Clyde sat on a rock, looking at an obelisk he had stumbled across. This hadn't been here before. He only remembered Gaspard mentioning one obelisk. If he was right, where did this one come from? " Where the hell am I anyways? Probably lost." he thought to himself. He didn't really care though, the only reason he said he would help was because he had nothing else to do. He still wondered about the obelisk though, was this the one they sealed Diont in? No, it couldn't have been, that one was buried in the caverns underneath the ravine.

He stood up and walked over to the obelisk until he was about a foot away from it. The obelisk was about 7 feet tall and three feet from corner to corner, it's width decreasing as it reached the top. He squinted, attempting to see if there was anything inside it. This was very similar to the one Diont was in, it was made of a crystalline substance. Clyde stopped breathing, the contents of the obelisk took him by surprise, inside was a creature unlike any he had ever seen before. He stepped back his eyes still fixed on the creature. " C... could it be? A young dragon, alive? Here?" he choked, shaking his head in denial. " What sort of joke is this?" he demanded, pulling down the piece of cloth that covered his face.

It wasn't so much the creature that frightened him, but the idea that he and the seven weren't alone here was news to him. Yet another thing Gaspard had failed to mention to him. His eyes widened, he seemed to feel like something was missing. He looked to his waist expecting to see his trusty knife and began to curse when he saw none. " Damn it all!" he yelled balling his hands into fists. He thought back to where he could have left it, but he could think of no place in particular. The one place he knew it wasn't was at the well. " I don't care how dire the need is! I'm not even going to think about helping them until I've found Striker!" he yelled, his voice echoing throughout the ravine. He had gone through far too much trouble to get it to loose it now.

He looked to the Obelisk through the corners of his eyes, he seemed to feel drawn to it. He almost felt that if he were to touch the Obelisk he would find Striker in his hands instead. He turned and stood where he had been before, and looked at the dragon. This one was far smaller than the ones he and the others had fought on his world. Had Gaspard trapped this here too? He reached out to it and touched the Obelisk, what harm was in it if all he did was touch?


Doan, Deis, and Tae Grif stood together combating the out of control chimera. Magus was behind them, drained of all his strength and far to weak to cast any more spells. Vorimoth, only about five minutes into the fight, had taken a blow to the head and was out cold by the well. Doan, was bleeding all over and standing in front of the other to guarding them as they prepared attacks of their own, he too was about to fall. He was almost blind because of the blood that covered his eyes. Taking his stone sword he lunged in the direction that he thought Zel was in. Zelgadis dodged the feeble attack and backhanded Doan. When his opponent hit the ground, Zel took his sword and stabbed him in the back with no intention of letting him live. With what remained of his sight, Doan looked at the old man. " Still sleeping." he said, managing a weak laugh then coughing up blood.

Tae Grif finished his spell just in time to send the preoccupied Zelgadis flying against the rock wall with a high level Fireball spell. His stone body fell, unmoving on the ground by the statue of Amelia. Tae Grif ran to Doan's side and sat down looking at him. " Hang on Doan, just don't move!" he said, looking into the blood covered face of the fallen Scholar.

" Don't bother Tae, no magic you, Magus, or even Deis knows could heal me now. Just make sure the seventh is all right, he's the only one we need to worry about." he said smiling, up and the wolf.

Deis who had been nearby, simply nodded and moved over where Magus was to help him up. Tae Grif glared after her then looked back at Doan, he wasn't about to take his advice on this one. " Don't give up so easily, we can find a way, I won't let you go like this!" he roared.

He just smiled at Tae, then laid his head down, " I . . . I guess this means . . . I won't be g . . . going home." he coughed weakly, the blood beginning to dry on his face. " Don't worry Tae . . . this is the way I want it . . . I'm glad to have met you, now go check on Zel, the poisons probably worn off." Doan's blind eyes then closed and he spoke no more. Tae stepped back from his lost friend and sat looking at him. He and Doan were the only ones to not hear the painful inhuman cries of some poor far away creature.


Clyde stood, hunched over in pain. His hand was still on the Obelisk but he was no longer looking at the dragon inside, but his reflection. He yowled as large bone spikes grew from his vertebrae and pushed their way out of the skin on his back. His tailbone changed as well, growing extra bones that stretched out his skin, until it ripped through and gave him a tail made of bones connected with bits of muscle and rotten flesh. His canines grew longer until they were nearly an inch long, his eyes turned white and the bone frames of what looked like wings pushed out of his back.

He finally managed to wrench his clawed hand from the obelisk. He attempted to move but was far too weak, the loss of blood was too great, and he would have to rest before he could go find Striker.