A steel post was drilled into the ground near the edge of the cliff and a long rope was coiled almost fifty visible times around it. Below them, right off from the post was the sand bank that they would have to rappel down to. From there, Luce could feel a tingle run down her legs and her feet almost sinking into quicksand. Before anyone could notice her nervousness, she turned back to face land.
She asked, “Did you do this?” She pointed to the steel post, thinking it a strange landmark in the empty fields around them.
Josh replied, “After my second try. I found it stupid to keep bringing new gear over, so I just upped a post from a village nearby and stuck it in.”
Jacques added, “Resourceful.”
Luce corrected, “Practical.”
He placed his pack down again and began unloading. First, he took out the gear they needed, the ropes and poles. Then, he started unloading clothes, food, and other miscellaneous items.
Luce asked, “What are you doing?”
“As light as we can, ladies. Bring enough food for three days and no more.” He held out the walking poles they would be using. Luce took a pair.
Jacques however, took just one, stating, “I'll use my spear. I'd like to have that on hand.”
The trio continued their preparation and left towels, clothes, a tent, sleeping bags, and emptying half of their packs onto the ground. As per Josh's instruction, they each took out their own personal harnesses and began rigging them for the abseil down. Luce left her gun bag behind, choosing to strap her rifle plainly over her shoulder for ease of access. She checked her ammunitions, noting she only had one round left in her grapple, capable of firing just four times.
Josh let out, “It's a one way trip.”
“You've got to stop saying that!” Jacques shot back. “You're really bumming me out.”
They continued the rest of their preparations in silence, a mutual understanding of the dangers of the next leg of their journey settled across them. When they were done, they sat at their spots, Luce and Jacques leaning back-to-back while Josh sat near the edge, waiting for low tide. The minutes floated by and it felt almost as if an hour had past. Luce could hear the gentle snore of her fiancée, a meditative rhythm that kept her calm. Another undetermined period of time washed over them.
Then, Josh got to his feet and Luce knew it was time. She shook Jacques awake while the man uncoiled the rope from the steel post. The couple got up and took over the duty of uncoiling. Tied at the end of the rope was a large boulder, one which Josh heaved and lugged to the edge of the cliff. He waited until the two girls gave him the clear after uncoiling before signalling them to stand back. Once ready, he unceremoniously kicked the boulder down onto the sand barge. The stone fell, pulling the rope behind it. He jumped back as the rope flicked, curled and pulled all the way down. When it finally stopped, there was about 3 plitz of rope left. Jacques proceeded to tie the remainder around the pole.
He shouted to his companions, “Ready?”
They gave two thumbs up and began attaching their harnesses to the rope. They passed around the rope that would connect the three of them, tying that in a three-way triangle to their waist. Testing the strength of the rappelling rope, Josh went off the side first. As he got lower, the rope connected to Luce tugged at her waist. Jacques followed, leaving only Luce at the top. She turned for one last look back to the desolate plains of Katoki, the Reveries Mountains in the distance, the black Tainted sky of Dogon above the horizon. She made her way down after.
Josh made sure the descend was slow. Being the bottom lead, his speed was matched by the couple above. Luce thought it was a good idea having him go first, as her impatient personality might have pushed them to go faster than it was safe to. Each of her steps were met with wind that raged across the Helm, and her legs struggled to keep themselves planted on the rock face with each strong gust. Even then, she wanted to move faster, and was internally glad she couldn't.
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“Hey.” Once they were halfway down, Jacques's voice called out from below. “Isn't the tide going down a little too fast?”
At her warning, the two of them looked down to the water. Indeed, the waves had lowered significantly, and the sand barge was visible.
Luce noted, “Shouldn't we hurry down?”
“No...” Josh dragged on as he scanned the surrounding. “This isn't a natural tide. Lock on! And pick into the wall!”
They did as they were instructed, going through the quick procedure of securing their ropes. Once their harnesses held, they took out one of their walking picks and stabbed them into the cliff face, holding on to keep themselves from being swept away by the wind.
Luce shouted down, “What are we doing?”
Josh replied up, “Waiting for it to pass.”
“What to pass?”
To prove his point, the water near the mouth of the Helm started to swirl. A whirlpool large enough that it stretched from cliff to cliff appeared, spiralling and spinning, drawing in the water around it. The sea level continued to sink, the sand bank expanding larger than it would at low tide. The sandy-stone path that connected the two landmasses took the form of a sheer underwater stone wall that, as far as they could tell, stretched down into the depth of the ocean.
The couple shouted in unison, “What's going on!” The constant churning of the water and strengthened waves hitting the cliff base nearly drowned them out.
“It's the Ohmir!” Josh shouted. “It's on the hunt!”
Breaking the surface of the water, the serpentine Titan's head smashed out into the air. A set of dis-locatable, metallic four pronged jaws held a giant elgredo shark – a predator the size of a bus – with effortless ease, biting into it and spewing blood as the Titan crushed the body in its vice grip.
From below, Jacques exclaimed, “What the Titans is that?” All while Luce watched on in stunned silence.
The body of the creature followed. A whopping length that reached half the length between them and the opposite cliff. Moss covered the man-sized scales, but even through them, they could see it had the metallic shade of armour. 10 plitz. 20 plitz. 30 plitz of its body rose up and out of the water, with much more of its length still hidden beneath the waves. As gravity started dragging its jump, the Ohmir turned its head to the water and splashed down into it with another large wave following. 40 plitz. 50 plitz. 60 plitz. Luce counted the remaining length as it got dragged out of the water and back into the ocean. 70 plitz. 80 plitz. 90 plitz. The Ohmir continued, slowly disappearing beneath the waves long before the entire body was even shown to the air. They had not even seen the tail when the last of it's metal scale vanished.
The water started coming back into the helm, rushing in with high waves that smashed into the path, submerging it back underwater. The tide rose back up again, slowly rising till the sand bank was buried once more.
Luce exclaimed, “We are not fighting that!”
“Don't be stupid!” Josh yelled back. “Of course we're not!”
Jacques asked, “Are we going back up?”
They turned to where the Ohmir disappeared, the water continued to spiral down as if at the bottom of the ocean floor was a drain, displacing the surface around it as if a hurricane had just blew through the Helm.
He finally decided, “We'll wait for the water to settle. If it doesn't, we'll climb back up and wait for tomorrow's low tide.”
Luce nodded back, only realizing that he would not see her physical movements after. She could feel her cheeks flush as embarrassment filled her. She hoped none of the two below saw her borderline stupid gestures.
Her shame was quickly overwritten when Jacques asked, “Hey Josh?”
“Yeah?”
“We're all going to make it, aren't we?”
“As long as you don't use any magic.”
Annoyed, Jacques replied, “Of course! But seriously, we're all going to make it, right?”
Silence ate into them. The howling of the wind lowered into a soft whistle. The crashing of the waves settled for a moment before barrelling its way back into their ears. For an instant, Luce thought she heard the squawks of birds, but whatever sound she thought she heard was drowned when the howling wind started again.
Josh still had not answered, and the silent ineptitude of the man made her wished she could lower herself down and slap him awake. She shouted, “Of course we are! We're getting married, aren't we?”
Another moment of quiet dragged before she heard chuckling from below. Then, Jacques let out a long, “Woooooooooooo yeah! We're getting married~!” she started singing incoherently, and Luce could not help but smile. She hoped they did not see that reaction either.