Wilson's POV

I absolutely, one hundred percent cannot believe I let them talk me into this.

The caves were dark, we all knew that. That was basic knowledge.

However, this, whatever this was, was completely different.

Webber, WX, and Winona had returned late in the morning a few days before, and I found myself nearly passing out in relief seeing that they were all unharmed. Delicately, as if worried that he would drop it and it would break, Webber held the hilt of a beautiful blue sword that glowed faintly in the dark and put his old knife to shame. I had immediately debated whether to take the weapon away from him, but quickly decided against it. It was too big for him and definitely dangerous, but Webber had proven himself more than capable of wielding such a weapon. At least, he probably wouldn't poke his other eye out with it.

Webber had hesitantly mentioned something by the fire that same night, about the Ancient Guardian. I had pointed out that we had agreed to fight it last, which WX had seconded. But the boy seemed so strangely eager, leaning forward until he almost fell and speaking his argument quickly.

It didn't matter what order we fought them, he said.

We were going to have to go to the caves anyway, he said.

But it was something else. Something that he didn't say, but I could see in the way that he was clenching his good fist, and the fire sparking in his eye, that got me to agree.

Webber wanted a fight.

I couldn't imagine why, but it wasn't going to hurt us any. It was something we were going to have to do eventually.

Getting into the caves had been easy, as finding the Bearger's corpse had been. A particularly ugly spider had confronted us by the corpse, but Erika had quickly appeared and disengaged before anything could happen.

Now, the white spider was beside her brother, taking the lead of our pack. A handful of other spiders followed from a distance, only given away by the occasional glimmer of arachnid eyes or muted hisses. I couldn't help but realize that the spiders were specifically looking at me half the time. I squirmed under their watching eyes, knowing full well that I was not welcome amongst them.

In front of us was a massive, high-walled labyrinth.

I shivered as cool air blew from somewhere down the winding halls, knowing full well that whatever was causing that breeze was not natural.

You know, maybe this wasn't worth it. Maybe it would be best if we turned back now.

Even as the thought crossed my mind, I saw an uncomfortable expression on WX's face, hinting that the automaton was very much thinking the same thing as I.

Winona seemed almost oblivious. She actually marched past Webber and Erika, crouching down by one of the walls and running her fingers down the smooth, golden material. "I've never seen anything quite like this," she said, a surprised note in her voice. "Is this material natural here?"

Webber tipped his head as he paced up to join her, resting his hand against the wall. "It's warm," he observed. "Erika-" his voice degraded into a set of short hisses, which the white spider replied to. He nodded. "Thulecite," he said. "That's what Erika says it's called. She said it's been here longer than they have, so who knows where it came from."

"THE FLUX IS STRONG HERE," WX said. "IT IS... LIKE THE AIR IS THICK WITH IT." He said the words with a sort of disgusted tone, as if they didn't sit right with him.

"I mean, I suppose if we look at it that the Dragonfly is what caused the Summer to be so deathly hot," I started, observing the surroundings without touching any of them. Warm, ancient walls in a dark, freezing cave was more than I wanted to handle. "Then we can also infer that the Deerclops is making the Winters significantly worse. And following that logic, it would make sense that the source of... the 'flux' here... could be the Ancient Guardian."

There was a long moment of silence between us, and with it a painful tension between us.

"Well, we're not getting any younger." It was Winona who broke the silence. She took her hand away from the thulecite and grinned at the rest of us. "Are we doing this or not? It's not too late to turn back, you know. The, uh, Ancient Guardian isn't going anywhere, you know."

Even as she spoke, Webber was shaking his head. I felt my stomach drop. I just wanted to get out of this terrifying place.

"No, we should do it. Running now is just going to ruin whatever courage we've built up." He took a look at me and grimaced. "Well, what little courage, that is."

"I BELIEVE YOUR SWORD IS REACTING TO THE ENERGY HERE."

It was true, I realized. The sword had been growing brighter so gradually that I somehow hadn't even noticed that it was becoming brighter than our torches. Webber's black fur was glowing silver in the blue light, and WX looked almost ghostly.

"Maybe that means we're meant to be here, then," Winona pointed out. "If we found that sword just a few days ago, and there is a decision almost immediately after to fight this thing- followed by the sword actively reacting to whatever is here? I say that means this is exactly what it wants."

Webber nodded in agreement. "Yes. Let's go, before we all chicken out."

Without waiting for us to respond, the boy broke ahead again, the sword's light following him. I kept a steady grip on my torch, not entirely trusting that light to stay. WX looked up, a look that was definitely concerned plastered on his face as his gaze traveled up the wall of golden mineral.

Despite the brightness of Webber's sword, not a single glimmer of blue light reflected off of the wall. It didn't brighten or shine at all. Even when light was directly placed near it, it remained dingy and dark.

It was like the walls were absorbing the light, or even rejecting it. I shivered, whether from the cold or fear, I couldn't tell. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to quell the goosebumps rising on my flesh.

The floors beneath our feet began to gradually change. I would see an occasional glimmer of red light seeping through cracks in the rock, and over time, these cracks grew larger and more frequent. The rock seemed to get darker with every step until it appeared as if we were walking on nothing.

Winona occasionally reached over and pried pieces of crumbling thulecite away from the walls, or bent down to hold a piece of black and red rock in her hand. She was pocketing them, as if saving them for further observation later. I, however, kept my hands firmly at my side. Materials that rejected light were more than just materials, and I was afraid of what long-term exposure to it would do to me.

Maybe I was just afraid of Nightmare using this as an opportunity to take control of me again.

There were several times were we could come across several splitting paths, but Webber wouldn't even look at the others before choosing one. His whiskers were twitching furiously, occasionally brushing against the thulecite as they did.

In some places, the ground was covered with vast expanses of sticky webbing. Dangling Depths Dwellers, like Erika, would stare at us from the ceiling as he walked through their territory, but none of them ever attacked us. Was that because of Erika being one of them, or did they, too, despise the cold touch of the flooring? I looked up uncomfortably. How long were these halls?

"So, Wilson."

I nearly jumped out of my skin as I heard my name. I snapped into attention, turning my eyes to Winona. The mechanic had dropped a few paces back, matching my step.

"You're a scientist, right? I don't think I've ever heard what branch you studied."

It was an innocent enough question, although one I hadn't answered in a long, long time, mostly because I didn't really have a good answer. I shrugged, struggling to hide how creeped out I was by this place. "I don't really study a specific branch," I replied. "Mostly, ah, invention. But I've always been fascinated by the unknown. The things that scientists struggle to explain." I found myself almost laughing at that, especially as Winona broke out into a grin.

"Ah, so places like this must be your cup of tea."

"Not quite. I prefer things that are hard to explain, yes, but also things that... can be explained. Not walls that can eat light." I beckoned to said light-eating walls.

"Fair enough. But you know medicine and mechanics?"

"Oh, no no," I laughed. "I know basics of both, mainly just from classes. Keeping out infections and tending to injuries is one of the first things I learned. And, despite how complex WX is mentally, his inner workings are actually pretty easy to understand."

Winona nodded thoughtfully.

"In fact, if you know your way around any kind of technology, I imagine that you would be able to read him like a book. Well," I glanced at the robot, who was staring down at his feet so intensely I almost wondered if there was something upsetting him other than just the spooky surroundings. "You can read his structure like a book. Maybe not him."

She laughed. "Well, that makes sense. I kind of got that from him already."

"I mean, we've-"

"Hush!" Webber hissed back at us. He had stopped abruptly ahead at what looked like a completely normal branching of the labyrinth. He tipped his head, then nodded, hissing something at Erika.

"Is this the end of it?" I asked, confused. How could he possibly know it was any different than the rest? Other than the darkening floor, everything looked the same.

"Mhmm." He readjusted his grip on the sword, holding it awkwardly with his right hand. I felt a flash of panic in my chest. He could barely fight with his right hand, let alone use a weapon than he had never trained on even with his left hand.

WX finally looked up, scowling fiercely. "IF THIS IS THE CENTER OF IT, I WOULD APPRECIATE KNOWING HOW YOU LED US HERE."

A look of confusion suddenly sprouted on the boy's face. "Um... that's... a good question." He looked around, his eyes dancing around the faint designs on the thulecite walls. "Maybe it's just the way the energy feels. Almost... like it was helping us, you know?"

WX did not looked satisfied with the answer.

"It's definitely stronger here," I agreed, although I had no idea if it actually was. I was too busy feeling like I was suffocating in the darkness to notice if it felt any more suffocating or not.

The boy hushed me again, even though I was quieter than he and WX had been. He pressed his back against the wall and looked around one of the corners. Curious, I moved beside him, trying to see what he was looking at.

As soon as I brushed against him, he recoiled as if he had been hit. He glanced sheepishly up at me before shying away. I had just enough time to be disappointed before I glanced around the corner.

The halls of the labyrinth fell away ahead, revealing a massive platform that was surrounded on all sides by deep, dark gaps. Flowers tipped with glowing light bulbs illuminated the area so much that I could see everything inside of the platform- the deathly sharp stalagmites and stalactites, the occasional pillar formed by those rock outcroppings fusing together, the puddles of water that littered the pitch black rock.

But most of all, it illuminated the hide of a huge, gray-furred beast.

It looked like it was... asleep. It had two massive trunk-like feet tucked beneath its shaggy gray fur, and a terrifyingly sharp and terrifyingly sturdy, pale gleaming horn.

The horn.

That was our target from this creature.

I swallowed heavily. It wasn't as large as any of the Giants, it had no claws or deadly sharp teeth. It had no fire or ice, no furious tornado minions and no roar that could send an entire army to its knees.

And yet somehow, it was the most terrifying thing I had ever laid eyes on.

"It's in there," I whispered to WX and Winona, who nodded. Winona looked almost excited, and WX had a fierce grimace on his face. Webber's expression was mostly neutral, in the fact that there were so many different emotions struggling for control that no one stood out to me.

"Let's do this, everyone."

I was the first to break away from the safety of the walls. My footsteps seemed unnaturally loud, especially since they seemed to grow louder as soon as I was away from the maze itself.

Before I got too far, I glanced back at my companions. Webber was readjusting his grip on the sword as if he couldn't quite figure out how to handle it, and Winona was furiously wiping her nodoubtedly sweaty palms against her overalls. WX was the only one who stayed on my tail, as did Erika and a small group of the spiders, although they were a bit further away. At my look, the other two finally joined me.

I don't know what it was- maybe it was the presence of strangers in its territory, or maybe it was the muttering hisses of the spiders. Maybe it was just the heavy footfalls of the robot directly behind me. But before we got much further in, the beast's blank eyes opened and its face twisted with rage.

I didn't even have time to take a deep breath before it charged.