Shadows of Anarchy
Ryou blinked at Molly's question, reaching up a hand to idly touch the makeshift bandage around his head and examine the young woman's work while he looked around and answered honestly, "I have no idea…" although, the two obelisks on either side of the bonfire/torch did look rather familiar to him for some reason…
His head throbbed, cutting through that line of thought and causing him to wince as he lowered his hand from where it had been prodding the bandage. For some reason, the thought that it was going to be hell getting the dried blood out of his hair ran clearly through his mind, and he made a face at the random thought.
Thanks to his experience with food fights in high school and misadventures with various paints when he'd been a child, he was very aware that his hair was incredibly susceptible to coloring.
The former holder of the Ring shook his head minutely when Molly turned to look around the sand-colored building, and he found himself praying for an aspirin or an ice pack, either one would work. Sadly, it didn't look like he would get either one anytime soon (especially the ice, seeing as it looked like they were stuck in a desert) so he would just have to bear with it until the pain in his head died down.
Ryou blinked when a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he tried to discretely turn his head towards it. Unfortunately, the wound on his temple chose that moment to protest the movement quite vehemently, and so he winced, one eye closing unconsciously, for a minute before he looked back towards where he'd seen the flicker.
There was nothing there, not that he'd really expected there to be.
He resisted the urge to groan and instead looked back at Molly, who had turned in a complete circle in the time it had taken him to turn his head to the side, and asked her, speaking softly to avoid rousing his headache even further, "Excuse me, why were those…trolls chasing you?"
Idly scratching the side of his face, he grimaced when some of the dried blood flaked off, feeling an itching and pulling sensation on the side of his face. He found himself longing for a shower, but he forcefully pushed the dried blood from his mind and focused on the blonde woman as she started to speak, looking rather awkward as she did so, "Well, you see, I was taking a walk when they jumped me, but luckily-"
Ryou interrupted her and finished the sentence, "You were able to throw fire and get away until the giant fireball came out of nowhere?" He noticed that Molly flinched at the mention of her throwing fireballs, and he had to wonder about that reaction. Although, given how he was used to keeping his own residual powers secret, he could understand the inclination.
The blue-eyed blonde laughed nervously as she spoke, apparently trying to cover something up, "Yeah, well, that was a pretty cool trick, huh? My teacher's a magician and he taught me all sorts of neat tricks of the trade."
Ryou didn't know if it was his experience in bending the truth to explain certain bruises from 'accidents' or all those years he spent bargaining with the spirit of the Ring, but he had the feeling that Molly Carpenter wasn't telling the entire truth. As it was, however, now wasn't the time to call her on it.
What it was time for was finding some clue as to where the hell they had ended up and what the weird shadow he remembered from before he passed out had to do with it.
The whitette nodded, deciding to let Molly get away with her omission for the moment, and instead asked, "I know for certain that it was night time when I stumbled upon that fight, but do you have a watch or a phone so we know what time it is now?" He himself never wore a watch, and he knew for a fact that he'd left his own cell phone in his room, because hey, he'd just been going down the block for ten minutes to get something to eat!
He was now seriously regretting that decision.
Molly's heartbeat had yet to calm down from the scare she had gotten when Bakura had mentioned her powers, and she still half-expected a sword-wielding Warden to show up out of nowhere to behead her. With the Doom of Damocles hanging over her head along with Harry's, even the slightest hint of her breaking one of the Laws of Magic set down by the White Council could result in her execution, so she had to toe a very fine line about what she said or did regarding magic.
Of course, the council would have had to find out about her bending the truth before they could order her execution and with the Doom over her head, because Harry was her teacher it would fall to him to carry out her sentence, which was not something she ever wanted to put her mentor through.
When Bakura mentioned finding out what time it was, she shook her head sadly, lying through her teeth as she told the other woman, "Sorry, my watch strap broke earlier this week and I haven't got it fixed yet, and I left my phone at my house, so no to both questions." Well, at least the watch part was true…
As a wizard, technology tended to go wonky around her, though not to the extent it did her mentor. Harry could short out a Bluetooth by looking at it funny from a yard away.
The other woman looked at her strangely, and Molly felt sweat slide down the back of her neck before the whitette asked, "You left your phone at home? When you didn't know how long your walk would be or where you would be going? Doesn't that seem rather dangerous?" That was actually a very good point, and the apprentice wizard actually had to take a moment to think of an answer.
Sadly, her great comeback turned out to be a simple shrug, and if they were in an anime, Molly could have sworn that Bakura would have sweatdropped right then.
Molly looked around once more before pushing herself to her feet and holding out a hand to help Bakura to hers. She smiled at the other woman as she helped the whitette to her feet, and she asked confidently, trying to seem more in control than she was, "Well, what do you say we go exploring? There's got to be something around here that could give us a clue about where we are…"
The blonde privately hoped that the answer wasn't anything that she would have explain to Bakura using the words 'magic' or 'wizardry' at some point.
She let go of Bakura's hand once the other woman seemed steady on her feet and then started walking away from the two obelisks, thinking that maybe there were more rooms in the palace-like building, hearing the whitette's soft footsteps behind her. She hoped that, if there were other rooms, that one of them would be a library where they could hopefully find a map and thus have a general idea of where the heck they were.
Judging from the style of the building and the intensity of the sunlight, she was guessing somewhere that got really, really hot. And that did not sound like it was a good thing for an extended visit for the unprepared (namely her and Bakura) by any stretch of the imagination.
A faint crinkling sound reached her ears, and Molly turned curiously. Her eyes landed on the fast food bag Bakura was holding (the logo said it was from McDonalds) and she raised her eyebrows while the other woman looked a bit embarrassed.
"Didn't I tell you? I was on my way back from getting a late-night snack when I stumbled upon your fight with the trolls…" She hefted the take-out bag for emphasis.
Molly sighed, smiling ruefully as she commented, "Well, at least we have something to eat later." She grinned when Bakura chuckled, glad that the other woman's mood was lifting. She was still worried about the whitette's head injury, though she was relieved that it didn't seem like Bakura had a concussion, thankfully.
It was around ten minutes later, though the apprentice was only guessing about the amount of time, that Molly was about ready to give up the search until nighttime. She had been fine when they had started searching (she had found what looked like a lounge and a cupboard, and Bakura had found three bedrooms with actual beds) but now the heat was starting to get to her, and she didn't even want to think about it was affecting Bakura, especially since the other woman was injured and thus shouldn't exert herself.
"You know, we should probably find some place cool and rest for a while…" She actually panted, which she hoped Harry never found out about because having to rest after just ten minutes? In one word: embarrassing.
Bakura just nodded, and that was all the agreement that Molly needed.
It only took four minutes for them to get back to the lounge that the blue-eyed woman had found, and they both breathed a sigh of relief when they stepped into the room, both feeling the noticeable difference in temperature and enjoying the cooler air inside the lounge.
The room was large and spacious with a high ceiling, and it was sunken down slightly, Molly guessed that was to keep it cooler than the outside. The walls, floor, and columns set against the walls were the same sandy color as the room where she and Bakura had woken up had been, though the hieroglyphics were definitely different. There were low couches with crimson-hued cushions scattered around the center of the room, which was again lower than the other parts of the room, and there were brightly colored rugs scattered around.
Molly couldn't make out any specific designs, but the entire room definitely had a very 'Egyptian' feel to it.
The apprentice wizard couldn't make heads or tails of what the hieroglyphics said, but she really, really hoped that it wasn't something like 'a curse upon those who dare to sit upon the sacred couches' or anything along those lines.
The blonde and the whitette quickly sat down, and Bakura wordlessly pulled open his take-out bag and withdrew a bottle of Diet Coke and a cold hamburger.
At the moment that food looked like a feast to Molly.
The next fifteen minutes or so were spent silently eating the McDonald's take-out, as both of them wondered where the hell they were and what they were going to do when they got hungry again…
Author's Note: Apologies for the poor room description, but the image in my head didn't translate that well onto the Word document…And yes, the gender misunderstanding continues! I don't really know when I'll clear that one up, maybe in a few chapters or so. Please R&R and tell me what you think! As always, constructive criticism is welcome!