Shadow Of The End

"To get you help..." she said. "What happened?"

"I had this weird dream, and this nice man appeared and offered me this bottle of potion that would make me healthy for a while." Gwene said "And when I woke up, it was in my hand."

Nuala studied her, she seemed completely fine. "On what condition?"

"I..." Gwene thought, trying to remember if there were conditions "I can't remember. It all happened so quickly."

"Hm, well it's good to see you bright-eyed again," Nuala said.

Gwene nodded, she turned and went back into the bedroom and proceeded to get dressed into her usual clothes.

"I hope you're not planning on going someplace," Nuala said to her from the other room.

"I've ben given more time." Gwene said, pulling on her boots. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for death to come, he is going to have to find me."

"And where is it you're running off to?" Nuala said, standing up.

"I don't know." Gwene said, pulling on her other boot "I guess I would go visit everyone and see how they are."

"Careful," Nuala said. "If anyone who knew you were sick saw you now, who knows what they might do..."

"I'm not cured though." Gwene pointed out "But I see your point."

Nuala nodded. "I'll wait for Konbei, hopefully he's back within the hour."

"I'll wait too, if he isn't back, I'll head up to Death Mountain and visit my godfather." Gwene said.

Nuala glanced at a wall clock, Konbei had been gone a few hours already. She only hoped he hadn't ignored her warning and gone to Snowpeak.

"So." Gwene started, hoping to start up a conversation "How have you been lately?"

"Well," she answered half truthfully. "The man from your dream, who was he?"

"I don't know." Gwene said "He wore a top hat, dressed nice and drank tea."

"Hm, maybe it wasn't a miracle that brought the king back after all," she said.

Once more Lyn found herself locked swords with Doloris. Gritting her teeth, she put all her might into pushing her sword against Doloris' claws, her muscles twitching with the exertion. Her fury was mounting and thoughts and questions swirled around in her mind. Just how long would this damned fight last?!

The shadow over the camp loomed further across the landscape...

---

...and the whole cave shook. A few screams and shouts arose when the vibartions shot through the cave, making dirt and rubble fall from the ceiling. Allard groaned when the shaking started, and when it stopped, he pushed himself up a bit.

"...well, it would appear my time is up." Doloris said, and he suddenly vanished. He appeared up on the ridge again.

"This was...enjoyable." he said, grinning. "It pains me so much that your all about to be crushed by several tonnes of rock...I would of loved to squeeze a little bit more out of you."

He grinned, and laughed. "If you do manage to escape...I promise, next time you won't be so lucky..."

He vanished, and the barriers fell.

Lyn stumbled forward as Doloris suddenly disappeared, her momentum carrying her forward- but she quickly stopped and righted herself, standing up straight and looking around with wide, infuriated eyes.

"Get back here and fight me, you coward!" she shouted- and then she saw him, up on the ridge.

"Such arrogance," she spat at him, her eyes narrowed. "You aren't scaring anyone here, you demon! Go crawl back to your hell-hole!"

And yet, she was surprised when he actually did disappear, the barriers falling-

-And it was then that she noticed the cave shaking. Her eyes widened in shock.

"What the hell is going on?!" Callio shouted out. And then, suddenly, the seismic activity stopped. Callio wobbled a bit, but remained on his feet. The women and men stopped there cries for help, and the cave fell into silence with a few whispers here and there.

Callio looked around suspicously. Allard groaned again and tried to push himself.

Scowling, Lyn turned and walked over to Allard, helping him up. "You alright?" she asked bluntly with a frown. Glaring at Callio, she jerked her head to the women and men, snapping, "Make sure everyone else is okay. We've got to get them out of here, NOW."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know..." Callio said, walking to the cages. Not bothering to silently pick them as he had done before, he simply took out his sword, jammed the tip in the locks and broke them, letting the prisioners out.

"I'm good..." Allard coughed. "...that...that guy...where is he?"