"KROW STOP" Kyle screams in one last ditch effort.
Kyle and Acho look at each other speechless for a moment, then stare incredulously at the door. Acho is the first to break the silence.
"That just happened..."
"Yeah- it did," Kyle responds, sheathing his sword and putting his ear up to the door. "Krow you still there?"
But Krow is already too far away for it to hear him.
Kyle grows a bit more nervous than he's ever willing to admit when he hears a shout from the other side of the wall. "It's just as stupid as ever-" He mumbles breathily.
"What are the chances it, y'know, survives the night?" Acho questions, unsure.
"Low," Kyle responds with brutal honesty. "Very low."
---
The shout Kyle heard? Oh, it was definitely Krow's. What Kyle failed to realize is that this shout was one of joy because, oh my God, Draxy is actually here!
It's hard to see, stumbling through the dark maze, Lav being shifted as a firefly helps an absolute ton. Krow finds Draxy curled up in a corner and instantaneously scoops him up into a hug.
"KROW?!" Draxy squeaks out, his voice breaking.
"DRAXY! HOW ARE YOU HERE, WHAT?!"
Lav hovers around the two, providing the perfect ambient lighting for the situation.
"I-" Draxy stutters. "I was in the dark place for a really long time, after I fell, it was really scary and quiet and lonely- I didn't know what I was gonna do! But then, a shiny thing showed up, and I went through it! And now I'm here!"
Krow sighs in a mix of stupefaction and relief. "I'm glad you're okay..."
"Y'know, at first I was really scared-" Draxy mutters. "Because when I went to the shiny thing, I went from that dark place to this dark place, and the dark places had scary things in them! I don't really like the dark- but now you're here so the dark is ok!"
Krow just nods along as Draxy talks, relishing the moment. Finding out that you didn't leave a child to die, is a pretty awesome moment to be fair.
"I was looking for my sister in the dark place! She wasn't there..."
"I'm sorry," Krow isn't sure if that's an, 'I'm sorry for your sister' or an 'I'm sorry in general. Maybe it could serve as both.
"Is she here?" Draxy inquires, eyes brimming with hope as he looks up at Krow.
And Krow doesn't want to say no so..." I haven't seen her yet, but we'll keep looking I promise!""Ok!"
"So this is the dinosaur?" Lav queries. If fireflies had eyebrows he would have one raised in questioning right at this very moment.
Draxy spots the little glowing bug that is Lav and instantly reverts to the instinct of biting at it. Chasing him around as he used to chase the flies.
"No! Draxy! What did I say about the bugs!"
"I just wanna nibble them a little!" Draxy jumps to nip at Lav again. "See I almost got it!"
"Draxy that isn't a bug- it's a Lav!" Krow exclaims. It's more concerned for Draxy than it is for Lav because the shapeshifter has turned into a bee and is prepared to bite, or sting, back.
Draxy pauses for a moment, squinting his eyes in suspicion.
"They're from the dark place!" Krow elaborates. "Very cool and very nice so please don't eat him actually!"
There's a beat or two of awkward silence.
"You're alive," Lav says curtly hovering around Draxy. "People don't usually live very long in the dark place."
"OK! It's probably true! But now is not the time to be talking about it!" Krow remarks.
"Lav isn't very nice. I like Melvin better." Draxy affirms; a bit of sadness edging his voice.
"Wait! Lav, can you-
Krow is cut off by a familiar trill; the recognizable soft clicking of metal against stone goes completely silent, shoving Draxy behind itself. The Frostwalker yelps in surprise. Lav seems to recognize the noise too, and in a flash, shifts into a large cat, claws and all.
The three huddle in a corner, and Draxy is just incredibly confused. "What's going on?"
"Ummm, Lav?" Krow can vaguely remember Kyle and Acho's descriptions of the dark maze and is starting to think maybe it should have heeded them, or at least properly listened. Now that it's thinking about it, Kyle definitely said something about monsters at some point. Maybe more than one point actually.
"What's a Kyle and Acho?" Draxy questions.
"I said that out loud?"
"mhm"
The scraping sound continues and gets louder by the second. Before any of them notice, it's rounding the corner. Slowly, carefully approaching.
"What is it..." Draxy watches it with wide eyes and bated breath. The thing almost looks like a giant spider. He likes chasing spiders, but this one seems a bit too large to chase.
"Shhhhhhh" Krow shushes both of its companions to an almost excessive degree, and then falls silent, trying to keep even breathing to a minimum. Draxy and Lav follow suit.
Their efforts don't help; not really. This creature was designed for the dark. Crafted to pick Outsiders out of the gloom, sometimes one at a time, other times in large bloody massacres. Krow's slowly healing shoulder throbs a bit more painfully at the memory. It's definitely the same monster from the first night.
Draxy is scared, as anyone would be. His breath is shaky and hitching. His lungs need more air than he's letting in.
He hiccups, once. Once is all it takes.
The creature is practically on top of them, fast as lightning. Krow screams, and it can't tell if anyone else does, because the voices are screaming even louder-
"GO!"
It pushes Draxy ahead and out of the way, before managing to duck out of the way of an incoming piercer as well. Lav is probably somewhere, flying overhead as something. It can't really tell. Draxy maybe somewhere in front of it. It can't really tell that either.
Running through the normal dark isn't fun. But this isn't normal dark, this is the kind of dark that makes people scared of it. The kind of dark that consumes you. It really doesn't help when there is a monster less than two paces behind you.
The mindless sprinting is exhilarating. Krow's adrenaline spikes through the roof to terrifying levels. It's an uninterpreted instinct, until of course, it is interrupted. By a chest. Yes, a chest. Krow trips over it while turning a hallway. Its foot gets caught on the lid and it goes flying face-first into the floor.
Krow scrambles up, expecting this blunder to have spelled out its doom but is surprised to see that it actually spelled mercy.
It's supposed to be some kind of trap. A screen of iron bars closes off the hallway; intended to split groups of travelers. All it really does is split this group from the death by a Greiver. Draxy and Lav are already there, snickering and trying to disguise their amusement and failing horribly at it.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING I ALMOST DIED?" Krow screams despite knowing it shouldn't.
"You tripped," Lav notes, with the closest thing you can get to a smirk when you're shapeshifted as a cat.
"Seems like-" Draxy can't even get through his sentence without giggling. "A skill issue!"
Krow buffers for a moment... then it breaks into laughter as well. It's stupid, unnecessary laughter, but Krow doesn't even care, because that joke, even though it's been re-hashed so many times, feels like the best joke ever, because Draxy is the one saying it again.
---
By some miracle, the trio makes it back to the clearing relatively unscathed. Lav quickly shifts into the most suspicious bat anyone has ever seen, but somehow remains unnoticed.
Kyle and Acho are still waiting by the maze entrance, along with Magic, Soup, and Owen; who all arrived at various points during the night, all due to varying reasons, with differing amounts of genuine worry.
Boy, were they in for a surprise...
You see, Lav might've been able to fly under the radar, but Draxy can't shapeshift.Draxy actually comes through the doors ahead of Krow. Skipping into the sunlight. The reactions are scattered all across the board.
"WHAT IS THAT?!"
"HUH?"
"did it come from in there?"
"It's kind of cute!"
"It's not hostile?"
"Krow, what did you do?"
Kyle and Owen even draw their weapons, more as an instinct than a warning."Sooo..." Krow chuckles nervously. "This is Draxy..."
"Hi! I came through a shiny thing!" Draxy introduces himself.
Magic absolutely lights up.
"He can speak?" Acho questions.
"He can speak!" Magic squeals. However confusing this is, it is exciting.
"What are you, little guy?" Soup slowly kneels down to brush Draxy's scales.
"I'm a thing called a Frostwalker!" Draxy proudly proclaims. "When I walk on water it makes ice! So I walk on the ice! Like frost, see!"
Draxy sticks out a front leg for Soup to touch. As expected it is unusually cold. Acho and Magic's hearts absolutely melt over Draxy as Owen and Kyle pull Krow to the side for a separate conversation.
"Krow where did you find him?" Kyle begins the mini interrogation.
"Can we trust him?" Owen continues.
"In the dark maze. I met him when I was in there." Krow says, like a liar. "And of course, we can trust him he's a literal child!"
Owen just shakes his head and sighs, "Being a child doesn't equate to being trustworthy."
"Who, what, when, where, why, and how did this happen." Kyle aggressively inquires.
"Don't ask me because I don't know." Krow raises its hands in a placating gesture. That answer is at least more honest than the last.---Krow finds itself tugging at its jacket as people either gush over or stare suspiciously at the new addition to the clearing. If it didn't know better, it would've thought that it was slowly getting hotter in the clearing these days...