[Now viewing scenario 3]
Kahli looked to Sahdi and G'athoong and took a deep breath. It was time to put her [Tale Teller] [skill] to work.
"So, guys, we're obviously stuck in a situation here where, wherever we go, we don't move. We're in a stasis, and standstill, we're at a floating point with no volume and no acceleration." She winced a little. Was she laying it on too thick, here? Hopefully, the answer was no, but Kahli couldn't be certain.
"Okay?" said Sahdi with confusion. "What's your point, exactly, Kahli?"
"My point?"
Yes, Kahli, I'd like to know your point, too.
Perfect. They were both genuinely interested in the nonsense she'd garbled out at them. Clearly, Kahli's [skill] had already started working its magic, and she was all for it. She cleared her throat. "Great, thrilled you're interested in my point. And, well, I'll get there, don't any of you worry, there is where we are headed, and, heh, there is of course the point. With that, I'll start at the beginning. See, the thing of it is is that it doesn't really matter what action we take at this point. I could just sit here and lay down and nap, and when I wake up, I'd be in the same spot. Now, that's not an uncommon thing in any sense of the word - in fact, that's generally how space and time are expected to work. However, this is the really weird thing. See, we can walk down this path and it will just keep repeating itself before us. It's like all we've got to experience is this thick, wooded area, all the same vines, the same trees, the same pebbles on the same dusty trail ridden with trodden tree roots... It's really quite onerous when you think about it."
G'athoong nodded and Sahdi sighed, both of them somewhat indicating that they did indeed find that their situation onerous. Another win for Kahli.
"Now, as you both know, I recently acquired a powerful class known as [Time Manipulator]. Along with that, I gained a few key [attributes] that allow for me the ability to sense and understand many timeline specific properties of the material and immaterial realities surrounding us."
"Oh, okay, cool," said Sahdi matter-of-factly.
"And with that, I can sense all sort of things going on here. It's why I initially started arguing with everyone about stopping and trying to figure out why we can't progress any further down this pathway, and had I realized it was tied to my [attributes] sooner I would've just told you that but obviously I'm still learning how to use them as I just got my [class] like an hour or two ago or whatever. So bare with me, okay? But with that, I can say with absolute certainty to you all that I am sensing things happening here that are totally extreme, and they're all time-focused. With that, it makes me wonder if this is a property of Flungunglia itself, seeing as it exists in a kind of odd time-warp stasis where time passes faster there than it does, well, anywhere else in Nomachiato. In fact, this trail's time warping must be somewhat related to that, considering how close we are to the region at this point. All that said, I don't know what exactly it is. Maybe there's something wrong with the time warp, I don't rightly know. But regardless, what I do know is that time passes differently on the walkway of this trail than it does outside. I can see this thanks to my [class]. To note, do not, I repeat, do not walk off the trail."
"Why?" asked Sahdi.
Kahli smiled. It was great to know that her [skill] had lassoed Sahdi in so closely. Also, Sahdi was presently standing rather close to her. Her hair smelled like flowers, which was kind of distracting, but Kahli made a valiant effort to ignore her and focus instead on lying to her face. "You don't want to walk off the trail because of what I can sense with my [attributes]. My [attributes] are telling me that if you step off the trail, you will quickly start aging. Like, crazy quickly. So, here on this trail, time seems to pass normally, but at the same time spacial time is totally locked in place. But outside the trail, time speeds up rapidly, at a dangerous pace, so that any mortal being would soon perish and turn to dust on leaving the trail." Kahli felt a sense of accomplishment when she beheld the look of abject horror on Sahdi's face, although she decidedly didn't want to betray this to her companion so forced herself to look solemn and serious. "With that, seriously, don't leave the trail. I don't want either of you to die."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Hmmm. Wait a second, here. I have an idea.
"What?" Kahli tried to seem as aloof as possible, hiding all excitement at the fact that G'athoong might just come up with Kahli's idea on her own.
What if I go off the path of the trail, but only briefly - briefly enough to intentionally age myself up? Just enough so that I'd grow large enough to carry both of you on my back. Then, I could fly us all up out of this Theseosus forsaken place!
Kahli used every ounce of energy inside herself to force her mouth not to shoot into a smile. "That's... that's a very generous idea, G'athoong. I'd warn you to be very careful about something like that, though - I mean, we are talking about a very rapid acceleration of time passing outside the trail. It's incredibly dangerous, even for a dragon such as yourself that can reset your age."
I understand, Kahli, but at the same time I think it's going to be necessary for me to give this a try. After all, if what you're saying regarding the rapid time passing is true, we're essentially trapped on this trail - and are indeed also incredibly fortunate none of us have yet to step outside the trail's bounds and in effect fall victim to its wicked power. Along with that, if we are not able to proceed forward on this trail, is it not also fair to posit that we very well may not be able to return back from whence we came, either? The most effective solution for this will be to age me up. Do not worry, I will get over it - sure, it is nice to have my youthful dragon joints, to have all the spritely energies of such a young dragon, but if I play my cards right I can still come out of this younger than I had been when we first met. Now, please, allow me to try this for us.
[End scenario]
Kahli peeked inside her purse to see some of Froufrou's writhing tendrils. "So, Froufrou, what did you think of that timeline? I did a pretty good job, didn't I? That [Tale Teller] [skill] really does pull its weight around my system." And indeed, it did. Really, most of Kahli's [skills] got a lot of use. The only one she could really think of that was not as often implemented was [Barrage of Blows], but she didn't really count that the same way as she'd [scalped] it from the boney berserker way back when. Way back when. It had been, what, two days? It felt like two months, in a way.
Froufrou wanted to tell Kahli that the propencity with which she used her [Tale Teller] [skill] was, at times like this, somewhat disturbing in what all it could accomplish. Froufrou also wanted to commend Kahli for her hard work, as it did seem that they wouldn't need to do any sort of timeline twisting in order to escape the sticky situation they'd found themselves in, which was of course quite excellent. At the same time, Froufrou also wanted to see if she and Kahli could get a better grasp of what it was that was actually happening to trap them on the trail in perpetuity - it would be better for them to have that understanding as opposed to just running off of Kahli's falsehoods, especially as they were now [Time Manipulators].
As Kahli prepared to select the third scenario, she was interrupted by a loud tearing noise as a rift in time opened up in the void and with a loud enging rev, rev, rev who arrived but the Supreme Time Protector, riding a super up motorbike.
"Howdy! Sorry I'm a little late, I got holed up," they said, holding up a putt-putt club. "Heh, a little joke my older self taught me. Did you know that I become an Exalted Time Protector in future? It's pretty cool. It's a great title; at first they came off like a total jerk but then they told me where I could find this motorbike and it's all been uphill since then." With that, the Supreme Time Protector pushed the motorbike back through the rift in time, tossed the putt-putt club in as well, and then sealed the rift with a blast of pink power from their gloved hand. "Ugh, love doing that. So cool." They clapped their hands together in anticipation. "Anyways, how are things? What do you want to look at scenario wise for this [checkpoint]?"
Froufrou squelched a few times sarcastically. Kahli followed that up with a more verbal response.
"Uh, look, Supreme Time Protector, we appreciate your enthusiasm but we've already looked at the scenarios."
"Oh," said the Supreme Time Protector. They sounded a little hurt. "Um, okay. Well, do you have any questions?"
Kahli took a deep breath, preparing to say no, before she was interrupted by uproarious squelching by Froufrou. Kahli lifted up her purse and did her best to interpret the tendril writhing and guttural belches that Froufrou produced, with varying success, until she finally through a game of charades hit on the sticking point that Froufrou was so interested in talking with the Supreme Time Protector about.
"I don't have a lot of questions about our scenarios, but I do have a general time related question," said Kahli. "Seem Froufrou and I found ourselves in this strange forest where we keep walking forward, but we make no progress. And, when we try to leave to forest trail, time immediately speeds up so fast that it ages whoever treads there to death. It's what has us stuck in this [checkpoint] presently."
"OH, fucking shit," said the Supreme Time Protector. They coughed for a moment, and then another moment, and then they raised a finger, and their coughing subsided finally. "Sorry about that. I was just in shock. I haven't heard of that happening in practice, in fact I've only read about it in the Time Documentation. It's called a Speed Time, ironically, and the more time you spend within its thrall, the more powerful it gets. It's... incredbily dangerous."
"Great," said Kahli with a sigh. "Got any of that Time Documentation lying around to go through with us?"