-Well this is another fine mess you've gotten us into.- irritation throbbed through Jai's bond with her Nightmare cat as he shot her a dirty look.

Not that she could see what look he was giving her actually, her attention was taken up by studying the two creatures guarding a doorway before her, but she assumed from the annoyance he was radiating it was a dirty one. Both creatures were extremely tall, very muscular and had four arms each! Not something you see everyday, and something Jai wasn't thrilled at seeing either. Luckily Jai and S had the advantage as they could see them, but the two alien guards couldn't see anything except shadows in the hallway emptying out in front of them.

-Are you sure it's in there?- the cat demanded.

-Yes.-

-Figures.-

It wasn't like S was alone in feeling irritated at the moment, so far this entire mission had been a bust. On the way down here, they had checked each of those missing areas only to find one loon in a cage and nothing else of interest. On top of almost being caught twice and barely avoiding being noticed by those same undead creatures they faced earlier back on Earth this errand Gaia had sent them on was shaping up to be a suicide mission. Hopefully that weird guy they let out was providing some distraction so the pressure on them would lessen a bit.

Unfortunately S caught that last thought, -Yeah that was a brilliant move,- he snarled, -Wasting your powers healing some twit we don't even know! What do you think we're still on Earth or something? Gaia can't help us here and you have the mana reserves of a shot-glass. No, correction, half a shot-glass now.-

-Are you done yet?- Jai shot back just as venomously, -If you're gonna bitch, at least help me figure out a way to get past these guys.-

Jai knew they were both tired, it had been at least a couple of days already and no sleep. And since S was basically a part of her, he shared in her exhaustion. Thus, Jai just dropped the subject and so did S, all insults instantly forgotten as carrying a grudge against someone who was in your mind constantly wasn't particularly healthy. Of course some people might consider bonding and undead creature unhealthy as well. With the little spat out of both their systems, Jai assessed the situation before them again, but she knew nothing had changed in the last second. There before them was the room where Narnia said the small radiation source was originating from and those big weird alien-looking guards were still there.

The problem was that they couldn't just walk through the shadows to get into the room in question. That would have been preferable as the room itself was dark inside, but there was a huge gap of light provided by several torch stands near the doorway, destroying any link between shadows on the outside to the inside. Plus both guards were very observant and it didn't look like they were about to slack off anytime soon. Another annoying fact that kept rearing its ugly head was that this section of the Tower's basement was extremely busy, as every so often another one of those four-armed aliens would walk by the doorway and the guards.

-So knocking them out would be a dead give away that something's going on to one of the passer-byes. What about a small distraction to make them look away for a second? Like me or Narnia floating by?- S offered.

-No, I don't think these guys would fall for it. This isn't a Hanna-Barbara cartoon. A distraction of any kind might bring more of those things here. I want them to stay content with what they're doing, like there's nothing wrong at all. That way they won't look anywhere they're not supposed to.-

-I see. If they don't think anything's wrong, they won't know we're actually in there. What about going invisible? If not with magic, can Narnia cover us up and do that light trick it pulls off oh so well?-

-It's impossible. Narnia can't cover me as per the laws of physics once you bend light away from an object, it's enveloped in total darkness and then how would I see? Plus you know blatant magic use would draw those undead things to our area. However...-

-However what?- S asked, and then slowly realizing what his counterpart had in mind, -You've got to be kidding me.-

A few minutes later S stepped out of the shadows completely invisible as he was covered in Narnia. Narnia may have been an advanced living computer, but it still felt like cold, wet slime all over his body and S was furiously fighting the urge to lick it off like a living cat would. This had to have been the most disgusting thing he had to go through since dying. Wincing all the way, he slowly padded towards the two ugly four-armed guards praying this crazy idea of Jai's would work. It seemed every time Jai was sent out on another mission for Gaia, she kept coming up with crazier and crazier ideas to get out of these bizarre situations. What he didn't realize until after Jai had ordered Narnia to cover him, was that it was true that when Narnia bent light away from them both making them invisible light normally used to see by couldn't reach S's eyes, yet he wasn't affected like Jai would have been as being dead meant he really didn't «see» in the first place. In reality S used his ethereal senses to evaluate his surroundings, thus he never really needed light to see by.

As he neared them, one suddenly shifted making S freeze as all his hairs stood on end which allowed Narnia to get in and touch his skin. Again a wave of nausea fell over him as he wanted to wretch as if that would help the situation any. Apparently the big creature must have had a nerve twitch as it shifted back again to its original pose. Thankfully the undead didn't have to breathe or S was sure he'd be panting like a dog by now out of shear nervousness. With that trial over, S darted in-between the guards unnoticed and entered the darkened room beyond them.

Even though he was in complete darkness, S's augmented Nightmare senses made the room clear to him as if the room was properly lighted and he wasn't invisible. Here he sensed mounds and mounds of just junk all over the place. Well, it was junk to him anyway, what people saw in gaudy gold and silver jewelry with huge rocks imbedded in it was beyond him. There were other things in here, also covered in precious metals and stones, but just like the jewelry he ignored it all as junk. Material possessions belonged to the living, since after death you really get a whole new spin on reality. Thus, he just shrugged as he lazily passed these great heaps of priceless crap looking for anything that might be this stupid red crystal Gaia wanted. After wandering for at least fifteen minutes, he just stopped dead and reached out to Jai'eesh.

-Yeah so, where is it again?-

-It's supposed to be in there. Ask Narnia.- was the response.

S rolled his eyes and withdrew to one of the corners of the immense room where the mounds of treasure made sort of a protected area where he could whisper without being heard hopefully.

«Narrrnia, whateverrr you do don't talk, but somehow alerrrt me when I get close to the rrradiation source.»

If Narnia heard him, it must have taken S's warning literally and didn't respond. S «looked» around one of the mounds to see if the guards had possibly heard him, and luckily they hadn't budged from their posts, but they were still alert as ever. After waiting about another minute, S set out to traverse the room again and hoped that when he got near this crystal Narnia would let him know somehow. He prayed the stupid slimy computer wouldn't alert him by beeping or some other loud noise, but then he suddenly felt the wet thing around him convulse, `pulling' rather, towards another corner in the room. S set off in that direction, silently padding through all the clutter as only a cat could, following the tug on him by Narnia.

When he finally reached the mound that Narnia was pulling him to, he noticed it was newer than the others were. While the others were covered in a pretty good coat of dust from years of just sitting there, this one had more dirt than dust on it which had probably accumulated during it's journey here. S felt his hopes rise as his senses told him that some of the dirt was from the Earth! Being bonded to a woman who spoke directly to the soul of the Earth kind of made one an expert at recognizing things that came from Earth. Narnia didn't stop pulling, but instead the sensation got stronger as S had no choice but to climb up the heap in the direction Narnia was pulling before the disgusting computer pulled his skin off. He climbed as carefully as he could, trying his best not to dislodge a thing or else the gig was up.

Finally reaching the top Narnia stopped pulling at him and resettled on his body, which made him shiver violently. Yet it also left him clueless where the crystal was. Was he on top of it? Did he have to dig down? Where was it already? He was getting so tired of this crap. Just as he stepped forward lightly, his paw brushed along something that set all his senses on fire.

Suddenly S wasn't in a darkened treasure room anymore, as he was floating over the strangest scene. There below him was a huge field, stretching as far as the eye could see yet at the same time it wasn't. Now it was a huge body of water like a sea, but now it was the field again, the plants waving gently in a non-existent breeze. Finally S realized that he wasn't seeing just one scene, but two or more like each scene was a transparency overlapping each other. He could see the sea is some places, the field in others, and on top of that he could still see the treasure room he was really in.

Ghostly scenes captivated S for both changed like time had gone askew there. He watched as a small town started being built in the field, then change into a huge city, and at last crumble to ruins being over taken by the field once more. On the sea he witnessed boats pass by, and each time they passed they progressed in technology from sailboats to steam boats and finally to boats akin to the ones he knew in his home time on Earth. He suddenly realized that while he was watching time pass in years as if they were seconds, only a minute has passed in the treasure room. Between floating, but not really, and watching time flow past him, while it really wasn't, S was so disoriented that he barely heard Jai call for him.

-S! S! Are you there?-

And just like that, S was back in the darkened treasure room, -No I'm fine, I think I found it though...-

-You had me worried, I lost you for a moment there. Well get out of there quickly, we might be having company soon.-

-Coming.-

He quickly jerked his paw back and felt again with his paws before him and found what felt like a large skinny piece of crystal. Since cats normally didn't see color anyway and the fact he really couldn't see at all he wasn't sure if it was a red crystal or not, but after that experience he was willing to bet it was the one they were after. S picked it up in his mouth as he felt Narnia extend over it, but he wasn't sure which sensation was creeping him out more, Narnia or holding the crystal.

With that done, he took off again, leaping soundlessly from the pile he was on and headed out the door to return to where Jai was waiting for him in the shadows. The sooner he got back the better, he couldn't wait to get Narnia off him and he swore he was never, ever doing something this dumb again. The minute he entered the shadow Jai was hiding in he dropped the crystal and started to shake like a wet dog would after emerging from water.

-So this is it?- Jai mind spoke as he bent over and retrieved the object, and as she did, S could tell Jai had the same reaction to touching the crystal like he did.

However he had other pressing matters on his mind as Narnia was not coming off him at all, and even worse for some reason Narnia was moving inside his ears! Finally he just couldn't take it anymore as he yelled, «Dammit Narrrnia get the hell off of me!!»

The shadows that were wrapped around Jai'eesh and Mr. S were excellent at hiding the two of them physically, but they did nothing to prevent sound from escaping them. The second S had yelled at Narnia, Jai snapped out of the crystal-induced trance and narrowly avoided being impaled by two spears. Jai growled, shoving the crystal and the now separated Narnia hovering next to her into her pack as she grabbed her cat companion while still nimbly evading the searching spearheads. They were coming from the guards of course, who thanks to S had found the shadow-wrought chamber where the duo was hiding and were now cautiously making their way inside.

As Jai had the advantage of being able to see them, but they couldn't see her yet, she ducked and rolled in-between the two guards' legs exiting as they entered where she used to be. The minute she left, the shadows instantly went back to their normal state, as the two guards subsequently became part of the wall forever. However, she had the bad timing of being seen by another one of those four-armed things that walked past the hallway and she took off running like a bat out of hell as it started shouting at her. Jai didn't stop to wonder if the creature that had seen her was in pursuit, or had gone off to go get help, she just kept moving trying to put some distance between her and the scene. The only thing on her mind was trying to induce more speed from her already tired body, so much so that she didn't see a hand snake around from around a hidden corner in the hallway catching her until it was too late.

Author : cc

Creation date: 2002-9-23-12-22

Modification date: 2003-9-14-17-28