FSE

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Skyclaw ran into the cave with little regard or thought, the only light as he ran deeper and deeper into the cave was the sparks emitted by the amethyst on his Void Sword, a purple light painting the walls.

He left Vex at the mouth of the cave, the other Void Knight more than content to stand watch. The tiger-wolf ran past ruin after ruin, not caring about a potential ambush.

He hurdled over an unconscious serpent dragon in odd blue armour, a weirdly shaped polearm just out of the dragon's reach, and continued running ever deeper.

His lungs were burning from his running, his forearm was seizing up due to his tight grip on his halberd, his feet were aching with the constant impacts against the rock.

The slight glimpse of bronze caught the tiger-wolf's eyes, but it was too close.

The pure impact of the swing impacted Skyclaw's nose, forcing the tiger-wolf's head to snap back and for him to stumble backwards. When the daze was lifted, Skyclaw saw what hit him.

The hilt of a claymore, the crossguard plain to see. Out from behind a nearly broken pillar walked a gryphon, no other details of them seen other than their two wings, red and blue, chequered.

The gryphon moved their hands from the claymore's blade and back to the hilt. They shifted their feet, twisted their hips so that their left shoulder was facing towards Skyclaw.

Skyclaw growled as he glared, placing the halberd in a practiced place.

'I don't have time for this,' he thought, a growl emanating from deep within his throat.

~ ~ ~

Exhausted, Skyclaw shuffled into the final end of the cave. That confrontation with that gryphon took more out of him than he thought.

There, he saw Lexiss in the glow of crystals, encased in rock up to their neck, and the silhouette of the Creature of Gollon Mountain was sitting there like a prince on a king's throne.

Angered, Skyclaw channelled Void, becoming weaker in the process, and launched sparks of it towards the Creature, but it pulled a pillar of rock up in front of itself, an amethyst at the top which absorbed all the Void energy.

The amethyst on the pillar began to shine brighter as Void Magic condensed within, revealing more about this section of the cave. It revealed the Creature in full, grey on front to brown towards the back, small ruins of the past that was littered all throughout the cave, all cast in a purple hue.

"Creature! Stop this at once!" Skyclaw yelled, leaning heavily on his halberd.

The Creature stared back, the wholly blue eyes unwavering. It gave a bunch of clicks and chirps, but it hasn't fooled Skyclaw, nor anyone else.

"You responded, and you have comrades that cower in this cave that also speak with me! You can speak our language!"

Silence reigned court in the cave, the tension thick.

"You are of great wit, fledgling. I shall humour you. What else do you want, apart from my cease?" the Creature asked.

"Amethysts, for use against an Overvoided."

The Creature looked at him once more, a clawed hand reaching up to scratch on the underside of its muzzle.

"Is that it?"

"That is all."

"Then a task in response for those. Five rabbits, unskinned yet gutted, and a deer, all by tomorrow's setting sun," the Creature demanded.

Skyclaw growled, yet begrudgingly accepted. The dragon he jumped over near the entrance came into view, and gave Skyclaw a small curved blade from his side, a basic rope as the link. Skyclaw tied it to his belt of pouches and left his halberd in the cave, running to complete the task quickly.

~ ~ ~

It was close to sunset. He had to make it.

He made the familiar run through the cave, the five rabbits bouncing against his hip, tied by the rope of that short blade, as he hauled the deer in on his shoulders.

No wonder the Creature gave him this long. This was tough.

He ran back into the last section of the cave, seeing next to nothing has changed, except for Lexiss now still actively fighting to be free of the rock prison. Skyclaw next to threw the deer onto the rock floor, and untied the dagger and from his belt and dropped it next to the deer.

"So, you have completed the task, metal one. Very well, I shall comply with your demands," the Creature's voice rang out, but it wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Lexiss felt the pressure of the rock finally release, and the fox fell to the floor. Behind the tiger-wolf, two fist-fulls of sizeable amethysts rising from the ground.

While Lexiss was confused by the amethysts, Skyclaw picked up his halberd and clipped it in to it's hook on his back, knelt down and gathered as many amethysts as he could.

With the trouble all sorted, and the amethysts gathered, the two left the cave, and never to see it again.