Eternal Beasts

Trapped

The northward route took him through the cordon of outposts the Harbingers had erected around the shrine, some recent, some thousands of years old. Spotting most of them from a distance, he was easily able to skirt around them and stay out of sight of their sentries. There were a couple, however, that he nearly ran straight through the middle of them before he was aware they were there.

Those took a little bit of scrambling to get out of without needing to fight. Which was good because the dragons that were pacing him would no doubt call in reinforcements as soon as he engaged in combat. Then he would find himself facing a significantly higher number of enemies than originally anticipated.

Finally, after some maneuvering and hard running, he was through the cordon. A couple of course corrections and a sprint through a dense stand of trees, and he was in a relatively large glade. Jared slowed slightly to take measure of the space before:

- Hold here, - the book curtly directed. - The shrine is in the middle of this glade. But it is heavily protected by several layers of spells, some of which have deteriorated over the thousands of years they've been in place. -

Skidding to a stop, Jared peered ahead.

- And that's important, why? - he asked, trying to sense any trace of the spells' presence.

- Because the decaying spells will not recognize you as the Lord of Griffons and they will kill you. -

- Ah. - Yeah, that was a pretty good reason to take it slow. - Can you map a way through? - As he asked, he looked skyward. Where were those damn dragons, anyway? And he frowned when he found the sky clear. There was no way he could've lost them with that quick run through the trees. They must've ...

Like vultures circling their failing prey, the dragons circled back into view. And in doing so, they put themselves into the perfect position to see the shrine when it appeared after Jared unlocked all of the protecting spells.

- I believe so, - the book replied, bringing his attention back to the glade's center. Then it fell silent for a long moment.

Fighting the impulse to hide in the trees from the dragons, Jared found himself winding tighter and tighter with tension as he waited for the book to plot a course through the failing spells. Then his vision flickered and he saw a labyrinth of light appear in front of him.

- I have mapped a path through as best as the spells themselves allowed, - the book said, its voice thoughtful. - As long as you navigate through the maze without touching ..."

A shout from behind made Jared twist towards it. And he felt a wave of dismay at seeing a large company of torith running towards him, weapons upraised.

- Without touching what? - he said, sprinting forward to dive into the maze.

- The walls. Why are you running? -

Jared jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the forest.

- What? The forest ...? Oh. I see. -

- Can they see the maze? - Jared wanted to know as he dodged his way through the openings, running as hard as he could between them.

- No. That is a visual only you can see, - the book replied, its words easing the tension twisting Jared's body for a moment. Then the entire labyrinth was shuddering as the torith company slammed into the outer layer and the magic detonated, ripping their front ranks into so much meat and bone shards.

Staggering in an effort to keep his balance, Jared barely managed to avoid slamming into one of the glowing walls himself. Scrambling at the last minute, he regained his footing and darted down the next lightbound corridor. As he did, he chanced a look upward to see how the dragons were doing now that the torith were reduced to battering their way through the invisible barricades holding them away from the still unseen shrine at the glade's heart.