He slowly opened his eyes.
Vertigo.
Everything was spinning.
Nausea hit.
He pushed himself up on all fours only to fall to his side. At least his stomach was empty … well now it was.
He rolled away from the oh so glorious mess he made on – apparently - a mossy floor.
As the vertigo dissipated, the spinning halted. Again he went on all fours before pushing himself off the ground onto shaky legs. This time he didn't topple over or empty his stomach again.
As the surroundings sunk in, he realized he wasn't quite where he expected to be. No grand white hall or towering pillars.
Instead it was dark and it smelled of damp wood … and – a new smell - vomit. Resisting the urge to throw up again, he unsteadily moved to the nearest tree to lean against it and get his bearings.
Trees and foliage covered what appeared to be ruins. The moss covered a stone floor, hiding strange symbols.
Taking a deep breath and steadying himself, Gabriel made his way towards the closest of the symbols in the ground and removed moss and overgrown weed with a stone he picked up. After he uncovered quite a bit of the stone floor he stepped onto a rock to get a good look.
A five-pointed star surrounded by a five-meter circle with unknown symbols covered most of the ground. The pool of vomit in the middle removed most of his doubt that the circle was where he had arrived.
Gabriel removed the the crystal necklace from his neck and held it in his hand. He closed his eyes and mumbled “Revelentur,” a word of power he had learned from his mentor.
At first only the crystal started shimmering with a faint green glow, which quickly escalated into a faint beam of greenish light. Gabriel aimed the beam towards the uncovered pictogram and a bluish mist became visible. At the center the mist was thickest. Gabriel trained the beam of magical light onto the pillar of smoke in the center of the five-pointed star, following it upwards, where a swirl of bluish mist, tinged with but the faintest traces of red, slowly dissipated into the atmosphere.
He was so absorbed in his investigation that he realized neither the movement in the forest nor the rustling of the leaves as an unseen creature stalked through the thicket. The creature turned its green-yellow eyes towards its future dinner and slowly crept closer until …
A growl. A sudden impact.
Gabriel was left disoriented by the attack. Nevertheless, he quickly managed to get to his feet and survey his surroundings, keeping the crystal-necklace in his right hand at the ready, while his left hand slowly made its way to his belt-pouch.
Another growl from his right, and another lunge from his unseen opponent. But this time he was ready. Without visually conforming his enemy, Gabriel raised his right hand to his side and bellowed “Proteges!”
With a the sound of a glass-window breaking the unfinished green-glowing semi-sphere burst into hundreds of little pieces, but it had served its purpose. The assailant's attack had been deflected, sending it crashing into the ground with a loud thud. Its momentum caused it to skid with a scraping sound until its movements were stopped by a tree with a loud cracking noise.
Only now could he take in the sight of the peculiar creature that was attacking him. While it had the form of a large four-legged creature, possibly a dog or a wolf, it wasn't made out of flesh or even bone. Its muscles appeared to be wood, its skin and fur were tree-bark.
It rolled back on all fours and slowly stood up, shaking its head from side to side.
Its eyes snapped open and the green-glowing orbs in its wooden skull fixated on Gabriel.
The growl it emanated spoke volumes of its dissatisfaction. Saliva, or possibly tree-sap, driveled from its mouth onto the ground. A smile formed on Gabriel mouth when he saw the smears of what once was his stomach contents in the creature's path.
Another growl pulled him out of his reverie.
Now was not the time for that! He had to devise a strategy to beat this strange creature before it sunk its wooden fangs into his flesh. A quick sweep of the ruins revealed no safe options for retreat. So he had to fight it.
The wooden wolf crept closer, poised for another attack still focusing its glowing-green eyes on Gabriel. Gabriel on the other hand assumed a defensive position with his crystal-necklace grasped firmly in his right hand. His left hand pulled a small vial, filled with a brown-orange mixture, out of his belt pouch. He focused on the creature, readying the spell from earlier, and locking eyes with it.
Gabriel blinked first, and the creature pounced on him.
“Proteges,” he shouted again, only this time moving slightly to the right and stepping forward.
The attack was deflected again, but this time it caught itself seemingly in mid-air and landed on all fours, quickly turning around. Gabriel had used this chance to run towards an opening between two trees, but the creature quickly ran after him.
Instead of running past the trees, Gabriel jumped from a half a meter away towards one of them, took another step on it when his left foot connected with the bark and used as much power as he could muster to launch himself up and away, towards the direction he came from.
This, the creature had not expected, as it tried to stop itself skidding over the mossy floor, following its supposed prey with its head, before crashing into yet another tree.
Gabriel absorbed the force of his jump via a roll while landing and managed to stand up facing the wooden predator, vial in hand.
He drew back his arm and threw the vial towards the crashed creature. The wolf's gaze followed the trajectory with half closed eyes, and Gabriel could have sworn that it opened them wide just before the vial crashed into the ground right in front of it, bursting into tiny fragments. He couldn't be sure because he pulled his cloak over his body and made himself as small as possible. The vial smashed into the ground and broke into pieces, then the contents rapidly expanded in a fiery explosion.
Pieces of wooden wolf rained down on Gabriel, and after a few seconds he stood up and brushed wooden chips and dust from his cloak, before checking the contents of his belt poach. He only had four of the vials of exploding jelly left and no idea if there were more of these wooden wolves or any other predators still around. He cast one last look towards the smoking remains before turning around, facing the pictogram in the center of the ruins again.
While investigating the immediate surroundings, this time Gabriel kept wary not to be surprised by another unwelcome visitor. That was why he immediately reacted when he heard the sound of wood scraping along the floor. His gaze was once more drawn towards the smoking husk further away.
His eyes widened and he involuntarily let out a gasp.
The pieces of wood began rolling towards the remains and slowly the husk was regaining its previous form. Soon enough the green-glowing orb flashed back into existence as well.
“You have got to be kidding me …”
◊ ◊ ◊
A purple unicorn was reading through a huge book on a pedestal. Every now and again her horn glowed with a purple shimmer and one of the pages in the book turned on its own.
By the speed she was “consuming” the tome, “Alchemical Uses of Everfree Mushrooms” seemed to be a real page-turner.
“Uh, this sounds interesting,” she said, tearing her gaze away from the book towards quill and parchment on a desk not far from where she stood.
Her horn shimmered with purple energy once more, but no pages turned themselves this time, both quill and parchment levitated towards her, landing on what little space remained on the pedestal.
“Now where is the ink ...” Twilight Sparkle looked left and right before shouting, “Spiiiiiiiiiiiike ...”
“Yes Twilight?” A small purple dragon came running out of the kitchen, wearing a cute frilly apron.
“Where is the ink? I'm trying to copy a recipe for Zecora and I need ink to write ...”
“ Well maybe you could just take the whole book ...” Spike whispered while making his way over to the desk.
“It's right here,” Spike said while opening one of the drawers, lifting a bottle of ink out of its depths.
Twilight magically yanked the Bottle of Ink out of his claws, “That's my number One assistant!”
The little dragon's cheeks flushed red, “I'm almost done with dinner”
“Oh, okay, then I'll go and ask Zecora about this recipe before ...” Twilight began.
“Oh no you don't,” Spike interrupted, “I worked hard on this, you can go after dinner!”
Twilight was stunned by the little dragon's outburst. Nevertheless she agreed while chuckling.
She copied down the recipe and levitated the filled parchment towards her saddlebags hanging at the door.
After dinner she would go to see Zecora in order to ask her help with the recipe.
◊ ◊ ◊
Gabriel looked down on the remains of the wolf while breathing heavily.
Twice, it resurrected, three times he turned it into smoking debris. He had used one more of his vials filled with exploding jelly, leaving only three.
With the help of the magical crystal he had launched it fifteen meters high, hoping gravity would do the rest. When this bore only temporary results again he set fire to it, reluctantly. While Gabriel never seriously harmed anyone or anything with magic before this day, he was especially hesitant on setting any creature, even wooden ones, on fire.
The wooden wolf appeared shocked at first, then proved to be a lot more dangerous on fire, before finally succumbing.
When the remains started shivering, a precursor to its reformation process, Gabriel shouted to no one in particular, “oh, come on! I used fire! Your wood! At least stay charcoal or something!”
He had had enough. The fight only served to rob him of more energy. A look at the crystal in his hand revealed that a had turned from green to yellow. He could probably mix up another batch of exploding jelly, he had enough ingredients in his Satchel, the drain on his magical amulets was also negligible, but if his amulet ran out of energy, it would probably take days and a rather complicated procedure in order to recharge it. It didn't help that he felt silly having to dance and chant around the bloody thing in regular intervals while recharging.
Once more looking at the smoking remains, it seemed like time was slowly rewinding. Burnt timber returned back to its previous state. It was interesting to watch, but Gabriel knew he had little time before things would get dangerous. As if to underline this fact, he now heard a not-so-distant howl, then another, and another.
“Oh, so your friends are coming to join the barbecue … I'd better not be here when they arrive”
Time was running out, Gabriel knew that, he had to find a safe place and fast. Still he hesitated. This place was important. Sparing a quick glance at the reforming wooden predator, Gabriel once again jumped onto the rock, a piece of what once was a wall, and took a cellphone out of his satchel and turned it on.
The wolf was about halfway reformed when Gabriel heard the satisfying ping. He quickly aimed the camera of the phone at the pictogram carved into the ruins and took several snapshots, just to be sure.
He glanced at the wolf again, it was about a quarter of the way finished.
Still on top of the rock, Gabriel scanned the skies, hoping to find any signs of life, civilized life, that could possibly offer him safe haven. A trail of smoke rising from among the treetops offered that slim hope. He heard the howls again, this time closer. He wasn't sure what would happen first, the revival or the arrival of the others. He had to buy time, but how?
Gabriel heaved a sigh and hung his head while squatting on the rock.
Inspiration hit.
He looked back towards the almost reformed wolf and then back again towards the rock. Slowly a plan developed and a wicked smile appeared on Gabriel's face.