Who knows what's in store?

[Tobias]

Tobias lept from stalagtite to stalagmite...just barely getting away from the Gorm. Each time, he felt the beast brush against his body, the scales feeling hard and sturdy. Landing on the ground, He had a changce to breath...the beast wasn't to be seen. It was at the last moment that Tobias lept ot the left out of nowhere, and the beast burst out of the ceiling and drove it's head deep into the earth underneath, wedging itself tightly in the ground

[Therin]

OOC: Tobs...The gorm still has Damion pinned to the ground.

[Tobias]

OOC: Whoops

Just pretend what i did was with Lews actually pinned to the ground by the litlte ugly I dunno...make something up

[Musashi]

OOC: Or I could just delete it and let you try again Tobs.

[Tobias]

*OOC: ive lost that creative touch now though...how bout we pretend that it didnt happen?

[Therin]

Nope. Here's what happened.

Tobias leapt nimbly out of the way as the gorm's head crashed down again. The beast was undeniably huge...He backed away farther, just out of reach, to tempt it into motion and free Damion from its grip. He waved his massive broadsword about casually in an attempt to make the gorm go for him, but no such luck, the massive head reared back, and simply regarded him quietly. Those eyes...bleach-white, they were, and frighteningly huge...The poor thing. Tobias felt his own eyes fall slowly shut in sympathy...

The dark head rocketed forward, blindingly quick and frightenignly silent, unseen by its new prey...

OOC: Tobias, it won't move any farther than that, no matter what you do. It's not a stupid thing. It's old beyond years, and it's very smart. It's got one snack locked down, and it's fighting off another, but it's not going to release on to go for another. It knows better than that. Find another way to continue the fight.

[Tobias]

OOC: ok...i gots me an idea then...

The beast would go for him...so he went for it. He dashed forwards, taking his sword and hurling it forwards towads the beast

[Therin]

With frightening speed and agility, the gorm snatched the sword out of the air with its massive jaws. Then whipped its head back, sending the sword streaking straight up to embed itself in the ceiling, before returning its baleful blind stare once again to this persistent nuisance. However, its attention wavered suddenly to the left, centering on a new voice which entered the area.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!"

Airius gave the gorm no time to react, calling upon Aftershock as soon as he saw the thing's head turn. Suddenly, he was surrounded by energy, pulsating, blasting the entire cavern with harsh, blinding light. The gorm reared up on its hind legs and roared, a mind-numbing, ear-splitting screech of agony as its eyes burned horribly in the unnatural light. Musashi, standing behind a column, was blinded as well, but his spell was already complete. Damion and Tobias screwed their eyes shut, alerted by the urgency in the priest's voice, but the powerful light burned through their eyelits, turning their vision bright red and painful. The silvery sphere, dyed white by the omnipresent light, floated up from Musashi's hands, increasing to the size of a basketball. Then it shot out from behind the column, expanding as it hurtled toward the dark worm, until it connected.

The sphere, now much larger, stopped, surrounding the gorm's head. Silence fell. The gorm stopped moving and lowered its head to examine the area with its magical senses, taking stock of the three lifeforms and-

And nothing. The silver ball vanished, suddenly and completely, leaving nothing above the dripping neck of the beast. The head had been removed from time entirely, and thus from existance. As the light faded, the gorm collapsed to the ground with a thump, spilling darkly lustrous blood across the floor of the chamber. Damion, having rolled to the side as soon as he felt the weight leave his chest, felt the thump through the floor as the immense weight of the huge beast hit the ground. He picked himself carefully to his feet and opened his eyes tentatively. Blackness. He could see nothing, would be able to see nothing for hours, at least, if not more.

Musashi collapsed, his eyes solid white, burned sightless.

Tobias, still standing, called his sword back to him and, confidently, walked into a column and sat down hard.

Reverend Airius wandered tiredly off in the direction from which he sensed the time magic emerge, hoping to find Musashi in time to heal the elemental, should his cry have gone unheard so far away.

---------------

When Damion opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by an encampment. Cooking fires glowed dimly outside his tent, and the soft murmurs and occasional raucous laughter could be heard, denoting soldiers at leisure. Damion rose from the bedding to his feet, feeling his sandals make contact somewhat woozily with the hard cavern floor. Carefully, he stepped forward and parted the flaps of the tent. A guard stood to his left. The guard's back was to the tent, but he turned at the rustle of hide.

"Oh! Glad to see you awake, sir. His Highness will be pleased as well."

"Thank you. Where is he, if you know?"

"He is resting currently, sir, but I can have someone leave a message for him when he wakes if you like."

"I appreciate the offer, but no, don't worry His Highness. Instead, where can I find the priest, Reverend Origen?"

"I believe he'll just be checking up on Sir Daigo right about now. Shall I take you to him?"

"No, thank you, directions will suffice. And then you may abdicate your post. I am recovered enough to look after myself now, although I appreciate your, or the Prince's, thoughts."

"Fourth down the row to your left. Thank you, sir." The soldier watched Damion step slowly through the gloom toward the indicated tent before turning and meandering off through the rest of the camp.

Damion parted the tentflaps silently and strode into the tent. Airius did not look up, did not even react, absorbed in his work as he was. Damion waited in the gloomy tent until the priest finished replacing a bandage over Musashi's eyes and began to stand before speaking.

"How is he?"

Reverend Origen whipped around, lurching the rest of the way to his feet, before relaxing with recognition. "Oh! Mod's favor, Damion, I nearly jumped out my skin! Did your father never teach you to knock?"

Damion raised an eyebrow and casually reached back to bat the inside of the tentflap with the back of his hand. The resulting whap was nearly inaudible over the background noise of the camp. When Airius finished rolling his eyes, Damion spoke again.

"You're tense."

The priest paused, then nodded thoughtfully. "Something is wrong."

"With him?" Damion nodded toward the prone figure in the rear of the tent.

Airius shook his head. "Something is wrong with this place. I sense something...chaotic. I have told no one, but I know that Musashi sensed it as soon as we came here, and I must assume that Tobias senses the same thing by now." He repeated himself then, his voice pitched so low as to be barely audible, "Something is very wrong with this place."

Damion nodded thoughtfully. "And how is he?" he asked, indicating the prone time elemental again.

"His sight will return, but he won't be at peak for a good month." said Airius pensively, following Damion's gaze, "He should be able to see well enough to move in a few hours, but the longer he keeps his eyes open, the more he will delay the healing process. Ideally, I would keep him this way for the next week and a half at least, more probably two, and that would do it, but I know your desire to continue, so I leave it up to you."

"Thank you. Do you know where I might find Tobias?"

"Probably somewhere being alone. You know how he is."

"Indeed. Thank you, Reverend, again. You saved my life, all of our lives. I hope I can repay you for it someday."

The priest smiled encouragingly, speaking words of quiet assurance, "It is what I do, young one. I do it for my faith, and my fellow man. No debt is incurred."

Damion shrugged, gave Airius a look that said, "You know I'm going to ignore that," and turned back out of the tent to go looking for the fourth member of the group.

---------------

Tobias, as predicted, was off by himself; the only way Damion found him was by following the flashes of silvery light which burst sporadically across the massive cavern. The reclusive elemental was feverishly executing a practice routine. As Damion rounded a column, bringing the ageless warrior into full view, a spectacular explosion of sparks blasted upward, temporarily blinding him. Blinking to clear his vision, he dimly percieved Tobias walking back to the edge of what, for lack of a better term, could be called a clearing, to begin his attack anew.

Damion tried to get the warrior's attention, yelling, "Tobs! Hey, TOBIAS!!!"

No response. The elemental was too absorbed in what he was doing. He started forward, gaining speed toward a powerful steamrolling charge. His massive broadsword came round behind his head, preparing for a heavy overhead strike. Damion started forward on his own. He had to stop this madness, or the thunder warrior would blind himself permanently. No fooling around here; Damion accelerated to top speed as quickly as he could, legs pumping hard, sturdy sandals pounding the hard stone, kicking up pebbles in his wake as he blasted toward the other man. The caltaka slipped smoothly from his back to his expert hands, coming around from the left.

With a sizzling crash, the two weapons collided. Tobias' blade was knocked out of its deadly downward arc, and he stumbled to his left. Damion allowed the momentum of his heavy weapon to carry him in a full turn, bringing it round again to catch the huge broadsword just in time. The ageless elemental had recovered with astonishing alacrity, and there was something in his eyes as they stared over the locked weapons. Something...chaotic, restless, like a caged wolverine thrashing to get out. Damion felt a shiver run down his spine, causing his wings to shift restlessly of their own volition. He gave Tobias a wary look and spoke softly across the space where their weapons rested against eachother.

"...Tobias...it's me. Damion. Remember me?"

Anything else he could have said was cut off suddenly, as the elemental exploded forward without warning, blasting Damion from his feet. The caltaka rolled across the ground, out of reach. Damion rolled toward it, but came up short against the massive broadsword as it slammed into the ground by his neck. Damion looked up, into those restless, violent eyes again as the elemental drew back the blade for a killing blow, and knew he would probably die within the next few seconds unless he could bring Tobias back to himself.

The sword shrieked downward, screaming with violence as it ripped the air asunder in its deadly descent, falling to kill an imagined enemy. At the last second, the blade froze, caught near its tip between the angelic warrior's powerful hands. Damion gritted his teeth, struggling mightily against the astonishing strength behind the blade. Suddenly, it stopped. Damion relaxed, removed his hands slowly, warily. The tip of the blade hovered mere inches above his wide eyes. His eyes in turn met those of the man above him. And they were, again, his eyes, golden pools, infinitely deep, filled with lurking horrors, but contained. The raging wolverine was at rest. Damion opened his mouth again.

"Tobias?"

The other man withdrew his blade suddenly, whipping it up and over his shoulder and into its customary position, where it remained while the hand that had held it moments ago in a killing strike now reached down to help Damion to his feet. After he had retrieved his caltaka, Damion turned back to the elemental, questions floating in his eyes, and let them out through his mouth.

"Tobias, what was that, back there? What happened to you?"

The elemental met Damion's eyes again, and in them was a haunted quality which had not been there before, a sense of consciously holding the wolverine in check. "That...was me. Now you've met the man behind the rumors. Not a pretty sight, was it?"

"Then...why did you stop?"

"Because, even though I didn't, once you touched her, Eden knew it was you."

"Eden...?"

In answer, Tobias reached back and grasped the hilt of the huge broadsword, a touch almost like that of a lover. "Eden...is a part of me, you might say. An extension, in a way, of myself."

Damion paused, considering this thoughtfully. Then more important matters drew themselves once again to his attention, and he asked the question he had wandered all the way out here to ask.

"Tobias, do you feel anything...strange? About this place, I mean."

The elemental looked at Damion in surprise. "You feel it too? I thought you had no magic."

"I don't, I'm just going by what Airius told me. And Musashi before him. And...my father, way back aboard the Lauralee. Can you give me a rough direction on it?"

"Oh, I can do better than that, Damion. I'll show you exactly where it is. Come."

[Therin]

Thus ends "Who knows what's in store?"

The story is continued here.