We quietly walked along the walls of the cave, being careful not to make any unnecessary noise. We had gone some 30 feet before the cave came to an abrupt turn. As we rounded the corner, we came to a dead end. 

"It's a dead end," Storm determined. 

"Nothing gets past you," I smirked. Storm made a face at my sarcastic comment. Looking closer, the corners of the wall were sharp against the surrounding walls. Normally, if a cave came to a dead end, the walls would be rounded out. Leaning my ear to the wall, I listened carefully. Sounds of combat were coming from the other side. 

"Get ready for a fight," I smiled mischievously. Pulling my arm back I summoned my magic to my fist. "Sun dragon iron fist," As my fist slammed into the wall, it shattered revealing unconscious bandits strewn all across the floor. "Let's move,"

Storm and I raced down the halls of the cavern passing unconscious bandits left and right. We were able to make easy work of anybody who wasn't already unconscious. 

"Can you still smell the way out?" Storm asked. 

"Yep, I can also smell something else,"

"What is it?"

"To be honest I don't really know,"

This fact put both of us on edge, but it also got me really excited at the dawn of a mystery. As we got closer, I started detecting some huge amounts of magic power. Another thing that was putting us on edge was the huge amounts of rumbling that was coming from further inside the cave. As we ran further into the caverns, it seemed as though the walls themselves were shaking with the amount of rumbling going on. 

Storm and I rounded another corner and came to a huge opening in the cave. There were torches lit all around the walls of the area. There was also light streaming in from a hole in the roof of the cavern, it must have led outside. In the center of the room was a gigantic iron cage big enough to hold a wyvern. However, there wasn't a wyvern in the cage. Whatever it was, it had huge glowing yellow eyes. 

The creature stood to its full height, the size of a two-story building. It let out a low cat-like growl that filled the room and shook our very souls. As it came into the light we saw thick brown fur and teeth that could snap an oak tree in half. Its paws could easily crush any man it stepped on and its tail was longer than a school bus. 

The creature stared at us, snarling and baring its teeth for all to see. Storm and I were awestruck at the beast before us. It was beautiful, but terrifying none the less.

"What is it?" Storm questioned. 

"I don't know," 

The creature growled and let out a deafening roar. I pressed my hands against my ears trying to block out the roar, which was bouncing around the walls of the cavern making it even louder. Suddenly, I felt a swift slam to the side of my head. The hit knocked me to the floor, slamming my head onto the stone floor. Ignoring the pain, I looked up to see Storm engaging someone in combat. 

The person wore a short dark green hooded rain poncho, black pants, boots, and a bandanna covering the lower half of their face. I stood to my feet lighting my fist with sunlight. I lunged at the attacker, my sun dragon iron fist ablaze. The attacker dodged and I got a good look at their eyes. I gasped as realization dawned on me. However, the attacker caught me off guard.

"Stone restraint," Her voice revealed our attacker to be a girl. Suddenly the ground beneath our feet curled up and wrapped around Storm and I, restraining all of our limbs. Our attacker regained her composure and stood in front of us, analyzing the situation. 

"Gale?" I questioned. Storm gave me a questionable look, but the mystery girl had realization in her eyes. Silently she picked one of the torches off the wall and held it up to our faces. Her eyes went wide. 

"Oh my God," she exclaimed. She tore off her mask and pulled down her hood revealing the face of our friend. She had a huge smile plastered across her face. "I can't believe you're here!" She rushed up and gave us both a huge hug. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came looking for you," I explained. 

"Really?!" She said with stars in her eyes. 

"Hey Gale it's good to see you and all, but can you please let us go?" Storm pointed out. 

"Whoops, yeah sorry about that," Gale snapped her fingers and the rocks restraining us disappeared back into the ground. She ran up and gave us both another group hug. "Ooh, it's just so good to see you two,"

Our reunion was interrupted by a low growl from the creature in the middle of the cavern. We all turned our attention back to the humongous beast. It was glaring at us with its golden yellow eyes and baring its teeth. The creature's tail was whipping back and forth in a predatorial manner. 

"Any idea what that thing is?" Storm asked. 

"I've been tracking this thing for weeks," Gale explained. "It's been terrorizing villages in mountain ranges by eating all of their livestock. The bandit groups I've been taking down have been catching the creature and letting it loose on unsuspecting travelers. Of course, once they let it out, they can't get it back in its cage and it terrorizes more people until someone else catches it. I'm just glad I finally found it before they let it out." 

"Well now that we've got it, what are we supposed to do with it? We can't exactly take it home," Storm complained, He leaned against one of the walls of the cave. 

"We can't just let it go, it'll cause way too much damage to the surrounding areas," I added. 

"So what are we supposed to do?" Storm stood up and as if it were in slow motion, tripped over a lever in the floor. There must have been a loose screw in the lever because it fell to the other side.

"Storm you didn't," 

"Oops,"

There was a loud click and the gate to the creature's cage began to rise. 

"Aah! Put it back put it back!" Gale screeched. Storm quickly pushed the lever back to the other side, but nothing happened. The gate to the beast's cage continued to rise. "You idiot! You've doomed us all!" Gale scolded. 

"What do we do?" Storm questioned frantically. 

"We'll just have to fight it," I grinned deviously. 

"Are you crazy?" Gale and Storm said in unison. The gate to the creature's cage was halfway open now. It quickly arched it's back and began to slide underneath the gate. 

"We've gotta hit it now while it's still trying to get out! Sun dragon roar!" My roar of sunlight went barreling toward the cat beast, hitting it square in the jaw. The creature growled and let out another immense roar. My hands shot to my ears as the roar echoed around the cavern. "Damn it," I cursed. While I was distracted, the beast had crawled all the way out of its cage. 

The wyvern sized creature let out a low growl that seemed to challenge us. It whipped it's tail back and forth in a playful scary kind of way. Uh-oh.

"What the hell do you kids think yer doin'?" Gajeel shouted. 

"Dad?" Gale exclaimed in a shocked tone.

"Gale?" Levy called out.

"Mom?"

"What is going on here?" Lily questioned, transforming into his battle form and unsheathing his sword. 

"Now isn't the time for reunions, we gotta take this thing down," Storm yelled. "Ice make lance!" Storm sent several icy shots firing out at the triple story beast. The creature growled and swung its paw at the six of us. We all managed to dodge the cat's swipe and land on an upper ledge of the cavern. 

"What did you all do?" Levy scolded. 

"Storm's the one who let it out of the cage!" Gale accused.

"It was an accident!" Storm shot back.

"Now is not the time for arguing!" I screeched over the growls of the giant beast. Annoyed by the fact that it couldn't reach us, the beast climbed onto the roof of its cage. "Up there!" I shouted, pointing at the hole in the roof of the cavern. It was just big enough for all of us to fit through so long as we could get up to it. "If we can get through that hole, we can trap it inside!"

"but how are we supposed to get to it?" Levy specified. 

The beast roared and used it's front paws to lean itself on the ledge. That's when the idea struck me. "We'll use the creature as a boost,"

"Are you insane?" Gale screeched. 

I readied myself for the jump. "Just a little bit," Without any more warning, I leaped through the air.

"Nashi!" Storm called out. The beast saw me and opened it's jaw to catch me in its mouth. Crap! At this rate, I was about to fall right into its mouth. Out of instinct, I focused my magic power into my feet thrusting myself up and through the hole in the ceiling. When I finally made it through, I was standing on a grassy hillside of the mountain. 

"I'm alright!" I called down into the cavern. "Now it's your turn!"

"Are you kidding! Maybe you forgot, but we can't jump that high," Storm pointed out. A huge bead of sweat dripped down the back of my head. That minor detail may have slipped my mind.

"Lily keep that feline occupied! Ice boy make us a staircase up that hole!" Gajeel ordered. 

After a few minutes, everyone came running up the hole in the ground. "We made it!" Gale cheered. She quickly wrapped her arms around Storm and me in a huge group hug to celebrate.

"It's good to see you kiddo," Gajeel grinned, he put his hand on Gale's head messing up her hair. Gale was grinning from ear to ear as Levy gave her daughter a hug as well. 

"So what are we supposed to do with that thing down there?" Lily questioned. 

"We could-" Before I could finish the sentence, the ground below us cracked apart like an egg hatching. 

"Everybody move!" We all dove for safe ground that wasn't cracking open just as the creature clawed it's way to the surface. As it crawled out of the ground, it let out a horrifying roar. Now that it was in direct light, I got a better look at the beast. 

Its fur wasn't brown like I thought, It was burnt orange. Tied around the neck of the creature was a huge red bandanna. 

"Kali?"