This chapter, and more than likely the rest of them, is going to switch
point of views. Anytime that I, Rahn, am in a group, it's first person.
Any other time, it will be in a third person view. I'll label every time
that it switches. Don't understand? You will later. Now, on with chapter
4!
Chapter IV - The Search for Cain Begins
"I know silence is supposed to be golden, but come on!" yelled C-4.
"That's right, C-4. Let's alert the demons we're near them" said Serena in a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, really, C-4. It's best if we stay quiet that way we don't attract to much attention" said Nokame. "We don't want a horde of those little impish things after us, do we?" C-4 shut his mouth and kept quiet after that, but both Nokame and Serene knew it wouldn't be long before he yelled again. It was about an hour or two since they had left Rahn, Bell, and Kit Kat, and another two hours since they came across a rock wall similar to the one the others went through to get into the burial grounds. They had assumed that they were in Stony Field now since they hadn't come across any burial grounds, and the fact there were rocks scattered every which way.
"You know, Rahn said there were demons crawling all over the place. Yet, I have yet to really see them.everywhere" stated C-4.
"I suppose you have a point there" said Nokame, "We've only came across those few in large groups when we were all together. None of them were really scattered." They followed the path around the corner of a stone wall.
"Maybe they get more scattered as we go along?" said Serena, "I mean.it 'is' supposed to get harder the further we go, isn't it?"
"I guess so" said C4. They walked a little more until they came to a group of tall, gray stones.
"Wow, I didn't know Stone Henge got sucked up with us" said C-4. Serena hit him in the head.
"It's not Stone Henge, C-4. It looks a lot different from this thing" she pointed out.
"Yeah" said Nokame as he moved closer to it, his skeleton following. There were a total of five stones, each with a sign on the top of them. "They could be a way for us to return home, but I don't want to get anybody's hopes up."
"I suppose we could ask Aka-" C-4 began, but was cut off when a Carver jumped onto his shoulders and planted him in the dirt.
".ow" was all C-4 said before even more appeared from nowhere. Serena and Nokame prepared themselves, and Nokame's skeleton was just waiting for the order.
"They look like those Fallen creatures.but.their blue instead of red!" said Nokame.
"Yeah, what's up with that?" asked Serena. C-4 got up and threw the Carver on him back into the lot of his brethren.
"They might just be tougher versions of those things. Rahn did say the further we go, the harder it gets" said C4.
"Greeeeeaaaaat. Well come on, skeleton, jump in and get them!" order Nokame. The skeleton walked forward and tried to attack one, but quickly fell to pieces after a few blows.
"Yeeesh.that can't be good" said Serena. The Carvers all drew their swords and charged at them.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kat exited the blue portal and landed near the fire of the rogue camp. A few of the rogues had gathered around to see what the commotion was about, but upon seeing the state Bell was in, they quickly rushed her to Akara. Kat followed them into Akaras' hut. Kashya was inside with her, and was shocked to see Bell in such a bad state.
"My goodness.what happened?" asked Akara asked Kat. Kat walked up next to the bed that the rogues put Bell on.
"Blood Raven got nailed her a few times with her bow while me and Rahn were fighting off some zombies." Akara looked at Kat stunned, then it slowly turned to a cold glare that moved towards Kashya.
"Kashya.did you ask them to defeat Blood Raven?"
"Yes, Akara," Kashya looked down to her feet, "I did."
"Kashya, you knew they weren't ready yet. Why did you send them to perform such a task?" asked Akara.
"Hey! Number one, we killed that Blood Raven chick!" said Kat. "Two, Bell needs some serious attention here!"
"I will do my best, Kit Kat" said Akara. "All of you leave so I can heal her without being disturbed." Everyone inside the tent obliged and left. Kat got no more than a few feet away when Kashya stopped him.
"Kat.I'm sorry about Bell. I shouldn't have asked you all to fight Blood Raven. It was a task I should have done myself."
Kat smiled a little bit. "It's okay. Besides, one of us was bound to be injured like that at some point." Kat looked back to the tent. "I just wish it wasn't Bell though."
"I thank you for defeating her though, and I am truly sorry about your friend. Blood Raven actually used to be one of my friends as well before Andarial came" said Kashya.
"Sorry to hear that" said Kat.
"I wish to reward you for your victory though. Floria!" A rogue ran over to Kashya, wearing some light armor and wielding a bow.
"Yes, sir!"
"Floria. I want you to accompany Kat on his journey. You are to take orders from him and do what he says, understood?" The rogue nodded her head at Kashya, and Kashya turned back to Kat.
"Take care, Kat, and don't worry about Bell. Akara is one of the best healers in the land." Kashya left the two to go and do whatever she needed to, and Kat looked up at the rogue, Floria.
"Well," he started, "guess we should get back to Rahn then,huh?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By now Calli was standing on her own. Well, sort of. She was using me for support. I helped her over to a giant tombstone that had fallen over and she sat down. Not exactly the most comfortable thing, but it had to be better than Blood Raven's corpse.
"You okay?" I asked her. She nodded while looking around at the scenery again.
"Rahn, where the hell are we? And how did we end up here?" she asked me.
"Well, me, Kat, Bell, Serena, C-4, and Nokame all got sucked in by a red portal, and from the looks of it, so did you" I told her. "As for where we are." I started telling her the same story that I had told the others when we first got here. I had summed it up much shorter than when I told it the first time, and Calli listened intently. Once I was done, she sat there with her eyes lowered to the ground.
"So." she said, "is there any way back?" I shook my head.
"As of the moment, no. But, those rogues I told you about need our help, and if we can get east to Lut Gholein, I might be able to find someone to help us." I answered.
"You said that Bell got injured, is she okay?" she asked. Boy, she sure is full of questions.
"I don't know. Kat took her through the town portal to get her looked at. But, I believe she'll be fine." I said. She slowly got up and took my hand then smiled.
"Well, at least your all okay for the most part. Everyone on the crew has been trying to find you guys for the past three days."
Three days?! Hold up!
"Three days?! Calli, we've only been stranded her for only about a day, soon to be two!" I told her.
"Then that would mean.everyday here is three days back on Mobius!" she said.
Boy, this was just perfect. Not only are we trying to get home and not get killed, but now it was a race for time! This means no slowing up what so ever now, and we have to move as quickly as possible.
"Rahn?" Calli waved a hand in front of my face. I shook my head and came back from my thinking.
"Sorry, kinda zoned out" I told her. I thought for another second then asked her. "You do have your sword and ruby with you, right?" Calli smiled and pulled the chaos ruby she had on a necklace out, and her ruby sword suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Never leave home without them!" she grinned. I grinned as well. Calli had joined the group a few months after our first little adventure, along with a few other people. She's really nice, but if you get on her bad side you might as well have someone perform your last rights now. We had only started seeing each other not too long ago, which was one good reason I wish she wasn't here right now. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to her, but her abilities will come in handy in the battles ahead.
"We should probably wait for Kat to come back with some news," I said. "In the meantime, we need to pillage these corpses to see if there is anything good we can use" I told her. We both walked back to where Blood Raven lay, and Calli asked me a question.
"Where are C-4, Nokame, and Serena at?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Die you little bastards, die!" C-4 cut a Carver open with his axe and decapitated another with his sword.
"There are lots of these little guys, aren't there?!" said Serena as she ducked out form behind one of the stones and threw a javelin into a Carver's throat. Nokame, who now had two skeletons out, was fighting nearby.
"There has to be a shaman or a unique one nearby for there to be this many!" he yelled.
"Well we better find him," C-4 cut into another one, "because these guys are annoying!" Nokame looked around for a second, when he spotted an odd colored Carver nearby. That had to be it.
"Hey, skeletons!" he yelled. The skeletons looked at him and he pointed to the unique carver, whom we are going to call Rakanishu. The skeletons understood, and made their way towards Rakinishu. C-4, upon seeing that Nokame has spotted the demon, started making his way to it as well. Rakinishu looked and saw the two skeletons and C-4 coming at him, let out a small cry, and ran really fast. C-4 stomped and yelled.
"I hate it when they do that!" he and the skeletons charged at Rakanishu while Serena and Nokame picked off any Carvers that trailed them. After a few minutes of chasing after the little bastard, one of the skeletons got close enough and struck him. However, once it did so, Rakanishu released many small charges of electricity that not only destroyed it, but got the other skeleton and C-4, which gave them both quite a shock.
Rakanishu laughed, but his laughter was soon cut short by a javelin going straight through his skull. Rakanishu fell to the ground, dead.
"Nice throw, Serena!" said Nokame.
"Aww.it was nothing" she replied. C-4 slowly got back up, and looked at the dead Rakanishu, then swiftly leaped to his feet and kicked him a few times.
"That's for shocking the hell out of me you son of a bitch!" he yelled. The remaining Carvers, after seeing their leader fall, made a run for it and disappeared, like the cowards they were.
"Guess we should see if they have anything we can use" said Nokame. The three started looking over the dead corpses and found even more gold, along with a few scrolls of identify and town portal, not to mention a few healing potions. Serena even found a magic bow along with some arrows for it.
"Okay, now that that's done, what do you think the deal is behind these stones?" asked C-4. They all looked at the stones again, and Nokame came to a conclusion.
"Maybe we should ask Akara back at the camp?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me" said Serena. Nokame unrolled a town portal scroll, and a shimmering blue portal appeared next to him. The three of them stepped into it and headed back to the camp.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kat and Floria made their way back to where the town portal was that would take them back to Rahn. However, another popped up, and gave Kat quite a startle. He jumped about six feet in the air, but he calmed down when he saw C-4, Serena, and Nokame walk through.
"Dang guys! Don't scare me like that!" said Kat.
"Sorry, Kat. Didn't mean to frighten ya" said C-4. He looked around for a second, then asked, "Where's Rahn and Bell?"
"Well." started Kat, "we found the burial ground and that Blood Raven chick, and we took her out. But Bell got injured, so I brought her back here to get treated by Akara. Rahn is still at the burial ground with a new person that just showed up."
"Is Bell going to be alright?" asked Serena. Kat nodded his head.
"Akara said she'll be fine, and Kashya gave us one of her rogues as a reward for killing Blood Raven too," said Kat throwing a thumb towards Floria, "her name is Floria."
"Hello" she greeted. The three said hi to her, then Nokame asked Kat another question.
"Now, what's this about a new person?"
"Oh! Right! Well, while we were fighting, another red portal opened up right above Blood Raven, and someone fell out of it and landed on her! Blood Raven had her heart pierced by an arrow she was going to shoot Bell with as she fell to the ground, then that was it. Rahn is with that person now."
"Any idea who it is?" asked C-4.
"I don't know," said Kat, "but they looked familiar though."
"Well, best not keep you waiting then" said Nokame. "We'll take Bell into our little party since your going to have Floria and whoever that new person is."
"Alright. Come on Floria, let's go." Kat and Floria entered the portal that led back to the burial grounds. The portal disappeared behind them afterwards. Nokame, C-4, and Serena then went to Akara's hut and took a peak inside. Akara had just finished taking care of Bell, and Bell was slowly starting to sit up.
"Oy.that was 'not' a pleasant experience," said Bell. She then noticed her three friends walk in, and immediately perked up. "Hi, guys! Where've ya been?!"
"Oh just in that Stony Field place being attacked by a stronger version of Fallen," said Serena. "How about you?"
"Getting shot by Blood Raven.wait.stronger Fallen!?" Bell yelled with a start.
"So," started Akara, "you've came across the Carvers then?"
"Carvers?" asked Nokame.
"Yes. You see, you'll find out that as you get closer and closer to our monastery that you will come across stronger and stronger versions of the weaker monsters you have seen."
"Grrrrreeeeeaaaaaattttttt..," all four of them said sarcastically.
"Akara, we have a question," said Serena, "We came across the five stones in Stony Field that had these markings on them. Do you know what they do?" Akara walked slowly to a window as Serena asked this.
"Yes, I know what they do. They're a portal gateway."
"ALRIGHT!!!" yelled C-4, "We're going home!" Everyone gave a cheer, not as large as C-4's though. Akara sighed and shook her head.
"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but it's not that kind of portal," she said. Everyone got a down look on their face, and Akara continued.
"It's a portal that leads to the town of Tristram, but it hasn't been used for ages," she stated.
"Tristram? Hey, isn't that the town that Rahn said this Diablo guy first appeared at?" asked Bell.
"Yes.I believe it is!" said Nokame.
"Your friend, Rahn, would be correct. All the troubles that the land is dealing with all started in Tristram. Now, however, the town is in ruin and overrun with demons. But." Akara dwelled to herself for a moment, then spoke her mind, "Cain may still be alive there."
"Cain? Didn't Rahn say something about him too?" asked C-4.
"I don't recall.who is he, Akara?" asked Serena.
"Cain is the last living member of the ancient Horadrim Mage Clan, the same clan that hunted down and pursued Diablo and his brothers across the land. They're the ones that sealed the three away into the soul stones that now bind them. I never really thought much about it, but if he's still alive, he could provide us with valuable information as to our current situation with Andariel," said Akara. C-4 got a grim look on his face.
"This.sounds like we're going on a rescue mission." he said.
"Hey. If he could be of any help to us, I say it's worth it," said Serena, "So how do we open that portal?"
"Well," started Akara, "You need to find the Tree of Inifuss and bring back the piece of its bark that shows a set of runes on it. Once you return with it, I will translate the runes, and you can go open the portal."
"So where's this tree at?" asked Bell.
"Well, there's the hard part. We don't know. You'll have to find it yourselves." Everyone face faulted to the ground and C-4 jumped back up.
"You mean your telling us to look for a tree that you don't know where it is!? Have you seen how many trees are out there, lady!?" Bell whacked C-4 in the head with her staff and sent him back to the ground.
"Down, boy."
"It shouldn't be to far from the Cairn Stones. They're the rocks that you found earlier," said Akara.
"Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let's go get this guy!" said Nokame. Everyone agreed and exited the hut. Bell thanked Akara for the healing before she left out the door, and they went back through the portal to Stony Field.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, Guys!" said Kat as he walked out of his TP (short for Town Portal) with a rogue. Guess Kashya gave him one as our reward for killing Blood Raven.
"Hi, Kat. How's Bell?" I asked him as I stood back up from rummaging through a dead zombie, "and who's this here with you?"
"I think Bell is okay now. Akara said she could fix her up no problem. As for this person here, this is Floria. Kashya told her to accompany us," he said.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Floria," I greeted, "I'm Rahn, and of course, that's Kat." Calli came up from behind me a second later.
"Hey, Rahn? I poked around what's her names corpse and found two red potions, two blue ones, and this quiver of arrows here," she said holding them up.
"Let me guess, Calli was the one who fell from that portal?" said Kat.
"Yup. She's the one," I told him, "That's good, Calli. We don't need the arrows though, so you can leave those." She nodded and pocketed the potions, then tossed the quiver back at Blood Raven's dead carcass. I turned back to Kat, but noticed that Floria had an arrow loaded and pointed at Calli. Probably thought that by the way she looks that she's a demon. Kat must have noticed too, because he put his hand up and lowered her bow.
"It's okay, Floria. Calli is on our side."
"Oh.I'm sorry, it's just with the wings and the tail."
"It's okay," said Calli, "Happens all the time. I'm used to it," she said with a smile. One disaster averted I guess.
"We should probably get moving to join the others," I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I can't stand graveyards," Kat said with a slight shiver.
"Funny. I thought paladins were practically fearless," Floria said with a smug look on her face.
"Hey, I just started today. Give me a break. Rahn, shut up," he said quickly. I had my mouth half-open about to make a joke on what he said.
"Okay, Kat. I won't call you a Kit Kat Bar," I said grinning. Calli snickered a little, and Floria just looked puzzled to what I said. Kat, however, was perfectly replicating the look my mom gives me when I've said something smart-ass like.
"Let's just go" he said with a moan. I grinned triumphantly, but he'll get me back later, I know it. We exited the graveyard and went back to the Cold Plains. Hopefully the others were doing okay on their end.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You mean we have to go through THERE?!" yelled Bell as she pointed at a cave entrance on the side of a cliff they just came to.
"The path leads directly into it and, like Rahn said, we have to follow the path to get to the monastery," stated Nokame. It had been about thirty minutes, and many groups of Fallen, Corrupt Rogues; and three new enemies; Skeletons, Goatmen, and Blood Hawks, since they left the stones, and were now here at a cave entrance.
"I say we draw straws like the first time," suggest C-4, "I don't think Bell wants to be the first to go into another cave."
"Sounds good to me" said Serena as she plucked different lengths of grass from the ground. The four drew straws, and Nokame ended up with the shortest.
"Well.can I demand a recount?"
"No" the others answered simply. Nokame sighed, and motioned for two skeletons that he summoned to follow him. He entered the cave and took a look around. It didn't have a tint of red like the Den of Evil did, and Nokame breathed a sigh of relief.
"Maybe this place doesn't have any monsters in it?" he said to himself. Suddenly, a giant ball of electricity shot forth and knocked him into the cave wall. Nokame groaned in pain as he slowly slid off the wall to the ground. Tilting his head up, he saw a large, dog like creature moving towards him. It had horns protruding from its skull, and a long tongue hanging from its mouth. As Nokame started to get back up to face this creature, it started charging up a ball of electricity in its mouth.
"Oh shit!" Nokame yelled and attempted to dodge, but the creature had fired and the blast was hurling towards him. It was about to hit when one of the skeletons jumped in the way and took the hit, exploding into a million pieces.
"Phew." Nokame sighed and looked at the remains the skeleton. He quietly thanked it, then charged at the creature. Using his wand, he gave it a sound thwack to its skull. It reared back a bit, only to be attacked the second skeleton. It roared loudly then bit the skeleton in half, successfully falling it. The creature then started moving towards Nokame, forcing him to step back until he was once again against the wall.
"Oh no.is this how I go? Not going down in a blaze of glory?" Nokame was panicking. He only knew how to summon skeletons, he didn't know any other spells, and hitting it with a stick that has the size of a stick wouldn't do any good. He shut his eyes and threw his hands in front of himself as the dog like creature lunged at him. Then suddenly, a large rippling arrow shot forth from his wand and hit the creature, piercing through its head and shooting out the back in a spray of blood.
It fell to the ground dead, blood pouring through the gaping hole in its skull. Nokame slowly opened his eyes and saw the dead beast. He let his guard down and looked around; nobody else in the cave.
"Did.did I do that?" he asked himself as he examined the beast.
"Hey, Nokame! You alive in there!?" called C-4 from the cave entrance some distance away.
"We heard some kind of a scuffle in there, are you alright!?" called Bell.
"Yeah, I'm fine! It's clear to come in!" he called back. The others walked inside and came upon Nokame, who was examining the dead creature.
"Good Lord." said Serena, "Nokame, what did you do to it?"
"I don't know. It was lunging at me, and I threw my hands up to guard, and.I don't know what happened after that"
"Why didn't you just use your shield to block it?" asked C-4.
"Whoops!" Nokame sweatdropped, "I.forgot about that." He said with a grin. The other three face faulted to the ground, and quickly got back up.
"Well, I guess we should move on," said Serena. Everyone agreed and left, but not before Nokame made a new skeleton from the dead creature, and proceeded on into the cave.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Wow, look at all the rocks around here," said Kat.
"Well, that's one reason they call it Stony Field," I told Kat.
"Hey, Rahn? How far ahead do you think the others are?" asked Calli.
"I don't know.they have definitely been this way because there are dead Fallen and Carvers all over the place" I told her.
"Anyone else notice that the Carvers are blue versions of the Fallen?" asked Kat.
"They are a stronger version of Fallen," said Floria, "They are somewhat more difficult to kill."
"greeeaaat."
As we walked on down the path, the sky had finally turned pitch dark. Kat and Calli could see just fine because Kat was a cat and they can all see good in the dark, and Calli because she was part demon and vampire. Me, I could just use my telepathy and scan ahead of me. However, Floria was blind as a bat, so we picked up of a small branch from a tree we passed and lit it for her. We walked on for another little bit, keeping our eyes and ears open for any kind of presence. It was very very quiet, like when we first arrived here. No crickets, no owls.nothing.
"Is.the game always like this?" asked Calli. I shook my head.
"No.it was never this quiet. There was usually an owl hooting or some crickets chirping."
"I could really go for some crickets right now, I'll tell you that much" she said. We all slowly stopped and looked at her, and she just shrugged. "What?"
"Uh.nothing" I told her.
"Hey, what's that over there?" Kat got our attention and pointed to something in the distance.
"What do you see?" Floria asked him.
"I don't know.I can't make it out. Looks like five pillars of some kind," he told her.
"I think I know.come on, let's go" I said as I walked off the path and towards where Kat was pointing. Everyone else followed, and a few minutes later, we came across five large pillars of rock with a strange symbol on each of them.
"I thought so.the Cairn Stones," I said to myself. I looked around and saw the dead bodies of the Carvers lying about. "Looks like they've been here."
"If your friends have been here, then Akara must have sent them to rescue Cain," Floria told us.
"Cain? Whose that?" asked Calli.
"I think you mentioned him before, didn't you Rahn?"
"Yeah, when we first got here and I told you about the game. Last of the Horadrim Mage Clan, the very same clan that sealed Diablo and his brothers in the soul stones," I told them.
"Excuse me, but.what do you mean by game," Floria asked me. I slowly turned my attention from the stones to her.
"Guess it can't be kept secret forever. In the world where we come from, this whole thing is a game. You'd take on the roll of a certain character, and fight through the hordes of demons to slay Diablo. It explains pretty much everything about this world basically," I told her, "I'm the only one who has played it, so I'm pretty much the resident expert as to what we're up against for the time being."
"So.my whole world is.a game?" she asked me with a depressed look on her face. I was afraid of this.
"Where we come from, yes. But.this right now is real, not a game. So don't worry" I told her.
"We should probably turn in for the night or something.it's been dark for a good few hours now, and lugging around all this armor and stuff has made me tired" Kat stated. I looked up at the sky and the position of the moon. It was a quarter moon.not too long before a full moon. I looked at Calli and she was poking away at a dead carver with a stick. We'll have to make sure she stays somewhere where she can't see the full and new moons while we're here.
"Well, Kat," I said bringing myself back to reality, "pull out a town portal scroll, and we'll head back and turn in for the night." Kat nodded and reached into a satchel he was carrying. After a few seconds, his face went pale and he was feeling around in the bag furiously. This can't be good.
"Uh.guys? I think I lost the scrolls.and some of the gold" he told us. After some inspection, we found a hole in the satchel, more than likely caused when we were in the burial grounds earlier.
"Looks like we're staying the night here," said Floria.
"I think I can make up for it," said Kat. About thirty minutes later, we were all leaning against one of the cairn stones with a blanket around us, full from the meal Kat made in compensation for losing the scrolls. I swear, I don't know how he can hold so many things in those pockets of his, but I'm glad he can. Good thing he had blankets too. But, he's gonna run out of food in those eventually.
The fire he made the meal on was slowly dying away, and I felt my eyes grow heavy. Letting out a small yawn, I snuggled into my blanket as deep as I could. It was rather cold out.you could tell that winter was approaching. As I was about to slip off to sleep, I felt something lean against me and wrap something over me. Opening one eye, I saw Calli leaning against me with her eyes closed, snuggled in her blanket, and her wings wrapped around the both of us. I smiled a bit, leaned my head on hers, and fell to sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A Fallen fell to the ground with a gaping and bleeding hole in its chest, along with all the other Fallen that were standing behind it. Nokame gave a small smirk. They had finally figured out what Nokame used on that monster earlier, but they didn't know the name of the spell. Something they'd have to ask Akara. In fact, they should ask her if she has a whole book that 'lists' the spells.
"That's the last of them," said Bell as she wiped the sweat from her brow. C-4 weakly pulled his hand axe from the body of a slain Shaman.
"Man.I never thought I'd get so tired." he said as he slowly walked to were Bell and Nokame were.
"Me too." said Serena as she slowly walked towards them, "I'm about to run out of javelins, I've only got five left."
"Guess we'll have to go back to the camp and restock on them, huh?" said Bell. C-4 yawned loudly.
"Can we do that later? I'm beat." he said tiredly.
"I don't see why not," said Nokame.
"Well where are we gonna sleep?" asked Serena. They all look around for a minute when Bell caught site of a not very noticeable path that led past a small crevice in the wall.
"What about there? I don't think any of those giant dog demons we've been finding down here, not anything else, could get through there," she said.
"Works for me," said Serena. Leaving the little cave encampment that the now dead Fallen had set up, they went into the small crevice of the wall. Upon getting through, they discovered a fairly large area with a few wooden barrels. After everyone took off their armor and found a spot to settle down, C-4 took apart some of the barrels for fire wood, and Bell used a firebolt to make the fire. After a few minutes of talking and planning on what to do tomorrow, C-4 went to one corner of the area, sat down, and fell to sleep leaning on a barrel. Serena was also sitting nearby asleep. Nokame was sitting with his back to the cave wall about to fall asleep when Bell came over and sat next to him.
"Mind if I crash here?" she asked him.
"Uh.no, not at all" he replied. Bell smiled then leaned up against him.
"Hope you don't mind this time, but I'm going to use you as a pillow" she told him. Nokame actually didn't mind it the first time she fell asleep on him when they were on the shuttle to the ARK when everyone first met.
"uh.sure, I don't mind" he told her, but Bell had already passed out asleep. Nokame sighed and closed his eyes, slowly drifting to sleep with Bell next to him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Finally, chapter four is done. Longest one yet! I know there wasn't much action near the end of it, but that will change next chapter, when C-4, Bell, Nokame, and Serena finally find the Scroll of Inifuss and make it to Tristram. One big slaughter fest! As for my group, well, if there are any Diablo II veterans reading this, then you should be able to take a guess as to the quest that we will undertake. Review and tell me what you think so far, and I'll see you all next chapter!
Rahn (Mechabot VII)
Chapter IV - The Search for Cain Begins
"I know silence is supposed to be golden, but come on!" yelled C-4.
"That's right, C-4. Let's alert the demons we're near them" said Serena in a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, really, C-4. It's best if we stay quiet that way we don't attract to much attention" said Nokame. "We don't want a horde of those little impish things after us, do we?" C-4 shut his mouth and kept quiet after that, but both Nokame and Serene knew it wouldn't be long before he yelled again. It was about an hour or two since they had left Rahn, Bell, and Kit Kat, and another two hours since they came across a rock wall similar to the one the others went through to get into the burial grounds. They had assumed that they were in Stony Field now since they hadn't come across any burial grounds, and the fact there were rocks scattered every which way.
"You know, Rahn said there were demons crawling all over the place. Yet, I have yet to really see them.everywhere" stated C-4.
"I suppose you have a point there" said Nokame, "We've only came across those few in large groups when we were all together. None of them were really scattered." They followed the path around the corner of a stone wall.
"Maybe they get more scattered as we go along?" said Serena, "I mean.it 'is' supposed to get harder the further we go, isn't it?"
"I guess so" said C4. They walked a little more until they came to a group of tall, gray stones.
"Wow, I didn't know Stone Henge got sucked up with us" said C-4. Serena hit him in the head.
"It's not Stone Henge, C-4. It looks a lot different from this thing" she pointed out.
"Yeah" said Nokame as he moved closer to it, his skeleton following. There were a total of five stones, each with a sign on the top of them. "They could be a way for us to return home, but I don't want to get anybody's hopes up."
"I suppose we could ask Aka-" C-4 began, but was cut off when a Carver jumped onto his shoulders and planted him in the dirt.
".ow" was all C-4 said before even more appeared from nowhere. Serena and Nokame prepared themselves, and Nokame's skeleton was just waiting for the order.
"They look like those Fallen creatures.but.their blue instead of red!" said Nokame.
"Yeah, what's up with that?" asked Serena. C-4 got up and threw the Carver on him back into the lot of his brethren.
"They might just be tougher versions of those things. Rahn did say the further we go, the harder it gets" said C4.
"Greeeeeaaaaat. Well come on, skeleton, jump in and get them!" order Nokame. The skeleton walked forward and tried to attack one, but quickly fell to pieces after a few blows.
"Yeeesh.that can't be good" said Serena. The Carvers all drew their swords and charged at them.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kat exited the blue portal and landed near the fire of the rogue camp. A few of the rogues had gathered around to see what the commotion was about, but upon seeing the state Bell was in, they quickly rushed her to Akara. Kat followed them into Akaras' hut. Kashya was inside with her, and was shocked to see Bell in such a bad state.
"My goodness.what happened?" asked Akara asked Kat. Kat walked up next to the bed that the rogues put Bell on.
"Blood Raven got nailed her a few times with her bow while me and Rahn were fighting off some zombies." Akara looked at Kat stunned, then it slowly turned to a cold glare that moved towards Kashya.
"Kashya.did you ask them to defeat Blood Raven?"
"Yes, Akara," Kashya looked down to her feet, "I did."
"Kashya, you knew they weren't ready yet. Why did you send them to perform such a task?" asked Akara.
"Hey! Number one, we killed that Blood Raven chick!" said Kat. "Two, Bell needs some serious attention here!"
"I will do my best, Kit Kat" said Akara. "All of you leave so I can heal her without being disturbed." Everyone inside the tent obliged and left. Kat got no more than a few feet away when Kashya stopped him.
"Kat.I'm sorry about Bell. I shouldn't have asked you all to fight Blood Raven. It was a task I should have done myself."
Kat smiled a little bit. "It's okay. Besides, one of us was bound to be injured like that at some point." Kat looked back to the tent. "I just wish it wasn't Bell though."
"I thank you for defeating her though, and I am truly sorry about your friend. Blood Raven actually used to be one of my friends as well before Andarial came" said Kashya.
"Sorry to hear that" said Kat.
"I wish to reward you for your victory though. Floria!" A rogue ran over to Kashya, wearing some light armor and wielding a bow.
"Yes, sir!"
"Floria. I want you to accompany Kat on his journey. You are to take orders from him and do what he says, understood?" The rogue nodded her head at Kashya, and Kashya turned back to Kat.
"Take care, Kat, and don't worry about Bell. Akara is one of the best healers in the land." Kashya left the two to go and do whatever she needed to, and Kat looked up at the rogue, Floria.
"Well," he started, "guess we should get back to Rahn then,huh?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
By now Calli was standing on her own. Well, sort of. She was using me for support. I helped her over to a giant tombstone that had fallen over and she sat down. Not exactly the most comfortable thing, but it had to be better than Blood Raven's corpse.
"You okay?" I asked her. She nodded while looking around at the scenery again.
"Rahn, where the hell are we? And how did we end up here?" she asked me.
"Well, me, Kat, Bell, Serena, C-4, and Nokame all got sucked in by a red portal, and from the looks of it, so did you" I told her. "As for where we are." I started telling her the same story that I had told the others when we first got here. I had summed it up much shorter than when I told it the first time, and Calli listened intently. Once I was done, she sat there with her eyes lowered to the ground.
"So." she said, "is there any way back?" I shook my head.
"As of the moment, no. But, those rogues I told you about need our help, and if we can get east to Lut Gholein, I might be able to find someone to help us." I answered.
"You said that Bell got injured, is she okay?" she asked. Boy, she sure is full of questions.
"I don't know. Kat took her through the town portal to get her looked at. But, I believe she'll be fine." I said. She slowly got up and took my hand then smiled.
"Well, at least your all okay for the most part. Everyone on the crew has been trying to find you guys for the past three days."
Three days?! Hold up!
"Three days?! Calli, we've only been stranded her for only about a day, soon to be two!" I told her.
"Then that would mean.everyday here is three days back on Mobius!" she said.
Boy, this was just perfect. Not only are we trying to get home and not get killed, but now it was a race for time! This means no slowing up what so ever now, and we have to move as quickly as possible.
"Rahn?" Calli waved a hand in front of my face. I shook my head and came back from my thinking.
"Sorry, kinda zoned out" I told her. I thought for another second then asked her. "You do have your sword and ruby with you, right?" Calli smiled and pulled the chaos ruby she had on a necklace out, and her ruby sword suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Never leave home without them!" she grinned. I grinned as well. Calli had joined the group a few months after our first little adventure, along with a few other people. She's really nice, but if you get on her bad side you might as well have someone perform your last rights now. We had only started seeing each other not too long ago, which was one good reason I wish she wasn't here right now. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to her, but her abilities will come in handy in the battles ahead.
"We should probably wait for Kat to come back with some news," I said. "In the meantime, we need to pillage these corpses to see if there is anything good we can use" I told her. We both walked back to where Blood Raven lay, and Calli asked me a question.
"Where are C-4, Nokame, and Serena at?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Die you little bastards, die!" C-4 cut a Carver open with his axe and decapitated another with his sword.
"There are lots of these little guys, aren't there?!" said Serena as she ducked out form behind one of the stones and threw a javelin into a Carver's throat. Nokame, who now had two skeletons out, was fighting nearby.
"There has to be a shaman or a unique one nearby for there to be this many!" he yelled.
"Well we better find him," C-4 cut into another one, "because these guys are annoying!" Nokame looked around for a second, when he spotted an odd colored Carver nearby. That had to be it.
"Hey, skeletons!" he yelled. The skeletons looked at him and he pointed to the unique carver, whom we are going to call Rakanishu. The skeletons understood, and made their way towards Rakinishu. C-4, upon seeing that Nokame has spotted the demon, started making his way to it as well. Rakinishu looked and saw the two skeletons and C-4 coming at him, let out a small cry, and ran really fast. C-4 stomped and yelled.
"I hate it when they do that!" he and the skeletons charged at Rakanishu while Serena and Nokame picked off any Carvers that trailed them. After a few minutes of chasing after the little bastard, one of the skeletons got close enough and struck him. However, once it did so, Rakanishu released many small charges of electricity that not only destroyed it, but got the other skeleton and C-4, which gave them both quite a shock.
Rakanishu laughed, but his laughter was soon cut short by a javelin going straight through his skull. Rakanishu fell to the ground, dead.
"Nice throw, Serena!" said Nokame.
"Aww.it was nothing" she replied. C-4 slowly got back up, and looked at the dead Rakanishu, then swiftly leaped to his feet and kicked him a few times.
"That's for shocking the hell out of me you son of a bitch!" he yelled. The remaining Carvers, after seeing their leader fall, made a run for it and disappeared, like the cowards they were.
"Guess we should see if they have anything we can use" said Nokame. The three started looking over the dead corpses and found even more gold, along with a few scrolls of identify and town portal, not to mention a few healing potions. Serena even found a magic bow along with some arrows for it.
"Okay, now that that's done, what do you think the deal is behind these stones?" asked C-4. They all looked at the stones again, and Nokame came to a conclusion.
"Maybe we should ask Akara back at the camp?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me" said Serena. Nokame unrolled a town portal scroll, and a shimmering blue portal appeared next to him. The three of them stepped into it and headed back to the camp.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kat and Floria made their way back to where the town portal was that would take them back to Rahn. However, another popped up, and gave Kat quite a startle. He jumped about six feet in the air, but he calmed down when he saw C-4, Serena, and Nokame walk through.
"Dang guys! Don't scare me like that!" said Kat.
"Sorry, Kat. Didn't mean to frighten ya" said C-4. He looked around for a second, then asked, "Where's Rahn and Bell?"
"Well." started Kat, "we found the burial ground and that Blood Raven chick, and we took her out. But Bell got injured, so I brought her back here to get treated by Akara. Rahn is still at the burial ground with a new person that just showed up."
"Is Bell going to be alright?" asked Serena. Kat nodded his head.
"Akara said she'll be fine, and Kashya gave us one of her rogues as a reward for killing Blood Raven too," said Kat throwing a thumb towards Floria, "her name is Floria."
"Hello" she greeted. The three said hi to her, then Nokame asked Kat another question.
"Now, what's this about a new person?"
"Oh! Right! Well, while we were fighting, another red portal opened up right above Blood Raven, and someone fell out of it and landed on her! Blood Raven had her heart pierced by an arrow she was going to shoot Bell with as she fell to the ground, then that was it. Rahn is with that person now."
"Any idea who it is?" asked C-4.
"I don't know," said Kat, "but they looked familiar though."
"Well, best not keep you waiting then" said Nokame. "We'll take Bell into our little party since your going to have Floria and whoever that new person is."
"Alright. Come on Floria, let's go." Kat and Floria entered the portal that led back to the burial grounds. The portal disappeared behind them afterwards. Nokame, C-4, and Serena then went to Akara's hut and took a peak inside. Akara had just finished taking care of Bell, and Bell was slowly starting to sit up.
"Oy.that was 'not' a pleasant experience," said Bell. She then noticed her three friends walk in, and immediately perked up. "Hi, guys! Where've ya been?!"
"Oh just in that Stony Field place being attacked by a stronger version of Fallen," said Serena. "How about you?"
"Getting shot by Blood Raven.wait.stronger Fallen!?" Bell yelled with a start.
"So," started Akara, "you've came across the Carvers then?"
"Carvers?" asked Nokame.
"Yes. You see, you'll find out that as you get closer and closer to our monastery that you will come across stronger and stronger versions of the weaker monsters you have seen."
"Grrrrreeeeeaaaaaattttttt..," all four of them said sarcastically.
"Akara, we have a question," said Serena, "We came across the five stones in Stony Field that had these markings on them. Do you know what they do?" Akara walked slowly to a window as Serena asked this.
"Yes, I know what they do. They're a portal gateway."
"ALRIGHT!!!" yelled C-4, "We're going home!" Everyone gave a cheer, not as large as C-4's though. Akara sighed and shook her head.
"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but it's not that kind of portal," she said. Everyone got a down look on their face, and Akara continued.
"It's a portal that leads to the town of Tristram, but it hasn't been used for ages," she stated.
"Tristram? Hey, isn't that the town that Rahn said this Diablo guy first appeared at?" asked Bell.
"Yes.I believe it is!" said Nokame.
"Your friend, Rahn, would be correct. All the troubles that the land is dealing with all started in Tristram. Now, however, the town is in ruin and overrun with demons. But." Akara dwelled to herself for a moment, then spoke her mind, "Cain may still be alive there."
"Cain? Didn't Rahn say something about him too?" asked C-4.
"I don't recall.who is he, Akara?" asked Serena.
"Cain is the last living member of the ancient Horadrim Mage Clan, the same clan that hunted down and pursued Diablo and his brothers across the land. They're the ones that sealed the three away into the soul stones that now bind them. I never really thought much about it, but if he's still alive, he could provide us with valuable information as to our current situation with Andariel," said Akara. C-4 got a grim look on his face.
"This.sounds like we're going on a rescue mission." he said.
"Hey. If he could be of any help to us, I say it's worth it," said Serena, "So how do we open that portal?"
"Well," started Akara, "You need to find the Tree of Inifuss and bring back the piece of its bark that shows a set of runes on it. Once you return with it, I will translate the runes, and you can go open the portal."
"So where's this tree at?" asked Bell.
"Well, there's the hard part. We don't know. You'll have to find it yourselves." Everyone face faulted to the ground and C-4 jumped back up.
"You mean your telling us to look for a tree that you don't know where it is!? Have you seen how many trees are out there, lady!?" Bell whacked C-4 in the head with her staff and sent him back to the ground.
"Down, boy."
"It shouldn't be to far from the Cairn Stones. They're the rocks that you found earlier," said Akara.
"Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let's go get this guy!" said Nokame. Everyone agreed and exited the hut. Bell thanked Akara for the healing before she left out the door, and they went back through the portal to Stony Field.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, Guys!" said Kat as he walked out of his TP (short for Town Portal) with a rogue. Guess Kashya gave him one as our reward for killing Blood Raven.
"Hi, Kat. How's Bell?" I asked him as I stood back up from rummaging through a dead zombie, "and who's this here with you?"
"I think Bell is okay now. Akara said she could fix her up no problem. As for this person here, this is Floria. Kashya told her to accompany us," he said.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Floria," I greeted, "I'm Rahn, and of course, that's Kat." Calli came up from behind me a second later.
"Hey, Rahn? I poked around what's her names corpse and found two red potions, two blue ones, and this quiver of arrows here," she said holding them up.
"Let me guess, Calli was the one who fell from that portal?" said Kat.
"Yup. She's the one," I told him, "That's good, Calli. We don't need the arrows though, so you can leave those." She nodded and pocketed the potions, then tossed the quiver back at Blood Raven's dead carcass. I turned back to Kat, but noticed that Floria had an arrow loaded and pointed at Calli. Probably thought that by the way she looks that she's a demon. Kat must have noticed too, because he put his hand up and lowered her bow.
"It's okay, Floria. Calli is on our side."
"Oh.I'm sorry, it's just with the wings and the tail."
"It's okay," said Calli, "Happens all the time. I'm used to it," she said with a smile. One disaster averted I guess.
"We should probably get moving to join the others," I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I can't stand graveyards," Kat said with a slight shiver.
"Funny. I thought paladins were practically fearless," Floria said with a smug look on her face.
"Hey, I just started today. Give me a break. Rahn, shut up," he said quickly. I had my mouth half-open about to make a joke on what he said.
"Okay, Kat. I won't call you a Kit Kat Bar," I said grinning. Calli snickered a little, and Floria just looked puzzled to what I said. Kat, however, was perfectly replicating the look my mom gives me when I've said something smart-ass like.
"Let's just go" he said with a moan. I grinned triumphantly, but he'll get me back later, I know it. We exited the graveyard and went back to the Cold Plains. Hopefully the others were doing okay on their end.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You mean we have to go through THERE?!" yelled Bell as she pointed at a cave entrance on the side of a cliff they just came to.
"The path leads directly into it and, like Rahn said, we have to follow the path to get to the monastery," stated Nokame. It had been about thirty minutes, and many groups of Fallen, Corrupt Rogues; and three new enemies; Skeletons, Goatmen, and Blood Hawks, since they left the stones, and were now here at a cave entrance.
"I say we draw straws like the first time," suggest C-4, "I don't think Bell wants to be the first to go into another cave."
"Sounds good to me" said Serena as she plucked different lengths of grass from the ground. The four drew straws, and Nokame ended up with the shortest.
"Well.can I demand a recount?"
"No" the others answered simply. Nokame sighed, and motioned for two skeletons that he summoned to follow him. He entered the cave and took a look around. It didn't have a tint of red like the Den of Evil did, and Nokame breathed a sigh of relief.
"Maybe this place doesn't have any monsters in it?" he said to himself. Suddenly, a giant ball of electricity shot forth and knocked him into the cave wall. Nokame groaned in pain as he slowly slid off the wall to the ground. Tilting his head up, he saw a large, dog like creature moving towards him. It had horns protruding from its skull, and a long tongue hanging from its mouth. As Nokame started to get back up to face this creature, it started charging up a ball of electricity in its mouth.
"Oh shit!" Nokame yelled and attempted to dodge, but the creature had fired and the blast was hurling towards him. It was about to hit when one of the skeletons jumped in the way and took the hit, exploding into a million pieces.
"Phew." Nokame sighed and looked at the remains the skeleton. He quietly thanked it, then charged at the creature. Using his wand, he gave it a sound thwack to its skull. It reared back a bit, only to be attacked the second skeleton. It roared loudly then bit the skeleton in half, successfully falling it. The creature then started moving towards Nokame, forcing him to step back until he was once again against the wall.
"Oh no.is this how I go? Not going down in a blaze of glory?" Nokame was panicking. He only knew how to summon skeletons, he didn't know any other spells, and hitting it with a stick that has the size of a stick wouldn't do any good. He shut his eyes and threw his hands in front of himself as the dog like creature lunged at him. Then suddenly, a large rippling arrow shot forth from his wand and hit the creature, piercing through its head and shooting out the back in a spray of blood.
It fell to the ground dead, blood pouring through the gaping hole in its skull. Nokame slowly opened his eyes and saw the dead beast. He let his guard down and looked around; nobody else in the cave.
"Did.did I do that?" he asked himself as he examined the beast.
"Hey, Nokame! You alive in there!?" called C-4 from the cave entrance some distance away.
"We heard some kind of a scuffle in there, are you alright!?" called Bell.
"Yeah, I'm fine! It's clear to come in!" he called back. The others walked inside and came upon Nokame, who was examining the dead creature.
"Good Lord." said Serena, "Nokame, what did you do to it?"
"I don't know. It was lunging at me, and I threw my hands up to guard, and.I don't know what happened after that"
"Why didn't you just use your shield to block it?" asked C-4.
"Whoops!" Nokame sweatdropped, "I.forgot about that." He said with a grin. The other three face faulted to the ground, and quickly got back up.
"Well, I guess we should move on," said Serena. Everyone agreed and left, but not before Nokame made a new skeleton from the dead creature, and proceeded on into the cave.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Wow, look at all the rocks around here," said Kat.
"Well, that's one reason they call it Stony Field," I told Kat.
"Hey, Rahn? How far ahead do you think the others are?" asked Calli.
"I don't know.they have definitely been this way because there are dead Fallen and Carvers all over the place" I told her.
"Anyone else notice that the Carvers are blue versions of the Fallen?" asked Kat.
"They are a stronger version of Fallen," said Floria, "They are somewhat more difficult to kill."
"greeeaaat."
As we walked on down the path, the sky had finally turned pitch dark. Kat and Calli could see just fine because Kat was a cat and they can all see good in the dark, and Calli because she was part demon and vampire. Me, I could just use my telepathy and scan ahead of me. However, Floria was blind as a bat, so we picked up of a small branch from a tree we passed and lit it for her. We walked on for another little bit, keeping our eyes and ears open for any kind of presence. It was very very quiet, like when we first arrived here. No crickets, no owls.nothing.
"Is.the game always like this?" asked Calli. I shook my head.
"No.it was never this quiet. There was usually an owl hooting or some crickets chirping."
"I could really go for some crickets right now, I'll tell you that much" she said. We all slowly stopped and looked at her, and she just shrugged. "What?"
"Uh.nothing" I told her.
"Hey, what's that over there?" Kat got our attention and pointed to something in the distance.
"What do you see?" Floria asked him.
"I don't know.I can't make it out. Looks like five pillars of some kind," he told her.
"I think I know.come on, let's go" I said as I walked off the path and towards where Kat was pointing. Everyone else followed, and a few minutes later, we came across five large pillars of rock with a strange symbol on each of them.
"I thought so.the Cairn Stones," I said to myself. I looked around and saw the dead bodies of the Carvers lying about. "Looks like they've been here."
"If your friends have been here, then Akara must have sent them to rescue Cain," Floria told us.
"Cain? Whose that?" asked Calli.
"I think you mentioned him before, didn't you Rahn?"
"Yeah, when we first got here and I told you about the game. Last of the Horadrim Mage Clan, the very same clan that sealed Diablo and his brothers in the soul stones," I told them.
"Excuse me, but.what do you mean by game," Floria asked me. I slowly turned my attention from the stones to her.
"Guess it can't be kept secret forever. In the world where we come from, this whole thing is a game. You'd take on the roll of a certain character, and fight through the hordes of demons to slay Diablo. It explains pretty much everything about this world basically," I told her, "I'm the only one who has played it, so I'm pretty much the resident expert as to what we're up against for the time being."
"So.my whole world is.a game?" she asked me with a depressed look on her face. I was afraid of this.
"Where we come from, yes. But.this right now is real, not a game. So don't worry" I told her.
"We should probably turn in for the night or something.it's been dark for a good few hours now, and lugging around all this armor and stuff has made me tired" Kat stated. I looked up at the sky and the position of the moon. It was a quarter moon.not too long before a full moon. I looked at Calli and she was poking away at a dead carver with a stick. We'll have to make sure she stays somewhere where she can't see the full and new moons while we're here.
"Well, Kat," I said bringing myself back to reality, "pull out a town portal scroll, and we'll head back and turn in for the night." Kat nodded and reached into a satchel he was carrying. After a few seconds, his face went pale and he was feeling around in the bag furiously. This can't be good.
"Uh.guys? I think I lost the scrolls.and some of the gold" he told us. After some inspection, we found a hole in the satchel, more than likely caused when we were in the burial grounds earlier.
"Looks like we're staying the night here," said Floria.
"I think I can make up for it," said Kat. About thirty minutes later, we were all leaning against one of the cairn stones with a blanket around us, full from the meal Kat made in compensation for losing the scrolls. I swear, I don't know how he can hold so many things in those pockets of his, but I'm glad he can. Good thing he had blankets too. But, he's gonna run out of food in those eventually.
The fire he made the meal on was slowly dying away, and I felt my eyes grow heavy. Letting out a small yawn, I snuggled into my blanket as deep as I could. It was rather cold out.you could tell that winter was approaching. As I was about to slip off to sleep, I felt something lean against me and wrap something over me. Opening one eye, I saw Calli leaning against me with her eyes closed, snuggled in her blanket, and her wings wrapped around the both of us. I smiled a bit, leaned my head on hers, and fell to sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Third Person *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A Fallen fell to the ground with a gaping and bleeding hole in its chest, along with all the other Fallen that were standing behind it. Nokame gave a small smirk. They had finally figured out what Nokame used on that monster earlier, but they didn't know the name of the spell. Something they'd have to ask Akara. In fact, they should ask her if she has a whole book that 'lists' the spells.
"That's the last of them," said Bell as she wiped the sweat from her brow. C-4 weakly pulled his hand axe from the body of a slain Shaman.
"Man.I never thought I'd get so tired." he said as he slowly walked to were Bell and Nokame were.
"Me too." said Serena as she slowly walked towards them, "I'm about to run out of javelins, I've only got five left."
"Guess we'll have to go back to the camp and restock on them, huh?" said Bell. C-4 yawned loudly.
"Can we do that later? I'm beat." he said tiredly.
"I don't see why not," said Nokame.
"Well where are we gonna sleep?" asked Serena. They all look around for a minute when Bell caught site of a not very noticeable path that led past a small crevice in the wall.
"What about there? I don't think any of those giant dog demons we've been finding down here, not anything else, could get through there," she said.
"Works for me," said Serena. Leaving the little cave encampment that the now dead Fallen had set up, they went into the small crevice of the wall. Upon getting through, they discovered a fairly large area with a few wooden barrels. After everyone took off their armor and found a spot to settle down, C-4 took apart some of the barrels for fire wood, and Bell used a firebolt to make the fire. After a few minutes of talking and planning on what to do tomorrow, C-4 went to one corner of the area, sat down, and fell to sleep leaning on a barrel. Serena was also sitting nearby asleep. Nokame was sitting with his back to the cave wall about to fall asleep when Bell came over and sat next to him.
"Mind if I crash here?" she asked him.
"Uh.no, not at all" he replied. Bell smiled then leaned up against him.
"Hope you don't mind this time, but I'm going to use you as a pillow" she told him. Nokame actually didn't mind it the first time she fell asleep on him when they were on the shuttle to the ARK when everyone first met.
"uh.sure, I don't mind" he told her, but Bell had already passed out asleep. Nokame sighed and closed his eyes, slowly drifting to sleep with Bell next to him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Finally, chapter four is done. Longest one yet! I know there wasn't much action near the end of it, but that will change next chapter, when C-4, Bell, Nokame, and Serena finally find the Scroll of Inifuss and make it to Tristram. One big slaughter fest! As for my group, well, if there are any Diablo II veterans reading this, then you should be able to take a guess as to the quest that we will undertake. Review and tell me what you think so far, and I'll see you all next chapter!
Rahn (Mechabot VII)
