We decided to run. Eventually, I would want to take down the alpha. Make the area safer. For now, however, there was no way we could test it. As I ran through the jungle, my companions kept even pace with me. In fact, I was sure I was the one slowing us down. Maybe I could learn to ride King eventually. I dropped that thought. Way too dangerous.
Before we knew it, we exited the jungle. I skid to a stop. Before me was a rolling grassland. Tall, impossibly tall, green grass waved lazily in wind. Small woods spotted the landscape. A herd of some sort of creature wandered off in the distance, creating a line of clear area. I remembered my view from above. The patchwork world that I hurtled towards. The landscape was far from natural, but how it was constructed I couldn’t begin to understand. Then, I saw something that gave me hope. A circle of scorched earth. At the center was a pod with its door wide open. Someone else was near. Or dead. I looked at the jungle. A solid wall of trees with a clean separation between one place and the other. Jungle, then not-jungle. There was yet another biome to the jungles right. A craggy, mountain-like area filled with valleys, crevices, and caves. A flash of shadow drew my attention upwards. Something large drifted above on large, feathery wings. It spun in lazy circles. Too far away to see any detail. I could not stay out in the open. The prinsaur roared behind me. Where to go? Was the bird getting closer? I made a decision. “King, Balor, we are going into that valley.” The valley was a mountain seemingly split in two.
We ran. Lungs burning, I glanced up. The large bird seemed to have spotted us. It was diving, fast. Hands grasp my hips and armpits and suddenly I was off the ground. Balor screeched as he through me. I landed squarely on Kings back. King barked, then sprinted. I screamed and held on with all my might. I heard the hoots of Balors laugh. Eyes wide, the grass blurring past me, I looked towards him. Balor was keeping impressive pace. Running on five limbs, the sixth holding his spear to his back. A large, dark shadow started to close in on us.
Before I knew it, we zoomed into the stone hallway. King skid to a stop. Balor had to leap over us to avoid colliding. Above us was a loud whoosh of sound and I felt a great pressure of wind. The giant bird had spread its wings wide to stop its decent, landing atop the stone above us. It looked like giant eagle with goat-like horns. Human hands replaced its talons. Then, it was gone just as quickly as it landed. Flying off out of view.
I scratched King on the side as I slid off. My whole body was shaking. The fear and adrenaline of the sudden ride was draining away, leaving me feeling empty. Balor was on the floor, hooting with laughter. King play bowed at the skelky and ran excitedly in circles. My mind raced. We were somewhere new. There was a predator in the sky. It looked like the jungle touched the mountains, somewhere, so I could go back. The problem was, that area of the jungle was beyond the skelky territory. Unknown jungle. Also, A new environment means a new ecology. New monsters and likely a new top dog. I didn’t want to risk running back out of the open, now that the sky devil saw us. Why didn’t it hunt that herd I saw? Maybe it just likes human.
After some time, I gathered my companions. First thing we need to do is find somewhere to sleep the night. Then find a new source of food, or find a path back to the jungle. I was getting tired of fruit anyway. Best to get started as soon as possible. We explored the chasm. It branched several times, turning into more and more of a maze as we went on.
We had come to a dead end, one of several we had run into so far. The walls simply met at a point. We turned around and found two paths. One straight to our left, the other off to our right. Balor grunted in surprise. I agreed. We had just traveled a good 50 yards down the tunnel before We came to the dead end. Yet, when we turned around, the path had changed. What was going on? There was no sound of stone moving. No sensation of being moved. “Balor, any idea what this is?” He looked at me and shrugged. Well, when in doubt, fuck the system. We can just climb out, hope the bird doesn’t spot us, and figure this out from a safe distance. I felt my stomach drop as I looked skyward. A thin line of light was all I could see above me. Somehow, the walls were much taller than before. Impossibly tall. When I shifted my gaze back down, the crevice had darkened. It wasn’t like that before. King started to whine. There was no way we could climb that. I felt cold and alone. Just when I was getting a foothold on this planet, it throws something new at me. No, not alone. I had King and Balor. We were in this shitty situation together. With a great force of will, and not at all to avoid looking like a coward in front of Balor, we took the left path.
The maze-like chasm had become a true maze. Twists, turns. Halls upon halls. I pulsed with king periodically. My perception was filled with a complex series of maze-like tunnels. The pulse couldn’t pierce through stone as well, but it seemed to be able to wrap around walls and bounce information back. There was no exit that I could sense. Wandering blindly was our only choice. We took a left turn—no, wait. Hadn’t we just come from that direction? I looked back, but the path behind us seemed… different, somehow. Narrower? Or had it always been that narrow? My thoughts slipped like sand through my fingers. I forced myself to focus, to remember which way we’d come, but the harder I tried, the more the paths seemed to twist and shift around me.
King whimpered, glancing back at me with wide eyes. Even Balor looked uneasy, his shoulders hunched, ears twitching as though he were hearing something I couldn’t.
After half an hour, we made no progress. My legs felt like lead, each step slower, heavier. I blinked hard, trying to clear the strange foggy haze creeping into my vision. When had I started sweating so much? The air was cool, but I could feel beads of sweat trickling down the back of my neck. King panted beside me, his head drooping, his steps faltering.
I glanced at Balor, who was dragging his spear along the ground, barely lifting his feet with each step. His usual leer was gone, replaced by a blank, glassy stare. For a split second, I couldn’t remember why we were even here, why we were pushing forward through this maze. We were getting tired. But… that wasn’t right. Sure we’ve been moving quickly. Had a few close calls. But, nothing more extraneous than most of my days here. But… it was so difficult to move. Maybe a nap would help. Yes, just close my eyes and…
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I slapped myself awake. Something was happening. Looking around more carefully, I noticed a thin green fog had settled on the ground. The sight seemed to trigger all of my senses. A sickly sweet scent permeated the area. The air itself was dense, heavier. I almost gasped. How did I not notice before? I shook King then Balor who screeched at me lazily and stumbled back. “Poison! We need to move faster. If we stay like this, who knows what would happen.” We broke into a jog, but every step felt like wading through molasses. My vision blurred, the walls of the maze tilting and swaying like a funhouse mirror. King stumbled, and I caught him before he could fall, my hands numb where they touched his fur.
“We have to… keep moving…” I gasped, barely recognizing my own voice. But even as I said it, my legs buckled. Every muscle screamed at me to stop, to lie down and just… rest. Just for a moment.
No. I shook my head, gritting my teeth. We had to get out. We had to find whatever was at the center of this nightmare. The green fog clung to the ground, swirling around my ankles in slow, curling tendrils. It pooled in the dips and crevices of the rocky floor, giving everything a strange, underwater look.
While we moved, I pulsed every few moments. Finally, after 10 or 11 pulses, I found something. A chamber with pulsing walls. If we didn’t have Kings pulse, there was no way we would have found it. We trudged towards it. I realized the maze was circular, the cavern at the center. At the center of the cavern was something glowing incredibly hot. A creature maybe, or some sort of machine. It ran hotter than other creatures we had seen.
Soon, we dashed into the central chamber. The fog was thickest here, pooling around us in rolling waves of green. In the center of the chamber, something hung from the ceiling like a monstrous bat. Long tentacles spiraled down in a twisted helix. The tip of each tentacle oozed a thick green gas, dripping into a bubbling pool below.
I squinted, trying to make sense of it. Its skin was translucent, stretched tight over sinewy muscles that pulsed and quivered. Every few seconds, its body would twitch, and more gas would spew out, filling the room with that sickly-sweet stench.
My stomach turned. We were so close. So close. But my legs felt like jelly, my hands shaking. I was too weak. King half heartedly barked at it. “Balor… it’s… there.” I pointed. He was our only chance. I didn’t know what he could even do in this situation. He looked exhausted. Drained of life. But, he figured out what he needed to do. He lifted the spear with a shaking hand, one hand holding the shaft and another cupping the base. Oh god, I thought, Even Balor is too weak. What a disappointing way to go. Slipping away into death from squid gas. Balor glanced to King. Then, weakly, he pushed me aside and placed a hand on kings head. The pulse hound made a faint whine. A pulse of yellow light flowed from Kings dome and through Balor. He suddenly stood straighter, reared back, and with a unique double handed throw, hurled the spear at the monster.
The throw was not as powerful as mine was, but it flew true. With a schlep sound, the creature was ripped from its roost. It unfurled as it fell. A octopus creature drifted through the air. Small teeth-like protrusions pointed from each tentacle, which just previously had been spiraled around in a point. There was no wound from the spear, but it still hit the ground heavily. My vision started to blur. “King… Power…” I managed to whisper out. The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was King flashing yellow, then bolting towards the creature.
I slept… really well actually. Whatever gas had put me to sleep had worked really well. I was being dragged by my feet. I would move a foot, then stopped, then moved another foot or so. Balor had managed to drag me out of there. “Balor, that’s enough. Give me a moment…”
“Oh, good. You’re awake.” I was let go. “You weigh a lot more than you look.” It wasn’t Balor. I scrambled back, panic and surprise waking me up in an instant. There was a human. An actual PERSON. He was the one who pulled me out of there. The man wore the same clothes as me. His hair was a wild mess and he had a thin, greasy looking mustache outgrowing his stubble. This guy was lanky. Not an ounce of muscle or fat on him.
“What- who are you?” I looked around for King and Balor. They were nowhere to be seen. We were in another crevice. I wondered if this was another trick, like that maze.
“Relax dude. I’m Luke. Try to be quiet, the monsters were asleep. I don’t know how long they will be out.” He gave me a hand to help me up. “I’ve got a hideout not far from here. We can get there, you can rest, then we can deal with the whole ‘Another human?! What will I do?!’ thing. Alright?” It was then I noticed his other arm. Rather, the lack of it. From just above the elbow, it was gone. The limb was caped by a silver metal.
“I have some friends. I need to go back and get them.”
“Naw, dude. Sorry, but it was just you. But, I didn’t see any human-shaped piles of gore so maybe they got away.”
“No, you don’t understand they-” I was cut off by a loud monkey-like scream. Luke grabbed my arm.
“Let’s go!” I jogged off with him, only so I could keep up with him.
“KING! BALOR! I’m here!” I called. Luke look terrified. “Luke, listen-”
“What are you doing!? Fuck this, you are crazy, man.” He let go of me and started running. Just then, King skidded around a corner. On his back was Balor, crouched on top of him. He looked furious. King had something glinting in his mouth. Balor placed a hand on King head, and used Power Up. He lept from Kings back, shoving king off balance with a yelp, and hurtled through the air. His spear was raised high, about to come down with all four arms… right into Luke. The idiot thought I was in danger.
“NO!” I screamed, and jumped in front of Luke who I had just noticed stumbled out of fear. A look of terror flashed across Balors face. Then, he kicked the wall next to him. The maneuver sent him off course, tumbling to the ground past me and Luke. There was the sound of bone breaking. “Balor, calm down. I’m OK. KING, down boy!” I held up a hand towards each monster. King approached growling at Luke. Balor made a whimpering sound. It wasn’t a bone that snapped. He held up two pieces of his spear. Balor whined pitifully.
“What the… FUCK, DUDE!?” Luke yelled. He scrambled back from King. Balor made another distressing moan. Poor guy. “You can control these things? What are you, ASU?”
“No, I’m… not military. Look, I was a prisoner. Just like you, I think. I saw your pod. We have the same outfit on.” King seemed to calm down, but was still tense. Balor hissed and threw the remnants of the spear to the ground. “This is King. That’s Balor. King, Balor, this is Luke. I’m Kaelen. Kaelen Rhyse.” There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Right. Well, do you want some stew?”