Ria rushed through the door and slid to a stop in the light-filled clearing.
The solid, uncaring sight of the tunnel beyond the door made her flinch. Two glowing yellow blobs stared back at her from past the invisible membrane separating the two stages, unmoving though they remained, then the doors closed and collapsed upon itself, vanishing as if was just an illusion in the first place.
Ria shuddered at the door's disappearance, remembering the fear she had felt upon finding herself back into the site of her first death. And though she had survived this time, it wasn’t by the act of her own struggle, but at the Croc’s benevolence or rather a fulfillment. It robbed her of the corpse, and then, surprisingly, removed itself away from her path hence, giving her an opening to run through and cross the death trough. She had found herself failing to take a single step, let alone make way through to the other side of the light spilling door, but she had done it –somehow- and was now alive without a mark of mar suppressing her health.
With a look of the grim undertaking, she said, “Why?” Hoping that something would pinch her out of the shock by revealing her struggles weren’t worthless, but it remained a sane request till late, for none of the inhabitants –dead or alive- paid respect to her confusion. Though a vile confounding thought did subject her mind to the question, whether it was possible to pass every other trial of the sewer without any suffering, that remained a painful splinter deeply lodged which she wasn’t given time to remove.
As the saying goes, ‘Don’t act smug on the distance traveled, the road is long ahead.’ The ground she stood upon itself shook in the next moment with the intensity of a herd of elephants passing-by, bringing Ria to her knees. Her hands flayed up and down with the ground, making it impossible for her to keep balance. The structure made up of dried husks of once green vines cracked and broke with the trembling; its sound muffled by the roaring ripple passing through. Vine dust and dirt rose in various places, obscuring the clearing and the giant, ceiling pillaring tree beyond.
The shakes reminded Ria of the great earthquake which had demolished a part of her family mansion during her childhood. Her caretakers had her rush out into the garden and she had watched one of her hiding spots, an alcove hidden behind the service quarters, come tumbling down, bringing with it a crackling sound of demise. The loss of her hiding spot and her small collection of perfectly smooth and naturally patterned stones had brought along a change, without which she might not have decided to fight back, after all. That was a change much needed, but such a change took too long to come this time.
Spiritless to the current happening, she had only just noticed a rift in the ground snaking toward her with harmful intentions when a panicked voice called out to her.
“Look out!” It said in a much heavier rumble than even the quake, allowing her precious moments to drift away from the collapsing ground. A grey, dirt-covered root –thick as her arm and agile as a snake- whipped out in her wake and rose into the air. It would have done a great worth of hurt if she hadn’t dodged, such was easily distinguishable. Ria’s eyes wandered to find her helper, but the swooshing sound of the root cutting through the air and falling toward her made her curse under her breath and witlessly move away from its path.
She must have rolled or stretched awkwardly because she felt breathless when she came to a stop with the shaking increasing in intensity. The fallen root pulled back into the ground and in its place, the shaking intensified further. Ria had no idea what was happening when the ground she held bulged up. She screamed, trying to find purchase on the crumbling dirt and found herself rising ten-fifteen feet into the air, lying on the curved portion of a trunk size root. It really was just another root, for it had branches and root hair, which she held tightly to save herself from slipping off and falling to her death. The height of her rise was such that none of the shakings from below could reach her, but the sight of her surrounding wasn’t any less shocking.
Not only was the whole clearing in tatters and suffocated by a dust cloud, but there also were shadows moving about in the background, roots danced in the air, and the ground was no more. The whole of the ground had crumbled way into a dark-deep void. All above that, a screeching rumble stole her attention for a moment to announce the shattering of the ceiling above; a collapse which had started from the very edge of the clearing and was quickly making way toward her. Branches were spiking into the void from above following a rain of sharp crystal shards and hefty slabs. How to survive this tragedy was beyond Ria, but the voice of her invisible friend helped her once again.
“Run to the Fruits!!” The voice urged her and she crawled to a start. There were small, almost indestructible growths, all over the root which hampered her crawl, seeking blood whenever possible. Ria hurried anyways, keeping a brisk pace, relying slowly on her ability to take the pain, rather than risking a fall by standing up. But she had to stand up anyways, not to run but to jump, when her root sharply rose behind her and tumbled her forward toward the pit below.
Screaming, she frantically grabbed about and obstructed her fall by holding onto a branch, which cracked at the same moment from her weight and broke right after. She fell through lone branches gaining scratches and shallow wounds and fell amidst a group of branch roots, cushioning her fall. The danger wasn’t over however, for the gigantic primary root was going for a spin and folding upon itself, quickly positioning her another fall or a crushed burial if she was unlucky.
Smaller roots whipped about her like crazy fanatics enjoying their first time above the ground. Ria couldn’t think before her hands caught one such agile roots and flew away from the root giant. It took her screaming away from the pit and into the air, flew her helplessly and slammed her into the middle of the clearing where the ground was still sturdy. She pushed and crawled out of the roots way which stabbed and tore through her shadows. She scampered back up only to trip once again and be buried beneath a quick cover of root netting. She had to cut her way through screaming only to find the collapse right upon her. The breadth she had attained thanks to her escape sapped away at the sight.
At this moment, just a few paces away, another one of the large prime or secondary roots rose out of the ground and pushed against the ceiling. It tore through and kept rising, bringing with it a shower of crystals and dirt. She looked back at the avalanche of death falling toward her and picked up speed. Slicing through whatever she could and using the newly rising roots to gain higher ground, Ria held the growing primary root and watched the ground gave away beneath her feet. A torrent of dust blasted past her, throwing mudrocks and stones, pieces of vines and whatnot at her, but she held on, held onto the branches with one hand and swung away to the other side. There she somehow managed to stand upon a Branch jutting out of the elevating root and toward the giant tree; she ran on the platform without watching and almost fell into the void following the end; there was nothing else between her and the giant tree. Everything else had already given way: the ground was gone and so were the vines. If only, the braided branches were left hanging from the ceiling; and Ria knew even they wouldn’t stay for long. She hesitated at the sight but made the jump when the thundering sound of the collapse clawed at her back. She didn’t get to see behind her, but the ravenous sound of a thick piece of wood cracking and falling away into the void, breaking everything in its path, was a dead give away to the happening behind her.
The sounds disappeared around her as she sailed through the air, reaching out with her arm and fingers stretched for the braids; It was a moment of desperation but she trudged through by the sheer willpower. Her senses returned in a rush upon colliding with the braid, taking it for a ride with her momentum, and almost slid away. Thank god for the ridges at the braid's surface where she was able to fit her fingers, if it wasn’t for them, she would have been a goner. The sound of the collapse made it at her back; a cursory glance proved her just shy of being shattered beyond recognizable. It was a fountain of solids scraping at the air covering her back. The collapse closely followed behind her as the braid swung with her momentum. She needed to jump following the braids swing; there was no time for redoes; it was a make or break moment.
The braid swung like a pendulum and slowed to a stop at its farthest point; her heart skipped a beat when she let go of the braid and once again flew with death all around her- but the lifeline hung from a crumbling ceiling, just out of her reach. Her fingers snapped close against the tendrils at the very end of the following braid, which swung her forward a few inches away from the collapse then broke, giving her to a long fall.
“NO!” She screamed, clawing at the air as her body slanted further and further away from the tree and into the void. The promise she had made came back to her mind, reminding, or, rather, scoffing at her for not fulfilling another promise she had made, making it her fourth one. She had promised the tree spirit to save Emanuel, but here she was falling to her own demise.
When was the last time he had felt so helpless? It surely was against the Croc, just an hour or so ago; and surely the fight against the goblin hadn’t been an easy one either; and what about the skeleton or the zombie, had they been right up her alley? It is not wrong to say that she only did great against one of her kind, everything thing else had given her struggle, made her give more than her best.
This time, however, she was really done for. With no support to climb out of the hole and the ceiling itself coming at her, there was no way out. Yes, the marble might give her another offset chance at life, but what good would have that been? Another chance would mean another fight with the goblin and pass through the Croc’s den. Ria really didn’t want to face them again if she could.
As if being mocked by the giant controlling her life, the shards of glowing crystals, branches and everything else came upon her in the next second, just in reach to scrape the flesh off her bones.
The heavy debris swirled and swished past. “I was so close.” She said and closed her eyes. Then a moment later she opened them right back again and squinted at the scattering pieces falling at her. There, in the middle of the smoldering shards and crystals, were falling three fruits which glowed stronger than everything else beside them.
“I only need the fruit…” She said, absentmindedly at first, and then with renewed vigor. “I ONLY NEED THE FRUIT.”
They were so close to her too, all three of them. With hope rose her heart rate, and fear returned. She frantically searched around for a lifeline and found it in the shape of an unfamiliar root, dimly lit under the glow of smoldering crystals, which were slowly losing their starlight. It was coming toward her at a brisk rate, some due to its own weight and some because of the pressure plowing it down from above.
She waited for it to come close, then jumped upon its face and started running up. There was a sudden realization of weightlessness while running because they were both falling, but she ran upon its snaking surface and jumped. A jump here and another there, a few climbs and she was just at the fruits. They were falling beside the root, just outside her reach. As she jumped toward the fruits, a horrifying thumping ran out below her. She didn’t get to see what thing it belonged to, but she caught two of the three fruits; the last one brushed against her hand and spun away, bouncing upon a pile of large glowing crystals, it hid behind them.
The sound increased below her, and to her eyes, she saw the floor littered with an amazing amount of rubble quickly rising toward her. At one point she argued whether there was even a floor below and now it had quietly sneaked up on her. Horrified, she almost ate the fruit, then remembered her promise with the tree spirit. Groaning, she fell in the direction of the last fruit and crashed at a large cluster of crystals. The uneven surface scratched at her flesh, drawing blood, but she didn’t stop there. She couldn’t stop there. The floor was coming. Death was coming. Pushing open a path, she found the fruit tumbling inside a whirlpool of debris, heard the thundering sound grow insurmountable below, peered at the fruit, decided and jumped. Not again, she thought, flying toward the fruit through the whirlpool.
Everything around her came crashing down onto the ground.
The debris continued falling into the pit for another half an hour before the stump of the largest tree one could’ve ever seen also fell and got buried under a layer of soil.
As for Ria, There was no sign of her in the pit but . . . tucked tight among the ceiling of a very dark tunnel, a door opened; through which some debris, something glowing, and someone screaming fell out. Ria rolled out of control on the unevenly dangerous floor gaining injuries and stooped with her face looking up at the ceiling - visible under the scrutiny of the crystal glow which had fallen through the door with her.
With one of the three fruits in her hand, she nimbly stood up showing no signs of her previous struggle, possibly the effect of the starlight coursing through her body. She looked about and found the cause of her concern buried to her left, the glow leaking from the cracks giving her a clue to its position. She lifted the crystals and saw through the branches to hold the warm pineapple-shaped fruit in her hand; inside which, she could easily make out the shape of something slumbering like a fetus.
Breathing the silence she finally looked around, condemning her luck. “The grave…” It was the tunnel leading her to the grave, putting her tired mind through another one of the sewers follies. But this was it. The Goblin had said so, and so had the tree spirit. This was the last floor. And an exit lay at the end of it.
Weaving a make shit bag for the fruits, she trudged through the debris toward the platform beyond, but much to her surprise, what welcomed her wasn’t the glow of torches lighting a path made of tombstones, but a ray of orange sunlight falling straight into the sewer tunnel, lighting something metallic.
Rounded walls where green algae grew, and sunlight from a hole in the ceiling lighting a rusted iron ladder leading up and up and out…
For a moment Ria thought it as just a dream or another one of the derange tests plotted by the devious sewer, but then a rat came to stand under the spotlight, destroying whatever clutches held her back. She ran the quickest she ever had. There was no hesitation, only relief, a bit of fear, but much-much more anticipation in her heart.
“No way . . . No way . . .”
She reached for the ladder and climbed out of the hole. Stinging sunlight welcomed her and brought her to tears. There it was: Clean paved road and all too familiar box-shaped building; Trees lining the road to her sides and the bustle of shadows past them.
She was out of the sewer and back in the city. She had done it. She had survived. She had kept her promise with the tree spirit and with Nicky.
However, there was but one minor thing of concern . . . the city burned.
The END
