Chapter 48: The Box of Health

By the gift of peace, Clayguy7 was struggling against the blade of War.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Capablanca was having a hard time against the appetite of Famine.

I moaned as I sat up. My vision was so blurry I couldn't make out my surroundings. My body felt extremely weak, achy and painful. My head was lurching backwards and forwards. I stumbled around until I hit a wall, and I emptied the contents of my stomach by it. Then I could see a little clearer.

I was still in the pit of pestilence, that much I was certain of. The walls were, as usual, covered with horrible, disgusting green slime. The ground felt soft and clean under my hands, not dirty and covered with green crap. I suddenly remembered everything. I remembered Madrey1 beating me up, nearly drowning me, and leaving me to die. And I vaguely remembered a man in white robes walking towards me before I blacked out….

That's when I noticed where I was. I was standing near the box of health, the reward for the pit of pestilence. It was a solid metal blue box with a red metal cross on it. I stood up, and I saw over a dozen pair of eyes looking up at me. All three of the teams (except Clayguy7 and Capablanca, of course) were there. Haldir6, Osrie1 and Amy11 were wide awake. Amy11 and osrie1 had a few plasters and bandages, but haldir6 was still pretty badly beaten up. He had two black eyes, and by the looks of all the bandages around his chest, he'd broken several ribs. Haru Axe-man stood up, and went up to me.

"You OK?" he asked me kindly. I nodded in reply. "You'd better take the reward." I thanked him.

"Who saved us, by the way?" I asked him. He smiled.

"You haven't met him yet?" Haru asked. I shook my head. "He didn't say much. He rescued you lot, came to us, informed the remaining support team, and we all gathered here."

"Who was he though?" I asked, nonplussed. Haru shook his head sadly.

"I don't know. He never told us. He wore long, white robes; he had a god sword, and rode you here on a massive white dragon." I gasped. I knew the man-he'd saved my life twice before. The first time, he got his dragon to roast the rats when they invaded Tutorial Island. The second time, he killed the three-headed dragon in Lumbridge. He was always so mysterious-I had suspicions he had something to do with the Glory Troopers. I turned to Aubury.

"Aubury, do you know this man?" I asked. Aubury furrowed his brow.

"I'm not the true leader of the Glory Troopers," he said. "He is. He tries his best to reverse the damage that the darkness is causing. So far, the evil effect that is going on in the world is that animals are becoming possessed. Master Samuel and his cronies are plotting something huge, plus when people die they stay that way. The wilderness has become so dangerous anyone that goes in never comes back out. That man, our real leader, tries to save the world by stopping disasters in their tracks. If I recall, he slew the three-headed dragon from Lumbridge, and stopped the Tutorial Island rat invasion. He and that dragon are true partners-they're so closely bonded that they even share the same thoughts. Nobody knows his true name, not even me." I nodded.

I opened the box of health. Inside, I saw three large crates. On top of the crates, there was another half staff. I picked it up, and took out the half staff from my bag that I found upstairs. As if they were two attracting magnets, they clicked together perfectly. I could easily take a wild guess what was going to be the final reward.

I opened the first crate using the rusty metal hinge. It was full to the brim with money. I emptied all the money on the floor, and put the now empty box in the box of health. I shared the money out among everyone. I then opened the second box, and the delicious smell of different fruits hit my nose. I also shared the fruit out, and what I had for myself was a dozen bananas, ten apples, four papayas, and two watermelons. I ate the lot ravenously, except for a watermelon and three bananas, which I decided to keep.

The third crate was full of bottles of health tonic. I also shared this, but I was left with almost thirty bottles for myself! That was enough to stock my first aid kit for months!

I stocked all my supplies except for one bottle. I gulped down half of it, and pocketed it for use in the last floor of the stronghold. I felt much better-the pain was almost entirely gone. I then remembered my weapons belt and my clothes-they should be covered with slime after I nearly drowned in that lake of green goo! I asked Osrie1 about it, and he replied that he, Aubury and Haru washed me down with Aubury's home-made spell, 'Burst of Water'. It wasn't a water attack-it caused a jet of pure, crystal-clear water to spray on the person who cast it.

After half an hour of nothing but resting, soaking up the glorious light coming from the ceiling, I decided to make a move on. I felt healthy and full of energy again-probably because of the amount of healing tonic I took.

"Who here feels too sick to continue?" Aubury asked 6, who'd returned to consciousness, put his hand up weakly. Aubury smiled. "I'll teleport you to the surface." He muttered some words under his breath, and threw a ball of purple energy at Haldir6, who was teleported to the surface.

"The attack team will go ahead. Creator, can you stay watch? Sin can join the exploration team," Aubury said. Creator and Sin nodded. Creator went over to the box of health, munching on a pineapple, while Sin ran over to us. I smiled warmly at him.

Aubury, Haru, Mark and Slinky went down the ladder. The others started talking among themselves, apart from Amy11. She went up to me shyly.

"You feeling OK?" I asked casually. She nodded.

"You?" she replied. I nodded too. "You were so brave downstairs, trying to take on Madrey1. He's gotten stronger, hasn't he?" I grabbed the conversation topic as firmly as I could. We started talking about the gruesome things we would do to him if madrey1 was a voodoo doll. I noticed that Amy11 had held my hand right through the conversation. I gave it a reassuring squeeze.

After another ten minutes, I stood on top of the box of health so everyone could see me. "Right, Creator can stay here. For the rest of us, we should get going." They all nodded in agreement, and we climbed down the ladder, into the sepulchre of death.

Creator finished his delicious, juicy, plump orange. He used a Fire Strike spell on the peel to burn it to nothing. A sweet scent filled the air, but for some reason it disappeared, and was replaced with a rancid stench. He heard a giggle.

"Who's there?" Creator demanded, pinching his nose. The voice giggled again.

"I, sir, am the disease that makes this place nice," the person giggled. Creator saw a most horrible being walk out of the shadows in which he was hiding. He heard the snort of a horse behind him. "But, to make it easier for you, call me…..Pestilence." Creator screamed as enormous, steel, bulbous mace came from nowhere, to infect him with the disease of pestilence.