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Sam stretched his limbs as he and Robin exited the tunnel they'd been walking down. The room they'd come upon was huge. The walls were made of smooth and aged stone. It was circular in design with a domed ceiling; four tunnels connected to and from the room (including the one they'd come from); thick yet elegant veins hung from the ceiling while little fireflies flew between them. Little flowers grew from the vines that glowed with a magical aura, illuminating the room. If they had more time to explore the tunnels Sam would love to stay here and hang out. An annoyed grumble from Robin brought Sam out of his thoughts.
"We're lost. We're utterly lost."
Sam glanced over at his golden floating companion who was leaning back with his arms crossed, looking annoyed.
"We're not lost. We've just got a little bit of a setback," the young gargoyle replied.
"We are lost Sam. We've been going down these tunnels for ages and we haven't gotten anywhere. We're never going to find this stupid plant," Robin growled.
"We'll find the plant. Don't give up hope yet," Sam attempted to reassure him.
"Why did we even get saddled with getting this fucking thing. Willa could've made an effort to get it herself," the golden spirit grumbled.
"You know Willa's sick and she's been busy so she's been unable to come here herself."
"Well I don't fucking care if she's sick. She could've made a fucking effort to give us some better directions and not leave everything to go to shit!" Robin yelled, crossing his arms and attempting to kick a rock. Too bad his foot phased straight through it. The golden wizard yelled in frustration. Taking his friend's hand, Sam held the smaller hand in both of his, causing Robin to glance over at him.
"Hey. Is everything alright? You're not normally this agitated," he questioned. The golden spirit let out a sigh, his gaze resting elsewhere.
"I… I think everything's just getting to me lately," he answered.
Wrapping an arm around his friend, Sam brought Robin in for a small side hug, "Once we've gotten this plant, we can talk about all this if you want."
Robin sent the young gargoyle a small smile. "I'll think about it, but thank you."
Letting his friend slowly float away from him, Sam began to look around the room. Maybe the plant was in the room somewhere. Dipping into his magic sense, Sam began to investigate. He would've thought the plants on the vines were the thing they were looking for except Willa had mentioned the plant had gold petals and the vine flowers were not gold so that was a dead end. All the magic he could sense was the plant magic from the vines, the light magic from the fireflies, Robin and… A magic he'd never sensed before. Glancing around, it seemed like the unknown magic was emanating from behind some fallen ruins.
Slowly walking over, Sam could just about make out some sort of white fur poking out from the top. Before the young gargoyle could make a move, a white and blue blur sprang from behind the ruins, pinning him to the ground. Sam felt the wind be knocked out of him and he stared up at the being above him. They were bipedal and had a bat head and wings, frog hands, scorpion feet and tail and wore a weird piece of dark blue clothing that covered their entire body. They were also mostly snow white with blue sections of their body. Sam attempted to push the bat-frog-scorpion creature away but they have much more natural strength than Sam had (he needed to work on that). In the blink of an eye, Sam was forcefully pushed out of his body and found himself floating beside his body. His body's eyes were now pupilless and glowing gold. Robin let out a growl, beginning to wrestle with the bat-frog-scorpion creature. For once it would be nice for Robin to let him know when he was going to push Sam out of the body. Being a spirit wasn't exactly an experience he was used to.
As Robin and the bat-frog-scorpion-being wrestled, Sam noticed there were more beings in the room. From behind the ruins came a bipedal white and green dragon creature, wearing the same sort of clothing as the bat creature; and a weird bipedal blue cat that seemed to lack much fur.
After several minutes of fighting, Sam had had enough. He floated over to where Robin and the bat-being were fighting and picked Robin up by the arms, holding him back. The dragon and cat beings ran over to the bat-being and helped them stand up.
"Let me go, I'm not done yet," Robin whined, attempting to get out of Sam's grasp.
"Robin, please," Sam pleaded.
The golden eyed wizard glanced over his shoulder, his anger slightly melting and ceasing to try and escape. Feeling satisfied, Sam let Robin go and the two switched places; Sam going back into his body while Robin once again became a golden spirit. Letting out a gasp, Sam stretched his wings and glanced over at his friend.
"Can you please give me a word of warning next time you want to use the body?" he asked, rolling his shoulder.
"Sorry sorry. I was trying to get you out of a bad situation," Robin apologized, giving a guilty shrug. All Sam could do was sigh and shake his head, looking over at the other three beings in the room. They were looking at him like he'd grown a second head.
Sam gave a small wave. "Hi, are you doing well?"
"Are you? You were talking to thin air and you just seem a bit out of it," the blue cat being questioned. The question confused Sam for a second before he remembered. He was the only being that could see Robin. Sam took in a deep breath before attempting to explain.
"Alright. How do I explain this? I may or may not have the spirit of my friend living inside my body and sometimes he can possess it as well??"
The three other beings looked at him then between themselves with looks of high skepticism.
"I swear, I'm not crazy," Sam attempted to defend himself. The cat-being, the dragon-being and the bat-being looked at each other and looked at Sam with strong expressions of doubt.
"I can prove I'm not crazy, just… give me a moment," the young gargoyle promised before turning his back and beginning to try and think of a plan.
"For the record, I think it's absolutely hilarious that they think you're insane," Robin commented, floating next to his friend.
"Thanks," Sam commented, rolling his eyes. "Now, can you please help me think of a way to help convince them that I'm not going insane."
"Why do you want to convince them so bad?" the golden spirit questioned.
"I… I'm not too sure. They seem like interesting beings and maybe if things go well, we could possibly become friends," Sam suggested, unsure of his own answer.
After a few moments of silence, Robin let out what seemed like a reluctant sigh, "Alright. Let's do this. I may or may not have an idea that could work."
Floating up to the young gargoyle's ear, the golden spirit whispered his idea, Sam nodding along. With the idea in his mind, Sam spun back around to the three beings who were surprisingly still there.
"Alright, I have an idea if you're willing to go along with it," he proposed.
The three beings looked between themselves and the bat being spoke up, "Alright, what is this 'idea'?"
"The idea is, I will walk over to the other side of the room and you three can talk about… something. After a few minutes I will come back over and my friend will be able to tell me exactly what you were talking about," Sam explained.
Once again, the three beings looked between themselves and nodded. With that, Sam wandered over to the edge of the room and sat down. Robin smirked with a mischievous grin and floated over to the three beings, circling around them like a bird watching their prey. Despite not being able to hear what they were talking about, the cat being's gestures were quite animatic and so was the bat being's. Sam let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall. Why did his life have to become even more complicated than before?
After a few minutes of staring into space, the cat-being gestured for Sam to come back over which the young gargoyle swiftly did. Robin floated next to Sam's ear and whispered what he'd heard.
"So according to my friend, you were talking about… how I'm insane, how I'm apparently a strange looking creature, you're wasting time in these tunnels and how you need to look for a cat named graystone. Is that all correct?" Sam rambled off, glancing over at the three beings.
The cat and dragon beings looked at him with shock and were seemingly convinced, looking at him with warm smiles. The bat being however still looked quite doubtful, scowling at him. Sam internally groaned. It might be a good idea to just go looking for the plant and leave these three to their own mission at this point.
"I see the bat isn't convinced, I have another idea that I haven't ever tried before but it could work," Robin commented, leaning against Sam's shoulder. Giving a subtle nod, Robin rubbed his hand together and grinned. What had he just let his friend do?
Robin closed his eyes and Sam saw the golden spirit glow a bit brighter than he normally did. The young wizard's eyes snapped open and Sam saw that they were completely glowing gold. Robin smirked and gently took the scarf around Sam's neck, placing it around his own. The three beings let out a gasp, staring over at where Robin was. Maybe they could finally see him? Or at least the scarf since that was definitely a physical object. Sam's heart ached just a little seeing Robin's scarf around the one that it originally belonged to. Just how it was supposed to be. Back to the golden spirit, Robin floated over to the bat being and picked them up, hoisting them far up into the air and flying around the room.
"Let me down. This isn't funny," the bat being yelled, flailing about in frustration. Robin was chuckling. Sam looked up in shock.
He thought it wasn't possible for Robin to touch anything physical except Sam; but maybe whatever glow he had allowed him to touch physical objects and other physical beings. Looking over at the cat and dragon beings, they were looking up at their companion with surprise, shock and a bit of horror.
"Alright Robin, I think that's enough," Sam called out, hoping to catch the young wizard's attention.
Robin looked over at him and groaned in disappointment, slowly placing the bat-being down on the ground. The bat-being clung onto the dragon-being for dear life. Sam couldn't help but look over at Robin with a withering look. Robin looked down sheepishly, his glow returning to normal, handing back the scarf which Sam promptly put back on. The golden spirit held his head with a groan and disappeared into a blip of golden light. Maybe whatever Robin had done had used too much energy and Sam hoped he'd retreated to inside his soul.
"Sorry about that. I guess my friend can go a bit overboard sometimes," Sam spoke up, looking over at the three beings who had now calmed and no longer looked spooked.
"It's… it's alright. But I can surely say we believe you now, don't we?" the cat-being replied, nudging her two much taller companions. The dragon and bat beings nodded along.
Sam sighed in relief, "That's good. Now for introductions. My name is Sam. My friend's name is Robin. Like I said before, he can sometimes possess my body so be warned; When my eyes are glowing gold, that's him,"
"Well my name is Aster," the cat-being spoke up, "These are my two friends, Andy," pointing towards the dragon being, "and Alex," pointing towards the bat being. The two other beings in question gave small waves.
Sam happily returned that smile. "It's nice to meet you all. You were talking about finding someone? I feel like we could potentially help you out with that, what do you say?"