Chapter 93: Doors and dragons
Felix Sythias’ POV:
Alex walked past me to get a look at the hole. When he did, he gasped and rapidly started tapping on my snout to get my attention. I shook my head one last time to shake off the daze I was in. The crack of the lightning and the thunder had been way louder than it had the first time.
While there was still some slight ringing in my ears, I moved forward to see what Alex wanted me to look at. The cavern was a little strange, with the tile-like floor, but the real attention grabbers were the carved double doors.
“Are those what I think they are?” I asked Alex, not quite believing my eyes. I’d never come across dragons anywhere before. Aside from a single off-hand mention, they weren’t in any book or on any tapestries or in any ancient records. So why were there two dragons carved with intricate detail on these doors?
“If you mean the dragons, then yes,” Alex said.
Both dragons stood on their hind-legs, claws reared to the sky while they seemingly roared. I couldn't make out too many details from where I stood, but it was clear these dragons were very different from me. I had two swept-back horns on my head, and a line of ridge-like spikes ran down my spine, getting progressively smaller as they went. On my back they were already small enough that Alex could ride on me without getting uncomfortable, even without my saddle.
But these dragons didn’t. The dragon carved on the left door had sharp spikes running all the way down. They were more like needles than daggers and were way longer at their shortest point than mine were at their longest. His claws also looked more menacing, and his features were generally sharper, with lots of angles.
The other dragon looked much softer. She had webbed talons and her wings had a fin-like quality about them. Flaps lined her back like she was a fish, which was when I realized she probably lived in the sea or in a lake. I wondered how fast she could have swum when she really put in the effort.
I blinked. How did I know their sexes? There was nothing about them that screamed “I’m a guy” or “I’m a girl” like it did on humanoids, but I still knew. Odd. It just went to show how little I actually knew about dragons. Stars, I didn’t even know they could have different shapes. For all I knew, all dragons were like me, but clearly that wasn’t the case. How many other things that I had assumed weren’t true either? I really wanted to know.
I had always wanted to know. It was why I always went along so easily with research and experimentation. Every bit of information we figured out was a little more information about myself and who I was. But while we had proven some things, the majority of things we ‘knew’ was speculation at most. Like my digestive system. We knew for a fact how my body stored nutrients for later, but not why. We could speculate all we wanted, but with me as the only subject, we’d never find out.
With a bit of luck, that was all about to change. Just the carvings on the doors alone were valuable information, let alone anything that might lie behind them. Whatever civilization had made these doors had clearly known enough about dragons to include them in their art—which really spoke to just how old these doors had to be. Even the most ancient of carvings and sculptures we had previously found didn’t include any dragons. This ruin had to be from before the Cataclysm. Dad would have loved this. I hoped I could actually get to tell him what I found in there.
“Stand back,” I told Alex. “I’m going to make the hole bigger. Oh, and do we still have that moss?”
Alex blinked. “No, but there’s plenty of the stuff on the walls,” he said and walked over to a nearby patch. He plucked some of it off the surface and rolled it up into two earplugs. He handed them to me, then made a smaller pair for himself. He walked right to the edge of our light and gave me a thumbs-up. I grinned at him, flashing the gesture back—as well as I could with talons, anyway.
I turned to the wall, took a deep breath and let it back out. I relaxed my body and focused back inward on my mana-pool. I pulled at the mana and clumsily guided it through the lightning core to change its aspect. It had been fine with small quantities of mana, but with the amounts I needed, I felt like I was wearing thick gloves on my mana control. Using the core in this way required control and proficiency with it I didn’t have yet. I made it work, though, even if it was slow.
I let the lightning mana jump through my body and up to my throat where it settled into the weird new organ. It reminded me vaguely of an owl’s gizzard. It crushed and compressed the mana together into a tight sphere that formed between my teeth. It was a strange sensation, almost like having your mouth filled with wadding. It went slightly faster than the last time, but only slightly.
A subtle glow painted the cave blue and white and I felt the lightning crackle and writhe in my maw, struggling to get free. But I knew that if I let it, that it would go in all directions indiscriminately, including back into me. I needed to guide it, which seemed to be the main purpose of the new organ.
With the dexterity of a newborn, I flexed the new ‘muscle’ that was the organ. I was immensely glad the new ability had come with a bunch of instincts to go along with it, as I would’ve never figured out how to aim it by myself. I clenched the mental muscle in just the right way, and a thin line of crackling ionized air lit up in front me, the lightning in my mouth blasting out with an ear deafening crack as it followed this path. It struck forwards along the line, just like I’d wanted it to. It was about the only thing I could do with it right now. Baby-steps, I told myself.
The lightning struck the wall with a tremendous force, completely shattering a portion of stone. I could see it crumbling away for a moment before the cloud of dust covered it all up again. I took a few steps backwards and avoided breathing it in. At least my ears weren’t ringing as much as last time.
Alex was waiting for me, grinning at me. “That is a really cool power, you know that right? It’s like you’re breathing out lightning.”
I chuckled. “Lightning breath… that’s not a bad name. I wish it was as easy as breathing, though. It takes a lot of effort and drains mana like nothing else. Just these two attacks drained my entire pool. This is going to take a while at this rate.”
Alex put his hand on my shoulder, and I sensed his mana flowing into me. “It’s a good thing we’re here together, then.”
I pulled him in for a quick kiss. “That’s sweet, though I wish you were safely above ground instead.”
He shrugged. “And I wish we were both safely above ground, but we got what we got. And if one of us had to get stuck, I’m glad that at least they’re not alone. As much as it sucks that we’re stuck here, and as much as I wished you were safe, I am glad you’re here with me. If you get what I mean.”
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“I do,” I said, giving him another kiss just as he finished channeling his mana. “And I’m glad you’re here with me, too. Now, let’s make that hole bigger, shall we?”
Alex nodded and stepped back again, though not before checking in on his and my ear-mosses.
I turned back to the wall and prepared another lightning bolt. About nine seconds later, it smashed into the wall, making another chunk crumble. Without waiting, I immediately charged up another breath of lightning and shot it at the wall, widening the hole even further. Afterwards, Alex jumped in to quickly recharge me, and I did another round of lightning attacks.
We then had to wait for my and Alex’s mana to recharge, and we spent the time chatting and rereading a few parts of the book we’d already finished. After about an hour and a half, we went back to obliterating the wall. We had to stop after a few more lightning breath attacks, however, to clear away the rubble and debris. I also finally noticed the limitation with Alex’s new mana transfer power. With each recharge, it was getting more and more difficult to control the mana he gifted me. The effect would probably settle down again after we’d given it some time to rest, but we didn’t have that luxury right now.
Luckily, I didn’t need too much control for the breath attack, just enough to guide it through the lightning core and to the new organ. It took a little longer, but that was fine.
After about a dozen total blasts, the hole was finally wide enough for Alex to squeeze through. So he did. We needed to let our mana replenish anyway, so Alex went to draw a copy of the doors. He probably didn’t realize it, but those drawings were going to be worth a lot once we got back.
While Alex did that, I rested and drank some of the ‘recycled water’ that was too concentrated for him to drink. It tasted even worse than I could’ve imagined. It was strong and putrid and was absolutely vile. I was barely able to hold it down and even granted myself the luxury of a small piece of jerky just to get rid of the after-taste. My stomach rumbled and it took a lot of self-control not to grab another piece. Just because I could go without eating didn’t mean I didn’t still feel hungry. At least I didn’t feel too much weaker.
Some time later, Alex returned with his new drawings. We went over them together and I noticed an odd detail I hadn’t seen before. Besides the two dragons were two very small, very stocky people—one for each dragon. Their proportions made me think they weren’t human; they just weren't tall enough. I had no idea which species they were meant to represent, though. Walking back over to the hole to see more detail on the actual doors, I noticed they both had large beards, intricately detailed with braids and gems. Like the dragons, they both faced the heavens with a defiant look, holding some kind of bow-less crossbow in their hands. Very odd.
I told Alex to take good care of his drawings. He nodded, then put his ear-mosses back in and walked away from the entrance. Once he was a safe distance away, I continued blasting the wall.
It took another ten breath attacks before it was finally wide enough for me to just barely squeeze through. Still, I had to crouch down and pull my wings in tight, then push myself through the hole talons first, and drag my hindquarters after me. While I did that, there was a moment where I got stuck and I panicked, pulling hard to get myself through. It took Alex calming me down before realizing I could smooth out the tunnel with my magic and free myself. So that’s exactly what I did.
After I was finally through, Alex went back to our original cave to get our supplies. He handed them to me through the hole and I put them away, except for the saddle, which I put on again. We’d probably need it soon enough, assuming we could actually open the door.
The cave, which I now realized was actually just a room, was square-ish and tiled with faded black stones. Everything had a bit of a round shape to it, a product of an incredible amount of time and wear, I supposed.
We wandered through the room, slowly making our way to the door. Alex showed me all the interesting things he discovered earlier, like the wall fixtures that I had thought had once been lamps. Turned out I was right, they were lamps. Or had been once upon a time. Now there were just calcified chunks of stone with a crystal set into them. After a moment of consideration, I pumped a small bit of mana into one and it lit up with a faint purple light.
“Huh, neat,” Alex said, “I hadn’t thought of trying that.”
We then went around the room powering all the lamps. Not all of them worked, but by the end the room was brightly lit in a way we hadn’t experienced for days. It was weird how much I missed it.
With the room now being lit, we finally made our way over to the doors. They were large. Much larger than I’d thought they had been. I could probably stand on my hind-legs and stretch my neck all the way out and I still wouldn’t reach anywhere near the top. My best guess is that they were at least ten meters high. And oddly enough, they had two sets of door handles. One pair about halfway up, large and heavy. And a smaller pair about half a meter off the ground.
I had thought the doors were just large because of aesthetic reasons, but were they once upon a time used by beings large enough to warrant doors of such a size?
I glanced at the carvings again with new understanding, wandering if the dragon’s size was their actual size. Would I get that big someday? I hoped not. I wanted to be able to continue cuddling with Alex and fitting in my room.
Sighing, I focused back on the carvings. Standing so close to the doors, they were much more imposing. Large and with a lot of depth, the door was so incredibly detailed that I wondered what it was doing underground. It felt like the entrance to a palace, not to some old ruin. Maybe it hadn’t always been buried? But what would’ve caused it to get so deep underground, then?
Hopefully, I’d get some answers soon. Without hesitation, I reached out to the large doorhandles and pulled. The door was very heavy, but it felt weirdly oiled, like someone had maintained it just last week. The door swung slowly but smoothly open and I stepped back to let it. I let the other door be for now.
“That’s… anticlimactic,” Alex said after a moment. I couldn’t blame him. Behind the door was another fucking tunnel. It was dark and black and reached far beyond the room’s ability to light the tunnel up. And yet… The tunnel was clearly made by sapient creatures. Inactive lamps lined the wall, and the walls were tiled. The air smelled both fresh and stale at the same time, and there was a taste of spatial magic to it. Just like what I tasted in Gur’s workshop when I went to order and pick up my armband. The tunnel had spatial shenanigans going on for sure.
I stepped forward into the tunnel, ready to explore its mysteries, when Alex yanked on my tail. I turned around to glare at him, but his expression made me hesitate.
“Are you sure going in there is a good idea?” he asked. “Aren’t ancient ruins usually trapped to the stars and back?”
“Weren’t you the one pushing me to explore just a few hours ago?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now.”
If he asked me to stay here, I probably would. But I really didn’t want him to force me to make that choice. This was the first time since I was born that I could maybe learn more about where I’d come from, and while I could probably come back here later, I wanted to be the first to find that information. It felt too personal to let a random stranger be the one to do that.
“No, no, I’m not. I definitely want to explore the ruin. It’s both our only possible way out and absolutely fascinating, but I think we should at least talk about our plan before we rush straight in...”
Alex’s words made me realize I hadn’t even considered not going into the ruins. It had seemed so obvious to me that we would that I hadn’t even given it a second thought. I would need to watch myself in these ruins. I could already imagine myself running into a room to look at a book or something and setting off a trap.
“Alright,” I said and so we discussed our plan of attack. Or well, plan of exploration. Though we quickly realized there wasn’t too much to actually talk about. It was a straight tunnel, there wasn’t much we could do except go in. So we went inside.
And then the door shut itself behind us.