No response. Nat felt with his hand, there was nothing in it. Okay, so Lyn had been forced to move.
Time to build a plan — he might only get one shot at this.
Step one — figure out what Moira was going to say.
Two — locate Lyn, and the owner of the claw. He'd need to move to do that, and he could only look in a direction once, so he'd need to get it right when he did. Also, only things emitting light were visible when he did.
Three — get into position to grab Lyn's hand, without making things worse. That means no locking them in a bad position.
Nat didn't have infinite time, but taking time to analyze what had been said, and not said might be critical in avoiding a costly mistake.
He might have adjusted the positions of one and two, except it seemed that it might matter for what to do once he found Lyn, so, it was worth a moment's consideration. He assumed had a few minutes of subjective time, at least, even if it had been cut short beforehand. A clock or timer would be really useful — could he bring an egg timer in with him? His clothes clearly came along, so — maybe. Something to think about later.
Okay, let's run the list. First — what was Moira trying to tell him?
There had been no concern about it attacking him, only Lyn. Was it just ignoring him because he looked like part of the landscape, though? That would only have explained the lack of concern, not the hardness comment. She didn't say anything about him being immune to damage, and she would have said that if it was true. So he could likely be hurt, but how was an open question. No time to speculate about that now, though.
So, given that his state conferred some properties that made him like stone for a few seconds, it would make sense sounded like he could get in the way of the Ber? Okay, he could work with that. Block its path, or maybe discourage it somehow. If it couldn't get to its victim? Prey? What was its goal, actually. Moira had said terrified. Wait a moment.
Let's add a step four — figure out what the Ber's goal was, in order to be able to predict and thus react to it better. For that, it might help if he could see, or locate it. Moving faster might help make things less dim, or maybe if he could adjust the speed of things, but he had absolutely no idea how to do that. He'd work that out later when he could ask Lyn or Moira, assuming they managed to make it to later.
Okay, so, first off. Let's figure out where things are.
Nat got ready to push outwards in three directions. That should give him enough coverage to get an idea of where Lyn was — their eyes glowed, so that was a good indicator.
Oh! There were other glowing things lit up nearby. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. He probably couldn't see whatever this Ber was, but he might be able to see where it obstructed other animals that had lit up in response to the wave.
Nat adjusted his plan somewhat. He'd need to pay attention to shadows, as well as light. A small, but significant difference, given that he'd only have a second or two of motion in any direction before he might lose track of where he started.
He gathered himself to move — it was still so weird that not only was he not breathing, but he felt absolutely no need to breathe. Questions for later, he thought at himself, trying to keep focus on what was important rather than get distracted.
Okay, first direction. Straight forward, which was back the way he'd originally come? He'd lost track while talking to Moira. He'd gone straight out, then turned around. No nearby lights, so Lyn wasn't there, and no large shadow either — he could see a bunch of glowing lights in the direction that had previously been where the ‘rock’ had been. The ground was too dark to see, but he imagined his blanket was on the ground somewhere, and probably a large hole where the Ber came out.
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That'd explain why Lyn wasn't this direction. Okay. Let's turn around and try left-forwards.
Well, that was certainly effective. He'd almost wished it hadn't been, though.
Nat might have muted reactions to fear compared to some, but he absolutely still felt it. And there was an absolutely massive shadow in front of him, blocking his view now. Three meters? Hard to say at this angle, with no lights directly above in the sky to look at. Or wait, there were some Pa'hupa that had inflated and taken to the air nearby, that were clearly of the chromatophore-bearing species, capable of luminescence. That helped, actually, as it was easier to determine the shadow position with a closer light source.
This thing, whatever it was, had to be at least four meters wide, as well, based on how much of the nearby floating ball-lights become visible as he moved diagonally forward.
He had a moment he would not be proud of later; he considered, for just a moment, whether or not he could run away while like this. It vanished quickly, but he filed it away as a tactical possibility with merit. After all, might be in danger, but they weren't blind and deaf at the moment.
Right! Back to it. He hadn't seen Lyn, but they might have been on the opposite side of the wall of shadow. Or he might have just missed them during the moment of terror that was causing him to flush hot.
He decided to carry on with the plan to check the other direction, if nothing else it would give him a better understanding of his positioning relative to the creature. He slogged through the stilled atmosphere to the right a few steps, and … yes! There! Those were Lyn's eyes, underneath and behind a shadow that was lateral to — but not reaching — the ground, and not as tall as the wall of the main body. A claw, then.
Was it moving? Which direction? He couldn't tell. It was frozen at the moment.
This Talent is a pain. What is this even for? Nat wasn't feeling particularly charitable at the moment to whatever had created the system. Everything was survival or profession focused, but which of the two was this? Ber'Duun skills were like industrial machinery compared to the usual human Talents, but even theirs fit the mold. One moved mountains. The other moved boxes. Nat actually knew a guy, that all he did was Lift.
Okay, well, we've done our best at step one. Step two could get put down as an unconditional win. Step four was just not going to happen in this weird frozen state.
Time to get on with step three, then. What is it with today and holding hands?
Nat moved to the right and spent the next minute trudging forward towards Lyn's pale blue glowing eyes, that were oriented towards the claw. As he got closer, it became obvious that Lyn was on, or near the ground. Ducking underneath a swing, maybe? Nat ducked underneath the claw himself, unsure of how much time was remaining.
This moving around was tiring, and Nat was starting to feel uncomfortably hot. He guessed the Talent didn't deal with body heat as effectively as it probably should.
As he approached Lyn, he realized he couldn't see Lyn's arms or hands, so he'd have to feel around. He'd apologize later.
He reached out and felt … an elbow? Okay, easy enough, move away from the eyes, and there! A hand to hold at last. He pressed against the palm, careful to ensure he didn't trap them in place when he froze, and pressed. Nothing happened, so he pressed harder. His hand felt uncomfortably warm as he did so; it was heating up quickly.
[ Moira: Nat! Listen! Don't argue! You need to get in position to take a hit. I don't know what this is going to do, so brace yourself as best you can! Your Talent is over-strained and about to fail, catastrophically. It should have warned you or cancelled already, but it hasn't for some reason. Get in position and cancel the Talent immediately once you read this! Also, I said this last so you wouldn't immediately let go and miss the rest, but you need to let go of Lyn immediately, before you burn them! ]
Nat let go instantly, without even responding.
He took a moment to consider what the best way to get clubbed by a multi-ton, what, crab? What even was this?
Arms out? Huddle over Lyn? He had no idea, getting punched in the face was, up until this moment, not in his skill-set.
He decided to turn to face it. Better to see it coming. Which would make sense, if only he could see it. He braced his legs in a half crouch; he wasn't sure if it mattered.
Let's see, what was the best way to handle this, assuming he would be like a literal statue?
Arms out. Elbows up. Head down. Angle so that the force deflected upwards, instead of into his torso or legs. Hope Moira was right and that it didn't just snap his arms in half and pulp him.
He performed a final check to make sure he was as ready as he could be. Was this the best place to stand? He had no idea. It would have to do. He focused inwards, and deactivated his Talent.