CHAPTER 34: TITANIUM LEGACY
Then their song changed, voices clashing against the notes like oil against water, no longer able to meld as one.
A small cloud of sawdust and dirt billowed up around Adelaide’s feet as she skidded to a stop. The disturbance barely rose above her boots, much like the blonde head of Bridget’s sister did to the Mountaincore’s massive paw. Looking up at the monstrosity looming over her, Briddy watched as Adelaide’s mouth silently formed a string of words that would make even a seasoned sailor blush. She took one step back, and then another, before its red eyes snapped onto her, even the white rims looking pink.
At the sight of her, the monstrosity’s shaggy maw split into a horrible grin, black lips parting to reveal the curved teeth beneath. Curling up above its back, still trailing chains from the failed attempt to restrain it, was its bulbous, stinger-tipped tail that had skewered Tula not half an hour earlier. Swallowing hard as she looked around, Adelaide drew both of her maces, readying what little defense she could against such a threat.
Her bravado was met with a roar of approval from the school, and Bridget’s stomach sank.
Adelaide, no. She whispered in her heart, feeling ill.
Would you have her lay down and die instead?
The sudden reappearance of Vex’s voice in her mind gave Bridget such a fright that she jolted forward onto her knees.
Vex? What’s going on? Why couldn’t I- The thoughts tumbled out as she tried to watch the scrying feed and focus inward at the same time.
You’re asking the wrong questions, Bridget.
From yards behind the Mountaincore, Kerr managed to twist his head around just in time to see Adelaide throw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the creature’s tail. Something flashed across his face, and he took in a great breath, yanking his hand away from the grapple with the Nimbus leopard. The moment his fingers left its throat, the creature struck, sinking its teeth deep into the muscle of his shoulder and savaging the flesh.
Flexing his armored, blood-crusted fingers, golden mist hardened into Vex’s broad blade, which shook in her father’s wounded grip.
“Briddy, what’s wrong?” Asher’s slim fingers gently touched her exposed shoulder, but Bridget didn’t respond. She remained kneeling, caught up in the raw, open vein of fear that she had seen break through Titanium Kerr’s craggy face. Fear and…something else.
As she watched his fingers close around Vex, and the relic moved to point not at the Nimbus Leopard, but upwards, Bridget was sure she knew what it was.
“What….Briddy what’s he doing?” Warrin said.
“He wouldn’t,” Gail said, her voice half awe and half envy.
Bridget finally sat back. “Desperation.” She whispered to herself.
“Are you alright, Briddy?” Asher’s hand still hadn’t left her shoulder. When had it gotten so warm?
“There are too many people there,” Tuck said. “Won’t someone stop him-”
Kerr’s lips moved, forming some unknowable, unparsable word, and before they closed again, a maelstrom took the ravine. Great gusts of wind bore down, slamming into all who stood on the battlefield, shaking the trees and ripping the purple pennants from their branches. Shearing air battered hunters as they ran for cover, snatched arrows and wings from the sky, sending owners hurtling to the ground as it raced toward the figure standing at the eye of the storm, relic raised and glowing golden-white.
Gritting his teeth, Titanium Kerr lifted Vex higher as the winds raged and bowed the battlefield around him to their whims, sucking inward towards the relic in a cyclone of mighty gusts. The only creatures still standing were the Nimbus Leopard, still desperately clawed into her father’s shoulder and side, and Mountaincore, who stalked Adelaide as she made for the wall where a cluster of blue-cloaked hunters huddled. The only sign the gigantic creature gave that the wind affected it at all was the rustling of its fur and the wild thrashing of chains in stormy air, but the beast did not turn away from its prey.
Then, without warning, Bridget saw Kerr invert Vex, slamming the tip down hard. Immediately, the winds changed. Rather than a sucking rift of air, pulling everything in the ravine towards the ground, there was the slightest lapse before it reversed, pushing out in enormous force. Layered, buffeting fists of air, one after the other, pulsed out from where Vex had been raised. With the first, the Nimbus Leopard was sent flying, chunks of Titanium Kerr’s ripped flesh and armor still dangling from its mouth as it went. Kerr threw his head back in a yell of pain, the next pulses washing over the Mountaincore, sending it stumbling with the force, and Adelaide, who was knocked straight to the ground.
No. Bridget watched her sister’s head strike a stump as she fell to a limp heap, still fully in range of the monstrosity. How could you put her in danger like that?
Titanium Kerr stood, the pulses stopping as he dragged himself upright and pulled Vex from where he had skewered it into the ground. Turning to survey his work, he found the chiseled destruction of fallen trees cut into the landscape like jagged teeth, scattered hunters trying to regroup as they avoided panicking, rampaging monstrosities, and Adelaide, barely conscious, eyelids fluttering where she lay.
There was a pause in the school, as though the students were unsure how to react to this development either, and Briddy felt a small pit of hope leap in her stomach. Could they finally see him for what he was?
But then Kerr swung Vex in an upward slash, and an invisible blade of air sliced through the Nimbus Leopard where it stood, leaving behind a deep furrow in the earth leading from the creature to her father that slowly began to fill with its lifeblood. Erupting in a roar of approval, Bridget’s schoolmates nearly made her deaf as they cheered her father on while he turned to face the Mountaincore and began sprinting his way toward where it stood.
“And that’s one kill for Titanium Kerr of the Gilded Down!” Lord Carmine chirped overhead.
Looking around at her peers, it was hard not to eye them with disbelief. Did they not see the damage Kerr had caused to kill a single creature? Or was the lure of ‘Ti-ta-ni-um!’ truly so strong that it could block out even common sense?
Bridget chewed her lip, looking up at the Gilded Down’s feather-emblazoned feed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Adelaide to receive help, quite the opposite. However, something about watching Kerr dash towards her sister, that novel look of desperation in his eyes as he was cut off by several Kelpines being driven back by Molten Flail, it haunted her. In the same way that it made her quietly sick, seeing glimpses of her mother scrambling down from her position at the ravine’s high edge, pushing aside the other long-ranged attackers who tried to hold her back.
Kerr’s roaring visage carried him into the fray, carving through the creatures that stood in his way. A wounded hunter from the Teradish Coalition weakly reached out to him, hands trembling as they clutched his tabard and sought aid in their final moments. Bridget’s father didn’t stop as he pushed them off and stepped over, swinging into the first foe that crossed his path. Crunch. Snap. Grunt. Stab. Tear. Swipe. Like a rhythm in Briddy’s heart, he left a trail of carnage in his wake, most monstrosities shredding before they ever came close to Vex’s blade.
But that was not enough to carry him through in time, for even as Kerr slaughtered his way through, kills merrily read out by the Carmines overhead, the Mountaincore lost patience with its game of trying to skewer Adelaide with its tail and struck out with a meaty paw. Raising a mace to parry the attack, there was barely time to catch the briefest hint of a grimace on Briddy’s sister’s face before she was hit, the arm crumpling beneath the creature’s clawed foot in a limp mess.
Spells began to bounce off the creature's hide, bolts of fire and ice arcing through the air to pelt at the Mountaincore from Ruba’s direction as their mother tried to draw its attention. Bridget could see Kerr shouting too, though whether he was trying to distract the monstrosity or order people to help Adelaide, she could not tell. Bridget watched the horror in his eyes, feeling like something had been painfully ripped out of her, or she had been missing it for so long that it was hard to tell until now.
Would he have looked at her that way? If she fell on the battlefield there, would that fear have filled his heart, or would her father have seen the opportunity to finally be rid of his problem at the claws of a Mountaincore? She turned her eyes towards Ruba, slinging magic as though each spell would be her last. Would her mother have fought so hard for her? Or would she have cast a spell or two and then said what a shame it was and claimed a tragedy?
Watching both Ruba and Kerr fight like they were about to lose everything, like the thing they feared most was coming to pass, seeing the exact same parents who were so ready to throw her life away race to save another, a final question intruded into Bridget’s mind.
Why should I fight for a future I don’t want, to be the person they will never see me as if the true legacy of Titanium Kerr is the daughter he’s running towards and fighting so desperately to reach?
The Mountaincore bore down on Adelaide, wide, dark mouth opening to snap her up. Bridget’s sister weakly rolled out of the way, cradling the limp arm to her chest. Huffing, the Mountaincore raised another paw as though to squash her like a bug underfoot, but then paused. Slowly, the great beast turned its red eyes back to where Kerr now stood behind it, dripping blood from everything save Vex, which shone golden and untouched. Baring white teeth against red-stained skin, Titanium Kerr pointed the glowing relic at the monstrosity and sliced downward.
Instantly, a wound opened in its scaly hindquarter, not far below the leathery wings, cut wide and deep as though an enormous surgeon’s scalpel had sliced through muscle and bone. Blood sprayed out, and the creature let out a cry unheard through the scrying feeds, lashing out all around them with tail and claw, chains whipping alongside.
Titanium Kerr danced backward, swinging Vex, again and again, to ward off a tail, and then a chain with buffeting gusts of air. Ruba was not so lucky, barely arriving at the edges of the scene before catching a chain to the chest, and being thrown into the side of the ravine. She struck the edge and slid down, motionless. Moments later, two purple-cloaked healers from Final Sunrise rushed over, beginning their ministrations to the fallen huntress.
Increasing its onslaught, the Mountaincore swiped and stabbed, biting at Adelaide at one end and attacking Kerr with tail and hind claw at the other. Adelaide continued her rolling, and Kerr swung a weaving web of gusts that cut through the ground and up into the trees when they missed, severing thick pine branches with the blades of air.
Losing patience with its prey, the creature retracted its tail and paw, whirling around as though to swap who faced what end. Bridget’s father took his opportunity, swinging Vex in for a mighty one-handed blow, but the enormous monstrosity stopped halfway through its spin, snapping out a leathery wing that caught him solidly in the head.
Within seconds, Titanium Kerr went from being a fierce force on the battlefield, carving through creatures and covered in blood, to a dull, floppy body that struck the ground. Bridget’s blood ran cold as she watched his head strike the dirt and bounce once, salt and pepper bloodstained locks flopping before coming to a rest. She felt weak, seeing him that way, but wasn’t entirely sure why. He didn’t care if she lived or died, so why should she?
Fresh blood had barely begun to leave his temple in fat red droplets before the Mountaincore’s tail stabbed into his stomach, digging deep through armor and flesh. If Kerr could feel the blow, he showed no sign, just laying there on the ground like a slab of stone. The creature’s mouth opened wide in a shaggy, black-lipped grin, digging the tip of its tail further in as blood spurted forth from the puncture.
Bridget felt as though it had struck her, the wind completely knocked from her lungs and a deep, spreading pain tearing through her stomach as she watched the dull red appendage skewer into her father. She saw Adelaide struggle to sit up, her eyes widening as she took in the same sight. Slowly, her sister reached up to touch the ornate buckle on her armor, fingers trembling. Adelaide was already on her feet seconds later, a mace dangling from her one good hand. Trembling, her fingers moved to grip it before she leveled the weapon at the Mountaincore, lips quickly moving through a string of words too fast to catch but ending in a very clear: “Not today.”
Adelaide, no! Bridget’s heart felt like it was going to freeze and explode for beating so fast, and she saw their mother sit up between the healers long enough to fling a hand out, as if to also stop her sister. As if that were ever an option. Opening her mouth in a long, rage-filled scream that Bridget couldn’t hear, Adelaide began another headlong dash for the Mountaincore.
No. Briddy felt even sicker, the pain in her stomach twisting.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Magic coursed along Adelaide’s arms, a coating of orange power blanketing her skin and creeping up her fingers to cover the one weapon she still held. Stopping just a step before slamming into the Mountaincore’s hindquarters, she swung with righteous fury into its scaly flank, the spell coursing through the weapon so violently the creature was shoved away. Despite being many times the size of both Adelaide and their father, the Mountaincore was sent stumbling, its tail pulling out of Kerr’s body with a jerk. Arm wilting, Adelaide staggered forward to collapse in a little ball at their father’s motionless side.
Her sister barely had time to reach a gloved hand up towards his face before the Mountaincore regained its footing, crushing an Imbar Company hunter who got too close and slowly turned its head back to where they lay. Narrowing hateful red eyes, the creature lowered its front legs in a long extension, raising its tail in a perfect arc behind its back. The tip pointed directly toward Adelaide’s heart. She had managed to get herself up to sitting and drew one of her few remaining knives, chin held high as she stared the creature down.
Throughout all of this, Bridget had kept the dull roar of her peers, the muffled voices of Lord and Lady Carmine announcing kills, and the concerned looks of her friends all at bay, but when the Mountaincore pounced on the fallen figures of her family, it all came rushing in at once. Everything overloaded her, and at the same time all she could see was the gargantuan beast slowly bearing down on them, all she could hear were a thousand voices roaring their approval; drowning out a single one screaming “No!”
Her world slowed to a trickle, watching lifeblood leak from her father and a monstrosity bear down on her sister, its wicked tail already stretching out. There Bridget was, sitting on a blanket miles away, powerless to stop any of it from happening, and yet it was happening in front of her all the same. She didn’t even realize she was the one screaming ‘No’ until a pair of arms closed around her waist, gently tugging her back from where she was almost standing.
She was still scrabbling at those arms, trying to fight free, when the Mountaincore’s bulbous tail shot for Adelaide’s chest. Its curved stinger seemed to beckon her close, inviting Bridget’s sister to her doom at its point. The tip was nearly home when the ornate buckle on her armor, the one that looked more a brooch for its fancy craftsmanship, lit up from within as though the metal were suddenly glowing white-hot. Beams of light shone out like the sun peeking over the hills for the briefest moment, illuminating a figure that appeared from their radiance to stand just between Adelaide and the tail.
Raising a hand as the flash faded, it appeared for a moment as if the newcomer caught the sharp, bulbous tip between two raised fingers, and then the rest of the Mountaincore’s tail crashed into a magical shield that domed into existence around them. Magic flared purple underneath the pressure, but did not crack or show strain even as the rest of the monstrosities’ bulk struck moments later.
Turning back to look over his shoulder, the caster shot Adelaide a reassuring grin, the matching grey eyes of the Vasily family briefly meeting before he returned his attention to the Mountaincore. The creature was recovering from its failed pounce, using a wing to irritably swat away some Titan’s Breath hunters that were attempting to assault its wounded flank.
Bridget stopped pushing at the arms that held her, going still at the sight of that face. “Nolan.” She whispered, stomach leaping and painfully twisting at the same time. What was he doing there? He was much too young for this and by all rights should’ve been safely at home with Carolli. “No. Oh nonono.” Briddy muttered under her breath, watching as her little brother dropped his shield spell and tilted his head, observing the Mountaincore with a face of eerie calm.
She might’ve believed that this was all an organic stroke of miraculous luck, but something about the way his fine canary-yellow cape artistically draped over one of his shoulders and perfectly complemented the rest of his sky-blue breastplate-and-suit ensemble caught her eye. Nolan’s clothing choices were rarely unintentional. Adelaide certainly didn’t look surprised at his sudden appearance, accepting the hand that he stretched back towards her without fully turning his body around.
The pair began to talk, lips moving fast and furiously while the Mountaincore paced and Nolan’s gaze never left it. Across the ravine, Ruba’s eyes fluttered open long enough to take in the trio, and the beast before them. Raw horror filtered into their mother’s beautiful grey irises as they focused on her youngest child standing at the front of the group. Bridget sucked in her breath, taking in her mother’s reaction as her mind raced to catch up and handle a deluge of thoughts and emotions.
It seemed her brother’s involvement was a shock to Ruba as much as it was to her, but if that were the case, what did he think he was doing? With the life they were raised alongside, none of the Vasily children could think a hunt to be a game.
Do you speak all your secrets to your sires? Vex asked her quietly.
No, I- Briddy’s eyes raced to the fallen figure of her father, fresh, dark blood leaking from his midsection. It was beginning to trickle from his mouth now too, leaving fresh trails that caked over the dried, rusty mask that coated the skin beneath.
Why aren’t you there? He needs you. Her voice sounded so flat, even in her heart. How could she be so emotionless about her own father? Perhaps seeing him wounded so many times had numbed her in some way.
I cannot.
The Mountaincore snarled overhead, and a flash of anger cut through the numbness. What you can and can’t do seems to change pretty often, Vex. When can you help, exactly? Am I not asking nicely enough to get the special air blade magic?
There was a long pause as the monstrosity swung a paw down on Nolan’s head, its chain-covered tail whipping around to skewer at his side. Her brother drew his arm back behind his shoulder as though he was about to throw a spear, but his hands were empty and Adelaide was nowhere to be seen. Brow creasing, Nolan’s mouth formed an incantation while he remained unflinchingly still. Something crackled within his palm, and with another golden flash, arced out toward the creature’s paw before missing it entirely.
Instead, the spell homed towards the large, red eye of the Mountaincore’s face, boring into the center with a crash of white and silver sparks which sent the monstrosity careening back in pain.
Insufferable chanting took up again, pulsing from a sea of blue around Bridget and the arms that still held her. “Not to-day! NOT To-DAY!” Students cheered, as though their words could somehow gift her brother the power to defeat a beast without the experience to do so.
And then, in a faltering voice that Bridget had to fight to hear, Vex said:
I cannot help him. He has fallen.
What do you mean, fallen?
Nothing came back.
Vex? What does that mean!?
“Look at him go!” Warrin’s voice shouted behind her.
Mind spinning, Bridget looked up, expecting to see Nolan in terrible danger, but a few hunters, including Warrin’s father, had come to Kerr’s aid and were slashing at Mountaincore’s feet while the creature flailed a one-eyed head about. The burnt, empty socket which had earlier been filled with a hateful red eye was now blackened space in the Mountaicore’s furry face, and by the way it leapt over the hunters at its paws, the beast had not forgotten the one responsible.
Gnashing fangs where white foam had begun to build on its lips, the beast struck out at Nolan with claw and bulbous tail. He threw up another shield in response, covering himself and their father’s prostrated form. The force of the blows that the Mountaincore rained upon it sent shockwaves through the magical dome like ripples through a pond with every strike, and Briddy spotted the sweat that quickly began to gather in beads at her little brother’s brow.
“I can’t imagine keeping a shield up that long.” Asher’s voice came from somewhere beside her. “Let alone for two people.”
Bridget unwillingly let her eyes go back to the still, silent image of her father, still leaking his life away into the ground. Where were the healers? She looked about, Ruba was still being fussed over by two, and various purple cloaks and coats were visible across the feeds of multiple Guilds. There was no way the Final Sunrise could’ve missed what was happening, and yet none had come to Kerr’s aid.
With a mighty swipe, the Mountaincore shattered Nolan’s shield, and her little brother was forced to throw himself out of the way of the beast’s paw. His diminutive form seemed even tinier against its bulk than Adelaide’s had, tucking into a ball as he hit the ground before popping back up. The Mountaincore was not left without its prize, however, because Nolan had been made to choose between being sliced open or leaving Kerr, and their father’s body had now been scooped up.
Tossing Kerr’s limp form high into the air as though it were a scrap being thrown to wild creatures, the Mountaincore caught him in its mouth, shaking him about like a wet rag. Bridget was vaguely aware of someone grabbing her hands as her father’s head flopped about; his arms limply flailing while flesh separated from bone in scarlet chunks. Below, the Gilded Down’s hunters redoubled their efforts, Warrin’s father weaving wide swathes of shadow that broiled and bubbled about the field. Dancing almost daintly to avoid blows, it was a surprise to see the Mountaincore jerk back and to the side, twisting around as though to try and see something behind it.
Seconds later, Titanium Kerr was released from its mouth, his mangled form soaring towards the entrance of the ravine while the Mountaincore snapped back towards its tail, where a lone figure was climbing up a last bit of chain with one hand.
Bridget lost her breath as she spotted Adelaide struggling to mount the summit of the Mountaincore’s back, clutching her injured arm close to her chest while the creature bucked and snapped. Just as its jaws got too close for comfort, a rope of living lightning slithered around its massive neck to form a noose, yanking the biting maw away.
Snarling at Nolan, who held the other end between his small hands, the Mountaincore took a step forward. Small clouds of smoke had begun to rise from its fur, emanating from the lasso he had thrown about its neck. For just a few moments, it was caught, snapping at Adelaide’s progress and being yanked back by Nolan’s noose, all while the hunters at its feet continued to harry it with attacks.
Rearing up high on its hind legs, the creature opened its mouth wide, letting loose a sound that made everyone near it cringe in pain. Nolan’s spell flickered, leaving just long enough of an opportunity for the Mountaincore to throw its leathery wings open wide, and push off the ground.
On its back, Adelaide was nearly thrown when the beast went up on its hind legs, tumbling over her side and scrabbling for a handhold as she slid down its scaly flank. Quick as a whip, she had a knife in her hand, the hilt slammed deep into the Mountaincore’s hip before Bridget could even blink. Clutching the grip with her injured fist, she drew another knife with her good arm and repeated the action, clutching to the creature’s side with white knuckles as it took to the air.
Briddy could dully hear Gail’s voice asking her something, but between the screams and cheers of thrill from their surroundings and something she had just noticed, she missed what it was. Sculptor, it was getting so hard to breathe. Adelaide had just swung a leg up onto one of the daggers, using the hilt and her good arm to help push her back onto the Mountaincore’s back, when Bridget spotted something at height on the ground behind them.
The beating of the Mountaincore’s heavy wings had cleared the top of the ravine, and although there was chaos from the ranged attackers attempting to keep it from absconding, what interested Bridget was the motionless outline of a solid black entity that stood at the entrance of the ravine near where father lay. Neither armored nor furred, it looked like the thing was made of a material crossed between faceted obsidian and shining metal, perched atop four articulated legs with a head shaped not unlike a teardrop that was pointed at both ends. It glittered darkly in the sunlight that peeked through the pine trees, odd face pointed towards the chaos on the battlefield.
Bridget barely had time to take in this newcomer, its proximity to her father’s fallen body, and the fact that this thing was just sitting there before her eyes darted back towards Adelaide swinging a booted leg up the Mountaincore. Judging by the small trail of holes left behind in the beast’s back, her sister had continued her slow crawl up the creature, and she now braced her foot against its muscled neck.
Briddy could see how white her sister’s knuckles were, the way Adelaide’s eyes raced toward the ground below, and her body trembled with exhaustion. Bridget’s own hands were squeezing tight, her breaths coming fast as she fought to fill her lungs with air. Taking a deep, shaking breath, Adelaide yanked a dagger free of the Mountaincore’s neck and clutched it close to her chest, blonde hair whipping free from her braids in the wind. The treetops were beginning to come into view now, and a single tear trickled out of her eye as she glared up at the beast.
Not Today. Her lips formed.
“NOT TODAY!” The crowd roared.
Not today. Bridget silently begged.
Exhaling to open steely grey eyes, Adelaide launched herself from the Mountaincore’s neck, dragging her dagger into the flesh beneath. The beast thrashed, its wings going suddenly stiff as though it had been frozen, before beginning to frantically flail about. They fell through the air, Adelaide using the downward momentum to drag her blade down and across the expanse of skin and sinew before her. As they hurtled, she made it one more thrash before being flung free, hitting the ground several times before she came to a slow, sliding stop. Barely had her body halted its movement than a shadow formed over it, the Mountaincore’s bulk still falling from the sky. Tendrils of magic whisked her away to safety by Nolan’s wide eyes just seconds before the monstrosity struck the earth with a tree-shuddering impact, its enormous throat slit.
Celebrations and cheers broke out as Lady Carmine announced “Adelaide of the Gilded Down, one kill,” but Briddy couldn’t stop shaking, completely focused on her sister’s huddled form. The room began to feel hazy at the edges as she tried to gulp air and push back tears, purple-cloaked healers coming in with a stretcher to pick up a limp, blonde figure that should have been grinning with victory.
“It’ll be ok.” Someone murmured to her, and Bridget wildly looked around to find Tuck right behind her, one big arm holding her back while the other gently rubbed her head. Wordlessly, she shook her head at him, looking up at the feeds where Ruba had limped over to Nolan, who sat on the ground with a hung head.
Another set of warm fingers squeezed her left hand. “They’ve got your dad too, Briddy.”
Confused, Bridget looked over to see Asher holding onto the appendage, and to her other side, Gail with her right. Why was it so hard to breathe? Her face had gotten wet.
She raised her eyes back to the Gilded Down’s feed, past the massive corpse of the Mountaincore, and her family on stretchers, over the heads of the hunters cleaning up the last few kills, and up the slope to the entrance of the ravine. Two scouts carried a blood-soaked stretcher away, a familiar golden bracer-clad arm flopping over the side. The entity was gone, and if anyone had seen it, they did not act as though they had. But it had been there, and something about the way that odd, faceted head had been angled at them burned in her memory, just like the angle of Kerr’s face when he had fallen to the Mountaincore, the way its paws had crushed her sister like paper, crumpling like nothing under the weight… until…there wasn’t any air therewasn’tanyairnoairnoairnoairnoairshecouldn’tbreathe…help…
“Bridget?” She could hear Gail’s voice, it sounded urgent, but far away. “She needs-”
“- a teacher,” Warrin said from somewhere. “If you can get through-”
“- not leaving her,” Asher stated firmly.
“It was…watching us,” Bridget whispered before she went limp, and everything roared in all at once and then became nothing.