A/N: Okay, I know I've said that I won't work on this story for a while, but this story is officially off hiatus! I've gotten it all planned and such. So, well, cross your fingers and hope that this is good enough for your likings!

ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫ

Chapter 3

A chilly breeze blew by as Kiyhua, Laura, Cody, and Naruti walked through the decayed gates of Tida. The once beautiful and lively town was now nothing more than a ghost town. The sky was tinted with a sick, green haze, which clouded the town in perpetual darkness, even during daylight. The houses in sight were decayed and in shambles, and the grass surrounding the houses was either dead or overgrown. A rocky path that was still as gray as it had been during Tida's age of prosperity led away from the gates and plunged deeper into the town.

"So … This is Tida …" Naruti said with a gulp.

"Ugh … I hate it here!" Cody wrinkled his nose.

"Come on, you babies!" Laura snapped, fixing Cody and Naruti with a glare. "It's still just like any other dungeon with myrrh. And the sooner we get the drop, the sooner we can get out of here!"

"I'm all for that," Kiyhua agreed, a nonchalant expression on his face. "I don't want to be here. I want to get to Goblin's Wall, destroy it, and get back home."

"Hey, hey! This isn't about you, you know," Cody told him crossly. "We need to get myrrh for Oracle!"

"Revenge needs to be your second priority," Naruti added. "I mean … We need to get the myrrh, or everyone in our town is going to die, anyway."

"So make yourself useful and scout ahead," Laura ordered Kiyhua, throwing a small object on a string to him. "And make sure you tell us about any monsters up ahead!"

Kiyhua caught the object easily and examined it. It was a tiny crystal necklace. He put the precious trinket in his pocket and retorted, "Well, fine. If it gets us out of here faster, then I will." He ran down the rocky path that led to the heart of Tida. As he jogged out of sight, he shouted back at his fellow caravanners, "Keep up!"

"Hey! We're not ready! Come back!" Cody hollered at him, but his demand went unheard. Cody sighed and murmured, "Selkies … Why do they have to be so fast and stubborn?"

"Well, I guess they have to be good at something," Laura responded. "Cody, get the chalice. We need to get moving."

"Right away, Madam Knight," Cody said sarcastically as he picked up the chalice. "Would you like me to polish your armor now?"

Laura glared at him. "Very funny."

"Guys, shouldn't we be trying to get myrrh, not fighting with each other?" Naruti inquired.

"Oh, yes, the myrrh." Laura released her right hand's grip on her spear and lowered it to her side. "Hey, selkie! Any monsters ahead!" she shouted to Kiyhua, although she didn't know if he could hear her.

"Well, there was a carrion worm and a gremlin!" came the reply. "But I already dispatched of them. With no help from you, almighty lilty."

Laura frowned. "That selkie has some nerve. You, clavat, take the rear. You can defend us from any assaults from the back. You, yuke, will stay between the clavat and me, and you will use spells to assist us. I'll cover the front, because I have the most fighting experience of all of us."

"You know, my name is Naruti," the peeved yuke said, crossing her arms. "I'm not simply a no-name yuke."

Cody groaned. "This is going to take forever. Can we just go?"

"Fine, then! Let's go!" Laura demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

The lilty, the clavat, and the yuke assumed themselves in the position that Laura had described. They swiftly made their way through the deserted pathway of Tida, following the rocky stone road.

"I … hate … this … town." Cody shivered.

"So do I," Naruti agreed, rubbing her hands together. She felt a little cold. "I don't like the atmosphere here."

"It's just a town," Laura insisted impatiently. "Now, do you see any monsters around here?"

"Well … no."

"No … Not y— Hey!"

Laura and Cody quickly averted their eyes to where Naruti's were. The three caravanners found themselves staring at a purple and dark blue plant monster and a gremlin. The two monsters spotted the Oracle-landers. The plant monster shot a fireball from its mouth and the gremlin moved in for the kill.

"Block it!" Laura shouted, running out of the fireball's range.

"Defend!" Naruti yelled, closing her eyes in concentration. Her body went transparent and the fireball passed through her body harmlessly.

"Aarghh!" Cody screamed, falling on his back. He had raised his shield to defend himself from the fireball that Laura and Naruti had avoided. The fireball had hit his shield and the impact had sent Cody sprawling backwards and on the ground. "That hurt!" he shouted, picking himself off the ground.

"Get up, clavat!" Laura yelled, raising her spear to strike at the gremlin. She brought it down on the monster's head … or she would've had the sneaky critter not evaded the strike. "This thing is definitely faster than a goblin …"

"Let me try." Naruti dropped the defensive spell and closed her eyes. "Cover me, okay?"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Cody responded, running in front of Naruti with his shield raised. The plant had spat another fireball at her. Cody had blocked the attack with his shield. This time, he managed to stay on his feet. "That plant is bugging me. Time to take it down!"

"You do that!" Laura shouted to him, trying to catch the gremlin. "I'll take care of this thing here!"

The clavat nodded and charged at the plant. The creature was rooted to the ground and could not move to avoid any attacks. Cody brought his sword down on the plant monster, making it howl in pain. The plant monster then took a sharp intake of breath. Cody continued hammering away at it, unaware of the consequences that would come.

"Get out of there, clavat! It's going to spit poison at you!" Laura hollered to Cody, raising her gauntlet to protect herself from the bulb on the gremlin's head, which was aimed at her stomach.

"My name is Co— Did you say poison?" Cody asked, cutting his first sentence short.

"Yeah, I said poison!" Laura retorted.

Cody turned back to the plant monster, which had just exhaled, releasing poisonous fumes into the air. His eyes widened and he complained, "Oh, man!" He quickly covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve and stepped away from the plant, his shield raised to avoid any fireballs that might be sent his way. When the poison subsided, Cody screamed, "You're going down!" and slashed at the monster until it died. When it finally shrieked and collapsed, dead, Cody cheered, "All right! I defeated a monster!"

Meanwhile, Naruti, who had been concentrating on her spell, had almost gathered enough energy to cast it. A wave of blue energy encircled her. Naruti opened her eyes and yelled, "Slow!" as she released her spell and it hit the gremlin.

"Slow?" Laura and Cody repeated.

"The gremlin appeared to not have been affected by the spell, but when it charged at the three caravanners, it found its movements slow and sluggish.

"Ah, the slow spell …" Laura smirked evilly and raised her spear. The gremlin seemed to gulp as it tried to run, but Laura threw her spear at it and stabbed it in the stomach. She took her spear back and said, "Don't mess with the lilty."

"It's not dead yet," Naruti announced, a very bright and light blue wave of energy surrounding her. "Thunder!" she cried, letting the spell strike the gremlin.

"Yah!" Cody hollered, bringing his sword down on the gremlin, causing it to shriek. "Take that!"

"Die!" Laura raised her spear above her head and sliced the gremlin in half, finally killing the small but agile creature. She crossed her arms, gave her two teammates a smug look, and told them, "Well … That was all right, but we'll have to do better than that."

"I agree with you for once," Cody said, not bothering to retort against the arrogance in her voice. "That was too much work for just a gremlin and a plant monster."

Naruti nodded. "Yes, I agree. Gremlins, along with those plant-monster hybrids, are not the strongest of monsters. If it's too hard for us to take down those two monsters, then we will not be efficient at all."

"Maybe if Kiyhua helped," Cody suggested. "I mean, Yuri, Ishaow, and Yadin function as a group, not as a single person."

"Are you suggesting we need the selkie?" Laura interrogated, an irritated look spreading across her face.

"Well, I'm just saying that we might need teamwork," the clavat clarified.

"True …" Naruti said slowly.

Laura sighed. "Fine. Fine. We'll get the selkie to help us. We have to find him first, though."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find him already!" Cody said.

The three caravanners nodded and advanced further into Tida. After walking a few paces, they realized for the first time that they were actually on a rock ledge that was raised several feet above the rest of Tida. Cody bent over to look down, but almost slipped and fell off the ledge. Luckily, Naruti was able to cast Stop on him and move him to safety.

"That was a close one!" Cody said once he was safely away from the ledge.

"Yeah, be careful!" Laura scolded.

Cody stuck his tongue out at Laura. "Stop acting like the boss of me!"

Naruti groaned loudly. "Can we please just go already?"

Cody and Laura quit arguing and agreed with Naruti. The three of them walked down the ledge, determined not to be caught off guard when the monsters attacked. But the only monsters they saw were already dead. Kiyhua was standing next to the carcasses, a triumphant smirk on his face.

"Hey, you really shouldn't have run off like that!" Naruti berated him, putting her hands on her waist.

"Yeah," Laura agreed, crossing her arms and returning the selkie's smirk. "What if you got killed by a monster? Then what'd we have to tell your parents?"

"I appreciate your concern, really," Kiyhua replied in a tone that obviously showed that he didn't. "But I don't need you, or your help."

"Oh, come on!" Cody cried impatiently. "I'm not going to say something utterly stupid such as, 'why can't we all get along.' But why can't we at least cooperate while we're here?"

"Well, we can't have cooperation if certain people continue to run from his team." Laura sneered at Kiyhua.

Kiyhua sneered back. "And we can't have cooperation either if certain people continue to act as if she's a higher life form than the rest of her team."

Naruti sighed and shook her head. "This is exactly what we're talking about! Now, we all know that we don't like each other—except for Cody and me. But that's not the point. The point is that we need to put our differences aside and work together."

Kiyhua and Laura just stared at Naruti as if she were speaking another language.

"Or," Cody spoke up, "we can all fail and never come back to Oracle, having fallen at Tida for the lack of teamwork. And, of course, doom our town."

"That is not going to happen," Laura barked at Cody, "because we are going to get the stupid myrrh and we are going to get out of Tida and back to Oracle! I'm the strongest out of all of us, and I'm going to use my strength to whap anything that gets in my way!"

"You seriously think I'm going to fall now?" Kiyhua retorted, his hands gripping his weapon tightly. "Well, guess what? I'm going to show you all this: I'm not useless! I'll use my reflexes to guard us against surprise attacks, so prepare to eat your words!"

"Great!" Naruti piped up, excited that Cody had managed to drill some sense into Kiyhua and Laura's thick skulls. "And I'll be there, too! With magic!"

"And you need me to keep the balance, that's obvious," Cody finished. "So let's get this show on the road!"

The four reluctant teammates hurriedly agreed to that and ran down the rest of the ledge that they had found themselves on, determined to retrieve the myrrh at Tida and leave the creepy town. Once they reached level ground again, they found themselves under attack by two carrion worms, a bomb, and a gremlin that were waiting at the foot of the ledge.

"Okay … who's got a plan?" Cody asked, holding his shield in front of his body and his eyes darting nervously from the monsters to his teammates.

"Me," Laura answered arrogantly, a smirk twitching at her lips as she eyed the monsters. "There are four of them and four of us. I'll take one of those carrion worms, and the yuke—I mean, Naruti—can provide magic and defense for me. Kiyhua can get that gremlin because they're both fast and annoying."

"Hey!" Kiyhua objected, displeased that Laura had called him annoying. He glared at Laura momentarily before charging at the gremlin.

"And Cody can get the bomb there," Laura concluded. "But watch out for the explosion that follows its defeat."

"I know that!" Cody told Laura impatiently, giving her an annoyed glance and then striking out at the bomb with his sword.

Once the boys were gone, Laura and Naruti found themselves faced with the two large carrion worms. One of the worms inched towards the two girls and attempted to tackle them. Laura gave it a swift strike with her spear, leaving a deep cut on the creature's body. Naruti followed with a powerful fire spell that set the worm on fire.

"You might want to move, there's something brewing under you," Laura, as she dodged a fiery tackle from the burning worm, warned her teammate.

Naruti was confused for a moment, but when she looked down at her feet, she saw an electric blue ring of thunder forming under her. There was not enough time to dodge, but Naruti, being the quick thinker that she always was, defended herself by going intangible.

Meanwhile, Kiyhua was having a little trouble dealing with the gremlin. The monster was swift, much swifter than Kiyhua had expected it to be. The selkie brought his racket down on the gremlin, but the little monster had already dodged it and was behind him. The gremlin lashed the bulb on top of its head to strike Kiyhua, who had jumped out of the way in time.

"Kiyhua! Need some help?" Cody called to him, using his shield to fend off the bomb's attacks.

The young selkie gave his clavat teammate a glare. "Hmm … you think?" he shot back sarcastically. "Besides, I think you could use some help yourself!"

Cody laughed sheepishly. "Uh … yeah, I could …"

"Well, then, screw the lilty's plan, I've got one of my own!" Kiyhua jumped over the gremlin that was charging at him and ran to Cody's side.

"What are you—"

"I know what I'm doing!" Kiyhua interrupted Cody.

"All right, whatever you say," Cody sighed impatiently, lowering his shield and stepping back from the bomb's strike.

The selkie stood behind his clavat teammate, watching the gremlin out of the corner of his eye. Once he felt the monster was close enough, Kiyhua snatched Cody's sword out of the clavat's hand and use it to impale the bomb that was coming towards them for a tackle.

"Now, hold up your shield to defend us both from the bomb's flames!" Kiyhua ordered.

"Are you crazy?" Cody demanded of his teammate, incredulously glaring at Kiyhua. "My shield can't withstand the flames!"

"Just do it!"

With a heavy sigh, the clavat followed his selkie teammate's instructions. The gremlin that had been charging at Kiyhua reached its target, along with Cody, and prepared to strike. It wasn't too bright, however, as it was unaware that it was also charging right at the bomb, which was due to explode any second. When it did, it went in a grand explosion that burned the gremlin to a crisp and pelted the two Oracle caravanners with intense heat and light, even with the defense of Cody's shield.

"Is it over?" Cody asked himself once the heat and light died down. He opened his eyes and removed his arm from its place over his eyes. Once he was able to see, however, he was met with a disturbing sight. "Ah! M-my shield!"

"Wow, it's a light show all its own!" Kiyhua commented amusedly, absentmindedly glancing at the dead gremlin and bomb.

With another agonized shriek, Cody hurled his flaming shield to the ground and attempted to stomp the flames out. Once the fire was extinguished, though, parts of the shield were charred a smoky black and the already weak makeshift shield was even weaker than before.

"It's just a stupid shield!" Kiyhua snapped at Cody when he saw the clavat getting slightly teary eyed over his ruined shield. "It was a pretty weak one, too."

"But …" Cody sniffed. "I made it myself!"

Kiyhua shook his head and sighed, disgusted by actions he didn't understand. "Quit your whining and let's get those worms that are bothering the girls, okay?"

"Fine." The clavat gave his shield another mournful glance, then tossed it aside as if it were junk, drew his sword, and followed Kiyhua as they charged towards the two carrion worms.

When the two male caravanners reached the girls, though, the worms had been dispatched of and the girls completely unharmed and standing next to a locked, wooden gate. Naruti was bending over one of the worms—the one that hadn't been burned—and was plucking its antennas out of its head. Laura was watching Naruti's actions with a disgusted look.

"Well, I guess you guys didn't need us after all," Cody finally said, scratching the back of his head.

"Of course we didn't!" Laura answered scornfully. "These worms were just easy picking! And …"—she turned to glare at Naruti condescendingly—"I have absolutely no idea what she is doing."

"I'm collecting worm antennas," Naruti told Laura calmly.

"We can see that," Kiyhua retorted, scoffing and crossing his arms. "Care to tell us why? Let me guess. It's because you're weird."

"No!" Naruti turned her head to glare at the less-than-sensitive twosome, Kiyhua and Laura, although they couldn't tell. Naruti continued, "I'm collecting worm antennas because they'll help craft new accessories that'll help us in our journey. I'm also sending some to my parents so they can experiment on them."

Laura shook her head. "I will never—and will never want to—understand yukes or alchemists."

Cody glared at his lilty teammate, an offended look mixed in with anger. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to know more about the world!" he told Laura.

"What is there to know?" Kiyhua asked in response before Laura could answer. "There is miasma. It sucks. There are giant crystals. They lose their power after a year. There are myrrh trees. We need to get myrrh to power crystals." Kiyhua pounded the wooden gate in frustration. "There's nothing to know!"

"There's always something to know," Cody retorted. "But that's not the point right now. Where do we go from here?"

"One of the carrion worms that we were fighting dropped this key," Naruti answered, walking towards her teammates and holding a gray crescent-shaped key in her right hand, the worm antennas in the other. "There's a pedestal right there, by the gate. I think functions as a keyhole."

"Then what are we waiting for? Give me that!" Laura snatched the strangely shaped key out of Naruti's feathery hands and stumbled towards the pedestal, finding it hard to walk with an oversized key in her arms, especially with her short stature. She stood on her tiptoes and let the key fall into the pedestal. The gate creaked open by itself.

"Whoa … creepy …" Cody remarked.

"Well, come on!" Kiyhua shouted impatiently, pointing his weapon at the others. "I'd rather not stay in this ghost town longer than I have to, so let's get the myrrh and split!"

"I too tire of this desolate, abandoned town," Naruti concurred, raising her hand gracefully in agreement. "Let us continue."

"All right! Let's do this!" Cody declared, raising his sword in the air and waving it triumphantly.

"Humph … then we better get moving, should we?" Laura smirked at the others arrogantly, but the smirk quickly disappeared as Laura gripped her spear in her hands and glared at the open door.

The four caravanners took a deep breath, dispelling all of their worries, and walked into the heart of Tida.

ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫ

A/N: This chapter got updated, and I think it's better now than the previous one. More action, more dialogue, plus more character interaction.