Asriel walked through the ruins of one of the homes in the former town of Glencove. There wasn't much left; what wasn't burnt to ash looked to have been chopped, crushed, and in one case chewed. The fires were all dead now, with only a few smoldering ashen piles still letting out a plume of smoke.
Most disturbingly of all, however, was that no one remained. It wasn't that the residents were dead; while there was no shortage of ash, there weren't any leftover clothes or personal effects to indicate anything more than simple wood ash. There were no lone piles of ash either; while it was impossible to tell if everyone survived, it was clear that the fire that destroyed Glencove had not claimed the lives of its citizens.
"Then where are they?" Asriel asked, musing over the remains of a dresser.
He was still trying to wrap his head around it when he heard Golemite shout, "GOT YA!"
"Hey! Let me go!"
Asriel ran out of the building and hurried toward the back of his friend. As he rounded the massive golem, he came to a halt, his eyes on the figure struggling in Golemite's massive hand.
"You." Asriel said, momentarily taken aback.
"Yeah, it's me!" Snapped Lundra and Meiah's daughter, Shye, her black fur looking puffy as she tried the age-old feline trick of puffing out her hair to look bigger and more threatening. It didn't work. "Tell Schist-for-brains here to let go of me before I scream 'kidnappers'!"
"Take a look around, fuzzball." Golemite said, glowing eyes narrowed. "There ain't anyone around to hear ya. Now what're ya goin' followin' us, girlie?"
She crossed her arms and pouted. The effect was somewhat diminished given she was hanging upside down.
"Fine." Golemite said. "Azzie, get me that rope from your pack so we can tie the little miss up for her trip home."
"Don't you dare!" She said, her face livid.
Asriel laughed. He couldn't help it; the sight of the upside-down bunny-eared cat-girl glaring defiantly at Golemite who was easily four times her size was too funny for him not to laugh.
"It's not funny." Shye said sullenly, crossing her arms again.
"I'm sorry." Asriel said, shaking his head. "I just ... lost control for a minute there."
He walked over to her and asked, "But you were following us, right? You wanted to see if we'd find the bugs."
"Did you see them?" She asked, eyes widening.
"No, but we saw what they did to the trees in your father's grove." Asriel said. "And looking at this town ... I dunno, I can't help but feel there's some connection."
Shye and Golemite stared at him in silence.
Feeling a little embarressed, Asriel rubbed the back of his head and said, "I mean, there's no proof or anything, but-"
Tink.
Asriel froze at the sound of something thin and metal hitting the metal plating behind him. He slowly turned and saw ... it.
It was several meters behind him; roughly his height though easily three times as wide because of its limbs; there were eight in all: six legs and the two crab-like metal claws curled up in front of the creature's flat circular body. Two startlingly life-like eyes peered out from the very front of the body, emerging on stalk-like metal rods as it slowly approached, claws pressed against its lower body.
Asriel felt frozen in place as the crab-like machine drew near, bulbous eyes blinking.
Letting out a near-deafening roar, Golemite tossed Shye behind him and advanced on the crab-bot. He brought his hands down to crush the creature, but the crab scuttled out of the way just in time. It immediately skittered closer, grabbed Golemite's hard hat, and took off as fast as its metal legs could carry it.
"Hey!" Golemite shouted. "Dat's property of da Skyway Repair Crew!"
Golemite took off after the crab, his massive feet leaving large imprints in the metal ground. Asriel followed behind, only to find himself joined shortly by Shye. She kept up with him easily, her orange eyes darting toward him briefly.
The crab robot was surprisingly fast for its size. It seemed to be gaining ground even when Golemite was at top speed. Asriel followed with Shye passing in a matter of moments, but even the long-eared cat-girl couldn't keep up with Golemite's sheer momentum.
Asriel pushed himself until his breath came in heaving gasps. He tried to keep going, but his body refused. He fell to his knees, his arms barely able to support him as he struggled to catch his breath.
At touch on his shoulder made him look up. Shye was standing in front of him, hands on her knees as she bent over him.
"Are you okay?" She asked, orange eyes filled with worry.
He barely managed a nod. "Just ... tired. Golemite ...'
"Your friend?" Shye glanced in the direction the golem departed. "Still chasing the bug ... but you saw it, right? I wasn't lying!"
Asriel nodded again, but she was already talking. "I told mom! I told her there were bugs, but she didn't believe me! She thought I was lying cuz Toma tattled on me when I skipped my chores. Like he could talk; he's been feeding the squirrels in the south field. Those little buggers already think they own the place!"
Asriel wasn't sure what to say to that. His chest no longer heaving with the effort needed to get enough breath, he asked, "What was that thing anyway?"
"'unno." She said with a shrug, the word more a grunt than actual language. "But they've been tearing apart the grove piece by piece for about a month. Dad thought it was kids from Glencove. Mom just blamed me."
She crossed her arms, a sulking expression on her face. "She always blames me. It's not even fair; Jaja's the prankster, Melanie's always picking on everyone, and I don't think Toma's done his chores his entire life, but oh no, it's me Mom doesn't trust. It's not fair, y'know?"
Asriel didn't know. He only had one sibling, and while they didn't always get along, Mom treated both him and Chara equally.
"Shye," Asriel asked, "Have you seen somethin' like a shadow sneakin' around? Like a person, but ... well, just black?"
She gave him a curious look. "No ... I've seen some of the boltbears lumbering around in the woods, but nothing like that."
Swing and a miss. Shaking his head, Asriel rose to his feet. Fortunately, Golemite's trail was easy to follow; his feet left massive rectangular imprints deep in the metal ground plating of the Brass Woods. To his shock, however, Asriel realized he could feel the pulse of the Everstar fragment in the same direction.
Shye followed him as he followed his friends footsteps. "Hang on; where you going?"
"I gotta find Golemite." Asriel said.
"But we gotta tell Mom and Dad about the bugs!"
"Golemite could be in trouble!" Asriel said. "If there are more of those things, they could swarm him and ... and he's my friend. I've lost too many friends to just let one go away. If you wanna talk to your parents, fine, but I'm gonna help my friend."
"But they won't believe me, they'll just ..."
Asriel stopped and glared at her. He didn't say anything; just glared.
She backed away slightly, surprise on her face for just a moment before a look of resignation fell over her face.
"Well ... all right. I'll help you find your friend ... but you gotta promise we'll tell Mom and Dad about it on the way back."
"Deal."
Asriel and Shye continued through the Brass Woods, though the Woods themselves were growing much thicker. In a way this helped, as Golemite's path became even easier to follow now that he was smashing through trees and bushes, leaving bent metal and loose valves in his wake. On the other hand, the thickness of the woods made them that much darker; soon, the tops of the trees were a massive complicated clump of valves, keys, and mouthpieces so thick that little light made it through. Asriel pushed onward, Shye following behind as he squeezed through the increasingly crowded forest floor until spotting a distant point of light straight along Golemite's trail.
"We're almost out!" Asriel said, picking up speed. He and Shye raced to the bright point in the distance; it was almost blinding after spending so much time in the dark, making it impossible to make out what lay beyond.
They burst through the edge of the Brass Woods and came to a halt, both overcome with awe at what they saw. There was nothing at the edge of the Brass Woods; remnants of the Skyway still remained, but the ground itself continued for a few feet before dropping off into nothingness. Several hundred feet beyond that, however, lay a sun-swept plain of waving golden grass and tall trees with silver trunks and green gem-like leaves that sparkled in the light. From the edge of the Brass Woods, they could make out a long stream that ran through the beautiful meadow; it coiled around, turning to either side periodically and even rising to form mid-air loops as it flowed as far as Asriel could see.
That was amazing enough to Asriel, who had only seen the true sun once at a time when he couldn't truly enjoy it, but what truly caused Asriel and Shye's stares were the thousands of crab-robots busily scurrying about the edge placing salvaged sheets of metal and bolting them into place. There were several structures along the edge that looked similar to barnacles ... Asriel remembered seeing the little crustacean homes while exploring Waterfall years ago. These, however, were much larger and made from metal instead of mud.
Most, however, slowly piecing particularly battered sheets together stretching out to the meadow. From the ease in which they pieced together, Asriel had the feeling they weren't building as much as rebuilding some kind of bridge.
The crab-bots shuffled away from Asriel and Shye as they approached. They didn't seem threatening; if anything, they seemed frightened. Asriel couldn't help but notice several of the sheets they carried still had small branches with zapples on them.
"They're scavengers." He said as they continued working, a few turning their bulbous eyes on him.
"Wow! So that's what they were doin' with the trees!" Shye said aloud. "They're bridging the gap!"
"I think they already had." Asriel pointed at one of the plates being moved into place; a massive rectangular indention was in the center of it, clearly left by Golemite. It didn't take Asriel long after that to spot more footprints at the edge of the meadow, heading deeper within. Unfortunately, it was clear the bridge that had been there had not survived the golem's passage.
"Great." Shye said, her claws on her the hips of her denim shorts. "How are we supposed to get across?"
Asriel started to say he didn't know when it occurred to him that he actually did.
"I've got this." He said, reaching for the tool hanging from his belt that resembled a spatula.
The first thing Asriel learned while training with the Skyway crew was that technically, the Skyway was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The Skyway was linked to the entire deep, and in theory should have cropped up whenever needed, bridging gaps between places like Nowhere, the Brass Woods, and even the area ahead that would come to be known as the Precious Meadows.
According to Mayor Mayor and his sister, however, the Deep was growing faster than the Skyway itself. As a result, disused paths faded and fell apart. Efforts were being made to feed the Skyway more material, and while they appeared to be working, Mayor Mayor helped alleviate the problem by ceasing the growth of the Skyway.
It was still there, however; the pieces of magic-infused stone were hovering in the air, more floating near in response to Asriel's command. Asriel worked carefully; building a new part of the Skyway was much more difficult than repairing a broken section. He had to be very careful, lest he or someone else attempting to travel the new road only to find it gone from beneath their feet.
Slowly, one after the other, the floating stones merged together to form stepping stones, these small platforms quickly merging together with a gentle nudge of the tool that looked like an egg whisk. The stones connected to the outcropping of the old bridge, all the crab bots watching as the metal plates of the brass woods merged with the stone in a way that was oddly seamless.
Fifteen minutes passed before the far side of the bridge was fully merged with the new Skyway. No sooner than it connected, however, the entire construct vanished.
"Aww!" Shye said, disappointed. "What happened?"
Asriel didn't respond. He simply tucked his tools back into place, approached the edge of the Brass Woods, and kept walking.
Shye lunged forward and grabbed his shoulder to pull him back, but the sheets of the Brass woods were already sliding under his feet, each individual sheeet moving fluidly to combine with the others. The crab-bots all started clicking their pincers, several leaping into the air in what could only be called jubilation at the repair of their bridge.
"Whoa." Shye said, staring wide-eyed at the Skyway. "How did you do that?"
"Building the Skyway is like connecting two points in a web." Asriel said as he continued walking, the metal plates shifting to stone. "Instead of making a set path, it creates a bridge that can appear anywhere its needed, multiple times if necessary."
"Meaning ...?"
Sighing, Asriel said, "Meaning now anywhere between the Brass Woods and the land ahead, people can now use the skyway to cross. It'll appear when needed, and merge back with the natural land once its purpose is done."
Shye looked impressed. "You really are a Skyway Repair worker. I thought you were just a kid."
Asriel chuckled softly. "Nuthin' says I can't be both. C'mon; Golemite's probably miles ahead of us now. Besides, I wanna see the meadow up close!"
A mischevious look fell over Shye's face. "Race you."
"You're on!"
With that, Asriel and Shye ran across the Skyway, the stone gradually changing into golden grass that tickled their feet as they ran.
