The twin orbs swayed as they moved closer to the light. It moved slowly, as if hesitant to leave the darkness. Finally its head entered the circle of light from Owen's torch. 

The largest wyvern Seth had ever seen stared at them from the lower chamber. It was emaciated; its skin hung loosely over its bony body and the flesh of its face was sunken and skull like. Its mouth didn't close properly and some of its fangs were broken. The green scales were pale and gray, and utterly lacking in the luster a healthy creature would possess.

"Chicky chicky chicky," the creature crooned, its eyes locked on Seth in ravenous intensity.

"Out! Out out out!" Seth cried as he scrambled backwards. The huge wyvern lunged at Seth. The beast was unexpectedly quick despite the awkwardness of crawling on its wings. The beast was faster than Seth.

Owen reacted by kicking Seth off the staircase. The wyvern missed Seth and snapped at Owen instead who blocked the maw with his found sword. 

Seth landed heavily beneath the stairs and had the wind knocked out of him. The sword Owen had given him clattered a few feet away. He had the presence of mind to extinguish the light of his pendant so the wyvern wouldn't be drawn to him. The wyvern crawled to the stairs instead, its long neck giving the maw free rein to snap at Seth's friends.

"Owen!" Duvessa cried. "Why did you kick Seth down there? He's trapped with that thing now!"

"Dead later is better than dead now," Owen said. Seth could see Owen at the top of the stairs, blocking the creature's snaps with his sword.

"Chicky chicky chicky," it repeated in its eerie, high pitched voice. It pulled back to consider Owen. Seth tried to get to his feet. There was no way Owen could hold off this monster on his own.

"Blaise, get outside," Owen ordered, "Selendrith, you go next."

Seth could see Duvessa's arrow strike the wyvern. It bounced harmlessly off the loose skin of the creature's neck.

Seth didn't know what Blaise was doing, but Selendrith stood frozen on the stairs, staring wide eyed at the monster on the floor below. Seth backed away from the wyvern. The space was dark, and although he could see the wyvern in the light from above and the torch at the bottom of the stairs, the rest of the chamber was pretty dark, and the footing was treacherous. Seth found and retrieved the sword he dropped.

Duvessa fired another arrow, missing the wyvern but coming frighteningly close to Owen. The wyvern snapped repeatedly at Owen, quickly changing the direction of its strikes at the last moment, causing it to miss. It was like the wyvern expected Owen to dodge but he instead held firm. Seth knew that once the wyvern figured out it could bull through Owen's defenses and knock him down, Owen would be eaten. 

"Selendrith!" Owen shouted. "Go!"

Selendrith scrambled down and jumped off the side of the stairs. "What about Seth?" She called back. "He's behind that thing!"

"I'm fine!" Seth shouted. He circled to the back of the wyvern and considered his options. He had the school sword Owen had handed him. In typical Owen fashion, it was the oldest and dullest sword Owen could find. Seth figured it might be useful as a metal club. Either way, the likelihood of him being able to do real harm to the wyvern with that sword was small.  

"Duvessa, you're next," Owen said. "We are going to need you to use shadows to distract it so Seth and I can get out."

"We're not going to kill it?" Duvessa asked, shooting another arrow at it.

"That ain't happening. If it spits fire in here, we're all dead. We gotta get outside," Owen said. "It wants to eat us more than it wants to kill us. If it changes its mind, we're done."

Duvessa nodded and jumped off the stairs and out of Seth's sight.

Owen continued to fence with the wyvern, but the creature was learning. Its bites no longer expected Owen to dodge, forcing Owen to block and defend with his sword. He did not get the opportunity to counter attack. Seth swung the dull sword as hard as he could at the wyvern's tail. He couldn't penetrate the creature's scales, and it hardly noticed Seth's effort, merely raising its tail up and sweeping left and right.

Suddenly the wyvern changed targets, snapping at one of the girls that Seth couldn't see, who screamed. Owen jumped forward and slashed at the wyvern's neck and it swung its head back, knocking Owen from the stairs. 

The wyvern shrieked gleefully as it hopped and pinned Owen to the ground. The claws on its foot pierced his shoulder. It leered down at Owen with hungry satisfaction, then regarded the two girls above greedily. "Chicky chicky chicky."

From his position behind the wyvern, with a dull sword and no real skills, there was only one thing Seth could think of to do. He shoved the sword into the only soft spot in the wyvern's backside, the one beneath the tail, and shoved it as deep as it would go as hard and fast as he could.

The wyvern screamed and jumped straight up the stairs, bashing its head against the ceiling and making the whole cavern shake. There was an ominous crack in the stone stairs.

"I have an idea!" Selendrith shouted. "I just need a minute!"

"Do it faster than a minute!" Duvessa screamed back. "These won't last long!"

Seth couldn't see what was going on up the stairs, the wyvern's thrashing body blocked the view. He could only hope the girls could hold the beast off. He ran over to check on Owen, hoping he wasn't crushed by the beast's weight or slain by its claws. The moment he saw Owen move slightly, Seth activated his healing pendant and put all the power it had into Owen. A quick burst like that wouldn't do much for long term healing, but it should be enough to prevent death and help Owen escape. He dragged Owen away from the stairs and helped him to his feet.

Seth looked around the dark cavern. He could see no further than the guttering torchlight. If there was another exit to this cave, there was no way for him to know. 

Seth focused and cast wind blade. The spell struck the wyvern but did so little damage the wyvern ignored him. Seth internally cursed his lack of skill with the spell. 

"Do we try to go by the wyvern, or do we look for another way out here?" Seth asked Owen. "Wrong answer means we die."

"I don't know," Owen said. "What about the girls?" He scooped up the sword he'd found in the trash pile earlier. 

"They have a way out at least. I lost my sword, and my spells don't work on it." 

"I'll get it riled at me, so the girls can get out. Take a look for an exit down here. You got light, right?" Owen said.

"No, I put everything into healing you. I can light it in another couple minutes."

"We don't have minutes." Owen tried to approach the wyvern, but the tail whipping back and forth kept him back. 

Seth didn't have his sword anymore, his wind blades were ineffective, and he had no other weapons. He spotted the torch still guttering beneath the stairs and got a new idea. He scrambled to retrieve the torch. It was nearly out, so Seth took a second to turn it, and give it a small amount of wind to get the flames going again. Saben had told him that some air burns better than others, but Seth had no idea how to control that. Fanning the flames with normal air would have to be enough. 

Owen grunting in pain got Seth's attention. 

The wyvern had turned sideways on the stairs, both clawed feet gripping the staircase. Its long neck reached into the floor above and harassed the girls. One wing had flailed out and knocked Owen to the ground.

Seth jumped up the stairs and held the torch to the wyvern's foot. Come on, burn! he thought at the torch. Even trying to provide wind to the flame didn't get the fire that Seth was hoping for. The wyvern was mostly unaffected by the fire and just reflexively kicked out with one foot, sending Seth and the torch flying. The torch landed in a mana puddle, mostly going out. Then the puddle started burning with a low blue flame and spread over the whole puddle.

In the dim blue light Seth saw that Owen was having trouble getting up. The battle upstairs was sounding bad too, with Duvessa screeching at the monster.

Seth closed his eyes, focused, and cast wind blade, this time focusing on the thin wing membrane. It didn't do a lot of damage, but did make a small hole in the wing. The wyvern peered down and shook the damaged wing before pulling it up to the floor above. It glared at Seth, seemingly torn between crushing Seth and trying to eat the girls again. It pulled back and turned to the girls, out of Seth's line of sight.

Seth rushed over to help Owen. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah. Just knocked about a bit," Owen answered as Seth helped him up. This time he hadn't dropped his sword.

The wyvern abruptly screamed again and fell down the stairs, flailing in the confined space. Seth pulled Owen behind the stairs and out of the way.

"It's Mau! Mau is on its face!" Seth said once he caught a glimpse of the wyvern's head. "Up! Go!" He half shoved half dragged Owen up the stairs while the beast was trying to shake off Mau's claws.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry," Duvessa chanted, reaching to help Seth and Owen up. "Out, out, out!"

Selendrith was just completing her spell. She held it while she waited for the right moment. Duvessa, Seth, and Owen ducked into the side chamber they first entered in. 

"Mau!" Seth cried. "We're leaving!"

The wyvern's head poked up the stairwell and its hungry fury landed on Selendrith. The ridiculous sight of a cat on top of its head did nothing to diminish how terrifying the monster was. It jumped up the stairs, its huge body completely filling the stairwell.

Selendrith activated the spell. The doors on the ceiling glowed, resisting the spell. The wyvern's head swung around, maw wide open.

The foundation of the tower above cracked. The doors had resisted the spell, but the stone frame could not. The wyvern tried to avoid the falling stones but was caught and pinned. The big doors fell, balancing briefly on the broken staircase before it collapsed under the weight. The whole ceiling collapsed on the wyvern, filling the cavern with dust and rubble. 

After several seconds of collapsing stone, everything quieted.

Duvessa sighed deeply. "No chicky for you," she said.