Yes, Hellhounds are awesome, and not much more to say than if anyone has any ideas for different kinds of Night Crawlers, send me a PM and I will add them. ;)
Chapter 20
Roxy grinned from on the Hellhound's back.
"Well, let's go." She said with a smile. Confused looks filtered from around everyone's faces.
"On the…Hellhounds?" Isabelle asked with a puzzled tone.
"Yup, don't worry, they're puppies, and their really friendly, they love everyone." Chloe said, patting Stephano. Again, confused looks; and a few WTF ones as well, Clary didn't think she wanted to ride on that thing, it was technically a demon.
"Um, can't we walk?" Alec asked, there were some nods around, and Chloe sighed, Roxy looked down at her Hellhound and jumped off.
"You guys are babies." Roxy said, raising an eyebrow.
"They're not used to any of this, give them a break." Drakiel spoke up, looking at Roxy with a level gaze. Roxy rolled her eyes but nodded.
"Fine, we'll walk five kilometres to a stupid volcano." Roxy said throwing her hands up.
"She's a bit…" Simon trailed off, Drakiel glanced at him,
"Extreme? They all are, it took me a while to get used to it too." He said flatly.
"You don't seem evil, you haven't tried to wreak havoc and take over the world with brimstone and fire in the entire time we've been here." Magnus said, looking over at Drakiel with a curious expression.
"The fire and brimstone is Sebastian's job, true evil only does what it wants and doesn't consider what others want and does whatever it can to get what it wants when it wants it, and right now, I want Lerial back and Sebastian taken down, and it is in my best interest to work with you…for now. Do not worry; we will soon again be on opposite sides of the battlefield." Drakiel said; his eyes and tone was dull.
"Right, story-time's over, let's go, unless you don't want to see your new weapons." Chloe said, smirking.
"We're going." Jace said, and Clary smiled at his behaviour.
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The moon was high by the time they got to the base of Icaria Volcano, which towered up into the sky and seemed to perpetually have dark storm clouds around its peak. The cliff face was steep and obviously impossible to climb, so how were they going to get up.
"Where's the entrance?" Simon asked, and Clary glanced over at him, he had been staying near Isabelle throughout the entire tie they had been walking, and Clary desperately hoped Isabelle had finally told Simon how she felt.
"Here," Roxy said, she glanced at Jacob; he met her gaze with his red-and-blue one and nodded. He put his hand up and white light spiraled from his hand and formed a door that was about four feet by seven feet and seemed to be made out of silver light with vines that curled up and over the surface, the vines were also silver, but a darker shade; and golden leaves grew on the vines. A white edging, almost like smaller vines that grew up and created a seven-pointed star above the door that glowed with red, blue, white, gold, green, violet, and black.
"What the hell is that thing?" Alec asked, his blue eyes widening.
"A magical door of magicalness." Chloe responded in a hyper voice.
"It's magic." Jacob said at the same time. He and Chloe glanced at each other and Chloe gave him the finger, he sighed.
"Again, what is it?" Izzy asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"One of the Doors actually, it's like a portal, but it takes us through another dimension before we get to our destination." Roxy said, looking at the Door.
"All Doors created by any of us looks like this; the seven-pointed star at the top is Nightshade's emblem." Jacob explained, he reached forward and grabbed the knob. Twisting it and opening the Door revealed a pathway over a large red underneath.
"What is that?" Jace asked, glancing around the red area, but when Clary concentrated, she saw it was lava, a sea of hot, boiling lava, with nothing but a flimsy white bridge between them and certain death.
"You could not pay me enough to get on that thing." Jordan said, obviously seeing that it was lava.
"Pfft, we're perfectly safe; the bridge is made out of some of Chloe's Phoenix secret-weapon-magic materiel." Roxy pointed out, stepping on the bridge and jumping lightly up and down.
"All the more reason to stay away." Isabelle muttered. Chloe shot her a look, but Isabelle had her hands behind her back and had the most innocent expression, which was hard to believe considering her belt of seraph blades visible to all.
"You guys just have to trust us, look, nobody likes me, and so I'll go first." Drakiel sighed, and stepped onto the bridge, he turned around, and the red backlight made the maroon coloring in his hair glow and his amber eyes appear evil and ominous.
Glancing from one to another, everyone slowly made their way onto the white bridge, which seemed to be made of some silvery metal with vines for handrails; the same material the Door was made of.
"So, what is this stuff?" Alec asked, running his hand along the handrail.
"Phrae metal, it is created when a faerie and a phoenix combine their powers and focus it very strongly." Roxy explained, she was bringing up the rear of the little troop.
"Interesting, I've never heard of this phenomena, then again, I haven't met many phoenixes." Magnus mused.
"But you have met some, right?" Simon broke in, Clary looked back, she had been listening to the conversation from her vantage point up front with Jace and Drakiel.
"Yes, one, his name was Scythe, he helped me get things I needed for certain spells, before…" Magnus trailed off, and glanced at Alec, who was studiously ignoring him. "Before I had help from an old friend." Magnus finished.
"Scythe is my friend; he was the one who told me to visit human societies." Chloe said, almost half to herself. Clary thought back about everything she had read about phoenixes, they were fiery birds who used to serve angels until the angels gave them their own powers and let them roam free, phoenixes were immortal, like most Downworlders, but unlike Downworlders, they came from angels, and not demons, so in theory they were closer to Nephilim than say, a faerie.
"Well, here we are." Roxy said, breaking Clary's train of thought. They had reached the other side of the bridge and stood in front of a large door, at least twenty meters tall and fifteen meters wide, it had carvings of monsters and phoenixes flying above on it, and the whole thing was in shades of dark red, just like the wall behind it, which seemed to be made of some sort of volcanic maroon rock, the same color as the highlights in Drakiel's hair.
"Welcome to the Forge." Roxy smiled.