Bottom of the Well (Tsubori and Blonde Panther)

Luna didn't even pay heed to Phiorra, picking up the first silver rupee and feeling a surge of something in her hand. Truth be told, she was uncomfortable without Horus around to stand by her side. She probably wouldn't talk again until he was right there with her.

She did wonder briefly what was up with Phiorra. She didn't know, herself, but if Horus was to be believed then there was no such thing as a higher power that could redeem Redeads. Horus didn't believe anything, she knew that. Nor did Bertrand, Frederick, or she herself. Surviving in a land of living dead did that to you.

She stepped onto one of the logs resting in the pool of green water. She probably didn't want to step into that stuff. Bending forward to pick up another Silver Rupee, she thought she heard the unmistakable voice of Horus cussing above them.

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He had completely had it. First the fall from top to bottom, then the Green Bubble, then the almost-second fall, and now a freaking Big Skulltula falling on his head? With a yell, Horus pulled the arachnid off of his shoulders and threw it almost to the end of the hallway. flicking his wrist three times, he then threw three Needles after it, pinning themselves into the underbelly of the beast. Finally, he caught up with it and slammed it into the deeper water with his sword.

"Note to self," he said, "Never. Ever. Drink the water from this well if it gets filled. ..." He looked at where he had thrown the Skulltula to, spotting a Triforce symbol under the shallow water he was still standing in. Now, he was not religious, but he did know that Triforce symbols usually meant stuff happened if certain things were done.

He couldn't think of anything else than draining the water or sealing off the floors they had fallen through, but for now, he decided it'd be better not to touch it. He had to find the girls, first.

Phiorra too, heard Horus' cursing, but hey, that just meant they knew he was alive. The priestess then saw two of the silver rupees up a set of ladders. "I'll get those ones, Lady Luna!" She said, taking off toward the ladders. 

When she was just about there, she sensed an evil presence coming down towards her quickly, and dove forward, summoning her bow and shooting the massive Skulltula that had come down to attack her. It burned up in that strange fire the way they always did, but Phiorra was now too busy climbing the ladder. 

When she collected the two rupees, she noticed a barred door right next to her. "Lady Luna! It appears as though the way out is right here! It's barred though..."

While Phiorra made her way up the ladder, Luna carefully treaded the logs and picked up the last silver rupee resting on them. As she started to make her way from the logs onto safe ground, she was grabbed in the back by a Gibdo. How had they not seen that thing when cleaning out the room before?

She screamed when the monster made contact with her, barely retaining her balance. It hung on her heavily, not yet biting into her flesh, but weighing her down, and she simply could not regain her balance for the life of her.

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Horus clearly heard Luna screaming below him- directly below him. Thinking he felt a draft, he ran in the direction of it, rolling over to lose less momentum as he picked up a silver rupee -it had to be worth something- and rolling straight through what he had thought to be a wall. As he got behind the wall, a door became unbarred. Horus was smart enough to take the hint, rushing through the door with his sword drawn.

He must have resembled a rabid hound when he soared past Phiorra, leaping into the Gibdo on Luna's back and running his sword through it in a single, fluid motion, although he couldn't stop himself and he landed in the green, gooish liquid with a small splash. He wouldn't notice this until much, much later, but as he clawed for the surface, the gunk irritating the scars on his hands, most of the rupees he was carrying with him were taken from his pockets by life-forms he didn't even WANT to look at.

Luna immediately hurried over to him, helping him out of the water and returning the embrace with which he greeted her.

"Don't scare me like that," he said, despite him being the one who had leapt into her neck and thrown himself into what may very well have been poison or acid. He was the one who had scared her- admittedly she couldn't have handled that Gibdo on her own, but still... "Never do that again. Stay with me so I can see what's happening to you, dammit."

Phiorra was about to fire a shot at the Gibdo, but she hesitated when she thought she may hit Luna by accident. Before she could steel herself, Horus tore past her, destroying the Gibdo quickly. She was first worried, making sure both of them were okay, but then she became touched by the words shared between them. They obviously cared very deeply for one another. Maybe even...? Hm. Maybe. 

Phiorra then looked through the open door, seeing the triforce symbol on the ground. "Hey! That's...!" She ran over to it, summoning her harp to her hands. She then practiced for a moment with a song she liked before playing a well known song she was taught by the priestesses.

With a strange chime ringing out into the air, the water ceased pouring, allowing the canals to drain out. She brought her harp close to her heart and dismissed it with her spell. She loved playing that instrument...

Horus and Luna followed Phiorra back up the ladder to the first floor, just in time to see her hold a harp to her chest as the water around her drained. "Good call, whatever you did," Horus said. "Now how about we tread very lightly and don't fall down there again?"

Walking through the now-drained canals, they made back for the formerly submerged passage Horus had seen before. After testing the ground, he kneeled in front of it. "It's not very long," he said, "And it looks big enough to pass through if we crawl... any volunteers to see if it's a trap and launches us back down there? That would be the ultim ate dick move of this place."

When neither of the girls responded, he sighed. "Okay, fine, be that way. I'll go." Like he had assessed, it was not very long. Only a few yards before he, followed by the girls, reached the other side of the passage. "Okay, now this is definitely creepy." He had his dagger glowing and raised above his head, as Phiorra's Illuminate didn't reach here, revealing caskets and a few Gibdos just standing around. At the end of the room... he made his dagger glow a little bit brighter...

Was a locked door. "Riiiiight." He groaned. "More of those things. Luna, whenever you're ready..."

Phiorra was about to say she'd go first, but Horus was quick to go ahead with it himself. She followed immediately after Luna, and again casted Illumination, lighting up the room and revealing all three gibdos and the caskets. 

She summoned her bow once more, muttering a prayer before firing two arrows towards the undead. The first struck it in the chest, the other just grazing the arm. Now shuffling towards her, Phiorra knew she could easily take it down by the time it reached her. Taking a total of four shots to take down, the last one embedded itself in the gibdo's throat, making it gurgle for a moment, then slump down onto a nearby sarcophagus. Phiorra then prayed for about three seconds before turning her bow towards the other gibdos, ready to fire.

Phiorra took care of one Gibdo, while Luna began to move along the perimeter of the room, as if she hoped to sneak up behind the mummies. Horus didn't give her a chance, though. A sharp TWACK resounded through the room, followed by the moaning of one of the Gibdos as its body fell to the ground. The sheer force with which it had been hit in the neck had severed its rotten head from its torso.

"Protip." Horus pulled a second bolt from the pocket of his coat, loading his crossbow with it, "Bolts tend to hit harder than arrows. Try to one-shot Gibdos if you can- they're tenacious bastards. Luna!" Luna waved her hand towards him, and shortly before releasing his second bolt, Horus' Crossbow flashed blue for a second. He hit the Gibdo in the abdomen, the mummie immediately turning into a solid block of ice.

While Horus casually strolled over to the frozen Gibdo, Luna tried to pry her fingers under the lid of the first casket she came across. Logically, the only place the key to the door in this room could be would be one of the six caskets. She tried her dagger, but the casket lid just wouldn't budge. Finally, after what felt like forever, the lid moved ever so slightly and she pushed with both hands and her full weight. Peering into the coffin, she saw...

nothing. The casket was empty. Well. THAT was a fine waste of strength...

Unlike Horus, who, behind her, landed a strong kick to the frozen Gibdo, not just breaking it but cracking the ice and shattering it on the second kick. "Now we find the key."

Phiorra stood in prayer for the gibdos her teammates were killing as she didn't quite think they were the types to pray for their fallen enemies. Once done, she turned to Horus in regards to using bolts. "I'd use the more powerful bolts if I could, but I prefer normal bows to crossbows. It would take me far too long to reload."

She then also went over to a sarcophagus, using that same amount of force as Luna had, eventually opening it a bit and having two Keese pop out. She yelped in surprise, summoning just an arrow into her hand and stabbing both before they could get far. Upon looking inside, she too, found nothing. 

She went to another one, starting to push it off, but not enough to let whatever was inside escape if it was alive. Unfortunately, it wasn't. When Phiorra let the thing open a little bit, a hand reached through the crack and grabbed her arm, the girl trying to pull away, but the nails digging into her arm. "H-help! One's g-got me!"

Luna looked up when she heard the Keese screeching, but soon proceeded to another casket and sighed, preparing mentally for the task of uncovering the coffin.

Horus, on the other hand, turned around when he heard Phiorra screaming along with a Redead. "Bad Redead!" he shouted, drawing his sword, "No grabby!" He stuck his sword through the narrow opening, stabbing multiple times until the moaning stopped and the hand went limp. "Better check for the key-" he shoved the casket lid further off, with a little less effort than Luna and Phiorra did.

"Hey now. What's this?" Reaching in, he pulled out a brown feather, slightly tattered but in remarkable state considering where it was. Horus took it in his hand, turning it around a few times. It was really in a strangely good state. It probably wasn't worth much, but he stuck it behind his ear anyway.

Meanwhile, Luna had been successful with her own casket and had reached in, her hand Ice Enchanted just in case. She now pulled out a rusted, once-silver key. "Horus," she said, "I have it."

"Good," Horus said, "Let's have at it."

Phiorra rubbed her wrist when Horus managed to kill the redead, freeing her from its dead grasp. She then watched as he moved the lid off rather easily, finding a few rupees and a feather. She laughed when she saw him put it behind his ear. “Aw, you look so pretty now!” But the five rupees did indeed remind her of the emptiness of her own coinpurse. Hooray. Being broke. She then saw Luna hold up the key, and let out a small cheer. “Yay! We don’t have to sort through those yucky things anymore!”

Luna ignored Phiorra once more, unlocking the door and waiting for Horus to go in first. "You know that organic material from a tomb is usually disease-ridden, right?"

"Not if it's in this state," Horus said, pointing at the feather, "Besides, I think we've got something else to worry about." He pointed to the center of the room. Four hands, in a diamond shape, protruding from the ground. "We got a... what was its name again?"

"Dead Hand," Luna immediately said, "A monster with an infinite amount of hands which it uses to grab prey with. Once it has prey, it will reveal its actual body, of which the head is its weak spot. It's advisory to struggle out of the grip of the hands once they have a hold on you. As long as you target the head, it shouldn't really matter what weapon or element you're using."

"Thank you, Luns." Ignoring Luna's correcting him on her name, Horus fiddled with his sword. "So... any ideas on how to lure it out?"

"Let it grab one of us," Luna said. "Didn't you listen? Here-"

"Luna, no!" Horus dashed forward when Luna casually walked off into the direction of the hands and grabbed one forcefully. The dirty, bloody, white-ish monster immediately emerged from the ground, slowly moving in her direction. "SHOOT IT!" Horus shouted to Phiorra, while grabbing Luna by the waist and leaping...

At least forty feet to his left, landing hard because of his surprise. "...holy crap. What just happened?"

Phiorra followed the others into the room, seeing the strange hands and hearing Luna’s explaination. She was curious as to what the thing actually looked like, but when she finally saw it, she threw up. The blood seeped from its mouth, dripping onto the floor in front of her. She just watched the blood. It dripped closer. Closer. CLOSER. Look up, dammit! She couldn’t will her body to do anything, and when she felt hot breath blowing the scent of blood onto her. She staggered back a foot or two, then finally looked up.

It was horrifying. Now closer, she could see that the razor sharp fangs had bits of rotting flesh on them from past victims. It’s breath now breathed directly into her face, and in a final gasp, she staggered. Summoning her bow into her hands, she leapt backwards, planting three shots into the demon’s face. “Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!” She screamed, shooting as fast as she could.

No smile. No frown. Only tears dropped down her face and her hair blocked her eyes from view. Not that she would remember later. She continued shooting after it turned away, and even after going back into the ground, she fired one more arrow aimlessly where it had been.

She was so focused on the one enemy she didn’t see it’s hand attack, grabbing her and thrusting upwards, choking her about fifteen feet off the ground. She clawed at the hand ravenously, but nothing worked. Phiorra then saw the beast emerge from the ceiling, coming towards her, same as before, but this time the blow dripping up it’s face.

"Dammit! Bitch doesn't know when it's time to attack and when it's time to panic!" Letting go of Luna, Horus tried to comprehend what had just happened. Preparing his crossbow and holding it in one hand, he also drew his sword and held it in his dominant hand, running to where the Dead Hand hung on the ceiling, using both the runway and his apparently newfound power to leap right up to it.

When his sword connected with Dead Hand's face, apparently he broke the thing's concentration and it plummeted to the ground along with him. Upon landing, Horus quickly located the monster's head and shot the bolt he had prepared at it, after which Dead Hand disappeared into the ground. Just after it did so, Luna's blue-glowing dagger planted itself in the ground, shaking.

Luna had thrown it from across the room after cutting the hands off of two of the arms protruding from the ground, significantly increasing the overview of the battle Horus had. He leapt up again, this time cutting the hand that was holding Phiorra and grabbing hold of her before she'd fall.

"I don't know where I got it, but so far it's been pretty useful," he muttered to himself before yelping as the remaining hand grabbed his hair and pulled him back into a standing position. Dead Hand approached him more quickly than it had before, the crossbow bolt still stuck between its eyes, but before it could chomp, it was stabbed in the face.

It was apparently immune to Luna's Ice Enchantment, but the dagger to the face, with the girl's full weight behind it, worked miracles. Dead Hand screeched, letting go of Horus, and the redhead seized his own sword and cleaved the monster's head clear in two. The arms shrivelled along with it, leaving the room perfectly empty.

"You girls alright?"

"It scratched me here and there," Luna said. "Not as badly as you, though..." she pointed at him. horus quickly put his hand on his head. When Dead hand had grabbed him, it had dug its nails into the skin of his head, causing it to bleed.

"...Bertrand will not be happy. Phiorra, what about you?"

Phiorra wiped her face, then coughed as she clutched her throat. She had tons of blood on her, and remained crouched, clutching her legs. Eventually her piousness came through powerfully, and she touched the ground, feeling the blood.

She was terrified, but the creature once lived, thus deserved treatment like everything else. "M-may the goddesses g-give you the peace you... Need... And your eternal rest... In the a-afterlife...." 

She stayed kneeling for a moment, then rose to her feet. "I-I'm okay. Just a little shaken. Heh..." She let out a dry, fake laugh, trying to mask herself, though her tears were still going down her face, despite the smile. 

"Good!" Choosing to completely disregard the priestess' tears, Horus turned around. "Sad thing is, we're at a dead end. How many of you are with me on turning around and finding another way out?"

"Don't speak too early, Horus." Luna stepped forward, putting her dagger back into her boot, and stroked the wall. "There must be a reason why the departed kept nagging us to find the Eye of Truth. Maybe..." she interrupted herself when her hand shot through the wall.

"Go figure," Horus said, covering his face with his hand as Luna walked through the fake wall opposite the passage they had used to get there. "Well had to put in one last dick move." Helping Phiorra up, he followed Luna through the wall, finding himself in a tiled room with a ladder about ten feet above them. "...well, I could get there with my newfound awesome Tektite jumps, but I don't know about you girls. Luna?"

As he turned to his side, he found Luna- she was trying to freeze and beat up a Like-Like. "...one. Final. Dick. Move."

Phiorra had had enough of these halls. She was desperate to get out and this thing wasn't even human, or humanesque. She stayed just inside the alcove, firing at the like-like and making it writhe in pain. Whenever Luna would freeze a spot, Phiorra would shoot it, chipping away at it until the beast had lost too much of itself and in an odd display, sunk into the ground. And from this sinkhole came the most bizarre thing Phiorra had ever seen. A ladder. It was just... Inside the like-like. 

The priestess picked up the ladder and held it against the wall. You know, screw logic. Logic was getting them injured here. "Horus, your jumping makes you able to make it to the stable ladder, could you please hold this part against the wall for Lady Luna and I?" She asked, climbing the ladder when he accepted. She looked below her once she reached the top. "Okay, I really hope we're out of that place now..."

Well. Horus was admittedly quite stupefied to see Phiorra go ballistic on that Like-Like. He was more stupefied yet when the monster spawned the part of the ladder that was missing. Other than having been ripped clear off the rest of it, it seemed to be pretty sturdy.

Horus rolled his eyes at Phiorra's sudden assertiveness, but once she reached the stable part of the ladder, he gestured to Luna. "Get up there. I'll jump once I'm in the clear." As Luna started scaling the ladder, Horus made sure to focus on the ladder in his hands, and not looking up.

He soon felt Luna's weight disappearing, indicating he could let go of the ladder.As soon as he saw the first part of the stable half was clear, too, he leapt up and grabbed it, pulling himself up and scaling the ladder himself, as well. Light was pouring in from above, so he assumed they were finally out of the well... they should be in the courtyard as soon as they reached the end of the ladder.

~To be Continued in part 2~

Nice job, this was well done. Just remember, for the sake of convenience, to post the link to Part Two here, so that your readers can easily hop from this to the next.

Great job you two! PASSED