Sticks and stones (There is no skull, or we’d be villains)

While Trudy couldn’t recall being into fitness, she felt she nonetheless felt proud of possessing something called “self-discipline” – in this case, regularly scheduled power walks that she was certain would leave her with a build fit for endurance.

In light of current events, however, the woman wondered if she had, at some point, fooled herself.

The hall thankfully had a small side passage that the trio hurriedly filed through just as the far wall finally collapsed, letting the collection of extremely angry, hungry fur pour in, roaring in rage as it hounded its next meal. The corridor was just enough to fit two people shoulder to shoulder, and naturally this meant that the two, loudly clanking men were running single-file so as to pass the panting and disbelieving woman.

“Why am I the slow one?” Trudy groaned in profound vexation, trying to keep pace as she looked incredulously at Paul and Bao. “You’re wearing a fridge, and you look like you ate a fridge!”

“Hey, I don’t make the rules!” Paul was quick to shoot back over his shoulder. “I’m fast, you’re slow! Run!”

“Man, we need to get outside!” Bao breathlessly added. “Maybe that big thing just has cabin fever and needs to get out! You know, like a cat!”

“Sure, if anyone knows their way out of this place! It’s a maze!”

Paul, at this point, still liked to believe he was a normal person in an abnormal situation. However, while he did not say “please”, that strong unconscious desire to have that need met, “a way out of this place”, caused the twisted energy lingering in the empty fortress – and, more importantly, within the man himself – to mold and shape itself anew in his presence.

The fortress had, almost certainly, borne witness to battles beyond counting and history beyond description, be it courtesy of its most recent occupants or those who came before. Surely someone had directions. That sort of idea slowly collected in Paul’s hand unnoticed, until he felt his fingers touch something. With a moment of confusion, he lifted his arm and saw he was suddenly clutching a black skull of all things, its eye sockets burning with purple fire.

If those flames had pupils, Paul was certain they would have engaged in polite and proper eye contact, considering the whispery voice that seemed to emanate from the black bone.

“Good master, the upcoming right hall leads to the outer walls.”

“Hey! Is that – is that a head? A person’s head?!” Trudy exclaimed frantically from the back, voice dripping with fresh terror. “I saw it! You’re actually evil!

Paul quickly rewarded the skull by hurling it through an open side door and out of view.

“No, you didn’t!, he quickly insisted, before jerking his head to the right of an approaching T-junction. “Anyways, I just happen to know the way out!”

The fortress quaked once more, giving the trio good reason to keep following the offered route. At the end of the passage was another barred door, but now Paul and Bao’s lead and their frenetic desperation worked out in Trudy’s favor, since she didn’t need to be the one bodily hurling their whole weight into the wood with enough force to spill them onto the cold floor outside.

As the two men staggered to their feet, they saw that they had indeed made it to the outer defensive wall of the fortress, and before them, they could see the vast, blasted plain that stretched on until it hit a forest. Above them was a gray sky from which snow kept lazily drifting down.

The sight matched nothing of what they could recall of home, and for a quiet moment, they paused and took it in, while breathing the cold air.

It was hard to argue against the thought that they had been plucked from home and plopped back down far, far away.

“Uh,” Trudy trailed off, as she tried to form a sentence, “A wall like this probably has a way down to the bottom? And out?”

Paul shook his head, trying to rattle his existential problems into a dark and distant corner of his mind. “I hope so. Anyways, let’s hope that big thing-”

The side of the fortress blew outward in an eruption of dust and bricks like some horizontal volcano, and the largest object within this explosion, unfortunately, was an animal - yet, now having stopped to look at it, this beast proved itself quite unlike anything they knew.

The trio stared as they gazed upon the full shape of whatever it had been hounding them, and it certainly looked like a lion that had one day decided to become the size of a truck… and decided to grow the back legs of a goat, a pair of spiraling horns, and a snake-like tail that snapped the air with each movement.

Even with its immense bulk, the mishmash of animal with its great paws and cloven hoofs easily cleared the space between the fortress and the defensive wall and simply slammed down on the narrow top passage, limbs arranged in a neat single file to maintain balance, all the while drooling at the group opposite it.

There was a pause, with both parties not choosing to move against each other. Why the larger animal did not, the three weren’t sure. Paul, however, was certain of one thing.

“I’m starting to hate it,” he whispered, just as a precaution in case the one-animal petting zoo: A) had feelings that could be hurt; and B) understood him.

Trudy shushed him, eyes like daggers, and Bao’s gaze nervously flitted between his two companions, taking a wary step back.

“Maybe it’ll go away now that we’re outside…” Bao suggested – hoped – even as he started looking over his shoulder for the way back. Perhaps if they just hid inside long enough, the monstrous creature would get bored-

It decided not to wait. The wall practically shattered under the force of its hind legs kicking off the stone, and the creature charged at the most obvious meal in the area.

It was Paul who pushed forward before spinning around to shove his two unexpected compatriots back, simply shouting at them, “Run!”

Trudy and Bao moved as best they could, wheeling around on their heels in an about-face, but the creature was upon them, jaws wide. What followed was a series of snap decisions – things that came not from any conscious thought or consideration, but simply responses that felt right to them.

Paul knew he was in the back. He knew he was armored, and all he could do was hope it was authentic when he shoved the other two forward just as the jaws of the beast slammed down on his chest. Darkness descended upon his world, fetid and suffocating, and he felt something grind against his upper body, holding out for a moment until he could hear metal crack and feel the sudden, sharp bite of something foreign digging into his flesh.

The other two froze, hearing the man begin giving a muffled scream inside the beast, legs kicking against its chewing.

Trudy chose not to ignore that, and a burst of adrenaline and insight made her realize she still kept a white hot grip on the stone she had held all this time – ostensibly to protect herself from Paul, but now…

Now, all that was in her mind was that a man was about to die, and she had to stop it.

The arcane presence that lingered in the fortress flowed into her body next at her desperate wish, unseen power coursing into the raised arm and to the rectangular block she hurled with all her might. It burned purple, set alight by fell magicks, guided more by her desire than aerodynamics as it rocketed through the cold air and into the beast’s eye.

While not enough to penetrate, the impact did set the monstrosity off balance, emitting a pained screech as it staggered awkwardly backward, and the force of the blow was enough to both bruise its eye and dislodge Paul’s body from its mouth.

Bao had also chosen not to ignore Paul, and he charged at the monster with the same thought – save that man, though he did not know how. But his body remembered, and more than that, the thing that had rebuilt it had added something extra from long before.

His open hand unconsciously grabbed at swirling miasma that filled the air and pried free a long wooden shaft covered in talismans. Without even thinking about it, Bao brought his materialized cudgel about and sent it cracking across the opposite jaw of the beast, making its head snap to the side.

Neither Trudy nor Bao was even consciously considering what to do. They weren’t warriors or spellcasters or anything from legends or even novels, yet this energy was burning bright in them – the ground was littered with debris, and one of them was armed with the oldest weapon known to man.

Fuelled purely by instinct and adrenaline, the two pressed on, and the chimera swiftly found itself disadvantaged. Each time it made to spring forth or swipe its towering claws at its suddenly much more troublesome prey, it was assailed once more by more high-speed rocks that bruised it, swatted and stung by the blows of the rod.

It was hungry, and angry, but eventually, one new sensation overrode all of that: frustration. As much as it wanted to, it felt like hunting these three was now more effort than it was worth.

Blinking its one bad eye to try and clear up its hazy, tear-filled vision, the behemoth of a pseudo-lion leapt back, gave one last snarl at them, and then bounded into the frigid air.

Bao, Trudy, and Paul, who had slowly gotten to his knees to look over the battlements, watched their adversary sail through the air before crashing into the snowy ground, and began charging away from the fortress in the direction of the woods in the distance.

And then there was silence. The longer it lingered, the more likely it seemed that nothing more was going to happen. All at once, Trudy and Bao exhaled in equal parts relief and disbelief, and sank to their knees, resting on the cold stone floor.

Had even an hour passed in this new world? And now their first celebration was that “they were still alive”?

Some time passed with the trio panting out their adrenaline. Paul looked down at himself and the cracked remains of his chestplate and started trying to peel it off his body.

“Holy…” He wheezed, wincing as he pried off a particularly sizable piece of his shattered armor. “I think I’m still going to die from a heart attack.”

Bao’s gaze swept across his companions while he considered what had just happened. “You know, I think we have superpowers.”

Paul couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Perhaps it was his near-death experience, but the proclamation felt very inappropriate. “Your superpower is a stick.”

“Yeah…” Bao admitted. Then he blinked and took another look at the talisman-covered rod. “...Though, you know…I think the stick is telepathic. It’s sending a voice into my head.”

Trudy, at least, was a bit more receptive, looking at Bao with some curiosity. “What is it saying?”

“It’s saying I’m the strongest.”

“Oh?”

“It’s telling me to prove it by killing everyone I see.”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

Paul sighed, not even trying to hide his exasperation. “You heard the lady, Bao. Don’t kill people, it’s not good.”