From the moment he heard the first thunderous wingbeat approaching, Emuh could sense raw strength - power. Crackling frost at the tips of black feathers shifted to that of fire, roaring and mighty - smoldering and potent - long before he descended to meet the dragon. The enormous owl bowed slightly, as if to meet Dread's fiery gaze. "WHO - WHO TAKES?" His head tilted, magic briefly moving to dust and stone, then back to ash and soot. Yes, yes - this was a beast of Old. "YES. THERE IS A TRIAL - A TEST - YOU SHALL TAKE IT."
Agreements made, the beast vanished into the ever-darkening room.
The very earth before Dread started to churn and form into new shapes, and there was a peculiar sound from within the gymnasium-sized room - almost like fibers growing and creaking. Shadows fell, obscuring most of the changing landscape from sight. Stalactites and stalagmites yawned ahead of the black dragon, growing and closing together like the interlocking teeth of one's maw. Ambient light from Polaris glistened off their stone surfaces.
"THE TEST BEGINS NOW!" echoed from inside the room.
There was minimal space between each one, forming windows into the shadowy beyond. They were just large enough for the beast to squeeze his head through. Otherwise, it was a wall keeping Dread at bay.
@Dread
The torrent of flame was magnificent enough to elicit a pleased hum from beyond.
As it blared through the darkness, it caught on many things. For a moment, the whole place seemed to burn with a distinctly woody scent. Leaf litter crawled with fire and went up in a blinding flash. Stone pedestals lining a single path into the dark ignited with soft wumpfh!s. They stayed lit, as stalwart torches.
In all that calamity, there was a series of worried bugles and hoofbeats. A veritable herd of Lesser deer — Jungle Deer — broke through the living, catching-fire undergrowth at the edges of the room. They scattered for a moment, before darting deeper and out of sight of the stone wall.
1/3
@Dread
The stone shuddered and indeed shattered in the wake of Dread's tail, crumbling in a neat arc - and then some. Either through luck or magic, the fissure traveled no further than the ground and ceiling immediately surrounding the wall. Once the dust settled, there was a just-smaller-than-a-dragon-sized hole for him to squeeze through.
If and once he did so, the room was still aglow with flame. Fire still ate through the greenery on either side, and jungle deer darted to and fro. One or two of the frightened Lessers barely glanced at the dragon before bleating fearfully and galloping off.
They clustered together, bumping into one another in a single mass. Looking closely at the group, though, revealed that one specimen had a glittering stripe around its neck - or was that something else? It vanished into and out of the scattered group.
@Dread
The magma ate through the wall, contributing to the ever-growing amount of flames hungrily licking at the room.
Heat practically gushed out of the space and the deer within grew increasingly frantic and cagey, scattering to and fro. The one with a shiny stripe, glanced at the now-open entrance, and bolted for it with others in tow.
2/3
The deer galumphed out towards the coolness of Polaris's deep freeze, unhindered by Dread. Talons clicked impatiently high above, but quieted down. Everything could proceed, even with this shift in plans...
Shadows gamboled around the dragon as he wing-walked down the central path, bearing the blasting heat of every bit of kindling burning and an ominous crackling - like ice. At the other end of the room, a rounded structure became visible through the soot and smoke. It was constructed of bricks arranged in a circle with a closed top. A circular, dipped basin was molded onto the surface.
Behind Dread, a stalactite crashed down with the tantalizing tink! tink! tink! of gemstones - all smelling strangely of a fresh kill.
@Dread