Firekeeper

The Great Swamp was vast. It was a place of death and life. Under the swampy waters and much were the remains of thousands, possibly millions, of lost souls who dared traverse these dangerous lands.

Lorenae had taught Trixie a few things about these treacherous lands before they parted ways. The swamp itself was a massive fort where the Abyss Watchers and their lords of old congregated and watched over these lands. Trixie and Babs trudged through the muck , slowly making their way towards a large stone tower that peeked over the trees. There high above was the remains of a dilapidated bridge that long since collapsed.

Its remains cut the swamp in half, and thus force Trixie and Babs to halt their travel and make a decision. They had to decide weather to go left or right in hopes of finding a way through the debris. There was so much debris that even the smallest point was at least several meters high. The magical pull was still growing stronger in Trixie’s horn. But the fallen bridge remains was impassable at this point.

“Which way should we goes, miss Trixie?” Babs asked, leaning on her giant weapon. Trixie pulled out her longsword and tapped the stone wall. The clanking of stone and steel resonated in her ears as Babs watched waiting patiently.

“I don’t know kiddo,” Trixie said sheathing the sword on her back with her magic. “Honestly we could end up doubling back it we can’t find a path one way. It’s also too dangerous for us to split again. Let’s go left.”

Trixie sudden chose to go left and Babs simply shrugged and followed the mare. They had no better alternative at the time, so choosing a random direction was the only option. The two ponies walked along the wall using it as a guide hoping to find an opening that would allow them safe passage. Trixie walked past a slug that reached out to try and ensnare her, but was smashed under the carim warhammer of Babs. The tiny beast made a sickening squelching sound as its body was smashed into the mud. The souls gathered into the soul vessel and Babs continued on after Trixie.

Both Trixie bad Babs by now had gotten use to the awful putrid smell of the swamp. Or rather their noses simply burned out from it. For the next hour they marched along the swamp until them came upon a large tower, much like the one they sought.

It was entrapped by a large tree whose roots cradled around it like protective hands. The debris from the fallen bridge made it almost impassable, but a large root kept one small section open for them to be able to pass through. Trixie noticed something odd about the roots though.

Near the base of the tower, where the roots split the debris, was a stone stair path that went up towards the tower. However on either side of the stairway was two figures that could easily be mistaken for rocks. They had simple wooden shields held together by nothing more than vines and mud, and held spears in one hand. The creatures themselves were unimpressive at first glance, but a closer inspection gave a clearer picture.

They were humanoid like with birdlike features. Simple bodies with beaked heads that were covered in various fungi and bloated pores full of puss. Their bodies were pale and covered in moss with no visible clothing among them.

Trixie guessed they were asleep since they were huddled in the roots. Tiny torches lined teh stairway leading to the first tower that had a large fire atop of it. Trixie examined the area seeing no other path but forward. She gave Babs Seed a gesture with her head so the filly saw the two sleeping figures. Babs nodded after examining the roots and spotted the pale figures after a minute. She readied her hammer and took point with Trixie at her rear.

Inch by inch they slowly approached the stairs. Nothing seemed amiss, until they reached the base of the steps and a series of glowing schoched runes appeared on the floor at their hooves. They both looked down at the runes, they were nothing they’d seen before yet their meaning was somehow transmitted to their minds. AThen a voice spoke to them saying: “beware the tallest trees. They aren’t trees, but death by sorcery. Beware the ghru, but mostly beware the elder ghru.” Then the message disappeared.

The two ponies shook their heads feeling a slight daze from the message. Then they heard the snapping of twigs and a momentary sound of chanting coming from behind them. Trixie ducked as Babs rolled to the side and into the roots as a large red energy orb flew past them and into the stone stairs. The two smaller figures, grhu, awoke screeching and waving their spears widely as a larger elder ghru with a staff came up from behind a tall tree. The message wasn’t wrong, they really were hard to tell from the trees when standing side by side with them.

Trixie immediately threw out a fireball at the first grhu setting the creature ablaze. Babs leapted over Trixie smashing her hammer down on the head of the second. She then spun around on one back leg and used her hammer like abat, sending the creature flying into the elder knocking it over.

“Run, Babs! Get to the top of the stairs!” Trixie yelled running up the stairs.

Babs stayed looking back at her fallen foes scoffing.

“Why? They ain't so tough!” Babs said readying her hammer again.

Only then did she see what a mistake that was. In the swamp she could see at least a dozen more ghru and four other elder ghru approaching. They were faster than she expected and realized she couldn’t fight them all.

“On, second thought, I’m with ya, Trix! Wait for me!” She yelled chasing after the mare up the stairs.

Babs ran past Trixie, who was standing in the center of the stairs facing the pursuing ghru. Trixie smashed her right hoof into the ground creating a series of exploding lava columns that destroyed the stairs and left a flowing lava pool oozing down the stairs. Several of the ghru succumbed to the lava screeching in agony as their flesh burned to the bone in seconds and they became one with the molten rock.

The elder ghru raised their staffs together and created a barrage of dark magical red orbs that swarmed over the lava and towards Trixie. The blue mare rolled oth teesside creating a magical shield to absorb the majority of the magical blasts. The force was too strong and the shield shattered after the last orb hit its surface without much effort. Trixie nearly fell over but quickly recovered to create a flameing disk in her hoof. With a great throw Trixie hurled the flaming disk at the center ghru striking its chest dead on. The skeletal chest was cut in half as the resulting explosion caught the other elder ghru in flames. Unlike the smaller ghru they elders seemed mostly unaffected by the flame, or at least barely showed it.

Trixie didn’t waste anymore time on them and ran up the path till she reached the top. Babs was there waiting with her weapon ready. When she saw Trixie she lowered the weapon and took a minute to catch her breath.

Just when she started to relax a grhu jumped from out of nowhere and started stabbing at Babs. The filly was caught off guard and fell to the ground. The spear the grhu held stabbed father violently but her armor gave her much needed protection from the simple weapon. Trixie heard Babs and turned to try a stun spell on the ghru but was blocked by another ghru who dropped from the trees above with its shield.

The stun spell was absorbed by the shield leaving Trixie vulnerable for a brief second. The humanoid creature took the opportunity to lunge forward with its spear, trying to drive it into Trixie’s chest. The attack was so sudden the unicorn didn’t have time to react. She simply put up a magical barrier to deflect the attack but with little success. The spear pierced through her shield easily and stabbed her in the left shoulder. Trixie instinctively used her magic to draw her sword and swung it around the magic barrier and drove it through the ghru's neck. This attack completely decapitated the creature sending the head flying down the stairs behind Trixie, and its body fell limply to the side. While this was happening Babs was trained to kick off the grhu that was now latched onto her.

It's spear long discarded the ghru was now stabbing at Babs with a small curved dagger. It was trying to hit her where there was little or no armor. Most of the strikes were aimed at her head, but Babs tiny figure made it easy to tilt her head to avoid getting hit, but the ghru was a quick learner. Its strikes became more precise and accurate with each strike. Babs were unable to use her weapon and was defenseless against its attacks. Faintly the ghru just grabbed the filly by the neck and lifted her to eye level with it.

The bronze filly went wide eyed when the ghru raised the dagger to meet with her neck. It pulled back and held it back for two counts. Then it stabbed forward and Babs closed her eyes sensing her end was near. There was a sound of piercing flesh but no pain was felt. The filly didn’t want to, but she carefully opened one eye half expecting to see the dagger piercing her body at some point.

When she did she was shocked to see a massive long sword dug into the guru's skull splitting it in two. The sword withdrew from the skull sending the creature to its knees, much like in prayer, and slumped over onto its side, and dropped the filly onto the stone floor.

Babs didn’t waste time to gather herself, still in shock, she rolled sideways to her weapon and lifted it to face the third attacker. To her dismay what stood before her was a horror she didn’t want to face.

It was an Abyss Watcher.

Babs started to hyperventilate, the memories of Ponyville being under siege from the wolf warriors terrified her. This one was slightly different from the others. Unlike normal ones, this watcher had full armored leggings that were painted black and had depictions of wolves on it. The one arm gauntlet it were was slightly larger and the fingers were tipped with metal claws. The cape was normal, but this Watcher had its cape covering its right shoulder almost like a shoulder cape would be worn and its mask was pure black.

It slowly raised its right arm with its greatsword in hand placing the curved dagger it carried atop its right arm bicep in a traditional Watcher pose. Babs recognized this from what Loreane told them and quickly dropped her weapon holding up her tiny hooves in submission. She didn’t see the Watcher react in any noticeable way which only made their standoff even more nerve wracking for her. Trixie slowly walked up making sure not to give any hostile signs as she stood by the scared filly.

“Don’t worry Babs. If we need to, Trixie will distract him and you run back and don’t stop. UNderstood?” The amre instructed.

“Uh, yeah. Don’t look back. Got it,” The bronze filly said, as they faced off against the Abyss Watcher.