Jungle Excavation! The Mystery of the Serpent's Shrine! (Mak, Lapin, Kinny)

[Lapin Chéri]

Amiga raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps... we should go lookin' for em'."

She looked around at the others for confirmation.

[kinnykat]

Marie listened quietly to Haden. It was a little interesting.

 After Emmett spoke up, she frowned slightly. "Hmm...we should definitely go check things out. It's way too quiet out there," she said, standing up to leave the tent.

[makuta15]

Outside the tent, the camp was covered in eerie stillness. Many of the lamps that would have brought light to the clearing were dark with their owners not yet back to light them. A few watchmen and aides poked around nervously, looking around for their missing companions. No one seemed to want to get too close to the sloping path that led down to the temple's yawning mouth. Except...

There seemed to be someone near the entrance. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but some shadow seemed to be silhouetted against the temple arch. It seemed to give an unsteady jerk, then vanished inside.

Haden and Emmett exchanged anxious looks. The elf seemed flabbergasted. "What...was...that?"

Emmett didn't answer. He addressed the Sanctum's agents instead. "Amiga...Marie. You two are the experts here. What do you think we should -"

The archaeologist cut off abruptly, spinning around as a large rustling filled the excavation: the sound of hundreds upon hundreds of scales sliding against each other as every snake in camp began to stir at once. In an eerily synchronized fashion, each snake stirred, uncoiled itself, and then rose to its full height and stared straight ahead with glittering eyes. Dozens of snakes, standing perfectly still...watching.

Waiting.

[Lapin Chéri]

Amiga fought to keep her heartbeat steady, and her face impassive, even though every hair stood on end and her blood was running like ice through her veins.

She took in all the signs, and made a few calculations.  "Wahl..." she cleared her throat.  "Someone... or somthin' is controlling every snake in the vicinity.  It's got em' actin together, which means a person, somone powerful n' smart.  Your workers aint back, and some sentry's watchin' the dig down there."

"So I reckon this here's a hostage situation.  Someone else has a claim to the site and its treasures, and has got the upper hand, and our people."

"So we gotta negotiate, leastways I don't see we got much of a choice.  What's in the camp that's valuable?  We should take some and see if we can start an exchange in good faith, and scope out the competition at the same time."

"Lessen' y'all think we can fight a' hundred of them snakes."

[kinnykat]

"I can guarantee we can't fight all those snakes. However, whatever is down there isn't fully human and I doubt they'll want anything we have other than us. I say we go down there and see if we can enter," Marie said, on guard. She watched the snakes carefully and took just a single step toward the temple.

[makuta15]

Emmett seemed torn, stepping hesitantly toward Marie only to stop and turn back to the others in the tent.

"Ah, Marie, really, it can't be safe..." he called out before turning to Amiga and shrugging helplessly. Haden simply glared in disapproval.

"You're simply going to let her go out there?"

Emmett shook his head.

"I...she knows what she is doing, I'm sure! We requested aid for these kinds of emergencies, and she is who the Sanctum sent!" His voice had a high, constricted note to it, though.

"Amiga." Emmett turned to her again before Haden could interrupt. "We have a tent where we have been storing the relics we have gathered. Maybe we can return some as collateral? If...if your friend hasn't gone too far..."

And with that, the poor man ducked his head back outside, as though worried that Marie might have vanished the moment the tent flap closed behind her.

[Lapin Chéri]

Amiga sighed as Marie left impulsively to go directly confront the adversary.

"Lemme have the latest item of interest, I'd best get on after her."

She did a quick search through the dig items for something that looked valuable and could be carried.  Snaring one, she would head off after Marie.

[kinnykat]

Marie stood outside the tent, tapping her foot. "I love how you all assume that I just go into the temple without you. I'm not nuts. Let's go, " she said and began to move toward the temple again.

[makuta15]

"Ah - but that's the Serpent's Eye! It's worth a fortune in historical significance alone! Think of...oh..."

Emmett's voice trailed off as Amiga rushed out of the tent with the large, gold-encrusted ruby in her hand.

***

The night air was oddly quiet as the two heroes moved forward. Snakes lined the sides to the path down to the temple mouth, standing upright as sentinels while their massed brethren knotted and coiled along the brush. There didn't seem to be much chance of heading back to the village now; the clearing was entirely ringed in by serpents. While the party had been debating in the tent, someone else had been busy - the sconces at the mouth of the temple were now lit, guiding the Sanctum's representatives down to where the ancient stones waited. Even the stone carvings and frescoes in the temple arch seemed to come alive in the ruddy light, flickering and sliding about as if to oppose their stock-still living kin.

A huffing and panting behind them would call Amiga and Marie's attention back to the path. There, poor Emmett tried to catch his breath, winded from the downhill jog. The stare of a hundred serpents probably did not help matters, either.

"Wait...wait...I'll come with you," he panted.

***

In Amiga's hand, the Serpent's Eye quivered, just once, as it drew nearer to the temple.

[Lapin Chéri]

Amiga waited, with a nod to Emmett as he joined them.  She wasn't sure how the scholar could help, but you never knew.  Her gaze flicked over the mouth of the temple, to see if the inside was lit as well.  If not, she would light a torch of her own from one of the lit sconces.

"Who was in the missing party, Emmett?  Do you remember their names?"

[kinnykat]

Marie rolled her eyes as Emmett decided to join them. "I have a feeling this'll be more dangerous than the snake we encountered, Emmett. Are you sure you want to come with us?" She asked quietly. She was eager to get into the temple.

[makuta15]

"Well, I hardly think it's much safer out there with all the snakes!" Emmett's tone toward Marie was lightly chiding, like a professor to his petulant student, but his voice was stretched with thinly disguised anxiety, and the joke fell flat. Stepping ahead, he peered into the murky gloom that consumed the path into the temple's chambers.

"Anyway, I've been studying these ruins for months, and the local civilizations for years. If you two just go charging ahead blindly, I fear you'd find yourselves lost...or worse," he finished, pulling a length of rope and few torches out from his pack. Although well-meaning, his wispy frame did bear the question if he could actually use any of the tools he had thrown together at the last minute. Still, something was better than nothing, right?

"The workers who were in here were our crew of excavators," he told Amiga as he handed her a torch. "They should know their way around, even under...er, circumstances such as these. I'm afraid I never really mingled with the workaday crew..."

Emmett quickly turned around, looking everything over one more time. And another. Just to make certain they had everything they needed. The ruby Amiga carried sparked off the dying firelight once more. Standing outside like this...was becoming uncomfortable. They had to go in!

That's why they were here, after all.