The two majestic creatures rolled on through the abyss, onward towards glory or some aspect of its glittering decibels and mischievous gems, when the nymph, once visualizing a sugared world, felt the aspects of its surface teetering, blurring, cloudy and murky pendulums, as if she were scrambling amongst labyrinths and warrens. She slowed, adrift, shook her head repeatedly against this sudden, strange onslaught, and discovered the ground coming to meet her – bashing against the powdered veneer of the mountain with her determined, stalwart features. Somewhere, she heard Imogen pleading, crying, or chirping, and she was very tired, her legs trembling with the exerted effort of rising again. In the back of her mind, the little vixen pulsed and pierced, screeching Are you okay? and Sing! Sing!, but her skull whirled and some sharpened rock had pierced her goat brow, a trickle of crimson flowed down, dripping along her maw, and the sylph nearly spun hellbounds again for the effort of moving forward. The rest of her brethren carried on, lumbered or passed beside her, and for a few moments, so lost, so perplexed, so exhausted and worn, she merely watched them slip away.

Imogen, for all of her efforts, hissed and attempted to rein in her sparked temper (because she knew her beloved had been assaulted; even if she too had done so in the sake of games and competition), but it did little good. Her maw and tails were an unwinding frenzy of fire, furious she hadn’t prevented this instance, maddened because she hadn’t done enough, and riled because no matter what she did, Lena kept saying It’s okay and I’m fine through their shared void, even though she was the exact opposite and continued to sacrifice every waking moment to witness her friends chase after their dreams. The only other thing the maiden did, with her winsome graces and soft, illustrious heart, was hum a little tune under her breath to assuage Imogen’s fears.

They lumbered on, slowly, listlessly, languidly, for some parts and portions, despite a hope squandered and fleeting, still emboldened her resolute shield: she wanted to witness what was at the end of this turtle’s great expanse, she wanted to wander through the peaks and valleys, and she wanted to see her comrades succeed, even at the cost of her own fortune. Eventually, somehow, her stride managed to strike back into a regular nuance, and even with her head still punctured and bleeding, she twisted their forms to the left, down towards the peculiar array of rainbow hues and dyed merriment.


[Lena, exhausted from Oxy’s anemia assault, falls and hits her brow on a sharpened rock. Imogen, furious, still continues to unleash her fire. Lena sings for a few moments, regaining former mobility after 30 seconds and soothing her rattled companion. They choose left.]