As we trudged through the rocky terrain, my mind raced, replaying everything that led here. The Selkies, their strange safe, the fragnts, and the chaos tied to them. I had signed up to protect endangered creatures, not for this... whatever this was.
The mory of agreeing to help the Selkies bubbled up, filling with regret.
Sure, it seed simple back then—just another task for the overly ambitious intern who wanted to make a difference. But hindsight had a funny way of twisting the knife.
"You know," I muttered bitterly, breaking the silence, "none of this would've happened if I hadn't agreed to help the Selkies. I should've just stayed in CCP and dealt with sothing less... death-defying."
Agnos glanced over his shoulder, one brow raised. "Oh, don't pin this on them. The Selkies were just the gateway. The real question is, why did you agree to this quest in the first place?"
I opened my mouth to retort but stopped short.
Why did I? The answer hovered at the edges of my mind, just out of reach. Was it duty? Curiosity? Or sheer stupidity?
Before I could dwell on it, Agnos stopped abruptly, his hand slash paw, raised in warning. The air around us grew heavy, thick with sothing I couldn't quite place.
It wasn't magic, at least not in the way I'd felt before. It was deeper, older, like the very ground beneath us was holding its breath.
"What's going on?" I whispered, my voice barely audible.
Agnos didn't answer imdiately. His eyes scanned the horizon, his usually smug deanor replaced by sothing unsettlingly serious. "We're not alone."
And that's when I felt it—the faint tremor beneath my feet.
It started as a subtle vibration, almost like the heartbeat of the earth itself. Then it grew stronger, the ground trembling with a rhythm that sent adrenaline surging through my veins.
"Lucky, huh?" I muttered under my breath. "Yeah, I'm feeling real lucky right now."
Agnos didn't respond. Instead, he motioned for to stay quiet as he stepped forward, his eyes fixed on sothing in the distance. I followed his gaze, squinting against the dim light.
At first, I saw nothing. Just the jagged rocks and sparse vegetation that littered the landscape. But then, it moved. A shadow, impossibly large, slithered across the ground, its shape too fluid to be natural.
"Please tell that's not another Basilisk," I whispered, gripping the straps of my backpack tightly.
Agnos smirked, though it lacked his usual flair. "No, sothing much worse."
Fantastic. Just what I needed.
The shadow solidified, rising from the ground like ink poured into water. Its form twisted and contorted, taking shape until it towered over us—a creature I couldn't na, even with my zoology degree and newfound Mythica expertise. It had too many limbs, too many eyes, and an aura that made the air hum with raw energy.
"What do we do?" I hissed, my heart pounding in my chest.
Agnos turned to , his grin returning. "Well, Carl, you're the zoologist. Ti to think outside the box again."
My glare could've lted steel. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Imnsely."
The creature let out a low, guttural growl that rattled my bones, cutting our banter short. I didn't have ti to think, let alone argue. The only thing I could do was react.
"Okay, okay," I muttered to myself, my brain scrambling for ideas. "If it's worse than a Basilisk, then... it probably has a weakness, right? Everything has a weakness."
"Unless it doesn't," Agnos quipped unhelpfully.
Ignoring him, I dug into my backpack, my fingers fumbling over the contents as I tried to focus. Potions, tools, random knick-knacks—I had to have sothing useful in here.
The creature lunged, its movents unnaturally fast for sothing so massive. I barely had ti to roll out of the way, the impact of its attack sending shockwaves through the ground.
"Carl," Agnos called out, his tone surprisingly serious. "Whatever you're planning, do it now."
I pulled out a vial filled with a swirling, iridescent liquid. It wasn't much, just a sample of enchanted seawater from Atlantis.
Sothing I got from one of the council as souvenir. But if Mythica had taught anything, it was that the simplest things often held the most power. Follow current novᴇls on novel-fire
"Here goes nothing," I muttered, uncorking the vial and flinging its contents at the creature.
The effect was imdiate. The liquid hit the creature's shadowy form, and it let out an ear-splitting shriek. Its body convulsed, the dark energy unraveling like thread pulled from a spool.
Agnos watched with an impressed look. "Huh. Maybe you really are lucky after all."
*******
The air still carried the acrid scent of singed earth from our last misadventure, but now it was heavy with sothing else.
Tension.
I glanced over my shoulder at Agnos, who sat perched on my backpack like so feline overlord, his tiny cat paws casually kneading the canvas.
"So," I began, trying to break the suffocating silence, "what do you think that black cloud was just now?"
I ant for it to sound offhand, like I wasn't bothered by the shadowy mass that had swirled across the horizon, disappearing as quickly as it ca. But my voice wavered, and Agnos didn't miss it.
"That," he said, his tone infuriatingly nonchalant, "is a sign."
"A sign of what?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure I wanted the answer.
"That sothing is trying to wake up."
I froze mid-step. The forest trail beneath my boots suddenly felt like it might drop away. "What's trying to wake up?"
Agnos tilted his head, his amber eyes narrowing with an unnerving mix of curiosity and amusent. "Soone's trying to awaken it," he said, as if that clarified anything. "But judging by the way it vanished? Looks like the ritual failed."
"Failed?" I echoed, trying to process. "And you're just here? Shouldn't you, I don't know, go stop it? Put it back to sleep or whatever it is you magical types do?"
He let out a dramatic sigh, like I'd asked him to do his own laundry. "Carl, you saw it. It's gone. If it's gone, it ans whoever tried botched the spell. Do you want to chase a vanishing shadow across Mythica? Because I'd rather not."
I didn't buy it—not entirely. The way he avoided my gaze, the slight twitch of his tail, it all scread there's more to this. But Agnos wasn't exactly a beacon of transparency.
We walked on in strained silence, the forest around us unnervingly quiet.
The towering trees lood like ancient sentinels, their branches forming a canopy so dense that only fractured beams of light reached the ground.
My boots crunched against the dirt path, but even that sound felt swallowed by the oppressive stillness.
Finally, as the weight of it all pressed down, I blurted, "By the way, where exactly are we going next? You haven't told ."
Agnos didn't even bother to look at . "Dwarftopia."
"Dwarftopia again? Why? I thought we've already got the fragnt."
"We need supplies," he said, as though I should've known.
I stopped dead in my tracks. "What kind of supplies?"
Agnos turned his head to peer at , the faintest glimr of mischief in his eyes. "Do you have any Mythica Credits in you?"
The question hit like a rock to the gut. I didn't answer right away. Instead, I rummaged through my pockets, pulling out my Mythica ID. "Depends. How much are we talking?"
Agnos' grin stretched impossibly wide, a cat-like Cheshire smirk that practically radiated bad news. "As much as possible."
I groaned, letting my head fall back. The idea of my hard-earned—and by hard-earned, I an sporadically gifted—Credits vanishing into another one of Agnos' sches made my stomach churn.
"I swear," I muttered, "I'm going to be broke by the ti this quest is over."
********
The dwarves bustled about in a frenzy, their stout forms weaving through the maze of workshops and market stalls with surprising grace. So dwarven livestrears were busy selling their wares online.
Agnos led the way—or rather, pointed directions from atop my backpack while I weaved through the crowd like a pack mule. Every now and then, he'd toss out a comnt.
"Left, Carl. No, your left. Honestly, do humans have spatial awareness at all?"
"I am this close to making you walk," I snapped, but he only purred in response.
Finally, we stopped at a massive stall manned by a grizzled dwarf with a beard so long it was braided into his belt. A sign above him read, 'Durin's Goods and Oddities. We Don't Ask, You Don't Tell.'
"Right," I said, glancing at the display of potions, tools, and enchanted trinkets. "What are we buying?"
"Everything," Agnos said simply.
"Everything?"
"Not literally, Carl. But we need an all-purpose survival kit. Rope enchanted to hold under magical strain, potions for stamina, a new map—oh, and see if he has those fireproof gloves. You'll need them."
"For what?" I asked, but Agnos ignored , too busy inspecting a golden compass that looked like it could double as a weapon.
The dwarf, Durin, squinted at with sharp eyes. "Yer cat talks?"
"Unfortunately," I said, earning a swat from Agnos' tail. "What's all this going to cost?"
Durin sized up, then rattled off a number so high I felt faint.
"Right," I said weakly, reaching for my Mythica ID. "Do you perhaps accept card?"
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