“Simple and effective, my arse.” Ryan grumbled to himself. Easy for William to say as they only had a short straight hike to the lodge while Miguel and he carefully circumvented the lodge scrambling through the thick bush all the way. Worst off all, since a gentle breeze was blowing up the valley they had to move through the rockier terrain upslope of the lodge. The buzzing swarms of mopane flies tormenting them after they had hit this latest clearing weren’t improving his mood either. The little insects ceaselessly persecuted him for any scrap of moisture, trying and not always failing to worm their way into nostrils, armpits the mouth and worming under their eyelids. Worst off all, when they were inevitably crushed, the little pests released their trademark pungently sweet aroma that was so offensive to Ryan’s Enhanced Senses that he was becoming increasingly nauseous. Even his sight was turning blurry by now.
Ryan was feeling increasingly worse before he thought to Identify his tormentors. The swarm consisted of a multitude of Level 11 to 13 Desiccator Bees and Ryan’s internal alarm bells started ringing. With a hoarse groan, spitting out fragments of the beasts that had worked their way deeper into his throat, he warned Miguel. “Miguel. High level. They’ve mutated. That aroma they release on death is probably toxic. You’re feeling sick too?” When Miguel failed to answer Ryan turned around. Miguel wasn’t looking to hot and swaying lightly from side to side.
“You okay bud?” Ryan asked, starting to worry only to receive a rushing stream of projectile vomit across his lower extremities the moment Miguel opened his mouth to answer. The majority of the swarm immediately descended on the liquid and within moments only crumbly dry pieces of the boy’s breakfast remained. Thoroughly alarmed Ryan called Fury to him. When his bond doddered into the clearing chuffing and sneezing his alarm turned into full blown panic.
With some effort not to stumble to his knees Ryan lifted his head and clapped eyes on the little bluff they had left Carmen at and straining himself to his utmost etched Miguel’s specificity into his awareness before he initiated the Shift that would carry the three of them to relative safety. The second he rematerialised on the bluff he started chundering his lungs out, covering the prone Gunslinger in copious amounts of vomit from head to toe.
“Get Alexis!” Ryan squeezed out before he unceremoniously collapsed onto his butt and closed his eyes, desperately trying to shut out the sense that was spinning a kaleidoscope of impossible colours over the world. Ryan hunched down and with his head between his knees released more of his precious fluids. The spluttering roar hammered into his fragile eardrums and Ryan flinched as the burning hot back-splatter impacted his inflamed face only to be partially washed away by ice-cold tears tracking rivulets of soothing calm down his cheeks.
A virulent mish-mash of senses assaulted his consciousness and after a futile struggle against the encroaching blackness Ryan faded into the dark. It was dark when he woke and the dancing spots of cold light in the sky above told him that he was still suffering under the poison. Still, with his faculties partially restored, Ryan started cataloguing his state as the stars spun in a merry dance and the overwhelming clamour of his surroundings punished his hearing. It wasn’t good, every time he so much as thought of twitching a muscle sharp shooting spasms coursed through him. When this elicited an involuntary groan a dark shadow obscured the spastically flickering orange tones tattooing their sick convulsions onto his left retina.
Ryan flinched away from the devouring shadow before his conscious thoughts caught up. Somebody must have approached from the fire on his left. Still, the surreally horrifying information his senses provided took immense effort to parse and the sibilant hiss of the voice addressing him precluded any understanding. A twisted dark branch approached his face, looming slowly closer and despite himself he shrunk back until the cthulian appendage touched his lips and a searing cold burned its way down his throat. Only then he understood that someone was giving him water, or an equivalent, and gratefully swallowed past the burning pain. Whatever he had just swallowed provided immediate relief from his pain and Ryan gratefully closed his eyes.
When next he opened them they were assailed by unbearable brightness and every surface of his body was burning in unbearable fires. Ryan scrunched his eyes shut and groaned in pain. None too soon an impact hammered against his lips sending shocks of agony through his mind and again the searing cold burned its way down his throat. Eventually, after Ryan had long since lost track of how often this cycle of blissful unawareness and unbearable agony repeated, he opened his eyes once more and stared at the leafy green foliage swaying in a gentle breeze above him.
Ryan felt wrung out, weak and starved. His mouth was dry as the desert and the scratchy feeling as he blinked told him beyond the last shadow of doubt that he was severely dehydrated. When he tried to speak a scratchy croak was the only sound he managed to produce. A bottle was held to his lips seconds later and Ryan recognised Alexis’ concerned face as a soothing warmth spread from the hand lightly lying on his chest. His angel of mercy looked haggard, tired beyond all reason. Thick, black bruises underscored the piercing blue of her eyes framed by stringy red hair. Sweat pearled on her skin but it was still the most beautiful thing Ryan had ever seen. When she removed the bottle after she had sparingly poured some of its contents down his throat Ryan forced out a barely coherent “Please.” past his tortured vocal chords.
The radiant smile that this simple word painted on her face erased all signs of exhaustion and Ryan could swear that, for a moment, her head was graced by a luminescent halo.
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“You’re awake. William, he’s awake.” Alexis more sobbed than spoke. “Hey, take it easy. Okay?” she crooned as she lifted the bottle to his lips. “Small sips. Take it slow.”
“Hey. You had me scared.” the subdued rumble of William’s voice came from his left. Ryan turned his head to look at his brother. Like Alexis, signs of deep exhaustion were unmistakably etched into his face. Ryan grunted at him and his brother chuckled in answer.
“I look like shit. Yeah, you should have a look in the mirror. Zombies got nothing on you.” With immense relief Ryan accepted that William’s sense of humour was still there and meant that no-body had died. So, in query, he raised his eyebrows.
William understood the implicit question. “It’s been two days. Carmen called us in a panic and when we arrived she was in hysterics, covered in vomit and cradling Miguel who was screaming at the top of his lungs, shitting himself. You were sitting in a puddle of vomit and shit and Fury was lying next to you. Same condition. I admit I panicked. Alexis took charge. She’s been Cleansing and Healing you guys ever since. Whatever you’ve been exposed to was vicious, I’ll let her explain. You’re the last to wake but Miguel hasn’t been able to tell us what happened. Can’t remember a thing. Fury is recovering and sleeping. Take your time, we’re fairly safe here.”
William’s summary of the situation was concise and Ryan gave a slight nod to signify his understanding. His brother settled down next to him while Alexis slowly fed him more water and explained the toxin. According to her cleanse couldn’t entirely remove it from their system and she assumed that, similar to their own cells, it had been reinforced by Energy in some way. Healing only treated the symptoms but was less effective as well. Whatever it was, apparently it was hallucinogenic and protein based and caused excessive vomiting, sweating and diarrhoea. Severe organ and nerve damage were some of the later consequences. She also explained that Miguel had gained a Resistance to protein based hallucinogenics, the reason she knew what the nature of the poison was.
“So, can you tell me how on earth you three managed to nearly die to poison?” Alexis concluded.
Instead of speaking and further straining his tortured vocal chords Ryan had the bright idea to call her. When she answered he asked her to link everyone present into the chat and once everyone signed in he told them about the mopane flies, explaining what happened. When his tone turned self-recriminating as he explained that he had been careless everyone reassured him that he couldn’t have known. Ryan knew better, he was well aware that even the smallest animals could pose a significant threat but it was a difficult concept to internalise and he had been lax. Leaving his self-recrimination for later he asked what the plan forward was.
“Well, we still have to deal with your porcupine.” William answered “It looks like it has claimed the lodge as its territory. Couple of ragged baboons tried to invade but it made short work of them. Plan to deal with it hasn’t changed but we’ll wait till you guys are recovered to execute. John’s getting antsy to move the guild because they had another encounter with some raiders but understands that it’s too risky if it’s only us. If you’re not up to play bait we could try having Johannes use a sacrificial lamb again but you’ll need to open a portal for that.”
Ryan thought for a moment and then spoke on the chat. “Why don’t I open a portal in the mean-time. There’s a clearing close to the lodge and next to the track. If I open a portal there we can start moving stuff over so long. I’ll have to open a portal a couple of times and recover Energy in between anyway. No harm in getting the process started and you could use reinforcements. I should be fit for combat tomorrow with more healing I think?” Ryan addressed the last to Alexis.
Alexis spoke out loud. “I don’t see why not. Once Miguel woke up he has responded well to the healing, looks like the poison is out of your system now and you should be fine by tomorrow. Honestly, if Tanya can take over I can get some sleep and she’ll have the Energy to do more healing. I’ve basically been tapped out since day before yesterday and only healing if I had some Energy recovered.”
After that, things moved quickly. Mike, William and Carmen packed up the make-shift camp while Alexis rested against the trunk of the tree. It took less time to pack up than to rouse Miguel and the party made their way to the tracks under Ryan’s guidance. Carmen carried Fury, huffing and puffing under the load while Mike and William supported the two invalids as they shuffled their way slowly closer to the tracks. Forcing himself to maintain Graviton Sphere through the residual bleariness of the hallucinations was more strenuous than Ryan expected but he kept the Skill up until they reached the clearing hating how exposed he felt as they slowly moved through the bush.
The moment they reached the clearing William told him to go ahead with the portal. Apparently he had already co-ordinated logistics with Lizzy and the Guild was ready on the other side. Soon Ryan was spinning up a portal, it was devouring a significantly larger chunk of Energy than usual as William had asked him to make a portal that would grant at least a two by two metre passage which meant that the portal was larger than Ryan was used to. It wasn’t the first time Ryan had altered the dimensions of the portal but it was by far the largest he had opened and it chewed through his Energy. As it spun up he kept a close eye on the Energy drain. At this rate he could only maintain it for a few minutes and he informed William of that fact quickly.
To his great surprise, when the portal opened, the sight that greeted him was unfamiliar. Instead of seeing his Dimensional Anchor framed by the sparring grounds, he was greeted by the paved area in front of the workshop with a line of carts and trailers leading to the portal. Quickly the heavily laden carts moved through the portal, pulled either by some of Johannes menagerie or a variety of Guild members. By the time approximately a third of the waiting line had moved through Ryan had to put an end to the process as his Energy was running low. As the last cart moved through several people headed back through the portal but Ryan was pleased to see that Tanya, Johannes and a very short older woman with slate grey hair remained. It was only then that Ryan realised that more people than there were members in Exsolotus had been waiting on the other side.
As he dropped the Portal the woman greeted them. “Hey guys and girl. I’m Linda. I’m your new combat support.”