The next morning, Jake woke up to find Lana shaking him awake. Looking around, he saw Leopold, who gave a slight wave but no sign of Rick.
“Rick’s gone ahead to scout out our path. He left a while ago, so he should be back soon. Here, we all ate something earlier, so you should eat while you can before we head out again.”
Lana explained, seeing the confused look on Jake's face as he glanced around the camp, before handing over a wrapped piece of meat leftover from dinner the night before and a small cup of water.
“Thank you,” Jake said, eating the meat with abandon and savoring the provided water. While traveling, it was difficult to stop for any sort of water break, so Jake made sure to savor the water he had now before it was time to set off down the mountain again. Jake finished the meal quickly, and after a few small gulps that allowed the water to coat his entire throat, he was done.
Standing up carefully, Lana helping pull him upwards as she still stood nearby, Jake balanced on his cane and began packing his bag. The last time he’d set off, he hadn’t had to worry about packing but arriving in camp this time the trio had lent him a blanket to use at night, so he planned to just pack it in his mostly empty bag for now. Jake grabbed the rough woolen blanket from the ground and quickly folded and rolled it up to be more compact. He had nothing to bind it with to stop it from unraveling itself, so instead he opted to quickly jam it in his bag and pull the top shut.
“You good to carry that, kid?” Leopold called out with a snicker from across the campsite, “I can take it from you early on if you don’t want to fool with it.”
Jake waved him off and threw the bag on his back. His leg still felt wobbly, but it felt much easier to move today, and his balance felt massively improved. He didn’t doubt that the downward climb would push his balance to its limits, but he guessed that the least he could do today was carry his own bag. Leopold shrugged and called out,
“Suit yourself, I can always grab it when you trip,” Letting out a laugh to himself as Rick re-entered the clearing. Rick grabbed Leopold’s shoulder and whispered to him for a moment. Leopold looked surprised before nodding, at which point everyone was fully packed to leave.
Remembering the carved steps from yesterday Jake was expecting a similarly difficult descent after leaving the camp but instead, he was met with natural rock plates jutting into each other to form slants at various angles. The sharpest ones were the most direct to follow downward, and often the ones the trio would walk down, but the more smoothly slanted rocks would usually lead to the same point when followed. This allowed Jake, though separated from the other three, to walk at a reasonable pace.
Whenever he’d reach a rock at an angle, he couldn’t walk down on his own that led to a critical destination, he’d rely on one of the others for help. Usually, this would be Lana or Leopold, though once Rick did grab him by the back of the neck to stop him falling face forward down a particularly jagged slope, which Jake appreciated. Jake had meant to say thank you, but Rick had already moved on, far outpacing both him and the others. He acted as a guide for the trip, leading the group down the path he scouted and only happened to pass by Jake at a lucky moment.
Eventually, the slanting rocks converged downward forming a series of twisting hallways. The tops of the walls created by the rocks were too jagged and rough for most to walk through, certainly not Jake, and even Lana and Leopold opted to walk with Jake in a single file line across the flatter floor of the natural hallway as opposed to risk walking atop the jagged walls. Only Rick walked at the top, seeming to effortlessly walk between the jagged rocks and slanting boulders that formed the rocky maze. He led the group forward, directing them in a quick step through the maze.
Jake was worried about being separated from the trio but found that while the jagged rocks that naturally came together to form the walls of the maze he walked through looked hard to walk upon, the floor of the maze itself was particularly flat. It lacked any slant, and with his cane and the use of the walls for support when needed he could keep up with no problem.
Soon, Rick disappeared as the walls slowly started to sink back into the earth, crumbling away as the natural hallways they created ceased to exist. Jake found himself standing with Lana and Leopold on a long, outstretched plateau of smooth rock. It stretched out miles on either side of him, stretching far beyond what any of their light sources could see, and he could just barely make out what looked like the edge of the plateau a few yards directly ahead. The ground of the plateau was cracked, forming potholes and long jagged splits that his leg or his cane could easily sink into, so Jake moved forward with the others very carefully.
Over the ledge of the plateau was a sheer drop-off. He couldn’t see anything below, just rolling clouds of grey mist which obscured everything from view. He could see, just at the edge of his view, what looked like potentially the tips of trees below, but looking down into the rolling abyss below, he couldn’t imagine how many miles high the trees must be.
“What do we do now? And where’s Rick?”
Jake asked, looking around.
“Good question,” Leopold said, exaggeratedly peering over the edge, cupping his eyes with his hands. “We should start with this.” Then he quickly and delicately pushed Jake forward over the edge of the plateau, grabbing hold of Jake's bag so it slipped from his grasp and remained in his hand as he fell.
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Jake was shocked, not having time to scream in surprise or betrayal before the familiar sensation of falling took hold of him again. It had been some time, but he still remembered how it felt, however, this time the fall lasted longer than a split second, dragging on as Jake fell into the unknown of the fog. Unsure what to do, if he should clench himself or not, as soon as Jake fell through the layer of fog he landed with a thud into the ground below.
The ground was soft dirt, he sunk into it easily, and after blinking the shock from his eyes he could make out Leopold's distinct laugh from beyond the fog belt, now distinctly closer than he initially thought, followed by his booming voice,
“Welcome to the Largo Mountain Shelf Kid!”
His laugh was interrupted by the thudding sound of a fist colliding with armor, and though he couldn’t hear her clearly, he could make out the sound of Lana ranting furiously towards Leopold, who continued chuckling. Sitting up and reaching towards his cane, easily found thanks to its glow, Jake looked around and caught sight of Rick who was leaning against a tree and shaking his head with an annoyed look on his face.
“Move, they’ll be landing where you’re sitting any second now.”
Jake nodded, and after pulling himself up hobbled over to where Rick was by the tree line. He still felt shocked and was shaking a bit from the sudden surprise, but aside from that he didn’t feel injured at all. Not long after he joined Rick by the trees, both Lana and Leopold landed near where Jake had fallen. Leopold wore a large grin on his face, though it looked more apologetic than Jake would have expected, while Lana looked furious and quickly rushed over to where Jake was.
“Sorry about that kid,” Leopold said, with a nervous-sounding chuckle and a scratch to the back of the head, “Drill instructor did that to me once, thought it might lighten the mood.” Jake ignored him for now, feeling rather pissed off, and focused on Lana who was asking him a multitude of questions all at once.
“Does your back feel ok? How about your leg? Did you land on your cane? Did you land on anything sharp? Did you hit your head? Did you lose your memories again?”
Jake tried to calm her down, but it was hard to get a word in edge-wise,
“I feel fine, I didn’t land on anything, and it was a shortfall. See, I'm totally fine.”
Still seeming dissatisfied, she stepped back for the time being. Leopold took that moment to talk again.
“We’ll be camping here for the foreseeable future, I’m not sure how long but at least until Rick can scout out a path to a new secure campground. We know the swarm won’t come here, they never venture this close to Largo Forest. As for what is actually living in Largo Forest now, no one has ever been able to successfully report that back.”
The others seemed unsurprised by this news, and Jake could tell this report was entirely for his benefit. After he was done talking, Lana stepped forward again the anger in her voice clear,
“Good, stopping now gives me a chance to examine my patient before you shove him off another cliff.”
“It was just a ledge Lana…” Leopold started to argue, but seeing that seemingly no one wanted to hear his defenses he shut up and moved forward, setting Jake’s bag down near the rock wall of the ledge behind him.
“You can examine him here; I’m going to start a fire. Rick, can you make sure we're safe here?”
Rick gave a nod and moved away while Lana practically dragged Jake over toward where his bag was set aside. Half shoved to the ground, Jake sat on the floor and let Lana examine him. She started with his head, which seemed odd to Jake as she'd never healed him there till he remembered all three of these people thought he was suffering from amnesia. After concluding he had no obvious bumps or bruises, she moved on to his leg.
She had him test his range of motion, bend and flex it, had him stand and walk without the cane for a bit, and eventually seemed satisfied. Finally, she moved to his back, and after examining the skin for a while seemed convinced nothing was wrong. Her final test involved placing her finger in the middle of Jake’s back, and soon after an electric spark zapped through his body, causing him to jump up with a shocked cry.
“What was that for?” He asked, confused.
“That… hurt?” Lana asked, clearly just as confused as he was. She sat for a minute, a baffled expression on her face before standing up and sprinting toward her overstuffed bag. She was only gone a few seconds, as after some frantic digging she returned, carrying a leather-bound book with ‘Basics of Magic Control’ printed across its cover.
“Can you read the first chapter of this for me and tell me if it means anything to you?”
Jake did as she asked, and he could tell from the way she sat staring expectantly she wanted something from him but no matter how much he read sections of the book it made no sense to him. The first section of the book, which discussed basic controls of one’s internal magic you needed to master before continuing forward, felt impossible to Jake as no matter how hard he tried he felt nothing. No flow of magic neither internally nor externally, not that he knew what the flow of magic felt like.
“I’m sorry, is it supposed to mean something?” He asked. Lana inhaled sharply before shaking her head no, and turning away from Jake quickly said,
“No no, it’s fine, was just curious. I saw you looking at my book the other day, after all, thought you might be interested. Hold onto it for now, maybe it’ll spark something later.” Lana said, a hint of worry in her tone before she rushed back to her bag, digging through it once more.
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It was late at night, and Rick was gone. He had left early after eating a quick dinner leaving Leopold, Lana, and Jake alone together. The meal had been tense but after several fervent apologies, he’d manage to return the three’s dynamic to its usual routine. Leopold let out a sigh, this wasn’t the first time a joke went wrong, and it was always a problem when it did so. But he did feel stupid for not considering Jakes more severe injuries. He figured since he’d been walking better and better recently, he would be fine.
With a sigh, Leopold turned from walking the perimeter of the camp to find Lana walking hurriedly toward them.
“Look Lala, I’m sorry, ok? I won’t mess with the kid like that again, I promise.” Leopold began, trying to get ahead of her before she could start screaming at him again.
“It isn’t about that,” Lana said, though she still looked annoyed, but after glancing over her shoulder to check Jake was sound asleep, she crept closer to Leopold and whispered in a low voice,
“I think something’s wrong with Jake. He has no magic anywhere in his body.”