Hello dear readers. It has certainly been a fair bit of time, hasn't it?
I suppose it's better late than never, though. Plus, I'm still really liking this story myself.
So, without further ado, let's just jump right into it!
Chapter 5: Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks
=Music: Map: Greenhorne=
So… after all that, a quick shower, some breakfast, gearing up and then some traveling, we arrived back at Greenhorne.
Apparently the Mii's who had their faces stolen didn't actually get them back until we came up to them. Then the face flew down from the sky, floated a bit, and then stuck back onto the recipients face.
Carefree Guide Bob Ross thanked us for the service we did him and gave us a large sack of money, which we accepted gratefully. Meanwhile, Mick Foley was absolutely ecstatic that Lucoa's face was now back on. The two of them PROFUSELY thanked out group for saving her face, giving me something strange.
Three tickets, blue in color with red detailing and what looked like red sunglasses on the left side.
"Those are Game Tickets." Lucoa explained to me. "If you ever have the urge, you can spend those at the arcade in pretty much any Inn for a chance to win things. You guys deserve them far more than I do."
However, things weren't anywhere close to being done. Whilst there, I noticed a small equipment shop, to which I herded everyone inside. After a good twenty minutes of haggling, everyone walked out in much different get-ups than they had been in previously.
My Mii now wore a chef's uniform covered in what looked like it was made out of newspaper, for some reason. He also had a new frying pan, one shaped like a doughnut for some reason. I have no idea if it was any good at being used for cooking, especially with that hole on the middle of the thing, but if my Mii was happy with it for now, that was enough for me.
Susie now wore robes, or as she called them, 'vestments', that were made out of rather sturdy wicker, with a green stripe of some fabric or another wrapping around the rim of the hat, the cuffs of the sleeves, and the bottom. Her weapon was upgraded from a stick to an actual staff, with a silver crystal on the top of it, but I think she still liked the stick. To be honest, it kinda suited her better, in my opinion.
Brave had a rather cute outfit that was, for the most part, lime green in color but also with white polka-dots covering it from top to bottom, and her microphone was now a little bit bigger, pink in color, and with a cute ribbon attached to it. She seemed happy with it, as she said that her voice sounded almost three times better on that mic than her first one ever sounded.
Purple Guy managed to fit in an upgrade of his own equipment too, his outfit now appearing far more outdoorsy than his last, with a woolen cap and a rather comfy-looking jacket. The only problem was that the shop didn't sell it in the color purple, so he reluctantly had to wear one that was black in color. "Hey, black looks good on just about anybody." I offered as he reluctantly bought the clothes.
He also managed to grab a new dagger, this one even bigger than his old one. You'd think with a name like Chef's Dagger it'd be reserved for only people like my Mii or something, but my Mii said he felt far more comfy holding the frying pan.
As for me? The shop didn't have much in the way of protection for me, but I did manage to buy a few more clothes (considering I had been wearing the same outfit for at least three days now), and on top of that, a small wooden shield for my own defense. I almost didn't buy it, but my Mii convinced me that I was just as important to grab equipment for. "Besides, it's not that expensive." he added.
"Yeah, but we don't have much money left…" I murmured, wincing at just how much money we actually had spent that day. A conservative estimate is that we spent well over one thousand and two-hundred gold in JUST that one trip on everyone's things. If we were spending that much NOW, how much would everything else cost down the road?
Anyway, once we finally got our things together we continued along the path. Our goal was clear: the Dark Lord had been spotted north of the forest, and we needed to see if he was still there or not.
It took a while, even with my time-space warping 3DS covering a large part of the distance, but eventually we made it to what was supposed to be the area the Dark Lord was last seen at.
The area was littered with far more rocks than the plains usually had. It was seriously like a little maze in here, with literal piles of rocks creating walls and mountains around us.
Brave took a stab in the dark. "Hello?" she called out. "Anyone here?"
No response. Either that meant the Dark Lord was here and was hiding, or he wasn't here. Otherwise we would've heard him warp away.
"I don't see anything… but we should still be careful." my Mii murmured.
We cautiously wandered in, wary for any sign of something unfriendly hiding out amongst the rocks.
Suddenly, just as we rounded a corner, a monster slowly floated in. I mean that literally, as the monster in question was a cloud. It almost seemed to have hands as well, seeing as two smaller clouds were nearby the pair of eyes stuck to it.
It didn't notice us at first. It seemed content to simply float there, minding its own business.
"We should surprise it." I murmured, motioning for the others to be quiet. "Get some good damage quickly.
Purple Guy grinned. "Leave that to me. I'll provide distraction. You all do the rest."
Faster than I could completely follow, Purple Guy dashed away at a crouch, around the other side of the rock.
For a moment, the cloud continued to mind itself.
That was until the dagger came from nowhere.
It slammed into the cloud, apparently doing damage despite being… you know… A CLOUD.
It looked around angrily, trying to find the problem, when Purple Guy dashed out in front of the thing, looking smug.
"Looking for me?" he asked, posing with his dagger.
The cloud started floating towards him, but it never seemed to expect our ambush from behind.
Susie slapped the creature with her staff, my Mii slammed into the cloud with his frying pan, and Brave tossed her mic quickly.
This combined damage quickly grew too much for the enemy, and it was swiftly defeated by surprise.
My friend started celebrating, but that might've been a little too quick.
I noticed something float in behind Purple Guy, and it didn't look happy.
"Purple Guy! Hit the deck!" I called out.
Purple Guy looked behind him in mistake. Something hit him in the face with enough force to knock him back a fair bit.
Another cloud monster, by the looks of it. A pair of Rock Moth's also flew in, quickly grouping up with the cloud.
"Either this was a trap, or a VERY inconvenient coincidence…" I murmured.
=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=
The cloud, which my 3DS identified at a Cumulus, quickly blew forward and slammed into Purple Guy again, though now he was ready for it.
Susie charged forward, and Purple Guy followed up with a toss of his knife. The other two quickly attacked as well, with Brave finishing off one of the Moths.
Then the cloud moved. But rather than attack someone, it instead… started to rain a little as it floated above the remaining Rock Moth.
That rain seemed to somehow HEAL that damn moth, if the happy eyes that the moth now had indicated anything.
"I always HATE it when monsters can heal themselves or others!" I complain loudly. "And how does RAIN heal a monster?!"
"It's Miitopia, bro." my Mii responded casually, twirling his pan around lazily.
I sighed defeatedly, getting my Mii to attack the recently healed Moth, defeating it. Thank the Guardian that it only healed a very small bit of damage.
Other than that little quirk, nothing else of major interest happened. The fight was quickly won, I absorbed the monsters into the system again, and we continued on our way.
=Music: Map: Greenhorne=
The rocks slowly grew more and more numerous around us. The terrain slowly grew a little more and more uneven, making it harder to walk. Add in that monsters attacked us every now and again, and our trip wasn't exactly easy.
"Ooof! Wahh!" Brave suddenly called out, tripping over a particularly large step.
Purple Guy moved quickly for her. "...you alright?" he asked, hand out.
Brave quickly hopped up, taking Purple Guy's hand for a moment to support herself. "Oh yeah, I'm fine! Thanks though." she thanked.
My 3DS suddenly made a sound effect. Startled, I looked at the screen. It had images of Purple Guy and Brave, and a large, almost empty heart between the two. The heart slowly filled a small bit.
'Is this… a friendship meter?' I thought to myself.
As we walked, I started looking through the menu the system had on it. I was able to take an assessment of my party (HP, MP, current held items), but the thing I was most interested in was the top of the screen.
It had pictures of my four friends, with lines connecting some of them. In the center of these lines, a heart was present, with part of it being empty.
In particular, my Mii and Susie seemed to have a complete heart and a uncomplete one, with the complete one having a large number 2 right in the center.
"Huh." I murmured quietly. "That's… interesting."
"What is?" Brave asked, suddenly right next to me.
I jumped a little. "How long have you been there?"
"Nevermind that. Whatcha looking at?" Brave asked.
I showed her the screen. "Oooh… what do we have here?"
"Far as I can figure… it might be a measure of how close two people are to one another. Like, look at you and Purple Guy…" I intoned.
The line between their faces had a heart that was about halfway full. "I guess… the more we all bond, the easier life will become?"
"Sounds logical enough to me." Brave agreed, smiling.
"I'm curious about what this number means though…" I mumbled, pointing at the connection between my Mii and Susie. "Like, there has to be more benefits to friendship, right?"
"You mean, besides just simply getting along better?" Brave asked.
"Exactly." I agreed.
Brave was about to say something, but then my Mii called out that he found something.
I got over to him as quickly as I could without twisting an ankle. "What do you see?" I asked.
"I swear I saw movement just up ahead…" my Mii explained.
"Did it look like the Dark Lord?" Brave asked.
"No… but there's something in this clearing…" my Mii murmured.
I looked around. The area was indeed a clearing, a nice rest-bit in this land of rocks. A few rocks made small formations here and there, but other than that the area was practically deserted.
Which wasn't a good sign to me. Something must be here.
"Let's fan out a bit. Search around for any signs of Chara." I instructed.
The others agreed with me, and so our search began. Purple Guy started climbing up the rock formations with surprising ease, searching for any signs with the higher viewpoint. Brave started skipping around the perimeter of the entire area, looking for clues there. Susie slowly walked around, making her way through while holding up her staff just in case.
As for my Mii?
"I have a better idea for what I should do." he suddenly said, doing some small gathering.
I watched as he quickly build what looked like a small barbecue stove, complete with a rotisserie, over a growing fire. "I'll provide lunch. Once we've searched the area, I should have a few pick-me-ups ready."
I chuckled. "Leave it to myself to find any way out of whatever he doesn't want to do."
My Mii looked caught red-handed. "Err… quiet. I need to focus on the food…"
He quickly started throwing food that appeared on his pan onto the grill, which quickly started to sizzle.
I left him to it. Even if my Mii was kinda lazy, trying to talk to him while he was cooking wasn't the best of ideas. Chef's are like that, I guess.
I slowly scoured the area, looking for any sign of a monster. Nothing came up. Everyone searched and searched and searched, but we all came up with blanks.
By the time we were sure there was nothing here, the sun was well over us, starting to head for the other horizon. We were all bushed. The terrain was rough and rigid, and I swear I almost tripped on the exact same rock at least three times.
Fortunately, my Mii had finished making food. "Here. I got food ready for all of us." he happily explained, handing each of us a plate of grilled items.
=Music: A Cozy Campfire=
Everyone ate with gusto. "Ahhh…" Brave sighed with her mouth full. "Dha's ta tuff…"
"This is so good!" Susie complimented, having swallowed a large bite.
My Mii blushed gently. "Awww, you guys are just buttering me up…"
"No way, dude. This is really good." I denied. "I wish I could cook this good."
That only served to make my Mii a little more embarrassed. Purple Guy didn't say anything, but he seemed happy with the food too, given how he ate it pretty quickly.
I reached back towards the grill to take seconds, when all of a sudden…
=Music Fades Away=
"Does anyone else feel… something shaking?" I asked nervously.
My friends paused.
It was faint, but I swear I could feel the ground shaking very slightly.
Slowly, it grew more and more.
My friend stood and grabbed their weapons, looking around for any sign of monsters.
Then the shaking stopped.
The area became calm.
I slowly grew hopeful. "Maybe it was nothing-"
That thought lasted for about half a second.
Because as soon as I finished the thought, something crashed into the grill behind us.
Hot food and fire flew EVERYWHERE. A piece hit Brave's bow, causing her to dance in place (no pun intended) while screaming, "FIRE! HOT! HOT! HOT!" Another piece barely missed my head by a hair's width, and I did the smart thing and ducked down.
When the smoke cleared, the thing that destroyed our fire turned out to be… a rock. A massive rock.
It was still. I slowly stood up and gently tapped the thing with the fork my Mii provided. "Did… did someone throw this at us?" I asked quietly.
My friends were a little too preoccupied at the moment to answer me. My Mii was mourning the loss of perfectly good food, Brave was still trying unsuccessfully to pat out the fire, Susie was doing her best to help her, and Purple Guy was dashing around, stamping out the fires that had been scattered all around the place.
Finally, everyone calmed down enough to return to the massive rock. Aside from the small splinter or, in Brave's case, partly singed hairs, none of us had been hurt too badly.
"How did it get up here?" Susie asked, poking the rock with her staff.
"I guess someone or something threw it up here?" I offered, glancing around the other side. "Unless this world has the common problem of rocks falling from the sky?"
There was no sign of anyone down below us. Either they had already left, or they never existed in the first place.
"All the food…" my Mii moaned.
"Calm down. It's just food." I quickly fired.
"All that perfectly good, well-made food…" my Mii continued.
Purple Guy quickly gave my Mii a solid slap across the face. "How 'bout you stop going on about the food for two seconds?"
That seemed to snap my Mii out of it. Rubbing his cheek, he muttered something akin to an apology. I turned back towards the rock…
Only to be met with a floating face.
=Music: Prebattle: Imminent Clash
"GAH!" I shouted, falling backwards on my rump.
With a start, I realized that I just was knocked over by Gastly's stolen face. Remember, the sarcastic guy I didn't like much?
"What now?" the face asked us.
And then it started swirling towards the rock.
I quickly got back up on my feet as my friends redrew their weapons. "Oh, come on! Rocks are monsters too?!"
=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=
The face soon latched on, and the newly made 'Rocky Gastly' was staring at us, the rock now shifting ever so slightly with movement. As if THAT wasn't already enough, two more of those Cumulus cloud monsters floated down next to it, making an already bad problem WORSE.
Purple Guy threw his knife around, and Susie followed up with a slap of her staff, but the only thing that served was to make Rocky Gastly look a little more ticked off.
Of course, just to spite us, both of the Cumulus monsters decided to rain over the rock, almost reversing our damage we had done. And then it was the rock's turn.
It quickly rolled forward, looking directly at Brave. She got hit hard, but the shockwave also slammed into Susie and Purple Guy on either side of her.
"Great. Another enemy with AoE damage…" I muttered darkly, wincing as the rock charged again and hit my Mii, with Susie getting damaged too.
My Mii followed up by slamming his pan into a cloud, effectively defeating it. One down, two to go.
Once my Mii's turn had rolled around again, the second cloud was close to defeat. I told my Mii to use Flambé. He charged up the pan and was just about to charge…
When all of a sudden, my 3DS beeped. I looked down.
'First Assist!' it read, and then, 'Show Off!'
My Mii glanced over at Susie, and seemed to gain a little MORE pep in his movement. A line appeared between the two, and a yellow heart floated over his head.
And then he charged. I knew the moment the pan slammed into the rock that this attack was a bit more powerful than normal.
I started putting the pieces together. "So THAT'S what this stat does…" I realized. "If two Mii's have good chemistry together, they can use stronger attacks!"
Susie seemed a little impressed herself, honestly. Her turn soon came around, and she seemed to prep her staff up, but then SHE glanced at my Mii and gained a little more pep. She quickly slammed her staff into the last cloud, easily defeating it.
"That is really cool." I admitted once Susie returned.
Both my Mii and Susie blushed gently and shyly glanced away.
And then the rock attacked. Without my knowledge, everyone was slowly losing HP, Brave especially considering she had taken the wrath of the fire earlier.
I quickly dashed around with my shakers, healing everyone to the best of my rather limited ability. Once I backed off, my HP shaker was already drained.
Purple Guy seemed ticked off at the rock. "Maybe I should try this for size…" he intoned, digging around in his pockets.
My 3DS beeped. 'New Skill!' and then, 'Booby Trap!'
He laid down two sensors of some sort, which immediately started throwing electricity between each other. "This'll keep me safe." Purple Guy taunted as it slowly turned off for a moment.
"Don't suppose you could extend that to the rest of us?" I asked hopefully.
"Sorry. They don't reach much farther." Purple Guy explained. I guess I could believe that answer.
Anyway, the rock didn't seem like the smartest of monsters, as when was to attack it turned itself towards Purple Guy and started rolling.
But then the sensors reactivated, and the electricity between them quickly hit the rocky being, stopping it in place and making it take damage. "Ha! Knew they'd work."
The rock seemed angry, and then rolled again for Purple Guy. I thought he'd block the blow again with his trap, but this time he got hit with the full force. "Ow… forgot those don't work more than once…"
Susie and my Mii went to work, doing their best to heal everyone when their turn came to pass. Just to be safe, I had Brave retreat for the Safe Zone for a turn, just to keep everyone safe. The moment the rock had its turn, Brave was pulled back into the fray and I prayed that we'd all be okay.
It took another minute or so to finish the fight. That might not sound like a lot, but when the other non-boss fights have only been consistently about thirty seconds long, you really do notice the fights that take WAY longer.
Even so, we just barely managed to pull it off. Brave managed to get the last strike in with one last toss of her mic.
The rock rolled over backwards, and then Gastly's face closed it's eyes, signifying defeat.
The others didn't look too good. Almost everyone had a few large cuts and bruises on them, and they all just looked really, really tired.
I pointed my 3DS at the monster, bracing myself as best as I could. The others quickly grabbed my back and pulled with me as the system did it's best to force the monsters back into the world it belongs in.
It took a long while, but eventually the monster was absorbed back into the system where it belonged. The face that was on it quickly flew out, muttering something along the lines of, "What a waste of time!" and then flew off.
And then we all fell over.
=Music: The Spoils of War=
It was a moment before anyone spoke. Eventually, I managed to say, "Well… that was definitely NOT the Dark Lord."
That got a few chuckles. My Mii sat up, pan in hand. "I guess… I should start making more snacks?"
"If you would." I agreed, nodding from the ground.
The others seemed to like that idea. Everyone slowly managed to stand up and start helping my Mii rebuild his lost fire pit.
I started to help too, but then I remembered our spoils.
It seemed obvious to me at that point that most monsters drop food when they are defeated, and the rock was no exception. This time around the item was a brown hunk of chocolate just smaller than my palm. What really threw me off about it though, was the weight. I mean, that thing was easily ten pounds of chocolate, and I was taken back by it.
I was very tempted to eat it, considering I love chocolate (who doesn't?), but held back, instead opting to shove it into my bag with the others. I just hoped it wouldn't melt while in there.
I also noticed another bit of food lying around from what I guessed was the cloud monsters. It was a huge, fluffy mess of cotton candy, so soft and fluffy that I was almost afraid to blow on it, lest I lose it all to the winds.
'Well… here's hoping I don't mess this up by putting it in my bag.' I murmured to myself, gently placing the sugary treat inside.
=Music: A Cozy Campfire=
I grabbed the money that also fell, and turned back around to help. "Okay, got everything. Now, what do I-"
I was halted by what I saw. My friends had already built the fire pit again, and my Mii was already going to work on more food, with the others sitting nearby chatting happily.
"Oh, hey Cameron's look-alike!" Brave called out, waving.
I stared with wide-eyes. "Oh. That was… fast." I commented, slowly joining the others.
Susie just smiled at me. "Mii's work fast when they want something."
"No kidding…" I murmured. "I turned my back for about twenty seconds and you managed to completely rebuild the entire fire pit…"
The other's shrugged.
Soon enough more food was made, and the five of us quickly ate some. The magical properties my Mii's food had made everyone look WAY more energized than they had been.
I couldn't help but smile lightly as I looked at all of them. They really did seem like they got along well together. My Mii with his powers of food…
...Susie with her staff of healing…
...Brave with her mic of music…
...Purple Guy with his boomerang dagger…
…
...me, with… my 3DS… I guess…
=Music Fades Away=
"..." I quietly thought to myself, my smile slowly wanning.
My Mii saw that. "You okay?" he asked.
I looked up. "O-oh… y-yeah, I'm fine. Just… thinking." I murmured, half-heartedly taking another bite of food.
My Mii didn't seem convinced, but he and our other friends continued to talk more about something. I wasn't listening.
'Why… why am I here…' I thought. 'I… I can't do anything. The only thing I've done ever since coming here was tell my Mii was to do and force some monsters back into my 3DS… I can't fight like he and the others can…'
=Music: Map: Horrific Place=
'And… what's worse… I don't even know where my family or friends are…' I thought darkly. 'And… I'm scared of that, and… I… I don't belong here… I never did…'
I started to grow upset with myself. 'That… that's not right,' a small, kind part of my mind argued quietly. 'Surely the other's think I'm important…'
'But what if they don't?' the larger, darker part of me asked. 'What if they only see you as a nuisance that just wants to stick around with them?'
'That's… not true…!' part of me denied.
'You're useless! USELESS!' the other part yelled back.
It became a little bit of a shouting match in my head for a moment.
Until I couldn't take it.
I jumped up to my feet, much to the alarm of my friends.
I quickly wandered away, muttering gently to myself, "You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong… my friends clearly care about me… otherwise I wouldn't be here. You're wrong and you can't make me think otherwise…"
The dark voice in my head slowly faded away.
=Music Fades Away=
I leaned up against a rock a fair ways away, suddenly tired.
The sound of footsteps came up behind me. "Kid?" Purple Guy's voice asked.
I turned. Purple Guy was watching me, eyeing me up. "You okay, kid? You just ran off from us without so much as a word, and… you looked upset about something."
I sighed. "No, it's just…"
I grew quiet for a moment. Purple Guy continued to watch me.
"I just…" I murmured, slowly sliding down the rock to sit. "I've got a lot on my mind."
=Music: Zonked=
Purple Guy took a seat next to me. "That's something I know well." he chuckled. "I find that talking about it can help a lot, you know."
"Just… talking about it?" I asked, glancing over at the thief.
Purple Guy nodded. "Look, kid, I'll give it to you straight: I've done some things I'm not to proud of in my life. I've stolen from other Mii's on more than one occasion, I've hurt others, I've created more than one target on my back… That's why I became a Thief: I wanted to prove I can redeem myself against the monsters. Thieves already get a bad rep, so I wanted to show that even someone like a thief could do good in their life."
I watched as Purple Guy eyed their dagger. "That's why… and if you tell anyone this, I swear… but that's why I was really pleased when you guys said I could join. For once, a person, nay, a group of people, thought I was worth something. But… then I started wondering… would you still want me around if you knew what I had done before?"
Purple Guy sighed, and sheathed their weapon. "There's a lot in this world to be afraid, confused, or even straight up concerned about, kid. But you should never be worried to unleash your worries to a friend. You've got four of us, kid. Talk. You'll feel better, one way or another."
I looked away for a moment, thinking about his words. "Heh… thanks, Purple Guy… I actually do feel a lot better now."
Purple Guy smirked a little. "Happy to help, kid. Now, shall we go on? The others look eager to keep going."
I nodded, slowly standing back up.
=Music: Map: Greenhorne=
When we arrived back with the others, all three of them made small glances over at me, as though they were worried. I did my best to reassure them all with a small half-smile and silently saying, 'Sorry… won't happen again.'
The fire was soon safely put out (for being Laid-back, I was rather surprised that my Mii triple checked to make sure that his fire pit, which by the way is in a place where there was only stone and barely any trees in a fifty yard radius, was put out.), and we all continued on the way.
"So… the Dark Lord seems to have moved on from here." my Mii recounted once we were on the road again.
"Seems so…" Brave agreed.
"Hmm… if I was the Dark Lord…" I murmured, looking at the 3DS map, "Where would I go next…?"
And then, I scrolled a little to the right…
And it hit me.
"Uhh… guys?" I murmured. "Unless this map is wrong, I think there's a huge castle over in the west…"
"Greenhorne Castle?" Susie asked, her head tilting. "I've been there once, I think. Why is that important?"
"Same. Traveled there once. Nice place, actually." Purple Guy remarked.
I glanced at the pair. "I think we might wanna try to go there next. If the Dark Lord has already messed with the SUBJECTS of Greenhorne… wouldn't the next step to take out the castle royalty?"
"One, erm, minor problem with that…" my Mii spoke up. "I've actually, ah, tried to travel down that way to visit the King before all this… and it didn't go too well."
"Why not, Cameron?" Brave asked (getting that weird sense of warped logic again knowing this Mii was my exact copy with my same name)
"Well… they have a very strict guard standing at the border of the castle. He doesn't let anyone through unless they have a special purpose." my Mii responded.
"Having the subjects of Greenhorne's faces stolen might be enough…" I reasoned.
"Unlikely…" my Mii murmured. "I tried to get in because I wanted to pass through, but the guard said that he wouldn't let me in even if I was getting married on the other side of him. He would only let me through if I proved I had some sort of special permission from someone influential."
I scratched the back of my head. "Well… that won't work, then…"
But then, out of nowhere…
"OOOOH! I have an idea!" Brave shouted.
It took us all off guard for a moment, before Purple Guy finally muttered, "...come again?"
"I remember something from before all this!" Brave quickly explained. "You remember that entrance to the forest we were in a while ago?"
"Forest with many mushrooms and heat and ambushes, remember that." I agreed.
"Don't particularly like it, but I remember." my Mii added.
"Well, close by to that, I think there might be a cave nearby. I went into it once on a dare, and I almost made it to the other side. And it looked like it might've looped around to the castle!" Brave responded giddily.
I consulted the map. Sure enough, just west of the Strange Grove entrance, there was what looked like a cave system that seemed to head in the general direction of Greenhorne Castle.
"Well… that seems like a good way to go." I slowly offered. "Who's in?"
Everyone agreed, and we all quickly went on the way.
It took a few moments, but with a few taps of my 3DS we arrived at the mouth of the cave entrance, named 'Riverdeep Cavern.'
We didn't even need to step foot into it to see how dark it was inside there. The darkness just seemed to slowly start reaching out to swallow us all whole…
I don't think any of us were eager to jump in at the moment. Even Brave looked apprehensive, and she'd been in here before. Not with monsters, of course, but still.
"Mmm… I guess… we should just go…" I murmured.
My friend slowly nodded, and we descended into the dark.
=Music Fades Out=
The moment the entrance faded from view, I couldn't see two feet in front of my face. Even with my 3DS providing a small bit of light, it didn't do much seeing as it was just a black screen.
"I can't see anything…" my Mii murmured. I could still see his eyes in the dark, which was the only way I could know I was still with the others.
A soft thump rang out. "OW! Someone stepped on my foot!" Susie cried out in pain.
"My bad." Brave called out. "Can't see."
"Kid?" Purple Guy called out, down low to the ground. "Is that your arm or someone else's?"
"How should I know?" I asked. "I can't even see you."
We bickered for a minute, before I spoke up, "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Everyone, hold on a minute."
We all stopped. "I feel like we're just walking in circles." my Mii spoke up.
"Yeah. Everyone, item check. Do we have anything that could make light? Just a little more than my system is making would be more than okay by me."
"Erm… I could try cooking something for a sec… it would create a little light, but not for long…" my Mii offered.
"My spells could work… for a little." Susie added.
"I got nothing." Brave responded. "We should've brought a torch with us."
"Or a flashlight. That would've been smart." Purple Guy agreed.
"Flashlight…" I murmured. And then, the obvious answer hit me.
"Oh my lord…" I slowly muttered in disappointment with myself.
"What? Do you see a monster?" my Mii asked.
"No… I'm just the biggest idiot in the world." I murmured, facepalming.
I quickly pulled out my phone and opened it up, turning on the flashlight option.
Glorious light spilled into the area, easily lighting up the entire area with no trouble. "Oh. That works too, I guess." Purple Guy stated.
I internally kicked myself a little for being dumb. "*sigh* Well, at least I had enough sense to charge it last night, so hopefully it'll-"
And then in blinked off.
"-last awhile." I finished, looking down at it.
Dead battery.
"What." I asked myself. "I haven't even used this thing all day! How's the battery already-"
And then I realized the problem. "Oh. Right. I think I might've accidentally unplugged this thing last night in my sleep… no wonder I found it unplugged near the bed.
"So… no light, then?" Susie asked sadly.
"I guess… not." I murmured, slowly pocketing the now-useless phone.
"Well… look on the bright side, guys." Brave offered. "It can't get any worse!"
I'm gonna interrupt here for just one moment to give you a little bit of life advice: NEVER say that sentence or anything that sounds even remotely similar to it.
Say it aloud is just ASKING for some form of karma.
I heard whispering in my Mii's general direction. "You say something, dude?" I asked quietly.
"I didn't say anything." my Mii responded softly.
And then I suddenly noticed:
There was a fifth pair of eyes with us. Deep blue eyes.
None of us had deep blue eyes.
I grew pale. "G-g-guys…" I whispered.
My friends slowly looked over in the direction I was looking.
=Music: Opening: Run Away!=
All at once, something let out a most HORRIBLE scream. It was like… fingers scratching on glass and a chalkboard magnified at least five times over.
Needless to say, the five of us ran like CRAZY. We had no idea if that thing with the blue eyes was chasing us or not, but at that point we could've cared less.
We were definitely running further into the cave, but at that point I couldn't tell you if we had traveled five feet in circles or a hundred feet.
Finally, light was up ahead, and I grew hopeful.
We burst into the light, turning around quickly to see if that blue-eyed thing was still with us.
Nothing. The cave behind us was still and silent.
=Music Fades Out=
The five of us let out a large sigh of relief.
Until I turned around.
"Oh. We… we might be here a while…"
Another chapter done and done.
I'm assuming that you guys noticed the little music notices peppered throughout the chapter here and there, yes?
Well, that's just me wanting to add a little aesthetic touch to my story. By no means are you REQURIED to read with this music playing in the background, but… well, believe me when I say that it actually helps me a little while writing to have the music playing.
Of course, sometimes my music choices won't be exactly, you know, canon to the game, but are mostly based on what I believe would be the music if my story was told as if it was the game.
So I'd better not see 'hEY tHaT MusIC DoESn'T plAY aT ThIS paRT Of tHE gAME!' or anything of similar nature in the review page. Don't- DON'T DO THAT. I'M WATCHING YOU.
Anyway, all and all, I hope that you guys enjoyed the new chapter! I really feel like this story is taking the right amount of time to get stuff done, which is rather amazing. I mean, we haven't even gotten past where the DEMO of the game ends, and we're already five chapters in.
One of the quirks you notice while writing, I guess.
If you have any questions or anything like that for me, PM me and I'll do my best to answer when I have time.
Until next time guys, this is ButterHunter, with only one more thing to say (say it with me if you know it!):
Stay awesome! =D