I hoped Mona would pull through.
Of course, they had only recently returned from that growing Small World, and she must have gained quite a few things there too. She should be fine; at least getting through this time ought to be fairly easy.
But not everyone was Mona. This sudden change would inevitably bring more terror, and more death.
Corpses that smiled as though they had fallen asleep.
Ruger was still thinking about this just before he slipped into a daze.
All along, the intervals between that figure's appearances had only slowly shortened, never lengthening again. So the drastic reduction this time would probably be the same. The interval would not return to what it had been, but would continue shortening from this new baseline. Perhaps the next reduction would be just as drastic.
The discomfort drove him into a daze.
That gaze made him feel as though he were lying on an experimental table, reminding him of the Old Wizard's special experimental equipment he had seen in the Tree Hollow, and all those different experimental tables.
Perhaps he really was lying on an experimental table so bizarre and unusual that anyone not involved would struggle even to grasp its underlying concept.
They were all experimental subjects.
Through his daze, he dimly saw the figure watching him shake their head, seemingly in regret. But after examining him for a while, they gave a slight nod.
Intense discomfort engulfed him. He felt as though his mouth were moving, as though he were having a pleasant conversation with that figure whose face he could not make out.
It also felt as though he were dreaming.
Thud!
His temple struck a small, smooth, rounded stone.
He jolted awake and realized he had tilted sideways and slipped off the large rock he had