TR: 7

Chapter Seven: Axe

Brian awoke to the sound of water dripping, a heady aroma, and a pounding in his skull. His vision was blurry but it appeared that he wasn’t missing much; he was surrounded by complete, utter darkness. As his sight cleared it soon became all too apparent that he was no longer in the gym.  He recalled the feeling of falling but beyond that his memories betrayed him. Something about a guy in a suit… It didn’t’ make any sense. Brian wondered if he could be dreaming. He reached across his body and pinched his forearm. Pain radiated up his arm and he quickly realized that he was certainly in reality. Or some form of it. He scanned around him for any source of light but there was none to be found. Though he was not afraid of the dark, a sense of insecurity settled on to him like a blanket of vulnerability, as if he were a prey animal exposed to attacks on all sides. Perhaps he was; there was no telling what lay just beyond in the unknown.

He mulled over his last waking moments but everything came to him in pieces. He recalled falling through a tunnel…no, not a tunnel. A shaft. Elevator shaft. But how had he got there? An image of the maintenance level flashed through his mind but he had no idea what it meant. He couldn’t recall seeing any other employees, or anyone for that matter. And who just fell down an elevator shaft? Mik’s very angry face was the last thing he could recall. That, and something that looked less like a face and more like…what was that, a doll? Some kind of mask, maybe? It almost looked ghastly, like something a child would wear on Saevertine, during those creepy solstice tribute dances they did. Brian couldn’t be quite sure but the image–it conjured up the likeness of a skull; large hollows where eyes should have been, nought but two small slits for a nose and a mouth that looked like it should have belonged to an animal, not a man. Oddly enough, the image was the only vivid one in the melange floating around in his head which further added to his current confusion. As much as he wanted to slough it off as a misadventure, Brian couldn’t connect any of it in his mind.

It just made no sense.

Despite his lack of sight, he made a move to stand up. Whatever he was laying on was unstable and he immediately lost his footing, tumbling downward on a grade that he never even knew he was on. As he came to a stop, he felt loose debris roll onto him from behind, cascading down from the pile. He had no idea what it was but it was soft and moist and smelled kind of funny. He got to his feet, brushing off chunks of the material that clung to him. He looked around and his heart skipped when he saw a wan light in the distance. It had a faint bluish tinge, the light ebbing gently in the natural dance of a flame. It appeared to be some distance away from his current location and he felt apprehension at wandering across an expanse with no visual feedback whatsoever. He found himself mildly wishing he had opted to install some of those retroreflective optic mods that let people see better in the dark, though the trade off of exposing himself to brain-jacking outweighed the fleeting desire and he quickly pushed the thought away.

“Good thing they still make watches.” Brian said aloud.

He clicked a button on his wristwatch and a considerably powerful beam of blue light shone out of the face of the display. He angled the beam at the floor and began walking towards the light in the distance. After several steps, Brian soon began to realize how cold it was in the area. There was a slight draught in the air which added a kind of austerity to the general heaviness that the darkness imposed as if he were walking through an endless dungeon. Brian didn’t like the thought that he was a prisoner, even if his prison seemed to have no apparent walls. What kind of unseen hand was moving behind the iron curtain? That was what really frightened him: that there was some kind of intelligence behind it all. Brian’s mind wandered to the thought of aliens–why they scared so many people, same with ghosts, ghouls and all the rest. It was the unknown but not just; when the unknown was similar enough to humanity, with the potential to plot and perform horrible acts, suddenly it came too close to home.

Maybe we are just afraid of ourselves. He thought.

Brian let his mind wander as he played around with the idea of the unknown. It didn’t particularly scare him, per se, but he was fully aware of its effects on others.  His sister was a good example; try as he may, nothing he did could get her to overcome her fear of spiders. There was just something about them, and something about her, that didn’t connect. Some kind of glitch in the wiring, perhaps, or maybe one of those ancient archetypes that persisted in the psyche–a throwback to the time of lesser monkey minds. Thinking about her made Brian realize how much he missed his family. It had been weeks since he’d been back home and it was due time for a visit, if not a good excuse to duck out of Falkner’s for a time. If that’s where he still was…

After at a time, he stopped to survey around him with what little radius of illumination his watch cast around him. It wasn’t until he stopped moving that he began to realize just how cold it was in the place. It didn’t help that he only had on a t-shirt and shorts, though that couldn’t have been blamed, what with the recent heat spell that the area had been getting. Brian hadn’t banked on ending up in, well…wherever it was he was in. If he had known he was to end up on a journey to the centre of Rynn, he may have better dressed for the occasion. Seeing nothing around him to help get better bearings, he sighed and continued on.

It wasn’t ten steps later that he was jarred out of his mind-spell as he stepped on something off. A horrible smell emanated up from below and Brian fought off the urge to vomit. He shone his light down at his foot and saw that he had stepped into a massive pile of shit, up to his shin.

“Really? Who the hell left that there!” He cursed.

He groaned as he kicked the clinging clumps off of him as best as he could. It appeared to still be somewhat fresh so a partial sheen of grime adhered to his skin. He frowned around him, shining his light in every direction but there was no sign of the dastardly pooper, just blackness and silence. As he surveyed the area, he jerked his beam back to the pile of crud in front of him, noticing something suddenly: the pile appeared to be part of a series of others, leading away in the darkness. It was a trail. Oddly enough, it led back the way he had come, though he wasn’t sure how he had missed it. Curious, Brian turned back around and began to walk alongside the piles of dung as he followed them back to the location where he had woken up. Minutes later, Brian arrived at the heaping mound upon which he had awoken and he gasped as he shone his light up onto the massive amalgam.

It was shit all the way up. A humongous, impossibly horrible pile of it.

It was what he had landed on–what had cushioned his fall. Brian shone his light onto his person and realized that, indeed, he was covered in it as well, confirming his suspicion. He must have awoken desensitized to the smell but now that the reality of his situation had been made clear to him, he gagged and nearly threw up on the spot. After several dry heaves, he managed to regain control of his mind, knowing that any calories he still had in his system which were too precious to upchuck. But starvation was far down his list of immediate concerns; he needed to find out who–or what–had left such a monstrous donation behind since they–or it–may still be down there with him. Brian only hoped it hadn’t come from one creature. If it did, it certainly wasn’t small, and that posed its own set of problems. Most likely, Brian realized he was in some kind sewage disposal facility but that struck him as odd since he knew Falkner’s recycled all of its waste in a central inciniforge treatment plant, so why would they need another dumping ground? He shone his light up above him to see if he could make out any kind sluice or piping but all he could see was a wall of darkness, nothing to corroborate his theory. He moved his light back to the pile before him and stared up at the mound in awe. He couldn’t even think of any creature large enough to make such a heap.

There were the giants of course, but they were much further out in the countryside and they never even came close to the ocean since they were terrified of water.  Though he had never run into one (thankfully), he had heard they rarely grew to be larger than about 3 stories, and this pile was half again as high as that, so that didn’t add up.

Then there were the Rocs. There were many in the area and some grew quite large but nothing even close to what he was seeing. Besides, their clifftop roosts were the opposite clime to what he was in; no self-respecting bird would ever find itself in such a place.

That left only the Tyrakk–those ancient, elusive saurian beasts that roamed in the deepwoods. But no one really knew for sure if they existed; they were legend, mainly. There were rumours among the local tribes that a few stragglers from bygone eras had eked out a living in the extreme environments of the deepwoods–in the safety of the caves and bogs–and that they had somehow managed to avoid the past apocalypses of Rynn; her intermittent purges. Brian didn’t believe any of it though. Tyrakk were certainly long extinct, as were almost all of the other fey creatures of lore. Aside from a  handful of dwarfs, and the Yan of course, no one was sure if the fey were ever real. Dwarfs wouldn’t talk about much other than the bottle, out of some kind of shame that no one other than them understood, and as a rule of thumb you never pried into an elf’s business, so it was anyone’s best guess as to the veracity of the legends. There certainly wasn’t any fossil record to back up the alleged sightings. They were likely nothing more than fables told by children, enhanced by fears and ignorance, and propagated by wishful thinking and time. Brian had lived and worked in the area for years and the strangest thing he had ever seen was a bear that had somehow gotten its head stuck in a log. That is, until that moment–where a very real and very large pile of crap stood before him. And something definitely was to blame.

He scratched his head as he stared up at the pile and turned back to look at the light in the distance. Maybe he would find an answer there.

Did he want to find an answer?

Brian struggled with the thought–with the right move. Inevitably, he decided, he would have to find a way out, and standing there staring up at a mysterious pile of crud wasn’t going to get him there. So that left one choice. He winced at the light and took a deep breath.

“Let’s hope nobody’s home.”

Brian turned away and made his way back into the darkness by the light of his watch, toward the far-off glimming.

***

Kade had completely lost all sense of time. While he could easily convert his Holomate to a chrono display, at nearly 2% power, the only thing that mattered was keeping the light going. So, he had switched his device into low-power mode and shut off all extraneous programs, including his chronometer. Every bit and byte counted in those last moments of computing power, even if it left him senseless toward the passage of time. Kade hadn’t ascertained much about his surroundings other than the fact that the room that he was in huge. More than that, in fact: nearly endless. Kade had deciphered this property of the room by the fact he had yet to discover any kind of wall or retaining surface in the place, and he had already done some significant scouting. By his estimate, his longest foray in one direction had to have taken him at least a leave, and there was still no development in the surrounding the landscape. This meant that he was in some seriously vacuous amount of space. But what was it? A cavern? A catacomb, perhaps? And how did he get there, given he was just in a heavily-populated arena, not moments before? Clearly, there was more underneath Falkner’s than just a basement. He had come across nothing more than a few small piles of stone here and there, as if someone had been mining, but other than that there was no evidence that anyone or anything had ever been there.

Until his next step.

Kade stopped on the spot when a crunching sound came from below. He shone his light down at his feet but the ground beneath him appeared to be unsuspicious, beyond the fact that the texture seemed slightly different than before. Upon a cursory inspection with his light, nothing stuck out to him as being extraordinary.

“Probably just a stick or something.” He said to himself.

Knowing he couldn’t’ afford to dither, Kade moved on. Two steps later came another crunch. Kade frowned and stopped again, shining his light downward as before. This time he crouched down and got a closer look at what lay beneath. He reached out and touched the floor and gasped when his hand went right through it. Rather, his hand went through the first layer of dirt, or whatever lay atop it. Indeed, when Kade retrieved his hand, he watched as the textured matte beneath him shifted, revealing an opening where his hand had been. Within the opening, he could make out the true earth beneath. Something was resting on top of the floor itself, like a blanket or a bio-film.  Crouching, he tried to make out the faint details his Holo light but the darkness obscured all in ubiquitous shadows, leaving only a mess of nondescript shapes and colours. Hesitantly, he reached out and brushed the floor with his fingertips. He withdrew his hand with a gasp, though it was purely instinctive; no shock or pain had been administered. Kade sighed and shook his head, silently admonishing himself for being ginger. He reached out once more and grasped a piece of the floor, bringing it in front of his face to examine.

“What in Rynn…”

Kade turned the object around in his hand and gasped once he realized what he held. It was a bone shard, possibly a piece of a pelvis. Large, perhaps…human. Kade stood up and shone his light around him. Suddenly, the indiscernible shapes took form as Kade’s brain connected the object in his hand to the millions surrounding him; as far as he could see, in every direction, a sheet of bones lay in swathes. Layer upon dusty layer, they gleamed a once-white in Kade’s Holo light, silent and foreboding. He had walked straight into an open grave.

Thousands of them.

Kade swallowed, wondering what to do next. He glanced down at the shard in his hand, startled and dropped it, realizing he still held on to the remains of what once may have very well have been a person. He began walking hurriedly through the sea of bones, pieces crunching underfoot. The sounds were so loud and sickly, Kade was struck with how he hadn’t noticed previously. As he crunched his way through the darkness, scanning desperately for a way out with his rapidly-depleting Holomate torch, Kade felt the distracting ebb of nausea well up within him.  As he struggled against his rebelling insides, he found that his nerves soon began to overshadow the sickness. And it wasn’t nervousness due to any kind of superstition; Kade didn’t believe in ghosts or the like. If they did exist, he should have expected to have seen at least one by now, given that he’d walked over countless remains. Rather, he found himself nervous at the very real and encroaching thought that he’d never leave the place. That he’d be stuck in the boneyard in utter darkness…for eternity. A quick glance down at his Holomate confirmed that to be a probable future, reading at 1 % power remaining. Kade cursed and, just as he thought he would collapse into a nervous breakdown, the crunching stopped beneath him. He shone his light down to his feet and, surprisingly, there were stones beneath him. They appeared to be half-buried in the hard-pan but they were clear as day: flagstones, some shattered and disconnected from the rest, but certainly once part of something man made. Kade’s heart leapt at the thought of finally finding something familiar–something civilized. He picked up his pace into a quick trot and followed the disjointed pathway until it became a solid, connected road leading away into the darkness. Kade began to run, hearing his footsteps echoing on the hard stone. Large objects emerged into his sight in front of him: stone pillars and platforms mostly dilapidated and overturned but other structures revealed themselves to be still standing. Several seconds later, Kade found himself immersed by towering stone buildings and structures, the architecture of which nearly took his breath away, even in their current state. There were towers so high he couldn’t make out their pinnacles, and even some of the connecting arches and buttresses had survived the ages, though most had given away in time. He had, unequivocally, found himself among massive ruins.

Kade shone his flashlight around him in awe as he slowly made his way among the arcane structures. Indeed, the ruins themselves were so huge that the brunt of them remained shadowy shapes in the distance; the suggestion of an arch here, a broad column there, like the appendages of fallen giants from another time, laid to rest in the disquiet of forgotten ages and realms. He passed by an immense pillar which now lay on it side, sheared in half down the middle by the force of whatever had fallen it. Kade ran his hand along the once-proud spire, the stone cool to his touch. He came upon what once must have been its base, the pedestal now barely discernible and hardly more than a pile of rubble. The structure appeared to have been felled, as if something had struck it from above, which was evident by the fact that it seemed to have taken out an adjacent archway and several other squat buildings along with it. Now, a large portion of the great stone column straddled the street in two bifurcated pieces, forming an ominous passage into what lay beyond. As he passed between the pieces, he examined the stone with his light. It appeared to be solid marble. Were the whole ruins made of it? Whoever had built the place clearly had a lot of credits.

He came into a what appeared to be a village round, mostly intact, though many of the stone facades were crumbling or threatening to. Oddly enough, Kade noticed strange black marks across the face of many of the stones, as if they had been scorched. His first thought was volcanic activity but the markings were too sporadic for it be anything natural like that; it appeared that there was some kind of design to them–some kind of intent that bespoke of an author. That recurring narrative of the unnatural crept back into his mind and gave him the chills once more. As he meandered around the vestiges of the charred buildings, he came upon what appeared to once have been some kind of massive monument in the centre of the round, the suggestions of a very large statue of some sort resting atop a plinth amidst rubble that had surely once comprised its true form. Oddly enough, the material appeared to be metallic in nature, bearing the burnished brown quality of bronze. Kade tapped one of the pieces and the hollow report that followed confirmed his theory. He shone his light up at what looked to be the remnants of two legs, finding the top half of the figure misshapen and all but gone. He scanned the base of the plinth and gasped as the scene connected for him; the rubble at the base–the heaps of layered bronze–were the statue. Something had melted it. That familiar sense of unease began to rise up in Kade’s gut again, as if he were slowly uncovering the wicked truth about the place he was in. He backed away from the monument and, in his periphery, a glint of light caught his eye. Kade turned to the source and, sure enough, a light source flickered in and out of existence as his Holomate passed over the place. He could make out movement in the shadows there as something stirred in the darkness. His heart began to pace at the thought of Chester emerging from that terrifying unknown, in some other kind of horrific form, but Kade had no good reason to believe Chester had followed him into that abyss; there had been so signs of life or otherwise for hours.

Apparently, there were some places so terrible even ghouls were afraid to go there.

That left one other option. Someone else was stranded down there with him. Kade stared at the glinting light and measured his thoughts. As he weighed his options he decided to take a chance and he called out to the figure hiding just beyond.

“Hey there!” Kade shouted, waving his hand high above his head.

Much to his elation, the figure waved back in tandem, perhaps having seen him at the same moment. Kade laughed joyfully and began to jog toward the light. As he neared he could feel the hairs beginning to stand up on the back of his neck.

Something wasn’t right.

He wasn’t sure if it was because the figure, while moving toward him, didn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was certainly odd behaviour, that was for sure. Kade figured it was probably just the darkness playing tricks on his eyes but the nagging feeling wouldn’t leave him alone. His suspicions were solidified when he slowed to a stop–and the figure did just the same. Had they realized the same thing that he had? Maybe they could feel it too. Before Kade could rack his brain further on what dark omens were at play, the strangest thing happened: the figure slowly rose up off the ground, heading into the darkness above. Kade’s eyes widened as he tracked the figure with his dimming Holomate light, watching it disappear as his light’s beam attenuated out at its limits.

“Hey, wait!” Kade called out, stumbling forward into a half-run, as if he could catch up to his departed host.

Several harried footsteps in, his pace was halted as a guttural growl filled the space. It sounded like the turning over of a generator–mechanical and laboured–but there was also a biological quality to it, confirming that the source was also living. Kade’s heart began to pound as he panned his weathered light beam back and forth across the darkness, unsure of what he was looking for.

“He…hello?” Kade called, his own voice sounding both weak and foreign to him.

And with a movement that Kade could barely detect, a large metallic blur came cutting out of the darkness toward him, careening down with tremendous force. Kade stumbled backwards as a huge piece of metal crashed into the stones in front of him, kicking up shards of rock and dust and sending Kade toppling over on to his rear. He gasped and looked up into what appeared to be a massive axe blade, probably no less than six blades tall, and in that gleaming metal he saw his reflection gaping back at him in horror. And that was when it all became clear to him: he had been looking at his reflection all along. Whatever was at the other end of that axe…that was who he had been calling to. Kade stuttered, unable to find any words. Instinctively, he raised his light above the slab of steel, searching for what lay beyond. It was then that his Holomate began its slow power-down phase, having finally run out of reserves, and the light began flickering as the system sequentially shut down programs, one by one.

As his device strobed out into the darkness, a large shape began to emerge beyond the metal. Kade could make out two glowing yellow eyes, then a huge leathery snout, steam emanating out from the hot nostrils. And then a mouth…a horrible, razor-toothed mouth, large enough to swallow an entire city transport unit, came into view. Kade yelped and got to his feet, his legs spasming uncontrollably with fear, which made the task something of a feat. He stumbled several steps, his eyes locked onto the horrific face playing in and out of the darkness as his Holomate clung desperately to its last chemical breaths of life. He turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. The beast roared behind him and Kade heard metal grating against stone as the axe-appendage–whatever it was–was dislodged from the ruin floors. Kade rushed through the dilapidated ruins as his device flashed in front of him, affording him little but blurred glimpses of calved stone structures and indiscernible shapes. He had no idea where he was going but he didn’t care so long as it got him away from that thing. The ground began to shake around him: footsteps like aftershocks, reverberating through the cavern. The beast was in pursuit. An image flashed in front and Kade could make out a staircase, above which appeared to be the remains of an arcade which had partially collapsed in on itself. He made for the stairs, thankful for the opportunity for higher ground. There was no telling how large the creature was but if he could get high enough then maybe he could lose the thing.

Kade came out into a large area, something that might have once been a prestigious promenade, now just a derelict space lined with decapitated pillars looking more like splintered femur bones and the remains of once-noble statues now ground partially to dust. As he ran, Kade shone his light upward, discovering an immense, vaulted ceiling, exposed in many places where the stones had given through. Though he couldn’t make out much in the flickering light, the design seemed to be exquisite, even its current condition, with ornate filigree and heavily embellished carvings on nearly every crook and corner. Kings, or perhaps gods, may have once walked those halls, but now it was merely another crypt of time, awaiting a meager boy to join the corpses laying in the shadows. Kade wondered how many others had been swallowed by those halls. As the thoughts rushed through his mind, he felt a sense of greater urgency building within him: he couldn’t run forever. It was a fact of the body. Like stone, it too broke down, and much faster.

The quaking footsteps grew nearer and the beast roared once more, perhaps in frustration, perhaps in excitement of the hunt. Kade took a chance and veered down a side corridor. The ruins began to change around him; overhead he could make out large cross-sections of stone, exposed space between them, laid across a stone bulwark which had appeared to either side. The must and dankness of the inner sanctum was replaced by fresh air, signalling to Kade that he was likely heading down a wing or ward connecting to the outside of the larger structure that he was in. Kade began to get he impression that the place was somehow important, though important places also tended toward being places one could easily get lost in. Whether it was fortune or circumstance, he passed through a large portico and came out onto a vast expanse of stone, finding himself outside once more. Ahead, some kind of mezzanine or courtyard though his field of vision was not so deep to ascertain anything beyond a bout or two. As he ran across the terrace, he noticed a cracking sound coming from beneath, the stone groaning under his weight. His Holomate revealed small stress fractures emanating out from behind him as he ran, trailing along with him as would a shadow. There was a spongy quality to each step, as if the stone were only partially so. An idea came to him.

There was a bellow from behind and the creature emerged into the yard, swiftly in tow behind Kade. Kade stopped, spinning around with his nearly depleted light. The creature came at him, snorting and snuffling as it stepped into the small circle of light cast by Kade’s device. Its features came into focus in greater detail, revealing what appeared to be an oversized lizard with two powerful hind legs upon which it walked upright. Its gait was laboured, almost awkward, as if its disproportionately smaller torso struggled to pull the weight of its lower body. Though its upper arms were much smaller and underdeveloped, any humour that one could find in the shrivelled appendages was abated by its impressive tail which extended behind it perhaps twice again the length of its massive body. If that wasn’t enough, flickering wildly in the darkness, at its end, was the massive slab of metal that had nearly crushed Kade minutes prior. He could make out the shape now–it was carved, for whatever reason, into an axe head. The beast slowed as it came out into the mezzanine proper, glancing down at the floor beneath it as fractures rippled out around it in a snowflake-like pattern. It lowered its head to the floor curiously, snuffling around to make sense of the noises. Atop the creature’s head was yet another axe blade, fastened around its neck on an armoured skullcap. Kade was sensing a theme present. Despite the terror of its appearance, he took a step toward the monster.

“Come on you stupid lizard! What are you waiting for? Afraid of a little kid?” he yelled, waving his arms in the air as he taunted it.

The beast reared back, huffing as if it were actually offended. It roared, the force of which was nearly enough to knock Kade back onto his rear–something he seemed to be doing a lot of as of late. And then it charged at him.

Or rather, it took three steps and the floor caved in beneath it. There was a gurgling sound, followed by what Kade could only discern as a monster’s best attempt at a yelp of fear, and Kade watched as the multi-ingon behemoth disappeared through the floor, rubble cascading down along with it. There was a large crashing sound as the creature hit bottom, a huge cloud of dust kicking up out of the jagged hole through which it had fallen. Kade whooped with joy and jumped up into the air. As his weight came down,  a fissure rippled out away from him, connecting to the peripheral ones around the hole. He had but a moment of realization before the floor gave way beneath him, clambering across a huge chunk of stone which began to dislodge itself from the level. He grasped at the ledge but was too late; he plummeted downward, screaming as he fell. Luckily, the fall was only about three stories or so, and the slab upon which he lay cushioned his fall somewhat, though it wasn’t quite enough to prevent the jarring of his spine as he and the whole mess careened into the lower level. He barely had time to register the pain before he found himself rolling out of the way, dodging oncoming chunks of debris that lagged behind. Shaking away the ringing in his head, he quickly pivoted on to his stomach and shone his light around him to get his bearings. Through the flickering images, he gleaned a gaping hole above, about ten blades or so–a larger fall than he had initially thought–which meant he wouldn’t be getting out that way. He swiped his light around him and a cursory inspection revealed some kind of banquet hall, or at least what had once been one. The remains of benches and stools were littered about in their best attempt at uniformity, though they were long past any kind of semblance of order. It looked like someone had taken the room in their hands and given it a good shake. Either that or it had been one hell of a last party. Oddly, the fixtures–or what was left of them–all seemed to be a little too small for comfort, though Kade still couldn’t be sure of anything his eyes told him in the strobing darkness of his Holomate.  

A very disgruntled huffing pulled his attention away and he moved his light back over his head to where a heaping pile of rubble lay atop an even larger form struggling to get up from under the tonnage. The monster had grit, Kade gave him that. Kade quickly got back to his feet and was running once more. He found himself constantly tripping over objects as there was debris all over the floor; goblets, cutlery and tableware… It looked that, whoever had once lived there, had left in some kind of hurry; it appeared that their guest was certainly uninvited. The fact that there were no signs of bodies or even any indication that there had been any to begin with made the whole thing all the more creepier. Chester, a massive hidden cavern with scorched ruins, melted statues, and potentially an entire missing city…There was clearly something off about the whole thing.

Kade heard the shifting of heavy stone, as the monster shook the last of them loose, followed by a bloodcurdling roar. The seismic footfall began again and the creature was in pursuit once more, enraged. Kade felt his lungs heaving from exhaustion and could see his breath coming out in tufts between the intermittent frames of light. He found himself in a corridor which presented with but one way to go. Seeing no other option, Kade followed the narrow hall, shining his light around for any sign of a place to hide and/or escape back to the outside. If there was an exit nearby, it was possible it would look no different than any other of the hundreds of passageways Kade had already passed by. A profound sense of being lost washed over him, mingling with the desperation and survival instinct that coursed through his veins, making for a potpourri of internal horror. Coupled with the strange carvings and runes all around him, Kade wasn’t sure that he hadn’t set foot into an alien landscape, even if it were an abandoned one. But all of these thoughts and feelings culminated in an apex moment of abject terror as Kade found himself coming onto a massive pile of rubble–debris from the upper levels which had collapsed downward, barring the only path forward. Kade shone his light around, frantically looking for a way out. He attempted to pick up a large chunk of stone but he could barely move the thing it was so heavy. There was a roar from behind and Kade swivelled around to see the glowing yellow eyes emerging from the darkness as the creature came back into view. The footsteps slowed as the animal sauntered toward him, a predator enjoying the final moments of its prey’s suffering. Kade could see it lick its lips with a long, coarse tongue: once, twice…

And then Kade’s Holomate died, leaving him in complete darkness, with nothing but the sound of his heart hammering in his chest, pounding in asynchronous rhythm with the impossibly heavy footsteps of the last sounds he would ever hear.

***

Brian couldn’t be sure if he was seeing right but it appeared he had come upon some kind of cathedral, though the building was so degraded by time that it was nearly impossible to make any discerning qualities beyond the utmost obvious.  All he knew for sure that was the place was meant to be sacred in some way, given by the scant symbology and ornamentation that remained intact on the facade of some of the stonework . What the religion was he could not say as, behind the layer of degradation, it was all merely suggestions. Above, on a domed ceiling impossibly high, a very faded relief of some god he didn’t recognize seemed to be chastising a village of onlookers. It held some kind of oblong object—a staff maybe—indiscernible from having too many missing tiles, which appeared to be glowing with light. It was unclear whether the god was imparting its power onto the object or if the object was some kind of source of power itself. The village in the background was on fire and it was equally ambiguous whether the figure in the fore had caused it or if he was there to rescue the others with its magical stick. It appeared that the villagers were all children, or facsimiles thereof, given by their shunted stature. Strangely, Brian could make out the details of what looked like a beard here or a cane there, or the suggestion of breasts and motherly hips on some, which made no sense to him. Why would children have such things?

”Creepy.”

Brian shifted his watch light back in front of him, slowly tracking it across the rows of dilapidated stone pews that lined either side of the main aisle down which he walked. For whatever reason, the benches seemed just a tad too small for a cren, though Brian couldn’t fathom why that would be. He realized then that he was missing something and he got the nagging feeling that the mural above was trying to tell him what it was.

In contrast to all of the structures in miniature, the cathedral itself was one of the largest structures he had ever seen, dwarfing even the Cappela Dorna that he had once visited in Temre Kir as a youth. As he shone his light around the vast chamber surrounding him, he reminisced on how his Vos guide had been proud to point out how the famous Zirkyan architecture was unrivalled in both majesty and articulate detail. Now, having seen this cathedral, Brian realized just how misinformed they had been. Though much of the cathedral had fallen into disrepair, Brian could tell that an incredible amount of work had been put into it and that it had once likely been a sight like no other. Immaculately detailed filigree still rimmed the pillars and cornices where structures still stood, and the intricate network of arch work masonry which upheld the dome was mind boggling. Brian’s gaze fell on what must have once been an impressive gallery which seemed to be the uppermost level of the cathedral, connecting the lower sanctum to the upper levels and surrounding towers. Now, it was caved in and collapsed in parts, as if it had sighed and given up from the years of strain and inattention. Brian had no idea how many years exactly that was, but a thick sheen of dust on every surface around told him it was likely longer than he could know. It was possible the cathedral was ancient.

He came up to a large dais at the end of the hall, nestled at the base of what appeared to be a massive set of pipes climbing up the far wall, indicating an organ was, or had been, nearby. Circumscribing the dais were large braziers set in wrought-iron pedestals which appeared to be built into the side of the platform which comprised the dais. The braziers were ablaze with radiant blue flames–the same lights that had drawn Brian to them in the first place.  He climbed up the stone steps on to the elevated platform, glancing over at the antique fire holders. It was beyond odd to him that they should still be burning after all this time, unless of course someone had recently stoked them. But there wasn’t any kind of coal or fuel source at their base, just a flame in a naked basin. The place reeked of magick.

Despite his growing reservations, he made his way toward a large stone circle inset into the centre of the dais, which appeared to be the main focus of the area, as if all of the architecture was designed to draw the eye just there. As he approached the massive ring, he caught a glint of light reflecting off the surface of its interior. Liquid.

It was a reflecting pool.

Brian approached cautiously, shining his light down into the black water, seeing his nervous reflection frowning back up at him. He moved his light around the circumference of the pool, noting pulpits set at intervals around the stone ledge, as if for some kind of ritual. Brian had never seen the likes of it; the pool was so large that a small house could fit into it. As he walked around its perimeter, he shone his light around the dais to investigate further. In the distance, he could make out a block-like object resting against the wall. He came toward it and, as he had suspected, it was an organ. A very old one at that. Oddly enough, the organ seemed smaller than he had expected as if it were meant for a child to fit into it. His mind traced back to the pews and the images in the mural and he knew it couldn’t all be a coincidence: someone small had once lived there. The only thing that made anything close to sense was that it was some kind of colony of children, but the reasoning was borderline at best; what kind of scenario would result in such a thing? Kids, living in an underground world… What parent would ever allow it?

He shone his light up the length of the pipes which ran all the way up the ceiling, fanning out in an impressive array which took up nearly the entire width of the dais. He moved the light back down to the instrument before him and he ran a finger gingerly over the keys, catching up a handful of cobwebs and dust. He pressed down gently on one of the keys and a startling sound emanated from around him, somewhere between a musical tone and a million dying ravens. As the massive pipes rumbled, the screech rippling up the wall and out into the chamber, there was a loud cracking sound from above. Brian gasped as a segment of piping fractured from the sudden force being pushed through it after who-knew-how long of being idle.  The fracture spread across the diameter of the pipe and the top portion dislodged entirely from its place on the wall. Brian yelped as he jumped out of the way, the huge metal tubing colliding with the dais with a thunderous clang, bouncing several times against the hard stone surface before it came to rest not a blade away from where Brian stood. The sound of the pipe echoed in Brian’s ears like gun shot as he stood staring at the metal gleaming in his flashlight, ruminating on how had nearly been crushed by it. He shone his light back up at the pipes and shivered at the thought of all of that metallic weight bearing down on him at any given moment.

“Just proves I wasn’t meant to be a musician.”

And then another voice followed. At least, it had the quality of a voice, or many voices, and it appeared to be coming from the reflecting pool. Brian got to his feet and returned to the pool’s edge. He shone his light back across its opaque surface, the blue-yellow light casting a mottled glare which rippled gently across the length of it. The sounds, whispers at first, seemed to grow as he stared into those murky waters. He couldn’t make out the words being said but somehow it was if he knew them. And then the strangest thing happened: Brian was suddenly looking at the thoughts in his mind. He gasped as images flickered across the pool’s surface, the waters churning as they melded together to form mosaics of colour to then coalesce into all-too-familiar pictures. Brian watched as everything from his home to Falkner’s flickered before him. He saw his sister playing in the front yard with their dog Moo, rolling about and laughing, which brought a smile to his face. The image flashed and then, as mercurial as his thoughts were, the image changed to reflect his concern for her, and he saw vague shapes shifting in the darkness as he watched himself walking about, shining his small wristwatch around him. A memory of what had just passed, apparently. They were all memories it seemed, as vagrant and fleeting as the mind itself.

But what if there was more…

Brian decided to perform a test. He conjured up the first thing that came to his mind, and that was a place far from where he was, which reflected an honest desire. An image of tropical bliss emerged in the pool and Brian gasped at the sheer clarity of the replica. It was Temre Kir in Voswun–really the only tropical place he could claim he had been–but the memory held a very special place in his heart. But it wasn’t the memory itself that he had wanted to conjure, but rather the location held a very important distinction that could help him: Temre Kir, among being a province boasting of some of Rynn’s most fascinating historical sites and monuments, had one of five known Relica–ancient structural artefacts built by a race no one knew anything about and perhaps the oldest known objects on the planet. More, all Relica were composed of a mysterious material only known as Asterene, and though little was known about the material properties of the substance, one thing was clear about it: Asterene had a very unique and peculiar property known as sunscarring, meaning that with every passing year, Rynn’s star Karayus would literally carve a line into the surface of the material, marking the passing of another annual progression. How Asterene did this no one knew but that didn’t stop the conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecies that followed. Brian was less concerned with the apocalypse and more interested in the actual scars themselves, namely how many were present in the current image. On the front of this particular Relica, known as the Tansatus, was a large dial-like structure comprised of a series of concentric rings and notches, mounted above the main entrance. Crafted in the most exquisite detail, the number of etchings progressed from the impossibly small, microscopic markings, up to larger and larger hatchings which radiate out from the central point. It was believed that they reflected all of the years–all of the sunscars–that had happened since the monument was built, which was further corroborated by the fact that new markings lit up yearly after every progressive sunscar had completed its final engraving along the main face of the Tansatus. While it was nearly impossible to count all of the markings, the dial was constructed in such a way that made it possible to have a reference to which circle or array the current year could be found. When Brian had visited the structure, the guide had explained to all of he and his class–wide-eyed children then–how to read the dial and make sense of the numbers. And though Brian had forgotten much of the guide’s spiel, he remembered one very important thing: the exact place where the dial had been set at that day.

That was nine years ago, so it was simple math to figure out if the image before him had progressed any time at all since that memory. Brian winced at the image as he held it in his mind and tracked over the dial as he searched for his familiar marker. He found it and…Brian gasped. Sure enough, the marker had progressed nine years–nine more sunscars had been recorded. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Brian swore he could feel heat radiating out of the pool. He frowned as he watched a bead of moisture fall from his face and drop into the pond. He wiped the back of his hand against his forehead and it came back wet. He was sweating. But how could that be when he was below ground in a near-freezing catacomb? He stared at the image with newfound wonder, studying it intensely. Slowly, he reached out his hand and grazed the surface of the pond with his fingertip. The pool was hot. He gasped and withdrew his hand suddenly, unsure of whether or not he could get burned. He examined his hand but he was uninjured. He looked to the image again and this time he submerged his arm up to the elbow. Warmth radiated up his arm and into his core as if he were actually in Temre Kir–in the image that lay before him. He moved his hand around and watched as his fingers opened and closed in the humid jungle air outside the entrance to the famous structure. It wasn’t just an image: Brian–or at least part of him–was actually in Temre Kir! His heart raced as he imagined the possibilities of what lay before him. Could he actually use the thing to get out of Falkner’s? What if there were side effects he didn’t know about? Questions raced through his mind but before he could entertain anything further, a gut wrenching bellow emanated from somewhere not too far off.

Brian wrenched his hand out of the pool and span around, shining his light around the cathedral. He stood there for a long moment, listening but it appeared he was still alone. As he turned back to the pool, the bellow returned and this time it was followed by a scream.

A cren scream.

Someone else was down there with him and it sounded like they were in trouble. Brian glanced back over his shoulder at the pool and watched as scattered images and colours played out on its surface, illustrating the turn of his anxious thoughts. The pool taunted him–called to him to come back into it–but he knew that he would never forgive himself if he could help someone and he had turned away for selfish gain. That was who he was: one who helped. He had to be. He made that vow to the world after it had taken his parents. There was no one around to help them then; he couldn’t change that, but there many others who needed help. Maybe this person was one of them…

The image shifted back to Temre Kir and Brian’s gaze lingered on the tropical paradise wavering there. With a heavy sigh, he turned and ran toward the pleading voice, the vibrant colours of the Vos jungle fading away into the latent opacity of the formless water.

***

Kade could practically smell the creature it was so close. Though he couldn’t see anything, he could certainly feel, and he was pretty sure he had wet himself. If someone had told him he was going to die this way in advance, he would have just killed himself doing something epic in Up years ago. At least that way they’d talk about him afterwards in a larger context outside of being a lump of digested dinosaur dung. But Kade was resigned to his fate since it was clear the creature could see in the dark and he could not, which gave the other a very clear advantage. There was no escaping this time.

Kade slumped down against the wall of rubble and felt the regrets beginning to bubble up to the surface. Along with them was the thought of how a twelve-year-old boy could have so many and that came with its own flavour or depression. His mother had surely raised him right, hadn’t she? So where were all of these feelings coming from?

‘The hand of death is not a light one‘, as the saying went.

Kade could certainly feel it coming down on him.

The sounds of the creature licking its chops seemed as loud as the crack of a bat as Kade took in his final moments. He thought of his mother, of his mechs back at home… He thought of Jorley–his only real friend–and then…he thought of his father, who he had actually never known. The only images he had of the man were from photographs and old holofeeds that his mother had kicking around from random motley times of their lives together pre-Kade. This also struck Kade as bizarre since he owed the man nothing; he had left them when Kade was but a baby. Why would he think of him now in his precious last few seconds alive? The man didn’t deserve it. He…

“Hey!” A voice called from behind him.

Behind him? How was that possible? It was a solid wall of rubble.

Kade pivoted toward the sound and then he saw a light emanating out of a small crevice between two larger slabs of stone. The creature hissed, clearly unimpressed at the idea of losing its last meal. In the wan light between the cracks, Kade could make out a shadow moving.

Someone was there!

Kade sprung to life, racing over to the crevice. The creature roared and Kade could hear thunderous footsteps as it ran at him, closing in the remaining distance. Kade came up to the slabs and winced at the bright light as the glare caught him square in the face.

“Sorry!” The voice said and the light lowered to Kade’s midsection.

Kade couldn’t make out the details of the person but, at that point, anything was better than what he was up against. He began to shimmy in between the rocks.

“You better hurry up; I don’t think that thing is in the mood for table service.” said the other.

“I’m trying! It’s fael’ing tight in here.” Kade gasped.

“Man, your mouth’s almost dirtier than that thing’s. You sure you’re the one in trouble?”

Kade’s heart began to race as he found himself struggling to get himself between the rocks. The thought of the other leaving him like that…

“Don’t leave!” Kade squealed.

There was a gentle laugh. “Don’t worry buddy, I’m not going anywhere. Here, give me your hand, I think I can reach you now.”

The footsteps stopped on the other side of the mound and Kade could feel the hot air of the creature breathing through the crevice behind him, likely scanning the crack to see if it still had a chance at him. Kade reached out for the hand that emerged from behind the blue-yellow light but it was just out of reach. Suddenly, a warm, wet appendage was stroking up and down the side of Kade’s body. The large object swept past Kade’s cheek, leaving behind a revolting film of slime.

“Oh Crusp…I think it’s…I think it’s licking me!” Kade shouted, both terror and disgust in his voice.

The light shone past him to where the tongue probed.

“Yep, he’s definitely licking you.” Said the other, matter-of-factly.

“Gross, gross, gross! Get me the hell out of here!” Kade yelped.

He strained for the hand once more and finally, he felt fingertips. He fumbled for the palm and managed to get a hold. The arm was strong and it reefed on him with unexpected force. Kade felt his ribs shifting in ways that they shouldn’t have been. He gasped.

“Not so fast! Your gonna break my ribs that way.”

The pull lessened.

“Well, it’s either that or he’s having ribs, kid. Your call.”

“How is this funny to you? I can’t believe…”

Kade was cut off as a monstrous bellow emanated just off to his side, hot air blowing past the two of them as the creature howled in resentment. The breath smelled like rotting garbage on a hot day in the middle of a planet that was composed entirely of faeces and dead things. Kade had never smelled anything worse. Involuntarily, Kade vomited on himself. By the sound of it, so did the other.

Kade could hear coughing and sputtering, though the hand held on strong.

“Man, that thing…” More coughing. “That thing must have a way with the ladies.” Said the other, between gasps.

Kade almost laughed at that one. Before he could respond, he felt his midsection shift and he was through to the other side. He stumbled out into an open space and took a moment to get his bearings. As his breath came back to him, Kade met the eyes of his saviour. He was young, though not as young as Kade, but barely out of boyhood himself. His features were unclear in the dark but Kade would have time for proper introductions later. If there was a later. Sensing Kade’s apprehension, the boy shone his light onto the pile of rubble behind them.

“I don’t think that’s gonna hold that thing long. We should get out of here.” He said.

“Where…”

Before Kade could finish, the boy was running off into the darkness.

“Follow me!” He called.

***

As Kade looked down at his reflection in the pool, he could see the cloud of doubt forming on his own expression.

“You’re joking.” He said to the other.

“Not at all. At least, when I used it, that’s what happened. No word of a lie.” Said the other.

“So, what… I just think of where I want to be and it just…appears?” Kade asked.

The boy shrugged. “Seems simple enough, don’t you think? Hey, don’t give me that look! I didn’t make this thing so how should I know what the rules are? I can only tell you what I saw. And it showed me everything I thought about. It was really cool. Creepy too.”

Kade frowned down into the black water. “This sounds disturbingly like magick to me. I don’t like it. I don’t mess with that stuff. I just build mechs.”

The other boy nodded. “I know. That was my thought when I first saw this place. See those torches over there?”

Kade tracked his eyes to where the boy pointed, towards the line of braziers lining the perimeter of the dais.

“They’re not running on anything. At least, not anything I can see.”

“That’s impossible,” Kade said. “Everything needs an energy source.”

The boy thought about for a moment. “Maybe this thing is the source.” He said, pointing at the reflecting pool between them.

“I mean, clearly it’s powerful. What if it’s…tethered to this place in some way?”

Kade pondered the idea. “You mean like some kind of battery? Or maybe it’s more of a capacitor, storing charge and feeding it off somewhere else to some kind of central node. A distribution centre…”

As Kade trailed off, the other raised an eyebrow at him from across the pool. “Uh, sure. I have no idea what you just said but let’s roll with that. What I do know is that we might be able to think our way out of here. The only question now is where do we think? Er, go, I mean?”

It was a valid question. Kade could think of a hundred places he would rather be than where he was. And as it happened, his thoughts, just as the other had described it, appeared as a rapid succession of images across the surface of the pool. Kade’s eyes widened at the show his own mind put on, marvelling at the whirling colours flashing before his eyes.

“Whoa! That’s incredible!” Kade exclaimed.

“It’s like…an eye into my mind.”

Brian nodded as he watched the youth’s fragmented thoughts flash by in rapid succession. “I know. I could just sit here and imagine all day.” He stopped and glanced around, reminding himself of where he was. “Well, maybe not here, but it’s beautiful, anyhow.”

Kade grimaced. “I…I can’t get it to settle on any one thing.” He looked up at the other. “Why do you think that is?”

The other shrugged. “Restless mind, maybe? Who knows. Here, let me try.”

Kade stepped away from the pool and watched as the images faded away to darkness once more. It wasn’t long before new images were evoked as the other boy fed his thoughts into it. As Kade watched, dumbfounded as before, his breath caught as he saw movement in the darkness just beyond the dais. Ambiguous shapes at first, but then they took on a familiar, terrible form as they came into the light of braziers. A monstrous shadow emerged from the sheen of darkness surrounding it, glistening scales becoming visible.

“We need to go, now!” Kade screamed.

The other looked up, his stupefied expression matching Kade’s when he saw what was coming at them.

“I didn’t even hear him enter. This thing is getting crafty! I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stick around long enough to see if he learns a new language while he’s at it.”

Kade tugged at the boy’s sleeve and pointed at the pool. “Choose something, quickly! Get us out of here!”

“Okay, okay! I’m working here! I don’t even know if it’s going to work. Just hold on a second. Um, what to choose…”

The boy struggled to think of a coherent thought which was reflected as the pool began rapidly changing images, representing his scattered state of mind. The boy growled.

“Ah, I can’t focus! I don’t know what to choose.”

“Just choose something. Anything! He’s coming!” Kade screamed.

The footsteps erupted once more as the beast broke out into a run, coming up on the dais.

“There! That one, it’s good enough!” Kade said, and jumped on the boy’s back, sending him tumbling forward over the edge as both of them went face first into the pool of swirling colours and images.

The monster lunged at them, snapping up air with its jaws, missing them by mere pinches.

***

Kade and the other boy fell face first onto concrete, what appeared to be a parking lot. They got up and shuffled back around on to their hands, glancing around nervously. The creature was nowhere in sight. Kade looked over at the other, panting heavily as he met Kade’s gaze. His stunned expression slowly turned to a smile and he got to his feet.

“I think we’ve lost him! Good call on the monkey manoeuvre.”

He offered his hand to Kade and helped him off the pavement.

The two of them did a three-sixty as they took in their surroundings.

“Isn’t this…” Kade trailed off.

“Falkner’s, yeah. From the outside. It’s better side, if you ask me.” The other mused.

Kade surveyed the area. The lot was huge but there weren’t many vehicles left.  A few people milled about here and there but it looked like the gym had closed down for the evening. However long they had been down in that basement, the day had certainly passed them by. Kade looked over at the horizon to see Karayus significantly lower in the sky than when he had arrived, confirming the notion.

“I wonder how long we were in there.” Kade said to no one in particular.

“Hard to say. Glad we’re out though.”

The other boy turned to Kade, looking at him with an awkward expression.

“I’m Brian, by the way. Usually, I introduce myself before the whole monster-rescue bit but, hey, gotta mix it up, right?”

Kade returned the smile and shook his hand. “I appreciate it. I really owe you one. I’m…”

Kade opened his mouth but it caught halfway open.

“Brian…” was all that came out.

Brian looked slightly taken aback and he chuckled. “No way! Small world. I guess it’s a common enough name. Brian, Brian. Nice to meet you, uh…me!”

He laughed.

“No… Brian!” Kade yelled and pointed behind him.

Brian’s smile faded as he turned around to see a humongous, lizard-like creature standing in the parking lot just behind them, its serpentine tail flickering wildly as the huge metal axe blade ground gouts into the concrete behind it. In the light, Kade could finally make out its finer details. He had no idea what the thing could be but it looked to be the product of bioengineering, that much he was sure of. The process was heavy outlawed in most places, including Kandel–his province–and most of the other Atlandian jurisdictions. That could explain why Falkner’s had the animal locked up beneath it, though much else was still left unexplained. It appeared that the creature had been fitted with some kind of plate armour around its midsection and segments of its tail, in addition to a heavily reinforced bridle around its face with a razor sharp half-moon blade atop the skull portion. In the tail segments, Kade could make out gears churning behind glass displays and circuits with multicoloured blinking lights, telling him that the creature was more than bioengineered: it was engineered as well! Apparently, for battle.

As if telling him he thought too much, the beast roared into the sky. Standing an impressive fifteen blades high at least, coupled with the gleaming armour and razor-sharp edges all over its body, the creature made for a terrifying sight, let alone the power of its call. Screams came from all around them and Kade could see people panicking as they ran across the lot, scattering like cockroaches, some even diving behind adjacent vehicles. The creature caught the extraneous motion and its attention seemed diverted for a moment. It swung away from the boys and hunkered over as if it would pounce toward the others around it. It’s tail swung wildly, the axe head grazing a nearby truck, sending it rolling away as if the multi-ingon thing were but a toy being knocked aside. Kade gasped and the creature jerked its head back toward them. It roared and arced its tail back around, scouring a huge gouge along the side of the gym, sending shards of amalgam and glass raining down onto the concrete. As its tail glided through the facade of the gym like it was paper, support beams snapped like ribs and a section of the first three floors gave way as they spilled down onto an adjacent wing of the gym, collapsing in the roof with a clamorous crash, and kicking up a huge geyser of dust. The tail completed its arc and came flying towards the boys. Brian lunged at Kade and the two toppled to the ground, the edge of the blade sailing above them, where their midsections were not moments before.

“Follow me! I think I know how we can get rid of this thing.” Brian, grabbed Kade’s arm and helped him to his feet and the two were off, sprinting across the pavement.

Kade wasted no time chasing after him, as did the Axe creature, its attention riveted back on the boys as the most exciting thing in its near vicinity. Those all-too-familiar footsteps slammed against the pavement as the creature resumed its pursuit once more.

***

The handsome man in the suit worked tirelessly at his desk as he scrawled away on his holopad, reviewing the day’s transactions from Admissions. Even with the display set to its lowest blue light-filtered setting, the screen still nearly scorched his eyes. Luckily, the dim red glow from the custom-installed lights in his office helped somewhat, but he still often found himself wishing that the cren would revert back to good old pen and paper. Nonetheless, his purported profession as an accountant was one of many that would likely never revisit the days of the quill and inkpot and he was resigned to his fate. At least the part where he feigned being an accountant. So far, Falkner’s hadn’t caught on to his ruse. Likely, that was because he was, in all sincerity,  a very good accountant. Probably had something to do with that accountant he had eaten several years ago. That, and the fact that the gym was too busy being caught up in its own front–pretending to be something that it was not. But the handsome man didn’t deal with those people. At least, not yet. He had a feeling his master would soon take interest in them though. There were signs that was coming. It was a powerful organization–one of the most powerful, in fact–and power was drawn to power. If he hadn’t realized it already, his master would soon be on to them. Which meant that he too would be relegated his own portion of that power, however small. But all great things began small.

And he wouldn’t remain small forever.

Though he hadn’t come honestly by his position, he had worked hard to maintain it, even if it wasn’t his ultimate destination. He was proud of at least that much, though in secret he hated his job. So much of the cren life was mindless, pointless. There were no ends beyond the immediate means for that inferior species, so it was a wonder they had come to dominate Rynn with such short-sightedness. But it would not always be the case; there would come a day when they would falter, and He would be there to bring them down, as prophesied. The cren would become slaves once more, as they had been once before–as they were bred to be. And he would be beside his master when it all took place, waiting silently in the background with dagger in hand. And when the moment was right…

A roar, distant and disturbing. Familiar. Too familiar.

He knew that sound, that battle cry. It was the sound of his freedom from this place—from Falkner’s; his insurance policy bestowed up on him by the Great One himself. It was his singular task, his own little part to play in the grand scheme, his sole responsibility and true purpose for being there.

And it sounded like that purpose was about to escape the property.

The handsome man in the suit cursed and pushed himself away from the desk violently and strode right through the wall of his office, disappearing into thin air.

***

They pushed dense bush aside as rebounding branches scraped at them. Kade wiped a smarting sting from his forehead as one of Brian’s twigs lashed back across his face.

“Hey! You’re not alone back here.” Kade called out.

There was another loud roar atop the sounds of the crushing and falling of trees from behind, signalling the bleakness of that very fact.

“I thought that much was obvious.” Brian responded.

As the footsteps shook the land, Kade could hear birds squawking as they took to the sky in fright. At least they had the right idea. Axe was so close now Kade could hear the thing snorting in what he could only assume was excitement: pure instinctual lust for the hunt. Brian led them past a small gully that seemed to be veering downhill slightly, feeding into some larger body of water that Kade could hear moving up ahead.

“It’s just on the other side of this clearing, come on!” Brian yelled back at him.

Brian was fast, almost too much to keep up, and Kade was a competitive Up player so that was saying quite a lot. He found himself wondering what Brian did for a living. Brian batted aside the last of a heavy wall of ferns and bright sunshine greeted them head-on.

The sight before them was breathtaking.

They had come out onto the top of a narrow cliff that jutted out over what appeared to be a perfectly circular caldera lake, given by the sloping rim surrounding the valley just beyond. There were a network of tributaries feeding into the lake from the plateaus above and a good number that he could make out that appeared to feed out toward the ocean which was clearly visible in all of its magnificence, spread out across the landscape as far as Kade could see on his one side. There was a gorgeous purpling sunset over the ocean as Karayus made its slow descent for the evening, unobstructed by not a cloud in the sky. To his left, a forest valley spread out before them as it panned off into the distance, a single road cutting straight through it like a sliver of grey, presumably the road leading in and out of Falkner’s. There was a substantial waterfall on one end of the lake which appeared to be the sound that Kade had heard previously.

Brian ushered Kade along the cliff toward the edge with a pat on the back.

“Let’s go, he’s almost here!” Brian urged.

Kade snapped out of his trance and followed Brian down a significantly precipitous slope that led to the cliff edge proper. They stood there on the last bastion of solid land, waiting.

Kade looked down at the rushing waterfall below. It was an extremely far fall; one would be very lucky to live from it. Kade glanced at Brian, confused.

“Umm, you’re joking, right? Is your plan to kill yourself instead?”

Brian looked confident so that gave Kade some semblance of hope that he knew what he was doing.

Brian held up a hand. “Don’t move. Nobody’s jumping if they don’t have to. This is gonna work!”

As they waited, Kade noticed that the footsteps had stopped. Kade exchanged glances between the forest and Brian. Brian suddenly looked disappointed, as if his silent plan had fallen through.

“Maybe he left?” Kade asked.

Brian turned back to the cliff and gazed downward.

“It’s entirely possible. I mean, maybe it got the scent of something else and decided to chase it instead. Who knows how long that thing’s been locked up down there. Almost makes you feel sorry for it.”

Kade leered at the treeline above. “I don’t know if I’d go that far. Maybe it’s stalking us silently again, like before.”

Brian bit his lip. “I don’t like this.”

And then, as if he had been there all along, Axe was standing at the edge of the clearing above them, licking its lips, its tail flickering about frantically as the axe trimmed the treetops unfortunate enough to be in its proximity.

Brian smiled. “Ah, the star of our show!”

Kade cast Brian an incredulous look.

“How can you be like that right now? He’s got us cornered…”

Brian held up a hand. “Just trust me.” He said, not breaking eye contact with the beast.

Axe carefully stepped onto the precipice leading down to the ledge and cracks began to run through the rock as it struggled to stay composed under the thing’s massive bulk. Axe cocked its head to the side as it examined the straining ledge beneath it, snorting at the earth as if trying to smell its intentions. For a moment, Kade was worried that whatever Brian had planned was going to fall through and them along with it. But after a protracted moment, the beast thought little of the fracturing and decided it wasn’t a threat. It proceeded forward again and another fissure split the rock, this time running all the way down the remainder of the slope and between the boys on the ledge.

Kade gasped as he jumped aside from the fracture. “He’s going to kill us all!” Kade yelled.

“Don’t move!” Brian yelled, grabbing Kade by the arm.

The monster stepped onto the ledge and a large cracking sound came from below. The monster snarled noisily, glaring at the two of them with almost mechanical, yellow eyes. It roared at the sky one last time and then rushed head on at them. Kade was absolutely stunned.

“Now!” Brian yelled, and he moved for the side of the ledge, pulling Kade along with him.

They made for the ocean-facing side of the cliff and Kade could see another ledge several blades below them coming into sight, clearly the focus of Brian’s intention. So that had been his plan all along. Just as the two of them prepared to hurl themselves on to the safety of the auxiliary ledge, the crushing weight of the creature proved too much for the integrity of the cliff and it shelved off the side of the canopy before the boys could make it clear. The three of them fell, gravity taking hold, Axe snapping viciously at them but coming up with air as the tumble twisted it around in an awkward, contorted position. The boys managed to use the vestigial inertia to clear the edge of the shattered cliff end, tumbling out into the open air as Axe remained fixed to the severed platform. The water came up fast; they weren’t in the air for any longer than perhaps three seconds.

“Keep your arms in and point your feet!” Brian had time to yell, just in time for Kade to catch the last of his instructions.

They hit the water with near breakneck force, but Brian’s tip had proven helpful and Kade felt himself plummet into the cold water still alive, if not with freshly sprained ankles. He watched from under the water as the huge piece of stone careened into the water with a monstrous fracas, followed by the writhing form of Axe which suddenly looked helpless for the first time. The creature’s pathetic forelimbs were clearly not designed for swimming and it struggled to keep itself buoyant. In the end, the heavy pull of the slow-sinking rock and the creature’s poor skills saw it being dragged down to the murky depth. Kade himself felt the immense pull of the rock and barely managed to paddle himself away from its gravity well and back to the surface.

He broke through with a gasping breath and saw Brian not too far off, treading water and looking no less disgruntled. His eyes traced from the disappearing form of Axe to his waterlogged companion across from him. He smiled that same awkward smile that Kade was beginning to both hate and love.

“Well, that was some adventure, huh?” He said.

Kade couldn’t believe this guy. It was like nothing phased him and life was just one big joke. Kade felt his temperature rising.

“We could have died! That was your plan?” He yelled across at the other.

Brian frowned. “A simple ‘your welcome’ would have sufficed. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t try for the ledge. That thing was heavier than I thought.”

Suddenly, small bubbles began to form slowly around Kade.

Brian’s brow furrowed. “Wow. You’re really getting heated up about this, aren’t you? Careful or you’ll boil all of the fish with that temper.”

The bubbles began to grow in frequency and size until Kade was surrounded by a ring of effervescing water.

“Oh, I get it. It’s been a while since you went.” Brian added cheekily.

Kade looked offended. “What? No, I’d…I’d never do that. That’s disgus…”

Before Kade could finish, a muted rumbling came from below them, growing into a full-blown roar which burst through the surface of the lake just behind them. A very angry Axe broke through the surface in an explosion of water, bellowing furiously into the air. Everything seemed to play out in slow motion; the mouth, splayed wide and teeth shimmering, coming down onto them in a final retribution; thousands and thousands of rivulets and droplets of water cascading around them in perfect disorder, sailing off into their destinies unknown; the paralyzing fear of being stuck half in water, unable to react or move quickly enough to do anything with meaning…  As the creature came down on them, a shadow began to form around it in the surface of the lake–a penumbra of some unseen object above. Kade couldn’t be sure if the whip-crack splitting of the cliff face came before or after, but it all happened so fast it seemed to be a blur. The powerful rumbling of Axe’s war cry became its swansong as the last portion of the already disturbed cliff above became dislodged from its untenable position and came careening down on the creature, like a singular avalanche with no other intention but one. This section of the cliff–roughly twice as large as the last piece–struck Axe clear across the skull, snapping the blade clear off its huge headpiece. It slammed into the water with a gigantic splash, sending the boys billowing away on a tidal wave as the rock pinned Axe into the water with ease.

As the boys washed away, frantically waving their arms, coughing and spluttering water, the creature sank down to the bottom of the lake one last time, its yellow eye a narrowing slit in the darkness which was the water’s depths, watching the surface disappear forever. The handsome man in the suit watched all of this from high above, at the tree line just beyond the fracture point of the cliff. Though Karayus was partially obscured by the horizon, enough light filtered onto him that his body shifted in and out of solid form, hazy matter struggling to maintain its previous state. While he could use some of his focus to mitigate the effects of the light, his best efforts rendered little more than a head a top an ambiguous black cloud shifting in and out of the form of a man. As he concentrated on fighting to keep some semblance of his whole self, he watched his insurance policy–no, his life and future–sinking to the bottom of Creel Lake and, like his beloved pet, a wave washed over him. The emotions took him to his knees and he nearly buckled over as he realized what he had just witnessed. Once word got out that the Tyrakk was no more, he would likely follow the same fate. His master would not tolerate such a monumental failure, let alone the fact that it had been perpetrated by two young cren boys.

 No, he couldn’t think like that. Life was only over once the darkness took hold. He wouldn’t let it get that far. While he may not be able to regain his master’s trust, he did still have one thing to live for: revenge. He would see those two snot-nosed little brats suffer dearly for the damages they had caused him, for the incredible amount of work they had undone.

Thus, it was of very little consolation to him when he watched the two small figures head over the nape of a large waterfall and disappear out of sight. Nature had robbed him of his opportunity. He couldn’t believe his poor luck. He balled his hands into fists and slammed them against the earth, cracks rippling out into the rock around him. He screamed into the dirt beneath him, as if letting the world know that it had done him wrong once more. He lay like that for a long moment, his back heaving with rage and wounded pride until the rhythm slowed and he was all but still. He righted himself and got back to his feet, kicking off the dirt that had collected on his three-thousand grav dress shoes. Or, at least what portion of them he could keep manifested in the light. He tugged on the lapels of his jacket, righted his tie into place and dusted off his shoulders with a dainty flick of his impossibly long fingers. The face of the handsome man was gone, now but a shady caricature of a skull staring out over the land which had deprived it of a good life. He sneered out at the scene which so many before him had found joy in. There would be no joy for him until he knew for certain those boys were dead. That was now his singular purpose; his master could bloody well wait.

Yes, time was still on his side. He was somewhere very far off now; he was always somewhere else. Likely, he had time. He had at least that much left. And men had toppled kingdoms with less than that.

The shadows on his face shifted and the man was handsome once more, with a full head of hair and two crystalline cren eyes. Chester was himself again, and if that self needed to be someone else, well…

He could be anybody he wanted to.

With one last sneer down at the lake that had robbed him, he turned back into the woods down the path back to Falkner’s. Vestiges of his gaseous self trailed behind in smoky plumes, blending in with the shadows cast down on him by the trees high above. He began to whistle to himself as he walked.

“I think I’ll walk back.”

Yes, change was good, and that was what he did best after all.