* Guardians of The Sacred Orb

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti grabbed the jar without a word and followed Mia. Nakhti's right ear kept twitching out of annoyance. Nakhti lessened the focus on his magic cooling the air around him since he could begin to feel it taxing his physical strength. Damn I was hoping to hold out longer without the physical exaustion.  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger looks from Nakhti to Mia and back again. Well, that's fixed. She thinks to herself as she grabs his twitching ear and holds it still. "Going is good." Ty notices the dropping temperature and cools the air around them. "Is the heat bothering you?"  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti was getting exhausted his grip on his magic getting ever more shakey. Hearing Tig he nodded not bothering to remove her hand off of his ear since he just felt to tired to swat it away.

"The heat has always bothered me but now i at least know why."

Nakhti's eyes drooped halfway before snapping back open. I'm about to ask one of them to carry me in my cat form at this rate.  

[zepherion]

Mia turned around and started walking backwards. "Oh, Yeah! It's because of your background, right? Born and raised in the snowy mountains and guardian of ice." Mia looked up at the sky.

"Oh, which reminds me, where did you and Ty meet in the first place?"  

[NakhtiChaos]

"Yes my intolerence to heat comes from where i used to live. To me this is absurdely hot."

Nakhti looked at a bird that flew over head.

"Tig and I met when we were about seven years old in my village. She was staying there for.... well I don't know why she was staying there. I was on a strict trainning regimine set up by my father back then. No time for fun no time for friends. It was wake up excercise my physical strenth eat work on my magic strength eat work on both at the same time and then eat before studying and then going to sleep. I was normaly to be by myself. Ocassionaly they would have me spar with other kids to test my strength. In other words they wanted to see how strong the futer leader of thier village was and wanted to know how to make me even stronger. Anyways I used to train alone till Tig came by..... (yawns hard)"

Looking to the side Nakhti elbowed Tig lightly.

"You want to tell her how we met? I'm starting to burn out here."  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger grins as she makes the air around them frosty for Nakhti, but tries to keep it away from Mia. "Well, I kinda had been staring at their practices for a long time, but more often I stared at his. He did a better job." She says as she lets go of his ear. "I copied him once and one of the boys saw me do it... Never found out who saw, tried to get me in trouble they did. I ended up being taught how to use it. I had already learned all of the baisics from watching and practing in private."
She moves a ways away from them and turns into a horse. Her tail flicks, automatically swatting the nearest bug away from her painted side. "I ended up catching up to him pretty quick, though he will always be stronger. I was able to equal him for a long time. We worked together for a long time. I had to leave eventually." She shakes her head, her black and white mane bouncing a little. "Can't seem to stay very still for very long."  

[zepherion]

Mia nodded as she listened. "It sounds nice. But I guess it wouldn't seem so warm if we were to go back, right? If so, then that would be a shame. I'd really like to see it in all its glory."

Mia stopped walking and turned around. She looked up at the looming gates of Dredarous. "Hmm, didn't take as long as I thought." Mia walked off the road and around the brick wall.  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti let go of the magic as soon as he noticed Tig cooling the air for him.

"Thanks.... looks like i got a little ways to go before i can get back into shape with magic."

Nakhti yawned again and this time stumbled slightly.

"Woah damn.... at this rate i'll need to go cat form and have someone carry me."

Nakhti shuffled slowly after Mia but he kept within the cold air.  

[Tiger Tales]

Tiger shakes her head again and peeks at Mia with her abnormally green eyes."It is a shame... Hey, this trip is shorter than I remember... The city must have expanded." She looks over at Nakhti and whickers a little. "Come on, I'll piggy back you. Just no claws. Pretend you are a young noble or something. Check in my bag and there is a red ring of passage or lordship wraped in some cloth, don't snoop any farther than that I beg you." She says to Nakhti.  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti's eyes went wide at the words *ring of lordship* and he paused.

"To open the seal of the passage to get to the orb of the ice temple required our three rings. The ring of the father, mother, and son of the ice. Father never wore his on himself nor did i or my mother. We hid ours. I know where mom hid hers in the brick in thier bed chamber a certain one was hollow but it had to be dug out. I hid mine in the dungeon the most unpopulated place in our town under the temple itself. Father never showed me his but said that in a dire time he would pass the ring and sword on to me in on fell sw...... he didn't......"

Ingnoring everyone now Nakhti touched the handle of the flame blade and began to unwrap the leather. Slowly he peeled it off untill just the dark ebony hilt with a silver cap was left. Putting away the leather inside his jacket he twisted the silver cap and it popped off of the end of the hilt. The inside was hollow and Nakhti tilted the sheath of the blade until a pale blue silver and white ring fell out into Nakhti's plam.

"You old fool."

Nakhti slid the ring onto his finger and replaced the silver cap and began replaceing the leather as he spoke aloud.

"I am not a noble in need of passage and safety. I will only go in as I am. Nakhti Chaos gaurdian of ice and leader of my village. They don't like it they can try to kill me. I doubt they will get close."

As soon as the leather was replaced upon the hilt of his blade he smiled weakly.

"Who said anything about piggy backing? I'm heavy as hell in this form. I got enough energy to change into my more lighter kitty form. So which on would you rather be seen carrying? Heavy forigen stubborn noble or a cute and cuddley kitten?"  

[zepherion]

Mia giggled. "Are you really that heavy?" Mia smiled. "It's probably because of that almost bottomless bag of yours. You keep almost anything in there. I bet if I dig deep enough I'll find a lamp post." Mia looked up at the walls of Dredarous.

"Yeah, actually, now that I think about it, it does seem a bit bigger than the last time we came here...length wise at least. Mia stopped at the entrance to the valley and sighed. "Ugh, we have to walk through this place again. I hope we don't stumble across any other shortcut holes. Dropping through that one that I happened to fall into scared the living day lights out of me!"  

[Tiger Tales]

"Well, its not so bad to carry anyone as a horse. It will look weird having no one riding me though... So I figured I would offer. Anyone else want a ride? Or should I change back and fake blindness again?" She says turn ing and tossing her head, looking from person to person.  

[NakhtiChaos]

Nakhti sighed as he rubbed his eyes and his cat ears drooped.

"If you insist fine you can carry me...... just don't go through my stuff while i'm asleep ok?"

Nakhti came over to stand by Tig and hopped up onto her back. Then leaning forward Nakhti's eyes began to droop slowly shut.  

[zepherion]

Mia giggled. "Aww, ain't that cute!" Mia started skipping. "But, that's okay. It looks like Nakhti's made the decision for us." Mia started walking again after a while. As they passed a dead end Mia stared at the ground at the end. There was the quicksand from before. Mia cringed.

Mia yawned as they entered the clearing. "Wow, the day is going by pretty slowly. The sun hasn't even started to go down yet. I bet we can make it to Ruby at least by nightfall."  

[CainZeros]

"It seems the gods have quickened our journey," Marcus said, his voice showing some doubt of what he said. "That or slowed the passage of time. But, why would they do either of those things. After all, we are only mortals, even if we are guardians."