The Last Guardian

Three

It felt like ages before I began to feel consciousness return to me again, but when I did, the first thing that happened was I heard the croon of the beast above me. Afraid it was going to attack me, I kept my eyes shut as I felt Trico lower his head closer to me. I pictured his fangs glimmering in the night just before he striked and had to fight to keep in a frightened shiver as I waited for him to attack. But to my surprise, the only thing he did was gently nudge my shoulder with his nose and croon some more. 

I felt him sniffing me intently and then decided it was safe to open my eyes. With a soft grunt, I sat up slowly, stirring Trico into what seemed like a series of relieved noises. I rose to my feet and stood up, just being tall enough for my head to be level with his snout. We stared at each other for a moment and he crooned again, a happy whine mixed in with the noises. With a couple more growls, he rose to his full height again, reminding me I had removed the spear in his shoulder that had prevented him from standing. 

He sat down on his haunches and began to scratch his neck like a dog infested with flees. It was then I noticed that he had armor covering his neck and half of his head, and it looked like he was desperately trying to get it off of him. He looked very uncomfortable, so I ran around to his side and began to climb up his leg, glancing at the blood-covered feathers that were now red instead of their grey color. When Trico felt me on his back, he immediately stood up and rumbled in confusion, turning his head the best he could to watch me. I hesitated in my movements to not stress him out, then continued on my way to his neck. 

When close enough, I caught sight of a lever on the back of his neck. It was identical to the one that had opened the gate when I was getting barrels for Trico. Steadying myself, I grabbed the handle of the lever and then tugged with all my might, watching as the armor creaked and slowly split apart. 

"There. Is that better?" I asked him aloud, hopping off his neck onto the ground below. He sat back down again and crooned happily, beginning to shake his fur as if he were a dog who had just come out of the water. I noticed he still had a helmet on and was about to climb up him again when he lifted his back leg and began to scratch at it. After a couple scratches, the helmet detached from his head and clattered to the ground below. 

"Et-yo!" I called for him, grabbing his attention. He turned towards me and strolled over, staring me down and crooning to show his gratefulness. I took this time to fully take in the sight of him, from his juvenile wings to the undeveloped horns on the top of his head. The beast lowered his head down to be level with me and I laughed at this, reaching my hand out and beginning to pet his nose, making him purr in satisfaction. 

"So that's what you look like!" I exclaimed, continuing to pet his nose. "Pleased to meet you, Trico!" He whined happily as I pet him and then pulled his head away, walking over a rocky pedestal and to the side of the cave, taking in his surroundings. I used the time I had to quickly begin to search for a way out, knowing we couldn't stay here forever. My searches led me to an opening that led directly out of the cave and to another path. I called Trico and he followed after me as we headed into the next room. 

The first thing we both noticed was a barrel sitting atop a high ledge. Trico crooned in interest and I began to think of a way I could get up there, before suddenly getting the idea that I could jump up on him and jump off. So I did just that, and in no time, I had retrieved the barrel and was holding it in front of Trico, whose eyes were now white yet again. I dropped it onto the ground and he immediately went after it, gobbling it up and chomping it to bits. There was a hole behind me that seemed just big enough for me to crawl through and I was curious to where it led, so I squeezed in and did the military crawl until I got into a wider tunnel. 

Able to stand up now, I followed the trail of light mixed with dust until I squeezed through a tight spot and stepped into another room. The first thing I was met with was cold, cold air, and then the sight of everything in the room completely covered in marble-colored ice. 

(Yes, that is a screenshot from JackSepticEye's play through since I'm using his for references.) 

Shivering in the frosty air, I immediately looked around for anything significant in the room. My eyes fell upon what seemed to be a large, frozen mummy tomb looking object.

I ran over to the tomb-like thing and hopped on top of it, the ice cold underneath my soles. I shivered and ran to the front of the object as something shiny caught my eye. When I picked it up, I fought out that it was a mirror... and if I picked it up just the right way, light would bounce off of it and illuminate whatever was in front of me. 

This mirror, with its mysterious light...

It was made from a substance I had never seen before.

It seemed important. 

I decided to... borrow it for a little while.