Day: 1230
Days Left: 4250
Lives Saved: 6
Talon eventually opened their eyes, seeing the gun in their trembling hands and Annika on the ground, staring with wide, wild eyes up at them, tears streaming down her face, mostly hidden by her mask.
There was just silence.
Gasping for breath, Talon studied the gun, wondering why there had been no noise. They finally noticed how light it was, lighter than they had expected.
Was it empty all this time? Was it not loaded?
They pointed the gun at the ground and hesitantly pulled the trigger. A small flame flickered from the barrel, and when Talon let go of the trigger, the flame extinguished.
All this time... what everyone had been afraid of, what kept Annika in power and control over them...
It was just a stupid novelty cigarette lighter.
"It wasn't a real gun..." Talon mumbled. "All this time, you were just bluffing."
No one was in danger of losing their memories if they disobeyed her. They all believed it all these years and followed her in fear because it was better to stay with her with food and shelter than without memories and starve in the cold. They could have been free of her sooner if they had been brave enough to stand up to her, to risk that threat.
Talon had almost hurt many people because they feared losing their memories. And now that it was revealed that the gun wasn't real...
"So stupid..." Talon choked, trembling as tears spilt from their eyes. "I was so fucking stupid!" They turned back to Annika, the gun clenched in their hand. "Everything you made me do, everything I endured, and all this time, it was a fake!"
Jules grabbed Talon's hand, pulling them back before they lunged at Annika.
"She lied to us!" Talon screamed, attempting to fight out of Jules' restraint. "We followed for no reason!"
Annika looked around at all the faces, all the people staring down at her, their expressions changing from sudden shock... to disgust, hate, and anger. Then, finally, she scrambled to her feet, retreating, her breath stagnant as she found herself surrounded. Annika looked to Junior, who appeared to be one of the few not shocked by the discovery of the fake gun.
Of course, thought Annika, he worked for the Abyss; he must have known that they would never allow such an overwhelmingly powerful weapon like a gun down here. The same goes for Corinna Warren and that bodyguard, with their calmness. But, of course, they all knew it was fake. It was a trap. They tried to make me reveal my bluff. They knew I had nothing.
I have nothing...
I have...
Annika glanced to the tent, the closest to the centre of the camp.
No, she had one last card to play...
"Stop her!" shouted Junior as Annika rushed toward the tent. "Don't let her get to the Land of the Lost!"
Light flashed around the edges of Annika's mask, the green scales enveloping her body, her limbs and frame shrinking until she was running on all fours as a small green lizard- no, as a small green-scaled dragon, the size of a small dog. She weaved in and out of the prisoners, too shocked and shaking from the previous events, so they were too slow to catch her. Then, jetting out a quick burst of flame from her mouth, the baby dragon scared away the two prisoners who barred the tent, the two screaming and rolling on the ground to stop the fire enveloping their clothes.
Lili and Corinna looked at each other in confusion, wondering why Annika would choose to hide in a tent when she would be trapped and surrounded.
"The Land of the Lost is underground!" Junior shouted to them and the others from the village. "We need to get her out of there!" Junior donned his mask and ran behind the transformed monsters heading to the tent.
Still unconfused, Corinna and Lili followed.
"Jules," Talon mumbled, turning to finally face their friend, who was still on the ground, shaking from his near-death experience. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't worry about that now!" Jules stood up with Talon's help. "Go help them; you'll be more useful than I will down there."
"Jules-"
"Go! I'll help everyone up here."
After hesitating, Talon nodded and ran off with the others.
"Go! You too!" Jules ordered any other prisoners with combat-ready masks, who obeyed. Those who could not currently transform, or whose masks would not be suitable in a fight, helped free the prisoners.
"What's going on?" asked Calanthe as Rita untied her and returned her minotaur mask.
"We'll need all hands on deck if she stays down there too long," said Rita. "We'll look after the kids up here."
After giving the children all a ruffle of their hair, Dex charged towards the tent with a vengeance, followed by a cautious Calanthe.
Jules, Sumit, and Rin headed over to the four prisoners tied to trees, with Sumit and Oscar pulling each other into a close embrace and kiss before repeatedly asking each other if they were okay.
"Did you put up a good fight?" Rin asked Ivette.
"Of course I did, my dear," smirked Ivette. "Left quite the bruises."
Jules grimaced as he freed Kai. "Hey, there, buddy."
Kai scowled back. "Hello, imposter."
Jules forced a laugh. "I'll apologise properly later," he said, handing Kai his goblin mask. Kai then snatched his red woollen hat back.
"Where is Mr Calixte's mask?" demanded Princess Alfreda, patting off the dirt on her dress.
A nearby prisoner handed it to her sheepishly, and she snatched it from them before storming over to a nearby tent.
Inside, Calixte was unconscious and lying on the ground, still. Alfreda went to his side and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the faint sounds of gasping breaths. He was still somewhat alive, his lungs clogged up and suffocating or drowning on land, but the Eternal Abyss kept him still conscious, leaving him in a constant state of being unable to breathe with no release of death.
She placed the amphibian mask near his face, attaching it and waited, but nothing happened.
"Come on," she hushed. "Come on; you can breathe in your silly fish-man form."
Calixte remained unconscious and unresponsive.
"You can just put her to sleep so she can't hurt anyone more," continued Alfreda. "You can put a stop to her in a matter of seconds. Of course, once I've given her a thorough beating."
Alfreda waited again, clutching her dress tightly in clumps in her clenched fists.
But Calixte did not wake.
*
Corinna followed everyone into the tent, pausing for a moment as she saw inside a small cave entrance, barely lit, the end swallowed in darkness. Then, after seeing Lili head down without hesitation, Corinna continued, heading further underground.
Eventually, the darkness subsided to light as wisps were scattered along the tunnel trapped in bottles, lanterns, and other cages, illuminating the tunnel in a kaleidoscope of colours.
The tunnel then opened into an enormous cavern, big enough to fit a village, scaling up to a skyscraper height. At the ceiling, numerous portals opened and closed, dropping discarded items that cascaded down the mountainous piles of junk; the Sector's Hidden Land of the Lost, hidden underground and directly beneath the food drop-off.
"Where's she gone!" shouted Dex, unable to make much of the mountain pile as it was swallowed in darkness; the floating wisps illuminated only patches of the cavern.
"Over there!" Betty pointed to where she heard the sound of multiple items being moved and falling further down the mountain.
In partial darkness, Corinna could make out the silhouette of the baby dragon digging deeper into the items.
Was she trying to hide? What was the point? They had her cornered. As far as Corinna could tell, that tunnel was the only way to the Land of the Lost. And then she froze as she noticed the dragon silhouette grew larger, expanding, the little stub of its tail previously lengthened until it was the same length as its body. The spikes along its spine pricked out, taller and sharper, the talons on its paws no longer dull but savage weapons.
As the dragon continued to bury itself in the Land of the Lost, it grew more.
"We must stop her before she grows too large!" shouted Betty. "I can contain her in my monster form, but not when she is surrounded by so many objects!"
"Capture her!" Dex yelled as a light flashed around his mask. "Drag her out of there!"
Lili looked to Corinna. "You can get there the quickest!"
Corinna glanced at her mask.
"Don't worry; you're not fighting alone." Lili smiled slightly as she put on her tiger mask.
Activating her mask, Corinna's body was enveloped in light and tiny dots of sparkling stars. She burst forward up the mountain pile, darting in flashes of light up higher and higher, the other monsters below struggling to scale it as the objects tumbled underneath their feet.
The dragon had submerged entirely in the Land of the Lost, hidden almost apart from a part of its tail.
The celestial darted to the tail, about to touch it with her bright burning arms, when a head rose out of the item pile, a dragon's head the size of Corinna. It lunged at her with its snapping teeth, about to bite when it reeled back from the burning light.
Steam hissed from the dragon's fangs, though the inside of its mouth appeared to be unharmed. Corinna regained her footing, reaching out with her glowing arms, her celestial body coming into contact with the dragon. Again, steam hissed from the scales yet did not melt or erode them like any other material.
Of course, thought Corinna, as she evaded another attack, dodging the sweeping thorned tail. Dragons are usually resistant or immune to fire, but it was still afraid of pain, hopefully.
The celestial kept on darting to the side, constantly moving, not just to avoid the dragon's attacks but also to avoid setting the whole Land of the Lost ablaze by standing still.
If I can't damage it, the celestial lunged forwards in a spiral of condensed light. I'll restrain it! She burst out of the spectral light above the dragon, landing on its back. It screeched from the contact, writhing and thrashing its body from side to side in an attempt to throw Corinna off; however, she managed to stay on, wrapping her arms around its thick neck. The glowing blue light of her celestial body and the stars scattered around it dimmed into darkness as the energy collected at her arms, shining brighter than ever before, steam rising from the heat they produced.
Corinna glanced down the mountain pile, catching a glimpse of the other monsters attempting to climb up. As it seemed she could not damage the dragon with her mask form, at least she could subdue it so the others could finish the job, Corinna hoped, but with each passing second, she was struggling to hold on and distract the dragon. Not because she was losing strength, but rather because the dragon's neck was becoming thicker, the beast still growing in size, though not as quickly as before when it was buried in the mountain pile. However, her celestial powers appeared to be doing something to the winged beast finally, the heat and light only just fusing to the scales, so she stuck on. But for how long until her power needed to recharge?
The dragon let out a pained roar, frustrated that the celestial was still somehow clinging to its back. It then purposefully collapsed down and rolled over onto its back. Corinna was too slow to react, all of her power too focused on her arms to teleport away in time. She was squashed under the heavy weight of the scaled monstrosity, and then she heard a crack, something splitting; a part of her torso had cracked like glass, fragile when no light was powering it. Corinna unfused herself from the dragon, releasing it from its pain and was unable to move even after the dragon scrambled higher up the mountain pile.
*
With both power and grace, Lili lept up the mountain that was the Land of the Lost, quicker than all the others, though not fast enough to catch the dragon before it headed further upwards. The tiger halted and rushed over as she saw the celestial laying still on her back in a small dent of squashed objects; a large split travelled up the celestial's dulled body.
"Corinna..." Lili mumbled.
Corinna winced, looked to the dragon at the top of the mountain pile, then back to Lili with a forced smile, mouthing the word 'go.'
Reluctantly, Lili left the injured celestial's side and scrambled up the mountain, spotting the dragon nustling amongst the items right at the very summit, near where the never-ending opening and closing portals were, though it was far too large to escape through any of them. Yet, even hidden underneath such a large pile, Lili could see the objects moving and tumbling down as it made room for the creature growing underneath it.
How large could Annika grow? Lili fretted. What was the limit? Was there a limit? It was no wonder that Annika did not want to trade with another group; it meant less power for her in quite a more literal way than other prisoners. But how long would it take to transform back into a human after changing into a creature this size? Sumit had struggled in the past as his mask turned him into a randomly sized octopus with each use, his rare larger forms taking weeks until he was safe to transform. What Annika was doing now was her lost resort. With all her people seeming to have turned against her, all she had left was the control of the Land of the Lost and the food drop-off. She was fighting for what she had left that was worth anything, even if it risked damage to her human self or maybe even risked losing her mind entirely, to become the monster forever.
A light flutter of wings zoomed past Lili; a raven swirled up high, circling the Land of the Lost's summit.
The bird cawed out, motioning to those below where the dragon hid underneath the mountain pile, though with each passing second, it was becoming all the more obvious. Talon looked down, noticing that only the tiger was near scaling the Land of the Lost in time, some already looking exhausted, whilst Corinna was recovering, her celestial body dim but brightening and regaining energy.
Talon's feathers ruffled then spilt apart from their wings; the falling feathers scattered and fell down the mountain pile, hurtling down into swooping back up and transforming into numerous other ravens. The unkindness of ravens swooped down to the other prisoners and monsters, circling and swarming around and found the strongest amongst them, carrying them up near the summit.
Calanthe covered her mouth, stopping herself from shrieking as four ravens grabbed her with their talons and picked her up into the sky. She closed her eyes firmly, not to see how high the drop was, only opening them when she felt solid ground firmly beneath her feet. Then, clutching her labrys, Calanthe charged up the mountain, Lili by her side.
"What's the plan!" Calanthe yelled, realising that she was charging in with no other strategy apart from hitting the dragon with her axe, which was her strategy for every fight.
"We need to get her away from the Land of the Lost!" replied Lili, deftly leaping away as a large armchair fell through a portal above and hurtled down. "It should hopefully weaken her!"
"Right!" Calanthe nodded with no more confidence than she had before. She tapped her mask, and a bright light flashed around the edges, transforming into the minotaur as she continued upwards.
At the very summit of the Land of the Lost, the dragon waited, patient despite being surrounded; no, it wasn't surrounded; how could you consider an army of ants around you to be surrounded? Yes, that was what they were, small tiny and insignificant insects. The Eternal Abyss was the same as any world; there was always a food chain, and where would a dragon be on such a food chain? That's right...
Even from right near the bottom of the cavern, Dex could hear the rumbling begin, an ominous sound in the cavern's darkness, the mountain shaking, and more objects hurtling down, causing him to slide further back down and lose progress. This wasn't an earthquake; no, it was...
The dragon burst from hiding, its head hitting the ceiling of the underground cavern, causing it to crack, and rock and debris rained down, dust spilling out.
No one had yet reached the dragon, and already many had fallen back down the mountain by the debris or were injured from getting hit.
Dex narrowly avoided a large piece of rock that crashed down beside him. He clutched his chest, struggling to breathe from the narrow encounter. He glanced to his mask, knowing that he would be even more useless in climbing by using it. So why did he come down here? He was so fueled by rage at Annika that he did not stop thinking about how he could help in this situation.
A large scaled arm shot up out of the summit, followed by another, both the lengths of trees.
Was it too late to run away?
Dex's body grew instantly cold as the dragon's shadow swallowed him into further darkness.
They didn't need the Land of the Lost. They could all leave and go back to the village...
The unkindness of ravens swooped down, grabbing Dex before rising back up, taking him up to the top with the others.
Dex wanted to shout and scream, to command the bloody birds to let him go so he could run away like a coward. Was he a coward? No, it wasn't cowardly to know that this was a fight he couldn't win, that did not need fighting.
Even when he was set on the ground, Dex could not move, his body unable to move forward nor retreat.
Lili and Calanthe were nearing the top, almost dangerously close to the dragon at the summit. Dex could see the fear in the minotaur's eyes, yet Calanthe continued to charge onward. He saw the fear in everyone's eyes as they rushed past him, wielding their weapons, claws, and teeth, transforming into monsters. Some of them were cowering, whimpering, afraid like he was, but eventually, no matter how much their body shook and how many tears streamed down their face, they pressed on and fought through it.
That's right, Dex thought. This was their home, and they were fighting to regain it. Having anywhere in the Eternal Abyss that you would call safe or shelter was a rarity. Prisoners would fight to the death over a torn tent or less.
Dex remembered when he was in a cave in the desert, alone and cold and hungry.
He looked down at his mask, fingers caressing the shining metal, tracing the gold embellishments.
The knight in shining armour on his noble steed.
And what do knights do?
Dex donned his mask.
They slay dragons.