A/N: Here's where the real action starts!

Holly's POV

Holly covered her mouth in an effort to muffle her scream.

Nope.
Nope.
I can't do this, Bird!
It should've been someone else!
I'm not the one everybody needs!
I'm way too weak for this!
It should have been Sundew!

"You can do it", Bird's voice said softly.
"The weakest are often the strongest."

An image of a teenager flashed through her mind's eye.
He was about eighteen, with maple-brown curls, his back turned to her.
He was looking out into the sunset in the distance, then spun around tp face her.
His eyes sparkled brown and gold like droplets of sap.
He was smiling as though he was looking at the light of his life.

What-

"What is it?", Bryony asked, snapping her back to reality.
Holly still clutched her mouth as she pointed to the creature on the ledge.

It looked at her, unblinking and impasive, its body in a strange spider-like possition.

Wren said something soothing in human.
When there was no response, she said in dragon, "Do you understand this language instead?"

The creature snarrled and scurried into a crack in the wall without so much as a glance backwards.

"That was so creepy", Bryony said, shaking.

Dusky hugged Luna's neck.
"Humans are scary", he whispered.

"Not all humans are", she said.
"Wren and Axolotl are nice. And so is Holly, even though she's not a human right now."

"I have nightmares about humans", Dusky said, so softly, it was almost impossible to hear him.
Holly twitched.

"Wait until you have your wings", Luna said.
"Then you won't be afraid of anything. I haven't had them for long, and look at me!"

"It's all right, Dusky", Cricket said, walking over.
"We all get scared sometimes. That thing really freaked me out too."

"What even was that?", Umber asked.
"It wasn't human, right?"

"I think it was . . . at some point", Holly said slowly.
"I think the Abyss somehow changed it."

"Should we try to follow it?", Wren asked.
"If one of you could lift me and Axolotl-"

"Absolutely not!", Sky said.
Holly shook her head vigerously in agreement.

"What if the Abyss does that to all humans? I'm not letting you to turn into a scary hair-monster! And that thing looked like it would eat you in a heartbeat."

He made what he must have thought was a face of feirce determanation, and glared at her.
"I'm staying here to guide you, no matter what you say!"

Wren put her hands on her hips.
"No one is going to threaten me with you looming over me, pretending to be scary, Sky."

"Well good", he said.
"I AM scary. They should think about that."

"What if all the Abyss worshipers look like that?', Bryony asked.

Sky cupped his talons over Wren, as she began to climb the rocks up to the ledge.

"Please", he said desperately.
"If the Abyss does that to all humans, you can't go there; I won't let you."

Wren touched one of Sky's talons and locked eyes with him.
They seemed to be having a whole priviate conversation with each other.

"You'd better not let me", Wren said after a long moment.
"I like my hair as it is."

"We could turn around and go home", he suggested hopefully.

"You wanted to help, Sky", Wren reminded him.
"How about this- you protect me from becoming a hairy monster, and I'll protect you from becoming a white-eyed zombi. Deal?"

Sky sighed.
 "Okay. But if there are any more reckless heroics involved, it's my turn to do them."

As they talked, Cricket had flown up to the ledge where the creature had been hidding.
She paced along it, touching the rock wall, and studying the shadows.

"There's a gap that some of us might fit through", she said thoughtfully.
"Should we try? Just to see what's in there?"

"But it might lead to the abyss", Umber pointed out.
"And if it does, then we-"

"Turn around", Sky interjected.
"Go back to the cavern with all those nice rainbow dragons, and have another bonfire party. Let's spend the night telling each other whatever the opposite of ghost-stories are. Like. . . . once there was a turtle. And then one day, that turtle met another turtle. And then, they had a big, happy family, and they lived in a cheerful little pound, and they were so cute, nobody ever thought about eatting them. And then, they lived happily ever after, the end."

"I'd fly into the Abyss right now if I could", Bryony said.
"I want to know what's down there, and learn more about the prophecy."

Cricket rubbed her forehead.
"We have to, don't we? 'A secret buried far below may save thos ebrave enough to look.' It's right there in the prophecy; we have to look."

"But Sundew, Lynx, and the others", Luna said.
"Shouldn't we give them more time? 'Face a great evil with talons united.' Would it even work if not all the tribes are represented?"

Everyone turned to Holly.
"I think", she exhaled, "that we should check it out; a few of us go in, see what's in there, come back out, and then, we wait and see what happens next. I wish Sundew was here, but I don't think we can wait for much longer. We don't know how long it will be before they come back, and we need to move quickly."

"I'll go", Cricket said.
"And I'll come with you", Holly said.
"I want to see for myself what we might be facing."

Luna stepped forward, but Dusky clung to her.
"No, no, no", he whispered, shaking rapidly.

Luna stopped and stood still for a moment.
"Okay. I'll stay."

Holly nodded, and clumsily got up onto the ledge, turning around just once to glance at her friends, before squeezing through the gap and following Cricket.

Bait's light illuminated a long, dark tunnel, stretching away in either direction.
The roof was so low, that they had to crouch down.
There was no sign of the creature.

"Which way should we go?", Cricket whispered.

Something glinted off to the left, reflecting off the glow-toad's skin.

"Let's go to the left", Holly said.
"I think I saw something."

Cricket nodded, and they carefully crept toward it.
Bait whinned.

The shinning turned out to be an archway, made of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, framing the enterance to another tunnel.

Cricket ran her claws over the design.
"I guess humans drew this", Cricket said.
"But I don't see any."

They crawled through the archway.

In the light, the cave walls came alive.
Dark shadows flickered on the walls, and it took a moment for Holly to realize that they were pictures.
Paintings covered the walls on either side of them, and the ceiling as well.

"Whoa", Cricket whispered, studying them closely.
"The humans must have made these. I wonder why they did this. It must have taken ages. And look at how many there are!"

There were so many drawing of humans, that it was almost impossible to see the rock underneath them.

 "Ohhhh!", Holly said.
 "Cave paintings! I've seen ones like these before! They must be pretty old. I think it's some kind of story!"

Cricket gasped.
"But what is it about? I don't see any dragons anywhere."

"Here's one", Holly said, pointing to an image above them.
A dragon lay currled in a cave, gray smoke rising from its nostrils.
She followed the tunnel, looking at the drawings as she went.

The walls were mostly covered in humans, but over here was the dragon again, this time flying over a group of human stick-figures.
And then, over here, it was back in the cave, this time, surrounded by hundereds of bones.

Holly inhaled.

The images got even more unsettling farther into the tunnel.
More dragons showed up, eatting and killing the humans in the drawings.
There were also images of human villages on fire.

Bait hid his eyes in his pouch.

"These don't look like Pantalan dragons", Cricket pointed out.
"They all have two wings and they're breathing fire."

"But why are there paintings of Phyrrian dragons here, in a cave, on Pantala?", Holly asked.

"Maybe they're from a time when dragons from over there, came over here", Cricket suggested.
She gasped again.

"Holly! What if this is a story about , um, what did Umber call it? The Burning? No, the-the-the- the Scorching!"

"I think you're right!", Holly cried.

"And this is how the humans saw it!", Cricket said.
"Lots of burning and death!"

"I wonder who this is supposed to be", Holly said, indictating a lone stick-figure, standing in the middle of a group of people.
He was slightly taller than the others, with a hallow of light over his head, and he was pointing to the far end of the tunnel, the direction that they were walking in.

She stared intently at the drawing, as though she though she could set it on fire if she looked at it hard enough.
"Some kind of god, amybe? Or maybe a saint. Whoever he is, he's clearly someone important."

They moved  on to the next drawing.
In this one, the figure was in a boat, along with several other humans.
The figure was pointing to a stretch of land ahead of the ship.

"Pantala", Cricket said softly.
"They're sailing to Pantala."

But in the next image, there were dragons flying towards the continent, as the humans watched them approuching.

They looked over to find that there were no more paintings on the wall.

"Wait! There's nothing else?", Cricket cried.

An omonious shadow came over Holly.
"Look up."

Above them, was an enormous painting of red and green vines.
"The Breath of evil."

"So", Cricket said, "this must mean that the humans-"

"Help!", a familiar voice screamed.
"Holly!"

"Dusky!"

Holly whirled around, alarmed to see Dusky squirming, struggling to escape the net that held him.
This human couldn't look any less like Wren.
She was as skinny as a pencil, with a long, sallow face, and feathers woven into straight, black hair.
She held a torch and pointed a knife in Holly's direction.
She shouted something to her partner, who wrapped his arms more firmly around Dusky, and then, he and the other human drated through a tunnel on the left side of the cave.

"No, no, no!", Holly yelled.
"Wren! Wren, come help!"

Holly lurked forward, but to no avail.

They were gone, and they had taken Dusky with them.

A/N: PWEEEEEEEEEEEEF!
This chapter was a pain in the butt.
At first, I was going to have them take Dusky and lead Holly into the throne room all  in this chapter. . . . . and then I listened to the audiobook (I don't have a physical copy -_-) and realized, nah that's not gonna work.

I'm not sure how long it will be until the next chapter.
Maybe I should just get a physical copy.

Wordcount: 1822

Renx out!