Dellen was thrown to the ground by the abrupt jerking of the cog; he could feel it trying to turn, gears grinding.

His heart pounded, and his palms stung where he’d hit cobblestones.

The chaos around him intensified; metallic groans and screeches of bending and tearing had replaced the sounds of the city. In the distance, he saw crooked towers topple, once-impressive spires falling.

His head jerked up at the first explosion from above. Dellen’s eyes flashed wide; airships exploded in the sky, raining fire and debris.

A new groan of metal intruded on his awareness and the cog he stood on tilted. Dellen could hear its teeth scratching against other cogs and feel the metal scraping in his bones. He winced, shaking his head, trying to clear the sensation from his ears.

“What do we do?” Toby screamed at him.

“Run,” Dellen said.

They ran.

Dellen’s legs strained against the incline that grew steeper by the stride. The once flat surface became a steepening hill. The street wobbled beneath them like an earthquake.

Fleeter of foot, Toby leaped ahead, dashing into a crowd. Around them, people struggled, slipping and falling in their scramble to move up and away from the sagging end of the cog.

Dellen’s heart pounded in his chest; he pushed himself onward. He saw a building up ahead topple, slamming into the cog. Reverberations from the fall ran up his legs, bringing him to his knees.

The cog continued to lean, further and further.

Dellen focused everything he had on moving forward, spurred on by the groans of the city around him. With sweat pouring down his face and muscles screaming in protest, Dellen continues his ascent. The air was thick with smoke and the smell of burning metal, burning his nose and eyes.

There was a snapping sound, and the ground dropped, taking his stomach with it. Icy fingers of fear spread through him, the cog was now at a terrifying angle; Dellen felt he was a scant few degrees short of scaling a vertical wall. He held on and just caught his breath. A now-familiar scream cut threw his almost rest. He looked up just in time to see Toby hurtling through the air toward the chasm. His heart clenched in fear for the boy. Without hesitation, Dellen snapped out his arm to catch him.

He found purchase on Toby’s wrist, the force of the impact yanked at Dellen’s shoulder, and something went ‘pop.’ Still holding on to the boy, Dellen struggled not to howl from the pain in his joint. They were both dangling from the side of a partially collapsed building.

Toby’s face was a mask of terror, his eyes wide and his breath coming in short, panicked gasps. Dellen gritted his teeth against the pain in his shoulder and tried to imagine a way, any way, to get them both to safety.

“Hold on, kid.” He shouted over the noise, pain roughening his tone, “Are you strong enough to climb?” Dellen inclined his head at the wall.

Toby scrabbled his arms in the air until his fingers found purchase on the stone wall.

Using his uninjured arm when possible, Dellen scaled the side of the building, inching his way up, with Toby in tow. The metal groaned and shifted beneath them, threatening to fall at any moment.

With one final push, they made it over the side of the building that now faced the sky. They collapsed onto the almost flat surface, breathing heavily and covered in grime.

Toby looked at Dellen with a mixture of gratitude and disbelief. “Thank you,” he choked out, his voice trembling.

Dellen nodded, still catching his breath. “We need to keep moving,” he said, his voice firm. “We’re not safe here.” His fingers found his shoulder, probing it for tenderness. Together, they picked themselves up.

They climbed up, moving through the ruined cityscape. Dellen had to dodge left to avoid a rolling piece of debris that dropped out of the haze from above. They were in a disorienting, sideways world as they climbed through the near-vertical remains of the cog. Shops and buildings hung with their contents spilling out, creating a dangerous climbing wall of debris.

Dellen led them into the remains of a once-thriving apothecary shop, now tilted at an alarming angle, its entrance a giant hole where the door had been wrenched from its hinges. The building’s wooden beams creaked under the strain of its shifted position, and the faint scent of crushed herbs and tonics lingered in the air.

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Gingerly, they climbed into the shop, their hands and feet searching for stable footholds around the debris. The shelves that had once lined the walls, filled with jars of herbs, tinctures, and powders, had torn from their mounts, leaving only splintered wood and shattered glass in their wake.

They climbed up the floor-turned-wall, navigating through a maze of broken furniture and upended display cases, using shelves like steps on a ladder.

Dellen spotted a small, relatively intact wooden cabinet still clinging to the wall; its contents partially spilled out. He reached for the cabinet, using it as a handhold to pull himself up. Toby followed suit, his fingers finding purchase on the cabinet’s metal handles. Together, they inched their way upward, making slow but steady progress.

They neared the back of the shop and discovered a narrow opening where a window had shattered, leaving an escape route. With careful manoeuvring, Dellen boosted Toby up and through the opening, then clambered up after him, wincing at his shoulder and the sharp glass edges.

Having emerged from the apothecary shop, they now faced a new challenge, a massive section of broken gearwork that had once served as the foundation of a tall building. The enormous gears, some as large as small rooms, were still trying to turn, their movements slow and laboured, accompanied by the groaning and grinding of metal.

The pair eyed the gears warily. Dellen glanced at Toby, and back at the still-moving machinery. “It’s going to be dangerous, but safer than staying here.”

Toby looked at him, face black with grime, clear streaks under his eyes. “I know.”

Taking a deep breath, Dellen stepped onto the edge of one of the massive gears, gripping the interlocking teeth with his hands, and judged the timing of its rotation.

Toby watched him, ready to copy.

Just as the gear began to turn upwards, Dellen shifted his weight onto it, allowing the movement to carry him higher. He maintained a tight grip, the sensation of the grinding metal vibrating through his body.

Reaching the peak of the gear’s rotation, Dellen took advantage of the momentum and lunged for the next gear. Harsh metal edges bit into his fingers, but he found purchase.

Together, they navigated the broken gearwork, their progress coming from a combination of timing, strength, and determination. The metal teeth threatened to slip from their grasp, Dellen could feel the strain on the machinery, its movements erratic, unpredictable, and sudden.

The top of the gearwork was shrouded in smoke, hiding their destination from Dellen, but it was enough that it was up. “How much further to the edge of the cog, do you think?”

“I think… we’re… almost… there.” Toby panted between heaving breaths.

Finally, they reached the top of the gearwork, muscles aching and hands raw. Each time Dellen moved a finger, a fresh flow of blood dripped from his hands, accompanied by a stinging pain that radiated up his arms.

They paused to catch their breath and, in Dellen’s case, close his eyes to block out the pain.

Dellen and Toby finally reached the juncture between the near-vertical cog they had scaled and another cog that remained almost horizontal. As they surveyed the area, they noticed a broken bridge sticking up, out of the haze of smoke. Its twisted and mangled remains pointed skyward, a finger reaching for the sky.

Though the bridge was damaged, it offered the only possible path for them to climb to what would be a perilous jump to safety.

Hand over hand, they approached the ruined bridge. Dellen stopped often to check his grip, fingers burning with pain and slick with blood. The bridge’s structure was a mess of broken planks, twisted metal, and exposed cables. Despite the devastation, what was left held firm.

Dellen began to climb. “Almost there.” He said to Toby.

They were careful to test each handhold and foothold before fully committing their weight to it. They moved slowly and deliberately, knowing that a mistake could prove fatal. The sharp edges of broken metal bit into Dellen’s hands.

A scream tore out of his lips, but he kept going.

With each step up, the gap between the cogs grew closer, as did the prospect of a safe landing. Dellen reached the highest point of the broken bridge, took a deep breath, and surveyed the distance.

This looked further than he’d thought from below.

He felt that their odds of bridging the gap were a coin toss at best. It was a good ten feet over and onto cobblestones, unless he managed to hit one of the ornamental hedges.

Feet braced on reasonably firm footing, he held up his hands to look at Toby, “Kid, I’d throw you, but,” he looked at the blood running to his elbows, his glance taking in his injured shoulder, “I don’t think it would help.” He shrugged, out of options. “Think you can make that jump?”

Toby tried to give him what Dellen could tell was supposed to be a smile, but it looked more like a tortured grimace. “Yeah, sure.”

“You go first.” Dellen said, “In case pushing off is just the nudge this bridge needs to topple over.”

Toby nodded at him, climbed to the top of the bridge, his hands as red as Dellen’s own, and jumped. He sailed across the gap with the grace of a drunken pigeon and landed in a tumble of broken shrubbery.

Dellen ignored the pain in his hands and his shoulder, gathered his courage, and launched himself from the battered structure.

His aim was off, he hit cobblestone, inches from the edge of the cog.

The impact was sudden and brutal.

Dellen heard the crack before he felt the pain. It shot up his leg like a flame. For a moment, he lay there, almost frozen in shock, unable to move or even think, overwhelmed by agony. The ground was blurry, his vision distorted by the pain.

He glanced down and pulled his gaze away just as fast. His leg was at an unnatural angle, and something sharp and white was sticking out through the torn fabric of his pant leg. He felt his heart racing, blood pounding in his ears, and beads of sweat on his forehead. All of the pain from the injuries on his body assaulted him at once.

Toby ran over, wide-eyed. “Lord Northcote, what do I do?”

The cog they’d escaped made a last tortured creaking sound and fell into the chasm. The sudden release of its weight caused a chain reaction, the intense force reverberating through the cog they were on.

Dellen felt it first in his ruined leg.

Toby was thrown from his feet and over the edge.

Metal groaned, and the entire cog fell.