**::sighs:: You know, these chapters seem a heck of a lot longer on my chunky ol' laptop than on my normal PC. Sheesh. Anyway, here's number ten, making this story as long as my old (and first) fanfic in the MGS section. Whee! Um, I wanna say thanks to Saito for letting me rip on her so much even though she's a lot smarter than in this story (gomen!!!), and again thanks to UA for letting me use her as the main protagonist! ^_^ Now if I could just keep everyone in character...

Oh! And thanks to this one guy who always reads my stories and bugs me over AIM whenever he's on to check for a new chapter! XD You know who you are...^_^ And on with the story!**

Yueh had managed to fall asleep when her shift had ended, but she still didn't know quite how, as even the next morning the caffeinated feeling remained.

She awoke to a loud snoring coming from a short distance across the small clearing where they had set up camp. Stretching out her arms, she opened the tent flap and searched for the noise's source.

Yueh saw Niet slumped against the tree again, her rapier once more caught in the trunk. However, Niet was not responsible for the atrocious sounds. Yueh glanced over to the tent across the way.

She flipped the other tent open to see her summoner, tangled up in the sleeping bag, her arms laying across the entire width of the tent, sleeping soundly and loudly. Yueh hit herself in the forehead and went to wake Arashi up.

"Arashi...Arashi, wake up!" She poked Arashi in the shoulder, which made the golden-haired girl grunt and roll over. Yueh tapped her again. "Arashi, you gotta wake up."

"Five more minutes, mom, please..." She snorted and waved a hand at Yueh, her eyes still closed. Yueh rolled her eyes, sighing. She finally gave Arashi a quick zap with a bit of Thunder, and she jolted awake.

"GYAH!" She rubbed her back and looked around quickly. Finding Yueh standing hunched over in her tent, Arashi glared. "You really have to quit hitting me with that lightning, you know." She stood up and stepped out of her tent, still rubbing her back. "That really hurts!"

"You wouldn't wake up." Yueh decided to leave out the snoring until later on when the summoner was in a better mood. She followed her out of the tent, stretching.

Arashi was notably silent, her hair tousled and tangled into what could easily have been called the worst case of bed head on record. She wandered over to where Niet was attached to the tree and shook her awake.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Niet shouted. Arashi continued to shake her until Niet finally pushed her arms away. Arashi then stumbled back to her tent and sat inside.

"She's not exactly a morning person," Yueh commented quietly. Niet nodded in agreement and went to free her leg from the trunk.

"I've never seen her this early, so I didn't know."

"She can hear you, you know," Arashi shouted out from the tent. Niet and Yueh winced a bit before giggling like the girls they were. Arashi peeked out from the tent. "And what is so funny?"

Yueh waved her off and went to start packing up her tent. Arashi gave a glare and retreated to her own tent to sulk. Niet simply shook her head and looked for something in the surrounding area that was edible. She was starving. Her stomach rumbled, obviously agreeing.

She wandered a bit further from the clearing and came upon a large structure in the trees--no, made FROM the trees. She blinked and cleared her bangs from her eyes, looking up at the massive structure they had somehow missed the day before.

Niet paused.

"Arashi!!"

*-*-*-*-*

They had packed up much quicker than they had set up, and ran to see Niet's new discovery. They all stared up at the wooden building in awe. Arashi pulled her goggles down around her neck before stepping up to the wide entrance that was encased with vines.

"Let's go in, I suppose." She turned back to the other two. "Weapons ready, girls."

Both nodded, and Niet pulled out her rapier while Yueh held her charm tightly. Arashi pulled out her belt and gently stepped into the natural building.

The inside, as they found, was no different than the outside. It was still the grown wood, but they could now see the holes in what seemed to be the leafy canopy of the large trees that made the building. On the ground a large, crescent-shaped moon had been painted, and didn't seem to have been stepped on that often. Arashi gestured for Yueh and Niet to follow closer.

Past the moon was another door, covered in a thick sheet of flowered vines. Arashi slung her belt over her shoulder and began poking at the wall of vines. She turned back to the other two. "No luck, its gotta be like two inches thick."

As Yueh approached, she felt the jewel in her hand begin to get warmer. She opened her palm and watched the gem glow softly from its normal color to a deeper green-blue. She nudged Arashi's shoulder.

"Huh?" Arashi watched the jewel illuminate, and took a glance at her own moon-shaped jewel. Its hue had changed to a deep violet. She held it up to the vines, which began to peel back.

"Niet, c'mere!" Yueh shouted. Niet jumped forward and Yueh quickly took her wrist, holding it at the door.

"Wha--?" Niet's star-gem on her bracelet had become a deeper green and was glowing as well. She blinked. "Oh..."

As Yueh held her jewel next to the vine wall, the vines unfurled, creating an arch over the new doorway in front of them. Once they had finished relocating, the jewels stopped glowing, but stayed in their new colors. Yueh released Niet's wrist, which Niet immediately began to massage.

Yueh stared at the door for a moment. "Guess this is a temple or something."

Niet rubbed her wrist slowly as she nodded. "Yeah. Or something."

Arashi hung her belt over her other shoulder and stepped forward. "Time for the Cloister of Trials."

Yueh went in front of Arashi, her jewel still tight in her hand. "I'll go first. Just to be safe." Arashi nodded, and let Yueh lead the way deeper into the chambers.

Her heart started to beat faster as she walked further into the temple. She closed her eyes to try and hide the fear--and excitement. The room was getting a bit colder, but not unpleasantly so. She finally bumped into something. It was cold, a bit damp, and made of hard stone.

Opening her brown eyes, she saw a pedestal in front of her, a sphere in its hold. The sphere glowed a gentle yellow in the small bit of sunlight. She took it, and found it was mildly warm, not cold glass as one would have thought. Turning it over in her hand, Yueh showed it to Arashi.

"Pretty." Arashi took it and handed it to Niet for her to look at as well. Looking around the chamber, Arashi let out a breath. "So now for the puzzle, huh?"

"Yes, I guess so." Arashi went to the left of the pedestal, and Yueh to the right. Niet went straight forwards and ran into a much smaller pedestal. Shrugging, she set the sphere into the mini pedestal and watched as it sunk into the floor.

Meanwhile, Arashi and Yueh were poking and prodding the wooden walls, looking for any circular shaped indents. Arashi managed to get her finger caught in one small hole, while Yueh only found a hole about the size of a large beachball. She turned to sigh to the others, but instead started giggling as she saw Arashi struggling to get her finger free from the tree's trunk. As she went to help her friend out, the room suddenly burst with a pale yellow light. All three covered their eyes and once the light was gone, the door to the Chamber of the Fayth had been revealed across the room.

"How?" Arashi stuttered. Niet raised a lone hand from where she stood, blinking very slowly. Arashi's gray-blue eyes remained wide open. "How?"

It was Niet's turn to stutter. "There was a little chibi-thingy here, and I put the ball in the thingy and it shrunk into the floor..." The rest was incoherent mumbling, much like what Arashi was doing at the moment. Yueh was the only one who had kept her mind, as she had seen magic so many times before it no longer phazed her, to a certain extent. She again went to pull Arashi's finger free, and was able to do so in a rather short amount of time.

She began to push Arashi towards the chamber doors, and Arashi's legs loosely obeyed. She seemed to want to fall over, her knees almost too weak to support the rest of her body. Yueh kept her up straight until they reached the vine covered door to the Chamber of the Fayth. Again Arashi's jewel--and Arashi's alone--began to glow.

Niet had finally gotten up and watched quietly as the vines unfurled for Arashi. Arashi's eyes looked from Niet to Yueh and back again. Niet nodded solemnly.

"We'll wait for you."

Yueh gave a sharp nod, which Arashi returned before taking a very deep breath. She steadied her feet, stared into the Chamber, and strode in as calmly as she could. The vines wove up behind her, leaving Niet and Yueh alone in the Cloister of Trials room.

Yueh sat down on the wooden steps in front of the Chamber door. Niet wandered over and assumed the classic "Thinker" position.

"Good luck, Arashi."