[SUMMER] Jungle - Can I Go Home Yet!? >_< [Kaiden & Lira]

[Guardian_Iris]

The ghost of the lost princess wasn't interested in anything this thing had to say. The simple fact is that she needed to die. The furry Pae'il creature would pay for the crimes committed against the princess.

"Fool. I led you here." Lira was naïve to think this was an accident. With the trail leading to this very room from the beginning.

The ghost was quick; quicker than any Pae'il could dream of being. She flickered and was instantly in front of Lira. She wrapped one boney hand around Lira's neck. "Your words are wasted here." She had one goal; to choke the life out of the furred Pae'il creature.

"Mother, please..." a tiny little voice from behind the specter disrupted them.

Turning, the ghost of the princess scolded the smaller ghost. The ghost was that of a young faerie girl. She stood innocently holding a doll. She was crying, or at least appeared to be crying. "Leave now! We will have our new companion soon."

The ghost of the princess turned her attention back to the faun in her grasp. She lifted Lira off the ground, and stared into her eyes. The fear was the best part of adding to her menagerie of "companions".

Getting close to Lira's face, she whispered "You will feel my hell. You will feel my anger and vengeance. No one can hear you scream down here." The words were raspy, and dripped venom. The specter's decayed face grinned, revealing a mouthful of razor sharp teeth.

"Mother..."

Fueled by anger, the specter flared up and turned, with Lira still in hand. "I said LEAVE!" and with minimal effort but amazing flair, she hurled Lira towards the ghost child. The ghost child disappeared as Lira went through her. Lira would hit the wall behind, breaking the wooden paneling and revealing a crawl space.

-----

There is a secret lever to lift the staircase again. However, once lifted, it cannot come down again. The ants are susceptible to fire.

((This will be the last interaction with this part of your RP, so please be creative in solving your challenge. There is one more prompt for this scenario for you guys, but you gotta get there on your own.))  

[Mutilated Moogle]

As Lira stood there in shock as the ghost appeared before her in an instant she wasn't quick enough to do anything before she was starting to be choked, struggling to try and free herself, it was useless really and in the end she gave up as the specters hand stayed wrapped around her throat, tears starting to fall from her eyes as she found it hard to breath and tried to do whatever she could to try and somehow get more air into her lungs but it was pointless. As the specter spoke she looked as best as she could at the little girl who was calling to the murderous ghost and she couldn't help but feel sorry for the little one, it wasn't a time to feel sorry for the child but she couldn't help it, the poor thing looked so sad and her mother wasn't exactly looking like she was going to win mother of the year but as the older ghost spoke again Lira was slowly starting to black out, the lack of air and her being choked was not exactly something she could handle for long especially with how tight the ghosts hand was that was wrapped around her throat, struggling again to try and free herself but once again, failing and with that her energy was depleting also.

"I'm sorry...Kai..." she squeaked out before finally closing her eyes, she just wasn't up to struggling or doing anything anymore so as she was thrown across the room, hitting the wall she just stayed there, not moving, the event of what happened had really started to take its toll on her and really, the fact that the air was a really welcoming thing in her lungs now she still hit the wall hard and moving, for the time being, was really not something she wanted to do but after a bit she came to and felt her neck, the pain and more then likely bruising she got from the ghost would be evident more so then it was now soon enough but looking around for a possible exit from the room, now scared beyond all reason she just wanted to leave. Lira was about to give up when she noticed a crawl space appeared, when she hit the wall a panel came off and thankfully she could leave here so before the ghost could do anything else she started crawling through, ignoring the fact that she left her basket on the bed, right now her life was more important then a couple of plants she picked up and she just hoped she would be able to get away from that ghost, hopefully it was condemned to that room and can't leave it.

As she crawled through, having no idea where this was leading her her mind did drift back to the little girl and silently she did say a prayer for her, stupid as it may have been that little girl honestly didn't seem to like what her mother was doing, she didn't know what the story was with them but she felt sorry for that little girl having to go through what she had to with her mother, Lira knew that whatever happened and why they hadn't been able to be laid to rest was no longer her concern but still she couldn't help but think of that poor little fae child and what a hellish death she must be living with a mother like that.

Tartara Seabreeze

 

[Tartara Seabreeze]

He'd need a way to efficiently disperse flame onto all the ants. With a sigh, he sat down to think. He had fire, scrolls, a med kit, his flower, banana's, the lantern, flares and matches. The blanket came to mind to set aflame, but that was behind the staircase. And he wasn't too certain if it was even flammable. He sighed, and came up with a horrible thought. Small balls of fire weren't effective...but he had a lot of scrolls. He was about to destroy a LOT of history. Standing up, he started grabbing scrolls by the armful. He then walk down the stairs, drop them off, then come back up for more. Then he did the same for the parchments, then he ripped out the wooden shelves. He grabbed all the torches available. Even the unlightable brazier came down. Soon the male had amassed a fairly substantial pile of flammable objects. This. Was war. He chomped on a banana as he scrutinized the walls of the hall with his torch, looking for a switch or button. Time passed slowly, painfully as he looked over every inch. His heart sank when he got to the gate and still nothing. Lira. No. I WILL get her out of this mess. He couldn't give up hope. The faun redoubled his efforts and searched the hallway the entire length back.

Nothing. Hours spent searching, for nothing. He gritted his teeth as he turned to the only thing he hadn't looked at, the stairs. Gently he guided his fingers over them, his face peering close to every step. The tips of his middle finger brushed a bump. "AHA!" His excitement bounced throughout the small enclosure as he pulled his light to the bump. Nestled against the wall over the stairs, he at last noticed a strange cutout. He curled his fingers against the outline. Paper. He ripped the clever painted insert down, revealing a niche with a metal lever. Kaiden jumped down to set up his trap. He rolled out all the scrolls to coat the floor, then used the banana's to coat the walls with parchment. He climbed the stairs to get the ceiling. Soon 4 to 5 feet of every section of the hallway was covered in paper. He needed as much length as possible as paper burned so fast. Basket in arm, he then lit his torches, lengthwise, just behind his paper box as his last line of defense. Then he proceeded to light the ceiling paper and flip the lever. Kaiden jumped off of the staircase as it began to rise, his torch flicking down the walls and across the floor to send the hallway into a blaze. He gave a mighty jump over his flaming line of torches, and started picking up the balls of paper stashed in his basket. Only then, a ball in hand, did he turn around to watch the mass of hungry ants walk straight into his firebox. "COME AND GET DINNER!" He cried, lighting a ball and chucking it into the swarm. As the first wave hit the parchment, a thousand crackles pierced the air of their tiny bodies burning. To his miracle, they did burn. And their burning mass of carcasses spread the fire much more efficiently than his coating of paper, as they ran around burning, catching other ants. He lobbied more flaming balls, helping the spread, watching the infestation go from a determined force to mass hysteria. Some of the paper fell from the ceiling to crash onto a new group of ants, spreading further chaos. A horrid smell mixed with the fire and smoke. Death in complete extermination. As the smoke started to become suffocating, Kaiden started walking backwards while continuing to throw his flaming balls, aiming at the walls as his line of fire torches was unpenetrable, and the thick black smoke kept them from the ceiling. So frenzied in need to feed, they walked into their deaths. It wasn't long until the mass of thousands were down to a few hundred at most. The paper had burned and they were too spread out for burning ants. But at these extremely low numbers, they were of no real threat. As they finally reached him, he merely went stomping, and any that crawled on him he quickly squished. I'm sorry Lira...It had to be done. With the numbers plummeted to almost nothing, he started back down the hallway. With no nearby ventilation, the smoke still lingered from the massacre. He ran through to the other side, his left over torch in hand.

It didn't take long until he came upon his solar blanket, which he folded back up and put in his basket alongside his knife. There were more straggler ants behind it, but in the hours that the staircase had been down, the overwhelming number had been in wait of it. He didn't mind the occasional bite, simply swatting at them and continuing on.

It was then that he noticed a peculiar hole near the ceiling. He thrust his torch upwards, having it stick into the hole. Something glinted back at him, deeply nestled within. The hole was large but...he reached up to his antlers. He wouldn't fit in it. But that glint could be another button, another lever, something to get Lira out of the gate. Again the male started gathering torches. Nothing was going to stop him now. Nothing. He used his knife to cut up his already torn backpack into straps. Then he proceeded to tie the torches together, end to end, to create a pole.

His entire body hurt. Dozens of bleeding bites littered his body, with mangled ant bodies in his fur, dirt and smog turning him from green to almost brown. He tore his handle from the lantern off, and tied that at the very end of his 'pole' as a hook in case it was a lever. There. He lit one torch and tossed it into the hole for light as he hung up his original one onto the wall. Then slowly he fed his contraption in, careful of the flame. He moved it towards the glinting object and poked it. To his surprise, it fell over! It's an item, not a lever or button... He should have been broken by this. He would have felt beaten, defeated, and given up. But he wasn't living for himself now. That had all changed when that gate slammed down, sealing Lira to a gruesome fate of starvation if he didn't get her out. Gritting his teeth, he maneuvered his hook behind the object and started dragging it back. He had wasted an hour easily on what ever it was inside the hole, he was getting it out. Maybe, just maybe it was a key. Hidden away by the sick pae who came up with the trap filled nightmare hallway. With a sharp yank, the thing tumbled out and he rushed to meet it. He slammed his body into the wall to get under it in time, dropping his pole. The delicate item fell into his arms instead of the hard floor. Slowly, he slid to the ground with it.

His shoulder now throbbed alongside everything else wrong with him. A headache from the smoke, the bites, his aching muscles. The list kept going. He had fought harder, thought smarter, reacted faster than he had ever before in his entire life. He had pressed himself to his limits. If he ever got out of there, he would be a changed faun. Forever. Finally the male looked down to his prize. A...lighter. All that, for fire he already had! Life is cruel sometimes... He bitterly thought, forcing his body back up to his hooves. He needed to keep going down the hall. His thoughts filtered to the ants, the gate, the exhausting search for a lever. Everything that had smitted him throughout the day. If it was even the same day. He had been running around for hours. And that cursed firepit. That led to an odd thought. He looked down at the lighter in hand. The hallway had been filled with chain reactions. Could the pae...be THAT... He grabbed his torch from the wall, put the lighter in his basket, and took off in a full run back towards the gate. Towards that unlit brazier.

Nafretiti

 

[Tartara Seabreeze]

The disgusting smell of charcoaled ants and smoke met his sensitive nose long before his silver eyes focused on the blackened walls from his carnage. A part of him felt sad to destroy an entire civilization of ants...but the larger part of him was rightly happy the ants got just what they deserved for trying to make him their dinner. It was a situation of kill or be killed, he was simply the victor. His hooves crunched into the bodies scattered on the ground, some places an inch thick due to the sheer numbers the infestation had grown into. But he stopped paying it any attention, as he desperately hoped he was right about this demented hallway. The brazier couldn't be lit by his torch and he was 'given' a lighter. It couldn't be a coincidence. It couldn't.

For his and Lira's sake, it simply couldn't. The faun sunk to his knees when he reached the thing, his thumb sliding onto the trigger. Please...oh please let this work. He jerked his thumb and the lighter sputtered to life. Then with a held breath, the male held the flame to the brazier.

The longest second of his life ticked by.

Some Guardian must have smiled on him just then, as if by magic the flame took. The brazier that previously did not light began to burn. In moments the fire spread, illuminating the hallway in a blast of warmth, yellow and orange.

OOC: Annnnddd now to see if lighting the brazier really did lift the gate! XDD