Chapter 25: Visions.
When Xephos opened his eyes, he found himself falling. All about him a void of twisting panes of aquamarine light swirled about him, as he let out a cry he looked left and saw Honeydew falling beside him, down the endless tube of light. Xephos tried to shout over to his friend but his voice was whipped away in the strange windless free-fall, Honeydew just staring over at him, when out of the side of the cyclone a dark shape flew towards them. Xephos and Honeydew felt strong hands gripping them as the shape pulled them out into the side of the light shaft, when they were engulfed in a pulsating purple light. The shape then let them go, and the light ended altogether. Xephos' breath was pulled from his lungs as he landed on a firm yet squishy surface, he looked up just as Honeydew flew through the air after passing out of the light, and landing with a grunt in a sheet of black hanging from a wooden post.
"Ow." came Honeydew's voice from within the folds of the now torn down cloth. Xephos, having recovered his breath stood, and gaped.
"Ah...Honeydew?" he said loudly, his voice echoing. "You should see this." as the dwarf pulled himself from what Xephos now saw was a sail-cloth hanging in tatters to a mast that stood angled out of the ground, he too gaped at their surroundings. The ground all about them; red and oddly soft, stretched across a plain into small hills, ravines, the walls and ceiling of the huge cavern that they stood within, gouts of molten lava pouring from walls and the ceiling into great pools, the spitting image of what they had seen out of the portal facility under Barbeque Bay; The Nether.
"We are in deep, deep shit." Honeydew said as he took in too, the ship around them, broken and half buried at and angle in the meaty netherrack, as though in the process of sinking, it was then that Honeydew realised what ship it was.
"Hang on, this is the Black Pimple, Isabel's ship!" he gasped from the heat, already making him sweat. "What the hell has happened!? Is this the future or something?"
"Yes, I think you'll find that it is something like that." came a old, hard voice behind them.
The two turned to the door of the Black Pimple's aft-castle, hands going to their weapons, only to find none. In the doorway stood a figure, old, yet nearly filling the doorway and radiating power, he was completely bald save for a thick beard covering the lower portion of his face, the hair had once been black but now was grey as slate. He wore formal clothing, as though attending an event, complete with a golden monocle that rested on an eye with a scar that snaked from his temple to mouth corner, causing the eye to be a blind white.
"Who are you-" Honeydew began, stepping back.
"Wait..." Xephos stared at the stranger, dimly lit by the crystals of glowstone from the ceiling above. "...Verigan?" The moment that the words were spoken there was no doubt. The man before them was older than the one seen by the two heroes in the magical mist at Verigan's Hold, and lacked his hammer, but the resemblance was obvious.
"Heroes, time is short." Verigan spoke, stepping out of the door frame. "I see that you have found two pieces of my map, and in the joining of the two of them I can communicate with you."
"So why did you bring us here?" Honeydew asked, unsure if it was expected of him to bow.
"To bring you a warning, for this is not the Nether, this is, like I said, the future." Verigan rumbled.
"Oh gods, this is the future?" Xephos looked at Verigan, then their surroundings.
"The future of the world, should you two fail in your quest. The land shall be transformed into a nightmare." as Verigan finished, there suddenly came a shuddering from the earth, and across the plain of netherrack, Xephos pointed towards a hump in the grounds, forced up by something beneath it, pushing through the earth towards them.
"What is that?" asked Xephos.
"Oh gods, it's coming this way!" Verigan yelled. "Quickly, come here!"
The two ran to him as the hump came closer at an alarming speed. Verigan grabbed them both and closing his eyes the blue panes surrounded them and as the hump crashed into the ruins of the Black Pimple, they appeared at the foot of a hill of netherrack behind a boulder, and far ahead of them, there stood row upon row of metal figures, eyes glowing a sickly red glow, and at their head, another metal soldier, wearing an eyepatch.
"Gods, is that...Tinman?" Xephos said, then noticed his good eye's red glow. "It's evil Tinman?"
"He's gone bad!" Honeydew swore. "I knew that we couldn't trust him!"
"And there's an army," Xephos sighed. "An army of evil Warforged."
"It's Israphel, isn't it?" Honeydew commented quietly as the Warforged stood idle, suddenly looking up as Verigan, saying nothing spirited them away in blue light to the top of a mountain looking down on a similarly hellish valley.
"There. That is your enemy." he rumbled, pointing over the valley with a huge hand where there stood several huge slate colossus of Israphel, glaring outwards, starkly in contrast with the rest of the deep red landscape.
"This future, does not have to be, you can stop it!" Verigan announced as he teleported them to another mountaintop, this one so high that it nearly brushed the red ceiling. "You must seek out my Grandson, a night named Peculier, and help him to fulfill his destiny. Unite the map pieces to halt the sand invasion, and put an end to the evil beyond the veil." as he finished, Verigan pointed down to the mountain's foot to a plateau.
"What..!?" Honeydew yelled. "Peculier is related to you?!"
"Ah, Honeydew..." Xephos said flatly, and nodded down the mountain to where on a throne carved from solid black obsidian, shining in the dull light sat the white pallid figure of Israphel, bedecked in a black similar to his throne's and at each arm, a dragon like that of old sat, red and cruel. At Honeydew's voice, his head turned to look up at them, red eyes burning, and with a gesture, the dragon at his left hand leapt into the air, wings beating, and began speeding through the air towards them.
"Why is the dragon flying towards-RUN AWAY!" Honeydew suddenly yelled at Verigan, who continued to stare unreadably at Israphel. "RUN AWAY!" he repeated, but as Verigan summoned his magic, so too did Israphel, a black wreath surrounding the dragon, and as they disappeared and reappeared back at the ruins of the Black Pimple, so did the dragon.
"Quickly, through the portal!" yelled Verigan, as he summoned out of the ground a black frame pulsing with purple light. "There is no time! Run!" he pushed the two of them towards the portal as the dragon flew closer, opening it's jaws.
"Verigan, noooo-" Xephos yelled as Honeydew dragged him through the portal just as a jet of flame spewed from the dragon's mouth, headed right for Verigan before the portal closed behind him and he only saw darkness.
Xephos woke peacefully the next morning after a long night's sleep, and only after lying still on his bedroll he remembered his dream, and wearily pulled himself to his feet, looking over to Honeydew, sleeping fitfully and splayed out over his roll. Xephos rubbed the remainder of the sleep out of his eyes and roused Honeydew with a nudge of his boot to the dwarf's ribs.
"What!?" Honeydew grunted, sitting up. "What's going on?"
"We need to get ready to leave." Xephos yawned, looking up at the early morning light leaking through the cracks in the deck above them. "Isabel will be waiting for us probably." As Honeydew nodded and scratched miserably at what remained of his singed beard, once flowing down his chest, but now burnt off to just below his collarbone, Xephos turned to him again.
"Did you have a dream last night?" he asked warily.
"Yeah, I did." Honeydew glanced up at Xephos as he made for the hatch. "What made you ask? Did I sleep talk?"
"Was...Verigan in it?" Xephos pried.
"Yes," Honeydew stopped walking and stared. "You were there, it was in the Nether, or rather it was in-"
"The future." Xephos finished. ""The future, if you two should fail in your quest." That's what Verigan said."
"I think that it was a vision, Xephos. A vision of the future! And Verigan said that Peculier, was his grandson!" Honeydew hissed in shock. "That means that Isabel is his granddaughter!"
"We can't really be sure of any of this yet though, can we?" Xephos warned. "Us both having the same dream isn't really enough to go on-"
"Isn't Verigan dead, though?" Honeydew scratched his beard. "He died out in the Sands, so it was his spirit? Gods, what's happening?"
"Do you think he's alright, Honeydew? I think he got set on fire by the dragon."
"I don't think he's alright, I think if wasn't dead before, he is now."
A pall of silence hung over them for a long while, interrupted by only the sounds of many ships going about their work above them.
"We can't say anything, can we?" Honeydew said.
"I think for now that it is best that we don't." Xephos walked past him. "We should get on deck."
They emerged onto the deck and found all around them the numerous crews of ships going about their duties on the decks of their ships, sometimes jumping from one to the next, but all avoided the Black Pimple, and quailed if they fell under the gaze of Tinman, who was standing on the aft-castle.
"I had him stand there the whole night." Isabel said from where she leant against the mast of her ship. "Pirates are pirates, and I reckon that with so many ships close together more thieving went on in the night than any other night of the past year. But none of them will come close if Tinman is about, plus, there may still be agents of Israphel about." she smiled. "Sleep well?"
"Better than we have in weeks." Xephos said as Honeydew asked for a razor so that he may fix his beard. Isabel handed him her small but extremely sharp looking knife, and using the broad, shiny surface of his diamond axe as a mirror, he went to the side of the ship to clean his burnt beard. Xephos made to go after him so the he too could trim his tawny beard back into a goatee, but Isabel stopped him before he could leave.
"I managed to find you a new sword, like I promised." she reached to her side and picked up a sword set into a leather scabbard leaning against mast. "You know this blade. I confiscated it off some looters who came back from the ruins of Barbeque Bay, they looted it off Jock's body." she passed the sword to Xephos who gazed it over, drawing it. It was the saber that Jock had wielded in their fight, the curved hand-guard a red-bronze and decorated with fanciful depictions of flames that continued on the shark-skin handle and the curved blade. "Far too valuable a weapon for Jock to have, and even more so the looters, this is an old blade, and although I do not know what, there is old magic in it."
"When I fought Jock he used this sword." Xephos replied, taking a few slashes at the air with it. The attack style that it demanded was one that he was totally unfamiliar with, allowing only slashing and disabling stabbing totally.
"Now there's a fine looking weapon." Honeydew hooted as he returned, his beard now sharply cut and ending at his collarbone. "If you don't want it Xephos, well I wouldn't mind having a go..."
"Maybe another time." Xephos laughed as he undid his scabbard for his previous sword and donned the long curved one in replacement. Isabel offered to keep his previous scabbard until he wanted it back again. Xephos shrugged. "Sell it or throw it in the sea for all I care, I won't be needing it anymore." he said forcefully, trying to put his other sword out of his mind as he took the knife and axe from Honeydew and walked to the edge of the deck to clean up his facial hair.
After he was done Isabel gave both of them a small loaf of bread to break their fast on, and some more dried meat and hard biscuit-like bread for when they traveled. Xephos took the occasion to force Honeydew to empty out his pack of much of the random curios that he'd picked up mainly because they looked shiny.
"Dread Pirate," came a sudden deep and nearly gurgling voice behind them. They all turned to see Spacker LeChuck standing on the fore-deck, ignoring the fact that Tinman, despite being fifty yards away looked ready to leap at him at any given moment. "I would ask your permission to accompany these two."
The undead dwarf pirate stood totally still, waiting for a answer. He wore about his otherwise bare midriff a wrap of tough fabric covering the gaping hole that went from one side of his body to the next, and he too wore a pack, with his heavy falchion hanging from his hip.
"Oh?" Isabel said in surprise. "But Spacker, what about Angus, and your position in his crew?"
Spacker snorted. "What position? I'm an aid to a blind captain in a crew that would rather have me dead." he sighed. "I've already signed off from Angus, he'll find another first mate, an' frankly if I stay around any longer I'm likely going to be killed. The half of the crews that don't think I had something to do with the Burning of the Bay still want me dead. I've been away from the caves for too long, and I intend to head back to Stoneholm regardless of if you would have me travel with you." he nodded at Xephos and Honeydew. "Besides, I have heard rumors of a map and may be able to help."
"...Sure, you can come with us, I guess?" Xephos scratched the back of his neck.
"What?!" Honeydew whispered.
"Very well." Isabel sighed. "I will miss your help Spacker. Be careful."
"You too, Isabel." Spacker grimmaced. "We should cast off now, there is no time to waste."
"This is a bit odd." Honeydew said in a low voice so Spacker couldn't hear them as they were set to untying the Black Pimple by Isabel. "I feel sort of like we've picked up a stray, Xephos."
They looked over at Spacker as Isabel called for them to push them off the tangle of boats and raise the sail as they turned and headed back towards the shore.
Mid-morning was breaking through a cluster of low grey clouds when Isabel brought them close to the shore near the ruins of Barbeque Bay and called for them to lower the single life boat into the water. Awkward goodbyes and well wishes were exchanged, until Xephos was able to finally pull Honeydew away from Isabel and drag him into the dinghy with Spacker, before they pushed off towards the shore.
"And dwarf!" Isabel called as they were not twenty yards away from the Black Pimple, the remains of Barbeque Bay pointing out of the water like jagged teeth behind it. Honeydew looked up from the oar. "We shall have to reunite with that drink some time." she finished with a wink.
"I guess that we'll see her in Icaria." Xephos said from the rear of the craft as Spacker didn't look up from his oar.
"See ya' soon, love!" Honeydew called, waving as he stood up in the boat, Spacker and Xephos scrambling to the sides to stop it from capsizing from the disbalancing. "Keep the dwarf beer warm, and the hearth cold. Or is it the other way around? I forget-" he finished as Spacker pulled him back into his seat and told him to keep rowing.
"Tinman, raise anchor, let us ready for voyage!" Isabel's voice could only just be heard as they crept closer to the shore.
The dinghy was landed without drama on the shore, where it was soon dragged into the trees beyond the beach and tied securely to the trunk of a stout birch and hidden as best as they could manage.
On the short sea voyage to the shore they had decided that they should head back to Mistral City see if they could gather any extra advice from Swampy Bogbeard on looking for the locations of the next two map fragments. Isabel told them that if they headed west from the shore she took them to they would come across the road to Mistral that Xephos and Honeydew had ventured down with Lysander and Old Peculier, after a couple days hiking through the forest.
They began immediately, striding through the forest, using the sun to dictate their heading.
"Ack, that map be nothin' but trouble." Spacker spat as Xephos climbed to the top of a large oak after an hour or two of travel. The tree was taller than most of the others, and Xephos had chosen it in order to scout their area. "A piece much like it caused all manner of chaos in Stoneholm." Honeydew stared up after Xephos as he edged back down the rough bark. "Curses, corruption, ye' know the stuff." Spacker finished as Xephos dropped back down to the leafy floor.
"See anything?" Honeydew asked.
"I don't think so. The forest seems to get thicker further west, I don't know if that's something to do with Swampy's presence in the city ruins or what." Xephos shrugged as the sun dappled through the canopy.
"Maybe," Honeydew mused. "Alright then, come on, ya buggers." he said as they continued westward while the sun reached it's zenith. The woods indeed grew thicker, undergrowth flourishing about them, often caching their legs with thorns. The sky was darkening as the company heard running water not far off, until just ahead of them a small stream crossed their path, a large willow opposite it leaning over the water, curtains of drooping leaves creating a natural tent. Here they decided to make camp, Xephos, drawing his new saber cut across a swathe of the leaves that dropped to the ground, leaving a doorway-like opening for them to enter. "Gentle...dwarves?" Xephos said awkwardly as he beckoned them in. The inside of the willow was littered with fallen leaves that formed a soft carpet, and the stream flowed through the side of the wall of leaves, the entire interior about the size of a large room.
"Aww...This is nice." Honeydew said quietly.
"It is isn't it?" Xephos beamed.
"We should get a fire going before it is too dark." Spacker reminded them, volunteering to fetch firewood.
"He's a bit odd isn't he?" Honeydew whispered after he made sure that Spacker was out of ear-shot.
"I suppose that he's about as normal as a zombie dwarf pirate can be, can't he?" Xephos replied as he drew his sword and set himself to practicing with it, attempting to familiarise himself with fighting using sweeping slashes all linked into the next. "Besides, I thought that you'd be glad to have a fellow dwarf around."
"Yeah well..." Honeydew drifted off as he rolled out their sleeping mats and piled up the leaf litter about them to make three small nests. "He's like I said. Different."
Spacker walked in soon after, thick arms laden with a pile of dried wood, enough to keep the fire burning long after they went to sleep, and dumped them next to a circle of stones that Honeydew had cleared all of the dried leaves from to prevent them from catching fire. Spacker knelt and began piling kindling up, until Honeydew stood up.
"Don't worry about kindling, Spacker, I can just skip that step." he said as he produced from his belt pouches his flint and bryne-steel tinder.
"Bryne-steel." Spacker murmured. "If word 'ad gotten out that you had bryne-steel back at the Bay there would've been a war just over who'd get t' kill you for it." at the looks he received from this he replied: "Not me, though. 'Tis a crime to kill another dwarf." yet he watched in awe as Honeydew lit a pile of large branches of dubious dryness with a single strike.
After a small meal of the dried meat that Isabel had supplied them with and refilling their casks from the stream, Spacker suggest that they retire so that they may rise early, in creasing their chances of reaching Mistral's ruin while still in daylight.
"Who's going to keep watch first?" asked Xephos, stifling a yawn.
"That probably isn't nessicary," Spacker replied. "My smell will probably mask yours against any undead that come within a quarter league of here, and scare off any wolves or such."
"Ah...okay..." Honeydew said awkwardly, still unsure, but followed Xephos' example as he shrugged and walked over to his nest of leaves, each nest situated in a different third around the fire.
Spacker fell asleep first, soon beginning to snore in a gurgling fashion, which was soon joined by Honeydew's own snores, yet despite this Xephos fell asleep quickly in the cool shade of the willow as the black of night gathered more, and was soon slumbering after a hard day of trekking through the forest.
That night there were no dreams, and both were woken surprisingly by Spacker, who told them to get ready to continue. Honeydew did his best to hide traces of their presence, spreading out the leaf litter he'd gathered for their nests and even attempted to mask the great gaps that Xephos had sliced out of the willow, cursing as he did so while Xephos repacked all that they had used the previous night, passing around some hard bread.
As they set out west once more the terrain continued to grow more and more difficult to navigate, the vegetation growing thicker and the land hillier.
"I could really do with a cold frosty right now." breathed Spacker as Xephos helped him up the last part of a steep hillock, provoking a bark of laughter from Honeydew.
"Me too Spacker," Xephos agreed as the rested at the summit. "Me too. I could do with a nice cold beer."
"You're a very dwarven dwarf." Honeydew chuckled, before looking west where the hilltop gave a short drop, giving the trees no purchase and leaving a window in the canopy facing nor-west. "Holy shit," Honeydew said stepping closer to the gap.
Out beyond them the forest continued to stretch, growing visibly thicker until about a half mile off to the nor-west-west it developed into what was nearly a jungle, a huge canopy reaching high up into the sky near the foot of a range of mountains that reached far from the west to the east behind them
"I reckon that's where Mistral is." Xephos said, looking to the trees in the distance.
"Shit." Spacker hissed.
"The road will be just over there," Honeydew said, pointing directly precisely west, to just before the huge tangle of Mistral. "So if we continue the way we have been going, we ought to hit the road."
Agreeing on this, they set out to where Honeydew theorised the road would be, Xephos noting the light dusting of snow that had been present in the treetops around the city when they arrived weeks ago was now gone, leaving a slight lingering chill. "At least it's nice weather." he grumbled, looking up at the sun as it began to dip from it's apex.
At at mid-afternoon they finally came upon the road to Mistral City, nearly missing it as they fought through the undergrowth, now teeming with vines and shrubbery. The path was now covered in moss and roots from trees that had grow with alarming speed from Swampy's magic, slowly turning the woods into a jungle.
"Ack!" Look at these bloody trees!" Spacker Spat as he looked up and down the road, staring towards Mistral on his right.
"Where does the path go?" Honeydew asked as he began down the path, past the overgrown remains of the guard-house towards what had become of Mistral.
"It's certainly more...tree-y...than I remember." Xephos said, starting after him. Whatever had survived the inferno was now hidden totally from view by huge trees reaching as high as the sky platforms, vines, creepers and impenetrable undergrowth that sprouted from every available surface.
"It's okay, I have a axe." Honeydew said, drawing his large axe as they neared what at a time had been the gateway to Mistral. "I'll take care of this." he prepared to swing the axe, cutting his way through the green, before Xephos stayed his hand.
"I'd be more careful if I were you, Swampy might get really pissed off with you if you do that." he warned.
"Oh, okay good point. I'll put the axe away." Honeydew winced as he returned the axe to a loop in his belt.
"I'm guessing that means the pub's closed." Spacker sighed as Honeydew resorted to pushing through the undergrowth into the once streets of Mistral.
"Oh gods, is this the path?" Honeydew asked, looking down at the cracked stone at his feet, plants of all creeds growing beneath them. "It's all mossy and overgrown."
"How are we going to get up to Swampy's grove-" Xephos asked, tripping in a rut, falling into Honeydew.
"The trees look tall enough to get us up there." Spacker grunted as they snaked around a trunk large enough it would take eight men holding hands to circumference it.
What Spacker had said about the previous night of reaching Mistral with light to navigate her soon became obsolete, the canopy above them so thick that all light was drained till they were left in the dimness. Xephos reckoned that even now they must be beneath the largest of the floating islands where Swampy had taken up residence, which before had been void of life due to lack of light, but this area was even more dense than that which they'd passed through.
"Gods, it's so dark." Honeydew complained, brushing through a thicket to find that they'd reached the direct center of the sector of Mistral that lay under the shadow of the sky platforms. The ground here was mostly bare of vegetation save swathes of moss that covered the ground and huge mushrooms and other fungi that spread from the ground.
"Hang on...this is The Fountains." Xephos said looking around him and noticing the three different stone pools, now green and stagnant, lily-pads filling them, and the smell of decay thick and sweet in the air.
"So the tree that we used to climb up last time must be..." Xephos looked to his left, to a tree between the Pool of Memory and the In Memorium fountain. Following the tree's growth Xephos saw that it grew up far into the air, eventually meeting the sky platform high above. "...Here!" Xephos ran over the mushroom field, feet mashing the fungus into the ground as he headed for the tree.
"Oh, there it is." Honeydew sighed looking at the this trunk, the split that had once separated the tree in two halfway up had seemed to have regrown, the tree's trunk thickening too. "We're going to have to climb this again, aren't we?"
"Yes." Xephos said as Spacker stepped up the the thick tree, having to jump to grab a low branch, yet swiftly began to pull himself farther up the tree without a word.
"Follow me," Honeydew breathed as he started after his fellow dwarf. "I'll lead the way."
"Spacker's beating us up the tree." Xephos laughed as he passed Honeydew, looking up as he wound through the branches, the slight wind hardly stirring the thickened tree, he looked up to see how far ahead Spacker had gotten, then hastily averted his gaze when he saw that Spacker wasn't wearing anything under his kilt.
"He's very agile for an undead dwarven pirate...man?" Honeydew noted.
The branches all the way up were thick enough to fully support their weight, and long enough for the company to shimmy across them to the mouth of the sky dock that now resembled a mossy cave, where Spacker sat, waiting with his legs dangling over the edge into the open canopy below. They gathered on the edge to rest a while before braving an encounter with Fumblemore's brother, Xephos walking to the back of the tunnel and following as it turned right, opening to another dock mouth, facing out towards the city entrance and the road they'd come from.
"Gods, there's definitely more trees than last time we were here." Xephos groaned as Honeydew and Spacker walked up behind him, staring out over the city, of which there was no sign of as the thick vegetation growing here now joined seamlessly with the woods outside, which in turn were too becoming thicker.
"Woah, If you remember, Xephos, this used to be a big bustling city, but look at it now. It's more like a park." Honeydew said as Spacker grunted.
"It's not really a park, it's more like a flipping jungle." Xephos looked around at the highest trees, reaching higher than where they now stood, the majority of the canopy reached halfway up to the sky-platform from the ground and expanding like a sea of green with spires poking out every so often. "Can't even see anything but canopy."
"Gods, what if we stop the sand to only have Swampy cover the world in a fucking jungle?!" Honeydew exclaimed.
"We will have to sort that out later, because a forest is probably better than an endless desert when you think about it." Xephos turned. "Come on, let's go and see him." he said as with a purpose they followed Xephos to the doorway carved into the wall near the corner of the two docks, a set of stairs spiraling up to Swampy's Grove.
"Is this the way?" Honeydew asked behind Xephos. "It's not getting any lighter up there."
"This is the way we came up last time." Xephos pressed on until, eventually some small amount of light eventually began filtering down the stairs, and then they opened up into leaves. The once open area was now covered in very thick plant growth two yards or so off the ground, making the grove nearly totally dark and impossible to walk through.
"Oh gods, it's totally overgrown." Xephos groaned. "Swampy's going to be around somewhere, though."
"Where?" asked Honeydew, looking up.
"I don't know, you should maybe cut our way through." Xephos stepped aside as Honeydew pushed past, short sword out and beginning to hack his way through the vegetation, when a familiar thin voice floated through the trees.
"Get out of my forest, man!" Swampy yelled.
"Oh gods, not again!" Honeydew yelled as suddenly the vegetation parted by magic, and out of the undergrowth flew Swampy Bogbeard, dirty, angry, and wielding his large, heavy staff.
"Swampy!" Xephos and Honeydew both yelled, expecting the druid to recognise them and stop his charge, but instead he fell on Xephos, smashing him across the head with the butt of his staff.
"Ow, stop-calm down!" Xephos yelled, Honeydew swinging out and punching Swampy back.
"Calm down!" Honeydew shouted too.
"It's us!" Xephos panted, touching his forehead, where a lump was already forming.
Spacker spat.
"Ack, this were an inn but weeks ago!" he growled, looking at Swampy, measuring him up with anger and disgust.
"Oh...it's you!" Swampy Bogbeard said after a moment of regaining his balance, putting down his staff, and the leaves all around them stretched up, out of the way by magic, forming a dome of twigs and leaves around them.
"You crazy bastard." Xephos sighed, looking up. He wasn't even able to see the sky, yet despite this, some mall amount of light trickled through the canopy.
"Have you got the map?" asked Swampy.
"Yes!" Xephos exclaimed, nodding.
"Yes, that's two now, we've got two." Honeydew agreed.
"Excellent, man!" Swampy nodded. "One down, two more to go, man! Two more to go!"
"We found one in the Pirate-y Bay." Xephos said. "Now two more."
"Two more..." Honeydew scratched his shortened beard. "So there's the one we started with, we came here, we needed three more, and now we've found another one, so we need two more."
"Right?" Xephos shrugged.
"Man in red, man in blue...underneath, you'll find the clue." Swampy suddenly said, voice
clear and strong as he bestowed another riddle onto them.
"What?" asked Xephos.
"What did ye say?" Spacker cringed.
Swampy suddenly returned to his regular being, looking up at them. "What?" he asked.
Honeydew repeated the rhyme, scratching his beard again.
"It's like a children's rhyme..." Xephos pondered the meaning too, trying to think of whom it may refer to. "...Isn't it?"
"It's not a rhyme, Xephos, it's a riddle." Honeydew frowned. "Jock wore red, it could have been him? But what about a man in blue? It's an enigma."
"I didn't say anything!" Swampy said aloud. "Now bugger off!" he pointed his staff at the stairway.
"What, but where do we go?" asked Xephos.
"You're messing up my forest!" Swampy yelled.
"Alright, thank you, Swampy." Xephos said turning. "Let's get out of here." he whispered to Honeydew.
"Okay, thanks, you've been a good help, you crazy, bastard." Honeydew whispered the last as he led the way back down the stairway.
"Don't defile any land or I'll find you and unleash nature's wrath!" Swampy called after them, as Spacker took up the rear.
"Sheesh, I knew his brother Fumblemore back when I was adventuring with Verigan." he hissed as they entered the Docks beneath the grove. "their tankards were half-full and a bit frothy, if you know what I mean."
"Oh, gods, it's starting to get dark." Xephos looked out at the sky, chuckling at Spacker's statement. The sky was darker than when they'd entered the grove, and the sun was likely nearing the hills to the south. "What are we going to do? Take shelter in a house or something below?"
"That's probably a good idea." Honeydew agreed.
"Hold on, doesn't Spacker know where we should go?" Xephos turned to the undead dwarf, properly addressing for the first time. "You said something about a map yesterday, right?"
"That's right," Spacker seemed glad that someone was paying him some mind. "There was a piece in my home." he started for the tree that led to the forest floor. "Follow me, and we'll be at Stoneholm in no time."
"What?" Honeydew asked as he went after Spacker with Xephos as the dwarf began to balance his way across a branch leading closer to the trunk, holding one above him for balance. "Stone-holm?"
"Stoneholm!" Xephos said. "A Dwarf Hold, like Dwergholm, Honeydew. More dwarves!"
"Of course! Good old...Stoneholm." Honeydew frowned. "There's a Hold here?" he said softly to himself.
"Well it's about to get very dark now, so it's about the perfect time to head out from the safety of this floating island." Xephos waited for Honeydew to reach the trunk of the tree before putting his weight onto the branches.
"I'm not sure that I want to be going down there, Xephos."
"Well, we're protected by a zombie dwarf, so what's the worst that could happen?"
"We could get bombed-up by a load of angry creeps." Honeydew said as he put his foot onto a branch below him, heading after Spacker.
Beneath the canopy it was as dark as if it were night, even though there was still a few minutes of daylight left, and they stepped almost blindly behind Spacker as he headed back out the way they'd came, pushing through the trees past the burnt out wreckage of buildings, now covered in ivy and saplings struggling to grow in the dark.
"So are we following you?" asked Xephos, pressing near Spacker. "Where are you taking us?"
"The path to Stoneholm is nearby." Spacker said. "I can find it and take us there, where we'll find your map."
"Follow you, you'll lead the way." Honeydew grinned.
"Brilliant." Xephos sighed.
Spacker led them back out the main entrance to the tree covered path of the Mistral Road, and followed the road from the trees to the right of it, Spacker searching for something.
"I hope he knows where he's going." Honeydew whispered to Xephos, Spacker overhearing.
"This was easier before the trees." he said, defending himself.
"It was a lot easier, wasn't it?" Honeydew mumbled.
Xephos could almost swear he heard a voice on the wind crying after them: "Don't you touch those trees, man!"
"He's completely lost isn't he?" Xephos mouthed to Honeydew as Spacker stopped and looked off into the trees in the dying night before continuing along the roadside. "He's wild. He's an absolute wildcard."
"Ah!" Spacker suddenly cried out, stopping.
Xephos and Honeydew looked past him, and found themselves standing beside the guard house next to the road.
"Oh, this used to be the old Guard Post on the outskirts of the city, do you remember?" Xephos asked Honeydew.
"Yes." he replied.
"The trail is just this way." Spacker interjected, continuing west from the post, where another stone road was barley visible from the vegetation covering it. "Follow this and we could be a Stoneholm by tomorrow's sunup."
"So we're going this way?" Honeydew said, following his fellow dwarf with his odd shambling gait, somehow able to place his feet without stumbling in the night, the sun's last rays gliding down past the horizon to the south.
"This is totally unsafe." Xephos complained, brushing the pommel of his sword. "There could be anything out here." he listened intently as they continued through the trees, barely able to see Honeydew ahead of him. Then Spacker gave a cry as he stopped. "The road is out!" he cried in anger. Ahead of them the path dropped away and no trees grew, and in the growing dark ahead they could just see the earth was ruptured with craters and holes, and before them there stood a sign, unreadable in the night.
"What does that sign say?" asked Honeydew trying to peer at it.
"Danger, Minefield." Spacker read.
"Oh dear," Honeydew said, then looked at Spacker. "Wait...how did you read that?" he asked the undead dwarf.
"One o' the few perks o' bein' undead." Spacker replied. "We're going t' have t' hike it, harr."
"Oh good." Xephos groaned as Spacker started off, calling for them to follow closely and try not to step on any pressure plates as he led them ridge to ridge across the minefield's craters.
"My sense of direction 'as gotten worse since I got 'it by that ballista bolt," Spacker panted as he looked around, then led them off again, leaving the other two slipping as they tried to see ahead, even Honeydew's dwarven eyes hardly piercing the dark. Finally Spacker brought them to the other side of the minefield, intact, if not breathless.
"There's th' path." Spacker said, walking back towards the trees and following the stone path once more.
"Thank gods, it feels a lot safe-Ooo!" Honeydew teetered on the edge of an apparently rogue crater in the road which he had not seen Spacker side-step. "Maybe not." he said as Xephos pulled him back.
"I don't see why there'd be mines on th' ol' dwarf path." Spacker said, sounding troubled. "Who'd put 'em there? An' why?"
This thought troubled all of them for the next few minutes as them continued once more though the dark, which now grew near complete, Spacker refusing to allow them to light torches.
"It's very quiet out." Xephos said as they came near a hill. They'd been out in the dark nearly an hour, and not seen nor heard any mobs at all.
"It is," Honeydew agreed in front of him. "It's serene. Maybe something scared them away..?"
"Oh gods," Xephos looked about, more nervous. "Don't say that."
"It's probably me." Spacker said. "Zombies don't seem t' like th' smell o' me, and skeletons, spiders an' creepers tend to keep clear." he elaborated at looks from the two.
He led them closer to the hill where the path passed through the hill in a wide, tall tunnel carved through the hillside. They entered just as the first drops of rain began to fall, and by the time they followed the tunnel's sharp turn to the right, it was pounding down to the hilltop. The tunnel continued about fifty yards after turning, and they emerged out into the pouring rain, a the forest strangely reluctant to infringe of the path, instead keeping to the left, while on their right a large black surfaced lake spread in a great curving circle. Upon the far bank, there sat structures of stone resting on the shore, from one, shaped like a dome, there shore two lights across the water, white and bright, reflecting across the water and rain.
"Woah!" Honeydew called after sighting it, stopping.
"Oh, wow." Xephos said after he looked across the lake to the lights and what as far as he could make out in the light was a large stone house, very faint light issuing from the windows. "What is that?"
"Follow me," Spacker called over the loud rain in irritation. "we'll be at Stoneholm in no time."
"We can't just ignore this!" Honeydew complained, motioning across the water.
"Can't we go over there?" asked Xephos, but Spacker just turned and walked off, expecting them to follow. "I guess not." Xephos sighed, starting after the dwarf.
"We can't just ignore this, can we?" Honeydew looked back across the water before following Xephos. "We can't just ignore this!"
"I don't know," Xephos caught up with Spacker as the undead dwarf followed the road, which followed the curve of the lake, falling under the shelter of tree, sapping the rain somewhat. "Let's see where Spacker's going. He might lead us to some shelter."
"Follow me," Spacker chanted. "I'll lead the way!"
Honeydew made a face. "Hang on, that's my line!" he protested.
"No it's not," Xephos said. "It's an ancient dwarven phrase, if I remember correctly."
"Oh, well, yeah. But I liked saying it!"
As they followed the road about they saw through the trees on the lakeside the lights growing closer as they continued down the road.
"We might be going there anyway." Xephos said back to Honeydew. "Is that place Stoneholm?" he asked Spacker. It had not looked at all like Dwergholm, the only other Dwarf Hold he'd seen. Dwegholm had been out in the middle of a desert, surrounded on three sides by the mountains from which it was carved, with huge stone walls surrounding it, and much of the city held in catacombs beneath the top level. Spacker gave no answer, but the buildings Xephos saw did not look like a Dwarf Hold even remotely without a large wall.
Spacker led them on to a crossroads eventually, the path on the left seemed to lead to the building's they'd seen after crossing over a small bridge, while the path on the right, where Spacker led them, continued into the dark and rain.
"I can't see a bloody thing." Xephos said, casting a forlorn glance back at the fading lights of the left path, yet when he turned back to the path, there came a crash of thunder followed by a searing bolt of lightning, illuminating the road, and the barricade that crossed it. Seeing it, Spacker stopped dead, ten yards off, then ran towards it awkwardly, followed by Honeydew and Xephos.
"What is it?" asked Honeydew.
"No..." Spacker groaned. "The road is out. How shall I find my way back to Stoneholm?"
"What? Now hold on!" Xephos said, briefly reaching into his pocket, brining forth a pebble of glowstone, the sudden light emanating from the rock seemed blinding after the lengthy darkness, yet it lit up the scene enough. Before Spacker there stood a wooden barricade, blocking the road and on it a notice, nearly disintegrated by the rain, yet still readable.
"Stoneholm road closer due to creeper attacks and activity. Please report to- Skylord Jasper!-for more information." Xephos read. "Jasper!?" he gaped after finishing. "Is he back there at those buildings?" he turned to look back holding his glowstone aloft, when a black shape leapt at him out of the dark.
"Spider!" Honeydew yelled as Xephos side-stepped it's pounce. Spacker suddenly turned from the sign, ripping his cleaver-like falchion from it's scabbard, bringing it down with earthshaking force and a cry of anger on the spider, nearly ripping it in two. By the light of the glowstone Honeydew and Xephos saw him properly from the first time in hours, his matted brown-orange beard wet and eyes so red they looked as though they would glow, but him face was a greenish picture of barely contained rage.
"What's this? Skylord who?" the dwarf spat.
"Jasper! Alright," Honeydew said in anticipation of shelter and a half night of sleep, which after two full nights was the first time in longer than Honeydew cared to remember. "Wait, I though that he was a bad-guy." Honeydew stopped mid stride back down the road. "Was he?" he asked as Spacker and Xephos walked past him, heading for the building.
"I don't know, I think that he was a bit-look, who cares. Let's just go and take refuge in this house or whatever it is." Xephos said, wiping his rain sodden hair out of his face.
"Yes." Agreed Honeydew, and Spacker grunted, clearly keen to get to Stoneholm as quickly as possible.
"It is pouring down, I am soaked to the skin." Xephos said as the reached the small bridge that led to the large house. The bridge, worked from stone, crossed over a small river and led to a large compound ahead. Xephos peered ahead through the sheets of rain. "Gods, look at all of that stuff attacking that building!" For ahead the building they'd seen stared out over the lake to their left, it's walls of high stone, and below a balcony facing out toward the bridge they stood on, there swarmed dozens of agitated mobs, trying to get to something on the balcony. Xephos looked up and through the rain though that he just managed to catch the body of a man slipping through the balcony doorway and back into the house.
"Oh gods," Honeydew breathed after seeing all of the mobs. "We're going to have to run past all of them to get to the front door." he said, eyeing the path that led from the bridge to the lake-front side of the house.
"Alright." Xephos nodded, the mobs below the balcony still oblivious that whoever had stood there was now gone. "We need t go, now!" he said.
They ran, keeping as low as they could while avoiding alerting the zombies, spiders and skeletons of their presence, stopping low by a flower patch or some shrubbery once and a while until they rounded the corner of what they could now see was a mansion, and out of sight of the mobs.
Honeydew sighed. "Okay. push on, into the house." he said, starting for the front door of the large manor, long bay windows either side of the entrance.
"Uhh...Spacker," Xephos said after a few seconds. "Won't those mobs be able to umm...smell you?" he asked.
"We should get inside." was all that Spacker said in reply, just as alerted gurgles came from around the corner.
They hurried up to the door which they found to be only locked by a logic gate, which the simple minds of mobs could not open, and entered the manor.
"Oh thank gods we're out of the rain it was horrible out there-" Honeydew said as he entered, stopping in the doorway, resulting in the other two pushing him through, where they found standing before them a huge man, wearing only a grass skirt, and a wooden mask, the mask decorated with paint around the mouth and eyes, and multicoloured motifs painted onto his toned chest and abdomen. "-what on earth is this." Honeydew finished.
"Enter please. Master upstairs." the big man said in a deep voice that sounded like the thrumming of rain on a set of drums.
Author's Notes:
Good morning, evening, and afternoon, everybody.
God almighty, I'm back and what a relief it is to get another chapter out. For those who didn't read on my Twitter, my poor laptop gave up the ghost recently (R.I.P Big Mac. May 2012-April 2013. Lest we forget) and I only recently acquired a new one. Fortunately, It's been Holiday Tiem in New Zealand, and I had a full week to just write, and I now have another, so god willing I might actually get stick to my "a chapter a week" policy!
Goodbye!
~O.J
P.S: I just discovered that after 3028 pages I am nearly able to touch-type.
Twitter: /OJvanderBeek
Yogs Forum Page: . ?57102-shadow-of-israphel-fanfiction-mother-thread -(o-j-van-der-beek)