Anastasia awoke slowly. Her vision was blurred and unfocused and her body was numb.
As her vision sharpened she made out three figures looming over her. Two of them were vaguely human, but one was four legged and purple.
Her ringing ears picked up garbled voices. The voices emanated from the three figures and each was unique.
The first voice was soft but sharp, hiding some secret never to be spoken of. The second was deep and resonated with ancient knowledge. The third was powerful but soft, that of a kind hero.
Her senses began to clear, revealing the three who stood over her. The first voice belonged to a man in a red robe that reached his ankles.
The second voice belonged to a man of darker complexion and wore a similar clothing but pitch black and shortened to the knee.
The third voice belonged to a purple dragon with yellow horns, wing membranes and underbelly. The dragon was obviously older than the two others, as it's horns and scales were somewhat worn and had grown a strange extra horn under it's chin that replicated what facial hair was for humans.
Anastasia strained her ears to hear the voices over the ringing. The voices sharpened with each moment, recovering her sense of hearing.
"She doesn't have any wounds, and her body is healthy as far as I can tell."
The colored man said. The man in the red coat moved about the room, retrieving a few books and tomes.
"It looks like the suspension spell affected her senses. She should be okay."
The dragon spoke next, and it's stare instilled a hope in Anastasia, as if it's very presence infused one with energy.
"I can't believe I'm meeting the last human."
The man in red chuckled as he stored the books he had retrieved in a satchel that he handed to the colored man.
The man in red reached down, causing Anastasia to flinch as he lifted her from the cold stone floor.
Anastasia tried to speak, her voice coming out as a crooked and scratchy sound.
The three froze, seemingly disturbed by the sound. They gave each other nervous looks before returning their attention to Anastasia.
"Do you need something to drink? Your voice is a little... Um, how should I put this? Unnerving."
The man in red said, shifting his hold on her in order to retrieve a bottle of clear liquid. Anastasia lifted her arm weakly before it fell back into it's previously limp position.
Anastasia's senses began to darken, seemingly alarming the three as they rushed to help her in a way the couldn't make sense of through her dulled perception.
The world darkened and Anastasia returned to her strange sleeping dreams.
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Avenger deadpanned. Barely five minutes after the woman had awoken, she passed out.
"Well, guess we have another unconscious person to look after."
With that, the three begam their trek back to the camp in relative silence. Spyro carried the woman on his back with Ulysses standing a watchful guard to the right of the dragon.
Avenger was left dragging behind, limping as his newly recovered powers stitched his wounds closed.
As they walked back to camp a rumble shook the ruin floor. Spyro dug his claws into the stone as the ground shook viciously.
The cavern ceiling began to crack as the quake continued, sending small rocks and rubble downwards into the ruin abyss.
Avenger averted his attention to the large wall of the ruin to the left of their path.
The yellow stone wall cracked down the middle before more cracks lined the rock. The quake became so severe that the wall rumbled before large peices broke off, tumbling down into the abyss.
Then a chunk of ceiling collided with the path in front of the group, blocking off their route to camp.
The quake settled, leaving the three stunned and somewhat terrified at the power of the quake.
A piece of the wall tumbled over, landing a few feet from the fallen piece of rubble on the path. The piece of wall formed a bridge into a gap in the wall.
The group took some time to regain their senses before surveying the aftermath of the quake.
The large stalagmite blocking their path could be flown and climbed over, making passage possible. However, the large crack in the wall made a new sense of curiosity crawl into the group.
Avenger made his choice, drawing his newly acquired barbed khopesh and testing the makeshift bridge with his foot before turning back to the others.
"I'll go this way, you guys take her back to camp."
Spyro glanced at the stalagmite before protesting. Ulysses simply watched as the conversation continued.
"But what if that is a dead end?"
Avenger shrugged, taking a few steps across the bridge and hopping up and down to test it.
"Then I'll backtrack. I have my power back, so I can defend myself."
Spyro was skeptical, but gave in. Spryo took to the air and easily cleared the blockage with Ulysses climbing over.
Avenger moved over the bridge, still stepping carefully across the stone surface.
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Spyro landed on the other side of the stalagmite, watching as Ulysses jumped down from the obstruction.
The two nodded before moving forward on the path back to camp. The trip was relatively silent and awkward to boot.
Ulysses and Spyro knew precious little about each other, and they had no idea how to start a conversation.
Spyro grew tired of the silence after a while and decided to take the initiative.
"What is your world like, Ulysses?"
Ulysses looked at the dragon from the corner of his eye before responding to the question.
"It was desolate, infertile. The scars of a past conflict rendered it dead and consumed in the invisible flames of war."
Spyro's brain failed to understand the meaning behind Ulysses sentence. Ulysses saw Spyro's eyebrow inch upward.
"I mean that my world was destroyed by war, and is completely covered in the radiation of said war."
Spyro nodded as the meaning of the previous words clicked in his head. Ulysses readjusted his coat as they walked forward.