Welcome to Gaia! ::

Xelloss' curiosity built higher and higher as they drew closer to the temple. He was starting to feel the tickling of intuition about this place. There was something here he needed to see, find, or destroy. One of those three. His intuition was rarely wrong. At times, it was almost like a sixth sense for him. He nodded encouragingly at Othelia when she looked back to him, and they went forward.

Once they were shrouded in darkness his eyes opened fully, a rarity for him. His slit-pupiled violet eyes dilated to wide circles. The air was heavy with the scent of damp decay. "Hmmm... now this is interesting." He peered closely at inscriptions on the wall, wishing he knew the secrets of human writing. The inscribed art along with the writing was what had caught his eye. He could see stylized monsters. Most were serpents of various sorts, but one image made him smile. He saw the image of a giant winged wolf that stood on a pile of skulls, shooting flames from her mouth.

"Cute, isn't it?" He grinned at Othelia.

Xelloss squinted as he stepped into the bright room. He shielded his face with a wing until his vision cleared from the sudden sunny onslaught. His first thought upon surveying the room was to wonder what sort of monster had collapsed the ceiling. Not monster, he had to remind himself. Probably just time. At any rate, he didn't see any claw marks or other such signs of a monster in residence.

Across the room, he spotted something that looked strangely familiar. It was a small shrine hidden in a recess of the room. Upon a pedestal sat a statue of something that looked a little like a horse and a lot like a nightmare. He strode over to look at it... and didn't pay quite as much attention as he should have to where he was stepping.

"Hm?" One of the tiles he tread upon sank down with a clicking sound. Before he could react, a stone tile from the ceiling detached and fell. It cracked over his head and fell into two pieces on the ground. Reeling and dazed, Xelloss staggered sideways, set off another ceiling trap that just barely missed him, and collapsed into an undignified heap in the center of the room. "Ow." He whimpered piteously, looking to Othelia for sympathy.

"Might be minorly concussed," he grumbled, standing. He blinked a few times and checked his vision for any abnormalities. Nope. He didn't have ringing in his ears, dizziness, or any other indication that he was suffering from any more than a thorough bruising. He was still sheepish at being caught so, but there wasn't any permanent harm done.

"Looks like you've figured out the trick of it." He eyeballed her slightly accusingly, as if faulting her for figuring something out that he had not. He glared at the shrine that had entrapped him. Now that he was looking closer, it didn't even look like something he was interested in. The similarity to Lord Ruby Eye was just coincidental. His bumped head was entirely a waste.

"I don't think that's something worthwhile to collect," he decided. "Unless you're fond of ancient human stonework."

Xelloss swayed slightly as Othelia bumped him but didn't let his hooves stray from the tiles they stood upon. He wasn't about to let the other kalona push him off his spot and back into more traps. "Be careful where you're walking," he told her, his smile a little forced. He looked around the room. There had to be something in there besides just the dinky statue. No one would trap a room like this unless there was something to protect.

"There." His searching eyes found the dark entrance to another room. It was a human-sized entrance, meaning he would have to tuck his wings, duck, and squeeze a little. Whatever they were guarding had to be in that room... but he decided not to go first this time. "Ladies first!" He swept a wing graciously out toward the path forward.

This time, Xelloss looked carefully where he stepped. It looked like he was prancing across the floor carelessly, but in reality he meticulously chose each move. He only had one mistake near the end and managed to avoid the falling tile by keeping moving. Smugly, he heard it clatter harmlessly to the floor behind him. He wasn't one to make the same mistake twice. Now that he was at the doorway, he peered inside cautiously. "I suppose I should just plunge in?"

After being in the bright light pouring through the collapsed ceiling, it was difficult to see into that inky darkness. The only thing he could make out were two golden yellow eyes.

His whole body froze. Gasping in shock, Xelloss stared wide-eyed.



"Don't just stand there gaping. Come in."

Beastmaster Xellas stood in the center of the dark room. Her half-spread wings spread almost from wall to wall and her ears just barely brushed the top of the ceiling. Broken rubble left a massive hole in the wall behind her, her entrance to this chamber. There was no light in that abyss and it appeared to spiral down nothingness.

Obviously, her servant was shocked at coming across her here. Xellas was less surprised. In the days prior, she had felt the pull of familiarity that meant that her only child was near. She had known that it was only so long until fate brought them back together, and here he was. She smiled a little in bemusement at his ridiculous expression. He was not at his most dignified, clearly.

"Bring your companion," she added as an afterthought. There was another silhouette in the doorway, some sort of horned kalona breed. She found herself rather curious to see who Xelloss had taken up with while she was asleep.

Xelloss no longer cared if there were traps. The instant his legs unlocked he was inside the room and practically flinging himself to the floor. He knelt before her with damp eyes, reverently naming her. "Lord Beastmaster." He left Othelia standing in the doorway. He didn't care about her now. If Xellas had ordered him to kill her he would have done it without a second thought. She was here now, his master and mother. His soul belonged to her.

It had been so many years since he last saw her, too many. All those years he had wandered about trying to obey her final orders to him, otherwise aimless. The hole torn in him at her disappearance was finally closed. He was whole again.

Xellas watched him silently. Her look of fondness was as strong an emotion as she was capable of. Her absence had been hard on him, but she had known it would be from the start. She hoped he had not let his skills and strength languish during that time. She needed her servant strong for the tasks that were soon to be at hand.

"You may rise, Xelloss." Unlike him, she hadn't forgotten about Othelia. Her gaze shifted and she recognized the stranger now as a kalona with stunted wings. There was little else she could make out at the moment. "And you, come."

Xelloss stood. His eyes fixed upon Xellas like one dying of thirst might look upon an oasis. He was a little resentful that Othelia was here during this moment. He was even more resentful that Beastmaster was now turning her attention away from him and onto her. He kept his composure, but he inwardly hoped that Xellas would dismiss or drive off Othelia so they could be alone.

"Now aren't you the interesting one?" Xellas rumbled. She took in Othelia's twisted horns and stunted wings. The small spikes on the bridge of her nose caught Xellas' attention, but not so much as the arcane markings that circled her ankles and lay across her back. "A half-mazoku but a full kalona. Do you work for me now as well?"

Xelloss was giving her some interesting looks throughout this speech. He was uncomfortable. Xellas was curious as to what her servant had told his kalona mare, or what he hadn't. Whatever was going on here, it wasn't straightforward. Unsurprised, Xellas watched Othelia with a curious scrutiny.