Author's Note

I put up this chapter using my phone. If there's any weird formatting, it will be fixed later this evening when I'm off work.

Chapter 2: The Quest Begins

Drake’s Mysterious and Peculiar Quest Adventure
Chapter 2: The Quest Begins
By: SleeplessScribe

Despite how crazy this entire situation was, I had to admit that the scenery was beautiful. After we had left the east gate, it was nothing but meadows and forest on either side of the road. In some ways, it reminded me of home. Cool Mint was humming as we walked, practically right up against me. I tried to nudge her away, but she kept coming back.

“Tell me something.” When she stopped humming, I assumed I had her attention. “What exactly happened when you found me?”

“You just kinda bashowed!” As she shouted out her onomatopoeia, she threw her hooves up.

“I what?”

“Right out of the water! You flew up with a big splash and flopped onto the shore. You were out cold for a few seconds, and then you... you....”

She had stopped walking. I had half a mind to keep going, but curiosity had me. Turning around showed me a red faced unicorn with her eyes closed. She had a big grin on her face, was practically panting, and shuddered every now and again.

“You groped me at a place most innapropriate! Oh, to be fondled by our hero of legend. Ah, but to be felt by a stranger. What a mix of honor and shame!”

As she laughed and hugged herself, my desire to walk away grew even stronger. Eventually, I groaned and went on my way. Before I could register what happened, a white streak sped by me, spun around, and Cool Mint planted herself in front of me.

“Excuse me! I know you were not about to just leave your healer out by herself!”

She started walking up to me but was met with a hand against the face.

“I don't need a healer. I'm literally going to look around a broken down castle.”

She pressed against my hand, and eventually started moaning. I think I heard her mutter “so rough” before I jerked back.

“Let's just go. And please calm down.”

“Of course!” She did her little salute again just before we came up to the sign Yelshinitty spoke of.

I took a look at the sign. On the right was Banka Banka, and the left said Ponyville. We both went right but I couldn't help but at least look left. The road continued a ways, beyond a hill that hid it. I could see dark, sinister looking trees poking up above that hill, though.

“So why exactly were you sitting by the lake to begin with?”

She looked up at me and tapped her chin. A pony tapped her chin while walking. Clearly physics didn't apply in this world.

“Our mayor had a vision of our hero bursting forth from the water. As soon as he told me this, I ran for the lake as quickly as possible.”

I raised a brow. “Do you ever... question your mayors visions? Even once?”

“Mmm... nope!” Mint beamed at me as she said it. “He's been vague and cryptic sometimes, but even those visions led me in the right direction.”

“I see. Okay then.”

I turned my focus back to the road. Why was I doing this? This was actual nonsense, and I started to grumble at myself for even thinking of playing along with it all. This had to be a dream of some kind.

“That's it!” I snapped my claws and smiled.

Cool Mint jumped a little. “What's it? Did you come up with a new recipe?”

“I figured it all out! This is all just a dream! Haha! That's it. I fell into that lake, passed out, and now I'm probably at the cabin, or maybe a hospital, waiting to wake up!”

The unicorn tilted her head and brought a hoof to her chin. “What? Drake are you... okay? Have you gone crazy?”

Moments later she started giggling. I knew exactly what she was thinking just by the sound of it.

“Does everything turn you on?”

She soon shook herself back to reality. “I never did ask you something. What exactly happened to make you sploosh out like that, anyway?”

“I guess indulging the dream won't hurt.” I crossed my arms and closed one eye like a smooth operator.

“In my world, there was a fisherman who got his line caught in a tree. I immediately jumped to his aid, climbing it and freeing his line. Sadly, I took a tumble down into the lake below and passed out. But everything will be fine once I wake up.”

Suddenly I got another idea. I look a look around and started smiling again before looking my draconic body up and down.

“Wait, if I've realized this is a dream... that means I can do anything, right? Oh yeah, fuck this quest! I'm gonna fly out of here and go fight some monsters!”

Looking up at the sky, I jumped up with all my might. Moments later, my feet hit the ground again, leaving me dumbfounded.

“Fly!”

Second verse, same as the first. I crossed my arms and thought for a moment before walking over to a tree.

“Well let's try this, then. This is my dream, so I'm making myself super strong!”

I put both hands against the trunk of the tree, putting all my strength into lifting it. A couple of attempts later, I groaned out and let go of the tree.

“Nip.”

I jumped forward so fast I slammed into the tree. Mint had that weird, creepy smile on her face as she watched me rubbing the spines on the side of my head.

“Cool Mint, what the ever loving fuck was that?”

“Well, you're supposed to pinch or poke someone if they think they're dreaming.” She brought her hooves to her face and let out a sigh.

“And I got to experience the taste of my hero’s scales! Ah, what a truly fantastic experience.”

I spent a few moments staring at her in disbelief before it hit me.

“Wait, I felt that. I felt your bite. I... that can’t... then this is real?”

I turned around, fell back against the tree, and put my hands on my head. The shaking started not too long after. Eventually, Mint had to grab my shoulders and start shaking me harder.

“Hey! Hey! Snap out of it! Talk to me, hot stuff!”

Fun fact: hooves hurt when applied to the face, regardless of whether or not you have scales. I stared at my unicorn companion for a moment before shaking my head.

“This isn’t right. I fell into a lake and haven't come up yet. My friends are worried about me!”

“Hey!” Mint raised her hoof again, which instantly silenced me. “Dad said you came here for a reason, right? Maybe once you do what you came here for, you can go back?”

I just kind of fell face first into the grass. “He said I came here because of disaster, then immediately afterward said there was no disaster. Wait, dad?”

“Not yet!” Mint put her hooves in the air. “The clues at the ruins could lead us to an evil alicorn deity! A big... fierce manticore. Ooh, what if it's a malicious tentacle beast on the prowl for young mares!”

She wrapped her front legs around herself as I stood up. I thought about saying something, but instead just turned to the road again.

“Let's just go. Maybe I'll get some actual answers once we go to these stupid ruins.”

Once again, Cool Mint was so busy fantasizing that I ended up leaving her behind. By the time I looked back to see if she was actually there, I was too far to see her. I had now lost a unicorn... until I turned around.

“Ah! What? How? You were just over there!”

She put a hoof on her chest with pride. “Magic! The magic of unicorns! The magic of love! Magic is what it was!”

“...Yeah let's go.” I tried to make it as clear as possible that I would not be dealing with her nonsense.

It only took a few more minutes for the trees to slowly thin and disappear, leaving big, open field on either side of the road. Smoke was rising to our left. Following it took us to exactly what we were looking for.

The castle was massive, even with the huge chunks of stone missing from its walls. It had to have been even bigger, given that the entire roof and every rampart looked to have collapsed. Most of the ground around it was dead or dying grass, and some spots on the ground and castle itself were marred by scorch marks.

“Aaaah, intruders!”

The both of us turned our head to see an elderly horse dude pointing at us. He had on an electric pink robe with the hood up, but we could still tell how wide his eyes were.

“Get out of here! This is our property!”

I raised my brow and looked at Mint. “What's this guy's deal?’

“They're probably surviving members of Kepral’s old cult. They were malicious back in the day, but are pretty harmless, now.”

“You're looking for the castle, aren't you?” He shouted and waved his hoof accusingly.

“Uh....”

“You'll never find it!” After a pause, he looked back. “There it is....”

“Right. Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got things to do.”

We started walking, but he came up behind us with the weirdest look on his face.

“I suppose I could let you in. If you give me the mare’s tail.”

“What?” Mint jumped up and clung to me, rubbing her face against me.

“What?” The sudden demand was enough to keep my attention off what Cool Mint was doing.

“Yes, it's a fine tail. Perfect for cooking into a stew to offer Lord Kepral.”

As he moved closer, I pushed myself in front of Mint.

“Not gonna happen. Weird as Cool Mint is, cutting off someone's tail and cooking it is weirder.”

The cultist had a surprisingly threatening grin on his face. The side of his robe flew up, and a floating knife came out from under it.

“If you won't give it, I'll just take it!”

He looked like he was about to lunge, but froze. Moments later, I heard Mint sniffing behind me. It wasn't too long after that that a putrid scent waved into my own nostrils, forcing me to cover my nose and back away.

“Aw hell, man! What the fuck is that?”

“Oh no! Oh god! Oh god no!”

The cultist looked back and dropped his knife.

“Shit myself... you win this round, weird dragon hero guy! Hiya!”

There was a bright flash of light, and he was gone. I pointed in the direction he was standing and looked at Mint.

“So wait... this Kepral guy had worshippers?”

“Well,” she tapped her chin, “He had the ability to mind control people. I guess those he had under his spell have become convinced that he was good. He did promise to make Equestria a better place.”

As I listened, I walked over and picked up that knife.

“And people honestly believed him?”

Mint shrugged. “By the time he started doing evil stuff, he'd won a lot of ponies over, actually.”

“Shit’s weird. C’mon, let's check out these ruins.”

The front door had caved in, but luckily there was a huge hole on the wall not too far away. The two of us climbed up a pile of rubble and hopped through it. We were immediately greeted by a huge and partially collapsed lobby of sorts.

Broken chandeliers still hung from the ceiling. The intact walls were decorated with torches that were still blazing with blue flames. There was a stone seat at the far end of the room with a door on either side of it and a large skull of... something above it.

“Drake, look here!”

Mint was pointing behind the throne, where the same smoke we saw outside was rising through the floor. There was a strong smell of some description when I got near it.

“Good find. I'd wager the source of this is directly below us. I'm thinking maybe the next floor or two down.”

The unicorn clasped her front hooves together and gasped. “Dungeon time?”

“Heh, yeah. I guess it is dungeon time.”

I took a look at the two doors. They both led to staircases, so I motioned for Mint to sit tight while I poked my head into one.

“The stairs go into the same place. Let's check this out.”

She nodded and trotted up to me. We both ascended the stairs and found ourselves in a short corridor. There were more still burning torches along it, and on the other side was the largest banquet hall I'd ever seen.

A fallen chandelier had split the long table in two, and a lot of the chairs were broken and splintered. There was a big counter near the back of the room with some shelves behind it. A couple of them were intact, and the rest were just rubble. There was a small door to the left of that counter where I assumed the kitchen was.

“Did this guy... have parties?”

Mint nodded as she poked around the broken table. “Like I said. When he showed up, he put up a front of being a really nice guy. I even considered offering him myself a few times....”

“Okay, okay, okay let's stop right there. Just looking for an explanation for the bar and banquet hall.”

“Stand back.”

I turned around to ask why and got my answer before I even could. Mint’s horn was surrounded in a light blue aura of sorts, and so was the chandelier. The unicorn moved her head to the side, and the glorified candle stick rose up, moved to the side, and slowly came down to the floor again. There were a couple of soft pings as it touched down, and suddenly a sweet aroma filled the air.

As I approached the chandelier, I saw a glint in the corner of my eye. A shining, blue gemstone was reflecting the little bits of natural light coming in through cracks in the walls. I lifted it up, gave it a sniff, and looked back at Mint.

“I have no idea why... but I really wanna shove this in my mouth hole and eat it.”

“I'd rather you shove something in my mouth hole. Anyway, dragons hoard and eat gems. How do you not know that?”

I slapped my hand against my face. “Haven't we established that I'm not a dragon?”

“I'm still processing that. Give it another half hour or so.”

I just kind of shrugged. “Anything once.” I bit down into it, and a wave of burning, searing pain shot through my mouth, making me drop the gem.

“Ow, fuck! Fire can't kill a dragon, what the hell was that? My mouth’s on fire!”

Mint came over and poked the stone with her hoof.

“That's not fire. That's pure dark energy. Evil power like this can actually sting and burn if you mess with it too much.”

“That's weird. Think we should take it with us?”

She nodded, lifted it up with her magic aura stuff, and put it in a bag I didn't realize she had.

“Where'd that come from?”

She pointed. “He doesn't need it anymore.”

When I looked over, I saw what was most definitely a horse corpse. Pony bones were rather different here than they probably were in my world. Upon further inspection, this poor sap had some kind of strap around them just big enough for my waist. Like Mint said, he didn't need it, so I nabbed it and slipped the knife I had under it.

“This is dark. But I guess we need to be prepared.”

We both resumed our search, with me slipping behind the counter to poke around. There were some shards of broken glass, bugs running around, and more rubble. Parts of the counter had crumbled, but a crucial bit was intact.

“Mint, come over here.”

As soon as she trotted over, I motioned to the inside of the counter. Against the wall on the end was a lever, which I grabbed. After a moment, she nodded, and I pulled it down.

We heard a huge clang to our right. Upon turning, we saw that a large section was rising up. A blue light flickered from inside the newly opened doorway. The two of us exchanged looks before I headed over to it and poked my head in the doorway. Several bats flew out of it and flew away to who knows where.

“Spooky. Alright, Cool Thirst, let’s get down here.”

She huffed at the name but joined me anyway. The staircase spiraled down a short ways and led us to another door. Before entering it, Mint put her ear up against it, and I followed suit... with whatever dragons had that let them hear.

There was most definitely someone or something behind the door. I could hear growling, but also some faint kind of chanting. The door was unlocked, too.

I grabbed the knife and slowly opened the door. Mint and I found ourselves now in a large room that was mostly empty save for something that looked like a well in the middle. The water was glowing and occasionally bubbled.

“Rama lama shama dama bama grama abalabadingdong....”

Another pink robed cultist sat before the well with her back to us. Now that I could hear it clearly, her chanting sounded more like gibberish than anything else. It must have been doing something, though.

The water began to rise in the center and fell back down, revealing some kind of ball. As her chanting got louder, wiry arms and legs sprouted from said ball, and it cracked across the middle about halfway.

It turned to face us, and that crack opened. It was a mouth, and its piercing, golden gaze fell upon us from in the back of it.

“Reee!”

Its scream echoed through the room. The cultist immediately turned around and I saw both sides of her robe flare out to the side.

“Intruders! You must be strong and clever to have gotten past Spearhead!”

“Seriously? That was his name?” I nearly groaned the words out.

Before Mint or I could say anything else, the monster thing screeched again and the cultist flew into the air. On wings. That I had just noticed.

“Okay these horses can have wings, too? What the hell is this world?”

The cultist sped towards me, but stopped in midair. Once again, that pale aura was around Mint’s horn. She sent the cultist into a wall, leaving me to deal with... whatever that thing was.

After another screech, it shot a dark blue laser at me. I barely managed to duck out of the way before trying to blow fire at it. Turns out I could breathe a lot of flame, but not very far. Luckily I knew about those lasers now. It opened its mouth and tried to shoot me again, but this time I slid to the side while charging me.

It started flailing and swiping at me when I got too close. I swiped my knife and ended up cutting one of the stick like arms at the elbow. As it screamed, purple smoke not unlike what we saw earlier began to rise out of the spot I cut.

As soon as it opened its mouth again, I jammed the knife right in the middle of that eye. The monster froze for a minute, raised its arm up, and ate the knife.

“Coffee!”

After that, it disappeared in a puff of that smoke. There was a tiny splash as something shiny fell into the water.

“Lala! You hurt my little Lala!”

She dove at us again. The cultist landed on Mint and began barraging her with slaps... or stomps, I guess. I thought for just a brief moment before charging in. Ponies were like humans in this world, and I really didn't want to kill one.

“Yah!”

With a distinct, wooden “thunk”, the cultist succumbed to my knife’s mighty handle and fell on the floor.

“My hero!”

Once she was up, Mint pressed a firm kiss on my cheek, forcing me to back away.

“Ah god, why? Please don't do that....”

My only idea was to hoist the winged horse up and sling her over my shoulder. Surely she'd come in handy. After that, I headed over to the water and grabbed what had fallen in.

“Mint, we've got another one of these gems. Heads up!”

She caught it with her magic almost as soon as I tossed it up.

“Drake, let's be careful. We shouldn't group too many of them together.”

“Right.” I took another look around before fixating on the well. I hadn't paid attention before, but there was something else in its reflection.

I looked up and saw something like a grate or vent on the ceiling. Something was giving off a faint glow from the inside as well.

“Hey, can you see if you can move this grate? I kinda don't wanna put this gal down in case she wakes up.”

Mint nodded and tried some of her magic on the grate. I heard a rattle, but it didn't budge.

“Doesn't seem like it, Drake. Whatever that is might be screwed or nailed to the walls around it.”

I put my free hand on my chin to think. Going through the door and back out was an idea. Given how much of this castle was busted up, it was probably best to find another route.

“Oh no! Drake! Drake, this is bad!”

I snapped out of it and turned to my unicorn companion. She was standing next to one of the walls, and it took me only a moment to realize what the problem was.

“Uh... where’d the door go?”

She shook her head frantically. “I don't know! We're trapped!”

She paused for a moment. Her left ear flicked before she turned to me. When she had closed the gap, she set her head against my chest and sighed.

“We're trapped. We’re going to die down here. I guess... our last moments should be our most intimate, right? Go on... just be gentle. Actually no, don’t.”

I pressed a single claw to her forehead and slowly pushed her off of me.

“Focus, Cool Thirst. Instead of fantasizing, let's see if there's any hints of a way... out.”

My nose began itching as Mint huffed. We both began scouring the room for anything signs of something other than four walls. My nose kept itching all the while, too.

“Hey Drake, I feel something. There's a spot that's cool right over here. Like a draft or something.”

I turned to where she was, and she was dragging her hoof down the wall directly across from me. I started walking towards her when the itching became too much.

I'd heard of milk and soda coming out during a sneeze, but never fire. I guess, with being a dragon, something like that was expected. The flames erupted out and right into the well in front of me. A small puff of steam rose up and through the grate. Not too long after that, we both heard sort of a rumble.

“Hmm. Let me try something.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled as much fire as I could towards the water. Turns out I was fairly good at keeping it going, too. It was almost like I wasn't actually exhaling. The water began boiling, and eventually a steady pillar of steam rose up into the vent above.

That rumbling go louder, and the light from the grate began to darken. Finally, the wall began to move. It started where Mint was and moved left, revealing another torch lit corridor.

“Well... I don't know how that works, but I ain't arguing.”

Mint let out a sigh. “I suppose I'll have to meet a blissfully pleasured end some other day.”

A short walk through the corridor took us to a large room with wooden crates and weapon racks lining the walls. In the center of the floor there was a large circle with glowing blue runes surrounding it. A line of runes extended out towards another wall, and both Mint and I followed it with our balls. Our eyeballs.

“Oh god, Drake, look at that....”

She pointed up and to a massive bust. The statue looked like it was attached to the wall. It was almost as if this room was carved out with the statue in mind. It was a massive beast with bulging chest and neck muscles, horns that spiraled all the way to the ceiling, and a bull like snout with four tusks jutting out under it. Purple smoke was pouring out of its mouth, too.

“Good lord, what is that?”

Mint slipped behind me, hiding under my tail as she shuddered.

“It's what Kepral looked like. Though... with more arm and leg. And tail. And wing.”

If there was more to say, I wasn't hearing it. The Pegasus began to stir and struggle. Kicks were flying like a martial arts movie, and I became intimately familiar with how a hoof to the nose felt.

Once I was on the floor, Mint tried to attack the cultist and got smacked in the face. With both of us down, she started cackling.

“Thank you so much for bringing me here! You may have killed my sacrifice, but now I've got something better.”

She grabbed a sword in her mouth, put a hoof on Mint, and held it over here.

“The tail of a pure maiden!”

She was kind of garbled by the handle in her mouth, but I could piece together what she said.

“She's anything but pure. Regardless,” I stood up and grabbed my knife, “I'm not about to let you cut off her tail.”

“Good.”

The cultist slung the sword at me. I managed to move out of the way, but she grabbed a spear shortly after and flew straight at me. She barely missed my head, and only did because of Mint grabbing the spear in her magical grasp.

She let go and grabbed another one. This crazy Pegasus started twirling the spear between all four legs and her wings. All the while, she was making all sorts of cheesy kung fu noises.

“A creature with no fingers should not be wielding a spear this well!”

The two mares were going at it now. Their spears clashed and clanged and made sparks that lit their faces just a little. Eventually the cultist cut open Mint’s bag and knocked her back. Before she could go in for another stab, I rushed forward and tried to knock the spear away from her.

“Gah ah ha! You!”

The cultist looked at her bleeding leg as the spear fell to the floor. I was ready for another attack, but she turned around instead.

“Wait... are those?”

Before I could react, she jetted forward and grabbed the two crystals off the ground.

“Haha! You idiots have brought me the other half of my ritual already!”

Just the word “ritual” was giving me bad vibes already. This feeling was only made worse when made a beeline for the statue. Mint had just gotten back on her hooves, and I couldn't make it to the cultist before she flew up to the statue.

She pressed her face against each of its pecs. I had to squint to see what she was doing, and then slapped my forehead.

“Really?”

The two crystals were poking out of little slots in the statue in the weirdest way.

“You could've had them in the eyes. You could've carved slots in the tusk or the forehead. But no. You gave him fucking crystal nipples.”

The cultist cackled and held her leg out over the circle. A single drop of blood fell onto it, and the runes began to glow.

“Drake... stop her! You have to stop her!”

Mint wobbled to her feet. As I surveyed the scene, I realized that something of some description was about to get summoned. I didn't have time to close the gap, and Mint was too dazed to use her magic right now. After another drop of blood, the circle glowed brighter, and I just prayed my aim was good enough.

“Coffee!”

The cultist swayed to the side and fell to the floor with my knife sticking out of her side. Luckily, she didn't land on the circle. However, I became acutely aware of one fact of nature that soon terrified me.

Blood is liquid. Liquid flows.

“Oh god, Mint!”

Her attempting to move the body told me she came to the same realization I did. It was too late, though. The blood was all over the circle, but soon disappeared. It was as if the floor was a sponge, soaking up the spill as the runes became blinding.

Moments later, the light faded and more purple smoke rose up around the room. A loud roar echoed out and the statue’s eyes burned a bright red. Though it was just a bust, watching it move was absolutely horrifying.

The statue fixed its gaze on us and practically screamed.

“Dragon! Dragon, dragon, dragon!”

It opened its mouth and pink, banana like objects flew out, exploding around me and Mint. Luckily, we were unharmed, but then it fired a green beam at us. There was a shield leaning against a wall, and I barely managed to grab it in time to block the attack.

I had to drop the shield almost immediately afterwards. The spot that got hit was still glowing and steaming after it hit the floor. It blasted more of those explosives at us, but a light blue barrier shot up between me and the statue.

“You'll never break this shield! It's powered by my love for my great hero!”

I sighed. “Of course you'd make it weird.”

Even with that, I couldn't just leave Mint to hold off for by herself. As I searched around, I found and grabbed the spear from earlier. I heard a cracking and looked to see that Mint’s barrier wasn't going to hold up my longer. With time of the essence, I tried to line up as quickly as I could and hurled the spear right at one of the crystal nipples.

The stone shattered when I hit it . Our enemy roared out and winced, closing its mouth. With no more bananas being shot at her, Mint was able to grab a nearby brick and smash it into the statue’s head. It was honestly kind of funny to watch its jaw crumble and fall off. I'm sure it would have started taking swings if it had arms. I frantically searched around, but couldn't find the cultist’s body. Luckily, there was a sword at my feet, which I promptly grabbed and slammed into the other crystal.

The beast still managed to roar and began wiggling around. It looked as if it were trying to pull itself out of the wall to get to me. Despite the struggling, it came apart piece by piece. Pretty soon, the only thing discerning it from a pile of rocks were the two glowing stones that had served as its eyes. Eventually that light faded, too. The smoke dissipated and I slipped the new sword into my belt.

“Quickest gear upgrade ever.”

“Drake, look!”

Mint was standing next to the spot where the statue once was. Embedded in the wall was a much bigger crystal than the other two we'd found. I stood over it for a second before tapping it with my finger.

“You think mayor mcDude man pants could tell us anything if we took this to him?”

“I mean, he might. We have to get it out first.”

I nodded and grabbed on to it. Cool Mint grabbed it with her wizardry nonsense and, I assume, started to pull with me. It was wedged in their very tightly. I eventually had to grab it with both hands and push against the wall with my foot. I heard something akin to the snap and crackle of electricity before the gem finally came out of the wall. I think I rolled halfway across the room, too.

“I did it!”

I held up the gem and Mint clapped.

“You did it!”

Sadly, our little celebration was cut short by a pile of stone bricks coming down between us. Looking up told us all we needed to know, leading us to bolt for the exit after exchanging looks.

Stones, pillars, bricks, and everything including the kitchen sink fell down around us. If the chandelier in the dining hall was still in one piece, we couldn't tell anymore. I know the table had been split into several more halves. Our entrance had been blocked off, but our exit was a new hole not too far away from it. The two of us lept through it just before the entirety of what remained crumbled to the ground.

Mint and I fell flat on our faces. We sat up, looking from the rubble to each other. After a short time, I just couldn't help myself. I started laughing, which made her start as well. She eventually threw her front legs around me, which was okay until she started rubbing her face against my chest. I had to push her away after that.

“What did you do? The whole thing has collapsed!”

Our laughter stopped as the two of us turned to where the voice came from. Those harsh eyes glared daggers at us, and her beak looked even more of a scowl than beaks usually do. She curled her talons into a fist and snarled at me.

“I should've known you were trouble when I first saw you in town. Do you have any idea what you've just done?”

The gryphon was practically on top of me before I could even stand up.

“Uh... a dungeon?”

She let out a furious groan and prodded my chest with a claw.

“Those ruins were housing a powerful artifact that I... needed... to....”

As she said the word “artifact”, I lifted the big crystal up in front of her. Listening to her trail off was kind of funny.

“You know about this?” Mint pushed herself between me and the gryphon as she said that.

Her eyes widened and she pinched the bridge of her nose. Well... she did a motion like that, anyway.

“You're telling me that you grabbed this crystal having no idea what it even was?”

I just shrugged. “We were going to take it to Mayor dude bro to see if he had answers.”

She let out a sigh. “At least we have the same destination. You're going to tell me everything, so let's get moving.”

She started walking, but I stood where I was and raised my brow.

“I was always taught not to walk with strangers.”

The gryphon turned and snarled again.

“I don't have time for wise asses.”

“Well... the easy way to fix this is to tell me your name. Hell, you demanded mine when I first saw you. It's only fair you give me yours.”

She rolled her eyes. “Eva. My name is Eva. Now come on before Smart Ass becomes your new name.”

With that, we all headed off towards Sarsnifall.