System Lost: My Own Best Friend

"Blood and acid Allie, really?" Talla sighs with exasperation. "You do realize that we're going to have to descend a mountain after this, right?"

"I've been trying not to think about it!" I whine, pressing my back firmly against the wall and squinting my eyes shut. "Stupid fricking chasm..."

I totally forgot that we were going to have to pass through here. The Snail Path was already partially blocked by the empty shell, and after the collapse it became totally impassable. Draga didn't want to try clearing it because he was worried about stability, which brings us back to the present.

The Lizard Path leads to the giant chasm, and there's only a narrow ledge for us to traverse. I haven't even left the tunnel yet and I'm already freaking out.

"The ledge isn't even that narrow," Draga comments, adjusting Saban's body on his shoulder. "It's at least half a le'e and it seems stable enough."

"Didn't you say you already explored through here?" Talla adds.

I did, and weirdly that makes it even worse. I've crossed this ledge twice already and all it does is remind me of how dang terrifying it is. That horrible yawning abyss with no visible bottom, a great black fissure like a giant maw trying to swallow me whole. I inch a few more steps away.

"We don't have time for this," Draga sighs. "Talla, just carry her."

She ducks back into the tunnel and offers me her hand. "Come on, Allie, it won't take long."

Flushed from embarrassment, I reach up to take her hand. "I'm really sorry about this. I'm just not good with—woah!"

Talla sweeps me up into her arms in a princess carry and smiles down at me. "You know, for all your protests to the contrary, you really can be quite childish."

I blush and look away. "S-shut up..."

She chuckles and takes a step out into the enormous cavern, and I cling desperately to her shoulder, my heart sinking into my stomach for a moment as her path briefly takes me directly above the edge. Oh gosh, this is not better!

"This way, right?" Draga clarifies, pointing down towards the Worm Tunnel.

I give him a shaky nod. "Y-yeah. Um, maybe this isn't a good idea. I'll walk after a—AAAH!"

Draga and Talla ignore my shriek of protest and set off at a confident stride across the narrow ledge. I squeeze Talla for dear life and bury my face in her shoulder, trying to think of literally anything other than what happens if she drops me.

Her fur is pretty soft, and she smells nicer than I would have expected from someone who's spent the day split between hiking, running, and fighting for her life—especially covered in fur. Maggie's gonna be so mad that she missed this.

"We're here," Talla informs me, gently setting me down next to the perfectly round hole in the wall.

I scramble into the tunnel for safety and take a deep, calming breath.

Draga chuckles and shakes his head, then eyes the tunnel dubiously. "I'm not too sure about this tunnel," he says. "It's fine for you, but even Saban found it to be a tight squeeze."

That's a good point. At its narrowest, I have to duck at the waist to walk through here, for the Fa'aun, that would mean they need to crawl. Vague memories of caving disasters from back home cause me to shudder. No specifics come to mind, just a dreadful sinking feeling that bad things happen when you try to squeeze your way through caves.

"Maybe..." I hedge, unsure what else to do. This is the only other way back to the camp except...

My confused [Inner Compass] undergoes a sudden and jarring shift as I reorient myself using the chasm as a landmark. I scan the darkness across the chasm—don't look down, don't look down, don't look down—and focus on the vague sense of familiarity that wells up within me. After a moment, I point across.

"Talla, could you light that up for me?"

With a shrug, she complies, focusing and intensifying the beam of her floating light until it illuminates another tunnel on the other side of the gap. It doesn't look any different from the rest of the cave, but I know that spot.

"[Convergence Break]," I say, using the message to quickly explain without having to go through Talla.

Draga peers over at it and whistles. "Well I'll be damned, so it is. Well spotted, Allie."

[Level up!]

Pathfinder is now level 10.

+2 Awareness.

+2 Will.

Pathfinder has reached its maximum threshold. [Upgrade] or [Fuse] the class to unlock further progression.

As tempting as it is to fuse my classes together here and now, this isn't really the time and given my past experience there's like a fifty-fifty chance I'll do something stupid and pass out in the process.

"Hmm," Draga muses. "Talla, can you scan for a way to cross? I'd rather not crawl through this narrow tunnel except as a last resort, and if we can get out through the break, that might be preferable."

Frick! Dang my stupid fat blabbermouth! I just noticed that we were close to the spot and wanted to point it out—I didn't think he'd actually try crossing! Talla shines her light across the chasm like a flashlight, searching for any sign of a way to the other side.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

I really don't want to see what she's lighting up, so I retreat back into the tunnel a bit and hug Nipper for comfort.

"You wouldn't try to cross a bottomless death-pit, would you, buddy?"

The worm's only answer is to gnaw toothlessly on my fingers, slobbering his itchy saliva all over my hand.

"Thanks, Nipper," I say, patting him on the head. "That means a lot coming from you."

Come to think of it, I wonder if one of his relatives made this tunnel. No way, right? They'd have to get crazy huge to do that, and baby Nipper was like finger-sized. You'd think they'd metamorphize by then. Though, I guess that's still assuming that they're caterpillars which...doesn't really hold up, actually.

Weren't their eggs attached to the tunnel by webbing? If the worm-mommy or whatever laid the eggs metamorphosed from a Nipper, you'd think they'd lose the ability to spin silk. What if they don't change at all? What if they are just web-spinning worms that get really big?

"I'm not seeing any bridges or narrow points," Talla mutters. "We could always try descending, but..."

She trails off and freezes as she directs the flashlight spell down into the chasm.

"Uh, Draga?" she whispers urgently.

"I see it," he replies. "Into the tunnel—now!"

Wait what? What's happening? I kind of regret not looking down into the chasm now.

I scramble back out of the way as the two rangers squeeze into the Worm Tunnel, helping Draga with Saban's body. Oof! He's kinda heavy.

"What's going on?" I ask. "What did you see?"

Talla points at Nipper. "You were right. There are a lot of them."

"Huh? I thought the stalker killed them all," I tell her, shuffling backwards and awkwardly dragging Saban in front of them.

We probably should have left him behind, but I don't have the heart to say that, and they probably have their own customs. Knowing that makes me feel even worse about Nipper eating their friends.

"Maybe it did," she huffs, crawling along behind me. "But it seems to have limited its territory, and that chasm is swarming with them. They haven't noticed us, but the area above the chasm is full of their webs and I don't want to find out what happens if we disturb them."

Yeah, that's fair. Although, after my earlier musing, I glance at the walls of the tunnel and frown.

"Hey, how big were they?" I ask.

"A lot bigger than your pet, that's for sure," Talla confirms. "Some of the biggest ones were as big around as this...tunnel..."

Crud on toast, I hate being right.

"Too late to reconsider now," Draga grunts, struggling forward as the biggest of us. "Keep moving!"

I drag Saban with all my might, moving as quickly as I can ahead of the rangers as they crawl to catch up.

"They're not, uh, chasing us, are they?" I ask between panting breaths.

"Better we don't take the chance," Talla replies, wincing as her horns scrape the tunnel ceiling.

"You're on negotiation duty if they come after us," I whisper to Nipper, who dutifully reacts not at all to his new assignment.

What a trooper.

It's a long and awkward struggle through the winding tunnel. By the time Talla tells me we're approaching the exit, I'm out of breath, drenched in sweat, and where the heck are Vi and Mags?!

Something has been weird since I woke up. I don't know if it's because of that new girl or what, but this feels like the longest Violet and Maggie have ever stayed silent before. I'm still not sure if something is wrong, but it's definitely different, and I don't like it.

"Allie, I need you to scout the exit for us," Draga orders. "Talla and I can't pass you."

Oh, butts. I once again forgot to think about how we'd be getting down from here. See, this is why I need Vi and Maggie! They're clever! They think about these things. I just run ahead and do the first thing that comes to mind and end up regretting it.

Whatever, it's not as bad as the chasm, I tell myself. Deep breaths. We'll be fine.

I approach the mouth of the tunnel, and anxiously poke my head out, holding out a candle as I force myself to look down. The first thing I see is a bright gout of flame heading straight for me.

"Holy heck!" I exclaim, falling back on my butt and scrabbling backwards just in time to avoid getting what's left of my hair scorched off. "What was that!?"

Chancing a tiny peek over the edge to get a better look, my blood freezes in my veins.

Twitching pale flesh leaves a trail of sickly black ichor as what's left of the stalker drags itself forward on broken and bleeding limbs. The eyes that appear on its weirdly shifting form all focus on me, its pupils narrowed down to fine points.

Oh, it is pissed!

It's also illuminated by a floating ball of concentrated fire, which it launches at me again the moment it sees me, forcing me to duck back into the tunnel again.

"Oh you have got to be—you dirt-eating son of a submarine!" I curse at it. "How the frick are you still alive?!"

It definitely couldn't do that before, either. Is it learning new tricks every time we fight it?

Talla looks at me in confusion. "A what-eating what?! Allie, speak plainly—what did you see?"

"[Demon]," I reply, for Draga's benefit as well. "Badly injured."

"Blood and acid," she curses. "Still?! How is it even alive?"

That's what I'm saying! And now it's got fire, somehow, which would be a great time for Maggie to show up.

"Maggie?" I whisper urgently. "I know we've had our disagreements and I haven't always been there when you needed me, but this is kind of a big deal."

Silence. Crap crap crap! This is definitely bad. There's no way she wouldn't show up for this, or at least Vi.

I peek out of the tunnel and duck another fireball for my trouble—except this one explodes before it gets half-way to the tunnel. Oh crud! It's slow and really badly injured, but it's figuring out Maggie's tricks. I don't think it's fully grasped it all yet, but it's clearly getting better. No wonder demons are so dangerous!

"Allie, what are you waiting for?" Talla asks urgently. "If it's that badly injured, your magic should be enough to finish it."

"I'm trying!" I insist, shaking nervously. "Come on, Mags, this isn't funny—we need you right now!"

"The chaos witch won't be coming," a cold voice replies in my head—in Fa'aun?! "You are all monsters, but she is the worst of all. See how her carelessness has already given the demon more power? It must be defeated—but not by her."

...

What. The. Actual. Fuck?!