[Osiris Doodle]

"Haven't I heard your name somewhere before?"

The white-haired male tapped his chin, as if thinking about Hex's question before he answered.

"I don't think you have. I'm no celebrity around here."

"So when can you take us to this friend of yours?" Cider interrupted. He wanted to see what these fancy get-ups were like and if they were going to be worth his time.

"Now, now, there's no need to be hasty," Osiris waved his hands in the air before him. "I should mention I'm not doing this for free, I have to make a living somehow."

Hex scorned in his seat, turning to his company.

"Should of known. He's a classic example of a swindler."

"He doesn't seem all that bad," Seris glanced over to Osiris, who winked and gave a cordial smile. "If you think everyone's a bad guy, then how will you make friends?"

If there was a trait from Seris that Hex had to dislike, it was how optimistic and overly trusting his satyr friend could be. It would be tough for him to ever attain the same level of friendliness Seris displayed for strangers. He didn't want to retort or scold, so he turned to Cider instead, someone he had no trouble castigating.

"I'm only agreeing to this because of Seris."

He turned his head to find Osiris casually waiting at the edge of their table, a bit too close for his liking. He didn't notice his approach, but now he had to deal with two dogs that didn't understand the concept of personal space.

"So, this is cool," The white wolf chimed, clapping his hands together. His gold bracelets banged together as he did so. "And as a show of good faith, I'll bring you there first, and then we'll talk about payment."

"See, he's courteous," Cider pointed out openly, his tail wagging confidently in his seat.

"So, I'll meet you guys out front, and we can start our little journey," Osiris tapped the table, his bracelets jingling against it similarly. He scanned Cider briefly before leaving, looking over him, but not staring for too long.

It was kinda neat seeing another wolf around these parts.

When the stranger was out of earshot, Chronos gave Cider 'The look,' something Cider called when Chronos was about to say something similar to, "Now what have you gotten us into," or "This is not a good idea."

"I know what you're gonna say, but I've got this figured out," Cider started, standing up to let the others by him so they could get up as well.

"You do?" Chronos replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Osiris and I are like, distant kin, we respect each other," Cider shared, motioning to his obvious wolf features. "I know he'll keep his promise. It's a wolf thing, you wouldn't get it."

"But you don't even know the guy," Chronos shrugged, sliding past him. "I think he'd be more apt to attack you, it's what wild wolves do to strangers they don't know. At least that's what I read about."

"Hmm, maybe your right," Cider thought to himself, "But you'd have to be a jerk to do that, and he's no jerk."

"Right," Chronos called, now waiting for Cider by the door.

He could hear Hex talking to Osiris as he opened it, and the little bell chimed again signaling their leave. He was careful not to catch his orange ponytail in the door upon closing it, as it's happened a few times before. He could tell it was morning now, as the sun over the station was peaking around the shorter buildings in the distance.

"You're saying after we get there, then you'll ask for payment?" Hex inquired for clarification, just in case he changed his mind.

"Yeah, I just said that a few minutes ago," Osiris answered. "With ears like those, I figured you wouldn't be a lousy listener."

The vampiric bat sneered at him, but held his tongue.

"Now if you'll follow me," He spun around and motioned in the direction of a warm, brightly sun-lit street, "We're going in this direction first."

His pace was rather quick, but the others could keep up without too much trouble. It was a few blocks before the white wolf stopped before a busy street. He tapped a button on the street pole in front of him, waiting for the others to catch up.

"It's the city of criminals and thieves, yet you still use pedestrian crosswalk buttons," Hex commented, now caught up to him.

"Do you want to be hit by a car? If you want to be hit by a car, that's cool, but it's not all disorganized chaos here you know," Osiris replied. He watched for the sign to flash 'go' before motioning for them to follow him again. He practically skipped across the crosswalk and came to an abrupt halt.

"Now we're going this way," He pointed to the street in front to the left of him. It was significantly less busy, but more overgrown with trees and foliage. And palm trees. The palm trees were very random actually, and Chronos swore he never saw a single one along the way until now.

The group followed under the shade of the palm trees until coming upon what looked to be a shadowed deserted temple entrance. It was more like a cave with how run down it was, and was also quite dark and uninviting in appearance.

"Yeah no, that's not happening," Hex held his hand in front of Seris, who was interested in the exploration, and shot a glare towards the white wolf. "How do I know you're not leading us in there to kill us and take our cash?"

Osiris shrugged, his white tail swaying in a non-threatening manner.

"You don't, and that's what makes it exciting."

He walked in the cave entrance without hesitation and turned around when he sensed no one was following him. He flicked his white ears when sand fell on them from the ceiling.

"Oh come along, this is a shortcut. Actually, it's the only way to get there, but it's not a long journey."

Hex paused for the others to go in first, but as Cider passed him, he grabbed his shirt collar roughly and yanked him back, not letting go.

"Since this was your idea, if anything happens to Seris in there, I guarantee you will be the first to die."

"Yeah, yeah. I haven't heard that before."

Hex let go and pushed him forward, patiently waiting for his wolf friend to continue on.

"Damn, rude," Cider muttered to himself, fixing his messy shirt collar. He figured Hex's ears probably picked up what he said and hurried to join the others past the temple entrance.

The rest were waiting for their stragglers to keep up, and Cider spotted them easily as both Chronos and Osiris held a small fiery torch in one hand. The corridors were initially dusted with dirt along the ground, but as they followed Osiris, it became apparent that more and more sand was popping up.

They passed down a flight of stone stairs before Chronos spoke up.

"This is all built under the station? I've never seen city stations designed quite like this."

"Actually no. What you passed through before, the 'cave entrance,' is a portal disguised as a mirage. We're no longer on the station of Grimhaven," Osiris answered, waving the torch around to check his surroundings. "Watch your footing here by the way. It's a bit of a drop."

The path before them was indeed quite a drop, though they could see the bottom. The ledge to their right was broad enough to walk across comfortably without holding your breath, and they made sure to follow the white wolf's footsteps. Chronos let Zephyr by him first, in case his olive haired friend took a misstep when he wasn't watching. This way, he'd be able to catch him with ease.

"So where are we then, if not Grimhaven?" Chronos spoke again to their guide once they were past the narrow ledge.

"The tunnels to Akhsemhat. It's a maze in here, but the city is where my friend is."

"Any reason for the mirage entrance?" Hex called from the back. "This place supposed to be hidden?"

"Kind of, but occasionally curious folks do wander in here. It's a maze, so they never make it to the other side. Every three days, the maze shifts, like its own lock-and-key, but no one has the key."

"But you do?" Chronos questioned. He swore he heard the low rumbles of the temple settling in the distance, but it may have been his imagination.

"Yeah, I've got my own key of sorts," Osiris replied, looking at a cracked hole in the ceiling where sunlight was filtering through. They had entered a large room that was lit well from the outdoor light, and the group could see the walls clearly now. Chronos brought down his torch to run his hand along the wall, swiping away collected dust as he did so.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this temple is Egyptian, from these hieroglyphs."

"Indeed it is," Osiris spoke, placing his torch in a torch holder staked into the floor. "You all can rest here for a while. Meanwhile, I need to look for some plants."

"Why plants?" Cider said. He swatted away dust from a stone he decided to use as a seat in the middle of the room.

"Because I need them," the white wolf answered. He turned to leave but stopped and faced the group, "Actually, if you all could keep an eye out for some black and red plants, they're black with red ombre'd edges, that would help a lot. I'm going to check the way we came, so don't wander too far."

The rest of the group found their own spot to wait for Osiris to get back, and Zephyr took a seat in the corner of the room near the way they came in. There were some plants near his stone seat, and he reached down to check out what they were. Unfortunately, they were just regular green plants, and not the plants Osiris had requested. He finished pawing through the greenery and sat up, and a familiar figure was watching him, leaning against the wall near an exit in the room. The figure stopped leaning to disappear through the open doorway, and Zephyr wondered where Seth was going.

He got up to follow him, but Chronos eyed his sudden movements.

"Where are you going Zeph?"

"Just to check this area for any plants Osiris needs, I won't go far," Zephyr answered and pointed to the exit.

Chronos squinted a bit, musing if the exit would be safe, but he could keep an eye on it clearly from where he was seated.

"Alright."

He wandered over to the exit where Seth previously was and peered around the corner where the exit veered a sharp right. He caught the sight of Seth again, but he quickly vanished around another turn at the far end of the corridor, intriguing Zeph to follow.

It wasn't long before Chronos found himself dozing off. He didn't take a nap on the ship like Cider or Seris had done, and the sunlight filtering through from above was warm and inviting. He thought about how quiet it was, and the absence of action contributed to his boredom. It was only moments after that he jolted himself back to reality to the sound of Cider knocking something over, startled by a small snake that happened to be near his tail.

"Thought you were gonna fall over for a while there," Cider spoke, seeing Chronos now awake. He patted his tail to check if any snakes had buried themselves in there, as absurd as it sounded.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Probably ten minutes or so," Cider responded. He was pleased there were no sneaky snakes in his fur and breathed a sigh of relief. The item he knocked over was a sturdy gold vase of sorts, and he picked it up to place it back upright.

"Where's Zephyr?"

"I thought you sent him to look for those plants?" Cider told. He vaguely remembered something like that transpiring ten minutes ago.

"I told him he could check the corridor, but no further," Chronos stood up and hurried to check the exit. He saw no sign of Zephyr on either end of the hall, and returned back into the large room they were residing in.

At that moment, Osiris returned, and he reached to grab his torch he planted down from earlier.

"No luck on any plants back there, so we'll have to continue on and hope we run into some."

He glanced around the room, his expression confused, and spoke again.

"I could of swore we had one more member in this party. Wasn't there an olive haired boy with us?"

"We did, and now we don't know where he is," Chronos replied worriedly. "He went to look for your stupid plants."

"Hey, I never insinuated to leave the room, I just said to keep an eye out. I did tell you all not to wander before I left, if you remember," Osiris retorted, and crossed his arm in a huff. "It's cool, we'll just continue on and hope to catch up to him."

He wandered up to a particular point on the wall next to the exit Zephyr left and waved his hands through it, revealing a hidden passage.

It must have been another mirage.

He stood in front of it, waiting for the group to collect themselves and follow, but Chronos stayed where he was.

"Is that another one of your shortcuts? Zephyr went through this exit here," Chronos pointed to the doorway right of the mirage.

"Ah, yeah that's the way you're not supposed to go. Who follows the lit path in a secret temple?"

"You're saying there's something wrong with the way he went?" Chronos inquired, though his tone was irritated.

Osiris scratched his chin. The dust in the place was getting to him.

"Well, there's also another reason why I said folks never make it to the other side. There's a guardian that wanders through the temple's lit paths, and won't let anyone of non-Egyptian decent past. If you really need to get to the city, you'll have to take the mirage paths, they're like a rite-of-passage."

"What does this guardian do, exactly?" Hex interrogated. He was annoyed how Osiris seemed to leave out specifics when it came to details.

"Oh, he gobbles you up, like om-nom-nom," The white wolf made two puppets with his hands, and made one eat the other in a child-like fashion.

Both Hex and Chronos glared at him, their patience wearing thin, and Osiris spoke again.

"No, but for real. If your friend doesn't watch his footing, he'll end up in the Belly of the Beast."