Chapter 31

Falling down the hole Soaryn could only look into the darkness trying to find the bottom when suddenly he impacted water. Shocked at suddenly being plunged into water he gasped and all the air in his lungs escaped him. Thrashing around trying to break through the water he suddenly felt something grab and rip him out of the water. Looking up he froze hearing a familiar voice, " Told you it wouldn't be that easy to get rid of me"

"So you still can't swim very well? Huh Soaryn" said the smiling face of Aerd.

"Shut up, I just float like a rock that's all" Soaryn Replied turning away from Aerd.

"How are you even here anyways" Soaryn asked realizing he was alone when he jumped down the hole.

"Well when the group couldn't find you I asked Zaenia to teleport me as close to you as possible. Figuring you were in trouble I brought you your swords but I wasn't expecting to be thrown head first into water."

Suddenly they heard thrashing in the water. Hurriedly grabbing their weapons and they turned to face the water just in time see a soaking wet woman with jet black hair drag herself onto the little island they found. As she looked up they gazed into her ruby red eyes.

"Who are you, answer or we will kill you" Aerd threatened

"You know well who I am human," The woman Almost snarled before she turned to Soaryn with a look of familiarity and acceptance.

"Sorry miss who are you?" Soaryn asked politely despite the sword he was still raising at her.

"Awe Soaryn Don't you remember that night we shared two months back" The woman pouted cutely.

"What is she talking about Soaryn… you holding out on me?" Aerd questioned with a raised Eyebrow.

"Oh go kiss your girlfriend" Soaryn Grumbled.

"Well why don't you go kiss yours, she obviously came all this way to see you" Aerd replied with his Cheshire grin.

"Ahem" The woman cleared her throat as both boys turned to her "as much as I find this amusing I also find it quite irritating you don't remember me".

"Yeah Soaryn, why did you forget your girlfriend?" chided Aerd.

"I swear I don't know her" Soaryn Whined getting frustrated trying to remember the woman in front of him. Suddenly something clicked.

"Satyros?" Soaryn Asked in shock

"Isn't Satyros a male as well as a panther", Aerd asked.

"Usually I am but panthers don't swim well with all the fur weighing us down and the fact that felines don't like water doesn't help either", Satyros riposted.

"So this is one of the two special transformations you have? Why are you a woman when you are in human form and not a guy", Soaryn inquired confused as Aerd just nodded in agreement

"You try shapeshifting into a human male after living with a human female for the last eight years", Satyros responded sarcastically.

"Hey guys did the walls just get closer", Aerd asked noticing the walls move and distort the water.

"Why would walls move on their own it's just your claustrophobia talking", Soaryn retorted.

"Just be quiet and watch the walls" Aerd grumbled, slightly irritated.

Soaryn was quiet and watched the walls as he was watching

Then he heard the sound of scraping. He then noticed that the walls were indeed moving on their own.

"Well it wasn't your claustrophobia talking this time Aerd" Soaryn said in a low tone after a while.

"What was that I couldn't quite hear you" Aerd responded sarcastically sporting a proud grin.

"You were right for once," Soaryn screamed at the top of his lungs.

Immediately following the screams the walls began moving faster toward the island. The island also began sinking as the walls moved closer pulling more and more water into the very limited land. Satyros spun around and Slowly a white light engulfed the darkness around them. When the light finally died down and a griffon with a black fur coat stood in his place. The griffon had a blood like crimson head with deep icy blue eyes. The wings were primarily black and the ends of the feathers were sky blue to contrast the wings.

Satyros spread his wings and began to take off. Before he took off he grabbed Aerd and Soaryn in his great talons. Satyros flew through a gap in the wall close to the stalactites on the ceiling of the cavern. Satyros landed on the true shore of the cavern and returned to his human form.

"Look at what was going to kill us", Satyros said to Soaryn telepathically gesturing toward the massive monster in the water.

Aerd and Soaryn stared at it through the water mouths agape in awe of the enormity of the beast. It had a body that generated light on the exterior of its body. It generated a bright red light that outlined its gigantic silhouette. It had an enormous mouth that allowed it to filter water through its teeth. By doing so it allowed it to trap food inside it's gigantic mouth.

Then they turned and looked at Satyros. They were surprised by what they saw. His human form had jet-black hair that went just below her shoulders. Satyros's human form had ruby red eyes that seemed to glow on their own. His human form had a pallid complexion with milky white skin. Satyros had a slimmer build and was fairly short compared to Aerd and Soaryn.

They all heard the beating of drums and the jabbering of sentient monsters. They saw a light at the end of the tunnel behind them. They hurriedly went to the sides of the tunnel's gaping entrance to avoid being detected by the swarm of monsters. As the swarm got closer they heard their high-pitched voices talking about how they broke into the bank's vault.

"All we had to do was wait for the Galagor to shut his mouth then all we had to do was tunnel up into the vault," said Voice one.

"The trick was not getting caught in the Galagor's mouth," said unknown voice two in higher pitched voice.

"That wasn't too difficult it's usually really slow unless you wake it up" Voice three said in a much deeper voice.

"Anyway we should go and make sure the mouth is open so nobody can follow us easily" said voice one.

Satyros, Aerd, and Soaryn got further from the tunnel opening. While doing so they got ready to ambush the voices in the tunnel. Soon the light of the torches got brighter as the voices neared the mouth of the tunnel. As the first torch came out of the tunnel Aerd tackled the Pale green Goblin. After that there was an explosion and the last thing.

Soaryn woke up to sound of dripping water. As he opened his eyes he was met with the darkness of what he assumed was a cave or a dungeon or maybe even both. Soaryn heard the pained groans of Aerd. He only knew those groans because they had gone to a tavern and Aerd had drunk one too many goblets of fine wine and when those were emptied. He made a beeline for the kegs and barrels of cheap ale. After those were emptied he fell up stairs and stumbled down the hall to his room. The next morning was when he heard and familiarized himself with the pained groans.

Soaryn slowly made his way towards the sound of the pained groans of Aerd. Soon he was in front of a small window standing next to it was the fuming form of Satyros.