Characters: Laurence, Gehrman, Micolash

Word Count: 4.385

Summary: Micolash contracts some minor poisoning so Laurence is on his own searching for some medicine.

(Author's note: We are finally getting into the part where the crossover is getting more apparent. They are still children, but a bit older than in the first two chapters, I would say a good year has passed. Enough for them to be allowed deeper into the first layer as long as they stay in a group.)

"What do you want to show us, Laurence?", Gehrman asked.

"Patience.", Laurence hopped down a small protrusion and headed towards a certain direction. He had discovered something amazing on his last delve and he needed to show it to his friends.

"He probably has found some fat caterpillar to use as bait or anything.", Micolash commented.

"It's not that.", Laurence glowered at Micolash for a second and then continued to lead the way. "It's something far better than that."

"He's probably still mad because you won last month's fishing competition.", Gehrman said, casually dodging when Micolash tried to nudge him.

"Well, maybe if Micolash would like to look at the fat caterpillars I find he would be better at fishing.", Laurence said, a smug smile on his face, clearly satisfied with himself.

"I just ask because we are pretty deep.", Micolash said. "We are 700 metres deep. We are only allowed 800 metres on our own. That place you found hopefully isn't too far away."

"Don't worry Micolash, we are almost there.", Laurence said and rounded a corner. Then he headed to a shrub and stopped in front of it.

"A shrub? You want to show us a shrub?!", Micolash scoffed once he caught up.

"You know I am normally not on anyone's side, but I think I have to side with Micolash here...", Gehrman admitted. Laurence just glared at both of them.

"You don't have faith in me at all. It isn't the shrub, it is what is behind the shrub!", Laurence got on all fours and spread the shrubbery, revealing a cave entrance. "Tadaa."

"Huh, a cave...", Gehrman said. "Really small entrance though. I don't think we would fit in there if we weren't children."

"Right?", Laurence said. "That is why none of the Moon Whistles showed us this place. They can't enter it. But we are small enough to fit. Come in, guys. I promise it is worth it."

"After making us walk for so long instead of searching for relics, it better be worth it.", Micolash said. Laurence was the first to crawl in and once he could stand up again, the cave was a lot more spacious from the inside, he observed the entrance because he just had to see their reactions.

Micolash came first and then Gehrman, with a bit more trouble because he already was older and taller than them. The moment they laid eyes on the sight in front of them, their faces lit up in astonishment. "Woah.", Micolash voiced.

"Did I promise too much?", Laurence turned around to take in the sight himself again. The cave was completely grown over with vines and shrubbery, but that wasn't that caught the eye. What caught the eye were the dozens and dozens of glowing fruit that cast the cave into a pale light. It gave the whole place a hauntingly eerie and beautiful note at the same time.

"Glow berries!", Gehrman said. "It's so rare to find them normally. You truly found something amazing, Laurence, I never saw so many of them at once."

"I found this place by sheer coincidence actually.", Laurence said. "I had to hide from a crimson splitjaw. I was lucky to find this place."

Gehrman frowned when Laurence casually talked about a far too large predator for the first layer having been present. "Well, let's just say that I didn't expect for this little hole to be such a beautiful cave. And there even is food in here."

"Glow berries are edible, yes, I remember...", Gehrman said. "I think they taste a bit sour."

"Yes, they do.", Laurence said and raised a finger to emphasize his words when he continued: "I asked Master Willem also if they are safe to eat and he confirmed it. However, you should see that you never eat more than a dozen at once, because they have kind of a laxative side effect."

"Laurence, can you say that again?", Micolash asked and his voice sounded muffled, as if he had stuffed a lot of glow berries in his mouth. Laurence turned to him and in fact, Micolash's mouth was smeared with the light blue glowing juice of the berries.

"I said they have a slight laxative effect...", Laurence said, slowly lowering his hand. "Micolash, how many of them have you eaten?!"

"Two dozen...", Micolash admitted.

Gehrman and Laurence just shared a look and then Laurence said: "How?! Me and Gehrman have talked for maybe two minutes!"

"You never had to live on the streets, Laurence!", Micolash suddenly burst out. "You never knew how it was to make sure to eat all the food you could get before it got taken away from you!"

"Guys, please, that is hardly the time to argue.", Gehrman said. "We better get out of here and to a safe place before Micolash's stomach starts to act up. It appears we will be stuck down here for a while."

"I really wish you had said that earlier, Laurence.", Micolash growled as Gehrman led them out of the cave.

"Hey, you literally wouldn't wait until I finished talking.", Laurence growled back. Gehrman just shook his head and let out a deep sigh.

Two hours later the three of them were still not able to ascend. Micolash sat next to a bush, holding his stomach, his face kind of a grey colour, while Laurence and Gehrman sat on a nearby rock, far enough to give Micolash enough privacy, but also near enough to keep watch.

"Is it still acting up?", Gehrman asked. Micolash nodded and then groaned, vanishing behind the bush. When he returned, Laurence tossed him an almost empty water bottle.

"Here, drink something. We can't have you pass out.", he said. Micolash finished the bottle while Laurence searched for a second one in his rucksack. "Damn.", he exclaimed when he didn't find one. "I thought we wouldn't be down here that long, now we are out of water."

"Sorry...", Micolash said, holding the water bottle in both of his hands, trying to find a comfortable spot on the ground.

"Do you think that it may be over soon?", Gehrman asked once again. Micolash just stared at him with an expressionless face. It was clear that his stomach wasn't done yet.

"Waiting won't get us anywhere.", Laurence jumped up and walked over to Micolash, snatching the water bottle out of his hands. "I am going to search for some healing herbs and some more water."

"Alone?", Gehrman frowned. "I should come with you."

"No, stay with Micolash, we can't leave him alone in this state.", Laurence said. "Besides, I will be fine, I know this area. I will avoid any areas with large predators."

As he walked away, Laurence heard German call over to him. "So you are leaving me with the shit job?"

"Oh yes, I am.", Laurence chuckled a bit at the pun at Micolash's expense. The truth was also that Laurence got a bit antsy only sitting there and waiting. He wanted to move around and explore the Abyss, even if he was already familiar with this area. It just always was fascinating coming down here.

Though he had a clear goal this time, not searching relics or just wandering the Abyss, he needed to find clean water and healing herbs. He was sure there were a few ponds in this area. He should visit them one by one and check if the water would be drinkable enough. Of course they still would need to cook it (Micolash didn't need to get sicker), but some water was so dirty that it wasn't even salvageable by cooking.

It could certainly be said for the first pond he found. For some reason, the hammer beaks liked to come here and the water was full of their droppings. Laurence shuddered even thinking about drinking water from there, that would not only make a person sick, that would be enough to kill a person probably.

Well, it appeared he had to search a bit farther in. When there was a fork in the road, he actually could see a pond glistening not too far from his position, but this was the hunting ground of a silverfang. He would enter it and end up as bug food before he even managed to reach the pond. He had to keep searching.

The next pond he found was more of a puddle. It also was full of tadpoles. Laurence hoped they wouldn't grow into a frog big enough to swallow him whole. Apparently in the lower layers creatures like this existed. He had seen frogs back in Orth catch insects, he wasn't keen being the one caught by a tongue like this, not being able to even scream before he would get swallowed whole.

Laurence decided that tadpole water definitely wasn't the right water for Micolash. He decided to move on. On his way to the next pond he remembered, he had luck and found a few green and blue herbs. They could be mixed into a concoction that would soothe pain and help especially well with an upset stomach. He often had gotten this medicine when his stomach had acted up when he had been little. Laurence cut them off with the knife he was allowed to carry.

Of course the concoction couldn't be brewed without water. Laurence was almost out of the familiar area. If the last pond wasn't fine, then he would have to return and try to find water in the other direction. He was in luck though. The pond he arrived at was full of an insect that was known to be only living in clean water. This water would be safe, probably also safe to be drunk without being cooked, but he wouldn't risk it.

Laurence kneeled down at the water and filled his bottle, watching as the insects made way once they felt the ripples in the water. They were a beautiful sight. The area he was in was a bit on the darker side, with quite a few trees blocking the light from the force field, so they had a natural glow, much like the glow berries, and provided Laurence with a sight to behold.

Once Laurence' bottle was filled up, he put the cork into it and got up. "There, now I only need to get everything back to Micolash.", he said and turned around. Laurence hadn't heard or felt anything, he had been too occupied with staring at the water, so he got quite startled when a bird-like creature stood in front of him. It had black feathers and was tall... almost as tall as him. It looked like a crow, they had those in Orth, but...

Crows normally didn't have teeth in their beak, right?

"Oh shit.", Laurence just said, taking a step back. Behind him was only the water. Should he dive in and hope that the predator wouldn't be able to swim? Birds normally couldn't swim, right? Unless this was waterfowl of course...

With that in mind, Laurence decided to best run past it and hide into a small alcove not far from this area. He already had a foot in front of him when the crow attacked him with a speed he didn't think would be possible for such a creature. Pain exploded in his arm when its talon hit him, but that wasn't the worst thing, it was the screeching during the attack. It genuinely hurt his ears!

Laurence was nothing short but scared out of his mind. He knew the Abyss was dangerous, he knew that he could lose his life in here any day, but... he didn't think it would be so soon. He didn't want to die already. He felt that he acted out of pure instinct when he grabbed for his knife with his uninjured arm and drove it deep into the chest of the crow.

The crow stopped its attack, screeching in pain. Laurence used this to his opportunity and removed the knife, blood raining down on him. His next attack was a lot more focused. He went directly for the eye and after it was clear that he would fight back, the crow let go of him and hobbled away, probably bleeding out somewhere or getting eaten by a larger predator once they smelled the blood.

Laurence just laid on the ground, breathing heavily. That was scary. He had almost died. But he hadn't. He had managed to fight back. Though, when he looked at the blood stained knife, he frowned. A creature bigger than that crow and that wimpy knife wouldn't have been enough.

Now that the adrenaline vanished, he also noticed the pain in his arm. He groaned when he pulled himself up, inspecting the damage. He was clearly bleeding. He needed to take care of this wound before he could go back.

His vest was already ripped, so Laurence cut down a stripe of the leather and searched for a handkerchief in his pocket. He used to get nosebleeds for no reason, so he always had one around. He went back to the pond and moistened the handkerchief. It would be better if the water could be cooked, but he had to trust the insect's judgement about the water. Laurence hissed when he cleaned the wound, seeing how his handkerchief was staining with his blood. Then, he used up a bit of the healing herbs and pressed them into the leather strap, wrapping it around his arms, making sure to put a lot of pressure onto the wound to stop the bleeding. Once his impromptu bandage was in place, he pocketed his handkerchief and looked at his reflection in the pond.

He was full of blood from the creature! He couldn't go back like this, he would attract predators like a lamp would attract a moth. He cleaned his face and tried to clean out his clothes, but to no avail, the blood was already crusted in them. He sat himself down near the pond and let his thoughts wander... that was when his gaze fell upon a certain moss.

"Stink moss...", he murmured. The moss did have this name for a good reason. It smelled horrible. Normally Laurence would never think about rubbing it all over his clothes, but it was the perfect solution to disguise the scent of blood. He went over to collect some moss and wrinkled his nose when he smelt it.

At least being around Micolash the whole day had made him a bit more tolerant of bad smells. After his clothes were sufficiently stinkified, he collected his rucksack and made his way back, a hand pressing on the hurt arm. It hurt pretty bad, the talon had been razor sharp and it wouldn't surprise him if he would need stitches. A sad smile crossed his face when he thought that he had gone out to help their sick friend and now he would come back needing care as well.

At least he was still alive. Laurence shuddered when he thought that the fight could have ended badly for him.

When he crossed the corner, where Gehrman sat along with a still very pale looking Micolash, who massaged his stomach, Gehrman first smiled and waved at him, only for the smile to drop once he noticed Laurence' state. He was up in an instant and ran over to Laurence. "What happened?!", he asked, gesturing at Laurence' bloody clothes and then wrinkling his nose. "Oh by the Abyss, why are you smelling so bad?"

"I'll explain in a minute.", Laurence said. "Let's set everything up so that Micolash can have medicine and water."

Gehrman nodded and went back to his rock, setting up a small cooking set. Once a fire was burning and a pot with the brought water was put above it, Gehrman and Micolash both looked at Laurence with a questioning look.

"So why are you covered in blood?", Gehrman asked. Micolash just nodded along, probably too weak to speak, but still interested in the story.

Laurence told them the whole story about how he had been attacked by the crow-like creature at the pond. "I managed to stab my knife into its torso, then it left me.", he finished. "But it bled all over to me, that is why I had to rub stink moss over my clothes."

"You were very brave.", Gehrman said, "And you managed to keep your calm to drive the creature back. You can call yourself a real delver, Laurence."

Pride swelled up in Laurence, but at the same time, something else... something he couldn't really lay a finger on now. Instead of sorting out his feelings, he decided to lay his attention on the cooking pot. It was his luck that the water started to cook right now. "Ah, let us put a little away into the bottle and then use the rest for the medicine.", he said and extended his left arm to work on it, when the pain exploded again and he yelped, keeping his arm close to his chest.

"Laurence, have you gotten hurt?", Gehrman said with wide eyes, and then pretty much pushed him to sit on the rock. "You sit down, I take care of the cooking."

"It's not that bad.", Laurence said, but the pain was bad enough that he could only open one of his eyes, having to leave the other shut, a hand pressed on the wound.

"You... you really didn't need to almost off yourself for me...", Micolash said weakly. Laurence shook his head.

"I couldn't let you die thanks to your own stupidity.", he said, a bit surprised that he managed a quip in his sorry state. Micolash, in a similar sorry state to his, didn't reply.

Soon, Gehrman was finished with the preparations. He handed Micolash the flask bottle with cooked water and gave both Laurence and Micolash a small vial with a cyan concoction into it. "You both drink it. And Laurence, show me your wound."

"I already took care of it.", Laurence said when he accepted the vial, grimacing a bit when he downed it. It didn't taste the best. Micolash downed his as well and then took small sips from the water flask. He hadn't run towards the bushes for quite some time now, maybe it was really over.

"I don't care, I still will take a look.", Gehrman said and gently removed the impromptu bandage, only to grimace and put it back right again. "We are going to the hospital right away when we are back. Both of you. And Micolash, drink plenty, the curse will only dehydrate you more."

Both of the boys nodded. Laurence and Gehrman drank a bit as well too and once Micolash told them that his stomach had calmed down enough, they were on their way back to the elevator that would take them up. Laurence wasn't looking forward to the ride up, being hit by the curse over the span of 600 metres felt pretty awful.

On their way back, Laurence lamented the fact that he only had a knife to defend himself. "That felt more like luck.", he fulminated. "Why don't they give us Red Whistles weapons? I know we are still children, but only having a knife doesn't feel too good..."

"You know what, Laurence? I think I have something to show you later.", Gehrman said. "I think you will like it."

That got Laurence' attention, but Gehrman didn't elaborate and like he said, once they were out of the Abyss (and had overcome the curse), he led them straight to the small hospital in the centre of Orth. It was most adept to treat poisoning and injuries, for everything else they needed to visit the hospital fleet that would come regularly and dock into Orth's harbours.

Like Laurence predicted, he needed stitches. After he was taken care of and bandaged with a freshly nice and clean white bandage, he was sent home with the instruction to take a bath as soon as possible, but not get the bandage wet. Micolash needed to stay so that they could look him over and find out if the glowberries had a more long-lasting effect than just being an extremely effective laxative. Also, he was clearly a bit dehydrated and needed care for it.

Once Laurence was back at the orphanage, he did as told and took a bath, giving his clothes into the wash. He would probably need a new set, he doubted anyone would get the smell out. It felt good to get all the blood off properly of his body now, even though he pretty much could use only one arm. Once he was done and had dried himself off, wrapping the towel around his hair, he slipped in some comfortable everyday clothes and then knocked at Gehrman's door. His friend opened not much later.

"You said you would show me something.", he said.

"Of course, follow me.", Gehrman said. Gehrman led Laurence out of the orphanage and into a little shed that was behind it. They normally stored tools and other stuff in there that weren't needed daily.

"The shed? What should be in there?", he asked, taking a look around. It was too dark to actually see anything. Gehrman switched on a brightstone and illuminated a certain table. When Laurence approached it, his breath was taken away by the contents of it.

On the table laid a curved short sword and a scythe, clearly designed to be wielded as weapons. They also looked like they were about to fall apart. It was clear as day that they had been crafted from materials that had been found around Orth. Fallen branches for the handles and sharpened stone for the blades.

"Gehrman, did you make those?", Laurence asked. He was impressed. Gehrman was only 13 years old and managed to craft weapons like this himself? Out of junk?

"Yes, I have.", Gehrman sounded very proud of himself. "I just wish I would have better materials, those will barely be usable like this. Also, I can't finish my vision with just the stuff I forage."

"As if we could afford buying our own materials.", Laurence said, thinking about all the times he had longingly looked at all the materials from the Abyss in the marketplace, far out of their reach. They just earned too little as Red Whistles.

"I know... that is why I mainly tinker around and try to find designs that I like. That actually isn't the finished design... wait a moment." Gehrman opened a drawer on the table and got a small leather-bound book out, flipping through the pages. Once he had found the correct one, he waved Laurence over. Laurence walked to Gehrman and looked at the book, which showed an incredibly detailed drawing of the weapons that laid on the table, but they were combined.

"Look, it's a curved sword when you use it at first.", Gehrman said, tracing along the lines of his drawing, "But then you can transform it! Then it turns into the scythe! You just have to use a simple grip to transform the weapon. Then you have a weapon for every situation, but only need to carry one around with you! Isn't that neat? I call it trick weapon."

"Gehrman, that is...", Laurence started, completely in awe, "...actually really impressive! You really think you could build your idea with the proper materials?"

"I probably would need a few tries.", Gehrman said, "But I think I could make it work. I always liked tinkering, Master Willem lets me do all the repairs in the house. Weapons aren't too farfetched from fixing plumbery and stuff. And it very much smells better."

"I can't argue with that.", Laurence grinned. While Gehrman had talked, the book had slipped into Laurence' hands and he flipped through it in interest. There were all kinds of concepts for weapons. One was a sword that could be broken into twin blades, there was a saw that could transform into a cleaver and a spear, he even saw something like a whip with a lot of tiny blades on it. Laurence liked this one. It was a weapon for a larger range.

"Gehrman, you are highly creative.", he said as he closed the book. "And you thought up all of them on your own?"

"Not exactly, I discussed them with Maria.", Gehrman said. "She has been a great inspiration for ideas. One day I hope I can gift her a customized weapon."

A customized weapon as a gift for a girl? Laurence wondered if that really was something she wanted, but then, Maria wasn't the kind of girl that felt like she would be satisfied with a bouquet of flowers of fortitude. Just as Rom was the kind of girl who would be more glad about a box full with bugs.

"I am sure she will cherish it.", Laurence said and gave Gehrman the book back. "Now we should make sure to survive until we earn enough money to actually properly build this weapons." Laurence picked up the curved sword. "I mean, these ones look like they break apart once you hit your target once."

"Hah, you might be right on that one.", Gehrman grinned. "I knew that you would like seeing this, but actually, Laurence... I didn't think you would support me."

"Are you kidding? That is the greatest thing I have ever seen!", Laurence almost screamed. "Most delvers only equip themselves with relics, but you, you thought up a whole series of weapons! I want to see if you can truly build them and if I only survive until we are old enough to see this! I promise I will stay around until you have built this weapon!" He gestured towards the scythe with the curved word.

"I called it the Burial Blade.", Gehrman said.

"What a pompous name.", Laurence said. "I love it."

(Author's note: Well, I think it's time to talk about that I very much see Orth having a blue and orange morality, a morality so alien to us that we can hardly grasp it. For them it is normal to lose their life in the Abyss, so normal in fact, that they not only formed a whole religion around it, but also are convinced to die in there one day. That is why these kids talk and think so casually about dying in the Abyss, it is their everyday life. That is also why they talk about surviving and not growing up or living, because for them growing up means having survived long enough to gain a new whistle.

It's pretty fucked up, huh? Yeah, I think that too, but I love it. I love to explore the place that is Orth, a town that lies next to a wondrous hole full of deadly beasts and valuable treasure.)