Sam’s rain boots were lagging just behind the movement of his feet as they resisted each step and pivot. The opaque layer of muck coating every stagnant surface in the cave added a suffocating smell of rot to the buzzing of giant bugs, squelch of slimes rolling, squeaks of attacking bats, and grunts of effort as the three battled for their lives.
There was a rhythm to the attacks, they’d found. Sam, with a dagger, a dented trash can lid, and over-sized kitchen gloves, slashed another tear in the membrane of a slime that jumped to attack him, knocking it back to where it had leapt from. Just like baseball – if your bat was one-handed. Jackson, by his side, had managed to get his hands on a sword sized for his juvenile frame. He skewered a bug the size of his head, then used the momentum of swinging his sword to fling it into a bat that was flying towards him.
Sebastian, his back pressed against Sam’s, had a large wrench and a makeshift shield from a hubcap – courtesy of the local bus driver. Another bug dove for him, and he batted it away with his shield. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw a rock lift and begin to move towards him. “Jackson! Triple threat!” He yelled.
“Yoba, not again!” Jackson responded, moving so that the three of them had their backs to each other. “How many times is that now?”
“I’ve lost count! Rock crab headed your way – rotate?” Sebastian felt a body tense against his back; Sam held up his lid as the slime jumped again, bursting on impact.
“Ready when you are! Just got this guy and nobody’s next in line!”
Jackson called out, “Let’s do it! Three, two, one!” At one, they shuffled, turning so that Sam was facing the next bug and Sebastian was facing the rock crab. “I’ll break off, you two keep together!”
“Got it!” Sam swung at the bug’s next attack, failing to make contact; despite that, it was still enough to keep the bug out of attacking range. He heard Jackson yell out as he landed a hit and the bug landed with a squelch – no, two squelches – its body still twitching. “You okay?”
“I got the bug!” Jackson took a look around, his curly hair dripping sweat, his breathing finally starting to speed up. The onslaught seemed to be slowing down, though. He’d read about infested floors, but this was their first. Hoping it wouldn’t be their last, he continued to search for threats. A flash of furred movement caught his attention. It flew, again and again in his mind, before he watched it pick a path that he’d prepared for. A swing of steel, and he sliced through the small body, sending it to the ground.
He turned back to the other two boys, holding their own, but just as wiped out as him. His eyes went wide as Sebastian’s wrench wedged under the rock crab’s shell. Every scenario that played without his intervention was the end of his friend. Yelling as the kid tried and failed to overturn the crab, Jackson leapt, pivoted, and leapt. “Watch out!” He called out, swinging his sword between the wrench and the shell. Metal clanged against metal; Sebastian dropped his wrench and fell away from his rescuer, leaving Sam’s back defenseless; Jackson pushed his blade through the crab and it collapsed onto its side; Sam cut off a bug’s wing, sending it careening into a wall, and the three made eye contact.
Sebastian scrambled to his feet, helped up by Jackson, and managed to grab his wrench. The crab was dead, the bugs were dead, the bats were dead, and they hadn’t seen any more slimes since the last one. The flickering light of the torches they’d picked up and re-staked into the ground illuminated the empty space of the cave. “Thanks.”
Jackson nodded. “Yeah. I think that’s all of them.” He took a deep breath, his blood vessels still pumping for his slow heartbeat. “We should check around that corner, just to be safe though. Are you guys okay?”
Sam panted out, “Dude… gimme… a minute… first. Please. I- I’m good. Just gotta… catch my breath.”
Sebastian, just as winded, “Yeah. That’s… gonnaleaveamark,” he agreed, breathing out the last four words all at once. “Should… should be good.”
“Eh, you two catch your breath. It’s a dead end over there, I got a peek. You could fit one, maybe two monsters back there – I can handle it.”
“Don’t expect- expect me to- to save your ass,” Sebastian retorted.
“Didn’t I just do that for you?” He teased.
Sam threw his head back in frustration. “Don’t start. Just… I dunno, yell. If you need… help.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. I got it.” He turned around and made his way to the narrow passage, weaving between rocks. Something shifted in the darkness ahead of him. Something big. “Shit,” he hissed under his breath, before yelling out, “Throw me a torch!”
“Got it!” Sebastian called back. A torch landed at his feet, rolling and flickering from its momentum. As the fire flicked back to full strength, its thrower screamed, “Jackson, what the fuck is that thing!?”
“Stay back! Don’t get its attention!” The massive slime turned to Jackson, its many eyes turning red underneath the main membrane. “SHIT!” He leapt to the side, holding the monster’s focus as possibilities screamed through his mind at top speed. “Over here, motherfucker!” None of them went well if the others got involved at this rate. “Stay over there, guys! I’ll call you in when it’s safe...er!”
Sebastian stepped back, then swiftly made his way to Sam. “Come on! We need to be ready when he is!”
He groaned. “We’re leaving after this!”
The two boys jogged back over to where Jackson was, crouching behind rocks as they watched him battle. He kept jumping to the side, leaning in, slashing, jumping back, and repeating that cycle. Over and over and over again, his breathing turning to panting, until finally the membrane broke. It should’ve been victory.
“SHIT! TRIPLE THREAT! TRIPLE THREAT!”
The other two boys rushed in to find four slimes coming at Jackson. His shirt was soaked completely with sweat that dripped off of his nose. “Come on!” Sam ordered.
“We’ve got you!” Joining into their three-sided battle formation, they fought the slimes. “We might not get home clean tonight!” Sebastian warned.
Sam yelled as he landed a critical hit, tearing through the slime’s membrane. “I’m more worried about getting home at all,” he replied, the fear audible in his voice. He kicked the slime and it collapsed in on itself, oozing out between the broken pieces of skin that had once held it together. “Hit that one my way, Sebastian,” he offered. A second slime rolled sideways into his field of attack, having been knocked away by a wrench.
Sebastian turned his attention back to the slime in front of him, swinging his wrench at it. The metal only scraped the membrane as it slid across and under the slime, pushing it back away from him. He groaned in frustration.
Next to him, Jackson was feeling much the same. He’d slashed and stabbed at this slime for what felt like ages, but it was like its skin was three times as thick as that of any others he’d fought. Finally, he took a chance: with one deft swing of his sword, he caught the edge of his blade on the star at the end of the slime’s antenna and pulled it off. The membrane, full of gashes, finally fell apart as if he’d ripped it open by a pull tab, and it collapsed around what looked to be its core.
Jackson turned to the other two. “Break! Mine’s done – lemme help!” The three broke formation, and he helped Sebastian defeat his slime. They turned to Sam as he plunged his dagger into the last slime, causing it to burst all over his gloves and boots. He turned back to them, looking exasperated.
“Let’s… get outta here,” Sam breathed out. Sebastian nodded and stepped forwards.
“I’ll meet you… over by the- the ladder,” Jackson panted. He turned around. He took a few steps. He reached for the core of the slime. He didn’t see the flash of light. He didn’t hear the pop of a teleport, or the footsteps, or the man inhaling to shout a warning. His hand wrapped around something solid and smooth, warm to the touch and glowing ever so slightly.
CRACK! Sam, who had been watching him, suddenly found himself blinded by a bright flash of light. Sebastian, who’d had his back turned, dropped into a crouch and raised his arms over his head, mirroring Sam. The wizard, who’d seen everything fall into place for this disaster in the last moment, had managed to shield his eyes in time and held up his hands as if to catch something.
Catch something he did, surprisingly enough – at least, it surprised Sebastian once he could see again. He whipped around to find Jackson – rather, what he hoped was Jackson – levitating, his body curved around the force of the energy that had thrown him. He turned again to the wizard, whose face was pale and grimly laser-focused on the task at hand.
Keeping his eyes on the boy he’d caught, Rasmodius transferred his spell from both hands to one, using his newly freed hand to unclasp his cloak and bring the fabric to his mouth. He muttered into it, “Wrap him, don’t let him touch anything solid.” The cloak fell from his shoulders and whipped through the air, stopping just short of the floating, shape-shifting body before swiftly wrapping it. The wizard relaxed a little, releasing his spell. Slowly, it levitated back to him, landing gently in his outstretched arms.
He turned to the boys, who were both watching him in disbelief, urging, “You two, come here. Don’t touch him or the stone,” he warned. Waving his hand, he muttered, “It’s relatively harmless now, but I’m not taking any chances.” He looked back up from the stone to the children in front of him.
Sam put his arm out to the side, indicating for Sebastian to not come closer. “Who are you?” He tried to keep the shaking out of his voice, but it was impossible.
The wizard shook his head, exasperated. “We don’t have time for that. Quickly now, or I’m leaving you here.” He could see the older boy opening his mouth to protest, but the one behind him stepped forwards and nodded his head to Rasmodius. Once the two were at his side, he gestured them to come closer.
Rasmodius instructed clearly and urgently, “When I say so, you’re going to want to close your eyes and hold your breath for just a moment.” He picked up his foot, turning his leg so that it pointed as far out as possible, and jammed the toe of his boot into the ground, hearing the click of a mechanism he’d installed long ago. “There’s going to be a loud noise and a flash of light – not quite as severe as the last one, mind you – then you’ll be okay to go back to normal,” he continued, rotating his leg until his knee was facing inwards. A dim teleportation circle lit up on the ground beneath them, growing in size with the turn of his leg until it was large enough for all four of them in the center. “Do you understand?” The children affirmed that they did.
“Good.” He flattened the sole of his boot against the cave floor, and there was a dull scraping sound as the circle carved itself into the dirt. One-time-use only. “It’s time.”
One successful teleportation later, the four were together in the Cindersap woods, getting rained on at the bottom of a staircase leading up to the wizard’s tower. Rasmodius tapped the front half of his boot into the grass twice, causing the second teleportation circle to flicker and disappear from beneath them. Adjusting his grip on the body in his arms, he spoke into his cloak again. “Set him down for me, will ya?” A fold of fabric unwrapped from the bundle to thwap lightly against his shoulder. “What?”
Sam watched as the fabric moved of its own volition, seemingly communicating with the strange man who somehow had bright purple facial hair. The wizard’s face went pale again and his mouth fell open ever so slightly before his expression changed to astonished, grim pity.
“Gods have mercy on your soul, kid,” he managed, keeping his voice steady and even. “You-”
“Hey! Are you gonna tell us what’s going on?” Sebastian interrogated, “What happened to him? Is he gonna be okay?”
Rasmodius looked up from the small frame in his arms to the other two boys, as if suddenly remembering their presence. “He’s still got a fighting chance,” he reassured, “I need you two to go up those stairs and stand by the door.” He waved a hand over the child’s uncovered face, then spoke into his cloak again. “It’s safe to set him down – give us some distance, though, then go protect those two. I’ll handle this one.”
Uneasy, Sam piped up. “Are you… talking to your cloak?”
“Worry about that later,” he dismissed; the fabric levitated several feet away and eased Jackson onto the ground. “It’ll protect you while we try and get this figured out.” The fabric slipped out from underneath the child’s shape-shifting frame and returned to the other three, taking a slight bow for the kids. Rasmodius stepped forwards, nodding to it, then swiftly walked over to Jackson.
As his cloak guided the boys up the stairs, the wizard crouched next to Jackson, whose eyes had opened. One red, one blue, framed by the even-more-blue hair of a character he’d been writing about. Rasmodius spoke in a grim but determined voice, “Listen, kid, I know you’ve got no reason to trust me, but you just absorbed far more energy than it should be possible for you to survive,” he pulled a pair of gloves out from his belt, “and if you want to continue to survive, I need you to listen closely.”
Jackson, barely aware of what had just happened, was going to great pains to process what the wizard had said. The countless scenarios in his mind were playing at top speed, and none of them were making any sense, and yet they all made perfect sense; somehow both seemed true at the same time. “Huh?” he managed, blinking back into focus after what felt like a full day. It had only been about five seconds.
“Good enough for me.” Rasmodius pulled the gloves on over his hands and spoke again. “I’m gonna guide you through this, but ultimately, you’re gonna have to do it yourself. You’ve gotten this far, though, so I’ve got faith in you.”
Another few seconds that felt a hundred times as long. “Do what?”
The wizard moved with swift confidence, picking up the boy’s arms and positioning them so that they were pointed straight up, perpendicular to his back and the earth. “Hold your arms up like this, straight out. Put your hands together – like this,” he instructed, demonstrating with the tips his thumb and index finger on each hand touching tips, mirrored, “and point it up as far as you can.”
Jackson, shaking, feverish, did as he was told. “I died so many times today.” He didn’t mention the fact that, in his mind, he was still watching himself die repeatedly. That, in his algorithmic predictions of possibilities, he’d watched his friends die numerous times. That there were a few scenarios he’d lived internally in which he’d leveled the town. That he was being given information by his own brain’s processing of this energy that he’d never considered before, that he’d never thought possible.
Rasmodius didn’t notice, either – he was a little busy trying to keep three children and himself alive in the reality they were all existing within, the reality they had to live with in that moment. “Not yet, you didn’t,” he reassured. Had it been anyone else, that might’ve worked. Then again, had it been anyone else, none of them would’ve made it out of that cave alive. “I need you to concentrate on the space between your hands and focus all of your energy there. As soon as something starts to come through, you’re going to want to release it and keep releasing it – kind of like untying a water balloon and squeezing all the liquid out of it.”
The child nodded. Every new word was fifty new scenarios. He arduously pulled his attention from within to the air in front of him. A sudden increase of light startled him and he gasped as a low hum began to vibrate through him. Rasmodius watched in amazement as this boy, who had never once cast before in his life, focused the energy of an experienced mage’s ticking time bomb into a ball of light that grew with accelerating speed. “Good, kid, now let it go!” He urged.
Jackson winced. He exhaled, and the light brightened into something that surely should’ve blinded him as it shot out into a beam wider than the wizard’s tower. Over by said tower, the cloak, which had wrapped itself around Sam and Sebastian, closed the window it had left for them to watch, protecting them from the equivalent of their third flash-bang that day. Even the wizard had to shield his eyes again. Eldritch blast.
Seven seconds later – at least eight hours for Jackson – it flickered, then faded out. His arms went limp, and time returned to something slightly more bearable for the poor, winded kid as the world spun around him. Back at the tower, the cloak lowered, then unwrapped from the two boys slightly, still on guard. There was a hole cut into the clouds. The sound of the blast echoed through the entire valley.
