Limestone gave a final great push and stumbled out of the passageway into a large open room.

Magna followed quickly, also struggling a bit with the close quarters.

Sable, with Fird on her heels came through easily, spinning around to face back down the hall they had just run from. At the very end, a great darkness in the shape of a courser pawed at the ground before snorting and disappearing into wisps of shade.

Sable and Fird sat down hard on the ground, taking the time to catch their breaths while Limestone and Magna pushed themselves up from the pile they had fallen into.

After a few good seconds filled with huffing and puffing from each member of the party, Fird let out a loud groan.

“Ohhhh, it nearly got my tail there. Ah, but, Dakota?” They addressed their pet rat, who was clinging on tightly to the top of their welding mask. Their eyes were wide and their tiny claws had left scratches from where they had held on tightly “Do you know where we are on the map?”

The rat squeaked slightly before relaxing, the danger fully passed. They pulled out the map, a bit more ragged around the edges, and checked it for a few seconds. After a second they folded it up and replaced it in their harness, shaking their head to Fird’s question.

Magna growled.

“Well great. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly care about getting whatever trinket Merrix has decided that they desperately NEED, but I would like to know how to get OUT of this place!” It kicked one of the walls in anger.

“Oh, thats okay Magna!” Limestone piped up. “Fossiliferous? If you could grab the, yes that one! Thank you!” Fossiliferous, Limestone’s pet black cat pawed around in Limestone’s pack, eventually drawing out a block of ulexite on a long chain. The cat carried it up to Limestone’s head, taking a similar perch to Dakota above their courser’s eyes and dangling the pendant out in front of Limestone’s muzzle.

Limestone blew a puff of air, presumably to get their long forelock out of their eyes. It didn’t help.

They then cleared their throat and addressed the rock.

“I wish to speak to Merrix, the Gyre sphynx.”

Immediately, the rock began to glow slightly along the edges before the tiny face of Merrix appeared transferred through it.

“Yeah?” Their voice was tiny and tinny through the scrying mineral.

“Ah, hi Merrix,” Limestone grinned. “I’m afraid we ran into a terrifying spirit courser, and we are off of the path we were following. We were wondering if you knew what we should do now?”

Merrix hummed a bit in thought.

“Yeah I think I can help, Magna, can you turn on your beacon?”

Limestone turned to Magna, who nodded.

“Sure. Ah, Dakota actually, could you turn my fastener a quarter notch counterclockwise? You have more thumbs than I.” It said in good humor.

Dakota nodded excitedly, scampering down their courser’s leg and up Magna’s where they fiddled with the metal fastener Magna indicated. The intricate metal trinket had been gifted a few weeks ago by Merrix to hold Magna’s bags together, and apparently, as a homing beacon.

A slight click rang out before Merrix spoke up again.

“Ah, yep there you are!” The image became fuzzy as the sphynx moved a bit, the scrying mineral unable to keep up with the being. “Okay, Fird, you are going to want to leave the room you are in through the hallway on the wall to the right of you, then follow the hallway until you reach a large library. The hallway should just fade into it, then you will want to poke around until you find a staircase leading DOWN and follow it. That should get you back on the map on the next level.”

Fird nodded from where they were sketching out where they would need to go on the map with a dove’s feather. The magic of the map interacted with the purity of the dove to create a line that would disappear as the party followed it.

“Did they get it?” Merrix asked annoyingly after not receiving a verbal confirmation.

“Yeah, they nodded I just don’t think you saw.” Sable piped up.

“Well of course I can’t see! This isn’t a very good communicating device! Limestone, buddy, please let me get you something better! Something-“ Merrix cut out as Fossiliferous, taking initiative, bundled the scrying lens up and back into its bag.

“Ready to go?” asked Limestone as Dakota skittered back up Fird’s neck, taking the map with them.

“Oh uh, can we wait a bit longer?” Sable asked. “I want to make sure Trout 2 knows where we are.”

“Oh sure.” The other coursers were fine with a bit more time to recuperate.

It only took a few moments before the osprey swooped in through the passageway they had come, trailing a few feathers from where he had needed to go through the spectre haunting that direction.

Sable fussed over her bird as Fird once more took the lead, followed by the rest of the party.

They walked for quite a while, the map only showing changes and landmarks and not the actual distance that travelling would require the coursers to cross in reality.

Slowly, so slowly that none of the coursers could pinpoint exactly when the change occurred, the walls started to shift.

Stone became wood or covered by a tapestry. The floors started to have rich, plush rugs on them, muffling the hoof falls of the coursers. Around them, books appeared on shelves, accompanied by whispers and rustling of pages.

Each time one of the coursers turned away from the shelves it seemed as though the books were moving by themselves.

“Oh man, I’d love to stop and read some of these!” Magna said happily. “Imagine all the knowledge they might hold!”

“Hmm.” Fird hummed. “It has been a while since we took a long break, maybe we can look at some of them!”

“Oh wonderful! These rugs are so plush!” Sable threw herself down on the thick rug, rolling back and forth without even taking off her gear. Trout 2 flapped around happily, the alluring calm of the library seeming to affect the bird as well.

Limestone and Magna both split up, checking the decimal system on the books to find what they were looking for as Fird approached the nearest shelf indiscriminately.

Dakota shuffled on their welding mask, a bit on edge, but to be fair, the rat was pretty high-strung anyway.

“Huh.”

Now that Fird was looking closer, the very words on the book spines seemed to shift and change. The only constant being one word that wormed its way along an unknown path of book spines:

Galatea.

“…Galatea?” Fird read aloud curious.

In a heartbeat the whole library shifted and changed, books launching themselves from the walls.

A book wyvern nest!

Now revealed the odd beings swooped around the party, their hundreds of razor thin wings slicing the air and coursers alike. Each shrieked at the coursers in ancient languages and draconic hisses; the only thing anyone could make out being “Galatea! Galatea!”

Sharp teeth drove themselves into thin courser hide as the party and their pets cowered before the onslaught.

Part of Fird was dreadfully curious, what about the word made them stir up in such a rage? But now was not the time, the party had thousands of angry beasts descending on them, they had to find that stairwell!

Preferably before someone succumbed to the papercuts the wyvern’s wings were bestowing.