19. Vesper
VESPER
We move fast. Faster than we had before.
Avoiding the carnivorous plants becomes a high stakes game, one much bigger than before now with the possibility of Stryker chasing us.
I don’t know what Stryker’s Glitch is or if he’s fast enough to keep up, but I don’t want to risk being anywhere in the Red Bloom Court at all just in case he’s some super human runner.
He looks fast, which means we gotta be faster. Who knows what he’s capable of doing?
I keep my hyena mask on most of the trip through the Red Bloom Court, especially when we grow closer to the River again.
We’re going to have to cross it and then stay along the edges of the Whispering Canopies and whatever zone is beside it.
Neither one of us have any desire to face off against the howler monkeys again.
Even with better weapons, the beasts are terrifying.
And I highly doubt it’s the worst the Whispering Canopies zone has to offer.
Besides, the map is marked with a Major Boss for that zone, which we need to avoid while we’re at such a low tier.
“How exactly are we going to cross this?” Locke asks, staring at the rushing water in front of us.
With my mask in place, I can barely sense the caimans in the river, somewhere close, but too far for my newfound skill.
There are other smaller pings on my awareness that I can’t place, but they don’t seem threatening.
The river is teaming with life, too much that makes it difficult to pick any one creature out.
The brown water rushes by, the current strong as it churns up the silt and debris.
I watch as a few logs bounce to the surface, actual logs, that then roll and begin to float along the surface.
“I’d prefer not to get in the water,” I murmur, looking around for options.
I open my menu, checking to see if there’s some way around it.
I sigh when I get a good look at it. “We can’t follow the river because it curls back into the Red Bloom Court, through the Secret Abyss, and into the Whispering Canopies where we started again.
If we go that way, we risk losing time and the howler monkeys again.
Our only option is to cross the river here. ”
Locke crosses his arms as he stares at the brown water.
This part of the river isn’t as wide as it was where we fought the arapaima, the shore significantly closer, but it’s still impassable without swimming.
When neither one of us can swim, it would be too risky to assume the river isn’t deeper in the middle.
The current is strong and would sweep us down river quickly the moment we lost our footing.
“Any chances we could magically learn how to swim?” I ask Locke, wincing.
He glances at me. “We could try. How hard can floating be?”
“And the caimans?” I run a hand through my hair. “No, that’s a bad idea. We can’t get in the water. Even if we could swim, it’s bad.”
“We could build a raft of sorts,” Locke comments, looking around. “Use some of the trees and tie them together. I know you’ve got rope in your inventory. Along with a million other things.”
I blink. “You remember the items I’ve been picking up?”
He shrugs. “Some of them.”
For some reason, that makes me feel . . .
safe. He’s paying attention, watching my back just as I’m watching his.
I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips as I open my inventory and look through it.
My eyes catch on the man-eating houseplant I’d forgotten about entirely.
Shit, I’m going to have to pull that out and figure out what I’m supposed to do with it soon, but I figure that’s an issue for another time.
Instead, I look through the rest of the items I have, trying to see if I have enough to build a raft.
“The rope coils are only a meter long each,” I sigh. “I have three of them, but unless we’re making a very small raft, they’re not long enough to wrap around a bunch of trees.”
Locke nods and looks around. “Okay, so we look and see if there’s anything here we can use.”
“Even if we managed to use some of the vines as rope, we’ll never be able to topple any of these trees. I’m not trying to dull my new blade to try it.”
“I can sharpen the short sword,” he offers.
“Which takes time we don’t have,” I point out. “We don’t know how long Stryker is going to wait around before he realizes we’re not there anymore. The moment he realizes, best believe he’s going to give chase. You saw the look in his eyes.”
Locke throws his arms in the air. “Then what the fuck are we supposed to do? We can’t swim. We can’t make a raft. We can’t go around it. We’re fucked!”
My eyes fall back to the churning brown water again, the logs bobbing to the surface and easing along the river. I watch as they move, following their path as they bob like forgotten garbage. When my eyes reach the other side, and I realize the path we should take, I smack at Locke’s arm.
“Ow!” He grunts. “What was that for?”
“How good is your balance?” I ask him, turning to look him in the eyes.
“My balance?” he repeats. “What does that—”
“Just tell me,” I growl. “No need for extra questions.”
He furrows his brows and shrugs. “It’s not bad. I was a Spine Jacker, remember. Gotta have good balance for the good stuff.”
“Okay, good. Because I have an idea.” I move close to the edge of the water and point to the nearest log.
“These are floating all over the river. The longer I look at them, the more I realize there’s a pattern to it.
I think, if we’re careful and pick our pathway cautiously, we can leap across these logs and make it to the other side. ”
He’s slack-jawed as he stares at me. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
Offended, I brace my hands on my hips. “I’m not. You don’t have a better solution, so here we are.”
“And what if we fall in?” he asks, gesturing at the water. “Remember that conversation about magically learning how to swim? Yeah, we didn’t learn. Plus, the fucking water beasts are going to eat us!”
“It’s our only option,” I argue. “We either leap across, or we sit here and wait for Stryker to find us.” I look back out across the water. “Whatever you decide, I’ll be waiting on the other side.”
Without waiting for his answer, I leap from the shore and land on the nearest log. It bobs under my weight, water rushing over my boots briefly before it stabilizes and I’m able to balance on top of it.
“Motherfucker,” Locke growls. “When we die, remember it’s your fault.”
I walk toward the end of the log I’m standing on, nervous when it dips into the water just before I launch myself to the next floating log. I land on it hard enough to splash water up my trousers. The creatures in the water take notice, still too many of them for me to pick them out individually.
Behind me, Locke leaps for the first log and lands on it with a grunt. He swings his arms and gains his balance quickly, showing how skilled he was as a Spine Jacker with his recovery.
I move again, leaping from one log to the next, careful where I place my feet as the logs bob and dance in the rushing water.
We immediately start sweeping down the river, but the logs move slowly, giving us enough time to hopefully get to the other side before we’re swept back into The Red Bloom Court.
“This is stupid,” Locke shouts from behind me, “even if it’s working.”
“It’s not stupid if it’s working,” I shout back, laughing as I leap again.
We’re about halfway across the river now.
If we fall in, that’s it. Carefully, I move along the large log I’m standing on and pick out the next logs floating before me.
There are two directions I can go. Both logs look sturdy enough, thick around the middle.
The texture on the left one looks better for keeping my footing beneath me, so I turn toward it.
“Come on,” I call to Locke as he lands on the log behind me.
I leap for the log, my boot landing on the bark. The texture does in fact hold my boot steady and I balance myself, and I grin in success.
“We’ve got this—” I start to tell Locke, confident in my plan now that it’s clearly successful. We’re going to make it to the other side and get across this river, dry and safe. Except . . . before I can finish my words, the log I’m standing on begins to rumble.
The awareness my mask gives me flares to life a second later, a few seconds too later.
“Uh, Vesper,” Locke says, staring after me with wide eyes.
“Fuck,” I grunt, rushing along the length of my “log” back to the one I’d come from. Just as it begins to shift beneath me, sinking into the water, I launch off and land safely back on the original log.
The caiman shifts in the water and stares at me with large yellow eyes. I can feel his presence as much as I can see him. With direct eye contact, I watch as he sinks beneath the water and disappears. My awareness splinters again with so many lifeforces beneath the water.
“That’s not good,” I rasp. I glance over my shoulder at Locke where he still balances on another log. “Time to go. Quickly.”
I leap for the other log, this one most assuredly a fallen tree. I land on it hard enough to splash water back at Locke, but I’m already leaping again before I can dwell on it for too long.
“I thought you can sense them with your mask?” Locke asks, following quickly behind me. Thank the Harrow we’re both agile enough to do this. Had we been anything other than a Spine Jacker and a Courier, this wouldn’t be possible.
“Can’t,” I say as I leap again. “Not when they’re underwater. Too many creatures beneath.”
“Fuck,” he grunts, realizing how much of a disadvantage we’re at.
I’d thought the multiple lifeforms that felt unthreatening was a good thing. Now, I realize it’s bad. If we fall in the water, there’s no telling just how many of the things are waiting for us.