Dragon Roost Fried Ritos [Lavaclaw, BP / UD]

Dragon Roost Fried Ritos
- Prince Elliot, Summoner and Tactician. (1/4/4 Rito) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Fist of Pacci, Summon: ChuChu, Imbuing Blue ChuChus with Ice abilities, +5 Rupees.
- Naomi Radcliff, Designated Archer. (2/1/5 Rito) [Unnamed Dude] Reward: Fist of Pacci, Chill Seed Supply, +10 Rupees.
Discussion

Today was unusual. Not so much in that he was on Dragon Roost Island, or that he had travelled to the entrance of the sub-island volcano- Dragon Roost was his home, and Lord Valoo's state upset and concerned him as much as it did the next Rito. No, what was unusual was the grim expression on his face, the lightweight armor he had been lent by one of his brothers, and his entirely serious demeanour despite the female Rito with him.

Prince Elliot, appearing more noble than he ever did off the island, walked up to the sorceress waiting near the entrance, stopping to bow. "Dame Veran," he said. "It's my understanding that you have been appointed as a gatekeeper of sorts. Has my lord father contacted you about my arrival?"

Veran nodded silently. "He has. And yes, those that enter the volcano do so under my consent." She responded quietly, wiping the sweat from her forehead. It was clear that her mind was elsewhere at the moment, though the reason for that was no mystery. "If you truly are set upon finding the source of Valoo's pain, then I wish you luck. My magic will protect you from the heat, but you must still have care near the molten lava. Anything beyond the normal environmental heat could still be fatal."

"You have my gratitude." Elliot gestured his arm towards his companion. "This is Naomi. I've personally recruited her for her skills to accompany me into the volcano. I request that you extend your blessing to her as well." As he finished speaking, he peered down into the well that they would be descending into.

If anyone had told him a year ago that he would ever think going into the heart of an active volcano would be a good idea, he would have had a good reason to have a good laugh. Now, he swallowed painfully as he looked at the red-lit bedrock, which seemed to dance before his eyes ever so slowly because of the sheer heat inside. Yes... if they went in without Veran's blessing, they would be fried chicken within seconds.

Veran turned to Naomi, inspecting her momentarily. "No, Prince. Myself, and your people, are the ones that should be thanking you and your companion. I can only hope that the two of you succeed, and return to us safely. May the Goddesses watch over you." With that said, Veran closed her eyes, motioning to the two of them. Though it would not be apparent, they were now under her protection. "Depart when you are ready."

Elliot turned back to his companion, nodding to her. "We must hurry," he said. "The sooner we calm Lord Valoo, the better it will be..."

OOC (open) OOC (close)

Many thanks to WillowtheWhisp for writing Veran's paragraphs!

Naomi stretched one arm and then another, focusing on limbering her limbs before they entered the blazing mountain. She was more accustomed to climbing volcanos than diving into them, but when Valoo was acting up and the chief's son asked for, who was she to say no? Truthfully, she was rather flattered to be considered for such a mission.

She took a deep breath. Despite her elation at being valued so highly, the events that brought her here were truly disastrous. The girl had never seen Valoo so angry. "Many thanks, Lady Veran." Even someone so cocky as her was not so foolish as to not grasp the gravity of the situation. The place they were going was deadly to even enter, with the blessings they'd received still not protecting them from all the hazards. And that was under normal circumstances; their guardian going half-mad with rage complicated things greatly.

"Let's get moving. Lord Valoo's not getting any calmer..."

"Yes, let's." Elliot held out his hand and took Naomi's, not sure if it was her or himself he was trying to stabilize as they descended into the active volcano. There was a small perimeter that the two could walk on, but it was incredibly narrow and looked to be a lot less stable than anything above ground had been. Falling off would be a very bad idea though, as to the side of the narrow walkway was nothing but the lava that was most likely responsible for the dreadful heat in here. Letting go of Naomi so they could walk separately, possibly pressing themselves to the wall without hindering each other, Elliot briefly considered flying instead. Walking was not his strong suit.

However, the hand that came up to wipe the sweat from his brow convinced him that would be a bad idea. He knew his feathers were part of his arms, but he had never been able to shake the idea that certain things would detach them- such as being pulled out, or, well... outright melting off. He was unwilling to test his own theory, and besides, when he looked around he saw flocks of red-hot bats hanging from the ceiling. When one close to him shuffled its wings, Elliot clearly saw fire crackling under them. "Fire Keese," he muttered to Naomi. "I'm willing to bet they'll attack us the moment we spread our wings. Let's walk for now."

Naomi nodded. She had faith in her wings; they had always served her well, ferrying her through mountains and over rivers. But this place an entirely different animal. Most warm air currents would just help her; these were almost actively malevolent, she could feel it. Trying to glide on those would most certainly fry them outright.

As the pair slowly inched down the narrow path, she swallowed. Her mouth felt like cotton. It was dry both from nerves and the extreme heat. She looked up periodically to check on the Fire Keese, and before they went under it she made sure that she had drawn her crossbow and notched a bolt to get ready. She had never tested the flammability of her own feathers before, but she had little desire to do so now.

As they drew closer, Naomi became even more jumpy. She drew a bead on the tiny monsters, not trusting them at all. "What's the plan, Prince? See anything?" She asked, her eyes never once leaving the pint-sized targets. She was fairly certain that she'd seen some manner of doorway ahead of the path... but she had always been watching the myriad hazards more closely than their destination.

"Yes, actually..." Elliot squinted through the wavy heat, believing he'd seen something up ahead. There appeared to be some kind of alcove in the granite wall they had pressed themselves against, leading up to some sort of rocky passage. "Just a little bit further," he said, encouraging his companion. He was glad to see that she had readied her crossbow. He knew well that despite his dedication to the mission and his skill at the spells that he DID master, the limiting nature of his magic as well as the few spells that he mastered made him near useless in taking out the Fire Keese. What was he going to do, send a regular Keese to kill them? That'd be murder as well as a waste of a magic crystal.

He broke his stupor though, when he reached the alcove he had seen before and reached for Naomi, pulling her in as well so he could be sure she wouldn't fall. Still, it looked like they were far from out of the woods. "Look at the ground," he said, pointing at it. "It's cracked all over... normally I wouldn't be too concerned, and it's certainly a lot more sturdy than that ridge was, but these are pretty deep cracks. We'd best tread lightly, lest the floor collapses under us..." It was fortunate they were Ritos. They had to be light in order to be able to fly, but Elliot WAS wearing that armor... He shook his head, looking ahead.

"I was right, then," he said. "There IS a passage here." He placed his hand on the stone wall, peering into the darkness. There was no way to tell what lay on the other side, or even if there was another side or a floor. "I'll go first," he said. "Listen, if after I leave, a normal Keese comes flying out of here, don't panic- it's mine. If I send it, that means I've reached the other side safely. If it doesn't show up after fifteen minutes since my departure, turn back and leave."

"Wait up, chief," she answered. She wanted to raise a more reasoned objection, but testing the path silenced her. She tried tapping her foot on it and a piece of the rock fell into the void. "I don't trust this... Make sure you're careful on this thing."

Reluctantly, she watched him go, and then she waited for him. It unsettled her to do nothing, especially in such an obviously dangerous locale. Nervously, she drew out her flute and began to play. Before Naomi really knew what she was doing, she had already played the Elegy of Emptiness and stepped away, placing a hand upon the rather freaky little statue. She wasn't entirely certain what had possessed her to do this, but it certainly didn't help her nerves. In spite of the unbearable heat, she shivered...

As she trembled, so too did the ground. It began gently, then progressed to a more considerable shaking, that forced Naomi to, despite herself, grip the statue nervously. She breathed shakily, and eventually as the room ceased its terrible rumbling she looked up.

The flaming keese from the next room had been roused from the other room...! She put up the crossbow, still dizzy from the earthquake. The bats were not so handicapped, one diving for her. She rolled one way, then fired blindly. She hit nothing but air. Naomi momentarily discarded the weapon, opting instead for a fistful of needles. Right now... she needed volume, not power. She inundated the air with the tiny pins, nailing one, two. The final keese screeched by her head in a dive, but another volley of the metal projectiles managed to put it down.

She breathed heavily and listened hard for any other wingbeats...

Elliot smiled at Naomi's concern. "Ne vous inquiétez pas," he said, "I'm always careful."

Elliot squeezed through the opening in the rocks, shimmying between them for what felt like an eternity before he reached light once more. Just as he emerged on the other side, though, a deafening roar sounded from far above him. "Lord Valoo," he muttered as he looked up, "Hold on, Your Grace, I'm on my-" he interrupted himself with silence, as he suddenly needed all his attention to keep his balance. The ground shook, and the passage he had just emerged from rumbled ominously. Oh, come on, he thought to himself, Don't collapse...

It didn't, but in his attention to the passage, Elliot failed to notice that the ground under his talons was giving way. He didn't realise until it was too late and the entire portion of the ground he stood on caved in, giving him just enough time to jump forward and grab the ledge with both hands. For a few precarious seconds, he hung in limbo, looking down at the lava below him and watching the ground he had stood on plunking into it with a sickening splash. One second. One second slower and he would already have been dead.

Once done contemplating his mortality, he expended all his strength to pull himself onto the solid ground again, praying that this part wouldn't fall off as well. He had to notify Naomi to get over here as quickly as she possibly could, lest another quake cut them off from each other. Deciding this, Elliot dug a small, eight-sided crystal out of his pouch, and threw it upwards from his flat palm. At the peak of its trajectory, the crystal broke open, the mana stored in it flowing out in a visible form and unfolding a pair of black wings.

Keese were small and easy to summon, just like the visiting summoner had told him. More importantly though, they were smarter than they looked, and could follow simple orders. Elliot held out his hand, the Keese landing on it and hanging down from his middle finger as it awaited its instructions. "Get Naomi," he said, raising his hand towards the passage. "And hurry."

His Keese broke from his hand, screeching quietly and flapping its wings furiously, soaring into the passage and disappearing from sight and hearing range.

Naomi heard the Keese before she saw it. She turned to get a location on the flighty thing and was immediately glad she did so; the rumbling commenced anew and the ground became very unsteady. The Rito almost instinctively prepared to fly before deciding that the numerous pebbles, dust and other debris flying around made it a very bad idea. Oh, right. There was also deadly lava beneath her. That would be a tad problematic as well.

She ran after it, though her foot caught on a sinking piece of earth and she stumbled. She didn't have time to think about it, though. She just followed the sound of leathery wing-beats and glanced upwards occasionally to steal a glance at the Keese rather than the constantly-changing terrain. It was difficult, as it seemed as though the ground before her rose to meet her; in truth, it was more probable that the aftershocks were rendering the path unstable... It was collapsing. She noted in the back of her mind that the rumbling had stopped, so it was just the general instability she had to deal with.

Thankfully, as she proceeded the ground became less shaky after the initial quake, and it it quivered less at her steps. There were still areas too feeble to hold her weight, but with the path less volatile she was generally able to avoid falling off of it...

Still, she worried about the fact that Lord Valoo was so... furious. She'd never seen anything like this before. Their guardian, normally so gentle, was a veritable force of nature. It was surprising that they sometimes forgot that...

Naomi wasn't certain how long it took her, carefully poking around everywhere to ensure a viable, relatively stable path. No doubt the Keese had gotten very impatient with her, and its master fairly worried. But it passed at the drop of a hat to her. She was unused to moving so slowly, so deliberately, and it absorbed her. There was no room for error.

When her comrade came into view, she raised a hand in greeting, though she didn't dare take her eyes off of the ground for too long. Bits and pieces of the path had sunk into the bubbling, deadly brew below...

When Lord Valoo caused another quake in the cavern, Elliot's frown deepened. The dragon was never quite THIS enraged... he had known something was wrong for weeks, which had been the reason he had gathered his things and set out to placate him. But he didn't realize the extent to which the deity had been affected until now. If he was aware that the two were in here, either he did not care or he had decided to actively get rid of them- but it was more likely he wasn't aware of their presence. In either case, Elliot was certainly not safe because he was a prince of the Rito people... not in the slightest.

His Keese returned to his side first, and Elliot instinctively reached for Naomi with one arm- and his timing was perfect, too, as he grabbed her hand just as the ground she stood on split. Seeing this, Elliot gave a hard tug on her arm. He wasn't physically strong, but Naomi's light weight and the fact that she wasn't prepared for it compensated that, and the smaller Rito fell towards him, with him directing their collective fall onto more stable terrain. "Are you alright?" He asked the female on top of him when the rumbling finally died down. "We should press on. The sooner we find out what's going on here, the better it will be for all parties involved."

In this area, there was another spiral of solid ground to walk on, but as Elliot descended he soon realized that it led to nothing but the bubbling lava below. Still, he saw some unusual things- large, blue-and-white striped jars, for example. They stood on a large stone plateau on the same height as their current ground, but across the pit of lava. "I remember those," he said, "They're in the Dragon Roost Cavern up above, too. They should be filled with water, right?" He looked at Naomi for confirmation. She had wings, so she had to have gone through the Cavern.

Throwing those jars, or at least their contents, into the lava would create a solid platform for them to stand on, even if only for a little while. However, there was the issue of how they were going to reach them... "Can we just safely fly across..?" he muttered, stretching his arm and pointing his Keese to the platform with the jars.

The first few feet, the Keese fluttered towards the platform unhindered. However, as it reached the halfway point, suddenly a large skull engulfed in flame jumped out of the lava, colliding with the Keese and knocking it into the lava where it burnt up. Elliot put a hand over his mouth, not in shock, but in contemplation. "Now how do we use the water if we can't fly across...?"

OOC (open) OOC (close)

I'm thinking this is a good puzzle requiring the Fist of Pacci. Feel free to have Naomi find a passage off to the side that leads to the kinds of corridors in Willow's dungeon description, which could eventually lead to a puzzle or fight giving us the Fist. (I totally just realized that I've been mucking up the dungeon layout. Welp. Time to fix that.)

Naomi's breath caught in her throat when the ground gave out beneath her. She'd felt it tremble as she had shifted her weight to it, but she was positioned such that it wasn't possible to move off of it. Her heart made a valiant effort to escape its fleshy, feathered prison as Elliot pulled her forward.

She shut her eyes as the rumbling continued. She was in no position to avoid any falling rubble, so she at least hoped that she wouldn't have to see her doom coming. In time, though, she found that the ground no longer rumbled, least of all as much as she did, and instead there only something warm and soft around her. Her eyes opened to reveal only the Rito Prince inquiring about her safety.

Naomi felt very foolish all of a sudden. Though she still trembled, she quickly regained her footing. "I-I'm fine," she mumbled, trying to brush it off. They still needed to rescue Lord Valoo.

When they reached the downward spiral, she looked across with her companion at the jars. "Hmm... With those markings... yeah, I'd say so. But..." She trailed off. She doubted that she could reach any of them with her current arsenal, and even were she to manage to burst one it was placed such that it wouldn't be of much help. She stepped back to get a better view of the room's layout, but she didn't see anything that they'd missed... The Rito bumped against the wall and lay the back of her head against it in thought. This couldn't have been a dead end... had the earthquakes disrupted the structure...?

She heard the movement of scraping stones and turned to find a slab sliding downwards and opening a passage. "Hey, Prince," She called, "This way."

She led the way through a narrow stone corridor, until they entered a larger room. This, too, held a moat of magma, with two masses of land on either side. The smaller Rito noted that the platform that the corridor opened up to held several floor switches. Curious, Naomi stepped on one, and a small rectangular platform appeared a short distance away from the land... however, when she tried to step back and take it, it disappeared. Naomi frowned and stepped back on. Sure enough, the platform reappeared. "Hmm..."

She tried playing the haunting tune of the Elegy of Emptiness, and, hesitantly, stepped back off the switch. She was afraid that the resulting statue would be too light, but to her relief, the platform remained corporeal. Her feeling of triumph faded quickly, however, when she realized that there were more switches than statues she could create...

"Uh, prince? I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but... I can't go over with you. I have to keep making these platforms."

"That's okay," Elliot said. He wouldn't have wanted to have Naomi walk over this ground, anyway. It was brittle, and falling through it would have disastrous consequences. What kind of prince would send his subjects through that? No, he had to do this himself. "Etes prudente, bon?" He said, looking over his shoulder while he waited for the platform connecting to his side of the moat to come up. It did, and he stepped on.

It was small, and as he walked over to the second platform, he felt the heat searing his face. He'd never been this close to lava before, and the further he walked onto the moat, the more uncomfortable he became. Finally, he reached the other side, and he needed a minute to regain his senses. Once calm, he raised his hand to Naomi to signify he was alright, and looked to what was in front of him. A chest, and a crystal-shaped switch. Lacking a weapon, he punched the switch and he heard a sound as if a lock clicked- he knew the platforms that were currently up were now locked in place, and Naomi could make enough statues to create the others. She could join him now.

He rubbed his hands together before opening the treasure chest. Inside it... Well. That was certainly not what he had been expecting to see sleeping in a treasure chest in a lava-filled room.

Naomi shifted her statues over, one by one, to raise more platforms. This accomplished, she crossed, still wary of the magma and the hot air. She thanked the golden goddesses that Veran had enchanted their clothes; she didn't want to even imagine the heat in here otherwise. It was frankly dizzying already.

She made it over without issue, if she discounted her unease and her own traitorous heartbeat. Rito weren't made for this... After it all blew over, she planned to take a nice long bath. Surely entering this awful burning place and saving Lord Valoo would allow her that, right...?

Letting out a breath, she reunited with the Rito prince. "Find something?" She joined him in looking down at the chest, and...

She was greeted by a little white blob. It was tiny and had an odd, zoned-out look on its...face? It was difficult to tell with a being made of jelly. But it looked docile...

"Aww. Hi, little guy!" Naomi smiled at it. In response, the ChuChu turned to her, gave her a slightly quizzical look, and coughed, sending a cold gust of wind her way. In the fiery confines of the cave, however, she welcomed its chill.

"Haaaaa." Elliot let out a delighted sigh when the blob of jelly in the chest exhaled a gust of cold wind, welcoming the refreshment as much as Naomi did. When it dissipated, he reached into the chest with two arms, slipped his fingers under the jelly and lifted it out of the chest, setting it on the ground next to him. Part of it immediately formed a pedestal-like outcropping that the rest balanced on, and it kept looking at him with... well, Elliot wasn't sure if it was capable of reverence, but if it was, that was most certainly what it looked at them with. However, the prince also noted that below the thing, the ground had cooled and taken a bluish hue.

He knew what this was, of course. It was an Ice ChuChu, a rare sub-breed of the jelly monsters that, if well-treated and processed, were absolutely delicious and made it easy even on him to draw mana from himself. It wasn't a powerful nor very dangerous monster under normal circumstances, but right now, it had one power that would be beyond useful for them. "I think the little fellow may be able to freeze us a path through that lava that stopped us before," he said to Naomi. "He certainly seems friendly."

Just as he picked it up and moved it towards the lava they had just crossed, he heard a distinct rumbling that by now, he recognized. He abandoned the plan, dropping the ChuChu and running back to Naomi. "DUCK-" he cried, but it was already too late. Valoo roared, shaking the dungeon and causing an enormous rockslide to go along with the earthquake. Elliot could only drop to the ground, cover his head with his hands, and pray that no rocks would fall on top of him.

"Argh!" cried Naomi, as the ground erupted into tremors once again. She was not at all used to so much time on the ground, and even less accustomed was she to the underground, but if it was always like this, she preferred to stick to the sky and mountaintops, thank you very much! This was much too stressful for her... Thanks to the shaking, she fell to the ground and couldn't find the balance to get back up.

She was immensely thankful when the rumbling finally stopped, and began to realize just how lucky they were that neither of them had been hurt. The ChuChu, too, was fine, bobbing his...her... its? way towards them with a somewhat confused look in its eyes. She supposed that for something so gelatinous and...jiggly... a little tremor now and again would mean next to nothing. She looked behind them, where the platforms were formerly, but now there lied an immense pile of stones, with a few rolling down the mountain at them. Though... some of them were oddly shaped...

Her stomach turned when she got a better look at them. Those were skulls. And no sooner had the terrible things hit the ground when they suddenly came to life, bouncing around with their jaws and flaring up. Naomi's eyes widened and she bit back a curse when she realized the situation. Fire Bubbles!

She flicked her wrists a few times, as they tried to circle the two Ritos and their jelly friend. The first one to make a move was immediately plugged with a few cold metal needles, but... she had a hard time keeping up with all of them as they danced around, bobbing and periodically flaring up.

Elliot must have been unconscious for a few seconds, because when he regained his senses he heard cackling skulls, crackling fire, and sizzling rock around him. As well as the laboured breathing of a woman. No way in Death Mountain was he going to leave Naomi to fend for herself in this hellhole! ...but what could he do? His Keese were useless in here. Actually, they were useless in combat in general. His Fire Spell? Joke of the century. These were fire elementals, if anything he'd be making them stronger. He had no weapons either.

Still, he had to try SOMETHING. Maybe he could take some of the ChuChu's ice and apply it to a Keese? He reached for a crystal, but as he drew back to throw it, he saw from the corner of his eye that the ChuChu wasn't sticking around for him to fling its ice at the Bubbles. "Hey!" he shouted, "Where do you think you're going?!" But he snapped his mouth and beak shut when he saw the ChuChu crashing into the nearest Bubble. Ice and Fire cancelled each other out and the jelly and the skull collided with a strange 'blub' sound. Any other creature would have gotten their own skull split by that impact. The ChuChu's head, however, simply rippled and changed shape slightly to accommodate the impact. When it reassumed its normal form, it launched the skull forwards with as much speed as the ChuChu had had leaping forward, ramming it into a wall and breaking it in three pieces.

"...Sacré, that was amazing."

Naomi was relieved to hear Elliot come around. But when the Bubble rocketed across the room, she gawked.

She immediately regretted this decision, as a Bubble decided to smack her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her momentarily. She backed up and instead drew her crossbow, hoping to keep them back. But the Bubbles had grown bolder after she'd been hit, and she couldn't aim at all of them...

"Hey, Prince? Have you got anything that can make an impact around the top of those rocks?" She asked, firing on--and missing, to her annoyance--a Fire Bubble. She didn't think she could handle this many, but many of them were clustered near the newly-formed barricade, and she could deal with the three or four that weren't. She reloaded as quickly as she could, and this time managed to crack the skull of one of them, giving the others pause.

As Naomi pointed it out, Elliot looked up at the results of the rockslide. A Keese would never have enough mass to shift them, but... "Peut-être," he said, once more bringing his arm to his back and this time taking careful aim. "Keep these ones occupied." Even as he focused to aim and simply visualized the spell, the magic inside the crystal started swirling more quickly and turned a reddish hue, as if it knew what was needed of it. Finally, Elliot threw the crystal forward, an unnatural force propelling it further towards its goal. "Fire!"

It seemed counterproductive to use a fire-based spell to take out fire-based enemies, and the magically impaired Rito was not in the slightest surprised to see the Fire Bubbles unimpressed and not even bothering to try and dodge the crystal when it cracked open to unleash a decent-sized fireball. It was exactly what Elliot had hoped for- it meant the fireball crashed into the top of the rock formation, the impact causing a second rockslide. This one was smaller and more contained, though, and served only to crush the Fire Bubbles lingering near the top.

"Was that what you had in mind, milady?" Elliot asked, turning back to Naomi. Only two Fire Bubbles remained near them, and while he couldn't waste any more crystals, he had confidence that Naomi could handle them. "Take care of the others. I'll inspect our way back." His artificial rockslide had removed enough rocks that they could feasibly climb over the pile of rubble now, but as he climbed to the top he realized that wasn't enough.

This particular quake must somehow have altered the layout of the volcano, he thought as he saw the solid stone wall where minutes before there had been a passage. They were trapped, unless there was a new passage out back. He just hoped that wherever they were going, they weren't going off to meet the lavaflow. Shaking his head in what could be interpreted as defeatism at the thought, he turned around and let himself slip and slide back to the bottom.

"Beautiful, prince," said Naomi, smiling. The falling of rocks eliminated the majority of the Bubbles in one fell swoop, and she could then focus on the couple that had survived. She flicked her wrist as one, which had momentarily lost its flame, presumably in surprise from the mass of debris that had come tumbling down, hopped up and started burning again. The moment it landed, however, Naomi had a needle or three waiting for it; its empty sockets prime targets for them. After all, the Rito was not heartless; surely those should've been filled, right?

The ChuChu, too, kept itself busy; as Naomi sniped away one, it loosed a frigid breath at another, dousing its flames. Irritated--or, at least, as far as irritation could go with a disembodied skull--it lunged at the jelly, but the little white blob headbutted back, and though it didn't deliver the same results this time--perhaps the Bubble been expecting it, or perhaps the poor ChuChu was simply tired-- but the skull made a haggard movement akin to staggering that allowed Naomi the opportunity to put a bolt in between its nonexistent eyes. With the immediate danger vanquished, she let out a deep sigh and sat down. "Any luck up there, chief?"

"I fear I bring bad news," Elliot confessed. "There is no passage. We could squeeze through the gap I made at the top, but the hallway we used to get here is... no longer there. We'll have to wait for another quake, or find another way out." Personally preferring the second, he reached towards the blue ChuChu with one hand. "Let's not forget to bring this guy with us ei-" her stepped back, uttering a cry, when the blob of jelly disappeared in a flash of white light. So make matters worse, his arm started glowing with the same light- albeit slightly dimmer.

He stepped back, shaking his arm fervently, as if he was trying to wave a particularly nasty insect off of it. When the light faded, the prince slowly calmed down, too, and saw that a single, small marking had been burnt into his arm. It was barely visible, honestly, and appeared next to the equally small marking in black ink that the summoner had placed there after she'd taught him how to summon Keese. "Eh..." he muttered, "I... I think I've got this covered?" Maybe?

Collecting himself, he straightened his back and walked to the back of the room, passing by the chest in which they had found the critter. Sure enough, behind it, a passage had opened up. "I'll go first," he said, "in case there's danger. Keep that crossbow ready and follow me." With that, he stepped into the passage. The stone under his feet was solid, which was comforting, but Elliot found himself shivering. When a rumbling sound became audible, he jumped, fearing that a new quake would close up this passage and crush him, but nothing happened.

Suddenly, he ran into something and stepped back. A dead end? ...no. In front of him hovered a being that most closely resembled a stone totem, roughly shaped like Lord Valoo but much more slender and elongated. It just hovered there, stepping back when Elliot did. "Naomi?" he called, "I don't have a weapon, and we can't maneuver past it in this narrow passage. Do you think you can shoot over my shoulder?"

"I guess I could," Naomi started. But at the same time... "That thing kind of creeps me out, though. Are you sure we should fire on something that just sort of... stares back?" The resulting silence told her all she needed to know, though. "All right, all right." She took aim with her crossbow, but her hand shook. She shook her head and tried again. This time she leveled the weapon at the strange statue-like figure, and fired.

Upon contact with the bolt, the thing--Naomi was unaware that this particular specimen was known as an Anubis-- burst into flame, a light emitted from it. Light and... heat. It was retaliating! With fire! She closed her eyes and braced for impact, there being no room to dodge in this narrow corridor.