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Chapter 6: Blood on the Ice, Part 1.

To say it was cold out would have been a massive understatement. It was bone-chilling; the kind of weather I made sure to avoid like the plague. My best guess as a thirteen year veteran of Colorado winters put the temperature outside the cave we had been teleported into at around five degrees; possibly worse with the wind chill at night.

Krystal may have had fur, but she was clinging to the black suede jacket I had found for her. That combined with insulated work gloves made her look like some sort of vulpine construction worker, but at least she was warm. I could feel the cold biting through my mechanic's gloves but I needed the added dexterity to shoot.

I took a breath of freezing air, my hands tightening around my Enfield. Krystal took a few steps forward, her muzzle scrunched into an expression of concentration. "I can't sense the Queen's son. They may have moved him elsewhere, but there are a few Sharpclaw around."

"Don't go out in the open." I replied, tucking my rifle into my shoulder. "They've got a cannon set up covering this area, and if we're spotted we're fucked." I took another deep breath, my mind trying to figure out how best to get past them.

"I could draw their fire, and while they're distracted you could shoot them?" She suggested, hefting her staff in her paws. I blinked at her for a moment, but she had a point. "My staff can create an energy shield; that will give you enough time to get them out of the way."

"You sold me, but you be careful, okay?" I responded, tensing up for action. Only twenty minutes had passed from our last fight; I had just enough time to stock up on ammunition and get Krystal some warmer clothes before we reached the Warpstone. I was getting a little tired; I'd at least sleep soundly tonight. I just needed to keep my wits about me for this one. "Are you ready?"

The vixen nodded at me, her eyes still filled with the fire and determination from earlier. We'd have to be careful, but we stood a decent chance at getting out of this in one piece. Krystal was nothing like I had expected; she was extremely skilled at what she did and confident without being cocky. Her answer was simple. "I am. Cover me." With that she darted forward, her staff gripped tightly in her paws.

She ran out into the moonlit, snow-blanketed clearing, her staff glowing with an ethereal blue light. She fell to her knees, clutching her staff as a swirling vortex of blue energy surrounded her. It was then that the dull, rumbling report reached my ears.

The cannonball landed a few feet in front of her shield. The iron sphere exploded with a deafening boom, and I could hear the sharp, whizzing noise of shrapnel sail past my position. Krystal's shield flashed a brilliant shade of purple but still held; my ears were ringing but I still had a job to do.

I darted out of the cave and brought the rifle's sights up. The Sharpclaw gunner crew was about a hundred yards away, but their position was lit by torches. The two were scrambling to load the cannon, which gave me time to settle the Enfield's sight blade on one of them. I pulled the trigger, but after the cannon's blast the gunfire sounded muted, like I had been through the mother of all rock concerts.

I worked the bolt as fast as I could and delivered a followup shot to the second Sharpclaw. It tumbled off the platform and into the icy terrain below with a hollow _thump_which I could barely hear in my near-deafened state. The threat was out of the way, which gave me time to check up on my Cerinian ally. The flash of her shield deactivating revealed her unharmed figure, giving me a nod of what had to have been approval.

"Good job." She remarked, pointing towards the now-silent cannon. "You're a bit more proficient with that weapon than I thought you would be." She offered me a slight grin as I walked up to her, my boots sinking into three inches of fresh snow.

"Thanks." I scowled up at the now silent gun emplacement. "We're just getting started, though." I took a deep breath as I glanced toward the large wooden door that barred our progress into another natural cavern. "I think there's a few of them in there, so be careful." I exchanged the Enfield for my 1911; the pistol would be a better bet for the fast-paced, close quarters fight we were about to get into.

"You're right. There're three of them in there, but I'm not sensing anyone else." That caused me to scratch my head; where was Tricky? I approached the door with my pistol leading the way, prepared for anything and everything.

While I wasn't experienced in the slightest, years of playing realistic shooters had granted me a rudimentary knowledge of combat tactics. Krystal seemed to let me lead the way, making me wonder if this was some sort of test on her part or not; perhaps some way to gauge how I would actually perform in real combat. My right hand kept my .45 trained upon the door as my left pushed against it; the ever-widening slice of the cavern beyond covered by my pistol's line of fire.

It didn't take me long for my eyes to lock onto the first Sharpclaw of the three. It was standing near a contraption that was pretty much a hovering motorcycle. I had no damn clue how to use it, but remembered this sequence of the game very well. Its back was to me, but Krystal's voice carried through my head; a nugget of advice she told me not twenty minutes ago: "You're living by the same mantra. Kill or be killed." My finger tightened on the trigger.

The .45's thunderclap was nearly deafening in the enclosed space. The Sharpclaw collapsed forward as it was drilled by the solitary round. So much for stealth. I threw my weight against the door and snapped the pistol to bear on the remaining reptiles.

My second shot pitched another Sharpclaw from the hoverbike it was scrambling onto, yet as I aimed at the third it gunned its own bike's engines with a harsh, whining roar. Snow spat everywhere as the whine intensified to a crescendo that nearly equaled the .45's report, and the Sharpclaw was ejected from the small cavern in the blink of an eye.

"Dammit!" I growled, pointing towards one of the bikes. "We can't let that bastard get away! You know how to ride one of these?" I rushed towards the bike, my teeth clenched as a wave of fear buckled through my stomach.

"Yes!" The vixen called out as she rushed past me, leaping on the bike with the skillful grace of a gymnast. Her fingers and thumbs hit several controls on the vehicle's handlebars, starting it up with another harsh whine. "Get on behind me!"

I nodded and straddled the bike, planting myself on the seat behind her. I froze for a moment, gripping onto the side of the seat as tightly as I could. "No!" Krystal's voice snapped. "Hold onto me, or you're just going to fall off! Hurry!"

I admitted that I was a little hesitant to, even though I just received an engraved invitation. My arms hesitantly snaked around the vixen's waist and I pressed myself to her back. It was funny; a few people I knew would have killed to do this in real life but I was a little more than hesitant, like I was crossing some sort of boundary which shouldn't be crossed. I shook the thought out of my mind as the bike took off.

It was easily the fastest land vehicle I had ever been on. We were suspended six inches above the frozen ground and already moving at a speed I would have called ridiculous. My driving experience included seat time with a Lotus Elise, a Celica GT-Four, and a Subaru WRX STi; this hoverbike could have laughed at any one of those. Furthermore, Krystal was pushing it flat-out; her literally supernatural reflexes keeping the bike on path and dodging objects with the skill of a professional rally driver. I was, simply put, scared shitless. One wrong move on her part and we would be smeared all over the landscape. All I really could do was hang on for dear life.

"He's up ahead!" Her voice was muted by the rushing, biting wind past us; I forgot to mention that the wind chill caused by us rampaging on the hoverbike was insanely cold; my face felt like it had been peppered with glass fragments but fortunately started to numb. I squinted against the wind and noticed the Sharpclaw's bike booking it like his hair was on fire and his ass was catching. Krystal's next words chilled me to the bone faster than the hostile environment. "Shoot him!"

My teeth gritted as she said that. The odds of hitting the Sharpclaw were somewhere between astronomical and infinitesimal. My .45 had the problem of mismatched sights; it originally came with high-profile combat sights, but the front blade had been replaced with an old surplus one that was half the height. The fact I was on a pitching, dodging hoverbike was bad enough; the target was also moving. The movies made it look easy, but I would have counted myself lucky to hit a damn tractor-trailer under the same conditions.

The .357 I had given Krystal promised slightly better chances, as its sights were intact and dialed in just the way I wanted them. I hoped to Hell she didn't mind reaching under her jacket and pulling it out. As I did so she didn't even flinch; she most likely read my mind as I hefted the big revolver. "Don't expect a miracle!" I yelled; trying to keep the sights planted on the Sharpclaw's bike.

The bikes may have been equally powerful, but Krystal and I had a combined weight less than that of the Sharpclaw. We were gaining on him no matter what he did. Krystal's snarled reply carried to my ear; her tone of voice a mix of anxiety and frustration. "Take the shot! He's thinking about reaching for a bomb!"

"Fuck!" I snapped back, gripping onto her as tightly as I could for added stability. My thumb drew the Taurus' hammer back in one smooth motion; I would need the lighter single-action trigger to even have a remote chance of making it. As soon as my sights fell on the Sharpclaw I pressed on the trigger. The .357's report was dulled by the rushing air; a muted thunderclap on a hurricane-force wind.

I didn't hit him. With all that was happening I wasn't even sure where I hit. Time seemed to slow down for me as the Sharpclaw reached into a satchel attached to the side of the bike; coming out with a baseball-sized sphere that was unmistakably a grenade. "Incoming!" I yelped, frantically aligning the Taurus for another shot.

The grenade left the Sharpclaw's hand in a lazy arc. I tried to focus on my sights instead of on it, yet Krystal's emergency maneuver nearly yanked me off the bike. I don't know how I maintained my grip on both her and my pistol, but I did. The world lit up in a flash of bright orange light; the grenade's blast and overpressure felt like an unseen hand trying its best to push me off. Instinctively I threw my remaining arm around Krystal's waist, gritting my teeth as I tried to ride it out.

"We can't allow him to alert any others!" The Cerinian's voice growled into my ear. "They're under orders to kill the Prince if anyone mounts a rescue attempt!" Instead of backing off like any cautious and prudent being would have done, Krystal stood on it. The hoverbike's engine grew in pitch to a harsh whine, and we closed in much like a Ferrari would an old Buick driven by a decrepit octogenarian.

I tried not to grumble. Her meaning was clear; she needed me to actually land a shot. Even as we closed in that was no easy task. If I could make that shot, I was Carlos fucking Hathcock. "Just try and get me in closer!" I growled, raising the Taurus once more.

Krystal leaned into the bike and pushed the engine even harder; we had hit a straight stretch and it was about our last chance to take the Sharpclaw out. We crept up onto the opponent's bike and I gripped the revolver as tightly as I could; I wasn't confident I would make the shot but I had to try. Instead of lining up my line of fire carefully I simply pointed the weapon at the Saurian and pulled the trigger; I emptied all six rounds at the bike in the space of a few seconds.

The fusillade amazingly worked; the Sharpclaw slumping over onto the bike a very good indication that one of my 125-grain hollowpoint rounds had struck home. Without a rider the vehicle became a very dangerous missile; I dared to glance down at the digital readout on our bike and saw that we were doing 115kph... well over 60mph. "Slow the fuck down!" I screamed, returning my cold-numbed arm around her waist. "We're going to crash!"

Instead of complying she pushed down on the throttle control even further... we ended up hitting 150kph in what felt like a split instant. That was pushing damn near 100mph; a speed I really only felt comfortable with on a straight, flat highway. The fact we were evading a crashing hoverbike down a narrow canyon at that speed made me nearly lock up in deep-rooted fear.

We shot past the wobbling bike in its last few seconds of existence. It slammed right into a tree stump, turning it and its deceased rider into a red-orange explosion of flame and greasy black smoke. The heat and pressure wave made our bike wobble as I clung to the reckless vixen, squeezing her tightly enough that I wondered if I was in danger of hurting her.

Our bike sped into a tunnel; the roughly-hewn stone walls lit by torches. The dim glow helped the headlights only barely; they were significantly more powerful than a newer car's HID headlamps. Answering an unspoken prayer, Krystal let off of the accelerator. I soon quit holding onto her as tightly, but my voice came out as an angered, frightened outburst. "What the fuck were you doing? We could have been killed!"

Her voice responded in a matter-of-fact, neutral tone that sounded like she was discussing the weather in some far-off country. "If we had slowed down we would have been killed, Adam. That bike's powerplant turned it into a massive pile of shrapnel. I'd rather take my chances with racing away from it."

Deep down I had to admit it made sense, but that didn't mean I wasn't still freaked out from our close brush with death. "You're crazy, you know that?" I huffed, simply wishing the damn ride was over with.

Leaning up against her, I felt her laugh more than I heard it. "We do what we have to! We're still alive, right?" I could feel the hoverbike slowing down, starting to bring our earthshattering ride to an end. At least she wasn't about to jump that cliff like Fox had done in the game. That was an extremely good thing as the edge of said cliff was looming a few yards away from the now-stopped hoverbike.

I was the first to get off the machine, my entire body shaking with a massive dose of adrenaline. The past fourteen hours or so had taken its toll on my body. I was hungry, thirsty, and quickly getting to the point of wearing out. It wasn't exactly the best situation to be in but I really didn't have a choice except to go on.

The vixen was busy from the moment she stepped off the bike itself. Her paws started rummaging through its saddlebags, a nod of contentment offered at some of its contents. "Do you know how to climb a rope?" Her question was offered with a slight amount of sarcasm.

"Yeah, they teach us all_of that in high school, along with Krav Maga and underwater demolition courses." I offered it right back. With my fear of heights this was _not something I was looking forward to. I had tried to conquer it with a rock climbing class at my high school nearly a decade ago, but that hadn't done too much good. My only saving grace was that I half-ass knew how to rappel.

My comment elicited a snort from her as she hefted a long coil of rope out of the saddlebag. "Then I hope they taught you well... or that you're a quick study." Krystal managed to find a secure place to tie the rope down to; a lone pine tree whose gnarled roots had taken their stubborn purchase into the frozen ground. "This is the only way down there. Care to go first?" As she asked her question she threw the coil of rope over the side of the cliff.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" I gingerly stepped over to the rope and picked it up in my hands. It had been ages since I had done anything like this, and when I did I had the luxury of safety gear. I readied myself when I got to the edge, keeping a firm grip on the rope.

"I'll watch your back on the way." Krystal's voice switched back to her no-nonsense, pure business tone. She could be damned serious when she needed to be. Her staff was already out and covering the area below; a small clearing surrounded by sheer rock walls. A hot spring was happily bubbling below, steam rising off the water in stark defiance to the frozen wasteland around it. Yet, something was missing from the picture; a single young dinosaur we had been sent to retrieve.

"He's not down here where he should be. What gives?" I inquired to myself, my hands and feet starting to do their part in helping me scale down the cliff. It was extremely slow going, but the fifty foot drop was eventually tackled. I kept my ears and eyes open for any potential threats and pitfalls, but there thankfully were none.

As I hit the ground I turned around, unslinging my Enfield and aiming it down the narrow valley path hewn between two nearly vertical monoliths of rock. "Okay, you're up!" Much to my amazement Krystal managed to descend the rope in less than half the time it took me to do it; I expected her to be faster than I was but not by that wide a margin.

The vixen half-scowled at me. "That wasn't really all that hard. Don't tell me you're afraid of heights, are you?" I kept silent for a moment, opting to slide a fresh magazine into my M1911 and top off my Enfield's while I was at it. I was trying to keep track of my ammunition; I was already expending far too much to feel comfortable about blazing away indiscriminately.

"Actually I am, thank you very much." I shrugged, reaching for the empty Taurus that I had unconsciously stuffed into the waistband of my pants. At the very least I was keeping track of my weapons. I released the cylinder catch, dumping the spent .357 Magnum casings onto the snow-packed ground. I frowned as the realization set in; I had already shot through over half of my Magnum loads. My best count was that I had about a hundred .38 rounds left. It would have to do, but I also needed to get my way into that damned gun safe.

The vixen arched her eyebrow as I offered her the empty pistol. She took it and started reloading, speaking as she shoved my diminishing supply of ammunition into the handgun. "This might not be what you want to hear, but if you have fears you are going to have to face them better than you have been." Krystal tucked the pistol back into the waistband of her pants and pointed forward, down the arch. "Scales and his Sharpclaw know no fear. If we're going to survive, we must be able to have no fear, either."

"How very Zen of you." I responded, taking my first steps down the snowpacked path. "I'm not trying to be an ass about this, but I just hate heights. I hate a lot of things, come to think of it. Doesn't mean I can't throw my gun in to help these Saurians, but you do have to realize I don't have your kind of training. I'll do the best I can with what I've got, and that will have to make do."

"It means you will have to improve, Adam." Krystal's voice held a hint at biting back frustration. "You must understand that just focusing on the situation at hand and pushing your fear aside will help; you've done it before." She increased her pace to walk right beside me, her paw falling upon my shoulder as she did so. "You're intelligent and willing to put in the effort. You just need the confidence."

"I'm marooned on an alien planet that should only exist in a videogame, and I'm facing the very real possibility I can't get home." I shot back, my thoughts finally wandering to the subject I was dreading to dredge up. "If you call that something to be confident over, I'd just _love_to see what you'd consider discouraging."

She didn't say anything after that. Hell, I didn't know what to say, either. For the most part our immediate survival needs were fulfilled. We had access to food, water, and shelter. With the exception of .357, we had plenty of ammunition. We had each other to watch our backs. Sauria might be in severe danger but with Krystal's help and my knowledge of the game we had a very real chance of victory.

Yet at the same time I wondered what that could be worth as we trudged down the path. What would happen after we got Sauria back together? If I couldn't find a way home I would be marooned in the Lylat System. I would be considered a freak of nature, most likely; archaic technology, weaponry, and all. I'd likely be taken in by the Cornerian government and experimented on; just like what I would fully expect our government would do if they came upon a Lylatian. The only option I could see would to be to stay with Krystal and hope she would return to Cerinia... even then I doubted I'd be treated much better.

"Your thoughts are screaming louder than words ever can." Her voice spoke up after a few moments. "I cannot say your fears about Lylatian society are unfounded, but you don't need to fear my kind. You're selfless enough to help Sauria in its plight and as such would likely be welcomed on Cerinia as a Guardian."

"That's all fine and dandy, but I'd prefer to find a way home." I offered a sigh to the crisp, chill air. "I know you can't promise me we'll find a way, but I need to at least try. There's no way your ancient Cerinian buddies would have tossed only one sphere on my planet, just in the off chance someone would stumble across it."

"You're likely right about that." Krystal replied, a peculiar look crossing her features. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "We'll talk about this later. Someone's coming this way."

My blood turned ice-cold, spurred along by the frigid weather. My hands filled themselves with my rifle, the ancient bolt-action once again brought to the ready. My vulpine ally followed suit, her staff clenched in her paws as we covered the approach in the narrow canyon.

"Two Sharpclaw, and I think they're chasing the Earthwalker prince we're looking for." She paused for a moment, her expression changing to what I could best describe as perplexing concentration. "They're afraid of something. I'm not sure what, but they are very panicked."

"That's just grand." I hissed, bringing my rifle up to my shoulder. When they come into view, take the one on the right. I'll get the one on the left." My thoughts centered upon my sight picture, breathing, and stance. My uncle was a competitive shooter; he taught me a few tricks and I had watched him in several competitions. With stakes like this I couldn't afford to miss.

Tricky came into view first, the young Earthwalker running like his hair was on fire and his ass was catching. He definitely looked afraid of something, although that was to be expected with the two Sharpclaw chasing him. I shifted my grip on my rifle and focused on the front sight as the Earthwalker slowed, likely unsure what to make of our presence on the winter-blasted path.

That hesitation would have spelled his demise if we hadn't been ready. The Sharpclaw came barreling up behind him, yet they didn't even get the chance of taking a swing. Krystal's staff went off first, the whispering 'swoosh' of her fireball signaling it was time for me to go. In the back of my mind the sound was extremely familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Time itself felt like it had slowed to a crawl. My finger fell to the Enfield's trigger and stroked it; my digit taking up the ample freeplay the nearly century-old rifle provided. There was a brief instant of resistance before the trigger broke. My rifle's sharp crack competed with Krystal's fire blaster; the muzzle flash obscuring my target as the recoil slammed the buttplate against my shoulder.

I immediately racked the bolt, keeping my eyes locked onto the crumpled form in the snow that comprised the Sharpclaw I had just shot. As the Sharpclaw bodies faded I lowered my rifle, glancing to Krystal then to Tricky. "Easy enough." I responded, glancing down to the young Saurian. "Now, down to brass tacks. We're here to get you back home."

I was instantly reminded that like most Saurians, Tricky only spoke their language. "Nxe uho 0ei?" he responded. Without the nifty Internet Saurian translators(or even the benefit of the cheat sheet I had saved on my laptop; the one with the dead battery sitting back on my nightstand at home) I was hopeless. I was fluent in English and close to it in German. That was about it.

Thankfully, Krystal took up my slack. She responded in kind, and the mention of my name and her pointing toward me at several points in the conversation gave me the impression that I was a topic of it as well. The conversation became a little more intense, as both Krystal and Tricky became a little more animated. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I stayed out of it.

The fact the Sharpclaws' bodies disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only their clothing and equipment, unnerved me. The thought that could happen to me wasn't that pleasant, to say the least. It did, however, serve as a reminder that I needed to stay vigilant; more easily said than done in the frigid wasteland in which we found ourselves.

My brief reverie was interrupted by Krystal's voice. "We should be safe for now. Tricky said the Sharpclaw are nervous; something killed a few of them several days ago, but they're not sure what." She looked as puzzled as I was. The Sharpclaw were the top of the pecking order here, and the thought of any of the Saurian tribes out and out killing them was a little strange. "And let me guess, Tricky has no idea what offed them." Something didn't seem right about all of that, just like some of the Sharpclaw I had shot actually leaving their bodies behind for a while I wasn't sure what to make of it; perhaps Sauria's magical energies were going haywire with everything going on?

"Unfortunately, you're right." Krystal paused for a moment, as if she were trying to catch a thought. After some time she cast a pensive look at me, then shook her head. "I can't sense anything, either. We should be cautious, but we need to get Tricky back to his mother... before we all freeze."

"I can live with that." It was a little warmer down in the valley due to the relative lack of wind, but it was still really fucking cold. My hands, feet, and face were still numb from the hoverbike ride, and right now I'd pop a round into every Sharpclaw on the planet for just ten minutes on a warm Jamaican beach. "Let's go, before the damn sun comes up and we're easier to spot."

We made time in relative silence, winding down the mountain valley path. For some reason Tricky was silent, which was alright by me. Krystal was the only one who understood him, anyway. We came upon our first obstacle soon enough; one which I wasn't too upset about.

A cavernous pit cut across the path, a lake of boiling lava snaking underneath. The warmth was invigorating, even if it meant an inconvenience. I could see Krystal's features brighten as we stood back from the edge, simply soaking in the heat. "It's not Key West, but it'll do for now." I chuckled.

"Key... west?" The vixen looked puzzled for a moment, giving me a curious look. Afterwards she sniffed a little bit, wincing at the stench of sulfur wafting from the pit. "Don't tell me we have to go down there."

"It's in the game. There's a switch in that little niche off to our right. It'll raise a bridge through the lava, but we have to be careful." Two subjects fascinated me when I was a kid. One was the Titanic and the other was volcanoes. Hot lava was only one danger they presented. "The gasses lava gives off are poisonous. Once we get that rock bridge up we need to be pretty quick about crossing it."

She nodded at me, giving a glance to Tricky as she did so. She spoke a few sentences to him, and he responded in kind. "He says he's starving... the Sharpclaw weren't really intent on feeding him." She glanced up at me, and judging by the incredulous look I gave her she scowled a bit. "It's been three days, Adam. Wouldn't you be starving?"

"You have a point, but I hope you're willing to smack those shrooms over the head, because I really can't." I hefted my Enfield to punctuate my words. "I'm not about to risk cracking century-old wood just to fetch him his dinner." Now it was Krystal's turn to look at me like I had told her the sky was made of Kool-Aid and the clouds tasted just like cherry pie.

"...what are you talking about?" It took her a moment to figure it out, but I wasn't sure whether she was reading my mind or his to do it. "He doesn't eat our food, right? And, you seem to think there's some over there_. Semo ed, Tricky. No'cc vadt jemo veet eloh kxoho." She stalked away, flashing me an exasperated look." Zijk awdeho kxo jkhudwo shoukiho. R0 Melos, xaj juhsujm aj wokkadw udde0adw..."_

"I'll just stay here and..." Krystal and Tricky rounded the bend, not even turning back towards me. "...cover the approach." I blinked, absorbing the warmth and taking a moment to rest. I wasn't sure if I had offended her or not. Perhaps the stress really was getting to me. Like Tricky I was also hungry; a few crackers and a can of tuna several hours ago was the only meal I had all day. I took a glance at my watch, noting that it was approaching 10:30 back home. Fifteen hours of being scared shitless, in combat, and interacting with a fictional vixen from a video game. My thoughts were a mess, and I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't dreaming this. If I was, then I was really fucking late for work.

A rumbling of stone on stone startled me from my thoughts. A large center 'island' was rising from the lake of lava, which meant Krystal figured out how to get to the lever to operate it. That was one good thing, at least. However, one thing was for certain... the 'bridge' was going to be hot. Krystal's voice accompanied the sound of crunching snow. "Now we're getting somewhere." She flashed me another one of those looks, pointing across the gorge. "Now it's time for you to do us a favor... make sure there aren't any Sharpclaw waiting to ambush us?"

Seriously? A sigh escaped me as I turned towards her. "This is about that damn shroom comment, right? Jesus." With a huff I slung my rifle and started to descend into the lava pit before she could respond. I wasn't kidding about it being dangerous; the sulfur dioxide immediately stinging my eyes and the stench making it hard to concentrate. I tried to take shallow breaths as I rushed forward, leaping onto the 'island' and then onto the opposite side. Even with that little exposure my head was swimming; who the fuck thought crossing a bridge inside a pit of lava would be a walk in the park? It took a concentrated effort to climb up the other side; by then my vision was blurry and I felt another massive headache coming on.

I heard Krystal shouting to me but her voice was muted and indistinct, as if it were news from some distant land. I struggled to stand up, though I could feel the effects of traversing the lava pit lessening with each passing second. I tumbled and almost fell, only the effort of unslinging my rifle and using it as a makeshift walking stick keeping me from munching on some snow. My hearing buzzed and it was hard to concentrate; I just now understood exactly how dangerous my trip had been.

Krystal shouted to me again. It sounded like "Are you alright!?" I waved to her with my other hand; turning towards the two. Even that made me dizzy and a little nauseous. I had warned her about the gasses, but I had to drive that point home.

"When you cross, be really quick about it! Hold your breath if you can! I'm serious, if you're not careful this will kill you!" I was starting to feel better but between that and nearly having my head crack open when I played the part of Krystal's bumbling knight in shining camo, I had a headache that would likely take six Excedrin to bring down.

"Hold on!" Krystal shouted back, her annoyed tone replaced with a level of concern I hadn't heard before. "We'll be over there soon!" It wasn't like I had much choice. I wasn't a paramedic but I was likely going through a moderate case of some sort of poisoning. There were so many things that could kill in hot magma it wasn't funny. If encountered out in the open it wasn't so bad, but collected down in that pit it was pretty much lethal.

Krystal grabbed Tricky as best as she could, sweeping him into both arms much as one would a dog or a cat. That would make it extremely difficult for her to maneuver; a wave of fear came through my pain-addled mind as she simply jumped down into the pit. She ran and jumped onto the middle platform, then onto the 'exit' towards me. I leaned over and she immediately thrust Tricky out. "Take him!" she shouted, as I struggled to grasp the terrified, wiggling Saurian.

He was fucking heavy. He might have been the size of a small dog, but he must have weighed eighty pounds. I wasn't in the shape or condition for this, and I had a severely hard time bringing him up. I set him down on the snowy ground and immediately turned to Krystal. She was trying to climb up but I could already tell her movements were sluggish. This was not good. Very not good. Taking a deep breath to stave off the effects of the volcanic gasses, I reached down and grabbed her arm. Adrenaline surged through my worn, abused body and I managed to physically pull the vixen out of the pit, dragging her on the frozen ground for a few yards before collapsing onto the snow myself.

I don't know how long we just laid there, trying to recover from the ordeal. I wasn't sure if it was a lower dose of gas I received or if my body was used to higher altitudes and a lower concentration of oxygen, but I got to my feet first. Krystal was still where I left her, looking completely worn out and panting. "You okay?" I asked, reaching over to grasp her shoulder.

She stared up at me with slightly glassy eyes, obviously trying to concentrate. She was breathing as hard as one would after running a mile, but she managed to muster up the concentration to answer me. "I think I'll be okay. I just need a few moments." She flashed a weak smile. "Thank you. You did well, getting Tricky and I out of there."

'Yeah, but you need to be more careful, Krys." I slipped up, using a nickname rather than her full title. I cringed, expecting a retaliation; surprisingly enough none came. She gave a short laugh(it sounded like more of a yip to me; I should have been expecting that).

"Don't be afraid of me." she spoke between breaths. "Yes, your culture is quite odd to me and there are times where it's an annoyance, but you're doing fine. I think you earned the right to be less than formal with me."

I was about to respond to that, but caught Tricky's voice calling out to us. It was the first time I had really looked past our current area, where the valley path was blocked in a pile of snow that had fallen in a mini-avalanche of sorts. "Nxuk uho 0ei kne teadw?" he inquired.

"No uho kucbadw udt hojkadw, Tricky." Krystal responded, struggling to get up. I helped her as I stood up, collecting my rifle from the ground as I did so. I glanced up, casting my gaze to the coming dawn sky. We needed to get off this mountain ASAP; I didn't want to get caught up in another wave of Sharpclaw soldiers.

"Sud no we den?" Tricky inquired in the Saurian language, casting his gaze to Krystal as he did so. "A'm sect udt jkacc u cakkco xidwh0." He was pacing in front of the snowdrift and pawing at it quite impatiently; even I could tell he was more than eager to get out of here.

Krystal's voice carried more or less a matronly tone to it, which I assumed was meant to temper the young Earthwalker's impatience. "0oj, rik 0ei doot ke jku0 douh ij. Ak'j tudwoheij eik kxoho." She spared a glance to me, giving me the impression she was a little perturbed about the interruption.

Without waiting for us to speak up, Tricky started digging through the snowfall. He was about as fast as he was in the game; burrowing through the obstruction like a gopher with its ass on fire. He was wide enough for us to squeeze through, although I had to remove my utility belt to do so. Krystal didn't have that difficulty.

We were in trouble as soon as we emerged from the tunnel. Three Sharpclaw were waiting for us, growling in pleasant surprise as we struggled to get out of our compromised position. Tricky yelped as one came after him, managing to dart between him and his comrade. He didn't bother to give chase, glancing at me like I was a piece of meat dangling in front of him as he bounced the spiked club he held in the palm of his opposing hand. I was still halfway in the tunnel Tricky had made, and Krystal was stuck behind me. My .45 would take too long to reach, and my Enfield was on my back. I didn't have any options.

I unzipped one of the pockets on the utility belt I had in my hands and extracted my last line of defense. My FEG PA63 had been a standard issue military and police pistol in Hungary during the Cold War. It fired the standard 9x18mm Soviet service round, which in comparison to my .45 and .357 was quite anemic. It was a borderline caliber taking a normal human into account. I didn't have much hope to bring a heavily-muscled, 350lb Sharpclaw with it.

I flicked the pistol's safety off and pointed it at the charging lizard, quickly stroking the trigger. The PA63 barked and bucked in my hands; it was a small, light pistol and the recoil was even worse than my .45. I fired four times, all of them solid chest hits. I grimaced as the Sharpclaw kept coming; blood streaming down his armor as he growled with a rage that almost scared me senseless.

I regained enough sense to point the handgun at its face and empty the magazine. That did the trick as at least one round struck him in the head, the Sharpclaw falling to the snow mere yards in front of me. The corpse dissolved, leaving its armor and weapon behind; it was just then that I felt something press against my legs and scramble onto my back. Krystal.

I felt my Enfield strain against its sling at the same time Krystal pressed against me. I could tell instantly what she was about to do; she was about to use it against the other Sharpclaw that were charging forward. I buried my face in the freezing snow, about to say goodbye to my eardrums and perhaps hello to some singed hair.

Forget the headache I had because of smacking my dome against the stone floors of Krazoa Palace. Tell the experience of sucking down such compounds as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrochloric acid to go take a hike. The .303 British rounds my Enfield fired had taken down pretty much every game animal on Earth in the hands of skilled shooters, and were used in Spitfires and Hurricanes to take down Luftwaffe _aircraft_during WWII. One went off mere centimeters from my ears. My tortured head now felt like Satan himself had put a hellish construction crew to work building a bridge across the River Styx... inside my head. The telltale piercing ringing indicated that my already slightly damaged hearing was going to get significantly worse.

I looked up to see one of the Sharpclaw pitching backwards, its body fading out of existence even before it hit the ground. I felt Krystal fumble with the bolt, feeding another round into the gun. I was then treated to another exquisitely unique sonic experience, unmatched even by my standing ten feet from the stage(and the thirty foot-tall wall of speakers) at an Alice in Chains concert a few months ago. Even with my bell rung like it was, at least it meant that I wasn't about to get clubbed to death by a rampaging Sharpclaw, as it met the same fate as its brethren.

I scrambled out of the tunnel, the ringing in my ears the only thing I could hear. Krystal immediately followed suit, casting me a worried glance. She spoke something, but I simply shook my head. She repeated it, practically yelling considering how she moved in closer and looked like she was nearly screaming, but I couldn't hear it over the ringing.

What she did next was completely unexpected. She walked right up to me and gently placed her paws on my cheeks. Her eyes bored into mine, concern and perhaps a shade of fear apparent in them. Her voice carried into my mind, at least temporarily breaking the barrier of my deafness. 'Are you okay?'

Responding to her telepathic communication by thinking back just seemed wrong. Maybe it was because humans weren't designed that way. Maybe because I didn't want to feel any crazier than I already was. That's why I spoke out loud. "I can't hear you and I think I'm going to need something a lot stronger than Excedrin when I get home, but I'm still in this game!" I tried not to shout, but it was a natural reaction.

The vixen simply frowned at me as she shook her head. 'You're injured. I can't start healing you here, but we need to get you off this mountain. My ship has a basic medical scanner and some supplies, which I think we both need. I'm sorry to bring you into all of this, Adam. You're scared and you're in pain, but we have to keep on fighting.'

I nodded. She was the telepath here and there wasn't any use hiding the fact I was scared shitless. Something else came to mind, which I voiced. "Why didn't you sense them? Is there something wrong?"

'The gas, I think. I'm unable to concentrate like I should. Normally I could communicate with you like this without physical contact, but it's taking all of my willpower just to do this. My head hurts very badly and I feel... disconnected. We must be careful, and we need to find Tricky before he runs into any more Sharpclaw.' With that she removed her paws from my face, giving them a glance. She frowned and turned her palms towards me. Her fingers were wet with blood. My blood.

I sighed and turned away. That meant I had ruptured eardrums and wasn't going to regain my hearing back anytime soon. I couldn't hear, and Krystal couldn't sense. We had to be very much on our toes. "Keep close to me. I need you to be my ears. We gotta make it through this, somehow!"

Her paw fell upon my shoulder, the only thought going to my mind was a calm 'We will.' With that we both started forward, as prepared as we were going to get to pull Tricky's fat out of another fire.