Ascent of a Dragon

Thonk! "Ow!" Thud! Thud! "How are you stuck?! You fit perfectly fine yesterday!" Aleph tugs her head, trying to pry herself free from the hole she slept in. After the banquet, the pair were guided to a large root, littered with holes to rest within. Being at least three times the size of an average inhabitant of these nooks, she simply slept with only her head inside, to be polite of course, yet now her horns have begun to hook into the bark, having grown just enough overnight to be stuck.

"Okay, okay. I know a few ways out of situations like this. Butter! We can use butter!" "What's butter?" "Good point... Maybe the monkeys have some?" Creak! Crack! "Want me to go find out?" "Ah... No, never-mind. I see you've got things figured out." Leaving behind the now larger than average sleeping nook behind, the pair head off towards the city edge. "Seriously, you're growing way too fast!" "Isn't growing normal?" "Not this fast!" "That just means I'm being normal. But faster." "I sense a flaw in your logic. But at this point I'm just losing the ability to care."

Gliding between platforms with an entourage of curious younglings behind her, Aleph lands on a large platform littered with crates and baskets. Pausing to look around, she assesses her bearings, looking for the best way out. "Ooh! Ooh!" Her gaze is snatched by the bouncing child in front of her, holding a piece of parchment and a bowl filled with black liquid and waving them at her with an eager grin.

Is it asking for an autograph? Am I famous? Has my glory been recognised already? Bringing her tail in front, she dips it in the inky substance, only for it to run off immediately. Huh... I'll have use a bit of finesse for this one. Instilling her tail with Aether, she pulls in the ink, holding it against her blade. With a swift swipe, she splotches ink over the entire parchment... and accidentally splits it in two. However this was clearly the correct response, as the child promptly goes feral, waving around its two signed parchments for all of its envious friends to see.

Leaving before things get too heated, and ignoring the jealous chitters atop her head, Aleph glides to the next few platforms, eventually reaching the city edge. Turning around, she and Lyly wave the inhabitants goodbye before swooping to the ground below. "Where to next? Next layer?" "Uh, sure. Not much reason to stay here I guess." "Hope it's not more jungle. Three floors of cramped terrain is tough." "No, it gets more rocky from here. The next floor shouldn't have many big trees." "You've been here before?" "Oh, yea. I've been trying to reach the bottom for years, but keep getting stuck further down. The route I usually take is different though, so things are a bit different to what I remember." "Huh... How big is this place." "I have no idea... it's huge."

Through the eyes of a former king

To leave without a word. Huhuhu, how amusing. Though I suppose they know not my tongue, nor I theirs so this was inevitable. Even still, I shall not be left behind so easily. Swinging through the trees above, the king turned wanderer follows the emissary and the bright one. His body is draped in belts and ropes, with tools and pouches hooked on and packed with a variety of utilities. He grasps the air, pulling it silent with his essence and hiding himself from the senses of the bright one. Yet even in silence and behind the cover of the canopy a gaze holds itself onto him, regarding him with interest and curiosity. No fooling this one.

With a light chuckle he lets himself drop from the canopy, softening the earth as he lands to calm the impact. The pair turn around, the bright one taking a combat stance atop the head of the emissary who regards him with a calm interest. The bright one chitters, whistling into the vines wrapped around its forelimbs as the emissary responds in kind without motion. I must learn this tongue! To understand the words of such fascinating beasts would be a privilege.

The warrior rises to two feet and thumps his chest lightly. "I wish to follow you, great beasts! Accept my fist as one of your own!" The emissary tilts its head as the bright one clings to a horn to avoid sliding off. Chitters and whistles fill the air, but no clear response is formed. Do they think me unworthy? Perhaps I must show them my capacity. I shall perform the ancient rite of skill, mastered by few but revered by all. His muscles flex, knees bending as he breathes out, and leaps.

Through the eyes of a kinda actually impressed spider

Holy shit! Did that monkey just do a quadruple somersault back-flip into a hand-stand cartwheel then triple spin and land on its tail? Why? "Can we keep it?" Lyla looks down at the dragon, who peers back up with glimmering eyes like a child with a new toy. "What?! No! Why?" "It's cute!" "No! Well... okay. Buy still no! Keeping pets is a big responsibility. You've gotta clean them, train them, teach them to speak, it's a whole thing!" "Yea, but this one has a yulishar, it's smart enough to do all that on its own, and you love teaching new languages!" She's right! And was that the Aoan word for awakened soul? I know Englin has some roots in Aoan, but that's still a bit of an etymological jump!

"Fine... We can keep it. But you take care of it!" Not that that means much since it can clearly take care of itself. And how'd they know it has an awakened soul anyway? Isn't that really hard to find out? "Yay!" The dragon proceeds to trot over to the monkey and nuzzles their snout into its face in what must be a universal sign of acceptance for quadrupeds or something. "I'll call him Goldy!" So fast! I still need a nickname for Aleph! And now this monkey too... The dragon turns around, allowing the confused monkey to follow behind.

"Hey wait... How'd you know it's a he?" "Female humans have a bulge on their chest and differently shaped hips." "That's a monkey... not a human." "Oh. They're all so similar, I must have gotten them confused. Same logic though." "How does that even?! What?? You can tell the gender but not the species?!" "Well they're two completely different things you know." "I... What... Oh whatever." Hey wait! I can use this to smoothly segue into finding out their own gender! "So how does one tell with dragons?" "No clue!" This fukin... "I just assume I'm a she. It's close enough at least." Huh. Well that works for me.

"So where are we going?" "Don't know. I just thought the grass looked greener this way. Haven't you been here before? Do you know the way down?" "I didn't even know there were monkeys on this floor. Let alone an actual city of them. We're just too far from my usual route. Actually..." Lyla peers behind, eyeing the golden fluff-monkey knuckle-walking behind. "Maybe we could ask the monkey? Worked well last time." "Good point! Do you speak monkey?" "No. You?" "Not this one." Why would you know any monkey language? Time travellers are weird... "Charades it is then."

The dragon turns, cyan and violet meeting gold. "Okay, lemme get some rocks and I-" "How go down?" The dragon bluntly asks tilting her head quizzically and pointing down with a claw. There's no way this works... The monkey scratches his chin, squinting at the dragon as it ponders the meaning of her actions. "Huu!" He announces, shaking his fist with a grin before scampering off to the side and waving the pair over. That worked?! Guess I underestimated this monkey's intellect...

Through the eyes of a charades expert

Hell yea! Love that game! Aleph follows behind Goldy, weaving through foliage, gliding across rivers, and sliding down hills without rest. Their travels lead them below inverted forests, through upright ones, and around small lakes, until the plant-life begins to wane. Foliage gives way to moss covered rocks, which give way to bare stone, and then moss rocks again, only dark blue and practically flush with the stone this time. Ahead lays a seemingly endless wall, grasping at the horizon where it bends out of view. The surface appears heavily trodden, smoothed out as if melted into place. The only life remaining being the blue moss adapted to survive the wear and tear.

Directly ahead lies a large crevasse in the wall, reaching the floor and ceiling and caked in obsidian glass. Goldy pauses at the entrance, pointing in, then down. "Huh. I might start liking this guy." Lyly chitters from above. "You don't already? But he's so cute!" "Eh. Monkey king is an overdone trope. Maybe if it was a monkey queen that would feel more unique." You know, now that I think about it...

The trio climb their way up to the crevasse, clambering across the glassy surface as the make their way through. The walls open up to a large hole, reaching far above beyond sight and deep below. Several helix shaped grooves adorn the walls, spiralling up and down like paths. The occasional pair of yellow eyes dot the area, before closing to remain hidden... to anyone who can't outright see the Aether clinging to them. Across the gap lies another crevasse, leading to an equally bright and full of live environment as the one they just left. High above lies a soft, blue glow and below a faint, white glimmer, both reflecting off the obsidian to create a patterned gradient of specular highlights.

"You know... It would have been nice to know I could just skip every damn floor in this place the last several times I was here." Making their way down one of the spiral paths, the trio steadily descend. On their way they pass beneath a hidden rock lizard which dislodges, careening to the prey strolling below. Goldy reacts, poising to strike back only for Aleph to just slam it into the wall with a swipe of her tail, having already seen the attack coming. "Found food!" She announces, slicing off a leg and tail for the other two to claim as she bites down on her portion.

Lyly immediately claims the leg, leaving Goldy with the tail. Picking up the skull he watches in awe as Aleph easily downs her own body weight in lizard, bones, organs, and all. Clearly inspired by this, he proceeds to do the same, pouring Mana into his teeth as he crunches through the bone, eating the whole thing. Lyly is the last to finish, virtue of having a tiny mouth, and as she does she speaks up. "We should probably rest here for now. This cave seems to go down a couple floors and they get pretty deep from here." "Okay!" Aleph responds, slumping down with enough force to knock the spider over with wind pressure and startle Goldy.

Crimson Basilisk

Appearance:

These specimens vary in length, ranging from a mere quarter stride to that of a mountain. Their scales are a dark-brown, patterned with spots of crimson and their eyes glow a bright yellow, as with the other natives of these caverns.

Behaviour:

These Basilisks are incredibly territorial, and will show hostility to any creature who steps too close. More-so to any creature foolish enough to stumble into their nests. When severely agitated they appear to be capable of generating a tremendous amount of heat, the large ones even able to melt rock with their presence.

Other Notes:

I believe these creatures to be responsible for the large amount of obsidian on the above floors, as well as within many of the tunnels I have discovered. While I first encountered one of these creatures here on the 51st floor, they appear to have only been in transit. Observing their behaviour, I believe they are actually native to a deeper layer, and ascend to the 50th to lay their eggs.

The large ones are very flavourful. When prepared properly, the liver is one of the best parts, practically dissolving within my mouth. It is a shame I cannot eat the whole thing, but I will at least be preserving some for my journey ahead.

Add-ndum:

Upon rea---ng the 58th floor, I encou-ter-d what must have been the largest creature I have even heard of, besi--s th- divine beast Avilar. A tremendous Ba-ilisk which towered up to the ceiling, ev-n --ile coiled. This must have been some form of -lpha, or queen. U-fortu--tely, the beast was immediately hostile to m-, and I was forced to slay it. No ma-ter how strong I may claim to be, I cannot ignore the threat p-sed by such a beast. It was me, or the ba-ilisk.

Incidentally, t-- meat of this creature was tru-y divine. It must have been d-enched in Mana t- -each such a purity.

-Section 51, Chapter 3 of the Lost Hero's Journal