Chapter 224

Jay and Norri continued on in to the pocket portal dimension. It didn't feel like a pocket dimension – it just felt like they were in a tunnel with glowing purple crystals. Jay smiled at the scent of overturned earth that filled the passage. After some time walking they came to their first feature that was not a straight tunnel.

The tunnel turned to the left, then right, then right again, and then left. This made it so that one couldn't see down the tunnel all the way to the end. It was like a knuckle that broke up the otherwise entirely straight tunnels.

They went through two more of those for a total of three bends in the tunnel.

“What's with all of these zig zags?” Norri asked with a shake of her head as they worked their way through the third bend in the tunnel.

Jay pointed ahead of them where they could see a doorway in the distance. “Usually bends in tunnels like that are to provide a defensible spot. A series of corners are a lot easier to defend than a straight tunnel that goes from portal to doorway.”

“Defend against what though? There's nothing here but the occasional one-tooth. Even then there aren't enough of them to worry about.” Norri pointed out.

Jay frowned, “I've no idea. Come on, let's head to the doorway.”

The two continued on and left the last turn in the tunnel behind them as they approached the door set in to the end of their tunnel. The purple gems became denser the closer to the door they got. By the time they stood in front of the door itself the purple glow from the crystals became quite bright.

An iron door blocked their way forward and Jay reached out and pulled Norri back when she reached out to touch it.

“What?” Norri asked a little perturbed by his action. She frowned and looked up at him.

Jay pointed and then very carefully moved his finger along a very difficult to see line that had been pulled taught across the doorway and at an angle. Had Norri taken even a tiny step forward to reach the door knob she would have snapped the trigger line which was obviously under tension.

Norri took a quick step back and pulled her arm away from Jay nervously. “Thanks. I should have known better,” she castigated herself a little too intensely and Jay had to calm her down.

“Relax! It's ok! You didn't set it off,” Jay insisted but Norri was not to be mollified so easily.

“Stupid! I just pulled a Carly!” Norri said with an angry face. “Damn it!”

Jay laughed a little at that but Norri's angry face chased away his laughter fairly quickly. He tried a different approach.

“We're a team. You save me from my mistakes and I'll do the same for you.” Jay said with a hopeful smile. He was hoping that it would help calm her down.

Norri sighed loudly and then nodded. It wasn't so much that Jay had calmed her down as it was that she had run out of steam all on her own. “Deal.”

“Good. Now you go sit and collect yourself while I try to disarm this thing,” Jay said as he flashed her a warm smile.

Norri took another step back and squatted on the ground rather than sitting down. She didn't expect to be there for very long and it was easier to stand up from a squat than stand up from a seated position. She still didn't know what was in there with them and wanted to be prepared – especially after almost setting off a trip wire.

Jay didn't seem to notice as he was already inspecting the wire and the trap housing it led to. He marveled at the craftsmanship – the housing blended in perfectly with the door itself – it might even have been made out of the same wood.

Jay carefully pried the cover loose and inspected the insides of the trap. The wire was under tension, that much was clear. Cutting the line would prove disastrous for them and would most certainly set off the trap. He instead would have to trace the line back to the trigger itself and somehow mechanically prevent it from triggering.

“How's it going?” Norri asked as she interrupted Jay's concentration after a few minutes had passed. She was getting bored, and worried. She stood up and brushed off her clothing.

Jay smiled without looking away from the trap. “Going well. I think I have this thing almost beat,” Jay said as he took a trap pin out of one of his pouches and fit it in to one of three holes that he had to choose from. He had already decided the first hole was a trap within a trap and would trigger the trap just as surely as cutting the trigger line would.

The second hole looked like the right one to Jay. The third hole was a wildcard and Jay had no idea what it might do. Hole two was what he went with. He pushed the pin in the last little bit and it snapped in to place with a loud click.

Jay stepped back from the door and took out his staff. He mentally extended it to its full length and stepped away further from the door until he had reached Norri. Then he held one end of his staff and used the other end to snap the trigger line.

Nothing happened.

“Woohoo! You did it!” Norri said and clapped once.

Jay brought his staff back to his side and mentally commanded it to return to its normal length.

“Let's see what we've got. Ready?” Jay asked and Norri nodded as she got in to position behind him.

Jay turned the knob and pushed the door open without stepping inside.

On the other side of the door was a large room with one wall – due to the room being round. A square room would have had four walls, but how many walls does a round room have? One.

The wall was absolutely stacked with cages and the cages were quite large, six feet cubed. Each cage had a mass of one-tooths crawling around inside of it. The cages were overstuffed and there was barely room for the monsters to move about. Legs and heads stuck through the bars in some places where each cage was especially full.

The one-tooths made a riot of chittering noises and the sound was momentarily overwhelming as all of the monsters in the room suddenly became animated due to Jay and Norri's arrival.

The round room was cavernous and the ceiling was high enough to be shrouded in darkness. Cages lined the wall as high as Jay could see stacked three, even four, cages high.

Magical lighting had been set up in the room and was evenly spaced along the wall in between stacks of cages.

In the center of the room a massive u-shaped standing desk had been set up and was covered in papers and a number of unrecognizable devices – at least to Jay's eyes. At the far end of the room was what Jay could only describe as a metal box the size of a shipping container. Jay guessed it to be 20 feet long and 8 feet wide and tall. The metal container was currently bolted shut.

“What kind of experiment was this guy doing again?” Norri wondered out loud and frowned.

Jay carefully inspected the floor, wall, and the room in general for traps before he was satisfied. Just to be sure he took out his Streamer Ball and squirted a few bunches of streamers across the room. They fell slowly to the floor and stayed there for a few seconds before they disappeared.

“I've no idea what they were doing but it looks clear. Let's head in.” Jay said as the two of them crept in to the room slowly as if they were afraid of getting caught. The one-tooths chittered wildly at them as they approached the standing desk.

Norri carefully followed in Jay's steps as they moved in to the room. The room smelled bad. Jay wasn't sure if the smell was coming from the one-tooths or whatever was in the metal container but regardless, he was not enjoying it.

Norri scrunched up her face, “Ew, gross. Let's hurry up and get out of here.”

Jay nodded and inspected the desk and its contents. It had no drawers – it was just a standing desk. The surface of the table had been littered with a number of papers and Jay swept them all up in to a pile and shoved them in his bag. Then he looked over a few of the devices on the table until he'd identified the one that the Bibliomancer Pierre had shown him earlier.

“Why aren't you picking it up?” Norri asked in a huff after Jay had been motionless for a moment too long. The chittering was deafening in the room and she had to ask again just so that Jay could hear her.

Jay pointed and Norri came over to see what he had been pointing at. On the desk sat three devices and one of them matched what they were looking for. Jay was hesitant to pick up the other two devices as he had no idea what they might do.

He was hesitant to pick up the correct device because it appeared to have been trapped.

“Look at the desk surface it's sitting on – there's a round discoloration there, like a disc. That looks like it could be a pressure pad. Lift the device up and boom – trap goes off.” Jay explained.

“How do you disable that?” Norri asked.

Jay sighed, “That's the thing – I've no idea. I don't see anything that I can interact with – no slots or dips in the table's surface. Oh! Give me a second,” Jay said as he bent and looked under the table. “Huh,” he said as he stood upright once again. “I recognize that trap housing – it's just a standard pressure plate.”

“Is that good?” Norri asked in confusion and Jay shrugged in response.

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“Maybe? Standard pressure plates don't care about weight differences – they're binary triggers, either on or off, there is no weight detection, which works well for us,” Jay said as he reinspected the table.

“And that is good because...why?” Norri asked in frustration. She didn't know much about traps and Jay seemed to forget that at times.

Jay nodded, “It means we can put as much weight as we want on it and it won't go off. It will only go off if there is no weight on it. Which means...” Jay said and gave Norri an opportunity to work things out in her head.

Norri raised an eyebrow, “So wait – you're saying you can just put something else on the plate and take off the device and it won't go off?”

Jay nodded, “Exactly! What else can we use though?”

Norri looked about, “There isn't much to work with. What about a rock?”

Norri walked out of the room and returned with a rock that she pried from the tunnel's surface. The purple gems wouldn't budge but she had no trouble tugging out a decent sized stone. She walked back in to the room and handed it to Jay who took it and hefted in his hand to judge the weight.

“It feels heavy enough. Thanks Norri!” Jay said happily.

Norri smiled and was pleased to have contributed. She wasn't good at traps but was happy to help out here and there.

Jay reached out and held the rock over the pressure plate embedded in to the table, “Ok.. Tell you what, step back and get ready to run, just in case.”

Norri walked over and waited at the room's entrance.

Carefully, Jay set the rock down on the pressure plate right beside the portal device. He looked around the room but nothing happened.

“Good so far,” Norri said and Jay nodded.

Jay grasped the device and carefully lifted it off of the table.

Nothing happened again.

Norri let out a loud breath and Jay turned, smiled, and held the device out triumphantly.

Jay watched as Norri's face turned from one of triumph to one of horror.

Jay turned just in time to see a one-tooth climb up on to the table and race towards Jay. The small squirrel like creature didn't move quite as fast as a squirrel but they were fast enough.

Unfortunately, the rock on the pressure plate on the table was in the monster's way. Rather than go around it however it just barreled right in to it and sent the rock tumbling off the table and on to the ground.

It was far too loud in the room to hear the tiny click as the pressure plate triggered.

All of the cages in the room opening though – that was easy enough to hear. As one-tooths began to spill out of the cages and on to the floor it started to rain small gray monsters as they fell out of the cages stacked in to the air above them.

“RUN!” Jay yelled as he stuffed the device in to one of his pouches and bolted for the door.

Norri had already made it out of the room by the time Jay reached the door. That was when he heard a loud squeal as the two doors to the metal container in the back of the round room suddenly swung open and a nasty looking monster crawled out of it.

The monster was low to the ground and had long, two foot, thin spines that grew off of its back in clumps, like tall grass. It had four squat legs like a crocodile but wasn't nearly as long. Its head was attached to a squat thick neck and its front facing eyes were red with fury.

The monster let out a low guttural growl and sped towards Jay. As one-tooths got in its way it snapped them out of the air with its teeth riddled jaws that unhinged so that it could swallow them whole.

The two ran as fast as they could and Jay slammed the door closed behind him as he left the room.

A moment later the door was knocked off of its hinges and smashed in to the tunnel wall as the low slung monster charged through it, not caring at all that the door had been closed. The sudden crash surprised and terrified Norri.

Norri was screaming now, a high pitched shriek that was part excitement, part terror.

Jay spared a look behind him and saw a wave of one-tooths pour through the door and towards Jay and Norri. They overtook the monster first though and for a moment Jay thought that their problems might solve themselves but he reconsidered as the monster ate any one-tooth that got even close.

The monster was momentarily covered in one-tooths but quickly thinned them out by eating them one or two at a time. Soon the one-tooths gave the monster a wider berth and instead charged along behind it and to the sides if there was room.

Occasionally the monster would swing to the side just so that it could eat another one-tooth.

“I think I know why they were raising one-tooths now!” Jay yelled as they reached the first set of turns in the tunnel. He could hear Norri reply from just ahead of them as the turns momentarily slowed them down.

“Right! To feed to the big thing chasing us! I can hear it!” Norri yelled as she ran in between her screaming.

They made it through the first turns and was once again in the straight tunnel where they could run faster.

They ran at full speed as the monster behind them slammed through the twisting dirt tunnel and began to gain on Jay.

Jay wracked his brain as he tried to think of a solution. If M'redith were here she could just use her Giant Frame class ability. Or she could have used her Pouch of Pillars to block off the tunnel. Wait. Jay had a fancy pouch too – he could use that! It wouldn't block the tunnel but it might buy him some time. He slapped at his pouches until he found the right one.

Jay hurriedly fished out a pinch of fine black sand from one of his pouches – his Starburst Pouch.

Starburst Pouch – Rare – A small pouch containing fine black sand. When a pinch of sand is thrown on the ground a blinding white flash is produced along with heavy smoke, concealing the user. The pouch carries enough sand for three pinches after which it will require 24 hours to recharge. This item must be bound before use.

He tossed the sand behind him just as the two of them managed to make it to the second set of twists in the tunnel. A poof sound was heard behind them, it sounded like a small explosion, like fireworks. Behind Jay a bright blinding white flash suddenly pulsed and the monster chasing them was momentarily stunned.

It screamed in rage as it was blinded and the one-tooths crawled over each other in a scramble as they became blind too.

Heavy black smoke began to fill the tunnel behind them as Jay and Norri made it through the second set of turns and picked up their pace. The smoke also made it hard for the monsters to see and they were crawling every direction except for the right one.

Now running, the two moved quickly towards the last set of turns.

“Almost there!” Jay yelled and Norri replied with a high pitched scream as the smoke behind them dissipated and the monster began to chase them once again.

Norri and Jay both turned to look at the monster as it let out a low growl that they could feel in their chests. The monster looked even angrier than it had before and once again began to run after Jay and Norri.

The one-tooths had gotten ahead of the monster while it had been blinded and a sea of the small chittering creatures ran towards them.

The final set of turns was a blur as Norri and Jay practically bounced off the walls as they tried to take the turns as fast as possible.

The turns filled up with one-tooths as they scrambled after Jay and Norri and Jay was forced to throw another pinch of sand behind him as they turned in to the final straightaway.

Norri ran ahead and Jay yelled after her. “Don't wait for me! Get through the portal!”

The portal was by no means close – they still had to run for it. It grew closer as they ran, but so did the monster and the one-tooths.

With a final scream Norri reached the portal and got on to the ground. She began to crawl through but it was slow going and the terror bubbled up inside of her and she screamed once again.

As she crawled through the portal Jay was catching up to her and the monsters were right behind him. Jay knew that he only had one pinch of sand left in his pouch and it would have to count.

Jay saw that Norri was now almost entirely through the portal. Jay ran on and was maybe a few seconds behind her now. He needed time to crawl through the portal but it did not seem that the monster was going to give him that time.

Jay needed to do something now. He turned and threw his last pinch of sand and tried to aim for the monster's eyes. He tried to make sure the sand covered as many one-tooths behind him as possible as well.

With a large fwoomp sound the tunnel behind him lit up entirely white for a moment. The monster let out a deep roar of pain as it turned and struck the tunnel wall. It rubbed its head up against the wall in an attempt to rub off the sand but it wasn't working.

The one-tooths weren't doing any better and Jay's attempt at covering them with the sand had worked. They writhed in a mass of fur and teeth but made no further forward progress.

Jay ran for the portal and threw himself on the ground. He took the portal device out of his pocket and smashed it. He immediately began to crawl through the portal as it began to slowly shrink.

The light behind him faded and he knew he only had seconds. He crawled forward slowly and knew in his heart that he couldn't crawl fast enough. The monster would get him, the one-tooths would soon reach him, and he would end his time in Eden here – in a tiny pocket dimension full of psychotic squirrels.

Jay moved forwards another inch and thrust his arms through the portal as far as they would reach.

The monster behind him turned and locked its eyes on Jay's prostrate form. It let out a furious growl and charged.

Jay continued to crawl forwards but it wouldn't be enough. What a stupid way to die, Jay thought to himself as the monster reached him.

At the last moment however he felt his arms become enveloped in the grasp of another. With a sudden jarring force he was forcefully pulled through the portal by whomever was on the opposite end.

Jay's form shot through the portal faster than he would have been able to manage on his own. His body slid across the floor and through the portal just as it was collapsing.

The monster's jaws snapped down in space where Jay's feet and legs had been just a moment before.

The monster ran for the portal but it grown too small for it to fit through and the monster stopped, confused. It shook its head before it decided to ignore the portal entirely and instead took stock of its surroundings.

With a unsatisfied grunt the monster turned and began to chase the one-tooths instead. The monster was hungry, and everywhere around him was food.

Behind the monster the portal snapped closed.