Give Me a Sword and a Thousand Words: [Battle Duocast] - Crystal Wyrm - "Mirror Maze"

5. Draw or write about your character taking shelter in the crystalline caverns the wyrm came from.

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A driving storm of crystal flakes pelted Paiko as he scrambled up the mountain slope, ears laying flat on his head to block out the horrible, shattering noise of the Crystal Wyrm’s roar. 

The drakon spotted a ledge just meters above him, and he climbed faster, eager to escape into stillness and silence and darkness. Once he pulled himself into the opening of the cave, he was immediately enveloped in a sense of security and relief.

Finally… peace and quiet. Always feel at home in caverns.

He dusted crystals from his clothes and hair, wincing slightly when he touched a small cut on his face created by the splintering shards.

Moving a few feet deeper, he let himself slump against the wall with his palms to the cold ground. He closed his eyes, rooting himself in the system, letting his other senses take the driver’s seat in a place where sight had no advantage.

The tunnels were extensive, impressive, labyrinthine. Surely there was a way to exit the mountains on the other side, without passing through the Crystal Wyrm’s radar.

The whole system radiated a draconic magic, however, not unlike that of the rampaging wyrm. In fact, it was exactly the same aura as the wyrm.

Suppose this is its home, Paiko realized with a chill, and I just walked into the dragon’s lair.

He opened his eyes and peeked out the opening. No way he was going back out in that hailstorm, not with sharp things flying everywhere and loud sounds deafening his sensitive ears. As long as the Wyrm was out there, his chances were better if he snuck through the tunnels before it returned.

“Spelunking we go,” he muttered under his breath. 

Unlike the crystal caverns he had explored before on a quest for crystals, these corridors contained massive deposits of minerals in the very walls themselves, not just growing out of it. As if the caves themselves were made of crystal…

As he moved through the cavern, slipping occasionally on the glass-smooth surface, he realized that was exactly the case. The Crystal Wyrm somehow had worn away all the rough stone and polished the hidden minerals until it made a maze of glass through the inside of the mountain.

Though the light became scarce the farther in he went, the aurora magic infused in the minerals gave a mystical glow to whatever was visible. 

Paiko found himself still oddly jumpy, despite being in a somewhat familiar setting. His silhouette, enormous in some places, distorted hideously in others, made his heartbeat skip more times than he cared to admit.

Is it scarier to be alone in this whole mountain… or not to be?

He decided closing his eyes might be the best way to avoid seeing things that he knew weren’t there, to avoid the adversaries his paranoid mind tended to create…

But now, tuned in with his ears and touch, he knew there was indeed another person somewhere nearby. He couldn’t sense their aura, so obscured by the magic in the air and the distraction of sight earlier.

He hesitated. Should he move towards them? Or better not to get someone else involved? What if they were lost? 

“Hnnngh…” Paiko whined in indecision. He checked the layout of the system again, as far as he could see with his ability. Well, it looked like he’d have to pass that way to go deeper anyways.

Keeping his ears alert and swiveling attentively, he slid, crawled, and crept through the tunnels, always holding the other presence as a reference point in mind. It seemed like they were moving his way. Maybe they had heard him; it was hard to be quiet in a place where every sound was amplified and echoed three times over.

“Hello?” Paiko called out, finally fed up with suspense. “Someone else there?”

Perhaps he imagined it, but a barely perceptible snicker made the scaly ridge on his back raise up in agitation. Was that real? Was he not to trust his ears now?

“Are… are you lost? Because I am finding a way out right now, and maybe you want to… travel together?”

Silence. Only his voice in echoes fading. A distant crackling, a skittering.

Paiko waited half a minute more, noticing that the presence had faded from his awareness. Well, maybe he really was imagining things, but he wasn’t about to stand here longer and freak himself out.

He took two steps, stopping when his boot crunched on something. He leaned forward to feel the ground, tripping, slipping, tumbling headlong into the next chamber with a terrified yelp. Sliding across something cold, wetter than crystal, ice?

Finally coming to a stop, he moaned, sitting up. More bruises to bear. He felt a pressure on his shoulder and gasped, twisting his head left and right to see what had touched him. Maybe just a drop of water–

“Boo.” A face leered above his own, a terrifying grin full of icicles and frost.

“AAAHHHH–!” Paiko screamed, backpedaling into the wall. He slammed his hands into the ground, sending up a crystal barrier around him and extending its shockwaves to capture anything within a ten-foot radius.

Once his panic subsided, he risked a glance at the fruit of his reaction. 

There was no one caught in his crystal snare.

But there was a boot.

He knew that boot. It belonged to a certain pranky vampire that would not be above scaring a jumpy half-drakon in the darkness of the empty caverns belonging to a colossal crystal serpent.

“Aras,” he hissed through his teeth, still feeling the pounding of his heartbeat in his chest, his temples, even his fingertips. 

He gradually realized that this might be a good chance for payback. “Going around with one boot, hm? Have fun without a shoe.”

Paiko allowed himself a tiny smirk as he tucked the boot under one arm, then made sure to keep a wake of spiky crystals around him to dissuade any sole-less, soulless vampires from sneaking up on him without getting their feet pricked by sharp stones. 

In front of him, he kept a windshield of sorts, refracting and distorting light to make his exact position difficult to pinpoint visually, and protecting him physically from oncoming attacks.

Yes, a strategy all set. Two could play this game.

-

1050 words

 

Thank you to SchwarzerAlptraum for letting me use Aras and his antics to tease the jumpy drakon again! Who knew Paiko would ever (unwittingly) duocast with his nemesis? >v<