Beyond the Mountains of Madness

[Jade Harley]

Brushing a sweaty curl of hair out from her face, Selena squinted against the veil of shadows that concealed the passage ahead of them from sight, a frustrated hiss of breath whistling through her teeth. As a person of half-elf blood, it was upsetting and confusing when her eyes weren’t of much use, playing tricks on her by twisting the most unremarkable gash in the wall into an enemy javelin or sword, poised to strike…

WHUMPH-PHOOM.

A sound like a freight train violently plunging through a tornado whistled over Selena’s head, followed almost immediately by cavernous rumbling. In an instant she had flattened herself and the nearest person— Jade, as it so happened, with Bec and Rebecca tagging along for the ride— against the wall to keep from being crushed. Near to her right, a falling slab of rock crumbled into rubble after smashing against the ground, an avalanche of stones dribbling over them.

Blinking up at her with wide green eyes from where she had partially curled around Rebecca to protect her from the worst of the crumbling ceiling, Jade’s mouth split into a buck-toothed grin. “Hey, nice save!”

“Whuff!” Becquerel agreed, shaking his pelt to rid himself of the dust.

“You’re welcome,” said Selena, a solemn nod backing the sincerity of her words. Turning, she saw Tell and Brandon assisting Amber to her feet further down the passage, the feline girl waving them off with a determined frown.

“No, seriously. I’m fine! Or I will be, once we get out of here. What are we standing around for, anyway? Let’s go!”

Once the dust had settled and everyone was accounted for, they quickly pressed on against the encroaching darkness and quaking ground. Starved of daylight as they were, most every thought was of the sun’s disc shimmering over the freshly-turned snow on the surface, frothy and glistening like the breakers of the sea— they absolutely had to get out.

In all truth, Selena was nervous as hell— and rightly so, too! For one, it was dark. So very, very dark that she had to reach up once or twice to ensure that her eyes were, in fact, wide open and blinking. She nearly leapt out of her skin at the brush of the white hound’s tail whapping against her legs! Sure, some people might say that the furthest reaches of the universe would be darker than a teensy-weensy little cave, but it was still one of the darkest places Selena had ever had the misfortune of seeing. Like, in the top 10 darkest places, at least.

This knowledge was made all the more arresting when one considered what actually went on in that deep, deep darkness, since they didn’t really know. Maybe, if they were really lucky, only eyeless creatures crept and crawled in the depths beneath— cave fish, wolf spiders, pale snails with only the ghostly wisps of shells curled on their backs— and also the writhing monstrosities waiting to thwart their passage in the dark. If not, however... well, nothing’s worse than the private horrors the mind can construct when there’s little to go off of, right?

They ran. Captain Tell had lost the torch he’d found somewhere else in the caverns, so like sightless moles burrowing through the earth they went along, fear in their bellies and hunger for sweet daylight in their minds. Stones both big and small took turns in pelting over their heads like freezing hail, as if flung by a dozen medieval trebuchets. To make matters worse, slick chippings of rock slid under their feet with every step, the shadows trickling like half-melted frost left over from the icy winter months in summertime, freezing in the tiny valleys and furrows in the walls where their fingers tried and failed to grasp the rock.

Selena frowned at the empty blackness, the sound of many feet pattering wetly in the dark swirling all around. It would be just her luck that she would slip in a puddle, trip headlong into a chasm, and then spend a week falling all the way down it, only to break her neck when she hit the bottom. There was one other person, however, who would be much more likely to do so, if his unfortunate track record was anything to go by…

She knew that Brandon was nearby, the sound of his boots thumping against the ground softer than Captain Tell’s heavy, drill-sergeant plodding, but also louder than the swift ‘pap’s made by the shoes of Jade, Amber, and Rebecca. The smell of him, too, was distinctive— reeking faintly of parchment and ink rather than hard labor and sweat. It was something to consider at another time, for sure, that she could recognize him by his scent alone.

“Stick close to me, sir astronomer,” Selena said, low enough that only Brandon might hear her words and know to heed them, as well. “Something tells me that we’re treading on thin ice, at the moment.”

“Thin ice!” the astronomer exclaimed, a fair bit more hysterical than he had any right to be. “Pitfalls, too, I’d imagine, full of sharpened spikes and venomous snakes!”

It was a pity that no one could see his face, for they would have undoubtedly appreciated the utterly gob smacked expression there.  As it was, though, Selena simply tightened her grip on her dagger, conscious of the crossbow strapped to her back and how best to reach it in only a second’s time. “Maybe it is just as you say, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here. Those dwarven scoundrels are likely still alive… aye; they might have even been the ones to set off the blasts! Some attempt to suss us out—or, perhaps, to find a way in. Either way, keep your wits about you.”

There was a strange shifting of the air, wafting against her face. Then, “Oh, sorry. That was me. Nodding. It’s… very dark.”

Despite the trying circumstances, Selena had to stifle a snort of laughter. “Yes, it is.”

32,527/27,000

[Jade Harley]

Roland couldn’t say for sure exactly what happened in the moments after the bomb went off. There was a stifled shout, a roar like an avalanche tumbling down to crush his brittle, brittle bones, and then a shuddering silence, followed soon after by an almost irrepressible urge to gag on the dry dust clotting around his head. When the world finally stopped spinning, the man found himself lying flat on his back with his arms flattened against his sides like a dead man in a coffin, staring blankly at the jagged rock ceiling, lungs and ribs burning something fearsome as his lungs greedily sucked in air.

At length Roland was able to rise up onto his hands and knees, coughing around the sharp shale dust inside his lungs with raggedly rough splatters. His chest felt like a pincushion stuck full of needles, his ribs creaking ominously under the soft skin of his belly. Everything was spinning, purplish and wavy like the inside of a bottle of ink, and he swallowed around the bile burning at the back of his throat.

After a moment of only hearing his own harsh, labored pants in the dark, he glanced round for Smith, Burgess and Piers. Something fitful and anxious in his chest eased up when his gaze alighted on Smith, the man rolling over from where he had shielded the other two by pushing them to the floor.

Smith was white as a sheet and peppered with cuts from the shower of rubble, the powdered dust making him seem almost luminescent in the darkness. His dark hair and clothing was smattered in greyish-white, as if he were some kind of ghoulish apparition. The effect was ruined, however, by the man’s sour expression, making him seem more like a puffed-up Persian cat or a flour-coated child caught playing in his grandmother’s kitchen cabinets.

“Are— are you— is everyone alright?”  Roland asked, stifling the urge to let out a hysterical laugh, because now isn’t the time, dimwit.

For a lengthy, horribly stretched moment, Smith didn’t say anything. That was okay, Roland supposed, because his ears were ringing a bit too loudly to be able to hear much of what he might’ve said, anyhow. Then Roland was reaching up to touch at his face and— oh. Oh.

It was blood. There was blood smeared on his fingers, and Smith looked at it, too, almost going cross-eyed with the effort. Roland again had to fight down the sickening urge to giggle. He was so tired.

They sat in the dark for a few more minutes, silent and trembling violently from the cold. Roland recognized that they must have been fairly close to the exit— caves couldn’t have breezy drafts, not without an opening someplace, so it only made sense. It took a lot of willpower not to crawl over to where the others were clustered together just to pool their body heat and split it between them. Instinct had everything to do with that urge, but manmade decorum was what cut it down before the idea could bear fruit.

“Roland, Smith? Piers…” Burgess’s voice was near deafening in the silence, despite not ever rising above a soft murmur.

Roland watched as Smith grit his teeth, rising into a sitting position so he could ease his back against the wall. He looked regal as ever, the silver sabre at his hip somehow defying science and arithmetic by not jabbing into his calf. There was also something strange about his face, as if it were pinched a bit too tight or the man had tasted something bitter, slick with sweat and glistening… Smith squinted blearily down at Burgess and Piers, blinking in rapid succession like he was trying to clear a mite of dust from his eye, and then it became obvious. Ah, the concussion! No wonder his comrade in arms was behaving strangely. How could Roland have forgotten? The screaming of his nerves as he sat up and tried to get a good look at Burgess and Piers was reason enough.

Brilliantly, Burgess seemed none the worse for wear, only mightily startled by the collapse. There was a small cut on his forehead, sure, but nothing fatal— only a faint trickle of red streaming into his left eyebrow. The uncomfortable, tight pinch beneath Roland’s sternum eased further, relief washing over him. That just left one more. Steeling himself against the uncomfortable tension in his lower back and— bizarrely— in his chest, Roland craned his neck to see Piers, as well, the boy appearing to be nothing more than the shade of a body curled up beside the other young man. His hands and cheeks still seemed clammy and speckled with perspiration in the gloom, but no other wounds had been visibly added to his condition. Roland counted that as a sign of goodwill from the gods.

“Sit tight, lad.” Smith’s voice sounded cracked and dry, like the feeble notes of a songbird left without water for far, far too long. “We’ll get the both of you out of here in no time at all, just you wait and see.”

Burgess didn’t seem convinced, but the panicky trembling Roland could notice even from across the way subsided in trace amounts. Roland slumped back against the ground, breath rasping weakly from between his lips. He was trying to see through all the strange black dots marring his vision when something foamy and wet gurgled from deep within his esophagus, bursting out with a cough and dribbling onto his lips. Despite feeling like a babe blowing bubbles with their own spittle and all the more embarrassed for it, Roland didn’t miss the way Smith’s eyes focused on his face, dim and worried.

“Ah, drat,” Smith hissed, shifting onto his feet and wobbling uncertainly over to where Roland was resting. “Whatever you do, don’t look down.”

Roland looked down. Wheezed, and hated Smith for telling him not to look down because what conscious human being can resist words like that?

“My ribs?” asked Roland, the words curiously void of emotion.

Blood-flecked spit continued to leak down his chin. It was possible that it was a little more serious than just his ribs, then, but he was no medic. Roland’s eyes slid shut as his throat worked, chest burning and feeling like it had more than a few holes in it.

“You’ll be fi—“ Smith began, then abruptly cut himself off, expression suddenly cagey, cornered. Roland understood. Well-meaning assurances only worked on those who were either too green to know otherwise or not involved in their line of work. “…take a breather.”

He attempted to stand and move away only for Roland to reach out and grab his sleeve, words hissing out through clenched teeth, “Smith, you get those boys out of here. I’ve had a good run, you know that, and the captain and the others might still have a chance of finding me,” and then he dissolved into another coughing fit, choking and quivering and spitting with frantic gulps of air in-between.

“Fine, just, don’t leave this spot, you heroic bastard. I’ll come back for you.” The ‘ if I can ’ floated silently in the air between them. Roland staunchly ignored it and put on a brave face.

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Burgess asked, --somewhere in the distance, Roland wasn't sure,-- only to be loudly shushed by Smith. Seeing the disgruntled face the boy made at that, Roland chuckled faintly. It sounded like little more than a few shallow intakes of breath.

“Nothing,” soothed Smith. “Roland’s just going to wait here for the others.”

Smith seemed finally set on leaving, the unconscious body of Piers slumping against him with Burgess assisting, when the leaden clomping of steps boomed down the passage, rattling against the moistened, dewy walls and stale air.

Roland had hoped despite all odds that it would be one of their friends, but those hopes were dashed against the ground when a warm, too-friendly voice called out, “O-ho! Gotten yourselves into a little spot of trouble, have you?”

If the blood in his veins could have turned to ice, Roland was certain it would have.

33,882/29,000

[Jade Harley]

"Watch your step!" Rebecca heard the sparkly Doggy Lady say, but it was very dark and spooky so she couldn't see her all that well, only the stars of her dress and in her hair spiraling prettily into view every once in a while. The sounds their feet made were wide and skipped like stones across the walls; she tried to count them but soon lost track, the noise seeming to expand into a hundred thousand billion other noises, plinking and plonking everywhere and making her head all muddled. That was just fine, though, because White Doggy was close by and Rebecca could just hold tight onto the puppy's fur and be okay!

Before she knew it, they were in a big room with lively wall paintings and shiny fairy lights, some of the colors seeming so soft that they bloomed into teeny-tiny flowers, sunny cherubs and pitter-patters of shimmery light speckling all over them like rain. The Little Sister skipped forward, loosening her grip on the doggy's white fur and ignoring the dizzy trickles of greenish-sizzles pricking at her fingertips like a handful of thistles. Rebecca looked around, her yellows eyes shining bright and her lips parted with glee.

Out leapt a gentleman in a milky white ice-cream coat, his fully-lined, cotton oxford coattails flouncing outward like the curly flight feathers of a swan— he had many funny arms sprouting out from his back, too, each one doing silly things like juggling colorful balls or ironing skirts in midair. The fabric of his coattails curled into ribbony swirls as the jester pranced towards her, as if he expected to sweep her up into a dance right then. For a moment the Little Sister hesitated, her chubby little baby fat fingers reaching out for the arm extended to her, and that was all the time Doggy Lady needed to sweep in and steal her dance!

Rebecca laughed and clapped her hands, utterly enchanted by the lights and fancy footwork. What a show! Doggy Lady's dress spun and made curvy little whooshes in the air, her face split into a sunny grin as she wrestled the funny man into a quick two-step followed by a hopping, bopping jive, the soles of her red shoes flung far and wide.

(Jade tackled the tentacled creature with a snarl, all canine aggression and flashing teeth as they hit the ground and the cave wall sprayed her face with grit. Pale sticky flesh slicked up against her gums, tasting of mucus and saliva, sweat and steamy sour milk, all of it consuming her senses, stuffing up her nose and throat and making her choke down the cresting urge to vomit. Yet she dug her fingers into that twisting, writhing lump of sinew and skin, hooking them into a pale imitation of claws as her brain fell into the sickening pattern of rip and tear rip and tear rip and tear—)

The two almost careened into a wall, feet and whirling legs gamboling everywhere and their vibrant laughter echoing off from the walls. Doggy Lady was really cutting a rug, too, opal-like flourishes of color spiking up in her dress with each hair-flinging turn, the smile lighting up her green eyes and cheeks clearly saying that the near-miss with the cavern wall was just a bit of play and that she was happy as a lark, springing up onto her toes to begin the game again.

Just as Rebecca moved to join in, though, White Doggy grabbed the back of her dress in his slobbery teeth and pulled her back. A little startled, the Little Sister bopped his nose with her elbow totally on accident, then blinked mildly up at him. Maybe the puppy wanted to dance, too! But, it might have been sort of tough with four legs... she looked at the White Doggy, grabbing onto his front paws with her own hands, huffing as he shifted and shuffled his feet out from her grip.

"Whuff," Becquerel said.

But, Rebecca insisted. She set about flicking and crossing his paws as if it actually didn't take two to tango, humming quietly under her breath. "Come on, Doggy! The music is so pretty. Dance with me!"

"Whuff," Becquerel said again, only this time with the air of a put-upon parent.

"You're no good at this game," said Rebecca, pouting.

"Little girl," someone else said, interrupting this exchange. Rebecca turned, looking into the earnest face of a lady with warm brown eyes. She had faintly pointy ears, her dark hair tucked neatly behind them. "Rebecca. Come here, it isn't safe to be so close. Swiftly, now."

A baddie! Rebecca immediately cringed away, tucking herself into White Doggy's side and wrapping her arms around him 'til her fingers were cinched tight on the other side. "No! No! No! Get away!"

The baddie's face did something weird, kind of a crumply-wrinkled-swallowed something nasty thing. Rebecca didn't care. The baddie could make as many faces as she wanted, she wasn't going anywhere without Doggy Lady or White Doggy!

Still, White Doggy didn't really give her a choice in the matter. Standing up regardless of the way Rebecca was hanging off from his side like even the basest of young primates, he shuffled forward so that he was standing between a few of the other people they'd been exploring with, sniffing a little before sitting back on his haunches.

Rebecca extracted herself from his side with great care, but kept one palm dug tightly into his tufted, snowy-white fur. Then, craning her neck to see if the dance was still going on, she saw that Doggy Lady wasn't dancing anymore. Everything smelled like angels.

(It was over in just under two minutes.

Warm lifeblood spilled down Jade's face, the vitriol tang of ozone sizzling on her tongue, prickling at the fine hairs on her skin. She staggered away from the lifeless corpse, smoothing the tattered folds of her clothes with an unfocused, blank look on her face, eyes glazing over the mess of meat and acid splattered across the walls. It hadn't been an easy fight. Everything hurt.

"Wow! You are such a great dancer!" was the first thing the Little Sister said to the dog-girl when she rejoined the others, the roundness of her cheeks and the cheerful lilt of her voice doing nothing at all to hide the utter wrongness of that statement.

Jade looked at her. Smiled, a little. "Thanks.")

34,956/29,000

[Jade Harley]

Jade was taken aback when she heard a shout from somewhere further along the tunnel, the sound ricocheting off the rugged mineral walls with scarcely an echo left behind. Her ears swiveled forward, a surge of alertness straightening her spine and setting every nerve-ending on edge as if by an electric shock. What the heck was that?

“Did you hear that, Captain Tell? That sounded like Sir Roland!” Selena whispered breathlessly, an undercurrent of worry to her words. Brandon stood next to her, hands cupped around the steadily glowing green star piece, shades of vibrant lime and emerald shifting across its surface even in the darkness.

Tell’s voice murmured real quiet from an uncertain, dark space to Jade’s right. “I see something up ahead, where the light from the cave entrance falls. There’s the shadow of a little fellow cast on the wall.”

Amber’s eyes narrowed into angry slits. “That’s one of those punks who attacked us earlier— I recognize the throwing axes hanging loose in his hands. There must be another one; it sounds like he’s kicking Roland around awful good.” She winced in sympathy at another pained cry, her expression hardening.

As they watched, the stocky shadow slid across the stretch of ground beneath the natural archway of the tunnel entrance, dithering and shifting with what might have been unease before slowly moving on. Jade held her breath until dwarf’s dark silhouette had fully disappeared, eyes welling up with distractingly watery tears because of her refusal to spare even a second to blink. Finally, the shadow at last slipped out of sight and only the cracked stones of the floor remained, cast in pale bluish light stemming from the cavern entrance.

They proceeded along the passage silent as a pack of wraiths, the dim light shrouding their movements in silken shadow until they reached the mouth of the tunnel. From there, crouched behind a cluster of jagged stalagmites jutting out from the floor of the cave, they could see all that was happening in the softly lit grotto spread before them, white glimmers of moisture glistening like salt crystals and frilly bulbs of fungus spotting the walls. Jade gasped, blood running both hot and cold at the same time, icy fear mixing with the sudden and unbridled rage boiling inside her veins.

A dwarf with a grizzly, tangled beard had one boot propped up on an injured Roland’s chest, the wild mass of hair concealing his features so thoroughly that only his grinning white teeth and two shiny eyes glinted through the dirty strands. He began to press down with increasing severity as he leaned forward and spat in the man’s face, sour breath fogging in the cold air. “I’ll not ask ye again. Speak now, or bit by bleeding bit, I’ll slice ye up nice and slow. Tell me where the astronomer’s gone.”

Blood dribbling from his chin, Roland only leaned his head back to stare up at the dwarf, a string of garbled nonsense leaving his lips as he tried to slip off into blissful unconsciousness. He hissed when a coarse hand tangled in his hair and jerked his skull up, letting it fall back to crack painfully against the cold stone floor, molars crunching as they ground together at the back of his jaw.

Smith and Burgess unhappily watched all of this take place from where they were backed into a corner, Piers slumped against the rocks behind them and plainly unconscious. Another dwarf with reddish hair and a funnily-braided beard stood before them, twin axes brandished threateningly to counter Smith’s upraised sabre, but it was clear that he wasn’t exactly comfortable with the situation. This dwarf cast slow, concern-filled glances over his shoulder, openly vexed by his partner-in-crime’s actions.

“Sheron, are you sure we shouldn’t just leave ‘em be and move on? The astronomer’s gotta be in those caves somewhere,” he tried, a frown set into his brow as if by a toymaker’s tiny hammer.

Sheron-bhar glanced across at the other dwarf in annoyance, but the insane enthusiastic twinkle in his eyes just couldn’t be dimmed. “Shuddap, Brennon,” he retorted, and turned back towards his victim. “Now, what were you saying? I didn’t quite catch that.”

Roland glared back with all the ire he could muster from where he was pinned to the floor, defiance blazing bright in his eyes. When he remained tight-lipped and silent, the dwarf applied pressure by shoving all of his weight onto the leg atop Roland’s chest. The resulting crack was sickening, splintering like the snapping of dry branches for firewood— it was the sound of his ribs breaking beneath the dwarf’s solid boot, possibly having already punctured a lung judging by the wet rasps following Roland’s every breath. Even in the low light Jade could see the dark blood burbling past his lips when a yell was ripped from his chest, the veiny whites of his eyes showing as they rolled back in their sockets from the pain. He writhed like a creature being skinned alive.

Wrenching her attention away from the horrors before her, Jade glanced at Captain Tell. The fingers of his right hand were toying with the sword at his hip, and there was a coolly detached expression on his face that she found she could see right through, the underlying anger clear as day when she knew where to look for it.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Amber, licking her lips in anticipation of a battle. Jade felt just as eager to leap into action— despite her injuries, it would be just plain awful to let one of their friends suffer! It would probably be a short fight, too— two dwarves against the five of them weren’t very good odds for the dwarves, no matter how fatigued the company was from their previous adventures.

Tell glanced at the two of them out of the corner of his eye. “You’re injured, so you should hang back with Jade and Rebecca for the moment. Selena, Brandon, try to handle the one giving Smith and Burgess trouble. He seems reasonable enough, maybe you can talk him down. If that fails, restrain him, but don’t keep him alive if it would risk too much injury to yourselves,” he clasped each of them on the shoulder in turn as they passed, nodding, “Good luck.”

“What about you?” Jade demanded of Tell without thinking as Selena began to creep silently along the wall, a bit testy about being left outside of the fray. But the captain only smiled at her, even if it wasn’t a very nice smile.

“There’s a coward that needs to be dealt with,” he replied with a minute shrug of his shoulders, his voice matter-of-fact and entirely devoid of uncertainty. “I can handle him on my own, so don’t come rushing in guns blazing unless there’s a damn good reason for it.”

Nodding, Jade shuffled until Rebecca was tucked behind her and out of sight. She frowned up at the captain, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him her best no-nonsense look. “Okay, but don’t let him get the drop on you or I’ll have to make fun of you for it later!”

Seemingly despite himself, the captain gave her a solemn nod in return. “I’ll do my best not to, then.”

With that being said, he turned and strolled out into the open, boots treading with surprising stealth over the dust and rubble. It was strange, too, because with the way he walked so casually— well, he made it seem almost accidental that he was walking so friggin’ quietly, and Jade thought that was too awesome for words, seriously. He only became even awesome-er in her eyes when he spoke to the dwarf, voice ringing loud and clear in the small space of the grotto.

“Tough one, aren’t you? Picking on someone who can’t defend himself.” The half-lidded grey eyes of Captain Tell settled on Sheron-bhar, his expression calm and flat.

The dwarf jerked in surprise at first, eyes widening in fear as he turned around, but quickly recovered his decorum and sneered at the human captain, teeth bared like a tiger standing over its kill. “What’s that, windbag? Keep talking; maybe it’ll sting less when my axe-blade cleaves through your neck!” He whapped the pole of his axe against his hand, the steady thump-whump betraying the impressive heft of the weapon.

Tell’s eyes didn’t stray from the dwarf’s face. He tutted softly, shaking his head. “You’re all talk. You wouldn’t try your luck against a real warrior. No, no… a coward such as yourself has to go after the weak, like nothing more than a common schoolyard bully.”

He paused to draw his sword, letting a metallic gleam slide along its edge as he held it aloft. He eyed it for a moment, letting the sword’s weight compress the nerves of his wrist, and then whisked it down in a wide, crescent moon arc. With a swish that was very nearly invisible to the naked eye, the sword had scratched a crisp, dark line in the shallow dirt just before the toes of his boots. Tell took a step back, considering his handiwork with a tilted head, and then again refocused his attention on the dwarf.

“Cross this line when you’re prepared for a real fight,” he said, his loose stance and devil-may-care attitude visibly infuriating the dwarf assassin.

With a harsh battle cry the dwarf charged forward, the hefty axe in his hands expertly raised as he sank into a crouch. The chainmail crusting over his shoulders and torso slowed his steps somewhat, the bulging muscles of his arms and short legs working double-time to make up for it, but his eyes remained dark and focused on the hunt.

Tell watched until his opponent was almost a couple paces away. He watched as the axe swung right for his throat, the blade siphoning with a sharp hiss through the stale air. He watched, and then stepped aside at the last moment to let the dwarf hurtle past, neck turning leisurely to watch the axe-blade whistle past.

Of course, any warrior worth their salt would expect a move like that, so the dwarf was quick to twist his hips and swing his axe down low, hoping to take out the captain’s legs. But by then the human had already backed off a few paces and his axe met empty air, clanging off the stone floor and sending a shooting pain up the dwarf’s arms. He tried twice more and met similar results—two more times his hasty swipes missed the captain by a landslide, swinging wide and slamming into the ground more often than not as he tried to cleave the man in two. Soon enough the dwarf slid to a halt with an awkward, hopping jig, red-faced and seething in his frustration.

There was another roar as the dwarf barreled forward, and Jade hastily glanced over towards where Selena and Brandon were, feeling guilty for only sparing a second just then to see how they were faring. Amber was watching the entire goings-ons, as well, observing with rapt attention as Selena tucked the red bearded dwarf into a chokehold and urged Brandon to disarm him. The astronomer did so with some hesitancy, which gave the dwarf plenty of an opportunity to swing at Brandon with one of his smaller hatchets, the blow swinging wide and just narrowly cutting at the edges of the man’s coat.

“Brandon!” Selena hissed, rolling her eyes even as the dwarf struggled wildly and elbowed her in the stomach. “Brandon, I swear—!”

“Sorry, sorry,” said Brandon, finally managing to snatch one of the hatchets out of the dwarf’s death grip. Before he could go in for the other one, though, Smith had already swept in and taken it, drawing the sleeve of his coat over his face with a world-weary sigh.

“Oi!” barked the red-haired dwarf, Brennon, if Jade recalled correctly. “Give that back, ya slimy bastard!”

Suddenly, Amber was tugging urgently at Jade's arm, her disshelved and bruised appearance making her seem super-duper frantic in the half-darkness. At Jade's silent, 'What?', she pointed towards where Tell and Sheron-bhar were throwing down, grunts and the sounds of clashing metal pealing out to bound off the cavern walls.

While the captain and the assassin were pretty caught up with viciously murder-killing each other, Roland was left to his own devices off on the side-lines, nearly getting trampled in the chaos. As bloody and beaten as he was, the man dragged himself across the ground-- progress interspersed with numerous gasps of pain-- to where his sword lay discarded and forgotten on the ground, probably with every intention of using it. Jade's eyes widened in understanding, flicking back to meet Amber's.

"We have to get him out of there before he gets hurt even more," the faunus said, a resolute shine in her eyes.

"Right!" Jade's head jerked in a nod and, after making sure Bec and Rebecca were safe, they were off!

37,131/29,000

[Amber Veritz]

Amber lurked in the darkness around the dwarf who had crushed Roland’s ribs. It took every ounce of her willpower to not leap out and tear his throat out from his neck...watch him suffer as he gasped for air. It was easily apparent that Tell wanted this dwarf for himself, though, and Amber knew what it was like to have beef with another person and the honour of which a man must attain to keep in check. This was not her fight.

Since she had alerted Jade, they needed to get Roland to safety as quickly as possible. He was bleeding badly and undoubtedly had a punctured lung. If they didn’t do something quick, he would certainly die. The faunus wouldn’t let that happen, even it meant somehow giving up her own life to save his.

As the duo of primes tiptoed around the two captains’ battle, the secondary clashed their steel, igniting sparks in the dimly-lit cavern. Tell swiped up, attempting to break the dwarf’s guard. Sheron-bhar held his ground, though, pushing back at the captain’s sword with a downward force.

“Yer’ gon’ have to do better than that, Camelot!” The dwarf yelled out to Tell, who was attempting to overpower him to no effect. Sparks glazed off the opposing sets of steel, bringing a quick, dim light for a second with each strike they traded. After a few exchanges, Tell took advantage of his more versatile speed and landed a blow on the dwarf’s stocky right shoulder. Blood splattered against his neck and chainmail but the cut was barely deep enough to do too much damage to a hardened dwarf. Sheron merely grinned and retaliated with a wide horizontal swing to Tell’s mid-section. Luckily, the captain was quick enough to get away from the blow.

Amber, sly kitty as she was, had made her way to the wounded soldier and did a quick check to see what might be broken. Most of his rib cage had collapsed. Even with medical help, he would surely die. “Dammit…” The faunus cursed under her breath viciously and looked back to her canine companions. A simple shake of her head warned the three others that he wasn’t going to make it without a miracle. Amber gritted her teeth in unbenign frustration. Watching someone bleed out and knowing you couldn’t do anything about it is torture. Her relationship with Roland had been way too short for to have developed any feelings of attachment, but he was a comrade in arms, and that made him her brother by extension. Still, that would not stop her from trying. She pulled the soldier up carefully onto her back, struggling in her weakened state. With a nod to Jade, the two got him out of the heat of battle.

The two skittered past the dwarf and captain quickly with Roland in their custody. The two traded blows again, exchanging steel for steel with each attack. The captain sidestepped a vertical swing and reached in to stab his opponent, hoping to gut him like a fish. A fat, ugly fish. His blade ate through the dwarf’s chainmail and pierced through his abdomen. Blood poured out onto Tell’s blade, but his opponent wasn’t finished just yet. He swung his axe into Tell’s side, clanging off the captain’s steel armor and ringing throughout the cave. The bludgeoning blow was enough to wound Tell’s rib. The dwarf’s raw prowess was astounding. The blunt force applied to his swing nearly tore through the captain’s armor. Tell backed off, but Sheron wasn’t letting up. With loud growl, the dwarf swung his hefty axe with all his might into Tell’s shield. Taking up a defensive, the captain blocked all the upcoming swings, waiting for his moment to strike. On the dwarf’s last swipe, Tell pushed his shield into the axe, knocking it to the ground, away from its owner. Before he could even think of backing off, a sword dashed across Sheron’s chest numerous times with speed that could hardly be defined. Tell might be not be an all powerful prime, but by no means was he weak, nor would he allow anyone to believe that.

Sheron-bhar’s armor did not save him this time. The blade cut deeper than before; the straight sword engulfed its prey in unsustainable wounds. He stood for a moment, stunned by the pain of his wounds before collapsing into the dirt. He breathed heavily, determined to cling onto life and to finish his job. Tell stepped next to the short, stocky man and took his blade underhanded. “This,” He muttered under his breath while raising his sword, “Is for Roland!”

His blade thrust through the dwarf’s chest, piercing through his heart and killing him nigh instantly. With another reassuring thrust to ensure Sheron-bhar’s death, Tell was certain he had passed on. He dug his blade out of his opponent’s chest a swung it to clean the blade of most of the blood. With his current threat dealt with, Tell looked to his charges to see they had successfully restrained the other reasonable dwarf. This was good. They could question him later.

Now, Roland was the main priority. The Prime duo had moved him away from the combat area, but he was barely hanging on to life. Once Tell had caught up, he crouched to the boy’s level. His bleeding body propped against a rock with not much strength to support his own head.

“I-” Roland coughed up blood before he could even start his sentence, but still continued in his nearly airless voice behind a raspy tone. “I didn’t give them shit, sir.”


“You serve your King proudly son. All of Camelot thanks you. Now let’s get you out of here.” Tell attempted to pick up his soldier, but was halted by Roland.

“I-I’m not going to make it captain. I… I feel it already.” He muttered weakly with shallow breath. Blood stained the bandages the two primes had summoned to patch him up, but it wasn’t enough to keep him going nor would it be.

“Quiet! You aren’t finished yet! Think about your family!” Tell yelled, trying again to carry his charge out of the cave.

“Tell them...I passed on a warrior…” With that last word, and a last breath, Roland’s body went limp. Amber placed her fingers at his neck on the jugular - No pulse.

“Dammit…” Tell cursed under his breath. Amber looked even more angry than he did. So angry her strength seemed to return long enough to slam her fist into the wall and crack it into a small crater.

“GOD DAMMIT!” She screamed as her hand collided with the poor wall. “If only we had gotten here sooner!” The faunus growled viciously, “I would have strewn those stubby bastard’s carcasses all over this gods-forsaken cavern and skewered their entrails with Razorback’s justice!”

“Quiet you!” Tell yelled back. “We need to get out of here before anyone else has an untimely death!” His voice made Amber shrink back into her weakened state. She was not ready for that counter-statement given the cause of it. Nevertheless, she agreed it was time to leave. It was time to leave like yesterday. “You, cat, get Roland. He deserves to be buried in Camelot. Brandon! Let me take custody of the dwarf with Selena and we will get the hell out of here.”

“R-Right!” The astronomer didn’t protest to letting go of the struggling dwarf. He exchanged places with Tell and the group began their final trek to the end of the cave. Fresh air blowing upon their faces like a blissful welcome to their freedom.

38,444/27,000

Roland has died, the group has found their way out of the fucking cave, FINALLY.

[Jade Harley]

Soft whines and the sound of jangling sled-ties were all Jade could hear as they emerged from the caverns. The world seemed to be muffled by a blanket of white, errant gusts of wind circling them like a pack of hungry wolves and leaving invisible prints in the snow. She shivered against a chill and tugged her coat tighter against her middle, feeling rudely exposed after spending so long in the draftless passages below the ground.

There was a short grunt and heated scuffling as Selena shoved the remaining dwarvish assassin before her, her head angled downward as she kept his trudging, booted feet in check. She had already assumed the coolly blank demeanor of a prison warden, narrowed eyes shifting about and focusing with the utmost severity on the dwarf whenever he seemed to stray from the path she had laid out for him.

Their captive protested this. Loudly.

“If you’re gonna kill me, get it over with now! There isn’t any point in arresting me, neither; your laws haven’t got any say here!” their prisoner was saying, shaking his head and gnashing his teeth expressively. He jumped whenever Selena’s long knife grazed the shirt over his ribs, a fiery glare scorching out from under his hedgerow eyebrows.

“He’s right, you know!” Jade said. She was crouched with one knee bent in the wet snow, hands hard at work tying up the front of Rebecca’s coat into a shoelace tie, bunny ear-loops and all! Standing, she dusted her hands of imaginary dust and turned to look at the others with what she hoped was a very intelligent look. “You can’t really commit a crime against a government while outside of their territory, so it would only be a revenge killing, which is so not cool…”

By the looks everyone was giving her, Jade guessed that had been exactly what they planned to do! And, hey, it was kinda presumptuous for her to try and intercede on this complete stranger’s behalf anyway, even if he was a dirty, rotten, no-good friend murderer.

Deciding to humor the young Witch, Brandon frowned. “How do you figure that, Miss Harley?”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to explain,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, and then glanced at the fiery-haired dwarf. Her guiding compass of morals rankled at his every breath, so it was no easy task for her to try and inject any kindness into the look she gave him. “You don’t answer to anyone, do you? You and your buddies were operating on your own terms?”

The dwarf eyed her distrustfully, but nodded. Jade heaved an inward sigh of relief, turning back to the others with a bright smile planted squarely on her face. Fantastic! “There you have it!”

At this, everyone looked at her like she was nuts. The dark-skinned astronomer mumbled something under his breath that she couldn’t quite make out, so Jade leaned forward to hear, one fuzzy white ear cocked in his direction. “Uhmmmm, what was that? I can’t hear you when you’re mumbling things, bucko.”

Brandon exhaled inaudibly, the expression on his face seeming strained. “That doesn’t prove his innocence in any way, shape, or form, Jade. Really, all that told us was that he was being completely monstrous without being told to do it by anyone. What’s your point?”

Twirling a strand of hair around her finger, Jade sighed theatrically and tilted her chin back to stare up at the sky. “I dunno… I guess I just figured there could be other options besides straight up murdering the guy!”

“What do you expect us to do, then? We cannot let him go free. The loss of life here today was caused by a plot he had a hand in,” Selena ground out, hands fisted tightly at her sides. “It would be foolish and disrespectful to the great sacrifice made by our friend!”

Smith nodded in agreement, his eyes sliding toward their captive and glinting like chips of bluish-silver ice. “We should dispose of him now. The Omniverse will be better for it, and there is no sense in weighing down our dogs with a dwarf already doomed to die.”

“I doubt his death will improve much of anything,” Amber grumbled. The faunus had already witnessed enough bloodshed to last a lifetime here— anything more was just a drop in the ocean of awfulness. Still, she hated his guts for having a role in Roland’s death.

But, Jade was not to be dissuaded from the argument.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll deliver him to Dwarveholm or someplace. They can decide what to do with him, I’m sure this isn’t the only occasion where he’s been implicated in something dastardly like this! Even if it is a pretty lawless verse… Plus, I can keep an eye on him. Bec, too. He won’t cause anyone any trouble ever again.” She beamed proudly, crossing her arms over her chest with an accomplished air.

“No. Absolutely not. You are only a child, you cannot deliver criminals to justice,” Captain Tell said, shaking his head with a decisiveness that made Jade’s stomach sink down to her toes. She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, stamping one sparkly, red-slippered foot on the frozen ground.

“Excuse me! You’ve seen what I’m capable of throughout this entire adventure. I’m sure I can handle a guy who’s unarmed and shackled. Promise.”

Raising one slender eyebrow, Selena gave her an impressed look. “She does have a point, you know.”

All eyes turned to the captain. They waited with baited breath for what he would say. His face had already been overtaken by an even deeper frown than was customary for him, his slit of a mouth and coarsely wrinkled lips and cheeks giving him the impression of an aged, grouchy and, altogether, generally very displeased dryad. Dried blood still flecked his boots, his leather armor, and the warm furs cast over his shoulders. The man’s grey eyes, which always seemed dark and roiling with the departed shades of his lifetime, at last turned to Jade.

“Very well,” Tell said, and before Jade could start rejoicing (and the dwarf could start plotting his inevitable escape from the clutches of some foolish girl), stared cuttingly at the Witch of Space. “Don’t make me feel as if I’ve made a mistake putting my faith in you, Harley. If you let him escape, it’ll be your funeral.”

“Yessir!” she chirped, snapping off a goofy salute. She had already begun to corral Rebecca with her arms, pulling her along as she went to greet her new (and rather unhappy) traveling companion. Bec trotted along behind, tail raised like a flag and his irradiated-green tongue flapping.

“Before you go, kind witch,“ Brandon began, and Jade blinked owlishly from behind her glasses, spinning ‘round as he tucked something cold and heavy like a rock into her hand. “… some insurance.”

Jade stared wide-eyed at the cloth-wrapped object in her hand, then quickly tried to shove it back into the astronomer’s outstretched hand. “No! It’s yours, you guys worked so hard to find it and it’s the entire reason why you came here, why Roland died, I just can’t—“

“You can and you will, Jade Harley,” he smoothly cut her off, and Jade met his gaze straight on, her worries dispersing at the sincerity warming the brown of his eyes. “You are a friend to us. I trust you to keep this treasured artefact safe until the time comes when it is sorely needed and, when that dreaded day dawns upon us at last, deliver it to the Kingdom.”

He smiled then, a definite twinkle in his eye. “Stay safe, my young friend.”

“Remember,” Tell struck in, pointing at her with the hilt of his sword. “Your funeral.”

Jade’s eyes strayed from where the dogs pulled and tugged against their ties and left scratches in the ice, the sleds loaded up with heaps of gear and the unconscious Piers, Burgess signaling with a whistle that they were ready to depart. The giant’s camp was a blaze of orange with a thick cloud of black smoke pulsing over it, a jungle of animal carcasses and wooden stakes ringing around the bonfire without rhyme or reason. Jade imagined that she could see a tall figure seated next to the fire on a tree trunk the length of three grown men, the strong, pale shoulders and sprawled legs obfuscated by tiger stripes of red and gold fire.

She took a deep breath.

It was time to go.

39,864/27,000

Jade now has the Green Star Piece artefact.

[Amber Veritz]

Everyone was going their own ways. Although Amebr had grown to like her new friend Jade, she too would have to say her goodbyes. As she thought about this, though, the connection to her helmet and homebase finally reestablished for the first time since they entered the mountain. Notification marks plagued her screen one after another, all from Murasaki. The faunus sighed and turned to Jade, keeping her eyes on the dwarven prisoner in their custody. She took a deep breath before saying what she needed to.

"I'm sorry Jade, but this is where I say my goodbye. I'm sure you can handle short-stuff here by yourself as long as he's shackled. Homebase seems to need me desperately and I need to get busy on some plans of mine." Memories of her exploits in the sandy dunes floated by her mind, reminding her of the chaos emerald she had left with Murasaki. She needed to know what kind of power it held and what she could do with it. Though, in truth she could really use a hot bath and tub filled with california rolls. "I hope we can see each other again. Here is my scroll number and if you feel like visiting me in person, my base is just a few miles from the Frozen Fields-Nexus gate."

Jade wasn't sure how to react to Amber leaving so abruptly, though, she could see why Amber wished to put this behind her as quickly as possible. She had assumed Amber would see justice for Roland's death at the hands of this dwarf's ally. Nevertheless she flashed the faunus a triumphant smile as she handed her the slip of paper with her phone number on it.

"I'm sure we'll see each other again Amber, so don't worry about that. You go home and relax, I think we all deserve a good night's rest." The dwarf gagged at this stupid goodbye. Amber glared at him to remind him of his predicament, which seemed to put him in his place. Jade stuffed the crumply paper in her pocket and offered Amber a big hug which she gladly accepted.

"I will see you later then Jade Harley, enjoy your new duty as the Star Piece Protector!" With that final goodbye, Amber and Jade's journey was over, but this was hardly the beginning for Amber. She summoned her snowboard and rode off over the mounds of snow. Time to put her effeorts in this shitty world to use.