"Hand me the map, Deuce!", yelled a very irate Ace as he held his hand out. Deuce held the map away from him.
"No! I can do this!", he said desperately. Ace scowled at him.
"We've been going around in circles for the last HOUR! Clearly, you don't know what you're doing, so just give it to me!", Ace yelled as he held his hand out in front of his friend once again.
"NO, I TOLD YOU I CAN DO THIS!", Deuce said again, only much louder. Ace groaned and tried to wrestle the map away from the navy haired man without tearing it. A few seconds into the struggle, however, they were pulled apart by the scruff of their jackets by a very much done with their shit Griffin, and had the map taken from in between them by an equally done Ash.
"We need to go that way and make a left. After that, we should be there.", the blonde said as he pointed at the rightmost tunnel of the five in front of them. Cassandra rubbed her temples and sighed.
"Lead the way.", she said, wanting to get this over with and go home. She was hungry and tired, and while she couldn't fix the first problem, she was itching to crawl into bed with her lynx and sleep for a week.
Cassandra and the others started to follow the ex-gang criminal leader down the tunnel, and the tribrid felt her mind start to wander. They had been trekking through the mines for over two hours, during only one of which actual progress was made. She had made the mistake of letting Deuce read the map, when little did she know, the fool couldn't read a map to save his life and was just trying to impress her.
Sighing again, Cassandra tried to look on the brightside.
'If Ash read the map right, which he better have, we'll be at the cave soon. One of us can rip a gem out of the wall when Ace and Deuce aren't looking, and we go back to our dorms and rub our success in Crowley's pale-ass face.'
The tribrid smirked, oh how she looked forward to that.
Finally, they arrived at the mouth of the cave. Ace shone his phone flashlight all around it as everyone looked at the interior with varying amounts of awe. It was large, the size of a school gymnasium. The stone walls were coal black, which made the gems lining the stone, floor to ceiling, stand out even more. Greens, reds, purples, blues, yellows, oranges and every color in between glistened in the artificial light.
It was jaw droppingly beautiful, even to a bunch of battle-hardened vampires.
Snapping herself out of it, Cassandra clapped her hands together to pull the others out of it as well with a smile on her face as she began to speak.
"Well, now all we have to do is grab one of these and make our way out!", Cassandra said brightly as she would finally get to sleep soon.
She took the first steps into the cave, getting a few yards in before three white blobs phased through the cave wall in front of her. Cassandra knew what they were the moment they flew through the wall, and she gave them a deadpanned look that conveyed her unamusement. The other Court members did as well, save for Ace, Deuce and Grim, who screamed and started looking like they were about to pass out.
Cassandra glared at the ghosts as they did the stereotypical 'supposed to sound spooky but just sounds dumb' voice and hoped that would be enought to scare them off. Unfortunately, these ones, unlike the dorm ghosts, lacked any ghostly brain cells.
Cassandra turned back to her senior Court, who were just as annoyed as she was. Nodding to Eiji, the brunette got the hint and grabbed Ace and Deuce, making them turn away from everyone else by saying "Go get a gem so we can get out of here, quickly!".
With those not in the know distracted, the remaining vampires let black veins creep along their faces and let their fangs pop out in full glory with a hiss. This was enough to get the ghosts to back off, and after some shrieks of terror and a "Let's get outta here!" from their chubby leader, the specters all flew through the roof of the cave at record speed.
The card duo, who had managed to grab a dark purple gem from the cave wall with the subtle help of Eiji's supernatural strength, turned back to face the others moments after that. When they did, the ghosts were gone, and they only saw Cassandra and the Court in the same positions they were in when they turned around, trying to look as innocent as possible. The two Heartslabyul students looked confused and were about to ask what had just happened, but Cassandra interrupted them with a satisfied smirk.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get out of here. I can hear my bed calling my name from here."
Everyone else nodded in agreement, except for Ace and Deuce, who still looked like they wanted to know what the hell just happened. Everyone except for those two turned to leave with calls of how exhausted they were, and Cassandra felt her smirk fall into a frown as she took in Ace and Deuce's lost expressions.
Now was the time to tell them.
Cassandra opened her mouth to speak, for once, feeling at a loss for words.
"Ace, Deuce, I...", she trailed off, not sure how to explain this to them. It had been easier with the rest of the Court because she knew if she didn't tell them, they would die. She had no choice, whereas here, she technically did have one. And if she messed things up between them while knowing this, she felt it would be her fault for not doing a good enough job.
The two men looked at her expectantly, as did the rest of the Court from the shadows of the tunnel. The tribrid took a deep breath, intending to rip it off like a bandaid, when she felt something drip onto her head.
Cassandra felt her face contort in confusion as she felt the dripping again. Patting the top of her head, she brought her hand in front of her face to see what the substance was. She was expecting water.
What it was, was ink; pitch black, oily ink.
Looking at her hand in surprise, Cassandra looked up to see what in this new world could possibly be dripping ink onto her head in the middle of a cave.
It was big, at least twelve feet tall, and deathly still. It wore a large burgundy overcoat with gold buttons, and a brown belt with a matching floppy hat. Beyond that, the creature was horrifying. It was like a sentient blob of ink, given a shape vaguely like a human's. The pickaxe it held in its right hand (if you could call it that), was buried in the high cave wall and was what kept it in the air. In its other 'hand', it held an ominously glowing red lantern that quietly swung back and forth. Its entire lower body was a blob of ink that secreted more ink down the walls, and its head was a large, round, corked and cracked ink bottle. It occurred to Cassandra that the ink that had fallen onto her head came from its head, and that the cave might not have been black originally.
This thing must have been what drove out the dwarves, and given its attire, she had a feeling she knew what, or rather who, this creature once was.
'Grumpy...'
Cassandra kept staring up at the creature wide eyed, which eventually drew the curiosity of the rest of the Court.
"What are you staring at...?", asked Ace as he looked up. When he saw the beast above them, his face contorted in a silent scream. As did Deuce's and Grim's. Everyone else steeled their expressions. Cassandra didn't move an inch.
"Don't move, don't speak, don't breathe. We cannot risk provoking this thing. Slowly walk out of the cave and hope it doesn't follow.", the tribrid said, her just barely there whisper heard above the deafening silence.
Everyone did as she said, and just as they were about to leave the cave, the jewel they had taken glinted from the lantern light in Eiji's hand.
That was what made the creature mad.
It jumped down from its place abruptly, roaring loud enough to make a person's ears bleed as it swung its pickaxe wildly.
"GIVE... ME... BACK... MY... JEWEL!"
That sent everyone into fight or flight mode. Knowing they were tired and lacking blood, the vampires chose flight. Cassandra picked up Ace and Deuce, each one using a different arm as a chair with their arms wrapped around her shoulders. Grim, who had started floating in the air sometime during their search for the cave, was frozen in terror and on the verge of crtying. Thinking fast once again, Cassandra leapt a bit in the air, causing Ace and Deuce to let out very unmasculine squeals that in any other situation Cassandra would have found attractive, and grabbed her familiar by the scruff of his neck with her teeth, somehow not startling the shell-shock young creature.
They all then sped out of the cave at full speed, turning into blurs as they arrived back outside of the mines. After getting half a mile away from the mineshaft, the Court took a moment to catch their breaths as they looked back at the dark shaft anxiously. They were hoping the thing wouldn't follow them out and give up thinking it had lost them.
They were wrong.
The creature came barreling out of the shaft at full speed, ink flying everywhere as it swiftly glided towards them. The vampires of the group readied themselves for battle. This thing clearly wanted a fight, and by God, the fucker was going to get one.
Cassandra sat Ace, Deuce and Grim down gently and patted their heads in reassurance before taking a fighting stance. They were weak, hungry and unfocused, but they were going to have to pull a win out of their asses one way or another.
As the creature came within six yards of them all, it was like time slowed down. The ink monster had slowed its trek to a snail's pace. A bird flying through the night sky was barely moving, and as she looked towards her blonde mate, Cassandra observed it was taking him a full ten seconds to blink. Noticing she wasn't affected by this, Cassandra blinked, confused.
What the hell was going on? Was the monster doing this? No, if he was he wouldn't also be affected. So who, or rather what, was causing this?
Cassandra then noticed something shining in the moonlight out of the corner of her eye. Looking towards it, she gained a look of unrestrained awe when she saw what it was.
Sitting in a picturesque position, nestled in the trees by the brook, with rays of moonlight illuminating it like a spotlight, was a large glittering gray stone the size of a car. Cassandra walked up slowly to the stone, taking in its simple beauty. As she inched her way towards it, she could swear she heard whispers in her head egging her on.
'Come closer...'
'Hurry, we haven't much time...'
'You must take it...'
'Take what?', Cassandra asked the voices silently in her head. They did not answer. Cassandra resisted the urge to sigh, stupid magical voices never properly explaining things before asking people to do something. Looking up, Cassandra realized what they were talking about.
On top of the rock, the hilt of a large sword stuck out. It was silver, with a black leather grip, and a glowing stone embedded in the center of the silver circle at the end. In front of it, there was a plaque with gold writing, but Cassandra was too enamored by the sword to bother with it. Climbing on top of the rock, she stared at the sword for another moment, contemplating what she was about to do.
'Take it...'
'Take it...'
'TAKE IT...!'
And so she did.
Grabbing the sword by the hilt, she pulled it out of its confines with relative ease, the only sound as she did so being the rattling of the blade.
The second Cassandra did this, time sped up, and the creature descended upon her Court once more.
The thing swung its pickaxe at Shorter and Griffin first, knocking them into a tree and cutting them badly in the process.
Next it swung its weapon down directly on Eiji, impaling him through the chest with a sickening scream and a spurt of blood.
This enraged Ash, who pulled out his gun Cassandra didn't know he had with him and started shooting at it. The bullets did nothing more than put harmless holes in its ink bottle head. It then did the same thing to him as it did to his friend and brother.
Yue had tried to sneak up on it and attack it from behind, only to get absorbed by it somehow and dragged into its inky depths.
Finally, Ace, Deuce and Grim had all snapped out of their horror at what the creature was doing to their friends and had started attacking the thing in grief fueled rage as well. Deuce was dropping cauldrons over its head, Grim was throwing fireballs at it, and Ace was fanning the flames with his wind magic. Oddly enough, they were the ones dealing the most damage.
But Cassandra knew it wouldn't be enough. She had to do something, now.
She brandished her new weapon, holding it out in front of her like her father taught her, ready to charge at the beast that dared to harm what was hers. It was then she heard the voices again.
'The Incantation...'
'Sing the Incantation...'
Cassandra groaned, now what?!
"What incantation?!", she yelled out loud, paying no heed to the fact she was likely the only person who could hear the voices.
'The Incantation of The Moonstone...'
And then it hit her.
Looking at the glowing blue stone on the hilt of her sword, Cassandra gasped as she recognized it as the Moonstone from Tangled the Series, a show she and Skip would watch together on their lazy days. But how? How had it ended up in a sword?
Cassandra snapped herself out of her internal questioning when she saw the ink creature dodge one of Deuce's cauldrons and attempt to chase the trio. Now was not the time for fan theories. Now was the time for kicking ass.
Taking a deep breath, Cassandra glared down at the ink creature from her perch, having gone unnoticed by her comrades during her entire period astray. With a deep, shuddering breath, she began to sing.
Wither and decay
The words of the song rang out over the sounds of the battle. Ace and all those still conscious looked at Cassandra in surprise, wondering just what she was doin, and wondering where she had gotten that sword from. The creature, upon hearing the song, seemed to grow... fearful. It was as if the song was the grim reaper itself. With a terrified groan, it tried to slide away, but it was too late.
There was no escape.
End this destiny
Cassandra jumped down from the stone, stalking her way over to the creature in a slow, intimidating march.
As the tribrid sang this, several things happened at once. First, the moonstone on the sword started glowing. The glow then traced up the blade of the sword in the form of lily and moon carvings. Then, a trail of what could only be described as death began to run up to the monster from under her feet. It killed anything in its path; the grass, the flowers, nothing was safe. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way of the magic that brought only death, and after they were safe, looked upon the events in awe and slight fear. Both Ace and Deuce felt themselves begin to shake. The closer they were to the magic, they felt cold, and so tired they felt that if they went to sleep now, they would never wake up. To Ace, it felt like when he was five and his mother made him hold his great-grandfather's hand as he died.
It felt like death.
Break these earthly chains
And set the spirit free
When the black magic reached the monster, it yelled out in agony as the magic slowly crept up its body. The ink that made up its body began to thin, running onto the forest floor like water as its tortured screams rang out into the night. As this happened, Cassandra continued her trek. She was now within a meter of the creature.
Take what has been hurt
Grant them no mercy
At this point, the creature was no longer a creature and had started to resemble a blob of ink capable of making noise even more than before as its hand reached up towards the sky in some futile effort to escape its fate.
Bend and break the reins
And set the spirit free
Cassandra now stood in front of the beast, if it could even be called that now. The ink that had once made up its body bubbled, its clothes pooled around it, its pickaxe and lantern lost somewhere within itself. As it lay in the final stages of its death, glowing blue veins began to run along the ink like small glowing rivers.
Cassandra looked down at the thing with the cold, glowing eyes of a predator. She could hear the voices in her head once more.
'The Sword...!'
'Run it through with the Sword...!'
Cassandra didn't have to be told twice.
The spirit free
As Cassandra sang the last line to the song, raised the sword above her head, before bringing it down with earth shattering force onto the beast that dared to attack her and hers.
There was a flash of bright blue light, and Cassandra felt her consciousness leave her body for parts unknown as soon as the blade broke through.
The others could only watch in awe and fear, as their leader, sister in all but blood and lover was consumed by the light, her fate unknown to them.
And so my master plan begins to unfold. Yes, I left you all on a bit of a cliff hanger, but I have a reason; and no, it is not to create suspense. I could have continued the chapter, but it would have been very long and I didn't want to risk writing something I couldn't publish by Thursday. Why is Thursday so important, you ask? Well I'll tell you, my depraved little mongrels; I'm going on vacation on Friday. Well, technically its Saturday, but the drive to the cruise terminal three states away is going to take eleven hours, so yeah. I've been busy getting ready for the trip, which is why this chapter took a bit longer to publish than all the others. Yes, this does mean there will be a bit of a hiatus, but it will be very brief and likely only last two weeks at the most. And whenever I spend a lot of time away from the internet, I come back with a ridiculous amount of motivation and good ideas, so you'll still be well fed don't you worry about that ;). Next time, the true tale of the angriest dwarf, secrets revealed and new powers unlocked.
So long and Good night, Thackery Binx.