Owen watches with a sinister smile as Krow tumbles over the edge of the platform and into the water below. He looks into its eyes, or rather, where he assumes its eyes are, and follows them as it descends. He watches it take one last desperate breath as it falls head first into the water, splitting the surface with a crack before finally slipping under.
Though it was beaten horribly, and though it wasn't by any means the hardest battle that he's won, he was glad it fought. Glad that the grand finale of his escapade was a grand one indeed. He smiles. A big toothy child-like grin at the murky water below, now slightly tinged with red. He feels a surge of inexplicable pride.
That's it. He's done it. Every single demon in the clearing, the last of the disease that infested the place. Dead and gone.
It's almost satisfying in a way. Like ticking the last "to-do" off of a list. Like finally getting a particularly nasty stain off of an otherwise spotless surface. Like finally finishing a project after long grueling hours of work. He scans the floor and finds his sword, which had been discarded in the fight, among the scattering of Krow's now abandoned throwing knives. It's stained dark red with blood and he deems it simply too much of a risk to take back to the clearing, lest someone see him with it. Thus, he sends it careening over the edge and into the water system, along with the remnants of Krow's arm, the one that he had cut off.
It was almost too easy, he thinks to himself. Krow was a fighter sure, but a reckless, inexperienced one. Too ready to go in teeth bared and arms flailing, especially when it got angry. The fight had been over since the beginning, over since the moment it lashed out in genuine anger.
His hand ghosts over the fresh, still-bleeding scar across his face and then over the stab wound in his shoulder. Despite its inexperience, It's no surprise that Krow did the biggest number on him. He had known it was the biggest threat from the beginning. It's still kind of annoying though. The shoulder wound would've been easy enough to hide If he could ignore the fact that it hurt more than he would like to admit. But now he has to come up with some excuse for the three deep slashes cutting across his face. He could just say that Krow attacked him, the others probably wouldn't ask too many questions. It wouldn't be exactly "out of character" for Krow, and technically it was true that Krow had attacked him. He could always dance around the topic if they asked for details.
It was a good short-term solution. He could think of a long term when he got to that point. For now, he would relish in his victory and prepare for more in the future. Now he could focus his efforts on getting out of the maze walls and continuing his mission to eradicate the demons. To avenge his family. To make up for all the time he spent trusting those things.
He could focus on the steadily rising temperatures in the clearing, and finally, tell his fellow clearing mates about it, and in the meantime, he could finally go back to living a normal life. Well, as normal as you could get when you were trapped in a death maze. He makes it back to the clearing just before nightfall, having to turn sideways to squeeze through the rapidly shrinking gap in the doors. The clearing is entirely devoid of activity. Most of the members are asleep, and the ones who aren't are just recluses anyway. Owen can slip into his house under the cover of night, and it's as if he never left.
He put the rest of his energy into cleaning his mess of a living space. Picking up and putting away the weapons and books and miscellaneous items that litter his floor. Making the house feel a little bit more like a home even though it will never really be one, despite what he once foolishly believed.
He also made a new sword, to replace the one he threw into the water after Krow. He didn't know exactly what he would need it for, only that he probably would need it at some point, and that he didn't want to be caught off guard when he did. He was impossibly focused, hunched over his work, that was going to be put to use against his training mannequin later. It was rewarding work though. Serene, calm, quiet. It was peaceful.
And thus it was time to prepare for war; for a battle that would never come but that he still needed to be prepared for.
{ֆօʍɛաɦɛʀɛ, ֆօʍɛɦօա, ֆօʍɛȶɦɨռɢ ʄօʀʍֆ ɖɛɛք ɨռ ȶɦɛ ʍǟʐɛ. ɨȶ ʟօօӄֆ ǟֆ ɨʄ ֆօʍɛօռɛ ɦǟֆ ƈʊȶ օʊȶ ǟ քɨɛƈɛ օʄ ȶɦɛ ռɨɢɦȶ ֆӄʏ ǟռɖ ɖʀօքքɛɖ ɨȶ աɨȶɦ ʟɨȶȶʟɛ ƈɛʀɛʍօռʏ օռ ȶɦɛ ֆȶօռɛ. ʟɨӄɛ ǟ ɮǟʟʟ օʄ ֆȶǟʀֆ. ֆօʍɛաɦɛʀɛ, ֆօʍɛօռɛ օʀ ֆօʍɛȶɦɨռɢ ɨֆ ֆռɨƈӄɛʀɨռɢ ǟȶ ȶɦɛ քʟɨɢɦȶ ȶɦɛʏ ӄռօա ȶɦɨֆ աɨʟʟ ƈǟʊֆɛ.}
It was another day in Nourk - or New Nourk- or whatever you wanted to call it. It didn't matter because it was still another day in a place that looked exactly like home but would never be.
The lanterns Krow had hung combined with the warm licking of flames in the fireplace were playing all shades of gold, red, and orange across the room as Krow scanned the space for what Lav might be morphed as. It finds him quite quickly, morphed as a spider in the corner near the fireplace, surrounded by freshly spun webs. More out of instinct than anything Krow placed a wary hand on its sword, one that it always had at the ready. It found itself backing away from Lav; a bit frightened at the from they decided to take on. "Why do you hate me?" Krow said a bit louder than it intended to, with a little bit of fondness in its tone.
"What? What's wrong" Lav responded obliviously. Spidery eyebrows furrowed in concern.
"No-I" Krow says, having just woken up stumbling over its words. "I have nothing against spiders! That's just too weird!"
Krow swiftly directs its attention to the open window and takes a curious peek outside. It's still nighttime, probably not very close to turning day, if the stars that are still out and shining brighter than ever are anything to go by. It just sighs and makes a mental note to fix its sleep schedule, which honestly is probably never going to happen.
"So why spider?" It questions, turning back into the room to talk to Lav. "Why have we woken up and chosen spider?"
"Because I can do this." Lav demonstrates by scaling up and down the nearest wall, obviously pleased with himself.
Krow brusquely points out that Lav could also just fly up the wall as a bat. Lav simply states the evident truth. Climbing is more fun.
Krow doesn't see a point in arguing where there doesn't need to be an argument, Lav had probably gotten bored of the bat anyway, so it simply gets back into its teal bed to sleep away the rest of the night even though it isn't that tired. It shoots up the next morning, ready to get the ball rolling, almost immediately pulling out the to-do list it had written earlier. "We have a list!" it exclaims to Lav. "We can't just wake up and do whatever we want anymore! We have to be responsible."
"Riiigghtt" Lav replies skeptically, knowing full well that the two of them are the furthest away from responsible.
Krow goes on anyway flipping through the pages of its book."We have to ask Mabel these questions!" It says, pointing to a particular cluster of pages. When Lav says nothing, Krow looks up from the book."You remember Mabel, right?"
"Funny" Is Lav's one-word response. Kow isn't sure what that means but it takes it as a "Yes I remember Mabel" and flips back to the first page of the journal.
"SO" It starts, looking up one more time to make sure Lav is listening. "We need to make Nyx's life better somehow..." It pauses, spotting a familiar name on the list. "Freda, Freda's dad!" all the lies it told since it got here come rushing back at once, and it realizes that finding a way to cover that up should be at the top of its list. "We can go do that this morning," It says while climbing down its house's ladder, gesturing for Lav to follow. "Yeah, we should go do that now."
It takes one more look at the book in its hands before setting out for Freda's. Right then is when it realizes how much work all of this is going to be. Make Olive calmer? Make Brooks less overworked? Fix whatever might be going on with Blaise because everyone in this town had at least one issue. That was going to take a lot if it was even possible.
Kind of funny how that was the one thing that didn't change with all of the reality shiftings. The fact the Nourk was a trauma magnet.
It would also have to check on Sky eventually It really hoped that Sky had it better in this new world- or new reality or whatever. It really did like helping people, but it didn't know if it could take one more "to-do" to the ever-expanding list. "We'll go to Sky after Mabel" It decides after a few moments of deliberations.
"Are you sure?" Lav questions.
Krow is most definitely not sure, but it isn't going to say that. Not now, not ever. It starts to craft a response, something along the lines of, " Why wouldn't I be sure?" when it freezes to its spot... Sitting innocently in front of it, reminiscent of a shimmering slice of the galaxy, smack dab in between its own house and Freda's, is a portal. The splotch of starlight is just as mysterious and just as beautiful as always. Lav is scuttling over the grass towards it and as he gets close a beam of purple light erupts from the top and bottom side of the portal, as per usual.
"Is this a portal?" Lav asks, sticking out on curious appendage to touch it. Krow quickly pulls him back.
"Yeah, that's a portal" It responds, clearly worried. "And we don't go in them. I mean...unless..."
As worrying as this is, it's hope. This could be the only portal that appears for a while. Even Mabel said it wouldn't happen Krow feels the urge to jump in on the off-chance that this takes it back to the dark place; back to Draxy. Or even better, back to Nourk. Not this Nourk, obliviously. The other Nourk. The Nourk where Freda was a friendly baker, where Blaise was a blacksmith, where Nyx was an adventurer, and Brooks was mayor. The Nourk that it knew. The Nourk which quickly became its home. It looks over towards, Lav having made its final decision.
"If I jumped Lav, would you go with me?"
Lav seems to consider this for a moment. For half a second Krow is worried that it'll have to travel alone, but Lav doesn't seem to like the idea of being alone either. "I have nothing better to do"
With that Krow scoops Lav up in its arms, it's an awkward hold because it has to maneuver around Lav's spindly spider legs, but it works. It takes a few steps back bracing itself before taking a running leap into the portal. They both disappear into the darkness.
When they come through to the other side Krow knows it shouldn't be surprised when it doesn't recognize the place but it's almost disappointing that they didn't need up in another version of Nourk. It goes from disappointment to panic when it takes in its surroundings.
An easy way to summarize what it was seeing would be, Walls. Walls. More Walls. Walls on all sides. A copious amount of intimidatingly tall walls.
"Lav, I am so glad you chose to bo a spider today"
"Why?"
"'Cause, you are going to have a ton of walls to climb buddy."