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A Treasure of Time

Part 6

For Nataraj

By Draconicon

Even as the first axe swing cleaved the air, Nataraj was on the ground, crawling away. The lizard laughed despite the danger, wiggling through the dirt and sand to the huts that surrounded the bondage poles. One orc, then another went flying over his head, thunking against the buildings and slumping down.

Well, this is convenient. Fun AND a getaway plan.

Still giggling a bit, Nataraj kept crawling all the way to the edge of the village circle before coming to a stop and looking behind him. With all that room between him and the fight, he should have time and space to think and plan how he could...help...

He blinked as he watched the polar bear fight, the big guy moving surprisingly fast for his bulk. Olag had already thrown two more orcs across the center of the village, and one landed on top of a hut and collapsed it from above. The others were finally starting to get the picture that they shouldn't rush the bear, but even then, the big guy didn't give them the chance to retreat. Instead, he slammed his axe down, freezing the ground and locking the majority of the orcs down in that moment, freezing their feet to the earth.

Only the shaman and two others managed to keep from getting locked down, and the shaman knew better than to keep fighting. That one was already running for the hills, and Nataraj whistled.

"Olag! Runner!"

"Unless ya want him dead, you take care of it," the bear shouted back.

"Why me?"

"Because all I got is an axe to throw. You want him dead, I'll do it, but if ya want him alive..."

Nataraj grimaced, rolling his eyes. He knew that there had to be a disadvantage to having someone so strong on his side. Too easy to break people. He should have guessed, he really should have guessed.

The lizard beat feet, chasing after the shaman through the village. He ducked under the few still-conscious orcs that had gone flying, swinging himself around them and once flipping over the head of a warrior that tried to stop him. There wasn't quite a 'woo-hoo' when he did it, but there was a big enough grin on his face that he might as well have done it.

He flipped onto one of the huts, using height to his advantage as he out-ran the shaman to the edge of the village. The older, painted orc was right on the verge of getting away when he leaped from the top of the huts and landed right on the big guy's shoulders. The sudden impact took him off his feet, sending him straight into the ground.

"Nnnngh!"

The lizard smiled as he surfed the orc right to the edge of the village, keeping the big guy's face planted in the earth. He sat down on the orc's shoulders, patting his head with his feet.

"Hehehe, you like that ride?"

"Get...off...of me..."

"Hmmm, no."

"I swear to all that is holy upon that mountain that you will still be sacrificed."

"Sacrifice, schmacrifice."

He leaned back, his hands on the orc's muscular butt as he patted his feet up and down on the shaman's head. Yet another orc went flying overhead, soaring into one of the palm trees nearby before sagging down to the sand below. He winced in sympathy, shaking his head a few times.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to be happening."

"You've been marked, little demon," the shaman said. "The gods will claim you."

"We'll see. I don't tend to like people I don't know claiming me for long. I don't know. I'm still trying to get the whole relationship thing."

"Nnngh...you're mad."

"No, just horny. And that's your fault, by the way."

"I swear -"

"Sacrifice, demon, bla bla bla. Do you have anything more interesting to say?"

"..."

"Yeah, I didn't think so. Let's put you to sleep, huh?"

It was a little move that he had learned from someone on a LARP once. You never knew what sort of people that you'd run into on those things, but this guy had been a trainer for combat scenes in movies, the sort of guy that knew way too much for who he was. He'd taught the lizard how to use his legs as a combat tool, how to knock someone out with a quick squeeze.

It worked just as well as he had been taught, and the big orc slumped down, completely unconscious. He pulled his feet back from the orc's neck, groaning as he stretched his arms over his head.

"Well, that was awesome."

"Yeah. Awesome. One guy."

"Ah, you finished, Olag?" he asked as he turned around...and then stared.

The bear's work was done, alright. There were no fewer than three dozen orcs knocked out, completely cold, all over the ground and atop the different huts. Each one was groaning in their unconscious state, obviously hit hard enough to go down in just a few shots. Even the ones that had been frozen to the ground had gone flying, apparently.

"...Remind me not to piss you off for real," the lizard said with a whistle. "How long have you been fighting?"

"Ya mean here, or forever?"

"For the...what do you mean, forever?"

"...Oh, fuck you." The bear slapped the side of his head. "Ugh, fucking spirit. Sorry. There's some crossover."

"No...problem. You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just get annoyed when he does that."

"It's a he, then?"

"Eh, never said, but doesn't object, either."

"So..."

"I started when I was twelve. Haven't stopped yet."

"That's a long time. How old are you now?"

"By years or body age?"

Nataraj blinked, not sure if he liked the sound of that. He looked at all the orcs, then at the bear.

"How big a difference is there?"

"'bout...ten years or so?"

"Okay, then...both?"

"Body age, about thirty-two."

"...And...years?"

"Twenty-two."

The lizard heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment, he'd been rather concerned that he'd been fucking some younger guy in an adult's body. There was still an element of that, admittedly, but there was no underage shenanigans going on. And hey, there was still a mystery to be solved. Double plus.

However, they had other worries, now, and those included getting up the mountain so that they could make their way to the next world. Nataraj nodded his head towards the stony peak in the distance.

"Shall we, then?"

"No more questions?"

"Not right now. And besides, probably better to get out of here before these guys wake up."

"Yeah, and considering they're orcs..."

Probably a good point. They'd have a quicker recovery time than the average mook that they would be dealing with later. The two of them exchanged nods, turning to the mountain. They were not quite running to it, but they were definitely moving faster than a walk.

They were halfway up the slopes when Olag growled under his breath. Nat stopped in his next heave upwards, looking down.

"Problem?"

"Think they're waking up. I see fire."

"Well, we're halfway up."

"And they're orcs."

"Right...fast and strong."

"Climb faster."

Nataraj was more than happy to do that. As much as he had enjoyed his fun with the orcs, he knew that they were more than willing to sacrifice him to the mountain if he fell back into their hands. He was pretty sure that the shaman would throw him in happily, and probably personally.

And he wasn't quite ready to see if lava made for a good bath or not just yet.

"So, what the hell did you get out of them?" Olag grunted as they climbed further.

"What, the rings?"

"Yeah. The fuck they do?"

"Well, one makes me horny. Not sure what the other one does."

"Not like ya needed help with that one..."

"Probably, but Salla said that they'd be useful."

"Fucking mouse and his ideas of useful..."

For all that the lizard enjoyed the banter with the bear, he had to admit that he agreed with Olag on that one. He didn't know how these rings would be useful in the future, but if the mouse said that they would be, he was willing enough to listen. There had been enough honesty from Salla so far that he was pretty sure that the mouse wasn't lying to him now.

They were nearing the summit when Nataraj caught sight of the fires and torches at the base of the mountain. He winced slightly at the sight of them, shaking his head as he looked towards the peak.

"Well, we better hope that it's an easy way down. I don't think that we're getting another try at this."

"Yeah, don't count on it. The boss doesn't send me if it's easy," Olag grunted, heaving himself up besides the lizard. "Fucking hell, I just want out of the heat."

"Well..."

They leaned over the side of the mountain. The heat nearly blew the scales right off his face, and the smoke that followed singed his nose rather badly. He groaned, rubbing his face a few times as he pulled back.

"I don't think we're getting out of the heat just yet."

"Ugh...don't remind me..."

The bear walked up to the edge of the volcano, the wafting smoke and heat fumes raising his loincloth a few times. His already sweat-matted fur soaked to his skin all the tighter as he looked down at the interior of the mountain, his eyes narrowed, and Nataraj wondered how the hell the bear managed to stand there. After all, the lizard liked the heat and he could barely stand to be near the rim, let alone standing over it.

"Nnngh...is this a possession thing?"

"No. He hates it even more than me."

"Then why -"

"Heh. Not the worst thing I've felt."

As Olag pulled his axe free again, Nataraj saw a scar that ran right up the polar bear's spine. It cut through his fur in such a way that the axe must have been needed to keep the rest of the fur down, almost like a rugged sort of combover, but now that it was exposed...

Nataraj couldn't even bring himself to whistle at it. The scar ran almost all the way down from Olag's neck to the base of his tail, and it was right along his spine, too. The bear must have been injured horribly in the past, and yet, not only was he walking, he was fighting better than most people that the lizard had ever seen.

Yeah...definitely never get this guy pissed at me.

Olag took one more step forward, and that was all it took. The polar bear dropped into the opening of the mountain, arms spread out as he fell towards the lava below. Nataraj squinted, trying to follow the bear's fall, but it was too hard to see through the smoke and the heat haze.

Besides...when his companion finally hit the lava, he felt it.

He had felt the idle vibrations of the mountain's rumble ever since they had set foot on the island. It had always been too small for him to make much of a deal of it, but it had always been there, always in the background under his feet. When Olag reached the lava, that stopped. Everything went still, even the mountain. Even the smoke started fading, replaced by steam at first, and then by nothing.

Nataraj didn't like the feeling of that, and he hesitated at the edge of the mountain. Olag was probably still alive, but...

You want to get moving, lizard, Salla said in his head.

You really think that this is a good idea?

Adventuring, as a general rule, is a horrible idea. The only saving grace that it has is that it often leads to a great deal of rewards.

That's not exactly reassuring, you know.

Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted me to make you feel better? Oh, then please, by all means, do hesitate. I'm sure that the ice will hold together long enough for you to have a philosophical discussing with yourself and the orcs that are still coming up the mountain.

Oh...right...them.

Yes, them.

Nataraj looked over the rim of the volcano, and this time, there was no heat to meet him. Instead, there was only a feeling of deep cold, almost like the feeling that came off a piece of ice for a few inches above it. Even standing on the summit rim, he could feel the cold digging its teeth into his toes, and much as he liked his feet being played with, he didn't like the idea of something that cold.

He didn't like the cold in general, for that matter.

I knew that there was a downside to the big guy...

You want to move, I think. They're less than two minutes away.

Question. How am I supposed to get down there?

If all went according to plan, then Olag's got a slide set up for you along the inner wall, just under you. Swing yourself backwards, and you should land right on it.

...There's a few too many 'shoulds' in that statement for my comfort.

Well, that's what we're working with. Again, your choice. Ice mountain, or orcs?

You know, if I hadn't just pissed off the shaman, I'd seriously consider my options. He winced as he touched his toe to the icy interior of the mountain. I still might.

Up to you, but just pointing this out. You are outside of teleportation recovery range.

...Fuck.

Yep. So. Slide?

"RAAAAAGH! DEMON!"

Yep. Slide.

And with that, Nataraj pulled a far more elaborate trick than he really needed to do. He swung himself up and around, spinning and spiraling about in mid-air before falling into the hole. He caught the edge of the mountain with one foot, and swung himself towards the inner wall. It was so dark that it was impossible to see anything, and he had no idea if he was going in the right direction or not. He just had to trust the mouse and his bear.

He fell, ten feet, then twenty. Nat was just about to start screaming when his butt hit the ice, and he started sliding. With safety assured, he shrieked instead.

"COLD! COLD COLD COLD COLD!"

No lizard liked the cold, and he was no exception. He yelped and wiggled all the way down the slide, which was far too elaborate for his tastes. It wove over and around who knew what in the darkness in the mountain. Without the heat at the base, without the lava, everything was pitch black inside. He had no idea where he was going, what was up, what was down, what was anything. Several times the slide seemed on the verge of dumping him over the side, and he whimpered as he was saved at the last minute by pure physics.

It didn't dump him anywhere. Instead, it came to a slow stop, with him sliding across a slippery field of ice at the very bottom. He was a very shaky lizard, and he could feel his teeth chattering from more than just the cold.

"That you, Nat?"

Olag. Oh, thank heavens, Olag.

"Y-y-yeah."

"You okay there?"

"Don't...like...being blind...or cold...or both."

"Ah. Uh, sorry 'bout that."

"Nnnngh."

He fumbled around, trying to find his footing, but the ice was so slick that he couldn't quite get to his feet. Every time that he tried, he just slipped right back down. It wasn't until Olag grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him up that he managed it, and even that was a bit of a slip and slide, forcing him to grip the bear's arm. He allowed himself to be led off the ice, eventually able to put his feet down on rock instead.

"Nnngh...where are we...where do we go?"

"Boss says it's over here."

"What's over here?"

"The hole."

The darkness pressed in around him, and as many times as the lizard had enjoyed dark characters over his life, as many times as he had enjoyed stories like this, it was something different to experience it. Different, and more than slightly unpleasant.

It's like...like it's trying to crush everything...

It was the fact that it was cold and dark. He couldn't see, and his body didn't want to move. The cold had seeped all the way down to his bones, giving him aches and pains far beyond his age, and he whimpered as he tried to keep walking, his legs feeling like they were going stiff and hard.

"C-ca-can you s-see in h-here?" he asked, teeth chattering.

"Nah. Boss is telling me where to go."

"Mmph...c-clue m-m-me in!"

_Olag's following a lava tunnel that's dried out to some extent. It's got some lava still inside that's currently frozen, but it should be big enough for the two of you to fit through.

"N-no-not liking s-s-should..."

Well, sad to say it boys, but that's the only way out. Either you go through that, and hope that it's big enough, or you go back to the middle of the mountain and let it blow you out and we start over again on another time rip. None of them are as good as this one, either, but hey, never let it be said that I don't offer my crew choices.

There were times when Nataraj really didn't like his coworkers, or his employers, and somehow, Salla was managing to embody both at once right at that moment. He gritted his teeth, biting off a sarcastic response that he really wanted to say, and he even managed to keep himself from thinking it. That took some real willpower.

Yet, at the same time, he had to fight to keep from whimpering as they crawled through darkened tunnels that were colder than the time that he tried the ice bucket challenge. The air itself seemed to be sapping the life right out of him, and the darkness felt like an omnipresent predator, feeding on him one little chunk of life at a time._

He didn't know how to handle it, and it just hurt.

Hmm, I must admit, there's something about this that I didn't consider.

"Mmmph?"

Whether the mountain will be able to withstand the pressure shock of all the water suddenly melting and bursting into steam after all this.

If it had been any less cold, Nataraj would have let off a litany of swears and complaints at the mouse. As it stood, it was enough to get Olag moving a bit faster.

The darkness was just about to drive him out of his mind when they finally stopped. Olag knelt down, and Nataraj opened one eye. He felt like his scales were crusting together, as if ice was forming up and down his body at this point, and he whimpered as he tried to see what the polar bear had found.

There was a hole, alright. A hole in the floor, one that glowed with a soft green light. On the other side, he could see another island, another chunk of land, but it was through a great deal of water between them and it.

And there were sharks, too.

Nnngh...

"Looks like this is the spot, Nat. You ready?"

"Rrr...rrr..."

"I'll take that as a yes. Deep breath, bud."

The bear sucked in a deep breath of his own, and they jumped through.

Nat was still shaking when they reached shore, but for an entirely different reason. He ran right up the rocky cliff face and onto the top, staring down into the water.

"Sharks...not allowed...hunt in...groups...not fair...not fair..."

WHOOSH!

A shark broke the water, jumping out of the water and aiming right for his face. Nataraj yelped and threw himself backwards, but not far enough, not fast enough -

Crick!

The shark stopped half an inch from his face, suddenly stiff and wide-eyed. Still shaking, the lizard looked past the stunned fish at the bear that had caught it by the tail. The shark fell, stiff and straight as could be, and the polar bear grumbled as he dragged himself up the cliff face that formed the shore.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the lizard whispered.

"No problem."

Olag grunted as he pulled himself the rest of the way up, sitting down on the edge of the cliff face. Down below, several sharks were feeding on the fallen member of their little pod of sorts, and Nataraj slowly shook his head at the bloodbath going on down there.

"I didn't expect..."

"Yeah, well, horny islands, deadly islands. Ya get all sorts in time rips," Olag muttered, shaking the water off his axe before sheathing it again. "Ya get used to it."

"Don't know if I want to..."

"Heh, well, ain't like ya gotta go on another adventure after this."

"...Dammit, don't make me want to."

"Ain't doing nothing, Nat. Ugh. So, where the fuck are - oh god fucking DAMMIT, not one of these..."

The bear and the lizard turned on their asses, looking back at the island now that they were safe from the water. The first thing that the lizard noticed was the forest that was in front of them. Not a palm-tree forest, either, but a proper forest, the sort that stretched out as far as the eye could see, and the sort that led up to some ruined structure in the distance.

Olag grumbled, rubbing his forehead, while Nataraj cocked his head to the side.

"Am I the only one reminded of Indiana Jones here?" the lizard asked.

"No, and that's why I'm pissed."

"Didn't like the movies?"

"No, I just hate the fucking traps."

"Why?"

"Ya spent the night under my feet, and ya gotta ask why?"

"...Oh, right. Big feet -"

"Yeah, makes it real hard not to trip at least one of those fucking pressure panels. God dammit..."

Wincing slightly in sympathy, Nataraj looked back at the forest. Much as he was understanding of Olag's annoyances, he had to admit, he was just happy to be out of the ice mountain and out of the water. The initial surge of ice that followed them out of the mountain had stopped a few of the sharks, mostly by freezing them in blocks of ice bigger than they were, but even Olag couldn't get all of them. There were limits to his freezing abilities, it seemed. That, or he had used up a lot of energy by messing with the mountain, and couldn't just fuck with the ocean afterward.

But at least up here, the air was warmer again, and he didn't feel like he was dying of cold. He was a bit more exposed than he liked, considering that he was nude again, but hey, there was very little new about that.

Salla? Can you hear us?

Barely. You're very weak, the mouse said. Get a campsite set up. You deserve one, and it'll boost the signal.

"Salla says to get a campsite set up. How do you do that?"

"Ugh. Just take one and throw it," the bear said, handing over the bag he'd been carrying the whole time. "Should be fine; the bag's waterproof."

"And half-frozen..."

"Yeah, it's cold proof, too."

"Better be."

Shaking his head, the lizard cracked the frost on the outside of the bag and reached inside. The little blue balls that the bear had shown him before still looked about the same, so he imagined that they were alright.

Well, let's see how this works.

He lobbed it forward about five feet, allowing it to fall on the grass just past the rocks. The ball glowed, then rapidly expanded, becoming a glowing sapphire sphere that covered them and the nearby area.

As it pulsed around them, the immediate area suddenly filled with ghostly images, half-solid things that were and weren't there at the same time. He saw ghosts of himself, and of Olag. He saw sea-dragons, he saw wizards, he saw spaceships zooming through the space before him. He saw himself as a slave and a king, as a soldier and a diplomat. He saw himself as many different possibilities.

And then, it was done. The sphere stopped pulsing, and he and Olag were the only ones there.

"Well...at least we're safe now," Nataraj said. "What was that lightshow?"

"Eh, fuck if I understand it," the bear muttered. "Something about all the different dimensions getting scanned and - GAH!"

Nataraj whipped around just in time to see a shark jump up and grab the bear around the middle, yanking him off the rocks and into the water once more. By the time the lizard had lunged for the edge of the rocks, the bear was already underwater, and there was blood all around him.

A lot of blood.

"Oh shit...oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck..."

Well, I wasn't planning on there being THAT much of a reason to use the campsite, but, good a time to demonstrate it as any. Respawn.

Nataraj stared as the bear disappeared from the water, shimmering out of existence. The blood was still there, though, and the lizard gagged as he turned away, covering his mouth at the thought of that much suffering, that much pain, that much -

And then the campsite hummed around him. The blue sphere glowed, and then a big silhouette appeared in the middle. It hummed in tune with the campsite, almost like a hologram, but then it started burning brighter, solidifying into something else.

With a whoosh and a shimmer, the polar bear reappeared. The lizard collapsed in shock and relief, and a bit more shock just after as Olag turned around. The bear was just as tall as he had been, but markedly slimmer, his gut from earlier more or less gone. He reached down, rubbing his stomach a bit, and then pinched at his sides.

"...Well, that's one way to lose weight," he muttered.

"You...you were..."

"Yeah, that fucking hurt."

"And you're..."

Law of averages. They started with his stomach first, so that lowers his weight compared to the other bears quite a bit.

Nataraj was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened when the bear reached over his shoulder and paused. The big guy tapped his fingers against his back a few times, fumbling for something that wasn't there.

"Oh, son of a bitch."

"What?"

"My axe is still down there."

"With the sharks? I don't think -"

"Oh, fuck them if they think they're keeping it."

"What?"

He was completely in shock as the bear took a few steps back from the edge of the rocks. There was no way. No way in hell that Olag was going to - oh, but he was. Nataraj was still sputtering as he watched the new, more slender polar bear throw himself off the cliff, diving into the water with a roar.

"Think you can just get a free toy with your snack, do ya?! FUCK THAT!"

There was the sound of a splash on the other side, but he couldn't bring himself to look down at the water again. There was probably still a fair bit of blood down there, and he could already feel his stomach heaving as he imagined it. He dragged himself back, shaking more than usual as he squatted down at the center of the campsite.

Don't worry. He'll be fine.

But...but...

Trust me. He's pissed off, but he's a better fighter when he's angry.

But he just died!

You thought that was killing him down there? Hardly. It takes more than that to kill Olag. I just didn't want to waste time waiting for him to get rid of them.

You're lying to me. He was dying.

Ask him yourself when he comes back up, but he wasn't. Olag knows what dying is, and that's not it.

Nataraj tried to imagine what must have happened to make the polar bear and the mouse so blasé about that sort of suffering, and suddenly didn't want to know. Things had just taken a turn for the scary, and he didn't know what to say to either of them now.

The End

Summary: Nataraj and Olag escape the orcs, but they still have to escape this island. Time for Olag to show just what he can do.

Tags: No sex, foot fetish, M/solo, scares, fear, character development, series, lizard, polar bear, Olag, fight, fighting, blood, freaking out, respawn,