Summer, age 6.

It's the height of summer. I've been splitting my time between training from early morning to afternoon, and learning how to imprint in the afternoon when my father takes me to Alfred's shop. I have had little free time. But every now and again, I do go exploring with my friends.

We're exploring a cavern near the village today. It didn't look like a whole lot from the outside, but it's a different story once you enter it.

There are stalagmites and stalactites covering most of the cavern, sometimes meeting at the middle. Which is no small feat, considering the sheer size of the cavern. It's at least fifty feet from ceiling to floor.

Now that would have been a sight in the old world. But here, it's spectacular.

The crystals are glowing. They are actually glowing. Most of them are this deep scarlet red, but some few of them are shades of green, and there is a single bright sapphire blue column in the center of the cavern. Each of the crystals are surrounded by several manaflies in their respective color, creating a myriad of colors across the caverns. We're watching this from a large ledge with a trail that goes down to the bottom of the cavern, where several caves extend out to the sides.

I'm pushed hard in the back and stagger forwards several feet before I regain my footing.

``What's taking so long, inkhead, get a move on.'' [James]

This damn brat.

``Shut up mama's boy, I'm enjoying the view. And don't push me you idiot, I could have slipped and fallen.'' [Nathan]

``Don't call me a mama's boy!'' [James]

``Then don't call me inkhead.'' [Nathan]

You'd think he'd learn after the first five hundred times I called him that...

``Inkhead, just leave the mama's boy alone and get going.'' [Tony]

Meh. I slowly make it down the trail, which is rather slippery. At the bottom, the cavern looks even more spectacular, the crystals creating colored shadows that shift as the glow of the crystals change intensity, which they do almost rhythmically.

``Come on Nathan, we're here to explore the cavern, not look at crystals.'' [Andrew]

Andrew's attitude towards me has changed a lot. He has a lot more respect for me after the incident with the boar.

``How is looking at the crystals not a part of exploring?'' [Nathan]

``Because you can do both at the same time. Now come on, we're going into this cave.'' [Tony]

I follow the rest of the gang into the cave, clearly going slower than the others because I, much to their dismay, keep stopping to look at the crystals. I don't care if they're in a rush, this scenery is breathtaking.

The cave isn't that long, about fifty yards. At the end there is a small pond with a stalagmite growing into it from the ceiling. The stalagmite is green, giving the pond an emerald glow.

``See inkhead, if we'd stayed in the main cavern we wouldn't have seen this.'' [Tony]

Kid has a point..

``Now let's go back and explore the other caves!'' [Tony]

We head back to the main caverns and explore the other caves one at a time. Most were unremarkable, some without any defining features at all, and a few had some beautiful crystal formations. One had a blue stalagmite and red stalagmite crawl across the wall and meet in the middle. They were only just joined, and seemed to be blending in the middle where they glowed purple.

Coming back to the cavern after exploring one of the last caves, which was a lot longer than the other ones, one thing was different.

There was something sleeping in the middle of the cavern.

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It's a big fox with large edged crystals in a cubic lattice growing across it's right front leg, making it look like Pyrite was growing out of it's skin.

I turn around to ask the others what it is.

``Hey, what's that?'' [Nathan]

The others look rather pale, and they're all staring at the fox intensely. I get that though, it looks extremely weird with it's leg like that. It extends all the way down to it's paw.

``Guys, what's up?'' [Nathan]

``Th-th-that's a crystal host.'' [Andrew]

``A what now?'' [Nathan]

``A crystal host. It's an animal that's been infected with the crystal plague.'' [Tony]

``Crystal plague? What's that?'' [Nathan]

``I-i-it's a curse. If it touches you with those crystals, yo-you get the curse too!'' [James]

``And what does the curse do?'' [Nathan]

``It kills you! After it turns you into a soulless beast, you die from it!'' [James]

``Keep your voice down you birdbrain! What if it hears us!'' [Tony]

Tony whispers furiously.

Shit, this is bad.

``So what are we going to do?'' [Nathan]

They all look at each other silently, with terror on their faces. Sarah is almost crying, there are clearly tears in her eyes and James is shaking violently.

After all, they are just kids.

I look around the cavern. The fox is in the middle of the room, and the pathway is on the left side of the room. I'm not sure I can reach it from here without waking up the fox, if it's even sleeping.

And if I can't reach the pathway alone, no way is our entire group going to make it.

I look down my sides. I brought my daggers. My mother said I was not to go anywhere without them, something about never knowing where danger is hidden. Never really paid much attention, but I'm glad I brought them today.

But I don't think I can go up against it alone. I'm about twice as high as the fox is if it were to stand up, or at least so I think.

... I'll have to distract it. My mother drilled it into me that I should make a large distraction to cover my small distraction. I'll make it think I was trying to distract it from me, and then the others will slip out.

I look around for a rock, and find a large one that's bigger than my fist.

``Guys, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to go to the right side and distract it, and once it looks at me, you go up the slope. Once you're all up there, I'm going to follow you, okay?''

They all nod, too terrified to ask questions. Except for Tony.

``I'll help. Give me one of your knives.'' [Tony]

I shake my head.

``You don't know how to use it, and we can't make it up there both of us. You'll have to let me do this on my own. When you get up there, just run. Run to the village, and tell the grownups. It's not that far from here, you should be able to make it in time to save me if something goes wrong.'' [Nathan]

That's a lie though. It's at least 15 minutes from here, and it's a round trip. That coupled with the time it will take to find someone who can help it will be 30 minutes at the very very least.

Tony looks doubtful, but I stare very intensely at him. He slowly nods.

``... Alright then. I'll go last though, and make sure we make it up there.'' [Tony]

``Good. I'll go now, once I get it's attention, you run as fast as you can. Make sure you don't trip, it's slippery.'' [Nathan]

I pick up the stone and edge my way along the wall to the right side of the cavern. I take a deep breath, and throw the rock at the opposite side from where I came.

It hits a crystal and makes a loud sound as it bounces off and onto the floor. The fox rushes to it's feet, startled, and looks around rapidly before it spots me. As it slowly starts approaching me, I draw my daggers, and put them up to guard my body.

As the fox creeps closer, I see the others begin their slow ascend towards the exit.

The fox tries to circle me, but I keep my back against the wall, daggers in front of me. It eyes the daggers very closely, but continues it's advance towards me. The moment it came close enough, I took a step forward and took a light swing at it's nose. It barely missed, and seemed to piss it off. The fox hisses at me, and takes a step back. We continue our dance while the others rush up the path as silently as they can. Once they get halfway up, I start circling around the fox to secure an escape path. It's a lot more aggressive now, furiously hissing at me and trying to get past my guard. I can see by it's teeth that they have no crystals, so it's only the right paw that's really dangerous, even if I do not want to get anywhere near those teeth.

With my back against the path, I slowly start retreating towards it. The fox follows me, always one step out of reach trying to get closer.

I make my way up the path. It's slippery as hell. The fox is getting closer now. I've relaxed my guard, letting it get a little closer, and this is my chance.

Planting my feet in the most secure ground I can find, I take another swing at it's face.

A hit! The fox howls wildly and retreats with a large cut across it's snout.

I turn around on the spot and sprint as fast as I can up the slope. Trying desperately not to lose my footing on the slippery slope. I'm almost there.

``AARRRGGHHH!!!'' [Nathan]

I turn around to see what happened

IT BIT ME!

Shit it hurts!

The fox has a solid grip on my foot with it's jaws. I can see blood seeping out from the wound. The crystallized paw in planted solidly on the ground, and it's using it lever me down.

I try to shake the fox off, but it won't let go. In desperation, I stab at it's face, and hit it's eye. The fox lets go, and howls loudly in pain. I take my chances and bolt up as fast as I can before it has a chance to resume it's chase.

The moment I make it to the top, I see that Tony is waiting for me with a two large rocks. He hurls them at the fox, hitting it squarely in the torso, before he grabs my shirt and pulls me up.

``RUN!!'' [Tony]

He doesn't have to tell me twice. I run as fast as my legs will carry me, all the way to the village.