oh noes

Chapter 2

As we descended into the tunnel, I noticed several things. Firstly, the sides of the tunnel were lined with glowing, purple crystals that seemed to dissolve into veins of violet blood along the gray and stony walls. The crystals were the only light that we had, but when I tried to remove one of them, Alicia huffed, exasperated.
“Hindralia below, can’t you keep your hands off of anything?” she groaned. Wincing, I asked, “But didn’t you say we were going to get crystals?”
“Well, not these!” she barked. “We’re getting the ones that are deeper in!”
“But what about light?”
“There’s more down there,” she hissed, “and the instant you remove one of those crystals, the light will disappear.” Embarrassed, I stopped trying to take the crystal and I followed her, keeping my eyes on the ground.
The second thing I noticed was that as we went further down, the tunnel seemed to…writhe. I’m not sure how to explain it, but the walls felt like they were moving - almost as if they were snakes, slowly slithering around and about. Whenever I stopped to try and make sense of it, the walls would stop moving…and Alicia would turn around, put her hands on her hips, and glare.
I tried to tell her about what I saw, but Alicia just thought I was crazy or making stuff up. According to her, I “just don’t want to go in! Cut the crap already!” Or she would say, “Your eyes just have problems, I guess. Wonder how you’re even able to hunt.” Eventually, I gave up on trying to convince her.
Lastly, the dirt floor would occasionally be pockmarked with holes. Every few meters or so, there would be a small space near the wall that had tiny spots covering it. They seemed to go down really deep, and when I finally stopped to give them a closer look, Alicia would come to a halt and tap her foot impatiently.
“Say, do you know what made these holes? They seem to be everywhere…” I questioned.
“What? Oh, those. This tunnel used to have a wyrm problem. Couldn’t go anywhere without seeing baby wyrms everywhere.” Alicia examined her sleeve apathetically.
Excuse me? Wyrms? A single wyrm was big enough that this tunnel would probably explode if there was one in it! Seeing my confusion, she explained, “The wyrms that were here are a different variety. I think historians called them phyrea wyrms.”
Fi…firee? How was that spelled? Giving the holes another glance, I slowly got up and continued on my way. I really didn’t want to know what…firee wyrms were, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask Alicia - I didn’t want to look stupid in front of her because she’d probably snap at me again. Shivering, I banished the thought. She was already scary enough…
As we walked through the tunnel, I found the silence a bit awkward. I didn’t quite feel like trying to understand all of these new things just yet since the Captain would probably explain them to me later - if he didn’t forget that he promised to, that is. It would be better to focus on the crystals for now, since that was what we were getting…
“So…um…what are the crystals we’re getting like?” I questioned. Alicia was silent for a moment, and then she asked, “Well, what do you mean by that? Are you asking for their appearance or what we need them for?” She glanced back at me.
“Well, it would be nice if you explained everything about the crystals,” I said, timidly. “I don’t really know anything about them at all…”
Alicia shifted her gaze back to the barely illuminated tunnel ahead and slowed down her pace a bit so that she was walking beside me. “So I figure I should start with appearance,” she decided. “After all, there’s no point in having you look for crystals when you don’t know what they look like, right?”
I nodded. “So are they purple like the one I was trying to get before?” I asked.
“Well, not quite. You see, the crystals gradually change from purple to blue as we go further through the tunnel. The ones we’re trying to get are indigo.”
“So…they’re the same. Just with different colors.”
Alicia sighed. “The color determines the concentration of magic in them,” she said, “and the more blue they are, the higher the concentration.”
“So why don’t we get the blue ones instead? Wouldn’t they be more efficient? Or is it too much for the sol wood to handle?” I asked.
“We can’t,” Alicia stated flatly. “They’re all gone. When Yarrow’s raiders came through, they took all of the blue ones and most of the indigo ones. Just finding some of the indigos is going to be hard enough.”
Since when were magic-imbued crystals popular? After all, magic was always in abundance. You just couldn’t walk a few meters without seeing any sort of…magic…
Suddenly, I thought back to all that had happened in the last few hours and counted all of the instances where I had encountered something magic-related. The gates of Drutchel had slammed shut on their own, which made one. The chaser…well, I wasn’t sure if the chaser counted, but I added it to the list anyway. The enchanted sol wood was the third thing I had seen that was magical, and the crystals were the last.
It didn’t make sense - usually, I would’ve encountered more…or at least, that was what I felt should’ve happened. There would’ve been magical creatures, enchanted trees, and maybe even a spell or two. Heck, a single spell would’ve solved the entire crew’s problems!
“...and the enchanted sol wood will…Hey, are you listening to me?” Alicia punched my shoulder, interrupting my series of thoughts.
“W-wha? Oh, sorry…Could you repeat all that?” I asked. Alicia huffed and then took a deep breath.
“Soooooo, the difficulty of fusing the crystal and wood will depend on the crystal’s size. The bigger it is, the easier it’ll be - the crystal will spread through the wood faster, and you won’t have to mix the crystals around as much. Not to mention, fusing magic-imbued items with non-magical objects is hard enough. You could lose both of the things you’re trying to mix together if it takes too long, which is why we need to find a relatively large crystal so as to improve our chances of getting our desired result.”
“But won’t a big indigo crystal like that be hard to find? After all, you said those people - Yarrow’s raiders - took a lot of the stuff already…”
Putting her hands behind her head, Alicia sighed. “Well, you’re right about that. We’ll just have to hope we can find a hidden deposit somewhere. If we can’t find any suitable crystals, then we’ll have to head to Drutchel and buy some iron, which will hopefully reinforce the wood.”
“Hidden deposit?” I asked. Alicia yawned and stretched.
“So basically,” she explained, “there might be a small crevice in the walls where we can find some remaining crystals. Our chances are somewhat unlikely, but it’s still possible.”
“What if we just used a lot of purple crystals? That could work, right? We’d just need enough of them to fuse with the wood.”
Alicia looked up at the ceiling. “That could work, but the propeller would become too big for the engine. And don’t ask why we can’t enlarge the engine, because it’s already far too detailed and delicate to be remade.” Looking back down, she crossed her arms.
“What happens after we fuse the wood and the crystal? If we find one, that is…” I tapped my index fingers against each other. Noticing that my hands weren’t very clean, I made a note to myself to wash my hands later. And boots. Nearly forgot about the boots.
“The enchantment on the sol wood will renew itself, and it’ll go back to its usual hardness - although, only for a couple of days. Then, it’ll go back to being squishy and we’ll have to sail manually.”
“Why can’t we use other types of wood to make the propeller out of?” I accidentally kicked a pebble that I hadn’t noticed, sending it skidding down the tunnel.
“Have you been living under a rock?” Alicia snapped. “Gurrund’s death made all the trees unusable. The only thing we can use instead of wood now is metal, and fusing wood with magical items is the only way to get wood to go back to normal.”
“Then what about the gangplank? How come that wasn’t bendy?”
“Looked like it was made of wood, didn’t it? That was made out of steel. Our resident painter just decided to start up a lovely project in which she would paint everything so that they would look like wooden planks. For the most part, I tried to dissuade her, but she was set on doing it. Not sure why.”
Setting the painting matter aside, I asked, “What about the forest? The tree I slammed into seemed pretty solid.” Remembering my run-in with the chaser, I rubbed my arm tenderly. The bruises ached in response.
“What forest?” Alicia gave me a curious look.
“You know, the one we just walked through?”
“...I’m starting to think you have problems. You should really get your eyes checked out when we get back to the ship. First, you say that the walls are moving, and now you say that there’s a forest? Seriously, I’m concerned about you…”
“But…” It had felt so…real. The vivid green of the trees’ leaves, the solid trunk, the twigs scattered about the path - how could Alicia say there wasn’t a forest?
“Oh, whatever. I’ll take you to Doc when we’re done here. Maybe. Oh, and Taylor?”
“Yeah…?”
“Stop asking so many questions. It’s annoying.”
Well, that was that. My attempts at getting answers just resulted in more and more questions. If the Captain didn’t explain everything, I was going to be very mad at him.
Our conversation had distracted me so much that I didn’t realize that the vein-like strands of crystal had turned bluer while we were walking. In fact, I didn’t notice until Alicia nudged me and said, “Hey, we’re here.”
“Wha? Oh…So now what?” I asked, coming to a stop. Alicia looked around the tunnel for a moment, almost as if she was trying to find something.
“You saw those little strips of sparkly crystal, right?” Before I could answer, she continued on. “Well, you’d really have eye problems if you didn’t. Anyway, you’re looking for a place where multiple of those strands combine to become one big line. Somewhere near that vein, you should be able to find a section of rock that’s loose. Knock it down and you should find a deposit.” With that, she approached a nearby wall and started inspecting it.
I watched her for a moment and then the idea hit me. Since we could stop now, Alicia wouldn’t yell at me for not walking. In other words, I could take a look at the seemingly moving walls without her getting mad at me. Although, I felt somewhat guilty for not doing what would probably be my fair share of the work.
Looking up at the ceiling, I walked around a bit. There really was a weird rippling effect whenever I moved around, but the walls would stop whenever I paused. They were almost like waves, seeing as how they would rise and fall over and over.
Turning my gaze to the wall on my right, I called, “Alicia?” I heard a short grunt in reply.
“Is there anything else that’s magical in this tunnel? You know, aside from the crystals and the…fiery worms?”
“Phyrea, p-h-y-r-e-a, and I don’t think so. As far as I know, this place used to be home to a cult of some type. They got caught doing a human sacrifice a couple of years ago, but they might’ve messed up the tunnel a bit before they left. Why, did you find anything interesting?”
“No. Just curious.” I started to walk again, watching the wall shift around. Suddenly, I noticed something - there was a small section of the wall that didn’t move with the rest. A couple of miniature boulders hid most of it, and when I took a closer look, I noticed several veins of crystal had combined into a thick strand of indigo.
Bracing my hands against one of the rocks, I pulled as hard as I could, trying to get the rock away from the section so I could inspect the area. It tipped over with a soft thump, and I used my feet to shove it further away from the wall.
The other rock still covered the area a slight bit, but it didn’t bother me as much, so I let it be. Crouching, I tentatively tapped on the unmoving section. It probably wouldn’t kill me, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful…right?
Nothing happened, so I assumed it would probably be safe to hit the area harder. Standing up, I kicked the wall. To my surprise, my foot made a hole in the wall, even though I hadn’t kicked particularly hard. Hunching over again, I looked into the gap.
I clearly remember that the inside was shining with the power of the sun. Maybe even several. I had to wait for my eyes to stop aching so that I could see again. When the spots in my vision cleared, I saw that it was glowing…blue? Not indigo? I thought we were supposed to be in the indigo crystal area…
Well, anyway, I guess Lady Fortuna was just happy with me today. And reaching inside the little pocket would probably yield better results than directly staring at misery in the form of light. Closing my eyes to avoid becoming blind again, I moved my right arm into the hole.
My fingers were met with a slightly warm surface. I felt around until I was sure that I could pull it out. The crystal inside was almost rectangular in shape, with a somewhat sharp top. Squeezing my eyes together harder, I reached inside with my left arm, braced my feet against the floor, looped my arms around the crystal, and shoved with my feet.
My arms ached as I kept pulling at the crystal. I thought I heard some cracks, so I tugged harder. After several seconds, the crystal snapped and I fell backward. Opening my eyes, I lifted the crystal up to my face.
It really was blue - a deep, dark cobalt blue with a soft glow. Looks like Yarrow’s raiders had missed this one, whoever they were. Alicia would be ecstatic when she saw it! I shouldered the bow (why the heck didn’t I ask Alicia for a quiver to go with it? How was I even supposed to defend myself? What was the point of a bow without an arrow?) and hugged the crystal close to my chest.
Turning towards the direction where she had been before, I took a breath and called out, “Alicia! I found something!”
“What?” came her reply. She was looking at the wall opposite from the one she had been looking at before. Excitedly, I jogged towards her.
“Look! It’s a blue crystal!” I announced. “Don’t be stupid,” she said dismissively, “there’s no way you could’ve found…”
Seeing that I did have one, she trailed off. Then, picking up right where she left off, she said, “Well. Guess you are good for something after all. Come along now, let’s head back to the ship.”
That was kind of mean, but it was okay. After all, that was just another part of Alicia’s personality. Hopefully.
The rest of our time in the tunnel seemed to pass by like a blur. I didn’t really pay attention to the time since I was ogling the crystal and making some “oohs and “ahhs” every time I saw something interesting. Alicia did stop and glare at me a few times, but I just couldn’t resist the temptation to stare at the crystal.
As the outside came into view, I heard the pleasant chirping of birds, reminding me about what Alicia had said. Was the forest truly fake?
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice the shadow sneaking up on me. All of a sudden, something heavy slammed into my head. My head ached and I gasped in pain. Stunned, I collapsed. The crystal tumbled out of my arms.
“Well, well, well,” I heard a gruff voice say. “Lookit wot we got ‘ere. Din’t dink dey’d finda blue grystul, uf all things. Shame dey gotta givit to us now, ain’t it?” I could faintly hear people laughing through the ringing of my ears. My body refused to move when I tried to get up.
“Tch! Yarrow’s raiders,” Alicia hissed.
You know, maybe she should’ve shown some concern for the person who just got hit in the head. Always an option.
“Ah, yer dat lass from da Drowned Destiny. Say, darling, why don’tcha join us, hmmmmm? We could use a priddy face ‘ere.” The man laughed, a sound that felt like slime was dripping into my ear.
“I’d rather drown,” Alicia spat. The men around her just laughed harder. Suddenly, Alicia pulled a dagger from her belt and pounced on the nearest man.
Shouts arose from the small crowd as Alicia slashed his throat, leaving her hand soaked in blood. Almost like a butterfly going from one flower to the next, she leaped onto another man with surprising flexibility and rammed the point of her dagger into his skull. Once more, she jumped onto another man. I was impressed but also a bit…scared.
The man standing over me clapped. “Brrrravo, bravo! Seems dey don’t bluff when dey say yuuve got da strength an’ speed of a hunnert men. Dem gawd-blessed are truly gifted. Say, why don’tcha finnesh off da resta dem? Dey’re useless ta me anyway. Meat sheulds, da lot a’ dem.”
He didn’t seem unnerved in the slightest, almost as if it had all gone according to his plan. I shifted my fingers, noting the lack of strength I felt. My head still throbbed, but I didn’t think I had a concussion. Hopefully.
Alicia ripped the last man’s head off of his neck. Remembering what Captain said about her ripping my face off if I wasn’t polite to her, I shivered.
“Puuuuurfeckt. Now we can tawk.” He stepped over me, took a few more steps, and then stopped. Sweeping his arms away from his chest, he said, “Say, lass, which gawd did ya git yer blessin’ from? Maybeh ah can help ya out.”
Alicia wiped the blood off her face, leaving a slightly reddish trail on her cheek. Spitting on a corpse nearby, she brushed her hands on her bloodstained shirt. “Hell no,” she answered. Pulling her pistol from its place on her belt, she cocked her gun and aimed at the man.
“Whooooooa dere, lass. Ya don’t wanna try meh now, do ya? Efter all…” Drawing his own pistol, he aimed it at me. “Ah’ll shoot yer sleepin’ friend ‘ere if ya do.”
He wasn’t even looking at me! The disrespect!
Wait.
Sleeping? He thought he’d knocked me out? Well, my eyes were barely open enough to see. And his misconception did put us at an advantage…
“Hindrawlea, hmmm? Ah’d say dat makes da most sense. Although, ah’m fairley tempted ta say Anwaur lookin’ at da way ya run around.”  The man scratched his face. Or, I think he did.
I shifted my fingers again. This time, I felt stronger. It seemed like all of my strength had come back to me - well, most if not all. I sat up, careful not to make any noise, and gestured at Alicia.
She didn’t notice. Dammit. How was that even possible? I was right behind her! The man may have been blocking her view, but she should’ve still seen me! Get some glasses, woman!
I laid back down, worried that I might’ve somehow gotten the man’s attention with all my waving and swaying. Not that it had done anything - Alicia was still glaring at the man.
“Stayin’ sahlent, are ya? Not dat it madders, uf course. Drop yer gun an’ kick et ta me. Ya won’t beh needin’ it fer a while now.” The man laughed again.
Alicia glared at him harder (which I didn’t think was possible, judging from the intensity of her stare) and let go of the pistol. Then, she kicked the gun, sending it skidding between the man’s legs…
…and right into my chest. Ow! But I was glad to see that she had seen my movements.
“Awwww, don’t beh meeeean. Oh, well. Ah’ll jus’ pick et up latur.” The man took another two steps forward, the noises sounding throughout the quiet tunnel.
I picked up the pistol and made sure it still had bullets in it.
“So, anywey…” Could I do it?
I pulled the safety trigger again, just in case.
“Et’s tahme…” What if I missed? What if he was wearing some sort of bulletproof armor?
I lined up the barrel of the gun with the man’s chest.
“...for ya ta die.” No. That didn’t matter. I’d try, or I’d die trying.
I fired.
A spot of scarlet blossomed around the dark, gaping wound. The man coughed, letting out a small torrent of blood hit the floor. He started to gasp for air.
“Nice shot, Taylor. Knew you could do it,” Alicia said absent-mindedly. Then, looking slightly more interested, she asked, “Say, do you have any interest in switching from a bow to a gun? They’re easier to maintain.”
I felt oddly at ease. Almost like I’d found some sort of inner peace. Funny, wasn’t it? I had felt unnerved when I saw Alicia rip the heads off of those men, but I didn’t even bat an eye when I shot the stranger. Alicia didn’t seem affected in the slightest, either.
What had I been doing back when I still had my memory? Why did this feel like second nature to me? I started to sweat.
“Hello? Taylor? Are you there?” Alicia shook me by my shoulders a little bit.
“W-wha? Oh…um…I think I’ll be fine with this bow. Guns might be a little…expensive.” I shook my head from side to side for a couple of seconds and looked at the man. He was writhing on the ground where he’d been standing.
Alicia noticed where I was looking. “Oh, don’t worry about him. I figure you shot him in the lung, which means that while he won’t be dying for a while, he certainly won’t be dying painlessly. Assuming he doesn’t find help, of course.”
Uh, hello? How was that supposed to make me feel better?
“Anyway, I think we should go back to the ship now.” She picked up the crystal, which was still growing brightly, and offered her hand. “Captain’ll be angry if we’re late. He’ll also be angry if we directly kill him, for that matter. Come on, let’s go.”
I took her hand and let her pull me up. Rubbing my head, I felt a dull pain where I had been hit. Great, another thing to add to the list. I dusted myself off, checking my clothes to make sure that there weren’t any bugs crawling on the fabric.
“Are you all right, though? It seemed like you took a pretty hard hit.” Alicia mused. She poked her head outside the tunnel, checking to see if there were still people around. Finding nothing, she looked at me with a small bit of concern on her face.
I sighed. “I’m fine. What about you? Did you get hurt doing that dangerous stuff?” I started to walk towards the light.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Alicia stretched and cracked the bones in her neck. “So, anyway, how’d you find that blue crystal?” she asked. Once I had caught up to her, she started to walk alongside me.
“You know what I said about the walls moving earlier?”
“Ughhh, not again…”
Ignoring her comment, I carried on. “Well, I was studying them. Instead of looking for the crystals like you asked, of course. Side note, please don’t rip my head off for not doing what you asked.”
Alicia gave me a bored look out of the side of her eye.
“So, while I was walking around and trying to make sense of the moving walls, I noticed this small area of wall that didn’t quite fit in with the rest.”
“And then you went and kicked it because why the hell not. Wonderful.” Yep, Alicia was back to normal again. “On the bright side, you did find a blue crystal. So congrats on that.”
I smiled at her sarcastically. “What? Got a problem?” she asked.
“Nope! Not at all!” I beamed at her. She turned away with an amused smile. I swooped down and grabbed a leaf (which was apparently fake but felt so real) from the forest floor and placed it on the rim of her hat. She didn’t seem to notice, which made sense, but was slightly less satisfying.
As we walked, I admired the scenery. It was the middle of autumn, which made the trees more…wait.
It was autumn. The leaves were supposed to be falling. The plants were supposed to be dying. Everything was supposed to be in hues of red and orange and yellow. But this entire forest…was green. It still didn’t make sense. The forest had felt so real, but…
I savored the setting for the rest of the walk. I wanted to see the forest while I could, whether it disappeared or I died. Of course, the chances of the latter seemed to have gone up infinitely, considering my…recent encounter.
Soon enough, the sun started to set, leaving the sky numerous shades of yellow and orange. The beach came into view, its light tan color from before replaced with a darker hue. All of the people who had been moving about were gone, and I could see the ship floating where it had been docked.
When we finally reached the ship, the Captain was leaning against the side of the ship, tapping his foot where we’d left him. Seemingly hearing our footsteps through the sand, he opened his right eye. His face took on a slightly annoyed expression.
“Hey, what took you two so long? And why does Taylor look worse than he did before?” the Captain asked. Noticing my obvious look of distaste at his rude comment, he added, “No offense, Taylor.”
“Well,” Alicia said, taking the initiative, “we did run into Yarrow’s raiders in the tunnel. And Taylor did get hit particularly hard… Say, did you see what hit you?”
“No.”
“Oh, hey!” the Captain said cheerfully. “You brought back a blue crystal! Nice job, Alicia. I didn’t think any were left, but I guess I was wrong.”
With a small bit of annoyance, I said, “Uh, actually-”
“Yep! That’s right, I brought the crystal back and Taylor did absolutely nothing.” she boasted. “Are you proud of me? Are you proud of me?” She snuck me a smug look.
I looked at her with an expression that I hoped read, “Really?” She just smirked.
“Why don’t we get back on the ship? Taylor can clean himself up and you can tell me about what happened.” The Captain beckoned at us to follow him, and we did.
No one was on deck, and the sky was pretty much black now - there was a small bit of noticeable blue where the sun had been, but that was it. A couple of stars twinkled above, outnumbered by the darkness. There were a few lanterns illuminating the ship and I could hear laughter coming from below.
“See you in a bit, Alicia! I’ll show Taylor where his room is. And the bathroom, for that matter.” Putting his arm around my shoulders, he guided me downstairs, through the dining area, (where a few people were talking and laughing) and to a small corridor.
“See those five doors on the left? It’s the third one. When you’re done, come to my quarters - which was the room on your left when you got on the ship - and we’ll talk. Provided that my business with Alicia is over, of course. You’ll be sleeping in that fifth room on the right, with the rest of the crew. And don’t forget to grab a bit of bread or something to eat.” Giving me a pat on the back, he turned around and left.
I walked over, opened the door, entered, turned on the light, and closed the door behind me. I could finally rest, which was a relief. Right, I had to clean my stuff, too. Nearly forgot. I turned on the faucet and let the soothing, warm water run over my hands for a while.