Hell of Earth

Chapter TWELVE

Opal turned her head nearly upside down and squinted.

"See?" Proga prompted.

"No."

"Now?"

"Oh wait- still no."

He sighed and crouched down, beckoning her to join. "The gills here, they are light brown right? That's good. If they are gray its too old to eat." He popped the top off a mushroom and tossed it into his open mouth. "Want one?"

Opal shrugged. She took a small nibble as he offered it to the others.

Yue paused to examine it. "What does it taste like, Opal?"

"Nothing." She admitted, chewing the rest of it. "Kinda disappointing after all that."

"Well its better cooked in soup... but its food ok?"

"Its good for energy." Kait picked her own and then gave a couple to Yue. She walked over to Spark and when he would not take it, grabbed his hand and put one in it. "And since we've been walking this long I think we can use any help we can get."

"Hey Prince, I thought ya said you knew where we were going?"

Yue didn't bother looking at him. "We've got at least another day heading south. If you need a break just say so and the rest of us will wait."

Opal glanced at Spark's glowing eyes and scooted so she wasn't standing between them but he just turned and walked off.

Kait sighed. "Do you have to wind him up?"

Yue gave her an innocent look. "I'm not sure what you mean." He ate another mushroom and took up the trail once again.

A few minutes later there was a high pitch squeal.

"Oooo Proga look!" Kait was on her knees picking through the foliage and lifting a long, many legged bug into the air.

"Nice!"

Opal grimaced. "I'll leave you both to it." They got way too excited about things they pulled out of the dirt. Sometimes it was helpful. So far Kait had showed her about a half dozen plants that had medicinal purposes and Proga had helped her find nearly everything that was edible. Unfortunately, it meant that they stopped quite a lot. Opal knew it was her fault for asking so many questions.

Proga and Kait continued to dig around while Yue had his head tilted towards the sky and his eyes closed taking deep breaths and mumbling some kind of chant until his jaw relaxed. He took a seat a moment later. Apparently, they were going to be taking a break after all.

Opal stretched her arms above her head and cracked her neck. After eating the pig their little group had managed to have the energy to do a proper exploration of the area. Yue had been able to figure out their location well enough from the sun and stars and despite Spark's mocking had found them an actual destination. It was a small signpost with letters Opal did not know, even when she searched her mind for them nothing came up but a headache. She and Spark were left out of the loop as the three others debated which way to go of the three closest territories. The closest was least likely to be welcoming, so they were headed towards Lster which apparently let just about everyone in.

"Something you need to understand." Yue had explained that morning. "Is its pretty unusual to show up out of the forest without invitation or prewarning for most places. Lster is kind of like... what would humans say- a tourist place. Its expected demons will come to visit so they pay less attention to who shows up. They specialize in transportation. Apparently they did it so well every demon wanted to visit."

"It also makes it a little uh..." Proga clicked his tongue. "Sketchy?"

"Not that sketchy." Kait shrugged. "They don't let hording groups or loners in at least."