UnderHisTail

Waterfall III - Echoes (and spears)

A/N: longer chapter because.... honestly i don't know

hah lore go brr

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Faint whispers could be heard as Frisky moved onward through the caverns. Blue echo flowers pulsed as they emitted sound- mostly just grunts and moans- but a few words caught the human's attention.

"A long, long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky."

Frisky paused.

"If you hoped with all your might, your wildest dreams would come true..."

"...now all we have are these rocks on the ceiling."

He sighed and kept moving. As he walked, more and more of the flowers began to repeat coherent phrases.

"Thousands of people hoping together can't be wrong. Our king will prove that."

"C'mon, bro! Make a wish!"

"...I wish my brother and I will see the real stars someday."

Frisky wandered through a carved stone arch and into another cavern. This room was much bigger and more open than the others he'd seen. A long, narrow dock above the dark water was just barely illuminated by the faint blue glow of the signs along the wall. He stepped up to one of them.

"The War of Humans and Monsters."

"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the SOULs of nearly every monster just to equal the power of a single human SOUL."

Frisky moved to the next plaque on the wall, further down the dock.

"But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it is the strength of their SOUL. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death."

"If a monster defeats a human, they can take its SOUL. A monster with a human soul... a horrible beast with unfathomable power."

The last plaque was an elaborate carving of a horrible, disturbing creature. Frisky shivered and looked away, walking onwards.

The dock met shore again, and he followed the stone passageway. Steep rocks loomed on both sides, just tall enough to prevent him from climbing them. It looked like there might have been a ledge of some kind beyond them, but he couldn't make much out in the dark.

A glimmer of light caught Frisky's eye and he turned to face it. Something was glowing faintly on top of the rocks on the side. He squinted, trying to make it out.

His stomach dropped as he realized he was looking at a magical spear, held by the Knight, who was looking right at him.

"Well shit," Frisky said under his breath.

The Knight hurled the spear in his hand, barely missing the human's head. It went straight through the dock behind him with a loud thunk.

Frisky turned and ran farther inland, and he could hear the Knight chasing after him from behind. More spears flew past, impaling the stone around him. He spotted a grove of tall grass and lept into it without hesitation, immediately regretting it as every exposed part of his body was scratched.

Frisky held his breath, hearing the Knight's metal boots approaching, and tried to stay as still as possible.

He heard a high-pitched squeak and opened one eye slightly to see the Knight holding the other monster from earlier by the face, who was seemingly fanboying despite the way he was being held. The Knight set him down, disinterested, and walked back the way they had come.

Frisky sighed in relief as he crawled out of the tall grass, brushing himself off. The other monster squealed.

"Dude! Did you see that! Nokyel just... TOUCHED ME! Man, I'm never washing my face again!"

Frisky rolled his eyes.

"Man, are you unlucky. If you had been standing just a little bit to the left..." the human shivered.

"Yo, don't worry, dude. I'm sure we'll see him again soon."