“Well,” Basil waved his free arm up. “We're going to get cold really fast – and we're in the dark – and nothing around here looks like food!”
“Shh, shh, shhh!” Touya snapped at him. Before Basil could open his mouth to complain more, Touya covered his lips with his hand that had been holding onto Basil's hip so it wrapped around his head from the far side. “Calm down! If I remember right, one of these statues it attuned to the element wind and if you set off your power in here, something bad could happen!”
The cryptic way Touya said that made Basil swallow his frustration as he frowned. His eyes looked over to the four statues nervously. Slowly Touya removed his hand from Basil's mouth. “Fine... I'll... try to be careful.”
“Thank you.” Touya sighed. “Now... Hold still. I have an idea.”
“Uh oh.” Basil rolled his eyes.
Touya stuck his tongue out at him stubbornly as he stepped away from the blond. He left his hand outstretched so Basil had something to hold on to balance his weight with his injury. Touya shut his eyes for a second to concentrate. When he opened them, he snapped his fingers. “Shield four!”
Out from his fingers came tendrils of clear blue lightning in a slow manner. They snaked around Basil then zapped together to create something that looked like a cage all around him, and then it formed a halo barrier around the blond. It lasted a few seconds then, disappeared.
“What was that?” Basil asked as he looked to his lower left and then his lower right to see if any bit of the light was around him still.
“A small shield in case we get separated.” Touya answered. “This sort is powered by your own magnetic energies. So it should last a bit.”
“And it'll protect me from...? You?”
“Ha.” Touya shook his head at the joke. He stepped back to Basil's side and pulled the blond's arm up around his shoulders again to hold his weight. “Think of it like those frogs that are turned into people.”
“You have that backwards.”
“When they're magicked into people, they can't be hurt by simple things like cold, hunger, or falling face first into mud.”
“Again, you've got it backwards but fine. Let's say the human is safe like you said.”
“It is like I said.” Touya nodded confidently. “You'll see. Well – hopefully you won't have to see.”
“So what now?”
“Now, we figure out which of the statues we activate.” Touya nodded with his head toward the four alcoves ahead of them in the dim light. “Fire could be substituted with lightning hopefully.”
“And we have wind.”
“But it's too dim in here to see which is which.”
“They all look the same.”
“No, no.” Touya shook his head. “Each one should have a plaque underneath it like that rhinoceros monster statue, that tells us which element it is.”
“And then?”
“And then, ideally, it won't come alive, and a door should open somewhere.”
Basil sighed. “I'm starting to like these ruins less and less.”
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