Rising Shards

After everything went dark, or dark red from the bloodlike wave crashing down on everyone, Oka for some reason found herself thinking back to earlier in the week. She stood on stage at play practice, alone with bright spotlights upon her like usual when her scenes were coming up.

She was feeling more confident than usual; she had an idea as she walked up to the stage for her character to pop her hips to the side at the end of her lines. She figured it’d show some sass as well as be like a physical catchphrase, and really get the audience’s attention.

“Now that I’ve brought fire!” Oka started, popping her hips to the left. “To the people of the city, I can really show my stuff!" She popped her hips to the right. "If I do that, er, or rather continue to do…do that!”

“Oka.” Reit Kilander said, cutting off her next line. “What in the name of all the arts are you doing?”

“Oh, I um,” Oka said. “I thought it’d be cool if Fira did a like…you know, something that shows a little sass.”

Reit smeared his face with his hands, which wasn’t the reaction Oka had wanted.

“Was that…maybe not the goodest idea?”

“What do I keep telling the group?” Reit said. “You in particular. What tip have I given on performing?”

“To…remember my lines without help?” Oka said.

“To not be impulsive,” Reit said. “Please don’t be impulsive.”

“Right. I’ll…I’ll try.”

“From the top.”

She hoped this wasn’t her life flashing before her eyes, because it was a crap memory to start with. She needed early snack time with Lillia to vent about how mean Reit was there.

Fortunately, it wasn’t her life flashing before her eyes at least. She came to feeling as though she was in mud.

“What the…?” Oka looked up and saw trees all around her. She jolted and thrashed around, realizing she was a lot deeper in the mud than she thought. And it looked to unfortunately be less like mud and more like quicksand.

“AH!” Oka screamed. “Wait, no, no I can’t die like this! Am I sinking?”

She waited for a moment and felt her body shift a centimeter lower. She only had her left arm above, and her right arm was getting harder to lift. Her right arm also had her power blocker on it, so she couldn’t call for help with it.

“AHH I’m definitely sinking!” Oka shrieked. “OK, I’ve probably learned how to deal with this if I can just remember…”

She tried to think of any survival training she’d received, but the survival tips section of her mind went blank at the thought of perishing like this.

“I don’t want to die here,” Oka said, not sure if she should move around or stop moving entirely, leaving her slightly moving.

She looked around, as far as she could in the quicksand at least. There was someone near her. It was Lillia!

“Lillia! Thank goodness.” Oka said as Lillia started to come to as well. “Wait, Lillia, help!”

Lillia didn’t have the same immediate panicked reaction; she looked more annoyed at their situation, like Oka had just woken her up too early on a weekend. She was too far away from Oka to reach out to, but Oka’s almost-thrashing around didn’t seem to be affecting her.

“Oh, Lillia…I’m gonna be honest…I don’t wanna die like this…” Oka said.

“Maybe just try to stay cal—" Lillia started.

“I still have to see musicals in person!” Oka realized.

Lillia sighed.

“I still have to see Payments Due, and Understanding Ches Burnek, even that one that’s just making fun of the Kilanders pretty much…and there’s so many more! I haven’t even seen Dog Downpour yet! That’s like a theatrical crime!”

“Oka…”

“And I also want to see them in multiple venues! like Bard Street in the east coast, and some in LE, and I want to perform in them! Like a real musical! This quicksand can’t deny us that, right?”

“Oka, if you’d just stop for a moment…”

“Wait, no! I still haven’t even made out with Zeta yet! That’s criminally unfair if I don’t get to do that, quicksand! Let me have that, please…I’m begging you…just let us—”

“OKA.”

“What?” Oka said, Lillia’s glare hitting her like a bucket of ice. Lillia nodded downward. “Oh. We’re. Fine. And not sinking. Anymore.”

“Yes.” Lillia said. “My feet are even touching ground right now. Now let’s figure out how to get out of this without babbling and sobbing, please?”

“Oh, hmm,” Oka said, feeling the tips of her toes touch the ground as well. “It’s weird, maybe this isn’t even quicksand, it’s like…void quicksand. So maybe it’s different and won’t kill us! Our faculty wouldn’t let us into a dangerous situation like…”

“Oka, stop babbling and focus,” Lillia said. “There’s likely something we can do with our Cani powers here.”

“Can you use your fire breath to turn all this sand into glass?” Oka suggested. Lillia thought for a moment.

“That would take a really long time,” Lillia said. “Can’t you just make a vine to get us out with your free arm?”

“Oh, yeah, I suppose I could,” Oka said. She concentrated and cast a vine long enough to reach the nearest tree. It took a lot of concentration, but she managed to grow it farther as she threw it, catching the other end as it looped around back.

“Now pull yourself out and then get me out.” Lillia said. “Quickly please, I’m starting to think about how gross this quicksand feels…”

“Right.” Oka said. She pulled on the vine, slowly bringing herself towards the edge of the pit. As soon as the vine touched the quicksand, the point of contact on both the sand and vine glowed. The pit shook for a second, and the quicksand began to drain, quickly leaving Oka and Lillia safe and clean, as the substance didn’t even cling to their clothes.

“See, you could’ve used your fire.” Oka said.

“I’ll try to remember that next time we fall in a pit of mystical void quicksand.” Lillia said.

The two climbed out and regrouped. A quick check of their wristbands revealed no information on their location and calling Dr. Diast proved fruitless.

“What now?” Lillia asked.

“Well, we have to find Zeta,” Oka said. “And the others. Hopefully they’re here too.”

“I think we can surmise that something likely went wrong with the intended entry to this new level of the void…” Lillia said.

“I think that big wave was it…” Oka said. She suddenly remembered hearing Jeans’ voice come out through 09 somehow. Fear began to grow in her stomach, but Lillia luckily kept her cool which made Oka feel a bit better.

“Right.” Lillia said. “But if that quicksand was a puzzle of sorts that reacted to our powers, then we are potentially in the right place. Maybe if we check the worksheet, we’ll find some clues.”

“Hopefully our bags didn’t fall too far away from us…” Oka said.

Oka and Lillia headed into the trees, not sure of where they were headed. Oka hoped Zeta was safe. And that Kalei, Aira, and Laenie were all doing alright. And anyone else from the class who was caught in the wave.

“You know my old teacher from Tesata?” Oka asked as she stepped over the remains of a fallen tree. “The main one.”

Lillia nodded. “The one who pushed you to your limits? The one I wouldn’t hesitate to use my fire breath on if I met in person?”

“Yeah, him,” Oka said, smiling at having a great friend like Lillia. “Whenever he’d put me in a dangerous situation, he used to say ‘onto every life, a little adventure must fall.’”

“Ew.” Lillia said.

“I know,” Oka said, pushing through a bush. “It makes my stomach lurch just thi—AUUGH!”

The instant the two stepped past the bushes, a net snapped up from beneath them, catching them as it lifted the two upwards. Once it settled, the two tried in vain to move against the net. Then they heard rustling in the bushes ahead of them.