Beyond the Mountains of Madness

[Jade Harley]

“Halt!”
 
Brandon and his team of sled dogs came to an abrupt stop, ice and powdered snow scattering under their paws as sharp yips and barks pierced the air. Standing before them was a wide, rectangular shadow— a colossal gate, Brandon realized, lined on both sides by pale pillars that appeared to simply vanish whenever the blizzard raged too fiercely.
 
Three other teams of dogs and men soon joined him, slicing through the silvery layer of frost with a hiss, their sleds laden down with supplies and materials for camping during the night. An immense tankard of fiery orange-spiced grog was included among their other provisions, and Brandon couldn’t wait to take a hearty swig once they arrived at the gates of Dwarveholm— if the dwarves were amiable enough to let them camp out on their doorstep, anyway. The journey ahead would surely be a long one without that brief spell of respite.
 
Whistling to his dogs to quiet, Brandon’s fur-lined boots crunched in the snow as he signaled for the leader of his guard, Captain Laurence Tell, to join him.
 
Captain Tell’s skin was lighter in color than Brandon’s, which made his discomfort in the freezing cold all the more obvious. His nose, ears, and cheeks were painted a bright red, like an apple freshly-picked, and the fur wrappings on his arms and torso flapped in the wind as he strode over. Brandon balked somewhat in the face of the Captain’s sour expression, but quickly regained enough composure to gesture for their light to be brought to the fore.
 
Tell brandished the lantern they had brought on their journey, the cloth inside already soaked through with oil. With a strike of two dark stones it was set to a brilliant, hungry blaze that lapped against the glass encasing it. Together, the two men stood before the mighty gateway, their lantern flickering in and out of sight like a firefly caught in a thick fog. Then, with not much else to do, they waited. And waited. And waited.
 
Tiring of this waiting business soon enough, Brandon frowned. “Hello?” he called, then raised his hands and cupped them around his mouth. “Hel-lo!”
 
After several minutes of waiting, cold and shuddering in the practically knee-deep snow, a dark blur shifted atop the ramparted watchtower settled beside the gate. A voice reached Brandon’s ears, “Hallo! Who’s this?”
 
“It is I, Sir Brandon Marshall the astronomer, and these are my worthy companions and the finest knights of Camelot. This is Dwarveholm, yes?” Brandon’s words rang out, voice slightly dampened by the falling snow and the cascading shadows of the mountains. His cloth-wrapped hands chafed against his crossed arms, stiff fingers rubbing severely into the numb flesh there.
 
A weighted pause. Then, “This is Dwarveholm, the domain of King Bruenor Battlehammer.”
 
Brandon breathed a sigh of relief; they had indeed found their way to the gates of Dwarveholm. The whispering of the scholars held true. His spirit very much improved, Brandon raised his chin to gaze up at the tower’s nest head-on. “Go and tell your king that we have been charged by Omni with a most sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he may join us in our quest for a magnificent artifact.”
 
“Well, I’ll ask him, but I don’t think he’ll be very keen….” The—dwarven? Was that the politically correct term?— guard replied, a certain hesitance to his words.
 
Captain Tell shot the astronomer an incredulous look, his lips downturned and brows furrowed. Tell always seemed a little bit angry about something, come to think of it; he was a soldier weathered by many seasons, wrinkles etching a permanent, deep frown across his forehead and chapped lips, and not many of Brandon’s jokes could rustle a laugh out of him. Brandon often wondered if it was a talent that he had acquired with age. The man was a certified hardass.
 
Shifting nervously under the Captain’s watchful eye, Brandon again raised his voice to be heard over the howling of the winds, “And why is that?”
 
“He’s already got one, you see?”
 
“What?”
 
One of the other warriors standing behind Captain Tell surged forward and, the pommel of his sword swaying against his hip, gripped Brandon by the elbow and whispered urgently under his breath, “He says they’ve already got one!”
 
The dark-skinned astronomer exchanged a look with Captain Tell. How can this be?
 
“Are you sure he’s got one?” Brandon asked, because really— one had to be sure.
 
“Oh, yes, it’s very nice—“ the dwarf said. He then turned to his companions settled in the watchtower beside him, unbeknownst to the astronomer and his guard. The young dwarf’s mischievous grin was evident through the thick auburn scruff on the lower half of his face, “I told him we already got one.”
 
Brandon scratched the side of his head, completely at a loss for what to do. “Well, uhm, can we come up and have a look?”
 
“Of course not! You are…. Camelot-types!”
 
“Well, what are you then?”
 
“Ah’m a dwarf! Why d’you think ah haff this ou’tra’geous ac’cent, ya silly ast’rono’mer!”
 
The astronomer blinked. He hadn’t really noticed much of an accent, at least not up until now. This must be some kind of joke.
 
“What are you doing all the way up there if you’re a dwarf?” Captain Tell asked gruffly, obviously skeptical of this watchtower-bound dwarf. Brandon noticed that his arms were now folded across his chest, a sure sign that the old captain wasn’t pleased.
 
“Mind your own business!”
 
Brandon sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He spoke lowly, but just loud enough for his companions to hear, “I believe he is pulling our collective leg, so to speak.”
 
“You think?” Tell grunted, surprising Brandon by seeming grouchier than he had ever seen the good captain before. “Look, let’s just camp out here for the night. If those bearded hooligans decide to make a move, we’ll give ‘em what for. ‘Sides, it looks like a fresh storm’s rolling in.” He said this while looking up at the mountaintop, his lips twisted downward in that ever-present frown.
 
A young, female voice called out from behind them, startling the men from their thoughts, “A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition!”
 

This is what the refrance

1,049/40,000

Attempting the quest with user Amber Veritz.

[Amber Veritz]

The faunus slid through snow, kicking up a mini blizzard behind her as she tore through virgin blanket of white. The snowboard she rode worked by no mechanism but still was breaking speed over cars. Screams of enjoyment and pleasure escaped the catgirl’s mouth as she slid past trees and getting air on some bumps of snow. Amber had always wanted to snowboard but of course her family was too poor to afford food, let alone a fancy snowboard.

A beep buzzed in Amber’s ear. Murasaki was calling her again. “Yo, ‘Saki. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to wish you good luck.” He said. “I know life has been rough for you so far, but you're really going to make a difference here in the Omniverse.”

“We'll keep pushing forward no matter what. I'll be the strongest faunus in any universe.” She replied, keeping most of her focus on the path in front of her.

“Right. Well, good luck again. I love you.” The surprise of those words made Amber’s heart skip a beat. It distracted her so much that she lost balance. The snowboard hit a slight slope of ice causing Amber to be flung off. The board flipped, catching the snow upright. She slid for more than a dozen meters before stopping on thin snow. “Uh...too soon.”

The faunus groaned as she tried to respond. “WAY too soon, ‘Saki.” She wiped snow off her face and shook the access out of her helmet and hair.

“Sorry, I'll talk to you later.” With the that, the call ended. After regaining her senses from that fall she looked up and saw a hand in her face. A girl with dog ears- Holy shit is that Dusk? No. Dusk is dead. She looked around noticing she had interrupted a conversation, and look, Dwarveholm.

“Hey, are you alright?!” She asked leaning over to lend Amber a hand.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” She said using Jade to help herself up. “Thanks. So, what’s going on here?” She asked looking around at the whole party of people sitting outside of the city behind locked doors.

1411/40,000 combined words.

[Jade Harley]

Captain Tell scowled at the newest arrivals to their frosty little get-together. Not that anyone could tell— the frown lines of his face were about as creased and deep as the Grand Canyon, making it seem as if he was always angry about something or other. Which he was, more often than not.

“What’s going on here is none of your concern, Prime,” he grumbled, bracing his arms against the winter chill and the sheer stupidity of everyone standing around him, doddering about like a bunch of gossip-bugs at a cocktail party. Even the dogs seemed intent on goofing off, play fighting and yapping around their sled-ties. “Mind your own—“

“Primes!” Brandon exclaimed, leaping eagerly into the conversation and cutting the irate captain off with that megawatt grin of his. He clasped his hands together like some kind of Oliver Twist figure pleading for a spoonful more of gruel. “We would appreciate your help with a quest!“

Tell sighed, dragging a hand down the side of his face. That lily-livered, bum-bailey, pansy-ass astronomer was always butting into things he damn well shouldn’t. It was an absolute miracle he had been allowed to lead this little expedition, in Tell’s humble opinion. The kid was built like a soldier but devoted his life to books and star-gazing, for chrissakes! He’d gone practically owl-eyed from poring over scrolls and such all the time. A right shame it was.

(In truth, Tell had always been interested in books himself, he had just never quite gained enough schooling to pick it up. Oh, he could decipher enough to tell how much was being offered for someone’s head or who’d gone missing during the night when such evidence was presented to him, but he was by no means a learned man. He admired Brandon, in a way. Not that he’d ever let on about that.)

“Don’t tell them anything, you idjit,” Tell muttered lowly, dragging the foolish boy aside before he could blurt out anything else in front of these spooks. “They’ve got a pack of dwarves with ‘em, can’t you see?”

Indeed they did. Curly, wild-haired little men, clad in furs and with metal or clay beads laced through the silly braids of their beards. Some of them looked about as deranged as Captain Ahab, the scraggly fringe of their chins reaching nearly to their knees and making their gaunt faces appear stricken with some horrible sickness, sunken eyes seeming like two burnt holes in a blanket.

But that wasn’t all. Looking over their unwanted company again, the aged captain’s eyes at last rested upon a little girl with greasy dark hair, her arms slung around the neck of an enormous, white-furred hound. She smiled and giggled quietly to the dog as the two Primes conversed off to the side, her eerie yellow eyes glittering. He could’ve sworn by his mother’s grave that he had seen that girl on the bounty board; snatched from Rapture, as rumor had it, by a dark creature that had also dispatched some of Vimes' boys. This group was obviously up to no good.

One of the Primes, a girl whose red shoes and flashy garb stood out like a sore thumb against the whalebone-white snow, turned and grinned at them. She had apparently finished making her introductions with the other animal hybrid child. He recognized her as the first Prime to arrive on the scene, a bunch of scraggly dwarves trailing behind her like a troupe of ducklings. Now the dwarves were all staring at the gates of Dwarveholm, lost looks on their faces and their skin painted zombie pale, almost grey.

It appeared as if they’d been through hell and back while the Prime seemed none the worse for wear. Typical.

She approached with a slight flounce, unaccompanied by the crackle of snow— her feet scarcely touched the frozen ground when she walked. “Hi, uhm, you guys aren’t here to cause any trouble, right? Not that you seem bad or anything! It’s just, I was leading these poor guys home after saving them from a giant tentacle monster and it would really stink if we had any more problems...”

Upon seeing their disbelieving looks, the young woman twiddled her fingers and shrugged with a sheepish smile on her lips. “It’s a long story.”

Tell was about to tell her exactly where she could take her story (far, far away) when Brandon intervened. “One that we would be happy to hear all about, Miss…?”

“Jade Harley, at your service!” The young girl chirped, snapping off a completely incorrect salute. Her two front teeth were a bit too big for her mouth, Tell noted, and the pricked ears on top of her head wiggled with every word that slipped past her lips.

“It is an honor to meet you, Miss Harley! And you are…?” Brandon asked, looking at the other Prime. This one appeared less canine-like, her dark brown hair and cat ears being a dead giveaway to her nonhuman status. Both girls appeared small and almost fragile, but as Laurence Tell had come to understand more and more over the years, looks can be deceiving.

Her brightly-colored eyes slanted to the side, perhaps a bit distrustfully. Her jaw worked for a moment before they refocused on the astronomer, the alien color inside them filled with an unusual determination. She straightened to look him square in the eye, chin raised as she spoke her name, “Amber Veritz.”

Brandon smiled warmly at the duo, reaching out to grace them both with a professional clasping of hands. “Well, to answer your question Jade, we are here strictly on business from the noble verse of Camelot. I am Brandon the astronomer. My companion and guard here, Captain Laurence Tell, thinks it wouldn’t be wise to associate with the both of you, but I believe otherwise! You seem like an honest pair,” his gentle brown eyes briefly flickered to the company of dwarfish folk. “If you have any pressing business to attend to, please, do! We’ll set up camp nearby in the meantime to shelter from this awful cold. You’re welcome to join us after.”

“Cool, thanks!” Jade replied, moving past their armed guard to look up at Dwarveholm’s gate and the mountainous lumps rearing up behind it. The group of perhaps thirty or more dwarves followed along behind with lurching steps, some assisting others in walking and their gaunt faces beginning to flicker with hope.

Captain Tell averted his gaze before he could begin to pity them. No one needed or wanted pity, not in a world such as this— it was the worst thing to offer by way of recompense.

He shifted into Brandon’s line of sight, waving towards his subordinates to begin plunging sticks into the permafrost-laden ground to set up camp. The lantern in his other hand shifted in his stiff-fingered grip, the flame inside having died swiftly once the screech owl wind reached it.

“What in the blue blazes are you doing?” the Captain spluttered gustily at the astronomer, his hand reaching reflexively for the sword buckled at his hip. In Tell’s ancestors’ time, there was no such thing as stinking insubordination. That got a fella hung over the side of a bridge with the sewer rats nibbling at his toes all night long.

In short, he was no Sun Tzu, but Captain Tell wasn’t about to shovel this star-gazer’s shit.

Brandon reached out in the blink of an eye, staying his hand with a pacifying pat to the forearm. The dark-shinned astronomer spread his hands in a clear ‘calm down there, pal’ gesture, his wide shoulders blocking the good Captain’s view of the front gates.  “Hey, we can use all the help we can get. Besides, when was the last time you met someone who acted like they weren’t pursuing their own hidden agenda, huh? This is great!” He looked after the two Primes as they successfully gained entry into Dwarveholm, a slight smile on his face.

“Yeah, great if you’re looking to get killed,” Tell said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he began to march off to oversee things in the campsite. Just as he reached the nearest sled and reached to unload a knapsack, he inclined his head to look at Brandon with a threatening stare. “Don’t touch my sword-arm again, boy, or I’ll whack you good. And it will hurt.”

A peal of nervous laughter was the stuttered reply. “Uh-huh. I mean, understood, captain!”

Tell shook his head with a rueful sigh. Kids these days.

2,831/40,000 combined words.

[Amber Veritz]

The dwarven men and women piled in behind the two half breeds. Most of them, mainly tired or lightly injured, ventured home to recuperate from previous victories. Others were not faring so well. The less injured helped them walk, and even Amber had thrown one of the men on her back after he collapsed into the snow.

The giant gates closed behind the group with a loud clang. That's when they split their own ways. Amber, the kind souls she was, carried helped most of the injured to the infirmary/hospital, and after that, it was just her and Jade. Amber smiled big at Jade and reached out her hand to shake. The canine-lady returned the gesture with a firm grip.

“Now that we have the moment, thought I'd introduce myself properly. I am Amber Veritz, Huntress-in-training and protector of the world of Remnant. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The faunus bowed to her new friend slightly as she introduced herself. The pride in her title made her face light up with glee. She could actually say that she was a protector of civilization.

“I'm Jade, Jade Harley. Nice to meet you Amber!” She replied, motioning Amber to walk with her. “What brings you to Dwarveholm?"

“Business purely. I'm trying to establish some peace in this verse. Dragons, Trolls and Dwarves are a bit crazy and hardly anything is tame around here. I built a trading post here in the Fields where lots of people from all over the verse can come and trade with others. It's like a small town underground.” Amber explained, making hand motions to emphasize most of what she was talking about.

“That sounds awesome. Do you guys really live underground?” Jade asked intriguingly. “Or is that just a figure of speech you use?

“No, we literally have a tunnel system of homes and shops underground beneath my fortress. It's pretty cool, you should come visit some time.” Amber led them into what seemed to be a tavern. The animal girls got odd looks as they entered, not only because they were obviously primes, but probably because of their animal like appearance. They took a seat at a table and waited for someone to wait on them.

“I've got to say, it’s awesome to finally see another faunus around the Omniverse.” Amber said happily. It was looking to be a pretty good day.

“What’s a faunus?” Jade asked, not knowing she had the resemblance of Amber’s own species.

“It's what we are, uh, right?”

“I've never heard that word before. Is it some kind of code? What’s it mean?” Jade continued to ask more questions, as was her curious nature. Most animals are born curious so it’s not surprising.

“Oh, I assumed you were from Remnant with your canine features. My species are called Faunus. We resemble humans, but always have some animalistic feature, like my ears.”

“I see. That’s a very interesting inheritance.” Finally one of the waitresses found time to take their orders. They both bought something to eat and drink and discussed some small talk.

“So what do you think of those guys at the front gate? That science-y dude seemed like he could have really used our help with something.” Amber said scarfing her face with food. Primes never got hungry, but Amber never forgets what fresh fish tastes like, and never will. Jade on the other hand ate much slower than Amber.

“Yeah, he did make it out to be a big deal. He said he was working with Camelot. I wonder what the Kingdom is doing here in the icy wastelands-” Amber blurted out loudly, cutting off Jade and attracting some eyes in their direction.

“Wonderland! Not a wasteland!” She yelled out, only realizing she had made a scene shortly after. She shoveled food down her throat like nothing had happened. Once the attention died back down, Amber continued their conversation. “You think we should help him? I have the free time, not really in much of a rush. I do have to make some alliances and getting in good with one of the big tits of the Omniverse doesn’t sound like a bad idea. What about you?”

The faunus continued to guzzle down her food, she was a fairly nice person but seemed to lack a lot of social grace. Interesting to say at the least.

Collective word count: 3,579/40,000

[Jade Harley]

Blinking in surprise at Amber’s outburst, it took Jade a moment to pick up nibbling at her food again, her eyes roving around the room to make sure they hadn’t attracted too much attention. It would stink to get thrown out of such a nice place, after all, especially since it was SO cold out!

Now that they were enveloped in the warmth of a tavern, the smell of burning fish oil and greasy, frost-wetted beards dampening everything, Jade was practically giddy with excitement over starting off on a new adventure. She could hear and smell bacon crisping in a pan, fat and meat mixed with smoke and salts creating a decadent aroma that set her stomach to grumbling. The room was dark, cavern-like walls dripping with condensation and firelight; a bar-like atmosphere clattered around them, dwarves occasionally shooting them wary glances from time to time.

Jade’s ears flicked when Rebecca giggled and cupped Becquerel’s snout between her small hands. After making the journey across fields of slippery snow and ice, Rebecca nestled comfortably atop his back like a toddler engaged in a pony ride, the wolf-dog had simply flounced down beside Jade’s feet and hadn’t budged since. Jade hadn’t even been certain that Bec was still alive until he sniffed, white fur sparking.

Rebecca’s fingers were apparently sticky for some reason, most likely from the honeyed bread Jade had given her to eat a little while earlier. Of course, Bec had been the one to eat it in a few snaps of his teeth seeing as the child didn’t need sustenance, but it had been an awfully gluey treat. So, the god-dog did what any faithful pet would do and licked the Little Sister’s hands until they were practically sparkling with cleanliness, something which Jade was quick to put a stop to once she caught wind of it.

“Ew, Bec! Don’t do that, you’ll get dog-germs all over her and then what will we do?” she said, batting his muzzle away from Rebecca. Wrinkling her nose a bit, she turned back to the conversation at hand, elbows scooting across the counter and her full attention resting on Amber.

She considered Amber’s question for a bit, chewing up a piece of cooked fungus that the dwarves apparently cultivated someplace underground. It might be dangerous, she supposed, but a lot of things were, and it would be amazing to learn more about Amber’s world…. besides, Jade seriously doubted that it could turn out as horribly as her last expedition!

Swallowing once she was finished chewing, Jade’s eyes sparkled as they met Amber’s. “I’m always down to help out a person in need!”

“Well, that settles it,” Amber said triumphantly, a bit muffled around her mouthful of food. “We’re helping the astronomer guy!”





Brandon was busy poring over his map of the Frozen Fields when the two primes emerged. Tents and woolen bedrolls had been laid down for the short time that they would remain here – after a few hours’ rest, with a watch set of course, the last watch would rouse them from slumber and the true journey into the mountains could begin. The astronomer sincerely doubted that he would get any sleep, not with how excited he was to set out! His hands practically shook during supper, unable to keep a lasting grip on the utensils for all the excitement stirring in his blood. Even the unforgiving white of the landscape couldn’t sour his cheery mood, and it was with bounding steps that he strode over to the primes, Tell following in short order behind him.

“So? I take it you’ve decided to help us?”

“Yes!” Jade Harley said, bouncing up onto the balls of her feet. “When are you going to set out? I have a little experience navigating around this place, if that would help.”

Brandon chuckled, smiling at her obvious enthusiasm. It was practically infectious! “Actually, we’re not setting out for a few more hours. The men need their rest, you understand, and we’ve already traveled far enough today as is.”

“Oh, yeah, of course!” said Jade, nodding quickly.

“Still, there is something that you can do to help now, if you’d like,” the astronomer continued, sending a meaningful glance in Captain Tell’s direction. “The captain here would know better than I what needs to be handled around here.”

It was true, but only because the astronomer and captain had been bickering about it for the past hour while the primes were away. While Brandon would have gladly let them into their company based on nothing but trust and goodwill, Captain Tell was far more wary of their motives. It was through this guarded mindset that he had elected to assign them some kind of task to prove their worth, eventually convincing the astronomer of the test’s necessity, but Brandon still hadn’t the slightest clue of what it could be.

Tell made a pinched face like he had a sour taste in his mouth, but soldiered on for just long enough to give them the task he had decided upon. “Do you see that slope, just a small ways beyond camp? Over it is an ugly patch of iced-over water. It’ll be a bitch for our sled-teams to get over, ‘specially with our cargo. If you can find a way to shift everything over it on your own, you’ll have earned your keep.”

Amber frowned, looking between the miscellaneous crates and barrels scattered around camp to the snowy hill. Just then the wind picked up, chilling her to the bone; while this task seemed like the kind of labor you could work up a serious sweat doing, the icy wind would undoubtedly keep them cool. There also wasn’t any signs of movement— no hares, foxes, or birds moving against the blanket of seamless white. Only men and dwarves seemed to have left tracks in their wake recently, and even that was scarce. The heavy snowfall swathed everything in silence.

The Faunus looked at the captain, lips pursed and a slight pucker between her brows, brain already whirling with ideas on how to move the crates across.

“We can handle it,” Amber declared, turning then to Jade. “C’mon, let’s figure this mess out!”

They started off at a steady lope through the snow, disappearing over the hill in only a few short minutes’ time. Brandon and Tell watched them go, the soldier with his arms crossed over his chest and the astronomer with a slight grin on his lips. Such determination, it was so refreshing!

“See, I told you,” he said, nudging Tell’s shoulder with his elbow. “They will be a great help to us. Although, I am a little surprised you didn’t give them something a little more… challenging. Wrestling with a wild grizzly bear or something.”

The older man scoffed, not turning to look Brandon in the eye as he began to head back towards the camp with long strides. The astronomer hurried after him, breath huffing out before him in visible clouds. “Watch out, I might take your silence the wrong way! ‘Oh, yes Brandon, maybe I was being a stodgy old curmudgeon in assuming the worst about everybody. Those children aren’t malicious at all, you’re so smart and a good judge of charact—’”

“The dwarves won’t be pleased that we’ve entered their domain.”

They entered the central tent with a rustle of cloth; Brandon immediately moved to sit beside the small lamp they had inside, hissing and rubbing his numb fingers together near it – Tell bustled around in the corner of his eye, only several feet between them despite it being the biggest among the tents that made up their camp. “Yes, and?”

Spreading out his bedroll and fishing out the tankard of grog he had tucked inside it, Tell jerked his head towards the tent flap. “The primes are our insurance. While I have no doubt that my soldiers are perfectly able to handle a few giggling teenagers, I’m not so sure about one of them taking an axe to the head and surviving it. If they’re as kind-hearted as you say, those girls won’t let it come to that.”

Brandon gave the captain’s turned back a long look, nodding slowly in understanding. If there was anything Captain Tell truly cared for in this irrational, crazy world, it was his group of soldiers. The men and women who pressed on even in the worst of circumstances, committed to the preservation and safeguarding of Camelot. It was almost touching, and the astronomer smiled fondly while he was sure Tell wasn’t looking.

“Anyway, assigning them to some basic grunt work will save us time,” the captain acknowledged, settling down on the woolly mat with the tankard tucked against his chest like a newborn babe. “We’ll be out of this region before any more…. unsavory types decide to try and knock heads with us.”

Both men fell silent, the underlying danger of the elder man’s words thickening the air. Outside, the arctic winds continued to wail, the whines of the dogs and the jingling of their sled-ties the only thing that disturbed the uneasy quiet.

Shaking his head, Brandon grinned a little and gave an easy shrug of his shoulders. “Say, how long do you think it’ll take them to get our gear across the ice?”

Taking a hearty swig of the grog, Tell leaned back on one elbow, watching as the tankard’s contents sloshed around. His eyebrows lowered as he closed his eyes, and Brandon could have sworn he looked like the wisest man in the world in that very moment.

“To tell you the honest truth? I don’t imagine they will.”





The snow was on fire and it was totally Bec’s fault.

“How did this even happen?!” Amber shrieked, stamping out the bright green flames with her boots, occasionally pausing to kick half-melted snow in its general direction.

“He was only trying to help!” cried Jade, hugging the wolf-dog’s neck tight while Rebecca appeared to be trying to sculpt a perfect replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà in the snow. Needless to say, the Little Sister was facing minimal success.

The pair had been lamenting the roughly five inches of support the ice was able to provide when Becquerel arrived on the scene. Sniffing at the ice, the white-furred hound had trotted around the edge, testing the seams and slushy patches with his paws. Having apparently found whatever he was looking for, the wolf-dog seated himself in the snow with a slumphf. And then he sneezed and the snow was o n  f i r e.

Visibly slouching in relief as the flames finally died, Amber scrubbed one sleeved arm across her face. This was turning out to be a lot tougher of a job than she expected! The ice was just too thin, and she was pretty sure that the captain guy only wanted to cross it so he could shave off a few measly minutes of travel time. She also kind of got the feeling that he didn’t like them that much. Well, whatever. They’d show him!

Jade came over to stand beside her. “Well, what now? I mean, not that I’m not having a great time and all, but standing around and staring at this lake isn’t accomplishing anything!”

One hand resting on her chin, the Faunus nodded. “You’re right, Jade— we’ve gotta get to work if we want to help those guys out. The dark patches are what we have to worry about the most, I think, since the ice is thinnest there. Maybe we could make everyone some snowshoes?”

“Oh, good thinking! Something to distribute the weight over a wider area. But that could take a while….” The dog-eared girl bent down near the ice, moving one hand over it as she judged the depth of the waters below. “What if we just moved everything over?” she flapped her hand vaguely in the direction of the camp.

Amber stared at her. “Uhm, that’s the idea, isn’t it?”

“No, no, like this!“ Jade gestured at the snow with both hands, the ice particles drifting up to spin cyclically between her palms. After a few seconds they were molded into a perfect sphere, turning slowly before settling into her cupped hands. Amber took it from her when she offered it up, turning it over in her hands with a bemused look.

Pausing in her examination of the snowball, Amber squinted doubtfully over at the grinning Witch. “We’re going to make snowballs.”

“Well, I guess we could,” Jade giggled, shrugging. “But I was thinking more along the lines of mass levitation!”

“…..Okay, I’m listening, but only because that sounds freaking awesome.”





The camp was quiet in the snow, triangular tents made of brown burlap and patchwork staked unevenly in the ground. Despite Captain Tell’s worst fears, neither hide nor hair of a single dwarf had broached the grounds of their camp or given the first and second watches any trouble. Brandon learned of this when he awoke after several hours of much-needed sleep, tidying his gear and packing everything into his travel bag while the captain did the same. Sleeping in the same tent as the captain was like sharing a cave with a grizzly bear afflicted with a serious lung condition, but it was necessary— after all, what better way was there to protect such precious knowledge than by keeping the finest security near at all times?

Breakfast was a silent affair, the bread rolls in his pack hardened by the cold and scraping like chips of ice on his back molars while he chewed. It was all washed down with a few swigs of grog, the burning drink shooting down his gullet in a trail of fire and warming him down to his frost-nipped toes. He scribbled a few notes in his journal with a stub of graphite by the light of the lantern, teeth chattering as he tugged his coat tighter around his middle. Brandon wondered if the primes had had any luck with their task, his eyes locked onto the lantern’s flame until it was very nearly seared into his memory. Like Tell had said, he doubted very much that they had succeeded. Primes were resourceful, sure, but not that resourceful.

“What in the name of Hell gates?!”

He would know that voice anywhere. Apparently, Tell had found something new to inspire a few healthy bouts of crabbiness. Sighing wearily, the astronomer scrubbed one hand along the side of his face and rose to his feet, the leather of his boots creaking. Right then. Best to see what he was on about now before the good captain did anything too drastic, like order someone to dig in the snow with their bare hands until at least one frostbitten finger fell off.

Brandon blinked hard a few times as he stepped out of his tent, nearly blinded by the sunlight reflecting off from the snow. It took a minute before he could see clearly again, but when he finally got a good look around he rather wished he hadn't.

Oh. Oh.

That explained it. They were no longer near the gates of Dwarveholm, as Tell had undoubtedly discovered a moment before. Everything was shifted slightly, as well, with the tents rumpled up and the stakes loosened from the ice. Somehow during the hours when they were asleep their camp had been moved, and the obvious culprits stood just a few long strides away, grinning proudly at what they imagined to be a job well done. Jade Harley seemed tired, dark circles forming under her eyes and a slouch to her shoulders, and Veritz seemed only a bit better.

Captain Tell, on the other hand, was busy raining spittle on the faces of the second watch, berating the scarcely of-age boys for dropping off to sleep instead of doing their duty. Miss Harley, Brandon noticed, moved to intercede on their behalf only for the captain’s ire to reel onto her, which in turn roped Veritz into the fray. The other members of the company seemed perfectly content with watching, expressions ranging from amused to vaguely pitying on their faces.

Brandon approached Selena, a crossbow-bearing woman he had grown acquainted with during their travels; he had also borrowed a pair of boots from her when he’d worn out the soles of his own, which he was still eternally grateful for.

“Would you like some popped corn, or was your frozen meal as marvelously hearty as my own?” the astronomer asked, shuddering at the memory of the ice-covered rocks he had made himself eat.

Selena started, clearly surprised by his sudden appearance, but turned a friendly smile his way. “I had the good sense to sleep with my pack in my coat, thank you very much. Body heat! It does wonders.”

“Ah,” said Brandon, accepting this sage advice for what it was. “Great. What’s happened now?”

Understanding immediately just what he was referring to, Selena sighed. “Burgess and Piers konked out scarcely a half hour into their shift, I’d imagine, and they’re getting flack for it now. The primes— what are their names?”

“Jade Harley and Amber Veritz.”

”Right, Harley and Veritz! The black-haired one, Harley I believe, says she floated us over the lake while everyone was sound asleep. Incredible, I say, but then again primes are always doing things like that,” Selena finished, picking neutrally at the edge of her fur-lined sleeve.

“Really? All in a few hours’ time,” Brandon exclaimed, rubbing his chin in thought. “That’s something else.”

“Yes,” Selena agreed. “’Something else’ they may be, but you had better rescue them from Tell. Or, rather, rescue him— he seems liable to join the choir invisible before long, you know he has too much rage in his blood to be healthy.”

The dark brown-skinned man sighed, shrugging his shoulders in a hopeless effort to shake off the chill. Despite being over six feet tall and a pretty burly guy, speaking with someone as well-respected and….. opinionated about how things should be done made Brandon feel like an ant by comparison. Still, he felt like maybe he had earned at least some respect from the captain while making the journey here, and he was a goddamn adult. And goddamn adults didn’t back down from a little open discussion.

“Wish me luck,” said Brandon, starting to make his way over. Watching him march off like a soldier to war, Selena shot him a quick thumbs up and a somewhat pitying look, as well as a few other guards. But, when the astronomer trudged near enough to hear the actual words being exchanged, he stopped in his tracks.

As one of the Kingdom’s representatives on this excursion, it should have been expected that Laurence Tell was by no means an unreasonable man. “You misunderstand,” the captain explained to the animal hybrids, teeth gritted but desperately clinging to his last thread of sanity. “You carried out the task well, and I thank you for that. But to do something so drastic was a bit much. You could have mentioned it to us before you Leviosa’d us over here. What if you had dropped something into the water? One of our dogs? A person?”

“Oh, no! I didn’t even think of that!” Jade gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. “I am so sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Amber nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We’ll totally ask first, next time.”

“See that you do,” Tell huffed, turning away. He flapped one arm at Piers and Burgess, two scrawny kids with sunken cheeks and tiredness written into their bones. “You two….” the captain paused, brows furrowing at them. “Get some rest. We won’t be setting out for another hour at least, thanks to the time Harley and Veritz have saved us. Everyone else, get ready to move out.”

As Tell made to walk off, Brandon trotted after him, breath fogging in the air as he looked incredulously over at the captain.

"What?" Tell scowled, tossing one sack over his shoulder and reaching for another. "They did all-right."

Brandon grinned. They certainly did!

Collective word count: 6,928/40,000

[Amber Veritz]

Though she would never let it show, Amber was completely worn out. She could hardly believe she just made an entire camp of people and tents float over a frozen lake. Like, what the fuck could be cooler?! With a wipe of the brow she caught up with Tell, who was retreating to his tent to gather his things for the long journey. The wind was blowing rather roughly, covering the air in a foggy snow-shroud. She slid past Tell for the fun of sliding around in the snow.

“What now? Already told you well done. What more do you want?” He scoffed only giving Amber a quick glance. Amber walked backwards while she talked to him.

“I can see you’re a good leader and your soldiers respect you. I wanted you to know that I understand you have my total respect as a soldier in your ranks. Though I tend to handle situations as a role model or a leader, you are in charge and my blade fights in service of your cause.” She explained, nearly tripping in patches of snow, granted her range of vision was secluded to behind her, not in front of her. Tell was surprised a prime would be so interested in helping out a lesser secondary. What did she get for helping them?

“Yes well, keep up the good work.” The captain said entering his tent and closing the cloth covering behind him. Amber looked around to find something she could do while she prepared for the journey before them. Seemed like everyone was packing up their belongings and equipment. Jade was currently conversing with some of the lower ranking soldiers to pass the time. That sounded like a good idea. Amber’s father always taught her that she should at least know the names of those who raise their blades behind your banner. You should trust them with your life as they trust theirs with you. The faunus slid around on her snowboard, which had been strapped to her back along with her massive sword, and approached a group of the preparing battalion.

“Good day new friends!” She called out as she approached them waving her hand in the air. “How do you fare for the expedition? To my knowledge, this going to be a long walk.” The two men and one woman did not stop packing their supplies but still replied to Amber’s question.

“Well, to be honest,” said the girl loading a can with some rations, “We aren’t very well suited for such inclimate weather. Camelot is much warmer than the Frozen Fields.”

“I grew up in harsh weather like this. So, warm weather is rather taxing on my energy. I find it hard to breathe in hot, humid areas. Air gets too thick.” She explained as she picked up her board and helped the soldiers packs some of their things. “I didn’t catch your names.”

“Selena, you are Miss Veritz, right? It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She said looking back at the other men behind her. “That’s Roland and Smith behind me. Their a quiet bunch but are just as capable as the other soldiers we have.” Her eyes glanced back at the short cat-girl. Selena offered a handshake to her new ally who gladly returned the gesture.

“You can call me Amber. I’m used to being in a leader position, but I believe Tell would get a bit butt-hurt if tried to take lead of his troops.” The faunus giggled as she shook the soldier’s hand.

“No kiddin’” She replied working on strapping her bedroll to her pack. “Though he his bit brittle on the outside, he takes care of those he’s charged with. That’s more than respectable for me.”

“Of course. I hope to see everyone here walk away from this endeavor. I understand secondaries don’t have the pleasure of rebirth, not to say it’s not pleasant to die then come back to know you’ll probably die again. S’not like it doesn’t hurt.” Selena chuckled at that last comment shaking her head.

“Fair enough. Well, I should get finished with packing. It was nice talking with you Amber.” The faunus nodded and threw her snowboard back on the ground.

“To you as well.” With that goodbye, it was time to start preparing for travel. As she waited for the command to move out, Amber stretched her muscles out to warm up her body for fighting. Many of the soldiers watched as she practiced a few of her techniques on the air, mostly wondering how someone of her miniscule size could wield such a gargantuan weapon. The only logical conclusion they could come to was, ‘This is the Omniverse, it’s fucking weird.’

Not more than an hour later, the group of a dozen, give or take, was heading out. Their destination: An isolated ruin within the mountains. With the Frozen Fields being one of the most dangerous verses in the whole multiverse, everyone had to be alert and ready to fight at all times. Amber was completely alert. Her feline hearing abilities would not allow for an easy ambush against them. It was also plausible that Jade was a good backup in case Amber’s hearing somehow failed them.

Most was smooth sailing for the first hour, no attacks, no ambushes, no dragons. The peaceful tone did not convince Amber to holster Razorback, however. Growing up outside the borders of a safe city in Atlas certainly made one alert and slightly paranoid for good reason. The cat-girl’s ears twitches in the cold. Someone was near. She assumed a fighting stance almost instantly.

“We’ve got company guys.” She said trying to pinpoint where the footsteps in the snow were coming from. Too hard to tell at this distance. The others readied their weapons along with Amber. As it got closer, Amber could tell where it was coming from, and the others could hear the loud thumping of its steps. Without hesitating, the faunus warrior took charge of the fight and rushed towards the sound. Razorback was ready to meet some blood and Amber was more than glad to feed it. Jade backed Amber up, the soldiers wait for the creature to reveal itself though.

It was a wampa. Big yeti-like creature. Jade had seen one of these before, but she was not sure what they were called.

“Amber, be careful! These things are tough!” She yelled out reading her gun.

“Does it bleed?” She asked, although the way she said it made it obvious she was using a rhetorical device.

“Yeah?” Jade answered back anyways, a bit confused. She noticed Amber’s tone changed completely. The nice catgirl was gone, now she was ready to cleave anything that got in her way.

“Then it can die!” The giant monster stepped out from the barren trees and roared loudly. Amber responded by cleaving Razorback upward over it’s leg. Jade, albeit slightly worried about her prime ally, backed up a little and provided some covering fire. The soldiers hurried to join Amber in close range fighting. The beast tried to hammer Amber into the ground, but she was quick enough to respond by raising her blade above her head. The wampa’s flesh dug into the blade, though it hardly seemed distraught by this and continued trying to smash the faunus into the snow.

The group of soldiers who wielded melee weapons joined Amber in chiselling at the yeti’s legs. Most used swords, others bashed at it with maces. In any case, they kept some distance and only attacked while it’s attention was elsewhere. It focused mainly on the catgirl who had done the most damage to it so far. Jade was staying back and out of range, where she could do what she did best: Ranged support. Archer’s helped Jade with the ranged assault. Amber was having too much fun to notice. She could take this thing down by herself if she wanted to. The wampa’s blood spread all over the snow, plaguing the virgin whiteness with crimson red. Some of that blood was mixed with Amber’s. Although she was dishing out most of the damage, she was also taking some heavy hits. The yeti had a lot of spirit, like his opponent. The two of them wanted to rip the other in half and neither would stop until they had accomplished it.

The wampa was losing this battle, very slowly it was being brought down. Amber could see it was moving slower than before. Either it had wore itself out by now or it was dying from blood loss. Weakness. The faunus exploited it quickly. As it reached to jam its enormous fist into the cat’s tiny body, she jumped into the air. With a quick spin of her main hand, Razorback met the neck of the yeti, severing it completely. The yeti’s head fell into the snow, blood splattered everywhere and the giant's body came crashing down like a tree cut down by a lumberjack. The victorious faunus wiped the red liquid off her face and smiled. Just another enemy.

Tell and Marshal were both rather impressed with Amber’s skills. She had kept it’s attention most of the fight and if it strayed from her to attack someone else, she quickly got the beasts attention again. This kept casualties non-existent, the only thing Tell wondered was whether it was purposeful or not. Either way, everyone celebrated the victory. Although Amber pretended she was fine from the injuries she had taken, her muscles hurt from the pure bludgeoning damage the wampa was capable of. Of course, she was still able to travel and fight. Injuries never stopped her before, and she would not concede to them today.

With the yeti put to rest, the group continued on their trail. With luck they would reach the mountains by sunset. It seemed unlikely that they would be left alone though. Big groups tend to attract enemies, which is why Amber was always accustomed to travelling with no more than three other people. She missed fighting with her team, but here they were not strong enough to aid her. She would have to settle with this group for now, and hopefully keep anyone from suffering death.

Collective Word Count: 8,667/40,000

[Jade Harley]

The dead creature’s body lay discarded on the ground, lifeblood seeping sluggishly from the stump where its head had once been and staining the snow with pulsating rapidity. It was shaggy and had an almost ape-like resemblance, white fur matting up all of its extremities and looking like dampened wool, particularly on its brawny forearms— thick as tree trunks, they were! But of course, the dark claws were what had worried Jade the most, the shortest fingernail curved like a raptor’s toe and embedded deep into the ice.

In a rustle of movement she had moved to intercept Amber, checking her all over for signs of injury. Jade’s heart jumped into her throat when she noticed a slight stumble in the catgirl’s step, which was quickly covered up with a purposeful, lively hop, the faunus tossing a confident grin her way.

While she seemed to be healthy and aware for the most part, Jade still tugged worriedly at her sleeve and pulled her aside for a quick word, much to her friend’s exasperation.

“I’m fine,” insisted Amber, flipping some wet hair out of her face with a huff. Razorback rested against her shoulder, a steady and grounding weight even through her— slight, mind you, – dizziness. “See? No deep cuts or anything. I don’t need this mollycoddling, you know.”

“I do know that! I do. It’s just… I just wanted- want to be sure. Sometimes people hide injuries and they turn out to be a lot worse than they originally thought! Like internal bleeding, dehydration from a totally innocuous case of the flu… or a concussion! Hey, look me in the eye real quick, would you?” Jade leaned in close, frantically trying to check and see if the catgirl’s eyes were out-of-focus, bleary or telling of any number of symptoms.

Just listen to yourself, Jade, the space witch thought glumly. She’s practically the same age as you, and here you are acting like her keeper or something dumb like that. Even if she’s at less than 100% now, she’s sure to feel better if you just leave her alone. YOU would want to be left alone, too, wouldn’t you? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Amber waved her off. “I think I would know if I had anything serious going on like internal bleeding, Jade.” She rolled her eyes, smiling, “And you were right there, you know I didn’t hit my head!”

White-furred ears drooping, the other girl looked sincerely apologetic. “Sorry, sometimes I get a bit carried away. I, uhm— yeah.” – A high-pitched laugh, followed by a shrug as she turned and began to bound away, – “Anyway, let’s hurry up before this guy’s friends show up and try to get even!”

Ever a woman of action, Amber looked up and followed her line of sight. How far were they from their destination, anyhow? Did Brandon know? She then squinted with her bright-colored eyes at the mountainous landscape that lay ahead, judging the distance and the amount of time it would likely take to reach an area that wasn’t as exposed to the elements. She couldn’t really see much of anything aside from snow, snow, and even more snow, the blandness of it all giving her one hell of a headache. Still, the astronomer had said there would be a channel of ruins to investigate or something, so surely this wouldn’t end up being a total wild goose chase!

Sighing softly, the catgirl rolled her shoulders and stood up a little straighter. A sharp twinge of her spine where the wampa had managed to strike her caused her to wince, though the pain quickly ebbed into a muted fuzz of discomfort.

In truth, her muscles did ache a little and she knew it could only grow worse as the chill set in, but she had been through worse before. She wasn’t one to show weakness, anyway. No sense in making a big hullabaloo about something so small, she thought; her natural resilience served her well.

With a nod from Captain Tell they were off again, hissing through the snow and scraping over the occasional stretch of ice, the dogs breathing hard as they ran; and not a soul was present who wasn’t dressed all in warm furs and securely-wrapped leathers, weapons within reach should danger arise. They were running in a ‘v’ formation, like a flock of geese headed south for the winter. In fact, with their mirrored reflection coasting over the ice and the occasional ghostly strands of wind picking up, they did seem rather bird-like. A whole squadron of birds in flight, each and every one laden down with haversacks, bundles, meal-bags and other bulky, piled-up things.

They had spent the better part of the day traveling in this manner, the astronomer and his company on their sleds and the primes moving along with their own means of transport. Becquerel trotted alongside the other dogs, never seeming to tire even with Rebecca riding on a petite, splendid little sled strapped to his middle. Jade chattered endlessly as she sat atop one of the packages weighing down Brandon’s sled, speaking of her island home and the friends that she hoped to meet again one day.

She even joined in with the group to sing merry ditties that she had never heard before when they stopped for meals, and cajoled a few of the soldiers into a nonsensical jig to keep the cold at bay. These meals were fairly spread out, consisting mainly of stiff, frost-hardened vittles and silvery fish wrung out from breaks in the ice. It was a rough journey without roads or settlements to guide them on their way, but the company was good and the sky was clear, the gloomy day brightened by their high spirits.

Then there were the still, silent-as-a-crypt passes, the high walls of jagged, ore-veined rock towering above them as they passed between the mountainous crests. No one dared to speak when trudging through these silent paths. The stillness felt omniscient— a powerful, all-seeing force that would crash down upon their heads if broken. The sense of loneliness that had been but a small ache at the start of their journey soon became as stifling as the dreary whiteness covering everything.

Oftentimes the men and women would journey on foot, carefully leading the sleds forward so as to not disturb the giant mounds of snow on either side, the threat of an avalanche looming with all the severity of the guillotine. The dogs’ footpads left soft prints in the ground, claws scraping over stones and rock. They felt tired and sick in their hearts, the insides of their boots cold and wet, sometimes mottled with sores and blood. It was a chilling trek through a land of white death.

In the vertical lands of mountains and sheer cliffs was where they had ascertained the ruins might be. "And it had better be there," muttered Selena as she stumbled along through a slippery patch before her sled-team. The fur ruffle of her coat was frozen stiff, the brittle hairs causing her to shiver whenever they brushed against her cheeks; her cheery attitude had abandoned her around the same time when her foot slipped on a rocky ledge and a long scrape was split down her thigh.

Everyone else was in not much better spirits and there were times when Captain Tell alone was able to urge them on, giving a rousing speech about their duty to the Kingdom and the splendors of their homeland. This was usually enough to get them over the next hill, and the next, and the next….. each one drearier than the last.

At some point the sky began to grow dark, like how the sunlight fades with a slow, languid groan the nearer you go towards the Arctic Circle. There wasn’t a spot of vegetation in sight, no trees or shrubbery or mint-green lichens crawling over the boulders of the hillside they were on. It was hard to tell which hillside it was, as they had gone over so many throughout the day and they all looked much the same, anyhow.

Pretty soon they were ready to set up camp, strong winds tearing at their clothing and threatening to whisk them off and into the sky. The ice plains seemed to simply waft out around them in a sort of otherworldly mist, the altitude turning the ground under their feet into a city of clouds. The air they breathed in crystallized within their lungs, resolving itself into a smothering dew that brought on harsh coughs and sniffles.

When they at last stopped for a bite of supper and were about ready to set out once more, Brandon rummaged through his coat’s folds to find his map. Somehow during their exit from the Kingdom’s lands a field mouse had found its way into his coat, and it seemed that his unexpected tenant was rather set on remaining there to the end of its squeaky, cheese-grubbing days. Very miffed Brandon was, when he found the small beast scrambling about inside his pockets with small paper bits still quivering in its whiskers!

"I give you a home. I feed you the crusts from my bread. I leave whole biscuits in my pockets, and this is how you repay me!" hissed the astronomer to the mouse as it nibbled busily at his gloved fingers, a slightly hysterical note of panic in his voice.

All that remained of his map were torn, ugly scraps of thin animal skin, worn threadbare and colored like the yellow leaves of a Solomon’s seal herb. He was barely able to keep those puzzle pieces that remained from blowing out from his cupped hands, never to be seen again amongst the far-flung ice floes.

Just a few paces away were all the others, waiting patiently for his word on which slope to bolt over next. Even the dogs were watching him intently, the huskies with their pricked ears and the lone buff malamute with its faintly terrier-like ears cuffed to the side, their fur dusted all over with powdered snow. There was a smaller sled with only Jade’s pure white canine-beast leading it, the young Rebecca holding onto the leather-wrapped grips.

“Blimey! I do hope that we’ll be able to camp soon,” murmured one of the younger lads, perhaps Piers, arms wrapped around himself to ward off the frigid, swirly-whirly mists. “It’s awfully cold, and I’ve about had enough of climbing these impossible hillocks for the day.”

Burgess hmmphed from beside him, presumably in agreement, but wisely remained silent. He eyed where Captain Tell was busying himself with attending to one of his dogs, the poor creature’s paw having been cut open on a sharp rock. As he watched, a clean-ish strip of cloth treated with some foul-smelling herbal ointment was wrapped around the sore footpad with military precision.

“We’ll wait for the captain’s word on that one, mate.” said Smith, busily adjusting the flaps of his thick tailcoat with quite a fuss. He looked rather like a puffed-up emperor penguin, clad in all dark navy blues and an off-white undershirt. A silver saber with a decorative corkscrew hilt rested against his hip, a fine weapon forged with an instrument's grace.

"Well? Come along now sir astronomer, off we go!" said Selena. Roland, Smith, Piers and Burgess all looked up at him respectfully, so respectfully in fact that Brandon didn’t feel that he could bear to share the truth with them— the truth being that his map was utterly destroyed with the only spare fragments scattered between his hands and the mouse’s tiny stomach.

Then there was the matter of the primes, of course, and the good Captain, and Brandon began to sweat even as the icy wind shrieked in his ears.

He looked again at the sad, half-chewed pieces of parchment, the yellow-brown skin crinkling under the blizzard’s onslaught. He had always been a good study, his memorization skills above that of all his peers as his instructors had said. The astronomer imagined (and dearly hoped) that his gifts would not abandon him yet, especially in this time of great need.

“Is there a problem?” asked Roland, who was standing nearer to him than all the rest. He was a stout, blue-eyed man with a thick reddish-brown beard and a boisterous laugh. Right now he seemed a bit worried, his fuzzy eyebrows furrowed in concern for his friend. Realizing that he had just been standing there and saying nothing like a dumb fool, Brandon hastened to speak.

"It’s a bit hard to say," Said Brandon, "but I’m confident that we are still on the right track. If we just continue on as we were, on a straight course, we will reach the ruins in no time at all. My only worry is that we might encounter more danger before our journey’s end."

He glanced worriedly at Amber, the cat-eared youth still bearing the brunt of her injuries from the earlier fray. She was an imposing warrior, her feline traits making her appear more fearsome rather than softening her appearance like one might have expected. A controlled power lay in repose within her, springing forth in a blur of leonine ferocity and fangs when threatened, but she was not invincible. The wounds dealt to her frame made her shoulders lurch when she walked, and he hadn’t seen Harley stray from her side yet.

"That’s good to hear," chirped Jade, "and don't you worry about the danger! Amber and I have got this in the bag."

Brandon wished he knew what bag she was speaking of. An endless store of confidence sounded positively heavenly right about now.

Just then a great dark shadow passed over them with a powerful whoosh, blanketing them in cold air with such strength that the winds sharply changed direction. The soldiers among their company immediately ducked for their weapons, crouching down beside the nearest boulders and craning their necks towards the sky. Brandon cowered beside a sled, pulling out a small dagger from within his coat; the dogs immediately set to whining and growling at the unseen threat, their sled-ties rattling in the sudden stillness.

“What the hell was that?” whispered Burgess urgently. His hands were trembling around his crossbow, the bolts lodged into it directed shakily towards the empty sky.

“Dragon,” Tell rumbled, thunderclouds simmering in his storm-grey eyes. He nodded curtly to the boy, unsheathing his sword with a hiss of steel against leather, “Be on the look-out.”

Piers unsheathed his sword as well. “Do you s’pose it’s bearing us in mind as its next meal?”

"Not if I have anything to say about it,” said Amber. The faunus had already begun to steal across the snow, tracking the flight-path of the dragon from the direction its shadow had gone. Jade and Selena followed shortly behind with weapons drawn, their footfalls soundless in the soft slush.

They moved to the top of the hill where the air was a bit thinner than the rocky strait the others were caught between, listening hard for any signs of life. Selena could only hear the wind’s near-constant howl once they reached its apex, so it was quite a surprise when the two primes went rigid, fur-tipped ears erect.

“What is it?” she murmured, glancing down behind her to make sure the others were all-right. Smith had his blade at the ready beside Tell and Piers, while Roland and Burgess were ready to assist her with ranged fire. She raised her hand in a steadying gesture, palm laid flat. Her captain nodded in return. Wait.

The two hybrid youngsters exchanged a look. Neither of them was altogether certain of what they were hearing. In all honesty, it sounded like the repeated whisking of arrows through the air, a steady shnnk, shnnk, shnnk that only grew fainter with time— if the arrows in question were freaking ginormous, that is. Whatever it was, though, it had apparently decided to move off after giving them one heck of a fright.

The three slid down the rock face to rejoin the others, boots clomping in the snow as they landed.

“How strange!” Selena exclaimed once the two primes told the company of what they had heard. Nearly everyone agreed; it was indeed very strange. Each one in their own way expressed the fervent desire to never cross paths with such a beast ever again, and then they set off on their trek again, ears pricked and eyes peeled for any other strange phenomena they might encounter.

A number of other shadows flew over as they passed between the striated rock walls, but none were as close by as the first and they were hardly worried. It became a regular happening for a short time, but the pirouetting shades completely dissipated once they had moved clear of the pass and were out on the open tundra once more.

At some point Brandon produced the theory that perhaps they had been near a frost dragon nesting ground, and their way down the mountain slope was filled with his various factoids about that particular species’ traits and habits.

Brandon was enthusiastically waxing poetic about the wingspan of matured frost dragons when Smith, who was forging ahead of the group and doing his best to find anything else to pay attention to, cried out: "By Jove, would you look at that!"

And, by Jove, if they didn’t all rush up ahead to look!

There was what looked to be a crypt of some sort a ways off, sandwiched between large archways of solid stone standing brazenly apart from the blizzard’s wrathful throes. Between the dusting of snowflakes and the hilly slices of land were several decrepit, rocket-shaped spires, some of them escalating into half-formed bridges that scaled the mountainside the tomb was clearly built into.

And at its nethermost point, at the foot of the stairs leading up to the ruin’s gloomy entrance, was a herd of mammoths.

Yes, mammoths! Big, hairy, massive things, stomping about the plain with their trunks waggling about and the occasional trumpet-shriek bawling out. There were only about three of them, one of the beasts set apart from all the rest and grazing on the short supply of tundra plants prickling up over the ground, wide meres of muck and half-frozen water spread in a mottled green-brown tapestry across the plain.

What seemed to be an obvious sign of civilization was nearby: the grey smoke, gusting up into the air from a large bonfire, was certainly a sight for sore eyes. Considerable piles of sticks and slapdash fencing was arranged around it, some of it hemming in the mammoths to keep them from wandering far from the blaze.

They all looked at it for some time, and then began chatting it up. There were voiced concerns about the dangers of approaching anyone outside of their assembly, and their dwindling supplies and the coldness of the winter wind. The dwarves were probably on their trail by now, and trollish persons were most certainly not to be trusted (no more than those blasted dwarves, anyhow). No one wanted a repeat of the wampa incident, no matter the precise species of their enemy.

Perhaps, some reasoned, there would be civilized persons over there that would sit them down beside that nice, warm fire and give them something equally nice and warm to eat. Now that set a fair amount of stomachs to rumbling, and with that it was settled. They would go down to the bonfire and see what these folk were about, because someone must have seen it fit to tame a mammoth herd.

"Quietly now," Tell cautioned, and with that they wove their way down the hillside and onto the flat plain the mammoths tramped happily upon. They were able to move so near to the mammoths that they could feel the vibrations of the earth their heavy footsteps made, pebbles skittering with every doddering stumble. It was a right struggle to keep the dogs quiet but they managed, distracting them with scratches behind the ears and soft whistling.

Finally they settled behind a nicely-sized slope, the mound of snow effectively shielding them from the view of anyone within the bonfire's vicinity. What seemed to be giant rats were mounted on the spikes of the fences, their bodies blackened beyond recognition and reeking horribly; what appeared to be giant sacks of cheese slumped in burlap pouches about the fence-line, perhaps made from mammoths' milk. The flames lapped at the sky, roaring and spitting sparks of red and orange.

Everyone noticed the incredible size of everything, of course; it was impossible not to. There was a stool, rather similar to a milk-maid's except in size, that was at least the full height of an average man's body. Perhaps the mammoths were not the only large beasts nearby.

"We'll go on ahead," Amber told Tell and Brandon quietly, gesturing for Jade to follow. Creeping lightly through the snow, the two picked their way towards the bonfire, slipping silently inside the camp and out of view.

Cumulative word count: 12,179/40,000

[Jade Harley]

The minutes where Brandon couldn’t see Veritz or Harley were absolutely nerve-wracking. They moved into the campsite silent as a pair of ghosts, crouched low to the earth with their weapons drawn and eventually disappearing behind the wooden beams lodged into the ground. The fire crackled hungrily in the void they left behind, its smoke slathering the sky in darkness.

No cause for alarm immediately made itself known. The place smelled of pond-stink due to the waters of the shallow mere around them, reminding Brandon of the rice paddies that furrowed the meadows of some of Camelot’s finest provinces. From what little he could see, there were strewn animal carcasses and what appeared to be large rib-bones within the camp, with a hefty mammoth skull mounted atop one of the heaps of lumber.

Yards away, the mammoths plodded and splashed through the wet dirt, their twisted tusks speckled with grime and age. Their munching on the indigenous shrubbery could be clearly heard over the buzzing of midges, and the sun’s rays combined with the light dusting of snowfall caused their pelts to let off an odious stink, like that of cattle on a sleepy, warm summer day.

It was almost relaxing— that is, until the pleasant blue sky above all of a sudden heaved an ear-splitting screech, the clouds buckling as a massive arrow of scaly white ripped down from above.

Several things happened, then. The dragon latched onto one of the mammoths, all four of its limbs digging in and shredding long, jagged chunks out of its flesh as it tried to drag its struggling, bawling prey into the air. The rest of the herd scattered, trumpeting frantically and stampeding over the ground so that it shook and thundered.

A shout of “Oh. My. God!” could be heard plain as day over the ruckus, the tiny form of Amber Veritz barreling outside of the camp in a blur. She immediately spun towards the shrieking beasts, the dragon still experiencing some technical issues with its hunt, jaws slavering and clamping down on the mammoth’s soft trunk to stifle its shrieks. Her eyes widened, first in shock, and then a kind of deranged glee. She took off at a sprint, whooping breathlessly.

Harley sprinted after her, desperately trying to catch onto her shoulders to hold her back and tripping all over the place in the process. She could be overheard as saying, “No, no! Amber, you can’t, it’s too big! It’s a dragon, Amber!”

“I am going to fight that dragon, and fucking win!” Amber yelled back, hurling herself towards the savage skirmish with a bloodthirsty grin on her face. The hidden soldiers could only watch in mild horror as Jade slipped and fell just outside of the camp’s walls, one hand still outstretched towards Amber’s retreating back, the shaking of the earth making it near impossible to keep her footing.

A gigantic bare foot slammed down right beside Jade’s fallen form, its descent sending a mighty shockwave shooting across the tundra. The whole of creation seemed to tremble around them and Jade’s eyes went wide as saucers, darting over to catch Brandon’s. He could see the exact moment she realized just where exactly they had gone wrong and the way her mouth silently formed the words oh, shit.

Slowly, cautiously, her gaze trailed back to the owner of the foot. Then, her eyes ventured upwards a teensy bit more. And up, and up, and up, at last coming to rest on their face.

The owner of the foot glowered down at her from at least ten feet up. He was so unbelievably tall that the light from the sun at the back of his head swathed his face in near-complete shadow, only the extreme pronouncement of his brows and frowning lips visible. Matted strands of dirty, long brown hair rested on his wide shoulders, his hips and nether regions covered by a massive collection of tattered animal skins twined through with bones. A large, humanoid skull hung down from the side of this waistcloth, grinning with teeth the size of tombstones and its empty black eyeholes staring.

At this point, Amber had turned around to see what the matter with Jade was and stopped short upon seeing the giant. Her eyes boggled at him, and she glanced indecisively between the dragon and the giant, as if trying to make a decision. Except, she didn’t have the time to make it.

As Brandon watched, the muscles of the giant’s colossal shoulders flexed as he held a tree trunk-sized club aloft. Fearfully, the astronomer began to move forward for fear that he might decide to flatten poor Jade into a pancake with it, but halted an instant later. Laying the immense weapon against the back of his shoulders with an almost lazy shrug, the giant turned to focus on the scaly brute harassing his herd, the dragon vomiting torrents of bluish-white ice while trying to subdue its kill.

With lengthy, quaking strides and a frankly terrifying scowl, the giant stormed over the plain with surprising speed, club whistling through the air as it met the dragon’s skull with a deafening crack. At last freed from the predator’s clutches, the mammoth sagged bonelessly into the snow, bright scarlet blood weeping from its wounds. Brandon doubted that it would get up again, a pang of pity stirring in his breast.

The reptilian creature was flung backwards a ways, but soon salvaged enough clarity to land on the ground on all fours, claws scraping noisily against the ice. It snarled and faced off against the giant like a dire wolf against a Neanderthal, scaly bat-wings folded across its back and its breath crystallizing between its fangs as pale subzero death.

Collective word count: 13,134/40,000

[Amber Veritz]

The faunus brandished her blade as the giant toiled through the heavy snow towards her. Expecting an attack on her after leaving Jade alone, she raised Razorback ready for a tussle. The dragon tore away at the mammoths juicy meat behind her. Deep inside she was upset to have missed such an exhilarating fight. How she longed to tear away at the dragon’s scaly hide and take it as a trophy back home to her fort where everyone could see her prowess first hand. Nevertheless, friends always came first.

The giant came within reach of Amber quickly. Ready to dodge the first strike she prepared her legs, making sure no ice beneath her feet would trip up her side step. Just as the massive humanoid came within range, he showed no signs of hostility towards the catgirl. The fierce feline loosened her grip on Razorback’s hilt as the giant barreled past her, completely ignoring the tiny human. It’s attention was on the dragon, obviously these giants herded the mammoths. Albeit unlikely, it made sense in Amber’s head.

Amber merely saw this is a generous opportunity. The tree trunk wielding fiend had taken the dragon’s attention to a heavy threat. Perhaps Amber could jump in and aid the giant. It took nearly no convincing to make the faunus believe that this was a good idea. Jade disagreed completely. Amber’s canine companion chased her through the thick carpet of cold that was snow.

“Amber, stop! This is a perfect time to get out of here!” Jade exclaimed slipping through the ice and snow between her and Amber. The faunus was very capable of maneuvering through the icy patches, or at least more proficient than Harley herself. It was the kind of skills that came with living in a frozen tundra all your life.

“I only want a talon! A fucking claw!” She screamed back, blood thirsty vengeance in her tone. All she wanted was a token, something to commemorate the decision to help Brandon. This would be a greater treasure than something from an ancient cavern that may or may not exist in the first place.

The ferocious feline slid up next to the distracted dragon, spewing it’s icy breath at the giant. With a large hefty swing Razorback’s blade met dragon blood. The crimson liquid splattered in the snow and against Amber herself. The faunus hardly cared though. She quickly sheathed her weapon to it’s holster, grabbed the scaly beast’s dislodged fingernail and ran bolt away. Jade, who was following up behind Amber, slid to a halt before realizing it was time to leave. Even though the faunus was weighed down by the heavy piece of dragon, she was able to get through the snow relatively easily still. The sacrifice was in her movement speed more than anything. The weight of the detached finger was more than the one carrying it and the weapon on her back combined.

To their advantage, the dragon was too busy trying not to be clobbered to focus on a couple of animal people that did nothing more than rid it of a single claw. The were able to make their way out of the camp unscathed with nothing more than a bit of a shock to their nerves. The group of soldier quickly evacuated themselves from the campsite in fear that they might get trampled by panicking mammoths or another giant would show up and mistake them for the ruckus the dragon had caused. Luckily enough for them, neither of those things happened. After everything had calmed them down, an angry officer approached Amber with steam practically blowing from his ears. The esteemed faunus was proudly worshiping her trophy too admirably to notice him approach.

“You threatened all of my soldiers and myself with that stunt of yours! What if that dragon had turned tail on you and you had led it to us? My people are not capable of fighting a beast of that caliber!” Tell’s enraged scolding continued as Amber’s ears fell to her head behind her. She shrank a little in her skin realizing that her bloodlust could have really gotten someone killed. The feline faunus planted her reward in the ground and bowed to the captain in apology.

“My deepest apologies. I have a certain fire for fighting and seeing such a high ranking member of the bestiary got my instinctive blood pumping. To put it frankly, I’m part animal, I hunt other animals.” She explained with her head towards the snow. “I swear by my blade that I will not endanger anyone else with my reckless behavior.”

“Oh no, I want you out of here! I can’t risk it again!” The captain continued. “You’re nothing but a hazard to us-”

The good captain was interrupted by the humble astronomer who had put his hand on the enraged man’s shoulder. “Calm down Tell, the girl apologized and promises she won’t do it again. No one got hurt in the process so cut her some slack.” Tell had to take a few breaths to calm himself enough for what he had to say next.

“Fine, I’ll give you one more chance. Anymore careless outbursts like that though and you can go home.” He said before turning tail and trailing off. Amber let out a huge sigh of relief as he walked off. She knew she could probably crush Tell like a pancake with Razorback’s blunt edge but something about him radiated terror when he was angry.

Jade caught up with Amber, putting a hand on her back. “That was pretty cool Amber.” The faunus flashed a smile of confidence at her pal. She was proud of the toenail she had acquired. The DRAGON toenial.

“Listen, sorry about that. My ears shut off when the thrill of battle takes effect. My adrenaline was rushing and I had never seen a beast like that before.” The feline explained.

“Well, neither of us got injured so it’s alright. Let’s just do our best to pick and choose fights in the future.” The two followed behind the group of soldier as they continued on their way to the ruins.

Within a few hours, nighttime had circled its way around the Fields. With the upcoming wind storm, it would be too cold to continue on. The group found themselves a well structured rock formation that blocked off most of the wind, making a perfect spot to set up a campsite. The soldiers set up their individual tents quickly to get out of the brisk wind. Jade and Amber pooled their Omnilium together to make themselves a decent sized tent. Even though Amber was so lightly dressed, she made surviving the harsh cold of the Frozen Fields look like child’s play. Perhaps it was the instincts of a feline soul she just had no capability of understanding.

“How come this cold doesn’t bother you?” She said as she set up her bed that would be strung up from two poles like a hammock. Amber worked on making a large pile of blankets on the floor of the tent.

“I’ve always loved the cold. It’s exhilarating breath of power in the wind makes my adrenaline pump. Being born in raised outside of the city in a frozen home was another distinctive factor. My family was really poor and faunus aren’t treated very well in Remnant. That’s why I’ve learned the ways of battle. My father helped me make this sword and I’ve learned to control it’s raw power through sheer training. I guess in short, I’ve trained over a decade of my life in the harsh blizzards and cold to become the warrior I am.” Amber said trailing off a bit. About half way through her explanation, she had forgotten she was even answering a question. Like she was answering the question for herself for the first time. Jade sat into her hoisted blanket and listened to the faunus intently. It was amazing that anyone, even someone trained so vigilantly, could handle this cold. She certainly was not enjoying it as much as her compatriot.

“That’s amazing. I’m not sure if I could have the discipline to handle a weapon like that, but always believe in fighting for your cause. If you fight with that in your heart and mind, then nothing you ever do could be done in vain.” She said in response. The feline fell into the furs and flattened the pile of blankets under her.

“That’s the words of a warrior’s wisdom. You would have what it takes to become a huntress in Remnant Jade, I respect that.” Amber replied after letting out a sluggish sigh. “We should get some rest. I imagine we’ll be up early.” With that two blew out the candle that lit their tent and drifted off into a deep sleep. With some luck, they would not get ambushed in their sleep.

Early morning stroke with the rise of the sun. The wind had died down overnight thankfully. That would make the onward journey much smoother and warmer. With swiftness, the party gathered up their camping gear and readied to leave. Amber, however, was getting strange feelings the whole time they were packing their gear. She observed the immediate area around their camp grounds, looking for anyone who might be spying on them. It was faint, but it felt like someone was sneaking around. How Amber knew could have been anyone’s guess, call it a sixth sense. That feeling of presence that radiated in the faunus’s soul. Without much evidence, presenting it to the other would be an unnecessary jumpscare. She decided to keep to herself for now and continue on.

With their belongs strapped together and packed, the team trekked on through the amassed snow that had piled up on their path over the night. Amber kept to the back of the group, watching behind them constantly to ensure their safety. Her earlier feeling had yet to disappear and she did not tolerate shenanigans of any sorts. Jade had noticed Amber’s cautious behavior and decided to investigate.

“Hey, Amber? What’s up?” She asked about to continue her question with a guess but was interrupted before she could make one.

“I think we’re being followed.” Amber said in a hushed tone. “I don’t know if it’s a wild animal or something but I can feel it watching us.”

“I trust you with watching our back, don’t rush into battle alone.” She said continuing on.

A few hours of walking turned in the party’s favor. Within the mountain’s base was a large opening surrounded by ruined structures that were once ornate statues. Brandon got as giddy as a schoolgirl when he saw the cave. His luck had come through for him after losing the piece of map that he had to that mouse. With extreme caution, the group approached the cave, observing the stone landmarks that once stood proudly in front of the entrance.

“This is it.” Brandon muttered under his breath. His joy was hardly containable. With a passion for the old crafts, he looked over the old statues to see if he could place their year of birth. Meanwhile, Amber still could not shake the feeling. Something, or someone, was definitely following them. More than one too, perhaps an entire party. The faunus debated whether she should alert the group but she had fear that Tell might not trust her after the incident with the dragon - Amber was still carrying that things claw too. No matter when they struck, if they did, Amber would be ready to put them in their place. After prying Brandon off the stone, the group of explorers ventured into the damp, cold cave. It would not be long before they found their treasure and bathed in the spoils of an adventurer. Riches beyond their wildest dreams.

Collective Word Count: 15,152/40,000

We've reached the ruins!

[Jade Harley]

Three dwarves, killers all, stood at the entryway to the ruin the astronomer and his guard had moved into the evening before.

Sheron-bhar Stronghold crouched down to examine the prints marring the snow, his tufted brown beard and helm shielding him from the worst of the cold. At his side was his trusty axe. Unlike the multifunctional tool that a fair share of dwarven travellers used, with a pickaxe on one end to be used for impromptu prospecting and a fearsome battle axe on the other, his was mainly just a battle axe used for bashing heads in. It had stuck by him for many seasons and many headless shoulders in many, many battles, and he doubted it would stray from his side for many years yet.

Behind him were his two accomplices, Keldic Berylstern and Brennon “Quarry-digger” Yadrisson. The journey had been rife with danger and hardship, and sneaking past the giant’s camp had been no easy task, but they had done it seemingly through sheer willpower and dwarfish gumption alone. After a short meal of biscuits and crackers that morning (which they made sure to drop into their coffee so they could skim the weevil larvae off the top when the little buggers floated up), they were all a little weary and ready to get the murder part of their operation over with.

Keldic, however, was the only one of their party to voice his concerns out loud. Loudly.

“It’s jus’ maddening!” he griped, chainmail clinking noisily as he slumped onto one of the fallen pillars.

“What’s it now?” sighed Brennon. He was seated beside the disgruntled Keldic in the ruin’s shadow, busily polishing an axe blade that was bigger than his head and mail-clad shoulders combined.

“My clothes are all wet— soaked to the skin, I am. Just look at me— I’m going to die of cold!”

One grubby fingernail tracing around a wide canine print, Sheron-bhar shook his head sadly and glanced upward. Over his head was the intricately carved stone ceiling of the barrow, a whole host of geometric and circular shapes hidden beneath trembling shadow. Icicles plinked musically against one another directly above him, shimmering whenever the light trickled along their length.

“Oh, no, you shouldn’t fret about that just yet,” Brennon said, grinning like a loon behind the gleaming blade of his axe, still working at it with a ratty old wisp of a cloth. “You’ll outlive us all, I wager. The whiny ones always do.”

Sheron-bhar didn’t even need to look up to picture the expression on Keldic’s face.

15,579/40,000. Unless we actually need less than that?

Just a quick post, I'll have another up tomorrow/possibly the next day.

[Jade Harley]

“It’s really all very fascinating! Look, here,” Brandon said, drumming out a nervous rhythm against one circular rune with his hand. Selena leaned over to look, hair falling in a dark curtain over his shoulder, tickling his elbow; the astronomer swallowed, stammering a bit when he continued. “T-this language isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before— except for in my books, of course! Reminiscent of Greek lettering and mathematical symbols, at times, but mainly comprised of interlocking circles and lines…and then there are the etchings….”

“But what does it say? ” interrupted Smith, who was leaning against one of the two pillars sloping against the cavern’s threshold, polishing the pointed end of his sabre. Cobwebs spiked haphazardly about the entire room between dripping wet stalactites, the alarmingly big egg sacs seeming bulbous and distorted in the gloomy light.

White cap fungi spotted the ground in frilly, wave-like patterns, like breakers amidst a dark, sunless sea, and softly glowing plants lined the walls in much the same fashion as torch sconces might line the halls of a palace. The natural shaft that lay ahead of them lead downward and to the north from this central cavern, the sound of trickling water echoing against the dew-moistened rock walls.

Somewhere along its many twists and turns, apparently, was an underground spring; and now that Tell, Burgess and Roland had moved steadily on ahead to investigate, so was the rest of the astronomer’s company. Piers, the youngest of their group, had volunteered to remain behind and keep watch over the dogs and sleds, fearing what might lie hidden in the ruin’s shadowy depths.

Brandon cleared his throat, looking again at the strange murals and glyphs lining the walls. “Well, it says—“

“Shit and hell and fuck!”

“Erm, no,” murmured the astronomer, glancing up from his inspection of the runes with a baffled look. He tilted his head in mock contemplation, then, the rounded lenses of his reading glasses flashing wickedly under the light as he grinned. “Not exactly….”

Selena had to stifle her laughter with a hand, cheeks lighting up with mirth. “And hopefully not in that order!”

They all glanced over at Amber, the source of the outburst. To their surprise and slight disgust, she was covered in some strange neon green fluid, the ooze gleaming as she tried to flick it off from her fingers. Her face was twisted in revulsion as she glared down at the drops of it that had splashed onto her shirt.

Jade was crouched beside their makeshift fire pit, her large white canine lying across her lap. She had been settled comfortably on the cave floor for almost half an hour, playing with colorful squid dolls stitched to have perpetually smiling faces alongside Rebecca. Thankfully, Jade was near enough that she was able to clap both her hands over the impressionable young girl’s ears by the second word out of Amber’s mouth.

Blinking down at the Little Sister with wide green eyes, Jade removed her hands. “Please don’t repeat any of that,” she whispered urgently, biting her bottom lip in dread. “If Nealaphh asks, you didn’t hear a thing. ”

“Okay!” Rebecca chirped pleasantly, booping Bec’s snout with one of the squid plushies. There were already several precariously stacked on top of his head, seeming much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The First Guardian huffed noisily, nearly sending the tower toppling to the floor, but tolerated the absurd treatment.

Amber groaned, rubbing a hand across her face as she slumped in defeat. “Ugh, this stuff is so gross… it smells like rotten eggs!” By this time Brandon, Jade and Selena had moved over to investigate, Smith following shortly behind and wrinkling his nose in distaste. Rebecca happily continued playing with her toys, stuck in her own little world.

“Where did it come from?” asked Selena, ever the reasonable one.

Sighing, Amber flapped one hand at something hanging over her shoulder, scowling balefully up at it. “That thing.”

They all moved forward to look at the strange dark purple object attached to the cavern ceiling. It seemed mostly organic, shaped like a chrysalis and with thick resin oozing from its sides, but the distinct glowing along its sides indicated something far more unusual. Soft blue lights emanated from the inside of the cocoon-like sac, pulsating at a slowed rate. Almost like a…. heartbeat? Before they could take the time to investigate it further, however, the sound of quick footsteps clapping against the ground rang out from the direction of the way out of the ruins, accompanied by several muffled shouts.

Smith immediately leapt into action, coat sweeping outward as he rushed to stand beside the door, sabre drawn and at the ready. At this everyone else in the room went rigid with tension, their minds braced for a fight. All eyes locked onto the entrance.

To their surprise, it was only Piers. The boy looked paler than if he’d seen a ghost, panting and hunching over to clutch at his knees as he stumbled in.

“Dwarves,” he gasped as he looked up into Smith’s hard face, almost sobbing out the words. “Three of ‘em. Heavy weaponry, hadta leave th’ dogs. Right behind me—“

His words broke off as a blur of spinning metal caught him across the back of the head with a heavy kuh-thunchk. Stricken unconscious immediately, Piers slumped to the floor, the back of his skull flooding in a spray of red and his fair hair matted with blood. The throwing axe that hit him clattered across the stone ground, the wedged blade spinning round and round.

Selena rushed over to crouch beside him, glancing up as Smith moved to fill the entryway in a whoosh of fabric. Her fingers remained steady as she dabbed at the cut, her hand coming away glistening with lifeblood. Thankfully, the cut wasn’t too deep and Piers was still breathing, but it could spell trouble for the boy if they didn’t apply some slapdash field medicine to it as soon as possible. Head wounds always bled the worst, she knew, and his color was already beginning to turn sickly.

Grabbing him under the arms in a tight grip, the soldier grunted as the kid’s deadweight body fell heavily against her, hauling him over to where the others stood. The Space witch had collected Rebecca at the first sign of trouble and tucked the little girl behind a nearby boulder for her own safety, Becquerel standing nearby with his ears standing at attention and his back ramrod straight. Brandon had his funny little butter knife in his hand, and if the situation wasn’t so dire, Selena would’ve thought it was cute. They all huddled together behind the boulder; it was a rather convenient place to offer cover-fire from, if you asked Selena.

Eyes wild and hair flying in staticky strands around her face as she leaned out, Selena brought up her crossbow and carefully took aim, a thick bolt shooting over Smith’s shoulder and out into the dim passage. A shout, which was either made in the dwarven language or by some idiot gargling mouthwash mid-battle, bounded off from the cavern walls; shadows undulated wildly over the rock as the dwarf assassins moved ever nearer, sneaking behind stalagmites to avoid being struck by Selena.

They all flinched at the first clash of metal against metal; one of the dwarves began forcing Smith backward, a heavy battle axe wrapped firmly in his iron grip and screeching painfully against the human soldier’s sabre. Smith couldn’t hold out against such a fearsome onslaught forever, the thinness of his chosen weapon unable to defend against brute force for all its lightning-quick finesse. Sweat beaded across his brow as he tightened his legs, preparing to turn tail and return in a flurry of silver slashes, hopefully without having his back cut open.

The dwarf bared his teeth in a grin, eyes gleaming feverishly and the frazzled brown hair on his face giving him the look of a rabid dog. “C’mon, then! Is that really all ye’ve got, a fairy blade? Pah!”

He spat a thick globule of saliva into the man’s face. What a dirty trick!  Thought Smith as his grip faltered, grimacing. The hilt of his sabre was cutting into his palms and his arms burned as if they were on fire.

A splintering sound pealed out as another crossbow bolt thunked into the pillar nearest to the dwarf’s ear, tiny bits of stone shrapnel cutting fiercely at his cheeks and face. Howling, the dwarf clutched at his eyes and fell backward, giving Smith barely enough time to fall back and return to Selena right as all three of the dwarven assassins flooded in.

Breathing heavily, Smith swiped the spit off from his face. “What do we do?” he murmured, sinking into a fighting stance and casting a wary glance towards the dwarves. “We can’t rightly win this, not with Piers hurt like he is, and there’s a child with us, for heaven’s sake! What do we do?”

Selena cast a glance at Brandon, Jade and Amber out of the corner of her eye, the three of them steeled for a fight but unsure of how to intercede. Brandon and Jade, it seemed, because of their priorities of protecting their secrets and Rebecca, respectively, and Amber because of the promise she had made to Tell about not acting rashly. The female guard glanced again towards their opponents, briefly meeting the eyes of the one she’d missed by a hair’s length with her shot. His eyes were reddish and had numerous little cuts around them, the sight filling her with a mingled sense of satisfaction and dread, for he sneered angrily upon seeing that she was the one to fire that fateful bolt.

Mind working furtively, Selena glanced to the tunnel at her back, the gaping blackness there seeming much less frightening than it might have when she was young and afraid of the dark. If they moved backwards into the cave system, they might be able to find reinforcements or shake off their attackers. In a few seconds’ time, her decision was made.

“We fall back,” she said, her voice soft but loud enough to be heard by those closest to her. “We fall back and we find the Captain and the others. Then…”

She trailed off, eyes lowering to where Piers lay, slumped like a ragdoll at Jade’s feet. The young Witch was patting gently at his cheeks, murmuring soft words and trying to stem the flow of blood from the back of his head with the ends of her dress. She was having minimal success. His face was still hopelessly pale, not a spot of healthy flesh tones flecking his cheeks.

Taking a deep breath, Selena squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, a raging wildfire of passionate emotion burning in her eyes. She grinned. “Then, we give these sorry bastards what for!”

-

Deeper within the ruin and totally unaware of what was happening to their comrades, Captain Tell stood with Burgess and Roland at a fork in the tunnel passageway. After managing to avoid a pressure plate in the floor that triggered some kind of bizarre poisoned spike trap, they merely gazed at the utter mess littering the ground around them, scratching their heads as of to how it could have come to be there.

A few smithereens of firewood lay discarded on the floor in a pile, half-scorched and with useless crockery tossed in with it; several empty bottles of mead were carefully arranged in a circle around the black ash marks. One trollish weapon was leaned up against the far wall, the blade oozing a dark substance that might have been blood. Four bedrolls were laid out over the floor, seeming very much rumpled and tossed about. It was almost as if someone had left out from there in a hurry before the soldiers arrived.

But, the most baffling part of this scene by far was the blood splattered up the rock wall, for it brought the single most obvious and disturbing question to mind.

“Where’s the body?” asked Roland.

Tell picked up a pair of cast-off boots set inside a stone alcove off to the side, noting the title of the ruined, moldy book beside it: The Shadow over Innsmouth. “Don’t know, but let’s hope we don’t have to find out.”

17,641/40,000

Apologies for the lame-ish quality.

[Amber Veritz]

The faunus had taken up the wounded, her being the strongest of the group. Even weighed down by her trophy she was able to keep up with the rest of the group. Jade fired some shots while running backwards, but obviously they weren’t accurate enough to hit. The team trailed past stalagmites covered in thick damp moss, Tell and Roland shouldn’t be too much further in the cave.

An axe came flying past Amber’s face and cutting some threads of her hair, which obviously enraged her but she had to contain herself.

“We either need to fight back or die!” She screamed out, throwing up Smith to keep him stationed on her back.

“What do you propose?!” Selena yelled back, the one leading the group.

“You take Smith and bandage him up and let me loose on those stub-legged fu-, losers!” Amber almost cussed again but caught herself in the act. Jade flashed her a quick smile of appreciation. Selena’s decision to run was rash but it had given them a little more time to think.

“Fine! Give me Smith.” The team stopped and the faunus passed the injured to Selena. With a quick spinning motion she wasted not a second readying her heavy ass weapon and charging head first into battle.

“Damn she really loves to fight.” Selena mumbled to herself as she began to bandage Smith’s wound quickly. Jade followed behind Amber to support her. The dwarves grinned, all but one actually, who seemed rather cold, yet still ready to fight. Amber barreled into her enemies with ferocious swings the could tear down concrete statues. The ‘assassin’ dwarves were no pushovers though, and countered meeting her blade with axe. The stubborn faunus pulled back and charged in again swinging her blade over head.

SHLUNK

Mid-swing, her blade was lodged into the ceiling. She attempted to break it free of the rocky surface, but had no luck. Brennon wasted no time in giving her a taste of his axe while she was vulnerable. The blade sunk deep into her shoulder spraying blood onto the steel. Amber cried out and returned by let go of her blade and giving a heavy kick to the chest. Jade’s shots from her gun had the others under guard. Blocking advance.

Brennon found his footing finally, pulling himself up with a slight cough. Luckily his armor had softened that blow rather efficiently. The faunus had given up on her sword and readied the cat-like claws of pink light on her finger tips. Without hesitation, she chased down her dwarven enemy. It did not take much effort to see just how much faster Amber had become just by dropping her sword. She moved swiftly like a predator, mostly mimicked by the feline ears her hair nearly covered. The dwarf brandished his axe and readied for a brawl.

Jade had to reload Little Sn0w for it had run out bullets. This had given time for the other two to advance. Sheron-bhar joined Brennon in fending of the blood-crazed cat-girl while Keldic went after the seemingly weaker wolf-girl. Little did he know, Jade had many tricks up her sleeve like Amber. She pointed her finger at the charging dwarf, who was confused by this.

“Bang.” She mumbled as a green light shot from her finger and struck Keldic in the shoulder. His body became numb for a second cause him to fall into the stony floor and giving Jade a second to reload Sn0w.

Amber was taking hits. She might be faster than average, but dodging was not her strong suit. Jagged axe blades bore into her back and arms. Not to say that she was not winning. With each strike to her, she made sure to give her enemy a good punch to the chest or claw in the face. Only, unluckily for the dwarves, she was beginning to get pissed. Her movements were becoming more explosive. Brennon took another swing at Amber, but unfortunately had his trusty axe caught in the air. He was surprised until a fist met his chin, knocking him on his back. Groaning in pain, he rolled around on the floor.

Sheron-bhar bravado had died down after that display, but that would not stop him from being felled by a little kitten. He reached in with his weapon, only to be stopped by an axe. Amber was using the other dwarfs weapon against his ally. With a quick backstep and the flick of a wrist she launched the heavy axe at Sheron-bhar. It slammed into his chest piece with a loud clang, just enough to piece his skin.

“Amber! It’s time to go!” Yelled Jade from down the cave. It seems they had finally finish first aid to Smith, who was looking better but still unconcious. She returned with a nod and went to retrieve Razorback from the stone with a hefty pull, she was able to dislodge it from it’s place, causing more cracks in the ceiling. They didn’t stop. Amber panicked.

She knew the ceiling was going to come down so with a powerful kick off she charged for her friends who were getting ready to move.

“Run! The ceiling is going down! Move!” Rocks crashed behind Amber, who was barely able to outrun them. Dust flung around her as they hit the ground. By luck, the assassins were on the other side of the rubble. Loose rocks fell in front of the faunus but she was just barely nimble enough to move around them. She dove for her teammates as they came into range and the rocks finally stopped falling. The whole group fell into a coughing fit as dusted entered their lungs unwelcomingly.

“Holy crap that was too close.” Amber said looking at the rocky rubble behind her. “I’ve got to stop doing that.” She said to herself before standing back up and dusting off her torso. “Is everyone alright?”

Selena stood after clearing the dust from her throat. “We’re all fine, how about you.” She asked, observing the numerous wounds in Amber’s skin. Jade was freaking out trying to bandage them as soon as she got the chance, taking pieces of her dress off again. She was going to end up naked if everyone kept getting hurt this much. Only she was stopped by Amber before she could remove the cloth.

“Let me cover your wounds Amber.” She said trying again.

“No, I can heal myself.” She said. “Watch.” She reached into her pocket, pulling out a golden crystal from her jacket. With her bare hand she crushes it then ingests it. At first it seems a bit weird, but her wounds begin to close up in about ten seconds, fully mending within thirty.

Selena is a bit dumbfounded. She knew primes were capable of extreme regeneration, but to see it with her own eyes was astonishing. “Okay. Well, Shall we find the captain and move on? We obviously can’t go back.”

“Right,” said Jade a bit nervously, “Hopefully Tell will be reasonable with Amber having accidently taken down the cave ceiling.”

“Yeah..” Amber replies thinking of just how steamed the good captain was going to be. Everyone collected themselves quickly and continued down the cave path.

18,868/27,000

[Jade Harley]

He had been laying belly flat on the cold stone ground for what felt like hours. His nose itched something awful, like every other untimely spot on his body that itched, but he wouldn’t dare budge an inch. The reason why was very big, green, slightly smelly, and hunched on a stool directly in front of the table Burgess was hidden under. Thankfully enough, the troll was facing away, too preoccupied with cleaning out from underneath his fingernails with a wicked-looking knife.

"You’re the slightest out of us three and have a good head on your shoulders," Captain Tell had said to the very concerned-seeming boy before sending him down here, Roland standing to his right. "Surely you can manage to figure out what their business is in this ruin and if they mean us any serious harm. Hurry, now, and return quickly if you are able. We will be on the lookout for you."

While Burgess agreed that he did have a very good head on his shoulders, he was a bit concerned about losing it if one of these trolls became wise to his presence. They were probably strong as grizzly bears, Burgess wagered, and could crush a man’s skull with little remorse. But they were apparently blind as bats, too, because he’d been hiding under this table for an hour at the most and they had yet to catch a glimpse of him crawling and wriggling around on the floor.

The steady scrape, scrape, scrape of the knife was the only sound aside from the footsteps of another troll as he investigated the other side of the massive cavern. Burgess hadn’t thought much of him, despite the trolls’ earlier agitated conversation about the demise of their comrades. To his memory…… something had sprung at them from out of the shadows and made off with two of their number. Apparently the creature was rather gruesome to behold, a horrible abomination with distended limbs that tangled about one another, dripping with corruption and decay.

This explained the blood they had found earlier, and the boy simply couldn’t wait to tell his captain all about what he had heard. But, something distracted him just as he began to pull away, a sly sparkle in the low light…

It was a dagger about the length of his forearm, the weapon strapped loosely to the troll’s side. Burgess supposed that it would be impressive if he brought back something as marvelous as this, just to show that he’d done it. Surely Piers would be impressed.

Almost without his say-so, the boy’s hand began to reach for the dagger. It didn’t get very far.

“Mon, come ovah here!” the other troll called from across the cave, obviously excited.

Burgess froze, his hand still outstretched towards the trollish dagger’s hilt. His fingers very slowly curled into a closed fist, as if it would make him any less conspicuous, and he made to tuck his arm safely back under his chin and out of sight.

Unfortunately, it was just not his day. Before he could pull completely out of sight the troll had turned around, bluish-green skin rippling with entirely too many muscles. To his dying day Burgess couldn’t have said just why this troll had turned around, but he did. And it really made an awful mess of things when he saw the snot-nosed human boy making to paw at his high quality dagger, his tusked face contorting into a terrifying sneer.

Before the troll could gut him like a fish, though, a choked cry ripped through the air, effectively distracting him for a second. Burgess didn’t waste any time or question his incredible luck. Shoving himself out from under the table and stumbling a bit from being still for so long, the boy took off at a run for the stairwell he had come down, only casting a look behind him once he set foot on the bottom step.

Something had gotten the drop on the other troll. It was man-shaped and grey in color, with fleshy, rippling tentacles bulging out from its frame in hideous bends, one arm contorted into a tight, suffocating noose about the tusked warrior’s throat. The star-shaped mantle atop the creature’s head flared, rows of sharp teeth flashing as the flaps of thin, membranous skin pulsated eagerly. Its troll victim gurgled and struggled all the more wildly, his companion pacing about and trying to find a safe direction to attack from, twin knives gleaming already with alien-colored blood.

Not wanting to see any more (and rather wishing that he hadn’t seen anything at all), Burgess hurried up the rest of the flight of stairs, mouth stammering mutely as his mind tried to put into words what he could possibly say to Roland and Tell.

--

Hushed footfalls and harsh breaths boomed off the tunnel walls closing in around Brandon and co., muffled shouts in dwarvish tongue breaking through what little gaps there were in the collapsed mound of rocks. With both Smith and Piers injured the company was forced to slow their steps many a time so that they could be helped over piles of toppled stonework, the architectural remnants obstructing their path growing stranger and stranger the further they ventured inside.

Funeral urns and long, body-length alcoves lined the shaft, occasionally broken by exuberant outpourings of obsidian-colored rock and glittering ore veins from the ruin’s heart. Everywhere were the strange drawings the astronomer had first studied in the entrance grotto— great, sprawling murals depicting star-shaped beings and horribly beautiful beasts that seemed ill-contented with being confined to mere carvings, their bulk leaking over the edges into exquisite and complex sculpture.

They came abruptly to a stop when the shaft split into two long passages, the depths of each one buried in suffocating darkness. Selena looked frantically around, her head whipping this way and that, searching.

“Which way do we go?” she asked Brandon.

Brandon looked at the stone carvings intently, tracing their many-angled patterns with his gaze until he nearly went cross-eyed with the effort. “I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding sheepish. “It’s all just a bunch of confusing nonsense. I’ve never laid eyes on such drivel! Utter baloney, it is. You’d think they would at least try to—”

The hurrying sound of many booted feet came from further off, though it was difficult to discern from exactly where. Brandon’s mouth clamped shut. Selena’s dagger sang as she removed it from her hip-belt, her crossbow swinging wide across her back when she turned to face the other passage.

Brandon pointed to the left passage. “That way! Hurry!”

Whomp, whoosh, whomp. They flew blindly into the passageway, a crash of footfalls and springing air rising hotly in such close quarters. When they arrived at the end they discovered a door in the way, thickly built and without any visible signs of hinges. A single gap ran down its middle— faintly gleaming sigils patterned the slab of stone on either side, seals of protection that vowed death to those who would dare seek to open it.

A lock pick shooting out of her sleeve and into her waiting palm, Selena crouched down in front of the door and felt spiritedly around for a keyhole with worrying ease. Thunderstruck, she reeled back in apparent disgust. The others visibly recoiled from the door, as well, fearing the worst.

“What kind of idiots would make a door without a key to it?” the soldier cried furiously, stamping her foot like a child.

“The very same who would carve elaborate pictures everywhere that have no meaning, I would imagine,” Smith sighed wearily, slumping against the wall. He cocked his head to the side, listening to the approaching footsteps with a calmness that only the heavily concussed can manage, “They’re on their way, too. Maybe you can give ‘em a piece of your mind.”

“We’re trapped,” said Jade, hugging herself with her arms.

With a harsh war cry Amber had stabbed Razorback’s serrated edge between the double-sided door, her shoulder set against one slab as she tried to wrest the other open. The teenager huffed and grunted, sweat beading on her brow and her teeth flashing in a snarl. The stone groaned. It had likely not been moved for ages, and if it had its way it would not open for many more yet.

Selena placed herself between the astronomer and the imminent arrival of whoever was storming down the tunnel. Brandon glanced worriedly at the woman. The edges of her dagger glinted even in the dark, her hair spiking out at all angles and a heavy scowl set into her features.

She would defend him or die trying.

Jade began to endeavor to tug at the door with her Space powers, but some sort of unbelievably strong deadbolt technology held it fast, even seeming to actively resist her beckoning hand motions.

The faunus strained. The door opened just an inch more.

Dagger held aloft and at the ready, Selena watched as several shadows whisked across the floor—

—And revealed Captain Tell, Roland and Burgess, the three of them battered and bruised but apparently none the worse for wear.

The door swung open.

20,397/40,000(?) or less than 40k, depending!

This post sucks and I have no excuse for it

[Amber Veritz]

Loud scratching of stone echoed through the cave as the door swung open slowly, giving way to Amber’s determination and strength. The howl of stone could make a person’s ears bleed. Tell and company had to cover their ears, unprepared for the loud shriek Amber had caused with the door. Just a enough room to squeeze through the crack between the two doors now.

“Let’s go!” Amber yelled out to the group as she motioned them through the doors. Everyone filed in behind the next passing through the door, Amber being the last to do so. She covered the door while the rest went through then followed in trying to get the door closed as she passed through. Unfortunately, the door enjoyed being wide open as it was difficult to close behind her, just as it was to open in the first place. With another loud yell that echoed across the walls of the cave, she jerked on the door with massive strength. Slowly the door creaked shut.

With the door closed completely, the faunus fell to the ground and breathed heavily. She had been carrying forty-ish extra pounds, lugging around other people, tearing down ceilings, anything you can think of with someone with the strength she does. Sooner or later it becomes too taxing, even for the strongest willed people. Down on her knees, the young teen tried to catch her breath. Everyone else was doing the same thing, but they had just been running away. Jade grew worried of Amber’s worn state and rushed to her side.

“You alright Amber?” She asked putting her hand on the feline’s shoulder. The faunus panted heavily looking down at the floor. Her hair covered most of her face.

“Just peachy.” She responded after several more deep breaths. An aggravated tone could be felt in her voice through the rough respiration. “Just give me a minute if you could please?”

“Okay, just relax for now.” She said, standing back up and observing their surroundings. The seemed to still be in the cave system, but it was a bit different than on the other side of the door. Depictions were carved into the walls of the cave of various things, but what caught the half-canine’s attention was the pictures of what looked like humans and animals being experimented on. In the next relevant panel, it seemed to describe the after effects of the experimentation, showing the normal human in the first panel and slowly changing to some kind of tendril monstrosity in the last. It looked  mostly human with the exception of tentacles growing out of it’s back. There was some text in a caption but it was some other-worldly language no one in their group could identify, not even Brandon.

“Remarkable.” The astronomer said in a hushed tone. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Right, well if there’s no way we can read it, there’s no point in lingering.” Tell pointed out. “We should continue moving, a group of trolls chased us down this hall and I’m sure it won’t take them long to get through that door.”

“We can’t, Amber is still taking a rest.” Jade said to Tell.

“Time isn’t a luxury we can afford right now! If you don’t like it, you can stay here and die. Not that it matters much for you primes.” He said turning to continue down the hall with his soldiers.

“If it wasn’t for Amber, most of your men would be dead right now!” Jade yelled out. “She carried Smith out of danger when he was injured even with the equipment she’s carrying now. She is probably the only reason those dwarves didn’t kill us.” Tell turned his head back at Jade, sort of surprised. An odd expression she had not expected to see from him.

“You were ambushed, by dwarves?” He asked looking back down at Brandon who was still examining the wall carvings. He nodded to Tell in agreement with the prime.

“Our friend Ms. Veritz here protected the group by overpowering them. Jade helped but, I’m fairly certain the could have overwhelmed us if it was not for Amber.” Tell’s attitude had changed rather quickly, he had not expected for a prime to risk their unending life for anyone but themselves. He walked up to the faunus who had finally taken a seat and caught her breath up to a steady pace and crouched down to her level.

“You have my sincerest thanks for keeping my soldier safe. I misjudged you before, but I see now that there are some primes who care for the rest of us whose lives are not eternal.” The feline faunus nodded to the captain. He held his hand out help her up, which she took with a smirk and stood with him.

“I’m good now, let’s continue. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of this gods forsaken cave.” Amber maneuvered around Tell and took the lead. The captain had no arguments with that. Smith had recovered from his previous wound and was able to walk by himself now, which was nice or else Amber would have to be carrying him. Piers was lucky to be alive, slung over Selena’s back unconcious. His condition was stable for now, but it was apparent he wouldn’t be fighting for some time. Nevertheless, Tell was glad all of his crew had made it this far. If it wasn’t for Jade and Amber, they may all be dead by now.

--------

Amber in lead, they traversed the horrid cave. The carvings in the walls only grew more frequent as the got deeper. They unsettled Amber to her bones, considering the many test subjects pictured reminded her of what happened on The Death Island. Something she was trying to erase from her memory completely. Although her memory of the island after the attack from Flesh-y was somewhat scrambled and fogged she did remember going completely insane and turning into a giant zombie monster. The thought of fighting another Flesh-y was a bit too much for her to bear.

The cave began to grow wider as they ventured further in. Every once in awhile needing to choose between a fork in the road and dodging inconspicuous traps from pressure plates in the floor. Luckily, Amber and Jade’s keen senses made traps like these easy to spot. They had each other’s backs like it was second nature. They had know each other no more than a few days but nonetheless have become a great team and they trusted each other with their lives.

Something shiny caught Amber off guard. It glimmered from the ceiling in the darkness of the cave. With closer inspection, it was the ooze from earlier that had found its disgusting way into Amber’s clothes. She still had this odd feeling from it on her shoulder.

“Look, it’s more of that goop from the entrance of the cave. What do you think this is?” Amber said looking up at it from a distance to make sure she was not in the splash zone again. Brandon stepped forward to examine it closer.

“My initial impression of this ‘goop’, you call it, is could be some kind of excrement from gods no what. It’s hardly natural with that kind of pearlescent glow.” He said. “Judging from earlier, it doesn’t seem to be harmful in any way, but whatever causes it most certainly could be. We should tread lightly.” The feline faunus tried to ignore the ooze as she walked around it, but it became hard the further they went. It became more frequent as they got deeper into the caves. Seeping through walls and splattered all over the floor from where it had fallen from the ceiling. Everyone was starting to get grossed out from it.

“Okay, I’m becoming worried.” Amber’s voice cracked at the sight of all the ooze spread around the cave.

“We’ll be alright, everyone just stick together.” Jade said staying close to Amber’s backside. They had to maneuver around the ooze mostly to avoid stepping in it. Finally, the cave opened up into a ruined room of stone. Some pillar-like structures reached for the ceiling but couldn’t quite touch it. The goop in the cave vanished after the entrance, thankfully.

Before Brandon could get a decent look at the pillars in the room, he was halted by loud, low-pitched whail. It’s deathly echo reached into everyone’s ears, clawing at their eardrums.

“We’ve got company!” Amber yelled out as she swung Razorback loose of it’s holster. Jade had Little Sn0w ready quickly as well.

From atop the pillar a pearlescent glow shined. The same bluish green hue as the goop in the cave. It slowly became brighter as whatever emitted the light, and that hellish sound, came closer to the edge to look upon it’s prey. Just like in the pictures in the first part of the cave, a humanoid figure appeared with tentacles for arms, not to mention the tendrils sticking out of many parts of it’s body. It had no human head, it was more of a mass of solidified pearlescent ooze. It’s pure look made Amber shiver, it looked like Flesh-y 2.0. With another loud screech, it leaped down and splattered ooze everywhere as it landed in front of the group. It’s ominous appearance loomed over them, striking either fear or disgust in their minds. Perhaps both.

22,015/27,000

[Jade Harley]

Grandpa had always said it’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Still, it made Jade a little nervous to see the enormous subterranean creature bearing down on their company from above, the mass of tangles seeming to simply ooze over the steep rock precipice. It writhed outward like a dollop of sentient jelly and formed a peculiar contrast to the frozen, gleaming stones of the cavern walls around it, the bulging and palpitating stretches of ashen skin seeming like a human vivisection gone horribly wrong, limbs twitching and distended to unnatural lengths.

A sprinkling of shattered greenstone rained down from the cavern roof when the ghastly horrorterror screeched again. Jade staggered, eyes burning and an excruciating pain coursing through her skull like an axe blade was being violently jammed into it. She ticked her head to the side to meet Amber’s eyes, her pricked ears flicking in the direction of the wailing creature meaningfully; the slide of wet, dripping flesh against stone startled the baby hairs on the back of her neck into spiking up, a disgusted shudder convulsing down her spine.

A silent dialogue passed between the primes, the feline girl’s eyes catching alight with a feverish spark at whatever was communicated. Jade nodded, shoulders hunched and ears standing straight up— a hunting posture that Amber flawlessly echoed. The two fanned out on either side of the octopus-human hybrid, treading lightly as they set about assessing their target.

Tell jerked out of his surprised stupor, the grip on his sword tightening until his knuckles were a stark, bloodless white. “Roland, Burgess— with me,” the captain barked in a clipped, authoritative tone, already jogging briskly toward the creature, “Let’s try and stick it somewhere important! Smith, Selena— watch out for Brandon and see if your crossbows can give it something to chew on!”

Burgess being the younger of the two, Roland moved in first, the military precision of his strides giving him ample time to draw his weapon and search for the best angle to attack from. The boy soon sped up and settled alongside him, seeming worried.

Roland turned to meet his eyes and softened his gaze upon seeing the fear in them, raw and laid bare for all too see. Burgess suddenly remembered that the man had a family back at home, a wife, a daughter, and two sons, not one of the children more than six years old.

“For the Kingdom,” Roland said, patting him on the arm, “And all those who call it home.”

“For the Kingdom,” the boy echoed, recalling the sorry sight of Piers’ unconscious body, the crown of his head streaked with blood. And all those who call it home, and may never again.

It was even eerier up close. It seemed almost like a human body draped in a sheet, the eyes, mouth and nose straining fiercely against the thick, ash-white membrane, with the vertebral column arching outwards and holding small quantities of clear, trickling fluid. The limbs of this human-shaped form were stretched out like that of a sugar glider, rubbery strands linking them to its torso, but they were angled downward in such a way that it made it seem like the person was trying to get about on all fours, forming a bell tower-shaped mantle for the creature. A hulking mass of white muscle burst outward from its chest and ribcage, the bulk of the creature’s weight stemming from there and amalgamating into dozens of eager, wriggling octopod arms, suckers and all.

The three men took to hacking and slashing at its flailing appendages with great vigor; the stench of blood and salt soured the air, sweetening by degrees whenever a limb was sliced off from its bulk and the resulting spray of alien-colored gore splattered onto the ground. These limbs seemed to gain a life of their own, thrashing spiritedly about and resembling serpents with their heads freshly amputated, the suckers and piercing thorn-like barbs attached proving to be tremendously dangerous, indeed. The men took great pains to keep a safe distance, Tell’s sword waggling in the air like a lion tamer’s whip while the thrashing tentacles attempted to wrap wetly around the weapon and wrest it from his grip.

Gun heavy and burning with frigid cold in her hands, the Witch of Space pushed up her glasses, the lenses briefly flashing white with a slight change in the light, and in the blink of an eye she had zapped herself high into the air overhead, settling into a pattern of cranking out volley after volley of chilly magicks from above. Selena glanced at their makeshift eye in the sky, then over to where Amber was slowly stalking towards the creature. Their prime friends might just be of some use, she imagined, and then quickly abandoned that line of thought when she noticed Smith was still finding difficulty in even leveling a single shot at the thing with his crossbow, his sabre hand shaking violently.

As much as it pained her to acknowledge as much, her long-time friend couldn’t be of much help due to the severity of his injury. She would have to find a substitute and, luckily, she knew just the man for the job.

“Here,” she said to Brandon, snatching up Piers’ crossbow from the boy’s unconscious body and shoving it into the astronomer’s arms. When the dark-skinned man only stared uncomprehendingly at the weapon in his hands, she snorted. “Come on, Brandon, I’ve seen you drop a squirrel a field away. Let’s give this thing a few more holes to breathe through, eh?”

Mouth set into a determined line, Brandon bobbed his head in agreement, lining up a shot at the phlegmy stretch of skin and muscle where the creature’s limbs seemed to originate. Its shrieks were short, hissed out in tiny blasts of air like the piping of a flute, and while its body seemed soft as a sea slug, it was carved up into many segments, the sticky, gleaming limbs fanning out like the leaves of a fern to show off its flower-esque mandibles, dozens of pincer-like teeth clenching and spasming and—

Shink! Selena grunted in frustration as a bolt shot uselessly into the tangled morass of pale meat, the rust-brown stains on her clothing— Piers’ blood— flaking off as she reached back for another bolt. Brandon’s arrows had the same lack of desired effect. The thick barb of wood sank into the creature’s skin down to the stubby end, gelatinous liquid slurping out worse than infection, but it didn’t seem to bother it any more than a splinter might hurt his own hand.

Meanwhile, Amber stalked forward leisurely, Razorback completely forgotten for the time being. Her shoulders and spine loosened into something fluid and graceful, a silky layering of warm onyx fur sprouting from her skin with a sigh. Feather light footsteps marked her advance, smooth as if she were slinking through shallow water, and they continued to be just as silent after she broke into a full-tilt run.

Her hands flexed, the muscles contracting and loosening as newly-flourished claws glinted even in the darkness, wicked sharp. She then dropped down on all fours, whip-like tail swaying as her clawed toes sank into the frigid cavern floor and, with a dangerous elegance those gathered had never had the privilege of seeing before, threw herself into the heat of battle with a deafening yowl.

Her claws dug into the tentacles like meat hooks, sinewy flesh stringing out and flapping in useless strands of calamari. Flesh, not bone, never even a scrap of bone, was torn asunder by her rage, gelatinous fluids and bizarre organs the color of blackberry jam spilling out. She had taken on the form of a large black wildcat, the faint thumbprint-sized dapples of her fur coat shimmering like the scaled mail of a fish whenever she pitched to the side, cleverly angling her body to avoid one of her adversary’s thrashing arms.

Marlin silver tissues and chitin-like material scraped against her nails, trickles of lifeblood pooling into little metallic dewdrops that dribbled and pooled on the floor not unlike liquid mercury. The creature’s caustic blood splashed in her face, too hot and too cold at the same time, reeking worse than dead fish and pond scum combined. Amber spat in disgust and swiped it off with a large paw, bright catlike eyes glittering with her fury.

Jade observed as another of Selena and Brandon’s rounds met its mark, her eyes narrowing unfocusedly as her spacial sense attempted to lock onto the weakest, softest organs hidden inside, everything seeming like carved up meat by sight alone. It was like looking at the back of a human hand, knuckle-like protrusions and green veins twining into thick, sinewy appendages, but there was nothing contained within, just ugly pitch black slime and everything was wrong wrong wrong!  The mantle cavity had something nestled deep inside, though. Its surface was hard and distinctly shaped, cushioned by the visceral mass around it. Like this creature had consumed something its digestive juices couldn’t quite destroy...

Her skin crawled as one wayward tentacle flagellated upwards, feeling blindly for her ankle. She impulsively snatched up a piece of sharp stone with a telekinetic jab and flung it into the thing’s gaping mouth. While she had fully expected the creature to immediately eject it with a wriggle of its strangely-curled tongue, she was completely floored when it did the polar opposite! The beak-shaped opening hiccupped and crunched on the rock, swallowing a moment later with some difficulty.

And just like that, Jade had an idea. A crazy, stupid idea (the very best of ideas, in her humble opinion), but an idea nonetheless.

Mind whirling, the dark-haired girl spun around, picking up another piece of debris. There were many other mouths peppering the creature’s body, splitting through in a clash of serrated edges in the oddest of places. With a carefully aimed toss, it, too, had joined the other rock in occupying the squid-thing’s stomach, though something about that one hard place in its mantle cavity still set her instincts on edge.

She grinned. If this plan worked, and there was very little doubt in her mind that it wouldn’t, this overgrown, demented squiddle wouldn’t be a nuisance to them for much longer.

Quick as a flash, she whipped up another rock and chucked it at the creature, the flying stone just barely missing Roland. Jade clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. Oops! That was a seriously close call. If it meant not accidentally injuring her friends, Jade felt perfectly alright with zapping herself in a little nearer to the flagellating tentacles and mouths. So, she did— and what a grand time she had of it, too! She found that she could kick and punch the tentacles around with little repercussions, delighting in the apparently frustrated grabs the creature tried to make for her.

Fast fast fast— dodging was easy, nothing could catch her! The slurring, twisty shadow of a tendril passed over her limbs more times than she could count, but she always managed to bounce out of the way right before they could cinch tight and drag her down. She was even able to catch Burgess and place him on the ground again when the force from a particularly harsh blow sent him flying! All in all, things were going pretty smoothly, the rocks she’d loaded into the tentabeast’s belly really seeming to make it grow sluggish and tired. She smiled in triumph, spinning in a celebratory circle as she drifted in midair. Ten points to Gryffindor!

A sudden, violent swarm of tentacles rippled upward, seizing her firmly in their grasp. Jade gasped, heartbeat abruptly thundering in her ears; she only briefly struggled. With a hissing screech, the creature swung her around with all the strength of five professional wrestlers and let go, sending the girl flying through the air and into the cavern wall.

The solid rock there was pretty much mulched by the hit. Dust and shale floated downward, gusting furiously and getting jammed in Jade’s lungs as she coughed. It wracked through her body, harsh and painful. Rubble stirred beneath her as she tried to hoist herself into a sitting position, giving up a moment later when some stupid, throbbing drumbeat in her head refused to stop pounding.

Something like a touch fluttered over the inside of her wrist. Jade’s eyes flashed open. She hadn’t even realized they had fallen closed. She glanced blearily up from where she lay on the floor, vision spinning. Selena’s face swirled into view, tight with concern as she checked for a pulse, Brandon right behind. He seemed to be mouthing something to her, but Jade couldn’t quite make out what it was. Her ears were still ringing from that nasty crash!

“What?” she asked, and then jerked in surprise when she realized she couldn’t even hear her own voice. Uh oh.

Well, she supposed it only made sense that she might go a little deaf, what with all the eldritch abominations screeching in her ears all the goddamn time! But just because it made sense didn’t mean she had to like it, and she….. well, she totally didn’t. Not one stinking bit.

Clapping both hands over her ears, Jade smiled apologetically up at Selena and Brandon, both of whom seemed super worried. “Sorry. I can’t really, um, hear anything.”

There was a jerky rush of movement at her side as Selena laid down her bow, using a small knife to cut a strip of fabric lining Jade’s torso from her dress. The young girl’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, her hand coming up to fumble at her stomach; she could see rather than hear Brandon’s sharp intake of breath through his teeth. It was only then that she noticed her side felt… damp, like she’d fallen asleep in a rain shower, something that happened often enough on her old island home. Looking down, Jade could see what Selena was doing only halfway clearly, though her head spun a lot and she felt like she might puke any second.

Her entire side was soaked in blood, a shard of stone having impacted her side, near to her ribcage. The precise cut there glistened faintly with dark, bubbling red that seeped out at a snail’s pace, widening and growing more jagged the closer it drew to her spine. Jade was glad; it would have stunk to have to worry about it puncturing a vital organ, and if she could still feel all of her limbs she most likely wasn’t paralyzed. It was a tiny miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

She thought Gamzee would be pleased about that, and tried not to wince too much when Selena set about closing up the wound with all the meticulousness of a seamstress. Miracles, indeed.

At length Jade could hear a teensy bit better, her senses having returned in trickles. Rebecca was sitting a few feet away, something she noticed after a while as Selena worked, Piers’ head in her lap with her dark dress puddling around his slack face like a halo. Shy relief unfolded in Jade’s chest like the petals of a flower. The Little Sister seemed to be…. singing, judging by the cheerfulness lighting up her eyes and the careful, patterned way her mouth formed around the words.

“Who watches over sleeping angels? I do, I do…”

Yes, that’s what it is, Jade thought. Singing.

Her eyes narrowed suddenly, attempting to focus on the blur of writhing shapes behind the little girl, but her eyesight kept getting all swirly. Where was Bec? She attempted to widen her senses to find him, but found that she was blocked. Even her sense of Space felt all whacky, like a pocket of void had opened inside her head and sucked everything that was good and right in her understanding of the world out. Had she blacked out or something…? Ugh, even trying to remember stuff from a few seconds ago hurt.

Selena helped her stagger to her feet after firmly gripping onto her shoulders, the woman’s voice still oscillating in and out of Jade’s range of hearing. The young witch blinked wearily, scrubbing a few chunks of rock out of her energetic curls. White stars flashed in her eyes as she tried to stay on her feet, the queasiness just about knocking her on her butt, “Sorry, what was that?”

“I said,” Selena repeated, though she seemed more concerned than annoyed by having to do so, “Are you alright? You took quite a hit there. Don’t worry, Amber’s been keeping that thing occupied pretty well in your stead, though your hellbeast leapt in as soon as you were knocked out….” She still kept a careful hold on Jade’s arm, peering warily into her face. “Will you be able to continue on in this state?”

“Uh?” Jade asked, seeming to snap out of a daze. She recognized that she hadn’t fully comprehended any of what Selena had just said. Her tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips, voice cracking when she spoke again. “Uh-huh. Yeah, I’m good!”

Brandon, who was also in on the interrogation, seemed doubtful. “You are sure?”

“Sure I’m sure!” Jade twittered, though the bell-like sibilance of her words fell short when she winced.

Ouch. Being her usual sunny self hurt, too.

Sucking in a deep breath, she whistled twice in quick succession. Becquerel appeared at her side in a crackle of static, oily blood slicking down the front of his pelt from where it had dribbled out from the corners of his mouth. He cocked his head at her, muzzle clamped shut and his eyeless face staring up into hers.

She shut her eyes. She could remember, now. The tentacled creature tossing her, the force of the throw seeming to take control of her own body from her. An electric-green pulse, the usually steady thrum of rapid fire static that defined the First Guardian’s presence slamming into a full-on nuclear snarl as Becquerel went on the assault. Her head smacking against cruel, hard stone.

“Good dog,” she muttered woozily, smoothing down his ears with the palm of her hand. She always felt stronger with Bec at her side. “Best friend.”

Bec nosed wetly at her hand, licking his chops in agreement. Yes. He was a good dog, AND Jade’s best friend. How could anyone who knew them think otherwise?

Reopening her eyes, Jade smiled at the white-furred hound, and then turned to survey the fray taking place a short distance away from them. She watched as Brandon and Selena shot twin spikes of wood into the horrorterror’s bulk, Smith following up a moment later with a sloppier, but accurate enough hit. He seemed about dead on his feet, the concussive hit to his head probably giving him hell even as he refused to give up. Jade understood completely.

Sharp sounds and hideous gurgling noises echoed around the ruin’s depths, Tell directing Roland and Burgess around and trusting his other soldiers not to accidentally shoot him in the back. They formed a cohesive front against the heaping tentacle-mound, haring off to help one another out whenever the flagellating onslaught became a bit much for one man. The creature wiggled like a massive caramel flan as they struck with their blades, aiming to kill but never really succeeding. It was a little disheartening, a little embarrassing, sort of maddening…. but mostly embarrassing.

Spitting and hissing in a flurry of claws and black fur, Amber pivoted expertly around the cavern, sinking her teeth and claws into any tentacle brave enough to wriggle close to her whenever she had a chance to. Her clever eyes flashed like fiery rubies and raked over the convolutedly structured body of her enemy, her toes pouncing, seizing and tackling with a predator’s voracity as the paste-colored limbs tried to strangle her.

Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time until the many-angled creature determined how to get the drop on her. And it did, quite literally, get the drop on her when it plopped much of its tangled weight over her body with a soupy glorp!, effectively concealing the— now frenziedly struggling— panther from view.

The thing wasn’t brainless. Jade would ordinarily have felt a modicum of remorse at this fact, but something about the way Amber was so suddenly tucked away and out of sight made her see red. Because Amber was one of her own. A friend. And Jade wasn’t about to let one of her friends, even the giant panther ones, get eaten.

Jade raised her hand, focusing on the dozen or so hard shapes nestled within that writhing, squishy mass, greenish energy crackling along her joints and her face the picture of serenity. Then, her hand clenched into a fist.

Abruptly, the creature jerked to a halt, a sound similar to the bowel movements of a giant grumbling out and reverberating through the cavern. All of its appendages crumpled defensively inward, like how a spider set on fire with a matchstick curls in on its blackened, charred body. Dozens of little holes rippled along its sides, the high-pitched whistle of trapped air being released streaking out. It gave a short, garbled shriek of wordless agony—a sound that was swiftly broken off as it exploded.

Chunks of meat splorched onto the ground, hailing in a brief shower of acidic juices. Rocks clunked onto the ground, as well, the ones Jade had so viciously ripped out from its stomach moments ago, reeking of putrification and slicked over with sickly yellow-green secretions.

Jade smiled, arm falling back against her injured side. Bec nosed at it, whining so quietly that it was almost inaudible, but after she had brushed him away a few times he was perfectly content to trot over and sit by Rebecca, snuffling noisily into the little girl’s hair.

Captain Tell looked around at the stinking pile that was all that remained of their adversary. He and the other soldiers were fairly battered, their weapons lowered only slightly as they watched for any stray movements that would indicate the creature was anything other than dead as a doornail. When it didn’t budge an inch for several long moments, Tell snorted. He’d figured it wouldn’t be moving again, judging by the amount of bloody gore splattered in his hair.

Something glinted in the midst of the decimated corpse. Nudging aside a tightly coiled tendril with his foot, the captain carefully trudged through what could have very well been a minefield of hidden glands and organs not utterly pulverized by Jade punching at least twenty rocks through its ugly hide. A veiny skein of intestinal lining clung to the small, octagonal object as he wrested it free, the flexible membrane snapping back and plopping in the soup-like carnage. It felt strangely warm to the touch, likely fixed at body temperature from being inside the abomination’s stomach for so long. Frowning, Tell gripped the octagon tightly between his fingers and marched out, stopping a moment to help Amber climb to her feet.

With the great amount of questionable fluids soaking into her clothes and hair, the faunus seemed almost as if she had been half-drowned before he fished her out. There was still a primal fierceness in her eyes when outside of her panther form, though it seemed a touch dulled, like the last embers of a campfire when dawn finally arrives, soaking the sky and earth in a purplish-gold haze. She hacked and coughed up bits of tissue that were too greenish to be her own, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the rancid mess littered around them.

“That was fun. Let’s never do that again,” Amber croaked out, wiping the vinegary taste of blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. She squinted at the captain, feline ears twitching. “What the hell even happened? It felt like someone set off a bomb in there.”

Tell jerked his head over his shoulder at where Jade stood with Brandon and the rest. Selena was glancing over at them, paying only half a mind to Smith while he appeared to be reenacting whatever Jade had done for the others’ benefit. A shout of “Boom!” could be heard, stirring a wave of applause from Roland and Burgess. Jade reddened, smiling that easy buck-toothed grin of hers.

The old captain gave a small smile, but it was short-lived. He seemed so very old and grey in that moment, rubbing a coarse hand over the wrinkles etched into his forehead with a sigh. “I wouldn’t doubt it if someone did, but I’m not entirely sure myself, kid. Ask Harley when you have the time. Right now, what we’ve got to worry about is this,” he held up the octagonal lump. “It could be a clue as of to where what we’re looking for is.”

Amber peered at the shiny metal object in his hand with a critical eye. She even inched forward a bit, nostrils flaring as she sniffed. Finally, having finished her inspection, she fixed him with a sideways stare. “In an old ruin like this? It’s a puzzle piece... or a key of some kind. Hell, it might just be a cool doohickey that squid-thing saw fit to swallow! It would be a good idea to hold onto it, though, it might come in handy.”

“Right, that’s what I thought.” Tell nodded, tucking the piece into his coat for safe-keeping. After he had ascertained that the cat girl was mostly able to move about without trouble, the two of them moved to rejoin the others. They had scarcely come within three paces of the group when Piers abruptly jerked awake, clutching feebly at his head with a miserable whimper after moving too fast too soon.

“Piers!” Burgess exclaimed, dropping to his knees beside his fallen comrade. The previously unconscious boy’s forehead was streaked with feverish sweat, his cheeks stricken pale with only the faintest tinge of healthy ruddiness to them.

Evidencing his sorry condition, Piers didn’t even have the energy to flinch at his shouted name. He only let out a shaky groan in response, eyelids fluttering closed as he attempted to drift off into the realm of sleep once more. Burgess patted at his friend’s washed-out cheeks, eyes burning bright with worry. He hadn’t been there to see whatever caused Piers’ injury, but whatever it was, he looked utterly shattered.

A weight rested on Burgess’ right shoulder, and he turned and saw that it was Roland, the man’s steady hand on his shoulder and lightly-colored eyes boring into his own. He pulled Burgess aside with a small blink-and-you-miss-it shake of his head, giving Selena room to slip in and tend to their wounded. Turning, he found that the others had convened a small distance away, though they quieted at his approach.

Clearing his throat and leaning heavily to one side, Smith spoke first, “I think the lad will be sufficiently recovered by the end of our trip, with the right healing and so forth. But, seeing as we do not have much by way of medicines that isn’t with the sleds… he could develop some irreversible condition, Captain. We need to go back.”

Tell nodded, mulling over this piece of wisdom. Brandon stared at him, completely agog.

“But we’re so close!” he spluttered, alarmed by the very idea. “We can’t turn back now. I like Piers, but surely… surely there is some way to avoid having to abandon our current progress. The passage caved in, you saw it. It would set us back by hours, possibly a full day. We can’t…”

“I’d regret backtracking as much as you, sir astronomer, but I think I’d regret sitting back and letting my friend die a bit more,” said Burgess, gazing worriedly at the sleeping Piers. Selena was busy applying a damp cloth to his forehead, her own crinkled in concern. Even in sleep, the muscles of his face were wracked with tension, as if he was in great pain. This pointed glance did not go unnoticed by Brandon, of course, and he wilted in shame at even suggesting such a thing.

“Well, here’s an idea!” Jade said, pushing her way into the discussion with some well-placed elbows and an upbeat smile. “What if a few of us head back with Piers and get him the attention he needs, while the rest of us continue on ahead to find whatever it is you guys are looking for? Then we won’t have to make any sacrifices!”

Tell considered this for a moment, then nodded. He assumed a clipped, authoritative tone; a soldier through and through. “All-right. Smith, Burgess, Roland; take Piers back to where we left the sleds and look after him, for heaven’s sakes. We’ll damn well try to rejoin you within the next few hours, but if we don’t return after a full day, I expect you to make the return trip to Camelot without us.”

The captain moved to get down on his knees beside Piers, something which his creaky joints certainly wouldn’t thank him for later. He sighed quietly, and, so quietly that Selena was the only one able to pick out the individual words, began muttering something about ‘your ma is going to have my hide’ and ‘just hold on a little while longer, kid, we’ll get you out of this mess. I promise.’

Standing again, he turned to face the three men and clasped each of their hands in turn, his severely wrinkled face made softer by the raw emotion stirring in his eyes. “Stay safe, brothers.”

After they had separated, Brandon led what remained of their group down a decrepit staircase, and with a turn to the northeast they were descending even deeper within the ruin. They came across several sets of shelves lined with miscellaneous glass bottles and apparatuses, the murals scrawled over the walls realizing a heinous, disturbing quality the further they shuffled down the inclined passage. Barred windows and doors occasionally cropped up along the way, the metal bars covered in thick brownish orange rust, but nothing could be seen in the rooms beyond but impenetrable shadow. The ancient grates stalwartly refused to budge no matter how hard they were pushed against, though they creaked and groaned fiercely. Fly amanita with bright red caps and snowy spots squished under their boots, the mushrooms finding themselves unhappily disturbed after years of budding in the soundless gloom.

Once they had descended several small flights of stairs, they found that the way forward was blocked by a caved-in section of rock. The corner of a mostly rotted wooden door was barely visible over the edge of piles upon piles of toppled stone; Brandon huffed and sighed and grumbled, discouraged significantly by this unexpected problem.

But, it appeared that destiny hadn’t abandoned them just yet! While skipping about the narrow passage and tugging Becquerel along for the ride, Rebecca noticed a pretty string of ribbon hanging from the ceiling, braided through with daisies and the most beautiful-est strips of colored fabric that she had ever seen. Practically bursting with delight, she teetered forward and grabbed ahold of it, not even noticing that it felt cold and grainy to the touch, like rusted metal or a dead rat’s tail.

A harsh, drawn-out grating sound quaked through the passageway, scattered flurries of dust sprinkling from the ceiling as the formerly hidden stone door slid to the side. Jade turned and looked at Rebecca with wide eyes, noting the rusted chain still clutched in her grip and the powdery dust-flakes scattered in her hair.

“Yay, confetti! It’s a parade!” the Little Sister cheered, her tiny hands clapping together in delight. She spun to face the new doorway, nothing visible through it but gaping, void-like blackness, and was just barely stalled from entering by Bec latching onto the edge of her sleeve with his teeth. The wolf-dog gently tugged her away, giving the armed persons among their company time to investigate.

Captain Tell stepped into the threshold, hand coming up to rest on a long-unused iron brazier as he peered inside. There was a small, barren hallway there, the corner bent at a ninety degree angle and a gap leading to the east. With measured steps the company moved forward, footsteps and clothing rustling alongside the clinks of weapons in the dark. Silver ore and traces of quartz glistened all around the room and in the walls, several sarcophagi and long stone tables arranged in almost perfect symmetry so that the grotto formed a kind of grisly lecture theater. Dissection implements lay scattered across the tables, although whether or not they were freshly bloodied was difficult to say.

At the very center of the room was a wide, rounded pool. Its surface glistened as if it were lit by the light of the moon, though it remained deathly still with scarcely a ripple disturbing its sacred waters.

As they progressed further into the room with their weapons held at the ready, Jade found that her eyes simply couldn’t linger on anything else but that stupid pool. She simply couldn’t keep her eyes off it. It was this strange compulsion that drew her nearer to it, though she tried to skirt around the glowing water at a safe enough distance, even hip-checking one of the sarcophagi, she was so engrossed in her examination.

A hand with webbed fingers slapped against the sarcophagus’s edge, a flourish of tentacles the color of egg whites spilling over.

Jade screamed.

27,615/27,000

Jade used Becquerel (Tier 2 Assist – 10 stats – 2 SP per post).

Amber used Panther (Alt-form) - 2000, but changed back later on. The company is now Brandon, Selena, Jade, Amber, Tell, Rebecca and Bec. Roland, Burgess, Smith and Piers have returned to the first antechamber!

[Amber Veritz]

A glint of steel shined past Jade’s eyes the familiar sword slashed past her. Goop-ish blood spluttered everywhere from the severed appendage. An audible shriek of pain sounded next to the dog girl. Amber’s reassuring grin brought her back from her startled trance. Through each coffin raised the squishy beings like that of the one before, but these looked less developed and more human than the last one. They plopped out of the sarcophagi surrounding the team of adventurers.

“No..No, no no!” Amber started to mutter under breath.
Jade was confused.

“Amber? Are you alright?” Amber threw her hands on her head, dropping her sword.

“The island! The undead! The zombies!” Shivers ran down her spine, the memories of Dante’s Abyss finally returning. Her sickness, the cold-sweating, the transformation, everything. Tell and his gang of soldiers that had come along fend off the goopy humans while Jade attempts to assuage Amber’s terrors.

“Calm down! What’s going on?” Jade asks putting her hand on the faunus’s shoulder. She shook the hand loose.

“I went crazy! I-I can't! I won't turn into a monster again! They won't make me!” Amber screamed what was mostly nonsense to Jade. The experience must be rendering relapsing memories she deigned horrifyingly traumatic. “I won't let you hurt me, or my friends!” She screamed again before black fur grew out of her skin. Her bones morphed violently as she took all fours and colorfully marked tattooes pained her fur. The panther let out a furious roar as took off, charging head first into battle. Jade could only watch in awe as the graciously large feline clawed through everything vigorously. Like a solid back blur tearing away at anything that dare thought her an enemy. Back and forth she tore through the goopy beings blowing chunks of plasma-like lifeblood from every part of their slimy bodies. Jade finally came to her sense, now being entranced twice by something awe-inspiring. She pulled out Little Sn0w and started firing into the crowd of beings that were once human.

The dozen or so humanoids found their demise no more than seconds later. Amber breathed heavily in her panther form, snorting loudly as she tried to reclaim a steady breath. With a sigh of relief, she turned to her group and collapsed to the ground. She over used her power to protect them from what she thought would have infected them all into one of those squishy squid-like humans. Jade was at her side instantly. Though Amber was completely sapped of her power, she seemed to just be resting. Not many wounds other than a few bruises. Tell had took this moment to make sure they wouldn't get anymore unexpected surprises. He scanned the coffins, asking the rest of his crew to do the same.

“It looks like we're clear. Good work everyone.” Tell said placing his sword back in its sheathe at his side. “Now, let's see what’s so special about this pool.” He crouched next to the small basin of water placed conspicuously in the middle of the ill lit room. Though it seemed like normal water, something about it gave off an amazingly strong aura. It seemed to pull Tell’s very soul into the water. Upon a closer inspection, something glinted in the cool water, about the size of a rock. This was no rock, however, this item glew a faint green color, slightly off put by the waves in the water. “It looks like something is down there.” Tell mumbled bending down to get a better look. Bec curiously joined the captain, sniffing at the edge of the pool. Brandon looked down at the edge of the water, and exclaimed excitedly.

“Yes! I believe that’s it! This is what we've been looking for!” Everything was leading up to this moment. The astronomer was so pleased he was ready to jump in the water and swim to the artefact himself before Tell stopped him.

“Allow me.” He said leaping into the water and swimming down to the bottom of the oddly deep floor. The star piece glowed green, beautiful color merging with color of the water. The shining stone was lift out of the sand by the captain who swam back up and fished himself out of the water. Everyone huddled around Tell, who was trying to catch his breath having been submerged for a time, they all examine the Star Piece. Brandon was a little more intuitive than the rest, looking at it closely and eventually taking for himself. Words couldn't express what he was feeling right now.

“Well then.” Say Jade, next to the unconscious feline. “Shall we find our way out now that we have the spoils?”

“Yes, it would be best not to linger.” Tell said picking up his pack he threw down before he dove into pool. Everyone else fell in behind him; Brandon stuffed the Star Piece away in his satchel and Jade awoke Amber, who could hardly stand.

“Wh-What happened?” She stammered trying to get her footing.

“Come on Amber, we've got to go. Can you walk?” Jade asked helping onto her four feet.

“Ye-yeah, but I don't think I'll be able to handle another encounter.” Albeit a bit wobbly, the panther stood on her own and followed in behind Jade. It was time to leave this gods forsaken ruin.

Words: 28,533/27,000

We've found the Green Star Piece and are now on our star ay ou with the spoils. Amber is unlikely to be able to battle at the excessive use of her burt burst movement used up all her strength.

[Jade Harley]

Hoarse coughing rang out as Sheron-bhar wrenched himself from the wreckage of the ruined hall, his dwarfish frame riddled with streaks of dust and splintered stone. A dark gouge blotted out half of his face and dug cruelly through his iron helm and temple, blood oozing into his beard from the wound and twisting his face into a ghastly façade of what it had once been. Groping around the gloomy hall, he found his axe and took it into his hands, the familiar weight lending his bashed-in skull some equilibrium. One bright eye glistened from the opposite side of his face, darting to the side as he searched for his partners.

After a moment of searching he found Keldic, or the corpse that had once been Keldic, with his head crushed beneath a heavy wedge of rock. Grayish brain matter and shadowy blood seeped steadily out from under it, painting the ancient stone floors black in the darkness; his slack form was laid flat on his belly, limbs spread all akimbo and his neck bent sharply to the side. Sheron shifted forward to root through the dead dwarf’s pockets and the insides of his boots, coming up with a few hard pieces of gold. They were still warm against the coarse pads of his fingers, heated to body temperature. He stuffed them into his own pockets with gusto, teeth gritting at the pain lancing through his head and causing his brain to give a quick twinge every now and again.

Something like the sound of pebbles crunching under heavy feet met his ears. Sheron looked up, directly into the black eyes of a pale-faced Brennon.

“Ah, there yeh are,” Sheron said by way of greeting, shoving to his feet. His axe served as a makeshift walking stick, supporting his weight with its leather grips that fit his fingers like a dream. “Was beginnin’ ta think I’d lost both of yeh…”

Brennon chortled in amusement, but Sheron did not miss the way his fingers tightened around his own battle-axe, knuckles pinching against the handgrip until they were seared white. The other dwarf smiled a bedeviling smile, showing all his yellow-stained teeth, “Aye! And I’m sure yeh would’ve been mighty pleased with the coin yeh’d ‘ve found on my carcass, t’boot.”

Sheron shook his head, lips curling into a faint smile that said, ‘you know me all too well, my friend.’ “Ah, well, let’s just smoke a peace pipe and be done with it... the lad was too green, anyhow, all… whazzit called— buttery-fingers! Boy just wasn’t cut out for the life. Thought ‘is ma would be none too pleased that we’ve gone and let ‘im get killed, so I thought I’d bring ‘er a little something ta… ease ‘er troubles, so to speak.”

He cast a faux pitying look at the lumped body upon saying this. The empty pouches hanging from Keldic’s coat’s flaps hung conspicuously out like the sides of a flayed fish, flashing white against the dark stone; perhaps he should’ve tucked them back in?

“Ye don’t even know ‘is ma, Sheron.” Brennon said, only a faint wrinkle appearing between his brows to show his sour thoughts. That was the thing about Brennon— he was always very quiet about things. It was a cryptic adaptation to most situations that he’d carefully cultivated over time until it was hard to tell if he truly felt any emotions— which made it all but impossible for those who crossed him to evade or even expect his rage, simply because, to all reasonable appearances, it wasn’t in the cards to begin with.

In short, Brennon Yadrisson was one helluva snake in the grass.

Puffing up and with a clearly affronted look flashing in his eyes, Sheron-bhar scoffed. “Enough jawing, we have an astronomer ta find, and ah’ve got just the thing for it!” he said, shuffling through his coat pockets for something. Finally he pulled out a quaint little pot-shaped device, clearly made of burnished metal with various stick-like triggers sticking out of the holes rounding about its sides.

He punched the triggers in. A tiny metallic clinking sound began to echo in the hall. The device shuddered and spewed smoke, beginning to shriek like a hot tea kettle right as the two amoral dwarves swiftly vacated the area.

Tick-
tick- tick-
tick- tick- tick…

29,255/27,000

[Jade Harley]

“Hurry, hurry. There is no time to lose!” urged Roland, his boots meeting the floor with sure and quick steps despite the darkness obscuring his every stride. He moved in sync with Burgess, the two of them working to drag along the still much incapacitated Piers by gripping under his shoulders. The boy’s feet moved every once in a while, as one acting out their dreams is bound to twitch and jerk, catching against the ground with a sharp scuff that put a definite jilt in their procession, but other than that he remained mostly dead to the world, mouth mumbling nonsense as his head hung limp against his chest.

Running up ahead of them was Smith, his dark clothing and height cutting an impressive figure in the gloom, sliver sabre skimming toward every echo or shadow unaccounted for. He nosed around the path that lay ahead of the other three like a bloodhound, sword at the ready and his eyes and ears straining to catch any signs of danger, no matter how stealthily subtle they might have been. The shambling, shuffling steps of those behind him were only loose noise, constant as the thump-thumping of his own heart in his chest, the stale air almost stifling in its moldy stillness.

An abrupt sound ground their procession to a halt: coughing, harsh and rattling so deep in the chest that Smith’s own lungs felt heavy with sympathy. With unbelievable soreness due to his own injuries, Smith turned his feet to retrace the path they had so recently tread, scanning over his shoulder once more before rejoining the others.

Piers’s feverish, trembling form was swiftly laid out on the stones, Roland ensuring that his neck and head settled comfortably across his lap and Burgess leaning forward to get a look at his unconscious, slack face, dabbing at the blood dribbling from between his almost blueberry-blue lips with a gloved hand. A bright sheen of sweat glistened on Smith’s brow as he leaned over Burgess’s shoulder to see the reason for their stopping, hissing sharply between his teeth as he took the damage in.

“By the realms,” he breathed. The kid’s chest caved in with every feeble breath, eyelids fluttering dully with the impression of deep sleep. There was still an alarming amount of blood slicking across his forehead, having trickled forward from the base of his skull. “Do you reckon he’ll last much longer?”

Burgess bit his lip. “I don’t know, but we have to keep moving… if we don’t, he will surely die. At least when we reach our supplies he’ll have a chance, if only a very slight one.”

“What? Then why the hell did we stop?” Smith turned the brunt of his glare on Roland, and yet this didn’t prevent Burgess from flinching at his tone all the same.

“Hush!” Roland said. His ordinarily cheerful face seemed lifeless and grey, a bone-deep dread wallowing in his gaze, weltering into sharp, dark shadows that tracked across his cheekbones. “Do you hear that?” he asked quietly, a hint of caution in his words as he glanced between the other two.

Smith frowned and shook his head. He didn’t hear anything strange, other than the natural cavernous echoes and subtle sighing of the earth. In fact, there wasn’t any noteworthy noise in the decrepit hall but the sound of their labored breathing. What on earth is that whackadoodle Roland banging on about, now?

“Yeah,” said Burgess, bloodshot eyes suddenly stretched wide. “What is that?”

If at all possible, Smith’s frown deepened even further. Great, now Burgess had sidled up onto the bandwagon of hearing noises that didn’t exist, as well. Still, the man reasoned, might as well listen for a bit and see if their apparent auditory hallucinations were of any stock...

A weighted silence fell in the hall. The three men stood stock-still in the darkness, a trio of motionless, crouched shadows. Smith tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he focused on a furrow in the far rock wall.

Then, he heard it. It was a clipped, choppy rhythm, like a woodpecker’s beak drilling against the trunk of a tree or the hollow knocks of firewood logs spilling onto a cobbled street. Like the cracking and popping of an old farmer’s joints in the foggy hours of the morning. It was faint, yes, but so persistent in its repetition that it became impossible to ignore once he had at last acknowledged it. Almost like a...

Realization hit. Smith’s eyes widened, round and flashing like a pair of shiny silver coins.

Tick- tick- tick- tick- tick.

Tock!

“Get down!” he bellowed, seizing onto Burgess’ collar and shielding him just as the cavern exploded.

30,040/27,000

[Jade Harley]

DOOM-BOOM.

Jesmok’s chin lifted from where it had nestled against his chest, head lolling from tiredness and threatening to drown him in the waters of sleep. He narrowed his eyes as the cavern shook, dust falling from the stalactite-strewn roof in a broken curtain as he blinked dazedly at his surroundings. Moss green muscles strained as he gathered his wits and attempted to scramble to his feet, grumbling and hissing around the thick fangs jutting from his gums.

“Shoulda known dis wouldn’t be easy. Greed, greed, greed… jus’ need one more scrap of treasure, he says… never enough…”

The damp stones were cool against his scarred feet. Whatever the creature was that he and Tosh had fought, its blood stung like acid, littering his loincloth and fur coverings with a whole riot of stinkin’ holes. Of course, Jesmok had been the one to finally subdue it with a well-placed explosive— he was a regular demolitions expert, so his da said, and talent like that was bound to go to waste if one didn’t use it wherever possible. It was why he had so many miniature grenades strapped around his neck, the orange gourd-shaped devices thumping against his chest with every step, fine particles inside rattling noisily.

Still, it was a right shame that Tosh had to be halfway into the beast’s mouth when the black powder lit up. The hollows of a cave can be awful lonely, see, ‘specially with bits of a friend littered everywhere, and Tosh’d had most of their vittles in his pouch, the bastard. It just wasn’t fair.

He arrived at the foot of a stairwell, leaning back on his heels as he craned his neck up to check for any signs of life. Dark blocks of grey stone were all that he could see, all stacked one on top of the other and forming a narrow flight of stairs, a frigid hum of death thrumming in every shadowy corner and crevice.

With a determined frown, Jesmok gripped his knife a little tighter, the keen blade gleaming dully as he shuffled up the stairs, legs stinging with every step from where they had been horribly mutilated by the acid. His progress was sluggish, painful. The only sounds in the claustrophobic space were his ragged breaths and the slow, methodical drag of his toenails over the stone.

… Except, there was another sound, besides all that. Barely noticeable and sort of raspy, like a cluster of ghosts whispering their condolences over a grave. Jesmok chose to ignore it, mounting the steps one at a time. His impressive height and trollish shoulders made the shaft a bit cramped, everything smelling like acrid concrete dust and the cool walls making the occasional brush against the tops of his shoulders, but still he continued to climb. The whispering simmered at his heels, soft as a press of lips.

Jesmok fished around in his belt, eventually coming up with a cigar and setting about digging a match out from his pack. The round orange bulbs hanging off from his neck were jostled by the movement, clinking together loudly; a waft of something like clay mixed with burning chlorine and ammonia stung at his nose. Apprehension seared up his spine like a live wire as his knife bit off the cigar’s end, his back muscles stiffening until they were as rigid as granite.

A whip-like arm of pale grey waved at him from out of the corner of his eye, sinuous as smoke. Tilting his head to the side, Jesmok felt his jaw bones grit tightly together as he noticed that the abomination he had killed apparently had quite a few friends, the flush press of tentacles against the rock walls sounding almost like voices.

“Hmph,” he said, the match in his hand flaring up against his cupped hands. The cigar began to burn, old tobacco smoke curling up lazily around his face, the rolled-up paper caught firmly between clenched teeth. It tasted of leather, honeyed fruit and burnt, spicy peppercorns, all of it expelled in a cloud of smoke.

With trembling hands, Jesmok nudged the red-orange glow at the cigar’s end against a wiry string attached to the explosives ringing about his neck. His eyelids clenched tightly shut as the fuse was set alight with a sizzling hiss, thoughts escaping like slippery fish from a net.

30,765/27,000

[Amber Veritz]

Amber faintly limped from opening the wall that was the only way out of this room, the rest of her group in the front. If there was a time to rest, Amber would have asked to take a load off, but she was still on mission. Nothing would quench the flame in her spirit. Even if she struggled, she would get through this then find herself in her bed for the next month with nothing but sushi and various assortments of meats, including, but not limited to chicken. Just the thought of meat made Amber’s mind trail, mouth water and belly rubble.

Her mental paradise was short-lived, however. A low-bass sound softly echoed through the cavern, only the group members with animal-like hearing could perceive it. Amber stopped dead in her tracks as did Jade. They exchanged glances as if asking each other if they knew what that sound was. Tell noticed they had stopped and turned to find out why.

“Hey, what are you doing? We have wounded we need to tend to. Let’s g-” Tell was rudely interrupted by a loud shush from Amber. She listened more closely as the sound reverberated.

“Something loud just sounded far into the cave. Jade did you hear that?” Jade answered with a nod.

“Well, what was it?” The captain asked, getting frustrated with such an extraneous conversation. His mind was only on Piers and getting out of this gods-forsaken ruin.

“We can’t tell. It was a really low-bass, the most reasonable explanation-” Jade was cut off as she explained by an even louder boom, much closer than the first one and much different. A successive sound of explosions set off nearby and the cave ceiling shook horribly. It was as if a titan had taken a heavy step right above the cave’s ceiling. Looking up at it, Amber noticed the pointed rocks above them: Stalactites. A rush of adrenaline shot through the faunus’s muscles, and although she’d regret this later, the risk was death. She bolted instantly as they began to fall around the group.

“Run!” The black panther screamed. She didn’t need to tell anyone else twice; the whole group ran as fast as the could, strafing through sharp, falling rocks as they came closer to the staircase. If they could make it there, they’d be safe. Amber clumsily weaved side to side, dodging to the best of her abilities. It wasn’t good enough. A rather larger piece of the ceiling gave way right in Amber’s path, forcing her to hit the breaks. The ceiling cracked around that sending debris down upon her. If it were not for Jade’s quick interventions, she would have died right there. The two rolled to the wall, where there was less loose rock.

“Are you alright?” She asked the frightened feline. Amber took a second to gain her sense.

“Yeah,” she said. In just a few more seconds after that, the rumbling cave stopped trying to murder them. Rocky dust and stone covered the ground. “Let’s…” The faunus scrambled up slowly. “Let’s get the f- Heck out of here.”

The two crawled through the debris after collecting their breath and senses where everyone else was waiting for them. They worked their way up the goop ridden stairway, where the pseudo-slime substance sat soundly. Just the look of it made the panther want to vomit. She was tired of all this bullshit with inhuman fluids and abilities. They made grimm look like a worthless species.

Thankfully, much more of the cave ahead was unaffected by the crumbling ceiling. Dust scattered the ruin’s floor with a few large rocks scattered here and there. Nothing they couldn’t maneuver through, though.

Soon the large door from before reappeared, slightly worse for wear. Of course, it took everyone to budge the damn thing. Amber being too feeble to rip the stupid thing open herself again. Tell was pressing them to move faster, but in her state, the faunus couldn’t move any more quickly that slow, wobbly trot. She couldn’t control her breathing and keep it steady and her throat was extremely dry from the heavy panting. What she would kill to get herself a drink of water.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind, or at least trying to, the panther knew they were close to the exit. Soon they would be out and she could go home and practically hibernate for the rest of eternity.

31,527/27,000