Story A Reluctant Terrarian

[Spyder Z]

Heh, Thanks! ;P And yeah... I'm still not done just porting the finished bits over. >.> We're on Chapter 27 in the Ongoing Thread. But I'll keep brining it over a few chapters at a time as I have the chance.

Also, while going back through it, I've added a scene in Chapter 5 to clarify some cannon bits I glazed over the first time. I'll post that chunk here, since everyone's read that bit already (If you started reading after Oct 3, 2014, you've already read the updated bit).

**********​

Bonus Scene Insert for Chapter 5 (See Notes Above)

"Just tell me what I'm supposed to eat around here," he asked with no pretense of civility.

"Well, that depends on how much work you want to put into it. If you're just looking to quiet the roars of your gut, you can eat those mushrooms over there, if you're..." rushing over to where Guile was pointing, he noticed that Guile's voice faded out.

Crouching down, he grabbed at one of a cluster of the substantial looking orange and red spotted mushrooms that Guile had indicated. As hungry as he was, he spared no thought for the potential side effects of eating a raw unwashed mushroom from the ground, and was only prevented from shoving bits of it into his mouth by the thing's insistence on staying firmly where it was, rooted to the ground. After a few hearty pulls, he kicked the thing, and was only rewarded with a slight shudder from the surprisingly durable plant.

"Why won't you let me eat you!" he shouted at the mushroom.

"One cannot generally eat what one has yet to harvest," Guile responded instead.

Glaring in response, he retorted, "I'm trying to harvest it, but it doesn't seem to want to be harvested," kicking it again to make his point.

"You look more like you're trying to attack it with your feet," was the response he got.

Taking a deep breath instead of yelling again, he slowly bent down and pulled firmly on the mushroom instead, looking up sharply at his guide when that also did nothing, and snapping, "Kicking, pulling, it doesn't matter, what, do I need to do, imagine it going into my stomach? Cause I got that covered!" he ended, his voice going up a notch anyway.

With a smirk Guile answered him, "It matters not what you're imagining if you're using the wrong tool for the job."

Glaring, he pulled the axe out and swinging it almost against the ground, he tried to imagine it chopping the mushroom free. As the axe came close to the mushrooms, all three popped up from the ground without the axe even needing to make contact. He glared at them for a moment before they bounced towards him and vanished from sight, causing him to jump as they did.

"Where did..." he began to ask, but a moment of insight caused him to reach into his pouches, where he did in fact find that the mushrooms had gone, much like the wood from before. Pulling one out, he was caught off guard by how much smaller it was in his hand than it had been when it was still planted in the ground.

"What happened to it?" he tried asking.

"It moved into your pouches after you harvested it from the ground, as you seem to have already discerned for yourself," Guile answered.

Biting back an annoyed response, he instead clarified, "What I meant was, why couldn't I pull it up but all of them just jumped off the ground when I swung the axe at it, and why is it so much smaller all of a sudden?"

"Well then you should have asked that instead," he was answered, causing him to clench his teeth, "To the first question, you are not of this world and as such, you are incapable of bringing change upon it without the appropriate tool. As for the second the mushroom, much like the wood, is a product of the land's magic and as a result, does not need to be any particular size to retain its potency."

This was too much. He decided that now was not the time for ridiculous conversations about tools and changes and instead decided on a different task. Eating. After waking up hungry, raging at Guile and then felling a few trees had done nothing positive for his hunger. Guile had said these were safe to eat, and as he was in fact trying to silence the roaring of his gut, he decided he didn't really care to think too hard about it.

Taking a bite from the mushroom he winced as the rest of it vanished from site. Even then, he continued to chew and swallow the bite he'd taken.

The texture was nothing like he'd expected from something as tough as the mushroom had felt, and though he'd taken a modest bite, it seemed to be an entire mouthful. It was also just barely chewy, and mostly flavorless. When he swallowed, he was treated with a strange sense that the food was sliding down his throat, as if it had used his swallowing as a cue to head that way. The timing of it was off just enough... though it didn't choke him, so tried not to think about it too carefully.

One mushroom. That was enough to sate his hunger. He couldn't believe it. He had approached the trio of mushrooms expecting to devour them as an appetizer before looking for more, even considering the size they were before, but one mushroom had done it. And it was a strange sensation the fullness provided at that. He didn't feel full as if he'd eaten a large meal, but full as if he'd not been hungry in the first place. As if his hunger had just been washed away. He had no desire to eat even one more mushroom, so with a shrug he left the other two in his bag.

"About that, how long will these keep in... there" he asked, gesturing towards his bags.

"As long as you need." was Guile's response.

Accepting that without question, he decided that now that his hunger was sated, he should probably move up the chain of needs, and as such asked, "Sooo... now are you ready to tell me how to build someplace to sleep tonight?"

**********​

I've updated a few words here and there as a result of this addition as well, but nothing substantial enough to worry over.

 

[Spyder Z]

Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled story. ;P

**********​

Chapter 16: Who Are You?


Standing up, he looked back toward the doorway, and was unsurprised to see Guile standing there. "So now what, do I just let him sleep?" he asked, "He already looks quite a bit better."

"Thanks to you, yes, his is already quite a bit better," Guile responded. "What you do is as I've told you time and time again, entirely up to you. I would recommend not wasting any more time or resources on the gentleman though, and moving forward with your goals. Did you manage to find the resources you needed before your body was mangled by the walking dead?"

"About that," he responded, remembering the tombstone, "That was real cute back there, putting the tombstone up where I got attacked. I realize what could have happened if you hadn't shown up. Had you not saved me the zombies would have killed me, I got it. And yet you still threaten me, freak out on me, and then you do whatever the heck that was you did when I woke up this morning. This is all a game for you, and there's nothing I can do about. I get it. You don't have to keep rubbing it in every chance you get." he ended his rant.

"I never claimed to have stopped the zombies from killing you," Guile answered him simply, his infuriating smirk touching the corner of his lips.

"So I'm dead then?" he snapped back, feeling a sick sensation as his gut dropped at the thought.

"Do you feel dead?" Guile asked him, the smirk deepening.

"So I'm not dead?" he asked, the sensation not leaving him.

"I didn't say that," Guile replied.

Taking a deep breath, as he didn't want to fall into Guile's little mind game, he tried another approach before getting out of this conversation, "Why did you put the tombstone there?"

"I didn't."

"Where did the tombstone come from?"

"The magic of this world."

"What was the point of it?" he tried, hoping that by keeping the questions going he would continue to get answers.

"The world creates a tombstone when it is ready to consume you," was the half answer.

"So..." he was having a hard time putting words together as the idea fell upon him, "I was about to be consumed?" he managed to just get out.

"The world would not have created a tombstone were it not ready to do so."

He fell to his knees and felt a flash of... something... something that ripped the contents of his stomach from him and splayed them across the otherwise clean wooden floor. It was almost a memory, a memory that he could feel, but that there were no words for. Just as quickly as it came upon him, it went from him, and he was left on his hands and knees trying to get his breathing back under control. Whatever it was, Guile's little games paled in comparison. And as strange an idea as it was, that comforted him in some small way.

----------​

The Builder's ignorance was infuriating. Gallivanting about as he did, wasting time on trivial, fruitless tasks... Guile could not believe that one so simple could possibly be the vessel for his faded hope. The signs were all there however, so he would continue to guide him...

----------​

As he returned to mostly normal breathing, he began looking at the mess he'd made, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. He didn't really have anything to clean it up with, and he wasn't feeling the best at the moment in any case. Looking up, he saw that Guile had stepped back outside. Figures he thought to himself. Getting to his feet, and idea struck him.

Pulling his axe out, he knelt down and swung it at the floor near the mess creating an ugly gash in the floor, but without the feeling he was looking for. Frowning at the floor, he tried swinging again, but this time he tried to imagine the floor coming up in a chunk. The second ugly gash was less than encouraging. Looking behind him at the well dressed gentleman, he was almost surprised to see that he was still sleeping with the racket he was making nearby.

"Why are you using your axe for that?" Guile asked him from the opening near the door.

"It's wood," he responded curtly, raising the axe for another attempt.

"Yes... but it's finished wood," his guide interjected.

Lowering his axe, he took a deep breath, and looked up to the opening, "So?"

"So..." Guile replied, giving him a look that seemed to communicate how stupid he thought he was, "you don't use an axe on finished wood."

"Then what should I be using?" he snapped, "My sword? Maybe I should be attacking the floor now that it's finished!"

"If you would like to keep wasting your time and damaging the floor, then by all means attack away," was the almost dismissive response.

"And if I don't want to be wasting my time..." he replied through clenched teeth.

"You might try using a wooden hammer."

"And where might I get one of those?" he asked, anger still very present in his tone, "Or do you happen to have one lying around that you've been saving for this moment?"

"I have no need for a hammer. But if you wish to have one, there's no reason you cannot craft one for yourself," Guile answered him with an audible shrug, and even as he said it he knew it to be so.

Shuffling over to the strange stool, he pulled 8 pieces of wood from his pouches in accordance with the strange impulses he had when around that thing. Pulling two from the stack side by side to form a handle, he gathered the remaining six in his other hand. As he pushed the two into the center of the bundle of six, he could feel the hammer coming together as the bundle condensed, and solidified into the head. The handle smoothed out as well, and all of this in sync with a solid thrumm from the stool.

Looking at the new tool in his hand, he noticed that the same strange tree symbol from the stool and his sword was etched into the sides of the hammer's head. "What is this symbol?" he asked looking up to the opening for Guile.

Getting no answer, he snorted to himself and turned back to the mess and the damaged wood.

Striking the wood near the mess, he saw the now familiar shudder in the surface and could tell that it was working. After two more strikes, the wood came apart from the surrounding floor, leaving a small opening that the surrounding wood 'just' didn't quite cover up. The panel immediately went into his pouches, he assumed with the others he still had.

Working around the mess, he removed the flooring surrounding it in hopes that the floor containing the mess would come loose when he was done. This was not the case. While there was a clean dividing line now separating the sullied flooring from the rest of the floor, it was no looser now than it had been before. Glaring down at the mess, he considered his options.

"Why are you tearing up the floor?" he was asked by a voice through the opening near the door.

"Because I figure the room would look better with a window down here," he retorted, "and why do you keep disappearing when I want to ask you a question about how to do something, only to come back in just enough time to harass me for doing it wrong?"

"I didn't realize you were so helpless that you needed guidance on cleaning up after yourself," Guile responded, his usual sarcastic tilt to his words in full effect, "but in that case, you could use dirt, or a gel to sop that up."

"Yes, because that's an obvious answer. Got a spill? Throw some dirt and slime at it. That'll clean 'er right up!" he snapped back.

"So why didn't you think of it yourself then?"

"Grrrragggldlblblbldgggg....." he expressed his stress incoherently.

"Soo....." Guile prodded him.

Putting the hammer up before pulling a chunk of dirt out, he smooshed it down onto the mess and rubbed it around as if trying to mop it up with the curiously gelatiny bundle of dirt. This only succeeded in sloshing the mess around the floor, and then dripping it from the bottom of the chunk of dirt. Disgusted, he tried to fasten the dirt to the floor to get it out of his hand, and was pleased when it melded perfectly with the wood, covering most of the mess. Pulling a few extra chunks of dirt out, he fastened those around it, and now the mess was securely contained in the dirt.

Not sure how to proceed, he pulled the pick axe out and pulled up the dirt he'd just placed, careful not to touch any of the chunks, though they just went straight into his pouches, he was pleased to note that the wood underneath was as clean as it had been when first he'd set it down. He was less pleased when he considered the fact that there were now vomit covered chunks of dirt taking up residence in his pouches.

"What do you think happens when a mess of any kind is left out in nature," Guile answered his unspoken thoughts.

"Can you read my mind?" he asked looking up at the opening.

"I don't need to when your face broadcasts your thoughts so plainly," was the answer.

Scowling, he wondered at the truth of it and decided that not only wouldn't it surprise him, but that in the end... he really didn't care.

Putting the rest of the panels back into the floor, he stood up and stretched. Looking back at the well dressed gentleman, he was amazed at how soundly he was able to sleep. The gentleman truly looked quite a bit better. On an impulse, he went outside to look around the clearing.

"I've got some of the stuff you wanted me to gather," he rattled off to Guile as he walked past him, "I didn't see any cobwebs though."

"You didn't go far enough out," Guile was quick to respond.

"Yeah, well I can build some of the hundred and two things I need to build to get a bed made at least. Tell me what to do," he replied as he turned back to face his guide.

"So you're going to start building the tools out here?"

"Not, really. I'm just coming out here so that I don't wake him," he gestured towards the structure with his head, "while I'm doing this."

"Yes. because you've been so quiet up until this point," Guile quipped.

"Whatever, just tell me what I need to do first."

"You don't need..."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. I just want to know what order I need to build all these things you told me I needed."

A strange smile touched the corner of Guile's lips, "That is..."

"Entirely up to me," he interrupted Guile again, "Listen, if you just want to sit out here being a pain in the arse, I'll just try and figure it out for myself. I thought you were supposed to guide me though, which is why I waste so much time trying to get answers out of you,"he finished his rant.

"I believe that this is the first time you've answered one of your own stupid questions. Perhaps you are learning something after all," was the reply he got, complete with an obviously mock look of shock.

"I would be learning more," he sighed, "if you wouldn't make it so difficult for me to ask you about things." He realized though that Guile was right, but not in the way he thought. He wasn't as afraid of his guide, and he didn't know what changed that. Not worrying about it for the moment, he reached into his pouches to list off the items he did have, and came across the metal band he'd wanted to ask about.

"Hey," he started as he pulled it out and held it out to Guile, "What is this, and what does it do?"

"That," Guile answered, taking the band from him, "is a Brisk Shackle."

"When I put it on my wrist earlier, it kind of reacted strangely. One moment I could feel it's weight, and the next, not so much."

"And this is a problem because?"

"I didn't say it was a problem," he retorted, "What I asked, was what it was doing. I don't like the idea that having put it on me, that ring could have had some kind of crazy effect on me."

"It's effect does not linger beyond the point at which it is removed. A shackle isn't an accessory of any real value, but while you're building up your personal arsenal, it is certainly better to have something than nothing," he was answered.

"My personal what?" he responded incredulously, "Why in the world would I build up an arsenal?"

"To defend yourself. Why do you carry a sword?" Guile asked.

"Because at any moment, I'm worried some new kind of horror may pop up and try to have it's way with me," he shuddered, though the fear he felt wasn't something he had words for. All he knew was that it was related to that flash of... something inside, "And while I'm not confident that I could stop something horrible from happening to me if I actually was assaulted by a new kind of horror," his stomach was beginning to sour on this subject, "at the least I could try."

"And that is why you will build an arsenal," his guide responded, with a small, but visible, self-satisfied smirk.

He didn't like the implications of needing to carry an arsenal around with him. While he'd not had too much trouble accepting the fact that he could combat the slimes, and would occasionally need to defend himself from the walking dead... carrying a stash of equipment insinuated an entirely different kind of lifestyle, one that he wasn't interested in.

"So, what exactly does that Brisk Shackle do to me when I put it on?" he tried asking.

"Exactly is a hard question to answer," Guile started, tossing the metal band back to him, "Because you are not of this world, the magic of this world responds to you differently than it would those native. That's not to say that you cannot come to count on some understanding. For example, that shackle will allow you to move ever so slightly faster than you could on your own."

Looking down at the Shackle, he wondered at that. Putting it on before had felt strange... but for a metal band to make him "Move Faster"... he didn't know what to think about it. Then again, a stool shows him how to build things, tools work based on his intent, and he had multiple times managed to fasten objects to an area outside of his reach. So in the grand scheme of things, this wasn't so strange...

"What long term affect would wearing this have on me?" he asked.

"You will be able to move ever so slightly faster for as long as you wear it. That is all."

"You keep emphasizing how I'm Not of this World, will wearing this have an increasingly more powerful, or decreasingly less powerful effect over time?" he tried clarifying.

"Why would it do that?" Guile asked him.

"I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out how safe this thing is to wear," he grumbled.

"Unless you intend on getting your wrist caught up somewhere that would snag on the Shackle, there's no danger in wearing it," Guile answered him.

This was another record for Guile. Several answers in a row, and minimal snark. He didn't know what to do with it, but he didn't want to lose an opportunity for answers. Putting the metal band on his wrist, he could feel that same "There but not" sensation from before. Moving his arm around, his eyes were caught by the little chain that dangled from it.

"How do I use this?" he tried another question.

"How do you use it for what?"

"You said this will make me ever so slightly faster, so how do I make it do that?" he added.

"It already is. Just the act of putting it on has that effect."

"So right now, I'm faster? How can I see that?" he asked.

"Run from here to those trees, first with the Shackle on, then without it." his guide suggested.

Looking up at the trees, he decided to give it a try, but he wanted to reverse it. So he took the Shackle off, and ran towards the trees. Reaching them, he put the Shackle back on, and ran back. The sensation was bizarre, and definitely subtle. It was like each step carried him just a little further than it had just moments ago. He couldn't tell by watching his feet fall, but he could feel it...

After finishing his test, he decided that there was no reason not to wear the shackle. Especially considering that with the condition his clothes were in, he wasn't exactly making any kind of a fashion statement. On that thought...

"If there's a way to make a bed, surely there's got to be a way to make some clothes here, right?" he asked Guile.

"There is," was the answer.

"Let me guess, I'll need 50 Rabbit Pelts, 25 Slime Hearts, 15 Bird Tails, 120 Pieces of Wood, and all the Iron I can mine, and I'll have the coolest shoes money can't buy," he quipped.

"There are ways to impose one's will upon the very fabric of this world's magic," Guile started, "I do not believe you have such capabilities, which means you are limited to the designs already present in the world."

Almost as if talking to himself, Guile added, "It has been quite some time since this world grew... perhaps..."

A chillier breeze brushed across his skin, the timing of which was almost obscene. Looking up, he realized that the sun was most of the way across the sky. He'd lost track of the day between one thing and the other.

"Great, now there's no time to gather anything else. I don't think I'm ever going to stop sleeping on the floor," he fussed, to no one in particular.

Not getting any kind of a response from Guile, not that he had expected one, he went back into the structure, and watched as the Well Dressed Gentleman sat up of his own accord. Standing there stunned, he just continued watching as after looking down at himself and distractedly knocking some dirt from his coat and slacks, he stood up and looked around.

"Where am I?" the gentleman asked.

"Terraria," Guile answered from behind him the doorway.

"And who are you," the gentleman asked Guile, jumping as if he hadn't noticed him standing there before, while wearing an expression that clearly communicated his confusion with the first answer.

"He calls me Guile," his guide answered, almost pushing past him to get into the building.

"You know," he quipped, looking over at Guile, "It's nice to know you can answer questions straight when you want to. It's almost like you're going for some kind of new record here."

"This gentleman hasn't gone out of his way to waste my time," Guile responded to him, "The only reason he's wasting time now is because you could not leave well enough alone."

"Wait," the gentleman chimed in before he could shoot back a response, "what do you mean he couldn't leave well enough alone? What has he done outside of bringing me that drink that made me feel so much better?"

"Running through the litany of things he has wasted time on would only deter you from your role unnecessarily," Guile answered, the snark back in full force.

"Wait, what do you mean my role?" the gentleman asked, looking around as if he'd lost something, before finding his hat lying in the corner.

"It is not my role to guide you towards fulfilling your role. You are capable of accomplishing that on your own."

"Hey," he butted in, getting the gentleman's attention now that Guile was going to start dancing around questions again after all, "He's only helpful in small doses. The rest of what comes out of his mouth is either a threat, or a senseless dancing of words," he informed the Gentleman, "Let me ask you something though, where do you come from?" he tried, hoping for something more than...

"I don't remember," the gentleman responded, looking down and absently knocking the dust off his hat.

"What do you remember?" he tried another question, a little less hopeful than he'd been before.

"I remember... music, and a crowd of people... they were all there for me and..." all the color drained from his face, and terror filled it in, "Kathryn!" he lunged for the door. Jumping to stop the Gentleman, he wasn't sure what was going on.

"Hey! Wait a second! You can't go out there this late, it's almost night!" he shouted as he grappled with the Gentleman, who was desperately trying to push past him.

"I don't care what time it is! She's out there all alone!" the Gentleman screamed at him, "I can't just hide here while god knows what happens to her!"

Feeling sick, even as he said it, he tried to reason with the Gentleman, "You've been here for more than a day recovering, if she's still out there, she's probably hiding, but getting yourself killed trying to find her won't help!" he yelled as he tried to shove the Gentleman away from the door.

Thankfully, the Gentleman stepped back away from the door. Looking up, he was greeted with what seemed to be a bright flash of light that came along with a ringing in his ears that accompanied an intense headache and the feel of wood against his back.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 17: Now What...

I will admit," Guile's voice cut in, right on cue, "I've never seen a workbench used as a Weapon before."

"Is that what it was," he responded, blinking up at the ceiling as he waited for his head to clear, and the ringing to subside.

After a few moments he pulled himself up and because he still wasn't quite clearheaded, took a moment to steady himself by righting the workbench and moving it back to the center of the room. He wondered at the fact that almost every day since he'd woken up here, he'd been knocked unconscious at some point in the day. He wasn't any kind of doctor... but that just didn't seem to be the healthiest way to go about his day.

"How long..." he began to ask.

"It's about halfway through the night," Guile answered his incomplete question, "The Gentleman has been gone for several hours now."

As he looked towards the door, Guile added, "I would have thought you'd know better by now."

"I'd ask you what I should do, but I already know what you're going to say," he responded, rubbing his head in a futile effort to stop the ringing that was now accompanied by an occasional *KThunk*, and the low moaning of a zombie waiting outside for him.

A gurgling of his gut prompted him to pull a mushroom out of his pouches, almost without thinking about it. As he ate it, washing away the hunger, his head instantly cleared up as well. Frowning he turned to Guile, "Do Mushrooms...?"

"Yes, they have some restorative properties. In fact, those mushrooms can be used to create the potion you wasted on the Gentleman."

Staring at Guile in disbelief... no that wasn't right, he believed it... but, "Really! Are you kidding me!?" he yelled in any case.

"Why would I kid about the components of a Lesser Healing Potion?" Guile asked him, in an almost scripted casual manner that only served to further frustrate him.

"You knew I was trying to find one of these potions to help the Gentleman recover!" he shouted, as if by raising his voice he could better articulate his point, "And knowing this, you didn't even consider mentioning to me that I could use a Mushroom to create a potion here!"

"Where are your Bottles?" Guile asked him, as usual unfazed by his anger.

"What!?" he replied, still frustrated and now the edge of his anger blunted by his confusion.

"How would you have created a lesser healing potion without bottles?"

Taking a deep breath, he responded, "Okay, so of course I needed more than the mushrooms. Where would I get bottles?" he asked as he tried to calm down.

"You can generally find them in chests near the surface, but it is easier to create them yourself," Guile answered.

"And where do I find chests?" he asked.

"You can find chest all over Terraria," was the pro-typical Guile response.

"Forget it," he decided to try and change tracks, "How do I make bottles?"

"With glass. And you don't find that," he thankfully added, "you make it out of sand."

"And let me guess, you find sand in a Desert or on the Beach," he snarked back.

"Precisely. Though you can sometimes find it underground as well," Guile answered without pause.

"Oh, but of course," he sighed. This conversation wasn't what was really bothering him. He felt like he was stalling... from what he thought he should do. *KThunk* though the sounds right outside the building reminded him why he wasn't...

Looking at the door again, he considered his chances of first, finding the Gentleman, and then second, convincing him to come back to safety. He was also not sure he could do all this while constantly running and dodging the walking, flying dead. Pulling his sword out, he took a step towards the door.

"You must be very eager to join the rest of the failed outsiders consumed by this world," Guile spoke at him.

"No... but I'm also not okay with hiding in here every night. I may not be able to find the Gentleman, but I can at least learn to defend myself against the creatures of the night," he responded as he reached for the door. What am I doing!? he screamed to himself internally.

"Why don't you make yourself some armor before you go out and try to get yourself killed?" he was asked.

Stopping, he turned to look back at Guile, "Do I have what I need to make armor right now?"

"Some of it. But..."

He opened the door, and the creatures of the night were only too willing to accept the invitation. As he turned the handle, the zombie scratching at the door burst through, quicker than he'd expected, and the fight was on.

Stumbling back at the sudden force from the door, he was thankfully able to pull his sword up into a upward slice that caused the zombie to hop backwards a step before it could embrace him. This is crazy, he had moment to think. No this was worse than crazy, it was suicidal. Here he was in a cramped structure, with nowhere to run, and he'd just removed the only barrier between himself and the dangers of the night.

Moving forward with a downward cut that flowed comfortably from the end of his first strike, he met the zombie as it tried to invade his space once more, and he tried to keep his mind on the fight. That was his only hope of making it out of this insane impulse of his alive. Not letting up, he raised his sword in a diagonal cut that pushed the creature back into the doorway and he took a step forward prepared to keep pushing. With his next strike the sword thrummed lightly and the zombie was pushed completely out of the door.

Not letting up, he stepped into the doorway, and just barely managed to duck as a flying eye skimmed the top of the door frame, ending up in the structure. This cost him enough time for the zombie to get close enough to graze his face with it's clawed hand, but not so much time that he wasn't able to retaliate with a sideways cut the pushed it back off of him, his heart now reaching new heights in its attempt at beating its way out of his chest.

Guile is in there with the eye, and even as he thought it, he almost laughed. Like Guile had anything to worry about, and putting his attention back on the problem at hand he pressed forward getting another thrumm from the sword as he reached out with his weapon.

Several unbelievably uncontested strikes later and the Walking Dead fell apart, much like the creature from a few nights before. He was winded, and his face still burned, but he was okay. He wasn't sure if the surge he now felt was a rush of exhilaration that he'd survived, and actually done rather well in his eyes, or the final moments before his rush of fear faded and he fainted. As he was still conscious he assumed the former, and turning back to the door, he was greeted by an unpleasant scene.

----------​

The Builder had let the Demon Eye in, and then walked out to play with the Zombie, as if it were perfectly normal for a Demon Eye to bounce around the structure. He wasn't afraid, that emotion had left him long, long ago... but he was... irritated. He had no interest in getting banged up by so simple a creature, and with the limited space, avoiding it would be difficult.

*KThunk* it smashed into the wall beside him. Stepping towards the center of the room he, casually to any eyes that would have been watching, ducked as it came crashing down onto the workbench, moving it a few paces across the floor. Continuing across the room, he moved to beside the door, and *KThunk*, the stupid thing went crashing into the wall beside the door.

Steeping to the side, he allowed it to come at him in the doorway before he stepped aside once more...

----------​

Guile was standing in the doorway looking out at him.

"Hey, I killed... Rrrraaaaaggggghhhh..." he shouted, throwing himself to the ground as the flying eye came out from behind his guide.

Turning and swinging his sword at the air above him, he lucked out and connected with the eye, causing its mass to indent slightly as it hit the blade with enough force to push the blade back down towards him, but thankfully not too close, before sending it wobbling off in a different direction in the air. Heart now racing back at full throttle, he quickly scrambled to his feet and prepared to swing out at the eye as it launched itself at him again.

Connecting with it a second time, he was prepared for the force of its impact, and this time the blade wasn't forced back towards him, and in fact, his strike carried enough force to knock the eye back away from him and send it wobbling off in the air for a second. His heart was racing, his blood was pounding, but he wasn't afraid. He felt invincible, and with his third strike the blade thrummed as if it too was prepared to take on the world.

The third strike knocked the Eye back further still, and in his over eager state, he moved forward to pursue it, or he would have, had it not wobbled up into the air, and out of his reach. Tracking it as it almost drunkenly swam through the air for a moment, he was prepared when it dove down at him, and greeted its assault with another taste of his sword.

The eye dove, his sword sliced, and it didn't take too many rounds of this before, as his sideways slice connected with the side of the eye, the exterior that had up to this point been only lightly malleable, flexed inward like a slime's membrane, before bursting outward with all the contents of the eye, and tearing right in half as it burst, the two halves falling to the ground in a now mushy mess.

Catching his eye there was a clear bowl shape, not quite half the size of the eye still remaining amongst the rest of the mush. Picking it up, he noticed that it seemed to be firm, and yet not Hard.

"It's a Lens," Guile informed him.

"You!" he shouted turning towards the structure, "You sent that Eye out to attack me!" he added, pointing his sword in Guile's direction.

Guile's face broke a sliver of a smile that he could feel race down his spine, sending tendrils branching out across his back, some of which intertwined down his arm tightening the muscles there and opening his hand so that the sword dropped out of it.

"And," he said, his voice taking on that hollow violence, each word echoing through him in an almost physical fashion, "What if I did?" he asked, taking a step towards him, while not seeming to step, that surreal pearly purple color of his eyes standing out as his gaze seemed to look right through him.

"I'm afraid you seem to be under the impression that you have any power over me. Your actions as of late have been..." both arms were gripped by the invisible tendrils and once again pulled violently down and to his sides, forming an A shape with his body and leaving his chest pushed out and exposed, "less than appreciative to the one who to whom you owe your existence."

"Yeah," he retorted, fighting to keep his voice as normal as possible, "maybe that's because this is the way you react whenever I say anything even remotely challenging," he got out, the whole while he was screaming in his head, Stop talking, What are you saying, Have you lost your mind!?!?

The smile widened, and the expression it gave Guile chilled his very blood. It wasn't just the fact that his guide was pulling this crazy new trick, but there was something in that smile, something dangerous. The expression Guile wore somehow conveyed the threat of an eternity of pain, of endless suffering and carried with it a promise to deliver this, and enjoy doing so.

"You," he stated, a dark laughter in his eyes that he could feel, instead of hear, "imagine that you have even begun to challenge me?" He walked without stepping right up to him, his nearness adding a resonance to the tendrils that slowly began tightening every one of his muscles in turn, "You have yet to crawl Fleshling. I have already promised you the chance to cast your life before me. Are you so eager to end yourself, that you would threaten me now?" he asked, his voice ending in a low tone that none the less reverberated through him.

Struggling just to speak, which was almost impossible strung up as he was, he managed to breathe out, "Nn...o..." After which he was released to a gale of dark hollow laughter that seemed to shake the very ground beneath him, as he collapsed face down into the dirt, desperately gasping for the air he hadn't realized he was missing. An effort that seemed to take every ounce of strength he had remaining.

Words that impossibly came with the laughter, and were somehow clear in spite of it, spoke to him as he lay there, "You are not as foolish as you put on Fleshling. We shall have our time, worry not..." he said, before collapsing beside him.

He wanted nothing better than to plunge his sword through Guile and leave it there to grow something new, something better. Though even as he had that thought, he also considered what kind of anything could grow from such a twisted and broken creature. For he didn't really consider Guile as another person. Nothing he did could be considered personable, and besides that, he'd never have the chance. If all Guile had to do was look at him to do this to him... he couldn't imagine what would happen if his guide were to ever actually try and really hurt him.

While he considered lying there until the dead of the night came and had their way with him, he instead pulled his last mushroom out of his pouch, and upon eating it, felt recovered enough to stand. He wasn't hungry, but the now realized healing effects of the mushroom were a welcome boon.

Standing, he looked down at Guile, who had yet to rise, and made a hasty decision. Taking his sword and putting it into his pouches, he turned away from the structure and began to run. Slowly at first, but picking up speed as he got further away from the structure and entered into the trees. Not exactly the safest route with as dark as it was.

*KThunk*

The sound of a Demon Eye crashing into a tree was plenty of motivation for him to continue running, and it was as good a confirmation that he'd chosen as right a way to run as he could have asked for. Pulling a torch out to keep him from making the same mistake, he continued further into the trees.

*KThunk, KThunk, KThunk*

As if to punctuate the point, several other Eyes went crashing into nearby trees. The air was just thick with them all of a sudden. This, he thought, is probably Guile's doing... He had seen Guile send that Demon Eye out of the house at him, and with this other craziness that he'd started pulling there was no reason to think that he couldn't command the Demon Eyes to attack him en masse.

He had no idea where he was going but he didn't want to spend yet another night sleeping in the structure, just hoping that Guile wasn't in the mood to bring the walking, flying dead in to play. Especially not after his newest style of outbreaks. That said, it was far darker than he was expecting, and if it weren't for the torch, he'd have had a hard time avoiding the trees himself.

"Oooooph!" he had the air knocked out of him as an eye just barely avoided missing him. It had thankfully just glanced off of him after solidly hitting a tree in front of him. As it passed, the veiny tendrils that drift along behind the eye flayed at him as if trying to grasp him, but he didn't stop long enough for them to get purchase. Pushing on, and trying to catch his breath in the interim, he began weaving a bit more as he ran... some of which was even intentional.

As he crested the top of a low hill, a shrill whistling sound caught his ear. A shimmering kaleidoscopic light came shooting down from the sky, and a Fallen Star, just as radiant and brilliant as the one he'd seen before, came crashing to the ground not too far behind him in the trees casting a multicolored light that lit up the woods around it. It was stunning in it's vibrant array of colors in the night that moments before had been all but pitch black, and he was nearly blinded at the sight of it.

Unfortunately, the Demon Eyes did not seem to be affected in the same manner, and he was knocked violently to the ground as one of them caught him solidly in the back, before two more took their turns at trying to press him into the dirt.

He was in immense pain but he realized that if he didn't move, and move quickly, the Demon Eyes would make short work of him. So he rolled to the side, not too soon as the Eyes were happily compacting the dirt where he had just rolled off of, and struggled to get back to a run. His drunken unstable scramble was hardly efficient, but it did get him moving quick enough to avoid any further assaults.

As much as he wanted to go back for the Fallen Star, he didn't think it wise in his current condition to push things too far. What he needed, and soon, was a place to hide for the remainder of the night. Unfortunately, he had no idea where he could find such a thing... until...

Up at the top of the next hill was a light... it wasn't the brilliant light of a fallen star, but a dimmer, warmer light. It looked like, catching a break in the trees just right he confirmed it, a torch, stuck in the ground. Rushing up towards it, he was momentarily convinced that he'd found evidence of someone else, someone that wasn't Guile.... but as he reached the top, it came back to him. He'd put this here himself, to remind him...

Looking down the other side, he saw another torch set into the dirt above an opening that was mostly sealed by cross sections of wood, with an opening just big enough for him to get through. Not falling down the hill on this occasion, thanks to warning provided by the torch, he rushed down to the small opening and dove through, taking just enough time to drop the torch, and pull out two pieces of wood to re-close the wooden barrier he'd opened on his way out the last time.

Lying just inside the small cave, he was plenty happy with the dirt for a while as he listened to the *Kthunk* *Kthunk, Kthunk* of the Demon Eyes testing the sturdiness of his barrier. Exhausted, but not ready to pass out quite yet, he picked the torch back up and looked around the little cave anew.

It was just as he remembered, tiny, dirt and stone intermixed with a low roof, and shallow, with a few errant vines growing out of the ceiling. Smaller even than the structure he'd built before. Still, there was no Guile, and since he'd just used wood and hadn't built a door, there was no way in without taking the wooden frame apart. So he wasn't as concerned about something breaking in while he slept. Except perhaps Guile... but he didn't want to think about him for the moment.

Guile had asked him before if he truly felt safe anywhere... and no, he didn't. But he didn't have to stay where his helplessness was abused. At least here, he felt like he was in control of himself. Guile had encouraged him to build the structure, and Guile insisted on staying there. Well that was good for him. He'd found this place, by accident, but nonetheless, he'd found it by himself. This place was his, and Guile could have that structure.

That decided, he placed the torch into the wall and looked around at his new lodgings. He couldn't help but think to himself... Now What?

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 18: Home is...

As a wave of weariness swept over him, he realized that such high minded thoughts would have to wait until he had rested. Looking around, no patch of dirt looked any softer than another. But on that note...

He pulled one of the dirt chunks out of his pouch and played with it for a moment. There was a definite malleability, sort of an elastic effect to it... which technically made it softer than the ground. Add to that the fact that the dirt didn't come loose, or leave his hands dirty, he decided to try pulling several chunks out one at a time and piling them up on the ground, but was irritated when as he moved towards them, they immediately went into his pouches. Deciding to focus on not picking them up, he tried again with no success.

"Damnit!" he complained. "Why can't I do this!"

*KThunk, KThunk* was the only answer he got.

Lying down, he attempted to hold a bundle of dirt in his hands, and lie with it beneath his head at least. This seemed to work for a bit... but just as soon as he began relax, physically, his mind wasn't going to get that luxury thanks to the Demon Eye concerto, and began to drift off, *Thump*, the bundle went into his pouches and his head hit the dirt.

"Damnit!" jumping up awake again, he started kicking the walls and the barrier, adding his percussion the the ongoing beat.

How in the heck am I supposed to get to sleep now? he asked himself, and why was he having so much trouble. The previous nights... thinking back, The first night I collapsed here in terror, the second night... I... knocked myself out on the workbench... he subconsciously rubbed his head, as if to massage the point of impact, the third night, I collapsed, exhausted... from saving the Gentleman... Stupid... he's probably dead now... Stopping himself from thinking about that too much, he continued, The fourth night... he shuddered, as an icy chill found it's way down his spine. I have no idea what happened the fourth night... Guile says I was almost consumed by the land... but all I remember was being attacked by the zombies... and then... A Flash of a Terrible Laughter struck him like a physical blow, and it was all he could do to keep himself from repeating his act from the morning...

That was when Guile really took a walk off the deep end. Ever since he saved me from those zombies... his freak outs have gotten worse. I don't know what 'really' happened, but whatever it was... it was bad... Could I have really... He couldn't even finish that thought, and the sick sensation that filled him as he tried was almost more than he could handle on top of his already stomach knotting line of thought.

What I need now... is to get to sleep. I'm tired, but not exhausted. Maybe I should have let the Demon Eyes get a few more licks in... Laughing at the thought, he wondered at his humor as of late. Truly it was unhealthy to joke about not coming close enough to being beaten to death, but there it was. If only my stupid pouches...

An idea struck him. Standing near the entrance, he tossed a small mound of dirt, one chunk at a time, towards the back of the little cave. He was just far enough for the dirt not to immediately return to his pouches. After he'd thrown out enough, he took his pouches off, and laid them near the wall. Walking towards the dirt now, he was overjoyed to note that they didn't leap towards him. Yes...

Waking up, he felt better than he had in the entire time he'd been in this strange place. After finally getting to sleep, which was made more difficult by the fact that as good an idea as the spongy dirt chunks has seemed to his weary self, it had been a nightmare getting them to stay together in any kind of a configuration that he could lay on, he had taken down the torch and slept through the night.

His waking state was due less to his physical comfort however, and due more to his psychological comfort. He had gone to sleep of his own accord, in a place of his choosing, and his day would be under his control. This made him far happier than seemed reasonable. And he just let himself lie there considering what he should do with the day.

Eventually, the rumbling of his gut could not be ignored, and he got to his feet. Throughout the night, the dirt chunks had moved enough that he was lying on the ground with the chunks of dirt surrounding him. At least, he'd managed to keep one of them under his head. Walking over to where he'd set his pouches, he put them back on and walking back to the dirt, was pleased by their rapid return to the pouches.

Looking around at the small cavelet.. he considered making it bigger. If he was going to be staying here anyway, there was no reason he couldn't make it more comfortable. But first... Pulling his axe out, he reopened the barrier and stepped out into the morning. Stretching in the brighter light as his eyes readjusted, he started poking around looking for another mushroom or two.

He didn't have to go too far before he found a few of them hiding in between a tree and small mound of rocks. Eating one, and placing the other three into his pouches, he looked around again and tried to figure out where he was in relation to the Structure.

"It's over that way," Guile's voice came from somewhere behind him.

Jumping, but trying to stop himself from reacting too much... he took a deep breath and replied, "Thanks." before turning to see where Guile was pointing. The expression on his guide's face was amusement, but something else too... "Why do you keep following me?" he asked. He had expected this, Guile had found him every other time he'd wandered off... but it certainly wasn't the way he'd wanted to start his day.

"This is my role," he answered, "Why did you run off last night?"

Taking another deep breath, he wasn't sure how to respond to that, he tried, "I didn't..." changing his answer mid stride, "I..." giving up, he lamely went with, "Last night was crazy."

"Hmmm..." was the only reply he got, that infuriating self satisfied expression now on his guide's face.

"Listen," he started, "I've got... uhh... lot... of... Materials! Yeah, materials to gather today... so... I'll be... uhh... headed out now," he tried excusing himself as he backed away.

"Perhaps you would benefit from some improved protection before you go wandering out again," Guile said to him.

What angered him more than the fact that he couldn't even start his day without running into Guile, was the fact that he was right... and he knew it... but he just... didn't trust him anymore. "No... I'll be okay," he replied.

-----------​

It is Finally time... Guile thought to himself. He is ready to start branching out, and the others will no doubt be on their way. He must however, prepare for them...

-----------​

"One moment," Guile said... an odd tone to his voice. Not anger, or even mockery but... something else.

Stopping, he tensed up, hoping that this wasn't going to turn into another one of his episodes, "Yes?"

"You resist the crafting of armor, I will assume due to your obvious desire to escape my presence," he raised a hand to stop a response, that was almost interjected, "that is of no concern to me. Of concern though is your current intent on hiding out here alone. This world, as you have seen, does not treat kindly with lone souls..."

He laughed internally at the idea of concern coming from Guile, who continued, "If you must hide yourself out here, it would benefit you greatly to collect more money from the remains of your vanquished foes. A sum of 50 Silver will suffice for now."

"What in the world do I need money for?" he asked incredulously, "Are the slimes setting up shop?"

Guile frowned, "There are currently very few slimes capable of such a feat, and it is unlikely that you would have anything of interest to those that could."

Sighing, he responded, "Fine, what do I need money for then?"

"It is obvious to me that you desire a boon that this money will provide you," was the typically cryptic Guile Answer, "And I would make haste in preparing your little cave for habitation in the interim."

"I'll make my cave as habitable as I want," he snapped, before reeling himself in. It infuriated him that even when trying to do things for himself, Guile had to get involved. "And unless you want to say anything else, I'm going," he finished, a little tense at the thought that his guide may react to his temper again.

"Do as you wish, but unless you prepare as I have instructed, you will continue to struggle alone."

"Wait..." he asked, "Are you saying that by collecting this money, I won't be alone anymore?"

"I have told you what you must do to remedy your current concerns."

He didn't know if that was an answer to his question... but it almost sounded like one. The idea that gathering coins dropped by the slimes could help him find someone else was... no stranger than anything else he'd been up to so far.

"Okay... so 50 Silver Coins then?" he asked, reaching into his side pouch to check the amount of coins he had already. 3 Silver, 90 Copper. He never really noticed the money that the slimes dropped. Nor the Gel really. But based on the distance at which things projected themselves into his pouches... it made sense.

"And ensure that your hole is habitable," his guide added.

"What do you mean by that?" he gave in and asked.

"Exactly as I have said. No reasonable being would reside in the dirt hole that you currently hide in," Guile informed him.

"So what do I have to do to make it habitable?"

"Set it up so that the dirt hovel is suitable for a reasonable person to reside in," Guile informed him.

"Great, so to make my cave habitable, I need to make it suitable," he snarked.

"Precisely."

"Grrraaaahhh!" he shouted, and stormed off, hoping that he hadn't set Guile off in the process. It was useless trying to get information out of Guile at times. Sure, he gave answers... but they were often useless answers!

Heading to the structure, he walked in and looked around, for what, he wasn't sure. I wonder... he thought to himself. Is 'this' a 'Suitable' structure?, and as he considered it... he knew that Guile's structure was. Just as he knew what was in his pouches when he considered them. Looking around, he tried to figure out how he knew that, but Guile was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn't standing close enough to the Workbench for it's weirdness to have an effect on him.

"What the heck..." he asked, almost surprised when his guide didn't answer him from outside the opening.

Frustrated, but glad that he at least had an answer of sorts... he tried to figure out what made this place Suitable, where his cave wasn't... though... that was something Guile had told him, he hadn't detected it for himself... though up until this point, he hadn't realized it was a thing he could detect... and now his head was beginning to ache... Well... for one, it's paneled all around... and it's a bit bigger... and... it's a clean box shape, instead of the crazy shape of the cave... perhaps that's all it takes? It made him uncomfortable to be considering a sense of things that he didn't even understand.

"You could," Guile informed him as he walked into the doorway that he'd left open, "build additions to this structure. In fact," he continued, "it would simplify things for you greatly, and would allow this place to be a safer haven than it currently is."

"Is it even worth it for me to ask you what you mean by that?" he asked, tired of this conversation before it even began.

"The more people you have in an area, the less you have to worry about the creatures of the night. There is, after all, safety in numbers," Guile answered him a little too reasonable sounding.

He didn't know how to safely say I don't want to be anywhere near you, ever... so he kept his mouth shut on that. But he did try asking, "What makes this place suitable, where the cave isn't."

"It is first and foremost an enclosed space, there is a light here for when night arises, there is a chair here if I ever wish to sit, there is a table here for me to place things on if I so chose. The room is a reasonable size and I have the room to move about unhindered, the walls have been specifically built just for this building, and there is an entrance that allows me to come and go as I please." he rattled off.

Staring, but trying to commit all of that to memory, he tried asking, "What happens once I've met this list of arbitrary conditions?"

"You will no longer be alone."

"And why do I have to do all this first?" he asked.

"That is the way of the magic of this world," Guile replied simply.

"Yeah... I figured you'd say something like that."

Now he wasn't as sure what he wanted to do with the day. The thought of not having to bear this place alone... but wait...

"How does this work?" he asked, kicking himself for the poor wording even as he finished asking.

"The magic of this world is beyond your comprehension," Guile answered.

"No, not that... this whatever you want to call it you're telling me to do," he winced at the realization that even in this he would be going along with Guile's design... "This... gathering money, and making my cave habitable. Where is this person going to come from, and will it be their choice whether or not to come?" he asked.

"None of that matters," was the unsatisfactory answer he got.

"Maybe not to you!" he shouted, before shrinking back and calming himself down enough to continue, "What I mean is, I know you don't care, you've made that perfectly clear... " he winced, "But I don't want to do something that will trap someone else here against their will." his thoughts were on the Gentleman, and his likely fate.

"That is not your decision to make," he was told, "Even if you attempt to avoid it, the magic of this world will have its way. You can resist it, or work with it," Guile's voice dropped on that last word, and and he quickly started backing across the structure, away from the doorway where Guile still stood, "And as much as I would enjoy watching you struggle against the bonds of this world Fleshling," the presence of danger, the unveiled threats, and the gaze that tore through him as a blade through the flesh were all back, "it is not in you to succeed where better have failed," an almost invisible smile that he could feel cut across his chest ended the answer.

"Besides..." falling sideways into the door frame, his guide continued in his normal, though weakened, voice, "you can either seek assistance, or go it all alone. You seem to be trying to avoid my help..."

He laughed internally again at Guile's attempt at pretending this was strange behaviour while listening as he continued, "though that will put you at a disadvantage. The extra help will allow you to progress further than you will be capable of progressing alone."

Rubbing his chest, where he could still feel the fading effect of Guile's, thankfully short, freak out, "Well... unless you can tell me whether or not this will force someone here against their will, I refuse to participate," he ended by pulling the coins he currently carried out of his pouches and throwing them off to the side of the room.

Shaking his head a small smirk, but nothing more, was faintly visible in Guile's expression, "Do as you wish."

-----------​

Foolish Builder. He thinks to resist the pull of this world, even in this. His progress will difficult enough without his ignorant notions impeding his path. Stepping aside so that the timid human, who unbelievably carried the last fragments of his ever fading hope, could muster up the courage to walk past him through the doorway, he wondered again at how he could possibly be the one he'd been waiting for.

It maddened him that even with the raw power at the Builder's disposal, the power to shape the very world around him with little more than his thoughts, a power that he no longer possessed, even with this power the Builder still acted as if had only recently ventured forth from his mother's care.

"Before I go," the Builder turned before walking more than a few steps from the structure, "What else do I need to gather before I'm able to build a bed?" he asked, "I remember you said that I needed to find some cobwebs..."

He had already listed the required components in detail. It was as if the Builder was incapable of remembering even the simplest things... "In fact, I said that you needed 20 units of stone, 30 pieces of iron ore, both of which yes, you can mine with the pickaxe, 50 pieces of cobweb, 42 pieces of wood and one gel."

Having made a face that either indicated some kind of mental trauma, or perhaps that he was failing once more at listening, the Builder then replied, "I know I can use the pickaxe on the stone and iron," in a petulant tone of voice.

"One would hope that having already gathered some, you would indeed still remember," he answered back, amazed that this was even a point worthy of noting.

Making a noise that no reasonable creature would produce intentionally, the Builder took a breath, indicating that he was about to try thinking before speaking, an activity that he failed at on a constant basis, "Okay then," he wasted air before asking, "Where should I look for cobwebs?"

"It is easier to find cobwebs deeper underground than it is currently safe for you to travel." the fool could easily travel to those depths were he not so averse to crafting himself some basic protection, "you can however find them most anywhere if you would rather waste time seeking them out."

"First you tell me that I need to find cobwebs to build a bed," that petulant tone coming back into his voice, "now you're saying that finding them is wasting my time," he finished, with no obvious point to his words. Waiting for an extension to this statement that would finish the Builder's thought, there was a lengthy pause before he appended, "You know what, it doesn't matter. I'll find some," before turning away and walking off.

Watching as the Builder left headed, it looked, back to the caves where he had almost given himself to the land, he was resigned to the fact that this trip, like the one before, was likely to end in death. The Builder had thus far done everything in his power to make this effort more difficult that it had any reason to be. The signs were all there, this time would likely be the last, and he would Finally be freed... but even that was almost a concern. What would that mean in the end?

It was nothing like the last time. They had been powerful, they had been capable, and they would have succeeded... were it not for their arrogance... that at least was not a fault this Builder possessed. Perhaps it was this, that bothered him so.

Thoughts of the past were always wrought with pain, and as this was one of the few remaining things that could still hurt him, he avoided these thoughts as a matter of course. This did not always work as well as he would have liked... such as now...

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 19: ...Long Gone

Today was the day. They'd spent all week preparing for this, and it was finally time.

"Tam!" he shouted, "Hurry up, she'll be back any moment!"

Tam was still back tending the glowing mushrooms. He was sure that he'd finally figured out how to induce the extreme growth that the mushrooms occasionally underwent, something about ground up bone dust..., and any time you couldn't find him, you knew where to look.

"Just give me a moment!" his friend hollered back out at him.

"If you take any longer, I'm headed out without you!" he yelled back.

From behind him, he heard the sound of one of Tam's unfortunate landings as he came out of his teleport, "Oooph!"

Turning around with a smile, he looked down at the budding wizard, 'Tam, the Soon to be All Powerful' as he liked to be known, "Hey, all of you is above ground this time at least."

"Yeah, yeah..." Tam replied, "Let's just go," he added, picking himself up, and dusting off his new robes.

"You know, if you keep wearing dresses..." ducking as his friend threw a fireball in his direction, he jumped first over, and then mid-jump, down at Tam before he could get off another one. This sent them both rolling across the stone walkway before he felt that tightening in his neck that meant they were about to...

*Splash*

He hit the water before he could orient himself from the jump and Tam was standing off to the side of the underground lake laughing, but he didn't laugh long. Perinque had arrived, and she was almost as bad as Tam for pranks. One moment Tam was standing on the shore, the next he found himself thrown forward by one of their friend's constant companions.

Two jumps were enough for him to reach the bank, and Tam had already teleported himself back out of the water, this time a little further down the bank where he could wring his robes dry in peace.

"You boys done playing yet?" she asked them, while the black slime that was following her today made itself almost invisible against the cavern wall.

"We were..." Tam griped. His new robes weren't constructed of the same waterproof silk that his last robe was. He did his best to keep it dry, and Perinque knew this.

"Let's go then," she said, impatient as ever. She was supposed to be meeting them at the intersection, but it was just like her to come all the way back to the house.

Following her as they headed back to the surface he wondered, not for the fist time, if this was actually a good idea. Watching her walk ahead of them, her shadow seemed to walk beside, and a little behind her, and it took him a few moments to realize that he wasn't seeing things, something strange was going on with her.

"Perinque," he started, "where did you run off to this morning?"

"I just needed to finish putting something together," she skirted his question.

"There's something going on with," he almost felt silly saying it, "your shadow."

"It's not my shadow, it's my clothes," she answered, as if that explained anything.

Looking at the clothing she was wearing, he had a hard time making out the details, and had he not been so distracted, he would have noticed it right off. It was as if the shadows clung to her for a moment as she walked through them, giving her what amounted to a shadow double that moved a moment behind her. He was surprised he had missed it before. How had he missed it before?

"You went to a Demon Altar," Tam chimed in, finally catching up with them. He was wearing his older waterproof robes again.

"So what if I did," she replied, not slowing to talk.

"Wait," he tried to reason though this, "I thought we had all decided the Demon Altars were too dangerous to experiment with, especially with as far into the corruption as you have to go for them," he started berating her.

"I found another one, and it's not in the corruption," she informed him.

"That doesn't change the fact," he tried to start in again.

"Who are you to tell me what is and isn't safe!" she stopped, turning around to shout now. Stepping towards him, thrusting a finger as if it were a knife, she continued, "In case you forgot, it was you that came asking me for help. I'm not about to start dancing around your long list of fears now," she finished.

"I wasn't asking you to dance around anything," he started back at her, his voice starting to rise, "But if we're going to work together on this, we need to be able to trust each other," this time he raised his finger in her direction, though no where near as aggressively, "and you have a bad habit of dragging us all in over our heads when your curiosity gets the best of you!" he shouted back.

They stood there staring each other down for what felt like several minutes until a low, and yet still hearty, chuckle broke out behind them, "Why don't you two just kiss and make out... er up, so that we can get on with this," Tam interjected, in an attempt at breaking the tension.

His face heating up, but refusing to let himself cave in this, he added, "Listen, I'm sorry if you think I worry to much..."

"I don't think you worry too much," she cut in.

"Whatever," he said, "So I worry, but the last time we went out to experiment at the Demon Altar, Tam was almost carried away..."

"Hey!" Tam interjected, "I was just caught off guard, I would have gotten away!"

"Tam was almost carried away," he went on as if he hadn't been interrupted, "and you were badly injured."

"And you were killed," she shot at him with a dark look, "Which might not seem like a big deal to you, but besides the fact that we then have to bring you back to your stuff, we never know if this time maybe you won't be coming back at all."

He hadn't told them about the voices he'd heard the last time he'd fallen... and now was not the best time to bring that up, "Which only aides in making my point. It's dangerous to go experimenting with the Demon Altars," he said instead.

"Whatever," she huffed back, "Like I said, I found one outside of the corruption, so let's just head back topside and get this over with."

They continued towards the surface, Perinque taking the lead, he and Tam following not too far behind, and he double checked his bags to make sure he had remembered everything. Sword, Potions, Bow, Armor, may as well put that on, between one step and the next, he put his armor on over his clothing. Reaching into his side pouch, he confirmed that he'd brought the right arrows as well.

It wasn't the fact that she'd messed around with the Demon Altar that really bothered him. She was right, he had no place telling her what risks she could and could not take. No, he was more bothered by the thought that she was taking these trips alone, more and more often.

Ever since their last trip to the Corruption, she'd been making these solo trips. It's not like she hadn't been alone in the past, long before he'd ever woken up in this strange land... but now it was different. Ever since they'd learned to trust each other... and that hadn't come easily... they'd pretty much taken all their real risks together. He'd assumed that it would continue on like that... but something had changed...

If he was honest with himself, he was concerned that she was pulling away, and he didn't know why. Tam hadn't seemed to notice, and talking to him didn't do any good. "She's just riled up about something. She'll calm down," he had responded. But it seemed to be more than that.

"Hey man," Tam said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "what's the matter? I thought you didn't mind getting wet," he said, completely oblivious... which wasn't a surprise.

Smiling at his friend's attempt, he responded, "It's not that..." looking forward towards Perinque 'significantly', he responded in almost a whisper, "I'm worried that she's pulling away."

"I told you man," Tam started too loudly for his liking.

"I know, I know," he cut in making a 'shushing' gesture and checking to make sure she wasn't slowing down, speaking low again, "But it's just... she didn't used to be so secretive. And now it's almost like pulling teeth to figure out what she's been up to."

Finally taking the hint, but still talking a little louder that he preferred, Tam replied, "So she's antsy and she wants some alone time. What's the big deal?"

He knew his friend wouldn't understand, so he just ended it with, "I guess I'm just worrying again..."

"Yeah she's right there at least, you're pretty bad about that man," Tam informed him with a smile.

Shaking his head, he decided that he'd worry about this later. Right now, he should have been preparing himself for what they were about to do. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out the Suspicious Looking Eye. They'd found it in a chest quite a while ago, and he knew that it would call something to them. With it's similarities to the Demon Eyes, he didn't know if this something would be friendly... and they all assumed it wouldn't be. So for the last week they'd been brewing potions, some of which only Tam was confident did anything, gathering supplies to improve their weapons, and just getting ready for whatever showed up.

Stopping short for a moment, he realized that Perinque was waiting for them at the Intersection. Standing near the signs they'd made, that they didn't really need anymore, signs pointing out which torch lined direction took them above, led back to the house, and which directions led 'Further Down'... a direction they'd left largely unexplored thus far. It was surprisingly cavernous below, and that made it more difficult to go wandering around as gallivantly as they typically did without getting hopelessly lost.

Stopping when they caught up to her, he just waited for her to continue, or say something. She looked at them, or more accurately, through them, as she seemed to be thinking about something... which was always a good sign of trouble to come.

"Ahem," Tam tried to get her attention, but she was too far gone and paid him no mind. The black slime that had up to this point been slinking along the wall, came up to her and seemed to be shaking near her as if it were concerned about something as well.

"What do you think?" Tam turned, asking him.

"I don't know," he answered with a shrug, but there was something... a sound, he could almost hear...

Perinque was fast on a normal day, but he wasn't sure whether it was just his mind playing tricks on him thanks to whatever it was she had going on with her clothing, or is she had found a new accessory that enhanced her speed even further, but whatever it was, she went from standing there staring into space, to spear out turned around thrusting, as fast as even he could ever hope to do. It all seemed of one motion, and it almost looked like she just melted into her new position as her spear sprung into existence, not a trick she, unlike him, was capable of.

The inspiration for her action was immediately apparent as a Giant Worm erupted from the ground mere steps before her. She caught it perfectly in the mouth, before twisting the spear and swinging the worm towards them. Not particularly slow himself, he'd already pulled his sword out and neatly sliced the length of the worm as Tam fed it a fireball. It took advantage of the momentum it still had remaining and dislodged its jaw to begin borrowing back into the ground. Not quickly enough however, as Perinque already had her Shurikens in hand, and one lodged into its body right at the point at which it was escaping into the ground, was enough to stop the creatures escape.

Walking over to the portion of its body that was still above ground, Perinque retrieved her shuriken before grabbing the worm's remains and forcibly pulling it back out of the dirt, before reaching into its jaw for the coins that these things tended to pick up in their burrowing. She knew that he would have had an easier time of it, but refused to give up on her ways. Pocketing the Copper, he noticed that she was carrying a particularly over stuffed coin pouch.

"You know, I can lighten..." he tried, but stopped when she shot him a look that was at least as sharp as the point of her spear, before turning away from him to check on the slime that was still shaking on the spot. He knew she was probably upset at having killed the worm, and left her be.

Tam performed a little bit of magic that caused the carcass to rot into the earth as if it had never been. A lot of his magic seemed to deal with the earth, and different ways of manipulating the various elements. Even this was more about "The Earth Consuming the Remains," and less about him doing anything to the body... or so he'd explained it many times in the past.

"Why do you still do that one anyway?" he asked.

"I figure the best way to get better is practicing every time I get the chance," Tam told him, "Even if it's not always the most useful magic."

It was funny, where he just naturally had an occasional sense of things, Tam had a natural feel of things. He could feel the power of the earth, and the plants, and the occasional creature. Where he could figure out how to put things together in such a way to make new things, and he had the power to manipulate and build the terrain up as he chose, Tam could change the flow of magic in the earth, and call forth the elements almost at will. It used to wear his friend out to even do things like this, but now he could call fireballs on demand, and it took a few of them before he had to slow down.

Perinque was different. She had a way with the living creatures of Terraria. She could walk along unarmed over most of the land during the day, and she would generally be okay. It was only when she was with them, around the undead, or around the corruption that she was 'at risk'. The slimes had taken to her immediately however, and she had not once been attacked by a slime. He and Tam knew better than to ever consider combating them while she was around, not that they would attack them with her nearby.

He had learned, entirely by accident, that he was incapable of dying. Not too long after waking up in this strange place, with no idea how he's gotten here, he had been swarmed by a group of Demon Eyes and Zombies. This was still a nightmare that he had to this day, but after his body was mangled, he found himself waking back up where he'd originally awoken... certainly not something he would have ever considered possible. Add to that the fact that he could recover from even serious injury by sleeping it off, and his next few weeks went by in a blur of fighting, losing, exploring, building, gathering, learning to craft, and generally just making a mess of things.

Eventually, he ran into Perinque while tearing his way through the caves below the little hut he'd built himself and immediately almost ruined any chance he had of ever befriending her when he charged in to attack the slimes that he thought were swarming her. He was lucky he hadn't actually killed any of them, as she told him later she would have returned the favor, which would have made it even harder for her to trust him when he would have turned back up as healthy as ever shortly thereafter.

Killing a slime would have been difficult to do in any account with her spear in his leg, as he hadn't gotten around to making himself any armor at that point. It still took her several weeks of running into him randomly while he begged her to forgive him as she was the first person he'd seen. Besides that, she looked like she knew what she was about, even then. She finally relented when the last time he'd found her to beg her forgiveness, the slimes she was with decided to forcibly remove him, and he refused to fight back. She stopped them... barely in time, and ever since then, they'd gotten along rather well.

Tam almost didn't end up joining them. More... he almost got himself killed when they found him. When Perinque and he first tried venturing further down into the caverns together, they ended up stumbling across a gathering of skeletons. It was an incredibly close call, and they barely made it out alive. In fact, if it hadn't been for the timely intervention of the bats and a few Mother Slimes that were also nearby... they may not have. Perinque didn't have the ability to recover from her injuries like he did and would likely not have come back had she fallen.

While they were escaping still terrified for their lives, or really, for her life, they heard a scream from behind them. He urged her to ignore it, as it was probably some kind of trap by the undead, and she was in no condition to be fighting... but she stubbornly turned back to investigate. They found Tam hiding on a ledge, fighting off the bats and dangerously close to the combat finishing up beneath him. There was nothing for it but to charge in and help the slimes finish off the Skeletons, and unfortunately the bats as well as they were unrelenting in their assault.

Tam was in pretty bad shape, and it was then that he taught them about potions. He'd run out, but promised that if they helped him back to his structure, he'd teach them how to make them as well. When they finally made it back to where their soon to be new friend called home, it was obvious that Tam could no more shape the earth than fight, and he immediately went to work fixing the place up as Tam rested to recover. Even with a potion he still needed time to mend.

It wasn't too long after, that they all started travelling together. The house that he built from Tam's hidey hole was far enough below the surface that they didn't have to worry about the zombies and demon eyes, that for some reason didn't travel this far below ground, and close enough to the surface that they hadn't run into any skeletons, like they found in the caverns below. The slimes that were everywhere eventually stopped bothering them once they realized that Perinque was there most of the time, and things settled into a routine of exploring, experimenting, and otherwise just getting by in this strange world. And then of course, they found the Suspicious Looking Eye.

They finally continued their way back to the surface, where Perinique had to say goodbye to the Black Slime, as it would not come out of the caves. Once out there, they found an open space to utilize the Eye, so that no matter what it called, they'd hopefully see it coming.

He had Tam to thank for almost everything he knew about the Magic of this World. His friend intuitively understood Magic the same way he intuitively understood that putting enough wood together in a certain shape would give him a chair, assuming he was standing next to that strange workbench that he'd been compelled to build first.

In fact, it had been Tam that discovered a way to utilize the Magic of the chests they'd been finding to create Belt Pouches that would weightlessly hold an incredible amount of things, that by all means should not have fit in them, before filling up. This considerably improved their ability to explore and gather things from further and further out, in far larger quantities than they'd have ever managed on their own. Unfortunately, Perinque stubbornly refused to wear them. She wouldn't relent and insisted on carrying all her gear naturally, and on her person. That's not to say that she had any objection to letting Tam and him carry things for the group... just not for her.

It was also Tam that had taught him how to detect and use a magical artifact, which this Eye definitely was. It was somewhat similar to the intuitions he had, and he wondered if over time Tam could learn to do the things he could. But Tam took it to a whole new level. He talked about this extra outer "Shell" that he could feel and manipulate at will. It was through this "Shell" that he was able to form the Fireballs, or by moving this "Shell" and then pulling himself to it, he had learned to Teleport... though that was more recent, and was definitely a work in progress. But in focusing his attention on the Eye, he was able to feel that it was capable of calling something to it if he focused on it enough, and after they had all prepared for the worst, a preparation that involved, at Tam's insistence, drinking a few potions each, he did just that.

Nothing happened. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he looked towards the skies to see if perhaps whatever it was, was coming from the sky.

"Perhaps..." Tam began, "We need to use it at night. If it is related in some way to the demon eyes... that would make sense."

"Sounds reasonable enough," he agreed with Tam, and decided to settle down for the day. Lying on a large rock in the sunlight, he removed his armor and stretched out to enjoy the sun. It had been a while since they'd last come topside in the daylight.

"Well, while you boys relax I'm going to see how the slimes are doing over the hill," Perinque informed them, "I'll be back," she said as she started jogging that way.

"Actually," Tam chimed in, "I'm going to see if I can find some more Mushrooms, Dayblooms, and maybe some Waterleaf if I've still got the time."

"Sure," he answered, "want any help?"

"No, I've got it. Enjoy the sun," Tam responded as he teleported off.

Lying there stretched out, eyes closed, and just soaking up the sun, he had no idea that this was the last of his happy days.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 20: Web Crawling

He headed back past the structure and up the hill towards the caves he'd started exploring before. He wasn't about to go too much deeper... but perhaps if he was careful... He felt a little more reckless than he liked, and he wasn't sure of the reason. Thinking about it as he walked, he realized that regardless of what he'd told Guile... he really did want someone else here, and he hated himself for considering it.

Avoiding the slimes on his way to the other side of the hill where the land began breaking apart, he decided to build himself a small bridge over to the floating land mass with a tree growing out of it. Pulling a piece of wood out, he considered it for a moment. He knew that he could affix the wood in two completely different fashions. In one way, he would be able to flatten the wood, similar to a panel, but thicker, and... sturdier... like he'd already done when climbing a tree. Outside of that, he could just fasten the wood as is, and it would be thicker, and beam-like.

Considering it further, he realized that there were only so many things he knew he could do with the wood. He could use it to build another workbench, he could use it along with gel to put together more torches, he could create these... sturdy wood shelves, or he could just use it 'as is' to create a framework. Try as he might, he had no idea how he could arrange the wood to build a sword, or even a chair... though he'd done it already. This only further confirmed the fact that the workbench had some kind of a strange influence on him when he was near it.

As he'd used these wooden shelves previously to climb a tree, he decided that he wanted to try using them to build a bridge. The last time he'd done this, he'd unknowingly changed the wood and then immediately set it in place. This time he was aware of the change as he pulled the wood out to use as his bridge. Two shelves wide, and about a dozen pieces long, was all it took to get him over to the suspended dirt. He did notice that the pieces he fastened to to the dirt not only seemed to affix themselves as if they'd been built there long ago, but they actually split and fastened both straight out, and with another arm for support on the underside.

The finished product was impressively bridge like, and stepping from it to the 'island', he was almost surprised by how... 'normal' it felt to stand on the floating dirt. He wasn't sure what he'd expected... perhaps for it to bob when he walked out on it... or for it to feel like it was less solid beneath his feet... but standing on the small island was no different than standing on the other side of the bridge. He even jumped around a little, which got his heart sped up, but had no other effect.

Carefully walking over to the far edge of the little land mass, he peered over the edge, a little more nervous than he liked. The drop from that side was rather substantial, as the land mass went out further than the ledge below and was suspended over the lower portion of this broken valley. He could see a few slimes meandering about below him, as if they'd come here and weren't sure where to go next.

Heading back across the bridge, his impulse satisfied, he climbed back down to the lower area and this time didn't crawl down into the crevice he'd been down twice now. Looking further out, he saw an opening at the back of another substantial overhang. At least, it got rather dark in that direction, and could have been a cave. Dispatching of the wandering slimes... At least they're not lost anymore... he thought rather darkly.

Reaching the overhang, he came across another pot sitting off to the side. Breaking it open, he found a few sharp cross shaped objects. Sharp enough looking that he was careful just picking them up. He assumed that they were probably intended to be thrown... but he wasn't so sure he could do that without slicing himself up. Putting them into his pouches, he decided to worry about figuring them out later.

Pulling a torch out as he reached the back of the overhang, he did in fact discover a cave leading in. Taking a deep breath before entering, he was more nervous than he liked. This cave, unlike the one before, was thankfully rather broad and tall. That made it a little easier. It was also not too deep, which he was fine with... except for the fact that it didn't have any of the Cobwebs that Guile told him he needed.

Thinking back on the list of supplies that Guile had snarked back him before he left, he recalled that he also needed a sum of stone... of which he currently had... reaching into his pouches to check... one chunk. There was a small section of the path into the shallow cave that was mostly stone, and he walked back to it. Pulling his pickaxe out, he struck the stone, and got the expected reverberation that let him know it was working.

Getting to work gathering the stone, he could feel that not only didn't the stone go down too far... but there was quite a bit of empty space below it. Frowning, he continued to work at the stone, and only two layers in he broke through to what looked like another passage, as small as the one he'd walked down before. Gathering all the attached stone, which only ended up amounting to an additional 16 chunks, he examined the opening he'd now made in the middle of the path.

The hole opened into the ceiling of another path heading further down from where he was that went out in two directions. Placing a torch in the side of the opening itself, so that he'd be able to see it from either end, he listened for any noises. Hearing nothing beyond the soft sound of the torch, he carefully lowered himself down to the new path.

Immediately pulling another torch out, he quickly took in his surroundings to make sure that he 'was' in fact alone. The tunnel wasn't particularly interesting to look at, but it also didn't go very far in either direction before dropping rather significantly.Choosing a direction, he walked over to where it dropped off.

He couldn't see too far below him... but there was something strange about the way the light hit what he could see... The color was different. Lying on the ground, he reached his arm down as low as it would go, and tried to attach the torch as low as he could, and it was immediately apparent what was different.

The ground at the bottom was covered in sand. Not just the bottom either, but also the walls. He didn't need sand to build his bed though... and while Guile had said something about needing it to make bottles, he was on a mission. He made a mental note to remember that the sand was here and went to look down the other drop in the path.

This looked more promising, at least, in the sense that it may actually lead somewhere further on. It also widened up, even as it plummeted down. He could just barely make out that there 'might' be a bottom, even after affixing the torch as low as he could reach it to a wall that also seemed made of sand. In trying to figure out how he'd get down there safely, he heard a *fTchsh* from above that meant another slime had found its way over. What is it about this valley that attracts them? he thought to himself.

Keeping an ear to it, he pulled a piece of wood out as a shelf, and fastened it a little away from but as low as the torch he'd set there. Putting another few pieces to widen it enough to climb down comfortably to, he did the same trick, torch and shelf, to get down to where he could safely lower himself down to the bottom and see clearly enough. Something caught his eye above him when he pulled another torch out to walk with, and he got his first glimpse of the cobwebs... or at least he assumed that's what the sticky looking stringy mess, that he could 'just' see as it hooked and bobbed across the ceiling, was.

"Well..." he said aloud, "That's just great," as he looked at how high the ceiling was here. And he'd been glad only moments before that it wasn't as claustrophobic as he'd initially thought. He wasn't even sure how he was supposed to gather that mess in a way that he could use it. Maybe a rake? he thought, though without being near either Guile or the workbench, he wasn't even sure he could make something like that.

Looking around at the base of the drop he'd just climbed down, saw that this area was roundish, and opposite the drop, there was a point where the ceiling kept going up... which could have been a continuation of this passageway. None of that gave him any insight as to how he was going to get the cobwebs down. Reaching into his pouches to try and come up with something gave him a questionably good idea.

First placing a torch in the center of the room, he was pleased to note that it fastened there just as nicely as it did the walls. Pulling the sharp metal crosses that he'd just found from the pouches, he moved to the edge of the room and tried to figure out how to throw them safely. Realizing that, like his sword, they probably required him to "Let them work for him," as Guile would probably say, he imagined throwing the thing in a clean arc that would pass through the cobwebs and land on the other side and tossed one of them into the air, trying not to cut himself with it as he did so.

It worked... or at least he thought it did, better than he had hoped. As the bladed cross passed through the cobwebs, they snapped down on themselves, separating from the rest, and the ceiling, and fell down in small messy patches of webbing. Walking over to where they had fallen, he picked one up, and the rest went into his pouches as close as he stood to them.

The webbing had a very similar elasticity to the gel, and reminded him lightly of the the dirt as well. He wasn't really sure what the magic of the world did when he chose to take things from it... but it was obviously all of the same effect. Toying with the web for a moment, he was amused by the stickiness that didn't leave a residue. Just to see, he rubbed it around in the sand at the wall and after pulling it away, was actually a little surprised that none of the sand came with it.

*fTchsh* the sound of the slime he'd heard earlier... though... *Shlorp* backing away from the wall he'd come down before pulling his sword out, he wasn't sure why the sound had been 'off' when it landed above. *Plop* Watching the ledge he'd come down intently, he was not at all prepared for the impact on the back of his head, slamming him face first into the dirt with considerable force, and causing him to almost impale himself on the wooden sword.

The resounding boom of its jump when it sprung off his skull rattled him, but he knew where this would go, and he scrambled off to the side, forcing himself to move even though he was having an issue locating the floor. With this mostly unsuccessful scramble, he was at the least able to keep the slime from landing on his skull again, and though it did manage to latch onto his back before slamming him to the floor once more, at least his head wasn't ringing with the second blow.

Rolling over, sword up, he was able to deflect it's next jump with his blade. Trying to get to his feet, he didn't have enough time for 'that' even before the slime was leaping back at him. This thing's faster than the others! he managed to think, which he felt was a good sign that his head was clearing up, but this didn't help him back to his feet. Over and over the slime lept at him, and it was all he could do to deflect it with his sword. Getting up was out of the question, but thankfully, the force of it's jump seemed to add to the distance it bounced after he hit it with the sword, which was likely the only reason it hadn't managed to get though.

In what seemed a particularly long period of defending himself against the unrelenting assault of the slime, he eventually scored a blow that tore through it's red membrane thus ending the attack. Allowing the gel and coins to go into his pouches, he wondered at why, not only had it attacked him outright, but why it didn't cease it's assault when it was obviously not succeeding. This only lent credence to Guile's statement that the slimes were merely byproducts of the world's magic, and not truly sentient creatures.

Pulling himself up now that his head had cleared up for the most part, he reached into his pouch to check the gel that had just been collected. It was interesting, even though the slimes were all different colors, the gel was always the same. He wondered at that. This indicated a single source for all the slimes, which again, only further removed their consciousness as something he was concerned about.

He realized that he'd been spending quite a bit of time thinking about the slimes... and he wondered at that as well. Was this because he felt so alone that he was trying to find some kind of kinship in them? Was he disappointed that they didn't seem to be more than autonomous gelatinous by-products? What would it change if they did seem to think? He spent longer standing there staring at the gel than he would have preferred, and still had no answer.

Coming back to himself, he looked around as if seeing this place for the first time, and he wasn't sure what he was doing down here. Crawling through caves, looking for cobwebs, fighting slimes and who knows what else... All for what? A bed? And then what? He'd spruce up his little cave and live out the rest of his life in this strange place letting Guile do to him as he wished? He hated the fact that he 'knew' how he could possibly get some help... but he didn't 'know' if he would be forcing someone else to share his fate. Maybe that's what Guile did to him?

Shrugging the thoughts off, he decided to continue on before he spent too much more time worrying over things that 'at the moment' weren't important. Moving to the side of the rounded cave opposite of where he'd come in, he looked up into the darkness. Reaching up with the torch, he fastened it as high as he could get it to reach, and he could just barely make out what looked like a ledge. Pulling out some wood, he built himself a ledge he could climb up on, and then another, which put him almost in reach of the ledge.

He built a final platform and pulled himself up to the new ledge. Looking down at the darkness below, he suddenly realized that there was no way for him to keep track of what time it was. On his way back, he could run right into another pack of zombies... and he wouldn't know it was that late, until it was too late. His heart jumped a couple of beats. 'How' long 'had' he been out here...

Pulling a torch out to look around he realized that this area was a long rugged tunnel that sloped noticeably upward... it was almost, but not quite, as if had at one time been a long staircase... made of dirt and stone. Looking around for any indication that this was more than just a natural formation, he was disappointed by the lack of any other sign. It was wide enough that at least six people could have walked up it side by side without touching at the shoulders.

With no other way to go than up, he started climbing the natural staircase. Maybe... he thought to himself, maybe it wouldn't force someone to come... maybe it just invites them somehow... he tried fooling himself.

The dirt staircase went up quite a ways before it leveled off. There wasn't that much to see on the way up, and he placed a torch in the center of the path two times before he reached the top. Once the path had leveled off, he noticed that above him, and just beyond the torchlight, it almost looked like the path continued up. Walking forward, he noticed that it also went forward, level for a ways, before dropping straight down into the darkness once more. Neither direction gave any clue as to what he'd find further on.

At this point though, he felt that he'd gone quite far enough and decided that he'd come back to explore the rest of this path the next day. Setting a torch in the center of the level top, he returned down the natural stairs. Halfway down, he heard the sound of a slime coming up. Stopping near to the second torch he set down before, he pulled the sword out and waited.

Another red slime came up the path, and prepared, he made relatively short work of it. It seemed to take qute a bit more abuse than the slimes he'd encountered before, and it was a bit quicker, maybe a little bigger, but it wasn't too bad on it's own. Continuing on down afterwards, he made it back to the roundish room, up through the hole in the floor, and out of the short tunnel he'd come down without any further distractions.

Once more above ground, there were a few slimes wandering aimlessly about that he made short work of... and then he headed back towards his cave in the rapidly fading light. He had momentarily considered going back to the structure, but there would not be enough time for him to deal with Guile's crazy and still make it back if he did. Besides, he considered, after having spent a night as he wished, there was no reason to go back under Guile's nose.

Sealing the wooden beams behind him when he walked into his cave, he looked around at the dirt room anew. Even if... I'm 'not' trying to bring someone here... there's no reason I 'can't' make this place 'habitable'... he thought to himself. And looking around, he knew that it wasn't.

Pulling his pickaxe out, the first thing he did was to square off the cave a bit so that it resembled the structure more. Removing some dirt and stone, he also dug a little further into the hill, so that it wasn't quite so small. As night was coming anyway, he decided that this was a safe enough way for him to spend his time, and as he could tell that the dirt was plenty thick around him as he worked, he even opened it up a little larger than he'd built the structure.

That done, he wondered at paneling the walls... but in checking his pouches, he realized that he might not have enough panels to cover all of it, nor did he have enough wood to make more once he ran out. Besides that, the workbench he'd need to use was at the structure, and he didn't have the time, or the interest to go over for it. Deciding that he'd rather get as far as he could with what he had, he pulled out the panels and started with the wooden frame at the entrance to the cave.

As he finished the frame at the cave entrance, he was struck by how dark it was and set a torch down in the center of the space. Not liking having no visibility outside, he pulled a small section of paneling out near where he was going to put the door on each side to give himself windows. Counting the panels he had left, he decided to cover the floor next, and finished only a few rows from the door before running out. Considering what to work on next, he decided that for the time being, he might as well turn in, and perhaps get an earlier start the next day.

Pulling a few bundles of dirt out to sleep on, and then remembering that he had to leave his pouches by the door for this to work, he did so, and prepared for the night, earlier than he thought he'd ever turned in. Tomorrow... I'll find enough of those cobwebs to build a real bed... and after that... Trying to find a comfortable patch of dirt, he wasn't sure what after that would entail. He was never sure what after that would entail, and it was beginning to wear on him. I wake up, I gather things, I may or may not almost die, I may or may not be tortured by Guile... is that really it? He knew where he was going with the train of thought, and turning over he resisted. I don't know that I would be forcing someone here... and it's not like I'd be dragging them myself... I'd just have to gather the Silver... Rolling over again, he tried to get his mind if not to sleep, at least on to other things.

Where did I come from? That thought stuck with him. The first thing he remembered was waking up with Guile standing over him. There had to have been something before that... but try as he might, he couldn't remember anything about before. So now I just need worry about where to go from here... He drifted to sleep eventually...

The next day went by in much the same manner, and outside of passing him at a distance and hurrying along, he didn't interact with Guile once. He spent the time gathering more supplies. He managed to find more cobwebs just a little further on down the cavern, though not nearly as much as he needed, along with another healing potion and a few arrows. Back on the surface he cleared the area around his cave of trees, so that he'd have more wood... and so that he'd see anything coming before it was right at his door, picking up a few more mushrooms as he did this. As the evening came he went into his cave to relax, and fought hard to keep his thoughts from drifting onto subjects he wanted no part in.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 21: A Change is Begun

Waking the next morning, he knew he needed to go to Guile's hut. He vaguely recalled that this whole building process was composed of several stages... and he wasn't sure where to start. On top of that, without the workbench he didn't think he could start towards building it in any case. Pulling a piece of wood out, he tried to envision a bed, but nothing was coming to him... He did however know how to put together another workbench, so he tried that. Sitting on the floor, he pulled the wood out as he needed it, and much like the first time... that seemed so long ago now... the bench seemed to come together almost on it's own, with him just providing the momentum for the wood.

Looking down at the new workbench, he felt that there was something different about it and after a few moments, he realized what it was. The strange tree etched into the top of the first one wasn't present on this workbench. He could still feel the thrumm though, so he wasn't sure what that meant. Pulling some wood out to make into paneling for the walls, it worked just the same, and he decided not to let it concern him. Gauging how many panels he would need to completely finish the rest of the cave was impossible. He had noticed that each piece of wood flattened out into four panels, so pulling a stack of 25 pieces and pressing them into the workbench he could feel the stack rapidly converting from wood to panel, eventually ending up as a stack of 100 panels.

From there, he attempted to finish paneling the cave, but was unable to continue beyond right in front of the entrance, and even then, it was varied how far he could get, ceiling, walls and floor. Frowning at the places where panels refused to fasten, he used the hammer to pull up a few that he'd already put down to compare the area behind them. The dirt looked... different behind the panels where he could fasten them, than it did where he could not. It was as if the earth were more dense in those places. He also realized that he'd just begun putting the panels on the dirt the night before in his tired state, and that today he'd just been continuing that, without building a wooden frame.

He considered taking up the dirt and just building a frame, as that's what he'd done before... but now he was curious. Pulling up the dirt in a space that he could place a panel on, and where he couldn't, he fastened them both back, and realized that it changed nothing for either location. Looking once more at the two locations, the only thing he could see was in fact the density. Where the dirt was more compact, and smoothed out, he could place tiles. Where it looked like it had just settled where it was, he could not.

On impulse, he pulled his hammer out and struck the settled dirt, receiving the now familiar ripple. Two more strikes, and as he suspected, the dirt went from settled to compact. After that, he could put a panel down without a problem. More pleased with himself than he probably should have been at figuring that out on his own, he went to work smoothing out the rest of the dirt in the small cave. With that done, he was able to finish paneling it without any further problems. It took the majority of his remaining wood, but at last his cave was homey... or at least... homier.

With that done, he wasn't sure what to start on next. Testing a theory, he pulled out a piece of wood out and tried to imagine all the things he could build with it now that he was near the workbench. He right off knew that he could use the wood with some stone to make more arrows like the ones he'd found in the pots. Beyond that was a larger torch, if he used one of the smaller torches, the wood panels of course, a door, which reminded him to finally construct one and install it in the frame at the entrance... A chair, something that looked like a sign perhaps, a real sized table, a sword, a hammer, a... bow? Keeping that in mind he tried to figure out anything else that would help him put together his bed... but that was it with the wood. Strangely enough though, even with him thinking about what he could build with the wood specifically, he knew there was more he could build using things that were still in his pouches.

For example, he could make dirt or stone... panels? Pulling a chunk of each out, he pushed them into the workbench to see what this would look like, and indeed they compressed into panels not too different from the wooden panels, only composed of dirt and stone respectively. Putting those away, he continued to imagine what he could build... he could put a torch with a few arrows to create burning arrows, he could of course make more torches, and he realized that there was a distinct difference between the wood he used to make his bridge, or to climb with, and that he used to panel the walls, and finally, he knew that he could take a silver coin, and change it into 100 copper coins... though why he'd want to do that was beyond him.

Snapping his focus back to where he was, his head swam a moment when he realized what he'd been doing and he had to put a hand to the workbench to steady himself, though the thing's thrumming didn't really help matters. He couldn't really put words to it. He kind of let his focus... drift a little, while trying to picture what he could build with what he had, and it allowed him to see these things in his mind... it was almost like looking into his pouches... but different enough to have needed him to focus on it before he was able to do it.

He wondered for a moment on what else he could do if he focused right... but had no idea where to begin figuring it out. Guile would know... he thought bitterly to himself. He'd figured out so much on his own, that it was frustrating to realize everything about his time here would wind up leading back to Guile. While he was thinking on it though, he recalled knowing that this place wasn't habitable... and as he focused on it, somehow... he knew why. The how wasn't important to him, but he was a little unsettled by knowing the why. It was almost as if a little voice in his head told him, This housing is missing a chair.

Standing next to the workbench, he pulled one together and set it up against the back wall to see what would happen. Focusing on the structure again, he knew that 'now' it was suitable, And even though he had done all of this intentionally, that very obvious shift in his knowledge that came from just building a chair still hit his gut in an uncomfortable way.

Looking around, seeing all together what he'd managed on his own, he lost his small sense of accomplishment rather quickly. A mid sized, wood paneled room, housing a workbench, a chair, and a torch in the wall. Oh, and it had a door. As proud as he'd just been, he realized how much of the day it had taken to get this far on his own, which inevitably brought him back to... Damn him.

Stepping out, he noticed that the sun was over halfway across the sky, and decided to pay his guide a visit after all. At least, he tried consoling himself on the way, at least I don't have to interact with him any more than I want to... that's something. Not that it did too much to bolster his sudden flaccid spirits. He decided to avoid the slimes instead of engaging them on his way, as his mood was taking a sour turn already. Coming up to the small shack after what was certainly far too short a distance... I should have chosen a spot further away, he wasn't surprised not to find Guile within. Of course, any time I want to find him, he's nowhere to be seen.

"Looking for someone?"

He hated himself for jumping, as this was Par for the course when it came to Guile, but he quickly tensed up and without turning snapped, "What do I need to build first in the chain of things I need before I can build a bed?"

"No hello? It has been days since last we talked, and now you just come barging into my little home demanding answers?" Guile asked him in a clearly mocking tone.

Taking a deep breath before replying, and avoiding the obvious fact that it was he that had built Guile's little home, he turned, a forced rictus on his face, and curtly responded, "Hi Guile. How have you been doing? Tortured anyone for fun lately? What about that sun, ain't it bright?"

"It is a beautiful day, and I have been doing great. I mean... as great as one could expect with nothing more comfortable than a chair to relax on in his home, but beyond that, peachy. I try not to make it a habit to mix work and pleasure, but if you insist..." those last few words carried an undercurrent that sent a chill through him, washing the insolence he felt right out as he took a step back, towards the structure unfortunately, and tried to keep from freaking out.

"No, it's okay," he stammered, "I'm just not in the best of spirits," he added, hating that fear that was creeping up in him, "I was just coming to ask for your guidance."

A smirk that was anything but friendly still played at the corner of Guile's lips but after a moment, he responded, "The workbench was the first item you needed to build. With that, you can now craft a furnace, assuming you've gathered the necessary components to begin."

Releasing a breath he didn't realize he was holding, his every muscle still taut, he replied, "And what do I need for that?"

"Twenty stone blocks, four pieces of wood, and three torches."

Counting the items in his pouches, he realized that he did indeed have more than enough, and yet... "I have no idea how to put it to... oh wait..." he snapped out at the end. Turning, he went into the structure to stand near the workbench, and sure enough, he knew what to do.

Pulling the stack of stone out, he began setting them into place on the floor beside the bench. Each piece took shape as a part of what would be a rather large, round, stone oven. After forming the rounded base, he pressed the remaining stone into the sides, and domed top, open on one side, that came almost as tall as he was. The wood he simply tossed into it, followed by the torches, and when the last item came in contact with the rest, the entire thing seemed to solidify in front of him, and the strange dancing light from the torches engulfed the wood within, creating an alarmingly hot fire, considering the lack of heat from the torches that started it.

Stepping back from the oven he looked it over and noticed that right at the top, above the opening, that same symbol was etched into the stone. Grabbing the workbench, he dragged it away from the furnace so that it would not ignite from the heat that thing was emitting, and noticed as he did that there was an entirely different thrumm coming from the furnace, and while standing with both the bench and the oven near each other, he could feel them different sensations reverberating through him in an unpleasant fashion. Attempting to shake the sensation off, he was barely able to move far enough away to stop feeling the both of them by standing almost against the wall.

"It is more practical to leave the workbench near to the furnace," Guile informed him from the doorway.

"I like it over here more," he replied, "Besides, I don't want it to get too hot."

"That is an unnecessary concern. But perhaps you should move the furnace out from the center of the room if you are concerned about the heat."

Looking at the huge stone oven, he seriously doubted that he could just up and move it, but maybe with his pouches... Walking up to it, he imagined it going into his pouch. When that didn't work, he walked up to it, and squatting down on the backside, as the front was emitting serious heat, he tried lifting it, to no avail. After that he attempted to get a hold of the lip on the front to pull it towards his pouch, and only succeeded in burning his hand.

As he blew on his now tender hand, he was agitated by Guile's chuckling, "I'm glad you're so amused, but as you can see, it's a little too large for me to just pick it up and move it around," he snapped.

"All I can see is that you apparently do not understand the consequences of sticking your hand into the opening of a furnace," his guide responded.

"I was trying to get it to move, what am I supposed to do, break it apart with the pickaxe and rebuild it?" he asked, pulling his pickaxe out even as he finished saying it.

"If you enjoy wasting quite a bit of time and energy, you could potentially get that to work."

"Then, what may I ask, am I supposed to do?" he shot back, clipping the ends of his words.

"I suppose you could simply use the hammer to remove the furnace from its position, at which point it would be easier to move," Guile answered him, as usual ignoring his ire.

"Yes, because the first thing I think of when moving a huge stone oven is to whip out my hammer and hit it," he muttered back.

"Then why didn't you?" Guile asked, a small smirk barely visible on his lips.

"Bwrrrarrrgggg!" he yelled, pulling his hammer out and laying in to the oven with it. He knew he was doing it wrong, and that as a result it wouldn't actually work, but he didn't care for the moment.

Every blow felt good in a way that was both unproductive, and probably unhealthy. Add to that the fact that neither hammer nor oven seemed to be showing the effect of his strikes, and it only made him angrier.

"I assume you realize that you are, in fact, doing that wrong," Guile interrupted his unproductive rage.

"Really?!" he shouted back, each word punctuating a blow that had he his way would have been aimed at Guile, "Really!? I, had, no, clue!" he finished before throwing his hammer across the room with a roar.

The hammer rebounded off the wall leaving, he noticed, a small indentation in the wood, and then lay floating right above the workbench. Bringing his hands to his head, he just wanted to be done, done with Guile, done with this place, just done. All the fear and frustration he'd been holding at bay hadn't really gone anywhere, and he was no closer to having control of his life than he'd been the first day he'd woken up here in the dirt.

"Well you are."

Taking a deep shuddering breath, he walked over and put the hammer into his pouches before walking out the door without so much as a glance in Guile's direction. Why does he anger me so much? He thought to himself. It didn't make sense. He thought he was used to his guide's infuriating attitude, but it seemed like every word out of Guile's mouth had the power to incite a blinding rage within him. And it was intentional, he knew it was.

----------​

The builder, once more exhibiting the temperament of a youth only recently let out from beneath his mother's care, stomped off. It was beyond comprehension. All the signs indicated that now was the time for change, that now it would finally end... but it was still beyond belief. That this builder could do what had been attempted many times before... Perhaps he was reading the signs wrong...

No, he'd seen the world change on more than one occasion, and this was different. The magic of the world was manifesting itself strongly through this one, and... A sharp pain split him from his skull and down through his spine as the world shifted. It had been time immemorial since he'd felt pain like this, and the cause of it... Screaming out in a voice that echoed through the very earth itself, he fell to his knees and was wracked by visions.

The very shape of the world would be changing... The fabric of this world's magic was straining, he'd felt this for some time, but something... else, was happening first. He could see it, the beasts would grow in numbers, the guardians were being joined by others, and very little would remain of the world he once knew. But this change was greater than any he'd experienced in the past, he could feel his very being shaped by it, and right on the cusp of change, the world shifted back.

Lying there, shaking as the sensation left him, he knew that it wasn't time... yet. But that this change was coming, and soon... Perhaps it would be this that allowed the builder to succeed. This that changed things enough for him to accomplish what others could not. As the world dimmed from view, as he recovered from the change that had almost occurred, his mind drifted once more...

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

They were ready, they had all drank Tam's potions again, and this time... it was solidly night. Focusing on the eye, he could feel it react, and as the energy within it began to surge, the eye shot into the air, and was almost immediately out of sight.

"Well," Tam began, "that was uneventful."

And then he could feel 'it'. And he didn't know what 'it' was, but an uneasy sensation came over him, as if he were suddenly being watched. He could tell by the discomfort that his friends suddenly started to display, that they could feel it to. Which only worried him further. Looking up towards where the eye had shot off, he thought he could see it coming back... only there was something different...

"Is that..." he began, but didn't need to finish, as the eye coming towards them was much larger than the little eye they'd just lost. It was at least the size of two and a half demon eyes... and it was coming straight at them... slowly...

He noticed that Tam was staring at it intently, and he was wearing the look normally reserved for his forays into new magic.

"What are you thinking of doing?" he asked, but his friend was already gone.

Watching as Tam closed his eyes and stretched out a hand to the slowly descending eye, he jumped a little when an intense beam of white light shot from his hand and enveloped the eye, stopping it in its decent, maybe two bow-shot lengths out, and causing him to glow with the light in turn.

"Give me your hand," he wasn't sure he heard Tam say to Perinque... who reluctantly took his hand. She too immediately began to glow with a soft white light.

Watching as she turned to face him, still holding Tam's hand, he heard a voice that wasn't hers, it was soft and echoey... and it said to him, "You are here, and now, it has begun."

"What..." he started, but then tried to revise, "Who..." he didn't like his friends standing there attached to this thing as they were.

"The time has come for you to contain the corruption, or allow it to possess our world," the voice informed him.

His mind reeled. Contain the Corruption? How could he possibly do such a thing! Not only was there so much of it, but just entering the Corruption was dangerous. It was asking of him the impossible, and, "How do you expect me to do that?"

"You have no choice. You will succeed, or the corruption will possess our world. There is no other path."

"I don't know what to do!" he shouted up at it.

"Even I have become... corrupted. It will not be long before I can no longer resist... Heed my words... and... Forgive me..." the voice said.

"For what?!" he tried to ask, but the light connecting the eye and his friends vanished, and everything went to hell too fast for him to react.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 22: The Beginning of the End

The night suddenly too dark with the light extinguished and he didn't really see what happened. All he knew was the screaming coming from his friends was sign that something was wrong, and though he had his sword in hand, he couldn't safely engage until he could properly see. Otherwise he was in danger of injuring his friends. The shadowy shapes before him were moving too fast for him to make out what was going on. He could tell the eye had descended upon them, but the few seconds it took before he could really see, felt like an eternity in that moment.

As his vision adapted, ever so slowly, he could see that the eye was dragging Tam across the ground, tangled in the veiny bits that dangled from the back of it. Perinque was after it, spear flashing impossibly fast as if she were trying to pulverize it in mid-air, which wasn't likely far from the truth. Lunging forward to assist, he watched as the Eye stopped mid flight, causing Tam to swing towards it, and forcing Perinque to stop her assault. Instead, she jumped at Tam as if to break him from the thing's snare, and was unprepared for the speed and force with which the Eye, dropping Tam, Rocketed at her, sending her flying backwards, before stopping, and rocketing towards him.

Had he not already drawn his sword, there would have been no time to do so, even as fast as he could pull it from his pouches. As it was, the sword was of little help in deflecting the thing, and it hit him with the force of an explosion, to which he was almost powerless to resist, and he too was carried backwards, barely managing to hold onto his sword from the impact.

It however was not finished with him, and as they hurtled backwards, he could feel it spin against him, and sensation that was only made worse by the thick mucous that coated the thing, and snared him in its veins as it had Tam. He could feel them sliding around his armor, reaching inside, and digging into his flesh, causing him to scream out in response as it attempted to find the softest bits of his body.

Attempting to swing his sword to remove it's veins was futile, and the thing began pulling him into the air as it burrowed into him. His screaming was loud in his ears, and after what felt like and eternity, he was released... and fell to the ground before finding himself in the darkness that told him he had once more fallen.

No! I can't fall now! That THING is out there with Perinque and Tam! I need to go back, NOW! he screamed futilely into the blackness... or 'thought'... or whatever it was that he did when he was here. This time though... something was different. He could feel something else here.

"Are you truly so eager to return?" the voice he'd begun hearing asked him. The voice carried a wrongness to it, as if it was something alien to the darkness, and yet...

I need to go back, Now! he responded in the way of this place, My friends are in Danger!

"I, can send you back" the voice responded, "Before it has finished them..."

Do it! he pleaded, Please!

"There is a cost..." the voice informed him.

If he didn't get back now, there was no telling what could happen to his friends. Typically when he fell, many hours, and on occasion, even days would pass before he returned, and his friends might not have that much time.

I don't care what the cost is, SEND ME BACK! He thought, shouted...

A piercing pinkish purple light erupted from the darkness and enveloped him. A pain like no other he'd ever experienced washed over him, and a laughter that he could feel in the bones he wasn't even sure he had here, rattled him. Agony was the only thing he knew, and then light, screaming, and a fading of the laughter as a whisper danced at the edge of his hearing... So be it.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

He hadn't made it very far from Guile's shack when he heard... felt... a scream from behind him. Immediately following that, his gut... dropped and... something happened. He didn't know what it was, but for a moment, it was as if the entire world was doubled... sort of overlaying itself, but... different, and looked sort of like a stack of material looked when it was all together... but only for a moment, and then the sensation was gone.

He doubled over and emptied his empty gut. When he stood back up, he didn't feel as stable as he would have liked and he looked around. Nothing looked any different... and it didn't feel different. He checked his pouches, but nothing had changed there either. He looked down at the ruined rags that mostly covered him, and the shackle he'd stopped noticing he was wearing. Everything seemed the same. What happened? he thought to himself.

"Nothing has happened... yet,” Guile’s voice once more answered his unspoken question.

"What do you mean... yet," he asked, too weak to care whether or not Guile was in fact reading his mind. Too weak to remain angry even, "What happened?"

"Nothing, as I just informed you," Guile replied.

"Yeah... Nothing like the nothing that happens to you when you start freaking out," he snapped back.

"In fact, it has nothing to do with that... though it may..." his guide stopped, and seemed to consider for a moment. This was new. "It may end up affecting me in ways I cannot yet begin to imagine."

He wasn't sure he liked the idea of that... or perhaps, he should like it? What did it mean that Guile, who seemed to know everything about this place, had no idea what was happening. He asked as much, "How is it that you have no idea what's going on?"

"I never said that," was the unsurprisingly unhelpful and infuriating answer.

"Fine..." he tried re-framing the question, "What was that, that I just experienced?"

"That, and I will assume you are referring to the fluctuation in the makeup of this world's magic, and not, as is your way, the shift in the tonality of my voice, was a Preview," his guide answered.

"A What?" he asked, ignoring the intended jab at him.

"Your ability to retain information is nothing short of incredible," Guile snapped, surprisingly more emotion in it that he was used to, "It was a Preview. A change is coming to the world, and that was a glimpse of the change."

He didn't know how to respond to that. He didn't even know how he wanted to respond to that. Change was coming? That was a 'Preview' of the change? What was going to happen to him? What was going to happen to the world? "When?" was the only thing he could bring himself to ask.

"I do not know."

And that answer, only made it worse.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

As the world began fading back into view, the first thing he became aware of was that he hadn't fully recovered from his time down, as was typically the case. Trying to bring his attention to what was going on around him, that was no more than a fleeting thought as he pulled his sword out and ran blindly towards the screams of his friends. His vision swam slowly back into focus, and provided him a nightmarish scene as a reward.

The giant eye had Perinque trapped within its tendrils, and was very visibly attempting to pull her apart as she struggled against it and Tam lay below trying desperately to throw fire at it without harming their friend. Charging forward sword raised and screaming out at the nightmare, his only thought was in attempting to get her out before she succumbed to its efforts.

The terrified look in Tam's eyes as he came upon them, and the fire thrown his direction did nothing to slow him down, and he lept towards Perinque as his friend shouted, "It's you!You're back!Oh God!Save her!" in a jumbled rush of words.

His second jump propelled him 'just' high enough to sink his sword into the eye and without thinking about it, he grabbed Perinque in one arm and pulling his sword out, tried to cut the tendrils from her in a single motion. As small as the thing was, even though it was larger than the demon eyes, it had no problem holding the both of them in the air as the tendrils began digging into him once more.

The entire world erupted into light around him and everything went silent for a moment as he saw Tam below, hand outstretched towards them, and that same beam of light from before connecting him to the eye. The light was blinding, and Perinque turned towards him suddenly calm, speaking again with that echoey voice.

"It is too late. The corruption will consume this world. You have been tainted, and now there is none to resist."

A voice that he recognized, though not one that he was much pleased to hear spoke in reply, though not through Perinque, "It was always too late. For all that you represent, you are foolish and blind. Resistance was but a dream, and all dreams must end. Now It has begun."

A bright lavender light consumed his vision and the screaming of his friends filled his ears as he felt the eye release Perinque and him. Pulling her on top of him, her weight crushed him into the ground as once more the darkness pulled him from the world. That dangerous laughter escorted him on the way, and did not diminish as he fell.

"You have returned," the voice in the darkness greeted him, every word cutting through him like a knife.

My Friends! he thought in agony, the pain he felt at what would happen to them outweighing the pain he felt here.

"They have escaped," the voice informed him, "It was not their role to fall in that struggle."

Relief washed over him, even as the pain he felt intensified. They would survive... that was enough.

"It is not they that you should concern yourself with fleshling," the voice informed him, "You have given yourself to me. And now begins your role."

Every word ignited waves of sensation, none of which were pleasant, and he felt that the agony he endured would never end. He was almost right.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

It wasn't enough that everything he knew would soon change, but the past refused to remain where it belonged. He could feel himself losing control, and it had been some time since that had happened. This Preview had shaken him more than cared for and he needed to regain his composure if even the builder's inanity was enough to rattle him.

"There is nothing you can do to affect the change. It is a waste of your time to concern yourself with it," not that the builder seemed averse to wasting his time, "At this time you should begin the construction of suitable protection."

Still staring blankly into space, less thought visible in his expression than one would expect even from the walking dead, the builder responded hollowly, "What does it matter?"

This was beyond comprehension. The builder refused to progress within his role. Here the world was on the cusp of a change that could potentially destroy him, and he was unable to realize the need for even basic protection. As Guile prepared to reply, the world dimmed and he found himself once more unable to respond as the voice spoke through him.

"That is for you to decide Fleshling," he could feel his body step towards the builder, and the fear that suddenly entered the builder's expression was... pleasing... to the voice. The shared sensations had long ago become something he endured, but it took all that he had to separate his feelings from its... and in his current state, that effort was doubled.

"I..." stepping backward, the builder's gaze was suddenly alert, and his eyes darted frantically as if looking for escape. It was too late however as Guile could feel it reach out through him to grasp the piece of the builder that had returned tainted from his fall.

"You flaunt your foolishness as if a child that has yet to learn suitable respect for the darkness. Perhaps I have been too kind in my teachings... Perhaps it is time to Educate you further," the voice spoke through him as his body walked slowly towards the builder, its grip on the builder tightening with each step.

Face to face with the builder, Guile... no the voice, smiled as Guile fought to regain himself. It was worse now than it had been in some time. The Preview had weakened more than just his patience. Are you.. afraid? the voice asked him. NO! He had managed to keep himself separate for too long to let this happen here! Forcing himself to regain control, he could feel it resist his attempts, and for a moment he felt as if he would lose before...

----------​

The expression on Guile's face was enough to chill him, even with the pain that was digging into him from within. For a moment, looking into his guide's eyes he could see a yawning chasm of... agony, torment, violence, these words only lightly touched whatever is was he saw just waiting behind the gaze. It was as if he was a turtle lying upside down, rocking on its shell at the very edge of pit with no visible bottom, while a sky full of dark shapes descended upon him. No sooner than it had come the expression shifted and he found himself flying backwards as if launched by some powerful force. Thrown into the hill with such momentum, he almost blacked out on impact, and he could feel him bones flex. It was quite some time before he could imagine moving again.

Lying there he made a decision. He was done, done with Guile. If he had to spend the rest of his life in this place alone with nothing more than the little that he'd managed to build for himself so far, he would endure. What he had glimpsed in his guide's eyes shook him more than everything he'd experienced up until this point put together.

Darkness was none too far away when he could force himself to move again, and even then his body resisted. He was less in pain, than he was strangely stiff... not a sensation he'd had to deal with so far, and that only furthered his concern for whatever he'd just seen in Guile's eyes, and what it meant for him. There had been little doubt that his guide was more than he seemed... but he's underestimated the extent of that. No more.

After pulling himself up, it was far too short a walk back to his new home, and he made it there unmolested. Closing the door behind him, he went over to sit in the chair at the other side of the room and sat staring at the door. I'm done. I can't... won't let him do whatever it is he wants to do to me. He could not even begin to wrap his mind around what he'd seen in that gaze. Guile was something not even close to human, and given the opportunity, would destroy what little grip he had on reality, and then grind it for an eternity. He'd proven that he could discover things on his own, and he'd just have to settle for that. As difficult as it may end up. For starters...

He got up and walked over to the workbench, and tried to envision an oven... but nothing was coming to him. He reached into his pouches and pulled out all the stone he had, eight blocks... and realized that he needed more. Looking towards the hole he'd left beside the door, he jumped when he saw an undead face there staring in at him, and it took a few moments for his heart to slow back down, not helped by the rhythmic scratching, thumping, and moaning he'd not noticed just before. What does it say that I'm used to all that, he thought almost wryly to himself.

He was still uncomfortable with the idea that these once human looking things were right outside his door, a door that he himself had no trouble opening, and that they couldn't get in to him. If he was honest with himself, he'd felt safer with just the wood than he did with the door, and he considered placing it back for the night...

*KThunk* the door shook with the impact of one of the eyes, and he put more wood than was probably necessary into a frame in front of the door before he could stop himself. It would be easy enough to remove in the morning.

That done, he put the stone back, threw some dirt clumps across the room, set his pouch in a corner near the door, and went to lie down for the night... on the wooden floor... with his thoughts to keep him awake. Tomorrow I will gather more stone... build myself an oven, and see what new things I can build from there. It certainly wasn't the most effective way to do things, and he wasn't foolish enough to think that he could 'truly' avoid Guile if his guide decided to come for him, but he couldn't shake the feeling he'd had looking into his eyes...

----------​

Standing a pace away from the chair, facing the wall, Guile focused on who he was. The memories of a time long since forgotten helped, as much as they hurt. He focused on ignoring the voice, that having provoked a response in him, was now more active than it had been in some time.

"You know the end as well as I, and yet, still you resist," it taunted him, as he found himself suddenly facing the door. Forcibly turning back to the wall, he returned to focusing on who he was, and again, his mind drifted...

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

How could he tell his friends the truth. That now he was hearing voices, and that somehow, in a way he couldn't begin to understand, this voice was preventing him from building like he used to. It was gone. Ever since he'd awoken, lying in the bed back in the house he shared with Tam, he just couldn't create things the same way. The workbench, furnace, and anvil no longer resonated with him, and his tools stopped having their usual effect on the land. In fact, even if he just wanted to fasten a torch to the wall, he had to force it into the dirt the way Tam and Perinque always had. Something had changed, and all he could tell them was...

"I just can't."

"Don't worry about it. It'll come back. It must have something to do with that Eye we fought," Tam tried to console him as he handed the potion ingredients back. Tam was still able to perform his magic, and Perinque had never used any, so it was only he that had been affected.

And there was another sore point. He'd fallen not once, but twice in that battle, and his friends had to all but fend for themselves. In fact, it's entirely possible that his only contributions were to make things worse. He knew, even if they didn't, that the voice accompanying the lavender light had been the same voice that had spoken to him in the darkness, the same voice that still occasionally spoke to him now. He didn't understand the extent of what had happened there, and he was certain that he didn't want to.

After the second fall, Tam had grabbed Perinque from beside the tombstone that marked his fall and teleported away. Over and over again he'd teleported, pushing himself much further than he'd ever been pushed magically until he was certain they were far enough to keep the eye from coming after them. As it turned out, he'd teleported them further than any of them had ever gone before, and had seen something that they were now going back to investigate further.

It was a different sort of preparation they had to make now that he was no longer able to affect change upon the terrain at will. For one, they had to wait for Tam's method of potion preparation, and while traveling, would have to rely on the tricks that Perinque used to keep herself safe at night when she wandered alone to ward them if they ended up staying out past sunset. It took a few days, but soon enough they were ready to head off, and if he thrashed and mumbled in his sleep the nights leading up to it, Tam took it as a result of their battle, and didn't question him further.

It is all for naught. The voice had informed him as he woke the morning they were to set out. Were it a constant rattle, he thought he'd do better dealing with it. But it would just randomly comment on things, and he dared not try and respond to it. He didn't know what had happened, but he foolishly believed that if he ignored it... It is all for naught. The voice reminded him as they left the house.

Perinque had grown even more distant since the attack. When Tam told her it would be a few days before he'd built up the store of potions he felt they should take, she told them she'd return on the day they'd chosen to leave. He tried talk to her, to see if she was okay, but all she would say to him was, "I'm fine. I just need some time to myself." And she refused to talk about the shadowy clothing she wore now.

So up they went, in silence, and began heading towards the large blue bricked structure that Tam and Perinque had found on the other side of the desert.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 23: Everything Changes

Finishing off the slime, he removed the second wooden platform from the wall and continued on. That ledge beyond the top of the dirt staircase hadn't contained anything of particular interest, as it was more a nook than a continuation of the passage like he'd initially thought. There was a bit of stone up there however, and he collected enough to ensure he could build the oven when he went back to his cave. After that he collected the wood used to get himself up there he continued downward instead, pulling a torch out as he moved to the edge of the light from his last torch.

Before going too far he came across another open cavern, with water at the far end and a path that looped back heading further down. This looks familiar, he thought to himself. But then, all these tunnels did. Moving over to the edge of the water, he noticed two pots sitting in water that would only come up to his calf, and decided it was worth it to wade over to them. Both of them only contained coins, and between them there were 2 silver and 24 bronze coins. Further back, there was an odd reflection from the wall where it met the water.

Trying to make out what it was, he could tell that it wasn't the same metal he'd been collecting... and as that's what he needed at the moment, he decided not to jump into the deeper water for a closer look. Wading back out of the water, he set a torch into the wall at the intersection and continued his way down. By moving quickly he was sure he'd have enough time to find everything he needed before it was too late, and shaking his legs as he walked he couldn't help but appreciate the fact that with his clothing as ruined as it was, it didn't hold as much water as it otherwise would have.

Following the tunnel down, he came into yet another cavern with a much deeper pool of water in it, and no passage heading further on. Crisscrossing the roof above the water was a large number of cobwebs. Of course. Reaching into his pouches, he checked how many dirt chunks he had as an idea came to him. If he was going to have to start learning things on his own, he'd have to experiment... and one of the things he wanted to know, was how far his ability to fasten things without having to touch them went.

Remembering back to when he was building the first structure, he recalled throwing blocks up to place them just out of reach... but in climbing he'd just fastened both torches and platforms beyond his reach. There was no reason to think he couldn't do that with everything. On top of that, he could carry these materials in bundles, could he place them as a group? Holding the bundle of dirt in his hand, he attempted to set a large portion of it down, covering the top of the water, at once.

It didn't work the way he thought it would... but it 'was' working... sort of. As he attempted to set the dirt down beginning at the edge of the pool it didn't all drop at once, but he was able to rapidly fasten dirt into place without actually placing it down with his hands. In fact, just standing there at the edge of the water he was able to set dirt in a radius around him, one after the other but very rapidly, and a few paces out. Standing there, he was able to feel the range he could set things out from, as beyond that point he could not fasten dirt.

Walking slowly out onto the dirt he'd set on top of the water, he tested his range, and after a few moments, had a good idea of how far out he could set things without touching them. He was feeling something different... this was certainly strange but he wasn't afraid. In fact, a part of him felt... powerful. I can build things just by thinking about it... He wasn't sure what else he was capable of, but this... this was... awesome.

Experimenting further he realized that within his radius, which seemed to be a globe surrounding him, he was able to fasten a chunk of dirt wherever he wanted, so long as it was attached to something else. He'd tried a few times to fasten dirt to the air, as he'd seen the floating island, but had no luck with that. Whatever made it float was beyond his ability to reproduce. Unfortunately he couldn't remove dirt just by thinking about it, he still had to use the pickaxe, but even what he 'was' capable of encouraged his sudden feeling of power.

I can build with a thought. In a world that has done nothing but attempt to destroy me since I woke up here, I have the power to create things, and build up structures just by thinking about it... it was a staggering realization, and he found that he was less wary of the unknown than he'd been even moments before. What else could he do... He was suddenly eager to learn, eager to continue experimenting with his abilities, for that's what he realized they were.

He'd spent so much time bemoaning the situation he'd found himself in, and had somehow not acknowledged the power he had to control his fate. An impulse hit him. When he struck something with his pickaxe, he could tell how much further the material behind it went. But he vaguely recalled simply touching a stack of iron and knowing the same thing. Now he tried just feeling the material, within his radius... and it worked.

Just reaching out with his mind, in a way that he could not have possibly described had he not just spent the time fastening things without touching them, but in somewhat the same way, he could feel how thick a wall was, and with this, he could tell that the walls around him were all incredibly thick. There was something else though... feeling the walls this way, he could tell what kind of material the wall contained, even if he couldn't see it, all within his radius.

As he moved across the surface of the water, fastening dirt to cover the rest of it as he did, he noticed something strange. As he moved further from the light, he could no longer feel the thickness of the walls, and in fact, was only able to discern as much as he could visually. Pulling a torch out, he was able to discern the thickness of the walls once more... somehow, this ability was tied to the light. Analyzing the logic of his ability to see without seeing when the light was less present was beyond his interest at the moment. And he just accepted it. Even that little change, where he could see something strange, and just accept it... was beautiful in a way he couldn't describe.

After he finished covering the water, for no other reason than because he could, he decided to try out the extent of his new found ability. Building up from the dirt he'd just set in place he fastened together a platform of dirt at about chest level, held up by a single column of dirt. Walking around it, he was strangely uncomfortable with the amount of dirt supported by the single column. With an irrational excitement laced with discomfort, he decided to try climbing onto the platform, and crouched there on the dirt he'd just set in place, heart racing, he felt like he was on top of the world.

Standing on his platform, that by all means should not have been able to support him, he decided to take it a step further. Building out from his platform, and then up to chest level again, still using no more than a single column of dirt, he built another platform, and the amount of dirt in the air over that first column was now just ridiculous, but the whole thing held. He might not have been able to set dirt in the air... Looking at the platform before him... he decided to try something.

Taking his pickaxe out, he removed the chunk of dirt connecting his platform the the platform he'd just built and braced for the assumed collapse... that never came. His heart racing at what he was doing, he continued removing dirt along the column until he was left with a platform suspended in the air at chest level. Recklessly curious, he pushed against the platform, expecting it to possibly sway... or bob... or something... but it didn't move. It was as firmly fastened in the air, as if it had been attached to something. As firm as the floating land mass from before.

Hell, why not... he thought, as he climbed up onto it. It held, and he was now high enough up that he was able to use his sword to remove the cobwebs from the ceiling. Twelve individual pieces of cobweb later, and he carefully climbed down from the platforms, removing them as he did, as why leave behind this dirt when he could do such amazing things with it. Standing on the dirt he'd covered the water with, he really tried to consider what he'd just done.

"Probably not the best place for contemplation," a low voice he didn't recognize said from somewhere behind him.

Turning quickly, pulling his sword out as he did, he looked around for the source, and found nobody.

"Put that stupid thing away. If I'd wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already. I've been watching you for some time now, and you're not particularly careful of your surroundings," the voice informed him. Doing nothing to calm his alarm, and suddenly racing heart. Powerful... HA! There's still so much I don't know... Like where the heck is... "Show yourself then!" he tried shouting above the pounding in his chest.

"I think not," was the reply, once more behind him, "People tend to react badly when I show myself, so you're just going to have to listen to me for now," it finished, moving behind him as he turned frantically trying to find the source. There weren't enough shadows for a person to hide in here... where was he, and how was he staying behind him?!

"Normally I'd be more careful, take my time, work subtly from the shadows... but I don't know how much time I've got, and there's no telling what changes are coming," the voice that no matter where he looked he could not find rattled on, "well... that's not entirely true. I was able to glean a little from the Preview... but it was short lived, and there's no telling how much I've misviewed."

"Who are you?" he tried, shaking, all the power he'd just felt seeping out of him faster than it had come. What good was building dirt platforms against someone he couldn't even see. Hell... what good was building dirt platforms in defending himself at all. He'd been foolish to let himself think anything had changed.

"Doesn't matter," the voice informed him.

"What do you want?" he asked instead.

"For starters, stop asking questions. I'm not going to answer them, and you're not going anywhere until you've finished hearing me out, so the less you talk, the sooner you can leave," the voice answered.

He wasn't sure how to respond, or even if he should... but he wasn't given a lot of time to worry over it.

"First thing's first, stop being stupid," the voice instructed him.

Great... now I'm being insulted by a mysterious voice, he thought to himself. He was still afraid... but under that, and slowly burning, was anger. Enough that he snapped out, "What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is, your refusal to accommodate the bringing of others into the world is both futile, and ignorant. Do you really think you're powerful enough to pull and bind someone to this reality against their will? I'm not that powerful, and I'm a fair sight more skilled than you are. The world will have it's way, no matter what you choose to do. It is better to work with it, than against it... trust me on that..." the voice decided to answer his question, fading off a little at the end.

He didn't trust it. But he also realized that standing there jumping every time the voice spoke up wasn't accomplishing anything, so he 'did' put his sword up, and then stood with his back to the wall. The voice still sounded like it was behind him.

"Second thing, stop dying. I mean... I know tonight you're probably toast, but if you hope to keep yourself from being completely corrupted, it would help if you kept yourself alive."

"Wait," he interrupted, pulling his sword back out, "what do you mean tonight... What's going to happen tonight?" he asked, his heart racing, stomach souring as he spoke.

"It's a Blood Moon tonight, and while you may be capable of defending yourself from the walking dead, when I turn... well... let's just say I don't favor your chances against me. I'd love to just head out to the other side of the world and hope I don't find you... but I figure coming to talk to you was more important than keeping you alive tonight," the voice answered him again.

"What do you mean when you turn?" he shouted, considering his options. He could run for it, but if this guy was as powerful as he claimed...

"That's not important... not right now at any rate. The last thing I need to tell you is this," the voice responded, going on as if it hadn't just threatened his life, "The magic of this world may be working through you, but just as by dying you give in to the corruption, you can give in more to the world by finding Life Crystals."

"Life Crystals?" he stammered out, he should just run... at least then he'd have a chance... even if it was futile... he didn't want to die.

A flash of purple light caused him to jump, and when it dissipated, there was a deep red stone shape sitting in the middle of the dirt where the water had been. Afraid to move towards it, for fear that it may be a trap, he instead asked, "What is that?" as he slowly stepped sideways towards the tunnel leading up.

"That, is a Crystal Heart. Within it is a Life Crystal, which will allow you to accept more of the lands power. This will enable to you stay out longer before you need rest, and should keep you from falling as quickly as you currently do. And stop moving towards the exit," the voice said as something hit him in an explosion of purple light from behind, throwing him forward towards the 'heart' and causing him intense pain in the process.

"Graaahhhhh!" he articulated his enjoyment of the assault.

Grabbing onto the red stone shape to balance himself, he was shocked by warmth pulsing from it. In the moment his hands settled on the surface, a ring of light shot up from the base of the shape, within the red stone, and caused the entire thing to shimmer with a soft light. He could feel every pulse reverberate through him, and for a few moments, he was lost in the sensation.

With each ring of light, he felt as if he could see something more, something beyond himself. It was as if by touching this stone, he was connected to... Everything. The stone and dirt around him, the water beneath, trees, slimes, even the walking dead... he could feel it all... and for a moment, he was in danger of losing himself in the vastness of it all.

Beneath everything though, there was a... sickness. Something that 'should not have been' but was. Something corrupt in the oneness of the land. And even just seeing it, however it was that he was doing this, made him ill. It was as if he could feel the wrongness eroding away at him, at everything. And the more he could feel it, the more it seemed to wear away at him, and for a fleeting moment, he could feel something else...

Another burst of purple light and he was thrown back from the stone, severing his connection to the land and saving him from the wave of wrongness that had begun to build up and head his way. Lying in the dirt, it took his mind a few minutes to reconcile his meek and inconsequential body.

"The barrier is too thin..." the voice informed him, "that should not have happened, not yet in any event. Not ever if you're lucky."

"What..." he tried out his voice, managing little more than a low murmur, the inadequacy of his whole being crushing his psyche.

"The change is here..." the voice answered, having heard him after all, "You are in luck, it seems that you aren't to die tonight after all. I can already feel it taking shape..."

He couldn't muster up the energy to care, let alone move. He was nothing...

"Take your hammer to the Crystal Heart," the voice instructed him.

"It doesn't matter," he tried informing the voice. How could he have believed that any of it mattered? That wrongness... it was so vast. It would consume everything, and nothing he did would change that. He was little more than an insect in its path, and it would consume him without ever knowing that he was even there.

"Get up!" the voice yelled at him, "Take your hammer to the Crystal Heart, you don't have a lot of time, and you need to stabilize yourself before the change."

He lifted his head, still lying on his back and looked down towards the red stone... heart? Sure, it could be. The ring of light pulsed steadily from its base, and up through it. It 'did' seem to pulse with a life of its own... almost like a heart... But it still didn't matter.

That's right, it's futile, lie here and the change will come as it is meant to come... he thought, or was that him, he was having a hard time concentrating, and everything around him seemed to reverberate as if the very land was overlapping itself. A low thrumming was beginning to build in the air. It was not unlike the feeling of standing near the workbench, but on a much larger scale.

A pair of hands pulled him to his feet, hands that belonged to a body he could not see. These same hands unceremoniously shoved him towards the 'heart' as a voice he could hardly hear seemed to yell from an impossible distance, almost fully drowned out by the thrumming, "....b..re..a..k.. th...e.. h...e...ar...t..."

Standing on dirt, no... stone... was there water at his feet... where had all that ice come from.... he pulled his pickaxe from his pouches... no, it was his hammer... what was he doing again... Looking up, he saw the heart, the only thing not doubled in his vision, beating a slow pulse in tune with... something... everything... and like a drowning man grasping desperately for something that would float... anything, he reached out for it, and knew what he had to do.

He could feel his hammer as if it was an extension of himself. It wasn't just a tool... it was him, he was the tool, and though a small voice tried to convince him that he was wasting his time, a stronger sense told him to do this. He reached out towards the heart, with his hammer, with himself... and he could feel the life within. Arm raised, he brought the hammer down, and as the wood came in contact with the heart, the entire world fell apart around him.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

The sun was incredibly hot. He knew this wasn't news to anyone... but it was all he had to observe at the moment. There wasn't a lot to look at in the desert. They'd been walking for most of the day, and as Tam and Perinque had been understandably distracted the last time they'd crossed it, there was no telling how much further they had to go. Just over the next hill... it's got to be... he tried encouraging himself. It didn't work.

Even out here in the direct sunlight, Perinque's shadows seemed to move just a moment after she did. And with that cloth covering her entire body, it was hard to make out hear features due to that. It was almost like there was a 'Shadow Version' of her that was ever so slightly slower than she was. He'd given up trying to talk to her about it, but in this barren waste, he couldn't keep himself from pondering it once more.

"We're almost there!" Tam said as soon as he reappeared, excitement clear in his voice. He'd been scouting ahead, teleporting to the top, of the hills whenever they came upon a larger one, and the confirmation of his idle hope was enough to stir his flagging spirits. Change is coming, the voice informed him, just in case he'd forgotten since the last time it had said as much.

"Did you look to see if anyone else was around?" Perinque asked.

"Yes and No," Tam responded.

"Wait... yes you looked, and no there isn't anyone there? Or you only sort of looked?" she followed up.

"Once more, Yes and No," he smirked as he answered.

Lunging towards Tam, Perinque found herself grasping at the air as he stood laughing a little ways up the hill. He was getting better at teleporting with short notice.

"There's nobody there, at least, nobody outside," he answered through his laughter.

"Well, shall we go check it out then?" he tried talking over the voice that was once more informing him, Change is Coming.

Giving Tam a look that warned of a retort later, Perinque started up the hill, leaving the two of them to catch up.

"Hey, Tam," he said before his friend magicked himself away.

Turning to look back at him, Tam responded, "What's up?"

He'd been thinking about how to broach this in a way that didn't call his sanity into question, so he attempted, "Have you ever come across anything that you couldn't see, but that you could still hear while you've been working on your magic?"

"Like something invisible?" Tam asked, suddenly seeming a little defensive... which was a bit strange.

"No..." he was suddenly a little reluctant to continue, "or maybe... I was more thinking like..." he really didn't want to start this conversation, but he'd already begun, "like... voices," he ended, knowing how it sounded.

His friend gave him a strange look, as if he were thinking something, but not ready to discuss it. He knew how it sounded, he should have never asked, maybe he could change the topic...

"When?" Tam asked him, clearly wary now, "When are you talking about?"

"No time in particular," he stammered out, "I was just wondering, you know, hot, tired, maybe dehydrated, I should probably have another glowing mushroom..." he tried deflecting, lamely even to himself.

"You two coming?!" Perinque shouted down.

Tam gave him a searching look, before teleporting up beyond Perinque, "Just waiting on you!" he answered her with a laugh.

Change is coming. The voice told him as he started up towards his friends... He knew, and he didn't like it.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 24: An Introduction of Course


"Dear friends and family, we are gathered here today..."

I was too excited to follow everything he was saying. I knew that this was the moment, the time where all my attention should be on my future, but beyond just my excitement, that strange headache that had been following me for the past few weeks was worse now than it had been in some time. I could only hope that it wasn't showing on my face how much pain I was actually in... but if this were any other day, I probably wouldn't have even left the house. As it stood, it was getting more and more difficult to focus on what was going on around me. I was honestly afraid I'd miss my cue, and we'd run through rehearsal at least a dozen times already...

"...let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your soul. Fill each others'...

Were the lights suddenly getting brighter? I couldn't tell... but they certainly seemed brighter. Somehow I managed to stumble through the reading of my vows. It was a good thing we'd decided to bring the written vows with us. I know this was a favor to me, but without that paper, there was no way I could have made it through them. What was that ringing noise?

"the wearing of the rings is a visible..."

We had our rings... this was really happening. It had begun to feel like we'd never make it to this day, but here it was... and it was incredibly hot in here...

"Do you Johnathan Riley, take..."

Here it was! The moment that mattered... and I could hardly breathe... I needed to make it... just a little longer....

"I do."

Wait! No! We have to finish this! Where is everyone going!? I tried reaching out... grabbing a hold of something... anything, but it was as if everything had turned into mist around me, and no matter how I screamed, nobody could hear me. The world, the mist, scattered, and everything faded into darkness.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

As sound slowly began creeping back into my awareness, I was having trouble remembering where I was. Why does everything seem so... foggy? It was hard to focus... Why am I lying on the ground? I was uncomfortable, and something... something important had just happened... What time is it? I tried opening my eyes... It's so bright!

As my vision swam back into focus, slower than I would have liked, I tried to make sense of the figure standing above me. Tousled brown hair with an incredible cowlick... no, that wasn't quite accurate, maybe a 'cow munch'? It was as if a cow had come to graze upon his hair and ended up raking his teeth through it instead. This wild hair framed an unnervingly plain face, with pearly purple eyes that seemed to cut into me with an almost surgical precision.

"Who..." I was having a hard time putting words together.

A small smile that was gone before it even had time to settle brushed the guy's face and his blue? eyes softened as he visibly slouched while still standing over me.

"I'm called Guile," he answered my incomplete question.

"I'm Kathryn, Where..." three words! I was on a roll! Thinking was still difficult however, and sitting up was beyond me, but I was gaining feeling back in my hands and feet. That had to be good.

"Terraria," he answered... which didn't really help me.

"Why can't I..." maybe if I tried again I could sit up this time...

"It will take some time for your memory, or what remains of it, to settle. Until then, you should probably take shelter here," he responded, gesturing as he did, behind him.

I decided to make the effort, and found that my body 'was' in fact ready to return to operation. Sitting up it turned out wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be, and while the entire world was a swirling mass of colors for a moment, everything cleared and I saw a small wooden structure with a wooden door and a hole neatly cut into the wall beside that. Wait, what was wrong with my memory?

Looking around I realized that the guy wasn't there any longer. He was right in front of me, where did he go?

Looking down at myself, I wondered for a moment at the white dress I was wearing. Simple, unadorned, but it still carried an air of quality workmanship. Why was I wearing... Oh God! Johnathan! My wedding, our wedding, where was I? Where was he? Getting to my feet, I was worried for a moment that my legs would not support me. Thankfully I was wrong in this case, but I was no nearer to figuring out what was going on. Heart racing, fear guiding my actions over logic, I stumbled over to the door in the hope that perhaps I'd find him or the strange guy within.

Pushing the door open, I looked around the inside of the small structure and found nothing more then a small stool on the left, a two chairs against the back wall, and a large blocky stone fireplace in the middle of the room. I checked behind the oven just in case, but beside a torch attached to the wall, there was nothing else in the sterile little structure. Going back outside, I looked around me to see if someone was outside, or maybe if there was some kind of landmark that would tell me where I was.

I was on top of a small plateau with a clear view of the surrounding landscape. But aside from a few sparse trees out in front of the structure that butted against another small rise in the earth, the rest of the landscape had little to no defining features in that direction. To the left of the structure, the land rolled and rose into a series of grassy plateaus, and eventually gave way to mountains in the distance. To the right, the land rolled down to a series of watery rivulets that eventually ran into a thick leafy overgrowth. Where am I? Wherever I was, standing here wasn't going to help me figure it out, but there was nothing to head for...

"Lost?" the voice of the strange guy broke into my frantic thoughts.

"Where am I?" I shouted, whirling around to face him, my panic overshadowing the faint fear that his sudden reappearance inspired.

"I've answered that question already. You are in Terraria," he answered simply.

"Where is that? Have you seen Johnathan? How did I get here? Where is everybody?" I jumbled all my questions out, each on as important as the last.

"It's a world apart from the world you've come from; I may have, but he did not introduce himself as such if so; You were summoned by the magic of the earth; and without clarification, I cannot answer that," he rattled out in answer to my questions.

Focusing on the question that was most important at the moment, and discarding the ridiculous answers about other worlds and magic, I pushed, "You may have seen Johnathan? What do you mean by that? Where is he? Is he okay? Can you take me to him?"

"Yes, Exactly as I said, I don't know, I don't know, and No," he once more listed off his answers, "And it would make the conversation easier on the both of us if you didn't bundle all your questions together," he added with an infuriating smirk on his lips.

Trying to calm myself for a moment, I looked him over. Grey long sleeve shirt, and blue pants, made of a thick material I didn't recognize above brown hide boots. If nothing else could be said about him, it was obvious he took meticulous care of his clothing. The outfit could have been brand new, or freshly washed. Somehow this attention to his appearance seemed to fit him in a way I could not identify.

"Listen, I don't know how I got here, the last thing I remember I was at my wedding. The next thing I know I'm waking up on the ground with you..." suddenly the fact that I was alone in the middle of nowhere with a strange guy hit me like a physical blow and I could feel the blood draining from my face as my gut tied itself into a rather taut knot, "... you... uhhh..." looking around I realized that there was nothing I could use to defend myself with... I could run... taking a step away from the guy, I tried to say something that would rapidly excuse me, "... know what, I'm okay.... finding my way back." I said as I continued backing away.

"That will be a rather difficult endeavor on your own," he replied, thankfully not moving to follow me.

"I'll be okay," I answered him, "Just uhh... point out the nearest road, and I'll figure it out."

His face seemed to lose what little feature it had as his eyes focused on something that must have been an impossible distance away. I watched strangely entranced as the color of his eyes appeared to change, going from blue, to an almost luminescent purple, before coming back to blue as his focus returned with the rest of his features.

Raising his arm to point towards the marshy area, he informed me, "The closest road is in that direction, just barely. Though it may be difficult to reach it as not only will you have to cross the jungle, and an ocean, but there is an encampment of goblins between us and the road. You could of course..."

"AN OCEAN!" I yelled at him, all my fear forgotten for a moment in my anger and disbelief, "How did you get me across an Ocean!" I added, ignoring for the moment his racial slur against whatever group goblins were supposed to be.

"I did not," he replied calmly, "It was the magic of the world that brought you here, not I."

I was close to losing it. I was afraid, I was angry, and I was lost with a crazy person who had probably drugged me and brought me out to the middle of nowhere for who knows what reason... and I had to find Johnathan, he could be hurt. I don't know why I felt that, but I did. As if there was something wrong with... the guy.

Looking at him, I could tell that there was something very wrong with him. Not something physical, he looked sound of body, but something else... something I had no words for, and it left me feeling like I wanted to run and hide, to cower from that which I couldn't see... I felt for a moment like a child left alone in the night as the things from under the bed made dark promises below me. It left me with a chill that overrode the fear and anger I was feeling.

"You are quicker to your role than the builder was," he rattled out, "though you cannot possibly hope to heal what ails me," he added, radiating a deep sadness that so starkly contrasted whatever it was that I felt from him that I was thrown off balance for the heartbeat that it was there before he once more took control of his features.

Putting my hand to my head in an attempt at... I wasn't even sure what I wanted to accomplish, but this was too much... In only a few minutes I'd run through the gamut of emotions, and I was no closer to figuring out what was going on than I'd been when I first awoke. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath in an attempt at calming myself, I tried reasoning things out.

If this guy really has kidnapped me for some horrific reason, why would he answer my questions? Is he playing some kind of game with me? What other reasonable reason could I have to be out in the middle of nowhere with my memories clouded? And why is he talking about such ridiculousness as magic and alternate worlds if he isn't crazy? Where was I going to go from here? I needed a plan.

Opening my eyes, I was startled to realize that the guy had left while I was sitting there with my eyes closed. Great... he could be anywhere, I thought, but it didn't matter. If he was playing some sick game, standing here fretting about it wouldn't get me any closer to safety. What was it he wanted me to do? Stay in this structure? Well that's off the list... it was strange though... I felt like I should stay in that building, and I couldn't say why.

Regardless, if that's what that guy wanted, that was precisely what I wasn't going to do. I needed to figure out where I was first... I decided that I wasn't going to head out towards the marshy lands he'd indicated either. I needed to find some marker to indicate where I was, and then I could plan out a little further. The problem was, I could see for quite a ways in every direction, and there was nothing, nothing at all besides wilderness as far as I could see. And while any direction I went theoretically could be taking me back towards humanity, it could also take me further out into the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a 'good' option here.

I wasn't going to get anywhere just standing here though, so decided to set off behind the little building. I could see something standing impossibly tall in that direction, and while I didn't think that anything could be gained from it's even higher vantage, I figured that something like that might attract people, so it was as good a place to start towards as any. Carefully, I began to descend the side of the plateau towards what looked like a small canyon. It's a good thing I like hiking...

----------​

Looking out over the dunes, I realized with a shock that I kind of missed the little lake I'd had before. The world had changed more than once in a relatively short amount of time after this Preview. It had been... quite some time since the last change, and I'd almost stopped expecting it... almost. He knew the changes were coming, which meant that in some way, I knew as well... but I tried not to let our thoughts overlap too often.

He begins in earnest, my Master informed me. Not that this was a particularly useful revelation, as it would probably be some time before he made it out my way... but it was good to know 'something' was finally happening again. I wondered briefly at what foolish notions 'this' one would harbor. Oh, to be young again... I watched the sand fountains as the antlions played their bizarre games in the dunes, and the sand brought back memories of another time I'd had the desert before me...

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

"Checkmate!" I shouted as I snapped the small bone figure down triumphantly, "You're not that good at Chess!" I informed the skeleton sitting across from me.

Shaking its skull, the bone guy stood up and wandered off, articulating 'something' with its arms as it did. A few other bone guys were waiting for him and they wandered off together.

That was not very polite... my master informed me.

"Yeah, yeah... I know, but you said they had someone who could beat me," I told him, "I was just letting him know he wasn't as good as he thought he was. It's true!" I defended myself.

True or not, you should work on your gamesmanship he responded, or they are going to tire of your company. They do not have to spend time with you, they do this as a favor to me. Your role does not require their attention, he added.

"Okay... I'm sorry," I said, dropping my head. He was right. It would be pretty boring around here if everyone started avoiding me. "Hey," something occurred to me, "What do they do when I'm not around?" And then I focused on my master's presence within me. I couldn't tell if he knew I could sometimes see more than he told me, but if I focused just right...

A brief flash of empty corridors... no, not empty, the floors were littered with bones, sometimes in stacks, sometimes just spread out, but nothing was happening, just a brief flash of this, and then master answered, They enjoy themselves when you are not around. Do not worry about the leisure of the dead, as you have quite some time before that becomes a concern of yours.

He was right of course. From what he'd told me, I was going to be here for a long... long time. It wasn't that long ago that I had wandered into the strange blue bricked building, but I was okay with the way things were now. Master saved me from the Guardian, and has been with me ever since. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him, in my head.

I didn't remember anything about where I came from, and master assures me that it's for the better. Apparently he knew something but whenever I asked, the only images I could gleam were of me lying in a dirty room wearing dingy clothing while covered in blood. I was reluctant to ask him about it, as I didn't want him to know I could see more than he said.

I'd tried asking his name on a few occasions, but he always told me, I am your master. That is all you need to know. So I just called him master. It was good enough. He'd never asked my name, and only referred to me as Servant. It didn't bother me though. I wasn't very good with names anyway, at least... I didn't feel like I was.

I could feel master's presence expand... that typically meant he was doing something that I would have to... There are visitors approaching. We must return to the surface he said, like I knew he would. Wait, Visitors? We hadn't ever had those. Normally it was zombies making a mess during the blood moon. Excited, I looked around for a caster, and right on cue one of them wandered into the room.

Rushing over to him, he held his hands up to keep me from plowing into him, which wasn't fair because I hadn't done that in a while. He waited while I calmed myself before taking hold of my shoulder and teleporting us to the top of the stairwell. Rushing up the last few steps while he teleported back, I ran through the door and crashed into someone who was standing on the other side.

----------​

"Stay here for a moment," Perinque motioned to the two of us as she approached the door set in the face of the structure, "I'll look around inside and call you when I'm sure it's safe."

She'd been doing this the entire trip, ever since the discovery that he was no longer able to build. To here thinking, there was no telling if he had lost even more, and perhaps the next time he fell it'd be his last. As much as he wanted to argue, between the voice, and the absoluteness of his loss, he didn't. Your safety is guaranteed until I am through with you, the voice informed him, which was a few more words than it had said in a couple of days.

"What's the matter?" Tam asked him as Perinque began walking down the blue brick covered approach to the large structure.

Jumping at the question, for a moment he thought that perhaps Tam had heard the voice, but realizing that his friend was probably just reading him as he was want to do, he responded, "Nothing... I just.. don't like being treated like I can't take care of myself, you know?" as he attempted to squash the grimace he was wearing.

"Heh, don't worry about it. She's always been like that. You're just upset because she might be right," Tam informed him, "Before, you'd have just ignored her and gotten into an argument. So me, I like this better," he added.

He wasn't actually afraid that he wouldn't come back the next time he fell... he was more worried about what would come back with him. That voice...

"So hey," Tam interrupted his thoughts, "What were you going on about earlier? You know, voices and stuff. Did you..." here his friend gave him a strange searching look, "hear something... or you know... think you heard something?"

He knew that his expression probably revealed the lie, but he couldn't worry his friends any more than they already were, "No... I was... just, making conversation. Now that I can't build things like I used to, I figured I'd learn a little more about the kind of magic you use," he answered lamely.

It was clear that Tam didn't believe him, but thankfully his friend seemed like he wasn't going to push it, "Okay... but if you do, you know... think you hear something... I..." he glanced furtively at the door Perinque had just disappeared behind before finishing in a rush, "I've been working on an invisibility potion," he blurted out.

Eyes wide, he suddenly realized why Tam had responded the way he did when he asked and relief surged through him, "That must have been it then," he lied, almost slumping in his relief, "I just didn't want you to think I was losing it," he added for good measure.

"No, I'd never think that," his friend assured him, his ready smile back, "I know you're too far gone to lose any more," he ended with a laugh.

"There's nobody here," Perinque called out from the doorway gesturing them towards her when they looked over, "But there is a staircase going further down, we should probably- Ooof!" she was interrupted as the door flew open and a small figure crashed into her.

Perinque was terrifyingly fast. In the brief second that it took her to realize something had hit her, she was already turned around and holding whatever it was with one hand as she brandished her spear in the other. But as quick as she was, the small figure was faster. She hardly had time, even with all of her surprising speed, to fully brandish her spear before she was sent flying backwards towards them by an unseen force.

"Wait!" a small voice erupted from the figure in the doorway, "Stop!" the young boy shouted with his hands up in as if to ward them away.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 25: A Whole New World

Breathing... he had breathing back. That was good. He took a deep breath and released it, simply enjoyed the sensation of air coursing through his lungs. Feeling? Was that the ground beneath him? He tried moving something... no? Too soon. He went back to breathing. "....b..re..a..k.. th...e.. h...e...ar...t..." the words still echoed in the... darkness? Where was this?

*Inhale*

How long had he been out? Where was he now? What was that noise? These were all likely very important questions. But all he knew was that breathing was nice... It was almost as if the entire world had been held together by that heart. Hitting it brought him here... wherever here was... he could hear dark whispering at the corner of his consciousness... but it was muted, as if coming from a great distance, or passing through a buffer...

*Exhale*

He tried opening his eyes... nope. Even though he could feel the warmth of the Sun on his face, it was still too early for that. He continued to breathe... The whispers, they were gone... Who? He was alone, but something... else... was nearby. He could feel it, but it was just out of reach. Maybe if he stretched towards it...

*Inhale*

He tried to focus. He was having a hard time... thinking... It was all around him. It was immense. It was alive. He could feel it's pulse... through the Heart! He could feel the heart... but what was he supposed to do with it? Why was he so certain he should...

*Exhale*

Something ran across his chest... wait, he had a chest! He tried to open his eyes again... and the light was incredible... he closed his eyes. That could wait.... It, the big It has something to do with the heart... but he could feel it pulling away... no it was being pushed... he reached out to stop it from leaving...

*Inhale*

If he had a chest, he should have arms... hands... he pulled himself to a hunched sitting position, his face in his hands. Progress... He could almost hear the whispering again, but the heart... he could reach out with the heart... no through the heart... he held it up, offered it up... It responded.

*Exhale*

He risked opening his eyes once more, and though the light was still intense, he could handle it... or at least the reflected light glaring up from the dew dampened grass. His thoughts were slowly catching up with him... He could feel himself pulled into It... pulled from the claws of something that faded as soon as it lost its grip on him. It had him now, and he was... not safe... but... Alive.

*Inhale*

He stood up, and squinted around. As he rose, the haze fell off of him like a half forgotten dream, and between one breath and the next, he felt as good as if he'd just awoken from a quiet nap following an uneventful day. He could feel it now, it wasn't just around him anymore. It was a part of him... and this was good.

*Exhale*

He looked around at where he had awoken. Somehow he'd gone from the cave, back above ground... but where? He realized that the dampness of the grass was actually due to the standing water all around him, and not morning dew like he'd assumed. He thankfully had not been laid in the water, but the ground all around him was damp, and though his haze had faded, his head was beginning to ache.

Guile probably brought me out here... he thought to himself. Either Guile or that voice... whoever it was. Still, he wasn't sure where here was. He was standing on a small outcropping of a rather steep hill that extended higher above him than any of the hills near his little home, and below him the water made an almost marshy soup of the grass below... So perhaps he was on the other side of the broken earth.

Deciding that he'd have a better view atop the hill than he had from where he currently was, he began finding his way up the face of the hill. As he made his way up, he was particularly distracted with the terrain around him. Even facing the hill, he felt like he could still feel the sparsely treed area below him with the watery earth, and with every movement, he could feel more of the area above him, in so much that he knew before topping the hill that there was a wooden structure on the crest.

Frowning at the structure he was accosted by two confusing sensations. The first, that he 'knew' this structure in fact, he had built it, contrasted the terrain where he found it. This 'looked' like the small structure he'd first built... but this wasn't where he'd built it... The second sensation was an awareness of what was inside the structure. Not just in a remembered way, but as if he could sense the inside of the structure the same way he could sense the terrain around him... and all these conflicting sensations were rapidly overwhelming him...

"Gah!" he fell to his knees and closing his eyes with hands pressed to his eyes, tried to STOP sensing everything around him. For a brief moment it was significantly worse, it was as if he were even More aware, followed by a moment of... he didn't know how to properly articulate it even to himself, but for a moment he felt as if sitting there with his eyes closed, he could see the terrain around him as if from... above? And then blissfully it stopped, and unless he reached out in the way he'd learned to do below ground, he didn't see everything around him until he was actually looking at it.

He sat there cradling his head for a moment more and tried to rationalize what he was seeing... before laughing at himself. I can see things without looking at them, I have a pouch on my side that carries a seemingly limitless amount of material, I can build platforms of dirt that levitate in the air, without even needing to touch it... and I'm trying to rationalize how a building I almost literally threw together could possibly be somewhere other than where I'd originally built it? He couldn't help it, his laughter only deepened at the ridiculousness of his concern.

Standing back up, he shook his head as his laughter petered off and decided to check the structure out. Pulling a mushroom out, that did thankfully wash away the dull ache remaining to him, he went inside.

His first initial reaction to the room before him was surprise, followed by a brief throb in his skull. What happened to the oven? The room was as he left it, which given its location was strange, but even stranger was the shape of the oven before him. It still sat near to the center of the room, and it still projected a very noticeable heat... but it looked completely different. For a moment he felt like he could see the oven doubled, with the blocky furnace superimposed over a round oven... before his vision snapped back, and a gentle throbbing behind his eyes was all that remained of the momentary overlap.

It bothered him not just because it was different... but because a small part of him didn't feel like anything had changed. It was as if what he felt was directly opposed to what he could see... and that bothered him. This is stupid. He didn't want to stand around trying to figure this out. In fact, he didn't really want to stand around Guile's little building any longer than he had to. He'd been lucky enough not to run into his guide so far, and he had no interest in changing that luck. Walking back outside, he decided to take this opportunity to look around from this new vantage.

It had all changed. The terrain was similar... in some ways, but it was obviously not the same place he'd been before, and not just because the house was on top of a small plateau. A selection of plateaus where rolling hills had been before, sparse trees where the wood had been thicker, and the jagged terrain behind the building was replaced by a large simple ravine, with a tall tower of some kind in the distance. And it was more than just that... where before the earth had appeared rough, and almost haphazardly hewn... it now seemed as it if had been crafted by a more experienced hand.

Shaking the notion, he decided to try and find his little structure by heading out from Guile's in the same direction he would have gone before, hoping as he did that it hadn't moved in relation... if it was even here. He refused to let the fact that the entire world had just changed shape around him. For all he knew, this would happen every few days, and so he would need to get used to it. Not only that, but he'd been unharmed in the change, and in fact, felt better than he had since he'd first awoken. It was hard to put into words... but he just felt... better.

Heading back down the sheer face, he carefully picked his way through the muddy grass to the much flatter sparsely wooded area, taking care to avoid the slimes bouncing through. Heading in what he thought was the right direction, he continued on long enough that he was beginning to think he'd either gone the wrong way, or that his little structure wasn't here. Just as he was about to head back and try again, he saw a small flicker of 'something' off to the side. Looking closer he realized that it was a torch, set in the ground, right before a large dip in the earth. Walking over to it he was pleased to see a door, set into a wooden paneled wall, that seemed built into the face of the earth below him.

Smiling as he climbed down, he was pleased up until the moment he opened the door. He stood there unable to summon words for what he found within.

"Get Out!" he yelled at the interloper in a sputtering rage.

"Why it's so nice to see you again as well," Guile answered his anger with no more notice than ever, "though I must admit-"

"I said get out!" he yelled interrupting his guide, anger overriding his common sense and self-preservation for the moment.

This one space was his only respite from all the crazy he had to deal with in this place, and now, after having the very ground itself up and change around on him, he had come here looking to take advantage of that respite... only to discover it befouled by Guile. It was too much, and his frustration only fueled the rage he felt at this trespass.

Frowning at him, Guile asked, "And why should I do that?"

Dumbfounded by the ridiculous question, he hollered back, "You HAVE a place of your own! You TRICKED me into building it for you! Go there! Leave MY space alone!" he raged, ashamed at the hint of a whine audible even to his own ears, but too angry to truly care.

Replying for all the world as if they were merely enjoying a pleasant conversation, Guile responded, "This is my housing."

He felt his eyes were in danger of ejecting themselves from his skull so wide was his gaze, and his brows had certainly found a new home amidst the ruins of his hair. For a moment, he could not articulate a response and he just stood there shuddering, exhaling incoherent noises in his rage.

Guile merely stood watching him, and eventually he was able to take hold of himself enough to attempt an audible response. Preparing with a slow shuddering breath, he tried, "No..." he had to take another breath to continue, "this is MY housing. Your housing is out there on a rise in the earth. So if you would just leave me alone..."

"That housing is already occupied," Guile interrupted him.

"I was just there! There's..." he stumbled over his angry retort as the words sunk in, Already Occupied? Could there be someone else here? " ...nobody... up there..." he managed to stammer out, his thoughts reeling Could it be the gentleman? What about that voice? Is there finally someone else here who knows what's going on?

"That does not change the fact that unless they fall, the structure belongs to them, and not I," Guile informed him.

He was too excited by the prospect of having someone else, someone that wasn't Guile to talk to, to really focus on what was being said. There's someone else here... someone that isn't... a thought hit him like a rock between the eyes, and his excitement waned. "How did they get here?" he asked suspiciously.

"The magic of the world brought them here," his guide answered him obliquely.

"No..." his gut soured, and he really didn't feel like playing one of Guile's games at the moment, "What I mean is... did I do this? I haven't collected..." he quickly checked the coins in his pouch, and while he had more than he had expected, he didn't have 50 Silver Coins... "enough coins to bring someone here," he finished, remembering as he did the voice's mocking answer to the same declaration before he blacked out.

"It is not within your power to bring someone to this world," his guide replied.

Speaking out through clenched teeth, he almost spit his response, "You know what I mean! Did I do something that triggered this person being pulled to this place against their will?"

"Perhaps," Guile answered him, that rage inducing smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

"Gah!" he shouted, swinging his arm to smash his fist into the door frame behind him. "Why do you have to make every conversation so difficult!" he yelled, anger overriding the souring of his gut.

"Why do you have to ask such unnecessary questions?" Guile asked him, that unfaltering smirk still present.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to respond in a calmer fashion, "Ignoring the fact that we have completely different views of what is unnecessary, how am I supposed to know what I should or shouldn't be asking Unless, I, Ask?" he spit out.

"You have a role. Ask the questions that are related to your role," his guide responded.

"That's not good enough!" he snapped back, "I don't even know what my role is! Besides that, I've tried, and STILL you make it difficult!" he ranted.

Guile just stood there as if waiting for him to finish yelling, and he felt his anger collapse. This was not only a waste of time, but he was spending time here with Guile that he could be spending- "Who is this other person?" he tried instead.

"Kathrynn the Nurse has arrived," he was told.

"Who the what?" he answered, a little confused. Kathrynn... why do I know... his gut dropped. The well dressed gentleman had shouted her name, right before disappearing into the night. That was several days ago. There was next to no possible chance he was still alive, and now...

"Kathrynn the Nurse. She has arrived," Guile repeated, speaking as if he were talking to someone too simple to understand what he was saying.

"I heard you the first time!" he barked back.

"And yet you insisted on asking again," he was answered, "and then complained when I answered again, yet I'm the one making things difficult," Guile answered, still wearing his ever present smirk.

He shuddered with the effort of swallowing an angry retort. This wasn't going anywhere... though one thing stood out to him. He'd been yelling at Guile, and so far... his guide had not wigged out like he was prone to doing when he yelled. He didn't know what to make of it, but he was thankful for the reprise. Not that he wanted to push it. Perhaps this change had affected Guile in some serious fashion... were he only so lucky.

"Where..." he was trying to ignore Guile's snark, "is she then?"

"She has arrived."

"Forget it!" he snapped, he was done. Turning and slamming the door behind him he stomped off towards Guile's... or Kathrynn's... building. Guile can have that building.. I'll just build another one! I am done... DONE with him! he wasn't paying too much attention to where he was walking and wound up falling onto a slime on its way through.

He could feel it compress beneath his weight before it jumped, sending him stumbling backwards and knocking his head against the earth. Disoriented for a moment, he pulled his sword out and held it above him expecting a continued assault that did not occur. After a few moments, he could hear it making it's way wherever it had been going. Putting the sword back he closed his eyes and taking a deep breath, decided to lay there for a moment as he considered his next move.

Listening to the noises of the forest, he could hear the birds fighting each other in the branches, the squirrels chasing imaginary fiends across the grass, and the slimes bouncing through on their aimless pursuit of shiny things. Maybe... he knew he was treading dangerous waters... maybe I don't need to tell her about the gentleman...

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

"Who are you guys?" the kid asked, seemingly oblivious to the dangerous look he and Tam were giving him after they made sure Perinque was unhurt. Slightly confused by the seemingly innocent question from a kid that had just somehow thrown their friend several dozen feet simply by raising his hands, he introduced himself.

"Gill?" the kid asked with his eyes raised in either confusion, or maybe amusement.

"What? No..." he attempted to correct the child but-

"I like it," Tam kicked in, a small smile on his lips.

"Thanks, Tim," he retorted, not quite sure that this was an appropriate way to move this encounter forward, but not particularly surprised by his friends inappropriately timed humor.

"I can do Tim," Tam replied with a shrug.

"And you?" the kid asked Perinque, having moved on from his name before he could correct him.

She seemed to be mostly over the surprise, the child had disarmed her more than just physically, though that wasn't as surprising given her feeling towards all living things, "Perinque," she supplied with a small smile of her own.

"Pinky?" the kid asked, eyes raised, and wearing an obvious smile this time.

"Hah!" Tam laughed, shooting a quick glance at Perinque and bracing as if he were ready to move in a hurry.

She frowned, "Noo.... you're missing half of it, I said-"

"I think Pinky fits," he interrupted, knowing as he did that it was probably a bad idea to antagonize her, but deciding to enjoy this diversion.

She shot him a dangerous look, but was prevented from whatever she was about to say by the kid exclaiming, "Pinky, Tim, and Gill. Got it. I'm the Servant, or maybe just kid, whichever you guys like better."

Frowning at the strange introduction, he noticed that the kid looked up and off to the side as if he was listening to...

"Okay, okay," the kid said with a frown into the brief silence.

"Okay what?" Tam asked him, "Was that from him," he added nodding over the child's head.

A look of surprise crossed the kid's face as he quickly looked up and over his shoulder, "You can See my master?" he asked sounding excited, "What do you look like?" he asked the air above him, before concentrating on the empty space for a moment as if he were trying to see something. He then jumped, a little wide eyed and added, "Fine, okay, I'll tell them already."

He was terribly confused. Master? Servant? What was going on here? Looking over at his friends he saw his confusion mirrored on Perinque's face, but Tam seemed particularly intent on the kid.

"My master says that our fates are sealed," the child informed them in a neutral tone that did not quite fit the weight of his proclamation, "and asks why you," the kid was pointing at him, "have brought the corruption here. He doesn't sound very happy about it," he added.

Shocked, he wasn't sure how to respond, and the look his friends were giving him did nothing to ease his nerves. Confusion, and... what? "I..." he tried to defend himself, "... don't know what you're talking about."

"May I?" Tam asked the air above the boy as he raised his hand with a low white glow.

"Master says to ask me," the kid answered his question, "and my answer is sure," he added.

Tam raised his hand towards the air above the boy, but nothing happened. Looking up confused at first, a look of understanding crossed his face and he pointed instead at the boy. A white beam of light, similar to the one from the night the eye had attacked, connected Tam with the child. The kid's face glazed over before an ancient and powerful voice that had never belonged to a child could be heard, "Be welcome Mage. Be welcome Defender. Be gone Corrupted Vessel."

 

[Spyder Z]

Well that was an Adventure... Skipping a Chapter and All... >.> Here's Chapter 26.

**********​

Chapter 26: Corruption's Touch

Getting up, he continued on his way to the other structure, knowing as he did that he had no reason to expect this new person to be there, but having no idea where else to look. And what do I say when I find her? Hi, do you know how to get out of this place? Oh, by the way, some guy went running out to get eaten by zombies a few nights ago, but he said your name as he left. He's probably dead now, but don't worry about it, let's just focus on getting back to where we belong. That would go over well...

Reaching the structure, he wasn't surprised to find it empty once more. He decided that since someone else was going to be staying here though... that he should probably straighten it up a bit. Walking over to the furnace, he pulled his hammer out and struck it with the intent to move it. *Thump* Nothing. Frowning at it, he was certain Guile had told him the hammer would move the furnace, so trying to imagine the thing moving again, he swung his hammer once more. *Thump* Nothing.

Kicking the stupid thing, he shouted out at it, "What is the matter with you, stupid oven!" as he assailed it with his hammer.

*Thump, thump, thump, Wham!* his hammer slipped and knocked a tile loose from the floor, which did not improve his mood.

*Wham! Thump, thump, Thump, Wham!*

Still nothing, excepting a few more floor tiles caught up in his frustration. "Gah!" he threw the Hammer at the wall, leaving a small dent in the wood there, but not having any other effect. Guile had told him he could waste his time using his pickaxe to break the oven apart too... and for a moment he considered it, but taking a deep breath decided against it. The flame within it was incredible... and he didn't want to risk burning the structure down around him.

"Are you done with your temper tantrum?" Guile asked him from outside the building. He'd left the door open upon entering, and should not have been surprised to hear his guide, but he jumped a little nonetheless.

Walking over to pick up his hammer, and letting it return to his pouches on its own, he considered just ignoring him... but the oven not moving bothered him, so he decided to ask, "Why didn't that work?"

"Were the hammer of a more powerful material, perhaps you could have had a more notable impact on the wall. But as it's merely a Wooden Hammer..."

Shaking his head and laughing darkly in response with his eyes, fists, and teeth clenched, tears of frustration threatening to erupt, he took a deep breath and responded, "Let's pretend for a moment that you're not entirely incapable of understanding EVERY BLAMED QUESTION I ASK!" he ended up yelling.

"I do understand your questions," Guile informed him, unmoved by his outburst, "Unfortunately..." he appended.

"Why aren't you freaking out on me!?" he yelled in response, "Why do you continue to follow me around like some kind of lost puppy!?" he added, "And why doesn't the hammer work on this stupid oven!" he ended.

The room seemed to seal up around him and even the sun lost is brilliance through the openings. He could feel the hungering darkness billowing through him, and standing in the doorway was every dark dream he'd ever encountered, with a violence that cut him in ways he could not heal burning at it's core. Beside the force of that darkness, the fire of the oven was dimmed to mute glow, and even the sound of it seemed to have been buffered by the darkness. A voice that no longer threatened, or even promised, but by the simple sound of it began to fulfill its dark desires drifted lazily through the air as Guile responded, "What's the matter Fleshling... Do you truly miss my gentle caress so much..."

----------​

No! He'd managed to hold it at bay so far, but this worse than he'd experienced in quite some time. No! I refuse to submit to...

Anything else he'd wanted to shout was swallowed by the unexpected wave of change that came across them at the worst possible time. The rules of their world were disrupted, and in that moment he was thrown from himself in a way that he'd never encountered before. It was almost as if he'd fallen again... but he knew... he thought... that was impossible.

He could feel the voice as it ripped through him to speak to the builder, and beyond that... he knew that if he didn't do something... the voice would not allow him to return to stop it before... he wasn't sure before what, but he knew that this must not happen. The Builder had found a Heart Crystal, he should have been protected, but it seemed to have known the change was coming, and it was taking advantage of the temporary loosening of the rules.

----------​

He tried to move, but though he did not feel anything restraining him, he was paralyzed by the terror flooding him. It was only made worse by the knowledge that had he tried, he could have moved... but he was trapped, where could he go? Guile continued, every word he spoke peeling away at what little will he had left holding him upright.

"You have once more mistaken your role Fleshling..." he said, the darkness caressing the room carving its presence into the building and his psyche as he continued, "I have already promised you an opportunity to forfeit your life in my presence... but you seem eager to encourage my... affections," with that word, all the darkness solidified and he was no longer able to even see the building surrounding him.

A sudden flashback to the time following the zombie's assault on him in the caves that had been behind the structure came crashing over him like a wave of painful remembrance, and the voice he heard now was unmistakably the same voice he'd heard back then. He instinctively tried to cower away from Guile, whose outline he could still see a short distance away, but only managed to unbalance himself in the process. Falling, he did not immediately hit the floor that should have been at his feet and instead he seemed to simply lose contact with the ground without anything coming to take its place.

"It is a pity..." the voice seemed to originate, not from Guile, but from the very darkness surrounding him, "even now, I am still bound by the rules of this world, and the imprisonment I have been subjected to. This..." a flash of pearly purple light accompanied the emphasis of that last word and reawakened not only the memory of his time in the darkness after he had fallen... an experience that he had undoubtedly forgotten apurpose, but resonated against him in some manner, causing him to cry out in an agony that he did not believe he could endure. It was as if the light were trying to remove some crucial element of his very being, from every minute aspect of him at the same time. "does not please me."

As quickly as it came upon him the pain left with the light, leaving a memory of its passing burned into his core, even as the light slowly faded back to the blackness surrounding him. "Let it not be said that I have withheld my affections willingly Fleshling. If ever you doubt my interest in your pitiable plight, bind yourself again to the world and may my gift to you recall my interests anew," as he said this the darkness began to fade, or the shelter began to reappear, he wasn't quite sure, but even the memory of that pain kept him from focusing enough to determine which it was.

----------​

With every word it spoke, a pain the likes of which he hadn't endured since time long since lost among the forgotten memories of the world cut through him. Whatever it was doing not only defied his understanding of its presence up until this point, but seemed to cut against the rules of the world as he understood it. From the moment he first fell into the darkness to the moment he began coming back into himself, he wasn't sure if either he or the builder would survive this new assault.

As the structure slowly faded back into his vision, he could hear it speak through him with only the memory of the pain accompanying it. "One more thing before I leave you to your thus far fruitless endeavors Fleshling," it said, "Tonight my touch upon the world will be felt by all the creatures that walk beyond the reach of the sun, and you..." its voice began to fade as it ended its hold on him, "must forge your worth in the light of my moon."

A Blood Moon. The Builder was not ready. He would not survive, the Nurse would not survive. The cycle would have to begin anew. This was too soon, how... why... the fragile fragments of hope he'd found locked away shattered, and the emptiness that had defined his life reasserted itself to the low laughter of the voice, a laughter he knew only he could hear.

"Uuuuuhhhhh...." the Builder's useless moaning from the floor in the center of the room failed to capture his attention as he began picking himself up from where he'd collapsed in the doorway. He began to prepare himself for another period of solitude. None of the creatures of the land were willing to engage him when the world was without a Builder. How long would it be this time? How long had it been? Turning to leave his eye caught the crest manifested at the crown of the furnace and the broken fragments of his hope stirred almost imperceptibly.

No Builder had ever managed to manifest the Land's crest. Looking down at the tattered, almost useless figure balled up on itself on the floor, he realized that it meant something... it had to. Taking a deep ragged breath, he snapped at the Builder, "You don't have time to relax. If you want to survive the night-"
"Stop," the Builder's voice silenced him, weak as it was coming from his curled form, shaking lightly with low, but otherwise unconcealed sobs, "just stop. I don't care anymore," and as he spoke those words, the staggering depth of his desolation threatened to swallow Guile in its completeness, and the words seemed to pull at the crest, causing it to fade from the furnace...

"No!" he shouted as he reached out towards the fading crest as if he were reaching out to the last glimmer of hope left in the world, which for all he knew, may have been the truth.

"Why not!" the Builder, oblivious as usual to the goings on around him, sobbed in response, "I'm useless, I'm destined to fail, you've made that painfully clear... why. should. I. care?" he managed to get out between sobs before continuing in a softer voice, "I remember... the darkness..." before continuing his fruitless sobbing as the crest continued to fade into the bleakness of his forfeit.

----------​

It wouldn't open. I'd tried kicking it, hitting the latch with a rock and fiddling with all the limited features for some kind of hidden mechanism... but nothing I did managed to open the strange wooden chest. Frustrated, and no closer to figuring out my situation, I sat on a nearby stone and head in my hands, tried to to figure out my next move.

I'd been hiking for only a few hours at most, the sun was hardly more than halfway across the sky, but outside of this chest, and a few nearby clay pots, I'd seen nothing to indicate that people had ever been through here. This proved that someone had to have been in the area... though it could just as easily have been the strange guy as anyone else.

"You need to go back," a voice spoke from somewhere nearby.

Jumping, and tightening my grip on the stone I was still thankfully holding, I looked around for the source of the voice. It carried, somehow, a sense of great age, without sounding dilapidated. "Who's there?" I asked.

"Who I am is of no import," the voice responded, "but you are the Nurse, and he needs you now."

My stomach clenched, and a chill raced down my spine at his words. How did he know what I did for a living... "You!" I shouted, "It was you that kidnapped me!" Backing towards the wall of the overhang, I tried to locate where he was hiding so that I had at least a chance to defend myself. I considered and discarded running as I didn't know where I was and he likely did. There was no good outcome here if I couldn't even see my opponent.

"No," the voice seemed to sigh in response, "Your summoning was a product of the world's magic. Perhaps you'll live long enough to learn more about it, but that will not happen if you do not return immediately."

Great, he's crazy too... What's going on here!? "Why?" I wanted to get him to talk more, there was nothing nearby large enough to conceal a person, and yet the voice seemed to be coming from somewhere incredibly close, "Why do I need to go back?" a thought occurred, "Is it Johnathan? Is he back there?"

"No," the voice answered definitively, and there was a pang of something else... remorse? "The Builder is there, and it is he that needs you now."

"Builder?" I asked incredulously. Why am I supposed to care about some builder? "That has nothing to do with me," I added.

"There, you are wrong," the voice intoned, "For it was by his actions that you were summoned, and it will be by his actions that you will survive here."

"So wait!" I recoiled, now the truth came out, "He brought me here? And you think I want to go to him now? You really are crazy!" there must have been some kind of hidden speaker or something nearby. There was no way I could hear his voice this clearly and still not be able to see him.

"As I have already said, it was the world's magic that brought you, but it was his actions that provided the necessary catalyst," the voice informed me, "None of which will matter if he falls to light of this night's moon. Even if you somehow manage to survive on your own," it continued, "as unlikely as that is, his fall will ensure that you do not survive too many nights beyond."

"So you're threatening me?" I asked, shaken. It was obvious I was in trouble, and there was no good answer unless I could somehow figure out where I was, or maybe find some help... not that I knew who I could trust even assuming I did find someone... Slumping against the wall, the fear that I'd been holding at bay threatened to rend me apart from the inside out. There was just too much I didn't know...

"Nurse," the voice began.

"My name is Kathryn!" I shouted. I was already out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of crazy people. Insisting on my name was probably a silly consideration... but I wanted to get some kind of control back, and to that gain I climbed back to my feet.

"Kathryn then," the voice continued, a hint of an edge creeping into it, "you must return to the Builder. I have already warned you that his life, and as a result, your life is dependent on a timely return. Why then do you delay? Are you so eager to find the end of your life that you would run to it blindly?"

"You haven't told me why I should care about some Builder," I answered his question, "and beyond that, you're threatening me and hiding your identity... neither of which inspires trust."

"I do not threaten you," the voice spoke with frustration obvious in its tone, "This world is bound by powers that you can not begin to understand yet, and even coming to you like this was almost more than I could manage. That you may survive is a boon from my years of experience, though you know it not," the voice hardened, "Now cease with the questions I can not answer. You will need to hasten from here, and the longer you wait, the more the need for haste. You must feel the pull by now..."

It was true, I did feel a kind of... Pull? Sure, that was as good a word as any. Even with my eyes closed, I could point to... something, and I had a feeling that it was my home... though why I thought that I could not say, as I knew I was far... far from home.

"Why?" I didn't know what else to ask, "Why does he need me? Why can't you answer that! And why does it matter whether or not he survives the night? What kind of Game are you playing here?" though even as I asked, the healer in me winced. How could I so callously turn my back on someone who's life may be in danger.

"This is no Game Nurse. The world is beset by forces that given their want, would rend it from one end to another. There are precious few capable of resisting these forces. The builder is one such entity, and perhaps the last we will ever see. It is for that reason that you must return. If he falls, everything falls with him, and then your petty concerns will amount to naught."

"I will NOT be bullied by someone hiding in the shadows and telling me what to do!" I shouted at him. This was too much. All this talk of magic, and forces rending the world, and... it was just too much.

"You refuse to heed my warnings, and yet insist on my company?!" it responded, ire redolent in his voice. A bright flash of purple light exploded in the air beneath the overhang, blinding me for a moment as he roared, "Then See Me!". As my eyes cleared, I could see...

"Oh... God..." barely a whisper, all my muscles froze up, and the stone fell uselessly from my grip. Standing far too close was a figure clad in a silky royal blue robe that draped voluminously over its decrepit frame with a pointed grey hat atop its skull... skull, because decrepit wasn't the word... Skeletal... Bones and all... there was a Skeleton standing there, a Skeleton that just appeared out of thin air. It was like the kind we had strung up in the waiting room, only this one wasn't strung up... just standing there, arms crossed and somehow, radiating power that I could almost see... "Oh god..." I whispered a second time.

----------​

The fear radiating from her had to have been palpable to more than just my highly attenuated senses... Though it's been so long since I've had eyes, that I would be hesitant to bet on it. Kill Her. No, that's not what I want. "Now you see me!" I said instead, "Are you content to heed my warnings now?" Chaos comes to all in the end. Rend her soul from her mortal frame. Bind her to Me...

"You..." she whimpered, cowering back against the wall, as I knew she would. I was used to this reaction. There was a reason I spoke from the Shadows, "you're...."

"Dead, No... but the true answer is beyond your-," I attempted to answer her, but it was to no avail. For all that she cowered, she moved rather quick when she wanted to... though I could have done without the screaming. At least she was headed in the right direction.

It is for naught- Focusing, I was able to detach my attention from the voice that spoke through the corrupted segments of my nature. There was a price to be paid for the powers I've come to control, and the limitations imposed on my ability to communicate at times was the least of them. Not for the first, I regret my treatment of... No... I was young, I was ignorant, the fault was not mine... but still... had we reacted differently...

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

Upon establishing the link, it was unsurprisingly very similar to the link I'd formed with the Eye of Cthulu as I've come to understand its designation. It was less a name, and more of a title, the need for a name being foreign to the entity that manifested itself as the Eye. This child was more than a simple manifestation though, and therin lied the differences in the link. For it was not only the entity that designated itself Master, but also the child... Servant, as he called himself, even to himself.

The link worked both ways, much like it had between Perinque and I before, so as I learned of the relationship between Master and Servant, they learned of our time in Terraria, and the relationships between us. It wasn't exactly a sharing of information as it was a sudden connection, as if these memories had been mine all along and I'd only just now realized it. With the Eye, it was very much a active sharing, sort of a mind to mind speech as it simultaneously spoke through Perinque, and this new sudden baring of my memories to someone outside of our group felt almost like a violation... even though I had initiated the link.

But through it I learned that the structure behind them was a place for the fallen warriors of the world to gather. Branded the Dungeon for reasons that had never been explained to the child, the structure allowed a safe haven for the restless dead that managed to find their way there. For while this link connected our memories, it was only the memories belong to the child that I knew now. His Master's mind was beyond the link, just as the Eye's had been, and then...

"Can you hear his voice now too?" a voice that sounded like the child's spoke through the link.

"Yes," I answered, having already experienced this kind of communication, I was able to respond in turn, "Can't you hear him speaking through you?"

"No..." the child responded, "It's weird... I can hear you now like I used to hear Master... but I can't hear him anymore..."

"I was not speaking to you," the same ancient voice they had just heard talking through the child spoke through the link. And its presence... was far more than the Eye's had been. The sheer power that radiated from that voice was enough to have dropped him to his knees, had the link not held him up.

"There is much for you to learn Mage," the voice continued, "Though I have not the experience to teach you. Come into the Dungeon and the fallen Casters will instruct you as they may."

This opportunity was incredible. To have instruction, to learn through more than simply trial and error, to... "Why?" I needed to ask, "do you call my friend the Corrupted Vessel?"

----------​

He didn't know how to respond to that and with Tam in trance mode, there was no asking him. "What..." he tried responding. Touch the Mage... the voice instructed him, which caused him to jump away, as he knew where that would end up.

"Do not play games with me corrupted one. I can see the taint on you as were it a beacon. You have been claimed, and are not welcome here. Be gone, that I may commune with these two in peace," the ancient voice intoned through the child who with a gesture threw him back from the entrance and his friends in much the same way the Perinque had been thrown only moments before.

"Hey!" Pernique shouted, rushing back to him to ensure he was also unharmed, "What's going on here!?"

"Do not waste your time with that one," the voice intoned, "He has been claimed by corruption, and has thus sealed our fates."

"He!" she shouted back, "Is our friend, so if you want to commune with us, you're going to have to commune with all of us." To him, she said in a low voice, "I can see it in your face that you're not completely surprised by what he's saying... we're going to have words later."

Wincing, he realized he should have told them before, this was not the way he wanted his friends to find out about the voice in his head... but this kid had some sort of a voice too... and if it knew something about what it was he was hearing... Perinque pulled him to his feet and they looked toward the kid together.

"What can you tell me about this voice I'm hearing," he shouted out to the kid, not wanting to walk closer if he was only going to be thrown again. The glare Perinque gave him only reinforced her warning, but it was too late to change things now.

The kid's eyes narrowed, and the light connecting him to their friend blinked out, causing both of them to slump to the floor. Perinque rushed over to Tam, not letting the kid out of her field of vision, though beyond shaking his head and climbing back to his feet, the kid didn't seem interested in going anywhere.

"Well," Tam said after stretching, and getting to his feet as well, "that's that."

"I'm sorry," the kid said to him, his expression clearly sympathetic, "but when he makes up his mind..."

"No," Tam responded, in a consolatory manner, "don't apologize. It's his decision after all, not yours."

"You can come back if you change your mind!" the kid piped back, an almost hopeful look on his face.

"Yeah..." Tam answered, turning to look back at him with a frown of his own, "that's not going to happen."

He wasn't sure what had passed between them, but he knew that this conversation was somehow his fault... and there was nothing he could think of to say that would make things better. Worry not, the voice chimed in, you will have plenty of time to improve things... it said to him, laughing in a way that gave him chills as it did.

The kid turned and went back into the structure, closing the door behind him, and Tam and Perinque walked over to him. Perinque glaring, and Tam seeming only half aware of what was going on around him, as he did when he was working on something back at their house. He was obviously processing whatever had just occurred, and as a result would not respond to any questions until he was done, which just left Perinque...

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring it up before,” he quickly tried to apologize, “but I’ve been hearing some kind of voice ever since I fell during that battle against the giant demon eye.”

“The Eye of Cthulhu,” Tam interjected, and the two of them looked at him, but it was obvious he was just correcting them, he wasn’t ready to talk yet.

“Whatever it’s called,” Perinque snapped, “You should have said something!”

“Like what?!” he shouted back, “Hey guys, I’m hearing a creepy voice, but don’t worry about me!" he snapped back.

**********​

Okay, now we're back on track. Sorry for the Confusion (If you were present for the few minutes that I posted the next Chapter instead of this one. >.>)

 

[Spyder Z]

Okay! New Chapter, and 'Finally' I'll go back to posting this 'Section at a Time' as I write it. Buckle up... it's time for the first...

**********​

Chapter 27: The Blood Moon

A Skeleton! Oh God... he... it... Skeleton! I was having a hard time thinking... a hard time breathing even, I was... running? The last clear thought I had was that I had to get away from... It's impossible, I didn't see... there must have been some kind of... Skeleton...

I was climbing, towards... that pull. I didn't want to go, there was just too much... This was wrong... Skeletons can't talk... No Lungs... Larynx... Lips... They couldn't appear out of thin air either... Why do I feel pulled this way? The sun was most of the way down, where had the time gone? The plateau with the small shack was not too far ahead. It felt right, like I belonged there. My throat was raw... Was I screaming? I could see the light coming out of the small hole in the back of the structure... Why was it so dark? I came around the front of the building and threw myself through the door, collapsing as I passed the entrance, and my last thought before being overcome by blackness was of landing on something soft that spasmed as all my muscles liquefied simultaneously.

----------​

There's no point... he thought over, and over again, None of it matters... the voice from the darkness, Guile's voice, it taunted him... All the threats, the warnings, he was not enough... he didn't understand enough... In the light, in the darkness... there is no escape... he was just going to lie here and...

The door came crashing open, and something attacked him. Even as far gone as he felt, he couldn't just lie there as he was assailed. Throwing his arms at whatever it was, he pushed it away from him roughly so that he could scramble away, and pulling his sword out he turned to defend himself from his position on the floor from... A woman?

Crumpled in a heap on the floor where he'd shoved her, near to the workbench, was a young fair skinned woman in a clean white dress, with a white cap emblazoned with a red cross tied into her bright blonde hair. He sat there staring at her for what would have been an embarrassing amount of time had she not been lying there so obviously unconscious.

Even so, he was uncomfortable sitting near the open door with a sword pointed at the second person that wasn't Guile he'd actually encountered in this place. Kathryn, the Nurse as Guile called her. She's hurt! he thought as he quickly put the sword away and crawled over to check on her. She was breathing, and really... she looked perfectly whole, unlike the gentleman from before. Thinking about that he suddenly realized that it was dark, too dark.

Scrambling to his feet he slammed the door shut and looked out the opening he'd left beside it. The sun was just passing the horizon and very soon, the restless dead would begin to stir. Suppressing a shudder, he knew the structure was proof against them and in any event, he now had someone else to protect. He could not spare the fear he'd otherwise allow himself... so he suppressed another shudder.

Looking back at the young woman, he wasn't sure what to do with her. Should he just let her lie there? It's not like any of the rest of the floor was any more comfortable. She was unnaturally splayed however, so he decided to settle her limbs in a more natural resting position. As soon as his hands touched her arms, she kicked out with her legs throwing him away from her and knocking her head against the workbench in the process.
"GooooW!" she scrambled away backwards towards the wall and shouted, "Stay away from me!"

----------​

Somebody was trying to attack me! Even half out of it and exhausted as I was I didn't need time to consider a response, I just kicked out with my legs pushing myself, "GooooW!" my head, the stool! Swinging my arms about to ensure my attacker wasn't already on me, I backed towards what I hoped was the wall.

"Stay away from me!" I shouted, not really expecting the kind of twisted person that would kidnap someone and bring them out to the middle of nowhere to listen, but I was running on adrenaline and instinct against a foe I'd still hadn't gotten a good look at, so it would have to do. I should have grabbed the bench...

"It's okay..."

"HA!" inappropriate a response as it was, I couldn't help it. The idea that anything was okay right now was patently ridiculous. Kidnapped, out in the middle of nowhere, talking Skeletons, and this nutjob was trying to comfort me?! "Ha-ha-ha-ha..." I laughed, more than a touch maniacally.

Forcing my eyes to focus through the ringing, I got my first look at my kidnapper. He was a mess. Filthy scraggly hair that could have been almost any color through all the dirt and grime, and rags, that may have at one time been clothing of some kind, hardly did anything to keep him decent. He was equally dirty, though otherwise appeared in good health, and the rags, upon minutely closer inspection, seemed to have been torn and ripped intentionally. Did some of that dirt looked suspiciously like dried blood? Adding to his strange attire was a metal shackle, the kind you'd see attached to a ball and chain in a low budget movie, attached to his right wrist, as if someone had attempted to chain this deranged individual, but had unfortunately failed in the effort.

For a moment, I could see something more, something... but then he took a step towards me and I snapped out of whatever that was, "Don't you dare!" I threatened him, braver than I felt, "I know it was you that brought me here!" I shouted.

The look on his face was enough to confirm my words. Surprise, followed by guilt, before he muttered, "I'm sorry. I didn't know... How did you?" he asked, hardly audible.

"The skeleton told me," I answered, gut dropping as I realized how ridiculous that sounded.

"Who?" he asked, completely unfazed by that revelation, "it was probably his fault! A voice told me to break the Heart Crystal, I didn't know that it would bring you here!" he shouted in defense of his actions.

It was no surprise that this guy was as deranged as the rest of the people I'd met out here, wherever here was. I needed to get out of this building, and... I didn't know what then, but I needed to...

"Kaaaathryyyyyn..." a voice, sounding at the same time familiar and nightmarish, like a cherished memory gone horribly sour came drifting in from outside. At the same time a sword, made entirely out of wood, appeared in my captors hand before he turned towards the small window beside the door, but not before a look that was at least half anger and half terror contorted his face.

----------​

Looking out the window of the structure he'd acquired from the Builder, he could feel the Blood Moon rising, and for the first time in as long as he could remember... the presence left him entirely alone. Falling to the floor weeping, not just for the sudden release he'd never expected to feel, but for the end of his last vestige of hope as the crimson light slowly coated the world. Though he was released temporarily, he knew where the presence was going, and the Builder was not ready.

----------​

He didn't know what he was looking at, or more accurately, he wasn't sure what was going on. Standing at the very edge of the plateau that the structure was now sitting on was the once well-dressed gentleman... or... what was left of him. His hat was in surprisingly good condition... it was just the rest of him that was more than a little worse for the wear.

His suit no longer qualified for that title, and with his skin missing in large portions on not only his face, but his body seen through the remnants of his clothing, it was clear that he was no longer among the living... though coated in a blood red light that seemed to cover everything in his field of vision he stood there nonetheless with an expression that was probably as close to a smile as the remains of his face could manage.

Rooted to the spot he wasn't sure how to respond, and the red glow coming... from the moon as the first sliver of it came cresting over the horizon seemed to pull at him in ways he was unprepared to resist. Which left him entirely unprepared when the nurse chose to act.

----------​

"Johnathan!" I yelled as I realized why the voice sounded so familiar. There was something... wrong, with his voice, but I recognized him anyway.

Getting up I took the risk of running past my captor and pushing through the door, I ran out into the strange red hued night as he attempted to grab at me. Pulling away, I stopped myself within arm's reach before running headlong into... Oh no...

"What's the matter Kathy?" he asked using the pet name only he had ever dared use, the voice coming out all wrong because he was... Oh god no...

He reached out quicker than I could evade him and pulled me against his ruined body. The suit he'd been wearing at our ceremony hung in tatters around him, in worse condition even than the rags my captor had been wearing. The rest of him was in no better condition. It looked as if he had been picked apart by some kind of violent creature and beyond that, there was a... wrongness that was uncomfortably familiar radiating from him. I could almost feel the same... wrongness in the chillingly blood red light of the moon.

Putting his ruined face beside mine, he whispered directly into my ear, "Don't you still love me?"

Struggling, I tried desperately to push away from my fiancé... my husband. While I knew there was something wrong with him, if I could just...

"Truly Fleshling?" he spoke in a raised voice over my shoulder, tightening his grip as he did, "Do you truly believe yourself a match for this vessel for my will?"

"I don't know what you're up to," my captor shouted at Johnathan, "But let her go!"

In a movement that was as terrifying as it was unexpected, Johnathan flipped me over his head, knocking the top hat we'd purchased only the night before the wedding off in the process. Firmly gripping my arms to keep me from falling or breaking loose, he held me upside down over the side of the plateau and the sight below me was enough to fully engage what little terror I still had in reserve.

Standing in congregation at the bottom of the climb to the little building was a mass of people washed in the bloody light... no that wasn't right, creatures that had maybe once been people, each one more grotesque than the last. Pieces, and sometimes all of, their flesh were missing and just as many had boney appendages where their hands or feet should have been. It took me a moment to realize that the screaming I was hearing was my own, and it was all I could do to keep from succumbing to the terror of it all and allowing darkness to pull me into its final dance.

----------​

He wasn't sure what to do. Guile's voice was coming out of the Well Dressed Gentleman, and he was holding Kathryn over the edge of the plateau. If he lunged at him, he risked her being dropped, but he couldn't just stand there doing nothing while she was screaming upside down in his hands.

"If you wish," the Gentleman, no Guile speaking through the Gentleman, said in a voice that he could feel resonating in all the feeble parts of his will. He'd seen his Guide's strange presence before, and that same darkness was radiating powerfully from the Gentleman... stronger really than he'd ever experienced, and it took him a moment before he realized why. The moon... it was somehow contributing to the wrongness that the Gentleman radiated. He wasn't entirely sure how he knew that... until Guile's words from earlier came back to him, Tonight my touch upon the world will be felt by all the creatures that walk beyond the reach of the sun, and you... must forge your worth in the light of my moon.

"Wait!" he shouted before the Gentleman threw her over the edge, "What do you want?" It was a stupid question, all Guile had ever shown interest in was toying with him but if he could figure out what the game was, perhaps he'd have a chance to save her from it.

She was kicking and screaming against his hold, but he showed no sign that he even noticed her efforts as he answered, "Want Fleshing? What I want is release from my imprisonment in this pitiful construct. What I want is absolute dominion over all that is. For now however," he pulled her back over his head, throwing her at him in the same motion, "I'll settle for a more base pleasure," he ended before lunging at the two of them.

There was no time to recover from having the nurse thrown into him, still kicking and screaming as if nothing would ever calm her again, before the Gentleman was on top of them. The wrongness was overpowering at this distance, and as the Gentleman's clawed grasp dug into the flesh of his arms, pinning the nurse between them, he struggled to move from beneath her so that he could safely use his sword.

"Tell me Fleshling," the Gentleman taunted in an almost conversational way, Guile's voice unaffected as he bit into the Nurses shoulder, increasing the fervor of her thrashing, but having no noticeable effect on their assailant, "are you prepared to return to the darkness of my embrace?"

He tried to ignore the taunting. Guile wanted to distract him and unless he focused, a task made more difficult by the pain on top of the wrongness radiating from the Gentleman, neither he nor the Nurse were likely to survive the night. They needed to get back into the structure, but he had to dislodge the Gentleman first. The sword was still within his grip, loose as it was, and with no other option but to trust to the weapon he attempted to flip it up towards the Gentleman.

The weapon responded. Coming up with a force that was far more than he could have possibly provided alone, the sword cut solidly into the Gentleman's shoulder, and as had occurred with the walking dead in the past, caused him to leap back from the blow. There was hardly time to fully appreciate the fact that the Gentleman was no longer on top of them before he was half pushing half dragging the Nurse into the doorway. Turning as she toppled through, he swung the sword once more at what he assumed would be the Gentleman in a continued assault. As the blade cut cleanly through the open air, he could feel his hastily constructed wall of self-control shudder ominously at the sight before him.

Leaping up over the edge of the Plateau behind the Gentleman in a grotesque acrobatic display were more of the walking dead than he had ever seen... an almost innumerable sum of them. And in the air above them swarmed an equally nightmarish cloud of the flying eyes, their trailing veins lashing about with a violent fervor. He almost lost his grip not only on the sword, but on his feeble self-control. Were it not for the sound of weeping behind him to remind him why he could not simply walk out to greet the mob with open arms, it was unlikely he'd have managed even that.

Standing before this mass of death was the Gentleman, his face once more twisted into what may have been a smile, his arm raised as if forestalling the massacre that haloed the swarm in a Blood Red Light.

"And now you see Fleshling, that your escape is impossible. I will allow you to come to me of your own volition," Guile's voice spoke from the Gentleman, "Drop that useless stick and enter now into my embrace."

It was terrible how tempting his offer was at that moment. An end to the constant pain and terror that had defined his life since he'd awoken in this place... but it wasn't just his life that would be affected anymore, and though he'd tensed unconsciously to move forward, he straightened his stance and shook his head as he responded, "Never." with far more conviction in his tone than he would have believed he had remaining.

"Hehehe..." the dark laughter seemed to come from the air between he and the Gentleman, seemed to come at once from every non-existent mouth in the mass of floating eyes, seemed even to pour like a slow wave from the shambling forms now seething behind the Gentleman waiting for some sign to break across the plateau washing even the hope of escape away in the ruby violence of the night.

The sound of it almost did what the sight did not, and again he felt himself tensed to move towards his inevitable end and the Gentleman's now open embrace. Using the very last of his resolve, he turned from the nightmarish scene before him and stumbling into the structure, threw the door closed behind him before collapsing to the floor inside.

"What are you doing!?" the Nurse screamed at him as she dragged the bench towards the door, "We need to barricade them out!" she was yelling, the horror that he felt inside manifest in her expression.

"The door..." he tried to respond as a hungry roar erupted from the mass of dead ready to break against their structure, "It keeps..." the sound of the Eyes pounding at the ceiling and walls provided a backdrop, "them out..." every opening had a grotesque mockery of what may have once been a human face, and brought in their hungry eager sounds...

*Knock*​

With the first rap, the rest of the sound was quenched as if it had never been, leaving behind a silence that could be felt in the air.

*Knock*​

The second rap consumed the emptiness, and tore across his already taut nerves as he turned from his place on the floor to face the door.

*Knock*​

After the third rap the silence once more filled every open space, and was made grotesque in the presence of the once living faces now quietly filling the openings in ceiling and wall. As he watched, no more able to move than he could fly, the handle to the door turned and he watched as the door slowly opened inward, revealing the Gentleman standing just outside the structure. A moment that felt like an eternity passed as he just stared, before the silence was broken by Guile's voice.

The Groom, as he incoherently made the connection between the rags that had once clothed him and their purpose, now of all times, said to him, "Tonight, there is no safety in your walls," before stepping forward, the seething mass of the dead quivering behind him as if connected on some unseen thread. "Tonight, there is no safety... Anywhere."

As the last word passed the Groom's lips, the eerie silence broke, and the chaos that followed blurred the lines between what was being seen, what he felt, and what he heard. It was as if the very world around him had been holding its breath, and with those words, it now it exhaled a gust of violence and death that was far too large for the tiny shack he had hoped to hide in.

He was a fool to have believed that Guile would let him hide behind the door. From the first night he'd stayed within this structure he'd known this would happen. Guile had waited until he had something to lose... and now he struck. It would have been almost comical in a gallows humor kind of way... if he weren't certain that this would be their last night in Terraria.

The Groom simply stood there in the entrance, his ruined face wearing that mockery of a smile as the walking dead poured in behind him. Grabbing the Nurse, he pulled her behind him as he plunged his sword into Guile's puppet causing him to leap back towards the doorway. From there he tried to stop the dead from going around the oven, as that would put them behind him, but had to end up backing towards the Nurse instead.

In very short order he was beyond the point where he had any idea what was actually going on. His world had been reduced to a Wooden Sword and an endless stream of the Walking Flying Dead. There were bits of gore, some of which may have even belonged to him... or the Nurse, coating everything. As one once living creature was forcibly removed from him, two more were eagerly taking their place. And though the flying eyes were contentedly smashing whatever they could reach in the cacophony... That was as often the wall of death as it was him and his charge, which may have helped him as much as it hurt. In fact, were it not for the confined space and thankfully the chairs that the Nurse had grabbed making every movement difficult, and not just his own, he was certain this would have already been over...

----------​

My kidnapper pulling me away from facing Johnathan broke me from my paralyzed state, but there was little I could do in the chaos that followed. More creatures that looked to have once been alive began filing in, and coming in above them were giant floating eyes. If I hadn't already moved past my threshold for fear, that would have done it.

As much as I didn't want to trust this guy, the fact that he was standing between me and a putrid assembly of dangerous creatures was enough for me to do so... at least for the moment. Grabbing the chairs set at the back of the room, I was pressing myself as far into the corner as I could get, keeping the chairs between me and the creatures.. And though this combined with the ragged looking crazy person wielding a sword did manage to keep the bipedal horrors from tearing into me, it did nothing to prevent the eyes from their assault.

Something as soft as an eye, even an eye that was nearly as large as my head, should not have been able to deliver as much force as these did upon impact. Granted, an eye doesn't tend to fly around in the air trailing little bits of its optic nerve... so my rationalizations were more than just a little out of place in this particular situation. My irrational focus could also have had something to do with the third or fourth blow to my upper body that was delivered with enough concussive force to leave me with what would undoubtedly be heavy contusions when... If... I survived this.

My kidnapper wasn't fairing as well, having nothing but that wooden sword to stand between him and the creatures... And there was something else. I could see more than just the fact that his body was cut, torn, and bruised... I could see... Something else. Not ignoring the fact that it could simply be an optical illusion from the repeated blows to my head, I saw something like an incredibly soft glow emanating from him that was growing dimmer by the moment.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 28: Breaking the Rules

"Yes!" Perinque shouted, "That would have been preferable to finding out this way!"


She was right, and he realized it... but that did nothing to help matters between them. She had begun pulling away before then, and now... he'd be surprised if she came back to the house any time soon at all. After they made their way back, she split off from the group, and several days had gone by without any word from her.


Tam was no better... In a different way. Ever since he'd linked up with the kid at the Dungeon, it was as if he was in a hurry to figure something out... What this something was, he wouldn't share. He'd spend all day alternating between their garden, the basement, which he'd repurposed as his experimental spell lab, and various trips out alone. All this ended up leaving him too much time to himself... time that the voice seemed to enjoy harassing him in.


Come to to the Demon Altar, it encouraged him. That was it's new fixation. For the last few days, it would invite him out to the Demon Alter, promising There, I will open your eyes more fully... Which was not something he was too interested in understanding. Though being left alone as he was... he wasn't sure what he did want anymore. Maybe he would go... just to see...


Stepping outside the structure for the first time since they'd returned, he noticed movement towards the path as a small shadow seemed to shuffle away from the building. It was, he assumed, one of the slimes that followed Perinque around, "Perinque!" he tried calling out.


A flash of light not too far from him announced Tam's appearance, "What's up?" his friend asked him, seeming rushed.


"I..." he started to reply, You are being watched, the voice informed him, your friends no longer trust you, and for a moment, he wasn't sure he wanted to answer Tam, "was... just going to walk for a bit. I'm getting restless," he finished.


"Give me a sec, and I'll come with you," Tam responded, "I just need to note where I am in this mix..."


"No," he interrupted his friend, "you don't need to do that. I'll be careful," he added with a weak smile. The searching look his friend gave him hurt, and the voice, See how he questions your intent, wasn't helping things. Did they not trust him? Was that why they were avoiding him? Could he truly blame them?

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

He had given in to it then... he didn't have to now, but did he dare actively challenge it? It was gone, in a way that it had never left before. What did mean for him? Closing his eyes, he tried to see the builder... and saw nothing. Without the presence, he was just...


An inspiration struck him. If he'd lost that which the presence had given him... was it possible he's regained... Looking to the wall, he was able to pull the torch to his hand at a thought. A small thrill, a feeling of... He collapsed once more, incapable of even fully processing what had just happened. Even if only for a moment... he was fully, and truly free... And he hated himself for his first thought... That perhaps falling now... But no... He knew better. He also knew what he needed to do. He had wasted too much time already in self-pity.

Even without its presence, he could feel the loosening of the rules in this night. Several waves of change were coming, too close together... The world was in a state of flux the like he'd never witnessed before... And he would take full advantage of that. The builder must survive the night. He left the structure and began gathering resources from the terrain as he made his way towards the Nurse's home... where he assumed the builder and it would be, the looser rules allowing him to gather as he walked, without a need to slow down, or even the need for tools. The Builder Must Survive the Night.

**********​

I will admit... I had 'Far' too much fun with this. And it's only getting better. This night promises to be quite the event. ;P Also... I can help but be giddy at the thought of Guile 'Power Walking' (Literally? !) towards the battle, with dirt and other resources just coming up en masse in his wake.

 

[DestroyerOfTheDestroyer]

Please work faster, the suspense is killing me!

 

[Spyder Z]

Hehehehe... sorry. NaNoWriMo (Which I bombed in spectacular fashion. >.>) and Holiday work hours kept me away. I'm starting to rear my head online again. ;P

**********​

Kaaaaa....thyyyyyy his voice cut through the carnage, and I could hear him as if he were standing right beside me, what's the matter sweetheart? Looking past my kidnapper as he fought a losing battle against the nauseous wave of death, I could see what was left of Johnathan just standing there, visible through the onslaught of once living things, watching the violence with its face twisted into what I imagined was supposed to have been a smile... had there been enough of its face left for that.


We were going to be married... were married... looking down at my ring, I was hit from above by one of those flying eyes with enough force to throw me to the floor, where two other followed me down. That wasn't enough to have distracted me however from the glow emanating from my ring. It was... wrong... as if something was inside it, radiating its energy out from the metal... and it looked... familiar... Johnathan! It was the same wrongness that I saw coming from him... and in the air... but I could just see... something under that... a glow that wasn't wrong...


I knew I was hallucinating... glowing rings and flying eyes, and dead people... but at this point, I could either go along with it... or snap... and I wasn't about to give up. I could feel that second glow in a way that was almost physical... As if I could reach out and... The world exploded into an incomprehensible series of lights and colors, and I lost track of what was going on around me in any way I could hope to describe.


Most of the light surrounding me was wrong but there, right in front of me was a dim glow that was right. Reaching out to it, I could feel it fading... And I knew that if I didn't do... Something... It would disappear completely. But I didn't know what to do. I tried grabbing it... But it didn't do anything, and the light continued to fade... I didn't know why... But I didn't want this light to go out.


There, off to the side. There was a glow that somehow seemed like it went with the glow in front of me, though much more compact. I could feel that glow too... And what's more, I could hold it. Without any real understanding of what I was doing, I grabbed some of the smaller light, and brought it over to the larger light. As soon as the lights came together, the larger light increased in brilliance, just a little, and with an objective I didn't understand, I began moving the rest of the smaller light over as fast as I could manage.


**********


His world had been further reduced to a wooden sword, and nothing but chaos beyond it. He knew nothing more than the focus that kept the blade swinging, seemingly of its own accord, as the limited strength he attributed to himself had long since expired. He was beyond actively trying to defend himself. He was beyond even trying to defeat his opponents... As even this limited world began to fade around him. He was at a point where he welcomed the darkness. Why was he even fighting anyway? A dark laughter began to crawl in at the edge of his senses....


A burst of something brought him back to himself, and the battle was grossly and violently back in focus. The pain that had begun to wash away with his vision was alive in him again, and something else... Something... Good, flowed through him. Just as his senses came fully back, they were violently torn from him once more as a solid mass of... Something... Crushed him against the floor.

<<Click for Next Section>>​

 

[et78]

this is the best story ever and you should publish it as a book

 

[Soul Snacher]

please proceed its awesome.

 

[Pirtz]

This story is awesome, I wish I had more time to read it.

 

[Spyder Z]

So I'm back to close "Book 1" of "A Reluctant Terrarian". Sadly it's unlikely there will be a book 2 in the near future (If at all), but I don't like leaving this story hanging on a cliffhanger the way it is. I've already started writing out the rest, and while it'll likely be a month before I'm finished (And I'm reluctant to post any more until I've got it all done) I figured I'd post a heads up and maybe collect any lingering questions folks may have had up to this point. ;P