Network of Keys Chapter 9 part 1; Ky, A Hop

~Ky~

Cynthia's tenseness can't be more obvious. Her long, straight hair shifts around as she moves her head in confusion. Squeezing myself out of her ever constricting arms, I climb upon her shoulder.

"Hey," I tell her, "we've got this."

"It's basically pitch black," Cynthia mutters. She looks at me with hopelessness in her ruby eyes.

"No its not," I reassure her. I'm a bit puzzled though. The blueberry colored room is well lit to me.

Her sadness, very contagiously, sinks into my heart. Since we entered the dead town Cynthia has been so upset. No, wait, now when I think of it, she's been sad since she arrived with news of our adventure. I jump onto the velvet floor and look up at her.

"Its OK, I can lead us," I reassure her, "I can see a lot, so I'll make sure nothing bites us."

The only change noticeable in her is the small flash of worry in her eyes. Not even her bowed head or sagged shoulders betray even the slightest change of heart. Hoping to heal her misery, I shove my head into her leg lovingly. Sorrowfully, she reaches down and pets the top of my head. My happiness slowly fades away even under the pleasant feeling of her warm hand.

"Cheer up," I beg her.

A plastic smile forms on her face.

"For real," I say.

She shakes her head, "I don't think I'll be happy as long as we are in this place."

"Then we will be out soon," I say, even if it disapoints me that bringing her joy means being imprisoned again.

Suddenly, Cynthia bends down and pulls me close, "I'm really sorry, Ky. Please don't be depressed, keep your optimism. Don't you worry about me I'll be fine. I promise."

That kinda makes me feel better, but before I can say something I see something move. My eyes widen when I see it and the memories flash back. The red eyes, evil smirk, and amorphous body float only a few feet away. She leers at Cynthia's and my emotional moment. Maybe Cynthia will cheer up if I can defeat this thing without a scratch, I think. With that thought in mind, I stalk bravely towards the shadow.

"Hehe," I mock before the shadow can even start.

"HEHE," she replies.

"HEHEHE."

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHE"

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE."

"HA HA HEE HEE HOO HOO"

"HAHAHEEHEEEHOOHOOO"

Shockingly, the shadow Fantiture's face contorts into a worried glare. A small smack occurs in the distance, and when I look towards it I see Cynthia's face is in her hand. Turning back towards the possible threat, I bare my teeth and puff up my fur in hopes of scaring her away. Instead of running in fear, she shakes her head. I start to approach the Fantiture, growling furiously in hopes of an easy victory that'll cheer my owner up. However, the shadow bears her teeth back and snickers very darkly, but she stays put. This confuses me a bit, because wouldn't she want to be first to attack? That doesn't stop me though, I channel an energy ball into my mouth and stalk even closer to the threatened Fantiture. Her eyes widen, and before I can attack or do anything, really, she vanishes. Beaming proudly, I turn to face Cynthia. She just shakes her head in disapproval.

"Seriously, Ky?" she moans teasingly, then looks up at me and smiles warmly, "I said I'll cheer up, OK?"

I try to flash her a human smile, but I fail. Then I skip ahead so we can continue our adventure. Hopefully this adventure will be much better now that Cynthia is happy, too!

"Wait a minute," Cynthia says, now serious. She didn't move a bit. She continues, "It'll help if I can see too."

She walks to a nearby table and tries to take the candle, but when she grabs it the table hastily backs away and blows a huge stream of fire at her from its candle. Before I can rush to help Cynthia, a flash of fire bursts in front of her and the whole table is on fire. A wall of intense heat blocks me from getting any closer to the scene, along with the thick scent of burning.

"CYNTHIA!" I cry out desperately. OH NO OH NO OH DEAR GODS AND GODDESSES NO SHE IS ALL I HAVE HERE!

Coolly, she turns around and looks me straight in the eyes. She looks rather annoyed, which shocks me. Shouldn't her whole head be gone? Nevertheless, her head is on fire, but she is perfectly fine! I can feel my muscles relax. She sighs and tries to put out the fire with her jacket, but the jacket isn't so fireproof after all. Instantly she rips it off and hurls it to the ground, which catches on fire, too.

"Ky, you might want to move away a bit," she says in an agitated voice.

I back away a lot to avoid catching on fire. Cynthia pulls up her leg and slips off one of her shoes. Then she proceeds to stamp out the fire with her bare foot. All I can do is stare with complete shock. After all she is stamping out flames with her bare foot and I can barely take the heat! She drops to the ground and rolls around much to my confusion. Luckily the scorched ground allows her to get the fire off. My eyes widen even more when she gets up and I can see that her face has no burns.

"Don't try that," Cynthia warns, "Only fire-type ryges don't get destroyed by fire."

"COOL!" I blurt, trying (and failing) another human grin.

She warmly smiles back and we start going forwards, determined not to set anything else on fire. The room separates into three separate paths, but some the room has a funny shape that I assume is made to trick visitors into thinking there are more paths. I pace to the entrance of the left path, then to the middle path, then the right path, and then back again. There has got to be a hint somewhere, I wonder, But where is it? And what is it? The wretched odor of death sways me away from the left and middle paths, as it is very strong there. Wait. That's it! Excited, I take a deep whiff of the air at the entrance to the right path. I think I can spell fresh air. Happily I pounce on Cynthia's leg.

"What is it?" she pauses from her own wondering to ask.

"I found it! I found the right path!" I beam.

"Oh good."

"Hey Cynthia?" I ask as we head down the path.

"Yes Ky?"

"What kind of ryg am I?"

She giggles a little, "A ryg of the yellow key of course. Or, for your sake, an energy-type ryg."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Yes. You control pure energy. Of course that energy is your own, but still."

Before we can discuss even more, though, something sweeps me off my paws. Literally. There is a strange sucking sensation on my back as the ground drops. Without any thought, I let loose a jolt of energy into whatever has just taken me. A muffled scream whines from my back at the same point the weird feeling occurred at, and before I know it the ground greets me with a painful thrust. Uttering a small groan of my annoyance, I push myself up just to see a flash of darkness lunge at Cynthia. However, I can't address the issue because the sound of flapping turns my attention to the Fantiture that tried flying away with me. It's just a dark pair of bird wings. Between the wings is what I assume is a mouth, though all it is is a black hole. The thing opens its mouth and is flying towards me. In the rush of the moment I turn around and kick both my back feet into its damp mouth. A banging sound indicates that my attacker has hit the wall. Heat and light erupt out of nowhere, and I look up to see Cynthia with her hands near her neck.

"Come on," she croaks as she walks towards me.

Holy Keys, I think when I see the blood squirting out of her throat.

"Ok," I say, trying not to rudely gawk at her injury or that she seems quite fine. After all, ryges are practically immortal.

We continue traveling down our path. Nothing much changes except that it just keeps getting darker. Cynthia continues on as if the holes in her throat doesn't even phase her, but her breathing gurgles and sounds quite loud,harsh, and strained. Besides my worry for my friend, I am really bored. No Fantitures show up, so of course there is no action. Though I am somewhat thankful for that. They aren't very nice and Cynthia is hurt. When my paws start to hurt from walking so much I climb onto Cynthia's shoulder and lean lovingly against her head, but instead of leaning back she shrieks and flinches so hard I lose my balance and fall off. After landing on my butt, I glance up at Cynthia who is rubbing her neck. Yeah maybe I should watch her injury...I totally forgot about it.

Finally, there is a legit light at the end of this hallway. But we don't have time to admire it, though. A loud wave a sound suddenly bursts out of nowhere. We both look in the direction it came from just to see a whole avalanche of all sorts of creatures hurdling towards us! Cynthia and I sprint towards the light as fast as we can. Although the light grows bigger and bigger, it seems we aren't going to make it. Luckily, we just make it out in the open and hide behind a large tree. The raging Fantitures disperse around us and calm down. They don't seem to notice or care for us though, and Cynthia's neck is at full gush. She looks really exhausted.

I take a deep whiff of the clean forest air that is so different than the previous stench of death. A full moon shines down on us, bathing everything in silver. There is this huge sense of familiarity that makes me wonder if I have been here before. Also, something here feels kind of odd. Anyway, shortly after the herd of Fantitures is out of site Fluffly skips out merrily. My heart warms when I see her. I just want to cuddle her she is so cute! Amy follows closely behind her Fantiture and smiles at us.

"So you made it," she greets us.

"Yeah," Cynthia rasps.

I give Cynthia a snuggle on her leg in high hopes it makes her feel a little better. Pain hurts, I should know.

"You look awful," Amy states the obvious and pulls out the can of nasty fluid she sprayed me with once.

She sprays Cynthia's neck holes with it, and the blonde flinches just a bit. Shocking enough, the fluid causes Cynthia to heal. Then Amy gives her a towel to wipe some of the blood off. After cleaning herself off, Cynthia thanks Amy. I am relieved that her voice is no longer all scratchy and in pain. Cynthia lays her backpack down and pulls out a bowl, a bright yellow bag, and a pink can. Food! My mouth waters as my stomach growls in excitement.

"Hungry?" she asks, and I respond with a nod.

Even with my anxious hovering she manages to open the can and bag and dump the fishy food into the bowl. I shove my head into it and start devouring before I can even thank her.

***

I can't sleep. No matter what I do I just can't sleep. I try everything I can think of, but I still can't sleep. Growing forever restless, I succumb to the feeling that I need to just go somewhere. Letting my feet guide themselves, I meander through the forest that keeps feeling more and more familiar. Right before I see it I realize why I am thinking I have been here before. This is the place I saw in that weird dream! Anyway, excitement renewed, I let my feet pull me to it. I can't help but gasp when I walk into the pool of faint sky blue light and see it. There It lies: the hugest key I have ever seen. The key is a very beautiful and shiny gold. The handle of the key is made of three loops and in the middle of those loops is a sky blue gem. Moonlight acts like a spotlight, making the Key the center of my attention.

In awe I approach the ethereal key and grab the top part of the top loop in my mouth. I can't resist dragging it back to Cynthia's, Amy's, and my base. Resisting would be pure torture. Its as if a God or Goddess his or herself is making me take it. When I get back to Cynthia I pull on her backpack's zipper, making it open, and then shove my precious key into the bag, making sure it is well hidden in the rest of Cynthia's stuff. Then I return to the totally passed out Cynthia and curl up against her, finally being able to fall asleep.