The next morning, Lily was up well before Malroth who was still sleeping off the effects of alcohol and Tiny's sleeping spell. She had been asked by Digby to build a nice quite place for them to go into and relax when they were stressed out. She wiped her gloves off on her dress as she stepped back, looking at the skeleton of the room. Malroth slowly trudged up to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and nuzzling his face against her neck. He mumbled something, but Lily couldn't understand his sleepy voice.
She turned in his arms, kissing the side of his face. "You could go back to sleep you know."
"I know." He looked at the room she was building, seeing two beds on the inside. "What's this supposed to be?"
"A relaxing room. I don't know why Digby wanted it, it's not like he does anything up here, but he asked for it." Lily shrugged and went back to work, finishing up the last few details of the room. She let out a sharp gasp when the ground shook beneath her, nearly causing her to drop the vase she was placing. She whirled around, staring at Malroth who was at full attention now.
"Monsters." He turned to her, wanting to tuck her under his arm and stow her away somewhere that she would be safe. But he knew she would want to fight; she would fight him if it meant getting to fight. "It's barely been a week since they last attacked, they're coming more frequently now."
"They have to, we've gotten Goldi up to a Silver Golem and we've gotta be getting close to gold now." Lily ran out of the room with Malroth next to her, the two jumped down the stairs, seeing everyone had gathered in the square, awaiting what Lily and Malroth had to say.
"Does everyone have weapons?" Malroth turned to Lily, eyes dark with hunger for a hard battle.
"Everyone that knows how to wield a blade, yes." Lily looked around, seeing fear in everyone's eyes. "Those that can't fight, hide in the smithy, the iron is too strong for their stone weapons to break through. Those that can fight-"
Malroth and Lily spoke in almost perfect unison as they pulled out their weapons, muscles straining for a good burn. "no one goes down."
Lily and Malroth were the first ones to jump into battle as soon as the monsters rounded the corner. Goldi and Babs worked together with ease, Babs bouncing and jumping off of Goldi to land harder hits on the monsters as Goldi slammed fists into the bigger ones that showed up.
Lily looked over, she was able to sense Malroth's power, it was making the air thick with the need to destroy everything that stood in his path. And then she saw it, the moment it his power peaked. "Mal!"
Malroth turned when he heard her call out to him, he leaned forward, lacing his fingers in front of him to help push her up. He tensed as she ran at him, jumped then her foot hit his hands and he swung up, sending her into a graceful arch over the monsters. "Babs! Magrog! Watch out!"
The two fighters looked up, seeing Lily twisting midair, hammer raised above her. The two let out surprised noises when Goldi scooped them up and out of harms way as Lily brought her hammer down in the middle of the group of monsters, Malroth landing on the top of the hammer. The wave of sheer force and power was enough to make Goldirox stumble and to push the miners that were fighting to their asses. But when everyone looked up, there were no more monsters. "Holy… shit." Magrog climbed down from Goldirox, staring at the two in awe. "Malroth… Lily… I didn't think-"
Malroth and Lily looked over, the two were almost glowing with the energy that flowed through them. Babs jumped from Goldi's arms and ran over to Lily, hugging the builder. "That was quite the 'it, Lil! Those monsters will think twice before comin' back 'ere again!" She laughed and waved an arm to Goldi, drawing Lily's attention to the golem. "I meant to find you when you was buildin', but then the monsters attacked. Goldi 'as somethin' to say!"
"RIGHT. POWER COMING BACK. MEMORY WITH IT. ME HAVE THIS. GIVE TO LILY." Goldi, as if out of thin air, produced half of an ocarina. "THAT VERY IMPORTANT THING ME GIVE YOU. ME REMEMBER NOW. NEED FIND OTHER HALF. MAKE FLUTE OF LEGEND. FIND WHAT SEEK."
Babs crossed her arms, put her thumb against her chin. "Find wot we seek? I think I understand. If we use that flute, then maybe we can find some gold, Lily!"
Lily stared down at the blue ocarina in her hands, thinking for a moment. "Ordelia, do you know how to find that Temple? The one from the legends?"
Ordelia came running over, eyes sparkling and a grand smile on her thin lips. "We knows lots of thingies about the mine! When you live in a place like that for so long you hear things. Not voices! Stories! And we hear that its temple is very deep underground!"
"Deep underground?" Dougie came running up to them, looking between the two women. "I fink I know exactly the place ya mean! C'mon, Lily! Malroff! Let's go!"
Lily, Malroth and Dougie all stared up at the wall of rock that loomed over them. Lily looked at Dougie, tipping her head at him. "You're sure?"
"Positive! My muscles are a' achin'!"
Lily shrugged and pulled her hammer back over her head, slamming the hammer down and blowing out a good chunk of the wall. Two more hits and the wall had a nice large hole in it. She turned and smiled at the two guys. "C'mon! I see a light up ahead!"
"A light? Isn't this place supposed to be from legends? Like… really, really fuckin' old?" Malroth trotted after Lily, taking out a Funghoul with one swing of his axe as they ran towards the light. He glanced back though, seeing Dougie was a little more cautious than Malroth and Lily were. "C'mon, Dougie! Let's go!"
"Oh… I don't… I don't know abaht all this you guys." Dougie whimpered only to let out a small scream when Lily stopped dead in her tracks, a wild breath of surprise leaving her. "W-W-Wot?! Why's ya makin' a noise like that!?"
Lily was frozen in place, ogling the heavenly sight before her. Just down the rocky incline was a temple so large it made her heart race. "Dougie… who built this…?"
"Eh? I don't fink I e'er said. I's said to be built by a builder, like you, that came 'ere long ago. Eons ago. They say an 'uge earfquake buried it down 'ere." Dougie peeked around the corner, a soft noise leaving him as he looked down at the pillars and the dark bricks that lined the building. Fire burned in almost all of the braziers and scones that were placed on and around the temple. The trio could see some of the main hall, but not what was in it. "I-I-I-I fi-fi-fink I'll ju-just stay… b-b-b-back 'ere… fix up… the erm… the entrance…" Dougie squeaked as he cowered back against the wall.
"This place is enormous…" Malroth whispered as he carefully picked his way down the incline, being careful of the loose rocks.
"That's fine, Dougie. We'll work through the temple as fast as we can then come back and get you before we go to the upside, okay?" Lily watched the man nod quickly before he took off towards where they entered this tunnel. She shrugged and laughed before carefully following after Malroth.
When the two got down, Lily put her hand against the Naviglobe that was sitting in front of the temple. She looked over at Malroth, smiling the biggest smile she'd ever managed. "Mal, this place… It's insane!"
Malroth laughed as he trotted ahead of Lily, eyes nearly bugging out of his head. "Lily! Come check this out!" He pointed into the main hall from where he stood on the threshold.
Lily put her hand on the bricks, feeling a magic thrum through her arm and then through her whole body. "The builders magic… it still protects this place." She looked to Malroth before running up to him, gaping in awe at the main hall. "Woah…"
"I'll bet this place is full of secret rooms and deadly traps… This is going to be so much fun! Hm? Hey, does it look like two statues are missing to you?"
Lily looked at where Malroth was pointing, there were two large statues sitting on either side of the hall with one missing on each side. "Yeah… but where do we g-"
"I saw two doors back up here!" Malroth grabbed her hand, eagerly yanking her back up to the entrance and looking at both doors, seeing one was locked with a golden lock while the other wasn't. "This way!"
Lily couldn't help her laughter; it seemed like dungeon diving was his cup of tea. She followed him, lacing her fingers with his as they came into a room with a puzzle in the middle. She slowly dropped his hand, looking over the thing at her feet. She could hear Malroth reading the sign next to the chest behind her, but she didn't pay him any mind as she pushed one of the red tiles next to her. She jumped out of the way as the read box slid towards it. "Figured it out!"
Malroth stopped reading and watched her run around the small pit, pushing various red tiles, the red block slid to each one she pushed until it landed on the blue tile on the floor. Magic washed over both of them and suddenly the chest had changed from the dark blue with a skull on it to a brilliant red with a normal latch. "Hey!" He kicked it open, seeing a key in it. "Here we go, Lily." He tossed her the key, following her over to the door on the opposite side that they came in.
The hall they ran into had three drackmages at the end. He looked to Lily, grinning as they ran at the little green monsters easily taking them out within a few swings. Malroth looked to his left and then to his right, seeing a room with three chests in it to their left and more hallway to their right. "Treasure!" He purred as he grabbed the bottom of the iron gate, slamming it up and listening to it groan from the force he used.
Lily rolled her eyes and followed him into the room. She went up to the chest on the left and opened it, pulling out some bars of copper. Then she moved on to the one in the middle, but before her fingers even grazed the box it opened, large sharp teeth snapped at her hand as two eyes stared at her. "Lily, drop!" She let out a scream and did as Malroth told her to do, dropping down to her belly as an axe went flying over her head.
It slammed into the mimic's mouth, pinning it to the wall behind it. Malroth ran up, yanking his axe free and slamming it down into the mimic again, watching as the chest turned into a small plume of black smoke. "Well, guess we gotta be careful of chests now." He laughed and turned back to Lily, helping her up from where she had dropped. "Nice drop."
She gave him a look that sent him into a fit of laughter. "Stupid chests." She walked over to the last one, giving it a hard kick and watching as it popped open. Five bars of silver hidden within. "Not a mimic."
The two moved out of the room and down the hall, another barred door to their right. Lily waited for Malroth to force it open, the rust screaming as it broke away and the door lifted. She followed him in, seeing another puzzle with a fountain in the middle. As Malroth went to read the sign, she started working on the red tiles to get the red block onto the blue tile.
After walking around, she saw what she needed to do. She placed a few blocks of sand to stop the red block from going too far in the direction she wanted before she ran around, hitting red tiles until the block was perched on blue.
Malroth ran over to the chest, kicking it open and grabbing the key. The two moved on, a scorpion was to their left, protecting a door with more hallway to their right. Malroth, all too eager to fight, ran at the scorpion. He didn't give Lily the chance to fight as she ran up and started pulling up on the door. Once she got it up, she ran in and kicked the chest; bouncing away in case it turned into a mimic. When it didn't, she glanced down into it, seeing music sheets in the bottom. "Do we have anyone who plays music?" She looked up when Malroth spoke, seeing he was walking around inspecting the room.
"Not that I know of, but I have an instrument I thought of that will play music by reading it."
"Wha- how?"
Lily laughed at his confusion. "I'll show you when we get back to the Isle, I haven't made it yet, but I'm really hoping that it works." She led the way out of the room and down the hall. The two turned the corner and Lily missed her step – or didn't notice that half the floor was gone, crumbled to the room beneath them. She let out a cry, thankful for Malroth who had grabbed her arm and kept her from falling down. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit!"
Malroth slowly pulled Lily back away from the ledge. "Well, now we just gotta remember to not drop to our death." He chuckled, it almost sounded nervous as Lily shimmied against the wall, pushing on the section of flooring to see if it broke under the force. He followed close behind her, taking the exact path she did.
Lily frowned when they got to the middle, seeing that the path to the left looked like it would cave at any moment. She grabbed a decent sized rock and threw it at the tiles, watching several crumbled with the one she hit in a chain reaction. She looked to Malroth, then back at their option. Jumping across.
"Can't you put something together really quick to get us across?" Mal watched as she went to lay a block down, but magic repelled her. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he shuffled to the edge, hoping that the floor didn't give out beneath him. He started to jump when Lily launched by him, lets kicking and arms flailing all over. She gave a cry as she caught the ledge on the other side, her legs scrambling to get leverage to help kick herself up. "You dummy! What the hell were you thinking?!"
Malroth jumped across, rolling as he hit the other side. "Should have let me go first so this didn't happen!" He growled at her as he grabbed her arm, he shifted back onto his heels, pulling Lily up some as the tile she clung to started to crack beneath their weight. "Do you trust me?"
"What?"
"Do you trust me?!"
"Only with my life!" She whimpered as he used his free hand to punch the floor she was clinging to, watching as it gave way. He used the momentum of her dropping to swing her, his forearm hit the tile he was straddling, causing his grip to slip a little. But she squeezed his hand and wrist as he swung her up, allowing her feet to land on the edge and then scramble up. Her arms were wrapped hard around his neck as the two fell back.
Malroth purred into the kiss he received, only to tense up when she nipped at his bottom lip. He eyed her as she rolled off of him, panting as she tried to force the tears away from her eyes. "Sorry to scare you like that."
"You didn't scare me, I scared myself. I'm so dumb, I thought it was a lot closer than that." Lily let out a small chuckle that turned into a full-blown hysterical laugh. "Fuck rotting temples."
"But we haven't even gotten to the best part." Malroth moved, hovering over her for a moment before giving her a swift kiss. He got up, yanking her up with him. "C'mon, we gotta be getting close." As they rounded the corner though, three more drackmages attacked. The two danced around the crumbling floor as they engaged the drackmages, they went down easy enough and Malroth yanked the door open, pushing Lily in as more of the floor gave way.
Lily rushed in, smiling as she yanked her gloves on and lifted the statue up with ease. As soon as she did, the chest beneath glowed and changed from deep blue to bright red. Malroth kicked that one open, his axe ready for a fight in case it decided to attack, but it only opened, revealing a glittering gold key. "Huh, this one is different. Golden." He looked around, not seeing a way out other than the way that they came. He looked at Lily, frowning.
"Oh, for the love of-" She squeezed her hands on either side of it, making it shrink down enough to fit readily into her pouch that Rosie made her back on Furrowfield. She grumbled as she followed Malroth back through the maze. It was her turn to follow his exact footing, jumping easily across the gap and then shimmying along the wall. The rest of the way was easy, just running through open doors and up stairs until they made it back to the main area.
Malroth had his axe out, ready for whatever came at them as Lily pulled the statue back out and slammed it on the pedestal where it belonged. The two stood still for a few moments, but nothing happened. "Are you getting bad vibes?" Lily walked down to Malroth, her voice shaking a little as she looked around.
"No way. This is easy-peasy!" Malroth laughed as he ran over to the other door across from the first one they went in to. He easily unlocked it, looking around at the room; two doors to their left, nothing to their right. "Which one?"
"Furthest one, why not?" Lily led the way over, pushing the door up. Inside were two chest, a desire to see what was inside had her rushing, not paying attention.
Luckily for her though, Malroth was paying attention. He lashed out, grabbing the closest body part to him, which happened to be a ponytail. He yanked on it, making her squeal and stop short. "Watch where you're going! Look at the floor."
Lily looked at the floor she was about to step on, seeing that it looked weak, like it could crumble at any time. "Oh…"
Malroth grumbled and dropped a few decent sized rocks on the floor, watching it crumble under the weight. He turned to Lily, fanning his arm out. "Can you build in here?"
Lily shrugged and set a block down, smiling when she was able to fill the gaps. She quickly opened the chests, receiving acorns and other seeds from the two chests.
They left that room and headed to the next, three scorpions turned, hissing at the two of them. Lily and Malroth nodded, rushing the scorpions. Lily rolled around one, slashing at it and cutting down its' side. She looked up in time to see Malroth getting struck by one of the stingers. "Mal!"
"I'm fine!" He hissed as he grabbed the tail that was embedded in his shoulder. Dark power flared from him, enough so that Lily had to gasp for the air that was stolen from her lungs. He yanked the tail out, using it to swing the scorpion, slamming the monster into the wall next to him. Before that one could even hit the ground he was on the last one, axe embedded in its head.
Lily wasted no time as she ran over to him, forcing his jacket out of the way so she could see the damage to his shoulder. His skin was starting to turn purple as poison tried to work its way into his bloodstream. She slammed a hand into her pouch, pulling out a smaller pouch and emptying the contents of some grayish leaves and blue mushrooms into her mouth.
Malroth carefully watched her, brows raising when she spat the stuff into her palm. "Oh no you don't, that's not sanitar-!" He let out a howl as she shoved the salve onto the wound, a burning sensation screaming from his shoulder down to his torso. Before he could snap at her, she shoved her free wrist into his mouth. He grumbled around her wrist, eyes digging daggers into her as she used her other hand to press a white cloth to the wound and salve. He looked at his shoulder, watching as the cloth began to saturate with a dark liquid.
Lily held the cloth there for a few moments before using it to wipe the salve off his skin. "The medicinal leaves help to pull the toxins out while the mushroom nullifies any that's left in you. Normally we can just eat it, but that wasn't a scratch like the scorpions normally do."
Malroth watched the worry fade from her eyes as she wrapped his shoulder and pulled away. He carefully shrugged his jacket back on, a softness coming to his eyes as he touched her cheek and she leaned into his palm. "Let's stop scaring each other, hm?"
Lily laugh was quiet as she turned her head, kissing his palm. "Deal." She led him through the next door, both of them tilting their heads in curiosity as they stared at the statue in the center of the room. It had a big round head with glowing blue gems for eyes and a slender body. "Weird." Lily started to walk around it when the statue jerked and floated into the air, slamming down where she had just been had she not rolled out of the way.
Malroth slashed at the dirty dogu, only for his axe to bounce back off. He stumbled back; eyes wide. "What the hell?! Lily… my axe didn't do anything!"
Lily dropped her sword and yanked out her hammer, blocking the next attack. She watched as the stone started to crack, a smirk spread on her lips as she pulled back, taking a wild swing at the monster. The stone cracked even more, and Lily swung again, watching as the monster turned to dust. She swung her hammer around, grinning at Malroth. "Thanks to my trusty ham-" The hammer came up wrong, knocking her in the head. She dropped her hammer and gripped her head, whimpering.
Malroth fell back as he laughed, hands tight on his belly. "Yeah! That's your trusty hammer, alright!" He recovered as best he could, moving over to her and making sure she was alright. "C'mon, we need to keep moving."
Lily groaned as she followed him, taking the explosive from the first chest and the gold key from the next. She walked up to the puzzle in the middle, seeing the water that was filling the small pit. She ran up the thin set of stairs, blocking off the water from above before hoping down and blocking off the fountain. When she had the water stopped, she used her bottomless pit to gather the water before running around, strategically placing blocks of sand and pressing the red tiles she needed until the red block was sitting on the blue tile.
"Nailed it!" Malroth cheered, running over to the chest and kicking it open to get the key inside. He held it up as Lily ran by, snagging it from him. He followed her through the door, going down the winding hall with her.
"Turn back!"
"What?" He scoffed, putting his hands on his hips. "Now isn't the time to be a scaredy cat, Lily. We've come this far, why give up now?"
"I didn't say that. That thing did." Lily pointed to the mask that she was running by, as she passed the next one, it said the same. So did the third. But the fourth was different. "Turn bash!" Lily stopped, staring at the creepy mask on the wall. "Uh… I… I mean turn… back." Lily smirked, pulling her hammer out as she moved towards it. "You don't want to do that." The mask whimpered as Lily bashed it, and then through the wall behind it. A chest sat in the middle of the room, beckoning her towards it.
"Make sure that thing isn't a mimic first." Malroth warned as he watched her, his muscles ready to pounce if the chest moved on its own. He watched as Lily opened it, pulling out an odd leaf. "What the hell is that?"
"It's an Yggdrasil leaf. These are rare and have great healing properties." Lily smiled as she carefully tucked the leaf into the pouch with her other medicinal herbs before leaving the small room and going to the next barred room, seeing the last statue waiting for them.
Lily carefully set the statue down on its' pedestal, groaning when a hot magic burned at her skin. When she opened her eyes, one of the statues was reaching for her, its movements slow. She lashed out with her hammer, ripping the statues arm clean off. She growled as the other two surrounded her. With a deep breath in, Lily tensed her legs, using both hands on the hilt of her hammer to pull it to her side. She slowly exhaled, pushing off with her left foot and spinning, a howl leaving her lungs as her hammer slammed into the first one. The statue resisted at first, but then it turned to dust, then the second and then the third.
Malroth danced around the other three, barely scratching any of them as he dove and duck and rolled to avoid hits from them. He heard the roar from Lily, a smirk on his lips as he saw the statues turn to dust under her strength. She shouted his name and he ran at her, his fingers laced in front of him as she ran at him. With a good push off, he threw her over his head. He crouched down, feeling energy in his legs as he jumped, landing on the top of Lily's hammer, decimating the last three statues.
The two were panting as they looked at each other, then up at the chest that glowed, then back at each other. Lily threw down her hammer, her hands digging into Malroth's hair, her mouth finding his as he yanked her up and she wrapped her legs eagerly around his hips. Her skin tingled as Malroth's hands ran over any exposed skin he could find. He grumbled when she pulled away from the kisses, his red eyes burning as he nipped down her throat. "Mal… we should probably get the flute…"
He pressed his face against her neck, a low grunt leaving him before he lowered her back to the ground. He had the urge to hold her against him, to pin her to the ground and make the image of her on that workbench that was still burned into his mind a reality again. "Right… right."
