Weeks and months later, Puck would say that it was some unknown feeling, an irresistible urge that overtook him as they came closer to the surface. In the moment, though, Puck wouldn’t describe his feelings or intuition as something unknown. It wasn’t something strange or unnatural.As they drew nearer to the surface, it was only right that the call of freedom from the endless horizons grew stronger and stronger.

At first, Puck had simply become less and less talkative, his thoughts wandering unbidden as his steps quickened toward their destination. Soon after, Brock was affected as well when Puck’s ideal began to truly stir and strain, as though it too new what was coming.Struggling more and more to control his own ideal, Puck often felt like he didn’t even want too anymore. As they neared the surface, gusts of wind or deep vibrations through the stone would occasionally rile up the whole group.

Feeling increasingly like a wild animal that had been held captive all along, Puck sensed his ideal growing wilder and more uncontrollable by the hour. Not only that, but the ideal also grew stronger, sometimes even rebelled against the very bond it had forged with Puck himself.Puck didn’t mind. He knew his ideal was just like him—his brother, influencing and influenced in turn. Both were becoming more restless, searching for the true freedom of the world above.

At night, Puck would sleep less and less, his anxiety keeping him awake. Yet instead of feeling tired from the lack of rest, he only grew more energetic.

Then, finally, the moment came.

Walking along a gently rising slope through their tunnel, Scarlet had to hold Puck’s arm to stop him from rushing ahead. He could feel it—it was so, so close!The winds around Puck picked up ever more power, intensifying into a small tornado in the cramped space. Spotting a crack in the ceiling above, with even the faintest light shining through into the tunnel’s darkness, Puck couldn’t hold himself back any longer.

He let everything loose.

As the small tornado turned into a full-fledged storm, Taron was the first to get pushed away and knocked to the ground as pebbles began rolling and crashing against the walls.Thurrock, unshaken by such things, adopted his usual non-interference stance, watching Puck’s antics with hawk-like focus.The true hawk in the group, meanwhile, grew more excited, darting through the air as if he controlled the winds himself.

The only one left at the storm’s center with Puck was Scarlet. Holding her disciple and friend she stopped him from rushing out and away.Even now, as Puck had nearly lost his sanity, something seemed to hold the winds back from pushing against Scarlet. After a final decision, Scarlet released Puck’s arm and stepped back.

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Pushing through the whirlpool of law, emotion, and desire that ruled his mind for a fleeting moment, Puck gave Scarlet a reassuring nod. Then his control wavered again, and he slipped back into the turmoil of his emotions.Slowly lifting his clawed hands, Puck felt the wind—and even the deeper aspects of his ideal of freedom—respond as their desires aligned perfectly with his own.The howling whirlwind from before abruptly changed direction as everything focused on the ceiling above. Pushing, pulling, and infiltrating, the ideals of wind and freedom hammered the ceiling with everything they had.

At first, it was just a sliver of a gust that passed through the crack where the light had entered. Then, the first rock was pulled away and pulverized. As the crack widened, more and more wind rushed in with unparalleled force.Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the ceiling was dismantled. Soon, Puck himself began to float upward, lifted by nothing but his rampaging power.

Even then, he felt no insecurity—this was his destiny.

Pushing with the wind as though they were his limbs, breaking rocks free from their eternal embrace, Puck finally placed his hands against the last remnant of the ceiling holding him down.For just a moment, the storm ceased, and Puck floated as though suspended by nothing at all.

Then, he pushed.

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When Scarlet had first noticed the effect their imminent breach of the surface had on Puck, she had been amused. It was somewhat endearing how he became more and more embroiled in his own thoughts as his ideal grew increasingly powerful and wild.But as the effects intensified and his ideal refused to stop its rapid growth in power and influence, she began to sense that something extraordinary was happening.

It was normal for ideals and their wielders to react to situations that resonated with them, but Puck’s reaction shattered every limit Scarlet had thought to exist.When she trapped his arm to hold him back, Scarlet felt as though she was restraining more than just reckless actions or potential danger.

In that moment, Scarlet felt she was holding onto the Puck she had come to know ever since she took it upon herself to heal him after his first fight with the other Gremlins. She was holding her disciple—a funny, willful, and childish Gremlin.Letting him go meant allowing him to change, to become something new. It meant losing part of what she had in him.

Looking at the person before her, Scarlet knew her answer. Holding him back in that moment would hold him back from becoming what he was meant to be.Whatever would change from that point onward, she could only hope that most of what she had earned in their relationship would stay, perhaps even becoming vibrant soil for something more to grow.

And so, she let go of his arm and watched him rise to the ceiling as the winds around her demolished the area. She herself stood unharmed, the winds only brushing against her skin as if shyly saying hello.