A hand pushed the pouch of antidote back to Sean.
"Don't waste it."
A warm, almost scorching feeling rushed through Trinity as Tyrcestus purged the traces of poison from her bloodstream.
He lifted up her chin, looking her in the eyes again.
"Hey. You just saved my life." He looked slightly breathless, almost excited, and completely healthy.
"Vizard, I can't believe I'm saying this. Your perverse nature actually helped matters."

Vizard jerked his thumb at Tyrcestus and nodded smugly to Arisa, shooting Shadow a dirty look.
"You see? Team leader over here just thanked me."

Tyrcestus flinched at the word "leader," but said nothing else and helped Trinity to her feet.
"Alright," he said briskly, as though nothing had happened at all. "We better keep moving. If those outside are that determined to get us, they'll break down that barrier if they have to."
He leaned in and whispered to Trinity as he walked past, heading for the passage.
"Hey. Any time you want to do that again, just ask. Kissing, I mean."
He looked back at the others.
"Come on, sorry for the hold-up."
A banging and scraping from outside made them jump.
"Yeah, we should go."
"Seconded."
"I agrees."

"Then me say group hurry, not want fight enemy here." Beelzenef said as he turned heel and began walking quickly through the tunnel "This only tunnel in and out of mountain, but if get thunder sword we might blast out to safety."

*****

Steve hopped onto Shadow and said "So the team leader just thanked you, do you want a cookie?" before patted the horse and said "Lets just get this sword and get out of here."

Zalia nodded her head, as she transformed back to her human form, finding that every sound within the mountain seemed to radiate through her quite painfully.

******

Shadow was not too pleased with Steve on his back, but Arisa had grabbed his reins, and pet his snout; which seemed to calm him. "The faster this is done, the faster we can get to safety."

Beelzenef lead the group through the tunnel before he said "That good you turn human, think you look better that way." as he lead them deeper into the tunnel under the mountain. After several minutes of walking the tunnel and began to level out, and then began to ascend with many twists and turns. Beelzenef looked up at the steep tunnels before he placed Zalia down and said "Might be easy for Zalia if turn fox and climb path." as he began to journey upward

*****

Steve followed the goblin till the tunnel reached a steep incline. The hermit climbed off of Shadow's back and looked at it before saying "Thats gonna be a pain to deal with."

Zalia nodded her head, as she transformed into her half human form. "This tunnel is far too small for me to turn into my other form." She said, as she pointed her ears forward, then flattened them. "Sounds hurt." She whimpered softly.

Shadow trotted towards Zalia, and nudged her with his nose.
Arisa nodded her head in retort to Steve's comment, then looked at the sloop. "This should be interesting."

Hearing Beelzenef's comments to Zalia, Vizard and Gizzard rolled their eyes.
"And we thought WE were bad flirts..."

Tyrcestus put his hand on Zalia and the pain in her ears vanished.
"I can't keep healing," he said, already sounding strained.
"Beelzenef, where to now?"

He turned - and found that he was nose-to-nose with Trinity.
His lips touched hers, then he blushed crimson and stepped away.
"I think we should leave that til afterwards - I mean, if we still want to - I mean if - I mean..."
He didn't say anything else, having a "Why me" look on his face, then looked at the others.
"Everyone else ok?"

Zalia looked at Ty. "Thank you." She said to him. "You didn't need to trouble yourself to do that." She added, then looked at Beelzenef. "I have yet to master a smaller form of the 'demon' fox...as my father says." She looked away slightly. "That form is far too large for this space." She added, then started to walk up the steep walk.

Arisa walked up to Ty, and handed him the reins to Shadow. "Here, you and Trinity should ride Shadow. He'll get the two of you up this steep walk." She told him, then looked at Trinity. "He wants you two to rest a bit...and after that poison...I'd think it would be a welcome break."
Shadow lowered his head slightly, and nudged Ty's hand.

"Cat, fox, not matter to me. I suggest change cause much easy walk up steep tunnel. Filthneck told me this tunnel twist like lightning, steep angle on moment then rest spot then more steep tunnels." Beelzenef said as they passed by a rest spot and walked up another tunnel. He then glanced back and said "Me suggest change cause me think you change weight when turn animal."

*****

Steve stumbled for a minute and reached back to Arisa and said "Need a hand?"

Zalia looked at Trinity and nodded her head. "I'll give it a try." She closed her eyes, and tried to visualize her 'demon fox' form, only smaller. As she did this, she began to transform into a smaller version of her 'demon fox' form. She opened her eyes, covered by the clothes she had been wearing. She nosed her way from under her clothes. When she emerged, she looked almost like an albino fox...with white fur all over her body, except for bands of red-orange around her feet, tail, and tips of her ears. She flicked her ears, and grabbed her dress in her mouth, and ran to Beelzenef and left it at his feet for him to carry.

Arisa looked at Steve and blushed softly. "Yes." She said in a quiet tone.

Tyrcestus shook his head, and lifted Arisa and Steve on top of Shadow.
"I'm fine. I'm indestructible."
He also couldn't now look at Trinity without blushing.
"Trinity, it might be a good idea to morph to cat. Anything that makes the journey easier."
Still holding Shadow's reins, he waited for her to change.
"I'll carry your clothes."

Beelzenef leaned down and began picking up Zalia's discarded clothing. He opened his rucksack and placed the items in it before reaching down and hoisting Zalia in her smaller fox form and placed her on his shoulder and said "Think me like you ride there, just try not tickle Beelzenef."

*****

Steve was about take Arisa's hand, but was surprised as she and himself were lifted into the air. He turned to Tyrcestus and said "Thank you" before wrapping his hands around Arisa's waist and asked her "Do you know where you're planning on heading when we make it out of here?"

Zalia looked at Beelzenef, and nodded her head, trying to keep her fluffy tail from his head, so that she wouldn't tickle him.

******

Arisa blushed slightly, as Steve held her waist. "I'm not sure." She replied. "I've been travelling to the towns where I might find them; but so far nothing."

Sean looked up the steep incline of the cave ahead.
"well, if he would have made the sword easy to get to, then someone would have found it before us."
he made sure that his sword was sucure on his back before they went up.
"I'm ready when you guys are."
I can't believe that I can sense the swords energy,
every sword of power has it's own energy signature. even your own sword and dagger do due to the black onyx in their hilts. And in time you will be able to sense it too.

sean looked back at hexy before he moved forward.
"Would you need any help Hexy, or do you think you can handle it?"

"We there." Beelzenef said as he led the group to the up the last tunnel and into a large cave. The floor of the room was littered with the remains of charred goblins, elves and humans of old. At the far end of the cave stood the thunder sword, stuck in a large boulder. The sword emanated a glow that lit the room, as if inviting a new owner to take hold of it once more

*****

"Well let's decide where to go...." Steve began to say before they walked into the cave with the thunder sword. He had to shield his eyes, due to wandering around the cave for some time

Zalia remained perched on Beelzenef's shoulder. She had to close her eyes when they entered the room with the sword.

******

Shadow had grown tired, so Arisa hopped off his back and held his reins in her hands, as she stroked his forehead. "I know you're tired." She spoke softly to the horse, as he caught his breath.

Tyrcestus had to admit, Sean did look very majestic holding the blade.
However, part of him nagged that this was so easy.
Something bad is going to happen, very very soon.
"Good. Can we get out of here before something bad happens?" he asked, looking around him with a feeling of unease.

Zerrox couldn't get the thought out of his mind. what where they doing and what was sarret thinking of doing? instead of waiting around to hear about more failures he stormed out of his room and into the courtyard, where two dozen of his crimson ninja warriors where training. As the leaders saw Zerrox they ordered their men to line up. they could tell that their master was upset. Zerrox stopped in front of them and started to talk.

" A ragtag group of so called "warriors" that have been knighted by a kind king who wants to stop the worlds chaos, have been causing our archers a lot of trouble as of late. Their leader is no other than the OUTSIDER whom is rumored to have The Sword of Storms, a sword that Zekken had no right to pass on to him."
Zerrox started to pace in front of his men as he looked at them. he could tell that they where interested as soon as he talked about sean.

" I would like for you to help you fellow clan men out and bring me his weapons. Personally..." there was a fierce look on his face when he said this.

"Now go to the fight! I have given my orders." And with that two dozen of his crimson warriors had disappeared. He smiled as he walked back inside.   

Sean looked towards Ty as he heard what he said.
"Yes, lets see if we can figure the best way out... Ahhhhh!"
As sean was stepping away from the bolder he collapsed to the floor, with the thunder sword falling within inches from his hand. He couldn't move or anything. even to grab the sword. the only thing he could do was to move his eyes around as he tried to talk.
What is this!?! Why can't I move and why do I have this huge headache...
I worried that this would happen.... the sword charged you too much at once. you may be down for a minute or two...
So I'm paralyzed? Great, you could have warned me or something...

Zerrox's crimson ninja appeared right next to their brethren that where trying to get into the mountain. after the archers had told them what had happened and where the target group was they knew exactly what to do.
they asked the archers to stand back as the new reinforcements stood in lines of two and got ready to focus dark lightning blasts into the cave't entrance...

Beelzenef smiled as he saw Sean remove the sword from the stone before he said "K, now let get out of cave. Me got talk with clan to see if goblins fight elves." as he pet Zalia in her little fox form. He then witnessed the young thunder ninja collapse before he said "Uhh, that be normal?"

*****

Steve climbed off Shadow's back and petted the horse's mane as he said "Thank you for bringing us here Shadow." before he looked on as Sean collapse. He walked forward to check on the ninja's condition