"Jump on its stomach," Apple replied, "It'll regurgitate the magic," they explained.
"So be it," Axel said bending his legs and jumping up.
"Wait we can talk about this!" the Basilisk said.
But what comes up must come down, and so Axel landed directly on the stomach of the Basilisk.
And from the mouth of the Basilisk came several balls of light, each going to one of the scouts, except a slightly smaller one that seemed to go underneath the building.
"Woo!" Apple said getting up, "You have to tell me about your Basilisk techniques," they said going up to Axel.
"Family secret," Axel replied.
"Other little light," Lettuce pointed out.
"Yeah, it's probably the captains," Apple answered, "We should go get him," they said.
"I'll stay here to make sure the Basilisk doesn't get free," Grape offered.
"Well then, what are we waiting for," Artichoke commented.
———————————————————————
Just about no light reached the basement of where the captain had been stuck, nor was there anyone else that he could talk to so he could entertain himself.
The campness of the closet he was stuck in meant that even if the binds around him weren't' there, he still wouldn't be able to move.
And the smell, it was smelt like old rot, the captain feared that he was smelling what happened to any others that were kidnapped by the Basilisk, but he forced that thought out of his mind.
The captain had tried many timed to force himself out of their binds, but with his magic gone and his physical strength majorly weakened, he was useless in the face of the rope which bonded him.
His own mask sat on top of his curled knees, mocking the mistake he made in going off my himself, a mistake he would not make twice. The reason the Basilisk took it off was so they could perfectly shapeshift into him.
But suddenly as he was still thrashing in his rope, he felt it, a portion of his magic was returned. And for a moment the captain sat back, knowing it was his scouts that felled the beast.
He laid back, before immediately going back to shaking in his binds.
"Get me out of here!" he yelled out.
Above them, the captain could hear footsteps, then a door creaking open.
"Captain?" a familiar voice yelled down.
"Here!" he yelled back.
"Down here!" Apple yelled out, leading the group to their captain.
"Untie me at once!" the captain ordered, standing up as best as he could.
"Understood!" Artichoke said with a smile, going to untie the captain.
"So, which one of you took it out?" the captain asked.
"Lettuce put the cuffs on, but it was," Artichoke began to explain before trailing off, "I don't think I got your name," they realized.
"Beetle Scales, Beetle is fine," Axel replied, finally deciding on a name
"Ok then, Beetle here was the one to put it down," Artichoke told.
"You'll get your congratulations once we're out of here," the captain said standing up, "Now where are we now?" he then asked.
"The basement, or so I'm guessing," Artichoke replied.
"No, we're in the first church," Apple corrected.
"I thought we were in the church," Axel asked.
"We were, we were in the second church, a now we have moved to the first," Apple explained.
"Smells," Lettuce commented.
"You're telling me," the captain mumbled.
"That's Pomme," Apple remarks.
'...'
"Isn't that the worshiped being?" Artichoke hesitantly asked.
"Yep, the being that the first church was built around," Apple said, "Then someone came and killed it, then the second church was built on the corpse," they explained.
"Who would do that?" Axel asked.
"Wild witches apparently," Apple said, "They came in when nobody was looking and massacred Pomme, that's when the Emperor came," they recounted.
"The Emperor? Artichoke asked
"Yep, he told them all about the wild witches and told us that the Titan would be willing to help them if the town got coven sigils" Apple told the group.
"So this was in the wild period?" Axel asked.
"Yeah, and after all the people of the town got sigils, they build the second church to continue praying to Pomme," Apple said.
"They refused the help of the Titan?" the captain mumbled, before shaking his head, "We'll have the time for talking after we get out, who is looking over the Basilisk?" the captain then asked.
"Grape," Axel replied, "I'm going to head up and check on them, make sure the Basilisk isn't doing anything sneaky," he explained.
"Approved," the captain replied, "We'll meet outside as soon as possible with the captive," he said putting back on his mask.
———————————————————————
The sound of falling cuffs from Grape's hand hitting the hard wood floor echoed throughout the room where only two scouts stood.
Axel looked at Grape, questions flowing through his mind, and Grape stared back with the same glance.
'Do I attack? Do I wait? Should I call for back up? Is it another Basilisk?'
As Axel looked, he saw a piece of clothing missing from Grape's uniform. A piece that could be found on the floor, the piece likely got ripped off during the fight with the Basilisk.
This confirmed one of Axel's fears, that this wasn't a Basilisk, this was Grape.
Coming to a decision, Grape raised his spear up high.
Axel got into a defensive position, he knew that he couldn't beat Grape in a fight. However, he would do his best to minimize harm to himself while making as much commotion as possible to alert the others.
But too the shock and confusion of Axel, Grape took their spear raised high in the air, and brought it down upon their own arm.