CRIMSON ROTH

Chapter 11 - Fire or Fist? Friend or Foe?

And that is how the universe accidentally celebrated the official Equilibri BBQ too early.

Running past Jake's blow-torching fire, Crimson bolted past the screaming Equilibri and managed to escape the horrifying, fiery death. In an instant, missing the burning flames by inches, she crawled the spiky silver scales (and prayed that she wouldn't look down or even fall!) with careful agility.

Now on the Dragon's back, Crimson hugged (the small percentage) of the neck, holding on for dear life. Jake the Dragon buckled as he shot fire from his mouth, disintegrating the hundreds of thousands of Equilibri in the room. Some fled by cheap but helpful (and rather cheating) teleportation devices while others faded into the ashes of non-existence.

After a few minutes, Jake couldn't handle staying as a gigantic Dragon any longer. The Dragon form closed its eyes and its scales turned into feathers, the feathers faded into starlight and the starlight vanished instantly. And Crimson felt herself falling through the air, unable to scream, panic in her lungs.

Falling wasn't the NYX in Hyperspace.

Falling wasn't jumping off the roof of a house.

Falling felt more like flying at an ever-going speed of infinity.

In most theoretical books back in Crimson's school that studied the Gravitational Physics chapter, she knew that if you don't break the pressure, you could die. But that was falling towards water. Crimson was about to fall towards solid ground- rocky and hard. Breaking pressure was a dream. It needed immense power to break it.

The fall can be broken if something is under the crashing force, maybe, Crimson thought.

That was where Jake came in.

Crash! Crimson toppled over Jake with such immense force the two fell down to the cold floor below their feet. It was like at the alleys of Fhroreevere Town, but (fortunately) they did not land on each other in a such embarrassing way.

"'Fanks," Crimson thanked. "But we are never doing that again," she added while brushing and scraping off the remains of whatever from her knees and elbows. Jake just nodded in reply, exhausted from the fight. Crimson saw him limping slightly, his skin rather pale and blistered. What shocked Crimson the most was the bloody stains and scratches on his clothes and body.

"You badly need some rest. Those tiring transformation processes are literally killing you," Crimson advised Jake whose head slept on her lap as she held a book, reading quietly. "I think we could call it a day... a rest for a few hours should do." Jake mumbled some unknown words, probably sleep-talking (as Crimson assumed).

As Crimson read, she thought of how to escape this one room. Since there was no Equilibri with a living soul... well, they still got that terrible stench, Crimson decided to do some exploring. Leaving Jake sleeping on his bundled-up jacket and making sure he was safe, Crimson took her reloaded revolver and a Headlight Torch to do some exploring.

The room they had been fighting in wasn't that vast, but enormous enough to fit a Dragon and an army of horrible beasts. The floor was actually made of a breed between marble and Glitenium while the walls were the soft echoes of rippling obsidian. The place was absolutely marvelous- well, if you substrated the blood and all- even though how simple-looking it was.

"This won't be too hard," Crimson told herself assuringly. "I'm sure I could manage. Maybe. Sort of. Hope so."

Apparently, she was very wrong.