Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 13

Jorgie sneered and kicked his feet against the stump. "Because you have to go find them, stupid. That's why."

"But you just said you know where they are. Why can't you go find them?"

The look Jorgie gave him was full of incredulity. "I'm eight years old. It's not safe for a child of my age to be going out by myself. That's your job. I'm starting to think you're not going to be able to do much. You look kind of weak."

"You look weak," Severance retorted before he could think better of it. He was a grown adult compared to this shrimpy little brat. Did this kid not have eyes? How could he think Severance's six foot something frame was weak?

"I'm a child," Jorgie reminded him. "But you don't need to be scared. There's some Outsiders that already went there, so you never know. If you put your heads together, you might be able to manage."

The little brat. Severance started to suspect his parents had gotten lost on purpose. "Fine. Tell me where your parents are so I can go find them."

"Finally!" Jorgie exclaimed. "You should have asked that at the start rather than waste all this time. Now pay attention. If you head in that direction," he pointed at the path at the other side of the clearing, "you should find the Mossy Cave. They'll be in there. Round them up and bring them back here in one piece. Think you can do that?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Only this kid would have the guts to order someone to round up his parents like they were a couple of cows. Now that he had all the information, there was no reason for Severance to linger.

The trip to the Mossy Caves turned out to be eerily quiet. Severance thought the forest to be better suited to a horror movie rather than a game. Sometimes, Severance got the feeling something was stalking him, but when he looked back, there was nothing there.

I'm going to call this place the Paranoia Forest. It was all the same unsettling atmosphere, no matter which part of the forest he wandered into.

It was impossible to miss the Caves. One moment it was all trees, and the next, a rocky wall that rose nearly 50 feet high appeared. It looked out of place, like someone decided to randomly drop a small mountain in the middle of the forest. A cavernous hole was in the side of it, large enough that only a blind person would fail to see it.

As Severance neared, he saw two players standing outside the cave. The taller one was an old bearded man in threadbare brown robes, and the smaller one was a chubby little boy.

"Hey, there!" The bearded player called out. His name was Fladnag the Wise.

"Hi," Severance returned slowly. The little player was staring up at him with pale corpse-green eyes.

"You here for the quest?" Fladnag the Wise asked. "Jorgie's parents?"

Severance nodded mutely. Those sickly green eyes were creeping him out. If he thought Jorgie was a freak, then this other player wasn't too far behind. It felt like a dead person was staring at him.

PrettyBoi was the zombie's name. Severance almost choked when he saw it appear. With its round face, and soft, fragile features, PrettyBoi would have been a cute child if it weren't for those disconcerting eyes. Those eyes were the shade of death, the very spark of decay.

"That's great. We can do this together, then. Hang on, I'll send you an invite." Fladnag the Wise pulled up his System menu, although Severance only saw the player's hands moving through the air. He couldn't see anyone else's System menus.

Party Request sent from Fladnag the Wise. Accept Party Request?

Severance hesitated. He hadn't expected to be pulled into another party so soon. As much as he wasn't sure about joining forces with more strangers, he couldn't think of an immediate reason to refuse. Not one that wouldn't make him as arrogant and snobbish as Jorgie, anyway.