Nettal started screaming, and Addie started screaming. Squishy let out his scream too, but he tried to make it sound like a warrior’s dignified shout, or so she could vaguely feel through the bond.
Ember was the first to take action, flapping her wings and spreading soul flames all around the girls, trying to drive away the fog. Ember’s actions helped Addie get herself together, also joining in to spread fire as much as she could.
The flames did a good job of eating away at the fog, but there was just so much of it. And even more fog was already flooding into the cave chamber. Addie had already used a lot of soul flames today, and she didn’t know how much more she could keep it up.
Addie waved her hand across the cave to help herself visualize her magic— a great wave of fire flowing out from her moving hand. Her actions helped move the fog away, for a moment at least. She took the time to grab onto Nettal’s hand, to try and drag everyone back into the black inky puddle, where they had escaped to the first time.
Addie’s heart dropped as she finished turning around, only to see that the inky puddle had disappeared. Frantically, Addie searched the chamber with her eyes, desperate to find an escape from the fog. She didn’t want to get stuck in it forever like the bad man from the story. She didn’t want Nettal to get stuck in it.
But, the only way out of the chamber was the way they had come in from the staircase; The same staircase that all of the fog was coming out of. The situation started to dredge up a memory from earlier this year, of Christena chasing her down in her dad’s office— back when she thought Christena was evil.
Her heartbeat became audible in her ears as her breathing picked up. Addie started shooting more fire out, helping Ember, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough. She tried anyway.
Something harsh tugged down on her poncho’s sleeve, and Addie glanced to her right to see Nettal holding on to her. “Can you keep defending us with the fire?" Nettal asked, her breaths also coming frantically. Addie noticed how wide Nettal’s eyes were, but she discarded the observation quickly so she could focus more on escaping the fog.
“Maybe,” Addie nodded her head rapidly, “Yeah!” She agreed with a little more hope in her voice as she remembered what her book had said just a moment ago.
Communicating with Ember silently through their bond, Addie sent her birdie an image of what she wanted— a big half shield of fire protecting their back half in a dome shape. It would be Addie’s job to supply the front half of the fire shield. She had never tried this before, but the book said she’d ‘unlocked’ the ability, so certainly she could do it, right?
Ember sent back a quick ping of agreement, and at the same moment, Addie’s soul book unexpectedly manifested up in the air. She didn’t see it opening any pages, so Addie ignored it for right now.
With one final big blast of magic soul flames, Addie and Ember drove off the fog just enough to give them a brief moment to work with. Then, Ember flapped her wings to turn around. Together, Addie and Ember tried to create a soul-flame shield, Addie imagining a perfect dome completely encasing everyone inside of it. But instead of doing what she wanted, all of her magic started flowing into the floating book instead! The book flipped to a page and presented some kind of weird flowery language Addie couldn’t understand. She stared with wide eyes as the book sucked away all of Addie’s magic.
She panicked for a moment, trying to yank her magic back under her control, but the book had a stronger hold on the magic than Addie did!
Except, after a moment, Addie realized the book was helping her, not trying to hurt them. Addie hadn’t ever experienced anything like this, but it felt like the book was channeling Addie’s magic, not just stealing it all up.
With an initial blast of heat, the book pulsed ghostly purple, a full dome of flames surrounding the girls and their bonded.
Her soul book was channeling the magic for her, and somehow making a perfect flaming shield! The book itself appeared to be on fire, too. The flowing curvy language on the pages glowed white-hot with channeled magic. But, there was a new problem.
“I can’t see! The flames are in the way,” Nettal said loudly, exasperated. “We need to run!”
The book shouted, the volume way louder than the roaring flames surrounding everyone. She never knew it could talk.
*Five steps forward.*
Both girls looked at each other for a moment in surprise, then Addie shrugged before taking five steps forward.
*One step right, then five more steps forward,* her soul book commanded.
Catching on, both girls did as the book said, Lotty and Squishy following along easily. Ember was still focused on helping with the fire shield while standing on Addie’s shoulder.
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After following the last set of instructions, Addie and Nettal reached the staircase. The book didn’t need to tell them to start going up the stairs, that part was obvious. So, Addie scooped Squishy up into her arms since his legs were too short to effectively climb the stairs. Together everyone started running up the staircase— Addie running beside Nettal with Lotty’s clacking hoof steps sounding out behind her. The book flowed back into Addie’s soul since she didn’t need its help for now.
The gray staircase took on an otherworldly glow illuminated by so much soul fire. The stairs almost seemed to dance with color, the off-color purples and whites seeming to blend into the stone.
There was no time for staring at the pretty staircase. Addie tried to focus on just running up each step— hoping everyone could get to the top before her magic ran out.
With a great sigh of relief and everyone taking a small moment to catch their breath, they made it to the top of the staircase.
“Do not relax just yet,” Squishy advised, “We still cannot tell if the fog is gone, surrounded by the flames as we are.”
He was right, but what should they do? Keep running back through the cave system to the Furrians? Not to mention she didn’t have a lot of flame magic left!
Well, something was better than nothing! “Keep running!” Addie said, perhaps a bit too loudly.
That got Nettal moving, but she had to put Lotty down first so he could run alongside the girls. They quickly made it out of the building ruins and back out to the earlier cavern, at least based on the floor underneath their feet. Addie couldn’t tell for certain, since her flame shield was blocking her from seeing anything else.
She wouldn’t have to worry about that for long though, and just as she had that thought, she ran out of Ember’s magic, the flame shield dissipating faster than she would have liked.
Addie scanned her surroundings wildly, trying to spot the fog. But, she didn’t see it. “It’s gone?” She asked aloud, confusion shooting through her words.
“Not gone, look!” Nettal pointed back in the direction they had come from. In front of those pitch-black ruins, just at the very entrance to the building they had just left, Addie saw an ankle-high layer of fog. It sat at the threshold, but not daring to go outside of the ruined structure itself. It drifted lazily, almost waiting for the girls to return.
“Well, if it doesn’t want to follow us that’s fine by me!” Addie declared with her hand on her hips.
“Yeah, same.” Nettal easily agreed.
“Wonder why it doesn’t follow us, though? It had no trouble back in the forest.”
Nettal just shrugged in response to Addie’s question, which just made Addie shrug back in return.
“Well,” Nettal began, still staring at the fog with a faraway look in her eyes, “that entire adventure was a waste of time.”
Addie frowned. “Not a complete waste of time.” She tried to defend before she deflated. “But yeah, it didn’t help us get home at all. I don’t even really get what happened in the ruins— or how it helped with my magic.”
“What did happen in the ruins?” Nettal asked as she moved to sit down on the ground. “I thought I was gonna drown in that black nothingness, but then it turned out I could breathe just fine! It was so weird.”
Addie followed along and also sat down, “What happened to you after I set that stuff on fire? Squishy and I were alone with some kind of relic I guess. But I couldn’t see you anywhere!”
Squishy started to climb down from Addie’s shoulder and curl up in her crossed lap instead as she could feel his warm scales rub against her legs.
“After you set the tunnel on fire, for a second I thought we were gonna die. But you have good control because it didn’t burn me at all.”
Addie interrupted, “that didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out.
“I was getting to that.” Nettal rolled her eyes. “For me, the moment after you set the tunnel on fire, Lotty and I were stuck there for a while until we came flying out. You came flying out right after that.”
“For me and Squishy,” Addie began, “there was some kind of stand that my book sat on. Then it said ‘good job’ or something and said it would give me lessons later. So not worth it.” Addie shook her head.
“At least you got something out of it. I was just sitting in a tunnel that was on fire while I had to wait for you.” Nettal’s tone was teasing instead of mean.
Addie bumped her shoulder against Nettal’s. “I’ll try not to leave you alone on purpose.”
“Thanks,” Nettal whispered.
Letting out a breath first, Addie asked, “So, should we go deeper in the caves or back to the Furrians? You’re always saying not to rush into things, so I think you should say.”
“Ok, I’ve had enough caves for a long time. Let’s see if we can sneak through the Furrian village or something, and get back outside. I miss the sun.” Nettal looked at the ceiling of the cave, then sighed when she couldn’t find what she was looking for.
“Me too. Ok, let’s go back to the Furrians’ place.”
“Yeah, and after we get past the Furrians, what should we do? The ruins didn’t help us get home faster.”
“That’s true.” Addie nodded her head slightly. “But we did learn a lot about the fog demon. Maybe we should fight it! I think we could win.”
Squishy sent a feeling of agreement through the bond— he always looked forward to a good fight.
“Let’s just focus on getting home. We’re not fighting the fog demon.”
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Half of the male Furrians had the entire tunnel back blocked off. Most of them were holding onto various mushroom stalk spears, and the rest had armor and spears.
Luckily, Addie and Nettal had been carefully and quietly walking, so they hadn’t seen the girls yet.
Addie was able to extend her spatial sense from around the bend to see them without them being able to see her. More Furrians were behind the lined-up male warriors, some also male, but surprisingly to Addie, some of the females were also there. The various Furrians behind the warrior line were all walking back and forth, carrying large planks of mushroom boards and building some kind of barricade in the middle of the tunnel.
“Wow, they really don’t want us getting past them,” Nettal said after Addie explained what she saw to her cousin. “Why do you think it’s only half of them?”
“Not sure. But it makes it easier for us. Me and Squishy can just take us past them by using Realmspace.” Addie pointed down the cave.
“Do you still have enough magic?”
Addie nodded, “I’m out of Ember’s magic for a little bit, but Squishy still has plenty.” Perhaps in response to Addie’s words, Ember flowed back into Addie’s soul for a rest.
Squishy nodded his head in agreement as both girls looked down at him.
“Maybe it’s better if you build a lot of magic up so we can walk past the entire village.”
“Good idea.”