[Large Spaces]
"Luz?"
"Yes?"
"I know we haven't been traveling very long, but would you mind if we took a short break? Sitting on a stick for so long isn't very pleasant..."
"But of course. It's normal for the staff to feel very uncomfortable at first. Is everything else okay so far?"
"Oh yeah. I'm fine. See all those weird, small hills down there? I'd like to take a closer look..."
"All right. Hold on!", Luz warns her way too shortly, before she abruptly tilts the staff ninety degrees downwards and rushes towards the ground at maximum speed. Maddie gulps at first, and holds on to Luz tighter and tighter, before Luz finally pulls the staff back to level, much too close to the ground, and finally comes to a stop. Maddie immediately jumps off and throws up, not far from Luz.
"Please... Please NEVER do that again!"
"Okay...", Luz says remorsefully, after Maddie somewhat recovers and returns to Luz.
"Better?", Luz asks.
"Mhm...", Maddie is leaning against the big stone wall Luz landed next to, "I just need a moment to gather myself again... My insides need to sort themselves out first..."
"Sorry"
For her trip to Newtopia, Maddie actually doesn't have too much stuff with her. Besides the dark gray shirt that she is usually wearing, this time she has taken the precaution of putting a light gray fur scarf around her neck for the cold temperatures when flying. In addition, she wears a loose, gray cape with the equally gray hood over her head. A small shoulder bag hangs down around her shoulder, in which she has packed a few books and a small notebook. Luz, on the other hand, wears largely the same clothes with which she landed in Amphibia, but with two small changes, or rather additions: First, she has been able to wash her clothes and remove most of her blood stains. The second enhancement is the backpack that Anne lent her for the trip. In it she carries a few more books that Maddie didn't have space for in her own bag, some money that Hop Pop gave her, several prepared glyphs, some food, and also an empty notebook.
A sudden mechanical click, along with a slight vibration in the floor, startles both girls for a moment. In the previously apparant wall, against which Maddie has been leaning, a huge door opens with a height of at least nine meters. Astonished, Luz looks at the slowly opening door before turning around and looking in the other directions to see if anything has changed there as well. In fact, Luz sees several similar stone walls, albeit much smaller ones, compared this one. Nothing has changed there, however.
Directly behind the now open door is an equally huge, dark, light gray room.
"Luz, light?", Maddie asks before Luz activates several light glyphs and enters the room along with Maddie. The floor is completely covered with a stone mosaic, while the walls are made of smooth, gray stone. At each of the corners of the square room, Luz places a light orb to better appreciate its dimensions.
"This thing is so big, my house at home would fit in here twice. Well, stacked on top of each other.", Luz compares.
"Maybe this was used for storage?", Maddie surmises.
"There's surprisingly little stored here for that, though...", Luz observes.
"There are thieves in this world too...", Maddie argues.
"Maybe this was used as a hiding place. Although, scratch that."
Both girls wander aimlessly around the seemingly empty room, looking for... anything.
"Luz! I think I found something..."
As Luz runs to Maddie, she is already beginning to realize what she is standing in front of. Above Maddie are two stone frog feet, mirrored above each other. Each of them as big as Maddie. Luz gasps.
"Oh my gosh... This is an elevator...", she states in amazement.
"What?"
"I think these are buttons that can take us to another floor...", Luz explains.
Luz tries to press the lower button, but it doesn't really work. Only when Maddie jumps on Luz' shoulders and they press it together, the button moves and finally locks into place, before the gigantic doors close and the room starts moving.
Luz grins proudly.
"I love it when I'm right...", she says.
"I'm sure you do. Let's just hope the door upstairs opens again too, once we're back upstairs...", Maddie hopes, to which Luz' grin disappears right away.
"Oh... yeah... you're right."
The elevator travels downward for almost two minutes before finally coming to a stop. The large doors open and a large amount of stuffy air and dust fills the room within seconds.
"Mask!", Luz yells before both girls wrap their capes in several layers around their noses and mouths. They walk up to the door, both with a light orb in one hand, created by Luz.
"Okay... We've either found a room so big that our light orbs can't reach the other side, or we're facing absolute emptiness.", Luz notes. Maddie is the first to take a step out of the elevator.
"No void.", she says.
The air is completely permeated with dust, and both girls are now walking further into the room. The dust is so dense, it acts like a light-dampening fog. Luz and Maddie would lose sight of each other if they moved too far apart.
"It seems like this room has been untouched for hundreds, or even thousands of years.", Maddie surmises, just before a light dawns on her, "Wait a minute, Luz... The glyphs. is there a correlation between the size of the glyph and the strength of the spell?"
Luz immediately knows what Maddie is alluding to.
"Oh yes, absolutely...", Luz replies. With her shoes, she draws a light glyph several meters in diameter on the dust that has settled on the ground over time. "Cover your eyes!", Luz warns Maddie before activating the glyph with her hand.
A light orb with the perceived strength of the sun rises from the ground and floats several meters into the air. The previously completely dark room is now brightly lit.
It is very hard to imagine that this place was created for, or used by frogs or toads. There are stone pillars at regular intervals along the walls, which are probably intended to stabilize the ceiling. Between the pillars are a couple more doors, slightly smaller than the front door, all closed and sealed off. Opposite the door are three different sized chairs, all slightly raised from the floor. Luz and Maddie could easily fit on the outer two chairs. However, five Luz' could sit on the middle one at the same time. Just in front of the chairs is a stone column that, unlike the others, doesn't reach the ceiling, but is only about the same size as Luz. Above the door are several dark rectangles of various sizes. They remind Luz a bit of the monitors on her computer at home.
"I don't get it. I don't see any practical use in this room. It's far too easy to reach for a bunker. An abandoned, underground city perhaps? No, this room is too big for that with too few paths in other directions. An emergency shelter for the king? Maybe, but why are there three chairs? Were there perhaps other species in Amphibia that no longer exist today, that used this structure?"
"Maddie?", Luz interrupted Maddie's thought processes.
"Huh?"
"Let's head back up."
"Why? We've only just arrived"
"See how dusty the air is? If I stay here much longer, I'll probably develop a breathing disorder..."
"But...", Maddie begins, noticing that she was finding it harder to breathe too. "Fine. But we'll stop by again on the way back"
"Sure. We can try to leave the doors open so that we can breathe better when we come back.", Luz suggested as the two girls walked towards the elevator again.
[Lessons]
"Luz, can we maybe take a break? I'm getting hungry..."
"Sure. I'm getting hungry now too. Are you interested in a picnic?"
"You have food with you?"
"But of course... Such a long journey without having something to eat is torture...", Luz jokes as she leisurely glides towards the ground.
At this point, the girls have made it about two-thirds of the way to Newtopia, and they're well on schedule so far. Luz lands on an open meadow, from which it is easy to watch the sunset.
After Luz and Maddie have descended and now have solid ground under their feet again, they both take off their capes, lay them on the ground and use them as a picnic blanket.
"I don't have much with me, but it should last for a while", Luz says, offering Maddie a sandwich. She accepts it gladly and takes a bite. Her face grimaces a little.
"It doesn't taste like bread dad made...", Luz chuckles at that.
"Right. Anne baked it to distract herself from constantly checking on Hop Pop while he was still recovering."
"I can taste that..."
Not knowing why, both girls suddenly start laughing. It lasts for quite a few minutes before Luz wipes a laughing tear from her face.
"Actually, that's not funny at all...", she says.
"Absolutely not.", Maddie continues to giggle.
"We really should stop laughing"
"Yes, definitely"
Some time passes before the two of them are able to pull themselves back together.
"Maddie, can you remind me later to ask Anne what exactly was in that bread?"
"I'll try."
"Great... Um, on another subject, could you explain to me how you managed to develop the regeneration glyph?"
"I'm so glad you asked.", Maddie replies with a smirk on her face, "But before I explain, I'd like you to tell me what you call the glyphs you already know."
"Well... Light, Fire, Ice and Plants"
"I've been doing some research, trying to figure out what each individual glyph actually does. As for light, there's not much to interpret. Fire and ice, on the other hand, both have to do with energy. In the case of fire, energy is added to something, and in the case of ice, energy gets removed. Plants has to do with organic matter, not specifically just plants. And with this basic knowledge it is possible to create different combinations. For example, for the Regeneration Glyph, I combined the Matter Glyph with the Fire Glyph. Actually, I wanted to give the Fire and Ice Glyphs other names, but so far, I haven't come up with anything better those sounds good and at the same time describes their properties… Umm, where was I?"
"You wanted to-"
"Ah yes, regeneration. By emitting energy through the Fire Glyph, I was able to channel that energy into the Matter Glyph to enhance a body's natural healing abilities."
"I had actually tried to combine glyphs at home before, but it never worked..."
"Did you stack the glyphs or put them side by side?", Maddie wonders.
"Is that important?"
"Yes, it is. Imagine each glyph corresponding to a single word or letter, and your goal is to form a sentence. So, when you tried-"
"When I tried to stack glyphs on top of each other, it was like trying to pronounce multiple words at once."
"Exactly.", Maddie confirms.
"Oh my gosh... That's why I never found more glyphs. There are only four..."
"Well, maybe there's another one for non-organic matter"
"Hey, please don't ruin the moment.", Luz warns her, to which Maddie smiles. And when she sees how energetic Luz suddenly looks, she can't help but get infected.
"We need to experiment with this", Luz says with utter excitement.
"Definitely. It's good that I've prepared a little something"
Luz gasps when she sees that Maddie has pulled several different glyph combinations out of her bag.
"Maddie, you're the best. When did you have time to set everything up?", Luz asks.
"Well, when you left me the original glyphs, I experimented all night. I didn't go to sleep until you flew me home from the cave."
"Oh, I'm sorry"
"Why? I had so much fun experimenting that I forgot the time. Things like that happen..."
"Right. So, what do you have for me?"
"Let's start with this one. Here I have four lightglyphs arranged in a circle around a matter glyph. In this case, the matter represents you. Ideally, you can make yourself invisible with it."
Luz gasps in anticipation, stands up, and activates the glyph as she presses it against herself. And indeed, she becomes invisible. Well, at least as long as she can hold her breath.
"Okay, that's really cool. The fact that it only works when I hold my breath is an inconvenience, I'm willing to accept."
"Perhaps I can tweak this further so that the effect lasts even if you're breathing while staying invisible. Now, next is a combination of a fire and a water glyph. Ideally, it should produce steam."
Luz takes the glyph, activates it, and steam erupts, filling the ground around the two girls.
"Cool.", Luz marvels, " What else?"
"Let's see... This combines light, ice and fire and can cause explosions. Don't try this here, please."
Luz giggles in anticipation, but ultimately agrees.
"This is my penultimate glyph. It allows you to cause a gust of wind."
Luz takes the glyph and points it at a tree before activating it. The tree shakes vigorously once, and loses a few leaves in the process.
"Okay, that's strong. And the last one?"
"The last is a combination of Ice and Matter glyphs. It drains energy from organic objects and turns them into inorganic objects."
When Maddie explains this, Luz suddenly becomes sad.
"So, they're kind of getting petrified?", she asks.
"Exactly."
Maddie notices Luz staring at this last glyph.
"What's wrong?", Luz simply puts the glyph away, before turning back to Maddie.
"We should move on. We should arrive in Newtopia in a few hours."
[Losses]
'What? Where am I?'
Nothing. Silence. She can feel her heart pounding under her skin.
'Have I been captured? Why don't I know where I am?'
'I remember trees. I ran. Through a forest. But why?'
'Okay, keep calm. And don't move. Otherwise, whoever might be here will know I'm awake...'
'What's the last thing I remember?'
'I was with Anne. And there was this other girl...'
'I don't know her name anymore'
'I remember... frogs'
'Why frogs? Why was I there?'
'Someone had spoken to me. But it wasn't a frog...'
'And then... And... then...'
'Ugh, why can't I remember?'
Suddenly she hears a slow creaking noise. Someone takes a startled breath and runs away.
'Oh no, have I given myself away? Through facial expressions maybe?'
'Shit. If I could just somehow find out if I'm here alone, I could see if I can move...'
Again, she hears a creaking noise. Only this time she can make out two people.
"There. I swear she moved.", the first voice says.
"Hmm... Thanks Percy", the second says.
'Percy? I know someone with that name'
One of the people walks away while the other comes closer. Something drags across the floor. Something metallic.
'A sword? No, that sounds too dull to-'
"Oh Sasha...", the second voice begins. It sounds… sad? The sound of metal being scraped across the floor stops, followed by a short thump, followed by a worried sigh. "I was hoping you would be awake by now. It's been three days now...Your injuries have been treated as best as possible here-"
'Injuries? What injuries?'
"- and most of it seems to heal well and quickly... What happened that could hurt you like this?"
'It's... Grime, isn't it? Yes, it's Grime'
Suddenly, Grime notices Sasha moving.
"Grimsey?"
"Sasha, you're alive", Grime says happily. Sasha smiles and tries to sit up.
"It's really nice to see-", Sasha stops abruptly, realizing that something is wrong.
"Grime...", Sasha says worried, "What is... why can't I..."
"Unfortunately, I have to tell you that one of your eyes could not be saved. You are blind in one eye. Probably forever.", Sasha doesn't know how to react to this news and just sits there, completely shocked. "The good news is we have something in common now, hehe", Grime says, trying to cheer Sasha up. She doesn't even notice.
"How- How did that happen?"
"I was hoping you could tell me... After you left Toad Tower for your mission-"
"Mission? What kind of mission?"
"You do not remember?", Sasha just shakes her head.
"That's bad. That's very bad... Umm, you were commissioned to kill a frog in a village called Wartwood. Don't you remember?", Sasha shakes her head again.
"So… you don't know if you've completed the mission, nor what hurt you badly...", Sasha keeps shaking her head and Grime sighs in concern.
"All right. Maybe your memory will come back in a few days. Until then, you will stay here and recover. In the meantime, I'll tell the kitchen that someone should bring you something to eat."
"Thank you, Grimsey."
Grime makes his way back to the door, but stops briefly before doing so.
"Oh, that reminds me of something else. While cleaning up the banquet, someone found this in the hall." He reaches into a pocket of his uniform and pulls out a key. The key is brown and has an eye-shaped button on its bow. Grime throws the key to Sasha.
"Could it belong to that other human girl?"
"I don't know. Maybe..."
"All right. I'll leave you alone then..."
Sasha inspects the key and notices that the button can be pressed. She presses it, but nothing happens.