Reborn: High Strung | ONC2024

Chapter 6

Zev was standing on the stem of the oversized mushroom, his purple sethra strings clutched around the top of it just under the round cap. It was perfectly sized to shield him and Meira from the rain, if he could just get it to come off. It was so much more sturdy than he imagined, looking at it from afar. Meira was already back under the gigantic mushroom that dwarfed even the taller trees, watching him and starting to get a bit nervous as he struggled. Zev looks back and catches her expression, a shiver running up his spine as he calls out over the pattering rain, "Don't worry! I got this!" His heels dig into the shroom as he pulls harder, trying to sever the top of the stem.

Zev knew why he was struggling so much; his strings were still barely physical, mostly made up of his sethra. If he wasn't fully focused on them, they would lose what little physical form they had and seep into the mushroom before getting dissipated by its simple and natural sethra flow. It had only happened a few times, causing Zev to fall to the mud, but it was a strange sensation each time. It was as if, for a brief moment, his and the mushroom's sethra overlapped, like he was getting a small taste of the natural energy. If he wasn't so focused on needing to pop this cap off, he would think about that sensation further. Zev drew up all the sethra he could into his hands, strengthening and reinforcing his strings to their limits as he gripped them tighter. His arms started to feel like they were on fire, the burning feeling traveling up them and reaching into his chest as his heart pumped faster as if he were about to burst at the seams. "Come on, get off you damn mush-whatever!"

The purple energy strings saturate with more color, and they harden, becoming more real around the stem. Zev imagines Simon's spiral constriction technique and wonders if his strings could do anything like that. With his mind racing and nerves bubbling up his gut, Zev yanks his hands back and commands, "Constrict."

The strings quickly tighten around the stem, getting harder and more firm until finally bursting through it and dissipating quickly. Zev wobbles a bit, landing on his back as the cap slides off the stem and falls toward him. With a roll to the side, he narrowly dodges it as mud splatters around him and rain now beats down on his back. Zev gets up to his feet, grabbing the cap and dragging it back to the safety of the large tree-like mushroom that Meira stood under. He was huffing, panting, and soaked in water and mud, but he had done it. Meira's eyes were scanning him to make sure he was okay as he flopped the cap upside down near her pile of branches and sticks. Zev slowly turns to her and brushes himself off a bit, even though that didn't really help, before he calmly speaks through heavy breaths, "You ready to get started? I think this is all we'll nee-"

Two copies of Meira rush toward Zev as his vision blurs and starts to go black; her voice muffles, and she calls out to him as his consciousness fades. When Zev finally starts to wake up, he finds himself staring yet again at the giant underside of the tallest mushroom cap they had found safety under. His vision was a bit hazy but slowly returned as he heard Meira sit up straight and start nudging his shoulder. "Zev? Hey, wake up. How are you feeling?"

"I feel," He sits up gently and feels his head spin and heat resting in his whole body. "Fine, mostly. A little dizzy, I guess."

"Zev, you need to be more careful. You can't just will yourself to be able to handle more sethra like that. You could have gotten seriously hurt!"

Zev winces a bit at her tone shifting into anger: "I got the job done, and I'm fine; besides, you pushed me plenty just to get me to flame; I can't stop now."

Meira sighs and leans back a bit. "I was one hundred percent sure you were ready each time I pushed you forward."

Zev thinks on her words, knowing they were true, and gives a soft nod, but even so, he rubs a hand down his face and repeats, "I can't stop now."

"I want to find Simon with you; I've already set my mind to it, but I want you to be in one piece when we do." Her tone softened a bit.

Zev slowly gets up to his feet, just a little bit shaky as he gives her a lopsided smile. "Yeah, you're right. Let's stay here for a couple of hours and rest. We can start moving again then."

Meira looks up at him and joins his smile, gesturing over to the pile of sticks and the mushroom cap nearby. "We'll rest and then pull this junk into something handy, safely, without you overdoing it." Her laugh was a bit more lighthearted now that she could see he was alright.

The next few hours were spent relaxing under the giant mushroom. Meira was watching and scanning the wildlife and plants here. Zev mostly rests his aching muscles and head. He looks around his bare arms, finding strange burn-like marks in scattered lines around his upper arms, with a few on his forearms as well. Marks of using more sethra than his body could currently handle, he was sure, but this had to be good news as well. It meant that he had enough sethra to push farther already; he just needed to learn how to properly harness it. It wasn't till the rain started to lighten up and more sethra beasts came out to graze that Meira's expression started to shift into one of confusion. Zev notices and gets up, starting to stretch his refreshed body out. "What's the matter?"

"I just find all these ember-level beasts kind of odd; they're so skittish, but I can't tell why. If there was something out here to be scared of, wouldn't we have at least heard or seen something by now?" Her voice was lower than before as a bit of fear sparked in her.

Zev thought about it and looked at the cute little single-horned deer creatures as they seemingly hid from them while grazing. The light pattering of rain was growing less and less by the moment, but for some reason he had a feeling of unease swelling in his gut. "Maybe we should," he began to speak while turning his attention back to Meira, but froze mid-sentence with an icy shock before a harsh shout ripped from his throat: "Meira, turn around!"