Tazi detected a quake to Steorf's voice, and she was momentarily surprised by his quick defeat. She wondered if he actually meant that there was no way for him to defeat it magically, but part of her wanted to run as well. The most powerful tool she possessed was useless against the hound. A hasty retreat was appealing and seemed logical. She looked over to Fannah, though, and saw the raven-haired woman standing on the bottom step. She appeared serene to Tazi, but very vulnerable. Tazi's mouth tightened, and she stood up.
'No,' she answered Steorf, 'there is no other way than this. I'm not running away or taking the easy route anymore.'
Tazi took a step forward.
As she suspected, as soon as the hound saw her move closer to the gate, the beast was in motion. Tazi could see its powerful muscles bunch in effort as the dog made its attack. With a vicious snarl, the guardian launched itself into the air, much as it had done with Steorf.
Tazi crossed her arms at her waist and drew her Sembian guardblades. Though she knew their enchantments would be useless against the guardian, the rapiers were still good steel. Not many things were impervious to that.
Tazi used the animal's might against itself. She held her right arm sturdy, and even though the dog saw the threat she posed, it was unable to stop its motion. The beast impaled itself onto Tazi's right rapier. She simultaneously swung across with her left blade and partially decapitated the thing. The momentum and size of the animal toppled both of them to the ground.
Straining against the animal's dead weight, Tazi managed to push the creature off of her. She rose just as Steorf, somewhat shamefaced, reached her side. Tazi didn't notice him as she checked to verify that the dog was truly dead, not completely trusting the copious amounts of its blood that covered her. She half-expected it to open its eyes and gnash its jaws. One look at its nearly severed head, however, removed all doubt.
Tazi grasped the blade that was still embedded in the guardian with both hands and began to tug. She finally had to place her foot against the animal's side to give her the leverage she needed to free her weapon from the meat of its chest. Steorf handed her the other rapier.
'It's safe now, Fannah,' she called out as she retrieved what remained of her cloak.
She used the tatters to clean her blades before replacing the weapons in their sheathes. Soon enough, Fannah stood next to her winded companions.
'Something tells me you two must be a sight, indeed,' Fannah said.
Tazi smirked at the comment, but Steorf didn't respond.
'Well,' Tazi admitted, looking at the large carcass and the widening pool of blood on the floor, 'we did a pretty horrible job of not leaving any kind of a trace behind.'
She flashed a smirk at Steorf.
He stepped over to the dog and knelt by its side. Steorf slid his hands over the dull collar and deftly removed it with a small click. He placed his hands on the dead beast's side and closed his eyes.
Tazi watched in mute fascination as a blue glow enveloped the dog. The animal's wounds began to knit themselves shut, and the pool of blood evaporated. With only a few words, Steorf healed the hound. Soon enough, the animal opened its eyes and briefly thumped its tail as Steorf replaced the jeweled collar.
Tazi took a step back, but the dog merely rolled upright and padded over to lie by the far side of the gate as though it were a comfortable hearth. Fannah walked over to the dog and hesitantly touched it. The guardian thumped its tail once more. Tazi turned to Steorf with an amazed expression on her face.
'You said we shouldn't leave any traces, and once it was dead I was able to remove the enchanted collar,' he offered in quiet explanation. 'As soon as we leave, the creature will revert back to its former, unpleasant demeanor toward unwanted guests.'
She cast a sidelong glance at him and said, 'I thought you told me the other day that you weren't very adept at necromancy spells.'
'I've been practicing for this journey,' was all he would answer.
Tazi jabbed his shoulder good-naturedly.
'A good thing for us that you have been.'
She smiled up into his face, trying to recapture some of their old camaraderie, for Fannah's sake if nothing else, but he didn't return it.
'I'm sorry,' he said quietly and cast his eyes down toward his limp hands. 'I just…' he struggled with the words, 'seemed to have forgot myself during the battle.'
Tazi moved a fraction closer and laid a hand on his forearm.
'Just because you forgot yourself for a moment doesn't mean that you lost yourself. Remember that,' she told him earnestly.
He stared hard at her before laying his other hand briefly over hers.
'Thank you, Tazi.'
Fannah walked back over to them and asked, 'Is it time?'
Tazi looked at both her friends.
'I think so,' she replied. 'Steorf, do you have any idea what we might expect from this gate travel?'
'I've heard many stories,' he replied, 'but they have all contradicted themselves. Either none of them were true, or what they signify is that each gate is very different.'
'Which do you think it is?' Tazi asked, valuing his thoughts on the matter.
This was not lost on Steorf.
'I believe every gate is very different,' he answered seriously.
'Then I suppose the only way we'll find out is by going through,' Tazi concluded.
She peeked over at the dog one last time. The beast simply lay to one side, snoring softly. She shook her head but kept one hand on the hilt of her rapier anyway. Old fears didn't just fade at the pass of a hand.
The three approached the archway slowly. The gate looked as if it was made from pink sandstone, the kind one might find in the desert. Tazi was still able to clearly see the other side of the cellar wall. Her heart started to beat a little faster, and her mouth dried out. It had been a long time since she felt like this. In the last year, none of her wildings had left her feeling so alive. Even though she and her friends were going off to risk death or worse, she couldn't help but grin.
'This is it,' she told them.
In unison, Tazi, Steorf, and Fannah stepped through. Tazi's senses were immediately overwhelmed. She felt as though she had walked into a storm like the ones that battered the ships in Selgaunt Bay at year's end. All around her, various shades of blue and yellow swirled and howled. There was no dirt or sky where she found herself. Tazi was terribly disorientated with nothing to ground her senses. She didn't know if she was moving forward or backward. Fannah and Steorf were nowhere to be seen. She was beginning to panic just a little and bit back on that feeling.
Trying to move forward as best she could, Tazi could make out a shadow to her left. Desperately trying to focus her eyes, Tazi called out to the figure. As she squinted harder, Tazi was startled, and she let out a gasp. The figure was her elf friend.
'Ebeian!' she cried.
Tazi could see that he was whole again but suspended in the maelstrom of the gate. She watched as he writhed and moaned as if white-hot pokers were stabbing him. She could see he was in excruciating pain. Tazi stretched out her hand and tried to reach him.
'Eb!' she called out, and everything around her went dark.
Tazi crashed to her knees. She was breathing hard and had broken out in a cold sweat. She opened and closed her eyes several times until she realized the colors were gone, there was a solid surface beneath her knees and hands, and it was deafeningly quiet.
'Is anyone here?' she asked finally, breaking the silence.
She heard both Steorf and Fannah make weak replies. Tazi breathed a little easier after she heard their voices. The three simply sat where they were for a few moments and allowed their equilibrium to balance once again.
'Did you see anything in there?' Tazi asked as she rose on shaky legs.
'Nothing that made any sense,' Steorf replied. 'You?'
'I saw Ebeian,' she blurted out. 'He looked… tormented.'
