Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

Upon returning, Ihra looks a bit worse, as if she's losing the color of her scales. She snores once and then twitches, but other than that, her breathing seems fine.

 

I place the glass of water on the bedside table, then sit at my chair and watch over her. A look of fear, concern and grief stains my face.

"Please be alright..." I whisper to myself. I think about getting Artemis, but extinguish that thought upon thinking about what I could do.

I glance at my door, then back at Ihra, then back at my door, then to Ihra. I can't seem to decide whether or not to ask Stephanie for help.

 

The Serpent roars loudly. But the fire comes out anyway.
Fire shoots out into the entire valley, burning anything in its path.
"Xephyr, we have to get out of here. We can defeat it, but not in a valley."
I start flying out towards the plains.

 

Color drains further from her scales, albeit slowly.

"Understood. When do I trigger the detonation, then?"
She teleports above you, gliding.

 

I rush out of the room, grabbing Stephanie and bringing her back.

"Could you watch over her and make sure nothing bad happens?" I say hastily.

"Ugh, sure. What am I supposed to do if something bad happens?" Stephanie replies.

"Uhh, try and stop it!" I say, rushing through a portal of darkness.

Stephanie keeps an eye on Ihra. "Why should I remember you..." She says to herself.

 

"You tried to kill him... and me..." Ihra whispers in a raspy voice.
Her wings droop.

 

"What?" Stephanie says, wheeling over to Ihra's bed in my chair. "Are you feeling alright?" She says, concerned.


I jump out of the portal of darkness near to Artemis, running over to her.

"Artemis! Ihra! Bad things! Hurt! Dying! Stephanie!" I say hastily.

"Aj, calm down!" Artemis says, holding her hand up. A green glow surrounds it, as well as my head. "Now, slowly, what do you need to tell me?" She says calmly.

"Ihra's in trouble!" I say.

A look of fear appears on Artemis' face "What? What happened?"

"So we were fighting the serpent, and she was explaining her staff and stuff, and then it shocked her with some electricity or something and knocked her out! So I took her to Shadow Home, and put her in my bed to recover, and then the colour started draining from her scales! I got Stephanie to cover whilst I went and got you because you're key to her story or something and I knowyoucanhelpsowehavetogorightnow!" I say hastily.

A dark portal appears behind me, "Alright, so she's unconscious in the Realm of Shadows, and you got Stephanie to cover? Are you sure she's not going to kill her?"

"She doesn't remember anything that happened, not even you coming with me." I explain, "We need to go save Ihra now!" I say nervously.

"Ok, lets go." Artemis says, a dark aura beginning to surround her.

We both jump into the dark portal.

 

"Too... dark... just need..."
She goes limp.

 

"Our realm..." She says, looking at Ihra.

Artemis and I jump out of the portal. "Stephanie we're here to-" "Noooo back, back you go." Stephanie interrupts, blocking our path.

"I thought you said she didn't have any memories!" Artemis says, turning to me.

Stephanie picks up the entire bed, Ihra still on it. "This realm isn't good for the poor girl, we're taking her back to her homeworld." She says, holding the bed above her.

The portal we came through grows larger to accommodate the bed.

Stephanie, Artemis, Ihra and I head back through the portal; Ihra still lying on the bed. I grab Ihra's staff before heading through.

 

Color rapidly returns to her body after you go back.
You end up dropping the staff before the ever increasing weight catches you off guard.
She stretches, groans, then opens her eyes.
"ugh... where am I now?" she utters.

 

"Taking her to your realm probably wasn't the best idea..." Artemis says, looking at me.

Stephanie places the bed next to Artemis' tree.

"You forgot that the Realm of Shadows has adverse effects on non-Shadows if you're not empowering them again didn't you?" Stephanie says turning to me.

"I did..." I say looking down.

"Try to remember that next time you try and save someone from battle, alright?" Stephanie says with a disappointed tone.

Stephanie heads back to the portal.

"Wait, what about my bed!" I shout to Stephanie as she heads through the portal.

"Are you saying you're so weak you can't even push the bed back into a portal?" She says, head poking from the portal.

I look a little embarrassed, "No!"

Stephanie leaves, the portal closing behind her.

Artemis grins at me.

 

"What. Just happened."
I notice Ihra's broken-looking body and channel sunlight towards her.
"And seriously, you can't push a bed through a portal? Pathetic."

 

The fire soon disappears. Other than even more burning and a few large holes in the ground, there isn't any sign of the Serpent.
"Soon. It isn't in the tunnel this time but it is close by. If we see the Serpent in the tunnels, then detonate the crystal if we find the tail or head end. If we find its body, then as long as we stay away from the steam then we will be fine."
I fly down into the tunnel and start going past lots of different ores of different kinds. As we go deeper, the ores change gradually.
The path seems to be going deeper into the ground but it is hard to tell. The path also twists and turns a lot but the direction we go in seems to be generally the same.
After a while, the path ends abruptly in a wall. A familiar, moving, scaly wall.
"Don't move until the tail goes past. When the tail goes past, detonate the crystal and then we'll go to the portal, which isn't far away."

 

"I can push a bed through a portal! It's just my bed...is...really heavy..." I say crossing my arms and pouting.

"Aj took Ihra to the Realm of Shadows after she got knocked out and forgot to either empower her or cast a spell to prevent the adverse effects of his realm from affecting her; he went and got me, getting Stephanie to cover, then Stephanie took Ihra back here." Artemis explains.

Artemis draws her bow, keeping an eye on Luphyx.

 

"So, now what? We wait for Ihra to regain energy?"

 

"And why did you think it appropriate to bring Ihra to the murderous beast of shadow you call a friend? That doesn't seem like a wise decision. Especially since Artemis was stabbed the last time we had a conversation."

 

Lazarus lightly taps the wall, and checks the news.

 

"She had no memories of what had happened, and was actually her normal self; she even asked why she should remember Ihra when I queried her on it. I didn't intentionally bring her to Stephanie, she was simply in Shadow Home at the same time; she wanted to know where Artemis was and found us."

"I had my arm cut off." Artemis corrects.

"I guess." Artemis says, looking over to Ihra, "Do you feel better now?"

 

"Got it."

She looks at you lazily, yawning.

You make contact with the wall. So many anomalies...

The news mentions a meteor strike that happened. A hundred years ago...
Bowie freaks out, looking at the date of publishing on the article.

"Yeah. The light feels good."
She sits up, groaning.

 

"Sorry about taking you to the Realm of Shadows and hurting you as a result." I apologise.

Artemis hands Ihra a wooden cup. Green liquid sloshes inside; it has the potent aroma of freshly cut grass and apples. "Here, drink this," Artemis says sweetly, "It'll get your spirits up."