Advent Noion

13

aufri continues cheering, "go on, master! beat it up!"

the barnacle's tentacle notices them and retracts, before shooting upward into the air, splitting into a mass of filter cirri that come smashing down just five paces ahead of them, shaking the entire bridge.

~crash~

she turns around, shaking her head, "to hell with that! i'll just give you my underwear and we can call it -"

he grabs her arm, focused on something, "hang on..."

the barnacle's filter cirri roll themselves into a single long tentacle which slowly withdraws to its shell.

she looks to him confused, "eh, what? you can't seriously-"

he points toward something glowing near the base of the barnacle, "do you see that?"

aufri nods excitedly, "i do! what is it?"

he looks to the barnacle, then to her, "i don't know. can you distract it so i can get a closer look?"

she laughs, looking to the barnacle, "haha! distract... that?"

he makes his way to the railing and slowly crawls along the outside of the bridge,

she watches him with surprise "you're serious... hey, aufri! start throwing rocks at it or something!"

aufri scrambles around the ground, finding rocks to pelt at the tentacle, "take this! ah... and this!"

she finds two branches discarded nearby and starts drumming onto the metal railing, "heeeeeeyyyy! over here, you ugly bug!"

she realizes how close he is to the barnacle and panics for a moment, shouting to aufri, "more! yell at the top of your lungs, too!"

aufri screams insults at the barnacle in between rocks, "ahhh! you dumb monster! die!"

one of aufri's rocks strikes the barnacle, causing it to shudder. the glowing tentacle pulses, splitting into separate cirri, all pointing toward their location.

she looks to him, shouting to let him know, "get ready!"

he trips, falling to the edge and the barnacle redirects its attention to him, "uh, oops..."

she screams, "jfion, run!"

~crash~

the mass of cirri come smashing down at his location, knocking away the section of bridge around him.

she stops drumming, drops the branches, and falls to her knees, distraught, "jfion!"

the cirri wrap themselves up, and the tentacle slowly withdraws, dragging the dangling portions back onto the bridge.

she closes her eyes, "jfion..."

aufri points to the debris, "look, he's alright! do you-"

she wipes her face, interrupting aufri, peering at the rubble with surprise, "what!"

he throws his arm over and slowly pulls himself up onto the bridge.

she shouts madly at him, "jfion? hey, get the hell over here!"

he stands up, dusting himself off as he winces away from the incident, "i'm alive!"

she yells at him, "hurry up!"

he looks back to the tentacle still busily retracting itself, grinning, "it's not going to strike! and my leg hurts..."

aufri whistles, "wow! he's so lucky!"

he rejoins the two at the far end of the bridge, laughing, "haha. did you two see-"

she slaps him, "hey, what was that! you almost died!"

he whines, "aah! ow, that stings!"

aufri, looks at his legs, "are you okay?"

he lays down on the ground, resting, "yes, somehow."

silence.

she sighs, "that's great and all, but did you find out what that thing was?"

he shakes his head, "uh... no, i didn't-"

she rages, "eh! you almost died for nothing!"

he continues, "it disappeared gradually as i got closer, but it looked like part of the base-"

he sits up, looking to the barnacle, "it's big, but it's still a barnacle. i don't think it's going to move, so we can take our time to think now."

she reclines on the grass, groaning, "ugh. how did those bastards even move it here?"

aufri grins excitedly, "maybe it was summoned!"

he laughs, "haha, that's impossible, but good question-"

he looks around, "i don't see any tracks on the ground around this side of the bridge."

she nods, "sooo it came from the other side?"

he lays back on the ground, sighing, "if we could reach the other side of the bridge and follow the tracks, we might find something-"

she repeats herself, looking to the collossal obstruction, "the other side..."

he laughs, "haha. yes, the other side, but we can't pass that thing... i don't care anymore as well."

she sighs, "yeah, why were so concerned with this anyway?"

aufri whines, "but... but the bridge!"

he stands up, yawning, "ah, who cares! i'm tired of this..."

she agrees, "yeah, i-"

aufri interrupts them, running off to the barnacle, "if you won't, then i will!"

-

they sit back-to-back, faces turned toward the barnacle, waiting.

he peers out into the darkness, searching, "it hasn't moved, but i lost sight of aufri before he was close..."

she leans her head back over his shoulder, "i guess that means he made it."

he nods, "he is good at sneaking around."

silence.

he elbows her jokingly, "were you worried when i fell?"

she scoffs, "ha! i wasn't worried."

he frowns, "what! really? i almost died..."

she laughs nervously, "ha, maybe a little bit."

he turns to face her, "nisida, when we get back to the inn... can we-"

a voice interrupts from far away, "ahhh! i've got it!"

she sits up, looking for the source, "eh?"

he points to the barnacle, shocked, "aufri! ...uh?"

the barnacle is shaking the entire bridge, it's massive tentacle split into fans of cirri, each madly striking around the escaping child.

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aan