The Sphynx's Gauntlet Part 1

Finally getting my new ideas out on paper, expect a lot more stories from me in future.
I did some light editing this morning, so tell me what you think. (It's still morning for me)
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Archmage Bael looked out from his sliding chair infront the board. The bland looking classroom was divided into groups of young mages practicing a new spell for their test in two weeks. As Bael walked up to the front of the room, no one seemed to pay any attention to their brown haired instructor. This was the second day of class.

“So...” he spoke as he cleared his throat. At the last minute a chair flew across the room from from a spell colision.

“Anyway” Bael said, continuing with what he intended to say. “That's it for today. Remember not to buy the listed 'Magic Efficiency' book that the academy wants. I've already spoken to the board; they finally agree that Syldraw's 'Theory of Magical Efficiency' is a much better text, since it came out last month it has re-written some of the ways we string spells together.” As he finished, most of the class had already packed up their bags and were visibly eager to file out of the classroom.

Pointing to the two people in the back who were fiddling with the table's magical properties, he sighed, waving the toward him as he scribbled down a notice of detention.

Suddenly the world around him started to fade, and he woke up in a soft bed with a rugged looking brown walls all around him. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the curvy outer wall with a crappy drawing of Mara and Janev. It smelled of wood, but with a light relaxing scent wafting through the air. Feeling a subtle slump in the bed from his other side he rolled around to look at what was weighing it down; she sat up suddenly, becoming tangled in the sheets as his gaze fell upon a fairy with blood red hair, and a rather cute expression on her face.

“Your eyelashes flutter when you dream” She spoke in a soothing voice. “Good morning”.

“Er-good morning to you too Mara” he said calmly, it took a while for him to get used to her sitting on his bedside while he slept. He thought for a moment, remembering that he told the Mage's guild that he will be traveling somewhere. His eyes feel downard, not paying attention to where they were drifting as he thought about his trek through the jungle toward the rendez-vous location where he met Mara the day before.

Knowing full well Mara will stay in the room even if he tells her to leave, he gets out of bed, giving up before anything started. He walked over to where his clothes were and put them on before he walked out of the room with his girlfriend.

Mara's house looked like a carved-out inside of a tree, but the ground was a hard ground floor. It wasn't too fancy, but making houses inside a tree provided a lot more protection that sleeping outside in the Felaryan Night. Bael walked past the lounge room of the house, filled with various objects. There were some giant couches and tables scattered around, as well as a door near the back wall that led to a large sealed off room. If Mara and Janev built this themselves, it would have taken a while.

Looking at the door in the back, he turned to Mara as he started eating breakfast.

“Janev seems to love that room of hers, she spends a lot of time in there” he spoke after gulping down some food. Mara just watched him eat while she rubbed her belly. Apparently she went out before him to grab some food herself.

“Oh thinking about Janev are we?” she teasted, not taking too much time to think about a response. “Janev just does what she wants. Like me~” Mara stated playfully.

Bael sighed as he continued to eat.

“Was that some sort of teaching you were doing in your dream?” Mara asked.

Bael had to remember that Mara could use some light psionic powers long with her arsenal of powerful illusion magic.

“Yeah that was a nightmarish class. Eventually I told them to practice channeling magic energies to each other because no one was listening.” Bael said as he finished his food. There was a stock of enchanted bread that he keeps in Mara and Janev's home for when he comes to visit. It's not too different from the elvish weybread he ate all the time from the world he was born in before he came to Felarya.

As they both sat with each other in silence for a minute, Mara broke it to tell the elven Archmage about something she planed to do.

“I heard there is a cave near Chordoni Bael, with some nice treasure guarded by some magical creature”

“Ancient magical creatures usually mean lots of danger. Why do you want to do this?” Bael asked her curiously. He would love a nice piece of treasure, but his face betrayed his nervousness.

“It'd be fun, besides, the both of us could pull it off! I'm a fairy, remember?” She spoke as she wore her usual gleeful face while Bael listened patiently, not caring that she sounded a little egotistical about her strength.

"Perhaps her long life has made her confident of herself?" he thought to himself.

Bael thought about her last comment as he stood up and moved his tiny wooden chair back a top the counter that it's situated on. Mara has kindly set up little accommodations for Bael throughout the home to provide easier access by himself. Mara loved carrying him around, but also enjoyed time for herself as well.

“Well, I don’t need to mention caution, there’s almost as many creatures out to get fairies as there are humans and elves.” Bael spoke as he saw it. Many would think that he is a threat to security befriending a fairy, but indeed the strength of Negav is mighty. Even A fairy couldn’t jeopardize the might city’s strength. Then again, Negav has had the last few centuries of development as the only standing prey city that is above ground.

Just then there was a sudden creaking sound as the back door opened. It slid to the side as the naga behind stuck her massive head out and looked down upon Bael, as he stood on the counter next to his tiny chair.

“Ah! Janev, good morning!” Mara spoke with an air of liveliness to her.

Yawning, the massive black haired naga looked down upon Bael and yawned, licking her lips. Backing up a little, he almost bumped into Mara, who was leaning against the counter with her belly against the edge.

“Relax…” Janev spoke with an easy, and smooth voice. She loved to joke around with Bael, yawning infront of him with her massive mouth. The giant naga slithered out from the doorway lazily, and looked at the couple before her.

“So what’s the story this time you two~” She spoke with a slight impression of teasing. Janev was somewhat jealous of Mara though, at two hundred and fifty years old, she has yet find a mate. Males were incredibly rare, and finding one is difficult.

“We’re planning on going to this cave near chordoni!” Mara spoke excitedly before Bael cut in.

“I never agreed to go though Mara!” He spoke suddenly. Mara gave him a look that nearly guilt tripped him, and she held it. He eventually caved in.
“Chordoni, eh? I heard there was an interesting naga that lived around those parts…” her speech started to drift off before Bael cocked an eyebrow. If Janev was going with them, he was going to steer clear of her adventures. She was a very strong and caring friend, but often she got into dangerous situations that jeopardized his safety.

“We can find you breakfast on the way there Janev right? When can we leave?” Mara asked.

“Sure” she replied casually. She may have just woken up, but she can definitely hold out for an hour or two.

Within a few short minutes Mara, Janev and Bael were already out of their house and venturing north-west across the river that was just a half-mile from their simple wooded dwelling. Underneath Bael’s mage overcoat he carried a case of emergency potions that accelerated healing to a various degree, and other antidotes.

As they got to the water front, the loud rushing sound of the wide stream flowed through the various plants on the surface, among reeds and fallen branches. Down a little ways however, there was an area with no reeds, plants or branches littering the top, and the water seemed a bit higher there. Mara flew just above Janev as she slithered herself into the stream. The naga’s long black hair nearly touched the cold clear water as it rushed past her body. The rocks beneath were actually pretty high, but they got deeper. Mara flew close to the water’s surface while bael used a spell that made his eyes glow blue. A large shadow passed Janev’s front suddenly.

“Mara! I think someone else is in here!” Janev exclaimed worriedly. There were many dangers below the water, just as there were above it. Janev continued to slither slowly though, reaching the halfway mark as she nervously kept looking down at the water constantly for the sub marine threat.

In a quick response, Janev started fading from view. Her affinity to the light element helped her do this magically, but it doesn't hide her scent, only her visual location.

"Quickly Janev! I think I see it coming back!" Mara yelled at the massive naga who's tail was undulating over the rocks. It seems that not even a minute into trying to cross the river's expanse an aquatic creatures tries to claim her. Bael used a detection spell, tracing the creature's location with his now vaguely glowing eyes.

The large shadow travelled rapidly under the clear water, getting closer and closer toward what it obviously thought was it's target. Janev's scent was travelling through the water giving her location away to those with good enough scents to detect her. Even so, it didn't know exactly where Janev is.

"I'm trying!" She yelled from her sightless location. She tried to jump off the rocks and glide across the one hundred or so feet of seemingly bottomless water. Bael and Mara saw splashing, signifying Janev's attempt at a forward stroke while her tail undulated rapidly.
Meanwhile, the large shadow turned with a jerk as it continued it's path toward the eighty-five foot naga.
A few seconds later she re-appeard a little further down the bank of the river breathing slightly heavy, as if in pain. Slowly she trailed out of the river. Mara put Bael down on the side and grew larger as she tried helping her friend's tail out. As she looked down to gaze upon it she didn't like what she saw.

Largely unedited, finished it last night, I've been so stoked to get this done recently, and plan on finishing the last bit today. ^_^

I seriously hope life gives me enough time to work on stories successively.
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There was what looked like a puncture wound near the back of Janev's tail. A tree log was propped on the bank behind the massive naga who cringed at the brief pain from getting slightly impaled. There were some light wounds, but nothing too serious. However, Mara still didn't want any trouble, so she called Bael over for some help.

"No no it's fine Mara" Janev insisted, "we should keep going, it's not safe here."

"It looks like a tree fell and flew downstream and pummeled you. It looked more like a fish with all those branches sticking out on the side" commented Bael.

"Are you sure you don't want a break?" Mara replied concernedly. She looked at her friend from a few yards away, in her giant form.

"I'm sure! We're better off moving than me laying here with a wound. We'd be more of a target if we don't move."

Trusting her friend's judgement they resumed traveling all the way toward Chordoni. The trees mostly looked like a hybrid between pine trees and Sequoias on steroids. It was very silent around, not a lot of external sounds, as the giant predators cause the other inhabitants of this area to pay attention to stealth, instead of walking out in the open.

Over the next few hours, the three friends set out carefully and slowly. Progress was surprisingly swift, Mara continued to hold Bael and fly him through the forest. As they passed through, the tree's leaves blew in the wind, and the overgrown roots continued to block the paths everywhere. The tall bushes looked quite small from the high vantage point the group was at.
Morning transformed into afternoon as Janev, Mara, and Bael made their way miles across the Felaryan wilderness, and all the way to the magic rich land of Chordoni.

Meanwhile, a group of three travelers just managed to enter the dungeon like cave-dwelling, and walked their way past the entry hall.
A human, Derek led the way with his wife Soinee, a Canopy fairy. Following close behind was Ienna, a Letena from an alien world called Centauri.
Quietly, Derek spoke to the others.

"...It's empty, there's nothing around here."

Ienna, Soinee, and Derek kept quiet. Being silent meant only two things, either the whole place was empty or sparsely populated, or it was a trap. Assuming the latter was the safest position to take, and they knew it. As they walked through the hallway into the antechamber, it was warmly lit with ever-burning torches, and a long walkway down the center. Stairs led to a lower level on the right side, and the whole place gave an impression of a simple, yet complex escher drawing.

As Ienna, Derek, and Soinee ventured further into the maze, Mara, Janev, and Bael approached to within a dozen meters of the cave.

"All right, here's where I leave you. I can't fit inside that place."
Bael looked up at Janev, and thanked her as she let them down.

"Sure Bael, dont go and get yourself killed while I'm away~"

Mara floated idly to the grass below and waited as Bael walked up to her. They turned and waved as Janev slithered off to the east toward the waterfall.

"All right Bael, c'mon!" She spoke with a happy face, tugging the Elf by the arm and through the mouth of the cave. The cave was only dark for a brief moment as the lights from the dungeon flooded the area with a strangely comforting orange light. Bael looked around as Mara clung to her boyfriend.

"...It's quiet in here"

"I hear those fairies are pretty nasty" Bael facepalmed at Mara's terrible joke.

They walked on through the same entrance that Ienna, Derek, and Soinee came through not fifteen minutes prior and cast a detection spell, making his eyes glow a faint blue. There was no sign of a fight, no sign of any other adventurers taking up residence in these halls. Bael's long coat barely touched the floor along the length of the room as he walked alongside his naked girlfriend.

They got to the end of the hallway and there was a door with no handle, and upon closer inspection had some ancient runes. Mara looked at them and spoke up.

"Aww, they're runes...I hate reading runes..."

"Hold on a sec Mara..."

Bael spent a minute reading over the front of the doorway. There was a surprisingly large amount of instructions.

"Basically it's just telling us that we need to open the door with a spell. No big deal."

Bael made the area around his hand glow with fire and pressed it against the the door, and it opened rather easily.

"I wonder why a spell activation is required...huh Bael?"

"Most likely the inhabitants who used this place were all magic savvy."

They walked through the door, and down the hallway as they spoke with each other. It looked similar to the antechamber, with smooth walls and floors carved from the mountain they were in.

"Yeah, it could also be a warning that some understanding of magic is required to survive past this point."

"We should be well suited for-huh? Oh hello!"

Bael looked over at Ienna, Derek and Soinee as they walked down from a set of stairs on the right side of the room.

"Oh hello Bael." Ienna spoke rather calmly. Soinee on the other hand tried to welcome Mara, but was too slow, as she was already being gripped from a rapid-tackle hug. Soinee did nothing but grin back and greet Mara with another hug.

"It's nice to see you too Mara!" Soinee exited smoothly from Mara's hug, being the only one who could probably escape her hug of death.

"What are you guys doing here?" Derek asked.

"Mara told me about this place, why?"

"Oh, Soinee was the one who told Mara about it"

"Shall we go?" Mara cut in quickly. She enthusiastically stepped ahead of the group. They walked onward, the other three told them about the dead end up stairs, and they decided to keep going down the hallway, making a left, and coming to stairs that went up into another large room.

"Have you guys seen anything in here yet?"

"No, that worries me" Ienna ironically stated with another tone of supreme calmness.

They kept walking on up the stairs and into the room a little ways, it was the same as before. Another door was just a few feet beyond the landing at the top of the stairs, once again Bael went up in front of everyone, and opened the door. As he went through he saw whole place was decorated in similar features, with very little text making it hard to nagivate without technology, or a good sense of direction. The fires were brightly lit still, and dancing pleasantly.

"Wait I think I see something" Bael paused and whispered that quickly.

"What are you talking about, it's empty."

"Remember those creatures, the ones that like to blend in with fire, and attack from behind?"

"Salamanders" stated Soinee.

"This could be a problem." Ienna looked around at about a dozen large, lit torches scattered that were keeping the whole place lit.

Part 3, as many of you know, it's also available on my DA.
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Bael walked slowly through the large chamber and took note of his surroundings. There were four pillars holing the roof up, and some benches on the edges, near the large torches. There was a hallway going in each direction from his standpoint. If there was a giant salamander, it could jump at them from any angle.

The group stayed close together, and looked out at all sides for any sign of movement. As Bael looked on ahead, his detection spell let him see what what he assumed was a Salamander. It had an organic looking figure, and it's whole body was highlighted in a different shade that contrasted with the fire it was attempting to hide behind. Bael nudged Derek, and glanced ahead.

"It's over there"

"Where?"

"The right torch near the entry of the far hallway."

As if to hear what he said, the creature lunged out suddenly with a stream of fire, separating the group as they dodged the flame from it's mouth.

"Watch out!!!" Derek yelled, and shot a neural shock at the creature, barely hurting it.

The beast was roughly twenty five feet long, and shiny skin. It was a massive creature penned in with not much room to maneuver. Ienna took out her rifle from behind a pillar, and shot a tranquilizer slug at the behemoth.

It moved a little to the left and blew another stream of fire at the pillar as the dart hit it in one of it's shoulders.

Mara was quick to respond; she used an illusion spell to duplicate herself, and three additional fairies flew around trying to disorient the salamander with additional illusion spells.

The massive salamander started writhing around, clawing and breathing fire in random directions, not being able to see clearly. This gave the others an advantage in strategy, albeit a rather hard to predict opponent now. As it left itself open on its right, Bael took the opportunity to throw an ice spell into the soft fleshy hide.

Yelling in pain, it tried to retreat, but hit a wall and lashed out with more claws and fire.

"Give it some room!" Ienna yelled as she shot another slug into the creature, once again missing it's swerving head, hitting it square in the nervous system.

The beast made a deafening painful roar, and charged straight through the middle, trying to hit something. Derek tried to shoot it's head with another neural shock and missed, since his main weapon was a foot long knife, fighting large monsters up close was out of the question. Obviously the creature had experience or luck in fighting against projectile weapons. The problem was the it's mass, which made it hard to take down quickly.

Bael launched a bolt of ice at the floor infront of the salamander, freezing the ground, and the salamander slipped. Mara and Soinee worked around the rear, and Derek was next to Ienna, who took the opportunity flee as it fell and wailed in pain. Bael ran along the other side, opposite Ienna and Derek; he met up with everyone at the creatures tail, and ran down the hall, out of reach. Behind them a collapsed, somewhat paralyzed creature was seen lying on the floor, basking in the heat from the gigantic torches.

A few minutes later, they took a deep breath as they escaped from the Salamander.

"So Bael, is that a heat detection spell, like thermal?"

"Nah, if I cast one of those, the beast would still blend in with the fire. What I cast is a spell that 'highlights' beings with a magical density, therefore allowing me to see the Salamander over the fire."

Everybody kept quiet after Bael spoke. The group continued to walk a bit slower, paying attention to any hint of movements elsewhere. The halls and chambers were still lit with massive torches, and anything could pop out at a certain time.

The next hour was spent walking carefully, and navigating the dungeon.

"So what do you guys think we'll find?" Mara said with a happy face.

"Well I thought we all heard that there was supposed to be a Sphynx somewhere around here."

"No, not the Sphynx, I mean the knowledge, or artifacts of ages past~"

"Well I don't care too much for treasure, you all know that" Bael responded, "It's the creatures that interest me more than anything else...and the magic."

Mara took this opportunity to tease Bael about being 'one of those creatures', causing him to sigh.

"I dont know, but whatever it is, I hope it helps us get more money" replied Derek. For him and his wife weren't exactly rich, and living outside of negav is a necessary evil for their relationship.

"It'd be nice to help Tuc get some data. I don't think he has any information of Sphynx's, and he doesn't have the time to go exploring a lot." Ienna stated. Ienna lived with a human doctor, who went by the name "Tuc".
When silence fell over the group again, Ienna spoke up, "oh next time we get into a fight, we need to make sure my core is protected"

"Yeah, that's what lets you come back when you die..." Bael tried to remember the odd relationship between Ienna and her core.

"Well, that's one way to look at it"

"Don't worry, we'll protect you" Mara smiled as she gave the Letene a hug.

"I can take care of myself, it's just that I want to make sure my core isn't damaged in the event of a drastic situation." Ienna tried to hug the clinging Fairy back.

They took the stairs at the end of the corridor into a larger room. This one looked promising; it was lit the same way as all the other rooms, but there were thin pillars a dozen feet ahead, which marked the end of floor. The chasm in the middle was crossable only by a thin bridge that was drawn up in the center. As everyone looked out they walked blindly out to the bridge ahead.

As Mara approached the bridge she heard a scuttling sound and moved back suddenly.

"What is it Mara?"

"Insects!!" She yelled, as about a dozen insects climbed over the edge of the chasm walls. Bael quickly opened fire with a magic spell. Insects were resistant to magic spells directly, so he used a spell that loosened the floor underneath with a sudden jerk. This sent a few flying back down, and half a dozen scattered in a different direction.

Ienna split up with Soinee, and Derek was stuck with Bael, as both groups assaulted the insects from both sides. Mara used her illusion spells, and cast a couple duplicates of herself, and let her 'clones' do the fighting in front. Using a little magic, one of the duplicates grew a few feet, and picked one of the insects up, throwing it against another.

Bael stood back and used the brick to pummel another insect with it. About five insects walked over the brick, and the Archmage used a combustion spell to bust it apart, sending a barage of tiny projectiles in every direction.

Derek used his knife as two of them approached him from climbing up over the chasm. He swung in a horizontal arch, slashing at them. More insects kept climbing up over and into range of the group ceaselessly.

Everyone was too busy to yell for help, but the platform before the bridge was wide enough to allow for maneuvering space. Only Ienna and Derek had effective anti-insect weapons. Soinee's shadow spells were able to push them back, but not hurt them. Mara's illusions worked only so well, and her ice magic wasn't able to pierce the hard shells of the insects.

Four insects crowded around one of the Mara duplicates, and lunged and injured one of them. The illusion disappeared, as the real Mara tried to duplicate herself again.

Bael cast a physical deflection sheild as about three insects lunged at him. As they fell to the ground a small column of fire hit them underneath, and they fell over sizzling.

Ienna used her rifle to shoot at the creatures from behind the lines. It was imperative that she not get damaged, being more fragile than the others.

"We need to get past these guys!" Mara yelled, freezing one of the insects in place.

"They keep coming up the center, we need to separate them!" Bael took the gap in the attack on himself and Derek as an opportunity to look down the chasm. There were holes in various locations further down the chasm. The insects were crawling out, and walking straight up the walls. As more came up toward him, he tried to use his position too his advantage, but every spell he cast was easily neglected by the insects.

He realized a weakness though, spells themselves were resisted and deflected by the insects, but the force of the spell couldn't be defended against. Bael charged a fire ball as he backed up, and derek slashed again at the insects. Soinee and Mara blocked the insects infront of Ienna, and Derek swung at the insects infront of Bael, creating a defensive line. Suddenly, Bael launched a large fireball against the middle group of insects, clearing a way to the bridge.

"Now's our chance!"

Suddenly they all ran to the bridge and across it. As the insects realized where they were, they chased them down, but bottling themselves up. Ienna shot a slug into an insect, and hit another one behind, killing two at once.

"There may be a lot of them, but they're not too smart!" Mara yelled happily. Her other illusion was distracting a few other insects where the group was not a minute prior. Soinee watched the front, using shadow magic on anything that might hit them from the front, as they others ran across the bridge looking back. Ienna ran down the middle behind Soinee.

Mara floated up in the ceiliing as the others ran.

On the other side of the bridge, there were inscriptions on the walls, and magic lights floating up in the air. The room was pretty massive, the ceiling was easily one hundred feet high.

"This reminds me of a department store." Derek said calmly.

"huh?" Mara replied, having never seen a department store, she figured that was something from his home world.

"Hello there." A calm, comforting voice was heard as a large creature walked infront of them from around a large corner. It had long beautiful dark brown hair, and the lower body of a lion. It's wings were folded up as it walked elegantly out in front of them. For such a large creature, it moved incredibly silently.