Flaming fauna

     We began to make our way back to the beginning of the structure; the entrance we had passed through had led straight onto the bridge we needed to get to, according to THEROS. I was already lost, my mind trapped in a maze of passages, I wasn't sure where anything was. I was just glad that we had had the sense to put down torches as a trail to allow us to find our way out. We had encountered quite a few odd things since entering this strange place, and there was no sign of anything getting any saner. As we wound our way around the tunnels and passages back to the entrance, I had this almost overwhelming feeling that we were going the wrong way. I knew that THEROS's sense of direction was a million times better than mine, and he was following the torches we had put down, so we couldn't be going in the wrong direction. It must be the fact that we we travelling back to our start point so I was seeing everything from a different angle as to how I had originally seen it.

"You do realise that due to the scale of this one place, we could very well be camping here for the night...?"

"It's not that which bothers me. If this is meant to be one location for one of the Eyes of Ender, how many more places like this are we going to come across?"

"I guess we'll find out when we get there..."

We turned a corner to our left and emerged in front of the entrance we had originally passed under, but something was different... In the centre of the opening there was now a small pool of lava encased within a small basin which I knew definitely wasn't there before! Even THEROS and THEXIS had noticed it; circling the pool, I tried to think of any plausible explanation for how it could have happened. We had definitely come the right way as off to the left was the small hill we had stood on when we had initially found this place. The torches were still in the exact locations we had put them in when first coming through here... Looking up, I was beginning to wonder if some lava had dropped from the ceiling up above, but it was impossible to tell, and even if it had, why was it contained...? I then realised that I was in the Nether; if someone had told me about this place a year ago, I would have laughed in their face. Now that I had gone through so much, I was wiling to believe anything, and just accepting this new addition was easier than trying to understand it...

"Anyway... Which bridge was it that we saw? Left or straight ahead?"

"Straight ahead. We were up in that structure there, where we must have ascended to the top. Look, there's the top of the tower we were in!"

Looking up, we could see the top of where we had stood some time ago, looking down onto the rest of the structure. THEROS led the way across the bridge, but paused... There was that sound again... An odd metallic breathing sound... It sounded really close... THEROS continued, but at a slower pace, pointing silently off into the distance off to our right where we had seen the fenced off enclosure from the tower. We could make out a point of light that seemed to dance and waver, as though it were a flame of a torch or open fire, but it wasn't bright enough to be either... Then we all crouched as we saw something emerge from the enclosure and begin to make its way down a series of steps just in front. What was it? It was hard to tell at this distance, but it was yellow, and the light source seemed to follow it. That must be what was causing the light! Squinting through the darkness, I could make out small pockets of smoke emerging from it at regular intervals, in time with the distant metallic breathing. Was that what was causing that noise? Looking back at the enclosure, I could make out another point of light. Were there more one?

"What do you think it is? Do you think it's hostile?"

"Well it's not a floating ghost-thing, or a pig-man, so I don't know... Then again I don't know what they are either... I suppose there's only one way to find out..."

"That's a stupid idea... We can't prove that the Eye of Ender we're after is over there, so what's the sense in putting our lives at risk finding out?"

"True, but we can't prove that there isn't either... We need to search this place as thoroughly as possible otherwise we're going to leave empty handed..."

"How do we know that HoN Co. hasn't already recovered the remaining Eyes and is activating the portal as we speak?"

"We don't, hence the risk..."

As THEROS and THEXIS continued to argue amongst themselves, I was watching the strange creature; it didn't seem to move about on the ground. Instead it seemed to hover just above the surface of the bridge, fuelled by its own means that I couldn't see... At one point I was sure it had seen us; it was looking in our direction - from what I could make out - before disappearing back into the enclosure.

"Look, it's gone. I think we should just go and have a look at least... We're more than prepared to deal with it if it does attack..."

THEXIS wasn't happy with the idea, but eventually went along with it. At the end of the day, we had our blowpipes to hand, and if that didn't work, there was always the bow and arrow or the pickaxe to fall back on. Slowly approaching the new fork in the bridge and heading directly towards the enclosure. Multiple points of light were still visible, bobbing up and down. Then we stopped; one of the creatures had appeared at the top of the stairs, and was definitely looking directly at us this time. We stood motionless, trying to gauge its reaction, but it just hovered there... It was a strange creature; a pair of eyes was visible on a floating body, surrounded by a series of floating and rotting appendages... It was a sickly yellow colour, and the metallic breathing was definitely in time with the smoke that seemed to emanate from somewhere just below the eyes... It was actually breathing out smoke! It remained motionless, apart from the hovering, and just stared back at us.

"Do you think it's passive then...?"

The creature turned to look directly at THEXIS, letting out a low guttural breath! It emitted a mass of smoke, and then it spontaneously burst into flames before our eyes and a long, low growl emanated from it. Its eyes glazed over and a strange ball of fire began to grow just before the appendages. Its eyes then returned to normal, and the fireball came hurtling towards us with great speed!

"RUN!"

I didn't need telling twice; I turned and ran back down the bridge we had come, back towards the entrance! I wasn't staying a moment longer near that creature! It was definitely aggressive and it seemed to act like the Creepers. They seemed highly territorial and was not letting us anywhere near that enclosure! If we were going to find out what was there, we were going to have either lure them away, or kill them...

Syeonyx signing off