POV -> Corian

Even with the thick forest at the bottom of the ravine, Corian could feel every stray beam of sunlight that filtered through the leaves and shimmered on the ground. He could feel his skin constantly healing over the burns to keep it from looking shocking to Justin, but it was still a discomfort he was intent on avoiding.

Justin hardly complained when he would swerve open clearings to keep to the woods.

Until the crows came back.

The murder had tripled in size since last Corian had seen it. What was a peaceful forest walk, turned into a cacophony of angered squawks as the sea of black weighed the branches of the trees all around them.

Justin, of course, had plenty of theories. From trespassing on their sacred ground to wearing offensive colours, he kept a patient smile for the shrieking creatures.

Corian hissed out as sigh as one swooped at his head, battering his head with its wings before arching up into the canopies.

Corian wasn't comfortable telling him the truth. He felt bad that Justin's height made him the primary target of the swooping birds, but there were things he didn't need to relive through words. The birds were angry, with due cause. And although they were being annoying, that's all their swoops and caws were.

He wasn't going to retaliate this time. Because while they were angry, they were also just as terrified at what Corian had done.

Through the cacophony that lasted into the afternoon, Corian would catch an add bird that lingered in the pack. It was the only one that didn't caw in anger at him, and was a little fatter than its kin.

He could spot it easily. It was undeniably a crow, but its chest was peppered with dark green feathers.

Their leader?

He kept that thought at the back of his mind. Surely their leader would yell at him too. Maybe it was an oddball that had yet to be chased out of the murder. Justin hadn't seemed to notice the odd bird in his fight against the swooping wings. An afternoon of reflexive dodges had kept his face scratch free, and even more impressively, he had managed to fill the trek with a strange amount of bird facts.

The murder grew bored once they finally reached the edge of the ravine. But where they had left one obstacle, a new one bared its fangs.

There was a trail that wound up the jagged wall of stone. Steep, treacherous and bare of any trees that would defend against the brutality of the afternoon sun.

Corian dragged his pace, stopping them at the edge of the clear. He thought on how he was going to get around this one. He had a helmet, but it was carrying something far more important than the shade his face needed. There was a fair amount of mud in the shade of the trees, which could pass as a desperate version of sunscreen.

Corian stared at a wet pile of leaves near his feet. He hadn't chanced his reflection in the river, he didn't really want to know what his affliction had done to his appearance.

Still. Random forest mud definitely didn't seem like it would be good for the skin… or the hair.

"I'm dying." Justin blurted, ripping Corian's attention back to his friend as he dropped against a tree. "Let's set up camp."

Instead of immediately jumping for the relieving suggestion, Corian gave the bright sky an obvious look.

Justin barely glanced skyward. "I was walking all night looking for you." he retorted, shielding his eyes as he gazed up at the tall face of rock they had reached. "Let's find a cave, get some shut eye, and give this bad boy a midnight climb."

Corian caved without resistance to the suggestion, and a half hour was well spent walking the edge of the cliff to explore the deeper cracks that split it. They were able to find a cave that ended with a few short strides. Other than a few grumpy bats sharing the space, it was empty, and flat enough for Justin.

Neither had anything that would make this a comfortable night, but Justin didn't seem fazed by the prospects of napping on bare stone. He tried a few angles once they had set up a small fire for warmth, and eventually seemed to find the softest rock in the cave and dozed off without a complaint.

Corian headed to the mouth of the cave once he was sure Justin was asleep, and sat for his watch. Six hours would be a lot to fill, but with a stick and some loose dirt he could at least doodle away the insanity.

Corian gazed into the forest, listening to the chirping bugs and soft rustle of the wind. Despite the sun disappearing behind the horizon hours ago, it was still bright enough for him to see well into the trees, like a light was always lit behind his eyes to pierce the darkness. The hours he had sat guard outside the small cave were a calming break.

The wind tickling the trees was one of the greatest sounds in the world to Corian, his friend's quiet snores from within the cave, his second most. Although he had yet to confirm the reason. Justin was alive. Hope was alive.

Although, he would understand if his friend was adverse to helping him rescue Rikka a second time.

Corian focused on some movement in the woods. A patch of shrubbery shaking a little more than the wind could manage on its own. The bushes parted around a darker figure, close to the ground as it seemed to sniff around at the dirt. At first he had thought it was some sort of wild dog, but its hind legs were bent the wrong way, and its head did not have a snout.

He shifted his position, moving his legs out to block off the small entrance to the cave. The shuffle of his feet immediately grabbed the creature's attention, and it looked up, a pair of glowing red eyes meeting his own.

A ghoul.

Corian slowly moved his hand to a rock laying at his side.

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The creature shuffled closer, still low to the ground like a wild boar. It seemed to be alone, tattered clothing still clinging to its body from when it had once been alive. Corian could see some rotted cuts that had never healed on its body, blending into its sickly blackened and green complexion.

He stared at it as it sniffed the air in his direction, his grip on the rock tightening. Although he wouldn't make much of a meal for the creature, there wasn't a doubt in Corian's mind that it could smell Justin. And if it was brave enough to expose itself in the open, it was definitely hungry.

It looked at him again, its red eyes vacant of any thought.

Corian lifted the rock, "Scram."

It seemed to understand the display, crawling off to sniff for something else to eat.

"Usually see ghouls in packs."

Corian shrieked at the sudden voice in his ear. He turned to Justin with a mix of surprise and irritation at how the man had snuck up on him. The laugh he received in response tipped him on the side of anger as his friend doubled down to cackle. "Don't do that! It'll come back if you keep making noise."

"Not after you rejected it like that." Justin snickered.

"I'm serious." Corian grumbled, grabbing his helmet as he got up. He looked Justin up and down. "We don't have any weapons."

"I'm sure you'll chase off a lot if you keep staring daggers at anything that moves."

Corian turned with a scoff, hiding the smile Justin had won. He started their journey in the opposite direction the ghoul had gone, scouring the towering pillars of rock for anything that could pass as a trail. There were parts he could see higher up, where the rock face naturally had broken to platforms wide enough to walk and rest on. He settled for a spot where he could see the most platforms, loosing the straps on his helmet to retie them around his neck and hang the potted flower over his back.

"What's that flower?"

Corian eyed Justin, his friend rolling up his sleeves and patting his hands with dirt to prepare for the climb. "Rikka."

"Ah."

Even without exhaustion to haunt him, making it up the cliff was a difficult ordeal. Any training the Heroguard offered always assumed you had daggers, or at least a length of rope. Or magic. The surface he was scaling was not pure stone as he had hoped. Tightly packed dirt disguised itself as a solid surface until it came apart in his hands, and some patches were slick clay that was practically impossible to get a hold on. Still, after hours, he had somehow managed to nearly reach the top with Justin.

The night stretched longer than Corian anticipated. He always found himself checking his shoulder, worried about the light of dawn that would eventually sneak up on him. But they were close to the top, and to the tree-line.

Corian found his next hold, searching his path for good supports in his climb. As he viewed the various crevices available, he felt a pebble fall through his hair, a few crumbling bits of dirt trailing after it to tickle his nose. Corian looked up for what had caused the disturbance, scouring the dark cliff for any creatures of the night.

Now would be an awful time for that ghoul to come back. He eyed Justin, the man in his own world trying to find some hand holds while he bent his legs at awkward angles to reach the crevices that could support his clunky boots.

The anxiety rose as he felt another pebble topple onto his head. He shushed Justin, locked onto the small edge above him. It seemed large enough for a person to stand on, and likely wide enough to stay out of sight if they kept their back to the rocks.

A sharp scrape startled Corian as Justin's foot slipped, and he caught himself on another crevice.

"Justin, shut up." Corian hissed. He stared at the little crop of rocks. There was definitely something. It just didn't feel right.

Corian quietly found a new foothold, hoisting himself up so he was eye level with the small platform. A few dry bushes had secured the platform of dirt and rocks, the space deceptively larger than the other spots he and Justin had rested at during their climb. It was apparent that something else had seen this as a vantage point. Because Corian was now eye to eye with it.

It was a beast of bent and molded steel, bound by magic into the shape of a slender hound. The arcane hound stared at him for a moment, the fiery red glow of its magic eyes sending a shiver down Corian's spine. And then it rose, its magic trickling along its metal body as it prepared to attack.

Corian instinctively flinched away from its snapping jaws, nearly losing his hold. He scrabbled up next to it, kicking out one leg before it managed to lurch on top of him. That was much worse than a stray ghoul.

The hound scrabbled back onto its feet, focused on Corian as Justin silently climbed up to safety behind it. Corian readied himself to dodge from another pounce, his body freezing when he realized the weight on his back.

Rikka.

He swore, frantically trying to untie the helmet strap pressing into his neck as the creature pounced. The helmet came loose at the last second, and he gently tossed it to the side, watching it land on its side and the little blue flower spill out onto the ground. His heart sank at the sight.

A rigid force struck his side as the hound collided with him. Corian held the beast back by its throat, his skin burning as the magic encasing the golem bit at his hands. He could see Justin just past the biting creature's shoulder, seeming to watch the scene unfold before him. "Do you know how to turn it off?!" Corian yelled, his grip on the hound's throat slipping as its jagged teeth came closer to his face.

"Well it's running on some sort of power source…" Justin said, standing in thought instead of helping his struggling friend. "Usually you can turn them on with specific words."

"Magic, the power source is fucking magic, Justin!"

The hound pushed through Corian's grip, forcing him to pull his arm back and use it to block the razor sharp teeth coming for his face. He let out a cry of pain as the creature's teeth sank in deep. He swore, pushing past the pain as it tried tugging at his skin and grabbing the beast's head with his other hand. With a quick twist he was able to roll the hound over, earning a harsh metal kick to the stomach.

Corian pressed his arm into the creature's mouth, forcing it to keep the chew toy it had chosen as he reach for a stone with his other hand.

Magic or not, things turned off if you hit them enough.

He slammed the rock into the golem's skull, giving it a small dent. It kicked his stomach again, a claw snagging his skin and spurring on a new burning pain that fueled his rock bashing.

The hound's grip on his arm loosened and he immediately tore it free. With one hand grabbing the creature's steel skull, and the other its arm he hoisted and tossed. The iron beast flailed as it sailed down the side of the cliff, caught by a platform of rocks about halfway down. It got up without a hint to being injured, its glowing eyes fixed to Corian as it howled and barked at him.

He knew where it had come from. His father had reactivated them and left them to clean up any survivors.

Corian flexed his burnt hands, watching the blisters and deep cuts bubble and slowly close. He flicked his attention to Justin as the man stepped closer. "Why'd you just stand there?"

Justin blinked, looking down the cliff, then at the bloodied wounds on Corian's arms. "Looked like you had it handled."

Corian stopped, working through his confusion at the response. Justin wouldn't have been able to do much against it unarmed. But he had seen him try to tackle a full grown gryphon before after it bit Rikka for pulling one of its feathers. Success never seemed to matter to him.

He shook off his doubts, eyeing the hound as it tried to scrabble its way back up. He grabbed a handful of pebbles, throwing them down at the hound to batter its face. It slipped back down, catching a patch of clay that sent it tumbling all the way to the ground. Corian felt some relief at the distance they had gained on it, turning to repot the small flower and climb after Justin.

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