[Shieba]

Ashur, seeing as he was getting nowhere with the window right now, landed on the ground again. "It is nice to meet you, Acenath. I am Ashur and the one on my back is Hakai, though his manners are rather lacking. And yes, I am afraid that breaking this was an accident that happened to me. I'm truly sorry about it, but you must understand we're in a problematic situation here."

Hakai jumped from Ashur's back, not happy that the Seraphent had stopped with his flight. "This is a trap", he simply declared. "No one can live down here with these two idiots."

"Hakai, please." Ashur sighed. "Acenath, we were trapped here to be prisoners for the rest of our lives by someone named Musim and the goddess he serves. If we follow you, you and your parents might get in trouble. Or are you serving the goddess as well? In that case, we will have to stay away from you. We need help indeed, though, and if your parents know a way out of here..." He was uncertain what to do. It wasn't that he didn't trust the girl, but he was afraid to get her into trouble or run into Musim again when the window in this room provided a difficult, but existing way to get out.

[AnimeTheia]

Acenath stopped hovering towards the doorway as Ashur explained some of the situation to her. "Musim and Amunet trapped you?" she made a little face, confused and struggling to understand. "You must have done something very very terrible if my parents decided to punish you so" she said aghast, "I hope you didn't dishonour any of our traditions!". She backed away from the pair slowly, "I...I must ask them about this... something must be wrong somewhere... nothing like this has happened since I came here". The Shinzo turned to leave, but then she hesitated and seemed to think better of it, turning back she looked up at Ashur "There is always two sides to a story" she intoned, "Perhaps if you are in this much trouble I should find out your side of the story before I ask my Mother about it", she waited patiently her wide innocent eyes looked up at the Seraphent hopefully, wishing that everything could just be a misunderstanding that she could put right. She hated to think her new Mother and Father could be so cruel, but she also found it hard to believe that they could be wrong, they had already taught her so much, her mind was spinning with confusion and misgivings, but she willed it to stop and concetrate on the matter at hand.

[Shieba]

"Your parents? These two are your parents? Oh, I just knew he was banging her, they make such a perfect couple of annoying bit--"

"Hakai, please." Ashur interrupted his partner before Acenath heard more things that could be taken the wrong way. "I, for one, am quite grateful she wants to hear us out before talking to her parents."

"Maybe we could take her prisoner? After all these two have done to us, we should just--ouch! Did you asshole just smack me with that ugly tail of yours?!" Hakai whirled around, but Ashur had already wrapped his tail around himself again.

"I apologize for him. Please believe we will do nothing of that sort. As for what happened..." Ashur sighed. "We might have indeed dishonoured your traditions. You see, we got trapped in this temple when your mother, I believe, held some kind of game. At least there were many riddles along the way. During one of these riddles, Hakai had to put on a robe of your father and was, well, not really careful with it. Keep in mind we didn't know it was important to your father, we believed it just an element of this game. So when Hakai got it dirty, your father appeared out of nowhere and was upset. He started arguing with Hakai, who is, as you probably guessed, rather easy to anger and they started fighting for real. Your father had the upper hand--"

"--oh no, he didn't! He was just a coward who--"

"--and Hakai, in his anger, shredded the robe. Your father almost made the whole room we were in collapse and your mother choose this time to appear. We explained the situation to her and that we just wanted to leave and she decided that we were to be prisoners for the rest of our lives."

"That bitch even acted like she was doing us a favour instead of killing us, which was, according to her 'the usual punishment!'" Hakai growled.

"Yes, well, both your parents weren't really approachable. We don't mean harm, we just want to get out of here", Ashur finished.

[AnimeTheia]

Acenath made a puzzled face at Hakai, 'banging her?' she wondered to herself what on earth the strange Lucain could be on about, maybe her parents had done the right thing after all! However the Seraphent seemed much more reasonable and friendly, so she paid him dutiful attention as he explained their situation, trying her best to ignore the Lucain. Acenath gasped and covered her mouth with a graceful paw as Ashur told her of their exploits, mistakes and in particular dishonouring of traditions.

As Ashur finished, the little Shinzo looked thoughtful, she turned away and seemed to study the walls around her as she thought. After a short while she turned back to Ashur, again ignoring the Lucain as best she could, "It seems you are in quite a dilemma, and whilst normally I would not condone the things you have done I can see that you at least did not intend or mean any harm" she clearly felt that Hakai was a very different matter, "I would take you to my parents and try to discuss this with them, but I feel it may not be the best approach given what you have done" as she said 'you' her bright eyes glared instead at Hakai. "Instead I will lead you out of the Temple, and explain the situation to my parents later, without you around I believe they will be able to think and act more calmly and rationally, and hopefully they will see that this is for the best... and if not it will be too late anyway", Acenath looked up at the Seraphent that towered over her, and waited to see what he would think.

[Shieba]

Hakai noticed Acenath's resentment towards him very well, but only commented with a snort and a roll of his eyes, clearly not willing to lower himself to argue with a child. Ashur was very glad Hakai kept his mouth shut and hoped he would continue to do so.

"I would be very happy with that solution", he quickly told Acenath, "and Hakai would be as well. He's just not very adept at expressing these things." That got him another snort. "I don't wish you to get into trouble, but if you could get us out of here, I would be very grateful. I promise we will not return to cause more problems." He paused for a second. "There...also was a Slydra with us in the room when you parents sent us away to this place. I hope it is fine - it hasn't anything to do with this matter and just looked for a way out. Have you heard anything about it getting caught?"

"Oh, would you shut the hell up, Ashur? Who cares about the stupid snake!? Let's get out of here! Even though I would love to kick Musi--"

"Yes, I believe it is indeed the best if you leave here as soon as possible", Ashur interrupted this time. "For the sake of everyone. I hope the Slydra will find its way out. Maybe the room collapsed enough that it managed to leave. Let's look for it once we are out of here."

[AnimeTheia]

Acenath was pleased that Ashur agreed with her plan, she began to lead the way down dim twisting tunnels. She talked as she went, "Oh yes, I remember that Slydra, it's been hanging around for a while. Mother decided to hold the games to help clear out some of the creatures that had managed to get themselves lost down here, she thought they could find new homes and someone to take care of them instead of cluttering up the temple." she explained. The tunnels she led them through slowly sloped upwards, and every now and then she had to clamber over fallen piles of stone and sand, cobwebs began appearing and the tunnels became dingier, it was clear she was leading them to one of the least occupied areas of the Temple. "I doubt Mother would have done anything with the Slydra, it was one of the least noticeable of all the intruders here, if we're lucky it will have found a way out" she kept glancing over her shoulder, smiling at Ashur and checking to see he was following okay, she ignored Hakai, "I'll help you look for it if you like, it should be night-time now and cool enough to cross the dunes".

[Shieba]

(Sorry for the super-late reply. I had RL troubles. D8)

Hakai snorted. "She surely didn't seem to mind the thought of me and Ashur 'cluttering up the temple' for all eternity."

"Hakai, be quiet." Ashur sighed. He had enough problems as it were to squeeze especially his wings through the tunnels and when then the stones started covering the floor as well, he had trouble even going forward. Sometimes, legs would be really nice. Sometimes, a silent Hakai would be even better.

"God damnit, Ashur, move your big butt! If you want me to shut up, then get me out of here faster by not blocking the damn tunnel!" Hakai, walking behind Ashur, nudged the Seraphent not really lightly when he had to wait as Ashur passed a rather large pile of stones.

Ashur just sighed and concentrated on the way forward, deciding to join Acenath in ignoring Hakai for now. "I sincerely hope the Slydra escaped, it was so very bothered by being stuck in here and also very frightened by your father", he told the girl. "It would be nice if you could help us look a little bit. I don't want to keep you away from your home, especially at night, but if you could at least show us where the walls of that room we were in are, we'll probably be fine. One of the walls had crumbled and your father's magic probably cleared it from the stones that blocked the path. It is likely that the Slydra has left through there."

"Hey, are you two bastards ignoring me?!" Hakai asked from the back. "And what do you mean, 'looking for the Slydra'? Why should we give a damn?!"

Ashur shook his head. "Well, I 'give a damn' and since you are stuck with me, so do you." He nodded to himself when Hakai growled something that sounded rather impolite, but didn't speak up again.