Dread knew absolutely nothing about the snow in Polaris, except that it was there. He'd circled around the edges, decided he didn't like it, and then spotted the small, circular entrance to Emuh's little cave. Memory flickered up.

Oh, yeah. Place To Get Stronger. At least, that was what Dread's mind identified it as. He knew about Emuh, if vaguely: and so now he folded massive wings and slipped down toward it, snapping them out in a rush of air as he came in to safely land. Blazing tattoos and glinting gold horn-ring shone as he stuck his head into the narrow space, and roared.

"THERE IS A TRIAL HERE, YES? I WILL TAKE IT," he bellowed.

He'd gotten gradually more well-spoken, in recent cycles--a slow maturer, perhaps, or just learning as he went, but it was still a damn sight better than what he'd have bellowed at Cycle Four. Which would've been something like, 'MAKE ME MORE STRONGER NOW!!!'

Talons scratched on rock as he narrowed emberglow eyes, peering into the shadows in his search for... well, whatever he was to be looking for.

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

A surprised bellow--quiet, cut short--escaped him as Emuh landed. Ember eyes narrowed at the creature, and he had little time to respond as it called out and then left once more. And then the room--the room was changing.

The dragon pulled back, startled, and stared in cautious silence. Teeth of rock closed, like some great jaws, and Dread narrowed his eyes at this. He wing-walked forward with perhaps surprisingly rapid steps to peer into the holes. He didn't get too close--unsure of what might lay beyond, unwilling to stick his head through the open space and put himself at risk.

He debated only briefly. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, and were this five cycles ago he'd undoubtedly have just tried to crash the whole thing open with his tail, infused with magic. But this was a small cave and that might be dangerous, here--plus, that might let out anything still on the other side.

He could use his magic sight to try and see beyond, but it would only show him so much. Anyway, he had fire.

A great inhale, the inner ridges of his jaws illuminating in a sudden, ominous glow of flame from deeper in his gullet--and then a streaming torrent of roaring fire was released, aimed from quite close to the stone teeth and between one of the gaps. The dragon's intent was to send the flamethrower through the hole, into the space beyond--so that he could see what lurked in the shadows there.

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

In the brief moment of blazing light, and then the lasting, dimmer glow of the new torches, Dread studied the little room. He saw nothing that could be a trial; unless the black-animal-thing thought that jungle deer were a problem for him.

Huh.

He was about to bellow in, asking what he was meant to do next, when he at least recognized that the torches seemed to be lighting a path. Well, maybe he was meant to get in there, but he definitely couldn't fit through this.

Dread pulled back, eyeing the stone teeth. He could break them all down with a shuddering crash of earth magic, but that might bring the whole damn room down around him. Or he could try to get rid of one or two, and smash and shoulder his way through the rest.

In the end, Dread was a dragon, and caution wasn't really his thing. He turned, tail lifting, imbued magic wreathing its spined length and the stone edge that lashed from its tip: and this he brought about in a powerful, raking slam across the stone stalagmite and stalactite teeth that barred his path.

His intent was to shatter it all, to smash a hole through it and probably in the ground below as well: to clear himself a path.

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

Dread turned back, shuffling to squint and peer into the new hole. His head tilted this way and that and for a moment, he tried--and failed--to squeeze his way through.

He pulled back, and grunted.

Another inhale, and this time a spit: a gob of liquid fire, aimed to splatter over the top of the slightly-too-narrow space and hopefully widen it enough for him to squeeze through. And as he waited for this to hopefully, maybe, eat its way through the rock (gulping down the residual burning saliva with an absent grimace) he turned his flaming-eyed attention to the herd of deer. He shuffled aside--you know, in case they wanted to run out past him--and studied the one with the glittering neck. It came and went too fast for him to really make out, and he shrugged it off as unimportant.

They were just cave deer; nobody bothered with those except to eat them. Surely this one, shiny as it was, wasn't something he had to bother with?

Naaah.

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

Dread remained to one side, turning to idly watch the deer bolt, hopefully, out. He hunted, he ate--certainly cave deer first and foremost among his prey--but he never aimed to cause deliberate pain. Sure, sometimes he torched an entire small herd and ate them all but he wasn't hungry just now, and that wasn't why he was here.

When the deer were no longer in the way--whether they'd run past, or wheeled back into the burning cave--Dread turned and squeezed through. He wasn't fireproof, by any means--and the heat of this place was already a tad too much--but maybe whatever he was meant to do involved getting in and out before the place was totally engulfed..?

He wasn't sure, so he started along the 'path' that the pillar-torches had lit.

Dread didn't like being in this confined space--unable to really fly, escape but a narrow spot behind him that the owl-thingy could just as easily close back up. But he was pretty sure he could crash it right back open again, and anyway, he had no reason to really be suspicious.

He moved deeper into the heat, into the firelit dark, looking for... something, some hint, some threat that maybe he was meant to overcome. Some enemy to defeat. Something... that felt like a test. It didn't occur to him that a puzzle could be a test. Intelligence wasn't part of power, right?

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