As Symph ventured futher down the cave it began to become increasingly darker, luckily his eyes could adapt to this over time, but given the situation he had to use a faster method of seeing through the darkness. He held up an open hand and clicked his fingers. Suddenly a white flame appearedfloating just above the palm of his hand, lighting the area around him enough to see where he was going but not enough to be easily seen. "I really need to get a better grasp on my abilities involving fire, the most I can do is a few fireballs and small flames like these." He thought to himself as he continued walking with the flame held out in his hand.

As he descended further into the caves he noticed that there were multiple claw marks on the stone, most likely from the ice wolves or something else, perhaps even Zerlinda if she was fighting, Nightmares tended to have very sharp claws. He shook his head as he saw drops of red near the marks as he went further, looking as if a fight had taken place with small drops of blood being thrown around.

"Whatever did this certainly did some serious damage to the caves and whatever this blood belongs to." He said quietly. He heard the faint noise of a voice coming from futher down in the cave, the echoes carrying the voice up to him. To be safe, he extinguished his flame and became a puddle, moving slowly through the darkness as he let his eyes adjust. "I hope Twilight is ok, I kinda did leave at a time she would need help organising things with Starlights first lesson and the Crystalling coming up." He thought as he slid across the rocks, moving towards the sound of the voice.

Further underground

Zerlinda sighed as she lay back against a wall and looked into the fire she had made in the middle of the dug out area to keep herself warm. "I just don't get it." She said sadly as she hugged her legs while one of her tendrils brushed some of her hair out of her face. "Why me? Certainly there were other Nightmares that you could have chosen to have free life." She continued while hugging herself tighter. "I've got this life...but I'm always on the run, always living in fear and unable to really rest, never being able to just enjoy my existence."

She used a tendril to toss a few twigs into the Fife as she continued.

"So why? Why give me this freedom? Why did you choose one of the most important Nightmares to be allowed to...live?" She wiped a tear from her eye and looked up. "Well? What's your answer Hilda?! Why give me this life if all I have to look forward to is more running and fighting?!"

She recieved no answers from the one she was calling out. Instead, she felt a presence approaching, a very familiar one at that. She would have gotten up to blow out the fire if the one she sensed didn't just slide into the room as a black puddle. The puddle formed back into Symph's body and he began stretch. "I hate having to rapidly form so many times in one day, especially in this cold..." He looked around the room until his eyes fell on Zerlinda huddled up in the corner. "Ah, there you are, I've been looking for y-"

He was cut off as a tendril just barely missed him. Zerlinda stood up with her four tendrils pointing at him defensively. "Get away from me! I don't want anything to do with you!" She snapped as she began to back away.

Symph put his hands up defensively and shook his head. "Now now there's no need for violence, I'm not here to hurt you."

"Lair!" She shot two tendrils his way, only for a wall of black to block the attack. The wall broke down into liquid and retracted into Symph's arm.

"I'm not lying, I have no intentions of harming you." He stated calmly as he moved his head slightly to avoid another tendril.

"I don't believe you! What other reason does a member of the Chaos Family have for searching for a Nightmare Fuel of not to destroy it?!" She leapt forward and attempted to slash him with a claw, only for the part she struck to turn to liquid which her claw passed through. The liquid shot towards her hand wrapped around her before pushing her up against a wall.

"I'll let you go once you've calmed down. Until the, you're staying pinned." Symph stated as he sat down in front of her as the liquid detracted from his body and hardened around her, trapping her. She tried to burst free but was unable. She then managed to get a tendril free and attempted to shatter the material, only to fail. Then she turned the tendril towards Symph and shot it forward, only for him to smack it away with a tendril of his own. "There's no getting out of it this way, you need to settle down, then I will get you out of it and we can talk."

Zerlinda kept struggling, but slowly she began to lose her energy and let her body relax. Symph smiled and held out his hand. The material turned to liquid once more and returned to his body through his hand.

"There, now, all I want is to ask you a few things. Is that alright with you?" He recieved no answer, she just looked st him while breathing heavily and sat down with her back against the wall. "You really tired yourself out didn't you? Oh well, I can wait until you get some of your energy back."

"Thank you for weakening her, now she hasn't got the energy to fight back!" Dementia came out of the shadows and threw a punch towards Zerlinda, only to have his fist kicked away by Symph.

"Sorry, but for now, this girl is under my protection." Symph stood between the two as his body became all black save for his eyes, the ground beneath him began to turn black as well as the walls. Four tendrils grew out of Symph's back and two balls of white fire appeared in his hands as he stared down the hostile being before him. "Come on, let's see how threatening you really are."

Author's Notes:

Well, things seem to be getting serious right now huh?