A couple of days later, Gust found something that was definitely animus enchanted and most likely part of the temple.
That something was a type of barrier in the water. If he went past it, something that seemed to sink its claws between his scales and through his bones tossed him back into the normal water. Circling its limits (seeing as the barrier was shaped in a circle), all he did was get back to where he started.
Summoning the necklace for the first time since he started this madness, Gust took a good look at it. It didn't seem like much, just a simple circular silver locket with a silver chain. With it in talon, he seemed to move a little farther into the zone before getting thrown out. Silently praying that he wasn't going to offend the animi who made it, he put on the necklace. Nothing extravagant happened but he tried to go into the zone again nonetheless.
Rather than the force tossing him out, it seemed to welcome him as it settled into his bones and breezed past his scales. Whether or not one considered that feeling as odd, the water around him was altered further. It wasn't hot or cold, wet or dry, it seemed to settle into an in-between that Gust couldn't put a label to.
Unveiled by the locket, a small globe of a building nestled itself within the barrier. It shifted between being made of blinding light or of vantablack material, not making his task any easier. There was one space that seemed to be made of nothing and showed nothing beyond it, reflecting the rest of the globe unless someone looked for it. And search for it he did, the discovery of it saving him from destroying his eyes more.
Swimming into it (it felt more like floating if Gust was to call out the weird altered water more), he landed on a floor made of softly glowing bricks. The walls and ceiling shifted from vantablack to a white that also created a type of void like the vantablack. The glowing bricks covered the floor, different from the two bright colors he had already seen but the vantablack was more preferable in this room.
A slam from behind him broke Gust out of his musings, his head whipping towards the sound to find that the blank space had disappeared to give way to the eye-sore shift from black to white. Before he could curse anything out, he had to duck before one of the glowing bricks bashed his skull in.
All of the bricks began to move, making Gust scramble to stay on one. The bricks weren't moving that fast but the numbers made up for it when one considered the chaos. One second he was fine, the next he was ducking under a brick, and the next the brick he was on tilted to dump him on a different brick. Similar sequences continued to happen, small aches starting to developed from when he was dropped from too high up or when he didn't quite completely dodge the block.
The initial confusion was to blame for most of the mess-ups but they happened even after he was in the whirlwind for a while. His eyes frantically scanned the room, trying to find a door or something to get out of it. Another blank space in the wall was noticed, although when he tried to jump through it didn't work.
He slammed into the wall, barely able to groan before a brick swung around into his side. It gave him a chance to get his footing from his fail, not that that chance lasted long with all of the chaos. Especially not when he had to scramble away from another random block.
There was no conceivable pattern to it all! Everything was sporadic, too many blocks around to give much of a chance for observation. All Gust could do was try to survive until something else caught his eye.
Jumping onto another block, he watched in fascination as everything slowed. Bricks descended back to the original level, creating a large slowly rotating circle. A clear change happened, the bricks changing from glowing solids to golden see-through... water? His claws sunk in lightly, shifting the liquid even as it gave the feeling as the rest of this place. Not hot or cold, not wet or dry, an in-between that he couldn't understand.
Not that he was given a chance to try, seeing as a much faster brick tried to maul him. Although he had steady ground to stand on, that didn't make it much easier as everything sped up to be faster than before. So the basis of the trial was don't get smashed into a million pieces while trying to find stable ground that would only make it harder to not get destroyed.
... That made no sense, like the rest of the temple.
Nonetheless, Gust continued with the trial. Now given a basis, he tried to find a hint of gold. It wasn't easy, especially considering that the weird void walls were giving a dull ache at the back of his eyes, but he managed it. And he did so again, and again, and again.
The last one left five bricks to do the job and they did it well. Aching and sore, the bricks got a few good hits in, one of those hits dislocating one of his wings, before Gust grabbed the slightly golden one with firm talons. They finally settled like the rest of the bricks, letting him take a deep breath.
After a second or two of blessed lack of change, that time ground to a halt. Literally. Starting with the outer-most circle, the orbiting bricks slowed to a stop. The bricks that had started the settling of their fellows began glowing a little brighter, blazing a clear path to the empty space.
Inhaling sharply and letting out a sigh, he followed the path. This time, he could get through the blank space. He entered a new room, not all that surprised when the blank space slammed shut like before.
In a blank black void, Gust couldn't do much else but explore. Brushing his talons across the walls, ceiling, and floor, he tried to find something. That something came in the form of another blank space that he couldn't enter.
So he tried again, searching for a glow or glint of gold that he might've missed. Edging up the wall, he met the ceiling and started to trace that to-- Wait, wasn't that higher before?
The realization came with a groan. If it wasn't bad enough that he got slapped around by nonsentient bricks, now he was going to get squashed in a void. The animi who made this temple didn't have a concept of holding back.
Slightly desperate, he lit up his scales to try to catch the gold in their light. Slight tugging at his leg caught his attention. A current formed at the sight of the light, him falling limp to let it take him where he needed. It spun him around a few times as a type of whirlpool until it dragged him through the blank space.
He landed in a bright white void of a room that made him close his eyes with a hiss. After a moment of adjustment, he observed the room. Most of it was a white void, only a black table with three bottles and a blank space doorway saving him from getting lost in the void.
The three bottles had golden glowing circles outlining them. One was made of the vantablack material, the other of the white void material, and the last one of the blank space. Maybe he had to take the right one to the door?
Shrugging, Gust carefully sniffed each one. The black bottle smelled of the ocean, the white one of herbs, and the blank space didn't smell like anything had smelled before. Considering the strangeness of the temple, the blank space bottle had a point in its favor.
Sighing at the idea he had, he chose his least favorite claw and stuck it into the black bottle to see what the contents felt like. It didn't burn off his claw right away, so that was a plus. Anyway, it was like a stew with liquid and a few chunks of... something.
Using that claw again, he tried the white bottle which didn't burn off his claw off either. The contents felt like sludge, trying to tug his claw back as he pulled it out. The blank space bottle got the final point in its favor, seeing as it was a liquid but it felt like that weird in-between that every liquid felt like in this place.
Carefully picking up the bottle, he brought it to the door. Testing a talon against it, he wasn't surprised yet still disappointed that his talon didn't go through. What else could he do with the bottle? Maybe they had to be arranged on the table in a certain order?
Shifting in the floor caused him to stumble back, barely keeping a hold on the bottle as two things on either side of the door rose. They were vantablack statues of SeaWings, each of them holding a chalice towards him. A third chalice rose directly in front of him, giving him a good idea of what had to happen.
He shook his head lightly at the ridiculousness of it but he poured the liquid into the three chalices without issue. As he placed the empty bottle back on the table, he had to ignore how their unseeing eyes seemed to see right through him. Turning back and picking up his chalice, he barely got to raise it before they were toasting and drinking.
Gust drank it too, trying to ignore how strange the liquid felt in his throat. The statues bowed to him, disappearing into blank spaces that opened up in the floor beneath them. Barely blinking at it (because this place was weird enough without asking what was happening), he stepped forward and through the doorway.
Most of the room was blank space, the walkway beneath him a shining gold. It led to a trio of pedestals, one of them in the front with the other two standing behind and above it. The first one was a glowing gold, the other two pedestals a familiar vantablack and void white.
The golden pedestal had nothing more than a circular indent but the other two had items (which were floating above their pedestals). The white pedestal had a small silver headdress, strands of black material acting to make it bigger than it was. Finally, the black pedestal had a red stone rather than the usual black, white, and nothing the rest of the temple had.
Further observation was halted by the forceful tug given by the necklace (that he had honestly forgotten about). It dragged him forward, slipping off of his head last second before it slammed his nose into the golden pedestal. Laid to rest, the locket fitted perfectly into the indent.
He watched in awe as it flung open, glowing as something etched itself into the inside. A half-circle of vantablack appeared, rather anticlimactic for all that Gust just went through. Nonetheless, the locket closed and found its place around his neck again. New golden light blazed a new pathway, a blank space door on the other side.
Hesitation stayed for a moment or two. Was that it? After all that, a new edition to the locket was all he got?
Shaking his head, Gust started forward with determination. He couldn't be greedy, he didn't start this journey for power. He started it for his twin, for his family, and for Pyrrhia.
And if Gust went through that doorway to end up outside and left the barrier to find a place to sleep, he barely blinked when he noticed that his wing was fixed.
(And if he had paid a little more attention, he would've seen the two 'dragons' watching him from the sidelines of the artifact room.)
{(:)}
The trip to Earth Temple was supposed to be nothing more than find the temple, suffer through the trials, and move on. Unluckily for Gust, some random MudWings just had to get into trouble.
Playing around on the beach was a relatively normal thing, he supposed, but MudWings didn't belong in the ocean. Still, a MudWing was swimming around, lingering close to the drop off into deep ocean but she was called back every time. She seemed to be preoccupied with something above water, therefore not able to notice the shark that crept closer and closer.
Scowling at the oblivious MudWing who wasn't his problem and was an enemy, Gust hesitated before making up his mind. As she began to wander back to the drop off and where the shark waited, he intervened. Exploding into action, he rushed past the shark and slammed into the MudWing.
They were both launched out of the water, landing on the beach in a tangle of limbs. She was wheezing from the sudden force, allowing Gust to get away from her before she tried to hurt him. He dove back into the ocean, ignoring the gasps and exclamations that the water soon muffled.
Frostbreath readied at the back of his throat, he attacked the shark. Rather than draw blood and attract more predators, he tried to freeze it. It didn't take long, a preemptive blow to the nose with his tail assuring there was little to no fight.
Serrated claws dug into the ice cocoon, giving him enough of a grip as he emerged from the ocean again. Throwing the shark at the surprised gaggle of MudWings, he watched as they scrambled away from getting hit by it. A sharp nod met their gazes when they looked up at him and away from the shark, indulging the five of them in a moment of observation.
They blatantly stared at his spikes and bioluminescent scales, trying to understand how he had both. Glancing at his jewelry, they lingered on his white scales. His odd appearance worked in his favor, startling the MudWings greatly with both that and his sudden actions.
Surprise had delayed them but Gust didn't want to find out what would happen if they tried anything. With nothing more than a flick of his tail as a goodbye, he dove into the ocean and left them to their own devices. Cautious as ever, he found a hiding place and stayed there for a little.
Counting to a hundred icicles in his head, he left and started searching for the temple. Lingering near the small cliff that was created from the ocean drop off, he tried to observe for anything that would give the temple away. He found it after a few minutes, much to his dreading glee.
A temperature drop didn't seem like too magical of a thing but when the temperature was at least three times as cold as it was a second ago, something was up. Following the decrease, he didn't find anything when it started to go up again. Finding the lowest point, he scowered the cliffside.
Brushing his talons over the rock didn't seem like it would do much but the obvious indent for a talon said otherwise. Pressing his talon into it, he waited for the next temple to appear. Nothing happened, making him frown and question if he was imagining the indent.
A mental check for reasons why it wouldn't work revealed that he wasn't wearing the locket. Quickly putting it on, he tried again. This time, something happened.
Part of the rock disappeared underneath his talon, making a square hole in the cliff that he could fit into. Going through recklessly, Gust stumbled when the water suddenly stopped and he had to stand on solid ground. The Aether Temple didn't have much gravity and it was still technically in water so he didn't have to deal with his limp. Now though, he would have to get through whatever death traps the temple had with a hindrance.
Grumbling under his breath in annoyance, he observed the room. In the rather bland yet giant stone room, a giant iron statue of a SeaWing that was at least three times the size of Coral sat at the other end of it. On the walls, iron triangles that were pointing down held slightly odd-looking spears across the middle. That was all of interest, the sound of stones scraping together making him turn his head. The hole closed up, trapping Gust with the giant statue that was definitely supposed to kill him.
To prove his point, it stood up with the screeching of metal. It opened its mouth to roar, the noise that acted as one akin to somebody banging a couple of pans together. Charging, it didn't give him any time to curse out the animi who made it.
He stumbled out of the way, barely diving under a swipe from the giant talon that was about the size of him. "Why the limping dragon? Why pick the limping dragon?" he panted, jumping away from another swipe. The statue answered by trying to get him with its tail which he narrowly dodged.
Desperate, Gust sprinted between its legs and to the wall. Recklessly he took one of the spears and jabbed it into a hole in the statue as it tried to turn towards him. It didn't stop, jerking his arms and making him twist the spear. That made it stop.
The hole in the back of its leg had a line running through it, giving a space for the odd and misplaced rod that was through the head of the spear. His initial strike had slotted in the spear, the twist from the statue causing the gap to turn like a keyhole. Jerking his arms had made him lose his grip, not that he needed it as the spear melted away and into the statue.
Another roar jolted him out of his observation, jump-starting him into action and away from another strike. That one was faster, the statue's face twisting to show a little fury. It swung at him again, the strength behind it pushing enough air that he could feel it.
So he had to use the spears as keys to stop the statue but it got angrier, faster, and stronger every time he used one. "Seriously?" he grumbled, rushing towards another spear and away from a blow as he realized what the trial had him do. Despite the difficulty (especially considering that he had a limp), Gust didn't stop.
Three melted spears later, he had to look around for the third one. He found it but the statue got to him before he could try to get it. For the first time since the two had started to dance around each other, the statue got a hit in.
Razor-sharp metal slashed across his side, sending him into the wall. Royal purple rushed from his torn scales for the first time in years, making him dizzy and faint. The forceful meeting with the wall didn't help, stars dancing across his vision from the hit to the head.
There were a few seconds that lasted an eternity, those seconds consisting of him going in and out of consciousness. When that faded and he once again comprehended that he was in danger, he grit his teeth and stood up. Stumbling away from another talon, he broke into a run towards the last spear.
The world seemed to shake as the statue gave chase, another roar rattling his skull. Ignoring the pain, his talons clumsily scrambled to grab the spear. Gust turned, diving under and away from metal jaws to jab and twist the final spear into place.
It melted away, finally pleasing the statue. Moving back, it gratefully bowed to him. He bowed back, slightly delirious from blood loss. The scraping of stones brought him away from the statue and to another square doorway that magically opened up. He gladly exited the room, bringing his bleeding scales with him.
The 'door' closed behind him as he observed the new room. A simple square stone room with a small square drawn on the floor, a metal orb, cube, and triangle sitting just outside of the square. Stumbling forward, he tried to get his foggy mind to work well enough to figure out the trial.
Squinting at the three objects for a long moment, he picked up the cube. All his delirious mind could come up with was that both of the rooms were square so far. A slight tugging from the metal cube told him that he was right in some capacity. He followed where it wanted to go, setting it down to turn around and pick up another metal cube that magically appeared. Following that one's directions as well, he continued to do it until the square doorway appeared.
The end image was the triangle symbol that was in the previous room. Gust shrugged off any meaning it could have and moved onto the next room. The next room did not help the fact that he already felt like he was going to faint.
Other than a small platform on either side of the room, all that was ground he could stand on was a thin walkway that barely fit one of his talons. On either side of the walkway, deadly things await. On the left, spiky vines grew and twisted together. On the right, the sight of ocean brine made him shiver.
Mysterious weight started to bear down on him, the sound of cracking stone kicking him into gear. Raising his wings to help with his balance, he started to move as fast as he could across the walkway. The steady dripping of blood into the brine acted as a clock, timing his journey across the divide.
Another doorway was already open on the other side, letting him through easily. A sigh of relief escaped him as the weight left. Even as they left the room, his dripping blood still timed him.
The last room was stone like the rest, although a wide metal pathway marked the floor. Three pedestals, one in the front and two in the back, stood like the ones in the Aether Temple. The front one that was made of stone had the circular indent for the locket. The back two were made of metal, one had an iron gauntlet of sorts on it and the other had a wooden staff with several gemstones in it.
Like before, the locket pulled him forward and slipped off of his neck last second. It rested in its place, opening and glowing like before. The same triangle symbol that showed up in the rest of the temple blazed its mark into the locket. Made of stone and resting inside of the black half-circle from before, its appearance made the locket close and place itself around his neck again.
Unlike before, one of the artifacts raised itself off of its pedestal, the staff. It waved towards his bleeding side, making him yelp as a fierce pain stabbed at it. Gust looked at his side, gasping in awe as the open wound was replaced with a long scar. The staff rested once again, leaving him to stare at it in confusion and gratefulness.
A new path blazed forward, a square doorway opening at the end. Glancing at the staff once again, Gust left the temple with a new scar on his side and another temple to conquer.
And if he had paid attention to the walls, he would've noticed the faint paintings of dragons who watched him leave.