Coughing, something red and sticky dripped out of Lauri's mouth.
Spitting a mouthful of blood into the river below, Lauri winced, grabbing a hold of the edge of the stone he pushed, rolling himself slightly away from the imminent danger below him. Gritting his teeth, Lauri forced himself to sit up.
No matter how much he was hurting, Lauri knew if he remained still, the bruises and lacerations that peppered his skin would be the least of his concerns.
Letting out a muted groan, "Ah, ahhhh," Lauri looked down at his body to see the extent of the damage his fall had given him. His clothes which hadn't received even a single tear from the last year were now torn all over. Compounding Lauri's grievances regarding his damaged clothing, from Lauri's countless wounds, the tattered clothing began staining with a deep crimson.
Shuddering, Lauri forced himself to stand. Luminescent Helper buzzed around Lauri's head as he tried not to collapse, swatting at the light source, the injured boy's eye twitched.
"Bug off you little-"
The sound of shattering stones had stopped, hesitantly turning, Lauri saw a green light shining down the slope. The 'rhino' was near.
Turning away, Lauri looked across the gap, a strong gust of wind swept through the chasm, causing Lauri to shiver as it ran through the many holes in his clothing. 'Damn it, damn it, what do I do.' No matter how Lauri looked at his situation, there was only one path forward. His original destination stood too far to jump. He couldn't even climb across the gap, looking around, Lauri realized that the river seemed to cut through the mountain. Empty space in every direction, it seemed over the years the river had made a mark in the mountain's core, slowly corroding its own path. Now it rested far, far below.
Staring at the churning waters, Lauri's mouth started to feel a little dry. It was hard to make out just how far down the river was, he could only just make out the dark waters with the dim light of Luminescent Helper.
Between making a leap of faith into the void below or contending with 'rhino', Lauri knew which one he preferred.
The sound of stone breaking was louder than ever, as a tremor ran through the cave, Lauri was forced to drop to his knees, steadying himself with his hands to prevent himself from falling into the abyss next to him. Staring at the ground, Lauri watched in horror as cracks began to form under his fingers. As the cracks continued towards the edge, Lauri wasted no time picking himself up. Throwing himself out of their way just in time for the piece of stone he was knelt on to break apart, breaking into smithereens as it crashed against stones and vanished into the ravine.
'It- it- It's-'
Lauri was forced to squint as a bright green light shone on his face. Barely ten paces ahead of Lauri, the 'rhino' had finally arrived. Unlike last time, when he had been hiding in the dark, this time Lauri could clearly see his adversary's face. Its one large eye pulsed with the glow with the same light as that of the Lucent Drone Swarm – not that it was much of a surprise at this point, after all, Lauri had witnessed it replenish this light in person – Lauri's eyes were locked onto something different. Below the 'rhino's large eye. Its gaping maw hung open, like something out of a nightmare. The 'rhino's jaw was hanging down as if it was ready to swallow Lauri whole. In the front of its mouth, a dozen large teeth ran around its interior, behind them the 'rhino's large tongue was poised to do, Lauri shivered, something.
Slowly picking himself up, Lauri kept his eyes trained on the Fiend. In turn, the 'rhino' simply stared right back. It knew it had Lauri cornered, blocking the only path. It was either going through the 'rhino' or jumping into rapid-running waters that might not even be as deep as it appeared. You'd have to be crazy to pick the unknown over the known, right?
Lauri gritted his teeth, 'Right…'
It happened in what felt like an instant. In the time it took Lauri to take a step backwards, the 'rhino' was already upon him. This was the speed that had terrified Lauri before, but this time Lauri had a plan. A crazy plan, a plan that just might work if he put enough of his heart into it.
Throwing its face forward, the 'rhino's maw opened wider than before, to Lauri's surprise, the skin around its cheeks stretched to account for this sudden stretch. Not that it mattered, over Lauri's shoulder, Luminescent Helper shot from out of the dark, suddenly beginning to glow, pushing Lauri's plan into action.
When the 'rhino' had appeared, Lauri had given Luminescent Helper a command to stop glowing and hide just out of view. Now that the 'rhino' was going on the attack, Lauri could act.
Flying to the 'rhino', Luminescent Helper kept flying right into the gaping maw. Recognizing something had entered its mouth, the 'rhino's powerful jaws slammed shut. It took only a second for the 'rhino' to realize it had been duped. In the next second, the 'rhino' quickly turned its body, sending its wrecking ball-like tail on a collision course with Lauri's body.
It was too late, the 'rhino's tail swung through empty air. Lauri had already jumped thrown himself backwards into the empty space behind him.
Strings of light harmlessly passed through the 'rhino's neck as Lauri dismissed Luminescent Helper. Although he hadn't practised dismissing an Imprint, he was certain it couldn't be that dissimilar to summoning one, and as it would happen. He was right.
Lauri smiled, feeling Luminescent Helper return to somewhere within his very being. It was a warm feeling akin to returning home after a long day outside. Lauri's smile dimmed as he watched the place he had just been growing more distant with every passing second.
'Will I ever feel the warmth of returning home again?'
The green light grew stronger as the 'rhino' peered over the edge of the platform, looking down at its escaping prey.
And then Lauri saw nothing.
More aptly, Lauri's body crashed into the cascading waters. The 'rhino's light disappeared immediately as Lauri's entire world was overtaken by the dark, freezing waters of the underground river.
Lauri's plan had succeeded, the river was indeed deep enough, meaning Lauri would survive the fall. But would he survive what came next?
Lauri could barely form a chain of thought, all of his wits went to keeping his mouth shut. Each twist and turn of the river threatened to beauty it out of him. The river dropped, sinking deeper into the river. Lauri found just how deep it was as his body crashed into the river bed. Bubbles escaped his lips as all the wind was knocked from his lungs.
Now desperate, Lauri opened his eyes, the water stung them for a moment. Lauri was quickly distracted from this pain as his body smashed into the side of a piece of stone that stuck up from the riverbed. Wrapping his body around the stone like his very life depended on it – because it did – as carefully as he could to not lose his grip. Lauri climbed the stone, his body felt like it was burning from the lack of oxygen or the countless bruises, the cuts? Maybe there was even some internal bleeding.
Gritting his teeth, Lauri hit his head against the rock. 'Focus!'
Reaching the surface, Lauri immediately began gasping for breath. The next moment, Lauri's fingers slid on the wet stone, losing what little purchase they had, Lauri lost all the grip he had on the stone. As his nails dragged against the wet stone in a feeble attempt to find something to save himself, Lauri had time to form one more thought before he slipped off of the rock entirely.
'No! No, no no! For fu-'
Once more, Lauri's entire world became one with the flowing river.
***
Crashing into rocks and starving for air became Lauri's routine for however long this had gone on. Keeping track of time was the least of his concerns.
Lauri became intimately acquainted with the river bed, the sides of the river and occasionally the few stones that stuck high enough from the riverbed for Lauri to crash into them a couple more times. Always on the verge of drowning, Lauri managed to gasp for breath just in time to prevent this watery grave, but only ever enough to stop his breathing problems for moments before his body began to crave the very thing that would be his demise.
It was pain, unadulterated, pure, pain. Lauri's body was on the verge of shutting down. The only thing keeping him awake was a mixture of the cold water on his body, and the sudden impacts.
Lauri's body hit something, not quite a rock, the water flowed past him through whatever he was being pressed against. Raising a hand up, Lauri's fingers curled around something. Although he had no way of knowing what this something was, Lauri recognized one thing.
An escape.
Pulling, Lauri put one hand in front of the other and slowly he managed to crawl upwards. Unlike his temporary stone sanctuary – that had only lasted for seconds – this new purchase held enough for Lauri to reach the top.
Finally breaching the surface of the river, Lauri didn't stop, his fingers reaching the ledge of whatever he had hit. Lauri pushed himself, using the last of the strength that remained in his body.
Pulling himself onto whatever had saved him. Lauri was finally able to breathe.
Taking one deep breath after another, Lauri curled up. His broken and battered body shivered in the cold of the cavern.
How far had he travelled? Had a day eclipsed yet? Was he any closer to finishing his trial…?
Lauri's mind quickly grew blank as he fell unconscious.