Greyson and Orvar moved silently through the passageways surrounded by a silence that felt nothing but unsettling.
"It's a little strange that there's no movement down here," Greyson murmured as Orvar huffed in agreement, "This would also be a fuck ton easier if we could mind link."
Orvar rumbled in reply and carried on padding forwards.
There had been barely any doors that they had passed as they pressed onwards and the ones that they had, had led to storerooms with nothing but jars and amphora's in various states. Greyson was beginning to think that they should have gone the direction that he had originally wanted to.
As they approached yet another fork in the path with one branching off sharply to the right and seemingly descending downwards, Orvar froze, a low growl rumbling from his chest.
"What is it boy?" Greyson said without thinking as he hurried to his side and stared into the darkness in front of them.
Orvar turned and snapped in irritation at him and Greyson grimaced.
"Sorry…it kinda slipped out." He shrugged, "I grew up with wolves as pets…it's nothing personal…never mind…" He trailed off, feeling as though he was only making the situation worse.
Greyson scented the air carefully and sure enough, there was the faintest trace of Lexi's scent down the ominously dark and roughly hewn corridor in front of them.
They continued down the corridor in silence, their footsteps cautious and both of them hyper aware of their surroundings as a myriad of scents began to intermingle with Lexi's.
Orvar and Greyson froze at the same time as a metallic scent rippled amongst the others, mixed heavily with Lexi's scent and Greyson felt panic seize his heart.
"Do you smell that?" He murmured as Orvar's lips peeled back in a silent snarl.
The scent of Lexi's blood was incredibly strong here and both Greyson and Orvar pressed forwards at a quicker pace, the trail leading to a heavy wooden door that was bolted and locked with a heavy padlock.
Without a second thought Orvar launched himself at the door, a furious snarl tearing from his throat as he threw himself with all his might at the door, but he was thrown backwards as soon as he made contact with the door, hitting the stone wall on the opposite side of the cavern with a sickening crunch and a yelp of pain as he fell to the floor twitching.
"What the fuck..." Greyson breathed as he rushed over to where Orvar laid on his side, emitting a pitiful whine that only made Greyson more furious than he already was.
He couldn't see any obvious injuries, but the flash of light as he connected with the door gave him reasonable suspicion that, of course, magick was involved.
He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. They should have expected this, especially as it was Narcissa that had taken her, but he couldn't bring himself to blame Orvar. They acted on their base instincts and when it came to their mates they would gladly give their lives protecting them…it was what they did.
But neither of them were going to die today…not if he had anything to do with it. His face hardened as he turned to face the heavy door resolutely.
Orvar was out of action for now and there really wasn't a lot that Greyson could do for him as he was, but if he could find a way through this door and reach Lexi on the other side…then maybe she would be able to bring him out of whatever magick afflicted him.
"Lexi?" He shouted tentatively through the door, careful not to make contact with it as he waited for an answer with his heart racing chaotically in his chest.
He tried again, a little louder this time but the only answer he received was silence.
Orvar's pained whines and the scent of Lexi's blood were making it hard to think clearly and the only option that Greyson could see was the heavy padlock that hung on the doors bolts.
If he could get that off then he would be able to get in there easily, but he didn't want to risk touching it himself.
He squatted down and ran his fingers along the rough surface of the cavern. His eyesight wasn't anywhere near as good as Orvar's would have been in the dark, but he wasn't entirely helpless.
After a few moments of searching along the floor and along the edges around the walls, he found a few loose shards of rock and a small shard of some sort of wood.
He picked them up and made his way back to the lock, contemplating how he was going to test this. After a few moments he decided the lock was the best course of action, if the stone wasn't reactive then in theory he could break the lock off if his skin didn't make contact with the area that was spelled.
If it was the wood itself that wasn't reactive then…well…he would have to venture further in and find a larger piece of the material to work with.
He glanced back at Orvar who had stopped his twitching and whining, and now seemed to be sleeping soundly and frowned. This was going to be a lot harder with two to rescue.
Carefully, he tossed the wood against the rusted surface of the lock, and it shot backwards, narrowly missing Orvar as it ricocheted off the wall and fell to the floor with a faint plume of smoke coiling from the now blackened edges.
Greyson frowned as he turned back to the lock, readying himself to toss the stone against it but pausing and deciding that perhaps he should move Orvar out of harm's way, just in case the stone reacted and hit him, injuring him further. Anything solid and moving at that speed had the potential for causing serious damage and he didn't want that.
"Sorry my dude…it's not very dignified but I doubt you give a shit about that right now. I'd rather you didn't bleed all over the floor too." He murmured to himself as he dragged Orvar across the floor by his front legs, and laid him at the side of the door, hopefully out of reach of any projectiles ricocheting off the cavern walls.
A distant sound of shrieking and squeaking drifted towards him from the direction that they had not yet ventured down and Greyson scowled into the darkness beyond.
Knowing that he didn't have much time, he steeled himself for the reaction and launched a stone with precision at the lock.
His heart fell as it too ricocheted off the lock, onto the wall opposite and clattered across the floor.
He swore internally and glanced down at Orvar, who still showed no sign of movement. Greyson had two options, either take Orvar with him as he carried on exploring, or he could retrace his steps and hide him in a storage area and hope that no one came across him whilst he looked for a way to get through this door.
The shrieking and squealing that had seemed so distant only a few moments earlier had somehow gotten much louder and as Greyson lifted his head, countless tiny gleaming orbs stared back at him from tiny, misshapen bodies, that surrounded a singular, tall figure stood in their midst.
"So glad that you could join us," Narcissa simpered, "Unfortunately…I don't think you'll be staying long."