Chapter Twelve - EniM

  Ok so, first thing? Scales on cold stone? No problem, totally comfy. +1 for scales.

  Second thing? Dark vision, which is like… being able to see in pitch blackness, only in black and white, but still! So… +2.

  Keats’ panting breaths echo all around us, mingling with the occasional gust of wind and dripping of water from the rocks above. The cave is, well… It’s a cave. Not even a very big one. I look around, and… rocks. Rocks and moss. Rocks and moss and snow.

  I send some dev notes back to Syn in my head about proper starting locations before getting to my feet. As I move I jostle my jacket, which the Not-Goddess had so kindly resized to fit my new form, causing a burst of orange light to appear for a moment before disappearing again.

  I let out a surprised squawk, a sound I am surprised to hear myself make, and after feeling around at my jacket, I reach into my inner pocket, and pull out the geode my brother gave me. The once inert crystal now shining a void-orange-light, and… is there a core moving around in there? It’s hard to tell as the chaotic movement of the light inside is… almost… hypnotic in its rhythmic pulsation.

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  I can feel some sort of energy field around it rise and fall with each pulse, making the geode feel more and more like a breathing, living thing.

  It was actually a little too bright, the inner-light-thing throwing shadows everywhere and honestly just made seeing the rest of the cave kinda difficult. So I carefully place the geode back in my jacket pocket and do up the buttons. Patting the thing, safe, snug, and thoroughly leaving it in the ‘for later Ero to deal with’ camp of things.

  A howling rageful scream tears through the cave, crashing all around us, coming from somewhere up ahead. My scales ripple, feeling somehow jagged and vulnerable at the same time, as sounds of clashing steel and snarling battle follow and join the scream.

  Fuck. Ok. ok. Ok. ok. Ok. ok…. So I just need to like… Go down there and fight… monsters…

  My whole body shakes as I try to get it to move, to force myself down the tunnel. Fuck… I… I got this… Syn wouldn’t have sent me here just to die… I must be able to do this… I… am not moving.

  I reach down and grab my leg, pulling at it, trying to make it walk forward… Gods! Ok so, turns out facing actual monsters is way funner with a screen between you! I… Oh shit, If I don’t hurry the wolf-crow guy might die! COME ON!

  Keats growls, lowers himself into a ready stance, and leaps, his claws etching lines into the stones he bounds off of as he heads down the tunnel.

  SHIT! Ok! FINE!

  I run after him.