(In a cavern overlooking a lake in the Finder Mountains on the land mass
know as Sterigest on a rainy morning)

As Zert woke, unfurled his wings and stretched his whole body, he
thought out loud, "What a good day it would be to explore the rest of
this cavern's tunnels." 

With that said he turned his attentions to the rest of the deer he had
caught last night and proceeded to eat it all. After eating Zert put his
satchel full of books around his neck and set out down the tunnel in the
rear of the cavern to were it broke off into three different tunnels,
each going in there own direction. Zert had only found this particular
cavern a ten-day or so ago and had had only limited time to explore the
different tunnels. He already knew the right one curved to the left then
back around to the right while slowing going upwards and finally outside
to a peak high above where his own cavern is. The straight and tunnel to
the left had yet to be explored extensively. So, not caring which one he
went down since he had plenty of time to explore the on he didn't pick
later, Zert went straight. As he went down the tunnel it began to twist
this way and that way and began to get narrower as it continued angling
downward. 

After many hours of walking and stopping to look, touch, smell, and
sometimes taste the various funguses and plant life that grew down deep
below the ground Zert realized he really didn't know where he was at,
but that didn't matter he was exploring and learning about new stuff.
Zert also noticed some of the plants gave off an eerie orange glow
somewhat lighting the way as he continued further down. Not that he
needed light to see or anything like that. It seemed to him that this
plants with the orange glow went only in one direction, so curious he
followed the orange-lit path even deeper into the ground. 

Finally after many more hours Zert comes across some very large oak iron
banded doors with mystic runes across them, with one rune split in half
where the doors meet each other, worn with the ages. Zert's first
attempt to just open the door fails with him receiving a little jolt of
electricity to his hand. As Zert studies the door to try to figure out
the runes he decides it is time to take out one of his many books of
knowledge, as he calls them, to see if have anything that can help him
figure them out. After searching through three of his six books he finds
a little piece of knowledge he thinks will help him open the doors. Zert
lovingly puts the books back into the satchel and heads back the way he
came to gather up some of the glowing moss. 

When he returns with the moss he begins to rub it into the all of the
runes except the one split in half, now knowing that the moss glows
because of some great magic and therefor infused with that magic, Zert
believes that since the runes are so worn down he can possibly negate
there magic with the glowing moss. That done he proceeds to open the
door. As door begins to give Zert begins to hear strange noise emanating
from the room. Instead of just barging into it he decides it might be
safer to look before he leaps. When he looks around the door he sees
that the room is lit by 13 golden braziers that are encircling the room
with a large pool in the middle filled with some sort of liquid. 

Sensing the pool might be trouble, Zert stays away from it while
searching the room looking for anything that might give him more
knowledge. After about an hour of searching and only finding some moldy
remains of what once may have been books and scrolls, zert decides the
pool is the next place to look for stuff so he approaches it. As Zert
gets closer the pool it remains still. Curiosity getting the better of
him, he reaches out and down into the pool feeling the heavy liquid in
his hand. As he reaches further into the pool it begins to glow red and
start churning violently. A little scared Zert tries to pull is hand and
arm out of the pool to no avail. The pool begins to pull him further
into itself. With wings spread wide and flapping with everything he has
he still cannot break the grip of the pool. Zert tries his breath weapon
on the pool and the glows even redder and begins to get hot. His rear
claws rake deep furrows into the stone floor of the room as his head and
upper body go under the pools surface. Holding his breath so as not to
breath any of the liquid in and closing his eyes Zert is finally pulled
completely into the pool. As he opens eyes to see just what is going on
he sees what seems to be the pools surface. As he swims up to the
surface he notices that the liquid isn't think at all anymore and isn't
holding him back. He drags himself up out of the pool, shakes off really
good, adjusts his satchel and looks around only to see himself
surrounded by a thick grove of oak and pine trees. Looking around Zert
knows he is not in Sterigest anymore. As Zert continues to look for a
path he can take out of this grove he sees that the pool is slowly
fading from view. Quickly he tries to jump back in the pool only to slam
into an invisible wall of force. As the pool completely disappears Zert
lets out a roar of, "Nooo."


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mike054@ix.netcom.com
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