Everything in him screamed that he was a bad dog. He shouldn't aid the Masked Merchant but, if he wanted to help the kitten, he had to.

So, the chunk of Jet and the Obsidian and Master-Gemstone clenched in his teeth, he trotted into Canis. He had deposited the Moss Agate in his den, deciding to keep it for himself, although he wasn't sure what he would do with it quite yet. He didn't intend on giving the Merchant any more than he had to, though, so he hadn't brought it.

Trotting up to the Merchant, he called out, "I brought your stones," unceremoniously.

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

Yoosung's stones were found Here.

Skeena could almost always be found in Canis.

She knew it like the back of her paw. Could take you to any bone you wanted, could find you a quoll's coccyx if you asked with very little trouble. It was her home, had been for sixteen cycles now.

So when it began to rain, she knew something was really wrong. The hybrid squeaked, and jerked her head up from where she'd been gnawing on a femur, attempting to sketch down the story that she had seen when touching it. She had never seen rain in her life, but she knew it wasn't supposed to rain in Canis, especially.

Clinging to her beloved little bone, she took off at a sprint, scurrying over the bones. Her ears flattened against her back to keep out the rain, tail twitching--her fur was getting damp, and she really didn't like it. Skeena rather liked her dust baths, thank you very much. Regular baths? She was quickly discovering she didn't like them, not at all.

There was a gathering of Gembound, a dog and a cat and some hybrids, too, one she recognized and one she didn't. She arrived just in time to make out what the Merchant was saying, and her inborn curiosity got the better of her. 'Why bother? You'll fail, you'll fail and mess up.' and she turned, scurrying away to find the Gemstones he wanted.

-temp. exit Skeena-

Well, what was this?

The Fossa trotted through the bone piles, following the echoes of voices sounded in his skull. Canis never got rain, most of the Caves didn't, really. But Canis especially--it would be like Monoceros getting rain! And yet, here it was, raining.

There were Gembounds gathered, circling around an odd-looking beast with a mask not unlike his own. The Fossa twitched his tail, leaping up to sit on a particularly large skull, tilting his head. A hybrid was approaching the monstrous Gembound, followed shortly after by a cat, and then a hyena. The Fossa was curious, and ready to step in if he needed to.

The hybrid had been rather quick in her journey to get the Gemstones and, before she knew it, she returned, two in paw. The one was the Jade, that had belong to a cat and a cow, and the other the pretty Garnet. It was an awkward run, but she managed to make it, even with her precious bone held in paw.

Scurrying up to the Masked Merchant, she set down the two stones, the others having been left in their nook. That done, she hurried back to Mother, curling up at her side contentedly, nuzzling up against her. The tiny little bone was rubbed between her paws anxiously.

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga came back awhile later with her find, a master stone. She crawled up to the Merchant and placed it with the others. "Will this do?" She asked, her voice rasped like scraping stones. It was all she hoped to give, but she could collect more if needed. The glanced at the rest of the gems. There seemed to be more than they needed.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Kalama, fearless, trots up to the Merchant with her rose quartz on proudly on display in her beak, and her feathers puffed up far as they'll go. Once she gets close enough, she drops the lazuli, rose quartz, and peridot, and kicks them to the Merchant.

"I found them." She says simply. Kalama is feeling pretty good about her usefulness, and the master stone that she found. It seems to be an excess of gems here, but she still feels pride towards her little cluster. She shakes off the remainder of bone dust, and backs up, waiting to see what the Merchant will say.

((Kalama's stones were found here ))

Slowly, the others trickled back; and slowly, one by one, the Masked Merchant collected the gemstones they had returned to him. There were more than he needed, far more, but he took them all, all the same; his robes filled with the soft clinking of them.

When it seemed that everyone who would return had returned, he shuffled to face the strangely-layered cave wall. And gradually, he began to slot the stones into the various cracks and crevices along its surface. One by one they faded and cracked, and a soft light began to suffuse the rock.

The cave wall began to open. And as it did so, the Merchant began to speak. "Long ago, the... best, the strongest, were proven." The wall, in fits and starts of churning dust, began to sink away. "In the place beyond the bones, in... the wastes, those who earned... survival... earned... rewards." The section of wall was gone. In its place loomed the bright, open mouth of a new tunnel: ancient, thick with dust, yet its air fresh and hot. A scorching wind blasted out, rustling feathers and fur of any standing nearby, and sending the Merchant's robe rippling in its heat, for a moment. "There was... a Trial."

Now standing before the mouth of the newly-opened tunnel, the unknown lying beyond, the Masked Merchant turned back to face the gathered Gembound. "Most of those... who undertook the trials... did not survive them. It carved the... strong... from the weak," he went on, his eerily-rasping voice seeming to take on an echo somehow larger than itself. "It tested... it proved. The sands... the heat... the creatures. It is... desert. It is... death. And now it is... here, once more. I will bring you... the Trials... once again. And those who are strong... will survive them."

The Masked Merchant raised his arms. Another shimmer of heat roared past him. The wisp circling around him, rose, rose, and then exploded in a flash of light: and those present who had contributed to the opening of the tunnel now, suddenly, would instinctively understand how to cast this magic, themselves. "Your reward," he declared.

And then, he turned, shuffling into the tunnel beyond. "Join me... beyond... for the final Trial."

The Quest The Trials - Pt I has now been concluded.

The new Cave Hydra has been unlocked.

Participants will be awarded the following spell:

Foxfire Wisps - High Intensity Offensive. If the user has 3 or more summoned wisps, empower them with this spell for greater arcane damage, such as burning or confusion, before using them against a target. Failure may result in the wisps exploding near the user and burning the user instead.

@Mayngo @Black @Kalama @Eythan @Giggle @Wilder @Shango @Thothaga @Skeena @Yoosung

The Fossa observed, tilting his masked head. He had never seen anything like this before, had never seen a wall just open. But curiosity rolled in his chest, and he couldn't help but to lean forward as the Merchant pressed the stones into the wall, the wlal seeming to fall away.

The Merchant's voice was irritating, wheezing and falling away, but he could understand him well enough. And the mention of a trial, well, that caught his attention. Mayngo was always up for a challenge, and so he listened well. They might die, but it would be worth it. Besides, he thought, he could help to protect the others.

So he stood, and stretched, before leaping down, trotting after the Masked Merchant.

-exit Mayngo-

Wilder happily turned over the gems she had collected to the Merchant and stepped back, purring happily. She couldn't wait for the magic and she couldn't wait for whatever trial was coming next! As the cave wall began to open, Wilder stood, tail lashing excitedly, almost dancing on her paws, eager to walk in. But then when the rolling heat from the tunnel ahead blew over her, she paused and actually listened.

What was he saying? That people died? That this was a place of death? Her eyes narrowed and her tail dropped a little bit. She needed to know, she needed to see. So she closed her eyes and focused on the path ahead. Her magic reached forward and a series of broken images ran through her head.

She saw herself running through the desert heat, panting. The image shifted. A giant worm was bursting out from under her feeth, devouring her whole. Another image, a vulture was reaching for her with its talons, sinking them into her skin. She was bleeding and dying in the sand. She was standing alone, the remains of a chrysalis around her, giant wings attached to her shoulders. And a final image - she was slinking away from the tunnel, unhurt, unharmed, and unmarred by the desert's brutality.

Wilder blinked, snapping back to reality, a pit of dread open in her stomach. So many of her futures were death. Too many. This cave...she couldn't do it. She couldn't follow him. The reward seemed amazing, yes, but she wasn't going to risk her life just for wings. Because it was either one or the other.

Wilder shook her head and backed away as others passed her and walked into the tunnel. She wouldn't do it. Just this one time, she was going to take the rewards she had already been given and run.

And that's exactly what she did. The little cat nodded in thanks to the Merchant as he disappeared and soundlessly turned around, bounding off into Canis, worry for the others weighing her down. How many of them would perish within the tunnel?

*exit

Shango listened, and Shango watched.

He felt the new knowledge of the wisps enter him--his understanding of their abilities, their nature, suddenly increased. He turned his mind to these spells, summoning a wisp to hover beside him, for testing.

Then the heat of Tunnel P blasted toward him, and he peered forward, blinking, his attention fading from his spellwork--so that the wisp barely formed, a faint glimmer, before he concentrated on strengthening it.

The Masked Merchant was speaking of a further trial and--as oblivious to the true dangers as before--Shango immediately decided to join him.

He followed the Merchant down into the tunnel, his Wisp bobbing alongside and above him.

exit Shango