Journey Trial - Yra, Loch, Kaem

The journey up the shattered tunnels was a difficult one. Each member of the haedian trio battled with their own doubts and weaknesses as they made the challenging trek, and each one made the decision to stay and fight on. Now they stand as one at the crest of a hill, gazing out on yet a further expanse of dim all dotted with specks of light. 

“How much farther?” Yra, the largest and strongest of their little clan, has her fiery gaze on Loch, their smooth-skinned ally, as she shatters the breathy silence. 

Her ridged tail writhes behind her as she crouches there on the rock, looking rather impatient and tired. In the faint azure glow of the crystals, her shadow pelt is as dark as pitch, making the burning in her bright stare all the more intense. 

Loch’s gray eyes are fixed ahead, though, his sensitive ears hardly twitching at his harsh friend’s tone. 

These are not the caves that he remembers, not the winding labyrinth of rock and crystal the former Depthstrider knew like the back of his own talon. The collapse had caused damage that much of the Beneath is unrecognizable. 

”Don’t you smell it, Yra?” Kaem’s softer whisper turns the former Brute’s head to face her. She shies a bit under Yra’s hard stare, but she doesn't turn away. 

”It’s all I’ve been able to smell for hours!” Yra growls, “We shoulda seen something by now, am I right?”

“You would see, if you would only look.”

Loch’s tone is so measured and low that the girls might not have heard it, if not for the soft resonance of his thoughts touching their minds. They turn to face ahead, following the silver haedian’s gaze, and it isn’t long before they begin to notice it, too. 

It’s getting brighter.. and what they thought were distant specks of luminescent crystal are now winking out one by one and giving way to the light. The jagged edges of the great chasm become gradually silhouetted against the beyond, and the first cool breeze of the morning blows in toward the trio. The crisp air brings so many smells, so familiar and yet not, like a dream slipping away as you try to grasp it. 

It fluffs Kaem’s mane, and sends a shiver down her curved spine. To her, the world already became larger when she left the Caregivers and became an Oathbreaker. Now, faced with the staggering hints of what lies ahead, the golden haedian can only breathe and watch with reverence as the Above rises to greet them. 

It starts with a wink, then light and color explode into view. For eyes that only ever knew the Beneath, starlight up close is intense. Thankfully, the haedians’ third eyelids handle the glare and allow them to stare, spellbound, with hardly a flinch.

What they thought was just more cave turns out to be open sky, painting itself before their eyes in the glorious hues of sunrise. 

Loch is the first to recover, chancing a glance over at his friends. He can only smile as he sees the looks on their faces. The way the brilliant glow plays across Yra's chiseled muscle and Kaem's velvety fur.  

Yra’s eyes suddenly snap his way, followed by the rest of her head. The pup-like, awestruck wonder she had is gone without a trace. 

Loch’s warm smile does not falter, however, and he lets her see it in full. He even casually turned his narrow snout to face her directly. 

Kaem slowly blinks free of the trance and notices the tension, turning her coral- colored orbs on her friends. She knows Yra does not handle emotions well, especially if they're “warm and squishy,” as she calls them. 

And Loch knows the bond between them is shining bright at this moment, and there is no denying that they will remember this day until their last breaths. 

They feed into each other, those two.. 

The former Brute’s snout wrinkles, the edge of her maw twitching. 

Yra and Loch stand there, staring at each other for a few awkward heartbeats while she fights the beginnings of a smile. 

Kaem’s giggle behind and over her shoulder doesn’t help, and Yra is forced to shake the moment off before she looks soft in front of both of them. 

“Well, what are we waiting for?!” she barks a little too loudly, then she snorts and breaks away from them in a sudden bolt ahead. “Let’s go!”

Kaem shakes her head at Yra, her laugh growing. Soon she’s bubbling over with emotion and excitement, and she bursts into a run after Yra.

“Come on, Loch!” She calls, looking back over her wing and through her windswept mane.

Loch’s chuckle echoes as he bounds after them, joining the race to the Above.

Each haedian has their own technique for conquering the crumbled path: 

Kaem seems to prefer the tracks created when the outsiders made their way in, safe and steady.

Yra is like an arrow, with her sights aimed for the light ahead. She leaps and charges in a straight line, using the winding tracks and broken stones to jump up like great steps in a giant stair. 

Loch uses the flow of the land itself as it climbs toward the Above, looking much like a dolphin with his smooth, silver figure zipping and jumping along and twirling through the air with the help of his wings. 

Loch is the first to make it up, and he bursts up over the crumbled chasm with a yip! 

The others are quick to follow, then Kaem's talons touch down, meeting grass, and she squeaks, “EEEE!”

Kaem springs back up into the air with spine and tail arched and bristled. She lands atop a boulder and clings there with a terrible case of the heebee-jeebees crawling up her limbs.

Yra scoffs at her as she, rather cautiously, steps past.

“Get a hold of yourself, Kaem,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You're so sensitive.”

Then the three of them look out onto the surface of Vitalus for the first time, and the trio is once again dwarfed by the immensity of their world. The grass and windswept trees are impressive, but not as much as the mountains and floating islands! 

“Gods..” Loch breaths. “Our journey has only just begun.”

“You really think we can do this?” Kaem's question is hardly a whisper over the wind. 

“We can, and we will,” Yra nods with a resolute huff, and the others nod and hum in agreement.

“Together, we can do anything,” Loch grins, then with a toss of his head he calls, “Onward, to adventure!”

“Onward!” Yra echoes him with a roar, and off they go, running down the hillside, away from the chasm without a single glance back.