"Somehow you failed to mention any kind of temple guardian at the beginning, which does not surprise me."

Osiris acknowledged Hex's point, which was obviously directed towards him.

"If I had said anything, you wouldn't have wanted to go."

"No shit sherlock."

Osiris' tail moved in a figure eight motion, and he brought his hands together.

"This isn't too big of a deal, we just need to catch up to him before the guardian does."

He beckoned the group towards the mirage doorway from earlier.

"And this way can take us to him in no time."

"You'd better be right."

Hex scowled at their confident guide, though his concentration was on the pathway Zephyr left. He didn't see why they couldn't choose that way instead, but Osiris seemed adamant that his chosen path would be quicker. He passed through the mirage corridor entrance only when everyone else had, as he preferred to be at the back in case of any surprises. As soon as he did so, the pathway closed again with the appearance of a wall, with no hinting of a hidden passage ever being there.

Somewhere far off in the temple, Zephyr was indeed wandering, but with purpose. He was practically chasing a ghost of his imagination, but the curiosity caught him in a trance. Seth seemed to have his own agenda, and that was normal, but today he seemed even more adventurous. Almost every wall he passed, he'd run his hand along it and every now and then look back towards Zephyr.

It was unclear if he were searching for something, and he didn't seem to know where he was going either, which made it all the more strange. By the time Zephyr caught up with him at the entrance to a very large and open room, he had already vanished once again.

But it wasn't for long.

He reappeared when a rather large tablet in the middle of the room piqued his interest. It contained hieroglyphs, though Seth found he couldn't read them. He couldn't read the symbols along the walls of the temple either, so he wasn't sure why he bothered at all.

Zephyr came up close to him, glad that he finally stopped his elusive roaming.

"We probably shouldn't be down this far, I told Chronos I was just going to check the hallway and be back."

"You didn't have to follow me, that was your choice," Seth answered and studied the rest of the area around him with one hand petting the ponytail that hung over his left shoulder. The room's ceiling had several wide cracks similar to the last large room they were in, and the sunlight bounced around the walls reflecting just enough light to see a few paces ahead of them. Several kinda of foliage came up through the floor, and Zephyr spotted a few that were the red and black colors Osiris described.

"Oh! At least there's a few of these here," Zephyr spoke, and plucked three plants from the ground near him. They were soft for being leaves, and similarly textured to those of the common mint herb. He went about pawing through the plants, but Seth didn't move to help him. He still sat crouched in front of the tablet, as if expecting it to magically reveal what it said.

"You've been staring at that thing for a while," Zephyr said, plucking another plant in the corner. He shook the dirtied sand off of its roots before placing it with the others in his other hand. Part of him wondered what he'd do if he found a bunch of them, as he wasn't sure he'd be able to hold many more.

"It seems familiar to me."

"The tablet does?"

"This whole place does," Seth motioned to the temple walls surrounding him. His amber gaze seemed oddly docile. "And I don't know why."

"Well I've never been here before, so I dunno how it could be familiar to you," Zephyr replied and set his bundle of plants on the ground to pick up another. He heard no retort, and by glancing over to the tablet, he found once again Seth had gone reclusive. 

Leaving his bundles plants behind, Zephyr approached the tablet, but the open area to the left of the stone-face seemed much more intriguing. It was more cavern-like compared to the enclosed temple feel he was used to. There were pillars lined in rows, though some were broken, and they led to a small pond surrounded by all kinds of foliage. Perhaps even more tempting was the small traveling bag that sat at the edge of the pond, and as Zephyr passed by these pillars to get a closer look, he saw the bag laying on its side with many bunches of the black and red plant laying halfway outside.

"This is rather convenient," Zephyr said to himself, picking up the brown bag. He leaned down and shuffled through it, finding even more of the plant Osiris requested, all of them wrapped in neat little bundles.

"Yeah, this should be plenty enough for him."

He began to repack the bag still crouched, but a small critter poked his head from the depths from the satchel and spooked him. Zephyr flung the bag away from him and fell backward, startled by the appearance of the sudden creature.

It was a few moments before the animal slithered out from the bag, unhappy that its sleep was disturbed. It was a small dirty green cobra, and he flicked his tongue groggily towards Zephyr who lay still, watching him.

"Nice snake?"

The cobra slithered towards him at those words, but he was calm. He flicked his tongue against Zephyr's boot and looked to the pond.

You should watch what you're doing. I don't want to get bit cause of your carelessness.

Zephyr heard Seth scold him in his mind. He sat up from his startled stance when the snake made no threatening motions.

"I think it's okay, he doesn't seem to want to hurt me," Zephyr told and reached to pick up the bag, tucking the plants back in. The cobra slithered to curl itself loosely around young male's boot, as if it had done this before with someone else.

Weird snake.

"It is strange," Zephyr smiled and watched how the cobra seemed to chill out on his foot. "I've never seen a snake act like this."

He moved his hand to attempt to pet the creature, but a loud rumble near him stopped him. The small cobra immediately uncoiled itself, bolting to the pond where it could hide.

You should probably get back to Chronos and the others now. They've got to know by now that you've vanished on them.

"Oh, right."

Zephyr stood up, the brown bag hanging from the strap around his shoulder. He began to walk back down the hallway of pillars but another loud rumble made him feel uneasy. He thought he saw something move in the darker parts of the shadows, but he continued on, until he came upon a wide black boulder blocking the doorway he came. It was quite the peculiar boulder, as he didn't remember it being there, and stretched from either side of the doorway going in both directions until disappearing into the shadows.

The boulder was also covered in snakeskin, something that was rather unusual, Zephyr thought.

I wouldn't do what I think you're going to do.

He pressed his hands against it anyway to move it, ignoring Seth's input, but it wouldn't budge. He figured he would have to climb over it, and so he started to, but just then the boulder decided it would indeed move. It was at that moment Zephyr realized it was no black-scaled boulder, but a creature, and sure enough its head came down from the dark ceiling to inspect who was trying to climb over its tail.

It was perhaps the largest cobra Zephyr had ever seen in his life, the width of its body being as wide as a typical doorway. It's obsidian-scaled length was far greater than its width however, and the cobra's wild maroon eyes focused on the small figure of Zephyr. The grand snake was relatively calm until he caught the sight of the saddle-brown satchel Zephyr was holding, and only then did he let out a colossal, angry hiss that thundered around the walls of the cavern.

"Are you trying to steal from me?!"