The Sketch: The Voyage of Soal: "The Seas of Danger"
It was dark and misty, and cold too, in a dank rocky place where Sam awoke. But he wasn't in a cave. And surely he wasn't in the boarding school. He quickly got his bearings, and noticed he had nothing with him except the clothes on his back. Looking around, it was early night, or the sun was going to rise in any moment. The stony surface of jagged, pointed rocks smoked with steam. But they were ice cold to the touch. And Sam was standing on a smooth spot. And there was a path of smooth rocks beside him! He appeared to be in an empty river, and the steps led out of it. So, following them, he quickly got to the banks. But there was a sudden cutoff on the land. It was as though a giant scythe had split the land in two, and destroyed the other half. An empty, foggy void of nothing, possibly thousands of feet deep, lay feet in front of him. Scanning around, he could see a brownish-blueish-greenish shape through the fog, miles away, a horizontally stretched cube of sorts. It appeared to be made of water, with islands dabbing its surface and great waterfalls on the sides. And it was floating in the emptiness. It looked like Sam wasn't in the main place of this... wait!
He remembered using the Sketch to get here, probably. When he circled the brown bird's head, it was as though he was choosing where to go. So this is Sam's final destination. How would he make it to the great mass of water?
He waved his hand through the vacuum, and found it was filled with water vapor. Waving his hand in a certain spot, he felt ground, and a narrow rainbow platform appeared. Stepping onto it as he got up, Sam felt in front of it. More platform. This could be the way to the mainland. He ran across the straight platform, occasionally making a gradual ramp up and down, until after about thirty minutes of walking and jogging, he made it there, to a broad tan bridge on the edge. It was a funny bridge that curved around and led to every different island. And everything was so colorful here too. Sam felt he might actually want to live here. Walking forward across the bridge towards an island, a wide red volcano, which seemed to be luring him. As he thought this was the perfect world, he felt something unnaturally fuzzy brush against his hair as it flew off towards his destination. It was a gigantic hand, leaving a trail of exhaust behind it, bigger than Sam was. And it was colored completely black. The eerie creature seemed to be joining hundreds of others inside the volcano, through a hole in the left side. Running towards the entrance, Sam felt he had something to investigate. He sprinted through the gate to find that the inside was almost completely lava. It was a sea of it, with islands made of a hot red rock dotting the shallow sea of death. And he heard a scream. The black hands were flying above a bridge, and Sam followed them. The bridge led to another doorway. In this chamber, there was no lava and it was very dark despite the other room's existence. And it was much smaller than the other one. On the ground lay a stray helmet, one that looked like it had been used by knights of the dark ages. It was a spiked helmet with three large feathers on top, and it fit him perfectly. Sam felt safer with it on, and felt a sense of ownership, too. A black hand blew a hole in the roof of the cave, and more did too. Lava dripped from the ceiling. Making his way to the next chamber, he heard more screams, except this time they were more clear. They were in this room, an even darker one, that looked like a hallway. There was a small portion to the left, and a long one to the right. Turning to his left, he saw a small brown bird, with large eyes and a banana-shaped long beak, that looked exactly the same as the one on the paper, shivering with fright. It was a female, and she was terrified, sitting against the rocky wall. "Don't worry!" Sam knelt to the bird and patted her on the head. "Everything's okay." He was struggling to contain his fear as well. All the girl bird responded to was to point her thin, brown, triangular wing behind Sam. Slowly standing up and turning his head, a massive black glove hovered behind him. It was three times larger than the normal black hands. Immediately it grabbed him and began to choke with all of its mighty force, stronger than an of its probable servants. But then the girl stood up with a burst of bravery, and drew a bow, piercing the glove with a few perfectly-shot arrows. After that she ran past them through the hallway into the bright white light. The glove just shook off the arrows and continued to strangle Sam, even though he hopelessly tried to fight back. After a moment, a foot-long, flaming red dragon flew into the black glove and exploded! Dropping Sam, he ran away towards the light as more spiked fire-dragons sailed past his head and towards the glove which was now quickly clambering against the walls to chase him. As he passed a certain point in the hall, a wall of rock slid shut behind him, holding off the glove for a little bit. Finally Sam made it to a balcony on the edge of the volcano as the sun rose. The bow-wielding girl was there, and a larger bird about a foot tall as well looked up to him. She was another female, with bushy eyebrows and a haughty smirk on her face, followed by guilt and amazement. She was carrying a crossbow with another dragon loaded and ready to shoot. As the glove broke through the wall of rock, the new bird held out a bright white crystal, which glowed a beautiful gray light, (better than all of the red light he'd been seeing recently) to which the giant black glove cringed and flew away. It went into the front of an enormous swarm of black hands, which all flew away into the fog, towards Sam's starting point. Daylight had broken. "Idiot," Bushy Eyebrows muttered to Sam, "Don't just stand there. It's the basics of battle. Harm or be harmed, you knucklehead."
The Sketch Survivors: The Defense of Fort Whal: "The Process of Desertion"
The passage was rough, and as time passed, the interior became dimmer and dimmer without access to the outside world. Vines grew rampant on the ruined walls, and there had been no signs of civilization for miles. There had been no AeroFreights in their pursuit for quite a while, either. And from Soal's sense of time, dusk was approaching. Irene set down her rusty lantern in a clearing with a very high ceiling' brick piles and clumps of Whaliron were scattered around the chamber. The perspiration on Irene's face and her heavy breathing reminded Soal that she wasn't invincible. Soal seated himself against a wall as she did the same. "Soal," she struggled to exhale proportionately, "This is the beginning of the Path of Deserters." "I know," he responded. A long, eerie silence separated their words every time they spoke. "It's such a shame you let Perry keep the Amulet." "I promised him he would keep it to his end," Irene modestly told him. "But I obviously never thought he would betray us like he did. The worst traitor of all." Even worse than Mervis, Soal could relate. He knew there would be many more treacherous Un-Characters throughout his time being a Revolute, but he would have to do the best he could to trust anyone he needed... like Irene. "Tell me about Perry," Soal couldn't resist the temptation. He found essential all knowledge he could get a grip on. Perhaps he was just nosy. Irene let loose the minimum answer. "His full name was Peregrin Cliasin, and he was a very arduous fellow. Often he would charge into battle as soon as I gave him the order, not daring to question my decisions. He stuck with me thick and thin, until the infamous Battle of the Sinking Dawn, often taught to younger Revolutes as kind of a mythical event in Revolute history. Perry was just as bold in his own choices as ever, and carried a smile on his face all the way from meeting me for the first time to being abandoned at the Perimeter. What happened next, I'm afraid to find out." "Have you ever considered that Perry may be dead?" Soal suggested. Irene shook her head at the thought. "With someone as resourceful as Perry, I guarantee he still survives," she refused to accept it. "Survives, not thrives, keep that clear." Soal didn't want any part in aggravating the Green Phantom, so he mostly kept his mouth shut. Irene was very sensitive when dealing with lost friends like Kalver. Soal had a better circumstance on his side; his own deceased friends like Retna and Martin, whose deaths he had mostly come to terms with by now, were completely unfamiliar to any Un-Character but himself (and Moth). The duo rested for the evening. Aware that the AeroFreights were still hot on the trail, they were sent packing as a thin searchlight punctuated the musty, frigid air. As soon as it turned the corner, Irene grabbed the closest available thing (the lantern, as she was currently unequipped) and hurled it at the robot. It was disassembled in a matter of moments. Soal, without thinking, gave Irene the burdensome sack containing all of the things the two had brought with them, and the lantern, and they were off. Despite Irene's disadvantage, she outpaced Soal, and kept that pace for the remaining sprint from the incoming army of AeroFreights. The Path of Deserters was less of a physical path and more of a psychological path. Every step, Soal felt he was losing himself to the Perimeter. Not only was he losing himself, but Irene was losing herself, too. When she sat down after a few hours, exhausted, her tears further darkened the room. At first, Soal believed she was stricken with grief over Perry. And he was half correct. The rest was all inflicted by the Perimeter. This boundary must have had a lasting power over the Zillyroise, too. Irene just kept weeping, without a real reason. Soal could not detect any words coming out of her mouth as she did so. Finally, after several minutes passed without a halt, he came to his senses. "Look," he knelt down to her level. "Irene, I know how this is. Perry is alive, and I think he would know that. He still is beside you when you need him most , and so is Kalver. They would both be so proud of you. You've got to do something, Irene. The Amulet is within our grasp. And remember the Revolutes. You can't fail them, never, never. Don't succumb to a fate you could wield." This random mesh of a confusing attempt at comforting her did its job, which was quite a surprise to Soal. "I'm sorry about all of this," over time, Irene calmed down. "I... didn't want to fail, either." This fear of failure was what apparently brought them together. If I'm the only person that can calm her down, Soal thought to himself, she might advance me further. Soal carried the dying lantern this time, almost awaiting an AeroFreight ambush, but one never came. The Perimeter was closer than ever. Perry was waiting somewhere, too, but not for the same thing his pursuers were. Then, two days later, they made it.