When Aster opened his eyes, he couldn't make out anything around himself in the pitch black, but he certainly was aware of the extreme heat that already had him sweating profusely. As the human sat up with an achy groan, he began looking around, trying to find something he could discern to better orient himself on his surroundings.
After finding nothing visible a moment later, the boy had an idea, and raised his left arm. The golden light of his shield shortly illuminated the rust colored walls of the cavern, allowing the human to finally get a look around. He was inside of a large, spacious cave. The ground had odd indents, and was smoothed over, implying something large had been nesting in the sweltering hot cavern.
He found his staff laying near where he had landed, and went to retrieve it immediately, thankful it hadn't been lost. Just as he was standing back up, the human heard a strained voice speak to him from nearby.
"Good, you are still alive then." Aster turned towards the source, and found none other than Prince Tyfin himself sitting with his back against the wall, panting heavily.
"Sorry, I gave you everything I had back there, so I can't really move much right now," the lion continued in a not so steady voice. As the human recalled the events that had led them to wherever exactly they were, his face took on a gloomy expression.
"Are they always that strong? The demons? We couldn't do anything to stop it..."
The prince let out a small chuckle, despite the dire circumstances. "If they were all like that, I don't think there would be an Alora left. I've never seen or heard of anything that... Unstoppable before. Not in this age anyways. Whatever kind of demon it was, it's certainly on a level we've never faced before. The way it overcame Brutus like that... Alice..." He paused, his expression growing darker. "I don't know that we can beat it, but I think we have more pressing worries before us for the time being. I don't know what has been living in a den this size, but I don't want to be here when it comes back."
Aster couldn't agree more, so with a bit of effort, the prince was soon upright, leaning heavily against the smaller human's shoulder as the pair began to walk towards the only exit in sight. They weren't making fast progress, and the arid climate made breathing difficult enough on its own, but soon they had managed to leave the initial heart of the cavern behind as they made their advancement into the other parts of the tunnel.
Every so often, the pair had to stop to let Aster and the prince rest for a moment. Finally, the duo came to a split in their path. Aster let the prince decide on the left one, and obeyed. It wasn't like he had any more idea than the cat had as to which path led to where, after all.
A short ways ahead, a loud scream carried through the cave ahead of them. Prince Tyfin gave the human a nod and some direction, and braced his weight against the stony wall as the human hurried ahead to investigate.
He was lucky he'd arrived when he did to cast a light on the situation, as the source of the scream was already surrounded by six, two feet long scorpion-like creatures. They had two sets of claws on either side that constantly made a clacking sound as they were endlessly opened and closed, with a terribly deadly looking tail that whipped around limberly in the air. As the cornered beast threw a rock in a feeble attempt at scaring his attackers away, the creature snapped a claw forward, catching and shattering the stone as easily as glass.
The same scorpion raised its deadly tail, and struck forward. Aster threw his shield just in time to stop the attack, and illuminate the cornered prey enough to discern. The boy felt his heart sink into despair when he realized it was none other than Rust Aschefell, the small timid fox, that was cornered. The cub turned his terrified face to the human now, his eyes filled with tears of relief as he called out to his sudden beacon of light.
"Aster! PLEASE HELP ME! I don't know what's happening."
The human took a step forward and let out a sharp whistle. Two of the creatures turned from the cornered fox, and began snapping their claws towards the human. Aster obviously couldn't understand the meaning there, but he was able to comprehend the gist of it. "Our food."
The human took another step forward, and the two that had been threatening the boy started his way. Aster raised his staff in his right arm, and sliced through the first to reach him with ease. The monsters were surprisingly quick, as the other was upon him immediately after. The boy cast a new shield up to knock the creature back, and pierced through its exposed underbelly quickly. His shield flickered away, leaving the drained Aster and the fox in the darkness again, trapped with enemies he couldn't see.
Aster heard something scurrying his way, and managed a brief flash of the golden barrier to confirm what he had hoped for. All four remaining scorpions were charging the human now, deeming him the top priority and ignoring the cub it would seem. Aster forced his shield back up just in time to see an incoming sting to his left boot and sidestepped the attack, stabbing downwards through the crunchy exoskeleton. He quickly swung in an arc, connecting with another scorpion, sending it crashing into a wall with a snap where it fell a short ways to the ground lifeless.
As Aster turned back to face the final two, his shield blinked away completely, refusing to resurface with almost all of the human's strength depleted. He had survived the most terrifying demon the beast kingdom had ever crossed swords with only to be killed by exhaustion, and a couple of bugs he couldn't see. Rust let out a small shout, realizing that his hero was blinded without the soft glow.
"They're charging your left! Watch out!"
Aster could only take a leap of faith and trust the fox, swinging as widely as he could ground level on his left side. He felt his staff connect with one of the creatures, Rust letting out an excited "Yes!" as the human sliced through the darkness and the scorpion at the same time. Aster heard the final one begin snapping its claws angrily in the cavern, sending a frantic chittering sound carrying into the surrounding darkness.
"He's almost there... Almost there... NOW!"
Aster blindly swung his staff again, this time missing his mark. The boy felt something ding against the metal of his left leg's greave, and instinctively stabbed downward. The final creature died as it struck against the greave two more times in a final attempt at downing the human. Aster could only weakly try to catch his breath while he leaned on the staff, the slain scorpion still pinned beneath it. The fox started wailing as he cried in his relief.
"I- I thought you were gonna die! I thought I was gonna die," he sobbed. "I want my mom, Aster. I wanna go home. Where are we?"
The human was still panting in a failing effort to get some relief to his dry lungs as he spoke in the most gentle tone he could muster at the time. "It's ok buddy, it's ok. We are going to get you home, I promise. I need some help though, can you manage that for me? You helped me out a lot just now, so sorry to ask again, I just can't see in here."
The fox nodded through his fear, his desire to help his friend outweighing it, and realized his silly error a moment later, speaking to the blinded human instead. His voice still was hitching between sobs. "Yes S-Sir, I can try."
Aster just smiled softly, he really was a good cub.