but satisfaction brought her back

A couple feet down, after some time of heavy digging, paws would strike stone. The broad surface below was revealed: a white marble-like rock with veins of black threaded through it. It was about ten feet across, and who knew how deep it went..?

Wilder wasn't really doing much next to Yoosung - her tiny paws could barely scoop the dirt and she was exhausted as she was. But she didn't stop and continued down with Yoosung until, finally, at last, her paw struck something solid. Immediately she dived forward, scraping off the last of the earth covering whatever she had just found and realized that it was a white stone. A very large white stone. Howlite. It can't be. There was no way this was it.

"Climb out! I'll lift it." She turned and began scrambling out of the hole they had dug and stood at the top, waiting for Yoosung to get out as well. Once he had gotten out of the way, Wilder crawled up to the edge and closed her eyes, taking a moment to focus. This was going to be difficult. That stone looked pretty big. She quivered where she was and struck forward with magicka, keeping her eye on the stone at the bottom of the hole, hoping that would give it strength.

With all of her magical might, she pulled and pulled, trying to lift the entire stone out of the ground and set it in front of them.

His paw struck something, and Yoosung froze for fear of scratching it. It was hard, and sent his bones to rattled, so he pulled back--it was white, struck through with black; what was that?

Tilting his head, the dog sneezed in confusion, looking over to Wilder. He did as she said, struggling out of the hole with no small amount of ease, sitting down as he watched Wilder begin to work her magic.

I've been on a lonely tripdragging along a lonely shadow

The two had struck stone, but the vast majority was still covered by layers of dirt several feet deep. The stone was, after all, about ten feet long--and massive, likely weighing a thousand pounds or more... depending on how deep it ran.

Wilder would find her magic unable even to budge the rock as it was. It would need to be thoroughly excavated, and even then, it was unclear if magic alone could draw something so large out of a hole so deep without an incredible effort.

She tried for a few moments, straining with all her mental might, trying to get the stone to lift, but the dirt weighing it down and the massive scale of the stone itself made it absolutely impossible to move. After a few seconds of futile effort, she cut the magic off, looking over the edge of the hole, breathing heavily. How in the caves was she going to get it out?

She glanced towards Yoosung. "I can't..." she panted, "I can't lift it...too big!" She turned back, eyeing the white stone sunk far beneath the stone. An idea occurred to her. If...if this what she thought it was, then perhaps there was no need to dig it out. She closed her eyes and reached forward with her mind, not trying to lift the stone, but trying to push through its barrier, to whatever mind was within, if there was even one there.

Yoosung had to admit, watching a Gembound cast mental Magic was... odd. It was little more than staring, little movement, and nothing to show. The rock wasn't moving, and finally she moved to approach the edge, panting. Yoosung did the same, trotting forward--it hadn't moved.

She admitted she couldn't move it, and Yoosung tilted his head--"It looks like it might have shifted... a bit?" it really didn't--"Maybe if we dig it up some more we can find a ledge?" he attempted to cast out his magic, to see if someone was inside, but his Magic refused to co-operate.

I've been on a lonely tripdragging along a lonely shadow

Wilder's mind wandered with her magicka before striking another consciousness. Something aware. Something alive. Something asleep.

It stirred, ever-so-faintly, at her touch, before stilling back into its slumber.

Enough disturbance might awaken whatever rested within... for better or for worse.

Wilder blinked open her eyes and glanced at Yoosung, shivering with excitement. "I knew it. He's in there! It has to be him! I can feel his consciousness! We should try and wake him up!"

She didn't know if Yoosung cared or was even paying attention, she was far too excited to care. Here was Rezik, straight out of the memories she had found, straight out of the past. Asleep for so long, perhaps hundreds upon hundreds of cycles. Perhaps as old as Vargas or the other Ancients!

She closed her eyes and pressed forward again, trying to wake the consciousness inside, poking at it more strongly this time. Hey! Are you alive? You should wake up!"

The dog shifted his ears, looking over at Wilder. "He is?" 'Which of the hes?' he wondered, but didn't voice it, wondering idly if it was a good idea. But Wilder seemed determined, and so he didn't question her, instead shaking himself, and jumping down into the crater they'd dug, rearing up and beginning to slam his paws into the rock as though he were trying to break ice.

But he was a scrawny dog, and he'd never had to do such a thing before, so his paws scrabbled on the rock, leaving his strikes weak.

I've been on a lonely tripdragging along a lonely shadow

Scratching. Voices. Disturbance in the dark.

For a moment, there was silence. And then, this shattered--not with a gentle cracking, but with a sudden crash, with the marble-like white stone almost exploding, its shards bursting out with violent noise in all directions. A powerful pair of blue-furred hind legs were visible in the air, flailing for a moment, before they shifted and fell back out of sight.

Then blue branches rose, bushes or trees--or antlers, attached to the strange, pale, humanoid face beneath. Unnatural turquoise eyes switched wildly this way and that before lifting to fix on the gembound above. The creature steadied itself on its feet, standing staring up at them. A voice, rich and resonant, called up to them with the rust of years of disuse. "Who are you?"

You have discovered Rezik.

art by April