An: Hello ello!
My computer was formatted. Again. Don't know what keeps fucking happening, don't fucking care.
I've been growing in views quite rapidly, makes me very happy.
Now, since I've asked this before PLEASE ACTUALLY GIVE ME YOUR OPINION HERE. I've been pondering creating a short story work off of Nikolai, roughly of a couple days in his life. I'm thinking of sending this here and there and attempting to get published, as the money could help me quite a bit. I am curious if anyone thinks i will succeed or fail miserably. Your opinion might give me enough motivation to fix my work up/send it in, so please do.
As for some people who keep saying how they like one scene, it's always the scenes i wanted to add more to, which makes me feel very stupid.
Now, lets get the ball moving.
Chapter 11: Caves Are Always Terrible. Always.
We come to find our troop of heroes sitting on the very edge of the badlands, with very confused looks on their faces. All of them stared down, and saw the badlands simply ended, suddenly becoming a lush Jungle. The forest was thicker then Smithy's beard, and it was unlikely they could cut their way through, or even burn through, as the entire area was covered in a slick of rain. "Little Hero, how does this exactly work? Shouldn't this be a gradual change, not...this?" he asked, confused. He stepped inside the jungle's perimeter and immediately felt much cooler, the perspiration already covering him. Frowning, he looked back to the three of them who were visibly sweating, and spoke up. "There is so much water in the air it might kill the girl by stepping inside, eh?" He spoke up, waving his arm between the borders and watching the mist evaporate then form again.
Flame Princess became quite upset, Finn could tell, by the large pout on her lips and the sudden squeezing of his hand. Kissing her gently, he sighed. "Looks like ya have to head home, F.P"
"But...but..."she whined, not wanting to end the journey. "It's dangerous out there! Your going to make me walk all the way back!" she cried, attempting to guilt him into letting him stay.
"I can just summon a golem." Smithy piped up, and then flinched by the glare he got.
"But...but..." she gave up, defeated, and watched Smithy form another Golem, which saluted and picked her up, and began charging across the badlands. "Don't let Finn get hurt or I'll hurt you all!" she cried before the golem brought her out of distance.
Shuddering, Ice King and Smithy both looked at each other with mild fear, deciding to be careful with the boy.
In The end, they decided to go over the jungle, The thick canopy tough enough to hold them safely. As they walked, they listened to the sounds below them, strange birds and lizards making even stranger sounds. However, Finn grew bored of this and began to quiz smithy as they walked.
"So, why is it only you can make those magic rune things?" he asked, watching the man twitch.
'oh god damn it, not this again' he thought grumpily. "I don't know, boy. I am the only one who knows what they mean or how to carve them properly."
"Hm. How did you learn about them?"
"They come to me in dreams."
"Oh. Whats your strongest rune?"
Growling, he glared a little. "The one of my carving staff, "Creation". It is with that i can form any rune. Also makes a decent weapon if needed be."
"So, is that the only magic you can use?"
"No, everyone in my world can use any magic. It's just that everyone is born with a talent for one thing or another. I have a talent for earth magic, along side my runes."
Suddenly the Ice King spoke up. "Whats with the 7 symbols on your back? How did ya do them when you can't even reach them?"
Glaring heavily, he answered. "i used a body double to do those. And they are my healing runes. "Regain" in the center, with "Blood, Air, Limb, Flesh, Bone and Skin" circling it. If i activate regain with either of them, it will regenerate any missing parts of me. Of course, i can only do it so much, and some are heavier tolls then others."
He nodded, before pointing to his legs. "What about those two?"
"How do you even see these, i never took off my shirt or pants!?" he cried, exhausted from the questions.
"I can see em through your clothes. My stanky old wizard eyes are to blame, I guess..." he said, a little quieter.
Sighing he answered. "Those are speed runes. They burn through my calories to let me move faster. I don't use them unless i have to, or i could kill myself. Now are we done with the questions?"
"Nope, I'm good. How about you, Finn?"
"Hm...Yup, I'm done." he said, finding the entire scene amusing, drawing his mind off of the flaming girl that would have been holding his hand at this very moment.
As Smithy was about to say something, he twitched and brought his arms up, the blue egg barrier coming up like a shield, and a loud bang was heard, like a weapon had hit off the barrier. Swearing, he jumped back, and looked around. "Oh damn it, did they send a sodding wraith?!" he cried, getting exhausted off all of these undead.
Frowning, Finn looked at him. "What's a Wraith?" his answer, however, was given to him when he found instinct driving his word over his face, and felt something smack into it.
"A undead creature that walks both plains. We can't see em because of that, so we must-" they heard a loud sound only describable as 'the sound you get when something freezes suddenly' and turned to see a block of ice, a humanoid hole inside it.
"Wha? You can't see them?" he said, rubbing his beard.
"...Of course! Your wizard eyes let you see both plains, so you can see the wraiths. Very helpful, i suppose."
The King of ice and snow smiled, liking the sound of being helpful, and looked about. "Guys, what if i told you i saw about 90 billion of them, all coming from the east?"
"I would say we run west." Smithy said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Oh. Then lets do that." He gave out something between a scream and a shriek and flew off as fast as he could, Finn and Smithy getting the idea and joining the mad dash.
"What...do...we...do..." Finn panted in between steps, his lungs burning from the speed he was attempting to keep.
Smithy tossed a ring at him, and he slipped it on, feeling the burn disappear. "That ring will let ya run without exertion for a while. Won't last forever. We need to find something made of stone."
"Why stone? Couldn't we just roll into a ball and cry until they go away?"
"No, they can't phase through stone. Or ice, apparently, but i don't think freezing this entire area is a suitable option." pointing north west, he speeds in that direction. "That mountain should do for losing them. Probably has a cave or something. Or maybe a tunnel." He picked up pace, and the others didn't think much about doing the same when they heard a smashing sound from behind their feet.
As they reached the mountain range, which loomed heavily across the jungle, they found what they wanted between tired breaths; a large gaping hole in the side of the mountain. Diving in, Simon froze the entrance as quickly as possible, to be greeted by the sounds of bodies hitting it roughly. Freezing it even more to support it, they started backing up. "Yeah, that won't last long guys. We need to make like gunter does when i catch him with a bottle."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Smithy asked, holding his legs and gasping for air.
"We need to waddle our butts as far away as possible."
"Sounds like a plan!" Finn cried, walking into the darkness. Then promptly walking out when he realized he didn't have any form of light.
Smithy Sighed and murmured something, a ball of light appearing and illuminating the cavern.
"Woah! What's that?" Finn cried, trying to grab the small orb.
"It's a simply Orb of Light spell. Toddlers can do it, not that big of a deal. Now lets get moving."
Trudging along the dank cave, they found themselves stepping over bodies of dead animals, pieces of their skeletons and flesh missing. They shuddered mentally, and hoped they wouldn't run into anything that dangerous, and shuddered again when they stepped around the corpse of a forest troll, the brute missing a large section of it's chest, and burn wounds all over the corpse. Flinching, they all stopped moving by the sounds of stepping, each massive step sounding like if a tank could walk. Turning a corner, they saw something turn and look at them. It stood nearly as tall as Smithy and twice as bulky, wearing something that looked like a suit of armour from hell. It seemed to be made of multiple plates of heavy shining steel, that made him look like a demon from hell. Whats worse was the helmet of the thing, it's eyes made of some form of thick glass that had a green glow to them, and the entire thing looked to resemble something out of a nightmare. They looked to see that it's left arm wasn't a actual arm, but from where it would have had a arm a massive shining blade existed, the thing looking as heavy as a man and sharp as sin. It's right hand was covered by some form of gauntlet, various holes and other queer things lining it, and gave them a feeling that they had many nasty surprises.
It looked at them slowly, and seemed to ponder something, before grunting loudly. It approached them slowly, and they found themselves unsure of what to do. However, it turned to the dead troll, and drove the blade into it;s flesh, cutting a large piece off of it and picking it up. It pointed it's hand at it, and jets of flame shot out, cooking it. With a small hiss of air being released, it pulled the mouth compartment away and began eating the flesh, causing a gagging sound from Finn. He had tasted troll before, and it tasted like dirty socks.
"...Should we just walk around it?" the Ice King asked, unsure of what to do.
"It doesn't seem hostile. Might be the best idea to not bother-" With a loud smashing sound, they heard the ice covering the end of the tunnel shatter, causing them to flinch. Before they could turn, they could hear the sound of the wraiths approaching, dragging along the walls by the sheer number of them attempting to fit in. As they prepared to die to the swarm, they found themselves pushed behind the massive creature, which seemed to growl, angry at the newest intruders. Bending over slightly, it gave out a unearthly scream that caused the three to hold their heads, the scream echoing along the caves. However, they were greeted to the sound of bodies falling, and their ears popping. Looking up, the Ice King affirmed what they guessed. "They all are dead. Again."
Grunting, it looked to the visitors and waved for them to follow it, apparently deciding something in it's mind. Unsure of what to do, they followed it, deciding the creepy creature was a ally. Or at least for now.