Kahli looked at the short, stocky plant elemental Bhennie and tried not to laugh at the lanky fellow who was cowering behind him.

"Get out from behind me, Clehtus!" said Bhennie with a sigh as he wiped a snot-ridden hand on the long, flannel shirt he wore. It was indeed so long that it ran to the floor and trailed on behind him like some sort of elaborate wedding dress. This was a cultural custom for more respected and learned plant elementals, and was considered completely normal and commonplace in Nomachiato. "She ain't a ghostie, she's just a normal tauman being like you or me!"

"Sorry," said Clehtus as he clambered out from behind his companion and cradled the lit latern he held as if it were but a small child. "Uh, she don't look very translucent or anything, I guess you're right. It's just that your story spooked me is all."

Kahli cleared her throat and let out a small chuckle. "Well, hi, it's nice to meet the both of you. I'm Kahli, I'm a stone elemental, and this right here is my pet, Froufrou." She gestured with pride to the writhing mass of tentacles partially emerging from the side of her purse. "Don't mind her putresence, she's just a little extra squelchy with strangers. Plus, this place isn't very well ventilated, either."

"Well I'll be a john rabbit in a bale of hay being illegally trafficked by members of a organized crime unit staffed entirely by birds if that ain't the strangest little eldritch lookin' thing I've ever done did seent," said Clehtus. This was a common plant elemental saying, and was completely coincidental concerning the recent events that Kahli had just witnessed and partially taken part in.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Clehtus," said Bhennie as he rolled his glowing eyes and walked with a sway and a swagger right on up to Kahli and peeked in the purse. "That ain't no eldritch anythin', Clehtus."

"It's not?"

"No! It's just, well-" he cleared his throat and peeked in again, "-it's jus, well, it's jus a rare kind of a undersea mollusk, 's what it is, of that much I am damn well certain. I done did seent plenty of undersea creatures, I have, what with all the fishing and such I've done. Miss, do you know I'm a certified angler? I kin show you my papers, if you doubt me."

"Oh, I donn't doubt you." Kahli felt... a little conflicted about Bhennie's assessment. "And I know now you're certified. But, uh, I don't know if Froufrou is just a mollusk. She's got a system, and she's [paired] with me."

"[Paired]? Like, as in, you didn't have a system, an' she done did give hers to you?" asked Clehtus.

"No, Clehtus!" said Bhennie with a sigh. "She's saying she didn't have a system, and then this Froufrou thing gave Kahli her system by [pairing] with her or whatever you have it."

"But Bhennie, that's exactly what I just said, only in different words!"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO. See, Clehtus, what you said was that Kahli was sayin' that she didn't have a system and then Froufrou handed hers over to her, whereas I was sayin' that Kahli said that you said that she said that she [paired] with Froufrou an' done went and got her system from her."

"Uh... What?" Clehtus scratched his head.

"Look, Froufrou is great and she [paired] with me. She's got a couple of really cool [skills], though I really wish I could level her up and get another [skill] slot spent on her sooner rather than later, as she's just had to pick them all out herself thus far. And I've gotten a pretty good allotment of [skills] myself over just the last few days. Like, it's barely even been a week, and I can do this!" Kahli summoned up a rock with her big left foot.

"Uh, nice," said Bhennie, unenthused.

"I promise it's better than it looks," said Kahli with a nervous smile. "I mean, really. I've taken out mega dragons with this [skill]."

Kahli soon stopped trying to convince the plant elementals that her [Rock Summon] [skill] was as cool as it actually was, as they were generally unenthused. Regardless, eventually they decided that it was time to continue on with what it was they were doing, which they seemed to be intentionally keeping incredibly vague whenever Kahli tried to inquire as to what exactly it was they were doing in the ruins. This immediately made her leap to the conclusion that they were there to pirate it, which of course made her get incredibly excited. After all, Kahli had participated, to her benefit or otherwise, in the semi-looting expedition back on Old Snow Mountain that had gotten her in this mess in the first place - and she certainly still had an inner leaning towards such clandestine and nefarious behavior, regardless of the fact that she didn't necessarily want to cause the end of the world or anything.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With that, Kahli just kept prying and prying for what they were going about doing. It was really getting outrageous, and it seemed to Froufrou that she'd completely forgotten about the fact that she was looking for her friends. So, at some point in Kahli's hassling of the two plant elementals, Froufrou released such a nose-eviscerating squelch that Kahli was forced to stop all discussion and avert all attention to the purse.

"What is it, Froufrou? By Theseosus' pincers, that is one of, if not the most, foulest smelling squelch you've ever released since I've been [paired] to you!"

Froufrou popped up from the bag and started gesticulating with her tendrils.

"Uh, what, Froufrou?"

"Do you think she does this all the time?" whispered Bhennie to Clehtus.

Froufrou squelched in frustration.

"Froufrou, I'm sorry, but if you can't speak or mind speak or anything I need some more help to understand what it is you're getting at here!"

Froufrou let out the closest thing she could to a sigh. Then, suddenly struck by inspiration, she took up two of her tendrils and tussled the rest of her tendrils as if they were but bundles of a specific, flawless, black hair that Kahli knew so well.

"Oh. Oh wow! Sahdi! Sahdi and Unit 5a23! Of course!" Kahli was glad she had plaster, and now living wood as well, on her face - otherwise, it would've been abundantly clear that she was blushing heavily. Usually, Kahli prided herself on keeping a clearn head and a sense of purpose - but with all the insanity taking place recently, such as all the bird cloak and dagger, and G'athoong's untimely semi-death, and of course the dazzling allure of digging into ancient relics in a tomb, she'd all but forgotten about finding her companions.

"Does she really think that thing understands her?" Bhennie said with a chuckle.

"Maybe it do, Bhennie, maybe it do," said Clehtus.

Bhennie just sighed and chuckled.

Kahli suddenly turned to the plant elementals with a solemn look on her face. "Bhennie, Clehtus, have either of you two seen a water elemental with flawless hair that she loves to rub in everyone's face and a robot that loves to meditate and always cooks toast?"

The plant elementals just blinked at her blankly.

"So is that a no, I take it?"

"Uh, well, honestly miss," Bhennie cleared his throat, "I wasn't rightly certain that you weren't just tellin' us the beginning of a joke or something. I mean to say that, no, we absolutely haven't. 's jus been us in here since we broke in - uh, I mean, since we came in here legally in order to, uh, inspect the ruins for damage by thieves."

Kahli felt so excited - so her hunch was true! These two plant elementals were here to steal relics! How... invigorating.

"What Bhennie means tuh say is, we're here to investigate and research what's going on with these ruins. There are strange emissions of some... unknown elements... coming up from Theseosus knows where, and all the emissions are starting from some strange point somewhere in these ruins. Problem is, we couldn't rightly figure out how tuh get in here, that front door disc thing is just... I mean, I have no idea how you got it open, kudos to you on that. If your [Rock Summon] [skill] did that, then maybe I'll admit it's cooler 'n it seems at first glance. That bein' said, well, when we couldn't rightly get in easily, we jus kinda... made do with what we could. With the blessings of the Upper Echelon, of course."

"What Clehtus 's gettin at is that we borrowed some 'splosives from a powerful fire elemental 'n blew a hole in a side wall on the far east end of the ruins. Way, way far away from here. 'S taken us ages to get this far, n' honestly it's a great boon to us that you managed to get that pesky door open - now we don't have to worry about going back from whence we came when the time comes. Consequently, 'f you ever find yourself running through these ruins and you want tuh get out, but you're over near the far side as opposed to this entrance, there's a makeshift entrace by this funny looking rock, kind of looks like a nose with living wood growing on it. F' course it's not living wood, its woodfungus of course, jus looks like living wood, but regardless, you find that, you find your exit. Just so you're aware is all."

Kahli felt her excitement wane, and then experienced it reborn again as one that was... slightly different. So, these plant elementals didn't necessarily sound like thieves, more like scientists or archaeologists who just so happened to need to blow up a wall in order to get into some ruins. With the blessing of the Upper Echelon. And to think, she'd assumed before that Bhennie had just been lying badly, or perhaps making some sort of off-kilter thieving joke. Well, Kahli figured, it took all kinds.

"Alright, alright, well, I'm going to have to go through these ruins and look for my companions either way," said Kahli with determination. "I'll have to warn them that we've lost our water dragon, at least temporarily."

Bhennie and Clehtus whispered to one another about the fact that they were decidedly unsure whether or not Kahli was full of it or not. Then, they turned to smile at her and shrugged.

"But, regardless, I've got one question for you two," she continued, feeling her excitement crawling back like a zombie from the grave. "What all have you found in these ruins, exactly?"