Cole and Luna appear in a room with a metal spiral staircase going up and boxes on shelves. It's dark with no lights and kinda smells like mildew. There's a single metal door.
"Hm. Doesn't look like Wicket Woods... or the Bunker." Luna tries to open the single metal door. it rattles but doesnt move as if chained from the otherside
"yeah, i just appear here anytime i try to appear in the non-feral world"
"Odd. Chains? Maybe we should unlock the door when we head outside?"
"i usually just jump from the top" Cole shrugs as he starts walking up the stairs and Luna follows. On going up the stairs they look out from the top of a lighthouse onto a sea of pine trees, its partly cloudy with a cool breeze
"Wait, is this the lighthouse I think it is?”
"yeah, yeah it is"
Luna sighs "So we jumping down?"
"i think you might wanna get on my shoulders so your bones don't shatter"
She hops up on his shoulders. "Ready."
Cole makes sure luna is secure then vaults the railing. They land on the ground
"Holy fuck that was high. I would've fucking died had I tried that."
"yeah, so are we gonna try and figure out Lock's riddle?" Cole bends down so Luna can get off.
She hops down. "But first, maybe we should try to unlock the lighthouse?"
"Or we can focus the riddle. Really either one is fine by me."
"i'll unlock it, you start figuring it out after all you are the brains of this operation" Cole walks over to the door of the lighthouse and looks for a key
The door to the lighthouse is literally lined on all sides with hefty locks, latches, and chains. The only side without locks on it is the bottom. Cole grabs one of the locks and yanks on it as hard as he can. They seem to be brand new locks but rather than the locks breaking, he just rips the old boards of the door off. He tries to open it but the door just falls off in shambles. "...."
Cole gently puts the door down and walks back over to Luna.
Luna is talking to herself "The left hand ocean is blue and salty, and the ship sank in it. The right hand ocean is teal... unsure about salt content. The heart of the ship is resting at the bottom of the blue sea, which is also the left hand. Blue could also be the emotion, sadness, after the ship sank. But then what emotion would teal be? Teal... why specifically teal, aside from its connection to turquoise. The left one is salty... salty with tears, the person is blue, sad. Heart sank. The ship is at the bottom of the left sea. So we go to the right sea now. The right one might be freshwater?"
"we could go check and see if the isolated beach has salt water"
"We could."
"that would tell us what ocean we are near"
"Logically, we would be near the Atlantic ocean... right? Since we're on New Atlantic as far as we know."
"it's possible but we should check before making a assumption"
"Good idea. Let's go look then. I'll follow your lead."
Cole and Luna begin walking to the isolated beach. They pass a patch of mossy trees before reaching an isolated beach with pure white sand and an ocean view.
"taste test" Cole puts his finger in the water and tastes it
"I'm predicting this is the salt water. The blue."
"saaaaaltttyyyyyy"
"Called it. So this is where the other sword was found?"
"Yeah" Cole nods
"Okay, so what we need to find is... I'm guessing a teal body of water. Bingo. So here's my theory. Right and left hand tends to represent opposites. The left one is salty, blue is the color of the left hand ocean, the heart of the ship that sank on emotion. The left ocean represents sadness. Heart sank, feeling blue. So logically, if the right hand is the opposite, we're looking for a teal colored freshwater body of water, one that may represent happiness. Or I could be overthinking. Wouldn't be the first time. Issue is, where the hell is there freshwater?"
Cole shrugs "i mean you could go ask the locals about a freshwater lake or something"
"That might be our play. Maybe there's one near Greywood."
"do you want me to come with you? or should i stay here?"
"I'd rather you come with me. I have no idea where Greywood is from here."
Cole nods “follow me”
They both turn around to head back but before they even get off of the beach they both notice what looks like a layer of leaves on the ground off to the left. some have a teal tint.
"Ooooo I see teal."
Cole walks over to the leaves "metaphorical ocean?"
"Might be." in the shade of the pine trees is a lush leafy ground as the tinted leaves form a splotchy path deeper in the woods. it looks like halcyon plants.
"Oooh yeah that's definitely some teal. Also another point for the opposite theory, the opposite of wet is dry."
"seems like a path" Cole shrugs and starts going down the splotchy path as Luna follows. It feels like they are going back to the lighthouse until it veirs off to the left more. theres some nightjars in the trees that watch them pass. Cole keeps his eyes on the path as he keeps following it. As they go it feels as if they begin going up a steadily growing incline, the temperature getting slightly lower. There's more nightjars that watch as a few of them coo and chirp. A few owls even watch them as the terrain is becoming more rocky.
"Hmm, this is fascinating." Luna says
The coos chirps and screeches start changing tone until mimicking a song. They continue walking until they reach the side of a rocky cliff. On the rocky wall of the cliff is an opening to a cave covered in the teal plant and hidden by the trees
Cole points at it "look a cave with teal on it"
"Shall we?" Luna looks excited but mostly trying to hide her fear.
Cole nods and walks into the cave with a smile and his tail wagging slowly. Luna follows in. On entering they can hear the echos of birds within the cave continuing the song. Theres a growing feeling of good luck as they continue. It slowly gets harder and harder to see as they reach a branching path, one that seems to go back up on their left and one that goes down some on their right
"left or right?"
"Lemme think. The bottom of the right. Right goes down, thus right."
Cole nods and goes down the right path with Luna following. On going down the path it seems any form of light is gone. Luna pulls out her phone and tries to illuminate the path with her flashlight. Cole pulls out his zippo lighter and lights it. With the light they can see it continues going down for awhile as it slowly gets warmer. ahead is a wall of stone with a single door. the door is metal and green with no locks. the feeling of good luck is becoming great
"Ayy I feel empowered with the Hax!"
"you can try this door"
"Uhhh okay- Oh. Unlocked." Luna opens the door. As she opens the door they hear the sound of something sliding against the stone and retreating back into the darkness. they also feel warmer air as if out on a summer day
Cole throws his lighter into the room "shadow demon begone!"
"Huh??"
it skids on the ground before suddenly falling off a hard to see edge with no sound
"wha"
"Oh fuck. Not a fan of that. Your lighter. It like slid on the ground and then... nothing. We need to be careful in this room. Might be a pitfall."
Cole nods and slowly steps into the room as he unsheathes a white opal crystal claymore with a golden hilt. Luna follows, pulling out a dark pink claymore. The room is circular with a large bus sized hole in the center. the floor is slightly slanted towards the hole.
The ceiling goes up further than the light of Luna’s phone can reach "Holy shit. What the hell is this room?"
After around 68 seconds they faintly hear the lighter hit solid ground
"that's a long fucking drop" Cole watches where he steps
"...okay, yeah that's death if we fall in there…Uhhhhhhh so it's possible that that pit is our target."
"hey Luna?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know how to hold on for dear life while i dive bomb down a pit?"
Luna is shaking but fearfully nods "Yeah... I got good grip."
Cole kneels as bone wings unfold from his jacket "grab on, it's time to learn what skydiving is"
Luna takes a deep breath then grabs onto Cole for dear life. "Let's fly."
Cole takes a deep breath and tries his best to hide his fear from luna as he dive bombs down the bus sized hole. They quickly start gaining speed as its quickly becoming hotter and more humid. Its pitch black. Cole is scared. 38 seconds have passed theres no way to tell when to pull up. Cole gets an idea as all of his fear disappears, he waits until 40 seconds have passed and quickly sticks his white opal sword out to see how close the walls are. The sword hits the stone wall and its shatters with a fast flick in about 5 seconds.
"....shit"
"Oh fuck."
23 seconds left
"Luna i don't know if i should pull up"
"We should almost be down though. If the zippo took a little over a minute, and we're at like 50 something... Uhhhh wait 5 seconds then do it."
10 seconds have passed for them to speak
"don't we have more surface area?"
"Yes."
"We're also heavier."
"Pull-up now."
Cole starts pulling up
It took them 3 seconds to discuss leaving 10 seconds to pull up. their speed is lessened but they crash into the stone floor and tumble forward from the momentum. its only enough to break a few bones.
"Gah.. ahh fuck fuck fuck. Stupid fucking holes."Luna breaks her right arm and a couple ribs.
"FUUUUUUUCK" Cole's wings are shattered from the tumble. They hear the broken pieces of the sword crash onto the ground a few feet behind them
"Ughhhhh at least we're not de--" She exhales sharply, feeling her arm broken.
Cole is shaking with pain as he crawls towards the sounds of the fallen shards of his sword. Theres a pile of something in the way between them and the shards. Luna attempts to get up but only having one arm is proving to be difficult for her.
Cole starts climbing the pile that feels like wooden boards and nails "i need the shards, i fucking need the shards"
Luna finally gets up and slowly makes her way towards where Cole is. Her legs didn't get affected too badly, but there are various cuts and bruises.
Cole keeps climbing "i fucking need those shards" He is able to find a few shards
Something slides on the wall near Luna out of view. Luna's ears perk up and she goes to investigate. Theres only a normal stone wall as her flashlight doesn't seem to reach the ceiling
"...I'm not a fan of that." She continues searching
Cole shoves the shards into the sheath and starts crawling towards Luna's light
"Fuck." Luna then sees Cole. "Hey, I heard like a sliding sound on the wall, but I can't find it. I'm starting to think we might not be alone down here."
"...don't care didn't ask plus my sword broke plus where's the other one i want it" Cole stares at luna with a face that could not give less of a fuck
"I don't know. There has to be a way forward."
The feeling of good luck is still very great. they follow down the wall of a long hall thats steadily going lower until they reach the edge of water
"...now there's water. Okay Cole, can you handle the smoke clones?"
Cole nods as a black smoke orb forms in his hand. The black smoke appears next to Cole as it takes the shape of him and the clone walks into the water.
"Alright, hopefully the clone can handle it."
The clone keeps walking into the pitch black as it sticks its hands out in front of it to keep it from running into something.
After a moment the clone dissipates and the smoke orb in Cole's hand disappears "there's nothing in the water"
"Okay, so I guess we go down the corridor ourselves then."
"Luna can i see your phone for a second?"
"sure" she gives it to him
Cole shines the phone light at where he climbed over the pile. the other way is a dead-end with the hold above and an extensive pile of several boats that had been thrown down into the pit. alot of them are nothing but old planks of wood from the fall and a few row boats on the top and sides manages to survive the fall with minimal damage
"What the fuck." Luna watches
"boat"
"...Ohhhhhhh I see now. At the bottom of the teal ocean, instead of the heart of the ship that sank to the bottom, meaning the captain? It's the boat.. boats themselves. The captain being the skeleton in the underwater trench."
"we use the boats to go into the hallway, stop thinking so hard about boat" Cole walks over to the boats
"Lemme nerd out on puzzles." She follows.
Cole clambers up the pile and grabs the 2 row boats and climbs back down as he starts walking back to the hallway "boat time"
"Uhhhhh how the hell do I use this with one arm? Oh whatever I'll manage."
"we could just use one boat and i row it"
Luna nods. "I'm sorry."
why did u get 2 boats?!?!?
"it's fine" Cole hands luna's phone back and grabs one of the boats and starts walking back to the water. Luna follows, shining the light on where Cole's walking.
He puts the boat in the water "ladies' first" He smiles
Luna gently gets in the boat. "Thank you bro"
"not a problem" Cole gets in the boat and starts rowing down the hallway
As they go the feeling of good luck is growing to the point they start feeling happy for no reason
"Okay, this is amazing. I feel alive... despite bones broken!"
Cole giggles "i probably should have healed you!" Cole keeps rowing
"It's fine!"
they get further as theres a faint light at the end of the hall, the feeling grows more as they feel happier
"Ooooooooooooooh shiny lights! I wonder where we are!" She has a big goofy grin on her face, having the time of her life despite the pain.
Cole rows faster as he giggles "i am in indescribable pain!"
"Maybe then we should slow down???" She says, still smiling
"i will be in pain either way!" Cole is still smiling
"Right! Then let's get a move on!"
They head around a corner and theres a deadend. on the ceiling is blue glow worms lighting the room. the room has something sitting in the middle on a dry island surrounded by the water
"owo what's this???"
Cole rows over to the dry island and gets out of the boat "maybe a sword?? uwu?"
Luna hops out of the boat. its an elaborate decorative table with an empty weapon display holder and the bones of one finger made of gold resting on the table in front of the display stand
"...Did I fuck up?"
Cole tilts his head and walks up to the table and compares the display holder to the crystal claymore shards the claymore shards dont seem shaped right for the display. the display itself seems sized for a much wider weapon
"...sooooooooooo."
"...." Cole looks for anything that could be a lever or a button to trigger something but theres nothing
"...I guess.. my brain fucking sucks then." Luna says defeated as she thinks
"this is like when Dennys runs out of sauce…we are going back" Cole gets back in the boat "we are not leaving without this god damn sword"
Luna sighs and joins him. "I'm sorry Cole. I thought I had everything right."
"no, no someone else was here before us" Cole turns the boat around and starts rowing back to the room
"...wait, could it be that thing I heard sliding on the wall?"
"maybe"
"If so, then my brains don't fucking suck. The answer was right all along."
"i mean all i did was follow a path and here we are i think if we do something wrong it's up to chance"
"Luck you mean?" She grins.
"sure, luck and chance mean the same thing in my vocab" they reach the pile of boats again.
Cole gets out of the boat and walks back into the room "come out and play ya fucking shadow demon"
"Bring it Shadow bitch!"
It’s quiet.
Luna pulls out her ichor claymore and Cole draws his revolver while he taps his foot against the ground. Nothing happens.
"Fuck this" Cole fires his revolver in a random direction
The sound echoes and the light from the shot gives them a brief flash of thousands of fox skulls facing down at them with their mouths open
"WHAT THE FUCK"
"..."
"Um. So is that the boss?"
"probably"
"Um, what do we do? Are we going for the fight or should we head home?"
"nah fuck this i'm getting that god damn sword" Cole shoots at the fox skulls as his eyes glow pink. Luna swaps shoots a few fireballs at the darkness from her hand. Despite their attacks nothing happens.
"....okay, that's ineffective."
"Hmm" Cole smirks "come here boy! come here i have a treat for you! come here!"
She swaps to lightning and tries the same thing, hopefully illuminating the area so that Cole can get a shot in. Suddenly swiping from the side is a bus sized object going towards them. It sweeps both of them off their feet with immense force, luna is tossed across the stone floor as cole is flung into the pile of boats, and impaled by a wooden stake sticking up from the debris. It lifts back out of sight with no sound
"...uhhhhhhhh what the fuck."
Cole drops his revolver and stares down at the stake "...i think......i'm gonna......go home"
"Yeah.. good...idea." She crawls over to him and sees... Oh. "Ready to go home? Like yesterday?"
theres the faint cackling of hundreds of coyotes from the ceiling
"i'll walk....i'll walk it off it's fine, it's fine" Cole mumbles
"You know what? No. We're fucking out of here." Luna touches Cole's shoulder and they both disappear.
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