Met By Moonlight:

Chapter 11 : Stuffed and Alive Part2

I woke up with my head laying on Ciri's lap and I was extremely startled. She looked at me and started to laugh saying, "Easy brave warrior, it's over, the threat is gone" and laughed uncontrollably. I stand up and I look at her puzzled and I ask her what happened.

When she finally gained control over her laughter she looked at me and said, 

"After you touched the door's nob, you yanked back your hand and stared at a cut on your finger. You turned around, looking puzzled and yelled for me to look out! That's where you started running at the stuffed animals, as if they were alive and contracted threats you needed to take care of and as if they would certainly kill your Ciri. You slashed at them with both your werewolf and sword and right after you slashed the last animal, you walked to the middle of the room, and fainted. I immediately came to your aid and healed up your head that you hit on the floor and now we're here."

I stood up still puzzled and Ciri was looking at me with a smile, trying hard not to laugh again and then told me that she won't mention this to anyone, but... I'm never hearing the end of this, and she gives me a cute little smirk. I smell my finger and it has some sort of mushroom like scent, sort-of like a scent I use to clear out rat-like creatures' nests, that cause them to start attacking their own nests and eventually evacuating.

The room was trashed, huge burned and sliced stuffed bears and wolfs and every other stuffed animal in the room, all over the place and I look at Ciri saying, "Well, at least I did a great job at it."  and we walk back to the door. Ciri trying extremely hard not to burst out laughing.

Ciri points at the markings on the wall next to the door, telling me that we've just passed some sort of test. The hallucinating is part of it and only a worthy warrior or adventurer will ever be able to complete this test of the mind, to keep their head and not get killed in their own illusions. 

I walk up to the door and this time it opens as I approach it and it leads into a very narrow corridor, with a strange green glow at the end of it. Ciri keeps behind me and I keep my weapon ready for whatever comes out and tries to harm us. 

This cave is by far one of the strangest caves I have ever been in, with both dark and light sides, serious and comical areas, warm and cold and it has definitely brought me and My Ciri even closer than we ever thought possible. We near the end of the corridor and waiting for us is a giant chest with something bright inside of it.

I open it and a palm size amulet is laying there, staring at us with its green glow and whatever I did, it would not let me touch it. It moved around and passed around my hand and eventually it floated out of the chest and lands on the wall to our left. The wall starts to fade away, and the amulet falls onto the ground, allowing me to pick it up. Behind the wall is another room and had a book inside of it and Ciri being crazy about books, went straight to it and started to read it.

It was English, fully understandable and told us that the amulet has another small part in the back of the book and has the ability to fade away illusions cast by any mage or entity. The assembly has to be done in a warm area in a cave and that's where we were heading now. There was a page with a warning on it, but it was ripped and we couldn't make out much of it.

We came back to the stuffed creature room and it looked entirely different. It was a bland cave area, and that's it, but it was warm in there. I take the amulet and give it to Ciri and she uses some spell to combine the part at the back of the book with the amulet and it started to glow even brighter green and emitted a horrible screeching sound and then silent...

It suddenly explodes into a huge green ball of light, slamming me and Ciri into the cave walls. My ears were ringing and somehow the amulet was hanging around my neck. I search for Ciri between the debris and saw her lifeless body laying next to a burned out book.

I rushed to her, calling out for her, but no response, not even a slight movement and eventually I make my way to her. I crouch down to her and hold her to my lap, while the cave starts to explode further with magma like veins on its walls and her body is ice, but a slow pulse can be felt. I drag her into a smaller area, which seemed to be safe from debris and place her there. I turn my head back and a giant piece of rock smashed into my face and after a few seconds, I completely lost my consciousness...