FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"No," Exile said flatly as he crossed his arms, the other huscoons seated around the table looking at them as they ate their breakfast. The ferret's jaw dropped slightly at the sudden and frank dismissal, as well as the others. Outside the storm that had been predicted was upon them when they woke up in the morning, and like the hybrids had said it sounded dangerous, even from where they were in the cave.

"It's not like we're asking out of mere curiosity or malevolence," Xander tried to explain. "If beyond that door does lead to a system of caves that can get us through the Dragon's Tail while this storm rages, we need to take it. We're all in a race against time here, if we don't reach the other side of this mountain range soon then everything we've done so far is for nothing.

"I'm afraid our big brother is right," Xavier stated as he got up. "That door does lead to multiple ways out, but to get to them you have to go through the trial that has been set up to prove yourself worthy of the magic we guard. There have been others who have heard of it and tried, only to never be seen from again... and trust me, we would know if they had gotten it."

"It's not so bad here!" Erik said as he came up from behind Alkali and hugged him, a sour look forming on the necomancer's face from the sudden affection. "We have plenty of things set up we can do, and whatever it is you want I'm sure there'll be another time for you to get it."

Alkali just shook his head and walked away, dragging the huscoon wrapped around him for a bit before he finally disengaged. The others quickly rallied on a new plan, one that would get the clan of hybrids to let them cross. For most of the day they made little headway, but as they finished with lunch and the brothers went to the obstacle course they had set up that Serathin had mentioned Xander suddenly got an idea. After he shared it with the others they walked up to Exile, who had once again finished the course first as he marked a tally next to his name on the wall.

"Hey Exile, we got a challenge for you," Xander said, causing the huscoon to perk up. "I see you have a time on the board above your names, I'm guessing that's the fastest you've completed the course?" Exile nodded, a smug grin settling on his muzzle as the dragon continued on. "How about this, we prove to you by beating your time that we have what it takes to face your trial and you let us go through the stone doors, deal?"

The huscoons looked at each other as they finished the crossing line themselves, then huddled up in discussion. The others waited impatiently as they conversed. "Alright, you got yourselves a deal," Exile said as the other huscoons nodded. "But that time was when I was at my peak and I know this course like the back of my hand, so just to make it fair all you have to do is beat any of our times and we'll let you go. Only one of you, though, and no special abilities, so pick wisely."

The five agreed and shook on it, then looked up at the board on the other's personal best times. The lowest seemed to be Luke, and after they looked up and down the course they thought it best for the rogue to take it on. Serathin took a deep breath and went to the starting line, the huscoons all watching as Exile raised up his arms. As soon as he gave the signal the thief was off like a shot, quickly navigating his way through the rope section of the maze.

"Alkali, we need to talk," Xander said as Zen and Draggor watched Serathin tuck his wings and hang upside down to sneak through one of the holes. The ferret nodded and the two walked back towards an empty section of cave, the dragon chewing his lip nervously as the ferret joined him.

"What's wrong, love?" Alkali asked, seeing the concern in the bard's eyes. "Worried that we might be stuck here?"

"I'm more worried what's going to happen if we're not," Xander replied with a heavy sigh. "You know I'm behind you completely when it comes to finding Ka'Le, but you heard the huscoons, if we had gotten caught outside when that storm hit we probably wouldn't have gotten off these mountains alive. With the King on our trail now and this trial we're going to have to go through, I'm wondering if maybe... it's time we think about cutting our losses, staying here, and then returning to the capital."

To Xander's surprise the ferret didn't grow angry, instead he sat down on a bit of stone and rubbed his head. "You're not the first one to express such doubts," Alkali admitted. "Draggor came up to me before we started going through the Dragon's Tail and wondered if we didn't want to think of an alternate route and then try to pick up the map trail on the other side. I knew we threw ourselves into danger on this one, and had it just been me or the others I wouldn't have cared, but you... I just can feel that cursed city is so close to my grasp, years of research and ridicule all coming to a head soon."

"You know, I think we're just both stressed out..." Xander said as he grabbed the ferret's hand and led him back towards the guest bedroom. "I think I can fix that for both of us, at least temporarily..."

Meanwhile back in the obstacle course Serathin finished the last of the obstacles and raced across the finish line, panting heavily as Draggor and Zen ran up to him and Exile checked his timer. "Not bad," the huscoon said as he showed it to both Luke and Ian, who shook their heads. "Looks like two of our brothers have a new time to beat, but first we have a door to open for you. I'm warning you, though, once that door shuts there's only one way back out, you sure you really want to go through all that just to shave a few weeks of delay off of your trip?"

The others nodded and Exile just shrugged, then led them back to their living area to get supplies for the journey. "Hey, where's Alkali and Xander?" Zen asked as he loaded his pack. "I would think they would have been there to see if we could continue on this quest of theirs given the ferret's obsession."

"Hold on, I can scry them," Draggor replied as he pulled out a mirror from his pack. "Thankfully alchetiline doesn't seem to affect magical items since Serathin was able to use his disguise ring." As the demon chanted a few words the mirror began to glow blue around the edges, and as Draggor looked his mouth dropped open slightly and he quickly put the mirror to his chest. "I think they're going to meet us near the door... in about ten minutes..." very slowly he lifted the mirror and looked down at it, then clutched it at his chest when Zen and Serathin tried to look at it, "...maybe twenty."

Twenty minutes later Alkali and Xander joined the other three that already waited at the door, Draggor smirking at them as he asked if they enjoyed their nap, which caused them both to chuckle. Before they could joke about it more the five huscoons came up behind them and nodded, then walked past them and placed their hands on the door. For the second time since they met they watched as the hybrids began to glow different colors, those colors then traveling up into the grooves of the stone, and once completely lit, split down the middle and separated.

"Good luck you guys!" Erik said as he waved at them. "I hope we see you again sometime!"

"Me too," Luke replied as he shook Alkali's hand and winked at him.

The rest of them said their good-byes and then the five walked through the door into the darkness, which grew even moreso as the stone slabs slowly ground back into place. "Well this should be fun," Serathin said as Draggor summoned several large balls of light to float around them and illuminate the way, both he and Alkali glad to feel their magic return.

"I'm just hoping we get to fight something!" Zen exclaimed as they began to walk down the narrow corridor. "You know, giant spiders or something like that. I've never fought a giant spider before, but I've heard the tales and can only imagine how fun it would be to rip one of those creature's legs off and savagely beat him with it!"

The rest of the group slowly moved away from the exuberant barbarian fox as he continued to list things he hoped they would encounter down there, but nothing seemed to want to jump out at them as they made their way into a large, lit up cavern. When they entered they saw a large shaft of pale light that came from a hole near the ceiling that illuminated a patch of ground below. As they walked further in they saw engravings on the ground, pictures of different animals and creatures that seemed to circle around a series of large upright metal forks in the middle. The only other thing that was in the cavern made most of the group cringe slightly as they stepped over the skeletons that were scattered about.

"Well I know one person that's probably excited to be here," Draggor said as he glanced over at the ferret, who seemed to be rubbing his hands together subconsciously. "In any case it appears that our trial will not involve punching things in the face, we're going to have to solve this one."

The barbarian groaned loudly as they fanned out, Serathin and Zen working to uncover the mural on the floor while Alkali and Draggor used their magic to investigate the room and Xander investigated the light source. "It's definitely not from outside," the bard revealed as he looked through the hole he had climbed up too. "Looks like some sort of crystal is deep inside, moonstone from the look of it."

"That explains this then," Draggor replied as he blew the dust off of a carving in the wall. "It's in the language of the ancients, luckily required learning material for all magic users of the arcanum library. This one says that the message will be revealed when the moonlight reaches its zenith... whatever that means."

"It's a riddle room," Xander stated as he slid back down to the floor. "I've heard of these before, lots of ancient runes would sometimes have one of these discovered among them, though I've never heard of one that's intact like this. I wonder if the huscoons have anything to do with this?"

"Well whether they did or not, we need to know where this zenith is and how we're going to make a static beam of light get there." Alkali stated as he tossed a skeleton away. "I'd make us some help but these are all too old to use, and from the layer of bone dust on the floor I say more than just a few tried to solve this puzzle and perished."

Serathin and Zen looked down at their dust covered hands and knees in disgust and quickly brushed themselves off as the others contemplated while they strolled around. "I don't see anything on this mural that would represent a zenith of the moon..." Xander mused to himself. "It means highest point of the moon's path through the sky... the sky..." the dragon looked straight up and grinned at what he saw. "Hey, did any of you find something reflective?"

Alkali nodded and handed Xander the metallic bowl he found behind a small pile of bones, which the bard eagerly took. The others watched as he placed it on a stone with a smooth indent on it where the light shined, the object fitting into it and reflecting the light onto the wall. As he adjusted it the circle of reflected light moved along the stone until it hit the crystal that hung from the middle of the room. Once it was illuminated the entire room glowed with light, and as it did certain areas sparkled like stars that the other moved to.

"Would you look at this," Serathin exclaimed as he picked up a thin sheet of crystal, Zen and Draggor both doing the same. "They're heavy, whatever they are."

"Now it's my turn to drop some knowledge on you," Draggor grinned as he went over to the moonlight and held up the plate he found, which casted small shadowy lines on the floor. "They're crystal pages, usually they hold spells in them and the magic within is said to last until the end of time itself. They can't be read normally, though, you have to read the shadows cast off of them."

"Multiple plates mean multiple shadows!" Alkali shouted as he pointed to ones the others were holding. "All we have to do is hold them all up together and we should find out what they say." Serathin and Zen gathered up the rest of the plates before Xander redirected the beam of light onto the metal forks in the middle of the room, which the rest of them slid their pages into once they found they fit. Once they slid the last one into place however the message on the wall confused them.

"It's just... a bunch of arrows," Zen said as they looked at the shadows on the wall. "Does it mean we have to go somewhere?"

"Maybe it relates to the plates themselves," Draggor suggested as he slid one up and down to see the difference it made. "There are numbers next to the arrows, perhaps they relate to how a plate is supposed to be held to get the next clue?" As the two continued to discuss on possible ways that the mechanism could work Serathin slowly walked over to the wall itself, his hands reaching up to touch the shadows created by the plates before he looked at the stone. He leaned in close to where one of the arrows pointed before he gently breathed on it, the air from his muzzle blowing away the thick layer of dust to reveal something underneath.

When he shared this revelation with the others Draggor was the first to discover what it was, his hand brushing over the magical rune while the others brushed away the rest of the grime that covered the wall. Once they were finished they found the stone covered with ancient markings that the demon poured over. "Looks like someone else is enjoying this room just as much," Alkali chided as Draggor gently pressed his fingers against one of the runes and pushed it in, which caused a noise that made everyone jump back.

"Warn us before you do something like that!" Zen shouted as Draggor looked up at the next arrow. "That could have been a trap that killed us all!"

Draggor just chuckled and shook his head as he pressed the remaining runes in sequence, and when he reached the last one the entire room vibrated. Everyone crouched down in anticipation of what was to happen next as dust rained down on them from the ceiling, and when it stopped the only thing in the room had changed was the light. It had gone from a pale white to a golden yellow, and the arrows on the wall turned to blobs of gibberish shadows.

"Sunstone," Xander said as he looked at the light.

"Different alchemical nature, different reaction to the crystal pages," Draggor continued as he sighed. "Should have known it wasn't going to be that easy."

"We already solved quite a bit," Serathin reassured. "All we have to do now is figure out what changed due to the sunstone being in play."

Xander moved back to the reflector and tried moving it back up to the crystal on top of the room, but all it did was cause the warm light to be reflected everywhere. At the same time Draggor pulled out a crystal page and looked at it while Alkali, Zen, and Serathin continued to scour the room for other clues. Other than what they had found, though, the room appeared empty, and as more time passed they finally had to break for food after several of their bellies rumbled. The only one who didn't eat was Draggor, who continued to examine the plates while they ate.

"It'll still be there when you're done, you know," Zen stated as he motioned for the demon to come over. "We need to keep up our strength in case the next part of this puzzle has a lethal component to it."

"Oh I know," Draggor replied. "Those runes all have various energy signatures attached to it, I can only guess that if we pressed the wrong ones we would have gotten a very nasty surprise, likely themed by the elemental magic attached to it."

The demon paused as he looked at the plates, then at the runes that still glowed on the walls. The others could see the wheels spinning in the warlock's mind as he went over to the wall with the plates to hold them up to the ruins, then when that didn't work he put the plate back and with a snap of his fingers set them all on fire. The others nearly choked on the food they were eating and started to demand an explanation when he pulled out one of the pages that now glowed with a red hue.

"They're elementally aligned plates," Draggor said as he watched the hue shift like an oil slick on the crystal. "The runes tell us how to activate each one and the order in which to put them in, and then we can put the light of the sunstone through it and the magic will act like a proper filter. This is the first place, only five more to go."

The others quickly finished whatever food they had in front of them and helped the demon charge the remaining plates, Alkali poured water over them to find one while Draggor sprinkled pulverized rock over his after he remembered that the dust was mainly bone, then there was a plate charged with elemental darkness that Serathin charged with a shadow jump, and then they let Alkali just hold one to charge it with entropic elements. That only left the final plate, which was the one that Draggor hesitated on, before the others asked him what was wrong.

"This last rune..." the demon said before he looked up at the glowing rune on the wall. "It's life. Somehow we have to charge this plate with life in order for it to work, and last time I checked none of us have healing magic."

The others looked at each other and at the final plate in concern. It was true that none of them had anything of either arcane or alchemical nature to pour on the tablet in order to activate it. "This can't just be it," Zen said. "We used non-magic to activate the other plates, why can't we do the same to this?"

"I thought about it," Draggor replied as he looked at Alkali. "Technically we could have our necromancer here suck the life out of someone and put it in here, but that would require someone here to make quite the sacrifice, since I don't think he can just suck a little bit out of them. I don't know if we should draw straws or maybe..."

Suddenly the page in the demon's hands began to glow, and as they looked down they saw it was smeared with blood that oozed from Xander's palm. "In ancient times blood was considered life," the dragon explained as he bandaged himself up and cleaned his blade. "So when Zen said that we could use non-magic to activate plates I figured that would be good enough. Now hurry up and pop that thing in, all this dust is killing my sinuses."

Draggor didn't need to be told twice as he put the last charged plate in and shined the light of the sunstone on it once more, this time the blobs of shadows formed words instead that Draggor could read. "Fortune favors the brave, only those who can slay the dragon will find the key hidden in the creature's stomach," the demon read out loud before he looked down on the floor at the dragon painted on the circle of stone. "Well that's obviously the dragon, unless they knew Xander would be here, but how do you slay a painting?"

"Well, how do you slay a real dragon?" Serathin asked as he looked down at the mural.

"You put enough pointy things in it until it dies," Zen described, which caused the others to give him a look that made him roll his eyes. "Best way would be to cut off its head, usually right underneath it a few inches where the neck meets it."

Serathin carefully looked over where Zen told him on the painting and as his fingers sank into the stone slightly, he took out a dagger and carefully pushed it into the slot he found. There was a soft click that made everyone grow tense, but when nothing happened they were both relieved and concerned. "I thought something was supposed to happen to its belly?" Alkali asked as he walked over and tapped on it with his boot. "Still seems solid to me."

"That's because he's still flying through the air," Xander said as he walked over and motioned to the clouds that were painted in the circle above. "We need to bring him to the ground... like this." With a sharp push Xander began to use the hilt of the dagger to rotate the circle, the others watching in awe as he continued the revolution until the dragon was on the opposite side of the room. As soon it was the stone belly of the dragon opened up to a secret opening on the floor, which Xander reached down into to pull out a brass rod.

"Are you kidding me?" Zen said as Xander looked over. "How much of this puzzle is left?!"

"Well hopefully the inscription on this thing will help," the dragon replied as he handed the rod to Draggor.

"The way will open only when all is in harmony with one another," Draggor said as he scratched his head. "That's all it says I'm afraid, well, almost all of it."

"Why... what does the rest say?" Alkali asked.

"Discord invites death," Draggor sighed. "Essentially we mess up this one we're not going to have to worry about starving to death, since we'll already be dead."

"At least it's the last part it seems," Serathin said. "I would say that I wish it would be a little more specific in its cryptic instruction, but I'm afraid that would lose all meaning of it then."

The others walked to different respective parts of the room, all of them trying to figure out the solution to the last, and potentially deadliest problem. Time continued to pass and though they had no idea what time it was they could feel the fatigue as though they had stayed up all night, combined with hunger as they choose to eat once again. Even after their meal concluded, though, and they continued to try and solve the problem it seemed as if there was no solution that worked, or at least not one that they were a hundred percent on enough to try. As everyone began to settle in dismay over their situation Xander began to sing softly to himself, a means to try and stir his own morale and the morale of the others. What it seemed to do; however, was cause the ferret to jump up and shout, everyone else nearly jumping out of their skins as he rushed over to the holders of the crystal pages.

"I know what these are!" Alkali said excitedly, pulling Xander up to his feet. "I was hiding out spying on you in the bardic college when I snuck into the equipment room to avoid you seeing me. It apparently was where they kept their larger magical instruments and..." he gestured to the holders in the middle, "the large tuning forks they used to keep them in tune!"

Xander looked at the large metal forks and slapped his hand to his forehead. "Of course!" he said as he looked at the brass rod in his hand. "This is something they would use to hit them and vibrate properly. How hadn't I seen that before?"

"Probably because you don't use an instrument," Alkali replied. "Now that we know what we have to hit, I guess the only thing we need to figure out is in what order."

"Well now that you put me on the musical path I can see it," Xander sighed as he pointed up to the runes on the wall. "The placement of the runes is essentially sheet music, which I do know how to read even though I don't use an instrument, so if I follow it along we should be able to leave."

"Whoa... are you absolutely sure about that?" Serathin asked as he held up his hands. "It's not that I don't doubt you, but as someone whose life hangs on a single slipped tool or missed trigger, I have to say we make sure that this is right. No second chances here..."

Xander looked at Alkali, who nodded at him, then at the rest of the group for a few seconds before he took the brass rod and struck the first tuning fork. The vibration seemed to reverberate through the charged crystal plate and they all held their ears from the sound. When none of them seemed to die the bard hit the second one, then the third one, until finally they were all vibrating at once at a near-deafening tone. It took Alkali's booming voice and pointing towards a section of the cave wall that caused them all to see the newly-created exit, none of them hesitating as they ran through it to the other side.

Once they were through all of them took a second to catch their breath, and as they panted they could hear in the distance the sound of the door closing once again. "I would hate to think of what would have happened if we dallied," Zen said as he took a drink from his canteen. "Still, looks like we prevailed, take that millennia-old puzzle room!"

"I'm sure the room felt that one Zen," Draggor stated with a chuckle as he looked around. "Now if I remember the huscoons correctly I thought there was some sort of ancient magic that resided around here? Since we overcame the trial I would like to think that we would at least get to see what it is."

"Still plenty of tunnel left, Draggor," Alkali said as they continued on, the warlock once more activating a light spell for them to continue on.

Eventually the tunnel ended by leading into another cavern, and at first they feared that there was yet another puzzle for them to accomplish, but found instead five statues. Though the stone was old and weathered they could tell that it was in the visage of the five huscoons they had just left, and each of them held a small basin with water in it. When they investigated it the liquid looked cool and clean despite being in a dirty cave, and eventually Draggor found the instruction for them to drink and gain the power they seek.

"Well that makes me wonder about those guys," Zen said as he looked down at one of the pools. "Do you think they were spirits... or maybe some sort of eternal guardian?"

"More important question is if we're actually going to drink this water," Alkali replied. "I mean I'm all for more power, but we have no idea what this is going to do to us. For all we know we could become the next huscoons that are tasked with guarding this area."

"You saying there's something wrong with being a hybrid?" Serathin asked, sticking his tongue out when the ferret shook his head quickly. "Well I'm not one to look a gift huscoon in the mouth, so I'm going to give it a try, and if I do then you guys know better." The others nodded and watched as the sabrewolf cupped his hands into the water, then tipped his hands back and drank the liquid. When nothing seemed to happen Serathin turned back to them and shrugged, only to see them looking up at the statue's head in shock, which caused him to do the same and gasp at the glowing purple eyes of the huscoon's head.

"So you all made it," the voice of Ian said with a happy note to it. "We're glad that you were able to do so, it would have made us sad to think of your bones joining the others on the pile. The reward for besting such a challenge is that you can now call upon us for your aid, whether it's to communicate, give you the edge in battle, or whatever you may need. Use it well, you earned it."

The others watched as a glyph glowed purple on Serathin's upper arm, then faded away as the light in the statue did as well. Everyone had a mixture of awe and confusion on their faces, all save for the barbarian who had a gleeful look on his face. "They're totems!" he blurted out before anyone had the chance to ask him to explain. "Barbarian tribes try to get spirits to help protect the clan, these guys must be pretty old and powerful if they have their own shrine!"

The fox rushed over to another statue and drank from it, his body surrounded by orange light as a similar glyph appeared on his body. The others followed suit and once they had all drank from their respective dishes, the water in all of them evaporated to nothing. It didn't take long for them to find the tunnel network behind the shrine, and though they didn't face any giant spiders there were some regular ones that Zen was content to squash as they made their way. Days passed by like that, Draggor using his magic to make sure that they continued to head in the right direction as the journeyed through the neverending darkness.

But finally that darkness did end as they reached a cave that breached into the sky, all of them hissing and squinting as the harsh light of the sun hit their eyes for the first time in days. As they took their time to get their bearings they realized that the mountain sloped downward and behind them was the storm that plagued the mountain range the huscoons had called home. Zen let out a mighty cheer and Alkali and Xander hugged each other when they realized they had done it, they had crossed the Dragon's Tail. They found a nearby cliff and looked over it, seeing below it a town that with their estimation was less than a day away.

"Last one down bathes with the barbarian!" Serathin shouted as he took a running start and leapt off the cliff, his wings catching air as he began to glide down the mountainside.

"Well that's not fair..." Draggor replied as Xander mouthed a sorry to Alkali before he followed suit while Zen smelled underneath his arms. "I suppose we should follow suit the normal way, the faster I'm off this mountain the better."

"No complaint here!" The ferret replied as the three quickly found a path down the mountain to chase after their winged cohorts.