Lyra Karant
Chasing Crystal Eggs
"...I have some really weird teachers."
This adventure was certainly different. On one hand, Mysie had asked her to head up to a deep mountain cave and pick up some rare pink crystal eggs for her. On the other, this place was most assuredly incredibly dangerous and there was no way that she wasn't going to be walking headfirst into some form of trap in order to get these rare things. Heck, Lyra didn't even know exactly why Mysie wanted these eggs. However, Mysie was one of her three teachers, and certainly trustworthy enough to make this request. Maybe if Blair had've asked, there would have been a mild hesitation, but no - this was fine. So, having caught as many trains as she could to get most of the way, then flown what was left, Lyra found herself at the entrance to the cave where these crystal eggs were supposed to reside. This cave entrance was, so her information said, named the Blushing Pink Moon; whatever was in here was probably magical in nature, and likely highly dangerous if she wasn't careful. Did that mean that she was going to hesitate on this mission? No, of course not. Lyra had a job to do and by the gods she would do it. In her hands was a basket - a cute little pink plastic one with a lid - so that she could bring the eggs home and give them to Mysie.
Slowly, Lyra breathed out, and took, her first step into the cave. So it began.
As the pink slayer walked her way deeper and deeper into the cave, which was rather eerily lit up for something that should have been devoid of other human life at this point, she couldn't help but get the feeling that there was something hilariously wrong. In fact, it was the same gut feeling that she'd had before when she was coming into contact with some otherworldly beings recently. There had to be some kind of magic in the air, and it wasn't just the fact that there was the shrine itself.
As she took another footstep onto the cold, hard stone of the mountain cave, she hard it on the wind. There was someone here. No. Make that multiple someones, because she could absolutely hear a number of sets of feet hitting rock deeper in the cave.
Had someone beaten her to it?
At that, Lyra flashed her wings to life and floated off the ground, letting her move faster with the fact that she didn't have to worry about her feet doing the work. The incandescent trail of petals left in her wake would give her away if someone walked in behind her, though what worried her was what was in front of her. She wasn't giving away her position with footsteps, either, but no doubt any powerful enough mage could sense her coming. After all, it had to take a mage to come and collect these; surely whatever these were used for did not involve anything less than powerful magic.
As Lyra turned a bend and the cave opened up into its first large room, there they were. Six people were already here, with more potentially coming. Three of them, clad in pink feather capes that had the aura of the wind around them, stood fast against three more who were lithe, and... somehow, had an aura of dripping radiant poison that carried the sweet tang of honey on the air. They were most certainly in a standoff, ready to fight for the right to venture deeper into the cave and claim the prize that they were all clearly after. Lyra hesitated in the doorway for a second; could she take on six people simultaneously?
One of the ones whose aura radiated honey caught a glance of her and pointed, then screamed with a vicious, foxy shrill. Oops. They'd noticed her. As if on cue, all six of them turned to look at her, which was absolutely not disconcerting at all.
"How dare you intrude upon the Coral Foxes!" shouted the one who'd noticed her.
"And how dare you intrude on the Salmon Vultures!" came the reply from the one that inevitably seemed like the leader of the other group.
"No, we got here first! We want the eggs!"
"Hey, we want them too! We're hungry!"
This bickering went back and forth for some time.
Well, at least she had their names now. These Salmon Vultures and these Coral Foxes seemed like they were all mages of reasonable strength, which meant that the moment this room erupted into bedlam, it was going to be one hell of a fight. As bad as this was, however, Lyra knew that all she needed to do was break through them all before she could get to the shrine. The wind began to whip up around the Salmon Vultures, and in that moment Lyra knew exactly what she had to do in order to get her hands on these crystal eggs deeper in the shrine. As if on cue, the foxes pounced upon the vultures, who began to fight back with their shields of wind. Lyra took a moment to channel her own inner wind, staying away from the two lines of fighting mages for just a moment until her self-buffing powers took hold--
In the next instant, Lyra blitzed towards the melee. Her mouth began to open, for while these mages with all their silly outfits and strangely themed powers were hungry, so was she. The difference was that she was going to eat the active magic of the Vultures, and let the Foxes beat them. So, Lyra drank deep of the wind. The Vultures and their active spells fizzled away into nothingness, leaving them naught but confused - and then the Foxes and their honey were upon them seconds later.
With that momentary distraction, Lyra pushed her wings to full speed and dove for the other side of the cave, her air speed leaving a torrent of petals behind her as the wind carried her towards her goal. The confused screaming began to mount as they realised they'd been had, but they were all so close to each other that untangling from that fight was too difficult. The Vultures could use their magic again to protect themselves - she hadn't planned on any of them being killed, for instance - as Lyra had only eaten whatever was active at the time, but the Foxes had the advantage at this point. The fight wasn't over. This was exactly what she wanted - just enough time to get the eggs, and get out.
Through the chamber and into the next room, while they were all distracted. That next room, however, was absolutely gorgeous. There was no natural light save for the bioluminescent pink crystals that dotted the walls, and the stone basin in the centre of the room held three pink glowing eggs that seemed to be of the same sort of crystal as the ones on the walls around it. This had to be what she came here for. Touching down in front of the basin with her wings vanishing into the ether, Lyra ran her hands over the stonework; it was intricate, patterned and well-carved; she unfortunately did not have enough time to appreciate the decor before the fighting creatures outside got wind of her plans. Terrible pun, I know.
So, the three eggs in the basin were picked up and put in the basket that Lyra was carrying. There was already a towel in there to cover them and wrap them in, so that they had a far better chance of surviving transit back to Mysie. Once they were in the basket, it was sealed - the lights in the room seemed to dim at that moment, when the eggs finally vanished from view. If she had more time to come back and admire them, she would have, but now was not the time for such thoughts. Lyra needed to go, now. Her wings flared to life again, her wind magic channelling itself to make her lighter than air, and the Rose beat a hasty retreat.
Lyra's heart was racing as she made her way back through into the antechamber where the Foxes and vultures were fighting; they were still going at it, wind thrashing against the poison taste of honey. Those crafty foxes were just too fast for the wind mages to hit, which suited Lyra just fine. All she had to do was blow past them all with a gale in her wake and none of them would be able to stop her. Or, at least, that was what she hoped for. Cradling the basket close to her body, one hand on its handle and the other wrapped around it as if swaddling a child, Lyra prepared for a moment of the worst - and then accelerated. The wind behind her left an impact as she flew right through the centre of the room before any of them could even stop her.
She looked back over her shoulder. "I'm really sorry!" she shouted, but those words died on the wind as the two groups of wild mages protested, loudly. They weren't quite fast enough to chase her at this point, which was rather unfortunate for them. To add insult to that particular injury, Lyra air-stepped her way through the rest of the cave, teleporting short distances so that they really didn't have a chance of catching her.
Eventually, she made it back to the outside world. The harsh rays of the sun were a stark contrast to the cold dark shrine, where the prickling feeling on her skin was a pleasant reminder that outside did in fact exist. A deep breath of fresh air. A moment to appreciate the warmth of the world around her. And a look down at that baskeet, carrying Mysie's goods. She needed to get these back to Sakuramori, fast. The precious cargo in her hands surely had something special about them and Lyra's curiosity was starting to get the better of her. After all, Mysie could have gotten these herself. She was strong. What was special enough about them that she trusted someone else to get them?
She'd find out soon enough.
MEL @ WW
