"Fine, I'll do it again and show you that it's safe. =3"

Without a thought in your mind, you hopped onto the button. There was a loud click. You looked to the sky, ready to see the fantastic light show like before. It was a shame it was morning. It wouldn't seem as impressive as it did at night.

You waited.

It was only seconds since you pressed the button, but nothing had happened. There was a grinding sound. The ground the statue stood on seemed to be attempting to lower itself while the ground next to it slid over allowing another figure to raise. They seemed to be both stuck, whatever mechanism that controlled this situation had failed.

The others looked to you in confusion, hoping you would explain what was happening. The clicking and grinding noise of failure stopped as if the mechanism understood that it couldn't keep trying. The new statue slowly withdrew into the tower.

But you felt a sense of dread as it lowered itself.

It had been less than 40 seconds since you stepped on the button when you heard a loud snap.

The orginal statue plummeted suddenly.

You could hear it hit something.

Break into pieces.

And then hit something large and made of glass.

The tower rumbled.

You turned around and ran. Yelling for both of them to get down the stairs. Tiger kid leaped to his feet and grabbed your hand as you ran by. He knew you were now more prone to tripping while running and despite the situation made sure you wouldn't trip over your own feet and right off of the tower.

E-4 was pulling their bag up to put it on after laying it on the floor to take a load off to rest as you passed them.

30 steps.

That's how many steps you and Tiger kid ran down until a light engulfed the area and the top of the tower blew up.

Due to Tiger kid making sure to hold on to you, you didn't fall when the tower started crumbling apart.

Tiger kid, while extremely shaken, was just fine as well. He pulled you forward to keep moving down, but you let go of his hand and stopped in your tracks.

Where was E-4? They took longer than you two to move due to having to retrieve their supplies.

You looked behind you, the light coming from the tower bathed everything in such extreme light it felt like a dream.

There was E-4.

E-4 clung to one of the stairs, their body against the side of the tower and their only lifeline, their claws dug as best as it could into the rock.

E-4 wasn't like you. E-4 wasn't strong.

That's why E-4 needed someone like you around. To do the lifting.

The heavy bag that caused them to delay their escape worked against them now. They likely wouldn't have been able to drag themselves up even without the bag, but now the bag made sure that their arms would fail them sooner than not.

All the knowledge in the world wouldn't save them from their fate.

But strength could.

You didn't even think as you ran up the stairs and grabbed E-4's hands to prevent them from falling.

Thank goodness E-4 was so short. Had they been as big as you, there would have been no hope in you being able to pull them up with their bag on.

E-4 is going to yell at you for suggesting they go up here.

...................

If you let go of E-4 right now, no one would know.

.............

E-4 is going to be mad and kick you out if they live.

.......

You would be the leader of the swarm.

You were told that killing other notails was wrong.

You refuse to kill E-4. Not just because murdering other notails is wrong.....

...but because you're stupid.

You could never lead a swarm.

You pull up E-4 to safety. They don't say anything except cling to you even after you entirely pull them to relative safety. You allow this for a few moments before prying E-4 off of you. The tower was still acting up, and you didn't want to be on it if something else happened. Finally, E-4 spoke.

"Give me my first aid kit."

You dug out the first aid kit from their bag for them and handed it over. E-4 took a few things out and started doing their best to patch up a nasty looking, but thankfully fairly superficial wound on their leg. If you had to guess when the explosion went off some rubble stuck E-4 in the leg and sent them nearly falling to their doom.

Another explosion went off. You could see shadows hurling through the sky. Some striking falling to the ground, some striking the stairs. Small bits of rubble pelleted all three of you painfully.

A familiar shape flew through the air.

A knife.

For a moment, it seemed to have hit Tiger kid, but thankfully it had just impaled his bag. He was safe, for now anyway. No one was safe as only 15 steps above you the staircase crumbled away into what might have been an abyss.

E-4 was finished doing, not a fantastic patch up job, but good enough for the minutes, if not seconds left you had to get moving. You stuffed the first aid kit into their bag and started walking down the tower as quickly as your easily tripped up legs would allow you. It was still incredibly bright, but you were able to reach Tiger kid.

"Hey, is E-4 ok? >=3"

It was hard to make out, but you could see E-4's shadow leaning against the tower for support and trying to hobble it's way down. This wasn't going to work out. The stairs were failing one by one. Sacrifices were going to need to be made today.

You grabbed your seven bones, five arrows, two capture cages, one bait and then tossed them all off the side of the tower before forcing Tiger kid to carry your bag.

You took E-4's bag away from them and wore it, before lifting them up into your arms and carrying them down the stairs.

If everyone wasn't in a life and death situation, you're sure E-4 would have been embarrassed to be mostly helpless in this situation.

==================

It took a long time to get to the bottom; thankfully the tower started to fall apart slowly and slower as time went on. You had to make stops just due to your arms getting tried frequently, and more than once you had to force E-4 to still least their pride cause them to attempt walking down themselves.

E-31 immediately started asking questions, but you tossed E-4 on Slithers and told her you all needed to get a move on right away. If the notails living around the tower learned that you caused it to start self-imploding, they'd have your neck.

==================




"You know....Most notails just set up camp, maybe travel a bit and sure there's a bit of danger, but I don't know, I'm only 14 after all, but I don't think most notails spend their time in the woods blowing up landmarks. xuo"

E-31 commented two days in and looking back at the tower still erupting light into the air.

"Trust me, I know I'm not doing this whole woods thing right. =3"

==================

You can't see the tower anymore on day 5 of booking it away from it as fast as a bunch of injured people could run, and yet at night, you can see still a bright line of light cut through the sky on this clear day.

There's something very odd about knowing you impacted something permanently. At least, you think it might be permanent unless the adults come back over fix the tower.

One thing is for sure; you definitely ruined a lot of notail's sense of direction that day. A lot of notails use the towers as markers.

==================

One day E-4 rips off a loose branch from a tree and starts using it as a walking stick.

"E-4, you can keep riding Slithers. Slither doesn't mind. =3"
"I'm fine, E-2732. <:)"

E-4 takes a few slow and rather not confident steps.

"I think your leg is still injured E-4. You shouldn't be walking on it. =3"
"I'm fine, E-2732. Please stop worrying about it."

E-4's tone is more aggressive this time, so you drop the subject.

It must be a pride thing.

==================

You've been waiting for E-4 to chew you up over what happened, and yet they haven't mentioned it once.

You kind of wish they would talk about it already. You feel extreme dread every time they start talking. You even had a nightmare about it already. It's as if they're purposefully torturing you as punishment.

==================

You obtain the knife that was a few inches away from killing Tiger kid, after almost completely forgetting about it. You compare it to the blade you got last time, and sadly it looks nearly identical save for a few engraved designs on it.

You decide this would be a perfect way to get E-4 to talk about what happened and if they were going to toss you out soon. The dread was still killing you. You offered them the knife, reminding them that it was the artifact that you got from the tower, making sure to mention that this was the tower you accidentally blew up.

What happened next was, strange, you didn't fully comprehend it.

E-4 started acting nervous. They said that you were the "Knife person" and if you were sure you wanted to give them such a unique knife. You assured them that that yes you did, while yet again talking about the tower.

The one you blew up.

That one.

E-4 took the knife hesitantly and proceeded to thank you while still avoiding talking about the tower. You didn't know what to think about the whole event.

You guess E-4 doesn't want to talk about the tower due to it giving them bad memories.

You can understand not wanting to talk about something because it only brings back terrible feelings. As such you avoided the topic for now.

You weren't able to take any detours on your way to the new ruins because E-4 demanded that they walk on their own. That meant walking at a speed even you, a person who was basically unable to run anymore could outpace.

The new ruins were, strange. The building was unlike any other building you had seen directly for yourself, but it did look like something you once saw in a book. A "Factory," which was a place where items were created in mass quantities. This one was one of the most prominent buildings you've seen, but compared to the last ruins which were miles and miles long it might as well have been a tent.

E-4 took 3/4ths of the E-classes with them into the ruins. Telling you that they would be staying here for the rest of the year and that they would have the insides well explored. They offhandedly mentioned that you were free to join them if you must, but they felt they had this in the bag.

You didn't think much about it and waved them off.

Then slowly a group of E-classes started to gather around you.

Oh right, you were second in command. That's why E-4 left 1/4th of the swarm out here.

You've never been so nervous in your life. Here was a group of people waiting on you for orders and you could barely follow orders, much less give them out.

You were going to have to learn fast.

As long as you didn't leave the square that contained the ruins on your map you're sure E-4 would be ok with whatever you do.

Actually, you take that back. You have a feeling you're going to mess up horribly, and E-4 is finally going to do the reasonable thing. Kick you out.

First thing was first, setting up a base of operations.

And by that you mean set up the tents and fire pits you’ll need to survive. This is easy, mainly because everyone but you is a master of survival skills, but guess what? As the leader, you don’t need to know anything about what you’re doing. You tell everyone what they need to do and hope they know what they’re doing better than you.

In this case, it pays off. An excellent base is completed quite quickly and you already assigned people to get food.

You have no idea how they’re going to get food, but you’re the leader, so that’s not your problem anyway.

You have trouble figuring out what to do next after completing the base and obtaining a stable food supply, so you drag the E-classes who aren’t working with you to explore the surrounding area.

The area around the factory isn’t all that impressive, but you do locate better areas to gather supplies. Other than that exploring the area around the ruins is fruitless. It’s much like other places in the woods except with a few rather strange creatures who are labeled as “Decommissioned” lurking around it.

You wonder why the ruins are a hot spot for these creatures. Maybe the Z-classes dump them here when they no longer require them.

You find yourself, and 1/4th of the entire swarm without much to do. You thought the whole factory traveling would take less time, but apparently, there’s a giant maze of rooms in the basement, far, far, more prominent than the factory. E-4 and the rest of the swarm come back every few days, and you do not want them to come back and see you all fiddling with your thumbs. You suddenly decide to attempt training them.

Most of the E-classes aren’t well versed in physical fights, instead deciding to take up long-range arrows and sheer numbers. That simply will not protect them if they ever get cornered.

You help them gather up any knives nearby and teach them how to weld it and attack with it. Everything seems to be going fairly well.

Until one of them accidentally stabs another E-class rather harshly. There was so much blood, you were sure they were going to die.

They survived, barely.

After that everyone wasn’t interested in training knife to knife combat. Using a knife was easy they would mention. All one needs to do is hold it, and then stab. They felt like they learned more than enough.

Also, they didn’t want to be the next notail to lose 25% of their blood in one go.

They didn’t tell you this, but you knew this was the primary reason for them to blow training off.

==============

Every time the rest of the swarm came above ground they would take a day or two to relax after being in a stuffy, dark basement for so long. You always expected to be chastised for not doing much more than maintaining the base and making sure there was more than enough supplies to go around.

E-4 never seemed very interested in yelling at you though. They did give you a very harsh talking to for the knifing incident, but that’s about it.

Instead, E-4 would tell you about everything they investigated that week and what new objects they found. They especially enjoy talking about any rings they found. You did notice before that they wore a fairly absurd number of rings, but you didn’t know how far this rabbit hole went. They collected rings much like you collect knives.

Having E-4 talk to you so casually was.....strange.

You have to be honest, most of the time you didn’t really listen to E-4 and instead just drifted off into your own thoughts.

Maybe you were doing well with your duties. It could be that all anyone expected of you was to maintain the base and collect supplies, something you were succeeding with flying colors.

You just wish it wasn’t such a dull job.

==============

What did Same face and Z-3674 look like again?

Would you even recognize them if you saw them again?

You’re so glad everyone has to wear their name at all times.

Cause you’re sure, you wouldn’t be able to recognize them any other way.

==============

You check your map and the endless void that’s on the right side of it. You bring it up to a few people, hoping to get some more info. They all mention that they’ve heard that the whole east of the woods is horrible. None of them have ever been to the east, but you hear many stories about it.

“There’s a ruin there that used to be a forest center! I heard a monster ripped it apart and it lives there to this day.”

“I heard the Hawk kids there eat notails who wander into their area alive.”

“I heard all the stories are fake and that it’s all a ruse to keep us all out of there, but uh, better stay away from it anyway.”

“Someone told me there are no anomalies over there because even they’re scared of that place.”

You’re not sure which stories are fake and which are real, but you’re sure that no matter what the place had to be some kind of disaster zone.

==============

You are so tired of wondering what happened to your old friends. Why can’t you just forget them? It’s been four years since you last saw them, that’s nearly 1/3rd of your entire life.

==============

After a day of resting E-4 and their group, for what seems like the 100th time, head back to map out the factory. E-4 says they think they’re on to something this time, but you hear that every week. Looking at everyone march back in with their creatures behind them, you remember that E-4 doesn’t have one for themselves.

You find a nice spot and lay down the last of your bait.

You weren’t doing this with the intent to get E-4 a creature. Instead, you realized it'd be best for you to collect a fine team of capture creatures as soon as possible. You'll want to make sure you have a well-trained group for once you get out.

If you catch one you don't want you can just toss it at E-4.

You, Tiger kid, and two other notails lay in wait. It would be hours until something would be attracted to the bait. Thank goodness someone had a deck of cards with them.

Finally, something trotted into the clearing, advancing towards the bait.

But......It just lowered its head to smell it. It seemed highly interested in the way it smelled, but not much in eating it. It lifted its hoof and smashed it into the bait, absolutely delighted in the sounds it made when crumbled.

It pranced in a circle around it once before repeating the action.

You decided to scan it while you still had a chance.

You knew it would be a decommissioned creature, but you weren't expecting it to be a legendary one.

It lifted its horse-like head into the air before emitting a plume of flames from its maw.

The fire was strange, instead of being typical fire, the best way you could describe it was that it was the image of a shack on the beach in what should have been fire.

It jumped around the bait once again, this time completing its prance by setting the food ablaze.

It was bizarre to watch the image of trees waving back and forth in the wind consume the ground. At least now you could confirm that despite its unnatural appearance, it was definitely fire.

Now you weren't sure if you wanted to risk it. The other two notails with you didn't have capture creatures with them as their's were best suited to take care of the base. Tiger kid only had West, who while surprisingly nearly won a contest, wasn't something you would relay on to defeat a horse sized creature. Then there was you, and all you had were two masks that seemed to absolutly do nothing, and Slithers, who you were unsure you wanted to risk on a creature with no info and who hasn't even consumed any bait.

It did seem playful, but a wild creature being playful didn't mean it was going to be friendly to notails.

You either needed a plan of action, or you needed to drop your attempts and maybe see if you can trade items with the others to get new bait so you can catch something smaller.