In The Cliffside

"My name is Solstice, this is my little brother and little sister, Zenith and Clementine. That's our cousin, Stark. What are your names?" Solstice asked us.

Solstice has bright orange hair, that almost seemed fake. The hair color itself matched his little sister, but hers was much more dull and long. Zenith, on the other hand, hair white hair lined with blue strips. It looked fake as well... what an eccentric family.

"I'm Charlie, this is my friend Alex... and our old enemy, Orion. We're an interesting group, but we're friends as of right now, just trying to get out so we can take down Ultima," I told them.

"Us too buddy, but this forest has had us trapped for a few weeks now at least. I lost track of time at around day three. We've made a map of the land in the dirt, right over by those three trees," Solstice pointed.

There was a big circle of upturned dirt, along with a few scratches in it to mark mountains, rivers, and thick trees. Overall, this area was just one big circle and wasn't too complicated to traverse if need be. Solstice even had the directional capacity to realize where he was, marking a small dot in the middle of another triangle right by the bottom of the circle.

It looked like everything ahead of us was north, and only a little bit of breathing room was to the south. The eastern and western directions weren't charted out as accurately, but it still gave us a good clue about where we were at.

"You didn't see the hallway when we arrived? I assume that must've caused some noise when it dropped down to this level," Orion said, looking back up at the ceiling.

When I followed his gaze, I realized that all there was above us was a blue sky... no hint of a wall or a ceiling.

"That can't be right. We came from right up there... Orion, boost me up that cliff," I told him.

He instantly crouched down and cupped his hands to launch me upward. I used my prosthetic leg to jump into that cup and made it back to the cliffside's top, looking at where I thought we came out from the hallway.

"We walked down a staircase... yet there's nothing above us... tell me how that makes sense," I yelled down to everybody from the cliffside.

I dropped down once more, brushing the dirt off my pants and looking back at the cliffside.

"If I've learned one thing, I would say that Ultima Tower is full of Illusions, those I wouldn't expect. I still can't be sure that Orion is even real, or you guys are, but I have to trust my gut, in all areas. And, if I trust my gut, then the staircase is right there," I said, pointing to the center of the cliffside.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked me.

"Think about it, we walked downward, but we did stop for a little bit on the staircase. We all have the stamina to continue all the way down without taking a break, but we did stop... don't you think it's possible we were under the illusion we were traveling downward? What if the staircase changed and moved us elsewhere, so when walking down, we ended up going up after a certain amount of time?" I proposed.

"Charlie, that doesn't make any sense. We would know if we were going up or down, changing that altitude or direction can easily be felt..." Orion said, quickly coming to a stop before thinking about the same thing I was.

"You said you traveled five thousand feet in the air without feeling it... holy shit, you might be right," Orion said.

"That's why I had to propose the idea. I'm not sure why we can't feel those things, but it's not impossible, is it?"

"Well, we can make shovels, can't we? We need to dig the cliffside out. And, if I'm wrong, then we need natural resources to help us survive and look for an opening. Solstice, does this forest go on forever?" I asked him again.

"We once walked for three days in one direction and it didn't end. It's not likely it has an end," He said to me.

"But you didn't walk south yet, is there a reason for that?" I asked him.

"We... couldn't make it up the cliffside. We're too weak to do something like that," He mumbled.

"Perfect cover. Once you're malnourished enough, you won't gain the strength to do anything. The reason there aren't thousands of people in this forest is that those who went south first discovered the exit, I would bet on that. If the cliffside holds nothing, then we'll go south next. As of right now, we'll make shovels. Alex, ready for a trip down memory lane?" I asked him, reminiscing of our days back on the Isle when we all made axes.

"Ah, I'll get to it. Orion, ever made a shovel before?" Alex asked him, reaching for sticks and stones in the forest.

"Kid, I'm pretty old to not have done this. We did wake up on the same beach and did the same things, don't forget that," he said, reaching for plant twine all around us.

"Did you go to any other place before this one?" I asked Solstice.

My brain was firing on all cylinders. Beforehand, it was violent, trying to acclimate to the climate that was murder, vengeance, and healing with strands. Right now, all I had with me to push myself forward was my brain and my friends. Depending on both of those things, over swords, speed, and skill, was such a difference, that my brain was blocked off from everything it learned.

I was learning a new skillset now, improving my intelligence, and slowly becoming a smarter and more useful man worth more.

The next time I saw Sky, I would be worthy of being his right-hand man.