by Eddie Patin
After a quick scan to make sure that no ettins were charging at him randomly from the surrounding, stinking bog, Jason pulled up his OCS and put in the coordinates for the primal village. He turned off the temporal stuff. He'd been in and out of this universe too many damned times now to mess with time travel; he didn't want to screw everything up.
Jason focused on the coordinates and opened a loud, sputtering rift to the swamp near the northern-most hut. When he stepped through, he immediately closed the rift behind him to keep from making too much noise.
There were no ettins immediately around him.
Good, Jason thought.
He had a moment.
Scanning all horizons, Jason searched for the black storm. He couldn't make out any dark skies in any direction; he was too low and surrounded by trees with thick, high canopies.
Jason looked up at the lowest boughs of the hundred-plus-foot-high mushroom-shaped trees. Then, he looked at the roof of the oversized crude hut near him.
"That'll do," Jason said to himself. The trees thinned out some in the village, so if he stuck to the thatched rooftops, he could probably see the sky.
Jason guesstimated the coordinates for the peak of the nearest hut and opened a rift through the third and fourth dimensions.
He got it on the first try. As his new rift roared to life and shot sparks out onto the grey and brown muddy bog strewn with red algae pieces, the whirling inside cleared and Jason saw that he'd been close enough with his estimate to simply step out onto the roof.
So he did.
As soon as Jason emerged from his rift onto the high roof of the primitive yurt designed for eight-foot-tall giants, he detected the change in light. He wasn't in the shadows of the woods now, but instead, standing in a clear space under a partially-open sky. Even though the sky was constantly choked with clouds and there was no sun or moon in sight, it was definitely bright.
He had no idea how long Riley, Gliath, and Morgana had been stuck here. Jason had been back in time himself, slept a few nights in the Wilderlands and all, and generally had sense now about what time it was or how long he'd been awake. But how long had it been for his friends? Had they been in the Shattered Swamp for a full day? Longer?
Releasing his rift, Jason looked up at the sky.
It was still a little hard to see, but it seemed that through the trees, the sky was dark in one direction more than another. He pulled up his OCS, then quickly ducked when the movement of an incoming spear caught his eye.
One of those crude, reed-based spears of the ettins sailed past him, barely missing.
"Shit!" Jason exclaimed, looking down at the village. He was rushing. There were bad guys. "Oh yeah!"
There were two ettins within fifty yards of him. The two-headed brute that had just thrown his spear—still standing with his arm extended at the end of his throwing motion—was closer than the other. Deeper in the village, Jason saw three more monsters rushing toward him. Two had spears. The other had a huge club.
"Get him!" a belching voice bellowed from below.
"Let's eat it!" another higher, buzzing voice added.
Jason crouched low, pulled up his OCS, and checked its compass function.
The darker sky was to the south. Still south.
"Good," Jason muttered. Then, he put in coordinates for a mile south and thirty feet down.
He opened a blazing rift, then groaned when it cleared to reveal its lower half pitch-black, stuck in the ground. For an instant, Jason wondered what would happen if he tried to go through a rift like that. Would he become one with the ground, himself? Or would it be physical, and he'd be unable to push through it? It would probably be a lot like when he rifted away from the beer ocean. Gallons and gallons of beer sloshed out with him into the Market. If he did that here, a lot of mud and dirt would probably spill through the moment he—
Another spear streaked by overhead, jolting Jason back into the moment. The primitive weapon glanced off of the roof just behind him, bounced, then skittered away down to the ground.
Focus, Jason.
He released the rift, raised the elevation coordinates four feet, then tried again. When a new portal opened, Jason watched and waited for it to clear. The ettins gathering below were shouting in their guttural voices, but their words were drowned out by the roar of the rift. Jason smiled when he saw the corrected destination.
He stepped through, immediately releasing the rift behind him. It collapsed with a pop, and Jason was left in a quiet forested bog surrounded by buzzing insects and the croaking of this world's version of amphibians.
"Keep it going!" Jason shouted to himself, scanning the sky, searching the trees for the dark horizon.
He didn't see anything. He was tempted to rift up into the trees again. Instead, he adjusted his coordinates to go a half-mile further south, and rifted on.
The next destination was the same. He saw a trio of giant rats that were suddenly very curious about him—their glittering eyes and parted jaws reminded him of the raptors back in the Wilderlands considering whether or not he was food—but, when he fired a booming shot from his AK into the mud at his feet, they scattered.
Jason looked around. The dark horizon was still in the same direction, but how much farther did he have to go? When he went this way with Gliath before, they did it on foot. Surely they hadn't gone more than a mile and a half before reaching the castle, right? Could he overshoot it if the storm was still to the south?
Shaking his head with a frown, Jason looked up at the trees.
He really didn't want to rift up into the branches again. That was freaking scary.
But the castle hovered above the treetops, he thought. Get to the top, and you can see for miles. You'll see it...
"God damn it," Jason muttered, eyeing a low, wide branch a hundred feet high.
He groaned, then clicked his AK-47's safety back on. Slinging his rifle, Jason cinched down all of his straps then pulled up the OCS again.
It took a few tries, but Jason eventually opened a rift up into the lowest boughs of a tree once more. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his rising nervousness and speeding heart, he stepped through, instantly wary when he felt bark crunching and slipping under his boots.
Jason reached into his collar to see if the acrylic tear-shaped focus key to cloud world was still there around his neck, next to his home key. It was. He was on a wide branch—a bough about four feet around—and immediately felt dizzy and wobbly when he released the rift in his head.
"Oh fuck!" he cried, flailing his arms as he briskly took several steps—one in front of the other—until he could fiercely hug the massive chunky wall of the main tree trunk.
Not fun, he thought. This part's not fun at all...
Jason clung to the trunk, calmed himself down for a minute, then pried his face away from the bark until he could look around again.
He couldn't see up through the thick canopy of broad, red leaves. He could see down very well—that was for sure—and he could see across to the lower reaches of the surrounding trees' canopies, but he definitely couldn't see the floating castle. Not from this branch.
Go higher, he thought.
"Fuck that!"
Have to save your friends.
Jason clenched his eyes shut after an involuntary look down, then he slowly craned his neck—slowly to avoid making himself dizzy—and peered up into the higher branches. The canopy was dense but flat. The treetops were shaped like mushroom caps, after all.
Looking around, Jason searched for branches that he could climb. The tree was huge enough that there weren't any decent branches for climbing through the canopy until higher up. There was nowhere for him to go from his huge branch. He could rift higher, maybe, and somehow find a place where he could step out onto branches that would hold him...?
Jason turned around and followed the tree branch's path. It continued away from the trunk for fifteen feet or so, then curved up, leading into more branches and deeper into the canopy.
<
br /> The answer seemed obvious, but Jason really didn't want to do it.
"You can do this," he said, carefully turning away from the trunk and putting his back against it.
It's just like walking across a huge log, he thought.
Jason scoffed. "Yeah—a log a hundred feet up in the air!"
He did it. One foot in front of the other, struggling to keep his breathing long and calm, Jason made himself follow the big tree bough up until he could reach new branches to hold. He thought of Morgana's smiling face and beautiful, green eyes. He recalled her being so excited about buying that magnet for the fridge. He thought of Riley and Gliath; thought of the cyborg smirking. He imagined Gliath sharing cat food with his little cat, Zelda. He thought of his new family that needed him.
Eventually, somehow, Jason made it up until he was in a fairly dense labyrinth of various-sized branches. He made himself keep climbing. He found new handholds, carefully considered where to put his feet, and kept going up. He thought back to all of the trees he had to climb to get away from the damned mini-rexes back in the Wilderlands. That trio of Albertosaurs was now down to a duo.
When he emerged into the pale daylight near the top of the canopy, the brightness surprised him. Jason then pushed himself further and further up until his head was finally above the trees and under the pale sky.
He could see forever in all directions.
He saw the swirling, malicious-looking storm of black vapors. From up above the trees, he could see it was more than just a dark wall on one horizon. It was a huge mass of shadowy, angry weather swirling around to the south. The maelstrom was vast, and its evil dark visage was the first thing to capture Jason's attention. He couldn't look away.
The second thing he saw was the castle.
It was perhaps a mile away from him to the southeast. Looking at it from the canopy was a lot like when he'd watched it from the clearing. It was a structure equally magnificent and strange with all of its seemingly pointless bridges and orbiting buildings gleaming and white as before. Now, Jason knew that the castle's randomness was inside as well as out; the result of its chaotic, shuffling nature.
As Jason stared at the floating fortress, it seemed to shrink, little by little...
Jason gasped.
It was moving. The entire castle was slowly flying away from him, loosely drifting east along the perimeter of the malevolent storm.
And was ... the storm moving with it?
It was hard to tell. Jason stared at a tree at the edge of the black gusts and watched it gradually swallowed by the maelstrom.
"Holy shit!" he said.
It was moving, but it wasn't moving fast.
That was enough. Jason looked at his OCS, took a heading, then started a fearful, slow climb back down to the larger branches. He needed to rift back to the ground, but he wasn't about to try that from the smaller branches at the top of the tree.
After a harrowing descent, step by step and one handhold at a time, Jason found his way back to the wide branch then slowly back to the trunk.
Then, he inputted some coordinates along the same heading as the castle, a mile away and a hundred feet down.
It took a few tries, but Jason eventually landed a destination rift on the ground.
He stepped through just as the winds began kicking up and the forest darkened.
"Right on time!" Jason shouted to himself, grinning, feeling a little punchy.
Yep. He was tired. He was fried by adrenaline and becoming exhausted. He was starting to feel a little goofy, and tried to shove it all down.
"Focus!" he added, dropping his OCS back to his side and pulling up his rifle. He flipped off the safety.
When the maelstrom came in at him in force, Jason had to squint his eyes against the stinging winds and flecks of mud and muck flying around. He looked up, expecting to see the castle, but the sky was as black as pitch. He did see six blue balls floating down from a central point, circling together as if they were the running lights of an alien UFO.
That's where the castle was.
The will-o-wisps would come first; then, the giant.
Jason raised his muzzle to the descending formation of blue lights, settled on one, waited until he was most likely to hit it, then carefully squeezed the trigger. His AK-47 boomed, and he missed.
The descending will-o-wisps seemed to react, changing their flight paths slightly to head his way; fanning out as they approached the storm-stricken bog. Jason took aim and fired again, this time nicking one along its left side. His 7.62x39mm round made a bright white streak along the strange creature where it hit, and the will-o-wisp listed to one side then slowly drifted to the ground, darkening as it went.
Jason found another target, let out his breath, then carefully squeezed the trigger as the thing slowly bobbed up and down toward him from the other side of his front sight...
His rifle boomed. The will-o-wisp burst like a shot cantaloupe full of blue sparks.
"Yeah!" Jason cried, aiming at the next one. "Where are you, giant?! Come on down, Vorealus!"
Hearing his own words made Jason more than a little afraid. He felt a bit crazy. He felt desperate. He needed to save his friends. Getting rid of the broken god—the mad titan—seemed like the only way.
He shot another will-o-wisp. It burst like a balloon. Were they this weak in DnD? he wondered. Or were they just unable to stand up to high velocity gunfire? An AK-47 was probably somewhat of a different ballgame than swords and daggers and short bows...
When Vorealus did approach—descending from the darkness with his sculpted body wreathed in elemental flame and radiating a blue light into the storm whipping around him—Jason was shocked. He'd been expecting it. It seemed that the giant always came after the will-o-wisps, and he was honestly trying to 'troll' him into coming outside, but now that the titan was here, Jason felt terror wash over him.
The bonfire in Jason's heart was smothered by the primordial giant's might. The vision of Vorealus floating down was like looking up at an angry lightning god coming down to smite the world.
Jason felt that familiar buzzing numbness wash through his mind, then his body, then it went away.
"Are you so eager to meet your death, little one?!" Vorealus boomed above the roar of storm. Jason heard the words echoed in his mind. He felt himself trembling.
He sank the buttstock of his AK into his shoulder and planted his feet.
"Come down here and see!" Jason shouted back then almost gagged from fear. His rifle felt puny and useless, but it wasn't the weapon he intended to use...
The titan reached the bog as the gusts of black wind blew around them. Standing tall and towering over Jason—rich, primal strength and pure elemental power pouring off of him—Vorealus touched down to the ground with an earthshaking crash. Jason stumbled then straightened himself again. He released his AK's grip with his right hand and touched the lava key, feeling his way through the ninth dimension to lava world.
His feet are on the ground, he thought. Jason could see the mud lighten under the giant's sandal soles, instantly dried-out and hardened.
Jason opened the rift under the giant's feet once again. He hoped with every ounce of his soul that he was right; that standing on solid earth would affect the giant differently than when he was standing in his magical flying castle.
"You are an interesting creature," Vorealus said with a voice like thunder. "You will make an interesting—"
When the portal flared to life, unfurling and expanding with orange fire, Vorealus paused his sentence, looking down in bemused curiosity at the ocean of magma below him. Then went on, still standing and hovering solidly above the roaring, whirling portal to Hell under his feet.
Jason's world shattered. It wasn't working. He was helpless again.
"I will add you to my menagerie, little man! You will enjoy being my pet, portal creature!"
Jason aimed his AK at the spitting rift under the giant's feet and shot it. He was close enough to feel the heat of t
he lava ocean on the other side as if he was sitting a few feet away from a raging bonfire. The sound of deep and unending bubbling and popping and hissing joined the portal's roar.
Vorealus didn't seem to care. He still stood in place as if his feet were on solid ground. Even his clothes didn't burn. He didn't appear to be the least bit bothered.
There was nothing that Jason could do...
The giant crossed his mighty arms over his chest and stared down at Jason darkly, filling the Earth man with an infinite well of dread.
"But first," the titan said, his voice booming and making Jason's bones shake, "I shall punish you. Know that I only punish you because I love you, and..."
He trailed off as Jason turned to run.
Everything felt like it was falling apart inside. Jason's heart was crushed under a huge, cold weight that was grinding into his guts. He thought of his friends and knew that he'd never see them again. He was on this cursed swamp world where they were just supposed to be in and out and grab a troll's head, and now his friends were going to die, stuck in floating cubes of glass to entertain a crazy giant.
Jason didn't think. He ran.
He still felt the connection to lava world, and didn't want to let go of it just yet. He was hoping against all odds that the giant would somehow stumble and fall inside. Then, Jason could get his friends back.
He cared a lot about Morgana. Now, she was going to die up in her cube prison, and he didn't even see her when he was up in the menagerie last time! And it hadn't been long since Riley and Gliath had swooped into his life, turning everything upside down, but Jason couldn't imagine living any other kind of life now.
Jason hadn't run more thirty steps or so from the giant before he felt woozy and the darkness of the swirling storm began closing in around his vision and hearing.
His eyes became blurry. The world before him tilted. Then, it seemed like the trees around him had doubled, then quadrupled, then octupled—all along the same path—and Jason was left looking at spectral walls of repeating giant trees...
It didn't make sense. The trees multiplied, blurry and dark, until they made walls ... like he was running down a swampy corridor.
