Rising Shards

“So today, I’m going to be observing you all tackle a challenge,” Dr. Diast said. “I’m not going to directly help you or give you any hints or anything. I’m grading you on teamwork, problem solving skills, stuff like that.”

“What is the challenge?” Lillia asked.

"A challenge is like a difficult thing that you can learn from and be tested by." Aira said.

"I asked what this specific challenge is," Lillia sighed, burying her face in her hands. "Not what challenges are in general."

“The six of you will have to work together to make it to the end of this dungeon here.” Diast said.

Diast pointed behind us, and we turned to see a grey stone structure nestled in a mountainous place. The ground sloped towards its main doors, and a gust of wind blew our way.

“A dungeon?” I said. “That sounds dangerous.”

“Yes Zeta, because dangerous things in the void have been so rare for us." Kalei said.

“Quiet,” Diast said, cutting off my attempt at a comeback, which I'm sure would've been a winner. “I'll be following you in there, because as I said I wanna observe what your skill levels are for a challenge area like this.”

“Dr. Diast, are you saying if we’re imminently going to die or something—" I started.

“I’ll step in, yes.” Diast said. “But there’s nothing that dangerous in there.”

“So you admit there’s danger in that scary place over there!” I said.

“Zeta, calm down,” Kalei said. “Even Laenie’s not freaking out as much as you right now.”

Laenie hadn’t said a word since we dropped. She was staring forward with a far out look in her eyes.

“Did the elevator thing break her?” I asked.

“She might…need a few minutes,” Aira said, waving a hand in front of Laenie's face to no effect. “I’ve seen this before.”

“Can you give us a preview of what we can expect in here?” I asked as we marched down the snowy slope towards the dungeon. Kalei started smacking her bloodsaber sheath, drumming along as we walked.

“A test of your skills and abilities,” Dr. Diast said.

“That doesn’t really tell me anything,” I said.

“Because it’s supposed to be a surprise, girl,” Diast said.

We all stopped at the doorway. It was covered in zig-zaggy etchings, and there was a cube at its center that appeared to be the opening mechanism.

“Oh, and you guys get to open the door,” Diast said, getting out a clipboard and a pen. “Or figure out how to open the door if it’s not opening. Your examination begins…now.”

It took a few moments for one of us to actually step forward and open the stone door. Lillia finally did and twisted the cube, which made the door come apart to the sides, shaking the ground as the dungeon opened to us.

“It’s…really dark in there,” I said, turning to Dr. Diast. I scoffed when she didn’t give me an immediate answer. Oka got out her bloodsaber and ignited it, winking at me. “Oh!”

I did the same along with the others as we entered the dungeon, our bloodsabers lighting the way.

“That is so cool,” Kalei said, swooshing her bloodsaber around as she made laser sword noises.

“You don’t need to make the sound,” I said. “It already makes a sound when you move it around.”

“Yeah but, c’mon,” Kalei said. “You try.”

I made laser sword noises too as I swung my sword. “OK, fair. You win.”

The first hallway ended, and we reached another door. There was more legible writing etched into this, but it wasn’t in any language I knew (I only knew one language, but still).

“What does it say?” I asked.

“And what’s it written in?” Aira asked.

“Some mythical language that no one’s ever read before until us,” Oka said. “Wow.”

“It says this is the first room,” Lillia said.

“You can read this language?” I asked. “What is it, some ancient language that no one’s read in like a thousand years before us?”

“It’s…the language in Tyrant Rangers B-Alpha Deluxe Tri.” Lillia said sheepishly.

“Dude, you can read that language?” Kalei said. Lillia looked down, embarrassed, but Kalei quickly added, “That is so cool, I just looked up the decoder thing online when I was playing it.”

The door had the same mechanism as the front door. As soon as we were all inside, the door closed behind us. The room behind it only had a table in it. On top of the table was an old book, a fork, and a plastic bowl with food in it. Kalei ran right up to it and picked up the bowl.

“Oooh, it’s pasta,” Kalei said. She took the fork and poked around at the food. “It smells delicious.”

“Kalei, don’t just eat from that bowl!” I said as Kalei took a huge bite.

“Too late,” Oka said.

“We don’t know what it is, it could be dangerous!” I said.

“It’s delicious is what it is,” Kalei said, burping and chucking the bowl across the room. “Hey, maybe it’s like a potion or something we need to take to get to the next room!”

“Uh huh, so you ate it all,” I said.

“Hey, maybe it’s like a potion or something only I need to take,” Kalei said. “It was really good.”

“What if it’s poison?” I asked.

Suddenly, Kalei looked concerned. Which naturally super freaked me out.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked. “Was it poison? It’s poison, isn’t it?”

“It’s really spicy,” Kalei said, her voice growing hoarse. “Does anyone have water?”

"Oh!" I said. “Go out and grab the snow outside, maybe?”

“But that’d be too cold!” Kalei said. “Ah, ah! It’s spicy!”

“The door’s locked, anyways,” Oka said, checking the door behind us.

“Is Kalei gonna like explode? Would that be a thing we’d need Dr. Diast to step in on?” I asked.

“Let’s treat this with the mindset of teamwork and this being a void challenge,” Lillia said as Diast wrote something down on her clipboard. “Perhaps this itself is the challenge.”

“What, Kalei eating the mystery pasta?” I said.

“Potentially, or that part was a given," Lillia said. "What are we supposed to do when a teammate suffers an ailment?”

“I don’t know, make them leave?” I asked. “Scold them for blowing it on step one?”

Kalei said something, but her voice was so raspy now I couldn’t understand it.

“I think that was a smug dig at you, Zeta.” Oka said.

“Probably,” I said. “So what if I have also blown it on step one of plenty of things before, Kalei?”

Kalei waved her hands around, flailing into some attempt to fan her mouth. “Really…spicy.”

“Zeta, isn’t your gift weather?” Aira asked. “Can’t you just make a little rainstorm and fill that bowl with water?”

“Hmmm,” I said. “That could work.”

Kalei’s face was getting all sweaty so I figured I should probably act fast in case this was actually spicy poison pasta instead of just spicy pasta. Aira ran over to grab the bowl Kalei had thrown and held it up to me.

“Just try not to get rain on me, please?” Aira asked. “Or…lightning?”

"I'll do my best."

I concentrated, and with my bloodsaber boosting my energy, I was able to generate a small storm right over the bowl. Because of the cold temperature of the room, my little rainstorm was a small blizzard, which I’d never done before.

“Whoa!” I said. Soon, the bowl was half filled with snow, that melted a bit by the time Aira handed it off to Kalei.

“Wait, wouldn’t there be spicy residue in…” Oka started as Kalei chugged the snow bowl. “There…”

“Ahhh, much better,” Kalei said, then grabbed her mouth. “Ouch!”

“Yep, spicy residue, I figured,” Oka said.

“No, I burned my tongue really bad,” Kalei said. “I can like feel the tastebuds being gone."

A path in front of us opened, bringing more light into the room.

“Yay, first challenge complete!” Aira said. “How are you feeling, Laenie?”

Laenie murmured something about cold dungeon phobia, then hid behind Aira.

“Shall we move on?” Lillia asked.

A cold wind came from the opened path to the next room, as if inviting us in. I had my mouth open just a bit, and the cold air chilled me right in my fangs.