“Throw… the portal!”

  “...the quest!”

  “Take…!”

  “...or don’t come back!”

  My head is swimming, my eyes are useless. Almost all of my conscious experience of the world’s been almost completely shut down. My body’s roughly juggled for a moment before flying through the air in a long arc and then slamming painfully into the ground. Landing in something slick, I also roughly sense myself sliding for a surprising distance. Another loud noise soon follows, but then everything quiets save for a constantly churning, frothing ambience that never shuts up.

  Hungrily extending my energy probes for a signal, a sharp feedback warns me to wait. Another route being necessary, I desperately take a breath in through my nose. This blindness is driving me to the edge of total madness. What if there’s something dangerous in here? What if we’re already in danger? However, rather than gifting me with precious information, the wretched bouquet greeting my senses harshly rakes at my minds, furthering my dilemma even greater. Can’t see, can’t touch, can’t smell. Can barely hear!

  Hopelessly reaching deep into the isolation, I search for something. Anything.

  Ah yes, my songs. They’re all still here for me, even if my external, stable energy is fried. What should I look for? A way to rediscover my senses. Yes, that sounds good and right.

  It’s getting easier and easier with the outside world cut off. How wonderful. Now, what’s gone wrong? Oh no, no, no, it’s all an awful, tangled mess in here! The energy is going every which way, sometimes where it should and sometimes where it shouldn’t. What’s the cause of all this? Hm. There! Everything congregates over there. A simple knot? It’s really all tied together in a knot, tangled up in something that clearly shouldn’t be there. There’s nothing…

  Oh, oh! Yes, it’s that dirty, stinking light from the nose. What a mess, what a mess. Fortunately, messes are something in which I’m quite the expert. Let me simply…

  Ow! That definitely wasn’t right. I tried to grab it, to move it. However, instead that caused the threads to wish to become something else. That’s what I usually do with the ladder, no? Make it into something else that I want it to be. Ah, I’m usually constructing things with it, but that isn’t what I want for this big knot. I need a lighter touch. A little tickle. A nudge, a poke. More like when I’m manipulating those wonderful spacial energies.

  Yes, yes! This is it. Perfect, with this the ladder may be moved around without wishing it to change its nature. Treat it more like a string or leash. Untangle here, bind it into a neat little braid out of the way over there. It’s so much better!

  My minds calm, my senses gradually return, and I open my eyes. However, regaining my sight is somehow so much worse than the darkness from blindness. Aisles and aisles of boiling cauldrons, sloppily spilling their contents with every snap and pop of their thick, viscous, red liquids. Am I back in that stupid, mousey creature’s domain again?

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  With my vision fully restored, a little light hovers on the edge of my perception, dancing and begging for my attention.

  The stomach? That thing that the ears was so afraid of? This can’t be good. In reflex to the signs of environmental danger, I begin to subconsciously shorten and tighten Ha’koff’s leash. Wait, no! Ha’koff!

  Scrambling up to my feet, I desperately follow the now fully lengthened leash to find him lying face down in a crisp, bright red pool of spilt blood. Thankfully, that must mean that most of it isn’t his! However, this wound, this wound. It’s terrible! Reaching into my pouches, I tear out fistfulls of mud and cram them deep into the gaping cavity that the terrible beast drove through his chest. Replace the missing flesh, have to replace the missing flesh. That’ll be the base. Can’t fix what isn’t there. It’ll work, it must. There’s no other choice.

  Once the emergency treatment is complete, I take out my two remaining healing potions. One to douse over the packed wound, the other gets massaged down his unconscious gullet. These things are very, very powerful. The intense burning as they fixed my shattered shoulder and other injuries is seared in my memory. I was hurt so badly back then, exactly as he is now. He’s no worse than that. He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine! I refuse to accept otherwise.

  The white smoke rises up from the ragged, torn edges of his skin, bonding with the fresh mud lying on top and inside. Good, good. That should indicate that it’s working. For the first time, he shows some simple signs of life, rocking back and forth in clear and understandable pain.

  Time, he needs time. I should leave him be to rest. Especially since I need to figure out how to get us out of here. However, I can’t just leave him exposed like this. This strange, gigantic room, the floors, ceiling, and twisting hallways are all made of some kind of metal. My rudimentary covering images of a rock or pile of dirt won’t work here. It’ll simply make him stand out even more. The only inconspicuous things in here are these big cauldrons. Can I make that work somehow?

  Channelling energy out of my hands and over the surface of his skin, I start with a rough, bulbous rock as I’d normally do. However, then I push the details and curvature far beyond ordinary. It needs to look far more like these big pots. Rougher. Wetter.

  That’s much better. No, no, it’s still too small! He has to look a lot bigger than he actually is. Extending my consciousness throughout the layer of stable energy that’s been crudely smeared all across his body, I force it to expand. Bigger and bigger it grows, closer and closer to the rough shape of the pots surrounding us.

  Oh! Wonderful. That’s… about the right size, but it’s so flat, still, and uninteresting. As if it’s frozen in time. Actually, if I cycle the energy on top in a repeating loop, then it may look more like the boiling blood? Just have to give it a little more finesse. A tiny, ever so little bit more.

  Ha! What fun. That’s exactly what it needed. It’s not perfect, but at least someone casually walking by will overlook it more easily. However, the sloshing and popping. If they stand close enough, then the total silence will be a dead giveaway. There needs to at least be something. A rough imitation is enough. The stable energy simply needs to regularly wobble a little bit. A little more.

  Yes! Perfect, perfect. It’s as if I’m simply playing around and molding mud into fun little shapes. He now looks the part and sounds the part, but then what about touch and smell? He should feel hot and metallic. He should smell wet, and… hm. Like the big ones’ drawn red? The big ones’ blood. That’s strange. I hadn’t really noticed it after the ears’ illusion lifted, but this is definitely blood from the big ones. Regardless, I think I can make it work with more creative molding and shaping.

  It’s complete! I’m no Garret with these silly, little illusions, but it’s more than enough for now. So much better than some random, out of place, injured goblin demanding one’s attention. With this, I’ll at least feel less anxious while exploring this place as Ha’koff safely takes his time healing back up.