*This* close. I was *this* close to finishing a chapter in a day. Ah well next time. So this chapter was pretty good to write, and hopefully just as good to read. Anything else to add... hm. Oh I will be busy for the next couple of days, so chances are the next chapter won't be up until next weekend or so. If I do get the chance to write the next one then, well I guess you'll get an early chapter.
The three, four if you count the horse, trudge through the snow towards the forests north of Pith's hall. The thought of running into more of the bandits wasn't terribly pleasant. They left in such a hurry that they didn't even bring much food with them.
Pith walks at the head leading Snow Drift who has three bags strapped to his back. Behind him Whitewolf and Raven take the rear watching for signs of pursuit. The trees slowed them down somewhat, but they figured that they would be useful for hiding them from anyone who might be chasing them.
As they got past the outer skirts of the forest Raven stops and snaps at Pith and Whitewolf to stop. The two look back at her who puts her finger to her mouth. Then they hear what she did, the sound of something sliding or grinding on the snow, and coming straight at them. Raven pulls out her bow and notches an arrow, and both Pith and Whitewolf draw their swords in readiness. The sound grows louder and louder, and a white form bursts from the trees. Pith drops his sword and cries out in surprise.
Standing there is the snow golem he had made the day before. The golem looks at the three and then slides to Pith, enveloping him in freezing snow.
"Hey, t-t-tha- good to see you," Pith says pushing the snow golem off.
The snow golem spins and jumps in excitement as if he were a wolf, and Pith pats his head. Raven keeps her distance from it, but says nothing. Whitewolf walks to the golem and waves. The golem looks at him for a second before pelting him with a snowball.
"I thought you would have been killed in the fire, let me guess you where nowhere around,"
The snow golem slides around almost as acknowledgment and Pith sighs.
"Well I guess it was for the better, you'd be a goner by now if you did. Come on we're going,"
"Great we're bringing golems with us now," Raven mutters under her breath.
Pith points for the snow golem to take the lead and the group starts walking again. As night starts to draw on them the trio stop at a shallow cave and barricade the passage leading down. Raven stands at the entrance while Whitewolf starts crafting a furnace to start cooking. Pith starts sorting out their items and glances at Raven.
"I never asked you, where are you from?" Pith asks Raven.
"The Shallow Valley, it's a small village in Oak Dale," Raven says.
Pith sighs.
"I should have figured,"
"And I guess you're from Sea Stone?" Jett asks pointing to the blue triangles on Pith's wrists.
"That's right,"
"So what you don't trust me now?"
The golem, who has been sliding in between them stops and looks from Pith to Raven and back.
"I already didn't trust you, but I do owe you. Well not so much owe but I know what I'm saying," Pith says drifting off to mumbling to himself.
The golem stays looking at Pith and rotates his head to one side.
"People from those places don't trust each other much," Pith explains.
"Can that golem even be curious?" asks Raven.
Now it's Pith's turn to be confused as he watches the snow golem. Sure they seemed to be able to understand commands, even if some of the softer headed types didn't follow them.
"I honestly have no idea,"
Whitewolf plunks himself down in the middle of the room and snatches the map from Pith's hands.
"Well I'm a natural born and raised nomad, never needed walls or neighbors to keep me safe," Whitewolf says ignoring his companion's arguments as he examines the map.
"Hey I want to read the map," says Pith pulling the map away.
Raven takes her seat opposite to Whitewolf and Pith spreads out the map, lighting a torch to illuminate it.
The map is old and yellowed with age, but as a testament to the map maker it is still fairly readable. At the top of the map the words "East Sea" are written in flowing beautiful letters, and the entire map is surrounded in flowing waves though in the top left part the map has broken and faded. The easternmost map is taken up by the Sea, which is only broken by the occasional islands.
Along the sea a wide stretch of land is labeled Sea Stone, which streaches from high hills and cliffs in the north to deep swamps in the south. South East of Sea Stone is a large stretch of woodlands, hills and plains that bear Oak Dale over the land. In the center of the map the words Sun Vale is written over the landscape, and at the center of the kingdom lies a city built into a valley deep in the mountains. Several other land marks are written on the map, the Obsidian Ruins in the far north of East Sea, several small villages and on the north western edge a barely readable arrow points to "Land's Core". On the border between Sea Stone and Sun Vale a long strip of white is marked out, and Pith points at the snow covered land.
"I think we're here, and we've got a while to go,"
Pith trails his finger northward, passing over the Iron Mountains, Shifting Sands and over a narrow bay that spills from the Sea to form Squid's Arm Bay. Across the bay a wide open plain leads to the foothills of the mountain range that holds the ruined city.
"Where did you get this?" asks Pith.
"I got it from those bandits, why'd you think they're after me?"
"No I mean, ugh ok where did they get this? This looks like it was drawn back when the Sun Vale Kingdom was still around. I don't think anyone has made any maps of the wilderne- so that's why this thing is so important," Pith says, saying the last part to himself.
"I don't know, I guess from some ruins in the wilderness, does it matter?"
"Does it matter?! This is a massive historical find, it's almost scary how intact this is, it must have been in a desert or some- oh wait it's gonna get ruined, quick smelt some glass! Smelt some glass!"
"We don't have any sand, don't worry it'll hold till we find some," says Raven.
"No it won't 'hold' till we find some, I need to find a place to put it,"
Whitewolf stands up and walks outside to stretch his legs, leaving his companions to bicker.
-()-
"You sure they came this way?" the man in leather armor says while observing the surrounding hills.
"Yea, there's no way they could have gotten away without us seeing them unless they came into the woods," says the woman next to him.
The two are hiding behind a pair of spruce trees, sword and bow in hand. The man pulls off his leather cap revealing short cut black hair in sharp contrast with his beard. The woman has short cut brown hair and is wearing a tight black shirt and pants.
"You think those two where with the thief from the start?" asks the archer.
"Does it matter? They've got the map anyway, and the boss's gonna be-,"
"Absolutely livid," comes a voice from behind them.
From the forest a black and white spotted horse comes through carrying a man, or rather boy, on its back. The boy wears a simple black tunic and pants. A symbol of a pine tree split in half is sewed onto his shirt. They stop a few feet from the two and the horse looks around knowingly.
"So explain to me how a thief got past both you guys?"
"She had help, some squire and a weirdo in a leather suit, they got the drop on us,"
"Well 'aint that perfect. Now there could be a dozen places where they could be hidding. We play this smart, Hand you go search the closest caves," he says pointing to the man in leather armor.
"Not a problem,"
"Hearth, you climb that tree and keep an eye on Hand, I'll will search ahead in case they tried to make a run for the Iron Mountains, and keep your wits we need to find the map before the Smoked Band finds out about this,"
-()-
Raven steps outside to stretch her legs, caves where never her favored place to be even if this land is far colder than what she's used to. She notices Whitewolf standing on an outcrop of exposed rock and walks over to him.
"Hey what's going on?"
"I think your friends are coming," Whitewolf says pointing at something in the distance.
A horse rides past them and a man in leather armor approaches them from down hill.
"Do you think they saw us?" says Raven.
Almost as if in answer the man in leather armor shouts something and breaks into a run towards them.
"Damn it they're onto us," says Raven and she yells for Pith to come out.
"Good, it was starting to get boring without a fight," says Whitewolf drawing his sword.
"I really would like to get the guys who tried to run me through, but maybe another time. We've got to go into the caves,"
"But Snow Drift won't fit in here, and we can't mine it quicker than they can run. We've got to find a raven or something big,"
"Guys they're getting closer,"
"You two, make for the mountains, Raven get your bow ready and if they get close climb into a tree," Pith says jumping onto Snow Drift.
The snow golem slides behind them as they make a run for the mountain.
-()-
"Boss! They're here!" Hand yells breaking into a run.
Behind him Hearth notches her bow and takes aim at the one on the horse. She fires and the arrow barely misses its target instead imbedding itself in the horse.
-()-
Snow Drift cries out in pain as the arrow lodges itself in his leg. Pith dismounts and pulls Snow Drift further uphill, where the trees are quickly growing sparser.
"There's a ravine," Raven says pointing to a wide hole in the side of the mountain where they can see a huge pit dip into the earth.
"Come on boy we can make it," Pith says pulling Snow Drift along.
Raven turns to shoot an arrow back at their pursuer, but it's clear he won't make it to them in time. Pith almost yells as they come to the entrance of the ravine, when the horseman cuts his celebration short.
He's more shocked than scared for a moment, the rider is a child, only fifteen or so years old, with dark skin and black hair. Though to be fair that is not too many years before either Pith or Raven, and he's not entirely sure how old Whitewolf is.
His train of thought ends when the rider knocks into him, throwing him and Snow Drift back and splitting the team in two. The rider strikes at Raven, who ducks under the swipe and pulls out her sword.
Whitewolf charges ahead screaming, when an arrow finds his shoulder and makes him fall mid charge.
"Notch damn it! Why the same shoulder," he shouts.
Pith gets up and pulls Snow Drift to his feet, and mounts him. He spots the swordsman and archer coming towards them, and realizes they have to finish this fight quickly. Pith charges the rider, and swings at his head but he ducks and swings back, their swords meet with sparks and they break off to wheel around each other.
The swordsman closes the distance, and raises his sword to behead Whitewolf as he still tries to pull out the arrow. A snowball hits him in the face and Whitewolf rolls out of the way as the snow golem advances pelting the swordsman.
The archer closes the distance and takes her place next to the swordsman. Raven stands next to Whitewolf, and Pith backs up to make a semi-circle with the others.
"Well looks everyone has a dance partner, oh wait poor Snowy doesn't have one," Whitewolf snickers.
"Get them!" the horseman yells.
But before they close for the mêlée they hear a sound no minecrafter wants to hear.
Tssssk.
"Creeper!" someone shouts.
The sound is quickly followed by a spider with dark brown fur leaping from a nearby tree onto the archer. The swordsman turns to help her but is met by a zombie wearing chainmail.
In the middle of the commotion a creeper hisses and flashes white. Of all beings there Snow Drift pushes the party into the ravine, just as an explosion sends dirt, stone and wood flying, and sending them falling into darkness.
And the chapter ends, I was going to have a fairly long outtro paragraph but it slipped my mind when I actually finished it. Though I should warn you dear readers that I've been considering changing the name since it's been bugging me ever since the second ch. And know that I am definitely going to redo the summery, since it's been a placeholder anyway. Right till next time.