//------------------------------// // Inside the castle. // Story: Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected. // by Totito30 //------------------------------// The halls of the castle were dead empty and completely silent. Not a single sound could be heard besides the hooves of the mares and the sabatons of J´zar. The warrior was very careful with every sound. "This place is very creepy" Rarity commented "¿why do they call it “The Wolf” anyways?" "Before joining the Order, Ix used to be a very famous hunter" explained J´zar "For every wolf he killed, he hanged the beast’s pelt on the walls of his castle. So the castle came to be known as “The Wolf’s hide”. After he joined the order it was simplified to “The Wolf”. Bad habits never leave, I guess" "¿What do you mean?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Most warriors (Me included) take trophies from defeated enemies, such as fingers, ears, tongues" J´zar said "Ix, however, flayed the bodies of his best adversaries and hanged their skins from his walls as he used to do with wolves. That earned him the hate of many" "¿What? ¿Why?" Twilight pressed on. "If a spirit’s body is flayed, the spirit cannot rest in peace until the skin is restored to the body" J´zar sighed, as if anypony was supposed to know what flaying did to spirits "Denying rest to a respected enemy is seen as selfish by my Order" "In Ponyville you mentioned that the castle was defended in the inside too" questioned Rainbow Dash "¿Why isn’t it defended here?" J´zar remembered that battle. The newly appointed Commander had led him and Lethe (another Principal) into the Wolf, each one in charge of a few hundred men. The battle outside the castle was intense, surrounded by the piercing shrieks of the Banished, stepping in the bodies of fallen enemies and brothers alike. The fighting inside the castle was even worse however. Upon entering the castle, things went horribly wrong. Hundreds of nightmarish creatures summoned from various dimension attacked them at the same time. Mythological monsters fought against men, talons cleaved armor and swords sliced off limbs. J´zar still remembered the smell. Oh, gods, how much he hated the smell. The smell of blood, of sweat and sulfur. A smell that made his eyes weep. Something so utterly horrible that his entire vision got blurry. Each meter took dozens of lives, but the idea of killing a traitor was the entire stimulus the warriors needed. "Don’t complain of what favors you" J´zar said, his voice dangerously low "Or I’ll give you something to complain about" The mares stopped their walk instantly and backed off, slightly scared of J´zar’s reaction. They passed through a corridor which displayed a great dining hall, with a red silk tablecloth, and tens of comfortable velvet-lined chairs. Dishes, silverware and glasses were nowhere to be seen. At the other side of the table there was a single door eight meters wide and three meters tall. The hinges were studded and reinforced with iron strips. The door itself was made entirely out of iron, and it was locked with a large iron bar. It seemed that whatever was on one side wouldn’t be able to get to the other. On the other hand, if the group continued forward, they would have to cross a large stone arch which leaded into a long and lonely hallway. Besides the arch there was a lever. The pole was made of silver and ventured into a groove in the stone floor. The small handle was wrapped in leather to keep the grip firm. It looked as if it came from a time machine. "¿What path do we take?" Applejack asked. "Both seem dangerous" J´zar reasoned "That lever might leave us trapped if something pops from behind and pulls it. But it’s the only open way" A massive roar was heard, and it shocked even the great iron door. J´zar drew his swords and adopted a traditional defensive fighting stance. "¡Get behind me!" the warrior shouted. "No way we’re…" Rainbow Dash started speaking, but she was cut short by another roar and the sounds of the metal door being pounced upon. "Hiding sounds pretty good now" she rephrased herself. The mares ran and swiftly hid behind a wall, sticking their heads around the corner to watch J´zar, who was still standing in front of the door. J´zar was observing the door undaunted as each hit made the steel tremble like a leaf dripping water. The door started to give in as the reinforced hinges creaked and began to slowly but surely break down. Another furious roar shocked the ears of the scared watchers as a series of hits were heard. Then silence. "¿Is it…?" Applejack asked. "No" J´zar answered carefully. The entire arch of the door bursted into debris as the monster at the other side stood among the dense cloud of dust, unable to be seen. When the dust finally cleared and the figure could be distinguished in the middle of the torn apart arch, none of the mares could hold a gasp. A lion so huge it couldn’t fit in the enormous gateway leading to the dining table was there looking at J´zar with maddened fury bristling on its bloodshot eyes. Its claws were so sharp they could disembowel a fully grown cow in a single swipe, and its maw (lined with two rows of teeth dirty with the remains of its fleshy nourishment) could easily accommodate a laying pony. Its bronze-like skin was shining to the small amount of light coming from the few windows. "¡I’m sure you’ll look excellent as a carpet!" J´zar said, throwing a knife directly at the beast’s head. On a normal lion, the knife would have pierced through the skull and into the brain, killing it instantly. But this was no normal lion, as the knife harmlessly bounced off the monster’s skin, as if it was armored. "That is new" J´zar admitted. He barely had time to dodge the swiping claw as it crashed into the leftmost wall "¡I wonder why giant wild animals won’t stop trying to kill me!" The lion roared again and tried to swallow J´zar whole, but the warrior was too fast and twisted around his heels to slash the lion across the flank. The sword slid off his skin like a knife against a sharping stone. “Damn it!” J´zar quickly reasoned. “My swords can’t kill it…but maybe…”. The idea brought a beam of hope into the warrior’s soul. Using the table as a jump booster, he threw himself over the monster’s head and into its back. The lion roared furiously and started bucking with rage, trying to get J´zar off his back. However, the warrior kept a firm grip on the beast’s mane and quickly surrounded its neck with one arm and used the other to press the grip. The beast tried to get him off many more times, but J´zar kept his arm firmly locked around the creature’s neck. Finally, the monstrous lion fell to the ground rattling. It raised a leg for the last time before his entire body went loose. It didn’t move anymore. J´zar sat in the lion’s belly and wiped the sweat from his neck. He was breathing heavily. The mares knew he was very old (perhaps as old as Princess Celestia) but until then, they had never seen him as an old person. "That was a real challenge" he managed to gurgle "Now let’s check that hallway before…" A very soft but undeniable sound of screams came from further down the door the lion had come through.