Arcane Tales

Kentaro:<A crab monster attacked this...>

*Kentaro holsters his gun and looks at the rabbit.*

Kentaro:<Thing that might be a rabbit.>

*Kari holsters he gun and nudges the rabbit.*

"Please let go."

Jade Rabbit: <I don't wanna!>

*It manages to climb onto her left shoulder.*

Olympe: <Is that a Jade Rabbit?>

Jade Rabbit: <I sure am!>

Olympe: <Amazing...! I had never seen one before. Well, most people haven't.>

Jade Rabbit: <I'm hungry. Give me food, my guardian!>

*It tabs Kari's neck with its tiny paws.*

Olympe: <...Why aren't you two having lunch with the others?>

Kentaro:<We just left that tower?>

"G...Guardian?"

Olympe: <Right. "Just." Well, let's go, we need to meet back with Fahren in less than an hour.>

*She starts walking towards the picnic site near the airship down the beach.*

Jade Rabbit: <Yes. I love you!>

*He hugs her neck*

Jade Rabbit: <Food, food, food!>

Kentaro:<Aye, aye, Captain.>

*Kentaro looks at Kari and the rabbit and laughs. Kari looks six kinds of confused. The two go join the rest.*

"Is that... a Jade Rabbit?" Lucien points at the yellow furball.

Creed is stuffing his face and says something that sounds like, "oumgpnhf yoium."

Alto jaw drops.

*After lunch, as they're walking back to the tower, white mist starts surrounding them, appearing out of nowhere.*

Allina: <...Uh, oh.>

Jade Rabbit: <Guardian Kari, what is going on!?>

"Not good..." Creed groans

"This mist again? At all the times!" Alto exclaims.

"I don't know."

[Please stop calling me guardian.]

*The mist takes them to a clearing in the middle of a snowy forest. The sky is grey, the trees are bare, and there is fluffy white snow everywhere. In the horizon they see a tall frozen mountain. It's chilly, but nothing they can't take. This time, there is no mist keeping them from seing too far around, but the forest seems to go on for miles in all directions. Olympe isn't there.*

Allina: <SNOW!>

*She immediately ducks and grabs a snowball, throwing it at Kari.*

Jade Rabbit: <Incoming!>

=====

Olympe: <(What just--)>

*The mist clears and she's standing about alone.*

Creed almost instantly begins to focus causing the snow to rise around him.

"Just like before... its the other world" Alto clenches his fist.

Lucien blinks a few times.

*Kari cringes and covers her head. Kentaro puts a hand out to block the snowball.*

Kentaro:<Yes. It's snow.>

*A tall (Slighty taller than Alto&Kentaro), slim woman with white skin and fully dark blue eyes approaches from behind and walks past them towards the mountain. She's wearing a long metallic-blue tail skirt and a short top of the same color. A piece of blue silk is covering her mouth (much like the ones Arabian dancers have) and she has long sky blue feathers attached to the back of the top and waist area of the skirt that swing behind her as she walks. Her very light blond hair is tied in a ponytail that goes down to her bare feet. It is wrapped in a spiral of blue glittering string adorned with smaller feathers and beads in shades of the same color. She stops a few feet ahead of the group and stares at them blankly over her right shoulder with her eyes that look like dark blue gems. Allina widens her eyes and steps back, seemingly creeped out.*

Creed nods though and follows her with Alto in tow.

Derek: <Follow my lead, then!>

*He slides down the wall, then swims into the other room and searches for the other door Kelphy mentioned.*

*The strange woman resumes walking and Allina reluctantly follows her and the others. She takes them to a giant opened gate at the base of the mountain, leading into a very large cave. It is made of large white and blue stone and metal blocks, sided by two giant stone torches. Walking around are several humanoid females that look like the one they're following, except with different color hairs and clothing. She walks into the cave. Beautiful, eerie chanting can be heard coming from inside.*

Allina: <So the other two times we had to find Momo and the Water Nymph's eye to get out.>

Jade Rabbit: <Do they have food in there?>

Allina: <You just ate, snowball!>

*The bunny yelps and sniffs on Kari's neck.*

Jade Rabbit: <Guardian Kari... that girl is scaring me...>

=====

*Kelphy swims after him as the water level keeps rising. Through the door is a long dark corridor. The water immediately starts flooding it as well, flowing through the opened door and slowly dragging them along. A sign on the wall with an arrow pointing down the hall reads "Test Room / Cafeteria".*

Kelphy: <Master... Derek...!>

"This time feels different" Alto comments.

*Derek nods and swims down the hallway the direction the arrow is pointing. He's swimming fairly fast thanks to Haste, but it's obvious the effects of the spell are beginning to wear off.*

"She... she does that."

Jade Rabbit: <(You should hit her. Just a suggestion.)>

*The cave turns out to be a temple of massive proportions. There are a lot of giant pillars and torches, the occasional improvised inn with a few beds gathered up here and there, several altars at which the strange women are praying on their knees and, at the bottom, a large staircase that leads up to a throne where another women is sitting. This one with her light blue hair loose, a silver tiara and a white dress with golden linings. At the center of the place is a group of them in a wide circle, chanting. Every single one of them has their mouth covered.*

Allina: <I think they're nuns. Priestesses. I don't even know.>

???: <Travellers.>

*An eerie phantasmagoric voice echoes around the entire temple, coming from the woman at the throne. She's staring down at them blankly.*

???: <The last of your kind that visited our holy sanctuary brought along danger. Are you too to be feared?>

=====

*The corridor leads to a thick metal gate of two doorls tightly sealed together. A sign on the wall reads "Test Room - Caution". There is a lever next to it. Suddendly, they hear a blast and the sea level starts rising alarmingly faster.*

Kelphy: <The lab's walls are collapsing, the pressure is too high...!>

Kentaro:<I don't know, are we?>

"This world is in danger because of someone from our's but we are not to be feared" Alto answers her.

???: <It is the man by the name of Crone you speak of, I have been told. Hmm...>

*She stares from Kari, to Allina and then Alto.*

???: <You may proceed.>

*The staircase leading up to the throne divides into two that slide apart, revealing a tunnel leading deeper into the mountain.*

???: <I long for the day on which humans and elves will walk in this temple freely, praying by our side. Good luck.>

Allina: <So we gotta find the key again, right?>

*The woman closes her eyes and doesn't speak another word. Allina strolls through the tunnel.*

*Kari and Kentaro go through the tunnel.*

Alto, Lucien and Creed go through the tunnel. Alto bows before doing so and says, "Thank you."