Chapter 3, Enjoy.

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Carefully, one motion at a time, she scaled the cliff to the ruins. Not that she had a particularly perilous time climbing, but she was afraid of drawing attention to herself if she moved anymore rapidly.

In her head she could still hear Finn and Swoop; it seems they could not agree on anything: Chicken or Pork, Sweet or Spicy, Who would help her with her chores, Who would accompany her to the baths to make sure Kraken wasn't in there.

It was at that point in time she decided to let them finish their argument without any interference from her, since that seemed to only agitate their next fight. So she decided to climb the cliffs and visit the hawk nests in the abandoned ruins. She reached the caves and wiped her forehead, feeling the dried mud crumble off from when she had been weeding her plants. She crawled in and seated herself in the back, watching the bat pups crawl around waiting for their parents to awaken and feed them.

It was a different cave then what her hawk friends were nesting in. One with a smaller entrance but a larger cave behind the crawl-hole where light was filtered through a hole about two feet in diameter and was rank with bat inhabitant. But the cave systems were warm, even in the dead of winter, and it was dark enough to loose herself in her mind, even with the smell.

Teeg, as she was now comfortable to call herself, had to admit, Finn and Swoop bothered her. She did not like these symptoms they evoked, the heat in her face, the strange churn in her stomach that made her think that she was going to throw up, the spasms in her feet that made her want to move, to curl and shift her feet. Such a strange sickness they inspired. Her time of being with Casey did not transmit such a sickness, neither did Phant at the "hos-pee-tal" and neither did the people she had seen, nor Lily and Gabby made her sick like that. But this afternoon as the males were disrobed, she had been struck with the illness? And such a strange disease to merely affect her in the company of males, when she had excused herself to Lily and Gabby's company after she was done with their inquisition, the symptoms alleviated. That matched no illness she knew of. Maybe an allergy. That was more fitting.

So... she was allergic to Finn and Swoop specifically... since she was not affected by Phant, Theo Lily, Gabby, and Casey. The other two she was not properly introduced to were still variables. She worried her lip between her teeth and absently noted that they were starting to chap and peel.

RJ, Casey identified him as the one in purple, was Finn's son, according to what she's heard, and that RJ used to train under Master Swoop. So it would be logical that any allergies she had to either man would be the same for RJ... but Casey also trained under Finn, and he didn't seem to bother her at all. So maybe there wasn't an associative property to the allergy, but that didn't relieve RJ of being a variable.

She thought back to that afternoon when Casey was framed in the afternoon sunlight.

...Possibly there was something to the theory that there was an associative property to the allergen.

Her stomach growled before she could think further. A smile stretched her mouth.

"Alright, a bath, then dinner..." She decided, crawling out of the hole and crouched on the lip before pushing off, letting her hawk spirit keep her aloft in the air. With a flip in the air she settled down on top of the bath house and dropped down to the ground below.


The Bath was a large sandstone building erected over a natural spring well, with a giant crystal they placed on top that could refract light to heat the water inside. According to documents in the library and petroglyphs in the area, the crystal was one of two the Pai Zhou had brought with them, when they didn't need the other crystal, they must have somehow figured out how it could be used to heat water by concentrating sunlight.

Regardless of how it came to be, the bath house was what it was. She pulled the door open slightly and slipped in. Steam rose from the large organic pool where Swoop and Finn were already, enjoying the warm water.

"Is the water to your liking?" She asked, causing the two men to jump in shock. She was rewarded with a full frontal view for a second, before they splashed around in the water till they were submerged up to their necks. She pressed her hand to her mouth, as a strange mixture of that churning feeling, intensified, mingled with her need for laughter at their antics. She kept her hand to her mouth and one over her stomach as she walked to her choice location, hoping her allergies weren't going to make her sick in the bath.

"W-what are you doing?" Finn asked in an odd high pitched voice as she began to remove the clothing Gabby had given her earlier that day.

"I am preparing for a bath myself, I have been encased in mud much longer than I desire to tolerate." She said focusing on the "bra" her fingers searched her back for the part that held the material together. Finally she found the "clasp" and tugged on them until they came apart. They joined the piled of clothes, there was a huge splash and the sound of someone choking on water.

"Is there a problem with your bath?" She asked, fulfilling the part of hosts she had read about. Finn whirled around and hunched in the water, the back of his neck red, while Swoop was red from the tips of his ears to the collar bones.

"Are you well? Your skin is an unnatural shade of red, and the water is not hot enough to cause such discoloration." There was a moment of silence before Swoop spoke.

"Temple Guardian, if you are not aware, it is improper for men and women to bath together unless they are married." Teeg reared back, a feeling of wanting to disappear coupled with the heat in her face washed over her.

"Ah, my sincerest apologies, I was unaware that I was committing such an offense. Please accept my apology." She said returning quickly to her side of the bath to gather her things before retreating for the house.

"Way to go Swoop! We could have just let her bathe on the other side of the pool out of sight. But nooo. You had to go chase her off! Now the rest of the evening's going to be unbearable!" Finn grumbled leaning back against the rock siding on the pool. Swoop sent the man a sneer.

"She needed to be let known, not telling her would have been just as bad as taking advantage of her." Finn harrumphed and crossed his arms before accidently slipping on the rock flooring under the water.


Dinner was way later than she usually made since she had to wait for the men to vacate the bathroom. And even after she had made dinner, she took her food and locked herself in the library, unable to be around the two without the same sensation she experience in the baths burning in her hot and sick.

Scroll after scroll of symptoms for common allergies were piled in front of her, the languages blurring into one unintelligible mass of squiggles.

Teeg shoved her food back and forth across the plate feeling ill at the thought of eating at this late. And nothing in text in front of her gave her any clue as to what was going on with her.

A headache began to form as she took her plate and left the library.

Without sufficient documented evidence of such an allergy existing, it would be fool-hearty to assume there was a reason that Finn and Swoop specifically caused such reactions, no, best wait till she could gather more information.

Bypassing the kitchen, Teeg dumped her food in the pig trough and placed the dishware on the ground near where she favored to practice her martial arts.


Racks of weapons lined the walls of the outside dojo.

She chewed her lip a bit as she looked at each weapon, deciding which one she was in most need of learning, of course she could also go for her standard throwing knives.

In the end she opted to go for unarmed combat training.

She let her mind go blank as she took her stance, letting the positions come to her as easy and normal as breathing. Entire complex katas spun out before her as she retraced the well familiar steps and gestures.

A backwards kick sent her foot crashing into something much much thicker and harder than air.

And air generally didn't make an "oof" sound for that matter...

Nor did it inspire laughter from the surrounding air...

Somewhere to the left and behind her. It sounded a lot like Master Swoop... the laughter that is.

"Strong kick you have there." Finn wheezed.

"I am so sorry! I should have been more aware of my surroundings! Please accept my apology." She said bowing to the hunched over man grasping his stomach.

"No no, it's my fault for sneaking up on you. We were admiring your technique; you don't practice with others do you?" Teeg shifted her gaze away.

"No, there is no one to practice with."

"I see... would you like to spar against me? We'll see how good you are." Teeg shifted uncomfortably, at war with herself over her sincere desire to avoid further embarrassment, and her desire to be a better martial artist.

"If you would like." She said finally. Finn smiled and dropped his swords out of the way before taking his unarmed stance. She followed, and allowed her mind to be sunk into the spar.


Finn quickly realized she was about as unprepared for actual combat as a martial artist could get. Her technique was flawless, but mechanical, she knew his moves the instant he shifted, and could counter, but had no follow through, her style was too... mechanized. She lacked organic grace and quick thinking. And that was only what he witnessed fighting her, now that she was against Swoop, and loosing again, he could see how devoid fighting was for her. It was a method, a reaction. Most Martial Artists struggle their entire life to obtain that kind of analytical and reactionary ability, but she had it without the feel in battle, it was little surprise Kraken got away, all technique and no soul.

She landed on the ground and didn't get up. Swoop backed off and stood next to Finn, both of them worried when she made no effort to get up.

"I... should have expected to loose yes? You both are Masters, I should have expected to loose." She said slowly, before she pulled herself off the matt. Swoop and Finn looked at each other worried.

"You...lack organic movement... you are relying heavily on your training, on a systematic approach to fighting. If this would have been a real battle, you would have lost, I'm sorry." The Bat Master spoke. She nodded as she rose off the floor.

"I see, thank you." She said slowly. "But if you do not mind, I believe it is already past a decent time to retire for the night. I will show you to your rooms, or if you'd prefer you may have use of the bath house before you sleep." Finn and Swoop looked at each other in concern before Finn spoke up.

"No Teeg, you look tired, we shouldn't have kept you up, thank you for humoring two old men. Why don't you go to bed and we'll find our way to our rooms." She nodded and made her way out of the training area, making sure to take her dishes with her.

Teeg sniffled, trying to clear her nose of the fluid gathered as she scrapped the food into the bin to be taken out to the pigs tomorrow, the dishes were dumped in a basin for washing and left there. She dashed the hot sticky water from her eyes as she made her way to her chambers, her arms winding themselves around her middle. Once inside her room she pushed the door shut and pulled her clothes off, leaving them in a pile on the floor instead of being put in the basket to be washed. She slid under her covers, her head resting on the pillow; she blew out the candle and let the darkness swallow the room.

"What good was I as a Guardian if I can't even win in a spar?" She asked the ghosts in the dark with a thick, choked, voice.


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