Chapter 18: Going Forward

After the meeting, it had been decided that we would first head to the outskirts of Bastok in order to expose the stone to sunshine, it was still early and sunny out, so that was the most obvious and easiest choice. After some brief preperatiopn in the Bastok market, the six of us set out.

"...soooooo..." Murris, drawled in a bored sounding voice.

"Y'know, for something so vitally important to our future, this feels kinda...mundane, like we're going shopping. Shouldn't completing this task feel a bit more...I dunno DRAMATIC?" Lauria complained. I sighed in exasperation.

"Look, I don't even know what's supposed to HAPPEN alright? Besides, I chose this part first BECAUSE it's less 'dramatic' I mean, haven't we all had enough drama already?"

"Amen to that!" Silive shouted.

I lifted up the stone and held it in the air so that the sun reflected off it. "Geez, how LONG is this gunna take? We got six more spots t-" Chheeeng. I heard the ruby emit a strange pulsating sound and suddenly it began to glow. "Hey, Hey HEY I I DID IT WE DID IT! IT'S GLOWING IT's GLOOOOWWWWING!"

Everybody suddenly gathered atround to watch it glow. "Wowwy-zowy! Looky wooky at it!" exclaimed Curru in awe. Suddenly, the ruby disappeared from my hand.

"HEY!" Ferdinand had grabbed it from me and was now holding it up and squinting at it. "Man, this is what we were waiting so anxiously for? What a buncha B. He tossed it back towards me, I caught it angrily.

"HEY! DON"T TOSS IT LIKE THAT YA MORON! YAH MIGHT BREAK IT!" I calmly slipped the ruby back into my travel pouch. "I AWWTA GIVE YOU A-" I was cut off when I saw something vauge somewhere ahead... a strange... creature... greenish blue, with a dot of red somewhere, about the size of a small dog... at least, I THOUGHT I saw something, but i blinked and then it was gone, which left me in a daze, a daze I was snapped out of when-

"What? You awwta what? Cummon big man, spit it out!" Ferdinand's taunting words caught the edge of my conciousness.

"Dammit Ferdinand Just shut up!" I shouted, I could have come up with something clever, but, but, Well, WHY DOn't YOU Try coming up with something when you just saw some strange lookin thing giving YOU the eye!

"GAWD -BOTH- OF YOU KNOCK IT OFF IT'S GETTING OLD!" shouted Lauria, who then proceded to cast stone on both of us.

"OWWWW! STAY OUT OF IT!" we both shouted simultaneously, and continued to glare and growl at each other.

"OHHH GAAAAAAWWWWWWWD!" Lauria clutched at her head and moaned in annoyance.

At that point Murris stepped forward. "This REALLY is starting to get annoying. Why don't you two boys give this up before I-"

"YOU SHUT UP!" and me and Ferdianad both attempted to punch Murris, Yes that's right, we attempted to punch a Galka Paladin in full armor, can you guess what happened I'll bet you can, I'LL BET YOU CAN!

"THAT'S IT!" He lifted up both fists and thumped them down on our heads. All I remeber is becoming very slinky like before blacking out.

Suddenly, everything became hazy, My eyes opened, I tried hard to see, as my eyesight cleared I saw... Ground I was being... carried? I looked to my right, there was Ferdinand on the other side. I looked up, saw Silvie and Lauria, they appeared otherwise distracted,(HAH YOU THOUGHT IT WAS THE HAZE WORLD AGAIN DIDN't YOU? DIDN'T YOU?) So I took the opportunity to admire their beauty. Wait Wait WHAT NO NO FORGET I SAID THAT! I'M NOT INTERESTED I SWEAR!

When I saw that they were about to look back at me I pretended to still be out cold, maybe I would b able to hear what they were saying if they got closer... But that notion went unfulfilled, they became silent as soon as they would have been in vocal range.

SPLASH

"SPLAH! SPLUH SPLHA WHA?" I sputtered and sputtawwed, from the unexpected splash of wetness. "Whe What Wha The H?" I shouted out and sturggled to free myself from wetness.

"Gurd Durnint." I suddenly felt the wight around me shift, and suddenly I found myself falling and-Thud hitting the ground hard. Murris had released me from his grip. "If yer awake thas great, walk on your own. we're almost to the Valkurm Dunes." I got up and rubbed my head.

Both Lauria and Silvie were chuckling at this point. "Got him?" asked Lauria.

"Totally got him!" Silvie responded gleefully, slapping her a high five. I cocked an eye at this and stood up, rubbing my side.

"Since when are you two so chummy chummy?" I asked.

"HMMMMM?" Lauria hmmed at me smuggly and walked past.

"I wonderrrrr..!" Silvie teased and walked past me as well. I watched both of them walk, such nice walks... and suddenly saw their eyes flick back toward me! I wa quick enough to look away though, so they didn't catch me, SUPER SMOOTH! THAS ME!. I followed them all to Valkurm Dunes.

xex

Almost as soon as we got there I heard strange little voices. "Hey looky looky!"

"Many many!"

"We take we take!"

"HEADS UP!" I shouted when I saw the source of the voices, Goblin's, LOTS of them. converging on our position with unexpected speed. We all assumed battle positions, but we couldn't assume a formation, we we're being converged on from three sides.

"DAMMIT!" I cast the Dia series of spenns on as many of them as I could hit, managing to take a few down in that burst, but there were still alot by the time I tapped out, I Enfire'd my dagger and charged at the remaining enemies.

Meanwhile behind me Curru and Lauria attacked with their own brand of spells, Silvie, making some impressive use of her new Samurai enhanced Monk skills. and Murris, Murris did what he did best, take the hits and dish them out in spades.

After a long and arduos battle(hey we were ambushed by them lay off!) we finally beat all the Goblins. At which point I became aware of something...in the distance... I tried to catch a glimpse of it... it was, greenish-blue, with a red dot on its forehead, about the size of a small dog... I felt my eyes widen, I tried to tell the others about it... but the minute I looked away it was gone.

I reached into my pocket and looked at the ruby, it was glowing.

Two down...

end chptr 18