[Trade] Cave monster (rites of strength)

Together Barassik and Anvin make their way through the labyrinth they have been traveling through for hours. Their legs hurt and they just want to take a break, but they do not trust these tunnels, not one bit. The monsters that can be lurking around any corner have them continuing on their journey, even though they feel like they could collapse any second. The labyrinth stretches for miles and miles, and it is their job to make their way out of it, so far they have not been doing too great of a job. It has been a lot of arguing and wondering which way they should go. 

Anvin is convinced they are going the wrong way, and has tried to convince Barassik of it many times, but it has not worked yet. He does not listen and just keeps on walking. He snarls softly and gives up. He can only hope Barassik is right and that they are going the right way. 

The tunnels sometimes stretch for a mile before they reach another split corridor. They are standing in front of one right now. Deciding which way to go. Only at this point even Barassik seems lost. The Kelpie is hopelessly looking around. He does not know which way they have to take. 

Anvin is sure that he sees light coming from the tunnel on their left. ‘’That way’’ He says ‘’I see light there, I am sure of it’’ He says. He does not wait for Barassik to answer and just walks inside. He picks up his pace, hoping that what he sees is really the light from outside. His subconsciousness tells him they are still way too deep underground for that, but it does not dim his hope fully. He also swears he hears water drops drip down onto the ground, he stays focused on that sound.

Barassik follows him through the tunnel. ‘’Are you sure?’’ He asks the kelpie in front of him. In return Anvin nods and keeps looking forward. ‘’I am sure that I saw light’’. He replies to him. Barassik trusts him, he thinks. He does not know the kelpie in front of him very well, and he has not talked much to him. He thinks of him as a weird stranger, that he can not seem to read very well. It makes him a bit on edge, but he knows very well that Anvin also wants to find the way out badly, which gives them a common goal. That is the only reason he trusts the mysterious Kelpie in front of him. 

Slowly the tunnel starts to light up in blue, and the kelpies look at one another, clearly surprised. They hurry forward and enter a big open space. The kelpies stop walking and look around, amazed about the sight they see. The water glows a bright blue, and almost seems alive. It is like no pool they have every seen before. Water drips from the ceiling onto the stone mossy floor underneath them, it is the only sound they hear apart from the soft rippling of the water. When they look up they see the whole ceiling glowing. It almost looks like they are in space with the glow worms hanging on the ceiling, they are totally enamored by it. A small unkept path leads over the water, it curls around in circles and leads to the other side of the pond. It looks like a real fairytale in the cave, and the kelpies both need to take a moment to take it all in. They almost can not believe their eyes. It is just too much to take in at once. 

Slowly they start to walk forward again. Barassik is in utter confusion. This almost seems to pretty to be real. He almost starts to think that he is hallucinating. The place surely looks like a dream, so it could be that he just fell asleep while making their journey and this is just his dream. Walking through the place feels almost surreal. The water ripples softly, and his gaze is drawn to it. ‘’Do you think this water is safe to swim in?’’ He asks Anvin. 

Avin looks over at him like he has lost his mind, but does not react. He also feels the pull but knows better than to just jump in there. 

After a moment they start to hear something. Bubbles, and a muffled sound. Both of the kelpies look over at the water to their right and squint their eyes to see what made the sound. They see a distorted form in the water. Slowly it becomes a bit more clearer, and it looks like a drowning Drakiri. Barassiks eyes widen instantly and he jumps in the water, not thinking another second about it. He just jumps to action. 

Anvin looks up and thinks about it for a second. He was sure they were in here alone. The sound also just.. appeared. They must have seen the Drakiri earlier. He instantly goes in alert mode and curses at the kelpie that acted so reckless. He watches him swim towards the Drakiri, that appears to be drowning. The blue of the water almost seems to cling to the air now, blue sparkles flying everywhere around them. ‘’Come back’’ He snarls at Barassik. But he hears nothing.

Suddenly the Drakiri just disappears, and the reflection of it starts to shift into that of an enormous, hideous creature. Barassik also seems to see the new creature in the water and slowly stops swimming. He looks at it with fear in his eyes, he is terrified, and out in the water with the monster. Anvin snarls. ‘’Swim back!’’ But the kelpie seems to be frozen in the water. 

He takes a second to decide what he will do, and then jumps into the water. He swims toward Barassik as fast as he possibly can. His breathing goes ten times faster and his muscles hurt, after the long journey and fast swimming. He is just able to reach him before the monster does. He slaps him in the face to try and get him to unfreeze. But it does not work. The monster reaches them and Anvin is just quick enough to push them both out of the monsters path in time. 

Barassik finally seems to come out of his trance and looks over at Anvin, he is terrified. ‘’Swim, you moron!’’ Anvin shouts and starts to swim back to the safe ground. They both start to swim as fast as they can, which is not as fast as normal, after the long walk they already had. Anvin looks back for a split second and sees the monster closing in on them again. 

Barassik nears the path in the middle of the cave and tries to clim onto it. Anvin has to give him a small push up, since the ledge to climb on is quite high. When Barassik turns back to give Anvin a hand he sees the kelpie get pulled under water by the monster. He is just able to hear a small muffles scream for the kelpie before he disappears into the darkness, where even the light from the pool does not reach.

Anvin frantically tries to claw his tail free. The monster has it in between its teeth and seems not ready yet to let him go. He knows this might be his end if he does not get free, so he tries again, and again. He uses all of his energy to try and claw free. After a few tries he finally seems to get a good hit with his claws on the creature’s head. He sees blood flowing from its head, and he takes this as his moment to stomp the thing a few times, until it finally lets go from his tail. 

Anvin instantly starts to swim to the surface, with all of his leftover energy. After a moment he sees the light from above and Barassik’s head looking into the pool. He looks back and sees the glowing eyes of the creature behind him, chasing him. He picks up his pace, and feels his muscles almost giving out. He suddenly reaches the surface and gets instantly hauled up onto the dry land by Barassik. ‘’ Damn you, I almost jumped in after you’’. He grumbles to Anvin. 

They get the scare of their lives when the creature jumps high out of the water and flies into their exact direction. It slams on the ground where they just had been standing. They jumped out of the way just in time. They see the creature bite in their direction, but it looks out of breath. Struggling, to breathe. 

They look at one another and circle around the creature, trying to distract it from both sides, so it will not think as much about going back into the water again. It seems to work, by the time the creature is almost completely out of breath, they lured it too far away from the water for it to be able to return. The creature slowly dies, with the sparkling glowing blue lights flying around it.

Anvin and Barassik looks at eachother in amazement. They actually fought this creature, and survived. They might be able to get out of here after all, if they just work together.