Waltz of the axle and the gear (1)

N.Z. gets off the phone and looks at me. "Julian wants to know if you want to join him on an owlbear hunt." I stop petting the cat on my lap. "Like. An actual hunt? Like, killing something?" N.Z. nods. I take a minute to contemplate. 'I don't want to kill anything. And don't do to well when seeing blood... But I would get to see an owlbear, whatever that is.' "Sure, I'll go. Where is Julian now?" "The bookstore. Cause he's actually doing his job while you've been holed up here avoiding school under the pretense of trauma recovery." "Shut it."

I pass through Roc's Rest and arrive at the bookstore's main door. The glass door was a little disorienting to cross, as when it's in Roc's Rest it showed the inside of the shop like a window in space. When I entered a strange scent caught my nose, it was a slightly putrid smell. You could tell there was more to it, but on the surface it was fine.

"What's that smell?" Nezha looked confused. "Hmm? Oh. It's apple, a fruit from another world." I looked throughout the store. My friends were placed across the space eating pie and chatting. Kendal and Harrison were arguing about something but were just out of earshot. Their frantic gestures grabbing the attention of passerby through the window. Nezha and Julian were searching through Julian's book. Pausing at moments to point out some of the weirdest line's I've heard out of context. "...you could boil it to make it tender..." "...if we want to avoid a fight we could blow it up..." A few N.Z.s were hovering near the ceiling lights talking amongst each other.

"Hay Nezha!" I call out. "Can't the pedestrians see N.Z.?" He responded quickly without looking up from the book in Julian's hands. "Nope, anything they hold, wear, is placed on them, or themselves will not be perceived by people without them wanting it." 'Huh. Guess that means we don't have to worry when the parents get home.' My N.Z. floats out from behind me and heads to the backroom. "Come on! Let's go get some pie!" The smell of the apple pie wasn't appeasing to me in anyway so I rejected his offer. "Suit yourself then." He mumbled before flying away to grab his food.

I look over to Kendal and Harrison who are watching my N.Z. get his slice. N.Z., upon seeing their stares give them a quizzical look. "Sorry..." Kendal says shyly. 'That's not like her. She'd usually snap back.' N.Z. shrugged his shoulders and continued on his way. As he went away Kendal look back up at him and squinted. Suddenly she clasped her eyes and started to take shaken breaths.

Before I could inquire, Harrison took Kendal into Roc's Rest to calm down. Leaving me standing there as the only witness to the event. I started to speculate but knew that nothing good would come of it. So I snapped myself back to what I had intended to do from the start.

I walked over to Julian and began to ask about the owlbear. "So just what did I sign myself up for? What is an owlbear?" Nezha took the liberty of answering. "Julian wanted to find some more materials and ingredients to bake with. So proposed an owlbear hunt, they're extremely aggressive mammal predators which offer quite a challenge for anyone on a civilian level of strength." I shake my head. Clearly there's more to this than the private told me. "So how is this safe, in any way?" Nezha put on a grin that would make a villain jealous of his theatrics.

"Robots!" Julian and I looked at Nezha with anticipation. We had come to expect great things of these little guy over the past few days. Nezha's smile persisted as he explained. "I'll put you in control of robots! One for each of you. And send those robots into another world to hunt an owlbear." I take a moment to process what he said.

"So we'll possess these robots and travel to another world? Why not just summon an owlbear in Roc's Rest or something?" "Cause then what's the point of me buying these interdimensional dive sets?" Nezha retorted, holding up a pair of the tackiest glasses I had ever seen. They were deep blue and cuboid, with red wires crossing them at random locations, some even across the lenses. Blinking orange lights pulsed every few seconds at the ends of the arms.

"..." Our silence did nothing to hint at our confusion. The private's grin remained unchanged, waiting for a response. "With these you can send your consciousness into a robot without moving your soul. It's a very safe way to explore foreign spaces." "We get that." Julian said, looking back to his book. "But again, why not just summon an owlbear?"

"Cause if we're on a hunt, then we need to hunt, you've got to find the beast, track it down, chase it, kill it, eat it, you know!" "N-no! Why would we know that! We live in a developed society!" I spat back. Nezha sighed a long sigh. "It'd be better if I'd just show you." He snapped his fingers.

A hole opened below us into Roc's Rest and we fell through, well, not fell, more like sunk. The hole opened up thousands of kilometers above the surface of the pocket dimension. We continued our slow descent until we landed on something. An invisible platform that hovered above the clouds.

Each step we took sent shallow ripples across the surface, extending into the distant haze. Nezha began to walk away from us towards a massive vague shape. It looked like some weird mechanical artwork, massive cogs spinning in a delicate motion, their teeth interlocking without sound. As the gears turned the space around the machine seemed to fold inward and outward, like breathing. Pipes jutted out at odd angles and taunt ropes held free-flying pieces close to the main body. Smoke rose from the ropes and as I drew closer I saw that the ropes were parts of belt work, moving so fast as to literally ignite the air around them. The breathing motion began to settle down as we approached, or at least I thought that, but a quick glance behind me showed that we had crossed the threshold of its influence, now the whole world outside of this behemoth's domain was dancing to the ebb and flow.

Julian stood slack jawed at the device infront of us. "What is this!" He shouted. As if in reaction to his cry, every part of the machine stopped. Then the smallest gears began to rapidly spin, making a clacking sound that impersonated an inhuman voice. "Silence." The machine said.

Julian was about to question this thing's actions but I put my hand over his mouth. Nezha turned back to face us and put a finger to his lips, signaling our status as silent observers. Then turned around once more and began to focus.

Nezha took long, deep breaths, and as he did, the gigantic machine slowly started to move, the cogs rotating in the rhythm. With each breath, a new cog would join the silent chorus. once about half of the machine was in rhythm it suddenly stopped. But Nezha went on, and as he did, the space around him began to ebb and flow.