off.

"We need to get to the pit over there. My guildmate fell into a trap and he's hanging on. I don't know how much longer he can last and I don't want to find out." Leona explained the situation to her summons. Daphne crossed her arms and made a comment.

"Like, who designs these places anyway?" Daphne asked. Sylvia ferried Leona past the glaring stone statues and none of the traps had been triggered, making the blonde's life a lot easier. This was going fairly well so far, but Sandy noticed something about the statues that made her comment.

"Hey guys, there's something strange about those statues. The eyes of those lions are glowing blood red. I don't think they're supposed to do that." Sandy warned the group. Leona looked around while she passed by the eighth statue pair and focused on the lion statues. Their eyes were indeed glowing red and the heads of the statues were following her. It was then that she noticed that there were holes in their mouths, holes large enough for darts to be shot out of.

"LOOK OUT!" Leona yelled as the darts began to fire. All three harpies dropped altitude and began flapping towards the pit while dodging the darts the best they could. Poor Sylvia had it the worst because she was carrying Leona and trying to avoid dropping her onto the floor traps and leaving her at risk of getting cut apart. The choice was taken out of Sylvia's hands because she took a few darts to the wings and dropped Leona onto the floor, her face landing just short of a trigger tile in front of the eleventh pair of statues.

Leona voluntarily dispelled the harpies to avoid them getting torn to shreds in a dart crossfire for no good reason. This hallway was a certified no-fly zone, so she would just have to go in on foot to save Ike. She looked up at the closest lion statue and saw that as soon as the harpies were dispelled the eyes of the statues lost their crimson color and returned to normal lifeless gray. She called out to the Silver Wolf mage to assure him that she had not abandoned her efforts to save him from the buzzsaws.

"I'm on the way, Ike! There's been a change of plans!" Leona said to him. She stood up straight and bent down, focusing magic into her legs and preparing for a Zephyr Dash. It should propel her just fast enough to avoid the falling blades that would result from her zipping over the trigger tiles. Leona used the Zephyr Dash to breeze past the eleventh and twelfth pair of statues without trouble, but she still had eight more pairs to pass by before she could get to Ike.

She ran past the thirteenth pair and stopped just in time to avoid a stone axe cutting her face off. She waited while it lifted, then darted under and paused at the border of the fourteenth set. Leona decided to go for something risky. She would use her Zephyr Charge spell to try and cover the remaining distance, but there was a chance that she could dash too far and end up falling into the pit herself. She decided to risk it anyway.

Leona focused magic into her body and crouched down, then performed the Zephyr Charge. The "flash step" spell propelled her past the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth pairs but the momentum was lost around the nineteenth, making her slide to a stop just in front of the twentieth pair. She had went so fast that she almost feel onto the trigger tiles... had she fallen there was a good chance that Ike would be hauling her bisected body back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall. Leona paused and took a breath, then jumped across the tiles, feeling her heel tap the trigger tile and making her scream as she jogged forward to avoid losing her back to the sharp blades.

Leona stopped just short of the pit and found Ike clinging on without much effort. She noticed that his chest and legs had adhered to a side of the wall without blades spinning below. How did he do that? The blonde needed an anchor before she reached down to grab him.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona called out. The green-clad summon appeared before her as Ramses flapped overhead. The eyes of the statues were glowing, so Leona dispelled Ramses before he got caught in the crossfire. She then addressed the Sky Champion.

"I'm gonna reach down for him. Hang onto my ankles!" Leona told him. She lay on the floor and got onto her stomach, then slowly crawled over to the edge and flattened herself onto the floor, then lowered both of her hands to Ike and grabbed him by the wrists. Leona felt Rafale grab onto her ankles and hold them steady.

"I've got you, Ike!" Leona said to him. She tried to give him a pull to safety, but he was stuck to the wall. His strange adhesive power had worked a bit too well. The blonde looked at Ike sheepishly.

"You're stuck to the wall and I don't wanna tear you off of it, so what do I do from here?" Leona asked him sheepishly.

[Word Count: 1,271]
[Total Word Count: 5,802/12,500]

"Don't worry!" Ike called, his voice almost serene. There was a goofy smile in it for whatever that was worth. "I can hang here all day!" he boasted, and though it sounded cocky, it was true. His hand and chest were very very sticky. Jello magic was surprisingly useful for an explorer like himself, though in this case, his shoulder was starting to ache from his own weight and awkward positioning. He could crawl his way up if he'd had more room. As it stood now with all the blades, he was afraid to try and wiggle around to get his chest unstuck and another hand and a knee on the wall to make his way over the edge. He'd just wait for her. Hopefully, Leona didn't get murdered in the process.

The sounds around him seemed particularly dire from his current location, echoing off the pit walls and mixed with the buzzsaws angry whirrring. The airy projectile sound of darts being shot as well as the tinkle they made as they hit the ground. The heavy, tile-jarring impact of axes as they tried to make human sashimi of his guild master. This was quite the predicament he'd gotten them both into, and all because he had a random episode of disassociation or PTSD or something. Didn't PTSD require prior experience? Perhaps he needed to see a head-doctor when he got home...assuming they survived.

It wasn't the time nor place, but Ike had drifted into his thoughts while he clung to the wall like a gecko of some sort. His attention span was abysmal anyway, so it hadn't taken much for him to begin daydreaming despite his job partner's predicament. In fact, he was so deep down the rabbit hole that he hadn't noticed her arrival until she grabbed his wrists. Widened red eyes peered up at her in slight shock before a grin appeared. However, the following sheepish expression ignited one of his own. He'd been so caught up, he'd forgotten to un-jello himself. "Oof! Sorry...ah....just a sec," he stammered, nearly forgetting how to turn off his magic. Honestly, sometimes this magic didn't feel like it belonged to him, which was strange considering he'd had it for as long as he could remember. It felt unfamiliar, and thus his control of it was lacking if he wasn't concentrating. Soon his chest came loose from the wall and instead his hands around her wrists fortified his grip with a little extra stick. With her help, he was rescued from the pit!

"Thanks, Leona!" Ike beamed, though the relief and victory were short lived. He shook his hands that held onto her, trying to release them, but finding that the highly sticky jello had little intention of going away. "...Ah...Aha....uh oh," the man groaned in chagrin. He should have known the ease with which he commanded his magic earlier was too good to be true. Of course, it would act up now! "Sorry! I'm stuck. Lemme concentrate for a mome--"

Before he could continue, the floor beneath them started to rumble. A fourth trap in this one area!? They were near the end of the hall, had Leona tripped something? Or perhaps a timer had started after the dart release or after the fall of a certain ax. Either way, the floor was starting to crumble at the entrance, dropping statue, sandstone blocks, and buzzsaw pits alike free falling into darkness. "W-We gotta go!" Ike squawked, now trying to awkwardly pull the woman he was stuck to her feet to somehow make a run for the doors at the end while attached at the hands!

Perhaps if she yanked hard enough she could free herself, but he could do little on his end to let go no matter how bad the scenario had gotten. If she couldn't get free, he'd just have to try to release her again after they escaped death once more.


[Post WC: 653|| Personal Total: 5298/12500 || Thread Total: 11100/25000]

Leona was glad that she had managed to rescue Ike from being sliced and diced, but then a new predicament ensued, one that had to do with Ike himself. The same properties that allowed him to adhere to the wall and patiently await rescue also worked against him by accidentally ensnaring Leona, making it hard for her to separate from him. As if that were not enough, the pit was also beginning to collapse, taking the floor of the area with it!

"Hang on!" Rafale shouted as he took to the air and struggled to keep Leona and Ike from falling into the pit. Leona screamed as she was forced to look down by the drop that her summon had just barely saved her from. She hated pit traps because just staring into the dark, yawning abyss was terrifying for the wind mage with acrophobia. Unless she did something quickly she would find out what falling into one was like. What could she do to help Rafale?

The summon was valiantly trying to hold them up and fly forward to safety, but the weight of two mages was starting to get to him. Leona quickly decided that she needed to call in more summons to help. She was not sure whether to call in her harpies or not, but she needed to act fast. She felt Rafale's grip on her waist momentarily weaken and that was the catalyst she needed to get off the fence and call in help before she and Ike both took a plunge into the darkness.

"O fabled harpies, o sisters three, lend your strength unto me!" Leona called upon them telepathically. The three winged sisters materialized in mid-air and began flapping.

"Hey girl, I knew you guys are guildmates, but it looks like you're stuck on him!" Sylvia made a quick joke at her mistress' expense. Leona frowned and the orange-haired sister went quiet.

"We need a little help here!" Leona said with urgency as the floor continued to crumble under them while they slowly dropped down into the danger zone despite Rafale's best efforts to keep them aloft. Sylvia and Daphne circled around and quickly grabbed Leona's legs, giving Rafale the chance he needed to gain altitude and move forward now that he had help in carrying the weight. Leona hoped that the harpies would not lose their grip at this critical point in the rescue operation.

"Daphne, try and open the door in front of us!" Leona commanded. The black-haired harpy flew forward and was almost to the door when it opened of its own accord. The blonde was relieved.

"Keep going forward! We're almost there!" Leona ordered her summons, who did not need much prodding to keep flying forward. Leona also did not need to remind Ike to hang on because her guildmate was not going anywhere while he was stuck to her hands. The summons eventually got them to safety as the last of the floor crumbled and left only the door and doorframe as a safe area... had Leona not called in help the pair would likely be falling into the pit by now. They flew through the open door and into a short hallway that featured a giant stone door at the end.

-Inside the hallway-

Rafale and the harpies worked together to lower Leona to the ground and keep her from getting stuck on Ike any more than she already was. She was lowered into a standing position and Ike's feet touched the ground, which was thankfully not giving way beneath them. The pair found themselves in a short, nondescript hallway that was not decorated in any way... there was not even a single inscription chiseled onto the walls.

The summons quickly backed away to avoid getting stuck on Ike and Leona spoke to them.

"Thanks guys. You saved us both!" Leona thanked her summons for their efforts in getting the Silver Wolf mages to safety.

"No problem. Good luck in getting unstuck from your friend!" Sylvia wished her mistress before Leona dispelled her summons for the time being. Now that the mages were out of immediate danger, they could focus on separating from each other. Ike's experience in exploring ruins and Leona's winged summons made the pair a good team, but there was such a thing as being too close.

"OK. Now what do we do?" Leona asked Ike awkwardly. The obvious answer was to find a way to release the adhesive that was binding Ike to Leona. That looped back to her question... how were they going to release the adhesive without removing skin or something else?

[Word Count: 784]
[Leona's Word Count: 6,586/12,500]
[Thread Total: 11,884/12,500]

Barely saved from falling into god-knows-where, Ike screamed along with Leona as they flew toward the hall's exit. Turning his crimson eyes from the hungry darkness below, he looked up instead. Oof, her summon seemed to be struggling. Well, there were two of them. He'd have let go and figured out how to save himself if he could. However, now didn't seem to be the best time to concentrate on unsticking himself without a plan to follow through with. But then again, it wasn't beyond his comprehension that if it came down to dragging his guild master to her death because he added too much weight, he would actually gladly let go and free fall into the deathly unknown so she would be saved. Pretty heroic, right? Until then, though, he'd continue to cling. He was rather afraid of dying, after all.

Thankfully none of his panicked or self-sacrificing thoughts were needed. With the help of all the flying summons Ike was aware of Leona having, they were safely brought through the next doorway and placed safely down on their feet. "Thank you so much!" the young man exclaimed emphatically to his guild master and all four of her aerial helpers. "Jello magic is more helpful than most realize, but it doesn't lend to flying like, at all..." grinned the Silver Wolf mage sheepishly, glancing down at their hands in growing awkwardness. Right. This problem. "Its usefulness aside, sometimes they act up...heh heh..."

After a few moments of concentration, Ike expected the jello to release like it usually did. He wasn't always sticky. His body could turn from human flesh and bone to jello in the blink of an eye, but he wasn't always in that state. Being an S rank wizard made this all the more frustrating. At this stage in his life he should have perfect control over this magic, right? The issue was, he didn't remember becoming an S rank mage, nor did he know how long he'd had this magic to begin with. It wasn't that he had no memories because he did. But if he thought about them very hard, they didn't seem to fit. They hardly seemed to belong to one person, let alone belong to him. In fact, thinking about the jello magic and its mechanics too hard at all, like right now, it became more and more foreign to him. His dark brows furrowed and he shook their arms in agitation, finding they were still perfectly stuck. "Gragh!" he growled in annoyance. His head was starting to ache. "Ah, sorry, sorry....just...everyone be quiet for a second," Ike asked of everyone, though honestly, they were already quiet. After inhaling deeply he closed his eyes and tried to calm the raging sea that seemed to be his brain now.

The quiet moment stretched on longer than intended, in no way working to ease the awkwardness building. Then suddenly his eyes flew open. Instead of the cherry eyes, Leona was probably somewhat used to, icy blue ones had replaced them. Depending on how hooked up she was with general Fiore news, she even might recognize the face looking back at her. In the last year, before his death, he'd been a Rising Star and an Ace of the crashed and disbanded guild Crystal Swan. In an attempt to keep his guild family together, he and his love had started a new guild but had barely even got it started before tragedy befell them and the guild was passed on to someone else. It was Theo Silversong looking back at her somehow. A very confused Theo Silversong. "AH-HEE!" he squealed in shock, the jello easily releasing Leona as he stumbled back against the plain stone wall.

"Who are you?!" Theo asked, his brain fog clouding any recognition he might have had of her from her positions. She did seem familiar like he'd seen her somewhere. Even more familiar was where he was standing. "Hey! I know this place!" grinned the energetic man, mood switching rapidly. "But I shut it up a loooooong time ago...wait. When is now?" he asked, searching his body for something. Stooping to pulling up his pant leg, he checked what seemed to be a scarred mark. It was a primitive mark his band of raiders had gotten, sorta like a guild mark except it was permanent. Only the magical ink faded a bit when you were no longer a part of it. Noting the faded quality of the pyramid and scimitar design, he hunted for another mark. He checked one forearm and found just the ghost of the Crystal Swan and Aurora marks, but more confusing to him was the Silver Wolf mark on his other arm. He didn't have any memory of that. He started to condense a loose timeline from what fragments of his mind he could put together. "Ok, so now is a long time ago," he babbled nonsense, though it made complete sense to him. "Well, this is super convenient anyway. I needed to come back for this lacrima...why are you here?"

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"You're welcome. It's the least I could do for getting us through the first room alive." Leona said to her guildmate, who had thanked her after the harrowing escape from the hallway that had become a pit trap. As the Guild Mistress of Silver Wolf, it was her responsibility to ensure the safety of her guild members. She was not going to let him die on her watch. Ike was a capable mage who did not need to be babysat through the temple, but even an experienced explorer like himself needed a helping hand from time to time. Leona herself was no exception.

Leona waited patiently for Ike to disengage himself from her so that the two would not have to stick so close together for the remainder of the exploration. After a lengthy pause and considerable expenditure of effort the two were finally separated with Ike staggering back and Leona doing the same and almost falling on her backside. Thankful for being separated from him once again, Leona looked towards her guildmate and was surprised to see that his eye color had shifted from cherry red to ice blue. She had never seen him like that before, but then she realized that she had seen someone a lot like him at the Autumn Jamboree several months ago.

Leona immediately recalled the Autumn Jamboree and the weird events surrounding it.

Leona recalled receiving the invitation by a courier bat while sitting at Silver Wolf Guild Hall. She then recalled disappearing in a puff of orange and black smoke and suddenly arriving at the party. That was where things got very strange very fast.

Leona saw many notable mages from notable guilds and a heavy Crystal Swan presence in the form of renowned mages such as Elvira Arcade, Theo Silversong and Lester Drynedi. She also encountered Mura Kensho of Fairy Tail and Samira Nassar of Lamia Scale. The strangest part of the whole event was yet to come.

The personalities of the attendees had somehow been altered from what they normally were. Leona herself had been turned from calm and courageous to meek and mild... she recalled hiding behind Elvira when Mura's floating skull familiars came out. She also recalled Samira Nassar telling Leona that she would not amount to anything and that the blonde would always be inferior to herself and the other notables at the party. That incident temporarily jarred the blonde because Samira was then the Saint of Humility and to hear such invective coming from her was painful for its content.

Leona looked over the dark-haired youth standing before her and recognized him by his hair and ice blue eyes. He was Theo Silversong, a Guild Ace of Crystal Swan! He did not seem to recognize her, but that was understandable. They had met only once before at the Autumn Jamboree and Leona was only a Rising Star at that point. Theo clearly did not recognize her and momentarily panicked before regaining his normal happy-go-lucky personality.

"I'm Leona Jarnefeldt, the Wizard Saint of Courage and the Guild Mistress of Silver Wolf." Leona began with an introduction of herself using both titles that she held. She then added a bit about the Autumn Jamboree

"We met back when you were in Crystal Swan and I was in Silver Wolf. We met at the Autumn Jamboree and I was only a Rising Star then." Leona told him about the Autumn Jamboree, which was the only time that the two had met before today. Hopefully he remembered their brief meeting and would remember her. If he did not she would have to give more details of the party. In the meantime he wanted to know what they were doing here.

"We're here to explore this temple, Ike... er, Theo." Leona gave a very brief explanation to her guildmate as to why they were in the desert temple to begin with.

[Word Count: 658]
[Leona's Word Count: 7,244/12,500]
[Total Word Count: 13,386/25,000]

"Ah! Yeah, you're Leona! I think I remember you...am I in your guild now?" he asked, again glancing at the guild mark he didn't remember receiving. But then again, there were many things he didn't really remember. It was all like water, there but unable to be gripped and examined. Yes, he had watery brain. Was that a thing? It had to be if that's what he had. Oh well, it didn't matter! There were more interesting things going on here.

"There's a lacrima in here," he informed her, again bringing up the object he seemed convinced was in this very temple. As if he'd been here before, despite it being shut up hundreds of years ago. It seemed to call to him. "Did you know that? Is that why we're here?" he asked, starting to walk around the blank room, running his fingers along the smooth stone. "I wasn't supposed to come back and get it, not unless it was an emergency. I guess this might be an emergency?"

Through all the excitement of being stuck together by jello, escaping death, and Ike's sudden change into Theo, a light ticking noise had gone unnoticed. It was unnoticed no more. Theo came to a sudden halt, obviously listening given his visibly twitching ear that peeked from behind black strands. It wasn't a traditional steady beat. Not like a metronome, but it did have a pattern. The young man caught it immediately and began to tap his foot. Rushing back to the entrance of the room, he teetered on the threshold of gaping emptiness behind him and the blank room before him. He swayed in beat with the ticking sound, seeming to hear something else entirely in his mind. "Man, this song was all the rage back when I made this room," Theo grinned, peering down at the square tiles that made up the floor.

It was a miracle that this is what he managed to remember through the murk of his watery brain. Theo started to hop from tile to tile in some sort of dance. It was an ancient Desierto song he had loved from his younger years that apparently had a certain dance with it. Sure, he looked absolutely insane, but Theo had never been one to care about such things. He simply acted without much concern for appearances or consequences, which sometimes served him well while other times it came back around to bite him in the backside. Hopefully, this would be the former. Despite Theo being neither a gifted dancer nor singer, he shimmied and hummed his way around Leona and all over the room until he finally came to a spinning halt at the stone door. It had no handle and no means of opening it. No inscriptions. No hints. He paused and bobbed with the beat for just a couple more seconds before he bowed, which promptly triggered the door to open and allow them to move further into the temple. The ticking had stopped, and Theo turned to Leona and grinned. "Pretty cool, eh?" Theo chuckled, motioning her onward just before he ran out of sight with a whoop of joy. It'd been a loooong time since he'd properly hunted treasure. This was cheating a little, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.


[Post WC: 554|| Personal Total: 6696/12500 || Thread Total: 13940/25000]

Leona was not quite sure what was going on here, but that was nothing new. She always seemed to be behind the curve when it came to important things like the people she thought she knew being completely different people. The guy she had thought was Ike Fukunaga was actually the Crystal Swan ace Theo Silversong, but that was not the most perplexing thing about the fellow. More perplexing than the issue of his real identity was his claim that he had come from Desierto.

The blonde was confused by that claim. She had heard nothing about Ike/Theo in the desert villages, on the caravan routes, or even in the Tri-Council Cities. If he had come from one of the Tri-Council Cities they would be falling over themselves to claim such a famous mage as one of their own, especially since Leona had come from a desert village. The city folk saw the desert dwellers as backwards people who sat around in the sand all day, huddled in their canvas tents at night, and were stumped by any piece of technology fancier than a book or a sword. The desert folk saw the Tri-Council City dwellers as weaklings out of touch with their own heritage who could not last a day in the unforgiving desert.

It was an age-old conflict that cropped up in many civilizations and was a problem that did not appear to have an end in the foreseeable future. Leona was not the ambassador for the people of the desert and she was not educated enough to try and sway the minds of the city folk. She would leave that task to someone better-educated and more persuasive than she was and focus on the present, which was getting stranger by the moment when Ike/Theo claimed that there was a Lacrima hidden in the temple. He then asked if she knew about the Lacrima that was supposedly hidden here.

"I didn't know there was a Lacrima here, Ike... er, Theo." Leona said to the fellow. She was not sure exactly who she was talking to at the moment, but he was not her enemy and that was good enough for her. Recalling his earlier claim that he had come from Desierto, Leona decided that now was the right time to ask him about it. Then she heard a ticking sound and he rushed to the entrance to the room which was now a gaping chasm. At first she was worried that he would slip and throw himself into the chasm, but he stopped himself and began to... dance?

A silent Leona stood back and watched the dark-haired fellow do an odd swaying dance to a beat that only he could hear. That was odd enough, but then he claimed that he was the designer of the room that they were standing in. This day was getting stranger by the moment; first he claimed that there was a Lacrima somewhere inside and now he was claiming that he had designed this room centuries ago. How was that possible?

By the time the blonde could wrap her mind around how such a thing was even remotely possible Ike/Theo had completed his odd dance and the door to the other room opened. Leona did not even try to ask how he knew what to do because he soon stated that the "song" he heard was one from his youth. If he heard the music and had designed the room centuries ago, then it stood to reason that he too was centuries old, but how did he live this long and still look so youthful?

That was yet another mystery for another day. Right now she needed to focus on the present and help Ike/Theo find the Lacrima in case they were not the only ones looking for it. Still, she was somewhat impressed by his odd dance and how it helped them get out of this room.

"That was quite the dance, Theo. I've never seen anything like it." Leona answered diplomatically. She decided to keep her opinions to herself, especially when she could not dance to save her life. As a child Leona had to go to the rudimentary village school in the morning, then go to work for most of the day and stand guard at night, so she did not have any time for dance lessons. Instead she quietly rejoiced that she had such a capable mage on her side and prepared to press deeper into the temple.

[Word Count: 762]
[Leona's Word Count: 8,006/12,500]
[Thread Total: 14,702/25,000]

As she followed him, Theo's voice would continue to echo from ahead. He was a bit of a chatterer, especially when he was excited. "It's good you've never heard of the lacrima. That means it's probably still here. Heh heh...we outsmarted those hateful old sultans..." cackled the strange man, pausing mid-hall where the path split into three. His mind was still a bit hazy, so even though he randomly remembered the old dance for that one room, this one wasn't as readily available in his memory banks. Theo hadn't set all the traps. That was the failsafe that kept any one of them from returning to steal it away. If multiple people set traps, none of them knew how to get to it on their own, like he was attempting to do now. Perhaps he wouldn't have even considered trying to get it if not for the simple fact that so many years had passed, it was all but certain the others who had been here with him before were dead. They'd either perished in the mage vs non-mage civil wars or during one of his largest, most life-altering mistakes...

"Have you ever heard of the raider guild Bahamuts?" Theo asked Leona suddenly, turning his back to the three paths to face her. He didn't wait for an answer yet. "Well, I guess maybe you haven't. Did they put stuff from the old three sultans and the mage-hunts in the history books? That's been over three hundred years ago, hasn't it?" Again the ex-Rising Star seemed to be thinking aloud, sorting through the spilled legos in his brain and trying to build something out of them. "They used to tell stories about us. Bahamuts was a big player in the mercenary wars, back when things were really bad. Once the sultans got all intimidated by magic, Bahamuts split into the guilds 3 Wishes and 1001 Knights, one a hunted mage guild and one a mage hunter guild hired by the sultans. Those tales are probably lost to time, too, hm? It's been so long, but back then, all of those guilds were huge deals, and I was part of all of them!" he boasted, though it was short lived. The moment of pride melted into a bittersweet expression. "I watched them both fall, too. I made a lot of mistakes back then. Anyway, the point is they called me the Bahamut Slayer and I was there when the three sultans declared magic illegal. That's why we hid the lacrima in here. I think I need it now. Something weird is going on," the jello mage acknowledged, growing more aware of himself and the fact that he didn't feel right.

Icy blue eyes stared into Leona's, somewhat imploringly. "Will you help me find it, Leona? I'm a treasure hunter, but I'm not really feeling myself. Everything is all discombobbled and I can't even remember how I got back here with you. Maybe if I find it, I can sort all of this out..."


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Leona was still trying to get over the floor collapsing beneath her in the last hall when she was hit with another surprise. The hall they were walking through suddenly split into three separate paths around the halfway point. Theo then began to talk about some history that occurred long before she was born and mentioned the name of a guild named "Bahamuts." Leona had never heard that name before and had not come across it in any of her research back at Silver Wolf Guild Hall, not even in the centuries-old books that composed most of the library's offerings.

"I can't say I've heard of the guild Bahamuts before. I haven't heard of its successors 3 Wishes and 1001 Knights either." Leona told Theo truthfully. The next time she was in Nebdoui she would ask her mother, who was knowledgeable about old desert lore in a way that few people outside the Tri-Council Cities were. Maybe she had a scroll tucked away in some remote corner of Nebdoui's "archives" that held information about the long-defunct guilds that Theo had mentioned. in the meantime she had more pressing matters to deal with, namely Theo mentioning something about "mage hunts" that had occurred long ago.

The Wizard Saint knew that the Tri-Council Cities would not have any records of the event that were not written by the best royal spin doctors money could buy. She knew that the records were written to cast the sultans in the best light possible while portraying the hunted mages as evil incarnate. It was a simple matter to present the mages as villains when they were long dead and unable to defend themselves. To get the full story Leona would need to pay a visit to the royal archives of the sultans.

Leona also knew that she would never be granted access to the royal archives to examine the records and ascertain the truth for herself because the unvarnished truth would threaten the sultans' carefully crafted reputation as infallible leaders of the shining cities of the desert. if she wanted to learn the truth she would have to do so slowly and carefully to avoid the watchful eyes of the sultan's spies, who were always on the lookout for dissenters or those who pried into things the sultans would rather keep secret. The blonde would just have to be patient and resolve the matter another day. For now she would have to focus on getting through the temple and helping Theo with his quest, which was obviously personal for him.

The mage mentioned that at one point magic was declared illegal by the sultans and that he had also earned the title of "Bahamut Slayer." Presumably Theo had played a key role in bringing down the Bahamut guild, but the circumstances behind its destruction were known only to the sultans, the long-deceased mages, and Theo himself. Now was not the best time to ask about how he earned the title "Bahamut Slayer" because the subject was a sensitive one and Leona needed his help to get through this temple. As it turned out, he needed her help too.

Leona was momentarily startled when Theo's icy blue eyes met her green eyes. They held an intensity and emotion that she had never seen from the happy-go-lucky mage as he almost begged for her help in finding a lacrima that he had hidden from the avaricious sultans but now had need of. There was only one answer that the Wizard Saint could give to him.

"Yes, Theo. I'll help you find the lacrima." Leona told her guildmate. She would help him find the lacrima. Considering all that he had told her about the need to hide it from the sultan, the fact that the three hallways that had all been rigged with numerous traps, and all the other information that he had given her on the precautions taken to secure the item, the lacrima had considerable power. Leona could only hope that Theo could control the power once he had found it.

[Post Word Count: 690]
[Leona's Word Count: 8,696/12,500]
[Thread Total: 15,894/25,000]

"Thank you so much, Leona!" Theo grinned, sincerely relieved and ecstatic that she agreed. With someone as powerful as her on his side to keep him focused, surely this would have a favorable outcome and he could get rid of his brain fog. He still didn't feel quite himself, and all his memories beyond that of the old Desierto days were really fuzzy. It was no fun being this way.

Within moments they came to a door much larger than all the rest up to this point. It had old gods and symbols carved into it, and the two giant handles were in the shapes of gilded dragon heads with brilliant emerald eyes. "This is it," he breathed, stepped confidently forward. There were no more traps. Beyond this door would be the main hall, the place where ancient worship rituals had once blessed anyone in attendance, and now where they would find the treasure hidden. He grabbed the ring in one dragon's mouth and gave it a heavy tug. Once he heard a click, he pushed it forward, the old stone dragging a bit on the floor.

Curiously, even as he pushed open one last door that clearly hadn't been opened since the temple was sealed, voices rang out from inside. "Ok, there definitely shouldn't be anyone in here...unless....oh my god, are they ghosts? Ancient ghosts!" Theo shrieked, curling clenched fists to his face in fear and also to stifle and extra screams that might try to escape. This didn't make sense. While Desierto had a tendency to regard death and the afterlife as a huge deal with extensive burial rites...this wasn't a tomb. It was an old temple of worship, repurposed into a treasure hiding place.

After an extended glance at the goings on inside, Theo relaxed. Ok. Not ghosts. Living people had moved in with crates and such, seemingly using this place as a base of operations. But that didn't make sense. While he didn't remember much of what happened while he was Ike tripping traps with Leona, he knew by the state of the floor in the room before he regained consciousness that the trip to the point hadn't been easy. It wasn't like those types of old mechanisms magically reset themselves after every trespasser. If the door he had to dance for hadn't been opened when they got there, then these people hadn't come this way. But there was no other way in that he remembered... did they teleport in?

The brightness of sunlight caught his eye toward the left of the giant, ornate room of sandstone. Oh. There was a hole blown in the upper wall and some crude stairs had been erected for easy comings and goings. Blinking slowly, he motioned to the gaping easy access to the main room all the traps had been protecting, looking exceptionally sheepish but also strangely amused. "Huh......I guess we didn't need to go through all of that, huh? Haha..." It was ironic...it was better to laugh than cry, right?

The moment of mirth passed quickly though. In the next second, he was starting to freak out. With breath quickening, he started to speak. "The lacrima!!!" he hissed in a panic, arctic hues darting back into the room with accusatory eyes. "Who are these people? I hope they didn't steal it already! I wonder how long they've been here," lamented Theo, expression tense. This wasn't good. What if what he sought was long gone? He had the strangest feeling that it wouldn't be good for him. No, not at all. If it was gone, he was screwed. Something inside him urged him onward, though at first he hesitated. For a moment he thought he didn't have any magic, but then he remembered he had his jello..and another type he was forgetting about...

Unable to hold himself back, Theo suddenly rushed in, facing the unknown foes head on. It wasn't smart or tactical in any way, but all he could think of was making sure the lacrima was still there. Summoning his large jello dragon to fight by his side, frozen jello swords appeared in each hand and he took to action. "Get out!" he called to them, engaging the first one he came to.


[wc:706 || Personal Total: 7904/12500 || Thread Total: 16600/25000]

Leona was glad that Theo was on her side. He had an unorthodox way of solving problems with examples such as summoning jello creatures and dancing through a hallway to music only he could hear, but Theo's outside-the-box thinking tended to work out in the end. Besides, he had saved her from several of the temple's traps when her leap-before-you-look approach would have only made things worse for the Silver Wolf mages. It was only appropriate that the blonde help her fellow former Rising Star and current guildmate with his troubles.

Leona kept a respectful distance and watched in silence as Theo reached into the mouth of one of two giant golden dragon heads with finely cut emeralds for eyes and pulled a ring until a CLICK sounded. Once he heard the CLICK he pushed the head forward and a door opened. Theo stepped away from the head and stated "This is it." Moments later the Silver Wolf mages could hear voices echoing from within the room they had just opened; Theo did not take hearing the voices very well and panicked. He thought that they had just stumbled upon ancient ghosts.

The Wizard Saint refrained from speaking and let Theo convince himself that there were no ancient ghosts in the room. He soon calmed down and Leona followed him into the elaborate sandstone room, where square wooden crates full of supplies like food, water, basic excavation tools, and weapon repair tools dotted the room. The presence of the crates was interesting and indicated the presence of some group who had been here for some time, but Leona's attention was drawn to the architecture of all things. Every feature of the room was laid out and chiseled with exacting precision that was indicative of experienced stonemasons who knew their craft. This place was once a temple and the care taken in the architecture was worthy of a house of worship.

Leona was admiring the architecture of the chamber when an irregularity in the upper wall drew her attention. She had to struggle to see it through the sunlight, but upon closer inspection she spotted what looked like a hole blasted in the upper wall and a crude but workable staircase had been set up. Theo saw it at roughly the same time she did and was moved to comment on the significance of it. What he said made Leona frown momentarily because it was just their kind of luck.

"So we could have avoided all of those traps by going through that hole? That hole right there?" Leona asked Theo while pointing to the hole, making no effort to hide her incredulity. She could have avoided the collapsing floor, getting stuck to Theo in an effort to save him from falling into the yawning abyss, and having to fly with the harpy sisters making wisecracks about her being stuck on him. The fact that the shortcut was right in front of them from the get-go added insult to injury.

The Wizard Saint did not place the blame for the late discovery on him. If anyone was to blame for their predicament, it was her. As the Guild Mistress Leona was supposed to be more observant and smarter than she was. At least Theo was trying to be funny about it instead of hurling accusations of incompetence at the Guild Mistress. Leona was about to say something more when she heard him panic over the possibility of the lacrima they were seeking already being stolen by whoever had set up shop.

Theo's entire demeanor changed from goofy and affable to tense and focused. Leona did not know what was going on and did not like it, but he did not give her time to ask questions because he soon charged into the next room without even waiting for Leona. The stunned blonde caught sight of his back disappearing through the hole and sprung into action, following Theo into the unknown.

-Inside the room-

Leona involuntarily paused in place when she saw Theo rushing into the fray against the group that had occupied the temple. They were all dressed in black attire with crimson sashes placed diagonally across their torsos. Leona recognized them as her village's oldest enemy, the Crimson Sashes.

Three of the ten men in the room paused when they saw Leona standing in the doorway. They recognized her as well and quickly drew their scimitars, then pointed at her. They were ready to fight... so was Leona.

"Be careful! These guys aren't just any group of raiders! They're the Crimson Sashes and they don't play around!" Leona warned Theo before rushing to his side to make the odds a little less daunting for the jello mage. She was sure that he could take care of himself, but the Crimson Sashes were not to be underestimated. They had not made a name for themselves and lasted for over a century by being an ordinary gang of bandits... they had garnered a fearsome reputation and had the skills with which to back that reputation up. One of them produced a throwing knife from his left sleeve and quickly threw it at her head.

Leona ducked under the projectile in time to avoid catching it in the forehead. She retaliated by throwing a Fast Ball spell at the offender and he effortlessly ducked under it with a sly grin. Leona noticed that the attacker had a silver badge of crossed swords pinned onto the shoulder of his sash. The badge likely meant that he was among the best fighters that the Crimson Sashes had.

"It'll take more than throwing a ball to beat me, girl!" The Crimson Sash taunted her. Leona clenched her teeth. By the time this fight was over she would make him pay for that remark.

[Post Word Count: 988]
[Leona's Word Count: 9,684/12,500]
[Total Word Count: 17,498/25,000]

"Raiders are raiders. Seen one, seen them all.." Theo muttered under his breath in response to Leona's warning, taken back to his time as one himself. He wouldn't underestimate them. Many an instance had he won because other raiders underestimated him, but clearly he was the one still here. Okay, maybe that wasn't fair. He'd died three times in total, but none of those were from a scenario like this! His deaths were largely his own doing. Making bad decisions.

Theo was no scrub with a sword. Other than the humongous jello dragon running around, thrashing and stomping at foes that tried to jab him with weapons only for him to absorb them, the icy-eyed man fought exclusively with his frozen jello swords. When he as more himself he tended to stray away from swords as they reminded him too much of the fellow he used to be, but in this case, he was a fair bit closer to his past than he liked already. He needed something he was comfortable with.

The ebony-haired man and his foe had been circling each other for a few moments, testing each other with weak swings of blades. The jello mage glanced around when he could, still looking for the place the lacrima was hidden, taking stock of the positioning of things in the altar room. As one of the weaker Crimson Sashes went flying across the room from a swipe of the cherry dragon's tail, Theo decided he was done dancing with his open opponent. It was good timing because just as he gave his opponent his full attention, the gruff man spoke. "Better pay attention to me instead of looking for someone to come help ya," he grinned threateningly. "Hm, I guess you're right," Theo drawled, not bothering to correct the man. If there was one thing the treasure hunter lacked, it was pride. Sometimes that helped him. Taking advantage of his jello-like flexibility, he bent backward, exactly in half as the raider performed a horizontal slash. It soared over him, leaving him to spring back into shape, bringing one of his own blades up at the odd angle and lopping the man's hand off at the wrist.

His foe couldn't resist a scream, staggering in the fight and gripping his stub as it gushed blood. Sharp, arctic eyes evaluated him with coldness before it abruptly melted back into his normal persona. "Oh...OH! Oh my gosh, your hand! I didn't mean to do that! I'm sorry! Uh, uh...medic! Do you guys have medics? You should have medics! Oh nooooo!" he wailed in a panic, voice growing more frantic the more blood splattered to the ancient sandstone. "Nnngh...what do I do?!" fretted the ex-raider, finally remembering that his magic might help. He clumsily lobbed a blob of green jello onto the nub, at least stopping the bleeding, but it wasn't as if his healing sugar goop could regrow a limb!

Sensing it a little late from his panic, Theo was suddenly keenly aware that someone was baring down on his unguarded back. Jello slicked the area under his feet, allowing him to zip out of the way in a second's notice. The man with the dagger who had planned on stabbing him in the back instead slipped and slid forward, flailing and trying to keep his balance. He slid right into the still screaming nub man, and both toppled off the stone landing. Both bodies rolled down the stairs until they landed in crumpled heaps at the bottom. Theo paused to blink down at them, grimacing but reminding himself that he needed to keep going. Choosing to go down the stairs on the other side, he ventured further into the room.

Down on the next landing, he met two more raiders with swords waiting for him. Despite his earlier panic, he seemed calm once more. Both ice katana hung loose in his hands as he jumped and stood in the middle of the pair, seeming keen and confident to take them both on. The swordplay that ensued was masterful, like an expertly choreographed fight scene in a high-budget lacrimafilm. Metal against ice sounded on both sides of him, and though he was usually very clumsy, he easily managed the footwork to keep both at bay. These two were tougher than the previous two hands over fist, but still, he held his own. He almost seemed to be enjoying it. Was he smirking? There was a strange, un-Theo look in his eyes when he fought this way, the look of a Desierto raider in his prime. He hadn't gained the hundreds if not thousands of scars on his body to be bad at this. There was more to Theo than met the eye. Finding an opening, he kicked backward and jabbed forward at the same time, just as both rose their blades over their heads in sync with each other. The foe behind him took the blow to the gut and tumbled backward, while the one in front of him narrowly kept from being stabbed by catching the blade with the handguard of his scimitar. This gave Theo just a blink's worth of time to disarm him, but with a flick of his wrist, his second enemy's blade skittered across the floor and off the landing to the final one below. However, the disarmed Crimson Sash had a backup, some sort of claw-like weapon on his other hand. He latched it onto Theo's sword and clamped, shattering the pale ice. With impressive speed, it next latched onto Theo's wrist before he could dodge. Theo yanked at his arm, attempting to use his other sword to slash and force the claw to release. This move was blocked with enhanced strength by a dagger pulled from behind his foe's back. At this close of range, it was all he could do to use his remaining sword to fend off the dagger while his mind raced for a spell that would help him.

The stunned man he'd kicked away had had plenty of time to recover both himself and his weapons. Charging forward to help his fellow raider, he planned to impale Theo. There was only one option Theo could see to survive... Just as the attack from behind came, Theo turned to jello at his middle. The blade slipped through his middle like a hot knife, all the way through until it also stabbed into his ally's gut. Theo gritted his teeth and emitted a low groan. While the blow would not kill him, turning jello only protected him from so much damage. It still hurt, and a cut had still been made, even if the jello would go back together after. He felt the man that had his arm locked stagger and go limp, claw finally releasing him. The enemy at his back also froze in realization, which Theo would use. Hardening his jello to trap the blade jabbed through him, he slung his head forward and then quickly backward. Neck stretching from the force, Theo's head rocketed back and whacked into the remaining enemy's nose, breaking it and stunning him. Once he released the blade and fell backward, the Silver Wolf took a moment to slowly expel the blade from his jello body with some difficulty. It was a relief when he heard it clang to the ground, returning his body to flesh and blood to assess the damage. Blood soaked his shirt, but not so much that he was in danger. He could still fight. Whirling on his stunned raider, he encased the man in a jello mold from the neck down. Casting a glance at the other man told him there was no need to restain him. It was...too late.

A look of disgust crossed Theo's face. Turning his head away, a hand lifted to his mouth as if he might be sick, but he resisted. Instead, he'd just stand there, breathing unevenly as he fought hot tears. It was too easy to go back to the man he didn't want to be. Was this lacrima worth it? He'd hidden it away for a reason, yet he also knew from the thunderous and atypical beating in his chest that he had little choice but to retrieve it if he wanted to avoid death number four. And he very much wanted to avoid death number four. He was terrified of death.


[wc: 1400 || Personal Total: 9299/12500 || Thread Total: 18,811/25000 (double-checked all posts with a word counter out of curiosity lol)]