An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 2 C 16: Trapped

We rise to greet the new day with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. We probably won’t be able to spend much time in our accelerated thinkspace today, or at least I won’t, since I’m already so easily distractible.

Being me, I need to make plans for what’s about to happen, and for that, I need information. Gathering information, I ask, “Te, about how much energy do your attacks in Valkyrie form take? How much energy does it take to maintain the form, like per second?”

Teuila transforms into her evolved self to answer, “Well, zero at this point, for both.”

My jaw drops, “You, zero, what, but, super speed, super leap, durability difference, magic equipment, ancillary powers, antigravity, what.” I ramble fairly incoherently. Te uses her index finger to lift my jaw, helping me out.

Before I can ask, Lil answers the same question, “Almost the same here buddy! Doesn’t take anything to stay evolved, and my fire breathing is so cheap, it’s almost free! I think Te had a head start on stamina training.”

My brain tries to take in the possibilities in overdrive. Should I be training my body more, to increase my stamina faster? If I get certain abilities down to zero cost, that’s effectively infinite of an action, as quickly as I can manage to do it. But no, as much as I thought it could possibly happen, many of my abilities still require specific amounts of energy to activate. I can’t launch radiant copies of objects for less than a hundred mana, but the number of objects I can generate at once has risen over time. Actually, knowing that, I haven’t tried to engage thermokinesis with specific amounts of energy. What if I try imagining blasts of frigid or superheated air, for one hundred energy? I point a finger to the sky, imagining superheating the air. It’s easiest to picture a fireball, and sure enough, a bolt of flame rises skyward. It’s pretty miniscule in size, and impact, but it’s proof of concept.

Similarly, I don’t know how to picture a blast of supercooled air, so instead I picture a lance of ice worth a hundred energy. When it materializes and launches, it leaves a trail of ice as a ray into the sky, far more impressive than the firebolt. While lost in thought, I find myself being tackled to the side to avoid the sharp fallout from my own ability. I suppose it was pretty stupid to launch ice straight upwards. Radiant copies aren’t solid objects, fire isn’t a solid object, so yeah, ice was going to fall back down.

I stammer, “I uh, thanks, yeah, thanks. I’m, I guess I’m a bit dumbfounded. My abilities get stronger, but they have a minimum floor to activate. But, I mean, the news, guys, this is great news. I wonder, huh, I wonder if maybe someday, these could be considered your base forms, and when I had more max mana, I could create new tethers, helping you become something even, further still, more powerful.”

Lil and Teuila exchange a glance as they help me up. I find myself wondering what would happen if I offered Luni a tether. I might be able to muster one in the heat of combat right now. Lu just smiles innocently at me as she rides along my telepathic wave.

I need to verify at least one thing, “Lu, this is going to be incredibly dangerous for everyone other than Lil, are you sure you’re confident in us? That we can protect you?”

Lu nods in response, “Yup yup! You got this. I know you do, ‘cause you’re my hero. That’s all I can let you know, nyeh.” She sticks her tongue out at me, catching me off guard a bit at how playful her response is.

Her playfulness actually inspires a massive amount of confidence. Her ability to treat the situation lightly, even though she knows exactly how dangerous our combats are, shows absolute faith. If she believes in me, then I need to strategize to be worthy of that belief.

Alright, as we enter the cavern structures, Lil will be our, vanguard I guess is the word, the point of our spear, and also our shield. With Lil’s wings unfurled, they offer a significant amount of shielding against flames for Lu and Te. I can conjure a cold air barrier to stop any flames from getting through that make it past Lil. We’ll venture deep enough into the tunnels, finding a spot without any brimstone or phosphorus to fight in. Without a food supply, the cragbeasts will only be able to manage one or two flames apiece, when they’re out, then Lu and Te can join me in the fight. I’ll be trying to practice icy wind pugilism in order to conserve energy for absolutely dire needs, like throwing up a shield in front of Lu or Te in case a cragbeast surprises us with an extra breath attack. Lu’s fairly certain that we’ll keep her from getting hit, but she still stows her dress to don valkyrie gear, just in case.

Honestly, once it’s safe for Teuila to join the fight, the fight is basically over. Nearly mach speed impacts with her spear, or drive-by slashes with her sword? I’ve never even seen her fire her bow, I have no idea how powerful that could be. She says they only work for Valkyrie, so, sadly, all the extra copies are somewhat pointless.

Though it makes me shudder to think about, I’m actually hoping to see the red eyes here. Why didn’t they just possess Lu, Lil, or Te? The only answer I can come up with is that the eyes require a creature that is already hostile to me in particular. If we find them here, slay a creature with them, and they possess another cragbeast, or flee, then I’ll take that as confirmation. Somehow they have it out for me, and can only work against me.

Thinking about them for this long finally causes my panic to catch up to me. My knees buckle and my nightmares from Day One invade my waking world. It feels as if I can’t breathe, so I clasp my windpipe, but it’s drawing breath normally. My eyes cross as my vision doubles, while simultaneously tunneling to a point.

Thankfully, I’m not the main strike force, no one needs to rely on me to maintain the offense if I break down in panic. While panicked, I can still keep myself coated in a frosty aura at this point. Lil knows to get back to shielding Lu and Te if that happens while there’s still any fire breath about.

I’m glad that my friends are following along with my plan telepathically. It saves me the time of repeating it out loud. As I recover from panic, I shakily ask, “Sound good everyone?” My party nods affirmatively.

Lu hops aboard Lil, and Lil flies up to the terrace with the cavern entrance. Teuila leaps up, and I’m left to find my own way skyward. Thankfully, I can launch myself pretty decently with my space skill now, it just takes thin slices of sturdy enough matter. Once I’m nearing the terrace, at the apex of one of my thrusts, I latch onto the terrace edge with my tattoo tendrils to drag myself to it. I’d rather not overshoot it and plummet.

Te teases me, “What took you so long bugaboo?” Her smirk is adorable.

I playfully taunt Te in return, “Well, the beautiful scenery just demanded that I stare in awe, wasting all of your time. It certainly wasn’t because a certain supersonic otterwoman didn’t offer me a lift. Nyeh.” I get to stick my tongue out at Te, and playfully tug at my cheek near my eyelid. I’m not going to actually expose my eyelid, that’s weird, and probably rude.

The four of us chuckle as we enter the caverns. I direct Lil to keep an eye on the right hand wall, to make sure we’re always taking turns along it, even if it leads to a dead end, that dead end becomes a continuation of the right hand wall, it just turns left, twice. Each member of my inner circle agrees to flee along the left hand wall to retreat if things go haywire.

Of course, we would be able to do that, if a translucent red barrier hadn’t just formed behind us. It seems to be slowly creeping closer too. Not wanting to risk any of us coming into contact with it, we have no choice but to explore within. I surmise that either, the barrier only affects red souls, blocking them, harming them, or doing something to them. Or, the barrier only lets red souls pass through safely. Since Lil doesn’t know the answer, we can only continue, hoping to deactivate it somehow deeper within.

Before long, we’re advancing on cragbeasts, these hellhound-ish creatures that populate this cavern complex. Lil’s wings, unfurled, intercept a majority of the flames as planned. My cold air barrier deals with the rest, thankfully. I launch a few sharp bits of stone at the cragbeasts to let them know we’re a threat, so they continue to retreat as we explore. Eventually I can see certain cragbeasts return after having refueled, since they still have bits of sharp stone stuck in their hides.

Oh wait, these things were immediately hostile to us, they’re probably hostile to everything. I imagine that they’d be all too happy to head into the jungle below Fire Biome to set it ablaze. The red barrier probably prevents them from leaving. Lil would be trapped here if we didn’t find a way to at least temporarily disable the barrier.

Lil mumbles, “So that’s why I was scared to come in before. Something just told me a big fat nope when I saw a cragbeast near the entrance one time. It fought with another one, one of them derezzed and dropped a bag, but I couldn’t bring myself to go get it. It was the only one I’d ever seen in all my hunting, that’s why I was so shocked when you offered me several Reggie. I guess I had intuition that I would have been trapped here, or something. Sorry that I’m stuck here now guys.”

I comfort Lil, hugging the back of their neck from above. I apologize, “I’m the one that asked us to get into this mess, we’d never abandon you, never ever. How do you say it? Abandoning you would be mega bad, mega mega mega bad.” I try to diffuse tension from the situation by gingerly poking fun at Lil’s affectation. Lil just telepathically sends me a raspberry in response. Lu and Te giggle and chuckle across our bond.

One cragbeast advances on Lil, attempting to physically attack since its flames aren’t working. It leaps with its maw open, and both of its forepaws extend thick claws which it uses to swipe inward at Lil’s neck. I’m about to interpose my thunderstick to stop its advance when Teuila zips over Lil, along the cragbeast’s side with her sword, and back behind Lil in a split second. Her ancillary powers are incredibly strong to prevent her from getting whiplash at such sudden acceleration and movements. The first cragbeast of our hunt derezzes, in its place is a steaming hunk of meat. There’s also what looks to be some sort of chili salad, like it’s just peppers in a bowl.

Meat, oh heaven’s yes, meat, something other than fish, oh heavens I’ve forgotten what other food looks and tastes like. I salivate, accidentally drooling atop the back of Lil’s head. Lil jokingly complains, “Hey, come on buddy, gross, cut it out, would ya?” The four of us laugh at my overreaction though.

More cragbeasts begin physical assaults now that combat has begun in earnest. With probably the worst possible timing, we all feel the comm stone activate. Lao announces to us, “The Mana twins found an egg whilst fishing, its timer is about ninety six hours. We’re not certain if it might be one of those big monstrous things you fought, the Vampguppy you called it. If it isn’t, it may be a new family member. I thought it best to let you know, my beloveds. Oh I hear fire, is everything alright? Oh heavens, you probably can’t respond, busy with whatever quest you’ve set for yourselves. Don’t mind me. Love and hugs from the whole family, stay safe my dears!”

The egg, the egg has a timer? Drawing a certain egg from my own inventory, it has a timer indicator, which similarly is set to about ninety six hours from now. This egg has been in stasis for nearly a year in my inventory. We have no idea what it could be, but it’s a life form, it deserves a chance to hatch, to have the time that I accidentally stole from it by preventing its hatching for so long. That means I now have to protect this egg while we work through this foothill.

Te shouts, “Hand it to Lu, she’s got her hidden pockets and stuff. You need to focus on the fight.” Teuila is right of course. I momentarily hop off of Lil’s back to approach Lu.

This is the oddest interaction I think I could possibly have in this world. I’m giving a life, one that I may have inadvertently created, directly to someone I love. In my memories, well, that’s not a thing. Life has a process. I blush as I hand over the egg to Lu, trying to keep the thoughts of my memories out of my mind. Trying to avoid the thoughts of how lives are generally created between mammals, I remind myself that I obtained this egg differently, I obtained it on Day One. That’s a sufficient enough distraction, as it sends me tumbling into a panic, one that takes me just as I realize we’re being advanced on from the rear, somehow. I barely manage to interpose myself between Lu and the creature before I stagger and lose myself into the panic, keeping my frigid wind barrier in place.

Teuila nearly dashes past me to attack this creature, but its flames are so intense that they’re causing pain to both Lu and Te even after being forced to pass around my cold barrier. That’s with the extra thermal resistance they’ve both gained in the last few days, on top of me dulling its effects. In fact, the intensity of the flames is so great that it’s actually causing me to skid backwards. Te couldn’t advance even if she still wanted to, with such a massive wave of pressure building between its heat and my cold. Why am I able to perceive everything rationally at the moment? I’m standing right there, panicked out of my mind. Oh, also out of my body again, apparently. That has been quite a while, hasn’t it?

Hey! Hey you, me! That one’s breath is only ramping up, there’s something wrong with it, it’s more powerful than it should be, you have to do something dingus, come on! Oh, oh, it doesn’t have eyes, yet stark-red pupil-less eyes adorn its cranium. This is almost as bad as the time I felt out of body when I imagined the serpents, before I’d ever even seen that they were red-eyed creatures.

Hey, is that my hand moving? Yes, go me! You can do it! Flippin’ ‘eck this is weird, cheering myself on. Come on, do it! Either pull out a copy of Gae Buidhe, or just unsheathe your sword, and strike it. Why do you still have the thunderstick in your hand? I, that is the other me, the one piloting my body, shove the thunderstick into the cragbeast’s mouth. Hm, the grammar on that thought is weird, because I’m the subject, but me is the subject as well. Anyway, what are you doing bud? I’m surprised the wood of the staff isn’t burning up, I guess magic items are pretty resilient things.

The other me shakes the thunderstick ever so slightly, and I am so incredibly grateful that death happens by derezzing in our world. An explosive sphere of thunder cascades outwards from inside the cragbeast’s skull. Its wireframe is actually pretty scattered to bits as the polygons bleed away to nothingness. The other me picks up something that it dropped, claiming it to their, or I mean my inventory. But I can see the red-eyed glow fleeing, through the surface of the rock. I sigh in frustration. The other me taps my body, then aims a thumbs up my way. Wait, the other me knows I’m here?

And now I’m not there, I’m back in my body, wave of panic over. What in the everliving spoot was that? Who was piloting me? Guys, could you hear all my thoughts?

Lil responds, “No buddy, you went blank for a bit, and we were all starting to get pretty sad, it seemed like back when you were checked out, just operating on instinct or something, no waves coming from your brain into ours at all. I was about to just rush you all back to the entrance, and kick you out myself.”

Grateful for the honesty, I call back, “I’m glad you didn’t buddy. I’m here, but I think someone else is too. A couple of someone elses. One seems to be helpful, the other seems to be hateful.” My vision is a bit blurry, somewhat doubled, but I rattle my brainpan for a bit, trying to make certain we have no more visitors from the rear for now. Lu and Te are looking a bit worse for wear, as flames were coming around Lil’s wings from the front, and flames were coming around my wind barrier from the rear.

I rejoin Lil in the fore, setting up the cold barrier once more, so that Lu and Te can take a breather, as we advance into a large open chamber.