Chapter Text
He gazed into the pungent smoke emitting fire and thought about the gear he needed to make his ascent on the volcano that much safer. After a few minutes of thought, he felt the wetness on his face begin to dry and crust up. Upon wiping the drying blood away he got his first clue about why the few followers nearby were suddenly so reserved. He laughed at the sight he imagined he presented to them and though it would be wise to conduct future contests with his alter-ego in more private settings. With that matter resolved, he returned to his thoughts to the challenges of the volcano once more.
A grappling hook, some rope, and a means of getting fresh air were highest on his list. Other useful objects were considered, such as a spyglass or some other means of viewing distant objects, but were ultimately rejected due to the impossibility of locating the necessary parts. He tried constructing one several times before, but was always frustrated by the strange folk's propensity to colour most of their personal belongings, even their eyewear, the same colour as their blood.
He let out a sigh before turning back to the task of doing what he could, with what he had currently at hand. While he would have preferred a metal grappling hook with a long length of chain, he knew his metalworking skills were not quite up to the task yet. Furthermore, the lack of any trees on the horizon made him rule out wood as well. Refusing to give up, he contemplated the bones of his last meal and saw a possible solution to his lack of resources. experimentally, he cast a few bones into the dung fueled fire and found that they tolerated both the heat and the flame. Another test involving the skin of the creatures he had recently eaten proved they could hold up under high temperature conditions as well as support a significant amount of weight. With these findings, he felt confident that a the grappling hook created from bones and a rope woven from strips of hide would suffice as basic climbing gear.
The last item on his list was to find some means of surviving the dangerous gases that often accompanied eruptions. He knew a gas mask or scuba gear was obviously out the question, but as he thought about how to survive the poisonous air the old memory came of the time he had almost asphyxiated himself when he mistakenly built a campfire in the back chamber of his mistress's cave. That experience taught him that bad air displaced fresh air. Which, in turn, lead him to the understanding that he did not need to filter what he breathed, only that he needed to keep his head above the smothering invisible fumes. Inspiration struck him and he quickly stitched together a crude tube with the hides from his kills. However, when he attempted test his newly crafted snorkel by breathing through it while it was suspended over the smelly dung fire, the resulting coughing fit convinced him that he need to find something free of cracks and holes.
Ideally, a natural occurring tube of some sort.
Now armed with a shopping list, he began considering what types creatures he needed to hunt so that he could procure the raw materials needed for these projects. He knew the creature had to quite large so he could have his pick of bones to use for his grappling hook. While the hides could come from any number creatures, he speculated that whatever he hunted for bones should possess enough serviceable material covering its body for his rope. He became stumped about what to do about his "snorkel" project. The lack of tall grass and other plants, such as bamboo, in the region vexed him.
He mulled over his requirements one more time and thought about what prey he needed to hunt to satisfy them and found there were only a few creatures that fit the bill. Furthermore, the lack of vegetation and the prey species that needed to feed upon it meant that most of the large predators on his target list were unlikely to be in the region. He looked at the bones that held up the dung covered refuge and recalled that the musclebeasts always traveled in great herds as they fed. Thus, he reasoned, that were there was one, there ought to be others. He climbed the bony structure of the dung covered refuge and searched for any tracks the megafauna he had killed the week prior might have left. Leading away from the refuge, he spied a series of "U" shaped depressions in the ground.
He let his eyes follow the trail as far as he could see. From his vantage point, the trail seemed to lead around the volcano. He bit his lower lip as he realized that this hunt would keep him away from his followers for many days. He pondered recent events and decided that his followers were at least competent enough to get by without him for a little while. However, he did not wish to tempt fate any more than was necessary and decided he would resort to using his gift to speed his journey. He packed what was left of his meal knowing that he would be completely ravenous after such a strenuous effort he about to subject himself to and walked out of sight of his followers.
Once alone, He took a moment to take stock of the amount of the fiery energy inside himself and found it lacking. He figured that his recent bout with his alter-ego had drained his reserves. As he closed his eyes and recalled the death of his mistress, he found it a bit odd that he was about to intentionally fueling the his gift with the bitter memories of her that he still possessed. While time had done a reasonable job of healing the sense of loss he had felt over her death, but it had done nothing about the frustrating, and unanswerable questions he still asked himself about the circumstances her demise.
The biggest of which was the question of "why?"
He felt a great and terrible frown appear on his face as he let this and the other questions echo in his mind. The lack of answers provided the stimulus he needed to first ignite, then fan those terrible internal fires of his. Once he had built them sufficiently, he willed the burning energy down through his spine and into his legs. As he took his the first stride of his journey, he invoked the purple face-like icon in his mind. Instantly, he felt all the fatigue in his body start to melt away as he began running.
The megafuana's trail lead him into rough terrain and It did not take long for him to encounter embankments that too steep to run across and crevices so wide that he need to circumnavigate. The difficult landscape combined with the megafauna's trail maddening habit of disappearing for stretches at a time both slowed his progress and soured his mood. As it worsened, his mind began to become filled with an angry static. As before, when he was learning the blacksmith's art from his friend, this static made it harder for him to think clearly. However, unlike before, there was nothing for him to vent his spleen on or no goal for him accomplish. Furthermore, every time he lost time by having to back track some obstacle, he notice this static seemed to get worse.
Eventually, his patience came to an end.
He had come to one seemingly bottomless ravine too many and was no longer in the mood to search up and down its length for some alternative to the rash action until he was now contemplating. He looked at the far side of the of the ravine and noticed there was a ledge that was lower than the one he was standing on. Convinced that he had found a place where for him to make a vault from, he examined the ground around him and noticed it had been recently disturbed by one of the volcano's rumblings not too long time ago. A quick kick to one of the smaller boulders that lined the edge of the chasm proved provided additional evidence that his initial suspicion was true when it tumbled from its perch easily. Despite knowing that it a bad idea to even try under these conditions, he pulled out his metal spear and took a moment to build up even more of the fiery energy inside himself before charging the chasm. When he reached the brink, he channeled those terrible internal fires of his into both his arms and legs before slamming the butt of his metal spear into the ground. Only to mumbled a curse as he felt his spear penetrate the ground too deeply.
Carried by his momentum, he skidded off the precipice and into the ravine. As he came to violent stop, he felt his fingers maintain their iron grip on his metal spear. For a few moments he heard nothing but the sound of small amounts of gravel pouring down the steep sides of the ravine. However, just as he was in the middle of coming up with a plan to get himself out this situation, the sound of several large stones following the gravel downwards compelled him to glanced at where his metal spear was now embedded. There, he noticed a spider web of cracks spreading radially from it. Suspecting an avalanche was imminent, he felt his heart begin to pound fiercely.
At first, he considered abandoning his weapon and begin climbing upwards back onto the ledge. But, soon discarded that notion when he recalled both that his spear could be vital to his plans to mitigate the potentially toxic gasses of the volcano and that the ledge just above him was now dangerously unstable due to his actions. Thus forced to recover his weapon, he steeled himself as he swung hand over hand over to where his metal spear was impaled. Then, planted his feet against the crumbling surface of the ravine, closed his eyes, channeled the burning energy inside him into his hands and legs one more time and, finally, pulled with everything he had.
As he felt his spear come free of the cliff face, he sensed that time too, was releasing him its grip.
With closed eyes, he sensed he was now in uncontrolled tumble. What was presented to him when opened them again was a graceful slow-motion glide, but he knew better. As he continued his uncontrolled slow-motion descent, he noticed the ravine's surface was mostly comprised of gravel and dirt. Furthermore, with every full rotation of his body he noticed that the ravine's side was slowly coming closer to him due to its slightly less than perpendicular angle to his descent. He resisted the temptation of reaching out to the increasingly blurry surface and waited for it to come even closer. Once well within range of his spear, he stabbed his weapon into it and was rewarded with explosive spray of dirt and stones that blasted him in the face. During this moment of contact, he felt the spear pull free almost instantly. In doing so, however, he also sensed that it's brief interaction with the ravine's wall had the desired effect of canceling out the unwanted gyrations in his fall.
Figuring that since his first attempt at arresting his worked so well, he waited for his trajectory to bring him near the side of the ravine once more. After mentally bracing himself, he channeled another great torrent of fiery energy through his arms and hands and drove his spear point first into the dirt and gravel covering the ravine's wall. As before, his reward was another gravel facial before his metal spear became free. Undaunted, he repeated these attempts at arresting his fall, and noticed his spear remained stuck just a little bit longer each time and that each resulting spray of debris was reduced as well. Eventually, he the angle of the ravine's embankment flattened out just enough for him to begin body surfing. He continued using his metal spear as brake until he came to a stop. He sensed time was slowly catching up with him as he rested his head against the side of the ravine. Through the dirt and gravel he sensed something odd. There were now odd thumps and other vibrations he felt between the fierce beats of his own heart.
Curious, he looked up.
The sight that greeted him reflexively triggered the actions required to get him back onto his feet. As turned his head away from sight of what appeared to him was the entire side of the volcano now coming down on him, he felt the same alteration in his perception of time his gift imposed every time it manifested. However, this time, it did so an intensity he was completely unfamiliar with. He began to run by raising his foot ,but soon found his movements had become slow and laborious. Even the very air around him seemed to conspire against him by becoming suddenly viscous and when combined with the danger coming from above, caused the burning energy inside him to quickly fill his capacity for it.
He attempted to channelling the fiery energies inside himself. Only to find that there was no need for him to do so. For the energy was already there where he needed it to be and discovered that it expanded itself the moment he need it. He found this phenomenon peculiar at first but, with each slow motion stride he made down the ravine's embankment, the truth of what was happening to him slowly revealed itself to him.
He and his alter-ego, for one rare moment, had exactly the same goal, self-preservation!
He made a dozen more slow motion strides before the first large boulders warned him of the advancing avalanche by barely missing him. Figuring that he was in directly in front of the oncoming landslide, he altered his trajectory by banking hard so that his new path would take down the ravine's banked surface at an angle. With his first few steps, he discovered that the surface he was attempting to run on possessed less than solid construction. It was not long when he felt his one of his legs slide out from under him. To correct this stumble, he sensed his arm reflexively push against the dirt and gravel to right himself. Fully aware that his new path had only bought him a few more precious seconds, he was surprised when another mass of stone careened pass him. He swiftly realized that the sound of its sudden arrival and departure were out by pounding of his own heart. Despite the dangers, he resisted the temptation to look back and instead remained focused on running to keep ahead of the avalanche that he was certain was right on his heels.
When he reached very bottom of the ravine, he sensed that more solid earth was now under his feet. He immediately broke into a slow motion sprint but was soon overtaken by a cloud of blinding and choking dust. As it enveloped him, he felt his heart slow its rapid pace for a moment before resuming its earlier fierce beating. He looked as far ahead as he could through the dust and saw the many boulders and bushes that stood between him safety. Instead of the lazy pace that previous obstacles usually approach him at, these were approaching at brisker pace.
He was able pondered this alteration in his gift's manifestation for a few moments before a large stone stuck him from behind. The powerful blow caused him to stagger for a few steps before he managed to regain his balance and in those moments he noticed that his heart, again, appeared to briefly slow down before catching up. When he had resumed his attempts at absconding from avalanche behind him, he saw the obstructions in his path were now approaching at faster rate. He easily dodged the first of these and when he saw that he had brief respite from them, he closed his eyes and turned his focus inwards as he kept running.
The first thing he noticed was that his previously full reserves of the fiery energy that fueled his gift were now completely spent. Paradoxically, his current rate of generating this burning power was so great that he easily sensed the paths this energy flowed. From just above his neck and down through his spine, he saw that some of it entered his lungs and heart, while the rest continued downwards into his legs.
Suddenly, another stone struck him.
As he expected, the pain from this event resulted in an increase flow of burning energy. As he watched it begin its journey he noticed there was previously unnoticed upward path that a portion of this fiery power traveled into his brain. The instant this surge of power entered his mind, he experienced the same heart slowing sensation from before. Which lasted until the increased flow of burning energy reached his heart. His eyes snapped opened as he processed this new information and as he wiped the accumulating mud made from the dust and his own spit from his nose and mouth a dangerous though came to him.
"What if there was no such thing as "enough" as far as his gift was concerned."
He did not know how his increasingly warped sense of time was allowing him to run faster and faster. It made more sense that everything should stay about same, but he decided not question it since he needed all the help he could get. He looked ahead and spied particularly nasty looking shrub adorned with thorns and charged towards it with one hand tightly gripping and his other hand pressing his stylish but, serviceable hat down on his head. Although he felt no pain as he crashed face first into the thorny bush, the vibrations he felt coming from his throat revealed to him he was now screaming. When he emerged from the vegetation he noticed that his pace had quickened even further. Theory now proven, he allowed his imagination to run wild and under the influence of his gift, it did so with wild abandon.
He watched as every boulder, plant, and all other obstacles began to take on a demonic cast to their features in the increasingly obscuring dust cloud. Soon after, he began imagining hearing their combined mocking laughter with every time me made a misstep or was forced to slow down to navigate some obstruction. Even with all of his increased speed, he still had the sneaking suspicion that it was still not enough and he began searching his memories for anything that he could use stoke the internal fires inside himself. With each discovery of another painful memory, he noticed another increase in speed. By time he had recalled and gone through all his emotional baggage involving his mistress, his progress through his increasingly slow motion world appeared to him to be a steady jog. When the brown and dusty fog began turning towards more reddish hues, the feeling that he was still was not traveling fast enough persisted. Wondering where else could he find more fuel for his gift, he became desperate enough to look deep inward where he kept hidden a question that under normal circumstances he would never ask himself.
"Was he still a man, or had he become a monster that was now pretending to be one."
Bit by bit, the evidence piled on both sides of this question. On side were memories of all the times in his life he had successfully restrained inner savage, and other were the seemingly countless dead strange folk that he had killed. Not just the ones slain in self-defense, but the also the ones he had murdered out of revenge for his slain mistress. The fact he was colluding with his alter ego at this very moment appeared very damning to him. As his internal debate raged, he noticed a slow steady increase speed of the hazards coming in view in the reddish cloud around him.
His internal debate continued to what seemed like to him forever. As result, he was unsure both how long and far he raced. To him it seemed like days, if not weeks. The only thing that he was certain about was that the length of time he had used his gift for had exceeded far beyond what he had ever previously done so. Although he had lost sight of the ravine's embankments in the red fog, he kept up his mad pace due to the knowledge that landslides can often travel for miles. Sometimes he came across repeating undulations in the ground which tried to follow. Eventually, he began to wonder just how far could he could keep pushing his body and if was there a limit to his gift's ability.
He got his answer when the smell of fresh dung hit him..
The moment the unpleasant aroma hit his nostrils, he ceased running. The fiery energy that was powering his body did likewise causing him to collapse. He ended up face down on the ground thoroughly spent and as the seconds passed his body began to acknowledged all the deferred pain his running had generated. Despite being absolutely wracked with pain, he tried laughing at himself. But could only generate an half-hearted chuckle in between the involuntary gasps he was now suffering from. He needed several minutes before he see anything other than shifting swirls of red.
Once his vision had cleared enough, he saw from the corner one eye, the volcano. However, what he could see of it was not familiar. He tried turning his head to get a better look, but he found that simple act required a herculean effort to accomplish. What he saw caused him to blink in disbelief. Not only, he was now on the other side of the volcano. But, the time of day was late morning. These observations along with the great pains he was now experiencing lead him to one conclusion. That he had traveled at a full run through the better part of yesterday and all of last night.
Slowly, he became aware of the incredibly dangerous he had managed to put himself in. Not far away, he heard the growl of one this world's ambush predators.
And the sound was coming closer.