Shadow wings

Echo of the Stone - The first sacred trial

When the large door opened, they entered cautiously and prepared themselves for what might unfold before their eyes. Ferndall's heart began to race as they came into a long, stone corridor with drawings of humans, magical creatures and gods building the temple together. As they walked deeper into the corridor, the torches on the walls suddenly lit up in blueish flames and the entrance closed behind them. The loud crunch of the door closing behind them made them wince and turn around. "Oh great, looks like retreating isn't an option anymore... Let's hope that wasn't the only way out." Laxus said ironically as they had no choice but to keep walking forward.While they followed the underground passage deeper, they kept seeing small, glowing mushrooms and vines growing out of the ground. The air was filled with a magically tense atmosphere. The fire that burned in the torches gave off no heat, in fact, it felt cold every time Ferndall past by. After they had walked forward for a while, the tunnel became wider and a high cave stretched out before them. Its ceiling was supported by pillars with unknown characters on them.Suddenly, as they went deeper into the cave, their blood froze. There were stone figures all over the cave, but they were scattered in such a way that it was impossible for them to just serve as decoration. On the other side of the hall was another large door. "Looks like we don't have to look for the passage." Laxus called out and hurried a little further. "We can't get too far away from each other. Places like this are full of deadly traps, so be careful" Gall warned. Laxus stopped and waited until the others caught up with him. As they walked in the middle of the hall, Ferndall suddenly heard a faint crumbling and cracking of stone. A shiver ran down his spine, but when he turned around, he couldn't see anyone except the statues, with their horrifying faces, which made Ferndall tremble for a brief moment. He quickly looked away again.When they reached the door they quickly noticed that it was sealed with magic. "It would have been too easy if it had been open," Ray mumbled. There were glowing characters on the door that were constantly flickering. "I recognize these characters. I've seen them before in a book I read. Maybe I can decipher them. But that might take a moment." Gall said and conjured up a book. "Maybe we can take a look around while we're at it," Mary suggested. "That's a good idea. But we shouldn't get too far away from each other." Luna said. The Elf asked the other: "Be careful, Ferndall. If something happens call out for me." Ferndall nodded.While Gall tried to translate the characters, the others began to look around. Ferndall carefully went into a slightly darker part of the cave. He kept his distance from the hideous statues when he suddenly stepped on something, which made a loud crunching sound. He winced and looked down. He had stepped on a dune layer of stone which had broken under the pressure. But when he looked at the ground he noticed something else: there were several small stone pieces lying in a circle on the ground, almost as if they had fallen off something. Ferndall leaned down to take a closer look. He took one of them in his hand and examined it more closely, but he didn't notice anything unusual. When he tried to get up again he looked forward and his heart almost stopped and he stumbled backwards. The prince felt ice cold and burning hot at the same time. Adrenaline rushed through his body and his legs began to shake. Directly in front of him stood one of the statues, staring directly at him with its cold, stone eyes. The statue wasn't there before, was it? Ferndall got up and slowly walked backwards. Was he just imagining it or was the figure following him with its eyes? When Ferndall was far enough away from it, he turned around and rushed back to Gall. Who was busy noting down and translating the characters in the correct sequence in which they disappeared and reappeared.The others also seemed to have come back. Judging by their faces, however, they hadn't found anything. Marilyn asked, "Are you okay, Ferndall? You look like you've seen a ghost..." "I'm not sure, but there's something wrong with these statues..." the prince replied. "Who knows? But what is certain is that they scare the hell out of me," Marilyn said.At this moment Gall suddenly froze. "Well, that's not good" he whispered before he said out loud: "I have the answer... But you guys won't like it..." An uneasy feeling spread through Ferndall and he asked: "What does it say?" "It is a warning to those who want to enter the gate. It says:Beware the statues' vigilant might,None shall pass in life's sweet light. Face their wrath, defy their fate,Only then shall you breach the gate."At that moment the companions heard a strange scraping sound. It started in the corner, where Ferndall had found the stone pieces, and spread through the hall. No one dared to make a sound. Gall stood up, quietly drew his sword, and stepped next to Ferndall. The scraping noise now sounded like an irregular echo through the hall, and it seemed to be getting closer. Suddenly Ferndall saw a quick movement out of the corner of his eye. He reflexively turned to the shadows. The blood froze in his veins. One of the statues seemed to be running straight towards them, stopped about twenty meters in front of them and let out a horrific roar from its kelp. Which sounded like a thick glass object being dragged across a hard, flat surface. The stature was larger than the others and where the monster's heart should have been there was only a gaping hole. But in this hole Fendall could see a red stone which was floating in its chest and pulsating with a reddish glow.The scream echoed through the hall and suddenly they heard stone breaking and crumbling. A handful of statues awoke from their slumber at the call of their companion and began to free themselves from their stony shells.The friends had no chance of maintaining their formation. The stone figures pounced on them without a second's hesitation. But the one with the glowing Stone in its chest stayed at a distance and only seemed to observe the fight. One of the them attacked Ferndall. He was able to deflect the blow with his sword, but he felt his arms nearly give up. His opponent moved slowly, so Ferndall delivered a well-aimed strike directly under his chest. But his sword bounced off the other with a loud crash. The princes's attack didn't seem to have caused any major damage, just a small crack in the other's side. When his opponent attacked him again, Ferndall ducked and dodged under the other's blow. The prince, now standing behind his enemy, used all his strength to strike it in the head with the hilt of his sword. With a loud crash, the statue's head shattered and thousands of small stone fragments flew through the air. The statue collapsed to the ground. The prince could hear the others fighting against statues too.He was about to turn to the others to help them when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He dodged out of reflex, but too slowly. Ferndall felt a searing pain in his upper arm. He turned around and, like before, hit the statue's head. Its head shattered and the stone pieces trickled down on the prince. As Ferndall turned to his friends, the last of their opponents collapsed onto the ground. His companions had also quickly noticed their opponents' weak point and took advantage of it. The statue with the red glowing stone roared in frustration. Suddenly it began to twist and turn, the stone glowing brighter as it engulfed in itself in an inhuman and repulsive way. Before they could have done anything it snaps back to the way it looked before and let out the same horrifying scream as befor, only louder. It seamed like there was some kind of energie comming from it. At that moment they could see the statues beginning to come apart again. "This is their leader! He calls for them. We have to kill him!" Mary shouted. "No shit, I never would have thought that," Laxus replied ironically. Luna interrupted the two of them in a warning tone: "Concentrate or you'll regret it later! We must focus on their leader!"However, the statues that had now broken free didn't seem to be as stupid as one would expect, so they stood in formation in front of their leader and started getting closer to attack."Keep my back free. I'll take care of their leader." Ferndall said firmly. Luna argued: "Ferndall, this is far too dangerous. If something happens to you..." Ferndall interrupted Luna: "We don't have time. We're all good fighters, if we look after each other we'll be fine." Luna said nothing and tightened her grip on her sword. "We're right behind you. You can rely on us." Ray said to Ferndall, who nodded and started gathering his magic.The moment their opponents attacked, Ferndall used his magic to move behind their leader. He felt his body change from its normal shape and becoming one with the shadows. He felt the shadows like a rushing current that, contrary to their seemingly rough nature, gently embraced him and led him to his destination.His body and mind were snapped back into reality as he felt solid ground beneath his feet again. He had to orientate himself for a moment and he felt a little dizzy, which reminded him why he hadn't used this spell in a long time. Ferndall stood directly behind his target. The stature wasn't facing him, so he simply attacked it from behind before it could realize what was happening.He gave the stature a strong blow to the upper body to unbalance it, hoping that would cause it to fall. The stone figure actually stumbled, but it was able to catch itself at the last moment and suddenly turned around and faced the prince while lettting out a scraping noise that sounded like hissing. Ferndall tightened his hands around the hilt of his sword. It was obvious that the statue's weak point laid in the glowing stone therefore the prince attacked the spot, but the beeing was able to react quickly enough and hit Ferndal's blade with all its strength, which knocked it out of his hand and caused Ferndall to fall. Luckily for him, the sword didn't slip far away, but when he tried to grab it, his opponent hit him with its stony fist. It was only thanks to Ferndall's quick reflexes that he was able to roll to the side in time. The spot, where the attack had hit the ground, had big cracks. Ferndall felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he realized that this could have been his face. He jumped up and grabbed his sword again.He dodged another attack from the stature. Although the leader moved faster than the other statues, he was still slower than the prince. As it stood up, Ferndall struck at the glowing stone, narrowly missing it, but managing to slice it open slightly and a crack appeared. A wave of magical energy came from the spot that Ferndall had hit. The prince stumbled back a few steps but he was able to recover quickly and maintain his advantage. At that moment he heard the other figures behind him. He didn't dare turn around. The other figures had certainly also felt the energy that came from their leader's injury.Ferndall didn't hesitate for a second while his opponent was still weakened, he stormed towards him and with all his strength actually managed to sink his sword into the stone in his opponent's chest. An overwhelming energy suddenly flowed through the prince and he felt his entire body being thrown back. A red light shone brightly, blinding Ferndall. The leader of the stone figures exploded into thousands of small pieces. Suddenly he heard the scraping of stone behind him and he realized that the fight wasn't over yet. But when Ferndall tried to stand up, his legs gave in and his head throbed. He could only move his head and looked at the stature behind him, about to stab him with a stone sword. The prince looked at his friends for help, but they also seemed to have been affected by the magic. Suddenly Ferndall felt something he had never felt before, like an incredible magical power that filled his body with strength. With his newfound energy, he rolled to the side at the last moment and managed to avoid the attack of the stature.At the same moment, a fireball shot over his head, collided with the stature and hurled it against one of the sturdy pillars. The spell did not hit the attacker's head and only incapacitated him for a short time. But it didn't manage to stand up because a silver arrow hit it directly between its "eyes" making it collapse.Ferndall sat up carefully and looked back at his companions. Gall and Luna rushed towards him. The rest also seemed to have recovered from the previously released magic.Gall, who was holding his bow in his hand, put it aside and knelt next to Ferndall. He asked worriedly: "Are you okay?" Ferndall nodded while the blonde examined him. "Don't worry, I'm fi-" Ferndall was interrupted by a loud noise and they looked to the source of it. The previously closed gate sank into a crack in the ground and opened a view of another tunnel.They were all stunned for a brief moment. "It really worked..." Ferndall said with relief. Gall helped Ferndall get up then they slowly approached the tunnel. "I'm in favor of taking a break before we go through this," Laxus murmured. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Marilyn replied exhaustedly. The others also agreed and they set up a small camp."We should take turns keeping watch, so that we can defend ourselves if something comes out of the tunnel or if the statues come back to life." Mary said."That sounds like a good plan. I will take the first watch. You take the second watch, Ray, then Gall, Mary, Ferndall, Marelin and Laxus, you take the others." Luna explained. "Why do I always have to be last watch? That's the worst, it feels like getting up early!" Laxus complained but Luna just gave him an annoyed look. They sat down around a small fire that they had lit and began to eat the food they had brought with them for the journey.After a while, Marelin turned to Gall and said: "Hey Gall, we don't really know much about you. Why don't you tell us about yourself? Then we can get to know each other better." Gall looked at the fire and followed the flickering flames with his eyes then answered: "I can't really tell you much about myself... I have two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. They both mean everything to me, but I see them rarely..." "What about your parents?" Mary asked. "I can hardly remember my father. He disappeared a few years after my sister was born while my biological mother was pregnant with my brother. So I hardly knew him. And my biological mother died when I was twelve. My parents had never really looked after me or my siblings anyway. As a result, I never had an emotional connection with them." "I'm really sorry. You probably had a hard time taking care of your siblings..." Marelin replied. Gall looked up and smiled encouragingly at her. "Don't worry about it. It was all ages ago and besides, it always sounds worse than it actually was when I talk about it. It's really nothing special..." Ferndall felt like the elf was downplaying his past so that no one would feel sorry for him, but he could tell that what had happened back then must have been difficult for him. They continued to talk about various things and after a while they went to rest. Only Luna remained awake and Ferndall joined her. "Ferndall, you should get some rest too." she told him. "I know. But we've barely had a chance to talk in private the last few days. I wanted to make up for it." The black-haired one replied and smiled. "What do you want to talk about?" Luna asked. Ferndall crouched down next to her and asked, "What do you think of the things that happend in the last few days?" Luna sighed and replied, "Quite a lot has happened... I still don't really trust Gall, but I know that we're on the right track and that he was the one who put us on it. But I think everyone knows, that he isn't telling us everything he knows... And I'm worried about you. Those people who attacked us near the mountain path were after you and there are more of them.""I understand what you mean... I'm afraid we currently have no choice but to continue on this trail. And even if he doesn't tell us everything, Gall is really kind and he saved me multiple times. I think we can trust him." Luna nodded. "You're probably right. By the way, you did a great job with the stature." Ferndall laughed softly and said: "I hope so. Otherwise I would have risked my life for nothing." "Hey, your life is never at risk if im here, oh and Gall seems to be doing a good job at protecting you too." Luna said, smiling slightly at him. "Now really go to sleep. Otherwise you'll be tired tomorrow..."Ferndall did as he was told and went to rest like the others. Luckily for them nothing happend while they where sleeping and after Laxus watch was over they were able to head into the tunnel well rested.