Continuing on their little adventure, the couple had found themselves crossing the ocean into the other continent after some…mistakes were made and they took the wrong ship. Desmond wasn’t too fond of Canelux and was a bit upset up until he heard of what was going on up around the desert. A city long forgotten…the dead roaming about…and the hopes of treasure…

Treasure stuck to his mind and soon his disappoint wavered into excitement as they would reach the mainland soon. Oh, this worked out excellently for the pair as Saffron would be able to see more of the world and Desmond could get his hands on some of the wealth that was once lost. The rest of the story fell onto his deaf ears; something about a god or some crazed priest or something. What truly mattered was that they made out like thieves in the night.

In time, they reached the desert city and he sighed at the heat. Though it couldn’t really kill them, it annoyed him as he wrapped a cloth around his head and lead his child into Aysut. “Funny little city, it is. Must be a very old one…” Looking around with his amber eyes, it was clear that it was a long lost civilization indeed, and not that was made up to gather attention like he had initially thought. “So…where are these undead things, mummies they call them?” Walking about for a while, he didn’t see any of these things. Perhaps they were just rumors.

After some time passing through houses that unfortunately held nothing of value in them, a loud moan could be heard up ahead on the street. Desmond signalled for Saffron to follow him as they took refuge into one of the houses and closed the door. The vampire lowered himself down to the window and peeked. After some time, he considered telling her that they should just keep on going when he froze up in seeing one of the mummies, slowly sliding itself on the ground.

“The hell? So they are real?” 

Saffron was more like a puppy, she did whatever Desmond asked her to with hardly any questions. There were times when she got mad at him but he deserved it, often it happened when she was hungry. However, the little one was also noticing her master’s lack of care for certain things. He didn’t believe in the supernatural and yet they often found themselves in terrible situations. Like when they got lost in the bamboo forest for example.

While her master was busy planning this little adventure since they took the wrong ship, Saffron was busy asking questions about it. It was a lot of questions. Driving some of the men so far as to jump overboard because she wouldn’t stop. She had a lot of patience and didn’t mind driving people to that edge. However, she got what she was looking for in the end.

The little strawberry blonde held her slowly growing dragon in her arms as they walked in the sister. “It is called Aysut… It was built even before the desert was created. They are calling it the city of the dead.” She figured her master didn’t really care so she stopped speaking of it. That was until he had them hiding in a house and they were watching them. “So it seems…” She mused. “Though you said the same thing about the Bamboo Forest.” She chuckled a bit mischievously as she kissed her husband’s cheek.

“They told me fire worked best on them… and to watch out for the Lich inside the pyramid. Apparently, they were bringing reinforcements here to try and deal with them. People have been disappearing for months now… Getting worse the closer Venti came.” Ellura looked up at her mother and made a tiny dragon noise. “That’s right Allura you need to stay away from them.” She gave a tiny pat to the dragon’s head. “At least until we get your ice breath under your control.”

She had been practicing with the dragon on the ship but it appeared the little one was still too young to fully master the blast. “The treasure is great though… Apparently, there are seven treasure rooms throughout the pyramid that they have mapped out. So much treasure but due to scarabs, the mummies, and the lich not just anyone can get in and get it… So we’ll need to be careful.”

It wasn’t that Desmond was worried about the hijinks the pair found themselves in, it was that he didn’t consider the risks if the rewards were high. Then again, he did try to talk her out of going to the dragon’s horde, though now it kind of solved the whole problem of her not being able to raise a child. At least with Allura, she could have something she could raise and love. But aside from that, he wasn’t as careful as he used to be. Perhaps he was a tad bit greedy in wanting what the world could offer them if given a chance.

Today was no different- he wanted to see what they could swipe from here and live like kings and queens if even just for a day. Fortunately though, Saffron had been smarter and collected a lot of information before they set their feet onto the sand. He looked at her, a tad annoyed that she brought up that damned forest. “It seemed like a smart idea, how the hell should I had known it didn’t actually follow logic… “ Of course he wouldn’t be surprised if she had an answer for that- he did bring it onto himself after all.

“Fire, huh?” There were plenty of flammable things throughout here, but they would have to start onto somehow and it could take time. Biting his lip, Desmond slide down with his back against the wall. “So the real treasures are in the middle of the dangerous parts, typical.” What sort of madman would create such a place and why did it have to be difficult? He looked to Saffron and Allura for a moment before glancing back up to see that the mummy was joined by a few others. Afterwards, he moved to a table and snapped two of its legs off and started rubbing them together. After a bit, he was able to spark a flame and blew on it a bit to make it larger. He handled her one of the legs and took the other for himself, “We should be okay with these, I guess. First thing’s first, we have to make it to that pyramid thing, granted these walking corpses can’t catch us first…”

Saffron reached up and booped his nose. “You should have at least heeded the warnings. It’s all I ask,” there was a smile on her lips as she still forgave him for their lost adventure. “But all is alright now. Even if this place is hoard infested.”

“Fire…” She nodded a bit as she gave him their solution. It would be interesting to see what he would use for fire. “Of course, treasure is always in the most guarded area… Though we will have to extra careful once we are in. Fire is what gets rid of them the most but I am sure other magics work just as well. Allura will have to stay out here… In a safe place.” Allura made a noise and Saffron wagged her finger. “No buts. We can’t afford you getting hurt in a place like this. So I want you to stay here where they can’t reach you and kill everything that gets near you.”

She took a leg and watched the fire. “Yes, for now, we should be okay with these. I have an idea for getting rid of the horde that has managed to accumulate outside though.” She took a pot of oil and went up to another window. Aiming it she began to dump it all over them. She set a book on fire and tossed it out onto them watching as they scattered and screamed. They in turn accidentally set others on fire and she chuckled at how stupid they were. She made her way back down to Desmond. “Alright, we have a path to the pyramid now.”

They took their time as they made Allura’s location safe. Desmond led the charge as they tried to take mostly safe routes to the pyramid. Once to the pyramid, they discovered several ways in. Sliding into a small opening they landed inside of an empty room with coffins of an odd type she had never seen before. “Well…” The lids slid off and mummies began to crawl out. “Let’s fight then.” She much faster than they were as she lit each of them with her flame. That was easy… For now. “We should navigate quickly… Avoid the traps and such.

Desmond only replied with a grunt- he was a prideful creature that didn’t own up to his mistakes. She should have known better than to think that he would own up to it. Even if she was right about this predicament. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll take that into mind for next time.” Taking his own wooden leg that was aflame, he looked to Saffron and nodded, “Guess you’d be right, these damn things look like a gust of wind would knock them over.” Thinking about it now, Desmond could only laugh at the notion that he thought that the two would need more protection other than being vampires. But this was still a serious matter and the promises of gold, silver, and gems among other goodies was enough to keep him focus on their objective.

“If you think that to be wise and that she won’t follow us… “ He was admittingly not too comfortable in leaving Allura there, especially after all that hassle they went further to get her and Saffron’s pleading with him to keep her. Dragons were already hard to come by without spending a fortune. But then his child had another idea about how to deal with the undead and he watched her used the oil and a burning book to solve their problem for now. The air was filled with the burning stench of rotten flesh and fortunately he didn’t need to breath otherwise he was sure he would have been sick.

“That’s one way of dealing with them”, he sighed before they made sure to secure the area for the dragon before they made their way to the pyramid. Inside, he was careful to sneak about, knowing that the danger wasn’t over yet. If anything, it would only get worse for them. The coffin filled room made the vampire hiss as he watched those things come out of them. Saffron led the charge and started to set them on fire. More of that burning flesh smell came over him, so Desmond made it to her and signaled to follow. They had to find where the treasure was and hopefully not run into more of the mummies.

But no such luck.

 As they made it from room to room, they were only awarded with that of more of the undead and the lack of treasure. But there was at least something interesting- on the walls were strange writings and images in some sort of pattern. He felt against one such wall that depicted such pictures like a large bird and what looked like people bowing before it. There was also those of people that held bird like heads and what he made out to be the sun. “This place is creepy as hell”, he muttered before he stepped onto a spot of the floor that sunk in and soon he could hear the whizzing sounds of arrows darting at them. “Duck!”, he roared at Saffron before he dove onto her before the arrows could deliver their bite.

“If she did follow us Love it would be problematic. She is smart enough to do as I say right now. At least if we hole her up in here she can defend herself and not get attacked by traps. Plus being a dragon she doesn’t really attract them too badly.” That was all she had to say about leaving Ellura in the house before they set off into the city.

Once inside the pyramid, she heard Desmond’s hiss. She followed his lead as he took them into the corridors of the pyramid now. The amount of undead in each room was almost horrifying if for the fact they were ugly and smelled bad, at least in Saffron’s opinion. Saffron made her way over to Desmond as he looked at the hieroglyphs on the walls. “You’re telling me… This is infinitely worse than what the sailors made it out to be. Though it might be that they never made it this far.” She mused a bit but tried not to dwell on it. As far as she was concerned they were in uncharted territory now.

Once she heard the trap start to turn and Desmond’s almost last minute warning Saffron was pulled to the ground by Desmond. She groaned a bit from hitting the hard stone and looked up at him with a bit of a whimper. Arrows weren’t nice at all. Once they were up Saffron started to be careful around the room but not before a strange mist filled it. Saffron got separated from Desmond easily and her scream would alert him.

What he would see was the lich holding Saffron by the neck. The vampire struggled against his grip and she was gasping and screaming for Desmond where she could. Until the moment she wasn’t moving or screaming anymore. A large snap of the vampiress’s neck would find its way to Desmond’s ears as her body lit on fire from the lich’s magic.

Down below the room, the actual Saffron was groaning again. She had managed to get away from the illusion magic but only to find herself in a dark room. She summoned her scythe by her side and got up. She slipped a bit and clanking alerted her to the floor as she fell down and slid. She was on a pile of coins! She waved her hand a bit and managed to light a torch. She could see she was in fact in a little treasure room. Taking the torch off the wall she made her way back up towards Desmond. She had a faint idea where it could be and her sense of smell wasn’t deceiving her.

She struck down whatever got in her way until she found the vampire. “Dessie?”

Oh course this wouldn’t be easy. Why did Desmond believe that this latest stint would be any different from the others they had encountered? Well, in all honestly it was a bit different, a bit more difficult than what they had been dealing with in the past. At least from the looks of it, neither one of them fell for the trap. “Come on. We can’t stay here for too long; don’t know what else will be here to try and kill us if we remain here.” Desmond didn’t want to find out and besides, the sooner they could get away from this place, the better. They just needed to find some of that treasure and get out. He got back up to his feet and helped her up before they were on the move again. While he was off looking about, she was doing the same but it wouldn’t be until he heard her scream that he turned towards her direction.

But there was nothing but mist all around him.

“Dammit! Saffron!” He cried out to her but he didn’t hear an answer at first. He narrowed his eyes to see a bit better through this mist that appeared out of nowhere. Was it another trap for them? And where was she? His answer would come as he looked on in horror as the woman was in the hands of some abomination. “Let her go!” He hissed at him, but the stranger did nothing but continue to hold her up into the air as she pleaded. He ran as fast as he could, but the loud snapping noise stopped the vampire dead in his tracks. No words left his lips and all he could do was stare blankly as her movement ceased and her cries died. The body was then set flame and he watched as it was reduced to smoke and ashes. It was long into the realization of what happened that he…snapped. He could only see red as he stared at the lich before a deep, destructive rage embodied him and grabbed him by the head before smashing it against the wall behind them, over and over again. He then tossed the thing far onto the floor before he got on top of him and proceeded to beat the damned monster with just an inch of its life left. His knuckles raw from repeating pounding into its face as hard and vicious as he could muster. He felt aged blood against his hands and splattering on his face but it didn’t stop him from his deeds. He was going to make it suffer for what it did to her.

He was very vocal about making him pay for her death as the shouts and hisses could be heard. Desmond was lost in his destructive wake, not caring for what else could be in there fogged room with them as he kept punching and screaming right up until he heard his nickname being called and slowly stopped and turned to see Saffron there. “But…you…died. I saw you.” He was wide-eyed as slowly rose up and marched towards her. Gods, he must have looked crazy in her eyes as he rose a bloody hand to her face and touched it. “I…don’t get it.” He turned to see the lich only to see a stupid mummy there in its place, beaten to a pulp.

Saffron came in at the tail end of Desmond’s rage. She stood there watching and listening as she heard his pain. The mist? What had happened to make him go out of control. Her lover was never the type to lose himself over many things. Once he came over to her and started to pull at her face she finally pieced together what had happened. “I’m alright… See?” She took her own hands and pulled at his face back. “It’ll be alright Dessie,” her voice was so soft now as she pulled him close. She didn’t care about how much blood was all over her. She kissed his head softly.

“It looks like illusion magic. I can feel the resonance in the air from the spell… It’s really powerful.” More powerful than something he could deal with. She gently pulled at him. “Come on, we should get what we came for and get out of here.” After a few moments, she mischievously looked at him with a smile. “You do love me!” She pounced on him softly and wrapped her arms around him. “I knew you did!” Now he couldn’t take it back.

He pushed her off and told her to shush but she was still really happy as she pulled him along. The rest of the pyramid seemed like nothing as she took him down into the treasure room. “This is where I fell down into. There was a chute that opened up when the mist showed up. Right…” She reached up and showed him where the chute opening was.

She lit the torches again so he could see all the gold and silver. “See? I did good right?”

Desmond wasn’t the sort that would have laid down and let happened happen. He was lost in his rage, uncaring if he was to perished in the conflict now that Saffron had been slain. All he could think at that point was to kill until he was stopped. Which happened the moment he heard her voice. Hell, he was still in disbelief and was waiting for a blade or something to come and strike him down. Instead, he was welcomed with her pulling back at his face in similar fashion and he knew immediately that she was actually there. “Knock that off”, he groaned, slightly embarrassed by his recent behavior. He begrudgingly allowed her to pull him into an embrace.

The damned lich, pulling a stunt like that and making them into fools…Desmond hated this place and wanted to just get the hell out. Rubbing at his temples, the vampire was then confronted by Saffron and he groaned again. “Shut up.” He wasn’t going to confirm or deny the statement, not that she would let him live through it anyway. Instead he shoved her off gently and she took him away. “Where are we going?” He was unsure of what she had found as they went through the pyramid until she showed him where she had landed during that time of confusion.

Peeking down, he saw the sparkling of riches below and his jaw dropped. If he could have, he would jumped in and swam through it like it was water. “Yes, you did darling!” he petted Saffron’s hair lightly before going into it. He started collecting as much of the stuff as possible, lining his pockets and whatnot. “Come on, we need to grab these and head back to the dragon and get the hell out of here.”