Chapter 4
The day began easily enough. The party went to retrieve Botan's lion head at the school. Then, after some enquiries, they were directed to a hunting shop and tannery that was known to do embalming and preservation of animals on the side. In the shop, they were greeted by an assortment of bows and arrows. The lady at the counter greeted them with a smile, "Good morning. How may I help you today?"
"Good morning. I wish to have this become a trophy," replied the lion girl as she placed the head on the counter.
The counter lady looked at her and then at the head. "Oh, the irony," she muttered before addressing her customer, "Well, it seems the early bird caught the worm. Sure we can turn this head into a trophy. Um, give my husband a day or two and it'll be ready and waiting for you to collect."
"That's great," Botan said with a toothy smile, "How much do I need to pay?"
"Three hundred silver pieces," the lady stated.
The lion girl paid up happily and then the party went back to the guild house to look for a new request. When they reached there, there were several people already there. A few were leaving, the girly senior included. He winked at them as they passed each other. They decided to ignore that and headed straight to the board. There were several others there with one recognizable face.
"Hey, Artia," greeted Polka with a grin, "Who are your friends?"
"Hello," returned the frost mage. Motioning to the two beside her, she introduced, "This is Doris from the Deep Sea and Civia from Gekko."
The mermaid triton and half-unicorn waved at the party with smiles, "Hello."
"Oh, we're from Gekko too!" the fennec fox girl exclaimed as she pulled Botan in.
"Ah, nice! From the Dankimba tribe, yes?" asked the half-unicorn.
"Yeah… although, I've never heard of half-unicorns before," stated the lion girl.
"Ah... we aren't normally seen and pretty secretive?" she said a little sheepishly.
"Hn, I guess..." the fighter accepted.
After a few awkward seconds, Nene piped up, "Anyway, we won't take too much of your time. We need to take a quest, after all."
"Ah, yes. We'll be going now," replied the frost mage gratefully as she pulled her two friends away, "Good day!"
"What was that about?" the bard asked as she turned to face the fighter.
"...Nothing… just curious."
She stared at her for a moment longer before deciding to put it aside for now and went back to request hunting. After a while, it was Lamy who pulled something off the board. She took it to Miyabi and the other three followed after her.
He scrutinized it for a moment before saying, "Huh, this will take you far outside the city. Are you sure about this?"
"Yes," they said in unison.
"Alright… so, you'll be going to hub town Solfano to see the mayor for directions to the mystery cave," he informed them, "I suggest taking a cart from the east gate to get there to shorten travel time, though if you want to go on foot, it will take a longer time. I'll leave the decision up to you."
"Yosh, let's go then," said Polka cheerfully.
The party decided to take a cart there. The half-snow elf cleric hired it at the stable, everyone got on and they were on their way. The forest in the morning was peaceful and beautiful. And for a moment, it remained that way. Nene listened intently to the sounds of the forest. Botan kept her eyes on the road, looking a little bored. Polka was attempting to juggle her darts and somewhat failing with all the shaking of the cart. Lamy sat there with her eyes closed and meditating serenely.
Suddenly, two javelins thudded into the driver's seat, prompting a high pitched shriek from the driver. This jolted everyone out of their peace and put them on alert.
"This is a hold up!" called out a bandit as a group of four of them stepped out of the forest and onto the path, accompanied by two orcs, "Drop all your money and your valuables over the side of your cart and you can be on your way. Your lives are in your hands."
"Bandits?" muttered the bard under her breath.
"Let's get them," said the fighter eagerly.
"Hey, can you distract them for a moment? I might be able to sneak around and get them," the monk suddenly asked them.
"Eh, wait..." protested the cleric but she had already tumbled out of the cart.
Nene glanced at her in disbelief for a moment, but then turned her attention to the holdup, "Erm mind letting us go instead? We are going on a request run on behalf of the adventurers guild."
"Oy, guild or not, we have to eat," the bandit said as he shrugged, "Besides, we got some good back up here." The orcs just grinned, showing off their teeth and tusks.
"Alright, don't blame us if you lose your lives over nothing here," she tried persuading them further.
"Alright, enough jabbering. Are you gonna give us your gold or not?" he retorted.
"Not in your lifetime!" shouted Botan.
"Your loss then. Alright, let's get our keep," the bandit said as he motioned the others forward, "Kill the driver if he twitches."
From the corner of her eye, Nene spotted Polka sneaking behind the trees. Deciding that a more impressive distraction was needed, she drew out her dagger and threw it at the lead bandit, drawing blood from his cheek.
"Why you-"
"Hai-yaaa!" shouted the monk as she ran and flew forward with a flying kick, the ball of her foot slamming into a bandit's temple.
"Get her!" shouted the other bandit as they trained their crossbows on her. Two of the bolts got lodged in her arms as she tried to protect her face and body.
Meanwhile, Botan shot an arrow into the first bandit's neck, dropping him quickly. This drew the orc's attention; spouting insults in orcish, they threw their javelins at her but the simple sharpened spears sailed over her head. Concerned, Lamy clutched her amulet as she waved her arms while chanting, praying for blessings on her party.
The bard, feeling concerned with the monk's position, called out to the nearest bandit and said with magic laced words, "Hey! I'm the number one adventurer in Rivirapolis!"
The bandit took one look at her and started laughing hysterically, doubling over and falling to the floor while clutching his sides. Nene's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as Polka cartwheeled around the bandit in front of her, placing herself between him and the nearest orc. She kicked the bandit in the throat and punched the orc in the chest at the same time. However, a crossbow bolt slammed into her chest and knocked her over. The shooter was in turn taken down by arrow and frost. The orcs tried to stop them but their javelins missed again. At that moment, the cleric called out the same healing word that Nene knew, much to her surprise, and rejuvenated Polka, who pulled out the arrow as she got to her feet.
The bard got over her confusion, chalking it up to some godly thing, and targeted the orc, "Hey, stupid orc! Weakling like you can't kill anything!"
Her words struck the orc, shocking it a little which turned into a rage. As it started directing orcish insults at her, Polka continued her striking spree, jumping up and driving her elbow into the other orc's head. She then threw a straight punch at the enraged one, who still had the presence of mind to dodge back and avoid it. Yet, that put it in the path of Botan's arrow that got lodged in its thick muscular neck. Its rage abated when it saw its ally and employers either laughing or dead, it then started running away. The monk tried to trip it and sweep its feet under, it was able to keep its balance and ran off.
"Let's finish this!" declared Lamy before directing her ice at the laughing bandit. That shocked him out of his condition.
He tried standing up but then the bard shouted, "Hey! Stay down, loser!"
He collapsed back onto the ground, shocked by her words. All the monk had to do was walk over and land an axe kick on his face. Meanwhile, Botan drew her arrow back and led the shot before releasing it. The fleeing orc never had a chance.
"By the gods, I'm still alive!" exclaimed the driver, who had remained in terrified silence the whole battle.
"I'm glad you still are," replied the bard, feeling a little squeamish after looking at what they did, "Will you still be able to get us to Solfano?"
"With everyone protecting me, I certainly can!" said the driver gratefully while the lion girl jumped off and went over to help the monk search the bodies for loot. After they were done, they continued on their way. The others didn't seem to be affected by the bloody battle but Nene was having uneasiness settle over her. While she understood that they had to do what they had to do… still, she wished that she was able to talk down the bandits.
"Are you under the weather, Nene?" asked Lamy suddenly.
"Ah… erm, I was kinda wondering if we could have talked those bandits out of attacking us earlier," she admitted.
"Well, I applaud your care for the sanctity of life. I care too," the half-snow elf told her, "However, desperation sometimes drives people to do terrible things and force our hands… Still, you should be fine. You regret taking their lives. That doesn't make you a terrible person. It only makes you human. Well, mortal… um, you know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do," she replied, a demure smile forming on her face, "Thank you, Lamy."
The cleric only smiled in response.
The cart reached Solfana without any further obstacles. The party thanked the driver and said their goodbyes. After getting some directions, they headed straight for the mayor's office.
"We have been getting word that there were strange sounds and lights coming from the Dead Forest. It is a large forest of dead trees a bit north and far east from the town. The legend used to be that the Demon of Fear lived there while it was whole but after Subaru, Smiter of Fear, defeated it, it had been uninhabited until now. The fox cleric with her said that the demon won't be returning until many years in the future so it couldn't be it. Please, I implore you to find out what is happening there. I do not want to leave it alone until it is too late and the livelihoods of the farming communities here are threatened."
The mayor's words were taken to heart and they remained in the forefront as they checked into the town inn. With two people per room, they had their dinner and settled down for sleep. Once morning came, they set out for the forest after finishing their preparations. They made it in good time, reaching there with the sun still high in the sky. The forest seemed deserted and the wind was still. It gave the area a creepy atmosphere.
Stepping into the forest, they had a lot of questions on their minds. Why was this forest still here if it was dead? How could it still exist? Is there still anything living here?
The crackle of the dead plant matter crunched under travel boots as they made their way deeper into the forest. Eventually, they came to a cave entrance.
"Huh, is this where all those things are coming from?" asked Polka in confusion, "Do we need to go inside?"
"Looks like it," stated Botan, as she took out a torch from her pack, the monk shrugging and mirroring her actions. Lighting the torches, the party headed inside the cave.
They trekked in the claustrophobic tunnel for what seemed to be several minutes. The tunnel eventually opened up into a cavernous area that had two other exits. The larger one had collapsed while the smaller one was clear. The party went through the only option there one by one. The smaller tunnel led to an even larger cavern. In addition to that, there was very faint growling that Nene and Lamy caught on to just in time. As the ghouls came out of the shadows, the cleric raised her amulet and shouted, "Return to your graves!"
Two of the ghouls groaned and started shuffling away from them while the remaining one shambled over and tried to attack her. Its arms clashed uselessly against her shield while the others beat it down. They then focused the other two down one by one, taking advantage of their turned state. Only Nene got injured in that scuffle as the ghoul got a lucky claw on her arm.
"That was manageable," quipped Polka as she picked up her torch that she dropped.
"Let's not waste any time. Something strange is happening and we need to find out," stated Botan as she did the same.
"How do you know?" asked the bard.
"A gut feeling."
The party made their way deeper into the cave system. The large cavern narrowed down as it led to another exit at the other side. They walked past a rather large stalactite-stalagmite formation right in front of it. Once again, Lamy and Nene somehow were able to hear faint scratchings as if something was walking on the stone floor.
"We are not alone," muttered the bard as she looked around to find the source of the sound, alerting the other two. Lamy then proceeded to pray for blessings again.
It seemed to trigger their ambushers as a glint of metal flashed by as several projectiles were thrown at them. All of them missed save one, which scratched Polka by the side of her head, prompting a yelp. Botan immediately shot at the first form she saw while Polka and Nene did the same at the figure behind them. Loud chittering accompanied the mantis-like humanoids that bounded out of the dark, the one attacking the fighter got a ray of frost freezing one of its lower arms. Both thri-kreen attacked her and the monk respectively. They were skilled with their double-bladed polearms and they were not left untouched. They retaliated but while Botan failed to find her mark, Polka managed to punch hers in the face.
"Hang in there, Botan. Backup is on the way!" shouted Nene as she moved in to help the monk, her rapier piercing its carapace with ease. Lamy helped, sending her next ray of frost into its body.
More chittering accompanied the swing of their blades as the thri-kreen persisted. The one in front was locked in combat with the fighter while the one from behind was able to down one, stabbing Polka in the shoulder and shoulder checking her off. Botan clawed her way down its chest while it was the bard that helped to protect the monk, stabbing it in the chest while casting her healing note to halt the bleeding.
"Oof, that stung," groaned Polka as she got up, during which Lamy finished it off. The chittering became louder as the remaining thri-kreen tried to strike the fighter down and failed. She tried to move in but her hand was batted away by the flat of its weapon. And the moment the bard and the monk came in to support her, the mantis creature fell under a hail of punches and stabs.
"I hope we fight less," muttered Nene with a frown as she looked over the party. Except for Lamy, everyone else was injured.
"Let's just try and avoid the next one?" suggested Lamy, "Maybe sneak past it?"
"Ah, then… let me scout ahead?" suggested the monk.
"Hng… I guess..." grumbled Botan, but agreeing that maybe the party was a little too banged up.
The monk had a relieved grin on her face as she went on ahead into the next cave. A few minutes later, she came back, her face pale. "Urm… sneaking is good. Yeah… There is this bear...owl… thingy up ahead. I don't think even Botan could handle this one."
"Oh… trophy..." murmured the fighter with a shine in her eyes.
"And how are we going to sneak by it?" asked the half-snow elf.
"Well, it sounds fast asleep. You could hear it snoring," stated the fennec fox girl, glancing over at the more armored party members, "We might… be able to sneak past. Although, your armor is kinda noisy..."
They stood there in silence for a while.
"Hmm… alright, I know what to do," mused the bard, "Take off your armor and carry them."
AN: Hello, readers. Welcome to the next chapter. A new request as well as a follow up on the hub town Solfano. It seems Subaru has gained quite a bit of renown here since she last visited. Makes one wonder if she was known by other names in other places. Anyway, the party goes to some dead woods for an investigation. Although, what are thri-kreen doing there? Very strange. Hm...
with an m16: Thanks for the review. Yeah, Wanderlust didn't establish the recurring characters until after getting Rushia. And your suggestion of Mori being a hexblade warlock is certainly interesting.
And that's a wrap. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.
PS: it seems that replying to reviews in AN's are better than just replying outright through the system. fine, I'll play your way ffnet.