“It’s already nighttime,” I said. “I must have been in there all day. No, it could have been longer.”
“Has it really been two days?” asked Noel. “Or three, including today.”
I nodded. I couldn’t see much because of the bright light that flashed when the Immortal of Madness snapped his fingers. Patches of color flooded my vision whenever I blinked. I walked forward while rubbing my eyes.
“Wait!” yelled Noel.
My stomach lurched forward as my foot fell through the ground. No, wait, there was no ground. I was going to fall! Noel grabbed the back of my tunic and pulled me back up and I fell to the ground, breathing hard, once again. I focused into the distance. We were very high up. So high up, in fact, that I couldn’t see the ground. I thanked Noel for saving my life. I would’ve been squished like a bug on a windshield if I fell from here.
“Where are we?” I asked aloud.
“Look,” said Noel pointing to my feet. I looked down and my eyes widened.
We were standing on thin, decaying wood. Looking around, we seemed to be on top of a humongous branch atop an ancient, dying tree. We would have to be careful walking on this surface, since it might collapse under us at any moment. I looked into the distance again. Then I looked up at the night sky. There was only a single, full moon, glaring brightly. No stars, not even the red one.
“He killed the giant tree,” I whispered.
“The Immortal of Desire’s giant tree?” said Noel. She sat carefully on the wood. “I guess there aren’t any other trees tall enough to hide the ground.”
“But isn’t he supposed to love the Immortal of Desire?” I wondered aloud. “Why would he destroy something that belonged to his beloved?”
Noel shrugged. “I think it’s clear he’s a lousy lover.” She stared at the moon, but it didn’t react. Noel clicked her tongue. “And he’s the Immortal of Madness. Madness! Who knows why he does the stuff he does.”
“Good point,” I said. “Explains why he sent us up here for no reason. Any idea how we’re supposed to get down?”
Noel shook her head. I sighed. I put a hand to my head and sat next to Noel. I joined her in staring up at the moon. It looked much larger from this height, or maybe the Immortal of Madness was making it look bigger. Either way, it was beautiful. I took a deep breath, put my hands behind my head and laid back.
“What are you doing?” asked Noel.
“We’ll figure out a way down tomorrow,” I said. “I’m tired.”
“But we have to get back to the camp!” said Noel.
“The Oracle is dead, remember? I dealt with her before I got here,” I said.
“Oh, right,” she said.
“It may have been a short time for you, but I haven’t slept in two days,” I said. “I’ve used a ton of magic and run a long, long way. I’m going to collapse any second now.” My eyes drooped uncontrollably now that the adrenaline rush started subsiding.
“Wait!” said Noel. “Tell me about the tribe! Did you save them?”
“A few dead,” I murmured as my eyes closed. “But most of them are safe. Even Sharun.” My lips felt like lead and I struggled to push out any air. “Good night.”
---
I woke up to an empty stomach at dawn. My lips were parched, and my head and body still ached. Noel was still asleep. I stood up and stretched. I walked over to the edge of the branch. Only a little sunlight had filtered into the sky so I couldn’t see very far. I narrowed my eyes.
The giant tree was a skeleton of its former self. The entire canopy was gone, with only a few brown branches left. The branches were smaller and more brittle too. They didn’t stretch back to the ground anymore, which meant the barrier of wood that used to guard the giant tree was gone. As the sunlight grew and the veil of night lifted, I saw the scale of the carnage the Immortal of Madness had caused.
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The entire forest had disappeared. The retreating darkness revealed desolate wasteland with not a hint of green. A few dried husks of trees sprouted from the rubble, but even the rocks had been shaved away to dust and gravel. Empty riverbeds, mucked up waterbeds, and no water as far as the eye could see.
Noel woke up with the sunlight. I wanted to say something to her but the scale of the destruction before me was too devastating. I had no idea what to say. Instead, I watched as she came to the same realization I had. The Immortal of Desire had done something crazy, and we had no idea how far this destruction had spread.
“We have to get to the camp,” said Noel.
“Right,” I said. I didn’t mention what was going through my head. If the destruction stretched out into the plains, would it have reached the Jora tribe’s camp?
“Down,” said Noel. “We have to get down!” Noel started searching near the edge and I grabbed her. “What are you doing?” she said. “Come on, there’s no time to waste! I knew we should have gone back right away.”
“Calm down,” I said. “It’s too dangerous to climb from this height. The wood is too brittle and I don’t have any experience climbing trees.”
“We’ll use magic!” said Noel. She wrenched herself free but didn’t go to the edge this time. “Come on! Enough rain to cause a flood down there and we can jump right down!”
“From this height?” I said. “No, that won’t work. We wouldn’t be able to create enough water anyway. The air is dry and I don’t think we’d have the energy to get back to camp if we cast that much magic. What about blasting fire magic under our feet and jumping off? We might be able to reduce the speed at which we’re falling if we do it right.”
Noel shook her head. “No, our fire magic isn’t that easy to control. Flames can vary in intensity and besides, how would we practice it? We’d set this whole tree on fire if we tried testing it up here.”
“And it’s too dangerous testing it for the first time when we jump off,” I said as I nodded. “You’re right. Maybe motion magic?”
“We could use it to help us climb down the tree trunk,” Noel said. “Having a couple extra limbs will make it easier to hold on, especially if a piece of the trunk breaks up or something.”
“It won’t be perfect,” I said. “I’m not very good at climbing and the invisible hands from motion magic take a lot more energy than normal ones. We might be too tired by the time we reach the bottom.”
“What choice do we have? It’s not like we have the time to come up with another type of magic,” said Noel.
“You’re right,” I said. “We could try coming up with an elemental magic spell that helps us control the air, but making that strong enough to soften our fall will be tough.”
And so we decided to scale the side of the dead giant tree with motion magic. We were prepared to use fire or water magic to cushion our fall if things went wrong, but honestly, there was no hope for survival if we fell from this height.
We held onto a knot at the end of the branch with our invisible hands, carefully walked to the edge, and started climbing down. Holding onto the knot tightly, we used our actual hands and legs to hug the surface and crawl down. I gulped as the nooks and footholds I was exploring with my feet crumbled. I only put my weight down when I was sure the foothold was strong enough and, taking Noel’s advice, I made sure to only move one real limb at a time.
I looked to the side and Noel was gone. My breath got stuck in my throat as I searched for her. I heard something from below and found Noel dozens of feet below me. I cursed my childhood decision not to play on the jungle gym in the playground and refusing my friend Samantha’s invitation to go rock climbing in college.
As I gingerly climbed down the tree, I eventually glanced down. Vertigo gripped me immediately and I hugged the surface and closed my eyes. My heart was racing like mad. I breathed deeply to calm down. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but this was way too high.
I collected my thoughts, brought one of my magic hands to a knot on the side of the tree, and used it to anchor myself as I went down. Eventually, I had to bring both of my magic hands down from the top of the branch since they were getting too long and using too much energy.
Breathing deeply, I slowly climbed down. I put one hand in a nook, put one foot on a knot, and sometimes made a hole in the trunk with motion magic if there wasn’t one. The sun was blazing overhead and I hadn’t eaten in at least a day. I’d made some watering stops on the way to the giant tree, but that felt like ages ago.
My foothold crumbled unexpectedly. My other foot was dangling in the air, since it had been searching for another foothold underneath. I hung on with my hands but my fingers began to numb. My head ached as my magic hands began holding more of my weight. My hand slipped. I refused to look down. My heart began to beat like a hummingbird’s wings and I considered just jumping off and hoping my fire magic propulsion idea would work.
“Come on already,” came a voice from below.
I peeked from under my eyelids and saw Noel standing on the ground a few feet below me with her hands on her hips. I blinked a couple of times, letting my chest calm down. I coughed a little as I jumped down beside her.
Fixing my very damaged and ruffled clothes, I said: “Let’s not do that again.”