Crystal Folly

Returning to Vacation

Ender began smelling fresh air from a close distance ahead of them. "We're almost out, guys!" he yelled back in excitement. Most of them were glad that they were almost to the surface, but groaned when they realized they had to go even further. "It's not too far from here, maybe about a hundred more yards or so," he shouted, trying to keep them going.

"Ender, we've been going for three hours straight. We need a break!" Luna shouted. Starmourn was barely keeping up with the rest of the group, and Taylor's white flames had almost gone out completely for those that still had them.

"I promise that this is the exit I smell this time, Luna. If it's not, I'll find something to make up for it," Ender replied. His paws were aching from walking so much, and Stella's ice wasn't helping to soothe the pain. After about a minute or two of walking, he began to see beams of afternoon sunlight through small cracks in the ceiling and the wall of dirt in front of him. I knew it! he happily thought as he began digging through the clods of dirt and stone.

"Let me at least help so you don't break your claws, Ender!" Johann yelled before running up and pulling him out of the wall with his psychic power. They both began to move huge chunks of the dirt on the bottom to have the top collapse on its own, which was somehow still floating in the air when they finished.

"Maybe it needs a bit of water," Stella began shortly before breaking the front line. She hit Ender with her two tails to get his attention, which worked, and told him, "Get ready to chuck some ice at that wall. Remember this melts on contact with new objects." Ender nodded and sat down, flicking his tails from side to side while waiting for Stella to make her ice panels.

"Wait, I see bits falling. Would it be the best idea to use spareable magic?" Taylor asked while walking towards Stella. She was in her tabby cat form, which seemed to have her completely refreshed. "If either of you two boys use any more magic, you'll exhaust yourselves. Ender, you're already at your limit, and Johann, you can't keep draining your magic like this. You'll run out eventually, and you know how long it takes to come back for you." The wall began to fall as she finished talking, at which point Ender and Johann went back into their human form, keeping the ears and tail of their previous ones.

"Never thought I'd get my sense of direction back for a while there!" Arthur happily exclaimed once he got out of the tunnel. He could tell that the majority of the group was facing east with no issues or strain on his mind. "Since we came in facing west, we definitely need to go this way to get back to where we came from," he announced to the rest of the group while pointing eastward. Smell should definitely help us find our way, too.

Stella began rolling in the snow to cool herself down in her cat form, and Taylor, now in her human form, began to walk towards Arthur. "Looks like you know the best path, so we should follow you," she suggested, knowing that he'd take the response and decide not to say anything back. By that time, Stella got out of cat form and was back in her human form. She tried keeping the cat tail, but she was unable to do it, making her look very strange with cat ears on the top of her head and dragon tails.

"Would now be a good time to see my scales?" Ender asked. His plan was to sprout his wings and look at them from the reflections on the ice or have someone tell him, but he'd first have to learn how to get them out without causing him too much pain.

"I never taught you how to make them visible. I'll explain on the way," Stella replied. It had taken her a week or two to perfect the method she preferred doing, and a week to learn how to do it, so she was certain teaching someone how to do it wouldn't be too much of an issue for her.

"Let's move, guys, we're burning daylight!" Johann yelled. This made Milo and Ender jump in surprise, and Luna began climbing a tree with low branches to survey the area directly ahead of them, which seemed to be devoid of any animals. She slid down the tree and ran to catch up to Johann, who was surprised that she wasn't tired after only getting two minutes of rest.