VISION ✔️ || The Keepers of Astraela #1

26.0 || Of Dice and Disgruntled Employees

BOBBI

TICK, TICK, TICK...

On any normal day, Bobbi would have had no qualms with the wall clock's rhythmic sound while she sorted through boxes. Likely, she wouldn't have registered it at all. But, after multiple nights with no sleep, the incessant ticking pierced her eardrums until she swore they'd bleed.

It was tiresome waiting for her blue-haired friend turned evil-lightning-rod to show up at her cabin's doorstep, or for a flame-throwing man to "rescue" her and whisk her off to whatever dimension he and Eva had found residence.

Tick, tick, tick...

Cardboard bent under Bobbi's fingers. She stared at the box's haphazardly thrown-in TTRPG supplies, wondering which would be heavy enough to break the clock if thrown with enough force.

A shiny, spherical object caught her eye. She pulled the metal hundred-sided die out with a sly grin and envisioned herself chucking it at the torturous ticking device so hard that the internal gears split. It had been heavy enough to leave a dent in the wooden floorboards when Eva dropped it a few months prior; surely, it would've been enough to relieve her pounding headache. Bobbi chuckled at the thought.

And then paused.

It must have been her imagination that a sudden chill nipped the air when she lifted her eyes. Clutching the metal die to her chest, she squinted to make sure she wasn't seeing things in the dim light.

The clock hands had frozen. She should've been excited. The nails-on-a-chalkboard tick had finally ceased, leaving only the howling wind outside to fill her eardrums, but she shivered at the motionless hands.

12:37 a.m.

A loud bang on the cabin door made Bobbi leap from her spot on the floor. The hundred-sided die flung from her grasp, landing on the hardwood with an equally loud thunk.

The rapping continued in a slow, steady rhythm. Bobbi's eyes lingered on the glimmering Runestone lying discarded on the coffee table. She didn't trust its power, not after her run-in with the spider a few days before. Besides, she hardly knew Emrys even when he hid under Jensen's disguise. Did she really want to risk putting some weird crystal around her neck just because he said so?

After how fast Kali turned into a... whatever she was, Bobbi couldn't imagine trusting anything.

Two more bangs hammered the door, each louder than the last. She needed a plan. Fast.

In a moment of panic, she ripped the tube socks from her feet, leaving her skin bare against the chilly floor. She slid her hundred-sided die into the first sock and another identical die from her box in the other. If they could leave a dent in her floor, maybe a swinging metal sphere would leave a dent in someone's head before they could execute her with magic.

One could hope.

Gripping her sock-weapons tight, she tiptoed closer to the door. The howling wind whistled sharply against her eardrums, blocking out all but the intermittent knocks.

With one sock prepared to swing, she wrapped her fingers around the metal knob. The slightest twist brought the door careening in, driven by a gust of wind that sent it smacking back into the wall with such force that she feared it would fly from its hinges. In its place stood a short figure, silhouetted against the rainy woods beyond.

"There you are!"

A battle cry erupted from Bobbi's lips, and she swung her left sock at the invader. The figure ducked just in time. Her metal die cracked against the doorframe, snapping a chunk off the wood before the splinter was whisked away by the wind.