Zephyrus: Chapter two- Place of Bones

Chapter two: Part 1

Please see bottom for notes and warnings

---

“Do you see anything?”

Fritz closed his eyes, watching the white light ripple from his feet. It jumped about seven meters away, beyond their rock cover and outlining the vague shape of a spider-wolf.

Fritz nodded, pointing in the direction of the beast.

After a moment, he twisted his head around the rock, surveying the barren ground. Two volcanos, smoking in the distance, caged the valley of bedrock and bone. A stone coffin for the lifeless desert lying within.

It was the quietness that bothered Fritz. He’d grown so used to the forests, where the buzz of life sang inside him, that the utter silence, the complete stillness of the quarry, almost made him sick.

What more could he expect, from a Place of Bones?

That is, until a thought slithered through the air. Fritz was suddenly awash with the vision of a giant, pink sheep- prancing around the valley.

He spun around. The blonde boy behind him was rolling back and forth, grinning in poorly tailored innocence.

Leave it to Engie to have a sense of humour at a time like this.

Fritz shook the thought away, closing his eyes. Another beat, and this time, the white line traveled flatly over the darkness.

“Ok.” Fritz breathed, clutching his quarterstaff, “We’re clear.”

He gave one last look around, and when he nodded, they ran.

A third heartbeat thudded in his chest.

“Five o’clock!” Fritz shouted, immediately ducking out of the way as Engie pivoted on his back wheels. The crossbow was up and loaded in a quick one-two motion, and the pterodactyl was on the ground by three.

As it fell from the sky, Engie turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re clear, huh?”

Fritz shrugged in apology.

It was just a gap in judgement. As soon as they’d left the Place of Shadows, they’d honed and tuned Fritz’s powers into an inch of his life. But there were just some things you couldn’t prepare for- like dive bombing pterodactyls.

That was the plan, after all. Fritz was supposed to use his new powers to scout for danger (because less danger meant less death), they’d keep to the clearest paths (mostly for Engie’s convenience, but also because less bones implied less death.), and through trial and error they’d eventually find the gate. All with as little conflict as possible.

Less conflict meant less death, and generally speaking, their goal was to keep the amount of death on this journey to a minimum. It wasn’t much of a plan, but considering their luck, it was reasonable.

They walked on, traveling in a bubble of life and thought through the barren desert. When a being flickered into Fritz’s radar, they’d change paths. Half of the time Fritz’s eyes were closed, scanning for a heartbeat that wasn't rolling beside him or pounding in his ears.

He only fell over his own feet once. By his standards, that deserved a trophy.

Sometime around midday he and Engie passed an elephant skull the size of their airship, and Fritz stopped in his tracks. Engie halted, bolt already in the crossbow and pointing it around wildly.

“What? Is something here?”

“D- Did you hear something?” Fritz stuttered. He looked back at the towering skull, peering into the pits of it’s eyes and feeling the emptiness stare back.

A tendril of irritation, “I’m not the super sensing demigod, Fritz. Did you hear something?”

That was the thing- Fritz hadn’t heard anything. Yet he felt like he should have. Like something was supposed to be there, where there was only the empty grave of the elephant’s eyes. Something familiar. Something gone.

“I-” Fritz stampered, shaking the soulless gaze away, “I don’t know.”

It was while he was thinking about this that he realised one of skull’s sockets was glowing. Glowing like a pair of eyes. And then all hell broke loose.

The skull exploded as something emerged from the rubble. People were screaming, not just he and Engie but other people he couldn’t see. Fritz only saw a flash of teeth and a glob of drool before a growl snarled up his spine.

When Fritz turned around, Engie was already speeding away. He turned heel and ran. Rocks were flying, the earth was thudding, and the snap of jaws crushing bone only made him run faster.

They swerved into a stone jungle, Fritz cutting corners and struggling to catch up. A great howl of wind pushed them around- blinded and deafened by an angry cloud of sand.

“What the HELL is that?” Engie screamed, turning his wheels sharply and screeching around a corner.

“I don’t know!” Fritz jumped, ricocheting off a rock, “I must have missed it-”

“How can you miss a giANT SPIDER THING Fritz?! HOW?”

They made it to a clear patch, allowing Fritz to shut his eyes against the sand. He watched the white light outline a huge figure, with eight legs and fur and getting way too close. There was also small flickers up ahead- bats in a cave! The opening would be too small for the thing to follow them.

He was about to yell something back, when another white light crashed into his side.

Fritz was knocked to the ground, hard, with a muffled groan and a second, higher pitched umph. Pain crackled up his arms and jaw as the staff was knocked out of his hands.

He cracked an eye open, and saw himself in the reflection of two wide, brown pools, framed by locks of golden hair and blinking down at him in shock.

It was a girl, smaller and a bit younger than himself. She looked just as frazzled as he did, eyes trying to douse the heat of the fight. Her soul was drenched in fear, but it flickered with something eternal- an echo of the Manifold gate.

A fellow demigod.

They stared at each other, the girl still clutching her dagger and Fritz gaping uselessly under her. He tried to get up, reaching out a hand to her-

She screamed, bringing the knife down. Fritz screamed, rolling out of the way. Then Engie yelled, "1 o'clock!" and that meant everyone was screaming. Even the monster was screaming, to a certain extent. But it was more of a deafening roar that just made them all scream even louder.

Somewhere in the panic girl ran around one side, unconsciously slicing her dagger along the beast's leg. Fritz scrambled to the other, grabbing the back of the wheelchair and taking off as Engie brought the crossbow to his shoulder. Fritz swerved them around potholes and the stomping of eight feet as Engie continued firing at the monster's muzzled face- yelling something about Fritz's terrible driving.

They saw the girl coming around the back, heading straight towards them. The beast turned, bringing it's massive tail down right behind the knife carrier and sending up a cloud of dust. Fritz tried yelling out an apology as she passed, but when she saw him, she screamed, slashing the knife towards his- also screaming- face. He swiveled the chair around, knocking her away and wincing in apology. Engie had the crossbow pointed at her, then at the beast when it gave a roar, and soon they were all alternating between attacking the beast and flailing their weapons at each other in panic.

As the beast rounded, the girl saw a gap and dropped out of the fight in a blink. Another gust of sandstorm distracted the beast and Fritz took off as well, scooping his staff into the crook of his arm and keeping his head ducked as Engie twisted himself, still firing arrows over their shoulders.

The ground was beginning to disappear under sand. Maneuvering the wheelchair was getting even more difficult as great clouds of sand were thrown into their eyes, howling even louder than the beast. Still, the monster followed. It’s massive heartbeat thundered from Fritz’s ears and spurred on his stumbling feet.

Then, there was a flash of pain. Fritz barely remembered swerving out of the way before it hit him, a deep crack shooting up his leg and forced out his throat in a scream.  His legs buckled under him- sinking into the sand.

“What’s going on!” Engie yelled, struggling to get his goggles over his eyes.

“I- I think my foot caught something.” Fritz croaked out, tugging his leg in vain, “I think my leg’s broken.”

“I don’t care if your leg said it’s had enough of this shit and jumped the off a fucking cliff-  we’ve gotta go, now!”

Engie dragged them forward. Fritz yelped as his leg was jostled, “I- I can’t use my leg!”

The wheelchair rounded on him, “So? I can’t use two! Tough!”

Fritz was frozen. More accurately, he was stuck. Even if he could tear himself away from the other’s gaze, he was still pinned under the weight of the beast’s enormous pulse, and the sand slowly crawling up his legs.

He looked down in alarm, watching the grains slowly consume his leg, “Um- Engie-!”

“Oh for pete’s sake-”

   “What’re you- Gah!” One moment, Engie was under his armpit, and next, Fritz was being yanked out of the sand. Vaguely, he felt as the engineer gripped his leg, throwing him over his shoulders in what was, frankly, an impressive display of arm strength. It was also slightly humiliating, but at that point, Fritz really didn’t care.

The crossbow was shoved up into his arms as he flailed for purchase. Engie gripped his wheels tight, gritting his teeth, “Fine. I’m driving now. Hang on!”

   He was still disoriented when Engie twisted them around and took off. There wasn’t much to hold onto, with his body half bent around the blonde’s head and the crossbow in his hands. In all honestly, he was surprised Engie was able to move them at all. Just how strong was this boy?

At some point, his head got knocked to the side and he and saw the beast, it's eyes glowing through the clouds of dust, less than fifty meters away. It startled him enough to fumble with the bow, struggling to secure a bolt and firing blindly into the din.

   Somehow, they reached the sandbank leading down into the cave. Engie pulled his wheels back sharply, sending them sledding down the dune and into the darkness. At the last moment the blonde tugged the crossbow away from him, turning them around. He fired one last shot as the beast neared the cave.

The beast let out a roar, and they were swallowed by silence.

At length, the wheelchair skidded to a halt. For a moment, the cave was filled with the echos of their heavy breathing, and Fritz’s pain. He felt the tiny heartbeats of a thousand insects somewhere below his feet, but he was too preoccupied by the giant beast’s, quickly retreating from the cave entrance, and that of his own.

His pulse seemed to echo sharply from the break in his leg, but for some reason, he let out a breathy laugh. It bounced off the walls and twisted into something terrible. He stopped.

“We did it,” He smiled instead, “We- we really just did that!”

“Observant as always, Fritz.” Engie huffed, but a hint of relief circled the cavern. Sand was clinging to their eyes, hair, their mouths and even below their skin, but for a moment, they were glad.

They were both still breathing hard as Engie lit the gas lamp, looking for the exit. On three sides were smooth stone walls, and from the way they came-

A pile of bedrock, collapsed from it’s pillar, blocking the entrance.

Engie turned to look at him very, very slowly.

"You had one job, Fritz."

"I know."

"One. Job."

A job that he still wasn't doing, apparently. Because it wasn't until then that Fritz realised he was feeling a third heartbeat. A human sized heartbeat.

Fritz tugged Engie’s sleeve, pointing towards the back of the cave. As Engie turned to look, he nudged Fritz’s leg, and a pulse of agony shot up his spine. Fritz screwed his eyes shut with a hiss, sending his inner radar rippling through the darkness.

The outline of the girl flickered behind a boulder, clutching a dagger-shaped darkness in her shaky grip. From her, Fritz felt a wave of hushed whispers, like the distant yells of a raft on a waterfall. They circled her, weighed down her shoulders-

A girl drowning in fear.

Immediately, he knew she hadn’t attacked him because he was a competitor. Just like him, she was scared. She couldn’t trust them.

How can you show someone they can trust you?

He coughed. He didn’t know if this would work, but he had to try.

“Um, Miss? I know we were just out there trying to kill each other out there, but... Can we not do that now?” He winced. How not to start conversations: 101 with Fritz Aves, “I- I know you attacked us by accident, and that we scared you- and I’m sorry about that, but we might be here for a while-”

Engie scoffed, “No thanks to you.”

“What?” Fritz was startled out of his speech, looking down at the boy, “What did I do?”

“Nothing.” Engie muttered, “That’s my point.”

“Look, I’m sorry for not noticing the beast-”

“-Which was six meters tall.”

“And that you had to throw me over your shoulders like a potato sack-”

“A sack of potatoes wouldn’t have broken its leg.”

“-Which was quite impressive, actually. How in gods name did you manage to-”

“-snapped in half like a bloody french fry, you did-”

“-One handed too. Wait, are you still insulting me?”

“-Or maybe beanpole would be more appropriate-”

Someone cleared their throat.

Fritz and Engie’s heads whipped around. The blonde girl stood near the centre of the cavern, toeing a line into the dirt. She wore a suit of dirt and grime, topped with a face flecked with blood. Her jacket and leggings were torn, and her shoulder length hair was knotted and caked with dust. Her arms couldn’t decide if they wanted to be crossed, or shoved into her pockets, fidgeting like she wasn’t comfortable in her own skin. Fritz knew the feeling well.

“Your potato sack,” She murmured, trying to stand tall, not really succeeding, “Is he injured?”

“As crippled as a cracker.” Engie hiked up his shoulder, enticing a groan from the boy, “Why? Can you do something about that?”

“Well for gods sake! Put him down!” She started forward, approaching them with ease. She bent down, taking hold of Fritz’s uninjured arm and leg and transferring him onto her shoulders. She wobbled under the weight, but managed to set him down a few paces away.

If he felt a bit lighter afterward, he assumed it was from nausea.

“It’s probably just sprained. We’ll need to brace it with something...” She looked around. Her brown eyes spotted the staff behind Engie, and started towards it.

As he blonde girl pulled up the staff, Fritz began to feel that something was off. He was grateful for the help, of course, but he couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong. Something suppressed that he couldn’t quite read.

That was when her eyes flickered down to Engie, and the crossbow in his arms. It was a moment before she struck that Fritz realised what was wrong.

This a trick.

Fritz had barely enough time to blink before the girl lunged forward, gripping the crossbow and bracing herself against the wheelchair with her foot. Engie was pushed back with a strong kick and bow was yanked out of his arms. There was a blur of blonde and she was back, weapons thrown to the floor and Fritz’s arm twisted behind him. Her fist knotted itself in his hair, pulling back his head.

“Who are you and why are you here?” The girl barked. Fritz tried to wiggle out of her grip, but a coldness pressed against his throat. He stilled.

Everything was so fast and loud, it took Fritz a moment to realise what had just happened. Not only had the girl taken him hostage, but she’d disarmed them at the same time. She’d tricked them into trusting her, and now they were defenceless.

Even his knives were missing, he noted miserably. He should’ve noticed it sooner. Fritz would’ve admired her skill, if a dagger wasn’t kissing his neck.

"Stop!" Engie yelled, freezing them both. The boy, as usual, wasn’t happy, but it didn’t take a demigod to see how badly he was shaking, "Everybody just- stop!"

Fritz and the girl stared as Engie wheeled closer, anger rolling off him in waves. “Goddamnit people- We just survived the Place of Bones! And the beast guarding the centre of this god forsaken place! We do not need to be killing each other right now.”

“I’m not going to kill her-” “I wasn’t going to-” They both yelled at once.

The girl and Fritz blinked at each other.

“You’re not trying to kill us?” Fritz’s voice wavered.

The girl reeled back in disbelief, “You’re not going to kill me?”

“Of course not.”

“Likewise.”

There was silence. Fritz coughed, eying the dagger at his neck pointedly.

“Oh!” She removed her hands, taking a step back as Fritz flopped to the floor. As he picked himself up, she watched him guiltily. Her fingers twitched, rubbing worriedly the bracelet on her wrist, “I’m sorry about that. It- it should have been obvious. Your eyes are too nice- you’d probably faint before you could kill me.”

Fritz felt himself flush. Despite the dark twist at the end, it felt strangely like a compliment. He tried to remember how people replied to something like that, but his list of responses to “you’re too pitiful to kill” was surprisingly short.

She was surprisingly short. “You can probably hide from monsters so well-!” No. “That dagger goes with your eyes so nicely- it makes the blood on your face look so lovely-"

No. Absolutely not. Why was this so hard?

He rubbed the back of his neck, “Um, that’s a... nice heartbeat you’ve got there. It’s beating so... constantly”

Fritz almost slapped himself.

The girl was gawking, probably wondering what asylum he’d escaped from. She nodded slowly, “Yeah... I try to keep it that way.”

“Um... That’s cool! I do that too!”

Fritz wanted to curl up on the floor and die.

But it was true, her heartbeat was good. Her presence spoke of something distant, something like a warm home and the sense of belonging found only in those with a family. He realised for the first time that, past the grime and the shine of her knife, she might just be a decent person.

That didn’t mean the dagger was any less terrifying, though.

“Um,” He coughed, “I’m- I’m ‘Fraid- no! My name! I meant my name is… Fritz.”

The blonde girl tilted her head a half nod, half question,“Jayla.”

Fritz realised she’d listened to his- embarrassingly fast- pulse. He twiddled his thumbs, ignoring the growing blush and begging the ceiling to collapse on top of him in a rare show of mercy.

Instead, the heavens graced him with Engie. The boy rolled closer with caution, looking the girl over in suspicion, “There, are we good now? Have we all decided to trust each other?”

Jayla turned her head towards the boy, expression impassive, yet seeing everything. For the briefest moment, her eyes narrowed. Fritz panicked for a moment, almost certain another fight would break out, but just as quickly, she plastered a sweet smile on her face.

“Of course.” She held out her hand, and Fritz didn’t miss the dagger hiding behind her back, “I’m sorry for threatening you, I’ve probably made you think you can’t trust out here. Can you forgive me?”

Engie raised a disbelieving eyebrow. He held out his hand, “Sure, if you give me back my pocket watch.”

Jayla’s eyes flickered with shock, before she begrudgingly pulled the golden watch from her pocket, tossing it over to the boy. Fritz saw a flash of a young man, carrying her dagger and running through an alleyway, followed by a pinch of anger. It was someone familiar- someone gone.

Engie shoved the watch into his vest pocket, shooting the girl a glare, “So, about not trusting people...”