Jason - Hope - A solution.

Blue -

My attention grasped by the color - the brightness like a burst flare -

It was a terrible light - it pulsed with a power and depth and I recognized it, felt how it reached my soul unapologetically - for all it was just light it was hard, heavy, and real -it was so familiar, and yet...it wasn't beautiful, it was a light of truth -

I was running, because I know, I'd never ran so fast - over the crabs, I was falling forward, tripping forward and still, faster - I couldn't spare the momentum, I was almost there -

I didn't need to hear him, I'd already seen the light - felt it's gaze, I just didn't know they could ever hold that much sorrow, a small victory in defeat -

"Save them, Cody!" He shouted and - jumped.

"Noooo!" I screamed, and I couldn't think, even though I was ready - couldn't do anything to make myself Go faster, but I had to.

Because my body wasn't built for moving like this - and I had to make it, I had to reach -

Then I was, I was already there - had been, had known, but just needed -

He was already torn apart, not fighting, his whole body was a bulldozer to push the crabs away - hugging and knocking them back with bare hands - no attempt for preservation, driving the mound of them like a football sled - when I crashed into it and he saw me with a mind already gone like I was his cue to collapse, let go -

I caught the fading mix of determined rage I'd tasted, on the beach in our struggle - madness, and the last blue echoes of his fading light as I grabbed him. Grabbed him with longer arms then I'd ever had before, as long as legs and slammed him back on top of the shelter -

"Potion!"

And now I knew - I felt it, felt the memory, the explanation -

A tree, a climb - it was all there, at the base. The bones. How I'd played and stretched them, moved them around and looked - thinking about the difference, between a dog and a giraffe, a deer and a dingo -

Playing with bones - with my hands, moving and stretching them inside of me - to build a cage, a sword, a spear -

The bone, twisted and broken but healed - pulled inside me because I could touch it -

The thoughts had combined, the ideas melted and melded and stretched to something new within, and concept flowed into form with my desperation -

Because there was no difference, all the same, the same pieces the same material - I am organic - I am my own crafter.

And then my arms had reach. Because I was always reaching - never finding, but I felt the change as I was finally stretched beyond the limits to grasp what I wanted, I needed -

I was on four limbs, and now I moved like an ape my, knuckles and the mauls spinning out in a wide circle as the crabs tried to furrow back into the respite he'd so willingly given his life for - his choice -

Because he knew, what I intended. He wasn't stupid, none of them were - maybe only seconds after I grabbed Mike -

Crushing, fury - at the crabs, at myself. Guilt, my blood, pumping as my body felt the constant pinches and pressures, and I continued to crush, buying seconds, a couple minutes of hope - for him to heal, because he'd made his choice -

I couldn't take it from him. I couldn't take his freedom. He spent the currency of his life to save them, even if he would forgive me, I could never...

My choice had been hard, it had been bitter, but fair - working with the facts I had, working with the future I needed -

Now the present arrived and it was no longer the same, I couldn't leave Jason and Brandon, they could have survived long enough for me to grab him, and Jason maybe, with the money - held off until I made it back, especially with his spell -

Now I knew - and for me the choice was simple -

All, or Nothing.

"Ride me!" I shouted letting them know my plan, I slapped my body up to them and felt their surprise as bones wrapped around their thighs in tight bracelets and pinched - I had them shrink tighter, seeing their legs bulge beneath their shredded fabric, before bowing back down to let them climb aboard -

My bones twisted, I focused on them - to become what I had to be, to carry them to safety -

knowing what I was about to endure, handles grew out of my spine, splitting skin to emerge as a round handle - a pommel -

They moved mechanically - unsure - dragging Brandon's mass with them - sliding into the writhing mass where just my body was the island -

"Hurry."

I let my voice be patient, because - he was going to make it - they were going to make it -

I braced myself as they settled, ignoring the pinchers that pinched - Derek had my head, grasping the pommel closest to the cowl pulled up, and they pulled Brandon between them, using the pressure of their bodies to hold him steady - each of them could have been so light -

But over five hundred pounds together - I moved as they settled, slow - because they could only handle so much swaying, their legs, heard their pained moans, not a shout, just - enduring...Brandon passed out, but the other two -

I knew, that their legs were being torn apart, shredded - hoped I'd put the bands high enough - they endured it gallantly as they rode me, and I felt no nobility in my movement, because though it was a race, I was forced to take the pace of a parade.

And the mana I had hoarded, to use to give the tree another boost, it drooped - my shield forced to widen, to cover the wider surface I presented to the crabs as I trudged -

Powerful - powerful enough to move with five hundred pounds on my small frame -

Slow enough that I had enough time to adjust, and to focus on what I really needed - letting everything else go - I mourned my cowl as I felt it tugged and torn off - I pulled my shield beneath my guard, letting it's durability plummet and preserve the mana of my shield -

Steady, my plod. Because it had to be. You don't need the finesse of fingers and toes, not to crawl - so I let that part of the shield slip away. Beneath my knees I severed the blood flow, pinching away veins as they ripped away the rest for me -

My fingers ripped away, torn, each new movement I had less - less to worry about, less I needed, and less mana -

Something was wrong, what should have stopped the bleed of it had done no good, hardly an improvement - but I was over half way - could they climb?

"Rope!" I yelled at Mike. I'd been ignoring his shouts, unintelligible, unsure of what to do - like watching the greatest game - the superbowl - all your friends in it, you'd bet everything on your team, your very life - and they were losing.

Closer - I could see him, see him fumbling with a shitty rope - took a moment to laugh. Because had I told them, had we had a party, for my rope - they'd have known how important...

Because I couldn't rush - I had already done everything. Everything I could - and now it was just...seeing if we would make it.

Terror. Dread.

I wanted to feel it, but even if I collapsed - I knew I wouldn't die. I couldn't even sacrifice myself to save them.

Mike was reaching down out of the tree to grab them, lift them up, but Brandon was still limp, comatose - his weight dead even without legs, he was heavy, slick with blood -

"Climb, Jason! Help them!"

And he did. He grabbed Mike's hand and used his feet to scrabble up the tree. Together they dragged Brandon up, still a slab of raw meat, and pulled him, too, and I could feel the tree rocking -

Brandon was pulled up and tucked over a branch. Derek followed, a midget without legs, a white mannequin, the dark island colors of their skin gifted by the beach so quickly taken back by lost blood and -

I fed the tree, feeling it - the strain and weight. Mike still hovered, ready to grab me, grab onto what?

"Come on, Cody."

"Help them." I told him.

Because I wouldn't risk my weight, too. And I was still trying to understand what I saw. Because Jason was fine -

Just...bruises, on his legs. His clothes weren't even torn - I pulled my Cowl inside, with out the need of the strength, to save what was left, and still the crabs picked, pinched at me, but my health was steady, holding above twenty -

And it was just pain -

Mike hadn't moved, still reached for me -

"I'm fine, Mike -"

And then he burst into tears - sobs, "No, you're not."

But I was - I leaned my head against the tree and finally found my place - it was hard, because the tree wasn't happy -

The soil wasn't perfect. By itself, it couldn't live here. It wouldn't choose it - but it had no choice as to where it was planted. It had to make the best of it -

These tree liked thick dirt that was solid, it like other trees like it to hold the earth, to support each other against the winds - the rain - the floods -

Sure there was competition for the light - but there was enough light -

I felt the bark wrap around me, slowly swallowing me. There was no radiance, no connection with the sun, it was dark - but I knew if I waited it would come -

And I became the tree - I was the tree - And I was also still me -

My mana no longer came in bursts but flowed, or the minutes flowed like seconds, and I grew. No longer did I worry about supporting the weight, I knew I was big enough. Strong enough.

My roots spread out, I found rocks and broke them - I pushed the sand aside like a burrowing mole widening my stance -

Jason's legs were fine. The bone tourniquets gone. And I knew that was important -, and that Brandon would heal, but had almost killed himself. What did that mean -

It was a Balance - for the tree. It couldn't grow as big in this soil. It had to grow differently, it had to think about what it needed most, it couldn't be a natural tree, couldn't be what it wanted - it had to change -

It blamed the soil - it wasn't fair.

Derek is dangerous.

But a tree must grow -

I emerged whole, restored - Mike still knocking down crabs with his spear as others waited, resting - they were healed. Exhausted. Slumped.

I looked at Jason.

I don't know what I expected to see, guilt? I don't know -

Should his features be twisted away from beauty, twisted with a betrayal because...

"I didn't know - I wanted to live. I wanted to be able to do what you could do." He whispered...

I shook my head, shrugging -

"I didn't know what I was doing - I just, it just happened, I felt stronger, I was healing faster - I didn't know, I didn't want to think about it, what it meant - I just felt it...

Jealous -.

Blue Flacon - a buddy fucker.

Jason the Jealous -

And yet I couldn't be mad, it wasn't my life he'd almost reaped. It was almost his own - and the others. I felt sad - for Brandon's sacrifice, and his prize -

Relief that none of them had died, but I do judge - and is it right? To judge them, as harshly as I would myself? When I know everything, about myself -

What did they think of me - growing a tree out of nothing. Carrying them to safety - in a parade of pain, new pains for them, fear -

To relief and understanding, to climb up on something I could have done this morning? That I could have planted closer, but I wasn't sure of the soil, instead -

I'd spent time stabbing them with poisonous bugs - to get what I needed from them -

Does a tree apologize? A tree grows according to its nature, the world can stunt it or help it -

I'm not really a tree, though - I'm a man, with no excuse and less reason -

So I molded platforms for them, still not speaking, just thinking quietly. The calmness. Because along with my mana the tree had eaten everything, sucked out the memories, the pressures, the surface thoughts and deeper worry -

I had healed in that tree -

1118 coins.

1118 crabs.

They just kept coming - then I heard it, amongst the clicking of their hard shells against each other. A pause, like a breeze that pushed over them - and they pulled back. Their forward momentum halted and how did they know? I looked at the tide, that had crushed and washed away the hut -

Thankful that my ignorant decision to plant the tree further from the water had turned out to be a lucky one, because once more - how uneducated was I? How little did I think about what matters -

But at the core of it all was something simpler, they were weak - too weak. And another truth was that I was too strong - That I had to believe that there was a logic to these dungeons. There was more to it - Gods? Aliens? Magic?

Concepts my mind wasn't able to grasp at because I saw the futility of it. If I was closest to the truth, inside the truth. This is where answers were...not out there. I'd heard their debates and the fact it could be a debate meant nobody knew for sure, it was all speculation. Only the future would tell and today -

I looked up, seeing the pink awareness of morning coming.

Grateful for life -

Grateful for not understanding it all, because it meant there was always more -

That for whatever my woes be, boredom. It wasn't one of them - to nap in a tree next to the ocean. To rest next to people - some of them you choose, some of them are chosen for you - the good and the bad, knowing that you aren't any better -

Just different -

Just a bit more strength, more experience. I'd climbed a little higher than them - enough to judge. But still, I'd learned to grow, to lift them up. And I had a plan, to help them stand on their own.