On Purpose [Solo]

[Lilthis]

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Recently the forest had been absolutely deluded in moisture. The constant rain storms had given birth to the youngest addition to the ecosystem’s family, that most persistent of fungus. The mushrooms looked up at the tall dark elf who trampled the soaked earth around them. In their innocence they tried a soothing tone, “we help you.”

Lilly was unsure what to say at first. Caught a bit off guard after her conversation with the crow. She stopped, for only a second, and looked down at the fungal youths. She used a soothing voice as well, “my troubles began long before you existed, they will persist long after you are gone.”

The mushrooms did not understand, they were too young. As Lilly spoke the words she understood where she fit into the spectrum too. The universe and the moon and the forest all viewed her as she viewed the mushrooms. She was insignificant. Her pain was no one’s problem but her own.

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one.two.three.four. one.two.three.
one.two.three.four. one.two.three.

Her watch was off. Only by a fraction of a second. She focused on the ticking of the watch, the tumbling of the gears, trying to determine how inaccurate her device had drifted. From the sounds of the ticking it was off by a matter of 0.3 milliseconds. At that rate the watch would be off by an entire second within roughly three million, three-hundred and thirty-three thousand, and three-hundred and thirty-three seconds. Or around thirty-eight and a half days. The dark elf would die from dehydration before then.

It had been several hours that she was trapped in this enclosure of stone and sand with barely any room to move. She knew it would be a long wait but it was starting to move into unbearable territory. Her legs began to cramp a bit, her sides ached from the rough stone she lay on, and her mind was starting to wander to insidious thoughts. What if the group would not return for her? What if the group had gotten themselves trapped on their expedition? One thing was for certain, Lilly was not about to wait any longer for a group of men to save her. While lying there and studying the idiosyncrasies of her watch the young woman had begun to study the markings on the wall in front of her. She could not read any of it, unsure the language of origin, but the Alerian could tell that it was a puzzle of some sort. Several of the characters marked were clearly meant to throw off the viewer. Often dribbling into other stones or abruptly ending in a manner that would not make sense of any written language she was familiar with.

Her gaze eventually focused on one specific brick in the wall which had its corners painted and an unusual circular symbol drawn into the center. As she slid over against the rough sand floor the girl placed her hand up to the brick, trying to feel if it were loose at all. She attempted to spin it, pull on it, push it in. It was no use; the sandstone would not bulge. One of the stones to the top left of the one with its corners painted had what looked to be an arrow and a hieroglyphic of what Lilly interpreted as stone being shattered. The tinkerer gulped as her mind made up that the best course of action would be to try and break the stone. Cautiously the dark elf readied herself to punch at the stone with her gauntlet. Hoping to gently fracture the sandstone.

Cocking back her arm as best she could in the tight space she let loose the first blow. Her gauntlet collided with the brick, not even causing a crack. Inside the gauntlet her hand felt the sting of punching a thick brick wall however. On the bright side though, she could tell that this specific stone did seem to be hollow. Recognizing that this was her best course of action if she wished to escape she readied another blow. This time however she flipped a switch on the side of her gauntlet, causing a buildup of steam in the bronze piping until it became too much. The steam was released from several nozzles as the dark elf took a deep breath and the gauntlet took on a mind of its own. As her fist was propelled forward by the glove she felt the force of the air fly by her. With a loud crash her fist collided with the stone, reducing it back into the sand and dust it had begun as millennia ago.

Dirt and dust filled Lilly’s vision as her hand throbbed from the pain. The gauntlet coughed up a few gaskets and gears as Lilthis joined it in coughing up the sandy dust that filled her lungs. Once the smoke had settled the young woman peered into the hole she created and saw thin rope attached to a small cork. She retrieved the cork with her right-hand and pulled on it, triggering a switch that opened the door which had closed her in for the past few hours. Overjoyed the elf quickly scurried in reverse to be rid of that foul hole.

Rising to her feet she stumbled a bit as her legs had been reduced to jelly from their lack of use for the past few hours. Not wanting to appear unkempt the girl tied her hair back and brushed a bit of the dirt off her clothes before proceeding inwards to find the rest of The Vestige. Once she arrived at the main chamber she realized that the group had taken so long as they were still studying a large orb with a glowing core at its center. Without speaking to anyone Lilly presented her quill and began to jot down everything she could about the circular object.