128 The Ascen

We all grabbed the bags that we had stashed before the event. The party had died down and we decided it was finally time to leave. My mother had stayed up with us all refusing to shut her eyes for a moment. I was grateful and sad at the same time as we all took turns giving her one final hug before we walked away, missing the bodies of sleeping people as we tip toed.

Each of us had heavy footsteps and giddy hearts as we made our way towards the light. I don't think I was the only one who was wondering if it was light or dark outside. I wondered what everyone look liked and how much they had all changed.

I wondered how my father and Ren was.

I wondered if the outside would recognize us.

The ban had been lifted and the spell to keep me captive had worn off several hours ago. I looked over at my comrades and smiled. With them by my side I could achieve anything.

We had been given a map from the chieftain showing us the path out that the first Tulk had taken to get into the caves in the forest that they lived in. We decided to check it out. It had been several years since we had first gone through the passage ways. It was very likely that the sand and rocks shifted.

What we had used to get here may not work and the map we had may be useless. I sighed as I thought about it. The upside was that we had Nathan with us. Not only his abilities in politics had grown but his art had become amazing. Making a map so we didn't get lost was super easy for him not to mention he had already surveyed a lot of the area so it was not like we were going to get as we left.

He had asked me to store a variety of Inks that he had made using the plants of the area. Including an invisible ink which I found rather utterly fascinating. It wasn't like the usual type that could be made with citrus and then put in an over or over heat to reveal a message. This particular ink was one that could only be activated by another plant that as far as we knew was only down here.

Speaking of plants.

Somehow our team had turned into a gathering party.

As we were leaving I had briefly mentioned that I was worried that I had not collected enough plants and was surprised that Nathan then offered to pick a few as we walked. After Nathan grabbed a couple and placed them in his backpack Heyu and Sora started… then before we knew it each one of us had begun to collect plants.

Heyu had gone one step further and asked his miniature golems to slide up the wall and gather a few sun stones as we wandered. Coupled with Sora's wind magic we had gathered enough to start a greenhouse should I have time in future.

I had already promised my mother I would be back after I had settled the scores I had but in the meantime to flora here was relatively unusual

" We have made it to the cave systems" Loki said as he pointed to an entrance.

Thinking back to all the scary spirit beasts we saw when we first entered I couldn't help but want to be battle able at the drop of a hat.

Heyu, Loki, Kibbles, Undine and Heyu all nodded before we lit a torch and entered. We were all used to the dim light so none of us were particularly concerned. The smell of moss and dirt was thick in the air.

Nathan had taken out a pen and stood in the middle of all of us with Undine but his side. He kept his head down as the sound of a scratching quill entered our ears.

We decided to head as straight as possible, while every left and right turn was marked by Nathans meticulous hands. There was a few spirit beasts on our path but for some reason they were nowhere near as scary as they used to be. All Kibbles had to do was growl slightly and they fled.

Having two relatively high ranking beasts on my side was super useful. We had walked longer then I dared to imagine before we made in to an underground water system. The cave was rather large so Nathan had Undine transform and dive underneath the water.

Undine's true form was beautiful. This was actually the first time that I had witnessed it. I glanced over at Kibbles seemed completely and utterly transfixed on the sight. Undine in every sense of the word looked like an eastern water dragon.

He was entirely made of water however his scales were made from what looked like flecks of blue gold. His snot held what looked like seaweed on each side of his nostrils that fell down rather low. What I had found most fascinating was his silvery translucent mane that had little shimmers of fluorescent light on it. The lights shimmered all the way up to his tall horns making his true form rather menacing.

[ I am glad he is on our side. ]

Undines body was streamline. He had claws on the front of his body and a tail that looked like a fish. He seemed to fly as he entered the water disappearing almost immediately.

The team followed along the water while Undine was under the water making sure there was no nasties that would surprise us. Every so often a corpse of one beast or another would suddenly be thrown on the shore before quickly being entered into my ring.

We had to feed six beings to feed so the more food we had the merrier. Although it we seemed to be moving faster than the first time we had entered it wasn't long before we were all exhausted.

A camp had been made, a meal was cooked, tents were set up and we drifted quietly off for a few hours while some of us took turns guarding the area.

After resting briefly the trip continued. Map making had paid off and we had finally found traces of what looked like a path leading up.

It was decided that it was Kibbles and Heyu's turn to take the lead. Heyu would ride Kibbles and use his earth magic to fix up any missing or broken foot holes to see if we could make it to the surface by climbing.

Since Kibbles was large the climb wouldn't take long at all.

" Heyu can't ride me" Kibbles said telepathically after he transformed.

[ Don't be stubborn he has to be there just in case you start falling as you climb ]

" You can't make me" Kibbles said shaking his head.

[ I will pet you later ]

" Will you brush my fur too?" Kibbles said turning his head and looking at me.

" You're such a baby.." Undine said with a huff under his breath.

Kibbles and Undine looked at each other and made growling and snarling noises. My best guess was they were using some form of beast language to communicate and shrugged my shoulders.

" Let Yuki ride you then"

" Never!"

" See calling me a baby must mean you are one too!"

I looked at them both snarling and chucked.

[ Opposites do attract I guess. ]

" Deal! I will brush you later." I said ignoring the pair.

Undine and Kibbles looked away from each other as Kibbles dropped his front paw down to allow Heyu to climb on his back. Kibbles true form was at least three times bigger than a horse so Heyu had to actually climb.

" Watch where your grabbing" Kibbles said telepathically as he growled.

After a few minutes of trial and error Heyu had climbed aboard Kibbles. He held on to where I had showed him and went a little pale.

" I am not too good with heights" Heyu said shaking his head.

" Too bad!" Kibbles said telepathically.

I wasn't sure if an adult sized Kithun in the wild could smirk evilly but Kibbles sure could. He grinned and began to climb. I watched as Heyu gripped on tighter and everyone quietly chucked.

They slowly disappeared out of view and the lamp I had tired around Kibbles that was made from sunstones slowly faded into the darkness.

All we could do at this time was wait.

" Want to play rock, paper, sword?" Sora said as he looked at me with a glint in his eyes.

" You always beat me though.." I said mildly dejected.

In fact all of them did. We had changed scissors to sword since scissors were not really found in Tama. For some reason every time we played I would lose miserably.

[ Was I so easy to read? ]

" How about we give all of our plants over for Yuki to store" Nathan suggested.

Loki, Sora and Undine all shrugged before handing over their spoils.

When it came to Sora's turn he handed over everything but one plant. He whispered in my ear before placing a dark blue moss in my hands.

" This should work for your combo with Kibbles" Sora whispered making the hairs on my ears tingle.

" Hey, stand back a bit!" Nathan said shaking his head.

I looked down at the moss in my hand and inspected it with my wood magic. It made a beautiful sound as if it was made from glass filled with water.

Sora looked at Nathan and poked his tongue out as he took a step back.

" I tried burning it. It was sticky and took a lot of effort to burn. Plus I got a bit sluggish after a while and Loki had to heal me up.. So I guess.. There is some added bonuses.." Sora praised the Moss with a smug smile.

" Mm it has a mild paralytic effect" Loki added.

" I see. So if I was to will this to grow Kibbles could burn it and it would land on people making it harder for them to move?" I said as I moved my head from left to right mulling over how I could use it.

" I guess I will try it with Kibbles when we get back to the surface! Thank you Sora I am sure it will help a tonne!" I said brightly.

Sora seemed to blush as he scratched his head.

" It was no problems at all!" Sora replied.

The inventory had taken all the plants and categorized them automatically but due to the sheer amount it had taken a little while.

Kibbles and Heyu had returned with some good news.

There was in fact sunlight higher up but getting to it would take almost everyones help. Kibbles transformed back into a human and we all sat down to make a plan.

We took out our climbing gear as we had finished making plans and began to ascend the rock side.

[ All this climbing is getting on my nerves! ]