PART IV

The five heroes walked through the quiet town of Kazham.

"Wow. It is nice here." Zinkata commented.

"Yeah." Vivli sighed. Voldos was lagging behind them. "Hey! Keep up!" She cried. "Stop staring at every girl we pass!"

"It's the only reason I'm here." The elvaan protested. A mithra wondered past them, taking a double take at the five, looking over the new comers. "Did you see that?" Voldos cried. "She was checking me out! I'll be right back!" The elvaan disappeared, running after her. Vivli sighed.

"So, what's the plan Viv?" Zinkata asked.

"I figured we'd go talk to the chieftainess. She'd know if my parents are from around here." Vivli explained. Olose laughed nervously.

"That might not be such a good idea." Olose told her.
"What? Why?" Vivli snapped.

"The mithra around here-" He stopped, trying to think of the right way to explain it. "They aren't that fond of mainland mithra."

"So? If I'm right, I came from here anyway." Vivli pointed out.

"They hate mithra that left even more." Olose explained.

"Well, it was hardly my fault." Vivli shrugged. "I got kidnapped when I was a baby!" She paused. "I'm sure they'll be reasonable." Olose let out a heavy sigh.

The four (since they were now minus Voldos) arrived, after asking for some directions, at the Chieftainess's hut. Two mithran guards simply crossed their spears, blocking entrance. They said nothing.

"Excuse me?" Vivli asked softly. "I need to speak to the chieftainess."

"Aw, isn't it cute? The little city mithrrrrra talks." One guard laughed to another.

"Let's just get rrrrrid of her." The second said, pushing Vivli back with one hand. Vivli fell to the floor with a thud.

"Ow." She whined.

"I like these guards." Bootus remarked. Olose turned to the guards.

"Come on, ladies, let her through." He said to them.

"Olose Sampson." One purred. "You'rrrre back."

"That I am. Vivli here is a friend. She wants to see the chieftainess. She's searching for her parents. Seems they came from here. Not that hard to let her through, is it?" He set out the case in the hope it would make the guards yield.

"I guess not." The guard muttered, pulling back her spear. "You can go thrrrrough." Olose turned around, giving Vivli a hand to her feet.

"Urm. Thanks." She muttered shyly.

"I don't think you're going to be thanking me." Olose warned. Vivli gave him a confused look and walked on in.

More mithra scowled at her, clearly failing to recognise her and therefore knowing she was from the mainland. She gulped and walked up to the chieftainess, a tall mithra with an impressive looking headpiece.

"Urm, excuse me?" She said, nervous. She was very put off by the stares of the others. They pretty much ignored Bootus, Zinkata and Olose.

"What do you want?" The chieftainess snapped.

"My name's Vivli-" Vivli began.

"I didn't ask yourrrrrrr name. I asked what you wanted." Came the angry interruption.

"Well, the thing is, I think I was born here." Vivli explained. "But I don't know who my parents were."

"You left, it was yourrrr decision." The chieftainess sounded very impatient.

"I didn't choose!" Vivli cried in desperation. "I was kidnapped as a child."

"Hm. Vivli?" The chieftainess pondered. "I will not assist you, unless you prove you are a citizen of Kazham."

"How can I do that?" Vivli asked.
"Here it comes." Sighed Olose.

"We do have a trial for cases of people who wish to rejoin. Trials to test them as a mithran huntress." Vivli gulped.

"What does this entail?" She asked nervously.

"Intelligence is an import aspect." The Chieftainess told the little mithra. "That is one stage."

"That I can do." Vivli whimpered, getting more nervous.

"The second is courage." The next came out.

"I should be able to handle that." She gulped, knowing she wasn't exactly courageous.

"The third is strength."

"Uh oh."

Bootus pounded forwards, pushing Vivli aside. For one misguided moment, she thought he was going to defend her.

"Can I watch?" Bootus begged. "Please? This may be the funniest thing to see in the world!" The mithra Chieftainess chuckled.

"Of courrrrse." She said. "The trial takes place within a large cave. A walkway has been constructed overhead so we may watch the participant. Your job is simple. You must enter the cave, and pass through three rooms. At the end of reach room, there is a door which you must discover how to open, which will test one of the chosen aspects." Vivli nervously squirmed.

"Maybe we should just ask around." She whimpered.

"Told you you wouldn't like it." Olose said with a sigh.
"If you are not woman enough to take the test, back down." The chieftainess told her. "And never show yourrrrr face around these parrrrrts again." Vivli cursed to herself.

They were led by a small group of mithra guards (and the chieftainess of course) to a small dark cave. Vivli cursed again.

"I hate caves." She grumbled.

"Aw, she's scarrrred." One of the guards mocked.

"Little city girl can't live up to ourrrr challenge." Another said.

"Ha. Knew those mainland mithrrrra werrrre no match for us." Yet another purred.

"Oh, shut up!" Vivli cried, turning around to them all.

"Prrroceed." Ordered the chieftainess. Vivli took a deep breath and stepped in. "Follow me." She said as she turned to the others. "I'll take you to the balcony overrrrlooking the trial."

Zinkata leant against the bamboo railing, looking down into the cave.

"This seems an impressive construction for such a rarely used thing." Zinkata remarked.

"Oh, we use it to trrrrrrrrain our troops." The chieftainess explained. "This is just a side feature. A lot of the technology for the mechanical doors we had galka from Bastok help us with."

"Yeah, we are pretty great." Bootus remarked with a smile.

The cave within was sufficiently lighted, which Vivli was glad of. She wasn't too good when it came to the dark. The stone room was empty apart from multiple levers. The door had a triangle, a square and a circle over it. She walked up to the door. It was rusty metal, and wouldn't open. She walked back, and pulled a lever. The square moved around like a casino slot machine to a star. The circle moved to a square. She paused in confusion, and then looked up. On the ceiling was a triangle, a star and a circle. She guessed she had to pull the right sequence of levers to match the images above the door with the ones on the ceiling.

Zinkata turned away from the puzzle below, and looked along the walkway. The walkway disappeared into a small alcove in the wall the door Vivli had to get through was in. On the other side was blackness.

"What's through there?" The warrior asked.

"Courrrrage." Answered the chieftainess. "A bit of a weak challenge really, most people pass it easily."

"How come?" Bootus asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

"We just used stereotypical fears. A darrrrrkened room full of spiderrrrrrs. But most people arrrrren't scarrrrred by things like that so it doesn't actually worrrrrk. We've been considerrrring rrrrreplacing it." The chieftainess explained. Zinkata and Bootus glanced to each other.

"I think she's going to have some problems."

The door opened for Vivli finally, after she had finally figured out the right combination. She walked into the darkness, her entire body tensed. She could feel something crawling around her feet.
"To open the doorrrr, find the button on the floor that opens it." The chieftainess called down. Vivli cautiously bent down and put her hands on the floor, feeling the spiders. She screamed and reeled back. She turned to run out of the room in fear, but the metal door crashed down. "You cannot show courrrrrage if you run away." The voice from above came. Vivli panicked, not thinking through her fear logically. She ran through the darkness, and tripped, feeling the tiny creatures climbing all over her. She screamed again, pulling off her robe and flinging it on the floor (luckily she was wearing something underneath). She stumbled back, falling over again. This time she heard a click and the door at the end opened. She bolted for it, and dove out of it, screaming and trying desperately to get spiders off of her.

"Hey! Viv!" Bootus called down from above. "You've got one in your hair."

"ARGH! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!" She started to scream, trying desperately to get rid of it. Bootus roared in laughter.

"This is the most entertaining thing ever." He beamed.

"Shame she made it by pot luck." Growled the chieftainess.

Vivli surveyed the room she was in now. There were two pedestals. On one, there was what appeared to be a fairly large weight. On the other, there was a pressure pad. It was obvious what she had to do, carry the weight to the pressure pad. The four observers above strolled in.

"This one is too easy also." The chieftainess told Bootus, Zinkata and Olose. "The weight is too light to really test strength. It has to accommodate for soldiers in training."

"Why don't you just get different weights for each trial?" Zinkata suggested.

"Good idea." Remarked the chieftainess.

"Don't suggest ways to make this harder!" Vivli called from the bottom of the cave. She grabbed hold of the weight, and tried to lift it. "Sweet Chaos, this thing's heavy!" She remarked. She heard a laugh from above. "Bootus! Shut up!" She cried.

Vivli tried to lift the weight, but in the end her hands slipped from it and she fell over backwards. She sprang to her feet, and pondered her predicament. She was struck by an idea, and pushed the weight with all of her effort. It slid, and fell off the pedestal, crashing down with a loud thud. She then proceeded to try and drag it across the rough ground, but failed. She went back to trying to lift it, but failed at this as well. It was far too heavy for her small frame.

"I thought you said it was light." Olose remarked.

"It is." Replied the chieftainess.

"She is exceptionally weak." Bootus pointed out.

"I heard that!" Vivli snapped from the ground. "Don't make me come up there!" Vivli stopped to ponder. Come up there? All I have to do is reach the end. She never said through the doors. She suddenly clicked her fingers in an idea. She went to take her staff off of her belt, before remembering her belt was on her robe that was back in the previous room. She stared into the darkness, and took a deep breath, running in, screaming in fear.

She dove to the floor, feeling around for the robe, screaming in horror all the time. She sprinted back out, panting, carrying her spider covered robe. She unclipped the belt (with her staff connected) and threw the robe to the ground, stomping on it.

"Now you really do have one in your hair." Bootus cried down.

"I'm not falling for that!" Vivli yelled back, putting her hand up to her head, and feeling a big spider. She shrieked, pulling it out. She took a couple of deep breaths to try and reassure herself, before putting her belt on and unclipping the staff. She could still feel spiders crawling over her skin, even though they were gone. She held onto the paddle, and swung it, throwing it upwards. It wrapped around the bamboo railing, leaving the rope she had attached it to her belt with hanging down. She smiled, and began to climb up.

This wasn't as easy as she thought it would be, but after a few attempts she made it.

"You can't do that!" The chieftainess called as she casually walked along the walkway. "That's cheating!"

"You said I had to reach the end, and that's all." She walked into the final room with a smile.

Back in the hut, Vivli stood proudly before the chieftainess.

"You did it in an unorrrrthodox way, but you made it." She told the white mage.

"Can you tell me what happened to my parents now?" Vivli asked.

"I will try to find out." The chieftainess promised. "In the meantime, I suggest you rest."

"I have to go." Olose told her.
"Come back, right?" Vivli said for confirmation.

"Ha. I will." Olose smiled and walked away.

"Come on!" Bootus snapped. "Let's go." He was clearly not happy that Vivli had passed the test.

"You may want to wash first." The chieftainess suggested with a smile. "I can see a large spider on your back." Vivli screamed in absolute terror, and the entire room fell into laughter.

She was unimpressed.