Chapter 35: Does a Crab Scuttle Forwards or Sideways?
I walk out of the tent stretching upwards, feeling the cricks of my back scream as they strain, finally being freed to a position outside of a rigid straightness. Ruby walks lackadaisical beside me, her eyes drawing upward to my stretching frame. A small happy smile finally drawing on her face.
"My Hells, I thought he was never going to stop talking."
I let out a long deep sigh before shaking my head and rubbing my hand across my face. Taking several long blinks trying to draw the energy back into my body, the energy that had abandoned me earlier in my time of need, I reply, "Just happy we're all alive. Did you see M.M. at the end there? I thought her head was about to slam into the table. There was active drool dripping from her bottom lip."
Ruby snorts loudly, "And don't get me started on Sir Kahlin. I'm guessing he's trying to get promoted once the prince is crowned. The way his eyes were glued to every single hand gesture, I swear, his pupils were even dilating." She shakes her head, a clear shiver going down her spin, before spitting out, "Gross!"
"Let's just drop it before we accidentally solidify any of that bullshit into our memories. I would prefer to keep my brain unsullied."
Ruby peers at me, a curious look on her face. "Well, there is one thing that was at least important for us. Do you already have it figured out?"
"No, I haven't even begun to allow my brain to stretch out over the issue the only thing I could figure out right now is how to best bore the smartest minds in the kingdom," I motion towards her changing the direction we're walking in. "Let's go over to the cliffside. I want to see exactly what's going on."
"Oooooh, we'll get to brainstorm it together." Ruby blinks slowly at me.
I wrap my hand around her waist, pulling her close to me. She snuggles up, resting her cheek against my shoulder as we strut through the encampment. Weaving our way through the buried tents, we end up passing right past a place handing out different kebabs. It appears that only officers are treated to this luxury meet up on the top of the plateau.
No time like the present to utilize my new privilege. Gesturing towards the person handing out the kebabs, I lazily put two fingers up, nodding my head towards myself and Ruby. The person glances us over, looking at the robes that we're both wearing, before deciding it's safer to get the food than to audibly question anything. Within a moment, both our free hands are full of a delectably smelling meat kebab. Ruby and I both smile and say thank you.
By the time we reach the precarious ledge that surrounds the entirety of Prince Rythel's troops, we have nothing but charred skewers left. Stepping up to the edge, we both slowly tilt our heads over, looking at the devastatingly long drop. Well, it would be devastating if neither of us knew [Fly]. But still, my stomach jumps and butterflies race through it as I take a long gulp before finding Ruby's hand and intertwining my fingers with hers. The touch of her skin and the warmth of her soul helps slow my heart until it's beating normally again. It's kind of funny. Just hours ago, we were flying through the clouds, yet something like this can still make my body fill with fear.
I squint my eyes at the enemy troops who are gathered below. They haven't begun to attempt to climb the cliff, but I can tell that they're up to no good. Well, oh well. As long as they don't manage to achieve anything in the next couple hours, whatever the hell they're doing is going to amount to nothing. I squint my eyes trying to make out how far the enemy's encampment stretches. As long as the width around this plateau doesn't exceed around 100 feet, my plan should be perfect. I don't actually want to kill any of them because, well, them being camped out here, I don't think they're really going to matter. And I want to keep as many people alive for the Kingdom. Hells, this Royal Mage thing is really starting to stick to me.
Planting my staff into the very center of the plateau, give or take maybe 20 feet. I can feel the shared energy between 80 mages that I placed around the perimeter of the plateau. Our rivers begin to meld together, twisting and turning, before finally being wrangled into one massive stream. It's an overwhelming amount of magic. It feels...tempting? No, it's not quite that. It's more like overwhelming. Like rather than blood rushing through my body, spit in my mouth, bile in my stomach, it's all fucking magic. It's like I've ascended into some type of new being and I push it down, swallowing hard, before I begin to activate our beautiful cursed magic.
I wish that I could have had Ruby beside me for something like this, but unfortunately the prince still lacks the personnel for someone of her talents to not be absolutely necessary. There were seven others, which is what hatched this beautiful plan. Do crabs hatch from eggs? I don't really know.
As I contemplate the important matters that attend to my thoughts, eight massive stone pillars shoot out horizontally from the plateau. Each one corresponding with the aforementioned competent wizards. They race outwards 75 feet in length. Their width is monstrous. A two-story house could easily fit within them if they were hollowed out. And then shooting downwards, not fully vertically, with a slight angle of tilt outward, they plummet downwards, slamming into the ground, causing mass chaos and confusion from the soldiers below. Without any pause or hesitation, the eight legs struggle pushing into the ground before we all hear it. A crack, a thunderous boom as our plateau has been wrenched from the very ground itself, standing up on the eight legs I've given it. Rocks slowly drop from the bottom as the earth readies itself into its new body.
While I may not know the exact logistics of how a crab is born, I do know how they move, because it's pretty funny. On cue, our new crab plateau begins to scuttle sideways. Surprisingly enough, the top of it remains fairly consistently angled, without too much shaking or undue loss of troops or supplies. I did have everyone move out from the edges, just in case. Unfortunately, while that side of the plan may be going well, I do hear quite a few screams, hopefully all just from terror, coming from below us. It's definitely possible that some people may have gotten trapped by the ground and the crab legs, but I'm not exactly in the position to confirm nor deny that. I'm just going to keep casting my spell. And with that, we pace offwards. No, sideways.