by Azalea Ellis
"I guess that's how," Adam said. "I hope I've got enough power for this." He slipped a cylindrical energy cartridge from his pocket. "I've been saving this for an emergency. I think this qualifies."
He lifted his free hand. Another bolt shot from his fingertips, crackling outward through the damp air and hitting two targets at once.
"You handle them," I said to Adam. "Sam, you and I are going to go take care of the source of our problem." I pointed toward the billowing column.
He stifled a groan and adjusted his grip on his shortened crowbar. "Lead the way."
My chest had a strange tightness in it, because something big was moving within the mist and steam of the column, and I could feel it in the air. As we moved closer, the humidity made it hard to breathe, and I started to cough and worry about being steam-cooked, like my mom used to do with vegetables and chicken.
But then a huge arm made of stone and water swung, clearing a swath of steam. Another gargantuan arm swung, and almost hit me as it passed. More of the obscuring mist cleared, and I saw the colossal torso of a woman, literally rooted to the mountain. She had distinct features cut into the stone of her face, and more graceful arms and torso than the smaller golems.
Bright, clear water ran over her body and connected her limbs, and also filled the large cavity in the center of her chest. It seemed to completely defy gravity, and maybe a few other rules of physics, too. Right where her heart might be if she were human floated a small object, suspended in the glimmering water. Fire burned in lines around her base, and the stone near it ran a bright liquid orange.
She saw us then, and sound came out of her with the slow booming of a rock avalanche. Somehow, I vaguely understood it. "Bugs, you dare to come before me? I am not so weakened as to fall," she said. Then she brought down her palm in a flat arc to smash us as if we were insects.
* * *
I pushed Sam into the water and jumped out of the way onto a platform just far enough away to avoid her hand. The force of her slap caused the water all around to jump higher than my head. It reminded me of a child playing in the bath, slapping the water's surface and making it splash. "Except you're not that cute," I grunted.
Sam rose pink-skinned from the water and I grabbed the end of his crowbar and helped him back onto the platform. "Really? Push me into the water?" he gasped, dripping.
"I made sure you didn't get hit."
"Well, couldn't you have just yelled, 'Run,' or 'Jump,'" instead?"
"What if you hadn't reacted in time?" I shrugged. "This way I was sure. The chest seems to be the weak spot. I'm going to make a run for it."
A few running leaps brought me to a platform close to her base, which looked like hips growing into the mountain's core. Another leap brought me to her waist, where I used the claws on my hands and feet to scurry up the rock of her body like a spider.
I'd just reached the chest and was extending a clawed hand towards the water filled chamber that held her "heart" when I was brushed off. I went flying, my whole right side where I'd been hit feeling like I'd slammed hard into a stone wall, which I guess technically I had.
My Skills let me twist around to land on all fours, thankfully onto a platform. I dug the claws on all four limbs into the stone and gouged strips out of it, but I still had enough momentum from her swat to slide off the edge into the scalding water. I scrambled back out of it, gasping in shock at the temperature. No wonder Sam had been perturbed. A few minutes in there and he'd have been cooked like a lobster. Creatures who I suddenly had a lot more sympathy for, by the way.
Sam ran around her base in a circle, whacking the stone with his crowbar. It barely even chipped her. He tossed it away and positioned himself behind her, putting a hand on her in an attempt to use his Skill.
The mountain-slash-woman scowled in frustration for a minute, then unhinged her water-jointed arms and twisted them backward, over her head.
Sam stepped away from her, and a nice chunk of her base, crystallized and sparkly, crumbled away with him. He ducked her swing and made it a safe distance away from her on the other side, so that it looked like we were playing a doomed-to-fail game of monkey in the middle.
But then she roared and out of her burst another wave and ring of fire. Almost immediately the water golems popped out of the water, sliding around half submerged on water tails like a snake, and the fire creatures looked bigger and fiercer.
"We have to stop her," I called across the caldera to Sam.
The mist veil had cleared, and I saw that the other two were still busy fighting their respective golems. It was just us, and we didn't have much time before she multiplied again and the amount of golems became insurmountable. I flexed my claws and whispered, "I won't lose here," to myself, and sprang forward to attack the thing again, as Sam did the same. This time, I crawled up to her shoulder to hack and gouge at the joint there, trying to break off her arm so she'd lose some of her attack power.
Any piece of her rock I broke loose was immediately replaced with the glass-clear water, and I didn't know if my actions made a difference.
Once again, I saw her other hand racing toward me, but this time jumped out of the way, landing on her collarbone, at the base of her neck. I thought I was safe, and was surprised when the shock of her hand's impact with her shoulder shook her whole body like a large earthquake, sending me falling down her chest. I tried to claw my way to a stop, but her other arm came around and smashed into me again.
She was moving faster than she had before, almost as if she were waking up, or maybe warming up, judging by the heat radiating from those huge stone fingers when they smashed into my ribs and arm.
This time, I landed in the water and shot a good few meters into it before slowing and starting to pull my way back to the surface.
When I reached it, barely escaping a water golem, I climbed onto a steaming platform and coughed and shuddered as my head swam from the heat and lack of oxygen combined.
I looked up, only to see one huge stone hand throw Sam spinning end over end across the caldera like a skipping stone. He looked like a rag doll when he hit the water bouncing. He was stopped by a firm bodily meeting with the far wall, and sank into the water unmoving. I flinched at the sight, and hoped with all my might that he was all right. I wasn't sure how he could be, though. Not after being thrown like that. He was our healer, and without him the aftermath of this fight didn't look so good.
I sent a Window to Jacky to help Sam, but in my worry over his survival, I was distracted. I noticed far too late the feeling of a huge hand rushing down toward me as the air swirled noisily with the force of its movement. I tried to roll away, back into the water, but knew that I wasn't going to make it. The shadow from above was already darkening the stone, there was no way.
But then there was Adam's voice, shouting "Animus!" above me, and a huge gust of wind as something collided with enough force to create a shock wave.
I looked up and saw that the beautiful tattoos of his arms and shoulders, which he’d so painstakingly and lovingly grown, were holding both her arms in place. They had sprung from his flesh huge and thick, and were rooting him to the ground, and her to him, in unmovable knots.
She brought her full weight to bear, trying to crush him into the ground along with me, even as he held her still. The sound of stone grinding on stone filled the air.
He looked over his shoulder to me, sweat and wet dripping hair hanging over his face. "Move!" he screamed at me, his voice raw and shaking.
I sprang to my feet and started running as fast as I could, digging my toe claws into the stone for more grip.
Adam's Animus Skill must have gotten stronger, but I knew I didn't have much time until that tattoo disintegrated into the air, and she flattened him, crushing his bones and internal organs beyond repair.
This was the perfect chance, maybe the only chance, and I needed to stop her immediately, before it was too late and he died.
I sprang up, clawing frantically at her chest.
> She felt me moving, I know, and tried to pull back to brush me off or crush me again, but Adam held her in place even as I felt her stones tremble under me in the effort to pull back. His control of her must have been difficult, because I heard another hoarse scream from him.
But she didn't move, and I reached her chest cavity and plunged myself into it with all the force I could muster. I shot through the water, grabbed the black, blob-like heart floating in the water, and held it to my chest with all my might. I burst out the other side, and was falling, falling, and then crashing hard into a platform.
I looked up and saw that she had started to tip backward, the direction she must have been pulling when Adam's tattoo disappeared.
That was wonderful, because she wouldn’t crush him out of sheer momentum now. It was horrible, because she would crush me instead if I couldn't get out of the way.
So I ran, leaping from stone to stone like a football player hurdling opponents, her heart tucked tightly to my chest. When the shadow from her back started to grow dark around me, I jumped into the water, slicing downward like an arrow.
The force of her impact still shook me hard enough I thought I might lose the air I held in my lungs, but I was safe, and able to swim under her and out to the surface.
--I MADE IT. MAKE SURE ADAM’S OKAY.--
-Eve-
I knew what it must have looked like when the creature fell onto the spot where I'd been, and I didn't want any of the team to worry about me. Adam was the main priority.
I spent a little while just breathing and cooling down, and then held up the heart I'd taken from her chest cavity.
It was a black, shimmering mass, sort of like what the Seeds looked like except for the color, and about the size of a basketball. It flowed around my hand like what I'd seen the water of the creature’s body do, and seemed to notice my inspection, because it started to ripple.
"Oh, wow," I whispered. "Treasure. I guess the Oracle was looking out for me, after all."
* * *
I stood up and started to limp across the basin of that huge bowl cut into the top of the mountain, skirting the fallen creature. The water had succumbed to the force of gravity and flowed away from the body, so it was only a few ginormous rocks lying still on the ground, but they were still somewhat terrifying
The substance around my hand, the woman’s heart, was so dark that my eyes seemed to fall into it, and yet it shimmered light back toward me. As it flowed and rippled around my hand, having attached itself to my fist, I couldn't help but think it both the most beautiful and terrifying thing I'd ever seen. Something about it gave off the feeling of a writhing sea of darkness, despite the points of light and energy that swarmed through it.
Jacky had helped Adam to a seat on the ground next to Sam's motionless body. The two conscious ones drew back noticeably from the substance on my fist as soon as they caught sight, and then looked at it closely for a few seconds, which didn't alleviate all of their hesitation toward it.
Jacky was pale, wet, and shivering despite the heat radiating from her surroundings.
"Is he...okay?" I asked, looking at Sam.
She pursed her lips. "He’s alive. For now. I dunno what to do for him. I really hope he can heal himself."
"Yeah. That's probably why he's sleeping. He needs to focus all his strength on healing himself." I laid my free hand on her shoulder. "You sit down. The fight's over. You did good."
She stared at me with an expression I couldn't decipher for a few moments, and then gave me a half smile. "Thank you."
Adam waved at me from his seat on the ground, looking pale. "I'm fine, too. Just a little worn out from saving you from a huge crazy rock monster. Who also happened to birth little elemental minions every other minute. No biggie. Thanks for asking." His eyes were red and bloodshot from straining so hard the tiny vessels broke under the pressure, and his voice was hoarse from screaming.
I smiled. "What, you mean that was hard for you? I think you should be asking me if I'm okay. I just defeated the monster that gave you so much trouble."
He chuckled, and then started to cough. "So glad you made it in time, though. Otherwise I'd be a pancake."
"But...what about your tattoos? I know how long you must have spent on them, how much effort. They're gone."
He held up his newly bare arms and looked them up and down. "It was pretty bad-ass that I did that, huh?" He pulled his knees to his chest and coughed again. "I'll draw another one. Even cooler, this time."
I bit the inside of my lip and nodded, then went to grab the packs from the rim of the caldera. I awkwardly fumbled the bedrolls and blankets from within the packs with the hand not covered in goo, and helped get camp set up in a smaller niche in the rock side, being careful not to jostle Sam when we moved him. I forced us all to eat something and did my best to feed Sam some broth made from meat and bone juices. It was kind of hard with only one hand free of the black substance, but the others were in no condition to help me. They'd really given their all in the fight. I thought I might have a couple broken ribs, and I’d definitely have full-body bruising from being swatted and tossed around, but I could still function.
When everything was as settled as I could get it, I looked over Sam's sleeping body for obvious injuries. They were everywhere, and told me nothing. So I sat down next to him and closed my eyes, laying my hands lightly on his body like he did whenever he was going to heal someone.
"Nucking futts," Jacky said. "Can you do that? Heal him like he does us?"
I opened one eye. How awesome did this girl think I was? "I'm not a healer. But I might be able to tell if there's anything wrong inside."
"Oh." She drew back and nodded, wrapping her blanket tightly around her shoulders.
I slipped into the hyper-aware state with a bit of a struggle. I was so tired, and my body hurt. It was hard. My mind struggled to focus so much Perception energy in one small place, but I was able to get a vague idea of his injuries. "He's healing himself," I said, opening my eyes and drawing my hands back. "It looks pretty bad in there, but I think, I hope, he can handle it. I don't know what to do to help him."
Jacky rested her forehead on her knees. "He better make it. He…is such a trier. He tries harder than anyone I've ever met. Cares so much."
"He doesn't deserve to die," Adam said.
I sighed, and then gave myself a mental slap on the cheeks. Sighing didn't fix anything. I looked at the mass of strange goop still attached to my right hand and had an idea. "Guys, I want you all to stay tucked away in here, hidden. I'm going to do something potentially very stupid, and I'd like you all at a safe distance when I do."
Adam's wet hair had plastered itself to his head and all down his face, he looked half flushed and half pale, and altogether like crap, but he forced himself to his feet. "You need backup if you're doing something stupid."
"You're in no shape to be my backup," I said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder to push him back down.
"True! Better yet, how about you just don't do anything stupid? That would be awesome." He read my expression and muttered, "Guess that would be too much to ask for."
I turned away, looking back toward the still form at the center, and all around at the water that had ceased to flow. "I'm either crazy, or I'm a freaking lionhearted genius," I said to myself. I moved towards the she-mountain corpse. "Why not both?"
Chapter 34
…a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height,
And time, and place are lost.
— John Milton
I walked over the stone chest of the fallen boulders and stopped at the now empty cavity within it. With my free left hand I reached for the substance on my right. It reached out part of itself as if to meet my hand, which made me pause. I made a pinching motion in the air, and the smaller glob formed into a separate mass, connected to the whole of itself with only a thin string. I grabbed the smaller portion a
nd pulled, and it separated easily, and then started to flow around my left hand.
I hesitated a bit, and then put some of the baseball-sized globe on my left hand back into the bigger mass surrounding my right. I then dropped my left hand into the empty air of the chest cavity and shook a bit, making it clear that I wanted the substance to detach and thinking hard about it doing so.
It slipped off the end of my fingers and hung in the air for a bit. Then the shallow water beneath the cavity began to flow upward to it, surrounding the small ball with an ever-thickening layer of clear water.
“I’m giving you back some of you heart,” I murmured. “Be good and don’t attack me when you wake up.”
After a while, the chest cavity was filled, and the she-mountain stirred, seeming to take a deep breath, though I doubted whether a rock could even need to breathe.
I chose that time to retreat to a suitably safe distance and waited for enough water to gather in and around the creature so that it could move once again. I sat down and waited, hoping desperately that I hadn't just done the stupidest thing since my birth...besides stopping to help that traitorous guy who allowed NIX to give me the Seed in the first place.
The rock and water woman sat up and looked around in bewilderment, then down at me, sitting cross-legged on the stone below her with the majority of her heart flowing happily around my right hand. "You..." her voice came out weaker than before, but still a crashing rumble.
"Hi," I said.
"You have restored my physical form?"
I swallowed down the lump in my throat and tried to sound confident. "I've got a few questions. I hope you can be friendly, otherwise I'll have to take it back."
She threw her head back and her chest shook up and down with a roaring, breaking, booming sound.
It made me tense up for a moment before I realized it was a laugh. Then I had to wonder if her being amused at my threat was really a good thing.
