PHANTASIA by R. Atlas Page B

Butz remarked. “That’s where umbriel is from as well, right?”  
    “Yup -” this time it was Magnus who replied. “Flazb and umbriel go hand in hand. In dark places wet with umbriel, flazb begins to grow, like fungus in dark places moist with water. Umbriel has never been discovered in Avalonia though, or anywhere outside of Karth for that matter. Who would’ve thought that there was an entire world of it hidden somewhere in the twilight caverns?”
    “Ah right - I was trying to remember what this place was called” Butz sighed. “The caverns underneath the Alloy desert.”  
    “Yeah, but we may not even be in the twilight caverns, technically,” Magus replied. “I think we might be far deeper underground than what ‘the twilight caverns’ normally refers to. This place is brimming with Cron, we’re probably somewhere near the South end of the desert where the MegaCORP extraction plant is. And I haven’t seen any machinery or signs of a settlement, which means we’re far beneath how deep the extraction plant has gone in the desert.”  
    “In Karth, flazb is a luxury. The substance heals and nourishes you when you go to sleep in it. It restores your energy,” S said, changing the subject back to the foam and stretching a handful of the material carefully with her fingers. “It can take decades to grow, and dies out from the slightest touch of starlight. Its incredible that there’s this much of it underground right here in Avalonia, and that its gone undiscovered for who knows how long.”
    Red bent over and took a handful of the foam himself and studied it intently. It was almost too hard to believe, although he’d heard of stranger things that existed. It was more so that running into a substance that could restore his energy seemed to be too big of a stroke of luck to believe in, especially after all the misfortune the field test had brought them thus far.    
    “Well we still have to find something here to kill and eat, even if this foam can somehow restore our energy,” Butz replied skeptically. The thought of eating hadn’t occurred to Red. Every passing moment he felt more eager to find Raven. He opened his compass again to check her status. As still as ever. Maybe she just fell asleep from too much exhaustion . But the energy flux? His stomach grumbled as he felt the sharp pain of going hungry for too long, but he tried ignoring it. He wished Butz hadn’t reminded him that they needed food. His stomach had not pained him thus far; it seemed to have forgotten as well, until now.    
    “All of her vitals are reading fine, even if they’re abnormal,” S chimed in, looking at the compass along with Red. “I don’t know why she’s standing still. We noticed that too, I think it started about ten hours ago. She just suddenly froze in place.”  
    “Can you feel her?” Red asked.  
    “No, we’re too far. I have to be closer.”  
    “We have to keep moving,” Red replied. “We can’t make camp until we find her.”
    “You look tired enough to pass out at any moment. You have to get some sleep, all of us do. We can’t go further until we’re rested. If we run into anything dangerous, we’ll be much worse off if we’re delirious from exhaustion,” Magnus said. The three of them looked at him reluctantly but knew he was right. Red felt like he could collapse at any moment.  
    “I know…but Red has a point too, any moment we waste could make us a moment too late…” S broke in.
    Butz began to lie down exactly where they were and wasted no time in getting comfortable. He seemed to agree with Magnus’s suggestion, or more likely, was too exhausted to agree with anything else. “Am I the only one who realizes it’s Raven Maestro? She’s fine. We have a lower chance of survival with us four here together, with supplies and a source of fresh water, than she does even if she were blind and stuck somewhere deep below, tied to a Xenosite hive cluster.” Red couldn’t