Cold Scales

by Konatra

Labyrinth

The two fell for a while, Spines expected the drop to end a while ago but they just kept on falling. Around ten minutes pass until the Hunter snapped out of his focus.

“Something is wrong here.”

“How so?” She asked staring down into the abyss.

“I started studying these walls awhile ago and have now determined we are not falling but hovering" He sounded annoyed.

It was pure darkness down here and Spine’s own draconic night vision was still developing so if not for the Hunter she would have assumed this pit was as bottomless as it seemed. “Well, are we able to get out?” A twinge of fear crept up inside of her, what if they were stuck like this.

“There is no need.”Two tendrils slid down the Hunter and shot down into the darkness for a few seconds, a grappling sound could be heard. “I feel that the surface is of extremely high temperatures, would this be a problem for you?”

Spines waved him off. “You picked the right girl for this, I can swim in lava and even drink the stuff.” That was all he needed to hear and began pulling down at an accelerated rate. Spines clung her thighs around Hunter's neck at a grip that would kill a normal creature. He didn’t even notice.

The lower the two descended the more noticeable was the noise of vents pushing out air. Spines could feel this hot inferno heating up her core to quite comfortable levels, she felt quite relaxed in this state. “Kinda feels like a sauna in here.” She muttered.

Finally, the two reached the bottom, the gust of wind threatened to fling Spines back up if she even dared to loosen her grip around the Hunter’s neck, which by now proved to be incredibly sturdy since now Spines’ thighs pressed together hard enough to be able to crush gems.

By now Spines’ night vision began to grow strong so she was able to see the bottom floor. The entire surface looked like a gigantic air vent with metal edges stretching across for miles. The Hunter arched out his other four tendrils and moved across the vents like a spider along with a web. He moved outward from the vents into another pit, here the air force died down, she could see down and could tell this pit was just as deep if not more so than the first.

“Hold on to me.”Without having time to comprehend his words the Hunters leaped down into the new pit, this time however, he connected his spider-like tendril legs into the metal sides of vents, scaling downwards. This forced Spines to keep her weight centered up less she slip up and possibly throw the balance the two shared off. It was freighting to say the least.

The Hunter stopped after some time and lowered himself to step on the side. All six tendrils came around and hoisted the Dragoness up by wrapping around her like an insect caught by a ravenous spider. Her sense of direction was completely thrown out of order by this and no longer could she tell what direction up and down was. Because of this Spines started screaming.

The Hunter didn’t seem to take notice of the girl’s distress and instead focused intently on the hinges of the wall. He felt around for a grip and eventually found one to pull, with some effort the metal tore open to reveal a hole leading into more darkness. He hoped in with Spines in tow.

Once she entered the hole her sense of direction altered again which made the poor girl’s stomach lurch violently, at least she stopped screaming. After that, she felt much more aligned than usual and was promptly dropped to the floor. The ground was cold and dusty but very smooth; it was still pitch dark though. With her vision, she determined that even though they should be falling they were somehow on the proper side of the floor. “Is this some kind of gravity magic?” She asked while looking up to the Hunter. The halls were empty but something felt ominous to her.

The Hunter wrapped one thin tendril around Spines’s waist that acted much like a tether. “More likely some kind of anti-gravity tech…I am not exactly sure how I would know this…”He started walking, the tether tugging at her slightly as he moved. “Stay close to me Spines, while my memories are less than reliable, I am certain this place is a maze to us. I suggest we keep linked together like this unless you want me to carry you around again.”

Spines remembered the embarrassing position she was stuck in and quickly shook her head. The Hunter nodded and walked down the empty corridor. The architecture was odd and foreign but simple enough to understand that this was some kind of loading bay for emergency escapes. The place was full of broken weaponry and walls that protruded wires that sparked occasionally and lit the room up for a moment.

More than an hour passed as the two traversed the metal maze. Nothing really looked of great significance and any panels they saw were either dysfunctional or powered off. The Hunter told Spines they were looking for some way to activate the power or at least find the main deck, not much conversation occurred during this time.

Eventually, the duo came across a shut door that sized up to around ten feet in width and height. Of course, no power meant the door would stay shut for some time...unless. The Hunter latched his claw-like hands into the middle crease of the door along with several of his other appendages. The door made a terrible resisting noise of screeching metal. The Hunter grunted harder and harder, not used to such resistance. Slowly the door gave in and opened slightly, the tendrils helped by moving the door further apart. Once it opened by four feet across the Hunter stopped. "Hurry!" He sounded strained.

Spines snapped out of her focus of watching the Hunter did as commanded and stepped through the aperture with haste in her step. Once she was through the Hunter gave one more grunt and pushed the door out with all his might, this gave him a second to jump in before it shut violently with a crash.

Before the two could study their surroundings, dim lights lit up the large room. "INTRUDER LOCATED!" The walls opened up and tossed out humanoid metallic creatures that rushed to the duo with laser-like swords drawn. The floor opened up hatches that released turrets that pointed in their direction ready to fire.

The Hunter pulled Spines back who was stuck in shock and held her with his left arm to shield her. Despite this, he calculated the odds of victory and was disturbed when the odds did not favor the likely hood of Spines surviving this event.

Despite this, he held her close and primed himself for one hell of a fight.