The group reached the island faster than Jake was expecting. He thought it would take at least two or three hours of constant walking, but they soon reached the sharp rocks of the island in an hour. Part of this increase in speed was the steady rising of the land. As the group walked closer and closer to the island, the land rose, allowing them to emerge from the blood steadily. Soon the blood rose to just below their shoulders, then they had to raise their arms to avoid dragging their wrists through the sticky substance. Soon they then managed to rise enough that the blood sunk just below their waists.
With every step forward they rose higher and higher from the depths of the blood lake, the viscous liquid forced to rescind its grip from the group's advancing march. Walking, while still not easy as they had to fight through the soup of blood with each step, quickly became easier and their pace once again quickened.
Reaching the sides of the island in the blood, Jake could see no clear way to climb its side. It was made up of a series of smoothed rocks, falling into each other at awkward angles that curved outward and blocked progression up the side of the island where Jake could see larger, flatter earth lay in wait.
“A path cut through last time I was here… It looks like it’s collapsed…” Lana said, surveying the side of the island. She kept her arm raised still, the flair burning bright above. Even now, the faint screeches of the abominations waiting in Largo could be heard as they writhed in pain at the light's touch. Lana had stopped in front of a collection of mismatched boulders that looked to Jake as if they had come loose in some sort of rockslide or earthquake.
At Lana’s words without missing a beat, Rick and Leopold began to move to climb up the side of the island yet only Rick had any real success at this. He nimbly scrambled up the side of the cliff faces while Leopold struggled to find perch, his armor's massive frame weighing him down and preventing him from getting a good foothold. Rick caught his breath a moment, finally free of the blood, before he reached low over the edge of the rock, he’d perched himself on and offered his hand down below.
Leopold stood a moment staring at the hand, seemingly uncertain if he could take it, before grabbing hold of Rick’s outstretched hand. Without another word, Rick pulled Lepold with all his might, yet his tiny frame could only do so much to offset the massive weight difference caused by Leopold’s armor. He failed to fully lift Leopold more than a foot or so, yet this extra height was enough as
Leopold was able to reach out and secure footing. Without much difficulty after having secured a foothold and now free from the grip of the blood, Leopold was able to quickly shimmy up the cliff face and join Rick peering over the edge.
Next to join the two was Lana. She let her hand fall to her side, and with it went the magical flare that had burned in the sky. The flare disappeared from view, its crackling light fading and plunging the world back into utter blackness. Yet even as the light faded and Lana forced herself up the cliff face with some help from both Rick and Leopold, the roaring of what waited beyond Largo’s wall remained. It echoed across the empty expanse of the blood lake, distant but clear its fury well known to all.
Last to climb was Jake, yet now all light was gone from the world. He simply grasped hold of the rock wall, looking upward and searching blindly in the dark for some sign of handhold he could use. Yet all he could feel was smooth rock curving back toward him. Not even the faintest hint of a crack in the rock façade greeted him. Just as Jake was beginning to panic, wondering how the hell Rick had managed to haul himself up the cliff face alone, he could see a faint light begin to appear at the top of the island and a hand reached over, gripping hold of his wrist. He heard a grunt of exhaustion and felt himself being pulled upward, flung through the air out of the blood below and onto solid dirt.
Safe in the light again and seated on solid earth once more, the group was not fast to move. They all sat for a while, either curled up or on their hands and knees gagging or breathing heavily struggling to recover. After a while of this Lana extended her hand again, a soft glow enveloped the group. Slowly, the blood that still clung to their bodies seemed to bubble away. It was a slow process, and Lana looked tired when Jake met her eyes. He could see clear effort reflected at him, but after a minute or two of effort, the group found themselves once again bloodless.
Following this last bit of magic, Lana collapsed backward falling to the ground. She hadn’t passed out asleep like Jake had seen before, but it was clear she was running on empty, and would need rest before being able to cast anything else again. Leopold came over and helped prop her up comfortably, saying in a joking tone,
“Couldn’t do that yesterday, Lala?”
“Didn’t… I didn’t see much point yesterday. We were just going to get back in the blood.” Lanas’s voice fell from her throat tired and dazed, and she leaned back into the rocks behind her closing her eyes. Leopold waited by her side a moment longer, making sure she was properly propped and secured before he stood up. It was clear he wasn’t faring much better than Lana, he swayed a bit when he stood and he still struggled to breathe.
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He turned toward Rick. Who sat alone examining the sheen on his knives and giving satisfied nods after checking each one.
“You’re coming with me. We’ll leave the kid and Lala to rest a bit. We’re going to check the entrance Lala mentioned and make sure it didn’t collapse. Wouldn’t want anything slowing us down or stopping us now, right?”
His tone was neutral but a sort of venom hid in his words as he addressed Rick. Rick looked surprised at being addressed so suddenly but gave no complaints. He just silently rose from the dirt and followed after Leopold away from where Lana and Jake sat resting, toward the opposite end of the island. As he passed by, Jake managed to catch sight of Rick's face. It looked tense, scrunched up in an expression he wasn’t used to seeing the hunter wear. Soon, however, they were gone taking the majority of the light and leaving Jake alone with Lana in the near dark.
All the light Jake had now was a small flickering bulb of magic, laid on the floor between himself and Lana. It barely illuminated more than a foot or so directly around it, yet it was better than nothing. Jake focused on the light, trying to force himself to stay awake, at least until either Rick or Leopold returned from the other side of the island. He didn’t trust himself to successfully keep watch alone in the dark.
“When I got pregnant with Tom, both me and Cal were already older. We figured by then a child just wasn’t in the cards for us.” Lana began speaking suddenly in the dark, her voice echoing through the dark around Jake just as tired as before.
“I thought you were asleep,” Jake said, his voice sounding equally as tired as Lana’s.
“No.” Lana said, “Not yet, can’t sleep. I want to talk to you first. While the other two are gone. Think it will be easier that way.”
“You don’t have to talk to me, you don’t owe me anything…” Jake began but Lana cut him off,
“It’s not for you. It’s for me. You were right before, we are practically strangers. But you do know me, know all of us. I feel like talking with you about this. It might help, or at least it will feel like helping.”
A pause of silence followed, and as Jake began to wonder if Lana had drifted off to sleep she began again,
“But as the pregnancy grew on, Cal started having these fainting spells. Would fall over suddenly in the middle of the day and faint without warning. He’d always try and laugh it off, some stupid joke, then one day he started coughing blood. It wasn’t small amounts either. Things were so hectic after that, it’s all a bit of a blur, but I do remember holding his hand as he died. Could feel the warmth leave him. Then all at once it was like the whole world froze over with him.”
“Things I used to love, we used to love, I hated them so much. It made me feel sick. The worst of it was this… this thing growing in me. I hated him. Hated him before he spoke his first words. Took his first steps. Hated him because soon he’d be here, and his father would still be gone. I tried to fight it but I just couldn’t help it, I hated him. Then, finally, the baby was born. I was going to get rid of it then and there, rid myself of him, and start fresh. Then his little hand grabbed mine, I felt his warmth for the first time. I looked at Will’s eyes for the first time, held his hand, felt his warmth, and I couldn’t imagine life without him.”
“When we had to flee Largo we left everything behind. Most refugees did, it was the only way to escape alive; the city fell so fast. It tore me apart leaving everything of his behind, leaving Cal behind, but I still had Will’s hand to hold. I could keep moving forward, I had to. I had to keep him safe. We were luckier than most refugees, we had family waiting for us. Leopold accepted us in Morsell with open arms.”
“You should have seen him back then, so stoic and serious. He’d only crack a smile or a joke for the kids. Only Will could get him to keep going with them though, he loved Will’s laugh. Lepold’s family too… bless them they would always look after Will for me. His daughter was a perfect babysitter. I still remember them laughing and playing.
“And whenever Rick came to visit us, you wouldn’t be able to drag Will away from him. Always wanted to hear another story about his hunt, and always wanted to know when we could go back home to Largo. The stories Rick would tell… you wouldn’t believe how good he could be with kids. Always playing along with Will, promising he’d save the world someday. ‘The Final Hero’s’ Rick said once, cause what good would other heroes be once the sky was back, and The Swarm was dead.”
Silence descended between the pair as Lana stopped talking for a moment longer, the stuttering sound of her failed attempts to speak filling the air,
“He was unrecognizable when we found him. A bloody mess. I was in denial for so long, refused to believe it was my son… my Will. It couldn’t be… not my son left forgotten and abandoned to bleed out like that. Not my little boy.”
“After that… I just wanted to die. For so long, I just wanted it all to end. The others changed too… but they could keep moving forward, keep trying. I was just stuck there. Wallowing, waiting to die.”
Silence rained after that for a while before Lana spoke again, her voice rough and the sound of tears evident as they fell from her face.
“When I saw you for the first time, laying there bleeding out I saw him again. Dead and alone forgotten down some back alleyway. I couldn’t let that happen again. I think Jake… in truth when we look at you I think all of us see something different. You and Will look so alike it’s almost like looking into a mirror, when I talk with you sometimes it’s almost like he’s back with us again. Being near you, talking to you can hurt so much sometimes, cause it almost feels like I can hug him gain, talk to him again, say sorry to him. But then I blink and it's just... it's just you..."
An emotive sigh filled with longing escaped Lana, the last sound to escape either the two before sleep dragged them down into unwilling, sullen dreams.