The Night Comes Down

The night was mercifully quiet, only interrupted for the Gamer when Lucille left the comfort of their blanket to take her watch, leaving him and Abigail in it.

John awoke to the sound of a cannon firing, and a shining beacon appearing in the distance. The sun peeked over the horizon, and glowing words appeared high up in the air.

You have done well to make it this far! You have four hours to make it to the exit point. Those of you who have already finished, travel to the beacon to end your trials. Safety awaits, good luck.

“The closer we get, the more people there are going to be. It should take about an hour to get there, by that time, many will have already left,” Lucille’s eyes darted from the message in the sky to the pillar of light that served as their guide.

“Well, we have to get there sooner or later,” John chimed in, rubbing his eyes. David appeared on his shoulder, and John took out one of the last two steaks in his inventory. He ripped a piece off and fed it to his hawk, creating a small bowl with Mana Construct to contain water and placing it on the ground. “Breakfast first?”

“We’ll need the energy. While scouting around last night, I spotted edible berries. Plants in this Kingdom are almost always toxic, so it’s a rare sight. I’ll go collect some,” the elf left without another word, surprising them with her consideration.

They got to work, Abigail reigniting the fire while John Crafted a small grill out of Iron Wood for the steak to roast on. He took out half the loaf of bread he hadn’t finished the night before. So it was real. Huh.

He ripped the bread in half and placed it over the flames to toast, raising himself off the ground and onto a stump. “Nothing happened during the night?” he looked to Abigail, who was lying on the ground, hands buried in their campfire in an attempt to get it going.

“Nope! Grace complained loud enough to wake me up when it was her turn for watch though,” the brunette stood up, stretching as her hands turned back to flesh. David, finished drinking, returned to John’s shoulder.

“You never introduced any of us to this little guy, you called him David, right?” she slowly reached toward the bird in question, hand open, “Is it alright to pet him?”

Her question was answered when the hawk looked to John briefly for confirmation before eagerly pressing the top of his head to her hand. He trilled happily, nipping her affectionately and hopping around on the Gamer’s shoulder.

“I think he likes you,” John laughed as the hawk fluttered onto Abigail’s arm. If she still had her original vest, it would have hurt like a bitch. Her new armored clothing acted like a falconer's glove and protected her arm.

“Can I pet him?” Grace had climbed into a tree to get a better vantage point for her watch and promptly fallen asleep. She had awoken to the cannon, same as them, and only just climbed down from the tree.

“That’s up to him,” John answered, giving David another sliver of meat. “David, do you want Grace to pet you?”

The hawk hopped around then suddenly disappeared and reappeared on Abigail’s other arm. “Right, he can do that. He can teleport and become invisible. He’s a void elemental. I don’t know the limits of his powers, but he’s been an amazing companion,” John tossed his hawk another piece of steak, who caught it in his beak and snapped it up.

The Brit immediately took to scritching under his chin; David chirped happily, feeling as joyful as if he were a baby again. “Man, he really, really likes you,” John noted as David teleported onto Grace’s shoulder, rubbing his head affectionately against the Brit’s cheek. She tensed when he appeared, bracing for the pain of his talons digging into her shoulder, but sighed in relief after a few moments, realizing her jacket protected her. She gave him another adoring scratch under the cheek while he fluttered in place. As they were enjoying each other’s company, Lucille returned with the berries, prompting John to remove the now toast from the fire.

After a few minutes the steak was divided into four, a piece for each of them. After a quick but hearty breakfast of berries, toast, and steak, they all felt energized and ready to go. “Alright, that was pretty good. So, time to-” John was cut off as a sweeping, numb feeling overtook his body.

Warning! You have ingested Moonseed Berries and are paralyzed for two to three hours as a result.
Lucille! John thought, using the last of his strength to fire a bullet at his treacherous partner. She moved to dodge, not having expected the attack, and the bullet ripped through her arm, revealing the wiring therein, The woman with the robotic arms was her! That would have been good to know…

“Sorry about this. You’re not a bad person, but a job’s a job,” the elf bent down, her face inches from his. Her undamaged arm moved, her hand brushing his hair off his forehead. He used Fist, bringing it toward her with Move since he couldn’t actually move his body. Noticing his arm moving, she backed away immediately. “I would have deserved that. Goodbye.”

With that she was gone, leaving them lying there on the ground. Can anyone move at all? He excluded his thoughts from Lucille, as he couldn’t move to uninvite her from their party.

David appeared on his shoulder, looking at him curiously. David! I need you to look around us. If any other people come near us, come back immediately.

Not a muscle. Well, I can breathe, so I guess that’s not true, but I can’t move anything else, Grace answered, her body splayed against what was her seat.

I can, Abigail turned all of her body except her head into fire, able to move around in that state, but only when I’m on fire. If I turn back, I can’t move again. Still can’t move my head.

I don’t know how useful that is. It’s probably best if you stick with us, John thought, using Move to prop himself up in a more comfortable position. He tested standing up using Move, but found that it took too much mana to be efficient in the long term, let alone trying to walk. A pop-up of mine said this should last three hours, so that’ll leave an hour to the exit point. That’s not a lot of time.

We can’t do anything for three hours? What sort of hell did I get sent to, the white-haired girl groaned, already feeling frustrated. Deciding to look on the bright side, she continued, alright, who wants to play I Spy?

Please no. John knew that there were a maximum of five different things in their collective vision.

How do you play? Abigail sounded much more excited about the prospective game, having never played before.

So you say the color of something that you see, and everybody else has to guess. I’ll start. I spy… something blue, Grace laughed internally knowing that this game would entertain Abigail and annoy John to no end.

Oh, that’s easy, the sky! the fiery girl replied, tilting her neck of flame to look up at the endless blue nothing. Me next! I spy…