A/N Well finally got my Grad project out of the way (which was a 19 chapter book done within 6 months! not enough time to completely flesh it out, but I'll go back to it someday and perhaps publish it! :D)so I should be able to get back to uploading more chapters more frequently~ for now enjoy this new chapter ;D
A short burst of light flashed and then dropped its cargo off with hardly a sound in the town of Montais. Shroud blinked a few times after the bright light flashed across his face and dared not move until he could properly see. Once he recovered, Shroud was greeted by not only the dark spruce houses, but by an odd decaying-leaves-like smell.
Shroud hand soon meet his face as he pinched his nose as he noticed the unfamiliar (at least to him) biome.
"So..Montais is in a swamp biome? I honestly imagined it to be on a beach or something." Jlott remarked whimsically. Shroud simply shook his head in disgust as he stepped off the stone brick platform he arrived on. In seconds, Shroud sat upon a bench he found and pulled out his map to see how far Glenn now was.
By now Shroud had memorized the bold letters that spelled Glenn, but still couldn't fathom what some of the other town names were. Shroud nodded in approval once he knew the admin held true to his words and rose to find the exit of Montais. Thankfully, hardly anyone paid attention to Shroud as he maneuvered his way out of town. Those who did only seemed to glance at him or pause for a second before carrying on with their business much unlike those of Rhagall.
Just as Shroud reached the edge between town and wilderness, a dark figure slammed into Shroud unexpectedly. Shroud shoved the man off him and scowled furiously at the other minecraftian and rose to his full 5'8'' height. The man paid him no mind and continued on his way at top speed.
Shroud glared at the golden armor wrapped tight against the stranger before turning around to come face to face with a fierce skirmish. By the patches of fighting it looked like a free-for-all as people beat and cut each other up. Shroud took a massive step backwards and stared quizzically at the fighting. Soon another minecraftian backed off and dashed off into the safety of town, but Shroud grabbed him as soon as he crossed over.
"Hey, let go!" The minecraftian harshly said, but Shroud simply steeled his grip and yanked him backwards.
"Not until you tell what in the Nether is going on out there." Shroud seethed as his claws dug into the stranger's skin. The minecraftian winced and shivered, but wasn't disheartened enough that his tongue couldn't move.
"Just two normal factions having a good beat 'em up. Duh." The minecraftian said as nonchalantly as possible. Jlott shrugged it off, telling Shroud that happened a lot in other faction-type servers, but Shroud himself still held one more question.
"Do you know of Stone-edge?" Shroud inquired as his grasp loosened, but refused to let go quite yet.
"Who doesn't? They been causing problems all over and-"The minecraftian started.
"Are any here right now?" Shroud interrupted with little emotion.
"Nope. The admins in this area chased them off a week ago." Shroud nodded and finally released his hold on the man. Said man wasted no time running deeper into town without another noise as well as firing off a dirty glare at Shroud. Shroud watched his retreating form for hardly a second before turning to the problem of weaving out of the battling factions.
"let's scout out the borders of Montais for a safer route, I'd rather not deal with those brutes." jlott said logically as she cast a distasteful look at the minecraftians fighting or at least Shroud thought she did if she actually could stand next to him.
After a while, Shroud discovered an area people seemed to have avoided and quickly slipped out of the town and traveled northwards. Thankfully, no body popped out of nowhere to cause any problems, however Shroud's supply of food was pitifully low and most of the animals around the town had already been dealt with a fatal blow.
"If we can find a spider to kill and craft a fishing rod or perhaps there's a few animals left to hunt…" jlott thought aloud as Shroud continued to wander further north. His crimson eyes remained peeled for any movements, but the landscape seemed depleted of any life.
During the growing frustration of finding nothing out in the wilderness, Shroud started to wonder how Tyler would react to his disappearance. In all honesty, Shroud had expected the admin to try and fight him based everyone else's reaction towards him in the paranoid town. His surprise hardly surfaced to his face, but it was still there when the Admin offered help instead of fists.
Shroud wondered how those two were doing plus the old woman who had passed out…
~In Rhagall~
Tyler sat on his bed as he glanced at the rising sun before turning back to his charge lying on the new bed he had crafted. He suspected her large bruise on her crown would cause a serious headache at the very least. Other than that, he thought she'd be alright considering how minor the rest of the wounds appeared.
Suddenly, the door creaked open and the golden haired Admin came in looking a bit perkier than usual.
"Well, several visits in such a short time must be the world record for me." Tyler said as he rolled his eyes. "What's it this time?" he asked with genuine curiosity
"Just came to deliver a message from that acquaintance of yours." The Admin replied as he closed the door behind him carefully. "Those Stone-edge people trapped him in town so he left via the teleporter; asked me to tell you of his sudden leave." The Admin said calmly, but soon cast a quizzical look towards the unconscious minecraftian.
"Shroud found her during the night and asked me to watch over her." Tyler drawled dully.
"He's new around here ain't he?" The Admin remarked as he listened to Tyler's simple explanation. Tyler nodded in agreement before adding a quick "yep". However, soon both their heads snapped to attention as the woman groaned and rose into a sitting position.
"Where?" She asked as she gently rubbed the swollen bruise placed on her forehead.
"On the edge of Rhagall, in my house." Tyler said, waiting for her to turn her head towards him and bolt out the door. Instead, while she did look at him, remained seated and gave no sign of any fear upon her features.
"Did you bring me here?" She asked as she let her legs dangled off the edge of the bed.
"No. I had someone named Shroud stay here for the night. He's the one who found you." Tyler explained truthfully. The minecraftian before him suddenly started to act frantic at the mention of Shroud.
"Is he still here?" She asked quickly as she tried to rise to her feet, but sat back down as a wave of dizziness hit her hard.
"No, he just left using the teleporter in town." The Admin told her, suspicious of her motives now.
"I've been searching for him ever since his friend, Aodh, asked me for help in finding him." The woman said as she reeled in her emotions. The Admin eased up slightly at that, but asked her who she was and what happened.
"Name's Ealish. I was traveling with someone else when we were ambushed by an odd group of people in alliance with the Faction Stone-Edge." Ealish began as she rubbed her forehead carefully. "My companion panicked and ran off and I had to lead them away from him as he's a bit of a newbie. Can't fight for himself against other minecraftians." The Admin nodded as she told him this while Tyler couldn't care less and simply drank up some more of his mushroom stew.
"I see… Why didn't you just teleport to him?" The Admin inquired Ealish as the last of her dizziness left her.
"Well… Aodh forgot to tell me his player's name." Ealish told the Admin truthfully, not a drop of a fib laid in her words.
"I know his player's name; Shroud told me it in case those of Stone-edge ever gave him trouble again." The Admin said thoughtfully, still a bit suspicious of Ealish in a way. "Said his player's name was jlott." Ealish didn't speak at all after the mention of jlott and instead rose to her feet and briskly walked out the house with a fast pace.
"Why doesn't she just teleport?" The Admin spoke aloud as she left to use the teleporter to Montais. Tyler simply shrugged his skinny shoulders as he set down his now empty bowl. The Admin sighed and started to walk towards the door Ealish just closed.
"Well, I'll be at the farm as usual." The Admin said to Tyler with little emotion and after a second asked. "Want to tell 'her' anything?"
"Just tell mother I'm fine. Well as fine as not being trampled by creepers." Tyler said with a smirk to his purple eyes. The Admin simply shook his head with his own smirk, one not many people see often anymore.
"She wishes you well my son." The Admin said as he exited the house and waved a good-bye. Tyler waved back as well with a small frown on his face before muttering to himself "well at least the closest person she's had as a son."
For a while, Tyler simply sat and pondered at his table of everything until his lopsided smile came back.
"Haven't gone on an adventure in a while… Perhaps I'll follow that Ealish woman." Tyler said to himself as he quickly wrote a note to the Admin (AKA his adoptive father) and gathered supplies for whatever storm he was hurling himself into.
~Back with Shroud~
Shroud looked out towards the North and refused to take a step further; to one side was a small chunk of jungle and the rest was nothing but ice plains as far as his eyes could see. jlott pestered Shroud to keep going, but Shroud's feet didn't bunged. Instead, he pulled out the map and stared at its weathered surface. Hardly any color remained on the ancient map so he had no way in the universe how to know what biome lay just east of his position.
Frustrated, he shoved the map into his pockets and decided to march east anyway. However, he paused as he heard a multiple of voices draw closer to him.
Nowhere to hide and almost no food, Shroud prepared for a fight.