Shawn hadn’t fought running battles before. He’d done fighting in a gym, and learned a little MMA from Cire, even. He’d tempered his survivor's guilt in losing Maggie by relentlessly chasing challenges.

  But smashing giant, razor tooth rats that were trying to turn him into a meal, was a far cry from what had come before. They ran at him relentlessly, and his hammer got more than a thorough workout, creating space between them and him, and smashing those too careless to see the threat he posed.

  More frustrating was the fact the cavern was barely rge enough in height for him to stand in, let alone fly. The ravenous beasts came at him one or two at a time, with a steady stream of them scampering behind them, making their shrill, screeching noises. At least they could only come at him from one effective direction, if there was any silver lining.

  After a short period, he got into a rhythm. Smash the ones closest to him and split their skulls with his warhammer, and then fire a volley of the charged-up fire darts that made short work of the next closest ones. They were grievously wounded by the upgraded shots with penetrating injuries, rather than being set on fire and still charging forth with little regard for their well-being. When the closest targets were dead or incapacitated, he backpedaled and fired off a quick volley of rifle shots to pin the furthest targets, running their formation ragged.

  All the while, he kept running.

  Smash. Incinerate. Rifle. Reload. Then the cycle repeated.

  His limbs were aching from the exertion. He’d been at this for several minutes and was panting, and he had cw marks on his arms and legs–but fortunately, no bites from the monstrous creatures. “Go find easier prey!” He snapped as he crunched down on a rat’s head with a cwed foot, after caving in its fnk with a luckily timed hammer swing. For now, the remaining rats leered at him, unwilling to advance, but they bared their teeth aggressively.

  He gnced at his bandolier of ammo, and noted it was getting too low for his liking. There was still a significant distance to the surface, most likely. “Garrett, I hope you have more cartridges, I’m down to about twenty rounds!”

  “Why are you using so many?!”

  “Because if I tried to use my Etteria to burn them all out, I’d be roast chicken!” he retorted over the arcom, and smashed a rat so hard with his hammer, it dislodged the head from the neck, and it lolled about in a grim manner. “We must have found the mother lode of dangerous pests down here. I could use a friendly face that isn’t trying to chew my face off, anytime soon!”

  “I thought I heard gunfire a second ago, echoing up the corridor to the right. I’m moving as fast as I can, and the signal is getting cleaner. Keep pushing!”

  “You know something, Garrett? Monster sying sucks.” He drew power for a bst of frost once he found a narrow opening he barely could get through, and sealed it with a thick sheet of ice. The rats scrabbled and scratched at the ice, but they weren't getting through that anytime soon. He let out a heavy exhale, and wiped a spot of rat blood off his sleeve.

  “Bottled them up. That should hold them for a bit.” He watched the gnashing, biting creatures with disgust through the ice, where they kept at it. “They're kinda one-minded. Hey, let's capture a bunch and throw them at Revarik.” he joked.

  “That sounds like a terrible idea. I’d like to keep all my fingers, thanks.”

  “Eh. Probably not very practical. Okay, next pn. Finding a way out,” Shawn grunted, before reloading his weapon and slinging it between his wings. The quick detach clip made it helpful to clear his wings in a hurry, and he grabbed his hammer and wiped it on the moss.

  At least hunting had prepared him for the unsightly mess of death. He’d prefer giving these pests something else to bother, first. “Alright, I'm on the move again. The tunnel slopes upward. I can see some light ahead. Brighter. Not like the moss or the mushrooms.”

  “Same. It's very faint. We might be close,” Garrett confirmed. Shawn noted that there also appeared to be tree roots up ahead, twisting through the smallest of cracks in the rock. “Shawn, I see something, up ahead. Looks like old ruins. I'll check it out, there's likely some kind of external accessway if they carved out a living space in this mountain, this close to the tectonic edge. ”

  “I've got roots on my end. I thought we were still pretty far underground–”

  He stopped. He gripped a rock and held on tightly. The roots up ahead were dangling in the wrong direction. They were hanging horizontally, not vertically. And they were motionless–no breeze was present in the passage. “Garrett stop moving right now!” he radioed in. “Gravity shift. Varrick was right."

  There was an uncomfortable silence that lingered. “Wow. Varrick wasn't kidding. I thought something was odd with the way the stactites were starting to creep from orthogonal to the ceiling. Good call.”

  “Where I come from, gravity is kind of a constant,” Shawn sighed before weighing the risk. He didn't feel a change in gravity, but those roots up ahead were being pulled in a different direction, down the tunnel to the light. “Well, this is one hazard I didn't count on. Hang on. Going to test something.”

  He grabbed a loose rock, and tested a throw before letting loose, watching the rock tumble through the air. As soon as it passed where the roots were, the projectile accelerated down the tunnel, impacting with incredible speed and shattering distantly. The fragments bounced and tumbled down a corner and disappeared.

  He felt the talons on his feet dig into the rock out of instinct. “Garrett, this pile of rocks is trying to kill me with a passion, now. I've got some rope in my bag, but…”

  “Yeah. This is gonna be fun. There isn't a lot of room to fly in here, either. Gonna tie off and see how far down this goes, and keep tossing rocks ahead of me. Make sure to mark it, so other people don't…you know, find a nice ft walking surface has become a mineshaft of doom.”

  “Wonder if I can lure those damn rats and have them all yeet themselves to their deaths,” Shawn muttered. He tethered his rope and gently eased his way forward, cursing walking gods, physics, and eldritch monsters. He could feel a gentle tug on his body as he eased along the line, having made sure the knots were secure.

  As he leaned forward, he felt the shift of gravity, and he felt his body pull forward, where the tunnel now felt like a vertical shaft. Luckily, his footing and the tether made it so that he transitioned into a natural rappel down the slope. Halsey, this is a little trippy! The ground isn’t the ground anymore!

  We should invest in a better way to spot these gravity anomalies. I don’t want my current feathery companion to go spt when down turns into up, you know?

  He was fortunate that his trip down the shaft ended with a step onto a bend of the corridor, and he found himself on a level surface, feet firmly pnted on the ground. He gnced skeptically at a small pile of bones at the bottom. The razor rats weren’t too bright, and must not be able to sense the shift of gravity ahead of time.

  “Garrett, what causes the gravity shifts?”

  “Well, for those of us who don’t get flung into orbit or thrown down into the depths? There’s a special kind of ore that affects local gravity. It may or may not be tied to how this giant fractured mess of a world doesn't degrade. Sorry, physics was not my strong suit. Varrick says if someone can get a sample of it, he’d name his second-born kid after them.”

  “Wait. Varrick has kids?” Shawn found that surprising. Where, indeed, was the family?

  "Varrick's tight-beaked about it. He doesn't say much, other than having a daughter," Garrett replied. "I met her once, when she visited. Accompanied by her mother. I haven't asked what the deal is."

  "Mystery for another day," Shawn shrugged. "Meantime, three-body problems have nothing on this.” He also noted the shift in direction did not change the magnitude of the gravitational pull. “So, the ore can pull. It can push, based on Varrick's cautionary tales of youth flying around the edge of the tectonic masses. Anyone ever tried to use it for metalwork?”

  “Are you mad? You want to test this stuff?” Garrett gasped.

  “Yep. I want to make myself a suit of armor like Iron Man. Except it'll be based on magical gravitation, instead.” He frowned for a minute. “I mean I could also use my gestalt for a thruster, but fire is a bit of a hazard for someone covered in feathers. Wonder if its too on the beak to call myself iron bird if I find a way to capitalize on this ore. Iron Eagle maybe? No, wait, that was a movie series. Damn."

  “Shawn? Not all science sounds safe.”

  “Because it isn't. I mean ideally, I’d like to bomb Revarik from orbit. Using gravity rocks.” He grinned at this idea.

  “That sounds…insane. I like it,” Garrett cawed with a warble of ughter in his voice. “Think you could hit the wanna-be overgod in the head from up here?”

  “It probably would be too much effort. We need to figure out what this ore looks like.” his cws touched down on the firm ground, and he let out a soft sigh. Two more tunnels were ahead of him, in a Y-shaped fork. “Well, I have two paths. I’m headed left.”

  He threw rocks ahead of him, but each toss carried a risk: would he stir up more predators? This cavern system was vast and complex, and likely rger than the mines. He saw a glow of orange up ahead–sunlight, maybe? “Garrett, I think I see an exit. Up ahead.” He forewent caution and picked up the pace, excited for a way out.

  “Same. I think…wait, I heard you.” His face lit up with joy, the sense of isotion had been short, but it certainly felt long enough.

  He nearly missed his footing as the gravity flipped again and he gripped a rocky crevice just in the nick of time. Cursing loudly, he gripped along the sloped passage until he came to level ground–again. He was fairly sure the gravity had reoriented itself back to what he thought was ground level because his internal sense of direction now seemed no longer askew. Brilliant light was ahead of him, and he advanced quickly. It was an opening!

  It was a short-lived victory as he stared down the edge of the world, where the cliff terminated in what should have been a connecting passage. That passage was now likely a hundred or more kilometers away, on the distant tectonic continent, floating far away. He saw a few distant floating isnds of rock--but barren and not covered in vegetation. Likely, they were beyond a breathable atmosphere. He scuffed his foot, and a rock cttered down to the world below, and he grimaced at what he’d just done.

  Hopefully, it didn’t nd on someone’s head. Or at least, someone who didn’t deserve it. He clicked his arcom device. “Yeah. This is a dead end.” He dared to peek up and above him and saw Garrett peering down, lying prone on another entryway about a hundred and fifty meters up. The wind out here was strong and gusty and ruffled his feathers wildly.

  “Shawn. Why is it that when I’m with you and Regia, things remain both exciting and dangerous?” he asked rhetorically.

  “I have one question before I make my next bold move. Are you two dating?” Shawn asked as he silently cursed knowing this next stunt was going to be stupid, and dangerous.

  “No. Why?”

  “If I live past doing this next stupid thing, I’m taking her to the tavern. In celebration of defying this pnet's best efforts to kill me.”

  Garrett ughed out loud over the arcom. “Hah! You know something, Shawn? I think taking on the ursina was less dangerous than what you’re about to do!”

  “Doing cliffhanging, or going on a date with Regia?”

  “Take your pick.” Shawn had the sudden dread that death by orbital spt, might be a kinder way to die.