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Beyond the Beast"Not so tight!" Damon cried out.
Cho glowered at Damon, intentionally yanking the length of cloth roughly. Damon yelped in pain and glared back at Cho.
"I said-"
Cho got to her feet and walked away from him, not caring what he said. Damon shut up and stared angrily at her back, though she knew if he could he'd do more than just glare at her back. That was also the reason she had tied his arms behind his back. He'd be able to move about, but he wouldn't be running anywhere soon, not that he could run very fast with his healing leg. After all he was their prisoner and it was time to start treating him as such.
Sighing, Cho wiped her face with the sleeve of her robes. It was hot. A direct opposite of their situation before, where they had been trapped in the Tower and the temperature seemed to be continually dropping, here it seemed to be growing hotter every minute they were in it. Cho squinted and looked about the room. It was not only hot, it was also bright, There was no source of the light that she could see, it just seemed to be everywhere, worst than any hot afternoon sun.
It wasn't even a dry heat. Cho mused, wiping damp hands upon damp robes. The air was hot and muggy. Cho felt like she was drowning every time she breathed, the air was so thick with moisture. It was worst than any other day near the coast, at least there, there would be a chance of a breeze. Here the air was still as a tomb and just as silent.
The room was large, almost cavernous, brightly lit and as in the Tower had no ceiling that she could easily see. The light seemed to get brighter as she looked up, so there was no real way to see how high the ceiling was. It was not entirely a single large room also. There were smaller rooms that branched off what Cho was calling the Great Hall. A long and wide and zig zagging hall that shot off a lot of smaller branches into smaller rooms that were either empty or full of small pools of water.
She didn't know how long it the Great Hall extended, but she hadn't seen any other exits. The thought that there was no exit from this Sauna had crossed her mind, but she refused to think about it. There had to be a way out.
"Why is it you're always the one getting knocked around?" Cho asked, crouching down before Neville.
"Blame it on my bravery." Neville groaned. There was a large bruise that was growing on the side of his face, from where the door had smashed into him.
Cho smiled tightly. She had seen Neville crashed into the door and for a moment she had been paralyzed with fear that he had been killed. He had just collapsed bonelessly to the ground, not moving for a few seconds. Utter rage and anger had burned in her for that moment and she had blindly rushed the creature, no plan but to destroy the monster.
"How are you feeling?" Cho asked softly.
Neville chuckled and then winced. "I guess my head's harder than I thought it was. First landing head first onto a stone floor, now running head first into an iron door. What will it be next? What's harder than iron?"
Cho laughed weakly. "Diamond?"
Neville smiled. "Bring it on, then." He sighed, leaning against the wall. The walls in the Sauna were also different, Cho noticed, they weren't the bricks as in the Tower, but smooth white marble. "What now?" Neville asked.
Cho sighed, folding her legs and resting her hand in her palm. When had she become the leader? She thought. Possibly the first time she encountered the Beast and began threatening Damon so he'd divulge his secrets. She didn't want the pressure of trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. She didn't want to be the one responsible for what they would be doing.
"We find a way out. We head for an exit." Cho said, pushing away her doubts. "If there are more of those things out there, we'll then we'll just fry them again." Cho's chuckle held little mirth and Neville eyed her, his grin faltering.
"You did what you had to do. What did you think we were trying to do?" Neville asked. "Do or die. Remember?"
Cho nodded. "It's not what I did that bothers me, it's what I was feeling." She sighed.
Neville was quiet for a moment. "What were you feeling?" He asked.
"Anger. Fear. Terror beyond belief." Cho replied.
"Yet you ran into the Tower, to save Damon."
"Save Damon?" Cho scoffed, taking a glance at Damon who was trying to sit comfortably with his hands tied behind his back. He saw her watching him and glared back. "That was the last thing on my mind. I thought that thing had killed you and all I wanted was to kill it." Cho quickly got to her feet. "We still need to find a way out of here."
"Hey, Cho. I-" Neville began. Cho shook her head.
"We need to find a way out." Cho forced a grin. "In the mean time. Keep an eye on Damon. He might get out of his restraints."
Neville nodded. "I'll do my best."
"I need to get out of here." Cho muttered to herself as she walked off from Neville. How long had they been stuck in here? Cho almost couldn't remember what things were like, maybe that was just the heat. It was addling her brain. Cho chuckled. Steamed brain. She nodded to herself. It was just the heat.
She continued down the Great Hall, half-heartedly looking into small or large rooms. They all held the same things, nothing or water. As she continued to walk, the air seemed to continue to get hotter and hotter. A few dozen steps later her robes were like wet rags upon her and she felt sweat greasily pour down her face and skin.
"There's got to be a way out of here." She muttered, wiping her face. She entered another room and looked about, it was filled with waves of steam rolling off a large pool. Cho coughed wetly. It felt like she was breathing water.
Cho pulled out her wand and pointed it at the fog. She muttered a spell and the fog suddenly condensed, water splashing to the ground and flowing along the smooth marble floor. Cho shrugged as the small tidal wave of water lapped around her ankles. She was already soaked through.
She looked around again and grinned. There was a large wooden door across the pool. Cho frowned, studying the door. The only thing was that she would have to enter the pool to get to it. Again Cho shrugged, plunging into the hip deep water and wading toward the door. The water was hot, almost scalding, but Cho ignored it and continued toward the door. She got to it and stretching as high as she could pulled open the latch.
A blast of cold air hit her and immediately Cho began shivering violently. It was freezing cold, colder than in the Tower. Cho wrapped her arms around her and squinted looking beyond the door.
It was dark. Even with the light spilling out of the Sauna, it was almost pitch black beyond the few feet the light revealed. Sighing and shivering, Cho pulled herself out of the water and into the new room. She gasped as the cold intensified. The hot water of the pool had warmed her, now it was gone and her drenched robes did nothing to keep her warm.
"L-lumos." Cho stuttered, raising her wand. The light flared and Cho was disappointed when it didn't reveal much. It looked exactly like the hall that led into the Sauna. She frowned remembering what lay in the hall outside of the Sauna. "Hopefully there's no monster in here."
The words had just left her lips when Cho heard a skittering coming from beyond the light of her wand.
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Until Next Chapter!!!