Kahli bounced the boulder under her foot. She had to get a hold of herself, summoning and controlling a big rock with her foot with her new [skill] was crazy! Just by looking at it, she could feel intuitively the rock moving in an infinite number of differing dimensions based upon bizarre movements and quirks in space and time.

Space and time? Kahli paused in wonder at her own strange thoughts. She'd never really thought much about space or time. Kahli was never really into theories and universal sensibilities in that way. No, instead, Kahli was more interested in the here and now, in the present, in the only thing that she saw was really certain. Well, that wasn't necessarily all true. Kahli did find the past, especially the distant past, terribly interesting.

After all, how else would she have gotten into this mess if not for her absolute obsession with crazy, ancient history? Why else had she gone to Old Snow Moutain in Blandia? Who does that, other than someone who feels absolutely compelled to go forward in the present with information from the past?

But now, with her [Seismic Sense], she felt something else truly grip her mind. It was like Kalhi suddenly saw something obvious, something that had always been right in front of her while inexplicably also being impossibly hidden from her in permanence.

How exactly had that been? She wasn't certain, but with her new [skill], she was getting information that her tauman mind wasn't entirely certain how to deal with.

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Kahli was riding in a small, metal orb that was slowly but surely sailing up the side of the mountains.

"It's so beautiful, Taubitha."

Kahli's roommate looked over to her a smiled a toothy grin. There were little specks of living wood dotting the plaster on her face, kind of like freckles. "Yea it is. This view never gets old, I can tell you that much."

"Thanks for taking me here."

"Thanks for coming along for the ride!" Taubitha smirked. Then, she pulled a small, miniature coconut out of her bag. "Guess what I have?"

"Adequate hydration?"

"No, silly! It's full of vodka!" she smiled. "Let's each take a shot before we get to the top! It'll make the hiking we have to do later easier, plus it'll also keep us warm. It's going to be pretty cold in Blandia!"

Kahli was a little unsure about this, but she eventually agreed that Blandia sure was going to be pretty cold. She didn't want to be boring or something.

"Wooo! Let's go!"

Taubitha gave Kahli the first shot. She handed the coconut over and smiled. Kahli took a shot and gasped. It was harsh and strong, yet somehow also fairly smooth. Still, she started coughing fiercely as her stomach was lit on fire. Now it was Taubitha's turn. She smiled and quickly downed way more than a shot's worth. She smiled and sighed.

"Let's goooo!" Taubitha said, adjusting her eyebrow piercing before doing a handstand. "Come on, Kahli, do a handstand!"

"But Taubitha, my big left foot-"

"Oh my gods, Klikli, come on!"

"Don't call me that!"

They squabbled for a moment, but soon enough Kahli found herself peer pressured into hand standing with impunity. Taubitha was quite happy about this development.

"The views are even cooler out the window when you're doing a handstand and you've just taken a shot of vodka. Come, look out the window with me!"

Taubitha walked with her hands over to the window and looked out with a smile. "Come on, it's so worth it!"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Kahli started to handwalk over, but lost her balance and fell on her side.

Taubitha snorted in a failed attempt to conceal her laughter, and it sounded a little bit like a pig. It was Taubitha's biggest insecurity, Kahli knew this from her time spent in gymnastics with Taubitha way back when. Usually Kahli wouldn't say anything about it. But when that oinkish snort was directed at her losing her balance due to being on a moving pod soaring up a mountainside while handstanding, which was already difficult enough with her enormous left foot without also having just taken a shot of vodka, Kahli felt there was only one fair reaction to have.

"Yea, hah hah hah. Watch your oinking, Taubitha," spat Kahli, and she suddenly felt so bad she could cry, even though only seconds ago Taubitha had been laughing at her! It was wild what Taubitha was capable of.

"Wow, Kahli, wow. I just.. I just can't. I mean, wow, how could you even say that to me?"

"I'm sorry, Taubitha, I just lost my-"

"No, you know what, Kahli? I'm sorry. Yeah, that's right, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm not enough for you, or maybe that I'm too much for you. I'm sorry that I'm so much that you just have to tear me down in order to build yourself up. Well, you know what, Kahli? You can't build mountains without molehills, and two rights don't leave you feeling any less left out. Catch my pitch, bitch? I'm saying that I think you ought to just, I mean, Kahli, I do so much for you. I told you about this ride, first of all, which is so much cooler that taking the lobster bus to Blandia because of how great the views are-"

Kahli didn't necessarily agree with this position. She really liked the lobster bus and thought the way it crawled across the landscape like some sort of giant skink was fascinating and beautiful. But she said nothing. Even though Taubitha had just called her a bitch, of all things.

"And I gave you some of my vodka for free! And, and, I even tried to show you how nice the views are here if you just, you know, if you just do a handstand and look out the window! It's really worth it! And also, I know for a fact that you stole that bracelet from me back in gymnastics camp, and you've never admitted it once to this day, and you keep gaslighting me and directly denying reality as if it doesn't matter what you think, do or say to me! You know who does that, Kahli? Manipulators! And psychopaths! And manipulative psychopaths! Is that what you are? Are you some sort of lying, cheating, manipulative psychopath?"

"...This is about Frahnk, isn't it?" groaned Kahli. "It's not even about me, is it? It's about him."

"Don't you say his name you, you siren! You harpy! You, you, you banshee!" Taubitha shrieked as she hopped out of her handstand. "I don't want to talk about Frahnk with you!"

"Well, he was the one that cheated on you," said Kahli matter-of-factly.

"Fuck you, you fucking slut."

Kahli scrunched her face in confusion. "I'm sorry, what? It's not my fault he was in love with me. I never ever talked to him. And I wasn't interested in him, either. If he had a thing for me, well, that was his own problem, Taubitha."

"Ugh. Whatever," Taubitha sat down cross-legged and sipped on her vodka coconut. "The ride's almost over. I can't wait to get out of here and never see you again. We can never, ever come back from this moment. Our friendship is, officially, OVER."

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Kahli shuddered at the memory of her last moments of friendship with Taubitha. Sure, she also had memories of what she'd done to get the prophetic pamphlet that spawned Froufrou, but she only had time to dwell on the past so much with the present here, now, staring her in the face with sharpened pitchforks.

Kahli figured it was time for her to start attacking before the war mage started yelling about cars again. So, she summoned her rock - oh. It seemed she'd already summoned her rock a few times, and instead had just gotten a little distracted and stopped paying attention to it. Kahli noticed that each time she summoned her rock, the old rock quickly dissipated into nothing. She wondered if she could use this mechanism in her fight. Regardless of the fact that she'd defeated a mega dragon before, Kahli knew that this nasty war mage was not messing around, and was liable to actually attack her sooner rather than later.

So, she kicked her rock up into the air with a knowing smirk and watched it sail up, up, up. The war mage looked too, seeming to be completely distracted by her ploy. Now was the time.

Kahli summoned a new rock. Before the war mage knew what was happening, she'd kicked a rock their way. However, Kahli misjudged the distance, and massively undershot her aim. This meant the rock sank to the sea, then, rapidly yanked around and zoomed back to her large, left foot.

"Ugh," Kahli groaned. She'd have to just try her trademark move. That's what she got for getting creative. So, Kahli kicked her rock as far away from the direction of the war mage as possible.

"Here we go again," she muttered under her breath as her rock zoomed back towards her, catching fire almost immediately this time. Seconds before it reached her canoe, Kahli hit the deck and watched her favored projectile soar towards the war mage.

The war mage stood there, almost like a statue. Then, they raised their woody hands and summoned up more black lightning. With a cry, they shot out a crazed bolt of energy at Kahli's rock.

She gasped. What would happen when the two dueling energies collided?