The Citadel

Ascending the stairs back to the top holding her new weapon in her right hand, Flurry's mind was buzzing with thoughts. A lot had happened in a fairly short amount of time. She had gotten a impromptu history lesson on this world, a new sword and a travel companion who had also promised to help her get home. Flurry Heart still wasn't sure if releasing Zyzix was the best thing to do. But what was her other options just wander this world for the rest of her days in a vague hope that she found an other way back to her world or that someone found and rescued her. No, she had to put her trust in that her new ally kept her word and help her get home safely. She appeared friendly enough and hadn't given her any real reason distrust her really.

Flurry's hooffalls echoed as she once more found herself in the big circular room from before, not wanting to waste time she headed straight towards the hole in the wall that she entered from earlier. when she was outside Zyzix decided to speak once more "Ah fresh air, isn't it lovely princess." She took a mock breath to emphasize.

Flurry glanced at the sword in her hand "You call this fresh air?"

"If you have been locked up in a cave as long as I have then yes." Zyzix said in a pleased tone.

She couldn't really argue with that she thought as climbed over a rock, she couldn't even imagine herself imprisoned like that.

"Oh by the way princess, I do hope you can handle yourself in a fight should the need arise."

Flurry instantly stopped and pulled the sword up to her face eyeing it nervously. "What do you mean by that?"

Zyzix replied in a calm voice "Just that there might be creatures that seek to harm us lurking here, and I just want to know if you have any combat experience."

"I can defend myself well enough." She said in a defiant tone, lowering the weapon again. She may have put on a brave face to not appear weak but on the inside she was quite anxious. She was already a little jumpy after seeing that nightmarish entity that had been stareing at her before. It wasn't aggressive then but there might be scarier and more hostile creatures lurking here too. If she knew she had her magic at full capacity she might have been calmer but right now she still felt a little drained and had a slight headache. But at least she had a sword now so if anything was to attack she could use that.

"Then I will put my trust in your abilities." came the reply in the same calm tone of voice.

"Just know that in my weakened state I may not be much help in combat."

Feeling the weight of the sword in her hand and wanting to get her mind of the current topic she asked "By the way, does this thing have a scabbard or something or do I have to carry it the entire way?"

"Yes of course, just put the sword against your belt and I will help you with that." Zyzix replied.

Flurry moved the blade over to left side of her hip, and once she did a scabbard made from black scales and leather materialized and fastened itself to her belt. Now with both hands free she could focus on getting out of here, looking forward her eyes immediately locked on the murky alley in front of her. The wind whistled eerily from the narrow corridor, knowing what could be down that path made her really not want to go that way.

"So eh... Zyzix was it?" Flurry started glancing down to her left where the sword now was. "What way should we go to find this portal?"

There was a slight blue glow coming from the scabbard but before Flurry could react to it a small wisplike orb floated up from it.

"There much better." Zyzix said with relief. "And don't worry I am still anchored to the blade so I wont run away from you, I just made myself a form more practical for travel." she snickered.

Flurry didn't say anything and just looked at wisp floating around her.

"Anyway, we need to go to the top of the citadel and the fastest way there is the path straight ahead."

Unfortunately for Flurry Heart this was the path she really didn't want to go down. But the citadel and by extension her way home was that way so she swallowed her fear and started walking. She slowly approached the alley looking down that murky corridor hoping dearly there was nothing in there. Her fight or flight senses was on high alert eyes darting from every rock and shadow looking for movement, not seeing any she took a deep breath and entered.

~~~~~~~~

After sneaking around in the gloomy maze of corridors for a while Flurry Heart emerged in an decent sized room. She carefully scanned the area from the doorway before entering, there where three more entrances to the room one in each direction. The walls was lined with cloaked and hooded statues with wings and in the middle of the room was a stone sculpture that may at one point have been a fountain but was now filled with black sludge. Looking up Flurry could see the clouded sky and the dark citadel with it's many spires looming just ahead, it was close now. Her companion who had been mostly quiet for a while now except for giving directions decided to break the silence. "Beautiful isn't it?"

Flurry gave her a skeptical side glance "Beautiful? looks more like a nightmare castle to me."

"Well beauty is subjective." Zyzix said dismissive. "You want to take the path to the left by the way."

Flurry rolled her eyes before taking a quick second scan of the room, figuring it was safe enough she entered. She looked at one of the statues as she walked past it. Cracks and missing pieces could clearly be seen in the blacked stone from which it was made, time had clearly taken it's toll on it. Yet the uncanny form of the sculpture was still there, silently watching her from its small opening in the wall giving her an eerie feeling. She averted her gaze from it as she past by the fountain in the middle of the room. Flurry could now smell the black sludge that oozed from it and it was a foul stench, the only way she could describe it was that it had a thick burnt odor to it.

"What is this stuff?" she asked while scrunching her nose and waving a hand in front of her face.

"My guess would be coagulated magic." Zyzix said in a pondering tone.

"Magic can do that?" Flurry questioned a little surprised glancing at the wisp above her.

"Normally no but there was a lot of strange and powerful magic mixing during the calamity that destroyed this world so who knows what strange things it created, I wouldn't touch it though."

Flurry Heart had no intention to touch it anyway and just started walking again. But after only a few steps she turned her head back towards the sludge after hearing a gurgling sound. Her breath got caught in her throat as her eyes went wide and she got chills all over her body at the at the horror that rose from the black mass. A giant lidless gray eyeball was slowly emerging from the fountain with dark fleshy tendrils hanging from bellow and its glowing yellow iris fixed on her. She started to move backwards away from it but like a predator stalking its pray it followed her every move with its piercing gaze.

"Oh that is interesting, something was living in that pool of black stuff." Zyzix exclaimed in an excited manner.

"That's not funny." Flurry hissed trough clenched teeth.

"It dose not seem to be that powerful though, just dispatch it quickly so we can move on." the wisp said in a dismissive tone.

Flurry didn't want to fighting this thing if she didn't have to so she started to look around for an escape. But unfortunately for her it seemed like this creature was a lot bigger then it first looked. As more of its fleshy tendrils had started to creep out like vines from cracks in the walls and floor, even blocking of the way she wanted to go.

"Shit!" she thought to herself as she put her hand on the hilt of her sword. She heard a rustle from her right and when she glanced that way she saw one of the tendrils swipe at her, she narrowly dodged it by diving to the left. Now prone on the floor she heard more rustling all around her and with a quick roll to the side that was more instinct then a conscious move she avoided two more tendrils. These two however seemed to have barbed spikes at the tips as they had tried to spear her while she was down.

"What are you doing? why are you not attacking?" Zyzix's voice sounded frustrated.

Flurry Heart didn't have time to reply to that right now as she got up in to a squat position. The eye was still fixed on her as more tendrils emerged around the room, there must have been at least twenty of them now. This wasn't good she could not dodge these things forever, she needed to either escape or attack. She calmed her breathing and drew her sword, she then took a stance like her combat training had instructed her to do.

An other swipe again from the left tried to knock her down, she steeled her nerves and in a fluid motion she spun out of the way while cutting the attacking limb severing it. The creature didn't make a sound but it did flinch interrupting any followup attacks it was planing. Flurry took a defensive stance ready to strike if the thing came at her again. But her opponent didn't attack right away instead the eye started to pulsate and its tendrils all began to vibrate. After just a few seconds she could see the creature growing in size, and as its limbs thickened she could clearly hear liquid being pumped into them. She had no idea what it was planing but it was probably nothing good, plus it was really creepy and she didn't like it. while it was occupied Flurry took the opportunity to look for a way to escape because she still didn't quite have the courage to get close enough to attack it. All the doors was still blocked by this thing so those options where no good but then it hit her that the room had an open roof. She looked up to see the red cloudy sky above her, she could just fly out of there and leave this monster to have fun on its own.

But her happiness was short lived for just then she could hear the creature move again, and just as she looked down several now much larger limbs came rushing towards her. Flurry Heart just about manage to jump out of the way before they crashed into the wall behind her sending rocks and dust flying. The thing had gotten really aggressive all of a sudden as its tendrils kept on flailing wildly forcing Flurry to jump duck and roll all over the place giving her little room to counter attack.

"I thought you said that you could defend yourself." Zyzix sounded very unimpressed as she too made sure to avoid getting hit by the frenzied monster.

"SHUT UP!" Flurry Heart screamed in a mix fear and adrenaline.

So far she had manage to dodge every attack thanks to her speed and nimble body but it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out. She was starting to get quite a bit winded now and she could feel the strikes getting closer and faster the longer this took. She needed to try something different before it was to late. Making a sharp turn to the right avoiding yet another swipe Flurry jumped and kicked of the wall to get a small boost of speed as she opened her wings to try to fly out of there. Her move got her out of range from most of the incoming attacks but there was still some that she needed to dodge as she was gaining height. Just as she thought she was in the clear she got struck hard in her side causing her to tumble and crash down on the floor. Coughing and gasping for air Flurry now found herself right next to the giant eyeball who's intense gaze was locked on her. Terrified she felt like time had slowed down as the inevitable attack could come at any second and end her right there. Without thinking she fired a bolt of magic right at it's center stunning it, seeing this opening she quickly grabbed the sword and swung it at her enemy. The blade sliced clean through cutting it in half splattering its dark blood on the floor. The thing slumped down in the black sludge from which emerged from and slowly disappeared from view.