Rising Shards

By the time I finished telling Kiki about my friends, we reached a stone gate.

“My village is through here,” Kiki said. There was a small section of the frame of the gate that looked like a bowl, or a rock version of the coin return on a vending machine. Koriko dropped four small pebbles into it from her bag, and the gate slowly opened. “Are you still afraid?”

“Huh?” I asked.

Kiki gestured to my tail, which was still very poofed up.

“Oh…I uh…yeah.” I said, patting the fur of my tail to try and get it to calm down to no avail. “I’ve just…never been in a situation like that.”

“Moving someone that’s passed out?” Kiki asked.

“The whole thing.” I said. “The getting here, the running from those robot guys…jumping off a cliff...fighting a really big robot guy…I’ve only fought Elka monsters that are like. Mostly goop.”

I could still feel the smack of the big guy’s shield, and the weight of his foot on me. Just thinking about it kinda made me feel sick. I hoped that wasn’t part of the Cani test and just some freak run in with a random guy in this random void node Jeans threw me into.

Jeans…

I sighed, trying to clear my mind. There was a lot thrown at me in a short amount of time, and I didn’t have the capacity to deal with any of it if I thought too deeply about it.

“Well, despite your lack of experience I think you handled yourself well,” Kiki said. “You saved Arctus and you were able to escape Lophor Hothon without injury.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I am starting to feel a bit really guilty about slicing his leg, though.”

“You shouldn’t, he more than deserved it,” Kiki said. “He’s brought great pain to many on this island. You should wear your act like a badge of honor.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Let’s head in,” Kiki said. She led me through a swirling tunnel that looked exactly like the one above the castle from our last big void trip, just one made of deep green leaves instead of a weird cloth. She walked ahead of me, still dragging Arctus’ sled behind her. He didn’t look well, but he didn’t look like he was dying at least. He just looked like he was in a deep sleep while having a pretty nasty flu. At the end of the path was a village of huts of multiple levels resting on stone foundation that rose above the water. Various mechanisms seemed to be the way between levels, from simple looking elevators to chutes that looked like tubes at the bank. Groups of Exumi were bustling around the village, hard at work on maintaining everything in the village, chatting to each other, or crafting.

“This is Asha Coa,” Kiki said. “Please wait here for a moment, I need to bring Arctus to Mawiril and tell him what’s happened."

There were other Exumi staring at us already. Most of them had blue armor like Kiki, but there were others in red, green, purple, and more from my initial scan before I got embarrassed by them looking my way and turned downward. I traced some of the chutes from the higher levels to the water below. There was a vast network of them beneath me that I could see through the sparkling water when I looked towards an edge of one of the platforms. Blurs moved all throughout them, and I wondered if it was a delivery system or if Exumi rode in them as well.

Right as I wondered that, a big blur moved through one of the larger tubes beneath, rising up to a clear glass enclosure near me. A doorway opened on it, and a group of yellow eyed Exumi carried three people above them.

“Hey, future famous beam chasers player here, watch it!” Kalei said.

“Kalei!” I said, overjoyed to see someone I knew, let alone a close friend. I ran over as the Exumi set her down in front of me, holding onto her arms.

“Zeta!” Kalei said. “Kill these freaks!”

“What?” I asked.

“Well, don’t kill them," Kalei said. "Just…why aren’t they holding you?”

“Because you showed your powers,” one of the Exumi said to Kalei. “We aren’t sure if you’re an Atrian or an Endoran, so we’re playing it safe.”

“Well, what’s the good one?” Kalei said.

“Atrian, I think,” I said. “Don’t you remember from class?”

“Kinda?” Kalei said. “That whole Atrian-Endoran thing is confusing. I’m the good one! I’m a good person. Zeta, tell them, am I a good person or what?”

As Kalei looked at me with puppy eyes, I thought about teasing her a bit here, for all the stuff she’d teased me about since I met her, but figured now wouldn’t be the best time.

“Yeah, she’s great,” I said. “We’re all Atrians, I think.”

The two Exumi looked at each other, then reluctantly let Kalei go. I rushed in to hug her.

“Hey, Zates,” Kalei said, hugging me back. I forgot how strong and much more athletic Kalei was than me when I felt her hug me back, even in her weakened state. “Happy to see you too. Arms are a little sore, but…”

The rest of the Exumi brought forward Laenie and Aira, more gently than they did with Kalei.

“Hey, you’re here too!” I said. “Then all that’s missing is…”

“Are there more Atrians here?” One of the Exumi asked.

“Well, if Oka and Lillia count, yeah,” I said. “I hope they’re OH HOLY CRAP—"

My thinking out loud was interrupted as loud, gear-based mechanisms groaned under me, and the hook of a crane swung maybe a few centimeters from my face.  The crane stopped past one of the village’s platforms, reached into the water, and after a few moments brought up a big net. It dropped with a splat in front of us. It was mostly filled with fish and coral, but I immediately spotted two figures inside it. After the net unfurled and the Exumi had grabbed the flopping fish in baskets (which were a mix of purely organic fish and the mix of mechanical and organic that the Exumi were) I rushed to the two, well, mainly the one, because even in a soggy fish covered silhouette, I could tell who my girlfriend was. Oka and Lillia coughed a bit as they were plopped onto dry land. Oka sat up first, and I was by her side as fast as I could.

“Zeta…” Oka said before coughing again.

I didn’t hesitate this time, and hugged Oka before we could have an awkward pause. She was still drenched, but I didn’t care, I needed a hug from her.

“You smell really bad,” I said.

“Yeah…that’d be the fish they threw us with.” Oka said.

Oka finally hugged me back.

“Are you alright?” Oka asked quietly. I knew what she was mainly asking about. Hearing Jeans’ voice before the big wave from the blood moon.

“Probably not, “I said. “But I’m still riding the adrenaline high from that and everything else, so…maybe a bit alright?”

Oka hugged me harder. I helped her to her feet, then offered a hand to Lillia, who was still on the ground.

“It’s good to see you too, Lillia.” I said.

“Likewise.” Lillia said, taking my hand along with Oka’s. “Once I’ve regained my bearings, we should probably come up with some kind of plan.”

“Yeah, because we gotta get home pretty quickly,” Kalei said. “I spent way too much on my Fang Moon Web costume to be stuck here for it, you know?”

We all quickly tried to contact the school with our wristbands, but none of us could get a connection that let us do anything outside of the wristbands’ usual ‘stop Cani powers from going berserk’ function. And being able to control our adaptive gear a bit, which helped get the fish stink out of Oka and Lillia’s clothes quickly.

Our phones weren’t working either. Before we could plan anything out past that, Kiki rushed before me, hopping a bit before taking my hand.

“Mawiril wishes to speak with you.” Kiki said. She looked beside me to see Oka, then twirled around at the rest of the group. “Oh! Are these your friends?”

“Yep,” I said. “This is Kiki, everyone. She’s an Exumi friend I met here. She saved me when—"

“I wish to see the beams chased.” Kiki said, darting in front of Kalei.

“Oh, beam chasers? Yeah, sure.” Kalei said, scratching the back of her head. “You told her about me?”

“I told her about all of you,” I said.

“Yes,” Kiki said. “And from Zeta’s tales, it made me want to see beams chased the most.”

“I’d show you now,” Kalei said, rubbing her wrists. “But someone decided to grip my arms really hard which kinda still hurts a little.”

“Alio, Coel, did you two hurt Atrian Kalei’s arms?” Kiki asked to the other Exumi nearby, who looked away in embarrassment.

“You said…someone wants to speak to us?” I asked.

“Yes…” Kiki said. “I’ll take you to him.” Kiki gestured for us to follow her. “But I wish to see beams chased as soon as possible.”