The gentle light of the cavern continues to pulse, steady and comforting as the three creatures recover from the sudden icy downfall. The frost which lingers upon the spiny cage and dusts the carpet of moss underfoot gleams and twinkles, giving the already fantastical setting an even more surreal appearance. The thorns now shine like polished blades; the moss now crunches faintly beneath the weight of them, the freed captives and their savior.

Sapere stands still beneath the profuse warmth of the giant hare’s gentle embrace, his shivers slowly easing as the racing of his heart evens out. The second hare lingers nearby, watching over its two companions with its vacant stare, ears alert to survey the otherwise quiet setting.

But it does not stay quiet for long.

Outside of their odd haven, a slow and steady wind begins to gather in the branches far above. The leaves rustle, the wood of the trees groans quietly. The gusts come in pulses as if from great, vast wings somewhere above, before an audible creaking catches the attention of the sheltered trio.

Sapere’s head raises, coppery eyes darting with alarm toward the end of the cave where he had entered and then toward the opposite opening, just as vast and tall as the other. The fireflies still linger, maintaining their sentinel hovers in a line toward the trail which would bring them to safety. But the doorway in the back of the cave remains dark and the forest beyond is difficult for him to see even with his new feline eyes. It is only visible in dim, gloomy silhouettes of leaf and limb.

This far doorway is where the sound of movement becomes most notable. Branches whine and crackle as some of their smaller fingers snap; twigs and leaves fall in languid paths, vaguely distinguishable in the latent glow of the insects and the hares’ gently glowing coats. The wind has stopped now, but the blatant rustling of something large and cumbersome climbing roughly downward is unmistakable now.

They are no longer alone.

Sapere’s first instinct is to flee, but the rabbits in his company seem almost frozen in place. They both stare toward the darkened opening of the gigantic tree’s trunk, into the darkness beyond, rigid but for their twitching noses and the shifting shine in the facets of their eyes. As the equine among them moves forward, adequately warmed by both the shared body heat and a new pulse of adrenaline, they remain statuesque for several moments more.

“We must flee!” Sapere whispers to them urgently, but they make no show of having heard him. Despair blooms in his heart – he does not want to leave them, not after freeing them from their awful plight. But how could he convince such large beings to follow him? He nudges at the cheek of the hare nearest to him, but it barely flinches one large whisker at him; hurrying to the other hare’s side, he buries his face in its shoulder and pushes his weight against it. It shifts just slightly, resettling its paw beneath its chest, but otherwise it does not react. “Please!”

His voice is desperate, but he soon discovers the reason for their immobilizing terror:

Beyond the frame of the towering cavern door, a massive form descends into view. It is nearly feline in shape but for its towering height and the large webbed wings upon its shoulders. As it steps nearer, its body glimmers and sparkles – it is covered with still more crystals of every color imaginable, each with a mild flicker inside as if lit by small internal flames reminiscent of the fireflies. But these crystals are mounted all along its body, stunning accents against the rocky formations of its flesh. Its head, a mixture of leonine and lupine in appearance, glares even brighter than the rest as it wears a crystal jewel-covered mask. Its eyes burn behind two massive onyx-rimmed rubies.

Snarling, with fangs even larger than the thorns nearby, it prowls toward the frozen hares and the horse between them, its tail lashing as it settles its wings with a heavy rustle of air. Only now do the hares retreat, as the beast crosses into the cavern and into full view. They squawk an odd sound of fear and scramble to huddle together in one corner, eyes gaping and jaws now slack in fear as they gaze at what is quite obviously their former captor.

But the beast does not focus on them, not yet.

Its growl is fierce as its gaze bears down upon Sapere, now standing alone before it and staring back up at it as if transfixed. He has never seen anything like this monster before, not even in his most outlandish imaginings, and he understands now why the hares seemed to have been too frightened to bother trying to escape on their own. The beast towers over him, each of its paws as large as his own body, and it prowls toward him with slow purpose. Saliva gleams on its rows of spiky teeth; its breath smells of raw earth and rotted leaves. Brownish lichen and moss fill the gaps between its otherwise stony body; similar thorny vines as those which had crafted the former cage intertwine and seem to act as the being’s tendons.

As terrible as the monster appears, Sapere knows he has size on his side. Although it has the power of flight, it is also encumbered by its own mass – that much had been evident in its clumsy descent through the forest canopy to greet them. If he can just get himself and the former prisoners back to the trail, they would have enough cover to make their escape.

Except, that’s when he sees it: as the crystalline titan’s tail swipes once again behind it, the gentle light from its gems illuminates the far, dark side of the cave. And there sits a pile of more jewels and contrasting rubble, of both marvelous and colorless stones, a scattering of bones and another large mass of thorny vines. This bundle is far more dense than the cage, its twines woven much tighter so that whatever might be held inside cannot be seen. But there is something inside – this much is made apparent by a subtle, shifting light which now glows brightly through the minimal cracks of the veritable chest.

He had not seen this meager treasure pile before as his focus had been fixed on the living prey within their trap. It had not begun glowing until the monster’s arrival as if whatever is held inside could only be roused by the presence of the beast. But, as Sapere looks again at the bejeweled face of the titan before him, he cannot help thinking: this demon does not deserve to keep even a piece of his bounty – it is nothing but a menace to these poor creatures.

A strange sense of vengeful justice swells into his chest, pressing tight at the edges of his throat, and as the monster takes another step toward him, Sapere rears up high again. He lashes out with his hooves to ward the beast back and a bellow of sheer aggression tears from his lungs. The beast hardly hesitates before taking another step forward to bring itself within striking distance, yet when the stallion’s hooves slam back to the earth, the situation shifts into his favor.

Instinctively, Sapere tries tapping into his innate magic of animation. He had not truly noticed its absence before, had only felt perhaps a subtle lack of the tingling sensation in his veins; he hadn’t found a cause to use it before now, having been too distracted by his other newfound abilities.

But this is reflexive and natural, an impulsive response to the threat now facing him. Not only does a violent gust of frigid wind flow from behind him to brew more clouds bearing freezing rain, whipping it into the monster’s eyes, but a giant, stony form erupts with some haste from the forest floor. Breaking through the frosted moss of the cavern floor, a formidable golem now stands as a barrier between Sapere and his foe.

With a wide set of arms and a sturdy pillar of a body, the earthen creation immediately reaches to seize the crystal weaver by the head. The monster roars and flaps its great wings, blasting Sapere and the hares with a countering tornadic gust and blowing some of the ice back at them which seems to stir the whole party into motion.

The stallion darts around his creation, giving a wide berth to the jeweled titan as he charges toward the ‘treasure’ pile. The braying of the beast resonates against the cavern walls at a deafening pitch as it struggles with the rock golem, but Sapere is as determined now as he had been during his struggle with the thorns. And this struggle, it seems, will be even greater, as when he arrives he realizes the chest-like bramble will not be easily portable. Rather than puzzling out some way to open it now, he half-rears again and strikes at the earth once more. Even in this specified format, the magic is familiar as it rushes from his limbs into the ground and, as quick as before, another golem rises.

This one is smaller yet it still stands a good ten feet tall, featureless but for its equally wide arms of stone. “We must escape – bring this with us,” he attempts to command it. He has never held true control over his creations before, yet they have always worked in tandem with him despite the absence of his instruction. This case seems to be similar; whether it understands him or not, it seems to grasp the reason for its being and stoops to sweep the gems and stones and bones and the spiked bundle into its embrace, the girth of its arms widening somewhat to encompass the entire load.

Behind them, the monster screams again, still struggling with the original golem whose strength and height have waned just slightly in favor of its sibling’s creation. Still, its bulk works to their advantage as it manages to slam the beast’s head to the ground, pinning it by the neck in a dominant stance. Jeweled limbs flail and thrash, the titan’s tail lashing again as it howls with fury.

Heart now racing quicker than ever before, Sapere turns for the cavernous doorway he had originally entered through. The fireflies have been jostled by the prior sweeps of fierce wind, but they continue to maintain their line on their escape route. The hares are still huddled together, though they do not seem as frozen as before now that their captor has been subdued.

“Hurry!” the stallion calls to them, mediating the mild panic in his voice with a sense of encouraging urgency. This time, they seem to hear him; their ears twitch and they sit up on their hinds before they turn to follow his lead. Charging out of the cave and across the opening surrounding the giant tree, Sapere only risks a singular glance over his shoulder to make sure the monster is still trapped behind them. Its cries and snarls boom through the stillness of the night, but he is glad to see that the hares and the lesser golem are close at heel.

They weave through the trail in single file and Sapere is eternally grateful that the glowing insects have remained all this time, illuminating their route to freedom alongside the aid of his viable night vision. Branches and leaves whip against his face and he must watch for impeding roots that may trip him, but in what feels like no time at all they have made it to the forest’s edge.

The starlight is brighter here, illuminating the vast openness around them, and straight ahead looms the swirl of the portal. Whether it had remained open this whole time or had reappeared for them in their time of need is unclear and irrelevant.

Sapere leaps through it and spins, breathless, to hurry his companions to safety.

Except he is left alone, back on the beach. Scattered on the ground are the stone remnants of his former creations, the ‘soldiers’ that had accompanied him along the shore before this encounter.

All that joins him through the portal before it snaps closed is the bundle of thorns with its odd internal glow.

Sapere

the good and the wise
lead quiet lives