Teu stood silently within the nexus of the ziggurat as she attempted to decide her next step. It had been a difficult decision for the single mother to leave her children behind to make this particular journey. Emerald eyes slowly skimmed over the seven doors that held rooms for adventurers to move through. The healer took in a deep breath to fill her lungs to complete capacity in an attempt to push back the nerves that had once again tried to overtake her confidence. Teu was no warrior. She was a healer and a scholar that was the one who would wait for the actual warriors to return with injuries to be tended to. This time, she had determined that a more active role must be taken in order to protect her children.

She nervously bit the inside of her cheek as she recalled the morning from a few days ago. Before daybreak, the mother had already packed supplies and the sword she had been working with over the previous few years. Syn sat quietly off to the side as she watched the conviction of her master slowly begin to waver. ‘You are making the correct choice. We both heard the announcement. If something is not done, this world will end. You and the children were able to escape one dying world….you will not have the fortune to leave another.’ The sphinx could see the shaking of the woman’s hands steady once more, and the creature smiled. “You are right, Syn. I must do this. If I have the ability to make any kind of difference then I must try.” Teu kneeled next to the sphinx and gave her a hug around the neck. “Watch after them. Alairia will be well behaved and help around the shop, but I am not so sure Dae will understand why he wasn’t allowed to come. Keep him busy with tasks. He will want to keep order in my stead.” The healer gave the sphinx a light kiss on the top of her head and then left the house out of the back door, not wanting to leave the shop needing to be locked up behind her.

Conviction returning to her heart, Teu turned to the first door and made her steps towards it. Hand reached out for the door in order to open it for entrance but it had already began to swing out of her way. Teu recoiled her hand quickly as if something was going to jump out at her. “Better steady my nerves before going through a mystery door to face unknown trials, huh?” she laughed at herself. Taking one more deep breath, the inexperienced adventurer crossed the threshold.

After a few steps inside, torches lit upon their own accord to light her path. Teu could not help but swallow the rather large lump that had formed in her throat. Subconsciously, her fingers pulled on the end of her long single braid that was resting over her shoulder. The room was rather long but the very end was visible from where she stood. There seemed to be no obstacles in her way to the end of the room, but the scholar knew better than to assume it would be easy to get to the end. The door behind her had closed though no sound was made to indicate that it had locked. At least there was still a way to get out without having to risk everything….literally.

The end of the world?! That sounded like a lot of fun and something that would be right up at the top of her bucket list to see! But the more the dragoness thought it over the more problems she had with the whole idea of the world ending. For one, that would mean she would be dead to, and while that wasn't something she feared, it would end her fun of causing Chaos wherever she went. Causing Chaos was her fun it was the second best part of her reason for living. Which speaks a lot about the most important part of her life; Kirin, her baby boy.

Kirin was her everything, her little one was her only real reason for living, despite Kirin himself being a stuffed doll of yarn that Xyaban had created in an image of what she would look like as a baby. Her mental state made her truly believe that that doll was her living baby, after spending forty years next to an egg she had laid that was dead, her one chance at being a mother, her mind had snapped. She had created Kirin in a delusional haze and when she came out of it, somewhat, the egg had been broken and Kirin was in her arms. She had broken the egg but that memory was blocked from her mind, it was a way to make it more real that Kirin was a real baby dragon, her son.

So, not wanting to see Kirin 'dead' Xyaban had come to conclusion that she might want to help stop the world from ending. Oh, if it was just one city getting destroyed she'd happily help in its destruction, but not the whole! That might be a little too much Chaos, even for one that wanted to see the world burn… just not destroyed, that was boring, she concluded.

To that end she found herself arriving by bubble, of all things, to the entrance of the underwater ziggurat's entrance. It had been a cold journey and if there was one thing the cold blooded dragoness didn't like was the cold. Grumbling to herself the five foot tall two legged dragon made her way further inside, happy that it seemed warming here thanks to the fires lighting the way.

She had left Kirin behind at her hidden hoard cave safe and sound, in her entire life no one had found that cave and she didn't think anyone ever would. They would have to be very far off the beaten path to find it, so he'd be safe. Kirin was also a very well behaved baby while left alone, for reasons that, for that are sane, are obvious, but, for Xyaban, it was because he loved his mommy and behaved for her.

Looking around the place at the doors for a moment she eyed the numbers, well, might as well start at number one then. She headed to the door and opened it and walked in, right away upset that she wasn't alone here at the moment, another female was here, and elf, but she smelled different. Xyaban eyed the woman for a moment before trying to leave, she didn't like elves, but the door wouldn't open, she growled, she was stuck then.

The five foot tall dragoness looked up, though it wasn't by that much that Xyaban had to look up for once, at the elf woman. ”Guess we're in this together?” She sighed, her poison green eyes showing slightly the madness in them, there was something about Xyaban that, despite her size, put some on edge the moment they saw her. She looked down the long room and didn't see anything that would impede her to the end, so maybe it was a race? ”Let's get this over with, I want to get home to my baby.” Xy spoke, mostly to herself and took off at a run.

She got about twenty feet when part of the floor shifted out from under her, a glance down showed spikes, but she managed to react in time to jump over it. Only to land on a pressure plate and have a few dozen dart shooting traps in the wall go off at the same time. She cried out when she suddenly had a dozen darts stuck into her skin, but that turned into a shudder of pleasure, as she enjoyed pain.

She blinked and the world lurched and she snapped back to entryway again, a little dizzy from the sudden shifting of location. She caught hold of the way and looked up, how the hell had she got back here?! Xy looked down, no wounds either, no pain, that was a shame, but good to know. That was some powerful magic at work then!

”Okay, you try.” Xyaban grumbled to the elf, wanting to see what would happen with her while Xyaban thought on how to get these traps, there must have been more.

Jadira found herself looking at the door to her first trial. Trials. A word she was all too familiar with. She had faced many trials in her lifetime. From her very first ones when she was ten with the thieves, to the one she was traveling across the world to complete. Now she was supposed to go into a room with trials. In all honesty she was quite used to these trials by now. However she could say that this was the first trial at the bottom of the ocean that would end up helping save the world. She wrapped her hand around the hilt of her ataiyan katana. Typically she would use a bastard sword to save her good swords. However this seemed one of those times that it would be better to use the best equipment she had. Not that a bastard sword wasn’t good enough, that all depended on the warrior using the sword. However there were a few more advantages with the katana. It was mostly the rune enchantments that made it stronger. Jadira then noticed another elf come near the door and backed off a bit. She wasn’t exactly keen on being near too many people. After the elf went in then a humanoid dragon entered the room. Finally Jadira herself entered the room but stayed towards the corner and overlooked the rest of the room. Her eyes scanned over the room observing every little detail that she could. The room was long and had no major details about it. It was the smaller details that seemed more important. Jadira had been in a dungeon with traps and knew that, especially when it came to trials, that the room probably wasn’t all that it seemed. This could easily be some sort of water trap or maybe something to do with poison. The way Jadira acted was almost like a predator. She lurked in the back and waited for an opportunity. Instead of hunting though she was waiting for somebody else to go ahead and try to cross the room.

It wasn’t a very honorable thing to do but she was being practical. The whole world was at stake, there wasn’t any time for worrying about honor. Besides surely nobody was stupid enough to charge right in without any thought- Before she could even finish that thought the dragon girl ran as fast as she could straight into the room. Jadira watched as the girl ended up jumping over spikes then was hit by a poison dart. And seemed to the poison dart. So that was it. The dragon girl was a masochist. That made a lot more sense to why she ran in quickly. Of course it could have been the thing she said about returning home to her baby. Which was a reason that made Jadira feel a bit guilty herself. She had no idea what the elf girl wanted but Jadira herself had little reason being here. Jadira was fighting to save the world since she genuinely didn’t want people to die. However that wasn’t what fueled her heart and demanded her to keep fighting. She could easily say that it was her friends that she was fighting for. In a way that was true but at the same time Jadira didn’t feel as though that was entirely true either. Jadira was fighting not to save the world or to protect the ones she loved like the majority of the rest of the warriors that had come. Instead she was here to prove to her mother that she was a fierce warrior just like the rest of them. That she was valuable. Maybe. She still hadn’t figured out why she was truly there at all. But she did know that she just couldn’t allow the world to end. Or at least not without a fight. Yet here was a woman who was fighting for her child. That was honorable and good. And there Jadira was just there with no purpose while everybody else was fighting for their loved ones. She pushed these thoughts and emotions to the back of her mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about useless things like that. She needed to focus.

The dragon woman had just suggested that the other elf girl should go next. If they went like that they would probably be here for a while. Jadira reached into her bag and pulled out a slingshot and some rocks. Then she put the rock into the swingshot and swung it around then let the rock go. The rock was fairly large and hit one of the pressure plates that the dragon woman had set off earlier. As soon as the rock hit the pressure plate the poison darts shot from the wall. Jadira then looked to the others.

“Don’t step on those.” She said simply.

Then she got another rock from her bag ready to throw another to see what other traps she could set off early. After all the rock was still on the pressure plate and was holding it down. It seemed to be a sensitive pressure plate. Of course Jadira didn’t have enough rocks for every trap but it would be a lot easier to go through the room when some of the traps were already set off instead of finding them as they went. As long as the room wasn’t reset then it would be easier to cross. 

The elf would have liked to have thought that the reason she had not moved forward yet was due to an attempt at being observant, but she knew deep down it was procrastination. Teu was not a fighter in an outright sense. Normally, she would be in the back working as a healing and this was nerve wrecking for her. It was the sound of the door opening behind her that made her jump slightly. A short female made her way into the long room, but she had features of a dragon. Teu was quite intrigued. “Good day to you. I guess we are in this together…though I am not very certain what this is yet. I haven’t made it any further than where we currently stand.” The urge to slide away to give distance between them was intense, but she made sure to not move. There was a good possibility that the dragoness would take that as an insult.

“I think we should be cautious….” But her words fell upon deaf ears as the female took off in a flat run. Teu watched carefully as traps began to trigger. She was not about to run after her and join the ruckus without being properly prepared…and from the looks of it there was little she was truly prepared for. Spikes to a pressure plate that initiated shooting darts. The darts lodged into her new companion’s skin which looked painful. In the blink of an eye, the dragoness was back standing next to Teu. The healer flinched with confusion, though she noticed quickly that there were no injuries in the woman. “Holy goddess. There are no injuries. How do you feel?” She reached out without thinking as if to examine the dragoness, but thankfully the door opened once more to bring Teu back to her senses.

Teu watched as the new woman began shooting rocks at the long hall to trigger the traps. “Keep that up so I can see what I am heading towards.” She smiled and bowed her head in greetings. “Before we get too deep into this, I am Teu Balatro. Pleasure to meet you both…even in these circumstances.” She turned her attention back to the long corridor before them. With a good idea of where the traps were this time, she went into a quick job that would allow her the ability to handle each obstacle as they came.

Her steps were light even at the quick pace that was being taken. The first set was the spikes, which the healer was able to nimbly get pass. Next was the pressure plates that were already indicated previously to send out the poison darts. Thankfully the rock was still in place to keep them from throwing out even more. Teu knew though that it did not mean that there were not more further down that would not impose danger upon them. Emerald eyes scanned quickly the surroundings for any indications that there would be more traps.

Small changes in floor or wall levels gave away the triggers of the simpler of snares. Easily enough Teu was able to dodge those, but there was one that had slipped her diligent gaze. The very edge of her booted toe touched one of the slabs of stone. In an instant the floor rose to meet the ceiling in an effort to crush anything in its path. Teu had barely avoided being turned into a well mashed jelly. “Do NOT touch these few slates over here,” she called over her shoulder.

”Uh, I feel fine, a little confused as that was rather sudden.” Xyaban replied to the elf woman after she had reappeared where she had started. That was trippy, Xyaban kinda liked it actually, but she was weird like that. The door opened and another elf came in and Xyaban groaned, not another elf! She just found them so boring, boring enough that she would rarely go out of her way to kill one. She shot rocks onto some of the plates and triggered the traps but her words made Xy's poison green eyes roll. ”No kidding! Good thing you're here to give us such good advice to not step on the plates that cause poison darts to shoot out!” Xyaban snapped back, unable to help herself in response to the inane advice.

The first elf spoke again, saying her name was Teu. ”Xyaban.” The dragoness replied as Teu went on ahead, getting past the first few traps easily enough thanks to their new experience with them and the help from Jadira. When the floor slammed up to meet the ceiling when Tei triggered a plate even Xy's eyes widened a little, nope. While she liked, love pain even, the darts she hadn't minded, getting caught by that new trap was a little much, even if she knew she'd be brought back to the start again perfectly fine.

Xyaban started to follow Teu stepping where Teu had already stepped as not to set off any more traps than needed. Xy looked ahead a little further and then looked up, something caught her attention and she stepped ahead carefully of Teu. ”Wait, there's something new.” She stopped and eyed what she had saw before, part of the ceiling looked it would move. She glanced at the floor but nothing stood out to look like a plate.

”Hm…” She glanced at the walls, seeing holes all the way up. ”I wonder.” With a slight grin she poked her hand out between the holes on each side, breaking a magical barrier that wasn't one any could sense, unavoidable then. There was a rumbling noise and part of the roof dropped down and a smooth round boulder dropped down and started to roll towards them.

Thinking quick Xyaban thrust a hand out and a magical gate opened up in front of her, her other hand to her side and another gate opened. The boulder rolled into and then out of the gates, avoiding them, crashing against the wall and coming to a stop. ”Unavoidable I think, I couldn't see a way past that barrier without breaking it.” Xy explained and glanced back to see how the elves were doing.

Jadira noticed Xyaban's apparent disdain for herself. She couldn't figure out what she might have done to anger Xyaban. However Jadira didn't bother defending herself against the sarcasm. This wasn't the first time or would be the last time she had received such disdain. Jadira would simply have to deal with it. As always. Then the others started saying their name.

"Jadira." She simply said.

Jadira continued to use her stones to identify traps ahead of them. She followed the others making sure she was with them and not hiding behind the others. Jadira then saw as the floor smashed into the ceiling and looked at Teu. Good, she was fine. Even if the damage wasn't permanent it was still better to avoid having to be sent back to the beginning. She then stopped when Xyaban spoke up. Jadira had also noticed how different the floor looked and how strange the ceiling was. Suddenly Xyaban set off the trap and a large boulder was heading straight towards them but then Xyaban figured out how to make it avoid them. Jadira was glad that they could proceed now and that they weren't smashed into pieces by a giant boulder. Jadira stood next to Xyaban and was ready to proceed. She could see the otherside of the room was closer than ever now. All they had to do it seemed was to make it through the last trap. She had taken a look at the room and it seemed that the room had been divided into thirds. The first third had traps that would be triggered by tiles on the floor. The second third had a boulder traps. Then there would be one more third with one more set of traps. After that set they would reach the end of the room. Or so that's how it seemed. Jadira decided to make sure the other two were ready before going forwards. She didn't want to leave anybody behind. They needed to act like a team in order to get through this room. So that's what Jadira would do. There was something she had forgotten though. 

"Good work on that last trap." Jadira said to Xyaban then she looked to Teu, "And you did well on the first one." 

Jadira knew that it was likely that Xyaban may reject her compliment. And probably insult Jadira in return. And Teu may not have cared. Jadira should have just kept her mouth shut. This wasn't the training grounds that she had trained in growing up. These were real fighters who probably didn't give a damn about how they did as long as they were alive. Somebody telling them that they did well probably wouldn't affect them in any way. Jadira looked ahead and noticed something in the room. It was a pillar standing in the middle with a gem on it. It was obvious that the trap was probably set off by taking the gem. However she didn't doubt that there would be other traps besides the pillar and the gem. Jadira observed the ground and there were large cracks going from one side to the other. Jadira used her slingshot and sent a stone to hit the crack ahead. When the stone hit the crack flames erupted from the crack for about twenty seconds before retreating. 

"The cracks set the flames." She said, "The pillar with the gem also looks like a trap."