Tempe bit the inside of her lip angrily. Anger at herself, at him, at Chiron, the gods. Everyone, really. If she didn't rein in her little temper tantrum, there was going to be more than one being in this stinking hole that wanted her dead, if there weren't already. She watched him drag his hand through his hair and blew out a slow breath, trying her hardest to ignore the smell and her mixed feelings toward the other demigod. She glanced off when he closed his eyes, rubbing her neck quietly and observing her surroundings in the momentary silence. "Well then, let's." She nodded, her voice soft as she followed him to where ever he figured they should go, tossing her bow from hand to hand anxiously.

Zephyr sucked in another breath before steeling himself for the road ahead, including any fighting, insults, rude looks, and death. Always fun. He clenched his jaw slightly and looked around in the darkness, his dark eyes glinting almost like a cat's. He stalked forward before pausing and closing his eyes for a moment more. The feeling was SO close. Almost like he could touch it. He reached out his fingertips slightly and snatched them back as he heard a low hiss. Quickly backpedaling, he saw a giant coiled snake with huge fangs lurking on the ground. It must've been 100 feet long and easily able to eat a human. Swallowing down a wince, he backed up even more, though he was probably still well within striking range. "Let's have fun with this one." He mumbled, glancing at a thing in the middle of the coiled snake that seemed to emit darkness. "It is laying on the helm." He tried not to groan lowly.

Tempe followed him warily, bow tight in her hands and her side close to his. She squinted through the darkness, holding her faintly glowing bow out to see better until a low hiss rattled through her body. Her free hand snapped forward and she yanked him bqck by the elbow, backtracking a few steps to make distance for strategy. "Oh, so what's been happening so far doesn't qualify as fun?" She muttered, her fingers tight on his elbow as she thought, momentarily. "Of course it is." She sighed, releasing his elbow and staring down the snake in front of her. "Run to the left. Distract it. I'm going for the eyes." She said quickly, pacing left for a moment and then weaving right, hoping to seem less like a threat for a moment as she drew an arrow from her quiver and loaded it.

Zephyr couldn't help but be amused she didn't mime dying when she touched him. He REALLY wanted to make and unhelpful comment about how she had been avoiding him like he brought the plague and now she wanted to get close, but he didn't for sake of staying alive. "Oh, so you want me to risk my life and distract it. Better than you I guess. Protecting the girl, here I go again." He rolled his eyes. He knew that comment would get him nowhere, but he had to say something. Although, he was a REALLY good distraction. He drew a couple daggers with loud swishes and walked over to the left, a low rumble of a growl building in his own throat. The snake slowly hissed and looked back and forth before striking at Zephyr. He rolled to the side as quickly as he could, stabbing at it with a dagger as he passed.

"Ah yes, how valiant of you. It's not that I have the literal god given long range weapon in my hand or anything like that." Tempe grumbled, weaving to the left and a bit closer. As soon as she had the shot, she pulled the string to her jaw and let the arrow fly- and fly it did, with true aim. Her arrow embedded itself to the hilt in the yellow eye it struck, which closed after. The snake turned to her, with only half of its vision to work with, and struck with what vision it had. She skirted right to avoid the fangs launching at her, practically vaulting the neck of the snake and reaching back with a short dagger to plunge it int he other eye before she got bucked off and slammed into the stone floor of Tartarus.

"NOOO, nothing like THAT. Honestly I'm 99 percent convinced you want it to kill me so you don't have to." Zephyr wrinkled his nose slightly as the serpant SCREECHED in pain and tried to strike at Temperence, then him, then her, then it was blind. It thrashed around wildly, taking him off guard. It's giant tail smacked into his chest, RIGHT where he had just got clawed, and he SWORE he heard a bunch of cracks. With a grunt he slammed into the ground, catching his breath before pushing himself back up and throwing a couple well aimed daggers to calm the beast. Okay, fine, mortally wound and probably kill it. He then gingerly touched his chest with a wince before walking up and grabbing the dark helmet shaped thing. His hands disappeared in darkness. Ohh how he loved the feeling. The cold shadow spread up his arm like wildfire and stopped around his chest. Everything suddenly felt fine, and he could breathe easier. He looked down to see the wound gone, and even the bruising reduced. "Okay, I know never want to return this."

Temperance was knocked out cold for about fifteen seconds of the fight, and by the time she was able to rag herself back to consciousness, there wasn't much to do. She watched him hazily from the ground as he walked toward the helmet, stifling a cough. She couldn't tell if she had broken something, but her head took more of the impact than it should have. She wouldn't be surprised if she had a concussion. She let out a soft groan and shut her eyes, her chest wracking for a few moments before she turned on her side and coughed up blood. Quite ungracefully, at that. There was a jagged cut along her temple from where she hit the floor, bleeding enough that it was hard to see the severity of the wound. Either way, she was pissed because her head hurt and now blood was not only actively coming out of her mouth, but flowing from her head and into her eyes. She swiped impatiently at the wound and spat what she hoped was the last of the blood out. She tried to stand, almost falling flat on her face with the first attempt.

Zephyr quickly turned to Temperence and something inside of him clicked. Ohhh how he wished it didn't. His brain screamed at him that he shouldn't, that she looked like she was going to eat him and she might kill him, but his heart was like *heeyyyy duuuude we're helping someone today consider it an act of kindess*. At that his brain was more like *bleep bleep acts of kindness-* but he was already walking over. "Sit down for a moment." He said quietly, ripping off the bottom part of his shirt that was already ruined that he had saved and rather gently pressing it to her head. "Believe it or not you're never getting out of here while stumbling around like a drunken dinosaur." He let out a small snort before setting the helm down. All the pain instantly flooded back, along with the cracked ribs, the bruises, and the wound. He winced, his mind ringing.

Temperance brought her partially blurry vision to him, tensing as she tried to bring his face into focus. Once it occured that he was her friend, or rather- more friend than foe, she relaxed, watching his movements through partially unfocused eyes. The dark and the smell didn't help her disorientation, but her vision was coming into and out of clarity. She could see his face somewhat sharply, but she was trying hard to manage that. She raised a slightly shaky hand to catch his when he moved to touch her head, frowning slightly and taking a moment to recognize he was holding a strip of cloth. From his shirt. She let her fingers slide lazily down his forearm and then let her arm fall to the floor, watching his face in intense silence despite the fact that he spoke to her. Her ears were ringing slightly anyway, so she couldnt even tell fo she was ignoring his words or couldn't understand him. She let out a small sigh and set her head back down on the floor, closing her eyes and speaking without a bit of acknowledgement to either of his comments. "I wish you liked me." She muttered quietly, opening her eyes to stare off to the side. She didn't seem entirely out of the shock of being hit to the head so hard.

Zephyr drew back slightly for a second before pressing the cloth into her head again with probably as much tenderness as he had given anything in a long time. Well, except for spiders and snakes, he was always caring with them. He had never preferred people, because they had never preferred him, but she was obviously not okay and he had found his heart knew the access code to his brain. Which meant any important decision he made was usually based off of his rather idiotic heart. It never listened to his brain. It's like his nerves between the two were severed or something. He flinched away a little as she half tried to push away his hand, but she was obviously too groggy to do it, so he finished cleaning up the wound on her head. Since it didn't seem like she could hear him anyway he stopped speaking, kneeling down next to her to more easily reach the rest of her wounds. At her quietly muttered words he froze. She was obviously delirious. "You got hit on the head quite hard." He mumbled, sighing heavily before tearing another strip off his torn shirt and brushing the hair away from her gaping wound.