Prompt: Your path leads you down a dank corridor and into a vast cistern. You must wade through dark, stagnant waters, your sloshing steps echoing into the dark forest of columns. The sound is answered by a louder splash and in the distance the water’s surface bulges over a shape rushing toward you.

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Paladin leapt for the safety of the torches and ducked down between Majesty and Jin just as the swarm came up on his rear, snapping and shrieking. As the fire singed the corners of one of the books in the front they let out an incoherent screech and as a flock, steered clear of the torch. They began to circle, still shrieking their contents at the coursers. They now had three torches going, being swung around by Majesty, Jin, and Cordula. The yellow courser kicked another wooden leg free from the table and kicked it towards Paladin.
“Wra fab-ric around if…” she tried to mumble with the torch in her mouth.
Paladin was confused for a moment, trying to interpret what she said when he looked at the torches they had and realized it needed some fabric or something to light. So he grabbed the wooden leg, some old, loose fabric from the floor, and wrapped it. As soon as the new torch was ready Cordula quickly turned her torch towards him as the other two kept the books at bay. Paladin used the flame of her torch to light his own. With all four now sporting torches they formed a circle.
“THIS IS RIDICULOUS!” Majesty yelled over the noise.
“WE NEED TO START MOVING!” Jin yelled back.
“WHERE?” Cordula asked.
“THERE!”
Jin motioned towards the entrance opposite of the one they entered through. There were no other directions to go and so they began to shuffle. Cordula and Paladin side-stepped the whole way over while Jin led the way. The yellow and bay tobiano coursers made sure Majesty, who was pretty much walking backwards to keep back books trying to attack from the rear, was following despite not being able to see Jin and where the exit was.
“CAN WE PLEASE JUST BURN THEM!” Paladin yelled.
“NO!” Jin replied.
Jin shot a glare over his shoulder at the bay tobiano that nearly had Paladin shrinking away. If they didn’t have the books to distract them, Paladin probably would have tried to hide from the death glare of the chimeric ether.
They slipped into the tunnel, Paladin and Majesty guarding it as Jin and Cordula looked around.
“Now what? Even if we head down the tunnel they’ll follow us!” Cordula said.
“Look for any way to close that gate!” Jin said.
He had noticed the spikes at the entrance of the tunnel, pulled up into the ceiling. Certain it was a gate, they began to search for a lever or a button, anything to bring the gate down. Pressing the stones of the wall as a last resort after not finding anything more obvious, Cordula found one that slid into the wall upon being pressed. The gate lowered, Paladin and Majesty backed up. Using the torches they kept the books out until it lowered to the floor and cut off the books from following.

They kept their torches lit as they turned away from the books that shrieked and slammed themselves against the gate. Hopefully they’d calm down before they had to come back this way if they did end up having to return. The torches came in handy for light, allowing them to turn off their lamps in order to save fuel.
Eventually they could hear the sloshing of water as the sound of shrieking and books slamming against metal quieted behind them. Leaving the tunnel they entered a chamber filled with water, the ceiling reinforced by large pillars, some beginning to crumble. There was evidence there had been a path going through the center of the pool of water to the other side, but only a few platforms remained, scattered and with a fair distance between them.
“Well, at least we were shoved into the water this time,” Cordula chuckled.
“I’m sorry, okay! It was an accident!” Paladin whimpered.
“Just teasing, sorry.”
“Think it’s safe to cross?” Majesty asked.
Jin picked up a rock and chucked it into the water. Nothing. There was no movement from the largely still water other than the ripple created by the stone thrown by the courser. They waited until the water stilled once more.
“Do we want to go together? Or one by one?” Jin asked.
“Maybe two by two?” Cordula suggested.
“I agree, that way we can help each other if needed, but have two groups far enough apart to create confusion or a distraction if need be,” Majesty added.
“We can outrun anything that’s in there!” Paladin said, wanting to add to the conversation.
Cordula paired with Jin, while Paladin and Majesty were happy to make the crossing together. Jin and Cordula began to cross to the first platform, slow and easy; they hoped not to alert anything in the water to their presence and wanted to save their stamina for if a chase ensued. They climbed onto the first platform and turned to signal to Majesty and Paladin. As Majesty and Paladin began their crossing from the entrance platform to the first, Jin and Cordula began to cross from the first over to the second. It was a longer trek.
As they midway through their crossing, a swooshing sound of water caught their attention. Turning, they saw something, hidden beneath the water and making the surface bulge, charging towards them from the right.
“RUN!” Cordula yelled at Jin.
Jin and Cordula began to run, as fast as their legs could move through the water. Majesty and Paladin saw what was happening. They were closer to their platform and so they began to splash as loudly as they could.
“OVER HERE YOU STUPID BEAST!” Paladin yelled.
The two were making their way to the first platform, being as loud as possible and causing the creature to veer towards what it assumed was bigger prey. Paladin shoved Majesty up onto the platform and climbed up himself, just as the creature reached it. Jin and Cordula were far enough across to the second platform now that they could make it before the beast could ever reach them. And it tried, it turned and began to charge after the other two, frustrated now that its prey was playing hard to catch.