A glorious temple situated high on a gently floating platform in a huge volcanic crater. Etched gold is predominant--even the stones are yellowish--and the place could have been built yesterday for how beautifully it's maintained. The countryside for hundreds of miles will readily tell of strange, calming, rhythmic melodies emanating regularly from the place.

---

Huo's serious and alert as Ixen wings towards the temple, evaluating it quietly. Something's very wrong, here. The aura of the place feels...disturbed, somehow, and the temple is scarred as though from a recent battle. There's a strange, musty, stale scent to the air, and not much light seems to emanate for an apparent sun temple.

Anna, of course, is a little bit less observant than that. "Whoa... so pretty! Ixen, lookit the shiny!" She squeezes Huo's arm excitedly, wiggling against the dragon's back. "I don't see anything horrible yet, that's a good sign!"  She coughs. "Though I can't say anything for the smell. Can we go lower?"

The dragon squawks. Pretty shiny indeed! He doesn't go lower until Huo nudges him there, though, feline at the alert. "Something feels wrong..." he notes as they drop. Blinks. "Uh. Yeah." Unsheathes his guan-dao as what look like skeletal gryphons screech and take notice, leaping to the air to take after the intruding wings.

Anna squeaks. "Okay," she trembles, "I can help. I can!" She fumbles around, hands shaking as she reaches for the rattan eskrima sticks her mother had enchanted for her. "What are those things, Huo?"

"Gryphons, I think. Some lich lord or necromancer got ahold of them, from the look of it."

They really are horrendous creatures. They're only mostly skeletal, with bits of moist flesh, fur, and muscle clinging here and there. One quite suddenly zips up beside Anna from straight below...which isn't helped by the dragon wheeling to get his relatively vulnerable belly away from it. The gryphon roars at Anna, eerily quiet and airy, and swipes a skeletal set of claws at her.

Anna squeals again, but moves just in time to save her head and be ripped along the forearm. She yelps, but whips her other arm around and swings a rattan stick at the creature's beak.

"Anna! You okay?" This as a psionically-laced sword splits one of the creatures, half of it slamming neatly into another below.

The beak Anna strikes breaks off. The creature jerks its head and wheels backward, seems to pause and decide what had just happened.

Then it screeches, pounces for her throat from mid-air.

Anna tries to put a shield between her and the monster, just like Auntie Ting taught her. She's shaking, though, and isn't sure the shield is as complete as she hopes.

Claws dash and screech against the shield, and the creature shrieks again. A second swipe gets its claws partway to Anna...just before a flashing swipe shatters the skeletal beast, the last one.

Huo sets a hand on her arm to knit the injury. "Hey...you all right?" he inquires gently.

Anna nods. "Yeah. Hurty, but Huo's got the magic touch." She smiles, looking at the blood on her arm. "Stupid Anna. She almost lost her head."

"Not a stupid Anna. She didn't." The only slightly older semi-dumen smiles. "Hey...do you want to go back? I wouldn't mind."

Anna puts away her rattan sticks. The temple down below is so beautiful, so intriguing, and...

"Felina would never respect me if I quit and dragged you away with me, Huo," she says. "Let's go down and see what's there."

He nods. "Off with us, then. Ixen..." he's standing now, and leans forward so that he's stand-lying on the dragon's upraised neck. "Take us down there, huh? In front of that main door, but keep back, and be ready to stop if I tell you to.

The dragon nods its bulky head, and takes them down. Huo hops off onto the stones first, testing. No odd traps spring. Looks over the sizeable gate to the courtyard...which has been broken open. "It doesn't look like Ixen can follow inside easily. Too big."

"Well. Ixen will just have to be good and go somewhere safe for a bit!" Anna follows him down, landing a little less gracefully than Huo. She strains to listen to the mountain with her poorly developed extranatural senses, ears flicking as she observes.

Anna walks a little bit ahead of Huo, peeking towards the doors. "Helloooooo?"

Nothing. Not even an echo...although, by rights, there probably should have been one. Huo, though, fails to catch this.

"You heard the man, Ixen. We'll let you know when we're free again. Have fun, but be careful, right?" The dragon nods, always eager to explore, and leaps off.

Anna waves him off. "Bye Ixen! I'll bring you something good, 'kay?" The kittymutt brushes a hand through her hair, thinking. Her forearm hurts a little. "So, uh... this is a cool temple thing, but what's it for? Any ideas?" This as she tugs on the broken door.

"Not sure. There are a lot of radiant symbols, though, in the carvings...even though I don't recognize these specific ones, your dad usually uses similar marks for most of his light-based runes, doesn't he?"

The door doesn't argue. In fact, the sizeable thing falls off its hinge with a sharp crack, and begins to tumble towards the kitty-mutts.

Anna jumps back, quick as a hiccup, to avoid the door. She eeps, of course, being quite instinctive at it.

"Yup! I don't know them very well, though," she admits.

Huo steps aside to let the door fall. Looks at it, then back to Anna. Smiles. "Better than you think. In any case, the temple's probably light-oriented...may be why mother gave us the pendants. Shall we?"

This as he steps cautiously into the courtyard, looking around. Empty.

Anna follows him, looking around. She wonders if there are any doors, or passages... sources of water, even. To find out, she ventures towards the center of the courtyard, eyes and ears more open than her mind.

There's a door on the opposite side of the courtyard...two, actually.

It's quiet and still, dust just a bit disturbed at her footfalls. There is one anomoly, though: her steps make no sound. For that matter, neither does her breath, or her heartbeat.

Anna ponders this, purring softly in the back of her throat. Or she thinks? She steps again. No sound. Clicks her tongue... nothing.

The musician gazes back to Huo. "Huo?" She calls, and watches to see if he hears.

He doesn't. He's heading towards one of the doors...stops, though, when his response--he'd heard her on a psychic level--finds no voice.

The long black serpents approaching Anna make no sound, either. One of them coils, spreading a sizeable, translucent, and oddly-marked hood, and draws back to spring.

Anna wonders at him stopping. Had he heard her? She's about to call again when Mara-kuru's yes-no sense, so faded and beaten down in her psyche, begins kicking at her. Her head snaps toward the serpent, her feet shoving the other way, trying to shove her out of the way of its strike to roll.

The serpent's strike misses, but its head whips right back around to follow her, slipping along rapidly.

Huo, sharply sensing her distress, whips around and starts to jump towards her...has to go back instead, weapon slashing down, when several of the snakes strike high at him from between them.

Three others, slithering from holes in the ground, join the first in their pursuit of Anna, strikingly relentlessly, something puke-green dripping unnaturally from their fangs.

Anna's rattan sticks find her hands again. It's easier now that she's vertical, but still, she's off balance and frightened and this royally sucks. She cries for Huo, even as she's shielding herself on all sides but directly in front, sticks ready to strike.

Huo's trying, he is. But for every move he makes, ever snake he decapitates, there are five more. Five more beheaded, adn there are seven more.

The snakes keep striking and striking at that shield, finally swarming Anna from all directions, front included. One strikes at her through the opening.

Anna, as quick as she can, whirls her stick to smack the monster's head down and away. If she misses, she's in a world of trouble; suddenly, she wishes she'd tried harder to learn to fight.

The snake is swatted harshly back. Another tries to strike lower.

Huo's teeth finally grit. This is asinine, he mouths...a burning attack slices a wide path through the snakes and around himself, breaking just in front of Anna and incinerating her snakes. Shields form on either side of it.

Come on, he "says." Smiles reassuringly, and turns to head back to the door again.

Anna's shaking all the way down to her sandals. Stupid Anna, she thinks, and tries to follow Huo. Her legs are wobbly. This is not Anna Meun-So business. This is Huo and Felina business. Still, she does what she can to reinforce Huo's shields and keep her own going.

Huo carefully tries the door and takes a few steps inside, carefully checking for traps and such, before stepping back out. Smiles a bit at Anna, and hugs her gently with one arm. We'll be fine, he assures. You kicked that snake's ass. Grins, and steps back inside, guan-dao dropping to ready again.

Anna follows him, but not before turning back to the serpents.

"Assholes!"

And she goes with him. A mid-level illumination rune glows in the center of her palm - a gift from her half-sister Ai - like a powerful flashlight, just in case it suddenly gets dark.

"Huo," she begins, trying out her voice. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Nods. When he hears himself, too. Pause. "Doesn't it seem like there should be an echo in this little room, though?" Sound is still being entirely absorbed.

There are three doors. Two identical doors, both plain, sit on either wall, and a larger, more adorned one sits in front of them. So far, all seems quiet in the room.

"It does. That's weird. This place is weird." Anna plods ahead, wary of traps of course, and examines the larger door. "Okay. In all of mom's video games, anytime there's a big door with more than one little one, there's a key or something in each room." She says this in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

Huo snickers. "Well. Maybe we should check that it's locked before working with that theory."

It isn't. None of them are. But there is something odd about its energies.

Anna pokes the door with a fingernail. "Blast you and your logic!" She steps back. "I guess we choose a door, though? They feel funny, but I'm not sure how. Funny." On a whim, she searches for a rock to throw at the big door.

There are some stones fallen from the broken entryway. The next door slams loudly when pummeled with one...it seems to be hallow metal in spots. It shudders, and opens inward about an inch at the blow. A thick purple mist begins to slowly snake out through the crack, favoring the ground.

Anna beams. "Jackpot! Er..." She lowers a little bit, kitty-crawling towards the door. "Ohmigawd it's purply. And heavy." She examines it, listening closely to the faded yes-no sense as she wonders if the mist is poison, or sticky, or something else uncool.

It should confirm that, yes, "something else uncool."

Huo steps towards it, picking up caution as he draws near. Shields the upper part of his arm, and dips his hand carefully into the mist.

The purple swirls partway up it. Huo winces...it hurts, though not as badly as it should, considering that that everything on his hand above the bone has buurned mostly away until about halfway down the thumb. Pulls it back after those two seconds. Looks at his skeletal hand, and flexes it. It responds just fine. "Well. That's lovely."

Anna pales. "Ohmigod Huo fix it fix it fix it I'll fix it!" Anna shrinks away from the stuff, crawling around the edge of the room to reach for Huo's hand. She probably can't fix it, honestly, but she's going to try. A low level healing spell flickers at her fingertips.

Huo smiles at her. "Thanks, Anna. It doesn't actually hurt much." Ow ow ow fuckin' ow. Connective tissue, then muscle, and finally skin do obediently begin to knit, though...he quietly supplements this with a stronger healing spell, and smiles. "So. Would you rather test some shields against that stuff, or try a little door?"

"Maybe another door is a good idea. If our shields failed for any reason, then we would be soup and that would suck." Anna nods. "I wonder what this stuff is, though?" She reaches into her "I've always got it on a trip" bag and produces a small, enchanted glass bottle. "I'm gonna snag some."

"Good plan." Huo nods. "Careful, though, you saw how it jumped up and grabbed me a bit." A wind spell readies in his hand as he walks up to watch her back.

Anna nods. Kneels a little bit, and creeps forward, a shield surrounding her hand and arm. She breathes in, and makes a sweeping motion with the jar to try to catch some of the purple stoof.

All of this goes flawlessly. Huo smiles. "Awesome. I'm sure both the serious parents," Felina and Moorn, "will be interested. You ready to look farther, or do you need a minute?" He looks to the small door on the right.

Anna carefully seals the bottle, and replaces it into her bag. "I'm ready to explore! And so ready to get away from the purply goo." Anna straightens up, tosses her hair, and happily wiggles toward the other door. "Should I throw a rock at this one, too?"

Huo snickers. "Sure, why not."

Once assaulted, this door doesn't budge. Huo approaches it carefully...shoves it. And again. "It's blocked with something." Pitches a rock at the other door, which opens a touch. Smirks at Anna. "I can be taught!" Nothing creeps out of this one.

"You're awesome that way!" Anna chirps. She peeks inside, one hand settling on Huo's shoulder. "I wanna go first. Can I?"

He grins at her. "Of course. Ladies first, but you can go anyway."

"Butt!" Anna grins, and shines her light into the doors. Takes a tentative step inside, head swiveling, senses alert, psychic senses dulled but reaching for anything alive inside.

There's nothing alive...small things, possibly a snake or two. The air is a bit dusty, though there are no windows. And there's still a total lack of echo. The hallway is long, and parts of the floor seem to have been collapsed by something. A few closed doors line the way, and the hall opens to something or other at the end.

"Huo, I don't understand that there's no echo in here. It's an old temple, every step should echo a lot! The acoustics aren't that soft." Anna steps inside, eyes on the floor. Picks up a stone, and rolls it down the hall to test the floor.

The stone rolls and bounces along without incident, until finally sliding to a stop.

"I have no idea...I've never encountered anything quite like it before. Ting's been doing really well in sonomancy lately, she'd probably know, but I'm not sure where she is at the moment."

"Well... I'm kinda getting a little nervous, Huo. I think I wanna go home." She looks at him, her ears sagging just a little.

He smiles reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Anna. You've got the mist sample, and that's pretty nice in and of itself. Ixen can take you home."

At about this moment, the gradually sinking brick Anna's stone had landed on finally gets low enough, with a faint click. Another click comes from the ceiling, and sizeable iron gates begin to drop, to slam down in front of the doors.

Anna blinks. Had she heard something?

"Ee! Doors Huo run run!" She dashes, but the acoustics had sucked up so much of the sound that the gate crashes shut as she rolls to get under it...

A glance had stayed Huo...if he tried to get under the gate, there wouldn't be room for Anna. Stiffens as it falls too fast and springs towards it, twisting so that his back is towards it and dropping to his knees at the same moment. The slab of metal is caught with his one good hand. Fangs bare, gritted and accompanied by a groaning grunt. "Get-clear-fast-can-only-hold-a-moment!"

And he does. The effort buys about two extra seconds before he drops it with a gasp.

Anna rolls through, but shrieks when her hair, her treasured Mara-kuru curls, are caught under the door. She jerks to a stop, squeals once.

"Huo! Huo can you hear me?" Anna tries to pull free, but can't get her hair loose. She'll worry about it later.

Only because you're thinking really loudly, he forces through in a chuckle. Tries one spell on the door. Tries to enhance strength to get it back up, but has nowhere to get a grip. I think I'm stuck, though. We were just about to split up anyway, though, right?

"Yeah," she says, thinking it at the same time. Anna reaches into her bag for a knife, eyes quiet. "Huo, my hair's caught."

He's quiet a moment. "You can go find my sister, Anna. She's always changing the length of hers lately, she can grow it back out for you in a few seconds. Plus fifty minutes for styling."

Anna grips the knife. "But they're my Mara curls," she whimpers. "They're..." important? Necessary? She drags the blade across her hair, cringing, but sawing quickly through her thick mass of curls. She sits up, utterly subdued. "Huo? I'm free." A pause. "What should we do?"

"Well...do you feel safe going back out through the courtyard?" he inquires.

She remembers the black serpents, as she tries to tug her lost hair from under the door-- without success. "Not really... but I don't want to leave you alone in there!"

"Well...there's got to be some way to get those gates back up. Hang on." Huo lopes down to the end of the hallway, cautious for further triggers and traps, and psychic senses coaxing him away from one. Blinks. Peers down a dark opening. "Actually, I think there's a switch in here. Heh. That works out, huh?" Reaches into the hole. "Just give me a sec, and...gaah!"

"Huo!!" Anna pounds on the gate, kicks it. "You okay? Huo!?" She swats at the gate with her rattan sticks. It won't open it, she knows it, but... Anna Meun-so sometimes lets her heart get the better of her.

When the Ono jerks his hand out, cringing at an already-spreading burn, there's a snake attached. Its head is slammed against the wall--which, as it turns out, is a bad idea since more venom is injected--and falls limp. It's pulled out telekinetically--this is a set of skills someone short a hand masters in a hurry--and tossed aside. He catches his breath, gazing at the ugly bite-wound. Forces a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Just found a snake."

Winces.

"The walls are warded against intangibility, since it's a temple and they don't care for malicious spirits passing through." Cringe. "Can you write a detonation rune on the wall?" This as he turns to walk back towards her. The switch had been a dummy, much like the guy who pulled it.

Anna bites her lip. She can't. She can't, she knows she can't.

"Yes, I can try." The kittymutt lays her hands on the wall. Remember, Anna, remember... She draws. Slowly, stiltingly. Her fingers falter here and there, but she never has to start over. 

"Get away from the door, Huo," she calls to him as she finishes the ugly, jagged rune. It might work. It might not.

But Anna tries anyway.

It blows up. Very much like a small firecracker. The door would scratch the itch if it could.

Huo sucks in a slow breath. Smiles. "Close! Hey, when he needs to detonate something, doesn't your dad write a rune, and then write it in reverse?"

Anna bites her lip again. "I... I need to go get help!"

Huo smiles a bit. "Be careful if you go. The snakes are...pretty aggressive, as it turns out. I'll be fine, Anna, don't worry. I just need a few minutes to counter the venom."

She nods. He can't see it. "I'll be back for you," she chirps. "I will! And not long, either. Promise!" And she steels her nerves - and her shields - to dash back into the courtyard. Her eyes search urgently for serpents.

Huo, meanwhile, sinks back against a wall, and gets started trying to heal himself. Damnit. How embarassing.

Like last time, there are no serpents at first. By the time Anna's halfway through, there are plenty, approaching from all sides and pursuing as before, hissing silent hisses.

"Assholes!" Anna breaks into a run, her sticks whirling in her hands. Faster, and faster, around and around, sucking the air into their growing vortex. She can't help but be aware of her hair, and instantly feels a hollow spot for the feeling she always gets when it lifts under her admittedly limited wind spells.

She swings one stick, sending a wave of gale force in a swath in front of her, trying to move the snakes aside.

Sure enough, quite a few startled serpents go spinning through the air, clearing a path to the exit.

Anna continues to whirl the sticks, pleased with the result, and dashes for the door, and for Ixen.

She gets outside no problem. Ixen's flitting around high in the air, chasing some skeletal condors and batting at them with his tail.

"Iiiixen! We gotta go get help cause Huo got a thing that bit him and I need my Auntie Ting!" Anna jumps when she reaches the outside area, sticks whirling, wind shoving her little body into flight towards the dragon.

This certainly get the dragon's attention, though he hadn't heard all of her words. Something about Huo and trouble. He swoops right down, and Anna has a dragon head bearing her up in just a few moments.

Anna clings to his neck. "Take me to Ting, Ixen, please!"

He nods, and starts off enthusiastically. Then turns around. Then once more, and promptely realizes he has no idea where Ting is. Ixen can't shift or teleport, Huo does that part.

She looks nervously around. Gryphons. Stupid Anna, forgetting things like that!

"Can you fly back to Seran Deru, Ixen?" She scritches him how she knows he likes it, hoping for affirmation.

The dragon ponders this, sniffing the air, and shakes his head. It's a different world.

Anna clings to the dragon's neck. She just doesn't know what to do, she's so horrible in these situations.

"Ixen, I need to go back down." Anna looks at the temple again. "I need to find Huo again."

Now the dragon's getting worried. Nods his big head, though, and alights in front of the temple gates. Tilts his head at the snakes in the courtyard. Lowers his head, roars, and then jerks it out. The fireball makes for lots of snake stew.

Anna smiles at him. "You are such a cutie!" She kisses his neck, and hops off to land softly near his feet. "I'll be back with Huo, promise!" She hopes it's not another unkeepable promise, actively prays for this as she dashes back into the courtyard. The other door... perhaps it has another way out? 

It may, to be sure. Now, though, there's a skeleton standing in that front room, gazing thoughtfully at the gate-blocked doors. He's dressed in the tattered remains of what were probably once beautiful, elaborate golden robes.

Anna skids to a stop, pressing herself towards the leftmost wall. Wow! A real life undead something! She takes a moment to admire the decomposed outfit, wondering what it might have been. She loves fashion, and can really see a great deal of what might have been in those rags.

"Um," she softly murmurs, "you're not a snake, right?"

The creature blinks, and looks over to her. Looks down at himself. Then back to her. "The flexibility is inconsistent."

"Oh, I know, mine too! We have a lot in common, right?" Anna takes one step away from the while, smiling, and trying her best not to act afraid.

"It could be." The skeleton looks her over. "You have a good deal in common with that other large-eared fellow, too, it would seem."

"I do! Um... do you maybe know how I could get to him?" Much like Ting, Anna is quite good at playing cute and dumb. Normally she would be playing with her hair, but... well.

"I'm not sure precisely where he is, at the moment," the skeleton ponders aloud. "He seemed like a smart enough child, was working fairly effectively against the serpents' cursed venom, but then the skeletons...the other skeletons, took him somewhere before he could finish. To the shrine, I assume."

Anna wilts a little. "Is that bad? For him, I mean."

"I should think so! The lich who's done all of this isn't exactly a pleasant individual. The other skeletons, either, as the vast majority of them seem to have retained no free will. It helps to think of them as 'the skeletons,' of course, than my fellow monks. I can't imagine what she wants with your boyfriend, though."

"He's not my boyfriend," Anna is quick to snap. "He's my brother!" Okay, he's not. But she's always said so, anyway. "You seem really cool, like... Tel-tiono cool. Quiet and badassed! Can you tell me how to find my brother? Ooh! I'm Anna! Can't ask stuff without telling you my name."

The skeleton tilts her head. What an...enthusiastic one she is. "Well, thank you, Miss. I'm not sure how 'badassed' I am...I've just retained my senses, I think, because I'm a seer. I'm Beran. The quickest way to your brother," he looks to the central door, "is through there. You would be a walking skeleton by the end of the trek, yourself, though. And, to be fair, you would find harsh opposition in trying to wrest your brother away from whatever end or amusement the lich has in mind."

"Hum. So what's the long way? I don't like the purple and big doors are always scary." Anna steps a little closer. She's not afraid of the skeleton. Well, not at this very second. "I gotta get him. If I don't, first off, it'll suck. Second, I'll miss him. Third, Felina and Ting and Dewei and Ai and Mara-kuru would come here and then... boom! No more sun temple. Ai would have a fit and when she fits stuff goes boom."

The skeleton chuckles. "Well, I could walk around and raise the gates to the west door that you two entered before. It would take quite awhile, though. And the east door..." he looks towards it. "The debris behind it is perhaps twenty feet thick, I'm afraid. Part of the upper level collapsed into it."

Anna ponders this. "I might be able to move it," she offers, only somewhat hopelessly. "I don't want to lose much time."

The skeleton nods. "It's possible. You do have an unusual sort of power about you. Be wary of more collapses, though, as it may be supporting what's above.

"I will. Thanks, Beran! You're cool." Anna smiles at him and wanders toward the debris door. Looks inside, and tries to swallow her fear. Also, she's slightly worried that Beran will bite her in the back or something.

He is watching. A skeleton has to get his kicks somewhere.

Inside, large chunks of the ceiling are collapsed, and it's very straightforward: large chunks of masoned rock block the entryway. There are holes big enough to crawl through, but none lead all the way through.

Anna pokes around the edges of the wreck, examining it. She looks into one of the holes. Taps at a rock with her claw. "I don't think I can crawl through here. Maybe... I can try pushing some of the rocks out of the way so it slides down?" She steps back. Nah... that's silly.

"Okay. Here goes." Anna holds out her flashlight hand, peering into one of the holes. She holds her breath.

Quite suddenly, a downburst snaps into the hole, a suddenblast of wind she hopes will open the hole a little more.

There's a small tumble of stone on her side...nothing worrisome, yet. There is, however, a crash from beyond the rubble, as though the back part of it had been blasted loose.

Anna peers inside with her light. She pulls a deep, cleansing breath, holds it and lets it loose in a huff.

"Beran," she calls, "if I don't come back, could you tell the dragon outside that he's free to go where he wants?"

"Of course. Though I do hope to avoid the chore." The skeleton turns, and walks into the purple-misted room.

Anna considers that, reaching for hair that isn't there for her worried tic. "I dunno if that's a good thing to say or not," she muses. "Okay. Going!" The kittymutt gathers her shields and crawls toward the hole. If it collapses, at least she'll be protected for a while, maybe long enough to do a short jump to the other side... or back.

It holds stable...until about the last three feet, when an echo-less crack splits the still air.

Anna holds her breath and concentrates all of her strength into her shields. Please stay, please stay, please...

Anna's light goes out. She needs the energy for her shields, but as blackness covers her eyes, she can feel herself panicking. Her heart's racing, lungs tight. She scratches against the stone under her, trying to pull free. A claw breaks, stinging all the way to her wrist. She doesn't know what's on the other side, and doesn't really care.

Not a moment after the dumen-kitten pops free, the rubble collapses behind her. No getting back out that way.

This hallway, without her light, is just a hair above pitch black, illuminated a little by the luminescent purple mist that stays mostly in the next room despite the open door. Also, a certain gold-clad skeleton is waiting for her. "Hello. Downstairs, then?"

Anna doesn't get up right away. She's pulling back sobs, trying to stop herself from shaking.

"I never wanna do that again," she mewls. Close. Dark. Too close. Her light shines again. "Yes," as she rises, "yes. Downstairs."

The skeleton offers her a hand to get the rest of the way up. "I really must add, Anna, that it will only get more dangerous from here. That debris is one of the few parts of the temple that doesn't actively wish you harm."

She takes it. Smiles a little at him. "I'm just a little claustrophobic," she admits. "I wanna get my brother back. So... those stairs, there?"

Beran looks to them, and nods. "Those stairs there. There are a number of turns below. At the first one, go right. After that, turn right once more, and then take all left turns.

Anna considers this. Many lefts. "Okay... okay! Thank you thank you! Are you coming?" This as she dashes that way, shields at the ready but not quite activated. She takes the stairs one at a time, careful but quick.  She's not waiting for an answer, and heads to turn the first right.

The skeleton smiles a bit as she goes. Funny kid. Hopefully she'll be all right. He'd like to follow, but he honestly doesn't dare lest his presence and free will cease to be tolerated.

The first right Anna takes is uneventful. The second, however, hopes to god that she's paying attention, because there is no floor for the first twenty feet. No ceiling for about ten, either, due to some collapse or another. The drop beneath is sharp, about fifty feet down.

She is paying attention, despite the fact that her heart's still hammering from the collapse. Anna stops running, gazing across the opening.

"Oh god oh god oh shit! No ceiling..." Anna closes her eyes. She nearly shoves herself over when she tries to rise on the air, as keyed up as she is. The second try, though, gets her airborne, and a cautious Anna tries to float across the chasm.

Nothing jumps out to stop her. The closest thing is a threatening sort of dust trickle coming from the ceiling. A close look, though, reveals that this is a snake gazing down.

Anna looks, and very nearly squeals her head off. "Stay away, stay no no no no! I hate snaaakes!" This as she tries to speed away, heading towards the first left turn.

Just a few feet into that hallway is a skeleton, clad in a few scraps of orange. A snake winds lazily through its ribcage, head reasint on its shoulder...until it spots Anna, picks up its head, and hisses. The skeleton looks her way, wordlessly shifts a scaley black staff with an axe-barb towards the top, and steps towards her, staff raising. The barb drips in the same wan green the snakes' fangs do.

Anna lands, catches sight of him. Ears flatten. "Why does everyone here seem love snakes so much? Axes suck! You suck! I want my brother!" Anna whirls her rattan sticks into her hands.

The skeleton doesn't react in the least. If it understands, this isn't clear. The staff comes slashing down towards her head.

Anna's rattan sticks swirl upward, meeting the staff just below the head in a defensive X. "Anna smash!" She's chuckling when the weapons collide. This is the fun part!

The skeleton bears down a few moments with its unnatural strength before realizing that it's getting nowhere. The axe-staff jerks up, then tries to slash laterally into her side.

Anna skip-hops to her side, sticks moving gracefully back and forth. A bit of the venom-stuff splashes her shirt, but she doesn't notice. "Don'tcha do that again! I'll bop you on the head!"

The venom may burn a little when it seeps through, but, much unlike the purple mist, it has to be internalized to do damage.

The skeleton does it again.

Anna whirls her sticks down again, to block... only this time, when she does it, her flashlight turns on full force as a gale follows the path of the sticks.

The skeleton is blasted backwards, slamming hard into the wall. It's not down, but stunned...and one of its legs is now on the other side of the hall. It resolutely begins to drag itself towards Anna though, in fairness, she should be able to walk past before it can get there.

Anna doesn't chance it, though. "Dick!" she cries as she breaks into a sprint, heading down the hall in search of another left turn. Her eyes scan the rocks, searching for holes, or snakes, or traps... as her senses set to listening for Huo.

The left turns leads to a long flight of stairs. Huo isn't far, but his presence is muffled as though by sleep.

Anna heads for it. She's still got her sticks out, though. Angry axe-wielding skeletons suck, and... liches. She's heard all about them from her Dewei.

"Huo!" She calls, dashing down the stairs.

He doesn't call back. One of the stairs, though, does crack beneath her feet, and several plummet downward.

Anna keeps running, thrown off balance by the cracked stair. She tries to gust and keep herself up, but she still crashes at the bottom of the stairs, hard enough to see stars for a second. She looks up, dizzy, to see where she's landed.

She's on a large landing. Another set of spiral stairs leads down to what must be the shrine. The statue of whatever they had worshipped, though, has been torn down and thrown into rubble. Skeletons, all with snakes entwined into them somewhere and some with the axe-staffs, mill about below through the purple mist, which wafts and curls through all the low ground. A sizeable dais is raised safely above the fog before the rubble-statue, atop which with a raised cylindrical platform etched in gold.

On that platform, lying on his side and not moving, is Huo.

"Huo!" Anna pulls to her feet. Wonders about them. "You fuckers better not touch him! I'll cyclone this place and mix up your bones so bad you're all the same asshole!" She runs that way and dives, bouyed by the wind, trying to reach him at all costs.

The skeletons hadn't noticed her, until now. Now they do, looking up. Staves pull to the ready as they begin to follow beneath her, none running.

Anna's wind, meanwhile, puts her safely atop the dais, away from the mist.

She dives for Huo, eyes flashing. "Hey! Speak! You okay? Huh?"

Nothings stops her from getting to him...but he doesn't respond. He's breathing, though shallowly, but his skin is cool and clammy, and his bitten hand has swollen into something nasty.

Anna closes her eyes, and tries her best to pour her healing spells into him.

He begins to respond, he does...his face twitches. Something, though, keeps her magic from progressing further. The venom doesn't dissipate...any time her energy ebbs, it just begins its damage again.

It's dead silent into the room, save the soft, clacking footsteps of the agitated skeletons. Until a harsh spire of oddly scale-like bone shoots upward from the platform, shoving between the kittens and tearing them apart.

"Well, well..." a raspy voice notes from atop the rubble. A fleshy foot steps down to the dais. Then a skeletal one. The lich smiles a poisonous smile with half of a fairly shredded face, showing off the muscles it takes to do so in action. The peeled back flesh exposes to just bone on the right half of her face, and the pupil of her one bloodshot eye glows green to match the disembodied pinpoint in the other socket. "Another one. It is a surprisingly good day."

Anna quivers, but pulls back, sticks ready. "It is a good day! It's a good day for... ah..." She smiles. "I'm sorry scary person, I'm not good with dramatic lines. Can I have my brother back?"

"Brother? So you are another Ono. How delicious. My master will be thrilled."

At this point, two skeletons try to lunge from behind Anna to grab her arms.

"Your master can suck my d... hey!" Anna's senses kick in just in time to warn her of their assault. She skips forward and turns, a stick flashing in another gale force arc towards them.

The skeletons are blasted backwards and go tumbling straight off the lengthy dais. One of them even takes out another skeleton on its way. The lich shakes her head and raises a hand, one of the two eyes on her staff opening to reveal a wam, eerie blue. It glows as her fingers extend, and the stones beneath Anna crack and crumbles, thin but powerful arms forming from the dust and snapping up, trying to grab her and drag her down.

Anna tries to jump out of the way, air beginning to coil and swirl around her. She's out of her league, and she knows it, but... Huo. And Felina's respect.

The arms swipe, and miss. The staff's eye flashes as the lich's do, and a longer arm tries to grab anna's ankle to fling her backwards into the rising purple fog, which is beginning to seep over the dais.

Anna's foot is snagged. She squeaks as she flies that way, but tries her best to blow the stuff to either side with the swirl surrounding her.

This works, and the mist is cleared. The skeletons, though, finally moving quickly this close to their mistress, swarm towards her by the dozen, trying to grab her wherever they can reach.

Anna kicks and thrashes, blasting gusts in almost random directions as they close in. So close, too close!

"Get away!" She screams, again and again. The wind surrounding her intensifies, begins to spin.

The skeletons nearby are flung away, then the ones that replace them. But they keep coming, trying to break through. A spire shoots up from beneath Anna, trying to skewer her leg, as the staff's eye brightens, pupil beginning to glow.

Anna's surrounding winds rumble, hot and cold in the same swirling gust. The tornado only just forms, though, before the spire pierces her.

Her voice fails her, but she screams anyway.

The staff's eye flashes. It's still for a moment. Then the paving stones beneath shatter aside as a tremendous black serpent shoves through, winding quickly up over the spire, and twice around Anna's body in a blink. Its head arcs back, bony spires and hideous hood spreading, as its pitch black eyes leer at her, lipless mouth opening a touch. A viscous gob of venom drips from one fang onto the feline.

Anna whimpers, more from frustration than real pain. She's never felt so alone, so terrified of what might go wrong, as she does right now.

"Leave me alone," she mewls, writhing when the green stuff starts to burn her. The wind gathers again, faster than before, but aiming, not for the serpent but, for the lich's staff. Anna sucks in a breath and tries her best to tear the thing out of the emonster's hand.

The snake arches back. A moment later, the staff is torn from the lich's hand, to a hiss of irritation. The enormous serpent doesn't vanish, but it does halt abruptly in mid strike. Its coils undulate slowly around Anna, bite stayed.

Huo's eyes open just the slightest bit, then fall shut. A vaguely frustrated grimace and then faint, airy, rhythmic words thread across his lips, fists clenching and glowing faintly before his palm presses down to the platform. The lich's head snaps down just as the floor under Anna and the snake crumbles.

"You stay out of this!" The butt of her reclaimed staff slams into the halfbreed's temple, returning him abruptly to complacency as the collapse leaves his cousin tumbling deep, deep into the blackness beneath.

---

Not terribly long after, beneath the shrine, Anna shimmers back into sight. Although the colours are brighter, the quiet splendor of the other temple disintigrates into dusty decay and assorted rubble in an otherwise identical room.

Anna slows her pace when things get dusty and broken. She sniffs for skeletons, listening to her yes-no sense for any hint of 'Stupid Anna! Wrong Way!' 

The "yes" side is being friendlier right now. So far, the path is clear and about as Devan had described: with right turn, and an upward slope visible afterward.

Anna moves up the slope, little bit by little bit. Her heartbeat stays slow, though. She's not afraid. Well, she is, but not much. Some. Her eyes sweep toward the dais, mostly hidden from view. Lich bitsh.

Anna peeks towards the crest of the slope, holding her breath.

It's a long, narrow hallway...actually, strikingly similar to the one Huo had been bitten in, except more intact. Three skeletons stand in even intervals along its length, watching for intrusions.

Anna hunches down to consider her options. Okay... smashing them will call attention to Anna. But there they are, in the way. Okay. Anna decides to pull herself up and announce herself. She realizes she may as well... they'll find her eventually anyway.

She has no trouble getting their attention. And, in typical skeleton-guard fashion, the first raises its axe-staff, and charges her.

Anna nods. Okay, so they're not that bright. About the time it reaches the halfway point, Anna tries a vertical gust, trying to smash the attacker into the ceiling with a gale of wind.

This wind trick is as effective as ever, sending the skeleton careening into the stones above. This time, though, it shatters. Its bones blacken and lengthen as they fall, twisting into life, and now serpents are racing towards her as the other two skeletons do.

Anna's not surprised, even as she is. Her clawed feet tense, but she knows they won't stop if she dodges. 

And so she sets herself. "You're not gonna keep me from my brother," she hisses, her voice lost in the tornado she'd tried to build before. She wishes she had the talent of... anyone else in Deru. But she has what she has.

The wind constrains itself to a basketball sized form, and Anna flings it towards the ground at her feet, hoping to see it burst and suck them into that small space, at least until she can escape.

It's an extremely clever move. If it were possible for skeletons and snakes to be bug-eyed, they would certainly fit the bill right now as they're all dragged into the hole, stuffing the entrance in a big hurry with a crunch. The last skeleton, running towards her, is tossed to its faced and dragged along the ground. She should be able to get past it without difficulty.

Anna watches all this, slightly confused. She hadn't expected it to work that well... maybe she's stronger than she gives herself credit for? Either way, the kitty mutt wastes no time dashing past the former rabble, heart racing. That was so close , again. She's terrified to think her luck might run out at any time.

The next room is...almost entirely empty. There are two doors, both sealed shut. A stone statue of a beautiful woman sits serenely in the middle of the room, arms folded daintily to her shoulders, blank eyes looking ahead. Staring straight at an amethyst orb sitting on a shelf.

Anna looks her over, only after giving the room a quick inspection. She stares at the amethyst for a second, wide-eyed and mouth-agape. 

"Pretty! But tricky. I wonder..." Anna puts a hand between the orb and the statue's line of sight, not touching it just yet.

It's still for a moment. Then, the statue turns its head to her, questioning.

Anna eeps. Moves her hand.

"Better?" She tilts her head, wondering. "Wait. You're a rock. How the schnit?"

The statue looks back to the Amethyst immediately. She seems to purse her lips, though. "Well. I don't know. You're squish. How the schnit?"

"Good point." Anna smiles at the statue, a Ting-ish eyes closed bit. "So... what's with the pretty shiny bubblejig?" She looks to the Amethyst... but is listening for footsteps. She doesn't like being in one place this long.

"It's the key to the doors." The statue gazes at it with her featureless stone eyes. "I may only open the doors if I cannot see the key, or whoever or whatever is hiding it. But it must be in the room, or I haven't the power to work the locks."

Anna opens her mouth. Closes it. "Uh-oh," she purrs. "This sounds like a job for...! Dewei. So, uh, what's through the doors also you're pretty."

The edges of the statue's lips twitch upward a bit. "Thank you. You are too. Ane of them leads to a hall which leads to some other pretty stones, I believe. The other leads to a stairway up into one of the towers. The stairs are sandstone."

"Oh... hm." Anna considers this. Towers are good. But, pretty stones could be the crystals she needs to Anna Smash. She paces a bit, mostly for her own amusement, as she thinks about it.

"So... how do I get you to open the door I want to go through?"

"Well. The crystal needs to be removed from my sight, but not the room, and not hidden by something that I can see."

Anna considers this. "Um... will you close your eyes for Anna?"

"I would, but I have no eyelids."

"Oh. Um... can I touch the pretty shiny?" Anna looks at the amethyst.

"Of course!" The statue smiles.

"Oh, yay!" Anna reaches out, and touches the Amethyst, intending to put it right into her bag.

This works, of course. Now, as indicated, the statue stares at the bag hiding the pretty shiny.

Anna smiles at her. "You're so cute! Anna will be right back, okay?" And she looks for the way she came in, purring, and fully intending to walk outside.

"Okay!"

Anna can walk out the door just fine. But there's a sudden tug when her bag comes only halfway through, then most of the way through...the amethyst is shoved against the wall of the bag, unable to pass the door.

Anna tumbles off her feet, smacking hard on the ground when the thing catches.

"Gyaa oowwww!" She sniffles, and stands up. "Dirty cheat! This pretty rock sucks!" She steps back inside, sighing softly. "So... if you can't see it or what it's in, then you'll open the door, and I can't take it outside?"

The statue beams. "Yes."

Anna considers, and takes the stone out of her bag.

"Okay, don't hurt me okay?" She walks over to the statue and tries to climb it, intending to place the amethyst on the crown of the statue's head.

The statue beams. The amethyst or looks about to roll off, but then sinks an inch or so into some quirk of the statue's head, to the tune of a soft click. The two doors slide open.

"Be careful!" the statue wishes. "I will leave the doors open until you return, unless someone removes the shiny."

"Hee... okay! That makes me think someone will." And Anna leans over to kiss the statue's cheek.

The statue beams. "Thank you, cutie!"

And Anna hops down. Okay... stones. She peeks into that door, and starts to head inside, flashlight at the ready.

This hallway, though slightly lit from the other side, is almost entirely blank and featureless save the cut of the stones and notches in the walls. Taut spiderwebs strung from one wall to the other glisten when the flashlight hits them.

"ooh... Spideys! Luff." Anna moves down the hallway slowly, sweeping her light from side to side. She moves silenty, smiling, pleased from the amethyst puzzle success.

A spiderweb snaps when touched, to a faint click not unlike the one the statue's head had made. About a second later, a tremendous pendulum-blade comes flying out of one of the notches in the wall.

Anna's yes-no sense quite suddenly says "NO! IDIOT!" She moves before she knows she's doing it, pressing into another section of wall.

"Hate this place! Stupid traps!"

The penulum misses...though a few strands of what's left of her hair go fluttering downward. The enormous blade disappears without a trace into the notch.

And all down the hall, the gaps wait, and the spiderwebs glisten.

Anna stares down the hall. Just stares, wishing she could be anywhere else.

Meanwhile, she considers the blade. What had triggered it? She's not sure. And so, she gathers her strength and sends a gust of wind down the hall, testing, trying not to knock stuff down.

Of course, this is about the best thing she could have done. All down the hallway the fragile webs are shredded, adn all down the hallway, the pendulum swipes are as well-choreographed as ice dancers, but with fewer sequins.

Anna shudders and tries to hide herself again, terrified she'll be cut in half.

She waits. And waits.

"Oh... safe. I guess." She stands straight and tentatively - really tentatively - takes a step past the first gap.

Nothing jumps out at her. Nothing swings. It may be the quietest moment she's had since first walking through the gate with Huo this morning.

And she's grateful for that. Anna breathes out, thinking her lungs are getting way too much excercise.

And she runs, heading as fast as she can towards the end of the hall. It's taking. Too. Long. Huo might be gone already.

The glow from the next room overtakes Anna gradually until, suddenly, it's there in full when she crosses the doorway. Three waist-tall crystals in purple, pink, and green are spaced evenly down the room, bathing everything in a peacefully sinister glow.

Anna stops walking, breathless at the sight. "Oh... hell yeah! Pretty pretty Anna SMASH! Now where's a rock?" And dutifully, she searches for something with which to smash.

There's a fair amount of rubble scattered around. One hewn stone in particular comes across as particularly perfect.

Except for the half-skeletal foot resting on it.

"Hello again, Anna Meun-So."

Anna sees the foot. Stops. Looks up. "Aww... hey, I'm kinda busy, can you wait outside? I'll just be a minute." She beams. She's dead serious.

"You have gone far enough. I have little interest in your meddling, child." An eye on the staff opens. This one is red.

"Then why ya trying to stop it huh?" Anna's goofing, but ready to move... preparing to shield herself with one of the crystals, actually.

The eye glows to life...the very energies of the spell are almost certainly distressing and grating to Anna's senses. Vivid, bloody red, preparing to fire a certain spell her way...exactly the same one that Ting has seen many times now.

Anna's head spins. She dives behind the red crystal, stomach starting to turn, and just hopes she's fast enough.

The beam just misses. It has no effect on the stones below. The staff lowers, though that eye is still vividly glowing, and the lich steps langoriously to walk around the crystal. "Come out, come out, kitten. You're only extending the unpleasantries."

Anna growls, kitty-like. She's not an Ono. She doesn't have Felina's strength in the face of danger. She doesn't have her mother's raw power, or her sister's divinity.

But god damn it, she's a Moorn. Playing dirty is in her blood.

"Huo!" She shouts, hissing. "Get her now!"

This as she tries to slam her fist into the first crystal, wrapped in a flowing shield.

It shatters. Explodes, even, though Anna's shield should mostly cover her.

The lich is not so prepared, and a startled hiss-cry marks her being tossed backward, a large shard of the thing sticking straight into her chest.

Anna's ears flatten at shards of crystal sticking in her skin, but... she doesn't feel it. Her skin crawls, heart slamming against her ribs. She wishes she could bite the lich's head off. She wants to.

Instead, she dives for the other crystal, perfectly intent on smashing it with her just-appearing guitar.

The second crystal shatters, just as a pissed-off lich is on her feet. "That is enough." The putrifying beams shoots again for Anna's back.

Anna's yes-no sense burns. She tries to roll aside, but the leap had put her off her footing. She doesn't know if she's fast enough.

She may not have been...if the beam hadn't been thrown off at just the last moment. The only skeleton on the premesis without a snake winding through him has dragged and locked a staff over the lich's throat, struggling to hold her backwards.

"Anna!" he gasps... "get the last crystal!"

Anna nods. Beran. She thinks? It doesn't matter. She tries to scramble to her feet and throw the guitar, shoving it along with a gale, praying to her sister that it will, in fact, crush the last crystal into powder.

"No!" The last crystal shatters, light dying just as Beran is thrown into a far wall, crumpling to a heap in a pile of bones, detached in a couple of spots. The furious lich charges forward, staff upraised, red eye flashing to life and intended to slam down on Anna's head. "Idiot girl! Rot for this inconvenience!"

Anna looks up just as the staff is coming down. Eyes well. She doesn't think she can get away. Yes-no sense?

No.

Anna's elemental power bubbles. She pours everything she has into one, desperate microburst, praying she can smash the lich into the ground just like she had the guard skeletons... long enough to run.

The lich is physically powerful on top of her abilities...she's thrown backward, but only slightly. The staff is only held back. Anna should have about two seconds to get out of the way and get moving.

She tries, but Anna's power is running low. She takes a loping step, and forces herself to run. She shoves herself harder, wishing to hell that she'd been better prepared for this.

The lich snarls, and throws out a hand. Serpentine coils thrust from the stones below from all around, trying to wrap themselves around the fleeing halfbreed and bind her.

Anna can feel her foot snag. She just doesn't have anything left.

She falls, smacking her face on the stone below.

The coils wrap tightly around the feline's body, hoisting her into the air before a scowling lich. "I do hope you enjoyed your swan song, idiot child." And they begin to constrict.

Just as they do, a pale, golden light winding idly between the broken crystals leaps out in many tendrils, winding around the staff, the lich, and dragging apart the coils holding Anna.

Anna can barely see. She turns over when she feels them release, ready to fight, but can only just raise her head from the stone. "Felina...?" She shakes her head. No, it's not. It's something else.

It is. Anna has already finished the fight...she had the second the last crystal had shattered. A gentle chant begins to waft through the walls...the lich's teeth gnash. No!

The staff is burned to nothing in the light, scalding the lich's hand to a scream that's more infuriated than anything. A powerful bubble of dark energy bursts from her body...just enough to jerk free of the temple's constraints. This place will kill her if she doesn't, and she quite knows it. And then she vanishes. No threat, no nothing. Is just gone.

As the chant strengthens, the holes in the floor begin to knit slowly. The tendrils holding Anna crumble to dust.

Anna lets out her breath. It's safe to cry, now. She thinks.

Huo!

The kitty mutt drags herself up. She can't remember which way she's going.

Where is the door? Oh... there. The hall. Axes. Anna trudges that way, ears down, eyes cloudy. She peers down the hall, searching for any hint of pendulum-doom awaiitng.

They give none. But then, they hadn't the first time, either. The spiderwebs are still down.

After a few moments, though, a distant voice calls out. "Aaaaanna! Aaaaaaannnna sweeeetie...!" Ting.

Anna's ears perk. She looks up. "Auntie!" She loses focus, forgets where she is. She tries to run down the hall, crying out with her hard-pulled breath. "Auntie...!"

The pendulums don't swing. The gaps glow faintly yellow. Ting, for her part, poofs just in time for Anna to bowl right into her. "Eeeeep!"

She doesn't fall, though. Instinct tells her Anna's needing someone strongish to cling to...though she could never have worded it like this. She laughs, and wraps the littler mutt up in her arms. "Well, hi! You okay, Anna? You're okay now. You kicked asses already, it looks like, anyway." She beams, dark eyes warm.

Anna has no problem with that. She lets herself be caught and, even though instinct tells her to wail and sob, she doesn't. She just holds on, and lets her eyes close.

"Huo is in trouble, Auntie Ting," she breathes into Ting's chest. "It's my fault."

"I know. He'll be okay, sweetie." Ting kisses Anna's hair. "You did great! Show me where he is? This place is still a little mixed up psychically. Stoopid stinky lichs." She grins.

Anna warms at the kiss. She does love Ting.

"He's on the dais, thataway." She looks down the hall. "The way you came, I think?"

"Hee. Nah. I'm just...um. Random. Alrightee, we're gonna poof!" And they do, to the spot Anna had been kind enough to picture.

Huo's condition is largely unchanged, though now the skeletons appear stunned, and the purple mist is gone. Ting looks him over and purrs. It's her instinct to freak out--it's her baby brother!--but Anna doesn't need that.

As it is, she takes Huo's injured hand, and snickers. "Silly bitsh. You're not supposed to lose fights to things you outweigh three hundred to one." A translucent purple disk manifests between his hand and arm, and then fades, to keep the bite's curse from continuing to replenish the damage, and heals him just enough to be stable before hoisting him on her shoulder, holding gently. "Oof! Huo is such a heavy bitsh. Why couldn't he be more like his brother?" She smiles at Anna, though. "We'll just take him home. He'll be fine. You ready to go, kid?"

"Yes, Auntie," Anna purrs, worried, but relieved. Help is near, and the Ono's can fix anything.

"Oh!" She blinks. "Ixen is outside!"

"Yep! He's going bonkers, too. Bananas, I say!" Ting titters. Sets a hand on Anna's shoulder, and they're in the top of the tower the statue had indicated earlier. Ixen sights them quickly and roars, fluttering around it.

Ting grins. "He's fine. See? I gots him." And she holds out her brother like a rag doll. "Ooo...look, he can dance, too!" And she wiggles him back and forth a bit before gathering him tenderly back up. Walks over Ixen's presented head and neck to head home.

Anna follows, and hugs Ixen's neck tight when she gets a chance.

"Hi cutie. Ready to go home?"

The dragon nods enthusiastically, more than a little freaked by the smell of poison, sick, and imminent death on his boy. And they're quickly off for Seran Deru.