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[quote=Hania]Hania beamed with delight at receiving a response from the metal platform. She gave it one last look before running her fingers over the other markings in hopes that she'd continue to make progress. Once she'd run out of grooves to clear out she stood up and gave it a final looking over and nodded, content with how things turned out.[/quote]

As Hania touched each of the runes it began to sparkle and glow very faintly. The metal platform hummed delicately, while the clinking and clanking beneath them grew just a bit louder.

[quote=Randold]Under his breath Randold muttered, perhaps to no one, or perhaps to the owl itself, "You know something don't you? Maybe you could give us a hand..."[/quote]
The owl shifted and blinked. It turned its head all the way around to stare and blink at Anise, who was hiding behind Randold. It studied her for a long while, silent and thoughtful, as if it were studying her very soul.

Finally, the owl shifted again and looked up at the golden eyes in the darkness -- for those golden eyes stared down at them from a frightening height. Whichever monster they belonged to was at least as tall as an elephant.

[quote=Arin]"Who are you?" The boy spoke in a curious tone, intrigued by the pair of eyes he walked along the metal surface with the lantern in hand, approaching the lingering shadows. "Did you bring us here?"[/quote]

The eyes remained steady, focused intently on Arin and on the lantern. As the light cast upon the figure, a long black muzzle came into view -- a shaggy black pelt, pointed and alerted ears. It was a gigantic black wolf with narrow eyes and sabre fangs, and its hackles were raised.

Those bright yellow eyes snapped to Randold -- or maybe it was looking at Anise behind him -- and the great wolf lowered its stance and snarled. The noise that rumbled in its throat was like distant thunder, threatening and deadly. Its eyes flashed with the desire to kill.

The owl flapped its wings hard -- smacking Randold in the head in the process -- sank its claws into Randold's shoulder and struggled valiantly to drag him away from the wolf and toward the path in the woods. Its wings flung feathers everywhere as it pulled on his shoulder, urging him with growing anxiety.

[i]TICK . . . . TOCK . . . . . TICK . . . . . TOCK . . . .[/i]

The platform under their feet -- its runes glowing a little brighter -- shifted and suddenly dropped two inches into the ground.

The wolf tensed, lowered its head, and stepped forward, completely ignoring everyone who stood in the way between it and Randold -- or Anise, whichever one it was looking at, it was hard to tell.

And then, after another moment, the platform began to tilt. It made a groaning and grating sound, and one half of the disc sank deeper into the ground while the other half raised up over the edge. The angle of the floor they were standing on slowly and methodically grew steeper and steeper, tipping all of them toward the wolf.

The owl redoubled its efforts in anxious urgency.

[hider=edit]Anise, not Ania! Also added Hania's quote and added a few things to make everything else make sense.[/hider]