Chapter 2: The Temple of Trials

There was no going back. Faand had taught Kailail martial arts as much as he could within the day. She was a fast learner. After four hours, Faand was on the ground looking up. There was actually hope for her.

The path behind them was blocked by an Arroyo warrior and the path in front was their destiny. Faand and Kailail walked up the stairs of the temple and went in.

The first thing they saw was a couple of ants, really, really, big ones at that. They tried to sneak past them, but they soon found themselves being bitten by the ants. Faand pulled out his spear and jabbed it at the ant, missing the first two times. They both paused and Faand jabbed the spear into the ant's neck. He looked at Kail and saw that she had already pulled the ant's head off.

"Good work!"

"Thanks, Faand!"

The next few rooms had some more ants that they disposed of quickly. Kailail wandered into another room for more supplies and saw two small Radscorpions. They quickly spotted her and charged. Faand found her fighting them after disposing a hall full of them and raiding another room. She had screamed and Faand came running in.

"I've been stung! Ouch, this hurts, Faand…"

"Hold on!" he told her. She backed away next to Faand and he threw a spear into both creatures.

"Are you alright?"

"They stung me, three times. Ow, this hurts."

"Alright, alright. I'm not a doctor. Oh, what do I do? Okay, calm down, Faand. Here, Kail, use this healing powder and apply it to the stings. I think that's what you do. I'll go on ahead and find something."

"Thanks, Faand, you're a real friend."

"Use this spear if you encounter any bugs, alright?"

"Yeah, I'll try."

Faand left the room. In the next corridor he stepped on a bunch of raised platforms and barely dodged them all. There were a couple more ants here and a pot with a plastic explosive. He raided the next side-room and found an antidote and another bag of healing power. He returned to Kailail with everything he had found in the next few corridors.

"Here, when I got stung by a Scorpion, Hakunin gave me this to cure the poison."

"I actually have one of these in my stash!" she commented before drinking it.

"Augh, awful stuff. Come on, let's go," she said after chugging it down. She got up from her resting position and followed Faand. They got to the door and found that this one was just a wall. Kailail knocked on it to find that there was a room on the other side. Faand pulled out his plastic explosive and their eyes met and nodded. After a half hour of fiddling with his, he finally got it to tick. They ran as fast as they could and watched from behind the walls. After about forty-five seconds it went off. There was indeed another hall in front of them. But to their surprise no bugs were in their path. They then saw the end of the Temple. They ran to it, happy to finally be rid of the place. They were almost there when an Arroyo warrior walked into their path. They stopped.

"What's going on?" Kailail asked.

"I am your final test. I will fight one of you. Not to the death, of course. You must beat me to pass with our fists and feet," the warrior replied.

"Why without weapons?" Faand asked.

"Because when you fight with just your body, it's more personal. The weapon put distance between you and your foe. Close-up fighting is more personal and you will gain more from it than destroying you opponent from a distance," he explained. Faand nodded.

"I'll fight you then."

"Give your weapons to Kail so you won't pull them out."

"Very well," Faand said. He handed his equipment to Kail, who gladly held onto them. Faand shook his arms and got into stance. His hands were close to his face and he was ready to defend or strike. The warrior was less protective of himself. He charged at Faand with his fist up. Better for a powerful strike, but easy to deflect. When he was close enough, Faand ducked and tripped the warrior. Faand kicked the warrior on his chest three times before Faand was tripped himself. They got up at the same time. They went into the ready position. Faand reached out and hit his foe square in the face, then hit him with his left hand across the face, followed by a swift kick to his side.

"You're fast!" the warrior commented.

"Thank you."

That was just the distraction the warrior needed. He kicked Faand square in the chest. While Faand was flying back, the warrior punched Faand in the face. Faand was slammed against a pillar. Faand was quick to recover, but the warrior was already on him. Faand gave him a right-hook and then an uppercut with his left. The warrior was on his back again.

"Very good, Faand, you fight very well. I am beaten. You may pass," the warrior said.

Faand nodded and took back his things from Kailail. He took out a bag of healing powder and handed it to the warrior.

"You'll need this. You hit really hard, but you're not quick enough, nor do you defend well. Fix those things and you'll be better than me."

"I'll take that to heart, Faand."

Kail and Faand went into the inner chamber and looked at the shrines. One was designed for a man slightly larger than Faand. The other suit was just Kailail's size. The elder had led them to this chamber to teach them of the Vault Dwellers through the back way, which was just ahead. They looked on these suits and their Pip-Boys as a holy artifact. And now they were theirs. Faand changed into his suit. It was big on him, short on the legs and baggy on the chest. Kailail giggled. Faand looked at her and noticed she was shirtless. He looked away and blushed. He looked back and she was dressed. It was perfect fit.

"You look absolutely wonderful, Kailail," Faand commented.

"And you look like you were shrunken!" she replied, giggling. They went out the back way and back to the village.

"You have survive and passed. You are ready to go on," the elder told them when they returned,

"First you should find Vic, the trader. He gave us these flasks from the Holy Thirteen. Find him and he should point you out to the Vault. You can find him in Klamath to the south. Here, take this flask. You may need it. Also, people outside of the village use something they call muh-neey to trade with. Take this." The elder handed the Flask and the money to Faand.

"Find the Holy Thirteen and get the Holy GECK. You must save the village. Will you set out tomorrow?"

"Yes, we'll rest up and leave tomorrow."

"Good. DO not fail us, Kailail and Faand. Or there won't be a village to return from exile from."

"We understand," Kailail said.

They left the tent and stretched.

"I'm going to go see Hakunin. He said he had something for me. Don't get yourself into trouble, alright?"

"I won't. Not much anyways."

He laughed and turned for Hakunin, the village's shaman. He was an old man with a skull painted on his face and bone necklaces and a bone headdress.

"Healer, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Chosen One. There are plants in my garden; evil ones. I am too weak to remove them myself. Would you please remove them?"

"Of course I will, Healer."

"Thank you, Chosen One."

Faand went behind Hakunin's tent to his garden. He saw two large Spore plants, a common nuisance. They had the ability to move around and even bite, like a mutated Venus fly trap. Worst of all they ate other plants. Faand crept up to one plant and grabbed it, pulling and twisting as it resisted. It clamped onto his arm, digging into his skin. He pulled it out of the ground and threw it. It twitched and tried to re-root, but the soil was too rocky. The other plant was spitting spores at him, which hurt at close range. Faand raised his spear and threw it at the plant, hitting it in the head and killing it. He retrieved his spear and returned to Hakunin.

"Is it done?"

"Yes, the plants are dead. Your garden is no longer haunted by the evil spirits.

"Thank you. Here, let me heal that wound."

Hakunin cleaned and wrapped the bite, which wasn't very deep at all, but Spore Plants sometimes carried poisons. It was best that it was cleaned.

"Take this Healing Powder. And if you ever need more, bring me some Xander Root and a Broc Flower and I will make you some more."

"Thank you, Healer."

"A blessing on your journey, Chosen One."

Faand left the tent and looked around. He spotted Nagor, but didn't see his dog, Smoke.

"Nander, where's Smoke?" Faand asked.

"Oh, the stupid mutt took off again. I'm keeping him on a rope from now on!"

"I'll get him for you. Where did you lose him?"

"He's in the hunting grounds. I would go there myself but that acid burns. I'm still recovering from trying!"

"I'll find him for you, Nagor."

"Oh, thank you, Faand."

Faand went into the hunting and gathering grounds. Xander Roots were found here, as were geckos, whose pelts could be traded for a lot. But Faand didn't think fighting geckos was a good idea; they were three-foot tall, were incredibly cute, and had a nasty bite. But the ones around Arroyo were pretty docile. There hadn't been an attack from a gecko in years. In fact, some children actually played with them, so long as there was an adult around

Faand had been in the hunting grounds dozens of times, whether it to play with the geckos or kill them. They were used to him. They knew that humans were only dangerous in groups. Faand followed the trail, passing several of the lizards by. Xander roots were scattered all over the place, but Faand didn't bother gathering them, he had plenty of healing powder. He saw the acid spill ahead. They didn't know where it came from, but that didn't matter. It was green, painful, and all over the place. He avoided the puddles and crossed a beam. He heard Smoke barking, playing with a Gecko.

"Smoke! Come here Smoke! Here, boy!" Faand called out. Smoke stopped looked at him, and continued playing.

"SMOKE! Get over here!"

The dog ignored him. He kept on playing, getting rougher and rougher until he bit the gecko. The creature became infuriated and called out.

"SMOKE!"

The dog ducked tailed and headed right for Faand. Faand ran as fast as he could with smoke at his heels away from the hunting grounds. He looked behind his shoulder and saw they were being perused by three geckos now. He looked in front and noticed another charging him. He pulled out his spear and kept charging. When it was in range, he jabbed the weapon into its head, killing it. The geckos gave up their chase. Smoke barked in appreciating and headed right for Nagor.

"Oh, thank you, Faand! I'm so happy you found Smoke. Bad dog, Smoke, you come when I call you!"

"I had that problem with that, too. You might want to train him some more, Nagor."

"I'll do that. Thanks, Faand. Here, take my spear. I sharpened it earlier today and I don't need it."

"Thank you, Nagor! This will come in handy."

Faand went down into the village. People were hard at work trying to grow as many plants as they could. There was a small crowd around the well. He could see that Kailail was trying to fix it. The people cheered when she brought up a bucket of water successfully. She patted Fergus, Faand's cousin, on the head and said,

"Nice try. Keep practicing at fixing things, alright? Then you can make all sorts of wells!"

"Hehe. Will do, Kailail!"

The crowd dispersed. Kailail looked at Faand and smiled.

"So what have you been doing?" she asked.

"Weeding Hakunin's garden and saved Nagor's dog."

"Again?"

"And I got chased by geckos again, too. What about you?"

"I got a bunch of the warriors to teach me more martial arts and how to use a spear. Then I fixed the well. I am beat."

"It is starting to get dark. I'll start tonight's fire."

"Too late. A bunch of warriors saw you running from the Geckos and killed them all. We're having gecko tonight. It's already being prepared, in fact."

"Good. Can't save our village on an empty stomach!"