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Shady Impressions:Deceit, Dragons, and Dances with Gravity#5
Temple crawling, dungeon diving, ...spelunking? However you want to refer to it, Russo has been goaded into it. Given the fact that he's not one to give much consideration to things such as 'rules' or 'tradition' or 'private property,' his adventuring plays by the book as much as could be expected.
Icon is © to
Radku
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Chapter 41
The only things keeping him sane were the echoes of his own footsteps. Devoid of light and any ambient sounds, the deprivation of his senses ate away at the mage’s well-being more than he cared to admit. He held an arm out before him, extending the reach of his impromptu lantern. Beads of water noiselessly trickled down the incline cut into the smooth rock, leading back towards whence he came. Stomping down on barren stone with more force than necessary, the reverberations bounced back at him off of unseen walls
“Greetings warrior!” A deep and craggy voice called out in salutation from the abyss.
Russo halted his advance.
“*Ahem* I say, greetings warrior!”
The human purposefully eased up on his concentration and allowed his thoughts to wander, causing the illumination spell hovering above his hand to falter and dim.
“You. With the lamp,” the voice called out impatiently.
“…Can I help you?” Russo circled about in place, looking back over his shoulders for the source of the disembodied voice.
“Mighty warrior, it has been some time since anyone tread these hallowed grounds. You have done well to make it past the fearsome beast that guards this place.”
“Uhhh, thanks?”
“Come, human. Step forward so that you may learn about the trials that await you in your quest for… where are you going?”
“I thought I was supposed to go forward?”
“Forward towards me.”
Halting his advance once more, Russo came to a stop. Cocking an eyebrow, he turned to his right and resumed walking.
“No no no turn left. I mean my left.”
“How is that supposed to help me?” The mage called out in annoyance.
“I,” the voice trailed off into a sigh. “Sorry, I’m out of practice at this. Turn right.”
“Mine or yours?”
“Yours.” Russo complied with the instructions being bleated out, blindly delving deeper into the darkness.
“Little bit more. Good! Annnd you’re starting to veer off, swivel to your left and there we go!”
Stepping forward, the aura of light radiating out from Russo’s hand fell upon a statue. Carved into the likeness of a sheep, the stone facsimile only came up to his neck. Protected from the elements, it looked to be in pristine condition. Russo screeched and jumped back when the damn thing blinked.
“Hail, warrior!” Flicking its ears, the sheepy statue started flapping its chiseled jaws.
Arms still tensed, the human brought them down from in front of his face. “Hey yourself.”
The sheep straightened its shoulders and brushed away at the layers of dust that clung to the curving tufts of wool carved into its chest.
Carving those curls and fluff on that stone sheepy must have been a colossal pain in the ass. “Wonder what poor bastard got saddled with that job,” Russo pondered.
“As I was saying, step forward so that you may learn more about the trials that await you in your quest for Lady Kajastaa’s divine treasures!”
“Ka…ya?” He’d just spoken with her, hell she was the reason Russo was here in the first place. What the hell was that dragoness not telling him?
“Close! That was one of her favorite nicknames as it turns out, so that works!” Smiling, the stony sheep reminisced fondly upon the fair lady. “Truly she was a wise and pragmatic ruler, shepherding her people to safety within the confines of this mountain and carving out an existence for them when calamity threatened.”
Must have been one hell of a disaster to prompt relocating inside a rock.
Clapping his hooved hands together, a stone pillar rose up besides the sheep. Atop it lay an ornate hooked sword. Chipped and dull, it had seen its fair share of battles and was likely to be of little practical use in future ones. Gemstones embedded into the hilt glimmered in the faint light. “So it isn’t entirely worthless,” Russo muttered.
“In a time when the world was tearing itself apart, Lady Kajastaa did all that she could to not only shelter, but prepare those who served her for the unrelenting realities in store for them outside this safe keep.” Once more the statue clapped together those hooves, sparks lighting up its face upon contact. Somewhere off in the nebulous distance, tumultuous rumblings and crashes could be heard.
The human smacked his hands against his ears, trying to shake out a nerve wracking ringing that was bouncing around inside his head.
A loud clacking sound, that only served to exasperate Russo further, echoed around them as the statue pat its chest. “The path to the long since abandoned proving grounds has been revealed. It was there that those who followed the fair lady tested their might and mettle against each other, readying one another for the hardships that awaited outside.”
“Here it comes,” Russo mouthed as he flattened his brows.
“Brave warrior! Embedded into those walls are the sounds and sights of countless spars and battles. Go there, and you will confront the fleeting memories that still dwell there, the shadows of Lady Kajastaa’s finest. Emerge victorious and you will be rewarded with a crest, one used to mark those who Kaya recognized as powerful enough to venture into the outside world. Someone worthy of wielding her blade!”
“Huh, let me guess. So the sword is magically anchored or something?” Russo leaned in to get a closer look at the pillar. “And the only way to free it is to present that crest to undo the spell?”
“Nope!” The sheep bleated quite happily.
“No?”
“The only thing keeping that sword in place is your unwavering honor!” The sheepy stated matter of factly.
“So…what you’re saying is…”
“Come warrior, there is no time to waste with such frivolous questions! Return with your proof of valor over the gauntlet to claim Lady Kajastaa’s weapon as your own!”
Russo’s eyes drifted from the garrulous guardian to the bejeweled blade. “Welp. That’s all I needed to hear.” He reached forward and wrapped his hand around the hilt, the rare gems pressing into his palm.
In response, the sheep laughed heartily. “Haha, I suppose I can’t fault you for being eager! The temptation of holding onto a piece of history is simply too great to resist.”
The mage lazily swung the blade, the sound of air rushing past the curved metal registering faintly in his ears.
“Haha that is… my the temptation must be quite strong.”
Turning his back on the statue, Russo trudged off in the general direction from whence he came.
“I-if you’d be so kind as to… oh bother.”
“Later,” Russo waved back while he casually strolled into the abyss.
“That’s it?” The dragoness narrowed her eyes and slid her rough scaly tail towards the mage. Curling her appendage around his waist she shook him roughly, freeing the sword from his grasp. “Where’s the accompanying armor set?” She twirled him about in place, scouring over every inch of his person. Her tail tip whapped against his legs and back, smacking loudly against his flesh. He didn’t appear to be wearing it.
“Knock it off!”
Relaxing her grip, Kaya’s coiled tail dropped to the ground. “Did Sullivan not mention that after you claimed the sword?”
“You mean the sheep?” Kaya nodded in response. “No. All he did was fuss and tut after I walked off with it.”
Kaya, the dragoness not whoever the hell it was the stone sheep was referring to, twiddled her clawed fingers against the worn creek bed, drops of water flicking up into the stale air. “Now how again did you end up acquiring,” plucking his spoils between two fingers with her other hand, she waved it in front of Russo’s face, “this?”
“You’re the one who asked me to go looting in the first place. Why the hell do you care how I go about it?” The curved blade waving in front of his face came to a standstill as Kaya’s jaw went agape.
Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the dragoness wrapped her thick digits around Russo’s form. Lifting him up into the air, she twisted her wrist and set him back down so that he was facing towards the tunnel entrance once more. “Get back in there.”
“Woah woah woah, wait, do you actually not have some sort of comeback for this?” The creases of the mage’s lips curled up into a smile.
“Get.” With a groan she leaned forward and pressed her palm into his back, shoving him forward. After he had reentered the tunnel and his sniggers had faded, Kaya turned her attention towards her newest trophy. Rolling it around in the palm of her hand, bursts of hot air laden with magic escaped from her nostrils.
“Ah ha! I knew you would return, warrior! Powerful and intoxicating as it may be, the poisonous allure of temptation cannot hope to match the steadfast and resolute strength of one’s honor!” Perking up upon Russo’s approach, the stone sheep would not shut up. “Now if you’d be… so…” Sullivan let out a frustrated bleat and flattened his ears against his head as Russo came closer, the orb of magical light manifested in his otherwise empty hands bobbing with every step. By the time the human bumbled up to him, a scowl had carved itself into his stony features. “Where is Lady Kaya’s sword?”
“Just dropped it off with ‘Kaya’ herself,” he wryly noted. Still needed to prod the dragoness. “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh about that,” Russo rubbed his thumb and index fingers together, more interested in scraping the grime off his gloves than the statue’s line of questioning. “Apparently you’ve been holding out on me?”
Sullivan let out another curt bleat and crossed his arms. “Where is the sword.”
“Better question; Where’s the armor that goes with it?”
Wrinkling his snout, Sullivan clapped his hooves together in a slow and deliberate manner. Another pillar rose up besides him, the guardian now flanked on both sides by raised earth. “Had you proven yourself worthy to wield Lady Kaya’s blade, I would have offered you a chance to don her attire.” A worn and beaten robe lay splayed out atop the pillar, its long sleeves draping over the sides. Tessellations of hexagons adorned every square inch of its tattered and dirtied surface. Resting atop it, a frayed leather vest and pair of gloves kept it from sliding off. “Drawing inspiration from the hides of her most fearsome friends and foes, Lady Kaya’s enchanted armor was not only light and airy, it shrugged off the most fearsome strikes and swings evildoers could throw at her!”
“Tch. So what would I have had to slog through to earn this?” Stretching his hands high up above his head, Russo curled his fingers around one another and cracked his knuckles.
“You would have had to do battle with and earn the respect and deference of Lady Kaya’s most pernicious foe, much like how she once did.”
“Uh huh. And I take it that the only thing stopping me from walking off with all this is my entirely lacking sense of honor?” Grinning, Russo approached the pillar.
“Not quite.” Sullivan shook his shoulders and harrumphed, rather peeved off at having to call out the big guns. A massive gust of acrid air blew back the human’s hood and cloak.
Russo’s eyes watered from the onslaught of rank; blood vessels popped and stained the whites of his sclera. Grunting, he buried his face into the crook of his arm. As he wiped away the tears, defeaning thooms that methodically picked up in intensity rattled Russo’s form. Something massive was en route.
“You’ll find that Knoch, that pernicious foe I was talking about, does not think very highly of spoilsports. Such as yourself.” Crossing his arms and bahhing once more, Sullivan adopted a defensive posture. Beside him, a skeletal claw slammed down, its fingers splayed out to avoid damaging the pillars; strands of noxious rotting musculature connected the bones together. Crystalized marrow trickled out of the hairline cracks and fractures that spread out from the tips of fingers up to the back of the claw. “He’s a tad more adamant about ensuring that visitors to this place have proven they have the right to not only claim the spoils, but to face him as well.” A bludgeoned dragon skull pierced the circle of light surrounding the mage. Hovering just above the statue, flakes of flesh and scales clung to the skull’s cheekbones and around its empty eye sockets.
“What the hell is it with this place and dragons.” This was, what, the third one he’d run across in under a day?
“If you desire so much as a chance to do battle with Knoch, you must first demonstrate your worth on the proving grounds. Return with the crest and then we’ll talk.” The decaying dragon leaned forward and snorted a blast of nauseating air at the human. Russo’s eyes watered as the contents of his stomach bristled against the back of his throat.
Gagging, it took the mage a couple moments to regain his composure. “Alright, alright.” While he snuffled and wiped the contents of his dripping nose along his sleeve, Sullivan swiveled an outstretched arm to point the human towards his destination. Russo shook his head and trudged forward, having finally been reduced to actually playing along. “So if I want to get one dragon help me fight another one, I have to do battle with yet another dragon first. That doesn’t seem at all counterintuitive.” Rolling his eyes, Russo mulled over his options. “I was able to pull the wool over that idiot’s eyes once without even trying to. Can’t be that hard to do it again…”
“You did not complete the gauntlet that fast.” Disbelieving to say the least, the stone sheep glared at the human approaching him. There was just no way he could have breezed through that thing in fifteen minutes flat.
“Here’s your crest. Now quit complaining.” Reaching into one of his vest’s pockets, Russo chucked a small slab of iron at the incredulous guardian.
The iron clacked loudly against the sheep’s cupped together hooves. Sullivan traced his cloven fingers along its indented surface, the lines carved into the metal forming a crescent. “Did you even do battle with any of the shadows?”
“Hey. All you said was to return with the crest,” Russo replied with a shrug.
“Explain yourself!” Sullivan shouted. Leaning forward, the skeletal dragon snaked its head around the sheep and rested its nonexistent gaze on the human.
“There wasn’t much to it.” Rolling his eyes, a small orb of blue tinted magic gathered in his free hand. Russo curled his fingers around it before clutching it tight in his grasp. He disappeared in a flash of blue light and reappeared a couple feet to the sheep’s left. “All I did was blink to that little altar you had set up and then blink back. You know, the one with all the enchanted candles with the wicks that never go out? Might want to replace those by the way, all the candles in there are nothing but flaming puddles of wax now.”
“Bahhhhhhhhh that’s cheating! You’re not supposed to skip right to the end!” Shaking his head, Sullivan’s ears clinked loudly against one another. “No! If you want to duel with Knoch you are going to earn this the right way!” Waving the crest in Russo’s face, the flustered sheep tossed it back behind his shoulder. The skeletal dragon dipped its head down, the slab of iron sailing through a nostril and coming to a rattling rest against the bottom of its jaw. “Knoch, if you would be so kind as to return that to its rightful place.”
Crest in his possession, Knoch turned away from the duo. Lumbering towards the proving grounds, the skeletal dragon’s joints creaked and scraped together loudly.
“Hey!” Russo winced as a stony finger shot forward and scraped against his nose.
“I wouldn’t think that this would need to be explained in such great detail,” Sullivan grumpily bleated, “but you’ve been more than eager to prove me wrong.” Russo couldn’t help but smirk, which only served to further rustle the sheep. “S-stop that!” He bahhed out in between taking swats at the human. “To claim the crest the RIGHT way, you must defeat every shadow you come across on your winding journey to the memorial at the gauntlet’s center. A trail of cand-” Shoot, it had been a while since those things had been lit, hadn’t it? They probably were flaming puddles by now. “…A trail of candles will light your path to the prize. Along the way, your presence will surely stir and bring to life the memories of that place. Quell every shadow that rises up to challenge you, progress to the end, and victory shall be yours!” Smiling to himself, the stone sheepy freaking loved reciting his lines. His expression soured when he remembered just who he was delivering them to. “Not that you even deserve the opportunity.”
“Soooo if someone were to say… plod right along through there,” much like how a certain dragon was at this very moment, “shadow after shadow would spawn to fight them?”
“Yes. Every waking moment Lady Kaya’s followers spent there was dedicated to tempering their strength in the throes of battle. The memories of their struggles live on in that place and seek to play themselves out should a WORTHY,” Sullivan leaned forward and shoved his sculpted muzzle in Russo’s face, “warrior set foot in there.”
Swiveling his eyes towards the general direction of the supposed gauntlet, Russo did his best to stifle a growing smile. “Those shadows wouldn’t happen to be too picky about determining who is and isn’t a ‘worthy’ warrior, would they?”
“Unfortunately not,” the sheep harrumphed.
A pained roar bellowed out into the chamber. “Just wanted to double check was all, thanks.”
In retrospect, having an undead dragon return the crest to a cavern filled with the memories of warriors, who trained for the sole purpose of defeating such a beast, probably was not the best idea. “Knoch, no!” Fretting and bleating to himself, Sullivan tapped his hooves against the side of his head. T-this wasn’t supposed to happen! “Oh darnit,” the sheep moaned aloud. This new setup was supposed to cover all the bases! He’d never thought what would happen should one trial interact with the other. Bahh this wouldn’t even be a problem if that stupid human had just followed the rules!
“Yoink.”
“Yoink? What does OH YOU BAHHHHHHHHSTARD. BOTHER. BOTHER BOTHER BOTHER!”
“Later! Again.” Cackling to himself, the mage wrapped his arms around his unsurprisingly ill-gotten gains and bolted. “Hmm. Hold on.” Delving into the darkness spread out before him, Russo yelled out the top of his lungs. “Hey, Sullivan!”
“WHAAAAAAAAAT?!”
“There wouldn’t happen to be a third set of treasure I’m missing out on, would there?”
“GET THE HELL OUT!”
“Just checking, just checking.”
“You’re certainly expedient.” Ha, at this point she honestly couldn’t tell whether the human would take that as a compliment or an insult. Kaya eased a clawed hand forward towards Russo, eager to claim his final haul for herself. Swinging his arms to and fro, the mage worked up some momentum before lobbing the heap into her grasp. Palm up and fingers splayed out, she was careful to avoid damaging the aged armor.
“Care to explain why you failed to mention there was yet another dragon waiting inside for me?” Breathing through his mouth, traces of that thing’s revolting scent still swirled about his nose.
“What are you griping about?” Kaya slowly curled her clawed fingers around the armor. Her slit eyes turned on Russo. “I was under the impression it doesn’t take much to emerge victorious over a corpse in a heated battle.” That dismissive attitude of her’s returned. “Knoch passed on some time ago, claiming the armor from Sullivan should have been a paltry matter.” That ancient reptile was already on his last legs when he took his post deep within the temple. It was only a matter of time before he keeled over.
“You could’ve mentioned the corpse could fight back.”
Kaya’s eyes dilated in response. “Do elaborate.”
“So, I went back to that sheep and prodded him about what I was still missing. He reluctantly comes clean and lets me know that-”
“To claim it as your own you first had to do battle with a tenacious foe or something or other,” she rattled off, one of her hands circling in the air. Kaya had heard the statue practice that speech, ugh, lord knows how many times.
“Yeah. He blabs on about that and lo and behold oh hey a dead dragon. That happens to move about of its own volition.”
“Knoch is amongst the ranks of the undead?” That was something far beyond that senile dragon’s or Sullivan’s capabilities.
“Sure looked that way.” Russo shrugged his shoulders, unsure of how else to respond.
“Hmm. You don’t seem to have been terribly inconvenienced by that startling revelation.” Frankly, the presence of that zombified dragon made the fact he returned so quickly all the more impressive. “How did you deal with that shambling husk anyway?”
To answer Kaya’s inquiry, a series of tremors shook the entire cave. Tiny fissures snaked out from the tunnel entrance. Pebbles tumbled down the cave’s walls as something repeatedly rammed into the rock wall separating the dragon and human from the poorly lit temple. “I handled it the same way I do most of my problems,” Russo answered, actively distancing himself from the deceased, and worryingly determined, dragon. A feeble roar that barely managed to permeate through the walls registered in their ears. “By blowing it off and waiting for it to go away.”
A rain of stalactites pelted down upon the winged reptile, bursting to pieces upon her scaled hide. “And when were you planning on telling me this?” Shaking her body side to side, more than a couple fragments of stone found themselves purposefully sailing towards the mage.
“When you asked me about it.” Strafing to and fro, Russo dodged what he could.
“…Of course.” Still, she couldn’t complain all that much. Her pearly eyes drifted down towards her clenched hand. Steel and tattered cloth brushed against her scaly palm.
“Are we good?” Arms at his sides, Russo stared up at the dragon expectantly.
A wry smile cracked her lips. “It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been indebted to anyone.” Her attention briefly turned to the contents of her clenched claw. “Tch. It’s not a feeling I particularly enjoy.” She let out a defeated snort. Especially when she couldn’t pay it back. “Come with me. We still need to hash out what all repaying a favor entails.”
“Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Both the dragoness and human froze in their tracks. “Was that?” Pointing a clawed finger at Russo, the mage could only throw his shoulders up in surprise. Oh for fu- “Hold on.” Flattening her brows, Kaya plodded back towards the tunnel. The pounding against the wall persisted, but with nowhere near the fervor as before.
“We know you’re out there!” A particularly grumpy statue bleated. “Return the treasures taken at once or… or… oh would you just give them back!”
“Sullivan? What are you doing?” Knoch’s attempts at ramming down the wall came to complete halt as both he and the sheep went silent. Kaya exhaled loudly through her teeth, her crackling breath lighting up her face. Some sort of response would be nice, anything was preferable to being stonewalled.
“You didn’t even slay the beast guarding the entrance?!”
“I stand corrected,” she duly noted in disgust.
Hands cupped around his mouth, Russo was more than happy to respond. “Nope!”
“I have a name you know,” the mica dragoness hissed. “…It’s Kaya.”
“Don’t…” What started out as a stifled giggled erupted into full out laughter that could be heard echoing from the other side. “You’re serious? You took the fair lady’s name as your own? B-b-bahhhhhahahaha! That’s preposterous!”
“Silence, Sullivan!” The dragoness turned her back on her former cohorts, making her severance from them more than clear. “That mage that just cleaned you out? He didn’t cheat or force his way through. I let him in unopposed. It was on my command even.” She jostled the fair lady’s few belongings in her grip. “What’s yours is mine now.”
The guardian was beside himself, unable to do anything other then stutter and bleat out word fragments. He’d had the wool pulled over his eyes, not once, not twice, but three times in short succession!
“Come, Russo.” Trudging by the mage, her thick tail swept him forward. “We have much to discuss.”
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Icon is © to
RadkuFIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Chapter 41
The only things keeping him sane were the echoes of his own footsteps. Devoid of light and any ambient sounds, the deprivation of his senses ate away at the mage’s well-being more than he cared to admit. He held an arm out before him, extending the reach of his impromptu lantern. Beads of water noiselessly trickled down the incline cut into the smooth rock, leading back towards whence he came. Stomping down on barren stone with more force than necessary, the reverberations bounced back at him off of unseen walls
“Greetings warrior!” A deep and craggy voice called out in salutation from the abyss.
Russo halted his advance.
“*Ahem* I say, greetings warrior!”
The human purposefully eased up on his concentration and allowed his thoughts to wander, causing the illumination spell hovering above his hand to falter and dim.
“You. With the lamp,” the voice called out impatiently.
“…Can I help you?” Russo circled about in place, looking back over his shoulders for the source of the disembodied voice.
“Mighty warrior, it has been some time since anyone tread these hallowed grounds. You have done well to make it past the fearsome beast that guards this place.”
“Uhhh, thanks?”
“Come, human. Step forward so that you may learn about the trials that await you in your quest for… where are you going?”
“I thought I was supposed to go forward?”
“Forward towards me.”
Halting his advance once more, Russo came to a stop. Cocking an eyebrow, he turned to his right and resumed walking.
“No no no turn left. I mean my left.”
“How is that supposed to help me?” The mage called out in annoyance.
“I,” the voice trailed off into a sigh. “Sorry, I’m out of practice at this. Turn right.”
“Mine or yours?”
“Yours.” Russo complied with the instructions being bleated out, blindly delving deeper into the darkness.
“Little bit more. Good! Annnd you’re starting to veer off, swivel to your left and there we go!”
Stepping forward, the aura of light radiating out from Russo’s hand fell upon a statue. Carved into the likeness of a sheep, the stone facsimile only came up to his neck. Protected from the elements, it looked to be in pristine condition. Russo screeched and jumped back when the damn thing blinked.
“Hail, warrior!” Flicking its ears, the sheepy statue started flapping its chiseled jaws.
Arms still tensed, the human brought them down from in front of his face. “Hey yourself.”
The sheep straightened its shoulders and brushed away at the layers of dust that clung to the curving tufts of wool carved into its chest.
Carving those curls and fluff on that stone sheepy must have been a colossal pain in the ass. “Wonder what poor bastard got saddled with that job,” Russo pondered.
“As I was saying, step forward so that you may learn more about the trials that await you in your quest for Lady Kajastaa’s divine treasures!”
“Ka…ya?” He’d just spoken with her, hell she was the reason Russo was here in the first place. What the hell was that dragoness not telling him?
“Close! That was one of her favorite nicknames as it turns out, so that works!” Smiling, the stony sheep reminisced fondly upon the fair lady. “Truly she was a wise and pragmatic ruler, shepherding her people to safety within the confines of this mountain and carving out an existence for them when calamity threatened.”
Must have been one hell of a disaster to prompt relocating inside a rock.
Clapping his hooved hands together, a stone pillar rose up besides the sheep. Atop it lay an ornate hooked sword. Chipped and dull, it had seen its fair share of battles and was likely to be of little practical use in future ones. Gemstones embedded into the hilt glimmered in the faint light. “So it isn’t entirely worthless,” Russo muttered.
“In a time when the world was tearing itself apart, Lady Kajastaa did all that she could to not only shelter, but prepare those who served her for the unrelenting realities in store for them outside this safe keep.” Once more the statue clapped together those hooves, sparks lighting up its face upon contact. Somewhere off in the nebulous distance, tumultuous rumblings and crashes could be heard.
The human smacked his hands against his ears, trying to shake out a nerve wracking ringing that was bouncing around inside his head.
A loud clacking sound, that only served to exasperate Russo further, echoed around them as the statue pat its chest. “The path to the long since abandoned proving grounds has been revealed. It was there that those who followed the fair lady tested their might and mettle against each other, readying one another for the hardships that awaited outside.”
“Here it comes,” Russo mouthed as he flattened his brows.
“Brave warrior! Embedded into those walls are the sounds and sights of countless spars and battles. Go there, and you will confront the fleeting memories that still dwell there, the shadows of Lady Kajastaa’s finest. Emerge victorious and you will be rewarded with a crest, one used to mark those who Kaya recognized as powerful enough to venture into the outside world. Someone worthy of wielding her blade!”
“Huh, let me guess. So the sword is magically anchored or something?” Russo leaned in to get a closer look at the pillar. “And the only way to free it is to present that crest to undo the spell?”
“Nope!” The sheep bleated quite happily.
“No?”
“The only thing keeping that sword in place is your unwavering honor!” The sheepy stated matter of factly.
“So…what you’re saying is…”
“Come warrior, there is no time to waste with such frivolous questions! Return with your proof of valor over the gauntlet to claim Lady Kajastaa’s weapon as your own!”
Russo’s eyes drifted from the garrulous guardian to the bejeweled blade. “Welp. That’s all I needed to hear.” He reached forward and wrapped his hand around the hilt, the rare gems pressing into his palm.
In response, the sheep laughed heartily. “Haha, I suppose I can’t fault you for being eager! The temptation of holding onto a piece of history is simply too great to resist.”
The mage lazily swung the blade, the sound of air rushing past the curved metal registering faintly in his ears.
“Haha that is… my the temptation must be quite strong.”
Turning his back on the statue, Russo trudged off in the general direction from whence he came.
“I-if you’d be so kind as to… oh bother.”
“Later,” Russo waved back while he casually strolled into the abyss.
“That’s it?” The dragoness narrowed her eyes and slid her rough scaly tail towards the mage. Curling her appendage around his waist she shook him roughly, freeing the sword from his grasp. “Where’s the accompanying armor set?” She twirled him about in place, scouring over every inch of his person. Her tail tip whapped against his legs and back, smacking loudly against his flesh. He didn’t appear to be wearing it.
“Knock it off!”
Relaxing her grip, Kaya’s coiled tail dropped to the ground. “Did Sullivan not mention that after you claimed the sword?”
“You mean the sheep?” Kaya nodded in response. “No. All he did was fuss and tut after I walked off with it.”
Kaya, the dragoness not whoever the hell it was the stone sheep was referring to, twiddled her clawed fingers against the worn creek bed, drops of water flicking up into the stale air. “Now how again did you end up acquiring,” plucking his spoils between two fingers with her other hand, she waved it in front of Russo’s face, “this?”
“You’re the one who asked me to go looting in the first place. Why the hell do you care how I go about it?” The curved blade waving in front of his face came to a standstill as Kaya’s jaw went agape.
Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the dragoness wrapped her thick digits around Russo’s form. Lifting him up into the air, she twisted her wrist and set him back down so that he was facing towards the tunnel entrance once more. “Get back in there.”
“Woah woah woah, wait, do you actually not have some sort of comeback for this?” The creases of the mage’s lips curled up into a smile.
“Get.” With a groan she leaned forward and pressed her palm into his back, shoving him forward. After he had reentered the tunnel and his sniggers had faded, Kaya turned her attention towards her newest trophy. Rolling it around in the palm of her hand, bursts of hot air laden with magic escaped from her nostrils.
“Ah ha! I knew you would return, warrior! Powerful and intoxicating as it may be, the poisonous allure of temptation cannot hope to match the steadfast and resolute strength of one’s honor!” Perking up upon Russo’s approach, the stone sheep would not shut up. “Now if you’d be… so…” Sullivan let out a frustrated bleat and flattened his ears against his head as Russo came closer, the orb of magical light manifested in his otherwise empty hands bobbing with every step. By the time the human bumbled up to him, a scowl had carved itself into his stony features. “Where is Lady Kaya’s sword?”
“Just dropped it off with ‘Kaya’ herself,” he wryly noted. Still needed to prod the dragoness. “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh about that,” Russo rubbed his thumb and index fingers together, more interested in scraping the grime off his gloves than the statue’s line of questioning. “Apparently you’ve been holding out on me?”
Sullivan let out another curt bleat and crossed his arms. “Where is the sword.”
“Better question; Where’s the armor that goes with it?”
Wrinkling his snout, Sullivan clapped his hooves together in a slow and deliberate manner. Another pillar rose up besides him, the guardian now flanked on both sides by raised earth. “Had you proven yourself worthy to wield Lady Kaya’s blade, I would have offered you a chance to don her attire.” A worn and beaten robe lay splayed out atop the pillar, its long sleeves draping over the sides. Tessellations of hexagons adorned every square inch of its tattered and dirtied surface. Resting atop it, a frayed leather vest and pair of gloves kept it from sliding off. “Drawing inspiration from the hides of her most fearsome friends and foes, Lady Kaya’s enchanted armor was not only light and airy, it shrugged off the most fearsome strikes and swings evildoers could throw at her!”
“Tch. So what would I have had to slog through to earn this?” Stretching his hands high up above his head, Russo curled his fingers around one another and cracked his knuckles.
“You would have had to do battle with and earn the respect and deference of Lady Kaya’s most pernicious foe, much like how she once did.”
“Uh huh. And I take it that the only thing stopping me from walking off with all this is my entirely lacking sense of honor?” Grinning, Russo approached the pillar.
“Not quite.” Sullivan shook his shoulders and harrumphed, rather peeved off at having to call out the big guns. A massive gust of acrid air blew back the human’s hood and cloak.
Russo’s eyes watered from the onslaught of rank; blood vessels popped and stained the whites of his sclera. Grunting, he buried his face into the crook of his arm. As he wiped away the tears, defeaning thooms that methodically picked up in intensity rattled Russo’s form. Something massive was en route.
“You’ll find that Knoch, that pernicious foe I was talking about, does not think very highly of spoilsports. Such as yourself.” Crossing his arms and bahhing once more, Sullivan adopted a defensive posture. Beside him, a skeletal claw slammed down, its fingers splayed out to avoid damaging the pillars; strands of noxious rotting musculature connected the bones together. Crystalized marrow trickled out of the hairline cracks and fractures that spread out from the tips of fingers up to the back of the claw. “He’s a tad more adamant about ensuring that visitors to this place have proven they have the right to not only claim the spoils, but to face him as well.” A bludgeoned dragon skull pierced the circle of light surrounding the mage. Hovering just above the statue, flakes of flesh and scales clung to the skull’s cheekbones and around its empty eye sockets.
“What the hell is it with this place and dragons.” This was, what, the third one he’d run across in under a day?
“If you desire so much as a chance to do battle with Knoch, you must first demonstrate your worth on the proving grounds. Return with the crest and then we’ll talk.” The decaying dragon leaned forward and snorted a blast of nauseating air at the human. Russo’s eyes watered as the contents of his stomach bristled against the back of his throat.
Gagging, it took the mage a couple moments to regain his composure. “Alright, alright.” While he snuffled and wiped the contents of his dripping nose along his sleeve, Sullivan swiveled an outstretched arm to point the human towards his destination. Russo shook his head and trudged forward, having finally been reduced to actually playing along. “So if I want to get one dragon help me fight another one, I have to do battle with yet another dragon first. That doesn’t seem at all counterintuitive.” Rolling his eyes, Russo mulled over his options. “I was able to pull the wool over that idiot’s eyes once without even trying to. Can’t be that hard to do it again…”
“You did not complete the gauntlet that fast.” Disbelieving to say the least, the stone sheep glared at the human approaching him. There was just no way he could have breezed through that thing in fifteen minutes flat.
“Here’s your crest. Now quit complaining.” Reaching into one of his vest’s pockets, Russo chucked a small slab of iron at the incredulous guardian.
The iron clacked loudly against the sheep’s cupped together hooves. Sullivan traced his cloven fingers along its indented surface, the lines carved into the metal forming a crescent. “Did you even do battle with any of the shadows?”
“Hey. All you said was to return with the crest,” Russo replied with a shrug.
“Explain yourself!” Sullivan shouted. Leaning forward, the skeletal dragon snaked its head around the sheep and rested its nonexistent gaze on the human.
“There wasn’t much to it.” Rolling his eyes, a small orb of blue tinted magic gathered in his free hand. Russo curled his fingers around it before clutching it tight in his grasp. He disappeared in a flash of blue light and reappeared a couple feet to the sheep’s left. “All I did was blink to that little altar you had set up and then blink back. You know, the one with all the enchanted candles with the wicks that never go out? Might want to replace those by the way, all the candles in there are nothing but flaming puddles of wax now.”
“Bahhhhhhhhh that’s cheating! You’re not supposed to skip right to the end!” Shaking his head, Sullivan’s ears clinked loudly against one another. “No! If you want to duel with Knoch you are going to earn this the right way!” Waving the crest in Russo’s face, the flustered sheep tossed it back behind his shoulder. The skeletal dragon dipped its head down, the slab of iron sailing through a nostril and coming to a rattling rest against the bottom of its jaw. “Knoch, if you would be so kind as to return that to its rightful place.”
Crest in his possession, Knoch turned away from the duo. Lumbering towards the proving grounds, the skeletal dragon’s joints creaked and scraped together loudly.
“Hey!” Russo winced as a stony finger shot forward and scraped against his nose.
“I wouldn’t think that this would need to be explained in such great detail,” Sullivan grumpily bleated, “but you’ve been more than eager to prove me wrong.” Russo couldn’t help but smirk, which only served to further rustle the sheep. “S-stop that!” He bahhed out in between taking swats at the human. “To claim the crest the RIGHT way, you must defeat every shadow you come across on your winding journey to the memorial at the gauntlet’s center. A trail of cand-” Shoot, it had been a while since those things had been lit, hadn’t it? They probably were flaming puddles by now. “…A trail of candles will light your path to the prize. Along the way, your presence will surely stir and bring to life the memories of that place. Quell every shadow that rises up to challenge you, progress to the end, and victory shall be yours!” Smiling to himself, the stone sheepy freaking loved reciting his lines. His expression soured when he remembered just who he was delivering them to. “Not that you even deserve the opportunity.”
“Soooo if someone were to say… plod right along through there,” much like how a certain dragon was at this very moment, “shadow after shadow would spawn to fight them?”
“Yes. Every waking moment Lady Kaya’s followers spent there was dedicated to tempering their strength in the throes of battle. The memories of their struggles live on in that place and seek to play themselves out should a WORTHY,” Sullivan leaned forward and shoved his sculpted muzzle in Russo’s face, “warrior set foot in there.”
Swiveling his eyes towards the general direction of the supposed gauntlet, Russo did his best to stifle a growing smile. “Those shadows wouldn’t happen to be too picky about determining who is and isn’t a ‘worthy’ warrior, would they?”
“Unfortunately not,” the sheep harrumphed.
A pained roar bellowed out into the chamber. “Just wanted to double check was all, thanks.”
In retrospect, having an undead dragon return the crest to a cavern filled with the memories of warriors, who trained for the sole purpose of defeating such a beast, probably was not the best idea. “Knoch, no!” Fretting and bleating to himself, Sullivan tapped his hooves against the side of his head. T-this wasn’t supposed to happen! “Oh darnit,” the sheep moaned aloud. This new setup was supposed to cover all the bases! He’d never thought what would happen should one trial interact with the other. Bahh this wouldn’t even be a problem if that stupid human had just followed the rules!
“Yoink.”
“Yoink? What does OH YOU BAHHHHHHHHSTARD. BOTHER. BOTHER BOTHER BOTHER!”
“Later! Again.” Cackling to himself, the mage wrapped his arms around his unsurprisingly ill-gotten gains and bolted. “Hmm. Hold on.” Delving into the darkness spread out before him, Russo yelled out the top of his lungs. “Hey, Sullivan!”
“WHAAAAAAAAAT?!”
“There wouldn’t happen to be a third set of treasure I’m missing out on, would there?”
“GET THE HELL OUT!”
“Just checking, just checking.”
“You’re certainly expedient.” Ha, at this point she honestly couldn’t tell whether the human would take that as a compliment or an insult. Kaya eased a clawed hand forward towards Russo, eager to claim his final haul for herself. Swinging his arms to and fro, the mage worked up some momentum before lobbing the heap into her grasp. Palm up and fingers splayed out, she was careful to avoid damaging the aged armor.
“Care to explain why you failed to mention there was yet another dragon waiting inside for me?” Breathing through his mouth, traces of that thing’s revolting scent still swirled about his nose.
“What are you griping about?” Kaya slowly curled her clawed fingers around the armor. Her slit eyes turned on Russo. “I was under the impression it doesn’t take much to emerge victorious over a corpse in a heated battle.” That dismissive attitude of her’s returned. “Knoch passed on some time ago, claiming the armor from Sullivan should have been a paltry matter.” That ancient reptile was already on his last legs when he took his post deep within the temple. It was only a matter of time before he keeled over.
“You could’ve mentioned the corpse could fight back.”
Kaya’s eyes dilated in response. “Do elaborate.”
“So, I went back to that sheep and prodded him about what I was still missing. He reluctantly comes clean and lets me know that-”
“To claim it as your own you first had to do battle with a tenacious foe or something or other,” she rattled off, one of her hands circling in the air. Kaya had heard the statue practice that speech, ugh, lord knows how many times.
“Yeah. He blabs on about that and lo and behold oh hey a dead dragon. That happens to move about of its own volition.”
“Knoch is amongst the ranks of the undead?” That was something far beyond that senile dragon’s or Sullivan’s capabilities.
“Sure looked that way.” Russo shrugged his shoulders, unsure of how else to respond.
“Hmm. You don’t seem to have been terribly inconvenienced by that startling revelation.” Frankly, the presence of that zombified dragon made the fact he returned so quickly all the more impressive. “How did you deal with that shambling husk anyway?”
To answer Kaya’s inquiry, a series of tremors shook the entire cave. Tiny fissures snaked out from the tunnel entrance. Pebbles tumbled down the cave’s walls as something repeatedly rammed into the rock wall separating the dragon and human from the poorly lit temple. “I handled it the same way I do most of my problems,” Russo answered, actively distancing himself from the deceased, and worryingly determined, dragon. A feeble roar that barely managed to permeate through the walls registered in their ears. “By blowing it off and waiting for it to go away.”
A rain of stalactites pelted down upon the winged reptile, bursting to pieces upon her scaled hide. “And when were you planning on telling me this?” Shaking her body side to side, more than a couple fragments of stone found themselves purposefully sailing towards the mage.
“When you asked me about it.” Strafing to and fro, Russo dodged what he could.
“…Of course.” Still, she couldn’t complain all that much. Her pearly eyes drifted down towards her clenched hand. Steel and tattered cloth brushed against her scaly palm.
“Are we good?” Arms at his sides, Russo stared up at the dragon expectantly.
A wry smile cracked her lips. “It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been indebted to anyone.” Her attention briefly turned to the contents of her clenched claw. “Tch. It’s not a feeling I particularly enjoy.” She let out a defeated snort. Especially when she couldn’t pay it back. “Come with me. We still need to hash out what all repaying a favor entails.”
“Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Both the dragoness and human froze in their tracks. “Was that?” Pointing a clawed finger at Russo, the mage could only throw his shoulders up in surprise. Oh for fu- “Hold on.” Flattening her brows, Kaya plodded back towards the tunnel. The pounding against the wall persisted, but with nowhere near the fervor as before.
“We know you’re out there!” A particularly grumpy statue bleated. “Return the treasures taken at once or… or… oh would you just give them back!”
“Sullivan? What are you doing?” Knoch’s attempts at ramming down the wall came to complete halt as both he and the sheep went silent. Kaya exhaled loudly through her teeth, her crackling breath lighting up her face. Some sort of response would be nice, anything was preferable to being stonewalled.
“You didn’t even slay the beast guarding the entrance?!”
“I stand corrected,” she duly noted in disgust.
Hands cupped around his mouth, Russo was more than happy to respond. “Nope!”
“I have a name you know,” the mica dragoness hissed. “…It’s Kaya.”
“Don’t…” What started out as a stifled giggled erupted into full out laughter that could be heard echoing from the other side. “You’re serious? You took the fair lady’s name as your own? B-b-bahhhhhahahaha! That’s preposterous!”
“Silence, Sullivan!” The dragoness turned her back on her former cohorts, making her severance from them more than clear. “That mage that just cleaned you out? He didn’t cheat or force his way through. I let him in unopposed. It was on my command even.” She jostled the fair lady’s few belongings in her grip. “What’s yours is mine now.”
The guardian was beside himself, unable to do anything other then stutter and bleat out word fragments. He’d had the wool pulled over his eyes, not once, not twice, but three times in short succession!
“Come, Russo.” Trudging by the mage, her thick tail swept him forward. “We have much to discuss.”
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Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
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