"How is this happening?, the girl is mine" the girl's hand holding the knife was a few inches away from her neck, but it did not move, and it turned to face Blue "You, what did you do?"
"The food everyone ate, had morning dew on it. The girl you have taken is awake, you will not harm her" Blue kept getting closer to Emma while keeping his hand on his sword, Caster was also getting closer as well, the wagon drivers were all clamp together, and the Shiver Cloaks were still dumbfound.
"Then have it, but I will find you, remember that" as the voice ended, Emma trembled, and then collapsed, and from her, a black haze emerged, two small lights looked back at Blue, and something akin to laughter broke the silence, and after a second the Nishi Dak, turned and was going to get away but as he was about the leave something had stopped it and it began to shriek.
"I told you, I am ending you here" Blue had a smile on his face, as he kept approaching the black haze, passing by the girl who was laying on the ground "You are trapped within, the fire, you are not allowed to leave its light" the creature lights like eyes, lite up on his words, and a screech came from it.
"How dare you, I will enjoy making you eat your own tongue and drown in your own blood" the haze, launched itself to Blue, but before it could reach him. Blue had unsheathed his sword, and cut trough the haze, while the monster screamed in pain.
"You are a puny little creature, thinking yourself smart, you thought yourself so clever, by resisting to kill your preys on the spot, and letting them return and then disappear. You think you could understood, but you are nothing but an animal, driven by its instincts" as Blue spoke, the haze had passed him, and look to be condensing, as if it was giving way to form a silhouette.
"But you were found, you see, those who loved, the ones you took, knew there was something else, and you have thought you could continue doing it, but you will harm no one no more" Blue was moving again on the haze, and before it could do anything else, his sword came down again, on the haze, and another scream came, and a creature was appearing, its skin was slimey and pale, and it had a pair of yellow eyes, it screamed in pain, and looked at Blue with dispear.
"You are to vanish, shadow of desire" the sword came down again, but this time it pierced the creature chest, and long howl and shriek filled the air, the drivers had to cover their ears. The creature tried to take the sword, but as it touched it, its hands burned. After a few seconds, the thing began melting, amid its screams, but as the drops of it fell to the ground they vanished, until there was nothing else, and the all that was left was the crackling sound of the camp fire, and then Blue, sheathed his sword again.
Caster was the one who reacted first, and he went to check on Emma, the Shiver Cloaks who had been lost at what to do, went to see her as well, after all, they were responsible for looking after her while she gathered herbs. The drivers were still shocked, but they looked more at ease.
"How is she?" Blue asked as he came to check on the girl as well.
"She seems to be passed out, and its very cold, but she seems fine" Carter answered as he moved a bit away from the girl.
Blue knelt next to her, to check her pulse "She will be fine, but she does need to be closer to the fire, help me out" he said that to Carter, and they both carried the girl closer to the camp fire.
Everyone was looking at Blue, who had sat next to the girl, everything had happened quickly, that they had have no time to really understand what had happened.
"Will she be fine?" it was the driver Mr. Dumas, who spoke first, and Blue nodded.
"She will, the Nishi Dak, weighted on her, she will feel sick for several days, but she would recover completely, there will be no lasting effect" Blue answer, calmed everyone down, and they quietly returned to where they have been. The Shiver Cloaks stayed near Emma, after all they had been partially responsible for her safety. Blue had moved a bit away from her, after checking her, and Carter stayed were he was.
"I am sorry for not being able to do something, sooner, I had to prepare so it would not get away" Blue said as he went back to start eating another piece of jerky.
"What was that thing?" The driver who went on the same wagon that Blue asked
"It was Nishi Dak, a luring spirit monster, it is rare to find one, and they are very tricky to catch. This one in particular was believed to be responsible for the death of 3 people" Blue explained to the driver whose face was still pale.
"And you just dealt with it?" the man answered looking at were the thing had vanished.
"Cold Iron, he pointed at his sword, a very old measure against many monsters that dwell in shadows. It is dead, Mr. Remy, it will bother no one no more" as Blue said that, he offered his bag of jerky to the man, who refused, he had lost his appetite.
"Was it true, you placed morning dew, in our food?" Carter asked, he was more at ease, now that the girl look to be regaining color, and was just passed out.
"To be fair, it was the water, and yes, I had to, I could not spot, when the thing got the girl, my guess would be when they picked herbs in the thicket, but I did not know, until she talked about her teacher" Blue replied
"So you gave us all the morning dew, to prevent the thing for taking advantage of us" Leo the half elf said, and Blue nodded.
"I am sorry, if I was a bit rude before, I had intended to observe you and try to catch the thing before it latch onto someone, but I failed there, I left this last conversation as a safe to check on what I knew about you, that way I could be sure who had it, and deal with it properly" Blue explained and Carter nodded, the drivers were still troubled, only the older driver seemed more calmed.
"Why did the Nishi, could not get away?" Vitas asked with curiosity on his face.
"Well, as a dweller of shadows, if it is caught in a light made with morning dew as well, the thing could not escape from it, until it runs out" Blue explained once more, and Vitas remembered he had been the one who lit up the fire.
"You came here well prepared, were you look after for this assignment?" Carter asked but Blue denied with his head.
"The guild had noted the events only happened to people when they arrived at Neverglen, and as such, they have offered the quest to two other groups who were on their way to Neverglen, but the Nishi had not appeared, I am heading to Neverglen as well, and when the guild knew that they asked me if I wanted to have the quest" Blue explained and Carter nodded.
"Why would they not give the quest to a silver ranked, the Nishi Dak was not strong" Dainius the tall man of the Shiver Cloaks asked.
"It is ranked as a platinum rank or above, because it is very dangerous to catch it, if one does not know how to deal with it, most silver ranked adventurers do not treat much with spirits, well most adventurers do not, the usual thing to do, is to call on a church or temple, and they would take of it" Dainius nodded, it was true, most silver ranked would try to get on more physical threats, most adventurers did, ghost and spirits were left for churches and temples, or any kind of mage.
"What happened?" Emma's voice made every one turned to her, she had already sat, and was surrounded by the Shiver Cloaks and Carter.
"Do you feel alright Emma?" Indra the mage asked gently, and the girl nodded slowly.
"I remember being trapped in a dream, and moving and talking with you, but it was not me, I tried screaming but nothing happened. Then I grabbed that knife, and for a moment, I had decided to let it happen but when I tried to stop myself, finally I felt my arm once more, and then I just passed out I guess" the alchemist apprentice voice was low, and there were a semblance of tear forming in her eyes, but she had held them "Was it real?" she asked but she knew the answer as she saw how everyone were looking at her, only Blue the adventurer looked at her in a more normal manner.
"You were held prisoner within your own body, miss Emma, a Nishi Dak, manage to get a hold of you, which I am ashamed to say, I could not prevent it from happening, but I assure you, it has already gone, and you are fully and without a doubt yourself" Blue have her a smile, as he adjusted his glasses, his words eased what worried her, she was herself again.
"May I ask, when did you felt something was different?" Blue asked in a gentle tone, much to Carter visibly annoyed face.
"I woke up, during the night to do some..." the girl face went a bit red and Blue nodded.
"I understand miss Emma, you see, I placed some horseshoes on the wagons, which should have kept the Nishi Dak, away from us, but he got you went you went off the wagon, thank you for telling, I was worried, there was something stranger happening" Blue once more, smiled and he offered the girl a small vow.
"No, I should be the one, thanking you, it was your voice that woke me up, when you were confronting me, I, do not have much to offer you, but I am in your debt" the girl had tried to stand up, but Indra held her.
"You should take it easy, miss Emma, your body will be weak for a few days, and you do not have to worry, it is was my job, and pleasure to be able to help you, and it would not be fair to rule out everyone else, I was the only one aware of what was going on, but as you can see, both Carter and the Shiver Cloaks were worried about you" Blue answered and the girl blushed a bit, as she saw how she was surrounded.
"He is right, Emma, Mr. Carter would have offered himself to the Nishi to keep it away from you" Vitas said and Dainius and Blue laughed, the silver ranked just blushed a little, and Indra sighed.
"Thank you" the young girl answered with a more color to her face
"Why don't you eat some soup miss Emma?" the older driver Mr. Dumas, came near the girl with a bowl of the soup he and the other drivers had prepared. The girl took it, and bowed.
"Well, I guess this is what we should expect from Neverglen" Leo the leader of the Shiver Cloaks said "We will cover the nights watch, so everyone can relax, Vitas will take the late night shift, because he was worried as well" and everyone laughed but Vitas, he just sighed.
Everyone returned to finishing their dinner, now Blue was also sitting close with them, and they were chatting, Emma's color had already returned, and she she laughed about the stories of the Shiver Cloaks, Vitas and Leo knew each other for a while, and when they decided to start a part as adventurers they met Indra on the guild, and a while later Dainius joined.
They were the kind of party that were close friends, they seemed to know their strengths and flaws, and they talked about some of their missions. Even Carter share one of his party when they were still iron ranked. The wagon drivers, listened intently, as was Emma.
"Tell us a story from your missions Mr. Blue" the wagon driver who had shared most of the journey with the adventurer asked.
"Me?, most of my quest are kind of boring" he said humbly
"A platinum rank, with no stories to tell, now that is something unheard of" Dainius who was rather quiet said it, and the other nodded as well.
"True, are you knew to your rank Blue, platinum's are always full of their grand deeds and what not" Carter followed Dainius with a grin on his face, and Blue sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell you one, but I'll have you know I've been platinum rank for quiet sometime, and its the new recent ones who have been becoming so unprofessional" he said as if he was an old man, taking smiles from Emma and Indra "You see, during one of the first quest I ever, did, when I was cooper ranked, I and some other people decided to join up, to tackle a nest of boruspiders, they are some relative bigger spiders, whose bites might cause palarysis but only if several bite you, so all in all they were ideal targets for cooper adventurers, the problem was that they reproduced fast, and their nest might become dangerous, as such there were quest to tackle them before they got big" He pause as he saw everyone was hearing his story.
"We were 5, an archer, three melee fighters and a cleric apprentice, so all in all we did not look bad, we march to where the nest had been reported, we came as prepare as we could afford, each of us had a low grade potion, and some torches, and then we arrived to the nest. There we faced our first problem" he smiled as he recalled the past "The boruspiders create almost vertical tunnels to their nest, and none of us had thought of bringing rope, but no one wanted to return because we had forgotten about carrying some rope, and after discussing for a moment, we somehow, reached the bottom of the entrance, almost unharmed" Emma and the drivers were listening with attention, Indra and Dainius had smiles as an adventurer you heard and saw things like that form time to time, Leo the half elf was serious and Vitas looked confused.
"Once we were down there, it turned out, we were quickly surrounded, but we did not encounter the boruspsiders, as we advance to what we thought was their nest and lair, we found the corpses of the spiders, they were massacred, something had eaten them, and me and my companions started to panic, we were not prepared to face whomever had done that to the spiders, so we ran back to the entrance, and began screaming for help" everyone was quiet and listened to Blue with attention, but Vitas and Leo were looking at each other, with concern on their faces.
"Then we began hearing, something was crawling behind us, and we started shouting louder, we could it was coming for us, and we clawed at the tunnel, but we could not, get out, so we decided we would climb on top of each other, so that at least one of us could get help" Emma was now entranced with his story, as well as the drivers.
"Wait, this is not right" Vitas began but we was interrupted
"Shssss, please Vitas, let him finish his story" Indra said immediately
"But is not his" Vitas answered, and everyone turned to face him, but as he was about to say something, Leo, tapped his shoulder and denied with his head.
"Let him finish" The half elf said with resignation on his face, and Vitas just nodded.
"Finally, we were able to get one of us, outside and he ran to bring help. It had just been over 5 minutes when the things that were behind us appeared" Blue let a moment of pause and he smiled "Then were able to see them, large and bulbous bodies, covered in mucus, and nothing but a single hole as a face, we were prepared to fight, but as we saw them, our faces fell. They were just blob worms" and almost everyone began laughing, but Emma, Leo and Vitas.
"Are blob worms not dangerous?" the young girl asked a bit embarrassed.
"They are not Emma, they are overgrown land worms" Carter explained
"The boruspiders ate one of them, and even though they are practically harmless, the mucus they execrate is very poisonous, the spiders probably died, because of it, and the worms, had slowly been eating them, as they feed on any remains left on the ground. Once they saw what was behind them, they dealt quickly with the worms, but as they finished, a lot of adventurers had come to help..." now Emma understood, and she began laughing as well.
"That is not sometime to laugh at, you should have seen the spider corpses, they really looked like they have been devoured by something terrible" Vitas said uptset, and after looking at him for a moment, Indra and Dainius turned to Blue, who nodded with a smile of his face, and they truly began laughing and rolling the floor.
"It was you, that was the information the guild gave to check on Vitas" Carter was laughing as well, but with more control, he did not know what the guild have told Blue.
"Aw come on, it could happen to anyone, and besides, Leo was there as well" Vitas said and as everyone turned to see the serious half elf, who blushed a bit embarrassed as well "It is not fair Blue, you were suppose to tell story about yourself, not someone else's"
"I told you, mine are very boring, and we manage to make everyone laugh a little, thank you for such a great story Vitas and Leo, I will cherish it forever" Blue said grinning from ear to ear, and Vitas just sighed.
The caravan continued chatting for a while, and then everyone prepared to sleep. Blue offered to take on the first watch, and they allowed him. Emma was a lot more relaxed after they have talked near the camp fire, and she was sleeping next to Indra.
Once everyone was sleeping, Blue sat at the top of of the wagons, he wanted to keep reading, but he was the watch, and the snowflake fields were not a safe place to rest, not anymore. There were some lights to the north, there awaited Neverglen.
"How long has it been since, I was here?" he thought as he looked around at the familiar landscape. The tranquil meadow that was the snowflake fields, in a few months they would be covered by snow, and by spring, the melted snow would have allowed for them to grow large again.
He grabbed his long sword, he was glad he had been able to deal with the Nishi Dark, creatures like that were rare, and they could do so much harm, they were formed in the dark places of the world, and now Midy was part of those. He did not know how much he could get inside the vault this time, but he would delve as far as he could.
He looked at his hands and sighed, he needed more strength, he was still lacking if he wished to get pass the lower levels of the labyrinth, but he had intended to grew some more, but some of his targets had moved, and one was seen in Neverglen. How much had Neverglen changed this time?. Well he would find out tomorrow, he just hoped to get there unnoticed, after all, he had some debts still.
He took a clock and saw it was well past midnight, the clock was made with silver and zaurite crystal, it was very accurate with the time, and it would show were north was, a simple artifact, he put it back on his pocket. He should woke Vitas for the next watch, but he did not feel like sleeping.
He took out a spyglass from his bag of holding, and looked to his surroundings. He could spot, the Fairfield farm, and some of the outpost from Neverglen, he spotted the city, and he was surprised by how much it how grown. There was a new wall on the east side, and more lands have been turned into farms. The incoming adventurers and the vanguard point in Midy, have allowed for it to happen.
It always felt different, but somehow, his heart felt at ease, was it because he was coming back home?, as he wondered an prepared to get down the wagon, for once his bad luck had not brought something else, now he would go wake Vitas to take over the watch, he saw a light appear on the night sky, and for a moment, he thought it was a shooting star, but it was slowly growing larger, and it felt, like it was falling down. He look at it for a few more seconds before jumping down from the wagon.
"WAKE UP, QUICKLY, SOMETHING IS COMING" Blue voice broke the silence, and everyone was trying to get up.
Blue looked once more to the sky, as he saw the falling star, was gaining momentum, and it would probably land where they were, or near them, either way, they did not want to be there.
"QUICKLY GET UP, WE NEED TO MOVE, SOMETHING IS FALLING ON US, GET ON THE WAGONS" his voice rang once more, and it helped the other who were confused, to look at the sky and notice, that indeed, something was falling down, and Blue's words made more sense.
The wagon drivers, were very quick to react, and they reattached the mounts with the wagons, the dark space was being lit up, by the incoming bright light. The Shiver Cloaks were confused at to what they could do, but they quickly saw Emma was lost looking at the thing coming on them, and they quickly took her to one of the wagons.
Carter was helping his wagon driver so they could move, and Blue was doing the same on the last wagon.
"FASTER, WE NEED TO HEAD TO NEVERGLEN" Blue once more shouted, as everyone was getting on the wagons.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?" Vitas shouted as he got on the middle wagon, and they began to move.
"HOW THE FUCK SHOULD, I KNOW" Blue answered as the wagons began moving at the same time, along the road.
"YOU ARE PLATINUM RANKED" Vitas answered, as he saw how the thing coming from the sky was growing larger.
"SINCE WHEN BEING PLATINUM IS ENOUGH TO KNOW ABOUT A FUCKING STAR FALLING FROM THE SKY" Blue voice shouted once more, and they had began to gain distance, the thing that was falling would soon reach the ground, and it would probably land where they had been.
*FAST CHARGE* Mr. Dumas voice boomed, and the wagons began going faster, he was using a skill, they were just hoping it would be enough.