Dezil raised an eyebrow and said, "And who might you and your large friend be?"

"The name is Zita, big guy is Argoth. I don't have any real from of identification, so I hope you'll take my word."

OOC: Is there even identification in the world of Spira?

Dezil said, "Well, I don't have any reason not to believe you are who you say you are. Anyway, I'm sure we're all feeling better, so thank you for the offer, but no. Are either of you summoners, because you are both coming from the direction of the temple..."

(OOC: Zita makes bad jokes under pressure)

"Me? An Al Bhed? A summoner? Uh, no, but we are a friend of one. Maybe you've heard of him, name's Ripel." Zita said. Behind the glasses his eyes darted back to the temple. Stalling sucked.

Both his eye brows shot up at the mentions of 'not being an Al-Bhed' when he hadn't asked, and the fact that he was connected to Ripel. "Yes... quite... Well, thank you for your offer, but we really must get going back on our journey." Then he leaned over to Raine and whispered, "We need to get to the temple Lady Raine, now. He is already suspicious if he is connected to Ripel, and he keeps glancing in the direction of the temple which doesn't make me any less suspicious of him. I fear something is gravely wrong about this whole situation."

Raine nodded slightly at Dezil, then bowed at Zita, "It was nice to meet you Sir, but we have to be going on our way." She began to walk forward, then stopped and turned, "Um, But do you know where sir Ripel is at the moment?" She asked. They didn't know weither they could completely trust him, and it would be better for them if they knew where to be watching out for him.

(OOC: I think I miswrote something, I was trying to make it seem like Zita was confused as to why an Al Bhed would be a summoner...but I'll roll with it)

"Wait...do you guys know Ripel? I just met up with him a little bit ago, I havent seen that guy since Bikanel...did he do something to you guys? Oh wait, you guys must be the little summoner group he said he met. So that would make you Lady Raine, right? The summoner to be? I've heard nothing but good things about you." Zita said, trying to move the subject away from the temple.

"That's great, now lets go." Rei said, directing Raine towards the temple.

"I wouldn't go down if I were you though. The guards are checking for weapons. Apparently some crazy Al Bhed showed up, so theyre patting down and confiscating all weapons before anybody goes into the temple. I don't think they'd be too happy if you walked in there and they found you were packing guns. And think about the image miss Summoner would get. Thats why I stayed away, don't want them taking away my babies." Zita said as he pulled out his own guns. "They're not hooked up to ammo, no worries."

(OOC: To avoid confusion, the guns in the attachments. Two of those.)

"Rei will do something about his guns, we need to go. Thank you for the warning." Dezil said, then began to walk in the direction of the temple.

Raine smiled at Zita, "Well, now it's no longer 'summoner to be'. But I think we had better get going to the temple so I can continue my pilgrimage and bring the calm to everyone." She glanced at him, "And I'm sure everyone is wanting a new calm to come."

"Oh you bet, Sin is a freakin bastard when he messes up a scavange. Well anyways, before you go, can I have a look at the guns? I have somewhat of an obsession for new machina. Plus, the temple isn't going anywhere, but I might not stick around."

Rei 'nudged' Raine towards the temple, to get her to move. Rei already didn't like Zita, him being a friend a Ripel and he seemed like he was trying to stall Raine for whatever reason. He also ignored Zita when he asked to see his guns, seeing as he had already hostlered them.

Raine bowed again, "With all due respect sir, we really need to be getting to the temple." She felt bad not staying to talk with him like he seemed to want to, but her pilgrimage had to go on. "If you really want to see his weapons, you can come with us to the temple and inspect them there while I go to see the fayth." She offered.

"Oaacr, Nebam fych'd gettehk...eer...I mean...well, see, I don't think they'd really like me anywhere near there, me being Al Bhed and all, ya know?"

"Well, you could just hide your guns and stuff, right?"

Drake was obviously as experienced with Al Bheds as much as Ronso and dragon-like fiends.

"If I could I would sport, but I don't wanna risk the guards combing the woods and discovering my little guys...then they'll line up everyone, then they'll check the eyes, and bingo, mr. swirly gets caught and then who knows what. I don't even know what'd they do if they found your guns, probably accuse the summoner of helping out the 'Evil Al Bhed' then you'll suffer my fate..." Zita said, trying his best to stall. If they got near the temple and found that he had lied about the checks, then that would be the end of that...but if he could stall long enough for Ripel...

OOC: The Al-Bhed thing is the swirly eyes, not green eyes... And I'm assuming that Raine is already walking towards the temple, since your guy is just talking to one guardian while several others are trying to move Raine. (Edit) - And she's said good bye twice...

OOC: I thought it was swirly AND green...thats why Yuna had one blue and one green eye right? Meh, I'll change it.

Drake looked hard at the man. He looks familiar...and I'm sure I've heard his voice before...where have I seen him?

All of a sudden, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He quickly tapped Dezil, who was standing next to him, with the ack end of his halberd on his back, in such a way that nobody else would notice. He whispered to the more experienced guardian. "Dezil, he's the guy I spotted meeting with Ripel earlier. What should we do?"

"He is? We should get out of here as fast as possible, that's what. I've had about as much of this as I can take of this. I've never heard of a temple checkpoint like this, and he is fairly obviously stalling us. If Raine doesn't get going soon... One of us will need to check out the temple and see what is going on there. She'll be safe with three guardians, and we need to know why he is keeping us from the temple, soon." Dezil whispered back.

"I'll go ahead, I can probably get there faster than everyone else." Drake whispered back.

With that, he jumped over the blocking Al Bhed and started dashing for the temple. If he's trying to stall us, then Ripel must be hatching his plan. I'd better hurry.

Dezil cringed at how obviously he did that, but tried to compensate. "Sorry about that, but he's just our, umm, scout. He's making sure we won't have to deal with any more Ochu on our path. Now, as we've said, we are thankful for your help, but it is time for all of us to get back on the road and continue on our journey." Dezil said out loud, and resumed walking on the path towards the temple.

Uran was sitting on the steps to the Yevonite temple. Perched on his back were his Fire Lizards, all chittering at him. In his hands was a small peice of meat that he was feeding one of them.

"Don't start, you'll get your turn." The one he addressed squeaked, then blew the equivalent of a rasberry.

One of the priests came outside and said, "Would you please leave the temple grounds if you're going to insist on having those...things, around?"

Uran sighed, and stood. The Lizards squacked in protest at this sudden change in footing, but either held on, or flew off to latch onto a different part.

"Yes sir. I'll just be heading on my way now, if you don't mind." He started back down the trail.

Practically on a bee-line course for Raine, but he didn't know that.

Ripel sighed heavily as he started making his way back through the trial. Well, it was a whole lot quicker this time, probably because I was sure what to do this time. However, Zita cannot stall forever, and I really must get out of here before any summoner, especially one in particular, arrives.

The hard part's over, and I'm almost home free. Of course, I just know something is going to ruin this. It went all too well.

Mitsu was on the steps "Anybody want to race to the top?"

Argoth shook his head and paced to the top of the stairs and into the temple waiting area. He had never been into one of these places before so everything was a new experience.

<Dammit...I tried Ripel...oh well, time to watch the train wreck...and there goes someone familiar...> Zita thought to himself as Raine and her group began heading up the path, the spear carrier Zita had noticed before jumping far ahead. Hopefully Ripel was done.