(Author's note: I own Freya in this story, this is the only character I own. The others were all submitted in a gift art thread in Symprites!)
Moonlight glimmered across the water's form, sparkling down the liquid pillar into the basin below. Shadows crept in every corner, towering when connected to the pillars. Dusk had since passed, any remains of the orange sunlight sunken below the ocean's edge. Typically white stone was stained gray with the lack of light, plants creeping up and stretching out to whatever light they could grasp at. Wind whistled within the gaps, eerily singing in the silence, passing by the group of symprites clambering up the tower.
Red hair flowed behind a pale face, salt-licked air weaving between the strands. Black tears dripped down the face of the Symprite, droplets flying on the wind until they disappeared from sight towards the dark night. Freya, our red haired symprite, carefully stepped up the white stone with her rounded hooves. Wings fluttered around as the harsh wind was powerful enough to push her tail around, carefully holding the heart at the end of her tail in her clawed hands to stop the appendage from smacking her teammates. A bag hung by her waist, carrying multiple supplies with her.
Behind Freya stood a glowing Symprite, radiating a soft, green glow across the darkened space. Black fur spanned the most of her body, splashes of green, pink and blues patterning the rest of her fur. Dragging across the floor behind her, her black hair trailed the stone like a veil. Her glowing hooves graced the stone in fast paces as Flux trotted up the stone with a joyful jog. The spire after all opens so rarely, these symprites being lucky enough to witness this miracle.
The last symprite of the group stood a little afar, hazel eyes staring cautiously across the cracks in the stones. Heart shaped hooves tapped across the flat parts of the stones, mimicking the steps of the two symprites ahead of him. Clutching his long tail within his bionic arm, the fluffy, cedar coloured limb still pooled across the smoothened ground. Wynter cautiously stepped up the spire, staying at the back of the group due to investigating his surroundings.
As Freya's hooves tapped against the stone, she stepped up and peered at the sight ahead of her with her blue eyes. Red shimmered at the edge of her iris, staring curiously at the sight in front of her. Glancing up, the winged symprite noticed the water pooling down infinitely from one of the windows out of sight. Looking down, Freya noticed the water pooling into a basin lined with white stairs. Noting that the entire building was created from a similar stone, she pondered what material this could have been. Crouching down, Freya reached a clawed hand out towards a white rock on the floor.
Before her claws could grasp the rock, a hand quickly grasped her wrist and pulled the hand away quickly. Leaning her head upwards to stare at the Symprite that grabbed her, Freya apathetically stared at Wynter who shook his head. "We should limit what we touch" Wynter commented, letting go of her arm after Freya nodded her head. Whilst this interaction was happening, Flux had snuck ahead of the two to stare down into the water.
The suspiciously perfect water glimmered, reflecting the blue glow coming from Flux's coral antenna's. Green eyes stared down in awe at the perfect surface, reaching one hand out to disturb the water's surface. Like how Freya got interrupted, Flux's arm was grabbed quickly by Wynter as a warning. After all, the three were not sure where the water was coming from. Flux pouted softly but shook Wynter's hand off her wrist, staring at the water one more time before backing away from the pool.
Freya cleared her throat and placed her bag down, peering inside to see what supplies were remaining after the sail here. Glancing up at the darkness of the area surrounding them, Freya turned her head towards Flux. "Flux, do you still have your glow sticks?" She asked, her tone generally flat as she thought through things. Flux quickly dove into her bag and withdrew three glow stick wristbands from her back. "I have these three"
Pushing her wrist out towards Flux, Freya allowed her to click the pink glow band around her wrist. Turning her head towards Wynter, Flux gave pleading eyes to the gruff man until he allowed her to also attack a glow stick to his wrist. The three Symprites now had a soft glow against their wrists, lighting up the area slightly but should make the investigation of this area easier. Beyond what the three could see, budded plants started to twirl their way towards the group within the shadows.
Clacking of hooves echoed from the darkness, Wynter getting on guard quickly. Dropping his tail against the stone with a thud, his bionic hand grasped the handle of the sword inside the saddlebag he brought with him. Freya cautiously stared towards the darkness while Flux decided to throw the third band towards the darkness, watching as it caught onto something. As the glow stick spun around before settling down, the three could see the face of another Symprite who seems perturbed by the glow stick.
Reaching up with plated talons, the new Symprite held the glow stick with an unimpressed look across his face. Black fur spanned across his body, light reflecting from the blue scales across his neck. His tail scraped across the floor, ridges from the unstable biote catching the small cracks against the smooth stone below. Clearing his throat, the dark symprite spoke as he stepped into the dim moonlight more. "Name's Kyther, I see you are new to the spire".
Getting up from the bag on the floor, Freya stretched her legs and scanned around Kyther. "What supplies do you have?" She stated, ignoring his introduction as she wanted to know what use to the group he could be. Flux quickly interjected, pointing between the symprites. "The one with the red hair is Freya, Wynter is the fluffy brown one and my name is Flux!" After introducing themselves and the group looking between the supplies, Freya sighed.
"There's not enough water between us all" She stated quite flatly, staring at the measly one bottle filled bottle remaining inside the bag. Noting the empty bottles within the bag and seeing the medical kit that Kyther brought with, Flux stared towards the suspiciously perfect water flowing. Gracefully taking steps towards the water flowing, Flux pointed out "We could try this water! It seems to go through a filter system" She guessed, pointing at the fact the water level did not change even as more water flowed.
Before anyone could stop her, Flux took a handful of the shimmery water within her hand and tipping the water into her mouth. Freya stood, surprised that Flux would dare try the water but understanding the general thought flow. However, she did watch the Symprite intensely to see weather she was poisoned or if the water tasted bad. Minus the slight cough she first did, Flux seemed to be fine after drinking the water, even giving a thumbs up to the others. "Water tastes okay!"
Suspicious of the water still, Freya stood at the edge of the steps to stare at the life within the pool. Whilst Freya studied the plant life in the bottom of the pool, Wynter had taken it upon himself to also try the water, testing what Flux had stated. Unlike those two, Kyther stayed near the edge as he had drank from his own supplies recently.
Noting plants that she had never seen before, Freya crouched over the edge of the water cautiously. Pulling out a small book from within her bag, she begun to sketch multiple plants into her book and note tendencies about them. Colours, shapes, patterns, anything that made the plant up. Noting the edges of the plant was ridged, Freya quickly got up to pace around the edge of the water. Frowning slightly, she noted that no creatures were visible within the water to be eating the plant, nor was there a way for a fish to leave the water cycle.
Turning back towards the group, Freya paused as two of them were now missing. Staring at Kyther, she wondered where the other two had gone. Kyther, who was busy looking into his own supplies, had not noticed the disappearance of the other symprites, pulling a knife out from the bag he brought with him. Silence crept across the space, the only sound being the silent flow of the water behind them.
Minutes passed with the tense air surrounding the remaining two, broken by the tap of a hoof echoing around the room. Moonlight began pouring in brighter, raising above the pillar that was blocking the light. Creeping up against the stone, the light soon revealed Wynter stood in the edge of the darkness. Bulbed plants surrounded the pillars around him, coiling their way upwards infinitely just like the water from the room behind them.
Freya went to step forward, Kyther quickly grabbing her arm in warning. His eyes fixated on Wynter's form, shaking his head to Freya. "Don't approach" He warned, reaching into his bag to throw something random towards the form. Wynter's head twitched to stare at the object thrown, a low growl forming within his throat. Staring with some concern, Freya scanned Wynter's form. Auburn fur looked wind swept, hazel eyes void of any pupils now and devoid of emotions.
Pupil-less eyes slowly turned towards the two other Symprites, moonlight reflecting in the empty eyes as Wynter seemingly stares through the two of them. Trailing upwards, it was clear his eyes were following the water falling, or maybe it was floating all along. Freya couldn't help stepping back though, thinking about the plants she saw earlier and if this was a key to what was happening to Wynter currently.
Hair flicking in the wind as she quickly moved to looking at the water again, Wynter lunged forward after Freya, sword still tightly in hand. It was almost like whatever was causing this knew that Freya had extensive knowledge that could interrupt it's plans. Reacting quickly to the movement, Freya nimbly dodged the lunge as Kyther drew his dagger up to deflect the blade. Sparks flew between the force of the two metals colliding, hissing against the drag on the other material.
As the two in the background collided weapons together, Freya dunked her paws into the water to grasp at the plants within. Admitting a small apology to the aquatic vines, she yanked them out of the water to study the plant closer. Noticing a slimy, oil-like consistency over the plant, Freya attempted to rub it off with no success. Furrowing her brows while studying the plant, Freya noted curiosity over the oil-like substance over each leaf. Using a hand to scoop up water from the fountain, she noted the same consistency throughout all of the water, unable to rub off the substance from her hand.
Reaching cautiously into her bag to avoid getting the liquid inside of it, she grasped the last water bottle before pouring some of the water onto her hands to rub the substance off. As soon as the water hit her hands, the oil-like liquid moved to avoid it. Freya froze, realizing that the fountain's water was physically moving to avoid the water, pooling off onto the floor before slowly flowing back into the pool below. Using the water in her hand, she dripped it onto the plant sat next to her and watched the same reaction happen on the leaves of the vines.
Lifting her head up quickly, Freya looked towards Wynter and Kyther fighting. Wynter was fighting without much rhythm, clearly instinctual, which allowed Kyther to easily deflect the attacks with his shorter blade. Kyther's eyes glanced sideways to look towards Freya, deflecting one more attack before yelling "Behind you". Reacting quickly, Freya attempted to turn around but failed, arms grabbing her quickly and pushing her over. Landing on the floor with a painful thud, Freya hissed before looking back and seeing Flux in a similar state to Wynter. Pupil-less eyes stared through Freya, the familiar glow from before now incredibly dull, possibly to help blend into the shadows of the spire.
After overpowering Freya, Flux started to drag her towards the fountain she was just investigating. Concerned that Flux was trying to infect her with this oil-like water, Freya scrambled to get out of her grasp, failing before reaching out to anything she could grasp. Wrapping her long tail around the bottle of water, she struggled to use the tip of her tail against the cap on the water she had just sealed off. Thick water started to grasp at her red strands, sticking onto her hair as Flux managed to push the back of her head into the fountain. Struggling with her tail, Freya managed to push the cap off the bottle before splashing the water at Flux, watching her stagger backwards and let go of Freya. Pulling at her hair, the oil-like water kept trying to pull her down, weighing her hair down as she struggled to get up.
Whilst Freya was combating with Flux, Kyther spotted Freya spraying water at Flux. Timing his parries against the wild strikes, Kyther slowly moved backwards towards the water still held by Freya's tail. Reaching behind him, Kyther managed to grab the water while Wynter lunged closer once more. As Wynter recovered from the lunge, Kyther quickly sprayed the water in the bottle over him, trying to avoid the bionic arm as to not break it. Wynter sliced at the water with his sword, slicing at the liquid as it landed against his fur, causing him to stagger backwards at the liquid.
Whilst Flux and Wynter were preoccupied with the water, Kyther quickly pulled Freya from the water's edge that she was struggling against, spraying water on her hair with the last of the water to get rid of the remaining thick water from the group. More patches of the water crawled back into the basin, slipping into looking suspiciously perfect as water again as Flux and Wynter slowly got up, fur settled down and pupils returned to their eyes now. Moonlight shone inside the building stronger, reflecting off the water in the center as everything returned to serenity.
Freya got up and shook her hair out, sighing and looking at the remaining supplies before looking at the group stood in front of her. "Lets go resupply, we can try again a different day" She sighed, knowing everyone needed some well deserved rest. Kyther had stayed behind to go back inside again which left the group to the original three. Wynter sat himself at the back of the boat, Freya at the front of the boat and Flux in the middle of the boat. They set back off towards the moonlight, leaving the ominous spire behind them as they begun the journey home.
