Carefully shuffling along the earth s she wouldn't kick a loose stone by mistake, Hat Kid continued to inch along the wall. There had to be a low enough ledge for her to climb up from somewhere, but it was so dark that she was lucky if she could make out anything in front of her. As it was, the skeleton's hulking form—minus the wicked glow of its eyes—was hardly more than a mammoth silhouette against a near-black background. She could make out enough of it to know to keep her distance, but not much more. It was still looking for her, combing its elongated fingers through the dirt as though to sift her out.
She felt her way around until, at last, she found a handhold in the rock to lift herself up and climb a couple meters in the air—almost high enough that she could face off against the skeleton. With hurried, muted steps, she crept along the ledge and scaled another overhang in a short, scurried jump. Then she waited, her stomach flat to the earth to help hide herself in case the giant had managed to hear her.
She wondered if she could to use her hat's light to find her way around without the spirit noticing, at least in short bursts. It was bound to attract attention, but maybe if she was far enough away or just out of its sight, she could time it just right. Either way, it seemed like something she had to risk the more she thought about it. Hat Kid just couldn't see and she didn't want to stay with the monstrosity any longer than she had to.
Raising her free hand, she cupped the hat's torch in a shielding manner to block off what she could. She waited a moment longer, eying the skeleton until its back was turned to her. Then, swallowing hard, her fingers found its switch.
She blinked as the spot ahead became washed in a white light—quickly, but only faintly looking around for her next platform. There was a hook meant for a lamp just above her, and part of a rickety, damaged cart track just past it. In a flash, the girl fired her hookshot upward to swing across. However, the action also sent the light flying around in a wild motion as she dangled in the air, casting its beam in multiple directions.
It got the attention the girl was so afraid of. The skeleton jerked its fearsome gaze toward her, lumbering around just as she released to hook to soar over to the ruined track. Gritting her teeth, she ran. A massive hand swung in her direction and she jumped to the other side, holding back a scream. It missed, but completely destroyed the opposing track in a chaotic clamber of shattered beams and shrieking metal. Hat Kid tucked and rolled upon landing, turning her light off just as swiftly as she ran and skidding into the cover of a nearby alcove. There, she kneeled low against the cold stone and prayed she'd escaped the spirit's sight.
It seemed to hunt for her through the newly made wreckage, tilting its head and pawing the ground with one hand in a fervent search. This time, the child didn't bother waiting very long for it to fully look away before she tried to make her escape. It was too close and she wanted to stay out of its reach as much as possible. She made as much distance as she could until the ground beneath her gave way again, nearly causing her to slip. The sound of disturbed dust, however, was muted by the rattling of bones and harsh, slow grinding of teeth.
Hat Kid squinted at the encompassing shadows: She still could only make out shapes until she snuck her torch back on for a brief second. There was a ladder suspended just above her, a few steps back the way she came. She snapped the light off again before retreating, kicking at earth as she tossed herself as high as she could to grab the bottom rung and pull herself up to the next level.
Without daring a glance back, somehow she knew the spirit was onto her! Mentally tracing the way ahead, she thought she could outrun it, but the blurred silhouette of its hand flew at her from the darkness and blocked her path. The stone quaked and she fell back, dragging herself into darkness. The force behind the blow left a deep imprint in the wall several millimeters thick. Its fiery eyes seemed to follow her.
Out of the corner of her own, she saw it move to grab her. Hat Kid threw herself off the ground and made a break for it—lunging over its other hand before the skeleton could recover from its initial attempt to cut her off. She landed on her feet and kept running, tapping her light once more in time to see another hook and swing over to safety on an opposing ledge. There, the ground dropped off and she fell with a sharp gasp, but only a meager distance. The fall tucked her behind a sheet of rock and she scurried further behind it into another alcove to hide herself once more.
Much to her relief, the giant lost her again. The child counted her blessings for the fragments of cover scattered around. The goblins must have dug through this area a long time ago, well before the skeleton moved in. It explained why this section of caverns was devoid of ores, the alcoves formerly making up pits or maybe even tunnels that the spirits had dug to reach the valuable minerals. If it weren't for the Time Piece above—and the fact that she had no idea where one tunnel might lead, possibly even deeper into danger—she would've tried escaping that way. As it was, she had to keep going.
If she could just get out of arm's reach… Hat Kid climbed back up, finding small notches in the wall by feel to scale even higher and propel herself over to an adjacent ledge. There, she stood exposed She risked another, second-long flicker of light. There wasn't much room for a running leap, so she strained to throw her weight forward in order to build enough momentum to vault her body onto a long piece of track.
Hat Kid glanced down to make sure the skeleton was looking away before turning on her light again, illuminating the path ahead as she kept going and traced the stretch of rock ahead of her to memory. When the shadows returned, she'd already mapped a path in her mind—following the rest of the track across before it split into two, wrapping around the wall in both directions, but moving in a steady incline to her right. She climbed it, cringing at the groaning boards under her feet. By the time she reached level ground again and the spirit turned to glance her way, she'd already leapt into an abandoned minecart, sinking behind its steel casing.
A mistake she thought she'd soon regret. Metal screeched in rejection, jarred from its long rest. The noise seemed to echo throughout the cavern, and soon twin, deadly fires loomed over her as the spirit craned over. If it she was a level lower, all it would've taken to find her would've been a quick glance down—the skeleton capturing her in a quick fist with cart and all, torn right from the track. As it was, Hat Kid crushed herself into the bottom of the cart by the off chance the top of her head could be seen over its rim, as if that made a difference considering the gaping opening above her.
Luck remained on her side though. The giant was too short to peer over much of the track itself, nevermind see her, and the fall of a loose beam crashing on the ground below distracted it. The young alien didn't dare risk moving until she'd gotten another glance of her the path ahead with her light, forced to remain put a moment longer as its skull perked up in response to the beam before ducking back down again. Then, she made a mad dash down remaining section of track, scaling a trio of ledges before she would come to a halt once more.
It was still a horrible waiting game and it reminded Hat Kid all too much of when she snuck into Queen Vanessa's manor. Granted, she figured Vanessa was the worst of the two, but at least then she had the dim glow of candles and the bright reflection of the moon bouncing off the snow and through the windows to help guide her. Somehow, down here, it felt more like trying to navigate through a void than even the Horizon's endless stretch of emptiness. It a weary, nerve-wracking pattern: Light on, light off, hide, wait. Sprint into action at a moment's notice and repeat the next second the coast was clear.
The next ladder was more stable than the first she'd climbed. It led to nowhere though: She had to kick off of it to lunge for more track, firing her hookshot to dangle from the supports and at last daring a glance down. She couldn't see the bottom and could only just make out the top of the skeleton's skull below her, it's eyes still its most prominent feature in the overwhelming darkness. She'd managed to make it out of the monstrosity's reach. For the first time since her initial fall, she actually felt a spark of success. Hat Kid stuck her tongue out at it. Can't get me now, can you—?
All of a sudden, the skeleton raised its arms and slammed them into the wall. Elongated fingers dug within the rock and the whole area seemed to quake as large chucks of stone broke and fell. It was pulling itself up, climbing after her! Horror filled her eyes as she watched it steadily catch up with only a few motions, its spinal cord dangling limply behind.
Hat Kid flung herself over to the next hook. It reached after her and she screamed, narrowly escaping with its curling fingers swiping against her—catching her by the side. It knocked her through the air and off-course. She opened her umbrella to slow herself down, readjusting her descent. Her quick thinking allowed her an ungraceful landing between a curving set of rails and a wide overhand, the latter of which she swiftly dove to for shelter.
She wasn't sure if she could afford a slow and careful pace anymore, not when the spirit could so easily catch up to her! She fought off panic, trying to force herself to steady her breathing all while frantically looking for her next route to safety. In the very least, she was high enough that it was a little brighter now. However, she knew that also meant she'd been more exposed the further she climbed.
Would it try following her all the way up? What if it reached the levels the goblins were on? What if it broke through their tunnels, maybe even escaping into the rest of the Horizon? Would the other ghosts and spirits even be powerful enough to stop it? All of that was still just considering if she herself made it out of the chasm alive!
Focus! Hat Kid ordered herself, swallowing her fear. She bit her lower lip. She could still keep climbing up a few ledges to her right. The Time Piece rested along the opposing wall, just a few more levels above. The skeleton was staring her way, but clearly couldn't pinpoint her exact location. The next time she used her light, she would have to move immediately after.
She looked for the silhouettes first. There seemed to be two more sets of tracks close-by, one bridging the way back across to the other side and the other leading down a more middle path before disappearing into the shadows beyond her sight. It was hard to tell which was closer. The first was more direct, but she wasn't sure if she could make it over without getting grabbed mid-run. She scaled the nearly wall as she considered it.
By the time she reached the end of her current path, she still hadn't figured out what to do. However, as the girl reached for her torch, she paused. Again, the light would instantly give away her position… but why couldn't she try using that to her advantage? Brows furrowed, she glanced over the set of tracks once more.
A loose plan in mind, she turned the hard hat's light on again. It must've been like a beacon to the spirit—she could already hear the creaking and rattling of its bones as it prepared its own move—but she was too focused on what was ahead to bother. The two tracks actually ran fairly close to each other, but the second just keep running along the wall before splitting off into a second pair, one continuing along the wall and the other dipping back down into the depths of the cavern.
Hat Kid leapt onto the first, darting across as fast as she could go. The giant in turn thrust off the opposite wall to dive toward her, one arm stretched in her direction and the other out to brace itself upon the harsh landing.
She kept her momentum forward until it neared the middle of the chasm, then lurched over to the second track to spin out of the skeleton's reach. Instead of catching her, the giant's hand tore through a chunk of the first track, shattering it from railing to supports. Landing in a stumbling crouch, she kept moving for as long as the second path would allow, then jumped again back to the first.
By the time her feet touched the rapidly collapsing course, she had already created a large enough distance to get away from the spirit. It couldn't attempt a second grab: She was too far off and it needed to brace itself against the rock to stay upright, recovering from its jump as at the walls quaked yet again.
There was no chance to celebrate: The damage was behind her, but catching up. The track too trembled, shaken by both the quakes and destruction. It was falling apart as she ran. The sound of its collapse matched the loud beating of the heart that echoed in her ears.
She reached safety by only a few meters, the beams closest to the wall able to hold up and give her a moment to catch her breath. Hat Kid hadn't bothered turning off her torch by then: Surely, the skeleton would try lunging back across once it steadied itself. Using a minecart for an extra lift, she propelled off of it to climb to the next level, then the next even as the tremors returned.
The Time Piece was close enough now that she reached its own, wide band of light. The rocks giving her no path to reach it, she made her own. The child leapt from a lower ledge, swung up onto another, nearby track—gapped by little over a meter—and rebounded back to over to the wall. There, she jumped across the remaining overhangs, until, at last, an hourglass shape fit within her grip.
Trouble closed in rapidly behind her. The giant skeleton had once more leapt across the chasm, landing just below her. Hat Kid scrambled to jump back the way she came to reroute her escape, even as those fiery eyes came into view as it lifted its massive, demonic face toward her.
Then, just as quickly, they vanished. The ground hadn't stopped trembling. Here, the stone was too weak to brace the spirit any longer. It broke apart in its hold and the skeleton fell back, snapping its maw like a final attempt to catch her in its teeth before dropping into the abyss from where it came. Hat Kid pressed her back firmly against the wall, planting her feet apart to keep her balance until the quakes had stopped. All the while, she stared after the spirit into the darkness.
There was a long, silent pause. Whether because it was dead or injured or simply had second-thoughts, she didn't think it would try climbing out of the chasm again. However, even as high up as she was, she swore she could still see its burning gaze aimed back at her.