"Take my hand. I'll bring us there."
He offered his hand for her to take, but as he expected, Molly was reluctant. "Don't worry", he tried to assure her, "It's a lot safer than walking up there, and much quicker. I won't let anything happen to you." She was hesitant, but she took his hand timidly. He held on tight to assure she wouldn't be lost, and flicked his wrist.
They arrived to an area not far from the goddess spring. Wizard looked over to Molly, who was understandably shaken. He grinned a little, thinking back to his first time teleporting, and waited a little for her to find her bearings. She shook her head a little bit and walked forward, himself close behind.
Something's off, he thought. He saw piles of branches and stone, and there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach. An empty feeling, sort of hopeless and pitiful. He thought about his past. He remembered some times when he would sneak outside at night to practice magic away from the watchful eyes of the townspeople. His favorite place was the spring. It was a clear area where no one could see him, and the Goddess never minded. He remembered something vaguely about a statue. The statue was standing clearly, almost shining, and there was a blast from somewhere and all he could see was a reflection of fire emanating from the statue, and heard people yelling, "NO!"…
"Uh, Molly?"
She stopped and turned to him, "Yes?"
"Er, we should probably turn back…"
"Why?"
Good question, he thought.
"Er, well, it's- it's magic stuff, complicated magic stuff…"
He continued babbling magic speak and it seemed the more jargon he made up, the higher her eyebrows raised.
"The…the forces…of the, uh, nature, and the—the stars and alignment, and Jupiter and…we need to turn back."
She stared at him confused and turned around and continued forward, moving a branch blocking the path out of the way, only to find their plan doomed from the start. The Goddess lay down, her beautiful blue glow gone, and her hair grayed and the Harvest Sprites were stone figures. She rushed to the Goddess in an instant. What did it do to her, he thought? She went to her knees and tried to awaken her to no avail. He walked over to her. Molly begged, "Isn't there anything you can do?!" to which Wizard could only shake his head. "There is someone who might be able to do something…but he's farther away from here." Before he could finish, Molly said, "The Harvest King."
"Yes. He's—"
"He's on top of Garmon Mountain. Can you take us there?"
He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and answered, "Yes, but it's a little more complicated than that." "Do what you can, Wizard", she said, and grabbed his hand readily. A drop of sweat dripped from his forehead, to which he turned his head away and flicked his wrist once more. They arrived at the entrance of Garmon Mountain Mines, and Molly seemed confused once again.
"He's located a little higher than this, you know", she joked. "I know, but… the mine interferes with my magic… there are minerals in there that affected me the last time I tried teleporting up the mountain…it took time to recover from that." He recoiled at the memory of what happened last time. Molly looked towards the runes inscribed on the mountain wall, but shook her hand. He agreed. The runes weren't good for him either.
"So, I guess this means we climb", she concluded.
"Climb?"
"Through the mine. It's not that bad, it's just a lot longer than using the runes, but I don't want to risk hurting you by taking them, and I don't want to leave you to climb up the mine by yourself." He nodded, and arrived to the same conclusion.
"We climb."
They entered the mines together. The sun was setting over the ocean nearby, and night was just about to set in.