I sat on a hill next to a lively village, watching the sunset. Wolfie was by my side, while I could just see Xephos' shadowy figure move from building to building. He was trying to find clues, leads. Anything he could so we could track Ridge and Lalna. Oh Lalna...why did you make it so difficult? I know we will find each other, but you could have made it easy!
"It's beautiful, isn't it Wolfie?" I glanced at my canine companion, who whined a little. "What's wrong?" I stroked his soft fur gently, running my hand through it. He moved closer to me, looking at me with his eyes. One was normal while the other was... "Oh...I'm sorry. I forgot you had trouble seeing." I whispered. Watching the sunset reminded me of Lalna. Every sunset, I would make sure to watch it from a suitable place. Whether it is on a hillside, or at the shore's edge. I just wanted to remember him. I WOULDN'T forget Lalna. I promised myself that. How could I? The goggles hung around my neck, gently resting against it. Wolfie woofed, licking the goggles. "H-Hey! Easy!" I moved them away, rubbing them gently. "These are special, alright? They're from a close friend." I explained. Wolfie blinked, shrugging before he lay back down. 'A very close friend...' I closed my eyes. For a few minutes I sat there, imagining the sunset in front of me and Lalna to my side. I didn't notice when Xephos returned, but when I opened my eyes, he was beside me. "Find out anything useful?" The spaceman shook his head.
"Nobody knew anything about a demi-god, or a scientist. Nothing about an owl lady or a pool boy. There wasn't anything useful." He replied quietly. "...Do you really think we can find them?" His voice was a whisper, easily carried along with the wind. I watched his depressed expression, gently putting my hand on his shoulder. Xephos looked at me and I could see tears rimming his eyes.
"Yes. I do. I really think we can find them, Xephos." I nodded confidently. "If we still have hope, we can find them." I murmured. My eyes glanced back to the sunset. It was too beautiful to miss. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Xephos taking out a rather old looking book. "What's that?" I asked curiously. Xephos smiled a little.
"Well, I guess there WAS something useful that I found." He flicked through the pages, landing on one that caught my attention. It was the same symbol stitched onto the back of our clothes. "Apparently the symbol is the sign of a group called 'Yogscast'." He explained. "Set up by... Xephos and Honeydew? But...this was...when we were in a coma." Xephos murmured. "But, all our friends are part of it. See? Lalna, Lomadia, Ridge, Nilesy...did they form this when we were asleep?" He asked. I shrugged. It seemed odd. How could they get Xephos to form a group while in a coma? "Though..." I blinked as Xephos continued. "This...does seem familiar. I can't really tell why, but I think I did do this." He added.
"Really? That's cool." I smiled. "So, there's this group of us...and we're fighting the taint. These names are of our friends, but there are others." I continued reading. "They're known as 'Yognau(gh)ts'. I wonder why it's spelt like that." I murmured. As we read quietly, the moon began to rise. I stood up when I noticed the moon was high above the horizon. "We'd better get moving. We still have normal mobs to fight off." I pointed out. Xephos closed the book, putting it in his inventory before we continued. This was interesting. Lalna...did you have a part to play in this? Making this 'Yogscast' group? Even though Xephos and Honeydew were the ones who 'founded' it, did you decide on this with Ridge? I shook my head. No time to be thinking about it now. We had to concentrate on the journey ahead. I had reasoned with Xephos to return to my farm to see what had happened - and to recover Sips if we could. We roughly knew where to go to find it, so after a long conversation, he reluctantly agreed. I wonder who this was harder for – me or him. After all, it was there where everything started. I guess it would be both painful and happy. We'd just have to wait to find out.
We stood a few hundred metres from the farm. It was swarming with taint. I sighed, watching what used to be my home being invested with the taint. I felt Xephos' hand on my shoulder, a comforting look in his eyes. We carefully traversed the dormant taint, my eyes soon landing on the familiar carbonite statue.
"Sips! He's ok!" I quickly rushed over, looking at him. "He's untouched. Amazing!" I smiled, glancing at Xephos. He nodded. "So...how do we defrost him?" I asked. Xephos thought for a moment, clicking his fingers when he had an idea.
"We take him back to Sipsco." He began. "I remember there is a vat of molten dirt there. That should defrost him." He explained. Molten dirt? I never knew that existed... "The thing is transporting him. It will take too long if we just carry him." That would be a problem. With the taint growing stronger, infecting more and more areas, we needed to be quick on our feet. Before I could reply, Xephos had taken out a pickaxe and broke Sips into pieces. My mouth gaped open as he gathered the pieces up. He glanced up at me. "Don't worry. We can rebuild him." This didn't comfort me much. He had just broken my best friend into shards. "Look, you trust me right?" I slowly nodded. We had to learn to trust each other in this journey, and when we worked on the farm together. "We'll get Sips back." I sighed, following after the spaceman. I watched him take out a book, placing it on a bookstand. "You go first. I'll set some TNT off after so it can't follow us." He explained. I blinked, nodding. I touched the book, suddenly being taken to the Jaffa Factory. I stumbled forwards for a few moments, glancing behind me. He wasn't there. 'Xephos, what are you doing...?' I thought, Wolfie being by my side. I had memorized exactly how long TNT took to blow up. 3...2...1... Nothing. My heart stopped. He... I held Wolfie close, almost missing when the spaceman suddenly appeared. I sighed with relief, walking over to him.
"Thanks for worrying me, jerk!" I punched him gently in the shoulder, causing us both to laugh. Xephos and I quickly made our way to the desolate Sipsco compound, glancing around. No taint seemed to be in here, but it was all flooded and overgrown - just how the Jaffa Factory had been. I noticed a large vat of brown liquid across the room. "So I'm guess that's the molten dirt, huh?" I asked, as we made our way over to it. We both stood at the edge, looking in. I wondered how it had become like this and how Xephos knew about this vat. Maybe he had come here when he was tainted? Eh, I guess these questions didn't matter. I watched as Xephos put the pieces of Sips into the molten dirt. He glanced at me, as if expecting something. "What?"
"Do some of your magic or something!"
"What?! You think I can bring him back?!"
"Why not? You're a wizard, right?"
"I-I'm not THAT good..." We both stared at each other, not saying anything. "...Do you think he felt anything?" I whispered. Xephos flinched, glancing away. I sighed, closing my eyes. Great. We had just killed Sips because Xephos thought I could return him. I heard Xephos take a sharp breath, nudging me. "What?" I slowly opened my eyes, seeing Sips standing beside us.
"Hey guys."
A/N: I'm going to warn you now - next week is a bit of a busy week for me so uploads might be alternating between upload and not. This is so I don't get too stressed trying to sort out IRL stuff (Don't worry, it's nothing bad - I just get stressed/worried easily xD) and this, so the content will last longer. After the week, they might stay alternating or they might return to normal. I haven't quite worked that out yet. So, basically, don't worry if there are gap days where I don't upload.