Drowning in the Red Sea
I'm pretty sure everyone knows the drill by now.
Warning(s): The usual swearing, possible yaoi. God knows with Albel… Like I said, I write this out before the story.
Also: If anyone points out any errors for me, you get a cookie. I write this without any proofreading (and I'm too damn lazy to do it), so if you spot anything, don't hesitate to tell me.
Notes: PF (Pyroclastic Flow), so sorry that Albel wasn't tipping over with dizziness. He would've been woozier, you're right, but I accidentally left that part out in my quest to establish other things. Thanks for the notice though. Also, I wasn't planning on having Nel lust after Albel, so don't worry.
XxX
The sun had reached its zenith in the sky, as did the temperature. It was sweltering hot in the arid deserts that speckled the long stretches of countryside between towns. The country of Greeton had a truly sparse population… And to further Albel's already dismal mood, there was the realization that the only shade that would be provided to them was that of a sand dune eclipsing the sun. And considering that the sun was high in the sky, shade was not going to offer itself to the traveling companions anytime soon. Cliff and Fayt had already stripped off their shirts and gloves, but Nel stubbornly resisted the heat in order to retain a woman's modesty. The Black Captain almost felt sorry for her, and had he not thought that modesty was a wasted moral, then he might've given her more respect.
He concluded that the heat was becoming too much to bear, and stripped off his stockings in favour of ventilation. Since his skirt would provide some shade for his legs, he didn't have to worry about the high temperature cooking them. He had fallen a bit behind since he stopped to remedy his situation, and his companions were yelling at him to hurry up already. He sighed as he quickened his pace to stay within a decent range of the group (but not too close, as that would warrant contact with certain morons).
However, and much to Albel's dismay, one of those aforementioned morons dropped back to presumably converse with him over pointless topics. That moron was Cliff, and the topic was Albel's physical and mental health. "Hey, you okay? You seem to be staggerin' back and forth like a dunk."
Was he staggering? The landscape seemed fairly steady to him… "I am not drunk and I am not staggering, so quit wasting my time and drag your damned hulking ass back up there with the rest of the worthless vagabonds."
"Jeez, you don't need to tear my head off for just asking a question… You remember what Nel said about the Valley of Obduration, right? Well, I hope you're prepared, 'cause I can see its nasty blizzard up over that sand dune." He pointed to a faint hint of white activity over a particularly tall dune in the distance.
"You know full well that I never listen to a damn thing that comes out of that wench's mouth." This wasn't exactly, the truth, but it seemed parallel to what he would've said had he not an inkling of respect for Nel.
"Lay off for a while, will ya? I'm trying to do you a favor, here… She said that the Valley of Incontinence 'is aptly named when considering its irregular weather changes'. Basically, one minute it's as bad as this desert, and the next, you're buried in the middle of a snowstorm. And to top it all off, the gravity's all screwed up there. She said it was the result of a nasty battle between Aquios and the ancient Greeton warriors, and the clash of their weaponry. Basically, expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything."
"…Fuck." The last thing he wanted was the tangible form of his mind looming ahead. Not only that, but the blonde oaf had the nerve to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which deserved a murderous glare from the recipient of the gesture. As Cliff quickly recoiled his hand for fear of having it amputated in an utmost gruesome manner, Albel took advantage of the opportunity to pull ahead of the Klausian. It worked, for a time, until he decided that he hadn't tortured Albel enough with his pointless banter. Albel made a mental note to rip out his vocal cords and tie off circulation to his dick with them as the older man proceeded to prod him.
"Look, I know you don't like it when we dig into your business, but you'll have to get used to it if you keep up with your adamant refusal to tell us anything. Life isn't gonna fix itself, you know. And those aren't going away anytime soon, either." He pointed to the scars visible on Albel's bare arms.
Albel folded his arms to hide the cuts from view. "Did the thought ever occur to you that I don't want your help? That perhaps I don't want my life to change? Have you any consideration for my opinion over my life? Don't feed me this bullshit if you won't even consider my perspective over the matter."
"And what isyour oh-so-damned-important opinion over the matter, huh? It's pretty damn hard to consider your views when you won't even tell them to us, you know that?"
Albel tched and looked away from the blonde. He was right, in a sense, considering that he didn't want to tell anyone about his weaknesses, yet he refused to have others rule his life without a say in it. He was, essentially, stuck in a rut. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation for one side of him. He wished he could stop time and get away from this, but running is weakness. He had to face the realization that he was full of these contradictory rules and that was what formed his miraculously self-defeating nature. He couldn't make a decision and fulfill every requirement, yet that need for perfection was always prevalent and dominant when considering those decisions. However, he would soon come to realize that deciding between his choices would not be necessary.
"Hey, don't kill me for this, but…" He rummaged around in his back pocket and pulled out a neatly-folded note. "I found this on the floor when you left yesterday and I read through it. I know from this that you've been through hell, but at some point in time, you gotta realize that you're human and you're bound to make mistakes. No one's perfect."
"You what?" A look of shock paired with anger twisted his features. No one violates his privacy like that. Under no circumstances had he the right to read that note. But then again, it was because of his own reckless negligence that Cliff got ahold of the note in the first place… This was disastrous. "I should murder your parents for bringing such a worthless piece of shit into this world… If you breathe a word of this note to anyone, I will mulch you. Now get the hell away from me, scum."
"You're the one who dropped it, smartass… Now cut the threats because no one I know is afraid of an anorexic cutter that shoots his mouth off all the time. And you can tell me to fuck off as much as you damn well please, but it's not going to change a damn thing. But hell, what am I saying? Go ahead and be a coward. Run away from your problems. Just don't come cryin' to me about it…"
"I don't need you lecturing me." He unsheathed his katana and held it with practiced ease in his claw. It was poised to strike his right arm. "If you don't want me to drive this sword through my forearm and saw it in half, then drop the damned subject. I'm sick and tied of listening to you talk."
Cliff only sighed. "Goddammit, Albel…" He gave the younger man a reproachful glance before catching up to Fayt and Nel, who instantly questioned him about the argument that just occurred. Albel watched the three of them bicker back and forth for a little while, with jerked hand gestures indicating their anger at him. He didn't really care; it was none of their business. What they should've been focusing on is how to get out of this damned desert. The heat was making him nauseous, and he knew this was a sign of possible heat stroke. He had been living in Airyglyph for most of his life, so this wasn't an illogical possibility.
Finally, the entire group could see the last towering sand dune in relative detail. Beyond that would be harsher weather conditions and warped gravity in the Valley of Obduration, and that would be a bit of a tribulation for the team to surmount in order to arrive at the town of Jeinous. They could already see the rotating peaks of boulders suspended in the air. The blizzard that once ruled the unsteady land became a thunderstorm, and lightning shot up to the sky. It was a frightening sight to behold. When they had finally reached the base of the mountain, Nel announced to the team what they were up against in greater detail.
She sat down in the slight shade of the sand dune, glad that noon had passed. "We will be entering the Valley of Obduration now. Like I said before, it's one of the areas in Greeton where a decisive battle from a war a thousand years past had taken place. As you might've noticed, the weather conditions are extremes, and quite unpredictable. At one moment we have a blizzard, and the next we have a thunderstorm. This is the effects of incredible elemental runology, and one of the downsides of the spells we will be obtaining. The warped gravity is another repercussion to magic clashing with magic, and I must say, I'm amazed that such devastating effects remained, and this is the residual of how bad it once was."
Fayt, having been educated in physics, had analyzed the problem and spoke up. "Guys, if you see an area where you think you can jump from one cliff to another, don't chance it. If the gravity is as bad as I think it is, you might jump halfway before you cross into a different force and it pulls you to the ground as if you weighed quadruple what you do now. Be really careful."
"All right then, let's go." Cliff began to climb the side of the sand dune and paused at the top. He was surveying the land they had just crossed before turning and bearing witness to the epitome of spontaneity. It was truly shocking. He watched as boulders hurled themselves through the air and then came crashing back down with incredible force, enough to make craters. Others seemed to cross stranger forces, zigzagging vertically through the air. Massive chunks of rock big enough to be a considerable size when compared to a mountain remained upside-down and levitating, sometimes rotating on an axis. Below the mess of rocks were clouds, covering the basin of the valley. It would be too dangerous to cross down there, considering the meteorite force of which the boulders plummeted to the earth. Not only that, but powerful bolts of lightning shot to the sky from these clouds, along with blizzards and possibly acid rain. It would be a wise idea to take the path winding up and cross the sections of cliffs that… weren't attached to the ground in any way. He could only hope that they would hold his weight.
"Albel, what are you doing?" Nel and Fayt asked in unison. They were watching the Twisted One pace around the last flat area of the desert, picking up the occasional palm-sized rock and placing his findings in one of the empty knapsacks.
The Black Captain gave them a condescending glare. "Isn't it obvious? Judging by your explanation, we're going to need something to test where we'll be traveling to, and if we have to jump to another cliffside, we'll need to know where it's safe so we don't fall to our doom. As much as I'd rather have Cliff be the guinea pig, there's only one of him so if he falls, then we won't have anything else to test on it. And I, for one, have already fallen off a mountain, and I don't want to know what if would be like if I suddenly weighed four hundred pounds and traveled twice the distance." It was more than he preferred to say, but it stalled them from crossing into that abysmal pit with a meiotic name.
"I hadn't thought of that before, Albel. Good job." Fayt smiled at the caustic swordsman before climbing the last dune and checking in with Cliff on what they were up against. Nel lingered for a little while, offering help to Albel, but when he turned it down, she too embarked to join the others.
When Albel had collected an adequate amount of rocks, he dragged the knapsack up the sand dunes to where the others were waiting. Upon his arrival, they began the descent down the dune to the first suspended rocky path that led through the valley. Albel, however, hesitated as he watched a lightning bolt shoot up from the ground and split a boulder in half. The boulder was quite thick as well, leading him to question their safety on those brittle, rocky paths. Not only that, but a sickly purple haze permeated the wavering air in fluctuating amounts, allowing the air to seem particularly distorted in some areas. This was nothing he's ever seen or heard of before. Not only that, but the lack of experience with areas like these increases the chances of falling to his death, and he doubted that anyone would comb through such a dangerous area looking for bodies. In fact, he thought the clouds to be a covering of a mass unmarked grave below, of all the travelers and merchants who were unfortunate enough to have to cross this abysmal expanse. As much as he would've liked, there was no way around the valley. Flanking it were almost vertical, insurmountable peaks that look just as merciless. Ah, hell… he thought to himself. The other fools are going first, so I'll have the highest chance of survival. That should be encouragement enough for me. He threw caution to the winds and began his descent into the treacherous Valley of Obduration.
XxX
Short chapter, I know, but the next one will be particularly interesting and challenging to write. After all, how often do you watch a stone suddenly go flying over your head without anything to prompt it? By the way, I imagined the topography of Greeton to be rather odd as well, thus the reason why the gang left through a forest and then had to cross a desert. Well, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next chapter!