BEYOND 3A: BloodRed and ScaleBlack

The Sixty-Sixth Feather: Can Trees Grow Underwater?

It's been some time now, and Jake, Ziggy, and Zoe were still falling in the golden void. The girl said: "Man, this fall is, uhh... quite boring."

Jake: "Woof. (Yeah, It is almost like this is a void or something akin to that.)"

Zoe: "I heard that sarcasm, Shrek."

Jake: "Bark! (Got any more bright ideas?!)"

Zoe: "Relax! I'm sure something will happen eventual-"

Ziggy: "SSHHH!"

Zoe: "Why 'SSHHH'? What're you trying to listen to?"

Ziggy: "I'm trying to listen to the void, the key is in the noise..."

Zoe: "Does that have to do with your powers?"

Ziggy: "SHHH!"

Once they both stopped talking, Ziggy put his hands behind his ears and listened closely. Although all he heard initially was silence, he eventually heard a very weak, almost inaudible whistle coming from around them. Immediately, he recreated the whistling poorly with his mouth, which allowed his Byleth ability to throw off the balance of the void. All three of them stopped falling and immediately started flying around in random directions. Zoe exclaimed: "AAH! What's happening?!"

Ziggy: "No time to elaborate! This is our only escape! You'll start seeing holes! Jump in them as if they're doors!"

And in line with what he predicted, the void started frantically overlapping with itself, creating holes that led to random places and without hesitation, Jake transformed his arms into tentacles and grabbed the other two as he was thrown into a random portal.

Meanwhile, Caitlyn and Yoko were still walking by the beach, exchanging talk and looking out for any churches.

"Then it came out, like, yellow and chunky, I've never seen it like that before." Said Yoko in the conversation. Caitlyn responded: "Like I said, I'm not a car mechanic, so you should probably tell that to someone who understands that kind of thing."

Yoko retorted: "I did, but-" she was interrupted when three people fell down from the sky in front of them. "WOAH! What the?!" She exclaimed. Caitlyn immediately armed herself with her handgun and stood between Yoko and those three. The one on top of the pile was the nude girl in a yellow oversized hoodie, Zoe. She sat up, with her hand on her head, and muttered: "Y-yay...! My idea worked!"

Yoko peeked from behind the armed woman's shoulder and felt like she saw that girl before. Once Zoe noticed the gun, she flew into a panic and said: "AAAH! NO, NO, NO! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

Caitlyn: "Who are you?! Who are these people with you?! What are your intentions?!"

Yoko: "Wow, you're threatening a child? That's cold."

Zoe: "My name is Zoe Everly! We're not here to pick a fight, we're just-"

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" Shouted Ziggy, who was under the pile and being crushed by both her and Jake's weight, leading to each one of them to recognise one of them. Yoko recognised Jake and vice versa, leading her to ask: "Jake?! What are you doing here?!"

Jake: "Bark?! (Yoko?! I should be the one asking you that!)"

And meanwhile, both Caitlyn and Ziggy were ready to fight for the second time. She said: "Oh, you went around and around and came right back! This time, you're dead meat!"

Ziggy: "I should say the same, -cough cough-, cuz I got time for a li'l game!"

"You two, stop!" Demanded Zoe, who stood between them. "Right now isn't the time to be fighting each other! We gotta work together to get out of here first, then you can fight each other!"

Thankfully, those two had to accept her words,much to their dismay, only because not only was Caitlyn's gun empty from their initial fight, but also because Ziggy exhausted his voice. Back to Yoko and Jake, she asked him: "What happened to you? Why are you all grown up? And where's Corna?"

Coincidentally, Jake had also exhausted his stamina, forcing him to return to his default form, the dog. "Oh, now this is more familiar. I guess you can't answer me in this form." Yoko stated. Zoe walked up to them and asked: "You two know each other?"

Yoko: "Uhh, yeah, he used to live in my house with another girl. This is what he actually looks like."

Zoe: "Ooooh! So that's why you bark! I never thought of it that way."

Yoko: "Are you two friends?"

Zoe: "I'm just a lost girl. I'm trying to get out of here, same as all of you, hopefully."

Yoko: "Then have you seen two white-haired twins on your way here, by any chance? I'm supposed to take care of them, but I lost them when this whole thing happened."

Zoe: "Oh, sorry, I haven't."

Yoko: "Sigh... I just hope they're alright. They're in need of medical monitoring at all times, so only God knows what they're going through right now."

Zoe: "Well, I hope you find them soon! Sorry that I can't help you."

Caitlyn: "While we're on the topic, did you run into a stubby fat man instead?"

Zoe: "What? No."

Caitlyn: "Goddamn it, Dad."

Zoe: "Anyway... do either of you know how to get out of here?"

Caitlyn: "We do. Listen up..."

After a short briefing about the rules of the maze, Zoe reacted: "Ooooooh, that sounds easy enough, but how come you knew about it while none of us did?!"

Caitlyn: "We didn't know from the beginning either, some mysterious kid who sells lightning bolts told me."

Zoe: "...What?"

Caitlyn: "You had to be there to get it."

Zoe: "...Sure. Anyway! Now that we're five people, it should be easier to find that church and, by proxy, find our way out!"

Yoko: "Alright then! Let's not waste any time!"

Jake: "Bark! (Finally, we can get back on track!)"

Ziggy: "Of this bitch, we gon' get out! There ain't even a single doubt!"

Caitlyn: "The sooner, the better."

However, just as they were about to go forth, a massive wave of water hit them, sending them back several metres. Once they got up, they saw that the cause was that a gigantic tree somehow sprouted high up from below the water. The wood was grey, the leaves were black, and the water surrounding it became dark and acidic, reducing all the fish around the tree to float up as skeletons. Zoe shouted in a panic: "W-W-W-W-W-WHAT IS THAT?!"

Jake: "BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!"

Caitlyn: "This smell... It's that horned guy! Yoko, the horned guy you were with, the one who walked into and sank in the water!"

Yoko: "I know! You don't have to keep specifying!"

Ziggy: "Hold on, hold on... This can't be... is it already happening?"

Zoe: "Ziggy, you stopped rhyming!"

Ziggy: "You, police woman! Use your Beyonder to show us the roots of that tree!"

Caitlyn: "Why?!"

Yoko: "Just do what he says, he sounds really serious."

Caitlyn did as he wanted and summoned her Hylic Beyonder Rusalka and used it to create a path by moving aside the water, like a miniature version of when Moses crossed the red sea. Upon getting a clearer view of its roots, they discovered that the roots were coming from inside a house at the very bottom. All of them were confused by what they saw, with the exception of Ziggy, who exclaimed in utter disbelief: "Shit, shit! It's happening already?! L'étranger isn't even here yet!"

Yoko: "What's happening?! What are you talking about?!"

Ziggy: "...The Cataclysm..."

Sixty-Sixth Feather:

Plucked