Druids and the Wooden Heart

Back at Bite and the others.

They all were sitting in a circle and thinking about what to do next. Darren shook his head. "Why did he took Spirit with him?"

Leaf looked at him. "Does it matter we have to get him back." Bite nodded agreeing.

Switch also nodded. "You are right but how?"

Bite closed his eyes and concentrated on his bond to Spirit. He stood up and barked in the direction. Switch looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You know where he is?" Bite nodded.

Leaf looked at the others. "This is our chance we can find them get Spirit back and arrest the dark mage!"

Switch tapped at his chin. "But if Bite leads the way we will play him directly in his hooves. Also he probably know about that connection and expects us."

Darren nodded. "You are probably right but I don't think that we have another option. Bite are they moving?" Bite closed his eyes and followed his bond. As he opened his eyes again, he nodded. Darren turned to the others. "That is what I expected. He will keep moving to find him without Bite could take way to long."

Switch nodded at them. "Then we should not waste anymore time. We've got to rescue a pony!"

Leaf turned to Bite. "Lead the way." Bite turned in the direction where he sensed Spirit and began to ran followed by the others.

They ran for at least six hours. They all were completely silent to save their energy. While they were running Bite suddenly felt something odd at his bond. He stopped and all the others looked at him.

Bite felt something reaching at his bond but he was able to shake this feeling of and searched for Spirit again. After some time he was able to locate him again, the strange thing was that he sensed him under them.

Bite looked at the ground and Switch stepped next to him. "What is it? You can look at the ground another time."

Darren grabbed Bite at the shoulder. "Come now lead the way."

Bite shook his head and dug a bit in the ground. Leaf looked at Bite then at the ground. "What is it?" Bite rolled with his eyes and dug again in the ground. Leaf raised an eyebrow. "Is something under us? Is it Spirit?" Bite nodded.

Switch looked confused at the ground. "Under us? How did he got there?"

Darren looked at the ground and then looked around. "They are probably in a some sort of hidden cave, let us search for it."

They all nodded and began to spread. They looked around behind every tree and under every stone but they couldn't find anything. Leaf began to draw runes in the earth while Darren and Switch began to observed the area from the air. As they landed again they checked if Leaf had found anything.

She looked at one of her runes. "Well here is certainly something but I can't say where exactly. Did you found anything?"

They both shook their heads and Switch sighed. "Nothing. Does one of you have a plan? I mean there must be a way!"

They all just stood there in silence and none of them had an idea what to do.

Suddenly Bite rose his head and sniffed the air. He began to look around to find where this smell came from. As he found the direction he began to follow it. The others saw that and first looked confused but then followed him.

Bite walked to a big heavy looking rock and sniffed at it. Switch looked at the rock. "What with the rock? I already saw it and tried to move it but it is stuck somehow under the earth. No way anypony could move it."

Bite looked at the stone he was sure that this was the entrance he began to walk around the stone but couldn't find anything. He dug a bit in the ground but only to hit stone again.

Bite sat in front of the stone for a moment before he got an idea. He closed his eyes and began to stretch his aura out. As he did this he was able to see a strange magic field around the stone. Leaf now looked closely at the stone and seemed surprised. "This stone is not real. I can see a weak magic field."

Bite there while began to look closer at them magic field. As he followed the magic he found that there were two strings going away from the stone too two treetops.

Bite opened his eyes again. He walked to the trees and barked at it. Darren rolled with his eyes. "We don't have time for something like this. We have to focus on our mission."

As Bite continued to bark at the tree walked Leaf to the tree and looked up to it. "I think there is something. Switch could you look if there is a rune?"

Switch flew right up and disappeared in the treetop. After a few second they heard his voice again. "I found one and it is activated!"

Leaf nodded and turned to Bite. "Do you know were the second rune is?"

Bite nodded and walked to the second tree and looked at the tree top. Leaf walked to the tree and was able to spot a rune from the ground. She turned her head in the direction of Switch. "On three you will shoot at the rune, ok?"

"I am ready!"

Leaf looked at the direction of the rune and her horn began to glow. "One, two, Three!" She shot at the rune and in the same time they heard Switch's bolt hitting the tree. Suddenly the big rock began to fade and finally disappear.

There looked at the place where now a deep hole was. They looked down there was a ladder going down and at the bottom of the hole they saw a small light.

Darren pointed at their bags. "Ok everyone only take the things you really need, we don't know what is down there and our bags might just weigh us down."

Meanwhile down, deeper in the cave, was Spirit tied to a table. The unicorn had also cast a spell that Spirit couldn't speak anymore. The cave itself was very big and everywhere stood tables with notes and books. There where sketches from runes and instructions for spells. In the middle of the cave stood a table with various plants and chemicals.

Spirit saw that on the other side of the cave was another table but with birds, cats, dogs and other animals. The unicorn, still with his cloak on, stood before them with a bunch of phials and powders.

Suddenly stopped he in his working and his horn glowed shortly. He turned around to Spirit. "It seems your friends found the entrance a bit too early. I had planned to greet them but it looks like I have to go with plan B. What a shame."

He walked to a small box and pulled something with his magic out. It was a ball made out of dark crystals and glowed purple in the middle. "I found this together with one of the black books. The problem is till now I couldn't figure out how it works but maybe with that your wolf friend can help me." He created three of his strange pony like creatures. One walked to Spirit and the others walked next to the unicorn.

The pony walked to wall far away from Spirit. "And don' think that plan B is my last one."

Switch, Darren and Leaf there while reached the end of the first tunnel and began to walk slowly and carefully forward. On the way saw Leaf a bunch of strange plants hanging from the cave ceiling. She pointed shortly at them and whispered. "These are probably what you had smelled but normally these kind of plants don't grow here. The pony we search for must have brought them here."

Darren turned to her and whispered quietly. "Quiet now. We want to surprise him!" They all nodded and switch quickly drank one of his medical potions. They continued to walk and they saw a light. They made carefully their way towards the light and just as they walked through the entrance they saw the pony with the dark robe and Spirit that was tied to together.

The pony greeted them. "So you are the druids. I didn't expect you this early but it doesn't matter." Darren reached to his weapon but the pony interrupted him. "One more movement and your friend is dead!"

They all looked at Spirit who now had a knife hold against his throat by the green creature. Darren stopped and turned back to the unicorn. "What do you want?"

The pony pointed at Bite. "Him. To be more exact his core. He will walk towards me till I say stop then I will take his core and you can have your friend."

Leaf still looked at the strange pony-like creatures that stood next to the pony. Switch walked one step towards but backed off again immediately as the horn from the unicorn began to glow. Switch looked at the pony and asked. "What do you want from Bite?"

The unicorn pulled out a dagger which was completely made of crystals. "His magic, nothing more. Now I don't have all day!"

They all looked at Bite who nodded and slowly began to walk. As he passed Leaf she whispered something. "Bite these things are instable one hit-" Suddenly a green bolt hit Leaf and she was unable to speak any further.

The unicorn began to sound angrier. "If one of you tries to whisper again I will not hesitate to kill you friend!"

They all nodded and Bite continued to walk towards the unicorn with the dagger. On the middle of the way he suddenly stopped and turned to Spirit, in a few seconds he jumped at the strange creature next to him and bite it. The thing immediately vanished.

Darren and Switch didn't hesitated and ran towards the unicorn but now the other two creatures jumped forward and as they hit the ground they tuned into a thick cloud of smoke. It began covered Darren and Switch and left them without orientation.

The unicorn now turned to Bite and threw his dagger and hit Bite right in the middle, through the wood in the core. The dagger began to glow in a light green and the unicorn pulled it out again. He began to walk to the way deeper in the cave and threw the black orb behind Leaf and the others. As he reached a smaller part of the tunnel he stopped and activate two runes who created a barrier in front of him.

The unicorn turned around and looked at them. At this moment Spirit saw one blue and one yellow flashing under the dark hood for a second. The unicorn turned around and laughed. He began to walk away and shouted over his shoulder. "Have fun with that!"

Leaf saw that orb and had already a theory but first she ran to Spirit and untied him. Spirit quickly stood up and pointed at the collar he still had around his neck. "Can you remove this?"

Leaf nodded and began to cast a few spells and removed it. As he was free from the collar he ran immediately to the core from Bite that laid on the ground. "Bite can you hear me? Are you alright?"

First he didn't sensed anything in that core but then he left a weak response. "I am alright. Need time to rest..." Spirit felt that Bites mind began slowly to drift away but he was still alive.

There while the smoke around Switch and Darren disappeared. Darren looked around for the unicorn but as he couldn't find him walked he to Leaf and Spirit, followed by Switch. "He got away, didn't he?" Leaf and Spirit nodded. Darren sighed and looked around. "We can at least search for clues."

Leaf hectically shook her head. "No we can't! We have to hurry come now." She began to walk towards from where they came but stopped as she saw the black crystal orb. It had a small crack and black smoke came out of it.

Leafs eyes went wide. "No it is too late." In front of their eye began a giant wolf made of smoke began to take form and blocking the whole entrance for them.

The wolf himself looked like a living shadows, his outlines seemed to fade and appear over and over again. Where his eyes should be where just black holes and his face looked completely distorted. The wolf looked through the room, not seem to notice the group in front of him and howled.

Switch leaned to Leaf and whispered. "What is that?"

Leaf whispered back. "A shadow wolf. I will explain later, try not to draw any attention. Maybe I can send him back in the crystal."

The wolf suddenly sniffed the air and just as he did he began to growl. Darren grabbed the steel rod from his bag. "Too late he knows that we are here. Leaf try to send him back we will draw his attention to us."

Daren grabbed Spirits pair of claws he had took with him and gave them to Spirit. "You will need them." They made themselves ready to fight and began to walk a bit forward except Spirit who first wanted to try something else, he laid Bites core on the ground and sat down.

He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind to the mind of the shadow creature. As he connected with the shadow wolf he was overflowed with anger and nothing else. He tried to send him positive and calming emotions but even though they seemed to reach it the emotions didn't change.

He opened his eyes again and walked next to Darren and Switch. "Seems like we have to fight." Right at this moment the wolf jumped at them and they were barely able to doge.

Darren jumped forward and tried to hit the wolf at the leg but the rod just went through. He wanted to pull it back through but this time it hit something and the wolf pulled his leg away. The wolf attacked Darren with his paw and forced him to jump away.

There while Spirit jumped to the side of the wolf and attacked. First his claw seemed to hit him but in the middle of the way he just went through like through smoke.

Spirit jumped back again and turned to the others. "Something isn't right. His from seems very unstable. Most of my attacks just went through him."

Now Switch tried he flew up and to the face of the wolf. On the way the wolf raised his paw and tired to hit Switch from above. Switch, too late, saw the attack and closed his eyes. Again the paw just went through him and hit on the ground. Switch opened his eyes surprised again only to get hit by the rising paw of the wolf.

The impact hurled him away. He landed next to Leaf who was drawing lines hectically but still carefully in the ground. He expression seemed very tensed. Switch stood up. "Could you please hurry. This thing really makes some trouble."

Leaf continued to draw lines and responded with a very annoyed tone. "If you think this is so easy you can draw the next runes! I need to concentrate, go help the others!"

Switch was a bit surprised by this outburst but just turned away and flew back to the others how tried to doge the attacks as good as they could. The wolf was about to bite Darren but Switch kicked the wolf in the face. He hit the wolf who pulled his head away.

Darren now attacked back and tired to strike from above but again his rod just went through his head. Right at this moment attacked Spirit from the side and actually hit one of his hind legs. The wolf responded by jumping a bit backwards in the tunnel.

The three walked in a line began to constantly attack the wolf and doge his attacks. Even though almost half of the attacks on both sides just went through them. Suddenly they heard from behind. "Out of the way!"

The all jumped aside and Leaf activated the rune. The black orb, where still black smoke came out, began to glow and the smoke was sucked back inside of the orb. As the wolf was completely gone, Darren and Switch sat exhausted down while Spirit walked to Bites core and looked over it before he also sat down.

Switch pulled with his magic a bottle of his medicine from a small bag he head with him and drank it. "What was that? And what was going on with it that some of our attacks just went through?"

Leaf walked to the black orb and looked at it. The crack it had was gone again and the orb had a weak green glow now. "This here is something from the of times before the crystal empire first was attack. It is a prototype of a dark spell that almost destroyed the whole balance of nature."