Chapter 26: The Mansion
The mansion's foyer was a large, square room, at the rear two staircases either side of a fountain led up to a mezzanine floor that snaked around the back and two side walls, leading to second floor rooms either side of the foyer. The entire room smelt of burning incense and scented candles, with pink and purple fabric draped from the rafters and a huge rug filling the stone floor, it's colour blue with a pink "J" woven into it and huge male gender-symbol painted in, once again pink, on the back wall.
"What is going on?" Xephos asked as the huge tiki-man ran headed quickly for the stairs.
"This place seems odd...I don't like it." Honeydew said as Spacker agreed with a gagging noise as he inhaled the smell.
As they mounted top of the stairs, the big man stopped as a strangely familiar voice called out.
"Um Bongo! Come fetch daddy's coat, the rain has quite ruined it!" said Skylord Jasper's high effeminate voice as he pushed through a door to the right of the stairs on the second floor. "Now don't make me-Ah!" he cried as he noticed who accompanied his big manservant. "You two!?" he backed into a corner of the room.
The Skylord that stood before them seemed totally different to the one that they'ed last seen at Mistral weeks ago. The man who stood in the corner wore a red overcoat with golden trim, buttons and epaulettes and a rainbow patterned armbands around each bicep. he still wore his skylord goggles around the top of his head, his mustache running down to either side of his chin, yet his eyelids were covered in blue eyeshadow and he wore eyeliner too.
"Skylord Jasper." Xephos said evenly.
"Jasper? Why are you hiding in the corner, there?" Honeydew asked, eyebrow raised.
"Hi-hiya heroes!" Jasper stammered, eyes flitting between them and falling with alarm on Spacker. "It's great to see you're alive!" he said, attempting to sound jubilant.
"You're happy to see us?" Honeydew said, remembering the Jasper that had chased them about his house with a whip when they stole his valuable record.
"And what's up with your outfit as well?" Xephos asked, noticing the several sever changes since their last meeting.
"I don't know, but he look's fabulous!" Honeydew replied.
"Welcome to the Skylord's Summer Retreat!" Jasper stepped further out of the corner towards them. "Do you like it? Suave, eh?" he gave a twirl.
"It's...great..." Xephos said uncertainly looking around at the gaudy room.
"Very dapper." Honeydew agreed, and Spacker stayed in silence.
"You look a bit like Freddy Mercury." Xephos let slip, hoping that nobody would hold it against him for mentioning the know homosexual minstrel, famed for dressing similarly to Jasper.
"Oh my god he does!" Honeydew laughed. "You do!" he said to Jasper, who seemed to take this in good grace. "It's uncanny."
"Well, I'm sure you have many questions." Jasper tittered.
"...Do you like bees?" Honeydew asked after a moment, trying to hold back laughter, something Xephos did not manage.
"Do you have a map fragment?" Xephos finally managed as Jasper, Spacker and Um Bongo stared at him in confusion while he laughed.
"A map fragment? I fear I have no idea." Jasper replied as thunder flashed outside while the rain poured down of the high roof in a furious drum beat.
"Wait, why would he have the map?" asked Honeydew more quietly to Xephos.
"The riddle: "Man in red, man in blue."?" Xephos hissed. "Jasper and Lysander."
"Oh... Lords of the Sky..." Honeydew said, remember the original riddle. "It was such a cryptic clue, Xephos, I had no idea that it was referring to the Skylords." he chuckled, turning back to Jasper. "Are there any other Skylords here?" Honeydew asked as another bolt of lightning flashed outside.
"...That we can talk to?" Xephos added warily.
There was a moment of uncertainty from Jasper before he spoke again, lightning striking nearby.
"Lysander is downstairs..." he said quietly as the light flashed across his face. "I locked him up for burning down Mistral City! Say..." Jasper narrowed his eyes, despite standing against three armed men, they all felt threatened by this. "You didn't have anything to do with that, did you? When Mistral was on fire, I went to his house and found him unconscious in the basement. So I brought him here and tied him up!"
"But Lysander didn't burn it, he wasn't to blame!" Xephos said. "It was a pirate named Jock Fireblast, he was serving Israphel, they planted the evidence in Lysander's house!"
"He was framed." Honeydew added.
Jasper shook his head. "Proof! I demand proof!" he yelled.
Honeydew suddenly pulled off his pack and reached in, pulling out and throwing onto the ground between the a plain looking flint and steel.
"This here is the flint and steel Jock used to burn down Mistral City and Barbeque Bay." he announced, which surprised Xephos, who'd seen Jock firing flames from his hands, but no flint and steel anywhere.
"That is not proof enough, dwarf!" Jasper shrieked.
"Check for finger-prints!" Honeydew pressed, glancing behind him to see if he could locate a basement door.
"I don't know if people have print dust outside of the Dwarf Holds, do they?" Xephos whispered to Honeydew. "This is going to be really hard to prove."
"Can we see Lysander?" Honeydew asked. "We may need to question him."
"You may not speak with him, he's far too dangerous!" Jasper replied. "But now, it is late!" he suddenly announced, making a reckless flourish. "You must sleep, I'll answer your questions in the morning." Jasper motioned to Um Bongo and the huge man pushed past the three, leading them to a doorway on the right side of the mansion.
"What?" Honeydew asked, looking at the room that they were led into. "Oh yes, let's all go to bed." he added sarcastically.
Xephos, Spacker and he stood in a long bedroom with three beds pressed up against the far wall, small tables and furnishings about the room too, lit only by the light streaming through the doorway.
"I must ask that you do not enter the basement," Jasper asked of them as he and Um Bongo stood in the doorway. "The paint is still damp."
"Okay," Xephos replied, looking intently at Um Bongo, wondering if he would be put on guard to stop them sneaking into the basement, for not one second did he truly believe that the paint was the reason they were not wanted in the basement.
"Oh boy, I am tired-y dwarf!" Honeydew said too casually, walking over to the bed furthest right, with a yawn. "I'm sooo tired."
"And please keep in your own beds." Jasper said with a nod as he turned and left the room, Spacker, Xephos and Honeydew watching as he left, Um Bongo reluctantly close behind.
"Yes, let's all go to sleep." Honeydew continued, making sure that he could be overheard by Jasper, as he laid back on his bed, eyes drifting shut. "Then we can sneak out, and find Lysander." he said in a secret whisper.
"I agree," Xephos nodded, walking to the door and peering out it as he opened it a crack, watching as Jasper alone entered the door below the venus symbol on the rear wall. "We need to break out or at least talk to Lysander. I mean he might still have had a part in burning Mistral, though I'm not sure. Jasper didn't believe you when you showed him the flint and steel. Where'd you get those, anyway? I never saw Jock using them. Honeydew?" he turned and saw that his friend was still lying sprawled out on his bed, face up, snoring softly, sputtering when Xephos roused him with a push.
"What?" Honeydew blinked. "Oh gods, the plan, of course!" he sat up and gathered himself.
"Heroes, if we may continue." Spacker said, he who hadn't said a word since arriving.
"Yes." Xephos nodded. "Where did you find that flint and steel you showed Jasper?" he asked, peering back at the door to make sure that no eaves were being dropped.
"Those? They were a spare pair that I had in my pack, I knew he wouldn't have fingerprint-dust, I just wanted to see if he would fall for it. Now, what's the plan?" Honeydew stood and crossed his arms in the half-light.
"This is all very suspicious, I'll cover for ye', an' ye' fellas 'ave a poke about an' see what ye can find." Spacker suggested. "I'll stay an' make some sleepy-sleepy-dwarf sounds."
"A great idea!" Honeydew agreed, as he and Xephos headed out the door as quietly as they could manage, where they stood for a while before heading for the stairs leading down from the mezzanine.
"We need to be quiet and keep a look-out for Um Bongo, I think he might be on guard." Xephos whispered as they descended onto the ground floor, eyeing Jasper's door behind them, when Honeydew stopped.
"Uh, Xephos, look at the front door." Honeydew said quietly. Xephos looked ahead and right before them at the entrance the heavy doorway lay open to the outside, waiting for anything to enter. "It's open."
"Oh gods, we didn't shut the front door," Xephos said in a barely audible whisper, hurrying across the rug to the door. "That's our fault."
"It's okay, I don't think there's anything out there that's dangerous." Honeydew jested as Xephos stood on the threshold, closing the door, when a creeper not three yards away turned as it clicked shut.
"Yeah, just a creeper right there." Xephos sighed, recoiling as the creeper skittered up to the one of the small windows either side of the door, pressing it's goo-covered face up to the glass.
Honeydew gave a little nervous laugh as he took a step closer. "It is literally the other side of the door," he waved at it. "Hello...hello. That's a very nice mansion you have there." he said quietly as Xephos turned to one of the doors on the right wall, a plaque above it labeling it to be the kitchen.
"I wonder if the entrance to the basement is in here?" Xephos asked as Honeydew followed him into the large room filled with benches and ovens.
"The kitchen? Really-" Honeydew began, before Xephos motioned for him to be quiet. He then pointed slowly over to the end of one of the benches against the far wall where lying on a pile of rags like a dog was Um Bongo, sound asleep without even a snore. Xephos motioned Honeydew to exit back out of the room and into the foyer, where they resumed breathing.
"I thought there may be a cellar or something in there." Xephos said. "But it looks like that's where Jasper makes Um Bongo sleep."
"Poor Um Bongo," Honeydew mumbled. "Do you think we could free him too?"
"The door was unlocked and a open, he could have run if he wanted to."
"Maybe he's scared of Jasper so much that he doesn't want to run?" suggested Honeydew, as a racketing snore drifted out of their room into the foyer. Spacker was hard at work.
"We can't risk trying to take him with us. He might warn Jasper." Xephos nodded at where Um Bongo slept.
They decided to try the doors on the other side of the foyer, heading across to the first on the left, where another sign hung above the door.
"Fungeon." Xephos said, trying the word. "Fun-geon. Does that say fungeon?" he asked.
"Fungeon?" Honeydew said questioningly as Xephos pushed the heavy door open.
They stepped into the next room, finding themselves at the top landing for a set of wide stone stairs heading downwards, more pink fabric hanging from the dark walls and ceiling.
"Oh my gods, what's that!?" Honeydew yelped as they started down the stairs, for upon the back wall of the landing there was hung a large portrait of none other than Skylord Jasper, bedecked in fishnet and tight leather, a rainbow gracing the canvas in the background. "What's that?" Honeydew laughed as they reached the bottom.
"It's a picture of a sexy skylord." Xephos chuckled, noticing the artist had made Jasper decidedly more muscular than in reality.
They turned from the painting to a door that was on the right wall of the landing, a large iron banded specimen with heavy timbers.
"This looks like it could be the place." Xephos said, pausing with a hand hovering on the handle. They had not seen Lysander in weeks, and he'd likely been locked in "fungeon" for most of that. He hesitated only a few more moments before steeling himself and pushing through.
The fungeon's naming and purpose soon became apparent. The floor of the small room was covered in soft black and purple checkerboard carpet, lit by a single lantern, a large rack hung on the left wall, covered in whips, collars and ropes. But to the right, behind a wall of bars in a cell filled with padded boxes of different shapes and a solitary damaged-looking bed there stood a man. Lysander looked as though all the nights he'd been away from them he hadn't slept a minute, he was stooped and shaking, yet the most surprising thing about him was his garb. The once proud Skylord Lysander stood fearful in his cell in the same clothes he'd worn when last they met goggles and hat included, unwashed and unchanged, save his shirt, which in place of which he wore a harness of black leather a studs, a collar and a ball-gag, his hands too, bound.
"Oh. My. Gods!" Xephos said in shock as Lysander suddenly realised that his visitors were not his abuser, but his old companions. He rushed up to the bars of his cell, trying to speak around the gag in his mouth, only resulting in loud murmurs.
"Ah..." Honeydew said as he stood beside Xephos for a moment. "Um..."
"Is there a way out of this?" Xephos asked Lysander after finally recovering and reaching through the bars to undo the clasp on the gag around Lysander's head, something that he was unable to do with bound hands, which Xephos too promptly freed by awkwardly cutting through them with his sabre.
"Here, Xephos there's a keyhole here in the wall." Honeydew said as Lysander was freed. Xephos turned to look at the iron lock protruding from the wall, heavy and technical looking.
"Oh, gods, it's you!" Lysander's familiar deep, rich voice gasped. "Wait...no, I mean-"
"Lysander!" Honeydew greeted, trying to hug the big man through the bars. "We're here to rescue you!" the tall dwarf quickly rushed through a brief explanation of what had happened since their parting, making a point of telling how they'd found the real arson of Mistral, Jock, and his defeat.
"Gods, Jasper wouldn't tell me anything." Lysander rubbed his, now very thick indeed, mustache. "Listen though, you've got to get me out! Jasper kidnapped me on my way out of Mistral when it was afire."
"How do we do that?" asked Xephos.
"Jasper sleeps with the key, it's in his room!" Lysander informed them, the only time that they'd ever seen the big man plead.
"He sleeps with the key?!" Xephos said in despair, turning seriously to Honeydew. "You know what's going to happen, Honeydew? You're gonna have to-"
"I'm gonna have t' murder him with this axe!" Honeydew pulled his diamond battle-axe out of his belt loop, grinning.
"No!" Xephos laughed. "You're gonna have to seduce him, with your dwarvish-"
"What."
"...Charms."
"What." Honeydew said again, the grin long since gone from his face.
"Yeah, and while he's sleeping, you can take the key." Xephos was the one grinning now. "Or we could just sneak in and try to steal it." he turned to the door. "We'll be right back Lysander, for goodness sake."
"Also, see if you can find me some clothes." Lysander called as they left.
"So I have to seduce Jasper-Oh gods!" Honeydew jumped when the creeper they'd seen before now pressed itself up against the large bay window at the top of the stairs.
"Gods, it's that creeper again." Xephos sighed. "Don't let him in." he added as the creeper tried to break the window by head butting it."
"Hello..." Honeydew said to the mob in his best creeper voice. "That's a very nice fungeon you have there... Look, go away."
"It's terribly gaudy, isn't it, this decoration?" Xephos commented as he and Honeydew headed warily for Jasper's room up the mezzanine stairs, eyeing the rug, paint and fabric. "Terribly gaudy. I don't really like what he's done with the place to be honest."
"Spacker's just in bed!" Honeydew suddenly said in quiet alarm, pointing over to the door to their room where Spacker's legs could be seen on the bed, loud snore coming from the room. "I thought he was supposed to be working!"
"He's clearly like you and just falls asleep at random." Xephos jeered as Honeydew resentfully opened the door to Jasper's room.
"Shhh..." Honeydew warned as he walked warily into Jasper's room, not a sound being made. The room was high ceilinged and mostly glass floored, much of the room hanging over another lake or sea on the rear side, a wooden mezzanine above one half of the room, stairs leading up to it on either walls of the room, a huge four-poster bed in the centre of the mezzanine. From where they stood they could not see which side of the bed Jasper slept on, if even he slept at all.
"This way." Honeydew mouthed, heading for the right stairs, crouching, allowing Xephos to pass him.
Xephos headed up the stairs cautiously, one step at a time, his crouch exaggerating with every one. He neared the top, when on the other side of the bed he saw the shiny to of a bald head as he raised himself up, Jasper was still awake, and standing over the other side, doing god knows what. Xephos ducked dow quickly, making no sound.
"What?" mouthed Honeydew, sweating.
"He's right there." Xephos mouthed back. "Awake."
"The key." Honeydew asked.
Xephos motioned for him to come look for himself, the dwarf creeping slowly up alongside him, blinking when he saw that at Jasper's bedside there lay a pile of saddles that looked far too small for a horse or pig, a whip a another ball-gag beside them.
"Oh my gods-" Honeydew said at the sight, loudly, stopping himself too late, Xephos was already heading for the door, and Jasper looked up, noticing him.
"Ooo, Dwarf, might you try my new rope with me?" Xephos heard Jasper ask from the other side of the door.
"No, Jasper, no!" Xephos heard Honeydew shout. "No! This is a terrible misunderstanding!"
Xephos was suddenly pushed aside by the door being shoved open violently as Honeydew hurled himself violently at it, barreling out into the foyer as turning to slam the door firmly shut.
"Oh gods, what happened?" Xephos asked from the floor, struggling to hold back laughter as Honeydew leant against the door.
"I have seen things no dwarf should ever see." Honeydew said flatly.
"Alright, get your pick out, we'll break him out the old fashioned way." Xephos got to his feet and ran for the fungeon, Honeydew very close behind.
"Did you find it?" asked Lysander as they re-entered.
"No." Honeydew replied, bringing a sigh from Lysander.
"We don't need any of this key nonsense." Xephos replied. "But using the pick will bring Jasper down here, so we need to think of another-"
"Oh!" Honeydew exclaimed, abandoning the entire idea of stealth. "I've got an idea..." he pulled at that moment one of the last sticks of dynamite from his bandoleer.
"NO!" Lysander cried, leaping to the back of his cell and away from the dwarf.
"No, no, no, no!" Xephos held up his hands. "This is an enclosed space."
"What do you mean!?" Honeydew said, sounding offended.
"It will alert Jasper, if we don't all get blown to the Aether!" Lysander protested.
"Look, Lysander, it will be fine!" Honeydew said. "Trust me! Trust me, I know what I'm doing!"
"Hang on, I could see if I can pick the lock," Xephos drew one of his flint arrows from his quiver, walking over to the lock on the wall. "We could've just done this in the first place."
"...And avoided all of that scarring horror." Honeydew shuddered.
Xephos knelt and tried to insert the arrowhead into the lock, but the flint broad-heads were too large, so he requested one of Honeydew's bolts, arrows, which he'd converted into bodkin headed bolts during the night on their way to Mistral the day before last. The smaller head fit much more easily and soon Xephos was moving the mechanism of the lock in attempt to find the correct angle. "Hurry," Honeydew advised. "Dawn is nearly here, and Jasper will be awake soon." A few second later and there came a click, then a soft grinding as the entire wall of bars rose high into the ceiling surprisingly quietly, freeing Lysander.
"Ah, freedom!" Lysander cheered, running out of the cage, throwing aside the straps that had been wound about him.
"It's...good to see you again." Honeydew said.
"Damn!" Xephos put in. "You look knackered."
"You must be terribly cold." said Honeydew again.
"Put this on." Xephos offered, turning and grabbing a leather tunic off the rack behind them and throwing it at Lysander, whom was a few sizes to large for it.
"We must hurry out of here, before Jasper notices you've gone." Lysander advised, already pushing out of the door.
"Okay, where are we going?" Xephos asked, following closely.
"We must get to Skyhold." Lysander answered briefly.
"Where-"
"I'm taking the painting." Honeydew suddenly said, passing both of them up the stairs, the portrait of Jasper under an arm. "Don't ask. I want a memento." he added as they passed into the foyer. "Okay," Xephos whispered, looking out the window and noticing the lightening sky. "you two go outside and I'll go get Spacker-"
"Oh my gods, Jasper!" Honeydew suddenly yelled, pointing up at the doorway to Jasper's quarters, where he stood now, looking confused, and furious.
"What are you doing!?" he yelled.
"Run!" Lysander screamed, wrenching open the door and flying out into the dark. Honeydew started after him, the portrait of Jasper catching either side of the frame in the doorway, breaking in half. "Oh shit..." Honeydew whispered before sprinting outside. Xephos turned as he was about to leave, Jasper starting for the stairs. "Spacker!" Xephos yelled before stepping out the door, just as the undead dwarf flew out of his own, sprinting over to Jasper, leaping into the air and reaching up to bring a solid punch across Jasper's face, sending him rolling down the stairs, Spacker leaping over the sprawled Skylord and out the front door, joining the three others outside, Lysander leading them around the left side mansion at a sprint as Jasper's voice followed them. "He's a very naughty boy! He should be punished!"
"Don't stop!" Honeydew yelled as Lysander led them along a path under a grove of pink leaved trees.
"Take-a me with you!" came a deep voice as they looked back to see Um Bongo pelting after them in the heavy rain.
"Run, Um Bongo!" Xephos yelled back to the island man as they emerged out of the trees into a dock beside the mansion, facing out to the sea behind it, a huge ship moored at the wharf.
"Make for the ship!" Lysander instructed, pointing across the dock to a huge ship resting nearby, sails furled. They continued to the other side of the dock, when suddenly all the mobs that had been seen around the mansion earlier fell on them. They ran out from around the side of the mansion, a small army of creepers, zombies and skeletons, heading after them with a burning hatred.
"Get on the ship and make ready to sail!" Xephos yelled, drawing his sword as the mobs came after them, cornering the five between the water and themselves. "I'll try keep them off!" he drew his sabre, holding it as well as he was able, conscious of his ineptitude with the blade.
"And me too!" Honeydew stayed with his friend, waving the others on when they reached the end of the wide dock, the ship's ladder hanging over the edge.
Xephos slashed a wide arc as the first wave fell on him, felling two zombies and a creeper, dodging an arrow sent from a skeleton as Honeydew barreled into the rest of the horde, scattering them, when there came a gap in the rainclouds, and down from above there flared a ray of sunlight. With a cry the undead among the mobs made for the water of back for the pink trees as the sun seared them, turning their flesh and bones to ash. Xephos and Honeydew let them run, clearing a last few creepers and spiders as the huge ship behind them began to move, when at the end of the dock Jasper appeared, running forwards, scourge in hand as he yelled after them.
"He's a very naughty boy!" he cackled manically. "He should be punished."
"No!" they heard Lysander call from the deck of the ship as they turned to face the boat. "Get aboard, hurry!" Lysander cried, leaning over the edge.
"Oh shit," Honeydew cried as he ran towards the end of the wharf, where the boat was rapidly pulling away, leaping at the edge for the rope ladder hanging over the edge, grabbing the rungs and pulling himself as Xephos ran alongside the ship from the wharf, waiting for Honeydew to be out of the way, when Jasper called out again, his voice closer than before. "Wait, Lysander!" he pleaded, when he gave his whip a crack. Xephos waited no longer, and leapt for the rope ladder as Honeydew neared the top, but as he reached it he fumbled with the rungs and fell back into the water as the boat swept past.
"Xephos?! Xephos!" Honeydew called down as Xephos surfaced, trying desperately to keep afloat, somewhat regretting never taking off his pack as he struck out for the side of wharf, hoping desperately to be able to make a second jump before the ship cleared the dock. He was already breathing heavily when he pulled himself onto the deck, immediately starting into a run, noticing as he started desperately after the ship once more, dodging away from barrels, that Jasper was now before him, and the ship was beginning to pull away to increases the size of the gap between it and Jasper, when Jasper gave a jump and sailed over the water, catching the ladder and starting up. Xephos looked ahead and saw that he was running out of ground rapidly, and that unless he increased his speed he would miss the ship. Giving a grunt Xephos sprinted even faster down the dock, slowly gaining on the ladder, yet just as rapidly running out of land. In the last few strides of the wharf, Xephos leapt for the corner post, landing with one foot and jumping far outwards, reaching as he flew over the cool water where he landed with a tangle in the ropes.
Breathless, Xephos looked up to see Jasper just above him, reaching the top of the ladder. Xephos fumbled as he began up the ladder, reaching for Jasper's ankle to pull him down, when as the Skylord drew up to the deck Honeydew's fist lashed out and with a gasp the red skylord fell back from the huge ship and into the ocean with a splutter.
"Xephos!" Honeydew yelled, offering Xephos his hand up the last few rungs, which Xephos gladly received. "We thought we'd lost you, there."
"So did I." Xephos panted, looking about the immense deck. The ship had two huge masts, triangular sails now unfurled, and Spacker stood at the wheel, which instead of being located at an aft-castle was upon a raised platform between the two masts, thick enough for four men to circumference holding hands. The fore of the ship was the strangest, however, the front of the deck was squared, and railless with no mizzen, and a great distance along the fore flat and empty, waiting for something to fill it.
"Why? Skylord Lysander!?" Jasper spluttered. They looked over the colossal rim of the ship as it curved away from the bay the Skylord Mansion sat, Jasper treading water, fading further away by the moment. "Lover!" he cried one last time.
Lysander did not look over the ship, staring off down the coast, striding across the deck, past Um Bongo, who still wore his mask, clung to the ship's balustrade.
"Looks like their bro-mance is over." Xephos sighed as Jasper became a speck far down the coast.
"They were in a fully homosexual relationship, Xephos, there's no pretenses of heterosexuality there." Honeydew snickered.
"Looks like it's the old team back together, minus some and plus others." Xephos turned from the balustrade to where Spacker manned the wheel, eyes set dead forward, Um Bongo walked excitedly about while Lysander was seen disappearing below deck. "What a ridiculous adventure." Xephos sighed.
Spacker brought the huge ship to a halt in a sheltered cove at Lysander's orders, the skylord himself returning on the deck with a hide jerkin that fit far better and a oilskin folder. He requested that the ship be moored with the flat nose facing out to sea, just to the left of a long abandoned lighthouse. Spacker grumbled, saying the ship was too big and poorly designed, yet managed to align it just so before dropping anchor as the day turned to mid-morning, when Lysander called them over to him.
"I found maps below deck, and we can make our way to The Skyhold using them." The Skylord explained, opening the folder he carried, passing out a sheaf of maps around the company. The maps were drawn on brown paper and divided into a grid, showing a large peninsular of land that seemed to chart the land from Terrorvale in the upper left corner to a large square in the lower right that seemed to represent The Wall and Verigan's hold. Upon the map too were marked areas such as Mistral City and Stoneholm, which Spacker had mentioned, yet in the top right corner, seemingly in the middle of the ocean there lay huge structure, consisting of one huge circle the size of a city and four smaller others at each quarter. "In order to get to it we will have to use planes stored below decks." Lysander continued. "Skyhold in the large structure in the middle of the ocean."
"Planes?" Honeydew asked. "What are they?"
"Well, I suppose you could say they are like small airships, but with wings instead of an envelope." Lysander answered, perfectly naturally, to an uncomfortable silence.
Spacker took another look at the map, then broke the silence. "Ah! This map shows the way back to Stoneholm!" he shouted, not waiting for Lysander's permission as he stuffed the map away into his pack, then crossing over to Xephos and Honeydew grasping and shaking their hands in turn. "Please, find me in Stoneholm when you're done with these Sky-Men. I don't much like the sound of these "planes"."
"Oh? So you're leaving." Xephos said as Spacker firmly gripped his hand. "Goodbye then, Spacker." he said again as he shook it.
"Far-well, then." Spacker nodded at Lysander and Um Bongo. "If it's all the same with ye', Skylord, I'll be taking one of ye' boats to shore."
"Far-well Spacker!" Honeydew yelled as they waved Spacker off once they'd got a boat into the water for him and he was shunting off to the shore. "You'll have to show me the best ale-houses in Stoneholm when we get there."
"That's if I don't drink them dry first!" Spacker replied, giving a rare laugh.
"Farewell dead...dwarf...thing. What?" Lysander began, shaking his head and turning to Um Bongo. "And what of you? Do you want to come with us?" he asked.
The island man shook his still masked head. "No. But many thank-you. This map show way home. I go with dead dwarf." he turned to Honeydew. "This dwarf free Um Bongo. I give dwarf big hug!" he then reached out and grabbed Honeydew in a bear-hug, lifting him off his feet and squeezing him until Honeydew hugged him back, grinning.
"Come 'ere you!" Honeydew patted the tribes man as he was set down.
"I go now, bye bye." Um Bongo said behind his mask as he suddenly ran and vaulted over the edge of the ship. Xephos, Honeydew and Lysander ran to the side to see him surface and start swimming with great speed to the shore where Spacker was just pulling his raft onto the shore, a tiny figure on a tiny shore.
"Bye then, Um Bongo. Bye!" Honeydew called.
"Goodbye!" Xephos called too, turning back to face Lysander. "I guess it's just the three of us, then."
Honeydew grinned, "More or less the old team back together." he said.
"Yes." Lysander nodded. "We fly to victory!"
End of Act 3
Author's Notes:
Hi again, it's been a while. School has begun heating up this year, leaving me less and less time to write, so regrettably, I'm going to have to slow my writing right down. This may only be temporary as with our internal assessments coming up we are studying a lot, but after they're over I may have more time, but until then, there's not really going to be any schedule for releases, they'll just come out when they're done. (To be honest, that was pretty much what happened anyway.)
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