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Zerato pushed himself out of Druks hold and smirked.

"We could either, 1; put our magics together and create a massive devastating attack and try to clear the area of these bugs , 2; See if these bugs are even hostile and if not just walk though but if they are then, David, no fire, and 3 the most boring yet fastest way is that I create a portal from here to the ceiling and fly with the both of you through the hole."

"I like the third option..but the second doesn't too bad either.."

My voice sounded nervous.

"No need for pointless destruction.. and what if after the large attack the mountain starts caving in?"

I tap my head, smirking.

"Gotta think about the consquences of being inside a cave, Zerato."

I then turn my attention to Druk who was still in his powered mode and staying silent, he seemed to be staring at the nest, I slip out of his hold rather easily and tilt my head, then I wave my paw in front of his face.

"Druk you alive?"

He didn't move or respond, I go to poke him but with no time to react he grabbed my wrist violently and stared at me, causing me to gasp and jump in surprise, my ears pinning back against my head.

"Ahh, D-druk, calm down."

Zerato chuckled softly, watching us with his arms crossed, he then mumbled a few words and Abyss came crawling out of his cloak, flying off towards the nest. Druk released his grip from me then sat down and crossed his leg, looks like he's going to meditate? One of my ears stood up while the other remained against my head, I don't understand this guy anymore. I sigh softly and just wait, cause there really isn't much I can do at this point.

I watch Druk for a moment then start to feel a weird tingling through my body, I try to shake the feeling but it wouldn't go away. Taking a quick guess, I move away from Druk in hope that he was the source of this feeling, Zerato moved quickly back down the path we went to.

"David, c'mon! I can't tell if they're aggrivated or not, but whatever Druk is doing is causing a lot of them to come this way, so let's hide and see what happens."

My ears twitch a bit then I could start hearing it too, the sound of a large amount of bugs coming towards our direction. Instinctively I rush after Zerato, but then I start to worry a bit about Druk, slowing down in my steps and looking back to him. I know he's in his powered state and can easily take them, but I still worried. I caught up with Zerato and hid with, I heard wings flapping then Abyss came into sight, though something was different about him. There was some odd stench coming from him and he looked glossy, he reached his talons out to Zerato's arm, I noticed a face of disgust on Zerato's muzzle.

"Ugh.. Abyss you stink.. badly. What the hell did you get yourself into?"

Abyss cawed then its eyes began to glow a soft purple, then so did Zerato's, I cover my nose as I watch them curiously as the two remained silent, the sound of the bugs crawling got louder which made me squirm, the sound was not pleasant.. quite disgusting actually. I shiver and curl my tail around my leg, I'm not liking what we found in this cave at all. My mind wandered and started to think about that thing we heard underground back before we met the bug, in the corner of my eye I see Zerato nodding and his eyes turning back to its usual grey.

"So that thing is their nest.. it's pretty gross on the inside, it's like a living thing. They don't seem hostile either, but I don't know for sure, cause when Abyss was flying by them they only stared at him, which I might say was a bit disturbing, but they do carry a weapon, not a lot of them do from what Abyss has seen."

I nod then peek around the corner to check up on Druk, to my surprise, the bugs surrounded Druk, the ones that had weapons stood furthest away from him. Like they were guarding him or something while the ones with no weapon moved close, but didn't touch him. I look back to Zerato and motion him to come look, they made this soft but loud chittering sound like they were communicating with each other. Another group of the bugs came in, but in this group was this really fat one, I wanted to think that it was their queen but why would they bring such an important one to something unknown?

"Zerato, what do we do? I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't want to just sit here and watch them do whatever to Druk."

I whisper to him, though, even though I whispered I was still noticed. About ten of them came our way, Zerato shot a quick glare at me before slowly standing up and keeping his eyes on the approaching bugs. My ears fold back a bit and I nervously stand up, they haven't done anything harmful to Druk yet so I'm hoping nothing will happen to us. As they got closer I could see their bodies resembled ants a lot, their bodies were small.. about three feet tall and green, they had an abdomen like an ant along with their twitching attenae and big yellow eyes, though they walked on two legs instead on six and they also had hands too.

One with a weapon came up to me and started feeling my leg with its anttenae, I shivered a bit and tried not to giggle, it felt odd but tickled a bit. The ant thing started making an odd noise and another approached Zerato and did the same thing, the two that 'searched' us started making the odd noises to each other then moved behind both of us, pushing on our legs. I guess they wanted us to move out of the tunnel, doing as they want us to Zerato and I walk out of the tunnel letting the small ants lead us over to Druk. The group of ants surrounding Druk move out of our way and stare at us, which Zerato was right on how it is a bit disturbing. I glance over to Druk for a moment, he seemed untouched and undisturbed by the surrounding ants, happy to know these ants aren't hostile I turn to Zerato and whisper.

"So what do we do? These ants don't really seem hostile, do you think we could fly out of here if they bring us closer to the opening?"

Zerato nodded and looked around a bit

"But we need to get Druk out of his trance first, I don't know what will happen if we try to use our magic while he's like that and have to hold onto him."

I turn my attention to Druk again but hesitate to do anything, remembering his strength when he grabbed my wrist. I don't really need both my arms out of commission.

"We should get the bugs to touch him or something, cause he's also meditating and I don't want to know what happens when he's distrubed when meditating AND in this state.."

The biggest ant in the area made a loud noise then all the other ants began closing in on us, I panicked a bit and closed my eyes. My ears perked up as I felt myself lift off the ground, I quickly open my eyes and I see about 5 of the ants are under me, carrying me and following the larger ant down the path that they came from. I look back and notice that Zerato and Druk were being carried as well, I'm glad that we weren't attacked or anything, but curious to why they're carrying us, they know we can walk. I shrug a bit not seeing anything to worry about and just enjoy the free ride, at first it seemed that our destination was to the large nest in the middle of the room but we were brought to a tunnel that went deeper underground.

It was dimly lit and pretty straight-forwards, I was rather curious on where we were being brought, but it didn't make me forget why we were even in the cave in the first place. I look to Zerato who was quiet and calm, probably trying to detect something if anything near by. His ears perked up then the earth started shaking violently,a shiver ran through my fur as I looked about quickly, the ants kept walking as if nothing happened then I got a sudden thought which I hope isn't what's going to happen.

"Zerato.. you don't think that they're going to offer us as sacrifices to whatever that monster is do you?"

He shrugged, he didn't seem to be bothered by the thought of being a sacrifice.

"Even if it's so, we have a super-powered bug zapper as our ally. Don't think there is much to worry about."

"You're going on about this rather lightly.., don't you think we should get rid of these bugs and escape while we can?"

"We need to find out as much as we can if we're going to pass this test, even if it means doing stupid things. If you want to be a coward and run away then go ahead and do so, I won't stop you."

I growl softly and look away from him, seriously? He goes and calls me a coward just for worrying about what might happen? He might be right that we need to find out what we can to find that woman, but there are other options in doing it. I let out a sigh and think for a moment, the light blue light that appeared on the front door of this cave might say that other things that we wouldn't normally see. With that thought in mind I begin scanning the area around, hoping that I could see or sense anything out of the ordinary, but again.. practically everything i've been experiencing since this test has been out of the ordinary... Zerato had his arms crossed and was looking down probably with his eyes closed, but quickly looked up over to Druk, I look up to Druk as well sensing a shift in his power. It became more controlled and calm, but probably still as powerful and fast. With this little change I hoped that Druk has gotten out of that trance, I wanted to call for him but I was afraid of what might happen if I did.

The earthquakes got stronger and the ants stopped in their tracks, my ears perked up and I looked down the path. The groups that were carrying us put us down gently and moved behind us, I watched them curiously then I heard like some kind of organism rip open which made me squirm a bit in disgust. I only come to see that some sort of door was opened, the largest one of the group was ahead of us and stood in an open area which seemed harmless dispite the earthquakes. We were pushed into the area, which I only now realized that Druk was walking on his own. Part of me wanted to cling to his arm and hide behind him, I shook my head quickly and look to him.

"You ok, Druk?"

He nodded but kept his focus on the bug in front of us, it started making a lot of annoying noises. I could only think it was trying to talk to us, oddly, as the bug stopped 'talking' the earthquakes subsided. So it wasn't the monster underground? We continued to watch closely as the ant moved further back then the earthquakes started up again, as if it was directly under us. The ground was falling apart under our feet, in a panic I run to whatever area seemed safest at the time, but came to realize that no where was safe. Even the bug with us was slightly panicing and moving about, Druk simply bolted to the ceiling of the room while Zerato conjured up his wings and flew in place, I grunted in frustration not being able to fly without my Pheonix. I summoned up several small fire birds to carry my off the ground as the remaining ground we stood on fell into a pit, an odd stench then flooded the room and got suddenly musky and warm. Druk fell off the ceiling and fell into the pit, all that was visible was the light from his aura, Zerato dived after him and soon came back up carrying Druk.

"Any idea what just happened?"

I looked to them both and Zerato answered.

"We got eaten by whatever this monster is."

I went quiet for a while, to confirm what Zerato said I flew to my left till I hit a wall.. to my disgust, I bump into a thick slimy wall and I just froze in my position. I whimper softly with this permanent grossed out look on my face.

"W-why did you have to be right?"

"Be happy it's not acidic, we're probably still in its mouth or throat."

"Ugh.. can't you make a portal for us out of here?"

"Don't you think if I could do that, I would have already? No, I can't make a portal out of here, our choices are simple. Kill it from the inside, leave one of two exits.. unless there are others of course, or make an exit."

"We're making an exit, no questions asked. I refuse to travel deeper into this thing, I don't know what other kind of nasty things it could have eaten.."

"You mean rocks?"

Zerato smirked a bit and I growl at him then focus on the flesh wall.

"Making an exit shouldn't be too hard, Druk and I will burn through layers of the flesh then you can use your destructive magic to destroy the outer layer. Simple enough right?"

Zerato nodded, a surprised look skipped across his face for barely a second.

"Looks like you actually have a brain."

He chuckled softly.

"Lets get on it, Da-"

Before Zerato could finish Druk forced himself out of Zerato's hold and swung himself at the wall, he let out a mighty roar and drove both his feet into the fleshwall, a pained screech echoed inside and the monster thrashed about which put us off guard and the soundwaves threw us off balance, blowing us around and ultimately making us fall deeper into it. The soundwaves destroyed my firebirds that were holding me up, I wanted to stab my staff into anything but feared it might break, I struggle to manuver in the air to unsheath my sword with one hand while I held my staff with my tail. I saw Druk fall pass me though it was kinda hard not to see him since he was the only light source left inside here, I manage to get my sword out and stab it into anything I could find, luckily I stabbed it into some flesh, nearly falling into a seperate passage that I felt my legs swing into. I pant heavily, my grip was tight on the sword but I don't know how long I could hold on. Adrenalin was rushing through me as well as fear.