surviving felarya

Rose sighed she took her sword back and sheathed it "well id like to get away from the plants i don't like the looks there giving m because im the mos edible here besides grip"she says looking around at the plants the vines had startd moving

Adam sighed he saw the dridder crying "look im sorry its just your kind has given me a hard time before its nothing personal but i sill won't come with you"he says a little softer as he slithers towards half doorway

The dridder wiped the tears from her eyes, and said, "Well, I"ll just follow you, then." As she trailed behind Quarus and Adam, she asked, "I don't understand. Why would anyone intentionally devour a sentient being? It's not right!!"

Fenja placed the Sphere down on the ground. Inside, Grip turned a crank, extending three prongs to keep it upright. He then unscrewed the hatch, sitting on the edge. He threw over a rope ladder.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the plants can't get you in here."

He swore he saw one of the plant's lick it's lips. "...So I'd maybe hurry."

Adam sighed he slithered fast in an atempt to lose the dridder "welcome to the real world arachnid out here its eat or be eaten quarus an tell you that i ate and then she forced me to spit her out and im pretty sure there is a larger dridder in here as well that would even atempt to eat you" he says to the dridder

Rose smiled she hoped off narins wing she climbed the rope ladder into the sphere "oh its nice in here"she says smiling

Quarus decided to keep back a little bit, and walked side-by-side with the dridder. The dridder then said, "No, that...that can't be right. I've been with the other members of my race. We've never eaten another sentient, and I don't think we'll be starting now. I mean, my race lives in this pyramid, I should know."

Meanwhile, another dridder that was the same size as the one Quarus and Adam met was walking along the ceiling. It came down from a web line from it's abdomen in front of Fenja's right eye, looking at her.

"Oh...thanks" said Grip as Fenja lifted the Sphere and put it back in her holster.

"Well...this is pretty much it. Not really much room...but I wouldn't make Fenja carry around a whole house..." he said as he screwed shut the hatch.

"Well..." he pointed to the front, with the wide viewing window.

"By the front are the controls. Um...probably best if those are left untouched. To the left of that is my worktable...and to the left of that the shower."

He opened the glass door to the shower. "There's a no fog mirror and a basin in here...they should be working." He turned the basin tap on for a second and was relieved to see water flow. Thank the Books that Fenja remembered to refill the tank.

"And left of that, if you pull it out of the floor, is a fold away toilet."

"And at the back here is my bed...and to the left of that is my reading space...and the rest of the right side is pretty much my bookcase. And then we're back to the panel."

He sat down at the panel after this short tour.

"If you uh, need anything, just ask. Most of it is sort of hard to find. I have alot of my stuff stored under the floor or under the bed. So, I'll find it for you if you need it."

He looked out the window and saw that Fenja had stood up. Fenja and Narin went to hte end of the room and pulled away the vines by the exit. Another dark passage curved down. Hopefully the naga and neera weren't too far...

At that moment, a dridder descended right in front of Fenja's face. The Jotun leapt back a little.

"Hey! Don't scare me like that! Oh...uh...have you seen a neera and a grumpy little naga anywhere?"

Adam stopped he looked at the dridder "so you mean to tell me you have never eaten another living being well thats the fun of it wtching prey struggle for life watching them plead with you,ypu realy need to step out of the pyramid and see what others of your race do they don't just eat naga's and animals they eat each other and humans and neko's as well they say we taste delicous"he says shuddering a little as he explained to the dridder

Rose smiled "hopefully were safe in here it does seem nice just remind me never to be left alone around kenja i don't fully trust her and wouldn't want to be left alone with her"she says smiling

The dridder grimaced at what Adam had said. "I'm fine with the way I am now, thank you." she said.

When Fenja asked if he had seen a neera and a naga, he nodded his head and said, "I'm afraid I haven't. I can check with the rest of my people to see if they have if you'd like."

Adam shrugged "ah well suit yourself arachnid"he says and begins to slither up a corridor until he comes to steps that he knows he will not be able to climb as they are clearly bigger than him he still try to haul himself up it though he struggled to get up the first two steps he looks back at the dridder "you wouldn't happen to know a succubus by any chance do you these carvings say something along that line what do they mean"he says pointing to carvings along the wall

"Hmm." said Grip as he heard Rose mention Fenja. "Well...I can understand your sentiment. I do often forget that she's a predator. Plus, I'm a guy and she tends to stick to eating females." He saw the look on Rose's face."

"You have my word she won't try to eat you. Firstly, your now her friends, pretty much, so that puts you right off the menu...unless you go an be flat out rude to her. If she feel's you've hurt her honour...that's the fastest way to become dinner. And I won't pretend that she hasn't admitted to eating neko's before. But she's not a voracious predator and, like I said, is able to see you totally as a person and not as food. But that's rather beside the point, as we're safest in here anyways."

He noticed a purple flower staring in at them, feebly feeling the window, confused as to why it couldn't reach the tasty snacks inside. Grip castually flipped a swtich and gave the vine a swift electrical shock, sending it hurtling back.

"See what I mean?"

He then heard what the dridder had said.

"Wait...there's a whole colony of dridders down here?"

He didn't say so to avoid scaring Rose, but he was pretty sure now that Adam and Quarus were in a stomach right now.

The two of them sped down the tunnel, Lenarei flying ahead and Trav running behind. They both watched the ground carefully, knowing that Trav could easily tred upon someone now that he rivaled Lenarei’s size.

The tunnel ended before long, and the two of them emerged to find themselves in a large arena, surrounded by a wall. Above the wall was rows and rows of seats arranged in a circle. It looked like the place could hold hundreds of thousands. The arena floor was plain sand, and the surrounding wall and seats were made from stone. The whole place looked ancient, as if it hadn’t been used for ages. Like the courtyard, the arena was open to a starry night sky. There wasn’t another living soul to be seen in the arean, no sign of Narin, Rose, Adam, Quarus, or Grip or Fenja.

“Faith, what be this place?” Trav asked, looking around. “Can yeh see our friends anywhere, Lenarei?”

“No. We might have…made a wrong turn,” Lenarei admitted. “Lets head back.”

“Wait.”

“Trav, did you say something?” Lenarei asked.

“Twas not I,” Trav said.

“Wait. Let me see you,” A voice said. Nearby, a dridder seemed to appear. She was their size, and seemed as ancient as the arena around them, seeming like a spirit or ghost rather than a flesh and blood being. However, she was still beautiful and had pure white hair. Trav spun and yelped at the sight of the dridder, while Lenarei stepped protectively in front of him. But the dridder merely looked at them.

“You are the first new people I’ve seen in over five thousand years…Has the temple manifested itself again?” The dridder phantom asked.

wow..... d.n.a. crstalls the plants the phantom. this seams like a very mysterius temple... that is probbly something interesting inside...

Hearing what Grip said, the dridder brought himself towards Grip's Sphere and replied, "Yes. We have lived here for many, many centuries under the leadership of our kind emporess. If you wish, I can grant you an audience with her. She may know where your friends are." Looking at the dridder, she looked back at the others, and said, "Well, I'm up for it. How about you guys?"

Meanwhile, the dridder who was with Adam and Quarus was looking at the carvings on the wall, and replied, "I...do not. These carvings were here before I was born. The only one who knows what these carvings mean is our emporess. If you want, I can take you to her."

Adam thought about the dridders statement "emperess sure i'd like to see her sounds like it could be an interesting conversation now im under the asumption you empeess is a dridder but she must be pretty big anyway lead the way

"Alright!" said Fenja. "I wanna see what's in here!"

Grip was silent at the controls. He was hesitant to just go and automatically trust these dridders. Even if they weren't carnivorous...who knew how this underground world ran? And if not the dridders, he was sure there were other things down here...perhaps worse than the plants. But for now he had nothing to do but wait as Fenja followed Narin and the dridder.

He looked back at Rose. He had to remind himself he was a sort of host here.

"Well, while we travel, is there anything you need?"

Rose smiled "no there is nothing i need but i would like to meet the empress im just a little concerned as to how big she is if this temple was built for her theen that leads to the assumption that she is pretty big"she says calmly

Hearing Fenja's and Narin's response, the dridder responded "Very well." He then brought himself back up to the ceiling, and replied, "Follow me." He then crawled along the ceiling fast enough so that Fenja and Narin would be able to walk at a leisurely pace, and not have to slow down.

The dridder smiled at Adam and Quarus, and lifted them both onto her abdomen. "Then hold on. It could be a bumpy ride." She then crawled at a somewhat fast pace down the steps that Adam had attempted to go down a little while ago.

"Good point..." replied Grip. The thought of something bigger than Fenja was rather concerning.

"So you don't need anything? Heh. I don't think you've fully registered that you were just eaten by a plant, then put in a harpies' mouth. You look like you've been thrown in a river. And I think you still have some purple stuff in your hair."

Fenja and Narin came to a large door.

"Wait here for a moment." said the dridder. "I will find the gatekeeper."

He scuttled up the wall, into a hole in the wall above the door.

Rose smiled "i said im fine i don't need anything"she says smiling she watches as they stop by a gate "wonder whats in there"

Adam smiled as he was put on the dridders abdomen "well this makes me feel stupid"he says as the dridder goes down the stairs

"Well alright." Grip wondered if he'd insulted her by asking her too much. Damn. This is why he didn't like people in here. Especially females.

He looked out the window as the gates opened. He realized that the dridders couldn't have built this. It seemed they just used the hole in the wall to bypass this part. But something was once here that was big enough to need to use the gate...and who was to say that it was gone. What was most concerning was the sheer size of the door. It dwarfed even the predators. He shivered. Something that big would even consider a harpy or a Jotun a snack, let alone humans and nekos.

The dridder which had guided Narin and the others came to another dridder at the controls of the gate, who looked a little older than him. "I need to see the emporess. There are newcomers here who wish to find their friends." The older dridder's ears perked up when he mentioned newcomers. "Newcomers, you say? Interesting. Her Majesty is currently conversing with two others who are not dridders. Probably with the group you found. Anyway, I'll go ahead and open the gates."

The older dridder then turned a crank, and the other one returned to the group as the gate was opening, coming down onto the floor. "Now stay behind me." As the gate opened, the dridder led the group towards the humongous stadium that Trav and Lenarei were in with the ghostly dridder phantom. The gate that was used was another entrance to the stadium. The other entrance that Trav and Lenarei had gone through could be seen right beside it.

When the dridder had crawled past Trav and Lenarei, he bent down in submission before the phantom, and said, "Forgive me for my intrusion, Your Highness. These newcomers were looking for their friends, and they were wondering if you might help them."

Meanwhile, the female dridder continued to make her way with Quarus and Adam saying, "It'll be some time before we reach the emporess. These walls extend for quite a ways." Hearing Adam's comment, the dridder replied, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong?"

Adam sighed "no no you didn't do anything wrong"he says patting the dridder on the shoulder as they continued on the way
Rose swallowed nervously as they went through the huge gate she had no idea what the emperess looked like and didn't want to say anything wrong.

"Hey look! There's Trave and Lenarei." said Grip.

"And Adam! Hey Adam, is Quarus with you! Geez, why'd you run off? We've been looking for your stupid ass all over this place." said Fenja.

"Fenja" hissed Grip.

"Huh? Ooohhh. Right. Uh, greetings your most...dridderly majesty."

Adam smiled as he saw the others "yeah quarus is here me with the arachnid brought us here as well"he says smiling as he gets off the driders back and slithers over to narin "so were is the arachnid's emperess"he says aloud

Quarus got off the dridder's back, and smiled at her, writing out, 'THANK YOU.' The dridder smiled in response, and gave her a hug before crawling back up the steps, taking her place in one of the seats. Other dridders began to fill in the seats as well, waiting for what their emporess would have to say. When Quarus ran back to Adam's side, she wrote out on the ground, 'THERE.' and pointed towards the dridder phantom before them.

After Quarus showed him who the emporess was, Narin gently scooped them up with her wing, bringing them up to her face, saying softly, "I'm glad you two are safe." She then placed them on top of her head, because she found it to be the best place to put them. As Quarus landed on Narin's head, she made herself comfortable within her hair, looking at the ghostly being who the dridder below had called 'Emporess'.