Group Adventures

Mandisa frowned. Something was up with her bestie. He looked angry. It was just water. Why should he be mad about it? She kept her arms around her lover and kissed at the burned and red skin of her face.

Mireya looked uncertainly at the stones. She was prone to being clumsy and she'd get hurt if she fell off of them with no water to cushion the fall.

Jiro just went ahead and followed after Jiyong. He didn't speak but he wasn't bothered. "I'm sorry," he said quietly when he reached the other boy in the group. "I didn't realize who you were."

---

"Could you go any slower?" Zeke asked with a laugh. He could not believe that was what she was doing. But then, spider to the face. He'd go slow too if that had happened. He'd just gotten lightning too close to his privates.

"We're not in a hurry," Eden said patiently. He wished she would go faster but he wouldn't rush her and cause something to happen to her.

"'So long as you keep it a secret," Jiyong said as he wasn't ready to come out yet. "Do you require any help, Miri?" He asked, but he stepped over the stones and barely touched them before picking her up like a princess and carrying her back. Mandi and Yuki would be fine.

---

"Carry me if I'm such a problem!" Haru said with a tiny sigh, she was just cautious. She would go as slow as she liked. Seriously.

"Take your time, we don't know that all the traps are pranks or actually something dangerous." Taeyang said softly, he wasn't going to rush her.

Jiro was definitely going to keep it a secret. Like he wanted to make a god angry. Although he would still mess with him as much as he did everyone else because that's just how he rolled.

"Thank you, Jiyong," Mireya said. She gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek. She kind of love being carried around like a princess by a man.

Mandisa picked up Yuki in pretty much the same fashion and followed after. "So that was shitty. How many more rooms are there in this place?"

---

"I could carry you," Zeke said.

"You'd drop her," Eden said with a laugh. "Just take your time, Haru. You'll be fine. This isn't hard. Just one through twelve."

Zeke just stood there with Taeyang. "At least this one is easier. Just think, there might be harder ones next."

"No problem." Jiyong smiled at Miri before putting her down. He looked thoughtful. He had no idea how to help Yuki with her face. "There are probably a few more rooms yet. Trials aren't meant to be easy."

---

" Okay," Haru said. She was glad she was a dancer and quite graceful, really. It took her just a few more minutes before she went across.

"technically, Zeke could have used the wind to fly you across..." Tan said belatedly, just to be that way about it.

Tae snorted but didn't comment. "They will get harder. This is as easy as they will be. Dialga is not a harsh God, but he isn't always kind or gracious."

"Do you mind if I take a moment to heal Yukiko?" Mireya asked. She'd seen her face and the poor thing had to be in a lot of pain. Hot steam was bad for ice.

"He doesn't mind," Mandisa answered for her. She put Yukiko down on the platform and snatched her sister. "Do your thing, sis. My girl is not remaining burned."

"Okay," Mireya said and got to it.

---

"Hey," Zeke protested because he'd not thought about it and he totally could have. "Okay, so if he's not harsh, what is he like?" Because like he knew a thing about the gods. He should. He really shouldn't. But he didn't at all.

"Well he's a dragon," Eden said as he quickly joined them on the other side because he had that shit. He hadn't even had a trap sprung on him because he was amazing. "What do you imagine a dragon is like?"

"Terrifying," Zeke said. "Dragons are terrifying. What is wrong with you?"

"We need her eyes working so no, I don't mind." Jiyong said as if that was the only reason. He couldn't let on that he felt guilty. "And not in pain of course."


---

Taeyang snorted. "It varies in the dragon. Dratini and dragonair are very kind and gentile. Others can be hot tempered, some hyper and silly. Serious and wise."

Tan said nothing, not a damned thing. That was so very awkward. Like Omg.

"I think dragons are cool, from aadistance. Eden, you've studied Dialga right? So what do you expect? Trials we have to do in a certain time period? What?" Haru asked.

"Yeah, because pain kind of sucks," Mandisa replied to his nonchalant manner of her girl being in pain from bitchy ass hot steam. She relaxed when Mireya had finished healing Yukiko.

"You can put me down now," Yukiko said after thanking Mireya for healing her. She felt tired and weak but she was no longer in pain.

"Nope," Mandisa said. "Which way now?"

"Oh...um...right again," Yukiko said after looking at the runes.

---

"Honestly your guess here is as good as mine," Eden replied. "Dialga is a fan of puzzles though so anything we do will likely be akin to this floor trap, without the pranks."

Zeke had listened but he just shrugged. He wasn't aware that he'd met dragons and he kind of didn't want to know because he was so spazzy he'd just lose his damn mind. Or something. In a horribly funny and cute way of course.

"Jiro have you ever felt like making a book of what happens when Mandi is too much of a pain in the ass to her friends?" Jiyong asked curiously, because he was like that. He also didn't appreciate her sarcasm. At all.

---

"Makes sense, is there a particular direction in which we should go now?" Tan asked, because he was eager to get off the conversation of dragons. He didn't like it. Too awkward.

Haru noticed the tension on the subject though, it was kind of hard to miss. People had gone very quiet or very loud in the opposite of Zeke's opinion. "Maybe we shouldn't be talking about dragons at all, while in ones temple?" She suggested.

"What a marvelous idea!" Taeyang said cheerfully and waited for Eden to lead the way. "Best to not provoke any beasts."

"Don't answer that," Mandisa said to Jiro as she carried Yukiko down the path with her sister walking beside her. She frowned a little. Jiyong could be awesome. But then he could also harp on the fact that she was a bitch at times.

"No," Jiro answered anyway despite what Mandisa had said. "My hand would cramp up. I don't like pain."

Mireya put her hand over her mouth to hide her chuckle.

Yukiko didn't respond at all because she didn't want to be dropped.

---

"Not a bad idea at all," Eden said and walked forward to look at the next set of runes. "Hm..." He took just a couple of minutes to properly translate it. "Left," he said finally.

Zeke chuckled. Now he had a song stuck in his head. Oh well.

If Mandi wasn't a bitch most of the time, then he wouldn't harp on. She brought it on herself. "I would be inclined to pay you to do so. Though, mostly would it not end the same way?" Jiyong asked conversationally as he continued on beside Jiro. He liked that the boy had ignored her. Ha. "I do love you, Mandi. But your sarcasm isn't required in this situation, if you think pissing me off is going to help anyone, you're sorely mistaken."

---

"Left it is," Taeyang said, he could feel his twin getting really annoyed. While he remained pretty calm. Hm. Perfect opposites. Don't bite, not today. Keep your cool, or someone will end up dying, probably. The only answer he got was a snort.

"I wonder what the next challenge is?" Haru asked as they approached a door. Taeyang pulled her back though, he didn't trust it.

"I'll go, you all wait out here. because the path leads on, but this is...well I don't know. Eden?" He wasn't going to be talked out of it though.

Mandisa didn't say anything and just looked away. She didn't want to fight with him. Not here.

Mireya watched her sister to see if she needed to intervene. It didn't appear so. She was relieved. She didn't want to have to heal a lot people today. She didn't want her family and friends getting hurt.

"There are many paths," Jiro agreed. "Some you will not wish to see." Mandisa's personality meant that her future wasn't as set as aay, her sister who was gentle and sweet.

---

Eden thought about it. He wasn't sure if just one went in that the rest could follow. He read the runes and considered what would be best. "Go ahead," he said. "We can wait to see what the trial for that his one is." He was worried about the singers. Jiro's tutor appeared to be quite capable.

"I probably don't even want too," Jiyong said, he was massively frustrated. He would get stuck on the water side. Which made his life terribly difficult. "I cannot help with the trials here. Not if they all involve water, but I will do my best to be sure we all get out alive. But I cannot promise that we won't get hurt. That's the point of trials they're not easy."

---

Taeyang slipped through the door. Trying to keep it open was impossible though, it had a very old type mechanism that immediately shut the door behind him. When he tried to open it again, it wouldn't budge. Not even an inch. An hour glass on the wall tipped over and the grains of sand seemed to move so quickly to the bottom. He narrowed his eyes before scanning the rest of the room.

"Oh no." Haru said, she looked around to see...ah. She pushed the boys over to something similar to a window. Only small enough for them to look through, but not enough for anyone to squeeze through.

The room was pretty empty. "It is a time trial, again." Taeyang explained as he took in the room. "Though I am not sure what I am supposed to do in here." There wasn't much that he could see. Somewhat of an iron maze, bars reached up towards the ceiling. He stepped forward and pushed open the gate in front of him.

It didn't do much but unlock the area in front of him, which was tight. Mist covered the floor and he shrugged. "I don't really...."

"There!" Tan said, pointing to Tae's left. "That cage over there? Do you see it?" He said, it was a dark, grungy brown in colour. Very large, but the only thing inside it was a crystal.

"I see it," he said, as he tried to push the bars to the side to squeeze through yet again. This was going to take too long, just to get the crystal and all. "Where's the key?"

"Here." Haru said, it was right in front of them. Which wasn't very close to Tae at all. "You better move it, what happens if the time runs out?"

"The door doesn't unlock, I suppose." Tae said as he shoved another door of bars to the side. It was so hard to move around the tiny spaces and direct himself towards the key, let alone the cage.

"I have no advantage over water," Jiro said thoughtfully. "And neither do any of the others. Your brother would have done better here. Can you not use your influence to get them out of here safely? Or do you not get along with her?"

---

Eden frowned. "Well, this is a little complicated," he said. He looked up and then over. What he could see of it. He tried to help the others in directing Taeyang.

Zeke just stayed out of it. He was not good with mind puzzles. He really wasn't at all.

"We were once, but I rebuffed her advances..." Jiyong said with a sigh, he pinched his nose in frustration. He hadn't thought she would be so petty, but the wave had proven otherwise.

They approached a very ominous looking door. It didn't say much, if anything at all. It had long since worn away. "I can't do this," he said with a sigh. "This room is simple, you must find the bucket, and fill the tubes. One at a time, one of then holds the key to get through to the next stage. However, it's timed and if the timer runs out you're stuck in there and we can't move on."

---

Taeyang, with their help, managed to get to the key. He looked over at the cage and then the timer. Not long left. He wondered.. He tried to climb onto the top of the maze, but immediately the ground shook causing the timer to run out faster.

"No, don't! It's wasting time." Haru said quickly,she nearly shouted and everything. "Ah, no..." this was so dramatic.

Taeyang softly growled as he slipped down. He could easily plough through all of this, but then he'd give himself away. He quickly navigated the rest of the maze, grabbed the cage holding the crystal and dragged it back to the front. Having opened some pathways had closed others to him though. So it took quite some time before he made it back to the door.

"It's... It's too big." Tan said meaning the cage wouldn't fit through the door, so Tae had to unlock it and he literally had seconds left...

Taeyang opened the cage, grabbed the crystal and pushed it through the gap at Eden and the others. "Go on without me, it's okay." He said when the timer ran out and the door clicked, locked forever. Dun dun dun!

Jiro made a face. "I don't like to work that much," he said. "I also don't understand why a water goddess would want to get with a fire god. But women are weird." He looked back at the girls. "Very weird."

"So...what's happening?" Mandisa asked when they caught up with the boys.

"Trial," Jiro said and pointed to the door.

"Oh yay," Mandisa sighed. She did not get what Eden enjoyed about this kind of stuff. She'd rather hang out like, somewhere spooky, and temples could be but eh.

---

"No!" Zeke exclaimed. "No, get him out!" he demanded of Eden, like the guy would just be able to magically do it because he was the best when it came to temples.

"I don't think there's anything I can do about it," Eden said. He was surprised that Taeyang hadn't made it through the door. But he searched the runes again to see if there was any clue. There wasn't of course.

"You have to! We can't just leave him in there forever!"

"I think you would be good at this one, Mandisa. For you must be quick." Jiyong said, he explained it to her as fast and precise as he could.

---

"Baby," Taeyang said, his voice was soft as he did it and shifted his gaze to Zeke. "Do you trust me?" He asked, because it was imprinting right now.

Haru started to cry. She couldn't help it. She didn't want to leave Taeyang in there any more than Zeke did. He was their friend.

Tan honestly didn't kind Tae. But he didn't cry. Waste of moisture. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

Mandisa thought about that. "Yeah, I can handle that one," she said. She was going to be faster than the others. Yukiko might have been good at it as she'd already done these sort of trials before but she was weak at the moment and she might accidentally freeze the water. So she ran into the room and wasted no time in getting to work on the puzzle. She hated water though. It was so wet. Better than fire, she guessed.

"Oh, what happens if she doesn't finish in time?" Mireya asked Jiyong. He seemed to have an idea of what was going on with this one.

---  

"There's nothing to be done from our end," Eden said. He hated seeing the young girl cry. It made him feel bad. But what could they do? Without proper tools and gifts that would do well against stone?

"Yes," Zeke answered, taking a breath. He wasn't crying like Haru was. He didn't ever cry. Not if he could help it.  But he was scared. He'd already lost a lot this year. He didn't want to lose even more.

"Oh she gets locked in and we can't progress any further." Jiyong said casually he wasn't bothered. He knew it was simple enough.

---

"Well shit that sucks." Tan said, frowning. He couldn't even do anything. Not without revealing himself. Gods, secrets were so hard.

"I promise you I won't be stuck here forever. Not even a day, okay? I'll find a way out." Taeyang said and he meant it. Zeke was so very strong but he knew he could handle it. "Take a deep breath, you two. It's going to be okay."

Haru whimpered as she took the breath. She really hated the idea of leaving him. That just sucked. But if he said he could get out.

"Do I want to know what happens?" Mireya asked of Jiro then. She had faith in her sister but she was still nervous.

"She'll be fine," Jiro said. Mandisa could handle a little temple puzzle. She would do it before time ran up.

And she did. "Ha!" she said. After she realized she probably shouldn't have given that this was a goddess she was dealing with. Oh well.

---

"I believe you," Zeke said and took a breath. "So we go forward and you'll catch up." He looked at Eden then.

"Don't seem to have much of a choice," Eden replied. It did suck. He agreed with Tan. But what could they do? "Don't linger," he said to his bestie and ushered the group forward.

"Good job, did you get the key?" Jiyong asked, because he was eager to move on. He didn't want to linger in this place. If Palkia appeared it would give away the history. Ew.

---

Haru went along easily. She hoped the next trial was easier. What if it wasn't though? What then? It would mean someone else got locked in and couldn't get out.

Tan was quiet. He looked at zeke but couldn't really read his expression or how he felt right now. "So, where does this crystal go?"

Mandisa took out the key from her pants pocket. "Want it?" she asked and handed it to him anyway. "Ugh, my clothes are not going to dry at all at this rate." They'd just gotten wet all over again. Which would be fine if she wasn't wearing a white shirt and no bra. At this point she didn't care though.

---

"I'm not sure yet," Eden said. He took looked at Zeke to see how he was holding up but the boy wasn't ever easy to read. He just looked at them both and smiled a little before looking forward again. "I'm sure we'll find where soon. Likely a final puzzle," Eden said.

"I'm sure Yuki would agree that this is a good look on you," Jiyong said, he hadn't looked openly. But he had seen, of course. He was male. He took the key and headed on forward.

---

"Will it give us clues to know who to send in?" Tan asked, he didn't want another Taeyang incident. That would be so awful.

Mandisa glanced at Yukiko. She didn't seem to have noticed. Or maybe she had but just wasn't reacting to it. She bit her tongue. She wasn't going to say a thing.

"What?" Yukiko asked when she noticed they were talking about her somewhat.

"Nothing," Mandisa replied. "So what do we do next, Bunnicula?"

Jiro stared at her for a moment and then thought about it. "That way," he said blankly and pointed.

"Oh I hope we're almost done here. How many trials do they put you through?" Mireya asked.

---

"Let's hope," Eden said. "This is Dialga though. We know most of his stuff will be metal and time related. Not sure who to send in for that. But let's see, yes?" He followed what the runes instructed and kept going.

Zeke remained quiet. It was really his only tell when he was upset. He just stopped talking and being a hyper spazz. It was hard to be a spazz though when you were in a temple that could kill you with a god that could smite you if he felt like it.

"Three usually, but if we end up with more because Palkia is bitter, I won't be surprised." Jiyong said, he knew they didn't know as much as Jiro. But it just sounded like his opinion in the God in general.

---

"Sure," Tan shrugged, he didn't think he'd be any good at any of that. He didn't think his gifts applied and he just had to be clever.

Taeyang slipped up behind Zeke and took his arm. "Told you to trust me." He aid with a smile. He hadn't been able to come sooner, or Eden would suspect.

"Why would she be bitter?" Mireya asked. Not that she suspected anything of Jiyong saying that. He had to know something that she didn't but unlike her siblings, history and the occult weren't her choices for study.

"Well..." Mandisa thought about it. "I don't actually know," she said. "Eden would. Yukiko, why is this goddess bitter?"

"I'd imagine it would be because her temple was closed for so long," the frost maiden answered. "Although there doesn't seem to be an explanation so far as to why that happened."

Jiro just looked at Jiyong subtly. He knew it was because she was a woman scorned. Or something. But he thought she really have gotten over it by now.

---

Eden had no gifts to speak of. Well, if he did, he certainly hadn't shared them. He glanced back at the sound of his best friend's voice. "How did you get out?" he asked. He wasn't suspicious though. Just curious.

Zeke squished him immediately. "I know," he said. "But you're not allowed to do that again," he added. He had not been happy about it at all.