Into the Unknown

Diane and Elaine are in a fairly even battle with the strange lion and dog-like beasts. Oddly, the beasts both seem to be getting stronger the longer they fight, while the girls are getting exhausted. Herman, meanwhile, seems to have wondered off without offering them any assistance.

The creatures have several types of attacks, including fire, lighting, and wind. A combined wind and lightning attack overwhelm Elaine, causing her to crash into the forest and leaving her injured with blood pouring from her skull. Diane has had enough and goes into her dance, gathering power from the earth and sky, and charges the energy into multiple lighting attacks through Gideon. Both of the creatures are stuck, explode into sparkling dust, the turn back into statues, taking their previous places at the building's entrance.

Diane checks on Elaine and helps bandage her head.

"Can you stand."

"Yes, it's not that bad."

"That was creepy. I've never seen statues come to life before."

"We're definitely not in Britianna anymore. Diane, do you hear that?"

They hear movement from the forest, as in something, or someone, sneaking around. At first, they assume it might be Herman playing a trick on them, but then two people (female?) in strange oversized, bagging clothes and extremely long hair in ponytails, jump out and attack them with strange cards.

"Akuryo begone! (Evil Spirit Begone)

The cards land on both of their foreheads, but they have no effect on them. The attackers look surprised, then they jump high up and throw powder on the girls, repeating the same words; "Akuryo begon!" Diane tries to assure them that they don't mean any harm, but they don't understand her words, and attempt to attack again, this time with three cards a piece. Both girls get hit with three cards, this time pinning Elaine firmly to the ground. Diane feels as if she has a giant blue whale on top her, but she struggles to hold herself up, then she feels a sting in her back. Elaine's able to see a glowing arrow has pierce into her sister-in-law's back, and Diane can feel the pain spreading throughout her body, like poison. A third attacker, holding a bow, joins the other two and they talk amongst themselves. Diane feels her body getting weaker, but manages to grab Elaine, undoing the spell. The attackers look stunned and seem to have more tricks up their sleeves, but then something else catches their attention. They look at the strangers, then head in the opposite direction. Feeling a sinister energy, Elaine tries her best to push Gideon towards Diane. She's barely able to move it, but it's just enough for Diane to reach it, breaking the spell and allowing her to get up.

The ground is shaking, even seems to be breathing. The girls soon find the three natives in battle with a strange beast, which looks part human and part spider. While the natives have magical items, they fight mostly with their own physical abilities it seems, using sharp moves of agility and weaponry styles that neither Britannian girl has ever seen. They also remain stoically calm throughout the battle. They seem to have the upper hand until a second beast joins the fight, quickly turning the tables. Diane jumps in front of the natives and activates her heavy metal, taking the sharp attacks of the beasts. One beast then notices a small child in the shadows watching the fight and goes after her, but Elaine notices and saves the child, then proceeds to attack the beasts. Diane finishes the job with her "Crush Rock" attack. Spear rocks easily pierce the humanoid spider beasts, who shrivel way into dust. The natives look on with awe as Diane suddenly succumbs to the poison and collapses.

Later, the fairy and giant, the latter brought down to human size, are inside the house, being tended to. Relucted to trust the strangers at first, Elaine gives in and allows them to treat her wounds, really having no other option. They'd already given Diane something to counteract the poison, allowing her to recover quickly. It turns out that two of their original attackers are guys. Both girls are shocked by the fact that these baby-faced ambiguous looking young men wear 'dresses' (although they might be robes) and have extremely long hair down to below their knees. The one with the bow and arrows is a woman, yet that was hard to tell at first due to her oversized, baggy robes and the guys having a very similar appearance to her. There's also an old woman who seems to be in charge, as well as three small children, two identical twin boys and a girl (they think). The younger woman, who appears to be in her twenties, draws a hot, steamy bath for their guests. Deciding to take their chances, they both undress and get into the bath. The water is hot, yet just right, and special soap and minerals have been added. They soon forget their troubles and relax. Once they've finished, the native lady returns with towels and fresh clothes. Elaine and Diane are dumbstruck by all the clothing items (maybe one of the robes is used for sleeping) and how they're supposed to wear them. They are both thinking that these clothes are several human sizes too big, especially Diane, who's used to wearing form fitting leotards or very short dresses.

The native lady watches them in amusement, shaking her head and helps them get dress. They're supposed to put white slips on first, which is fine with Elaine as she normally wears slips. Over that goes a white robe with extremely over-sized, baggy sleeves held in place by a thick sash. They thought that was it when yet another white robe is put on top of that with another sash. Finally, a red skirt for Diane (blue for Elaine) goes on over all that, like an apron tied from both the front and the back. Diane and Elaine look at each awkwardly. Elaine, with her short stature, feels a little stiff in the multiple layers and sashes, even though the clothes are soft and airy.

"What would Ban think of this? I look like a boy!"

Diane especially feels awkward. "I don't think I've every worn this many clothes in my life period. I've never even worn this many layers during the winter. And that lady was fighting in all this stuff?" Their hostess then puts long, extremely thick white socks on their feet (but no shoes), and finally, she ties their hair back into loose ponytails with hair sashes tied down the middle of their hair length. Diane doesn't think she's ever worn her hair back like this, and it's much harder to find her hair to habitual twist it like she usually does. The native woman steps back and gives a nod of approval. She then goes to the door and gestures for them to follow her. She takes them to a bigger room; unlike anything they've ever seen before.

"Where's the furniture?" wonders Diane. The other members of the household come in, the old lady sneering at them in a creepy way. Then to the giant and fairy's shock, they all sit on the floor, or rather floor mats, at an extremely low table, just a few inches off the ground, and gesture for the girls to take a set. They do so, feeling like they're having an indoor picnic. This is confirmed when bowls filled with food are brought out. Both of their stomachs grumble. Two bowls each are placed in front of them, as well as napkins and two small sticks. They stare at the food. One bowl contains what looks like some kind of vegetable soup, the other bowl contains what looks like some kind of white grains (rice), with half of a boiled egg on top.

"Where's the spoons?" asks Elaine.

"And the drinks?" adds Diane.

They are then surprised to see that their host are eating with their sticks. Diane and Elaine give each other strange looks. Elaine picks up her sticks and attempts to pick up some food with them, to no avail. The men are too busy eating to really notice, but the women and children look at them strangely. Diane sticks one of the sticks through one of the vegetables in the soup and smiles, but then it falls off the stick. She then puts her stick down and picks up the bowl.

"Forget it, I'm going to do what the captain does." She drinks the contents from her bowl.

"Diane, that's bad manners;" scolds Elaine.

"What am I supposed to do? They didn't give us any utensils."

There's talk around the table, yet their hosts smile at them and nod.

GROWL! Elaine finally gives in and picks up her bowl to drink. Diane looks at the bowl of rice and looks at her sticks. The native woman gets her attention by tapping on the table and demonstrates how to use the sticks. Diane picks them up, briefly stares at them, then drops them. She decides to eat the rice with her hands, much to the shock of their hosts.

Just then, one of the men gets up and goes outside. He returns with Herman, who has changed his clothes in a poor attempt to look like their hosts.

"Where have you been?" Elaine asks sternly.

"Thanks a lot for helping us earlier;" adds Diane sarcastically.

Herman just smiles at them, then tries to talk to the man, who just slaps him.

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Willie has spent most of the morning surveying the landscape. He doesn't believe he's been to this part of the Sahara, assuming they're not in Egypt but further west, in Libya or maybe even Algeria or Niger. Nuri should know, but she hasn't returned. He examines the salt on the way back to the mosque, there's so little left that he's not sure if there's enough to transport two of them, much less three. The middle of the desert isn't the most stable environment either, but there seems to be more favorable energies coming from the north. It would be a safer bet to head that direction and get as close as possible to that better mana atmosphere by nightfall.

Willie enters the half of the mosque that's still intact to discover Meliodas still asleep. He takes out his notepad to make notes of the area and figure out which direction would be best to go. Several minutes go by when he decides to take a drink of his fig juice. He picks up the bottle and opens it, thinking for just a split second that it didn't seem quite that full when he took it out, and takes a sip. It tastes HORRIBLE! He spits it out with a long gasp. He sniffs it and it smells funky. He can hear snickering from behind the rubble.

"MELIODAS!"

The demon emerges from behind the rubble, laughing. "Yo Willie, man you should've seen your face."

Willie glances at the bottle; "How did, when? What the heck is in here?"

"Serves you right for not paying attention to your stuff;" Meliodas can barely retain his laughter; "Just added a little, bodily fluid to the juice is all."

Willie makes a face and hurries to find his mouth wash, gargling his mouth out several times.

"Why would you do something like that, you sicko?!"

Meliodas is still giggling; "Opportunity presented itself. Hard to tell mixed in with that fig juice, right?"

Willie then notices what Meliodas is eating. "Hey, are those my raisons and almonds?" He searches his satchel and discovers all the food is gone, even the taffy. "How? I had my bag right next to me!"

"Pays to have a best friend who's a professional theft;" Meliodas snickers; "Although it's a miracle that I was able to swallow that taffy and keep from throwing-up."

Willie angrily throws his satchel, hitting Meliodas, to no avail of course; "I don't believe this, you're far worse than Herman."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Oh, look here." Meliodas picks up one of the eggs, somewhat awkwardly having to use his non-dominate right hand; "Check out the size of these bad boys! Must be small dragon eggs."

Willie shakes his head; "They're ostrich eggs."

Meliodas doesn't even know what an ostrich is. "Whatever;" he places it in front of Willie; "Here, get to cooking. "

Willie gives a strange look. "I don't know what to do with that thing."

"You're kidding right?"

"I don't cook eggs; I burn them and turn them into charred rubber. You can't cook either I'm assuming."

Meliodas puts one of his arms behind his head and grins sheepish. "What makes you assume I can't?"

"Don't try playing those 'Oh I can cook' tricks on me, I'm used to them. That's why I carry nonperishable food items that don't need to be cooked."

Meliodas's stomach growls again. "Well, let's try together. Better for it to taste horrible then to have an empty stomach."

"Forget it. Best to wait for Nuri."

Meliodas feels like threatening the guy, but picks up the egg; "Fine, I'll do myself. Maybe it'll be better to drink the yoke raw." Suddenly, the egg is snatched from him, it's Nuri. She quickly cracks open the egg and perfectly cooks the six cups of yoke with her own fire before it even hits the ground, then she shapes the cooked egg into 10 normal size omelets, adding some honey to them. Meliodas quickly devours all 10 omelets and ask for more. Nuri rolls her eyes, but dose the other egg, setting aside a couple omelets for herself and Willie. The monk's reluctant to eat an egg omelet on a Wednesday as Egyptian Coptic Christians usually fast from all animal products and consume a vegan diet on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, despite the fact that they are currently in a non-fast season post Easter. Plus, fast rules don't apply at all in emergency situations like this.

When Willie's less than half finished with the omelet, he notices Meliodas eyeing it. "Are you going to finish that?" Willie gladly gives him the rest, receiving a "Gur" from Nuri.

Meliodas then eyes Nuri's omelet, she responds by growling at him and gets up, taking her food with her.

"Leave her along Meliodas;" says Willie; "How can you possibly still be hungry?"

"Well, I am;" answers the dragon sin rubbing his stomach. "Hey Willie, I just realized something. When Nuri talks to me, I can understand her, well sort of, but when she talks to you I can't. Yet I still can understand you when you talk, to her, but not her to you. Am I making sense?"

Willie rolls his eyes; "That's because she's speaking British, or Britannian, to you, but she's speaking Arab to me."

"Then why are you speaking to her in Britannian?"

"I'M NOT!" Willie stands up agitated; "You're under the spell of the amulet, you hear every word I'm saying in your native language, but I'm actually speaking Arabic. She hears me in the language I'm actually speaking. If I turn that amulet off, you'd hear me in Arabic again, like you did when we first met yesterday."

Meliodas thinks he gets it; "Oh I see. Or hear that is. You mean she actually knows two whole languages? How's that possible? She must be as smart as Merlin."

Willie shakes his head; "She is extremely smart, but you don't have to be that smart to know multiple languages. She knows several, actually. I know both Latin and Greek myself, and different Arabic delicts."

Meliodas is amazed, and baffled. "OK. How many languages are on Earth?

"I don't know. Hundreds, maybe thousands."

Meliodas freaks out; "Are you kidding me? How big is the Earth? How many people are out there?"

"If you're referring to all of mankind (humans, giants, fairies, demons, etc), probably billions."

Meliodas gasp. Not much surprises him anymore, in Britannia at least, but this new information sure does.

"Man, I had no idea Earth was so large and vast."

"Much of which hasn't even been explored;" adds Willie; "especially the oceans."

"And you're a human, right? Not some other race?"

Willie shakes his head; "Yes! I told you last night I'm human."

It's just that you've got a mysterious aura I've never felt before, is all, even for a human mage."

"That may be because I'm from Egypt."

Meliodas goes into his causal pose; "What about your friends, are they human?"

"Sort of. Nuri's a vulacish and Herman's a harpy."

A funny look appears on the dragon sin's face. "A harpy? Him? I thought Harpy's were these beautiful, half-human, half-bird female creatures with hot bodes."

"They're not all females. My stepdad's a harpy. How do you think they reproduce?"

"Good point. What did you say Nuri was?"

"A vulacish."

Nuri is standing behind Meliodas; "Oh, yo Nuri."

Nuri's holding two cups containing a dark-colored beverage and offers one to Meliodas.

"Oh, thanks. What is this, tea?"

"Coffee."

Meliodas is puzzled; "What's that? Is it like tea? Does it have alcohol?"

"No and no. I assume you might want cream and sugar in it."

Meliodas' eyes light up; "You've got cream and sugar? Absolutely!"

He ends up drinking 6 cups, after which Nuri refuses to make anymore and packs her stuff. Willie does the same, informing Nuri of the more stable mana he felt earlier, which she's already aware of. She then informs that there's a caravan station in that direction, which would take several hours to reach on foot. She agrees to travel with them, needing to conserve her energy anyway, which she seldom needs to do, except when she's been away from lava for so many weeks.

As they exit the mosque, Nuri and Willie both cover their heads and faces, then put on dark shades. They throw a cloak to Meliodas, who just stares it.

"Are you kidding me? It's hot out here."

"You better cover up;" says Willie, "Or you'll burn up in this heat."

Meliodas shakes his head and throws it back; "No way. I'm already hot and sweaty. Besides, I don't burn."

"You'll be changing your mind later, believe me."

"We'll see about that."

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Merlin, King, and Gelda travel through the base of the cold mountains. While there's not much snow on the ground, there's a lot of ice and sleet. They are all chilled to the bone, trying to conserve their energy for as long as possible. Gelda is thirsty but tries not to show it to the two Sins, who had both offered her their own blood, but she refused. Merlin and King have thrown-up everything they've attempted to eat and feel very nausea and weak. They've all been coughing badly, and may be running high fevers, especially Gelda. Merlin explains they may be suffering from high altitude sickness, since they were literally dumped at this altitude and their bodies have had no time at all to adjust. Merlin has traveled to the Himalayas several times before, but this area she's unfamiliar with.

Merlin's also replaying the previous night's events in her mind, especially unexpectedly meeting her sister for the first time in over 3,000 years. She's not surprised that she was angry and bitter, but where has her soul been this whole time? She had the aura and power of a vulacish, yet despite the fact that she was speaking Egyptian Arab and wearing the clothing of a Middle Easterner, her features fall between those of people from the far southeastern islands of the Pacific and eastern Asia.

King suddenly realizes that Gelda isn't beside them. They have to back track several yards before they find her face down on the icy ground. The vampire is looking dangerously pale. They must get her warmed up and give her some blood. Merlin keeps a flame going for 30 minutes while King transports Gelda on his Chastiefol pillow. Unfortunately, Merlin's magic and energy is running extremely low. On top of that, she senses predators following them, spotting a couple of snow leopards. While ordinary animals would normally be no problem to them, as weak and as sick as they are, if they don't keep moving, they may be at the animal's mercy.

Soon, the wind picks up and it starts to rain, very cold rain and sleet. King flies as high as he can, gasping for breath and energy the higher he goes. He notices a cave on a nearby mountain and they head towards it. The wind picks up more and more, the rain turns into a snowstorm, and rocks start flying towards them. King activates his Chastiefol barrier for protection. He tries to take them towards the cave, but the wind gets stronger and stronger, the rocks turn into boulders, and the mountain itself seems to be shaking. Merlin adds perfect cube and Gelda awakens, but she's too weak to be of any help. A shadow suddenly appears over the mountain, blocking out the sun, and the mountain attacks grow even more violent. Worst yet, they see an avalanche coming.

King has had enough; "I think maybe we should get off this mountain."

Merlin has no choice but to agree. They move away from the mountain and almost in an instant everything stops. Naturally, Merlin's curious about that mountain, but she'll have to think about that later.

They finally find a safe cave on another mountain. In fact, there are several square openings on the side of the mountain, and seem to be man-made rooms, although they appear abandoned now. There are strange painting and writings on the walls. They also find some old broken pottery and what looks like an old oven fire pit. Merlin successfully starts a fire and all three gather around to warm up. They are all so drained. Once again, the Sins offer Gelda their blood. She's very relucent at first, especially since neither has been able to keep any food down. She finally agrees to take a couple of swallows of King's blood, since fairies' blood is much more nutritious and filling then Merlin's human blood, plus King shouldn't have any ill effects from just losing a little bit of blood. King pours his blood into what looks like an old cup, although he notices it's coming out slower than it normally would. When Gelda drinks it, she notices that the blood is unusually thick and can barely swallow it.

Once she gets warmed up, Merlin intends to search for herbs. Maybe she can make a remedy for their sickness if she can find some. Both King and Gelda soon fall asleep, but Merlin decides to remain awake. Before long, a real deep growl sound is heard. It's the type that must belong to an animal, yet Merlin can't identify it. It seems to be coming from a connecting room. She walks up her companions and they get on their guard as the grunts get closer and closer, until a pair of yellow eyes and a large, hairy, creature emerges from the darkness.