“They have been gone for a while.”
“What?”
Elksi popped her head out from the kitchen and glanced at Retvik, who was standing in front of the glass elevator.
“I said, Tenuk and Phovos have been gone for a while.”
“That’s weird!” Elksi decided to leave the kitchen and see what Retvik was looking at. “Have you tried, you know, communicating with them?”
Retvik grunted, then put a finger to his ear hole, where a small radio communicator was hiding.
“Tenuk, Phovos, come in, either of you there?”
There was no reply, outside of a bit of static. This made Retvik concerned.
“Try our telepathic link?” Elksi suggested. “That normally works.”
Retvik grunted again, briefly closing his eyes. He felt the surrounding area in his mind, an attempt to pick up the thoughts of anyone in the vicinity. However, all he could feel was Elksi’s presence.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Huh. Weird…” Elksi trailed off. “Do you think they intentionally dropped out of comms?”
“Why would they?”
“I dunno. Maybe there’s something up there?” Elksi’s tone was no longer so chipper. “Maybe we should go up there too.”
“How do we get through the Life Goddess console though?” Retvik frowned.
“Oh, that’s easy.”
Elksi stepped towards the panel, then waved her hand horizontally against it. Small wisps of green energy appeared, creating a hazy slide show in front of the console. Elksi waggled her fingers back and forth, as if scrolling through something. After a few moments, a fuzzy image played in front of the console, forcing it to open.
“There we go!” Elksi beamed. “Just had to copy and paste Phovos’s activation of the console from earlier!” Elksi suddenly paused, realizing that, despite the console and the elevator door being open, there was no elevator to actually stand in. “Oh. I didn’t think about that. Guess I’m climbing!”
“Do you need help?” Retvik asked.
“Oh no, not at all!” Elksi was smiling again. “I’ll climb up. Can you stay here? In case the elevator suddenly falls down? You can catch it if it does.”
Retvik nodded, then watched Elksi start her ascent. Before long though, she seemed to fade into a dull pink mist, which was obscuring the upper parts of the elevator.
“Are you alright up there?” Retvik shouted.
Elksi’s head peered out through the mist. “Yep! All good! Just a bit higher than I thought!”
“Alright. I will be right here if you need me.”
Elksi gave a thumbs up, before disappearing back into the mist.
Not sure what to do with himself, Retvik decided to go to the kitchen, where Elksi had previously been looking around. Weirdly, the kitchen was somewhat empty. There were cupboards all along one wall, a sink, stove and dishwasher in one corner and, along the final wall, there was a very large refrigerator. It had three doors and some claw marks on it, which Elksi had probably done by accident. The fridge was by far the most curious thing, so Retvik went to inspect it.
“That is a lot of food…”
Inside the fridge, it was almost as if one could walk into it, despite it having a clear back on the outside of the fridge. No wonder Elksia had spent so long in there.
Back in the other room, Retvik heard some sort of noise. He closed the fridge, then headed back into the other room.
“Elksi, are you al-” Retvik paused, realizing that the colossal being standing in front of him definitely was not Elksi.
“I have been waiting for you…” the dark, inky creature growled. “Come with me, little Flamebearer…”
Before Retvik could do anything, the creature splashed him with a rather vile-smelling inky substance.
“Oh no…” Retvik grumbled as he hit the ground, the darkness overcoming him.