[AnimeTheia]

The cages were getting dangerously near to the pits, the lever for lowering the cages was in plain sight by the priests, there was no way she could just go up there and pull it in front of everyone, she had no time to think, keeping to the cover and shadows she ran around behind the crowd and managed to get behind the platform with the Xai're idol and priests on. Taking a brief look back at the crowd and priests, she noted that no-one had moved, good, they didn't see me.

She looked around herself, and spotted several large metal cogs with chains coming off them, the chains led up to a sort of scaffolding and then down to the cages with Serosus and Reap in them!!! In a nearby corner was some gnawed bones and paw sized chunks of rock, Fushigi crept over to the corner and selected a largish bone and a couple strong medium sized stones, she carried these (rather awkwardly) over to the metal cogs which lowered the cages thanking her luck that these creatures were not particularly tidy, and that the priests chanting and the snickers from the crowd help to hide any noise she was making.

At the cogs Fushigi managed to wedge the stones and bone in between two of the larger cogs causing them to stop turning, she checked them quickly to ensure that they could not be removed easily, the pressure of the cogs biting into the improvised wedges. Right she thought I only have a precious few seconds before someone notices that the cages have stopped and then a few more before someone comes to investigate... what do I do now?...

[Rabid]

Reap didn't want to move; something bad might happen. She might go berserk, or she might burst out crying - in anger, of course - or... Well, she didn't know. She got up anyway. Maybe she'd get to mutilate something that they cooked. That'd be nice. Or she could calm down by washing something; she liked doing dishes. She was fire elemented, but she was afraid of the stuff; she preferred water and bubbles. And suds; oh how she loved suds. Just thinking about these things made her fur flatten, and she suddenly became eager to follow the girl. She hurried to do just that, looking forward to doing something to keep her mind off of the dire situation.

[AnimeTheia]

((that's cool, and Kaze is a cool name too, meaning shadow and all   ))

Fushigi was really running out of time, she had hidden behind the lava pits while some of the Serraptors that had caught Reap and Serosus investigated why the cages had stopped moving, they had quickly found the cause and were trying to remove the stones and bones but to no avail luckily.

She was getting really hot by the pits and was cursing being a glacial at this point, but she had a good view of the other two in their cages and it was unlikely anyone would look for her there, after all who in their right mind would willingly go right next to a lava pit when there were plenty of pillars and holes to hide in?

The rest of the crowd were searching the hall for whoever had sabotaged their sacrifice and so far noone had come near her and the priests were still chanting by the idol, she really needed to work out a way to get into the cages and wake the others without being seen...

[Rabid]

Upon seeing the exhausted slaves, Reap's hope died. Her ears and tails instantly lost all their life, going limp as though the entrance had automatically turned them off. She stood stupidly in place. She had no clue where she was supposed to go, and became uneasy. She looked to Mayu - or whatever her name was - and hoped she would tell her where to go.

[AnimeTheia]

If she was going to do something it had to be very soon, whilst everyone was preoccupied and before anyone tried looking for her by the pit. Noone was paying attention to the cages, and they were hanging pretty low over the lava poor Reap and Serosus, they must be sweltering in there, its fortunate I managed to stop the cages in time Fushigi thought.

She had been studying the cages and the pit they were hanging over, the pit itself was quite small, only slightly larger than it needed to be to fit both the cages in at once, and the cages seemed to be locked with simple bolts, large squares of metal behind these bolts insured that the inhabitants couldn't reach them and free themselves, so there was no need for troublesome padlocks and fiddly little keys that could get lost easily.

Fushigi reckoned that she could probably jump on to the front of one of the cages (hopefully without anyone noticing) and undo the bolt to get inside, once inside she could wake one of the Werecains whilst waking the other by reaching through the bars of the cages.

It was now or never time...

[Rabid]

Reap went to wash dishes, thankful that she didn't have to cook; all she could do was boil and mix. And beat. Beating was fun... She scrubbed at the dishes, her perfectionism (and possibly slight ocd)forcing her to make them clean enough for her to see her reflection. She handed off a dish to be dried just in time; if she had handed it over a moment later, she would've dropped it due to the enraged scream. She froze, her breath stopping in her lungs.

Cheeze-its! She breathed, barely making a sound. Her eyes were wide open from the shock of such a loud noise, and her paws were soaking up water. She was very glad that she had decent bladder control, otherwise she would've had to clean up the floor. Man, that would've been bad. She didn't dare turn to see what had been the cause of her still-existant terror; she had a mighty powerful feeling in her gut that screamed very very loudly at her to just stay still, don't move, don't make a sound, don't even breathe; if you do that, the bad things will go away. This very loud voice had a name: Instinct. She chose to listen to Instinct; they had helped her often enough to be considered trust-worthy.

[AnimeTheia]

Bunching up her muscles Fushigi got in position to spring up and over the lava, she had chosen to jump onto the side of the cage with Serosus in as the large square of smooth metal on the front of the cages gave too little grip and if she slipped that would be it!

She checked that no one was watching and pounced, the heat itensified over the lava and Fushigi felt like she was going to faint! But she managed to grab onto the bars of the cage with catlike stealth making very little noise, she looked around again, it seemed she still hadn't been noticed.

Fushigi slowly and carefully worked her way around to the front of Serosus' cage and put her paw onto the large bolt to push it open... it worked free easily and soundlessly so she grabbed the edge of the door with her claws and pulled screeeeech Fushigi flinched as the door made a loud and horrible noise, well she knew her luck would end sooner or later. She quickly climbed into the cage by Serosus, the boiling metal floor scalding her delicate pads, noting that both he and Reap seemed to be barely breathing, Reap suddenly started trembling in her sleep Well Fushigi thought Whether i've been spotted or not I need to wake them both now She grabbed Serosus' ear in her mouth and stuck her left forepaw through the bars of both cages until she was touching Reap's shoulder and bit and clawed hard!

[Rabid]

Thanks! ^-^

Reap let out an almost silent squeak as the soup turned the tides and began to devour the demon, the thought of which would amuse her much later. She watched curiously as the demon was washed down the drain. It seemed odd to her; she wouldn't quite describe how, but she couldn't describe a lot of things, such as the meaning of life and such. Serosus and Maya disappeared, and she saw the slaves looking somewhere. She was thoroughly confused, and to add to this she heard Serosus yelling. Suddenly, she felt herself whipping up. The first thing she noticed as that something was burning her. She let out a loud yelp, the heat at some other mysterious pain startling her. She looked around, the yell forgotten. She saw lava, and slowly reddening metal surrounding her. She looked over and saw Serosus and Fushigi in a cage that had been ripped open. She then noted that the mysterious pain had probably come from the slightly bloody claws on Fushigi's paw combined with the shallow slices on her shoulder. She looked around again and noticed many serraptors. Not good. I don't care for this. Not at all.

[AnimeTheia]

Fushigi's heart was pounding, it had felt like eternity waiting for the others to wake up, though in reality it had only taken seconds, Reap was looking around with a a slightly confused look; which quickly turned to apprehension.

The Seraptors were closing in around the pit, "Can you both stand?" she asked Reap and Serosus worriedly, "We have to get out of here and quickly".

Suddenly she felt the hairs on her back stand up, she sensed there was somebody or something behind her, but that was impossible wasn't it? Only she and Serosus were in the cage...

[Rabid]

Adrenalin started pumping now that the cages were moving again. It was terrifying, no matter how slow the process was. At that moment, instinct decided to pay another visit. They yelled for her to get out. Good plan. Reap clawed at the metal plate keeping her inside. Eventually, her good friend logic told her to do the same thing, but from outside. Of course, she obeyed. She heard the metal snap, and opened the door. Well, she'd done that... What now? At that exact moment, her buddies decided to leave. Some friends, eh? She chose to attempt escaping by climbing up the chains. It was worth a shot, right? She exited the cage and pulled herself to the top. She cautiously began climbing up the chains, desperately hoping that they would hold her weight.

[AnimeTheia]

Fushigi and Serosus leapt from the faintly glowing cage, expecting that once Reap had released the door on her cage she would follow them, Fushigi started to run toward the hallway that had led to the room,hoping that Serosus was in good enough shape to follow her and that Reap wasn't too far behind.

Weaving between Seraptors and sometimes jumping over the smaller members of the cult she managed to get to the hallway. Stopping she looked around for the others, she couldn't see Reap or Serosus anywhere! Shaking her head she wondered how she could have been so foolish, they had been unconscious for hours and after being suspended in the cages over a boiling lava pit they must also be dehydrated, there was no way they could have kept up with her.

Making up her mind Fushigi decided she needed to distract the cult members, she had to draw as many of them off as possible to give her friends time to get away safely somewhere where they could rest and recuperate.

She darted back into the confusion of creatures.

[Rabid]

As she climbed, Reap saw Fushigi leap from Serosus' cage. A lightbulb turned on in her head. She knew there was no way she could jump that on her own, but if she put enough force into it... She gave herself a nod and slid back down to the cage and began using it like a swing. Back and forth, back and forth... Once she deemed the swinging distance satisfactory, she stood up and continued moving. At the height of the swing, she leapt off, knocking out some serraptors as she accidentally flew into the fray. Man, today is not my day!

[AnimeTheia]

As Fushigi ran back towards the cages a group of Serraptors were suddenly bowled over by a rainbow coloured thing a little way in front of her That must be Reap she thought, she looked around frantically for Serosus but she still couldn't see him anywhere. Taking a deep breath she started drawing as much attention to herself as she could, she bumped into creatures and purposefully rubbed against them as she ran so that they noticed her and started to chase after her.

When she had a good half of the creatures following her she led them away, hoping to give Reap and Serosus a chance to escape now that there were fewer cultists left to recapture them (especially since the serraptors Reap had knocked down were still lying on the floor dazed).

She wound her way between pillars and leapt over fallen stones, taking care not to get too much of a lead on her pursuers so that they didn't lose interest, they seemed pretty intent on catching her though, probably because she had been the one that enabled the others to escape and they wanted retribution.

Fushigi ran into a small passageway at the back of the hall, she had no idea where it would lead, but she had to keep the passage that led to the catacomb entrance clear for the others to escape so she had no choice.

[Rabid]

The shock of colliding with the serraptors left Reap a tad dazed. She just kind of stared as a domino affect began, moving outwards from around her. She vaguely noticed that many of the cultists were chasing something. She chuckled a tad as they jumped over each other, eagerly snapping at their target and cawing to each other. Why this was amusing, she hadn't a clue. She regained her senses before the cultists did. Well, she regained enough for her to listen to Instinct, who told her to run... Again. Who was she to be disobedient towards her DNA? She scrambled to get on her paws, managing to only get up onto all fours before Mr. Adrenalin shoved her towards the exit. She distantly hoped that Serosus and Fushigi were okay, and that they would meet again. Of course, her thoughts were mostly blocked out by Instinct and Adrenalin. Those obnoxious attention hogs.

[AnimeTheia]

Winding her way through passageways and around fallen debris, Fushigi tried to come up with a plan, there were a lot of creatures following her, all bent on having her blood.

None of the followers she had been able to sneak glances at so far were particularly agile (as evidenced by the fact that they regularly kept tripping over each other and small stones in their path), maybe she could get a lead on them when they were far enough away and climb up somewhere and hide until they passed her. This would hopefully enable her to double back and get out of the catacombs herself. She was also rather worried about the others, especially Serosus, she hadn't seen him since she leapt from the cage.