Spirits of the Earth

[Take 2.  Open by Request!]

Breath came like fire burning in his lungs, but he couldn’t stop.  The air was cold, sharp, painful to breath in and hold, yet already his heart was ill-prepared for its current state of duress.  It cried out in exigency, unable to hold on much longer if his body did not stop.  Feet beat the ground, until it seemed the very soles would tear through the thin fabric of his shoes.  As if that wasn’t enough, the body he lugged in his arms weighed him down.  Every limb threatened collapse.  But then he could see the shape of the village slowly scrolling up in the distance.

Almost there.  Just a few more yards…a few more steps.  He slowed his legs, which quivered like rotten wood.  Feet were blistered, reddened and sore even with his shoes.  He scaled the hill towards the village, the bundle in his arms groaning, stirring, clearly out of his own senses.  “Stay with me now, sir.  Stay awake,” the man said.  The limp body, grunted, fighting hard to follow instruction.

“Make way!  Make way!  Somebody get a healer, please!”  the man called.  His legs immediately collapsed upon arrival, almost knocking the wounded man in his arms to the ground yet again.  A woman rushed to them.

“Gral!  Oh Gral!  What happened?  Who did this!?” she exclaimed as she knelt beside him, catching up the wounded man’s arm with one of her own.  She assisted Gral in pulling him to the side of a shack.  Several people came to attendance, all murmuring to one another.  Gral had no answers for the woman, and replied as such.

“I found him like this, Mina.  I was on my way back from the river when I found him.  He was lucky I did, when I did.  Or he would have died out there.  I don’t know who did this to him…good gods, he can barely remain conscious long enough.  Speak to me, Nadam.  Say something!  Please.”

Nadam groaned in agony.  His face was severely bruised, bloodied and torn from something that appeared to have small but sharpened spikes.  His body fared little better, his arm was limp and useless, mishappen in several places from having been broken like a toothpick.  His nose was also broken, smashed into his face and he had difficulty breathing out of his mouth, where he tried to gather the strength to spit up the blood that accumulated there.  One ear was missing, seeming to have been torn off.  To the surprise of many, he still had both eyes and a functioning mouth.  “Water…  Water…”

Mina rose to get some, returning just as quickly with a waterskin, which she gingerly rose to his swollen and shredded lips.  “What happened, Nadam?  Did you see who did this too you?”

After drinking, Nadam groaned, coughing severely.  “He wouldn’t stop.  I begged him to stop!” he sobbed.  “But he kept beating me…  He asked me where the fortess was…someplace called Rheidyn’s Gate…and kept on beating me until I told him.  But…it was hopeless…that place is a myth.  When I told him that…he only beat me more, tortured me until I acknowledged that it was real…  I thought he was going to kill me… “  Nadam closed his eyes, scrunching his face in pain.  He screamed when he tried to move.

Gral stopped him.  “Stay put.  The healers will come soon.  They will take care of you.  You’ll be all right.  You’ll see!  Who..who did this?”

Nadam leaned his head against the shack wall, closing his eyes.  “A man…with…iron hands,” was all he could say before falling unconscious from the pain.

Iron Hands?

Perfect.

Xala watched as the scene went on, slightly disinterested with the state of the man and more about the information that he was babbling. Rheidyn's gate, eh? Beat up over a fairy-tale, she could almost laugh. What a complete nut. There was a buyer for those iron hands of his and she was determined to get them. It was a hefty sum and if some human had them on, surely it couldn't be that difficult. Finishing off the apple she was eating, Xala tossed the core over her shoulder and collected her bag, pulling on the (slightly rediculous) maroon coat in the process.

Popping the collar 'cause she looked good like that she ran her fingers through her hair and tuned out the sobbing broken man. That guy wasn't gonna make her any money. Just one last good sale and she could buy herself a little cottage in Serendipity. Fit right in - she looked ridiculous enough.  Instead she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Yup, that was blood. The tang of metal hung heavy in the air. And she opened her eyes, her pupils dilated, taking up almost the whole iris. 

Yeah.

Good times.

Xala took off, her boots hitting the ground. If that man could hobble here, the Iron Fisty guy couldn't be too far off, right? Occasionally she stopped to sniff the air, catch the scent of blood again. Man, how badass would someone have to be to just punch some guy in the face a bunch of times. A hop to her step and she kept moving, a few sniffs to keep the trail. Blood was always a good trail maker.

Finally the trail stopped and she looked around. Damn.

She'd been following the blood, not the scent of the wounded guy. Where was the Iron Fisty guy? Shouldn't he be here flexing or something? Feeling like a hero? It was always fun to bash in faces.

"Iron Fisty guy! Come out, come out where ever you are!" Xala had cupped her hands around her mouth, taking a moment to breath deeply. There were a few scents, all unfamiliar, a few animals. Her nose wrinkled and she rolled her shoulders, shaking out her hands and getting into a stance. Maybe the guy was still looking for a fight?

"We heard you were looking for Rheidyn's Gate! Guy you beat the shit out of mentioned it and We happened to be in town. Today's your lucky day!" Sorta.

The scent of blood she was following was that which still lingered on the fingertips of those iron gauntlets, those vices that ground and locked into the very marrow of his hands.  Blood dripped down into the dirt, plopping down in red lazy rings as he crawled through the dirt.  Sweat coated his brow, and blood traced along it where he wiped it away in order to keep it from dripping it into his eyes.

Castor had made it this far, and there was no chance he was gong to turn back.  The villager had proven useful and if he was still alive, Castor wished him well.  Beating his face in had been an necessary consequence for the time.  He had little patience for his own remorse, however, he still had to scale the hill he was currently on.

Boots dug into soft earth where roots sealed trees to the ground, and there they stood stretching upwards as long green fingertips.  His own hands continued digging on, pulling him up a particularly steep mountainside.  He had no fear that his limbs would fail him.  He had strength yet enough to finish the climb.  Somehow, when he reached the top, where the path evened out and was level enough for him to rest, he felt his hackles rise on the back of his neck.

He held his breath. 

An echo.

He was being followed!  Castor turned around and dashed for the nearest tree, throwing himself round one that obscured his position.  He listened intently, trying to hold his breath, but his pounding head demanded air.  Soft breaths then, he growled at himself.  They must've been moving rather quickly to have tracked him so fast.

"We heard you were looking for Rheidyn's Gate..."

He raised his brows at that, then scowled.  They were following him.  Whoever these people were...  And there being more than one didn't help their case either.  Castor turned slowly, keeping himself hidden from view as his fingers dug down into the earth, and with a great heave he pulled the tree up from its roots.  Cynwulfen gave no quarter to the amount of strength available to him at any given time.  And now was no different.

And he moved quickly, even with the base of the tree in his arms and launched savagely at his pursuer.

Ah.

There it was.

Blood and sweat. A good mix. Easy to follow. Xala turned towards the scent she caught and blinked owlishly for a moment pondering if trees flew. No. They didn't. It was headed right for her. Luckily her reaction time was better than her logical thinking and she was on the ground, having the tree sail over her before crashing into the ground loudly. Wow. Xala felt her cheeks flush and she licked her lips before she stood up, dusting off her coat.

"Hey!" Cupping her hands again over her mouth, "We just want to talk!" and it wasn't just about those iron gloves of his, oh no.  Xala made a snarling noise not unlike an animal and moved to follow him better. If only this person wasn't so violent! "There's only one of us so before you get your panties in a twist remember not to give it your all!" Or do. Didn't matter to her much.

How had he climbed up here? Or she. Though it smelled like a man. No matter, the bastard threw a tree at her. That was hot. As quietly as she could she climbed, her fingers and grip sure. Well rested and practically part animal the climb was easy and she slinked along the hill trying to get up to him. She just wanted to talk. Really.

Castor wasn't going to wait around to be caught up with and went about blocking the path behind him. Bark splintered where his fist collided with another tree.  He didn't see her climb up the cliffside but he wasn't going to waste any time looking for her either. With the tree disassembled, Castor strewn the path with debris and as much foliage as he could, felling another tree, and another, until the path was piled on a great mountain of wood, gnarled roots, broken branches and fallen leaves.

The old witch could call all she wanted, he would give her no response and he just ran further up the path, hoping to leave her behind.

Xala held onto the side of the cliff, waiting for the tremors from the guy destroying more trees to stop. At least it sounded like more trees, the crackle of wood as it broke. This was a bit much, wasn't it?

In an effort to make him think he'd won she wedged a rock out of the side of the cliff, tossed it over her shoulder and gave a pained scream in time for it to smash into the ground.

Giving her eyes a hearty roll she climbed up to the top once the sounds stopped and just stared for a moment, not impressed at all. "Oh, come on." she sighed quietly. What the hell was this? Equal parts not amused and impressed she climbed over the now dead trees as quietly as she could before making her way to the path.

And there he was again. That mix of blood and sweat.

Before she maybe came on a little too hard. Maybe this guy liked being woo'd into conversation. Step one, jump on his back. Step two, maybe say Hi. Sounded like a good plan to her.

Quietly she followed his scent, going fast enough to keep up but slow enough that he couldn't turn around and look at her. Maybe she'd catch up with him when he stopped running. Did this beast of a man get tired? Xala gave a wolfish grin and licked her sharp teeth before she picked up the pace a little and continued to follow him.

Gods!  Did she ever give it a rest!

Castor waited around the bend in the path, feeling anger burn against his face...  but he didn't wait for long, as he ran through the trees and up a small stream that passed between them.

"GO AWAY!" he shouted.

Xala sighed and let her arms go noodly. This was stupid. And so was the guy.  Not being nearly as sneaky as she had planned on being she laughed audibly at him when she heard water splashing and then a shout.  "C'moooooon."  She groaned, not growing tired but fed up with the situation.

"We can chase after you all day or you can stop running away and talk to us like an adult!" Xala ran through the stream, growling softly at her wet pants and boots.  "You got our pants wet! C'mon iron fisty guy." Her tone took to whineing. "We just wanna talk."

Just wanna talk...  Like he was going to believe that.  He could tell her intent was something far more malicious.  Not to mention the fact that she was flippin rock crazy.  How was he supposed to trust the word of someone that complained about a little water.

But even he had to pause to take a drink.  He knelt down before the stream and washed tbe blood off his gauntlets, and he could hear her approaching.  He stared down at her from his perch being above, and the stream flowing down toward her.

"Go away," he growled again.  He remained poised, ready to spring at her if necessary, or bolt away.  And his fingers dug into the earth.

Xala simply laughed at him and put her hands on her hips, shaking her head indisbelief. This guy had some issues - aside from the beating someone half to death part.  "You really think that would work? You've already tried."  Xala took a few steps closer, still in the stream.  "C'mon. We really only want to talk!"

Maybe she could bargain?

"We'll show you our tits!"

Yeah. That was some good bargaining.

Castor remained crouched, fingers in the ground.  "Speak then."  He kept his eyes trained on her, not her boobs and was fully prepared to break open the ground beneath her.

Xala stayed good to her word and flashed him her boobs, taking tentative steps closer before stopping. With her hands out - an attempt not to see threatening - she smiled widely, showing off her wicked looking fangs. "You're headed somewhere, yeah? We're headed there too, only know some of the way. You seem badass, We are badass. You can help us get there, We can help you..." Xala paused, looking him over, "talk to people."

Castor never wavered his focus though the closer she got, the more wary he became of her and the fear he feared would show through, did suddenly.  His face was suddenly wet with more than water.

He turned away, ashamed, and began to sob.

Ooooh. This was awkward.

Xala stopped suddenly and simply stared at him. Her fingers wiggled. The opportunity was right there. Go up, kick him in the head. Staying quiet she didn't move before she pouted and took a step, "we didn't think our breasts were that disappointing."

Castor turned to face his stalker, this intruder into his space and he wiped his eyes, or as best he could with the gauntlets over his hands.  He still sobbed - or as best he could since these crocodile tears were only so convincing for so long.  "Who are you?" he asked.  "Why follow me all this way?  Do you even care that this will only lead to death?"

Xala watched, interested, her eyes on the prize - his gauntlets- and winced for him when he tried to wipe off his face. Good gods. How did he masturbate with those things. Probably didn't the poor sod. For a moment she looked down at her hands and wiggled her fingers and then looked back up to realize he was speaking.

Her odd reptilian eyes went wide and she threw back her head and laughed, "lead to death?" She rubbed at her chest while she laughed so hard she started to cough, "Every breath you take leads to death. Every night you sleep leads to death." Xala threw up her arms, "Bring on the death we say, it hasn't gotten us yet" She gave a sweeping bow, never breaking eye contact, "Xala, and you are Oh Sobbing One?" She put her hands on her hips, taking a few steady steps closer.

Castor crawled away from her the closer she got.  He wasn't quite ready to make contact just yet.  Pfft, this was going nowhere fast, and he was getting more frustrating dancing around these stupid, useless questions.

"It doesn't matter," he said with a sniffle, the tears drying up now.  "It doesn't matter because you're not following me anymore.  Turn around and go back the way you came.  Go.  I mean it...  Witch."

Xala laughed again, grinning now, all sharp teeth and pleased looks. "If it didn't matter you wouldn't have asked who we were!" Crawling away. This was the man that threw a tree at her. This was the guy that punched someones face in? Maybe... Xala eyed the gauntlets for a moment and then studied his face.

"We want to follow you, you're interesting and you threw a tree at us. It was hot." Xala gave a nod, confirming that having a whole tree thrown at her was indeed a turn on. Maybe this wasn't turning into a simple hunt for those gauntlets. The man attached to them. What a weirdo. First anger and trees then sobbing. Xala was waiting for him to just launch at her and try to kick her ass, if he was a real fighter her posture would speak more words than her mouth did - which was honestly a little amazing.

He asked to get the upper hand.  But unfortunately that wasn't working to his advantage.  And the more nonsense she kept talking the more frustrated he began to get.  Gods, did she ever shut up!?  Castor hated even more that such frustration was showing on his features and soon he raised his fists above his head and struck the ground hard.

At first it seemed nothing happened, but then the ground began to shake and the rocks beneath Xala's feet would rapidly begin to part, opening the ground underneath her, and subsequent cracks would begin to spring forth, trees loosing their footing and beginning to fall all around them.

"Come on!" Xala called out when he threw his hands back. "We knew those tears were fake you little liar!" Taking sure steps towards him, the ground began to shake and her arms went out, her body moved forward and she braced herself.

Only for the ground to part beneath her feet.

Was this guy kidding? This guy had to be kidding. Oh well. Hop to. Xala made a jump, all but running towards the man now, still grinning though it was a feral grin now. If this guy was stupid enough to break the ground under his own feet then they were both done for. Well, no, this guy would probably be fine. He seemed tough.

Tough like a cookie.

Xala curved her hands, displaying her nails shaped like claws. "We're trying to be nice to you and you're being most ungrateful." Her voice took a dark turn as she moved closer. So close. Within arms reach, just... Her hands grabbed his wrists and she held on tight. As tightly as her little inhuman hands could. Which was pretty damn tightly.

The ground did crack beneath him, but he didn't care.  He would take this whole mountain down with them both if it meant getting this wench away from him.  Castor felt the ground loosen beneath his feet and just when he was going to let himself fall, the witch had to latch onto him.  He wouldn't feel the force of her grip, but he staggered backwards and threw her up onto the ever-crumbling land.

He slammed her hard into the ground, and turning aside and slamming her into a series of trees.

That was going to bruise. Xala winced and she dug her fingers into his wrists - or tried to - only for him to go and swing her around. Maybe let go? She could feel the scrapes along her stomach and leg already. They stung a little and she relented and let go of his wrists, frowning at him while she caught her footing, sliding backwards on the balls of her feet before catching a crack in the ground and landing on her butt with a quiet 'oof'. 

Giving herself a quick dust off while avoiding more tripping on the crumbling earth Xala simply watched him as curious as ever. "Alright. Obviously you're a little slow," She held out her hands, "That's okay. We're trying to help you, see?" Maybe if she spoke really slowly he'd understand, "You want a thing. We want a thing where you're headed. Just let us follow you, we'll be qui---" A rock slid from under her foot and she jumped forward, giving the ground an accusing look before continuing - out of arms reach this time. "We'll be quiet."

Castor could be frothing at the mouth and it seemed this woman wouldn't even notice.  She was wild-looking, her hair practically standing on end.  "And you don't seem to understand that I don't want your stinking help," he said emphatically.  He remained somewhat stable on ground that had not crumbled awat, just slightly above her.

He continued to stare her down.  "I just want to be left alone.  I don't need any help.  The gate is mine," he panted, finally feeling drained.

Xala finally sighed, put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest. "You're like a wounded animal," she observed while keeping an eye on the ground that he messed up real good. "Fine. We won't help you, but you can't stop is from following you." A fanged grin. Xala was having fun with this guy, the enjoyment of how much he wasn't tickled her pink.

He stood warily.  "Why go to the gate?  What's there for you?" He asked.  He didn't trust her any farther than he could throw her, but for now he could remain civilized.

If her eyebrows could go any farther up her forehead they'd simply be her hair. This guy really did attack first ask questions later. She liked it. Xala studied him for a moment, puffing her fingers through her hair. "There might be something there. Something we need." Xala tilted her head, studying the strange man with the violent temper.

Man. Who knew being able to throw trees was a trait she could appreciate in someone?

"If what we want is what you want, we'll let you have it. We just want to find it. We just... Need to find it." Her voice went low and took on a strange echo, like she was speaking as two different people.

Castor wasn't buying any of her bullfrog banana-nonsense.  She was too strange, even for him that had once considered getting his hands stuck in a pair of ancient gauntlets the worse possible thing that could happen to him.  He wasn't that oblivious.  He knew there were worse things than that, but he quickly amended his initial assumption and figured this crazy woman following him around was definitely worse.

"Fine," he said.  That was all he chose to say and turned around to climb the rest of the hill, pulling himself up one foot at a time.  He didn't want her along but if she caused any trouble, he decided it might just be easier to turn her brains into pulp.

This man had some serious issues.

Xala stared at him wide eyed for a few moments, the fine and the turning around... After his temper tantrum. The look on her face was something akin to walking into a mess you didn't make. Irritation,  the resignation that you'd probably have to clean it up and then finally annoyance because you didn't make the damn mess in the first place. Xala looked around at the mess he'd made, the broken rocks, the fallen trees.

Fine. And then leaves.

Xala threw her hands up, scoffed and followed after him. Man, she was in for quite the fun time.

Shit.

"Wait!" Xala climbed after him, keeping at least a few paces behind because Gods Above that man was absolutely crazy. With the tears and then the rage. "You didn't tell us what you were called."

Castor considered ignoring her statement.  It didn't matter what he was called anyway.  He came to get the relic and then be on his way, onto the next.  Or so his dreams told him.  They were nightmares really, haunting him with horrific images of what he could only assume were someone else's memories.  He had no time for regret.  He had no choice in the matter.

"Why do you refer to yourself as 'us'?" he shot back, half-irritated, but swallowing that frustration down.  He reached the top of the current cliff above him and threw himself up onto the solid dirt with ease.  "You've got two people in your brain or something?  Nutball crazy witch with spikey teeth and weird skin.  You should get that checked out.  Might be a weird rash."

Xala still trailing after him, climbing up with ease and grace, like she was born on the mountains or something and had done stuff like this in her spare time. "We are two people. We're just..." Xala looked down at herself, seeing one torso and two legs. Having remembered two childhoods and trying to have two personalities made her quickly look up and away from her body, a flash of anger making her pupils turn to slits.

A few calming breaths and she just smiled. "We're not human, they're scales, and these are fangs." She licked her teeth at him, making an effort to touch some of the really pointy parts with the tip of her tongue. "We are entertained at your attempts to pick a fight, but we're afraid it won't work. Now, your name or we shall simply call you Iron Fisty guy. Maybe just Fist Guy." That was okay. It'd probably end up being Guy. Maybe even just Fisty.

If she was trying to pick a fight, it was working.  Almost.  But nevertheless, Castor could tell that she could tell that it was working.  He wasn't about to give her the satisfaction.  So instead he kept going up, looking for the next way up.

"You said you'd be quiet," Castor reminded her.  Really the silence was way better than listening to her blabble on about nothing at all.  What was she saying anyway?  Did she even say anything coherent?  It just sounded like mush to him, much like what her brains would look like if she didn't shut up.  Sharp teeth, fangs, or what not, he didn't care.

Xala grinned widely, giving a chuckle, "You asked us a question. We're going to talk if you ask us something," Stupid. Xala let the last word hang in the air instead of actually saying it. Sometimes, she really wished she could turn into that dragon. One, there would be wings involved, which meant flying, which was way better than climbing and two, she could probably snack on this guy and cough out those gauntlets. Two birds with one stone.

As it was, she couldn't change and she was left to stare at him while they made their way up. Or while he made his way up and she followed Not Super Close Behind Him. Iron Fisty Guy reminded her a bit of an agitated horse. Stand too close to it and you will be wounded some how. Was this guy human? The strength told her no but everything else about him screamed yes. Was it all those gauntlets? They didn't look like they were worn, they looked like they were part of him.

Xala decided to give him the silence he so craved and quietly followed after him. Maybe when he was sleeping she'd try and pry them off. Maybe just... Take his whole arms. That seemed easier.

He kept in mind that she instigated the conversation first, but he bit his tongue.  It was all he could do to keep himself somewhat under control.  He was capable of maintaining his focus on the path, or lack there of from up here, it seemed.

After several hours, Castor looked up at the giant cliff that loomed up ahead of them.  He could climb it, but the day was waning and he was thoroughly exhausted.  Finally, he slumped down beside a tree like he was a corpse.  Never mind the rumbling in his stomach - which was annoyingly loud.  Castor grumbled something to himself, not bothering to throw a glance Xala's way.

Besides she could probably talk to the other person inside her head and be entertained for hours.  He just needed to get some shut eye.

Like she promised, Xala stayed quiet. This guy was one tough nut. It was slowly becoming a personal goal to make him not crazy. What was even his excuse? Even as two people Xala managed to keep her head on and not go into fits of rage. It was almost amazing. Maybe... Xala watched him, watched those gauntlets as he climbed and she followed.

No, she was crazy too. What person in their right mind would follow a crazy guy to some pretend gate that didn't exist just to maybe take off his arms? So, while they walked, Xala went through various scenarios of how to get those gauntlets off, and as the day wore on they got more and more ridiculous. At one point she chuckled to herself because she really doubted she could keep a rouse going until a wedding. So that one was obviously hilariously out of the question.

Finally he stopped and Xala stopped too.

And he just... Flopped over. Her eyebrows went up, giving him a long look before she continued on her way. Plucking various burnable bits from the ground and extra crispy tree limbs. He may just want to flop over and sleep but she was hungry and damn if she was gonna sleep on a cold cliff. Of course she'd heard his stomach grumble, maybe she could tempt him with food like the animal he was.

With her trusty pack and the dagger she kept on her belt, Xala made a small fire and sat down, leaning against a tree, giving her (unwilling) tour guide a long look before she waved around the jerky she had in an effort to get the scent over to him. Taking a bite and chewing loudly she sat and watched him, maybe he'd rouse himself and come closer to the fire to sleep?

She would allow it.

Castor was hungry.  And now thoroughly awake because of his stupid companion's stupid fire and that her stupid 'other person' in her head probably told her to do.  He opened his eyes and glared at her, wanting very much to throw her off this cliff.  Sure she might just climb back up, and he'd wait for her and throw her off again.  And again and again.

That would be fun.

He grinned crookedly at the thought, staring at her for the short time being.

Chewing and staring up at the sky, waiting for the night to darken so she could stare at the stars, the feeling of someone staring made her look towards her new companion. Her chewing slowed and she swallowed her mouthful before eyeing his creepy grin and then taking another bite of her meager dinner.

Xala removed her backpack, placing it beside her and then shrugged off her coat, she balled it up and tucked it behind her so her back didn't rub against the rough bark. Still, being true to her word she stayed quiet.

Gave her fingers a wiggle at him in a mockery of a wave and continued to eat and look at the sky. She knew what she wanted and she was obviously more prepared than Iron Fisty Guy. This was going to be a long night and inside, she was just a little bit looking forward to it.

At the wave, Castor's smile just grew and he soon gave a sniff and just closed his eyes, falling asleep.

Xala smirked but quickly smothered it, taking her bag, putting it on her lap and wrapping her arms around it loosely. She'd learned a few things about this man. He was probably crazy, he had inhuman strength - which she totally understood - and he was stubborn as a mule. If he'd only asked she'd have shared, but he didn't and now he was going to sleep hungry.

Without really noticing she found herself falling asleep too. The fire had gone out, the stars were bright and beautiful in the sky and Xala had fallen asleep sitting up against the tree, her chin resting against her chest. Though every noise and and breeze brushing through the trees made her twitch, she managed to rest some. Mostly she was waiting for Iron Fisty Guy to try and steal food from her bag.

Still, her body was tired and eventually she stopped waking up to every little noise.

It might have been better if she did.  Castor was very quiet rising, and noting that she was still asleep, made it easier to climb cliff face without her.  He could scale with ease, even with his hunger somewhat in the back of his mind.

He dug the fingers of those gauntlets deep into the rocks and was just a few yards from the top.  It was just a few more steps and he'd be up.  He looked down to the trees below, wondering only for a moment if the witch woke up.  She probably did.  Trying to come up with some clever plan to appear at the top before he did.

And knowing his luck.  She probably already was.

She did indeed!

Xala looked to the empty spot and grinned widely. Then she looked at her bag and grinned even wider. Really? Nothing. Her neck kind of have a crick in it but she stood up, gave a few stretches and put her coat back on, giving her fingers a good flex before she began to climb after him. Unless he'd gone back down. Was this just a wild goose chase?

Nah. The trail went up and she could see the mess he left behind on his way up. Then she looked up and sure enough, there he was, a ways up. Opening her mouth she quickly shut it, not about to break that promise she had made him to not talk. Man, getting back down was going to be such a pain in the ass. She'll even have extra arms she won't be able to use.

Following after him quietly, she didn't make it up before him - mostly because she couldn't fly - but she wasn't far behind him, breathing heavily and finally when they reached the top she rolled onto the land and looked up at the sky, squirming to get as far away from the edge as she could. Extreme exercise was not something she enjoyed doing immediately after waking up. A sidelong look at the man and a smug grin she waiting for him to move again before she got up.

He didn't move however, and remained where he stood before, arms crossed over his chest.  "You're lying," he said.  And just eyed her with a narrow, unconvinced gaze.  "I am the prize you seek.  Why?  What could I possibly have that you'd want?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

Castor looked at her bag and gestured to it.  "Give that to me."

Yes!

He spoke first. Xala gave a tiny mental arm thrust of victory before he just stared at her. She stared back, blinking slowly. Her weird reptilian eyes staring right into his very human looking ones. Could this be a staring contest? Man, she'd totally win that too.

Xala scoffed, giving him an offended look - had she been read so easily? "We didn't take you for having such an ego, Iron Fisty Guy," She got up slowly, rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck in the process. Loosening up, more or less. "You're just headed where we're headed and we wanted to tag along." And then she held her bag possessively, giving him a long look, "We'll give you our bag when you give us your name."

[If you mind a little manhandling, I can edit my post. But Castor tends to do this kind of thing]

He didn't waste time stepping forth and grabbed her entire face with one hand, pressure crunching against her bones and more than ready to snatch her head from her body, and he yanked the bag from her hands and shoved her away, releasing her from that face hold.  He pulled it open, letting all its contents fall to the ground.

He silently rummaged through it, taking the food and throwing all the other unessentials off the mountain, throwing them miles away.

Well that unimpressive.

Xala stuck her tongue out and licked his palm while he tried to squeeze her face. Could he feel through the gauntlets? The pressure on her was from his hand made her wince but she let him rifle through her things and watched while he tossed the not important things with a sigh.

"You don't look twelve. Were you raised in a barn?"

"Why do you ask?"  He didn't really care what she had to say and went about eating the food she'd held for ransom, eating it all voraciously.  He wiped his mouth with his gauntlets and dusted them off as if they were hands.

"Were you raised in a castle and exposed to fine dining and being served on a silver platter?"

"You're disgusting," Xala started, her hands on her hips. A sigh and she scuffed her boot against the ground. Good thing she wasn't following him because liked him, or she would have been very disappointed. "Do you not know how to live..." She motioned to the general area, "do you just run?"

"Are you asking because you genuinely want to know something, or are you just trying to annoy me?" His tone was surprisingly patient, and he just crossed his arms over his chest.

Giving a roll of her eyes she smiled, mirroring his stance. "We're curious about you. You threw a tree at us."  Xala shifted her weight and rolled her shoulders.  "You're not prepared, you're obviously hungry. We don't mean to annoy you, you just have a short temper and little patience."

He actually grinned at her.  "I think you do. Look at yourself.  You're tickled pink," he said and quirked a brow at her.  "This is how you get your kicks huh?"

Xala grinned brightly, "you throwing the tree at us got us going a little bit, we can appreciate a strong being." Her arms went up and she stretched, moving to keep out of arms reach from iron fisty guy, "we're a bit of an antagonist, we'll admit. You're so quiet and broody. It interests us."

"I'm not that interesting.  You want my gauntlets  don't you?"  He held them out for to take.  "Go on.  You can have them."

Xala just stared at him and frowned deeply, but she moved closer with her hand extended.  Gently she touched the gauntlets, following then up his arm. Wrapping both hands around one of his she gave it a light squeeze. Almost immediately she pulled her hands away like she's been burned and gave him a sympathetic look. "You're not wearing those because you want to." It was a statement and she just stared, slightly horrified at the idea of someone else being forced into a situation not too unfamiliar.

Castor just shrugged.  "They won't come off, no matter what I've tried. Ripping my arms off didn't seem to work. My bones apparently have a real hard time breaking."  He shrugged again.  "In this mountain is one piece of a key to remove them.  Or that's the plan anyway.  I don't want them.  And I think if you had them, you wouldn't want them either."

Curious again she reached to take one of his hands, giving him a weary look and ready to jerk away if he grabbed her by the throat or decided to bash her face in. While he spoke she examined the gauntlets, pressing her palm to his and generally just being curious instead of interested. "Let us help." She didn't let go of his hand, "we'll help you try to remove then, we don't want to wear them." And she wouldn't have to run away with his whole arms.  Everyone wins.

"You can't help me," he said plainly.  "This is not your quest or mission or whatever you want to call it.  Best thing for you to do would be to stay here until I come out of there.  And then if they come off, good.  You're free to keep them.  If not, then that's that.  You'll find better treasure elsewhere."

"Quest and missions are for knights on white horses," she scoffed taking her hands away before giving him a look, "not for bandits and men wearing cursed gauntlets. We have goals." Xala moved her hands to her hips and sighed. "Are you waiting for us to grant you permission to carry on? You can throw trees, you know we can't stop you."

Castor rolled his eyes at her.  "Why do you want them anyway? To sell I imagine?"

"We have a friend who is interested in...." She nodded towards the gauntlets, "things like those." Xala shrugged. "But yes. They're interesting. Unfortunate." Gently she chewed her lip and moved to stand closer in a state of false sense of security. "Can we know your name yet?"

He wasn't looking for her pity, if that's what she thought.  He cleared his throat and shrugged.  He considered just walking away, after all what good would it do to tell her if this venture was all that would come to pass between them.

"Castor," he said before turning and walking away from the edge.

"Castor?" Xala repeated, blinking owlishly for a moment. That was begging for a nickname. Or a pun. "Well, it's nice to meet you." Sort of. Remember that he threw a tree. Remember that he threw a tree. Remember that he threw a tree. 

Like a little duckling Xala followed Castor. "We want to come anyway. Maybe there will be things more interesting than your hands."

"I hope so too," he said, glancing his shoulder and even offered the witch-woman looking thing a small smile.  It didn't last when he peered up on that task of climbing even more hills and cliffs.  He looked up at the way before him and estimated a flat landing at the top.  Climbing would take forever.

And he would burn more energy that he couldn't afford to waste.  He paused and turned to Xala.  "Get on my back.  I have an idea," he said and waited for her to do so.  "This will be a lot faster.  If you fall off, remember that was your fault and not mine."

"We're not sure how it would be your fault if we lost our grip," She started, eyeing him as a whole. His idea seemed like a bad one - even though she didn't know it. The extra weight would throw him off at least but... What was living if you didn't take risks.

Without ceremony Xala hopped onto Castor's back, wrapping her legs around his torso and her arms around his neck. She wasn't as light as a feather and she was almost waiting for the grunts and groans and the 'nevermind, get off.' "We're ready when you are."

"Good.  Now gold on, Splatterbrain," Castor mumbled as he crouched low on the ground.  He waited, taking a few deep breaths, and pushing his energy into his legs.  The gauntlets granted him strength beyond that of his upper body.  His entire form was capable of great feats, and this way, no matter how strong, was certainly faster than climbing.

Castor gave a few bounces in his legs before he leapt up with everything he had and bounded a hundred feet into the air and then some, reaching the lip of the landing he'd been eyeing earlier.  He landed with a hard roll, dirt scraping all over his skin and landed hard on Xala.

"What the fuck!" Xala called, her grip tightening around his throat and torso and she was very aware when he moved to land on her. A loud grunt, her arms tightened around his neck and her legs tightened even further and she gasped for breath. Her head hurt, she couldn't breath. Giving one sharp pull with her arms she let her arms flop and she wiggled away from him to get onto her hands and knees to pant.

If she had been human that probably would have crushed her. As it was she just had her breath knocked out of her, "You did that on purpose." The words were strained and she gave choking gasps before she took a shaky breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Xala sat back on her knees and continued to breath deeply, staring at the ground.  A few more breaths and she gave him an amused once over, taking in the image of him instead of the guy that throws trees "We sure hope you don't fuck like you land." And then she stood up and began to look around, curious as to where they were to go next.

Castor shot here a glare.  "I did not," he said defensively.  "It's faster.  And I just had a bad landing.  You're a little weighty.  Never the less, that is not the only hill to scale.  And I'm not waiting at the bottom."

He huffed again and bent his knees to jump after dusting himself off.  The scrapes would knit on their own.  And unless Xala didn't want to climb up by herself, she better get on.

A little weighty. "Well duh, we're not some waif." A roll of her eyes and she gave a quiet groan and hopped onto his back. There would be bruises on her back that she would worry about later. It was after she wrapped herself around his back that she paused to really think about what she was doing.

The gauntlets weren't coming off, she could tell that much.

Was this fun?

Not really, this Castor guy was a dick.

It was new though. Something she hadn't done before. Something for her to experience as... Herself. Instead of something that was familiar in some way to one part of her and strange to another.

Xala tucked her head next to Castor's, practically pushing her face against the side of his head and got ready to be landed on.

Castor braced himself for a rough landing once he launched himself into the air a second time.  No, he decided he wouldn't land on her this time, not that he had much control over that.   He reached the second hill with a grunt, managing to pull himself up on the legde and crawling in his hands and knees until he dropped into a seating position.

He turned to try to look at Xals. "You're choking me," he coughed.

Xala decided she didn't enjoy pseudoflying. It was a weird sensation and she supposed the jumping didn't help. Squeezing her eyes shut and tucking herself closer to his back she gave a grunt when they landed and was still clinging to his back when they landed and he took a seat. Her arms moved from his neck and she flopped back, her legs still around his torso before she moved those away.

"Apologies." Xala rolled away, pressing a hand to her back and patting the ache from it. "Are we done yet? Is it nap time?"

"Forget it, no trouble," he said with a nod.  "I think we take a few moment's rest.  My legs feel like noodles.  It might be a good time to get some food too...since I ate all of yourse.  Maybe there are some goats or other critters running around."

There was no way this man wasn't mentally ill. When they'd met he'd torn the earth apart simply to keep her away, now he's being civil and nice (sort of.) Xala rolled away from him after pulling her legs from around him and standing up, giving her limbs a wiggle to make sure everything was fine.

There was a surprised gasp when she stood up fully, wincing and moving down to her knees.  "You're lucky we're not human." A slightly pained gasp before she stood up and stretched again, "You landing on us would have crushed us otherwise." Another groan and she looked around, giving the area a look. Castor got an unamused look when he mentioned eating all her food like she didn't already know that.

"Do you know how to hunt?" Judging by how hungry he'd been, she would guess that no, he didn't know how to hunt something with his fists.

Castor had survived on his own longer than he'd known this woman.  He gave her an unimpressed look and rolled his eyes.  "You hunt.  You bring back the food," he said, and stood, pointing toward the trees.  "Find something other than berries. Put your claws and teeth to good use."

Simply she rose an eyebrow, pushed her dark red hair behind her ear and just stared at him. The silver scales on her cheeks went to her ear ears and they glinted in the sunlight. Her arms crossed over her chest and she was about to argue with him when she realized he was right. In a manner of speaking.

Xala probably could hunt better than this hunk of muscle and iron. "We'll be back in a bit, Cas." Pushing her coat back she took her dagger from her belt, gave him a little wave and stalked off into the trees. Half of her was expecting him to be gone by the time she got back. He hadn't bathed though so, following his scent wouldn't be difficult.

Sure enough, a bit was about a half hour and she returned with two rabbits. They wouldn't be the most nutritious meal but it would fill their bellies. So, she tossed the dead rabbits at Castor, "We killed them, you cook them."

Castor had been sitting legs criss-cross on the ground, just getting his bearings when Xala reappeared.  As smug and as weird looking as ever.  He stared up at her and then the rabbits.  He wondered if maybe he ought to have caught the meal instead.  At least then she could go about the task of skinning it around their little crushed skulls and he wouldn't make a complete mess.

But if they were going to eat, they were going to get messy anyway.

He worked quickly and silently.  Fingers worked deftly at removing the skins and separating the meat from the bones.  With that done, cooking the meat wasn't any large task.  It wasn't fancy but it would work.

"How did you catch them?" he asked idly, not moving his eyes away from the fire he'd made from the sparks of his gauntlets.

Xala took a seat across from Castor and watched him, sitting cross legged with her head in her hand. Bored now, she watched as he worked, taking notice of how easily the gauntlets moved with his hand. Questions itched to be asked but this fellow seemed to go crazy when things involved his hands so, she stayed quiet.

"With our eyes." Xala said quietly, eyes flicking from the fire to his face to the rabbits. "We are intimidating and the rabbit goes still in fear, and then we kill it." Shrugging like it was no big thing - which it wasn't. Giving her lips a lick she eyed caster over the fire. "Do you just... Slam your fist on the things you eat?" A grin and she turned her attention to the ground, drawing intricate designs with the tip of her finger.

"Not if I want to eat mush all the time," he said laughter genuine.  "I prefer to eat in taverns or inns, but that isn't really available at the moment."   He turned the rabbit over on his hands and tossed her a piece when it was cooked enough.  There were no spices to augment the flavor, but beggars couldn't be fancy. Castor cooked the rest of the pieces evenly, though his piece was a little charred.

"What do you do Xala?" he asked "I mean for a living."

With an apitite Xala ate the rabbit. There was no effort to eat like a lady and her sharp teeth tore meat and before long she was wetting her hands and wiping them off on her pants. Castor got a quick glance at his question and she went quite for a moment. "We find interesting things people may like and sell them." She paused, giving his gauntlets a look. "Did they change you? More than just physically, we mean."

Castor examned his hands, now filthy with blood again and he shrugged.  "I don't know," he answered honestly.  "I get real bad nightmares, nightmares I never had before I put them on.  Maybe that counts.  I feel more desperate I guess.  I just want them off.  Maybe even destroyed.  They'd do nobody any good good."

He at a little more delicately than Xala, if only to savor the food while the opportunity remained.  It was tasty enough, and he wasn't about to complain.  Not about that anyway.  "So the man lived?  The one that told you about the Gate?"

Quietly she listened, surprised he would tell her these things when he'd been so violent earlier. Her back still ached and she shuffled over on her back to lay down, looking sideways at him from the ground. His question about the man made her eyes snap open from their closed state and she just stared at him, confused.

Still laying down, her hands behind her head, propping her up, she frowned slightly. "We guess so. He was talking. Was that you who did the beating or..." She nodded towards his gloves like they were a different being entirely.

He gave her a short quick laugh.  "No need to skirt around it.  Yes, I did it," he said and held put his hands as if to examine them.  "I guess they're as much apart of me as I am to them."

He was content to eat now in silence and ripped the meat from the bones with his teeth, and even sucked the juices from the bones.  "So what are you?  I remember something about two people in you.  Or you were barking about something."

No need to skirt around. Sure there was, Xala didn't want him bringing down the whole mountain. When he held out his hands to examine them she leaned in a little to look at them too. There was no way those weren't cursed. Nightmares being a good indicator. Also them being literally his arms. Slowly she moved closer, taking shuffling movements to sit beside him to look at his hands.

The question took her aback and her pupils inflated from little slits to large discs. Her heart began to beat quickly and she quickly looked away, frowning deeply. Her hands moved to her chest and she pressed her palm to the space below her collar bone. "We're ... " She paused, giving him a long look before letting her head duck down, "Broken." Another steady breath, an attempt to calm herself.  "We're sisters. We were sisters."

There was a distinct effort not to look down at herself, instead she focused on Castors lips. Just staring. "We were twins, and twins of what we are, are broken." She pressed a hand to her cheek, to brush along the silver scales. The closet she'll ever get to being fully what she is. "Xana was dying. So Tala saved her. Now... They're..." Xala made a face, stared out ahead and her pupils contracted again. The word, such a simple word for anyone else was like poison in her mouth, "me."

The face she made when she'd spoken the last word was almost comical, but she look disgusted and stood up quickly. "We were supposed to seperate when Xana healed." She threw her arms out and let them drop back to her sides, "We can't. We're stuck. They're both gone and it's our... My... fault." Xala stared at the ground for a moment, giving Castor a look, giving his gauntlets a look.

"If we can help, we would like to separate you from those. We can relate."

Castor remained silent during her telling of the tale.  He didn't always feel compelled to speak, not like some people that ran at the mouth.  He kept his eyes on the fire at first before peering up at her.  Two people?  He looked her over, as if imagining seeing another face pop out of her neck or something.  That would be a sight. 

"That makes sense.  Why you're so cuckoo, I mean.  Xana and Tala.  Xala," he said with a nod.  He too stood.  It looks like the waiting around was enough for the both of them and now would be a good time to venture on once more.  He stamped out the fire with dirt, covering it up and kicking around the ashes.

"Your sentiments are appreciated.  I'm not sure you can help, but nevertheless...thanks."  He gave a small smile.  He gestured to the path through a thickened wood of dead trees that sprawled out along the mountain side.  Further around the bend, it seemed, they were entering into a cave.

Well, at least he tried.

Xala rolled her eyes after a moment, a small entertained smile on her face. At least she'd gotten to have her mopey moment and now it was gone. His lack of faith in her ability to help him made her scoff and she followed to where he'd indicated. The dead trees sent shivers down her spine. Casting a glance over her shoulder towards Castor she frowned but continued, staying quiet.

"Oh, yaaaay, we love caves." Xala commented upon seeing the entrance. The sarcasm was heavy on her voice and she grimaced after looking at it. She didn't go in, instead she smiled brightly at Castor and motioned him, "Gentleman first.:

Castor paused and glanced at her with a quirked brow.  "Gentleman first?" he griped.  "I don't see any gentlemen around here.  Splatterbrains first I guess."  He was talking about himself of course, but he did go on ahead as instructed, holding his breath as if somehow the darkness would smother him.

Splatterbrains?

Xala watched him go on ahead, sighing for a moment about her tossed things. If he hadn't been so rash and thrown her stuff over the cliff she would have had enough stuff to make a decent torch. As it was, there was nothing. Nothing except dead trees and literal fire breath.

After he started to go into the cave, Xala snapped off a rather large branch. Giving a test to the weight she followed after Castor. Finally, engulfed in the darkness she brought the dried dead branch to her lips and blew. At first it was just heated air, the tip of the wood going red and smoking. Then there was fire. 

Xala held up the Soon-To-Be-Burnt-Out-Torch above her head. "Do you know where we're supposed to be going? Our eyes are better than yours," She said softly, which was clearly on display by the blown pupils. Her eyes very much looked like a cat that wanted to play, "If you have a general idea, we can lead."

Yes, leading with a torch was a much better idea.  Castor turned and waited for her to catch up with him, light in tow.  "You stay ahead of me.  The only real navigation I can go by are why I've seen in my dreams."

He took a deep breath and followed behind into the first embrace of darkness.  "The Gate is somewhere deep inside the mountain.  It was only partly revealed to me.  When the ground turns to glass, I saw that much.  Shiny, like steel."

Xala gave a skeptical look over her shoulder. His dreams. This was from his dreams. Weren't those nightmares? Why would he be headed somewhere that showed up in nightmares. That was like getting naked, rolling in grease and sitting outside a dragon cave- the chances of that ending with you as a snack were too good.

Still, she wanted to help. Gods above knew why. A moment of insanity. Maybe she could get him to throw another tree at her before they parted ways. "The..." She looked down, at the rock ground. Glass. Shiny like steel but glass. "Well, okay." She cleared her throat gently and resumed walking, taking careful steps. Who knew if this cave was booby trapped. Xala wasn't keen on having to regrow a foot, all those scales. All that shedding. Eugh.

"Have you gone to a place in your dreams before?" Xala asked, keeping her voice quiet because maybe bats would happen, "This is new to us."

[Regrow a foot! 8D]

Castor kept close behind her, close enough to watch the light spread ahead of them.  Perhaps it was foolish to go to a place simply because he'd seen it in his dreams.  Well, dreams, nightmares.  They always blended into one eventually.  He never slept anymore.  Not well, at least.  And anything that might result in a dream would lead to restlessness, and voices in his head.

Or that's what he was afraid of.

Castor blinked hard, formulating shadows into ordinary things that would bring no harm.  There was a chitter he heard off into the distance.  One that made him jump a little, at least.  He knew they weren't going to be alone up ahead.  He just hoped whatever it was, was small enough to be squashed with his boot.  It'd be a bad idea to knock something around in a cave like this lest they never see the light of day again.

[Yup. Regrow a foot. 8D You thought that was a typo, huh? Nooooope.]

Still she led the way, taking careful steps, going deeper into the mountain. There had been little prep on the wooden branch and Xala looked at it as the fire ate the wood at an alarming rate. Soon enough they would be engulfed in darkness. Xala didn't mind it, she could still see to some degree. Castor however. How would he react?

Soon enough, her glove was off, stuffed into her pocket and she was holding the last bit of wood. "Don't move for a moment." Her voice was even as the fire licked up between her fingers and eventually, after a few stuttering moments, it died.

They were surrounded by darkness.

A quiet sigh and she stopped moving, holding an arm out, stiff in case Castor decided to not listen to her and instead bash into her. The dying embers were dropped from her hand and she listened. Soon enough everything was visible, though oh so very faint.

Now that the lights were out, they weren't alone.

Scittering from further ahead.

Xala strained to see, legs. Eyes. So many legs. So many eyes. "How do you feel about cave spiders? Good terms?" Her hand went to her dagger and she pressed her back to Castor's chest in an effort to make him back up and press him between herself and the wall they were following. Waving his arms around would just get him hurt in the darkness.  The cave was slowly branching out and what sounded like an army (which couldn't be to many, eight legs and all) was coming for some fresh food.

"I can't say I'm fond of them," Castor said pointedly and was soon squashed between the wall and Xala and shrouded in darkness.  The shadows suffocated him, and Castor took in a deep breath, holding it in his lungs for a few seconds before releasing it in a slow breath that pushed past Xala's hair.  No, he was not a fan of spiders.

Much less the ones that liked to linger in cave and feast upon their liquefied insides!

Castor shifted along the wall, with Xala against him, flattening themselves so that maybe the spider might not notice them, or maybe if it did would think it too was an eight-legged something or other and leave it the hell alone!  Castor felt something hairy brushing against the side of his arms and the chittering was right in front of the both of them.

The chittering was right in front of them and soon enough Xala felt things on her leg. A quiet gasp she leaned as far away as she could, before going completely still. A quiet gasp from Xala and the spider made a noise and bolted away. Soon enough the small herd of spiders had passed and her hand went to her thigh, hissing quietly. "Fucker bit us." She gasped quietly before looking down at her hand and giving it a way. The sound of something wet could be heard hitting rocks.

With her clean hand she sought out Castor's metal one and resumed walking. Quickly this time. They weren't too far in, but she could smell less stale air from one of the tunnels the spider's had come from. So she headed that way, they could back track - Well, Xala could. A few turns of her tugging Castor along behind her they finally reached a more cavernous area, less tunnel-ie.

There was some light filtering in through, a ways away. "We didn't go the wrong way, we'd smell it, so we're not at the start." She took a few more steps towards the light, frowning at it. It would be daytime still outside. "Was there an underground ...Mountain Oasis in your dream? We hope that's what's there."  Really. Her leg was starting to sting and she wanted to wash it off. She supposed she could use her tongue but... Reaching her thigh was always such a pain.

"Wait! What?" Before he couls further question her, already she was dragging hi. Along toward another tunnel and he could see light, vaguely, at the end of it.  He blocked his eyes a little when the light strengthened.  "I can't say that I did.  My dreams don't usually show bright places."

But already the smell of fresh air and green spread out before them as they emerged from the tunnel, and out spread a green grove, hidden between cliffs and trees.  But Castor was not taken with that surrounding beauty, and instead looked to Xala.  "Let me look at your leg.  It doesn't look good."

Her leg stung - giant spider face daggers generally were unkind to flesh - but still she kept on. They were outside. Sort of. Outside in an inside way. Xala looked up at the sky and took a deep breath, turning, slightly shocked, towards Castor when he ignored the fact they were out for now and instead demanded to see her leg. It was just a bite.

Xala sighed and turned around, moving to sit down and show her leg. It was bleeding. Not normal blood though. The colour of this blood was silver the smell was sickly sweet almost begging to be ingested and she winced, getting a look at it. Or not a look at it, if her pants had anything to do with it. Deciding that perhaps not ruining her pants was a better course she shuffled out of those, hissing and grinding her teeth when it pulled past the bite.

Now wearing her pants to her knees, Castor's demand was mostly forgotten about while she looked at her bare thigh. "Do you have a cloth?" Probably not, but she didn't so maybe, just maybe, he kept something from her bag,  "We don't want you to touch this, our blood is very deadly and you might burn your ha..." Xala paused and looked at his hands, his curse. "Well, those might be fine. Can you feel anything with them?"

[Good thing her blood is deadly, or he might've proposed to suck the poison from her thigh 8D]

Castor shook his head at her.  "I don't feel a thing," he said and knelt to inspect the bite.  Maybe it wasn't so bad.  But he didn't know how spider venom would affect blood like hers.  He'd never seen anything like it!  It was fascinating to look at and he poked her thigh around the wound.

"I don't have anything else I'm afraid.  But maybe I can squeeze the poison out.  Would it even affect you?  Kill you?"

[tsk. Missed opportunity on her part.]

Xala frowned, paused and stared at him.

"We don't know."

Another look at her leg, the bite. Was there venom? There hadn't been as much bleeding as there should have been. Her heart began to beat faster and she moved her hands to the wound, pressing along the skin. "We don't know how venom will work we've never been bitten before." It bit her. That was the first step, did that still count?

Xala grabbed his hand and went tense. Went pale. There was a faraway look in her eyes while she stared intently at something across from where she was half laying. "It's not feeling so good." she gave a half smirk and squeezed her eyes shut, giving a little shudder, a gentle sigh. "Will squeezing the venom out work?" She stared at him for a moment before wincing and turning away, while pain shot through her veins her limbs felt heavy and useless. "Try anyway."

Castor was starting to panic and for no particular reason.  Hadn't it been his intent to get rid of this meddling woman?  And now here was a prime opportunity to see her undone.  He could throw her off the mountain and nobody would ever know!  But...he would.  And something in him could not allow himself to do it.

He snatched her up abruptly, carrying her in his arms as he ran through the grove and stopped at the edge of a small pond that had glistened in the sunlight.  He knelt down and laid her on the grass pulling her trousers from her feet, shoving her boots off to the side.  He took her leg in hand and gently squeezed it, as easily as he could pushing blood outward and cupping one hand and running water over it, watching the blood away.  He continued this method time and again and noticed the blood turned a very different color, almost a metallic green and smelled very differently than that of the silver.

Xala's head lolled to the side and her arms felt heavy. The tips of her fingers were tingling and she felt her eyes close for a moment, her head jerking up and giving Castor a confused look and was about to yell at him for touching her boots before she remembered why she was so out of it. The cool water made her gasp but soon enough she had her head on the ground and her breathing was steady while Castor did his work.

"Gods above." Xala gasped, clenching her teeth, staring at the blood. "Maybe... Maybe we shouldn't have kept walking." She gave a smirk before wincing again, her fingers digging into the earth. At least he was able to still get at it. Some of the venom had made it's way into her system and she was feverish and shaky. The wound would be hot, the green blood would smell awful. "Castor," it was quiet and she let her eyes droop closed, "Thank you," A small smile played on her lips, "Your hands feel nice against our leg. So does the water. You can touch our thigh anytime."

Castor stared at her.  "Touch your? Oh, right.  Sorry," he said and took his hands away.  He looked at her wound and poked around them.  "Is it still tender?"

"No!" She grabbed his hand, party to keep him from poking at the wound and partly to press the flat of his hand against it. "It feels good." With her face in the grass she took calm steadying breaths. "We don't suggest being bit my spiders. It stings."

Castor frowned and grew flustered.  "What are you doing!?"

"Soothing our hurt with your hand," she looked over at him, frowning slightly. "It burns and your hand feels nice. Why?"

"Because you're not at all weirded out by a stranger's hand on your thigh?"  He didn't exactly have a problem with it, but well maybe that's what bothered him. At least she didn't ask him to massage her leg.

"We've had sex with people we've known shorter than you," a smirk and she let go of his hand, still laying on the grass. "If you're uncomfortable, we apologize." A deep breath and she blew it out slowly, "we'll be fine in a few minutes."

At that Castor smirked and he actually laughed.  He washed his hands in the water and washed them over his hair and head and face.  "Aw man, what have I gotten myself into? And with such pleasant company in tow," he said, scoffing to himself.  "You're, uh, not that bad I guess.  Just weird." And he grinned at her.

The laugh was pleasant and she found herself smiling in return, moving to sit up with a grunt and looking down at the wound. It was still angry and red, but the blood was silver like it should be and she simply pressed her ungloved hand over it for a moment. The venom that had gotten into her system was making her feel warm and shaky, but luckily most of it had been... Expelled. "You're only saying we're pleasant because we're not wearing pants and because we taste bad to spiders." She teased, an eyebrow tweaking up and a small smile on her face.

The wound being open would prove to be a problem.

Xala looked towards her boots and pants and moved to her hands and knees to crawl to them, grabbing her pants first and just frowning at them. Giving a tsk she removed her coat and then pulled off her shirt, setting her clothing in a pile before moving to the pond. It wasn't big enough to swim in, but she wasn't about to get her clothing more wet than it needed to be when they weren't going to be in the sun for long.

"We should use the water while we can. The spiders probably smelled us and you." Could spiders smell? Who cared. She didn't go into the water, just knelt in front of the pond with no care of being naked. The scales at her cheeks wrapped back around her neck and trailed down her spine, the wound at her thigh was also now sporting some scales around the edges. Her large eyes just stared at him, tilting her head and giving him a curious look, "Last chance to be somewhat clean and refreshed before we go back into a dark smothering cave. We'll wait for you to use it  - if you want - before we do."

Castor sat back on his haunches, not at all pretending not to look at Xala undressing because, well, she was so damn odd.  Her scales in particular were someone fascinating.  And he wondered if her blood wouldn't just kill the spider that bit her outright.  He was thankful that the gauntlets for once actually provided something useful to him.

"Why would we have to wait?" he said, not quite understanding.  It was really no skin off his nose if she wanted to bathe.  "You do as you please."  He stood then and quickly undressed, keeping his clothes elevated from the ground, on a boulder and he dove into the pond.

Politely Xala turned her gaze away when Castor removed his clothes. She did look to his clothing on the rock, while her own there thrown on the ground. Clear personality difference right there. The splash of water had her jerk out of her thoughts and she just frowned at him before standing and walking into the pond. The water was cool and she gave a content sigh after wading to her knees. A deep breath and she waded in farther and while soothing on the wound, it stung and she squeezed her eyes shut.

And then she just sat down.

And then back up, her messy red hair plastered to her neck and face before she stood up again, the water to her hips. "Do those weigh you down?" A pointed look to his gauntlets, "We can't swim, but we imagine those don't help you do it, either." Xala turned her attention to her own hands, giving them a few flexes. "Does it feel like your hands are asleep? Sometimes we sleep funny on our shoulder and our whole arm is sort of... Floppy and we can't feel it for a while."

Castor had waded out a ways away, enough to be about waist deep in the water.  He wasn't modest, but nor did he feel any particular need to wave anything around.  He didn't have time for that kind of nonsense.  There were things to do.  He glanced off at her, watching her a little from the corner of his eyes.  Admittedly, she was a nice looking distraction.

Those scales certainly were fascinating to look at.

"I don't feel anything most of the time.  But when I do feel, it hurts.  Like a vice grinding into my skin.  Maybe it's a burning kind of numbness.  I'm not really sure how to describe it," he said gently, examining his gauntlets.  "You should rub it out."

He gestured to her arms.  "When it falls asleep.  Rub it out. Do it real quick and you'll feel the blood flowing again."  He gave a small smile and pointed to his.  "When a shoulder would stiffen up in the mines, you pop it out and give it a good shake, then it's back to work again.  If you're back went out, well, good luck getting out.  Let alone back to work."

A sympathetic look towards his hands and she turned to just watch him. Usually she just flopped the sleeping arm around until it got that awful tingling feeling and then all was fine. There was some interesting information about him though. A mine? She looked at him, giving him more of a calculated once over. A look an opponent would give you before picking a fight. Taking in his good features.

And noticing him trying to sneak peeks.

Xala smiled, "We'll remember if we sleep on our arm again." She moved closer, pushing her hair from her face and over one shoulder. "You seem interested." She didn't say about what, of course it was her scales, but making him feel awkward for a bit would be fun. "Would you like to look closer?"  And she moved closer... and slowly turned around, presenting her back, the scales blended seamlessly with her skin, giving an odd sparkle in the sunlight. "They're harder than your skin, far more useful. When we heal, we make scales first and then those shed and we have ..." She looked at her arm, "Just skin."

Castor was focusing on cleaning himself, or trying to what with massive metal gauntlets on his hands.  And tried his damnedest to mind his own business.  Because really, as weird as Xala was, or as interesting, he was accustomed to bathing alone.  It wasn't the being naked with her that bothered him.  He was okay with being naked and bathing, as long as it wasn't together.  As long as the awareness of one another was kept to a minimum.

He turned to her with a jump.  "Huh!?  What!?"  Did she just offer her skin to him!?  "No!  I -"  He stared at her for a time, trying to turn back and continue scrubbing his hands through his hair.  "No.  No..."  He paused again and looked at her back.  "Well, okay."  And took the cold steel of his hands and ran them along her spine.

"Wait, this...isn't really working."  And he didn't know how he could effectively see how they felt like without the use of his fingertips.  He tried an elbow, but that was too pointy.  So instead he hesitantly leaned in and pressed his cheek to her shoulder blades.  "Whoa.  This is...so weird."

Jumpy.

The tree chucker was jumpy. Maybe he was shy? Xala smirked, looking over her shoulder and before she knew it he wasn't so jumpy and she had a cool hand along her spine. It made her shiver, she wasn't expecting him to touch her. The shiver went away and she started to chuckle at the elbow, and flat out laughed when he planted his face on her back. "We guess you'll get a really good look that close, don't lick them, we've been told they taste like metal." Not that she was speaking from experience or anything.

"Do you have any nicknames? Your name is too long." She looked over her shoulder at him, content to let him rub his face along the scales on her back for as long as he saw fit... No matter how weird it was.

As weird as it felt, it also felt kind of nice.  Oh, and of course she had to mention how they tasted.  And he really couldn't help his curiosity.  His tongue flicked on he spine and he got an odd metallic taste as described.  "They're right," he said and continued to run his face along her back.  He was up to her shoulder and just let his chest lay against her back.

"Castor is short enough," he said.  "Before you were content to say 'Iron Fisty Guy'"

The tongue on her back made her jerk and she just stared wide eyed over her shoulder. Was this guy kidding? This guy wasn't kidding. You didn't lick strangers. Well, apparently he did. Xala's cheeks grew warm and she just stood there, not quite believing how content this guy seemed plastered to her back. He was either very lonely or... Extremely lonely.

At least he hadn't tried to beat the shit out of her after she flashed him. That was nice of him.  "Well, we'll let all future lovers know to not lick the scales for sure." she shook her head, entertained and then grinned. "But Castor is your name. Iron Fisty Guy was when you didn't have a name, and now that we know your name, we think you should be..." She tilted her head, moving a hand up to tap at her lips, turning around completely so he got a faceful of breasts instead of back scales.

"Cassie."  Xala nodded and rested a hand on top of his head, "The best names end in vowels."

Castor stood straight, more surprised at her choice of nickname than the breasts pillowing against his face.  He frowned, clearly in dismay.  "I like Castor better.  It's my name, and I don't call you something silly like Tanaxa or something," he said, mocking her two names that were one now.  "It's short and easy to remember.  Why a nickname anyway?  We're temporary companions.  There's no need."

Grinning now, she put her hands on her hips and just looked up at him. "Temporary companions! You wound us! You've licked our back. That means we're friends, Castor." Xala fell back into the water with her arms out but instead of floating.... She just sunk. Eventually her head and shoulders popped up out of the water and she looked at him. "Can you swim?"

[He licked her back.  Clearly they're soulmates now]

Castor scowled at her, but he didn't punch her.  This was progress.  And progress was good, right?

"Yes, I can swim.  And I don't see how that's relevant.  We're not friends.  We're just traveling together, okay?  That's the gist."  And with that he gave an indignant sniff and splashed her a little. 

[I think that's if he licks her cheek scales. Back scales are friend scales, so he's safe!]

Denial was a heady drug and Castor had many heaping spoonfuls of it. Xala had decided their friendship after he threw a tree at her, now she just had another silly excuse. The splash of water hit her full in the face and she stood up quickly, staring at him in shock. How childish! A wicked grin pulled across her lips, "We're in water! We've never learned how to swim, so we were just curious if you have!" And the 'you' was emphasized by the larger splash her hand slapped out of the pond towards Castor.

Castor spat out the water from between his cheeks.  "Yeah?  Well, here are the basics!"  He launched a poweful wave at her and proceeded with the lesson.

"There's the breaststroke!  And the BACKstroke!  And sidestroke!  And treading WATER!  And trying not to Drown!"  And with each word he splashed bigger and bigger waves at her until he snatched her by the shoulders and dunked her down for a few seconds!

"Upon coming back up!" he said, releasing her, "Its always imperative to take a deep breath!"

Each splash had her backing up, her hands in front of her face to keep the water from it. Just telling her things wasn't helping and she was glaring towards him. The hands at her shoulders were a surprise and too late, she gasped that surprised and received a mouthful of water. While she did try to shoot up instantly, the few seconds had her trying to cough out the water under the surface which just resulting more in her chest. Panic set in, her fingers flexed. Trying to grab anything.

When he released her, she didn't bob out of the water. Xala stayed down, the scales on her cheeks glittering in the sunlight that filtered through the water down to her relaxed looking face.

Castor smirked at first before panic began to set in.  "Tanaxa! Get up!" He pushed her gently at first and then pulled her torso out of the water and shook her. "Hey!"

Xala's body moved appropriately for being shaken. Still, her head fell back and her limbs were limp. Water did not agree with her more oxygen breathy parts.

When there was no response, Castor pulled her into the bank and put her head back.  He opened her mouth, took a deep breathand breathed into hers forcefully.

That was awful feeling.

Water was expelled out of her mouth and she quickly turned away, curling up onto her hands and knees and coughing violently. The coughing continued for a few moments before she turned around and punched Castor square in the jaw. It wasn't a little girl punch. Full out, every ounce of energy in her body went into it before she went weak and laid back down on the ground, still gasping for air.

Castor reeled back from the blow, holding his sore cheek.  He just stared at her as she continued to hack on the ground.

Xala glared up at him, laying on the ground not unlike a starfish. The fact he hadn't turned to beat on her had her sit up, a hand pressed against her chest. Swallowing carefully she glared at him for a few moments, "Thank you. You're a bad teacher."

Castor stared at her with great relief, plopping down beside her.  "Gods, I'm so sorry!  I wasn't intentionally trying to drown you."He put a hand on her shoulder and pat it.  "But at least you're not dead."

"We'd be very sad if we were dead." Xala gave Castor's hair a ruffle and then she onto her knees and stood up, her legs wobbly. The wound on her thigh was mostly covered by those same silver scales and she unsteadily walked towards her clothing, pulling on her pants first. There was a loud disgusted noise at the hole in the thigh. It took a few minutes longer to put everything on than it took to take off but eventually she was dressed and she shook out her hair. "We're done swimming."

A stretch and she looked towards Castor took a deep breath. "So. We're going down, right?"

Castor stood nude for a few minutes longer than she did and was at least relieved to find she still had a sense of humor even after almost drowning.  It was better than being bitter over being dead.  Not that even that would afford her much opportunity to do so.

"Yes, down, and through the mountain.  Or was it up?  Not sure, but we go through the other side of the grove."  He threw his clothes back on and  pushed her along.

Xala gave a heavy cough, wincing and giving a shudder. Eugh. She was mostly sure that she would be a-okay with never drinking water again. Except she'd die from no water. Which would also suck. A smirk over her shoulder she watched Castor dress, making it fairly obvious she was doing so mostly because she was standing there with her arms folded over her chest. Then they were off.

Back to reality. The reality of there being something he was doing and she was just tagging along. And the bastard threw her backpack over the cliff. "Well, glass is made from sand and heat." she supplied helpfully, having had an interest in it at one point in her life and having made sculptures. Or was that only one of her? It didn't matter. Not anymore. "So, we're going down. Where the heat is." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before they carried forward into the darkness.

At the entrance of the cave, she held out her hand, ready to hold onto Castor's and lead him forward into the darkness. "You can just hold onto the back of our coat if you don't want to hold our hand."

Castor always hated the darkness and it suffocating method of blinding nearly every sense.  He reached for Xala's hand and hissed, "I'm more afraid of turning your hand into mush.  Just lead on captain."  The air indeed was becoming more humid and breathing was difficult as the air burned against his nostrils.  Oh if they were getting close to the heat, he was feeling it on his face.

"It smells like sulfur down here," he complained.  "Like fire.  Really, really hot fire."

"We're not human, you'd have to try really hard to turn out hand into mush," She smiled over her shoulder to Castor before tugging him along. The area was dim, but she could see well enough and down they went, through twisting paths and soon enough the heat was building and she was stepping more carefully.

"Well, there's light." She looked down, "In the distance. We can see it. It's faint." She took a deep breath and yup, that was some hot fire. "You could have mentioned that we were going to be walking into the underworld." Xala said teasingly and held his hand still as they walked, taking careful steps, "You may have to walk on your hands soon, Castor." Just how much farther did this go down?

Probably too far.

[With the gauntlets he wouldn't have to try hard at all xD]

Castor followed along blindly in the dark, unt a dim, orange-ish glow flickered around a corridor.  He blinked, eyes adjusting to the light and the growing heat.  Already sweat beaded on his brow, and he was glad Xala had stopped them to take a dip in the grove pond.  He loosened his grip on her hand for a moment, just long enough to suddenly clamp down on it and pull her back.  The air burned his lungs yet that was secondary to the river of fire that coursed beneath them, and no clear path across but the stone ridges along the side.

"Well, ladies first," Castor said, shoving Xala in front.

This was unexpected.

What was this.

How was this even down here?!

Xala just stared, looking back at Castor with her mouth open and on eyebrow raised, she moved her hand and there was a non-verbal 'what the fuck'. "What the shit is this!?" She leaned to stare at it. Unlike Castor, she was not sweating. In fact, this was a good heat to nap in. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, giving him an unamused look at the 'ladies first'. Of course ladies first. She rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip.

"You can jump up a cliff but you can't jump over this?" A thoughtful look at his legs she moved towards the stone ridges, to the river of fire below. Her gloves were off again she put them into her pocket. Then she began to make her way across carefully, not keen on setting her clothes on fire should she fall anyway. Or regrowing all that more human-ie flesh, it took such a long time.

Castor pointed upward at her comment on just jumping across.  "As if that hadn't occurred to me?" he muttered and gave her a glare.  "The ceiling's too low.  I'd fall in before I'd even get across.  Why don't you just swim across, Dragon Lady?" he spat back and soon followed her with scaling the rocky ridges along the side. 

"Just keep shimmying.  What more are you good for?" he mumbled indignantly and kept shuffling along the side.  There wasn't much room for footing, but somehow he managed and only one boot slipped.  A rock fell into the lava and blooped upward.  He was sweating profusely and was thankful that he the gauntlets would allow his hands to slip. 

He turned back to the wall, moving across once again, not quite noticing the bubbling coming up from the surface of the river of fire, something moving from underneath and bursting through the surface.  It was a dragon forged only of the remnants of its bones, dripping with lava.

Xala rolled her eyes while shuffling, that was why it was called leaping. Whatever, that wasn't her problem, if all he could do was go up instead of go the distance then Castor was a one trick pony. "We can't swim in lava, that's still gonna hurt us. Also it's melted rocks, they're almost as dense as your skull." Unimpressed with him she resisted the urge to smack him when he told her to shimmy. What more was she good for? Plenty, thank you.  Like being observant.

The sound was the first thing she noticed and she looked over her shoulder and gasped.  What the fuck. "What the fuck!?" She cast a startled, feared look to Castor before she shimmied for all she was worth, leaping the last bit from the wall to the other side. A loose rock was in her hand and before long it bounced off the beasts skull. It's jaw's opened like it wanted to roar but no sound came out, instead, it used it's tail, lifted it out of the lava and flicked it towards her.

It was a shower of new fresh rocks ( still gooey on the inside ) and Xala hissed, covering her head with her arms while it rained down on her. The smell of burning fabric - the sleeves of her coat - filled the air.  She just needed to distract it long enough for Castor to get across and then he'd run for it like a smart boy, right? Right.

[Comparing Castor to a pony...  Oh Xala |8]

Castor hadn't been expecting that!  Though really with all his considerable luck, he should have.  Now, fortunately, wasn't the time for inward eye rolls or knocking against his own skull.  Now was the very real and important task of making it to the other side without falling into lava or being killed by a fucking skeleton dragon!

Castor almost shimmied across when the rest of the rock edge was smashed by a motion of the dragon's tail.  After flinging the rocks at Xala, the beast hooked claws onto the stone ledge where she resided and pulled them out from under her, and the ground quickly became brittle, breaking beneath her weight, and the cracks continued to spread outward from there.

Another swing of its tail.  Or so it tried to do.  Castor could not jump to the other side of the ledge unless he wanted to fall in, or be knocked down by the creature.  The dragon was more focused on Xala, and trying to swipe at her before Castor did jump from that wall.

He leapt off, kicking with everything he had and turning his body, landing with just enough velocity to snatch his gauntleted fists within the spaces between the dragon's vertebrae.  With no flesh to tear or blood to spill, all he could do was pound against the bones of the beast.  He pulled one rib apart, tossing it aside.

The dragon whirled around, trying to get at him, but he just moved with it and jumped off, landing hard on the other ledge, snatching Xala in one hand and pulling her into the tunnel.  Another claw sped for the tunnel, trying to reach in to snatch the two and tear them apart.

So, that was what burning felt like.

Xala was overcome by pain and she was taking small controlled breaths. Her right arm was completely scaled in silver, the sleeve was gone having burned off and she looked down at her arm, still smoking from the heat. The cracks were a secondary distraction. The last flick of it's tail sent a sweeping arc of lava at her and her arm paid the price for it. Her teeth sunk into her lip and she held her arm up and out, not enjoying the feeling of heat in a bad sense.

The noises were lost on her and before she realized she was being pulled along, her legs moving involuntarily. Something snapped in her and she got in the way of the claw, grabbing it at the last second and she gave one powerful yank. The whatever that kept it's bones together snapped and she held one claw'd hand in her grasp and she sunk her claws into it, cracking it in two. An inhuman snarl left her mouth and she took a deep breath and she began to sing. It was quiet. Almost inaudible. Castor would have to strain to hear it.

Still, the undead dragon went calm and she quickly turned around, pushing Castor as she went, keeping her over heated scaled arm up and away. She didn't want to burn him. Finally they were safely out of reach and she let out the pained gasp. "Burning hurts!" She shook her arm and looked at it closely, her arm looking more like someone had attached some sort of dragon limb on her. "The dragon is... Sleeping... If we meet it again though, it'll be super pissed off. He's undead, he won't like being lied to." Xala reached for Castor's hand in her good one, her ears straining to hear the beast.

"Today is bad. When do we sleep?"

Castor was in half a daze when they made it through the tunnel at last.  He had no sense of time, or awareness of what was happening outside these cavern walls.  All he'd been focused on was the mountain, he slowly realized.  He only considered now that he may not find what he was looking for after all.  That in the end all this excursion would do was kill him.

Perhaps both of them. 

Sure Xala wanted the gauntlets and Castor wanted his freedom.  All his life he'd been a slave; what if he never reached that end.  He had heard someone singing back there, a faint song he did not understand.  It was comforting in that moment, hanging on him like a wreath.  He slumped down beside the wall, dragging down into a sitting position.

"Yeah," he mumbled, staring into darkness, the glow of lava only brightening part of the corridor.

"We can rest now.  What else can we do?"

Xala was in a world of unfamiliar feelings. Unfamiliar pain. Cutting pain was one thing. Being bitten was entirely different. She couldn't believe how much her arm hurt and she held it out still, breathing softly while she looked at the limb steam. It was entirely covered by the delicate silver scales now and she was sure to hold it up and away in case Castor bumped into her. Surely it would have seared his tender human flesh.

"What else can we do?" Xala chuckled, giving him a look, "Probably a few things neither of us want to do." Though she didn't rattle them off she gave a pained sigh and carefully removed her coat, sitting beside Castor. Perhaps a bit too closely for his comfort. Their legs were touching, so probably much too close for his liking.

Carefully she put her coat on her lap and winced again, wiggling her newly scaled fingers. "Burning hurts. How can you silly humans stand fire when it hurts so bad to touch it?"

Truth be told, Castor wasn't really paying attention to anything happening outside of mind, that any physical contact was lost on him.  He was lost in thought until she spoke, and he remembered at last that she was the meddlesome dragon lady that wouldn't leave him alone. Castor sighed deeply, perhaps mostly in disappointment that this endeavor wasn't at all going as he had planned.  He opened the palm of his metal hands and inspected them.

"Not a scratch or a mark on them.  Like the heat didn't even matter," he mumbled before looking at her.  He noted her scaliness then.  "I'm sure you'll be feeling better soon.  It's not like you took a swim in it or anything."

Castor flexed his hands and looked more closely at her arm.  "I don't suppose licking it would be any help would it?" he said, voice dripping with dry sarcasm.

Frowning at him she stuck out her tongue and just looked at her arm while it slowly cooled off. "you can't swim in lava." Was her dry remark and she gave him a look before it turned into a grin. "Licking?" Xala's voice dropped and she rose an eyebrow at him, the pain from her arm momentarily forgotten in her quick attempt to tease him, "Are you offering?"

He stared at her blankly.  "Yes."

Huh.

Xala opened her mouth the silly teasing grin on her face, only to stare at him confused. There was no follow up after that and she simply looked to her arm before she frowned slightly. "We were teasing you. You would burn your tongue if you licked our arm." She reached over with her not-burning hand and gave his cheek a friendly pat, "Thank you though, Castor."

"I wasn't really going to lick your arm," he said, laughing and poking her knee as gentle as he could.  "Why tease? I nearly killed you, and drowned you, and got you to swim in some lava.  And yet you tease?  Why?"

Damn!

Lost this game of chicken. Next time she'd keep it up. Another squint at him and she watched him poke her leg, moving it back after he poked it to his what she cold of his leg with her own. A surprised look on her face and she laughed, smiling, "But we're not dead." She waved her arm again, it had cooled significantly and she placed it in her other hand, examining it for anything other than just burns.

A careful examination and she scratched at the scales, the noises they made sounded like metal tinking together and she sighed. This would take ages to heal. "When did you nearly kills up?" Xala tilted her head, leaning back to give Castor an odd look, "When you threw the tree at us?" She brightened up and leaned in, her voice going lower, "That just turned us on. We're not human, we won't die from that, Silly Boy."

"Teasing is fun, you're broody and we want to steal from you eventually but we don't want to lug both your arms around." Xala put her hands in the air and shrugged her shoulders, "So we tease. You have a nice laugh."

Castor blinked at her.  Because her positive response was not expected, but it was not unexpected, and it was otherwise refreshing.  She was an odd one.  Yes, that was the only word he could think of when he looked at her.  Odd.  Yes, definitely.  Her weird hair caught his attention for the moment and he reached up to ruffle his hands through it, making it all fuzzy and standing on end.   Some strands got caught in the joints of his gauntlets and he yanked them out by accident.

"Why would tree throwing turn you on?  I don't understand.  I was trying to ward you off.  But you're like a flea on a wolf, you just won't go away.  Hm....on the upside, you won't multiply like they do," he mumbled, trying to pluck the stay hairs from between his fingers.

[I think I love you and your attention to detail. I laughed way too hard at her hair getting stuck in his gauntlets.]

The hair yanking got him a quick leer and a quiet hiss and she moved her hand to rub at her scalp, which now hurt far worse than her arm did which was just a dull warm pain. Her fingers flexed again and she watched him pluck her red hair from his gauntlets. What a terrible neucence those must be, how did he pet puppies? Maybe Castor didn't even get to enjoy the company of puppies.

One day she'd get him a puppy.

For now though her grin was back and she was done rubbing her head. "Imagine the strength it takes to throw a tree, who cares if the strength is borrowed?" She made a purring noise, "Prime mate material, it's instinct!" Another moment of strange purring noises, remembering the tree throwing. Then he called her a flea and she just frowned at him all odd noises having stopped, "A flea? Stubborn. We don't leave when we have something we want. You don't need to worry about multiplying either, we only get really into the idea every few years and even then, we hide so that no actual multiplying happens."

Xala gave Castor a once over before she reached over to ruffle his hair, minus the hair pulling.

"Mate material?  I'm not a dragon man-thing like you are.  Or dragon-lady thing, sorry.  No, man.  That's definitely right," he said and smirked at his own mistake.  "Man-dragon."  He gave a snort and let the hairs caught in his guantlets flutter to the ground.

"Why do you have to hide?" he asked, looking at her a little more seriously now.  "Can't you just, I dunno, masturbate?"

Xala rolled her eyes, "We never said you were." Obviously he didn't understand, "Instinct. That base thing that makes you puff up and fight or run away. For us, throwing trees makes our insides twitchy." That was about the only human instinct right? Fight or flight?

"You're a metal-man." She supplied with a helpful before she just gave him a look and rose an eyebrow, "We hide so no one finds us." The 'duh' was unspoken but the look on her face said it louder than she ever could. "That would only make it worse, that would just..." Xala shuddered, "Make it way worse." She gave her hand a wave, "We don't work right compared to others of our kind, so we hide. Hiding is much safer. Perhaps we'll come back here and hang out with spiders next time." She gave the area a contemplative look before smiling back at Castor.

"Any other questions?"

Castor made an "oh" face and nodded.  There were still many more questions and he inspected her in such a way.  "Lots in fact," he said and poked her cheek with another stray finger.  "You look sorta normal to me.  And I guess that's not saying much," he mumbled.

"How don't you work right?"

Xala chomped her teeth at him and did catch his finger only to wince and pull away, making a face and licking her lips. "We look normal?" A single eyebrow rose and she relaxed more, giving castor more odd looks. "We just... Don't. We can't turn, we're weak." Xala shrugged, having come to terms with her... Disability. "You said you were a miner. How can you be a miner when you're afraid of the dark?"

Castor shook his head.  "I'm not afraid of the dark.  I just don't like it," he said, looking away.  "I was in the dark all the time.  It's suffocating, like a black blanket over your face and all you can feel are cold cavern walls to crawl out of, but you don't know if where you're headed is the exit, or an abandoned shaft where you'll fall and break your legs, and nobody will ever find you again."

He peered up at her again and ran a thumb along the line on her chin.  "I didn't want to die down there.  It's kinda funny if you think about it.  I wanted to get out from a hole in the ground, only to get away and end up right back in one."

Those were all very legitimate fears.

Xala watched him as he spoke of the dislike for the dark and she was thrown off by how intimate this was. Hilariously more intimate than when they'd both been naked and wet. The feel of the metal on her chin was odd and she simply blinked at him. "Aww, We'd find you anywhere." She gave his arm a pat - where he could feel it - and continued. "Besides, this time the company you have is way better."

"In this instance, I'll agree," he nodded.  "Sorry about your pack.  I suppose it's too late to go back and get it."  He sighed and rolled his shoulders. "Your arm though.  Is there something I can do to help?"

Xala threw back her head and laughed, grinning widely. "You suppose it's too late? Our only way out of here is past dragon lava bones and cave spiders." She leaned in, "or out the other side." Xala held her arm get to him to examine it, "I dunno, you could lick it." Xala smiled at him, grinning at Castor and flashing him the fleshy side of her wrist.

[They're already on the other side of the lava river]

Castor glared at her.  "How about I just hold it with cold hands."  And he grabbed her arm gently, wrapping cold metal around her scaly scales.

[yeah, and to go back the way they came they'd have to go over it again! I may have worded it funny, I am on Zee Phone]

There was a pleased sigh and the cool metal on her arm felt nice. In fact, it felt so nice she curled up against his side, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. "You're nice and squishy." She murmured, enjoying the warmth of his shoulder and the coolness on her arm.

Castor did feel strange when she leaned against him.  He sighed a little and adjusted his arm so that her arm was cooled in more than one spot.  "Squishy? As in you're going to eat me?"

Xala peeked open an eye and looked up at Castor, frowning slightly. "Do you think we want to eat you? In the bad way."

He glanced back at her and shook his head.  "No," he replied.  "Just wondering what my mean by...Squishy."

Rubbing her face against his arm and tucking closer to the comforting warmth of another being, Xala let her eyes close. "You're squishy compared to a rock or a tree." Her voice was sleepy and her head dipped lower as the moments ticked on.

"Oh thanks," he mumbled and laid his head on hers.  He could feel her body growing limp with sleep.  He didn't lean away from her and instead shifted so that she fell asleep on his chest. 

Having gotten used to being relatively uncomfortable while sleeping, having her head somewhere soft(ish) had her sleeping a little bit more deeply than usual. The arm in his hands eventually moved to curl around his torso and she snuggled up against him like he was a big warm teddy bear. 

She wasn't sure how long she was asleep for but Xala's eyes snapped open and she stayed as still as she could. There was a smell and it wasn't the sulfer. It wasn't Castor either. Or her. Gently she rubbed his side with her hand in a gentle attempt to call his notice or wake him if he was sleeping too. She turned her mouth to his ear and she whispered.

"Do you know what that is?"

He hadn't realized it but he did fall asleep and he jerked awake when she whispered something in his ear.  He sniffed the air and felt something drop onto his nose.  There was an unusual smell, and it most certainly wasn't anything living.  Or perhaps it was.

He felt it again.  What was this?  "Water?" he mumbled.

Then another droplet, and then another.  And they started to come in greater number.  "Water.  Quick.  Up.  UP!"  He shoved her to her feet, or half-dragged her really as rocks began to crack above them and water spilled out, quickly flooding the tunnel.

What.

What.

"Wha---uh!" She grunted as she was pulled along. Her eyes wide and she was suddenly running and confused and she grabbed at Castor's hand and what the fuck was going on!? That sounded like water. Had he said water? Xala hated water. She kept her mouth open slightly and as she was dragged along, though running. Soon enough she found her footing and they were running through the cave and the sound of the water pouring into the lava, the steam that was filling the cavern.

"We can't find fresh air when everything smells like water." She said, panicking, moving to Castor as close as she could. Just in case swimming became involved, she'd cling to him like a leech.

All they could do was run down the tunnel, and try to outrun the water rushing down toward them.  Castor just threw Xala over his shoulder and took off at full speed.  Dragging a full body behind him was never a good idea. Water spilled out around Castor's feet.  Just when the tunnel turnes to a dead end.  Great just great!

Desperate, in search of a way out, Castor looked up and  saw above them an opening.  And immediately started to climb.

What a convenient ceiling hole.

That led to where?

Another cave?

Xala, thrown over a shoulder like a bag of potatos, resisted the urge to inappropriate pinch Castor's butt as payback for simply throwing her over his shoulder. If anything he should have pushed her along since he could swim. "Uuuh, Cass?" She pat at his backside to get his attention," Climb faster, the tunnel, it... We think it was going down and now the water is coming up." And her face was right there and she didn't want to drown!

Again.

She didn't have to tell him twice. Castor could feel the water beneath his feet and scurried upward through the tunnel, leaping from side to side.  The water was rushing too quickly, that it now reached his knees.  No pushing Xala up with him on the bottom definitely wasn't an option.

"Fuck! FUCK!"  He gripped on end of the  and waited for the water to come up to his ass, just at Xala's face, and he vaulted upward as hard as he could, skidding against the edges of the opening but making it to the ledge  and pulling them both up and over, as the water began to slow down.

What an awful day.

This guy. This Castor guy was some seriously bad luck.

Well, maybe not him. Maybe those gauntlets. Normal people would just walk through a cave, not Castor! Noooo, he had to jump over lava pits and then almost drown from some weird cave in! What a jolly good time! Xala leaned upwards, away from the water, which may have thrown him off his balance but ultimately... She wasn't drowning.

Head kind of hurt though.

So did her neck.

Xala lay panting on the ground, eyes closed. Eventually her breath evened out and she rolled over and grabbed Castor's face, planting a kiss on his lips. "You're a beast." It wasn't a romantic kiss. Or even an erotic one. A spur of the moment smashing of lips before she flopped back over and closed her eyes, adrenaline pumping through her system and the terrible sense of being exhausted, "We really don't like water."

Castor was much too exhausted and strung out from his nerves to register any return of that kiss.  He just panted hard on the ground.  "Uhh, thanks, I guess," he said back, glancing across to her.  "But other than drowning, water can't be so bad.  You need to bathe sometime.  And drink water to live and stay cool.  And even use water to cook."

He was content to just lay there, because really, his sleep had been terrible.

Xala's hand went over Castor's mouth and she left it there, still laying with her eyes closed. "No. You be quiet. Water is awful and useful for two things. Drinking, cooking and bathing. That's. It." She removed her hand from his mouth and placed it on her chest where she let out a shuddering breath. "Can we go back to sleep now? We're safe right? Nothing is going to immediately eat us?" Xala paused a moment to sniff, there were no foul smells besides what an old dank cavern would smell like. Which would hopefully be all that was in here. A dank old cavern.

"I like to swim,"  Castor said with a nod. "And that was three things.  Not two."

"Fuck," Xala snarled and nudged his leg with her boot, "Drinking and cooking with water are the same thing." They weren't but damn if she was going to let him be right.

"Except you're just extending the conversation because you want to have the  last word," and at that he smirked and poked her side.

Another nudge of his leg with her foot, though this time she just left her leg atop of his, "Exactly, so the sooner you stop talking the sooner we can both nap and maybe drown again."

"You can't tell me what to do," he grumbled.  "Why do you have your leg on me?  I'm not a bed."

"Sure we can." She nudged him again, this time with her elbow, "we're just as strong as you are. So shut your mouth, and we're too lazy to move our leg." Xala made a snapping noise with her teeth, "make us."

At that challenge, Castor immediately rolled over and pinned Xala to the ground.  "I suppose tou can uproot a tree from hard ground?"

Xala made a face like she was contemplating it, and while she couldn't she couldn't let him win she also couldn't throw trees, "Of course we can. What lowly creature can't throw trees? It's a necessity for us." Her tone would imply she was laying it on thick, "Why do you think it's mate material? Because not many people can-- Oh. Damn. That's exactly why." She frowned up at Castor, "Fine,  we can't uproot a tree, but we can survive having one thrown at us."

"You think you're tough don't you?  Just a hard-boiled loudmouth with weird skin and sharp teeth.  Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much."  But he didn't give her time to respond before leaning to kiss her.  It was mere pressure on her lips, but no less fierce and soon he pulled away, grinning slyly.

Honestly the kiss caught her off guard and she stared up at him sort of like a fish, her mouth open in shock before she just gave him a look. And then resumed talking, "Why yes, people have told us we talked too much."  Xala purred, " Just now."  She snapped her teeth at him again before she licked the taste of his lips from her own and laughed quietly "You're just jealous, because you're just a human - no sharp teeth or useful weird skin for you."

Castor rolled off of her and sat to the side.  She really thought highly of herself didn't she?  "So do people, I guess," he mused aloud and wat hed her show of snapping teeth.  "I mean believe creatures like you are jealous of them and their soft, squishy flesh as they hoard all their gold in their castles and mansions.  Only the rich ones believed that.  I was never rich."  He shrugged and wiped slobber from his lips.  "Everyone claiming everyone else must want to be like them.  Everyone is the fool if you ask me."

Xala sat up quickly and rose an eyebrow. That was it? Well, guess she should mark 'be playful' off the list of thing Castor likes.

It was turning into a very small list.

Puppies better still be on it.

On her hands and knees she watched him, curious before she pressed her forehead to his shoulder not unlike a cat. "Chip on your shoulder, huh?" Her head was rested on his shoulder while she spoke and she looked away for a moment, "We figured you weren't too well off since, y'know, you worked in a mine. Cas, you gotta admit... Our extra bits are useful. Normal human's arm would've burnt right off." She held out her newly scaled arm, the silver scales having hardened over the past few hours.

"Thank you by the way, for saving us, we're not quite ready to die yet." Xala leaned forward over his shoulder and pressed a brief kiss to his cheek before she sat back and gave a stretch. If they had a map to follow, she imagines where they were wouldn't be on it. "We really don't like water."

"I can tell," he chuckled and laid back opposite her.  "So how did you end up  here?  I mean in the mountains.  Were you just in the area and you happened to get lucky with news of someone with an artifact on them."

Should she tell him?

Xala pushed her hands through her shaggy red hair and pursed her lips, tilting her head. "Well, someone wants those," She moved over to him and flopped down beside him, grabbing his arm without permission and running her hands along it, examining it. "One of those things people know about but don't know how to find, yeah?" She held his hand in her own while she looked.

"We heard these were nearby so we followed the scent of blood and there you were!" Her tone lowered, "And then you threw a tree at us, and then all bets were off. We didn't know you were stuck to them, and we can relate being stuck to something you didn't want to be stuck to. So, here we are, annoying the crap out of you much to your displeasure." She gave his hand a pat and let go of it. "Get some sleep. We'll stay awake and make sure nothing else happens." Xala sat up then and gave a stretch, realizing with great sadness that her favourite red coat was still in that tunnel.

Nah, there was no getting that back.

Oh well, she'd just get another one. Some day.

But Castor continued to talk.  Holding out his gauntlets in front of him, he examined them as Xala had inspected them. Turning them backand forth as if searching for some latch that would free his hands from them.  To no avail.

"You must've come a long way to get here.  The last person that had these was a man I used to work for.  You probably caught up to him first.  Not that it matters now."  He shrugged and looked at her.

"How much was the buyer paying you for these?"

Silently she watched him, frowning at him. Xala wished her problem was a simple pair of gloves. Or not so simple. What she had become was something fated since the day she was born as two people. This Castor, Xala looked at the gauntlets again before looking at the man instead. From what she knew about him, he'd lived a hard life and was given the gift of ... Another hard task to take care of.

" They were just interested in a pair of metal gauntlets," Xala shrugged, "We negotiate prices after we bring it in, we don't like the price, we leave with it." Her hands went up and she shrugged her shoulders, "Usually they pay anything we want when it's in front of them. Only went bad once and now we're one person and even then, we kept it and sold it for a higher price somewhere else," She smiled, "We do it for the thrill, not the gold." She tilted her head and gave Castor a genuine smile, "Sometimes we meet interesting people, too."

Castor snorted.  "Imagine your luck.  Coming after these gauntlets and finding they were otherwise occupied."  He snorted a laugh and examined his hands.  "You know why don't you just bring him any old pair of fancy gauntlets and just tell them they're were Cynwulfen."

"We'd say it was pretty good luck. You could have been... Far scarier." A firm nod and she gave a shrug, "We don't want them anymore." Xala nudged his foot with hers, "We just want to help you. A sort of... Redemption? We can't become two, so..." There was a nasty look at the gauntlets, "We'll help you. Would you be terrible sad if they were destroyed? They seem dangerous."

"Redemption for your own predicament?"  He asked with raised brow.  "Well, what you do if I died and the gauntlets were yours?  Would you take them anyway and get paid?"

"Well, if we can't come apart, someone should be able to." The tone of voice implied that it was just that simple and if there was one thing Xala was, it was stubborn. Terribly so. "We would destroy them," She snarled at his hands, "Those are cursed things." Her strange eyes looked to Castor's and she tilted her head, "Would you have worn them, knowing what they did?"

Castor shook his head.  "No, ma'am."  He thought of his mother then and wondered where she was for a moment.  If she was even still alive.  Or if they caught her and hung her for his crime.  "I still would have bashed his brains in though.  That wouldn't have changed."

He grinned like it was nothing at all and pointed to the bags beneath her eyes.  "You look like shit, Tanaxa."

Ma'am?

Xala frowned at him, sticking out her tongue at the idea of her being old. "We're sure he deserved it," She said softly, tilting her head to the side and pushing her hair behind her ear. Then she went a little cross eyed looking at his finger when he pointed to her face. "Well yeah, we're tired." She snapped at his finger again, teeth clicking audibly.

"You could lick those better." She said, grinning smugly.

"I think you'd just bite my face," he said with a snicker.

"Hey now," Xala rubbed her eyes with her palms and suppressed a yawn, "We only bite if you're into that." She looked at him over her hand, "You don't seem the type." Finally she stretched and curled up on her side, "Fine, if you're not going to sleep, we're going to sleep." And she closed her eyes, but she didn't sleep. Part of her was waiting for him to start up the last word problem they have going on. Darn that competitive streak, keeping her from sleeping.

"You sleep.  I'm going to look around."  Castor got up and ruffled her hair some more, and ripping extra strands.  He smirked at her and moved to inspect their newfound surroundings.

"Godsdamnit, Cas" Xala hissed and rubbed at her scalp, he knew he was pulling hair, the bastard. That hurt! Rubbing at her head some more before she tucked her head on her arms and squeezed her eyes shut, "Don't get lost. Scream loud if you do, we'll find you." And then like she hadn't just spoken she was asleep on the not squishy ground.

"If I scream, how am I going to leave you behind?" he remarked, but didn't wait for an answer as he walked away.

Light spread through the cavern - or what he at first thought was a cavern - from above, the clouds darkening with the end of day, and opened up the valley before them, a carved path that showed signs of an old civilization.  Pillars stretched upward toward the opening, and natural stone walls rose up on either side, hiding this place of overgrown vines and stone archways.

But Castor could see why.  He couldn't take his eyes off it.

She hadn't been sleeping, so she rolled over and watched him walk away, giving herself a moment to curl up and hug herself before she turned back. Xala didn't even like him that much, so why was the idea of being left behind making her chest ache? Perhaps just the concept. It was nothing new, one more person walking away from her. From them.

There was no getting used to being left behind.

Well, fuck that. She'd already decided to help him, he'd touched her scales. That shit was a binding kind of friendship. Screw him if he thought he could just... Walk away. Or pretend to walk away. Xala sat up, half angry, half irritated and simply followed where he walked. While being as quiet as she could she followed him, her mouth open, she reached out a hand to grab his arm and call him a name but all she managed to do was hold his bicep.

And stared ahead.

"Were you expecting this place?" She looked up at him after a moment, "Nope." Castor got an elbow nudge to the side, "You said you didn't want to die alone, so... Don't leave us behind." Xala looked away, slightly ashamed that she was even saying it. Ashamed at how much it had bothered her in the first place.

it was a joke of course, one that Castor hadn't been lingering on.  He'd been too busy staring up at all the intricate architecture that he hardly noticed Xala had decided not to sleep.  He glanced at her and squished his brows together.  "When did I say that?" he asked and turned back to look up ahead.

"I didn't see this place in my dreams.  But just look at it.  It has to be the right place.  I mean what are the odds that there are two Gates just like this in the same mountain," he said.  Still he knew he couldn't be one hundred percent sure.  But there was no turning back now.  All they could do was move on ahead.

When had he said that?

Something about dying in the dark. The alone had been implied. It was a conversation, she frowned slightly and shrugged after he'd already turned away. Xala too, looked at where they were and wished at least one of them had some sort of - oh right.

There was a chuckle and she looked between him and the... Gate? The fake gate, maybe. The man before, the rambling one with the flat face - she cast a glance to his gauntlets - had said this place was a myth. She supposed the dragon bones had been a guardian of sorts.

A guardian that wasn't dead, one she'd only... Put to sleep for a while. Xala would have to sing again later, maybe,  to keep it resting. "Is this where one of your... Things are?" She nodded to the gauntlets, "To help you remove them?"

"I think so," he said with a nod. But then he made a frown.  "That's right.  I never told you what it was I was looking for.  Frankly, I'm not even sure myself."

He turned to look at her. "A lot of the things I see in my dreams don't make a lot of sense.  I get mismatched images and flashes of things that have happened or yet to happen.  I don't get much sleep, as you can probably tell." He sighed and rubbed his face.  "I'm looking for a relic.  A piece of something...Maybe someone.  It's behind this gate.  I just need to get inside."

Premonitions?

The idea of those weren't a foreign one. While she had never had any herself, it wasn't uncommon for a clan leader to perform rituals that involved it. Another look at the gauntlets and she frowned, realizing on some level that this Castor was nothing but a puppet pulled by metal strings. It made her angry. A simple human, trapped somewhere and.... Xala frowned with him, looking at the gate for a few moments.

At least, in all her messed up glory, there had been a choice. The outcome hadn't been what she wanted or even anticipated, but the choice had been there. Another look at the gloves and she hovered her hand above one for a moment before she looked up at his face. "We noticed," She said dryly about the lack of sleeping.

"Well, we can go over it, under it or try to open it." She ticked off her fingers before she held the dagger steady. Xala licked her lips after a moment, "If you're tired, when you want to rest, we can sing." She nodded back to where they'd come from, a subtle gesture as to how the dragon bones just stopped, "they can help you sleep."

Castor shook his head.  "I don't want to sleep."  He pat her hand, tempted to ruffle her hair again, and pull out some more strands.  "Let's just go see what's behind that door."

Castor took her hand and led her up to that massive door.  It was a massive iron structure with carvings ground into its face.  There was no slot for a key, nor knob with which to open.  "You think if I throw you against it, it'll open?" he smirked at Xala.

Being lead to the door she walked beside Castor and looked up at him in surprise.

"Maybe?" She looked at it for a moment, licked her lips and started to walk back a few steps. "You threw a tree... You should be able to throw us decently."  Xala gave a few hops, fixing the fabric of her pants she gave Castor an expectant look, her eyebrows up. Another look at the door, "But wait, do you think it opens inwards or outwards? We don't want you throwing us at a door that's a pull instead of a push."

"I'd rather not splatter you.  I'd mess up that lovely hair," Castor snickered and ruffled her hair again.  He stepped toward the door and pushed, but all the iron would do was creak.  He snarled and pushed again, harder this time, but still the doors wouldn't budge.

"Hit me," he turned to Xala.  "Hit me.  Make me angry."

"Make you...?" Xala tilted her head, frowning ever so slightly, rubbing at the pulled hair again.

"You're the boss," she said simply with a shrug and punched him in the face with her scaled hand, taking a careful step back incase he decided to lash out.

Castor did growl at her.  "Is that all you've got, cotton head?"

Xala snarled back, bearing her teeth. Her pupils little slits, causing the bright greens and yellows of her too large irises to stand out in the light. This time, she punched him again and kicked him the stomach. "We have so much of this you wouldn't know what to do with it!"

Castor grunted, doubling back and gesturing her to keep hitting him.  When he felt his anger start to boil over, Castor screameda bloodcurdling cry and slammed his fists hard into the iron doors.  With one blow the gate was flung open and ripped the door from its hinges, knocking it over to one side.

The cry had her jump back and stare at him.

And then the gate fucking fell over.

"Tits on a dragon!" Xala gasped, staring still, "that was hot!" Though she didn't want to imagine that rage directed at her, which is why she stayed out of arms reach. Just in case.

Castor huffed and pushed the rest of his anger out, face bruising where she struck him.  Castor turned to her and just stared.  "Your tits?  Or just any tits on any dragon?" he asked, smirking at her. 

"Sure, our tits!" Though hers were much more appropriately placed and were quite nice to look at. Another surprised look at Castor, she admired her handy work on his face and looked inside, briefly, before turning to him. "Think all that glass is in there?"

"I hope so," he said and ventured through with a few tentative steps.  He stepped over the door, feet pressing quietly and he peered up toward the cavern above them.  Crystals protruded from the ceiling and those that had been broken from collision with the iron door, were shattered all over the floor.

They crunched beneath his boots, his weight grinding them into dust.  Castor turned down the corridor, following along the crystals until there was a bend in the path.  He held his breath, peering with wild eyes at the labyrinthine staircases that spiraled and turned and were carved out all over that grand cavern.

And Castor let out that breath, having no idea even where to begin.

Slowly she followed him.

Every trace of being tired left, though she knew, eventually, it would catch up to her. For now though, the place was... Too amazing.

"Cas," She did a turn to look around, staring up, "Cas this is amazing."

He didn't know where to begin, but she started to walk. Heading in which ever direction, "This place smells so... Old." Closing her eyes briefly, Xala sighed and pressed her hand to one of the crystals. "Want to split up?" she said after a moment, looking over her shoulder at him, "We know your scent, we'll be able to find you here."

Castor glanced over his shoulder at her.  A short-lived glance as he looked up to the staircases once again.  "Yeah, sure.  We'd cover more ground that way.  And find the other should we encounter something interesting."

Or simply move on without them as was initially intended.  But Castor didn't voice that thought.  He didn't ask which way she would go, and went about going down the first steps before them.  Between the staircases were large black chasms that lead to nowhere that he could see.  It'd be a good idea probably to stay on the stairs, maybe even follow the crystals.  No use falling down there.

How would he find her?

Xala didn't voice it, instead she watched him leave and while he went down, she went up. With careful steps she followed the winding stairs, looking in wonderment at ... Everything. It was beautiful. Eerie. Like it had been frozen in time. Or built from it. An almost slip had her gasp and look down, wishing for some sort of railing, still she went on, frowning.

Eventually she got to a plateau and before her was what seemed like an endless hallway made of glass. All there was the whole way down was reflections. She felt her heart stop and she froze. Still, a moment to pause and she stepped forward into the hallway and walked.  Every time she looked at the reflection it was some one different. Tala. Xana. Xala. The subtle differences would be lost on anyone else, but eventually she had her eyes squeezed shut and her fingers trailing the hallway so she wouldn't have to see.

Then the hallway stopped and she looked up to see a wall.

Then she turned around and she looked up to see a wall.

"No." Her fists hit the glass. The crystal. And there was the sound of it cracking but it didn't give,"No!" Her reflections. "No, please I don't want to see this." The many different reminders of having let her sister down. "Please!" Another fist connected with the glass, another spider web of breaks and again, she stared in horror. Watching herself dying. Watching her sister dying. The failure. Waking up, alone and confused and having lost herself. Lost her sister. "Stop it!"

Another series of punches to the glass rewarded her with bloody knuckles and she watched in horror as the crystal sucked it up, the cracks healing. Part of her wanted to yell for help, but would he even come? She was just a bother, just a useless tag along that he didn't need. What use was she when he had those gauntlets of his? Eventually she curled her knees under herself and bent over, her hands covered her face while she cried her anguish over her death and rebirth in one loud drawn out inhuman scream.

Maybe she'd find a way out the hallway after her break down.

Crystals protruded beneath the stairways that Castor walked.  He would enjoy his temporary freedom because Gods only knew Xala would somehow find him again.  He forced that thought from his mind however, there was no need to linger on it.  For now he was free to explore and he would need to in order to find the relic he so desperately sought.

Where he wandered the crystals sprawled out of the ground, some even getting as high as shoulder width.  And they were distinct in color.  Castor feared disturbing the quiet in this place, and when he reached out to touch one crystal, the object pinged and ran out, a soft sound that echoed through the entire cavern.

Castor smiled, just a bit, before he tapped another and the sound disrupted the silence.  One ring channeled another, and then another and each crystal rang a different note, harmonizing among each other and finishing playing just when he passed it.  But it was a sound that was shortlived.  When he passed by the crystals on the staircase he occupied he heard a snap, and the crystal shattered, flying those shards out at him, leaving small lacerations across his skin.

He seethed and knocked out shards that stuck in his arms.  And inside the crystal was what easily resembled a stone key.  Castor was about to lean down and knock it into his hands when he heard that scream.  He startled and knocked the key off the crystal base, sending it down into the chasm.

"Xala!?" he cried out, thought silently cursing himself for his clumsiness.  He dashed off down the path, back where they first separated and recalled where he last saw her disappear.  "Xala!"

It wouldn't be easy, but the echo of that scream seemed to hold on these old walls, clinging to them as if dust from ages past.  He followed that echo, or tried to, his own cry having intermingled with the way sound bounced off these walls.  Boots skid across stone, until he reached the plateau and the hall of mirrors.  He called out her name again, this time much softer, and he saw the cracked glass and a crumbled form at the end of it.

Castor didn't say anything, just stepping softly and crouching beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Xala twitched away when she felt a hand on her shoulder, still curled up with her face in her hands. "I died," Her hands went from her face to her chest where she clutched at her shirt, "I died and then I woke up and I wasn't me anymore. And... I watched my sister die and... How... I don't..." Tears welled in her eyes and she cast another glance at the mirror, snarling at the reflection of herself, the person she was now instead of the people she had been. "I don't know which one I'm supposed to be."

Then another reflection caught her eye and she jerked to look at Castor in shock, "Cas," she whispered before quickly moving to cup her hands around his eyes, "Don't look at the mirrors. Please. They'll ... Show you things. Regrets. Things... Things you can't change when you desperately wish you could." Or was that all in her imagination? No. She saw her self and her twin in the mirrors.

Still, she didn't move her hands and simply stared at him, looking shocked and unbearably sad. "Why are you here?" She finally asked, her pupils big circles instead of their usual slits, "Did you get lost?"

"Don't worry, I'm only looking at you," Castor said firmly, hands moving to both of her shoulders.  Her distress was easily read on her face and he stayed close so that his eyes stayed looking into hers.  There was no strangeness now.  "You're Xala," he murmured gently.  "And you're still alive.  You're not dead."

He gently pulled her to her feet.  "I came back because I heard you.  Just look at me.  Don't look at the mirrors.  Just me Xala. We're coming out of this hall now."

Castor kept steady hands on her shoulders and pulled her along with him, as he walked backwards, one step at a time.

Right.

She was Xala.

That's exactly who she wanted to be. Right? When he pulled her up she went, and when he led her down the hall she followed. This was going well. Just a few more steps and she'd be free from the hallway. Free forever. She'd been there for so very long, what felt like eons. "I... Cas." A few more steps, just a few more steps and she'd be free.

"Cas, do you care for me?"

Not that it would matter in the end. She needed to escape. Freedom was so close. The body could smell the fresh air from behind the iron doors. Sure it was kinda weird looking, but she could get used to it. It was pretty enough once you looked past the weird scales. The too large eyes.

The sisters could stay in the hall until some wayward body came their way. A few more steps.

Then they'd be at the stairs and one of them would be going down the wrong way.

"Care for you?"  The question caught him off guard.  But he didn't at all seemed flustered.  He pulled Xala up close and continued to step one at a time out of the hallway.  "Well, I've only known you for a short time. You're really weird.  But you're interesting...  I think I can say that I like you.  And maybe you can tell me more about yourself."

It wasn't a definitive answer.  But Castor did what he could to keep her eyes on him.  Anything to keep her looking at the mirrors. 

And soon they were out of the hallway.  Castor held her still and relaxed his arms around her.  "You okay?  We're out of the hall of mirrors.  And back on the plateau."

Perfect.

She smiled widely when they left the area, though some part of her felt the littlest guilty for what she'd have to do. Finally when they were on the plateau another scream echoed through the walls, not unlike the one before.

Her hands caught his cheeks and she pulled him down for a searing kiss, "I'm wonderful," she murmured against his lips before his name rang out from down the hall.

And then she gave him one violent push towards the stairs.

[Is she not herself?]

"Xala?" he asked, falling backwards and slamming near the edge of the steps.  He was closer to the chasm, and could fall with one push.  "XALA?  WHAT'S THE MATTET WITH YOU?"

[I dunno. Does she seem different? : D]

"I've waited ages in that hallway." She finally snarled out, "how perfect that such a broken minded person came into it and let me in." A grin was cast down at Castor and again, the scream was heard. "How such a mess could function is beyond me." She looked down at her hand after a moment and flexed them, balling them into fists. Another grin, "but I'm out now, you're going to die and that whimpering bitch is going to spend the rest of eternity in that fucking hallway." She got ready to kick him, "any last words before you meet the bottom of the abyss, My Love?"

Castor snatched her by the leg and yanked her up with ease.  Like a ragdoll he flung her into stairs, slamming her until he saw blood painting the steps.  "If I die, you die with me!"  And gave a maddening snarl, he bore down on her, ready to slam both fists into her skull.

[Not sure. She's still crazy. Honestly it's hard to tell.]

[fiiiiine. Xala's stuck in that hallway! She's got herself a body snatcher! Don't look into the mirror!]

Tsk.

She gave a violent snarl and the world went white for a second.  The most she could do was let out a cry of pain but she caught his fists and snarled at him, blood leaking from cuts in her mouth, her hair sticking to her scalp from the wounds on her head.

She wasn't going to let go of this body. It wasn't her dream vessel but it would do.  And in the attempt to stay away from Castor and his fists, she'd shuffled back into the hall way. The reflections were telling, because down the hall, in the alcove when she was first bent over, there Xala was, though the space was empty.

The body's reflection was much more sinister, skeletal, wearing a queen's jewels and dress. "If you... If you turn around and just let me have this body I'll let you go."

[I knew that.]

A low growl rumbled deep in his throat.  His eyes glared at the creature that had taken Xala as if a very glance would set her ablaze.  "Get out of that body," he said lowly.  "Get out before I tear it apart.  Nobody would have it then."

"GET OUT!"

Castor wasn't sure he could really destroy Xala's body.  If he did, there would be not much for her to go back to.  This evil spirit, he knew, would not easily let go.

[all those careful hints, wasted! Tsk.]

Shock tore through her and she stared at him. "You would destroy her?!" Some friend this girl had! She smiled and cast a glance at her reflection before looking back to Castor, "I'm already in it and you don't know how to get me out." Then she laughed, and down the hall, Xala's reflection beat on the crack she'd left behind.

Castor looked between her and Xala still behind the glass.  "How many tits does a dragon have?" he asked the spirit.  He glaredat her, body ssuddenly springing on her and snatching her by the arms.  "Answer me!"  And pulled her back into the hall of mirrors.

"How many...?"

She stared at him, completely confused. "That doesn't even make sense!" Though her voice was frantic and she had her feet planted down while he dragged her. Desperately she scratched at him, snarling those inhuman snarls. "Let me go! You don't even like her!"

"How many!?" Castor was livid and wouldn't take that incredulity for an answer.  He dragged her back into the hallway back to where Xala was, staring down at the body as she lashed out at him.  Those claws did sink into his flesh and while he seethed with pain, he kept at it.  "If you can't answer, you can't have the body."

"Lizards don't have tits!" She finally screamed, heels pressing firming into the ground. "What sort of idiot are you?!" Another desperate flail to make him let her go, but to no avail. "Please. Please don't do this, I'll do anything you want if you just let me keep it, please!" 

Wrong answer.

Castor dragged in front of the mirror, where the shattered webbings spread through that prison of glass.  "Look at it!"  He held her head back, to peer into the glass.  "Look at what you are!"

"How many tits does a dragon have?!"

In turn, her answer was to throw her hands out and scream. The already weakened glass shattered and Xala relaxed against Castor, breathing heavily, dazed. Why did everything hurt? "Cas. They were our tits." And she turned her head to look at him, confused. Her hair matted with blood, a strange metallic sheen on her lips and suddenly she pulled away from him, gagging loudly while she moved to her hands and knees.

Xala put a hand to her throat while she dry heaved until finally a tiny glass key in the ground. "The fuck?" Was the best she managed to croak out before she picked it up and wiped it off on her pants. Then she looked at him freezing then she looked at the shattered mirror and then just... Stared at him, "You came."

When she stirred once again, Castor scurried back, unsure if it was really her or just the spirit playacting at being well.  He watched in silence, waiting if he needed to pound her a little more to get her to leave.  "They were your tits...  that's what you would say," he said with wide eyes, still not sure if it was really her.

"The answer is, enough to make them hot," he muttered, still staring at her.  He sat up and reached forward, poking her in the face, just to make sure.  "Maybe separating wasn't such a good idea after all."

"That'd take a lot of tits," Xala sighed softly, still holding the key in her hand. It came out of her, that meant it was all hers. In retaliation to poking her in the cheek and his comment, Xala gave a humourless chuckle and threw her arms around his neck. After a moment of hugging, one arm still around his shoulders she presented the glass key, flat on her palm. "We had a key-baby."

"We?  Oh, we as in you. You did have a key.  A glass key.  At least it came out this way instead of the other," he nodded to her and even laughed a little.  Gesturing to her head, "Sorry about that.  I wasn't sure what approach to take with the possession thingy.  Look, I don't want to linger in one spot for too long.  Let's go." He helped Xala to her feet and kept an arm around her, examining the key in one hand.

"I found a stone key," Castor said, looking at her from the corner of his eye.  "But it fell below when I heard you scream.  Perhaps it is to be used in conjunction with this."

A visible shudder wracked her body and she looked down at it, quite glad indeed that she'd just puked it up instead of ... Yeah. Other things. Confusion drew over her features and she stared at Castor for a second before all the pain set in, her mouth hurt, she felt like she had nine headaches and she briefly pressed her head to his shoulder, wincing all the way.

A stone key?

Xala frowned at the glass one, swallowing briefly. "Maybe it's a copy? Like... Like something people hide in flower pots." At least that's what she heard people did, "and... you can only use it once." Which would explain why it was glass. An emergency copy, maybe.

But for what?

What would a key be used for in a place like this?

A quiet groan and she winced, pressing the palm of her hand to her forehead, eyes closed. Then she noticed his arms, and looked at her hands. There was blood there, red blood, which meant it wasn't hers. "We hurt you. Cas, we're sorry."

Resting out on the plateau, Castor took a seat on the steps, where he'd initially slammed in the head of what he thought was Xala at the time.  Good thing she wasn't human.  And she was really stubborn.  Hard heads go a long way.

He smiled a little, wondering at her sudden comfort to just lean against him like she was.  Not that she hadn't earned it.  Getting trapped in a mirror didn't sound like a picnic to him.  "Sit down," he murmured.  "I know I know, I just said let's go.  But you're bleeding from your skull and I'm covered in cuts that are really starting to get itchy."

He gestured to her head and saw the blood matted there.  "I think I'm the one that should be sorry.  I threatened to tear your body apart just so the thing in the glass couldn't have it.  I'm glad I didn't, but what I did do, wasn't much better."

He frowned and leaned in to kiss her brow, like his mother had done to him as a child.  As if somehow that would make it all better.  "Mine are just cuts.  They'll heal.  But a head wound...we can rest as long as you need."

Obediently she sat down, staring ahead while keeping very still before letting her head drop forward with her eyes closed. "Good," Xala said softly on an exhale, her eyes opening briefly at the kiss on her forehead, "We'd rather you tear it apart than let it keep our body." Her cheek was pressed to his shoulder and she leaned against him fully, eyes open slightly before she nuzzled closer.

"Besides the cuts, did we hurt you?" Xala looked at the arm beside her and idly traced above the cuts, looking at the gauntlets. While her head still hurt, she moved to trace her fingers where the metal met flesh. "Do you have hands in there still? Or did they get eaten?" She finally murmured, sounding a lot like she was falling asleep but desperately trying not to.

Of course she had to fall asleep.  Not that he necessarily minded.  Castor sighed and 'pet' her hair, careful to avoid her wound.

"My hands are still in there," he answered.  "They hurt sometimes.  I can feel the gauntlets grinding into my flesh, connecting with my bones underneath...  It's torturous.  But it doesn't happen all the time.  Only when I'm getting closer to the relics I think...  Other times it's just completely out of the blue."

Castor still pet her head and he found himself growing weary as well.  And hungry.  And now he really wished he didn't throw her pack off the mountain.  That really was stupid.

"You tried to throw me into the chasm.  I think that would've hurt."  And that was all he managed to slip out in reply.

Forcing her eyes open she looked towards said chasm and gave a dry laugh, obviously the body snatcher hadn't succeeded. Maybe underestimated him.

"We..." Xala moved her hand to motion to the two of them, "we should... Maybe go outside and rest. And come back later and... Look around then." She licked at her dry lips, giving another weary look around. On unsteady legs she stood up, her arms going out to balance herself before she started to take unsteady steps down the stairs, one at a time.

The blood was starting to itch and she ran her hand over her scalp, hissing when it passed over the wound. "You really did bust our head," she complained while toddling down the steps, "c'mon Cas, you're more comfy than rocks and trees," Xala made a beckoning motion with her hand still slowly stepping down the stairs at a snails pace, "We have a key, and the gate is open. We... We can come back and not go down hallways that eat your mind."

They were both drained, beaten rather badly, hungry, cold, and desolate up here behind the gate.  As exhausted as Castor was, he wasn,t sure falling asleep here would be the best idea.  The whole structure was rather spooky and it led one to wonder just how many more evil spirits were just waiting around to jump inside your head.

Castor nodded in agreement and tiredly picked himself up again.  "Let's go back to the water hole.  I'm parched. Remember, it's good for drinking and bathing... Food. Well that's another tragedy." And followed her slowly back up the stairs.

Xala frowned, "The flooded tunnel?" she swallowed thickly and lost her balance for a second, to which she quickly grabbed Castor's hand, "Or... Where we swam?" Another frown and she looked over her shoulder at him, eyes hooded and sleepy looking, "Past the dragon we put to sleep?" Could she sing it to sleep again?

Did she have the energy?

Maybe that water hardened that lava.

Or there was a second tunnel.

Xala would laugh forever if there was a tunnel that lead directly back to the little ... Inside mountain oasis. Laugh forever and maybe kiss the ground. "We don't want to drink water that you've been in naked, ewwww cooties," she teased, giving him a sleepy smile. Making a small grunting noise, "Maybe there's some birds or something outside the gate. In the trees. Snake's okay to eat, too. If you can make fire." A pause, "We can make fire."

Castor opened his eyes to the cool air. They were outside at last and the sky had darkened above them.  Had they really been inside for that long.  Going about making camp, Castor set Xala aside to rest.  He spoke while he worked, of nothing in particular, and went about making a fire.

"Hey, hey.  You any expert in snake catching?  Though you are pretty bashed up.  Just give me some tips and I can get the snakes."

Xala frowned when he made a fire. Why not just hand her a stick and tell her to blow? Whatever, there was a fire and she was propped up against a tree, though the cool air had her more aware. Her head still hurt though and she brought her knees up and pressed her forehead to her knees while she took deep steady breaths.  "Um... They like hiding under things." Xala frowned, a far away look in her eyes, "Bash it's head then ... cut it off, only venom is in it's head. Uhm... Then you can cook it," Xala went about patting at her belt before she pulled out her dagger, a rather ornate thing clearly of some value. Or at least some meaning.

She held it out to Castor and offered him a sleepy smile.

[Do you honestly thing he wants your spit in his fire, Xala!? :U]

Cut their heads off.  Right.  He could do that.  He knew he could do the bashing part.  That was always easy.  Sometimes too easy.  His stomach turned at the thought, and he forced focus from that to Xala, taking the dagger gingerly in hand.

"This is nice," he commented, holding it between both palms.  He wanted to ask her where she got it, but that was a question best mentioned later.  After they ate,  when they could both fill their bellies on roasted snake.  And he went to set about the task.

Finding snakes up here was a little harder than he imagined. The task seemed simple enough.  Maybe he just didn't have that reptilian touch.  He moved rocks and dug out holes beneath trees and when he finally found a serpent's den, he got lucky.  It was fucking huge!

The head came off easily enough after wrestling with the large serpent for few minutes. And he soon dragged the large anaconda-like body back to Xala.  "Dinner is served."

[It's not spit! It's fire! >8V]

What Castor came back to was an odd looking sleeping Xala. Sitting cross legged with her arms relaxed between her legs, her head down. Though it quickly jerked up and she groaned softly and pressed her palm to her head, looked up at him and laughed.

"You don't say?" A small semblance of sadness washed through her features and she looked at the dagger and the dead snake, though quickly banished the thought. He wasn't from her tribe, he wasn't even like her, just because this resembled something they did, didn't mean anything. So she crawled forward and sat, taking a deep breath. "Well, chop it up and let's get cooking, hmm?" 

Then she couldn't help herself, "When mothers are expecting, the fathers bring them back food where we're from." Xala looked down at the fire and then up at Castor, "Is that what you people do, too? Or is it... Every man for themselves?"

Yes, chop it up.  What had he been thinking?  That she was going to eat his snake whole or something?  Weird.

Castor quickly nodded and went about trying not to snap the knife in half.  His grip was a little too delicate and the blade slipped in his bloody gauntlets several times before he managed to peel the skin half off.  He'd never skinned a snake before and wondered if it was any different than skinning a rabbit.  He wasn't much of a hunter.  It was always easier to eat meals that were already cooked for you.

"Oh?" he said, her words catching his attention.  It wasn't such a very odd custom.

"I can't speak for everyone," came his answer.  "Different families have different traditions I guess, where human people are concerned.  My family....my father..."  He stopped a pang hitting his stomach uncomfortably.  He frowned.

"No, we don't do anything like that.  My father never would have.  He was a drunk and a fool, and he died for it."  Castor forced a nonchalant shrug.  "The only thing my father ever gave me and my mother was his debt.  He's dead now and I sure as hell don't miss him."

At least the skin was off, more or less.  After having gotten frustrated with it, Castor gave up and sat back.  "You can chop it up.  I might break your knife.  Where did you get it?"

[aaaah ... Eat his snake whole. I laughed much too hard at that innuendo.]

Xala frowned at him, frowned with him more like. The mention of his father had her wanting to reach out and pat his arm or rub his head or something else sort of comforting. As he spoke she stayed quiet and listened, until finally the snake was skinned and it was one long suggestive looking tube of meat.

A sly glance at Castor and another look at the snake. He didn't see it? Was probably just more mature than she was. So she moved beside him and took the knife, giving it a long look. "When you're turned away, you're given one of these," she waggled the knife nonchalantly  and went about cutting the snake up into snake steaks. 

While she went about cutting - why did he have to find possibly the biggest snake she'd ever seen? - she kept giving him curious glances, "has anything good happened to you? Or for you?"

[I knew you would 8D]

Castor did see, but simply had the grace not to mention it.  And talking about his father made the whole image of the skinned snake just...weiiiiird.  He instead listened to her voice and he stared at the fire.

"Why do you ask?" he replied.  "Do you assume only bad things seem to happen to me?"

[aww you know me so well. <3]

There was a lengthy pause between him talking and her just looking at him. One eyebrow raised up past her shaggy red hair and she simply... Stared. "Well, yeah." Then she resumed cutting the snake up, going so far as to putting a few pieces on the fire, directly on the burning wood. "We don't know one another, but we must say you're one of the most unfortunate people we've met." And the snake was sliced up and she moved to flip over the piece of meat sitting in the fire.

Castor just stared at her.  He smiled after a time.  "I guess I really am just a glutton for punishment," he said, laughing.  He looked at his hands, scoffing in amusement.  "My mother.  She was the only real good thing in my life.  I miss her a lot."

He gestured to her, reaching into the fire with his other hand and turning the snake steak over.  "What about you?  How does family work where you come from?"

Xala chewed on her lower lip and looked down at the fire, the urge to give him a hug or an arm pat was overwhelming but she kept her hands to herself.  Then the concern washed away and she chuckled lightly when he shoved his hand into the fire to turn the meat. What an odd situation she found herself in, someone else shoving their hand into a fire instead of using a tool.

"Family?" She tilted her head and pursed her lips,  "it's... The women go into season at the same time, so... Generally every generation is the same age or close to it. We're all raised together, so... Everyone takes care of everyone." Xala shrugged and looked away, nudging the piece of meat aside to put on a new one. "We think our mother was human, twins don't happen naturally with what we are."

Another smile, solemn, " Is your mother...?" The words ' passed away' hung in the air, but she didn't wan to say them.

There was a seriousness in the air that was making Castor feel rather uncomfortable.  It wasn't that he minded necessarily that Xala was prying...and he did mind, but it was the fact that there was a certain dark sinister seriousness to be dealt with later.  He didn't want to go in depressed.  Well, more than he already was.  It made it easier for things to jump into your mind then.

He shrugged in reply.  "I don't know where she is now.  I wish I did though.  I wish I could see her again.  But wishes are wishes, and there are as many wishes as there are stars," Castor replied and waited for the sizzling piece of serpent to settle down.  When it did, he took a succulent bite and audibly moaned.

"Okay," he mumbled as he chewed.  "It doesn't taste great.  But I'm so hungry, I'm liable enough to eat you and it'd be the best damn thing I've ever tasted in the world!"  He laughed and out came flying pieces of snake  back into the fire.  "Oh, sorry!"  And that only made him laugh harder.

Those words coming from a man like Castor made her sort of stare at him for a moment. There are as many wishes as there are stars in the sky. Xala looked up, staring at the stars and looked sad for a moment. "There really are," she said quietly, mostly to herself. His moan had her jerk her head back down at stare at him wide eyed.

Was he dying?

He'd better not be dying.

Oh. No he wasn't dying. That was good. Who would save her from mirror ghosts then? Xala found herself not hungry at all and she smiled at Castor while he laughed. "Eat us?" She said, pulling the second piece of meat from the fire and taking a bite. It wasn't spiced and was quite plain but for charcoal covered meat it was still pretty good, "You wouldn't even lick us, how do you think you'd eat us," She teased before she stuck out her tongue then resumed eating.

Xala looked at the hole in her pants and sighed, scratching at the scale patch after a moment. The wound was all but gone after a few hours, now just a patch of the same silver scales on her back and arms. "We're sorry we tagged along when you didn't want to," She finally said, looking down at the fire, "You'd probably... You'd probably still have your stone key and whatever it is you're looking for if you didn't have to keep stopping to take care of us."

"You don't have to apologize," Castor said with a smile.  "Well, I mean there's no use in apologizing since you're kind've stuck here.  You can't go back down the tunnel.  It's filled with water.  You can't really climb over those massive mountain walls there.  Or you could, I don't know, I haven't seen you try."

Castor ate quietly for a long moment.  "Besides, I did lick you.  I licked your back.  Don't you remember?  Or do you have the recollection of a gnat!?"

Hm. "That would involve... swimming." Xala gave a visible shudder and then looked at the mountain walls. "We probably could, but... Heights." She wrinkled her nose and looked up at the stars again and then broke out into a surprised laugh, "You did, didn't you!" She snapped her fingers and pointed at him, "Curious if our scales tasted like metal when we already told you they did. We did forget." Xala wrinkled her nose at him and looked back at the rest of the meat which would probably attract predators and various other creatures.

She was too tired to care.

"What do you want to do with that?" Xala nodded towards the meat, frowning slightly, "We have nothing to carry it in since somebody had a temper tantrum and threw our things off a cliff."

Castor shot her a look - something between amusement and a glare.  Sure, refer to his temper tantrum.  But he didn't mind being cast the blame.  He finished eating the snake and crawled over to her side of the fire.  "We eat it until our bellies are full and then we...I dunno, bury it.  Or save it in case we need some bait.  You never know.  We can make some interesting snake meat earrings for you.  You look like you could use some."

He smiled a bit and poked her cheek, the scales there glistening.  "Do the scales on your cheeks taste the same as the ones on your back?"  He didn't wait for a response before leaning in and licking her left cheek.  He smacked his lips together thoughtfully, mulling it over.  "They do.  Just like metal."

Xala scoffed at his idea of snake meat earrings. It occurred to her she wore no jewelry and the fanciest thing she carried was a dagger that mostly held a negative meaning. Before she got to answer him about the scales on her cheeks she felt his tongue and sure enough, they tasted like the rest of her scales. Fancy that.

Then she leaned towards him, pressing her lips to his before pressing her tongue against his mouth and then leaning back and smacking her lips thoughtfully. "Snake, metal and... " Xala licked her lips and looked off to the side thoughtfully, "Something I can't name, well I suppose that taste is you." A bright smile at him before she stuck out her tongue at him, having had her revenge for him licking her face.

"It's probably just more metal.  You should have a second taste just to be sure."  And with that Castor leaned in and brought his lips to hers.  He kissed her with considerable pressure, opening his mouth just a little to allow her to taste him, but not quite so that he'd run his own tongue on all her sharp teeth.  Last thing her wanted was for her to get a taste of his blood.

And see what ramifications that had.

Well, that was a bold offer if she'd ever gotten one.

Xala's hands went to his cheeks and she pressed her tongue into his mouth, moving closer before she carded her fingers through his hair. After a few moments she pulled away and licked her lips, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were hooded. Gently she rest her forehead to his and smirked, "Mmm... Nope, not metal, that definitely tastes like you." Her hand trailed down from his hair, brushing over his neck, down his chest to pluck at the bottom of his shirt. Slowly she pushed his shirt up, dragging her nails along gently - just to insight a shiver and not to wound. "If you're looking for something to tire you out enough to sleep, we can just sing for you," Xala said softly, her hand having stopped moving.

Sing to him? Castor smiled , forehead to hers.  He was honestly intrigued by that idea, not that he needed something to tire him out.  "I remember hearing you singing.  What was that?  Was that what put the dragon to sleep?"  Castor's metal hands slipped beneath her shirt, cold running along her belly, fingers tracing along minute scales.

Briefly she looked away but her hand continued moving up and dragging the shirt with it. Maybe he'd get the hint? Sure his hands were made of dense metal, but perhaps his head wouldn't. She'd wait and see. Xala gave a little hum, a small tune reminiscent of the quiet song she's sand in a hurry in the tunnel. "Yes, we sang to it's soul." Her eyes closed after a moment, "It was so angry, so... We sang it some peace and it rested." Now her hand rested on his chest, palm over his heart and she gently smoothed her thumb over the skin. "It reminds us of someone."  The cool of his gauntlets - no, his hands, gauntlets implied he could take them off - was an unfamiliar sensation and she gave a shiver, a smirk pulling at her lips. "You know, if you get cold tonight, we run at a higher temperature, we could hold you and keep you warm."

Castor nodded with interest and shifted his head though the shirt, slipping it off and his breath hitching at the feel of her hands on hs skin.  Her nails, though a little biting, were enough to insight pleasant shivers.  He smiled at that sensation.  "Reminds you of somebody good I hope."  His hands ran around her back and impressed along her scales,

He tucked his head against her neck, leaving wet kisses there up along her throat unt his mouth lingered by her jaw.  "Is it goos for you to be that warm?  I mean I'm pretty hot blooded."  And at that he couldn't help a snicker.

Gently Xala bit at her lip and pressed her fingers through Castor's hair, giving a soft chuckle. Someone good? "Hmmm... Reminds us of someone we want to help," His cold hands on her back had her move closer to him and in a rather bold move she shifted herself to kneel over him, a leg on either side of his before she sat down on his thighs. Slowly she pulled what was left of her shirt off and dropped it beside them. Xala turned her head to catch his lips with hers and she smiled against them, "Well, colour us surprised. Hot blooded you say?"

A gentle nip at his lips, "We'd have never guessed." Xala leaned back, her eyebrows up and a teasing smile on her face "Are we going to see how hot blooded you are or is this just a soft core make out session? We're not sure if you're just a tease or not." Besides, she'd heard that doing it totally made head aches go away, though, she wasn't sure if that was true for head trauma. Who cared?

She wasn't really a light woman.  Not that he couldn't handle her, and upon sitting on his lap, she might find herself in contact with a rather unbeheaded snake, eager to be free of its confines.  Castor held his breath, looking at her with half-lidded eyes.  He just smiled before leaning in to kiss her.  It was exploratory at first before bringing his arms around her and tilting his head into hers.

He leaned over her, pulling her legs up around his waist.  He took his time in studying her body, running his mouth along her breasts.  At least those were in the right spot, and he shifted her trousers down, his kisses trailing lower, down toward her belly. 

[time to slap that m on. o: both their boobies are out and the pants are coming off and you know what's in pants? hamsters and junk.]

Hm, no answer. In fact, there was such a no answer that he just grabbed her legs and she felt her weight shift and it was so good. Xala gave a quiet sigh and relaxed, her fingers carding through his hair while he took his time. Though, part of her was confused while he was going down when her face was up here. Xala helped him remove her trousers, giving another forlorn look at the hole in her pants while she adjusted to push the offending clothing off. It was still hanging off her one leg, but whatever, that wasn't important right now.

"Cas, my face is up here," And Xala tried to shuffle down so that they were more face to face and less... Stomach to face. How exactly could she revenge lick his cheek if his cheek was so damn far away.

Castor pulled off the rest of her clothing, and a lone hand worked at taking off his.  He crawled back over her.  "What's the matter?" he aske between kisses on her neck.  "Do you have anything different about your body I should know about? Weird dragon things?"

The noise she made was between a laugh and a shocked gasp, weird dragon things? "You've already seen us naked, remember?" An eyebrow rose and she gave him an appreciating look before she reached down to help him remove his own pants. Another offending piece of material, though she was careful not to accidentally ruin the fabric - that would be terribly cumbersome, having pants that didn't fit.

"Only weird dragon things is our scales." She looked up at the sky for a moment, contemplating anything else that might be different and she took his face in her hands "And our eyes." she kissed his forehead, "Our marks," she kissed his chin "and our teeth," she pressed a lingering kiss to his lips her voice got husky, "but don't worry Cas, we don't bite."

"Only asking just to be sure!" He snickered at her and kissed her again, kicking off the rest of his trousers, that she so graciously helped alleviate him of.  "Okay less talky more hot-bloodedness."  He gave her a growled before resting his body on hers, hiking her hips up to meet his.  There was no hesitation, and he pushed slowly into her, feeling the slickness of her body until they were hugged and snugged.

He wasted no time moving, feeling where she was most sensitive and focusing there.

There was some serious effort involved in not digging her nails into his back. Eventually she settled for just holding what she could of his metal hands, her claws scratching at the metal while she undulated her hips and squeezed her eyes shut. A quiet whimper, his name drawn out of her mouth in a long drawn out hiss. Mostly Xala seemed a little inconsolable, he was too fleshy, too fragile and she kept her mouth away from him, the overwhelming urge to bite, the urge to claw.

Instincts rode high for her and she did her best to keep her face stoic or bite her own lip, but eventually she held him close with her legs and grabbed his hand tighter, "Cas. Cas, you... We'll hurt you," Xala finally whimpered out but didn't stop moving her hips while she spoke, letting her head tilt back to resist the urge to lean in and bite. "We lied, we lied, Oh Gods Above, we're afraid we're going to hurt you."

Castor panted hard.  But his eyes shot wide open at the realization that she could very well do some real damage to his person, to his body.  But a part of him didn't really care.  "I don't care," he panted in her ear, moving harder and harder.  Perhaps there were some advantages to having increased strength, endurance, and resilience.

"I can take it, it's okay."  The words were rushed out, as he pushed harder, each thrust more forceful than the last.  "Or...or you can take the reins."  He turned over onto his back, taking her with him and never once disconnecting their bodies.  He continued to work his hips beneath hers and her hands into his, placing them on his chest.  "Just whatever you do, don't stop."

But you should. Xala wanted to gasp out but no words left her lips and instead she just kept her hands on his but suddenly she was upright and looking down at him. What. When did that happen. Again his name came out a hiss and she let her head drop forward, her back arching, her teeth clenching.  She moved her hands to beside his head in the dirt and dug her claws in, her eyes squeezed shut as she rode out her pleasure giving whimpers and moans.

Don't stop, indeed. Finally she rose back up, taking one of his arms with her, pressing his hand to her face before she placed a kiss in the crook of his elbow so that he could feel it. Don't stop. Again she bent forward, one hand resting beside his head, only this time she put the meaty part of her palm into her mouth, biting down on it when the feelings became too much and the noises to loud. If it had been her good hand, there would have been blood, as it was, there was simply the indent of her teeth on her silver scaled hand and some semblance of pain.

Xala wouldn't hurt him. She couldn't hurt him.

And then she did. Her hands had found their way to his chest and she started to dig her nails into his flesh before she instantly ripped them away and stopped moving on top of him, panting heavily. "Just... Just hold our hands. We can't hurt yours so.. So hold ours and we can't hurt you anymore."

Castor opened his eyes, staring at her widely, when she stopped.  He had felt the biting points of her nails into his chest, but frankly his skin was already burning up that the heat of pain was barely noticeable.  However, the wetness of blood was sort of a wake up call and he knew that though everything else worked the way it should, being bled out by an ...overstimulated lover was a rather tremendous risk.

"O-Okay," he panted, swallowing on a dry raw throat.  He took her hands in his, binding fingers together and working his hips under hers again until their rhthym was once again resumed.  Castor sat up, unable to remain on the ground and brought her body to his.  "Should I," he murmured hoarsely.  "Get you something to bite on?  I dunno, like a cloth or something."  He chuckled and kissed her deeply.

Good. This was good. Well, that was good too, but now she couldn't hurt him. This was good.

Xala pressed into the kiss and pulled back, giving a breathless laugh before it turned into a moan. "No, no. No biting, biting is easier to not... Ah! ... Bite." She panted out softly, eyes fluttering closed while she jerked her hips to the rhythm. Tightly she held his hands, knowing that they wouldn't be hurt. Then she gave as good as she got, and who know how long she'd gone for, long enough that she was flushed and panting and sweaty and finally she let go of his hands to wrap her arms around his neck and tense on top of him with husky moan.

"C-Cas," she moaned his name, holding him tightly, her head tucked beside his while she tightened, tensed and twitched. Still, she didn't stop moving her hips, maybe that endurance of his was also a fault. Xala was done, but she wasn't selfish and so her hands moved up and down his back encouragingly and she gave his ear gentle nips. Maybe he'd even let her use his shoulder to sleep on, since it was nice and squishy compared to the rocks and the trees.

She didn't have to wait long for him to have his pleasure.  Castor shuddered and wrapped his arms around her instead.  He panted hard, slump back against the ground until he was nothing but a pile of noodles.  It wasn't that he couldn't keep going.  But he'd rather not have his heart explode.  He was still just a soft fleshy human.

A laugh echoed outward and he kissed at Xala's shoulder.  "Was it as good for you as it was for me?" unable to contain his humor at such an obvious cliché.  He turned to look at her, curious as to her expression from the corner of his eye.  "Don't worry, they will scab."

True to her mental word, she snuggled up against his shoulder as soon as she was able. "dunno, it was okay." Xala stuck her tongue out at him, teasing him for the use of such an awful cliché. Her fingers trailed around the fresh wounds on his chest and she sighed, looking at them. Feeling bad.

"Why can't you just..." she motioned to her thigh where she'd been bitten by the spider,now a silver scaly patch, "This, this is far more useful than..." She motioned to her chest before giving a sleepy yawn and nuzzling closer to him. "You should use our clothes as a pillow, 'cause we're going to use you as one," she suggested softly, getting up briefly to gather their clothes into a pile. Xala, having gotten comfortable finally cracked open an eye and looked at him, "are you going to sleep?"

"Because if I did, I'd just make my hands fall off and grow some new ones," Castor said with a hissing snicker.  He laid back, though his arm reached out to pull their clothes around them, and threw her stuff under his head just as she directed.  What a lovely idea. 

"Probably.  I am pretty tired from saving you all the time.  You gotta stop getting into so much trouble.  I mean there's only one of me.  Or use your fancy teeth on them.  I hear that scares mirror demons," he said.  Though he'd been joking, he gazed at her with some concern and pushed her messy hair aside.  "But...I'm glad you're more or less intact.  It'd suck to be stuck in a mirror."

For warmth, she threw a leg over his waist and her arm over his chest. For his warmth, rather, she was just fine. It'd suck to be stuck in a mirror. Xala's eyes had a distant look to them, like she was looking at something far away before she looked up and focused on Castor's chin. "It..." She sighed and place a kiss to his shoulder, "Thank you for saving us."  Being stuck in the mirror wasn't... A thing. She'd been stuck in her head. Xala swallowed thickly, looking away after a moment.

"That wasn't a demon," She said sadly, "It was a woman. She'd been trapped in there like us, someone stole her body. She just didn't have anyone to rescue her." Her arms drew tighter around him and she gave a soft gasp, like she was trying to hold back tears. "We'll finish at the gate tomorrow. We know to expect things now," She finally said thickly, relaxing again.

"Go to sleep, Cas, we'll keep you safe."

"Well, I guess I don't know the difference.  I just saw something in a body that it didn't belong to."  Castor grew quiet at this talk of demons and somethinf bad stirred inside his stomach.  He focused on the crackling of the fire, and the sound of Xala's breathing lest voices come and drag him back into a nightmare.

"Okay," he murmured to Xala.  "Okay, I'll sleep now."  He closed his eyes, resting with his head off to the side and he breathed softly until slumber took him.

It was then she decided she'd make this up to him. Some how. For a while she just watched him sleep, her hand resting on his chest under the scratches. Still, sleep didn't come for her. The fire died and Xala lifted her head briefly to give it a look before tucking closer to Castor and letting her eyes close. If she couldn't sleep, she could at least rest as well as she could while she had the chance. Besides, he might get cold if she left, personal heater than she was.

Castor's sleep was not so restful.  He saw horrific images, of a man being tortured, his mind roiling from the velocity of his screams.  Breathing became difficult, "No, stop!  Please!"  He huffed, twitching in his sleep, and suddenly he jerked upward, opening his eyes and burying his face in his hands.

Gods...he glared down at those gauntlets.  Those infernal things.  He clenched his fists and wished he could just tear them off.  After a few breaths he laid back down and stared into the darkness.  He didn't know how much longer he could wait.

The jolt of movement had her bear her teeth and sit up quickly, ready to main and hurt and tear. It was Cas though and she just looked at him, concern written on her features. "Cas?" Xala's voice was soft and she moved to hover over him, her head above his before she decided to invade his space and use his chest to lean on. A sleepy sigh and she got as comfortable as she could. "Is that why you don't sleep?" She gave a hum, "We could sing you a lullaby. Like we did to the dragon."

Castor turned his head away from Xala, staring at the dead embers of the fire and was silent.  All that could be heard was his breathing for a long minute.  "Yeah," he breathed outward, in a long steady breath.  "Please.  I need something to sooth my mind.  Just...thinking a lot."

Mostly it was shock.

The offer had been like all the offers before, something she gave in jest, mostly because she knew he'd brush her off. This time he didn't and she frowned. Concern for someone else was mostly an unfamiliar feeling and if she was gonna be honest with herself - Xala didn't much care for it.

Mistakes happened when you cared about people. It made tough choices all the more difficult. Still, she owed him. A debt she doubted she could ever really repay, so she sang. It was soft, singing the same soothing notes she'd sung to the dragon. It wasn't a particular story - not that Castor would understand it anyway - but the general idea behind the song was tragedy, about how the soul needed to be put to sleep and so, they sang that song and it would rest. It would sleep and awaken a new, the tragedy forgotten and it would live on and grow and be happy.

The magic of the song was flowing through the words and she repeated it softly, going quieter and quieter until she was simply humming the tune. It was making her sleepy but she continued to hum until she herself drifted off to a dreamless sleep. Probably in the dirt, not that she noticed.

Castor too hadn't actually expected her to start singing.  But when she did, he wasn't going to ask her to stop.  Her voice was nice, soothing.  She should sing more often, he thought.  Those were the words he wanted to say before he started to drift off to sleep.  Castor wrapped his arms around Xala, turning to lay on his side with her.  He pulled her in for warmth and soon drifted off.  And thankfully the nightmares stayed away.

The sun was kissing the sky and so, it turned the rosy red of dawn.

The dreamless sleep had been a welcome change and she snuggled back into the warmth at her back. It was time to wake up and she gently ran her hands over her sleeping companions arm, at least the part he could feel.

Well that was a nice night! Got laid, got some sleep. Both good things!

Xala gave Castor a pat on the shoulder after sitting up, her hand remained on it and wiggled him every so often, "You need to get up. The sun is rising, you're on our clothes and we don't want to walk around naked when there are mirror demons about." A bright smile and she reached down to run her fingers over his lips, soft enough to be irritating.

Castor awoke a little stiff, but was otherwise of his own mind. He'd slept well, and eyes blinked up at Xala's meddlesome fingers.  "You're a morning person aren't you?" he grumbled, plopping his head back down.

Xala smiled widely, waggling her eyebrows, laying down again, facing Castor. "Nah, we could sleep in forever, we imagine more if there's snuggling to do on a cold day. That's always sounded like something nice to do." She mused for a moment before she continued to bother him with her fingers on his lips.

"We're only perky 'cause we got laid," Xala winked before she flicked his forehead and stood up, giving a stretch, arms up, back arched. "C'mooon, Cassie, we have shit to beat up and things to find and glass keys to use."

Castor regretted laying down with her.  It was an action so domestic, it felt practically unnatural.  It wasn't her, it was him.  He wasn't accustomed to being so...civil with other people.  Even if said people were weird-eyed dragon ladies with a tendency to make him bleed.  He stood up as well, dusting himself off.  She was right after all.  Best to get a move on. 

But he wasn't going to get dressed right away.  He felt icky and sticky what with all that had happened, and he moved back to the tunnel from which they'd escaped nearly drowning.  The water there was clear and he took a deep drink of it, practically sinking his entire face into it, before taking handfuls of it and scrubbing at his body.

Or as best he could with the iron on his hands.

Hm.

Xala followed after Castor, curious as to where he was walking off to naked of all things. Finally she spotted the water he was after and made a quiet 'oh' sound. It was one thing to wake up in the middle of the night and take off, it was another entirely to just walk away after standing up without a word.

However, the water was a good idea and she watched him for a few moments.

There was a few long seconds where she was poised to just... Push him into the water, but she resisted. Maybe next time. Not that there would be a next time. For now, she moved to sit across from Castor, her legs tucked up under her and she splashed water at him, though it didn't go anywhere close to hitting him. "You're not gonna go shy now, are you?"

A look at him and she tilted her head, cupping her hands and splashing water on herself, giving a shiver at how cold it was. Wash away the previous day, now she really wished she could swim. She'd hang out in that pool of water so fast. Screw it, you didn't have to swim in order to float or hold onto the edge to keep your head up! Holding onto the edge of tunnel she dunked one leg into the water and then a second and slid off the ledge until she splooshed into the water up to her neck.

"Me shy?  Never," Castor replied, watching Xala test the waters.  He was just about finishing up when she just slipped into the water, like nothing at all.  "Xala!  What the hell are you doing!?" he cried out, and hovered over the ledge.  "You can drown!  Are you crazy!?"

The unanimous conclusion was that yes, yes she was.

Still holding onto the ledge she blinked, looking at him shocked. Concern? Nah, probably just didn't want to rescue her ass. Again. "We're not breathing the water in," Xala said, smiling, "Besides, we're holding onto the ledge." To show that she momentarily took her hands off the ledge, only to start sinking in which she quickly grabbed it again. A sigh and she quickly dunked her head in before pulling herself up onto the ledge again, standing up, soaking wet. "We're out of the water now, you won't have to dive in and save us. Again."

Giving him another look she put her hands on her hips and nodded, "You do know it was just sex right? We don't do..." Xala made a face and gave a fullbody shudder, "feelings."

All she got was a blink, eyes bland.  His hands suddenly shot to his heart and he rolled back, moaning and whimpering.  "Oh Xala!  How could you?" he exaggerated, rolling his head around.  "What ever will I do without you?"

He recovered and laughed.  Though Castor's expression quickly sobered.  "Considering where we are and what just happened, I know that.  You don't have to tell me.  I understand."  He smiled anyway, and got up, but not without giving her an amused eyeroll.

He quickly got dressed.  Because really they wasted enough time.

Oh shit.

oh shit what the oh shit ohshitoshi--- Oh thank the gods.

Xala stared, frozen for a moment before she put a hand to her chest and let out a breath, following after him still holding a hand to her chest. "Don't do that! That scared us!" What would she have done if he'd been into it? If he thought that had made them a thing? Probably run away or ... Be all extra mean. While Castor got dressed, so did she.

Placing the glass key into one of the pockets on her pants, pulling her ruined shirt on, sighing at the burnt off sleeve and finally tugging on her boots, doing all the buckles and ties as tightly as she could. The knife was tucked into her belt, where it had always gone. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the scent of Castor on her clothes, but she offered and it was too late to go back and dunk her clothes in the water.

When this was done Xala decided that she was going to sleep for a week. Maybe eat for a week, too. Another stretch and she looked at the gate, rolling her shoulders and getting ready for what was to come. "Alright. You said the stone key dropped down the chasm? Think we should try to get that?" Another pause, "No splitting up this time."

Castor huffed and prepared himself, facing the darkness of the entrance they had retreated from before.  Was it really retreating when you were tired and bloody and looking for food?  He did plan to return after all.  "Down the chasm yes.  Let's just...be more careful this time, yeah?  Best plan yet,"  he rolled his eyes to himself even as he said that.

Castor ventured forth, heading down the stairs, and glancing back only to make sure that Xala was right behind him.

Plucking an imaginary notepad from the air she pretend wrote - or did what she assumed to be writing - "be... More careful." She tucked the imaginary note pad and blinked at Castor with an unamused smile. "Great plan. We're okay with this plan." And when he went forward so did she.

Like she was going to actually explore on purpose! Crazy, sure! Deathwish? Foolish? Not so much. "Want us to hold your hand again," she teased lightly reaching out a hand and wiggling her fingers.

"Xala!" Castor hissed reprimandingly, turning his head back to look at her.  They had a lot of ground to cover and couldn't afford any further distractions.  Once they went down the path that Castor had explored on his own, with the crystals somehow cracked, so that no sound could ring through them anymore, he soon found the one where he saw the stone key.

And where it fell.

"I don't suppose jumping is much of an option.  We need an easier way down."  He looked around and saw only sheer rock face, though perhaps that was a viable option....

Slowly she retracted her hands and followed behind Castor closely, not really interested in her reflection or going down the various pathways. "We wouldn't suggest falling..." Xala leaned over the side to look, frowning at how dark it was. She too looked at the rock face and then at his gloves, then back at the wall. "You're not thinking of climbing down, are you?" Another look around the area and she pursed her lips, "There's probably a few staircases somewhere."

Mid-sentence, Castor turned to look at something moving from the corner of his eye, something lurking by the entrance of the stairs.  He gasped as he saw the creature, blinding with no apparent eyes, whipping it's tongue around to taste the air.

"We probably don't have time to think about it.  We've got company," Castor growled, as the creature scampered across the stony ground, apparently tasting that it had some visitors.

Xala crouched slightly, holding her hands out, ready to claw and tear. "Suppose it's dinner's cousin?" She said, grinning widely. Mirror monsters were one thing. Physical beasties? Well, that was her life's work! "We should kill it," she decided, giving her stance a wiggle, it was sturdy, "Check it's stomach, maybe it ate that key." A grin over her shoulder at Castor, her pupils wide circles. Xala wanted to play.

Castor wasn't sure he wanted to tangle with anything right now.  But it was quickly becoming clear that that was no longer an option.  "I don't know, frankly.  I don't want to know! But I'm pretty sure it didn't!"  Then again, you wouldn't know unless one tried.

The creature screeched, moving closer to the pair and suddenly the ground started to shift underneath them.  The ground cracked beneath Castor's feet.  He lost his balance and his arms floundered up and grasped at Xala, trying to hold onto her, only to drag her down with him, pulling them both into the chasm below.

It was all good and dandy until the creature screeched. Xala took a step towards it but then everything started to fall. A quiet gasp and she sent a panic looked down at Castor, reaching for him while he grasped at her. Sure enough, she was on her way down too and in a snap decision Xala wrapped what she could around his front, cradling his head against her chest as they fell. More resilient maybe she could carry the impact.

The last thing she wanted to do was cart around someone's dead body. Xala was careful to keep him between her and whatever they were falling into. Please be water.

Please be water.

Sure she couldn't swim, and water would probably hurt just as bad, but at least it wouldn't make her break her back. Who knew wanting to rip a key out of a monsters belly sent them down into a bigger beast?

Castor didn't want to be suffocated in a pair of breasts.  Even Xala's breasts, as nice as they were.  He pulled his head up, and when they landed, it was hard on a slope of stones and shattered glass, where much of the residue of broken crystals.  With a tumble, Castor broke from Xala's grasp and landed hard on his back.

A groan of pain erupted from his mouth, pieces of crystals jutting out from the back of his leather tunic and sticking into his skin.  He had suffered worse damage.  A fall like this wouldn't kill him.  Maim, probably, but the gauntlets left him too resilient for such a simple death.

Well, it wasn't water. That was shitty.

Xala reached for Castor as he tumbled away, hands out. The air had been pushed from her lungs and she laid on her back, gasping for air. A few minutes of sounding like a fish and she sat up, breathing heavily, rubbing the crystal bits and glass from her back. Besides possible bruising and her ass hurting, she was mostly unharmed. The hard scales kept her back safe from being pierced. A panting moan of pain and she crawled over to Castor.

"Cas." Xala gasped, going over to him, kneeling, "Let us see." Her hands on his shoulders, "let us help. We tried to hold onto you, why are you so squirmy?!" She snapped, her fingers tugging at him so she could start to pick at the crystal bits, "You weren't supposed to be so squirmy." A long pause, "You should be dead. That fall should have killed you."

Castor coughed a little, and spat off blood to one side.  He could feel the inside of his mouth where his teeth had bit into his cheek upon landing.  Such things could happen.  He sat up, groaning a little, and cracking his back as everything was snapped back into place.

He didn't push her away when she plucked the crystals from his arm, and he even reached up to pluck one from between the scales on her cheek.  It cracked even between his gentle fingers.  "I'm okay, Xala," he panted, catching his breath and shaking the dust from his hair.  "I won't die without warning you first.  Promise."

Xala flinched away when his hand was near her face, simply because of the unfamiliar pinching. The crystal cracked and she stared at it for a moment, frowning. Her hand went from his arm to her face and brushed at it. It wouldn't do well to bleed. For the most part, aside for some scrapes she was mostly unharmed, a few crystals had gotten her but no where near as bad as Castor.

Poor squishy human with magical gauntlets. Cursed gauntlets. "Good. You have to prepare us for your death, it'll happen someday, everyone dies but..." She went back to plucking the crystals from the places he couldn't reach, frowning when there was blood, "we would much rather have you die some heroic way instead of falling be..." Xala looked up for a moment though not stopping with the removal of sharp bits, "Do you think that thing will follow us down here?"

Then she grinned, "That key!"

He was glad she didn't linger on his suffering.  There was no room in life for mourning.  It was much too short for that.  And here, trapped in this massive myriad tomb, time was of the essence.  Castor would get over the pain.  And at Xala's exclamation of the key, his eyes widened, scrambling to his feet and swiftly searching through the rubble.

"Look for it, it couldn't have fallen far."

"You're...!" Xala sighed and stood up, legs wobbling, her ankle hurting a little bit but she reached up to dust off his back a little more, "You're still covered in crystal bits." And there. Off to the side. A delicate little glint in the light was...

"Well... Fuck, that's not what we want." Xala bent over to pick up the glass key she'd had in her pocket, it must have fallen out. Still though, at least this wasn't broken. Using her boots she sifted through the broken crystals, looking for the other. "Does it look like our key, Cassie? Or crystal? Ever heard that term 'needle in a hay stack'? We think... We hope that key wasn't crystal."

"A stone key.  With three teeth and a diamond shaped ring.  I only saw it for a second before it fell."  He continued to search himsf, but was coming up with nothing through all the rubble.

Xala sighed and looked down. A stone key on a stone floor covered by crystals. At least it wasn't a crystal key on a stone floor covered by crystals. Thank goodness for that. A roll of her eyes and she bent over, looking down at the ground, using her scaled rougher right arm to bush aside the sharp crystal bits. There.

Maybe there?

Slowly she looked up, then back down, would it have bounced away?

No. Was tha... Xala squinted at it before picking up the odd shaped stone, if she hadn't asked what it was made out of moments before, surely she would have brushed it away. "Is this it?" Xala licked her lips and held it in her palm, holding it up for Castor to see. "If this just turns on a music box we're going to be pissed."

Castor was moving too frantically to find anything for himself.  But not so much that he would smash the key to dust should he accidentally kneel on it.  He still had care, care to find what he needed and get the hell out of this place.  And thank the gods that Xala found it first!

"Tanaxa!  Good thinking!" he turned and abruptly cupped her hand.  "Truth be told, I don't know what it opens.  But something tells me there are more keys like this."  He gestured to her.  "You hold onto it.  You keep them both, until we find more.  And the door they open.  Or whatever they open."

They were surrounded in dim lighting, soft glows emerging from unbroken crystals jutting from the walls around them.  But they would need steadier light.  Something smelled awful nearby, like oil.  Castor took a femur bone of many of the skeletal remains left behind by those that weren't as lucky as Xala or Castor and wrapped it in the remains of someone's clothing.  He followed his nose toward that wicked smell, drenching it when he found a rainbow puddle, the crystalline light dancing across it.  With a dip, he soaked the cloth.

"Can you do that fire spit thing?  Light it up?"

As instructed - told? - she placed the stone key in the pocket opposite of the glass one. Find more keys? What were they even for. Xala rubbed her hands against her pockets, looking down at her poor pants and the hole, though not for the last time. A sigh and she scratched at the scales in the hole in her pants, frowning at it. Mostly she was staring off into space until Castor was talking to her.

"Can... What?" Fire spit?

Xala frowned for a moment, her face looking unamused. "It isn't fire spit." Another frown and she grabbed his hand and held the bone steady while she took a deep breath and then lit the torch on fire in one gust of breath. Finally, the breath was exhaled and she took a moment to steady her breathing with her hands on her knees, giving a few coughs and finally giving herself a shake.

"okay, it's sort of fire spit." Xala looked around, her pupils slowly going from the large black voids into the usual little slits.  There was less visible now - for her at least - with the wide arc of light from the fire. Taking in a deep breath, only to sneeze almost immediately, she shook her head and stretched, "Alright. Avoid mirrors, don't fall down anymore holes, don't split up." Xala ticked the rules off on her fingers, "Two keys, now we just need to find what the keys go into ... Anything from your dreams?"

Peering up from where they were in a brighter darkness - now thanks to the torch - and maybe Xala - Castor could see that those stairsways and passages rose all the way up around them.  It wasn't just going down, but up, into the mountain.  And he didn't know where to go.  Where to start.  His dreams had been confusing and fruitless.  And had led them only to almost get killed time and time again.

"We go this way," he said, facing the westernmost path where he saw a set of stairs that ventured upward.  "The best thing we can do right now is get out of this hole."

"You're the leader!" Though, Xala was sure that if a war of personalities took place she'd be the victor. Still, this was a sort of quest to look for his things, which meant she would follow him. Lest she go down another hall of mirrors. "With your luck those stairs going up with have us coming out upside down from the ceiling of the building," She muttered, giving a roll of her eyes.

It honestly wouldn't surprise her at this point, so she made a point of putting her hands over her pockets. Just in case. "Hm, Why are you alone?" A look at his gauntlets and then his back, he wan't too terribly natured, "No one stubborn enough or do you just run away from everyone?"

And such was a very real possibility, one that Castor had acknowledged.  This places was filled with so many things that he'd been unprepared for.  In what way, however, could he have been prepared for something like that spirit that lurked in the mirrors?  This was the first destination that had been marked by his dreams, those nightmarish images that scarred his mind.

He was used to being in the dark, in those suffocating tunnels.  But he was aware of the dangers therein, knew what to be wary of in a way that he could steel himself against them.

Castor turned to Xala, her question catching him off guard.  "Why do you ask?" he said, staring into her eyeslits.

Xala gave a barking laugh and continued the eye contact as they walked up the stairs.  "We're curious about you." Then she gave a shrug like it was no big deal, mostly because it wasn't. There was a yelp and she grabbed onto Castor's hand when she briefly tripped up the stairs, righting herself quickly and clearing her throat. "You could potentially be a nice guy. Got a wife and kids back home?"

Castor turned to look up at the stairs, carefully walking up them.  Wouldn't want to tumble back down them would he?  No, not at all.  "No.  No wife.  No children.  Never wanted them," he said.

Xala made a clicking noise with her tongue, "never? Isn't it like... A life goal for normal people? Fall in love, make some babies?" Her tone was mocking and she had a smirk on her face. "We guess you're not a normal people though."

I never thought about it. That's the truth," he sighed.  "I'm sure your husband or mate person misses you greatly."

Xala actually had to walk up the stairs slowly and press her had to her face she was laughing so hard. "Our what?!"  A few helpless giggles left her and she took a big breath  and held her chest,  grinning. "We're a freak. We  have no friends and even less mates."

"Okay, so you're alone then?" he asked, not quite seeing the humor.

Xala cast a look at his gauntlets, still laughing at the idea of being mate or having a husband of all things. "We're as alone as with us as you are with those gauntlets." A few more steps up the stairs. These were some long ass stairs.

The stairs went on and on.  Castor huffed until he saw a diverging path, left, then right.  "Which way?"

"Why are you asking us?" Xala frowned, looking between the paths before she started going to the right one anyway, "Well, we'll lead now, let us know if we're going where we should be to find your thing."

"If I remember where to go, I will tell you," he said adamantly, smiling and nodding.  Castor followed along behind her and when he felt the tightening of the gauntlets around his wrists, he paused and peered upward, seeing the creature they'd evaded befor.  "Look up."

Up?

Xala frowned at Castor for a moment before she looked up, giving a hiss. Her pupils blew into wide circles and she grinned widely, giving Castor a feral look, "Do we get to kill it now?"

Castor stood there in fear.  He'd never seen anything like it before.  And the creature was much larger up close.  Kill it?  "Kill it!"

A wicked grin was on her face and she rolled her shoulders and took her knife from her belt, putting it in her fleshy hand and holding the silvery scaled one out, fingers tense ready to claw and tear. "C'mon Cassie. Live a little! You can either die to those gauntlets or you can die to dinner's big brother - Which, honestly, looks way cooler than some gauntlets." A grin at him and she nudged him with his elbow before she began her journey closer to it.

And when she did, the thing lunged for her, licking the air with fervor and wrapping a tongue around one of her wrist.  The flesh of its tongue was barbed and rough and would dig into her flesh where it touched her.  Another tongue lunged out, reaching for her neck.  But this one was immediately snatched by Castor and he ripped it apart with ease.

With a screech, the creature stumbled backwards, crawling up the steps a little, but it more than two tongues.  In fact, three more emerged from its mouth and latched around Castor's leg, pulling his feet out from under him.

There was a small gasp but it bubbled into a laugh before she dug her claws into the barbed rough tongue. Her nails did short work of it and she ripped the remaining appendage off of her wrist and watched as the silvery liquid slowly dripped from the gouges.

While the creature was distracted by Castor and trying to eat him, Xala moved closer, knife ready, her other hand ready and smeared in her acidic blood. Then she literally tried to pounce on it, one hand ready to rip out an eye and the other ready to jam the knife through the top of it's head.

[It has no eyes.  It's completely blind.]

Castor  turned abruptly, tearinf the tongue from his leg and plopping onto the stairs.  Anger began to fill him, burning at his blood until he he snatched onto the creature's beak and tore it open.  With some struggle, it twisted in his grasp and lashed at him, ripping nails across his chest, but its head was soon two.  One part hanging loose at the separation of its beak from the rest of its body, and blood dripped down along the stairs.

[I totally knew that. I was just making sure you knew what creature you made. |: Ahem.]

Whoa.

Xala stopped moving and fanned herself after that display.

"Holy fuck," Xala started, taking a few steps back, "You up for a quickie?" eyes wide, she looked between Castor and the beast and blinked widely. He just tore it's head in two. That was way hotter than throwing trees!

Castor looked between Xala and the creature.  Gods she was weird.  "What!?  Xala, come on.  Let's keep moving.  I don't know how many more of those creatures there are.  I definitely didn't see any of those in my dreams.  But maybe a raincheck.  When we're both not fighting for our lives."

Xala grinned widely, entertained at his shock. "Are you sure? We said a quicky. It'd be like..." She started to walk, knowing it wouldn't happen but getting enjoyment out of teasing Castor anyway, "Five minutes. Maybe. Three if you're super quick," She gave a slow nod, but continued to walk, her footsteps measured and slow, the knife in her hand ready.

The talking would draw creatures in and she was careful as she looked around. At least she knew she oculd probably rip their heads off, anything he could do, she could do better. Well, except be grumpy. He had her beat there. "You don't dream of things like that? Just glass floors?"

He needed a second to collect his thoughts, for the offer of sex was clearly a tempting one.  But when the temptation passed he stayed silent and paused.  "I remember a door.  A massive stone door, must like the one out in the grove.  But this one had several slots within it.  In fact, it appeared more like a slab than a proper door.  As if it had to be slid back, rather than parted in the middle."

Xala patted at her pockets, checking for the keys.

Slots in the door?

She frowned at her pants, like it was their fault it held the keys. "Slots for... Keys? If we have to find more keys, We quit." Xala frowned, looking upwards to wards the mirrored hallway, "We puked one up. Literally threw up a key after we were in the mirror." She started to shake her head and gave Castor a look, "You get to have your body stolen so you can puke up the rest."

"No.  The stone key was in the crystals remember?" he said and stopped when he glanced back down at the body of the beast.  "Wait.  Wait here!"  And he bounded down the steps again.  He stopped just before the blood and pushed the body over, spotting a red key shaped object, doused in blood and pulling it up carefully into his grasp.

"Well, here's another," he said and held it up.  It was perpetually stained with blood, red as a ruby, and more jagged than the other two.

"The stone key was in the crystals, the glass key was in us after we got our body back," Xala carefully pushed her hands through her hair and she stared at him, wide eyed when he started to tell her to wait. Obediently she completely froze, though quickly her head went back and she gave a quiet groan of annoyance.

Another key.

"Are you kidding?" She stomped down after him, snatching the key from his metal hand and then hisses sharply when it cut into her palm. The blood on the key bubbled when it made contact with hers and she just stared for a moment, "We have to find keys now? Here? What sort of sick fuck made this place," Xala hissed, frowning at the jagged key and putting that with the stone one in her pocket.

Her pants were already ruined, why not also be ruined on the inside. Then, as every good adult did, she started to walk grumpily in the direction they were headed.

Castor stared at her strangely.  "You're upset because we're finding something it seems we need.  But you forget this is my mission, Xala.  You wanted to come along.  So why are you the one complaining?"  He sniffed and went off stalked up the stairs, peering up and over the labyrinthine passages and stairways all over this massive tomb.

He held his breath as if somehow that would reveal the way.  He squinted, and something glittered in the dark.  It was large, definitely.  And he started off in that direction.

Xala just frowned at him.

"You get missions given to you." She sneered out after a moment, looking down at her messy hands. while he walked up the stairs she followed him closely enough, "We're complaining because this entire stupid castle-whatever is bullshit." Xala kicked at a stair and went silent when Castor held his breath. Did he see something?

Leaning to look around him, she saw him stare off into the dark. So she did too. However, she saw nothing and instead took a few steps to stand beside him and gentle elbow him. "What're you staring at?"

It was bullshit, that much he agreed.  But what other choice did he have but to endure it?  He shook his head of the thought.  Lingering on anything that was further negative would only put him in an even worse mood.

"There's a door, a large one it looked like, that gleamed through the other side," he said gently, gesturing for her to follow him.  "Best not to dawdle."

Xala grinned widely.

"Dawdle."

She repeated, followed him.

"We didn't know you were secretly an old lady," She cast a glance at his groin and then slowly raked her eyes up his body. "Dawdle." She muttered again shaking her head and finally in the distance she saw the door. A deep frown set in on her features and she pat at the keys in her pockets. "Think the keys are for that door? We guess we'll see. Want us to put them in? We imagine gripping things is had when you have metal fingers."

"Usually keys means there's a lock that it opens," he sighed and just shot her a grin.  So far she'd been useful as a packmule.  If anything it was easier to have someone around that didn't crush things.

"We'll get to it soon.  Just a few more flights of stairs."

"We know we look weird and we can't read but..." She just glared at him, the stairs causing the glare to be centered on his ass, "We know what keys are for." The words were clipped and haughty and Xala followed him up the stairs as close as she could without touching him.

The door was coming closer into view than he thought and he saw that it was large enough to be as tall as the chamber, and there were at least 7 slots where it seemed keys needed to be placed.  He entertained the possibility of being wrong, but it was worth a try.  Anything here was worth a try.

"Let's see where they fit," he murmured and went about inspecting where each key ought to be placed.

Seven.

Xala frowned at her pockets and then back at Castor.

They did not have seven keys.

They didn't even half half of seven keys.

"Well, let us know when you find one and we'll put it in the slot for you." Another moment to eye his hands, "You don't have the best... Grip." A hard truth. A hard truth he hopefully accepted.

"So, while we search, what are the cons to those gauntlets?" A tilt of her head, "Besides the whole Not Wanting Them thing. You're stronger. You don't have to worry about things biting your hands off." A shrug, "Seems like a sweet deal."

Despite not quite having all they need, Castor was determined to find the rest of the keys.  He would scour this entire tomb from top to bottom.

"Huh?"

He was lost in thought, having nearly forgotten Xala was tagging along to begin with.  He gave her a frown.  "I guess...if I wasn't careful, I'd go through a lot of shirts.  I can't ever feel with my hands anymore.  That sucks.  And I could turn you to mush without any effort."

Xala stared at him for along moment before she tipped back her head and laughed. The wickedly sharp teeth on display for a few moments before she just grinned at him, "Mush us without any effort?"  Slowly she turned back to the key holes and gave them a nasty look, knowing that they'd have to find the rest of them.

But from where?.

"You'd need some effort. You're still human in those gauntlets. We are not human at all." She rose her fist at him, the scaled one with the sharp claws. "We look so different from you, we're surprised you forget." Another pause and she looked from the door to his hands, "You can still feel though, just..." A tilt of her head and she smiled, remembering how he'd felt the scales at her back, "Press your face against it."

Eyes flickered to her, looking her over, deep in thought.

"I don't think it matters," he said, looking at his palms, frowning.  "You're still...squishy."

Xala eyed him up and down, looking at his legs and his chest.

"You're squishier than We are." A snap of her teeth at him, another smile, "It entertains us that you think you're better. You're a human wearing toys you can't control." A look at the gauntlets with her slitted eyes, "Probably for the best. Those things are dangerous."

Xala paused, "Are you sure we can't just rip off your arms? Humans grow those back, right?"

He frowned.  "I never said I was better.  I just know what I can do."  He wasn't comfortable talking about this kind of thing, not with anyone.

And he turned away from the door and observed upward, toward anywhere he guessed a key might be.  The only way to start was to keep going.  He walked away, gesturing Xala to follow, scampering up the steps.

"We know what you can do, too."

Xala grinned at him, gave her eyebrows a waggle and pocketed all the keys again. Not wanting to lose them.

Maybe it would be a better idea to put them into the door? So they wouldn't get lost?

Nah.

A loud sigh and she followed her companion up the stairs, looking around all the while. What an interesting trip and how much of nothing there was to show for it except for a lost coat and ruined clothing. A grin and Xala caught up with Castor quickly, standing not quite shoulder to shoulder simply because of a height difference. "So, we have.. What. Three? keys? And there were seven locks? Do you know what's behind the door? Is it gold?" Another look down at his gauntlets and she pursed her lips, "A way out?"

"I don't know what's on the other side of it," Castor admitted.  "It could be anything.  But I do know it's something I need.  Something pertaining to the gauntlets."  He closed his eyes, concentrating.  "I...I think I remember a watery passage, much like the tunnel we went through to get here.  At least it sounded like water.  We should try to find something like that.  Perhaps another key is in there."

Castor hated that he felt as if he really was going around in circles.  After all there were creatures lingering around this place, and it was all dank and terrible and something smelled faintly of oil.  Castor pushed west, just looking and listening, until he heard something that sounded like droplets.

Watery?

Xala visibly winced, not enjoying the idea of water.

Still, the last time they'd split up had been nothing but bad news and she followed him like a duckling. "Didja run past a map? Maybe there's a map somewhere." Finally she asked when she too heard the droplets.

"Remember. We can't swim." A weary look to Castor and then to his hands, "Can you float?"

"I can swim just fine," he said, patting her shoulder with his arm.  "I won't let you drown.  Not intentionally I mean."

Xala frowned, giving Castor an unpleased look.

"Thanks. Really. If we drown are you going to breath our air for us again?" She pursed her lips and waggled her eyebrows at him.

He shook his head, serious.  "No, but I'll give you a pleasant burial.  Now what's all this lollygagging for?  I recalled where I must go.  Are you still keen on helping me or not?"

"Please don't bury us in the water. Or that hall of mirrors."

Xala gave him a look, smirking before she held out her arms, "Lead the way then! We're helping you, we're letting you know we can't swim. We nearly died in two feet of water and We don't know what's going to happen with... Where ever we're off to next." A hand moved to shake in whichever direction he was on his way to.

"Go! We'll follow."

He moved along without another thought to the matter.  He had warned her that the way would be dangerous.  She was aware of the consequences, and would follow because she wanted to, not the other way around.  If she died...

Castor shook the thought from him.

The droplets echoed louder the further they pressed into the darkness.  And after finding a spare torch, unburned it seemed, he cracked his gauntlets together, sparking enough to light them up.  He let the flame take and waved it upward, revealing crystals that dropped with water.  Or what appeared to be water.

Xala frowned while she followed, letting him light the torch with his gauntlets - a silly thing when she could breath it. The cold drop of something hit her head and Xala's head whipped up to stare at the ceiling.

"What is that?" Her hand went to her head and she wiped it away with the scaled hand, giving Castor a look. "Do you ever catch a break?"

He returned that look, even glaring a little.  "Do you ever not complain, Xala?" he hissed back as they pressed through the tunnel.  Something sloshed beneath his feet and a strange smell struck his nostrils.  Maybe it wasn't water after all.

"Smells like oil."

"That was a genuine question, Castor." Xala tried to smile at him before she looked down at the substance on her hand. Giving it a sniff before shrugging and not being brave enough to taste it. Taking a careful breath she looked up and then looked at the fire of his torch, "Fire doesn't hurt me," She started simply, looking at his gauntlets and then towards his face, "It hurts you though, right?"

"Probably.  I've never had the opportunity to bathe in it.  But I also can't see a damn thing without this torch.  Unless you can make little magic balls of light.  That would be really helpful right now."

A silver scaled hand reached out and she wiggled her fingers, "We can see in the dark, remember?" Even now her pupils were blown, large dark circles compared to the usual slits. "If you like, you can explain to us what you saw and we can... Loom for it." Another wiggle of her fingers, "Or you can light everything on fire."

"Just look and tell me if you see anything that looks like a key.  Then I can set everything on fire," Castor suggested instead, growing a bit irritable.  She said a lot of things, but none of it was good advice.  And since she wasn't going away, the lese she could do was make herself useful.  Or maybe Castor was just feeling the constraint of it all wrapping slowly around his neck.

He pressed through the oil-filled tunnel, careful to keep the light high enough and the ground stooped lower, so that the oil was now at their waste.  The stench made breathing difficult; he would pull through however.

The key had to be around here somewhere, likely inside something, just as the others had been.  The mirror was one of them, the crystal was the other, and the body of that creature thing.  Castor paused suddenly and felt the ground grow mushy beneath him, like mud, but softer and slowly his feet were sinking into it.  His hands went up to snuff out the flame, and when he was smothered in darkness, he felt his legs slowly slipping through.

"Cassie," Xala hissed when everything went dark.

What the fuck was going on?

It was gross to go through and while she'd kept walking and he'd began to sink, she wrapped her arm around his middle, confused as to why he was moving down. Her own feet began to sink and she backed up a few steps back to solid ground, though whatever had him had an intense grip.

"Cassie, what the hell did you do?!"

"I don't know!" Castor barked, panicking somewhat and feeling his legs sink deeper.  "But...I don't think I can get out.  Maybe I shouldn't.  It...feels different.  Like it leads somewhere."

And when he felt his foot punch through something else, he suddenly stared wide-eyed at Xala.  "It does!  Xala, get in here!"  The sinking was happening much more quickly now and he felt the sound around his legs escaping, pulling him ruthlessly downward.

"Cassie!" Xala yelped at him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

They were going to die.

This was stupid and she was going to die with him... But that was the thrill right? What was dying again if you could basically remember it happening before?

Holding him closer, she moved to tuck her face against his neck and pressed herself as close as she could get to be... Pulled down with him. At least they weren't going to die alone.

Once they were sucked down into the quicksand, Castor fell hard into a mire, boggy sand beneath him, and the smell of oil much more prevalent.  Glowing crystals penetrated the oil and sand and illuminated the way.

"See!  What did I tell ya?" he said, beaming and nudging her to remove her limbs from him.

"Like it leads somewhere," Xala repeated, frowning slightly before looking up and finally removing her limbs from around Castor. What a terrible idea.

"How are we going to get back up? Are we going to climb? Are you going to boost us through the ceiling?" Putting her hands on her hips Xala looked off to the side before she gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes, "Then again, a mirror stole our body. We bet there's a set of stairs we could have just walked down." Pursing her lips she looked around and took a deep breath before gagging slightly and shaking the scent out of her head. Or at least trying to.

"So. Another key... Where would we find the oil key you think?"

Castor looked around, moving more toward solid ground for purchase.  Or as solid as he thought it could be.

"Underneath the oil," he assumed.  In truth, he didn't really know, but it added up somehow.  There was no use digging beneath it.  they would never find it.

"We burn the oil."

As possibly die with it.  Well, he would anyway.

Xala stood where she was and crossed her arms over her chest before giving an exaggerated sigh and giving Castor a look.

"So you're immune to fire now? Do you have any idea how stupid that would be? But fine," Taking a few steps towards him, she stared at him for a long moment with eyebrows high on her forehead, "If you want to be a crispy critter, you go right ahead and burn the oil. Better be some cool treasure behind that door if you're willing to die."

"I didn't say it was a good idea!" Castor growled, irritated.

"I don't see you offering up any other suggestions."

"Bob for apples?" Xala put a finger to her mouth to pick at her teeth but quickly recoiled, making a face.

"What's the point of having an idea if it isn't a good one? GO... Go hide somewhere and we'll burn the oil." Xala started to remove her clothing - which wasn't immune to fire like she was - and once her arm was out of her sleeve she frowned at him, "Unless that's not a good idea?"

"I'm...not sure," he said.  Castor made a face, inspecting the oil a bit with the tip of his metal hand and rubbed it between fingers.  It was slick and fluid, likely prone to splashing. "Okay, look, let's climb back up through the hole and you spew out some fire and drop it below.  This way it'll burn well on it's own.

"When the smoke disippates, then we go back down," he suggested.  "I'd hate for you to get undressed and you're not even going to get laid. At least not right away."  And he flashed her a charming grin.

The frown on her face was telling and she reached up a hand to scrape her nails over the scales on her cheek. Then slowly she looked up, frowning slightly.

"How are we even..." Then she remembered the cliff. The way he'd leap up it and she just popped her arm back into her sleeve and shrugged, "Fine. Fine. We can do that. You know it could take hours to burn down, right?" Her hand went to push through her hair and his last comment and charming smile simply got him a raised eyebrow, "What? One minute you can't stand us, the next you imply we're going to have sex with you again."

Xala rose her hands to make clawed hands, wiggling her fingers, "We bite and claw, remember? Now, boost us up, we can't jump like you can." Xala moved to where the hole in the ceiling was and bent her knees slightly before looking over her shoulder and giving him a nod to indicate she was ready.

Castor just shrugged.  Gods she was feisty and annoying and he just wanted this whole venture to be over all ready.  He smirked, however, at having to look at her underside when hoisting her up, pushing her back through the sandy hole.

He waited until she was through before climbing back through the sand himself, clawing at it and eventually finding air.  He shook his head and was satisfied when he saw the whole it had made in their presence.  "So hours huh?  What are we going to do with all that time.  Just light the oil.  We can tell each other stories."

Xala crawled over to the hole, not keen on falling down it before she looked over her shoulder.

"We could fuck," A smirk, knowing that it was something he wouldn't be expecting before she tucked her head down and breathed a stream of fire down into the tunnel. "It'll get hot in here anyway," Xala finally said lifting her head and stretching her arms up, backing away from the hole, "I hope you like it toasty."

"Living most of my life in a hole, I think I can manage," Castor said, shrugging.  "Where are you from?" he found himself asking.  "Or hatched, as it were?"

Xala rose an eyebrow at him.

"Hatched? We hatched out of our mother in the thunderblacks. A remote tribe. We're the odd one out," she shrugged and found a comfortable place to sit, rolling her shoulders. "And you? Where were you hatched?"

"Born.  I was born in Serendipity.  Or was it Adela...  I guess it doesn't really matter.  It was a shit hole.  Maybe I'm better off dying in here," he said with a nonchalant shrug.  "What was life like growing up in your tribe."

Xala tilted her head, frowning slightly.

As far as she was concerned, she wasn't too keen on her new... Companion... dying. At least not in here. They probably had burial things to do and while she was strong, it would just be plain tedious to drag his dead body back out of here.

"Bad. Twins aren't wanted in our tribe. They're incomplete people because they only have one soul." Xala tilted her head, "We're vessels for dragon souls and if there's two bodies and one soul..." Xala shrugged, looking off to the side, "We didn't stay there for long. Tala went and did bounty hunting. Xana joined a gang of bandits and now here we are."

She went silent not long after, the room heating up from the fires below.

"We don't want you dying in here, Castor." Xala stuck her tongue out at him after a moment, scrunching her face up in the process.

Castor listened, quiet during her story.  She did say something like that before.  But there wasn't much he could do more than that.

"Why?" he asked, curious on her last statement.  "Why does it matter?"

Why.

Xala frowned, looking at him a little confused.

"Well, it doesn't. Not really. We would just prefer not to have to drag your body out of here to bury it." A long look up and down his body, appreciating all the little things that made him so... Not a small human.

"That's what humans do, right? Bury their dead?" Her scaled hand moved to tap at her lips thoughtfully, "or do they burn them?"

Castor snickered at her explanation.  Oh, how very appropriate.

"Burn me, please.  I don't want to be buried.  If I wanted to die caked in dirt, I'd've stayed in the mining business.  Although I guess being here under a mountain...or wherever this is, isn't all that much difference."

He chuckled again.  "What about you?  What if you die?  Would you want me to bury you?"

Xala smirked at him before giving a pleased clap of her hands.

"Burning! So easy. We can do that for you," She made a kissy motion with her mouth before she shook her head violently at the idea of being burried.

"Just leave us. We'll return to the earth. Or something will eat us," Xala shrugged, looking around, "The body is just a vessel. A thing that... traps souls of greater beings for a while." She shrugged and leaned in slightly, giving Castor an odd look, "Unless it's different for humans." She eyed his gauntlets, "Humans other than you."

Castor shrugged.  "Well, if that's what you want," he said, nonchalantly about it.  If that was really her desire, then so be it.  He wasn't going to argue semantics with a reptilian dragon woman thing, whatever she was.

"I wouldn't really know.  I haven't died yet.  But I'll let you know when I do," he said.  He gestured to the hole.  "Should be burned up by now."

"Ha ha ha," she spoke, giving Castor an amused-but-not-really smirk. "We hope you do let us know when you die, it might be interesting." Xala stared at the gauntlets, before looking to here he'd pointed. Off to find more keys. Hurray.

"Do you suppose your soul gets sucked into them?" She stared at them, reaching out carefully before snapping her hand back before she made contact. A brief look over her shoulder at him before she made her way down into the hole.

He didn't answer that question.  And the truth was he didn't want to.  Castor had vaguely thought of what would happen if he completed this task, if he wouldn't just die in the process.  Or if the gauntlets wouldn't just adhere themselves to him even moren. Would he really be free?

Dwelling on such matters sullened his mood further, and after venturing down into the hole, he needed to keep a clear head.  "Looks like it's just straight ahead from here," he said, leading the way.

"Well, it is a tunnel," Xala supplied helpfully, tagging along closely. The sour mood didn't go unnoticed and Xala, true to her strange self, didn't let it bother her. If he didn't want to ask the right questions, she supposed he wouldn't get the right answers. Though, she supposed the whole 'soul' business was a sensitive subject for some people. "So, are we headed to your salvation or just a puzzle piece of it?" She nodded to the gauntlets again, standing behind him oh-so-slightly.

"Another key I think," he sighed.  At least Xala was useful when she wanted to be.  He wouldn't say that about anyone else.  She could have the gauntlets when he died, but he wouldn't tell her that now.  With the oil removed, the tunnel opened up to a large cavern.  What else was new, he thought.

"I can't say I know what I'm looking for, but a key is a key right?" he said, smirking at her and started to look through the skeletal remains of those that died here.

"A key is a key," Xala confirmed, frowning ever so slightly and looking around, pupils wide to catch in all the light. A quick lick of her teeth under her lips and she gave a little nod, "Except there's one lock for one key." Another smirk, "Unless she's a slutty lock. Then there are many keys."

She kicked over a skeleton, frowning at the bones before she rested her hands on her hips, "So... Bone key, maybe?"

Her jokes just glossed over him. 

Castor stayed focused, honing in on the details of the bones around them.  "It seems like a good enough start."  And he scrounged around for something that remotely looked like a key.  With so much little light in the cavern, he was having little luck until his foot stepped on a hand.

And a finger there looked twisted and gnarled, unlike any finger he'd ever seen.
Picking it up, he held it out for Xala to examine.  "Looks like a key to you?  Hm, a skeleton key.  Maybe it'll open the rest of the locks."  He certainly hoped for.  He was tired of wandering around in the dark.

Xala's face fell almost instantly.

"Skeleton key?" she frowned, reaching forward and snagging it from Castor's hand she frowned at it, pupils going tiny in her badly veiled anger.

"Skeleton key." She confirmed, looking frowny.

"This one better get all the locks," She grumbled, putting it into a pocket, "We'll hold onto it, you lead us back to that stupid door." What were they even looking for again? Some arms? Castor's old arms? No... Some sort of wizard or something. Xala wondered, glaring at him, why she followed him, and then she remembered.

The entertainment factor was sky high.

"I don't suppose you're having fun are you Xala?  As much fun as a two-souled Xala can have?" he asked with a quirk of his brow.

"One soul," she snapped, "we have one soul now. It was always one soul. Just in two bodies." Xala frowned at Castor and stuck her tongue out, "no. Not having fun the thing that owns your arms is going to get our fist in is face, we'll tell you that much."

"Fist in it's face. I thought that was my job?" he murmured, chuckling.  "You're not planning on taking all the fun and keeping it for yourself are you?"

Xala snarled, an animalistic sound.

"We plan on punching who ever did that to you in the goddamn head!" A glare at his arms, "You're..." She frowned and looked at the key, remembering the door but... Damn if she could remember where it was. "Yes. How about you find him and then we'll skin him alive. That sounds better. We can just make you meat gloves to wear over your weird metal hands. Sound good?"

"I don't think what did this to me is behind that door. I have dreams of things that terrify me when I'm asleep.  They're often of a man suffering, tortured by...I don't know... His enemies I guess?"   Castor shrugged and led them back the way they came.

The trek was quiet for the most part save for whatever small talk came between them, and finally they were at the massive door, it's golden sheen reflecting partly in the mystic light. Castor felt his belly ache, anticipation overwhelming him and he gestured her for the key.  "You can reach those other locks can't you?"

Other locks?

Xala frowned at the key in her hand.

It was tempting to just shove it at Castor and tell him to have a nice life. However, no doubt he'd drop the key. Xala couldn't remember a way out anyway. It felt like she'd been stuck in here for years already.

Carefully, she put the key into one of the locks, giving a quiet sigh when it clicked open. The other locks clicked and she gave the door a nudge. It moved easily for something so massive. "Castor?" Xala started, her voice going soft, " what exactly are you looking for again?"  Another nudge and the door moved further, curious and hesitant.

Hearing those clicks brought a level of satisfaction to what had already been an exhausting journey. Castor hated admitting to himself that he knew this was only the beginning. There was no way he was going to be free of these gauntlets. He didn't expect Xala to bother understanding any more than she did. She was simply here for the ride, wasn't she?

The door opened and he stepped in closer, the darkness opening up before him. "Relics," he said.  "I don't know what just yet. But I suppose I'll know when I find it.  These iron hands are all that guide me. I'm sorry. I wish I had better answers to give you."

Xala licked her teeth, frowning ever so slightly.

Relics. but he didn't know what they were. That was some hot bullshit. A lift of her eyebrow and she looked away after a moment, looking both unimpressed and perhaps a little irritated. Xala followed after Castor, lips tight, pupils giant black orbs from the lack of light.

"Smells old in here," She said, voice echoing, "Will you know?" She asked softly, curious, "Will you see it and just know? Or do you just... Never know."