 strength boost. As you can tell I am wearing plate armor, on my chest, arms, and steel toed boots. So my defense is solid in those areas. My weapon is none other than the magical weapon Xigshaw. Xigshaw is powered by a ancient magic that enhances the strength of its user. The power in the weapon goes far beyond a normal strength staff. With this baby I can hit as hard as a battering ram", spoke Orcloeus as he took the weapon from his back and swung it at a nearby palm tree. The giant five sided rob smashed thought the tree with little effort. Placing his weapon over his shoulder Orcleous turned his gaze toward his young friend. "Your turn, what can you do?"
As the sun rose over the horizon Orcleous began to put away his supplies. he gathered up his tent and pans and placed them into his traveling bag. The duo made there way back to the ruin where Orcleous dropped the bag and decided that he would retrieve it once they left the place. I hope you are ready", spoke Orcleous as he finished off his last boiled egg.
"We turn back," The moment these words his Aurora she stopped pushing and stepped back in surprise.
"Whaaaaaaaaat?" And so he explained. She was in fact exhausted but she had little interest in admitting to that. The ruins though, they were right there. Like, RIGHT there, right there. She lightly whimpered as she was ushered away for another thirty minutes of, how she saw it as, arbitrary walking.
If she took the time to really consider his words it made sense, whatever broke apart the gate was clearly not a cornucopia of humans. It looked far more like a singular large beast. At the campsite Aurora removed her cloak for the first time revealing her large ears and tail.
"Ahhhhh! I can finally be free!" She stretched around the fire. "It's really uncomfortable keeping so still all the time, ya know?" Everything Orcleous told her he could do sounded so unreal to her, she had never imagined a human could be capable of such things. She had seen Taguel do much of the similar but never what he described. What could she do though? That was easy, she could use magic and transform, but... she really did not like transforming, and would he hate her if she did? Would he forgive her if she had to but never told him?
She looked uncomfortable with the question when it was directed at her. "We-well, I can use Trinity, Flux, and Light. So, Fire, Wind, and Thunder, with Dark, and Light. I also find that if I throw a dark and light orb together they don't get along too well and reject each other ripping apart. Its neat. I can also hear and smell well. And see in the dark." And that was all she could do, honest. She looked into the fire hesitantly, her face an open book as she prayed he did not push her further to tell him everything, even if he was owed it.
Aurora bit on her food absently as the two sat in the morning, with the sunrise came a morning chill and so she had her tail wrapped around herself keeping warm. When they got to the ruins she had long since finished her meal. "Well, ready as I can be." She had her cloak back on just in case they met anyone. "NOW LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!!" She pushed on Orcleous to get him inside.
Man she was weird last night, thought Orcleous to himself. When they were talking about there abilities last night she mentioned her magic, but after that she kind of clammed up. Orcleous would have pushed more, but there was no point in it. If she was not going to talk about it then she was not going to use it in a fight. Not to mention that he might not actually want to know what she can do. It is like the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. So Orlcoeus let it go.
As they arrived at the ruins she was just as hyperactive as she was on the first day, and the place was just as ominous. Orcleous could hardly believe that she was so hyped up on getting inside. There were literally the bones of the dead all around them. Even so the maiden was pushing him inside. Her lust for knowledge overriding all logic toward survival. "Fine, fine", spoke Orcleous as he speed up his pace. The champion boot came down on a skull cracking the fragile bones in half. The very sound sent a cold shrivel up Orcleous spine, but with the dog eared maiden at his back there was no room to retreat. So he pressed on.
It was not long before the duo made it to the large gate. The metal had aged with time and a smell of old rust was in the air. The champion however did not spend long at this point. They had reached it last time and got there eye full of it. Pressing on to the inside of the gate the duo came into a court yeard. It was about a hundred years around and on each corner there seemed to be another corridor leading off to some place else. On the left was a path that seemed to lead under ground. On the right was a path that seemed to lead into some old stone building. the path down the direct center seemed to lead up a hill. It did not go instead, but rather the steepness of the climb stole the rest of the view away from orcleous eyes.
"Three choices", whispered Orcleous as he looked around. They can go down into the darkness. Yeah that was not happening. They could go to the right and in to the building. Possible. Or they can go forward and surround themselves within this place. All the options seemed bad to Orcleous, and to be honest he could not chose. So instead he did what any respectable adult did, toss the problem onto somebody else.
"Alright Aurora this is your adventure and thus your choice", chuckled Orcleous."Left, right, or center."
As they got to the ruins Aurora was completely unaffected by the sight of human bones and skeletons. The way she saw it was that they are proof of the dead and death, sure, but why worry about it? The dead were not going to rise anytime soon. She had not yet met a bonewalker. As Orcleous crushed a skull beneath his boot she felt a shiver run up her spine and she clinged onto Orc from behind. "Sorry, sorry, that crunch just startled me."
She soon let go of him and walked alongside him. "I am quite interested in knowing what exactly broke through the other side of that gate though. It looks like it had to have been really big, and really solid too. Here's to hoping we get to meet it eh!?" She grinned at Orc cheekily.
As the two were presented with three choices to travel deeper into the ruins Orc had oh so graciously passed the decision making off to Aurora. "Ah... hmmm... so a building, a cave, or... deeper into the city. I have to say why not take trips to all of them!?" She practically bounced as she said this. "But, hmm, if we have to take only one of them I think a building seems boring, no knowing what is over that climb over there, annnnnnnd the cave over there is spooky enough to deter hunters of the shinies. Therefor I declare we shall venture into the deep and see what we can find there."
"So into the darkness", groaned Orcleous as he placed his travel bag down. The champion pulled out a torch from the inside. Pulling out two rocks from his bag he sparked the object into light. The fire quickly wrapped itself around the cloth and oil and illuminated the ara around it. With that done Orcleous placed his bag back onto his armor and lead the way down into the dark corridor. The entire time Orcleous was cursing to himself about coming down this way. He should have made that decision himself instead of leaving it up to her. Why did he leave it up to her. Now he was practically defenseless as Xigsahw required two hands to properly use.
As the champion stepped into the darkness the light fought back against the shadows. The blackness that clinged to the wall vanished and was replaced by aged stone work. Orcleous had no idea how old this place was but the stone work on the walls had held up. As he walked into the blackness he could see ancient letters written all over the walls and symbols and pictures from a time beyond. From what Orcleous could tell it was high dragon. The language lost to all but the smartest of men. The only reason Orcleous could tell was due to the very fact that some of the markings were on his magical weapon. He knew very little about Xigshaw, but from what that mage had told him it was a rare treasure and from a very old age.
"What do you think all of this means", spoke Orcleous as he leaned down and looked at a wall. He made sure not to touch anything out of fear of traps. However the engraving and reliefs were quite fascinating. One of them however piqued his attention. It was a man walking and then suddenly his body started to change. Then that man became a beast and that beast became a half thing. Orcleous could not tell what it was about or what it meant, but he sure wished he did. "What do you think this place is mage", whispered Orcleous. "You are the master of magical talent right. Did anything you learn in your studies mention anything about places like this