Wathcing the stone monster and the dragon battle it out for their sakes Nynn had dragged herself next to the smaller dragon. He was barely moving but was aware of what was happening. They both watched the final blow to the creature. Its head exploded sending shards of rock and STEEL in every direction. It dropped to its knees, then fell iver lifeless.

Athvor attacked th corpse once nore with his STEEL heel, landing square on its chest. Being a larger mass of stone, its chest mearly split open. There was not an explosion like that of its head. The insides of this creature were exposed. The three friends were abke to see what made this creature tick.

Athvor had seen the insides of many different creatures, including his own kind. Basically all were the same. Most had two lungs, a heart, a stomach and a massive length of intestine. This creature didn’t appear to be all that different. The only difference was the color. The organs were gray instead of a blood red.

Athvor wathed the creature for a bit longer. He wanted to make sure it was dead. Everythong in this land was strange. He didn’t want to get relaxed then have a headless pile of gray organs attack them.

27,576 / 73,000 (37.8%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

There was great speed in the bolder. It fell fast makinf an unnatural crack against the creature’s head. Its head cocked to the side with the force. The boulder didn’t fall to the ground after the impact like Athvor expected it to. The rock stuck to the side of its head then began to absorb into its body.

Athvor didn’t take the time to stare at this strange sight. He attacked again while his asailent was not 100 percent. This time he decided to use his own weapons. Obviously there was nothing nearby that could be use deffectivvly agains this foe; at least nothing that reqired minimal thought and preporation.

He landed solidly on the ground and leapt immediately at the creature with his wings outstretched. Like before, the front edges of his wings were sharp as razors. They sliced into the rock creature digging deep within its head.Athvor tried to continue forward following through like a samauri , but found tha his STEEL blade coyld not make its way all the way through.

He lifted himself into the air spinning his body landing a blow against the creatures chest with the heal of his foot. The creature stumbled backwards releasing Athvor’s wing from the confined of the moving stone.

Athvor pumped his way into the sky one more. He felt the STEEL move to the base of his heals as he prepare for his (he hoped) final attack. He reversed the thrusts of his wings forcing his body downward sending a tremendous blow into the head of the creature.

This time there was more than just a crack. There was an explosion as the creature’s head crumbled under the force of Athvor’s heel.

27,364 / 73,000 (37.5%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

Planting his feet into the ground, Athvor yanked back withall his might. He was surprised at how difficult it was to move this creature. It was almost like moving an entire walled city. Not only was ut heavy, it was pilling against his attack.

He was able to pull back hard enough forcing it to stumble backwards. It lost its balance. Athvor’s eye widenened as he moved quickly out of the way. He was a big dragon; nearly as large as the creature itself. It just looked like it was carying a lot of weight with it. He was glad he did. When it hit the ground, several of the nearby bolders shifted and rolled down theb hill and into the river.

Soon as it was down, Athvor jumped up into the air, bringing his knee down onto the creature’s neck. If it had been a flesh and blood creature, the blow would have crushed a vertabre and killed it. This creature was not made of flesh and blood. At least Athvor didn’t believe it was.

Knowing that his attact didn’t do any good, he backed off looking around for something to defend himself. He was hoping for a tree… Something that he could pull out of the ground and use to pummel the creature in the head. The lack of biological life made that find a near impossibility.

The creature flexed its stone muscles as it pushed itself off the ground. It picked itself up like an overgrown todler. It stumbled then caught its balance. Then it stood strait and faced Athvor.

Athvor watched as it moved towards him again. He looked ti his right noticing a bolder he hoped he was strong enough to lift. He wrapped his arms around it, opened his wings and gave a stong wind filled pump lifting himself and the bolder off the ground. He struggled to get any major distance off the ground but was able to hover for a moment above the creature, then chucked the bolder at its head.

27,080 / 73,000 (37.1%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

The creature brought down one fist onto Nynn. It wanted to make sure that this prey was not going to fight back as it took bite after bite out her. It sunk its own claws into the small dragon and whipped him around, flinging him off its back.

It turned back to its meal. It bent down bringing its face close to Nynn’s feet, sniffing her; taking in he delicious smell. It continued to sniff at her moving up her body, trying to find to find where the sweetest meat might be.

Nynn’s fear grew as it got closer. She pushed at the creature tring to find the energy to ignite her powers. She wanted desperately for the fire to come. She wantes to make this creature melt. She wanted it dead.

It looked into her eyes with a hungry inteminating evil look. It snarlwd at her showing its serrated stone teeth. They looked sharp enough to tear through flesh and bone. In fact they were probably designed to break through stone. It lunged forward to take its first bite of the soft flesh. Nynn closed her eyes still not able to defend herself.

She waited… She waited for the pain; but it didn’t come. She waited another moment knowing that the end was upon her. When it didn’t come, she peeked through her fingers. The creature was still only inches from her face. It had an unusual expression that morphed as it tried to move.

Nynn looked a little closer not sure what was going on. Then she noticed something wrapped around thw th creature’s neck. It was a tail. It was Athvor’s tail.

26,740 / 73,000 (36.6%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

Eeno growned as he picked himself up off the ground. He hit the rock face pretty hard and knew he was going to be licking his wounds for the next few days; if he lives through this that is.

He moved towards the rock creature as it moved towards his friend. He started with a stumble still trying to gain his strength. Nynn wasn’t moving. The creature had knocked her hard. He hoped that she was not dead. She had saved his life. the least he could do was was try to save hers. Even if she was already gone, he could not let this creature devour her.

Eeno cracked his neck as he walked toward the moving rock, trying to release the stiffness between his vertabre. He took in a long deep breath. The creature didn’t acknowlage
Eeno. Eeno released the fire from within. The fireball was impressive. He felt his attack was nearly as large as Athvor’s. It was so large, it completely engulfed the creature. flames swirled around it. If it had been anything organic, there would have only been ashes left blowing in the wind. This creature was not organic. It was made of stone, shifting rocks that moved like an angry beast.

It walked through Eeno’s flames like it didn’t even notice the heat. The chemicals in 1enols saliva stuck to its surface and continued to burn as it walked towards an unconcious Nynn. Eeno got a running start. He was not going to let this thing hurt her.

26,148 / 73,000 (35.8%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It stood like what the tribal people of the southern jungles called a gorilla. It arms were much longer than its legs but it was covered in stone rather than fur. Its head was oversized for the rest of its body and its arms reminded her of a giant field squash that her dad would bring home for dinner after a long days work. The thing was usually bigger than his head.

Eeno landed against a sheer rock face about fifty feet from the creature. He layed there for a few moments trying to get the stars that he was seeing to go away. He turned his head towards the creature. It was already walking towards him. Before he could react, three fireballs hit the creature in the side.

They were small fireballs. He could definitely do better than that. They stuck to idt rocky hide still burning. It swiped at the nuisance with one of its giant stone hands. The flaming metal knives fell to the ground, burning for a moment then flickering out. The blades remained there glowing red as the creature stepped over the towards Nynn.

She pulled two more knives out of the sheath strapped around her thigh. She held both blades by their points. Fire popped out of her wrists and shot up the metal, heating it to almost an instant glow.

She looked for a weakness in her attacker. There didn’t seem to be any weak spots in this creature. If there was a weak spot, she decided that it would be it eyes. She drew back andflung forward, letting both knives fly. She had an amazing accuracy and speed the rock creature couldn’t match.

The knives both hit their intended target. Her insides dropped at a klank klank came from the impact of steel hitting stone. its eyes were solid rock just like the rest of him. She had no idea how it was able to see. She didn’t really have the time to ponder the thought anyway. It was on top of her within seconds.

It tried to pound her into the ground. Her speed allowed her to dodge the first two blows, but the third sent her flying.

25,894 / 73,000 (35.5%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.

They talked for a while enjoying the warmth of the fire. They were comfortable. Nynn’s search for life left nothing to be worried about. She found nothing alive in this land. She didn’t even find reminants of life. In her nind there was nothing to be afraid of.

She still had a feeling that they were being watched. She even kept a lookout for anything out of the ordinary, but her objective mind told her that they had nothing to worry about.

***

Too bad that wasn’t true. It hid from them inside the rock, watching. It had not seen anything like what had entered his domain. It had heard of stories about soft bodied ceatures that traveled from beyond the sea. He had heard stories about the expeiriments done on these soft bodied creatures. Experiments to make them harder, stonger, more like his kind. He ha also heard they were rather tasty.

He waited and watched. The female was alert to her surroundings. She obviously sensed that he was nearby. That wasn’t going to stop him thought. He could wait her out. All he needed was for her to have a moment of security. When she felt like she was safe. The he would strike.

***

Nynn leaned back against Eeno lacing her fingers behind her head. She took in a deep breath and relaxed as she exhaled. She looked up at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen. “I wonder if it even rains here.”

“what you mean?” Eeno had been staring into the fire.

“Well… There’s not much plantlife here. Sure there’s a river and everything, but there is hardly any plantlife. What wood we did find looked as if it had been dead for years. The clouds we flew over ended right befo…”

She couldn’t say anything else. Eeno jumpe up pushing her off of him, nearly throwing her one hundred feet. Her feet stumbled over the ground as she tried to regain her balance, trying not to fall. When she finally caught herself, she turned in time to see Eeno take a massive blow by an unbelievable creature… A creature made out of rock.

25,517 / 73,000 (35.0%)

Athvor by
Robert T Gasperson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Based on a work at
roberttgasperson.com.