Chapter 4-6

Chapter 4

Beginning

Usually, when I wake up, it is a miraculous feeling. Usually, I want to jump out of bed and get going on exploring and mapping and making jokes with my comrades and packing up camp with them. Usually I love Corr's mushy oatmeal and adore Argenteus' sense of direction.

Usually.

Not today.

Today I creep out of bed.

Today I slouch at the cooking pot.

Today I don't thank Corr as he starts making the fire.

It was just me and Corr up at first. But them to my surprise, it's Magenta who creeps out of her tent. Magenta strikes me as one of those shy girls. The one who never wants to state her opinion because she's afraid her opinion will be wrong. But her green eyes slide to the pot.

“What's for breakfast?” She asks. Her voice sounds like water trickling down a stone wall.

“Oatmeal.” Corr says, not looking up from his work, “Why?”

Her eyes widen. Soon, she has rushed back into her tent and come back out with a small parcel.

“Horr!” She calls.

Corr looks up. His blue eyes look slightly confused. “It's Corr.” He says softly.

“Oh.” She blushes slightly, “Sorry. CORR,” She knelt down on the opposite side of the fire, “Please let me make breakfast!” She unwraps the parcel to reveal a few ingredients.

Corr looks surprised. But being the man he is, he takes one more knock of the two rocks and makes a spark. He leans down and blows on it, taking a minute or two to answer. She waited in reverence.

He sat back on his haunches. “Of course.”

She smiled an adorable smile, “Thank you.” She then sets to work, pouring water into the pot.

“Do you think this pot will make enough food for all ten of us?” She asks innocently.

I feel myself flinch. 'All ten of us' is not yet in my vocabulary.

Corr smiles. “I'm sure it will.” He said.

It was about then that Ammie crawled out from underneath her tent flap. She immediately began to pull down her tent as if it was nothing and packed it back into a bundle. It wasn't until she had actually finished did she turn around and notice us.

“Oh!” She said, “I... I didn't see you there.”

“Ammia.” Magenta smiled while stirring something frothing in the pot.

Ammie cleared her throat and then smiled, “Actually, it's just Ammie, thanks. Whatcha cooking?”

A sparkle glinted mischievously in Magenta's green eyes. “You'll see.”

Changing the subject abruptly, Ammie gasped, “Is that a... “ She seemed to stare off into the distance at something that any of us could not see.

“Why yes it is!” She whistled, drew out a notepad and began scribbling furiously. She then retrieved a camera and began shooting pictures at a nearby tree.

There was an awkward silence as she began to check out her photos with only the sound of the bubbling pot to fill it.

“That...” Corr searched for words, “IS a very nice tree...”

Magenta nodded.

Ammie looked up, “No, no! Don't you hear that?”

We all stayed silent for a moment. All I heard was Mother Nature. The bird singing, the wind in the trees, the grass swishing.

Ammie's eyelids fluttered as if it was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. “THAT.” She said, “Is a blue-eyed warbler. Hear that faint shrill on the breeze? That means that mating season has almost come and...”

As Ammie talked on, I then remembered what Tanner had said about her. She was our biologist. She loved plants, animals, anything that lived. She was here to study and maybe find species.

“They are rare in these parts.”

Startled, I fell backwards on my log. Looking up to see where the voice had come from, Natalia stood above me. She looked at me as if I had tried to do something to amuse her that wasn't amusing at all. She was balancing in her stick. I scrambled to a sitting position.

“Natalia!” Magenta said, “You're awake.”

“I have been awake for a long time.” She mumbled, that was when I noticed a faint accent. “You all sleep for SO long. I was tired of riding that...”

I heard Elvira bellow in the distance.

“That thing.” Natalia nodded and began pacing around our small campfire. “So I went out to find some kind of proper animal.”

Corr looked interested, “Oh? What did you find?”

Natalia looked like she didn't want to talk about it, but she said it anyway, “Your animals here are very... what is word? Skittish? Very shy. Not easy to catch.”

“So you didn't catch one.” I snapped, placing myself back on my log.

Natalia glared at me, but then snapped her vision back to the horizons and began pacing again. “I could have if I had found suitable animal. But-” Suddenly, she pressed a small circle on her stick, knives shot out at either end and she had one up to my neck before I could say 'Yikes!' “I assure you, if I had found something STRONG enough for my liking” She got really close up to my face and I could see that she had dark flecks of purple in her eyes and her breath smelled of deer fur, “I would have caught it in less than a heart beat.”

A large gold broad sword took the knife from under and raised it away from my throat.

“Now, now.” Corr said soothingly, “Let's not start any fights.”

“What are you to say, human!?” Spat Natalia. She glanced at the golden broad sword, “I bet you don't know how to use that thing.”

Corr loves a challenge. He got into attack position and whispered, “Would you like to find out?”

“I most certainly would!” She yelled as she ran at him.

I know Corr was one of the best fighters around, and a gentleman also, so I was sure it would be a fairly clean fight, so I turned my attention to the bread that was now taking shape in the pot. Magenta was holding a hand over it and chanting something. When I realized it was magic, I felt disgusted. Using magic already, right in front of people! But when the smell of the bread came to me, I felt I did not mind as much.

The clang and clash of sword and spear brought out three more of our troupe. Tailan, Argenteus and Artemis all emerged due to the commotion. Ammie hadn't taken her eyes off of the two since the time Natalia had come outside.

“What is going on out here, Corr?” Argenteus yelped. Tailan watched with a slight smile on his face, as if he found the fight funny.

“Nothing.” Corr responded, leaping back from a very sharp knife. “Just a quick rehearsal for how I am going to” He took his sword, and curved it around her spear. Flicking his wrist sent the spear flying. “Beat up anyone.” He then jabbed forward, right at Natalia's chest, which made her bend over “Who gets.” With a single motion he had Natalia on the ground and his sword to her neck. “in our way.”

Natalia pushed away his sword angrily, “You foolish human! You do not fight fair!” She was still spitting curses as she went back to start packing up her tent.

Artemis had somehow gotten closer to me. “I don't like her from the start.” She muttered.

“I don't see how anyone could.” I mumbled back.

It took us about ten minutes to pack up. I was at least glad that I didn't have to hold anyone's hand and teach them how to pack. They all seemed to know the basics of what we were doing.

Natalia refused to ride Elvira, but Ammie was instantly on top of her, fascinated in her. She was checking out her teeth, and taking samples from her mane. Good old Elvira just stood there patiently, her muscles slightly twitching whenever agitated by Ammie's fingers.

Tailan immediately walked over to the female Ginchurik Corr had found last night. Staring up at it's enormity, I could see he was wondering how exactly he was going to get up on top of that.
Argenteus lent him a slender hand and sank to one knee for him to step on. I noticed with her other hand she was scratching her leg.

Then something sparkled, and I saw the scales on Argenteus' leg. They were barely showing their form, with their sharp shiny look to them. I knew that THAT time was soon to come. How would we explain it to the new troupers? Would Argenteus even WANT to tell them?

Argenteus glanced over at me and saw what I was looking at. She then smiled and gave me a look that said, It'll be alright, and then mounted the Ginchurik with Corr's help after Tailan. When the Argenteus yipped at the creature and it took off, Tailan yelped and grasped onto the large head of the creature.

Magenta and Jaco were given the Yigil's again, and Ammie, Artemis and I squeezed onto Elvira's back.

But Natalia, who refused to go to either a 'pitiful' Yigil or a 'hideous' Elvira' was soon offered a ride with Corr. Sometimes it bugs me how gentlemanly he has to be. Just let her walk for all I care. Then we don't have to listen to her complain.

Chapter 5

Misadventure

TUSC had given us supplies for up to 2 weeks. No matter how much I did not want to, we would have to stop in Bo-Bon for supplies. Drad would be a much longer trip, and we would need all the supplies we could get.

Surprisingly, after Natalia's spur with Corr, I thought for sure the two remaining days would drag on like months. But the new explorers were as quiet as a nest of snails. It shocked and surprised me, but pleased me immensely. Especially since Natalia seemed to even be holding her tongue.

But that night, as Elvira huffed and panted her way over a hill with me leading her, another shock came to me. As we crested the hill, I saw in great wonder, an enormous city set before me. The city lights gleamed in my wide brown eyes. I had estimated 2 days, but here we were on our first day, already reaching the legendary city called Bo-Bon.

Now the worst was to come, for everyone knows that evil enjoys lurking most in darkness.

But because the city was right within our view, there was no point in not spending the night somewhere on the ground. We should at least attempt to find comfortable reservations.

It was another twenty minutes before we had reached the city limits and were greeted graciously by two very slick looking men who looked like they could either pull out a weapon or offer you some nasty thing very quickly. I avoided their eyes as much as possible. When I looked into eyes like that, it made me feel greasy and disgusting.

I found a pair of very friendly fat kitchen maids who offered their master's stables for our animals while we found reservations for the night. It would be small fee, and I payed in advance.

We were roaming Bo-Bon for quite some time. It seemed an hour past our average bedtime before we had found a quaint place. We had spotted it from one of the very convenient public watch towers and headed toward it as soon as we had all gotten down.

But apparently the place that looked so quaint and homely from so far away was not so lovey dovey as when we got there.

The first thing I heard as I pushed open the loose door was a whole bunch of cussing and then one loud bang as if something glass had just shattered onto the wall next to me.

I pressed myself against the door a bit, allowing the others to file in. What met my eyes was some sort of bar fight that we all managed to evade as we crept past them to the front desk. There, a very fat woman stood, cleaning out mugs with some grayish yellow sort of liquid.

I swallowed and approached her while Corr and Argenteus kept the rest of the group under close observation and held out a protecting hand when something dangerous came too near.

“My name is Volicla.” I began “Me and my-”

“Funny accent you got there stranger.” She muttered without even looking at me. She then proceeded to put down the cup she had been washing, which looked even dirtier now than before, dry it quickly off. She grabbed the grayish yellow liquid that sat in front of her and poured it over one of the poor souls that had been knocked out on the ground. He was skinny, sickly, bald, had a slight beard and terribly crooked teeth. He gasped awake and she cackled, still not meeting my eye,“You want room and board or what?”

Momentarily distracted by the man as he threw himself once more into the fight, it took me a while to stutter out, “Yes, ma'am. Four... No, sorry, um... for ten please.”

“Ten?” She eyed my group with a steel eye. “That's an awful big family you got there girly.”

“Family?” Argenteus looked at Corr, confused.

Corr puffed out his chest, trying to make light of the situation, “We must look like the mommy and daddy.” He whispered, smiling.

It was true. As they were tallest, they did. But I was close enough to look like one of the older sisters, along with Ammie and maybe Natalia.

“I dunno if we got enough rooms for TEN.” She said. “But we got about three teeny tiny rooms you could y'all squish into.”

Just then, a very skinny, scraggly woman appeared from underneath the counter, with two mugs. “Who's dis Mohm?” She said. She wore a very old fashioned tail coat vest with a rather ominous large medallion hanging from her neck.

“Just some cuhstummers.” The bar woman chuckled, “We still got them three attics, ain't we?”

“Indeed we do, Mohm.” The little woman stood up a bit straighter.

“Well, show 'em to 'em.” She whacked the small girl on the rear end with a mug in the direction of a winding ancient looking stairwell behind the counter.

“This way guvnor.” She chortled and scuttled up the stairs the same way a crab might.

Corr and Argenteus proceeded to take the back and me, the lead. We followed her up in single file line to three unnaturally skinny doors. “Now I'm sure you can all fit...” She said, eying Corr's large structure, “And we'll all be just fine.”

It was then Magenta's face that caught her eye. “Ooh, what a cutie.” She smiled, not cheerfully, “Aren't you just a doll? Yes, yes, you must have your own room! Yes, you must! How rude of these people to try to crowd such a darling little creature. Yes, yes, please follow me, my love.” She scuttled into the farthest room and nearly tripped over the threshold of the door.

Magenta, not knowing what to do, followed her gingerly.

I, on the other hand, was not quite so fooled. I followed her, angry thoughts and definite hates welled up in my mind. I made quite an entrance of following them to let the woman know she was NOT alone.

“Oh!” She laughed embarrassingly as she noticed me, “This is this little treasure's room. Out, out, out.”

I then, picked her up by the shoulders and rudely placed her outside the door. Coral followed in after me, 'accidentally' tripping the woman as she stepped over the door frame.

Corr ushered all of the men into one room and Argenteus took all the other ladies into the other. Ammie joined us in our room and then doors clicked shut and it was good night to all.

By far, our room was the most crowded. Ammie and I being quite large and Magenta and Coral being quite small, it was quite a squeeze.

The room was miniscule. It had to be only seven feet wide and four feet across. All it contained was a single bed that was dusty and musty beyond belief. It was silent for a while, Magenta's face was red and Ammie seemed to be fiddlefaddling with her notebooks more than usual.

“What...” Magenta started, but then her unfinished question hung in the air.

After a few moments of silence, I knew it was my job to explain. I then took a very big sisterly position, lying on my stomach to look her straight in the eye.

“There are some people in this world,” I began “That have lost.. let's say... their moral sense of judgment. The instinct in every living being that walks upright is knowing good from bad.” Magenta nodded, “But when the creatures chooses bad so often that he thinks it is good, instincts get a bit mixed up.”

Ammie intruded, “Magenta. Did you see that medallion around her neck?”

Magenta nodded again, it hadn't been hard to miss. It had been large, circular and golden and took up maybe 1/6 of her torso.

I started talking again, “Now, Magic. Magic was made from instincts of human and natures wonderful miracles combined. Things like medallions like that..” I paused, “Well, they have been all mixed up and messed around with, so they are no longer good.”

“The POINT IS,” Coral interrupted, trying to get to the point, as always, “That woman wanted your magic. That medallion around her neck is there forever, she'll never take it off. It's called a Wondurm for a reason.”

“Wondurm?” Magenta asked.

“A Wondurm is like... a drug. It is something that always tells you what is right from wrong, when it is usually lying. They are demons that somehow died by the forces of good and came back in different forms. Usually in things vain people would adorn themselves with, such as large pieces of jewelry.” Ammie said matter-of-factly.

“The presence of a Wondurm is an evil thing. Anything that knows evil from good will be able to sense that it is otherworldly.” I interjected.

“And she had one.” Coral butted in, “It was burning into her, demanding her, begging her, pleading her to steal your magic.”

There was a long silence, where even Coral looked like she realized she had butted on the top subject much too quickly.

“They,” Magenta sounded like she would cry, “They can do that?”

“With something as evil as that in their hands,” Ammie said softly, “They just might.”

Chapter 6

Theft

We checked out sooner than usual out of that nasty hotel. We were out on the streets in no time. I had sent certain groups to go and do certain things.

Argenteus, Jaco, Artemis and Coral were all on food duty.

Corr, Ammie and Magenta were all on other things, such as weapons, blankets, tents, saddles.

I had chosen to go with Natalia and Tailan to check on our animals and then go shopping for a bit more things. The goal was to be out of here before noon. We would all meet back at the watch tower as soon as possible.

“Whatever,” Tailan grunted as I told him to go check on the Ginchuriks. Natalia was in charge of the Yigils and I would go to see Elvira.

But the worst soon happened.

I found the same kitchen maids who had so kindly let us use their stables the night before. They looked worriedly at each other as I asked about the animals. “You best come see for yourself.” Was all they said as they walked away.

So we followed them.

All of our animals were in stables next to each other. I looked in the first one where they told me Elvira was.

No Elvira.

Quite a surprised and very confused, I moved onto the Yigil's stables. The Yigils lay in sad heaps, bleeding heavily from deep wounds slashed on their back legs. The Ginchuriks were no better. The large female was missing and the male was dying, bleeding on it's side.

“Are you not tending to them!?” I demanded.

“That's the thing.” Said one of the large maids, “Our master wasn't pleased you brought them in here last night and ordered them butchered.”

“BUTCHERED?!” Shrieked Tailan, “YOU invited us in here!!!!!”

“Indeed we did,” She said, starting to back down, “But it was you who was foolish enough to accept.”

I couldn't believe it. Elvira, butchered? A pile of meat somewhere? I felt something swirling. At first, I thought I was swirling to the ground in some weak faint, but then I realized it was the very atmosphere around me that was swirling. It was as if all of the energy out of the air was being pulled out and drawn to one source..

I turned around to see a Tailan, hunched over, hands in claw form in front of his face, his face a complete look of utter frustration. Something around him glowed some sort of maroon. He then thrust his arms out from him, and it threw the maid to the wall and held her there.

“WHERE DID THEY TAKE HER?!” Tailan shouted in a voice that seemed only half his own.

“Th-They took her to the butcher shop near the Squeaky Pig!!!” One of the maids pleaded, as the one pinned to the wall could not.

“And the Ginchurik they took to the stables to rent her out as a race horse!” Another one squealed.

Then, just as soon as it had started, the energy seemed to fade. Tailan dropped his arms and head and then looked up as if nothing had happened.

“Where is the Squeaky Pig?” He said softly.

The maids were too stunned to answer.

“ANSWER ME.” Tailan barked.

“Down the street!” One squeaked.

Tailan took my hand and led me to the door, with a blank faced Natalia following slowly after. Our walk was a completely silent awkward march, and we reached the Squeaky Pig in no time.

When I heard a couple of grunts from a small shack off to the side, I knew them instantly.

“Elvira!” I called.

There was a loud MOWing sound and then a whip cracked. There was another loud mournful moo and then the squeaking of some giant contraption. “Giddup!” Cried someone.

Then something came lumbering out of the shadows from behind the house.

“Whaddyou want?” It rumbled.

“We want our animal back!” Natalia shouted, who seemed to have regained her ground.

“It ain't yours no more.” He grunted and then turned to leave.

The same feeling occurred. Energy was gone, all going toward one core. It struck out and hit the man to the ground. Tailan, behind me, drove his elbow through the air and then the other as if rowing a boat. He clenched both hands together into one fist and then released. The man was being dragged toward us slowly. He yelped and them began attempting to claw himself back toward his shack.

“You can have her! You can HAVE her!!!!!!” He shrieked.

I led Elvira around an outhouse a few times, watching her legs carefully. I took another glance at the scars on her rubbery back that I had stopped the bleeding from. Natalia was tending to the Yigils and Ginchurik. She seemed to be better at healing spells then Tailan was.

“Looks like her legs are working fine,” I said, stopping her, “Eh, good girl?”

She grunted, almost happily.

“Now for the female?” Natalia looked up as soon as she had finished with the wounds.

“Found her.” Tailan said, pointing up ahead, where one of the men who had led us through the gate was handing a sheet of paper to some man who had her reins in his hand. She stood tall and proud, not a single scratch on her thick pelt. I heard Elvira behind me attempt to lick one of the wounds on her flank with her long anteater tongue.

“You there!” Natalia called, thrusting the reins of the Yigils and Ginchurik at Tailan, “That is ours!”

The man looked up. He had a fading hair and wore an orange shirt. “What are you talking about?”

“That animal.” Said Natalia, pulling out her stick, “It's ours.”

“I bought this animal with my own money, I'll have you know.” He countered.

The knives unsheathed themselves out of the sides of the stick, “It is ours.” She repeated menacingly.

“Police!” Called the man, attempting to mount the animal. There was a faint whistle and something shiny and crescent shaped flew out of nowhere and landed right in front of the Ginchurik's feet, startling it.

Artemis squatted atop the outhouse. She stood up, “It's ours.” She said.

The man called again, but Natalia brushed him off with her stick and Artemis jumped onto the beast's back, reining her in and trotting her toward me. The man ran off, calling loudly to the authorities.

Coral sang out, “Finalllly!!! You guys were taking forever.” Looking around, I realized that the Squeaky Pig and the outhouse had been fairly near the watch tower.

“Don't rush,” Natalia mumbled, sheathing her deadly weapons.

It wasn't very long before Tailan had quickly healed up most of Elvira's scars and Corr's group came to meet us as well. Corr had been very clever, and trading one of his most prized satchels made of real fur had had made himself, he had earned us one more steed. A Serenell.

A Serenell is like a very large furry creatures, like a bear. But just imagine, instead of a large furry head to match, it has a half of a snake's body sticking out of it's neck. This is a Serenell. We managed to get rid of the Yigils very quickly, buying even more supplies. We were done quickly and it wasn't very long before we were out of there.

I went over the supplies with Argenteus. She had done a fabulous job with the menu of the next two weeks. I thought the rest of my troupe would be very pleased indeed.