Ring of Cooperation

Going through these portals was such a weird feeling. Once you exit one, you almost feel like your body was reconstructed like building blocks. It made me nauseous.

Like the last time, Luna and I were the first to step through the portal. When we got through though, I couldn’t see anything. We must have been on the night side of the planets rings.

There was a nice cool breeze, and I could hear the distant call of some sort of exotic bird. Was he below us?

For some reason, I felt like we were suddenly mountain climbing. Something about the air felt like it was thinning. Luna sounded like she was having a harder time breathing too. Neither of us were built for the outdoors.

“Wow!” Luna announced. “It’s so colourful and bright here!” I heard her hands clap together a few times in amusement. "Look at those clouds below us!"

“Wait, where are you?” I asked, shuffling my feet cautiously and holding my hands out. “I can’t see anything.”

Now I was worried I went blind. Maybe this was a side effect of the portals? I should've asked Charlie what problems could come up from those freaky things.

My hands brushed across something soft. Whatever it was, it was smooth as silk…what was I touching?

“EEEEP!” Luna screeched! “Scoundrel!”

SMACK!

She slaps hard! I don’t think I wanna know what I touched. Just the thought made me think I was a terrible person.

“Sorry!" If I could, I would have gotten on my hands and knees to apologize. But my instincts were telling me that wasn't a good idea while blind. "I can’t see anything!” I announced.

“Why are you so quiet?” She asked.

I explained to her that I was completely blind. Everything around me was pitch black. I had all my other senses, but that was the only thing missing.

“Walden? What’s wrong with your voice? I…I can’t hear you! I can’t hear anything!” Her voice was getting so loud.

I couldn't see. Luna couldn’t hear. great. fantastic…I could feel anxiety build up in my stomach. Would this be permanent? Or maybe it was part of the test?

Maybe this was another illusion spell. Whatever it was, it was maddening.

Where were the other two? When would they decide to step into this ring realm of sensory deprivation? We’d need their help if we wanted to get through this mess.

“LOOK!” Luna shouted very, very loudly. “The others are on the bridge far away from us!”

Wait, bridge? What was she…

That cool breeze brushed again…I think we really were high up. Were we on a bridge too?!

I had to communicate with Luna somehow. If I didn’t, we’d be at risk of falling. Me especially.

Tapping on her shoulder, or what I thought was her shoulder, I motioned my hands in a way to communicate that I couldn't see anything.

“Oh dear!” She shouted. “If you can’t see, and I can’t hear, how are we going to get down from these platforms together?”

“Oh ye gods…”

It was worse than I thought.

I needed to get a better idea of what we were up against here. I was so nervous to start moving that I was stiff as a board.

My hands motioned around, assuming Luna was looking at them. I pretended one hand was a person, and the other was a platform. The hand person would jump off of the platform and my hand would move down to catch him as if it were the next platform.

Then I shook my head to indicate I had no idea what was going on with these platforms themselves. What did they look like? How big were they? I had no clue.

“What?!” She shouted. “Please don’t jump off. It’s too dangerous!”

All I got out of that was that this was dangerous. But that was to be expected.

Fun fact about me, I suck at charades. If I or someone else had something to say, I just wanted people to come clean. That's something I liked about Luna. She was as straightforward as they came.

How was I going to communicate with her effectively? I hardly could tell when she was actually looking at me, let alone interpreting right.

“Walden, how are we going to make it down to where the others are?”

I shrugged my shoulders, looking around like I hadn’t a clue what was going on. Were Zumi and Charlie going through the same thing as us? If what Luna said meant anything, they were already down to the ground, or close to it. But what about the bridge she mentioned?

Was there really no way for us to communicate here? We had to put our heads together to solve this issue, but we couldn’t do it like this.

***

I think the best thing was to let Luna take charge here. I was at a significant disadvantage without my sight.

"Walden, you'll need my help getting down each step, since you can't see."

"Great minds think alike." I nodded.

For good measure, I clung to her arm like a child. Holding her for dear life and surrendering all trust to her.

When I took a step, she guided the direction my feet went with her words.

“Right! Just a little more right! Stop! Okay, now forward! Too far! Now you’ve got it.”

Eventually, I managed to plot down safely on the platform.

“Okay, on to the next one!” She was still really loud.

We took our time. A few of these platforms felt like they had some dirt and grass, but they were mainly cobblestone. Man, I can't wait to see what horror I'm traversing when my sight comes back.

There seemed to be a big curve to this path, like some sort of spiral staircase. If Luna hadn’t been leading, I don’t even want to think about how far I’d have fallen by now.

“REEEEEK!”

What was that sound? It sounded like a velociraptor or something.

I couldn’t see it, but it was coming from behind us. I poked Luna in the arm and pointed at what I heard.

“My goodness! What a big bird!”

If there was a big bird up here, he was probably hungry and coming for us.

Getting Luna’s attention, I motioned my hands in a way that made it look like we needed to shoot down the bird.

“I agree,” she said. “Let us slay it before it eats us!”

My level started to rise dramatically thanks to Luna's power sharing. I didn’t hit level (99) this time, rather, Level (75).  All the high level spells I’d been using up to this point were active again, but a quarter weaker than before. Was Luna holding back?

Never mind that right now. This power should be enough.

I raised up my wand, awaiting orders on where to aim exactly.

“Okay, aim left…now slightly right…now up a pinch…NO! Down more!”

This went on for a second until she said I was right on point.

“Fire! FIRE FIRE FIRE!”

My wand warmed up and vibrated in my hands. Energy radiated out in hot waves until condensing down into a single beam of power. It must have looked fantastic.

BOOM!

“REEEEEEK!”

“Direct hit! YAY!” Luna cheered.

I put a lot of power into that one shot, so I hoped it was enough to turn it into giant crispy chicken wings.

“Look, he’s falling to the ground! Oh dear, he landed on Charlie!”

Why was I cursed with blindness at a time like this?! I wanted to see that giant smoldering bird land on that Cougar killer! What a travesty!

Now that we didn’t have to worry about that bird, we continued our way down these awful platforms until we finally made it to the bottom.

The others raced over and helped us get down the last few steps when we were close to them.

“Okay, one more step and…we’re on the ground!” Luna announced.

The instant my feet touched the ground, I could finally see again. I’m glad Luna was the first thing I saw. What a pretty way to gain back your sight.

“I CAN HEAR AGAIN!” Luna shouted, breaking the moment for me. “Oh dear! That was so loud of me…”

“Yeah, you’ve been yelling like that this whole time.” I told her.

“Even we could hear you…” Zumi said.

“Oh my…”

I looked back and saw dozens of floating platforms. They appeared to be the remnants of some sort of ancient structure, spiraling to the colourful great beyond, almost like a stairway to the heavens.

"Does anyone else get the urge to play the guitar right now?" I asked, being reminded of a song about a lead balloon or something.

"Can you play?" Luna asked with hopeful eyes.

"No. But I sure would like too if I could."