Ryan backed away from the approaching monster, at least until he smacked into the side of Kaelynn's harness. This creature towered over them—its appearance was alien, and its teeth were glittering sharp. Yet it was also unarmed, and apparently intelligent enough to speak to them. That made about as much sense from the tomb-guardian than anything else they'd encountered so far.
More importantly, Ryan could feel him, the same way he felt the others in their group. He overflowed with satisfaction at having discovered them, and confidence that he was accomplishing his duty. This was not simple malevolence, but this creature seemed to resonate with purpose. It wanted to protect this place, and it knew that it would soon destroy another set of intruders.
"We're not here to rob you," Blake said. He hadn't retreated so far as the others. This was probably a great time for him to whip out the freaky fire-monster and start blasting, but he hadn't done that either. He just faced down the creature, which loomed over him at spectacular size. "We're here to use the Worldgate. We have no ill-will towards this tomb."
The creature laughed, loudly enough that it echoed through the vaulted chamber. As it did so, several animal voices joined in... laughing? Ryan spun, and realized there were suddenly many other eyes around them. Not just this one monster, but cat eyes that peeked out from the rubble, looking around bits of gold, and perched atop intricate sculptures.
"You say this as though it was supposed to convince me! Oh yes, we've only come to desecrate your most sacred artifact! The very thing you were entrusted to guard, yes please let us through. We won't steal anything, only ruin your centuries of vigil for nothing!"
He growled, baring his teeth. Even Blake retreated, though not very fast. He was clearly just as afraid as the others, Ryan could feel it. But he put himself between the rest of them and danger. Even Jordan cowered behind him. And Ryan, for all his size, wasn't doing much better. Could he copy the guardian, maybe fight it hand-to-hand? Or... weird paws to weird paws, anyway.
"If you want to murder us, we won't make it easy on you," Blake said. He drew a rough metal object from his side, a tube with a rudimentary mechanism on the rear. Kaelynn's current masterpiece, a single-shot flintlock pistol. Kaelynn's craftsmanship maybe, but Ryan's idea. "If you expect us to curl up and die, the griffons made that mistake too. We'll fight like hell."
They would fight, but they would probably die. All around the room, jungle cats bared their teeth. Jaguars had always looked like formidable creatures, but now they were taller as well as longer and more muscular. I should be Galena if we fight. That's my best chance to survive this.
"Well, we could," the creature said, puffing out its absurd chest. It reached down, scooping up the gold band Ryan had dislodged, and replacing it on the display. "Or you could go back to where you came from and leave this sacred place alone. But we both know you won't do that. You treasure-hunters are all alike. Pale imitators of my former adversary. But her determination came from competence. You four... not so much."
They shared a look. Ryan could feel it—Kaelynn and Jordan realized it instantly, and only Blake resisted. He actually thought they could win! With a single shot from a gun that didn't shoot straight, a bat that couldn't fly, a seapony who couldn't breathe, and a cowardly shapeshifter.
Ryan shoved past his friend, spreading his wings as he did so to take up more space. He was bigger now, even if that size was only borrowed. It would do. "No, we're nothing like those others. We'll leave. Our airship is waiting—we'll leave your tomb the way we found it."
Blake nudged him with his shoulder, fuming with frustration and anger—but it cooled when the creature spoke.
"Seriously?" He gestured, and at once the yowling felines and crouching monsters guarding the doorway behind them split apart, opening the exit. "All the time we spend cleaning bones out of deathtraps, scrubbing blood out of the stone... it really would be better if you left."
"I'm surprised too..." Blake said. "We're giving up?"
"It's one Worldgate," Ryan said. "We'll go to the next one on the map. They didn't all have armies guarding them."
Now Blake turned properly on him. Heat rose from around him like asphalt in the summer sun, strange lines that warped the air around it.
"Blake," Jordan said. "Chill out a minute, will you? You're scaring me more than the panthers right now."
Blake stopped dead. Jordan's words cut him far deeper than any threat from the guardian. He actually hesitated, shaking his head once to clear it. "I, uh..."
"Don't say anything," Jordan continued. "Just chill. Monster man, we're going! Like they said. But you should know, you're just keeping innocent people from getting home. That's all we wanted."
"Monster man," the thing repeated, indignant. "My name is Ahuizotl."
"Sorry." Jordan wilted, wings folding. "Ahuizotl then. Sorry about disturbing your eternal slumber or whatever. We're leaving." She turned, resting one leg under Kaelynn's shoulder to help her with the stairs. Ryan took the other side—Blake was probably a little too hot to be healthy for the seapony just now. He'd need to lift more of the slack.
Together they passed between watching animals. Ryan could feel from them too, far more than he might've expected from animals. They mostly felt simple loyalty for Ahuizotl, though there might've been something more. They too were satisfied to see the tomb emptied. Only a few were disappointed at the lack of bloodshed today.
The cats left them behind, but the guardian followed, his massive steps shaking the stone slightly behind them. "Since you're the first creatures to listen when I told them to leave, I will share some advice with you. If you continue to the north, there is a Worldgate that opens only in the tempests. A tribe dwells there, fled from terrors lost to time. They will welcome a friendly visitor. So maybe leave the horned one behind."
"You know," Kaelynn said. Her voice was thin and reedy, and Ryan could feel why. She was on the edge of exhaustion from so long outside the water. This trip had already cost her terribly. "You know about the other side. About Earth."
Ryan watched the creature for his reaction. Old instinct, unnecessary now. Interesting that he responded so emotionally similar to the way ponies thought, but he would probably never discover why.
Ahuizotl shrugged, tilting his head to the side. "Of course. But if you think sharing a home with those who placed me here would mean I neglect my duty and look the other way, you are quite wrong. They had many enemies on both sides. Maybe you too. Even so, good luck finding another way. Fly safe back to where you came from."
Fly safe? They trudged back up the steps, and Ryan was out of breath for the next several minutes, distracted with the effort of lifting Kaelynn. The creature didn’t follow them, nor did he respond to their shouted requests for more information.
Blake was still boiling by the time they made it to the airship. But he didn't complain about what had happened, not until they were finally back up the ramp, and beyond the hearing of the watching cats.
"I still think that thing was more bark than bite," Blake said, as soon as they'd lifted the ramp. A few of the cats even perched on bits of ruined building to wave as they flew away. "He knew where we were from, he knew about us... maybe he knows everything! We shouldn't just leave all that information behind."
Galena appeared from the upper decks, looking strangely relieved to see them again. "You went so quickly," she said. "Results not good?"
Kaelynn shook her head. "There were guardians, like you thought. But not as deadly as I expected."
She trailed off, breathing heavily. Well, her neck was twitching, and she felt like someone in pain. Even a trip that long had been enormously difficult for her. I need to get her back to her quarters, where she can swim around. She's drying up out here.
"He gave us new directions too," Jordan said. "And wished us a pleasant trip. I think the Worldgate he mentioned was on the map. Ryan, did it sound familiar?"
Ryan hesitated a moment, thinking back to the map. He'd done his best to memorize the general shape, along with every Worldgate on it. He was still working on their corresponding locations in the real world.
Earth? Real was probably the wrong attitude. "The continents seem to roughly mirror the Earth we know. This would be Central America. The next one would be somewhere in Mexico, about twice as far from here as we've sailed so far."
Blake stamped at the deck, his strange hooves splintering the wood. "We gave up too easily. The guardian was a monkey creature with cats. If I got off a lucky shot, he'd fall, and they would scatter."
Jordan slid past Ryan, resting her wing on Blake's shoulder. It must've been incredibly uncomfortable, with heat like that rising from him. She did it anyway. "You really think it would be right to kill someone like that? He's just doing his job."
"He would've done the same to us," Blake said. But the enthusiasm leached from his words as he said it. The anger bubbled away almost the second Jordan touched him.
"I'd rather not leave it either," Ryan added. "If we had another choice. But we don't. Think about the documentary, Blake. We don't have to make things harder for National Geographic by giving them a murder to deal with."
Kaelynn shuffled a little distance away, towards the stairs. "You talk this out. It's a long way, I already heard that. I need to get this space suit off."
She turned, making her slow way back. Ryan followed just behind her. He reached over to help her down the steps, but indignance rose from her in that same moment, and he backed off. Blake would want his help to set a course and do ship stuff, but the others could do that for once. Maybe his girlfriend.
"I bet we could've convinced him if we met a different way," Kaelynn said, as soon as they'd reached the bottom of the stairs. It was only a short trip from there to the captain's quarters. "But we were right there in the treasure room. Really looked like looters."
And that was mostly my fault. I was the one who had to go and touch it. I'm the only one who ever had to worry about money.
It was wrong to think like that, Ryan knew on an emotional level. Just as he shouldn't hate himself for being cast as a horrible bug by his passage through the Worldgate. His friends had never looked down on him for his financial dependence. They'd invited him along for all their adventures, and never expected him to contribute resources he didn't have.
Didn't mean he could just forget about their differences, though.
Ryan's next few minutes were occupied helping Kaelynn into the tank. Her door didn't just dump water into the hall—there were high walls right around it, with a small room with clothing hooks and a drain. A ramp led up over the high walls, which had a single section they could lift to splash down into the rest of the room.
The water wasn't even two feet deep, enough that he could lay on his back and barely be fully covered. The walls went up far higher than that, more than twice. A precaution against rough weather and difficult maneuvers more than anything. They'd wanted to make them continue all the way to the ceiling, with special windows she could use to watch their flight as they traveled.
They had enough gold, but thanks to Janet's warning, they knew they didn't have enough time.
That didn't mean he had to accept everything she said, though. She wanted all of them to live as magical pariahs, ignoring their abilities and minimizing contact with the outside world. Friendship was magic, and making friends here would trap them in Equestria forever.
But she'd lasted for over half a year now, and still thought she had a shot of getting back. If they could make it back to Earth soon enough to give Janet a shot, he could afford to take a few more risks. If Ryan had to spend the next few weeks of Worldgate-hopping in only one shape, he would lose his mind.
Ryan did a little of that changing now, as Kaelynn slipped gleefully into the tank ahead of him. This water wasn't as pristine-clear as the transport machine had kept it, more like a well-maintained public pool. But that was better than drowning her in her own filth.
He knew exactly what it felt to breathe, because he spent most of his nights with Kaelynn in this very tank. Sometimes, he even slept.
Well, he tried. Sleeping didn’t seem to be a thing that bugs needed to do. Product of being a parasite, or just his slow death in a freak medical condition, he had no way of knowing. If he'd met any other changelings since arriving in Equestria, he hadn't known or been able to ask them.
Amazing how much he could come to love not being stuck after only a few weeks. He touched the edge of the water, then felt for a moment at Kaelynn's emotions. She wanted company, but not that kind of company. Would be a smaller meal for Ryan tonight.
He hung his vest on one of the hooks, then slipped over the edge of the ramp behind her. By the time he hit the water, he no longer looked like a bird. Instead, he was her exact twin. One of the few forms he'd used enough that he didn't even have to think about it.
But Kaelynn didn't make her usual gleeful circuit of the tank, as she often did after returning from some dry-land duty. Instead she slumped onto the floor, where a soft pad of material resembling a sponge was attached to form a "bed" of sorts. Remodeling the ship in a friendly port that catered to an underwater species certainly had its advantages.
Ryan circled her once, humming to a nervous tune. "Are you alright, Kaelynn?"
"Yeah," she lied, curling up around her tail. "Just... gimme a few minutes. Then get that songbook. If I have to do that again, I think I'm gonna drown for sure."