Ancient Cistern [Blonde Tsuill]

Chimera brought her buckler back down, nodding to Marcus. “Good.” She stepped forward, looking at the water. It... seemed there were very few things she could do in this situation. Given that she grew up in a desert, it was impossible for her to learn to swim, as any water she did find was only a few feet deep. And that was if she was lucky. The woman turned towards Marcus, fearfully looking at the water. “How go on? Chimera not know swim...”

It embarrassed her that she had such a glaring weakness... She could destroy most foes singlehanded, but put her in six feet of water and there would be a major problem. Chimera sighed and looked over the edge. This was going to be tough...

Horus looked over at Loft, who had now taken to molesting the nearest shiny thing he saw. Maybe living in Ikana wasn't so bad after all, considering at least the three people he lived with had two functioning brain halves each and knew that he wasn't up for nonsense- neither where they, come to think of it. In response to Marcus' remark about the odds of the boy growing up, the redhead turned back to the healer. "I beg to differ. I can take him to Ikana and he will either grow up or die within the first three days. Redeads and Stalfos have a worse sense of humor than I do."

"A sense of humor becomes quite irrelevant once you're dead or in our position, Horus." Luna had walked over to the edge and once more, ran her hand through the water. "It's warm," she complained. "I don't know if I'll be able to cross it."

"Try it anyway," Horus said, joining her. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?"

"I suppose that is true..." With those words, Luna lowered one leg until the sole of her foot stood on the water's surface, barely rippling it. Once it was in place, she shut her eyes and exhaled slowly. as she did so, Horus knew the leg under her boot had started glowing slightly silver, and the water under her foot very slowly started freezing, creating a small platform she could stand on. Once she felt stable, she put her other foot in front of her, Ice Enchanting that one as well and creating another platform to stand on. After a few steps, she gained confidence and, breathing in deeply, started walking comfortably to the other side of the water.

When she was about halfway there, Horus took the simpler route and dived into the basin. It was deep enough that he didn't hit his head on the bottom, and he quickly made his way over to where Loft was molesting the shiny lock on the door. Luna had, by now, reached the door as well, and was looking at a stone tablet next to it. "Horus," she said as he walked up to her, dripping, "why does he not just read the instructions?"

He looked at the tablet, seeing the scribbles on it and assuming they meant something. Then he blinked and looked back down at Luna. "You mean to tell me you can read?!"

"Yes."

The two others, who were apparently Ikanans, crossed the pool and stood by the door with Loft. The first one had used some kind of ice magic to freeze the water and create miniature platforms to walk across, and the second one had taken the simpler option of just swimming across. Unfortunately, neither option was available to Marcus. He could not swim, having grown up in the Western Caves and never having any interest in learning how to swim across one of the various underground lakes. The above-ground reservoirs of water were much too dangerous to go anywhere near, and swimming in the peoples' drinking water was discouraged as much as possible.

He looked over Chimera, sympathizing with her predicament. "I can't swim either," he said. "But, do you see those lily pads?" He pointed at the green plants floating in the water. "We can use those to get across." He decided that the primal desert warrior would want him to go first, and he jumped across to the first lily pad. He was counting on it being of the same kind as the ones from the earlier room that Loft had jumped across, and he was not disappointed. The thing bore his weight rather well, although he didn't want to find out what would happen if two of them stood on it at once. He quickly used the other lily pads to cross over to the platform where Loft and the others stood. He turned around and waved at Chimera. "See?" He called. "No problem."

Marcus turned to Horus, and said, "actually, we've been to Ikana. We saw the King, fought alongside the Stalfos, and climbed through the Stone Tower Temple." He shrugged. "He liked it."

Loft, meanwhile, was still pushing the different sections. His brain was hurting, and his hands were starting to numb up, but he pushed past the pain and kept pressing buttons. "Instructions," he said, "are for wusses!" He punched in another combination, and the lock glowed a bright blue. "Ah-ha!" He said. "Got there eventually!" The lock fell off, and Loft heaved the door open. He stuck his tongue out at the Ikanans. "See? Instructions shmun-structions! Tell me I'm not the most amazingly-fantabulous person you've ever met."

Chimera saw that the Lily pads worked well enough. Now all sense of strategy was removed from the equation. It was now a test of agility and leg power. Chimera was rather skilled in both. She followed in Marcus’ footsteps, leaping from lily pad to lily pad. Eventually she reached his position, following the others through the door. Though she did give Loft what he wanted. She passed by him, not even realizing exactly what he was asking for. “You not the most Amazen lee Phantom-boolus person Chimera ever meet.”

With that, she walked into the next room, looking around. “Dead end. No other way out.”

"Saw the king and climbed Stone Tower Temple?" Horus repeated, disbelieving. "You must have been in a different Ikana than I've grown up in, then. Neither of those are for sightseeing. King Igos tried to kill us last time we saw him."

"He was cursed," Luna reminded him. "And we lifted the curse, so he can be reasonable again."

Loft succeeded in opening the door, although Horus was certain Luna could have done it in a fifth of the time with the instructions she had spoken about. Chimera went through the door first, and immediately called out that the room was a dead end. Horus and Luna followed after her, and Horus shook his head. More water.

"Luns, hold this." He pulled his coat off his shoulders and put it into Luna's hands. If he was going to be swimming for prolonged periods of time, he didn't want the heavy longcoat slowing him down. He didn't hesitated before diving into the water and looking what he could find below the surface. After a short bit of growing used to the prickling of the water on his eyes, he saw a niche off to the side and swam towards it. Inside it, there was a small box, but he needed air before he could open it.

Luna watched him as he popped up from the water, inhaled and went right back down to where he had come from. Figuring that Horus would be fine as there shouldn't be anything dangerous in the room, she looked behind her to observe the other explorers of the dungeon.

Horus hadn't killed them violently, so they couldn't be about to do harm to her. Still, she wanted to be ready if any of them attacked her now that her guardian wasn't right next to her to stand up for her. Maybe the two males were a nuisance at worst, but Luna was worried about the woman attacking her. Fortunately, Horus soon came swimming back to the edge, holding something small and shiny in his teeth so he could use both hands to push himself onto the solid ground. Once he stood, he took the shiny object in his hand and showed it to the others. "Dead end my ginger ass. I don't care what you guys do, but whatever's in the locked treasure hoard is mine."

What he held in his hand was a silver-colored key. And if the Stone Tower Temple had been any indicator, it would fit whatever locked door they would come across.

Marcus and Loft stood by the door. Loft was chatting mindlessly to Marcus, and Marcus was nodding his head and smiling. It wasn't a, "I'm listening to you and I like what you're saying," nod and smile combination. It was more of a, "I don't know or care what you're saying," nod and smile combination.

"Bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla! Bla! Bla bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla? Bla! Bla bla!" As Loft chatted, Marcus' eyes wandered through the open door and into the room beyond. He saw Horus dive into a small pool, leaving Luna completely unprotected. Marcus' heart beat faster in horror. If Loft saw that Horus wasn't there to protect Luna, Farore only knew what he would do.

"Bla! Bla bla bla. Bla? Bla bla bla! Bla bla. Bla." Loft's arms waved wildly over his head, and Marcus made a non-committal 'hm.' He had to keep Loft from looking in the room until Horus resurfaced. Hopefully, Loft would just keep chatting until that time. Taking into account his total inability to maintain any one action for more than thirty seconds, however, Marcus doubted that he would be this lucky.

"Bla, bla, bla." Loft's shoulders began to turn, and Marcus grabbed him instinctively. "Bla?" Loft questioned.

"No," Marcus said, "look over there! Loft, there's something shiny in the pool!"

"Bla!" Loft said excitedly, racing over to the pool's edge and peering down into it. Marcus swiftly moved between him and the open doorway, blocking his view. He cursed himself for making the situation so risky, but frankly, it was too late to worry. Loft looked up, confused, "bla?"

"Not there," Marcus said impatiently, gesturing to another part of the pool, "there! Quick, or the golden fish will swim away!"

"Bla!" Loft scrambled over to where Marcus pointed, and Marcus glanced over his shoulder. His heart leaped when he saw Horus' head pop up out of the water, then fell again as Horus went back under the water. Marcus' heart felt like it was being twisted. Why couldn't Horus just stay up? For the sake of Luna, what was he thinking?

Marcus tsked. "You're going to have to dive in, Loft," he said. "It may be hiding underneath that lily-pad there."

"Bla." Loft said, determinedly jumping in and swimming underneath the lily pad. After a few seconds, he resurfaced, his index finger bleeding. "Bla!" He wailed, climbing up and showing Marcus his finger.

"It wasn't there? It must have swam away," Marcus said, shaking his head in mock sorrow. "Oh well."

He heard Horus shout something from the other room, and he turned. "Thank Farore," he breathed. "Come on, Loft. I think Horus found something." He walked over to where Horus and Luna were. Horus was holding a large silver key, and Marcus thought back to the only lock they had so far come across. The only lock sealing the only door that they had not yet opened. "The statue's door?" Marcus asked Horus. "Was there anything else down there?"

"Bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla!" Loft said triumphantly, throwing his hands up in the air. "Fifty blas! A new world record!"

Chimera looked frustratedly at Marcus and Loft as the two talked. He was speaking in some sort of code... Marcus was nodding and replying occasionally, showing that he knew what Loft was talking about. The fact that they were speaking in code alone made Chimera less trusting in them. She held her buckler closer to her chest, making sure to keep an eye on them later.

She walked over to Horus, taking the key from his hand. Such an odd weapon... Too short for practical swinging, and too light for a blunt weapon. She confusedly took a few test swings before tossing it back to Horus. “You can keep. Bad weapon.”

"Do that again and I'm chopping your hand off like they do with thieves," Horus warned Chimera. He was NOT happy with her nabbing the key, even if she had the decency to return it. Finders keepers, and he had found it. "Here Luns, you hold on to it." Luna took it from his outstretched hand, putting it into a pouch on her waist.

Horus then didn't bother waiting for the others to follow them before he backtracked to the room they had seen the heavily locked-off door in. Luna fit the key into the lock, turning it with minimal effort as she had expected. "Makes me wonder why they used such huge chains," Horus muttered, dragging the chains off the door as soon as they were free of the lock. "Almost looks like they're trying to keep something in instead of out..." his next words are best left unrepeated for the more sensitive audience, as he realized there was no floor beyond the door and started falling.

He grunted loudly when he reached the ground, earlier than he had dared hope. He'd been afraid this would've been one of those bottomless pits. As he tried to stand up, he was slammed back down by Luna, whom he haphazardly caught so she wouldn't break her legs. Horus himself had slammed into his tailbone pretty hard and needed more time to get up than the ice mage did.

In the middle of the dark, circular room, a heap of bones started pulling itself together and putting on armor. When Horus finally got to his feet, the skeleton was complete, so when he spotted it, he walked over to it. "About bloody time we saw something in here that doesn't want to eat our babies!" he said, ignoring Luna's remark that they had no babies and they couldn't afford any. "Where is this, sir?"

"Madam," Luna corrected him. "You can tell from the pelvis she's female."

Horus turned around to ask her how the hell she knew half the stuff she knew, when a sword connected to his skull and sent him to the floor. Once he lay there, he touched the back of his head in a daze, getting blood stuck to his hand. When he looked around, Luna helping him to get back up, the Stalfos screeched lously. "Male or female it's not civilized or friendly!" Horus shouted, drawing his own sword. "If Bertrand had told me I'd be fighting a Stalfos after that curse I'd have said he was crazy!"

"This isn't Ikana," Luna said, "So it's possible that this Stalfos moves and fights differently and for different reasons than the ones we're used to. I'm going to need some time to properly find her weak points."

Marcus followed the group back to the original room. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Loft was tagging along quietly. He was probably only quiet because he was busy staring at butterflies or something. He climbed down the ladder, crossed the lily pads, and walked back into the original room. A golden statue of a smiling, meditating man rose out of the water in the center of the pool. Where the statue touched the water, across the pool from the stairway leading back up to the entrance to the ancient ruins, lay a heavily padlocked door. Horus was pulling the chains off the door, having presumably already used the key to unlock it. Both Horus and Luna disappeared into the room beyond the door.

Marcus and Loft crossed the lily pads towards the statue. They reached the doorway and stopped. Marcus peered down. "There isn't a floor," he said. "I can hear Horus and Luna, though, so it mustn't be that long a jump." He swallowed and stepped forward. He bent his knees and rolled forward as he hit the ground, minimizing the damage done. He could hear Loft behind him doing the same thing.

They arrived just in time to see Horus get smashed by a Stalfos' sword. It sent him to the ground, and there was obviously blood, but Horus' head wasn't sliced in two. This made Marcus think that either Horus was magically strengthened, the Stalfos very weak, or the sword so dull and rusted that it was much less lethal than a sharpened, polished one. Based on his prior experiences with Stalfos, he guessed that it was the third option.

He nudged Loft hard in the side, and Loft took the hint. He ran forward as the Stalfos screeched loudly, drawing his throwing knives and sending one flying at its skull. It didn't do much damage, mostly because the Stalfos' sword whipped up to block it, but it served its purpose as a distraction. Loft drew it away from the group, throwing a second throwing knife at its arm. Again, it blocked it, but it was now advancing on him, leaving the rest of the group alone. They were still in its peripheral vision (if skeletons had such a thing), but the wounded Horus was no longer its primary target.

Marcus seized the opportunity to rush forward to Horus. He looked dazed, and there was blood coming from the back of his head. It was not good for one of their fighters (who was very familiar with skeletal warriors) to be disabled or hampered during the fight. This Stalfos seemed different than others Marcus had seen, and he didn't want to take any chances. "I'm a Healer," he said to Horus, raising a glowing hand to his head, "may I?"

Chimera angrily grasped her sword as Horus threatened her. She would have struck too, but the man began walking away. She reluctantly followed the others back to the other room with the chained door. They began falling into a room below, and Chimera prepared to make the drop as well. As Loft left, only Chimera was left in the main room. “Oi. Lass.” Chimera spun around, blade drawn, only to see that same ghostly apparition. This time, however, he slowly fazed into a more tangible, colored form.

He was standing a few meters from the Gerudo, arms crossed. “So, are you ready to fight?” Chimera nodded, sword at the ready, but the man shook his head. “I’m sure you didn’t forge those weapons. We fight with our fists, the only weapons we’ve forged by ourselves.”

Reluctantly, Chimera dropped her sword and detached her buckler from her arm, getting into a fighting stance. “You’re quiet.” He said, the man standing at a shocking seven feet and a few inches. “I don’t mind that. My secretary was the same way, and she could throw a wicked suplex.”

“Who you?” Chimera asked, still ready to fight.

The man smirked under his manly moustache, striking a pose. “Mayor Mikael Raggah. Errr... Ex Mayor, rather. Being dead seems to do a good job of getting you removed from power.”

Chimera realized she didn’t truly care who he was or what he had been when he was alive, so she spread her legs apart, preparing herself. Haggar realized she was ready and moved forward in a defensive stance. He went to throw a punch, and Chimera used that opportunity to dash forward using quick draw, punching Raggah in the chest. This turned out to be quite the mistake. Although she was moving at a very high speed, and he certainly felt the hit, recoiling from her attack, Chimera felt as though she’d punched a shield, pain reverberating up her arm.

She leapt back, enduring the pain as she realized she couldn’t hit his chest. He came in for another punch, which she ducked under and used a gerudo dragon, uppercutting his chin and knocking him back. He smirked, wiping his mouth of a bit of spit. “Damn... You sure have some good moves. I’ll show you one of mine now...” He dashed forward before Chimera could much react, spinning around with his arms outstretched. Chimera was ready to duck under it and strike, but when he neared, she felt herself get pulled into the strike. A fist smashed her jaw, then the force kept pulling, ensuring she took two more hits before one of Raggah’s hands grabbed her wrist.

She was too far in recoil to stop him, so the spectre pulled her in, swinging her up and grabbing her leg. Jumping a great distance in the air, Chimera could only brace for impact as he powerfully piledrived her into the ground. Chimera felt a few ribs crack and the air rush from her body as Raggah jumped back away from the Gerudo. Chimera, winded and staggered, somehow managed to clamber to her feet. Getting into an albeit weak fighting stance, Raggah chuckled. “Still going? Heh... Tough lass, aren’t ya?”

Horus groaned, getting to his feet and turning to Marcus. "A hole in my head isn't going to kill me, but fine. Luna's gonna throw a fit if I risk it getting worse."

While Horus dealt with the healer and Loft distracted the Stalfos, Luna kept her respectable distance from the skeleton and merely observed her movements. That Loft was attacking the Stalfos on occasion helped with this, and she quickly noted that the monster made a habit out of positioning her swords on such a way she could block attacks from five or six out of the eight main directions whenever she wasn't pressing the attack. As Luna looked at Horus, however, and the blood on one of the Stalfos' swords, she deduced that while not lethally sharp, a blow from those blades would hurt beyond words. There were a swords scattered throughout the room, but Luna paid them no heed.

She raised her hands together, separating them at about chest height and putting them flat, palms down. She then started moving them in a semi-circular fashion, slowly but surely conjuring up a sizable chunk of ice at her feet. When she was satisfied with the result, she stepped back, observing her work that was already starting to melt sue to the warmth in this cavern. After about a second in which she stepped to the side, getting the ice and the Stalfos on one line in front of her, she took one step forward, swinging her back leg up behind her and using it to deliver the hardest kick she could muster.

The ice chunk gave way, sliding at a dizzying pace towards the Stalfos, who turned around and destroyed it with both swords. Redirecting her attention to Luna, she was attacked halfway through the room by Horus, whose sword made contact with one of the Stalfos'. Her counter pushed him back, although he maintained his footing.

"Watch how she raises her swords," Luna said to him as he came within earshot, "You have no chances of breaking through them but she's leaving at least two sides completely unprotected." Horus did as she said, and as the Stalfos pulled up to protect her head and pelvis, spun on his feet, his sword connecting with two ribs that he sent flying.

Two of its ribs were sent flying by Horus. They clattered to the ground, and Loft dearly wished to pick them up and play on the Stalfos' armor with them. Instead, he watched as the Stalfos staggered back from the blow. There were still chunks of ice littering the floor, and Loft wished he had a cool power like the silent girl. With a jolt, he remembered that he did have one. Just as she had ice... Loft pulled a Red Candle out of his pack.

He darted forward, thrusting the Candle at the Stalfos and sending a cloud of blazing red flames breezing towards it. Its swords flashed forward to slice it out of existence, but the flames merely parted around them and continued on their way. Alarmed, the skeleton tried to dodge, but it was too late. The fire blocked its helmeted skull from sight. When the cloud faded, the helmet was so much blackened slag, and the bones of the skull were cracked and badly burned.

Horus swallowed and Luna brought her hand up to her chin as both recognised the following motion the Stalfos made. Most likely enraged at being scorched and attacked, she gave a bone-chilling scream despite having no vocal chords, and unfolded her lowest two ribs, revealing that they were not ribs but, in fact, arms. She immediately bent her knees, not once moving her torso from its upstraight position, grabbing two of the additional swords laying around.

"She's like the King," Horus said, remembering the battle he had had with the King of Ikana before. Except this time there was no curse to break, so he would have to win the battle through sheer force. Immediately, he grabbed Luna by the waist and leapt to his side, avoiding four sword strikes at once.

As she was set down on what Horus assumed to be safe ground, Luna's eye was caught by something that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the wall. She reached up towards it, taking it in her hand and immediately recognising the texture of leather. Behind her, the Stalmaster proved herself very adept at blocking Horus' every strike, with the redhead telegraphing his attacks enough that she could respond to it.

Luna quickly turned on her feet, lashing out towards the Stalmaster with the item she had just found. Focused as she was on Horus, the monster couldn't parry the leather as it sharply made contact with her wrist. The result was that the entire hand fell to the ground, creating a prime opportunity for Horus. She quickly raised her hand, Ice Enchanting Horus' sword over a distance, and when he struck the Stalfos her midsection froze over.

The finishing strike was a simple vicious kick to the frozen bones, with which Horus separated the torso from the legs. That sufficed to dispel the magic keeping the skeleton animated, and Horus put his sword away, sighing in relief at the end of the battle. "I swear. What's the world coming to, that Stalfos are attacking people for now good reason?" He shook his head, looking over to Luna. "Also is that a whip?"

"We're a long way from Ikana," Marcus said to Horus. "The undead aren't so civilized outside of the canyons." He looked at Luna's leather whip, and asked, "is it magical, or is it just a whip?"

Meanwhile, Loft was squatting by the remains of the skeleton. He poked the armored skull with his dagger, and when it didn't react he grabbed it. Standing, he bounced it up and down a few times on his knee before slinging it at a wall. It smashed into the stone with a loud thunk. Satisfied with its durability, Loft went over to pick it back up again.

Something on the wall caught his eye. Letters were scratched into the stone, letters that he could not read. There was, however, a spherical indent directly below them. Loft glanced down at the skull balanced against his hip and wondered. Lifting it up, he pushed it carefully into the hole, turning it so that it fit. It slid perfectly into its slot, and the wall beside it began to shake. Stones slid back into the wall as Loft backed away, and soon there was a large door-shaped opening where there had once been only blocks of tan stone.

Purplish light streamed into the room, and Loft edged slowly up to the hole. Peering through, he saw a large cavern of dark rocks, sluggish rivers of crimson and magenta, and stone idols leering atop pedestals where rusted chains hung from wicked spikes and the remains of ancient skeletons dangled.

"Spooky," Loft said. "I think I liked the other place better."

Chimera slowly nodded, a little bit of blood running down her jaw. “Chimera… Fighter… Nothing else…” She resumed her fighting stance, placing up her fists, if a bit shaky. Raggah leaned against the wall chuckling lightly to himself. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that…” Beyond that he didn’t waste any time in rushing in to attack her. It was a basic thrust punch, but Chimera knew that if it hit her, should likely be out cold. With the lightning quick jump signature to the technique, Chimera flipped over her attacker, clasping both hands together and driving them into the back of his head. Unlike her previous attacks, this one truly seems to damage the man.

Raggah recoiled from the damage, placing a hand on the back of his head and wiping away some of the blood from the laceration now there. Where most would grimace and resume attacking with rage, the man simply smiled, lowering his stance. This confused Chimera, who kept her fists up. Raggah just sat down, motioning the girl over. “Let’s cut it off there for now. We don’t want all the bones in your body to be broken.”

The Gerudo went to one knee next to the mayor, significantly exhausted from their fight. “I haven’t had a fight like that years.” Raggah said to Chimera. “I’m surprised you’re not a thin red paste on the floor.” Chimera was a little bit unsure of what to think. Here this man had just beat her senseless, yet was praising her for her abilities. “You know what, lass? I’ll teach you my signature move. Now… While most teachers use a couple weeks to teach a new technique, I’m a ghost, so fuck logic.” He placed a hand on Chimera’s forehead, and with that, came all the knowledge on how to do the double spinning Lariat. When she looked up, the ghost was nowhere to be seen. Confused as all hell, she stood up and went to run over to her companions.

Unfortunately her body didn’t agree with that. She ached in pain and only made it down the hole in one piece because of her plummeting blade technique. She landed uneasily, wobbling slightly. It was obvious she was badly hurt. “What… What happen… Here?”

"Fair enough," Horus said, shrugging as Marcus gave his theory on the Stalfos' hostile behaviour. Truth be told he had no sense of distance, so he had no clue exactly how far away from the skeleton kingdom they were. Luna would probably know. He jolted when he heard the whip crack behind him, turning around to see Luna raising it back up. Presumably she had given it a test crack to help her decide whether or not she would keep it. "Seems to be pretty normal to me," Horus said in reply to the healer's question. "But then again Luna has more magic in her right foot than I do in my entire body. I could just be missing things."

Luna mentally decided she could keep the whip on her until she decided it was too much luggage or Horus told her to get rid of it. She then took Horus' hand, dragging him past Loft into the subterranean area that had just been revealed to them. She was not as unsettled as the boy was, as if anything, this new area reminded her of Ikana, which had been her home for so long.

Horus followed after her without hesitation, sharing her sentiment. Drawing his sword out of pure habit, he held on to Luna's hand as he quickly stepped in front of her, taking over the task of leadign them into these grounds. "Careful," he called over his shoulder to the others, "I'm expecting Redeads and Gibdos any second now. And if that lady just now was any indicator, they could be the least of our issues in here. Follow behind us. We know what we're doing."

"I'm fine with you going first," Marcus said, grinning. He was a Healer, after all, not a fighter. Redeads and Gibdos and whatever else this ruin had in store for them were best left to people who fought for a living. Loft was still huddled beside the door, refusing to leave the safe, warm room. Marcus stepped up to the doorway, magenta light casting his shadow far back into the circular chamber. The outside subterranean caverns looked eerie, all right. He couldn't blame Loft for feeling apprehensive; spooky purple light, leering skulls, and skeletons hanging above pools of purplish magma hardly made for a comforting decor.

There was a muffled thud and a shriek from Loft. Marcus turned to see a bloody and unbalanced Chimera crash to the floor, barely staying upright.

"Hold on!" He yelled, both to the advancing Ikanan duo and to Chimera. He dashed over to the wounded Gerudo, skidding to a halt beside her. "I'm a Healer," he said hastily, not wanting to touch her in case she ripped his head off, "I can make you better." His hands began to glow, and he hoped that she was still conscious enough to make an intelligent response. He hoped she didn't faint; he couldn't revive people, only heal them. If she lost consciousness, they would have to wait for her to wake up, and Marcus feared that their less-than-companionable companions would insist on moving on without her. "Chimera, what happened?"

Chimera looked up as Marcus came running over. She was very distrustful of him when his hands started glowing, and tried to jump back, only falling on her rear. “...Light hands... Healing?” She seemed hesitant, but turned her head away indifferently, as if it was her way of allowing him to do his healing.

“Ghost. Big ghost fought. Hurt chest... Back too...” She moved uncomfortably, her ribs hurting like all hell. “Made stronger though... So not bad thing...” She braced for an attack, unsure of what he’d do. Disguise an attack as a kind, healing spell? He wouldn’t dare...

Horus hit the brakes, standing still and rolling his eyes when Marcus told him to wait because the Gerudo woman had gotten hurt somewhere. Had probably tripped and fallen down the stairs- Horus remembered how he'd done that when he was a small kid. ...that had been before they were even driven out of Rauru. He thought his mother would never stop freaking out.

He looked down at Luna, who was leaning on him heavily, her eyes half-shut. She seemed tired. Well, they HAD travelled all day, something she wasn't used to. Horus considered carrying her for a bit and was halfway through the motions of picking her up when a sound further ahead into the room caught his attention. He immediately straightened himself, Luna opening her eyes and assuming an active stance as she saw the same thing he did.

A few yards in front of them, grubby, half-decayed hands worked their way to the surface, grasping at air and the ground. Horus gave his sword a few test swings while Luna shut her eyes in concentration, undoubtedly preparing one of her spells. They would need both, as the decayed, only half-functioning Bokoblins clawed their way out of the ground and slowly started scuffling towards them. Luna extended her hand over Horus' sword, enchanting it, and he used the opportunity and his Roc's Feather to leap over the first few Bokoblins, landing in their midst and scattering them with a Spin Attack.

Normally, the combination of Luna's magic and Horus' sword skills was enough to kill a simple Bokoblin. However, these were not simple Bokoblins, as they simply got up, shook their frozen limbs and started scuffling ahead, half of them towards Luna and the other half surrounding Horus. The redheaded swordsman cussed out loud as he realized the resilience of the monsters, keeping them away from himself with another Spin Attack and trying to make his way back over to Luna, bot not getting the time to jump nor to run over to her before another one jumped him.

She didn't want healing? Marcus stalled, his hand still outstretched. Magic danced around his fingertips, but the glow was fading as his concentration dimmed. This was new; most people who were as heavily injured as Chimera was were eager for some help. Marcus' hand dropped to his side. He had sworn an oath to help people, and to heal them wherever possible. Nowhere was he supposed to force people into accepting his help; if she chose to bear her wounds as marks of bravery... that was her choice to make. As horrible as it felt to let the magic fade while a companion lay wounded, he had to respect her decision.

Until she collapsed, of course.

"Zombies!" Loft screamed. "The dead are rising! It's the end of the world!" Marcus whirled around, his reflective magic reflexively bursting into life around his hand as blue crystals trailed in the air after it.

Decaying Bokoblins were crawling from the earth, attacking Horus and Luna with their rotting appendages. Horus and Luna were fighting back, but where there were few, there were many. Marcus automatically turned to the wounded warrior on the floor. "Stay back," he said, "I don't want you fighting in this condition. Loft," he said, calling to the young, self-proclaimed ninja beside the door, "go! Help them!"

"But," Loft whimpered, "but, there's purple light! I can't fight in purple light!" Horus cussed loudly, and Loft recoiled as if struck. "Alright, alright," Loft said. He walked forward to the opening, took a deep breath, and stepped into the purple light. Wincing and limping, he dashed over to the nearest zombified bokoblin and slashed into the one nearest Horus, whipping around to send a blast of red fire from his Red Candle into the face of another bokoblin.