Reunions

The rain had finally stopped, but the rumble of thunder could be heard within the darkened sky. However, my attention wasn’t above me but what’s below. Inspecting the ground, I found your occasional foot prints, but there was one set I was unfamiliar with. They were large, claw like, and seem to take more of a reptilian shape. Putting two and two together, the answer was obvious. These were dragon tracks. It wasn’t the tracks that worry me though, but the blood that seem to trail in the same direction.

“You found something?” I looked over to see Taphy.

“A path to follow.” I said, after getting up.

I went back into the clearing, where we found a group of dead griffons lying about.

Andor and Falco were looking through the bodies while the others kept watch. I went up to Andor, who was looking at a griffon with a gashed hole on its head.

“Know who these guys were?” I asked, looking down at the corpse.

“Dragon hunters, most likely an independent group. Gryphonia placed laws against such practices, since dragon migration patterns tend to cross these lands, but dragon scales are quite valuable. They probably thought they could earn a quick sum… it seems it didn’t turn out that way.” He began to look around at the other bodies, looking a bit concerned, “these wounds. I’ve never seen anything like it. Swords, arrows, not even claws could cause such injuries.”

I already knew what kind of wounds these were and who dealt them. Hearing that these guys were the poaching sort, I wasn’t surprised that they met a quick end. I went to go see how Falco is doing. He seemed to be scavenging whatever these griffons had, seeing that he was rummaging through one of their pouches.

“Anything interesting?” I asked, looking down at a pile of loot.

“Nothing much; just a couple of bolts, crossbows, some hooks, daggers, and a few bits here and there.” He said tossing the pouch back to its owner.

“Alright, put everything we don’t need into the carriage.” He nodded and gathered up the loot.

I took one of the daggers from the pile, inspecting it. ‘Not as fancy as my sword, but could be useful.’ I tucked it under my belt, and proceeded to help move the loot into the carriage.

Once we gathered everything, I told everyone about the tracks I found. The path was too dense for the carriage, so we had to continue without it. We took some supplies and some lanterns, and hid it with some undergrowth. We then placed a marker down near it and went on our way. The trail was relatively easy to follow, with the tracks, blood, and beaten down path as our guide. Also, with the lack of cargo we were carrying, our movement improved significantly. ‘About time we picked up the pace. If we’re lucky these tracks will lead us straight to him… I just hope we don’t have to deal with this dragon.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel

“After we got separated, I came across you, and you already know the rest.” Amethyst just looked at me with pure wonder.
Not once did she interrupt, nor did she look anxious around me. I’ll consider it a good sign that she’s warming up to me.

“Any questions?” she seemed to perk up a bit. ‘Oh boy.’

“So… you’re from another world?”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s because of that necklace that you’re here?”

“Well as far as I know, yes.”

“And it grants you the power to do magic?”

“Uh, kind of. I’m still not sure how it really works.” She began to ponder to herself, probably thinking of more questions.

“You said you were here to search for a cave, but what made it so important?” she asked.

“Well there was this journal from an explorer long ago that wrote about a marking he found in a cave. It wasn’t anything he recognized and almost seemed out of place. He took a picture of it, and, when I looked at it, I knew what it was. A human hand print.” Once I finished my explanation, she began to give me a puzzled look.

“So you’re just looking for a cave?” she repeated.

“Yeah.”

“… You know we’re in one, right?” I stayed silent, as I began to make the connections.

It soon clicked, and I realized where we were. I immediately got up and went to my bag. Amethyst was a bit shocked by my sudden movements, but thankfully not enough to frighten her. I dug up my phone and flipped the light on, proceeding to examine the walls.

“Do you need any help?” I looked over to see Amethyst walking towards me.

“You sure? I mean, you’re still kind of hurt.” I said, having concern for her injuries.

she began to glare at me, making feel a bit nervous.

“I may be wounded, but not helpless.” She huffed, “now tell me what we’re looking for.”

I was pretty perplexed by her change of attitude, but I guess that rest did her more good than I thought.

“The imprint should look like this.” I gestured towards my hand as a reference.

She simply nodded and began to search. I was about to ask if she needed a torch but I remembered that she had night vision. ‘Man wouldn’t that be useful right now.’ Looking at the walls around me, I could see that most of it was covered with moss. They seem to be dripping with water, probably from outside, leaving the walls a bit damp. ‘I sure hope it didn’t get eroded.’ We searched high and low, examining every crevasse.

“Hey, I think I found it!” I pointed the light towards her, seeing her ripping the moss off the wall.

Once I got to her, she finished removing the last bits of it, revealing, to my relief, a faded imprint of a hand similar to the one in the picture.

“That’s it alright. Way to go.” I complimented, giving her a pat on the shoulder.

She stiffened up a bit and I immediately corrected myself. I apologized but she seemed to shrug it off.

“So what’s so special about this hand anyway?” she asked, seeing no real significance.

“When we first got here, we were trapped in some tomb with no visible doors. We eventually found this marking, opening the way out for us.” I explained.

“How does it work?”

“Well it’s simple.” I raised my hand towards it, preparing to make contact.

However, Amethyst gasped and turned towards the entrance. I

“What’s wrong?” I asked worryingly.

“Something’s coming.” She whispered, showing a familiar sense of fear in her eyes.

I cursed under my breath and quickly ran towards my gear. I grabbed my gun, and then proceeded to stamp out the fire.

“Stay low behind me.” I silently commanded, kneeling next to the wall into a firing position, “close your eyes to cover up the glow.”

I wasn’t sure if she listened, but it didn’t matter. I promised no more harm would come to her.

I kept my sights on the entrance, taking slow breaths to keep my aim straight. Soon enough I begin to hear rustling near the entrance. My grip tightened, as I could feel my index pull on the trigger. However, I quickly removed it when I noticed who peeked in.

“Daniel, you in there?” the voice was so familiar and welcoming to my ears.

“Taphy?” soon enough, his head perked up when he heard my voice.

“Oh thank god; hey guys he’s here!” he excitedly yelled.

He began to make his way towards me, probably not noticing the dragon behind me.

“Yo man we were looking all over for ya.” He said, as he gave me a bro hug.

“Glad to see you to man.” I returned the gesture in kind.

“We were getting kind of worried; you see we heard this drag-“ suddenly Taphy’s demeanor changed completely. ‘Here we go.’

“dra- dra- dragon!” he screamed and pointed behind me.

I tried to calm him down, but, before I could, he bolted for the entrance.

“Run for your lives!” once he got out, he dived right into the bushes.

Soon enough, I see the others with their weapons ready, and Jordan leaning in with his pistol aiming right at us.

“Daniel, get over here; I’ll cover you!” after he said that, Amethyst tried to get closer behind me, fearing for her life.

“No no no, don’t shoot! She’s friendly!” I pleaded, trying to stop the situation from escalating.

They seemed taken back by my accusations, causing them to pause and slacken. “… you sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure, and please put the gun down! You’re scaring her!” I felt a bit relieved, when they began to lower their weapons.

With that settled, I looked over my shoulder to see Amethyst right behind me with her head tucked under her claws.

“It’s ok to get up now.” I said, trying to ease her.

“y-you’re sure they’re not going to kill me?” the fear she was expressing was unbearable to watch.

“You have my word.” I promised, smiling for assurance, “now come on. I want to introduce you to my friends.”

She still looked uneasy, but she reluctantly got up and followed me. As I walked out the cave, I could see the whole crew, waiting to greet us.

“It’s good to see you’re ok.” Jordan said, greeting me the same way Taphy did.

Before I could say anything, a certain black griffon burst through the bushes and flew straight for me, carrying a large duffle bag.

“Ok please stay calm and answer a few questions as best as you can. Do you have any broken bones, did you sprain yourself, do you feel any pain anywhere?” Nova desperately asked, prodding almost every part of my body.

“No nova, like I said before, I’m fine.” I groaned, causing her to slouch to the ground.

I begin to see her eyes water and her beak quiver, making me roll my eyes.

“b-but I brought all these medical supplies.” She whined, showing off her bag.

Looking into it, I could see all kinds of first aid equipment, ranging from antibiotics to your standard gauze wrap. There were enough to supply a whole squad.

“Thanks for the gesture, but I don’t need any medical attention.” I patted her shoulder to try to ease her disappointment, “hey, I do know someone who does.”

Her ears perked up after I said that.

“Really?” she eagerly asked, wanting to get to work.

before telling her who, I see Gilda, stomping up to me with a stern look on her face.

“Hey Gilda.” I said, earning me a very hard punch to the arm, “gah! Ow, what was that for?”

“You know exactly what that’s for you moron! What in Tartarus were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?” She screeched, grabbing my collar to pull me closer to her, “I swear to Celestia that, if you worry me like that again, I’ll throttle ya!”

I could hear Jordan snicker a bit from my predicament. 'Darn it Jordan I thought we were friends!'

“Alright alright ok, I’m sorry.” I pleaded, putting my hands up in surrender.

I then noticed a shadow, looming over us. Before I could see what it was, we were both snatched up.

“Haha, it’s good to have the group back together again!” Hans cheered, putting us both in a head lock hug.

“Get off of me you old geezer!” she vented, squirming in his death lock.

Soon enough, he let us go. I gave him a thankful nod while Gilda glared at him in annoyance. I turned and looked around, noticing Amethyst was missing. I guessed she didn’t work up the courage to exit the cave, making me feel a bit bad for leaving her there.

“Hey guys, I want you to meet someone.” I said, getting everyone’s attention.

I walked back to the cave entrance and leaned in a bit. I could faintly see amethyst, just standing there.

“Come on out, don’t worry. They won’t hurt you.” I whispered.

Not long afterwards, I could hear thumping, coming closer to the entrance. I stepped back and leaned out of the way.

“Guys, I would like you to meet Amethyst.” I announced, turning back to see everyone else.

I then heard her walk out the cave and stood right next to me. Both Taphy and Jordan watched in awe after she appeared, but the others seemed tense.

“Oh and Nova, she’s the one who needs medical attention.” I added, seeing her shove Jordan and Taphy out of the way.

“Really! I’ve only studied a little on dragon anatomy but I never thought I’ll actually treat one. Oh my Celestia, wait till the griffons back in the ward hear about this!” she squealed, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Opening doors

We decided to take a break, mostly because most of the group haven't rested since we’ve separated. We built up a fire pit and passed around what rations we had left. You could say that we earned it, since we finally found the cave we were looking for. However, Nova’s been medically treating amethyst ever since they got here. It took some time to convince the dragon to accept the treatment, and, even then, I had to sit next to her to ease her anxiety. It was a good thing she brought all those medical supplies. Almost every wound required some sort of disinfectant. Once I felt that amethyst would be fine alone, I went to join Jordan who was standing in front of the mark on the wall. He took a bite out of an apple he was holding and hummed in thought.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked, looking at the hand on the wall as well.

“Whatever's behind this door?” He took another bite off his apple, leaving me to ponder on this thought. ‘What could be behind this door? Hidden treasure, knowledge of some distant past… must be important, since it was sealed with a magic lock that only humans could open… but what if it’s closed for a reason?’

“Did you try to open it?” I was pulled out of my thoughts, as Jordan looked at me expectantly.

“I was about to, but you guys came before I could.” I said, crossing my arms while briefly remembering the whole ordeal.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He said, taking yet another bite.

I looked at him with a raised brow. “Why?”

“When we opened that last door, we found a whole new world. I really doubt this door will do the same, but, what if… what if there’s something bad waiting for us on the other side.” For a moment, we just looked at each other, but nothing more needed to be said.

He took one last bite of his apple and tossed it aside, wiping his hands on his pant legs to get rid of any residues.

“We’ve gotten this far; I don’t see any reason to turn back now… you ready?” after he asked that, any since of doubt was pushed to the side.

“Let’s do it.” Jordan simply nodded back in response.

Once everyone else was ready to go, we all gathered in front of the wall with our weapons at the ready. Amethyst and Nova were the farthest ones back, since one is injured and the other wasn’t trained to fight. I took the liberty of opening the door, after all, I did open the last one. I stood in front of the imprint, and slowly stretched my hand towards it, pausing just as it was an inch away. Taking a deep breath, I pressed onto it.

Just like before, my hand began to glow, hearing the groans of old gears turning. The ground began to rumble as the wall spilt in two. I quickly backed off and aimed my gun at the entrance. Within seconds, the door was open, showing only darkness within. We waited, listening for any disturbances, but there was only silence. I then slowly moved my hand to the flashlight attachment on my gun, pressing the button to turn it on. The light revealed nothing, as the cave only goes deeper.

“So who wants to go down the creepy tunnel first?” Taphy asked nonchalantly.

“Andor, Thrain, bring the lanterns.” They complied and gathered the ones they've brought.

We then entered the cavern; Jordan and I taking point while Andor and Thrain covered the rear. Step after step, it seemed that the cave was angling downwards.

“I don’t like this.” Taphy whined, as we continue going deeper, “how far down are we going?”

“Until we reach the bottom.” I said.

“Of course.” He grunted, feeling a bit anxious.

After walking a bit longer, my light shined on a pair of doors. They were dull in detail, but made up for in size. Without hesitation, I attempted to push them open, only to find myself struggle in the process. Noticing my struggle, the others assisted me, and together we pushed open the double doors, hearing the grind of old wood and stone.

Immediately after we entered, large gems on the walls began to glow, revealing the room to be a dome. The ceiling seemed to be eight stories high, and the room was wide enough to fit two soccer stadiums. Jordan whistled as he took it all in.

“Well this place puts all the other caves we’ve been to shame.” I simply agreed with him.

You could fit a whole base in here, yet it seems to be devoid of anything.

“Look; there’s something there.” Falco said, pointing ahead of us.

I tried to see where he was pointing at, but I just couldn’t see that far. “Where? I don’t see anything.”

“Right there, in the middle.” I continued to concentrate on the center, straining my eyesight.

Soon enough, I could see a small distortion on the ground.

“You can see farther then I can, so tell me what we’re looking at.” I said, as we all stared at it.

“It looks like a… pillar?” he guessed.

“That’s a pretty small pillar.” Nova added.

“It could be holding something.” I said, making my way towards it.

I only took a couple of steps before the whole cave began to tremble. ‘What the-‘ just as it began, it stopped. I looked around me, seeing if anything changed. To my disdain, large gaps had appeared all around the dome, I stood stock still, in hopes that I wouldn’t trigger anything else. Unfortunately, I began to hear rumbling behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see one of those holes above the entrance. As the ground began to shake, the sound only got worse. Suddenly, a large boulder, that’s a size of an elephant and covered in spikes, came rolling out towards me.

“Oh sh#%$#$t!!!” I screamed, running for dear life.

Play ball

‘Oh god why me?!’ as I ran for the pillar, I could hear the boulder getting closer. I pushed my legs even harder, hoping to outrun the instrument of death, but then it hit me. ‘Why am I still running straight?’ I had to act fast, since the boulder was almost upon me. I desperately leaped to the side, hearing the boulder zoom past me. I unceremoniously hit the ground, feeling a sense of relief wash over me. I looked back at the boulder, and at that moment my whole body tensed. (Devil may cry- battle 2) It unnaturally changed direction, doing; an immediate 180. It slid back a little from its current momentum, mauling the ground like a deranged dog. Soon enough, it began to move towards me, and, within seconds, it regained its speed.

“No! That’s not fair, that’s not fair!” I quickly got up and ran the opposite direction.

I quickly glanced over where everyone else was. They just stood there petrified by what was going on.

“Don’t just stand there! Help meeee!!!” I pleaded, hearing the boulder closing its distance to me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jordan

I watched bewildered, as the boulder just turned around by itself. Once more, pursuing Daniel like a wild animal.

“Don’t just stand there! Help meeee!!!” I was snapped out of my trance by Daniel’s cry for help.

“Taphy on me! The rest of you stay here!” I grabbed Taphy, as I ran to my friend’s aid.

“yo hold up, what’s the plan?!” I heard Taphy ask, as he kept up behind me.

I thought about it. If one of us could divert the boulders attention, the other could take some time to rest. Once we get a rotation going, it should give us enough time to figure out how to stop it. ‘Yeah, that should work.’

“Try to get its attention!” I yelled back.

Before we could even get close, two more boulders emerged from the other side of the dome, and they were charging right at us.

“New plan! Run!” I immediately stopped my advance, and turned a different direction.

Taphy did the same, but went the other way. I looked back to see the boulders spilt up to chase us both. ‘Oh god. How do we get ourselves into these situations?’ I pushed myself to go faster, as the boulder was catching up to me. I looked back ahead to see that I was getting close to the wall. An idea went through my mind as I made a bee line towards it.

I ran as fast as I could, trying to beat the boulder in my race for survival. ‘Go,go,go,go!!!’ I chanted to myself, hearing the boulder getting closer. Fortunately, I made it, and commenced my plan into action. I ran as far as I could up the wall, putting a lot of strength with every step. Once I got as high as I could, I pushed off, doing a back flip. My efforts were met with success, as the boulder rammed right into the wall below me. The force of the impact pushed me further up into the air, causing me to fall painfully onto the ground. However due to my adrenalin, I pushed myself up to one knee, and looked over to see the boulder wedged right into the wall. ‘Heh, it worked.’ I chuckled under heavy breaths, but my victory was short lived. More rumbling could be haerd from the crater yards away. ‘You’ve got to be joking.’ Just like before, another boulder emerged from it and redirected its course towards me. ‘d@mn.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gilda

I was impressed with Jordan’s stunt, causing that hunk of rock to crash into the wall, but I was mortified to see another one of those things emerging from it to take its place. Daniel wasn’t doing any better, taking sharp turns to evade the boulder’s path, and Taphy… he’s just running and screaming.

“Pluck this! I’m going in there!” I yelled in irritation.

“No princess, it’s too dangerous!” Andor tried to stop me, but I wasn’t having none of it.

“For the last time, don’t call me that!” I angrily spat back, jabbing him with my talon, “they need our help, and I’m not just going to sit here on my plot and watch them get killed!”

I then flew into the fray, hearing Andor desperately trying to call me back.

As expected another boulder came out of the wall. Seconds later, more began to spill out, probably going after the others that followed after me.

“Gilda get back to the entrance, now!” I scoffed at Andor’s plea to run.

“Calm down, I’ll be fine. After all, we can fly. Those rocks can’t reach us up here.” After I said that, I noticed that they seemed to have lost interest in us, and were approaching the walls.

To my confusion, they began to grind on them, but then my eyes widen. They literally climbed the walls and are rolling towards us. ‘Well that’s just great.’

I quickly banked away, trying to keep my distance, but they were already on top of us. I looked over my shoulder to see it right above me. Suddenly, it flung itself towards me. ‘Oh pluck!’ I quickly barrel rolled out of the way, having it miss me by an inch. It slammed onto the ground, rolling in place. It then rolled away towards the wall again. Using this precious breathing room, I tried to think of a way to stop this thing. I looked over my shoulder to see Daniel still running from his pursuer. I looked back at mine, as it was already starting its climb up. I then thought of an idea that just might work. ‘Alright stupid rock, come and get me.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel

My legs felt like they were on fire, and the pain in my chest is almost unbearable. However, I couldn’t stop. My life depended on it. From what I’ve seen, the others don’t seem to be faring any better. If we don’t end this soon…

“Heads up!” I looked ahead to see Gilda flying towards me.

To my dismay, I could also see one of those boulders on the ceiling behind her. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them grew wings.

“Jump out of the way when I say so!” she yelled.

I wasn’t really sure what she was planning, but I’ll take anything, if it means stopping this ball of doom.

“Now!” we were only a few feet away from each other, before I leapt out of the way.

I heard a loud crash, seeing rubble fly all around me. I looked over to see both boulders had crashed against each other, leaving them motionless.

“It worked; (huff huff) dumb rock.” Gilda said, after landing next to me, “you alright?”

“Yeah (huff) thanks (huff huff) but more will come. (huff huff) we have to get to the pillar.” I pointed at the object, that was untouched through this whole ordeal, “We have to (huff) hurry. The others won’t last much longer.”

Just as I was getting up, two more boulders appeared on the other side.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

Going around them would take to long, and I don't have the strength anymore for such efforts. :Like they say "if you cant go around it, you go over it."

“Just help me dodge this one, and I’ll get to the pillar.” Gilda chuckled as she prepared to take flight.

“No sweat.” We then took off towards the pillar.

I was running on fumes at this point, but I have to push just a little longer.

We charged head on towards the boulders with everything we got. Once I felt we were close enough, I yelled at Gilda to grab me, while jumping in the air. She snatched me with her claws, and, with all her might, tossed me further up. I watched as both boulders rolled right under me, leaving me a clear path towards the pillar. After I landed, I immediately sprinted towards my objective. ‘Come on, come on!’ I could hear the boulder do its course correction, as I got closer towards the pillar. At this distance, I could see another hand symbol on top of it. ‘That’s it!’ I felt a surge of energy wash through me, after seeing our possible salvation.

‘Come on!’ I could hear the boulder getting closer, and my legs feel like they were about to fall off. Yet, I kept running. I wasn’t going to let this rock beat me; I’m not going to let my friends die here. I screamed out, putting everything I could into this, and, thankfully, it was all I needed. The pillar was right there in front of me. Without hesitation, I slammed my hand on the symbol, causing it to explode a wave of energy. I watched as it passed through the boulders, forcing them to crumble and fall into heaps of pebbles. I was just in time to see some of my companions coming close to being crushed. ‘Heh, that was clutch.’ That was all that went through my mind before my body went limp.

Author's Notes:

omg that took forever!!!!!

sorry for the wait guys, long days of work and having to try to proof read this on what spare time I have.

oh well enough of my problems, hope you like