overcast: if you could, how would you change the world?I want to end hunger and make the world safer for minorities
hurricane: how do you feel right now, physically and mentally?My back hurts and I'm getting a headache. Mentally I'm about to dissociate and I want to cry and put my head through a window
light showers: how much time do you give yourself to relax? I'm pretty sure I don't even know what relaxing is anymore at this point. But I mean I don't do much work
rain: do you like to jump into new situations?Not particularly
storm: under what circumstances is hardship for the best?When its putting another person first.
hail: how do you define good and bad?Good is when you're helping others. Bad is when you're only helping yourself for the wrong reasons.
snow: what social settings do you feel most comfortable in?Usually one on one, or with a small group (around 5) of my close friends.
It seemed to hold true that sometimes the best way to find something was sometimes to stop looking for it.
She'd been searching god-damn temple for DAYS now, and by now she was thoroughly fed up with this rainforest. More exactle with all the rain in this forest. While doing investiations you could avoid the lousy weather just fine, but when searching for a temple in the woods.... you had to go into the woods.
She'd been hoping for a guide or at least some pointers or a map or something. But what she hadn't taken into consideration in this whole enterprise were the language barriers. Only the natives seemed to know the exact location of this very temple, and the natives didn't talk with her. She wasn't sure yet if it had something to do with her being a white, a woman, a shaman or a shifter (she was sure at least their medicine men or women knew that) or if they really simply didn't find a common language. But fact was all she got here were various versions of "I don't understand" and "I cannot help you" – usually in the form of a confused face, shrugging shoulders or the person simply turning around and walking away.
So she'd been looking high and low for another wereanimal, who would speak shifter-tongue. Usually, when you knew what to look for, you found those 'twin-souls' litterally EVERYWHERE. Apparently everywhere but here, in this stinky whole of rotting plant matter with all its RAIN and mosquitos and probably poisonous creepy crawlies and the noise that woke you up way before sunrise just when you finally managed to fall asleep and... She HATED it! So much that she began to wonder WHY she'd been so very out to take this quest to begin with. Why didn't hadn't let Bran or Val search for this stupid bread knife and play in the leech-infected mud!?
Yes, she knew she was simply frustrated, because nobody answered her questions. BAH, she'd even asked in the Realm, but the local spirits here were just as unfriendly and unhelpful as those stubborn, close-mothed indies! And she HAD been a model girl in paying her respects and being friendly and polite and.... so what was WRONG with this place!?
So in the end she'd simply been searching the woods on her own wings. And after another was too long day – though those days were technically rather short here, as she was just about to give up for today as, she'd heard the noise of a flock of macaws. And though she wasn't exactly sure WHY this had aroused her interest she flew closer – and will you look at that, those wild birds seemed to call the temple either their domicile or playground!
And without them she'd probably NEVER have found it, because it was so overgrown with plants and blending into the jungle that it was almost invisible. Her feathers poofed up fondly. At least she could still bank on other birds. Even though this had been an accident and she should probably be prepared for those parrots trying to chase her aways if they saw this alien, black bird... Especially if they WERE nesting here.
Fearing that, if she turned around now, she might never find the temple-ruin ever again (which was silly, because of course she could have set a 'marker' for it in the realm – but both her exhaustion and her sudden excitement worked against her thinking too clearly right now) she just HAD TO find her way in there. Right now! After a very quick call back to the HQ, anyway.
Shortly after this she stealthily glided closer to the temple walls, searching for a door to enter it. Always keeping her distance to the noisy birds.
She didn't shift back, because.... IF there were traps in there... a little bird might not set them off. Too small, too light. Talking about light, her fire magic came in quite handy here in those dark, window less corridors. And there WERE traps. Which fascinated her a lot – though once she actually found corpses her fascination turned into one of those cold feelings down in the belly.
Some of those traps were really a lot like mouse traps – with gold replacing the bacon as bait. Good that gold would never bait her. And besides... how stupid to take something that was so OBVIOUSLY a bait!
Some traps were better hidden, activated by, let's say, simply stepping on them. So yes, bird form had been a good idea. And she was SURE that some doors were traps as well, or protected by traps that sprang into life once you opened them. Good for her she didn't need to open any doors!
Really, this WAS like an old Indiana Jones movie – only more real, obviously, smelling of stone and old, stale air. There even were those creepy spots of cold wafts of air you usually found in 'haunted' castles or other old buildings.
She was glad she wasn't really 'alone', thanks to her necklace, so she chattered away about the reliefs on the wall or those freak air curents or some trap-mechanisms she managed to dismantle and understand in her mind... All to make her feel a bit less jumpy. Because, really, what was here to be afraid of? Nothing, right? Not as long as she was careful. And as he'd told both Valentine and her brother she was ALWAYS careful.
Then she found herself in a blind end. Come on, this wasn't a maze, now was it??
So she could either go back to the last junction or.... she decided to scrutinize this 'room' first. After sensing a whiff of magic she told those friendly voices from her talking stone that they were lucky because she'd fall silent for a bit now, had to concentrate. Definitely magic. Not this was interesting. And she sensed..... something... down below. After trying to journey she found that she couldn't go there, though. Neither by journeying nor traveling. So some protected realm.... And if it was protected by such strong spells then she was definitely on the right track!
But how to get there? Only after turning around 180° did she notice that... mobile-thing. Curious. Especially since it had those reflecting plastic-bits in it that made it way too contemporary for a place as old as this one. The combination of twigs, plastics and thin plates of crystals made it very out of place... so it was probably some jinxed object, an illusion, a glamour that made it appear... well, probably as somthing that would draw her attention. It also seemed to.... call to her. Draw her closer.
Part of her really knew it had to be a trap. That she should definitely ignore it. But... she couldn't.
Partly because of the strange pull of that thing and partly because.... she know that this was her door-opener, so she...... HAD to take this risk. Right?
So she flew up to touch it – but the moment she did she knew she'd made one bad, bad, BAD mistake! The walls around her rumbled, stone grinding against stone, and a new wall blocked her way out. Of course she tried to escape through the Realm – only to find that she couldn't. Her wing-beats became frantic when not only the floor disappeard – which would have been a nice enough surprise – but the whirring and buzzing of darts filled the air. Okay, only one way to go, and fast!!!
So she dove into the unknown, needle-thin darts coming from literally everywhere brushing her feathers here and there, making her twist and torn to avoid them – one resulting in a sharp pain, though.
She felt the effects of the poison in her system only moments later. After a very rough landing she found herself panting on swampy floor, the air almost too humid to breath, her body spazming and convulsing. Last thing she was aware of was an involuntary shift back into human form – then blackness.
