8. Is there any hope left?

But after a while which seemed like an eternity Sheila finally moved again.

She groaned and opened her eyes. They didn't shine red as assumed, but had their natural colour back.
They were in this wonderful indescribable lovely and charming green again.

Sheila wasn't a monster any more, she was human again!

She tried to sit up, but noticed that she was tied up with an arrow.

She asked confused, "What... what happened? What I'm doing here? Why did you tie me up?"

"Oh Sheila!" Bobby ran to his sister and hugged her overjoyed.

Meanwhile, Hank freed her from her bonds and hugged her as well.

"Hey guys, I'm also glad to see you, but... could you perhaps explain me what's that supposed to be?" Sheila asked getting more confused by their behavior.

"Does that mean you don't remember any more? Nothing at all? Perhaps then you also don't remember that you wanted to attack me quite Dracula-like?" Eric asked.

Sheila shook her head and looked at her friends.

Her friends explained everything to her.

"Ah, the last thing I remember, is that I was there in the forest with this stranger and, yeah of course, he attacked me... he was a vampire..." Sheila said thoughtfully.

"Yeah... he also turned you into one and we already thought we would have lost you for ever..." Hank said and smiled at her. Sheila smiled back.

"Well, what do you think now? Is there a portal home somewhere in this forest or not?" Presto asked and looked thoughtfully into the forest.

"Oh, I don't wanna know that at all! Nobody's gonna get me into this forest any more, let alone into any forest at all, anyway. As I said earlier: I hate forests!" Eric blocked.

And as a confirmation of his words there suddenly was a loud grumbling scream out of the forest: it was the stranger. He probably just had sensed that Sheila was free again and no longer his companion.

Eric jumped back for fear. Bobby sneered about it.

"Well, and what are we doing now?" Diana asked.

"Maybe congratulate yourself to your strengthened friendship and the survived situation and be glad about it?" suddenly sounded behind them.

"Dungeon Master!" Presto called surprised.

"Once again..." Eric couldn't help saying.

And none of the others threw warning glances to him or admonished him this time.

Instead, Hank asked unusual sharply, "Did you perhaps know that such a thing could happen to us, Dungeon Master?"

Dungeon Master slowly nodded and said, "Yes, of course I knew that. Nothing happens here by chance and..."

"What? You already knew that this Pankratius was about to attack me and turn me into a murdering beast, so that I would attack my friends without knowing?" Sheila interrupted him furiously.

"Yes, I'm sorry that you had to go through this, but I was quite sure that your friends would help you."

"You only were 'quite sure'? You didn't know it exactly?
What if we wouldn't have done it?
We would have left our friend here behind, probably for absolutely nothing..." Eric snorted

"Definitely not 'for nothing'. Your behaviour showed that you stand up for each other. You never ever would let the others down and that tightens your team spirit, doesn't it? This makes you stronger for further enemies." Dungeon Master replied.

"So there ain't any portal at all, huh?" Presto asked.

This question was in everybody's mind.

"I'm afraid not."

"I knew it!" Eric scowled. "And for that we were nearly gonna risk our lives!"
He shook his head stunned.

"Well, you didn't find a portal but still something important: your community. That's also very important; don't you think so, too?"

"Yeah, yeah, very important..." Eric sighed.

"It ain't very honest to lie to us like that, but you're right. I guess our friendship really grew stronger." Hank admitted after a while.

Dungeon Master smiled at him wisely. "Certainly, Ranger."

"And what are we gonna do now?" Bobby asked tired.

"Well, there's a village not very far away from here. There you are definitely going to find a tavern, which would accommodate you." Dungeon Master answered.

"What? No riddles and lies 'bout a mysterious portal that leads us home any more now?" Eric asked sarcastically.

"No, you already went through enough for today."

"You don't say so!" Eric snorted.

"Well, I think we should go there as soon as possible. It's slowly getting dark." Hank suggested.

The others agreed to this suggestion.

"Ok, I ain't in the mood any longer to search for a portal that didn't exist at all." Eric replied and looked with that over to Dungeon Master.

As opposed to the others, he just couldn't forgive that easy that they were told lies. He always had to express his disappointment, so that everybody could notice that he still was angry about it.

Then the friends glanced once more into the forest and set off to the village, after they waved goodbye to Dungeon Master.

When they slowly left, Eric complained once again, "Yeah, c'mon, let's go into our next adventure where we're just gonna get empty promises 'bout a portal again..."

There sounded a fivefold, "Er-ic!"

"Yeah, yeah, never mind. All of you are always against me, but I only said the truth and if..."

Dungeon Master already couldn't hear any more what else Eric was saying to his friends. He was left behind alone, smiling to himself.
"Well, my dear friends. Sometime your patient waiting and your search will come to a happy end. Because nothing happens here by chance!" the man said and disappeared the way he always did.

THE END