LTGB II: Return of the Games.

[Morty]

"No more than you can, now that I'm not the only one with eyes. It's a giant tree. It protects the entrance to a mystical cave or something. I dunno." said Ciro, suddenly frustrated. "It wouldn't take that long, anyways. Well, on foot, maybe.." he trailed off, sizing up the formidable tree. "I could probably make it around the bottom part by dinner time." he muttered, trying to think of a better approach. He'd been banking on Tea's ability to detect any magic that might be guarding the entrance. Now it looked like they'd be stuck with the good old fashioned way, as far as Ciro could tell.

[Nohiki]

"How do you even know about it? You sure it's here?" Lantea said, walking towards the tree. "Hey, what do you know, the part where it said under the tree - there might be something to it." she noticed, looking at one root covering what seemed to be an entrance to a small cave. "Betcha there's more around here. Then again, that doesn't move us anywhere, unless you know of an earth drag.... Big bro is part earth, right?" she said, her face twisting at the thought of not only asking Taranis for help, but convincing him to do so. She could imagine it would involve a lot of housework put on her shoulders.

[Morty]

"Huhn. Well, that's convenient." said Ciro, walking up to the root. "I'll go ask Risi to come. I should have invited him in the first place, I just didn't think he'd want to learn about history." he snorted, pawing the dirt at the base of the root. It was way too solid to dig through with their bare hands, not to mention the root was too thick. It could go down a dozen feet, for all they knew. Turning his back on the root, he flapped lightly rose into the air, then circled. "Be right back!" he called, going off to search for his brother.
Flying over the arena, he picked out the unmistakeable bright red shape of Taranis, and angled his wings downward in descent. "Hey Risi!" he called as he came to a stop, hovering by where his brother and his father sat. "We're excavating an ancient ruin near a tree, wanna help?" he asked, and landed on his dad's shoulder, as all the seats had been filled up. "Hi dad." he added, lightly headbutting his dad's neck in greeting. The fighting below had just been concluded, and Ciro recognized the lady that his mother had wanted to hire as a trainer. He gulped. Twenty-one seconds... I wonder what kind of training she had to go through to be able to achieve that? he wondered.

[Awesomoman]

Taranis was frozen in astonishment. 21 seconds. Whoever this dragon was, she was now his hero. "Risi." Taranis snapped out of his trance to see his bro standing on his dad. "The last ancient ruin didn't end well for me. Besides, you and Tea are the smarticle ones, why do you need me?" "Because I say so." Gorn answered. "You should really spend more time with your siblings. Besides, you've got several hours before your division begins, I don't want you wasting all your time sitting here." "But dad, thats exactly what you're doing!" Taranis argued. "Yes, but I'm also spending time with some friends. Taranis glared, "You just met these guys."
"Would you like to see what your mother's opinion is?" Gorn asked raising an eyebrow. Taranis sighed, "Alright, show me the way."

[Morty]

"Heheh, come on, it's just over this way." said Ciro, forming a shield around himself then flapping so that he didn't end up shoving his dad when he took off. "And, it turns out that sometimes, the only solution to a problem is force." he said sardonically, leading the way to the base of the tree. "In other words, we found a door, but there's rocks in front of it..."

[Awesomoman]

"Oh I see. So the only reason you need me at all is because you two can't lift a few rocks." Taranis cracked his knuckles, "Stand back if you don't want my awesomness to hit you in the face." Taranis took a deep breath and focused his power, while he had some control over earth, he wasn't a master at it. The ground started to crack and split opening the cave, but he could only get it open enough for one person to fit in at a time. "Ugh. Those roots are holding this thing together tighter than I thought."

[Morty]

"Oh, don't complain, you love smashing rocks." said Ciro lightly, appraising the opening his brother had made. Between the cleft that Taranis had forged in the rocks, a dark, unwelcoming tunnel stretched. Cautiously, Ciro peered into the dank shaft, twin beams of light flashing from his eyes to illuminate a rough-hewn passage. Motes of dust from the sudden activity still danced in the still air of the passageway, caught in the glare of Ciro's headlights. Beyond extended the warren-like tunnel, its walls pitted with stones and pierced through with ancient roots. "Can you see any magic yet, Tea?" asked Ciro, refraining from stepping into the tunnel until he was sure it was unguarded.

[Midnightmoon]

Starlight slid to a stop as Sol'Lux disapeared and the snow kicked up, whipping at her. Of course being what her element was she paid it no mind. Seeing as it was only a minor blizard she threw out her her wings and used a trick used in a real ice storm; the flurries quickly slowed in their small area and then stopped, floating for a second before zipping outward to continue it's fury in a dome around them. Starlight then started turning to look for the light dragon.

Dnara scowled after Taranus, then shrugged. Putting the hatching out of her mind she got back into line, splitting off when it merged with the sign up/ attendance line. After a few battles she spotted Gorn and finally fought her way through to his position after another. "Your boy Taranus has none of your good sense. What have you been teaching him?" She poked with s mock scowl.

[Nohiki]

"I could not tell, shut down those headlights!" Lantea barked, giving Ciro a light shove, causing the light beams to stray from the opening. Her eyes filled with blue mist. "There's SOMETHING in there." she said, setting a trap for whichever of her brothers braved the cave first, in a form of a headless dragon illusion. Other than that, there was nothing, and the cave ended after few meters. They're gonna have to look somewhere else.

Phoenicia landed with an audible thump. "Weren't there three kids running around here?" She asked Gorn, not even slightly concerned about their absence. At least away from the crowd, noone would stomp on them by accident. "Let me guess, Tara jsut made that earthling walk outside of the ring?" "Nail'd it." "Fell for the same trick, it happens to everybody"

Hovering just above, Sol'Lux uncloaked and dropped onto Starlight, burying them both in the snow, trying to pin her opponent down.

[Awesomoman]

"Basic mechanics, but hes only interested in the explosive stuff." Gorn explained to Dinara without taking his eyes off the arena. The next match had started, it was between a dark dragon and a water dragon. "Oh hey hon. Yeah the kids went looking for some sort of history thing under the tree." The dark dragon made a quick dodge and clocked the water square in the jaw. "What did I say? She isn't watching her left." Gorn pointed out. "Y-y-yeah, but that dark dragon doesn't know how to retreat after a hit." A quick blast of water came up and launched the dark dragon into the air. "See?"

"Something in there? Well why don't I just bring it out." Taranis pushed past his siblings and entered the cave. It wasn't as dark as it seemed, the light from the outside illuminated a good portion of it. It also revealed what was in the cave, another dragon. "Hey buddy, mind moving? Were doing something here..." The dragon didn't move. Taranis growled. "Hey, I said-" As he grabbed the dragon he pulled the rest of it into the light. "...oh....my....GOD!" Taranis dropped the body and bolted out of the cave. "THERES A DEAD GUY IN THERE!"

[Nohiki]

At this point, Lantea was rolling in the lawn. "the biggest fighter afraid of a corpse!" she coughed up between roars of laughter. She dispersed the illusion with a snap of her fingers and got up, still shaking, trying to catch a breath. "Seriously now, what next? If we at least knew who hid it, we might be able to guess how."

[Morty]

"Tea.. Why would you do that?!" Ciro groaned, recovering from the sudden shock. If he could have been any paler, he would be. "You are terrible. Ugh.. Next time, Ri, let me go first. I've got shields in case of any traps." he said, pacing to hide the fact that his legs were trembling.
"All Mom told me about the cave was that it was under the ancient tree. I wish I knew where she went... then we could ask her where to find it. Is it normal for parents to leave without telling their kids where they're going?" He scuffed the ground impatiently, grumbling.

[Nohiki]

"Because it's fun, and i am a terrible person." Tea winked, "And come on, if she knew, she would have told you already. I wonder tho if under the tree means necessarily that the entrance is at ground level. Maybe we're looking at bad spot. Ain' the tree hollow at some points? I heard a story of somebody getting stuck in the tree, if anyone knows where that was..."

[Midnightmoon]

Starlight felt the weight drop on her but couldn't move in time to get out from underneath the grapple. After Sol's dive and with both their weights concentrated on one spot Starlight sunk up to her shoulders into the snow. The only thing keeping them both from falling through was a large branch Starlight could feel digging into her gut. Twisting her neck around to asses her lack of limbs she looked over shoulder and said, "Lets say a draw." Listening to the chaos of the issuing snow battle still going on above them she added, "We've cause enough madness. Lets get out of here before they notice us.

[Morty]

Ciro shuddered. "Forget it, if this adventure involves getting engulfed by a tree, count me out." he said, grimacing. "Mom said to start at the roots. I think that's probably our best bet." he said, then looked back towards the arena in the distance, where all manner of dragons were communing. "We could split up to find it faster, but then there'd still be the problem of saying when one of us has found it. So we might as well all go together." said Ciro, turning back towards his siblings. "What do you say?"