cₕₐₚₜₑᵣ ₇ "Asher! Get back here! RIGHT NOW!" Crescent shrieks at the top of her lungs, her big purple eyes clouded with worry and fear. Asher looks back and a flame ignites over his head. "It... It feels like this cave is..." Before he finishes his sentence, a black mist creeps out from the cave and wraps around him. I see his eyelids blink, his gaze waver and and give in as if in slow motion. Glaciele steps forward. Their eyes glow, pure silver light shining from their sight. They lift up their staff and conjure a minature snowstorm. I flicker in and out of sight, the mist and moonbeams from my paws ever so strong, powered by the urge to save my best, once only friend. As the shadows grasp him tighter, tighter, tighter, he disappears into darkness. I gasp, and all hope burning deep down inside shatters into a million tiny, useless shards. Crescent spins and blades fan out. She snaps her fingers and the swords are sent in different directions. It's no use now. Nothing is. So I walk inside the cave entrance. It's pitch-black except for the light inside my bag- my phone. A slight smile creeps across the grief on my face. I download all the screaming parts of all movies onto my phone and wave for the others to come in. ━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━ "Right, so place the Screaming Banshee machine at the front and run all the way to the back, get Asher, run out?" Glaciele attempts to guess my plan. "We're not comic book characters with a happy ending mapped out right in front of our noses," I reply skeptically. The others blink slowly at me and I hold up both my paws in the air. "Fine," I give in after protesting for a while. "Let's go..." The cave is something that can't be expressed with words: an endless glowing stream of water in all the colours of the rainbow stretching out three yards above our heads, impossible rock formations more than ten metres tall, pools so glassy that they shine in the darkness. I take a blue raspberry Mentos candy out of my pocket. There's something up ahead, and it smells like danger... "Dang! Those freaking branches!!" I seethe. A beam of mist snakes out from my paw and coils tightly around the electric trees. Crescent grabs my arm. "Stay calm, Eclypse," she hisses into my ear. But I can't. 'Cause what I see in the middle is too... too... cₕₐₚₜₑᵣ ₈ mesmerizing. In the perfect circle of twisted timber and electricity and shadows stands a moonstone, pale and silvery, its surface a translucent sky blue. Moonbeams shine and dance all around it, creating a eerie, beautiful atmosphere. But the thing in the middle is what attracts my attention... "Ghosts!!!" I screech right in Crescent's face. Crescent lets out a choking gasp, her eyes stained with tears. "You... don't understand, that isn't just a ghost, it's... my... my brother, Equinox..." My eyes widen. Crescent looks up, her gaze crystallizing to a solid purple. "I'm going to see whether he recognises me. EQUINOX!" she shouts. "IT'S ME! CRESCENT!" The ghost turns. It floats down to Crescent, then... disappears in a cloud of dust. ~They're... crushing spirits?!~ I think. A tendril of mist reaches out from my paw. Glaciele speaks. "I once heard of an ancient legend about the Caterpillar Deity of Moonbeams, Fallingswept Leaf. They are the one that will restore the balance between the shadows and the moon. But long before, the caterpillar used up all its energy, turning into a long stream of rain in the sky. Whatever creature who drinks from it will suffer a painful death." Eye stretch from Crescent. I set my jaw. "Well, we need to GET TO THAT FREAKING RIVER, FIND THAT FREAKING CATERPILLAR AND RESTORE THE FREAKING HARMONY BETWEEN WHATEVER AND WHATEVER!!" I screech in the loudest voice I can manage. (Actually, it's pretty soft. But never mind.) Glaciele nods slowly. "We need to save him first," Crescent protests. I hesitate. A memory starts coming back from the back of my head. It was when we were in kindergarten. I remember us lost on an outing to the mountains. I was half-buried in the snow when Asher melted all the ice off us. Then Asher fell off a snowy cliff and I used leaves to Seviper him. You know, wrap it around him and bring him up. That was hard. I nod, determined. I silently walk forward, my pads not making a sound and... LIGHT. Asher's there. I glide across the cavern. His body is limp and the flame over his head dull. Good grief. Glaciele's usually expressionless eyes widen a bit. "The Grip of Darkness. You have three days to get the Caterpillar Diety of Moonbeams and get her to save Asher. Fullstop."
I kinda lost motivation
