Aveyond: Rhen's Quest

Chapter 14: The Wicked

After escorting the Druid of Time, who gave Rhen a sleeping flute as reward, the trio made their way back to the blocked passage in Wildwood.

"Can we spend a night at the tavern? I'm tired of all that fighting we got ourselves into," complained Lars.

"I agree, let's continue our journey tomorrow," added Elini, who was yawning.

"Oh well," Rhen took their words and headed to the tavern in the forest.

The tavern was situated deep in the vegetation. It looked isolated and abandoned like the one from "Cabin in the Wood". Appearance could be deceiving. It was crowded inside when they entered the tavern. People enjoying their meal, waitresses taking their orders.

"Welcome to the Wildwood Tavern. I'm the owner here. How may I be your service?" asked the tavern owner, who gave a toothy smile at them. Rhen and Lars were at the counter while Elini was looking attentively at an advertisement posted on the wall.

"I notice that you're recruiting members for the Adventurer's Club," piped Elini, who wanted to know some details about it.

"Yes. Are you interested to join?"

"What do we need to do to join the Adventurer's Club?" asked Rhen.

"Let's see... Basically, you need to hand a vampire corpse to us in order to join the club," explained the tavern owner.

~~~

After a good night's sleep, the trio stocked up on supplies sufficient for their journey once more at the tavern like food and drinks before setting off to Halloween Hill.

The passage revealed itself after Rhen had inserted the skull, which fit perfectly, into the empty slot. A foul stench smell came out from the entrance and Lars could feel his gastric coming out, he swallowed hard.

The landscape, generally, was like a place that is having Halloween. The only thing difference was that Halloween is normally celebrated once every year. In Halloween Hill, is was as if the festival was endless.

"This place gives me the creeps!" commented Rhen as they were travelling the place.

"Stop acting like a coward! Just move on," snapped the sorcerer.

Rhen was about to open, but she he was right, so there was no point to protest against him. They explored further into the area.

They ventured around the creepy village, which was known as Witchwood, and entered a shop. There, they heard two witches conversing at a corner. Lars was selling some loots that they managed to get from their journey so far, while Elini was looking at the gears sold.

Perhaps I should change my old whip, she thought, maybe the wyrm whip suits me more than this leather whip.

Rhen was too curious to eavesdrop on the witches' conversation.

"Griselda, why are you so pumpkin-faced?" asked one of them.

"Oh, it's nothing," replied the other, whose name was Griselda. "Every witch is enamored with Gavin the warlock, but I find him boring."

"No, you're wrong. Gavin is such a handsome-looking guy. A charming, lovely prince."

"Eew. Such a gross and icky warlock scum he is," snapped Griselda.

"I know you're jealous that you don't have his charm. It's okay, they're lots of guys you can fall in love with. You'll never know when you're married to a nice-looking vampire some day in the future..." comforted the witch.

"Bah! I don't need your concern. Time will come and I'll meet my lover soon."

"Fine," and the witch exited the shop with a grunt, Griselda followed afterward.