by H. C. Mills
Large leaves in front of me move aside, revealing a bulbous, red, car-sized flower that reminds me of a mutated, overgrown tulip. It sways hypnotically, and a delicious-smelling liquid drops from the opening in its petals that’s aimed right at me. The liquid’s smell might have been tantalizing enough to make me consider moving closer, if it weren’t for the sizzling and the smoke wafting off the ground where the liquid lands. Also, are those teeth?!
Honestly, any second now I expect it to start singing about how hungry it is in a deep bass voice.
I quickly pull a sharp rock from my pocket and start cutting the vine that’s grasping me. The plant reacts by slinging its other vines towards me, but as I am pretty much at the edge of its reach, I am able to dodge them.
Finally, I manage to cut myself loose and fall on my ass out of its range. That was close.
I hurry around the creepy plant in a wide arc and continue on my way while keeping an eye out for this additional threat.
My Lavi is dropping dangerously low again, so I resume breathing.
Oof, that burns. The Toxicity here tastes like the highest I’ve ever encountered; I better move quickly.
I rapidly but cautiously make my way through the dense, dangerous foliage, occasionally pointing at an unfamiliar flower for Suri to appraise. So far, no dice.
Shit. Perhaps going deeper right now wasn’t the wisest spur-of-the-moment decision.
Just when I’m seriously contemplating turning around for the relative safety of the towering trees in the distance, I spot a glimmer to my right.
On a hunch, I turn towards it and pick up my pace, rushing through the dense underbrush.
When I clear the final hurdles, I find myself staring out over a pond, fed by a Hydrumfall, and covered in huge lily pads that lazily drift around. The excess Hydrum flows out in a stream that disappears into the glade.
More importantly, however, growing on—or out of—the pond, is a large yellow flower, which droops under the weight of a fist-sized, sparkling drop suspended from a tube-shaped growth in the middle. Actually, it’s not just one. There are dozens.
This is it!
A notification pops up in my vision.
YESSS! I FOUND THEM!
However, beware the dangers of greed? Do they expect me to grab only one?! I didn’t come all this way to go home with one Stardrop. No, surely getting enough for my team is allowed...
And even if it isn’t, I’d like to see anyone try and stop me now.
There’s a kind of bamboo growing around the edges of the pond that looks pretty sturdy, so I make quick work of unearthing a particularly long specimen, and heft it over my shoulder.
I nimbly hop onto a door-sized lily pad as it comes floating by. It wobbles, but easily holds my weight, hardly even denting the Hydrum’s high surface tension.
I stick my makeshift bamboo oar into the muddy depths of the pond and push off, causing the free-floating lily pad to head for the nearest Stardrop Flower.
I come to a halt in front of it, and carefully liberate the surprisingly sticky Stardrop from its mother.
“Appraise,” I say, holding it up in front of me.
Woah, that’s intense.
I consider wrapping the Stardrop in a leaf or something, but despite its stickiness, it doesn’t actually seem to leave anything behind when I roll it around in my hand.
I shrug and put it in my backpack. I watch carefully in case it starts to react with anything else in there, but it seems pretty inert. I’ll keep it away from Carol-Anne’s Yang Qi Pearl at least, just in case.
Ugh, the toxicity over here is crazy though; I can already feel my muscles weakening and my movements becoming slower and less coordinated, so I quickly start paddling towards the next Stardrop Flower.
When I grab the Stardrop this time, a strange ripple goes through the pond, that causes my lily to slosh ever so slightly.
I freeze in place, but nothing happens. I hesitantly put it in my backpack. Still nothing.
That was disconcerting, to say the least. But I’m not about to stop now.
I paddle my pad over to another Stardrop Flower, weaving left and right between other lazily drifting lily pads.
I swallow thickly when I reach the flower, but steel my nerves and rip the Stardrop loose in a single motion.
For a second, everything is quiet. Then, the pond bursts into wild motion, the Hydrum churning and rocking as volleyball-sized snakeheads rise above the surface.
The serpents are a vibrant shade of magenta, have small green crystals in their foreheads, and look angry. Very angry.
The one closest to me opens its jaws wide, revealing a full set of nasty, serrated teeth, and lunges, hissing wildly.
I do what any sane girl would do in such a situation: I activate Boost Physical and use my bamboo stick to pole-vault onto another lily pad.
Just in time too, as the serpent behind me takes a huge bite out of the lily pad I was just standing on, lifts its head, and chokes it down.
It looks around in confusion, seemingly wondering why it only got salad when it ordered steak, but by the time it turns around to find me, I’ve already moved on.
Not that I have much choice in the matter; a second serpent launches a spray of glowing, bubble-gum-pink goop at me, and I manage to mostly dodge it by vaulting towards another lily pad.
Some of the goop lands on my armour and glides off as if it were Hydrum. However, a droplet of the stuff hits my cheek and causes me to hiss in pain, assuring me that it’s far from harmless.
The hissing, smoking, and rapidly dissolving lily pad behind me is also a pretty strong hint.
A third serpent swims up to me, rising up higher out of the Hydrum, and I realise it’s actually not a snake at all! In fact, with its thick torso and long paddles for limbs, the resemblance to the prehistoric plesiosaurus is uncanny.
What? Dinosaurs are awesome, all right?
Though I’m not a fan of this one in particular, as it rears back to snap its long neck at me.
I decide to take a less reactive stance to my survival and begin vaulting from lily pad to lily pad. Thankfully, Boost Physical allows me to compensate for the weakening effect of the Toxic Energy in my system.
Enraged by my rebellious attitude, the plesiosaurus... plesiosauruses? Plesiosauri? The plessies chase after me, spitting pink-glowing acid and snapping their jaws.
However, their immense size makes them relatively slow, allowing me to stay one step ahead.
Despite the improvised route I’m forced to take due to the random floating of the lily pads, I’m getting very close to the edge of the pond on the opposite side I came from.
Sticking out of the water in the middle of a nearby cluster of lily pads, however, is a Stardrop Flower.
Ah shit. In for a penny, in for a pound.
I quickly change course, vaulting to a lily pad in the general direction of the cluster. However, my action is not appreciated by the plessies, and one of them swerves to cut me off, pushing away the next lily pad on my route as it surfaces.
And since my return path is also compromised, I instead vault onto its back.
A shudder passes through it as I land on its rough scales. It quickly swings its long neck around in an attempt to whack me off its torso.
However, all it takes is another Boost for me to somersault over its neck and triumphantly land on one of the lily pads in the cluster on its other side. There, I jump from pad to pad, chased by a spray of acid.
At the last moment, I change directions and grasp the Stardrop without breaking my stride.
As soon as the Stardrop comes loose, however, the plessies go quiet. One by one, they dive down. I look back in confusion, before shrugging, sticking the Stardrop in my backpack, and quickly vaulting to a lily pad that’s drifting away from the cluster and headed for the shore.
And that’s when I feel the pond... tremble. I glance back over my shoulder.
Behind me, the giant head of what I can only assume is Momma Pl
essie shatters the surface.
CHAPTER 41
Acid rain
THE LARGE WAVE CAUSED by Momma Plessie’s dramatic entrance nearly throws me off my lily pad, but I manage to keep my balance with the bamboo rod.
For a split second, I stare at the house-sized head of the monster.
It stares back. Then it opens its cave-like maw.
I ditch my trusty rod and dive into the Hydrum, away from the incoming deluge of acid.
However, what comes out of Momma Plessie’s mouth is less of a deluge and more of a jet. It impacts the Hydrum behind me and whips up a major wave which sends me tumbling head over heels until I wash up on shore.
I jump up, spit out some Hydrum, and waste no time running off into the vegetation. Somehow, I came out of that mostly unhurt, but a glance over my shoulder tells me Momma isn’t done.
Which is why I change directions as soon as I believe I’m out of sight.
A second later, a sound like a hundred pressure washers firing simultaneously informs me that I made the right decision. I glance back to see a strip of land behind me get annihilated by another high-powered jet of glowing, bubble-gum-pink acid, leaving nothing but a glowing pink furrow.
Okay, okay, I just have to get out of range; there’s no way she can move quickly on land with those flippers!
I bolt like a cheetah on steroids, glancing back as often as I can.
Momma’s Plessie’s head rises up ominously over the vegetation behind me. Her eyes find me and my heart jumps into my throat when she lifts her chin and—
Something snags my ankle, and I faceplant. Disoriented, I try to quickly jump up, but there’s vegetation tangled up with my limbs.
You’ve got to be—
Suddenly, the tendrils arresting my limbs hoist me up, and my heart seizes when I realise I didn’t trip, but was tripped, by a huge, hungry plant.
I struggle futilely against my bindings, as the enormous red flower opens in front of me hungrily, leaking its sweet-smelling digestive fluids almost salaciously.
Then an enormous globule of pink acid splashes right down into its big stupid mouth and melts the whole thing in an instant.
It happens far too suddenly for me to even try to avoid the splatter, thus I’m hit right in the face.
I cry out in pain as the glowing pink acid disfigures my nose.
However, at least the tendrils holding me up all go limp and drop me on my ass, so—still howling in pain—I scramble to my feet and take off again, skirting the glowing pink crater in front of me.
Glancing back, I see Momma Plessie fire off another huge globule of acid.
I veer quickly to the left, but can’t avoid being hit by some more of the splatter
The acid burns wherever it touches my skin, but seems to just drip off my armour without harming it. Thank you Alec!
I start zigzagging through the glade.
Frig, I hope I’m out of range soon...
Turns out, Momma Plessie has a pretty long range, so I return to the hut covered in acid burns. Honestly, without my armour I wouldn’t be standing here at all. Heck, I’m barely standing as it is, with all the Toxic Energy in my system.
Alec screams like a girl when he sees me. Heh. I must look a sight. I think part of my nose is missing...
Dave blanches, but keeps his cool, and immediately guides me to stumble over to the bed.
“Christ, Emma,” he mutters as he starts Purifying me. “What happened to you? And why didn’t you message us for help?”
Right. I could’ve done that after I left the glade...
“Guess I wasn’t thinking straight,” I croak out weakly. “Status Window.”
Good. As long as I get some food in my stomach, this much isn’t enough to kill me.
I weakly pull on the armour covering my chest, and Alec promptly starts helping me take it off, careful not to stare too much at my burns. Beneath it, over my belly, he finds the remains of my backpack. I stuffed it there for safekeeping pretty soon after it started raining acid bombs. Apart from some holes, and losing one of the straps, it’s actually pretty okay.
“Want me to fix this for you?” he asks.
“Later,” I croak. “Check out the contents.”
The look on his face when he pulls out the first slimy, glittering drop is priceless. Too bad smiling hurts my cracked lips.
Alec’s expression changes once he appraises it. “Nonya, are these what I think they are?”
I nod. Ouch. “Yup. I found them.”
Excitedly, he pulls out the others. “And you got four of them?! That’s great!”
“Yeah... Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a little nap.”
“Emma, what happened?” Dave asks as my eyelids flutter closed.
“I got greedy.”
When I come to, the Twinstar has entered its inactive state, and Dave is purifying me with a worried look on his face.
There’s a notification floating in my vision:
I groan and sit up, feeling marginally better.
I wave away the grim message. “How long was I out?”
“A couple of hours,” Dave answers. His voice sounds tense. “We figured we’d wait with levelling until you were awake at least.”
I look around. Alec’s in another corner, fixing my backpack. He smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. One person is conspicuously absent.
I swallow, an uneasy feeling brewing in the pit of my stomach. “Where’s Kaitlynn?”
“We... can’t get a hold of her.”
“Wha—” in my haste to speak, I accidentally inhale some spittle and fly into a violent coughing fit.
“She was supposed to be back before Twinset, but as you can see, it’s already dark out,” Dave continues grimly. “With the state Hub Two is in right now, I can’t help but fear the worst.”
Frig! What does he mean, the worst? Wait... I’m pretty sure the previous announcement said forty-four participants remained, but the last one said thirty-eight. If only five people can enter a door, that means...
Dave correctly interprets my panicked gaze. “Rose assures me that since she’s still listed in my contacts, she must still be alive. That she’s not answering simply means, she’s...”
“Incapacitated,” I fill in the blank. “But we can see where she is on the map, right? Why didn’t you go—”
Dave raises a brow at me.
Right. Dave couldn’t exactly leave me here untreated, let alone unconscious. That would mean only Alec was free to go out on a potentially dangerous, solo rescue mission. Not the best plan.
Suri interrupts me before I can utter another desperate question.
[You have an incoming contact approval request from ‘Luke.’]
“Who?”
Wait. I shoot upright, ignoring the pain it causes me.
“Frig. Accept it, please.”
[Contact approval request accepted,] Suri chimes. [You have an incoming call from Luke, would you like to—]
“Yes.”
For a second, it’s silent in my head. Dave looks at me in confusion.
Lego-ass! I friggin’ knew it!
“Luke. To what do I owe this pleasure?” I ask darkly, dreading the answer.
Oh no...
“Five Stardrops?” I repeat, racking my brain for some kind of plan. “You’re delusional. They don’t exactly grow on trees, you know?”
“Not trying hard enough? Are you friggin’ kidding me?!” I swallow the rest of what I was about to say,
nearly biting my tongue in the process; I can’t let him know I already found the Stardrops, or he might change the timeframe for delivery.
The painful truth is, in a way, he’s right. If I had gone deeper sooner, and had reached the Stardrops first, this mess may have been avoided altogether.
“Fine. I’ll get you your Stardrops.” Not like you’re giving me much of a choice.
He hangs up.
[Ah. It would seem Luke has removed you from his list.]
Son of a bitch.
CHAPTER 42
There’s a fine ’lynn between bravery and stupidity
“OPEN HUB MAP!”
A transparent map shows up in my eye-crystal’s view. On it, a glowing arrow seems to indicate my position. Besides my arrow I find two blinking dots labelled Dave and Alec. There’s another dot in the centre of the Hub, next to the temple, labelled Samuel, and finally, somewhere on the other side of the Hub, there’s a dot labelled Kaitlynn.
The map turns with me as I spin, in a way that keeps the arrow that represents me aligned with the direction I’m facing, so it’s child’s play to determine when I’m looking the right way.
I stare blankly in the direction she’s in, my hands clenched into fists.
I thought this mess with Meathead and Lego-ass had pretty much blown over by now. Guess I’ve been naïve.
The asshats were just biding their time.
Alec looks at me in confusion and worry, Dave... in despair. I guess my half of the conversation was enough for him to piece together what’s going on.
I take a deep breath, then explain Kaitlynn’s circumstances to them, staring at the floor in front of my feet the whole time. A silence falls after I’m done.
