Two men at a lake

Chapter 1: "That was good work"

Two men at a lake, roaming, sweating, camping. Two men at a lake, resting, sleeping, dreaming. Two men that now no longer were just men, having undergone a mysterious transformation. Matt and David.

Matt had already woken up with sunrise, taken two steps to the shore to dance with the fishies in the lake again, when the slowly rolling water surface told him of his changes, showing him that his face had overnight gained unusually much fuzz. Annoyance at how much work shaving all this would be quickly disappeared when he realized that a razor wouldn't suffice to return him to the man he was last night, though, and he stormed back to the sleeping bags he had spent the night in to shout at his still silently snoozing man:

"Bro!"

--"Hmm" David tried to appear unbothered, but his brow furrowing gave away how much he would have enjoyed getting more time to prepare before being dragged into more weird ideas.

But his companion had never been one to pick up on signs. So he had to make it clearer: "I would have enjoyed getting more time to prepare before being dragged into more weird ideas."

Like this hike to a lake no one knew.

"Like this hike to a lake no one knew." he added.

Matt came closer, now towering over his "best friend". 

"This lake is amazing! Look at me!" he said, raising both his arms into the air to show off the miraculous effect he believed the lake and fresh air here had had on his body.

"Hmm?" Reluctantly, David opened his eyes and was about to get up when he noticed that his friend really had changed overnight. Or been taken hostage and replaced by someone ... who had stolen his orange shorts and could imitate his voice perfectly. Someone with a lot of brown hair covering all of his body like fur, almost pitch-black feet with webbed toes and long nails that resembled claws more than anything, a mouth that extended like a cute little snout with silly little whiskers on both sides of a black dog nose, and barely visible rounded ears on a flat head that definitely stared back at him, still beaming, with eyes that were definitely Matt's bright brown ones. And there was also that long brown tail hanging out from over the waistband of his shorts, reaching towards the ground. 

"Um." David paused for a moment. "Uh, that's- that's true. It's amazing to see such a huge specimen of a river otter, the size of a giant! T-Truly a marvel of nature." Matt snickered in return and then let him continue. "But where did they get such a terrible sense of fashion? Or really any sense of fashion at all." 

Laughter. 

Normally this would have put him at ease, but David still felt tense, even if he tried to suppress it. Even something as bizarre as this surely shouldn't be reason for concern, right? It would be annoying if he let this get between him and enjoying their vacation as much as Matt seemed to be able to even now. But the tension he felt clearly wasn't just nervousness, as he sensed it all over his body, and his behind even seemed to ache, as if he had slept very awkwardly the entire night, he couldn't even make himself stretch to calm down. On top of that, there was still one question burning in his mind:

"And... they speak English, too?" 

-- "Bro, you do, too!" Matt said, pointing a hand, or maybe paw, in David's direction. He was still grinning.

"Hey, my fashion sense is just fine!" he blurted out in return. 

-- "Sure, man. Just look at yourself. Nice new haircut, by the way!"

David looked down on himself, the tension in his stomach turning to dread as he encountered the same kind of brown fur all over his body below his white t-shirt and black shorts, too. And the pain turned out to have him having laid uncomfortably on his tail. Now he was certain he was really talking to the same Matt he had known for years.

"Oh, come on! What did you do to me this time? Do you realize how much I will have to spend on shampoo now?" he exclaimed. 

-- "Hey, I have no clue what happened either!" Matt looked just a tiny bit hurt for a second before his giggle returned. "If I had... I would have come here much sooner! Come on, let's go for a swim. You need to cool down anyway!" 

David knew there was no point in protesting, and in fact barely a moment later already heard a loud splash in the water. Matt never waited for anyone. Whereas many of their friends were scaredy cats (well, not literally, at least not last time he saw them) who were perpetually insecure about their decisions and could also have trouble standing up for themselves, Matt instead was the kind of otterly... utterly unswayable man that either ends up the one to cause trouble for everyone or the protagonist in an action movie. And, well, that's kind of what had attracted David to him in the first place. Matt was the one to get David out of the house and on this trip, too, but could the man not slow down one day at least? David could only admire the unstoppable energy. But that even waking up as a different species altogether was something Matt could take in stride just like that was almost too much.

He finally jumped in as well and was disturbed to find out that he had never found any water as enjoyable as the same lake that just last afternoon he had vowed to never set foot in again. Even though it was still early in the morning, it just no longer was as horribly cold, the water didn't get into his ears anymore, and swimming never felt this effortless before. He flowed gracefully with the waves, thoughts melted like ice in the summer sun, until he was tackled from behind by Matt. 

It wasn't long before they had invented water wrestling, and when they started training as if preparing to become otterkind's first Olympic athletes, they noticed they had gotten far away from the shore they had come from, now being almost at the opposite side of the lake. And neither of them felt like they had the energy to go back all the way anymore, so they gathered their last energy and swam to the closer shore.

Barely out of the water they heard shouts in the distance, coming out of the forest, faint but impossible to ignore.

After a minute of walking amid the firs and spruces growing tall they encountered strange creature, though no stranger than they themselves were. A human-sized purple butterfly with two pairs of white wings with black lines was turning towards them, standing on two legs and gesticulating with two arms. Aside from their purple color, the limbs looked very human. The butterfly looked at them with two large red compound eyes on a strangely oversized head and shouted again:

"Somebody! Please help me! My poor baby caterpillar fell down a crevice and I'm not good at climbing!" 

"Yo" Matt said to David, "looks like someone needs our help!" 

-- "What are we, a rescue team?" David replied, though he knew the answer he would get already.

"Sure we are!"

Matt walked up to Mother or Father Butterfly and announced: "Ma'am! Or Sir. We, the Rescue Team Otter Know, how we can help you..."

--"Oh thank goodness! Yes, a rescue team like you ought to know how they can help me. The crevice is just a few minutes in the direction of the creek. Please look for a green caterpillar with red antenna." The butterfly pointed away from the lake with its arm. 

They followed the creek and after a while David said: "You know, your English teacher would have probably wanted to fail you for that pun alone."

--"What pun?"

The silence of the next few minutes was pregnant, probably with triplets. Eventually, it was broken by a smaller caterpillar-human appearing from a bush a bit further away, and running towards Matt, who started running towards them. David could only watch in horror as they collided some seconds later and both falling to the ground, Matt cursing and the child crying. David dashed towards them and embraced the child, attempting to comfort it. It didn't seem injured at least. 

Then, he asked Matt:

"Are you okay? Do I have to worry about encountering the demon that just possessed you next in this forest? Wouldn't surprise me the way this day is going..."

--"I did feel strangely compelled to just attack everything that moves in front of me..."

"Wait, really? Come to think of it, the butterfly baby here seemed to as well..." 

--"I'm not a baby! I'm old enough to be alone in the forest!" the caterpillar protested. David looked at the boy, still sitting in his arms, wearing an overall that was cream-colored in the front, red at the back with many bumps. A tall red spike was on the head seemed dangerously sharp. The head itself of the boy was also red, with large yellow eyes with black pupils located on either side of it and a smaller yellow spike in between both. 

"Does this boy not look a bit like a demon already..." Matt muttered, and David wished he hadn't heard it. "In any case he isn't who we are looking for." he continued, louder. "Let him go, he's probably big and strong enough to find his way back alone. And sorry for the headbutt, man!"

With the big and strong caterpillar boy now smiling again, things seemed patched up enough for David to move on, and so they bid him goodbye and continued their path down the creek. 

Over the next half an hour or so David had to stop Matt from running into other young animal-humans in the most literal sense again and again, while evading their attacks. More red caterpillars, small brown humanoid doves, and perhaps the weirdest, child-sized yellow-black germinated seeds with stubby legs hopping around. There were also strange large eggs rolling around for seemingly no reason. This forest evidently was nothing short of being extraordinarily cursed.

Finally, they come across a crevice and find the green caterpillar-boy the giant butterfly had wanted to be reunited with. He was teary-eyed, huddled together against the ground and entirely lacking in spikes, unlike the ones they had encountered before, and was the only one that did not aggressively charge, simply looking at them from large yellow eyes, his red antennae hanging low. 

They brought brought him back to his parent, cried all tears of joy and waved goodbye after getting a bag filled with various strange berries neither of them had ever seen before. 

"That was good work" Matt said to David.

--"Thanks. It's always harder when you have to do it all alone." David replied, grinning for the first time that day. 

"How about some fish for lunch? It would go well with the berries."

***

Chapter 2: "It's been a long time"

Two furry men back at the lake, fishing, struggling, eating. Cleaning, biting, tearing into raw fish. Two furry men that now no longer were just furry men, having founded Team Otter Know. Matt insisted it was not a pun, and David was wondering what the joke was then.

"Did you know raw fish could taste so good" Matt asked, chunks of kokanee trout falling from the side of his mouth.

--"Never had sashimi, then?" David asked, being careful not to waste what they had gone through so much trouble for. All their supplies and any equipment was still on the other side of the lake, so they had needed an alternative way of organizing breakfast.

"I'm not a weeb!" Matt laughed.

--"No, just a furry, I know" David said, looking away to hide his grin.

"So are you now!" 

"And so are you! Be proud! I always knew you had it in you" Matt said, teeth sunk into the flesh of the fish again. Nothing he had ever eaten had tasted as fresh as the flesh of this fish. It was pure bliss. 

David, however, was coughing up bits and pieces at the words "in you". 

"Hey, what do you think we set up our campsite as our rescue team's headquarters?" 
– "And wait for clients to drop by and ask for our services like we are consulting detectives?" 

Two hours later, after they had eaten up, rested and finally returned to their new rescue team headquarters, two clients did in fact drop by. Or rather, floated ominously in the air, bodies composed of impossibly round, shiny, metallic spheres rotating with bright blue-red horseshoe magnets on the sides. A single huge eye was staring at the two ottermen from the topmost sphere of both beings.

An electric buzzing sound punctuated everything their distorted-sounding gnarly voices said:

„BZZ-BZZ- WE HEARD ABOUT YOU FROM THE BUTTERFLY. BZZ-BZZ“ one of them said.

--„PLEASE. WE NEED YOUR HELP. OUR MAGNETIC FRIENDS ARE IN TROUBLE. A STRANGE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE FLOWED THROUGH A CAVE HERE...“ the other one continued.

„...AND IT STUCK THE TWO OF THEM TOGETHER...“ the first one picked up again, swirling in the air, seemingly for emphasis. 

--“...THAT ISN'T ENOUGH TO PLAY SETTLERS OF CATAN. IT'S NOT POSSIBLE THE WAY IT IS NOW.“ said the second tri-sphere, floating closer to Matt, bending the magnets forwards and laying them on his shoulders. „PLEASE. WE NEED HELP.“

„You need help with playing a board game?“ David asked.

-- „POSITIVE. THERE IS NO TIME TO BE LOST.“

Matt put his paws on the little metallic body, only to be feel an electric current pass through and fall over backwards. As he scrambled back up, he said: 

„I'm shocked. Already another emergency near this beautiful lake! But have no fear, shiny friends, we can do the job!“

“I have one more question, though.“ said David. 

--„PLEASE CONTINUE“ the floating spheres implored, turning towards him. 

„How are you floating?“

-- „BZZ! OUR MOTHER SAID IT IS DUE TO THE NATURAL MAGNETIC FIELD OF EARTH. SHE WORKS AT THE OLD POWER STATION ABANDONED BY HUMANS AND SEEMS TO KNOW A LOT ABOUT MAGNETS.“

David seemed to need a bit to process this new information, as his mouth opened, but with no words coming out. He decided to not further inquire into the family life of these lakeside creatures, for his own sake. Matt was already setting off to walk to the shore, but David stopped him and turns to the new clients again:

„Actually, another one: where is this cave your friends are stuck waiting for more players to join them?“

--“BEHIND THE TINY WOODS OF THE BUTTERFLIES. ASK SOMEONE TO GUIDE YOU TO THUNDERWAVE CAVE.“

David wordlessly grabbed a bag with a flashlight, the berries they had been gifted as well as other provisions. Matt tended to never remember that he needed to take food with him for later. He would often even forget that he needed to eat at all until he was almost about to pass out. 

After another swim across the lake and a trek near the forest, avoiding all the strangely aggressive critters and bugpeople living in it, they arrived at the entrance to a subterranean cave where their new magnetic friends were already waiting, apparently having taken a shorter route.

„OH YOU ARE HERE NOW -- BZZ BZZ“ one of them exclaimed, excitedly moving up and down.

„You got here so fast?“ David said.

--„THROUGH THE AIR“ the other said triumphantly, swirling in air, before continuing: „OUR FRIENDS SHOULD BE SIX FEET DEEP -- I MEAN SIX FLOORS BELOW US.“ 

„Wait, this cave has several floors?“ David asked.

-- „POSITIVE. SIX IN TOTAL. PLEASE HELP“ 

Maybe that was normal cave behavior?

„Otter Know, the caves! Let's go!“ Matt announced to no one in particular.

-- „Are you announcing a boxing match?“ David said, before stopping for a moment. „Or are you just saying we should know the caves? You know what, don't tell me.“

Past experiences had shown him how he might as well be talking to a wall when Matt had his sight set to something. Or the cave the large otter was stepping towards now, and so joined him, to at least keep an eye on him again. When they got to the entrance, they were shocked, Matt for the second time that day already. They found themselves pushed violently to the ground by an invisible force, dust shaken up around them.

„BZZZZ! ANOTHER ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE! BE CAREFUL!“

David got up much more slowly than Matt. He did always enjoy a lie-in, and wasn't about to waste another opportunity. Unfortunately, David had no appreciation for a horizontal view of things, and so he was pushed up again. He was tingling all over the body and felt his fur stand up everywhere. With how short it was it at least wasn't very visible, or else he would have not wanted to look into a mirror at that point. Well, he still didn't want to now. But that was for other reasons.

The second attempt was more careful, and successful. Both managed to enter this time, yet the joy was short-lived as David, upon looking back, already couldn't see the light from outside anymore. Where did the entrance disappear to? He immediately went rummaging through the backpack resting on Matt's shoulders, haphazardly pushing things away inside until he managed to get the flashlight out. 

With them on, he could see they had both found themselves in a large open room that was more akin to a foyer than any cave David knew about. Although one with a very low ceiling. Normal cave behavior? 

Then he realized they weren't alone anymore. He heard steps coming closer, accompanied by a lot of squeaking and snarling, coming from a corridor on the other side. 

Cavedwellers? Troglodytes? With a legion of mice and wolves as their personal army? What kind of place had Matt dragged him too this time? He looked over to him, and saw Matt just grinning as he walked forward towards the sound, like he was excited to wrestle with a large and many small furballs. 

David wanted to stop him, but something took hold of him. The rational side wondered if it was the same thing that had made Matt and the demon, uh, that is, caterpillar child headbutt each other in the woods before, but was overwhelmed when the emotional side realized he was reaching the exit of the room and the sounds were just around the corner. He readied his fists, just in case, only to get distracted by a reminder of him having claws. While a weapons upgrade, it just made him feel like he badly needed a manicure. 

When he looked up again he still felt like he didn't have bigger problems. In front of him were two mouse-children, with triangular ears on top of their head that was covered in purple fur except for a snout in beige. Angry red eyes glared at them and a pair of huge incisor teeth at their upper jaw was currently gnawing on a carrot. Their sweaters and sweatpants were similarly colored, beige on the front and purple at the back. A purple tail curled behind them both, and a bit further away shadowy figures were standing in the dark. David couldn't make them out properly, but they were slightly taller but had a snout and triangular ears all the same. 

Now he was back to feeling bad for them, for living in this dark, moist cave. How did they end up here? Where did their food come from? As far as he knew, carrots needed sunlight. They looked so upset, maybe he could comfort them like he did with caterpillar boy. He quickly stepped in front of his mate, lowered himself to a squat looked the children into the eyes and extended a paw as a form of greeting. 

However, instead of being shaken, like he had hoped, one of the mouseboys jumped at it and bit it, before being wrestled away by Matt. But now the other mice -- or maybe rats -- were lounging at the two and not before long the shadowy figures were also looking like they were intent on joining in on the brawl. 

With small furballs descending all over them dogs on squeaky toys, pushing them to the cold stone ground, the two larger furry creatures struggled to free themselves. David could not believe the magnetospheres had neglected to mention the small detail of the violence present in this cave when asking for help. And who picks such a location to play board games anyway? Or were they all here just spectacularly sore losers?

It was just a moment later when another shockwave passed through the cave that might as well be some kind of mysterious dungeon that had them all trapped down here. It paralyzed the critter children, who let go of the home intruders, allowing them to get away. David found it hard to worry about them now. Aside from being dazed and a few scratches, they seemed to be alright anyway. Maybe Matt was right and they actually were demon children, even if he would never want to admit that, to avoid having to hear him gloat about it.

They managed to get to another exit on the other side of the huge barren and oddly rectangular room, but luck was not on their side. Triangular ears greeted them once more, alongside bare teeth, a loud snarl and two fists dangerously close to David's face. The grayish fur and clothes of the creature made them almost impossible to make out in the dark cave, although David felt reminded of hyenas. On this continent, this far up in the north, in a bizarre cave? 

Before he could decide what to do next, Matt had already made his next move, and picked up a bunch of stones that he was throwing in the direction of ... NO! But it was too late, the third stone hit the snout of the creature. David braced himself for a vicious counterattack, only to be almost surprised to hear them start crying like a small girl and run away immediately. 

„Huh. That was easy...“ Matt exclaimed while David felt his heart being wrenched. He wasn't sure they were doing the whole „rescue team“ thing correctly at this point. At the very least, they had a lot of potential to improve. This one was just a child, too, like the other ones! He decided to try to run after them, to apologize.

Matt followed him, and a quick look back showed David the otterman had an unnervingly large grin on his face. 

„The faster we get through this cave to our board game night, the better!“ David heard him say, words like ice cold water down his back.

They had chased the hyena child through several large rooms connected by corridors so narrow that the two couldn't even walk next to each other, survived several more electromagnetic shockwaves and yet managed to almost catch up, when Matt noticed something odd in the corner of a perfectly square room they had just entered. A hole in the ground with rock formations that seemed to look like stairs going downstairs, as if they were leading to the next level the spheres had talked about. Matt stormed towards them, and within a moment of reaching them, he had disappeared.

David sighed, and considered running after him now, but he didn't feel like parenting him right now. He approached the human hyena, huddling quietly in the opposite corner with a large bump on the gray furry head, and took out bandage material from the first-aid kit in the backpack he was carrying. The child first winced and held its scraped knees closer to itself, head held low, breathing rapidly, as David asked them if they were alright, giving no other answer. After a few tense if silent seconds, they slowly looked up to him and slowly nodded when David offered to treat their wounds. He patched the small anthropomorphic hyena up, who seemed to be calming down a bit, breathing slower and relaxing their grip on themselves. They were sobbing a bit now, but that at least meant they were no longer too terrified to make a noise. 

The relative silence was abruptly broken when both hear some huge noise akin to an explosion followed by a scream coming from down below. David felt a bolt being rammed through his heart. Maybe he should not have left Matt go alone there himself. Especially on a day like this, when it seemed like his partner was acting so erratically and even aggressively, which he was fairly sure that wasn't like, an otter thing. Although he was feeling it, too. And the inhabitants of the cave, just like of the forest, were also strangely quick to lash out. What was going on with this part of the world?

As he packed his things together and move towards the weird rock-stairs himself, he saw that he wasn't alone. The hyena girl was following him with pleading eyes. 

„Can I come exploring with you?“

Not one to complain about additional company, David didn't stop her and both of them descended deeper into the cave to see what had happened to Matt on his quest to find those unlucky fans of Settlers of Catan.

The sight on the second floor was bleak. The flashlight showed how the brownish-red tones of the cave had been turned pitch-black on the ground, the walls and ceiling as far as he could see. Worse, Matt was nowhere to be seen. He was about to take the last step on the stairs when another one of those by now all too familiar shockwaves ran through the cave and made him trip and fall, but strangely enough on something soft. 

On something soft covered in black dust that groaned audibly and was slowly moving, or rather twitching.   

„Matt?“

-- „...“ 

David got up and tried to get him to wake up, rubbing his partner's head. But he didn't respond. 

„Matt? Matt? Geez, what happened?“

David pointed the flashlight around the room they were in. In the distance, something metallic gleamed. Sphere, but not floating ones. Ones that were rolling around on the ground and colored red on one half and white on the other, crackling loudly as if filled with high-voltage electricity.

„balls... exploded“ Matt finally said. 

He weakly raised an arm to point at the spheres.

„those ... those balls“

-- „Matt, can you stand up?“ David asked. 

„Just a moment...“

Maybe it was a good thing he had stayed behind for a bit, David thought. It usually took a lot to knock Matt out like that.

He helped his partner get up, put his arm around his head, and tried to carefully move away from the spheres. Unfortunately, it seemed they were basically guarding the exit, more stone stairs leading presumably deeper still into the cave. 

„Ughhh“ Matt seemed to have a bad headache, with how he was holding his head, paws pressed against it. He looked around and saw the hyena girl, silently watching from the stairs. 

„Why is that demon standing there, menacingly?“ he asked. 

„Wouldn't you want to know, demon otter?“ she replied.

No one said a word after that anymore.

Having no other choice, they walked towards the stairs, but the rolling spheres, three in total, soon noticed them and began to dangerously spark all over, arcs of electricity rising around them. 

David briefly wondered if he was facing an execution committee of a particularly hostile subterranean civilization, and if the whole board game quest had been a ploy... but he couldn't afford the time and had to act fast. He clearly could not touch these ... beings with his arms, had no weapons, and the cave shockwaves would not affect them either, maybe even make them stronger. 

They were rolling in their direction now, one after another in a straight line, when he unexpectedly stumbled and lose direction. A moment later it dawned on David that it had been the new, youngest member on his team that had kicked small stones in their way. 

Stones, hmm. There were some larger ones laying around here, too. But spheres couldn't be knocked over, and the metal made them seem very sturdy, too, hard to injure. Though, now that they lined up in a straight line again from the stairs towards the other side of the room, a corridor stretching behind them, an idea appeared in his mind.

Matt had managed to stand on his own feet again by now, and had managed to use the moment of confusion to wobble past the electric guardians and was now in the process of rather gracefully falling down the stairs, followed by the young bipedal hyena.

David followed them at first, but then turned his back towards the stairs to try to block the shiny orbs from descending on his teammates, and then hurled a huge stone towards them, pretending they were giant cue balls. He managed to hit the first of the spheres, and the blast caused by the explosion he triggered sent him down to the third floor, landing once more on Matt, flashlight next to him.

Fortunately, the discharged electricity seemed to have not reached the lower floor, so it was mostly just his pride that got wounded from his plan not working as intended. To add to their luck, the spheres seemed uninterested in following them down the stairs, and the room they had landed in didn't have any either, so both otters could lie in for a bit and let the world spin around them. 

When they were just about to get up, another electromagnetic wave knocked them down again. Or whatever it was. David didn't even really want to get up anymore. Couldn't the two magnetic friends figure out a way to play the game with just two players? He couldn't remember ever going through so much trouble just to join a board game night, and he had cut through wire fences and broken into houses before to do so in college. Of course, it had been Matt's idea, but still. 

Even being repeatedly kicked in the sides by a hyena did at first little to dissuade him, much to her frustration.

„Come on, are all adults as weak-willed as you? Or is it just everyone living outside of this cave who is such a pathetic loser?“ she snarled. 

„David“ Matt said, „are you really going to let a small demon girl walk over you like that? Who is she anyway, your adopted daughter?“

David felt another bout of coughing come up in his throat at that. Or maybe the air down here was just getting too thick. 

„I, a proud demon father, of course will not stand for such insults!“ he finally said, doing his best impression of a mock indignation. 

„Right, and you also won't stand for anything else, considering your current horizontal state, eh?“ Matt continued.

David laughed. 

„Come onnnn... let's go. You're both so embarrassing.“ the hyena girl said, pressing her grey ears flat against her skull. 

David had to admit he did feel awkward around her. He couldn't exactly act like a normal big brother to her considering how much he felt at the mercy of a harsh, hostile environment that she not only knew well but was apparently her home, too. Not to mention they had met just what, an hour or two ago? And under less than ideal circumstances. But despite all her boisterous attitude she was still just a child, and just trying to hide how scared she was. And how easy it was to hurt her, which he really didn't want to think about. 

Maybe he could start by asking her name.

„Rose“ she said. 

He gave her his name, and in return she smiled. He could barely see it in the dim light of the cave, a cave barely illuminated by the flashlight, but it was there. And it made brightly shining fangs stand out much more, something he tried hard to find cute.

-- „Alright, Rose, could you maybe give us a tour of your home? We might be less scaredy cats then.“

Her eyes seemed to narrow at the mention of cats, although it was hard to tell. 

„Fine, follow me. I will keep you out of any more trouble.“

And in fact Rescue Team Otter Know did not get into any more fights, as Rose knew how to pass by other inhabitants of the cave unscathed. More or less, at least. 

The further descent into the depths of the caves passing eventlessly, even if it felt increasingly claustrophobic, with rooms getting smaller and corridors increasingly narrow, longer, and weirdly winding. Rose mentioned something along the lines of how they always seemed to change whenever she was down there, which David found slightly unnerving.
She had no trouble moving through them, though, while Matt and David soon had to crouch to not hit their fuzzy heads. It was also getting warmer and warmer, and uncomfortably humid. 
Then there still were the regular electromagnetic shockwaves, they had started to give both of them a headaches by now, as David could tell looking at his man clutching his head in his paws. Unfortunately he had nothing to help with that in his backpack. Rose was unaffected, even bobbing her head to an imaginary tune the entire time. 
Occasionally, David would happen to shine his flashlight on some pale weed and wonder how they could grow down here, or step into a puddle of water or some trickle of water only to realize how much he was already missing the water. 

Finally, they had reached the sixth level of the dungeon, the deepest one, where they were supposed to encounter the prisoners, the magnetic spheres so unluckily stuck to each other, and also so sorely in need of another playmate. 

To David's and Matt's surprise, this level was just a single, tall room surrounded by another runlet. They looked around and saw wildly whirling pairs of magnetic spheres to the back of it, levitating over a rock that seemed to serve as a table with a game of Settlers of Catan set up on it. 

„BZZZT! BZZZT! HELP... BZZZT...“ 

-- „No need to fear, the rescue team is here“ Matt announced, paws rammed into his sides, oblivious to what was to come. 

„RESCUE! BZZT!“ the spheres exclaimed, moving closer to Matt, faster and faster, acting more like predators locking in on their prey rather than dudes in distress. 

Their whirring was getting as loud and ferocious as a storm now, and a lot of dust was being kicked up, though the playing pieces of the board game miraculously stayed put. 

Matt was still standing there as if mesmerized by the view, but David did not want to see him hacked up by the sharp edges of the magnets of the spheres. He jumped on top of him with a grunt what would have made a boar envious, barely getting him out of harm's way.

Rose also had to quickly dodge the rogue board game fans, letting them bore themselves into the wall of the cave, where the impact grounded them and finally made them separate.

„And that's another rescue completed Otter know to stay winning!“ David could not believe Matt would say this with no hint of irony. 

Both of them now attempted to pull the metallic spheres away from where they were, to stop them hugging the wall. But it proved to be surprisingly difficult. There was just no way to grip them on their smooth round bodies. 

„Man, we are never going to be able to fulfill the second part of our mission this way...“ Matt said, pouting. 

„Come on, let's go!“ he tried to encourage them, to no avail. 

He wasn't sure what to do, and David had to admit he was equally clueless. Also about how to get out of the cave again, but he didn't want to think about that now.

„Did you not want to play some Catan?“ Matt continued to plead. After a few moments, whizzing and whirring could be heard. The spheres peeled themselves off the cave wall and turned to Matt and David, getting a bit too close for comfort again.

„BZZT! ARE YOU OUR THIRD...“ one of them started.
 
„...AND FOURTH PLAYER?“ the other one finished

„Yes!“ Matt announced, with way too much pride, in David's opinion.

„WONDROUS! LET US BEGIN!“ They levitated leisurely over to the game board, still standing.

„IT IS EQUIPPED WITH ELECTROMAGNETIC CONTACTS. ALLOWS MOVING OF PIECES ONLY WHEN SIGNAL IS TRANSMITTED, RELEASING ELECTROMAGNETS. BZZT“ the first one began, eye fixated on the table as pieces were moved around, seemingly just by staring. 

„BZZ-BBZT! MOST USEFUL FOR A HANDS-FREE APPROACH TO GAMING!“ the other one cheerily continued.

„But do we not have to worry about the same electromagnetic waves shocking us here?“ David asked. 

Rose stepped towards the table and sat down next to it. „Don't worry, you two. Those don't reach down here. This room is isolated, you can get thrown into it by the waves ... if you are not careful, but the waves can't enter it themselves.“

-- „And how do we get out again?“ David continued. 

„Uhhh... I don't think I have been out before...“ she replied with some hesitation.

„It's been a long time since I played this game! Let's worry about everything else later, okay?“ Matt said, already eyeing some good starter positions for his village.

David shrugged and did the same. At least he had remembered to pack some food this time. And a pillow. 

***

Chapter 3: „I know you better“

Two furry cavemen below a lake, playing, haggling, quibbling. Settling Catan, digging mud, robbing sheep. 

„BZZT“ one of their floating spherical playmates said. „BZZT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT. I NEED THAT SHEEP FOR A TOWN“, holding onto the metal-clad sheep card by not releasing it from the electromagnetic grip that kept it floating in the air. 

„Come on, man, you just have to accept that sometimes for sheep the grass is greener on the other side“ David said, fruitlessly trying to pull it towards him. 

„FINE!“ the victim of robbery said and abruptly stopped the electromagnet, leaving David to fall on his back.

„Most painful board game I ever experienced..." he exclaimed. It wasn't just that this had happened for the fourth time already. These sheep had crushed many of his dreams today, and there seemed to be no end to it.

And so the game was soon concluded with a victory for the shepherd when the sheep learned that the grass was not in fact greener on the other side and finally allowed for total magnetic domination of the island with the sheer amount of wool they were producing alone. The grain-and-mud based villages of Matt and David proved to have been no match for Big Wool, and the other magnetic faction seemed to have colluded with the sheep just to see the otters flail and fail. 

David felt like he knew now why they had been so desperate to find new players for their game. And now he was stuck with them in this cave. He definitely was not about to go the same way back and risk facing the execution committee of this subterranean world again, though. Even just thinking about it was making heart race. 

He looked to Matt, who was still looking at the table, fuming, looking like he would want to flip over the board if all the pieces weren't held in place by electromagnets. He wasn't usually this much of a sore loser, but then again he was weirdly aggressive today anyway...

„BZZT! THANKS FOR LETTING US PLAY YOU... I MEAN WITH YOU!“ the victor cheerily announced, as if trying to break the tension. 

„NOW ...“ hesitation creeping into their buzzing, distorted voice, „... A WAY OUT IS STILL NEEDED“ 

David sighed and took out some dried trout he had packed as a snack. This seemed like it might take a while. He settled down on a rock and passed his man something to gnaw on, too. He had to try to calm his nerves somehow. 

The spheres looked around, but could could get no answers from the small crowd. Matt stared daggers at them, chewing on the fish aggressively, David looked at the ground, observing a puddle forming in a tiny cavity, feeling like standing at the edge of a huge sinkhole staring into the abyss, and Rose was silently observing the runlet flowing around the room, hugging the walls. 

Finally, she groaned loudly. „Archeus help us, has no one here paid attention in school? Or do they not teach you properly above the ground? Look at this runlet--“

„What?“ David snapped, jumping up, believing he had witnessed his adopted demon summon a much bigger one and began frantically searching for this „Archeus“ figure. After all, couldn't anything happen at this point? What if it just manifested into the room out of thin air? But nothing happened, and Rose just turned towards him, brow furrowed. 

„What... what are you doing?“

„Expecting the arrival of a much bigger presence...“ He knew even in that moment he wasn't usually like this, usually didn't feel like his nerves would fry him alive if he didn't find out what was going on here right then and there. 

„What? Come on, don't act stupid... er than you are. There's just us here.“

David felt like that was exactly the problem. He was grasping at his hair, but it was too short to pull at it. 

The magnetic spheres floated over to Matt, asking: „BZZT! HAS HE LOST HIS MIND OR JUST HIS MEMORY?“

Matt didn't answer and kept staring at them angrily. 

„BZZT... PERHAPS THAT LAST FALL ON THE GROUND WAS ONE TOO MANY...“ one of them said, casting their eye down, dejected.

„Is there no way out of this?“ David nearly shouted, with a tone of desperation that resembled a plea to the heavens that he was so far removed from now. 

„That's exactly what I was going to tell you, stupid! Just look!“ Rose exclaimed, still trying to draw everyone's attention to the runlet

But David wasn't looking. He was now pacing up and down the room. Neither was Matt, who was still locked in a staring contest with the other game night host. 

She snarled in frustration and gave up on explaining. The sound finally alerted David to her, yet it also made him feel apprehensive over the hyena girl he had effectively adopted earlier. He felt his odd, visceral fear deepening, like an instinctual drive his rational side was chiding him for. Why would he be afraid of a child? And that's when he noticed the fear of this fear starting to overtake. This was getting out of hand. Now there were two of them? 

„Hello? Everything okay there? You seem to be shaking oddly.“

„I am... not, shaking“ he said.

Rose went and grabbed an open water bottle from his backpack. 

„Oh yeah? Then hold this for a bit.“

He didn't refuse and took it between his paws. The water flew everywhere and the spheres quickly floated away to shelter. 

„Okay, maybe a bit... Sorry.“ he said.

Rose ignored it and pointed to the runlet.

„Anyway, see how the water seems to come straight out of the ground? That means it's coming from a spring in this room, and then on the other side going through a sinkhole“ she said.

She pointed across the room to where the runlet disappeared into the ground again.

 „So I think there has to be some cave or something even further below. We should investigate it!“

And before she had waited a moment, she jumped in to the water and to the surprise of everyone present, had wholly disappeared with a loud splash. 

David didn't hesitate and jumped after her. It was ice cold water, surprisingly deep and murky from all the limestone that had been slowly dropping from the stalactites in the room. But it felt fresh, especially after the hours spending so many hours in the moist, humid underground air. His dizziness was washed away within moments and he wished he could stay where he wanted forever.  

But he couldn't relax. He couldn't see her anywhere even after having dived full in. He went deeper until he realized the walls to the left and right had vanished and he was in what appeared to be a waterfall, loudly crashing into the small plunge pool, from which the runlet continued.

Ouch.

„Come on, did you need to be so dramatic?“ a familiar voice complained from a few strokes. If he wasn't hurting now all over his body he would have been even happier. 

He saw her swimming some distance ahead of him.

„Sorry I was wrong, though. Turns out this was the sinkhole, and the spring was on the other side... but look, there's some light in the distance.“ 

He could barely see anything in the darkness, having left his flashlight behind, and couldn't even stand here properly either, bumping his head repeatedly against more stalactites, but there was something faintly glimmering in the distance. And before that, what seemed like holes in the ceiling letting in some light further ahead. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed the walls were tinted in a dark blue and had large groups of mushrooms glowing in green on the walls to the left and right. 

Coupled with the fresh water, he felt like he should make this his new home, nothing from the outside could bother him, and he had a direct connection to the lake and its fish. He was a bit caught in the moment, just floating on the water, not even hearing the crying of another otter falling down the waterfall. It wasn't until he was briefly submerged into the water by something that had hit his back that he realized someone else had come down the sinkhole.

„Oof“ Matt exclaimed, looking around for David, who said no such thing, since his mouth was filled with water. Matt noticed this a moment later when he figured out how he managed to have such a soft landing on a peculiarly fuzzy ground. 

- „Uhh, ... well, at least we are even now?“ Matt tried to joke, although when David had managed to get up, spit out the water and  look at him he saw nothing but a very strained effort at a grin that would have made David wince if he didn't already from the pain in his back.

 „I'm...“ he began, before more water forced its way out through coughs that only served to reinforce the concern on his man's face. „... fine.“ he finally managed to finish, involuntarily adding an „ouch“, Matt's uncharacteristically frown made David cringe on the inside. 

„No really“ he began anew. „I'm ... I'll be fine, don't worry, please. You never do.“ 

Matt didn't say anything in return, and just looked down. They began to swim to the exit in silence, but it seemed to quickly become unbearable for both of them.

„But what's now going to happen with our game night hosts? We were supposed to rescue them, weren't we?“ David asked.

- “Our clients, you mean?“ Matt replied. 

„That doesn't sound right. This isn't a business relationship, is it?“ David involuntarily imagined meeting with the magnetic spheres to negotiate a job offer, agreeing to work for them. But the mental image collapsed when he realized he had no idea what, if anything, these unusual beings even ate. Would they even have a need for it?

- „We do a job for them, they give us a reward. It's close enough, isn't it?“ A hint of cheekiness seemed to already have returned to Matt's voice. 
„Anyway“ he began again, „I was supposed to tell you from them that they won't come this way for at least an hour, because they are worried about accidentally fizzle-...“ He paused for a moment, as if his tongue had developed a life on its own. “...frizz... sizz- sizzle... ling you. I mean, scare- shock you and your daughter to death with their sparks and stuff if they move through the water here...

„Wait a moment... they explicitly only worry about me? Why not you?“ David asked.

- „Uhh... heh, I guess we aren't the best of friends...“ Matt tried clearing his throat, but just got water into it in the process. It took him a while to cough it up again.

„Just what did you do?“ David would have really wanted to see the look on the other otter's face now. And maybe grab him by the neck, gently.

„We... might have gotten into a bit of an argument over ... the... the game.“ If David hadn't been so distracted by his surroundings, he might have remarked at the time how uncharacteristic it was for Matt to stumble so much over his words. But he was, so he didn't.

„I might have pushed them over the edge, and then they pushed me, and that's why I landed on top of you. ...“ Matt continued, before adding a hasty „...Sorry about that again.“ under his breath. 

David just sighed, submerging his head in the water for a moment to do something about the pulsating pain near his forehead that had appeared all of a sudden for no reason whatsoever.

Then, when he needed air he almost hit his head on the rocky ceiling, not having realized that the underground river almost completely filled the cave at this point. 

There was nothing left to do but press forward. His lungs screamed out in silence more and more, a sensation of burning spreading in his upper body, forcing him to clench his teeth, force his mouth shout as he swam on, and on, and on. Stroke after stroke, one more stroke, another stroke, yet another stroke, he could barely see anymore where he was, stroke... stroke... stroke. The burning was spreading to his muscles, he felt a strange compulsion to just let go and float in what felt a sheer nothingness, the world around him already erased. 

But it wasn't getting dark, it was all in fact getting brighter. Brighter, and brighter, the more he tortured himself by still going forward, all around him, the dark crystal blue becoming lighter and lighter and a source of light finally appeared on top of him. It seemed to shine a light onto his mind as well, as he slowly registered he had escaped the confines of the dungeon and now all he had to do was push upwards and upwards, towards the light. 

He heard nothing, no one, felt nothing, just pain, his eyes now almost falling shut as he fought with the exhaustion, but he could smell the difference, and taste it. He had not yet resurfaced, but the very visceral memory of wrestling in the very same water with Matt just earlier in the morning had, giving him an unexplainable desire, burning stronger than even his pain, to seek Matt out again and pick up where they had left, he just had to go up, up, up... u p w a r d s and then the world abruptly went pop and he breathed it in and the pain slowly out.

The colors and shapes of the world gradually reappeared around him, feeling strangely both very distant and all too close and real for a moment as David readjusted to being fully among the living again, now frantically searching for his mate. Matt still needed to see how tough he really could be, earlier he had probably let him off too easily. Although it was difficult to remember, it already feeling like an eternity ago. He turned and turned, eventually realizing he was close to the same shore they had heard the human butterfly cry for help. 

But now there was a new sign, and in front of it Matt was already standing, arms crossed. The training would have to wait, then.

„<<-- RESCUE TEAMS GO THIS WAY“ the sign said.

„Man, can you believe it? Someone already took our idea and copied it.“ Matt said.

--„Your idea, you mean...“ David responded as he was getting out of the water and slowly swaying moved towards him

„But it's our effort. We form a team. And now there are already other ones trying to take away our clients and get some of that fame?“ 

David noticed how Matt was getting exasperated, but he had no energy left to argue. Still, after a few weird moments of silence, he said:

--„If more people want to help, that can only be a good thing, right?“

„We'll see about that...“ Matt now finally turned towards his man, only to flinch when he saw him barely being able to stand up. „Oof, what happened to you? Are you okay?“

--“Jus-just a bit tired. I think I'll feel great if I can rest a bit, that river took a lot more out of me than I thought...“

„You're out of shape! Man, we really need to train more if we are to rescue more monsters and demons here. Especially if we aren't the only rescue team here anymore. I don't want you to just keel over at some point...“

--„I wonder how far away it is, whatever we are supposed to go to. I can still walk a bit...“ David tried to sound reassuring, but was undermined by his heavy, labored breathing and unusually quiet voice.

„No way, what if this is actually a trap set by someone? Maybe even a corrupt rival team? We need to be on guard here.“

„Uhhh“ David raked his mind trying to think of a way to avoid being left alone here again, like it had happened in the cave. He didn't want anything to happen to Matt again. „you know, what if that is what they want us to think? After all, they clearly expected us here, having put up that sign...“

Matt's eyes briefly widened in shock. „Oh right! Let's hurry away from here, then. I'll help you walk“

Against David's weak protests, Matt put his own arm around David, supporting him walk. It wasn't the intimacy David disliked, it was that he wasn't being trusted to stand on his own two feet anymore. Maybe that was even justified, but it hurt nonetheless. On some deep visceral level. But he didn't want to upset his friend let alone argue with him either, so he felt he had no choice but to let it happen.

The way the sign pointed to was fairly simple to follow, even and clear, leading them into the forest they had already visited, full of pines and spruces, creeks gently flowing through it. But this time, no voice seemed to call out from it. In fact, it was almost eerily quiet. Still, the way remained obvious enough at least, evidently having been used a lot by a lot of people... and maybe also other creatures. David still wasn't sure who it was he had been talking to all day. Heck, he still wasn't even sure who *he* was. 

The rush of the previous events had kept the thoughts at bay, but now that he didn't even have to focus on where he was walking to anymore it flooded his mind again. And now he needed a way to let it drain again. But it was no use, the more he tried to focus on other things, the past days, his surroundings, animals, Matt, it all just made him circle back to his present state. It was beginning to wear him down, and he slowed down, which abruptly made Matt slow down, too. David could see the increasing amount of concern in his eyes and so scrambled to pick up pace again. He wanted to smile, too, but his muscles didn't follow. 

A moment later something hit him with such force, he would have almost fallen if he hadn't been carried by the stronger arm of Matt. Where was Rose? He was feeling like abysmal father at that moment, that he had managed to lose her out of sight so easily. His body began to shiver and Matt hugged him closer. 

„What's wrong, man? Tired?“ he asked. David looked up. It really was getting dark now, they had spent the whole afternoon and then some in that cave. It didn't seem wise to be spending dusk in an unknown forest far away from all their things. Well, their remaining things. Much of what they had taken with them into the cave had stayed behind or gotten lost or broken during their escape, although David was still carrying the mostly empty backpack at least. 

„Where ... where is Rose?“ David said. 

- „Oof.“ Matt replied, ever rhetorically gifted. „I don't know.“ 

David winced. Matt didn't need to do any accusations, David's mind was filled with them already. 

„Let's keep going. She's not here at least. Maybe she got ahead of us.“ Matt said, but his tone was lacking any of the usual enthusiasm, sounding almost a bit like a plea. 

David, although still shivering, complied and started moving again. Not long after, a clearing appeared in the distance. As they got closer, they soon had a piercing rhythm of drums resonate in their entire bodies that only got louder with every step they took, accompanied by the sweet melodious tunes of a trio of flutes and the crackling of a large campfire that illuminated the whole clearing. 

Once they had reached the end of the way, where it opened out into the campfire site surrounded by a number of larger oval constructions from wood that had grass growing on their roofs. Between the two, about a dozen creature-people seemed to have their eyes set on three figures standing in front of the fire, flanked by drum and flute players. And then above all of them they saw four familiar shapes, shiny and bright they glittered in the light of the fire. So the magnetic spheres had already found their way here, too!

„Oh my god.“ Matt whispered. „What is this place?“

„As long as we didn't disturb an ancient summoning ritual we should be fine“ David said. Matt gave him an incredulous look.

„What, after everything that happened this strikes you as weird? A simple concert near a bonfire?“ David continued, wondering why it was him that for once was that was not startled by another ... unexpected discovery.

- „No, I mean, look. They are clearly honoring a rescue team there. It must be one.“

„Why?“

- „Well, the path the sign showed us led us to here. Presumably the same was the case for them, unless the sign used to say something else before?“

David wasn't sure if this conclusion meant that Matt would make a very good or very bad detective. A familiar crackling sound -- distinct from the crackling of the bonfire, a buzzing sound underlying it -- alerted him that a certain multi-spherical being (or two) might have overheard them both and now weigh in on the question. He just hoped they hadn't inadvertently offended anyone.

„BZZT! THERE YOU ARE! JOYOUS SIGHT“ their clients, all four of them, said in unison. The magnets attached to their round metallic bodies were flipping up and down in apparent delight.

„BZZ-BZZT! YOU SAVED US! AND OUR GAME NIGHT“ two of them said, presumably the ones they met in the cave. But David couldn't tell them apart. Not even a little bit. No matter how much he looked, they looked like quadruplets.

- „You're welcome!“ Matt was quick to reply with an uncomfortable amount of pride.

„PLEASE HAVE THESE TOKENS OF GRATITUDE“ one of them continued before floating away momentarily and reappearing with another small assortment of curious-looking berries in various colors and shapes, as well as an unusually large apple carefully balanced on top of them.

Matt's eyes were beaming at the sight. He grabbed the rewards with a loud „Thanks“ that probably was loud enough to be heard even by those celebrating the other rescue team near the bonfire. To say that David was surprised to find out there were evidently other ones, too, was an understatement. But he couldn't really find fault with Matt's reasoning this time. That just raised more questions, though.

„So how come you came to us, and didn't ask someone with more ... experience?“ David asked.

„BZZ... WELL...“ one of their shiny customers began, before trailing off into an awkward pause.

„NONE OF THE OTHER TEAMS WOULD TAKE OUR REQUEST. BZZT-BZZT.“ another one finally replied with their solitary eye and magnet limbs cast towards the ground. „NO ONE ELSE HERE SEEMS TO APPRECIATE BOARD GAMES MUCH.“

„What, but they are awesome!“ Matt burst in.

„AND SO ARE YOU! BZZ!“ a third of the spherical creatures cheered. 

„BUT HE REFUSED ALL OUR GREAT TRADING DEALS.“ the fourth one said, before turning to Matt. „YOU ARE TOO ATTACHED TO YOUR SHEEP!“

„Wait, was this what your argument was about?“ David asked Matt.

- „Yes...“

David groaned internally. He didn't want to see another fight in public involving Matt, like the almost weekly ones he remembered from college. 

„Who is being celebrated there?“ he asked, pointing to the drums and flutes, just trying to redirect the attention. 

- „BZZT?“ their customers replied in unison, as if not understanding the question. 

„Like, is that another rescue team there?“ Matt added.

- „BZZT - SURELY YOU KNOW ABOUT TEAM  A. C. T.?“ one asked. 

A small shudder overcame David, as he felt he had inadvertently marked himself as an outsider with no clue about anything. Which, to be fair, he was. But it still hurt.

„ABRACADABRA CREED TEAM IS THE MOST POWERFUL AND FAMOUS TEAM! THEY HAVE RESCUED MANY OF US HERE.“ another one explained.

„THE ABRACADABRA CREED IS TO HELP THOSE IN DESPAIR, AND CRUSH THOSE WHO BRING DESPAIR“ the third elaborated.

„CRIMINALS FEAR THEM!“ the fourth exclaimed.

David tried to get a closer look at them, but they were standing too far away from where that other rescue team was receiving their honors, with the bonfire in the way, too. All he could make out was that they were tall and towering creatures, intimidating figures he would not want to cross.

„Could they help us find Rose?“ David asked, gaining a spark of hope.

- „BZZT! YOUR CHILD? BZZ...“ the first one replied. „DID SHE GET LOST? MY SYMPATHIES TO YOU.“

- „BZZ-ZT! I THINK I SAW HER ON THE WAY HERE, SHE MUST HAVE PASSED THROUGH THE VILLAGE AT LEAST.“ the third said. 

„That is something, at least. Thanks! We will ask them.“

- „Nah, leave that all to me!“ Matt said. David had mixed feelings on this, but didn't say anything. He probably wasn't in the right frame of mind for talking to celebrities right now anyway. Someone with an overflowing sense of confidence was probably the man for the job here, since it would at least be of some use here.

Matt didn't waste any more time and made his way to where the heroes of the village were still standing, not paying attention to all the creatures staring at him as he pushed past them, moving in big strides towards the stage. But David felt them all the more, or at least felt they were staring at him. He didn't actually dare to look at anyone. His mind was increasingly scrambled the more he thought, and just wished this trip had remained as solitary as Matt had promised when he first had brought it up.

The music had stopped and the only sound they he still heard was from the bonfire crackling and spitting, everyone else stunned into silence. Still, he walked on, not wanting to just stand where he was surrounded by eyes judging him already, preferring to stay close to his furry man. Who was already addressing the stage. David realized he could now finally get a good look at Team Act.

Three beastly people were staring down at them. Mostly at Matt. 

On the left, an orange-colored dragon with two horns on his head, a a rectangular snout with raised nostrils, huge bat-like wings with blue-greenish undersides in addition to two arms with three claws each and a large cream-colored belly. But the most striking feature of the creature was the long tail, having the same colors and a burning flame at the end that seemed to never go out. 

On the right, a veritable dinosaur in a grayish green, standing on two legs with strange large triangular black holes in them, with spikes on his head, back and short tail. While most of his body seemed covered in a thick stone-like skin, a diamond-shaped patch on his belly had blue-gray scales on it instead. Above it, to the left and right, were triangular black holes akin to those on his legs, but smaller. 

The creature in the middle was the hardest to describe. He wasn't like anyone or anything David could remember ever having seen, not even in myths. Very vaguely he resembled a human, with two clawed legs and arms with hands, each having a thumb and two other fingers holding a spoon made from bone. But a very spindly, almost skeletal man, covered in thin yellowish ocher fur, an angular head with two very pointed ears resembling horns and a mustache almost as wide as his body was hanging from his small, triangular snout. His chest, shoulders and joints seemed to be covered in some kind of armoring. 

„Excuse me... sirs, would you be able to help us look for a small hyena girl that passed through here? She's our daughter, small, gray fur, feisty“ said Matt, not missing a beat.

The spoonholder in the middle hesitated before answering, briefly looked towards his team members to the left and right, shifted slightly to the back before saying:

„Rather coldhearted, I am not. To save the otters' daughter, a large search is needed. My strong team can whip up a powerful effort. It's an easy matter for us.“

David's eyes brightened, and he was about to speak up, but the apparent leader of the team continued.

„Please submit a drawing of your daughter and where to look for her on the message boulder of the village. Thanks.“

- „Oh“ was all David could get out now and turned to leave. Matt soon followed after him, equally wordlessly. 

After some minutes of walking away from the crowd, Matt finally spoke up.

„What a weirdo. Who talks like that?“ 

He didn't get a response, so to kill the awkwardness that was befalling the situation he attacked it with all the energy he could muster at the end of the day.

„Come on, where's this rock? We got some drawing to do!“

Still nothing. In the shadows, away from the bonfire, David was barely visible now, as if he was disappearing. Matt sighed.

„It's going to get cold. We'll have to find some shelter... and even with our fur we might need to snuggle up, again“ he said. 

It finally made David snicker, and quickly Matt was, too. After a bit of walking around the village with just the bonfire and moonlight to guide them they eventually found a small hut at the edge of the village that seemed presently unoccupied and had enough room for both of them. 

The floor was for the most part simply soil that seemed strangely disturbed, like it was composed of several unusually large molehills, but there seemed to be a large heap of dried moss and grass in the corner Matt decided to spread out to use as bedding. 

The owner of this place, if there was one, would surely understand, David hoped. 

As they lay down, close to each other, Matt asked:

„Are you worried, man?“

- „Uhh, no...“ David replied.

„I know you better. There's probably no one more worried than you in the world now.“ This time, Matt didn't wait for a reply before continuing. „Listen, we will find her. And if we have to do it ourselves. Even if it means climbing the tallest mountain.“

***

Chapter 4: No, we're not doing that

Two furry men in the forest, sleeping, dreaming, being woken up by the earth rumbling and then shaking. Walls trembling and the air filling with the squeaking and creaking of the wood. For a moment that seemed like eternity, they held each other close, not entirely convinced the simple construction around them would prevail. But then it was over, and they fell back into an uneasy sleep.

When David finally opened his eyes again, alerted by more rumbling of the ground next to him, he had six of them staring back at him. Three bald, perfectly smooth heads that were covered in thin brown fur and sticking out from the soil in front of him. They seemed to be connected with each other, forming a triangle of sorts, and opened their mouths simultaneously: 

„You're the otters that needed help last night, yes?“

David just stared back, which didn't deter the group of heads. 

„Pardon the rude awakening, but you're in our house. We will let you stay here, but you have to help us. Our child was abducted by a metallic beast this morning during the earthquake, whisked away to the peak of the tallest mountain here. And we think we saw your daughter running after them, too.“

David opened his mouth and closed it again. He still didn't know what to say. 

„Please, we need your help. We must go.“ the moleheads continued and then disappeared into the ground again. 

The ensuing silence was finally broken by Matt laughing.

„Guess neither of us has to worry about never having gone to art school now, huh?“ He gently poked David's sides. „The message boulder will be spared of our attempts at drawing now.“ 

The grin on Matt's face was both slightly unnerving and oddly comforting at the same time, David thought as he was still laying on the makeshift bed. His man was already up and ready. 

„Come on, get up. We got some rescuing to do!“ Matt exclaimed, and David still wondered what had become of their vacation, but then he thought of Rose, and he reluctantly left the embrace of the surprisingly comfortable dry moss and grass behind. 

But it didn't want to let him go. Much of it stuck all over his body. And, he quickly realized, also Matt's.

„Man, look at yourself.“ David told him. „You can't possibly show yourself to everyone like that. Got to take care of your ... fur“ The last word almost didn't want to leave his mouth. 

--“Do you want to help me with that?“ Matt grinned.

David just groaned and picked off the straw and other plant matter off his good friend. He didn't want to admit he actually enjoyed it, because Matt didn't need more encouragement to act like a child. Once done, he also rid himself off what still clung to him. Well, except for the worries, those were still there, of course. 

It was getting obvious that he needed a comb. Where could an otter get a comb here... He had to hope there was some kind of market here, or someone to borrow one from at least. 

He took his backpack, stepped outside and felt the sun blinding him. Was it always that bright? Or maybe it was all giving him a headache. It didn't matter, he had to move on. There wasn't any time to lose, but where even was this mountain they were both supposed to go to? Tallest mountain wasn't exactly specific. 

„A new day, a new rescue! Otter Know, where to go!“

As if on cue, the soil right in front of him rumbled and the trio emerged again. 

- „To Mt. Steel! Please, we need your help! Goodbye!“ And with that, the moleheads disappeared again.

„Okay, now just to find out where that mountain is...“ David muttered.

They would have to ask someone at the village. It was already bustling with activity, with many beastpeople engaging in repair work after the earthquake. Lizardmen (or perhaps lizardwomen) reminiscent of chameleons, one in green, one in purple, were repairing a market stall. A peculiar looking plant was walking by, using roots as legs and two large leaves as arms, with two eyes on a pitcher, reminiscent of certain carnivorous plants, scrutinizing the wares. 

Further on, near the bonfire site, was a man entirely in green and light blue wearing a gigantic lilypad with a notch in it as a hat lazing on a mossy stone and taking in the sunlight. Behind the site, in front of the stage to the left, were two other stalls, showing signs of recent repair. One manned by a catman in beige clothing with whiskers, triangular ears and a red gem on the forehead, and the other by a large rabbitwoman, her body, except for a white belly garishly pink, appeared to be unusually bean-shaped. It wasn't clear to David what they were offering. 

Two more stalls were to the right, one down a side path staffed by a veritable brown bipedal dinosaur mother carrying a child in her pouch, and one further away in front of the stage that belonged to a very round man covered entirely in green crouching in front of a house that seemed to be the site of martial arts teaching. 

There was unfortunately no sign of any tourist bureau or of the trihead mole. So they would have to ask the beasts one by one if they knew anything. It felt increasingly wrong to call them demons, especially since none of them were as hostile as the ones in the forest or the cave they had been to. 

Matt approached the lizardpeople's market stall and David followed right behind. It had an impressive amount of apples, berries, seeds, scarves, and various colorful gemstones on display.

„Hello“ the green lizard greeted them with a sing-song, before looking at them more closely and saying. „Oh, you're the two new people here“ in a much flatter voice. 

„The Team Otter Know... about us: we are a rescue team!“ Matt responded.

- „But last night you seemed to need a rescue yourself!“ the lizards laughed.

„We were a rescue team in need of a rescue, but now we are a rescue team on the way to a rescue!“

- „You decided to do the rescue yourself?“ the green one asked.

„Yes!“

- „Very well.“ the lizard said as he broke eye contact with Matt. „Good luck with that and have a nice day!“ the purple one next to him added. To David it seemed like annoyance barely cloaked in politeness.

„Thanks! We had plenty of luck on our past missions already, but this one might be much more difficult, so it's appreciated“ Matt said, and David wasn't sure if it was obliviousness or if Matt simply chose to ignore the cue.

- „Wait, really?“ both lizards exclaimed, eyes wide open.

„Yeah, we have been very successful already!“ Matt boasted. „We rescued a caterpillar de-, I mean child and, uhh, brought back joy to two inhabitants of this power station.“ 

David realized they maybe should have asked for their names at the time. 

- „Ohhh, our metallic neighbors? In that case I apologize for my glibness and am honored to be in the presence of a committed rescue team.“ the green one said. „Please do take a look at our wares.“

Matt picked up two scarves, in red and ocher, passing the latter to David. „Try this one!“ Putting them on, they both immediately felt more like heroes ready to take on the world. And David felt the colors suited them wonderfully, too. 

- „Excellent choices. These are locally made and called Pecha and Persim. They can be infused with a certain juice and ethereal oil that will keep many poisonous insects away from you, or keep you alert in disorienting moments.“ The green lizard passed two small wooden bottles that upon opening smelled very, very strongly of pine in one case and peppermint in the other.

„Please also take a look at the special medical seeds we have available here.“ the purple one exclaimed, pointing to an assortment of large yellowish and golden seeds in front of him. „No rescue team should lack them on a quest, they can either make you or anyone else fall asleep, relieve pain or work as an antidote when poisoned.“ 

„But...“ He rummaged around in a crate below the stall and held up a few seeds that were of a distinctively darker shade and continued speaking in a hushed tone. „maybe you actually will find these the most interesting. If you give those to anyone standing in your way, their heads will start spinning and they won't be able to see what hit them. Just don't accidentally eat them yourself, especially since they also taste terrible. ... Don't ask me how I know that.“

David was amazed, but then began shifting nervously from one foot to the other. „These are all wonderful, but we have nothing to give to you in return.“ 

- „Don't worry“ began the green lizard. „In these days of disasters we are all more than grateful for any help. Even from strangers. Take what you need. And - “ he held up the box with gems David had noticed earlier but dared not asking about - „marvel at our collection of these most valuable and powerful stones we have gotten from hard-working people far and near!“

Those were the shiniest and most brightly colored pebbles and rocks David had ever seen, mesmerizing was the only way he could describe it at the time. Blue, black, orange,  round, rectangular, shapeless. shiny, iridescent, matte... hey, wait a moment. David picked up a lackluster, jet black stone with rough edges and a completely irregular shape. It had a thread running through it, making it a pendant,  which was a moment later hanging from his man's furry neck.

„A matte for Matt!“ David exclaimed with a wide grin.

- „Another excellent choice! That is an obsidian, a powerful stone forced from the fire deep inside Earth. It protects you from negative energy. Whatever that might be.“ the lizard said. 

„Can we keep it?“ Matt asked.

- „Of course. And take two of these sleep seeds as well. Thanks for your visit!“

„Uhh, thanks“ Matt replied and silently put the seeds into his backpack.

- „We didn't even get to ask about where this Mt. Steel is...“ David muttered as they walked towards the center of the village square where the bonfire had been last night. 

Matt muttered something unintelligible. 

- “What?” David said, turning to him. “Don’t tell me we got stuck with a cursed amulet that the lizards were glad to get rid of because it takes away your ability to speak.”

Matt seemed to ponder the it for a bit with an exaggerated pose, looking at the sky with a paw resting at the chin. Then he shook his head, but still said nothing regardless.

- “Hey, you decided to let me do the talking now or what?” 

Smug silence.

- “Fine... Watch.”

David approached the Lilypad Hat Man, still taking in the sun on some flat rock.

- “Hey Mr. Lilypad Hat Man. I don’t mean to disrupt your early... late morning sunbathing session, but could you tell us someone who is familiar with the mountains here.” he said.

“It’s afternoon already, Mr. Shorts Guy. Are they as comfy and easy to wear as I heard? And you should probably head over to ... Mr. Blues. He’s got all the clues. I just hang around here, whereas he meditates under the waterfall every day or something.”

- “Oh. ...” An awkward moment later David collected himself and asked: “Where... where is that waterfall? 

“Turn around and follow your nose until you fall into the water. There it is.”

- “Ah, thanks...” 

After a few steps towards this wet destination, Matt finally made some sounds again. Specifically, he broke out into a giggle. He did a poor job containing it, if he even tried at all, soon it was laughter that was probably was audible across the entire village. 

David at first felt ashamed, but the look on Matt’s face convinced him otherwise. Life with Matt had taught him to smile at things more, and he was grateful for that. 

The two of them walked down a small path past the market stall of the lizards on the left and the catman on the right. The catman didn't have any wares, he was just standing at a seemingly empty stall with a polite smile. 

Soon the sounds of the village were drowned out by the gushing of a waterfall in a river that was flowing past the village. A few flat stones in it led to the center of the river where the outlines of a figure were vaguely visible in midst of all the falling water. 

„Mr. Blues, is it?“ David called out.

The burbling of the river fall was the only answer.

„Mr. Blues!“

...

„MR. BLUES!“

Matt began uncontrollably giggling again. When he saw the look on David's confused face, eyebrows furrowed and mouth a pout, it turned into laughter so loud it seemed to finally pierce through the liquid curtain of the man whose knowledge they sought.

„LAUGHTER IS THE BEST APPROACH TO ALL THINGS.“ he shouted, to be heard even with all the water still falling around him.„WHAT DO YOU SEEK?“

Matt stepped forward and shouted, as loudly as he could:

„DIRECTIONS TO MT. STEEL“

- „GO BACK THE WAY YOU CAME. TURN RIGHT. AT THUNDERWAVE CAVE, TURN RIGHT AGAIN. YOU WILL SEE IT IN FRONT OF YOU.“

„THANK YOU“ Matt said, and turned to David. „See how easy that was?“

- „MAY LAUGHTER GUIDE YOU ALL THE WAY“

After a few steps back, David exclaimed: „Hey, we still need a comb!“ 

Matt looked at him and said: „Really?“

„Maybe we can ask around if someone has a spare one for you to use...“ David said.

- „No, we are not doing that. We need to get going.“ Matt looked at the sky. „It's late enough in the day we probably won't make it to the mountain before it gets dark, especially if we need to go back to the cave first. We'll need to go to our camp first and take our sleeping bags. It's going to be a long trip.“ 

***

Chapter 5: It's a new day, let's go

Two furry men on a quest, hiking, swimming, moving towards a mountain. And with them, a third friend of unspecified gender, but attractive all the same, at least when it came to certain metals. It was one of their rescued spherical magnetic clients who had insisted on floating alongside them, especially once they had said they were going to Mt. Steel. That friend had been positively beaming upon hearing that name, as if to them it sounded like it would be a trip to Candyland, and David found it hard to reject the desperate buzzing pleas even if Matt still didn't see eye to eye with them. Especially since it seemed they were gaining a companion that knew about this mountain they had to seek out.

Now they had already been to their „base camp“ and collected their sleeping bags and other things needed for a longer trip, including, as David insisted, a comb. But also ropes, matches and some other useful equipment like a pocket knife. Matt was carrying the backpack and a sleeping bag, David just a sleeping bag. Best to travel light, they didn't need a lot of clothing after all. 

„BZZT, YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL.“ their new companion exclaimed, floating over them as they were swimming through the lake again the way they had come. „MORE WEIRD OCCURENCES NEAR THUNDERWAVE CAVE ARE POSSIBLE.“ 

„AND WILL WE PLAY A GAME IN THE EVENING AGAIN, TOO?“ they continued, not having waited for a reply. „I HEARD YOU HAD CARDS WITH YOU.“ Their sole eye landed a suspicious glance at Matt. „JUST HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU PLAY FAIR THIS TIME!“.

Matt was about to protest, but realized it was pointless. The mission they were all on was more important. 

After they had reached the shore, they stopped to have some kind of late lunch. Not feeling like struggling to get some fish again, they limited themselves to some of the nut bars and oatmeal they had with them.

By the time they had reached the entrance to Thunderwave Cave it was almost dark, and they settled down near it, hoping to figure out in what direction Mt. Steel was tomorrow. Much to their companion's dismay it was too dark to play cards already. Not that David had any idea how it was supposed to have worked anyway. Besides, they were probably all too tired anyway, or at least David felt that way. They rolled out their sleeping bags and tucked themselves in. 

But their attempts at sleep didn't last long. 

„Raaah, WHOSE IDEA was sleeping RIGHT NEXT to the cave that sends shocks through you EVERY FEW MINUTES?“ Matt shouted, after being jolted awake for the fourth time in an hour.

„BZZT, IT WAS YOURS!“ their metallic companion exclaimed, annoyed at being tossed in the air by the forces of nature themselves. 

Still, it was too late and dark to look for another place to rest, so they bore it out until dawn, even knowing how crushing their tiredness might be in the morning just being able to lie down for some hours was better than nothing. 

David couldn't help but count the shocks to keep track of how long it would be until sunrise. And 24 shocks later the early birds were already singing, maybe about catching their worms or about how much they enjoyed being part of the 5 AM club of super early risers. Matt and David felt like they had been pressed into its service, and their spherical friend probably felt similar, crackling with unfocused static electricity while unsteadily floating up and down in the air.

„Hang on, we still don't even know your name“ David said to them, in an effort to avoid thinking about how tired he was. 

- „BZZ... IT'S CHRIS...“ Chris said, unable to keep their solitary eyelid open for longer than a moment at a time. 

Looking at them actually made David's eyelids involuntary copy it, and he might have fallen asleep at the spot, if Matt had not given him a 'gentle' shove to look at a mountain in the distance that he hadn't realized was visible to his right, just like Mr. Blues had promised.

A large, wide mountain, covered in snow on the top but with no single prominent summit, being rather weirdly flat even. Only a number of ragged peaks on the side of it were noticeable and added variety to the shape. Some of them had no ice cap, and so appeared like peaks on a cake with black and white frosting. Something David would have enjoyed for breakfast. Cake is a normal breakfast food, right?

Unfortunately, Mt. Steel was still very, very far away, high up in the sky, with huge forests of tall leafy trees in front of it. And neither of them had any mountaineering experience or even any equipment for it. 

How in the world had Rose ended up there? He briefly wondered if it was a cruel joke to send otters so far out of their element, but the headtrio had seemed sincerely distressed. And he didn’t want to distrust them, especially since this involved the son of the molepeople, too. 

Still, for something or someone to have abducted both so far so fast it seemed like it would have required almost supernatural speed. As very natural beings it would take them at least a day to cross the distance. 

„BZZ-ZT! WE NEED TO BE MOVING ALREADY. A GOOD RESCUE TEAM IS A FAST RESCUE TEAM“ Chris urged before David could complain, and he didn't want to risk an argument with someone who was very visibly sparkling with electricity. 

So, once their sleeping bags were rolled up again with Matt shouldering the backpack, their long march to the mountain began with a trek through the forest near the cave, which Chris pointed out as being inhabited by bears, wolves, wolverines and many other furry creatures. They seemed to know a lot more about nature than David had expected. He decided to not ask more about the bears, though, since he figured he needed no additional reasons to worry about the journey in front of them. Why not bring up a safer topic, like trees?

„Do you know what the trees here are called? They have this weird white fluff around many of their seeds“ he asked. 

“BLACK COTTONWOOD! THESE BEAUTIFUL SPECIMENS ALWAYS GROW NEAR THE RIVERS FLOWING PAST MT. STEEL! BZZZ...” 

Chris flew to a particularly large one, two or three steps wide, and inspected its gray, deeply fissured bark.

„THIS ONE IS CERTAINLY 100 YEARS OLD AT LEAST!“

David found it marvelous. Looking up, the tree seemed to stretch up amazingly far into the sky, maybe 30 times as tall as him. 

They all continued walking, and soon the rushing of water was audible. They had arrived at a shore of a river cutting through the forest, larger than any river he ever remembered having seen, being at least twice as wide as the lake they swam through, although it was broken up by some elongated islands in the middle. Despite its size, it was remarkably calm and some of the river channels that together appeared to be forming a single braid even seemed to be rather shallow. David was relieved, not only would this make traversing the area much easier, being near water also put him at ease. He briefly wondered if it had always been like that or if it might be a recent change... but the environment required his full attention if he was to avoid slipping and falling painfully, so that thought didn’t get far.

A fish jumping out of the same river a moment later, intriguingly and ... appetizingly spotted black and gold with a bright red underside put an end to that effort, catching his attention so totally as if the fish itself had thrown out a shiny bait that he couldn't resist. And before he had even lost his balance from the sudden stop on the smooth riverside rocks he had let the sleeping bag fall and jumped into the river in pursuit of his seducer, alerting his travel companions with a big, loud splashing of cold water of his abrupt change in plans.

„David! No! The way to the mountain is not underground!“ Matt screamed out, before turning to Chris and asking: „It's not underground, right?“

--“BZZT! NO, IT'S NOT. IT'S IN FACT RATHER IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.“

Silence, except for the river still rushing and gushing next to them. 

„SINCE IT IS A MOUNTAIN. THEY GO UP.“

Matt stared at Chris, now also ignoring the sound of David violently tossing and wrestling in the water. 

„MAYBE YOU GREW UP NEVER SEEING ONE, BZZT. SO I THOUGHT I WOULD CLARIFY.“

Chris still got no reply, as Matt was now looking to the river again. „David, what are you doing? Didn't you hear?“ he shouted to him.

„I'm hungry!“ came the reply, before David had disappeared into the water again. 

Matt then realized they had both skipped breakfast. Chris floated to Matt's side.

„BZZZT... SORRY, EXCITEMENT ON MY SIDE CAUSED ME TO RUSH AHEAD EARLIER“ they exclaimed.

-- „Aren't you hungry, too?“

„NO, I CAN SUBSIST ON AMBIENT ELECTRICITY. IT'S WHY I LIVE NEAR THUNDERWAVE CAVE.“ Chris paused for a moment. „BZZ, I MUST HAVE BEEN TOO TIRED TO REMEMBER YOU BOTH NEEDED EXTRA TIME TO EAT...“ Their eye was cast down again, as if in shame. 

„It's okay, ma...“ Matt interrupted himself when he realized he needed another word to address them and finally finished his sentence with an awkwardly late „...gnetic fellow“.

Chris' eye brightened up again.

„I'M YOUR GNETIC FELLOW? THEN YOU ARE MY *ENERGETIC* FELLOW! FUZZY FRIEND! FISH FANATIC!“ they added, swirling around happily. 

Matt was wondering about that last term of endearment when he saw that David had inexplicably been successful in his quest for breakfast, standing on all fours in the cold water, fish in mouth. 

„Sashimi again!“ Matt shouted happily and joined in.

Some time later they were on their way again, with renewed determination. The hike between forest and river was actually almost pleasant, even if not relaxing due to how much David still had to watch his step. Slipperiness aside, the terrain wasn't very difficult to cross. And having a food source next to you at all times was reassuring, since their supplies were overall rather meager.

But there was more to it. The smells of the river, the sound of its constantly slowly gushing water and the occasional drops landing on his fur that were soon dried by the brightly shining sun were a comforting presence like few other things lately. 

About half an hour later a smaller channel of the river crossed their way, much narrower, but still at least two dozen steps wide. The darkening sky put a bit of damper on the excitement David would have otherwise felt at the prospect at having an excuse to go swim again. More worrying was that he had started hearing sounds from the forest he would rather not have been hearing. Faintly, but the low growling still made a shiver go down his spine.

Especially since it wouldn't stop. And after a while he couldn't pretend to himself anymore that they weren't nearby, could he? Something stirred deep inside him. Another growl, was it closer? Was he just paying more attention? He found it impossible to judge, and for a moment he was stuck between trying to put it aside and a growing primeval urge to leave. Leave. Leave... A few sticks could be heard broken on the ground somewhere. Leave! it came now clearly from within him, but still he hesitated, frozen in place. More steps, now undeniably approaching. LEAVE! his heart shouted. But his voice failed him and his legs felt like rocks in the ground, and his companions still unnervingly oblivious.

Then a thought appeared in his mind, blocking everything else out. When he was in the river, and later eating, he probably unknowingly had rubbed the smell of raw fish all over his body. Had they turned themselves irresistible to a bear, at least in one specific way? Every muscle inside him convulsed and before he had any chance to even become aware of it, had shifted to move his entire body abruptly forward, in the direction of the water.

A loud „SWIM!“ escaped his mouth before it had even become a thought, and he was in the water again, furiously pushing it to the side, not thinking, just slightly relieved to hear another splash a moment later. 

There was just water for a few minutes, water and some stray twigs and other branches that he almost collided with a few times, until he felt solid ground under him again and collapsed. 

There were no more growls, so maybe washing off the smell had worked. Then he heard quick, wet footsteps emerging from the water and could only get an inch off the ground before he was tackled and slightly painfully brought to meet with the gravel on the shore again.

„Bro, stop running away!“ 

If only the beasts of this cursed forest could at least stop taking on the voice of Matt- 

„I know what you are thinking! But it's me, the same creature you spent today with! As well as most of the whole year, and year before that and...“ 

Okay, maybe he wasn't actually in danger. He sighed, and resigned himself to just lying there.

- „You escaped the bear, too“ he finally said to Matt. 

„What bear?“ Matt asked, with the slightest hint of concern. „There was nothing. No one. No one who could have harmed you, or us.“

- „But the noise, it was coming closer“

Matt was silent for a moment, out of the corner of his eye David could see him turning to Chris who had evidently also safely made the journey across the water.

„BZZT... FRIEND... WHAT NOISE? ONLY YOU WERE BEING LOUD“

David felt like he was in a mental dead end. He didn't want to, couldn't allow himself to question the words of his companions, but also couldn't bear to start doubting his own perceptions. 

- „The b-bear, uhh... sticks breaking, steps...“

„Oh, yeah. There was some distant growling. Well... maybe not that distant now that I think about it. I think I saw some bear destroying some fish slightly upstream, but I didn't pay it much mind.“

Chris floated over to David, stopping in front of his face. 

„BEAR ATTACKS ARE EXTREMELY RARE! YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE HIT BY -BZZT- LIGHTNING“

David briefly wondered if Chris had any power to increase those odds, making it a more technically true statement. But he couldn't find any reason to believe that, even if some feeling nagged at him that he couldn't entirely rule it out.

He just wanted to trust his friends, knowing that it was probably the most important thing he could do. Sometimes it seemed like he only knew that on an intellectual level, that his heart didn't feel it, and it pained him.

Matt finally released David from his grip and allowed him to get up. Wordlessly they continued walking among the trees on the small river island they were on, and just a few hundred steps later they were at the river shore again, overlooking a mixture of river channels and gravel islets that stretched on for much longer. This time, there were no concerning noises and the water was rather calm, so crossing the river entailed a mixture of peaceful swimming and leisurely strolls on gravel until they had reached the other side, which was just as heavily forested as the one they had emerged from. Trees all the way to the mountain, and even clinging to its sides, as if the forest had managed to climb halfway up it. It was all upwards from here. 

Mt. Steel still looked intimating to David, its sheer size alone made sure of that. Sitting below some dark clouds that he hadn't noticed before it remained a towering presence, almost terrifying in some way. But the thought of getting to see Rose again kept him moving, and slowly growing curiosity of what he would find on the top kept his anxiety in check. Also a welcome distraction was the occasional snacking on bird cherries that Matt kept finding along the way. They were horrible. It was hard to imagine something tasting bitterer than that. 

Soon he noticed they had gained a significant amount of height already, and could see far beyond the river and forest they had traversed already. There was, however, no sign of the village no matter how hard David looked. 
 
An hour or so later the ascent began to be steeper, and the now increasingly difficult terrain at least made it easier for his thoughts to not drift off like they did before, but instead a deathly fear of misstepping held him captive. David had tied himself to Matt with a rope, but how much help could that realistically be in the worst case? That he didn't want to think about. 

At first, the trees were a welcome way to get some support, as with Chris' help they could also get ropes tied to those, providing a measure of security. But after a while they had left the treeline behind them and reached rocky terrain interspersed with nothing but grasses and grass-like plants as well as some small, hardy flowers. It had now gotten very rough and unpleasant to walk on the ground, leading David to try to keep to the grassy patches, but they were too sparse for that really to be possible. 

On their way up, Chris had pointed out some large squirrels wrestling on the ground, their black stubby legs, long fur in gray and brown and bushy tail. They were apparently called „hoary marmots“. What a cute name that was. In the distance he spotted some mountain goats on near-vertical cliffs, too, envying how easy they seemed to make even the most difficult climbing look.

The sun was already high up in the sky now, and at the insistence of Chris they settled down on the next slightly larger grassy patch they could find to have lunch. Matt clearly had wanted to just get to the summit as quickly as possible, almost having stormed off if Chris hadn't stopped him by floating to his side and giving him a gentle electric shock with their spherical body. Before Matt could protest, he got a scolding that he took with his grimmest look of the day yet.

„BZZT! YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO EAT. YOU WILL OTHERWISE COLLAPSE HALFWAY TO THE TOP AND FREEZE TO DEATH.“ Their eye had the single most serious expression David had seen yet.  

They ate more of their oatmeal, while being subjected to a lecture by Chris that mountaineers need to eat twice as much to preserve body heat and prevent dangerous sluggishness. By the end of it David was so tired of oatmeal that he started missing the bird cherries. 

Even after the meal, Chris regularly reprimanded the increasingly irritated Matt to keep to a slow pace, and David began to be worried if the conflict between the two would erupt again, in an arguably much more dangerous place. The ground beneath them had quickly become almost entirely barren, with vegetation becoming more and more sparse, and it was getting colder fast. The ice cap seemed to be closer now than any of the trees. Looking up to it, the dark clouds he had noticed earlier were only growing in size. Was it going to rain now? And they hadn't brought a tent. Why not, actually?

Chris noticed David's concerned face and soon mirrored it as best as he could.

„BZZ-BZZT! WE NEED TO FIND SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU EXPERIENCE A STORM HERE, IT *WILL* BE YOUR LAST ONE.“ 

This was not what David had hoped to hear, but fortunately, some distance to the left Matt had already spotted some kind of cavity, maybe even a cave. Hopefully a cave. David didn't think he could ever miss Thunderwave Cave, yet now he found himself doing so as he began to shiver, more out of fear than the cold.

As they slowly, and carefully, started moving towards it, David placed a foot slightly awkwardly and loosened some gravel, starting to slip to his horror, only to be pulled back up by Matt in time. But with the wind picking up, it was obvious there was no time to be lost, and with some luck they managed to avoid any more dangers and had reached the spot when the first raindrops were starting to fall, David's heart already beating furiously by now. 

A closer look revealed indeed a pitch-black space, large enough to stay in. In fact, it seemed to continue on forever. But he didn't mind. It would do for sure. All three of them ventured a few steps inside before Matt and David collapsed on the floor into each other's arms as the storm began to rage outside. 

When they woke up, it was pitch dark outside as well, so they went back to sleep. It still was when they woke up a second time. 

Nonetheless, Matt said „It's a new day, let's go“ and David found himself still too sleepy to argue.



---
[notes]

Describe features of the terrain (hoodoos!) and some of the actual mountaineering. 

Bad weather
Refuge in a cave -> actually a horizontal (drift) silver mine leading to a complex of mines that had just been abandoned due to ferocious attacks of the inhabitants of caves inside the mountain

Chris was so excited to come because the rescue gave him an excuse to go on the dangerous journey to a famous mountain he had heard so much of before that was supposed to be brimming with metal and electricity. 

Add Blast Seeds
Sleep Seeds
etc. (see above chapter 4) 

***

Food:

Do you have any idea what edible there is at or near mountains (or in caves) once the characters of the story I talked about before are no longer near rivers?

[6:24 PM] DzêtaRedfang: really depends on the time of year and the actual environmental differences, impacted by elevation, soil type, and slope
also which side of the mountain it is, esp regarding more south vs more north, and west vs east here, since east is leeward

like, in early spring, lichen, the inner bark of some trees and shrubs, and some small animals are most of what you have available
not entirely sure what fauna specifically live around hoodoo mountain tho
you should have some available nuts even if just pinecone seeds and primarily ground berries tho check ranges on vaccinium and the like, as well as more mushrooms (not sure if morelles or chanterelles or anything truly edible are in that region tho)

you would also then gain access to more wild game, and larger game, through a bunch of them going into hibernation or severely reducing activity in the winter
mid spring should still give you access to fiddleheads
but by summer fiddleheads are opened up

bird cherries are probly in the area too and those tend to be late summer going into early autumn
and idk if any amelanchier species exist west of the rockies, but augustish is usually the time in comparable latitudes in alberta (and tbh, in most of northern ontario)
those have a fairly short picking window tho cause the birds will devour anything that’s ripe within a few days

***

Geography and ecology:

General region: Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province 

Corresponds to Mt Steel in the story: Hoodoo Mountain

GEOLOGY
„Hoodoo Mountain lies within the Boundary Ranges Ecoregion, a mountainous region of the Coast Mountains in southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia characterized by rugged, largely ice-capped mountains of granitic and metamorphic rocks.“ 

„In contrast to its rugged counterparts, Hoodoo Mountain is symmetrical and circular in form.[28][41] It has a basal diameter of around 6 km, [...] and a topographic prominence of 900 m (3,000 ft) [...]. Hoodoos, pillar-like rock formations after which the volcano is named, are as much as 150 m (490 ft) in height and give the mountain a unique appearance.“

„A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations.“

„Hoodoos range in size from the height of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-story building. Hoodoo shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. Minerals deposited within different rock types can cause hoodoos to have different colors throughout their height.“

„In common usage, the difference between hoodoos and pinnacles (or spires) is that hoodoos have a variable thickness often described as having a "totem pole-shaped body". A spire, however, has a smoother profile or uniform thickness that tapers from the ground upward.“

TREES AND RIVERS
„Mountain hemlock, western hemlock and Sitka spruce form forests on valley bottoms and lower valley slopes. They are overlooked by an extensive alpine tundra zone consisting primarily of large icefields, glaciers and barren rock.[9] Several large river valleys with wide braided channels penetrate the Boundary Ranges Ecoregion; black cottonwood [western balsam-poplar] occur on their floodplains.“ 

The „Salmon, Bear and Unuk rivers, which drain directly into marine channels or sounds“

MAMMALS
„The Boundary Ranges Ecoregion habitats—predominantly barren rock, alpine tundra, and low shrubs with some low scrub communities and hemlock-Sitka spruce in lower elevation drainages—support a limited number of mammals (ADF&G 2006). Mammals such as mountain goats and hoary marmots [the largest North American ground squirrel] live in the alpine regions. The forests of the Alexander Archipelago Ecoregion provide habitats for a more diverse range of mammal species such as moose, brown and black bears, coyote, lynx, wolverine, otters, beavers, gray wolves, and rodents and shrews (ADF&G 2006). ADF&G keeps records of animals harvested in Game Management Unit (GMU) 1C, which encompasses the Project area.“

„Furbearers. Furbearers include martens, mink, weasels, fisher, wolverines, otters, lynx, and beavers.
With the exception of wolverines, which can be found at higher elevations, furbearers use mainly
forested, riparian habitats where they find prey, forage, and shelter. [...] River otters are considered most common on inlets and bays of the mainland coast.“

A „small mammal trapping effort at Limestone Inlet resulted in six species captured: masked shrew, dusky shrew, Keen’s mouse, northern red-backed vole, long-tailed vole, and northern bog lemming (Smith et al. 2001). Captures were all in forested habitats“

BIRDS
„There are at least 120 bird species that may occur in the vicinity of the Annex Creek Development (Table 5-3). Their occurrence varies from year-round residents, such as the bald eagle and chestnut-backed chickadee, to migratory birds that breed in the area, such as spotted sandpipers and tree swallows, to migrants that pass through in the spring and fall, or winter in Southeast Alaska, such as some Canada geese“

„There are five amphibians (Table 5-5) that may be found in the Annex Creek Development of the Project
(ADF&G 2006). Amphibians would live in or near wet habitats such as open forest with muskeg and open
water wetlands, and riparian areas.“ 
Long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum), Roughskin newt (Taricha granulosa), 
Western toad (Bufo boreas), Wood frog (Rana sylvatica), Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteventris)

More information: https://www.aelp.com/Portals/0/Assets/Documents/20200701_P2307_LicenseAmendmentApplication.pdf

MINING:

„The Hoodoo Mountain area contains several large mining camps within the floodplain of the Iskut River.[39] Prospecting in Bronson Creek commenced as early as 1907, during which time several mining claims had been staked. This was followed by drifting (horizontal mining), trenching and stripping of several gold-bearing veins between 1910 and 1920.“

***
Corresponds to Great Canyon in the story: Grand Canyon of the Stikine

Corresponds to Mt Freeze in the story: Mt Edziza

***
[STOPOVER AT THEIR BASE CAMP BEFORE DEPARTING TO THUNDERWAVE CAVE TO GET THEIR SLEEPING BAGS, COMBS ETC]

By the time Matt and David reach the mountain (the following day), the workers had been forced to abandon their work after the attacks became an increasing threat, and they in turn get abandoned by their employer who escapes to the peak of the mountain alone where a helicopter is hovering nearby providing an escape, however the departure is disturbed by the arrival of Matt and David who, due to the mental disturbance caused by the psychoactive gas perceive it as a kind of steel bird (resembling a skarmory) and cause damage to it, forcing it to make an emergency crash landing not far from the mountain. 

The employer survives (the pilot's fate is uncertain) but his mind has also been poisoned by the gas, and he perceives himself as a toxic ghost, and manages to convince all the other creatures (due to their gas-warped view of the world) of this as well, while still planning to continue his mining operation, despite the losses. (this is revealed at the very end)

Rose and with the help of the magnetic spheres the duglett are rescued, and Matt and David are now enthusiastically welcomed into the local community, much of which lives in a small village hidden near the lake, not far from the camping site the new rescuers now have turned into their base. 

But as time goes on, disasters happen more and more frequently and rescues get increasingly difficult, the furry people of the lake get increasingly suspicious of the newcomers and rumors start to spread that in fact they might even have something to do with the increasingly everpresent dangers of their world. And Matt and David both are increasingly not sure what to believe themselves. 

The psychoactive gas released by mining that befuddle all the creatures, the earthquakes caused by fracking that threaten the area, are all felt more intensely in caves, the lake and on mountains as well as near certain human-built locations

***

Older notes:



Thunderwave Cave is known to sometimes have waves of its natural static electricity flow through it, paralyzing those inside and temporarily capturing everything metallic in their electromagnetic fields. It was introduced by two strange beings that are composed of metallic spheres of various sizes protecting their sensitive organs and amplifying their electric senses and organs that got hit by a thunderwave and might be stuck there now. 

where they are greeted by two more beings like them who are overjoyed, pay them in mysterious seeds and more berries, as well as promise to spread the good news of the existence of a rescue team 

In the village, they have to introduce themselves and make themselves known (as successful rescuers who can be trusted) to be able to get access to the goods and services the villagers offer (gift economy!)

Rose goes missing alongside a junior diglett and is suspected to have been taken to Mt. Steel by a „metallic beast“ (for unknown reasons) where unbeknownst to everyone else a mining operation by humans is underway, which however is one of the causes of the gas spreading across the nearby region that led to local creatures becoming vicious. 

Matt and David hide in a hut that turns out to be Diglett's family home, where Dugtrio finds them after an earthquake in the morning wakes all three of them up. Dugtrio tasks them with the mission, being impressed with their brazenness last night and having heard from the metallic spheres how the mission in Thunderwave Cave had gone. 

[EXTENSIONS OF GOODWILL AFTER HEARING ABOUT THE RESCUES, GRATITUDE FOR BEING A RESCUE TEAM, BUILDING UP OF TRUST - ALLOWS GRADUALLY INCREASING ACCESS TO GOODS AND GEMS]


Thunderwave Cave is located in, or near a small hill, so the Mt. Steel is better visible from there if you, standing in front of the entrance, turn to the right

Chris knows the way reasonably well (part of the way is alongside the river, followed by crossing it and then moving north, hiking through a forest up the mountain, then continuing when the forest ends until the mountain does, too) and can warn Matt and David to stop them from making mistakes

Watch your step at all times

Water
Food
Backpack (what's inside aside from a comb and food? rope, presumably, first aid kit, pocketknife) and sleeping bags 

River: corresponds to Stikine River

Thoughts about the difficult, uncomfortable terrain, the future and Rose
Mountain goats, hoary marmot

***

„In 2008 a 40,000-year-old bracelet was found in Siberia inside a Denisovan cave, next to ancient human remains. Although the stone itself is made of chlorite, and not considered one of the precious minerals nowadays, it is remarkable in many other ways. The nearest chlorite deposits are 250k away from the chamber where it was discovered, and it’s been carefully polished with a heavy pendant added in the centre“

other gemstones etc. that fit include: lapis lazul, obsidian, amber, opal - these could be introduced (with names) gradually, one by one