Alright, lets see, to recap, Valentin's house got burned down, Arthur had a tragic childhood, Alfred and Matthew are twins with wings, and Toris fell in a hole.
On track now?
Great, next chapter, enjoy!
Toris was sliding backwards on his back, screaming his throat raw as he shot down the smoothed stone shoot.
All of the sudden, the previously small slide like passage opened up, and he found himself spinning like a top on his shoulders as he came to rest in a small hollowed out cave deep underground.
"Ugh..." He stood and groaned before hearing voices from up above, barely audible from how far down he'd fallen.
"Toris! Toris! You ok?"
"I'm fine!" Toris shouted back as he turned in a slow circle before seeing the wall of the cave.
"Whoa..." Toris looked up at the images, faded paintings of vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, and other types of semi-human creatures he didn't recognize.
"This is insanity." He whispered as he inched slowly towards the tunnel at the opposite end of the cave.
He walked a little ways into it, and arriving in an incredible spot.
Runes flickered through the air, Toris didn't believe in magic, but after seeing this, he was going to be checking for monsters under the bed forever. The cavern was lit by the brightly glowing golden runes, intertwined with other runes of blue and purple. Toris passed through a band of them, and felt a warmth spread through him. It was at least fifty feet to the ceiling, Toris had no clue how far underground he was. There were periodic hollowed out spaces in the walls, some even held rotted out furniture showing someone had once lived there. In the very center of the cavern, there was a stone pedestal, on which there was, in gorgeous carved letters, written a phrase.
"In hope that our race will persevere, and come together once again."
Toris read aloud, then he saw there was a sort of rhyme carved beneath this phrase. He also read this aloud.
"We who are different then those who dwell above.
We who are searching for a place to live and to love.
We who are gifted with strength, speed, and flight.
We who need a place to rest during the night.
We know that the future for us is filled with strife.
But we know those who come next will persevere through this life.
To our children, their children, and the ones after that.
We leave gifts from the myths of the dragon, dove, wolf, and bat.
From these and other creatures we all draw our inner flame.
For it is these creatures of myth we have to thank and to blame.
Breaking the boundaries between our world and theirs.
It is us who were born, and it is their burden we now bear.
The normal people would do nothing to help or understand.
So this is why we have formed our greatest, most dangerous plan.
You must bring together the others who feel fear and brave hate.
You must gather together the others to avoid a terrible fate.
To help those of the future who are shunned from birth.
To you, we leave this sanctuary, use it for what it's worth."
Toris frowned in confusion at the strange poem when the ground started shaking.
"W-What?" He stuttered as suddenly the empty hollows were being magically refurbished, curtains were woven from thin air in bright colors of purple, green, blue, pink, and red, drawing shut over the freshly furnished hollows. Toris gasped and backpedaled as the ground beneath him became a lot more wet, the pedestal was now in front of a magnificent fountain spurting fresh drinking water. The runes glowed brighter and Toris felt heat coming from them. The werewolf spun to see the rock suddenly growing thick with grass and flowers, and odd plants in neat rows. He saw a vegetable garden growing itself to the far corner of the massive expanse of the cave floor.
Toris spun to see the rock of the walls shifting, he saw ladders coming straight out of the gray, leading up to the hollows.
"Oh my god..." Toris whispered as the shaking halted. He now stood in the center of a flowering ground, in front of a gorgeous fountain. He saw a dragon, a bat, a dove, and a wolf making up the statues spewing water.
Toris whirled and ran back to the pedestal, looking down to see it had become a paper and ink book, the cover holding the same inscription 'In hopes that our race with persevere, and come together once again.' The first page held the poem Toris had just read, and from then on there were chapters about all of the creatures.
Breathing quickly in astonishment, Toris saw chapters on vampires, on werecats, and on sprites. Psychics and half-demons, magicians and phantoms, everything was inside this incredible tome. He flipped the pages faster. Faye of every shape and form, beautiful sirens who allured men to their deaths, powerful half dragon hybrids called dragon spawns, sons and daughters of the gods, called by the name of their holy ancestors. Strange shape shifting beings too walked the earth, able to changed to smoke and back, something called a berchtold, who can shoot any target given, water spirits named kelpies. Harpies, creatures of faked beautiful who are in fact weathered warriors. There were so many creatures from every corner of the world, and while this is book contained some the werewolf was aware of, most were completely obscure, and he'd never heard of them before. Toris tried to lift up the book, but it was attached firmly to the pedestal. Hesitantly, Toris attempted to gently tear an empty page from the very back of the mammoth book. The page was impossible to tear. Even when Toris put all his strength into it, he couldn't make even the tiniest rip.
"I don't believe it." He breathed, looking around at the beautiful cavern filled with light and life.
He looked back to the book and flipped to the first page.
They who came before us.
Toris smiled.
"Thank you." He breathed.
Then he remembered that he had several friends probably convinced he'd fallen to his death.
He turned and, regretfully, ran from the cavern, down the tunnel filled with paintings of all of the mythic creatures, and back to the tunnel.
He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that the top of the tunnel had been given a ladder, in order to assist Toris and others in getting out of the cavern.
Toris began to climb and soon reached high enough to see Valentin dangling halfway into the tunnel, squinting into the darkness.
"I see him!" He called back.
Toris reached out and took the hand Valentin had stretched out in his direction, holding the pose for a moment.
"You won't believe what I found!" Toris exclaimed, bordering on full on dancing in joy.
"What?" Valentin asked.
"Come on!" Toris suddenly dropped his legs and kept his grip on Valentin's hand.
"YIPE!"
The romanian was abruptly yanked away down the shoot along with Toris.
He heard the fallen's yelling after them as they spun off down the tunnel, Toris releasing Valentin now that he was stuck in the slide.
"AHHHH!"
Valentin yelled as he slid on his stomach down into the bottom of the shoot, where he landed on top of Toris.
"Why?" Valentin demanded.
"INCOMING!"
"Oof!" Valentin and Toris were crushed by Alfred, followed by Arthur, followed by Matthew.
"Why...?" Valentin repeated defeatedly.
"This way! You guys have to see this!" Toris wriggled out from under the pile, getting to his feet, and ran to the edge of the tunnel, vanishing into it.
Toris breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the sanctuary was still there, just as breathtaking as before.
The others ran after him, after taking in the paintings in the tunnel, they were abruptly silent and completely astonished by the place.
"This is awesome!"
Alfred cried out, taking off instantly from the ground to get an aerial view.
"Mattie! Get up here! You gotta check it out from the air!" Alfred called down as he circled up to the top of the fifty foot cavern, grinning.
Matthew silently spread his wings and took off after his twin.
"Arthur, take a look at this." Toris beckoned the brit over and the two poured over the book as Valentin began to climb one of the ladders to the side of the cave.
Arthur read the poem aloud and nothing new happened.
Frowning, the brit flipped the page, and now he was faced with more spidery, scrawled handwriting in the jet black ink.
Toris leaned over, chocolate brown eyes soaking up the words.
Arthur took a breath and recited the text as it was given.
"To enter one must pull the faye girls wings,
and touch a finger to each of the werewolves golden rings.
The twin sirens grow jealous, so do not risk your head,
give them each a kiss to the lips, to cherish in your stead.
From there you must stare, for the chance will be brief,
to the god of knowledge, who wears in his hair a decorative leaf.
Meet his gaze, until he breaks from your look,
then place both palms firmly to the cover of his book.
He will be satisfied, you have earned your way into the lair.
He will open the path for you, move swiftly, if you dare."
Toris read this off.
"What the bloody hell does that mean?" Arthur exclaimed in confusion.
Toris mumbled the first part of the poem under his breath.
"Pull the faye girls wings...touch the werewolves golden rings...I think I get it!"
Toris tugged on Arthur's wrist.
"Come on!"
He dragged the man to the exit tunnel, and it was only now that they realized that a massive block of stone had slid down to separate them from the rest of the sanctuary.
"What the!?" Arthur darted to the stone and pushed at it, trying to force it open.
It didn't budge.
Meanwhile, Toris was taking in the faded, yet still vividly beautiful paintings that decorated the walls.
"Pull the faye girls wings..." He murmured, before he spotted a small faye with long braids of purple hair hovering directly next to a hulking, beastly wolf man with a ring on each finger.
Toris reached out.
"Pull the faye girls wings." He spoke louder as he rubbed his hands against the detailed butterfly wings that protruded from the paintings back.
"Touch each of the werewolf's golden rings."
Out of all of the rings the painting donned, only three were gold, and Toris tapped each with a single finger.
"The sirens grow jealous, do not risk your head...give each a kiss to cherish in your stead..."
"What are you doing?" Arthur demanded as Toris bent to the two identical half fish women who were intertwined with a rock that they were resting on within the artwork of the wall.
He pressed a kiss to each of their lips.
"Toris! You just kissed a wall?" Arthur barked in confusion.
"Your chance will be brief."
Toris engaged into an intense staring contest with one of the biggest figures on the wall, a man with several leaves woven into his hair, who held in his loose grasp a single book of a faded out red color.
Arthur let out a surprised yelp when the paintings eyes lowered.
Toris rushed forward and placed both of his hands, palms down, flat upon the cover of the book the man held.
"He will open the path for you. Move swiftly!"
Toris darted away when the stone slab rose with a grinding sound.
He seized Arthur by the arm and dragged him under the tablet.
A few moments later the slab was lowered slowly back down.
Arthur turned to Toris, looking astonished.
"How did you figure that out?"
Toris shrugged.
"Seems simple enough to me, the poem is just instructions, personifying the paintings. We'll all have to memorize it, that way we can get in and out. It's a way of protecting this place."
As the two of them continued to discuss the instructional literature presented in the tome, Valentin had slipped behind one of the purple curtains covering the hollows. He gave a soft gasp, for he was astounded. A queen sized bed was tucked into the back corner, and a waist high wall separated him from the large drop. There was a desk, and a mirror, and a dresser as well. There was a large comfy armchair, along with a beside table. He smiled at the mirror, his hat floated in the air, and his clothes appeared to be moving on his own, for vampires didn't have reflections.
He turned and drew back the curtains. "You guys have to check out the hollows!" The vampire called.
Alfred promptly ducked and vanished into one behind a curtain, Matthew swooping after him.
"AWESOME!" Alfred's voice rang out.
Toris then exclaimed with a panicked yelp.
"Crap! Crap! What time is it!?"
He instantly looked around for some sort of way of telling time.
Unfortunately, the grounds of the cavern had been designed without any sort of time telling system.
Arthur came to the rescue and glanced at his watch.
"It's nearly one in the morning." He reported.
"I've got to go! My friends were expecting me back by eleven!" Toris exclaimed.
"I'll go with you. Vali!"
Valentin peeked out from behind another curtain, he was exploring the different hollows.
"Keep an eye on those two for me, will you?"
"Aye, captain!" Valentin replied with a salute before jumping right out over the railing wall of the hollow and flapping his bat wings, lifting upwards to join the twins.
Arthur turned back to Toris.
"Let's go."
Amethyst: Much poetry, little success.
Valentin: I thought they were pretty good.
Amethyst: VALI! *Tackle hugs Valentin*
Valentin: HELP! ME!
Fallen Angel Trio: Nah.
Valentin: After all I did for you! *Succumbs to hug attack*
Amethyst: *Jumps up* How was that? I wanted it to be a bit harder to get into the sanctuary, can't have any old human waltzing in, can we?
Toris: Definitely. Super lucky I fell down that specific hole, huh?
Everyone: Yup.
Amethyst: Well, that about sums up this riveting sign off room session.
Alfred: Well, we didn't have much to talk about...I mean, like you said in the beginning. Vali's house burnt down, Iggy's tragic childhood, me and Mattie are twins, and Toris fell in a hole. That's all that's happened so far.
Amethyst: That'll be changing soon enough...MWAHAHAHAHAHA
Arthur: Now I'm worried. Thank you all so much for reading! Please do read again next chapter, we look forward to seeing all of you chaps there! Cheers!