{Spirit & Kat} Inner-city dragon fun!

The Antler did briefly wonder if she was making a wise choice, but since it was most definitely too late to go back now she simply pressed on, hoping they weren't about to be killed. After all, it would be entirely her fault. At least her companion didn't have any trouble keeping up, but that wasn't saying much. Taya knew who would win in a footrace. Heck, Celölas could probably still win even if she got to use her wings! That would certainly come in handy for her, but down in these tunnels Taya was at a total disadvantage. No big deal though, she'd just have to use her wits, that was all.

No towns huh... well that didn't help. "That would be sad if it was," she commented, looking around as though she honestly expected to see a window or something like that in the walls around them. If it had been a town at one point she hoped it was long since abandoned before whatever this strange darkness was had shown up. Humans might have been annoying but that didn't mean she wanted them to get killed off. Some of them were nice!

But now she couldn't see what they had been coming down here for in the first place. Oh come on, it has to be around here somewhere she thought, trying not to slam her head into anything while she looked around. That was, admittedly, easier said than done, and she particularly had to remind herself to watch her wings and tail. Taya seldom entered such cramped quarters and it showed. Thankfully Celölas found it rather quickly, and Taya looked over curiously, examining the strange object.

"Oh! That's ah... um... I know this," she commented, looking rather befuddled as she struggled to think of the word. She'd heard it before, she knew that. Gosh darn it, what was it!? "Oh! A gear! It's a gear!" she exclaimed suddenly, careful to keep her voice down despite her excitement at remembering what it was. "Humans use them in machines. There's usually a bunch of them together and they rotate or something. I wonder what it's doing down here." Perhaps it wasn't magic keeping the darkness around, but a machine instead? How was that possible? Or perhaps it was a mix of the two. A magical machine or something like that. If that was the case then that gear probably shouldn't have been off of it, and she couldn't hear anything running anyway. "This is all very strange," Taya admitted. "Let's see if we can find any more of those. Maybe there's more to this than we thought." If there really was a machine and they destroyed it wouldn't that fix things? Maybe that was a bit too much to hope for.

“It’s not very big….” She said slowly, before using a claw to awkwardly drop the little gear into the pouch around her neck that she kept her money in. “Machines sound like they should be big.” Celölas had, in truth, never seen one, so it seemed a fair assumption. And it if was big, it might be easy to find..? Either way, it seemed best to continue down that tunnel, what with strange noises behind them and a chance of light forwards. If they also found the machine, it would be like a bonus.

“Might this thingydoodah be right in the middle? It is laid out like a town down here, but with tunnels instead of streets, so maybe the machine thing it where the town square would be…” she suggested. They needed a starting point after all. “And from there we can look elsewhere if we need to”.

A loud clatter came from the tunnel they had just left – a little further down than the turning they had made, but too close for comfort all the same. “Quickly might be an idea too – whatever that is sounds like it’s getting closer, and I don’t feel like meeting it until we’ve figured at least one other thing out. I don’t like too many problems at a time…” Yes, one mystery at a time seemed good, and a machine sounded less dangerous (if not less scary) than a thing going BANG in the dark…

(I think I might have some plotly goodness in mind now, do you want to hear or would you like surprise plottyness? Either way)

Celölas did have a very good point, one that Taya considered as she looked around, peering through the darkness. It was too quiet, that was the part that bothered her. Ignoring whatever the heck it was that was behind them and tracking them down of course. "I'm assuming this one is going to be big," she admitted, "So why can't we hear it?" And why was there a gear lying in the tunnel? "I feel like I'm missing something," she commented, shuffling her wings slightly, wanting to stretch them out but definitely not having the space for it. It was a really good thing she wasn't claustrophobic, though this might definitely make her that way if she didn't get out soon.

"That would make sense," Taya said, wondering why she hadn't thought of it herself. "If it really is built like a town it would only make sense for the most important thing to be in the center." Humans were creatures of habit that way, so they just needed to find the town center. And hopefully they were already going towards it instead of away from it. The antler was willing to assume that whatever the creature chasing them was, it would have stopped trying to hunt them down if they were going the wrong direction. Wouldn't it? Hmm... Either way it gave her hope that they weren't completely lost. "Sounds like a plan." And boy was it good to have one of those!

Taya flinched slightly at the clatter, looking over her shoulder warily as though she actually expected to be able to see something. Now she was starting to understand her rider's fear of the dark. It made perfect sense when faced with something like this. "Yes one thing at a time, I quite agree!" Taya said swiftly, pitching her voice low though she didn't think it mattered all that much. "You lead since you can actually see down here." Well, could see better than Taya herself could. That was all that was important.

“Alright, onwards then, I guess.” Celölas grinned, the curious dark glowy light reflecting off her teeth in quite a frightening way. She wiggled her way to the front and led the two of them down the tunnel. Thankfully the passage was rather straight, and they emerged into a wide chamber after a reasonable but not terribly long walk.

To Celölas’ more suited eyes, the great cavern looked rather terrifying. The walls were full of menacing shapes that sloped upwards and out of sight –maybe all the way up to the ground above, and the ground seemed to spiral in alternating stripes of light and darker cloud. The worst was the centre of the chamber though. The floor just stopped, and the darkness seemed to gather around to rift. It was like the whole mass of cloud was alive, and crawling with energy. The overpowering feeling that had come over her when they first entered the darkness above ground seemed to double, and she was certain that this was the heart of the particular curse that had fallen over the area. And now she was sure it was something of a curse – she didn’t feel safe in the darkness anymore.

Where the darkness thickened, there was a sort of lump, crawling with wisps of cloud, but it had the same steely glitter as the gear had. Parts of it stuck out at all angles, like a bag of knives, and that was even worse than everything else. It was completely still, and utterly silent in the cavern, save the low howling that Celölas had been able to hear just beneath her normal hearing since they arrived. “I-is that what we’re looking for?” she asked nervously, pointing with a claw. It was a little lighter in here, with some of the clouds paling, as though the odd life that flowed through them had faded. It was sad – like those clouds were close to death – and chilled Celölas to her very core.

Celölas' teeth glinted oddly and Taya blinked before realizing her friend was simply smiling. Silly me she thought as she relaxed. Here in the darkness it was difficult to see who was friend and who was foe, because she generally didn't get suspicious of people like that. So the antler dragon smirked as well and followed the other dragon down the hall, thankful that there were no twists or turns for her to run into, fairly certain that she would have if there had been.

Taya felt so much better when she sensed the chamber open, taking the moment to stretch her wings out before she actually looked around and snapped them shut a little fearfully. What on earth was this place? Lovely, lovely, lovely. For the first time since they had first heard the strange creature, Taya seriously began to consider the fact that they were very much in danger by being down here, especially if they couldn't figure out what to do in order to lift the darkness. There was definitely some powerful magic going on here. Or something along those lines. Magic she could deal with, it was something she had grown up with. And somehow, oddly, that realization helped her to relax and begin thinking logically about the whole thing.

"Yep, that's definitely it. And whatever it does, it's not doing it now," Taya said, slowly stepping forward so that she could see the thing more clearly, careful not to fall through the floor or anything stupid like that. That was Dawn's luck, not hers. "We just have to figure out why." Which was easier said than done considering she really couldn't see the bloody thing. It was lighter over here though, she had to admit that much. Reaching out carefully she poked one of the protruding metal bits with a claw, tsking quietly to herself. This would go a lot easier if she had any clue how to repair machinery.

She breathed out a small trickle of flame, keeping it carefully controlled so that she could see what was under the shadows but wouldn't damage anything. The machine looked brand new, so perhaps it was just missing parts? "I think someone has been tampering with it or something," she commented. It would make sense, and might partially explain why they'd found a gear in the tunnels as well. Her foot nudged against something on the ground that moved and she looked down to see a gear lying there. "Yep, someone messing with things," she said, making a slight face. Either they had been trying to fix it or take it apart, and she wasn't sure which one she preferred.

“Well, we’ve found it, maybe the best thing to do is see if these two fit anywhere..?” Celölas suggested. She stepped to one side, seeing if a different angle would help, and kicked something. A torch. It had been put out a long while ago by the looks of things, but they really could do with some light. “Taya, can you light this?” she asked, picking it up in her jaws so that the burny-end was as far from her face as possible. She had noticed Taya’s fire, and assumed that it would be easier to just carry some with them than have Taya puffing all the time.

Tampering… so the machine was broken. Celölas wondered briefly who had been messing with the clanky old thing – there didn’t seem to be anything living down here except the weird crawling dark clouds, which she wasn’t sure counted, and whatever had been making that sound when they first arrived. Other than that, it was barren. A ghost-town. The thought made her shudder, and brought up even more questions. Had there ever been anyone living down here, for one, and what had happened to them for another.

“I don’t like the feel of things down here… that big hole scares me. Do you suppose the machine put it there, before it broke?” Celölas asked, not sure how to get her head around everything just yet.

That sounded like the best plan but Taya wasn't sure how to go about it. She couldn't see the darn thing after all. Even with as good as Celölas' sight was Taya didn't think her companion could make it out either. This darkness was so oppressive and strange she didn't like it. "Light wha-oh. Yeah sure," the Antler replied, trying to figure out what the best way to light it was without setting her friend on fire. That wouldn't do at all. So she carefully took the end of the stick into her mouth, angling her head away from Celölas, and breathed fire on it that way, letting it go with a snort and noticing with satisfaction that it was lit. "That works," she commented, squinting in the sudden light.

"Wow, now it's really bright in here," she commented, looking around the room now that she could actually see. The problem was the light was unnatural in this place and she had a sinking suspicion it would draw all sorts of nasty creatures to them. "We might want to hurry," she said, not seeing anything dangerous at the moment but knowing it was only a matter of time.

"Yes, it disturbs me too," Taya agreed, aware of how the flickering torchlight cast odd shadows on the walls and floor that made her feel as if things were creeping up on her. "I would imagine so. Or else whoever put the machine in did it while they were putting it in." Something put it there, that was for sure. "I'm sure we'll find out whenever we get this to work again." They just had to find... "Aha," she commented, reaching down and picking up the gear with her front claws, carefully balancing on her hind feet and spreading her wings slightly to stay upright as she pressed the gear back into its slot. It fell into place with a click and Taya smirked. "Okay, this is doable. We'll have to find a switch or something too, there has to be a way to turn this thing on." If they couldn't find that then no amount of repair work would help them.

The fire did make Celölas flinch – she’d had her fur singed off before and once was quite enough, thank you very much. However she did appreciate the light - shedding a little genuine light on the surrounding chased away a little of the terror gripping her chest. “Yes, hurrying sounds good…,”she started, looking around and letting her eyes settle on a corridor where the darkness had been swirled a little. “Looks like something might be down that tunnel, we can head that way next if you like.”

It was a pleasure to see that the gear fitted in so easily. However she couldn’t see a switch – whatever that was – anywhere. She was thinking a big handle, and she couldn’t even see where that might attach onto the mess of bits of metal down there. The machine seemed to have a thickish layer of dust over most of it, but some patches looked darker. Those must be where the gears went – it looked like there were two more missing, at least from this angle. Maybe more, if Taya could see another dust-free patch.

“There’s nothing else here… please let’s get out of this chamber. I’m a little scared of that big crack over there. I’m sure falling down /that/ will do us much less good than falling down the last one…” she pleaded, curling her toes into the soft dark clouds over the floor. Underneath there was stone, which comforted her a little. The dark was like a mask, so underneath must be a normal place, right..?

Taya moved as quickly as she could, scanning the machine from top to bottom. Okay, so they were missing two more gears at least as far as she could see.
That was manageable. More manageable than not knowing what they were doing anyway, it was another thing entirely to find the darn things. Something down the tunnel? The antler turned to look, peering into the darkness as best she could. What sort of something she wondered, not willing to go sprinting down the tunnel blindly. Then again, what choice did they have?

"Yes I would imagine that would be ill advised," Taya commented, peering down the hole. "I'm not even sure there's a bottom." And she definitely didn't want to find out that was for sure. "Besides, falling down that last hole did us a fair bit of good. We're that much closer to figuring out what's going on here. Ah, anyway, the tunnel." They needed to get going before something caught up to them. However just as she turned towards their new path a pair of eyes gleamed out of the darkness and she screeched in horror, jerking back slightly.

"What on earth is that!?" she asked, hearing a sudden hiss as she leaned forward slightly and light was cast towards the darkness the creature was hiding in. No sooner had the light rushed towards it did it disappear. "Hmm, they're probably not used to dealing with light," she mused, shuffling her wings as she thought. "Like how cave creatures go blind after a while, maybe this is the same kind of thing. It's the best we can hope for." If that was the case then they had a weapon they could use. Either that or the thing had just been surprised and now it wasn't going to work. No, I'm not going to think like that Taya told herself, sighing quietly and heading for the corridor. "Sooner we find the gears, the sooner we can get this settled."

The hissing creature in the darkness made Celölas jump in fear. Her fur stood on end and her tails puffed out to easily three times their usual size. “I don’t think I’d group that in with moles and bats, Taya…” she said quietly, her fur still bristling. She imagined she looked quite comical, but she still felt a bit safer with her fur puffed out like a farm cat.

“Yes, I agree – we need to find those gears. Hopefully they’ll all be shiny and easy to find. Plus I don’t imagine they can have gotten too far…” She trailed off. They had no idea how deep these tunnels went, or how big the underground city-shaped structure was. Plus there was the matter of the lever: the one that didn’t exist. It looked like this thing needed to be started manually, and taken care of. The dust wasn’t so very thick over the machine, so maybe they needed a someone to go with such a strange something.

Taking care not to get too far out of the circle of light, Celölas began to pad down the tunnel. She regarded the light as safety now, and at her core, Celölas was a coward. She couldn’t bear to show it too clearly, but she was. She loved an adventure, until it got out of hand, and then her fear reflex kicked in. Right now it was all she could d to keep her sharp eyes pinned to the ground, looking for gears, instead of inspecting the shadows for further danger.

Taya glanced over at Celölas and would have laughed if the situation wasn't as serious as it was. The other dragon looked quite comical if she did say so herself. However she was quite right, and that put a damper on the antler's amusement. "No, it wouldn't be safe to do that without knowing what they are," she agreed softly, returning her gaze towards the tunnel in the hopes that the creature would reappear so that she could get a better look at it. Wait, what was she thinking!? Better for it to stay gone.

"I figure if the first one was they all will be," she continued, finding it slightly difficult to speak properly around the torch in her mouth but managing all the same. As long as she didn't drop it or burn herself then they would be fine. Reasonably fine anyway, she couldn't make promises like that while they still didn't know what they were dealing with. For all she knew the thing had just left to get a bunch of its buddies and was now on its way back with an army. Oh goodness, thoughts like that weren't getting her anywhere fast.

Instead she diverted herself by following Celölas down the tunnel, taking care not to let her companion get too far ahead of her. Getting separated was probably the worst thing that could happen to them at the moment, so it was the one thing she was determined not to do. While Celölas scanned the floor Taya kept an eye out for anyone and anything that might be trying to sneak up on them. It put her on edge because every time the torch light flickered she thought she saw something in the shadows, but someone had to do it.

This tunnel was wider than the first one, and curved steadily to the left. Celölas kept an eye out for anything shiny, but there was no sign for quite some time. Only when the tunnel turned a sharpish corner to the right did she see anything at all. The thick dark clouds had thinned over a certain patch of all, and Celölas could see inside what looked like a house or a shop. It was empty, the window had been broken and the walls had all been covered by the odd, living darkness, but she thought she could see something half way up the wall on what could only be a little shelf. “Hold on, in there.” She whispered, as if talking too loudly would disturb the place. The door (although coated in cloud) was hanging off its hinges, so Celölas pushed it open with her nose to look inside. A little of the darkness clung to the fur on her face, and she whimpered at it for a second before snapping her teeth and shaking it off.

Although every cowardly hair on her body was bristling, she forced herself to step inside. There was definitely something shining on the shelf, so she added over slowly. Taking hold of the thing in her teeth, she turned to face Taya and the torch. She was just about to pad back to them when something clattered behind her, in another room probably. Celölas almost jumped out of her skin, and practically flew back outside, leaping through the broken window and hiding herself on the other side of Taya. However, she did still have whatever she had picked up, although she hadn’t yet checked what it was.

Taya felt better in this tunnel, if only because she could fit in it better and now had light. She'd hated not being able to see, even if having a torch made them a target. She didn't want to have to fight something she couldn't see, that made things a thousand times harder. When Celölas spoke up she almost jumped, so focused was she upon her task of making sure no one snuck up on them. Apparently in doing so she had walked right past the structure her companion had found. Huh, apparently two heads really were better than one. "Careful," Taya muttered around the stick in her mouth when the darkness reached out for her. We don't know how sentient that stuff is." If it started attacking they were probably going to be screwed. Then again there wasn't really a probably about it, they would be screwed.

Taya stepped back towards the building to give Celölas more light, but just as soon as she did she came running back out like a demon was after her. Considering their location Taya thought it was a good idea to at least think there might be. A low growl echoed up her throat and she lifted and spread her wings slightly to make herself look bigger and hide Celölas better. There was definitely something in the shop, though she couldn't tell what it was, for she could see the shadows rippling like a curtain. Whatever it was didn't step out into the torchlight and Taya took a few steps forward to see if she could bring it into the light. The ripple simply moved back as well, like whatever it was could use the darkness to cloak itself. "Lovely," she grumbled, keeping an eye on the strange ripple as she looked back at Celölas, careful to keep her torch facing the shop.

Celölas nodded, glad that her mouth was full of what she hoped was a gear so that she didn’t have to try speaking. She was more than a little scared right then, and wasn't sure how well she could speak. The shadow-covered thing seemed reluctant to leave the darkness, but it also hadn’t left the shop. She hoped that it was just guarding its territory and would stay inside the building if they left it be. “Taya… we should try to get back to the main tunnel…” Celölas suggested, backing away. She needed to other dragon to check the bit of shiny-metal she had found, and she /really/ wanted to get away from the semi-sentient dark clouds.

The thing moved again, coming right up close to the broken glass of the window, and Celölas bolted. She panicked, running down the tunnel until she found herself in the central chamber again, near the machine. It felt safer there, where the dark-coated walls were further away from her, and some of the darkness was pale and dead. She was sure the white bits /were/ dead, especially after seeing those extra-dark ones rear up at her. If that was true, the little dark thinks must come back to the centre of the underground city to die in peace. That was a little bit of a sad thought, and made Celölas wonder even more what the weird old machine was supposed to do. It must be important… but then why had it been abandoned?

What were they supposed to do now? Taya didn't want to confront it because they didn't know what sort of powers it might have, and finding out that way would make it far too late. So with that out of the picture, that really only left them with running. The antler hated the idea of doing that, but with precious little else to do she was just going to have to stuff her pride down and carry on. "Yes, I think that's an excellent idea," Taya agreed around the torch in her mouth, wondering how long she could hold onto it before she accidentally dropped it or the fire burned down so far it started to heat her face. Hopefully a while longer since they didn't know how much time it would take to find all the gears and figure out how to get the machine started again. It can't be all that complicated she thought, not sure if she was just telling herself that or if she actually thought so.

When the creature moved Taya found herself backing away slowly, but it was only when she realized her companion was already gone that she bolted completely, dashing after Celölas as quickly as she could, hoping she didn't think she was coming after her and try to attack. That wouldn't end well. The whole place was just freaky and she was incredibly eager to leave, but at least nothing seemed willing to enter this area. Well, nothing thus far. Perhaps they would get over that fear and pursue them further, but Taya didn't think so. Certainly hoped it was the case. "What did you find?" she asked Celölas, peering at the piece of metal sticking out of the other dragon's mouth. Hopefully something they could use, though anything they found down here would be interesting, of that she had no doubt.

Celölas laid the tiny bit of metal on the floor when Taya appeared, nudging it onto a clear patch of floor with her nose. It was a bit different to the last gear, but it could still be another one. She didn’t understand this machine thing. It seemed weird that they had to stick things to it to make it stop whatever it was doing with the great big darkness rift. If she had wings of her own she would be half tempted to leave the underground labyrinth of tunnels and forget this place, but as she didn’t, it seemed like they would have to go along with things and hope for another way out.

“’S this another one then? It looks funny, the bits are longer…” Celölas offered, sounding totally uncertain since she understood nothing about the machine. She hoped it would fit somewhere, because that meant there were only two more bits to go, ad that the others were probably not far from the middle chamber either if the first two were anything to go on.

There were two more tunnels they could reach without trying to cross the big scary rift in the middle of the cavern, so Celölas sincerely hoped that Taya would agree to search those ones first. She didn’t like the feeling of this place anymore. The dark magic had been welcoming – luring her in almost, when they first saw the great cloud above ground, but this… was different. Now it felt like they had fallen into a trap.

Taya tilted her head to one side slightly so that she could easily see what Celölas had put down. It seemed like it belonged in the machine somewhere but who knew. There was so much stuff littered around the area that it made it difficult to tell what was really going on. The constant darkness wasn't helping either and Taya didn't want to think of what would happen when the torch she was holding inevitably went out. That would be a nightmare of epic proportions, especially now that they had gotten used to the light and actually knew what was out there. It wasn't something she wanted to face without a light.

"I think it is, but I could be wrong," Taya commented around her mouthful of stick. "I swear, this would be a lot easier if we had hands." It wasn't often that she envied humans anything, generally only their small size when she got stuck or had to watch where she stepped, but this was one of those times. "I think they can be different sizes and shapes. We just have to find the slot where it goes." Easier said than done considering the size of the thing. At least they were both tall enough to see the majority of it, which made things exceedingly easier.

All she wanted to do was get the remaining gears and leave but that was taking longer than she had originally thought it would. Then again, nothing was ever truly easy, the antler had figured that out ages ago. "Let's get this thing put in and then go down one of those," Taya commented, indicating the tunnels Celölas had been hoping she would choose. It only made sense in her mind. She didn't want to have to fly her companion over the rift or go over herself and leave her there to wait. Not only was she not sure if she would be able to do it herself she wasn't sure if Celölas would be able to get across. Well, we'll cross that bridge later she told herself.

Celölas was happy with that plan, and started padding slowly towards the nearest unexplored tunnel. She was nervous about them both, but she wanted everything over and done with as soon as possible. “Well, let’s assume that’s one of them, so there are only two more missing… right?” she suggested, hoping she was correct.

Before she made it to the tunnel, however, a howl shook the underground cavern. Celölas’ ears shot back against her head and her fur stood straight on end as she dropped to the ground as quickly as possible. They had heard something moving around before, but it sounded much closer now… and much /bigger/. They had thought it was right behind them earlier, but the sound it was making now only showed how wrong they had been. Slowly, Celölas dared to twitch her head around to look, and immediately clamped her eyes shut to hide the sight.

It was no good – the image was imprinted on the inside of her eyelids. A great creature, stood upon two legs with its back hunched over grotesquely. It had a sparse patch of hair on top of an otherwise bald head and a greasy, warped face that glistened in the light of the torch. It wore an odd mockery of human clothing; all rags and ugly shapes, and around its neck was the strangest of necklaces. A pendant unlike and Celölas had seen hung from a thick, iron chain – a pendant of black fireglass and old green copper. But on either side of the pendant, which was in its own way as ugly as its wearer, hung two more things: the gears they were chasing. This creature looked like all of hell combined into one great monster, coated in the living darkness, with big pale eyes, and Celölas knew that it was the only way they could hope to get out of this pit of nightmares.

((Ooh plot-twist 8D))

Taya was just hoping that they didn't run into anything else mean and nasty while they were wandering around, despite having the feeling that it wasn't going to be the case. "Yes, just two," she agreed, feeling thankful that they were almost done. Well, so long as they quickly found the gears and managed to get them to fit into their places. That and assuming the machine would actually work.

Unfortunately that wasn't going to be the case. When the howl rang out Taya instantly went still, her wings spreading slightly to make herself look bigger. It might have been smarter to hide, but she couldn't see anywhere big enough for her and that wasn't her way regardless. Well, it finally caught up with us she thought, narrowing her eyes in preparation for whatever might be coming, only to cower slightly and be sorely tempted to close them completely when the creature came into her field of vision. Oh, there was no way she was going to attack that! It looked like a total mess!

It definitely didn't look human, though she wondered if it had been at some point. Perhaps a sorcerer that had badly performed a spell. It would make sense, but regardless of what the creature was it had their key out of the place. Maybe we won't even have to make the machine work, maybe getting rid of that thing will stop this mess Taya thought. Whether or not that works... we're still going to have to take it on. "Who wants to bet it knows magic?" she asked, more to the air than to anyone in particular. "I dunno what you are buddy but you picked the wrong dragons to mess with," she finished, realizing she was at a bit of a disadvantage by carrying the torch but not willing to put it down either. That was their only source of light and possibly their only advantage. The freak probably couldn't even see, or she hoped it couldn't, though that would mean she had made herself a target by speaking. Oops.

((Plot twists are fun!))

Celölas’s terror changed shape as Taya spoke. She had been frightened of the thing itself to start with, but the idea of fighting it? That created a deeper, darker terror for her. Fighting meant blood, and once there was blood in the air, bad things happened. “Taya…” she said quietly, her eyes wide and glued to the thing in front of them, “Taya I can’t fight that. We can’t…” She was scared of what she might do once the fight started. Taya had become a friend to her, and she didn’t want to hurt her. But how could she explain that? Maybe she just had to hope for the best – Taya was a little bigger after all, and if worst came to the worst, she could fly out of there, right?

The pale-eyed creature made up her mind for her. It howled, a disgusting noise full of pain, and charged – huge feet cracking he very stone they stood on. Only the little chunks of living darkness seemed happy about the creature’s presence. The wisps were dancing around the monster like sprites, and the grey, dying ones were slowly rising and flowing towards that awful pendant. That had to be it- they had to get the pendant away from it before anything else happened. There was something wrong about the fireglass, but amongst all of the dark magic already flowing through the odd underground tunnel system, Celölas couldn’t tell what it was.

“Taya, don’t kill it – try to get the necklace, and stay away from me! You can’t get close to me until this is all over, understand?” she shouted, the adrenaline from her previous terror reforming into a semblance of courage. With that, she bared her teeth and faced the creature. Goodbye sanity, she thought glumly, before lunging at the creature’s legs and digging her claws in.

The smell filled the cavern – foul, black blood spilled out over the wounds Celölas had caused. It wasn’t like it usually was, most likely due to whatever magic was lurking in this place, but the effect was instantaneous. Celölas’ eyes widened, and everything got brighter, her vision turning red. A hissing voice slid into her ear, and everything was gone except for the creature – her prey.

Unfortunately it hadn't occurred to Taya that her companion might not be as inclined to leap into battle as she was, and she tilted her head slightly in curiosity and concern as Celölas spoke. Oh, well, that changed things slightly. "Well, you can always hold the stick and stay back if you prefer," she offered, not about to force the girl to fight if she didn't want to. They weren't all built for it after all and she'd taken on other things by herself before. Bigger things too, though this thing wasn't small in its own right. And it certainly wasn't going to be an easy battle to say the least.

But there wasn't time to discuss or even really think about it, for an instant later the creature made some sound that she couldn't immediately identify as a howl and rushed at them, sending Taya scampering out of its way as she struggled to keep the light on it. She wasn't losing track of it, that was for sure. That seemed like a great plan for instantaneous death. Which really wasn't what she was going for that day, or any other one. Particularly when her rider didn't know where she was, for Taya could never just abandon her and that was what Dawn would think had happened if she died down in the depths of this dark cave. Why, she'd become just another skeleton littering the floor! No, not what she had in mind for that day.

"Don't kill it?" she returned, though it was too late to argue. Why on earth shouldn't she kill it? Perhaps Celölas simply wanted to be merciful, and Taya could understand that, but honestly, they were fighting for their lives here! Well, there wasn't anything she could do about it, so Taya simply altered her plans accordingly. Not that she'd really had any to begin with but hey, it didn't matter.

Of course, she wasn't anticipating Celölas' reaction.

Apparently there was good reason for her warning, for Celölas seemed to have lost her mind in a second. Blood lust Taya thought, getting a whiff of the air and deciding it would probably be smarter to breathe through her mouth. Well, no wonder she'd been so reluctant to jump into the fray. But Taya wasn't too concerned about her own safety, though she did ease her way around to the other side of the creature and find a place in the machine to jam the torch where it was out of the way but still providing enough light to see by before she too lunged at the beast, trying to pin it down so that perhaps one of them could reach the necklace Celölas had noticed.

Celölas’ thought train was gone. She was aware of the light source moving, but her world was made of shades of blood and shadow, and she had forgotten all about Taya. The great creature whimpered as she bit into its leg deeper, then swung a great arm around to catch her in the side. She was torn from her prey and sent hurtling across the cavern, skidding to a halt on the hard ground. It knocked the breath out of her, but when she inhaled the deep metallic smell filled her consciousness and the pain subsided.

/this way…/ a silky kind of voice whispered in her ear, and her eyes locked on the wound she had already dealt the creature. /you know you want to. You love this… the action, the taste…/ She was powerless to resist the temptations laid before her, so she was off like a rocket again, ignoring everything between her and the injured, angry and extremely dangerous enemy. If Taya was in the way, Celölas hadn’t noticed, and would probably have run into her friend with the same ferocity as she was the foe.

(At this point, if you need/want to powerplay Celö at all to make it easier (if Taya ends up in the firing line etc) feel free, she will attack anything nearby in this state, so you are free to assume that in any replies ^^)

Celölas’ temporary insanity was actually proving to be quite helpful in dealing with the creature. Taya could completely understand why she had been hesitant to jump into the fray, and now that she knew why she would have told her companion to stay back, but as it was the antler dragon thought they were going to make short work of the creature. Assuming, of course, she kept from getting eaten herself. And stopping her friend after the battle was over would be another exercise in patience and willpower, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now she had to focus on the battle at hand or she wouldn't be around to stop Celölas later.

The monster swatted Celölas away like she was a fly, and before Taya could react she too was jarred loose by its backswing. Fortunately the thing couldn't see, for it turned to attack her and would have succeeded in ripping her throat out if it hadn't struck just to the side of her neck because she swiftly but silently moved out of the way. But the problem was that as she regained her feet, she was in the way of Celölas’ charge when the other dragon recovered. Oh goodness she thought, backpedaling swiftly so that the creature was between her and Celölas before thinking better of that action and closing the distance between herself and the blind monster again. Reaching out with her front claws, she managed to grab its throat and yank its head back, baring its throat and chest to Celölas’ attack. If they were lucky she would strike there and Taya could get herself out of the way of the strike, but in the meantime Taya struggled with holding the beast steady, her claws making holes and furrows in its skin.

(Okay, I shall remember that. :3)

Celölas was essentially blind, so her attack hurtled straight into the creature’s front, tearing three deep scratches into its chest where her claws struck. She drew back her head to snap at its throat, when the necklace caught her attention. Her vision was still coloured red and black, but the necklace was something else entirely. It sung out to the dark power controlling her actions, and Celölas’ face fell. Her eyes were wide and vacant as the darkness in her heart tried to figure it out.

/It glows…/ the voice hissed. In Celölas’ red vision, the stone on the pendant was huge and black, but inside something red moved around. It had a peculiar smell too, which was detectable even over the stench of the blood already spilled. The creature wearing it looked furious, but Celölas was powerless to run until her odd form of insanity let her loose. /I… I want it. You want it too. Take that necklace – take it now!/

Celölas threw herself at the creature, dashing right into an attack already aimed her way, but she didn’t notice what had happened. She was focused on the creature’s throat. Something in the back of her mind was trying to tell her something – something she had said before the battle, be she couldn’t remember it. She lunged at the side of the creature’s neck- right where Taya’s head had been, but Celölas was blind to her friend’ whereabouts now.

Fortunately her plan worked out perfectly, and Taya could feel Celölas slam into the beast she was so desperately clinging on to. It was getting more difficult by the second, and not surprisingly, having someone attacking the thing wasn't really helping. Still she held it, knowing she couldn't just stand back or run away. That wasn't her way and that wouldn't do them any good in this case. Besides, with Celölas going crazy she could easily be her next target if she didn't watch out. Taya wasn't scared, but she was alert and watchful of the danger.

And then, suddenly, her companion went still. What's going on, Taya wondered, unable to verbalize her thought around the monster shoved between her jaws. What happened? Unable to keep a hold of the beast and needing to find out why Celölas had ceased to attack, Taya released her hold, which proved to be a bit of a bad idea because the creature instantly shot away from her right towards Celölas. Uh oh the antler thought, wincing slightly and hoping that her friend would react in time despite her inconvenience.

Fortunately Celölas reacted quickly, though Taya wasn't sure if it was because she knew she should or if it was coincidence. And, fortunately, Taya had already released the creature before she attacked because otherwise... well it would have ended badly. Maybe I can get the necklace off she thought, while Celölas keeps him occupied. Taking a second to prepare herself mentally, Taya suddenly lunged forward, her front feet pressing down hard on its back while she got her teeth around the necklace, tugging backwards sharply. Either it was going to break or she would strangle the poor thing. Whichever came first.

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