In the catacomb
Robin kept on looking back at the portal till it was out of sight clearly worried about Olivia, but she knew how important it was for them to find the tempus orb and how it was vital to everything, so she kept on going, Belle was the first to arc up "Geez how long is this Maze"
Freddy was busy marking arrows onto the walls, so they know which way to follow back "No idea but we have definitely been walking for a bit", Belle sighed "Man if I knew we would have to walk this far I would have sent Ryuma instead of coming", Belles comments caused Robin and Freddy too chuckle,
After a few minutes of walking and silence Freddy had to ask Belle something that's been racing around in his head for the last few hours, "Belle, what the hell happened with Ryuma earlier, I have never seen anything so terrifying in my life." Belle didn't answer she just increased her walking speed, trying to put a bit of space between them. But Freddy was not having that "Oh no Belle, you are not avoiding this, That's the second time I've seen that look in his eyes and I could clearly see he would have killed us if he was not stopped"
Belle looked at Freddy and wondered second time, when was the first?
"it's not Belle's place to say", Freddy and Belle looked at Robin with a look of confusion "What happened was Ryuma's doing so it's up to him whether we can talk about it, it's not Belle's place to say without Ryumas Permission"
Freddy thought about what was said and not happily he agreed "tch, Fine I'll ask Ryuma when we get back then"
Belle Turned to Robin and she knew Robin only said that to get Freddy off her back and she was thankful she even mouthed Thank you to Robin when Freddy was not looking, But Robin still manage to show a look on her face that said I would still like to know myself Belle.
"Hey what's that" Robin and Belle looked ahead and saw a skeleton on the ground clutching a book "It looks like a skeleton", "No Belle in his hand" Robin picked up the book and looked at it,
"It's old... really old" Robin open the book and gasped "What mum what" Robin started reading from the book "This is the final entry of the journal of Dr. H. Jones" everyone was shocked they just found the journal of Dr. Jones and realized that the skeleton must be his remains, "So this is what happened to him, now we know he didn't just disappear" Robin began reading the book out loud
"I have been trapped here for Days now this will probably be my final entry, it was By sheer luck, I found the Portal that brought me here to the catacomb of death, luck was on my side, it was very bitter sweet when one of my assistance had died, but who knew that, You needed to have a dead body in the middle of the ground, when the moon started to rise was the key and somehow open the portal, as too why that still escapes me, I thought this was the greatest day of my life I finally achieved my dream and discovered the catacomb of death, but now I realized all too late that luck was not on myside I spent too long in the catacomb, and watched my only way out close on me leaving me trapped with no way out"
Freddy looked at Robin "So we need to make sure we leave as soon as possible to escape" Robin nodded "Seems so" Robin continued to read
"Every day feels more and more hopeless and I know now that there is only one thing left I can do and that is help anyone who comes after me, I have explored all I can, and left a map in the following pages of my journal, How accurate the map is I can't say, I only hope this helps you so you don't get trapped like me, as I lay here writing my dying words I only ask one small thing please tell the world I did it, I was right about the catacomb and the tempus orb, I am not as crazy as I seem"
Belle cheered "Yes we have a map, Robin let me see" Belle then reached for the journal and Robin stopped her "Hold up there's more"
"I leave only this warning for those who are hunting the Tempus orb, turn back escape now, the orb is without a doubt a powerful thing but be warned every power has a price and the Orb will cost you everything, like it did me... Dr. H. Jones"
Freddy scratch his head "wow sounds like there's more to this than we thought" Robin nodded "we still need the orb anyway" and handed Belle the journal, Belle opened the journal to the map and studied it for a bit "Hmmm…. this map is very hard to read but looks like if we go this way we should head towards something of interest, possibly the Orb" and started to walk off in the direction with Freddy and Robin following.
Back Outside near the portal
Olivia is currently sitting on the ground not too far from the portal starting to grow restless it's been a long time and no sign that Robin or the others will be coming out the portal soon, and she's starting to grow with worry over both Ryuma for still being in the same spot depressed and for The group not returning yet, it's getting to the point where she is starting to scream out loud "Belle, Freddy, Mum will you guys hurry up"
Olivia sunk her head into her hands and sighed loudly, it was clear even to the most harden skulled person she was stressing out, and Olivia was about to break when she felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned and saw Ryuma standing next to her, Olivia was speechless that Ryuma came too her she couldn't say anything, "Where are the others",
Olivia quickly told Ryuma, what happened, why a portal has appeared and where the others are, he just replied with a grunt and a nod of the head saying he understood.
Olivia could see that Ryuma was no longer depressed, the cloud of depression that was around him before seems to have faded "Ryu, I see you have cheered up a bit" Ryuma didn't respond he only looked at her "I'm Hungry, you Hungry?" Olivia could only nod her head as she was thrown off guard by Ryuma suddenly changing the subject, but she knew if Ryuma did something like that it meant he was not ready to talk about it.
Ryuma took a few steps away from Olivia, he then stopped, Olivia was curious to why Ryuma stopped suddenly, Ryuma took a deep breath "Olivia, Thank you... You helped a lot" Then Ryuma continued to walk towards the forest, Olivia was so happy to hear that from Ryuma and to this day she is still a little confused on what Ryuma was thanking her for, but what she was truly grateful for was that Ryuma didn't turn around after he said it because Olivia was blushing so red she looked like a cherry.
Back with Robin, Freddy and Bellemere In the Portal
"God Damn It, Belle how much further?" "Stop complaining Freddy, your distracting me and I don't want to get lost". the group continued to walk and what felt like an hour has past when Belle was all smiles they had just arrived out front a door with a giant hourglass carved into it, "I believe this could be it" Belle looked at Robin "Was there any doubt in your mind that I would get you here"
Freddy rushed to the door and started to open it "Let's go we are on a time limit remember".
Freddy and Belle's jaws dropped when they looked and saw that the whole room was made of human skulls, everywhere along the walls "this is creepy"
Freddy laugh "it's not that scary Belle" after a minute of checking around the room Belle concluded it was empty. "There's nothing here it's an empty room" Freddy agreed with her, but Robin was not convinced
Robin looked around and noticed somethings off "Is it me or are all the skulls looking in the same direction" Freddy walked over to the wall and looked closely, he could see all the skulls from all angles are looking at the same spot in the center of the room. Belle was growing impatient "There's nothing here, we need to find the orb" and started walking towards the door when they slammed shut on her.
Freddy and Robin moved over to Belle too see what happened Belle quickly explained the doors shut by themselves and she was unable to open them.
"Did you trigger a trap" Belle shook her head "I didn't feel any pressure plates or trip wires" Robin started to think, but Freddy walked towards the door "No worries I'll just blow it open with a strong Gust of Wind" and aimed both hands at the door "Hurricane Gal..." Robin stopped him "Freddy if you do that you could blow out our torches then we will be in the Dark" Freddy dropped his hands and looked at Robin "So what do we do".
Belle stepped forward Drawing her Blades "I may not be as good as Ryuma but I think I can slice us a way out" Belle then held Both her Blades at her side "Two Sword Style" she then kneel slowly and Quickly jumped at the Door stopping just before it.
the attack did nothing, it didn't even scratch the door. Belle was surprised her attack should have easily cut through the stone door.
"You can stop now, the door is Time locked" Freddy, Robin and Belle all turned to see an Old man in a robe standing at the opposite side of the room reading a book, the old man looked at them "I believe it's been a long time since I had company, though I'm not too sure anymore".
Outside the portal with Ryuma and Olivia
Ryuma had just returned from his hunt with another giant animal over his shoulder, Olivia figured he was going to bring something like that again and took the initiative to build a fire pit and spit for such and animal waiting for Ryumas Return.
while the beast is left to cook on the spit Olivia decides to take this rare opportunity to talk to Ryuma with no one around to bug them, "It's weird we never get chances like this anymore" Ryuma looked at Olivia "Like what?"
"I mean just the 2 of us, it's kind of nice"
Ryuma not sure how to respond to Olivia replied a little vaguely "I Guess"
Olivia looked at Ryuma and thought about how bad she really wants to ask him about what happened earlier, Ryuma looked back at Olivia and he could tell something was bugging her, "I'm not worried... they will be back", Olivia was confused at the randomness of Ryuma's comment and was wondering why he would say something like that.
Ryuma replied "you looked like something was bugging you, I assumed it was the others still in the Maze" Olivia had to laugh as Ryuma showing such thoughtfulness was not in his character, leaving Ryuma with a curious and little surpirsed look on his face.
"No Ryu, I was not thinking about that…. But thank you, you're right they will be just fine" Olivia then smiled at Ryuma, but it was short lived "Ryu what's wrong", Ryuma just knew inside him if it's not the others she was worried about then it could only be one other thing that's got her worried.
"You want to know what happened, against Talon,",
Olivia's interest was all too clear on her face she had too know what happened in the fight against Talon and what caused him to lose control like that, but after she looked at Ryuma's face, she could see he would tell her she had to do was ask,
this with the fact Ryuma thought of her as his closest friend was all she needed to know all she had to do was ask,
but just before she could she happened to look into his eyes and it was clear he was still hurting from the fact it caused him to lose control to the point where he could hurt even kill his own friends, so despite curiosity still building she decided against it.
"Tell me when you're Ready, as far as I care you're still Ryuma to me"
Ryuma's smile came back and he chuckled "been a long time since you called me anything other than Ryu".
Olivia nudged him, "I'm the only one you allow to call you Ryu, you get mad at everyone else if they call you anything other than your name, you even threated to slice Kyle in half that one time he called you Ryu"
Ryuma sarcastically replied "So if I told you too call me Ryuma as well you would,"
Olivia pretended to think then with a smirk on her face, "Nope, you'll always be Ryu to me" the two had a nice chuckle and started to reminisce back when they were kids when Olivia first started calling him Ryu.
Olivia sighed, as Ryuma asked what's wrong, and she replied, "Nothing's wrong, just remembering when we were kids brings back lots of great memories of us"
Ryuma agreed, "Yeah they were good times"
the two sat in silence till Ryuma got up too check how the beast was cooking,
Olivia found herself staring at Ryuma unable to look away as she was staring at him her memories of all the good times they shared filled her mind.
she could not stop thinking about Ryuma and how much he meant to her, Olivia had to quickly snap out of it when she saw Ryuma look back at her and yelled foods ready.
As Ryuma and Olivia sat down to eat Olivia's mind race with, feeling about Ryu all she could think was, what should she do, was Belle and Freddy right, does she have feelings for Ryuma?
