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by Matthew Siege

  "Damn it," I muttered, kneeling and scooping up as much Rare Water as I could, doing an impressive job of filling my mouth with it and holding my breath at the same time. All that was left to do was push my way as far into the ooze’s glop as I could, and when I did I felt the cold cling of its embrace close behind me.

  I'd given up on hearing the orchestral swell of a completed puzzle. Instead, my stomach tried to claw up my throat as the ooze and I tipped over the edge and gravity had its way with us.

  Skill: Faith

  Some never find it all, and even those that do often misplace it along the way.

  Base Score - Zero

  New Score - One

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  I was floating on a large body of water, hanging on to a ragged scrap of what was left of the ooze for all I was worth. Smaller chunks of it bobbed all around me. When we'd struck the water, its mass must have protected me.

  When I tried to open my eyes, I had to wipe away a thin film of gelatinous snot before I could see.

  "Hello?" I called, startling some shimmering insects that had been feeding on globs of the ooze's corpse into flight. "Little help?" The air had an unpleasant bite to it. It made my eyes and the back of my throat itch.

  I was on either an ocean or a lake—something big enough to have its own tide. Right now the relentless press of the water was hell-bent on pushing me through a stiff wall of reeds that grew near the bank, and when I stretched my legs down I was pleased to find the bottom.

  At least it was shallow enough for me to walk. Once I was sure of my footing, I held on to a few of the reeds and let the blob I'd been using as a raft float away. Within moments it was covered by yet more insects.

  It wasn't as bright as it had been. I still couldn't find the sun, but I had a feeling that night was a long way off. The reeds blocked my view of most of the shore, and behind me was only a long, straight horizon holding nothing but water and sky.

  As I picked my way into even shallower water, I checked my hit points. Neither the ooze or the fall had made a dent, and I was still full from the Rare Water.

  The reeds were clustered more densely the closer I got to the shore, and by the end I was physically shoving them out of the way. They snapped off below the water level, tumbling to one side or another with swampy splashes.

  By the time both of my feet were on dry land, my eyes were watering and it felt like my tongue was swelling.

  Unsuitable Environment

  The Nursery requires a higher level of acidity than your Faction has been designed to tolerate. You will lose 1 Hit Point every fifteen minutes until you rectify this.

  -1 Hit Point

  "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?" I asked the Citadel, just in case a referee was watching. I figured that there had to be at least a couple Yvarre'en checking on me, even if Toot was gone.

  If there were, they remained silent.

  "Fine. If you guys are so smart though, why did you bother with acidic air right after dropping me into an ocean of water that'll heal me?" I defiantly turned around and brought some of the liquid I'd just stepped out of to my lips with my hand, drinking deeply.

  It tasted sour, like overripe lemons.

  -2 Hit Points

  Perfect. So much for that idea. I spat out what I could, knowing now that there was no way what I'd just drunk was the same stuff that had healed me before. The description for Raw Water had mentioned that it'd been filtered through something, and I began to suspect that it was the ooze itself that had lent it the curative properties.

  Now that I was no longer submerged, the chill wind could get to me. It wasn't wasting any time sucking away what little body heat I had left, and I knew that before too long I was going to need to find some sort of shelter.

  I was getting hungry too, and it struck me that I'd never had anything to eat inside the Citadel. This place was, in a lot of ways, a sanctuary from most of the worry and pain that shadowed the rest of my 'real' life, and yet I'd never done something as simple as enjoy a meal within its walls.

  Should I be trying to find or build a shelter? I doubted it. My experience in here so far had revolved around advancement, and the longer I remained where I was, the more my Hit Points would bleed away. I was hopeful that my Suffer ability would keep me from dying, though even if it did I'd soon have so little health that any sort of combat would easily prove fatal.

  That didn't mean I needed to go on without grabbing what I could, though. The reeds seemed like they'd burn, and a fire would be useful. If I could lash some of them together and make a few torches, I'd even be able to press on when darkness eventually fell.

  With that in mind, I reached into my pocket for the Thricen Ore, but of course it wasn't there anymore. I'd lost the gear I had when I'd died in the fight with CAV. The lives I'd led in the Citadel were already beginning to run together.

  Without a way to start a fire, the reeds served no immediate purpose. I didn't see the point in weighing myself down by bringing any with me, so I turned, picked a spot on the ragged horizon and started walking away from the shore.

  I didn't even get a chance to take a dozen steps before something flew past my head. My first instinct was that I was being targeted by another archer, which made me duck and sidestep to avoid getting skewered.

  The sudden movement almost made me collide with a second airborne projectile, this one faster and larger than the first. It also changed direction, slipping by without making contact with me. The way it had altered course mid-flight told me it was alive, and I turned to see a third broad-winged, agile serpent join the two that had just zoomed by.

  The things seemed to possess an exotic combination of feathers and scales. The way they effortlessly swam through the air was incredible to watch, and I stood there like a fool staring at their grace. Now that I wasn't in their way anymore, all three of them banked and angled toward the dense reeds off to the left.

  They circled purposefully in the air a few times, moving further away from me with each shimmering revolution. Finally, they dove and beat at the vegetation with their wings, knocking the plants flat and revealing a large, roughly-constructed bowl of moss and twigs floating gently in the water.

  The nest was practically overflowing with a mass of large, sticky eggs about the size of baseballs. A soft glow emanated from each of them.

  Before I could grasp exactly what was about to happen, the attack was underway. The serpents were ruthless, darting in and snatching an egg in their jaws before soaring upward. They feasted as they ascended—yolk, egg juice, and lumps of un-hatched creature raining down amongst the reeds.

  The slaughter showed no signs of slowing. Over and over the serpents relentlessly dipped down and stole a prize from the nest before smashing it and looping back for more. The carnage was efficient though, and in the space of a minute they had almost completed the nest's ruin.

  I felt myself take a step forward. I'd never been one to stand by and watch so clear an injustice take place, but my inner-voice warned me off. Let it be, Adam, I warned myself. You're not the judge and jury. Everything has a right to food, both inside and outside the Citadel.

  It was simply my instinct for self-preservation trying to get ahead of my anger, but it wasn't working. I could plainly see that these things had already eaten their fill. They weren't acting on hunger, at least not anymore.

  I could sense their malicious intent now and unslung the bow from my shoulder before reaching into the quiver, willing an arrow into existence and then nocking it as the bowstring appeared.

  If I was really going to do this, I was only going to get one shot at surprising them. I grit my teeth and aimed, determined to make it count. Instead of trying to track their splendidly slippery, inky forms in the air I stared down the arrow at a spot just above what was left of the nest.

  The largest of the serpents was next in the rotation, and when he flew low and extended his mouth to pluck another egg I expertly slid an arrow straight through his left eye and
out his right.

  The thing made a guttural, spluttering noise and nosedived, crashing into the reeds.

  Skill: Archery

  The ability to use physical leverage to propel a shafted projectile.

  Base Score - Sixty

  New Score - Sixty-One

  *Forty points have already been added to this ability because of the Contestant's prior experience.

  Defeated Glossy Viper

  85 Experience

  Prior experience? That could only mean the Eagle Scout stuff, which explained why Booker and Evelyn had included it in the notes about me contained within the manila folder.

  As impressed as I was that I'd actually struck my target, this was hardly the time for celebration. The other two flying serpents reacted immediately, turning on me and coiling their tails in the air behind them like springs.

  I was ready for them to charge me, though their eyes flashed white and sparks trailed from their jaws right before each of them breathed a crackling bolt of lightning into life.

  Dodging wasn't an option. I barely had enough time for my brain to piece together what was about to happen before the energy sliced through the air and struck me.

  -2 Hit Points

  -1 Dexterity *Temporary*

  -2 Hit Points

  -1 Dexterity *Temporary*

  I cried out in pain as the attacks burned my flesh and made my muscles jump around to the point where I almost dropped the bow. I fell to my knees, wracked by paroxysmal agony.

  One of them got curious and decided to dip close and press the issue, zooming low to see if he could do the same thing to my face with his jaws that he'd just done to the eggs.

  I took my chance and lashed out with the bow. The bowstring was a weapon, and it caught him high in the shoulder and neatly lopped off one of his wings in a flash of energy. Unable to slow, he hit the ground at my feet hard. I stomped on his neck, crunching bone before he could resort to more lightning.

  He thrashed, his tail coiling uselessly around my leg before going limp.

  Defeated Glossy Viper

  70 Experience

  There was only one left, and the last serpent's instinct for self-preservation was clearly the keenest. I watched as he beat his wings harder and pulled back, gaining altitude.

  He was smart enough not to stay in one place, which meant that I had to decide if I was going to trust a bow held in hands made shaky by the last electrical barrage or back off, trying to get out of range of the lightning and make myself a more difficult target.

  Yet again, the voltage forked down so quickly that I didn't have a chance to get out of the way.

  -1 Hit Point

  -1 Dexterity *Temporary*

  That shot hadn't hurt as much, most likely because of the distance he'd put between us. It did force me to drop my bow, though. As soon as the serpent saw that I was unarmed, it traded altitude for speed and dove even lower. I did everything I could to anticipate his next attack, and when he opened his mouth to cook me with yet more lightning I almost got out of the way of it.

  Almost, but not quite.

  -2 Hit Points

  -1 Dexterity *Temporary*

  At this rate it wouldn't matter what I did. He could happily stay up there and pick me up part at will. By the time I was able to retrieve my bow and take a half decent shot at him, my accuracy would be so low that my arrow would probably find a way to miss the ground on the way down.

  On top of that, I only had 6 Hit Points now. A couple more shots would earn me a one-way trip back to the Glade. I retreated as best I could, figuring that I'd proven my point. Both of his compatriots were dead.

  I glanced over at the edge of the water to make sure the first one hadn't been playing possum and saw that there was only a single egg left in the center of the nest.

  The winged serpent already knew that, and once he'd forced me back what he considered a safe distance he turned in the air, confident enough in his victory to show me his back. His body language made it clear what his plan was: completing the nest's eradication.

  After all of those damn deductions they'd stacked up on my Dexterity, I didn't trust my ability with the bow. Without a way to hit him at range, I did the only thing I could think of to save the egg, dashing forward splashing through the water. I got there just before the surprised serpent and threw my body across the egg, trying not to crush it along the way.

  I only had a split second to congratulate myself on the futility of my actions before a blast of lightning ripped up my back.

  -3 Hit Points

  -1 Dexterity *Temporary*

  This is it, your last futile action. And once you're dead, it'll all be for nothing. He'll pop the egg in his jaws just like the others and you'll be back in the Glade as empty-handed as when you began this goose chase.

  The only thing I could do was stare the serpent down. If I was going to die, I was determined to meet it head on, so I threw a hateful glare over my shoulder at the beast hovering above me.

  He hissed, his eyes flashing white once more. His jaws opened and the sparks again cascaded. I was near enough to feel his indrawn breath all the way down in my gut as I watched him take careful aim.

  If I had blinked, I'd have missed the thick, gluey tongue smacking into the side of the flying snake's head and ripping the serpent out of the sky. It happened so fast that, if it weren't for the puff of drifting feather and shimmer of fallen scale, I'd probably have been able to convince myself that the creature had simply vanished.

  I heard him hit the ground on my left, and I stood up to see a dust cloud kick up where he'd impacted as the shrieking, snarling sounds of a fight erupted. I stumbled closer, covering my ears as they screamed and tore at each other. I couldn't look away from the melee as horn and talon and claw dug deep. The serpent had wrapped his body around his attacker, but whatever he was holding on to was doing damage as well, goring what looked like a silver horn up into the snake's soft underbelly, piercing it badly in multiple places.

  Neither one of them bothered to dodge the other's attacks. They slugged it out like heavyweight fighters, battling ferociously until they slumped to the side together. I waited for the dust to settle, only to discover when it finally did that both of the combatants were clearly not long for this world.

  The serpent's back was broken, and the thing that had fought him, a big creature that looked like a leathery-skinned mix of dog and bullfrog with a hooked horn between its nostrils, was gushing green blood from a dozen places.

  When it rolled its blue eyes at me and opened its mouth, I jumped as a long tongue unfurled along the ground. It sucked in air and bulged its mottled throat sac, clearly trying to communicate before death-rattling the last of its air in my direction.

  I had no idea what it had attempted to tell me. Whatever that noise was meant to mean, it must have been important. The fact that I hadn't understood made me feel like I'd failed it, and I felt bad about that.

  It had trusted me with a solemn responsibility, and I hadn't lived up to it.

  I sighed, more emotionally invested in the death of this odd creature than I was prepared for. Your last words are supposed to be the most poignant ones you ever speak, possibly echoing in the ears of your loved ones forever. I'd been thinking about what mine would be for months, and I was still drawing a blank.

  I want to the frog thing, though as I got closer I saw just how like a canine's the hindquarters were. I laid my hand against its side, surprised by how soft the rough-looking hide actually was.

  Lasting Legacy: This creature has offered you a heavy burden. There will be no penalty if you decide you are not up to it.

  I didn't know what that meant, and while I turned it around in my head I checked the dead serpent to see if it had any loot for me.

  It didn't. The one whose wing I'd clipped was empty of loot, too. For a second I wondered if I should be carving the vipers up for food, but after being poisoned by the water I didn't trust it. Anything that could live in this environment wo
uld probably do me more harm than good.

  I needed to check on the last egg, but even from here I could see that the nest had disintegrated. The thing I'd tried to rescue was gone, lost amongst the reeds.

  I almost left the first serpent I'd killed where it bobbed in the water, since the others hadn't given me anything other than some experience and the fight of my life. But waste not want not was another thing my family had taught me, this one from a great-grandfather that'd lived through one of the depressions.

  I was probably going to die anyway, and the handful of hit points I had wouldn't last me long. I splashed back into the water and touched the serpent's body.

  Nothing. Of course...

  I was close enough to where the nest had been to see shell fragments and ichor floating on the water's surface. "I'm sorry," I said to the remnants of the eggs. All those lives lost were weighing me down. "You never had a chance, did you?"

  Their death was infinitely worse than what was happening to me, a guy who'd had a life full of chances and yet had taken none of them, a man who now spent what was left of his life pissed off at all the wrong things.

  I was just about to turn away, when I saw a glimmer of color and movement. I froze and looked closer. There, shadowed by the black reeds and tucked into the last vestige of the ruined nest, lay the lone egg, still glowing.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  I wondered if I would be endangering the life within the egg if I took it out of the water, even though the world around me had just violently demonstrated that it wasn't safe where it was. The plum glow from within swirled now and then, and when I bent and peered into the depths of it I saw that there was a source of light in the middle that the critter within occasionally swam past.