The interior of the temple was as strange mix of old and new. The walls looked to be made of stone, but were polished bright as a new car. As it was outside, the place seemed to be lit by nothing, yet he could see perfectly fine.
Her shadow came up beside him. Hand to God, he stepped aside on instinct rather than revulsion. He didn't want to loathe her, but like he said topside, he was fond of living. Speaking of, where exactly were they?
"Trust you?"
Jaxen replied quizzically. He barked an uneasy laugh. Even for someone who saved his life. Didn't mean she wasn't saving his hide because shooting an otherwise delicious looking McJaxen was a waste of a meal. He shuddered but continued forward only half a step before his arms were planted at his sides.
For a tiny thing she could shove her way past a brick wall! Grace and agility kept his feet beneath him, but it wasn't pretty as he stumbled across an open space. "What the--?!"
He cried, taken by surprise and looking behind his shoulder.
He was aware of an audience, but his eyes slid over them like oil on water. He had no interest in actually seeing what was around him. Just staying upright. "Strong little thing aren't you."
He barked, annoyed as they crossed the foyer. In the corner of his eye, a black and red pillar drifted aside, and every hair on his body stood on end.
Jaxen's hands whipped out to grab the edges of the passageway he was almost shoved through, blocking them, and turning into a rigid wall that Sora was going to have to plow through to get by. Every hair stood up on his body, like a forked tongue tickled the back of his neck and hot breath whispered threats in his ear.
The pillar was a snake. Black and red, its hooded fans billowing. A thick body was coiled on the ground. Its belly rippled like its last meal was still writhing within, trying to get out.
His face paled white as the moon. Tears glistened the corners of wide-thrown eyes, but Jaxen willed his legs to move. To run. But he was surrounded by them. There was no where to run. Except at the beast and rip it apart with his own bare hands. But his legs were cement blocks. His feet barely inched backwards. He wanted to scream and wake from this nightmare. Vengenance curled his heart black, but for what, he couldn't say.
With venomous defiance he turned toward Sora, and backed away from her as surely as he did from the lair of the beast. "You know what? Fuck you. And fuck this. I'm done."
He turned tail and ran.
...Into a maze of gray stone hallways. The endlessness of it almost made him panic as fearfully as the giant cobra man. Trapped. But he wouldn't stop. He couldn't give up. There had to be a way out. There's always a way out.
Sora sighed watching the human retreat, the red and black hood of Lithos descending to hover above her head. “Your gather hass quite a turn of sspeed for a human, eh Ssora?”
His deep chuckle rumbled like rocks. Sora stared stonily down the hall listening, hands on slim hips.
“Would you be sso kind ass to ssound the alarm, Masster Gatherer? I would not have him esscape to causse injury before he goess through the door.”
Still chuckling, Lithos slithered to a gong near his post. Sora tasted the air, testily. It was bad enough to be one of the smallest Gatherers in Komukai, but to have a Gather go this badly--!
The gong tolled, its brassy tones rolling along the halls and into the city. Sora began to run. Every Gatherer in Komukai would be headed for the temple. Every exit would have a Naga or four preventing anyone from entering or exiting. Sora turned a corner, hissing. She would have to answer to the Nagaseer for the alarm. In her thirty-eight years she had seen the Nagaseer exactly three times; once when she was selected as a Gatherer candidate, once when she was confirmed as a Gatherer and, once in the halls of the temple by happenstance. No one had ever sounded the alarm within her lifetime that she could remember. The person that gave the order would have to stand surety before the Nagaseer, the Master Gatherers, the entire city council and every Gatherer in the city to explain her actions. She fantasized about squeezing that human until his eyes popped.
Sora listened for which direction that bumbling, ill-begotten human was headed, forming possible contingencies. He seemed to be staying in the maze of halls which were designed to confuse those who were unfamiliar with their warrens. She could only guess that the Ancients knew how one of their own might react, but when she caught up to that human--!
Edited by
Sora Ryuu, Jul 13 2014, 02:51 PM.
Jaxen skidded around the first corner he came to. The freaking halls just kind of opened up on him out of no where! Having seen the temple from outside, he knew that a straight-enough path in any one direction was the best way out, but that was assuming there was more than one door. He was also assuming he'd know where the hell to go after he tasted fresh air again, but one problem at a time.
Then this bellowing gong sound stopped him in his tracks. His breath caught and he warily looked behind him. Nobody. But those gongs were for him. They pounded like the vibrating beat of his heart, but he wasn't sure whether or not he should be proud of his emergent status.
A sly smirk supplanted his panic. He darted onward, a flash of blue streaking through cold stone halls. The narrow passages couldn't possibly fit the giant cobra he'd seen before. Not much of a comfort, but it was something.
The little ones he kept an eye out for. When he came to the next crossing, he planted his back to the wall and edged toward the corner he carefully peeked around. A pair of naga stood guard a few meters past: eyes narrowed, hands clutched upon some sort of staff. The first tilted its head and a slip of a tongue tasted the air. As soon as she did, she looked straight at where Jaxen was hiding.
"Shit!"
He realized he'd given himself away. Might as well make a break for it. He dashed across the hall they were coming up, but a comment thrown over one shoulder echoed in his wake. "Its called Eau de Jaxen! Very limited edition!"
The gongs drowned out the rest.
The petite Naga jogged down a narrow corridor. She stayed close enough to the human to hear, but kept out of his sight. Every Naga she found was headed to an exit and she passed the word. All Naga were to shift to their birth form until the alarm was lifted. They all had questions she did not stop to answer, but inside she seethed. That human would pay for the shame she had to endure. Thankfully, after his banter with the one exit he neared, he began heading roughly in the right direction, but he would pass the room if she did not act. She circled around by way of another corridor, grabbed a length of rope from one of the rooms on the way, and then she waited. His particular scent was almost there. One…two…
All four feet and five inches of serpentine muscle torpedoed from her hiding place and plowed into his mid-section with enough force to toss his pitiful carcass into another room. It was large and empty except for a bench that lined one wall. On one end, another door led to a smaller chamber where the Archway was kept. Sora landed in a wide-legged crouch blocking the only other exit.
“Go through the door in the other room, Ancient. You have caussed enough trouble here. When you return, you will know more than you do now.”
‘Not that you know anything at all.’ It took a great deal of effort to keep that comment and her hands to herself. She almost wanted him to react as he had thus far just so she could have the satisfaction of roping and tossing him through the doorway with as many bruises as she could reasonably inflict.
Jaxen was feeling pretty good about himself after the other two naga ran away from him. His sly smirk turned self-satisfied and he slowed to a more sustainable jogging pace rather than the all-out sprint for your life from before. Mind, it wasn't because he was winded. But the fact that he'd seen no more snake people since then crept chills up his spine. Something was wrong, and those damned gongs kept sounding.
He turned a corridor and grunted when a torpedo slammed into his gut. It was the little one again!
He was flung through a doorway, that was apparently not the doorway, and his little attacker blocked the only exit. He gathered his breath, and scooped up the bowels he'd felt pop out of his gut, and looked behind him.
Not the only exit.
He eyed her, breathing hard and defiant. "Are you herding me? Like cattle?"
He seemed offended, but more likely it was because he hadn't realized it sooner. His gaze fell to the rope in her hand.
He backed away from her, but made sure not to seem as though she was threatening him backward, even though she really was. Kind of. Jaxen was stalling. Stalling until he could think of a way out of this.
Quick eyes darted the room with a thief's surveillance. There wasn't much. Four walls, a high ceiling, a bench too big to use as a bludgeon.
He didn't much appreciate the herding. Or ambushing. Or being threatened with a rope. He hated the feeling of free-falling out of control.
His shoulders suddenly relaxed and Jaxen stood straight. He tugged on the sleeves to his fine blue coat and lifted his chin, defiant all the way. "Alright, SnakeNaga lady, but when I go in there, it's for my own reasons."
his voice sharpened and he spun and strode purposefully away, likely to an excruciating demise.
Nothing moved but a pair of dark reptilian eyes watching his every step to be sure he did as instructed. There was a faint hint of humor instantly dampened by irritation. She almost told him that if he were cattle, she would have eaten him already and saved everyone the trouble. Almost she did. 'He would probably give me indigestion' she thought wryly. When it seemed he would enter the room without another altercation, she relaxed so far as to draw a long, slow breath. Only when he finally disappeared into the other room did she whisper.
“Idiot.”
Edited by
Sora Ryuu, Jul 20 2014, 08:42 AM.
The previous chamber dwarfed the size of the one Jaxen now found himself in. Surprisingly, he was in awe of the shape in the center rather than searching immediately for an exit, but he peeled his eyes off the incomprhensible shape long enough to do just that. Of course there were none.
He rounded the object he could only describe as an acrylic archway. It was transparent and thin as a ribbon, yet was held upright without support nor suspension. Which meant it was probably drilled into the floor somehow. Either way, whatever force of balance kept the arch standing, he had the sense that the briefest graze would send it toppling. Of course he touched it.
A gentle graze of his fingerpads found the arcylic slick and cool to the touch, but otherwise not outstanding.
He glanced out into the larger chamber. The naga ninja was still blocking him in. He frowned.
"This is the magic door I'm suppose to go through?"
He called but his voice didn't seem to carry far.
He looked back up at it and wondered if direction of approach mattered. What would happen if he passed through? A brief pat down of himself found nothing on him he could toss through, except.. An earring. He was wearing a tiny blue jewel in one ear that he only picked out because it matched the coat. He otherwise had no clue where he'd gotten it.
After rounding and pulling the stud out, he stood behind the arch and tossed it through. It disappeared like a pebble hitting the surface of the water, and he frowned again. His gaze lifted toward the Naga once more.
Let's get this over with, he thought with a smirk. He saluted her mockingly and stepped confidently through.
There was no time to gasp as a bright light blinded him, and the roar of an unimaginable engine blazed his ears. He was stretched, folded, and pulled apart once more as though the second version of himself was an exact copy of the first. His stomach flopped and he felt a knee hit the ground on the other side.
His palms steadied himself on a cool tile floor where he knelt on one knee; agile and swift, he immediately pushed away and rounded to face what was certainly going to be some sort of assualt. He gasped when he realized nothing was there. Not so much as the archway he'd passed through. He was simply in the middle of a room. Some sort of ... library?
He turned in a slow circle. Books lined three of the four walls from floor to ceiling. The fourth was entirely filled with windows overlooking a cityscape he did not recognize. He passed by rich, comfortable-seeming furniture to get a better look. His fingers grazed the mantle of a marble fireplace as he passed.
He must have been in the upper floor of a high-rise building because the city was sprawled out far below. The white-stone buildings reminded him vaguely of Santorini, the city sat on the edge of a jewel-blue ocean. The harbor was filled with medieval looking ships, though, and he shivered. This was definitely not Greece.
He turned to make his demands of the empty room. There were no doors in or out. No obvious doors, anyway.
"Alright! Your Ancient is here! Now what!?"
"Now, you do be stopping your caterwauling like a mewling babe and sit yourself down for a chat."
A voice like old stones rasped from the corner beside the window where a man stood, his black boots firmly rooted to the ground. He strode up to Jaxxen, looked him over and passed him by to lounge in a chair near the fireplace. His dark eyes pierced the air in a sun-browned and weathered face. He was widely built, a rough bear of a man with hair lightly silvered, a full beard and mustache both of which ended in a precisely straight line midway down his chest. He wore all black with a high collared coat and loose trousers tucked into boots. The man leaned back with his ankles crossed.
“Well boy, be you welcome. First things first. Have you been sick? Fevers, chills, headache, taking fool chances?”
He looked Jaxen up and down which seemed a short trip the way he moved.
“Fortune prick me, but you do look the sort might take fool chances even so. Anything out of the ordinary do be happening around you? Or better yet,”
he leaned forward suddenly with a shark-like grin,
“do you be knowing what you be?”
Edited by
Sora Ryuu, Jul 29 2014, 07:41 PM.
Jaxen slowly turned to face the voice broadcast behind him. He was an older man, but there was a hardness about him that suggested a short leash on a temper Jaxen did not want to rouse.
The man, dressed all in black, did not introduce himself yet he seemed to know exactly why Jaxen was there. By his questions, he also seemed to know all about Jaxen's recent history. Fevers, chills, headache? Taking fool chances? Jax scratched at his throat and wandered closer as though to do as bid and sit, but he remained on his feet.
"Have I been sick lately? Well, let me think a second."
His fingers unfurled, and his eyes rolled upward thoughtfully as he recalled the items one by one. "Before I was kidnapped by the Naga snake woman, I had a gun aimed at my face by a teenager, and a guy named White said there was a secret society trying to kill me. But I suppose that's not answering your question."
His gaze narrowed on the stranger. He had the strangest accent Jaxen had ever heard. He couldn't place it. Just as he couldn't place the city in their view.
He rounded the chair like he might deign to sit. He remained standing, however, looking down at the man. "But there was this time I raced a Lambo around the Garden Ring Road and nearly shaved my own head off flying under bridges. Luckily I managed to survive that only to find myself vomiting my brains out behind a dumpster and sweating like a pig in a sauna rather than a man on the frozen Russian tundra."
His story continued, but there was a minute pause every time he dropped a specific word indicative of his own world, culture and time. Did the man recognize things like Lambos, saunas, and Russia? If not, why? Where the hell were they? What had Naga lady done to him? And how could he mold it to his advantage?
He sat opposite the man, but to unfold himself into the cushions like a relaxed host at a dinner party rather than a prisoner being interrogated. As he crossed on leg, his blue cashmere jacket unfolded on the seat beside him. The skeleton tattoo could be seen through the thinness of a white sweater stretched across his chest. He drummed his fingers on the armrests.
"I'd say I was sick then, but there wasn't much time to wonder how I'd contracted such a quick-acting virus, because I was kidnapped again, by cannibals that strung me up in their sewer dungeon. Luckily, I do seem to pushing the bounds of my luck, don't I? Luckily a man named Michael saved me, but not before the aforementioned White clocked me on the temple with his rifle. It was him and his friend Tony that explained my Sickness was a poisoned side effect of wielding powers I didn't know I have."
Lots of interesting words there: virus, sewer, rifle. Jaxen peered around the room briefly, trying to place himself. There were no lamps nor anything particularly resembling electricity. Then again the room and city seemed to be lit by nothing yet were continuously bright at the same time. The air was comfortable, yet did not circulate on streams of air-conditioning. Then there was the man's strangely shaped clothes. Oddly enough, the cut of his black coat was similar to the cut of Jaxen's India-inspired blue cashmere.
"Now fast-forward a bunch of time in between and here I am."
He spread his arms wide like he was welcoming the adoration of his audience. A slick smile twisted his lips. "So you can say my days of late have been out of the ordinary, but I do know this, in answer to your last question,"
Jaxen's smile faded into eyes hungry for knowledge and advantage. "I've been told I'm an Ancient and a god, titles I don't particularly mind."
A thought entered his mind and he flung the question back at his interrogator in mocking imitation of the accent, "do you be knowing what you be?"
He laughed. If he offended this guy, it didn't matter anyway. In all likelihood he wasn't real.
Nothing moved on the man until Jaxen finished his spiel. Loud, boisterous laughter filled the room.
"An Ancient and a god!"
His laughter rumbled on.
"It do be sounding like that Naga saved your hide none too soon. Certain there do be people who would kill you as soon as look at you if they knew what you could do, Fortune prick me for true."
He continued to chuckle a bit then abruptly cut short with a slap on his knees.
“First things, first. We make sure there do no be any illness left in you. Then we satisfy that curiosity that I do see burning your heart.”
He leaned forward to lay a palm on Jaxen’s head.
“Name do be Tarin. What do you be called when you be home?”
He sent the power on a search for any vestiges of illness aiming to burn it from existence and weave health for the young man. Not many of the young people he saw these days were without some form of illness. It seemed the rate of those able to find their way was lower in this Age. Perhaps humanity was growing weaker in some way, preventing them from the mental strength that would allow more to survive. Tarin sadly tucked that thought away to ponder for later.