I ALMOST forgot to post this??? fuck
I've been working on this story for more than a year now wHEEZE-
More than 12 months of work and I'm only on chapter hecking thirteen
//upset noises
Anyway.
Our whole massive team of heroes is now heading out to fight some demons!
Dawson, Cindy, Aiden, Kenzie, Ruby, Rush, Gill, Becca, Petra, Jasmine, Minty, Ivory, and Lila are going after the Eyece, led by Jesse
Olivia, Marilan, Athena, Aranna, Kat, Myst, Aaron, Kendall, Maya, Liv, and Star are going after the Wellwisher, led by Axel
This is going to kill me, trying to keep everything straight ughhh
and wow I didn't have time to edit so enjoy this SHIT PARADE of a chapter >:|
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The sun glinted brightly off the pure-white snow, making it shine like a million tiny diamonds. The ice spikes biome was cool and silent, but not eerily so. The snow-coated hills bore the silence of a midnight snowfall, the only sounds being the skitter of small rabbits bolting over the ice and the gentle crunching of human footfalls in the snow.
Our group of adventurers weaved through the numerous ice formations jutting up from the ground, following Becca as she carefully examined her map.
"We should be getting close." The young guardian announced.
Petra fell into step with her, leaning over to glance at the map as well. "Really? Already? How d'you know? Where are we?"
Becca tucked the map into her inventory, shooting the redhead a reproachful look. "You don't need to sound so skeptical. I know what I'm talking about."
"I just-" Petra broke off as a clump of snow suddenly hit the back of her neck. She whirled around, brushing snow out of her hair. "Hey. Who did that?"
Several of the others had been tossing snowballs at each other for the past few minutes, but so far Petra had been exempt from being a target. Cindy gave her a demure grin. "I'm sure I don't know."
Petra scowled halfheartedly at the younger girl. "You're such a pack of goof-offs."
"Oh, we know." Dawson said cheerfully. Ginger gave a low woof, and the blonde girl smiled down at her dog. "Ginger agrees."
Jasmine was holding a small block of packed ice in her hands, and was practicing changing it into different things. Her power of creation allowed her to form objects out of nothing, but she could create things from solid blocks as well. She was starting to get the hang of it, despite it taking a bit more effort.
Kenzie was watching her with fascinated eyes, marveling over the older girl's otherworldly ability. The block morphed into a short saber, which Jasmine quickly used to slice away a snowball that had been tossed in her direction.
Jasmine quickly formed a snowball in her left hand, and threw it at Ruby in one swift motion. The gold-haired girl shrieked and launched herself into the air. A pair of green dragon wings had formed on her back, lifting her above the ice spikes.
"Not cool, Jas!" the shapeshifter snapped.
"I dunno, seemed pretty cool to me." Ivory cracked. Jasmine snorted.
Ruby dropped back onto the ground, the wings vanishing. "Hilarious." She said dryly.
"Ruby, don't shift again. You just freaked out those poor bunnies." Dawson told her, nodding towards a small group of black-and-white rabbits partially hidden behind an ice formation.
"Oh. Whoops. Sorry?" Ruby said, glancing between the rabbits and the blonde Author girl.
Rush snickered. "You should've seen how my cat reacted the first time Ruby shifted in front of her. It was almost a week before she'd even stay in the same room Ruby was in."
"To be fair, your cat's a grade-A brat." The shapeshifter pointed out. Rush shrugged. "Yeah, she is." she agreed amiably.
An accurately-thrown snowball collided with the side of Rush's head. She startled, shooting a suspicious glance at Lila, who was dusting her hands free of snow. "Did you just-"
Yet another clump of snow glanced off her shoulder, spraying her face with tiny crystals of ice. The cat-eared Author whirled around, walking backwards so as to address the majority of the group. "Okay, whoever threw that, I'm going to curse you with nightmares for the rest of your miserable life."
"It was Aiden!" Cindy called.
"Hey! You snitch!" Aiden said indignantly. Rush shot them both with a suspicious look, then leaned down and gathered another handful of snow.
Before she could throw it, a clump of snow hit Cindy full in the face, tossed by someone behind Rush. Cindy sputtered in surprise, pulling off her glasses to wipe away the frost. "Jasmine! You're supposed to be on my side!"
Aiden was the next to get hit, as he'd been too busy laughing at Cindy to see Dawson aiming for him. He scooped up a handful of snow and hurled it at the blonde Author, who squealed and narrowly dodged the projectile. Ginger, who had previously been trotting docilely alongside Dawson, leaped up and caught it with a joyful yip.
Rush flung her snowball at Aiden as well, hitting the shoulderpad of his armour. Jasmine barely escaped getting hit with Lila's next snowball as she turned to hurl another one at Cindy. It soon became impossible to tell who was responsible for who getting hit, since most of the group had now joined in the good-natured snowy chaos.
Surprisingly enough, Jesse was one of the few who wasn't participating. She was walking slowly, at the back of the group, seeming to be in her own world. She winced at every loud noise, glancing cautiously around at the towering ice formations.
She hadn't been to a snow biome since the disastrous events of the Shard trials, a little over three months before. She'd just begun pushing them from her mind, but the trek through the snow was bringing the memories back in full force.
Gill was the first to notice she wasn't acting normal, as most everyone else was busy pelting each other with icy projectiles. He slowed his pace, allowing the distracted hero to catch up with him.
"Hey. You doin' alright?" he asked gently.
Jesse glanced up at him. She was only a few years his junior, but their height difference was noticeably large. "Uh, yeah, I'll be...I'll be fine." She muttered.
Gill raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You don't look fine."
She shrugged uncomfortably. "I dunno. I'm kinda regretting agreeing to lead this expedition. The last time I was in an ice spikes biome wasn't exactly a great experience, so it's just bringing back some ah...let's just say nightmarish memories."
"Can I ask what happened?" he said after a moment.
Jesse paused before simply saying, "I lost a friend."
"Oh. Yeah, alright, that would definitely make me want to avoid seeing snow." Gill agreed. Jesse replied with a small wry smile. "There were very large furry monsters involved, and I keep thinking I'm seeing them behind all these ice formations."
Gill shot a cagey glance towards a particularly large ice tower. "Oh, please don't say that. I'm already feeling enough on edge because of us being the only living things out here, don't add large furry monsters to the mix."
Jesse laughed genuinely, suddenly feeling significantly calmer than she had since they'd first stepped foot on the snow. She'd never previously given Gill much thought, but was now glad he'd come along.
At the head of the group, Becca had taken the map out again, and was carefully examining their surroundings. "We're almost there." She muttered.
"How close?" Petra asked. Becca hesitated, then tilted the map towards her. "You see the blue dot? That's where we're headed. The map only shows the monsters locations, not ours, so it can be challenging to tell where we are, but I've got it figured out. We're around here." The blonde girl explained, gesturing to a place on the map very near to the pale blue mark.
Petra shrugged. "Whatever you say. I've never been good with maps. Too complicated."
Just then, Minty caught up with the two of them, having escaped the barrage of snowballs. "Hey, Becca, I know this is kinda abrupt, but I've been meaning to ask...do you know how these monsters were imprisoned? I know it happened a really long time ago, but since you were the guardian...?"
Becca put the map away again. "Well...actually, I don't." she admitted. "You're right, it was a really long time ago. I know that whoever did it wasn't human, and that they had powers unlike anything else from this world. But that's it. I'm not sure when the guardians stopped being informed of the origins of the prison, if they ever were."
"There's a lot of weird history in this world." Petra contributed. "Lukas and I have been studying it quite a bit in the past few months, and we've found a lot of...strange things."
"How so?" Minty asked. Petra frowned thoughtfully. "Hard to describe. We've found maps of places that don't exist, and ancient books written by people we can't find any mention of anywhere else. There's old records of enchanted items that make it seem like at some point, magic was a totally common thing, even if it's rare and mysterious nowadays. Things that just...don't match up with what we know today. Like I said, strange."
"Huh." Becca mused thoughtfully. "But you'd never come across anything about this demon prison before?"
With a shake of her head, Petra said, "Nope. Never mentioned, in anything we found. Maybe we just weren't looking in the right places, but I don't know."
From behind them, a stray snowball collided with Minty's head, flakes of snow sticking to her curly teal hair. She quickly turned around, brushing frost out of her hair and stooping to collect a handful of snow.
"I'm sorry! I was uhh...aiming for Petra!" Dawson laughed. Minty gave her a wicked grin. "Sure."
She threw the snowball at the smaller girl, who quickly attempted to dodge it. In her effort to get away, she slipped on a small patch of ice, landing on her knees with a yelp.
Ginger immediately bounded over to her, wagging her tail enthusiastically and licking her owner's face. Dawson laughed, gently pushing the dog away.
Cindy was there an instant later, reaching her hand out to the blonde Author. "You okay?"
Dawson let the dark-haired girl help her up, still grinning. "Yeah. I'm gonna bury Minty in a snowdrift, though."
"I'll help." Cindy offered jokingly.
"You can try!" Minty hollered good-naturedly, overhearing them.
Barely a minute later, Becca stopped short, causing the rest of the group to slow behind her.
"Why are we stopping? Are we here?" Ivory asked. The guardian gestured in front of them. "Take a look, what do you think?"
Most of the group had been too distracted by the snowball war to pay attention to their surroundings, but it was hard not to notice the dramatic image in front of them. The wide field cluttered with ice formations thinned into a tall valley, with the opposite end leading into a massive cavern. A few smaller ice spikes stood in front of the entrance to the cavern, looking almost like sentinels.
"Whoa. I guess this is the place?" Ruby asked, tilting her head back to look at the top of the cavern, where icicles hung down like frozen curtains.
"Yep. The Eyece should be right in here." Becca said, pulling her knife from her inventory.
Jesse, who'd moved to the front of the group, drew her heavily enchanted diamond sword. "Well, is everyone ready?"
Most of the group gave affirmatives, and several others took out their weapons. Holding a torch in her other hand, Jesse stepped forward, heading into the darkness of the cavern, to meet the monster waiting inside.
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"So let me get this straight." Lisa requested. "The Oldtown ghost isn't actually a ghost, it's a demon, and it escaped from a prison where a lot of other demons were being held?"
"Basically. And we're back here to kill it." Axel said.
"Seems about right." Serena muttered.
The rest of the team of heroes had made it to the Woodland Mansion, where Axel had introduced them all to Serena, Iris, and Lisa. The three had been surprised to see Axel and Kat back so soon, but had quickly been informed of the situation. Iris hadn't seemed all that surprised, since she'd already gone head-to-head with the thing.
Axel had made sure Athena was on his team, because of her healing ability. She'd made quick work of the dark wound on Iris's arm, her Author power restoring the other girl's skin to normal.
The three girls had all reacted differently to the discovery that the Wellwisher was the reason the original Saffridge had been abandoned. Iris and Lisa had both seemed rather alarmed but accepted it quickly, though Serena had taken some convincing before she gave up on her denial.
It had been easy for Axel to put the pieces together, remembering the legend he'd been told about Oldtown when Becca had said a monster had briefly escaped several decades before. The timing made perfect sense: the Wellwisher had escaped, reigned terror on the little town until the people fled in a panic, and then was returned to the prison by Salem.
He was still very uncomfortable with the fact that the conniving Old Builder woman was still somehow wrapped up in this whole mess, but didn't voice his thoughts aloud. They had other problems, after all.
"But if this thing really is a demon, how on earth are you going to just kill it?" Serena asked. Olivia gestured appraisingly to her. "I asked the same thing. According to Becca- the guardian of the prison -they can all be killed like normal monsters. They're still mortal, they just have weird abilities and higher health."
"Which is why you need magical backup." Lisa noted.
"Exactly. Plus, we're fun to have around." Aranna added.
To Axel's surprise, all three of the Woodland Mansion girls had decided to come with them to fight the creature. He suspected Serena, at least, just wanted to see the thing for her own eyes. It wasn't long before they'd gathered their best weapons and were leading the team through the forest.
Marilan ended up bringing up the rear, walking slowly as she strapped her sword sheath around her waist and tucked her enchanted iron weapon into it. Most of the Authors seemed rather excited to be going up against the first demon, talking animatedly to each other. She could catch only a few of their grimly eager words, but they all seemed pretty optimistic.
The only exception to this was Kendall. The rust-haired girl was hanging back a bit, scuffing along with her hands in the pockets of her jean shorts. A little taken aback to see the energetic girl so downcast, Marilan quickened her pace to catch up.
"Heyo." The Author girl said simply when she noticed Marilan by her side.
"Hi. Noticed you seemed a little less...enthusiastic, than the rest of your magical crew. Everything alright?"
Kendall shrugged, looking thoroughly distracted. "Yeahhh, I'm fine. Just...thinking."
"About...?" The older girl prodded.
"I dunno. Kinda just letting my mind wander." Kendall said with another shrug. "Do you think the others are alright?" She asked after a beat of silence.
Marilan took a few moments to reply. "I'm sure they're doing the best they can. It's hard to accurately say things like 'okay', or 'alright' when there's stuff like this going on. Not...that I've much experience in the 'hero' business."
Kendall sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess that's true. I just...don't want anyone to get hurt. We won't be able to bring anyone back this time, if they die. Truth be told, none of us are experienced with stuff like this, and I don't really want to be. Why do we have to be heroes? Why does anyone have to be a hero? Why can't bad stuff like this resolve itself?"
This prompted a slight laugh from Marilan. "Oh, now you're getting to the hard-to-answer stuff. To my knowledge, questions starting with 'why' are often the most difficult to figure out."
Kendall didn't answer, just continued walking. Marilan attempted to catch her gaze, wondering if there was anything else to be said.
"Are you...thinking of anyone specific, or just worrying in general? I mean, I know there's a lot to worry about, but is there someone on your mind? Or something, I dunno."
Kendall hesitated, then nodded. "Ah...yeah. I mean, I'm worrying like mad about everything, but there is at least one person I'd like to see again."
Marilan smiled mischievously, leaning over slightly to look her in the eye. "This 'someone' wouldn't be a certain cat-eared Author girl, would it?" she asked. Kendall shot her a sideways glare. "No! Why would I be thinking about her? No. Shut up."
"Ah, so it is about Rush." Marilan decided.
"I didn't say that!" Kendall protested, blushing redder than her jacket.
"And yet you confirmed it anyway." The older girl straightened her stance, grinning slyly. "Denial can sometimes be more confirmation than an actual affirmative. You're a terrible liar."
"I'd rather, just...you know. Have everyone come back alive. But that kinda goes without saying, I think? And this can't be that bad, it's just one monster. Right?" Kendall said, attempting to change the topic. Marilan gave her another knowing glance, but went along with it anyways.
"Of course. But, I feel obligated to remind you that while it is 'just one monster', this isn't some ordinary zombie or skeleton."
"I know, I know. Forgive me if I'd rather stay on the positive route."
Just then, the team arrived on the outskirts of Oldtown. A shiver ran down Kendall's spine as she took in the crumbling buildings, ruined by time and draped with vines.
"Stay alert. We don't know exactly where it is." Axel warned.
"Where was it hiding last time?" Olivia asked quietly from beside him.
"In the well. You know, 'cause it's called the Wellwisher? So creative." The griefer replied absentmindedly, then raised his voice slightly. "Spread out. The thing moves fast, and we shouldn't be in one big group when it comes out. Keep your weapons ready."
The others did as he said, looking cautiously around at the ruined town. The whole place was eerily noiseless, no animals around, no wind ruffling the trees.
Axel slowly approached the well, holding his iron axe at the ready. He knew he probably should've brought a better weapon, but he'd never been very adept at swordfighting, and preferred to stick with what he knew.
Right before he was able to look into the depths of the well, Kat's shout from behind caught his attention. "Axel, look out! It's not in the well! Look up, look up!!"
Axel tipped his head skywards, just in time to see the dark-coloured fiend dive towards him.
This was going to be bad.
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YES OKAY I KNOW THIS IS LATE, AND SHORTER THAN I PLANNED.
I WAS BUSY LAST WEEKEND AND I SWEAR I WILL MAKE UP FOR IT.
HHHNNNNN.
It really seems like my chapter quality has been going down, but I swear I'll do my best to be less lame.
And I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again anyway
I'm planning to have this finished by January 8th, 2019, so I can post the third book on AWU's 2nd anniversary, which is January 13th
I'll be posting a chapter every other Tuesday until then, so this book will be completed in about ten chapters, plus an epilogue.
Yeah, 10 chapters doesn't seem like too much, but have you seen how much I write??? jfc
Word count: 3036