Micah

Obviously, we had to go through the bladetails. That thing down below… it had cut off part of my boot, part of my body, in an instant. I could feel cool air on the end of my foot, where my sock had been sliced away, and I kept trying to curl my toes up against my foot for warmth and it felt weird, because some of my toes weren’t there anymore.

That monster could kill any of us in one hit.

“We need to take Cassie out of her egg,” I said. “We can’t try to carry it and risk falling back down onto that monster.”

“While I agree in principle, your sister is highly out of sorts and quite terrified. I feel certain that if you remove the shell now, she will simply resummon it, wasting her energy. I am trying to calm her down.”

“Well, we can’t just wait. That thing that attacked us might not be able to get up here, but some of those other new monsters looked like they could climb. If the smoke makes them angry…”

I didn’t want to finish that sentence. Eight bladetails was already a lot to fight, and I was feeling pretty tired after the Shockwalls I’d spammed to try to slow down the giant. Gavin didn’t seem too tired yet, but he’d had to use his abilities a lot too - fighting that first bladetail, healing himself, healing me.

“No, I agree. You cannot wait.”

“And we can’t fight bladetails and carry Cassie! That’s… a lot of monsters to fight even without carrying her.”

“Yes. You two will need to make use of your spears and knives. Here is what I propose: there are ledges scattered throughout the upward slope. Use the cloth bandages in your backpack to tie Cassie’s shell to one of the stalagmites adjacent to this ledge, then proceed up to the next ledge alone. Once you have killed the next bladetail, Gavin can return and carry her up.”

It made sense. Gavin’s tail made him a lot better at getting around than I was, even without… Well.

“I recommend you remove your socks and boots before you attempt the climb. The boots’ soles are not flexible enough to provide adequate traction on such uneven terrain, and you need traction more than you need leg and foot protection against the bladetails.”

“Yeah, okay.” I took off my left boot and sock, then tried to take off my right boot. My hands were shaking. I knew what had happened, but I didn’t want to see it. “Uh, Gavin, could you help me get my boot and sock off?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I was really grateful that he hadn’t asked any questions. Gavin liked helping people.

I felt him tug off my boot and peel away my sock.

“Whoa, that looks so weird. Um, sorry.”

I couldn’t help myself. I stole a glance at my foot, then looked away. I was pretty sure Gavin had healed everything up, but my sock and foot had been soaked in blood in the moments before he’d gotten to me, and my foot was still red. It had hurt really bad, and I guess it had been bleeding a lot.

A little chunk of my foot itself was gone too.

I’d have to be really careful, climbing. I pushed myself to standing, resting a hand on the slope beside me, and wobbled as I tried to rest my weight on a toe that wasn’t there.

Gavin had gotten his backpack open and had pulled out the cloth bandages. He was trying to use them to tie Cassie’s egg to a stalagmite, but he was making a mess of it, just like he usually did with the belt on his gi at aikido.

“Gavin… here, let me do it.”

He scooted aside to let me through. “Sorry. I just got confused. It's hard to reach around the stalactagmite.”

"It's a stalagmite, Gavin. It's on the ground, so stalagmite. There's no such thing as stalactagmites."

Gavin laughed. "Yeah, but I can't remember the names so I'll call it my way."

I couldn’t believe he could laugh. Did he not understand how dangerous things were, or…?

I looked over, and saw him looking up at the bladetails with a focused expression. No. He understood. He was just laughing anyway.

The next ledge wasn’t far, but we’d be close enough that I was sure the next bladetail would attack the second we got there. I helped Gavin get his spear off his back and ready to use.

“Be ready,” I told him. “And be careful! I’ll be right next to you. We can’t hit each other.”

Gavin nodded, serious.

I led the way, picking my way carefully up the hill, trying to position myself so the stalagmites would catch me if I slipped. I slipped a lot. Bare feet helped, but there was a lot to think about, and I kept forgetting that my foot was different now. I kept resting weight on places that couldn’t hold me up anymore.

Suddenly, Gavin’s tail shot past me, grabbing a stalagmite ahead of the next ledge and whipping him forward. I stopped trying to move carefully, rushing to catch up with him as the bladetail dove toward him.

Gavin stepped toward the bladetail and did the second move of our Jo kata perfectly. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sensei was always telling him he needed to focus better in class, because he was always goofing off and giggling with Taniqua instead of paying attention, but sensei would have been proud to see him now, swirling his spear above his head and bringing it down on the diving bladetail as he stepped to the side.

If he’d been holding his spear properly, he might have killed it right there, but he was holding it like it was a jo and forgotten about the spear part. Instead of slicing through the monster, he hit it at the base of its neck with the flat of his blade.

The impact knocked the bladetail to the ground and nearly sent Gavin tumbling as well, but he was able to anchor himself with his tail. He even remained standing.

I hadn’t taken my own spear off my back, since I needed both hands to climb, but as I threw myself onto the ledge next to the bladetail, I took my knife out of my belt and tried to stab the monster in the stomach. A wing got in my way, and it took a few tries. Claws raked my wrist as I finally succeeded.

“Let me heal you,” said Gavin.

“Wait! Get the water out first. Squirt this… stuff off.” I frowned, blinking my eyes rapidly to try to stop them from watering at the stinging pain. My arms and hands were covered in blood and guck.

Gavin got out his water bottle and cleaned my wounds, then healed me. I sighed in relief. The wounds hadn’t been deep, at least, and now that my hands had water on them I felt like I could wipe the rest off on my clothes.

“We did really good!” Gavin said, raising a triumphant fist.

“You did really good,” I told him. “I didn’t even get there until you’d knocked it out of the sky, and you still had to heal me. Will you be able to heal me if I get injured every time?”

Gavin looked toward the exit. “Three… four… five… six… seven more fights? Maybe, if we don’t get hurt too bad. Hey, don’t those guys near the exit look kind of close together?”

I followed his pointing finger. He was right: near the exit, there was a pack of three bladetails. We wouldn’t be able to face them one at a time.

“Yeah…”

We didn’t have another route, though. I tried to put on a brave smile for Gavin. “Don’t worry about them. If we get that close, we can just run out. They might hurt us, but even if you’re too tired, once we get through I’m sure Ms. Priya or someone can help us out. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” Gavin sounded doubtful. He tried to smile back, but I could see his shoulders hunch. “It’ll be fine.”