After Issac's rather speedy departure, the rest of the hunters decided to gather up their equipment and meet in the village square and after about ten minutes most of them were ready. Tich was the first to arrive, since he had most of his gear on him already. This consisted of his great sword, his armour, a candle, his lunch and a few sticks of dynamite, for blasting through any solid rock. Oats soon made his way to the square. He had brought a rather strange looking bow and a long katana, as well as a few supplies like food and water (though there was not much shortage of ice) and a few blankets and some logs.
"Is that all you're taking?" Oats said, after walking up to Tich.
"Yep" Tich said rather happily "You're not going light, it seems?"
"Nah! Best to be prepared! Its not like the cave is filled with ice cream now is it!" Oats said, with a hearty laugh.
"Oh! I hope it is. What flavor do you think it will be?" Tich said, while jumping up and down excitedly
"Dude! It's like minus twenty in here. How can you eat ice cream? It would be like eating a stone" Oats said, raising an eye brow.
"Tried eating stones, but they taste awful. No flavor at all" Tich said with a hint of disappointment.
"That's kind of the point, but anyhow, are you ready to go?" Oats said, trying to wrap up the strange conversation
"Yes I'm good to go" Tich said, giving a thumbs up.
After a few more moments passed, Catherine made her way towards the two hunters. She wore a dragon scale plated skirt and some rather exotic looking armour. She carried a very large cello on her back, that was almost twice her size and shone beautifully, as light reflected off its bug scales.
"Bringing the hunting cello, I see! Hope you've been practicing" Oats said with a kind smile.
"As if you need to ask such a question. I assure you my skills have not diminished but have escalated as of late" she said, with a hint of confidence.
"You must be pretty muscular to carry a guitar that big" Tich commented, before his face turned to pure terror.
After Oats had picked up Tich, who was currently unconscious with a rather big bruise to the head. He took him to a nearby bench and then walked back to Catherine.
"We need him alive for this mission, you know" Oats said with a sigh and a chuckle.
"Are all men this insensitive?" she growled.
"Do you think I'm insensitive?" Oats replied.
"Depends on what you say next" Catherine said, frowning at Oats.
"You're not nearly as cute as normal, when you frown" Catherine blushed, as her anger faded away. "But I suppose Tich can get rather mouthy. He is just honest all the time" Oats laughed. "The most honest guy I know and you're the most loyal person I know"
"How so?" Catherine said, curiously.
"Well, you've been with us for a while now, and I know that Issac and Tich can be a handful sometimes, but" Oats paused "You could have left ages ago, I know Koko Village is not the best place in the world and the food that Issac makes is terrible, but you stuck with us, and put up with my friends cooking, so thanks, I guess".
Catherine just stared a Oats as she took in what he just said. They stood in silence for a while, as one of them waited for the other to say something. Catherine soon smiled, and turned her back to Oats. "For a airhead, you make one good leader and you say some of the most kindest things".
"It was a shame to see a pretty face so angry" Oats chuckled.
"Are you two going flirt all day or are you going to kiss" said a mysterious voice from behind.
Catherine jumped and whizzed around, to see Issac standing behind her, with a wide grin on his face. Catherine's face turned bright red as she reached shakily for her cello and took a fighting stance. Oats backed off and got a few medical supplies ready, just in case.
"s..s.say t...t..that again and I will...." Catherine said.
"Well!" Issac began "If Oats won't kiss you I....." Issac's vision went blank as pain rang through the top of his head.
Daring Doo had finished setting up her equipment and the ancient tomb was now brightly illuminated. She had to admit the tomb wasn't as old as she first thought it was. The stone pillars and bricks were hardly worn and the artifacts inside were beautifully preserved. The tomb's age had to be around about 500 years old from what Daring could decipher, but she had more pressing matters. Daring worked alone for most of her explorations because she was aware of or had heard about the existence of an artifact or treasure. However, she had stumbled upon this tomb by sheer luck and didn't know anything and had heard nothing about this place. So she had contacted an acquaintance by letter (using dragon fire) to help her.
"If finding a looted tomb isn't bad enough, then a undiscovered tomb with a Know-it-all inside is a nightmare" Daring grumbled. "Ooooooooh what's this? What's that? Here let me touch it and lick the damn thing" she said sarcastically.
"They have no respect for history and its treasures. All they want is fame and to make a profit" Daring sighed, as she looked at the statue again.
"What are you and were are you from?" she asked the statue, but then sighed. "Great, now I'm talking to a inanimate object" Daring said, while sighing again.
"King of the skies" said a small voice.
Daring, who had not heard the quiet voice, was wandering around and examining the hieroglyphics again. She wondered about the purpose of the tomb. Its wasn't well hidden and there were no boulder traps to chase her, either. She once thought that this was a temple of some kind, with the huge statue as the god, but her train of thought was soon brought to a close. Celestia was their ruler so who would worship a monster? Many explanations rattled inside Daring's head but she was unable to fit any of them together.
"What is this place for?" Daring said aloud.
"The beacon. The calling. The gate. The cause. The disaster." Said the voice again as if to answer her question.
"And what's with the monster in the centre?" Daring continued, still oblivious to the quiet voice.
"I am the King of the Skies. Must I repeat myself!" said the voice again.
"It looks funny" Daring said aloud.
A small growl echoed the tomb, which made Daring stand up and frantically look around. She couldn't see anything that resembled a predator, but she remained wary none the less.
"You look funny to me, Meat" came the voice again.
Daring, who was now more alert, plucked up her ears but couldn't make out what the strange voice had said. She moved closer to the centre of the room looking around to find the source of the noise.
She was about to investigate but was soon cut off by a rather sudden arrival.
"I HAVE ARRIVED!" shouted a rather happy Stallion, who burst through the tombs ancient door and tripped over an exposed wire.
"Yes! Me and the whole damn place can hear you" Daring sighed.
"For once I agree" said the voice again.
"So, lets see what we've got here" said the stallion, who eagerly looked around. "Hm! Yes this dates back to Star Swirl's time".
"Star Swirl? The famous unicorn?" questioned Daring, who was finding this hard to believe.
"Yes Daring! This is an amazing historical discovery. Star Swirl was quite the hermit. He hardly interacted with other the ponies. So to find something like this is simply fascinating. Who knew that there was a tomb like this, way up in the mountains?" said the stallion, with a spark in his eyes.
"Why just think about..."
"No" Daring interrupted.
"No?" said the confused stallion.
"Firstly! We are not selling anything. Secondly! Don't get you're hooves on everything, this is history. Respect it! Thirdly, don't take all the credit. I swear you guys are all the same" huffed Daring.
The Stallion just looked at Daring blankly for a few moments because of her outbreak. Where did all this sudden frustration come from? The two of them just stood there in silence.
"ARE YOU DONE!" boomed the voice.
"What did you say to me" Daring demanded, rage swelling up inside her.
"What? Wait? It wasn't me" said the stallion.
"STOP ARGUING!" boomed the voice again.
Daring looked around frantically trying to find the source of the voice, while the stallion backed up to a wall and stayed there.
"Aren't you going to help me?" Daring said, to the terrified stallion.
"Not when there's a horrendously loud voice booming around" said the stallion, who was shaking furiously "I think that we should run" he suggested.
"Oh grow up. I've been through worse" Daring said while rolling her eyes.
After a few moments of silence, both of the ponies decided to look around to see if they could spot anything. Finally Daring eyes rested upon the statue. At first she wasn't sure if what she thought was true, but she soon put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. She couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible.
"Hey! What kind of stone is that?" she asked the stallion.
"Oh this? started the stallion. "Well its a very rare type of stone. Its called Dragonite. Not many ponies know about it because it's so rare, but it is said to store a powerful type of magic. Why it can even...."
"Even be a vessel for souls?" Daring interrupted, as she stood in front of the towering statue.
"Why yes" said the stallion, who was quite frankly surprised "how did you know?"
Daring looked up at the statue. How could she miss something like this.
"Who are you?" she asked the statue. There was silence.
"WHO ARE YOU?" Daring shouted.
"I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME the voice roared. Daring flinched. "IS THIS WHAT PASSES FOR MANNERS IN THIS LAND, HOW PATHETIC!" boomed the statue with high sense of authority.
Daring's jaw hit the floor. She couldn't believe it talked back to her. Wait! didn't it just say.....
"What do you mean pathetic!" growled Daring "YOU'RE just a statue, so what are YOU going to do about it!"
"Ummm! I don't think we should piss it off any more than we already have" called the stallion, who was currently hiding behind a pillar.
"Why should I? Just because its big and scary doesn't mean it can insult me like that" Daring shot back.
"But what if 'It' comes alive and attacks us?" the stallion called again.
"Its not going to do that and if it does then I have a bone or two to pick with it" Daring said bravely.
"It's definitely going to pick you're bones if it does" said the stallion under his breath.
The statue had been unnervingly quiet during the two ponies exchange of words.
It then began to laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHAH! SUCH FIRE IN YOUR HEART! SUCH COURAGE IN THE FACE OF DANGER! SO DARING IS YOUR NAME? IT SUITS YOU. I AM VOLDRAX AND YOU SHOULD BE HONORED, ONLY A SELECTED FEW KNOW OF MY NAME."
"Well I don't feel honored" Daring said under her breath.
"NO MATTER" growled Volrax "I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS THE KEEPER, AS THE BEACON."
"What do you mean?" Daring asked, desperately pressing for answers.
"YOU WILL FIND OUT IN DUE TIME, BUT FOR NOW I WILL RETURN TO MY SLUMBER. RETURN BY THE NEXT FULL MOON, DARING. I LOOK FORWARD TO OUR NEXT EXCHANGE."
With that the statue seemed to lose its strange aura and all was silent.