A light haze hung in the air before the party of coursers. They had entered another large hallway that once more had a theme of large soaring arches. Unlike the last hall, this one was more of a circular shape, the arches met in the middle of the roof, creating an eight-pointed star, like a spider web.

In between each beam of the arches, the slightly curved ceiling had barely noticeable artwork. The actual depictions couldn’t be deciphered from where Fird was standing though.

Each painting had significant damage, cracks and missing pieces in some places, lichen and water damage in others.

Fird and his friends stood on top of a short set of steps overlooking the hall. The floor of the new room was recessed into the earth, a good couple feet below the passageway the coursers were standing in.

The cobblestones that made up the floor were oddly stained, likely due to water if the odd smell of mildew was to be trusted.

The sides of the hall between the arches dropped off suddenly into pure darkness. There was no escape from the room by going out one of the sides. Hanging between arches were frayed and damaged tapestries. Looking at them very little was visible besides faint shapes.

One, shredded beyond repair, had a single visible eye staring out into the hall. Another had the outline of a buck, stuck with his opponent’s head interlocking antlers. More tapestries had large claw marks or burn damage scoring through their contents.

Beyond the arches though, around ten feet from the outside of the hall was a ring of waterfalls. The spray from these falls flecked off and caused moss to grow on the outsides of the arch’s pillars as well as furthering the damage done to the tapestries.

All four coursers stayed where they were.

In the center of the hall was a large box, chained to the floor, and rattling.

Sable flicked his tail and leaned over to Fird.

“I don’t want to freak anyone out, but is that… blood on that box?” He whispered.

Fird looked closer, and yes, it did appear that there were faint bloodstains leaking from the lid of the box. Urgh.

“Ugh, I do not want to deal with another fiend.” They muttered. “I just fought one a few weeks ago!”

Limestone piped up.

“Aren’t fiends fire though? This seems more of a syren if I had to guess.”

Magna nodded.

“The water damage doesn’t seem very consistent with a fire spirit.”

Fird rolled their eyes.

“It makes more sense if you think about it though, putting a powerful fiend in a place where they can’t escape is far smarter than putting them in just another random dungeon room.”

“Hm. I suppose so.” Limestone acquiesced. “IF someone put it here and it’s not a trap.”

Fird tossed their mane a bit.

“Well, the last fiend I encountered was in an open box and tried to draw you in via near hypnosis. Not to mention, the chains are a pretty good sign that this is a place to keep the fiend rather than somewhere it wants to be.”

Sable nodded along.

Magna seemed convinced enough, though it wasn’t one to have strong opinions one way or the other most times. Limestone on the other hand seemed less trusting in Fird’s observations.

“Well, we can either enter or leave? What do you guys want to do?” Sable asked.

“Might as well enter yeah?” Fird looked for any opposition from the other two coursers standing besides them. They both nodded at Fird to enter the hall.

Fird took a deep breath and started down the steps.

As soon as all four horses were solidly on the floor of the hall, the steps melted back into the low wall. The passageway the party had followed had also melted away, replaced with another waterfall and a tapestry of an odd, coiled snake holding a shattered clay pot.

Limestone and Fird both pinned their ears back as shivers rolled up their backs. Something felt… very wrong.

“Do we just… go to the other side maybe?” Sable looked back at his friends. “I don’t want to start a fight if we don’t need to.”

The other three nodded, the atmosphere of the hall seemed to call for silence.

As they slowly made their way to the far side of the hall, giving a wide berth to the box in the middle, Fird kept an eye on the tapestries.

Part of him wished to pull out his charcoal and sketch what he could, but something also seemed… very wrong.

All of a sudden, Stromatolite, Limestone’s cat jumped up from their perch on Limestone’s bedding roll, arching their back and hissing like a bear was in the room with them.

The other coursers whirled around, looking at the cat who was staring wide eyed at the tattered tapestry with only an eye visible on it.

Wait, was the eye… looking at them? Fird crushed in with the other three as they formed a defensive spiral, all looking up at the tapestries. Now that they were looking, each one had at least one undamaged eye.

And they were all looking at the party.

Fird felt Sable shaking a bit to their left side. The tapestries now began to move in a wind that none of the coursers could feel.

A small plink noise sounded from the middle of the hall.

Each horse slowly, but inexorably turned their head towards the chained box. The box that which the chains were unlocking and slithering down the sides of the box.

Stromatolite let out a yowl that was closer to a scream before leaping from Limestone’s back towards a moss-covered pillar where they scurried up the plush plant.

Sable snorted and lowered their head, standing in front of the other coursers, prepared to protect them from whatever was in the box.

The chains fully removed themselves from the lid of the box, slipping into a tiny gap below the box.

For a second nothing happened, Fird tensed more prepared for almost anything.

A pillar of water exploded from the box, hitting the ceiling and spraying droplets everywhere. A shape appeared within the water stretching long, clawed paws up then lighting down on the lip of the box.

Water dripped down as a large sphynx-like being emerged from the box. It opened its face of many eyes, all of which were pure shining white.

Out of the corner of his own eye, Fird could see every eye on the tapestries were also glowing pure white.

“Now then.” Their voice was layered, like many different beings were speaking at once. “Who might you be?”

Sable cleared his throat.

“We are just some explorers. We don’t want to cause you any trouble, if we can just move through.”

“Trouble!?” The being laughed. Cruelly. “You have been the furthest thing from trouble for me! Though you leaving would be an issue…” They grinned showing a face of layered teeth like a shark. “No, I’m quite sure that I need you to do just… one more thing for me.”

With that, they pushed themselves from the water and launched straight towards Sable, their claws outstretched and their teeth bared.