I climb carefully through the gaping void in the floor, the cubs in a sling against my chest again. I’m pretty sure they’ve put on a growth spurt since we’ve been in here: they’re packed tightly and not happy about it. Maybe they have: if creatures in this world evolve from Energy, what’s to say the cubs don’t grow from it as well?
Bastet has already jumped down and is holding the torch in her mouth, allowing the flickering light to partially illuminate the rock below. It reflects off the flowing stream of Pure Energy that covers at least two thirds of the channel. There’s enough space on either side of the stream to walk, but we’ll all have to be careful. At least it’s easy to see. Every time I look at it, I’m tempted to once again dip my hand in it, step into it and submerse myself. Close to such a large quantity, the temptation is almost irresistible; I avoid glancing at it as much as possible.
My toes finally touching the surface of sloped rock, I slowly release my white-knuckle grip on the hole’s edge. As predicted, the height of the tunnel is just slightly too low for me; I’ll need to keep slightly bent to be able to walk. It’s better than the tunnels we had to travel through to reach the salt cave, though. I cast a glance down the tunnel in each direction. Not far upstream – if one can call that when the substance only vaguely moves in a specific direction – the tunnel narrows significantly, the stream seeming to be held tightly within the walls of stone. Downstream, the tunnel extends for a short distance before narrowing down significantly again. What could have caused this conveniently-sized walkway, I wonder to myself.
Pulling myself from my thoughts, I help Lathani down. The cubs are already slung on my chest, but the almost-cub didn’t feel too comfortable climbing down like Bastet. Especially not when she’d seen what barely touching the liquid did to me in the cavern. I do regret that she had to see that: she’s been uncharacteristically quiet and subdued ever since.
When I carefully lift her down, she takes especial care not to go anywhere near the pearlescent liquid, pressing herself against the tunnel wall instead. I’m not going to complain about her keeping herself safe, though! I do take a moment to give her a reassuring head-rub. She sends me a wordless communication of mixed emotions. I’m unsurprised that fear and longing for home are a good portion of them, though regret that the careless, innocent cub is no more.
It’s OK, Lathani, I try to project to her soothingly. I hope it gets through – we don’t have a Bond, but on the other hand, the nunda cub is naturally telepathic and seems to understand everything else going on. Once we’re out of here, it should be a quick trip back to your mum. She clearly must at least get the sense of my message as her response is just as wordless, and equally as mixed. She’s already told me about her fears that her changed appearance will cause Kalanthia to abandon her, so I’m not entirely surprised. There’s little to say to them except what I have already: that she will always have a place with me and that I doubt that Kalanthia will abandon her for aging a bit.
With the rest of the party in the passageway, River climbs down to join us. Much as I had, he slowly lowers himself by his hand grip on the edge of the hole. Gym bunnies, eat your heart out. If I’d had the stats then that I have now, I’d have been doing chin-ups one-handed and press-ups with my index fingers.
The moment of marvelling at the differences over, we get moving, all of us eager to be out of this place. Bastet is first, moving a little ahead so that we’ll have some warning if something decides to attack. Progress for the rest of us is much slower. River, Lathani, and I are all edging along the tunnel wall, but Lathani has a much easier job, being closer to the ground and having four legs. River’s job isn’t much harder since the roof of the tunnel is high enough that he can walk upright. I’m the one who’s slowing down the pack.
We don’t have to go far, but everyone in the group is tense which makes even minutes feel as long as hours. Worse, I notice my health dropping faster, losing a point every ten or so seconds instead of every sixty-six. I don’t need to check my newly-nagging notifications to know that the Energy poisoning has got worse. I feel very vulnerable without being able to cast a Lay-on-hands to top my health up.
Roughly halfway along the tunnel, there’s an abrupt narrowing. Bastet just jumps through it, as the hole in the centre is vaguely circular. Somehow, she manages to shift her angle in midair – I think it was a flap of her wings that provided enough impetus to push her back towards the bank rather than into the stream of Pure Energy, but it happened too fast for me to see in this dim light. The rest of us have to take it more slowly.
Somehow, we all manage to get through without touching the dangerous substance running beside us, though there are a few close calls when Lathani slipped as she was scrambling over the rock. I automatically reached to catch her, but that put me off balance a little. I think it’s only the increased number of points in Dexterity that I’ve earned since arriving in this world that prevented me from splashing headfirst into the stream. I’m pretty sure that that would have killed me.
The rest of the tunnel seems to take twice as long as the first bit, even though logically I know it’s only a little longer. Still, eventually we reach the junction with the other tunnel. Here, it’s almost a reverse process of the previous junction.
Bastet is already in the tunnel above, waiting for us to arrive. She reassures me that she hasn’t detected any other creature since we’ve been apart. I pass Lathani up to her, then pull myself up, releasing the cubs from their entrapping sling. Maybe it’s not the best idea, but I’m not keen on losing more health units from my chest being scratched to pieces. Last of all, River pulls himself up too. I give him a bit of a hand to start since his shorter stature, though useful while passing through the low tunnel, makes it a bit harder for him to get out of it.
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We pause for a moment to rest and eat. We’re all tired – none of us having had much sleep in the last two days. I’m probably the best off, having actually slept for a few hours. Then again, I went through eight level-ups in a row and seem to have done some damage to myself – hopefully not permanent damage. Either way, a short pause does us all good.
Getting going once more, we trudge along the tunnel. It meanders one way, then the other. Always sloping, but some bits are steeper than others. Walking is boring. I’d say that it was a good thing: boring means nothing is jumping out at me to eat my face – or any other parts. At this point, though, the interminable walls are a killer by themselves; if this goes on too much longer, we’ll all be sleepwalking our way into something’s mouth.
Even Bastet’s seemingly unflagging stamina is worn thin. She’s stopped dashing forwards and back; instead, she trudges forward only a little faster than us, pausing to let us catch up when she gets too far ahead. Lathani is slung over River’s shoulders: after she started swaying drunkenly from tiredness and almost walked into a wall a couple of times, my Bound picked her up of his own accord. She was snoring within a few moments. Only the cubs have any energy, but fortunately they’re wary enough due to the unfamiliar environment to not need too much herding.
As for River, he’s much like me: keeping going by just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. He’s tired and I’m still feeling extremely fragile, like each of those steps could rattle something essential loose in me. We’re in very poor shape for any sort of confrontation, which of course means that one is inevitable.
The first sign that the end may be near is when I realise that the way ahead is just a little lighter than the rest of the journey has been. Reaching the bend, I get my first sight of daylight in what feels like forever, even if it’s only probably been a day at the most. My heart starts quickening in my chest in excitement, and my feet instinctively pick up the pace, despite my fatigue.
I look around River: the light has come back into his eyes too and he’s moving with more enthusiasm too. Bastet is silhouetted against the light, hurrying back to us. At first I think it’s the joy of being back in the light, but when I feel her go right from tired to fully alert, I realise it’s something else. The equivalent of a mental adrenaline rush passing over the Bond between us makes me straighten up and my senses sharpen.
What is it? I ask her sharply. She sends a sense of uncertainty but the feeling that we’re approaching the den of some powerful predator. It’s not scent, I don’t think, but some other sense...which I suddenly realise that I can actually use myself now. It must be since I increased my mental and soul stats, or maybe it’s just that whatever creature lies up ahead is powerful enough to get through even to me. Either way, I frown as I get what she means even on my own. It’s some sort of foreboding presence, one that warns of death if we approach closer. Is it new? I ask. Was this not here when you scouted earlier?
I feel her hesitate and then she admits through a mixture of shameful emotion and images that she didn’t actually come as close as this before. The light level and quantity of fresh air blowing down the tunnel were enough for her to know that there was a way out. And she’d been too eager to tell me of the Energy-Hearts to go further.
Right, I accept grimly. What do you think, River? I turn to my other Bound. He’s doing the lizard-man equivalent of frowning.
Something is wrong, he replies slowly. Turning his head slightly, he seems to concentrate. I wait, impatient but not wanting to interrupt his thought process. I don’t think it’s real.
What do you mean?
The presence is strong...but only surface-deep. It’s like it’s an...imprint. And not one from recently, either. I can’t sense much more than that – I’m not like one of the Path-walkers – but I don’t think we have much to fear.
Alright, I accept hesitantly. If he’s right, great: I really don’t want to have to turn around and go back. But if he’s wrong…
Do you wish me to scout ahead to be certain? he offers. I hate myself for considering it, but the truth is that I don’t want to risk Bastet again, and he is the one who’s so confident…
OK. But don’t take any risks, alright? I order him. Going back through the tunnel and then taking the forest route would be...well, a kick in the balls, frankly. With steel-capped toes. And we’d need to wait here for a while for me to recuperate a bit first – my health is no longer dropping so I must have moved sufficiently far away from the high Energy-density area. It would be possible though, and better than us going into battle with something like the salamander with my healing unusable.
He sends a sense of agreement and then moves forward, dropping into stealth or whatever is his equivalent. He doesn’t fade from view the way Bastet does, but he sort of...blurs. Certainly, he becomes harder to spot, especially when not moving.
When he heads around the next bend and goes out of sight, I fix my attention on the Bond, making sure that I know his state of health. I even pull up my Bound tab so that I can see his health pool in real time. Interestingly, his stamina pool is dropping quickly, and his mana pool bit by bit. Maybe his version of stealth is a bit like my Fade?
While temporarily distracted by the thought, I soon return to waiting with bated breath as his location shifts further away from us, and then closer again. As he comes back into sight, he drops stealth and walks back to us, paying particular attention to being quiet, I note.
Danger? I send to him mentally. He sends back grim agreement and I brace myself for the worst.