Divided by Hostilities (Chapter 18)

[jiminee]

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17

“Where’s Pause?” Pyro asked Arkas, panicked, at three in the morning.
“How would I know?” Arkas blinked sleepily at Pyro in the dim room. “What are you doing?”
“Pause is missing,” Pyro said. His voice was urgent. Arkas sat up slowly.
“Doesn’t he usually stay out late with that guy from Daedalia?”
“He’s usually back by now.  Anyway, I need to talk to him.”
“Pyro, it’s like three a.m. and I’m still half asleep. What do you want me to do?” Arkas was annoyed, but he got out of bed anyway. He went and turned the light on, the automatic redstone system lighting up his whole house.
“He’s not at home and… I’m worried about him.”
“Pause is a strong guy. He can take care of himself,” Arkas said. “What do you think we should do?”
“I just want to know where he is,” Pyro said, his voice rising. “He’s our friend.”
Arkas understood now. “You don’t want to risk losing anybody else, do you?” he asked softly, sitting down on his bed again. “After Avidya?”
Pyro sighed. “I guess – I – I hadn’t really thought about it. But it’s true.”
“It’s ok,” Arkas said. “I’m sure Pause is fine.”
“But what if he’s not?”

Pause had no time to feel now. He’d stopped feeling, stopped thinking about anything but the fact that he had to find Beef. The vision had shaken him, and if he allowed his mind even one second to think about the image he’d seen, emotion would overcome him and his quest would be useless. All he could do was block it out by blindly believing the vision wasn’t true.
After making it to the cave, where he crouched, panting against the rocky wall, he’d collected his thoughts. He hadn’t seen where the dragon that took Beef went, but maybe he could catch a glimpse of it if he looked carefully. Since all the dragons looked almost the same, apart from size, his only hope was to see if he could see Beef in any of their claws.  Pause peeked out the entrance of the cave, staring intently at the swirling mass of dragons. Most of them seemed to stay high in the roof, only deviating from the flock to rest on a ledge or swoop into a cave. Pause prayed that the cave he was in wasn’t occupied; although he figured he’d probably already dead if it was.
A flash of blue caught Pause’s eye, and his heart jumped into his throat. Stay calm. He traced the blue with his eyes, deciding it was definitely Beef’s jeans. It was too far away to tell if Beef was struggling or still, but Pause blocked out feeling again as he watched the dragon holding the blue break away from the whirlpool of red bodies. Pause willed himself not to lose sight as the dragon swooped up and disappeared into a high cave.
Heart pounding steadily now, Pause kept his eyes on the cave. It was close to the ceiling of the cavern and didn’t seem accessible by any means other than flying. Pause forced himself not to lose hope. Think of a way to get up there. The cliff face was too steep, and there were few ledges jutting from it that were far in between. Ender pearls! Pause searched through his inventory with shaking hands. There were four Ender pearls. Pause considered the situation. If he used the pearls, he was likely to be seen. If he used the pearls, he would be weakened by each fall, making it easier for a dragon to kill him. If he used the pearls and missed, landing in the lava…
Pause closed his hand tightly around the small green orbs. He didn’t really have any other choice. He looked up at the cave again, trying to map out a path between the ledges. It would be difficult. One wrong throw and he’d lose his chance to find Beef. Because his invisibility potion had worn off, he was certain to be seen by a dragon. His only hope was that the Ender pearls were too fast for the dragon to catch up with.
Taking a deep, shaking breath, Pause stepped out of the entrance of the cave. He scurried to the rock, breathing hard. No dragons seemed to have seen him. He looked up to one of the lower ledges, judging the distance. Steadying his hand he aimed and threw, praying that the pearl would hit it’s mark. A second later he was zipping through the air, pulled by the invisible force towards the ledge. When he felt solidity under his feet, Pause opened his eyes. He was on the ledge! He took a minute to regain some health, but he had to move fast. It would get more dangerous as he moved up. Aiming for the next ledge, he threw the second pearl. Again, the familiar sensation of the pearl’s transportation, and he was on the ledge. Pause breathed heavily, his skin tingling with adrenaline. Taking a quick look around for dragons, he looked for the next ledge. There was another one a little higher up, but further away. It was close to the cave the dragon that took Beef had flown into. If he made it to that one, maybe he’d be able to climb up to the cave. Taking another deep breath, Pause lobbed the third pearl towards the ledge. A second later he felt a sudden dread that he’d missed, that he was about to plummet down -
Zip! Solid ground beneath his feet. Pause’s heart didn’t stop its frantic thumping as he collected himself and waited as his health slowly returned. He looked around. He was near the ceiling of the cavern now, where the dragons swirled and zoomed, and he knew he had to move quickly. The cave was only a little higher, and Pause searched for spare materials with which to build some way of getting up. Some errant pieces of wood and cobblestone were in his inventory, and Pause breathed a sigh of relief. He began placing the cobblestone, lifting himself up until he reached the cave.
Now he could see that the cave was more of a passage to what looked like another cavern on the other side. He stepped into it cautiously, keeping to the wall and moving slowly, inching towards whatever lay in this next chamber.

“Can we please go and look for Pause?” Pyro begged, tugging at Arkas’ bedsheets. He’d left, assuring himself that Arkas was right, that Pause could look after himself, but as soon as he stood outside Arkas’ house in the cool night air a sense of guilt had hit him, accompanying the sense of dread that had been growing inside him all night. So he’d turned straight back around, back inside and run up to Arkas’ room again.
Arkas sat up again. “Fine, you seem worried. Where are we going to look though?”
Pyro inhaled. “I think we should go over to Daedalia. I think he’s in trouble there.”
Arkas was up, pulling things out of chests, equipping himself with armour, grabbing weapons and food and essentials. He did look worried. Pyro wondered if he felt the same dread as he himself did about Pause. Something was wrong.
“Are you ready to go?” Arkas asked, tipping back the brim of his diamond helmet to rub his forehead. Pyro nodded.
“How are we going to get out?”
“I don’t know,” Pyro said. “I could maybe find a way to open the gates…”
They set out as quietly as they could into the Abattia street, their plan of rescue consisting of nothing more than ‘we’ll figure out what to do once we get there.’ Pyro held his sword at the ready and down, sneaking past dark houses and empty streets.
“Shh,” Arkas said. “There’s someone coming.”
“Hello?” rang out from behind them. Pyro stopped, his body quivering with fear. He recognised the voice – every person in Abattia did – and he awaited the inevitable. He and Arkas sneaking towards the gate of the city in full armour and weaponry looked incredibly suspicious, and the worst possible person to catch them doing that was King Zisteau.

Pause inched to the edge of the other side of the tunnel. It opened out into another cavern, much smaller than the one he’d come from and with no dragons in sight. Pause breathed a sigh of relief at that. The cavern seemed to have no particularly spectacular features. The only things of note were a large, bubbling lake of the thick lava and an enormous cave directly opposite him at the base of the cavern. Great, he was going to have to get down there. If he used the Ender pearl he wouldn’t have any left if there was more climbing to do in the next chamber, but there was no way down from where he stood aside from a sheer cliff face that plunged directly into the lava lake. Pause took out the final Ender pearl and stared at it, its shimmering green surface almost pulsing with energy in his grip. He kissed it quickly then aimed over the lake, throwing with all his might. Better to hit the wall than land in the lake. He crossed both fingers as the pearl pulled him forward, and he flew over the lake, landing safely on the ground beside the cave.
Taking a moment to eat and get his breath back, Pause looked in the cave. It clearly sloped downwards, and Pause realised that meant it would only get hotter. His clothes were already soaked with sweat and his throat was dry. But he had to do this. As there seemed to be no other places the dragon that had taken Beef would have gone, he had to go into the cave. Wiping his forehead, Pause turned to the blackness.

“Your Majesty?” Pyro heard Arkas say. He snuck a look to his side and saw Arkas bowing in the dim light. Pyro turned and hurriedly did the same as the king approached them.
“Don’t bother with that right now,” King Zisteau said. “I was looking for you.”
What? Pyro straightened up, confused. King Zisteau was clad in armour too, lacking his sweeping cloak and crown and looking utterly harmless in the moonlight. Even his scarred, milky right eye wasn’t as terrifying as it normally looked, and his left eye held something Pyro had never seen before in the king – worry.
“You were looking for us?” Pyro asked. “Uh, Your Majesty?”
King Zisteau nodded. “I need your help. You’re friends of PauseUnpause’s, right?”
Pyro squinted at the king’s face, trying to figure out if this was a trick. “Yes…”
“Do you know where he is?”
Pyro looked at Arkas and saw that he was equally as confused. “No?”
“Why do you want to know?” Arkas asked.
The king sighed. “I believe he’s with Aureylian. She’s gone missing.”
Things just kept getting stranger and stranger. “So what do you want us to do about it?”
“Do you want to come with me to find them? I think she has somebody from Daedalia with her, too.” The king’s formal speech was slowly slipping, and to Pyro he sounded like he could almost be just a resident of the city.
“How do you know?”
“She came to me before she left. Said she was taking some of her friends… somewhere and asked if it was alright if she entered the construction site of my new palace and lit a fire in there.”
“A fire?” Pyro recalled the fire that had destroyed the king’s palace. How could he forget? The hole in his house, the apologies and explanations from Nebris, the shattered shell of his dragon egg – It was all caught up in the feelings he’d had about losing Avidya too. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
“Why did she light a fire?”
King Zisteau shrugged. He’d become so casual now that he seemed human. Pyro was surprised that he was seeing the king as an equal. An equal!
“Maybe we should go to the palace, then,” Arkas was saying.
Something was weighing on Pyro’s mind. “Why do you want to find Aureylian, anyway?”
“Because she’s a good person,” the king said. “She had good advice, I have to say. And we can’t just leave her.”
Pyro glanced at Arkas. They shared a look, a look that asked what had brought such a change in their king? The unforgiving militarian king they’d known for years had somehow changed to be kinder and more human.
“Let’s go then,” Pyro said. He knew of the chance this was a trap, but he needed to find Pause.

Comments

[anonymousrose]

Pause throwing enderpearls was certainly suspenseful! I don't think there was a part where my heart stopped racing during that xD Also, seeing King Z changing is very good. Hopefully the group finds both Beef and Pause. Love it <3

[karen19]

Great story as usual. I really loved how you added in Pyro again! Don't kill Beef please.