Harvey (Team Crafted)

Into the Dark

Harvey attempted to make potions using only his cauldron and some bottles; it didn't go well. It took him three hours to clean the mess he had caused in the experiment.
    Afterwards, he didn't know exactly what else to do, so he spent the rest of the day cleaning the library below his room. Sweeping out the dust was a relatively simple task to complete but getting rid of all the cobwebs was harder. He couldn't burn them all out for risk of catching the books on fire, so he got a stick from outside and wrapped all the cobwebs around it. When they were finally all gone, he pulled out the books. There were a good three hundred.
    He stayed up very late looking through all of them for something of magical importance, but he didn't find any. There were a few, of course, but none that carried more significance to him than the ones he had just recently purchased.
    Progress had been made on those, definitely. He spent a lot of time by Seto's grave, studying, translating. Sky insisted that someone always should walk him there and back to the Guild, since their whole job was to protect him. Well, most of their job.
    As Sky had said, they began doing what they used to do: they went out to villages at night and protected them from monster attack. Only two times they had done it so far, and both times were altogether quite unsuccessful. Sky always stayed home, and they always went in different groups. Apparently, they had trouble getting along well enough to really do any good.
    Harvey wanted to help, but he couldn't fight and he knew that Sky would never let him do anything so dangerous.
    Anyways, he was grateful that someone native to the world was there to watch his back all the time. He was having trouble sleeping ever since Houlden's threat on his life.
    After replacing all his books in their rightful shelves, Harvey climbed up the ladder between the bookcases, going back up to his room. He pulled himself up and then stood at the center, putting his hands on his hips and looking around him.
    He had a home, and this was it. So much work had to be done in order for him to get home, but at least he had started. Potions, he knew how to do now; in theory, anyway. He would need a potions stand before he could make any more progress, and to do that he would need to go to the Nether, and to do that he would need obsidian, and to do that he would need diamond, and to do that he would have to go mining.
    Damn.

On his hunt for information, he went to Sky's house first. He knocked and looked around a little awkwardly as he did. The last time he was on Sky's doorstep, he was soaked from the rain... He only now got to look at the front of his house for real.
    He had a couple stones, now moss-covered, leading from the main path to his door. Harvey was standing on the last of them. To his right and left was a row of flowers that had long since been dead. Sky seemed to have no interest in reviving or replacing them. Nearest him was what looked like a former rose, or maybe a poppy, or that plus flower in the swamps... Harvey had no idea what it used to be, it was so shriveled up and brown, but he was curious.
    Maybe... Once he got better with his magic, he could revive it and see... He stopped down and plucked the dried stem from the ground without trouble. Then the door opened.
    Harvey stood quickly, shoving his dead flower into his satchel. Sky looked him up and down with a somewhat confused but mostly just plain done expression. "What." He stated simply, in a way that demanded an answer.
     "I-I um... See..." Harvey swallowed. "The dead plant... Flower... And my magic... Future magic... Potential magic... I was thinking..."
    "Kid, what do you want?"
    Harvey sighed, cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment. "I-I just wanted to know if we have a diamond pick axe."
    "Uh..." Sky thought a moment, before he shook his head. "I dunno. You should ask Sundee. He would know."
    Harvey nodded. "Any idea where he is?"
    Sky just shrugged before shutting the door. "Ask Husky." His muffled voice said through it.
    Harvey sighed to himself. "Fantastic." So he continued on his search for answers. Harvey had mostly gotten used to the layout of the Guild almost completely over the past week or so and he knew that, unless you wanted to go for a swim, the only entrance to Husky's house under the river outside the Guild was through the tunnel dug just a few feet by Sky's house.
     The first few steps down were just dry dirt before it turned to mud. After a few minutes, the stairs leveled out into a simple path. The way was narrow, close to him above and on his sides. He was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic before he reached a door at the end of the hall. He knocked.
    This door opened slower than Sky's had. Husky stood there, looking sleepy and a little disheveled, although he was smiling. Did he stay up late cleaning or something? He smiled a little bigger as he saw Harvey there. "Hey, kid, what's up?"
    "I just have a question to ask." Harvey observed Jerome inside Husky's house, sitting at the table and sipping a mug of coffee. He directed his attention back to Husky. "Have you seen Sundee?"
    Husky blinked. "Sundee?" He was acting a bit slower than usual. Must've just woken up. That would explain why he and Jerome had coffee.
    Jerome perked up. "Yeah, he was just here like two hours ago. He said he and Ty were gonna spar at the training grounds. They're right by your tower, Harvey, can't miss it."
    Husky smiled a little and nodded in confirmation.
    Harvey smiled back. "Great, thanks guys!" He waved before he went back the way he came through the tunnel. Back on the surface, he made his way past his tower before going through an entrance he hadn't been through before. He stopped in the archway.
    Stretched out before him was a wide sand lot. It was maybe twenty by ten feet and bordered by a simple wooden fence all the way around, attached to the walls of the Guild. There were three dummies set up, but none were being used at the time; at the moment, it was just Deadlox and Sundee at the center of the training ring. Both had sticks of strong wood as they sparred.
     It was almost like they were dancing; but not just any dancing. Some samba jive We Go Together shit, like Just Dance on expert. They were so fast, all Harvey really caught of their battle was flashes of green and blue and brown.
    Finally, after several minutes of watching their hypnotic battle, Deadlox disarmed Sundee and his stick flew high into the air. Harvey looked up, saw it coming at him, and was too slow to move in time.
    The next thing he knew, he was being pulled but his arm into a sitting position.
    "Harvey!"
    "Harvey, you okay?!"
    "Dude, I'm so sorry, I had no idea you were there!"
    Harvey groaned, shaking his head, managing to rid himself of some of his dizziness. "Uh... I... I'm fine... I think..."
   Deadlox sighed. "What do you need, man? Or were yo just watching for fun?"
    "Um... Diamonds."
    Deadlox and Sundee looked at each other.
    "No, no... I..." Harvey sighed, standing and leaning against the wall. He had a mild headache, and the dizziness faded pretty fast. He just felt a slight struggle to regain his train of thought. "I wanted to know... I need to go to the Nether, for blaze rods, for a potion stand."
    Sundee tilted his head. "What have blaze rods got to do with a potion stand?"
    "That's how you make one."
    "...You can make one?"
    Harvey sighed. "Just - trust me, I did my research. Do we have obsidian?"
    "Um... No." Deadlox said. "We never did."
    "Do we have a diamond pick axe or means to make it?"
    "We used to." Sundee said. "But that was one of the things the bandits stole that I couldn't protect."
    Harvey sighed. "Then I guess we gotta go mining."
    Sundee nodded, exchanging a quick glance with Deadlox. "I'll take him."
    Deadlox nodded back. "Keep him safe."
    Sundee smiled slightly at Harvey behind his sunglasses. "Meh, I don't think he needs that much protecting. Seems like a tough guy, you think, Harv?"
    "I need protecting." Harvey said quickly. Deadlox and Sundee both laughed and Harvey smiled a little. Sundee patted his shoulder. "Let's get goin' kid. I know a good cave."
    After ten minutes of gathering the materials they would need, they set out. It was a short walk in the desert to the south of the Guild to find the cave's entrance in the sand. "Here we go." Sundee said, setting down a torch before he looked at Harvey. "Ready?"
    Harvey, although a little nervous about the idea of really mining, nodded. Sundee nodded back to him and then led the way, descending carefully down into the dark.