Portal Posi Boss Battle: In Times of Crisis

Prompt #5: Posi’s not done with her old tricks! She rips open portals throughout the battle, sometimes beneath unwary fighters and sometimes escaping through them herself. Draw or write about your character falling through a portal during the fight. Where do they end up? Does it help their attack or disrupt it?

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“⁻ᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃ

aaaaa

AAAAA

AAAAA

AAAAA

AAAAA!” 

 

This was it… they were done for. All the things they had to do… the bugs they’d yet to see and discover… the times they’d never told mom they loved her… 

 

Bloodshade… 

 

The young jackalope felt the wind tearing through their antlers as they plunged towards the ground below with nothing to slow their descent. Tears streamed from their eyes as their heart pounded faster… faster… their chest cramping, fingers tingling, numbing… Vision vignetted in darkness as the tips of colorful, rocky spires careen by, one so close they could touch it if they could just… reach out… 

 

CRACK! 

 

Gabi flinched as his shoulder wrenched, trying to keep the… rabbit(?)-person from snapping their neck in the sudden stop. Too close. Way too close. Fortunately, he wasn’t recovering a splatter off of the ground, but still...

“Hey… You okay?” he asked, finally catching his breath before getting a good look at their face for the first time.

 

Big, glassy, unseeing eyes stared back. 

 

Oh no… 

 

Releasing some of his grip, he slid down the spire as fast as he safely could, lowering the lanky, brown-dappled person to the ground, and immediately checking for a pulse… for breathing… 

 

Oh god… No, please, no…! 

 

Chest compressions. Hand over vine in the middle of their chest, he thrust, straining the victim’s ribs and laboring his own injured shoulder, but he barely felt it as adrenaline coursed through him. Sitting in the middle of nowhere… this was the only chance… 

 

“Come on… Come on… Give me something…” he begged, voice crackling in his throat as he struggled against time, precious seconds slipping through his fingers. The world around them swirled as panic set in. 

 

“H-HELP! NOT BREATHING! NOT BREATHING!”

 

A last ditch effort… But all he could hear other than the echo of his voice against the spires around them, was the beating of his own heart, and the screaming of tinnitus in his ears. 

 

Through the fog, a pair of gloved hands appeared next to his out of nowhere. Gabi’s head snapped up, coming eye-to-eye with the newcomer. 

 

Assailant? Help? He was saying something… 

 

A warm, silver stare looked back at him. With his ears screaming so loudly, he couldn’t actually hear what the stranger had to say… but he moved with such strong assurance that it put the harried fern at ease. 

 

There was a pause… a questioning look… then the man lifted one of his hands and placed it on Gabi’s cheek. 

 

Simultaneously, the sound came rushing back with a roar, and the jackalope’s chest lurched under Gabi’s hands. 

The floppy-eared person coughed and gasped, eyes rolling as they curled up and sobbed, first with fear, then with unmitigated relief as they realized they were no longer falling. Gabi quickly pulled his hands off their chest and watched them carefully. 

 

“That was close. Are you well?” the blonde man across from Gabi asked, giving the floral man a sunny, but subdued smile, as they watched over the panicked, but slowly winding down, jackalope, making sure they didn’t stop breathing again. 

 

“I mean… they’re breathing now, so-” 

 

“Oh no, I do not speak of this person,” the man held up his hand. “I speak of you. Your condition seemed worrisome as well, and I thought you about to fall to the ground, yourself. Are you feeling better?” 

 

He reached out a hand to pat the injured shoulder and Gabi shied away, only to realize that… it didn’t hurt? 

 

“... Did you… wait, are you a healer?” 

 

“Oh, hahah! I wouldn't consider myself a healer, but I can certainly help those in need through His will,” the goateed… elf? Weird. Elves didn’t usually have facial hair that Gabi knew of… shrugged with a grin. “Even better when it heals the ails I am unaware of, yes?” 

 

“I guess so…” 

 

He? The source of his power… perhaps some kind of god? He’d have to ask later.

 

Shaking the remnants of panic out of his head along with the sand that found its way into his locs, Gabi looked down at their now-safe, if exhausted, survivor. 

 

“Hey… My name’s Gabi. What’s yours?” 

 

“‘T-Twig…” they mumbled softly, trying to sit up, only for both Gabi and the elf to gently press them back to the ground. They squirmed a bit uncomfortably at the touch, but they didn’t have the strength to fight it, eyes still glassy from their brush with death.

“Oh! That’s a cute name!” the elf murmured, a bit perkier than Gabi. “My name is Tyrvalor Ilindriis! It's a pleasure. … Are you well?” 

 

“... T-Tired…” the little groan left their tongue like a sigh. “S-So… tired…” 

 

“I can imagine,” Gabi agreed. “But we need to ask you some questions, okay? Don’t fall asleep on us…” 

 

The elf - Tyr, he said? - looked up at the hot, Pavian sun and then down at the reflective sand. 

 

“Let us make haste, away from this threatening sun to the bliss of the shade awaiting us,” he commented, reaching down to pick up the lanky jackalope with ease, in spite of both Twig and Gabi’s simultaneous protests. “Once all is safe, questions are welcome to be asked. Please, follow me.” 

 

Wobbling to his feet from the speed at which Tyr worked, Gabi paused to look up at the sky where the portal had opened up. He couldn’t help but worry. 

 

One life saved… But how many lost?