The Fallen Ascending 01 -- Rebirth
Jumping In

Since none of the others seemed like they wished to be the first to enjoy the new slide leading down into the darkness below our cavern, I channeled a small flame to hover at the end of my staff and majestically led the way. A half dozen swift strides led me to the opening of the slide, and with a slight smile across my lips, I simply took another step and allowed myself to freely fall down into.

“My Lord!” Crystal cried out in alarm, but it was already too late. I was already zipping down the smooth obsidian shaft and picking up speed, until I hit the dip which formed a “U” near the bottom, which I’d purposefully built as a means for slowing descent – but which wasn’t quite as effective as I’d hoped. It did slow me enough that I didn’t shoot out of the bottom of the shaft like a cannonball, but I still had more than enough momentum to arc out and fly a dozen spans down the hall to crash, flip, flop, and tumble before finally lying sprawled out in a dazed heap for several moments.

It was the sound of echoing metal scraping down the slide and rapidly approaching that quickly brought me back to my senses. With a force of will, I forced myself to channel all the air in the nearby tunnels and compact them into a tight hurricane force wind and sent it roaring down the tunnel to intercept Crystal as she shot out of the bottom of the slide. Her momentum met the force of wind head on, and she spun, flipped, and twirled like a top in a twister, before I released the magic and let her finally fall the rest of the way to the floor. Her armor clanked, chinked, and echoed as she hit the ground, rolled roughly over, and then proceeded to lose the breakfast that we’d just finished eating a few minutes ago.

Unfortunately, I knew I didn’t have much time to check on her as the others were probably just moments behind, so I quickly once again pulled upon the air and forced it to thicken and fly up the shaft, an invisible but powerful force to help work as a buffer to stop Dino and Jess from encountering the same wild turbulence as they reached the bottom.

Once again, in my rush to grab and force my will upon the energy in the tunnels, I misjudged how much force was required. By still feeling the earth, I could now tell that Dino and Jess were both in the slide, held tight in each other’s embrace, and stuck about half-way down, stopped from falling by the force of air I was exerting up the shaft.

Figuring they were both now down far enough in the shaft that the “U” would properly decelerate them, I simply released my magic and waited for nature to take its course. A few moments later, Dino and Jess both… “farted out of the shaft”, would have to be the best way to describe it. The “U” had slowed them do to the point where they almost didn’t get pushed out and started to slide back down into the “U”, but then decided to simple plop out to end up tumbled together on the ground half-in and half-out of the slide.

“You bastard,” Dino gasped; the first to start to slowly rise to his feet. “You did that to us on purpose!”

“And you’re welcome,” I told him as I slowly collected myself enough to finish sitting up and lean against the wall of the tunnel.

“Welcome! For what?!” Dino sputtered while trying to hold his temper in check.

“For not letting you and Jess fly out like the cork popped off a champagne bottle, arc through the air, and either crash into the hard stone floor, or the nice soft woman wearing steel chain in front of you.”

“Oh! Is she alright?” Jess saw where Crystal was now lying face down, almost in a pile of her own vomit, and quickly shuffled on her hands and knees the short distance over to her.

“I.. I don’t know,” I admitted honestly. “She was coming down and out much faster than you guys, with the weight of her armor helping her build up more speed, and I had to stop her fast before she ended up having a fatal collision with something.”

Jess was already working her magics, sensing her life, while Dino was simply shooting a disgusted look in my direction. I suppose in this case; I can’t really blame him. But, in my defense, it’s not like using lava to build slides from one place to another was something that a person got to practice every day! I’d built a “U” at the bottom to decelerate us; it simply wasn’t big enough.

I’ll just have to do better next time – if there ever is a next time. Hopefully lava slides aren’t something that I’ll have to be building anytime again soon.

“She’ll be OK, in just a moment,” Jess assured us as her hands gave off a faint glow of magic. “Whatever happened to her caused Crystal to break her wrist when she hit the ground. I’m fixing it and she’ll be good as new in a moment.”

“That… That was some ride!” Slowly Crystal rolled over on her back away from her lost breakfast, before finally giving a thumbs up. “I’m alive.” Letting her arm drop with a clang to the stone floor, she lay quiet and still for several moments while Jess continued to work her magic on her.

As the glow finally faded from Jess’s hands, Crystal slowly sat up and grinned over where I was sitting; her hair all sprayed out in chaotic disarray. “Care to climb up and do it again with me, My Lord?” Half laughing, she gave another thumbs up to show all was now good with her.

“I don’t think so,” I replied, trying not to laugh in return. “At least, now until Jess can take a look and maybe fix my ribs. It’s bloody hard enough to breath already. I think I broke half a dozen of them. You might’ve had a more interesting ride, but I had a much more intense landing.”

“OH!” Looking shocked, Jess eased over to where I was and began to work her magic once again. After a moment, she giggled and patted me on the head. “You big baby! You didn’t break anything. You’ve just got a few bruises.”

“Well, it feels like I’m dying over here!” I groaned a few times to help show my discomfort.

“Here, let Jess make it all better.” Giggling, her hands glowed white and warmth flowed into my chest and spread throughout my body, eroding at my aches and pains fading them away.

“Thanks,” I told her simply.

“Hey!” Dino exclaimed suddenly. “Roommate or no roommate, you need to back off. You’ve got Crystal. Jess is mine!”

Jess just giggled, blushed slightly, and got up, went over and snuggled with him. “Jealous much?” She teased.

“I’m not jealous,” Dino asserted, while blushing slightly in embarrassment, which caused Jess to laugh even more before she leaned up and kissed him lightly on the nose.

“I’m just glad there wasn’t any dead down here to greet us when we popped out,” Crystal said as she finally got back up on her feet.

“There was,” I told her, holding out a hand so she could help pull me up. “I simply melted them while I was channeling the flows of fire from deep in the earth up through here to make the tunnel up top for us. Bones and flesh melt much faster and easier than stone does. There might’ve been some dust left over from them, but I’m certain it was all picked up and blown up the shaft when I used the air to cushion and slow everyone’s fall.”

“That’s no good,” Jess said, sounding a little concerned as Crystal helped tug me to my feet. “That means we probably breathed that ash and got it all over us. Who knows what diseases the dead might’ve been carrying that we just inhaled! I’m going to have to watch everyone closer for a while to make certain no one gets sick from anything.”

“Oh great,” Dino said, sounding disgusted. “Now we’re stuck underground, lost in a set of catacombs, with the dead all around, above and below us, and we might be infected with the gods-only-know-what disease!”

“That seems to about sum up our situation,” I agreed, brightening my flame to help illuminate the darkened tunnels a little better. “So guys,” I just had to ask, “are we all having fun yet?”

Dino and Jess both looked at each other and rolled their eyes and looked at each other, while Crystal simply laughed slightly. “I certainly am, My Lord. If you’re ready to continue on to even more fun, simply point the way and I’ll take point and we can get on to whatever comes next.”

“That way,” I pointed straight ahead, as Dino sarcastically muttered, “Nothing but more damn trouble, I’m certain.”

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