The tunnel floor grew slicker with every step. The angle of the descent sharpened, turning the walk into a controlled slide.

  Trenn leaned back and curved his tail, driving the heavy metal scales into the obsidian glass in front of him. It shrieked, acting as a brake, slowing his momentum. Beside him, Mara dropped into a four-point stance to control her descent’s momentum.

  "The air is changing," Mara said, her voice tight with exertion. "It smells... wet. Organic."

  Trenn sighed. “More monsters?”

  Mara tasted the air, twitching her muzzle. “Yes and no… I think… I think it’s eggs. A hatchery.”

  Trenn put his arm out. “A few yards ahead… the sloping corridor ends with a steep drop. A giant hole in the world.”

  Mara carefully went to see for herself. The smooth, vitrified tunnel floor dropped away into a pit, a vertical shaft where the titan had dove toward the planet’s core.

  Trenn drove his tail harder into the glass to arrest his slide, and inclined his body to place his hand on the floor behind him, stopping a few feet from the lip. The pit was a throat of heat and sulfur.

  A draft of cooler air hit his face. A distinct, hollow echo bounced back from the darkness below.

  “There!”

  About a dozen feet below, the Red God’s hole had ripped the wall off a secondary tunnel.

  A rough, jagged opening gaped in the side of the massive pit. The opening was framed by thick, vein-like roots that pulsed with a faint bioluminescence.

  "What are those tendrils?" Trenn asked.

  Mara pawed to the edge, her boots squeaking on the glass. She peered at the ledge across the gap.

  "I'm not sure. Maybe that's the Heat-Ray's nest?"

  Trenn measured the distance. "I can't make that jump. It's too far. I’ll fall before I reach the ledge."

  Mara stood up. She looked at the gap, then turned to look back up the steep, slick incline they had just descended.

  "I can make it with a running jump. Maybe I can catch you after I reach that ledge?”

  Trenn followed her gaze up the slope. The smooth, steep cavern floor rode up into the darkness.

  "It looks like a ski slope," he muttered. He pulled Skate from his head, holding the heavy slime in his hands. It absorbed its rock shell, returning to its malleable purple form.

  Trenn looked back down at the pit. "Highest stakes snowboarding ever. Ski or die. Literally."

  “What else are we going to do, walk back?” Mara said with a scoff. “I’m going… you’d best follow,” she finished, coldly, before retreating up the incline.

  She scrambled up the glossy incline on all fours, her boots squeaking against the vitrified stone. She reached a high point, pivoted, and charged the abyss. Her strides lengthened, driving her gloves and boots into the slick surface for traction.

  She hit the lip and sprang into the void.

  Gravity claimed her. She tucked her knees to her chest, rotating in the air. She struck the opposite rock shelf that shot through her cracked ribs. She skidded across the narrow platform, shooting past the mouth of the secondary tunnel, plunging into the vertical shaft beyond.

  “NO!” Trenn gasped.

  A hand snatched a thick, pulsating root that anchored a clutch of leathery eggs to the shaft wall. The tendril snapped taut. She dangled over the darkness, the root straining under her weight.

  With a grunt that echoed up the pit and jarred her bones, she heaved. She dragged herself back onto the solid shelf and collapsed. She raised a shaky arm.

  "Clear!"

  *I can’t believe I’m going to do this. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, and I rode the back of a golden kaiju.*

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Trenn turned and began the climb back up the obsidian slide, using his tail as a brake to keep from sliding or falling backwards.

  "Alright, buddy," Trenn whispered. "Don't fail me now."

  He dropped the slime onto the floor and stepped onto it, pinning Skate to the black glass. It held its shape, a frictionless puck beneath his boot.

  He pushed off.

  Gravity took hold with terrifying speed. The wind whistled in his ears. The obsidian tunnel blurred into streaks of grey vibration.

  Too fast!

  He crouched low, bending his knees, arms out for balance. It was a memory from a life he could barely recall—cold wind, white snow, a board clamped to his feet.

  He shifted his weight, digging his heel into the slime. Skate responded, biting into the curve of the tunnel wall, carving a horizontal line that slowed his descent.

  Just like back home, he repeated himself, trying to fool his survival instinct.

  The drop-off was rushing toward him. He carved to the left.

  He leaned in and quickly carved again, to the right, aligning himself with the ledge where Mara stood.

  It’s all about timing….

  Ten feet. Five feet.

  Now!

  At the lip, Trenn slammed his massive golden tail down. The impact crushed the stone and vaulted him into the air, a kinetic pop that launched him over the abyss, like a skater performing an ollie.

  His momentum became an arc. He flew into the void.

  Skate, freed from Trenn's weight, shot off beneath him.

  They were two projectiles in the dark—the golden-tailed man arcing high, the purple sphere shooting low.

  Trenn saw the stone ledge rushing up. He was coming in hot. *Too hot!*

  Skate struck the stone floor first, easily absorbing the fall in its jelly-like mass. It wasted no time and spread out, flattening itself into a wide, purple cushion over the unforgiving rock.

  Trenn landed on the slime. Feet, knees, and then the shoulder—Skate compressed, absorbing the bone-shattering kinetic energy into its gelatinous mass.

  The shockwave rattled his innards. Momentum carried him off the slime, rolling him toward the dark mouth of the chimney.

  Mara lunged. She gripped his arm; he clamped onto her wrist. The roll stopped inches from the drop, his legs dangling over the pit.

  He lay there for a second, gasping, the wind knocked out of him. He checked his legs. They moved. Nothing broken.

  "I knew you’d make it," Mara wheezed, her startled eyes conveying none of the confidence in her voice.

  Trenn pushed himself up, wiping dust from his scarred face. He looked back at Skate. The slime was slowly bubbling back into a sphere, looking dazed but intact.

  "Good slime," Trenn muttered, scooping Skate up and placing it back onto his crown. Skate sank around his head, with a gentle buzz.

  He turned to face the new tunnel. It was a vertical shaft rising from the deep, into the forest above, carrying the scent of pine and fresh air. The walls were lined with thousands of leathery, glowing spheres, each the size of a melon, anchored by thick tendrils.

  "How are we going to get up there?" Trenn asked, craning his neck.

  Mara walked to the wall and gripped a thick, rubbery root. "We climb the eggs."

  She began her ascent without another word. She moved with grim, painful determination, hooking her arm around the nearest vines to spare her mended ribs the strain of reaching. She moved methodically: hook, pull, step, breathe. Hook, pull, step, breathe.

  Trenn followed. The climb was a nightmare of slick surfaces and biological mines. The tendrils were warm, coated in a mucus secretion that smelled of raw fish.

  His right hand led. His maimed left hand braced against the rock, a weak stabilizer. He drove upward with his legs, but his boot slipped.

  The heavy sole slammed into a glowing sphere. The leathery membrane depressed under the impact. A dull thrum vibrated from the egg, accelerating instantly. The soft bioluminescence flared into a harsh crimson.

  Trenn froze. He shifted his weight to the stone wall, carefully lifting his foot. The egg’s pulse slowed, the light fading back to a gentle amber.

  But the tail remained the real problem. It swung with every movement, a pendulum of dead weight threatening to rip him from the wall or smash into the delicate clutch. He locked his core to keep the gold limb pinned, turning the climb into a torture of endurance.

  Ten feet up, sweat beaded on his forehead. Above, Mara navigated the minefield, placing her boots on the stone between the clusters to avoid the throbbing spheres.

  He reached for a new handhold, a thick knot where several tendrils converged. His fingers wrapped around it. It felt like gripping oiled glass. His hand slipped.

  He tipped precariously, shooting his fingers into the crevice between the tendril and the stone wall. He found a momentary purchase and began to pull himself up, shifting his weight.

  His boot slipped on mucus. His hand lost its grip. He clawed for purchase, but his fingers only found yielding eggs and grease.

  The world inverted.

  The fall ended with a jarring crack. Skate crystallized into carbonado an instant before Trenn’s skull hammered the ledge. The impact detonated behind his eyes.

  He gasped, air wheezing into his stunned lungs. The grey stone shaft spun into a nauseating spiral. He squeezed his eyelids shut, but the spinning continued in the dark. A rhythmic throb pounded against his temples, synchronized with his racing heart.

  "Trenn?"

  The voice sounded submerged, filtering through a thick layer of cotton. He peeled his eyes open. Two blurry white shapes loomed above him. He blinked, trying to merge the ghosts into a single Mara, but the double vision persisted.

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