Trials 2

Read this story and all of its chapters in paragraph format with better editing, here:

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/129684/the-trials

 

This version of the story is heavily unedited.

 

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>The sword it is!

>Decently sized, can stab and slash, and is fairly easy to carry around.

>Echo secures the scabbard to her right shoulder, just in reach from her mouth for quick draws.

>She takes a deep breath and walks up to the wall-mounted torch, taking it in her mouth.

>The wood tasted foul against her lips, and the flames were fairly untamed, threatening to burn too closer to her at times.

>It probably wouldn't last forever, but she would rather have it than traverse in pitch-black tunnels.

>She has keen echolocation, better than most other recruits, but she wouldn't trust it in a place like this.

>As if for some sort of reassurance, she nods to herself before the gaping maw of the dark tunnel ahead of her.

>Finally, she begins her trek as she walks forward.

 

>The bright, orange light from her torch immediately sets back the darkness as she moves.

>The rocky, uneven walls move past her, and despite their orange hue, the air is still fairly cold.

>Thankfully, the floor is fairly even for the most part with the odd puddle every now and then.

>Her walk goes on for many long minutes, until she's sure she's been worming her way through the tunnels for an hour.

>There is no sound to greet her ears aside from her light footsteps, the rattling of her rusty armour, the burning torch, and water droplets falling in the distance.

>Her thoughts remain clear, however, just as she was trained to be.

>Only the best get to become Luna's elite.

 

>After what seems like another hour of walking, her eyes begin to feel tired.

>Staring at an unending, bright orange rocky hallway tends to bring in tunnel vision.

>However, the walls finally fan out into what seems like another room.

>Immediately, her torch lights up the space and she's presented with a room that looks similar to the one she started in.

>She sees a wall mount for a torch to her right, and doesn't hesitate to rest her torch onto it.

>Echo sighs and sits down, grateful to rest after that long walk.

 

---

 

>Her eyes dart towards another wooden chest on the other side of the room, and she feels a sense of happiness.

>More loot!

>Until what looks like a rock beside the chest stirrs.

>She gasps, as the rock unfurls its eight, ugly legs from underneath it.

>Immediately, the creature faces her, and makes a loud, liquidy hiss.

>It's a rock spider!

>Quickly, Echo jumps to her hooves and unsheaths her sword with her mouth.

>She slowly sidesteps, keeping her distance from the spider.

>It's half the size of her, but its sharp fangs of its mouth glint in the light and put her on edge.

>What she assumes is venom drips from them.

>Despite her armour, there are plenty of unprotected body parts that those can easily get to.

>It's the spider that makes the first move, pouncing forward with its legs and fangs pointed towards Echo.

 

>She dodges to the left and swings her sword, hopefully in its path.

>Her sword hits, slicing off half of one of its back legs.

>The rock spider hisses in pain, but does not relent.

>It lands on the wall, pouncing off and towards Echo.

>She dodges to the left and slices again, but misses.

>Just as quickly as the spider had jumped from the wall, it bounced off of the floor and onto Echo's chest.

>She is forced backward, the spider overwhelming her with its seven-and-a-half legs.

>Without thinking, she slices madly in its direction, only taking out another one of its legs.

>This only seems to anger it, however, as it increases its force ten-fold.

>Echo's knocked onto her back and the spider crawls on top of her, its fangs ready to sink into her flesh.

>She tries to pry it off of her with her hooves, but it knocks her legs away with its own.

>The fangs, dripping with venom, nears her unprotected neck.

 

--

 

>With a loud grunt, she swings her sword downwards and it hits the spider across its face.

>However, the spider's rocky hide deflects the blow and it continues to press forward.

>She slices again, but to no effect.

>That's when she stills herself, taking a deep breath to focus while she shoves against the spider.

>In between the spider's fangs--its mouth--is unprotected.

>After taking a brief moment to steady her blade, she thrusts it forward, penetrating the spider's weak point.

>She grunts loudly as she thrusts deeper, feeling her blade sever many vital organs.

>The spider finally relents, wobbling backwards as it tries to hiss through her sword.

>Echo gets up and pounces on top of the spider, beating it with her armoured hooves.

>She hammers the hilt of the blade deeper into it, until it finally stops moving.

>Echo collapses, heaving heavily while staring at the dead monster in front of her.

>She had just encountered her first fight in the Trials.

>She's heard many stories of encounters om the Trials, but they were tales of ferocious beasts, sometimes the size of buildings.

>This was a freaking rock spider.

>The once active space now became silent again, with no sound but her heavy breathing.

>It also seemed that the torch was dimming, its light much less strong than when she had first picked it up.

>Hopefully, there would be a means of light, otherwise she would have to rely on her echolocation.

>A sigh escaped her lips as she picked herself up and walked up to the corpse of her first victory.

>Smelly green blood oozed out of the wound, and when she pulled her sword out of the carcass, it seemed that the entire contents of its innards spilled out.

>Thankfully, there was a puddle nearby and she washed off the spider's blood on her blade with it.

>After sheathing her sword, she turned to the still-unopened wooden chest in the room.

 

--

 

>With much less grace than the last chest, Echo kicked open the lid of the chest to behold its contents.

>Inside was a small leather box, another sword just like hers, and what looked to be a carved, wooden triangular prism.

>She picked up the prism and examined it.

>Carved onto each of its triangle faces was what looked to be a crude face, smiling.

>No, it was not smiling... it looked more like it was cringing.

>Cringing in pain.

>Echo shivered, but decided to stuff the object into her right saddlebag.

>She picked up the leather box next, turning it around in her hooves to find out how it opened.

>It seemed to be sealed tight, but she found the clip that bound the lid to its body and unfastened it.

>As she opened the box, however, she was rewarded with a bright light.

>There, sitting comfortably in a velvet-cushioned mould was a shard of crystal.

>It gave off a fairly bright white light, and was only warm to the touch.

>She prodded it a bit, and its light did not faulter.

>It looks like she found a reliable light source.

>She took it out of the box and tucked it into a spare knife strap on her left shoulder

>The shard peaked out just enough to give off enough light for her to see her surroundings clearly.

>She kept the leather box in her right saddlebag as well.

>Who knows, it might come in handy later.

 

--

 

>After taking a few minutes to rest, the torch light finally died out, allowing her light shard to shine by itself.

>She was getting sick of the orangue hue; the white light was a nice change.

>To the left of the chest was an exit to the room--another dark tunnel for her to traverse.

>Seeing no other options left to her, Echo continued her trek.

>After several minutes of walking, however, the tunnel split into a fork.

>One path to the left, and one to the right.

>While there were no visible distinguishable features for either path, however, she could hear different things waiting her on each side.

>On the left path was what sounded like the steady cracking of a torch, or a campfire.

>On the right path was what sounded like a gentle rush of water.

 

 

So comes the end of chapter 2, and also our second decision.

Will Echo take the right path, towards the sound of fire?

Or the left path, towards the sound of water?