As Luck Would Have It
A/N: Ok, this is definitely the Goma Cave chapter. And I honestly don't know right now whether or not they'll be out of Goma Cave by the end of the chapter. But I do know that Garet's not gonna be having much fun in this here cave. So, now, onto the story!
Chapter Eight: Goma Cave (for lack of a creative title)
"Get offa my head!" Garet cried, trying to pry the Djinni from his hair. "Ouch! Flint, let go of my hair!"
"Yeah, Flint, get off his head before you mess up his hair any more than it is already," Isaac said with a laugh. "If it's even possible."
"Good point," Ivan said, as he pulled on his other boot. "Oh, I can't wait to go traipsing through the half-concealed paths of Goma Cave," he went on, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Anyone else feel like we're being watched?" Zoe asked, securing her braid with her hair band.
"Not really," Ivan said as he looked up at her. "Why?"
"Well…last night, I could have sworn that Torrent was awake and talking, but this morning…"
"Despite being in a bad position to act superior," Isaac said from where he was sitting cleaning off the blade of his sword, "I can pretty much be positive when I say that there's no way that was Torrent talking to you."
"And exactly how do you know that?" Garet asked, his hands now inexplicably tangled in his hair. Flint, satisfied, jumped off Garet's head and onto his shoulder. Garet, unable to move his hands, could only grumble at the Djinni.
Isaac looked at Garet steadily and calmly raised one eyebrow. "How do you think I know?"
"You sure you're a Venus Adept, Isaac?" Ivan asked with a grin. "You're starting to sound a lot like me."
"Elements help me, not that!" Isaac said with mock sincerity, and Ivan shot a tiny lightning zap at him. "Hey! No fair! What do I look like, a slime?"
"Do you really want me to answer you?" Zoe asked, gently picking up her pack and settling it on her back.
"Good one, Zoe," Garet muttered. "Now could someone please help me here?!"
"You want I should zap his head?" Ivan asked, expression innocent.
"Ack! Stop talking like that, Ivan!" Garet finally untangled his hands from his hair and sighed.
"Let's get going, guys," Isaac said, and Flint hopped over onto his shoulder. "While we've still got daylight."
"How absurd," Flint muttered. "It's eight in the morning."
"The cave is big," Zoe reasoned. "Has to be. Nothing that cuts through a mountain range is small."
"We've had this conversation before," Isaac said, walking ahead of the others. Zoe quickly caught him, however, preferring his calm silence to Ivan and Garet's ongoing argument about frying Garet's hair.
"Come on! Then you'd really look like a Fire Adept!" Ivan begged teasingly.
"Shut up!" Garet growled, annoyed.
Zoe rolled her eyes, glancing over at Isaac, who shrugged. Zoe did a double take when she saw Flint staring at her. "You looking for something, Flint?"
"Well, yes, that and one other thing," the Djinni replied hesitantly. "But first things first I suppose. I'm looking for Torrent."
"She's in here," Zoe mumbled, gesturing with her head to her pack. "What else did you want?"
"I wanted to apologize."
"For what? As far as I know, you're the only one who's blameless in the whole affair."
"For doing what I did last night."
"Last night? You mean…that was your voice I heard?"
"Well, yes."
"In that case, I only have one question." Zoe's voice wasn't happy. But then, Flint reasoned, it wasn't angry either. He might as well go for it.
"What is it?"
"Why, Flint?"
"I…I didn't want you to lose sleep over it, partly. I knew you'd be up all night if I didn't do something. And…the other part is…I didn't want you to be in pain, inside, thinking it was all your fault and that it could only get worse."
"Thanks then, Flint," Zoe said, smiling at the Djinni. Isaac looked at her then and smiled back.
"You never know. You might be able to do something about it," Isaac said cryptically.
"Sometimes I think you say things like that just to confuse me."
"And sometimes, I do. But this time I'm serious. Who knows what other Psynergy you have. But judging from what I've seen, you're a Jupiter Adept. I think. Maybe. Oh, ok, I don't really know, but any guess I make has a twenty-five percent chance of being right."
"And a seventy-five percent chance of being wrong."
"Pessimist."
"Optimist."
"This sounds better than our argument," Ivan said dryly.
"Anything sounds better than Psynergy-cooking my head," Garet countered, giving Ivan a friendly punch on the shoulder.
"Not your entire head. Fried air might explode."
"Ivan ol' buddy?"
"Yeah Garet?"
"Shut up."
"Sure thing. We're already at the cave entrance anyway." And they were. Zoe and Isaac were on either side of the door, peering into the darkness.
"There are torches," Isaac said without turning around. "It's not pitch black. But I don't like some of the things I'm hearing in there. Things that sound like they're going to hurt if they hit us."
"Good description," Ivan said with a nod. "We'll just have to take 'em down."
"You're confident," Zoe said, glancing at the ground and back up again. "But you have a point. We'll just…cross that bridge if we come to it." With that Zoe took the first step into the damp, dark cavern.
***************
After two hours of climbing up and down rocks, dodging and fighting off trolls and Will Heads, and straining to see in the half-light of the cave, even Isaac was ready to stop for a rest. He stopped and leaned against a pillar, the others sitting in various positions on the ground.
"Man, I never expected it to be this much hard work," Ivan muttered, squinting in the dimness at a long scratch on his arm. "Shoot. I hate caves. Too many rocks."
"Well it's not like we had any other choiack!" Isaac cried as the pillar he was leaning on began to move.
"Choiack? That's a new one," Zoe muttered. "What is it, a kind of food?"
"Pillars don't usually move unless there's a reason," Isaac mused. "I wonder why this one moves."
"Well, look up there," Garet said, pointing. "This pillar forms a link between that side of the gap, and the other side. If we can figure out a way up there, I bet we can jump across."
"Big emphasis on the 'if,'" Ivan added. "There're some stairs over there," he went on, pointing to his left. "We could try those."
"Genius, those are the stairs we just came down," Garet said, rolling his eyes.
"I think Ivan's right, though," Zoe said. "I saw another path before we came down here, but I really didn't feel like saying anything. Those trolls are killers, literally."
"That reminds me," Isaac began, but Zoe held up a hand.
"Save it. Let's just get out of this slime-infested cave."
"Ok then. Come on, let's go see if that pillar did anything to help us." Isaac turned and headed for the stairs. Zoe and Ivan followed quickly, and Garet brought up the rear, mumbling something about rests and stupid rocks.
I honestly prefer going down stairs to going up them, Ivan thought as he dragged himself up the last step. Squinting off to his right, he could barely see the path Zoe had been talking about. As they got closer, he could make out another set of stairs.
"Why me?" Garet muttered, keeping one hand on his sword hilt as he went first down the stairs.
"Because you're bigger than I am," Ivan said from behind him. He was clutching the Shaman's Rod tightly with both hands, not liking the lack of visibility the deeper they went into the cave.
At the bottom of the stairs they found themselves on a sort of platform. "Look!" Zoe said, pointing. The pillar Isaac had 'moved' did indeed make the large gap into two smaller ones suitable for jumping across. And when Garet saw what was on the other side of the drop, he immediately stopped complaining about going first.
"A Mars Djinni! Look! Over there!" he cried in excitement, leaping onto the top of the pillar and nearly losing his balance.
"And you call yourself 'adept,'" Isaac taunted, following Garet across. Ivan went next, and Zoe came last. She kept casting worried glances over her shoulder, but when Ivan looked back there was nothing there.
"Well, Garet, what are you waiting for?" Isaac said, a sly grin on his face. "Go get your Djinni."
"It wants a fight," Garet muttered, drawing his sword. "It won't come like Flint did."
"How do you know?" Ivan asked.
"It's just a feeling, I guess."
"It could be the way it's standing there like it's going to set Garet's head on fire," Zoe commented, knowing that the thought made Garet squirm. "But then I could be wrong."
"Flint?" Isaac asked the Djinni, who was currently sitting on his head.
"Yeah Isaac?"
"Get ready to summon something, would ya?"
"Sure thing buddy." Flint glowed for a moment, then nodded. "All set."
"Ok then, let's do this," Garet said, approaching the Djinni. Zoe, Isaac and Ivan, weapons ready, formed a semicircle behind him. "Mars Djinni!" Garet called, and the Djinni came at him at a run.
Swiping at it with his sword, Garet was thrown off-balance when the Djinni easily dodged his blow. It landed on Garet's head and shouted something that none of the adepts could understand. But Isaac knew it wasn't good when fire began to rain down on Garet, burning him and singeing his hair.
"Wind Seer's Ray!" Ivan cried, and a bolt of lightning struck the Djinni, hurling it against the opposite wall.
"Guard's Flare!" Garet yelled, and fire shot from his hand and hit the stunned Djinni, but it shook off the attack as though it hadn't even felt it. "Shoot, I forgot! Fire Djinn are immune to fire Psynergy!"
"Then move over so you're not in my way!" Isaac said, and Garet rolled aside as Isaac brought his hands together in front of him. "I summon the spirit of Venus, power of the Earth!" Flint rose from Isaac's head and became a ball of golden light that dove on the Mars Djinni. But still the Djinni didn't seem very affected.
"These attacks aren't working," Ivan surmised as the Djinni shot another blast at Garet's head. The Mars Adept ducked just in time, and instead the blast headed for Zoe.
"Look out!" Garet called, and Zoe dodged quickly, the streak of fire going harmlessly past. Glaring at the Mars Djinni, Zoe was about to call on her Psynergy when she felt her actions taken over by some other force.
Not completely understanding, Zoe's hands came together in front of her face and she closed her eyes. "I summon the spirit of Mercury, power of the Water!" she yelled, flinging both hands into the air, and a blue streak shot from her pack and hovered in the air in front of the Mars Djinni. The glowing blue ball hit the Djinni and surrounded it. With a blinding flash, the blue glow disappeared, and a familiar form appeared on Zoe's shoulder.
"Torrent!" Zoe cried happily, holding the Djinni in both hands and resisting the urge to hug her so tightly that she wouldn't be able to breathe.
A sudden orange flash caught Zoe's attention, and she looked back at the Mars Djinni. It was dissolving into flames, and those flames shot into the air and surrounded Garet, disappearing. Almost instantly the Mars Djinni appeared on his shoulder.
"Hey! Check it out! I've got a Djinni!" Garet said happily, and Ivan held back laughter at the thought of what Garet would look like jumping up and down with joy.
"Hello," the Djinni said, its blue eyes catching the wavering torchlight and reflecting it, making them shine. "I am Forge, a Mars Djinni, bound to the power of Fire."
"We figured out the 'Mars Djinni' part a while ago," Ivan commented, causing the others to laugh. The sound of laughter so close to her right ear made Zoe remember, and she pulled Torrent off her shoulder again and held her out, spinning around happily.
"Well would you look at that," Isaac said, shaking his head slowly. "I'd expected pretty much anything other than what just happened."
"One must expect the unexpected," Ivan said, folding his arms, closing his eyes, and scowling, and he sounded so serious and sage-like that they couldn't help but laugh.
"Here's a question, then," Flint said, looking curiously at Ivan. "If the unexpected is to be expected, that would make it expected, and therefore unexpected would not exist. If you were to expect things further unexpected, then they also would be expected, and your theory would be fighting itself."
"Do you like confusing people, Flint?" Isaac asked as he walked back over to the edge of the platform and hopped back across. "That blew even me away."
"It's a hobby," Flint replied, all innocence. Isaac rolled his eyes and waited for the others to make the jump back across the pillar.
When they were all back on the same side again, they went back up the stairs and kept moving, each of them silently retracing their steps in their minds, wondering just how they were going to get out of the cave.
***************
"Isaac, duck!" Garet called, and Isaac, who had been walking backwards, ducked and covered his head. The troll's axe swung and passed over Isaac with inches to spare. He could feel the wind of it.
"Thanks, Garet," Isaac said, whirling to face the troll and barely bringing his sword up in time to block another swing. "A little help here!"
"Any ideas?" Garet asked Ivan as Zoe ran at the troll, waving the Bandit's Sword.
"No good ones," Ivan answered, and held the Shaman's Rod high. Garet sighed and drew his sword as well, and they ran up beside Isaac, the troll's axe barely missing Garet's head.
"What is it with the things we fight and my hair?!" Garet complained as he slashed at the troll, leaving one of its arms useless. "Oh yeah!"
"Nice one Garet. But please, don't get cocky or you won't have a head for them to attack!" Zoe yelled, and Garet stepped back, barely avoiding yet another axe swing. Ivan, in an awesome display of exactly what Jupiter adepts could do, jumped over the swinging axe as it passed him. Zoe was far enough back that it didn't even come close to her, but Isaac didn't even see it coming.
"Isaac! Look out!!" Ivan yelled, and Isaac turned his head and gasped, jumping aside, but the very end of one of the edges of the axe cut into his shoulder, and he yelped and fell against the wall. The troll let out a roar of satisfaction, and it echoed off the walls of the cave, making Ivan drop the Shaman's Rod and cover his ears.
"Oh no you don't!" Zoe yelled as she saw the troll swing at Ivan. Planting her feet in front of Ivan she closed her eyes and called on the force that she now knew was Psynergy. "Explorer's Storm!" she called, hand aimed at the ceiling. A blast of electrified water slammed into the troll, and it stumbled back, dropping its axe. Ivan and Garet's eyes were wide as they saw for the first time Zoe's Psynergy attack.
"Don't just stand there!" she called back to them, and Garet nodded. Placing his hands together in front of him, he fixed an iron glare on the troll and smirked.
"I summon the spirit of Mars, power of the Fire!" Forge jumped from Garet's shoulder and became a spinning ball of fire, and the power of Mars descended on the troll, defeating it, and it disintegrated. "Cool attack, Forge," Garet said, grinning at the Djinni.
"Doesn't help that it's my only attack," the Djinni muttered, and Garet laughed. But his face turned suddenly serious as he caught sight of Isaac slumped on the ground. "Isaac," he muttered, and hurried over to where Zoe and Ivan had already knelt beside him. "Isaac, are you ok?"
"Define ok," Isaac said through clenched teeth. "And then maybe I can answer you." He bit his lip and held tight to his arm where the axe had hit him. "But my answer is most likely a 'no.'"
"Can you make it out of here?" Ivan asked, glancing around behind them. Who knew what that troll's roar had attracted.
"I don't know."
"Bad answer," Garet said, prying Isaac's hand away from his shoulder and gasping. "Great fire spirits, Isaac! Learn to duck faster!" Zoe, upon following Garet's gaze, silently agreed. It did look pretty bad.
"I take that's your way of telling me I shouldn't look," Isaac shot back, grimacing. "Shoot. Forgot to 'go shopping' in Vault. I don't have anything that might help."
"Then we do it the old fashioned way," Garet said, sounding far too cheerful in light of the situation. Zoe looked up at him, puzzled. Ivan was about to ask Garet what he meant when he heard a noise off to his right and, whirling, squinted into the darkness.
"We've got company," he told the others, turning to look at them and catching Zoe's eye. Zoe nodded and stood, telling Garet that they'd handle it, and he grumbled a bit but nodded anyway. Zoe came to stand next to Ivan, who raised the Shaman's Rod and stood ready, though trembling just a little. Out of the shadows came a slime, followed by a zombie.
"Any ideas on how to beat them?" Zoe asked Ivan, who grinned.
"That's the idea," Ivan said, whacking the slime with the Shaman's Rod. "Beat them senseless!" Zoe shrugged and drew her sword, and with a yell began to whack the zombie with it, narrowly avoiding most of its attacks. Those that did hit did nothing serious, and the zombie soon lay stunned on the ground. Zoe felt immensely proud of herself for defeating the zombie all on her own as she drove the Bandit's Sword through it, killing it. Ivan was having similar luck with the slime, zapping it finally with a low-key version of his Ray.
"Well, that was…interesting," Garet said, and Zoe got the impression that he'd seen their fight. "But a nice tactic. I'll have to try it sometime."
"I don't know whether to thank you or beat you senseless!" Ivan grumbled. Then, remembering, the look on his face changed from one of mock anger to one of worry. "Isaac?"
"Still here," came the weak reply.
"Are we going on, or staying here?" Zoe asked, not much liking the idea of either.
"We can go," Isaac said, struggling to stand. Zoe hesitated for only a moment, then helped him up and let him lean on her. Garet frowned, but, after looking from Ivan to Isaac and Zoe to himself and back to Ivan, it was like a light bulb in his head went on and he sighed.
"The one disadvantage to being too tall," he said, and Ivan added, "And the one disadvantage to being too short." Without saying another word, the four began to trudge on tiredly, with Flint and Forge both hitching rides on Garet's shoulders. Torrent did a strange thing however. Standing on Isaac's head, the Djinni closed her eyes and began to glow a strange blue color. Zoe, after seeing that it didn't bother Isaac, shrugged it off.
***************
"Move you stupid stump!" Garet cried, frustrated. His Psynergy was running out, he knew. Soon he wouldn't be able to use it at all. But the stump was blocking their way and this was the only way to get it to move. "Come on! MOVE!" His shout echoed in the cave, but right now he didn't care. Zoe was practically dragging Isaac along by now; in fact, Garet wasn't sure if Isaac was even conscious anymore. And Ivan just looked worn out. Garet had begun to regret his promise to take over for Isaac as the leader should anything happen. But remembering his promise only furthered his resolve to get them all out of here alive, and in less than two pieces each.
Finally the stump fell over the edge of the platform and into the river that flowed through the center of the cave, and Garet sighed with relief. Jumping across, he looked back to see Zoe make the jump just barely, teetering dangerously backwards as she tried to support both Isaac's weight and her own. To Garet's relief, she caught her balance and slowly moved out of Ivan's way so he could jump across. The worn out Jupiter Adept gave himself a running start and leapt, but landed wrong and stumbled forward, rolling dangerously close to the other edge of the platform. Garet reached out and grabbed a handful of Ivan's shirt, stopping him from rolling right over the edge and into the water.
"Thanks Garet," Ivan mumbled tiredly. Garet only nodded and hauled Ivan to his feet.
"Yet another reason why we should high-tail it outta here," he said, more to himself than to anyone else. Slowly, almost too slowly for Garet's liking, they made their way forward. Through a doorway, they emerged into a significantly lighter and warmer cavern, and a bridge led across the river to a light-filled doorway, which was obviously the way out.
"We're almost out," Ivan said, though it was more of a sigh of relief. A sound behind them caught his ears, and he turned to see yet another axe-waving troll fast approaching them. "Garet! Zoe! Troll!" Turning, Garet could have yelled in frustration at seeing the troll. They were too tired to fight anything else, he knew. But did they have any other choice?
"RUN!" Zoe yelled, quickening her pace despite the extra weight. "Over the bridge!" Garet hurried after her, and Ivan, with one last glance at the troll behind them, brought up the rear. After what seemed like hours but was really only a few minutes, the four passed through the door and were out of Goma Cave. Bilibin was clearly visible about a mile and a half away. The sun was low in the sky, but not yet truly setting.
They hadn't gone more than ten yards when Ivan collapsed on the ground. Zoe heard him fall and looked back over her shoulder, but she knew she couldn't half-carry Ivan as well. Garet obviously knew this too, as he had pulled Ivan to his feet and shaken him awake again. "Almost there," he muttered, and Ivan nodded slowly and continued walking.
Half an hour later, they reached Bilibin.
***************
Vil: thought that was the end, did you? Oh, no, there's more to come yet in this chapter. *evil cackle*
Kaede: Just ONE question.
Vil: Hmm?
Kaede: WHY Isaac?
Vil: dramatic tension. Now go havo so I can write the rest of this chapter!
***************
"Shooed out of my own room," Garet muttered angrily later that night. He sat with Zoe and Ivan at a table in the eating area of the Inn in Bilibin. The three of them were falling asleep where they sat, or they would have been, if not for the Djinn's constant half-argument.
"How high d'you think it'd have to be?" Forge asked sleepily.
"Taller than you," Torrent offered. Flint was mysteriously silent, unusual for him.
"Lots of things are taller than I am," Forge argued. "Give me a better example."
"Can I ask just what you're trying to determine the height of here?" Zoe inquired, looking at the Djinn.
"How tall would a ladder have to be to reach the top of Mercury Lighthouse," Torrent said smugly.
"Oh. Sorry I asked," Zoe muttered, a frightening image of herself swaying on a ladder the reached the sky crossing her mind. She shuddered.
"Go to bed," said a voice behind them, and the three turned to face the owner of the voice and found the Innkeeper staring them down. Slowly and rather painfully the three rose and hauled themselves up the stairs. Garet knocked on the door of his room, got no reply, and opened it, sighing with relief at whatever it was he saw, and walked in, closing the door tight.
Ivan and Zoe were sharing the other room. Ivan collapsed into his bed and was asleep immediately. Zoe wanted to do much the same, but decided a bath first might be better.
Fifteen minutes later, Zoe fell into bed as well, and in minutes was sound asleep.
***************
Vil: end of chapter eight. On a late note: I hereby dedicate this chapter to MoonRanger (hiya tel!)
Kaede: for clarity, exactly which scene did you cut out back there when we started talking?
Vil: Basically it was just Garet telling Ivan to go for help, and Ivan coming back and Garet being kicked out of the room he shared with Isaac until said help left.
Kaede: Ah. And you cut this out because?
Vil: Don't you think it's long enough already?!
Kaede: Point taken. And what will chapter nine be?
Vil: Erm…the Bilibin chapter, as far as I can follow.
Kae: ok, sure. So, guys, review review review as usual.
||
||
||
\/