λCh1: Sneaking in the cave
Finally, a mellow, cold light catches Cinna’s attention and he hopes it’s not another glow squid when he rushes towards it, ditching his original course completely and getting his hopes up again.
He wades through a waist-deep cold spring and finally loses the hoard of the undead on his tail. Blue lights reflect off of its surface and drown Cinna in magical hues of aegean promise. He doesn’t waste time on killing them all, after blocking last rounds of the skeletons' arrows with his pincushion-like shield, he runs deeper into the cave and out of their range.
The splashing and squishing sounds of his boots resonate through the lit up tunnel leading up towards a geode. Cinna’s heart is quickly pounding in both excitement and exhaustion, however it all dissolves once a shadow on the wall of the opening geode reveals another contender for the Beacon who beat him to it.
Cinna isn’t there first, the realization sinks in and he pulls out a sword, determined to take the relic by any means, he sneaks closer to the geode, hoping the moment of surprise is still on his side. Then a violent roar shakes him to the core and he instinctively takes a step back as two majestic horns reflect in the flickering shadows. The creature curves forwards into a predatory snarl, spines flicking out its back like a row of sharpened blades as a long and twisted arm reaches up into the darkness. Its claws catch the light momentarily - too sharp for the usual beasts encountered down here.
This can’t be!- Cinna stares at the silhouette he hasn’t seen since The War, he thought Men purged the demons off the face of the world once they won, however it seems like one got away.
The demon leaps forward, claws raking against the stone to steady itself, an eye of bright blue flame peering through the darkness as it suddenly illuminates the small cave. Unbeknownst to its spectator, it strikes its tail off the sharpened geode beside it, drawing a small groan from it that reverberates menacingly around the two of them. Another terrifying hiss bounces off the walls and there comes the demon in its full glory, tall and dark, just as Cinna remembers them, it takes everything in him to stand his ground.
Without the Dark Lord’s authority on his side, there is no way he can actually win this fight, he witnessed the destruction demons can cause. This whole place would be crumbling down on their heads in no time. But the demon doesn’t strike - instead they both just stand there for a few moments before the towering creature doubles over slightly, curling it’s injured tail around itself. It fills the space, sure, but suddenly it loses a lot of the intimidation it had moments before. The beast’s eye flicks up to settle on Cinna - or rather, close to Cinna. It seems to have trouble seeing. Still, it sparkles a vivid blue. Was it a defender of the Beacon?
Cinna looks into the flaming eye and beats at his left shoulder to greet it. “May the shadow prevail in your Realm, brother.” He hopes his voice isn’t shaking as much as his insides.
What follows is a long and grumbling hiss as the demon rights itself, tail returning to its usual position, but curved horns still twitching. The eye seems to drift as it tilts its head, but the second the beat echoes through the small space it focuses on him. It shakes its head, clearing the ringing it inflicted on itself.
“Ceilings need to stop sneaking up on Viable… but Viable’s name is Viable, not Brother!” It hisses with a grimace, before its demonic jaw twists into an awkward looking smile. “May the…uh, happies do good in your realm too though!” The creature crouches low again, wary now of the height of the room; it seems it either moves too much or not at all as it is suddenly almost too still, listening.
For a seasoned warrior it was clear to see this creature operates off of echolocation- it's unnatural clicking bounces around the room before it continues speaking, seemingly entirely unaware of any tension or danger either figure may be in down here.
“What name do you have, sneaking-in-the-cave-kin?”
“Happies,” Cinna repeats in disbelief, processing the image unfolding in front of his eyes; what a unique demon, but despite its rather quirky mannerism and choice of words, he doesn’t let his guard down just yet - then he notices the shiny blue relict rolling on the floor by demon’s feet. Viable must have dropped it when they banged their head.
He quickly decides that talking is the only way to go, as the demon would know immediately if he tries to quickly snatch it. His wet boots and armor make too much noise to fly under Viable’s radar. “It’s Cinna, and that is a pretty thing you have there, what is it? It’s glowing and round like a glowberry, I haven’t seen one of those yet, but I heard you can eat them.” There is a small pause before Viable turns slightly, picking up the relic to slooooooowly lick it, blue tongue almost falling out their jaws. Definitely not a glowberry. It tastes like cold and no. They place it back down gently as if Cinna didn’t literally just watch them do it.
“Viable is lucky Cinna came though! Cinna have fish?”
What a unique demon indeed. Cinna smiles, catching up on its friendly and open body language that just makes this way too easy. This curveball should have cost him his life, instead he feels like he's about to gain a really powerful ally for his future endeavors and steal candy from a child at the same time when he sheaths his sword and mirrors Viable’s kind and welcoming gestures. “Well, tough luck, I don’t have any fish on me, just a few spider eyes. But there are a lot of fish in the Stonewood’s river, let’s head back up and get some?”
“The fish in the river are so tricksy… but with Cinna there Viable will show them all!” The demon moves towards Cinna, immediately so trusting of the new friend. The relic is left on the ground, pulsing slightly against the crystals of the geode.
Cinna carefully picks it up and it immediately fills him with comfort and a familiar feeling of home. Its magical swirls are spinning on the background of his lichen iris, making them look deep and mysterious like all those lush cavern lakes he has seen in this underground complex so far. The powerful aura of the Beacon grows quickly stronger, burning brighter, pulling him deeper, calling him louder.
“Yea, they stand no chance,” he mutters in response to Viable’s excited clicking noises, finally looking away from the artifact and hiding it in the folds of his cloak.
The first thing he notices is that the geode around is actually dull and trite without the beacon’s glow to illuminate it, and that empty chest is just sitting there, begging for a special treatment to deter other beacon hunters from pursuing its powers.