Mission #5: Temple of the Golden Fang

[donnervark]

"Son...of...a!" Nellix cursed as she rifled through the wreck of her small boat. The damn storm that surrounded this cursed island had utterly ruined the small craft. "Useless....useless...scrap..." She ticked off one after another as she flipped various boards, hoping to get enough to at least repair the boat when she was done. Not having a boat wasn't a huge deal for the mermaid, as she could swim far faster than the ship could travel. However, she was here for a reason. As strong as she was, carrying gold herself may be rather difficult. One of her tentacles absent-mindedly swept some of her dreadlocks over her shoulder as another picked up the mast. "The only....damn part still intact....wonderful!" Nellix dropped the mast and settled down into her 'legs', curling them into a cushion-like mass while she crossed her arms and considered her options.

"No saw...a bag of nails...and a hammer..." She really needed a saw. If she could cut wood she could build something functional. "Ok...drink break!" The mermaid hauled her heavy gourd around and popped the cork. It was watertight, and very sturdy, so luckily had survived the storm intact. "To adventure!" She toasted sarcastically as she downed several hearty gulps of Sake. It would have been great to have something stronger, but she didn't have much money at the moment. Ultimately, booze was booze. With a sigh Nellix slung the gourd back over her shoulder, and returned to a 'standing' position.

"Alright...no point in staying here." Twirling her iron hammer with one tentacle, she started making her way off of the beach, and into the dense forests of Lost island. She was glad to get out of the open. In the forest she could use the trees, grabbing them with her tentacles to move more quickly. If she was lucky she could at least find something in the ruins she could use to cut some wood. Based on her map, it would be an hour or two to get to the inner island, where the ruins were claimed to exist. So the mermaid settled in for a short journey, still cursing herself for not making a sturdier craft. But that was ultimately why she was here. She needed money to build something worthwhile. And based on the legends, there was supposedly a small town here where the Sennenryu used to dwell. And if the Celestial Dragons once lived there, then the chance of riches were high!

"Travel beyond the ring of water..." Nellix went over the legend on her crude map. The inner part of the island had a river that ran in a perfect circle. She had no idea how that was possible, but it wasn't the most bizarre thing in life. That had to be what they meant by 'ring of water'. "Beyond the ash and bones..." That was intimidating, but also mysterious. The map was not so detailed as to identify anything that that could mean. Ash...perhaps a volcano? Or sulfur springs? Bones could be anything with these old pirate legends. Could be dead trees...rock formations...or actual bones. "Well...lets get past the ring before anything..." She mumbled, stuffing the map in her cleavage. Based on what she'd heard, there were traps and hazards all over this island, so she had to stay wary. No sooner did the thought cross her mind, a loud snap caught her attention. "You've got to...already?!" A high pitched whistle announced the descent of a long wooden spike, that drove into the ground inches away from one of her 'legs'. "Yeeeeek!" Nellix started moving as more whistles announced more spikes, the shrill screams increasing in number until it sounded like she was being chased by a legion of banshees.

"Shit....shit....shit!" Nellix used her tentacles to their max, stretching out and grabbing trees, yanking herself forward as quickly as she could. Doing this she barely avoided impalement a dozen times. "Come on! COME ON!" But the spikes didn't stop falling. They fell like rain, and it took everything she had to avoid them. This was...a poor start to her adventure....

[EriChar]

“Hmmmmmmm…” Index finger of a young woman bobbing up and down on a perfectly pointed chin, through the veneer of an amber screen, Molly Morgan’s brown eyes surveyed the shape of something stone made in front of her. Standing in a bright sky as something that seemed to cast an almost white flection of her goggles, the girl lingered a dozen or so feet away from a dark entrance, dressed in a sleeveless orange tee shirt and jeans that were ripped above the knees. A pair of brown boots stopping her feeling patchy grass between her toes, with the earlier addressed visor, the ensemble of this young woman was completed by a sack that hung from both her shoulders. Supplies packed into a tie topped pack that was bound to her back, the girl with jagged hair the colour of darkest chocolate had trampled her way through the nearby undergrowth to reach this place, and yet she lingered at the doorway because of something she spied above it.

That definitely looks like a skull, so you know what that means… The image of something that would be best seen on the top of a corpse having been gouged into the stonework, it definitely didn’t seem like it was a natural part of the architecture. Crudely done, the shape oblong and almost more squared than it was round, someone had gone to the trouble of marking this entranceway with a deathly symbol after this place had been built, long after. A relatively recent addition, the gouged graffiti seemed several hundred years younger than the ancient structure it marked, so one might be welcome in speculating in why exactly it had been engraved there? Of course, there was an easy answer to that question, yet our lady lead found her assumption to be misplaced.

“This is definitely a pirate place, right?” Perhaps when one discovered what exactly that this woman was capable of, they might find quite some irony in saying that Molly Morgan was not the sharpest tool in the box. Not an archaeologist by any stretch of the imagination, while even an amateur might have been able to tell that the macabre marking was not at home in this strangely ancient site, this was a brunette who failed to make even this very simple estimation. So, one may ask, why exactly was one as dense as this trying to enter the legendary Temple of the Golden Fang? The answer was simply that this brunette happened to be, for all of her lacking skill, something of a nerdy fangirl.

Disinterested in locations that were steeped in history of anything other than piracy, it was a niche field that this amateur historian was interested in, and yet one that she found limitless enthusiasm for. Unfortunate really, that this antique architecture had about as to do with the subject she craved as a tuna sandwich. Yet this fact had not been discovered by the goggled girl just yet. Hearing from the souls none too far from this location that there might be some kind of hidden treasure left in this risky sanctum, on a passing whimsy the brown eyed young woman had opted to stop by here, hoping to find some good old fashioned marauder memorabilia. Also told that previous explorers had been kind enough to mark the more disastrous areas to warn others of the peril they might face, Miss Morgan showed a rather remarkable level of ignorance as she passed under the skull marked door, never making the connection between these two facts. Truly, if one were looking for a successful archaeologist, this would be a girl who sat at the very foot of the list.

Yet, despite the painful level of the incompetence she showed, Molly pressed on.
Pretty dark in here, maybe I should have brought a torch? Eyes used to a bright and sunny day suddenly finding the source of their sight diminishing, as the dark haired damsel moved into the temple, her eyes narrowed as she struggled to see. Perhaps if there had been someone with her, there might have been a voice in her head that told the girl to take the tinted visor off to help her see better, but for the moment the adventuring adolescent was flying solo.
Ah well, I’m tough, it won’t matter if I stub my toe or something… Shrugging casually as she made her first steps into what was, for all intents and purposes a den of tigers, the brunette set new levels of bravery or something less pleasant as she moved forward. Reckless enough that even a near complete loss of sight did not stop her from pressing forward, was there any real chance of this girl not falling foul of some sort of mishap? No, there wasn’t. If anything, as the floor suddenly gave out beneath her, one might have even said that she deserved it…

[donnervark]

"Speedspeedspeed...." Nellix chanted under her breath in a desperate attempt to maintain her concentration. She'd covered nearly two hundred yards and the spikes were still falling! She'd even had one close call where a make-shift spear had slashed one of the straps that fell around her bicep. The mermaid saw a ray of hope as the trees began to part, beams of light pouring through the foliage like a gift from the heavens. If the trees ended, then there would be no more spikes! "GRRRRRR!" Nellix growled, her fair skin slick with perspiration as she made one final push. Her chest heaved as she grabbed a pair of thick trees with three tentacles each, practically catapulting herself forward like a ball bearing fired from a slingshot. "Huzzaaaah!" She burst into the light, groaning in relief as she was free of the threat of impalement....and apparently free of the ground as well.

"What?! NO WAY!!!" Only a foot beyond the treeline was a sheer drop. She cursed loudly as she tilted into a freefall, far beyond the point where she could save herself. Several hundred feet below shone a glistening river, slow flowing enough to look like aquamarine glass shimmering with the sunshine. The map had to be wrong! There was no way she had been close enough to reach the Ring of Water so quickly! Curses flowed from her mouth as the water flowed below. But the presence of water meant she had a shot. Converting the power of her crude language into focus, she slipped her goggles down over her eyes, and stuck her tentacles straight out in all sides like an eight sided starfish. It wouldn't slow her much, but it created rudimentary drag, and allowed her to position herself so she would hit the water in a dive.

The river's crystal surface rushed to meet her, and only moments before hitting, she let her 'legs' trail behind, forming her body into a white/crimson missile that hit the water at a jarring speed. The Mermaid had no time to be stunned. The dive was all but perfect, but she had to redirect her momentum almost as soon as she entered the river, as it was only a couple dozen meters deep. She splayed her limbs again, creating resistance before immediately re-positioning them to sweep into the rivers momentum. Her ordeal was not over as the waters undercurrent was incredibly strong.

"Come on Nellie! YOUR TURF!" Continuing her personal verbal enforcement, she grit her teeth and started dodging underwater rocks with all the skill and speed her kind was known for. The current was impossibly powerful! The surface should look like raging rapids, and yet they had looked like glass from above. Was this just another of the islands natural hazards? Finally, with a growl of defiance, Nellix directed herself upwards, and burst from the water with a triumphant cheer. The top few meters of water had almost no current, which allowed her to swim freely to the shore, where she flopped onto her back, chest heaving from her exertion. After a few moments, her gasping turned to laughter.

"SUCK IT LOST ISLAND! YOU AIN'T NOTHING!" Wrong map or not, she'd made it alive! After a minute Nellix hauled herself up and took another long drag from her gourd. She'd earned another drink, and she was actually starting to feel a good buzz after her recent adrenaline rush. "Whooo!" She sighed, slinging the gourd back over. She wasn't out of it yet. She was past the Ring of Water. And according to her now sopping wet map, one of several entrances should be somewhere beyond here. Of course now she knew the map was a vague suggestion rather than an accurate piece, and she had no idea WHERE along the Ring she had landed. The current had been so fast that she had no idea how much distance she'd covered. Still...this could be her payday. She took a moment to wring out her dreadlocks, taking in her surroundings. Nothing but white sand to either direction, and a few dozen feet in the riverbank ended and transferred to a very light forest. Not like before. This was scattered trees and tall grass. Her eyes went wide however, when she recognized the first thing of human make. Forgetting about her hair, she rushed off the beach to inspect the tall stone pillar sticking out of the grass, excited to have at least some validation for her endeavors.

[EriChar]

The blackness of her surrounding leaving the young woman completely unable to tell how far she had fallen, as her mind seemed to do that thing where everything went really slow, it could have been hours that Molly Morgan found her form plummeting downward. It wasn’t. Only a few seconds having passed since she took the express route to the floor beneath her, with a groan the girl felt she had slammed into something that was hard and cold. It was fortunate really that the minds who had manufactured this monument had not been quite so bloodthirsty as to leave a something pointy at the bottom of this pitfall. Perhaps they liked to toy with those who entered? With a lack of television, one supposes that these people had to get their kicks someway.

Maybe the Golden Fang’s particular form of enjoyment was a series of close lethal ruses, and placing wagers on how far strangers would make it through the wicked labyrinth before they expired? A wicked game for sure, but it certain beat out watching a chicken lay an egg for entertainment value. Thank goodness we have moved on from such a barbaric age, eh?
Regardless of the purpose of their plummeting ploy, it seemed that despite a mental incompetence, Molly had succeeded in her own way in entering the temple. Surely if she had avoided this, then she might have had more of a short cut to the treasure she sought, but that was merely semantics. There were times when the long way around could be of much greater value anyway, and in this case, the gain seemed to be the common sense to at least come half-heartedly prepared for her raiding of tombs. Maybe after thirty or forty mishaps in a temple, even this dull headed soul could overcome the burden of her lacking wisdom? It isn’t advised you hold your breath, however.

So, seems the way of the pirate is fraught with hardship, eh? Palms pressing into the chilly stone beneath her and pushing a bruised but otherwise able body back into an upright standing, the girl finally opted to lift her goggles up onto her forehead as she looked around. Your storyteller proven to be an ounce of wrong as our leading woman lifted her eyewear, as the girl seemed to have learned at least one small lesson, she scoped the darkness into which she had fallen. Eyes now steadily adjusting to the low levels of lightning and no longer coloured by an amber visage, the scantest visage of her dark surroundings was given to Miss Morgan. Vague shapes of walls around her seeming just a hint darker than everything else, with a little droplet more caution, the girl pawed the nearest wall and followed it at a slow pace.

Not really sure if she was heading further into the temple or not, it felt good to be on the move again, even if the brunette had no clue as to where she was headed. Fumbling her way down the corridors, the slow march of time helped to illuminate the sight of this neophyte pathfinder, and through a combination of touch and gradually growing eyesight, she was able to make out the shape of patterns than seemed to decorate the walls. Shapes carved into the bricklike blocks that surrounded her, there seemed to be all sorts of ornately carved pictograms. Images that seemed like animals, people and items seeming to decorate her surrounding, the searching stroller gave a little smile as she traced some of the shapes with her fingers.

“Feels like… A cow maybe?” Eyesight not fully up to the job of identifying each of the creatures, the scouring hands of our leading lady had to make up for her lacking vision. Amused thoroughly by the little shapes she found, Molly found that she might have enjoyed having something like these on her ship one day. Walls could be very boring after all, so why not add a little bit of spice to them? Yet, what this young woman did not realize was that not all of these things on the wall were there to be prodded and poked.

Perhaps the creators knowing that certain levels of blindness was to be expected in a pitch black locale like this, certain of these shapes acted as switched when pressed, ready to unleash a fresh challenge to the unwary. Likely something that a patron of the temple would instinctively recognise to avoid, these little tricks seem loaded into the temple as par for the course, and yet anyone who was welcome should not have fallen foul of the surprises. Finger catching one of wrong pictures and making something clunk, if it hadn’t been clear beforehand, the reaction of the sanctum was not one that welcomed this particular brown haired woman. The sound of grating stone being heard from above as she pawed her way along the wall, our plucky protagonist turned her head to just about make out that the roof was starting to tilt, and furrowed her brow with confusion as it did so. Had she found her way back up to the path she had begun on? No, but what she had found was large and round, and about to roll straight into her…

[donnervark]

The stone pillar was of little help, but it provided one vital clue. Once the mermaid got closer to it, the tall green grass seemed to be growing from a grey-ish sand. This combined with the rather morbid carvings of skulls and skeletons that covered the pillar made the old legend stick out in Nellix's mind.

"Ash and bones. Hmmm...." Nellix wasn't an archaeologist, nor a historian. She just preferred to be well prepared. Which was why she'd boozed up several old timers on the neighboring island in order to hear several versions of the tale. She only bothered to keep track of the things that matched between tales. It wasn't a perfect plan. But it was working out so far. Nellix spent a minute investigating the pillar to little avail. She climbed it, poked around, looked over every inch she could find, and ultimately discovered nothing remarkable. It was only after a couple minutes of frustrated grumbling, she noticed the only possible clue.

"Ha! You cheeky devils..." All the skulls on the pillar were generally facing a particular direction. Nellix puffed up her chest, feeling satisfied with her discovery, and started heading out. Barely a few meters in that direction and the ground gave way beneath her. "Whooa!" She had to curl herself up in her tentacles as the earth gave way, angling downward in a sharp, but not vertical descent. Darkness enveloped her as she rolled, and thanked the thick rubbery muscles that made up her 'legs'. They cushioned her as she moved further and further down. It was impossible to know how far for sure, at least twenty yards...thirty...fifty....she lost any accurate gauge between fifty and a hundred.

"Oohf!" She smacked into a wall, her limbs splaying out as the wind was knocked out of her. If the angle had been steeper, she would be hurting. As it was, if she hadn't been taken by surprise, she may have been able to stop herself. "Ugh....screw....everything..." Nellix shot up, realizing she'd lost her gourd. 'NNNOOOOOO!" She spun around, searching frantically for any sign of her lifeline. "Oh LOST ISLAND YOU SON OF A..." A loud, heavy sound of rolling and clashing broke her train of thoughts. Nellix turned slowly, her nerves activating as she didn't dare to guess what new hazard had been employed. The clashing came louder and she realized it was coming from the ramp that she'd fallen down. Just as the realization hit her, she turned to face the threat, and her gourd smacked her in the face. "Bugahfugu!" The noise she made defied logic as the gourd knocked her over, ringing her bell and coming to a rest on her chest as she groaned.

Slowly but surely, her arms reached up, hugging the gourd tightly as her groan turned to a pained sigh. "Its...all...going...to be ok...ugh..." Nellix picked up the container with her tentacles and lifted herself up. Her head was still spinning, but she couldn't sit still. Who knew what was waiting? And where was that light coming from? She craned her neck, blinking the blurriness from her eyes. A loud rumbling sound echoed from somewhere in the distance, soft, muted, but definitely somewhere within this cave...or temple...or whatever she was in. The glow was coming from...mushrooms? Nellix bent down, inspecting a mass of softly glowing blue fungi. They were very large, the size of her open hand. As she looked around, they were scattered about, here and there, heading down a tunnel, deeper into this cave. As she noted the tunnel, another rumble came from behind her as the ramp raised back up into the ceiling.

"Well....I guess that leaves only one option....follow the blue shrooms..." This was what adventure was all about right? She was alive, and she had booze....that meant there was hope. Groaning as she returned to her full height, the mermaid started heading deeper into the tunnel.

[EriChar]

“THIS IS GETTING INTENSE!!!!!” The subtlety of her movement previously now entirely lost, it was with good reason that the girl with goggles on her brow now sprinted haphazardly through the dim corridors of the Golden Fang Temple. Behind her a large shape that made the ground tremble, the mishap of the moments before had quite literally set in motion events that could lead to her demise, as rolling behind her was something that even someone as robust as Molly Morgan might have trouble shrugging off. A ball as heavy as it was huge, spikes jutted outward from an orb that barely managed to squeeze down the corridor through which it hurtled, bouncing and bashing as it continued an unrelenting run. Yet, as our leading lady called out as she dashed along, she didn’t seem particularly perturbed by this turn of events.

The tension that the brunette showed more a sign of excitement rather than panic, while she rushed along with rather the imposing presence behind her, it was strange to see that this particular teen had a smile on her face. Fighting or more accurately running for her life as the surprisingly quick ‘big guy’ behind her gave chase, as she showed once more that she wasn’t your average seventeen year old girl, our hearty heroine hurled herself forward with scarcely a breath to spare. Not the type of blooming flower that seemed obsessed with her looks or how nearby male specimens felt about for her, it definitely seemed that Molly was something of a mould breaker. In truth possibly a thrill seeker or some other form of reckless adrenaline junkie, as the heart of this healthy honey pounded, it had to be noted that this unusual lass felt more alive than ever. Has it been mentioned that this person is pretty much a weirdo?

So, how am I gonna get out of this one? Disregarding our speculation on the strangeness that this spitfire showed, the mind of the moll seemed far more concerned with pressing matters. The latter comment not intended as a pun but making one all the same, when one was being pursued by a rather nasty and spiked ball, it was perhaps the correct stance to assume. After all, just how bizarre would ones priorities need to be that imminent doom was not amongst them? The answer would of course be very very very very very bizarre. Miss Morgan wasn’t quite at that level of eccentricity, but as she treated the object of mortal misfortune behind her more like a training partner, it was implied that such a level was not terribly far beyond her own reach.

I could try cutting it, but could I get through it before it turned me into swiss cheese? Glancing over her shoulder as the menacing mass of points and heaviness continued to follow her on the shallow incline of the ground, the fleeing femme flung herself around a curve in the corridor, knowing that such a bend would never stop the golem that chased her. Gifted with an unusual set of powers that permitted her to chop rocks up with relative ease, while the task would have been easy enough had the rolling stone been lacking either spikes or speed, but the combination seemed a rather difficult one to overcome. Quick of motion as any well-honed fighter would be, was there really the time to hack her way through something moving? Maybe, but the girl reckoned there was a good chance she would not leave such an encounter without some scars of her own to deal with.

Then looks like I’m gonna have to find something else to cut through… Not knowing how many more of these little ‘tests’ might wait for her on the trail of the temples treasure, the brunette did not wish to be missing chunks so early in her antics, and yet there was another reason for her awakening anxiety toward carving. The same power that blessed her also seeming to give this heel hammering hoyden a longing to test her ‘teeth’ as it were, as the pressure of her situation and levels of excitement climbed upward, so too did her desire to act on these urges. The pulsing blood within her starting to scream for the chance to cut something, the fangs of the fleeing femme ground together in a wicked grin as her skin seemed to suddenly sprout sharpness. Needing to wager her survival on the toughness of the walls around her, with the boulder not an option to break, Molly was left with only the option of her surroundings.

Bounding forward in a burst of speed that strengthened the gap from her trailing spheroid, the goggled girl used what she had left of her legs for a sprint, before throwing her form at the wall nearby. Only a second or two being the distance from the pronged ball that followed her, Miss Morgan put everything she could muster into using her body to bite a hole in the wall, wondering if there was something hollow on the other side. Seconds seeming to slow like they had with her fall, the would be escape artist did not dare and glance at how close a grisly fate was getting to her as the stone slipped apart at the gouging strike she gave the tiles beside her, sparing only a moment before she let her legs give one last hurrah and fling her form forward.

The inanimate hunter making matters of feet into inches as the girl tossed her body to the side, if it turned out that the subterranean sections of the temple had hard earth next to its walls, she was about to become a rather well ventilated fool. Fortune seeming to favour her this time, as it hadn’t so far in the temple, Molly found that she did not merely bounce off an unforgiving surface and meet her end under the march of mace-like masonry. Instead cast through a rather thick section of wall and onto the floor of another corridor, the girl let out a sigh of relief as she gave the slip to her spiked follower, the young woman let herself lie for a moment and laugh with her sense of self saviour…

[donnervark]

"So need to start wearing more..." While the glow of the luminescent mushrooms was certainly enough to see by, it was far from bright enough for the Mermaid's comfort. After a few dozen meters into the damp tunnel, she stopped, and formed a rather...unpleasant solution...for multiple reasons. She ripped of two straps from her top, and a long strip from the bottom, exposing more of her freckled midriff. She then doubled back, gathered enough mushrooms to satisfy her intentions, and bound the fungi to her hammer via thin strips of cloth. It took about six, and she didn't have any more cloth without getting indecent, but the close cluster of shrooms produced a much more significant light source.

"Alright...one problem at a time, and one problem solved!" The rumbling had not stopped from earlier. Not much time had passed really, but it was still going, and getting louder. At first Nellix had thought it was the passage from where she entered closing, but there was no way that was still going. Really with an old ruin like this, it could be just about anything...most likely another trap though. Perhaps her entrance had triggered something? If not then she had to hope it wasn't the whole place slowly collapsing around her. That...would...suck.

As she passed through the tunnel, the worn rock slowly started shifting into polished stone. It was still cramped though, her tentacles just barely fit without cramping up underneath her. More interesting though was the suddenly visible markings and carved symbols. Well, they weren't so much symbols as they were....art maybe? She was no historian, but it was clear they told some manner of story. She found they spread along the wall in an elongated depiction of what she could at best venture to be the islands history. Most of it seemed rather dull and unintelligible, only decipherable by the natives or an archaeologist who understood the context of their symbols. But a few bits that stood out were ghoulishly obvious in their meaning.

"Oooh...now aren't you a fancy beast?" Nellix closed in on the wall, ignoring the ever more loudly growing rumbling. A specific portion of the wall was carved three images. The first showed a large number of people bowing before a huge creature as it devoured an individual, that was something between a lion and...a frog maybe? What stuck out was a pair of golden teeth. Even the carvings were inlaid with gold to highlight the fangs. No one would waste gold on a carving unless it was important. She lowered herself to look at another image. This showed a beast apparently dead upon an altar, its fangs being removed in what looked to be a ritualistic fashion. The last image showed a person sitting upon a throne, with the golden fangs fashioning horns of some sort. Maybe it was a crown? Either way, a smaller version of the beast sat in the horned persons lap, while many people bowed to him. The arrows that formed a circle between the three images made it appear as though this was a cycle of sorts. She also noticed that the person being eaten, removing the fangs, and sitting on the throne were all marked with the same symbol.

"Hmm....so a king or priest raises a beast whom the people worship, and when he steps down is fed to the creature as a sacrifice. When it dies, its fangs are taken to crown a new king, who in turn raises another beast to worship....or something...interesting system of government you have there fellas..." Well it didn't matter much. What did strike her as notable though, was if this cycle went on for any significant length of time....surely they'd have a stockpile of golden fangs? Even if they melted them down, the gold would still be around. She sincerely hoped they didn't just paint the creatures teeth gold though. That would be annoying. "Urgh....what is that NOISE?!" Nellix had ignored it up till now, but it had become a thunderous roar. It clearly sounded like stone smashing against stone...almost like a landslide. But it certainly wasn't coming from this passageway...so where the hell was it coming from! She growled and put her hands over her ears as the sound grew to a furious level. "AAARGH!" Just when she was about to shove her tentacles into her ears in frustration, the wall of the cave burst in on her, obliterating the story she'd just read.

"HOLY HELL!!" Nellix swore as the stone flew inwards, and she was thrown to the ground by the weight of what she was sure was her doom. Rocks pelted her as a massive boulder bounced threateningly past the opening made, but as she assumed she was to be crushed...she instead found herself merely inconvenienced by a oddly soft mass of debris. Her hammer had been chucked to the side, and she coughed up dust as she reached for it with a spare tentacle, noting how bizarrely soft the stuff on her was. Bringing her hammer to bear, and shedding soft blue light on the situation, Nellix was greeted with an entirely unexpected scenario.

"Well hello there...what's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" She was face to face with a slight, brown haired thing wearing a pair of thick goggles. Slightly tangled in her legs, her face buried in Nellie's chest. Just as Nellix was going to say something, a startling realization struck her, and she rather unceremoniously rolled the girl off and onto the stone floor. "NOnonono....where....ahha!" The mermaid moved with predatory speed in recovering her gourd. She really needed to make a stronger strap for the thing. "Ooooh...thank goodness you survived! Where would I be without you!" She popped the cork. "Give Nellie a kiss!" Another toast was in order, for yet another near-death situation successfully evaded. "Augh! Divine..." Nellix gasped as she pulled away, swishing its contents around cheerfully. It was half full yet. So she was solid for a while anyways. "Hmmhmm...hey brownie? I don't know where you came from...but this rounds on me if you feel like celebrating!" Nellix held out her gourd with a smile. She was always very generous when inebriated, and she was finally working her way through 'tipsy'.

[EriChar]

This side of the wall is kinda comfortable… Cheek resting on something that seemed to have near infinite levels of cosiness, it seemed that in carving her way quite literally through the temple, Molly Morgan had leapt out of the frying pan and over the fire, before landing happily onto the pillow.
“S-Squishy…” Something that felt soft, warm and inviting beneath her head, there could not have been a greater contrast between this welcoming ground and the wicked ball of spikes that had now rolled off to god knows where. Had the ‘treasure’ been found so soon? It was a possibility of course. The brunette had been searching for something of pirate origin, yet, she felt little disappointment at what she had discovered. The darkness not telling her exactly what she spent a few sweet seconds snuggling into, it seemed that not even a feisty femme like this could resist the allure of an ample bosom, but who could blame her? No one, that’s who.

Yet, as bountiful as this bust was, the goggled gal only had a few moments to enjoy it. Some strange cry seeming to spark up as the thing beneath the brunette started to thrash around, a shiver ran through the spine of our lady lead as she wondered if she was about to experience that odd activity she found in an adult book that one time, but instead was treated only to the coolness of the ground.
Is that a person? The strange darkness that was underneath Miss Morgan wriggling away for reasons known only to her, the younger woman was left on her back as an obscure shape scrambled away for a moment in the dim light. Eyes struggling to make sense of what she saw, the shadow looked like a person from about half way up, and yet the bottom gave off an air that seemed decidedly more otherworldly.


Looks kinda… Sitting upright as she spied the only other soul that had been found in this sanctum, the head of our hearty heroine hung to one side as she heard what sounded like slurred words, for a moment wondering to her if the being of darkness was asking her for a kiss? Still rather confused as to what was going on, Molly may have been more amenable to such a request if she hadn’t been trying to figure out exactly what her companion was.
Kinda weird… A strange fluidity about the movement she had witnessed, there definitely seemed something ‘off’ about the bottom half of the stranger, and the girl was left wondering if at long last she had encountered another user of the Devils Fruit. As naïve as she was terrible at exploring ruins, the brown haired girl would never have realized that this snake-legged shape was a mermaid, given she only knew of them from the stories.
But not in a bad way… Truly a surprise to find one wandering around anywhere, let alone a musty old temple, this was the first encounter that this unworldly wench had found with the sea dwelling races, and even then she didn’t even realize it was happening at the moment! What an ambassador for humanity, eh?

It was all rather inconsequential though, since whatever the other woman happened to be, the bigger factor in her company was her friendliness.
"Ya know, I don't mind if I do!" A drink offered from something that presented quite the alcoholic attribute, while the spiky haired teen was a year or two south of legality, she grinned in the darkness and took a swig from the gourd. Impulsive action something that she immediately regretted, whatever her new ‘friend’ was suckling seemed a little too bold in its character for a goggled girl to handle, and so with a cough the container was quickly given back.

“T-That’s some strong stuff ya got there…” The beverage bringing a tear to the eye of the youngster that the dim light kindly concealed, the petit pirate felt her throat burn with the heat of a grown up drink, and tried her best to look tough in the face of it.
"Bet ya could take an elephant down with it...?" Pushing herself up onto her feet as she felt the warmth of the booze slipping down into her chest, Miss Morgan scratched the back of her head as she tried to think of something that sounded clever to say, before grinning and letting the whiteness of her teeth sink into her bottom lip. Not usually the type who was intimidated by others, the scenario had thrown our plucky protagonist through a loop, and she was left needing a moment to catch up with herself.

“So, what brings a girl like you to a place like this?” Words echoed from a novel or something that Molly had read in the past, after already plunging her face into this unknown woman’s chest, it seemed that the brown haired girl had all the steps of courtship mixed up. Sure, she had been given a drink, but the order of this ‘date’ definitely seemed to be moving backwards…

[donnervark]

"Strong enough. Though not as strong as I'd like." Nellix chuckled as this new addition to her little adventure took a drink from her gourd, and immediately coughed. She couldn't see much else, but took the container back gladly with a wink. She then set about finding her hammer, which had scattered off a little ways further down the hall. Her tentacle made short work of reaching it, and in a moment the soft blue light of the mushrooms hanging from said weapon bathed the pair.

"An elephant? Probably not...inhibitions? Quite easily in fact!" Nellix held up her hammer to get a good look at the girl. "Oh my aren't you a cute one!" She was suddenly regretting her haste in retrieving her gourd. The mermaid would have been very comfortable staying down at least a little longer. But her question, which so closely matched the one she'd asked in jest earlier, demanded an answer. She was tipsy enough to happily oblige. "One moment..." She poked around the debris for a couple seconds before she found what she was looking for. "Aha! This my dear...is what brings a mermaid like myself...to a place like this!" She handed over a chunk of wall with a pair of her tentacles. It was badly damaged, but a portion of the soccerball sized chunk had the intact image of the beast with gold fangs.

"Riches! Gold! Valuables...hopefully something to have made this little adventure worth my time and effort." Nellix twirled her hammer playfully, creating a flickering effect as the mushrooms spun with it. "You my pet look as out of place her as I do...well.." Nellix looked down at her lower half and giggled. "...perhaps not QUITE as much as I do! Ha!" She turned around, surveying the hole in the wall, looking for any sign of additional traps or hazards.

"I washed up her chasing a legend. Lost my boat." Neither her tunnel nor the one her brown haired friend came from offered any obvious salvation or promise of reward. "Excuse me. I should introduce myself!" Nellix took another long drag from her gourd. She was finally hitting the point of being quite comfortably intoxicated. The tricky part was neither drinking too much more, nor enough to sober up. "I am Nellix of Rose. Mermaid of the Octopi variety, and the most gorgeous builder of ships to sail the blues!" She slunk up to the girl rather seductively.

"And you are just the sort of distraction I needed to make this trip more enjoyable! Care to join me?" She bobbed her eyebrows. As confident as she was, she despised being on her own. Company would be appreciated...especially company so appealingly youthful. "Perhaps the two of us together can find our way through this mess of an island, and split whatever riches lay below?" She plucked her still somewhat soggy map from betwixt her cleavage. "Not that it has been terribly useful. But this map here has an assortment of clues." She scoffed. "Most are painfully vague or misleading. But...oh!" As she unfolded the map, she noticed the strangest thing. In the soft blue light of the mushrooms, a whole new drawing had appeared on the back of the map. It was like an entirely new one, but rather than charting the island, it looked like some massive complex. She looked to the brown haired tart who shared her tunnel with a smile.

"The plot thickens! So...what do you say?"

[EriChar]

“You’re not too shabby yourself, luv…” Chuckling at being called cute, maybe it was the swig of sake that she had just swallowed, but our plucky protagonist was definitely feeling rather relaxed around this strange shaped woman. Grinning at the compliment and tossing one of her own back in a manner that was perhaps a little rougher than that of her newfound companion, the light that the hammer offered allowed Miss Morgan a better chance to admire the physique on which she had so recently been relaxing. Scanning down from the face of the woman, a little redness appeared in the darkness as our leading lady noticed cleavage like the grandest of canyons, before her eyes moved lower and past the narrow waist of her fellow femme’s perfect figure.
So not snakes but more like an Octopus? Head cast slightly to side as the light allowed those strange limbs at the bottom of this beauty to be seen properly, the admiring adventurer felt her brow crease just a little as she looked at the whip-like tendrils that this stranger possessed, and noticed them their teeny suckers.

“Oh, you’re a mermaid? I didn’t realize they could have ‘bottoms’ that weren’t fishy?” Everything about this girl making a little more sense as the pirate purveyed her lower half, aided by the confession of her companion, while tales and traveller had spoken of mermaids they had never really mentioned anything but the shimmering scales of a fishy tail. Every day a chance to learn something new, it appeared that this one was the day that Molly discovered more about the people of the sea than any that had come before it, and would enjoy everything that was discovered.

“Suppose it’s true what they say about the beauty of the merfolk then, heheheheh…” The casual flirtation of her semi-cephalopod cohort rubbing off on the behaviour of our own brown haired beauty, with a giggle the girl with goggles realized she had been admiring the aesthetic of this woman for long enough that it could be deemed ogling, but that only made her feel even more inclined toward wickedness. Not exactly a ‘veteran’ of the seductive arts, the youngster certainly wasn’t shy enough to deny what she liked, and there definitely seemed something of an appeal in this tipsy maiden of the sea.

“Riches eh? I dunno, I saw a skull outside, so I figured this might be some pirate place…” A grandiose display of greed shown to her by this gorgeous gourd guzzler, the amateur explorer shared a little of her erroneous expertise with the sea-born seductress, hoping to be the one who was proved right in this case. This simple fact was that while Miss Morgan would not have turned her nose up to some gold and jewellery, she much preferred the idea of finding something better suited to her tastes.
“Hopefully there’ll be some lost relic of piracy, like maybe the legendary war cutlass of Daggerfang or even the firebrand of Blazebeard?” The enthusiasm of the squid-like strumpet something that spread like a virus through the air, the brunette allowed herself to indulge her own passions and gave a little gush about the relics she hoped to one day find. Oh so many nuggets of pirate history seemingly claimed by sea battles or misplaced maps, it seemed that brigands were almost as brilliant at losing their possessions as they were taking those of others. So, naturally, there was plenty for a soul like this to find.

A mermaid rode here on a boat? Couldn’t she just swim? Find herself a little confused by the confession of the coquette opposite, while the young woman with spiky hair was a novice in marine biology, she did seem to recall stories of the fleetness of these fair folk in water. The watery species known as Fishmen and Mermaids having tremendous speed and stamina in the water, it seemed odd that this one seemed to have favoured a more ‘human’ approach.
Even mermaids must get tired eventually, I guess? Shrugging and filing her concern under an irrelevant category, Molly decided it was better to focus on the moment than worry about the semantics of arrival, especially since the fishy femme had pointed out a rather formidable faux pas in their meeting.

“Saahahahahahahaaa! What a fine pair of ladies we are, yammering away without knowing each other’s names…” Letting out a rather loud laugh and putting on a purposely posh accent, the girl leaned forward and gave the mermaid a little curtsey as her legs bowed beneath her, before straightening up with a broad grin.
“Nice to meet ya, Nel, the Name’s Molly… Molly Morgan!” Thumbing her chest as she introduced herself, the white teeth of the chipper teen gleamed in the light of her new friend’s ‘lantern’, the illumination showing a little bit of the amber colour her eyes could possess.
“I’m a pirate meself, few adventures in now!” Pulling her arms behind herself and doing an idle twirl, the goggled girl looked around her surrounding as she told her curvy companion details that weren’t quite lies. While she did indeed consider herself a pirate, few others did really, and her adventures were hardly the stuff of legend. Tracking down a Devil Fruit in her youth and then that stuff in Loguetown, things were definitely less impressive than she might have made them sound, but they meant a lot to this rookie. Surely there would be greater tales to be found in the future, but this goggle wearing girl would consider even her earliest exploits as valuable as anything that was to come.

“So, yerr a ship builder eh?” Things starting to make sense why this beauty chose to travel by boat, the brunette chuckled to herself softly as she found quite an amusing image drawn by the conclusion of these facts.
Suppose all those arms must be useful for that… Picturing the pretty sea dweller with a tool in all ten of her limbs, the teen smiled to herself as she visualized this well shaped creature flailing at pieces of lumber until boats were made, like some kind of windmill of wooden creation.
“Heeheeheehee! I bet if ya ships are half as well put together as you are, they’ll be the envy of the world!” This mental entertainment only encouraging the flirtatiousness of the meeting, as our light spirited lady lead continued the coy conversation between them, she tossed a wink at the mermaid. Only having known Nellix for a matter of minutes, the easy-going attitude and noticeable good looks of this ocean temptress were certainly starting to inspire a little crush for this hormonal youngster. Like so many, it seemed that Miss Morgan would have a hard time resisting the allure of a mermaid.

“Sure, I’m sure a girl with your ‘charms’ will be a treat to have by me side!” More than happy to have this flirty drunk on this adventure, for this novice explorer, any company seemed like a good idea and someone who was quickly making a big impression was even better. Not having the best of luck so far, perhaps it spoke volumes that the chances of Molly’s success seemed better with a habitual drinker on her side, as this other woman seemed to at least show some sense of direction in her activity. Our lady lead preferring the approach of run and crash your way through the temple until you find something, the method of the mermaid to actually follow clues seemed to possess infinitely more efficiency than what had been going on so far. Yet, before they could get too far, there was yet another eye watering distraction.

Jaw of the jagged haired girl sagging a little as her ‘partner’ plucked something from the handy little 'shelf' of her bosom, if the brown eyed girl hadn’t been checking out the breasts of the curvy mermaid before she certainly was now. In truth a little envious of the size of this siren’s bust, while Miss Morgan wasn’t exactly flat chested, she could certainly see the appeal of such deliciously large orbs.
“What’s that there, a map?” A little part of her regretting the fact that she was no longer resting her face on those particular pillows, it was with no small redness in her cheeks that the unfolding action of Nellix dragged the attention of our leering lead away. Able to make out little lines on the wet looking piece of paper, it seemed that this soggy rag had some kind of schematic that the hammer light showed.
“Something catching those pretty eyes, ma dear?” Noticing that her ally in adventure seemed as surprised by the details as she did, with a look of curiosity did our heroine glance between the face of her friend and the form that appeared on the sheet, not being able to really understand the design herself. Perhaps the detail orientated eye of a ship builder might have done better?

[donnervark]

It was a significant improvement over her previous situation, having this Molly around for company. And she was flirty too! Just Nellix's type. Even as she focused on deciphering her new map, she couldn't help but enjoy the girls little comments and questions. Apparently she'd never met a mermaid before. To be fair Nellix herself had only met a few. She'd only spent a handful of months on fishman island, and they weren't commonly found in the blues.

"Oh a pirate hmm? Do tell!" Nellix commented as she flipped the map, casually realizing she'd had it upside down. She was no archaeologist, but she did know how to read a diagram. After a few moments listening to Molly's banter, she finally spotted the angled shaft where she'd entered herself. Molly's comment about her shipbuilding flustered the mermaid during her efforts. "Oh be careful girl! Comments like that will get you in trouble!" She playfully poked Molly in the stomach with one of her tentacles. She was a natural flirt, especially when she started drinking...which was ninety percent of the time. And she tended towards the amorous nature, so it was nice having someone playful around.

"These pretty eyes of mine have caught everything I want to see...and everything we need!" A lot of the map was hard to read, but she gathered enough to know that the path they were on eventually lead to a central chamber, a very large one big enough to hold a small village. Seductively tucking the folded map back into her top, she motioned for Molly to follow her. "So Daggerfang and Blazebeard huh? You must be quite the pirate fan?" She quirked her head as they moved down the hall. "Wait...do you think those would actually be here?" She rubbed her hands together. She bet those would be valuable. Maybe even enough to actually build herself a good ship! "I wouldn't really consider myself a pirate per say...but I love sea....and I hate being told what to do..." She shrugged. "Mostly give me a good stiff drink...and a pretty little friend..." She punctuated the word 'friend' with a gentle smack on Molly's rear with one of her tentacles. "...to share the ocean with and I'm a happy mermaid!"

As they talked, and moved deeper in, she made sure to pick more mushrooms. They didn't seem to run out of light even after being picked, but they could use any light they could get. She made sure to give plenty to Molly, and tucked one between her cleavage with a wink to the girl. She was plenty tipsy at this point, and feeling good about their chances. Not that she had any evidence to prove this place hadn't already collapsed...but hey...drunken courage was better than no courage at all!

"Sooo....most of this is speculation based on some of my own deduction kiddo. But based on a number of drunken sea stories and this here map...I believe this place may have some treasure to be had." She gestured to the walls, which were starting to become more smooth, more polished, as though they were further from the wearing effects of nature, and so were better preserved. "I can only guess most of it. But legend says a huge beast used to live here with golden fangs!" She stroked her chin absent-mindedly with a tentacle as she thought out loud. "Though I do hope this thing was big...golden fangs on a dog wouldn't be worth much...god I hope its huge! Like Sea King huge!" That would be something! "Just think Miss Morgan! We could make out like bandits! A tale to tell of surviving deadly traps...of piercing the mystery of an ancient temple!" She spun around playfully, her lower limbs moving in symmetrical unison like petals of a flower. "I could build a ship, you could get whatever you like! We could even get a few drinks and start some trouble eh?" She prodded Molly again as she moved forward. "I don't have a crew, or a captain yet...but one day..." She swung her gourd around and took a long drag. "Aaah...I'm going to sail every inch of sea this world *hic* has!" She bit her lip and swept in behind Molly, placing her hands on her shoulders. "Hehee...it wouldn't be fun without *hic* company! Just gotta survive this..." Her steadily slurring words were cut off by what sounded like a loud crack of stone on stone. "...place?" With that, the floor beneath them began to give way....as though the temple itself heard her boastful optimism and judged further trials to be necessary before it would relinquish its secrets.

[EriChar]

Never having wanted to be a folded scrap of paper more than this very moment, the white teeth of a wanton woman broke into the colour of her lips as Molly Morgan watched the map of the mermaid be tucked back into its fleshy pocket. The side of this dark haired damsel dedicated to debauchery only being encouraged by the flirtation of her comrade, there seemed a definite chemistry between the pair, as if one only served to get the other even more excited. Fuelling the fires of fervour for each other, it seemed that things might get out of hand quickly between the pair, but unfortunately this isn’t the time or place for such salacious stories. You’ll have to use your imagination for that one.

“Heheheheh, well there seems so much fun stuff to do with pirates, I could go on about them all day!” The compliment that her companion gave away something that the brunette was happy to hear, as the smile of the younger explorer grew wider, she shone with a light even the glowing mushrooms could not match. Unfortunately, what the girl had in enthusiasm, she was more than let down by her own skills in treasure hunting.
“Yeah, they might be here… No one really knows where they ended up so this seems as good a place as any!” Blind luck the only ‘friend’ that could have guided her to a successful conclusion of an artefact hunt, while what this exuberant young woman said was not technically incorrect, it certainly left more than a little something to be desired. One is assured that if they looked in every place in the world, they would have a very good chance of finding anything they desired, but on the other hand they would have a very long journey to completion.

The eyes of the girl shining a little as she imagined herself finding some piratical prize in this seemingly abandoned locale, she was largely left daydreaming as her partner chatted to her idly, and only the whip like strike on her rump brought Molly back to the moment.
“OH! Heh, couldn’t resist it, eh?” Cheeks a little red as she felt a slight but satisfying sting in her rear, the heart of our heroine once again began beating faster as the rude little act of her cohort inspired feelings of excitement. Possessing quite the pleasing posterior, it would be hard for a blossoming seventeen year old to deny that she liked a little bit of ‘attention’ back there, provided it came from the right source. Again, not something we shall delve too deeply into, sufficed to say that our lady lead was tempted by a matter of ‘revenge in kind’, but was denied the chance by a sudden change in pace.

The slyly savvy soul with octopus legs passing her something, the sight of tiny glowing mushrooms caught the attention of the flaky brunette.
“Oh, what are these? They’re kinda pretty…” Eyes reflecting the glow that was given by these fungi, as the girl with goggles lifted her hands closer to her face she found something just slightly hypnotic about the steady glow they gave off in the darkness. Having been tucked away in near pitch blackness for what seemed like but definitely was not a period amounting in hours, the sudden presence of something bright seemed quite fascinating to this brown haired girl, in more ways than one.

I wonder what they taste like…? Demonstrating a decidedly cavalier approach to her expeditionary attitude, as the partner of this imprudent girl continued on, it was hard for this impulsive girl to resist such a suddenly strong temptation. Plucking one from the pack and lifting it only inches from her lips, as the mouth of Miss Morgan opened to eat the glowing spore, it was only the words of her companion that saved her from the potential poisoning that such untested foodstuff might present. The friend that the foolish femme had found within these ruins speaking up again, like a child that had been caught trying to rob a cookie jar, the hands of our leading woman bolted behind her.

“T-Treasure? Oh great, ya think it’s anything good?” Blinking and glad that the darkness made sure to hide some of the redness of her face, as the girl tried to coolly play off her reckless curiosity, she tiptoed a little closer to her aquatic ally. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans and depositing her glowing ‘loot’, with the little mushroom that she had moments before tried to devour as her own little torch, she held it in front of herself like a torch.
“A golden toothed beast?” Brow raising at the suggestion of her fellow explorer, despite the aversion that many would feel at the prospect of a gigantic monster, this particular protagonist was filled with a pluck that inspired a sense of excitement at such a suggestion.
“Sounds like a lot of fun!” Grinning as she imagined such a monster, the girl could almost immediately feel some urge within her start to build, picturing her own ‘fangs’ biting through that of their speculated brute. The teen filled with a twisted tendency that made her quiver more with a sense of elation than unrest, the strange power that she had inherited seeming to always push her to test her ‘teeth’ on what was strong or ferocious. What a strange life it was to be a human saw.

“Huh? Wait, do you wanna join me?” Mind once again too busy with frenzied imagination to fully grasp the implications of her accompaniment, as the young woman daydreamed of the beast that the beauty beside her had mentioned, she had only a hazy recollection of what the mermaid had actually said. Blinking as the brunette realized that she certainly could have a lot of ‘use’ for both a skilled shipwright and a mermaid at sea, it seemed almost too good to be true for one who embodied these qualities to fall into her lap. Of course, why wouldn’t she bite the hand off such an offer? There was no real reason to, was there?
“Well, you’d certainly be welcome. I’m sure we’d get up to no end of fun stuff with the two of us!” Face the image of excitement as the young woman went to offer her hand to the shapely squid girl at her side, it would seem that the fates had so much more familiar acceptance in mind for the duo. Something beneath them seeming to slip and slide away the floor, before their partnership could be formalized, Molly Morgan found herself falling downward for the second time today.

“I’ve had just about enough of this for one day!” Mood rather in something of a labile state because of her excitement, with the aid of the glowing fungi that the pair had collected, this time the goggled girl was not going to fall for the same old routine. Instinctively hooking her arm around the narrow waist of the mermaid as the plunged, the light that their mushrooms provided allowed the girl to make out the shape of the walls around them, and with a wrath-filled lash did the lass slam her forearm into the nearest partition. The space between her elbow and hand suddenly covered in the sharp steel teeth of a saw, like a dozen climbers picks did these metal fangs dig into the smooth surface, and with a jerk their fall was ended. Groaning a little as she supported the weight of both herself and the mermaid on a single arm, Miss Morgan glanced beneath herself and realized that he had acted just in the nick of time. The sharp tips of spear heads pointing upward at a distance that was mere inches from the tips of her toes, it seemed that the temple of the golden fang was stepping up its game in opposing them. Lucky then that the brunette was also only just getting started with her ‘play book’.

[donnervark]

The fall took the drunken mermaid by surprise, and caught her in a position where it was difficult to use her lower extremities to escape. Fortunately for her, Miss Morgan was quick to react, catching Nellix around the waist. She held on tight as they fell, and let out a lungful of air in an exaggerated *oompf*, when Molly caught something on the wall. The jerk snapped her backward, generated a vigorous bounce from her bust that sent her map flying down to the spikes below....along with its mushroom companion.

"Oh..not good...but thank you darling!" Nellix secured herself to Molly, holding tight as she looked around for something to grab onto. While she did she noticed that the brunette wasn't holding on to anything, rather her arm appeared from that angle to simply be attached to the wall! As much as she wanted to know how that worked, she knew how heavy she was, and decided not to test Miss Morgan's endurance. "Hold on for a second. I think I can..." She bit her lip and extended several tentacles to each side of the trap door. It was a wide gap, but she managed to attach her suckers to the smooth stone surface on either side. "...and got it! Ok whatever you are doing to hold on, let go on three..." She counted out loud to three, and in a quick succession of movements, lashed out the rest of her tentacles to one side, let go of the other, and pulled them up as high and fast as she could before their momentum swung them into the spears. She let out another *oompf* as she hit the side pretty hard, but they were at least against a wall that led to freedom.

"Ok be a doll and *hic* use that trick of yours to help us up?" She knew her tentacles would be too slippery to climb up. But her suckers kept her perfectly in place against the wall, though she could only detach a few at a time and maintain that precarious situation. Slowly but surely, the pair moved their way up, until Nellix was able to get a few more tentacles over the side. "Almost there!" She muttered as they hit the last few feet. At that point she was able to plant her hands against Morgan's rear and give her a hefty shove that sent the girl over the edge. And with that, the pair were safe once more....generally speaking.

"Ooh! That was invigorating!" Nellix had to catch her breath, sinking into her extremities like a big eight-limbed cushion, and using the tip of one to hold up her head. This place was turning into a roller coaster of life and death. After a few good breaths, she opened her eyes and shot a curious glance at Molly.

"So you are a *hic* Devil Fruit user?" She had noticed during the climb the strange metallic teeth that emerged from Miss Morgan's body. That was definitely not natural...or if it was she'd never heard of any tribe or species that could do that. Shark merfolk could regrow their teeth, but they could only do so in their mouth. That meant she had to use a Devil Fruit. "That's quite an interesting *hic* ability you have there!" She wondered how it worked, but decided not to pry too much, unless the girl wanted to share. But seeing as how they could cut into stone like that, the idea of using them like a woodsaw did not escape her....nor her needing a saw to be one of her current predicaments.

As she listened to Molly's response, her eyes were drawn elsewhere....to a shimmer in the shadows that she couldn't quite make out. Scratch that...a pair of shimmers. She squinted trying to make it out...when they moved! She poked Molly subtly, nodding her head in the shimmers direction. They were being watched by something on the other side of the pit. "Careful kiddo...we are not alone here..." She didn't know why but that shifted her attitude considerably....putting her on the defensive. She suddenly flicked one of the mushrooms across the gap, where it bounced off the chest of a small person...no...a child. The kid gasped and fell backwards with a squeal, and quickly scampered off into the shadows, leaving Nellix rather confused.

"Well...this just got more interesting." She muttered, giving her neck a stretch.

[EriChar]

Handy little ‘claws’ proving to be quite the asset when climbing ones way up a vertical face, with a deftness that even a leopard might envy and working as a team with her increasingly familiar friend, Molly finally found herself a surface of a more horizontal incline to support her. Breathing ragged, while the act of unleashing her teeth took about as much effort as a slow breath outward, one would be surprised just how much of ones vigour would be lost when attempting to scale something in the manner of a man with a bat motif. Armed with her own plucky sidekick, the pirate managed to avoid the spiky pitfall which would probably have claimed almost every other, and let herself catch her breath for a moment.

“Y-Yeah… I ate Hiku Hiku no Mi…” The inquiry of her partner nothing that might cause her any kind of offense or need to conceal what she could do, at the remark of the mermaid, the still a little breathless brunette gave a demonstration without the dire distraction of dangerous demise.
“It’s turned me into a saw gal, so there ain’t much I can’t cut my way through…” Holding her hand in front of her and activating her power, from the skin of this user of a wicked skill did something metal sprout, the mushroom light highlighting the shape and shine of steely blades for her cohort to observe. A line of serrated protrusions extending from the base of her middle finger, and passing along her palm to a point halfway up her forearm, the demonstrative dame held her hand out for a few seconds to let the other woman observe her outlandish adaptation.

“Though, I’m starting to think the easiest way through this place would be to just chop through the walls… But where’s the fun in that, hm?” Turning her hand as she allowed herself to show off a little after their ‘triumph’, Miss Morgan chuckled to herself as she let her nasty ‘fangs’ sprout from the back of her paw, pulling what had poked out her palm away. Yet, she was not given a chance to put her prospective planning to any kind of decision.
Perhaps as an effect of her deep sea adaptations, our leading lady noted that her aquatic ally seemed more alert in these darkened conditions, and despite her inebriation picked up something Molly had not. Peering curiously as the other woman hurled one of their glowing fungi across the gulf from which they had emerged, the goggle girl gasped as she made out the tiny silhouette of a person.
“Is that a kid?” Wondering aloud as the startled and small shape seemed to scamper away from them, the pirate frowned as this strange and juvenile individual dashed away, and all too soon was cast into motion as well.

“Hey, did you fall too?!” Seemingly recovered from the previous rescue attempt and back onto her feet, the brown eyed lass hopped forward and left her mermaid mate behind her, acting on an impulse to follow the child. Filled with curiosity and maybe just a drop of maternal instinct, the young woman couldn’t exactly leave the only soul that the duo had found to retreat into the darkness. The Devilish Demonstration that this damsel displayed only a hint at her powers, if Nellix ever needed an example to measure our leading lady by, she was about to get one.

Showing off the prowess of her tightly toned form as well as the sharpness of that wicked skill, after a few steps the rookie brigand hammered her heels across a wall, and crossed the chasm in pursuit of the child that had been spotted. Dashing across the deadly depth with no more obstacle than one find in the slight weave of a path, the hasty young lady was in hot pursuit of precocious progeny that they had found, with little thought given to the safety of the woman that she had left behind. Our Mermaid Miss already having demonstrated that she was more than capable of handling herself, the impetuous act of our heroine afforded her partner a choice as to whether to follow, but if she chose to she might need to contend with the hot paced heels that hammered the ground beneath the picaroon pioneer.

“Wait up, I ain’t gonna hurt ya!” Calling after the small stranger as she dashed through the temple, while many a pirate would have said these things with the intent of going back on them, it was a perfectly honest truth that the particular brunette buccaneer that spilled. For all of her bluster and bravado about all things marauding, Molly Morgan was naturally about as threatening to an innocent soul as a cheese sandwich. Upbeat and a young woman that carried a certain sense of decency, while this fanatical filibuster knew a whole lot about the history of sea dogs, she did not share a great many traits with the common depiction of a brigand. Upright in her own way and protective of those who couldn’t defend themselves, as the girl plunged through the belly of the temple in pursuit, there was not a single wicked thought in her head.

Chasing down the child at the best speed she could manage, it seemed that in hunt of something a little closer to being called a goal, the chasing girl demonstrated a far greater level of competence in her deeds. Reacting to spikes and spears on reflex as she plunged after the small shape, the girl seemed quite the effective explorer as long as she didn’t think about what she was doing, and her innate footspeed allowed her to easily outpace the whelp she followed.
“Gotcha!” Lunging forwards as she found herself drawing within an arm’s reach of the shadowy shape, the mahogany haired miss managed to wrap her arms around the tiny form that she had pursued, and cast them both onto the ground. Once more a little breathless but feeling the rush of endorphins dull any tiredness she might have felt, as something skinny seemed to writhe beneath her, it was in this moment that Molly remembered she had teamed up with someone, and turned her head to see where exactly Nellix had gotten to…

[donnervark]

"Hey wait!" Nellix had no time before Molly took off, using her power to circumvent the spike pit in a fashion the mermaid had to appreciate. She wished she could move like that! But she didn't have time to think. They didn't exactly know each other well yet, but the last thing she wanted was to be separated from the first person she'd met in this temple. Not to mention the idea of the girl getting her fine behind stuck in some trap sent chills up her spine. "Hold *hic* up!" She wasn't sure if what she was about to try would work, but she was tipsy enough to try it untested.

She scooted back a few meters from the pit, and rushed forward as fast as she could manage. With all her lower limbs moving in unison, in these tight quarters she could match if not best the average human for speed. As she hit the ledge she lashed out four of her tentacles to smack into the ceiling across the pit, while another two lashed out, suckering themselves to the walls on either side. She grit her teeth and 'jumped' over the edge, using the two tentacles attached to the walls to slingshot herself forward, while pulling with all the strength of her other four. The suckers of her four strained against her weight, but held fast as she swung a low arc across the gap. She let go the two on the walls, and lashed them forward, seeing that she was going too low. If she couldn't pull herself up, she was going to hit the other side of the pit REALLY hard. Nellix growled and pulled with everything she had, ultimately coming right over the side, where she tumbled across the ground in a mass of wriggling limbs. It took a second for her to shoot up, adrenaline flooding her nervous system.

"HAAAAAUGH!" An empowered shout signaled her sudden burst into motion, as she rushed down the hall after the sweet little lass who had long since disappeared. As she moved the signs of Molly's passing were obvious. Traps had been sprung, which she had to appreciate. Some of them looked rough, like saw blades and walls that shot darts. Fortunately they were spent, so Nellix could pass unabated. The few that were still in operation, now faced a thoroughly engaged and intoxicated Nellix of Rose as their opponent.

"OUT OF MY WAY! EIGHT WAVE THRUST!" Nellix shouted as a heavy wooden wall swung down from the ceiling, designed to smash into an unsuspecting victim and send them flying. Instead it met something far more forceful. She'd already been moving full speed, so she converted that momentum into a full bodied jump that put her horizontal in the air. She then drew all eight of her tentacles back forming what looked like a flower-bulb, then forced them all forward with full strength in what was essentially a Mermaid-Missle-Drop-Kick. The trap wall splintered and exploded with the force of her attack, all its weight and threat neutralized entirely as she rolled up from her effort, and kept moving.

Next was more saw blades, swinging down, from the sides, and from the floor. Nellix grabbed her Hammer and growled again, using it aggressively to smash the blades. The thin sheets of metal bent like butter underneath the weight of her weapon, grinding against their own mechanisms as they were unable to return to whatever ancient system operated the trap. Her heart pounded, excitement rising in her as she moved from simply surviving, to actually fighting. It was a good change of pace, going on the offensive rather than just trying not to die.

"MISS MORGAN! Where *hic* did you get too babydoll?!" She rushed forward yet again, a smile on her face as Nellix felt confident she may have been catching up. "Mooooolly! Where are...." It was becoming a common thing for her to get interrupted during this adventure. However this was the first time it happened due to human efforts. She made it a few meters past the saw blades, when both the walls on her sides opened up, revealing nearly a dozen pale, raggedly-clothed, and wild eyed humans who rushed her from both sides. "Whoa....what?!" Nellix's instincts kicked in, and she started lashing out with her tentacles. But even with her eight limbs, she was outnumbered. They jumped her, and she fought back. Men were flung into walls, only to get back up and jump her again. She yanked at legs, choked necks, elbowed heads, and headbutted more than a few times before slowly she was buried. "Get off...getoffgetoffgetoff!!!!" She panicked. Breathing hard as her tentacles were slowly weighed down by multiple people, who apparently seemed to keep growing in number.

"Don't fight! You're part of the family now!" One of them shouted as she was slowly bound with nets and ropes. God no. This wasn't happening. Nellix growled, unwilling to be taken in such a fashion. She thrashed and fought, biting and shouldering where she could. "Someone get the damn Fellflower! NOW!" She didn't know what that was, but as she attempted to bit the man struggling to shove a rag in her mouth, suddenly a rag was forced over her face, and a bitter smelling powder filled her nose.

"Oh...fuuuuuuu..." The strength left her body immediately, and her mind drifted into darkness.