Falconers and the Tomb of Aminus

by MadDonut

Chapter 7 The Thieves Entrance

The next few days blended together one after the other. Joel had moved on from that incident, and the rest did so in kind. Although they didn’t stop much during the afternoons because of the Gekies Gurtious trialing them, Mace had come up with a different way of giving Joel some target practice.

As they walked along Mace would shoot a tree that they would eventually pass and Joel would hit that same tree without often times without even missing. Since Igneous was busy keeping his black flame alive Hilliph would then pick them up, separate the tip from the shaft reloading their shots as they kept on walking.

“Looks like you’ve gotten really good at this,” Mace said as he fired at another tree off in the distance.

Joel fired at the same tree and hit it no problem, “It’s not the same as moving targets.”

“That is true.”

As they kept walking Hilliph fell just behind them to Igneous checking on his black fire. Kara suddenly landed just in front of them and said, “Were near the Condoon forest.”

“How far out are we?” asked Mace with the group not breaking step.

“Only a few miles,” She fell into step just beside Joel and Mace.

“So what is the Condoon forest like.” Asked Joel, “No one ever gave me the full picture.”

From behind, Igneous said, “It's like this wooded area we have been walking in all week. Except all the trees are half way buried in sand.”

“Igneous here doesn’t like sand getting in between the folds of his skin and armor.” Mace offered up.

“Loath it.” Igneous confirmed.

“Stop acting like such a foal Igneous,” Kara chirped. “it's just sand.”

After they walked a mile they arrived at a cliff face that seemed to go on for miles in either direction, and at the very bottom there was a vast land of trees that poked up from an ocean of sand for as far as the eye could see. Its greenery mixed in with the golden tinted sand. “So this is the infamous Condoon Forest?” Joel said.

“Famous. And yes.” Hilliph answers. “No pony knows how trees in a desert could occur naturally so some have speculated it's the Magic of the now extinct Hexers that give these trees life in such a foreboding land. For trees that is.”

Joel carefully looked over the edge and saw that it must have been at least an eighty foot drop. “So how exactly do we get down there?” Joel asked.

“Easy,” Kara said as she spread her wings. “Fly.” Suddenly taking off she dove down the cliff face only stopping to pull up just as it looked she were about to hit the ground, gliding to safe, elegant landing.

“I think he meant us earthbound ponies Kara,” Mace called down from above. He then turned back to the forest they had just come from and said, “Alright Joel. I’m going to show you the use of another type of arrow.” Pushing his chest button he deployed his crossbows. He then rotated his bracelets and hammered a new shot, then said, “String shots.” He fired at the nearest tree and an arrow with an almost invisible wire attached to it flew out and buried itself within the trunk fast and secure. “Hycrome wire is the strongest there is. It can support a hefty load in almost any condition.” He turned himself slightly sideways so that the tree was facing his right side. He twisted the chest button to were it made a clicking sound locking into place.

“So what did you just do?” Joel asked as hammered in one string shot.

“I set my crossbows,” he answered as he backed himself to edge of the cliff. “Now there in a fixed position and won't move while I look around. Great for scailling down a cliff.”

Hilliph stood next to Mace as he attached the other available string shot wire to his own armor. Igneous walked up to Joel who had just set his crossbows with the bolt in a new tree and said, “You're with me on this one.”

Joel was concerned that the bolt wouldn’t be able to hold Igneous, his armor and four swords all together. “Is this going to hold? It doesn’t seem as strong as the credit you give it.”

Igneous took the wire from Joel’s other crossbow and attached it to the back of his own armor. “it's trustworthy enough. This is how we rescued you from that mountain.”

Just befor Mace fell over the edge of the cliff with Hilliph hanging just below he, he said to Joel, “To go down you just got to flip your ear back and it should reel out some wire.” With that little bit of advice he then walked backed over the edge and out of sight.

“Just don’t get me killed and I won’t have to kill you.” Igneous said as he slowly slipped over the edge himself.

“Fair enough.”

The repelling was easy enough. Sure Joel almost dropped Igneous like he said he would but it was only like twenty feet befor Joel remembered to flick his ear back up.

When they got to the bottom they took the real of wire that was attached to the side of each crossbow, off and let them hang over the edge of the cliff. Mace had said its because they couldn’t get the bolts out of the trees from where they stood and it would instead serve as a great landmark for their return journey.

Each crossbow had two string shots hidden just below the flight grove with one wire feeders for each bolt that could disconnect and reconnect.

The walked through the strange land of sandy trees with Kara reading the book while Hilliph held it for her in her magical grip while everypony else followed closely behind. She led them for a hours as she identified landmarks and adjusted course accordingly never stopping to actually look up only staying within the book itself. As the sun had only a few hours left on this side of the land they came to a large mountain of rocks. Only rocks boulders and all. “She stopped which was something she hadn't done since they got to the bottom of the cliff and said, “We're just about there.”

Joel looked at the mountain of rocks and said, “What is this it? Does not look like an ancient fortress to me.”

“I don't think a couple hundred years of existence qualifies as ancient.” Mace offering up some logic.

“No this isn’t it and yes it does count as ancient because the Hexers are extinct.” she answered annoyed.

“The last Hexer existed only fifty years ago making them even less ancient,” Mace replied.

Kara looked even more annoyed now but Hilliph interrupted saying, “let's not get into an argument over the definition of ancient. Lets first find this fortress, accomplish the task and then you may resume your little debate.”

Kara nodded her head in agreement and said, “these rock line up with the northern mountains. If we figure out which ones then the fortress should be just at the base of the mountains it is said to line up with.”

“Let's just do this before we run out of daylight.” Igneous said. They spent the next hour climbing this mountain and with just thirty minutes of light left they got to the top. “Yep.” Mace said as he nodded at the scenery beheld at the top. “This is a nice view but we still don't have our answer.”

Kara was looking through the book seeing if she missed anything when Joel said pointing, “is that because we're supposed to be looking at this mountain from atop that mountain over there?”

Kara looked up from the book, then back down again. To Joel, to the book, to Hilliph, then back at the mountain. Mace coming to the realization of their simple mistake took a long exhausted look accompanied with a sigh and finally said, “Welp, looks like we're staying the night everypony.”
Kara stormed up to Joel and said, “How long have you know that?”

Joel replied by saying, “Some time but I thought we were playing follow the leader. I didn’t want to be a poor sport.”

Kara looked like she was about to tear into the earth pony so Mace intervened by saying, “Hey actually aren't you supposed to be the smart one Kara.” His reasoning was that since she had known him longer that mean he could heckle her a bit as he backed it up with his signature grin.
Sadly that wasn’t the case as she shouted. “I’ve had it!” Taking off and flying away twords the southern heap of rock they were supposed to be on.

As Joel watched her fly away he turned to Mace and politely asked, “Was it something I said?”

The next day came and along and with it was Kara who decided to come back after a long night of sitting on the correct mountain waiting for the sun to come up so she could actually confirm the location of this Hexer fortress. Landing amidst the group she said, “We have our heading. This way, follow me,” she commanded and so began her decent down the mountain leading the others.

“I don't know if we should,” Mace teased again thinking this would in some way lighten her mood. “you might get us lost.”

“Yea im with Mace over here,” Joel said.

Hilliph and Igneous watch in silence as Kara slowly said, “Not another word from you two,” Turnning around slowly, furiously she stretched her bladed wings out and shouted, “OR I WILL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT AND FEED THEM TO THE CAMPIONS AT THE MAGNOLIVEN ESTOC!!!” Her metal claws flipped forward digging into the rocks beneath them, grinding them to dust.

“...” Mace suddenly turned around and said “We should probably clear the area and make sure there are no unwanted guests...” he then, wise as he was, began to quickly make his way down the mountain.

“I agree,” Joel said with little wisdom he had, and followed suit.

There was a laugh to the right of her. “There you go Kara,” Igneous said with a smile. “Finding your inner Fury!”

She took a deep breath and said? “It’s the first time I’ve seen you smile in a while Igneous. You should do it more often.” She had taken a softer tone when she said that.

“You deserve it.”

Hilliph stepped forward and said, “We should get to that fortress. We gave the Gekies long enough to catch up.”

“Just keep up,” kara said as she flew herself down the mountains.

The group followed Kara who was steadily flying a far enough distance away that she wouldn’t be disturbed by their idle chatter but close enough to see them and vice versa. “It seems Kara has been on a wire lately,” Mace said as they traveled along.

Joel looked over to him a little surprised, “So it's not just me she is annoyed with?”

“She has been acting strange since we left the village.”

“Perhaps it's because she was hoping too see her sister.” Hilliph suggested. “She had not seen her for a year now. I can’t imagine the pain of only having to wait longer especially after much anticipation.”

“A year does not pass so easily, especially when it comes to waiting for a loved one.” Mace said.

“Sooner or later they start to blend together and you just start to not care much or you just forget all together,” Joel said.

“Not Kara,” Igneous disagreed. “She’ll never forget.”

“What do you mean?”

Hilliph interrupted saying, “Let's just give her some space. A mare isn’t particularly easy to understand. They are a mysterious creature only known to their own kin were as even they often turn on each other. Ripping hair, snarling like stray dogs hungering for the last scraps of discarded ketel, screeching and crying at each other when just moments ago they were dear friends. Only now bitter enemies of the prey of one, only one colt. Handsome as he would often times run from their animalistic nature seeking solace amongst his coltfriend while the roaming packs of fillies cercle about like wolves to sheep. Threatening to pounce. Ready to stake a claim forever to make him hers. Against his will but in favor his young coltish nature.”

Joel stared blankly at him. Manny moments of silence later his mouth gaped open uttering only one frase. “Wuuuuuuuut?”

“Well for now she has got all the space she needs,” Igneous said abliss to the monologue Hilliph just offered

As another set of hours passed away they had finally arrived at the base of the northern mountains. Kara landed landed near the group and said, “I have seen the crack in the earth from above and now know where it is.”

Eager they followed as she led them grounded for a few more minutes before they saw the ravine where the Hexer Fortress was supposed to be. It wasn’t very deep and looked easy to climb down because some severely weathered stairs led straight to the bottom offering an easy descent. “So is it down there?” Asked Joel.

“That's what the book says,“ she answers. They climbed down the stairs to the bottom of the ravine and stood amidst a massive opened doorway seemed to lead straight into the Fortress. As Hilliph levitated the book for Kara she said, “Now it says that there are two entrances. One is called the thieves entrance but the other is just referred to as the entrance.”

“So what happens at the thieves entrance?” Igneous asked.

As she looked through the book a little more she said, “Traps mostly. It says it's survivable but very unlikely.”

“I don't know about you guys,” Joel said, “But i would rather take the ‘entrance.’”

“Wait,” Kara said, “We don't know if that is the normal entrance.”

Igneous said, “It doesn’t particularly look like the back door Kara.”

“I agree, plus I don't see any other way in so this might actually be it.” Mace said.

“We don't have much time,” Hilliph said, “The Gekies could be bearing down on us as we speak.”

“Looks like we're all in favor then.”

“I don't like this,” Kara said as they all walked through the massive doorway and into the room with walls of stone, floors of stone and ceilings of even more stone that loomed over them as if this place was built for something much bigger. In the corners of this single room there were stone pillars going all the way up. Other than that there were no doors or any other entrance just a wall that stood opposite from them.

“This does not look like much of a fortress Kara,” Joel said as he looked around.

As Kara flew around the massive room she said, “I don't get it. This should be the fortress.”

Igneous was observing the ground as it did what floors normally did. Nothing. But he noticed that there were strange lines running along the ground and he asked, “Hey Kara does this floor look like anything from above?”

She flew up to the ceiling and when she looked down she saw that the markings seemed to outline a fire like pattern all across the floor. “It looks like a flame from up here,” she awnsered.

“A flame it may look like but a flame it is not,” said Hilliph, “This pattern you see is the Hexers seal that they would bear whenever they fought monsters. They said it was like a white fire that spread across there faces. From the information we have this white fire had no properties. It was never seen being used as a weapon so some speculate it is a side effect of being a Hexer.”

“Or just to look cool,” Joel offered up.

“Hm… maybe,” Hilliph considered.

Mace was over standing at the center and when he looked down he noticed that there was a rounded stone plate protruding slightly from floor, “Do you know what this is?” he stepped on it and the stone tablet got pushed into the floor.

There was a very loud grinding noise and they all watched in silence as a huge stone table drop from above blocking their only escape letting everything fall dark. “What did you do Mace!?” Igneous yelled over the thunderous boom it made as dust and debris scattered about beginning to settle..

“This is the thieves entrance isn’t it?” he asked as they all stood in the center boldly, albeit it Joel, anticipating what might happen next.

“Dammit Joel,” Igneous barked.

“How is this my fault Mace triggered this trap.”

“It was your idea,” he answered.

“Oh yea.”
The floor just beneath them dropped a few inches on a slant throwing dust into the air clouding their vision. “I hate you all.” Kara said slowly shaking her head as they would all be inevitably doomed.

“It's ok,” Mace said patting her on the back, “we know.” and the floor all together dropped down spilling the party of Falconers into a pit of darkness.

Author's Note:

Now is the better part of the story. Feel free to correct any spelling mistakes.
Tell me how you feel. I feel doleful. Yes that is a word... 7/20