CHAPTER 3

Lili pulled herself out of the log, shortly followed by Raz. She looked around her and stared in wonder, which was quickly replaced with sadness.

The entire place was in ruins. The monitors were cracked and dysfunctional, and the levitating platforms had lost power and were strewn around the bottom of the cavern, which was littered with rubble, probably caused by a minor cave-in.

"Who could have done this?" she wondered.

"I think what is more like it," Raz said.

Standing there in the opening of the hallway to the observatory was a giant—thing. It stood on long, double-jointed legs, with four powerful-looking arms sprouting from its muscularly built chest. A long, feather tail rattled softly. The rest of its body was covered in gnarled, emerald-colored scales that pulsated softly. Its head was short and rectangular, with no apparent mouth and glowing white eyes, and rested on a long neck. Huge, bat-like wings sprouted from its back.

It sat dead-still, looking at them.

"Careful, Lili," Raz warned, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We have to assume this thing is dangerous," she said to him. "Let's try knocking it out. Maybe then we can get a better look at it, and see if it really caused all this damage."

A sudden crack drew both their attention. Scales were falling off the creature's snout, exposing a blood-stained mouth containing more teeth than any shark. They were bigger and longer, too.

Both teens backed away. In response, the creature took one step forward. A longue, purple tongue dripping bloody saliva extended from its mouth.

"On three, use an aggression blast," Raz told her. "One…"

The creature took another step, spreading the feathers in its tail.

"Two…" Lili said for him.

"Three!" They both fired.

The creature hissed loudly as the blasts made impact with its scales, which sprayed everywhere. When the dislodged scales impacted with the walls, they crumbled, and a strange yellow dust floated up from them.

More scales sprouted from the injured points on the creature's body. It was whole again, and mad. With an ear-splitting shriek, it moved forward with unbelievable speed, knocking Raz down and jumping on top of him. All four arms swung back, in preparation to strike…

…but the blow never came. The creature hissed in surprise, seeing a giant glowing hand holding its hands behind its back. Lili concentrated, working her hands skillfully. Raz also began to concentrate, and another hand pushed against the creature's chest.

The combined forces threw the creature backward with as much speed as it had approached. The creature was still howling in rage but was suddenly cut off as it slammed into the cavern wall. They saw it drop and hear its body crunch into the ground below them. Huge chunks of dusty rubble dislodged from the ceiling and landed on top of it to finish the job.

"Yes!" Lili said, pumping her left arm victoriously. "Take that, you scaly bastard!"

Raz was shocked by her sudden colorful language, but then just laughed. Suddenly, a dizzy feeling began to overtake him. "Lili! The powder, from the scales…"

A small cloud and been blown into Raz's face during the turmoil of the battle. Slowly, he put a hand over his forehead and staggered forward. She was at his side in an instant, supporting him. Thankfully, the rest of the powder was dissipating, as were its affects on Raz.

"Whew," he panted. "That thing is tough. I think it's safe to say we didn't kill it. And I don't even want to know what that powder would have down in larger amounts."

"One heck of a defense," Lili mused. "You don't dare injure it."

Raz nodded. "We should get out of here before it attacks again. I don't exactly think we should approach it and see if it caused the damage… for all we know that's what it wants us to do. Let's head back to the cavern and look at those runes some more… I have a feeling they'll tell us everything we need to know."

The creature was indeed conscious, and slightly disappointed at the sound of their fading footsteps. It had hoped they would come down to try and finish the fight; it enjoyed the battle. But the one in the green scarf had inhaled some of the dust from its shattered scales, which was an unexpected benefit.

Slowly, shaking all the rubble off of itself and folding its wings, it began to ponder. Sitting there, the creature looked far more intelligent than the mindless beast that had moments before been hellbent on doing nothing but killing.

He'll need to inhale more before it can have any real effect, the creature thought, feeling only slightly frustrated. And I don't fancy standing around letting him attack me. Ah well, no point in squatting around here.

Spreading its wings, the creature flew up to the upper levels and observed the miniscule log from which the two humans had arrived and departed. It shifted its body around quite a bit so it could fit down the chamber, and emerged in an underground rapid transit system. Not caring which way it went, as long as it lead out, the creature found the nearest exit and flew out into the night sky.

Raz groaned, flopping backwards in exhaustion. They had been examining the runes for an hour now, but with no real way of translating them, it was a lost cause. The fact that the secret was right in front of him, yet just beyond his grasp, frustrated him more than he thought possible.

Lili detected his frustration and scooted over to were he lay on his back, staring up at the low-hanging ceiling of the cave. "I know what you're thinking, but what other choice do we have? That thing could have killed us, and if we meet it again unprepared it might very well finish the job."

"I know, I know," he said, sitting up reluctantly. "But why not look somewhere else? We don't know the language of the runes, and staring at them for another hour won't do us any good."

She stared at him evenly. "Do you know any other place to even start looking?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Exactly," she said sharply, and then emitted a very exasperated sigh. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do… but what else do we have to go on?"

"Nothing," he admitted, "Nothing."

Lili easily detected something different in his voice when he repeated his answer, and knew that something was troubling him. She scooted even closer and began rubbing his shoulders, pleased when he let out an audible, content moan.

"Come on, Raz, what's really bothering you?"

Any trace of happiness he had been uttering a few seconds earlier vanished in an instant. "This whole thing, that's what! This is the first time when I haven't an idea of what to do…"

She waited patiently for him to finish.

"…Don't you get it? This creature has us beat."