[h3]The Temple of Spring Whistling[/h3][hr]From over the heads of the whistling statues, Telio could see and hear the roaring, screaming, thrashing, almost comical chaos below. There was a knot of green scales and claws and teeth and arms and swords flailing; a pistol fired, and the forest shook as every living creature fled for higher ground, and still a couple of the trusting ones kept their hands to the circle despite the immediate danger of decapitation by snake bite. Spook stood by, hands in his pockets, idle.

Here, in the remains of the temple, it was peaceful. The statues whistled in soothing harmony. The leaves above rustled in the soft breeze.

Telio would hear a soft [i]tack tack tack[/i] of something small and metal tapping against stone.

[b]"You have beautiful dreams."[/b]

The soft, feminine voice came from a small metallic bird. It stood glinting on a whistling statue's head, blinking at Telio with one eye turned toward him, and it bounced a little closer along the stones. A turnkey spun slowly on its back. A rune had been carved ornately into its chest -- like the rune on the tree they had encountered on the road, and like the runes written on Spook's arms.

[center][img]http://jp24.r0tt.com/l_d05417a0-9c5e-11e5-b195-2bcccef00024.jpg[/img]
[sup]by [url=http://ktt.tumblr.com/post/25190631122]ktt[/url][/sup][/center]

[b]"A person with beautiful dreams should never be afraid,"[/b] the little bird said. [b]"Not in a place where dreams are magic."[/b]

[h3]The Magic Circle[/h3][hr]The beast had been on the verge of a strike upon Meryn -- enraged at the smear of blood on its nose -- when Kelsier initiated his own attack. Within moments, Kelsier alone had the monster's full attention and rage; in quick succession each head snapped against his skilled blade, flicking forward and back like a venomous spring. One head still reeled, cross-eyed from the guardsman's initial attack, and was slower and sloppier than the others. The rest of its body -- half of which still hung below the edge of the portal -- writhed and scraped to move closer, to catch Kelsier between blows, to snatch him in its fangs and rip him apart.

A shot rang out, and one of the heads jerked violently, crashing into the others, dripping black blood from an eyesocket. The head that had been shot fell to the ground and was limp and still. The remaining two heads divided their attention: one continued to fight Kelsier's sword while the other sped venomously toward Alexander with every intention of biting off his head. It crashed into his shield and pulled back for another blow.

Lily and Emma, in their concentration, could feel every detail of the power moving between them. Energy routed throughout the network of lines in intricate patterns; It was now clear to both of them where the power was lacking, and where the gaps and blocks were in the flow of energy. It was simple, with this knowledge, to direct their thoughts and work together: to balance the flow of dreams and bring stability to the circle.

Within the portal, the thunder stopped rolling. The lightning stopped flashing, and the wind stopped howling. An eerie silence followed, broken only by the hissing beast and the [i]clang, clang[/i] of Kelsier's sword against the monster's snapping fangs.

The monster's lower half began to scrape, slide and sink backward.

Soon, its attacks could no longer reach Kelsier and Alexander. Its claws scrabbled against the weedy cobblestones, and the two heads hissed frightfully while the third dragged, bleeding, along the ground. As long as Lily and Emma maintained concentration, the beast was sucked farther and farther back into the hole it had come from, its necks flinging wildly in a desperate desire to stay aboveground -- until, all at once, the last of it was yanked into darkness, and the monster was gone.

Stillness. Silence. The forest held its breath.

At the center of the magic circle, the portal remained -- only now it simply looked like a black spot in the road, a hollow nothingness, as if in this particular spot nothing at all existed.

Spook whistled.

[b]"You two have a knack for this, don't you?"[/b] he said to Lily and Emma as he ambled over to the pile of cages, where the felidrakes were shaking in silent fright. The Traveller picked up two of the cages, and these felidrakes began to yowl in terror as he carried them across to the center of the circle, to drop the cages into the portal one by one.