Chapter 3:
The airship arrived at the Taverley airship tower and once departing they were approached by three Druids.
"You must be Aizen, I am Kaqemeex, the leader of Taverley." Kaqemeex said.
The other two Druids gave respectful bows.
"Mister Kaqemeex it is an honor. I guess you know why I am here." Aizen said.
"I do and I must say Falador isn't helping us with a current problem relating to missing corpses from our cemeteries around the region. If you help us we will ally with you. Falador hasn't helped us in quite some time as well as our neighboring town, Burthorpe." Kaqemeex said.
"Well, this is going to be easy." Aizen said.
"Mind you we do not speak for Burthorpe if you are wishing them to ally with you as well. Their leader can be quite angry when not having a good day." Kaqemeex said.
"I will keep that in mind. So grave robbers huh?" Aizen asked.
"What is strange is they leave the valuables placed with the bodies behind and just take the bodies of a month to six months old underground after death. We don't understand it." Kaqemeex said.
"Some of us thought our town was cursed." One of the Druids said.
"If it was a curse then you'd see ghosts than grave robbers and I assure you we will get to the bottom of this." Aizen said.
Aizen then looked to Pain.
"Pain can you look into this for me while I make for Burthorpe up north?" Aizen asked.
"Can I bring Konan and Jessica with me." Pain asked.
Aizen looked at Jessica who shrugged.
"It would be best. You three here, us three up north. We might find the grave robbers along the way." Aizen said.
"Well let's get moving then." Grimmjow said walking down the stairs with the others following.
As they walked through Taverley, Grimmjow noticed the statues around of some sort of god that the Druids worshiped.
"Who's the statues of?" Grimmjow asked.
"Their god, Guthix." Aizen said.
"Who?" Grimmjow asked.
"A being they believe is the first to come to this planet and make life possible. I don't truly know much about it other than they call him a god." Aizen said.
"Where is this god?" Grimmjow asked.
"It's been so many years, I think it's just story. Besides, I'm the only god here." Aizen told him.
"Sure your almighty." Pain said in a sarcastic tone.
"Alright time we split up. You three check out the cemetery nearby and we will be up at Burthorpe." Aizen said.
Aizen and Jessica gave one another a hug and the groups ventured their separate ways.
Once Aizen got a bit away from Taverley he noticed smoke in the distance.
"Odd, wonder what is going on at Burthorpe?" Grimmjow questioned to himself out loud.
"Only one way to find out." Aizen said and the three of them ran.
Once they made it to Burthorpe they heard explosions up north and cannon fire.
They noticed some people walking and going about their day despite of it.
"Excuse me what's going on?" Aizen asked a woman folding laundry.
"It's been forty five days since the war began, not much other than that." The woman said and went about her duty.
Aizen looked at Grimmjow and Ulquiorra then to the nearby castle that had a cannon firing off toward the north.
"That way." Aizen said going through the small town and up to the castle where guards were running in and out.
"Who are you?" One guard asked.
"Here to see your leader." Aizen said.
"What a laugh." The guard said.
Aizen out of nowhere stabbed the guard through his body and yanked his blade out.
The other guards were shocked and held their weapons tightly.
"I am here to see your leader, and do not think you can take us, you can't." Aizen said warning them.
Two guards beckoned them and walked up the stairs carefully.
Once up the stairs, there was a man in armor looking at a map with darts on it for soldier positions.
"Sir, this man killed one of our men and wanted to see you." The guard said.
"What? Oh, you." The man said looking at the guard and then to Aizen.
"You know me?" Aizen asked.
"I saw you on the papers for a few months. I am Anlaf." Anlaf said.
"Then you must know why I am here." Aizen said.
Suddenly they heard another cannon shot from the cannon on the roof.
"Yes, and your answer is no. Ask the Druids down south." Anlaf said going back to his map.
"We could help end this war for you." Ulquiorra said.
Aizen and Grimmjow looked at him.
"So the time you speak is speaking over my decision." Aizen said.
"Your friend is spot on actually. That's the only way I'll ally with your Kingdom is if you help us kill the Troll King." Anlaf said.
"Figures..." Grimmjow grunted.
Aizen sighed.
"Fine we will kill the thing but it won't be easy." Aizen said.
"Good, now leave." Anlaf said pointing to the stairs.
The three walked out and noticed a guard beckoning them to the nearby walled gate where soldiers were running in and out from.
"This way north to the Troll Kingdom." he told them.
Aizen ventured first and headed north.
Watching nearby was Furido who grinned and kept a distance while following alone.
Aizen noticed very tall creatures known as Trolls roaming or running at soldiers nearby.
"Keep close and keep down." Aizen said crouching behind rocks.
The three ventured for quite some time until stopping behind a slab of rocks and peered at the mountain kingdom of the Trolls.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Grimmjow asked.
"Easy, we keep sneaking and enter and kill the King." Aizen said with a shrug.
"It can't be that easy." Grimmjow said.
Suddenly they saw a shadow around them and all three looked up to see a Troll with a boulder over its head.
"You know I think we should-" Grimmjow began to say.
The boulder fell right onto them making them sink into the dirt but not kill them.
The boulder was rolled off and they were dragged toward the mountain.
"I hate... you..." Grimmjow said.
"Him...?" Aizen groaned.
"You..." Grimmjow said.
Meanwhile back at Taverley.
"I see some tracks over here that seemed to have left the graveyard but then they fade away." Pain said looking at the dirt road to the cemetery.
"Something doesn't add up." Konan said.
"What?" Pain asked.
"Why take bodies but not the coins or treasures with them? Druids are known to take things with them to their coffins as tokens to give their god and many of the things they take with them to offer are quite expensive." Konan said.
"Then it has to do with something else." Jessica said rubbing her chin.
Suddenly Jessica put a hand over her mouth running behind a tree and threw up.
Pain and Konan looked at her and Konan walked over.
"Are you okay?" Konan asked.
"Yeah sorry." Jessica said.
"Don't throw up on the robe, these robes cost money to wash!" Pain shouted from nearby.
"Shut up she might be sick!" Konan yelled.
"I'm not sick just, oddly had to throw up." Jessica said.
Konan looked at her without saying anything.
"What?" Jessica asked.
"Let me know if you throw up anymore okay?" Konan asked.
"Yeah sure." Jessica said and walked back to the dug-up grave.
Konan looked over to Pain who looked at her cocking an eyebrow and she beckoned him over while Jessica wasn't looking.
Konan leaned to Pain whispering.
"Do not yell this out so keep calm when I say this, I think she might be and only might be pregnant." Konan said.
"Might be?" Pain whispered.
"I don't know, I will keep an eye on her." Konan said.
The two walked back to where she was.
They noticed a Goblin and Amalj'aa approach.
"This Amalj'aa says he saw who was here last night." The Goblin said.
They looked at the Amalj'aa who just stared at them.
"Strange to see an Amalj'aa away from the desert. What did you see?" Pain asked.
"I am a traveler, I was here last night to see if what you humans call 'ghosts' was real and I was told to stand at a cemetery at night." The Amalj'aa said.
"You probably scared the ghosts." Pain laughed.
No one else laughed at the Amalj'aa looked a bit angry.
"S-sorry." Pain said.
"Forgive him he's- he's an idiot." Konan said.
"Bah!?" Pain shouted baffled.
"Right, anyways human. I saw two humans here last night dragging a body out of that grave. One was a male and the other was female with clothes that had the same colors but in different patterns and different styles either short or long." The Amalj'aa said.
"Explain." Pain said.
"The man had a shorter version of the clothing top and the woman had a longer version of the clothing top. The colors are the same but one can be much more than the other." The Amalj'aa said trying to make sense of it.
"I think I understand. So do you know which way they went?" Konan asked.
"Up the mountain here." The Amalj'aa said pointing up to the snowy mountain that overlooks Taverley and Burthrope to the west.
Jessica looked up then to the Amalj'aa.
"Thank you." Jessica said.
The Amalj'aa nodded and held his hand out as the Goblin put coins in his hand and they both walked off.
"Guess he wanted to get paid for such info." Konan said.
"Everyone needs coins nowadays." Pain said.
"I guess we go up?" Jessica asked.
"We go up." Konan said.
Jessica placed a flame spell onto a torch sticking out near a tree and gave it to Pain to hold it in case they need warmth and headed up slowly.
"I hope Aizen is alright." Jessica said.
"I'm sure he is fine, he always has a plan." Konan said.
Back at the Troll Kingdom.
Aizen, Grimmjow, and Ulquiorra were in a cage hanging over a pit of lava.
"Do you have a plan!?" Grimmjow shouted at Aizen.
"I am thinking if you don't mind not shouting at me." Aizen said.
Suddenly they noticed the iron door to the pit open and walking out was a human female who was unbinding the chains and then a Troll appearing behind her and helping her move the cage to the ground.
"What the?" Aizen said confused.
"Sorry for my father ordering you as a sacrifice this evening." The Troll said.
"So you are the son of the Troll King." Aizen said going for the hilt of his blade.
"Wait!" The woman said.
"Who are you?" Grimmjow asked.
"My father doesn't know I have been captured today but we don't have much time, we can try to put an end to this war and now that you are here we could really use your help. You became allies to the Dragons after all." The woman said.
"Wait, are you the daughter of Anlaf?" Aizen asked.
"Yes I am, and this... this is my secret lover." She said hugging the leg of the Troll.
The three of them were speechless.
"My father is only doing this because her father wanted to expand into our territories. Burthorpe was our land and they should have stayed in Taverley." The Troll said.
"What's your name?" Aizen asked him.
"Uga." Uga said.
"I'm Hilda." Hilda told them.
"Uga, Hilda. I have to kill the Troll King or they-" Aizen said.
"Please, we can put an end to this silly war if we can just talk to my father together." Hilda said.
Aizen sighed looking at Grimmjow and Ulquiorra.
"Worth a try sir." Ulquiorra said.
"Yeah yeah, whatever as long as we get this done and over with." Grimmjow said.
"Take me to your father." Aizen asked Uga.
Uga nodded and took them out of the sacrifice chamber and picking them all up over both his shoulders and running up the large stairs.
"I hate to say this but this is kind of fun." Grimmjow said.