The world warped around her, revealing a long and broken staircase upwards, and she could swear she were a lot taller than she was supposed to be.
Slowly walking towards the broken staircase her ears picked up at the sound of something... Clicking against rocks.
Looking around, she saw the broken cobblestone walls and the night sky through a almost completely demolished wall but still no source for the sound that had now stopped, she started muttering a song under her breath as she continued upwards the staircase, drowning out the sounds of clicking.
Shade kept walking for what she could swear were days, her legs tiring and she would occasionally slip and fall a few meters before getting up again, stopping for rest only whenever she fell.
Tripping this time, she didn't slip.
As she fell she tried to grasp at the wall out of fear for falling to her death, much to her surprise did her fingers not only completely halt her fall they also pierced the cobblestone wall, and that's when she was it.
Her fingers were longer and ended slightly pointier then she remembered, above them a pair of claws had come out and were now stuck in the wall.
Staring at it wide eyed for a moment Shade slowly raised herself to her feet, staggering a little doing so.
Looking over her body she noticed how she had pristine white scaled instead of pale skin, she still had hair, but it was blonde and as she looked over her body, she finally realized what that clicking sound was.
Shade looked down on her feet and noticed that there were claws on them, clicking against the cobblestone every step she took.
Bringing a hand to her head she noticed two... Things sticking out, as much as she would want to find out what they were she didn't have a mirror, and nothing reflective was in sight.
Sighing to herself she made her way up the staircase, slowly ascending the hellish torture fate thought was funny.
Reaching the top she noticed three things, the first was a short tunnel with grass growing around it, at the end of the tunnel there were a door with the words LORE inscribed in front, to the right of the tunnel there were a steel chest with something that looked like a human skeleton as a lock.
To the left of the tunnel there were two things held up on a pedestal, there was a shield and a sword, both held by a standard plate armor, the sword were held up in a thrusting position and the shield looked like it were about to slam something bigger than the man in plate armor.
Slowly walking forward she grabbed the shield from the mans grip and set it across her back with a a bit of rope the knight had across his shoulder, leading to a very poor condition crossbow.
It was a loose fit, but it worked.
Grabbing the sword from the knights hand were proven more difficult than she'dd have liked, as he suddenly sprung alive and stabbed dead at her, the sword grazed the side with a slight wound that she barely felt, but she still exclaimed in shock.
Staggering backwards Shade managed to rip the shield off her back to bring it up just in time to deflect a blow towards her neck that would surely have ended her.
Having no idea what to do against someone obviously trained with swords, all she did was defend the best she could against his relentless attacks.
Meanwhile, her thoughts were racing.
Oh god oh god, what the hell? What should I do? Hell what can I do?
Calm down Shade, just calm down we got this, he got to get tired sooner or later, right?
Yes of course he does, but i'm afraid we'll tire out or run dry on luck before that.
... I refuse to die here! I'm not going to die in this hellhole, and i'll tear Starswirl a new asshole for this!
But what should we do... What would Leeroy do?
Isn't it obvious?
What?
...
Charge
She was snapped out of her internal conversations by a particularly hard blow to the shield, brazing herself for what she were to do next she took a deep breath.
What came next surprised both her and the knight.
"LEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOY" But instead of just a shout, it came out as a growl, followed closely by bright blue flames.
The knights eye's had time to widen in surprise before he and his armor were turned into a hot pile of metal and flesh, the sword were somehow unharmed by the intense heat and fell harmlessly to the ground, sticking halfway out.
As surprised as Shade was during this, she decided not to ponder and instead took the sword and sprinted out of there, shield still equipped.
Running into the room to the right, she noticed how the the sword had a small skeleton on the hilt with three fingers sticking out.
Putting one and one together she slowly approached the chest, ready for any and all surprises with the sword in a thrusting position.
As she got to the chest she went down to one knee and brought the swords hilt to the lock, putting it in and twisting it until the chest opened.
A almost invisible yet ghastly mist flowed out of the chest, revealing something that looked like solid fire.
Grabbing the first thing she saw her eyes went wide in surprise as a helmet that looked like solidified magma just rested in her hand.
Slowly bringing out the rest of the items, including a ring that looked like it were still burning, she set them on the floor.
The full set looked like something out of a game, adding the sword and shield made it look like something a high ranking demon or something would wear to keep him warm in the winters.
She didn't notice any heat radiating of the armor, but once it got close to her, the wound she had received on her side slowly started closing before vanishing completely, leaving no trace but a slightly whiter pair of scales to ever show there was a injury.
After that, she decided to equip the armor and slung the shield onto her back, and placed the sword in the sheath.
Walking back to the tunnel, she entered and pushed the door open.
