Raiju's Grand Adventures: The Cryptid's Cave

      Raiju woke up laying on something hard and cold. He tried to blink several times to clear his eyes but still couldn’t see anything through the darkness. There was a weird humming sound coming from somewhere. As he rose to his paws, he lit his right paw so it burned green and he could finally see the area around him. He was deep in a cave. As he looked around, he could see moss growing on the rocks but he was in a dead end. He took a deep breath of the cold, misty air, and started to walk the only way he could.

      Something felt horribly off. He kept thinking he could see something move in the distance or something climbing on the walls but whatever it was, if anything, would be gone before he made it there. The humming became more of a buzzing sound the deeper he went. He could feel himself shaking and it only got worse when he saw another light source in front of him. Cautious, he walked towards the other light. Anything could be lurking in the shadows but anything could be near the light as well. When he got there, there was a campfire burning but no one around. He took several deep breaths trying to calm himself and once he finally started to calm down, a wolf wearing the same armour as the ones that took him, fell to the ground just outside the light of the fire.

      Raiju jumped when the wolf hit the ground, his sword landing a meter in front of Raiju. The wolf was still alive but covered in blood. That’s when everything went quiet. The buzzing stopped and the wolf looked up towards Raiju and slowly lifted and held out his paw for help. Raiju hesitated, not sure what to do, but he eventually reached his paw to help but right before he could reach his paw, the wolf was dragged away swiftly by something. Raiju yelped and fell backwards, his paw extinguishing and he sat there only in the light from the campfire as he slowly heard the buzzing return. Now he knew he wasn’t alone in this cave but something else was here. Shaking, he picked up the wolf’s sword and relit his paw before he walked forward, following a trail of blood.

      Everything about this situation was wrong. Raiju wished he would just wake up and be back in bed with Grimoire again and everything would be alright. He kept following the blood trail, not that he had much of a choice, until the trail started to move up the wall and vanished. Raiju shivered but kept going. The buzzing started to fade away again, which terrified him, but he started to hear what sounded like wind coming from up ahead. Not long after, he could see light. Raiju quickly ran to the light just to freeze in his tracks. It wasn’t the exit but rather just a crack in the ceiling. Rain poured down into the cave and he just stood there looking up. So close to freedom and yet so far. He wanted to stay there but he knew he had to keep moving before whatever was in here found him. As he sighed and took a step forward, lightning struck the crack and made him yelp. The boom echoed throughout the cave for a very long time in both directions of him. He chuckled but when he heard a screech come from the direction he just came from, he started to walk briskly away from there.

      All he could see was darkness and rock. He wasn’t even sure if he was going the right way. Was there even a right way? He kept having to motivate himself to keep moving. To just, keep walking. But he froze. There was something in front of him. Looked to be at least twice his size but he couldn’t tell with the fact it was just a shadow. He knew that he couldn’t see the creature, but it could easily see him. He wanted to turn around but there was only one thing worse than seeing something in front of him, and that was turning your back to whatever it is. Not to mention there were things behind him too. Before he took a step, he focused and started using his thermoreception, something he forgot he had. There was nothing there that gave off a heat signature but then again, that didn’t mean nothing was there. Gathering all his strength, he took a step closer, the sword shaking in his paw, still couldn’t see anything. Another, and another, and another… Raiju froze again, trying to tell himself to take another step forward, but he couldn’t. Not until he realized the shape had change. It was just some rocks positioned weird that when he got close, the light, and his fear, made it look like something was there. He just chuckled nervously to himself, breathing heavily. “Just a rock. Nothing else, just a ro-” He stopped when he heard rocks fall behind him. “Just a few pebbles, probably. Probably just fell because of a breeze or something…” He tried to calm his nerves.

      He started to walk again, absolutely refusing to turn around to see if something was behind him. If there was, it hadn’t attacked him yet so it was either just curious of him, or waiting to attack. He kept using his thermoreception to look around since it helped him actually see in the dark better than with the fire but he still kept his paw lit because the light made him feel safe. Well, as safe as one could in this situation. Everything was actually going good, which was weird. No weird rock monsters, no creepy sounds, nothing. Raiju was actually starting to feel slightly calmer about the situation, thinking that maybe he was getting close to the exit so whatever lived in here didn’t want to be in this area. His heart sank when he looked ahead. The path split into two tunnels. “Of course there had to be a crossroad…” Raiju thought to himself, to scared to speak aloud.

      As he thought of which way to go, he used his thermo vision to look and he froze when he saw a figure standing down one of the paths. It was almost like the thing knew he was seen as it started to speak. “Help me! Please, somebody! Help me!” The figure just stood there. It wasn’t running or trying to get away from something. It just stood there, yelling for help as if… Raiju shivered. It was like the thing was mimicking something. He went to go step towards the other path but something grabbed his legs and pulled him to the ground before starting to drag him. Raiju yelped and luckily was able to protect himself from the fall. He panicked and sent out a shock wave of green fire that made his capture let go. Quickly, he turned around to see what looked like a massive deer with long arms with claws and digitigrade back legs that looked like a deer’s; hooves and all. The thing looked down at him with red eyes and growled with each exhale. Raiju started to back away when he realized he could see the creatures exposed ribcage along with the organs behind it. The creature, most likely a wendigo, lunged at him again but this time Raiju sent a ball of fire right into the creature’s face, send him backwards. Quickly, Raiju stood up and started to run. He found the sword that was dropped when he fell and quickly picked it up.

      He was forced to freeze when he looked up and saw the figure standing in front of him. “Help me!” It screamed again. It looked like a human but he knew it wasn’t and thankfully, he was far enough away to not be able to see any details. A chill went down his spine when he heard a snort and felt a gust of air hit his neck. He had forgotten about the thing behind him. He sent out another shock wave before going to run but the wendigo grabbed his leg as he was sent backwards and dragged Raiju with him. Quickly, Raiju sent a fireball into the wendigo’s face but it held onto his leg. The human thing was started to stand up so Raiju quickly use the sword and cut into the wendigo’s paw? Luckily, that made the beast let him go and Raiju was able to run, pushing the other thing out of the way. He kept running and it wasn’t long until he could hear loud thumps getting steadily closer. The wendigo was chasing him. Getting a moment of courage, or stupidity, Raiju turned around and threw as big a fireball he could. The ball hit the ground next to the wendigo but the explosion was enough to light up the area enough to see everything. The wendigo stopped and looked at Raiju, who was wielding the sword the best he could without knowing what he was doing, then slowly started to walk towards him. The beast had an almost playful look in his red eyes but Raiju knew better. When the beast was close enough, he went to strike and Raiju reacted and managed to cut the beast’s claw off. The wendigo grabbed at it’s wounded limp and moved as if in pain before stopping and looking right at Raiju, amusement on his face.

      “You. Have to. Do. Better! Than that. Prey.” His voice was staggered and almost had a hiss to it; as if he wasn’t used to talking. The best held up his ‘wounded’ arm and Raiju saw it regenerate. The beast went to strike again but Raiju ran towards him and planted the blade into the wendigo’s chest but was smacked away, the blade still in the beast. It pulled it out while chuckling and Raiju just sent a fireball into it’s face and started to run. It took the beast a moment to recover but just like before, it gave pursuit. Raiju ran as fast as he could, occasionally throwing fireballs blindly behind him, hoping to slow the beast. After a while, the stomping got so close that it made Raiju fall before they stopped. Raiju just held his eyes closed and curled into a ball waiting but, nothing happen.

      Slowly, he opened his eyes to see the beast no more than two meters away, just standing there staring at him. It snorted and turned around, walking away. Before long, the wendigo was out of sight but he could still hear it walking away. Nervously, he got up and looked around. At first, he didn’t see anything thing but then his eyes noticed something looking back at him. There was a shadowy beast, much like a werewolf, staring at him. It was standing right at the edge of his light. Raiju cautiously moved away and it moved just as far towards him, seemingly afraid of the light. Raiju kept his eyes on the shadow werewolf knowing that if the wendigo was afraid of it, he should be too. It didn’t seem very dangerous at first but when he blinked, it was gone. Quickly, he spun around; looking in every which direction for where it went but he froze when he saw the corpse of another wolf solider. There was writing above the wolf that said, “Beware the nalusa falaya” before it smeared down to the wolf’s paw.

      Raiju shivered but walked forward. He would constantly see the werewolf standing around every corner. Any slight shadow where he could hide, he was there. He always stayed just outside the radius of the light. Just close enough to see his features but not any closer. Raiju, despite being hunted by this shadow beast, actually felt slightly safe. As long as he had light, he was fine. But sadly, light couldn’t protect him from the rock that tripped him. His paw went out and darkness quickly fell on him. And with the darkness came the beast. Raiju felt himself get picked up, his arms pinned to his side. Using his thermoreception, he could see the creature staring him right in the eyes. The creature licked his lips as he smelt over Raiju’s body. With a low growl, the creature went to bite Raiju’s neck but Raiju managed to create a burst of light that makes the beast vanish. Raiju fell to the floor and once again, was in the darkness. “Just give up wolf. Like the others, you too, will become my prey.” The werewolf growled. Shortly after that, Raiju was sent to the ground, a paw holding his face against the ground and the other holding his right arm straight out. He then felt something wet touch his hand and he realized it was the werewolf’s tongue. He tried to struggle but he stopped when he felt teeth close down around his wrist. “It’s not often I get to play with my prey so you better stay still otherwise you’ll end up like Tyr.” He could feel the beast’s breath on his paw as he spoke before he felt it enter its mouth again. Panicked, Raiju tries to light his paw on fire but it failed due to his paw being wet. Quickly, he lights his other paw but his body is blocking the light and the werewolf just chuckles. Keeping his paw on fire, he slowly starts to focus on making it stronger. When he feels teeth hit his elbow, he flintched, causing the werewolf to bite down causing some pain. Raiju quickly threw the ball onto the ceiling and the explosion forced the werewolf to disappear. Quickly, Raiju got up and used his burning paw to dry off his other paw while looking around.

      The werewolf just stood right outside the light, growling deeply. Raiju identified the way he needed to go and started walking that way again; both his paws were on fire creating light all around him. After a while, the werewolf stopped growling but followed Raiju’s every move. Raiju gasped slightly when he noticed some sunlight coming from in front of him. He quickly ran towards the light but when he got there, the exit was blocked off with a metal gate. Quickly, Raiju put his paws on it and started to melt the gate. Before he could finish, the werewolf grabbed him and threw him back into the shadows, his paws no longer on fire. Before Raiju could react, the werewolf had a grip on his throat and lifted him up. Raiju quickly lit his paws but this time, nothing happen. The werewolf was still there holding him at eye level. “I know your sent and I know your taste, wolf. I, will, find you.”

      After he finished his statement, he threw Raiju against the gate and Raiju jolted awake. He was back inside the metal cage and he could hear the wolves drunkenly laughing. He sighed but then noticed that the back of his cage was freshly melted. Quickly, he stuck his head out and looked around. No one was there and his paws felt warm. Shrugging, Raiju just figured he had melted the cage in his sleep. As quietly as he could, he snuck out of the cage and started to look for a way out of the camp. Luckily for him, he spotted a nice dark area with a vine that lead to the ground. Near the vine, there oddly was a black, hooded robe which he grabbed before sliding down the vine. When he landed on the ground, he noticed an odd smell. His right arm had a weird smell to it and near his elbow was wet and hurt. The smell smelt almost like, “The werewolf...” Raiju whispered to himself before shivering. Raiju shook his head to clear it and quickly put on the robe and hood and started to run as fast and as far away as he could. He had to find help, or safety. Whichever came first.