*Click*

After pulling out the final book a loud noise resounds through the room as gears snap into place. Three of the wide bookshelves opposite the entrance of the lab open up. One opening like a door with it's back now facing the outside, while the other two fold together revealing a wide passageway. Gathering up the shadowbirds we prepare to head into the mysterious entrance. The passageway is extremely dark but seems to have enough space for six adults to walk side by side.

"It would probably best if we have three larger shadowbirds take up the front to, as your vision in the dark is much better than ours. I will stay in the middle with Maddy to keep everything relatively well lit while the rest of the shadowbirds stay further back."I begin organizing the expedition.

"Maddy, can you grab all of these potions from that cabinet over there?" I hold up a blue mana restoration potion and gesture towards the location where I found them.

I pull out the orange crystal of unknown power and pour another 10% of it's capacity into it while drinking a mana potion. The crystal looks like it's filled with a bright liquid, but when I shake it by my ear I don't hear anything except wind brushing by my ear. This nearly full crystal is extremely mesmerizing. I place it back into my bag to reserve my mana.

Maddy approaches with an arm load of potions and dumps them into the bag I held open in front of her.

"Let's go." Maddy calmly initiates the beginning of our expedition.

As we begin down the corridor with only my lantern to guide us Maddy starts up a conversation.

"What ever happened to Malek? He just threw two teenagers he hardly knows into a cave with some food. 'Yeah she's got survival skills you'll be fine'." Maddy starts off with a very reasonable question.

"You know, I haven't the slightest clue as to where Malek went. To be honest, though I call him a teacher he only ever gave me these books to read and hasn't actually done much..." We criticize Malek in his absence.

"He was pretty creepy too." Maddy says the one thing that is definitely true of Malek, not disagreeing with her I make a face to say I am not gonna touch that.

The passageway abruptly turns into a stairs, still completely dark. The silence besides our group walking is unbearable.

"Why hasn't anything happened yet? This place is so creepy." I begin to voice my discontent with the silence.

"Awwwhh is the little baby scared?" Maddy extends her lower lip to "emulate" my crying like a child.

"Kuhh-" I choke back a harsh response before calling her a bully and keep my thoughts to myself.

After a few more minutes the birds in front nearly stumble as the stairs turn back into a level pathway.

We progress relatively smoothly into the unknown area, the only clue to the possible location of the scientists. At the end of the passage we see light coming through some sort of doorway. It appears we are nearing the end.

Entering the massive warmly lit room I look around to grasp my surroundings.

"Snakes." This single word is enough to describe the whole of this room.

Resembling a shrine a Massive golden snake stands curled up in the middle of the room. All throughout the cream colored room pale colored pillars stand uniformly extending up several dozen feet to support the wall. All along these pillars are carvings of snakes. 'This place gives me the creeps.'

The shadowbirds don't appear to be showing much caution, one of them approaches the pillar and touches the snake marking carved into it.

"Crap, not good at all." I sense a shift in the magic of the area, something is not normal about those carvings.

In just a second the carvings light up and fill the room with a bright light. The carvings begin to protrude from the wall, until falling out onto the ground in the form of medium sized snakes. Approximately three or four snakes pop out of each pillar immediately moving towards our group. Gripping my staff tighter I prepare for combat, Maddy also pulls out her daggers for self-defense.

"Shadowbirds, create a perimeter and prepare for combat!" I shout out a command to the 17 large shadowbirds in the room. While Maddy and I might not be very powerful against snakes, the shadowbirds are a natural enemies of snake and should be able to much more easily dispatch them. The 17 shadowbirds create a half circle surrounding the 6 smaller birds, Maddy and I.

Coiling like springs the small beige snakes launch towards the dark feathered creatures, practically throwing their lives away hoping to deal even a bit of damage. The shadowbirds' talons extend as they sweep their arms through the air, scattering bits of snake all over the floor. While the snakes were severed there was not even a trace of blood, instead, after falling apart the snakes melded back into the stone and disappeared. While the shadowbirds fought the small snakes my focus shifted to the massive golden snake structure sitting in the center of the ring, surrounded by a circular pattern made of stone brick. The pattern slowly disappearing as the small stone snakes are dispatched.

"Once the last stone snake is dead prepare for that huge snake to come out, the two are linked somehow and that golden snake is going to much more powerful."

Reaching into my magic bag I pull out a waterskin and tie it to my waste so I can use it with my [Nature Manipulation].

After one of the shadowbird swats down the last snack the pattern on the floor disappears.

Slowly but surely the massive metal snake creaks to life.