"We could try teleporting to Inkwater Marsh," Fir suggested. "But...no, there's too high of a population there."
"And now they'll likely be searching for us, too!" Mint moaned. "Oooh, how are we even going to get to the dark forest?!"
"Keo? You've been awfully quiet..."
The three of them were staring down at Mint's map of Niwen, scheming how to sneak past the army of spirits who once called them siblings.
"There is one other option," said Keo, breaking his thinking posture and kneeling down in front of them. "The Midnight Burrows."
"The what?" asked Fir.
Keo pointed at a spot on the map where nothing was drawn.
"The Midnight Burrows, it's a forgotten cave of portals hidden southwest of Inkwater Marsh. It's not often visited, so it likely isn't on either of your maps."
"But you've been there?" asked Mint.
"Yes. Once, while exploring on my own almost a year ago, I stumbled across it. There's a spirit well just by the entrance. We could teleport there, then hopefully sneak our way out since it's already very far south. The Dark Forest will be right there!"
"But we've never been down there! We've never seen that spirit well!" said Fir. "That means only you will be able to teleport there!"
"Not if you two hold onto me."
"That's...not how this works...is it?"
"Well, I can't say I've done it often...but Yaeger and Quito did teach me how to do it some months ago."
"Are you're sure it'll work?" asked Mint.
"Absolutely not."
Keo held out his paws anyway.
"But again, what choice do we have?"
Fir and Mint just looked at each other.
"Do you trust me?" asked Keo.
"It's either this, or we fight our own siblings," said Fir to Mint as he took hold of one of Keo's paws.
"Weren't you just fighting me less than an hour ago?" she replied.
"I only just realized that we learned paw-to-paw to control our own; Keo and I could maybe take on four or five in a fight, but an army? Forget it!"
"And we'd rather not kill other spirits if we don't have to," Keo finished.
Mint took a deep breath and stowed away her map. The last thing she wanted was to kill another spirit as well. It made her sick just trying to imagine it!
"Very well," she said, taking hold of Keo's other paw. "If it really is our only course of action."
"You two hold each other's paws, too," Keo ordered.
Fir and Mint nodded and did so.
The three of them sat in their circle, and before long an aura of light began to glow around them as they were lifted into the air and began to spin.
. . .
The trio fell out of the air, tumbling down onto the grass.
"Yeah, I'm still working on a way to make that last part more graceful," Keo grunted.
Mint rolled onto her stomach. As she stood and shook herself off, she involuntarily took in a deep breath and started shivering.
It was cold, cold enough to where she could see her own breath. She looked back at her two brothers and saw them coming to the same realization.
She held her paws up to her mouth and started breathing into them as she took in her surroundings. The place had a dark, sapphire mist around it, not too thick, but thick enough to be visible from a short distance away.
Clearly, no light could make it down here, resulting in a lack of warmth that was painfully evident.
"D-does the S-Spirit T-Tree's influence not reach us d-down here?" Mint stuttered. "W-why is it so c-c-cold?!"
"I'm s-sure the Spirit Tree c-can do a lot of t-things," Keo replied. "B-but bringing warmth t-to a p-place that gets no sun...is not one of them!"
He then walked past her, and continued until he was almost directly underneath a large, vertical shaft.
"Come on," he said. "The exit's up this way!"
"W-why'd you stop?" asked Fir.
Keo very cautiously tiptoed towards where he'd be directly under the shaft, looking directly up into it the entire time.
"B-because," he started, his eyes unwavering. "Last time I f-fell d-down here, there were c-corrupted mortars shooting down this thing."
"C-corruptions?!" Fir exclaimed. "Here?!"
Then, just as Keo took another step, a belching and gelatinous mass could be heard spitting something out of its orifice from above. Keo dash-rolled out of the way before a burning, pink projectile landed exactly where he'd been standing! It remained on the ground for a second as a spiky, pink landmine, before exploding on its own and releasing its toxic and smelly juices.
Mint and Fir recoiled upon its impact, both of them adorning shocked looks on their faces.
"Yup! Looks like the Spirit T-Tree's light can't reach here either," said Keo. "Or else they'd be g-gone. Thankfully, we need them anyway: w-we have to use their spitballs to b-b-bash our way up!"
"You can't be s-serious!" said Fir.
"Hey! We agreed there were no b-b-better ideas, remember?"
Then, without hesitation, Keo jumped to the same spot and bashed off the next projectile that came his way, flinging himself into the air and dashing over to the nearest wall.
"Just follow my lead, and you'll both be fine!" he yelled down, holding onto his wall with sticky.
The next projectile came his way, and off he went, bashing, dashing, and disappearing up into the column.
"L-ladies first?" said Fir.
Mint just glared at him.
"Kidding!" he said, raising his paws and walking underneath the shaft. "J-just kidding!"
. . .
There were thorny vines to avoid on the way up that Keo forgot to mention, but thankfully they were obvious and the journey was short: only two mortar corruptions were present and there was a lantern to bash off of just below the exit.
A short climb later, up and away from the shrine, they cautiously emerged into Inkwater Marsh. No other spirits were present.
"Good call!" said Fir, playfully punching Keo in the shoulder. "No wonder spirits don't usually venture this way: it's still decaying down there!"
Mint shuddered in disgust.
"I'm just glad to be out!" she said.
No matter how much exposure she had to decay, it still wasn't natural to a spirit. In truth, all three of them were already a little shook, but they had to press on.
"Thanks, but there's only more where that came from," said Keo pointing towards a clearing through some ferns. "This way. From here, Mint will have to direct us."
Said clearing was all too familiar to the trio: this was where their fight with the howlers had taken place! Fortunately, none were present this time around, and it was a trivial task to cross the river. However, their anxiety only grew as they approached the dying trees.
"Why is it creepier than I remember?" asked Fir.
"Because you never had to look into it for this long," said Mint. "There also wasn't this much fog before."
The foreboding, grey mist made the forest seem more like a graveyard.
"Guys, before we go in," said Mint. "I need to tell you something."
"Hold on, can't they see us from here?" Fir interrupted.
"If they do, they'll be fine with us venturing in," said Keo. "They all think going in here is suicide, remember?"
"Well...isn't it?"
"We've all been trained well enough. We can handle ourselves...now what was it you wanted to tell us, Mint?"
She was going to let them know how the howlers, after cutting her, may have picked up her scent, but after that exchange, she was convinced they had enough to worry about. What if she told them, and they didn't follow her in?!
"Um, I was just going to say," she started. "Thank you...for believing in me as much as you have. I'm just grateful that I don't have to do this alone."
"Oh, is that it?" said Fir. "No worries! Like we said: you're our sister, and you deserve a chance to let us hear what you have to say."
He glanced anxiously into the woods again.
"And see what it is you have to show us," he finished.
"Heh, yeah," said Mint.
"Come on," said Keo. "Time's awaisting!"
Before long, the trio was out of sight, seemingly consumed by the void.
. . .
Author's Note: Transition scenes are the worst. The main plot points and emotional scenes are the ones you think of first, the ones that inspire you to create the story in the first place, but you never immediately think of how to get from one scene to the next. This chapter just happened to be one of those "fillers".
That being said, this whole sequence was still a joy to write! I hope you enjoyed!
P.S: Please feel free to leave a review. I love interacting with those who take the time to read what I spent time creating! :)