My internet went down yesterday before I got a chance to post this, so sorry for the delay. I'm going to be at the beach for the next week and a half, but I'm not entirely sure when I get back. I'll try and post the next chapter the day after I return home .
It took an hour to explain everything to our new, creepy friend. She didn't interrupt once, she just made the occasional disgusted noise whenever I mentioned something like 'sparkles' or 'goff.' Other than that, she was the only polite person I had spoken to in a long time. ViraTrixten and Amandor didn't contribute to the story at all, and I was quite glad that Ebony had decided to imitate them. The last thing I needed was to become a goff-to-English translator.
"Hmmm," she said at the end of it. "So... you are saying that the only vampires in existence in your world are these sparkly creatures."
"Pretty much," I said. "Well, there are some ancient Greek monsters that are sort of like vampires, but they're sort of burning in the pits of Tartarus right now, waiting to reform."
"Ah."
The strange girl paused for a moment, and it struck me that I still didn't even know her name. But for some reason, I wasn't inclined to ask what it was. We sat in an uncomfortable silence until ViraTrixten- dear, darling ViraTrixten, got bored and decided to well... be ViraTrixten.
"Um, can we have Oak-"
"Ebony," I corrected her, in case the goff in question got offended. She was watching us anxiously from her cage, her blue eyes wide and anxious.
"Yeah, sure. Can we have her back now? Because we kinda have this Quest to go on, and there's this Prophecy that says that one of us needs to die a dramatic death, and if we have Ebony with us then the odds of me getting killed are reduced by eight percent, so..."
The Slayer turned to look at ViraTrixten.
"We have all of the information we need. You may have your friend back."
"Wait, so... that's it? You'll let Ebony go, and we can just... leave?"
The Slayer strode over to Ebony's cage and inserted a silver key in the lock. The door swung inward with an ominous creak, and Ebony immediately rushed out, avoiding all contact with her captor.
"All right..." Amandor said uneasily, as Ebony hurried to join us. "We'll just go, then."
"Hang on," ViraTrixten snapped, stepping forward. "We don't have a boat. Our tent is ugly and smells disgusting. The 'food' we're stuck with is gross. Give us some of your stuff."
"ViraTrixten," I muttered, "that's enough. We can go now."
ViraTrixten scowled ferociously at the Slayer, but seemed to decide that she wouldn't be giving us anything.
"Fine," she snapped. "Let's go."
I glanced at Ebony, who seemed unwilling to speak in the presence of the Slayer. Oh well. At least I would have an extra few minutes before she started talking and gave me a migraine.
We all rushed through the darkness towards our small camp, suddenly eager to escape from the creepy Slayers and their watchful eyes. No-one spared any cries of relief for Ebony, which was fair enough. We wouldn't want her to start talking.
When we reached the camp, ViraTrixten doubled over, clutching her sides, and shrieked.
"I want the bigger tent, Amandor! Step away!"
This seemed to send a spark back into the air, and we all suddenly remembered that we could in fact speak.
Amandor immediately struck up a loud, pointless argument with ViraTrixten, while Ebony turned to me. I resisted the urge to flinch.
"Fangz (geddit) 4 hlpien!" she said. I raised my eyebrows, unable to dignify that sentence with a response.
"Mah-REEEEE!" ViraTrixten shrieked. "I don't care if the big tent is supposed to shelter fifteen people, I WANT-"
"Gods, I feel sorry for your parents!" Amandor snarled. ViraTrixten spun around to face him, a sassy reply on her lips.
"Wats a Muhrri?" Ebony asked.
"I AM NOT GOING TO BE INSULTED BY THE STUPID PLAYBOY WHO CUT OFF MY HAIR!" ViraTrixten screamed.
"WATS A MUAFKI?"
"If you want that tent, you have to share with someone!"
"Im hufgny!
"I'll sleep where I damn well please! And I do NOT SHARE!"
"You can share with Ebony!"
"Can't you raid that stupid Slayers' camp? They have a freaking HUGE tent! Then you'll have somewhere to sleep too and you'll SHUT UP."
"WHJERS MI MAKUP?"
"Stop being such a spoilt brat!"
"Stop being so... ARGH!"
"SHUT UP!" I yelled furiously. Silence instantly fell.
It lasted approximately two seconds.
"It's not MY FAULT that this STUPID LITTLE-" ViraTrixten began, but I cut her off.
"ViraTrixten, can you please STOP TALKING for two seconds?" I demanded. I glanced between the two tents. One was considerably larger than the other, but was covered in tears and rips. The other was quite small, but was in way better condition. I hesitated, before doing the logical thing.
"Okay. Amandor, you get the one-man tent. The girls can have the bigger one," I said. Amandor nodded and ViraTrixten spun around furiously.
"WHAT?"
"If you don't like it," I snapped at her, "You can share with Amandor!"
Amandor gave me a look which told me that any respect he might have gained for me had been lost with that last sentence. I brushed his glare aside.
"We'll sleep tonight, and set sail in the morning," I said slowly. Immediately, ViraTrixten raised her hand.
"But we don't have a boat!"
"Enough questions!" I snapped. "If you're hungry, eat, and then we can go to sleep!"
I watched as ViraTrixten ate her way through half of our rations, and Amandor tended to his own wounds. Yawning, I made my way into the bigger tent, where Ebony was lying down.
"No1 cars dat im bak," she said sadly as I clambered inside. I repressed a groan. In this kind of situation, I had three options. I could either tell Ebony the truth, which would crush her dreams, spirit and self-esteem, I could lie and make her feel good about herself, or I could stay quiet- which would again crush her dreams, spirit and self-esteem.
"Of course we're happy to have you back, Ebony!" I said through gritted teeth. "You really... help us. The way you... do stuff... it's amazing!"
"U rlly fink so?"
"Oh yes. Yeah."
She gave a happy little sigh before she fell silent, and I assumed she had drifted off to sleep. I grabbed a sleeping bag, and clambered inside, allowing the waves of exhaustion lapping at my mind to consume me. I had a long day tomorrow.
I stared at the sky, trying to hold back the glimmer of hope. I had Seen before, of course, but now I knew. Still, I couldn't allow myself to hopelessly hope. If my dreams were dashed, then I would be left in an even more hopeless hopeful state then before.
But still... I knew.
Freedom was coming. They were coming. I could help.
I liked helping.
Even though the gods had never done me any favours, I still wanted to help them. I would be saving myself from this cruel fate, and at the same time I would be saving the gods from their fate. I just needed one key, and that key was coming. I knew it.
I gazed over the beautiful ocean of LIPSTIK! and I knew that SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO GET SOME BEAUTY SLEEP! my plan would WHERS MY BLAK EYESHARROW?
I woke with a start. Ebony and ViraTrixten's voices had somehow crept into my dream and had turned it... weird.
"Guys!" I complained, sitting bolt upright. "I was having a really important vision there, and YOU JUST RUINED IT!"
"I HAFF NO MAKUP!" Ebony wailed at the top of her lungs. ViraTrixten growled from the corner of the tent.
"I am TRYING to get some sleep here, because unlike you FREAKS, I don't like having ugly shadows under my eyes!"
I groaned, and reluctantly got to my feet. Leaving ViraTrixten to her childish rants, I wandered outside where Amandor was eating his share of dried food. As I helped myself to some of the disgusting stuff, I heard Ebony shrieking from the inside of the tent.
"So," Amandor said absently. "We're leaving this morning?"
"Yup."
"I'm kind of worried about those Slayers. They're up to something. I think they might follow us."
"We'll keep an eye out," I promised. "It was definitely strange, the way we didn't find them when they were hiding on board the cruise ship."
"Yeah... strange."
Just then, our lets try and avoid the people who want to kill us time was interrupted when the monster from the black lagoon staggered towards us.
Sorry. I shouldn't say monster from the black lagoon. It was a ViraTrixten who hadn't had enough sleep, which was ten times worse.
"Is that it?" she snarled as she regarded the dried food with disgust. I groaned. ViraTrixten was becoming more and more unbearable as our trip got harder. She was used to living the perfect life, and having that taken away had turned her into a vicious monster with huge fangs.
"So..." Amandor said lightly, trying to ignore ViraTrixten's presence. "How exactly are we going to get off of this rock?"
"By boat," I said casually.
"What?"
"There's an old boat lying on the sea floor," I said. I wasn't sure how I knew this, but it suddenly seemed blissfully obvious. "It must have somehow cleared the clashing rocks, but some monster must have eaten everyone there. I'll just go get it, fix up whatever's wrong with it, and we can get looking for this Ugly Mary Sue."
Across from me, Amandor bit his lip. I had no idea what he was so worried about. Honestly, it was like my plans weren't trustworthy for some strange reason.
Fifteen minutes later, I was underwater, floating next to some fishing boat. Thankfully, it was in perfect condition- aside from the gaping hole in the side of it. Also thankfully, the hole wasn't too difficult to fix. All I needed was...
"Duct tape." ViraTrixten had temporarily forgotten about being nasty as she stared at the boat bobbing along in the water. "You fixed a boat... with duct tape."
"Isn't it great?" I sang. My friends had all clambered down the side of the cliff to see my handiwork, and now they were looking as though they wanted to crawl back up again. I watched as Ebony took a great leap and jumped onto the boat. It was a fairly small, fairly ordinary fishing boat, but it was far better than the demolished lifeboat.
"Come on, guys!" I called to ViraTrixten and Amandor. "Ebony doesn't have a problem with it!"
For some reason, that didn't seem to comfort them.
"I must be crazy. I must be crazy," ViraTrixten repeated over and over again as she gingerly climbed onto the boat. Amandor followed her, glancing around anxiously. However, it didn't take long for his curiosity to get the better of him.
"Wow!" he cried, hurrying into the indoor section of the boat, only to return seconds later. "Check this out! It's an ancient camera!"
I snorted. He was holding one of those old cameras which instantly spits out your photograph right after you've taken it.
"I bet cavemen built that thing," ViraTrixten said. "Try it out."
Two minutes later, ViraTrixten was shrieking in horror at the state of her photograph. I looked at it and smirked. It was pretty funny. Ebony looked ridiculous, as usual and Amandor looked like a male model (I was pretty sure he had actually been to a modelling school) despite his bruises, cuts and torn clothing. I looked pretty good for someone who had recently been thrown fifty bazillion feet into the air and landed back on a stone surface, but ViraTrixten...
I snorted. She had slapped a sassy pout on her face as the picture was being taken, so consequently she looked like a pouting, pale, hair-through-a-lawn-mower troll.
I pocketed the photo, just so I could show it to ViraTrixten when she was annoying me.
"All hands on deck!" I cried.
"Um, Marie," Amandor said slowly. "This boat runs on fuel... what happens when we run out?"
I chose not to answer that question as I pulled some random lever upwards and our boat creaked forward.