Dark Earth (Male Reader)

20: Stones

"(Y/N)?... What is it?"

You don't have a good answer, or even a bad one for that matter. The floating cluster of stones moves slowly around the tiny cave, bumping up into the walls and flickering with green energy. You step towards it slightly, trying to figure it out. There's a connection between it and you. Something extra that bonds your soul to it. You can feel it. It's thinking.

"I don't know," you say to Dim as she stands behind you. "I can't..."

There's a sharp pain in your head. Dim moves up behind you, placing her hand on your back. Her touch makes you calm down a little, but the ringing in your ears still persists. You glance up at the rock formation, watching it drift around. After a few moments, it slowly comes to a stop in front of you. The energy flickers as a small cluster on its side reaches out towards you. Instinctively, you raise your hand, touching it. There are words in your head now, words that weren't there before or ones that you can understand.

"(Y/N)? What's the matter?"

"I think... it's trying to talk to me..."

"Well, you did just create it. Can you understand it?"

"No... there're these noises and pictures. I feel like I've seen them before, but not really... I can't remember..."

The cave around you suddenly shakes. A loud wail echoes through the mountains, blasting over the peaks and out into the wasteland. Dim straightens up quickly and rushes to the cave entrance, searching around.

"I think the Mountain Lurker is getting angrier. We have to go soon."

"I don't know if won't follow us out. I can't seem to hurt it, and I don't think we can escape without being spotted," you say.

"What're we going to do?" Dim asks, panicking slightly. "Can't you focus your power on it?"

"I did that. I got this fifth ring, but all it did was..."

You stop and look back at the shining figure. The stones in the air remain motionless next to you. If it had eyes, you bet they'd be cute. It's probably look up at you like an innocent child at its parent. An idea comes into your head, one that you don't necessarily agree with, but you don't have much in the way of options at this point.

You reach out and touch the floating rocks. Copying the way it put images into your head, you try and put pictures into it. Small waves of energy pulse out into it through your hand. Suddenly the words in your head start to grow clearer, but not clear enough so you could easily understand them. That's probably going to take some time.

The rocks suddenly move. They spin around in the air and hover next to your feet. The creature you made, whatever it is, seems to have gotten your message. It moves around a little before going towards the mouth of the cave. It scoots by Dim and quickly heads up the path, scrambling up the rocky sides of the hills. You come up to Dim and take her hand as the area around you starts to fill up with the mist.

"Alright. Let's get going before it's over."

"What's over? What is the rock thing doing?"

"It's going to help us," you answer, pulling her along.

The Mountain Lurker stumbles over one of the dead peaks and spots you both running down the hill. It lets out another cry before giving chase, however, something suddenly rams up against one of its many hands. The numerous eyes on its body shift down to look at what had caused the disturbance. The stone life form rushes out, charging at the cluster of eyes nearest to it. Aiming the sharper end of its hard body at it, it stabs as many of the creatures eyes it can. The fleshy eyes aren't damaged, but that still doesn't hide that fact that it hurt. The monster roared and moved back, recoiling after the hit.

The other eyes on its body moved and focused on it, leaving you an opening. You try to focus on what you see. The base of the mountain, or at least you hope so. You push energy out into the space around as everything starts to grow wavy. Along with that, something new pops up. The second ring tattoo on your wrist starts to glow. You can feel your control over your powers strengthen. You're about to finish when something crashes into the hills above you, sending a small but dangerous rockslide down towards you and Dim. She cowers back, but you react quickly. Raising your left hand, the second hand dims and the third lights up. The stones start to shimmer and fall on top of you, melting down into a harmless liquid. Dim looks around at what caused the avalanche.

The body of the Mountain Lurker is so long that it had crashed into the sides of the mountain while it was still focused on the rock creature. You pull Dim future down the path as it continues to distract the huge beast. As you and Dim run down the path, everything seems different. The world looks the same on the surface, but you're able to see beneath that now. Whatever the rock had told you had changed you. You know something, but you can't figure out what. However, this is no time to be thinking about it with the biggest Lurker ever still close by.

"Is the exit up ahead?" you yell out to Dim.

"Almost! I think it's in a few turns! Take the right path here!"

As you turn and continue on, the rocks continue to fight against the Mountain Lurker. It's attacks aren't doing any damage, but that's fine. You know that nothing you're currently capable of is able to stop the enormous monster. All you need is a distraction. You also know that the Mountain Lurker won't stop till it finishes off the offender. You and the rock both know that it's a suicide mission, but didn't care. It wanted to help you more than anything. You feel a pang in your chest. You're not sure what it is. You have a connection to the strange living stones, a brief one, but one nonetheless. You're sad about losing it.

The Mountain Lurker charges forward, cornering the rocks between more rocks. It stands back, looking up at. It feels that you're moving out of the mountains, safe and out of the monsters territory. It's job is over, and it feels good about that. A dark shadow is cast over it as a large hand comes crashing down, killing it quickly. You can feel it snap away, vanishing from your head. The words it left are still there, but the source is gone. You grit your teeth as Dim pushes through fog into the open wasteland, the end of the mountains.

"There... we're out..."

"Good," you say slowly, looking forward with a steely gaze.

Dim walks up, putting her arm around yours. You sigh and hold her hand, feeling the warm skin on yours.

"Alright... Let's get going to the tower."

You walk off, heading away from the mountains. The creature moves up to look at you. It can't leave the mountain. It failed. Letting out one last cry that echoed down the valleys, it hopes that you will meet your end soon.