{"submission_id":"1326443","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"743","keyword_name":"adventure","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2922"},{"keyword_id":"2193","keyword_name":"fantasy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11610"},{"keyword_id":"174","keyword_name":"lion","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"22839"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"640258"},{"keyword_id":"356336","keyword_name":"monster hybrid","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2"},{"keyword_id":"20408","keyword_name":"mysterious","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"169"},{"keyword_id":"3254","keyword_name":"no sex","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"437"},{"keyword_id":"4911","keyword_name":"surreal","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"220"}],"hidden":"t","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"1","create_datetime":"2017-04-01 04:16:57.029139+02","create_datetime_usertime":"01 Apr 2017 04:16 CEST","last_file_update_datetime":"2017-04-01 03:57:32.279917+02","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"01 Apr 2017 03:57 CEST","username":"Zhiro","user_id":"377284","user_icon_file_name":"118152_Zhiro_zhiro.jpg","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/118/118152_Zhiro_zhiro.jpg","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/118/118152_Zhiro_zhiro.jpg","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/118/118152_Zhiro_zhiro.jpg","file_name":"1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","files":[{"file_id":"1862542","file_name":"1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1862/1862542_Zhiro_astral_dream.doc","mimetype":"application/msword","submission_id":"1326443","user_id":"377284","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"d24b7e20a4a45e543d721d2730f604e4","full_file_md5":"d24b7e20a4a45e543d721d2730f604e4","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2017-04-01 03:57:32.279917+02","create_datetime_usertime":"01 Apr 2017 03:57 CEST"}],"pools":[],"description":"I know that I don't post a lot and usually it's something sexually explicit but I felt that maybe I could post something that isn't sexual for this one. I don't know if anyone will like it but it's worth a post right?","description_bbcode_parsed":"I know that I don't post a lot and usually it's something sexually explicit but I felt that maybe I could post something that isn't sexual for this one. I don't know if anyone will like it but it's worth a post right?","writing":"\tIt was daytime, the sun barely having risen into the sky when Hector Veras, a pure white lion with a golden blonde mane and tuft on the end of his tail, found himself staring at a small, circular, jagged crystal. It was no larger than a grape, and it was a fiery orange hue. It looked like a small gemstone, though none he had ever seen before. He stared at it, and as it sat in his hand it grew hot. He let it drop to the ground instinctively, before it grew too hot to hold. Picking it back up carefully using a piece of cloth, he walked inside and set it in his study. He unraveled it and stared at it while reaching for a book. He skimmed through it, looking for any mention of such a stone. He found nothing of note in any book about ordinary gemstones. He moved to books about minerals and books about precious metals, and still found nothing. It seemed ridiculous that this small stone was unknown in origin, or even unknown in material. He placed the books back on their shelves and sat back down. The sun sent shafts of light into the room through the curtains and Hector couldn't help but throw them open to let it in. The gem shone brightly in the light, which gave him an idea. As he held it up to the sun he stared deeply into its core. A ringing could be heard, not in his head, but hanging in the air around him. The sound of a lock clicking open rang out in the room as well, which caused Hector to stow the gem quickly and look around. \n\n\tWhat had just happened, what was it that had unlocked itself? His eyes fixed themselves on the door, the only thing in the room with a lock, and wondered even more. The door itself was never locked, so why it would become unlocked was beyond him. He soon saw something chilling: from beneath the door came an eerie blackness seeping into his study. It seemed to be as shadows cast by light, but the sun did nothing to extinguish them. The sound of harsh, blowing wind emanated from it as well. It seemed to beckon within his head to come closer. The feeling only got stronger as Hector walked slowly forward, and knelt down listening. The door kept beckoning him to look into the keyhole. It beckoned without a sound, as the wind stopped and he stared into the depths of the keyhole. The ringing returned and someone, or something had moved its eye to look back at him. It faded into blackness and the door clicked again, this time it opened up slightly. Hector backed away from the door feeling very startled at this event. He opened the door, and saw a dingy alleyway beyond the threshold. How this alley came to be in his home, or how it came to be at all, was something he did not know. It was dark and dank as he stepped out into it. The door behind him creaked shut, something he did not expect. When he turned back he found the door was unopenable, firmly sealed shut as it would have been if he had locked it. \n\n\tHector turned back and looked down the alley, which turned sharply to the right not far from where he stood. There was no way to know what was going to happen and his idea was to move on. He started down the alleyway, making sure to step around the mysterious debris littering the ground. He peeked around the corner and saw that it led into what looked like a study similar to his own. More questions popped into his head at this revelation. A study at the end of an outdoor alley? Where did this door take him and what was its intentions from the start he wondered. Echoing footsteps bounced around the room as he entered. The sound of dirt and rock crashing behind him filled the space, and he looked around to see the alley completely blocked off now. Turning back around he noticed on the desk a piece of parchment. He picked it up and read it, wondering what it could have written on it. He looked at the words, but they were written in a language he had never seen before. Indeed it seemed this language wasn't written in anything that any modern race had created. What he thought it was written in had to be something occult, if such a thing even made sense to him. It wasn't his first choice of an answer, but then none of what was happening seemed real. \n\n\tHe folded the document and opened his jacket to nestle it safely in his pocket. He turned away and looked around. Where could he possibly go to get out of this room, and somewhere further along? All he saw was a large stained-glass window in front of him with an odd flame-like design on it. There were no doors, and bookcases lined the walls from where he entered all the way around to the window. It was the sole thing he could see that even seemed like a way forward. He picked up the chair pushed in under the desk and threw it at the window. It crashed through, causing most of the glass to shatter outward, some falling to the floor. Outside the sky was a dark purple color with stars dotting it. The celestial body floating in the sky was a red and orange mix, hanging in the sky illuminating the world. He looked out over the dissheveled and misshapen land. This was not the world he knew, this was not his home. He came from the earth realm, which was what he was calling it, as he did not know other realms even existed. Checking to see how high up he was before trying, he dropped down outside the study window. He looked around, seeing the features of the land more closely now. Turning to see what was behind him, he saw a large cathedral. The kind that had been made in old gothic fashion, and were most likely hundreds of years old. At least he called it gothic fashion, as he didn't know for sure what it was. He simply called it what it resembled to him.\n\n\tHector decided not to dally here and moved onward into the dark twilight that enveloped the world. The air was cold, but the world did not seem like it had been affected by it. Only he was feeling it walking through the valley the dark cathedral was in. This world had an oppressive feeling, something that kept pressing him down and lowering his stamina and drive to free himself. So much so that he had to sit down and rest before continuing. He did not want to spend any time here longer than he absolutely must. It seemed it wasn't up to him when he got out, it seemed that he had no real control over this place and its chaotic serenity. The sky swirled with clouds, hues of dark red and blue. They didn't seem to affect the light very much, and seemed only to swirl with energy. Hector stood back up and walked along the path before him, trees on either side. Unease filled him as he made his way through the foreboding woods in this world. No shadows were cast, but still the woods were filled with an eerie darkness that the light dared not touch. All except his path were darkened by shadow, and all the more harrowing for it.\n\n\tHe reached a fork in the road, one path leading off into the darkness of the woods, the other towards another cathedral with a grand stained glass window. He walked toward the cathedral but was met with resistance. He pushed hard on the invisible wall, but it had no give. The wall pulsed every time he touched it with his hands, giving off light in all directions. A sigh escaped Hector's mouth and he made his way down the path into the dark forest. This was not his decision since the world seemed to be forcing him down into it.\n\n\t\"This place is nothing but oppression. I don't feel as if I can do anything but move forward, trying to find my way out with little success so far.\" Hector said, \"Indeed the more I move forward the less it seems I have, the landscape seems to just stretch farther each step I take.\"\n\n\tThis place, this realm seemed warped and wrong as he trudged along. Nothing here seemed right, from the clouds and the sun to the grass that was a dark purple. The trees swayed and sighed though there was a definite lack of any wind. This place was beginning to turn Hector's unease into fear. He was afraid of what this place held in its depths, but he knew that if he let this fear stop him he may as well be dead. He wasn't keen on letting it get to that point so he kept going. The trees grew denser and more populated the further he went in. The light getting thinner and blotted as he worked his way into the foliage. He was now realizing that he would have been better off looking around for any kind of tools in that study before he left it. Surely the cathedral had something he could use to make things easier. He hadn't even tried opening the doors that led inside the main building of the cathedral. The success rate of him being able to go where he actually wanted though was small here, and he figured the doors were probably firmly closed from the inside. Still that was no excuse for not checking the study for anything that could have helped. He cursed his idiocy when he noticed an opening in the trees, with some light shining in. A small spark of hope flickered inside him, and he made for the opening quickly. \n\n\tUsing his arms to knock aside branches and brush aside he made it to the split in the trees. His eyes met a large clear ball at the end of a terrace. It was a cliff, the overhang of which had a large spherical object of sorts atop it. He walked forward, keeping an eye on the forest edge behind him. The last thing he needed was the forest to close up and deny him any opportunity for backtracking. He reached the sphere, and saw within its hollow core another of the tiny orange stones. This one shaped like the symbol meaning Omega. At least it appeared as that, since in this place he was sure no social construct or language of any races meant anything.\n\n\t\"This gem and this sphere are oddly beautiful. In this eerie place, this sphere is the only thing that has not instilled in me a sense of dread. How do I pierce its exterior though?\" Hector questioned.\n\n\tHe put a hand on the surface of the sphere, and it radiated warmth, something else he found odd in this cold place. Pressure applied to the surface seemed to show that the sphere was able to be pushed in. Hector pushed hard on the sphere, which seemed to give and let him enter. Surprised by his success, Hector stumbled and fell to one knee. He quickly stood up and walked over to the suspended gem moving his hand underneath. It lowered itself slowly into his palm and he gripped it lightly, and placed it into the same pocket as the parchemnt. The sphere around him faded away and he was free to walk back to the woods. He started back and heard a loud, blood-curdling screech. He stopped dead and looked deep into the woods he had left earlier. Crashing and thrashing noises could be heard from the depths of the forest. Not long after a beast, six legs pushing aside the trees and ripping up the dirt carried it out of the thick foliage. A large scorpion-like tail protruded and curved around the back of the monster. Its face was a horrifying combination of wolf and spider, dripping venom that smoked as it dissolved the ground. Hector placed a hand on the pocket containing the gem as the beast reared its head and let loose the same screech he heard before.\n\n\tInching forward slowly to keep the monstrosity from rushing him and goring him to death, Hector moved along. He reached within a few feet of the monster and he was met with a swing from its sinewy tail. It knocked him back but it didn't pursue him, but stood as a sentinel guarding the only way back. Hector backed away and the beast followed with him, giving him less room to move by. The fear welling within Hector was paralyzing, but he could not stay, lest he die here. He tried once more, and rolled under the swing of its tail, goading another screech from the beast. It started slamming the stinger into the ground trying to impale Hector and fill him with its poison. The trees parted as Hector jumped through the opening and ran in the direction direcly opposite the cliff, toward the Cathedral. He heard the splintering and cracking of the trees, the scorpion beast following quickly. Disturbed from some sort of slumber by Hector's meddling, it chased him to the doors of the Cathedral. Hector was thrown into a panic, the doors being firmly closed, and the beast bearing down on his location. He waited for his death as the beast raised its tail to stab through him. Then he looked up and dodged the strike, the lance-like tail piercing the door. The monster struggled to get its tail free, as Hector slid under it and got behind hit. He jumped on its back and started landing blows on hits head. \n\n\t\"Die hellspawn! Leave and return to the pit of brimstone you crawled out of!\" Hector bellowed.\n\n\tHe was determined to thrash its skull with his fists, but was met with a sharp stabbing pain in his thigh. Looking down he saw a set of sharp fingers digging into him. He was lifted up and in front of the monster's face, the tail coiling up to kill him. The gem shone bright through his jacket's cloth, which he took out and held up and the monster reeled and covered its eyes from the radiance. Landing on his feet Hector kicked open the cathedral doors, the bar on the other side being broken to pieces. Entering the cathedral he found a large altar at the end of the prayer hall. The beast came in next, breaking the pews and smashing the various trinkets in the cathedral. Its skin started flaking off, and fire covered its skin. Its mere presence in the church was burning it alive. It roared at him as it charged him with more purpose than before. It was determined to get the gem back at the cost of its life. Hector wasn't about to return it, having come this far to get it. He looked around and found no way out, but remembered how he got here in the first place. He ran outside and held the gem up to the orb in the sky, and looked through it, and the ringing filled the air again. \n\n\tThe beast let out an agonized scream, fully engulfed in fire now it fell to the ground writhing and thrashing in pain. It looked as though it felt the searing fire inside and out, and soon it fell to the ground, dead. Hector heard a quiet chorus of soothing voices, and looked around to see another door. This time pleasant rays of light came from the bottom and an aria of comforting songs emanated from it. \n\n\t\"Is this the door back to my own world? Is this nightmare over now?\" he asked the air.\n\n\tThe door clicked open as he looked on, and opened slightly as if in answer of his question. He walked toward it and he opened the door to see the serene display of his study in the dim twilight. He stepped through and heard the door shut behind him, and then opened it back up to see the hallway that he would always see when he opened this door. The corridor that led to the entryway of his home and then outside to the patio. That led deeper in to the kitchen and then to the dining room with the large feasting table. Hector sat down and stared at the first gem, sitting on his desk in the orange sunlight. He picked it up and set it down and decided to label it, for future reference.\n\n\t\"That place...however terrifying had some sort of presence that i'd like to experience again. Perhaps it had a very homely feeling, without that beast there i'm sure it can't be so harrowing anymore. Hmm.\" hector mused.\n\n\tHe took out a piece of parchemnt and got a quill and ink, and started scratching something across the surface of it. When he was finished the parchment read across it in large letters: Atral Sanctuary. He was confident that this place on the other side of reality was once a place people went to seek help and guidance. An oasis of knowledge and healing, versus the pit of oblivion and death it seemed to be when he arrived.\n\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"\tIt was daytime, the sun barely having risen into the sky when Hector Veras, a pure white lion with a golden blonde mane and tuft on the end of his tail, found himself staring at a small, circular, jagged crystal. It was no larger than a grape, and it was a fiery orange hue. It looked like a small gemstone, though none he had ever seen before. He stared at it, and as it sat in his hand it grew hot. He let it drop to the ground instinctively, before it grew too hot to hold. Picking it back up carefully using a piece of cloth, he walked inside and set it in his study. He unraveled it and stared at it while reaching for a book. He skimmed through it, looking for any mention of such a stone. He found nothing of note in any book about ordinary gemstones. He moved to books about minerals and books about precious metals, and still found nothing. It seemed ridiculous that this small stone was unknown in origin, or even unknown in material. He placed the books back on their shelves and sat back down. The sun sent shafts of light into the room through the curtains and Hector couldn't help but throw them open to let it in. The gem shone brightly in the light, which gave him an idea. As he held it up to the sun he stared deeply into its core. A ringing could be heard, not in his head, but hanging in the air around him. The sound of a lock clicking open rang out in the room as well, which caused Hector to stow the gem quickly and look around.
\tWhat had just happened, what was it that had unlocked itself? His eyes fixed themselves on the door, the only thing in the room with a lock, and wondered even more. The door itself was never locked, so why it would become unlocked was beyond him. He soon saw something chilling: from beneath the door came an eerie blackness seeping into his study. It seemed to be as shadows cast by light, but the sun did nothing to extinguish them. The sound of harsh, blowing wind emanated from it as well. It seemed to beckon within his head to come closer. The feeling only got stronger as Hector walked slowly forward, and knelt down listening. The door kept beckoning him to look into the keyhole. It beckoned without a sound, as the wind stopped and he stared into the depths of the keyhole. The ringing returned and someone, or something had moved its eye to look back at him. It faded into blackness and the door clicked again, this time it opened up slightly. Hector backed away from the door feeling very startled at this event. He opened the door, and saw a dingy alleyway beyond the threshold. How this alley came to be in his home, or how it came to be at all, was something he did not know. It was dark and dank as he stepped out into it. The door behind him creaked shut, something he did not expect. When he turned back he found the door was unopenable, firmly sealed shut as it would have been if he had locked it.
\tHector turned back and looked down the alley, which turned sharply to the right not far from where he stood. There was no way to know what was going to happen and his idea was to move on. He started down the alleyway, making sure to step around the mysterious debris littering the ground. He peeked around the corner and saw that it led into what looked like a study similar to his own. More questions popped into his head at this revelation. A study at the end of an outdoor alley? Where did this door take him and what was its intentions from the start he wondered. Echoing footsteps bounced around the room as he entered. The sound of dirt and rock crashing behind him filled the space, and he looked around to see the alley completely blocked off now. Turning back around he noticed on the desk a piece of parchment. He picked it up and read it, wondering what it could have written on it. He looked at the words, but they were written in a language he had never seen before. Indeed it seemed this language wasn't written in anything that any modern race had created. What he thought it was written in had to be something occult, if such a thing even made sense to him. It wasn't his first choice of an answer, but then none of what was happening seemed real.
\tHe folded the document and opened his jacket to nestle it safely in his pocket. He turned away and looked around. Where could he possibly go to get out of this room, and somewhere further along? All he saw was a large stained-glass window in front of him with an odd flame-like design on it. There were no doors, and bookcases lined the walls from where he entered all the way around to the window. It was the sole thing he could see that even seemed like a way forward. He picked up the chair pushed in under the desk and threw it at the window. It crashed through, causing most of the glass to shatter outward, some falling to the floor. Outside the sky was a dark purple color with stars dotting it. The celestial body floating in the sky was a red and orange mix, hanging in the sky illuminating the world. He looked out over the dissheveled and misshapen land. This was not the world he knew, this was not his home. He came from the earth realm, which was what he was calling it, as he did not know other realms even existed. Checking to see how high up he was before trying, he dropped down outside the study window. He looked around, seeing the features of the land more closely now. Turning to see what was behind him, he saw a large cathedral. The kind that had been made in old gothic fashion, and were most likely hundreds of years old. At least he called it gothic fashion, as he didn't know for sure what it was. He simply called it what it resembled to him.
\tHector decided not to dally here and moved onward into the dark twilight that enveloped the world. The air was cold, but the world did not seem like it had been affected by it. Only he was feeling it walking through the valley the dark cathedral was in. This world had an oppressive feeling, something that kept pressing him down and lowering his stamina and drive to free himself. So much so that he had to sit down and rest before continuing. He did not want to spend any time here longer than he absolutely must. It seemed it wasn't up to him when he got out, it seemed that he had no real control over this place and its chaotic serenity. The sky swirled with clouds, hues of dark red and blue. They didn't seem to affect the light very much, and seemed only to swirl with energy. Hector stood back up and walked along the path before him, trees on either side. Unease filled him as he made his way through the foreboding woods in this world. No shadows were cast, but still the woods were filled with an eerie darkness that the light dared not touch. All except his path were darkened by shadow, and all the more harrowing for it.
\tHe reached a fork in the road, one path leading off into the darkness of the woods, the other towards another cathedral with a grand stained glass window. He walked toward the cathedral but was met with resistance. He pushed hard on the invisible wall, but it had no give. The wall pulsed every time he touched it with his hands, giving off light in all directions. A sigh escaped Hector's mouth and he made his way down the path into the dark forest. This was not his decision since the world seemed to be forcing him down into it.
\t"This place is nothing but oppression. I don't feel as if I can do anything but move forward, trying to find my way out with little success so far." Hector said, "Indeed the more I move forward the less it seems I have, the landscape seems to just stretch farther each step I take."
\tThis place, this realm seemed warped and wrong as he trudged along. Nothing here seemed right, from the clouds and the sun to the grass that was a dark purple. The trees swayed and sighed though there was a definite lack of any wind. This place was beginning to turn Hector's unease into fear. He was afraid of what this place held in its depths, but he knew that if he let this fear stop him he may as well be dead. He wasn't keen on letting it get to that point so he kept going. The trees grew denser and more populated the further he went in. The light getting thinner and blotted as he worked his way into the foliage. He was now realizing that he would have been better off looking around for any kind of tools in that study before he left it. Surely the cathedral had something he could use to make things easier. He hadn't even tried opening the doors that led inside the main building of the cathedral. The success rate of him being able to go where he actually wanted though was small here, and he figured the doors were probably firmly closed from the inside. Still that was no excuse for not checking the study for anything that could have helped. He cursed his idiocy when he noticed an opening in the trees, with some light shining in. A small spark of hope flickered inside him, and he made for the opening quickly.
\tUsing his arms to knock aside branches and brush aside he made it to the split in the trees. His eyes met a large clear ball at the end of a terrace. It was a cliff, the overhang of which had a large spherical object of sorts atop it. He walked forward, keeping an eye on the forest edge behind him. The last thing he needed was the forest to close up and deny him any opportunity for backtracking. He reached the sphere, and saw within its hollow core another of the tiny orange stones. This one shaped like the symbol meaning Omega. At least it appeared as that, since in this place he was sure no social construct or language of any races meant anything.
\t"This gem and this sphere are oddly beautiful. In this eerie place, this sphere is the only thing that has not instilled in me a sense of dread. How do I pierce its exterior though?" Hector questioned.
\tHe put a hand on the surface of the sphere, and it radiated warmth, something else he found odd in this cold place. Pressure applied to the surface seemed to show that the sphere was able to be pushed in. Hector pushed hard on the sphere, which seemed to give and let him enter. Surprised by his success, Hector stumbled and fell to one knee. He quickly stood up and walked over to the suspended gem moving his hand underneath. It lowered itself slowly into his palm and he gripped it lightly, and placed it into the same pocket as the parchemnt. The sphere around him faded away and he was free to walk back to the woods. He started back and heard a loud, blood-curdling screech. He stopped dead and looked deep into the woods he had left earlier. Crashing and thrashing noises could be heard from the depths of the forest. Not long after a beast, six legs pushing aside the trees and ripping up the dirt carried it out of the thick foliage. A large scorpion-like tail protruded and curved around the back of the monster. Its face was a horrifying combination of wolf and spider, dripping venom that smoked as it dissolved the ground. Hector placed a hand on the pocket containing the gem as the beast reared its head and let loose the same screech he heard before.
\tInching forward slowly to keep the monstrosity from rushing him and goring him to death, Hector moved along. He reached within a few feet of the monster and he was met with a swing from its sinewy tail. It knocked him back but it didn't pursue him, but stood as a sentinel guarding the only way back. Hector backed away and the beast followed with him, giving him less room to move by. The fear welling within Hector was paralyzing, but he could not stay, lest he die here. He tried once more, and rolled under the swing of its tail, goading another screech from the beast. It started slamming the stinger into the ground trying to impale Hector and fill him with its poison. The trees parted as Hector jumped through the opening and ran in the direction direcly opposite the cliff, toward the Cathedral. He heard the splintering and cracking of the trees, the scorpion beast following quickly. Disturbed from some sort of slumber by Hector's meddling, it chased him to the doors of the Cathedral. Hector was thrown into a panic, the doors being firmly closed, and the beast bearing down on his location. He waited for his death as the beast raised its tail to stab through him. Then he looked up and dodged the strike, the lance-like tail piercing the door. The monster struggled to get its tail free, as Hector slid under it and got behind hit. He jumped on its back and started landing blows on hits head.
\t"Die hellspawn! Leave and return to the pit of brimstone you crawled out of!" Hector bellowed.
\tHe was determined to thrash its skull with his fists, but was met with a sharp stabbing pain in his thigh. Looking down he saw a set of sharp fingers digging into him. He was lifted up and in front of the monster's face, the tail coiling up to kill him. The gem shone bright through his jacket's cloth, which he took out and held up and the monster reeled and covered its eyes from the radiance. Landing on his feet Hector kicked open the cathedral doors, the bar on the other side being broken to pieces. Entering the cathedral he found a large altar at the end of the prayer hall. The beast came in next, breaking the pews and smashing the various trinkets in the cathedral. Its skin started flaking off, and fire covered its skin. Its mere presence in the church was burning it alive. It roared at him as it charged him with more purpose than before. It was determined to get the gem back at the cost of its life. Hector wasn't about to return it, having come this far to get it. He looked around and found no way out, but remembered how he got here in the first place. He ran outside and held the gem up to the orb in the sky, and looked through it, and the ringing filled the air again.
\tThe beast let out an agonized scream, fully engulfed in fire now it fell to the ground writhing and thrashing in pain. It looked as though it felt the searing fire inside and out, and soon it fell to the ground, dead. Hector heard a quiet chorus of soothing voices, and looked around to see another door. This time pleasant rays of light came from the bottom and an aria of comforting songs emanated from it.
\t"Is this the door back to my own world? Is this nightmare over now?" he asked the air.
\tThe door clicked open as he looked on, and opened slightly as if in answer of his question. He walked toward it and he opened the door to see the serene display of his study in the dim twilight. He stepped through and heard the door shut behind him, and then opened it back up to see the hallway that he would always see when he opened this door. The corridor that led to the entryway of his home and then outside to the patio. That led deeper in to the kitchen and then to the dining room with the large feasting table. Hector sat down and stared at the first gem, sitting on his desk in the orange sunlight. He picked it up and set it down and decided to label it, for future reference.
\t"That place...however terrifying had some sort of presence that i'd like to experience again. Perhaps it had a very homely feeling, without that beast there i'm sure it can't be so harrowing anymore. Hmm." hector mused.
\tHe took out a piece of parchemnt and got a quill and ink, and started scratching something across the surface of it. When he was finished the parchment read across it in large letters: Atral Sanctuary. He was confident that this place on the other side of reality was once a place people went to seek help and guidance. An oasis of knowledge and healing, versus the pit of oblivion and death it seemed to be when he arrived.
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