(Strive 14:1)

The fourteenth floor was a world of treetops, connected by high-flying rope bridges that tossed in the wind. Diffuse, rainbow-colored light emanated from bunches of glowing fruit that dangled from the trees like Christmas ornaments.

Up here, evidence of the recent towerquake was clear as day. Half the trees were barren of leaves, and some trunks leaned as if about to topple over.

But some trees still had fruit clinging onto them. Peaches of Power (Unripe) hung next to All-Up Apricots (Unripe), and I plucked one of the latter, taking a bite. The acidity nearly burned a hole in my tongue, and I didn’t even receive a stat increase for my trouble.

“Don’t bother,” I said, as Selene reached for one. I tossed the bitten fruit, and it disappeared soundlessly into the bottomless void.

“I could’ve told you that was gonna happen,” chittered a voice above me, “but I chose not to.”

A familiar weight of something fuzzy dropped on my head, and I put one hand on it. The bulk, the slightly coarse fur, the rounded ears, I’d know them anywhere. The smile that reached Selene’s eyes, for once.

“You little dumpster-diving so-and-so,” I said, ruffling El’s fur. “Where the hell have you been hiding?”

“That’s all you gotta say to me? No ‘thanks for distracting the giant floating eyeball, El’? ‘We owe you our lives, El?’”

I sniffed. “You smell like mud.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You would too if you were wading in it up to your ears. I just barely got it all cleaned up.” The raccoon leaped over to Selene, who hugged her tight to her chest. “See, now that’s a proper welcome.”

“Where’s Artem?” Selene asked. “I thought you two were together.”

“Right,” said El. “He spotted her and started chasing. I… uh… couldn’t keep up.”

Selene’s smile vanished, and she held El at arm’s length, staring at her. “Where?”

“Somewhere that way.” El pointed a paw, then wriggled in the uncomfortable grip. “Hell if I know.”

“Show me.” Selene’s tone was dull and dead as she placed the raccoon down.

El led us to a spot where a tree stood at a precarious slant, a crater on one side of its trunk, next to the remains of a bridge that hung limp over the abyss. “We saw her across here. Thought we did, anyway. Small humanoid shape, and I think she might’ve tried to take us down on the climb up if I hadn’t sent a few bangs her way.”

I thought of how vulnerable we’d been on our ascent, and had to admit it was a good strategy. “Then what?”

El indicated the damaged tree and bridge. “Our dear leader boosted off of it,” she said. “Told me to wait for y’all here. Then a big flash of red, and next thing I knew, both of them were gone, and the bridge gave out. I couldn’t go after them if I wanted to.”

“Power Strike,” I said. “He doesn’t have dexterity, so he needs to use it in bursts to compensate.”

“Anyway,” El continued, “after that, I just sat tight here and sent rabbits down till you two showed up.”

Selene looked at her for a moment, then said simply, “El Bandito, you wouldn’t be lying to me, your friend, would you?”

“Why would I go and do that?” El said, but she looked shiftier than usual, which was impressive considering her default pose was like she’d been caught mid-burglary.

“I don’t know.” Selene folded her arms. “You tell me.”

“Okay, okay!” El put her paws in front of her face. “He wanted me to come with, but I was fuckin’ scared, alright? You didn’t see the jars, what she tried to do to us. You didn’t see—”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I saw the jar,” said Selene. “I see it every time I open my inventory. On the first page, as a reminder.”

“—us raccoons are scavengers,” El continued. “Our motto is to run away and live to fight again. But nowadays, you’d think my name’s El Goddamn Hero instead of El Bandito. I didn’t have to come on this quest, I didn’t—”

“That’s true,” I said, and realized I’d never been appropriately grateful for it before. “You didn’t have to come. Why?”

El Bandito looked at us each in turn. “I hate this sappy shit,” she said unhappily. “But y’all are my squad.”

----------------------------------------

I aimed Purgator at the far side of the broken bridge and pulled the trigger. With a hollow thwip sound, the rope fired in a lazy arc before sticking to the tree on the far side. I stepped backwards until the line was taut. Selene wanted to use the same tactic as with the beachside cliff, walking across like a tightrope.

“What if there’s another quake?” I asked, digging my heels into the ground. “I feel like they’re happening more and more often.”

“Getting worse and worse,” said El. “Last one nearly ended me.”

“I could power-jump across, reel you two in,” I offered.

“No,” said Selene, at the same time El said, “Fuck that.”

“Just a suggestion. Look, I don’t see what the problem is. I even wiped it off after using it.”

“Plunger’s a plunger,” El said, scrambling backward, and Selene nodded in agreement.

“Suit yourselves,” I muttered. “But you’d better go quick.”

We were fortunate that no towerquake struck as the two crossed the line like a pair of acrobats. I retracted the line and fired it at a branch high up, then willed myself to leap. I swung across, pedaling my feet in midair until I landed on the other side.

Another crater on the far side of the trunk showed where Artem had gone. Looking in that direction, I saw the trail of destruction he’d left, a neat path for us to follow among the treetops. They were dense enough here that no rope bridges were needed, as the boughs of neighboring trees interlocked with each other to form wide footpaths.

Selene looked ahead, then back at El and me. “Shall we move faster, then?”

Instead of answering, I Quickened.

“Vamonos,” said El.

Selene sped up the pace to a jog. Both El and I kept up easily, the raccoon dashing across smaller branches alongside us. Seeing this, she took us to a run, then a sprint, following the wake of Artem’s destruction. No normal athlete ever made that pace on as twisting terrain as we did, leaping from bough to branch, treetop to treetop, as a rainbow of colors blurred past. We passed a group of screeching enemies like crazed chimpanzees, but passed them before they could do more than holler at us.

Once, there was a gap too wide for me, and I pulled out Purgator, plunging headlong across the chasm like Tarzan, and after that I realized I could just keep swinging, without ever touching the ground, whooping as I went, until I passed through a waterfall with a spray of white foam, launched, flipped, and skidded to a stop on the branch of another tree.

“Showoff,” said El as she and Selene caught up to me.

“I didn’t know I could do that,” I panted, resting my hands on my knees. “Damn. I might be kind of awesome.”

“Awesome’s one word for plunger-based parkour,” El said. “Not the one I’d have picked, though.”

“Focus, both of you,” Selene said. “I see him.”

There was an immense clock face set into the side of a tree trunk. The two hands of the clock spun crazily, and the numbers along the edge of the dial weren’t any that were familiar to me. The surface of the clock appeared somewhat liquid, and looking at it made my gut churn. I scanned it with Examine, and, as I’d expected, my udjat read fifteenth floor entrance.

Artem sat under the portal cross-legged with half his inventory laid out in front of him. He finished polishing a wicked-looking knife, held it up to the light, then stored it with a flick of his kada hand.

“About time,” he rumbled, and his low voice was reassuringly familiar. “Thought I lost you, midget bear.”

“What happened?” Selene demanded. “Where is she?”

“Be calm.” Artem held up a hand. “We must talk before proceeding to the next floor. I don’t want to press forward blindly without some idea of what’s coming.”

Selene twisted her fingers brusquely and brought out the wolf’s breastbone from the previous floor. Using a nail, she punctured the bottom of a can of refreshing soda and pressed it against her lips, cracking the top and downing it in a messy gulp. She sat, holding the breastbone on her lap.

“I almost caught up with her,” Artem said as Selene began to sign, the sleeve of characters rolling around her wrist. “But she said something that gave me pause. The last thing she said before she disappeared into the portal was that she hoped to see us all on the other side. That she had something to show us.”

Selene stumbled in her signing, and the glowing white characters blew away like ashes in the wind. I looked at her in concern as her gaze became steely, and Artem glanced at me.

“Well,” Selene said after a long pause, “we’d better see what she has to show us, then.”