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Arkin looked towards the entrance of the temple. "It seems our assassin friend has gone ahead... Perhaps to scout?" He shrugged. "What good is a scout that does not speak?" He asked himself philosophically, drifting, it seemed, towards the entrance of the Martel Temple, since one could not see his feet due to the large robe that engulfed his form.

Walking with his cane, Arkin entered the temple. The main chamber was a medium-sized circular room with a circular mosaic on the floor, and three halls branching off. One to the right, one to the left, and one up the middle, and of course the exit behind the elven wizard.

The middle hall's end was visible from the circular chamber. A circular archway guarded the door at the end, and an aura of blue energy engulfed it. Arkin surmised that no magic nor forceful method could breach the barrier. "I suppose we will have to find a switch... or, perhaps a key." Arkin suggested.

Daisuke had distanced himself from Tetsu, not even noticing the man walking upon the water. He wasn't within hearing range, or even in their line of sight. Instead, he walked amongst the warded woods, in one of his inevitable bouts of depression.

He slumped down against a tree, his knees raised, and Sunatskei, his trusted ferret friend, hopped upon his left knee.

Daisuke left out a heavy sigh. "I can't believe I didn't say goodbye to him."

Sunatskei looked inquiringly at his master. "Your father?" The ferret asked in a fit of serious behavior.

"Yeah. I mean, I know we don't see eye-to-eye about lots of things, but... still... I could've at least said goodbye..." Daisuke said, remorseful. "That might've been the last time I ever see him."

"Don't say that..." Sunatskei said, his head drooping slightly.

"I know, I can't die yet... I just..." Daisuke put a hand to his head. "You don't know the half of it."

"Why don't I?" Sunatskei asked, actually being quiet for a change.

"Because... There are some things a man just has to face alone."

"And there are things that a man needs help with."

"This isn't one of those things."

"How do I know that?"

"You'll just have to take my word for it..."

The ferret crossed his arms. "Fine... But this isn't over, Daisuke. I'm going to find out what's wrong and try to help, m'kay?"

"Alright." Daisuke's hand went from his head to the ferret's, ruffling the creature's soft grey, white, and black fur. Sunatskei made a ferret's version of a purr.

Daisuke leaned back farther against the tree, both hands falling to his side. His eyes gazed up at the treetops.

Sunatskei jumped from Daisuke's knee to the ground beside his hip. "Tired?"

"Yeah." Daisuke's eyes closed, and then he drifted off to sleep.

Tetsu was sternly silent, her facial expression showed how little she was amused by the man's response. After a moment of this, she huffed and turned her back to him, crossing her arms.

"Don't be smart," she growled. For some reason, the statement brought Daisuke to mind--where was he?--but she quickly dismissed him. "How did you learn to do that?"

She felt she had to know. Then again, Tetsu had always been like that--her mother had made a joke once about how, after learning how to use the kama, she'd move on to walking on water and flying. It was a sad sort of joke, a half-joke, really; her mother, a dancer, had always been the one to tell her that she was working too hard. Tetsu nearly killed herself doing so on more than one occasion... if it weren't for her mother, she'd be dead.

Working too hard... there's no such thing.

"You don't just wake up and decide to walk on water one day," she reasoned. Her voice was aggressive with contained annoyance. "Tell me."

"Are all people from Ozette like you?" Tetsu retorted. She didn't like him or his question, so she wasn't inclined to answer--plus, it was a written rule that a resident of Mizuho said as little about the town as possible when outside its borders.

There was a small pause. "I'm wasting my time," she said, finally. "I can find out on my own."

The young woman didn't turn to look at Delta again, instead brushing past him on the way to retrieve her bag. On the way, she summoned Kaemon under her breath; the crimson-winged snake seemed to pass the threshold of reality through a rip in its seams, his head on her shoulder and the rest of him coiled around her torso.

She stopped where she was, not bothering to check if the man had seen or not (although she sort of hoped that he had). "Tell me where Daisuke is," she directed, before her Spirit could even ask what she wanted. The emerald serpent looked at her for a moment, curious about what had come to pass. He knew better to than to ask, though, and he lifted his head, his forked tongue darting twice into the air.

"Not too far. He didn't come into the wards as deeply as you did," Kaemon answered. He set his head back down, wondering who the man nearby was, but, once again, too smart to ask.

It was witn a puzzled sort of look that Delta watched and responded to Tetsu's cutting remark. He had asked the question in a genuinely curious way, not in a tone to be considered rude or intrusive. He had always had a weird way of things, asking what he wanted rather bluntly and to the point, but never rudely. Unless it was misunderstood. Which he was afraid had just happened. But what could he do? The girl seemed to be pretty set upon the opinion that she should be negatively disposed to him. Grrr. Women. This was why although he had been one of the more attractive males and more desirable men of his village, he had remained unmarried and uninterested in the female race. They were their own species, to him. Martel forbid he should ever have any children.

From somewhere in his shirt he extracted a pair of leather shoes, the kind that hunters used for stealth tracking in the woods. He had been pretty good at it, when he needed to. Then again, it had been a couple years since he had hunted and he wasn't at all sure he knew how to do it anymore. Wow, he felt old.

Slipping them on, he took one last look at the girl rather dispairingly, not because of her in person in particular but because she represented to him the one failure in his life. He had never been the kind of guy to go crazy over girls, or to be perverted in any way, and he had been told that any girl would be lucky to be dam to his children. And yet, at the age of 20, he had yet to find a single girl who wasn't something like this one. Irrational, moody, or otherwise strange and alien to him. Hmm. Perhaps all women were like this. It certainly seemed so, anyway.

Once he was satisfied with the fit of his shoes, he wiggled his toes around for a bit before setting off and away from the beach, wanting to forget about his failures with women. Why did they have to be so exasperatingly complicated? He just didn't get it.

He continued onwards until he was just within the shade of the woods, not sure if he was supposed to say a farewell to the girl he had encountered or not. Then again, she had seemed pretty intent on parting ways with him so he figured she probably wouldn't care, either way. Probably. Maybe. Uncertainty. GAH, WOMEN!

Shaking his head of such thoughts, he continued onwards after a moment of hesitation, putting away such thoughts. He looked up into the canopy of the trees as he walked, grateful for their shade and serenity. Of course, he knew he'd have to be more cautious once he was out of the protection of wards, but then again he figured he could hold his own.

Unexpectantly, his foot seemed to have stepped on something small and fleshy. He gave a cry of surprise as he looked down to find a ferret-like animal underneath his foot.

It all had happened so fast!

First he was trying to bat away the ferret climbing his body, then he was staring at it eye to eye and wishing it would let go of his cheeks, the little bugger being able to grab ahold quite painfully. Then he was sent back reeling, his ears ringing and his head dizzy from the sheer sound that the little creature was able to make. Egads, had he nearly killed the thing???

Then he heard a shuffling, and out of self defence Delta summoned a blaze of fire from in between his hands, orange-ish yellow in hue, holding it up to the nunchaku being launched at his person. Then he heard his attacker speak, and, opening a tightly shut eye he dared to steal a peek at who he was dealign with at the moment, then opening his eyes a bit more at ease when he was being asked who he was.

Stepping away from the man and out of his hunched position, he let the blaze of fire disappear and he cast a humoured look over at Sunatskei, thinking the little critter quite cute. Delta had always been fond of animals.

"I would be Delta, my apologies for stepping on the ferret."

Delta fought a small chuckle at the little ferret's antics, knowing full well that although he may find 'Suna' quite endearingly cute, it was highly unlikely that the summon spirit as it were, would ever forgive him. Deciding not to make the ferret hate him even more than it already did, she refrained from giving the critter an affectionate pat on the head. He often refrained from showing his feelings.

"Ah, does she happen to have a rather...how shall we say, commanding air to her?"

He asked good naturedly, wondering if the two of them were...involved. It would have been cute, he thought to himself. The two looked about the same age, and it seemed to him quite natural for the two to grow fond of eachother at one point or another.

"Yes, I saw her over by the beach. Got quite the will, hasn't she?"

He chuckled, this time out loud yet very softly. He forgot about his previous thoughts for now, already feeling some what sorry for Daisuke.

Tetsu located Daisuke fairly quickly, at first with the aid of Kaemon, and then simply by following his voice--a shout had pierced the air, but it had not been one of pain or of battle... it was more like he was arguing with someone. Still, her steps were hurried but silent, even against the rough terrain she made very little noise.

"... now, Delta, so ya know..."

For the first time, she was able to make out words -- it was Daisuke's insane ferret. She paused a moment and continued to walk just as silently towards Sunaskei.

"Tetsu's nice, deep down inside, I think."

... Why, in the name of Martel, would he be talking about her? Tetsu was fairly annoyed by this point, and the comment didn't help. She wasn't sure why it rubbed her the wrong way, it just did. Still, she paused, a little curious about what whe was going to say next.

"I think maybe she's got the hots for Daisuke."

Kaemon snorted with surpressed laughter, but quickly quieted when Tetsu stared daggers at him. She nearly growled as she approached them, less intent on being stealthy. Immediately, she recognised the man who had been walking on water, talking to Daisuke.

"Oh, perfect." She was really referring to the fact that Daisuke had just given away where they were headed on the next leg of the mission, but didn't want to bring up the fact that there was a mission... even if it was to correct him. She pretty much ignored Delta, but Kaemon looked at the man with an steady, analytical stare. "Daisuke, we should get going. We don't want to be stuck in the depths of the forest after dark."

Tetsu wasn't afraid of the dark or anything (in fact, she kind of liked it), but the forest was bad in places where no sky percolated through the heavy foliage above. The overgrowth could be bad in places, too, and the last thing the two needed was for one of them to get hurt doing something stupid like tripping over a vine.