536 A snake burgular

Hera was walking slowly towards the house that Nimbus saw. Before getting there, they were trying to figure out what this challenge could be, but Hera kept going back to the idea of finding or, more likely, stealing an item. The fact that the guides would be against her was also a very strong indicator for the second option. If it were just about discovering where the object was hidden and retrieving it, then there would be no need for someone to be 'against' her. Adding that to the notification she saw when she stepped out of the fountain, talking about how she had to return there under specific conditions, then it seemed likely that this would require her to grab something and bring it back to the fountain.

"There is another thing. If this is supposed to be a game between us and the guides. Shouldn't they mirror something like an actual game people could play?" Nimbus suggested.

"Could be… So if we consider the box as a hint… then maybe a capture-the-flag scenario? We need to grab the item and then come back to our flag, the fountain," Hera suggested.

"Oooh, that would be fun. We have to find the thing and then run for it," Daskka wagged her tail.

"And we would have an edge if that was the case. As long as we are in an open area, you can just ride on me, and I doubt any of the guides will be able to stop us," Nimbus puffed his chest proudly.

"That's only the case if they don't set up any ambushes. Let's try not to get ourselves overconfident," Hera pushed back a bit, even if she agreed with his idea. If the guides were following the rules, there was no way they could catch up to Nimbus, who could move as fast as a car.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the house Nimbus discovered, but Hera was still trying to play it safe. She removed her earrings and told Scythe to scout ahead while the rest of the blades hid in the tree line.

The house looked strange. It wasn't round, nor square, nor rectangular, yet it somehow felt right. There was nothing around it that might make it stand out from the scenery aside from the tower, but that was only true when one would get close to it. If they were far away, the building would stick out like a sore thumb.

Their scouting turned out to be successful. There were no guards on the walls or patrolling the grounds, so the group decided to risk it and enter the property. They made sure to stay alert, though, for those guards could suddenly appear behind them without warning. Slowly, Hera approached the house while keeping her blades on high alert. The door was made out of wood against a stone frame, but there were some gaps to allow air to pass by. But to her luck, that wasn't the only thing that could pass through it.

"Daskka, are you ready?"

"I am mum!" Daskka gave a small salute before going inside to see if there were any traps or if the door was locked. She turned her entire body into mist and popped inside the house without a worry.

'You could become an excellent thief, my Empress. Also, we should communicate like this to avoid making too much noise,' Nimbus smiled at Hera.

She smirked back at him and nodded, 'Just remember that you're talking to your Empress, even if I am a thief,' Hera chuckled.

A few seconds later, Daskka came back outside after a small noise was heard coming from the door.

"Everything is clear. But I can't open the door alone," Daskka flew back to Hera's shoulders.

'Ok. Let's go, then. Also, don't speak up, Daskka. You know Peaches and the other guides can hear you when you use the Naga part of you to talk.'

Daskka nodded as Hera turned the knob and slowly went inside the house. Just like the outside, this place was strange. Every single piece of furniture was different from one another, and their placement was simply awful. Right in front of the door, there was an iron stove with a small stone chair in front of it. To the side, there was a bookcase with several small plants and tiny tables, almost like a doll house. Hera was feeling weird in this place, maybe it was because of the number of strange decoration choices, but it was as if her mind couldn't process everything that was going on here. It was too much information, and she ended up just tuning most of it out.

'Empress?' Nimbus placed one hand on Hera's shoulder to help her gather herself.

'Yeah, it's just... a lot,' Hera shook her head and looked around until she spotted something that caught her eye. A painting hung next to the window depicted a woman wearing white robes with a golden sash around her waist, holding a scythe in one hand and a sword in the other. But the interesting part was the background. Behind her were some trees, but the trunks were covered in scales and not bark, 'Ok, I'm seeing way too many of those things. It has to be related to the challenge, right?'

'It seems likely. Maybe we need to find a fish tree? Or a tree fish?' Nimbus looked around.

'I don't think it will be something big. The box we saw was what? This size?' Daska used her mist to create a shoebox, and Hera nodded, confirming that the size should match the sculpture, 'Yeah. So it shouldn't be a tree, but maybe a knick-knack.'

'Also. I don't think we are in the right place. If we were, the guides should have appeared. I don't think they will be waiting for us to complete the first part of the challenge to show up,' Hera started walking towards the hallway. She looked inside every room in the house, and they all had this weird clutter and overbearing feeling to them. That was true for all floors of the house, and neither her [Inspect] nor her [Observe] were giving her any information about these objects.

After passing the second floor, Hera headed downstairs, where she found a room she had missed. In the kitchen, there was a sink full of dirty dishes, and below it, there was a thin wooden box. When Hera opened it, she saw some small crystal sculptures resembling trees. She inspected each of them carefully, but despite the uniqueness of each them, none seemed to be the item she looking for. Suddenly Hera stopped and turned to Daskka Nimbus and the rest of her court, who were all searching the kitchen for anything.

'Am I really this stupid?'

'You are not stupid,' Armory huffed from the top of her head.

'Why are you saying that?' Nimbus asked.

'Yarnball. I didn't even consider asking it,' Hera replied.

'Yeah, but what would you ask? Where is the item?' Daskka popped from inside one of the cabinets.

'No. I was just going to confirm what the challenge is. We are going to the assumption that we need to steal something, but what if it isn't?'

'It's a good call. But I think you should use all the mana in your belt and not your own. To be safe,' Nimbus added.

Hera smiled and pulled Yarnball. Pumping all the 20 thousand mana into it and then asking, "What is the objective of this challenge I'm currently doing?"

The screen by the side of her relic turned on, and a few words appeared on the screen.

'Find and retrieve the protected item.'

'Ok then. We weren't wrong,' Hera gave her court a bittersweet smile. It was nice to know they were on the right track, but knowing that she essentially wasted her question wasn't the best feeling.

'So the item is protected? That is not exactly good,' Frost spoke up while opening one of the cabinets under the sink.

'Yeah. We might need to look somewhere else,' Core added.

'Ok. Let me just put those things back. I don't want to end up stepping on them,' Hera leaned over the wooden box and noticed that the bottom seemed to be a bit off. She tested it out, and it was a couple of centimeters too high, 'Daskka, come over here. Can you try to get under this? I think it's a fake bottom.'

Daskka quickly moved inside and pushed a layer of wood out of the box, revealing a hidden hatch underneath it. Even better, this hatch was unlocked. Hera pulled it open, revealing some stairs leading down to what should be the basement. Since the sink above this box was very tall, she could go down without a problem, and that's exactly what she did.

'Weird,' Scythe mumbled as they moved from the kitchen into the basement.

'What is?' Nimbus asked.

'There are no traps in the house. None at all. And the only way to access this level is through the secret hatch in the kitchen. You would think that something like this would either have an actual lock or some traps.'

'Maybe we got lucky,' Hera finished climbing down the stairs and saw that now she was in a very wide room. It looked very much like a dungeon. No windows, no doors, just a massive room filled with pillars that should be supporting the house. A few torches were spread around, giving some light to Hera, and a corridor filled with burning lights was far on the opposite end of this place.

'Or it would have someone protecting this place,' Frost said as he came down the hatch. The moment he finished speaking, Hera and all of her court were staring daggers at him, 'What?'

'Look. You are new here, so let me tell you a rule we have,' Daskka approached the glaive, 'WE DO NOT RAISE FLAGS!'

'But... why is that a problem?'

As if to answer his question, a loud rumble was heard, followed by metal dragging through stone echoing in the room.

'That's why! It never fails. We raise a flag, and it happens,' Daskka gasped and approached Hera, trying to see if it was a trap or an enemy.

Hera triggered her sensory net, trying to cover all the room. From the two corners in front of her, two large figures were approaching. They were humanoid, or at least human-shaped. But as they emerged from the darkness, Hera recognized them. They were the statues that were around the fountain. Looking at one was like staring at a child gleefully playing while the other looked like a beast mad with rage. However, they were not quite like the statues. The happy one seemed to have some fur and a wold head design on the chest. Looking at the pants, she could also see that they seemed to be wearing armor only on one leg, while the other was naked from her upper thigh down, and they had a chained mace on their hand. The angry one had a pair of lizard heads on the shoulders, lightning in the chest, and some fur around the neck and shoulders. The pants seemed a bit puffy, but on top of the helmet was a cap with a straight visor, some sparkles, and the word 'Shine' written on it in big letters all across the crown. This angry armor was dragging a heavy two-handed sword with one hand, but it stopped and pulled it up while using its other hand to maintain a fighting pose.

"When you said I might be able to recognize you, I didn't expect it to be so obvious, Talpa," Hera turned to the armor with the chained mace, who just nodded in response, "And I never pegged you for the angry type, Nina," the armor with the two-handed sword shrugged while still on its fighting pose. Then gestured to her mouth and shook her head, "So you can't speak? Ok, I guess asking you to let me pass won't work either."

Both of them nodded and tightened their grip on the weapons. Hera told her court to get ready for a fight and smiled at the two kobolds who were currently controlling the armors, "Ladies, let's dance!"