Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

“You’re sure it was fauna?” Andy asked back. The sound of him running down the tunnel to catch up also came through.

“Not at all. It actually looked like a bunch of rocks, but it moved like a small monkey.” Cal described the sight for his friend.

“He’s telling the truth. We all saw it. It looked like a strange little creature. Once you catch up, we can follow the tunnel it ran down.” Stan backed up Cal’s claim.

Tim and Andy sprinted into the chamber with the rest of them. They had left the drone behind. They both had a look of excitement on their faces.

“Who saw it first?” Tim asked.

“Pretty sure I did, why?” Cal responded, not sure why this mattered.

“Well, that means you get to name it. Rules of discovery are in play everyone, first to spot is first to name.” Tim looked like a kid on Christmas. Cal had never seen him this way before. Apparently, rigid structure wasn’t everything. Something deep inside of him had come out in pursuit of the unknown.

“This way.” Stan directed everyone down the tunnel the creature had disappeared to.

Stan led the way. The glowing plant life continued around them as they moved through the increasingly cramped passageways. The humidity was increasing with each passing minute. It soon felt like they were in a jungle, not deep under the surface of a barren planet.

“Woah, everyone, stop. The tunnel opens up directly around this bend into a giant chamber with plenty of light. We need to be very careful. We have no idea what lives here.” Stan looked directly at Cal as he spoke.

Cal knew he wasn’t worried about him in the traditional sense. His Father was likely primarily concerned with keeping Cal’s powers under wraps unless absolutely needed. Cal planned to stick with that as well.

John pushed past him, interrupting his thoughts. “I’ve gotta see this Stan. I’ve always dreamed of finding something out of a Jules Verne novel, though I never expected to combine it with a Burroughs book.” He disappeared into the cavern, calling back shortly after. “It’s a ton of plants like we saw before and a few of the rock creatures near a stream in the distance. Get out here and take a look for yourselves. It’s amazing.”

Cal found John holding up his phone, recording the entire room. He’d stop occasionally and describe how the air felt or smelled and then start moving again to a new thing. Cal wasn’t sure what to make of all this. He thought it was probably a good sign that a mana pool was nearby. It seemed magical, at least, but that was just more guessing. The only one with any real answers was Ralth, and half of them didn’t apply to this universe.

“Hey, somethings happening over there to those rock creatures. They got into the stream and started shaking.” Andy pointed out to Cal. He was the only one still near him. Tim had followed John off to various plants. Jen and his father were carefully picking their way across the room in the opposite direction towards a cliff edge.

Cal looked closely at what Andy pointed out. A much larger one joined them from what Cal had thought was a pile of rocks on the stones. It, too, started to shake, and then they all started to break open.

“Uh, Andy, are they hatching?” Cal was worried. He started trying to focus on what was going on. Why had everyone just gone their own ways so quickly? Wait, on that matter, why was his brain feeling so foggy? “Dammit, Andy, somethings off with the air in here. I can’t think straight. I think it started as soon as we found the first plants.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right, but my head is starting to clear now, might only be temporary.” There was a loud screech from the area with the hatching creatures.

“Too late, what the fuck are those things?!” Cal yelled as what looked like a cross between a scorpion and a condor burst out of the rocky shells. The large one immediately took the air and started flying at them.

“Everyone run. If you can get back to base, do it, but either way, take shelter. Something has your perceptions off, but I think it’s starting to fade.” Andy yelled out over the radio.

“We aren’t going to make it to the passage. No one is. Andy, run for Dad and Jen. Tim, snap out of it, grab John, and make for my dad!” Cal started barking orders. Everyone started moving, which was what he wanted. It helped cover for what he was about to do. Cal shot two bolts of lightning at the big one, knocking it out of the sky. It crashed to the ground inches from Cal’s face and started trying to claw at him.

“Dammit,” Cal swore. His lightning wasn’t nearly as intense here. He ejected himself sideways with his rock shaping just in time to dodge the tail. He noted that it was also weaker. “Andy, run faster. Somethings off with my little friends.”

“Understood, there’s water below the cliff, a lot of it. We’re jumping. It may be a terrible idea, but I don’t have a better one.” Cal heard the sound of a few screams and a loud splash from the distance.

“Hey, monster things, I’d rather not fight you. Any chance we can just be friends?” The tail swung at him again. “Yeah didn’t think so, but I’ll have you know I’ve made some pretty weird friends.” Cal threw several blasts of lightning out of his fingers at near point-blank range. This time, the monster didn’t get back up. It lay on the ground, crackling and burnt in several locations.

“See, if you’d just surrendered, you could be a living condorpion.” His tone gave away the reality of how tired he was. He had thrown almost all his energy into that blast. Luckily, it seemed to have saved him. The smaller ones had run off. He just needed to sit down and rest for a bit. Then he’d go find everyone. He managed to walk over to a spot under several of the weird trees before collapsing to the ground.

Cal woke up to the feeling of something climbing on his leg. “Bug, knock it off, I’m still tired.” He heard no response, and his brain snapped further awake, remembering where he was. He looked down at his legs and saw a vine wrapped around a rip in his pants. The end of it was further wrapped around a large barb that was impaled in his leg. It looked very similar to what had been on the condorpion’s tail.

“Oh yeah, that’s probably because it is,” Cal muttered, trying to get his eyes to focus. It looked like the vine was trying to get the stinger out. He hoped that was true, but the local life hadn’t been on their side so far. Extreme pain shot through his leg. It turned out the vine was doing just that. It then further wrapped itself around his wound, and Cal felt the pain decrease. It was healing him somehow. He could move his toes again. Minutes passed, and he felt able to stand up. Before he could, a voice came from behind him.

“Cal, can you hear me? What’s going on? Where is everyone?” It was Melissa’s voice, and he could now make out the sound of the drone’s wheels rolling closer.

“Yeah, I can hear you. I’m alive. We had an encounter with some hostile life. Everyone else fled, but I was trapped and had to fight it off. The good news is the plant life appears to be friendly and also oddly intelligent.” Cal’s voice came out ragged. He wasn’t perfect yet, but he was getting better.

“Okay, Bob says he’s coming in.”

“No, you two stay there. The vine is somehow healing my leg; once that’s done, I’ll grab my headset and try to find them. We can’t risk anyone else.”

“Alright, I only agree if you are back on your legs in the next ten minutes.” Robert’s voice had taken over the speaker.

“I will be,” Cal responded, determination in his voice.

“So, what exactly did you encounter?” Melissa was speaking again.

“The rock creature thing turned out to just be a surprisingly mobile egg, or maybe a juvenile form like a larva. Several of the small ones and a single larger one all hatched into a new creature that I’m called a condorpion.”

“Is that because it looked like a cross between a condor and a scorpion?” Robert didn’t sound overly happy to be asking this question.

“Yep.” Cal rolled over and tried putting a little pressure on his leg. It held without pain, so he stood the rest of the way up. “See good as new.”

“Fine, be careful. We are sending a few more of the drones to the room, and we will try to keep you abreast of any returning dangers.” Robert sounded more annoyed that Cal had stood up.

Cal leaned down and gently removed the vine from his leg. He placed it back with the rest of itself. He then examined his leg. The hole where the stinger was was still reddish, but there were no lines from it, and everything felt okay to the touch. He decided to let Andy and Jen examine it in more detail later. He had friends and family to find.

Instead of jumping down into the water, he took the sloping path he found nearby. It looked like it would head down there, and he didn’t want to risk injuring himself on a high dive if he didn’t have to.

“Hey, Cal, can you hear me? It’s very hard to perceive you. You feel so far away.” Cal heard a small voice inside his mind.

“Bolt, is that you? What’s up?”

“Something happened back in Barron’s realm. Andrew and Ralth think something you did likely triggered it.” She cut in and out as she spoke.

“Okay, talk fast. I think we are losing our connection.”

“The R.I.S. has given you a goal to unlock a world mana well. Ralth also says to tell you he has no idea what that means before you try to ask.”

“How long did this happen?”

“Andrew says within the last twenty minutes.”

“Okay, thanks. Go ahead and cut our connection. I know this is probably costing you a ton of energy.”

“Thanks Cal. It will get easier once I finish my stars.”

Based on the timing, Cal was pretty sure his contact with the creatures or plants down here had to be what set off his new mission. “Time for a sidequest, I guess,” he said into the empty tunnel and continued downward.