Twisted Destiny

I fly our group down to the ground, following the pulses from the crystal and the memory of what the crystal had shown me on the ‘television’. Being this close to the ground really enhances the feeling of how big this city actually used to be. It is one thing to have it been shown to you, but being down below at the base of these huge buildings is definitely an entire feeling all together. 

On our way to the watering hole, we also fly past a similar scene that I had seen before. The person that I had seen dying in the memory still laid there with the crystal coming out of them. More of their compatriots lying around closeby. It’s a very solemn moment and apart from the sound of my wings flapping and armor clattering, we aren’t making a peep. 

It takes me about five minutes before we arrive next to the water that had been shown to me. A somewhat steady stream of water was pattering down the crystalline wall and in its turn, the water was leaving the crystal bassin from the other side, trickling down onto stone and into a small erosion-created brook. 

I set my friends down on the ground and land right next to them, looking around the area for a moment. “This all seems flat enough to me to lay down our bedrolls.”

Sid nods. “Our bedrolls are a bit tattered but they will do. It seems like it isn’t too cold down here.” 

The temperature is definitely bearable enough to sleep, even with a couple of holes in our sleeping bags. 

I take out my empty water flask and kneel down next to the pond to fill it up. The water itself looks crystal clear, and that’s not a pun, it seems incredibly pure.  “This water is probably good enough to drink without boiling.” I look at Sid. “What do you think?” 

Sid puts Gamma down on the bedroll he had just finished unrolling and then walks over to me, kneeling down to the water himself. “Looks like it, yes. Let me taste some.” 

I hand my flask over to Sid and he puts it to his lips, taking a good swig of it. “So, what do you think?” 

“Wow.” Sid’s eyes are slightly wide and filled with amazement. He looks down on the pond. “I feel… invigorated.” 

“Well, we have been walking through a desert.” 

“No, not like that.” Sid replies. “It actually feels like this has given me new energy. Like my power itself is getting refreshed.” He then hands the bottle back to me and takes his own flask to fill up on some more. 

“Really?” I drink a bit of water from my flask as well and just as Sid said, it does feel like I’m immediately feeling a lot more energized. Somehow it reminds me of getting a kind of sugar rush. “Oh, I see what you mean.” @@novelbin@@

“Right?” Sid nods and drinks his entire flask empty in one big chug, refilling it immediately after. “I’ll give some to Gamma too, at the very least we don’t want her to get dehydrated either, in the best case scenario though…” Sid runs over to Gamma and tilts her up a little, dripping in some water making sure she swallows it. A few moments later after he had done this, Gamma groans. “In the best case it wakes her up.” 

“W-where am I?” Gamma groans even more as she carefully opens her eyes. “My head hurts.” 

“Just take it easy, Gamma.” I approach our purple catgirl slowly. “You’ve been out for quite a bit.” 

Gamma takes a moment to situate herself and to catch her breath from the initial stress of waking up in a place she doesn’t recognize. “Where is Veanya and Sam? What are we doing in a cave?” 

“Do you remember what happened before you got knocked out?” Sid asks, while he props Gamma up his thigh. 

“Uh… vaguely.” She closes her eyes for a couple of moments before she continues speaking. “We were investigating the portal, right?” 

Both Sid and I give her a nod. “Yeah, let us tell you what happened afterwards, but don’t panic, okay?” 

Gamma nods in return, slightly weary from our comments.

Sid and I continue by telling Gamma about what had just happened for half an hour while trying not to overwhelm her too much. Although it does seem like the water has helped quite a bit so we didn’t really have to hold back too much. 

“So we are stuck here?” Gamma asks. “And V and Sam are stuck on the other side.” 

“At least for now, yes.” I nod. 

“Have you tried contacting them yet through the chat system?” 

“It doesn’t seem to work.” Sid replies. “Amicia’s teleport doesn’t work either.” 

“That’s not good.” 

“I’m sure they are fine and now we also know what to do next on our side.” I reply. “So overall we could be a lot worse off. We got extremely lucky finding this place.” 

“Are we going to move out tomorrow then, to find that complex?” Gamma is already thinking about the plan ahead. 

“That was our plan, yes.” Sid nods. “Do you think you will be up for that?” 

“I’ll have to see tomorrow. I don’t want to be a burder, however… I am feeling better by the second.” 

“Good, there’s probably something in the water here that’s helping us regenerate our powers. It might be the crystals that are infusing them with it.” Sid says. 

“I still don’t know how I should feel about the sentient crystals though.” Gamma replies as she looks at the crystalline bassin. As she says that the crystal turns orange for a second before turning a dimmed blue again. 

“They have done nothing but help us.” I reply. “And in any case, the enemy of our enemy is our friend I would say.” 

“I suppose that’s fair.” Gamma nods meekly. “I apologize for being a bit cautious.” 

The crystal glows a brighter blue before dimming again. 

“I see, your emotions are pretty easy to read aren’t they.” Gamma chuckles softly. 

“They are, it’s surprisingly easy to communicate with them.” I nod in agreement. “Even though we can’t really exchange words.” 

We set up the rest of our makeshift camp and make sure to hydrate well on our newfound water source. At the same time Sid uses a couple of our already dwindling supplies to prepare an evening meal for us all. 

“I wonder what aspect of this water makes us feel so much better.” I say as I watch Sid make us some soup. “I don’t sense any mana in it so why is it that it seemingly refills our powers?” 

“I don’t know.” Sid shakes his head. “It’s a curious case indeed.” 

“If only I could access my pocket dimension here.” Gamma sighs. “I’ve got equipment in there that could give us some pointers to what it is. It might be some kind of micro organism in the water. Or it might just be something chemical.” 

“Perhaps.” I nod and lean back while looking at our purple catgirl. 

It takes a couple of seconds before Gamma notices I’m staring at it. She blushes and then hides herself in the bedroll she is laying in. “What are you staring at, you weirdo.” 

“Nothing.” I chuckle. “I’m just happy that you woke up, that’s all. We were both pretty worried about you. We weren’t sure when you would wake up.” 

“Was I that hurt?” She asks, peeking out of the bedroll again. We had left out a couple of those details during our explanation earlier as they didn’t really matter too much for the context of the world we found ourselves in. 

“It was pretty bloody.” I nod. “You had also broken a couple of bones but I managed to heal those for the most part.” 

“Okay, now I wish that I hadn’t asked…” Gamma replies. “But thank you for healing me.” 

“No problem. I’m glad you are doing better.” 

When Sid is done preparing the soup, he gives us both a bowl and sits in between the two of us. “My apologies if the soup is a bit bland, but it is full of nutrients.”

I give the soup a taste and at least to me it seems totally fine. The little pieces of dried meat that he added actually make it rather tasty. “It’s not going to win any prizes I think, but in my opinion it’s actually rather good.” On second thought, it might also be the water that’s adding a lot of taste, who knows. 

“Hmm, thanks. I’m trying to make the best of what we have.” 

Gamma manages to get some soup inside of her too. “Do you think Veanya and Sam are doing okay back on Haurchefaud?” 

“They both are very skilled and they have a lot of back up, I’m sure they are fine.” Sid replied. 

“Yeah, exactly.” I reply. Although I’m still a bit nervous about not being there for Sam, If there is one thing I do know, it’s that my girlfriend is not a quitter. She’s going to give everything she can to solve the problem at hand and I should do the same.