Time is such a curious thing, for you would expect it to be constant. After all it is a rule of the universe, that it is endless and consistent. Time is so consistent that it has inspired phrases such as "Time marches on", for in humans understanding that is all time does.

It moves onwards, endlessly and evenly, like a soldier marching down a road. But that is not what time does. Time is not consistent in the slightest, nor is it a singular entity. Time, to help your understanding, is more like a class of students.

Some of them try hard as they can, rushing on ahead of the class as fast as possible, while others kick up their feet and do as little as possible, taking as much time as they can. That is to say, Time is a messy ball on inconsistency and irritation. That Time can allow events to be unfolding simultaneously, yet in such completely different scales.

For every second that passed on one side of the veil, thousands more passed on the other. And, as if that lazy student was periodically falling asleep at their desk, Time still refused to shackle itself to consistency.

Even though he was unaware of just how truly time sensitive his activities were, Bob was still working hard to complete his tasks as quickly as possible in his eagerness to save his Father. What horrors he was saving him from, he had no idea, but he didn't need to know either.

Yet no matter how fast Bob went, he was subject to the ever present ticking of the all encompassing clock. Even if it was just in his head, he was aware of every minute, every second, every moment that passed.

TICK

Bob swam through the air like an eel as nothing but a slender cloud of dust and dirt, desperately swimming towards the location of the citizen blessed with a gift of space.

TOCK

A day had passed for Seth and Astra, and still no sign of rescue. They did not worry, however, as they were steeled for the wait, even if they hoped it would come soon. Hopefully, it will be any day now.

TICK

After flying for a few minutes across the chaotic city of Ravenkeep, ignoring the turmoil and destruction happening beneath him and simply leaving it for the Unkindly Guards to solve, Bob finally arrived at the location of the teleporter, Lee.

TOCK

Three more weeks of continued survival in the boundless meadow was starting to take a toll on the once tranquil space. The six legged horse was happily chomping away at the once beautiful grass, tearing it from the ground and occasionally mixing up its diet with meat.

All but one of the trees had been felled and turned into nothing but charcoal and ash, used to fuel the fires of Seth and Astra's meals. Seth was sat at the edge of a large hole dug into the ground, his eyes glazed over lifelessly as he stared at the endless horizon.

Clutched in his hand was a sword, a falchion with barnacles growing around the blade's spine. He held the tip of the blade in the hole in the ground, glistening water slowly tricked from the tip of the blade like water from the tap.

Aside from the water filling the hole, which was salt water, was the porous skin of a creature they had slain not so long ago.

Across from him, Astra knelt on the other side of the hole, her hands lazily resting in the hole as her fingers dipped into the water to help her run the current through the water.

TICK

Lee pressed his hands against a portal, channelling his mana into it as the shattered reality started to slowly piece itself together. The pieces slotted themselves back together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, until space was whole once again.

If he knew Seth's predicament, then no doubt he would have been worried that he had just closed off his only route back. But even if he knew such things, he would be wrong. For although Seth had a navigator to guide him home, he only knew a fraction of how it truly work and knew even less about the space that he had found himself in.

If he knew more, then there would be no doubt that he would be able to find these portals. But he didn't, and so they were closed for good by the kind hearted teleporter.

As Lee let out a soft sigh, exhausted from forcing yet another breach in space closed to save them from more invaders, he heard a peculiar sound coming from beside him. This must have been the one looking for him, finally arriving. The moment Bob landed, he immediately started to explain what had transpired, and what he required of Lee.

But such an explanation took a few minutes, and time marched endlessly on.

TOCK

Seth crushed an ant under his boot, more specifically he crushed its head under his boot since this ant was the size of a German Shepard, but much less cute and fluffy and much more aggressive and bitey.

His chest heaved up and down as his lungs greedily sucked in as much air as they could handle. The mandibles of these ants gleamed like crystals, much more powerful than the bone spears of the fish-people, and which had no trouble carving into transcendent flesh despite their bodies being significantly weaker.

A weakness they made up for with numbers as hundreds of critters flooded out of the breach in space, pouring into the meadow with reckless abandon and eagerly trying to tear apart anything in their path.

His metal thorns soured through the air, piercing the weak points in their carapace, while Seth carved through them with feet, fist and swords. He grunted as he tore a broken, crystal mandible from his leg and plunged it into the head of another ant, spraying his face with a sickly, greenish-yellow blood, before he took up his sword from the ground once more and dove into the oncoming horde with a defiant roar.

TICK

Lee brushed the hair from his face, looking at the ground with an anxious expression as he processed what he had heard. His mind reeling with the fact that he could have been trapping his best client, and the Lords right hand woman, on the other side of all the portals he had been closing.

But Bob didn't allow him to panic long, the ticking of the clock still looming in his mind, even if it was just his imagination. With a firm smack across the face, he brought Lee back to his senses.

"Are you able to find him? To open a portal to him?"

"I usually have to picture the location but... Maybe if I tried to picture him instead I could... I could lock onto him or something. I don't know, I've never done it before."

"Then try now."

Bob patted Lee on the shoulder and gave him a soft, but firm, push forward. The caramel skinned young man let out a trembling breath, before lifting his hands into the air in front of him and lowering his head. He closed his eyes, focusing not on the world around him, but the picture of his best client in his head, as his fingers gently prodded at the space around them, feeling for the perfect weakness to breach through.

TOCK

A metal shield wiggled itself free from ground, its razors edge still slick with the blood of its last victim, before soaring through the air and attaching itself to Astra's outstretched hand. Shield back in her possession, she quickly spun and slammed the flat of the metallic disc into the face of her most recent enemy.

Purple skin, curling goat horns, serpentine eyes and waxy skin to boot. They had no armour and mainly used razor sharp talons to tear their enemy to shreds. She had no idea what they were called, and didn't care to give them a name beyond 'soon to be corpse'.

They had already torn apart the horse and eaten one of the lions cubs, a fact that made it furious and fuelled its blood lust as it eagerly showed these 'soon to be corpse's that it's own claws were not just for show.

With her opponent stunned from the blow, Astra quickly pulled her shield back and clamped her other hand on the creatures head, grabbing the 'soon to be corpse' by its face. Her pupils glowed softly with power, as the creature writhed in her grasp.

Electricity rapidly drained from its body, the very electricity its brain uses to control its nervous system or function at all. She hungrily devoured what could be considered it's 'life-force' to refill her dwindling reserves of electricity, but it was barely enough to keep her going in the fight.

Dropping the brain dead creature, having turned the 'soon to be corpse' into a simply named 'corpse', Astra turned her attention to Seth to quickly check up on him.

His swords were otherwise occupied by other battles, his metal needles long destroyed after these last few... god knows how long of assaults. She had lost count after the second month of daily portal assaults.

The 'soon to be corpse' Seth was fighting had caught his fist, it's other hand ready to come down and tear open Seth's guts, but before it could he moved seemingly in instinct. Not caring that his fist was trapped, Seth lunged forward and clamped his teeth around the creatures throat.

He immediately bit down hard enough to spray blood outwards, before yanking his head backwards. The nameless creature's throat being torn out, as Seth held the chunk of bloody meat tight between his teeth.

Spitting the raw meat to the ground, and ignoring the nameless creature gargling on its own blood as it collapsed to the ground, Seth caught Astra's eye. His expression softened from the blood rage he had been experiencing, as blood trickled from his lips and stained his long, unkempt facial hair.

At that same moment, as their eyes connected, a soft beeping sounded through the tranquil meadow turned bloody wasteland, as the bracer Seth wore on his wrist began to show some activity for the first time. Help had finally arrived.