Falling, I had no sense of time.

The wind was like knives cutting into me, cold and unforgiving, and the edges of the abyss were serrated as though a sword had sliced them up unevenly.

Even as I fell, the fragment of light seemed to drift further and further away.

Then my sense of danger kicked in and, twisting, I avoided a hooked claw that would have sunk deep into my body.

Now facing the direction where I jumped from while still free falling, I saw the creature that had attacked me.

It was hideous.

A bird that was a bird and yet, not a bird.

Wings spread out, but the wings were made of bones with lines of web across them.

The face was a cruel caricature of a bird with the tongue lolling out and eyes bulging, with one of them dangling from its socket.

Gagging at the sight, I watched as it swooped down again.

Desperately, I screamed in my mind for a weapon and the image of my dagger came, sharp as the day I first saw it.

Then there it was, as though I drew it from my finite ring, in my hand - just like the horn of valor before.

Stabbing the dagger through the bird’s talons and into its bony foot, I held on for dear life as the bird screeched and gained height again, with me below it.

Then the bird flew towards the edges of the Abyss and, knowing what it was going to do, I let go of the dagger and I dropped back down the abyss.

This time, the bird didn’t follow.

A hundred other birds followed, however.

Panicked, I willed armor that encased me entirely to appear and with a shimmer, it formed around me.

The weight of the armor seemed to make my descent even faster and the birds flying down and pecking at it made my speed of descent increase even more.

Which was when I recalled that where there is an abyss, there is assuredly a ground.

A ground that I was hurtling toward at breakneck speed.

Looking down, I paled as I saw the end of the abyss.

Looking up, I paled further as I saw the birds spiral downward at me.

Then, clenching my teeth, I willed a short sword into existence and clutching it, when the next bird came, I dodged by a hair’s breadth and then stabbing my sword into the chest of the bird and using the sword as leverage; I vaulted onto the back of the bird.

Panting in exhilaration at the acrobatics that I had just pulled off, I paled again as I suddenly realized that I do not know how to ride a bird.

So with jerky movements and liberal usage of yanking the bird’s grotesque head, I tried to steer the bird toward the ground and when it was a few feet above and about to crash into the ground; I jumped off and prayed to Falka that it won’t hurt.

It hurt.

A lot.

But I was alive.

Though not for long, if the number of birds coming at me is anything to judge by.

Rolling back and narrowly avoiding the long beak of yet another of the birds, I spied a cavern into which I dashed without even thinking twice.

Inside, I crouched a bit further than the overhang which covered the entrance of the cavern, as I hoped the birds wouldn’t follow me in.

Keeping silent and staying unmoving, I crouched for close to 10 minutes before I cautiously raised my head and sighed in relief.

Then I looked out and scanning the local nearby. I found that this cavern was the only one that I could see and that there were no other entrances or exits.

Gulping, I turned back and faced the cavernous darkness that seemed ready to swallow me whole.

Looking at myself, I discarded the idea of exploring the abyss at the moment and instead tried to understand why I could summon the horn, the dagger, the sword, and what in Falka’s name were those birds.

Reaching my hand out, I concentrated hard and willed the dagger to appear.

It didn’t.

Brows furrowing, I tried again, and yet again, the dagger didn’t appear.

Then, with a yelp, I dived to the ground right before the dagger - which had shot into the cavern - nearly impaled my hand.

Trembling, I stood and pulled out the quivering dagger from the cavern wall which it was stuck in.

Bal.

So if I summon something, then as long as I don’t unsummon it - it will just return to me if I will it to appear.

“That’s useful, I suppose,” I mused to myself.

Then I summoned the sword and the horn.

The sword came back like the dagger whereas the horn, even if I threw it away - it would always appear back in my hand.

Puzzled, I looked at it before the words of my teacher ran through my head - that the horn had an artifact spirit at one point in time and that it might still be there.

Putting it aside, for now, I unsummoned my armor and then tried summoning multiple layers of armor.

After the first layer appeared, the rest of the layers didn’t materialize, and after trying for some time, I abandoned the task.

Squinting, I tried thinking of other ways that I could use this strange ability, but after much experimentation; I found it worked just like my finite stone did, with some exceptions and additions.

I could summon objects and not living things.

The objects had to be ones I had used before or touched personally.

The objects unless I unsummoned them would be in the abyss with me and would fly to me should I summon them, unless they were destroyed. The last part I found out after a piece of armor that had been pecked to pieces by the birds didn’t appear after I threw it away.

Also, an object once destroyed could not be resummoned.

As for the potions, I tried hard to summon them, but after a single drop of the warforce potion appeared; I fell to my knees in agony as my stomach cramped and my limbs spasmed.

Crawling over and licking the rock onto which the drop of the potion had fallen, I felt better with the familiar feeling of the warforce for a brief time, filling me and banishing the tiredness before it dissipated.

Panting, I stared at the ceiling of the cavern.

After a long time, I willed into existence new clothes and the mattress from my room in the tower.

Then lying on it, I fitfully slept while being on alert at every moment for danger.

It was a decision I regretted as when I awoke - My eyes were gritty; My body was feverish; My throat was parched and my mind hazy.

Shaking my head to clear it, I thought, salivating, about the food that I was going to summon.

Focussing my mind, I thought of the duck roast Thomas used to make and then my hands dropped down with the weight of something heavy and I opened my eyes to see... bread.

A loaf of black, unappetizing bread that could be used as bricks for construction or for bashing your head against from the pain of sadness.

Stupefied, I summoned the duck roast again - only for the bread to appear yet again.

Mouth open, I stared at the bread before poking it and cursing as my finger bent from the force.

With a morose expression, I began eating the bread and hoped I could resummon my teeth, were they to be destroyed.

With crunching noises, I had a brilliant idea, and I summoned a skin of water - which, fortunately, while stale, was much better than the bread and moistened the loaf before attacking it again.

Eventually, the loaf had gone into my stomach, and standing, I knew it was time.

Time to explore the cavern and see where it leads me.

I summoned my armor and cinched my weapons, and then, letting out a deep breath; I stretched and relished the feeling of security that they gave me.

Then I turned, and one footstep at a time, I walked into the gaping maws of the cavern.