The Obelisk

-Chapter 34: Part 2-

The Pego laughed and laughed and laughed, throwing his head back as he ran out of breath. “You really are stupid, aren’t you?” He gasped finally.

The carnivores turned around.

“You really think that you can go, ‘Ah well, turns out we don’t need it after all, toodles!’ And think that id say, ‘op, they don’t want it after all!’ and just toss it away? Just so that you can turn around and snatch it at the last second.” He barked another laugh, then continued on. “It might seem foreign to you: but I don’t steal because y o u want it, but because I want it! I’ve got a blue and red rune back at my burrow, and this will make a perfect addition to the collection. Nice try fellas. G’day.” He turned to waltz away.

Shocked, Forest stared open-mouthed as the Pego went, admiring his new rune. Crimson scowled and said, “please let me go kill him.”

“I really thought we were going to use that,” Spark let out an aggrieved breath.

“Me too,” Rust said.

“We should probably get out of here,” Spark said. “Before anyone tries to steal anything else. We tried, Forest.” She turned around to leave. Rust followed.

Forest sat down on his haunches, and Crimson let out an irritated huff before turning away. We let it get taken, Forest was thinking. We had a powerful object, and let it get snatched right out of our claws. By a Pego.

He hung his head low, depressed.

After a moment, he lifted his eyes to glance at the Pego walking away, before realizing it had paused.

The Pego turned his head to Forest, and looked down at the rune. He squinted thoughtfully, then shook his head and ran over.

“Don’t speak,” the Pego blurted as Forest opened his mouth to say something. “Cuss ei don’t know what I’m doing.”

“It appears, that you really do need this,” he held the glowing rock out for Forest.

“Really?” Forest asked.

“Go ahead,” he said, smiling.

Forest reached out and gently picked the rock from the Pegos small talon. It flickered strangely as it touched Forests scales.

“Maye you’ll find something useful for it,” The Pego said. “And I wish you the best of luck, mate.”

“Thankyou,” Forest whispered. He stood up, waving his tail at the Pego, who waved back cheerfully.

“Oh! And before you go,” the Pego called, “there’s a group of Shadowmanes migrating west of here. They come every middle-spring at sunhigh, and they know allll about runes. If you find em, they might be able to help you activate it.”

“Ok! Thankyou so much!!” Forest bounded away, grinning.

His friends were far ahead, waiting for Forest. Crimson looked as if she’d seen him explode.“WHAT.” She gawped.

“Did he just—“ Rust began.

“Yep!” Forest exclaimed. “And I know where we’re going next!”

“Where?” Spark asked.

“To find some Shadowmanes.”