by KJ Harlow
It felt like a nap, anyway. Kai would nudge him awake with his furred foot, jabbing him in the ribs with his spear a few times. Sure enough, Karst dipped more and more below the horizon. To his credit, Kai did explain how to tell the time from the movements of the moon.
“Find the most unimpeded part of the land, closest to where the moon touches Terrafaytum. Approximate the moon into thirty horizontal slivers. We rest and rise by each moon shift.” When Cal asked whether a moonshift equated to a day and how he knew when one moonshift ended and another began, Kai just gave him a bemused look. Cal shook his head. Time was one of the few things he had control over on Earth. He didn’t realise how much he relied on the sun until it didn’t exist anymore.
The wind had increased in speed gradually. By the time they got to the entrance of the valley that gently sloped up into the mountains, it was a full force gale. Karst was gone and Hyten presented itself in its full glory. Full, heavy clouds scudded across the sky, the wind pummelling them until they collided into the mountain peaks. Like over-ripe peaches they burst, dropping sheets of rain onto the two travellers.
“Keep moving,” Kai shouted as a bolt of lightning cut across the sky. Cal spat out the water that had collected in his undermaw. It beaded and ran off his rubberoak front plate. “What, scared of a little rain?”
Cal pushed past Kai. He trudged up, slipping slightly on the slick pebbles beneath his feet. The rain that had been trickling moments before had now built itself up to a churning creek a few inches deep.
“What was that?” Cal froze. The earth shuddered, he was sure of it. It lasted only a second or so. He turned back to the werejaguar. “Did you feel that?”
Kai wasn't there. He was already several yards away, running back the way they came. He turned around and yelled something out, but it was snatched away by a thunderpitch fracturing the sky.
Another shudder. Cal turned back around, just in time to see a wall of water 10 feet high crashing and churning towards him.
“Oh shit.”
Cal turned around and started running in the same direction and Kai.
“Earth Wall!” He threw his hand back casting the earth craft haphazardly. Running down the hill, he looked back again. His Earth Wall had already collapsed and had begun sliding down towards him. It was coming towards him a lot faster than the water was. He jumped on impulse and landed on top of his Earth Wall. He flattened himself onto the several inch thick slab of earth. It crunched into a sharp turn, a corner of it crumbling into the water and started spinning.
Water crushed onto Cal as he held on for dear life. He didn’t know where he was. His world was a maelstrom of storm rain and violet lightning.
“Orc!”
Cal opened his eyes, just as his MP hit zero and the Earth Wall broke out from underneath him. He snagged onto a couple of sharp, rock protrusions as water poured into his mouth.
“Grab onto my spear!”
Kai was up on a ledge, about seven feet away. He brandished his spear a foot above Cal’s head.
“Lower!” Cal gurgled.
“Reach up!” Kai roared. Cal spat out the excess water that he had swallowed and Kai speared him in the eye.
-1 Damage!
“Hey!” Cal shouted amid the din.
“Grab onto it!”
Cal flung a hand out. He missed the first time. Second time around, he managed to close his fingers around the spear, under the base of the tip. He grabbed on with both hands as Kai gritted his teeth and slowly dragged him out of the water and up on to the ledge. Cal rolled out onto the smooth rock ledge, coughing up more water.
“Don’t die, you hear me? We don’t have time to start back in the plains!”
Cal’s head lolled to the side, the rain beating down on his already bedraggled being. Kai stood up and disappeared out of Cal’s line of vision. A minute or so later, he reappeared.
“Stand up,” Kai ordered. Cal rolled over and forced himself to his hands and knees. “Follow me.” With head down, Cal stumbled in the direction that Kai was leading him. The rain had begun to abate. He followed the werejaguar straight into a cave where a fire had already been lit.
“Lie down, not too close to the flames. I’m not going to rescue you if you accidently cook yourself.”
Cal didn’t need to be told that twice. He slumped to the hard, rocky surface, a couple feet away from the fire.
“Rest. We move at the next moonshift.”
“Is this you being nice to me?” Cal asked, his voice echoing around the cave.
Kai growled but didn’t say anything. Just as it sounded like the rain was slowing down, it begun to sheet down again. Thankfully, this cave was at the top of an incline. A little water pooled outside the entrance, but most of it poured back into the valley.
“Why didn’t you tell me that there was going to be a flood?” Cal grumbled.
“I did. You were just too far ahead and couldn’t hear me.”
“So you ditch me then, do you? Leave me to die?”
“Makes no difference to you.”
“But what if I couldn't respawn? Would you have saved me?”
Kai didn’t say anything, staring into the fire. The flames danced off the amulet resting on Kai’s chest. Cal moved his left hand to his hip, feeling for metal. Thank god, Both axes were still there. He breathed a sigh of relief and ending up coughing some residual water. Kai got up and padded across the floor of the cave. He leaned at the edge of the cave entrance.
Cal hadn’t died, that was a good thing. He kicked himself for not having checked for a Check Point once they got to the Valley. He closed his eyes, feeling a lot warmer and drier already. Falling into a fretful sleep, Cal dreamt of a snowy jaguar staring at him with vivid yellow eyes in the middle of a forest. For some reason, he could also smell the scent of mayonnaise and peaches.
7
You Shall Not Pass
20,155th Cycle
2-Hyten
The following moonshift the rain had stopped. Cal stretched and groaned. Kai leered at him from the other side of the cave.
“Lead the way, oh fearless leader,” Cal said.
They stood outside the cave, peering down the valley. Hyten was large and lovely, sitting daintily on the lip of the horizon. Clouds raced each other across the sky, the blustery winds giving them a bit of a boost.
“Let’s move before the next storm hits.” Kai jumped off the top of the ledge. He twisted and spun in the air before sticking a perfect landing in a crouching position. He turned back and looked up at Cal.
“Well?”
Cal sighed. He went to the edge and peered down. There was a stone protrusion a foot or so down to his right. He jumped to it. So far so good. In total, it took him 10 minutes, give or take to join Kai on the ground floor.
“The four moons have already completed a cycle, could you be any slower?”
Cal looked witheringly at Kai. Just to be sure, he glanced back at Hyten. A thin sliver at the bottom looked to be sinking beneath the horizon, but that could have been Cal and his lower point of view. He looked back at Kai. He had already started walking back up the path Cal was swept down the previous moonshift.
Cal chased after him, his axes clinking against one another.
“Comrade status,” Cal whispered under his breath.
NAME: Kai
AGE: 47 (Terrafaytum)
CLASS: Werejaguar Warrior
LVL: 15
HP: 167/167
MP: 150/150
AFF: Fire (x1)
STR: 41+2%
DEF: 42+1%
AGL: 38+3%
INT: 28+1%
ABILITY: Examine
SKILL: Flaming Spear – Level 8 – Next Level in 89%
WEAPON: Lance/Spear – Level D – Next Level in 89%
“How about you let me take the next kill, huh? No one like a kill hog.”
“Not my fault if you’re too slow.”
“Shut up.”
Kai whipped his head over his shou
lder, red eyes blazing. “Say that again, orc.”
Cal took a few bounds forward, trying to minimise his impact to the ground. “Shut up! I saw something moving up ahead.” He reached Kai and pulled him aside.
“Get your dirty hands–”
Cal clapped his hand over Kai’s mouth. The werejaguar’s breath was hot on his fingers. He was banking on Kai’s disgust of him to stop him from ripping out his fingers. Tearing his neck out once and tasting his flesh should have been enough orc for one lifetime.
Kai’s red eyes flashed angrily. All Cal did was point to the direction he saw the movement from. The valley was narrower and steeper here. The two mountains that flanked the path left a tiny gap for storm water to flow through. Or rather, storm water managed to carve a path out between two ginormous mountains over the equivalent of several decades in Terrafaytum. For 10 seconds, the only movement was the resilient, gnarled trees shrugging as the wind blew through them. Then, a rock began to move.
Except it wasn’t a rock. It moved like it had short, stumpy legs and was the size of a giant tortoise. It plodded over to a puddle of stagnant water. It was reflective like the mercury-like waters of Lake Mercat, but had flecks of questionable matter floating inside it. The sound of thirsty lapping filled the air.
“What in the name of Karst is that?” Kai whispered.
A chime sounded from his chest. Kai twisted out of Cal’s grip and slid onto the cold, stone ground, his back against the stone. A projection beamed out from the amulet and formed a screen a couple feet in front. A deep, growly voice that sounded like Kai’s except more calm and assured spoke.
Stonecritter
A warm-blooded creature whose outer skin has hardened into a crystalline structure. Very territorial. Attempts to cook him from the outside with fire proved futile. After breaking through the shell-like skin, all you have to do is puncture its fleshy innards and it will eventually bleed to death. Meat is gamey and nutritious.
A video replay from the eyes of the speaker showed a werejaguar’s muscled arm wielding a lance. The stonecritter charged at him and moments before impact, the perspective shifted such that it watched the Stonecritter crash into the side of a mountain. There was another sudden movement. The stone critter became really small, then really big in the space of five seconds as the werejaguar leapt into the air. He drove his spear through the top of the beast’s shell, crunching through stone several inches thick.
“Was that Zkar?” Cal asked, the video replay collapsing back into the amulet.
Kai grunted, standing up. Cal also got to his feet. The stonecritter had now shuffled to the other side of the clearing and started grazing on some of the succulent saplings that had pushed through the rock to take in the seasonal rain water.
Cal focused on the creature:
NAME: Stonecritter
LVL: 19
AFF: Wind
HP: 570/570
MP: 720/720
ABILITY: Rush Crush
“We should find a way to get around this thing if we can,” Cal said.
“Not going to happen.” Kai pulled out his spear, firing it up.
“It’s not even bothering us–”
“It’s in our way!” Kai snarled.
The stonecritter stopped snuffling around. He rotated until it was facing Cal and Kai. It started grunting irritably.
“You can take the next kill,” Kai said. “This fiend is mine.” He jumped over the stone barrier landing lithely. He paid no heed to the flames licking his hand as he gripped his lance in his left hand. The stonecritter was slowly rotating, making sure that Kai didn’t leave his sight.
Cal kept himself half hidden behind the rock. Kai wasn’t going to do what he thought he was going to do, right? The stonecritter screeched, scraped the ground with his left front paw and charged at Kai.
It was impossibly fast, so fast that it caught Kai by surprise. He pointed his spear at the stonecritter then, at the last minute changed tact, digging it into the ground and launching himself over the angry creature. The stonecritter knocked the spear out of Kai’s hand and instead of landing gracefully on the ground, he fell awkwardly on his side.
The stonecritter dug its feet into ground, pushing gravel and pebbles up. As it did a 180, Kai raced over to where his spear lay. Gripping it with both hands tightly, he roared and the weapon came alight again. Kai went for an all-out, full-frontal attack.
It was an impressive display of whacking, stabbing and cutting. It would have been more impressive if Kai was able to penetrate the stonecritter’s hard shell, which it had sensibly retreated back into.
“It’s just tiring you out.” Cal brought up Kai’s status screen momentarily; his MP was dangerously low. On cue, the flame disappeared and Kai’s stone spear became ordinary again. He was doing his best to hide the deep breaths that he was dragging in.
“It’s got a weak spot, everyone’s got a weak spot.”
The stonecritter poked its head out from its protective shell. Black, beady eyes blinked at Kai. Even its eyelids were encrusted with stone. Its legs, thick as tree trunks made their way out of its shell. It started taking a few steps back.
“Kai, get out of the way!” Cal yelled.
“If it doesn’t have a weak spot, create one!” Kai gripped his spear with both hands again. He put one leg behind him, holding the spear in front of him.
“Oh my God Kai, get out of the way!” Kai didn’t budge. The stonecritter trumpeted and charged at the trespasser.
“Earth Wall!” Cal raised his hand. A wall of compacted dirt, sand and stone rose six feet in to the air. At the same time, the stonecritter drew its head and legs back into its shell, spitting up gravel again as it kicked itself into a death spin. Kai’s spear also came alight again, using the little mana he had been able to regenerate in the time the critter had prepared to attack him.
The stonecritter crunched into the Earth Wall. It absorbed most of the shock but still managed to smash through it. Kai’s flaming lance pinged off the creature’s spinning shell and spiralled through the air before clattering into the dirt several yards away. Kai was stunned into silence.
“Get away you idiot!” Cal yelled. Too late…
Critical Hit!
-157 Damage!
He flew horizontally through the air, arms and legs limp before thudding into the ground. The stonecritter’s death spiral slowly came to a stop. Cal watched it shuffle over to the unmoving Werejaguar, heart in his throat. These things weren’t carnivorous, were they?
It sniffed the were jaguar, nudging it with its head a few times. Satisfied that the intruder was dead, it plodded back to its nest, conveniently located right through the path they needed to go through to get to Gresshia.
Keeping one eye on the creature, Cal scurried over to Kai. The werejaguar was pretty banged up: cuts, bruises, one of his legs was at a wonky angle. A rushing of wind and a chime sounded. Shit! Cal looked back; the stonecritter seemed not to have noticed.
“Callahan, is that you?” Keizen asked.
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Kai vs. stonecritter. Guess who won.” Keizen was silent. “I threw up an Earth Wall just as it was coming full brunt at Kai.” That sounded more pathetic than he meant it to sound. He looked down at the mess that was the werejaguar. Damn, he isn’t actually dead, is he? Kai’s mouth hung open, his tongue sticking out the side. Hesitating for a moment, he pinched his cheek. He didn’t think that Kai would be the first werejaguar whose fur he would touch, but here he was.
“Have you used those potions I’ve left for you?” Cal quickly withdrew his hands.
“No, I’ll take one of them out now.” Cal glanced at the stonecritter again, plunging his hand into the satchel. It didn’t take long for the bulbous shape of the health potion to appear in his hand. He pulled it out, uncorked it and gave it a sniff. The familiar scent of lime and peach filled the air. Just smelling it made Cal feel invigorated. Cal recorked it and set it aside. He propped
Kai up onto his lap.
“Here goes nothing…” uncorking it again, he poured it down the back of Kai’s tongue. Kai sat bolt upright, spluttering.
“Karst’s backside!”
“Keep it down!” Cal said. He had pulled out of the way just in time but some of the health potion had splashed out onto the ground. It gleamed momentarily before disappearing. There was panicked grunting in the stonecritter’s direction.
“Callahan, how is he?”
“I don’t know, Kai, how are you?”
“What were you doing to me?” Kai was on his feet. His previously wonky leg was now set right. Cal brought up his comrade’s status, focusing on his vital information:
NAME: Kai
AGE: 47 (Terrafaytum)
CLASS: Werejaguar Warrior
LVL: 15
HP: 108/167
MP: 30/150
“He’s a lot better,” Cal said.
“Where’s my spear?” Kai looked around helplessly, his frantic eyes settling on Cal. “What happened to it?”
“Keizen, we’re having some trouble defeating this stonecritter. Its hide is too thick. Do you know if it has a weakness?”
“Its underbelly.”
“Kai, shut up for a moment!” Cal yelled.
“I can’t find my spear!” The creature was heading towards them again, grunting in distress.
“Flip it onto its underbelly. It doesn’t have any stonehide protecting it there.”
Cal thought for a moment, recalling the memory of Zkar’s battle with a stonecritter. “What if we were to bait it into attacking us then get it to tackle a stone wall instead? That would stun it and we could flip it over then take it down.”
“Yes, that would work…” even through the amulet, Cal could hear the hesitation in her voice. “They are heavy, though. Very heavy. The two of you would not be able to lift it.”
“Sorry Keizen, got to go.” Cal shoved Kai as hard as he could, using the force of the push to also repel himself the other way just as the stonecritter whizzed between the two of them.
“My spear!” Kai bounded a few yards down the slope. Cal watched the Werejaguar’s tail twitch, his body out of sight, at the same time keeping an eye on the creature that looked like it now wanted a piece of him.
