Private Tales Above the Mountains

[Finn]

Finn shivered. The dog-dragon hopped over and curled itself around her ankles, locking her in-place before she could step on one of the symbols. She balanced to place a brush of her fingers on the creature's head.

"What is it wolfy?" She was testing out names and wasn't sure if that one would stick.

It gave a little bark-growl.

The inventor glanced back up at Talus. "I don't like this. Maybe that's...what happened to everyone who lived here before. Do you think they all...sacrificed themselves? And for what?"

 

[Talus]

"I don't know." Slowly Talus looked around the room, his lips thinning slightly as he squatted down and looked a the grooves carved into the floor.

It was impossible to tell if they were stained with blood or marked with anything else, the stone being far too old for such things. For a moment he lingered, and then he glanced up towards the door on the opposite side of the room.

The stone was ornate, a set of iron bars sitting over it the thing in place.

"See if you can find a switch." He told her quietly. "Something tells me we won't find much of anything in here."

They needed to move deeper.

 

[Finn]

"Wolfy, I'm not going to step...c'mon," she eased her ankles free and backed away from the symbols. The dog-dragon gave a little bark and hopped after her. She still wasn't sure why it had chosen her over Talus. Perhaps the creature liked the feeling of being closed off from magic?

Wandering around to one of the side walls, she craned her head, noticing a break in the pattern of stones.

"Talus. Over here." She pointed above her, about 10 feet up. Whoever lived here before was a lot taller than them. "That round, polished stone. More polished than the rest. I think that's it but it's too high to reach."

 

[Talus]

Talus glanced up for a brief moment. "Alright, step back."

He wasn't exactly worried about Finn getting hurt, but his own magic would not reliably work if she was standing too close to him. Talus did not want to end up falling on his face and breaking something in this place.

Not if he could avoid it.

A breath filled him, and then suddenly his entire body shifted. His ghost jumped up, simply extending itself from his body and reaching for the odd stone. It plucked it from it's place, and then snapped back into the real Talus.

The stone ended up in his hand, and he turned it over with a glance to Finn.

"Now wha-" His words were interrupted by a loud mechanical rumble as the doors began to open.

 

[Finn]

Finn stepped back. Her head shook. "Every time you do that, it amazes me," voice trailed off as there was a loud screeching sound. A thousand red-beady eyes stared at them from the darkness of the opened doors. With a rush that sounded like a gale storm, those beady eyes launched themselves into the air. A thousand flying creatures, like bats.

Wolfy growled and barked. Finn yelped and curled up into a ball as they massive cloud of flapping animals exploded outward.

 

[Talus]

Talus instantly shifted once more.

Hundreds of strange bat-like creatures rushed through the open door and passed him. They plucked at his ghostly form, bursting through him and leaving small marks of dust within the air as he stood there.

The flock was like a tide itself, rushing out in a great black wave and flowing outward through the doors that they had opened. Talus could count the seconds as they moved, eventually leaving the sacrificial hall and flying out into the Great Room beyond.

"Finally. Finally someone has found me."​

A voice echoed out from the room of black beyond, old and labored, it barely managed to touch Talus' ears as he slipped back into reality and quickly stepped over to Finn's side.

 

[Finn]

Finn trembled and whipped her head up up, slowly uncovering her body. She quickly patted herself down but there weren't any scratches on her. Blue eyes tracked to Talus.

"Are you okay?"

She stood slowly.

"What was that?" She whispered.

 

[Talus]

For a long moment Talus didn't answer Finn, instead he stared into the darkness of the doorway beyond. Then slowly he began to speak. "Whatever's left alive in this place."

A part of him couldn't even think of what that might be.

This city was dead, it had died a long time ago, but whatever had been left behind clearly still had consciousness of thought. The young Dreadlord swallowed, grasping his sword a bit more tightly.

His hand reached forward, palm up. From his lips passed a quick phrase and a globe burst into life just above his hand. It floated there for just a moment, and then slowly moved forward to illuminate what lay before them.

A long hallway stretched out behind the doors, the stone far less polished and well kept.

It seemed more a crypt than a bare hall.