Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of clamoring around rocks and struggling around underground lakes, through the twisting mazes of the mountain that had lured them inside with the promise of something interesting atop it, Nia had made it.
At least, the strange, crystalline passageway before them had to be the way forward, right?
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At first sight, the door had looked like nothing more than a metal plate embedded into the wall, carved with nonsense lines and circles. The moment they had locked eyes with the symbol of another dead end, however, light poured out from the walls and into the veins of the door, spreading until what had looked like dull iron became a glittering portal.
They had slowed at the sight of it, standing in the enthralling blue light of the opening, a sense of awe settling over them along with a cool breeze into the fresh wound in the cavern wall. Their tail fin twitched with anticipation, and they desperately wanted to head inside, but they had made the mistake of sitting down. Whether it was due to exhaustion creeping up on them after making a mad dash through the remaining corridors, of the mazelike mountain, the fact they hadn’t eaten since Misc’s disappearance the other night, or anticipation twisting into the pale shadow of growing fear, Nia couldn't tell.
They were going to find something amazing here at Spear Pillar. They had to.
They pushed down any semblance of exhaustion or anxiety and forced theirself up onto shaky legs, taking a shuddering breath of stale air through their mask, the only part of the restraint device that had made it through the blistering journey up here. Without the bands around their neck and crest, they felt much lighter, but that could hardly make up for the fact that they had been so focussed that they'd ignored their limits.
They hadn't had anything to eat since they last saw Misc, and their body wasn’t going to let them forget it judging by the dull ache that hung in the pit of their stomach.
Just a little more, and they could stop. Just a few steps to Spear Pillar, to resolve that uneasy feeling that had burrowed into their heart the moment they'd seen the tempest of distortions above the mountaintop.
They passed through the gate. Despite all the air that had been flowing into the gate, there was no breeze within. They looked around, taking in the scenery.
It was basically just a mountaintop temple. They could see the tiny little ruins they had looked at with Misc before coming into the labrynthian mountain, which made the ones up here feel familiar. Further than the sleepy town was a massive cloud of fog that seemed to swallow the land. Aside from that patch of mystery, it felt like they could see everything. Even the sea was visible from here, as well as another mountain. Compared to the one they'd just climbed, however, it looked small. The pillar of smoke rising from it had a familiar look to it, like they'd seen something akin to it before.
When they looked to the other side of Mount Coronet, however, a sprawling city glowed in competition with the vortex swirling above Nia. The clustered lights were hypnotizing, and were it not for the fact that they were both exhausted and finally at a destination they had struggled so much to get to, they might have darted straight down through the mountain to get there.
Everything here was gorgeous, and from Mount Coronet, it felt like they could see the whole world.
Above them, however, Nia could feel something watching them.
Without the band on their neck in the way, it was easier to lift their heavy helmet in order to look up into the mouth of the stormy rift. At the very center, far above the topless temple that served as the top of the mountain, Nia could just barely make out a luminescent platform, bright enough to be seen amongst the clouds of distortion.
If they stretched the limits of their imagination, they could almost see a glowing halo of light, beckoning and bright like the moon’s gentle light. More than they had even wanted to come up here, Nia wanted to go up there.
There was one distinct problem, however: Nia did not have wings, and Nia's friend, the only one they knew with the ability to lift them, was not here with them at the moment. They sincerely doubted that just staring intently at the platform in the sky would have any effect either---
But a bright orb of light appeared as suddenly as the problem had lined itself up in front of the chimera. As the item drifted down, nearer to Nia, they stumbled, vision going white as a voice echoed from nowhere inside of their head.
"One question leads to another, in a chain of curiosity the color of the red thread of fate and bright as an unspoken future. My song your path forward, spirit guide you through space to me."
Their headache and exhaustion faded away, if only for a moment before the world came back into focus. Though they felt as if they had finally gotten some rest, their headache pounded a bit more against their skull.
Any semblance of the strangeness, however, had passed. All evidence that something odd had happened was left in a small pile of items before the chimera, set on a silken white scarf.
When they looked up, dark, purple clouds hid the stage in the sky--- had it even really been there?