Palin sat up immediately and looked around. He heard something. It was hard to see through the darkness of the night. Then he saw it over by Tera's bed. A huge silhouette of a bird loomed over her. "Tera, lookout!" he shouted. Then he heard a large scream. Dagger in hand, he stood up. His eyes were adjusted to the dark now. He could see Tera running and screaming toward him with the Takuta bird right behind her. Then it stopped. It turned its menacing glare to him. The blood on my dagger, he thought. He smelled it. Before he knew it, the bird was upon him. The dagger flew out of his hand a few meters away. The bird struck down at his heart. Palin managed to catch the beak in his hands but they were slipping fast. Suddenly it stopped again. Palin thought he was dead until he felt the bird start licking his face. He rolled away and stood up looking up. The bird was looking back calmly as if it wasn't trying to hurt him at all. Palin immediately looked at Tera "What did you do?", he asked breathing heavily.
"I just put an enchantment on it, that's all".
"So, it's under a spell?"
"Right".
"And it won't hurt us?"
"You got it!"
"Hmmmm, and can we ride it?"
"Until the enchantment wears off, yes!"
Palin eyed the creature again who was looking at them innocently. Then it gave a loud, happy squawk. "When does it wear off?" he asked.
"In about two or three days. Why?". He walked over to the Takuta bird and got up on it. It squawked happily and walked over to Tera. "Needs reins but good enough", he said approvingly.
In Phoenexen, Gin-lak was mining in a Zinorite cave. Wiping the dirt off his face, he sighed. He had never wanted to be a miner. His dream was to become a harvester. To everyday wake up to a shining sun instead of a gloomy cave beside some other dwarf's feet. But the King's orders were said and that was that. He was stuck mining for the rest of his life. Then he heard the screams. He was too busy with his own thoughts to hear them before. Immediately, he said to himself "This is my chance. If I could fix the problem out there, maybe I would be a hero. They wouldn't have a hero mine!" With a motivating burst of speed, he dashed out of the cave. When he saw what the commotion was about, he almost ran back in. The entire town was destroyed! Innocent dwarves running for their lives. In the middle of it all was giant black snake with yellow eyes and huge swishing tail. Gin-lak ran to a nearby bush, waited and watched. The snake took one final look around and left slithering behind a mountain northwest of him. He didn't move for a long time.
In no time at all, Palin and Tera were at the gate. The first thing Palin noticed is that it wasn't actually a gate. It was more of a castle. He looked at it for a while and then he noticed what was beside it. Giant multi-colored walls that shifted and moved like they were alive rose up to the sky. "So what do we do now?" he asked.
"We check the list". They released the Takuta bird into the forest and walked up to a stone tablet with a crystal embedded into it. "Okay! This is how it works. You write your full name in with this chunk of graphite and press on the crystal. If it turns purple, you can't go in. If it turns blue, you can. Got it?" asked Tera.
"Got it", he replied trying to remember it all."
Tera tried first. She wrote her name in and pressed the crystal. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Suddenly, the crystal turned dark purple. After that, the name disappeared and the tablet was clear again. She sighed and moved over to give room for Palin. He took the stone, wrote his name in and pressed the crystal. Immediately, it turned blue and the whole tablet started glowing. Then he heard a creaking sound and turned to where it was coming from. The giant door beside the tablet was starting to open very slowly like it hadn't been open for years. Then it stopped and the two slowly walked up and peaked inside. There was huge room full of statues. Each one made entirely of Zinorite, detailed to even the smallest pimple on their face. In the middle of the room were three big gates. Marked at the top were ruin symbols. The first thing he noticed was that only the first two gates were closed. Tera was still looking at the statues naming off each one as if she knew them since she was two. The third gate had the most ruin symbols so he guessed it was Phoenexen. He pulled Tera, still naming statues, over to the third gate. Then he took out his dagger and stuck the tip into the entrance. The tip disappeared into the gate. He pulled it back. "I guess we have to go to Phoenexen first."
"How do you know", she asked.
"This gate has the longest amount of ruin symbols".
"So?"
"Phoenexen has the longest amount of letters". He said, annoyed.
"S…oh, I get it!"
"So do we just walk in?"
Suddenly he felt a shove. He was pushed right into the portal. Then everything went black.
To be continued…