The Stables

Posted on Fri Sep 6th, 2024 @ 1:19am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant Kevan Dash

Mission: Into the Qniverse
Location: Magical Forest
Timeline: After 'Authentic Charbroiled Witch'
1283 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

If they found the others.

Zade slightly shook her head at the doubtful thought. No, they'd find a way out of this. They had to. A little time had passed since she sat down to assess her injuries, and as much as she wanted a break after fighting for her life, her mind was on Kevan. They needed to get out of here. Reaching up to grab the counter, she pulled herself to her feet with a wince, feeling the makeshift bandage on her thigh tighten with her movements. As fast as she could, she limped around the kitchen, rummaging through the witch's things and drawers, looking for keys or something the witch could have used to lock up Kevan. She hated that she was touching the counter surfaces for support, but the last thing she wanted was to make the leg injury worse, especially with the ground still slippery from the spilled mop water.

Eventually, she found something promising, a handful of keys on a metal ring. Gripping it as tightly as her trembling, burnt palms would let her, Zade made her way to the door, keeping a hand on the wall in case she needed the support. Every part of her knew she needed to rest, to give herself time to recuperate.

She could rest when they were away from here. Wherever here was.

Exiting the cottage, the Trill made her way to the stables, where the witch had put Kevan. The air outside was colder, and she shivered, very aware that her clothes had absorbed some of the water on the floor. There was a door and a small bit of roof set into a small hill behind the cottage, the wooden door providing some light through the iron bars near the top. Trying the handle, she pushed it open, squinting to see into the dark space. "Dash," she called out, leaning slightly into the door. There were about six stalls in the hillside stable, the doors of which were sturdy wood on the bottom half and iron bars on the top half. The only thing that made it stand out from traditional horse stables was the heavy padlock on each door to keep it shut, instead of a sliding lock. "Dash, where are you??"

"Boss?" the slightly weakened voice called out in the dark.

Zade followed his voice, stumbling a little as she made her way to the correct stall. She winced as her leg injury protested, but she stubbornly pressed on. Looking through the bars on the top half of the stall door, she could see Kevan on the other side. Relief washed over her when she saw that he appeared slightly disheveled, but faring far better than she was. The light in the stables was dim, however, making it hard to tell for sure. "We're getting out of here," she said, turning her attention to the door's padlock. The keys slightly jingled in her trembling hands as she tried to identify the right key, going through the process of isolating each one and trying it in the lock.

Eventually, she found the right key, and the padlock clicked as the bar released. Yanking the padlock off the door, she put her shoulder to the side and pushed the door open. It was heavier than she expected, but eventually it gave and slid open. As it opened, the full extent of Zade's experiences came into view: her clothes were damp and slightly shredded, and she was trembling, either from the cold invited by her damp clothes or from exhaustion.

"You're a sight for sore eyes. What happened? I heard a scream and I was worried you were...you know." He held his arms steady for her as she shakily went through the ring of old metal keys.

Zade approached and repeated the process on his shackles, which seemed strangely archaic compared to the bracelets. "That was the witch, not me," she explained as she put most of her focus on the keys in her hands. If she dropped them, she'd have to start over. "I kept ruining things so she wouldn't come for you." The restraints clicked open, and she stepped back to give him space.

He rubbed his wrists, standing slowly and trying to get his bearings a little better. "So...you, uh, killed the witch?" he asked cautiously. "Sorry, I just - I wouldn't have expected something like that...not exactly in the rulebook, is it?"

"I didn't have much choice. She was trying to throw me into that oven in the corner of the house. It was self preservation," Zade responded. Now that he was free, she didn't bother trying to hold onto the keys, and they slipped out of her hands and into the hay that lined the floor. A sudden rumble made her spread her arms slightly for balance, then she looked over her shoulder. It almost felt like a brief earthquake. "We can catch up later, let's get the hell away from here. You alright to move?"

"Don't exactly have a choice, do we?" Kevan shrugged, stretching briefly. "I really hope we can return home sometime soon, this is really not my idea of fun anymore."

Zade gave him an understanding glance. "You're telling me. Come on." Leading the way out, she kept close to the wall, if anything for support if she needed it, and blinked through the brightness when she got to the front door to the stables. When the brightness finally died down, her eyes widened slightly. "Whoa..."

Outside, it looked like the cottage was collapsing on itself. Most of the roof had caved in, and as they stood at the entry to the stables, some of the walls leaned inward, forming a rather delicately balanced tent of cookies and sweets. Through the crumbling infrastructure, the oven could be seen, and as they stared it seemed to gradually take on a reddish hue. The walls crumbled again, but now in an unnatural way, forming bends that seemed to defy physics. The strangely-shaped walls plunged into the ground, which gave the illusion that the core of the house was rising up. Wait... it wasn't an illusion.

"What the hell did you do to that house...!?" Kevan breathed, staring at the chaotic implosion taking place in front of them.

The pieces of the cottage continued to assemble itself, the mass getting taller and its shape becoming more pronounced. It was starting to take on a humanoid shape, with the blazing oven in the middle of its chest. Two white pieces of hard candy found their way up to what was decidedly a head, spaced far enough apart to be eyes. Some squishy tile made a trail down its middle, and the sugary icing that lined the house began to settle into place to accent the arms and legs. Eventually, some of the icing went to the head to form a mouth, and a second later a booming voice said:

"Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't outrun me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

"Oh this is turning into the worst day..." Kevan groaned.

Even if Zade felt the urge to point out that she didn't cause... whatever the hell was happening to the house, she was still trying to process what was even happening. It wasn't until the giant candy monstrosity's booming voice trembled the ground that she snapped out of it. "Dash, run!" Her eyes widened when she saw one of the gingerbread creature's hands slowly come down to swipe at them, and she practically shoved Kevan to get him to move. "RUN!"