Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tianara glanced at the submarine with new eyes, thinking about it. "I don't know," she replied at last. "I've never tried to reach anyone through metal walls, but...cavern walls don't seem to have an effect. I suppose those have big open entrances, though. And there's always the chance they have a magical seal on them as well."

She swam over, eyed the submarine dubiously, brushed it with her fingers and then jerked them back with a hiss. She smiled apologetically at Joshua. "Hot," she said, before frowning and looking back at it. There was no reason a submarine sunken for years should be hot, particularly not hot enough to burn her with just a touch.

Touching it again, she cursed. "Yep, definitely hot," she muttered, pulling her hand away again. "But...someone's in there. I can feel it every time I touch it. There's someone inside. Maybe two someones."

She glanced at Joshua, and her voice held a blank confusion. "One, maybe two, but certainly not four. Did they separate them?" She couldn't imagine how they could have gotten the group separated. Swimming around the thing once or twice, she eventually gave up and turned to Joshua. "How do we open it?"

Mac followed Aria. When she presented the objects of the sea witch, Mac listened to the poem, and it sounded familiar. For some reason, he felt more research was needed. "Do you think tomorrow we could go and see your grandfather?" he asked Aria. His eyes glistened with intensity.

Mac nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it was a little creepy...She was very...scheming and manipulative" he finished with a look of caution. "Lets get back to the movie" he quickly remembered, "I'm sure Mike's all lonely". He knew they couldn't do anything tonight.

"I'm fine," Tianara muttered absently, examining the thing. She followed him to the hatch and looked it over for a long minute. When he started to grasp and pull on it, however, she grabbed his wrists and pulled him back. "Joshua, wait. There's an easier way." In other words, a way that hopefully wouldn't leave him with horrible burns on his hands.

Diving, she gathered up some things from the ground around the submarine. A few long, waving strands of seaweed, and some wet pulpy stuff that looked like it might once have been paper or cardboard. Returning to his side, she took his hands again and pressed the pulpy stuff against his palms and fingers before wrapping the whole deal in the seaweed. Then she did the same - as best she could - for herself.

Tianara had never seen oven mitts, and didn't realize she'd just created a pretty fair approximation of same. She just thought a few layers might protect them from burning as badly.

"Okay," she said, placing her hands on the wheel and noting with relief that the heat was much less now. "Let's try this again."

Tianara shrugged a shoulder, giving a weak smile. Then she too turned her attention back to the wheel. When Joshua pulled on it, she gave it a push in the same direction, hoping it would work.

Unfortunately, the wheel remained firmly stuck. It barely shifted, even with their combined attempt. Tianara glared at the thing once, then sighed. "Let's try this instead," she muttered. Digging her feet into the muck at the bottom of the sub, she then lifted them out covered in...stuff that she would rather not know the exact ingredients of. Pressing them against the sub for extra leverage, she pushed again. "Pull, Joshua," she said. "I think this might help, but I don't know how long the stuff will work."

Worry had begun to sneak silently back into her mind. If some of the group was in there, why weren't they responding? They had to hear her and Joshua - they weren't precisely being quiet. Why was there no response to them, even if it was just someone trying to open the hatch from the inside as well?

Maybe they didn't hear, she told herself firmly. It was possible.

But still, the fear remained. Maybe they didn't hear because...they couldn't. Maybe they weren't responding because they couldn't.

Tianara gave it another good attempt as well, and finally, reluctantly, the wheel squeaked to the side. Somewhat. Then it locked down again, and refused to turn any farther.

The girl looked at Joshua. "Is it open?" she asked, confused. She couldn't imagine any other reason why it would only go that far. Then a horrid thought occurred. "Joshua, they can't...lock, can they? Like from the inside?"

If they could, she and Joshua might just be hooped. What with no one responding from inside, and no other way to get in there...

No, she told herself firmly. It couldn't be locked. No attacker would be so stupid as to lock themselves in with their captives. It was just sticking, that was all. Or already open.

Tianara shifted her position so that she could get herself under the wheel. She braced both hands against it, and pushed off against the side of the sub, throwing her entire weight against the hatch. Slowly, painfully slowly, it began to squeak open.

Then, suddenly, even through her makeshift mittens the heat became unbearable, and she had to drop it. As soon as it settled closed again, the temperature went down. Tianara growled under her breath. "Spelled," she muttered. "So that no one else can try to open it."

She shot Joshua a look. "Looks like we're going to get burned after all."

That said, she dropped again, braced herself once more, and pushed it open. Fighting the reflex to yank away when the heat shot up again, she pushed until it finally stood open. Only then did she pull back her hands. About to go in, she stopped and looked at Joshua.

"One of us should stay out here," she said softly. "In case someone comes back to check. It doesn't help anything if we find them only to get locked in there with them." She hesitated, then said, "I'll stay. You go in. Hurry."

Tianara watched him go in. She felt the sudden urge - so sudden, and so frightening, that she knew it wasn't hers - to close the door behind him. With an angry shake of her head, she dismissed the dark thought and went to the ocean floor again to find something to prop it up.

~

It was the average submarine to the eye - old, rusty, with small holes in the old metal walls here and there, as though something had chewed its way through them. There was no heat on the inside - it was as cool as the water inside it. And there was no sound.

Perhaps it would have been better to send Tianara in after all; she could sense the merfolk more strongly. But the girl herself had had no doubts in Joshua's ability.

Of course, that was before they'd seen the inside of the old submarine. If they'd thought the junkyard around it was a warren, well...they hadn't seen anything yet. Piles and piles of random junk were everywhere, blocking corridors and floating idly in the waters.

Joshua might have to search through it all if he couldn't get a sense of the merfolk.