Tyna crashed into a pillar, feeling the stone crack from the impact. She flopped onto the ground, and just rested there, watching the Redsmoke Dangerbear pace, eyeing her. A part of her wanted to give up immediately. That didn’t feel good and if it wasn’t for the auric layer she layered over her body, that could have broken a rib.

Slowly, she got up, holding her back, picking up a sword as she did so. This fight would require a free hand for magic.

“You’re pretty strong. Pretty big. Honestly, very pretty overall.” She admired the beast’s red fur that flickered and fluttered with the smoke that washed over it from its nostrils. “I’d hate to kill such a gorgeous beast such as you.”

The Bear shivered its unique shiver once more before its body burst into crimson smoke — it roared throughout the room, twisting and igniting with flame. Tyna thrust out her palm and it lit up with emerald hues. As the smoke pillar charged her, she called upon the stone floor before her to change shape and rise, creating a wall that the smoke rammed into, spilling out on either side.

That, of course, wasn’t the end. She spun around as the smoke coalesced and reformed, intending to strike her from behind.

Her right-handed sword was that of a brilliant blizzard. The cold steel sliced the air and burst with light. From that light came a roaring snow storm that surged forward, engulfing the fiery smoke.

The opposite corner of the room, and a trail leading to it, was nothing but ice and snow now, the sudden chill crystallizing and crackling in the sudden silence. Tyna exhaled, her breath even more visible now, her eyes traveling to her fallen left-handed sword in the distance. And, of course, the smoke reappeared from the right, reforming back into the Bear. Though, now, it appeared to be slower and less certain of a battle.

Tyna wielded her one blade, believing it would be enough to bring down the massive, ancient beast. A part of her almost felt bad for bringing harm to it — though, she planned to do the same to plenty of other ancient beasts that existed in the heavens.

Of course, she got full of herself, as was her awful habit whenever a fight was going her way. She energized the magic within her cold steel and charged the creature. It seemed the Bear was much smarter than it let on, however, shifting from its harmed, weak demeanor to one of aggression. It charged her, turning to hot smoke when she struck, roaring all around her. Her lungs burned from inhaling it and that’s when the creature really struck.

She felt it attack and materialize within her, threatening certain death, something clawing and burning her lungs. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe and was collapsing onto the ground. The cold floor met her face and her ears were rumbling with the roaring sound of the Bear surging throughout the cavernous room.

In the next moment, Tyna was somewhere that only existed years in the past. She was a teenage girl, suffering from scraped knees and bruised arms. Her fingers were weak to grip a sword and her lungs burned almost as much as they did where she was in the present.

She was looking up at her mentor, who had just given her a good walloping, throwing her to the dirt. The woman was everything Tyna wanted to be. Tall, strong, stylish yet practical in her armor, and she held a healthy amount of scars demonstrating that she did, in fact, persevere through the hardships.

Her mentor, Advaris, aimed the pointy end of her sword down at Tyna and her gorgeous face of cuts, scars and emerald eyed were shrouded by the bright sun behind her.

“I keep messing it up!” Tyna punched the ground in a fit of anger, unable to summon that magical force behind her attacks that Advaris kept trying to teach her. “It hurts and it makes my skin dry and I just can’t do it.”

“Then go home,” Advaris said, like she always said, whenever Tyna said she couldn’t do it. “It sounds as though my student as learned all she can and has made up her mind."

“Why won’t you ever let me complain,” Tyna said looking away. Advaris nudged the tip of her sword further, much to Tyna’s further annoyance and she glared up at the shadowed face. “I get! You win, I get it.”

“I understand that you see it. Here it is in front of you — I won. But you don’t get it. And the world will never let you forget. Neither will you.” She nudged it again and the point nearly nicked her cheek. “Here it is. Your reminder. You’re in the dirt. Cut up. Bruised to damnation. And we, and life, will stay like this,” she said, “Until you either give up and run away, or you decide what you’re going to do about the blade that reminds you of the dirt.”

Tyna hesitated. Wanted to say something snide. Wasn’t brave enough. Remained silent.

Advaris withdrew the sword then remained still. “There is no escaping the dirt, Tyna. It is inevitable to fall into it. We may escape it for a time. But at the end of our days we fall into it forever, engulfed and consumed by it.” Then, in place of a blade there was a hand. “So what will you do about it?”

Tyna returned to the present moment.

What will you do about it?

As she felt her lungs burn and tear apart, she found an inner reserve of strength for the one healing spell she knew. With a strain and a skipped heartbeat, she felt the magic surge outward, her inner reserves of it depleting, but the clean waters of health relieved some of the pain and damage and purged the bit of the Redsmoke Dangerbear that had possessed her body.

It wasn’t a lot. It still hurt and it was still difficult to breathe. But she could breathe. And she stood.

The smoke coalesced back into the physical form of the Bear that paced her and huffed, those large blood-streaked eyes glaring.

Tyna had lost her swords. She couldn’t turn her back on this creature. She had to resort to some old-fashioned tactics. With a crack of her neck, and a quick turn to spit out some blood, she raised her fists and prepared herself for the Bear to come at her once more.

“I’m not going to die in some cold, forsaken, forgotten temple,” she said. “I’m going to leave here and continue forward. So bring it on, you forsaken, forgotten beast."