Khamsin kept glancing towards me while I held on to him, praying all sorts of prayers inside my mind as I hope that I can manage to keep my balance until we arrive at our destination.
He had turned himself into his ultimate form earlier as it would be faster to try to find the rest of the group while flying than to walk.
Since griffins are well known to have extraordinary vision, it would save us a huge amount of time on trying to find buildings, temples, any place that might look creepy enough for cultists to make it their abode.
And it would be safer too.
Ah!
I almost fell!
Khamsin tried to convince me earlier to make some sort of a leash so that it will be easier for me to keep my balance.
I said no.
And now I regretted it.
I held on to him tightly in which I kept asking him if I hurt him with my grip. He seemed to laugh at me while shaking his head.
We didn't see any structures or buildings yet and I'm beginning to get a bit bored after seeing only sand dunes that I decided to sing a song.
The song was about the adventures of the singer while riding a magic carpet. I know that I'm not riding a magic carpet but it seems similar to it.
Khamsin seems to enjoy hearing me sing as he made some sort of purr-like rumble noises.
He's so adorable!
I can't believe I'm riding on a griffin!
Oops.
I almost fell.
....
We saw a colossal, dark spire at the distance in which Khamsin hurriedly landed on the sand.
He transformed back to his regular form and we hurriedly hid behind a large boulder.
I know that it is stupid for us to try to hide but we weren't using common sense at all as both of us are panicking.
The spire itself is creepy looking enough that both of us are confident that the rest of the group must be inside.
Khamsin began mumbling all sorts of words like he didn't expect the adventure to end up like this in which I retorted back, telling him that he must've expected that getting the magic stone must be a breeze without any unexpected surprises.
I can't blame him though for complaining as he was used to living his entire life in his city without exposure to any danger at all.
He's still wet behind the ears despite his age.
This adventure might be a good opportunity to prepare him for what's about to come.
If my suspicions about the demons are correct, then it will definitely help him in defending his city someday.
That's the disadvantage of having a long life.
Sure, you may be patient and cautious but you are in a huge disadvantage when facing unexpected circumstances, especially if it happened in an instant as I noticed that before with Lion and the rest of the pack.
Lion used to deliberate for a long time before making a decision that frustrated me a lot.
To be fair though, I'm impulsive to the point of being reckless at most times.
But in my defense, my impulsiveness did saved us plenty of times.
Also in Khamsin's defense, he was right about the ruins.
Now we're even.
....
I can't wait for him any longer on making a decision.
Time is running out and the rest of the group's life is at stake.
I glared at him as I stood up and began to march towards the spire when he immediately pulled me towards him.
He asked me if I have some sort of a plan in which I just shrugged at him, introducing him to the do or die philosophy, much to his dismay.
With a grin and hopes of trying to manipulate him, I gushed to him on how I find him so magnificent and awesome looking while wondering loudly how wonderful it would be to see him using his powers.
He kept a poker face while I continued to heap praises towards him though I was truthful with the praises, I had to give him a bit of flattery in between.
To my surprise, his poker face turned into smugness that I decided to give him the final blow.
With a sweet smile towards him, I told him that I'm confident with his strength and abilities and that i don't feel scared going inside the creepy looking spire if he's with me.
He chuckled while shaking his head, sighed deeply as he took out his weapon, which is a lovely, sharp looking scimitar.
The praises worked.
Then with a confident grin towards me, he told me to follow him as he is going to destroy the enemies by using his weapon and also his wind elemental magic abilities.
Raising his weapon towards the spire then in a dramatic slashing motion, a huge gust of wind struck the entrance of the spire, causing a huge explosion.
With a signal from him, we ran towards the spire.
....
Khamsin is in a mad, fighting frenzy when we got inside the spire.
What we saw is definitely revolting and traumatizing that got even worse the more we explored inside it.
Remains of creatures being experimented, parts of bodies and organs in stages of decomposition, parts of skeletons being attached on chains everywhere and....
Ughhhh!!!
The smell is horrible!!!!
Khamsin doesn't seemed to mind about the smell as he killed the cultists that tried to attack us. His attacks are becoming more beastly when he saw the body of a dead deserter that turned out to be a close associate of his.
He told me to keep close to him in which I obeyed without complaint as I'm quite helpless in this situation as I don't even have a weapon of some sorts to defend myself.
Now I understood his apprehension earlier while I think he appreciated my impulsiveness as he now understood the severity of the danger that the rest of the pack might be facing.
Khamsin destroyed everything that we encountered while I mentally took note of everything that I saw despite being revolting.
I nearly vomited when I saw a fountain filled with what seems to be blood, with several bottles beside it in which I realized that the cultists are consuming the blood as if they were vampires.
But they are not vampires at all.
The cultists were just ordinary creatures and to Khamsin's dismay, some deserters as well though they didn't belong to his city based on their tattoos.
But he is alarmed when he saw that some of them have facial tattoos as well.
Facial tattoos indicate that the deserter belonged to the elites.
To make matters worse, they are all civilized not wild.
Khamsin let out several colorful curses out of frustration as he threw several objects at the wall.
I can't blame him.
I understood that he doesn't want the cataclysmic event of the past to repeat again.
Despite the harshness of the land, it's his home which he loved greatly.
Watching him venting out his frustrations by destroying anything he can get his hands on made me realize that he's scared, afraid and feeling the weight of his responsibilities.
It's hard to be someone that a lot of people depend on.
Especially if you are carrying the burden alone.
How do I comfort him?
I understood that he wants space though he also wants to be comforted despite trying not to be obvious about it.
Hmmm..
I can't think of anything so I just stood in front of him, touching his hands gently while telling him that I'm here if he needs me and that he should be careful not to hurt himself.
As much as I wanted to keep exploring the rest of the place in hopes of finding the rest of the group, keeping him sane is my priority right now.
He surprised me when he held out his arms towards me while averting his eyes without saying anything.
Oh...
He wants a hug!
How cute.
I smiled at him then embraced him tightly while telling him all sorts of comforting words.
He knelt on the floor in front of me as he is quite tall like Alpha, which made it easier for me to caress his head.
After several moments of me comforting him, he finally cheered up and told me that we should hurry up and find the rest of the group before it's too late.
With that, he and I went towards the dungeons.
....
There's no one here!
Khamsin and I looked at each other in alarm when we didn't see anyone except for several decomposed bodies.
We are almost done exploring the entire place except at the very bottom of the spire.
As we went downwards, a strong, disgusting smell greeted us, making us close our eyes in an instant as we tried hard not to vomit.
To prevent myself from vomiting, I tried to recite all the sutras inside my mind. It is a long way down and the disgusting smell is getting more stronger so reciting all of them would be very helpful.
Poor Khamsin as he can't take it anymore and vomited a lot, much to his embarrassment.
I don't mind though as I've been in his situation before.
After drinking a mouth cleaning potion, he nodded at me and we continued going down despite him looking green.
After Khamsin had two more vomiting episodes, we finally reached the bottom where there's a huge magical looking door that greeted us at the end of a long hallway filled with body parts and bones.
Not to mention that the floor is wet.
I have enough common sense not to take a closer look at the floor as the smell itself tells me that it's blood that we are stepping on.
Khamsin looked like he is about to faint in which I tried to hold his arm, praying that he will not faint as I cannot carry him and he's definitely heavy by the looks of him.
Finally, we reached the door and thankfully, it was not locked.
When we opened it, the room is filled with darkness which we heard a ferocious growl and sounds of chains.
Khamsin opened the door a little wider, shedding some light inside the room in which I saw Alpha.
....
He looks wild in his ultimate form.
His throat and extremities are held by several painful looking chains.
Not to mention his body is full of wounds.
I know that his body can heal itself naturally so if he's in this situation then that means he's undergone several continuous torture.
That made me realize that a strong magic must've used on him as he can easily subdue the cultists we encountered earlier. He already faced much more powerful and terrifying monsters than these pieces of excrements.
There's no other explanation for it.
I don't know what kind of spell he is under though.
I heard a thud in which I saw Khamsin finally fainted by the door.
This is a disaster.
Now I know that there's no one to attack me now except for Alpha probably as it doesn't seem that he recognized me.
Rather, he kept on growling at me.
I know how to set him free as when I took a look at his chains, my trusty hairpin can easily solve the problem.
But the problem now is how to convince him that it's me?
And how to know that he's in his right mind?
Obviously, he's currently not in his right mind as he started to snarl at me when I tried to get closer to him.
Now, I'm getting stressed!
But I should not show myself that I'm getting stressed or he will sense that and act more aggressively towards me.
Ah, yes.
I know what to do now.
Alpha kept pulling on his chains and tried to swipe at me. He kept on snarling ferociously as I stood in front of him while keeping a poker face.
He looked like a toddler who is throwing a tantrum.
Soon, I became tired of staring at him throwing a tantrum that I was about to go check on Khamsin when I felt my hair being pulled by him.
I know that he actually DIDN'T pull it but he must've tried to swipe me when I turned my back on him that my hair got caught in his claws.
THAT LUNATIC!
IT'S PAINFUL!!!
Now I highly don't recommend this but in a temporary sense of insanity, I immediately pulled his paw that my hair got entangled with and bit it hard.
EXTREMELY HARD.
He yelped with pain and tried to pull his paw back but it made me mad so I bit it even harder.
Soon his yelps of pain became whines then eventually whimpers as he lowered his head towards me and tucked his tail between his legs.
No.
I still don't trust him.
I still didn't let go even though I felt sorry for him.
We stared at each other until I felt him starting to relax.
When I saw that his eyes looked towards me with a mixture of embarrassment and humility, that's when I decided to let go.
I told him that he better hurry and transform to his regular form as it turns out that it's only him that's here in this location and we still need to find the others.
He nodded and transformed into his regular form.
Alpha!
I immediately embraced him as I told him that I missed him, how worried I am when I didn't saw him and that how truly sorry I am for biting him earlier.
He chuckled as he told me that he definitely deserved it while caressing my head.
Oh, wait!
I took my hairpin and after several tries, finally released Alpha from the chains.
Instantly, he carried me in his arms as he kissed me passionately.
He told me how worried he was during the sandstorm and the last thing he remembered was seeing Lion losing his grip on me.
By this time, Khamsin finally woke up and looked worried upon seeing Alpha.
I reassured him that I'm quite alright and that it's Alpha that he should be worried about.
Both Alpha and I chuckled as we looked at each other, making Khamsin stare at us in confusion.
Of course, we eventually told him what happened much to his horror.
And now I'm being scolded by him because of my recklessness though in a gentle way.
....
We're finally out of the spire.
I don't know how long we spent there but it seems that it must've been more than a day as the size of the spire is colossal and with Khamsin destroying everything and my effort of restoring Alpha back to his normal self took quite a bit of time.
Khamsin and Alpha have some sort of discussion about what we saw earlier while I sat down on my scarf, waiting for them to finish.
I'm exhausted and hungry.
But I'm more worried about the others.
I have a feeling that their chances of survival lessen as time goes by.
Lion....
I can feel tears falling down my face in which I hurriedly tried to wipe it away.
But I couldn't help it.
I want Lion.
Not only him, but also Sly.
Orm.
Ghost.
I missed Bubu as well.
And Deus too even though we aren't close to each other. He's still our companion.
Soon, I began sobbing hard in which Alpha hurriedly held me in his arms and nuzzled me all over my face while speaking words of comfort and reassurances towards me.
I continued to hold on to him tightly as he and Khamsin began making plans to rescue the rest of the group.
He kept on nuzzling me until I got sleepy in which he gave me a tender kiss and told me to sleep as he will wake me up when we arrive at our next location.
Khamsin transformed into his griffin form in which Alpha rode on his back while carrying me in his arms.
With a signal from Alpha, he flew into the air in which I sleepily told him that he flew beautifully then finally fell asleep.
....
Um.
Where are we?
Khamsin had landed near at what seems to be a cave that is sticking from the sand.
It looks a bit small than what caves supposed to look like.
Alpha told me that if we see any unusual structures, we should definitely check it out.
He also insisted that he should keep on carrying me despite my protests.
Oh, well.
I understand that by carrying me, they can walk faster and it would not tire me too.
And I know he likes it.
Me too, Alpha. Me too.
Also I know he is acting a bit clingy after noticing Khamsin's looks towards me despite Khamsin trying to hide it.
Anyway, they got down and tried to enter the cave.
Unfortunately, when they tried to step inside the cave, there's no floor at all but a hole.
Alpha held me tightly towards me as he and Khamsin screamed all sorts of expletives as we fell.
It took a long time before we finally reached the ground.
Thankfully, we landed quite softly and no broken bones at all.
The three of us chuckled in relief in which Khamsin commented that we were quite lucky to land on a very soft surface that cushioned us.
Hey...
He's right!
It is very soft!
As it is too dark, the three of us can't see anything so I tried touching the surface.
It feels like gelatin.
Gelatin?
Uh-oh.
Soon, I began to hear all sorts of gooey sounds that I panicked, climbing on Alpha's back as I screamed in fright.
They sounded confused at first at my reaction as Alpha tried to calm me down by trying to get me when I felt his body freeze.
I can hear him exclaiming in wonder what he just touched along with some extremely colorful expletives.
Khamsin laughed at our reaction when suddenly he became quiet.
With a shaking voice, he whispered that he felt something sticky touched the back of his neck.
CURSES!
In a panic, the three of us began yelling and cursing as we tried to get out of the place despite not seeing anything because of the dark.
Of course, the three of us panicked as we felt something sticky sticking on our bodies.
To make things worse, it feels like it's moving.
GROSS!
I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE!
Mercifully, I felt a tunnel of some sorts in which I yelled at the two males to follow me as I tried to feel my way towards the tunnel.
It took sometime for them to follow me as their panic is on another level as I can hear them kept falling down on whatever it was.
I don't want to know what it is.
All I want to do is to get out of this place!