> Falconers and the Tomb of Aminus
>  by MadDonut
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 Stranger Joel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day was calm the wind was gentle as the sun shone high above over snow covered mountains. It wasn’t all calm as clouds far off to the north leaked and spilled over the mountain peaks that sat there remaining to be submitted and conquered by some adventurous traveler, most likely never to return soon after. Nothing unusual should have happened however a stranger on this day found himself waking up on a 	trail lost as to where he was.
Picking his head up with a groggy sensation as his senses still dull. “Wh-what the hell,” He said as he rubbed his head. He wasn’t yet aware of his surroundings but soon the cold got through to him and he found himself high above a sheer cliff no a path paved by travelers. Startled he jumped back and pinned himself against a rock. “Ah!!! What The Hell,” he yelled to himself. “what is this?” He did a body check looking at everything he could. Quickly he realized he was a horse. The tail helped as not animals had a tail like a horse.
He looked around trying to understand where he was, but it appeared he was a lying in the middle of the path in some rocky mountains. He looked up the trail and down again not knowing where to go because even though he was in the middle of a path it most likely branched off further down the line eventually leading to him getting lost and dying of cold or whatever.
Luckily just when he was starting to really worry, he started to hear sounds of a cart approaching as its wooden wheels rolled over rock after rock. Joel wanting to get rescued from this place so he kept  a cool head despite his extraordinary circumstances, and stood up best he could and toward where he was hearing the sounds. He could see that the mountain he was on was one of many. If he traveled alone he would have definitely gotten lost. 
Waiting patiently the cart came about the rocky corner of the trail and he saw that the cart was being pulled by a dark green, and a blue horse. A few others were beside it spread out on either side but they were less mentionable. They all stopped once they saw Joel standing in the middle. Atop the cart they hauled there was a tarp covering whatever they may be hauling but Joel couldn’t care less.
As Joel observed them he could see that some did indeed have armor although it wasn't a substantial amount. They wore mostly leather oddly enough and each and every one of them had an elongated tube that sat at the sides of their bodies with wire running up to the back of their heads were as each one had a leather strap attached to one ear. Not wanting the awkward silence to get weird he spoke up first saying, “hey, do you guys know this place?”
“Know this place?” asked one, “of course we do. The real concern here is what are you doing here? You're trespassing and we don’t take kindly to indesirables.”
“Trespassing? Indesirable? I just got lost and…” Joel was trying to figure out a believable lie so they didn't think he was crazy or anything but then again he did just kind of appear out of nowhere to his knowledge. Sadly they cut him off.
“Lost? No pony just gets lost. You made the mistake of coming here.” Joel could hear the hostility in his voice and didn't like where this was going.
“It was by accident.”
Then the same pony spoke up and by now Joel could guess he was the leader, “No one makes this mistake. It's all too known to travel alone in the Radecks pass.” He stared at Joel for a second. There were about fifteen of them. Joel didn't know if he could outrun these guys. He did just unintentionally get this new four legged body, and although it was like bear crawling he was still getting used to it. “Whoever catches him first get a premium,” said the ‘leader,’ “alive! I’ll have him alive.” He flashed a sparkly, greedy smile at Joel that he didn’t find too comforting.
They must have liked the sound of premiums because about eight of them took off in a dead run after Joel. So Joel did the only sensible thing anyone would do. He ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could trying not to trip over his front two hooves. Even if he did get lost at least he wouldn’t be potentially killed by these bandits or sold as a slave. However this world worked it must have had some sort of cheap labor system, and who wouldn't want a strong able bodied worker who you don't have to even pay or respect and can beat, rape and can enact your darkest fantasies with? ...Certainly... not most… I hope...
As delighted as the sound of a job with no benefits sounded Joel learned that there was always better employment options, so he kept running as fast as he could. Where ever else was fine as long as he lost them. 
He came around a corner and wouldn't you know it, there was a dead end. He turned around and already they had blocked the path that lead into it. He had no escape. On his right there was the steep cliff going up and on the left there was a steep cliff going down. Not sure if taking the fall would leave enough bones unbroken and blood in his bodie to crawl off the mountain, so it probably wasn't the best idea. “Hey guys I don't want any trouble.”
“Hard to avoid what you are stranger.” 
‘At this point Joel didn't know if these guys were supposed to be Futile Age hustlers or something. He counted ten of them. Some had chest plates of armor and others had almost nothing to protect them, but all of them had a rode that was attached to the side of the front shoulder. with a wire running up to their ear that was attached by a leather peace.
Joel slowly backed up, “I don't know about you but um,” he thought of a good comeback, “I know krav maga, and like I killed people with it.” It was a very poor attempt at intimidation and something that didn’t affect the bandit group.
“Silence yourself and come quietly,” and after he flicked his ear down and back and the tubes that were fixed to their shoulders protruded a spear like blade that stuck out at about there whole body length. 
“I don't like this,” he was at the very edge of the cliff with one more step and he would have fallen. 
He started to walk towards him and each step his fixed sword thing would wave left and right. Quick enuf so that it would make a deep cut into his body and that didn’t sound too nice. “Tie him up.”
Joel didn’t wanna get sliced and since had no other option so he let himself get captured without a struggle. They tied his front hoofs to the back of the cart they were pulling despite the fact he was cooperating. As they started walking the horse that tied his front hoofs up said, “Let's see how long you can last dragging behind this.” He pulled roughly on the rope tightening it even more making it bite into Joel's skin.
He let out a silent grunt as the ropes tightened around his hoofs, “Won't it make it harder for you to do your job dragging me around?” Trying to sound like a smart ass didn’t pay off and he got hit over the head with something hard and made metal. The blunt almost knocked him out and he collapsed slightly which caused the ropes to tighten down even harder. 
“I said quite yourself.” He flashed the broadside of his sword in his face showing that that is what hit him in the head. He flicked his ear again and the sword flattened back out on the X axis. The cart started with a jolt and Joel quickly picked himself up so that his hoofs didn't get torn by jagged rocks. 
During this moment he took the time to think about what had happened just before he fell into this world. He remembered every thing that had happened up to the point where he woke up. Last thing he remembered back on earth was meeting some stranger who really liked the sight of common change for some reason. Apparently giving him some got Joel here so that guy couldn’t be just some homeless person or hag or something. First thought any sensible person would think of was magic? After all this was how adventures began.
He had been walking with his front hoofs elevated just in front of him making it really uncomfortable and hard to keep pace on his hind legs. If Joel didn't know it, now he did. This was how they would torture others. The lower back in four legged animals did not have muscles as strong to a bipedal like a human. So having to walk on your hind legs for a long period of time was painful if not unbearable.
Joel knew he had to get out some how, and with every rock they rolled over and every dip they took, it sent searing pain through his front hoofs. “Gotta get out of this,” he quietly restated. He was getting tired real quick and if he collapsed from exhaustion they may just be nice enough to drag him along as he gets cut up and bloodied by jagged rocks that littered the poorly made dirt road. Even worse was little new found pony wrist might break from being tied in such an angle.
Looking ahead he found that most of the bandits were in the front of the line making sure it's secure and safe. As a result no pony was worried about Joel all alone in the back. Thinking this was the best idea he started to bite at the rope like any sensible earthbound equine thing would do. 
It was tougher than expected but if he didn't get through it fast then he would be suffering long term consequences. Namely being crippled enslaved or a serious case of being dead for which there currently was no known cure.
He felt the slack as he almost made his way through the first cord. If he was lucky enough he would only need to cut one and hope the rest would fall away. As he worked he listened for anypony that might be hanging back or stop by to check on Joel. They didn’t talk much and when they did it was indecipherable as they were too far way.
Another few minutes of work and finally he cut the first cord and his left hoof started to relax as the pain and pressure slowly died away. His right hoof was still tied to the rope but Joel thought that the rope fell off the cart and away from him. Unfortunately it didn’t as previously stated. It was still tied to the back of the cart with a base knot, but he didn’t realize it because he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible falling into a dead run in the opposite direction. 
As a consequence of poor observation he got whiplashed. He performed a full flip as his hoof got pulled out from under him while simultaneously breaking. He cried out in pain as his tied up hoof was now bent at an awkward angle. He ran with so much force that the rope had snapped off the trailer hitch generating a deafening cracking sound that reverberated all along the mountain pass ecowing for an awkwardly long time.
His captors having heard his cry of pain and trailer hitch breaking turned to see Joel a far distance away running on his three good hooves with the rope trailing just behind him.
The one who had armor who Joel secretly decided to call Phill, because it suited him, shook his head in disappointment and muttered, “kill him.” And as many as who wanted another shot at getting premiums started for Joel, this time with no bounds to their actions.
Joel ran as fast as his three good hooves would allow. However every rock the hitch bounced off of shot pain strait through his body. He heard the shouts and pounding hooves of his pursuers, no doubt faster than him. Sure he had a generous head start but it wouldn't be long before they overtook him. That much was for certain. 
Hopefully Joel would find a bend and that bend would have a bush, and that bush he would hide in, and the guys would over look that bush, and Joel could maybe, just mabie live another day and find out what all this was. However such a bend, with a bush, with clarity of this world never came. Instead he found another dead end that surrounded Joel on both sides with vertical cliffs as well as in front with an immediate drop down the darkened mountain side. “Just my luck,” he said to no one in particular. “This mountain. Are You Out to Get Me?!”
After he said this he turned to see the bandits block the only entrance to this mountain side. Joel had his badly hurt leg curled up next to him as to not damage it more. Not wanting them to use the rope as leverage he began to gather it up using his mouth to grab and hoist it toward him and wrapped it around his body to keep close; He wanted to pass out his hoof hurt so much. “Just leave me alone,” he shouted at them. Why did they even care so much it's not like he was special so to say.
Phil stepped through the small group of ponies and said, “Know not again? You're trespassing.” 
Joel could only shake his head as the pain made him mute. The awful sensation in his front leg was just too great. 
“You’ve cause us trouble and delays. I won't give you the satisfaction of accompanying us on our comut.” He flicked his ear down and to the side again and his sword popped out wouldn't you know. “I can finish you here.” He began to walk over to Joel who’s only option was a fall that surely would kill him.
With every step ‘Phil’ took the sword would then wave up and down as if to intimidate Joel. It was such a simple device. Was that one tube of iron the only way they fought? Did they just swing their body around to cut some pony? “Don't worry,” Phil said, “My work is swift. You’ll feel nothing.” he was still a sword distance away but it was clear that the margin was about to be closed. “Any Last words. Perhaps I might have a change in heart, However I really doubt it,” he said calmly Joel found oddly haunting.
“Eh… Regrets…” he said tapping his hoof. “Honestly Phill I don’t know. My life is perhaps just one great big regret.” He shook his head and for a moment Phill stopped to listen. Could have been the anticipation of a monologue or some other. “Let me think… No songs, no tunes. Hardly a dance and only the fumes. I diddled and throttled, crashed and burned. I crawled out again but not a single soul heard.” He tisked at himself. “My life was terrible,” he said shaking his head. Then his pony ears flicked up and he said, “Can I join you.” Surely this was a stellar idea. He could start anew forge a new path in a new world of some potentially new land.
Phill only shook his head and said, “I can see it stranger.” He patted Joel on the snout in somewhat of a dominant, mockingly display and said, “You're not of the house of Lissium.” That really came as a disappointment for Joel as even these low life, four legged, grass eating, binocular visioned ponies were being classist towards him. All he wanted was a good origin however it seemed his fate was final when Phill rose his body along with the blade ready to strike down.
To Joel this was it but to another it was a split moment reaction as he flicked his ear back letting loose on his longbow. The wooden bolt sailed from above finding its mark against the broadside of the fixed weaponry of the bandit leader. It knocked him off balance and caused him to throw his attack missing Joel completely.
Joel looked up to see a silhouette horse standing on a ledge much higher than them. The orange one spoke, “Hey you guys.” 
“What?” Phil said annoyed. Looking up his face fell to astonishment. “A Falconer,” he said. At the mention of them his stallions began to back away slowly. “Don't retreat it's just one,” he assured dawning a confident grin. 
Joel looked up and saw that this pony had a cloke on with two crossbows that were pressed to his side facing forward. There was two levers that protruded from the side of his bodie like how phil's did but they weren't swords. Joel also saw that when the strange pony shifted his head, the crossbows would move according to that, and final thing Joel noticed was that there was what looked like a monocle in his one of his eyes.
The silhouette spoke again saying, “The word is a group of bandits has been stirring up trouble on frail old villagers. They were said to be hiding somewhere up in these very mountains.” He spoke in a funny guy kinda way. Something Joel could easily find likeable in an odd way. This unknown figure then said, “you wouldn’t happen to know where they are? Would you? They dawn broken attire...” such as they did. “...Wielding fixed weaponry…” such as they did. “...said to be amongst you this very moment. How strange. What do you think?”
Phil didn't answer. He stood his ground. He knew this ‘Falconer’ was just being a smart ass which is funny cause he was horse. “tisk tisk tisk,” he chimed shaking his head. “I think those I talk about are you.”
The mysterious horse flicked his left ear down and back and an arrow shot out the cross bow on his left side. Phil did his best to dodge it but still ended getting hit in his right shoulder. The other bandit ponies started to run out the entrance and were stopped dead in their tracks by another one, but this one donned a catalyst. “You're not leaving that easily,” he said withdrawing two swords holding them in midair. “Stand down now!”
They charged him  and in fear trying to escape regardless of his statement, but he fended them off with quick precise flicks of his blades and one by one he cut them all down. Joel was still in a great deal of pain, and Phil looked over with the arrow still in his bodie and tried to swing his sword head at Joel. Another arrow deflected the sword and Phil wiped it somehow getting knocked off balance and pushing Joel over the edge sending them tumbling over the cliff. 
Joel then found out the mountain was in fact not out to get him as he and Phil landed on a conveniently placed out of sight ledge. Joel landing roughly, coming down with a slam and luckily managed not to land on his broken hoof. Just as he picked himself up Phil had started to do the same. Assuming he would lash out at him the first chance he got, Joel took the broken hitch wrapped around his body with mouth throwing it, wrapping it around phil's neck with great precision.
Capitalizing on the surprise Joel jumped on his back taking the end of the rope in his good hoof, yanking it effectively strangling Phil. He instinctively pushed back slamming Joel against the stone wall which only begged Joel to just pull harder. 
He bit down on his own tongue because of the awful sensation he was inflicting on his hoof. Phil continued struggle by kicking and squirming with no results. Slowly Joel could feel the fight begin flood from Phils body but Joel all wanted it to be over quickly because he couldn't take much more eather.
Phil started to go limp and when he finally went out, Joel weakly pushed him off himself letting fall off to the side. In agony his vision faded, and the last thing he saw was the rocky mountains with their snow peaked tops and the blue skies the hung so far above them.
Suddenly a shadow appeared above him. One with wings as it appeared. It was a darkened shadow only becoming more and more so with his own fading vision. However when it fell upon him he finally passed out in agony only to soon be hoisted back up by his rescuers.
Three in total. One reluctant the others doubtful. However neither them nor Joel knew they would end up together on a grand adventure. A good and proper journey for a good and proper start.





> Chapter 2 The Falconers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Now the day turned to night with clouds that hung far overhead. The fire was lit and all three of them were sitting around it thinking about what to do with the two survivors as the wind blew along guiding the light snow as it fell. “I think we should kill him.” said Igneous. “We don't know who he is and he could be dangerous.”
Kara then spoke, “We just kill him? I mean look at him he is passed out because of the pain,” She said pointed over to were Joel was laying unconscious. They decided to make camp in the area they had fought and killed the bandits. Well most of the bandits, the one Joel strangled was still very well alive and tied up. “Why don't you heal him.”
“Because I won't waist my magic on some thief.” Igneous was acting stern. “For all we know he could have killed other ponies befor.”
“You just killed a bunch of bandits,” Kara responded.
“She has a point,” Mace said, “How can we just determine someone's fate just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“No pony is up in the mountains unless they’re a bandit.” Igneous snorted.
“Why don't we ask the bandit leader if he knows anything?” insisted Mace. “We could at least try to prove this guy’s innocents.”
“We owe him that much.”
“We don't owe this guy anything.”
Mace shook his head, “Let's just try to figure some things out before we jump to some rash conclusion. We’ll ask him first and then work from there.”
“Come on Igneous,” pleaded Kara
In silence he sat there, then making up his mind he picked up a torch from the fire taking it in his magical grip as he stood up. “This wasn't part of the plan.”
“It never is Igneous,” said Mace. They walked around the corner and out onto the path where the bandit leader was tied up to a rock. “We going to ask you some questions. You should understand that much?”
“I’m not talking.” he said.
Igneous was having none of it. He unsheathed one his four sword and hit the bandit in the jaw with the hilt, “Don't waste my time.”
“Right now this isn't about you. We want to know about the guy we saw you trying to kill,” said Kara looking him straight in the eyes.
He spat blood on the ground. It was a pretty hard hit, “I think you broke a few teeth.”
Igneous held the tip of the blade right up to the neck of the prisoner, “Answer the question.”
“I never seen him befor in my life,” he said.
“Then where did he come from?” asked Kara.
“I don't know. He just said he was lost. There was nothing of value on him and was just sitting there in the middle of the path.”
“Why did you try to take him then?”
“To make a quick sum. I'm a bandit,” he said laughing, “What did you expect you naive little hunters.”
“Do not insult me,” Igneous said angrily. 
Mace put his hoof on Igneous shoulder, “Igneous, calm down.”
“You better listen to your friend,” the prisoner said with a smirk. “go ahead. Take me to safeguard. I can endure the tri-”
With one swift motion Igneous slit his throat, cut the rope, arced the sword in around and plunged it into the chest of the defenceless prisoner, “A far cry to think such kindness of me. Your trials end here.” He then used the hilt he leveraged against his shoulder to heave the bandit over the edge. Stepping to the cliff face he watched as the still living dying criminal tumbled down the jagged rocks with the faintest of cries as he choked on his own blood.
Mace let out a long sigh as he tapped his hooves join Igneous were he stood. “Great now what,” Mace said peering over the cliff face. “You just had to kill the only survivor of the bandit party.”
“Our job is done. They've been dealt with. The village needed our help and we gave it,” Igneous said as he began to walk towards the campfire with the torch still grasped in his magical grip so everypony could see. 
“Keep in mind the lost stranger.” Kara said reminding him. “Do you intend to kill him?”
“If I have to,” Igneous responded.
“Why do you have to act like that,” asked Mace, “You don't need to kill off every injustice. There is the concept of mercy. You might like it,” Mace said nudging him a little.
“Who needs mercy. Only kindness forgives.” he unsheathed two of his four and spun them around his body in a glistening display of weapon skill and crafted art. “My swords, they enact justice and only justice.”
“Still Igneous we need to figure out what we're going to do with him.”
“Why don't you carry him,” Kara asked
“Why do I have to carry him?” he said sheathing his swords back into their scabbards.
“Because you killed most of the party anyway. This is your reward for exceptional valor.” Mace said with a smile.
“You gotta heal him first.” Kara said.
“Why do I have to do everything,” He said shaking his head.
“You're the only one who can,” Make reminded him.
“Fine, I will see what I can do with what little light magic I posses.”
“Did the books I give you not help you at all?” Kara asked. “If you got better at dark magic you wouldn't even need to carry around a shield,” she added.
“It would be a lot easier with a teacher,” Igneous said trying to fucose his light magic to heal the broken hoof. “To bad we have to rediscover everything in Carridian,” he became silent as he tried to concentrate harder.
Kara and Mace walked over the fire so Igneous could concentrate his magic on healing the stranger. “I can’t wait for team Coehin to get back. It's been what, a year?” ask Kara.
“It appears it has,” Mace said as he slipped his new found hood over his head. “We kept our side of Noriphmy safe from monsters and apparently bandits.”
“Me and my sister have so much to spiel over. I hope she at least one books on magic,” Kara opened up her wings so that the fire could warm them. 
“Why do you care so much about magic. You're a pegasus.”
Kara lowered her head. “Even so it's fun to study,” she said.
“Speak for yourself,” said Igneous still there with his head down trying to heal the stranger.
“What are you going to do when your father gets back Mace?”
“I don't know but I am just excited as you. We might just talk for a while.” Mace said.
After he said this a very loud tiresome sigh exhaled from Igneous, “That was harder than I though. His hoof was pretty bad,” he edged his head underneath the body of the stranger seeing as he had no clothing or armor to take him by. Slipping him firmly onto his back he suffled him a little more comfortably saying, “he must have been in a great deal of pain.” 
He headed towards the couple sitting by the fire but he didn’t stop and simply headed for the trail which they came promoting Mace to ask, “Where are you going Igneous?”
“Shouldn't we at least rest?” Kara asked.
“Rest? Why would we rest when team Coehin may already be making way.” Igneous said with a stern look taking the implied competition seriously. “And I'm not going to fall short, especially to Kohligan.” And with that he left around corner and out of sight of the two taking a torch with him into the darkened night. Kara and Mace looked at eachother real quick and without a word they stood up and left after Igneous. He was sometimes stubborn but never too rash. Besides if they hurryed they would probably beat team Coehin to the village.
They hiked all throughout the night with Mace taking the lead using his skills to safely back track their way down the mountains. They passed the stationary cart that the bandits had abandoned leaving it for the mining village to salvage in the hours to come along with their quarry the falconers had just liberated.
Joel however was now dreaming or what he guessed to be dreaming. He couldn't see anything, only blackness. He could feel things going on. There was shouting and the sounds of somebody gasping to breath. Someone was talking to him, to Joel. But he couldn't hear it as it was too distant. His hands felt like they grabbed something soft and it gave away easily when he squeezed. He could smell smoke. Not fire but electrical smoke. He heard himself say something but it wasn't Joel's voice. This one was deep dark, haunting and nightmarish. This voice, very low it was, said very slowly, “what if my god said it was my duty to kill you. All of you.” Then he heard it laughed and then every sensation of his prolific dream began to fade and nothing remained of it but distant already forgotten memory were sleep tends to retreat to.
Joel woke up to find himself in a wooded area. The pain down in his hoof had gone down considerably. Infact he didn’t feel any kind of pain. Curious as to why he looked at it and found it was bandaged and that he was on an improvised stretcher made from two long sticks and one piece of dark clothing. He looked over his shoulder to see that he was being dragged by a the armored pony that took on all the bandits with his disembodied swords.
Slowly Joel tried to sit up but wasn't strong enough to do it just yet, “I wouldn’t be moving if I were you. Not when you're sporting beauty like that.” He recognised that voice. It was the voice of the silhouette that had saved him. Just to his left there walked Mace in the flesh and armor. “You hurt yourself very badly while running with the bandits. What exactly were you doing up there if you weren't planning on getting yourself killed.”
He wasn’t wearing his cloak he saw earlier and it took a moment for him to figure out that they were using his cloak for the improvised stretcher. His crossbows he saw earlier were now collapsed and flatten in a dome shape on both sides. He also saw that his monocle from earlier wasn't some peace of glass but a sight that was now pressed up against his mane for this period of inaction. 
Joel then answered saying, “I kind of just found myself there you know.”
The unicorn spoke this time saying, “Found yourself there? What are you calling yourself a night crawler.” (Sleep walker)
Joel didn't know how to explain the ‘favor’ he did for the man back in the alley but somehow about half a dollar in change was enough to buy him an other worldly adventure. He avoided the question by asking a different one, “Who are you guys. Where am I” 
Mace answers saying, “We are Falconers simply put, but if you must know our names his is Igneous, I myself am known as Mace.” He then gestured to the sky and added, “And her’s is Kara.” 
Tracing the hoof upwards Joel up to see a flying pegasus. She was pretty high up so he couldn’t make out anything other than that her wings glistened, and every so often Joel caught a glint of sunlight that bouncing off of them partially blinding his eye. “I didn't see her during the fight. What did she do the whole time. Sit there?”
“We had her stay back, because she couldn’t fight in that type of environment,” said Igneous. he had a very matter of fact tone in his voice almost like he had a stick up his ass. “The space we were fighting was to tight and she wouldn't be able to make a quick pass in and out.”
“So what did you guys do with the bandits?” asked Joel
“Disposed of them,” was all Igneous said. He was really good at sounding intimidating, but hearing that, Joel didn’t need to know anything further. They could have burned them, buried them or just left them. It didn’t really matter if in the end they were just dead. Joel was still laying on the stretcher that Igneous was pulling. He didn’t want to feel like a baby so he tried to crawl off. “Hey don't try anything, you're still badly hurt.”
“But I don't feel any pain.” Joel respawned.
“That's because when you were out I took the pain away, and fixed the bone together” Igneous said.
“How though? did you like, give me medicine?” Joel asked apparently still wanting to stand, but Mace pushed him back down. “Estus?”
“Magic.”
‘Fuck.’
“I’m sure you have knowledge of minor healing spells, or just magic general.” Mace asked. 
Joel really had no idea about this world so he would just have to find out more for himself, “Let's just say I'm not from around here.” They were silent for a while taking easy strides throughout the woods. “So what do Falconers do?” he said making small talk.
“You really aren't from around here are you,” Mace said. “Do you want to explain?” He asked Igneous.
“I would rather we just get to the village.” Igneous said.
“Fine. Us Falconers are hunters,” he simply stated.
“Hunters?” asked Joel, “What like hunting game and stuff?”
“Don't insult me,” Igneous warned sending chills down Joel’s little pony spine.
“Don't mind him,” Mace reassured, “We are monster hunters normally but we also deal with the criminals too.”
“Like the people back there?”
“Ponies? Yes, they were tormenting a mining village holding off the quarry for personal gain. We didn’t ask for money we did it to protect them.” Joel kinda had to just sit there as Mace walked along side him. The trees were brightly green and the forrest kinda looked nice at least.
“Protect others, that's a joke and a half.” he said a little solemnly.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing, just speaking out loud.”
Mace could tell he was trying to hide something but he didn’t touch on it.
“Don’t worry,” Igneous interrupted, “every one has got a story to tell. Weather or not you would like to splurge is up to you.” 
“I would rather just move past and forget anything ever happened,” he said. “I need to start over. Move on because I'm tired of being haunted by the past.”
“I know how you feel,” Igneous said. Even when he talked he still sounded intimidating, “Some things you just want out of the way and to be rid of. But you can’t always get what you want. You remember the things you ever so dearly want to forget. Its painful, it's torcherous.” He ended.
“We all have our reasons why we joined,” Mace said cutting Igneous off before he could delve deeper. “Being a Falconer isn’t bad, you get to adventure all around Noriphmy with almost no care whatsoever.”
“We still got duties we have to fulfill Mace,” Igneous reminded him.
“It's the idea that your free Igneous that makes the experience all the better.”
This was already sounding great to Joel and so clasping his hooves, painfully, he said, “How can I become a Falconer, is there a process? Some exam because I’ll do it.”
“You show up. Simple as that. The hard part is the training and lifestyle and occasional fetch quest and all.” They kept walking with Igneous pulling Joel quietly as Mace kept explaining. “You have to be able to carry yourself for miles without a break. Most of the food you get while on a hunt comes from scavenging. Meat roots and all. You need to learn how to track locate and kill any monster you have been sent for. That is, as a Earthenier.” (Earthpony Falconer)
“It doesn't sound easy,” Joel said.
“Not really, but you do get a team of at least three,” Mace reassured. “You watch eachothers backs and never leave one to die. No matter how bad a situation might be you always come back for the fallen.” He let out a sigh, “I don't need to get philosophical now.”
“Sounds hard.” Joel said. What would it be like to be out in the wilderness with nothing but your buddies to watch your back. Its sounds dangerous and absurd but an experience willing to be had, “But honestly I would be willing to do it.” as opposed to his other available options. Them being not manny.
“Slow down,” Igneous commanded. “We only just met you, and your hoof isn’t all that good yet.” 
“I'm fine really and I’m not a bad guy,” again he tried to sit up but was pushed back down. Joel being annoyed said, “Can I just stand up. Didn’t he say said he used magic to fix my broken hoof thing?”
“I healed it but it could still break. My magic isn't exactly strong. I can’t even summon my own weapons but can only heal minor injuries.”
“And your broken hoof wasn’t exactly minor either.” Mace continued for Igneous, “especially since you damaged it trying to strangle that brute. I could have taken him on I just needed more one shot.”
“Well I guess I wasn't thinking straight.” Joel said, “I just saw that his guard and his attention was down, I felt threatened so I just had to… get em,” he said as he made some strangling motions.
Mace laughed at that, “You know, You really could be a Falconer with that type of attitude.”
“Oh really, and here I thought I didn't have the right kind of tragic upbringing or backstory to be a hero.”
"Our upbringing is just what motivates us. Anypony can be a Falconer” said Mace.
Hearing this Joel then felt like he really could be a Falconer. He thought of how he could go on an adventure. That man in the ally said he would give him a second chance, and a life full of dangerous adventures as he traveled across an unknown land... who would waste their second life on something like this? “Make me one.” he said abruptly.
Mace looked surprised, “My. You really wanna be be a Falconer?”
“Yes. I do.” Even if Joel had to take time to heal he would do this. He wasn’t going to waste this life working in some boring restaurant or shop or anything like that. He was going to do this even if it ended up killing him. “I'm certain of it.” Is easier said than done… the whole dying by your passion thing.
“We can get right on it then. Preparation is important but for now you need to rest.” Obediently he did as he daydreamed of the things he would do. Oh the possibilities.

> Chapter 3 The Monster Hunt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Joel was still laying in the makeshift stretcher being pulled by Igneous. As bad is his manhood probably felt, he didn’t mind much. They had walked in silence for some time that when Joel began to think it was going to be an uneventful journey to the village the pegasus landed just in front of the party. It was Kara he realized and she spoke saying, “I spotted a monster at southwest from our position.” 
Igneous responded saying, “great, and to think this was going to be monotonous.” 
“Whoa wait, what do you mean monster. I thought you said they were hardly any left.” Joel said struggling to turn his body to look at her.
“Doesn’t mean you’ll never come by one,” Mace said stretching his back as preped himself for the fight.
“Alright stranger you need to get off,” Igneous said as he levitated the higher end of the stretcher dumping Joel on the ground.
“Wait you're not actually going after it?” asked Joel.
“Its our job,” said Kara.
“Didn’t you just say you wanted to be a Falconer Joel?” asked Mace.
“Yea but I need training, don't I?”
Mace nodded his, “yes you do,” he put his hoof around Joel's shoulder and said, “and what better way to learn about killing monsters than doing it yourself. Igneous!”
“What?” he asked.
“Dequip me, and put all my equipment on Joel here.” Mace said.
A minute later Joel had Maces double crossbow suit on. “This idea of yours Mace is gonna get us killed,” Igneous said shaking his head.
“Should have said so before we took three minutes equipping Joel. We will be fine,” said Mace, “I will guide Joel though how to do this and when we finally kill the monster Joel can be inducted as a Falconer.”
“Guys, guys can't we wait till I at least know what i'm doing? Put me out there and I'm gonna die.”
Igneous laughed, “There's the excitement for you,” he turned his attention to kara, “you lead me to its last know position. Mace will catch up when Joel gets over himself and decides to join the rally.”
“Follow closely,” she said as she took off into the sky with Igneous running as fast as he could after her.
Jeol was getting increasingly nervous. He could get pounded into nothing and these guys didn't seem to care, or they were just used to it. There were no monsters on earth only in creepypastas and movies. Mace must have seen his nervousness although Joel wasn't trying to hard hide it, “Don't worry,” he said. “Eartheniers are the safest Falconers yet. You just gotta keep your distance and out of sight.”
“What if we are seen?” Joel asked looking around.
“Again you just gotta keep you distance and out of sight,” he repeated. He then turned started to run, “Come on, you're the one with my Falconering equipment.”
Not wanting to be in the woods alone were monsters might be lurking, Joel decided it was best to go with Mace. The gear that Joel now had on was heavier than he expected but he kept a manageable pace. He did catch up to Mace who seemed to be running without a problem, and talking to him in short burst of breaths he managed, “So what are we supposed to do when we get there.”
“Don't worry,” he said, “I will make sure nothing too bad happens.” That wasn’t too reassuring to Joel
When the finally did catch up with the others they were hiding around a bush closely observing as the beast did it's doing. 
Joel looked he saw that it walked on all fours despite having hands. It head looked thickly plated and it had spikes going down the spine of his back. It was a dark black with brown spots in different places but mostly on the underside.
To Joel he could easily admit it was big and that it simply looked scary. “So what's the plan Igneous,” Mace asked.
Without looking back he said, “We do the usual. I get its attention and fight close and up front, Kara attacks from above, and you find its weak points and go from there.”
“Um,” Joel interrupted, “how will I know what its weak points are.”
Igneous must've forgotten that Joel was massively inexperience in this profession. “Daft, just shoot it with explosives then.”
“Explosives!?” Joel asked. He took a nervous look at the equipment he had on finding a new meaning in counter productive safety.
“Ok good? Ready, set go,”  Mace said, and immediately Kara took off into the sky with one gust of her wings, and Igneous fell into a dead run aimed for the monster who was about half a football field away. Mace put his attention on Joel, “Ok this is how the equipment works,” he said talking a little fast, “listen up because this is important.”
“Ok I'm listening,” Joel said.
Mace pointed at the chest piece that Joel had on bore. It had a circle in the middle, “Ok that there is how you deploy the crossbows. All you do is you just hit it.” 
In the distance Joel heard Igneous shouting taunts at the monster doing his best to get its attention, “Hey over here you unutterably boorish filcher.” It turned around angrily and revealed its snake like yellow eyes. “You bashful greater beast!!!”
“Hey hey listen,” Mace said bring his attention back, “Push the button.”
Joel slammed his hoof to his chest and the arrows popped up so fast it made Joel unwillingly jump. Two reticles, one in front of the other, lowered themselves down into Joel's right eye. When he moved his head the one furthest away shifted slightly in that direction.  “Ok,” he continued, “This site right here show you were the crossbows are aiming. There connected to your head and aim roughly where you look.”
“Seems easy,” he said as he looked back at what Igneous was doing. He was just standing there and the monster was still walking up to him.
Mace continued even faster than before, “Ok these bracelets on either of your hoofs regulate what shot your fire. These two levers in front of you are to hammer your shot into the flight grove, and to fire you simply flick your ear back.” Joel was still trying to understand it but Joel pushed him forward to face the monster and he said, “Ok start shooting it.”
Igneous drew two of his four swords in his magical grip and held them just in front of his face just as the monster reared back ready to attack. “Just shoot it?”
It took a swing at Igneous with its right giant sized hand and he rolled out of the way spun the swords around and plunged for the back end of its wrist. It let out a roar and backhand Igneous through the air.
‘Oh shit,’ Joel thought to himself. Doing as taught he fired a shot by flicking his right ear back and the right crossbow fired sending a arrow flying at the monster's chest. It bounced off without the beast even knowing it got hit leaving him to saunter off back towards Igneous. “It didn’t penetrate Mace.” Suddenly Kara came down on the monster's back and started to claw at it aggressively, with the metal claws she had equipped to her hoofs.
“Then shoot is weak spots,” he simply said. “Near the Joints like its neck and inside of its knees and elbows.” Kara was still on its back when it rolled over making her have to take off to safety. Igneous however was back on his hoofs and it appeared that he connected the two swords by the hilts making them one and was running with the looked like a knight's shield he dequipped from his back, levitating in front of him protecting his whole body.
Joel pulled down the right lever hammering another shot into the flight groove. He fired both crossbows this time but they, like the last round, bounced off. “Its armor's too strong,” Joel said.
Knowing he couldn’t possibly hit any weak spots if his life depended on it he said, “fire an explosive round,” he responded, “Just twist the bracelet to the explosive symbol.”
Joel looked down at the golden bracelets that were around his hoofs. They had four symbols and Joel didn’t even know which one was which, “and what symbol would that be?”
“Alow me,” he said frustrated as he took his hoof and twisted the bracelet himself. He pulled down the lever for Joel replacing the old shot with the new explosive bolt. “Fire!”
Igneous was still fighting the monster. He rolled left out of another downward attack and the beast swiped its arm towards him but Igneous stopped it by planting the shield into the ground. He jumped around the arm went under its chest and tried to stab it by throwing his swords upward but it didn't penetrate. Vulnerable, Igneous got grabbed by the monster and were as it lifted him up high above his head and slammed him back to the ground beneath his massive paw. His swords and shield fell as his concentration that was need broke along with getting the wind knocked out of him. Joel then fired the right crossbow just as the beast was about to take a bite out of Igneous. Watching the explosive bolt sail through the air it hit the beast right side of his face. 
It reeled back as the bolt exploded effectively freeing Igneous from its grip. Igneous then gathered his dropped swords and shield back to him as he partially retreated. He still wasn’t done with the monster because he was still taunting and shouting at it like a school kid yelling, “Is that all you got you miserably lecherous oaf!”
“Time to relocate hunter,” Mace said. As he quickly dragged Joel away he added, “Rule one my friend. You never want your position to be compromised.”
Joel fired his left crossbow but it contained only a normal wooden bolt which bounced off the monsters armored scales harmlessly. “That's a rule I can follow,” Joel said reluctantly. 
They began to quickly move in a wide arc around the fight that was happening between Igneous, Kara, and the beast itself. Kara managed to land on its back again but wasn’t doing much damage. She frustratingly was doing her best jabbing and stabbing it with her left hoof while using her right to balance herself on the bucking beast. “It's armor's too strong,” she anounced as she repeatedly, fruitlessly agonised its back.
Igneous spinning his double bladed sword fast as a propeller attacked the elbow with a downward strike, but the beast, faintly intelligent, effectively throwing Igneous off balance burying the blade of his sword into the dirt. The beast then slammed it down while Igneous was exposed.  Quickly he raised his shield and managed to bring it to a stop as it pressed down on his body keeping himself from getting crushed. “Go for its eyes,” he managed to gasp under the immense pressure.
Kara took off from its back saying, “got it.” Igneous then slipped out from under escaping with his shield and back stepped behind a tree just as the dirt where he stood got pulverised, and the tree to soon after sending splinters flying off in all directions. 
Joel and Mace finally reached their positions. “Alright keep shooting it and Igneous and Kara can do their thing.”
“Right,” said Joel and he fired another explosive bolt nailing it in the chest. 
A flicker of light caught his eye and he looked up to see Kara diving out of the sky at high speeds aimed for the beast with claws outstretched and wings folded. Just as it seemed she was going to collide with the ground he fethers suddenly sprang opened and directing herself she flew right by the monster's face inflicting a bloody gash to the right eye of the beast inflicted by the feathers of metal that lined the outside of her wings.
The monster fell back as it held its wounded face. Igneous fell back a little so as to not get hit if it decided to unexpectedly lash out with new found anger. Again he taunted it saying, “Get up you sickly uncivilized derelict? I'm not done with you yet.” Slowly it stumbled back onto all fours with new found anger.
Another explosive bolt inflicted to the shoulder. With much rage it picked up a nearby boulder and threw it at Igneous. He dodge out of the way by quick stepping to the side with his shield raised blinded to the monster who follow up by charging flooring the Falconer. He quickly planted his shield down to the dirt but the beasts thickly plated head smashed through it causing the shield to sail out of Igneouses AOI and knocking Igneous off to the side as it charged its distant tormentors. (Area Of Influence)
“ItscomingforusItscomingforusItscomingforus, OH GOD MACE!!!,” Joel shouted as the monster smashed through a tree twenty yard in front of them sending wood flying there way.
“Get out of the way!” Simultaneously they both jumped back as the monster smashed through the log they had just abandoned as refuge. 
With splinters of wood flying everywhere a decent sized chunk hit Joel in the chest throwing him onto his back and the beast, furious as it was took its place above the downed pushover. The warmth of its breath, the strength of its muscles, eyes that penitrated his and drew out his fear and its fangs primed to bite down and end his miserable life. 
Joel braced himself for the inevitable and his right crossbow fired sending an explosive bolt through the monster’s one good eye and with a dull thud, exploded within the head of the beast.
It toppled over blood pouring out of its orphis as it collapses just in front of Joel. “I-I… wha,” he said too stunned to speak properly. Then almost instantly realization hit him “Holy shit I killed it.”
Poking the face of the downed beast Mace said, “My… I think you may have actually killed it. You shot that thing in the eye?”
Landing atop the corps Kara said, “Mace that was a taffing terrible idea to give him your equipment. That could have gotten us killed.”
“Actually,” Mace said bobbing a hoof. “He is the reason we killed it.” 
Igneous flicked his blade against the dark scails were as they easily bounced off. “This beast armor was too strong,” Igneous said as he slowly walked up on every one. “I'm Amazed even my swords can’t penetrate it.”
“So now what?” asked Joel as he collapses the his crossbows to his side by pressing the chest button. He liked the raw mechanical feeling it made when doing so.
Turning to look at Joel he said, “I think now we make you a Falconer. You did it, you killed your first monster.”
He took a deep breath exhausted breath. That close call was to close for Joel, “That was much easier than I expected.” 
“Just be lucky your still alive,” Igneous said as he mounted his shield on his back, “let's get back to the village. Tell them of this prize, they can harvest it later. Team Coehin may just have beaten us there by now. Daft,” He muttered underneath his breath.
“Ooh I can't wait,” Kara said as she slowly ascended.
“Ehy?” Joel began as he followed Igneous and the gang. “Who is this famous team Coehin
“Team Coehin,” Mace began. “s a team that consist of Igneous father, Karras older sister and my father, and it's been a year since we seen them. Explains our enthusiasm a bit right there.”
“I guess your all excited to see them.” Joel said keeping pace with him underneath the weight of the equipment. 
“You wouldn’t believe. My dad taught me everything that I know about being a Falconer, and because of it I am the best monster tracker there is.”
Joel doubted that a little, “Really? The best monster tracker there is?”
Igneous walked on ahead, and with Kara flying somewhere above they left Joel and Mace to talk alone, “Let me tell you a story Joel. Get comfortable because this might last till we get to the village.” It almost did.
They left the monsters corps sitting there and like Igneous said the villagers did eventually harvest it fashioning small plates of armor from the scales with unfortunately became brittle with time.

> Chapter 4 Prestigious Hunters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“My story,” Mace began. “Starts with my father's own story. When he was just a young colt he lived in a village that was currently protected by highly experienced Falconers. Now at this village was one of the few that could manufacture the metal Hycrome. Hycrome does not erode and is a very malleable, flexible metal which is ideal when it comes to making the Falconers crossbows like the one I use now.
“Now one day the village was attacked by a hideous beast that had no eyes but could see perfectly. No skin but was protected by white bone. It attacked every building and every pony without remorse, without recompense. Our Falconers put up a valiant fight but the monster was too swift, dodging, weaving like water around a rock or wind through a tree, and one by one falconer met a dismal fate but none too tragic as Varin himself.
My father had said he saw it with his own eyes as Varin, peganier and protector of the skies, tried to attack it from above. Though the monster was blind it still knew, the beast knowing he was coming from above, sharply snached him out of the air like a snake striking its prey, ripping his wings off fiendishly and crushing Varin’s lower body with its head against the side of a boulder.
It then dropped him down as arrows flew in from behind it. It left Varin to die in agony as it stocked off to make short work of the two remaining Falconers in an equally grueling fashion. After making short work of Goffiphry, the unicron, and Arishma, the earth pony, it then simply left without further conflict.
My dad had explained the sight to me. He had always said the first glimpse of the cruel bloodthirsty world of Carridian is forever the worst anypony will ever experience. He watched as Varin, this once great stallion who had lived a proud courageous life: A symbol of protection and safety for many ponies for many years, be reduced to nothing but a bloody pulp.
His comrades had died long before but he stayed alive for an hours after the fight, unable able to move, and unable to speak… Unable to die rightly Joel. He said how everypony who could bear the sight had said his eyes were wide open the whole time most likely, some had theorised, from the sheer utter pain alone induced to his lower self. Tears poured out of his face in a continuous stream. No pony could help him because he was essentially already dead but not just yet and not for some time to come.
The monster had destroyed some buildings but nothing too severe. The lose of those Falconers was a travesty but they could do nothing but continue on with their lives in hopes that a new team of Falconers equally equipped and adept would show up to protect them as now their side of the land of Noriphmy was wide open to attacks by bandits and this time I should remind was what most have said to be the golden age of banditry.
A few months had past and a new monster had come but it wasn’t a beast. This monster was Merick the bandit leader as prophesied so easily by most. He and his group of bandits raided the village for its precious Hycrome to fashion equally deadly weapons for their own devious insipid use. They slaughtered the villagers and burnt that defenceless mining village to the ground.
My dad had escaped by himself and watched as his friends and family were killed one by one, sword to flesh, and often times ear to ear.  He had never left the village prior and because of this he became lost in the wilderness. However as young as he was he didn’t give up. He survived 
During his first few days he had fashioned a double edge spear by taking a broken branch and rubbing it for hours against a rock with nothing but his mouth to hold it in place until both ends had been smoothed to a deadly tip. He hunted and killed rabbits and squirrels by sneaking up on them with silent movements and stabbing the with the spear he wielded with nothing but his teeth.
Weeks of hunting using a spear and his mouth made him the only earth pony to wield a bladed weapon better than any other non-unicorn could. 
He had found his way back to his village only to find that it had been overtaken by the bandits that had attacked it, fashioning camps and barracks from the few spared buildings of the raid befor.  They had started making their own Hycrome intent on replicate Falconer weaponry. Earthenier classed weaponry to be precise.
He sat in the woods and waited till night to infiltrate and liberate what was once his home. Using the skills he developed all those night of sneaking up on rabits was the same as what he did in that instance. On those unsuspecting guardsmen they poasted each night. 
In the dawn of the morning they found that the two who were on guard had disappeared without a word with scant a trace. When day turned to night they had doubled the amount of security only to find that in the morning there was none. No bodie, only blood. Pools of crimson liquid.
Thirty six bandits had been there but after five days, a mutiny and more disappearances the ten remaining bandits each slaughtered one another out of fear in the final hours of the sixth night till only two remained.
They stood at each end neither of them taking his eye off the other when the door suddenly opened. Peering through the threshold was a darkened small figure. It was him, the colt who had his village pillaged by honorless ponies.
One of the two immediately attacked him but my father, using his mouth, deflected the fixed sword with one end of his spear and drove the other end into the bandit's throat. He fell dead as suddenly and efficiently as the rest befor.
He then approached the last stalyon who was cornered with fright. Comanding him to fall dead he did so with grace falling upon his very own fixed weapon. There were thirty persons their first night but now only one remained and that was him, the lone survivor. An avenger. He had found his way back to another village where he told his story. They had known that the ponies of my father's village had been killed but they had not the horse power to liberate it themselves. 
As word got out that my father single hoffedly killed a bandit group with nothing but a wooden spear the nearest Falconer group took him in with his very concent, and started training him immediately. As the years passed by he became one of the greatest Falconers mind you. He trained a small group of individuals and taught them how to fight same the way he did. They did many missions and were tyrants in fighting bandits with great cruelty. Effective as they were they were forcefully disbanded by the council of Noriphmy effectively catching the eye of the king himself. Later on he became the leader of team Coehin and is to this day still a Falconer.
Now I had the honor of being born to this hero. When I was old enough to begin training he wasted no time. We would spend days just the two of us out in the woods. He taught me how to track monsters by bringing me back to places where he and team Coehin had previously killed a monster and we would trace its tracks as far back as we could to find a place of origin. A breeding ground for say. 
Although we never did, these tracking missions had honed my skills, and now just a single broken leaf is enuff to lead me for a mile.
Joel was listening intently and absorbing everything that Mace was saying, but he had one question. “Who was your mother? You never mentioned her.”
Mace looked off into the distance as he pondered the thought, “He never spoke of my mother but for as long as I can remember he has always been my father.”
Joel was about to follow up with another question when Igneous called back to them saying, “I hope you guys are done talking because we're here.”
“Well Mace,” Joel began. “I thought you were gonna take center stage for this one. How come your story isn’t as great as your dad's?” Joel asked. “He sounds more interesting than you.”
“Ha,” he muttered, “I have done some great things in the short amount of time I had to live, but my father had had far greater adventures.” The dirt turned to stone as they walked up the path leading them up to the nonexistent entrance. “What we all seek is a legacy to be remembered by. That is what I'm after and until then I'll walk in his stride.”
“I should probably get started on my own then,” Joel said. Looking around he couldn’t help but admire the wooden households with roofs made of thick heavy thatches sufficient for protecting the occupants from the elements. It reminded him of medieval movies he used to watch as a kid. There were more commoners walking about doing their thing whether it was shopping talking or some job joel couldn’t quite tell was. “So…” Joel began, “where is the famous team Coehin?”
Looked around Mace called out to Igneous saying, “you see them?”
“If any of us would its Kara,” he replied.
Walking to the center of the village in hopes of yielding better results also came up fruitless on this elusive team Coehen. “You think they're just late?” Joel asked still looking for some other armored horses other than them.
“They could be, but it's not like them,” Mace answered.
“If anything it's because they're killing some beast,” Igneous said.
“Two in one day?” Mace suggested. “Absurd.”
Gracefully landing close by Kara said, “I don’t see them. Perhaps there just late.”
“It's what we were thinking,” Joel said.
“Sadly you're mistaking,” said a new voice from down the street. They all turned to see a blood covered stalyon moderately armored and well equipped with two long swords secured to his either side. 
Kara looked at him with worriedly, “what do you mean? Where is my sister?”
He straightened himself although he looked exhausted and said, “nothing sinister I assure you Kara. Team Coehin won't be coming back to day as they were needed down south.”
“Hilliph,” Igneous announced. “Wa I didn’t know you still kept to team Coehin. I thought you would have graduated into your own.”
“Ah it wouldn’t be the same. It's good to see you all doing well.”
“I don't mean to be rude but are we allowed to know why, or is this business to be kept quiet,” Mace suggested.
“Classified, no doubt,” he answered. “but Kara, your sister sent me to give you this book.” His satchel opened and an old leather laced book floated its way out and in front of this pegasus. 
“Well a new book certainly isn’t new,” Mace joked.
“From what she told me this one is very important you see.” He walked it over to kara and she read the front cover. “Examine its literature will you?”
From her expression she understood the strange writing. She put her hoof over the top of it and said, “we should take this behind closed doors.”
They were now sitting in what these falconers called the falconer keep. Small and not as impressive as Joel would have thought but it did provide the essentials which he guess was good enough to begin with. This building however, unlike most, was made entirely of stone save it for  the flooring that was of wood intending to be more homey for say.
It was dimly lit almost no natural light and had a table and a few pieces of furniture and wardrobe off to the side. Joel didn’t even know why he needed to be there he only killed one monster and now he was a Falconer all of a sudden. Talk about a swift change in pacing. This new guy, Hilliph, already seemed like a great character and one who the others seemed to already know him very well. As everypony got settled and situated Mace asked, “So why are we gathered here today? I'm sure this is important.”
Hilliph stood across the table and said, “As you may have known Mace I and the rest of team Coehin recently had been working together to uncover more of our lost valley, finding abandoned strongholds deserted villages and wasted lands doing our duty to piece things back together recovering a lot of our past.” he laid the book down on the table, “most people think that we hunted monsters and recovered magic books for the historians in the capital to study and dissect.” Hilliph continued, “What most don't know is we actually are trying to uncover Hexer ruins. What little evidence to support their very existence.”
“Hexer ruins,” Mace asked, “Hexers were never a civilisation, they can't have had ruins.”
He nodded, “My point exactly.”
“So what makes this one so special?” Igneous asked as gathered near.
“From our archives we have gathered over the years we were led to believe that they did infact have some sort of hierarchy. What makes this book so special is that this all but confirms it.”
He opened it to a page with what looked like to be a map, “From what Nimbus was able to translate it apparently leads straight to where they had built a fortress.”
“Let me guess,” Mace began, “You want us to take you there and go spelunking for some Hexer magic?”
“We can only obtain stolen magic though,” Igneous said. “Raw magic comes straight from a majin. You can't preserve it.”
“It's the stolen Magic were after,” he said, “This particular stolen magic is the white Magic taken from Aminus himself.”	
“Aminus,” asked Joel. For some reason amidst all the exposition he decided that this one name amongst other things was question worthy.
“Yes,” he answered assuming he meant thee Aminus which he didn’t. “Aminus the colossal black dragon.”
‘welp…’
“A dragons stolen Magic?” Kara asked. “I thought it was destroyed when Aminus was imprisoned within the ground itself.” 
“You can’t destroy stolen magic. It takes a crystal form that cannot be broken.”
“Shouldn't we just leave it,” Mace sugested. “We could be endangering every pony with the most powerful white magic ever.”
“If we leave it there is a good chance a group called the Gekies Getuies might take it first. They had infiltrated our archives and from inside reports there are after this white magic as well. Their final intentions are not clear, but simply leaving it would be even more dangerous.”
For a second everyone was quite, “What's the plan then after we retrieved Aminus Stolen Magic?” asked Igneous.
Hilliph sighed, “I don't know, but we got orders from the capital to retrieve it and bring it back.”
“Were giving it to the people who couldn’t keep the bad guys out to begin with,” Joel inturupted.
Hilliph looking Joel up and down said, “who is this falconer.”
“Don't mind him,” Kara said.
“You know what,” Mace suddenly said. “It shouldn’t be hard. Monsters encounters are low for the time being and I'm not going to see it be stolen by some thieves.”
“I strongly agree,” Igneous said.
“What about Joel, he is not trained,” Kara said looking directly at him.
“Well… *gulp* that hurts,” Joel said.
“Untrained, pah, I can train him during the mission,” Said Mace sneakingly. “Leave no other behind or left out of a great adventure. Besides we got an extra standard issue Earthener suit hidden away in the wardrobe,” he said pointing to it. “Just for the situation.”
“Great, we leave tomorrow morning.” Igneous said.
“We should get are rest.” said Hilliph. “I need to wash this blood off me, who knew Retoritus blood dried so quickly.”

> Chapter 5 Maiden Day of a Grand Adventure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You're not looking too good,” Said Mace as they walked through the woods unbound to any trail that may have lead them. They now were in the lands of Carridian aimed for the Hexer fortress on this fine evening.
Cranking his neck Joel said, “Maybe it's because it's way too damn early. It's like.” he glanced to an invisible watch on his hoof and said, “Five?”
“Get used to it because this is a week long trip of walking,” Igneous said. “You shouldn’t let it go to waist. You could use this time to get into shape, sharpen your senses, prepare for your next hunt.”
“Maybe you could learn to summon your shield,” Mace mentioned.
“We could all learn something new,” Hillph muttered as they trotted along over logs bushes and crags. “A week is a long time. We could all be proactive in some way.” 
“Were even is this Hexer fortress?” asked Mace.
“From what the book says its a... its in the Condoon forest,” Kara answers. “Knowing where it is is the easy part, but finding will be a bit more difficult.”
“Do you know how we do that? The Condoon forest isn’t exactly small in size.” Joel said.
“All that sand is going to get into my armor,” Igneous mildly complained. “No clue as to how long it's going to take to get all that sand out.” 
“Look all we got to do is line the northern mountains up with some rock formation then the book says it's literally in the cracks of a canyon just below.”
“Who hides an entire fortress inside a canyon?” asked Joel.
“Perhaps some one who does not want to be found so easy,” Hilliph said from up front. “Hexers had the most powerful magic there was during the Great Rising. If any of it fell into the wrong hoofs that would spell disaster for every pony. We were lucky enough that the Hexers were so gracious in the time of their existence. So easy it is to fall to power. Most become corrupted with such a temptation”
Kara asked, “Who would be able to steal from a Hexer?”
“I sure there was plenty of other ponies who tried to steal their magic. Both powerful and not. None of which are alive now. Given it has been more than a century.” A breeze came in that rustled the leaves a bit making the forest look more lively. “Lets try not to talk so much. Lets injoy our own company and appreciate the nature abit.”
They had walked silently until noon passing through clearings over hills rockey areas and so forth until they found a sutible resting spot to take an hour long break. Well if you could call it a break. “Ok Joel you may have shot a beast eye on that monster but I'm just going to say you were fortunate if not lucky.”
Joel said “I agree with the whole luck thing. So what the plan now.” 
Mace pushed the button on his ceast peace and his crossbows sprung up on either side of him. He turned towards a tree that was off in the distance, flicked his ear back and fired a bolt. It sailed through the air before hitting its mark in the harden bark of his target. “Your challenge this week will be to split the arrow from this distance.” He then hammered another bolt into the flight grove readying it for another shot.
“I don't know that seems a little far,” Joel said as he squinted to get a better view. 
Mace walked by making sure to push Joel's plated button letting his crossbows spring up at his sides, “It's how my dad taught me and it's how i'm going to teach you.”
Joel winced a little when the cables around his ear stiffened, “this trigger mechanism isn't very comfortable.”
“Don't worry, you’ll get used to it,” he responded. “Now you already know how the thing works.” He pushed both Joel’s left and right sights down over his eyes.
“Why do I need two sights?” Joel asked.
He answered, “Because you're not used to it and the crossbows aim with them being opposite to one another. The foursight is the dynamic sight because it moves when you look in any direction up, down left, or right. The sight closest to your eye is fixed and stays put. Just line them up and that's where the arrow fires.”
“Um, ok. Sounds simple,” he said stepping forward. Lining up his first shot he said, “I’ve done harder thing before.”
“Ok. First make sure you have a normal sho-” Joel fired and almost instantly after the target tree exploded into splinters causing the tree to be inveloped in a plumb of dust and debree before toppling over to the ground. Joels ears were now ringing mostly because the tranquil, silence of the wilderness had soften his and every falconer present, delicate ears.
Igneous called out from over the hill that separated the two parties saying, “What was that?”
“Some mighty strong wind,” Mace answered. Then then looked at Joel, “That was an explosive tip. You didn’t double check the shot you had?”
“Hay, I only ever did this once,” he said examining the bracelet on his hoof trying to figure which symbol represented the normal shot. “How do you even know which one is the normal shot I can't even tell.” The symbols were confusing.
“See that arrow, it point to what shot you have loaded,” He twisted the bracelet to wear the arrow pointed at what looked like a sideways T. “That is the normal shot.” Then he turned and fired an new bolt at another tree that stuck in much the same way. “Now just split that arrow, and don't blow it up.”
“I can do that, I can do that,” mumbled as he twisted his other braclet and hammered the normal bolted shot, “What will you be doing.”
“Looking for lunch for us to eat,” he said as he turned to leave. “I will have to search further no thanks to that explosion you set off. You just stay here and do your thing.” and with that he left Joel alone to practice and with a mighty new question.
‘Do horses here eat meat?’
Joel turned back to the new unexploded tree with the bolt tauntingly protruding from it. “Ok yea I will just Robin Hood this bitch and get my gold metal. No problem,” he said to himself. He tried to aim but the weird sights made it so that there was some what of double vision. He closed an eye to focus better, and flicked his ear back. The bolt went flying just to the left of the tree. He closed his other eye and fired the other crossbow and it missed to the right.
He did this a few more times before he realized he was closing his right eye and firing the left crossbow and vise versa. “Stellar. Man I am just steller,” he said talking to himself again. “Just close the right eye.” He fired the opposite crossbow again, “Damn.” and fired the left while looking with his right, “Daaamn!” he hammered both shots and made the same mistake again. “Fucking shit I suck. Left eye open, and fire left crossbow.” He double checked to make sure he was aiming down the correct sights and fired. The bolt embedded itself just below the target bolt. 
He did this a few more times hitting the tree but never splitting the target bolt. “Well I would definitely hit a target bigger than a gnat.” he looked at his shot and saw that some were only about half a foot away. “At least I'm doing good but this… this is just boring,” he muttered to himself once again. He knew that the others were just over in the other direction and couldn’t see him. The sense of isolation got to him and he acted a bit weird.
He hid behind a tree out of sight from the target arrow he had been trying to hit, and then suddenly jumped out did a roll and fired a shot at it trying to hit it. It missed the tree all together, “What? You looking at me,” he said to the tree. “Well I don't have time for you,” he turned away from it and looked back saying, “Aw is that a gun you got pointing at me? Well i'm just gonna HA,” he suddenly jumped around, and fired his other shot hitting the tree about a foot from the target bolt. “Yea shaken not stirred please,” he said feeling way too over accomplished.
Then from directly behind him he heard somepony say casually, “What are you doing?”
He jumped back feeling his heart jump into his chest and saw that it was Kara hovering just above the ground lightly flapping her wings. Collecting himself fast as he could and resuming a professional pose he said, “Where did you come from? You almost gave me a heart attack.”
Landing she said, “I'm on watch duty, I see everything from above.” She then started to circle around Joel. “You know I really wish you could take your duty seriously. Your fortunate you even got to venture with us.”
Joel was slowly tracking her with his head and said, “Hey I'm just happy to be here, but it doesn't take an expert on female posterior to know that you don't want me here.”
Suddenly she unfolded her right wing faster than Joel could have anticipated holding the bladed feathers up to Joels neck, “a week is a really long time and anything could happen. I won’t put up with your foolishness. You wouldn’t want to get on my bad side right now.”
Joel carefully, as to not cut his throat on her bladed feathers, slowly said, “I’ll be sure to keep my distance.”
“In the mean time try not to get any of us killed,” she politely lowered her wing taking the bladed feathers from his neck, turned and began to walk off.
Joel couldn't help but smirk. “Trust me, I know what I'm doing.”
“Your first shot says otherwise,” and she took of into the air leaving Joel to his lonesome and his practice. This time though he didn’t mess around and took his training seriously.
Igneous was sitting down concentrating as Kara and Mace were gone leaving only Hilliph in his company resting directly opposite from him. A dark hase had started to form between them that took the shape of a big rectangle. As it shape became more define the center of it briefly solidified and then it altogether vanished. Igneous let out a frustrated sigh as his effort to summon his tower shield had failed. “Just one more time,” he assured himself.
Hilliph quietly observing across from him said, “Still continuing to struggle with dark magic?” Igneous didn’t reply but kept on trying to concentrate. “Your father had said you still do continue to have difficulties with magic.”
Igneous opened his eyes and said, “I'm sure he did,” a bit annoyed at the mention of him.
“You know I’ve spent a long time with him and it looked as though neither of you are on good terms.”
“We had our problems and a few run ins. None of which ended very pleasantly for say. I would rather not talk about it.” 
“I could help you with your dark magic.” Hilliph said offering some assistance.
Igneous said, “How so. You can’t summon my shield for me.”
He responded saying, “That's true, I can’t summon a shield that has been bound to you, infact the hardest part of summoning anything is in itself summoning it to begin with.” He stood up. “The easy part is keeping it going.”
“So how do I summon it.”
“You're not going to summon anything, instead I'm going to give you a flame to keep burning.”
Igneous scoffed and said, “I don’t do alchemy Hilliph.”
Hilliph replied, “I'm not going to give you alchemy fire,” his horn glowed a deathly black and a purely black fire combusted from nothing. “I'm going to give you black fire.” It floated down from his horn with its black flames flickering and licking the air.
Igneous stood up on all fours and closely observed the black fire, “I didn’t know you could summon fire.”
“Black fire,” he corrected, “black fire is different from normal fire in that it does not need a fuel source to burn and is much less hot. Unlike fire that burns organic mater this fire can errode armor and weapons not bound to the summoner.” He floated the flame close to Igneous were as he didn’t feel much heat. “However,” he continued, “It's one of the hardest things to summon using your dark magic, but like summoning it becomes much easier to keep going once you got it. I'm going to hand this flame over to you and you will keep it burning throughout the day concentrating, focusing, and by the end of the week summoning a shield may be just a bit easier.”
“All day?” he repeated.
“All day long.”
Igneous nodded his head and said, “if that's all it takes I will do it.”
“Now concentrate on the flame,” Hilliph said. Igneous closed his eyes and focused. “I will cut my connection to the flame and then you will be the only one who can breathe life into it. Keep it breathing it feeds off magic.” he paused for a second giving Igneous some time to draw his connections to the fire. “Do you have it?”
“I do,” he answered. Hilliph then stopped concentrating and let Igneous take it from him. For a moment it flickered and looked as if it were about to go out, but then it stabilised and kept on burning gradually growing to a manageable size. He opened his eyes and saw that it was still burning. “I got it,” he said with a rare smile spreading across his face.
“Now just keep it like that for the rest of the day.”
“I will. Thank you Hilliph.”
Joel had shot the rest of his arrows and collected all thirty of them in a small pile around the target tree, but left his two closest shots that were about less than half an inch away from the target arrow. He had thought about what Kara had said earlier. A whole week and it's only been one afternoon. It would be one o'clock real soon and would soon continue walking… trotting or whatever. 
Mace hadn’t come back to get Joel so he just walked over the small hill where he saw Igneous levitating a black fire and Mace Hilliph and Kara had been eating some apples. “Mace when did you get back?” he asked a bit betrayed.
“A while ago. Thought I should leave you to practice.” he took another bite of an apple. “I was about to go hunting for animals when I found a nice apple tree nearby.”
Annoyed Joel said, “Can I have something to eat?”
“Yea just bring all the arrows back so Igneous can reload them.”
“I'm concentrating,” he said.
“Ok then Hilliph will.”
“Don’t you wanna see how close I got,” asked Joel.
“No it's alright,” he said taking yet another bite. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to split it. I couldn’t.” Soon after Joel got to eat and Hilliph reloaded his shots for him separateing the tip from the shaft and slipping them into the equipment on his back and when he finnished they started off again trotting along as they walked through the forest with Igneouses black flame hovering just to the side of him.
Occasionally it would flicker and look as if it were about to go out but Igneous would suddenly stop and fucose till it returned to its original size. After the sun had gone down leaving nothing but the stars out in the night skies, did they stop and set up and finnaly rest for a considerable time. 
“Alright,” Mace said as the rest of the group found a nice place to sit, “Hilliph will get a fire started and who will take the first watch?”
Igneous said, “I will take the first watch.” His black fire was still burning although it was hard to see in the dark with it itself being black.
“After you kept that flame going all day you should rest,” Kara said stretching her wings fanning them out letting Joel gawk at the spectacle.
“I’ll be fine,” he said.
“No, it's alright Igneous.” Mace said. “I'll take the first watch Joel's got second and you can take the last.”
“Don’t worry about me I will be alright.”
“You won’t get better unless you rest,” Hilliph said. “Let your flame die. You can continue in the morning after night.”
Igneous wanted to argue but he couldn’t help but agree. Rest was very much important and for a falconer that always thought long term Hilliph was absolutely right. “Fine.”
“I dont…” Joel was about to complain when Kara gave him a threatening look, “don't mind second watch. I haven't slept outside since I got kicked out as a kid anyways.”
“Ok we're good then,” Mace said. Hilliph later started a fire with wood they gathered and everypony including Igneous fell asleep on the soft green grass beneath the glisening stars while Mace silently kept watch. It had only been a day but they would still have six more till they made it to the Condoon forest. Anything could happen in six days. Out here nothing was too far fetched.

> Chapter 6 The Gekie's Spy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Joel took second watch at what might have been twelve o'clock at night. Mace had told him to keep an eye out for monsters, bandit ponies or just anything unfavorable. As much as he would had liked to sleep, the cool night air and bright night sky was actually very comforting in a wakeful kind of way. As he took watch against a tree he began to look at the night sky and couldn't help but notice that there were no constellations that he recognised. At least none from back on earth. No big or little dipper, no orion's belt not the north star or even the Pegasus constellation ironically. There was a moon but it was about the whitest thing that could ever be and looked just a bit bigger.
Things were much different here and he thought he could have just been on a completely different planet maybe even galaxy at that. But if it was then why were the main inhabitants a species of animal that could be found on Earth. Not only that but even the trees and all of the wild life he saw could be found on Earth. This is what kept him thinking during most of his watch. His attention however was dragged away when he heard a twig snap. 
He was about to go check it out when Hilliph appeared almost out of know were saying, “Keeping the night close?”
Joel jumped at his sudden appearance and said, “you guys need to stop sneaking up on me like that.”
He said, “I will take the third watch. You can go rest now Joel.” he walked passed him and to where he was just sitting.
“I don't think my shift is over yet,” Joel respectfully protested.
He sat down and said, “I don’t need much sleep to last the day, I'll be fine. I've been keeping the fire going so it should be warm.”
“Well thanks then,” Joel turned but then remembered the twig snapping. “There uh. There was a sound out in the night. There could be something.”
Hilliph simply said, “Oh it's probably nothing. Could’ve just been some very strong wing.”
“What do you mean?” Joel asked, “How could wind have broken a solid object?”
Hilliph then said, “Joel I know that you have not been a Falconer long. Infact this may be your second day, but as a Falconer you got to be on your guard at all times, because anything can happen, and now that we have the Gekies Getuies trailing us it makes our situation even more dangerous. But when we say it was strong wind it's a polite way of saying don't worry about it,” His sword shifted slightly up out of its sheath as he held it in his magical grip displaying the blade for Joel to see. He continued saying, “Because whatever it is, I will take care of it.” He slid it the sword back safely into its scabbard.
“You're right,” he said. “This is my second day and I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't even know why i'm here.”
“No pony ever gets to were there at without a few coincidences. Life is unexpected and in fact it would be unusual if nothing out of the ordinary ever happened.” Joel was enamored by what he had to say. This entire thing had been the works of one huge coincidence, or was it even one? He didn’t know for sure. “What ever got you here i'm sure it was for a good reason. A purpose you might say.”
“I don't even know what mine is.”
Hilliph laughed a little, “some never do, but we all still have one. Right now you're needed here. Now sit and listen,” Hilliph said in a quiet voice. “I'm sure our visitor will reveal himself yet.”
Joel nodded and quietly sat back down. He saw that Hilliph was using his ears to listen flicking them left and right, tuning into whatever might have made the noise. There would be a lot to sift through amongst all the crickets, rustling leaves grasped by the wind and a number of other soft noises that blended in. A snapping twig however wasn't a soft ambient sound.  So it would probably be much easier than expected.
Joel listened in also trying to pinpoint its location trying out his new ears. For a few quiet minutes Joel hadn’t moved until Hilliph whispered saying, “did you hear that?”
He hadn’t.
Hilliph silently opened up his bag that hung over his back and levitated a wooden bottle, uncorked it and poured a liquidy red substance onto the ground. Joel watched as it got soaked up into the ground. Hilliph said, “You know Joel, a Falconer is always in peril.” The ground where the liquid was poured onto it started to morph into what looked like a long skinny snake with no head. After it formed, it then slithered away into the bushes and out of sight. “But if you come prepared and stick together in close bond as a treo,” he looked over a patch of bushes the snake slithered for Hilliph finished saying, “then you will never have to bid this world farewell.” There then was a rustling and then a panicked muffled scream. Hilliph then stood up and said, “Looks like we caught our spy. Let's go. He is in need of our company.”
Joel quickly followed after him and asked, “What did you do? How did you catch him like that?” 
Keeping pace with his stride he simply said, “There is an alchemy technique I have been studying.” They walked over to a bush where they found a stallion with all four hooves tied by the long snake of dirt. There was also a clod covering his mouth so Joel guessed that it splitted off from the peace of the headless dirt snake. 
The stallion had a helmet cap that concealed his face covering the front of his muzzle to the back of his nape. It was black and dark green, and gave him two horns just between his ears. He was breathing heavily through his snout with frustration and anger fumigating from his eyes from having been caught. “Who is this,” Joel asked.
“He is a Gekies Getuies spy. He could be after the book which is the only lead there is on the Hexers fortress.” Hilliph took the dirt clod wrapped around the spies hooves and hoisted him into the air floating just above the ground with his main running through the grass as they took him to camp. Dropping him on his side near the fire all three of the falconers woke up immediately to the disturbance. Hillph said, “Looks like we have a spy every one.”
Opening her eyes, Kara slowly eased herself up while asking, “Spy? I spy for who?”
“A spy for the Gekies Getuies.The helmet cap is how they distinguish themselves,” he answered.
Hilliph let the dirt fall from the stallion's mouth. He coughed and spat and said, “I won't talk.”
“We’ve been there befor,” Mace said as he deployed his crossbows if happened to be needed.
Igneous lifted himself drawing his sword, spinning it about for effect. He then said, “I will not tolerate an incursion by some lucrative cult or whatever you consider yourselves to be.” He held the tip of his blade firmly against the side of the spies neck pointing down ready to plunge itself into his flesh if necessary. Igneous asked, “How many more of you are there? Tell me or I will cut you a new wound and you will die were you lie now.”
Struggling with the dirt bind he said, “There are no more, I was chosen to go alone.”
“And how many are coming,” Igneous said as he slowly circled him blade hovering still over the Gekie. The stallion didn’t answer and Igneous let the sword slip down and back giving the spy a deep flesh wound on the back of his neck.
“Whoa Igneous,” Joel took a few steps forward and was about to intervene but Igneous, fast as he was and quick to react, drew another blade pointed it Joel holding it at jugular level. “Hey!” he shouted in anger.
Hilliph said, “Stay back Joel.” Mace nodded at Joel to take Hilliphs advice, and when Igneous saw that he had backed down he flipped the sword back into its sheath with great speed and proficiency. Almost robotic to say the least.
The spy resisted the strong urge to scream but you could tell just by looking at him that he was in pain. A great deal of pain, not only from the blood but the look on his face. Igneous returned the sword back to its previous position above the side of his neck and said, “Unless you're willing to die for what ever believe you bound yourself to then I suggest you talk.”
The spy still laying on the ground unable to move because of the dirt said, “Then do it. My purpose has been fulfilled, and I’m no longer needed to rome the Carridian lands.”
“I’ll have it your way,” he rested the blade just against his neck and said, “You will rome in agony.” The spy closed his eyes as he prepared for the worst.
Just befor he witnessed Igneous deliver the leathal blow Joel shouted saying, “Stop! You're just going to kill him?”
Kara said, “We have to. He is a threat.”
“But this isn’t right. This is cold blooded.”
“And what kind of world do you think we live in Joel.” she asked. “You think it's just an endless dream where every ponies is happy and there's no care whatsoever. If so then you're mistaken. He may have killed innocents. We have done this before, it's for the better. Don't interven.”
“He does not look like a bandit.” It was a weak argument but it was all he had. He couldn’t just see some guy get killed off like this.
“Do you even know who the Gekies Getuies are.” Hilliph asked, “They work in the shadows making deals, bribing, blackmailing, and whatever else to achieve whatever goal they set. They will kill if they have to.” He paused for a moment then added, “and now our mission could be in jeopardy. They know we have the book containing vital information on the location of the Hexer fortress and the most powerful light magic in Carridian. Imagine what they will do, what they will be capable of if they get that magic. We Joel. We just can't let it happen.”
Joel knew that they were right, that this single quest could mean their world, but he couldn’t just watch someone die. He was never able to, “I'm not going to watch you guys just kill him.”
“We have to Joel,” Igneous said barely even making eye contact. “I'm sorry for pointing my sword at you but I won't let you compromise this mission.”
“I understand.” he answered. “If you're going to kill then him I won't watch,” He turned around giving the condemned prisoner one last look before he walked into the woods holding his head low. “I'm sorry,” he said to himself. “There are just somethings I can't do. Hard to witness old stranger.”
For a moment he was alone then a voice from behind, Maces, said, “do what?”
Joel looked back surprised and said solemnly, “Nothing Mace. Just thinking out loud,” he mumbled in remembrance.
Mace sat down beside him and said, “I know we only met you a few days ago and that you barely even know us.” Joel didn’t answer instead looked the other way. “I know adjusting can be hard but it's what us Falconers must do.”
“I'm not a Falconer, I might as well just go back alone.”
“If you do that you will get lost, not to mention the Gekie G’s that you will run into, or even monsters. Basically… at this point... it's too dangerous to go alone.” 
"A little too on the nose there Mace," Joel offered up.
Mace was just a bit of light enjoyment. He continued saying, “When all is said and done and your life is over, wouldn’t it be great to have no regrets. To have done everything you wanted and fulfilled every promise you ever made.”
“That sounds like a nice ending.”
“It is,” he reassured, “and if you come with us that's one less regret you will have to carry with you. You will know that you’ve ventured the lands of Carridian braved the hexer fortress and retrieved the strongest magic in all of Carridian. All while combatting the formidable colt… the Gekie Getuies.” he with dramatic effect raising his hooves up to the sky in feeling. Then looking to him with a grin he said, “now how does that sound?”
“Admittedly,” he began. “Pretty bad ass.” But then reality set back in and the situation he now found himself in. “Still I can’t just watch someone die and I can't take there life.” He said weakly. “there was nothing I could do.” he said as he began inadvertently withdrawing to his past, “Seeing someone you love slowly die right in front of you while you are incapable of doing anything is the worst thing I ever had to go through.”
“I bet it, but look Joel. This is what makes you. They way you value others lives even though they may seem irredeemable isn’t a weakness, and although it couldn’t help tonight I'm sure that later in your life it will make the difference.”
“Did I kill that guy on the mountain?”Joel asked.
“No, Igneous did. He may seem like a hot head but there is more to him than you know. More than I know myself.  What he does is for the good of us. He may not show it but he does care deeply for his team. We got six days and I'm sure you will get to know him more and begin to understand as you fall on his good side and likewise to you.” Mace looked back, and said. “It's done. Now come on, your part of this team.”
Joel slowly stood up and when he turned around there was no body but the ground where it was looked a lot more lose. Hilliph had used Alchemy to bury him after the deed was done. They began to move because they didn’t want the Gekies Getuies to catch them. They ventured till dawn surpassed the afternoon that came and finally succumbed to night that very same day. They all kept silent for that entire day of travel. When the opportunity for rest did come, as tired as Joel was, he took the first watch. 
That night he looked up at the clear night sky and to the stars he had become a stranger to. That night he thought of how much he would rather be back on earth, and even though Hilliph has said he had a purpose, Joel still didn’t know what it was. He didn’t on earth and was convinced he didn’t now.

> 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.

> Chapter 8 Thieves Passage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was quiet and peaceful down there. The corridor was a long hall that was lightened by yellow rocks in the ceiling that glowed a luminescent yellow and was sectioned by small buttresses merged into the wall every few paces away. This place had never been disturbed never had a sound in fifty years till now, when five Falconers slid out chute from above heavily crashing into a heap against the floor of the thieves passage. “To be fair,” Joel said pushing himself off the pile of squirming armored pony bodies, “Mace pushed the button.”
“Why would it just be in the middle of the room?” Mace frustratingly said twitching his hooves with anxiety. “That makes it seems like they want ponies to try to steal their magic.”
Hilliph got up on his hoofs and said, “Kara said that the thieves passage is laden with traps. If any pony can get through this they must be deserving of it then.”
Igneous struggled to his fours and moaned, “A shame. Were thieves then.”
“Were saving Carridian,” Kara said, “not leading it to destruction.”
Hilliph took a look down the hall as the others got themselves asituwated with their new found environment. Not to far from where they were there seemed to be an opening into a much bigger stonelined room. “Did you read enough of that book to know what our trials will be.”
“Hard.” She answered. “It said that they were for the best. The best being unnamed.”
“Best thieves you could say,” Mace offered.
She continued, “Although it shouldn’t be long. It says there was only four if I remember. Just... very dangerous.”
“Thats some stellar writing.” Joel said. “Just who wrote it? No in fact just who came down here, did a whole bunch of trials and lived to write about it. You think he would give a walk through at least.”
“A Hexer wrote it, and I am the only one in this group who can read it. It's not exactly common literacy Joel.”
Igneous pushed passed them both and said, “no arguing! Not now.” As he walked down the hall he took his shield from his back and unsheathed one of his four sword and pointed it forward resting it atop the flat peek of the shield. “Let's just finish the job before the Gekies get here.”
“I wouldn’t be the first to walk down a long hall buried underneath an ancient temple that has been long since abandoned by mystical ponies Igneous,” Joel said as Igneous walk further down the hall vaguely alone.
“And just why do you say…” he was cut off when an Axe from the ceiling swing down just in front of Igneous head almost cutting him. He jumped back withdrawing his weapons.
“Because,” Joel said as he positioned himself next to Igneous, “It's such a cliche.” He deployed his crossbows and fired a single wooden bolt down the length of the hall. The coridor then came to life as spikes darts and sawblades protruded from the walls left and right before falling back in again. “Yep,” he said nodding, “Apparently they have sensors of, a, kind...” Igneous looked dumbfounded with his mouth wide open in aw. “Mace!” Joel called back to the three who were standing further back. 
“Aye, what.”
“You're the swiftest of us. Maybe you can make it through and find a way to deactivate these traps.”
Mace took a long, steady, thoughtful look down the hall and said, “I got a good look. It's got a fancy pattern. Something I can cheat.” He ran forward and jumping passed the first axe that almost hit Igneous prior. He fired an arrow forward baiting the spikes and sawblades before having even reached them. As they retreated back into the wall he easily ran past ducked under the final obstacle of darts, and just like that was on the other end.
Hilliph called down from affare, “Do you see a lever that can neutralize these?”
Idly thinking as he waited for results Jeol said aloud, “I wonder if they have trap doors too.” The others just shook their heads.
“Got it!” Mace said from the other side. “I must say though this room is really big. Like… Really extensive,” he added. There was a loud crack that resonated from within the walls as something, gears perhaps, shifted within them. It followed down the length of the hall shifting, clicking from one trap to the next as it reverberated from the walls. But it didn’t stop were the first trap began instead the shifting sound kept going down, and down. Further past the Flaconers and near the end of the hall, until it reached the very back.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Hilliph said.
“You just said it.” said Joel with giddiness in his tone. There was a loud boom swiftly accompanied by the sound of rushing water coming from far down the corridor itself. “You know,” Joel began as he slowly started to walk backwards. “A wise man once said, NOPE!!!” He then spun on his hooves breaking rank to swiftly make a break for the opposite end of immediate danger.
“I don't like this,” Igneous said as he begun to slowly back away taking more to Joel than courage.
As the three remaining falconers stood there they saw gushing amounts of water rushing its way ready to flush them out of the hallway, potentially drowning  them forever. “Run!!!” Kara shouted.
“Way Ahead Of You!!!” Joel shouted already have reached the end joining Mace by the threshold with a sliding stop.
Spinning around they ran as fast as their hooves could carry them. Mace was shouting and waving for them to hurry as they ran for their lives down the prolonged hallway, and just as they reached the threshold they all simultaneously dove out to the sides as the water exploded outwards. Kara had taken off flying upwards, digging her claws into the wall letting herself hang their.
Joel looked at the massive cylinder shaped room and saw that the only way out was up. He found this would be assisted by a line of pillars that surrounded the giant cylinder shaped monolith that spun in the middle of the room seamlessly gliding across the stone work floor driven by some unseen power. “Turn it off Mace,” Igneous shouted over the roaring water seeing as it had already begun to rise.
Putting all his weight on the lever he pushed with all his might to no avail. “I Can't!” he shouted.
“We need to go up,” Hilliph said trudging through water towards the first pillar. They all followed suit quickly gathering near the lowest platform which was only big enough to allow only one of them to stand at a time. As the water raised faster Hilliph became the first to jump on it, then he leapt to the next not too far a distance away. Then the next, followed by Igneous then Mace as they each jumped and leapt from one platform to the next slightly slowly taking them vertically upwards.
“I'll see if I can shut it down.” She flew upwards ahead of the others.
“Don't fall or you will drown,” Igneous said refusing to stop following closely to Hilliph. “Our equipment is too heavy, it will drag us to the bottom!”
“Thanks for the insight!” Joel shouted as he followed closely behind. For now one could say that the water wasn’t all that fast. However just then there was a loud boom and looking up Joel saw the flood gates of the stone rafters begin to lift. All around the room water started to pour from above like a devastating waterfal letting it spill to the ever rising pool below. “Keep moving.” Joel shouted, They were staying a good distance ahead of the rising water and even though they had a good start it wouldn’t be long before they were drowning in it.
Kara had flown to the top landing on top of the massive cylinder with the top platform being static in movement unlike the rest of it. Just ahead there was a stone bridge that led to another room just beyond the threshold but it was covered by an iron gate, and so she couldn’t do anything but anxiously wait.
The other portion of the team however were about halfway up the towering monolith when Joel started to hear a resonating sound coming from within the massive spinning stone structure. At any rate Joel could guess that the water was filling up on the inside much faster than  the outside. Glancing towards it he noticed that there were very small, finely carved holes in the central pillar in the corners where the individual stones met. He then heard a loud sputter come from above then below and looking he saw geysers of water shooting out at lethal rates. If they got hit then it spelled a watery doom for the unfortunate. “Guys Watch Out For The Water Cannons!”
Then just as Hilliph was about to jump to the next platform it got doused by highly pressurized gets of water that would have easily sent him falling to the pools below. “Igneous use your shield.” he commanded as he summoned a black tinted guarding shield to protecting his right side. Igneous took his shield in his magical grip and held it out to protect Mace instead. 
Joel made a clever observation in his endeavor finding that just before the holes let loose, they first sputtered a bit of steam giving ample warning to what would follow. He shouted, “watch for the steam guys.” It wasn’t a very helpful or informative statement, much like the former, but it's all he could come up with on the spot while in the presence of assured death. The water now kicked it into full gear as it rose at unreasonable rates becoming too fast for the falconers to stay ahead of.
Kara then saw the metal gate began to open without her doing. With the hope that their would be a solution to the danger she flew right on in as fast as she could to potentially save her friends… and Joel of course.
As Igneous continued to make his way, jumping from platform to stony platform, he saw steam quickly sputter out just before him. Quickly he acted by retrieving his shield covering himself just as a stifling jet shot out. The collision of water on metal produced a deafening gong that rattled Igneous'es very bones. 
They were almost to the top and the water level was getting far too close, and as Joel quickly waited for Mace to move to on steam gently doused. Acting fast he had no alternative but to jump back just to avoid getting blown off.
Igneous, Hilliph and Mace all heaved themselves up onto the final ledge and when Hilliph didn’t see Joel he shouted over the roaring thunderous tides, “Where is he?”
Mace looking back answered, “He was just behind me.”
Kara had flown down the tunnel soon as the gate raised just enough to fit under. In this newfound room held nothing but another bared off exit and a lever off to the side. It must have been what was going to put a stop to this madness, so landing in front of it she quickly shot out both hooves yanking it backwards in hopes the water level would stop rising for her friends. 
Suddenly there was a grinding noise and she turned to see that the entrance to the room was now beginning to be closed off by a large, vertically descending stone door. “No, no, NO!” she yelled. 
She tried to push the lever back but it did nothing, and just as the stone door was about to close off forever, a shield, Igneous'es shield put a stop to it allowing Mace and Igneous to slid right on under.
After Joel recovered he quickly jumped to the next, and as he did he could feel the water nip at his hoofs continuing to swallow more and more of him up with each jump. The others at this point already had made it to the top and he was just four platforms away from salvation. Every time he leaped the water had taken hold of more of him making the next bound even harder. 
As he was on the last platform the water had gotten chest high. He had no choice but to go for it so taking one last deep breath he leapt for it sloshing through ever rising water only to crash into the side of the static flooring and begin to slip. With fear taking hold he clawed for the ground thinking this was it. It really would have been if Hilliph hadn't summoned a hooked spear grabbing Joel by the armor on his back heaving him up to safety with the pure strength of his magical grip. 
“Almost found your fate there Joel,” he shouted as he pulled Joel to his hooves.
“Thank you Hilliph,” he said through gasp struggling to find his grip.
Hilliph and Joel ran over the connecting bridge as fast as they could but slightly slower than the flood. They had fallen behind a little and the rushing water was beginning to fill the tunnel with them still in it. Joel saw that Mace and Igneous were at the very end. Igneous using his shield to keep the stone door aloft and from trapping Hilliph and Joel in the corridor.
“Hurry!” Yelled Igneous as his shield began to morph and bend to the weight of the stone masonry.
Joel pounded the water covered ground as he tried to serge along through the rising tides. It was already swallowing up most of their legs and Joel almost lost his balance as he trudged through, but just as the shield was about to give out they dove right through the thin gap between the door and the ground briefly submerging themselves completely just before the shield snapped and gave way to sheer weight slamming shut.
Joel and Hilliph laid on the ground heaving and panting as the leftover pools of water flooded outwards into the new found exit. Every pony stayed silent for a moment as they heard the water just on the other side of the stone work continue to build up. That was a close call for all involved. Joel especially and they were lucky to have not suffered any casualties.
As every pony concerned caught their breath, Igneous picked up what little remained of his shield. It had been snapped in half and was now useless with most of it being pinned beneath the brickwork itself. A hint of anger flashed in his eye and with a serge of major frustration he threw it loudly to the side. Kara saw him and said, “Don't worry Igneous. The Hexers have an armory. I'm sure you can find another shield from within.”
“A better one at that,” Mace said doing his best to reinforce her suggestion.
He stared off into the distance shaking his head and said, “Not one that we made.” Standing at the entrance to the next long corridor that served as the only way out he said, “We are going to find this white magic of Aminus. Were going to finish the mission and we're going to get out of here alive, unscathed. I won't spend all night underground in this dafted fortress.” Looking to his team he waved his head and entered in first leading the group.
> Chapter 9 The Second Trap
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A wooden bolt shot its way down the empty stone worked hallway but nothing happened. “Looks clear Igneous,” Mace said as they all piled around the threshold to it. In the distance they could hear the clear echo of more rushing water, this time a bit less aggressive.
“Still,” Igneous began. “It doesn’t mean there isn’t something already prepared for us. It could be a different kind of trap,” Igneous said.
“Would you like me to fly down?” Kara asked from behind. “It seems suited for celestials after all. If an arrow didn’t trigger a trap then I shouldn't if I just don't touch anything.”
“No,” Igneous said shaking his head. “If we're going to get across were all going together. Were not making the same mistake.”
Hilliph walked up to the entrance of the long hallway and said, “Let's just see if we can find these ‘traps’.” He held one of his long swords out in his magical grip and bashed the wall with the hilt a few times till a rock fell loose. “This should do,” he said as he threw it with his magical grip, arcing it down the hallway bouncing of the stone worked floor until it came to rest somewhere in the middle.
For a moment they waited but nothing happened, “Welp,” Joel said soft tension, “looks like this one is clear after all.” 
He took a few steps forward. “Joel don’t…” Igneous came about to stop him but then the floor opened up with Joel disappearing beneath as he fell into darkness. “No!!!” He shouted as he was helpless to do anything.
Acting quickly Kara dove down into the pit after him. Speeding down she flew under his falling body unfurling her wings taking the weight of both of them. This act slowed down considerably but they still ended up crashed to the stoney floor below in a heap. Comming to a rest Kara clawed at the stone floor with her hooves saying, “Dammit Joel!” as she tried to get out from under him
“This doesn’t normally happen.” he said rolling off her, letting her free. He took a few steps away, and beneath his hoof, felt something hard easily break with a loud snap. “What was that?” he nervously asked.
From above Mace shouted, “Guys? Are you alive alive?” He was peering over the edge trying to see through the blinding darkness that started just a short distance below.
“Sadly,” she answers back as she looked around the dark pit they had fallen into. She didn’t see any way up for Joel. Looking over to him she said, “wait here and don't do anything stupid please.” She began to fly up but as she did the trap door as long as the hallway suddenly closed trapping them down in the darkness together. 
“Kara!” Igneous shouted as he began to bash the floor with the hilts of his swords.
“Stand back Igneous,” Mace said as he loaded an explosive bolt ready to let looses on the ground. 
Hilliph held out a hoof stopping him and said, “Don’t! You may harm them just by the explosion alone.”
Igneous looking up to him angrily said, “What do you suppose we do? We can’t leave a Falconer behind.”
Hilliph’s horn glowed and from his bag came a wooden flask. Positioning himself over the ground he said, “Let me see what I can do.” The cork then flew off and Hilliph spilled the liquid over the ground and as it sat there the floor began to slowly erode away. 
After a minute there was a metal on rock sound and they saw a claw protrude from the ground, “Guys?” Kara said looking through the small hole.
“Kara,” Igneous said as he ran to where the hole in the ground was, “Are you and Joel alright?”
“Yes we're fine. Can you not get this vault open?” she asked.
Igneous looked back to see Mace pouncing on the ground with his hoofs roughly where Joel stepped trying and open up the trap floor, “Yea I think it's not going to open,” Igneous answered.
Kara scratched at the hole again hoping that she could somehow make it big enuff for her self to fit through, “Taff this isn’t going to work.” she said. She then called down to Joel and asked, “Is there a way out of here?”
“I don't know it's really dark.” he said as he ran his hoofs across the wall trying to find a doorway or some way out.
Igneous withdrew a sword and hit one of the glowing crystals on the roof causing a decent sized chunks to break from it. “Try this,” he said as he dropped it down to him.
Now that the chamber was lit Kara and Joel could clearly see where they were. It was a vastly empty stone room with nothing except a few cobwebs and a bone skeleton of some other pony who happened to fall into the same trap. Joel picked the rock up with his mouth and looked around with it. 
Scanning around he found that their was a break in the wall that was just big enuff for them to maybe squeeze through, “I think I found a way out.” He slowly poked his head through and saw that it lead to another room much different looking less hostile all togeather. It had what looked like prison cells with iron bars and chains. “Yep we got our way out I think.”
“We can’t split up,” Igneous said.
“Right now we don’t have much of a choice Igneous,” she said. “Just take the book with you. The next room isn’t a trap, I already read about it.”
“Just watch your step.”
“I’ll do fine,” she said before she flew down to where Joel was leaving Hilliph, Mace and Igneous behind.
“I wouldn't worry Igneous,” Mace assured. “Karra can handle herself.”
Looking down the hall to the next water roaring room Igneous said, “I’m worried that your little trainee might get her killed.”
He chuckled and said, “That stallion needs some work. I’ll see to it he is back in shape by the time this missions done.”
Hilliph walked ahead of them and said, “This ‘mission’ just might take longer than you expect. I wouldn’t start making plans just yet Mace.” They walked to the end of the of the hallway and to the opening of there next trail. As they looked they saw that there nothing but a server with a pool far below where water was draining down into a vortex. “I'm assuming this is where the water from the last room is going,” Hilliph suggested.
There was a ledge at the far end of the room but there was no way to reach it. No platforms nothing. “How are we supposed to get over there?” Mace asked gingerly peering over the edge. 
“Can't you just use a string shot Mace?” Igneous asked.
He shook his head and said, “There's nothing for it to bury itself into Igneous. Everything's rock.” He kicked a lossen pebble down and watched it fall into the spinning vortex below. No doubt if they fell they would be lost forever not mention dead.
Hilliph’s horn glowed and a two black tower shields that were the same in shape but different in design. “This is going to be dangerous.” he said.
“What's the plan?” Mace asked.
Kara had crawled through the crack Joel had discovered recently. As she picked herself up she found themselves on the inside of a cell room. Joel spat the rock on the ground and said, “that taste bad.” He licked his own fur before saying, “How are we supposed to get out of this?” He examined the metal work and at the bolts that held the framework in place to see if he could answer his own question.
She flew up to the corner and started using  her claws to scratch at the rivets. “This isn't going to work,” she casually said after a fruitless effort. Sitting herself down next to Joel she began to think along. 
A minute passed by and Joel sprang up saying, “I have an idea.” He pressed his chest button with his hoof and his crossbows sprang up. He switched his shot to an explosive bolt and hammered in the next shot. “This might be a little dangerous,” He said as he put his hoof over the lever and pushed down very hard followed by two quick pushes and the arrow popped out of the flight grove onto the ground. He did this a second time and then he took them both and shoved them between the metal door frame and the wall it was attached to.
“You're going to let loose with an explosive bolt?” she asked as she watch him work while idly scootching closer to the crack in the wall.
“Nope.” he responded as he switched both crossbows to a string shot. “I'm going to create a controlled explosion.” He popped the string shots out of their flight groves and attached the hooks to the shafts of the explosive arrows. He flicked his ears back giving the rope some slack and he began to back himself out through the hole in the wall. “Your might wanna go first,” he said to Kara.
“Exactly how are you going to make them explode,” she asked as she squeezed herself through to the next room.
“When I pull on the string shots they will snap the tips of the explosive arrows off causing the explosion. Want me to explain how the door is supposed to fall off.”
“Let's just find out way out of here.”
He crawled through and sighed, “Just cover your ears or something.” He then raised his ears and Jerked his body sideways pulling on the arrows. There was a deafening boom along with a tremor that shook both Joel and Kara. After Joel’s vision straitened and his hearing came back he said, “I cannot believe I shot one of these near Igneouses face.” He said as he slowly stumbled back to his hoofs. “I had those things in my mouth.” He looked at the wall that separated them from the explosion and he saw that there was a huge blast mark that cracked the entire wall.
After Kara pulled herself up she looked at the wall and said, “I think only one was needed.”
“For once I agree with you.” They crawled back through the crack in the wall and found that not only did the doors get blasted off but also the cell in front of them and the two next to them as well. Joel walked out of the cell and looked down both ways of the hall they were in, “Do you know which way leads out?”
“I don’t,” she answered, “However I wonder how the others are doing.”
Igneous called over the edge, “Are you alright Hilliph?” He looked down to see that he was hanging down near the waters vortex but he was still alright.
“I'm fine!” he shouted. “Just pull me back up.”
Igneous looked back to Mace who planted his hoofs down as he held Hilliph by one of his string shot arrows. “Pull him up.”
Mace started to back up and he asked, “What was that? It nearly got Hilliph killed just then.”
“I’m sure Joel set off that explosion. He is the only one here other than you who could have.”
After Mace finally pulled Hilliph back over the ledge Hilliph said, “That dafted explosion broke my concentration.” He summoned the same two tower shields and place them over the open air again. “Maybe this time we won't have any disturbances.” He stepped onto the first shield and it wavered a bit over the open air.
“Do you wanna take a minute Hilliph?” Mace asked, “You can take the time to catch your breath.”
He laughed and said, “I may be old but i'm not a feeble pony.” 
“Right, you're the expert.” Mace gave him a little slack so that he could make the next step. Hilliph then rotated the shield around to the front of him so that he could take another step. His eyes were closed as he tried to drown out all distractions so that he could make it across. He repeated the process over and over till he finally made it across and to the other end. He let his shields disappear and he turned to face the others. “are you coming?” 
Igneous hooked himself up to Mace making sure that he would not come unfastened. “This is going to hurt. Isn’t it?”
Mace twisted his chest button to were it looked the crossbows in its current place and said, “It depends on how hard you hit the wall Igneous.”
“I hate doing this with you.”
“Personally I think it never gets old.” He inched himself closer to the edge and peered down over what they were about to swing over. “Just remember,” he began, “there is nothing to fear but fear its-” he was cut off when the very edge of the ledge he was standing on collapsed beneath sending falling prematurely. The slack caught up to Igneous and he got yanked over the edge head first along with Mace and together they slammed into the wall on the opposite side. Mace took quite the hit to the head and body and pretty much all over.
“Dammit Mace.” Igneous shouted. Apparently the wall gave Igneous a beating as well despite the armor he wore. “I said to watch your step.”
Mace planted his hooves against the wall trying to regain his composure. “I could not have know that Igneous. 
“Are you alright down there?” Hilliph said from above. 
“As much as we're going to be,” Igneous answered. He didn’t like to just hang there doing nothing but the way his armor harnessed him almost prevented him from being useful in the slightest. All he could do was hang there as Hilliph and Mace did all the work.
Kara and Joel had found their way out of what must have been the prison cells. The hall  they were in opened up into a wider room were in the middle there was a statue made of stone that had a pony, an Earth pony who was heavily armored standing boldly with what looked like chains wrapped around the entirety of its body. It didn’t seem as if he minded but as if they were meant to be there. “Who is this?” Joel asked as he slowly walked up to it. “Was he an infamous criminal or something?”
Kara flew up to the statues head which by comparison was much bigger to Karas in scale. “I’ve read stories about him in the book,” she said as she put her hoof on the snout of the statue. “He is Ashur the gate keeper of the Hexer fortress. He guarded all of the Hexers magic, books, weapons and everything.”
Joel walked around the side and asked, “Why is he in chains?”
“There his weapons. He was one of the only ones who could wield a chain weapon.”
“I thought you would need to be a Unicorn,” Joel said as he walked around to the back of it.
“Not when you're a Hexer Joel,” she answered.
Joel was wondering why there would be a single room with nothing but a statue in the middle of what must have been there dungen. Looked at the ground and saw that there were scratch marks going backwards. “I think this gatekeeper is keeping something hidden.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Joel ran around to the front of it and said, “Look for something that seems out of place. Normally it would be something like a switch or lever.” He looked the statue up and down to see if anything wasn’t symmetrical with its counterpart.
“Is it this?” Kara asked as she straightened one of the cuffs that were attached to the chain. There was a clicking noise and the rock statue began to slowly move backwards revealing a hidden stairway.
Joel looked down and said, “Just like I said. I knew there was something.”
Kara landed at the side of Joel and asked, “How did you know that.”
“Um, Telhish Menishin,” he answered. A clever cover up for television although one would wonder why he would even bother in the first place. “He had a ton of stories to tell.” He walked down the flight of stairs making sure to kick the glowing rock down with him illuminating the passageway. When they reached the bottom there was a door with a little plaque on it with words that Joel couldn’t read. “What does this say Kara?” She looked at it for a few moments taking her time to decipher the words and symbols, but then she appeared to freeze. Joel noticed this and asked “Are you alright? What does it say?”
She turned to him and said, “I think we just found the magic of Noriphmy.”

> Chapter 10 The Binding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The room they now entered from the flight of hidden stairs was almost bare and about as big as the one just up the stairs, but instead of the statue of Ashur there was three pedestals opposite from of the room. The middle one was taller than the two on either side of it, and the right one was the only one holding an object that was round and completely black that it looked as if it could never reflect light off of it. “Is that it?” Joel asked as he walked up to it fascinated by its look.
“Yes,” Kara answered. “But where are the others?” Karas bladed gauntlets produced a single claw and she relaxed it against her upper leg in excitement.
Joel saw this but disregarded it saying, “Others? How many should there be?” He touched it with his hoof.
“Three,” She said threatening to cut herself. She then looked and saw what he was about to unknowingly do and and shouted, “Don’t Joel!”
“What?” he said but instantly the black ball ejected a blade from within it that cut Joel's front leg causing a superficial injury that still drew blood. He jumped back bleeding from his leg, and the blade retracted itself back into the black orb.
“Joel you insipid fool. How could you?” she shouted as Joel retreated away from the black sphere that had just attacked him.
“What did I do? ‘It’ started it,” he said as his leg slowly bled. It wasn’t a serious injury and would no doubt heal soon.
“Do you not have the slightest clue how Hexer magic works?” she shouted in annoyance.
“Honestly I don't even know how most of this world works.” the black orb slowly rose from its pedestal and floated over to where Joel was. “Hey, whoa wait what is it doing now.” he said as he backed himself into a corner trying to stay away from what just attacked him a few seconds ago. It got closer and nearer to his face but he couldn’t move unless he wanted to run into it, “Kara help me here.”
“Raerey Joel, you're a Taffing rearey. Why, just why Joel.”
“Kara this thing is going to kill me.” he said as hoofed it away with a dull thud.
She walked up to Joel and knocked the black orb away with her bladed wings and held her claws to Joel's face saying, “It's not going to kill you Joel, do you understand what you did? It's bound to you now. You have bounded it you guewl.” She yanked herself away and stormed back up the stairs away from him and the dark magic of Noriphmy.
Joel watched her in confusion and as he did the orb came back and harmlessly bounced off his face. “Hey you started this,” he said as he swatted it away and ran after Kara, picking up the glowing rock on his way out. “Kara wait. What do you mean it's bound to me?” he whistled through his teeth and the stone. As he ran up the stairs the orb followed closely behind. It was like having an imprinted duckling. When he reached the top he spat the rock out and said, “Stop. What do you mean?”
She turned and said, “You seriously don't get it, do you?”
“I don't even know who Noriphmy is, what a Hexer is or even who Aminus is.” the orb again bounced off the back of its head as it caught up to him and Joel simply ignored it with an annoyed groan.
She looked at him with angered eyes and said, “where are you from? Who even are you?”
How do you answer a question like? Obviously he wasn’t a pony but he donned the body of one. He was out of his element completely led by chance. He shouldn’t have even been here Mace shouldn’t have even suited Joel in his own armor and equipment. Was this all just one big flub the universe happened to have. If so then why did Joel had to be the one who ended up trusted into this situation. Literally millions of others and it had to be him. But then he thought if it wasn’t him then it would be another asking the same exact questions.
Shaking his head he said, “I… I just, I'm just not from here Kara. I can’t explain it. Please can you just help me? What is this thing?” It was now hovering next to his face just simply floating there.
Kara thought for a moment in disappointment then said, “That ‘thing’ is the stolen magic of Noriphmy.” She didn’t look at him when she said that, “He was the Hexer who saved Carridian from Aminus the black dragon.” 
“What exactly is stolen magic?”
“Its Magic in a physical form, although much weaker and less powerful. However its still a useful tool.” She took a breath and and looked up to the ceiling with tears in her eyes, “I was going to take that magic Joel. I was going to take it and bind it to myself.” She shook her head and said, “I studied magic most my life. Most said I was crazy because I was a pegasus and that it was simply a pointless, fruitless, aimless endeavor. My sister was about the only one who supported me. She sent me books every now and again that she would find out on her journeys. Technically she was breaking the law because she should have been sending them to the capital, but Kohlagin Sirvidian allowed it.”
“But you said if you're a Hexer it doesn’t matter. Any type of pony could use magic.”
“You're right Joel. It doesn’t matter but I'm not a Hexer. Stolen magic can be used by any pony as long as it is bound to you by blood.” And with a thrust of her hoof with every word next she said, "The very thing you did just then.” She turned and began to saunter away with wings drooping lower than usual.
Joel ran after her and said, “why don't you just take it then? I don't need it Kara. I don't want it.” He was deserving of this and he knew to keep it for himself would be selfish.
She let out a weak laugh, “The only way I could take it from you was if I killed you first.”
“That doesn’t seem like something you wouldn’t do,” he joked. “I’ve known you for a week now. Believe me.”
“I wouldn’t kill you Joel. Not even for the most powerful dark magic in Carridian.” She obviously meant the very thing Joel now had following him. “If I met you on the mountain and you had this magic I would, believe me. But you're apart of team Vendetta, and a Falconer never harms their own.”
“I'm sorry Kara, I didn’t mean to screw up. If it weren't for me we wouldn’t be down here.”
She looked at him and said, “If it weren't for you we would not have found Noriphmy’s dark magic.”
The thought that Joel now had dark magic kinda worried him, “so um this magic. Will it corrupt me or something?”
“You truly are mentally inept Joel,” she said. “Magic is a tool. Something the Hexers used constantly. Dark magic was only used for self defense. Light magic influences the physical form causing them to be capable of doing impossible things if it weren't for it in the first place.”
“What about Alchemy? I saw Hilliph use some to catch that spy.”
“Hilliph wasn’t using pure alchemy. He was blood binding the elements so he could have control over them. Alchemy is control over elements without the need to blood bind. With pure Alchemy you can change landscapes and move mountains.” The kept walking down the hall and they passed the cells they had blown up, “it's exactly what Aminus would have done.”
“Who is Aminus?”
“He was a dragon with black scales, no mouth but he still spoke with a thunderous voice. He had entrancing eyes and was believed to see the future.”
“That's what they all say befor there defeated,” Joel said as they rounded a corner.
“He certainly didn’t see Noriphmy,” she took a deep breath. “I just wish I could have been alive when he fought Aminus. They said the white flames that shown on his face were the brightest and most pure thing anypony had ever seen; the most absolutely breathtaking sight ever. Just something so magistrum about it. Some even thought he was a god.”
“I would believe it.”
“Many did. But he wasn’t a god. This magic proves that he died.” Joel thought that was kind of depressing. You accomplish so much in life and the time comes it just ends, “So after he defeated Aminus and killed all the majins…”
“Margins?”
“Majins,” she corrected, “Majins were essentially monsters except they could wield magic to devastating effects. This is where Hexers got there magic, by killing Majins.”
“Wasn’t Aminus a Margin then? He was a monster right.”
“Aminus was a dragon. Yes a monster but classified as a dragon. Not a Majin. Nobody exactly knows what a Majin is except that unlike monsters they have no blood.” They found a flight of stairs that looked as if it led out of where they were.
They both breathed a sigh of relief no knowing that they wouldn’t be stuck down here forever. “Kara,” Joel said. “I'm really sorry for binding this black magic. I didn’t know it was so important to you.”
“It's not your fault. My intentions were not exactly pure in heart. I just wanted it just so I could say that I have it.” She brushed a hoof through her mane and added, “and a few tricks too.”
“But I don't even know how to use it.”
She smiled and said, “I’ll teach you. I know more about Hexers and there magic than anypony. Even Hilliph.”
“I’m reluctant, truly. But let's just get out of here first.” 
She nodded and they ran up the stairs to the door and opened it. They were on a balcony in a massive room that looked as if a war had taken place there. There were cracks in the walls burn marks, chains and a whole a wall that looked as if it had blasted inward. 
There was an explosion on the far end and Joel saw Igneous and Mace jump out of a smoke cloud were as Igneous shouted to Mace, “Deploy yourself!” 
Doing as he was told Mace pushed his chest button and his crossbows sprang up beside him. There was the sound of a huge door opening beyond the smoke screen and Igneous drew two of his four swords and poised himself for combat.

> Chapter 11 Fortress Fight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12: Part 1
The halls clicked with the steps of trotting hoof steps as three Falconers made their way up the granite stairs Hilliph had said would lead out of the keep of the White Magic of Aminus. It was just like what Kara had said, it being just on the other side of the final obstacle. Both Igneous and Mace found it a bit odd how it was just on display in a room filled nothing but three separate podiums, one of which held the white magic of Aminus. 

“So what are we going to do with this magic Hilliph?” Mace asked as they ascended up the stairs. 

Hilliph eyed the crystal’s white fluorescent glow once more before he stored it away in his bag. “That remains to be seen Mace. For now we should just keep it safe until we get back.”

Igneous asked, “Won't we run into the Gekies on our way back?”

“We just might Igneous,” he answered. “We just might.”

“Aw, I'm sure it's nothing we can’t handle Igneous.” Mace said with a confident grin. “We’ve dealt with numerous bandits just the three of us. With Hilliph and Mace topping out five we’ll be nearly unstoppable as we creep through the forest steady in our pace and deadly with our weaponry.”

“There's always the risk,” Igneous reminded.

When they reached the top, it took the three of them to push open a monolithic stone door decorated in symbols and stone carved designs. They paid no attention it once it opened as once they found themselves on the other side they each held on question in mind.

“What happened here?”

The room was massive with four pillars that held the roof aloft. Only one remained, badly damaged and cracked as the rest seemed to be blown to rubble as only the wide bases of their stoney presents was all that remained. On the far end of the great hall was single door in the center that could only be reached by two separate stairways that led to it. There were also two balconies on either side with a spiraling staircase leading down from them as well as a door that also opened up to the balcony.

Parts of that particular end of the hall was also destroyed. For one the balcony on the far left was half blown away and one set of stairs leading to the centered door was completely destroyed.

There was a chandelier that hung, broken as one might imagine, in the precise centre of the hall. It was golden, lopsided and mangled about with sparkling gems still held within the indents of the metal hulk. The wall directly across from the falconers was blown away leading down to another flight of stairs blocked off by rubble that blocked the way. 

The floor of the great hall was cracked in numerous places. Parts of it sagged into the ground while others jutted slightly out of the ground. 

Gravel and stone laid everywhere and if one were to guess one would say, “It looks like a battle took place here.” A theory Igneous was the first to propose.

“A battle?” Mace questioned. “Who would fight a Hexer and what would do this much damage?” he asked as he ventured into the center of the carnage. In one particular section of the wall stone had been blown inwards from a rather small hole in the wall that seemed to lead outwards. “Could they have come from their?”

Hilliph gave it a glance then shook his head. “I wouldn’t know I’m just a simple pony.”

“Something had to happen though,” Mace said as he wandered around the hall gawking in all directions as he marveled at its shear size and complex design. “Was it a monster?”

“Majin more like,” Hilliph offered. “Or perhaps the Hexers had a falling out amongst themselves.”

“Maybe,” Igneous half caringly commented. He wanted to find both Kara and Joel before worrying about some bygone pony ruins. 

However looking to the left of the great hall he found nothing but an ending. What stuck out to this ending however was the way the wall was designed and the way it just stuck out to him. It seemed familiar to say the least but he could quite understand why but then it hit him. 

“This is the door to the Condoon Desert.”

“The thieves entrance?” Hilliph asked as he walked past Igneous and to a particular piece of stone that jutted out from below the ground. It was round and off to the side by another particular podium with writing Igneous could only guess was in Hexer’s language. “Well good,” Hilliph said with relief as he too recognised it as the wall they faced before falling through the floor. “We found our way out.”

“Let's find Kara and Joel first,” Igneous said as he turned around leading ahead to the back of the hall. “I wouldn’t want to lose them here. Let's go.”

“Right here with you Igneous,” Mace said as he reluctantly followed him.

“Lets just open the door first,” Hilliph said as he once again took his place over the particular stone tile. They could easily guess that was somewhat of a switch to open the door by some unseen mechanics.

“Why would we do that now?” Igneous asked. “Kara and Joel should be our first priority.”

Hilliph causally shook his head, “it's good to have an immediate exit Igneous. Just incase anything terrible happens the door will be well open.”

“We know our way out,” Mace argued. “Opening that door would give the Gekis and opportunity to catch us here.”

Hilliph rested his hoof atop the tile. “I does not matter if we find them now or later. The Gekis will still be just outside this door.”

Igneous eyed Hilliph suspiciously, “It does matter? We have greater chances to fend them off if Kara and Joel are with us Hilliph.” 

“How do you know that the Gekies are outside?” Mace asked. “Did we not cover ourselves as we traveled?”

There was a generous moment of silence as both Igneous and Mace awaited an answer from Hilliph. Only that answer never came and only continued to stare at the tile threatening to push down.

Igneous’ instincts kicked in “Step away from the lever Hilliph.”

He took his hoof off of the lever and said, “Pointing your sword at Falconer again Igneous? You seem to make it a habit.”

“I do what's necessary for the mission.”

“Igneous what are you doing?” Mace asked.

“No pony will endanger my team. Now, this is your last warning,” Igneous growled. “Step away from the lever.” Hilliph didn’t move. This wasn’t like him. “Deploy yourself Mace,” Igneous commanded.

“What are you doing Igneous?” Mace worriedly questioned unsure as how to act properly. Either he obeys his leader and friend or give his father's friend and long time acquaintance the benefit of the doubt.

Hilliph lowered his head and removed his hoof from atop the tile. “I’m sorry,” he said. Igneous eased up and his stance soften while his magical grip upon the sword loosened. “You should really listen to your superiors Mace.”

Just then there was a sudden flash followed up by the familiar metal on metal clash that range out. Igneous had no time to react as his blade grounded itself behind him.

Hilliph leaped back and with his weight, pushed down on the stone tile. Instantly the door roared to life as it fell into the ground, smashing into place below the floor with a thunderous clap. Dust erupted from the cracks completely enveloping the three, obscuring the entrance and blocking out the light that flooded in.

“Deploy yourself,” Igneous ordered as both he and Mace jumped back and away from the dust cloud. Igneous withdrew a second blade from his scabbard and with it he snapped the hilt of it and the grounded blade together making them one. With a metallic sleek he pulled the first from the earth and held the double bladed sword over his head.

“Igneous whats going on?” he said as his crossbows sprung up at his side.

“Stand back,” he ordered. With his double bladed sword held above his head he withdrew a third and held it at his side. “Hilliph!” he shouted. “Hilliph Explain Yourself!” There was no answer, only the scuttle of numerous hooves as silhouette of many ponies shadowed over the dust. “Explain Yourself Hilliph!” he shouted again wanting to doubt what ever was happening but Igneous was easily becoming convinced.

They waited patiently waited while the dust began to settle: Igneous with his swords at the ready and Mace who lead with his right crossbow. They steadied themselves breathing easily. They’ve been in some what similar situations disregarding the betrayal and the Hexer fortress.

Through the smoke Hilliph finally emerged however he wasn’t alone. On both sides of him were dozens of Gekies who donned their signature black masks and decorated fixed weaponry. Some were unicorns and they had their own uniquely designed and sophisticated swords. They stood in formation before the exit blocking the only means of escape. 

Hilliph stood at the forefront of the group and after they had all marched in he took his place just a few steps away from Igneous and Mace. Hilliph donned the black mask that was given to him by a Geki. He withdrew his second long sword and with both held loosely at his side he announced, “My name is Hilliph Verex! Direct descendent of the first invader, conqueror and king, Kordan Verex.”

Igneous held his ground as anger began to sear up in him. Mace took his place as he backed away so that he could get the range advantage on any attack, however Mace saw that even with his own and Igneous’ exceptional skill if a battle were to occur it wouldn’t be easily won. 

“It would be nice if you could summon a shield now Igneous,” he muttered as he eyed the Gekies tauntingly held their ground.

“Why Hilliph,” he yelled disregarding Mace’s generous request. “Why are you doing this? Your team! Nimbus, Kohligan, Mace’s father! You betrayed them all!”

“No!” he snapped. “They betrayed me! I thought I knew them Igneous. I thought I did, but what Kohligan did, the things Nimbus had said, the things Mace’s insipid, sickening Father performed… they are things I cannot look past.”

“What!?” Igneous challenged. “Killing? It's what Falconers do to protect the ponies. Its how we keep Noriphmy safe, we have to kill, Hilliph!”

Hilliph shook his head. “You don’t understand Igneous. This isn’t about falconers, this isn’t about Noriphmy. Its about Kohligan.”

“What do you mean!” Igneous shouted.

“Kordan Verex?” Mace confusingly muttered as he tried his very best to piece together exactly what was going on only to come up short all together.

“Lets just focus on the task at hand shall we.” He turned toward Gekie warriors and said, “the extermination of team Vendetta.”

“Trader Hilliph. You're a trader you hear me?” Igneous took a few steps forward and in doing so the whole first row of warriors deployed there fixed blades outward and took one step forward ready for attack. Igneous refused to be intimidated and said, “Look at me. I want to see the eyes of the trader of team Coehin.”

He stopped where he stood and retorted, “Don’t ever say that! I was never apart of team Coehin.” He turned and revealing his angered face, “I killed team Coehin.” He raised his sword toward Igneous, ”Besides Igneous, you hated your father. You loathed him and it's what you’ve wanted.” He levitated one longsword outwards toward Igneous while resting the other over his back. 

Igneous knew this fighting style. Hilliph would use the outstretched sword for quick attacks and defence and the one laid across his back for heavy attacks when there was an opening. This was much like Igneous’ style but slower and more precise with most attacks landing lethal blows.

“The kingdom is yours now Igneous,” Hilliph continued. “It's a shame, honestly, I always hoped you'd come around and reclaim the royal position Kohligan abandoned. You could have rid Noriphmy of this poisonous council, you could have secured a better future for Noriphmy Igneous. I even considered your very life in the grand scheme of things.” If anything Hilliph seemed more pained in his actions then anything else but as he looked Igneous over one thing was clear... “from the expression on your face I can tell, there no room for reason.”

“Why’d you use us like this?” Igneous asked as he kept an eye on the borders of their formation that threatened to curve around. “You used Kara to find this and for what? The light magic? To destroy the council?”

“Nimbus was the book thief,” he retorted. “And the council… Noriphmy. Now they are the least of my worries Igneous,” Hilliph scoffed as he shook his head. “You’ll never find out my intentions.” 

“Bar up!” Igneous challenged as he widened his stance and prepared for combat.

“You're outmatched Igneous,” Mace warned.

“Stay back Mace,” Igneous commanded as he position one sword in front of his muzzle and pointing skywards while his other took its position above Igneous’ head pointed straight for Hilliph.

Taking a few steps forward Hilliph said, “It will be an honor to kill the son of King Sirvidian.” Repositioning his swords he said, “Prince Sirvidian.” It was an act of honor between equals to give him this privilege to duel but Igneous only saw it as an insult. 

“Wait… Igneous is a Prince?” Joel asked as he focused on Hilliph.

“There's no time. Take the shot Joel.” Kara whispered. 

They hid atop the balcony where the door from the stairwell opened up too. When they found out what was taking place they wisely decided to hide themselves and wait for the events to play out as Joel laid with his body parallel to the railing letting the crossbow peak out with Joels aim as he bore down on Hilliph a good skill-shot distance away. They haddn’t been spotted yet as Kara hid with Joel who had his right reticle set on target with arrow drop taken into consideration.

“What are you waiting for?” She hissed again. “Take the shot Joel.” All he had to do was flick his ear back and he could have ended Hilliph then but what would happen afterwards? The Gekies wouldn’t just stand by, they would most likely attack and then what?

“Kara just wait a minute,” he said trying to buy himself some time. He knew it was the right thing to do and could save Igneous and Mace.

“What are you doing?” She asked

“Killing him won’t solve anything,” he answered. “The rest will attack, we just need more time.”

“Were out of time,” she said as she pounced on Joel’s head, pinning him to the stone floor.

“Kara?” Joel grunted as he struggled beneath her. 

“I'm doing this for him.” Using her weight to pin his head down she lowered her head and bit down on the wire that ran up to Joel’s ear and yanked. Joel winced in pain but the crossbow let loose flinging the loaded explosive bolt into the air.

Miraculously the it sailed through the air aimed for Hilliph with deadly precision. All he heard was a slight thwack but at the last moment Hilliph realized what was coming and instantly raised his longsword and deflecting the explosive bolt across the broadside of it causing it to bounce upwards into the ceiling above. 

With a thunderous boom the bolt collided with the structurally weak stone rooftops and for a brief moment every pony froze as pieces of rocks began to fall as the roof all together sagged.

Where Igneous and Hilliph stood a decently sized boulder fell and smashed into the already badly cracked ground causing it to sag slightly between them.

Igneous laid eyes back on Hilliph and once again raised his sword just as Hilliph released the origin of the explosive bolt. Looking to the railing where two figures hid he raised his sword and inhaled for a command. However before he could let loose on that command the ceiling above completely crumbled sending a single section of ceiling down upon them.

It crashed down between both Hilliph and Igneous causing the already weak, cracked floor to completely give away as it opened up beneath the two swallowing up, but not before Hilliph had the time to command his Gekies to attack before disappearing below.

Instantly six pegasuses took off with claws attached to their hoofs flying straight for Kara and Joel. Kara took straight to action as she lept off the railing to engage.

Two of the Gekie’s pegasus immediately got shot down as Mace, shrouded by dust, took aim and fired with great precision one after the other. However before he could reload and fire twice more he heard a command from the ground shout, “Form up.” And although he wanted to help Kara he still had his own well being to look after as he was outnumbered twenty four to one.

Kara could handle herself. A statement that was only proven correct as she engaged the first pegasus head on driving her claws straight through the skull of the first pegasus with unbridled aggression. However before she could disengage with the limp pegasus Kara futari swiped at another who easily avoided her attack as he headed straight for Joel standing on the balcony.

Joel immediately ducked under his first attack as the pegasus overshot the earth pony. However as the pegasus landed he quickly reeled about and lounged for Joel with one fixed blade outstretched.

Just as Joel thought everything was over, like he literally couldn’t do anything at all, he tensed up and awaited the end. Only he wasn’t dead as when he opened his eyes a particular dark ball of black Hexer magic held the stunned, dumbfounded pegasus's blade at bay.

The surprise turned into fear and the pegasus immediately lept off the in fear of being outplayed, but as Joel began to wonder about what had happened with the black magic that had been bound to him it immediately vanished into nothing.

While Kara waged aerial ware above and Joel stood there completely semi-uselessly Mace was stuck on the ground with a group of earth and unicorn ponies forming up in a tight defensive formation. The front row consisting of five earth ponies and four unicorns spread equally between each other. The unicorns held their shields forward while the earth ponies let their fixed weapons jut out from between the crags of their formation.

This created a strong defense and one that Mace would not be able to penetrate. Not even Igneous could but that wasn’t a surprise since it would take an equal number of well trained warriors to break that formation. Sadly Noriphmy had no warriors. 

As one the unit of shields and fixed weapons advanced on Mace and retorted with two explosive arrows that had no effect. The bolts had hit them straight on but the strength of their shields insured none were harmed or even phased. Instead they kept advancing and Mace knew if he didn’t think of something fast he would seen be mercilessly slaughtered. 

“Nine and ten.” he muttered as he contrived a plan to break their formation.

Kara by now had only three to fight. Two she had evaded and were now circling back towards her and the third was directly in her line of flight. She attempted to attack the pegasus however he ducked away just as she got close. The next had already circled around and was coming in fast from the side.

She easily countered this by performing an aileron roll with one thrust of her wings. This caused her wings to slash at the pegasus face creating a decently sized gash as the pegasus came into range. He immediately dropped out of the sky coming to a rough painful landing on the stone floor below.

With blood covering his face the pegasus looked up only to see Mace glance to him before jumping around and firing a single bolt into the head of the enraged charging pegasus. Mace rolled out of the way as the limp body of the pegasus charged passed coming to a sliding stop later on.

Mace then refocused his efforts on breaking the formation. Having already thought of it he hammered in an explosive bolt and reared up. Looking skywards and with his body pointed in the right direction he flicked his left ear down letting loose on the damaged ceiling above.

With a thunderous explosion a section of the ceiling again collapses above the formation. Quickly, and wisely, they retreated scattering in all directions as the rubble came tumbling down killing off two in the process: One unicorn, one earthpony.

“Nine and nine.” he whispered again as he kept track of his explosive bolt count.

As the mass of the Gekies dispersed this left a lot of the unicorns, and earthponys, undefended and wide open to standard bolt attacks. He fired dropping an earth pony on the spot. Another had already circled around and charged him hoping that Mace wouldn’t notice but this earth pony made the unwise decision to sneak up on the greatest tracker as he was immediately dropped with one spin and an ear flick.

The bolt buried itself within the neck of the earthpony silencing him for good just as Mace turned his sights on two unicorns.

While he scored two more kills Kara was working on getting one particular pegasus off her flight trail. With the pressure following closely behind Kara performed a maneuver by bringing herself to a hardstop, flinging her center of mass below, flipping her body around and just as the pegasus flew directly under Kara dropped down digging both her clawed gauntlets into the spine and upper back of her attacker.

Kicking the pegasus off her claws the corps landed upon a group of Gekies as they were reforming breaking their ranks once again leaving Mace the opportunity to pick two more bodies off from their ranks.

However before she could worry about the remaining ground threats she still had one more pegasus to worry about. Just then she realized the mistake she made after having found her target. She was hovering and in aerial combat that was the last thing a pegasus needed to do and now she was wide open with now way of escape as the pegasus quickly closed in on her.

Prematurely wincing in pain Joel let loose on his crossbow piercing the pegasus’s wing causing him to fall to the floor. Kara looked to Joel with deep appreciation as he fired a second shot striking a unicorn that had been charging Mace with sword and shield raised directly in the leg causing him to trip in pain dropping his shield, leaving mace to finish the job.

Now all that remained was a formation of three: One unicorn two earthponies, all hiding behind one shield that faced Mace. Joel easily picked off the leftmost earth pony. The unicorn briefly panicked and adjusted his defense only for his companion to get picked off by Mace soon afterwards.

Now all that remained of the Gekies was a single unicorn armed with nothing but a sword and shield. Kara took her opportunity to attack from behind but as she bore down on him and was about to strike Mace shouted, “Kara Don’t!”

Coming to an immediate stop with confusion she asked, “What are you doing Mace?”

Hearing the Falconer hovering behind him the Unicorn turned and swiped at the air only to miss completely as Kara ascended to safety. “What is this now?” the unicorn spoke with nervousness but with a strong voice all the same. His black mask obscured his eyes but judging from the Gekies performance that didn’t hinder their sight too noticeably. However they did just slaughter all but one so that theory remained uncertain.

Kara and Joel watched from above as Mace let his guard down. Pushing on the chest button the crossbows folded at his side and Kara again cried out, “Mace, what are you doing? Answer!”

“What my father had done years ago.” he answered. Lowering his head over a sword dropped by a Gekie Mace picked it up in his teeth by the blood bounded handle of the weapon. The unicorn then faced Mace with a doubtful look in his eyes and through clenched teeth Mace said, “This is for him.”

The unicorn nervously snickered and said, “an unconventional duel this is, no?” Looking over his fallen comrades the Gekie dropped his shield but held fast to his sword. “Seems I have yet to be slain, outplayed. I Jeckaluke accept this fight.” With a more angered voice he said, “I will slay you in vengeance.”

“Have at it then!” Mace growled as they slowly began to circle one another, each starting with indignation at the other.

“I intend to,” he said. Jeckaluke was the first to attack opening up with a quick skyward swipe followed by a jab. Both attacks with intentions to kill.

Mace avoided the first attack but as the Unicorn jabbed with his sword Mace angled his head down intercepting the blade. Twisting his body Mace drove the sword into the ground and bucked the unicorn in the face with a swift hoof to the face.

Jeckaluke quickly recovered and withdrew the blade from the ground. Mace ducked as the sword nearly made contact as it returned to its owner where as he advanced again swiping left; blocked, withdrew and swiped down.

Mace found this one easy to avoid as the attack was projected well in advance. With on quick dash Mace spun around his enemy ending up behind Jeckaluke. While doing so Mace managed to swipe his hind leg creating a superficial cut but nothing serious.

This angered the Unicorn and it was his turn to buck Mace in the face as he rounded himself delivering a heavy blow to the blade in Mace’s mouth. The force of the impact was enough to rattle Mace’s jaw and send searing pain up through his head. If the kick to the face wasn’t enough then that move really disoriented him.

All Mace could do was back away but he hadn't been focusing properly and in doing so he ended up backing into a wall opposite of his falconer peers.

“Mace you can’t win this,” Kara shouted as she began to fly towards him..

“Don't,” he yelled through his teeth as he dodged another attack which freed him from being cornered. 

“Enough!” Jeckaluke shouted. Instantly Mace defended another bone rattling, mind numbing attack, then another, and another from the same direction. Mace could hardly see at this point as each impact felt like a hammer to the jaw and face but if he were to look he would see the Unicorn fastly orbiting the blade around his body striking Mace’s defending blade again and again. “I’ll finish you now!”

Jeckaluke suddenly lunged with his body striking Mace right in the chest with his own armor. Mace fell back, dropped the sword and was left completely defenseless. Disorientedly looking to his sword Mace feebly tried to reach for the handle only to have it batted away by the blade of Jeckaluke.

“Pray you have a god,” the unicorn said as he pinned Mace beneath his body. “Because your life is no more.”

Jeckaluke grinned knowing the fight was won. He raised his sword and just as he ws about to plunge it down into Maces chest he suddenly let out a horrifying scream dropping his sword and shield as he fell to agony.

Mace looked up to see a sword protruding through the bottom of his chest. Then suddenly his body all together got lifted into the air, and Mace saw that behind him stood Kohligan Sirvidian armored and well off. He held Jeckaluke by the hilt of his sword for a moment more as blood dripped over his face and body. He then flung him off to the side as he gasping in pain.

He turned his attention to Mace and said, “You thought you could fight a fully armed Unicorn Mace? Your foolishness almost got you killed.” He sheathed his sword away as he glared intently at the battle worn earthpony.

Mace slowly crawled to his knees and answered, “It was for my father.”

“Your father is not dead Mace,” Kohligan said flatly. He then turned to Kara as she landed nearby and said, “and neither is your sister.”

Kara asked, “But then why did Hilliph say he killed you?”

“Hilliph Verex went by the name Hilliph Luminick while he was apart of our team. We didn’t suspect it but it turned out he was the one working with the Gekies. He attacked us when we least expected it stealing the book and leaving your father and your sister critically injured. I did my best to heal them both but they needed real help. They couldn’t come with me although I too was injured.” He raised his head to show a scar going down the length of his chin. “He knew that you were the only other pony who could read the Hexer’s language, so he then came to your team.”

“He used us,” Kara said to herself.

“What was he planning?” Joel asked as he descended the stairs from the balcony.

Kohligan instantly withdrew a sword pointing it at him and Joel froze afraid for his life. After seeing what he did to Jeckaluke he would rather not be on the wrong side of his blade.

“Who are you?” he asked with a glare as sharp as the blade itself.

“He is Joel,” Kara said, “He became apart of our team a week and a half ago.”

“Has he had training?” he asked.

Mace finally stood up and said, “He has been under my supervision and training this past week.”

“So you're inexperienced? Why did you bring him on this mission?” he demanded.

“It was Igneous who decided to bring him,” Mace answers.

Kohligan finally sheathed his sword with much relief to Joel, turned to Mace and asked, “And just where is he.”

“Oh no,” Kara whispered in recollection of how this whole fight began. Turning to the gaping hole in the ground she, without word or command, splayed open her wings and took flight before diving down intent on finding her team leader.

They were about to run after her when they heard a faint murmur. Joel turned to see that it came from Luminick. Mace noticed and walked over to him and this time he heard him more clearly. Luminick said one word, “Home.”

“What?” Mace said.

Jeckaluke bleeding out had tears in his eyes and he said, “I just wanna go home. I spent years away from my family for some cause. I never wanted to come.” He was sobbing now and he kept repeating, “ I just wanna go home, I need to see my kids”

“Shit,” Joel whispered as he began to slowly back away to the point where he couldn’t even hear him. Mace stood above the dying unicorn and Joel could only hear the earth pony ask the killer where he had come from. Very weakly Jeckaluke raised his head. Joel saw Jeckaluke utter something to Mace then he lowered his head again and there it stayed. His chest lowered and didn’t raise again.

Mace just hearing what Jeckaluke said looked at Joel in confusion. He then ran past him and to were Kohligan was looking down the hole Igneous and Hilliph fell into. Mace ran up next to him and said, “Kohligan. Do you know where these guys are from?”

“What do you mean Mace.” he asked.

“Jeckaluke just said that he was from Istudious.” Kohligan didn’t reply but instead looked away. Mace said, “Istudious was destroyed during the end of the Magic Era.” Kohligan only stayed silent. “What do you know about Istudious?”

For a moment Kohligan said nothing but just as he was about to speak Kara flew out from the hole in the ground and with great worry stung within her voice she said, “We need to get down there quick. Igneous is seriously hurt.”

Kohligan commanded, “Get my team from outside and tell Diettetcheny to prepare aid.”

“You have another team?” Kara asked with hopefulness.

“Outside keeping guard,” he gestured with his head. “Now hurry!”

Kara flew away to go get the others but Mace still hadn’t gotten his answer, “Kohlagin…” But was cut off.

“Mace he died as soon as I stabbed him in the heart and before he could say anything more.” He of course was speaking of Jeckaluke when he delivered the sword through his chest. “What you heard was the wind and nothing more.” He turned away and repeated, “Nothing more.” Mace was about to speak when a peace of the stone roof fell away crashing to the ground. It snapped Joel out of his little shock and to where he regrouped with Mace and Kohligan. Kohligan then said, “there is no time. This place is coming down.”

“What do we need to do?” Joel asked as he uneasily eyed the ceiling.

“Go get my team from outside,” he ordered. Obeying Joel ran out the fortress and out of sight to where Kohligan commanded Mace, “Hitch me up Mace. We need to get Igneous before this place collapses.”

Mace switched to a string shot and asked, “How did you even find us? We traveled for miles and for days.”

He took the hook and strapped it to the back of his armor before answering, “You're not the only Falconer who knows how to track Mace.” Another large chunk of the roof fell and Kohligan looked over to see that the already badly damaged pillar holding the entire place up was beginning to crack beneath the weight. “Were running out of time. Now quickly, get me down there.” He jumped over the edge and into the abyss.

Part 2
With a thunderous boom the bolt collided with the structurally weak stone rooftops and for a brief moment every pony froze as pieces of rocks began to fall as the roof all together sagged.

Where Igneous and Hilliph stood a decently sized boulder fell and smashed into the already badly cracked ground causing it to sag slightly between them.

Igneous laid eyes back on Hilliph and once again raised his sword just as Hilliph released the origin of the explosive bolt. Looking to the railing where two figures hid he raised his sword and inhaled for a command. However before he could let loose on that command the ceiling above completely crumbled sending a single section of ceiling down upon them.

It crashed down between both Hilliph and Igneous causing the already weak, cracked floor to completely give away as it opened up beneath the two swallowing up, but not before Hilliph had the time to command his Gekies to attack before disappearing below.

Igneous fell heavily onto stone and as he quickly picked himself up he found it was a stretch of land that arced over a river that ran far below. Looking again he spied a water mill machine that continuously spun with massive rotating gears at least four with a rod that ran upwards into the floor and another that stretched across the great expanse of this underground cave.

Igneous then looked to his right to see Hilliph chasing after the white magic of Aminus as it rolled near the edge of the great fall before it. Igneous sprang into action one sword drawn and just as the orb neared the edge Hilliph dived down and grabbed it in his mouth.

When he turned again he found Igneous with sword raised ready to attack the vulnerable Hilliph. Falling into action he withdrew his longsword and guided Igneous’s blade into the ground. Hilliph then lashed out with a kick causing Igneous to fall over. He then stabbed with his longsword but only managed to hit rock as Igneous swiped again only to miss. However when he crawled upward to gain the standing advantage over Hilliph, Hilliph instead pushed himself over the edge only to fall heavily upon the flat edge of the spinning gear of the water mill.

The impact was great and falling on his side made it worse. Crashing down had caused the white magic to pop out of his mouth and as Igneous watched it began to slowly roll away and to the waters below.

Hilliph had gotten to his hooves and as he spied the orb rolling away Igneous dropped down on top. He attempted to pick it up but Hilliph lashed out before he could with a side swipe of his longsword. Igneous defensively kicked the orb away ducked under and brought his sword upwards to plunge at his side only for it to become locked in place with the crossguard of Hilliph’s second longsword. With no other option Igneous bore down and charged the trader pitting him against his head only to then ram him against the central pillar that held the gear in place.

As Hilliph slid to the floor Igneous dove for the orb just before it fell and scooped it away with his hoof.

“I may have underestimated you Igneous,” Hilliph grunted as he pulled himself to his hooves. “You're very talented in the smith arts.” As he gathered himself up Igneous popped the ball into his mouth and clipped the hilt of his sword to its counterpart and withdrew the double bladed shortsword accompanied with a single shortsword. Hilliph continued, “But if there is one thing you lack and are grossly ignorant of...” A clear liquid levitated from the fold of his side bag and Igneous immediately recognised it as the bound water used for elemental blood binding. “...It's Magic!”

The water then shot down striking the metal just before Igneous morphing the metal into spikes that shot up from the ground at him. Igneous rolled out of the way and ran along the outer perimeter of the gear as the spikes trailed behind. Looking for a quick escape Igneous found a bridge made of rope and wood that spanned the distance from one cliff face to the next and with one leap Igneous fell down only to land on top of the rickety but very well sturdy rope bridge.

He crashed against the railing as the thing swung back and forth but as he regained his balance Hilliph landed behind him with both longswords aimed for the top of Igneous’s head.

Acting on instince Igneous raised both double bladed sword and short sword bringing Hilliph’s attack to a complete stop whereas Igneous got bashed in the face by Hilliph’s black summoned shield knocking. The force of impact was great enough to send Igneous falling backwards backwards as the orb fell painfully from his mouth and onto the wooden planks of the bridge. 

Regaining his composure and rubbing his chin Igneous looked to see the white magic of Aminus sitting there at an even distance between the him and Hilliph who stood there with his tower shield raised and body hidden.

“You never did have any type of magical prowess Igneous. The ability to only levitate two weapons, can’t do alchemy and you can’t even summon a shield for the life of you Igneous.”

Positioning his short sword above his head and double bladed sword in front of his body Igneous said, “the difference between you and a bandit is that you can actually hold up a decent fight long enough for it to be enjoyable.” Looking to the white magic then back to Hilliph he carefully considered his next approach before lowering his longsword and clicking it to his fourth idle shortsword. With both double edged long swords readily drawn for combat Igneous said, “Fight me, I’m enjoying this too much.”

He then poised himself ready to charge the tower-shielded, longsword-armed trader. 

Hilliph positioned his shield. “I’ll have it your way.” They then ran swords raised, shield set and clashed above the Light magic of Aminus.

Hilliph opened by swinging down on Igneous but he blocked it with one blade and with the other he decisively smashed the lower hilt of it knocking the longsword out of Hilliphs magical grip effectively sending it to the water below. Hilliph then tried a downward swipe whereas Igneous blocked it again, and using the same disarming process, sent into the air only to land on the bridge behind Igneous’s advancement. 

But just as Igneous thought he had the upper hand Hilliph raised his shield and smashed the wooden bridge they stood on. The planks beneath it shattered and slowly the bridge began to fall apart as the ropes aged and weakened began to snape. Igneous dove for the light magic as it bounced about but it was too late because the bridge along with Hilliph and himself fell into the waters far below. 

Igneous lost control of his blades before immediately being swallowed up by the river that flowed below. In vain he tried to kick himself to the surface for breath but the weight of his armor dragged him to the very bottom. He held his breath as he hit the stoney surface below and as he gained a foothold on the very surface he opened his eyes to see the fluorescent glow of Aminus’s light magic as it sat in the rushing tides of watery Darkness. 

Quickly running out of air as his lungs strained to hold themselves together Igneous quickly took the orb in his mouth as he fought against the current that pulled him further down the underground river. He climbed his way up the stoney surface and when he broke over the surface he let out a strained gasp before crawling out onto dry land spitting the orb onto the ground as he took in deep breaths of air. Nearly drowned he fell on his back as he took himself easy trying to regain his strength. For a minute he just sat there in darkness but his strength, although little, did return and he rolled back onto his barrel to look out to where the river was flowing.

Not far beyond where he lay was where the water fell to a pool far below. No doubt if he had dwelt within for any longer he would have taken the plummet but as he peered at what could have been his demise something caught his eye over the lip of the cliff face not to far from where he lay.

Too weak to fully pull himself up Igneous dragged himself along the smooth stoney surface of the cave keeping the light magic in a close embrace as he moved. When he came to the edge he peered out and with his eyes he found a light source resonating from a crack far below that lay within the wall of the cave next to the pool of water that the waterfall fell too. Logic would deem that was the way out of this cave system but right now Igneous was more concerned with his team.

He had to find them.

Just then a cough rang throughout the cave and Igneous slowly turned to see Hilliph standing a distance away soaked just as Igneous was and breathing almost as heavily. His mask had fallen when he took the plummet from the bridge. “So… this is the… Prince of Noriphmy,” Hilliph tiredly spoke. Igneous couldn’t even stand to face him. “The Prince who ran away, the Prince who became a Falconer. Tell me, what exactly were you looking for Igneous?”

He could barely summon the strength to look him in the eyes. Rolling his head in his directing Igneous said, “Years of coddling. Never seeing the outside world and simply just not knowing and being so grossly lied too.” Putting one hoof beneath him he slowly began to push himself up as he muttered, “When I finally did get a glimpse and wasn’t so richly ignorant I found that life wasn't as grand as I once thought. I wasn’t just going to sit idly by as the ponies of my nation suffered.” He shook his head and stomped his hoof. “But I didn’t know my father would then follow my example.”

“You can follow his example,” Hilliph muttered as Igneous caught a glint of his blade. “...and fall dead before me. Never has an opponent such as yourself come so close to killing me. Years of Falconering really have taught me Igneous.” He was strained but Hilliph’s longsword pointed outwards and at Igneous but Hilliph didn’t face him directly or look him in the eye. However it wasn’t long before the blade dropped from his magical grip and fell to the floor. Hilliph sighed to himself and said, “Remember Igneous? That lesson with the black flame? If taught well you should be able to summon your shield.” He began to lower his head toward his sword and as he did he said, “Let's see if that taught you anything.” Taking the hilt by the teeth Hilliph raised his head with sword in mouth and slowly began approaching the defenseless light magic bearing Igneous as he sat there without a weapon.

He focused. A black mist formed in the air around him and slowly it took the rough shape of a shield, his shield, but before it could solidify it vanished. Hilliph took another step forward, Igneous tried again but with great effort came the same results. Igneous tried once more but just when the edges seemed to take shape the mist vanished as a whole leaving Igneous without a summon.

“How very disappointing Igneous,” Hilliph whispered between his teeth. He wasn’t far away and a few more steps was all it would take before he was within striking distance.

The light magic of Aminus sat before Igneous. Desperately Igneous devised a plan and taking his forehoof in his mouth he began to tear away at his skin. The pain was immense but all he needed was a decent amount of blood and so he bit threw. With his hoof now bleeding Igneous waved his hoof over the magic of Aminus making sure its purity was poisoned by redness. Hilliph froze where he was. Igneous weakly stood tall and awaited the power that he binded.

If done right the light magic should now belong to him. Kara had said that magic flows through the blood of the living and that magic itself binds to blood. But he couldn’t feel the magic, he didn’t feel the power.

Hilliph then looked Igneous in the eyes and said, “Nice try.” With one flick of his head Hilliph struck Igneous across the chest with the blade of his sword with enough force to knock Igneous back and over the cliff face to the waters below. Hilliph dropped his sword and fell to the ground spent of energy and weakened. He looked down to the pool below and with only a whisper Hilliph said, “valiant effort Igneous, but Aminus isn’t dead.”

> Chapter 12 Shattered Armor and Lost Swords
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He opened his eyes and saw nothing but blackness. It was cold and it was wet and he didn't know were he was or think straight. Something bodily really hurt, it was his chest. It panged with the awful sensation of a rather large wound but to Igneous in his delirious, post-adrenaline state the feeling came off rather dull and pleasing.

His eyes began to grow heavy and he began to wonder why he had even woken up in the first place being as tired as he was. It was dark the water fall rang with peace through the tunnel and the infinite void above. However just before he faded away in the center of his vision two objects appeared and began to slowly descend growing as they neared. Igneous reached out to them as they got closer turning from incomprehensible smudges of an amorphous like ball to pony like.

They seemed like angels and the way the descended also seemed as much. With one weak hoof he reached out and with the weakest, tiredest voice of near mortal death Igneous muttered.  “Am I finally dead?”

Kara then pushed his hoof down and away saying, “You're going to be if you lay in this water any longer.” Igneous didn't answer but instead just laid his head down. His armor was shattered where Hilliph had struck him. The blade had cleanly pierced all the way through piercing his hide exposing mortal self.

Another voice, one Igneous didn’t recognise, came from the figure standing next to her. She shouted to another, someone other than Kara. “He is over here!”

The echo of approaching hooves clopping along on rocks rang throughout the tunnel making their presence known to Igneous even before they spoke. “How is he still alive?” 

“That’s one fall.”

A third voice, this one much more condescending and vigor. “He sure did tried his hardest to die,” Kohligan scoffed. He took his place next to Igneous in the water and called, “Diettetcheny help me with these wounds.”

A unicorn descended the rocky ridge. This one, unlike the others that wore armor, wore nothing more than a robe that clocked over the entirety of his body leaving nothing to the view of onlookers but his eyes and nothing more.

He gave Igneous and his injures on glance. “We won't be able to heal that wound.”

This robbed pony took his place on the other side of Igneous as Kohligan said, “I know Dettetcheny, but we can stop the bleeding.” For a brief moment his catalyst bloomed with a light luminescent and purely white. Kohligan raised his hoof just as the white sprite broke of from the magical bonds of his catalyst and with it in hoof he plunged it down resting it atop Igneous’s wound. They watched; Kara, Dettetcheny, Mace and Joel when they showed up and to their great relief at once stopped bleeding, decreased in size but didn’t close up. 

Kohligan was satisfied with the results so far. Dettetcheny contributed his white magic and the wound shrunk again but like the last didn’t close completely. “We need to get him out of the water,” Kohligan commanded as he stood.

Kara objectified saying, “He can't move Kohligan, he is too injured.”

Just then a dark mist took for and took the shape of a hooked spear that Kohligan took into his magical grip with indignation, frustration and impatiens. “I will say what Igneous can and can't do.”

At once before anyone could speak or mutter a word Kohligan reached with the spear snagging Igneous’s armor by the broken notch produced by the blade of Hilliph and with shaft in mouth began dragging Igneous out of the water and through the dirt.	

If Igneous wasn’t awake or any thought him to be asleep they soon figured just the opposite as this stallion began to scream in agony at even the slightest tug of his injury. He pawed at the ground trying to get his footing but it was useless as each attempt only yielded gravel that gave way to his touch. Kohligan then withdrew the spear upwards throwing the wounded stallion against the wall and crags of the cave only to shouted, “What Were You Thinking You Foolish Yewl!”

“O-old diggit,” he sputtered once his pain became suppressed by the excessive pride rebellion he held over his father. “I out rank you,” he whispered with a hiss. Not a moment longer before he fell to the dirt clutching his chest over his shattered armor in pain.

“He lost a lot of blood Kohligan,” Dettetcheny informed as he stepped forward in as nonoffensive manner as possible. “Doing this could cause him to start bleeding again.”

Kohligan turned then retorted, “Then we will just heal him again.” His words were harsh and deliberate.

“We don't have time for this Kohligan. The fortress ceiling will collapse any minute now.” The one that had spoken was Floritha, a celestial who was apart of Kohligan’s team and the one who found Igneous along with Kara. However apart from her fair looks the one feature the stuck out about her was he four hooves and the metal they seemed to be made of holly.

Kohligan spoke, “if Hilliph didn’t get out through the halls of the Hexer’s fortress then he’s still down here or he found a passage leading out.” He turned and commanded the celestial with hardy regard, “Go Find Him!”

Floritha took off immediately as ordered but just as Kara poised for lift off to follow Igneous commanded, “Don’t Kara!” Pulling himself through the dirt he managed to get his four hooves beneath him but lacked the strength to pick his body up. “Don’t listen to him Kara. He’s not the one leading this mission.”

Kara stood there unsure who exactly to obey. Her true leader that she had traveled with for nearly a year who laid there injured, delirious and stubborn or Kohligan who’s better judgment would have them find this traitor who injured her leader and friend and bring him back for the consequences that may or would ensue.

“I have had it with your ignorance Igneous,” Kohligan scoffed as his blade withdrew from its scabbard only to be plunged into the dirt and Igneous’s hooves unsheathed one of his swords and threw it down at Igneouses hoofs.

“Is this how we must always meet old yewl?” he said as he used his magic to levitate it into the air and into a defensive position.

“You're fighting an injured pony,” Dettetcheny nervously criticised. “This cannot be a fair fight Kohligan.”

“I need to teach him respect and humility,” he said as he stood above the stallion who didn’t even bother taking to the blade not even bound to him.

“Not now,” he rejected as he knocked the blade from the dirt and back to the dirt. “We have bigger priorities that this ‘feud.’” He then tried to stand but the muscles associated with picking himself burned with a fire at the gash in his chest. 

He winced and let out a pained cry before Kara rushed to him and pleaded, “please Igneous, don’t move!”

“That will be the easiest thing I do Kara,” he grunted. With his limited energy expelled into that one act of exertion his eyes feel heavy again as the adrenaline of Kohligan’s wakeful ruse began to wear off. Doing the hard thing simultaneously became his last ambition in favor of rest and healing.

Retrieving the sword Igneous had discarded Kohligan came to the understanding that Igneous wouldn’t be fighting so soon. Silently he walked off toward the water that flowed through the darkness that was illuminated only by his and Dettechenies soft glowing catalysts. 

Floritha then found her place at his side in report of her quick survey of Hilliph’s wear abouts. “I have not found Hilliph,” she began by saying in a rather hushed tone. “But there is an exit where he might have escaped.” She pointed with her wing before turning and transferring the indicated direction to her hoof. It's just beyond that ridge hidden rather well but I can show you.”

“Right,” he solemnly affirmed. “Get the eartheniers and scout the immediate area. If you don't find Hilliph then come back because we're not going to be moving for tonight.”

Kara who sat by Igneous’s side watched Kohligan unable to hear his words quite well, only the fact that Hilliph had gone unfound. However just to her side she found Dettetcheny approaching with a rather pecular stone in his magical grip.

“Give this to him,” he insisted. “This should dull the senses for you valiant smith.” 

Kara took it in her hooves and commented, “as if he didn't already use them.”

“Pain may only be temporary but relief to some is always a blessing.” His robe covered everything but his eyes and it made every action he commit seem rather eerie. His eyes also seemed rather intense rivaled only by the cold hard stare of his earthenier team mate. “It may not be allotted to the common pony but thats why its considered grace for us Falconers.” Another fell rock fell from his bags that hung at his flanks and he held it out for Kara herself. “You could probably use the ease. It's been a long day and Hexers are a topic that could easily overhelm one's thought especially now that we reside beneath the very fortress we took refuge in.”

She eyed him suspiciously and answered, “I would rather not.”

He laughed. “No problem, I'll just take this for myself then.” He slipped small stone beneath the robes in the opening of his eyes and with only the slightest hint of an opening mouth Kara could hear him bite down.

“Should you really be softening your mind right now smitheneir?”

His head had withdrawn for a moment as he expected to leave but instead turned back to her at the question. “I'm doing it for the nerves.” He lowered a bit of the cloth around his eyes and showed Kara the skin he was hiding. After she got a good look he tucked the cloth neatly back into place and said, “don't forget Kara. We each have a story to tell and to forget is nearly ignorant.” He then took his leave leaving Kara in Igneous’s company.

She bent down to Igneous whose eyes were remained closed dispite his wakefulness and suffering. “Take this,” she prodded with the stone. “You need it.”

His eyes remained shut but he answered grimacingly, “I don't Kara. I’ll do just fine without it.”

“Why Igneous?” she asked. “Why do you gotta be so stubborn? What exactly are you trying to prove to yourself be letting yourself suffer let alone to me.”

He opened his eyes and stared off into the distance and said, “That I don't need coddling, that I can stand on my own hoofs.”

“The very thing you can’t do your so injured.” When he didn’t answer she got up and said, “fine. Just keep acting like a foal Igneous. It’s done all the good in the world for you so far.” She walked off leaving Igneous as she stored the rock within the folds of her feathers for safe keeping. 

He watched as Kara sauntered off in no particular direction only to find herself and Kohligans side speaking to him in a hushed voice. However just as he thought he was alone a voice spoke from above. “You should just be glad that you got hoofs to stand on.” 

He looked up to see Floritha, the celestial, perched atop a ledge with her metal four hooves crossed and hanging off before her. “Shouldn’t you be getting the eartheniers?” he questioned as he again rested head back down to the ground with ears raised in anticipation for her response.

She answered, “They're coming but right now.” A slight flutter of air and silently she landed before him. “I wanna talk about you.” She sat before him with metal hooves nearly blocking his entire view. “Your growing ignorant Igneous and your team needs a leader.” She batted her bladed wings and a single stone fell before Igneous’s snout, the same one Kara had just offered him moments ago. “If you're not going to do this for yourself then do it for them.”

She then nodded her head down the cavern and Igneous looked to see Joel, Mace and another earthenier coming down the pathway. Mace looked offset, a bit uneased by some means. Joel looked oven worse than the night they killed the spy while the other earthenier wore all the standard gear but wore a fleeting gaze that seemed more intense the the cold of the winter snow.

When Mace saw the state Igneous was in he ran up to him and asked, “What happened Igneous when you fell through the floor. You look worse than ever.”

Floritha interrupted saying, “Right now we have bigger concerns. You two,” she said not knowing either Mace’s or Joel’s names. “And Oxinum,” she said refurring to the third earthpony with the glare. “-are to scout the outside of the cave for any signs of Hilliph. If you don't find him then you have orders to come back.”

“What about Igneous?” Joel asked.

The pony named Oxinum then commented, “a smith such as him will do just fine,” he walked passed and as he did he eyed Igneous through the corners of his eyes not making an effort to move his head. It reminded Igneous of snake eyes. “Now come,” he said as continued on walking. “We may just be able to find Hilliph in time.”

Mace and Joel gave Igneous one last look and then followed Oxinum. Florthia then turned back to injured stallion and reprised, “your team needs you Igneous. You're supposed to be the pillar they fall upon for support. How can they if your cracked and broken?” she turned to follow them but as she did she tossed the rock down at Igneous side. 

Igneous stared down at the peculiar stone eyeing it with grave consideration. He took the next few moments to think. He thought about how he had lost his shield his weapons, his armor that now became shattered and useless. What use was he anymore especially if he was just going to sit there in pain sulking around like a foal. He took one last look at the rock, there was much to consider, and with one dip of his head he ate it.

“Kohligan?” Kara began nervously as she walked up to him. “C-can I ask you something?”

“Yes peganier?” he answered still staring into the water carefully watching the ripples brought on by superficially submerged rocks as it flowed ran downstream away from the waterfall not to far away. 

Judging by his posterior and the way he seated himself and looked on Kara thought he must have been pondering over something rather important and in turn felt terrible for having interrupted him. 

“My sister,” she began. “Is she alright?”

His body seemed to tense oh so subtly for what seemed like a fraction of a second. Kara then saw Kohligan begin to answer by opening his mouth but stuttered before closing it again in shame or sadness. Without looking he gave her the answer. “Your sister will live. By now she should be healed and as good as normal.”

The way he said it made Kara feet that he wasn’t telling her something. So she asked, “Will she fly?” Kohligan didn't answer but instead tilted his head away from her. “Kohligan?”

He let out a sigh and said, “there's a chance.”

“What do you mean?” she asked getting even more worried then before.

“I did my best Kara, but she-” he cut himself off. “I don't know. I’m sorry Kara but I really don’t know. I'm sorry.” 

But Kara wasn’t near. She had flown away out of sight of Kohligan, Igneous and anyone else she may have been near or could see. She perched herself upon an overhang much like the one Floritha had occupied but this one much higher up and near the waterfall to mask the sounds of her grieving, and if she couldn’t help it, crying.

Kara haddn’t been a mare known to cry. She was regarded with respect by those who respected falconers. She was considered to be brilliant, brave and a hero but in that moment Kohligan had given her that almost daming answer she couldn’t remember any of those feelings. No longer did she feel brilliant or brave or what some called a hero. All she cared about was the distance, the separation and helplessness she was in when in contrast to her sister she had always looked up to, had flown with sailing through the clouds and skies and had loved dearly.

She remembered the rock that she had tucked away and without much mental resistance she took it out and held it in her hoof. She stared at at it for a few minutes but after a long silence she put it into her mouth and bit down. She then laid back down on the stone ledge looking down over the others and the waterfall below. 

Kohligan still sat where he spoke to her and Igneous was all alone left to suffer. The search party came back not long after Kara had taken the peculiar stone and by the looks they wore on their faces and the way they carried themsleves it was clear that they did not find Hilliph. Mace walked off in his own direction leaving Joel while Kohligan’s own team gathered near a fire they started with alchemy or fire paper they applied to stone. 

From above the fire seemed warm unlike the stones she laid upon. The company seemed inviting unlike the solitude she kept to aloft the 	cave and with nothing left to fret and her tears already having passed she had nothing left to do but lay there and sulk about as hard as Igneous when she left him down there in the dirt.

Joel watched as Mace walked off. 

He couldn’t help it but while they were out Mace more agitated than usual like something pressing was just bothering him but Joel knew not what it was. However before he could think too much about it, to his left side were the fire reside a voice called saying, “Need some company poor hunter?”

Joel looked over to see that Dettetcheny, Floritha and Oxinum were all sitting around a fire they somehow started with nothing but a stone. Oxinum had his head down appearing to sleep while Floritha and Dettetcheny sat there enticing themselves with the warmth of the flame. Dettetcheny appeared to be smiling but underneath his robe Joel simply couldn’t tell. Only his eyes were present. 

“I wouldn’t mind the company” he said as he walked over to the fire and took his own place.

Dettetcheny said, “Your team isn’t looking its finest. I would also boldly say your not doing too well yourself either uh… earthenier.”

“Mace,” he answered. “What tipped you off?” he added sarcastically.

“Your introvertness…” Oxinum said his eyes now wide open but his head still laying down.

They why he just looked at him made Joel feel uneasy so he asked, “Why do you do that? That thing where you look at others but not really.”

“If Oxinum looks at you it's mostly likely because he is about to kill you,” Dettetcheny answered for him.

Oxinum spoke but while he did his head moved very little, “It's a habit. I've been a Falconer for quite some time and I appear to have picked up a… a side effect. The crossbows are line of sight. I look you straight on, it's my sights I’m aiming.” He elbowed the crossbows at his side folded and collapsed safely not in use.

“It's-a kinda unnerving,” Joel muttered.

“That's only bad for the enemy,” Oxinum added as he closed his eyes again.

“Speaking of ‘unnerving’ what's gotten under your skin hunter.”

Joel took a deep breath and answered, “Oh, I don't know.” He rubbed his neck with his hoof and added, “Maybe the days and nights just feel much shorter, or the miles I walked seem to grow much longer or just the killing. Most likely the killing.”

Dettetcheny said, “I understand. How many have you put down?”

“I-I haven’t killed any pony yet, I’ve only wounded. About the only thing I killed was a monster.” He shaked his head, “It seems more and more like we have only ourselves to worry about and kill and the monsters are just here, hanging out, having fun or something.”

Floritha then said, “honestly the monsters are about the biggest immediate threat we face.”

“Right,” Dettetcheny agreed. “Killing a monster is procedure but one mistake can end up getting teams killed and villages wiped out.” He laughed a bit, “makes it all the more sad.”

“What do you mean?” Joel asked.

He looked up and said, “You know what I mean Joel. Noriphmy has enough suits of armor lying around in Noriphmy to properly protect itself. We could even have an army if needed.”

“Just nopony wants to be one,” Floritha finished.

Joel hadn't known this. Falconers had sounded scarce but he didn't know they had the ability to have an army. “Why not?”

“Us Falconers got a bad reputation,” Dettetcheny answered. “They think we're just piss poor excuse for a warrior. You know, fighting wars and defending the nation. I mean they respect us for the work we do killing monsters but fighting wars and killing bandits is a warrior's job.”

“Our job is to hunt monsters but we end up killing more of ourselves defending villages from bandits then monsters normally do on a good week,” Floritha said. “And besides look at us. Were out right now hunting for maguffins and killing some cultish group.”

From a far Mace added, “They’re not a cult.”

Every pony including Kohligan looked over to Mace ears raised and ready for what he had to say. However Kohligan rose from where he sat and intimidatingly interjected, “excuse me Mace. What exactly did I hear you say?” his horn glowed and slowly his sword began to unsheathe. “Or could it have just been the wind?”

He stood his ground and said again, “They’re not a cult. They’re from Istudious.”

Even Oxinum raised his head and looked directly at Mace after hearing what he just said. “What do you mean, ‘there from Istudious?’” Oxinum questioned. “Istudious was destroyed after the great rising.”

“It's what Jeckaluke said with his dying breath,” Joel affirmed.

“I gave you one order,” Kohligan growled as he marched towards Mace with sword pointed. “One Order Mace! Your insubordination will not go unpunished!” 

Although Mace did not deploy himself he confidently stood his ground raising his head up to Kohligan and standing tall.

Every pony, including Kara, watched as the standoff between these two intensified with each step Kohligan took closer to Mace, but just as it seemed Kohligan might actually flay the earth pony Igneous jumped from where he stood, taking Kohligan’s sword by the hilt in his mouth and came to a skidding stop in the dirt. He threw down the long sword, turned to face Kohligan and spoke with a stern bold voice. “Mace is apart of team Vendetta. My team. You may be a King but out here you fall beneath me. Your jurisdiction does not run this far falconer! If there is a punishment to be given then I alone will execute it.” For a moment Igneous and Kohligan stood there quietly and nopony else moved as the tension between the two only continued to rise. 

Then Kohligan took one step towards Igneous. Every falconer held his breath but as he passed Kohligan simply brushed shoulders with his son, purposely slightly knocking him aside out of the way causing Igneous to silently grimaced a little from the pain. Kohligan collected his sword from the dirt and placed it within its scabbard. Without a word he walked down the stream line of the river and as all ponies looked on he found the exit and took his leave.

A few minutes later they heard a rumbling sound and at once they knew that the Hexer fortress had collapsed in on itself. Dettetcheny looked up and sadly muttered to himself, “But I never got to see the armory.” From the bag he wore at his side he spilled out four red colored crystals and added, “I even brought all of these.”

Mace walked up to join them by the fire that still burned. Igneous who walked with a slight limp also joined but no longer wore his shattered armor that rested where he had previously laid. 

Igneous then in response to Dettetcheny, “It's a pity. I was looking to get a new shield.”

Dettetcheny stored the crystals safely away back in his bag. “And how were you going to do that with none of these?”

“I wasn’t planning on losing everything. Armor, swords, shields...” he lowered his head. “Hilliph.” It was only a whisper silent as it was but all could hear and those who didn’t could easily infer.

“Your armor didn’t seem to do its job all that good Igneous,” Joel commented.

“It did its job,” He replied. ”but hycrome tipped weapons do theirs better. But right now we need to talk. All of us.” He looked to each member sitting around the fire with high regard.

“Where's Kara?” Mace asked.

“I wouldn’t bother her.”

“It would be best to leave her alone,” Floritha affirmed. 

“Right,” Dettetcheny nodded. “so what are we to talk about?”

Igneous look to every pony gathered round the fire and before answering, “The new mission.”
> Chapter 13 Qudake's Parable
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The moon dominated the sky and boasted its bright luminescence across the dessert’s surface. The mountains glowed from their snow peaked tops and the trees that emerged from the very sand swayed in the soft breeze of the night air.

Nothing stirred much or dare to disturb the tranquil silence save it for one pony that crawled out from the crags of a crevasse deep within the sand and stone walls. Guiding himself down the lesser stream that broke off from the underground river he followed it until he found his way out, a ramp that lead up and off to the main ground of the desert.

However before he took his leave he looked up to the sky and marveled at all the stars and celestial bodies populated deep blue sky scape making it glow with wonder. 

“Aminus,” Hilliph spoke as he knelt down at the ways side of the small stream of water. “I know that you see all and I know you see me.” An empty flask withdrew itself from his side bag and with it he uncorked it and held it before him. “I know my doubt has filled me time and time again. Distractions, loss and wondering. Forgetfulness and ignorance too.” With his one remaining longsword he raised to the hide of his outstretched hoof. A scar lined by the blade that rested atop it was again reopened. “But after this discovery and the light magic of the being that be my faith has been renewed.” He let his blood fall into the opening of the flask but before long the wound was closed by his own light magic as he dipped the partially blood filled flask into the water.

He stood over the small flowing river and looked down its path to see where it ended by again leading into the earth and the underground aquifer that laid beneath the Condoon Forest’s desert.

“This blood and this blood,” He held the flask high into the moonlight, “will carry me to you.” Slowly the liquid within began to mix until it was a clear crimson red. He then bagged it and looked to the star sky once again. “You see me now and soon I will see you once again.” He sheathed his long sword and tapped the blood bound water against his forehead before putting it in his bag. Hilliph then spoke again but more as a whisper then an audible voice, “and just as I have kept my promise the same is of you. I’ll restore your light magic and my nation be done too.”

Hilliph then took his leave wandering up the stoney ramp of the ravine he found himself in intent on keeping the promise with his life.


***


“Igneous?” Mace questioned as he rested by the fire. “Igneous?” he repeated a little louder this time. He snapped out of his little trance shaking his head. “We lost you for a minute there,” Mace said.

He rubbed his hoof against his forehead and muttered, “I'm fine.” He turned his attention to every pony sitting around the fire and said, “You all understand the mission now and what we're doing?” Mace and Joel both shook their heads in affirmation but Dettetcheny and his team gave no such sign. “Excuse me,” Igneous prompted them.

Dettetcheny and Floritha both looked at each other while Oxinum only continued to appeared to be asleep. Dettetcheny answered, “our orders were to follow Kohligans orders. As much as we would want to follow through on this it's ultimately up to him.”

“What if he does not approve?” Mace asked, “what will you do then?”

“Until he’s done with us and leadership is handed back to me there is nothing I can't do.”

Igneous remained silent as he thought for a moment. Mace then asked Igneous, “Do we have any reason to believe that he wouldn’t come?”

He thought for a moment more before answering, “No. If anything he’ll be out for blood too. Hilliph didn't just betray us but he attacked his team too.”

“When do you think Kohligan will he come back?” Joel asked.

“I fear he might not. If anything he ran after Hilliph.”

“Hard life,” Joel muttered beneath his breath. He just thought of how some people could just be so… ugh, or something. These guys were all just maniacs. Even Kara slaughtered like five other gekies without hesitation. She even still had some blood on her face all this time later oddly enough. It almost made him completely forget about that time they were in the hallway as she practically got emotional along with a one eighty degree turn from hating him to tolerating him.

This train of thought caused him to remember the dark magic he found not too long ago. He’d remember Kara said it was bound to him and as a result would follow him anywhere but even as the others spoke to one another Joel didn’t see it anywhere near his person. Oxinum of all others noticed this even though his head lay to rest with eyes nearly shut. 

“Lose something?” he silently questioned.

At this point everyone noticed Joel’s little frantic self search of his magic although they did not know it was his dark magic specifically, “I dunno. It should've been…” Before he could finish the dark magic emerged from nowhere appearing out of thin air over the fire and before every pony seated. “Oh,” he said in relieved surprise. “Here it is.”

However after he said that and his dark magic made itself known did Joel remember that only Kara, of all ponies, knew that he possessed such a magic. Convenient enough she wasn’t present to explain to the others of how he came about it and that he even had it.

As a result everypony sprang into action surprised and taken off guard by the dark spirit that manifested itself before them. While Igneous sprang back Dettetcheny summoned both a dark shield and a standard sword. Floritha sprang back but didn’t take off while Mace and Oxinum both deployed their crossbows. However unlike Mace who reserved himself from firing Oxinum didn’t wait another moment before letting loose on both sides with two wooden bolts.

However before Joel and his hide could be mortally wounded his dark magic, by itself, took form and shifted into a shield branded with its own insignias and all, defending Joel and deflecting the bolts. “Whoa Watch It!” Joel yelled having had only had a glimpse of Oxinums flicking ears and the wafting sounds of the crossbows to indicate his attempted homicide.

He waited a moment before slowly poking his head around the darkened shield only to see that each falconer standing in their own defensive position and Oxinum with newly loaded crossbows. “Excuse me,” Joel asked rather rash. But just why exactly are you trying to Kill Me!?”

Igneous was the first to speak and he began by asking questions all round. “What is this?-Where did you get it?-How long have you had it?-What are you doing with it?”

“Stolen Dark magic,-down in the cellars with Kara,-maybe thirty minutes and really I'm not doing anything, its kinda doing it by itself.” His head then reappeared around the darkened shield and he asked, “need me to answer anything elts?”

To Joel's much needed relief Mace said, “calm down. Joel wouldn’t kill any of us if he had to.”

“Yea see Igneous,” Joel retorted. “He knows.” Joel didn’t want the shield to just stay up but he didn’t know how to control this magic. All he knew was that Dark magic was used for defence although a sword was often times used for offence. Speaking of which Dettetcheny’s summoned sword disappeared when he concluded none were entirely in danger. Mace put his front hoofs on the shield somehow hoping it would do something but instead the shield formed back into a ball and he fell forward onto the ground without the flat surface of the shield to lean against.

“He clearly has no idea what he is doing,” Floritha commented as her poise loosened. 

As Joel picked himself up the dark magic returned to him by knocking into his head. Annoyed he swatted it out of the air with his hoof only for it to boomerrange right back to him and hit Joel in the face.

“Just look at him,” Floritha said.

Joel rubbed his face where the orb struck him and said, “Kara said that she could teach me how to, ‘control’ this thing. Except she doesn’t look like she wants to be doing much right now.” He gestured to the cliff he spied her to be at.

Igneous said, “how do we know that you won't accidentally kill one of us with that?”

“Well so far it's only acted in defence for me,” Joel answered. “So I think you're safe.”

“Thats nice,” Mace said. “But right now we have more to worry about Igneous.”

“Right.” He then restated, “If Kohligan does not come back soon we will have to assume he went after Hilliph alone.” He turned towards Dettetcheny and his team and said, “if he doesn’t then he forfeits the command of your team and you may take control again. The plan will continue as um... uh...” he muttered as he lost his train of thought. “The new mission,” he began after shaking his head, “will continue as, um… as planned.”

Mace looked Igneous up and down and asked, “Are you alright Igneous? You seem a little off.”

He turned away before answering, “I'm fine.” He shook his head again before continuing. “Right now we just need Kara.”

Floritha was the first to asked, “Should I go talk to her?”

“No,” Mace answered first, “It would be best if I go talk to her. She trusts me more.”

“Anything you think is best,” Igneous said as he walked towards the river's edge. “When you all are ready to go then we will make way with haist.” Igneous looked back to see that Mace had gone off on his word to speak to Kara while Dettetcheny and his team along with Joel rested back by the fire mentally taking stock and preparing for the journey to come

As he stood by the water's edge staring into it he thought of what he was doing. He was miles away from home, although miles wouldn’t quite put it into perspective. They were days away from home in a land far from tranquil. He’d nearly been killed, his team almost assassinated some even outright killed beneath his command. 

He’d lost control of Kohligan and Hilliph had run off for reasons Igneous simply did not know.

What was he going to do to be an effective leader? With no weapons, no armor, no shield, poor magic and just his alchemy he was probably worse off the Joel was. He shivered in fright and thought of the many times he admitted to himself multiple times that leadership was scary and that he was scared. He knew that every decision he made resulted in the outcome of his team and the well beings of others. He knew that victory in any case, situation or place rested on his ability to make the right call and judge accordingly. 

However as much an honor and responsibility that was Igneous dreaded it. If his team died, he’d have only himself to blame. If they got injured he’d take it upon himself and take full responsibility however out here in a land foreign to travel and ponies nothing was for certain. He’d be lost his team would be destroyed and it wouldn’t be anypony’s fault but his.

He swallowed hard took in the emotions but let them pass silently and without a word.

Tired and exhausted he lowered his head intent on taking a well deserved drink of fresh underground water. However as he did something flashed in his peripheral from further upstream near the waterfall. Curious as to what it was he walked through the water intent on finding out just exactly what it was. As he neared it he began to recognise the feeling of whatever it was and as he stood above it with the water up to his chest he grabbed the familiar sensation and raised it out from below the water.

In his magical grip he found two of his four swords that had fallen when the bridge fell out during his fight with Hilliph. They were still connected and although the blades looked a little chipped but that's what you get when you clash swords. 

As he held this in his magical grip admiring what he thought he had once lost he heard a voice say, “Those weapons are a thing of beauty. More specifically the hilt.” He turned to see it was Dettetcheny standing just on the river side. He may not have wanted to get in because it would get his cloak that completely covers his body soaked and wet. As Igneous began to make his way out of the water Dettetcheny added, “If I had the opportunity to forge my own weapon I would do a little something like that.”

When Igneous finally did make it out of the water he said, “The only reason I forged the hilts to connect like this was because I couldn’t, and even for the life of me, couldn’t levitate more than two objects. That inability still lingers with me till this day.”

Dettetcheny nodded, “So I heard, more rightly from your father that is.”

“Does he talk a lot?” Igneous asked as he walked toward the spot where he left his broken armor last. If he was going to carry these weapons he still needed the scabbard that held them.

“Not very often,” he answered as he followed closely behind. “He never really talked much unless he had to.” Standing above the pile of armor Igneous reached down and salvaged only two of the four scabbard he had left behind. He strapped them on, one on either side and with them he placed the blades inside.

“I'm assuming you carried a lot of weight. Four swords armor and a shield.” Igneous didn’t answer because he didn’t want to be reminded of his poor dark magic summoning abilities. Dettetcheny then added, “You know I could teach you a few things about summoning. After all it's my specialty.” His horn glowed and as it did a black sword, shield and helmet appeared.

That was probably to compensate for his lack of equipment but in all honesty it was better than hauling it across the landscape. Igneous said, “Hilliph tried doing the same. His lesson was the black flame.”

Dettetcheny shook his head and said, “That black flame thing is a myth. A new method it is but it's unaffected in the summoning of phantom weapons. They tried doing the same thing with me and I was the one to find out by myself how to summon phantoms.”

This was off putting for Igneous. Not only did Hilliph actually try to teach him but either way it was pointless weather by design or Hilliph too just simply didn’t know. Igneous however couldn’t decide because what threw him off was when Hilliph asked if he remembered the black flame lesson as if he actually meant to teach him. It still was unclear to him but then he asked Dettetcheny, “And just how did you learn to summon phantom weapons?”

Dettetcheny looked left then right as if some other pony would be listening. He then leaned in and whispered, “it's very risky Igneous but most don't think to practice summoning the very weapon they're using.” He then walked back towards the fire softly laughing to himself.

Igneous thought about this for a minute. He knew that when a bound weapon becomes summoned as a phantom the weapon itself does not go anywhere. When it is summoned the very weapon itself becomes very unstable as it risk breaking if disturbed. Summoning the blade within his scabbard was equally as dangerous as even the slightest bump could cause it to completely shatter which in turn causes the phantom to vanish as a result.

Of course Igneous did have four swords, two still lost but sanctioned by the rivers of the Hexers fortress. It was known that the closer you are to a weapon the easier it becomes to summon it. However as much as Igneous would have liked to teach himself he had more pressing matters to concern himself with. All he had to do was simply practice but in this time, environment and place, practice was the last thing on his mind and it was the last thing anypony needed.


***


Kara laid by herself almost sleeping when she heard something ricochet off a rock near her. Slowly she turned her head to see that there was an arrow lodge under a rock with a wire attached to it. Not too long after Mace pulled himself up onto the same ledge she was on and said, “I see your hard to get Kara.”

“Why are you here,” she dryly mumbled as Mace took his place next to her and sat down to gaze at the view. From where he was sitting you could see the water mill and were Hilliph had morphed the metal into spikes. The waterfall and the river that ran far below it and the fire were the other falconers rested awaiting the command to leave. 

“This is a nice spot,” he commented as he took in the air of fresh, running water and other assorted cave smells. “I can see why you picked it.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said reminding him.

Mace let out a sigh and said, “I know what happened to your sister. Oxinum informed me before we made our descent.” Kara didn't respawn, instead she simply shifted herself away from him and laid her head back down staring off into the distance. “Kara we need you down there.” Again she didn’t answer so Mace thought for a moment before saying, “Let me tell you a story.” He let himself lay down with his hooves hanging over the edge. “My father used to always tell me stories when I found myself a bit down.”

“You’ve always said,” she disinterestedly mumbled.

He sat down near her again and began to talk saying, “Many years ago, in fact around the time my dad had just become a Falconer, there was this traveler named Qudake. Now during a particularly cold day he came to a village during a rather ferocious snowstorm. But this wasn’t just an average snowstorm you or I had seen, no. This was a white out snowstorm.” Mace chuckled to himself for a moment. “It was so bad some thought Drarea, the god harvest and rain, was furious.” He shook his head in delight and continued, “The conditions were so bad you could hardly see beyond your own snout. This stranger intended to stay the night and wait out the storm till it calmed down, but just before he went to rest there was a family that said they had lost their little filly out there in the blizzard.

“Now this blizzard was one of the worst they had during this time and the temperatures were well below freezing but Qudake despite the conditions, despite the odds of even finding her, still threw on his cloak and began searching.” Mace looked over to Kara and just seeing her ears perk up confirmed she was at least interested in what he had to say. Mace continued, “After a few hours in the freezing cold searching did Qudake miraculously find her. The storm was so intense even the branches that gave the filly shelter didn’t stop her from briefly becoming buried by its constant torrent.

Unfortunately the snow storm had picked up and was even worse than before. She was cold, she was freezing and if she stayed like that much longer she would die. With not many choices Qudake gave her his own cloak to keep her warm. However the next day the storm had subsided and as the rest of the village began to search, eventually the found were Qudake and the little filly had taken shelter beneath the tree.”

“Was she alright,” Kara finally asked.

“She was fine,” Mace affirmed. “However the same couldn't be said for Qudake.”

“What happened to him?”

“He froze to death,” Mace answered plainly. “He let himself die just to save that young filly. Now Kara,” he said looking at her. “Do you think he was a good stallion?”

“He had to be,” she answered. "He laid down his life for her, a stranger."

Mace smiled, shook his head and said, “That's what I thought too. Most would say Qudake was a hero but the truth is Qudake killed two teams of Falconers and was on the run. When my father caught up to the village he died in he got the whole story.” Mace looked off into the distance within the cave. “You wanna know what my father said about Qudake?” Kara didn’t answer but he continued anyway. “He said, ‘Qudake was a killer. He slayed one of my teams and ran from judgment. By all rights I should have torn that catalyst from his head and mounted it on a stick, however that night during the blizzard. He decided that he wasn't going to let that young filly die and it was by the choice alone that she was able to live.’”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because if a stallion like Qudake, a murderer a killer, can lay down his life and save a filly at the cost of his own then imagine what we could do.” Kara remained silent then Mace continued, “today I'm going to make a few decisions. Number one,“ he said holding his hoof out. “I'm going to finish this mission and get back to Noriphmy and see my father after one long year. And number two,“ he said looking at Kara. “I’m going to get you back to Noriphmy so that you may see your beloved sister after one long year.” He turned away and smiled. “Trust me Kara. You know I don’t break my promises.”

And in her mind, she knew he told the truth.

> Chapter 14 Embers and Dark Flames
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joel wasn't a stranger to walking long distances. Mostly because he spent the last week of his life walking, hiking, -a little more walking- climbing down a mountain that one time, -even more walking- running from triggertrap water floods, falling into a pit, fighting Gekies and a ton of walking. 

He could agree there was a lot of walking when it came to adventure and Joel began to find that he would much rather be walking than running. However as much as he would have preferred to find himself in a suitable environment where he could walk all day at his leisure there were bigger matters then his own discomfort and scorching heat of the condoon forested desert.

‘Anything for the leader with daddy issues,’ he told himself. ‘So long as as I don’t get on his bad side.’ 

He didn’t particularly hate Igneous but Joel just felt he got rubbed the wrong way by him... multiple times. Igneous had at one point or another showed his displeasure for the ridiculous stallion but if anything Joel knew Igneous simply tolerated him. The same could also be said for Kara although her displeasure was manifested in physical threats and mental degradation of his confidence and will to continue at least they had made amends after he accidently bound the stolen dark magic of Noriphmy. 

True stealing someone else's found-stolen magic might not ideally provoke amending niche-friendless relationships it at least brought out the truth that she respected him for making this decision to become a falconer and that in the very least, she wouldn’t kill him for it.

However as much as Joel wanted to reminisce over that little moment of genuine sincerity his mind couldn’t help but be brought down from daydream-esque thoughts to physical reality that manifested itself within the very fibers of his muscles.

He hated running. The heat didn’t help, the weak wind that worked against them or the weight of his earthenearing equipment either. Without he could have gone on for miles, even out of the desert itself if he so pleased, but as it stood it was a necessity of circumstance so he was metaphorically bound to its protection and utility much to his panting, aching and physically stressed displeasure.

Joel could have at least been taking in the scenery of the odd landscape with full grown trees springing up out of the sand half buried with no water for miles but he was running.
He could have been practicing with his stolen dark magic figuring out how to gain basic control over its movements but he was running.

However as he was running a slight breeze ruffled him about and when he looked he found Kara gliding right next to him, matching her flying pace with his running. “Learning to control your magic?” she asked in a rather neutral tone of voice as if her worries needed to be suppressed by idle talk.


He answered with a strained voice, “I can’t focus right now Kara. Running is k-kinda taking it out of me.”

Her wings folded in favor and use of her legs and in one motion she was running along side Joel without a problem. “Learning to concentrate in a state where you can’t focus is a skill indeed.” She hardly lost any breath when spoken.

“Trust me Kara,” he coughed. “I would love to be unlocking the power and secrets of Stolen Dark magic and all but right now I'm trying not to die of a heat stroke.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “The Condoon Dessert ends in just about ten miles.”

“Oh yea that's great. Just let me finish my ten kilometer warm up first,” he remarked. 

With nothing left to be said as Joel clearly didn’t seem fit for conversation Kara’s wings spread open and with two thrust she was in the air and away from those that were earth bound as Joel lingered behind the pack.

Igneous however was having no trouble keeping his lead in front of the herd as he kept a healthy distance far ahead of the others. One could argue it was an unseen force that pushed him forward driving him to make haste unlike the others behind. One would also say it was determination, courage, will or worry that drove him forward too and although most were true his performance was mostly impart to the feeling of weightlessness he carried in absence of his armor and two lost swords.

He kept his vision low and to the horizon spying what disappeared behind the dunes hilltops that laid ahead. He saw himself as a wolf aimed for the prize that fed his survival and pack but unlike a wolf with a clear purpose and routine Igneous knew not his or what all this amounted to. Only that power in the wrong possession mixed with betrayal and deceit leads only to some unfavorable party’s demise.

However in his stupor of thought and emotions a shadow briefly overtook him and when he glanced northward he found Floritha matching his pace with a steady glide over the sand of the desert. He acknowledged her presents prompting her to speak.

“Dettetcheny would like to speak to you Igneous,” she said.

“Would you like me to fall behind?”

Returning an unpleasant look to an inherently stupid question she answered, “I’d be easer for all concerned if you did.”

“What is it he would like to talk about?”

Floritha responded, “I'm not a messenger Igneous. Ask him.” Ascending into the air she returned to scouting the skies for any signs of monsters, beasts or avians, but if fortunate enough; Kohligan or even Hilliph.

To Dettetchenys delight Igneous did slow his pace almost to a trot until he cought up. Then he matched Dettetcheny’s and continued on. “You wanted to speak to me?” he asked with his gaze still aimed for the horizon.

“So how does it feel not having to bear the weight of all that armor Igneous?” he happily asked, his full bodied cloak waving in the breeze.

“Please don’t waist my time Hunter.”

Dettetcheny shook his head in agreement and said, “I was requesting you send the celestials to scout ahead and look for Kohligan.”

“It's too dangerous.”

“Kohligan has a mighty lead on us and from what I know you don't want to lose him. If Kara and Floritha find him they can trail behind him and one another.”

Igneous took his time to think it over but no matter how much he would have liked to concur there was almost no risk in it if they don’t make direct contact with Kohligan. This was especially true if Hilliph was also near. A celestial, even an armored one, has no place in a battle between two smiths. Not unless they savor the thought of finding themselves dead.

However Igneous came to his decision and he answered, “If we get delayed, then I’ll give the order.”

Before Dettetcheny could concur with how illogical his decision was, not too far ahead did a mound of sand uplift before exploding outward bringing the party to a halt altogether. What stood amidst the setting sand was nothing more than a scorpion if at all it could be called that by when its size goes foregone.

This one in particular was monstrously huge in comparison to any natural scorpion but about four times the size of the falconers themselves. Its claws and tail were sized well and intimidating to those wary many how looked to these frightful beasts with dread, but not Igneous and especially not Dettetcheny who only saw these deadly tools as salvage for a new weapon.

“I guess this will do?” Dettetcheny said is he began admiring the utility it possessed.

“Hardly,” he muttered.

Joel caught up and coming to a halt behind the pare with Mace. “Finally a monster!” he happily announced through gasps of execution. Deploying his crossbows he chided with a demeanor that would rival the agitation of the scorpion beast, “I’ve been waiting for this all week.”

A good monster fight would probably clear his head from all the recent killings and family mater drama. All that cotic running, traps, fighting, shouts, death and bloody masses echoed all about in his mind threatening to consume the very fiber of his being condemning his mind to imprisonment in that bloody, bloody moment for years to come, but if anything this surely would clear his head up and put a smile on his face for sure

Summoning up his stolen dark magic by putting it in his forethoughts Joel hyped himself up in anticipation. Pointing his hoof he shouted to the magic saying, “Attack!!!” But where he expected it to suddenly spring into action and somehow mystically and methodically dice the beast it didn’t. Instead it sat there reminiscent to a pup staring confused at his master and the order given if at all a black floating orb could be pictured as such.

“I'm afraid that's not how it works Joel,” Kara said only after Joel swatted it out of frustration only to again have it inadvertently retaliate by hitting him in the face during its natured return.

“Well it would be nice if you could give me a little bit more insight,” he said as he rubbed his forehead. “I guess I’ll just be doing this the old fashion way then.”

Putting the dark magic's presents out of his mind it vanished when he did. However just as he poised himself for battle with his crossbows at the ready Igneous stepped forward to him and said, “then it's a true shame Dettetcheny’s team will be taking care of this beast then Joel.”

“What?” Joel asked in a mixture of confusion and unpleasant surprise. 

The scorpion meanwhile was just standing there, even as they talked, waiting for the first move. With a swift motion of its claws it would snap a tree down as if daring them to make the first move. It was outnumbered so its massive primitive mind focused down to the strategy of patients. A strategy that allowed it to survive all these years in the desert. Who knew how long it rested in the sand for with its dome like head spying all around. It could have been weeks, months, years even but the falconers carried not.

“Igneous,” Joel began. “I don't think you understand how much I need this right now.” He pointed with his hoof and added, “there is a giant scorpion right in front of me and your saying I can’t kill it?”

“Exactly.”

“Bu-but… giant scorpion monster.”

As Joel pouted to Igneous Dettetcheny strode past the two with a summoned war hammer perched and rested against his shoulder. He also held a shield in his magical grip as it materialized as well. “Looks like we will be having the fun this time.” Looking the monster up and down with delight he added, “I can’t wait to harvest its armor.” He leaned his head back to get Oxinums opinion. “I’m thinking of a nice plated shield to add to my weapons collection. That tail will do nicely too so let’s focus on the midsection.”

Oxinum knocked Joel over the head with his hoof in a friendly matter as he walked by. “You can get the next on on our way back,” he assured. Then pushing his chest button the crossbows at his side sprang up ready for use. He then added with a smirk, “if there is one that is.”

“Can I borrow your Celestial?” Igneous asked as Dettetcheny easily advanced on the scorpion.

Standing directly before the scorpion within reach of both claws and tail he casually answered, “oh yea sure.” Taking his eyes off the beast in favor of looking to Igneous he added with a grin, “it was my idea anyway.”

Oxinum poised himself and asked, “Would you like explosives or normal bolts?”

“Normal,” he answered. “I would rather not damage the armor.”

Igneous turned his attention to the celestials that stood behind him and said, “You have my permission to fly ahead and scout for Kohligan. Do not, and I repeat do not, make contact with him. Report his last position and trail behind one another so that we may be able to see.”

They both nodded and with two beats of their wings took off. 

Mace then briefly took the lead only to say, “lead the way Igneous.”

And so he did running a wide arc around the arachnid and the last thing Joel saw of the confrontation before set his sights ahead of himself was Dettetcheny insuing combat with a downward swing of his dark summoned hamer.


***


Meanwhile Kara and Floritha flew much further ahead keeping to their orders and making putting a great lead in between them and the earthbounds that followed far behind. It wasn’t long into their flight that both Kara and Floritha began to naturally diverge from each other creating a wide gap between on and the other. This was common and was meant to cover more ground and scout greater distances while remaining within one another's view. This was also helped by the fact that the day was absolutely clear with no clouds to be seen but then again it could work against them revealing them to those who would rather go unseen.

It had been nearly half an hour into their flight, nothing significant had happened, they’d lost clear sight of their team not too long ago and the desert gave way to forested areas like she had seen from above awhile ago. No doubt soon the others would also reach the deserts end and be running through the forest intent on catching up.

Kara did another scan of the area and on her end found nothing but more trees, green fields and the occasional buck or deer running through the forest. However when she looked to Floritha to get a perspective she didn’t find her hovering in the immediate airspace. Instead when she adjusted her gaze slightly downwards she found Floritha quickly descending through the sky. Kara may not have known why she’d disobeyed so suddenly but she knew that if anything she’d just found Kohligan and was not trying to speak some sense into him. 

Following fastly behind it wasn’t long before she found it was indeed Kohligan running through the forest with indignation written upon and all over his face as he put his hoof to dirt and proceeded forward armor swords and all. 

As she neared weaving through trees and low branches she could hear Floritha pleeding to the stallion saying, “Kohligan you don’t have to do this alone. Just stop running and we can all join you together.”

“I can’t Celestial.”

“Stop abandoning us! Don't call me Celestial,” she shouted. “You’ve been apart of your team for the past week, you led us!”

“You’re not thinking right Kohligan,” Kara exclaimed as she brought herself up on his right side as he ran through the forest with Floritha on his left. “Please Kohligan just stop!”

He only shook his head. “He tried to kill my team Kara,” he said not looking to either of the celestials. “Do you understand?”

In an instant Kohligan found himself straddled and troubling through the dirt as Kara mercilessly tackled him to the ground falling along with. When they finally came to a halt it was Kara who stood up on all fours before Kohligan could pick himself up sore and hurt from the impact she gave him.

“What Are You Doing Kara!?” Kohligan shouted as he dragged himself up onto all fours.

“Your Think Your The Only One Who Got Hurt By Hilliph’s Actions!” she shouted with anger and emotion boiling up.

“Kara Listen To Me!” He ordered.

But she didn’t. Instead her wing unfolded and with a single beat of her hooves Kohligan soon found himself pinned to the trunk of a tree with Kara’s bladed feathers brushing up against his neck. “Nimbus Was My Sister Kohligan!” She shouted with tears becoming visible to the Kohligan the ignorant.  “And Even Though You Told me She Might Never Fly Again I Still Came To My senses And Pushed One With The Others Kohligan.” Her wing pulsed threatening to cut him as she stared into him with anger, sadness and annoyance in his actions. “My Team Kohligan!”

“Kara,” Floritha urged in an attempt to calm her down.

Kara simply ignored her. “A Falconer Never Abandons The Team No Matter The Odds, Danger or Outcome!” She looked him straight in the eyes and said, “Igneous knew better than anyone. I would hold you to it as well.”

Lifting his hooves up Kohligan was able to lever himself free pushing Kara to the ground as he fell too. “Kara,” he muttered. “You don't understand. This isn’t a mission anymore. This is personal.”

Kara shook her head looking to Floritha for assurance and/or support. However the mare only shook her head about as unsure what to do or how to convince Kohligan as she was. She shook her head and again looked to Kohligan who sat there looking to the ground.

“You know,” she calmly began. “You and Igneous aren't so different after all.” At her words Kara saw Kohligan’s ears flick up in interest in what she had to say. “You're both stubborn, strong willed, endearing and loyal to your team. Even if its not Dettetcheny’s team you were still loyal to yours.” She swallowed before finishing, “And Hilliph was loyal to you Kohligan.”

She then looked up to Kohligan only to see his body tense in anger. As she watched she noticed his eyes darkening in anger and before long a fire erupted over the grass from nowhere scaring both her and Floritha causing them to jump back in fright. 

Kohligan then pounded the ash as the fire subsided and his eyes returned to normal. He then stood up disregarding the two Celestials and said, “I’m done with your company Kara. Go back and report my last position. I won’t be here for long.”

“You’re a Taffing Yewl!” Kara shouted in frustration. “You’re a Taffing ignorant Yewl Kohligan!” Kohligan didn’t respawn and looking to Floritha one last time for support she only found unsurity as Kohligan continually trotted away. “Fine!” She called to the stallion. 

Kohligan expected her to fly away but as he continued on his way he instead found Kara trotting alongside him. He stopped in his tracks. “What are you doing Kara?”

“If you won’t listen I might as well not either.”

“Kara it's too dangerous.”

However as he said that there was a familiar voice that backed him up saying, “I would listen to Kohligan Kara.” Slowly all three looked in the direction of where the voice originated from. Standing there in the middle of a small clearing was the armored traitor with on sword hanging along it side. “After all Kara,” he spoke solemnly. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you again.”

By then Floritha was the one to speek up in a whisper saying to Kara, “we need to go Kara, now.”

“No, we can’t.” she said objecting.

Setting his magical grip on the hilt of his own blades Kohligan spoke to the mare. “Kara, please. Go and tell the others.” He then leaned in and whispered, “it's not my intention to kill him. I’ll stall him. You please, just go get the others. Please Kara.” He then looked back to Hilliph and his sword shuttered within its scabbard. Both a mixture of anger and betrayal.

Kara wanted to disagree, to argue like she had been just moments ago but she knew that in a time like this and with high tensions, if worse did indeed come to worse then she wouldn’t want to be in the way when two smiths clashed.

Silently she nodded, then gesturing to Floritha to follow. Turned away and with Floritha close by the flew off in no more than two wing beats leaving Kohligan to Hilliph and Hilliph to Kohligan.

Knowing the other teams were miles and little time to stall it was already apparent that diplomacy was not an option. “I’m sorry.” A phrase he whispered allowed not to himself but to his team and his son’s team he abandoned but most of all to Hilliph himself.

This he said and his magical grip around the hilt of his blade tightened even more. 

“How long,” he muttered as Hilliph stood facing west and a side bag with a noticeable luminescence irradiating from the darkness within the folds of its pockets. “How Long!” He repeated clear and loud enough for Hilliph to hear. His jaw clenched.

From the distance he was at Kohligan could hear the answer as quiet and soft as it was. “Years,” was Hilliph’s answer. “It's been years.” He then said, “it wasn’t easy Kohligan, living in such a foreign land for all these years just clinging to a promise forged through a covenant made long ago.” He shook his head. “With each passing day and every whisper and urge that hit it became harder. I doubted myself and I began to lose track and become forget with faith alone hardly withstanding. Destiny and foresight becoming more and more of a myth with each passing day, passing week, months and years.”

Kohligan drew one long sword and said, “all I see is a traitor. After so long Hilliph you just stab us all in the back. Do You Have Any Idea What You Did To Nimbus!? To Mace’s Father!? You went back on everything we stood for, you! -stood for. All this for some alliance you made long ago.”

Suddenly Hilliph became enraged at Kohligan’s statement and as a result withdrew his sword so fast he ran the tip across the trunk of a tree nearly splitting it in two as he pointed it at Kohligan. He then shouted, “You Think It Was Easy!? Shameless!? It Was My Decision Alone However Hard It Was And I Was The One Who Followed Through! I Made My Decision Kohligan, and besides,” his voice lowered from a shout to a stern hiss. “It's not like I’m the only one with a burden of guilt either.” 

Hilliph then began to march towards Kohligan, each accusation accompanied with a slight thrust of his sword. “Don’t act like I don’t know what you and your team has been doing during your, ‘adventures’ out in the middle of Carridian. You’re the one who denied sanctuary to the ponies of Istudious. You’re the one who insisted on keeping the discovery of their survival after the days of Aminus a secret not letting any pony know of their existence but instead letting them forget all together.” He was nearing him now but Kohligan only slowly backed down with every step. “I never went with your team because I knew that your ‘diplomatic’ solution was to prevent war by boasting of your power scaring them like foals into resisting such an urge.” 

Hilliph’s sword was just short of burying itself within Kohligans armor so slowly Kohligan raised his own blade easily moving it out of the way to keep him from getting impaled as Hilliph continued to push him back forming an X with their blades.

“We don’t have the resources Hilliph,” Kohligan argued. “A population influx of that magnitude would plunge Noriphmy into anarchy!”

“Fifty years,” he hissed in anger. “You’ve had fifty years and you have made no progress.” The blades hung in the air but Hilliph pressed his body against the broadside of them as he continued to advance on him but as slowly as his advance was Hilliph immediately pulled back freeing the blade from the clash sheathing it in one swift motion.

Kohligan fell to his knees from the sudden disengagement and Hilliph back away and turned his back on him.

“You’re not fit to rule Kohligan. Your blood stole the crown from the former two generations ago. You were born into the title yourself without trial or tribulation. Igneous is the one to be admired, he abandoned the life of ease in favor of the suffering while you loafed about doing nothing. He’s more fit to rule then you’ll ever be.”

“I was scared!” He shouted. “After what happened I didn’t want to see the same fate for Igneous. I was naive even more so then he was when he was a colt. It terrified me more then anything and when I found the one I loved.” He choked on his words. “Sh-she was there, lying in the snow, dead.”

“I care not for you anymore,” he said as he turned his back once again. “My true respect goes to him for trying to find his own path. A far better leader than you and at such a young age too. Be gone!” He commanded. “Or I won't hesitate to kill you.”

Hilliph began making his way and for a minute or two his travel was undisturbed but from beyond he heard his name, called by the stallion he left behind in the dirt. “Hilliph!” He turned to face him far as he was. “With the light magic of Aminus you’d think I’d just let you leave!” His sadness turned to anger and anger manifested itself in his blades drawn and ready. His body poised and ready for combat. “I won't let you bring to pass the destruction of my nation!” 

“For so long I’ve allowed the destruction of mine!” He focused and slowly a longsword took shape before him solidifying into the weapon he lost. “Istudious will be raised again and will no longer wallow in the shadow and filth of your tyranny!” 

The form of the bladed weapon began to warp and bend and as Kohligan watched the dark summoned blade to his surprise cracked and all together shattered to the grass where it lay and disperse. From the fragments of the shattered summon a flame, this one dark and black as the deepest caves sprang up and licked the air. Hilliph took it and craddled it in his magical grip feeding it his dark magic forcing it to grow and breath.

“I know your power,” Hilliph spoke as he applied the flame to his armor. “And I know armor in this instance won't be the determining factor.” As he watched Kohligan saw the armor begin to fade as it was eaten away by the darkflame all together like rust to metal leaving Hilliph completely unharmed as vapor escaped his lips.

Kohligan nodded and Hilliph watched the straps to his armor began to unbind themselves before it as a whole fell from Kohligan’s body and was tossed aside. “Last time you should not have restrained yourself,” Kohligan spoke as he stepped forward with both blades drawn. “Restraint is a weakness.”

“Restraint is the reason you and your son are still alive,-” His armor by now had completely disintegrated leaving nothing more but the flame itself and the smith who wielded it. “-however careless it was.” 

Kohligan withdrew his second longsword. “This time I won’t hold back. I’ll destroy you, properly this time.” Kohligan’s catalyst then flickered and before long a flame erupted from its very point. “You will see no mercy from me.” He then took the fire, split it in two and drove them both into the ground causing a blaze amongst the grass.

“After so long,” he spoke as he stared into the black flame he held before him. “I... don't... Want It!” With one motion Hilliph applied the black flame to his chest letting it soak into his very being and coat his body in the fire. 

Kohligan knew this Dark Magic technique. Unlike fire that burned with heat and fed on the living, black flames burned with much less heat, often times a cold and fed off of metal. The fire also protected the wearer of the dark flame coat from fire but fire prevented the dark flame from feasting upon metal.

“Alchemy may be a precious type of magic,” Hilliph spoke. “But even it has a weakness.”

Kohligan coated his swords in the fire that burned around him letting them flick and lick up the blades. He then took fire in his magical grip balled it up and all at once casted it forward as his opening attack.

Hilliph darted out of the way just as it struck the ground where he just stood. He then charged Kohligan rushing the falconer at breakneck speeds, much faster than Kohligan anticipated. Kohligan lept behind the cover of flames he set up before him but Hilliph bursted through without trouble and opened up with a downward strike.

Without the armor to weigh him down Kohligan had the speed to match as he lept out of the way letting Hilliph sail past too fast to slow down just in time as he slid across the grass on all four hooves. Kohligan capitalised on his lack of directional control, summoned a spear and threw it to where he projected Hilliph to be next.

His aim was true but Hilliph knocked it aside with his blade letting it vanish all together. With his stance regained he charged only to meet Kohligan’s torrent of fire he showered in his general direction. With the fire wall serving as the source to Kohligan’s power he traced Hilliph as he avoided it the fire shower running about in a wide arc until he found his opening.

Hilliph appeared to vanish in a moment when foliage clouded Kohligan’s vision but when Kohligan looked something flashed in his peripheral and in an instant a shield appeared only to block the dark fire burning blades from striking Kohligan in the face as Hilliph rushed by.

Kohligan then leapt back as Hilliph let loose with a series of slashes, one after another, with his sword driving Kohligan to retreat. He lept back darting from side to side very rapidly as Hilliph matched his paced with precision. With every leap and bound their blades would clash spewing both dark flames and fire to the earth, the flames of which continued to burn as it caught grass and bushes on fire and continued to spread. Although Kohligan may have had two long swords Hilliph only had to keep track of one allowing him to attack at a much faster pace with more power as he projected and accurately predicted every one of Kohligan’s attack and countered each and every advancement as a result..

Their blades clashed constantly as Kohligan bounded backwards left and right with Hilliph tracing him close behind. Kohligan ducked under a branch and rotated himself around the trunk of a tree attempting to distance himself from Hilliph’s onslaught but no tree would stop him for long.

With one swipe of his blade the trunk was cut clean and Hilliph lept forward only to catch Kohligan’s blade in a brief clash. “Where’s the power of the king of Noriphmy now old hunter!?” He shouted as he leapt back from one of Kohligan’s thrusts. If he even parried one attack that would leave Hilliph wide open to a repost from Kohligan’s second blade.

Kohligan then dashed around him and let loose with a series of swipes left and right but Hilliph was to swift as he parried each and every attack, not a single edge striking his hide or the hair of his mane.

Hilliph did his best to continue advancing on the falconer but with only one blade he had to carefully choose when to defend and when to attack. His dark flame was what allowed him to dash through the firewall and resist the torrent of fire but its limits were only as high as Hilliph’s ability to sustain such a flame.

Kohligan stepped back swiped left and right with one then the other blade. Hilliph dodged the first and reposted the second with a jab which struck Kohligan across his shoulder. It was a graze and an injury that could easily go ignored.

Kohligan then disengaged as his blade began to spin rapidly and very fast. Knowing what was to come Hilliph dodged out of the way just as Kohligan brought the pinning blade to a hard stop against his second sword causing fire to shoot out the tip showing the land in fire where it pointed.

The hurricane of fire obscured Kohligan’s immediate vision but when the fire let up and his sustained attack weakened and the flames settled Kohligan looked and he was amazed. Standing before him in ash smoldering trees was Hilliph signed but not burnt. His blade glowed from the heat but the dark flame that protected him had extinguished leaving Hilliph with nothing but his hide for protection.

Hilliph took a moment to breath in the air, ash and smoke of the fire. He coughed and his body grew tired. “Is this it Kohligan?” he spoke allowed. “You're just going to kill me like a savage beast?” Kohligan didn’t speak only set his blades for the next engagement. Hilliph’s side back he preserved throughout the fight and and fire tore open and in the ashes fell the light magic of Aminus.

Hilliph looked to the light magic then collected it in his magical grip. He then observed the landscape and the forest fire that had begun and when he looked to Kohligan he found him standing there with eyes darkened and a gem hanging by chain that he now held in his magical grip. Hilliph knew it to be the ember stone, a magical rock said to control fire and bend it to the users will more so then he could without. Hilliph then knew it was either, ‘I or him,’ and he really didn’t have the fondest feelings for him.

“I will incinerate you!” Kohligan spoke eyes continuing to darken. The gem beginning to glow in excitement as fire all around began to extinguish and become absorbed by it storing the power for use.

“Aminus!” Hilliph spoke aloud as he held the light magic before him. There was no warning in Kohligan’s eyes only demise. “I partook of your covenant, grant me this power!”

“No!” Kohligan shouted before the gem let loose with a beam of fire that struck outward and collided with Hilliph.

There was a shrill cry, one that Kohligan could hear even over the roar of the gem and the fire it produced and shot towards him. Kohligan thought for sure Hilliph had died, this had to have been his end. The aim was true its projection sudden and its heat deadly but when Kohligan’s vision softened from the light he saw Hilliph stand with eyes burning with the white flame of the orb that was nowhere to be seen.

Watching in terror Hilliph held out his hoof and the power of white magic resonating from within the beam became deflected into the air creating a blinding beacon of light before the power within the gem dispersed and became spent. Only then did the beam cease from firing and one Kohligan looked, his breath had been held, he saw Hilliph glowing through his eyes and standing there with a boldness and in an instant Kohligan knew, with the magic Hilliph now reached the power of a Hexer.

Kohligan stood there, he backed one step away. His head lowered as he raised his blade and Hilliph spoke to him saying, “Let me show you true power.”

Before Kohligan could react charge or retreat he was hit twice from two different directions. Both of which sent him flying across the air. He hit the floor coughing up blood and struggling to move but before he could pick himself up he again was lifted into the air tossed against a tree then knocked skywards again.

When he reached the apex of his ascension Hilliph appeared before him with wings of pure white made from the light magic of Aminus. “Speak To Me!” Hilliph roared as he hooked him around the neck with his forelegs with eyes burning with the white flame of magic. “What Do You Have To Say For Yourself!?

Kohligan could hardly move but as they hovered there he raised his hoof setting it across Hilliph’s and sputtered, “G-good hunting.”

Hilliph then let rage drive him mad. He drove Kohligan down flying faster than any mortal celestial could plunging him through trees, stones and boulders before finally pulling him around and slamming him into the dirt where he lay in a crater of dirt and ash.

Hilliph gracefully landed on the rim of the crater. Just as he did he coughed up blood and when he saw this Hilliph cryed, “this magic,” He coughed again and this time more blood. “Remove this magic Aminus. Its poisons to me.” 

At his request the magic retreated from him. His eyes that were afire with white flames returned to normal and his white wings disappeared. He resheathed his sword and held the magic close by. He found himself out of breath as the fight having taken up a large amount of his strength. 

He looked over to the bodie of Kohligan and thought of his last two words. “Good hunting,” he repeated. “I didn’t know we were the monsters Kohligan. Hard fought the battle was, I’ll be seeing you elsewhere.” He then looked west, the direction he was traveling in and he whispered, “I’ll be returning to you shortly, Aminus.”