"Oh goodness!" cried Dr. Kleiner. "What's going on?!" Lamarr scurried under the table and shuddered in fright.
An Asgarnian guard walked up to Kleiner to tell him the news.
"Isaac, it seems that some malefactor has taken advantage of our crippled state to finally decimate the city. The other mages have been evacuated to a safe place, you should get going too," informed the guard.
"Oh my..." replied Kleiner. "I've spent my whole life here, it's a little disappointing to see it all go..."
Some buildings collapsed in the background, filling the air with dust.
"Now's not the time to reminisce, Kleiner!" exclaimed the guard. "Get your stuff together and let's go! I've been assigned to keep you safe. One of our scouts has managed to locate Alex."
"Alex...?" said Kleiner, shocked. "My goodness...he's still alive? Where is he, is he still on the Borderworld?"
"Not exactly," the guard said back. "He and his friends escaped the Borderworld after the portal storms collapsed. He's in a forest on the coast of the Kandarian Continent."
"If I remember correctly," Kleiner went on, "there's a lot of military uproar occuring on Kandarin... Well, whatever the problem, you're right. Let's get out of here. Lamarr? Come on, girl!"
The headcrab crawled out from underneath Kleiner's desk and climbed into his bag.
"All right, Sven, whenever you're ready," said Kleiner.
"Isaac, I know a route that'll keep us lying low for a while until Alex can make contact with our scouts. He'll know what to do. Come with me."
Sven led Kleiner to a manhole that led to a tunnel out of the city. He pulled back the cover and motioned Kleiner in. He did so and climbed in himself, sealing the manhole.
The scorpions continued their onslaught against Asgarnia, with soldiers fighting a hopeless battle. The odds of Asgarnia surviving the attack just after the portal storms were a million to one.
--
"Otis, can you swim?"
Otis chirped, looking at the shallow water.
"It's only a few feet deep. If you start to sink, I'll get you out," Alex said.
The headcrab inched towards the glassy water. He dipped his foot in. The water was rather warm for a natural stream. Otis eased his way in until all four legs were in the water. Finally, Otis kicked off the bottom of the stream and out on open water. There was oddly enough no current. Otis seemed to have no problem keeping himself bouyant. The only problem was that his mouth was underwater. It was unsure if headcrabs had gills or not. Somehow, Otis managed to pull off swimming and even dove below the surface once or twice.
"Nice job, Otis!" Alex shouted. "Hey, if you see any fish, you think you could try to catch some? I'm sure all of us are hungry."
The headcrab kept swimming, undulating his legs when underwater and dog paddling on the surface. He saw a nice fleshy trout a few feet below the surface of the water. Hissing, Otis dove underwater and lunged at the fish. It quickly swam away to ten feet to Otis' left. Aggravated, he attacked the trout again, this time hooking it with his fang. He was able to control his poison reflex to prevent the fish from becoming tainted.
"Great! Now bring it to shore," said Alex.
The alien quadraped obeyed. Otis crawled out of the water, shaking what water he could from his small round body, leaving it with a wet shine. He unhooked his fang from the trout and let it flop hopelessly on dry land.
"That's amazing! You think you could get some more?"
Otis squealed and jumped back into the water.
As Alex sat down on the bank of the stream, he heard some rustling behind him. Was someone sneaking up on him?
Alex withdrew the rifle and turned around, quickly scanning the surrounding area.
"Otis," Alex called, "keep fishing. I'm gonna go check something out. If anything happens, give me a screech."
Otis chirped and kept fishing. Alex walked towards the dense trees to locate the source of the noise...
