Down, down, down they went, through a seemingly endless darkness. Thanatos' silent scream echoed in his skull, while the mage let out a surprisingly high-pitched shriek that could've shattered glass.
As they fell deeper and deeper into the unknown, Thanatos pondered with growing desperation.
"Well, if this mage is as powerful as she seems, she ought to be able to whip up some kind of protective spell, right? A barrier? A magical cushion? Heck, even a parachute would do at this point."
Thanatos was just beginning to despair over the mage's questionable magical abilities, when something unexpected happened.
Out of nowhere, a rock, probably upset at being stuck in the ground for eons, decided to make its break for freedom by launching itself into the air and straight at the mage's head.
It hit with a loud 'thunk', and the mage went down like a sack of potatoes, knocked out cold.
Thanatos' scream could probably be heard in the next dimension over. 'Of all the rotten luck!' he thought as he watched the unconscious mage plummet next to him.
'I suppose this is it. This is where the story ends. Well, it's been fun while it lasted. At least I'll have a good story to tell in the afterlife...or would it be the after-afterlife?'
Just as Thanatos was about to give up hope, something unexpected happened. He was falling, but he wasn't in pain.
Wait, weren't undead supposed to feel pain? Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was just a side effect of being nothing but bones.
Either way, he was overcome with a sense of chivalrous duty and stretched his skeletal arms out towards the mage, grasping her in his bony embrace as they fell through the darkness.
Thanatos couldn't help but notice how soft the mage's body felt against his, despite his sense of touch being as warped as his sense of humor.
'Not bad,' he thought, with a skeletal smirk. 'If I could still smell, I bet she'd smell divine too.'
'Undead aren't supposed to feel pain. This whole situation is a mystery, but it feels like I've been reincarnated into a new world. Maybe it's a dream, or maybe this is the afterlife's version of a prank. Either way, I hope I wake up soon or at least survive the fall. Otherwise, the only thing left of me will be a pile of bones and regrets.'
After what felt like an eternity of falling, Thanatos and the mage finally hit the ground with a loud 'THUD!'.
A cloud of dust swirled around them, the only evidence of their rough landing.
Thanatos, wrapped around the mage like a protective cocoon, felt the force of the impact reverberate through his entire skeletal being.
But miraculously, they had both survived.
Thanatos unwrapped himself from the mage, and she rolled off onto the floor with a groan.
'Well, that was a close one,' he thought, his relief palpable. 'The heavens have been merciful. Now, to get up and find a way out of here.'
He wanted to move, but all that happened was a loud 'EHHHHHH!'.
He realized, with a sinking feeling in his non-existent gut, that most of his body was missing.
All that remained was his spine, a few ribs, and one lone arm.
He looked around in horror, as if to ask the universe, 'Really? This is how you repay me for saving the mage?' But the universe didn't seem to care.
Despite being scattered into skeletal fragments, Thanatos was surprised to find that he didn't feel any pain.
Stranger still, he could still sense the other parts of his body, as if they were still connected to him through some otherworldly bond.
He stretched out his consciousness, and like a bizarre radar, he could tell where the rest of his bones lay in the dust around him.
A thought dawned on him. 'Maybe, just maybe, I can put myself back together.'
He concentrated on his other arm, willing it to reattach itself. And lo and behold, the arm zipped back into place.
Thanatos let out a triumphant scream that would've made a banshee jealous. 'I'm amazing!' he proclaimed, 'Who needs magic when you've got…whatever the hell this is!'
One bone at a time, Thanatos worked on putting himself back together like a living—or rather, undead jigsaw puzzle.
He'd just finished reassembling his upper body when the mage groaned, stirring from her unconscious state.
Blood trickled down her forehead like a crimson stream, the only evidence of her previous encounter with the rather rude rock.
Thanatos, his chest and arms now fully formed, turned to face her with a deadpan expression.
He watched with a mix of bemusement and exasperation as the mage's first instinct was to aim her staff at him like a magical shotgun.
'Oh for Death's sake!' he thought, his hands instinctively shooting up in surrender.
'You ungrateful woman! I just saved your life, and this is the thanks I get? My mother was right, no good deed goes unpunished!'
"This is strange," the mage responded.
"An undead that doesn't attack, but actually surrenders? And it shows signs of intelligence, at that. Truly, something isn't right here."
The mage glanced upwards at the opening above them, now a mere speck of light in the darkness.
"A fall from that height would've certainly killed me. Yet I'm alive, and this undead doesn't appear to be hostile," she thought aloud.
'Hey! I can hear you y'know!' Thanatos responded in his thoughts.
And so, the mage cautiously lowered her staff and addressed the skeleton, curiosity winning over her initial fear.
"Did you...did you save me?" she asked, her voice tinged with disbelief.
Thanatos, his skeletal form trembling with anticipation, gave a rapid nod of affirmation, his bony limbs rattling like maracas.
'Yes, yes, yes!' his skull bobbed up and down in quick succession. 'You're welcome! Thank you! Please don't blast me!'
The mage pondered this for a moment, her mind grappling with the absurdity of the situation.
"Well, I suppose I owe you my thanks, then. Or at the very least, I'll withhold from blasting you to bits. For now."
"You can understand me?" the mage repeated, her gaze still fixed on the curious skeleton.
'Yes, yes!' Thanatos nodded eagerly, the rattle of his bones audible in the silent cavern.
"Well then," the mage continued, "what are you, or rather, who are you? I've never encountered an undead quite like you before."
Thanatos shifted uneasily, a difficult feat without any muscles.
Thanatos' skull began to spin; figuratively, of course, as he considered the direness of his situation.
He couldn't speak, his vision was impaired, and his auditory senses were on the fritz—how was he going to communicate with the mage?
Just as panic began to set in, a monstrous roar reverberated through the chamber, startling them both.
Shaken by the thunderous roar, Thanatos and the mage turned to see a horrific creature, its body a mass of twisted limbs and spiky protrusions.
The beast bared its fangs, a menacing growl rising from its throat.
The mage, transfixed by the creature, staggered backward, her legs growing weak.
Thanatos, his mind racing, knew that their predicament had just taken a dangerous turn.
'This can't be it,' he thought, his disembodied voice echoing in his skull. 'I just got here! We can't die here. Not yet.'