Strength 1 - Percy
Percy looked around the massive cavern warily, his skin prickling with unease at the thought of being so far underground. He tried to dispel the image of the rocks collapsing on top of him out of his mind, suppressing a shudder at the thought of being trapped here forever. All around him, the voices of helpful vayrons called out back and forth as they moved to slowly drag rocks away from the massive figure hidden in the shadowy depths of the cave. As Percy’s eyes adjusted, he could see more and more of the Matriarch’s hulking mass, but it was as if his brain couldn’t even begin to imagine what she looked like under all of those rocks. He had never seen a creature even remotely close to her size.
From up ahead, he could see a vayron beckoning for others to join them in his quest. He and a group of others were standing in front of a particularly large pile of rocks that seemed to be covering… the Matriarch’s claw, maybe? It certainly looked that way, though her claw alone was almost double the size of his body. Percy greeted the vay with a quiet nod, and found himself being directed to the far end of the boulder.
From what he could tell, the boulder was pressed up to a small ledge, so in order to move it off of the Matriarch’s claw they would have to roll the boulder up the ledge first. Based on the size and width of the boulder, Percy knew this would be no easy task, and it would take everyone’s help to get this thing moving.
“Okay folks, all together now, I want those on the far end to push, and those closest to me to do our best to pull from the bottom. We’re going to try and roll this puppy away.”
Percy nodded. He pressed his shoulder up against the boulder, the stone cool against his fur. It had a peculiar shine to it, and was almost illuminated by the massive crystals adorning the top of the Matriarch’s head. That was the only light source in the cave save for a few torches here and there, so Percy found himself plunged into shadow behind the boulder. He looked down to find a place to brace against, but the floor was mostly smooth. Hopefully he wouldn’t slide too far.
“Alright everyone! On the count of three, I want you to push as hard as you can.”
Percy took a deep breath, making eye contact with the vay next to him. She gave him a brusque nod, digging her heels in behind her in preparation.
“Okay. 3…2…1… push!”
Percy dug his back paws in, shoving his shoulder into the rock as hard as he possibly could. He grunted with exertion, mustering up every ounce of strength within him as his back paws scrabbled for purchase on the slick floor. He could feel the force of vayrons on either side of him as they all worked together, but the boulder seemed almost stuck into the ground with its immobility. Percy let out a long, slow, exhale, needing to remind himself to breathe as he pushed forward. Suddenly, he felt the boulder give a tiny wobble, and his shoulder began to slide upwards inch by inch. With renewed vigor, he grit his teeth together and began to lift one paw up at a time, continuing to lean all of his weight into the stone. He could see the vayron next to him stumble, so he moved down the boulder towards her.
“C’mon!” He shouted, shoving the words out of his mouth. “Keep pushing!”
The vay gasped for breath, but met Percy’s eyes with renewed confidence. She pushed forward into the boulder even harder then she had been before, and Percy did the same, finally finding a divot in the floor to brace his body weight against. All around him, he could hear vays grunting with exertion as they all struggled to keep the boulder moving. He knew, as he suspected they all did, that if they let up for even a moment, the boulder would lose its momentum and it would make the whole process ten times harder. That’s not to mention the worst case scenario that it actually rolled backwards, forcing them to start all the way from the beginning.
As Percy continued to push, he watched the Matriarch’s claw seemingly emerge from the shadows as it was uncovered by the boulder. Though he could barely make sense of her sheer size before, now with an exhausted and distracted mind he couldn’t possibly comprehend what he was looking at. The sheer mass of keratin, the delicate scale-like plating, each one larger than his head. How could something this large even exist?
Suddenly, Percy felt the boulder pick up speed. It was minute, but it definitely felt significantly faster. They must have gotten it over the ledge! Now, the time between each step forward was much less, and Percy almost felt like he was walking normally–albeit, again, with his full body weight pressed up against the stone.
Finally, after another few moments, the boulder rolled to a stop, and Percy could see the tip of the Matriarch’s claw out in the air. He panted, trying to catch his breath. His muscles felt like they were about to give out, and he had to lie down for a moment lest he collapsed right there. Looking around the cavern at all of the boulders of equal or even larger size…
Though he was normally proud to call himself an optimist and would never say this outloud, secretly, Percy had no idea how they were going to make this work.
