The Cinders of Dezu

17th: The Ancient of the Lake (1)

The ground felt very very strange. Julian was laying down half way on his side on a surface that felt, somehow... squishy. He rubbed it with his palm before opening his eyes. He couldn't wrap his mind around what exactly he was seeing. The floor was a pinkish gray. It felt wet. It also smelled funny. He began to lift himself up when his head and shoulders hit a hard curved surface above him.

Julian blinked hard and really started to make sense of what was around him. It was dim. But he was surrounded by... no... he was contained inside of something. The ceiling above him was warped and rounded and fairly translucent. It looked like misshapen glass, and as a result, he couldn't tell exactly what he was looking at beyond it. He looked down at himself. He was encased by the ceiling over this strange bed he was on. Pink and soft, like spongey... flesh?

As the word crept into his fuzzy consciousness, two elongated tentacles with bulbous ends crept out from the sides of his hips. In a slick and silent motion, the bulbous tips opened to reveal two bulging suspended eyes about the size of baseballs. Separately they began surveying his body up and down. Julian screamed. The eyes snapped in his direction and their eyelids folded all the way back leaving totally naked eyeballs staring at him.

As Julian thrashed in a panic he began to rise inside his capsule along with his new fleshy friend. The lid of his container snapped open. The soft creature dropped with a plop and it's tentacled eyes sunk tightly into the pink surface under his legs. He was suddenly covered in light. He rolled out of his strange container onto wet muddy stone ground, still screaming.

He looked back at his squelchy bed and realized it was shaped like a giant open clam. He looked around the room to see yellow glowing orbs functioning as light sources stuck to the stone walls of a cave. As his gaze went around the room he finally turned and saw Talia standing over him with a palm on fire. Her serious and unamused expression stayed on her face until Julian realized he was still screaming. He stopped. She extinguished her flaming hand and they stared at each other a moment.

"I'm claustrophobic," Julian said.

Talia frowned.

"I was heating them open but it looks like you don't need my help. You need to get us out of here," she said.

"What? Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Why me?"

Talia pointed to a dark pool behind her.

"Because that's our way out, and we can't swim the distance."

"Out of where? Where are we?"

Talia walked over to the giant clam which had its tentacled eyeballs extended again, watching the two of them talk. Julian noticed a second clam in the room that he hadn't noticed before nearby, but this one was closed. Talia began trying to close the top of the open clam.

"This is some kind of holding chamber. The Gilled brought us here in these. I don't know why and I don't want to find out."

She was grunting as she continued trying to push down on the clam whose eyes had now wandered from Julian to her. They seemed to be trying to figure out what she was doing.

"They pump water out and air in. So they work for moving people under water."

The eyes suddenly seemed to recognize Talia's efforts and snapped shut of its own accord. Talia stumbled forward, tripping over the giant clam, but caught herself.

Julian frowned.

"Alright, so bonkers as usual. But what am I supposed to do?"

"I need you to move this."

Talia was pointing to the clam. Julian raised an eyebrow. He stood up and started walking toward it.

"No, no," Talia said, "I need you to move it through the air. With your mind."

Julian smirked, "I can't move things with my-"

"You're bed crashed through the roof, along with a bunch of other things in your room. You didn't just move yourself, you moved the things around you. I need you to move this."

Julian didn't know what to say.

"You don't- I mean it's not like that, though! I can't just move stuff around! I fell! I was falling. Up and around all over the place."

"So make this fall all over the place."

Julian looked at the clam. He looked at Talia and then back at the clam. The clam lifted and smacked Talia in the side. She fell over and the clam fell to the ground next to her.

"Oh! Geez! I'm sorry!"

Talia got up quickly and brushed herself off.

"How about you try the ceiling first?"

Julian refocused. He looked at the ceiling and then at the clam. He went back and forth a few times before the clam began to rise. It fell up and landed above them.

"Good," she said, "Now, back to the floor."

Julian took a deep breath. He tried again. The clam fell to the floor.

"Again," Talia said.