The next morning Jake woke up to the now familiar sensation of a knife burrowing into the dirt by his head, so close it practically scratched his cheek. No longer surprised by the routine, Jake sat up to see Rick across from him, farther back than he had been the last time he’d done this.
“Sloppy kid,” Rick said, an annoyed look on his face yet the tone of his voice betrayed he found this standard greeting the two shared amusing. Rolling his eyes, Jake collected the knife and stood up, shaking the loose dirt free from its blade. Soon the blade sparkled like new again. He walked over and reached out to hand the blade over to Rick, who shook his head no. With a shrug, Jake pocketed the blade. It would certainly make practice easier to have an extra blade handy.
“I'm Glad you decided to dump the wolf before I had to say anything, kid.” Jake turned to Rick, unsure of what he meant by that.
“Carrying around that thing as it rotted further would only act as bait for whatever’s left out there. Dumping it early means it’ll hopefully distract whatever’s lurking out there away from us.”
Jake gave a nod, having never once considered that when he’d asked to drag the wolf’s carcass into the plains with him, in fact, he’d never really had some big design in mind when carrying the body around. It somehow just felt right, like he might gain something from forcing himself to be near it.
“I know that’s not why you brought it with you kid,” Rick said, perhaps noticing the way Jake's face suspiciously shifted to hide his true thoughts. “Hope you got what you needed out of it before you dumped it, saw you messing around with it before we left.”
Jake nodded and reached into his pocket, pulling out the fangs of the wolf he’d plucked.
“Not sure why, don’t have a use for them. Just felt like I needed to keep… something.” Jake said, scratching behind his head with the hand not holding the teeth of the wolf.
“It's perfectly natural to want a trophy kid, and those should be safe to hold onto. Good choice.” Rick said after glancing at the teeth in Jake’s hands. Jake nodded and repocketed the teeth, but in his heart, he disagreed. Somehow, the teeth didn’t feel like a trophy, more so a reminder. He remembered when he left the wolf the teeth had somehow felt so important to him in the moment, but now standing across from Rick holding them they just felt silly.
Silence grew between the two for a while, as neither moved or spoke after Jake repocketed the teeth. Rick just stood there arms crossed staring at the ground while Jake tapped his foot, staring off into the dark behind Rick’s head unsure of where to take the conversation.
“You want to know why I’m not one of The Swarm, right kid?” Jake was taken aback by Rick’s sudden question, which in no related to anything the two had been talking about. As Jake stood there, mouth agape wondering if this had been Rick’s awkward way of breaking the ice on the topic Rick continued,
“Don’t stare at me like that, you were practically shouting about it with Leopold the other night kid. Word of advice kid, I’d work on your whispering because I could hear you from miles away if I wanted to.” Jake nodded awkwardly, unsure of where this conversation was heading. It had been vague curiosity that drove him to ask Leopold before, but now it looked like he was trying to sneak around and ask about Rick behind his back. Rick looked at him for a minute before shrugging and saying,
“Why are you staring at me like that kid? I’ve talked about you behind your back plenty of times. And it’s not a bad question to ask either.” Rick's tone turned serious; his eyes locked onto Jake.
“The Corruption is just what its name implies it to be kid. It feeds off all that is evil in this world, and while proximity to it can cause it to spread what really spreads The Corruption has never changed, even before the sky was stolen. In the dark, the hearts of mankind falter, and there The Corruption breeds and spreads. What my family did before they fell… what we did, I didn’t know anything about. But they...they planned it all out, cut the flesh of the dead...passed it around. While this is still just a guess, I’d bet anything my ignorance of their sin is what saved me and doomed them.”
Rick turned his head toward where Leopold and Lana were packing, the two having started shortly after Rick and Jake started talking.
“I don’t know what the two of them have told you about Largo kid, but did you know it was once the magical capital of the known world? Yet still, it was the first major empire to fall, lost to The Corruption. Can you imagine how filthy a place it must have been if The Corruption managed to breed in the heart of what was poison to it? I know Lana has blinded herself to the truth of where we are going, and I can’t blame her for that, but even Leopold doesn’t like to talk about the truth of the place anymore. I won’t deny them their fantasy, but it’s only fair to you to know what sort of place Largo was, and what sort of ruins we can expect to find.”
Without another word Rick turned and walked away, leaving Jake alone to ponder his words. He’d never given much thought to what sort of place Largo must have been; all he knew about it was that it was destroyed. Now Jake stood there, lost in thought about just how many people could have possibly been turned To Swarm to overwhelm a place known for its magical power. Thousands? Millions? Could it be in the Billions? Just what waited for them at the end of their journey, what waited in Largo?
Eventually, he turned his head away, trying to ignore the worrying thoughts Rick had sparked, and met Lana’s eyes for a moment. She flashed him a small, strained-looking smile before turning away quickly. Jake sighed and quickly packed his stuff to not slow the group’s departure down. He couldn’t blame Lana for her reaction. Despite his best work to apologize and return their dynamic to normal, their bond still felt strained. All he could do now was leave her be, and hope not to make things worse between them somehow.
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The group walked in silence through the plains for the first time since entering. Leopold did not provide idle chatter to act as background noise like he usually did, he was too focused on working with Rick in hushed whispers that failed to reach the other two. They were walking low to the ground, which was difficult for Leopold due to the bulk of his armor, struggling to map the endless typography stretching out into the darkness around them. As for Lana and Jake, neither said a word to the other, only walking side by side at an awkward distance. Eventually, the group came to a stop.
“What in the hell…”
Leopold whispered as he stared down at what looked like a large black puddle rippling as it stretched out forever beyond where it appeared in the group’s field of view. The group tried to trace around the ring of the puddle for a bit, and though its shape changed slightly, failing to form a perfect circle the puddle of black liquid was unending, with no clear path around presenting itself. The only way forward was through the black abyss covering the ground.
Leopold stepped forward first, slowly walking a few steps forward. The black of the puddle sloshed around his armored feet with each step, and the ripples across the liquid surface grew worse and worse with each step he made to disrupt the puddle. The puddle didn’t even rise up to his toes, he stood easily atop the liquid barely sinking into it. Yet still, it was not a comforting sight to see that as he stepped forward, the light only revealed more of the puddle, stretching out seemingly forever.
With reluctance, the group carried on pushing out into the puddle. When it was Jake’s turn to walk into the puddle, he was met with a horrid surprise as it instantly soaked through the now worn-down slipper he wore, soaking the bottom and sides of his foot instantly. It was cold with a sticky feeling that seemed to cling to his foot desperately with every step. It was a familiar feeling to Jake, and though he’d already suspected it, it was unnerving to confirm the puddle stretching out around them was an endless pool of the vicious black blood that always streamed from The Corruptions pawns.
The group carried onward, much slower now than they had before, careful not to slip or trip on any unseen obstacle hidden in the blood below. Rick and Leopold who led the charge no longer focused on the topography or their surroundings, as all that surrounded the group was blood in endless amounts. They focused only on keeping the group together and moving forward in a straight line as best they could.
At first, though slowed significantly the group managed to make decent progress marching through the blood as it barely rose up the sides of their foot, only affecting Jake who found the slipper he worse rather inefficient at keeping the liquid out. However, the longer they walked the more the ground began to slowly slope downwards while the blood remained at a constant level, rippling around them. Slowly it rose to cling to the sides of their foot before rising further and gripping their ankles. Now not only Jake struggled as the viscous blood clung fast to his feet, but the whole group found walking a herculean task.
As they pressed forward, ignoring the sticky blood that struggled endlessly to pull them back, all at once out in front, Leopold dropped out of sight, slipping below the surface of blood without so much as a sound. In alarm, Lana cried out and rushed forward toward where her brother had disappeared before finding herself held back by Rick. He stopped Lana from rushing forward before bending forward, sinking to his hands and knees in the blood, and searching blindly in the black abyss. There was silence for a minute before, all at once a sound of exertion escaped Rick’s lips and Leopold was pulled upwards breaking the surface of blood.
Black clung to his face and hair, dripping slowly in large viscous beads of his hair and down his face. He coughed as sputters of blood escaped his mouth, his tongue recoiling in horror at the taste.
“Drop… Drop ahead…” Leopold sputtered, still coughing and struggling to recover as he attempted to put on a smile.
Rick looked down to where Leopold now sat submerged before a look of disgust crossed his face. Then with a sigh, he sat down and swung his legs into the unknown with Leopold and dropped over the edge. Unlike Leopold, he didn’t completely sink down into the abyss as he found himself grabbed and supported by Leopold. Lana and Jake soon followed suit, sinking into the blood.
Swimming through the blood was a horrid experience. It clung to Jake's arms and legs, making even treading water an exhaustive task. Jake tried to extend his toes, hoping he could find something to balance on but he was too short, and instead, he found himself nearly slipping below the surface completely.
Though swimming through the blood was difficult, the group had no choice but to continue moving forward, moving now at a snail's pace when compared to when they were simply walking not long before. The blood clung to every part of their body, and though they swam forward without rest it felt like they made no progress at all. Eventually though, Jake felt his leg connect with something, and looking around it was the same for the rest of the group. Hard stone was under Jake's foot now, and though at first he could only scrape it with his toes soon he found himself uneasily walking across the surface of the stone.
Slowly, with grunts of discomfort, the group hauled themselves out of the blood onto an outcropping of rock. They all sat coughing and gagging for a while or struggled to shake the blood off their bodies. None wanted to try and move the group forward on their quest at the moment, as all dreaded the thought of returning to the lake of blood. Eventually after laying flat for a while, Jake turned to Rick and asked in haggard, tired breathes,
“Where… Are… We…?”
Rick shook his head in response and shrugged. He was slow to move, and a constant look of disgust hung on his face as he looked down at himself, though he seemed too tired now to wipe the blood from himself at the moment. After a while like this, Lana sat up and raised her hand skyward. There was a brief beat of silence before a loud crackling sound could be heard and a light shot up from her hand, into the sky and exploded like a flare. It lit the sky around them as she kept her hand raised, a look of concentrated effort clear on her face.
As she kept her hand raised, the rest of the group surveyed the land around them. The blood seemed to quake and ripple in protest of the light shining down upon it, but other than that, nothing could be seen. The flare above lit the world around them far more than the usual sources of light they carried, but still, the group could see no clear path forward as they lay exhausted trapped by the endless lake of blood.