The Desert is Cold in the Dark [Dark Data]

[Dr. McNinja]

“Fantastic,” Ogong grumbled, wiping sweat off of his brow, “It’s even HOTTER in here.”

The sweltering heat made Yeo-Ee-Pil feel unpleasantly warm to the touch, like grabbing a metal bar that was in the sun too long. Ogong poked the floor with the staff, where the skeleton was moments before.

“How the hell did he do that?” Jim muttered.

Ogong shrugged, not really listening. Yeo-Ee-Pil had gone silent again. Creating illusionary copies of yourself was easy. Even Ogong could do it. But this twisted maze was something else entirely. Ogong tried to remember his master’s words on Calligraphy Magic that could change gravity itself - but those were Four-Figure Power Words. There were very few, extremely powerful sorcerers who could pull off magic like that. If this was true, the three of them were out of their league. Sorcerers like that could undo the universe and still run a marathon afterwards. Well, obviously the universe would be undone and the marathons would no longer exist-

PING

Ogong frowned. This place was freaking him out. Now strange noises were just scattering around.

PING PING PING PING

A shower of pointy metal objects about the size of coins showered en masse from the ceiling. Ogong raised his casting hand.

“Caltrops!” Somerled warned.

“Wind! POONG!”

Nothing happened. The arcane circle failed to appear and the caltrops continued to shower them. Jim gently bent Ogong’s head so he was facing downwards, the caltrops sprinkling and bouncing off their backs harmlessly.

“What happened just now?” Somerled asked.

“I don't know,” Ogong winced, “Something's blocking my magic, I guess.”

“That's just dandy. You should hang back a little, kid.”

“Hey, you benching me?” Ogong snapped, “I took down one of those statues all by my selvsies. I can take care of myself.”

“You had your magic. Now you're just a monkey,” Somerled scoffed.

“I said...”

Ogong punched a wall as hard as he could, sending cracks up the wall.

“I can take care of myself.”

Jim and Somerled glanced at each other. What the hell was this kid? Somerled spoke first, his sneer hiding his approval of the monkey’s strength.

“Fine. But seriously, buddy. Shoes.”

“It's fine. I don't mind warming my feet.”

“Wasn't talking about the floor.”

Somerled pointed at the caltrops, which sank Ogong’s heart. Now he had to hang on for dear life on Jim’s armor. But so did Somerled.

Jim sighed as all three arrived at the same conclusion.

“Alright, climb on.”

Ogong gleefully chirped, hopping once more onto Jim’s right shoulder. Somerled climbed Jim’s back. Jim grunted under the weight of his teammates.

“This might get bumpy,” the ex-marine warned.

He stepped forward. The combined weight of the armor and three Primes smashed and bent the caltrops out of shape, emitting a satisfying crunching sound as tiny metal shards bounced up from the floor.

“Haha!” Ogong chuckled triumphantly, “Your little metal thingies are no match for Jim’s metal armor!”

Ogong’s ears perked subconsciously. The monkey recognized the warning and looked to the side, where a giant caltrop was tumbling from out of nowhere.

Ogong hollered in terror. Jim looked at what the kid was looking at and immediately stepped backwards to avoid it. The metal scraped past Jim’s armor and disappeared, leaving only the telltale scream of metal scraping stone.

“What,” Somerled panted, “the fuck.”

Ogong stood on the shoulder, causing Jim to stagger a little. “It just disappeared.”

“Sounds ‘bout right,” Jim muttered, “Listen, let's just get what we need and get right out of here. I don't plan on staying here any longer than I need to.”

“Hang on,” Ogong mumbled, “I see something on the ceiling…”

The monkey stood on his tiptoes to analyze the strange mark on the ceiling. The sandstone walls were now completely featureless without the statues, except for this one tiny etching on the ceiling. Ogong squinted to see it better, but it was still too high up.

“Gimme a lift?” the monkey said.

Jim grumbled, “This doesn't seem too important,” before lifting the youngster up with his hand.

Now Ogong could see it perfectly. It was a carving of a skull, jaws mockingly wide open, surrounded by four hands making finger guns. The carving was tiny - no wonder he could only see it up close.

“He left a little portrait of himself,” Ogong reported.

“You mean that bony lil’ bastard?” Jim grunted.

“Yeah. I wonder why...”

Ogong brushed it with the back of his hand. Then he fell. That was the okay part. What was not okay was the direction he fell.

He fell up.

Ogong screamed in confusion as he tumbled towards the ceiling, as if gravity had flipped. He landed painfully on the base of his neck. Rubbing it, he brushed dust from his sweatpants and looked up at the floor, into the bewildered eyes of Jim and Somerled.

“The hell did you do?” Somerled snapped.

“I touched the, uh, the carving!” Ogong stammered, “and then I just kinda, uh. Fell? Up?”

The monkey quickly glanced around him, realizing that only he was flipped upside down. He tried to jump back to the floor, but he just fell back up to the ceiling.

On the third jump, a panel slipped out from under Ogong and he fell into the ceiling. Yelling, Ogong wildly grabbed at the narrow tunnel he was falling through. Weirdly enough, his keen simian senses did not find anything for him to grab so that he might slow his fall. Instead, he plummeted straight down. Well, upwards.

“Sideways,” Ogong noticed, as he crashed directly into Somerled.

A panel in a nearby wall had opened, somehow dropping the monkey off at the side of the room despite the fact that Ogong had fallen in a straight line. The storm spirit grunted as the monkey collided with him. Gravity had still not returned to normal with Ogong, however, and the monkey fell once more to the ceiling.

"Now what?" Ogong grumbled.

Google Docs says it's 990 words. Ogong is now stuck on the ceiling.