surviving felarya

Narin looked at the Lenarei in sadness, and stroked her back with her wing to try and comfort her, saying, "Don't worry, Lenarei. We'll figure out how to get you back to size." She noticed Quarus who was trying to comfort her as well, jump as Adam suddenly came out of her hands and slithered into the crack in the wall. "Adam, NO!!!" Narin yelled out, but she sighed as neither her nor Quarus could stop him.

Hearing what Rose said, Narin continued, "No, I don't think that the crystal just shrunk her. I think that it actually set her at a certain size. Now, if that silver crystal were to bring her down to human size, what would the other three do?" Quarus then looked up at Narin in a way that said, 'Only one way to found out.' Quarus then walked up to the blue crystal that she had looked at before, looking at her hand before looking at the stone again. She closed her eyes and touched it, bracing herself for what might happen.

Rose watched as quarus touched the blue crystal she closed her eyes not wanting to watch "i can't watch can someone tell me whats going on is she shrinking or growing or changing species altogethor"she says to narin while covering her eyes with her hands

When Narin spoke, Lenarei looked up at her, and up some more, and even more. She had to crane her neck back to see Narin’s face. For some reason seeing the other harpy tower over her made her head swim, her vision blur and her head drooped. For a brief moment, Trav feared that she would faint. But after a moment she recovered, shaking her head.

“Quarus! Wait!” Trav cried out as he saw the neera touching the blue crystal. The moment Quarus touched it, the same glow enveloped her. There was another blinding flash, forcing Trav and Lenarei to shield their eyes. When the flash was gone, Quarus was tiny, once again the proper size for a neera.

Lenarei looked at Quarus, then at the crystals again. “I’ll be. If Narin right…” Lenarei suddenly let go of Trav and flew to the gold crystal and touched it with her foot. Another glow, and another flash. When this one passed, There was Lenarei, once again her original height. Sitting down in the grass again, she looked down at Trav, Rose, and Quarus. After a moment, she began laughing to herself.

“Oh, I am a stupid bird, making such a scene out of something so easily reversed!” Lenarei said. “But thank you all for comforting me.”

“Aye, It seems we’ve found a way to restore Adam,” Trav said, “But yon naga lad ‘as wandered off.”

“Quarus, could you see where Adam went?” Lenarei asked.

(Schoolhater, do you want to describe Adam's destination? Or did you want me to?)

Narin chuckled as Lenarei laughed to herself, and said, "You're welcome, Lenarei. Besides, I'd have probably done the same thing."

Quarus opened her eyes to see the blue crystal high above, and looked to see Trav and the others towering over her once more. Not that she minded of course. After all, this was the size she had been used to her entire life, so it wasn't exactly devastating for her or anything. She nodded as Trav asked her to find Adam, and ran into the crack Adam had gone into, hoping she could find him.

"There's one thing I don't get though. If those three crystals change the size of someone. What does that clear crystal do then?" Narin asked.

Grip tried to understand what the crystals had just done. The whole pattern of shrinking and growing seemed random...suddenly he realized the truth.

"The crystals have set sizes...human sized, predator sized and neera sized." he said. "That basically covers the animal ecosystem of Felarya."

"Except for the dumb animals" pointed out Fenja, peering at the last crystal.

"Huh...I guess you're...Fenja! Don't touch that!"

Fenja drew away from the last crystal. She held the sphere up to her face, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Ok, ok. Geez. Don't need to yell."

Adam slid down the log dark tunnel until he emerged in a light clearing with grass at first he thought that maybe he was outside but he dismmissed that idea seeing walls around them he apeared in what looked like a courtyard it had a lot of webs over the place and adam swallowed nervously the last thing he wanted was to be caught in one of those to be made a snack for whoever or whatever owned the webs.

Rose smiled up at lenarei "well im glad your back to normall anyway we should now focus on finding adam an quarus before something else does and decides to have a quick snack"she says quickly "now i realy think we should split up to look for them"

"I don't know, Fenja. I get the feeling it's different from the other three. Think about it for a minute. The other three are glowing with a gold, silver, and blue aura. This one isn't. It's clear as glass. But the question is...why?" Narin pondered.

Quarus continued to run and slide through the tunnel, looking for Adam. When she did find him, she noticed all the spider webs around and thought it'd be best to get Adam and get out of there. She quickly ran up behind Adam, and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Aye, I’m tempted to use the blue crystal to follow them meself,” Trav said, kneeling and trying to shine his lantern down the small tunnel Adam had run into. He couldn’t see them, but he could see that the tunnel sloped sharply, and would be difficult to climb. He got out a rope from his pack and threaded it down the tunnel.

“Well, since we figured out these crystals, there is something I’ve always wanted to do, you know,” Lenarei said. She reached out and touched the silver crystal again, intentionally this time. Again she was surrounded by the glow, again there was a flash, and she was again only a mere five feet tall. She flew over and landed next to Trav, and tapped him on one shoulder with a wing. The moment Trav looked up, Lenarei tackled him to the ground.

“You know, you should have been a harpy. You would have made a handsome one, Trav,” Lenarei said, looking Trav over as she pinned him to the ground.

“Faith, Lenarei, this isn’t mmmph” Trav began, but Lenarei silenced him by sticking a wing in his mouth.

“You talk too much sometimes,” Lenarei said. She removed her wing, but before Trav could say anything, she knelt down and began kissing him. Trav looked like he was going to protest further, but after a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

"Well, I want to know what this thing does!" said Fenja. She reached out and touched the clear crystal.

"Wait!" said Grip, but it was too late. He was surprised when nothing happened.

"Hehe. Look!" said Fenja. Grip noticed that her handprint was still left glowing on the otherwise dead crystal, a light blue.

"What on...Fenja, bring me closer." said Grip. He reached out and touched the crystal. His handprint was left there, a deep blue.

"Cool!" said Fenja. "Wow, I didn't realize you had such tiny hands..." She brushed her finger against the place where Grip's hand haad been.

Suddenly Grip had the sensation of falling. He looked around. Was Fenja shrinking. The Travel Sphere dropped and hit the ground with a dull thud. Grip quickly got out. There was a pile of clothes were FEnja had been. He rushed towards them.

"Fenja?" he shouted.

"I'm right here!" she replied, standing up. She was only his size now. But there was something more.

"Hey! Where's my tail! And my...tusks..." she said.

"By the Books! It appears that you're...human."

"Huh. That's wierd."

"I guess that crystal is dead in itself. But it can store and swap genetic structure...fascinating...."

"You humans are weird. You have the bone for the tail...did you all lose 'em or something?"

Rose almost threw up when she watched lenarei start kising trav and the fact that he pulled her closer made her think something was going on rose turned to narin "those two could be there for a while we need to find adam and quarus if you don't want tocome thats fine by me but there my friends too so im going"she says and runs off down one of the corridors without a light source the coridor was pitch black and rose had a hard time knowing were she was going until she came to an open area she walked out into the middle of it she drew her sword and held it battle ready.


Adam was looking around the webs when he felt something tap him on the shoulder a shiver ran down his spine and he feared the worst he looked around nervously and saw quarus standing there "um hi quarus now what do you want were kind of stuck in here"he says as he slithers forward towards the middle of the room

Fenja touched the crystal that grew her back to giant sized. Then she was able to reach the species crystal and become Jotun again. She happily stroked her tail.

"That felt so wierd without it...."

"Wait! Rose!" called out Grip as the neko ran down the corridor. "Lords...she's only going to get herself killed."

"Well, comon then!" replied Fenja. "Let's follow." She got her clothes and gear back on and picked up the Sphere. Grip flicked on the lights and Fenja began to creep through the corridor. Grip was amazed that they had been built big enough to accomadate predators.

Seeing Lenarei and Trav make out, Narin cleared her throat and said, "Well, you two have fun. I'm gonna go after Rose." With that, she flew towards the corridor where they had gone. "Hey, Grip, could you turn on a light from that sphere of yours? It's really dark and I don't want to step on Rose accidentally." she said, watching her step.

Quarus walked with Adam towards the center of the room with Adam, hoping that the owner of the webs wasn't in the room with them. That's when she heard something approach them, and a dridder twice their size morphed from the darkness. It looked at them curiously, and began to approach them.

Grip flashed the lights on, illuminating the corridor. Fenja lead Narin down the corridor. Grip could see it was uncomfortable for the harpies, not being able to fly properly in these cramped quarters. However, they suddenly emereged in a large chamber.

"Yuck!" said Fenja, brushing away spiderwebs that stuck to her face. Grip saw that a lot of the chamber was covered in these.

"Alright" he said. "Anyone see Rose? Or Adam or Quaras, for that matter?"

At length, Lenarei let Trav up. She stood, and shook off her plumage. “Narin’s right. Now ain’t the time for this.” Trav got up as well.

“Lenarei, how long?” Trav asked after a moment.

“Ever since that second day. When you forgave me,” Lenarei said. “Come on Trav, let’s go after them!” She flew for the doorway Narin had run down, but stopped when she noticed that Trav wasn’t with her. She turned around to see Trav running for the golden crystal. “You clever little morsel,” Lenarei said. She turned around and flew for the golden crystal herself. Two glows, two flashes, and both Trav and Lenarei towered over the courtyard.

“Faith, it all looks so delicate,” Trav murmured, looking down.

“Welcome to my world, Trav,” Lenarei said. “Now let’s go.” The two of them flew after Rose and Narin.

Rose looked around the room in awe she used her feet to feel the softness of the grass she walked foreard and noticed out of the corner of her eye a strange looking plant curius rose decided to walk close to the plant.

Adam sighed he looked around and saw quarus coming with him he then followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at 'a dridde maybe its friendly or maybe at least not hungry'he though to himslf and waved at the dridder "hello there no intruding are we i we are we will leave ow"he says to the dridder and turns to slither way

Narin noticed Rose walk towards the plant, and said, "Rose, I wouldn't get near that if I were you."

The dridder blinked a couple of times, before continuing to walk up to them saying, "Oh, no, you're not intruding. It's just...I've never seen anything quite like you two before. I mean...you're both smaller than I am, and..." The dridder picked up a part of Adam's tail, examining it, "...you have the half of my kind, yet...the half of a viper. How interesting...and you..." She set down Adam's tail, and walked over to Quarus, and felt her mouse ears. "...you have the ears of a rodent, and have very strange legs."

Quarus was assuming the dridder had never seen a naga or a neera before, and that she wasn't a Felarya resident, since she said that they were smaller than her. "But still..." the dridder continued, "you are both sentient beings, and I welcome you to my home." She then picked up Quarus with both of her hands, and brought the neera to her face, touching Quarus' forehead with the tip of her tongue. She picked up Adam as well and did the same. Apparently, it was a greeting amongst her kind. "So, how did you two end up in here?" the dridder asked.

Rose listened to what narin said "no anyway whats the worst that could happen" she says reaching out and touching one of the plants vines just to see what would happen

Adam smiled but he still didn't trust the dridder he rose to his full height even though he was still small to try and look imposing to the dridder "im adam im a naga this is not myoriganal size im alot larger than i am now a demon made me this size this" he says gesturing to quarus "this is quarus she's a neera and she tastes nice how we got in here well i fell through a hole after going through a crack in the temples wall and quarus came after me"he says looking at the dridder with angry eyes "and were stuck and are going to get out of here before you make a meal out of us"

"Uh Rose, I do think that Narin is right..." He looked at the planet, trying to determine what it was. He realized that the purple blossom was only one part of it. He saw an old tree in the chamber and the plant curling around it.

He gasped as the purple flower struck out at Rose, engulfing her head and shoulders.

"Fenja! Quick!"

Rose screamed as the plant engulfed her it moved down her until only her feet were outside the plant sucked them in two and rose's bulge moved through the vines until she hung downwards her outline was still visible the plant moved her about until she was stuckthere in a sack hat wrapped tightly around her body so she was unable to move or scream.

"ROSE!!!" Narin yelled as the plant engulfed her. As Rose hung downward from the ceiling, she flew up to the ceiling and took it in her mouth, bit the sack away from the plant with her teeth. With the sack Rose was in now in her mouth, she carefully used her teeth to open the sack without hurting Rose. Once she had opened it, she maneuvered her tongue to get Rose out of the sack. Then she extended her tongue, placed Rose on her wing, and swallowed the plant sack that she was in. "Rose, are you okay?!" Narin asked desperately.

The dridder cocked her eyebrow in confusion as Adam said she would make a meal out of them. "Why would I do that? The dridder race doesn't eat other sentients, we drink..." That's when a buzzing sound was heard, and the dridder looked to see a humongous fly half the size of Quarus trapped in one of her webs on the ceiling, flapping it's wings frantically trying to get free. "Could you hang on a moment?"

The dridder then climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling. She grabbed the insect, and began to wrap it in silk she was making from her fingers. Once she was done, she came down from the ceiling by using a web line from her abdomen, and landed back in front of them. "As I was saying, "As I was saying, the dridder race doesn't eat sentients. We drink the blood of incests." She then sunk her teeth into the silk wrapped fly, paralyzing it with her venom, and began to suck the blood from it, letting out a small "Mmmmm" as the red liquid went down her throat, confirming Quarus' assumption that she wasn't from Felarya. After she was done, she threw the shriveled insect to the side, and said, "Anyway, I can help you get out if you'd like."

Rose sat on narins win in confusion she was covered in a purple liquid wich was aparently digestive juices and she also noted that her sword was missing "well narin i was eaten by a harmless looking plant covered in purple digestive liquid hung in a sack then rescued placed on your ring with parts of my arsenal missing but yeah all in all im perfectly finr brrn through a lot worse than this before"she says a little anoyed she studied the room for her sword "and another thing i think you may have swallowed my sword"

Adam scowled and shoved quarus closer to the dridder "she will go with you i will make my own way out i trust dridders about as far as i can throw them and that isn't far dridders ate my parent so why would you be any different arachnid im not going anwere with you and you can't make me" he says defiantly he then turns away from the dridder and looks around or a ay out.

Narin let out an "Oh." as Rose said she accidentally swallowed her sword. She rubbed her tongue against her uvula, making herself gag, and she did it again, and threw up against the floor, coughing as the contents of her stomach came out. She saw the sword in her puke, and she scooped it up in her mouth, cleaning it off with her saliva. Once she was done, she took it out, and wiped it best as she could against her wing, and gave it back to her, saying, "Your sword back."

The dridder stared at Adam in shock, and her lip began to quiver as she let out a sob. She then buried her face in her hands, and began to cry her heart out. Quarus looked upon the dridder in pity, and ran up to Adam, writing down, 'THAT WAS MEAN. APOLOGIZE.' She then pointed towards the dridder to emphasize her point.

Fenja moved the Sphere around, Grip shining a light on the chamber. Besides the few cobwebs, there were quite a few plants running across the ceiling and walls. Grip couldn't tell which were carnivorous and which weren't.

"We have to be careful in here" said Grip. "There seems to be a proliferation of things that want to eat you. Narin and Fenja should be safe...and so should I."

"I know!" said Fenja. "She should ride in the Sphere with you. No plant could crack that open."

"Hmm...I suppose, if she wants to." said Grip. He was too much of a gentleman to deny a sanctuary...but he was always a bit hesitant to let anyone just walk into his home.

"Well, that would be a pretty good idea. Rose would be safe from the...wait a minute...we're looking for Quarus and Adam, right? In that case, shouldn't we be going down that hole they went down?" Narin asked.

"Well, unless we're willing to shrink, I'm not sure we can go that way." replied Grip. "Of course, here, that is an option...but it would mean that I'd have to leave the Sphere behind. And you predators wouldn't have any advantage anymore - we'd all be neera sized." He looked around.

"Well...this is the leftmost passage. So hopefully we should be able to find wherever they went...as long as something hasn't found them first." he said, pointing to the spider webs above.