Jasper returned to the beach side, a spear strapped to his back and a small satchel he would use to carry the items he set out to retrieve. He was able to find out the location of the cave, so at least he wouldn't be scouring for it all day and drowning himself. He looked back, Nadia was standing behind him, with a few others as well. He assumed they were friends of hers. In any case, he had no time to waste. He took a deep breath and dove into the water.

The deeper into the blue he went, the colder the water got. And the colder it got, the darker it got. There was soon very little light to aid him. He found his single breath fading, he needed to find this cave soon... There it was! There was a large opening that he could clearly see. He swam for it, entering and making his way into the large tunnel. But his breath was fading, he needed air, else he would drown in this place. He looked up for a pocket, anything that would allow him a breath, but he saw nothing. There was a light further down the tunnel, he made haste towards it, clawing at the walls of the tunnel to propel him faster. Everything was going dark. He would not die here.

*GASP!* Jasper took a breath as he breached the surface. His breathing was labored, but at least he was alive. What was this light?... Oh. He looked all around him and saw crystals shining like starlight along the walls. Sparkling blues and purples. They did indeed glow all on their own. Perhaps some sort of magic imbued within them.

He walked, in awe of the geode he had walked right into. He had never seen something of this size before. The crystalline structures stabbing from the cave walls like spines. But he didn't want to pick just any single one. It had to be the right one. One worthy of Nadia.

His ears turned when he heard an echo, his head soon following them. That's right, there was supposed to be some kind of creature guarding this place. His eyes scanned the cave, peering between the stalagmites, looking for his foe. The echo was behind him again, he turned his head to the noise. He could not see anything. This was beginning to worry him. Had Nadia sent him to his death? He felt something between his feet and jumped! Where was it?! He pulled his spear from his back and readied himself.

Finally, there was a light chirping just in front of him, right there on the ground, a small, lizard like creature. Long snout, four legs. No wings to speak of. It looked vaguely like some of the lizards he liked to eat up as snacks. "You're hardly a guardian." Jasper says to the creature, picking it up by the tail. "More like lunch." He smirked and breathed a long, hot breath of fire over the lizard. It squealed in pain, but soon died. Jasper simply dropped the thing into his mouth, and chewed happily.

Until a new sound interrupted him that is. A lower, much more threatening growl echoed through the cavern. Jasper's eyes shot wide open and he gulped. There was a thud, and the sound of crystals shattering behind him. The growling only became louder and it became apparent after the second sound of shattering that these were footsteps of something very large. He turned slowly towards the sound. It would not be difficult to see the giant, long-snouted, jagged toothed, leathery skinned creature that was now staring him in the face.

Jasper stood as still as stone, gazing at the creature. It's long body reminiscent of the small lizard creature that he had just eaten. It's tail was increasingly threatening as he looked at it, tipped with sharp looking spines. Finally the creature let out a loud roar that rang Jasper's ears as much as it rang the crystals, causing them to quake in fear of the monstrosity. Jasper dodged the tail as it came crashing towards him by flying upwards to the short roof of the cavern. But he had to go back to ground level as the tail came rushing after him once again, crashing into the ceiling and sending a rain of crystals showering down.

Jasper readied his spear again and charged as soon as he saw an opening, stabbing into the thick hide of the monster. This proved to be a poorly thought out idea as the spear immediately became stuck in the hide, try as he may to pull it back out again. He had to abandon his weapon as a set of claws came right for him. And then he was dodging teeth and tail, claw and spike, desperately trying not to die in this moment. "The Mother damn that mare!" He shouted as he ran from certain doom.

All the while this was happening, the beast was dislodging, breaking and shattering crystals as it attacked. Jasper heard a distinct jingling from above. He looked up, seeing a large, crystal covered stalactite shaking in place. It looked like it might dislodge at any moment. That would be his only chance at surviving this. He tried to keep the monster underneath it, watching carefully as the stalactite shook, slowly cracking at its base.

"Come on you damned beast!" He taunted. There was a snap, the monster charged Jasper again. A crash, sending up a cloud of dust. The monster's roaring had ceased, leaving only the echo of the fight lingering in the air.

The dust began to clear and Jasper observed the gigantic stalactite lodged straight through the monster's neck. He heaved a sigh of relief, having finally defeated the monster. Now he needed to get one of it's teeth. Jasper took one of the smaller front teeth, as the ones nearer to the rear were nearly the size of his whole head. A few firm kicks and it broke right out of place. He looked the tooth over, it would do nicely as a trophy. And now he Just needed the glowstone.

A bright shimmering caught his eye overhead. From where the stalactite had fallen, a single gem shone brighter and whiter than all the rest. He flew up to it, gazing at how unique it was. It was perfect. He grabbed it and found it remarkably easy to remove from its place. He landed and stowed the stone away, along with the tooth as proof of his victory. The swim back would be nothing after this.

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Meanwhile, on the surface, Nadia was waiting by the beach where Jasper had left. A small group waited to see if he would even come back. Many had heard the tale about the monster that guarded the glowstone cavern. And a few had already placed bets that Jasper was already dead. However, a break in the water far offshore signified that Jasper was indeed alive! Nadia watched as Jasper came swimming back to shore with ecstatic eyes.

Jasper crawled onto the beach and was immediately crowded by Children wanting to know if he was successful, if he killed the beast, if he got the stone. Jasper waded through the crowd to Nadia, took her clawed foot, and placed the shining gem in her grasp. He then took the satchel and dumped large tooth from within, resulting in gasps of awe and intrigue.

"Nadia of Sun's Warmth." He started. "Would you do me the ultimate honor of being my wife?"

Nadia herself was still a bit in shock that Jasper was actually able to pull it off. He defeated the monster, retrieved the glowstone, and had basically won her heart right then and there. It would have been completely stupid to say anything except for "Yes." The resulting cheering was almost as loud as the monster's roar. A wedding party was in order. And the Children loved a wedding party more than any other pass time. Next Chapter: Celebration Estimated time remaining: 4 Minutes