Creatures Caves

Here's the second bit:

Chapter 2: Azhar's First Adventure

Azhar took some of the seeds of his favourite plants, said goodbye to Clia, her mate, Singan, and The Lone Shee. Sheeden told him to be careful on Albis. It was a dangerous place. Azhar said that he would be careful.
At the last minute, Sheeden produced a little metal device.
"It's a mini radio," he said "if you get into trouble, use it. I will hear."
"Thank-you!"
"Well, you are like a shee in a norn's body, you know! I think of you as a shee."
"That is very kind of you . . . Well . . . Goodbye!"
"Goodbye." Sheeden said, and then Azhar disappeared into a portal, set to King Lian's palace in Triden.

King Lian was old, and a little after Azhar came to the court, his fur faded. The council of Triden ruled that a king with faded fur was no longer fit to rule, and his son, Prince Lian, must take over the throne.
Young Lian was Azhar's closest friend in Triden. They were about the same age, and they both lived in the palace. And, while Azhar was decidedly the more intelligent of the pair, that did not impair their friendship.

As Lian was going to the coronation hall, at the head of a large procession, some Banshee Grendels attacked! None of the norns were prepared for this, and the grendels quickly defeated the few norns who had proper weapons on them. Azhar, Lian, and many other norns, were taken captive.

In Vryskia's palace, Azhar was sent off to her laboratories, so that her grendel scientists could attempt to find out how Azhar's brain worked.
As two huge guards escorted him to the laboratory, Azhar managed to get his mini radio that The Lone Shee had given him out, and he twisted a dial on it, marked volume, very low. Then he pressed a tiny button.
"This is Azhar, calling the Capillata!" He hissed.

On board the Capillata, Clia heard the beep of Sheeden's radio. That meant someone was calling. Sheeden himself was away, looking for some tea.
Clia pushed the answer button.
"Clia very bored!" She anounced.
"Clia! Where's Sheeden! I'm in Vryskia's palace, about to be experimented on! Clia! Tell him! Triden has been raided, Clia!"
"Clia LIKE dis!" Clia said.
"Clia! Be serious! If you don't tell him, I, and hundreds of other norns, will DIE!"
Clia yawned
"Clia very tired."
"Clia! I -” it was then that Azhar's guards noticed what was going on, and snatched the radio. From it he heard the faint voice
"Me push button." And the radio went dead.

They came to a horrifying chamber, filled with worrying machines. Azhar was locked into a glass compartment, and the guards left.
After a terrifying while, two grendels came in. They wore white coats, with badges on them. The badges showed stylised pictures of test tubes. One said
"We've got Azhar in here today!"
"Yes. I think we should try and understand how he is so clever by dissecting his brain."
"We've tried dissection of brains before now, it doesn't really reveal anything."
"Well, lets try making an exact copy of his brain, and putting it into a grendel, then."
"That might work. Alright."
Mounting terror filled Azhar as the two grendel scientists approached. One open the door, while the other shot out a metal device that he was holding, which clasped Azhar around his chest. The grendel pulled him out, then thrust him into a chamber at one side, exactly the shape of a norn. The door was shut, and he was in darkness, unable to move! A stinging pain erupted in his head as tiny wires shot into it.

Sheeden groaned. Just what was Clia doing now? Dancing? He blinked in astonishment. No, not dancing, she was doing a weaving sort of movement across the Norn Meso, to get to the door. She pushed it, and he switched to the Capillata Hub camera. Clia crossed to the Comms Room door, and then she was in the same room as he was.
"Hello, Clia!" He said.
"Clia LIKE shee" Said Clia. Then, all of a sudden, and quite unexpectedly, Clia cried "Capillata go to Albis!"
The Capillata obeyed her orders, and began to move.
"What are you doing, Clia!" Cried Sheeden.
Clia gave a small smile, then said "I got a message from Azhar, he says that he is about to be experimented on by Vryskia's grendel scientists. I thought we had better go and help."
"Indeed, yes! Capillata! Go to maximum speed!"

The Capillata whooshed down through the air, and came to rest floating serenely near Vryskia's palace. Sheeden and some faithful Hardman and Trident norns appeared on the surface of Albis, near Vryskia's palace. Sheeden bravely led his norns towards the gates. Six banshee grendels guarded the entrance, and when they saw Sheeden and his norns, four ran forward to attack, while the other two ran in to give the alarm.
The grendels were easily overcome, and Sheeden led his norns into the palace.

Azhar was in a dead faint. He had no sense of what was going on at all. He was drifting through a pale green sea, with shells of all colours on the sea floor far . . . Far below. Pink, green, red, blue, orange, yellow. Dazzling mixtures of shades, hues, tones and colours.
In a detached sort of way, Azhar became aware that his head hurt. Slowly, turning in the sluggish water, Azhar looked round, to see what was hurting him.
A great, steely jellyfish was hovering above him. Its steel tendrils reaching for him, some already entwined about him. Above him, in its horrible, steel bubble of a body, a mouth, ready to eat anything the tentacles pulled in, gaped at him.
Azhar screamed. He screamed, and tried to pull away, but he couldn't move! The jellyfish twined more tendrils lovingly about him, pulling him closer and closer to that horrible mouth.
His head hurt. Azhar's head stung with the pain of the thing. He was even closer now to the monstrous mouth. He tried desperately to escape , but his limbs would not respond! They WOULD NOT respond!
Azhar cried in fear and terror
"No! No! Let me go! Let me go!"
And he woke.

He was out of the dark, paralysing chamber, and was on grass. Sweet, soft, green grass. His head throbbed, and he felt something wet and sticky on it. Then he saw someone bending over him. A tall, un-nornlike shape. Its gangly arms and legs were a dark, chocolatey brown colour.
Then Azhar realised who this was. The Lone Shee!
"Clia did tell you then." He croaked.
"Azhar! You are awake! I didn't think I could pull you out."
"What . . . What happened?"
"You have a bad head wound. We found you in a glass box."
"Thank-you!"

While Sheeden had held the upper hand at first, soon Vryskia's greater numbers began to force him back. He had managed to rescue the slave-norns, and Azhar, as well as those Vryskia kept as souvenirs, but now he was being forced back. Sheeden hoped that he had rescued everybody.
They retreated back, to find all Sheeden's norns except for Clia and Singan in a miserable group on the ground, and the Capillata gone!
Clia had been suddenly taken with the desire to go and see the freezing Yeren Mountains, where the weird Yeren Grendels live. They have blue eyes, and are a pale icy colour.

The norns were stopped in a meadow, while Sheeden, and the norns there skilled in healing, attended to the wounded.
Azhar was soon bandaged up, and, while he felt rather woozy, he was able to walk about fine.

The Lone Shee had a headache. It was hard enough to think with a headache, but when he had a lot of norns to look after as well! especially when he didn't have any tea to relieve the situation. He rubbed his head, and decided that their goal ought to be the Magma kingdom in the southern desert, Laverna. He took a map from his black bag, and examined it. Their route would take them through the Jungle of Kogh, a jungle grendel stronghold, over Lake Milin, the kingdom of the Aqua-norns, and finally to the desert kingdom of Laverna. The Lone Shee refolded the map and returned it to his bag. He would have to organise these norns somehow, so that they would be easier to keep track of. He decided to put all the baby and timid norns in the centre, and the fiercer types on the outside, so that, in case of attack, those who were less able to fight would be on the inside of the ring. Then he decided that the injured and sick norns would ride on a cart, which they would make, so that there would be less chance of their dying. So Sheeden called the strongest norns together, and they began to cut down some trees, to make the cart with.
Soon they had a rough, but functional, cart. Then the ill and wounded norns were carried onto it, and they began their march again, with norns taking turns to pull the cart.