Khelena blinked slowly, tilting her head in contemplation, before flipping back around to stand on the ground. The sheer purple cloth she wore as clothes could barely be called such, but her reptilian body did little to compromise her modesty. "Who am I?" She asked, placing a hand on her breast in mock offense, looking at the skull, which turned to her. "It really has been a long time, hasn't it?" She asked, before returning her attention to Meeta. "I am Khelena Het'Ladaren, Grand Librarian of Xokagi, and Keeper of Stories. I am the living Avatar of Xokagi," She said, bending forward at the waist to get closer to Meeta. "And who might you be?" She asked, the skull strafing to the side with a similarly curious energy.

Khakana looked at Nakato when she told him to let the man in the cart rot. Then he looked at the cart. A quick moment of searching later, he had taken two swords from the dead, and jammed the door shut. Nakato could see all the muscles in his back tighten as he bent the weapons around each other, growling from the strain before stepping back from the door to examine his handiwork. "Rot he will then," Khakana said, turning and walking past Nakato, ruffling her hair with a blood caked hand. "I will go take care of the slaves."

As he walked past, he picked up one of the barrels of water and a ladel and walked it over to where the slaves sat. He set the barrel down, and kneeled. The armor he had worn in the cavern and when dealing with the slavers had retracted into a strip along his spine somehow, leaving most of his body clean. His hands and face, however, were covered. He kneeled down and dug his hands into the hot sand, as if washing his hands in water. At first, the sand stuck to what wet blood there was on his hands, but with work it all started to fall away revealing relatively clean hands.

Then, once seemingly satisfied with the state of his hands, he opened up the barrel and began giving people water. They looked like children compared to him, and the complete change in face from what Nakato had seen up until now lead him to regard them as such. He didn't say anything when they drank, just watched quietly. When they cowered from him, he didn't growl or snarl. "Drink the water," He said, his deep voice smooth and unconcerned. It took a bit of coaxing, but eventually they all drank.

Except one. An older woman who had been with the convoy for as long as Nakato had been, and probably much longer. She lacked any notable features that would make her desirable as a slave, and the convoy often took frustrations out on her. She never fought, or complained, or even spoke for that matter. Every time she was knocked over, she would just get back up. She would eat what was given to her, drink when given water, but it wasn't hard to tell no one was home anymore. She didn't cower from Khakana, she just looked at him.

"You don't want the water?" Khakana asked, though his tone was rhetorical. He set the ladle down on the sand, going from a squat, to sitting awkwardly on the ground. His long legs bending awkwardly. The slave shook her head, and Khakana seemed to just stare. "Your story has been told, and you have no more words to write," He said, reaching down and helping her sit up properly. "Drink, one last time, so that you can have the strength to tell your story one last time," He said, brushing the slaves hair out of her face.

The softness was a dramatic contrast for what had only minutes previously been an unstoppable killing machine tearing Nakato and the Slave's captors apart. Now he was carefully caring for a broken woman, lifting the ladle of water to her lips again. She looked up at him, then at the ladle, and weakly started drinking. He just watched, everything else irrelevant to him. She stopped, her mouth moving but seemingly no sound. Khakana nodded, taking keys he must have pulled off one of the guards and releasing her from her bindings.

Finally, Khakana took a moment with the woman, taking her head in his hands and let out a deep breath. The woman's eyes, nose, and mouth flashed blue leaving each of those locations scorched. Her body slumped, and Khakana held her and laid her against the sand instead of just letting her drop. He finally get back up, standing at his full height and holding his hand out with the keys. "Let the others free at your discretion," He said, looking at Nakato. "Let me know if you face any difficulties."

"He really was a brute, wasn't he?" Khelena asked, having decided to find some nice vines to recline in. She was wrapped up well and good, but it wasn't hard to tell it would be easy to get out if she wanted too. Sitting on a branch next to her was an old dilapidated skull illuminated from within with blue fire that flickered and waivered from within. "Who knows, several millennia dead, a brute may have been what the life priest ordered, hmm?" She asked, looking at the skull.

The flame within flickered wildly, leaving the reptilian woman to slump in her vine hammock. "I know! He was a bit of a stick in the mud, wasn't he? All mopey and upset. The brutish one was at least personable, if not a little dumb. I absolutely could do worse. For instance, the mopey one," She chuckled, before squirming around in frustration and flopping limply in the hammock with a "harumph" and a defeated sigh. "I could have eaten them both alive in multiple ways... Oh well," She said in mild defeat when a new noise joined the jungle.

She bent backwards, arching herself to look down at the ground without needing to roll over, and saw a person sitting just outside the cave she was going to use for shelter  if it started raining again. "Oh?" She asked, the skull lifting and also looking down. "What do we have here?" She asked, rolling over in the vines to get a better view. She was maybe 50 feet above the girl.

Khelena rolled out of her hammock and grabbed onto the thick vine she had used to climb up. She wrapped her legs in a simple friction lock and let herself slide down silently, the skull following. at about 10 feet, she fell backwards so her muzzle was within reach just above the girl. "Hello there~," She cooed, her voice smooth in it's greeting.

"Knew all the answers," Khelena said slowly as they walked, seeming largely unphased by the foliage. All in all she was rather light on her feet as she maintained a confident gait. "My book would have known everything that had happened around me," She offered, lazily hopping over a branch. "That was destroyed. Probably for the best, as knowing the answers to everything makes for a very boring story," She explained. "No one likes a know it all, and no one wants to read a story about one," She added.

"What answers do you want?" Khelena asked, hopping forward to walk next to Kell, ignoring Thrax's gold. "All the answers is a lot of answers. Very hard to sift through it. Are you struggling with a situation?" She asked, smiling back at Thrax. "Maybe he's struggling with issues of fancy?" She asked the Gnoll, before turning back to Kell. "Would explain why he has a problem with my nakedness, wouldn't it?" She asked mostly to the open air.

Khakana stared down at Nakato as she asked her question. "Eat you?" He asked, his armored head tilting to the side as he contemplated the question. "No, I don't believe so. Not unless you give me a reason too," He said dryly.

Nakato looked away shiftily and cleared her throat. "Er...what kinda reason...?" she asked, and then snapped a look back at him and held her hands up defensively. "Askin' for a friend!"

Khakana stared at Nakato, and he let out a rumbling growl that echo'd through the chamber in an ominous bass. He walked up and grabbed Nakato, his hand taking up her whole arm, and pulled her off the ground. "You have made an agreement with Xokagi, for which you owe your life," He said, looking back up at the opening in the ceiling. "Which means I need to get you out of this desert, alive. SO let us begin," He said, picking her up like she were nothing more than a baby and began the climb up the sand hill.

The rope the slavers lowered was thick and rough, but it held as Khakana began pulling the both of them up and out of the temple. The sun struck them both once again, and even Khakana let out an irritated growl as he momentarily struggled to gain solid purchase on the sandy ground, but he managed well enough. When he stood, Nakato could see the rest of the caravan.

Her fellow slaves huddled in the shade of the wagons they were tied too, and the Caravan Leader's carriage sat right next to the water carriage. Several of the guards stopped, seeing the towering beast climbing out of the hole covered in blood. Khakana's head jerked to the side as an arrow bounced off the metal of his armor. In a flash, all his scales were covered in that same metal, and Nakato was put through part two of the previous experience.

The guards dead, the slaves didn't move through it all, and the Caravan Owner was trapped in his carriage by Khakan, who stood waiting at the entrance. "Drink the water Nakato," He ordered. "While I decide what it is to do with the sniveling maggot cowering inside this box," He growled, his armor splitting back to reveal his face once again.

The monster tore through the slavers with a brutal efficiency, removing limbs and insides with horrifying ease. Nakato was correct in her assessment that the sword the Slaver wielded simply was not enough. The slavers sword arm was quickly removed, the torn appendage in the lizards hand, the sword clattering to the ground. To add insult to injury, as the Slaver fell to the ground, the monster just stepped on him, crushing his chest under it's massive weight.

The last slaver in the room met his fate when the monster opened it's massive maw and clamped it down over the slavers head and shoulders, teeth sinking in before the monster grabbed his body and literally ripped him in half. The contents of his torso spilled to the floor in a steaming heap as the monster swallowed what was able to fit in his mouth whole, letting out another shriek in victory.

The monster held out his hand, and the air around it warped with purple and black waves, a glimmering gold Khopesh appearing. It was far larger than any of the weapon on the ground, and the Monster placed it on the back of his armored body before locking it's eyes on Nakato. He walked to her with a lazy swagger, before kneeling and lowering his head to her. Blood still dripped off his body from the scattered corpses.

"I am Thyva Khakana Let'Sivaro, Warpriest of Xokagi," He said, his voice rumbling in the dead silent hall. "I am to get you out of this desert safely, and so I am yours to command until then," He said, standing up and training his eyes back onto Nakato. "There are more alive above us. Are they too attempting to end your story?" He asked, sounding entirely unconcerned about anything that was actively happening. In fact, he almost sounded bored and largely disappointed.

Khelena listened to the two men talking the entire time they walked, getting the distinct idea they were looking for something important. "Gold?" Khelena asked, stopping in her tracks and pointing back towards where they had come from. "If you were looking for gold, you could have taken the gold in my temple. I wasn't going to stop you," She said, looking between the two. "I mean, I never had a use for it before, if you wanted it you could have just taken it."

"You write a story with every word you speak," Xokagi said, hugging her book to her chest, "Every action you take, and every thing you feel. I wish to hear of it all, every moment, every detail, so that I may hold the story for legends to come," She said, walking back to the statue. "But you do not seem ready, so maybe you are not here to tell me a story. Maybe... Maybe you are here to help me hear more stories," She offered to herself. Honestly, the conversation had become very one sided as Xokagi stood statue still in thought.

Finally she turned around, flipping through her book. "A deal then?" She asked, pointing to a page. "I could make you tell your story, and I usually would. Life is not a thing you often get a second chance at. I will forgive you not understanding the water was poisoned," She said, "On the consideration that you lead my priest to civilization," She added, closing the book. "You are in just enough of an in-between that I can justify erasing the mistake you made..." She said, looking behind Nakato. "I believe our time is up if that is the case... So if you refuse, my Priest shall correct my mistake," Xokagi said.

Nakato spluttered as her head was pulled out of the pool by someone using her hair as a handhold, dragging her body, now screaming in agony, across the hard, sandy floor. Then she was tossed, rolling across the floor until she hit the sand.

"We've been looking for you bitch," A voice said, when Nakato got kicked in the stomach hard enough to make her vision swim. As she reeled, she noticed cracks in the statue beginning to form, and a piece over the eye falling to the ground revealing the ancient skull. Flame overtook the skull, entering the space and leaving, leaving behind dull white scales and a yellow slitted eye.

"We're gonna make you pay for this one," Another slavers voice chuckled. "The boss even decided to come catch up with the other slaves. We're going to have some fun with you," The man said, leaning down and grabbing Nakato by the cheek. He knelt down, but the sound of stone splashing into water made whatever he was going to say die in his throat as he turned back around.

Massive footsteps through water followed by stone clattering onto stone, the once statue stood it's full height, shaking off what was left of it's rocky prison and scanned over the group surrounding Nakato, a deep rumble emanating from his chest. A slaver with a spear let out a battle cry, rushing the monster. It batted the spear to the side with it's right hand, left hand shooting out and wrapping around his throat and upper body, the muscles in it's right arm and back coiling and launching it's fist through the slavers head, splattering blood and brain across the floor.

Letting the body drop, it's ong tounge slipped out of it's muzzle like a dog licking it's chops, before it crouched down and let out a violent screech which began it's onslaught against the now panicked and disoriented slavers.

Khelena had spent the night humming idly to herself, looking over he hands just a little obsessively. In fact, she was rather infatuated with herself basically the entire night. For instance, she spent a solid hour on her back, her legs up on the pedestal so she could move them around while looking at them without holding them up herself. She also spent quite some time just dangling her tail over her head by her face, taking it all in.

The morning came, or at least, what she believed to be the morning, and she just watched as the two men got everything ready, and watched as they both struggled to climb up the bluff. Then the rope was lowered. She regarded it for a moment, a let out a soft sigh. She then grabbed hold of the rock, her claws finding the cracks and crevices with ease. It took her moments to climb up with the help of her large taloned feet and claws, climbing over the edge and brushing herself off of dirt and dust.

"Thank you for the rope," Khelena smiled at Thrax, her tongue slipping out and dragging across her muzzle before getting pulled back in. "Very considerate of you. Shall we start towards whatever civilization you plan on heading too?" She asked, looking between Thrax and Kell.

The skeletal being stood there and watched as Nakato ran over everything in her head. The skull tilted to the side inquisitively. It rattled it's fingers against the cover of it's book, dragging one boney claw along the pages delicately as it stood idle. It didn't move much more than that, staring with unblinking flaming eyeholes until Nakato finally spoke.

"Who am I," The skeleton asked, looking at it's book, then back at Nakato. "And where are we?" She whispered, taking a step towards the statue, seeming to be walking on something above the surface of the water as she reached up ran a hand along the side of the statues face. "I am Xokagi, Grand Librarian, and Keeper of Stories. At least," She said, turning back to Nakato, "That is how I am regarded. I do not remember if I have a name before that, and I remember the first story. So much darkness," Xokagi whispered even quieter, adverting her gaze.

She shook her head, stepping away from the statue with only the softest click of bone against stone. "Where you are geographically, is a tomb. A soldier, cursed to guard me. Sadly, I am no longer here," She said, her voice somehow sounding tight in her non-existent throat. "In a more etherial sense, you are in something of a void. You aren't alive, which allows you to speak with me, but you aren't ready to tell me your story..." She said, stepping into a shadow cast by the blue light and vanishing.

Xokagi appeared immediately in front of Nakato, leaning down, her boney fingers just hovering over Nakato's face. Existential dread gripping at her chest as she was forced to stare into Xokagi's eyes. "It is odd..." Xokagi said, letting her hand slowly fall, as if running it across Nakato's cheek in a similar way. "That you were able to refrain from telling your tale. Perhaps you are not yet done?" She asked, walking away just as abruptly to look through the pages of her book.

"Good Thrax," Khelena said with a smile, "I can't wait to feel how good you are with those hands," She purred before turning back to Kell. "And with that, I can focus on you again," She said, starting to pick at her claws with her thumb. "Honestly, I don't know if I'm impressed or concerned. If this is how you think mummified corpses look, your people have gotten very good at preservation, or your preferences are... Interesting," She said with a coy smile. Her tail flicked over her head in a wide arc as she turned and cocked her hip out. "I might be convinced to entertain your desires. You do look warm..." She teased.

"Regardless," She said, dropping the coy demeanor. "You're right, I likely know nothing about anything standing so far. Bringing back the point that I will need to reorient myself," She said, taking a more serious tone. "And it's Grand Librarian. I did not go through everything that I have to be called anything less. You may not respect it Kallayenasifarel but continuing to mock it will only end poorly," She snapped, walking away to examine the pile of gold.

"Yes," Khelena said to Kell's whispered question. "The one with the gladiators," She said, crossing her arms over her chest with a mildly annoyed look. "However, you are continuing to make my point. I have no idea what those name are. Us being in a Jungle right now, should not be correct, but you say we are and so I must believe you," She sighed, turning to look back out the gap. "I can't see much with the rain. Which will not kill me what do you think I am? Fragile?" She asked when Thrax asked his question.

She had tried to ignore the spray of water from when he shook off while she was talking. it was difficult but she managed. Then she brought her hands up to her muzzle in contemplation. "Thrax, I am very sore after so much time standing. Would you like to rub my legs when we have a chance to sit and relax?" She asked, ignoring his question.

Khelena stood there as Thrax defended her... Aliveness from Kell's suspicion and doubts, and looked at Kell as he again tried to justify how she was nothing more than a monster in all likelyhood. Who knew, maybe the definition of monster had changed since she had been gone. Though, she was pleased to know that she had pegged Thrax correctly.

Khelena looked at Kell as he started to address her with his question about what she meant. She opened her maw to answer when Thrax inturrupted her to defend the honor of her... breasts. She closed her mouth for a moment, opened it to speak, then closed it again as she reconsidered. Then she took a slight step to the side, and gave Thrax a smile. "And you can be back in them, once you dry off. You are cold to the touch, and I am not a fan," She said, before turning back to Kell. "Such a Tegram, he's adorable," She said as she let out a sigh to release some tension.

"As for your question," Khelena started, waving to the room at large. "I have been trapped in this room for Xokagi knows how long. I would know, but my book is destroyed. I cannot reference the stories it wrote, and so I am blind to time," She explained, bringing her hands together and giving Kell a look of intense concern. "So I am in a strange time, which has likely turned a once familiar place into a strange one, after having been dead and resurrected in the presence of two complete strangers, as... idiotically charming one may be, accused of being undead," She said, her look growing more and more intense as she spoke. "If you think you would not be disoriented in that situation, I applaud your self confidence and suggest you volunteer for the Arena. It might take you rather far."

Khelena didn't fight Thrax as he took her hand and kissed it. Neither did she seemed perturbed, or even concerned at the large gnoll approaching her so quickly. As Thrax bent down to kiss her hand, Kell could see the realization of opportunity flash across Khelena's eyes.

"Thraxsss..." Khelena hissed slowly, lowering her muzzle just a touch to look up at the gnoll with her eyes. Her tail swooped around silently and began a feather light coil up his leg, starting just over Thrax's knee. "What a gentle gn-" She started when Kell yanked Thrax away from her, her tail flicking back behind her. She then shot Kell a glare when he referred to her like some gutter in the street.

The glare only lasted a fraction of a second, before Khelena allowed her features to express hurt and discomfort, taking a quick step forward and hugging Thrax's arm tightly between her breasts, almost hiding herself from Kell in the process. She was cold to the touch, but her scaled skin was soft and her chest filled with air with each breath she took. "Your friend doesn't need to be so mean..." She pouted, leaning her head on the Gnoll's shoulder. "All this is very sudden, I didn't ask to be released. I haven't done anything to deserve that, have I?" She asked, looking up at him with her eyes again.

"Am I Ali..." The woman asked, letting the question die as her face curled up with notable confusion despite the very reptilian features. She took up her book in her arms and stood up, brushing dust from her front and knees, her tail sweeping low to the ground before arcing up into a slight flick. "I am certainly not dead, am I?" She asked pointedly as she looked around the room. "Unless you are some new, pathetic deities that somehow replaced Xokagi."

The woman didn't wait for the question to be answered, taking a few steps towards the opening they had made, then turning back to the two. "With my book destroyed, I have no way of knowing how long I was an avatar for. Since you two seem to have something to do with that, I am going to ask you help me reorient myself and set myself back onto my proper story," She said, her voice not giving the impression she was even asking a question. "I am Grand Librarian Khelena Het'Ladaren..." She said, her eyes narrowing a little, "But you may refer to me as Grand Librarian."

Nothing happened immediately after the book was returned. The feel of power filling the air like a mild static never went away, until the hands moved. The sound of dried flesh ripping as the hands moved for the first time in gods only knew how long. Then the body jerked and started shaking as it's mouth opened in a soundless scream. Then the blue lights went out.

The body then illuminated the room itself with a similar blue light as it caught fire, collapsing off it's pedestal and tumbling down the gold and jewels piled around it. The fire moved across the body, leaving scaled flesh where it burned away the dried death. She writhed on the ground as her face was restored, and her clawed hands scratched at her neck as blue light emanated  from her mouth and she finally let out a loud moaning gasp.

She collapsed once again to her hands and knees, and the blue light from the pillars began to come back as she panted loudly. Magic crackled in the air like electricity, when she looked up at the two, her eyes wild and bloodshot.

"What have you done?" She asked, pushing herself up to her knees and staring at her hands. Her eyes shifted to the book, which was face down and smoking. "No..." She whispered, her shoulders dropping in resignation.

"I am not here to hurt you," The Skeleton said before the rock connected right between it's eyes. Immediately the skeleton exploded, the several hundred bones clattering to the ground. Wall sconces around the room exploded with blue fire as the bones started to vibrate rapidly. "Ow..." The voice whispered again, just as soft yet oppressive as before. "Please don't hit me again," It asked as the bones reanimated, the jerky motions as it rebuilt itself and once again stood before Nakato.

Then, delicately, it bent down and picked up it's book, running a boney hand first across it's cover, then down the fine cloth covering her bones as if to brush the dirt away. "That really, truly did hurt. Please do not do it again, I don't wish to hurt you..." It said, the many whispering voices somehow sounding sad in unification.

As the two looked over the body, the room seemed to grow slightly colder when the book was removed from the hands, and as Kell looked at the book, it was hard to believe. It was written in Thanati, and half of the page was blank. The top of the page read "Light Once Again" and it read:

After so long left in darkness with nothing more to watch and marvel for uncountable days, light returned. Khelena's story did not end in darkness, renewed as Onyx, Kellayenasifarel to the Thanati, and Thraxion Swordbreaker crawled through from the outside long forgotten. They explored, laying eyes on the body of the Avatar within these walls, unsure of what to make of her. Kellayenasifarel to the Thanati took the book, severing the Avatar's connection to it's cairn, plunging what remaining awareness she had into complete darkness.

More words continued to be written, describing each action taken by the two as if from the perspective of the body that stood right before them. The lights waivered, and there was an odd thrum of power settling from the book.

As Nakato brought the water to her mouth, she could feel a sense of relief wash over her. Like every ounce of pain was removed from her body. Her body felt cold as the water settled, and then feeling overall started to fade. A peaceful numbness, like the oblivion of sleep, only she could still see. What she could see, was that the statue before her was awash with a blue flickering light.

"I don't believe you should be here yet," A soft voice whispered behind Nakato, and when the bandit turned slave turned to look she was face to face with a Skeleton, draped in sheer purple fabric and gold jewelry. It's skull was filled with the blue flame that was lighting the room. Held in its arms, protectively against its chest was a large tome. "Though I am happy you found me. It has been so long since any have stepped foot in this place." Her voice seemed to echo from everywhere, all while dancing in the back of her mind.

The two managed to crawl into the opening with relative ease, the darkness of the cave looming in until a faint blue light started to emanate from the pillars around the room. The walls looked old, worn in carvings on every surface. It was hard to make much of it out as time had taken it's toll, but it wasn't very difficult to see they had found themselves in a large rotunda of some kind, with a figure standing in the middle of the room.

The figure was stood on a pedestal, gold trinkets and gems piled at their feet, wearing a minimalist outfit of draped sheer cloth that would have been rather attractive had it not adorn a mummified corpse of a reptilian being of some kind. In it's hands was a book that it looked to be reading, but otherwise the room was empty.