Hell's Secrets

It wasn't long they'd been walking that they came upon a tower. It seemed tall enough to touch the moon, and within glowed soft candlelight.
"Well, creepy but it's a start. Come on." He grabbed Winter's hand and they approached the tower. It was starting to crumble but it looked structurly sound. It was simple cobblestone, but it seemed like more. Somehow, though he couldn't put his finger on it, Eli could feel an essence surrounding the tower. Their wasn't a door. They stepped into a round room, it was mostly empty, only a spiral staircase leading upward.
"Hello?" Eli's voice echoed upward off the aging stone. No reply.
"It's your call, up the stairs, or out the door."
 
"Lets go up to the top to see if we can get a vantage point of our surroundings." Winter affirmed "Maybe then we won't feel so lost..." She began up the stairs and with high hopes. "At ;east it's not as dark as the forest looked. Fires a thing here." She giggled at the thought of the name again "Haha. Hell with no fire."
 
"You're a nerd, you know that?" Eli grinned. He walked upward with Winter. When they reached the top, Eli stopped dead in his tracks, all color faded from him and his once calm eyes became wild with fear.
"What the hell is that?"
 
Winter looked in the direction Eli was staring in horror at something she couldn't see. She leaned forward a bit to see and her heart sank. "Shhh." she whispered to him.
something misshapen sat huddled in the corner of the top room of the tower which they just stepped to. It was breathing raggedly and was facing the wall. It didn't seem to have noticed them.
"Back away slowly Eli." She tried to say loud enough for him to hear but found it hard to make words out of fear of getting the creatures attention.
Then she thought to herself, We couldn't have been THAT quiet on the way up here... Maybe it's friendly.
"H-Hello there. I'm sorry to intrude on you like this and I'm very sorry if this is your tower, but we're new here and we don't know were anything is. Could you help us?" She stood her ground and waited for a response, but all she got was more ragged breathing. "Are you ok? Do you need help?" She asked it instead.
Suddenly the creature began to stand. As it extended its limbs it sounded like everything cracked. Like it had been sitting there for hours, maybe even days. Wings unfolded from its dark form and long arms with claws at the end extended out and popped. It grew from a small pile on the floor into a tall, lanky mass that looked ready to take flight. It turned to us and all Winter could see its big red eyes against its shadowed body and its yellowed teeth as it started to snarl at them.
"I-I'm-I'm so-sorry. I just-" She stammered as she tried not to break eye contact with the creature.
It stared at them and waited for them to move.
 
"Keep talking, keep talking! It listened." Eli was full of fear but once again he couldn't shake a smile.
"I think it understands." The creature wobbled a bit and to a step closer, they were just now realizing how tall it was. Eli could only think of a griffin by it's stance but no, it was different.
"Keep...tal..king." It was a shriek that startled both of them.
"No. WAY! It's learning, Win, we can teach it.
"Lear..ning. Tee- teach."
 
Winter looked at Eli scared. "Do you really think this is the kind of thing we should be teaching how to talk? It's growling at us for crying out loud!" She gave him a worried look and then turned her attention to the creature which had taken another step forward. It looked at Eli and said "Do you... really.. th-think.." It spread its wings as it tried to pronounce the words it was copying. Winter glanced at Eli and back to the creature "Yes. Think. That's right. Name. My name is Winter." she started.
 
"Winn-ter," the creature squawked.
"Yes, yes, and I'm Eli," Eli added, curbing his enthusiasm. He took a moment to get out his notebook and began recording.
"Eliii. Winter, Eli.. I-i aaaam.. I amm"
"Yes! Who are you?" Eli was writing a mile a minute.
 
(sorry it's taking so long, Alya called me about Charlie lol.)

Winter watched the creature eye them both cautiously as it tried to form the words it was looking for.
"R-Rathious. I-i am Rathious." He stretched out his wings fully and stared down at the humans waiting for them to run or fight.
"Rathious...?" Winter looked to Eli. She didn't know what to do. Rathious was obviously not trying to hurt them, but nor could she outright trust he won't try.
"Hello Rathious. May I ask what you're doing here?" She asked making a hand gesture to the creepy building in hopes he would understand. I don't know why I'm asking. He's creepy. The buildings creepy. They were meant for each other...
 
"I came here... from- away. Here. To sleep. Why have you c-come?"
"We found a book. There was a, a spell or something. And a deer- guy thing. And now we're stuck here, but it's kind of okay, you know, cuz this place is cool, but we'll probably get attacked or something, so is there a way to get back do you know," Eli just kept on jabbering not really sure how to be succinct. He was writing everything, sweating and shaking.
 
(Sorry it took so long, had to switch to my phone. Their new internet is crap.)

"Slow down Eli. He can't keep up." The creature looked frustrated as Eli kept talking becauae he coulnd't understand everything.
"I'll talk to him, you can write. Rathious, are you hurt?" she asked him in hopes of appealing to his better nature if he has one.
 
"Not. Hurt. Simply. Tired. Tired. Running. Tired. Hungry." Eli stopped writing. That sounded... strange.
"Hungry! Hungry!" Rathious shouted and he reared up. Eli dropped his notebook and rushed to Winter.
"this is bad, this is bad, bad bad bad. Ummmm. Run!" Eli grabbed Winter's arm and ran to the staircase. Rathious galloped after them. They bolted out of the tower onto the road, the creature close behind. At that moment. Eli caught his foot on a root and sent the two tumbling to the ground. Rathious reached the and bared large fangs and prepared to attack. Eli threw up his hand, "Please, stop!" ... and he did. Rathious became totally calm, laid down, and looked at them.
"Wait, what? He... listened?"
 
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