Chapter 11- David: Hissssss
David walked up the stairs of the west wing with Endrax and Josie. The stairs looped around and above the main hall. David looked over the railing. It looked like it would be a really…really long fall. He dashed up the stairs to follow the others. Josie motioned to the room on the left.
"These are the showers. The bathrooms are also in here, as well as some towels and soap and stuff." She quickly motioned to the room on the right. "This is the laundry room. There are some clothes you can wear in here if yours are too dirty or something." She sat there with her arms crossed.
Endrax walked into the bathroom first. As soon as he was gone, David placed an arm on Josie's shoulder. "What?" she asked haughtily.
"You o.k.? Gabriel seems to have really pissed you off."
"That girl is SO infuriating! Every time we come here, she tries her best to humiliate me! I'm sick of her shit!"
"It'll be fine. Just ignore her and keep your distance. She won't have the opportunity to make fun of you." he replied patting her jokingly on the head. David walked into the room and grabbed a towel off the rack next to the door. One of the showers was running and a pair of black feet was visible in the gap under the stall. David got into the shower. A few minutes later he stepped out and wrapped his towel around himself. He walked out of the showers and into the laundry room. The room was lined with chest each with different labels. He rummaged through the chest, gathered up some clothes and walked back down to his room. He threw on his new turquoise shirt and purple pants. He grabbed his bag and rummaged around inside, finally pulling out the manual. He sat on his bed and flipped through the pages. There were many new crafting recipes and creatures. A few pages were he was absolutely positive the creatures had ended, more pages were filled. An image of a bat had appeared. It was a small creature, very fuzzy looking animal with thin skin-covered wings. The small icon next to it was a green square, meaning it wouldn't attack.
He flipped forward a few pages and found something awkward: an image of a villager. A scraggly woman stood crookedly in the image, wearing a purple robe and tall, pointy, black hat. She had wild red hair and her eyes were separate colors, deep purple in one and dark crimson red in the other. In each hand, she held a glass bottle, filled with a sort of liquid. David began reading the caption underneath.
Witches are outcast of villages, detested for using magic formulas and potions to do necromancy experiments. They craft small huts in swamps, where they can easily gather their potion ingredients. They hate intruders and-
"Hisssss…"
David looked up from The Manual and looked around. He could have sworn he had heard something… He shrugged it off and went back to the caption. They hate intruders and throw sacks of deadly potions, used to cause slowness, weakness, damage and poison. They often carry-
"Hissssssss…" David looked up again. He was positive he had heard something this time. He folded the corner of his page, stood up, walked to his window and peered outside. The world was dark. There were a few torches lit, but they were quite far from his window. He saw something moving towards the corner of the glass. He focused his sight in that direction but…he couldn't quite see. Suddenly a face appeared at the window. But this was no human face. It had twisted, gnarled, flaky green skin with multiple dents and dark patches. The face was rounded, yet seemed hollow with a mouth in a deep, eternal, frown. The eye-sockets were hollow with a deep, consuming blackness.
David and the creature looked at each other for the longest time. Then the back of the creatures head expanded a small bit. David's eyes widened in astonishment. Then the left eye-socket. Then the whole creature began to expand at a rapid pace, growing bigger and bigger, expanding like a balloon. David began to back slowly away from the window. Its eyes glowed red and it continued making the hissing noise. Then there was a fast, deafening, piercing noise followed by an explosion. David flew backwards out of the room, crashed through the door and tumbled out of the room.
He opened his eyes slowly. His vision was fuzzy and blurred and his ears were ringing. There seemed to be a figure over him, saying something. What was it saying?
"David! David! David, get up!" David blinked a few more times and saw who was above him. It was Josie. David slowly sat up and rubbed his head. "Oh thank Notch, you're alive!" She stood up and helped him to his feet. He stared at the broken wall in his bedroom. There were bits and pieces of stone brick, wool, glass, and wood everywhere. Among the debris were the creatures mangled, bloody body parts. David limped over to the charred, splintered bed and grabbed his backpack and the manual. His pack was slightly singed, but otherwise undamaged. While the book was…completely fine? He ignored this fact and placed it in his pack then walked back out to the doorway.
"Are you okay? Is anything broken?" she said examining his arms and back.
"I'm fine. Did you see that thing?" he asked in awe.
"No. What was it?"
"It was about the size of a person, considering I could see eye to eye with it. Well, eye to eye-socket. It just, had these big empty black holes and a mouth in this odd, twisted frown. Its skin was green and wrinkled and it made this weird hissing noise." David shuddered as the image of the creature swept through his mind. Before Josie could reply, Phillip, Gabriel, Mayor Eliza and Rosie came down the hallway.
"What happened? Is everyone alright?" the mayor asked alarmed.
"We're fine, but there was some mob outside. It blew up the side of the wall."
"Hm. Rosie, go get the blacksmith. See if she can fix this wall. David, you can choose a new room. I'll activate the golems to go on patrol." The mayor turned on her heels and walked swiftly away.
"Dinner will be ready soon!" Gabriel said cheerfully as she left. Josie eyed her skeptically as she left.
"Dude, what happened?" Phillip asked excitedly.
"Some sort of green mob exploded outside of the window and destroyed the wall."
"What do mean exploded? Like a zombie with TNT or something?"
"No it looked more like a, a plant-monster or something. Its face was gnarled like tree roots and the skin was all flaky, like a bunch of leaves."
"Never heard of something like that…" Phillip said.
"C'mon lets go to my room. We can talk more there." Josie said. They walked to the end of the hallway and into the room. David sat at the foot of the bed, Josie near the head and Phillip in the chair at the desk. They sat in thought for a few minutes, contemplating what the creature could have been. "I've got it! Look through that book you've got!" Josie said.
"What book?" Phillip asked.
"Oh yeah. Wonder why I didn't think of that." David said reaching for his backpack.
"What book?" Phillip asked again.
He quickly pulled out the leather coated manual and began flipping through the later pages. Josie and David moved behind to view the pages as well. They examined the book for sometime, but every time Josie or Phillip picked out a creature, David dismissed it due to indirect features (most of them being "I don't think that blows up."). Eventually they reached the end of the updated pages. Josie flopped back onto the bed.
"I can't believe that book has all this information on all these crafting recipes and weapons and tools, but it hardly has anything on mobs!" she said covering her face with a pillow.
"Well I think it's pretty cool, considering what it does have." They all got up and walked out of the room.
"What should we do now?" Phillip asked.
"Maybe we should find Endrax." David said. "I haven't seen him since I was in the showers."
"I'll go check there." Phillip said, dashing up the stairs.
"Come on, we'll go check the east wing." Josie said grabbing David's arm and yanking him along. They dashed up the stairs to the east wing and into the hallway.
"What's up here?" David asked.
"The armory. There's tons of weapons and armor up here." she responded. She opened up the first door and walked inside. Inside were wood and stone axes and swords. They were polished and hung inside frames on the wall. "This is where they store the weapons in case of raiders or mob attacks." She stepped into the room and looked around. "Well he's not in here." They walked across the hall into another large room, this one filled with leather armors of all different colors.
"Not in here." David responded looking inside the room. They searched all the rooms, some filled with food, others with more weapons and armor. Finally they reached the door at the end of the hall. "What's this?" David asked.
"The library. There're mostly stories in here, a few almanacs and a map or two." She opened the door and walked inside. Sitting at the base of a bookshelf was Endrax, surrounded by a "fort" of books. His head was cocked to the side, his eyes closed.
David walked over and tapped on Endrax's helmet a few times.
"Hey buddy, wake up." Endrax sat up and opened his eyes. He looked around confused and then looked up at David.
"…I fell asleep…" he said groggily. He stood and walked through his pile of books to the doorway. "What are we doing?" he asked Josie.
"Um it's time to eat. Come on, lets go." she said motioning to David. He walked over and the three of them walked down the hall too the stairs. When they arrived in the kitchen, Phillip was already there, along with Slender and Gabriel.
"Glad you could finally join us, Josie." Gabriel said smugly.
"Shut up, priss." Josie responded. The group took their seats and Phillip, Josie and David explained to Endrax what had happened. Gabriel sat in her seat barely eating, more so gawking at Phillip while Slender stalked around the window.
"I've never seen a green exploding thing. I wonder what is." Endrax said curiously. Just then, Slender let out a loud, horrifying cry and jumped at the window. Everyone in the room turned in astonishment, watching the cat pounce furiously at the glass. Josie ran over and picked Slender up mid-pounce and began stroking him gently. The cat ceased fidgeting and curled up in her arms, still staring menacingly at the window.
"What is up with that cat of yours?" Gabriel asked.
"He probably doesn't like being kept in this house. I'm gonna let him go outside." Josie responded walking to the door." The group continued eating until they heard a loud scream. The group jumped up from the table and dashed into the main foyer. Slender was at the hole where the door used to be, back arched and fur standing up, hissing, while Josie stood a little ways, bow notched, eyes wide with fear. Her breathing was deep and heavy and her hand was shaky on the arrow string. David, Endrax and Phillip ran to Josie's side swords at the ready, while Gabriel snuck quietly into the unlit hallway. David stared at the green creatures empty eye sockets.
"Is…is that the green thing you spoke of David?" Phillip asked. David nodded swallowing the fear in his heart. The creature surveyed the group scanning over each of them slowly with its mangled face. Before it could make a move, Slender took a lunge at the creature and it backed away swiftly, turning and fleeing into the dark night. Slender quickly dashed after it, chasing it onto the dim gravel streets. The group slowly and cautiously lowered their swords and put them away.
"Wow…" Josie said. "That thing… was horrid."
"It was like…staring into the void…" Endrax replied. The group began to discuss what the thing was, were it came from, and why it was in the village. Eventually they hit a dead end in the conversation. They said good night and everyone retired to their rooms. Once inside, David tossed his backpack and belt onto the chest and flopped onto the bed, the events of the day flashing through his head.
Ooh, longish chapter with mysterious stuff. Someone said these needed more action. If this wasn't enough, I've still got more , school is a bitch. Can't wait for summer. At least I have good grades!