5:3
Shouts carried over the silent landscape, sound warping and echoing so the approaching footsteps seemed to be coming from all around. Dan very carefully, very slowly, craned his neck so he was looking in the direction they had come from. He had to blink to clear the dirt which was weighing down his eyelashes. It was soft, more like powder than dirt, and so light that when he blinked it released to drift across his vision like fine glitter or fairy dust. As it drifted and settled, drifted and settled, it coated the world in a swirl of fine grey sparkling particles which were mesmerizing in their dance.
Dan squinted. Were they…? Words? He squinted again. They were too small. Microscopic. Like an electron microscope might be able to see them. But some of the dust broke funny – as if it wasn’t round or square. It was letter-shaped. Maybe. Or bird-shaped. Or Lucky-Charms-marshmallow-shaped. But, he was betting on letters. Lying there a victim of a pit that didn’t exist except in someone’s imagination and in the weird landscape of the Mystery House, his money was definitely on letters.
Moving very, very carefully he shifted an inch to the right to focus on a tuft of grass that clung to the structure he was lying on. The sticks and hay shifted with him. Adrenaline burned along his veins, seeming to lift his skin an infinitesimal degree to let a shiver play under it. He held himself stock-still, not even daring to breath, until the shifting stopped. Even then he lay there another minute before focusing on the grass.
His maneuver had put him so close to the grass that it brushed his nose. It was the perfect position for his eyes to hyperfocus on it. The surface of the grass blurred, vibrating at a nearly subatomic-level. No matter how he tried he couldn’t actually make out words but again he would bet a week’s pay that was what he was seeing.
He swept the landscape very slowly with his gaze. Was this all words? All Story? How did this work? What kind of Magick was it? It felt like his but… not. Like maybe he was seeing the Magick that made his Magick. And yeah that seemed redundant but that was more because Dan didn’t have the words to explain the concept. Were there Words to explain it? Was everything Words?
The possibilities made his brain twitch in his skull.
He focused his gaze on the wider world as the group tore up, stopping when Gwen threw her hands out like a spastic crossing guard.
“Stop!”
“What are we looking at?” Ivan said at the same time Kim cried out, “Where’s Ben?”
Dan answered the last first. “He’s in a pit. Pretty much that’s the answer to Ivan’s question too.”
“And you’re sprawled like a flying squirrel because…?” Kim fired back.
“Because if I move I’m in the pit with Ben.”
“Damn.” Patti who’d been bringing up the rear as the group tore across the landscape pretty much summed it up in one word.
“Yeah,” Dan muttered and looked down at the sticks and hay holding him above the pit. “My concern, separate from falling to my death in a pit, is where’s the Giant?”
“What?”
Dan’s fingers twitched to grab a toothpick and pop it in his mouth. They were his thinking sticks. He thought better with them. Of course, he also thought better when not plunging into a pit so he quashed the compulsion.
“I think we are in the story Jack the Giant Killer. And as the name implies there are a lot of Giants in that story. A lot. The first of which Jack, the hero, trapped in a twenty-two foot pit. That he covered with sticks and hay and then camouflaged with grass. Sound familiar?”
“You seem calm considering.” Ivan said.
Another compulsion, this one to shrug, seized Dan. He quashed that too, reflecting as he did so how many gestures he made on a daily basis.
“Will panicking help at all?”
“No.”
“Oh, panicking sounds pretty good right now!” Gwen retorted, bobbing her head hard enough her hair flew. “Panicking is…”
“Not productive.” Prairie laid a hand on Gwen’s arm. “There’s a problem. We are problem solvers. We’ll solve it.”
“How do we do that?” Gwen snapped then instantly stiffened when Prairie dropped her hand and her gaze. Taking a deep, cleansing breath through her nostrils, she focused and then said far more calmly, “Ben is in the pit. Apparently a twenty-two foot deep pit. And we don’t have a rope.”
“We don’t?” Ivan asked.
“We don’t,” Dan acknowledged. “I don’t have one on me. I think Ben does. But he’s…”
“In the pit,” Kim finished for him. She stepped past Gwen, ducking her crossing-guard arms, and carefully walked towards where Dan sprawled until she felt the give of sticks under her foot. “So,” she tapped her foot then dragged it across the ground, making a faint line in the grass, “this looks like the edge of the pit. Dan is, what, six or so feet in? So, first we can assume that the sticks and hay are denser towards the edges or he and Ben wouldn’t have made it that far.”
Ivan came and squatted next to her, examining the ground. He very carefully teased a stick out of the mass sticking out of the ground, then rose and began to poke along the edge of the pit. Muttering what sounded like equations, perhaps Magick (none of them had ever seen him actually do ‘his stuff’ as it was kind of Tony Stark in the lab without the aid of Jarvis shit), he very slowly and meticulously made a survey of the area spreading out ten or so feet to the left. He then switched and made a survey to the right.
“You said twenty-two feet?”
“That was the dimensions in the first story. The detail stuck in my head because that was a very exact measurement. Especially in a story that has its hero go around using pretty much the same technique to defeat all his foes.”
“Which was?” Patti slipped up next to Kim but her gaze was for Dan, not the structure he was lying on.
“Cutting off their heads with a sword. The first giant, who he caught in a twenty-two foot pit, he knocked on the top of the head with an axe but after that it was sword, sword, sword. With some rope thrown in.”
“Rope?” Kim perked up at this but Dan shot her down. “Not in this story. This was all shovel, horn, and axe. He used the shovel to dig the pit. Then he blew the horn to call the giant out of its cave. And once the giant went into the pit he whacked it on the top of the head with his axe.”
“So don’t blow a horn is what I’m hearing,” Patti interpreted.
“Don’t blow a horn.”
“Anything else?” Gwen had stepped up to stand a short distance from the rest of the group clustered around the pit.
“It’s a long story but sketchy on details. It’s why the specifics of twenty-two feet deep and around that wide stuck in my head.”
“Well, that seems about right.” Finished with his pacing of the pit, Ivan returned to the group. “I think the reason the edge of the pit held was because its like unbaked bricks. Mudbricks were developed during the pre-pottery period in the Neolithic Age. The clay or mud or in this case some weird dirt,” he dusted his fingers, showing the fine silt covering them, “could support compressive loads but easily came apart. When straw or rice husks were added that was eliminated. If this area,” he swept his hand over the landscape, “was true to the native ones that mudbricks originated in the sun would have dried the mixture. If that wasn’t done you’d get shrinkage and cracking which would destabilize what was built from the composite.”
“Uh,” he added, “what it comes down to is that the combination of straw and the silty-earth made a kind of hardish surface that collapsed as Ben and Dan got further out on it.”
“Me too.” Gwen shuddered. “If Ben hadn’t been ahead of Dan and I we probably all would be in the pit.”
“It’s okay.” Prairie placed her hand on Gwen’s arm. “We’ll get him out.”
“You seem pretty sure.”
“I have faith. In us.”
In the face of that how could Gwen say anything else? “When did you start doing the support thing? That’s my job.”
“It’s okay to need a break.” Damn, that sweet smile smoothed over the rough edges of Gwen’s fear. “We’ve got you.”
Ivan, still eyeing the edge of the pit started pulling things out of his pockets. He stooped and made a pile, stirring it with his finger to see if there was anything in there that might help. Leaving the office that day his plans had been for a semi-relaxing evening at the pub with his friends, the most taxing things they’d do pooling their thoughts, so he hadn’t loaded his pockets down with much.
“Dang.” Gwen crouched next to him, a look of slight awe in her eyes as she assessed the pile. “You’re like the Winter Warlock. Do you have any corn that makes reindeer fly?”
“There are no reindeer.”
“Not an answer.”
Ivan slanted her a glance. “No.”
“Disappointing.”
From its house Sass let out a squee. Kim bent over so she was eye-level to the mouse. “What’s that, Sassy? Is Timmy trapped in a well? Wait!” She straightened up and looked at Patti. “We can fill the hole with water. Ben will float to the top.”
“What if he’s unconscious? He’d drown.”
“There’s no water,” Gwen pointed out the obvious.
“There’s no reindeer.”
A smile fought to form at the corner of Gwen’s mouth. “You are an idiot.”
Kim sighed. Her shoulders slumping. “I feel that way right now.”
“Actually.” Dan’s voice carried to them across the pit.
“What?”
“Filling the pit has merit.”
“There’s no water.”
“There’s no water yet.”
“Huh?”
“I have an idea but I need a little more time to work it over.” Dan’s thoughts were clearly already half for the idea, the distraction came through in his voice.
“Well, you’re the one suspended over a pit, waiting to fall. Guess if anyone has a sense of the urgency of the situation its you. Think away!”
Ivan moved over to Prairie. “”Prair, we need to know if Ben is d-”
Prairie cut him off with a gentle touch to the arm. “He isn’t.”
Ivan pitched his voice. “Gwen?”
“What?”
“Can you tell Ben’s condition?”
Gwen went quiet and her gaze went inwards then she shook her head. “Not feeling anything from him. He could be unconscious like Patti said.”
A look of dawning passed over Ivan’s features. He dug his hand into his trouser pocket, going deep. “Ha!”
From the depths of the pocket he pulled out something that glinted between his fingers. To Prairie it look like an eye with an articulated lid made from bronze. Or copper. She wasn’t a metal person but it was kind of golden-brown with a dull finish. Ivan flipped it in his fingers, showing a matching eye on the back-side.
“What is it?”
“It’s a surveillance device. Ben asked me if I could figure one out and I just finished the prototypes yesterday. I shoved them in my pocket when I was leaving the office. Lucky.”
Patti shuffled over to stare at the device. “What’s it do?”
“One of these gets placed somewhere, like say in this case a pit. I link the other with my Magick. It forms a sympathetic connection, allowing me, in theory, to see through the other one.”
“How do you get it into the pit?”
“Throw it?”
“It looks kind of fragile. Won’t that hurt it.”
“Maybe?”
“How about you slide it to me and I drop it down.” Dan suggested. “Not that it will cut down much on the chance of damage but at least it won’t have the momentum of your throw behind it.”
“That works.” Putting action to words, Ivan separated the two eyes and carefully shoved one to Dan. It stopped a few inches short of Dan. Kim crouched and blew very gently, nudging the metal to the tips of Dan’s fingers. In very, very slow increments, Dan hooked the eye and then snapped his fingers back, sending the metal arcing over the sticks and debris to fall into the pit.
A thump sounded a moment later. Ivan nodded and then stepped back from the edge of the pit to take a seat.
“I’ve gotten vertigo the other times I’ve tested this. Better to sit then stumble around and fall in the pit.” With that Ivan carefully placed the second eye over the spot between his own two, in the location some liked to term ‘the third eye’. There was a faint but audible sucking sound as the metal adhered to his forehead.
He closed his eyes and the metal one opened, the articulated eyelid folding back like something from a Steampunk’s fever dream. His eyeballs moved behind the lids and a very faint smell of metal rose on the air. Kim stuck her tongue out, drew it back, stuck it out again, like she was clearing a taste from her mouth. Prairie sat down next to Ivan, bundled her legs in front of her, and curled her arms around her knees. She rested her cheek on them, watching the movement of Ivan’s eyes until the lids snapped open. The combination of his natural brown eyes with the copper one between was disconcerting. Reaching up and detaching the third eye removed this incongruity while leaving a slight redness on his forehead.
“It’s really dark down there but I’m pretty sure I saw him. Nothing is clearly misaligned. Like his neck.”
He gave an apologetic shrug at Gwen’s sharp in-drawn breath. “So, yeah. That’s all I can really tell without being in there.”
Kim clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the others. She’d remained crouched at the edge of the pit after blowing Dan the second eye. She’d been quiet. Surprisingly so. “So. I’m going down there.”
“What?” burst out of Ivan.
“We need to assess his condition. Your device is cool and it definitely determined he was down there but like you said, you aren’t down there to be sure. I’m not a healer but I can do basic first aid. I’m pretty sure I can use the air to slow my fall.”
Ivan scratched his chin. He wanted to say ‘No! It’s too dangerous!” His instincts screamed to protect the group. To protect her. In this case from taking a potentially stupid risk. But, she wasn’t entirely wrong to suggest it. They did need eyes in the pit. Not only to assess Ben’s condition but also to provide information on the structure which could help get Ben out. So, instead of “No!” he instead pressed. “Think?”
“Yeah.” She cocked her head, stopped to consider. “I’ve done the math. I think it would work. I can’t do the Storm thing and fly on air, though wouldn’t that be cool?” A dreamy look passed over her features. She shook it off and adopted a serious mien. “Anyhow. I can’t fly but I should be able to make a cushion of air. I was able to do that to keep Dan from hitting the pillar when we rescued Diana. I’ll do that, but under me.”
Ivan considered the possibility. “Could you do that to lift Dan?”
Kim shook her head. “I think anything I tried would break the structure holding him up. Then he’s be slammed by all the sticks and stuff and probably still fall into the pit anyway.”
“So do the air thing under me then.”
“Not for nothing, but have you noticed you’re a big guy?”
“And?”
“This is an untried technique and I don’t know how much weight I can handle. Also I think I might need to see where the air goes so I don’t hit Ben. It has to be me.”
Ivan heard what she was saying. With is ears. His heart was kind of not listening.
“I say let her try.” Patti said. At Ivan’s look she added, “What? She’s right. If you shut off your heart and listen to your brain you’ll see that.”
Touché. Ivan tipped his hand to Patti and nodded to Kim.
“Do it.”
“Because I was waiting for your approval? Pish.” She made a dismissive sound. “I was kind of more waiting for my sense to kick in and tell me not to do it. But, eh…” Shrugging she rose and carefully made her way around the pit. “Ivan, can you tell me the best place to jump to be able to clear the sticks, not hit Dan, and potentially hit the hole? I’d really hate it if I managed to drop he and I in because of a miscalculation.”
With the excuse to be part of the solution – smart play on her part, he acknowledged – Ivan rose and walked the edge of the pit with Kim. Eventually they stopped around two-thirds of the way down the side. “Here,” he indicated, pointing out the best angle for her to run at the pit and where to hit the jump to be the most effective.
She looked across the pit, locking eyes with Gwen. “Spaghetti?”
“Spaghetti.” Gwen’s voice was strained and she quickly followed the agreement with, “if you die I am never forgiving you.”
“If I die Prairie can bring me back so you can scream at me.”
“Okay.” Prairie’s agreement was small, broadcasting her own concern but gamely playing along to make the moment less tense. “Seance on the back-burner for if you die.”
“If you do,” Dan intoned from his perch.
“Die loudly,” the rest finished with him.
Kim gave a cocky thumbs up she wasn’t really feeling and stepped back the distance Ivan had suggested was the most advantageous. If she hadn’t been eyeing the distance to the pit intently, considering the chance that she wouldn’t actually make the jump, she probably would have seen the figure moving quietly behind her. How everyone else missed Gwen sneaking up, that was a bit of a mystery. Could be, if Dan was right, the Story wanted it to play out that when Kim hit the edge and pushed off as hard as she could from her leading foot Gwen jumped on her back like a monkey and sent the both of them hurtling forward on a weird angle for the hole.
“Son of a bitch!” Kim screamed, adjusting their trajectory as best she could, just skimming the top of the sticks as she directed them into a dead-drop through the hole.
“Son of a bitch,” Dan echoed, feeling the sticks quiver under him. There was nothing he could do so he just closed his eyes and offered himself up to fate.
Fate it seemed decided to be kind to him because the sticks stopped flexing. Closing his eyes he drew a deep breath. Hovering over the pit as he was, and with his eyes closed, he was best able to pick up the sounds of Kim and Gwen’s descent into the hole. Kim’s cursing cut off, likely as she started manipulating the air. There was a thump. Another thump. Another thump. And then the cursing resumed.
The others had rushed as close as they could to the edge of the pit and now stood with varying expressions of concern and shock on their faces as the voices drifted up from the pit.
“You are insane!”
“Like you’re better!”
“I never claimed I wasn’t! You could have died! If I hadn’t put some air under my foot when I jumped you and I would have skidded across the surface and broken our faces!”
“I have faith in you! Like Prairie said.”
“Do not go blaming Prairie!”
“I’m not! Ugh. Get out of my way. I need to find Ben. Darn, its really dark down here.”
“Would you like a light?”
“Not on my ass!”
“Oooops!”
“I’m a healer! I could heal him. I carefully thought this out!”
“In the five seconds I was planning this out?”
“Yes!”
“And I make bad decisions!”
“Ugh!”
“Ugh!” A heartbeat then Kim called up from the pit. “Hey, Prairie?”
Prairie hesitantly called down. “Yes?”
“Do you want to jump down here too?”
“No.”
“Patti?”
Sass looked at Patti. Patti looked at Sass. Then she lifted her voice. “Not really. No.”
“Smart women.” Kim called up. The sarcasm was particularly thick in her voice.
“Found him. Move that flame a little.”
“Is he breathing?”
“Yes.”
At this everyone at the top of the pit let out the breaths they hadn’t realized they’d been holding.
“But he’s beat up pretty bad.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Yes.”
“’Kay. I’ll just hang over here and keep watch.”
“Whatever.”
“Whatever. Gwen?”
“Yeah?”
“Love you, you crazy woman.”
“Back at you. Now let me work.”
Enter The Woods 