Chapter Text
The first thing Nova saw when she processed what was happening was the boiling sea rapidly approaching her.
In a panic, she grabbed her bag and Dae’s arm, dragging him out of harms way. The sea lapped at her ankles, but she pushed onwards and managed to make it to the grassy bank just out of reach.
She slid down against a tree and put her head in her hands.
‘Shit.’
Dae groaned. ‘What happened? We fell through a time pool?’
Nova nodded. ‘And now the tide’s come in, so they’re gone. They’re somewhere else and we don’t know where they are. They could be on an entirely different Titan!’
Dae was silent. ‘We can figure it out, okay? We still have your device-thingy.’
Nova ran her hands through her hair, then looked down at her bag, where the device had been just before she fell.
Her lunchbox, her scarf, her notebook and quill…
‘Shit!’
Dae called out her name twice, his initial confusion being followed quickly by panic, but Nova had already leaped off the bank into the water. She heaved in breaths desperately, muttering ‘no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…’ under her breath. The sea bit her shins, her shoes melting on her feet, but she barely even noticed.
‘Nova!’ Dae called again, helplessly. ‘Stop it! You’re going to get seriously hurt.’
She ignored him, still frantically scanning the surface.
There!
Something caught the sun just under the water and Nova grabbed it quickly, sprinting back to the bank. It was soaked in seawater and her fingertips burned. She held onto it until she got back to Dae, then dropped it to the floor and cradled her hand. The device split in two upon contact with the ground, the magic that had sustained it fizzling out.
Dae ran a hand through his hair. ‘We’re completely screwed.’
Nova nodded, sinking to the ground when her feet couldn’t bear to stand anymore.
She scanned the horizon for an idea of where to go next, though she didn’t find much. The only thing surrounding them was endless miles of forest. She sighed.
‘We should start walking,’ she said, turning to Dae, who looked just as hopeless as she felt. ‘I think we’re still in the same place that we were before we fell. Not far off, at least. So we know we’re not far from Bonesborough, unless we went hugely off track. We should be able to head there and figure out what to do.’
Dae shrugged. ‘Or we could come across an ancient flesh-eating owl that we have no idea how to deal with and get eaten.’
Nova rolled her eyes. ‘Or that. But at least that’ll be a fun story to tell. You’ll be a hit at parties.’
Dae huffed and rolled his eyes, but he got up and offered Nova a hand either way. Melody chirped at him and settled on his shoulder. Merlin, who was falling asleep wrapped around Nova’s neck, glared at her and hissed a complaint. Nova poked her gently, tutting.
‘Be nice, Mer.’ Dae snorted.
‘Come on.’
Nova took the outstretched hand to get back on her feet. As soon as her first toe made contact with the ground, a searing pain shot up her whole leg. She had to bite back a scream, slamming her eyes shut as the world spun.
Dae panicked, dropping to his knees to make sure she was okay, all the while frantically murmuring worries too fast to make any sense of.
‘Nove, your feet,’ he said, eventually.
Nova cracked open her eyes to assess the damage herself and winced.
She wasn’t a healer, so she couldn’t exactly give herself a diagnosis, but she was pretty sure it was bad. The skin was a mixture of bright, flaming red and pitch black. It was starting to peel away in some places, exposing raw pink flesh underneath. The skin that was still intact was covered in blisters. Blood lazily leaked out and stained the sand underneath.
‘It looks worse than it feels,’ she lied through her teeth. Dae raised his eyebrows.
‘Quit the bullshit, Nove,’ he said, without even lifting his eyes.
He drew a spell circle in the air and held it up to Nova’s heel. As he moved it, her skin began to freshen again, blisters reducing, the charred black becoming more of an angry red. She tried her best to sit still, but healing magic always felt like there were a hundred fire-bees crawling on you. Dae held his free hand on her leg to keep her from squirming too hard.
Once he was done, he sat back and sighed heavily. He blinked, long and slow, leaning back against his elbows.
Nova tucked her legs close to her again. ‘Thanks.’
Dae smiled, prying his eyes open.
‘The burns are still bad,’ he said. ‘I did as much as I could without my healing potions, but you should probably still stay off your feet for a bit.’
He groaned as he stood up again, walking over to her.
‘I can carry you.’ Nova opened her mouth to argue, but she could see that Dae’s mind was made, so she shut it again and wrapped her arms around his neck without complaint. He lifted her onto his back and set off in the vague direction of civilisation.
The forest was thick and seemed never ending. Nova summoned a pair of abominations to clear a path for them, but the goo that they left behind kind of just made things harder.
After not too long, Dae was audibly panting. What little light was filtering through the trees had long since started fading and, although Nova tried to stay optimistic, Dae’s bleak prediction about the flesh-eating owl became more and more likely with every passing second. Dae leaned against a tree and sighed heavily.
‘Time out,’ he said. ‘We can’t keep going, we need to rest.’
Nova slowly slid down from his back, trying to be careful with her feet.
‘I could carry you?’ she joked. He snorted, but sank to the floor, sliding down the tree. Nova followed him, letting him lean on her shoulder.
‘I’ll keep watch while you sleep,’ she decided. Her tone gave him no room to argue and she wasn’t sure he had enough energy too anyway.
‘I’ll make sure to wake you up if I see any flesh-eating owls.’
Dae poked her in the side and Nova squirmed away, squawking indignantly.
‘Shut up,’ he murmured, already half asleep.
Nova sat for hours, watching the stars through the leaves. She tried her best to stay awake, but eventually she couldn’t keep herself up anymore. Dae had been asleep for a while and looked so peaceful that she didn’t want to wake him up. She figured it couldn’t hurt to just close her eyes for a bit. She leaned her head against the tree and blinked sleepily, finding it progressively harder and harder to reopen her eyes.