“What sorcery is this!” Raged Cthulhu, as he swung his hammer at enormous rabbit.
The rabbit did nothing as bits of it exploded off of it and sprayed outward to a certain distance and then sort of froze in time before it began retracting back into itself.
Cthulhu screamed as he swung wildly, thunder roiling outward with each sweep.
“Cthulhu!” yelled Szarra to no avail.
“It’s happened again, huh?” asked Reed, appearing beside her.
She nodded. They watched Cthulhu swing at the reforming rabbit.
“How long do you think we’ll be here?” Reed asked.
“Do you want me to guess or do you think that I have secretly found a way of predicting the beast’s return.”
“Are we sure The Stage is a beast?”
“Are you sure ‘The Stage’ is not a stupid name?”
::It’s happened again:: Cthulhu spoke into their minds as he set down his hammer.
Szarra and Reed nodded.
::How long do you think it will be?:: Cthulhu asked.
“We don’t know.” Reed said.
::Well, maybe it’s the last time.:: Cthulhu said.
Szarra and Reed exchanged glances, unsure whether their companion meant to suggest that this would be the last time they would be stuck in the middle of a frozen battle for days or whether this was the last time The Stage would make the transition and they would be stuck here forever.
“This is the third time The Stage has slipped away in the middle of a fight,” Reed began, “we need to figure out what is going on.”
::We know what’s going on,:: Cthulhu said, ::we’re stuck. And stop insisting on calling it ‘The Stage’, it will never catch on.::
“But what if we don’t need to be stuck?” asked Reed.
The other two looked at him disinterestedly.
“What if we can escape.”
“Escape to where?” Szarra asked.
“Anywhere!” Reed exclaimed.
::But we are being paid to be here.:: Cthulhu said.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Yeah,” Szarra agreed, “if you want to leave, you can do it when the beast returns.”
Reed thought about arguing more but could tell they weren’t interested. Szarra was already pulling a book out of her pack and Cthulhu was hitting things to see what sound they made.
Reed sighed and began going through his pack. He wished that he could remember to pack a book. He thought there might be some jerky or something interesting to eat somewhere in his pack and began looking for it.
“Ouch!” he said when his Seering Bowl fell out and landed on his foot.
Cthulhu and Szarra looked over briefly but continued their own preoccupations.
Reed, smarting from the pain in his foot and the hurt at the others apathy about his pain, grumbled and took the expensive bowl in both hands as if to throw it.
Then he paused.
The first time they had been frozen they were sure that source was the enemy they had been fighting. They had spent days trying to predict what the enemy was doing and preparing counter-measures.
However, when all that happened was that several days later, they had been returned to more or less their original spots and been thrown back into the battle with no memory of their time being frozen, they decided, when it happened again and they could again remember the void, that they would try and look more broadly for some explanation.
Leaving the location The Stage had abandoned them to, a castle in which they were fighting some sickening creature, only brought them to a broader frozen world and even to some strange parts that seemed... torn away... leaving only gray, writhing miasma in their place.
They had so far found nothing that would return time to their world and their memory of being outside time fled with its return.
But the Seering Bowl had not been tried.
It hadn’t occurred to Reed since he only used it upon waking up when his mind was still in that half dreaming state necessary to navigate back to himself.
As he thought about it, the miasmas of the missing places had some rhyming texture with what he encountered when his face was immersed beneath the waters of the pools.
“Szarra,” Reed Said.
The snake woman ignored him.
“Szarra,” Reed said, louder.
She rolled her eyes and shut her book and looked at him.
“May I borrow some water?”
She looked at his bowl, sighed, and went to throw him her waterskin. She paused at the last second.
“What?” asked Reed.
“You’re going to stick your face in this water.”
“Yes, so I can see if I can learn anything about what’s going on. My own waterskins are nearly empty and the nearest source is hours away.”
“But when the beast returns, that water will go back into my waterskin and I will drink it.”
“I will clean my face.” offered Reed.
“There is not enough soap in the world that would make me willing to lick your face.”
“You drink poison in your tea!”
“Not dirty poison.”
“Cthulhu! Can I borrow some water?”
::Not for masturbating, no.::
“It’s not-” but the part of Reed’s brain in charge of saving energy on futile tasks cut himself off.
When he returned hours later with his full skin of water, he wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to bring the bowl with him. Cthulhu and Szarra had begun trying to dissect the giant hell rabbit and had made some decent and horrific progress.
Reed sighed and tried to meditate his head into the state the pools demanded.
Then the stage returned and the Rabbit nearly killed them but at last they cut out its heart and made their way back to barracks where they collected a reward and jealous looks from those who The Stage had not endowed with supernatural powers.