Since none of the three of us knew how far the gap would be, or how long the gap itself is, we’d been sprinting for almost sixteen hours at this point. Well, I assume Dawn is sprinting somewhere too. Something was pretty off about them. They seemed really upset when they left, despite having seemed jovial during the morning travels. I asked if there was anything I could do to comfort them, but they didn’t answer. Just said they’d follow along, and meet back up by the time we were on the other side of the gap.
I understand why they call it The Gap. It’s like a combination chasm, and valley straight through the mountain range. Nearly a straight shot, but not perfectly though. Bends at certain points cut off the view ahead, and there are very few luma tulipa dotting the mountainsides. I huff a sigh between panting for breaths. We must have covered twenty to forty or fifty or so miles at this point. It’s so much harder to get a good speed up through all this mud. That’s basically walking speed.
I pant and double over, unable to keep up with Teuila any longer. I lean against the stone surface of the chasm walls, my eyelids drooping heavily. I’m so exhausted. There’s Teuila, returning. Maybe she’ll be willing to make camp for a bit. I wave weakly at my beloved Wings when there’s a sudden rumbling. There appear to be some high pitched growly voices somewhere overhead, but the stone of the land suddenly begins to rise. Teuila is nearly impaled as a pillar of stone raises just in front of her, reminding me of the day I lost her over and over to Vesuviform when I first earned my time traveling skill. I pant with anger and fear. Terror nearly overwhelms me, but I manage to keep my senses. Mostly.
What, what kind of horrible luck is this? We’re already in a canyon, why are stone walls closing in from all around? Wait, what? Okay, some of them aren’t walls. Oh no, oh no. There’s, there’s like, bunches of stones coalescing in vaguely humanoid shapes. But there’s also walls rising up at an angle where they’ll swiftly intersect. I can’t, I can’t react fast enough, my danger wraps are telling me to move, but I can’t keep up. Teuila, she, she’s so far away. I can’t reach her. She can’t reach me. Teuila is smashed aside, far to to the north of me, and I’m smashed southward against a wall that’s being raised from the ground nearby. I bounce off the wall, hard, and am pummeled into the ground during my rebound.
I yell, “Te, Te! Jump, jump before the walls trap us!”
Wait, conjured golems or elementals? There’s a spell in the staff, lots of spells in the staff that I didn’t understand what they do or how to employ them. I’m pretty sure one of them conjures elementals. I flip the bottom latch on the holster carrying the staff, letting it drop into my hand and letting its enchantment extend it instantly. Can I just cast it the same as the other spells from the— Ow!
Ow, oh gods that hurts. One formed up around my arm and hand holding the staff, it’s twisting the staff inside its stone torso, twisting and crushing my wrist and hand. I, I can’t hold onto it. No. No, my, my only chance. I wince, fighting back tears of pain, but the golem pulls away from me, my staff in its innards. It mingles with the other stone creatures. My hand is virtually ruined already just from that one small interaction.
There’s something else going on. Some voices from nearby are nervously chattering, and now the massive walls of stone are raising around us at an inward angle far faster than before, they’ll trap us in in a few moments. I’m mere instants from being trapped with these rock monsters.
Teuila leaps high enough that she nearly clears the wall as it's rising, and is able to scrabble atop it, but I have no such athleticism. The backpack falls off her shoulders as it’s too big to fit between the rising walls. She turns to reach for me, but has to draw her arm back as the walls reach their full height. At that particular angle they end up slamming together with earthshaking force. I'm trapped down here with the rock monsters, the golems. Worse, one has already gripped me by my waist and is proceeding to slam me repeatedly face-first into the risen stony wall. It actually casually alternates between slamming me like a ragdoll by my waist, and gripping my skull to pulverize my face against the wall. It’s almost like my death is a game to it, or exercise, alternating between curls and flyes for example.
I’m not sure what’s louder, my own skull being smashed into this wall, or Teuila frustratedly pounding on the wall to the north. She’s fighting nature, the planet itself to get back to me, to save me. I need to hold on, to try to save myself. Just, just do anything Reggie. At least remember to breathe. Breathe air, breathe. I suck down a breath during a moment when my face isn’t being caved in against stone. I cough up a lungful of blood and dust that I’d sucked down with the breath.
I, I’m going to die here. I can’t even see Teuila as I leave this life behind. I want my last moments to be with her, not like this. My eyes unleash a cascade of tears as my vision darkens and tunnels. I slip closer and closer to unconsciousness, and inevitably death. The nervous chattering voices from earlier return, but I still can’t make them out.
I don’t want to leave Teuila behind. I promised her. I promised Lil. I promised Lu. I claw at the rocky grip holding me tightly to no avail. I try unleashing my crossbow’s energy bolts into the creature’s stony surfaces with similarly unsuccessful results, they only gouge small divots in its rocky hide. I don’t even know which of these golems swallowed up my staff to try to get it back. Not that I could move around and pick a single one to fight.
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I don’t think I’ll be alive, let alone conscious eight minutes from now, but I start planning to summon power from Can’Z’aas to unleash a torrent of daggers and stones at these creatures. Wait, I’d better not do that. What if the ability activates after I’m dead? Or even if I’m alive and unconscious, but if they move me into the path of the pre-determined attack. What if it activates while Teuila is holding my corpse? What if it activates while Dawn returns from wherever they’ve vanished off to? I can’t risk it.
No, no, come on, please. Please there has to be something. A clue, a, a skill. Time skill, can I, can I activate you somehow before you’re activated, to send me back to check my logs? No, we both know that can’t happen. Both? You’re cracking up again as you’re dying, duh. Oh, right. Makes sense. I guess we blew it, huh? Yup. So, um. What do you think an afterlife might look like here? No freaking clue me, no freaking clue. Right, that makes sense, me either. I mean, obviously. Ugh. I think my brains are being pulped right now, that’s probably why I’m talking to myself, isn’t it? Pretty likely. Everything’s fading. It’s. It’s hard to even, to even think. It hurts.
My danger wraps say there’s a chance to slip free, but I’m so destroyed, I can barely control my limbs. I struggle to get them to follow the wraps’ instructions, crying in frustration. I’m not even sure what good slipping free for a moment would do me, but I, I, I. I just. I have to try. Just, just wriggle a little bit. I, I did it! There’s so much blood in my eyes, and my eyelids and brows are so swollen that I can’t see anything. My danger wraps are telling me to run. Obviously I want to run you dumb things. I’m sorry, you’re not dumb. You’re life saving. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Yes, I’m willing to mentally beg my inanimate items for forgiveness right now. I struggle to plod even a few steps away from rock monsters that are converging on me from several angles.
The voices, there’s, there’s something being said, like, “Stones used up, up, up, all up, gonna, gonna, gonna kill dwarf, can’t stop it now. Stop, can’t, can’t stop, won’t stop.”
Another one says, “That no dwarf, that’s not dwarf, not a dwarf, not, not a dwarf. Humie, humie, or maybe elf. Not a dwarf.”
The first says, “Too late, lots of blood, blood, blood, lots, all, all all over, can only trap stones, trap, keep trapped, until next dwarves.”
The defiant voice says, “That not, that’s not good, not good, not good enough. Dippy thinks that’s not good enough. I, I Dippy, Zippy agrees. We go, we go down. I go down. Dippy, Dippy goes down. Scary, scary down, you hold rope. Zippy, Zippy good, stay, hold rope with Elder and Mizah.”
I hear a soft impact followed by many shifting stones turning towards that sound. There’s a sound like the striking of a match, or a grating of something rough on stone. Is it accompanied by sizzling? I hear a nearby voice from that same location cry out, “Really, really scary down!” as everything finally fades. Good luck Dawn, and Teuila. I love you Teuila, I love you Lil, I love you Luni. I love you Lucky you big lug.
Hm, parent? Mom is riding the dragon, other parent? Sniff, sniff, where? Circle, circle circle. Don’t see that one. Huff huff, panting, always panting. Happy though. Maybe just thought of parent. Both are nice. Other parent should stay put. Goes away too much. We went away this time I guess. Going in forest along mountains for a long long time. Lots of camping. I bay. “Awoooooo, aw aw awooo.” I try to catch up to the dragon, “Awooooo.” I announce my chase. Chasing is one of my favorite games. I get to chase a lot here. More than back home. Was only digging back home, so long only digging. Me and dragon. Before that, too many people, they didn’t like me playing chase. There’s dragon’s tail and mom’s tail. I’m fast, I caught up. They can’t fly in this forest. Trees are too close. Dragon can get bigger and smaller, me too. I’m big right now, but not biggest. Trees are too close to be biggest. It’s less wet, rain doesn’t reach with trees so close. I leap at dragon to give tackle hugs and kisses. Dragon moves just before, so we only bash side to side. Silly dragon. Kisses! I can make my tongue big as your face. Lick. See? Mom is laughing. Love it when mom laughs. Sniff, sniff, hm, other parent. Could swear. Stop, circle circle. Dragon stops too. Does dragon smell other parent? They’re asking me something. Why can’t they talk right? Wish they could talk right all the time. Only understand a few words sometimes. That’s my name, they said my name! I jump up and down at my name! I bark! I circle! I’m happy. They know my name. They love me.
Who? Who’s this little guy dragging me? Is, is that a stick of dynamite? Is that a lit stick of dynamite!? It’s bigger around than his arm, and almost as long. He looks so scared and nervous. Am, am I alive? Oh no, the rock monsters. I can barely turn my head. They’re closing in. There’s a rope, but it’s on the far side of the golems, and the golems are about to rip it down. The little blue reptilian dragging me looks at the lit stick in his hands, and back to the golems repeatedly. He whimpers and tosses the stick, it seems too heavy and unwieldy for him to throw properly. He manages to throw it about twenty feet before it lands. It then starts to roll back towards us. It rolls to only a few feet away. If, if that’s pure trinitro T whatever, tolulene I think, TNT regardless, that’s going to kill this little guy.
He couldn’t get much farther away even if he dropped me at the moment, we’re encircled. It might get rid of the rock monsters, but he’s going to die if I don’t do something. I summon what’s left of my strength and shove this little lizard man over, wrapping him up in my body. He squirms to get away, but I need to at least save him for trying to save me. I whisper that I’ll protect him. I snag the extra suit of Valkyrie armor from my waistband, begin to drag it across one of his fingers, armoring him up instantly. I lock my muscles, and he whimpers in fear. I can hear the wick. This is it. I make sure to cover every last inch of him. Please be heavily incendiary, and less concussive. Oof. Nope. Guess not. Hello again darkness.