New friends and the beauty of the crystal are surprises the group did not expect to find. But the caravaners don’t belong in caves and can’t survive there for long. They need to find a way out, and soon.
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“Nox?” Fureva-Yung's deep gravelly voice echoed through the crystal-eaters cavern, startling Nox. She shrank back into the alien side of Mother, their quiet companion of the last few hours.
“Meh!” Fureva-Yung shook her head in disgust at the littlest one's behaviour and stalked off to find Marius.
“Marius? How long will the light last?”
Marius, whose specialties were neither engineering nor numenera, thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Meh!”
“Jaden might know.”
Jaden did know and gave her grave pronouncement, “A day or two. The light will reach wherever the crystal does. When that battery gives out, we’ll be back in darkness again.”
Fureva-Yung did not like this information.
“We should move on.”
“I have to agree. I don’t think there’s anything else we can learn here.”
Marius had other ideas. He headed back to Mamma and Nox, bubbling over with questions.
“Hey kid, has Mamma lived anywhere else other than the crystal? Has she had other clutches other than what we see here? Are there more adults like her in the crystal?”
When my little ones mature, some wander off, others eat and eat. They make crystal cocoons then…leave for other places.
“Has she seen other places?”
Other place….the crystal is also, but it is cold there, and the crystal floats in nothingness.
I told you this stuff was from space,” Marius seemed frenetic with his new thoughts. You keep chatting to Mamma. I’m going to check something.”
I’ll go with you, Nox exhaled a deep breath. Not seeing Fureva-Yung anywhere, Nox felt brave enough to follow Marius on one of his daring schemes.
“No, it’s fine. You stay here where it’s safe. Jaden’s still here. She may need you,” Marius replied casually enough, but Nox couldn’t help but feel safer around the Scavenger.
I want to go with you… Her voice, even in Marius’ mind, was barely a whisper. If he pushed it, he knew she would give up.
“Just humour her, “ Jaden said, not looking away from her study of the intricate pathways the crystal-eaters had made in their chamber, “She’s a little upset.”
Marius’s energy evaporated, “We’ll…stay together then.” He replied, a strained look flashing across his face, “Should we leave Mamma and the little ones in peace?”
Fureva-Yung had already stalked off down the far left passage, and they decided to follow her.
The crystal tunnels they’d come to associate with the largest of the Crystal-eaters travelled uninterrupted until it reached the wall of structure. Even here, Mamma had, had no problem breaking through the wall and into a hexagonal room. After the crystal passages, this room was dark. The walls were metal panels lined with a heavy gauge mesh made of openings about three centimetres square. The floor was solid rock.
Nox sent her Hedge Magic lights into the centre of the room and illuminated three synth columns. Eagerly she scanned the columns and worked out they were a type of receiver, collecting energy from the crystals encasing the room. Nox could feel her hair start lifting from her head as static began building in the room.
Oh! The columns are collecting energy from around us, She told the others, I wonder why?
Nox didn’t realise she was flying until her feet suddenly left the ground, and she found herself drifting up. With a sudden giddy glee, she pushed off the nearest column and started floating out towards the walls.
“That looks like fun! Marius leapt for the centre of the room and soared over the columns, “Whee! Who has a rope!
From the doorway, Fureva-Yung looked at the two humans with concern. Her usually flat-lying body hair was all standing on end, making her look fuzzy and softening her features. From above, Nox squealed with delight as she spun around in her flight and saw Fureva-Yung.
Fureva-Yung, you look so cute!
“Not cute!” She protested as a humming sound started reverberating through the air.
The sound was similar to Fureva-Yung’s wave sounds but distinct enough that Marius commented, “Furry, is that you humming?”
“I do not hum, and I am not cute!” She growled as the humming continued.
Marius’ danger-sense tingled, “Ur, we should get down.” He twisted in the air, preparing to bounce off the oncoming wall and down to the ground.
Reality flickered.
Another place, dark with only stone walls all around. The sound of smashing perspex.
When Marius flickered back, he was closer to the mesh-covered wall. He could hear it humming with the build-up on static electricity.
On Marius' warning, Fureva-Yung unwrapped her chain and flung it into the room in Nox’s direction. Nox caught hold of the chain and started pulling herself in. Marius brought up his booted foot and pushed off the mesh, aiming for the door. Instead, a flash of energy discharged from the wall, propelling him across the room out of control.
More flickering.
Like watching a projected image through too low a speed, Marius saw the dark room, interspersed with images of the energy-filled one. Now he could see a figure move brokenly through the dark space, a swirling mass of green cloud unfolding to four metres tall, well over half the height of the entire room.
When Marius flickered back to the room with the others, the green mist figure was there as well. As Marius soared past out of control, the creature swiped at him, sending a sharp stabbing pain straight to his head. The purge that had hung on doggedly finally fell off dead. Marius pulled out his sword ato use as a hook around the creature. He missed and flew past, out of reach. The creature’s form flickered, and a sudden wave of energy emanated from it to all corners of the room. Marius and Nox, seeing the wave braced and it flowed over them harmlessly. Fureva-Yung and Jaden were surprised and were stunned by a sudden shock.
Holding onto Fureva-Yung’s chain for dear life, Nox scanned the creature of green smoke. Its nature was that of a jagged tear through reality, a being of pure energy that didn’t just move between worlds but was itself the breach.
I don’t know if physical stuff can hurt it much, She told the others, Maybe energy can hurt it.
“That I can do,” Jaden replied, scrounging Bellyache for a piece of iotum. From it, she fashioned a focus with and sent a beam of energy at the creature. However, on her first attempt, her gadget misfired and sent Jaden back into the nearest wall. Her back hit the scintillating metal mesh, which discharged, catapulting her across the room.
Fureva-Yung stood alone now at the door as her companions flailed helplessly through the air. With her chain occupied, she had only one ranged option left to her.
“Little one, I am going to shout now.”
Okay. Thank you. Nox replied and braced for the roar.
Fureva-Yung stepped back, and as she had in the large cavern over the bridge. As she flung herself forward, a roar shot up her throat and out her mouth, making her teeth tingle with its passing. Unfortunately, she missed her mark, hitting a column next to the creature. The column shattered. Chunks of synth shrapnel flew out from a burst of electricity that was quickly absorbed by the being. Instead of damaging the being, she’d accidentally made it stronger.
Marius had maneuvered himself, ready to hit the wall again, hoping this time to angle himself toward the door and out. The discharge came earlier than expected and blew him off course back towards the creature. Flying across the room, Jaden tried hitting the creature again with her energy beam and missed, striking the ground. Pulling out her little knife, Nox flung it, telekinetics keeping it on course. It hit the green mist, passing straight through, and the creature roared as if damaged, and, for the first time. They knew it could be hurt.
Reeling in Nox on her chain, Fureva-Yung, this time, did not try targeting the creature but sent her roar into the chain. It shivered and quaked with a deep resonance. Beside her, Nox reached out and patted the fuzzy hairs standing up on end all over Freva-Yung’s body and watched the static charge jump from the hair to her fingers.
Already heading back in the creature’s direction, Marius clasped his sword in both hands and made himself as streamlined as possible. He and the blade make a heavy projectile, tearing through the gaseous creature, making it scream. In response, the being sent a pulse towards Nox standing in the exit. She nimbly stepped aside. Now Fureva-Yung let her chain fly, swinging it through the creature and moving into the room around the walls. Jaden turned in midair and hit the wall with her feet. Propelled away, she aimed her beam at the creature. This time it hit, and the green cloud broiled and bubbled with pain and anger. It was looking damaged now as Nox used her Hedge Magic to retrieve her dagger, and Marius charged across the room for another attack.
The deadly weapon that was Marius sailed through the creature again, but this time failed to come out the other side. Instead, he soared straight through the tear between the two worlds and found himself in a dark stone room. Two rings, one attached to the ceiling, the other the floor, were surrounded by a halo of perspex shards curved to form the walls of a cylinder. Just discernable, three shadows moved around the room, the echoes of his friends in this world. Marius twisted in midair and prepared himself to hit the creature and hopefully get back to them.
In their world, Marius had disappeared. Jaden, floating past the creature, wondered if in killing the being, they’d lose their only link with Marius. Seemingly in response, the hum from the mesh increased. The energy sustained the creature. If he could only go through again, she thought there might be a chance.
Fureva-Yung flung out her chain towards one of the columns. It caught, and she used it to move safely around the room, pulling herself closer to the energy being. Nox, in the doorway, stepped back once, then twice. She wondered if there was a way of turning off the columns or, if not, using them to control the creature. Taking a deep breath, she ran into the room and flung herself across, heading for the column with Fureva-Yung’s chain. Catching the column, she searched it for an interface. There was no shutdown, but she could control the containment field trapping the creature, at least for a short while. The creature froze in place just as a shadowy figure headed towards it from the far side of the room.
Marius bounced off the stonewall, missing the extra propulsion from the mesh discharge. However, his kinetic energy was enough, and he lined himself up behind his sword once more. He felt the energy burn and zap as he passed through the rift and back into the room with his friends.
From their perspective, the being screamed and started folding in on itself. Where the creature had been, Marius now flew through, falling to the ground as the weightlessness failed. The walls and columns hummed with an overload of energy Nox had forced through them. Sparks leapt from the wall to the columns. They exploded, blowing a hole through the wall into another room. Thrown back against the mesh wall, the four friends were relieved to find it silent. Fureva-Yung took a moment to make sure she was grounded, and her hair was back sleek against her skin once more.
Oh! I liked you, fluffy, Nox commented, and Fureva-Yung made a disgusted face.
“I don’t do fluffy, humming or cute!” She said gruffly, but Nox had now forgiven her big friend and was no longer afraid.
Did you see I hit it! She thought, putting away her clever little dagger.
“You hit it good.”
“Hey!” Marius groggily got to his feet, “I’m purged of my purge!” He looked at the three of them oddly, unable to focus, “Ur….I don’t feel so good. I think I’ll go back to camp and wait for you guys.”
Jaden pulled her shirt around and saw the scorch marks made when she’d been blown away from the wall. She could see burns and scorch marks on everyone and nodded.
“Yeah, good thinking Marius. We’ll all go back and rest.”
Marius slumped, “No, no, never mind. Let’s check this last room.”
“You sure? You don’t look so good?”
“Sure, just a little frazzled is all.”
Through the crack in the far wall, the group peered into a new tunnel of stone and synth. At one end, a room contained a machine four metres wide that looked like some sort of fan or engine party buried in crystal. FurevaYung, as usual, was not interested in the machine.
“She can break it apart,” She suggested, referring to Marius and Nox stepped up to work out what the machine was once upon a time.
Still could tell us something useful, Nox replied as she scanned it and determined it was part of a larger machine.
Marius stepped up, ready to scavenge what he could from the machine. As soon as he touched the machine's metal casing, a spark of energy earthed, pushing him across the room into a clump of crystal. Marius coughed painfully, and a small puff of smoke escaped.
“Dang! I really gotta quit smoking!”
He wasn’t the only one. When the acrid smoke cleared around the machine, the synth canopy had melted over the machine's working parts. Once the room had stopped spinning for Marius, he salvaged what he could from the wreckage and found two cyphers.
Jaden led the way down the tunnel as it changed from crystal to natural caverns. She recognised the path as being one that led back to the large cavern where the caravan now camped. Here and there, crystals were making their presence felt, but it was apparent they were no longer in Mamma’s home.
Past a column made of flowstone, two small caves jutted out of the passage. Peaking in the first room, Jaden could see the smooth, clean lines of a large building. The walls buried themselves into the cavern on either side, with a small door at its centre. A sign on the door was indecipherable, but Nox noted the font and lettering for future comparison. Jaden turned the door handle only to find the door locked.
“Here, I’ll show you…” Marius brushed both Jaden and Nox aside, and after a few moments tinkering with the lock, the door was open, sliding sideways into the wall. A hallway ran left and right from the door, forming a one-hundred-and-twenty-degree angle with the next stretch of hallway. It looked like the hallways would make another hexagon shape with encircling something interesting in their interior. Nox was about to step into the hallway as Marius stumbled backwards from his crouch at the door. He swayed on the spot for a moment before finding his equilibrium again.
“Do you mind if we go back to camp now and search this space tomorrow?”
Without argument, the group turned and took the path, which, as Jaden predicted, headed back to camp and the rest of the caravan.