One among the false team pulls off his helmet, "You'll never make the team." He beats the walker's underside with it.
Another one - "Look at you."
Another still - "So soft."
Sam - Inside the upside down walker, comically contorted and face smashed to the windshield. "But ... I did make the team."
Ari - "Metal's not soft ... !"
The sound of laughter, the nightmares look up up hissing, faces tearing from delusion to beast.
(stand in song)
High
above what appears a comet soars toward them, the laughter growing
until striking the ground behind them, they shield from his crater.
A
man crouched in a singing hooded cloak with a small chest under one
arm, the other fist to the ground. Armored at the shoulders and neck
backing the hood betrays his Erie origins, if not his height. He stands
tall examining them, dusts off the box.
Man - Looks around at the suspicious commotion now frozen in stare, "Can I ... help you ?"
They
roar into attack, he draws the sword with his free hand, cutting
through their charge. They return to form behind as he spins through a
slice in one half dissipated.
He sets down the box and places his foot on it.
Man - "Really ?" Draws another blade, down spun for underhand. "Well alright then."
As the three watch him roar cutting through them, the nightmares wisping way then forming another place for attack.
Naamah - "I feel like we should be helping him somehow."
Lilith - "How ? He's all over the place."
He
darts with a slash here, a leaping thrust there, spinning to the other side of
their number while the walker kicks away.
Man - "Ow !"
Eve - She lowers her fresh shot bow, "You're right. He's got this."
As
the spinning of the blade begins to part their substantiation more than
its existence, they begin fading one by one until gone as they drink
their teas watching, walker still kicking.
When it's done he
strains to flip this thing of many flailing legs back over again while
they watch in casual judgement ... children rolling around inside ...
and done. He picks up the chest and walks to the three with an arrow in
his back.
Adam - "Eve."
Eve - "Adam."
Adam - "And ... Naamah and Lilith. I see we're all friends now."
Eve - "I see you're still banished."
Adam - "Yes ... just ... out here helping people I don't know." Pulls the arrow out of his back.
Lilith - "So ... ?"
Adam - "Catapult." Shakes the chest.
Lilith - "Ah."
Sam - While they all stare from inside the walker ... "This is really weird."
Mike - "Like getting dropped off at dad's house."
The Xenofix crouches low ...
Above and unseen, Alabaster and Cybal turn in their flight, back to where they came. While the new friends all walk the woods,
The walker unfolds for some air, the kids clean up the mess of being upside down.
~ Cybal flies over that twisted mountainside, Alabast circling to land.
The
walker crashes rows of trees in it's path, giants sitting on the raised
back panel with their tea, Adam following behind. He gives a
suspicious look to an apple hanging near by then at Eve ... keeps going.
Sam passes up a giant donut to him.
They walk as he eats ...
~
A churning twitch of a mountain leg as the castle doors close behind
her, their own giants tapping the ground with their pikes.
Bal - "And what did you see ?"
...
Cybal - "Nothing my lord. They walk in their ways that they do."
Bal - "And this ... cloaked man ? Tall as the Erie, mighty ... as a ... god ? The fears of children travel faster than you, 'my servant'. This ... 'man' ... was accompanied by three witches."
Cybal - "I saw no ... 'cloaked god' or witches my lord, but would be very interested in anything you discover."
Bal - "To hunt and to kill him ... ?"
Cybal - "Of course my lord. No one will ever come before you, neither man nor god. It is intrinsic."
...
Bal
- A fiber of muscle lashes over beneath his broken mask as he
contemplates his mistrust, "You may go." He calls out, feeling his
pained arm,"Cartographer !"
_________
His command
echoes over the scene, Adam walking ahead, Xenofix behind, Erie Witches
behind that while the children clean the mess of having been upside down
~
Ari - "So now whenever I sleep here I dream there, and whenever I sleep there ... "
Mike - "Yeah. I don't know which is which anymore."
Sam - "Giant lady was right. This one does make more sense."
Gabby - "A refrigerator that creates food makes sense ?"
Mike - A look like that's nuts. "Um. Yeah !"
Sam - "More sense than farming."
Gabby - "Farming makes perfect sense. Things grow. You eat them. You poop nutrients for more things to grow. You dream about farming ?"
Sam
- "I dream about being inside a metal bug. And I don't know it just
seems like a lot of steps when right there is a refrigerator that makes
food."
Ari - "So you're saying this is a dream and it makes more sense ?"
Sam - "Yeah ! I wanna invent that some day."