"RARRRRG!"
The guttural roar filled the air, spreading throughout the forest above and bouncing off the stony depression several tunnels fed into. The source, a hulking bear that on its hind legs stood just a little taller than some of the ruins he'd come across, gazed down at him with both primal hunger and a defensive rage reserved for those who intruded on its territory.
And exploring tended to go hand in hand with intruding.
Onyx threw himself into a backwards roll as the massive animal dropped out of its stand, paw crashing into the ground, cracking apart stone and splashing the ankle-deep water that pooled throughout the depression it dwelled within. Despite its size, the creature proved surprisingly swift, already making another swing that he rolled away from.
Then another.
And another.
"AAARRRR!" Another roar left it as he avoided another of its clawed swipes, this one full of nothing but pain as it twisted around, the entirety of its arm swung with a twisting momentum. Melina, her dagger bloodied from the slash left on its left hind leg, leaped aside, water splashing past her and her cloak fluttering as she avoided the speedy retaliation.
Aiming for the deep cut she'd made, Onyx rushed forward, a slash of his own sent for the same exact spot. His long sword cut deep. Deep enough that the bear struggled to turn back to him.
Together they took down the hulking animal, the bear collapsing after a stab through its neck. It crashed into the water around them with a splash, its blood beginning to dye it red.
He'd seen the skittering crabs in that lake at the center of Limgrave. The large octopi that pulled themselves across the sand of the coast. And now these tunnels he happened to come across and decided to explore on a whim had been full of giant rats and this hulking mass of a bear.
Marine life was one thing but just based on the size of the vegetation in these lands he didn't expect them to be home to such large wildlife across the board.
"Nice work." Onyx said as he sheathed his sword, holding a hand out to his side for the approaching Melina. Other than being rendered a little damp from the water she was none the worse for wear, cloak already fully draped across her body and arms hidden below it. She stopped in front of him, eye dropping to his hand. "…you know what a high-five is right?"
She stared.
"Just hold out your hand like I am." He said and, after a moment of silent thought, she did so, right hand slipping out from her cloak. He clapped their hands together as he walked past her, heading towards the tunnels they'd come through. She didn't follow immediately, a moment spent looking at her hand before she turned to follow him through the dark tunnels.
After their little agreement she'd taken to joining him in battle, more than likely to make up for that power he rejected. He didn't mind having someone to fight alongside and, truth be told, he found her reactions to little gestures rather amusing.
He liked the change.
XOXO
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about the fog that surrounds The Lands Between, do you?" Onyx asked, slowing his walk across the bridge connecting the Weeping Peninsula to the rest of The Lands Between, gaze cast out at the waters to the east. He could make out a number of structures along Limgrave's coast but was more interested in what laid far beyond it at the moment.
Melina matched his pace, following his gaze. She'd taken to not just joining him in battle but accompanying him in general, be it the past few days they'd spent on the road, into whatever structures caught his eye, or the camps he set up. Even on the back of Torrent the few times that horse decided to offer a ride.
Her constant presence wasn't just a physical thing either.
"Only that it has always been." Melina said. "Few can pass through it and survive. Only those guided by the Grace of Queen Marika herself are ensured safe passage."
"Think she has some sort of power over it or is she just protecting those she brings through it?"
"The latter seems to be the case. As far as I am aware there has never been any specific connection drawn between The Golden Order and the fog itself."
Onyx hummed, taking the claim with a grain of salt. Queen Marika was hailed as a goddess. Spirits wandered these lands. And that giant ethereal tree wasn't something he'd be quick to label normal. Perhaps he was making one too many assumptions, but he found it hard to believe a wall of fog surrounding such a unique place was just a coincidence or natural phenomenon.
Something or someone in this world itself was responsible for it. Maybe to keep intruders out? Or perhaps to keep something in?
"Onyx. There is another matter that slipped my mind." Melina's call put an end to his theorizing. She'd stopped, a hand held out to him. He stepped up to her, spotting a small golden band at the center of her burned palm. "I bequeath to you this ring." He reached for it, raising it between them. He wouldn't have thought much of it if it weren't for the small opening along it. "It will allow you to call upon Torrent at will."
Convenient. He thought while running a finger across the ring's rim. The piece of jewelry doubled as a whistle. If it had some power to draw out Torrent, it'd be far more efficient than just hoping he decided to appear or respond to verbal calls.
"You can keep it." He said, ultimately setting it back down in her palm.
Like every other emotion, surprise didn't particularly show much on her face, but the slight quirk of her brow signaled it well enough. "Is there a reason you do not wish to have it?"
"Torrent already helps enough." He said with a shrug. Right now, despite the initial attitude he'd put up, Torrent was off doing whatever he did with the Grafted Sword held among his saddle. "I'm good with him showing up whenever he feels like it."
The willful horse shouldn't be at anyone's beck and call in the first place. He was too…Torrent for that.
"I understand why it is Torrent took a liking to you." She said, closing her hand around the ring and bringing it back beneath her cloak. "You show him more respect than most in these lands have."
If that was a compliment, it was more depressing than anything else. He'd hoped otherwise but people didn't usually recognize just how intelligent beings that happened to look similar to traditional animals were. Ones with special abilities or noteworthy features? They tended to be hunted out of fear or for sport and so far The Golden Order wasn't exactly rating highly on the peaceful coexistence scale.
He let his thoughts remain just that, the two of them picking their pace back up.
As long as he didn't get too sidetracked, they weren't too far out from the ruins that should contain that glintstone Kalé spoke about.
XOXO
"Giant plants huh…" Onyx muttered as he threw over a leg, dropping off of Torrent's saddle. He rolled his wrapped shoulder as he stepped up to the edge of the small mound they'd stopped upon, gaze focused on the ruins he'd put off coming to.
Overgrowth and crumbling stone worn down by time and exposure. Had it not been for the single giant plant at its center the place wouldn't be any different than any of the other ruins scattered about. Its green bulbous parts were shadowed by sizable pink petals and long, thin mushroom like growth extended out from its center. Unique appearance aside, he wouldn't have thought much of them after all the giant animals across the land, but the thing was moving.
They were minute shifts that didn't compare to the outright trudging the much smaller flowers similar in appearance were doing around it.
He felt nothing from them that suggested they were anything more than resilient vegetation.
"Miranda Sprouts." Melina stated as she dropped off Torrent, following him to the edge. "They are a poisonous man-eating flower." Hostile vegetation. No surprise there. The ability to move was damn near synonymous with hostility in these lands.
Best to take out something like that from a distance. He didn't have anything to deal with poison.
"I'm guessing they don't take kindly to fire." He stated more than asked as he reached into his pouch, pulling out one of the pots he'd put together during their travels here.
"It is known to be effective against them."
Tossing the pot up and down a few times as he gauged the distance, Onyx took a step forward and chucked the deceptively cold container. It slammed into the stone ground between the plants, an explosion filling the air and a cloud of dark smoke concealing them for a moment.
That smoke began to rise, the plants covered in quickly spreading flames. The small flowers tried to get away as quick as their slow movement would allow though they didn't make it very far, the raging flame quick to consume them. The big one made no attempt to get away.
It's top portion simply rose into the air as if reaching towards the sky…actually, it almost looked to be pointing towards them.
A thin line of white light appeared between them.
Onyx and Melina backstepped.
With a brilliant flash the single line turned to many, each one striking the area they'd been standing in rapid succession, a small pulse of hot energy accompanying each one.
"So, magical man-eating plants." Onyx said as they watched the little lightshow. However, that thing managed to figure out their position, it wasn't perfectly accurate, no attempts made to readjust the focus on the attack.
"Only the oldest among them are said to be capable of such a thing."
Interesting. Onyx thought as the light died down. He made his way back towards the overlook, gazing down at the burning plants. Either the place had been left alone for quite some time and he wouldn't be finding any sorcerer or the plants could be something intentionally cultivated by them. Assuming it was possible for a person to coexist with them, they made for a good deterrent.
Who'd risk being poisoned or turned to swish cheese by those beams of light just to get a look through old rocks?
Them but they were outliers.
He tossed another pot, reigniting the flames on some stranglers as well as the main flower. They let the fire run its course, all the plants going still, soon to be nothing more than ashes once things were said and done.
Only then did they head down the hill, grass giving way to spots of stone once they reached the ruins. Old archways, stone walkways well on their way to being consumed entirely by overgrowth, and the crackling remains of those plants. A quick glance around revealed nothing of note.
"Here." Melina called out after looking between some of the crumbling archways. He followed after her, the both of them stopping over what they were in search of.
A stairway as aged as the rest of the ruins, led down into a darkness the sun above could only illuminate so much. He couldn't tell how far down it went but there was a good chance that the glintstone Kalé spoke of must've been down there.
A swift swing of his sword cut free some of the roots growing around the stone and quick wrapping of some cloth from his pouch provided them with a torch he lit up with other tools. The newly created flame lit up more of the worn stairway, but the end still wasn't in sight.
Onyx started their descent, Melina falling in behind him, her steps quieter than his own. Had he not known she was there, he might not have been able to pick them out beneath the crackle of the torch.
She had some experience, or at least a natural talent, for getting around unnoticed.
The hot orange flames, held just a little overhead, illuminated an entranceway with no door, the crumbling stone flooring beyond it giving away no signs of threats. Descent kept steady and quiet, they stopped in the doorway, Onyx extending the torch into the room.
Old stone floors and walls to the left and right. Flooring that led into darkness ahead. There was a dry staleness to the air but no particular smell or quality that rang out as odd or suspicious for an abandoned ruin.
Pushing forward once more, the torch beat the darkness back bit by bit, the entranceway behind them smothered in shadows long before they reached the end of the room. Though the darkness finally receded upwards, revealing not just a walk of stone but another worn entranceway.
This time a door, its aged metal rusted but very much intact, blocked whatever laid beyond it.
They stopped before the door, Onyx pressing a palm to its cold surface.
Melina's odd conflicting nature. Torrent's invisible but nearby presence.
And another just beyond the door. The soul was weak, so weak he'd thought it to be that of an animal's, but there was a certain sharpness to it. Its nature was too complicated to belong to any normal animal.
"Want to make a bet?" He asked, glancing behind him.
"A bet?" Melina repeated, looking up at him.
"I say there's some kind of unique animal behind this." He said. "You?"
Melina dropped her gaze from him, staring straight ahead. He'd be surprised if someone like her didn't have some way to pick up on the presence of other beings, so they were on an even playing field.
Probably.
"…A sorcerer lies beyond it." She stated after a moment of consideration.
"Really?" Sure, this was a new world and he wasn't at his best but in his experience, even the weakest of magic casters held souls that exuded some measure of power. As much as he was hoping there was a sorcerer here, he doubted her assessment. "Well, let's see who's right. Hold this."
He handed Melina the torch and after a quick examination of the door, kneeled down, fingers slipped beneath a small space between the stone and steel. With a grunt he rose, hefting it up. Dust fell free as he let go, the door fixing itself into an open state with a click.
"Mmm, a curious sight you to two make."