surviving felarya

Adam smiled as narin placed him on her head with quarus he moved closer to quarus for comfort "im glad your safe were's rose what happened to her"he says looking around the area looking for signs of rose but he couldn't see her he noticed the dridders enter the area and taking seats there were so many of them he started shaking from fear "so many dridders this doesn't look good"he says nervously he then fixes his gaze upon the 'empress' "the empress is a ghost well i feel a little safer knowing that maybe she won't be able to hurt us"

Quarus began to look for Rose as well. Seeing her in Grip's Sphere, she tapped him on the shoulder and pointed towards the Sphere, showing him where she was. Seeing the fear on his face, Quarus placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him of their safety, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

“More new faces, and so many types of creatures,” The dridder phantom said. “And I see from your thoughts your confusion and wonder about this place. You indeed are from the outside.” She looked up among the seats, seeing begin to fill with dridders.

“My thoughts?” Lenarei said a bit defensively. “Just who are you? And what is this place?”

“They have not all arrived yet. While we wait, I can answer some of your questions,” The dridder phantom said. “Yes, your thoughts, Lenarei. It is one of the advantages of being a phantom. When your group first entered, I felt that you were merely curious, and left you to your own devices. Anyway, I am the empress of the dridders you see here, I have been since I led them into this temple aeons ago, seeking refuge and a new home. Back then, we were just as awed as you were at the magic of this place, but I thought it better to trust our lives to these mysterious powers rather than the pitiless enemy we were fleeing.”

“Since that day, we have survived here, in these bizarre chambers open to the alien night sky. We used those crystals that you have found, and used, to shrink our size down, so we could survive upon the insects living here. Generation after generation, our numbers grew. We have built a new home for ourselves, a new civilization. We have discovered some of the secrets of this place, though it is vast. The few rooms you have seen are but the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of rooms that we have explored, and thousands more that we have not.”

The empress paused and looked up again at the seats around the arena. Thousands more dridders had arrived, filling up a fraction of the seats here. “It seems that all have gathered. In case you were curious, I have summoned them so we can make a decision. I invite you to stay and listen, for what we decide may affect you.”

Grip opened the hatch on the Sphere and climbed out, sitting on the edge. Rose followed him and she waved across at Adam and Quarus. Grip looked around. This place was truly massive.

The phantom dridder began to wave her hands in the air. Sparkling streams of light emerged and floated up, settling into a pattern. What was formed was a picture. Grip thought it looked like a predator - female upper half...but what the hell was on the bottom?

He heard Fenja gasp. He looked up and to his utter amazement, he saw a single tear roll down her cheek.

"Fenja...?" he said, unsure of what to do.

"Oh Gods...Scylla...." murmured Fenja. She slowly sat down.

"You...know this thing?" said Grip.

"Yeah...it's the more dangerous thing I can think of. It's beyond a predator...you could call it a super-predator."

Grip paused. He realized there was something more to this.

"Grip?" said Fenja, carefully.

"Yeah?"

"You...you know how I don't like to eat men?"

"You told me to never ask you about that."

"Yeah. Well, this is why. I...back when I was growing up....in the North West....I knew...I had a friend...a male Jotun...my lover."

Grip was amazed at how serious Fenja had become.

"I know you don't think I'm very...reliable...but you must realize that Jotun seperate sexual and emotional love. Sex is fun. This...I was really in love. And then...the Scylla began to move...and it caught us. I managed to hide...but I saw it eat him...swallow him whole. I can't ever get that out of my head."

Grip reached out and touched her hand. Suddenly he started.

"By the Books...that thing...preys on Jotun?!"

"Like I said. Super-predator. Towers above even the biggest pred. The female body on top catches preds and swallows them whole. It's not really...skin...it can stretch and stuff itself on preds. By the waist, it has dozens of snakes...these reaches along the ground and devour any human sized prey. Instead of legs, she had that bed of tentacles she rides on. I've heard that below that are mouths that suck up neera sized prey."

Grip was amazed...and horrified. "Yeah. A superpredator...it attacks all levels of the ecosystem. Everything is food."

"You can...see how...unpleasant seeing one again is. They are not common at all...some say there's only one at a time."

Grip was silent. He saw the ancient dridder staring at them. Grip waited for her to hold the meeting. Maybe that would answer some of his questions.

Rose sighed she got up and stood away from the group looking at the image "thank goodness its only an image"she says then she walks up some stairs to the seats the dridders were on she sat down next toa female dridder who put her arm around her rose looked at the dridder nervously then the drider says "empress if i may make a suggestion perhaps we could use them for breeding so they may carry our children"she says smiling as she hugs rose,rose attemts to pull away from the dridder nervously but finds her arms pinned to her sides by silk so she can't escape from the female dridder.the dridder smiled and then said "if not we could use them as a food source i know we don't normally eat sentients but there tresspassers and besides they look tasty"she says getting some "yeah'S" and "delicous"from some of the other dridders

Grip nervously looked around as the dridder embraced Rose. He snuck back down into the Sphere. He then lifted a panel in the floor. Good. All the weapons were still there. Just in case...

He looked back at the oversized theatre. A sudden horrible thought came to him, of a super predator walking these halls. One could easily fit...perhaps this ancient dridder knew more....

Lenarei snarled at the dridder as she made her suggestions. “Just try it, you tiny insect. If you lay a finger on any of them, I’ll rip as many of you to shreds as I can!” This threat silenced some of the dridders, but others grumbled menacingly at her.

The Empress looked around, her disapproval was evident on her face. She turned to Lenarei. “Do not threaten my people, Lenarei. I am more than their leader, I am their guardian.”

The Empress next turned to the gathered dridders. “No! These people are not trespassers. They are our guests. I am appalled at these suggestions. Do not mention them again. Any who harms them will be punished as if they harmed a fellow dridder.”

“We have far more urgent matters to attend to. These people are not the only ones to enter the temple. After they had come here, another being entered our home. One far more dangerous than they. A Scylla now roams these halls, threatening to destroy all we have accomplished here. I have tried to bar her entry, but I have failed. We must now decide what to do. We must decide how we will remove her.”

Rose smiled "nice one lenarei"she calls out Adam also aplauds lenarei the dridder wasn't impressed "insect did you call me an insect you big flying rat"she snarls at lenarei jumping down infront of lenarei then without warning the drider leapt upon lenarei sinking its teeth into her in an attempt to use paralysing venom on her some dridders cheered her on while others joined in jumping on lenarei and injecting there paralysing venom into her though she was big and they were small other dridders jumped upon narin and made attempts to grab adam and quarus while biting narin at the time adam grabbed quarus and held her tightly as they fell from narins head more dridders swarmed into the field in there attempts to paralyse th newcomers with there venom they swarmed onto kenja trying to break open grips sphere and also jumped upon trav.

"Stop!" called the ancient dridder "You fools! You cannot understand that there is a world outside of here!"

Grip watched in horror as a very young female dridder suddenly ran the emperess through with a spear. Then he lost sight of her. Then he heard banging on the outside of the Sphere. He was fairly certain that there was no way to get in from the outside. Fairly certain. He ran to the control panel. The view outside the window shook as Fenja stomped and shook to try to get the dridders off her.

"Grip! Do something! I can't feel my toes!"

Grip nodded. He looked over the weapons...alright...how to do this.

He pulled a level and the Sphere shot out a cluster of small orbs. These hit the ground and burst, spreading a liquid over the floor. This swiftly caught on fire, engulfing the dridders caught inside.

Grip looked around. Narian and Lenarei were falling back with Adam, Trav and Quarus.

"We need to get out of here!" said Fenja.

"But the Scylla..."

"What do you think we could honestly do? Quite frankly, all of Felarya, prey and preds alike are safer with that thing down here, than angry and possibly heading to the surface."

He couldn't see any fault in that logic.

"Wait." he said. "Where's Rose?"

He realized she was still among the dridder horde. He saw her pass on top of the dridder crowd. They were obviously trying to get her away to cook her.

He fired the lighting gun on the Sphere, hitting some of them. he realized if he continued that Rose would get hit as well.

"Fenja! You need to try and pick Rose out of there!"

Rose screamed as the dridders passed her along the top of them she started to kick at them until her legs were bound togethor with silk she coninued to scream and struggled in there grip adam recovered quickly from falling off narin he grbbed quarus and quickly slithered towards a crack avoiding the dridders hands as they went adam pushed qarus into the crack then slithered in behind her the crack was deep enough for them to hide in a dridder tried to reach them and adam could almost feel the dridders fingers,while the other dridders jumped upon narin,trav,lenarei and kenja trying to subdue them with paralysing venom the dridders on grips sphere continued there attempts to get in making dents in it.

"Damn! Now Adam and Quarus!" said Grip. He could see the dridders were beginning to make some progress on breaking in. Damn!

He breathed deep. "Ok. Fenja. Tell Narin, Trav and Lenarei ot make a break for it before they close the gate. Then get to that crack in the wall and pull out Adam and Quarus."

"What about Rose?" asked Fenja.

"I'm going to have to save her myself."

"You really think you can do that?"

"Well, no harm in trying. Clear me a way."

Fenja violently shook the Sphere, knocking all of the dridders off, which she then stepped on. By this time her feet were almost entirely numb from the venom. It would be bad if Grip got bit.

Grip undid the hatch, scanning for a way through. He saw a flash of green hair. That was Rose.

"Everyone! Head to the gate! And don't look! I'm going to use the magnesium flares."

Grip took a package of the flares, lit them and tossed them off the Sphere. With his goggles, he was protected. The dridders, used to very low underground light, felt like their eyes were being burned out of their skulls.

Meanwhile, the young dridder that had killed the old empress snatched Rose from the dridder carrying her.

"Give the food to me! I am your new empress! I demand respect!"

And with that she shoved Rose in her mouth, trying to swallow her. At this time, the flares went off. Since her head was meeting the dridder's tongue, Rose was not affected.

Grip ran as best he could among the writhing and disoriented dridders. He needed to escape before they awoke. Getting poisened by these would be potentially deadly. Potentially if he was lucky.

He found Rose and pulled her out. She grabbed her sword and decapitated the new empress.

"Lets go! Fenja will take care of Adam and Quarus."

They began to run. Soon, Grip could here the dridders begin to follow them, starting to recover. Grip could see that the gate was closing. Fenja beckoned to him from beyond the portal, holding the Sphere in one hand and Adam and Quarus in the other. Grip and Rose made it through just as the door closed.

Grip was panting. He wasn't the most athletic person - he had gotten through on pure adreneline. Now he was exhausted. He smiled.

"Well...thats what...we get...for listening....to dridders..."

Fenja started to cry out a warning. But it was too late. The old gatekeeper dridder sprang from the shadows, sinking his jaws into Grip's shoulder and injecting the poison. Narin quickly grabbed the dridder in her talons and tossed it against the wall.

"Grip!" said Fenja. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?...Yeah...sure..."

Then he fell flat on his face, unconcious.

Now they were safe rose let out a sigh of relief she saw grip fall unconsious "oh thats not good"she says not smiling a little bit she gave grip a gentle nudge then she remembered the dridders didn't need the to use the gate she looked around to see dridders craw out of the wgaps in the walls she backed up a little "ugh they just don'tquit"she says a little angrill as the driders land upon the ground now there were more of them and they were even more determined to get there prizes as they leapt at the group rose dodged one that attempted to jump on her and ran it through with her sword she noticed the driders spin webs across the exits in an atempt to block their escape rose sighed as the dridders attempted to separate the group bearing there teeth apparently they hadn't liked the fact rose had killed there new empress and were out for revenge and food.

wow this is cool...

Narin gritted her teeth as the dridder mob began to surround them and block off the exits. It seemed as if there was no hope for them, when an evil chuckle began to reverberate across the walls. Narin narrowed her eyes as the chuckle began to turn into laughter, recognizing the laughter from before. A dark aura filled the room as the succubus that had terrorized Adam in his dreams and had battled with Narin and Lenarei manifested itself with a mad cackle, now with new wings that replaced the ones that Narin tore out.

Narin growled as the demoness turned in her direction, saying, "So we meet again, vulture harpy. As much as I'd like to tear your limbs out of your sockets as payback for my wings, I have other matters to attend to at the moment." She then turned towards the dridder mob, and said, "You know...I don't think I've ever seen so many dridders in one spot. I've never had one myself, although I've heard they're quite..." The smirk on her face then turned into an evil, sadistic smile, and she finished her sentence with "...crunchy."

Quarus in the meantime had buried her head into Adam's shoulder, crying her heart out over all the chaos that was happening.

rose screamed she stood next to grip as driders knocked her to the floor she saw driders wrap grip in there silk then they did the same to her she couldn't see anything but she sure could feel she felt fangs penatrate her body just below her breasts she thought that grip must be going throught the same process she felt pain course through her body though she had no idea what was going on

"No! Grip!" Fenja tried to wade through the sea of dridders. But her feet were beginning to ache. She almost caught up to Grip and Rose, but the succubus stood in front of her.

"Don't dare try to interfere with dinner..." said the succubus, popping more dridders into her mouth before grappling with Fenja.

Fenja pulled the succubus forwards and put her into a choke hold. She scanned the ground. She had lost track of Grip and Rose. Damnit, where were they?

The succubus growled as Fenja put her in a choke hold, and dug her sharp nails into Fenja's flesh, using an electricity spell to knock her out. She peeled the silk off of Rose and Grip, grabbing them and holding them up to her face while she spoke, saying, "Hello again, neko. I have to apologize that I don't have time to terrorize you at this point, but there's so many dridders here, I'd be foolish to say no to a free meal. And besides..." A dark green aura began to come from the succubus's hands, healing them and eliminating the poison in their bodies. "...I'd prefer to face my advesaries when they're in top form."

She then threw both of them inside of her mouth, sucking on their bodies for just a moment before moving her tongue underneath them to tuck them in her cheeks, Rose in her left, and Grip in her right. "Don't try to escape, or I'll swallow you." The succubus said simply, electrocuting more dridders so they wouldn't move, swallowing them three at a time.

Rose screamed as the succubus put her in her mouth she wanted to escape but didn't want to try anyrhing in her position so she stayed still looking straight at grip nervously,the dridders meanwhile were more scared of the succubus as she ate them the remaining driders fleed the area anyway they could trying to escape from the succubus they crawled through the cracks and holes in the walls and prety soon there was only a handfull of them let the ones that were paralysed so they had no means of escape rose screamed again "what do you want this time succubus"she yells out at the succubus

As she gobbled up the remaining paralyzed dridders, she walked into one of the chambers, using magic to seal all the entryways and exits so that no one could enter or leave. She then took them out of her mouth and said, "I just want to have a bit of fun with you two. Is that a crime?" she asked, licking Rose across the face with a smirk, but it wasn't an evil smirk like before. You see, when this certain succubus wasn't busy being evil, eating beings that wound up in Hell, and making people's lives torture on Felarya, she liked playing with smaller beings like Grip and Rose. This huge room in the temple allowed the perfect oppurtunity for that.

Rose swallowed nervously as they were brought into the arena she noticed they were the only ones in there besides the remains of silken bndles she didn't like being licked she looked at grip next to her "right you want to have fun with us then why did you seal the others out and what do you mean by fun"she says nervously not knowing what the succubus meant by fun she wondered what the succubus had planned.

"Why'd I keep the others out? Because I don't want them interrupting our play time, that's why. What do I mean by fun? Isn't it obvious? I want to play with you two! I mean, it's not like I'm evil 24/7, you know." the succubus responded. "Anyway, it would be rude not to know the names of my delicious tasting playmates."

Rose smiled sheepishly at the succubus "my name's rose and this guy next to me is grip" she sas nervously gesturing to grip next to her "and um what do you want to play"she says but she soon wished she hadn't she hoped whatever the succubs wanted to play was safe.

Adam blinked "narin are you going to let her get away with rose and grip" he says quickly

"Of course not!" Narin yelled, flying to where the succubus had taken Rose and Grip, but the way was blocked by an invisible wall. Narin growled, saying, "She's blocked the way in! I don't even think they'd be able to hear us if we yelled either."

"Well met, Rose. I'm Nok'tara in case you're wondering." Hearing what she'd like to play, Nok'tara thought for a moment, then replied, "Hmmm...well, this place is big enough, and since your buddy there's still unconsious, it's just you and me for now. How about a game of hide and seek?"

Rose swallowed she looked around there were many different hiding places she could hide in but she was still nervous she didn't trust the succubus a bit she had tried to eat her and her friends after all "um sure hide and seek sounds fun what do i get if i win"she says nervously looking at the succubus

The succubus smiled as Rose asked what she got if she won. "Stay hidden for longer than five minutes, and I'll tell you." She then covered her eyes with her hands, and started counting. "One...Two..."