Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
The glow of the wayfinder was still visible, even through the trees, but there was no path. Everything was quiet, apart from the whispering of the trees and the odd burst of birdsong. They waded on.
Brook’s health bar was always there, at the top of her visual field. Was it her imagination or was the bar creeping lower? She glanced across at Blaze. His was creeping downwards too.
‘Blaze. Why is our health declining?’
He stopped, frowning. ‘You’re right. But why?’ He looked down at his legs.
Brook did the same. They were walking through what appeared to be tall grass, but the blades had a strange sticky quality to them. She picked a leaf and brought it up closer to her eyes. The leaf was covered in small glistening stalks.
‘Carnivorous plants?’ she said.
Blaze turned around. There were no visible means of escape. ‘We have to go through. There isn’t another way.’
Brook was just raising her head to look up when something whipped out of the underbrush and wrapped itself around her, trapping her arms against her body. She wriggled. All her fighting practice was useless when she couldn’t move her arms. Blaze leapt forward and cut her loose.
‘Argh.’ Two separate vines had appeared and wrapped around Blaze’s legs. Brook hacked one vine off while Blaze tackled the other. The vines, once cut, turned brown and looked almost like rope. Without stopping to think, she grabbed a couple and put them into her inventory.
More and more vines were appearing. They hacked and chopped their way through, but both of them were suffering from the stinging grass as well. All the while, their health slowly declined.
‘We can’t keep doing this,’ Brook gasped. A vine got her by the wrist. ‘Blaze!’
He cut her loose. ‘How the hell are we supposed to get through? The entire ground is trying to eat us and the rest of it is trying to throttle us AND eat us at the same time.’
Brook struck out at another vine. ‘There must be something.’ She looked up. Trees. ‘We could try climbing the trees.’
‘How do we know they’re not poisonous?’ Blaze was dancing around, slashing vines.
She had a hint of an idea. It was so hard to concentrate when things were trying to kill you. ‘Birdsong.’ That was the thought that was trying to get her attention.
‘What?’
‘Can’t you hear it? There are birds in this forest. The trees must be safe or they’d be dead.’ She ran for the nearest tree and scaled it. A vine caught her ankle, but she cut it quickly. When she hauled herself onto the lowest branch, her health bar stopped dropping. She turned to look for Blaze. He was caught in a tangle of vines now, a short distance away from the base of the tree.
She looked along the branch she was sitting on. It wasn’t particularly thick. The end of it was just above where Blaze was trapped.
She ran along the branch and lay down at the end. Her character was light, but she still had enough weight to bend the branch. ‘Grab it,’ she said.
Blaze managed to cut loose from the vines that were holding him. He put the cutlass between his teeth and jumped up. Once he had hold of the branch, Brook scooted backwards. Blaze hauled himself up and made his way towards the trunk. The vines, unable to reach that high, waved around below them.
Blaze lay facedown on the branch, panting. ‘That was terrifying.’
Her health bar was quite low now, but Blaze’s was worse. It was in the red.
‘Fix your health,’ she said.
‘Can’t. I have no potion left.’
She only had a small one. She was sure she’d had more at the end of the last round. She looked at Blaze’s health bar. If he died, she died too. ‘Here.’ She tossed the potion to him. He caught it. She couldn’t read the expression on his face – somewhere between annoyed and impressed. At least he didn’t argue. He swigged it and his health went back up to nearly two-thirds.
He pushed himself up to a sitting position. His green eyes met hers. ‘Thanks.’
Heat flashed through her. He was seeing her as an equal, someone worthy of attention, for the first time. She had to be cool about this. She shrugged. ‘If you die, it’s game over for me too.’
‘True. But still.’
They both stood up, balancing on the branch. ‘I guess we go from tree to tree,’ said Brook.
Blaze looked upwards and pointed at the wayfinder. ‘That way.’
It was mostly a pathfinding puzzle now. Blaze kept up his normal patter as they went. They made good time until they arrived at an extremely tall tree. The wayfinder was directly above it.
‘I guess we go up?’ Brook said. She was feeling less intimidated by Blaze now that she’d saved him for a change. This was the Blaze she knew and loved. He was cheerful and friendly … and she was playing alongside him! They were actually a team.
‘I guess we do,’ he said amiably.
They climbed. It was a long way up. Brook couldn’t help wondering if there was some sort of shortcut they’d missed. Maybe one that let them fly to the top or something. They would have to look for it in the replays.
The key was in a nest at the top of the tree. Whatever had made the nest was not there.
‘I bet the minute we step in the nest the owner of it will come back,’ Blaze said.
‘I could run and get it. I might make it back out in time.’ She wasn’t confident she would.
Blaze looked round. They were high enough that they could see over the tree canopy to where the woods ended. ‘I can’t see anything that might be useful for getting us down. But I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.’ He pulled out his cutlass. ‘Okay. You run and grab. I’ll fight whatever it is. Aim to get out of the nest and under it.’
‘Okay. On three.’ She counted down and sprang into the nest. Sure enough, a screech rang out from somewhere. She ignored it, grabbed the key, and ran back to the side of the nest. The next screech was accompanied by a hellscape of claws and feathers. Blaze was next to her, blade whirling. Brook reached the edge of the nest and scrambled over the side. She clung to the twigs and crawled until she could drop onto the branch underneath. Her health was dangerously low now, flashing red.
Blaze appeared, still fighting. He spun round, dropped over the side, throwing his sword at the claw that was coming for him. Right at the last minute, he grabbed onto the nest and swung under it. The move was so beautifully executed, Brook nearly applauded. The sword disappeared down towards the ground. Blaze hung from the bottom of the nest as an enormous beak tried to peck him. Brook reached forward, grabbed his belt, and tugged, swinging him to safety.
The minute Blaze landed on the branch next to her, the tree, the bird, and the nest all disappeared. They landed in a heap back at the training grounds.
They untangled themselves and both flopped back onto the ground. Brook’s heart was pounding and adrenaline zinged through her and not just because of their close escape.
‘Phew,’ she said, panting.