I awaken in the rocky chamber once more. I feel much better, less like pulverized, tenderized meat, and more like a person. I flex my face and jaw rapidly, randomly for several moments, then slowly begin stretching my neck, flexing my fingers and arms, and work my way down. Everything seems to be responding. Without too much pain either at that. It’s almost as if I were healing as well as I used to prior to the radiant purge on Can’Z’aas. That’s rather surprising. Or, hm. Maybe it was Kozzurth’s heart?

Huh, I bet it was, honestly. And it probably shortened my life expectancy by using up whatever power her heart infused me with. Fudge. Probably need three more hearts now. I am so gorram screwed. Poor Teuila. How do I fix me? I screwed up so bad on Can’Z’aas. I didn’t think about it too much. Just, I knew what I had to do to save my family, so I did it. No questions asked. I was prepared to accept whatever pain or death came along with that. Lao would chastise me, but that’s, it’s just. I can’t find a way to alter that part of my nature. I don’t really want to. I value their safety and happiness over everything else in existence.

Huff, oh well. Hm? I’m once again surprised to find myself fully dressed, and equipped. Even more surprising is that Berinon’s sheath survived unscathed, which means Taylynn’s dagger is unscathed as well, since I popped her bone-sheathed dagger inside it. Then again, maybe this isn’t a sheathe at all, it’s round, it could be a scroll-case, or hip-quiver. It does have a second set of lower straps, and I’m just the kind of dink to not realize stuff like that, and wear it wrong. Hah, Teuila’s nickname for me, yeah, it’s totally true.

Speaking of, where is Teuila? I had to have been asleep for hours, maybe days, on two occasions now. With how insistent she has been about staying at my side, I’d have expected to see her on at least one of the occasions I woke up after she went to fetch her pack. Her pack isn’t here though either. I figured if she were hanging out with the Kobolds somewhere, she’d drop the pack off with me, in this room. Well, if it would fit through the tunnels or hallways.

The tunnels do appear large enough. Despite the Kobolds’ shortness, I can stand fully upright, and stretch wide whilst walking. Where is everyone? Hm, there’s a swift shuffle headed this way, and the sound of fabric dragging through dust upon stone. Perhaps Elder in his robe? I wait at the intersection, facing the direction of the shuffling, slightly on-guard and around the corner from the tunnel I’d heard it from. It could be that Timbik fellow possibly. I’d rather not let him get the drop on me. I sheathe my crossbow to hide its terribly-bright glow, and grip the hilt of my Valkyrie dagger instead.

Still my breathing, slower, slower, calm. Patience. The figure turns the corner, and thankfully I’m able to refrain from striking. Also thankfully, it is indeed Elder. I wasn’t entirely sure from my silent sonar, even once he had gotten in range. I’m still not entirely certain on all the shapely and tactile differences between the Kobolds, and Timbik could have been wearing a cloak or robe to come after me.

Startled, Elder suddenly notices me, and leaps back, wary for a moment. He seems to clutch his chest beneath his robes as he states, “Ah, the, hm, Reggie, in only two days, you’re up and about? Fit enough to lurk and sneak up on this old lizard? How curious indeed.”

As I equip my crossbow to light the hallway, I blush with chagrin, admitting, “I think it might have something to do with consuming power from the heart of Kozzurth. Oh out of context that probably sounds weird. She was a dragon, and, well, I guess she is still a dragon, well, a dragon corpse now. I’m getting sidetracked. She was an evil, bloated dragon, eating people and their wealth, seemingly more for kicks than out of necessity. Perfectly willing to slaughter all people that weren’t being ruled by her. Anyway, I accidentally ingested a bunch of her blood, possibly saliva, and when I touched her heart, begging it to open a portal to my homeland, the heart shrunk massively.”

My silent sonar can sense Elder’s scaled brows widen and widen further during my explanation. He states, “I have a request of you, and it may be urgent, possibly. I do however hope to speak with you about dragons at some point. Again, it only might be urgent, but I was wondering if you would be able to, be willing to, seek out your Teuila, and our bravest, Dippy. Neither has returned from the hole in which her pack was found. There are subterranean tunnels that we did not dig. They are cold and damp, and emit a foul, evil odor.”

I grit my teeth and scrunch my eyes tightly shut while pulling back my lips to hide the sorrow my face wishes to display. Another solo adventure for Reggie Shellcracker. I thought we were done with these. I inhale a shuddering, staccato breath. I nod towards Elder, and simply motion for him to lead on. I’m too upset to speak at the moment. He takes the hint and begins his quick shuffle, leading us towards the exit I assume. If the blast opened a hole near Teuila’s pack, it would be somewhere out in The Gap canyon.

I take deep breaths and follow along in silence, with closed eyes. So much time in my life spent without my sight. I stroke my danger wraps, tracing their edges with my fingertips. These have literally saved my life, time and time again. They’ve also given me an entirely new way to experience the world. I feel almost emptier somehow when they aren’t on. I guess it feels similar to when I first lost my sight after the Night of High Water. I got them a couple of months after that night, while still blind. Since then, I’ve rarely taken them off, except to make a statement, or to challenge myself in some fashion. A smile creeps across my face as I remember coming back to Teuila from catatonia. I unequipped them that time. The statement, she understood it. Several tears roll down my cheeks and jaw.

Stolen story; please report.

I’m certain she’s still alive. I just, I can’t imagine otherwise. I swear that, well, something, somehow, would tell me if she were taken from me. Hell, I would personally break the barrier to my Can’Z’aasian powers and find a way to travel back to warn myself if I found Teuila was taken from me, derezzed. Hell, I’d have travelled further enough back to change our entire timeline to completely avoid the circumstance that brought it about, entirely.

Now that we’re out of the Kobolds’ warren, or tunnel system, whatever it is, Elder motions towards a fairly obvious yawning portal near the floor of the gap, on the opposite side, in the eastern mountain’s cliff face. I nod and set off across The Gap wordlessly. Elder, for his part, respects my silent departure. I drop a shuddering sigh as I open my eyes in this new tunnel system. Teuila’s pack is visible after a short drop. It’s no wonder Dippy couldn’t bring it up though. It’s shocking that it even fit through such a small gap. Or, well, perhaps the rocks have shifted since it landed. It doesn’t explain why Teuila isn’t up here, or why the pack is still here though.

Like Teuila said, she’d just smash through some of the stone to get it out. The padding and upper-knuckle metal on our Valkyrie gauntlets is sort of like wearing a better version of brass knuckles. She wouldn’t even have to search for a pickaxe or something, she’d just punch her way down. She’s okay. She must have seen something interesting. Oh, yeah, she definitely did. These tunnels look like they were dug by a familiar set of claws. The mite-hulks. There is no possible way, right? The queen couldn’t have followed us here. We killed her, and then we died before she would respawn. Does Rayileklia have its own mite-hulks?

Carrying onwards, further and further down this tunnel, it’s pretty clear that they do. Discarded, shattered carapaces coated with goo dot the tunnel complex. They’re odd though, shimmery, more reflective than I recall, especially in the light of my crossbow. Hm, a, well, shape, is following me along the ceiling. It barely registers on the silent sonar, but it registers as dangerous. It’s like its only partially tangible, partially solid perhaps. A liquid that’s following me, a dangerous liquid that’s following me? Sounds like some sort of slime-monster from a videogame from Fakeworld, Earth. Fine, genre-savviness from Earth, I give up. I’m not fighting you anymore. Tell me all you want about videogame dangers.

Some slimes can change shapes? Slashing them can cause them to duplicate. They’re likely highly-acidic. Fire either does absolutely nothing, or heat ends up being the only way to deal with them, dehydrating and evaporating them, plus a fireball could cave the tunnel in around me. Lightning is similar, it either is a great way to destroy them, or they’re freaking energized by it, and similarly might destabilize the tunnel. Gorramit, I don’t want to have to friggin’ pick between three possibly bad choices. My easiest to access spells are fire and lightning, my weapon is a slashing-edged dagger. I have an ice storm spell in the staff, but it’s a bit massive, I have no idea what would happen if I cast it in a cramped space. Plus, rocks don’t really like ice any more than they like explosions.

Ugh, an intersection. Crap. Fine, right hand wall rule. We’ll go right for now, keep our hand along the wall, well, drag the Valkyrie dagger along the wall, scoring it as we pass. At the very least, this should keep us following the perimeter. And of course. I suck a pft in reverse while clucking my tongue. Huff. I blow a heavy sigh as I reach an obvious dead end, and the ooze following me around begins to drop from the ceiling towards me. It takes up far too much space to leap backwards up the tunnel, so I leap towards the dead end. Grrr. I growl at the thing as it begins to change shape.

Oh hell fricking no. Not going through that crap again. It begins forming up, starting with familiar boots. The same boots I’m wearing, the same boots Teuila’s wearing. Valkyrie boots. I wish I had access to my thermokinesis on this planet. Or my full suite of electrokinesis abilities. Screw it, to hell with the consequences. I know how to manipulate spells slightly. Let’s use the fireball.

First, I dash towards and leap at the slime-creature, aiming for its far side, likely surprising it as it reaches pseudopods upwards to snag my sailing form. Secondly, I drop the staff from its holster into my left hand, extending it fully instantly. Lastly, I access its fireball spell, but I do to the fireball spell what Luxxop and Rastoc did to me. I aim a tiny, time-delayed spark towards the slime, embedding it within the creature. I’ve only done it with electricity, lightning before, but the premise is the same. The lightning version is how I killed Mataalii, my brother, right before Luni resurrected and captured him. Further, I sprint back towards the intersection, having only given myself five seconds before the timed detonation.

Five seconds pass and I barely make it around the corner having run at a dead sprint. I’m not concerned with the fire from the fireball itself, but I am concerned with the concussive force of it morphing from a spark into a twenty food radius fireball. The roar of the flame is accompanied by a sickening splatter, and horrid sizzling. Sure enough, the tunnels are rocked with the force of the blast, and after a few moments, another sound occurs, that of stone shifting and falling.

There, fine, even if that didn’t destroy the thing, it should be disoriented as it oozes its way out of the collapsed dead end. Hopefully it doesn’t have a perfect sense of direction, if it survived. Oh, a thought just occurred. Yeah, it’s probably a pretty likely one too. Dippy probably went after Zippy as much as they went after Teuila, down into these tunnels. Dippy sounded like they had a very close relationship with Zippy when I was being pummeled by stone monsters.

I really hope this isn’t going to turn into a three-pronged rescue mission. Hopefully it’s just a tea party that got distracting and went on too long. Pft, hahahaha, yeah right Reggie Shellcracker. Good one buddy. I laugh aloud, cracking up. I’m probably going insane. We both know how co-dependent we are. Yep, yes we do. Phewsh. I hate being alone in my head as much as I hate belong physically alone. Maybe I should have asked Elder if I could ask Miza if she would accompany me. Timbik would probably kill me for making such a request. Perhaps Scrap would have joined me. They sound like an inventor, or smith, and a friend of Dippy.

Bluh, fine. Solo adventure into hostile, unknown tunnels? Gee, a running theme in the life of Reggie Shellcracker. Prepare yourself, subterranea, Reggie Shellcracker has gone crazy, and is giving in to their greatest sin, wrath. I’m going to friggin’ kill anything I see that isn’t Teuila, Dippy, or Zippy. So stay the F&*( out of my way.