[Lawtan]

There was a sound in her darkness, a scraping of carapace on calcified marble. Kadia woke, startled to find herself laying askew – a marionette – on a tiled floor, a black moss growing over it. Kadia touched her back head, hair clotted and sticky. However, there was no bleeding. Cackling in her leather-metal Kadia worked into a sitting position, and from there a standing one. A sharp pain in her knee told her there was swelling. Hobbling, she lifted her leg and grabbed a bottle of anti-inflammatory (and other stuff) medicine, drank a bit, and waited for it to take hold...

“Rurik, I need you right now.” She muttered. Kadia went on to check her pink eye, and it “read” without issue.

Looking, before her was a hellish ruin. It was a pile of pillared marble, cracked and worn by water and…more black moss mixed fighting a glowing fungus… The structure mixed serpentine and red marbles, with the gritty ash on top of the orange wine-stain. The tile floor she stood on, in contrast, was a green shade. Kadia looked in amazement at the sculpted figures – like the griffin statues of Persia. Carvings of desolation lined the wall – here a tornado of flame, there an army of fleshless armor looking ready to charge. Most impressive, though also most difficult to observe, was a figure bearing a great crown…

Kadia now looked…unconcerned. Indeed, after the fight, the danger, and the momentary solitude…after the medicine started working on the exhaustion…she seemed different. A curious, feral grin split her face. She was a hurt cub, but she was a huntress. Sighting shining metal – her flame wheels – she lifted the debris over them, grabbed the two bent weapons, and reformed them as she had many times before.

Kadia wondered at her location. She felt the tug of Rurik, with a strange man…a blind fellow…scary savior…what was his name? She spotted an opening – a rock broken though the wall – and walked through.

---

Rurik insistently pawed his semi-loose leg at Dante, creating a clanking that simultaneously was endearing and annoying. ‘If Kadia in potential danger, then beg non-threats. Dante = non-threat.’

The wolf smelled like grease and oil, along with a tinge of rusting metal. Though furless, he looked…almost alive. It was a pity he had such a small aura…
Rurik, having Dante’s attention, tried to “flare up” and direct Dante towards a passageway he was digging…

---

Kadia found the passageway dim – there was no light within. However, in her focus, she feared little. Despite being in Hell, she felt…balanced. However, to see better she grabbed one of her hooked swords, and mentally fired it up. The glow of the metal - surprisingly not weakened at such temperature – lit the passageway.

She continued, past what looked like goblets in the alcoves, her leather-silk boots dampening her footsteps. Sometimes, an odd creature would slither by. Here, it was a small brown snake with a stag’s horns crowning its head. There, a large scorpion flying on batwings. All this was amazing to Kadia in her euphoria, and she felt she owned them all.

Suddenly, Kadia heard clanking, like a bounding of a knight in armor. Was it…

She checked her link…it was…

“Rurik!” she squealed with glee, and began to jog towards him. Down the hall, two bodies met. A metal nose shoved in Kadia’s face, the greasy thing like being licked by a puppy. Laughing Kadia hugged the metal fellow, her life companion…