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(Very brief recap; due to running away last chapter, Eric is (unsurprisingly) lost and wandering around- likely to get himself killed if he wasn't so darned important to the plot. --Pont)
It was the loveliest sight he had seen in ages. In the near distance, Eric could just lay eyes upon a tall, rugged, black mountain range.
Alright, maybe not exactly lovely, but it wasn’t flat or sandy, and there was at least a chance of finding water there, which was more than he could say for his current location. As he approached the landmark, he observed that the simplest entrance was clouded by large amounts of dark fog, however, as the altitude increased, the fog lessened. Eric
couldn’t depend on Derysne forever, he needed to take responsibility for his own survival and he desperately needed water. After getting this far, he was not about to give up. He was going in.
(With Derysne)
She stood staring uneasily at the edge of the chasm. Her current position, about to dive into and attempt to cross a spiky rock rift with river winds and half her usual energy, seemed ridiculous enough to be in one of those stupid James Bond movies, except her probability of becoming a grisly bloody mess on the side of the rocky face- skewered on one of the stagtalites perhaps- was much grater than Bond’s stunt double. What she wouldn’t give for one of his nifty harnesses though...
Well, at this rate she’d get up the courage to risk serious injury in a single action of such stupidity she was fairly certain she’d never forgive herself, if she survived. “Well, when in doubt do something stupid.” She spent a moment to ponder over the gaping chasm’s yawning mouth, trying not to notice the dagger-like black crystals jutting out of
the sides and the stalagmites pushing from cliffs like spears. She took a moment to register the fact that it wasn’t really possible - Geologically - To have stalagmites in what looked like an earthquake fissure, before reminding herself that she was after all in the Last Rung. But there she went stalling again. With an aggravated sigh she steeled herself, holding her wings crooked to her sides, and took a running jump across the edge of the rift.
(With Eric)
Eric slid into the entrance to the mountains, a crevice small enough for him to touch the walls on either side of him without difficulty. At first touch, his very flesh penetrated the thick, lush mountain air like a body entering a confined space containing heavy fog. His vision being impaired, Eric cautiously relied on his fingertips to guide his way.
Before long the walls of the crevice came to a point and Eric was able to progress upwards, climbing as quickly as possible but placing very carefully each step of the way. As his altitude increased, the density of the dark fog lessened so that when Eric looked above, he could just make out the sharp, jagged tips of the mountain, piercing the sky like knives would a piece of freshly cut meat. Losing breath every second, he continually struggled to push his way up against the pull of gravity, which, in the last rung, was more like a fifty pound weight being tied to you ankles. If only Derysne were with him, he thought, she’d be able to purify the darkness surrounding him and perhaps cut the chain on which hung the fifty pound weight.
(With a very peeved Derysne)
The still air around the lips of the chasm had been very deceiving. Derysne once again found herself surprised by the savage intensity of the winds that tunneled their way through the crevices of the rift, gaining speed, and seeming to focus all their force, in all its blistering glory- on the new arrival. She swore she could hear the wind howling, 'Fresh meat! Fresh meat!' -but then she'd been wondering what kinds of things this world was going to do to her sanity.
Several times she'd been slammed painfully into the sides (thankfully not the points) of the very hard stalagmites, and once, despite her strict control -what little she had- over her flight pattern, she was dashed into a nest of the sharp little black crystals, and left behind some of her skin as a souvenir. Ripping her way out of the current far from where she'd intended to land had removed most of her wing feathers, and she knew that, for a while at least, she was effectively grounded. With a final glare back at the howling rift she stomped off, ignoring the sting of the small cuts she'd gotten in favor of fuming over the injustice of it all.
It was a few hours before she reached the mountains. She didn't really know where she was going anyway, and they seemed like a dumb enough place for the idiot to go. Of course, her decision had a lot to do with the fact that the little compass dangling merrily from her staff had pointed her in this direction. If Eric hadn't gone this way, she could probably find out where he'd gone if she took careful note of what kinds of things the Last Rung was doing. She should've remembered before she'd allowed them to get separated, but afterwards she'd recalled one of her lessons about the tenuous balance within and between the rungs (something she'd had no reason to worry about and probably never would have if he didn't come along); like some huge chemical equation, the gaps between rungs liked to balance, with even 'weights' of energy on either end. At the top you had the bright places (the one right above the earth universe the humans liked to call 'heaven') and at the bottom, the darkest. And like a chemical equation, it was actually very unstable and apt to misbalance itself. Sometimes a gap between the rungs would move; sometimes they'd disappear. It was not uncommon for a gap to dispel energy into the void, where it'd get distributed between the gaps as necessary to keep the balance. This Last Rung wasn't new at all; it had only been created a few centuries ago, when the old one became less 'dark' and switched places with it. This was not uncommon between the rungs; in fact, in a few millennia, it was very possible that the earth's galaxy-rung would be at the bottom (it was moving down anyways). Inhabitants of the rungs such as herself seldom witnessed the effects of the constant flux of power between the gaps. Occasionally a group such as the humans would notice things such as black holes or mirages and spend a few centuries trying to explain them, but the large-scale transfer of energy and creation of rungs was rare, and hadn't occurred for a long time since the big bang (not counting Atlantis, which -in relative terms of course- was considered a small-scale shift during a time of great upheaval) and usually required the intervention of 'guardians' such as Derysne's distant ancestors to undertake the delicate task of trying to salvage places populated by living organisms and mediating the chaos from the void and the places concerned, and prevent (as much as possible) the destruction of too many places. During these relatively stable days, though, Guardians were mostly only concerned with the accidental transits such as Eric from their respective worlds, and trafficking the everyday transfer. On a smaller level, the Last Rung itself, as well as many other gaps near the top and the bottom of the proverbial 'ladder' Eric had seen that opened into the void, were even more unstable than most, and prone to 'miraculous' changes and shifts (usually bad) because of intruders or entering energy. The Last Rung liked to have its own different areas of concentrated energy. When something new was introduced, it had the tendency to rebel and do anything... short of destroying it. It would concentrate its 'dark' energy around areas of 'light' energy, and if there was too much of a balance, it might to something drastic... like separate it. Thankfully, as only half a sentient being, it didn't realize that Derysne could fly, or she might never have crossed that fissure to find Eric. As it was, she was sure she was going to pay somehow for her trespasses later. As if she wasn't going to get tongue-whipped from Kori when she got back already. She was actually fairly certain that if the Arcadian didn't throw her halfway across the Earth rung and back, her superiors would, anyway. Just what I need. Another lecture about my incompetence and reminders of how unlike my perfect ancestors I am. She thought resentfully as she tripped over a rock. Suddenly standing in the shadows of the doorway didn't sound as bad as it had been before her little adventure.
She checked her compass. As she moved closer to whatever it was that it was pointing to, she could see the little black designs creeping around the edges like turning gears, and the pin was quivering quickly, as if whatever she was trying to find was near. The gold filament on the point sparkled dully. Well, on the good side, it seems I've finally figured out what rung that whatever-it-is is in, she added sarcastically as she gazed up at the dark, jagged peaks stretching before her.
(with eric (poor, poor confused kid))
After what seemed like much ruthless climbing, Eric stumbled upon level ground. Struggling greatly, he used the remainder of his arm strength to push himself up on the ledge. Feeling a bit dizzy, he stood up. The space ahead consisted of a long, narrow pathway with high, solid walls to his right and left. The fog had lessened immensely by this point so that it was just light enough for him to see where he was going. However, the fact that he was weary and dehydrated was something else that would impair his vision and sense of balance. At least it was relatively level, he thought. As he began to walk unsteadily, he briefly noticed pieces of broken clay pottery and dead grass on the ground. But he was too drowsy to investigate them further.
Eric was soon thirsty to the point where he could no longer feel it. His neck became numb as his head twisted around in circles in its place. He was having trouble keeping his ground. The environment began to spin around him and sharp pains penetrated his frontal lobe. He maintained his balance using the walls on either side of him within the narrow caves. That is, until his right hand no longer had anything to grasp and his body fell clumsily into a hollow opening. Suddenly, all pain stopped and everything became clear again. Wow, Eric thought, for once I suppose I did something right.
Eric gazed into the vast space within the crevice. the area was dark, but he could make out the glow of a stream and the stalagmites and stalactites surrounding it. In fact, everything had a bit of a glow to it. He could see large rocks in the near distance that controlled the flow of the stream, some of the water going straight through the main stream while some went astray to nourish the minerals being grown there. As Eric surveyed the area, he noticed that there was something different about this water than that of the dark forest. It glowed, just as the forest water did after Derysne put her staff in it. Then it must be purified, Eric thought. He was finally going to be able to drink!
However, as he approached the stream and leaned down to take a drink, he realized that there was something in the water that was causing it to glow-- it wasn’t natural. Shoved into a corner, pushed slightly underneath a small cliff, was an orb. It was not immensely bright, in fact it was rather dim; it was about the size of an acorn, perhaps a bit smaller, and it was deafened by the atmosphere. However, the smallest light in the greatest dark will seem as bright as the sun in the middle of the day. Eric thought for a moment and then slowly reached for the orb. Upon contact, Eric’s world became light again.
(with Derysne)
To say that the little shiver her staff gave surprised her, before the dark blades' edges accumulated small beads of light -a mockery of the bright kind of energy from before- would be the understatement of the century. If there was anything she'd expected, it had been for the atmosphere to darken, not lighten, as they got closer to the mountains. However, disturbingly, the compass's needle seemed to droop a little, disturbed by the presence of a nearby artifact that had most likely dropped itself into this world and hadn't dissolved yet from one of the many impromptu balancing acts of the rungs. Derysne cursed her luck and wondered how in heaven's name Eric had managed to stumbled on what seemed like a powerful artifact in the middle of the mountains, because that was the only viable excuse. Honestly, if there was one thing she could always count on, it would be the kid stumbling on something bad and therefore somehow monopolizing their objectives.
With a sigh, she picked up a small pebble from the ground and tossed it into the air, only to be surprised that its graceful arc towards the ground was mostly uninterrupted, and more than a little suspicious and sure that the air above wasn't really as calm at her elementary test had revealed. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she got into a crouch and vanquished her staff, not even wanting to think about how she was going to get up the energy to summon it again after half climbing, half walking up the steep slope of the mountain's face. After the scary business with stalagmites and crosswinds in the rift, she wasn't about to push her luck with flying in this world.