The Balance

As they rode in the carriage the Avatar of Empathy was panicked, she grabbed both Renae and Sparrow by the head putting them in a dream like state. She was now speaking to them telepathically as a means to form an image in their minds so they would know what it is they had to do. "My Heralds... you are going to be completing a task for the better of your kind... in the Roots of Craven rest a Jewel... one of massive power. It is from this Jewel that the Avatars were born... it is in this Jewel that resides the power of The tree and your soon to be discovered powers... and in this Jewel rest what we the Avatars call... 'The Balance' The balance is a mystical power that keeps the avatars on equal footing of each other as each Avatar has a partner that keeps them in check... for given the chance some Avatars would abuse their power"

A vision appeared before them of a giant blue jewel hovering in the center of the forest of roots. It was always dark their, with only one moon rather then two. The Jewel would reflect the moonlight into the forest making it not seem so dark. "Now your task is to restore the Balance... or rather keep the balance in check... how you humans do this is a complete mystery too me as I am not allowed to go near the jewel or risk death, but humans can go there... and humans can restore the balance... now I have chosen you two to handle this task as I trust that you two wish to stay together for ever... so as I see it... I bring you two together again... and you keep this world that binds us all together in exchange" The avatar then removed her hands from the heads of Renae and Sparrow after her quick explanation. While in the dream world it seemed quick in reality they had already been traveling for an entire week. They would soon awake, not with full understanding of their powers but, it had indeed been given time to grow inside them and adapt to their bodies without any room for malfunction.

The carriage quickly came to an abrupt stop and then vanished in thin air leaving the two humans to fall on their behinds as Empathy landed gracefully on her feet. "Now... my Heralds... this is as far as I can go... the borderline... is here... I will wait here for you to return... but you must go into the forest... and restore its balance... as I told you..." The Avatar was quick to try and rush them off on this task, knowing it was rather rude of her to throw them into all of this without time to consider their options, or the danger for that matter. Though in the end she knew they did not have much choice, if they chose not to do it then the balance would surely kill them and all the other forms of life on Eden over time.

The carriage that Renae was placed in was rather comfortable. She knew not where they were headed but was sure she would find out soon. She saw that the avatar seemed rushed and unstable. This concerned Renae in a way that made her feel almost unwilling to do its bidding. This was not out of fear but out of not wanting it to come to fear. The gasped as Empathy grabbed her and Sparrow's heads. The dream state that she was brought to gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was dreaming while awake and by not her own thoughts. It was a bizarre occurrence. Renae payed close attention to all the visuals that were shown to her but wasn't sure about her task. What is it that they are actually supposed to do with this stone?

The carriage came to a stop and disappeared. "Ow!" Renae said as her butt hit the ground with a lout thump. "I don't understand. What exactly are we supposed to do with the stone? Do you want us to take it and protect it? Do you want us to guard it? What is it with you and not really answering any of my questions?" Renae was starting to get highly frustrated with the vague avatar. She let out a deep sigh, crossed her arms, and started to tap her foot. "Sparrow are you listening to any of this? Does anything make any sense to you? I am just completely lost." Renae turned to Sparrow hoping he could lead her in the right direction with any of this at all.

Renae too a step back from the two and looked at the huge dark forest that was in front of them. It was pitch black through and through. The trees and wildlife looked creepy and Renae wanted nothing to do with this place. Then she remembered the mention of them having powers. This thought cheered her up a bit in the sense of she feels that she now can stand a fighting chance even though she had no idea what her powers could be yet. "Sparrow...I really don't want to go in there." Her face was full of fear but she knew that they probably had no choice.

Sparrow nodded in agreement with Renae they were going to need better answers then that... or atleast a bottom line set of rules in their situation. In the end what was really going to stop them from going through with this task that endangered their current lives. "What if we don't want too" Sparrow suggested, "I do suppose we have free will in this situation don't we..." He kicked up some of the dry dirt on the ground, angry with the situation he was in. "I don't think I will be going along with this unless you give me a good reason to do it" He then began to walk off in the opposite direction.

This world afterall was no concern to him, and he had already forfeited his life. While he did regret it, and he did want to go back to how things use to be with Renae there was just no way he could recover. Just like that everything was fine.. and now he and Renae would have to go save a world that had brought them back together on a whim. He turned back around for a moment and pondered the thought to see if he could truly make sense of it. Then he looked at Renae in her confusion, with that in mind he had formed a bottom line for himself.

"She needs me as much as I need her" He scoffed in his head, angry that he realized he not only needed to be there for her but if what the Avatar said was accurate... if they did not he and her would not be able to support each other for long. He turned around as several large gusts of wind blew by violently blowing his hair to the left. "You said you would remain here waiting for us to return right..." He then walked across the border and held his hand out to Renae, "Come on... if anything it can't hurt to try... we already died once... and we will always have each other" He tried to let out a reassuring smile, but it was more so awkward then anything.

Renae scoffed at pretty much everything at this point. The one thing she hated more than anything was being confused. She looked at Sparrow then back at the forest and then back at Sparrow. "Ladies first she said teasingly." She hoped her sad attempt at humor would lighten her spirits but it did not. She walked with Sparrow into the blinding darkness. They walked for a couple of minutes, it couldn't have been more than two. Renae looked back and she couldn't see where they had entered. There was no light, there was no avatar, only forest.

"So where do you think we should even go?" Renae looked around trying to see if she could at least tell which direction they were headed, but it did her no help. The sounds around her started to get louder. She didn't see any immediate threats but that didn't mean that they were not around. "How are we supposed to find this stone or whatever, I mean if these 'avatars' never come in here then how do they even know if it is still there or even existed in the first place?" Renae was more than just pessimistic. All of her thinking and talking made her lose concentration on where she was going and she tripped over a large root and fell into Sparrows arms. She tried to stand up on her own but her ankle was now in pain. There was a large scratch on the heel of her foot. "Just my luck." Renae took a deep breath and tried to calm down a bit. Normally she wasn't this feisty and only got this way when she was really nervous.

Sparrow grunted loudly as Renae landed on him. He held onto her anyway as it was important that they stuck together through the forest of Roots. As he dug through dead root after dead root being careful with his footing in each step he began to see a light straight in front of him. He became a little careless with his footing anxious to get closer to the light, tripping on the roots a few times but catching himself. He was holding Renae's hand as they dashed through the forest towards the light, but a look of disappointment met his face once he made it to a clearing. He saw several sleeping panthers with luminescent striped patterns on their backs. One of them was overweight; another was too extremely famished. A good number of them were bruised and battered, and some were even missing limbs

He glanced back at Renae not speaking he lifted a single finger and whispered "Shhhh" An obnoxiously loud snore echoed through the roots resonating in the ancient woods. The abrupt noise startled its producer into consciousness, and two giant blue eyes opened up looking down at the pack of panthers. It was shaken from his not-so-peaceful slumber only to topple a dozen feet onto the unyielding ground from the tree branch he'd scrambled up to some rest in. The vaguely groggy panther didn't bother to try and muffle his movement as one giant paw after another touched the ground moving away from the other creatures of its kin, knowing the snapping of several branches against his tough glossy fur during his descent had most likely alerted them to his awakening. Issuing a groan and lamenting that he had to fall in the one place of the forest floor that wasn't covered by moss; he scrunched up his nose in distaste at a pile of panther dung that lay nearby and rolled over in the opposite direction, onto his stomach, using his paws for support.

Sparrow sat and observed the beast, its towering size was way larger than the other panthers, this at least confirmed to him that they were indeed not on earth anymore. He was nervous for sure as the snap of a twig or a sneeze could alert all of the creatures to his position. His eyes widened as he figured it would be easier to go around the creatures... but it would also be easier to get lost rather than try to run through them. The light that came from their markings would surely make it so if they tried to run through the middle of the pack they would without a doubt be seen. Slowly and carefully he looked back to Renae hoping she had some bright ideas.

The large panthers excited Renae. She loved to see big felines, however she never thought that she would come face to face with one in this kind of situation. She noticed Sparrow looking at her with a puzzling face. "Well don't look at me." She whispered to him ever so silently. She thought it inconsiderate of him to look to her. He was supposed to be the man of the house and yet he looks to her to save their butts from giant sleeping kitties. Renae grabbed Sparrow's arm and pulled him behind one of the large roots so that they could have some sort of quiet communication. "We have to get around them some how. Do you think we could just make a wide circle around the pack?" She thought a moment to herself, "Well...maybe that is too risky...but we can't just walk through them either..Walking around seems like our best bet, right?" Renae was in a panic as she was whispering out her plan. "Let's just go for it."

Renae tugged on Sparrow and motioned for him to lead the way. They were going around the pack. Renae was slightly side tracked. She couldn't help but watch the giant panthers as they twitched and growled in their sleep. They might have been terrifying in size and probably more so if they were awake, but they slept like baby kittens. Not paying attention to what she was doing, Renae slipped on a root that was wet with something. It kind of made a squeaking noise. She paused everything that she was doing and made Sparrow stop as well. Hopefully the noise did not awaken any thing.

Sparrow nodded to her suggestion about going around the pack but he was worried of the consequences that followed that action. He was careful as he led Renae the longest way around the roots, careful to make sure he was mapping his footing in his mind. Rather than walk in a circle he actually walked in a perfect square turning at what he perceived to be perfect angles. He tipped toed his way around careful not to step on any twigs or sticks once more.

An owl could be heard in the distance as it made a classic hoot sound. Its eyes shined in the dark, as it locked on to Renae and Sparrow as they moved. It quickly turned its attention to another panther that was not far from them. It seemed small from a distance, but as it swooped down in an attempt to grab one of the panthers in the distance it was proven to be much bigger then it let on. It swallowed the panther whole, and then went back to its roosting spot and locked back on to Renae and Sparrow. It let loose another hoot, as its eyes trailed them.

One of the Panthers looked up and walked over the alpha, with a sense of depression in its voice it sighed. "Sir... the owl struck again... this time it took one of our own whole with no remorse..." The panther's words were loud and clear but not loud enough to wake his pack. The Alpha let out a sigh... "There is nothing we can really do... we are trapped in this labyrinth of thorns... our only hope is to kill it but with its ability of flight we stand no real chance." The Panther let loose a tear as they were actually extremely desperate to get out of the roots.

As Sparrow made his way around the Panther nest, he noticed the owl's eyes looking down at him. He did his best to simply ignore it but after seeing it swoop down and then swallow a panther whole, he became nervous imagining himself or Renae to be next on the beast menu.

Renae was stunned when the owl, a creature she knew to be small and feed on rats and other small things, swooped down to eat an entire panther whole. When she heard voices her eyes gaped wide open and looked to see who spoke. It was the panthers. She heard part of the conversation. "Poor panthers...they just lost their friend..." Genuinely saddened by the idea of it, Renae wanted to see if she could help them all find their way out of the roots. Then it dawned on her.. "They can talk?? Sparrow we can't just leave them here..I don't think they are in the mood to just eat us..." She walked a bit closer to them but keeping a far enough distance that she wouldn't be easily seen or heard quite yet. "If we can attempt to help them then we might make new allies or they could at least give us some helpful advice perhaps." Renae looked over at Sparrow. "It could possibly be easy. We haven't been walking to terribly long..they could just sniff out our scent and follow it out right?" Renae was convinced. She continued her way to the pack a little bit more and called out to them. "Excuse me? Don't be alarmed! I saw what just happened to your friend. I think we may be able to help you escape from this place?" Renae was shaking with fear. She didn't think that they would give up a plan to perhaps get them out, but wild animals would also do anything for an easy food target. All she kept repeating in her mind was, Please don't eat me, Please don't eat me.

Sparrow had wanted to stop her from jumping into the frey, but he was not fast enough, so he instead ended up following her. He stood behind her as she hesitantly approached the pack leader. He was trembling at the size of the beast but his feet were planted firmly and his face was solid with no emotion in it what so ever. He had decided to let Renae do the talking since it was her idea, and he personally felt a girl seeking help would form a bit more sympathy from the beast rather then a male's approach.

The Panther's hearing the skiddish girls voice quickly turned around to see the two humans standing there. The smaller panther quickly jumped down and let out a frightening roar as the other Panthers awoke from their slumber, and began to mobilize towards the location. Soon the two were surrounded and as one of the Panthers was about to pounce from hunger the alpha spoke in a loud and stern voice. "STOP" The smaller Panthers all backed away as the Alpha walked through the crowds towering over all of the smaller beast. "Tell us girl... you know the way out of the forest!" He leaned his head down to look the girl in the eyes as his nostril created a suction that nearly pulled the two from the ground.

Sparrow could not help but facepalm the instant they were surrounded but he instantly put up his fist in a fighting like manner. As the Alpha approached them he slow put his fist down and was almost paralyzed with fear as there was no way he could fight such a beast with his bare hands. When it spoke he let out a sigh of relief feeling as if there was a chance he could live through all of this.

Renae froze with shear terror as the pack of over sized panthers surrounded her. She clenched her eyes shut before she heard a huge roaring sound coming from the leader. She was quick to hide behind Sparrow though she knew he wouldn't be able to protect her in this situation. Renae peeked her head from behind Sparrow's broad shoulder and cleared her throat. "I have an idea to help you...but only if you agree to attempt to help us first." She slowly stepped out from behind Sparrow and raised her head high to look in the Alpha's face. "We are looking for the Jewel. There is only one and it is powerful and is what keeps the balance of this world. We are trying to get to it to secure the balance. We have never been here before so we need your help. If you agree to help us then we will help you get out of these roots."

At this moment, Renae's heart started to beat very hard and it felt as if it were going to burst out of her chest. She wasn't actually sure if her plan to help them would work. She wasn't even sure if she and Sparrow would be able to escape the roots either. Nothing seemed like it was in their best favor so far. Renae was determined that everyone's best bet was to help each other and stay alive. Survival was the main important thing here, without it everything else would be futile. "If...If we it turns out that we cannot help you out of the roots....then .... I suppose you could be free to do with us as you will." Renae almost immediately regretted what she had just said. She knew she could sometimes have a big mouth, but she felt she didn't have much other choice than that.

Renae quickly turned to Sparrow and smacked her forehead with her palm and whispered to him, "God, that was probably a mistake wasn't it...Please tell me in all this time of quiet you have come up with some great plan to back me up on this. We probably can't get to the whatever we are going after without help of something that knows some of these lands..." Renae was panicked and was starting to break a sweat. She just wanted to help them and get help in return. Sometimes she wished she didn't care so much about others and then she probably wouldn't have even been put in this situation.

The Alpha Panther began to grin, but it had a toothy appearance to it, he took his right paw and began batting away at his head in attempt to scratch something away that had been annoying his fur. He how ever did not lose sight of the two brave humans in front of him. "You want to find the jewel... kill the owl... the owl is the guardian of the jewel and will devour those who get close to it" The Panther scowled, "You Humans must be the Champions of Empathy..." He began to let out a purring sound as the thought amused him. "The Avatar lost faith in her Heralds... so I suppose she sent you in to finish the job..." Turning his back on the humans he began to walk away his tail swaying back in forth with a whip like motion. "Follow me... I will take you to the jewel...”

Sparrow was at first pretty calmed to see that everything in terms of negotiations was moving smoothly. When Renae offered their lives to the beast however he could not help but feel a tad vulnerable. That was indeed not the best thing to say and Sparrow could not see any good reason in her saying it. He began to grind his teeth as the panther explained things. When Renae asked him to come up with a better solution he simply shrugged in silence as he was realizing her couldn't come up with anything better. He then began to follow behind the panther as it lead them through the forest, he did notice that the panther was not leading them in a straight line so that had made him nervous in terms of them finding a way out of the forest. A thought occurred to him and he was hesitant to ask but he went ahead and did so anyway. "Panther... I am Sparrow... for the sake of making this task successful I would like to know... can you track things by scent" Sparrow had formed a small plan in his head, not only on how to take down the owl but to also get them out of the forest. If the panther was capable of smelling them, then it would be possible for one of them to head towards the exit and one of them to follow the panther this way when the task was complete with the jewel they would be able to escape while Sparrow still new the way out of the roots.

The Panther scoffed, "Yes human... we can smell you... but not those of our own pack... we have the same scent..." Sparrow nodded, "I know the way out... would it be safe to say that while you and Renae here track the jewel I could lead the others of your pack out of the roots and then you and her find a way out by tracking my scent" The Alpha nodded rather enjoying the idea as his pack was weak and hungry, most of them were of no use to him. He motioned for his stronger pack members to follow him and then let out a roar that alerted the others to follow Sparrow.

Sparrow looked to Renae smiling, "all you have to do is help restore the balance... I am sure you can do it and if it takes too long once I get the panthers out I will come back and look for you" He did not hesitate in his words as he was confident in his plan.

Renae was relieved when she heard the Alpha wanting to help them. However, killing an owl that swooped down and ate one of the panthers whole was not on her to do list. She started to follow alongside the leader and confirmed that they indeed were heralds of Empathy. Renae thought for a moment. Maybe this task they were being sent on was a lot harder than they had realized if others have attempted it before.

Renae continued to walk alongside her new guide and introduced herself along with Sparrow, "My name is Renae by the way or you can call me Ren for short." She continued to listen to Sparrow and the ideas that he was coming up with. The idea of the tracking was a smart idea. Ren was following and agreeing with all that was mentioned until Sparrow spoke of leaving her. "Wait what do you mean you are leaving me? We are supposed to be in this together. I can't do this without you! I have no idea how to do any of this!" Renae continued to yell at Sparrow and tears started to fall down her face. She was just reunited with him and she couldn't bare the thought of losing him again. Especially, losing him in something like this that is filled with danger. "You can't possibly think I can restore balance, by myself, to a world that I hardly know."

Renae ran to stand right in front of Sparrow. "Please don't leave me alone out here. I love you so much and I am scared." She took hold of his hands but could see in his face that he was confident and would not change his mind so easily. She leaned up on her toes and kissed him hardly and passionately in the mouth. Then she threw his hands down and turned around and stormed off in the direction of the Alpha and yelled back at Sparrow, "Fine, you do what you want and I will do OUR job by myself and restore balance." One can hear the hurt in her voice. She tried her best to cover her sadness and change it to anger but she was sure it wasn't seen that way.

The Panther nodded as this was indeed a equal and fair benefit to both parties leaving room and insurance for them both. It then continued to lead the way as its three elite Panthers followed "Rest assured I know exactly where we are going" One of the elite Panthers had dived underneath Renae's legs and allowed her to ride him, being more friendly than before now that they had been established as allies. He had a slight limp to his walk but this did not stop the beast from attempting to carry her to their destination. A toothy grin was exposed on his face as his tail swayed back and fourth in a more friendly loving matter.

As they were heading towards the jewel Sparrow had been leading the other Panthers outside of the roots, he had followed his straight path finding a few twigs that he had stepped on before and new exactly where he was going confident in his ability. The downside to this is that he walked like a robot to ensure that he was walking perfectly straight ahead. The Panthers observed this behavior with curiosity and a slight sense of fear, not exactly understanding his methods. They came closer and closer to the clearing and Sparrow seeing the exit in the distance took off running towards it. The Panthers that could keep up followed his speed and soon they all saw it as well and dashed ahead of him towards their freedom from the wooden prison.

As Renae and the Alpha were making their way a loud hoot could be heard as the owl zoomed in on them once more. It carefully hopped from root to root looking down on its prey carefully analyzing them to to pick out who would be the easiest to snatch up. Spotting Renae the beast waited for a few moments as they moved out into a easier to maneuver area. The Owl let out a shriek before diving down and letting its talons come down on the Panther and Renae in an attempt to rip them to shreds.

The owl having lost its sense of feeling had let them go and lost control of its wings right away. It quickly plummeted to the ground having lost all of its control. It began to let out sad pitiful noises as it had no idea what was going on. It hand landed it what seemed to be a swamp like area covered in mud and leeches as it flailed around trying to gain control of its body back.

As the panther and Renae fell back to the earth, the panther managed to get underneath her and land gracefully as if he caught her in mid air. He jumped from root to root to get them safely back to the ground. As they made there way back to their pack the alpha grinned to see they had made it safely. "So you took care of the owl" The panther said pleasingly, as they kept moving forward. Eventually they came across a clearing with nothing but dirt in a spiral pattern. The roots in the Area looked like they had been abnormally removed as the dirt spiral was a perfect circle with a hole in the center. The Panther that Renae had been riding stopped in its tracks no even daring to step on the sand.

Renae looked at the dirt spiral and then back to the Alpha. "Is this where the jewel is?" She hopped off the panther she rode on and scanned the area. She was hesitant to step foot into the area. "Is it safe?" Renae had obviously never been here before so she wasn't sure what the hold up was. No matter what they were stopping for, she knew she had to find the jewel regardless of the dangers so she took a step closer to the middle of the spiral, but the panthers did not follow her. "Don't tell me you all are just big scaredy cats." Renae approached the whole in the middle but didn't look down into it quite yet.

The Alpha quickly jumped in front of her and blocked her path. "Wait..." The beast then took a deep breath, and leaned closer towards the sand and breath on it, as all of the sand blew away and it revealed a crystal embedded in the ground. It was relatively big. It was big enough for one person to make a house out of it as it was completely transparent while having a dark green and blue light to it that filled the area. "This is the crystal... do not step on it or its power could make you mad" The panther then nudged her in the direction of several dead panthers, one of which was giant similar to how the alpha had been. They were all dead indicating that the panthers had a falling out and had to kill one another to survive. Sides were taken and the side that chose to use the crystals power had all died, from its corruption.

The light had managed to light the entire area, and seeing it Sparrow had began to dash his way to it into the roots to find Renae as things had been taking too long at this point. It would take him a while to get there but he was on his way moving through the forest.

Renae jumped back stayed with her panther companions. The light emitting from the crystal was gorgeous and at the same time was too much to take in. The jewel itself was enormous. Renae wondered how they were to get the stone for Empathy as they were ordered. Perhaps they were missing some sort of plan that the avatar had in mind for it. "What kind of power does this thing have? ....Maybe a better question could be what are the consequences of using it other than the users dying?" Clearly this stone had to play a big part in their surrounding or else she and Sparrow wouldn't have been there now. Just as the thought of Sparrow entered into Renae's mind, he showed up behind her. Renae embraced him tightly and didn't want to let go. There was quite a few things that she wanted to tell him about, including her newly obtained, questionable, powers. "Sparrow...what do you suppose we do here. We can't touch it or else we could go mad and we surely can't move it due to its size." Renae thought to herself what Empathy could have possibly wanted them to do at this point but nothing came to mind. Renae was stumped.

The stone's glow slowly died down as darker energy surrounded it. A cloud of dark sand began to cover the immediate area and took form. It then began to suck the light out of the crystal as its energy rapidly decreased. As the energy went into the sand the being became more clear, albeit still broken and distorted as it tried to form words. The sand then picked up the bodies of the dead panthers and the skin and bone of the panthers all turned to dust right away.

The panthers upon seeing this quickly grabbed Renae and pulled her to safety, they had done the same for Sparrow as the sand attempted to pull all of the other in as well. They climbed to higher ground climbing the roots of the tree to get away, this would prove fruitless as the sand would eat away at the trees as well destroying them, The panthers would hop from root to root to keep up with the destruction of the area slowly becoming lost as they had done before. in their attempt at survival.

Sparrow seeing the sand for the first time instantly took a battle stance, but he was then picked up by a Panther and taken off to safety much to his displeasure, it was distracting to him as he wanted to figure out what he was suppose to do in the first place. He had finally made his way to the jewel, only to taken away from it soon after, and even then he still hadn't know what to do with the crystal in the first place. Angry at the situation he became reckless jumping off the panther and into the roots once more, he kept his distance from the sand, but had managed to land on the crystal. Upon doing so, his skin instantly formed a metal casing around his body, that had protected him. It was different for sure but it indeed happened, feeling as if nothing could do him harm at that point he jumped into the sand looking for the source of it going wild and destroying everything.

Renae was startled by the sand turning dark. She became somewhat light headed at the sight of the dead panthers' bodies just vanishing into dust. Renae gladly rode on the panther into a safer area. She saw that Sparrow had gotten off of his beast and ran back to the mysterious area. "What are you doing?!" Sparrow was always so reckless with all of his movements. He never did really stop to think of the consequences for anything brash he would do. His skin turned to metal and Renae saw this. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped open. She got off the panther she was riding but stood next to him in order to stay safe. Sparrow started to destroy everything in his path as he was searching for something. Renae wasn't sure what he was doing exactly but she didn't want to stand in his way. She called out to him, "Sparrow what are you doing?" At this point she was scared of him. The crystal seemed to glow brighter the closer he got to it. It was as if the power of the crystal awakened a power in him that caused the metal casing around him, much like her ability to take away senses from things. Renae wondered if the crystal was the true source of this power and if it did, then what does the crystal and the tree of life have in common.

After punching in what felt likee the dark, Sparrow had finally manged to see a solid figure in the sand, it was human like to an extent. He ran up to the being and punched him with all of power only to get his hand stuck inside of the being. "What is this" He grunted with each word trying to pull himself free. Upon further inspection he had realized that sand and dirt were climbing up his arm. It would soon travel all around his body and encase him, leaving him trapped. The being then whispered into the sand, as it formed an enchantment around it. Words could be seen carved into the sand as it hardened into stone. "The death of Pride only means that you will let everything go... without pride you all stand for nothing... you do not stand... you fall... as you all will fall" The sand then abruptly stopped, and all that remained was Sparrow, encased in stone, he incidentally had not made it very far from the jewel as upon further inspection it was bigger then originally thought.

Renae was about to run out to Sparrow to help him in the miniature battle. She wanted to run out to him to try and save him from the sand but the panthers stopped her and warned her of the danger. A single tear ran down her face as her love was entrapped in stone. The enemy vanished without much of any words that were useful to her. She did hear it speak, but it made no sense to her.

When all of the sand left and things were back to being calm, the panthers let Renae go to Sparrow. She beat her fists on the rock in an attempt to break it, but it failed. "Come help me get him out of this rock." The panthers ran up to her aid and pushed the rock over. Part of it had cracked off. Renae could see a bit of Sparrow. They leaned the rock upright again and then pushed it down again. The rock cracked some more and split in multiple places. Sparrow was covered in dirt and rock crumbles. She grabbed his arm and pulled him up from the ground. He was still in his metal armored skin so he wasn't hurt that bad.

Relieved to see him again, Renae hugged Sparrow even though his metal skin was cold to the touch. "We need to break the crystal. Do you think you can do it in this form?"

As sparrow was being tossed around in the stone he could feel himself being pushed up and down. He was slightly angry at the thought and the moment he felt the stone had loosened enough he forced himself free, this was impossible without the Panthers and Renae's help of course. He quickly looked around for the sand being that he was fighting before but seeing he was gone now he dismissed it entirely. He was not one for fighting, but if his life was in danger he would not hesitate to put an end to what ever was threatening him.

Sparrow gave her a stern look as breaking the crystal didn't sound like too good of an idea to him. Though the more he thought about it the best he idea he could come up with was to make it so no one could use it. He looked at his now metal fist and tapped them together to hear a loud metallic ringing sound. "Maybe I can... can't hurt to try" He then began to concentrate as he added layers to his metal skin, his fist began to increase in size and mass and eventually a single metal spike formed around his fist. He was amazed at his ability at first, but this amazement was soon replaced with an energetic grin.

He took a running start and lept into the air, he aimed his fist down as he would attempt to come down on the jewel. He landed with a large force, but he simply scratch the surface, hurting himself more then anything. He was however quick to jump back up and try again, and on his second attempt he had managed to crack it. Seeing that he made progress he began to start repeatedly punching the jewel the cracks growing wider and deeper with each punch. He jumped once more and landed on his fist going into the jewel, and with this blow it shattered, leaving a huge crater where the jewel once was. When it shattered it appeared as if the jewel evaporated into thin air.