Chapter Two:

It felt like all of my life flashed before my eyes at that moment.

I could see Dagrun before it was a town, Ianite's smiling face, Apostle as a child, Martha as a child, meeting Freya for the first time, getting to see my grandchildren for the first time, watching Alyssa play with Andor and Alva like they were best friends from birth.

Martha's tears when I stepped into the ritual circle.

Darkness surrounded me, and I thought I was dead for a moment, that maybe Ianite's ritual went wrong.

But then I felt a strong hand take mine.

I look over to my left and see Mot, falling beside me with Countrybat holding onto him.

I turned to my right and reached out to Jeriah, who was staring at the darkening abyss underneath us.

He grabbed my hand tightly, squeezing.

And I felt at peace.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

I gasped and opened my eyes.

They felt dry and tired, and I almost closed them again from the sunshine.

"Spark! Spark, where are you?!" I heard Mot's voice.

I stood up and scratched my head.

"Mot! Mot, I'm fine, I am over here!" I called.

I was on a beach, and my black pants were soaked from the ocean.

"Spark! There you are!"

I turned to look at Mot, and he stopped, surprise clearly on his face.

I raised my eyebrows, "What? Do I have something on my face?"

Mot tentatively walked up to me and grabbed my shoulders.

"What is wrong with you? Mot?"

He stared into my eyes with his one good eye and his empty socket where his other eye used to be.

"You're- younger," Mot finally said, clearing his throat.

"That's ridiculous, I am the same age as I was when we left," I scoffed.

"No, because your hair was grey and your eyes were cloudy, and your skin was wrinkly and you were old," He said calmly, "And now you look my age."

"But you are twenty five, and I am- I am-" I stopped myself and ran over to the water.

I stared into my reflection.

My hair was now its old jet black color, and my face was young, without any wrinkles.

I put my hands up to my face and felt my smooth skin with happiness.

"I'm young again!" I cried out happily.

"Yeah yeah, you're not an elderly anymore, hurrah, can we go? We do have work to do," Mot said.

I turned to him, my face serious, "Oh yes, let's hurry."

We walked off the beach and into the grasslands.

Jeriah and Alyssa were waiting for us by an abandoned house and farm.

"Did you even look at this, Alyssa, it is strange," Jeriah said with an annoyed tone.

"What are you patronizing her about now, Jeriah?" Mot growled, coming over and scooping up the young girl.

"No no no, have you seen this, Mot? This is someone's house, and not just anyone's house. Spark's house," Jeriah said, looking pointedly at me.

"That can't be right, we are in a different dimension, does this house at all look familiar to you, Spark?"

"Not at all," I confessed.

"Well, I want answers, so let's go inside," Jeriah said, going up to the broken wooden doors.

He tried to open it, but it broke in half and crumpled.

Jeriah jumped back, almost knocking over Mot and Alyssa.

"Can you not be such a scaredy piece of crap and go already?" Mot snarled.

Jeriah huffed and stepped over the door, and we followed.

"These people seemed primitive, living in a wooden house," I commented.

"Easily burned," Mot added enthusiastically.

I ignored him and looked around the broken down home.

Whoever owned the house hadn't been back in a long time.

There were some signs on the walls, and I couldn't make out most of them.

One said...

"Trolololol?" Jeriah said, dusting the dust off one of the signs.

CountryBat giggled and buried her face in Mot's neck.

"Be careful, vines are growing out of the stairs, could be rickety," Jeriah warned.

"Then use your phantom bridge to build a better staircase down," I suggested.

"Ah yes, that is a good idea," Jeriah said, pulling out his sigil.

And right before our eyes, it crumpled into dust.

Jeriah gasped in horror and caught the dust, staring at it with a gaping mouth.

Mot rolled his eyes, pushed past Jeriah and ran down the stairs.

I reached out and patted Jeriah's shoulder, then followed Mot.

The stairs were cracked and unstable, but I made it down without tripping.

Jeriah, on the other hand, while climbing down the stairs, tripped on a vine and fell flat on his face in front of me.

I helped him up and I looked around.

There were wooden chests all around the room, stacked on top of each other.

I opened one, and inside was a stash of weapons and armor.

This house owner was a simple person.

"Guys, come down here!" Mot called.

I found another set of stairs and saw Mot and Alyssa standing in front of some iron doors.

Mot pulled out the Stoner Boner (his pickaxe), and mined out the door.

"Mot, don't do that, that isn't our door!" I said.

"I will put it back when we leave, don't get your boxers in a wad," Mot hissed, taking CountryBat's hand and going into a little room.

"How did you know I wear boxers?" I asked.

"Just a hunch, anyways, what is this?" Mot asked.

I looked down at the ground, which was made of cobble and...hoppers?

"Hoppers? That's a weird building material," I said.

"It probably goes down to something," Mot said, pointing at one wall.

There was broken glass in the wall, showing there was more to the house.

Mot, without hesitation, mined out the wall and went downstairs.

I followed him and it led into two set of stairs.

I went down one and we ended up in a large room with two beds and chests everywhere.

Above the bed was two frames, one with a clown fish in it, one with sugar in it.

I tried to look away from the sugar, but it was pulling me in, like it had powers unknown to anyone but me.

I reached up and pulled down the frame, which cracked in half.

I snatched up the sugar before it fell to the ground, staring at it in my hands with awe.

"What happened to 'this isn't our stuff'?" Mot asked sarcastically.

Ianite's sugar.

The sugar glowed and rose out of my hands.

"Shit, what did you do Spark?" Mot asked, pulling out his rapier.

The sugar glowed brighter and it flew up the stairs.

I didn't think about what I did next, I just did it.

I ran up the stairs, following it.

I pushed past Jeriah, who was coming down the stairs.

I heard him fall, but I didn't care.

This was Ianite, trying to speak to me somehow.

I know it.

The glowing object flew all the way up the stairs and out the entrance to the house.

"Spark!" Alyssa called out behind me.

"Sparkplug, stop right there!" Jeriah called after me.

I tripped a little, going down the outside stairs, following the sugar.

And then it stopped, falling to the earth.

The glowing dispersed and I picked it up, disappointed.

"Spark, what the hell are you-"

There was a flash.

Then someone growled, "Who touched my sugar?"

I slowly looked up and saw Ianite floating above the ground, glaring down at me.