The Inconvenient Alliance

Chapter 7

Drake's POV:
We slowly descend deeper into the cavern, staying close together. I hold my lantern up in front of me despite it only illuminating a small portion of the ground. I still follow the magical presence of "his" diamond, I know we are getting closer to it. Unlike the rocky jagged cave-like surface near the entrance, the deeper we go the more the walls seem like ancient ruins, the walls are smoother along with carvings in the stone, though most of the carvings have fallen apart over time. I'm not sure what the carvings mean, and there are of course still the occasional stalagmites and stalactites still around. "I'm sure Mia would like this" Grayson whispers to me, "yeah, maybe we could try to find her later on," I say quietly back, "I'm not sure if she would be up for another crazy adventure since what happened last time" He would say then I continue, "We could still ask her if we ever run into her again," Grayson thinks about this before responding, "Yeah, I suppose we could." and then he continues, changing the subject suddenly, "Hey, do you hear that?" I continue to walk forward with Grayson, but I take a moment to listen while I'm doing so, and I notice that its eerie quiet, "I don't hear anything" I respond to him quietly and he says back matter of factly, "exactly, there should be bats in this cavern or some sounds around, but it's really quiet, I hope theirs, not any nightcrawlers in here such as in those catacombs we went to before." alright, now he's just making me more paranoid and I clutch the handle of my dagger with my other free hand and hope there are not any of those creatures in here too. I finally respond to him with all honesty, "yeah, I hope there isn't any in here too, they creep me out most of the time, same with the nightmares." Then again, this entire place could be somewhat haunted by "him" but I rather not think about that part. "Yeah, same" He responds, and we continue in silence. I notice I keep glancing around now every couple of seconds, thinking I see a shadow of one of those creatures when it's just a shadow created by our lanterns and the surrounding area in the cavern. I let out a sigh, he has successfully made me paranoid that there could be nightcrawlers in here with us, hiding and lurking around in the dark, I try to shake the paranoia off, but it's still there. We are still descending at a slight angle and have made a few turns going down specific tunnels though I stop in my tracks when I look up and almost run into a wall. I don't understand why the diamond would lead us here, I still don't see it anywhere around but the aura is coming through this thick stone wall, there must be something hidden here again. I run my hand along the surface of the wall, a rune-like pattern covers it and I mention to Grayson, "I think there may be a secret door here, you seem to be good at finding hidden things so far, could you take a look?" "Yeah, sure" He would respond and for the next few minutes, we ran our hands along the surface of the wall looking for a panel that may push in without any luck. I think for a moment and take a few steps back, taking a look at the rune-like pattern, it's a large circle, carved out in parts in the center to what looks like a maze, some parts are dead ends that seem to drop down into the stone wall, a small odd circular gem that isn't too noticeable starting from where we are standing, and there's a circle in the center where I think the gem is supposed to go. "Hey Grayson, look at this, I think it's a puzzle." He steps back to where I'm at and takes a look, he seems to see the maze in the stone now "I see it, do you know how to solve it?" He would ask me and honestly, I'm not sure, I don't know what would happen if I mess up and the gem goes down one of the dead ends. "I'm not sure, but I could try, but you seem better at maps, maybe we should think of this as a map, you have a starting point and the final destination of which I'm guessing to be the center of the thing." He goes back up to it, tracing his finger lightly down a few different paths to figure out which is the right way to the center, careful not to turn it. "Alright, I think I found the path to the center of it" "are you sure? I don't want a trap to go off if we mess up" I would say back and he would step back from it now, cracking a joke Armen used to say, grinning slightly, "ladies first~" I laugh a bit but sigh, remembering how Armen is still gone and Grayson seems to notice. "Hey Drake, I didn't mean to-'' I cut him off "It's fine Grayson, I just still really miss him you know?" "Yeah, I miss him too, if you want I could try to do the puzzle." He would say back and I respond, "no it's fine, I could do it." "you sure?" he would say as I walk up to it, beginning to turn the circle and respond, "yeah, just help me so I don't make any mistakes." "Alright," He says then walks over next to me, telling me how to turn the circle and the gem would roll down a certain path, eventually we manage to work together to get it to the center without setting off any traps. The maze and other rune-like symbols that break off from the door glow slightly, and we both jump back, the edge of the stone door cracks open and slowly opens outward towards us. We move out of the way so we are not hit by the door, and then I peer around the corner of the door, seeing another room. "Well we did it, and we didn't set off any traps." Grayson would say and I would say back to him, "yeah, don't jinx it though." I begin to walk into the room, it opens up greatly, the walls are smooth and the ceiling is a few feet higher than in the cavern tunnels, it's a rectangular hall-like room with red and blue glowing torches along either side of the walls creating a dim flickering, colorful light all around, and at the end of the room, I notice the diamond sitting near the middle of the far back wall. "Woah this room is huge'' I hear Grayson say behind me as he wanders in and I respond as I slowly walk over to the diamond, "yeah, it is." The presence of the diamond is the strongest it's ever been since this entire journey, without realizing it I am already next to it and reaching out to it, I almost hear whispering, like it's calling out to me, I see it dimly glowing almost like it wants me to touch it. I also hear voices behind me now, Grayson calling out to me I think but everything is fuzzy. I feel a hand grip my shoulder suddenly and pull me away from the diamond and I snap out of the trance, at the same time I get a sharp headache for a moment, remembering that I still get them ever since I did that spell to try to save Armen but I haven't had one in a while. I can't tell if it was the sharp momentary pain from the headache or the hand on my shoulder dragging me away from the diamond that snapped me out of the trance more, perhaps a bit of both. I hold my head and lean against a nearby wall, I hear Grayson by my side. "Drake? Are you ok?" "Hmm, yeah, just another headache" I would respond, it's not too odd of an occurrence at this point and I would look up seeing Grayson's concern, "are you sure? Maybe, it wasn't such a good idea to come here, I looked over and you were right next to the diamond. I tried to call out to you but you didn't seem to hear me." I would rub my head a bit then I put my hand back down to my side and stand up off of the wall and respond, "Yeah, I know this wasn't the best idea but we didn't have many other options with that bad storm quickly rolling in. I also thought I heard something calling to me, this whispering, I couldn't make any of it out though. The diamond, it's like it's trying to lure me to it, I'm not sure what happened really, I guess I fell into a trance of some sort and then and you broke me out of whatever it was." He would deeply sigh then look at me seriously, "We should probably be really careful around here then, and under no circumstances, if I can help it am I going to let him take you such as "he" did with Armen. I may not have known Armen as long as you, but he was a friend to us all." He would finish and I look over at him, "thanks Grayson," and that's when I glance back towards the entrance hearing a small rock skid across the floor and realize we are not entirely alone after all.

-Credit for the image goes to the Minecraft Animator LeaDragonLight.