Chapter 12:

I opened my eyes, my vision no longer blurred, everything normal looking, everyone asleep, despite the fact we were underground still. I groaned, sitting up straight, placing a hand on my forehead as I looked around. I took in a sharp breath, remembering the lava pool and my previous dream. Tears filled my eyes as I crawled to it, staring into the glowing, burning brightness of the liquid fire.

"Fuck…" I silently sobbed, tears evaporating instantly as they hit the molten surface. "What did he do to you? What did he do?" I questioned.

"Help me…" My instinct got the better of me as I swear I saw a hand, although I think my mind was playing tricks on me, because all that happened when I grabbed it was me receiving a hot as hell searing pain that ate at my skin like a rabid pack of wolves. It was too much pain to scream, so I just pulled my hand back and sat in a corner, even more tears falling from my face. My skin, however, decided it would instantly begin regenerating itself. What the hell. Sure. I can totally do that now too. I found the strength to stand, stumbling towards the lava pool, grabbing a hold of one of the floating boxes, slowly making my way to the staircase in front of all of them.

Crawling up the stairs, I got on top of the boxes, balancing nearly perfectly on my hands and knees knowing there was lava below. Sitting on one, I just let my legs dangle, staring into the vast, deep, glowing like dying embers lava… Is it getting hotter in here or have I just passed out again? Damn it. I felt something slithering around me, like a snake, like hands, the whispering voices echoing in my ears, sounding closer. I couldn't make out any words, but somehow the voices made no sense and perfect sense at the same time. My body felt cold, searing. Something even colder still basically running circles around my body, as if taking in how I look, how tall I am, what age I'd be, what gender I am, all of that stuff. I felt weak, I felt tired, my throat felt hoarse, scratched, burned from the inside out. I felt many sharp points run along my now sensitively numb body, then, as if a person, things that felt somewhat like hands cup my cheeks. They weren't quite hands, but I didn't know what else they'd be.

"Deadlox…" The voices whispered, sounding everywhere at once. My wrist was grabbed, my wings and claws and tails and teeth all forming, scales beginning to form on my skin, starting from my hands, the skin there feeling warm, normal, as if protected, reaching my wrists and nowhere more. Slowly, I found the strength to open my eyes, just the slightest bit, and I completely wish I'd just kept them closed because the fucking blurred black mass in front of me, staring at me with what looked like tentacles running all over my body didn't help me at all.

Waking up to my name being yelled, I fell backwards, pressing myself against the wall, Adam rushing to my side, sitting with me as I stared intently at the lava pool.

"Ty? Ty, can you hear me, are you alright?" Adam whispered; his voice cracking as he sounded very frantic. I lifted a finger and pointed at the lava pool.

"I think there's something in there, I'm having nightmares every time I fall asleep." I managed to say above a whisper. Adam shifted his vision to the lava, standing and approaching it. I didn't move.

"There's a magical barrier here… I think I can remove it, I've removed magical barriers before; the only question though, why is it here? In a ruin deep underground? What the hell is this place anyway?" Adam continued pointlessly, pulling off his amulet as his skin seemed to get paler instantly without it. He stood at the top of the stairs, then tossed the amulet in the middle of the circle of boxes, the amulet floating there. It eventually began shaking, distracting the magical barrier in a fashion that even I could see a weak point. Adam then took his sword and stabbed the weak point, causing the amulet to glow as it absorbed the magic. Adam caught the amulet before it fell into the now beginning to rapidly bubble lava below.

From the disturbance with the magic, Jerome had woken up, having woken Mitch up in turn, Mitch and Jerome both waking Ian together.

"What the hell are you hiding?" Adam questioned, stepping onto one of the boxes, walking along the circle as the lava seemed to start changing from a glowing orange to a charcoal black. Then, sooner rather than later, surfaced a big, black mass. It didn't move. Adam used his sword to poke it and it flipped over. It still looked just like a big black mass. Adam managed to somehow use his sword to lift the mass, revealing it was just a major amount of… scales? "The hell?" Adam began again, dropping them down nearby me. "That's what you somehow knew was down there? The thing giving you nightmares?" Adam questioned.

Slowly, hesitantly, I crawled to it, looking down upon it as I nodded, moving the mass of scales around, as if it would suddenly pop to life at any second. As expected now, it never did.

"Ty, they're just scales, see?" Adam assured me, coming over. He took his sword and stabbed through them hard, but then the loudest screech, a supposedly scream, suddenly rang out, as if Adam had stabbed one of us through the heart. I covered my ears along with everyone else. When I opened my eyes, everyone else having their eyes closed, like normal people would, I saw that the scales were quickly moving to the lava. By themselves. Before falling into the lava, a hand reached out of the lava and grabbed them, turning the lava black, then letting it turn orange again as they both sunk back to the bottom. I passed out. Who the hell wouldn't?

~Adam~

After returning home, all of us having decided that we'd had enough of that fucked up adventure, I had lied Ty down on my bed. He hasn't moved in 3 days. Now I'm just sitting with him, not bothering to eat, not bothering to sleep. I want to be here when he wakes up. Not asleep, not in a different room, but here, right by his side. Everyone else comes to check up on Ty and I frequently, but I don't mind, despite the fact I want to be left alone with him. Maybe my Uncle will know what that thing was… Or my father… I shook my head. I'm not going to bother asking.

"Please wake up…" I tried once more, moving a hand to his wrist, checking his pulse again. It's still there. "Ty?" I whispered, crawling overtop his still body. I gently kissed his lips. "Please? I can't take this anymore…" He didn't move as I fought back tears, getting up and making sure the door was locked. I took off my sunglasses, as well as my amulet, needing one or the other on my body to conceal my own aura. Placing my forehead to his as I closed my eyes, I entered his head and listened to what was going on.

A girl? That looks like Ty? Chained up by that… thing, with my father and my uncle?

"Don't worry about her. Besides, she's only invincible to the elements when she's in her dragon form. Just turn and walk away. I'll handle the rest and catch up with you." My Uncle hesitated. My Father's voice sounded too friendly as he helped the girl stand. Uncle turned, walking down the dark hallway that lead back to a tunnel that lead to the heart of the ruin. He grew tense. He never turned around. Bloody cries and screams for help and mercy came from behind him. "She's taken care of." My Father assured, now besides him.

I pulled out of his mind, not wanting to see anything more. What the hell? I ran a hand along his cheek. A sister? A relative? Someone close to him at the very least, but whom? She wasn't even 18 yet, maybe 15, and my Father and Uncle let her burn in that lava. And what did he say? A dragon form? That explains the scales, but where did the scales go? They can't move by themselves, that's absurd.

"Oh Ty, why do you suffer when you shouldn't have to?" I questioned as tears fell onto his face.

"Because he deserves it, abandoning us like that." My head snapped to the man leaning against the wall behind me, smiling a wicked grin. "Remember me?" I didn't move, I couldn't move. I just simply shielded Ty with my body, not bothering to put my amulet and glasses back on.

"Don't you dare touch him." I coldly spat. He shrugged.

"Ok… not yet at least." He declared, disappearing again. I quickly put on my glasses and amulet as Ty suddenly shifted under me, turning back to him and shaking him lightly.

"Ty." I begged. "Ty, wake up." He groaned, turning face down into the pillow.

"5 more minutes, my head hurts." He whined.

"Oh thank god." I breathed, turning his resistant body back over and kissing him passionately. He kissed back after a moment or two, as if registering what I was doing. I sat him up straight, pinning him to the wall as he just sat there and let me, letting my hands run all around his middle, eventually yanking him closer by his thin waist, making him moan. "Don't you ever scare me like that again." I ordered.

"Maybe I like to see you so passionate." He teased, licking my lip. I opened my mouth and let him enter, dancing with his tongue, letting him taste whatever he could manage to find.

"God, I love you." I stated, breaking the kiss as a strand of saliva connected our lips. He smiled a tired smile.

"I love you too." He yawned. "But I want to sleep…" He determined, placing his head on my shoulder and getting comfortable. I sighed, happy. Picking him up, I carried him slowly downstairs, into the living room where Jerome and Mitch sat, Damien and Ian having gone to town to get Damien some stuff he can't get back at home.

"Hey, what's up?" Jerome asked, worried. I sat down, holding ty on my lap.

"Nothing, he woke up, that's all. He's tired." I assured him, pulling a pillow over and placing it on my leg, resting Ty's head there. He opened an eye, looking up at me.

"This pillow is cold." He informed me, sitting up again and putting his head back on my shoulder. "It also isn't you, so…" He added. I chuckled.

"That's adorable." Mitch informed us.

"How are you buddy?" Jerome questioned, coming over. Ty picked his head up and looked sleepily over to Jerome, giving him a half asleep smile, yawning again.

"Good, tired…"

"Are you hungry?"

"Oh, yeah a bit, but I want to sleep…" Ty stated, burying his face into the base of my neck. He licked my skin. "You're salty." He informed me.

"You're half asleep." I answered, laughing.

"I am, oh…" With that he drifted back to sleep peacefully.

"You should probably put him back into your bed-"

"No." I snapped, holding Ty closer. "I'm not leaving him alone, that man was in the room with us for who knows how long."

"The one that fucked up Ty's life?" Mitch started. I nodded. "How'd he get into the house?"

"I have no idea, he could be a mage." I muttered. "But I don't want Ty alone for a few days, just to be sure."

"Hey Mitch." Jerome began, sitting in Mitch's lap. "If some crazy powerful mage was haunting me and threatening my sanity, would you let me be alone?"

"Hell no!" Mitch yelled. "Jerome, you doubt my love."

"I love you." Jerome assured, kissing him.

"Good, because you aren't allowed to love anyone else as long as I'm alive." Mitch informed him. Jerome laughed. I took Ty back upstairs, leaving the two of them downstairs and placing Ty back in my bed, lying next to him and holding him close.

~Ty~

I turned over, opening my eyes, the body next to me sitting up, hovering over me. I looked up as my vision focused, smiling pathetically.

"Good morning." Adam whispered, kissing my cheek.

"Good morning." I whispered back, yawning most of it.

"How are you?"

"Tired." I informed him.

"You aren't allowed to fall back to sleep, I haven't seen you in like… 4 days." Adam concluded, sitting me up.

"Oh shit…" I mumbled. "What happened?"

"You passed out after the screech in the ruin, by the lava pool with the scales, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" I yawned. "Well, my legs are numb and frankly I want to stay in this warm… cozy- Put me down- Adam!" I whined as he lifted me up, both of us fully dressed as he brought me downstairs. "You jerk." I muttered. "I was so cozy in that bed too." I continued. Adam simply laughed, slipped me into a chair at the kitchen table.

"You're awake then." Ian announced, smiling.

"I was starting to think you'd stay in bed all day long. AGAIN." Damien exaggerated.

"I was so cozy…" I stated, eating none the less. I looked around. "Where are Jerome and Mitch?"

"Asleep." Damien stated, winking at me.

"Oh." I whispered. "Good for them." I insisted.

"Yeah, I totally wanted to stay up all night listening to them." Ian exaggerated. "How did you sleep through that Adam, how?" Ian demanded. Adam pulled earplugs out of his ears.

"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" He asked. We all cracked up laughing. "No, seriously, were you-"

"Nothing, it's nothing, just talking about the weather. We had a forecast of moaning thunder and scream lightening last night." Damien stated. "Ian wanted to know how you slept through it is all." At that, Adam laughed, putting the earplugs in his pockets and sighing.

"So what do you want to do today?" Adam started softly, looking to me.

"I really should go home, I need to clean the house and keep the sheep fed, can't have a herd of dead sheep, now can I?"

"You can't leave." Adam objected.

"Adam-"

"No, I want to spend time with you." He interrupted.

"You know, he can borrow my cloak if he needs one, I can have my sister make him one when we get back anyway. Don't worry, I don't get cold anyway, never had, just wear the thing because my sister freaks when I don't." Damien stated.

"Then I'm coming with you." Adam confirmed.

"But-"

"Ty, I'm coming with you." Adam insisted, taking my hand. "And you aren't stopping me."

Adam was silent, clinging tightly to my waist, his body against mine as Snow-Dust continued to follow Caramel, staying at least a foot from her at all times. Damien was guiding us, frankly because I've never been more distracted in all of my life. Adam was wrapped up in Damien's cloak as the blizzard, barely see through storm blew harder, Damien being our light source.

"We're almost there." I assured Adam, touching his hand, which rested tightly on my stomach. His skin felt numb in my hands, making me get Snow-Dust going faster. I could feel Snow-Dust accelerating beneath me, Caramel getting faster in reply, lights coming into view. Slowing Caramel down, Damien hopped off, getting the stable doors open as I got Adam off of Snow-Dust, leading them both inside alongside Damien and Caramel. "Just sit here, I'll be right back." I stated, leaving Adam by a pile of hay. And he did, he sat there all right.

"Here, I'll take Snow-Dust, your friend looks cold." Harley assured, swapping Snow-Dust's reins for some blankets. I didn't argue, just rushed back to Adam and wrapped him up tightly with a blanket. He looked at me.

"How are you not cold?" He demanded, his teeth chattering.

"Don't talk; let's get you to my house." I hushed, standing him up and leading him reluctantly back outside. I went towards the gate, the guards seeing us and opening them quickly, allowing us, or rather me, in without question. They could probably tell Adam was cold. Adam glanced around, looking the town over, seeing the different people, the hard work in general put into the town, eventually putting his face against my shoulder, keeping it out of the cold.

Fumbling with my keys, I managed to open the door and get inside the house quickly, shutting the door behind us and leaving Adam on the couch. I went out into the yard, going to the storage shed and gathering some logs up, rushing back inside to start a fire.

"Why live here?" Adam stuttered, coming to my side as a fire roared to life.

"The Central City doesn't search up here, besides, I like it." I informed him, lying against his chest as he wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close.

"It's peaceful." He hummed softly, seeming relatively pleased that he was here, and stood, looking around, now warmed. "The house is beautiful."

"Yeah, I know. I'm so respected here too, apparently I'm someone called a proven warrior." I explained. Adam nodded.

"That's what Michael had said, one of the guards that caught you, the one with the filly. You're pretty respected Ty, I'm glad you've made a name for yourself, it's… I don't know, healthy?" He tried. I laughed, following him into the bedroom.

"We can't exactly bathe in the river, so you can use the shower if you feel the need. Don't worry, we have hot water here, I need to feed the sheep, I'll be right back." I called over my shoulder as I left the room.

"Ok!" He cheerfully responded.

~Notch~

Stormy. This isn't right. Why is it so dark tonight? I hear something. Ah, this makes sense now. Yes, I see.

"Tell him to release me, I've done no harm but enter without permission, not that I should need it anyway."

"Brother, is something wrong? You have no need to come otherwise as I've learned." I answered as he was released, approaching. The guard tried to follow, of course my Brother has made a horrid name for himself, that one horror story you here before bed. I held up a hand, leading my Brother away. The guard did not follow.

Shutting the door slowly behind me, my room dark and deceiving, the windows big, filled of the blackened storm. Staring out the window, he looked back to me, his eyes piercing through the black that surrounds them.

"I fear we have a problem."

"As I figured."

"No, this one is much worse than anything you've had to experience; then I've had to experience."

"Will you enlighten me over this problem, perhaps?" He held out his hand, particles forming a black mass that he tossed in front of him.

"Shine a light over them." I did as he had said and grabbed lit a torch, shining it above this 'problem', soon dropping the torch as a fire started.

"No-"

"Her grave has been found, she awoke from my spell, she's truly dead and now whatever that code word stood for, it's going to begin its process."

"Have you made any progress?" I demanded as he put the fire out.

"No." He sadly informed me, the room turning cold quickly.

"Then how will we know what to look for, it could be an object from a different realm for all we-"

"I know the thing is human." He interrupted. "Therefore this 'thing' is part of the Overworld unless they've travelled through the rips of time."

"What should we do then? We still don't know what the word means." I argued, approaching him to look out the window, watching the sky with him.

"And shall my deadlox destroy you both, ripping apart your souls…" He repeated. Those were the words the girl had said. The word we don't understand.

"What is a deadlox?" I demanded.

"I don't know." He sighed.

"Maybe we could ask Sky-"

"NO!" The room turned icy, his head snapping towards me. "I'M NOT DRAGGING HIM INTO THIS; HE'LL ASK QUESTIONS I CAN'T ANSWER, THAT YOU CAN'T ANSWER!"

"Alright, I understand, please, calm down." I urged, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't want my son to bear a weight he mustn't carry. Unless he finds out on his own by finding the portal, then don't mention it, please."

"And if he somehow knows what deadlox means?" My brother didn't respond after that, staring into my eyes with his soulless ones, eventually turning his head to the window, staring into the storm. "Would you like to stay?" I continued. "To find this deadlox, whatever it may be?" He slowly nodded; turning and leaving the room. He paused by the door, looking back to me.

"Don't tell Sky I'm here, he'll ask questions." And with that he walked to his personal room, one that hasn't been touched for years.