Lizzy 'What are you going to do with it?'

"I don't know, maybe feed it more crystals and see what happens?"

Bones says "Fight more?"

"May as well, we have nothing better to do until Krenocia contacts me."

So I take the rest of the crystals I had collected previously and place them on the ground next to the egg. The egg absorbs all of them but other than it darkening a bit more there is no other change. Once all the crystals are absorbed the egg just sits there so I pick it up.

When I touch the egg I am surprised to find it warm and there seems to be a pulse to it. The warmth increases slightly every few seconds before returning to the base temperature. This is enough to indicate that something is alive inside, but nothing more than that.

What surprises me the most is when I try to put the egg into the pouch it doesn't work. That is when I remember that the pouch cannot hold anything that is alive. So the egg is definitely alive, but what it will hatch into is anyone's guess.

Since I have no other way to hold it safely I put it into Lizzy's saddlebag instead. As to what it is, I am fairly sure it isn't a shadow panther, since no cat species I know of lays eggs. That and the fact that the big guy was male makes it more likely that he ate the egg instead of birthing it.

While I am really curious about what it might be, it may not be possible to find out. If it doesn't hatch before we are ready to leave I don't know what will happen to it. After all, if I take it out of the shadow plane it might just die right away.

For now I don't have enough information to make a plan, so I just stop thinking about it for now. Picking a direction I lead the way with Lizzy and Bones following. Until I hear from Krenocia we may as well wander around and get more crystals to feed to the egg.

Unfortunately, nothing else attacks us in the forest, probably because we already killed so many shadow panthers. When the forest ends we find ourselves on the edge of a steep valley. From here we can see a river and a lot of lifeforms in the valley, but what draws my eye is on the opposite side.

On the other side of the valley is what I can only describe as a city, something I didn't expect to see here. My curiosity makes me want to fly over and check out the city but doing that would mean not getting any crystals. Besides, we are not in any kind of rush, so crossing the valley on foot should be fine.

Even once Krenocia gets back to me there is no guarantee that I am going to be able to get us out of here immediately. Or that I can't stay a bit longer just to satisfy my curiosity, Lizzy and Bones aren't likely to complain. So with my mind made up we start making our way down to the valley floor.

The closer to the valley floor we get the more we can see, there are creatures everywhere. From what I can tell they are all fighting each other to get closer to the river. The interesting thing is every time something dies it drops a crystal and a new fight breaks out over who gets to eat the crystal.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of shadow creatures fighting in the valley. Everything from normal looking animals made of shadow to what I can only describe as shadow dinosaurs. My only concern is if we get close enough and everything suddenly focuses on us.

If not then killing our way through should be fairly simple, at least for me and Lizzy. Bones, while tough, isn't as fast as Lizzy, or as strong as me, he might struggle here. On the other hand, if I try to leave him out of a fight like this he will probably never forgive me.

In the long run it might be better to let him get defeated, then maybe he will calm down a bit. What I have been thinking of doing ever since he got defeated is leaving him with Vacker for a while. Maybe with some training he will become a better fighter and more useful to me.

So instead of stopping and making a plan I just lead the way out onto the valley floor. As soon as we are close enough several beasts turn our way and then charge. The surprising thing is they are not charging at me, they are targeting Lizzy.

As far as I am concerned they are just commiting suicide, but Bones rushes over to help her. Probably because he wants to fight and not because he is worried about her. As the beasts all ignore Bones I realize what might be causing their behavior, Lizzy still has the egg.

Considering how everything was fighting over a single crystal, maybe they can sense the egg. After all, it ate several hundred crystals just recently, it might smell of them or something. After watching for a minute I am sure I am right, the beasts are trying to get to the saddlebags.

'Lizzy, be careful, they are after the egg!'

Lizzy 'Should I run away?'

'Not unless you feel like you can't handle all of them.'

Lizzy 'So far I am fine. Although, it would be easier if you weren't just standing around.'

'Oh, right. Sorry!'

After Lizzy's gentle reminder I stop watching and start killing shadow creatures. Whenever we finish the ones attacking us Lizzy takes a few steps forward and attracts another group. This way we are only dealing with twenty to thirty beasts at a time.

Bones has figured out that the beasts keep going after Lizzy's left side so that is where he is staying. I am just moving around dealing with the meanest looking shadow beasts. As I do I figure out that they can only sense the egg when it is about fifty feet away from them.

The closer we get to the river the more beasts the egg attracts because there are more beasts grouped up. It also doesn't help that we now have beasts on three sides and the beasts move around. Now that we are closer to the river I can see that whatever it is, it isn't water.

For one thing, like everything else, the liquid is purple, also it is a lot thicker than water. Each time one of the beasts manages to get a mouthful the color of the beast darkens. It seems that the liquid is something like raw shadow and ingesting it powers up the beasts.

While I don't plan on drinking it myself, I am wondering if dipping the egg in it will have any effect. That makes me think of the crystals, we haven't been stopping to pick them up. When I look around I find a veritable stream of crystals following behind Lizzy.

'Lizzy, after this group, stop for a minute.'

Lizzy 'Okay, is something wrong?'

'Look behind you and you will understand.'