Shaman Ghila

It was dark and cold in the winding black tunnels, they split and traced in seemingly every direction, and while Griff was no navigator, she usually got around fine. Not in this black maze, however. time felt abstract here, and carrying Nero's huge form was getting tiring, even for a Litchen with four arms and a Mysterian Warrior of Griff's strength.

Things seemed more than a little bleak, Fiore was exhausted, Griff was irritated, and it seemed that no matter how many thousands of steps they tracked, they only trekked deeper into the womb of that black, rocky labyrinth.

But things always like to change when you don't expect it.

"This... is... ridiculous." Griff voice breathlessly. They had come into a hideous maw of a cavern, Griff wielding a torch that she'd only just manage to construct with Creation, and in that huge space of jagged rocks and great gnarled stone pillars, that a harsh thump echoed in the darkness.

Twisting around furiously, Griff beheld an **** Nero on top of a brutally tired Fiore, whose eyes opened and closed weakly. Griff had seen this before in soldiers bereft of food and drink, stuck in trenches whose surface was torn apart by gunfire. The darkened bags on her sleepless eyes and the gentle quivering of her shivering body.

Naturally, she rushed to them both, pulling Nero from Fiore who was still, for now, the quivering had stopped, even so, Fiore's face was distorted just like his as she knelt beside her. Griff understood, growling "Ah, you idiot... You've been trying to leech his seizures away haven't you?"

Fiore smiled weakly at Griff "H-He... is... more important than... F-Fiore, l-leave her behind-d-d... g-get to the Blood of the warrior..."

"I am not gonna do that, Fiore. Just take a minute and we can-" Scuttling, rushing that disturbed the silence, it's echo distorted as it brushed against' Griff's ears. She gripped her sword, damn it, she couldn't see a thing with just this torch. "You hear that?" She asked.

No response.

Griff growled as she saw Fiore, out could as she lent against a rock beside the resting Nero. There it was again, fast and insidious, the sound of bare feet darting in the surrounding shadows. She drew her sword this time, called for Animo, it did not answer, her inner power was as an unfed furnace, cold and empty. "Who's there?" Griff called. lowering her blade slightly "I didn't mean to scare you, can you help us? My friend is exhausted, the other is unwell, please I beg of y---"

The steel was cold as it pressed against her throat, soft enough to warn, hard enough to easily cut into her jugular; practised hands. Griff guessed a spear, the blade was short but serrated, and she'd feel its bite if she even moved an inch.

"The Devil begs?" The voice was low, no more than a whisper, the tongue was Latin, but the tone was accented with that odd rising and falling kitchen dialect.

Griff dropped her sword and raised her hands "There... I mean you no harm. nice and easy."

"What harm would you be doing to me? bladeless and witless as you are?"

"You'd be surprised what I'd risk keeping those two safe." Griff muttered, wincing as the barbed body of the blade slightly cut into her neck.

There was a pause. The Presence behind her was collecting, observing, doubtlessly casting her eyes upon Nero and Fiore. "Who those two? Why does Devils travel with Litch-folk?"

Griff huffed, there was a good chance that she'd die in these caves, but she always did flourish when escape was but a floating memory. "You're Ghila, aren't you? Cheif Ulsa's Mother, the Shaman? I heard talk of you in Fallgrim."

The Figure swiveled around, her blade remaining spitefully present at her throat, as Griff saw the woman on the other end of the spear. Shaman Ghila was small built Litchen woman, she wore a tight gown of black fur that hugged her petite form carefully, she was fit and agile looking, though her face told another tale. The smooth orange of her face was smooth up save for the prominent crows feet closing in on her small nose, her eyes were slightly wrinked and bagged, the iris seemed to gleam an insectoid Black as she stared, her long matted hair was a strange off-pink mixed with tufts of grey, her headdress wrapped it all into a strange splaying formation that almost resembled a tree.

"You lie." She hissed, the tribal tattoos running up her jaw writhing as her jaw tensed "Ulsa-cheif would not be welcoming the likes of you into the hoard, speak of your purpose, or I'll paint the sacred ground with your blood."

Damn it Griff think, think! "My name is Griffin of Blades, I came to the Eye of Ares to fulfil the prophecy of Vaako Volukar, I know you were there, lurking around the battle, I thought sense something off."

Ghila was silent.

"That girl there Is Okku-fioremika, Your Grandaughter, I guess you haven't met?"

The Shaman's eyes flickered to Fiore before starting back again coldly.

"And that male, there, is Vaako-Volukar, the War-wolf, our son of War." Ghila looked like she might speak but- "...Before you speak, I want you to consider if I am right, sure if I'm wrong then it's just a couple of your mortal enemies scamming you, but we'll die in the desert without assistance. But if I am right... and He is our Messiah, then you would be the one remembered as the Litchen that doomed us all. Make the right choice." Griff smiled, damn she was good.

Ghila's eyes narrowed, surveying, calculating, and eventually, she lowered blade, though she might as well still be threating with those eyes of hers. "The Sphinka that crashed in here, Ulsa-cheif gave them?"

"Yes! do you know where they are?"

"Down the north tunnels they rushed, Ghila-Shaman

Ghilla moved towards Fiore and Griff went to follow, only to have the blade look at her again "No. stay were Ghila-Shaman can see you, no back walking."

Griff nodded, this woman was odd, she seemed a little crazy, in the paranoid sense. though she crouched beside Fiore, touching at her white hair and feeling the Mysteria tattoos with her bottom pair of arms, before silently and easily hoisting the girl up on her shoulder. "Bring the Devil-Male, and speak to Ghila-Shaman of your truth, lie and I tie you in the desert, This storm is fierce."

Griff picked up and sheathed her beloved blade, before struggling to heave Nero up on her shoulder "Sorry, Stud, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.