Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Cal was in his room at the end of the second week in the loop, looking at a new crack in the exterior wall. The stone spirit was standing next to him admiring their handiwork. “Now that’s what I call a crack, sure it took me twice as long as Bolt, but I got it together. That’s what’s important. Oh and good news Cal, we worked on the exploding problem, and we think we can give you longer this time.”

“Still going to explode though, right?”

“Oh yeah, almost certainly until we get the void spirit pulled back together, these cracks are super dangerous for you.”

“Great, well let’s get going then, the sooner I get the exploding done the better, I suppose.”

Cal emerged from the cracks into a world of darkness. It was too dark for him to see anything.

“Tap the wall next to you.” He heard a voice behind that sounded like the rock spirit. Cal reached out and slid his hand across a rough wall until his fingers brushed over a smoother part. The wall lit up as the spot Cal touched began to glow, the glow slowly moving down the walls. “I thought I could smell a vein of illuminating ore.”

“Are we in a cave?”

“I hope so, I love caves. Look at all these nice ores on the walls. It feels like home Cal.”

“Do you hear that? there’s something ahead around that bend.”

“What, there shouldn’t be yet. It’s not nearly old enough for anything to be moving around on these walls.”

“Alright, stay here and I’ll see if I can spot the issue.” Cal switched to a whisper as he crept down the passageway. Once he reached the end he carefully peered around the corner to see what was making the noise. It was one of the squid things that had caught his father so long ago. He crept back to the spirit to inform him of the discovery. “Any idea what something like that would be doing here?”

“Oh no, I wonder if the artificial crack drew some creatures into my proto realm. I say we teach them that this is my home, not theirs.”

“Yeah I agree, first we will ask them to leave nicely and then I’ll test out some of my new abilities courtesy of Bolt. Stay behind me.”

‘Can do boss.”

Cal returned to where he saw the creature and walked directly into the corridor. “Hello, this is my friend's home and he would appreciate it if you left.” The creature turned and looked at Cal, screeched and charged him. The tentacles moved quite fast along the ceiling. The creature bought six of its arms together into a club shape and swung hard at Cal’s head.

Cal divided to the side, avoiding the arms, but crashing into the rock instead. Probably time to take some fighting classes he thought, as he forced himself to his feet. He reached out and grabbed one of the tentacles and sent a shot of electricity through his hand into the beast’s core. It fell off the ceiling and hit the ground with a thud.

“Well that wasn’t too bad.” Cal was quickly cut off as four more creatures rounded the corner at the end of the cavern. “Dammit.” He lifted his hand and fired a shot of lightning down the hall hitting two of them, but it was too weak to fry them as easily as he had the first. All he had managed to do was enrage them. “We might be in a bit of trouble here.” Cal yelled back to the spirit.

“NO THIS IS MY HOME, I WILL NOT LET YOU DEFEND IT ALONE.” The spirit’s normal rumbles grew into an avalanche of a voice and Cal saw the walls match his fury as the ceiling of the cavern smashed down, closing it off entirely in a deafening sound that echoed across the caves.

“Fuck that hurt my ears.” Cal reached up and felt his left ear, his fingers came back with fresh red blood on them.

“Sorry, but I could not allow the invaders to hurt you, once we find the primal pool it should be able to heal your ears.” The voice was muffled but Cal was about to decipher it through the pain in his head.

He followed the spirit through several other branching corridors, luckily finding no more invaders as they went. Cal thought he saw everything from iron to platinum in different parts of the walls.

“Okay I just need to open this piece right here and we should be at the pool.” The spirit rested its body against the wall allowing a steady stream of energy to be pushed directly into the wall itself. Cal felt a small tremor as the wall in front of them parted, giving them a view of a shimmering pool surrounded by mosses and a few small lizards. Several crystalline structures jutted out of the floor, bathing the room is a brighter light than the outside.

“I’ve never seen a cave quite like this before.”

“Yep, it’s great isn’t it? I can’t wait to really move in. Go hop in that pool though it should clear up the ear issue.”

Cal followed the order and gently lowered himself into the water. It was pleasantly warm and refreshing. Within minutes he felt his headache fade and shortly after that the ringing in his ears vanished as well. “I feel like I’m in a new body here. I could get used to this.”

“You’re always welcome.”

“How do you feel about the name Grannus? It sounds like Granite and I believe they were a Celtic god of healing. Seems to fit you.”

“I like it, it has a rocky feel to it. You can skip any of the she or he questions. Rock is rock.”

“Got it, no gender just Grannus.”

“Hey Cal, I think there’s one more monster lurking in here. I started to sense after I found this room, but I’m not sure I can help you with this one. Most of my power is drained from getting us this far. Do you think you’d be able to take it down yourself?”

“I’m certainly willing to try for you buddy. Point me in the right direction.” Cal stood up and climbed out of the bath. He felt perfectly refreshed, as though he had had both a great meal and a good night’s sleep. He felt ready to take on the world. He also knew this was a dangerous idea and convinced his ego to shut up and let the caution take over.

“Head out of this room and follow the first new path you find. It’s something different than we fought before, but I’m not sure what. It’s bigger.”

Cal left the room following Grannus’ directions. He spotted the creature that had to be what was worrying the little spirit so much. At the end of the path standing in the bigger cavern room was one of the tentacle bears.

Fuck Cal thought. This won’t be easy without guns, guess it’s time to try out the electric powers at the maximum strength. Cal stepped into the cavern.

“Hey bear look over here.” He raised his arms and fired every bit of electricity he could from his body. He felt himself collapse to his knees, now worried he had overdone it. The bear looked just as a full sized lightning bolt arced out of Cal’s hands straight through the bear’s chest. It dropped to the ground, dead.

“Hah I did it. I cast lightning bolt, Andy is going to hate this much.” He yelled into the empty room before standing up and making his way back to the pool.

“So what’s next?” He asked Grannus.

“Well I’m not really a hugger like Bolt, so how about we just take a good rest until the end?”

“Sounds great to me, I’ll be in the pool.” And that is where Cal was when his body turned into pure energy yet again.