We last left our hero in the midst of a panic attack as the world around him collapses, brought here by a series of questionable decisions involving a bloody massacre and a funny-looking ball. Now, the floor is trying to move out from under Will’s feet as the ship steadily rises further above the ground, quickly falling apart under the increasing pressure of the mini-hurricane surrounding it.
We all caught up? Good.
Feeling the swirling void of regret and jerky threatening to expel itself from his belly, Will takes a careful step away from the wheel. While removing the orb from the wheel may prove useful, that also runs the risk of bringing the entire structure down upon his soft and supple skull. His best idea is to keep his balance, and slowly hobble his way over to the stairs. Thankfully, liftoff is taking its sweet time, so he should be able to hit the ground without issue. So he can relax. That is, until he hears a clicking noise over the howling wind.
From behind, slinking up the jittering stairs, comes a creature from Will’s darkest nightmares: a wallcrawler. It rbest resembles that of a spider crab, but it manages to somehow be even more of a rejection of all that is good and holy. It has six long, segmented legs and a small body, one razor sharp claw on the end of each leg and two equally sharp pincers on its face in an O shape, its body coated in a short black fuzz. Will’s body immediately freezes up. See, he’s never had much issue with spiders, so long as he didn’t spend too much time looking at one. It was the deeper features, the eight eyes, the pincers, the legs… As long as he couldn’t see it too well, he’d be fine. But with this… this thing… he can see every beady red eye, each drip of venom from its razor blade fangs, even pick out each individual hair. This is terror incarnate.
It must have had a den somewhere deeper into the ship, somewhere dark and safe. But now, this place is far from safe, and our friend here isn’t too happy about it. It stumbles around, digging its claws into the floorboards to remain steady, its body swiveling from side to side as it searches for the cause of the disturbance. It doesn’t take long for it to settle on Will.
This is, quite possibly, the most terrifying situation he has been in in his entire life.
So now he is forced to consider his options: He could vault over the railing, but that would likely result in a broken leg, making him wallcrawler food in an instant. He could try and charge the wallcrawler, but he doesn’t have a weapon and that thing has way more reach on him… He’s trapped.
In the .5 seconds it takes Will to come to this conclusion, the wallcrawler has noticed him, screeched horribly, spewing purple venom everywhere, and then entering a charging stance. It spreads its legs apart, rooting itself into the floor, its pincers clacking in preparation. He has no options, no defense, nothing… So, when the creature launches itself forward, he desperately throws himself to the ground in front of it as the monster soars over him. His hands fly out to break his fall, his palms scraping against the glass-covered floor. He lets out a sharp hiss through gritted teeth as he collapses to the ground. As for the wallcrawler, upon its landing, it found itself stumbling about drunkenly, having fully expected to have landed on the poor traveler and still unused to the trembling ground beneath it.
Will lies on his stomach, his face gazing off in the direction of the great window, the sun’s light reflecting off of the glass shards as they glitter like diamonds. Some shards glint red, the sunlight hitting his blood and making it sparkle and shine. Shine, like something in the background that catches his eye. It's dull, but it's noticeable thanks to the lack of glass surrounding it. His sword. That stupid, useless, bent-up blade that broke the first time he used it. A tool as stupid and useless as that deserves and equally stupid and useless wielder.
He plants his hands in the glass, grunting through the pain as he lifts himself up. On his hands and knees, he lunges to the sword, glass and blood flying from his hand as it thrusts towards his weapon. He grips the hilt, ignoring the searing pain and the dripping blood, standing shakily to his feet as the wind whips around him. He turns back to the wallcrawler.
It’s finally managed to regain its footing, fighting the tempest as it digs its claws into the floor once more. It clacks its pincers in frustration as it twists around to face Will, the two now engaged in a standoff.
Will holds out his bent blade, pointing it at the abomination as he slowly begins to circle it. “You wanna go?” he taunts, warming up for his battle cry. The Beast returns to its pouncing stance, and he grins. As it flies, he lunges forward, swinging his sword wildly, crying, “THEN LET’S FREAKN GO, MOTHERSHUCKER!” What a hero.
By some miracle, he manages to bat the wallcrawler out of the air, sending it tumbling over the edge of the railing. With it hopefully subdued for at least ten seconds, Will begins flying down the stairs, managing to keep his balance by some act of God, and hits the landing.
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Everything from before, the furniture, the skeletons, all of them lay strewn about on the ground below. Now, the massive gaping hole in the floor is made much more apparent. The distance down isn’t a ridiculous amount, he could jump it just fine. But he still can’t seem to get the guts.
Then he hears another furious clacking to his left.
He doesn’t even look as he soars through the air and he feels the presence of unthinkable horror pass directly past him, smacking into the wall that was once to his right.
Curl your legs on impact curl your legs on impact curl your legs on impact
As his feet touch dirt, he bends his knees to absorb the impact, and immediately crumples to the ground. Now, his feet don’t hurt, but his knees sure as hell do. Forcing himself to his feet, he stumbles about as he looks up at the flying ship above. Boards and dirt and rubble and vines all tumble from the levitating vessel as it slowly falls apart faster and faster. It’s unlike anything he’s ever seen; Now, free from the danger, he’s allowed to fully appreciate just how awesome this really is! A flying ship, up in the mountains… what could this mean?! And… he looks back down to all of the skeletons around him… what happened to all of these people…?
He isn’t given much of an answer other than a quickly approaching screeeeeeeeeeee-
Twisting around, he sees that the wallcrawler is now rapidly approaching the ground, though apparently much less willingly. Best guess is that it rolled off the side after smacking into the wall.
It hits the ground with a nasty crunch, its legs splaying about as it screeches in agony. Its legs flail about, its pincers clack, and nasty green goop gushes from where Will smacked it with the sword. He almost feels bad for the sorry thing, seeing it thrash about as it slowly, inevitably dies. But then it manages to agonizingly flip itself over, and suddenly all of those feelings, and Will himself, are gone.
He sprints away at top speed, his cloak whipping about behind him as he hears the Beast shriek and clack again, and he knows it’s readying itself to pounce again. With no other option, he whips himself around, screeching to a halt as dust flies about him, and he crouches, preparing for a dodge. The wallcrawler prepares itself for liftoff once more, but now there’s no pesky wind. Will can’t help but feel just how much of an uneven battle this is. If this thing’s going to die, it very much so plans on dragging Will kicking and screaming back down to Hell where it belongs.
But then their little standoff is interrupted by a loud snapping sound, and Will looks up. Before he can even blink, the entire ship, all at once, comes crashing down on top of the screeching monster. It's quickly enveloped by a roaring dust cloud, and Will throws himself to the ground behind some rocks, covering himself with his cloak to shield from the dirt and rocks raining from the sky. It's the most deafening sound he’s ever heard, his ears ringing as the ramshackle pile of boards and mysterious metal reunites very quickly with the earth beneath it.
It takes a hot minute for the dust to clear and the sound of the crashing boat to quit its echo across the mountain range. As he walks on shaky legs, he peers out at the wreckage in front of him. It’s nothing but a pile of shattered wood and torn vines. He can’t even spy a single bone in there. Though he does notice a rather satisfying pool of green goo.
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Adventure Log 3-
-I did it. I found something, something big. I don’t know what it could mean, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this information, but whatever I’m meant to do, it’s not just about Nalan anymore. I found a boat, a really freaking big one, and there was a bunch of skeletons and broken furniture and a weird stain, but then I found this orb and the ship flew! ...and then it fell apart… There was a wallcrawler too… ugh… but that’s taken care of, thankfully… But what does this mean…? How did it fly, and what happened in there? Does this have something to do with the Guardian Wall...? No one’s really sure why there even is a wall…. They mostly just mention some war, “The First War,” and nothing else… but this could be the secret! This could answer all of my questions! And, maybe… maybe I could take one of those ships over the Wall… Then I could fulfill that promise to Elizabeth… Haha, lots of hopes, eh? I can't help but wonder if I’m not just overreacting… But this is undoubtedly big. I don’t know what it all means just yet, but I’ll be damned if I don’t find out.
He returns the ball to his bag with bloody and bandaged hands, before slinging it over his shoulder. Without another thought, Will turns his back on the wreckage and makes his way home. That’s enough adventure for one week, if not a lifetime.
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The return trip is only two days this time around, two days of walking and eating in complete silence. His only thoughts are of seeing his family again. And as he’s walking along the pathway, he gazes over the cliffside at his home. Nalan. He made it back, miraculously in one piece. His thoughts wander to his bed, of course. On some nights, it could feel as tough as a rock, but now, he can only imagine it being nothing less than laying on the clouds of Heaven. He grins, thinking about how his family may react to seeing him again, after all, it’s been a week. He’s suddenly self-conscious of the bandages on his hands… he’ll have a lot to explain. He breaks into a grin as he imagines the looks on their faces as he tells them of all he did, from the flying ship, to the wallcrawler, to nearly getting squished like a bug…
He’s immediately brought out of his thoughts though when the entire town is all at once blanketed in red light, before vanishing. Not a thought crosses his mind once he starts running.