"Behind you, Missy! Watch out!" Monet shouted, almost louder then anyone had heard her say. Jasmine turned around and was faced with a giant ogre-like monster. It was tall and burly but what made it different than the typical Blaten ogres was the single eye and the large scaly wings coming out of his back. Jasmine had never, in all their time of being in Blaten, seen anything like this creature before and she only just managed to jump out of the way of his massive gray hands before he could smack her. She clutched at her sword tightly in her hands before looking back at Monet and Mark. The two of them were just as surprised to see the creature in front of her as she was.
"What is that?" Jasmine cried out, holding her sword out in front of her. She waved it slightly, ready to defend herself should she be attacked again in the next few seconds. Next to her, Mark also pulled out his sword, dropping his dagger down at his feet. Jasmine heard Monet notch an arrow in her bow and satisfied, Jasmine knew they were prepared for battle.
"That's definitely a Never Ogre," Monet replied, pulling back her bowstring. She was prepared to fire an arrow if needed. "I read about them in the library when I was preparing for the quest. They're big and nasty and you're never supposed to encounter them. That's why they're called Never Ogres." The gray monster in front of them let out a loud roar and swiped his big hands at them again. The warriors of Blaten took a step back, swinging their swords and shooting their arrows at the Never Ogre. Nothing hit the giant in front of them. Instead, it just seemed to make him angrier.
"What are we supposed to do then?" Mark called over to Monet. He held his sword out in front of him, prepared to attack if needed. Monet, for the first time since they started this mission, finally looked as if she was at a loss for words.
"I... I don't know..." Her voice trailed off, growing small, as she stared up at the big monster in front of them. The Never Ogre roared and spread his wings, knocking into a few of the trees. The ghosts that lived in the trees started to rattle and complain, filling the Whisper Woods to be filled with enough noise to make up for the weeks that it had lacked it all.
"For right now, all I can think of is that we should run," Jasmine replied quickly once she noticed that Monet didn't know what to do. Mark and Monet nodded their heads and the three of them took off running, twisting and weaving through the trees. The Never Ogre followed behind them but he was slow and dumb so it was fairly easy to throw him off their trail. Still, they could hear him roaring in the background. The three of them didn't rest until they had made it to a small clearing where they practically fell down onto the ground in exhaustion.
"We should have been more careful," Mark groaned, throwing his sword down in front of him and throwing himself down on the ground, breathing heavily. "I just lost my dagger because of him."
"No, I should have warned you about him. It's all my fault," Monet sighed, crossing her legs over each other and laying her bow down in front of her. "And you can have my dagger, Good Sir. You use it more than I do." She pulled her dagger out of her dagger pouch and held it out to him. Mark took it and said his thanks, smiling a bit at her before sitting up again and slipping the dagger where his own dagger normally belonged.
"It's not your fault, Miss Knight. We all should have been more careful," Jasmine replied, pulling her knees up to her chest while she leaned back against a tree. Monet shook her head and looked like she was going to protest but Jasmine interrupted her. "You did tell us how dangerous this quest was going to be." Monet just shook her head again.
"Yeah, but we haven't even made it out of the Whisper Forest yet. We still have so long to go to get to Cloud City. Maybe we shouldn't have gone at all," Monet sighed, drawing some figures into the dirt. Jasmine frowned at her.
"First of all, it's the Whisper Woods 'cause it sounds cooler and there's another forest now and two, we all wanted to do this quest so that's what we're doing. You said it was going to be dangerous and we knew that when we started and we knew it was far away so that's our fault. We want to get the sword, right Good Sir of Blaten?" Jasmine looked over at Mark, waiting for him to agree with her.
"Of course we do! It's an awesome quest that you found! We just have to be smart about this so that we don't get into too much trouble, that's all." Mark shrugged his shoulders and the debate was settled. Monet didn't look so upset with herself anymore and Jasmine was satisfied. The three of them were silent for a minute while they tried to come up with a good plan for what they should do next. They needed to figure out a plan that would get them out of the situation with the Never Ogre and how they were going to continue from then on.
"Well, we do have to make it past him so that we can get back onto the path again," Mark said, scooting closer to Jasmine and Monet before drawing in the dirt. It was supposed to be a map and it wasn't the best one he could have made but it got the job done. "You know we have to get back on the path as soon as possible because we're in the Whisper Woods. And you know what they said about the Whisper Woods. If you're off the path for too long, trouble finds you." He looked up at them seriously. Monet quickly nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah, so, that means we have to get back on the path here-" Monet pointed to a spot on Mark's hand-drawn map. "-While avoiding him here." She pointed to the spot that they thought they had seen last seen the Never Ogre. "But he'd probably be heading back to the path as we speak."
"Okay, but how are we gonna do that?" Jasmine asked, leaning over the map to look at what they were talking about. Mark and Monet were silent for a minute, trying to figure it out but when they came up with nothing, Jasmine spoke again. "Well, here. What about this? If we sent two people to be behind him, then the other person can run in front while the other two distract the Never Ogre. Then, the first person can distract him while the others run ahead of them, and so on. That way we don't have to fight him if we can avoid it." Mark and Monet made eye contact with each other, silently agreeing to the plan before nodding their heads.
"That's a good plan, Missy!" Mark cheered, raising his hand like they'd won a football game. Jasmine smiled and leaned back against the tree, grabbing onto her sword that laid there. Mark spoke again, picking up his own sword and standing up. "Alright then. Should we go get out of the Whisper Woods and to the Jumpy Bridge?" Monet nodded her head and pushed herself off the ground, grabbing her bow and arrows off the ground before prepping her bow to show how ready she was.
"Obviously. We are so getting that sword," Jasmine replied with a nod of her head, standing up with her own sword. The three of them looked at each other seriously for a second before that facade faded and they laughed, running back in the direction they had come from not that long ago at all. This time, they had a solid plan and they were ready to get out of the Whisper Woods for good.
By the time they made it out of the Whisper Woods and finally to the Jumpy Bridge, they were completely and positively exhausted. They fell to the ground at the base of the bridge and sighed, watching not one but three Never Ogres lumber back into the woods.
"I am so glad that they can't cross the border," Jasmine said with a sigh, laying down flat on her back in the grass. Monet nodded her head in agreement and moved over next to her, curling up on her side. All three of them were wheezing for real this time. They had been running for quite a while now.
"Now we just have to make it across the Jumpy Bridge," Mark groaned, laying down next to the girls. No one said anything and no one moved to get up. They were exhausted and the only noises that could be heard were the sound of their labored breathing, the clanking of the bricks as the jumped up and down on the bridge, the echo of the river hundreds of feet down, and the calls of wild and unnamed birds. After a long day of adventuring, walking great lengths that none of them had ever dared to travel in a long time, they were tempted to call it a day and make camp right where they were. And yet, none of them were stupid. They were it would be much, much safer to make camp in the castle ruins.
"We need a base," Jasmine decided after a minute. Monet and Mark exchanged looks quickly. Not this again.
"We have the town. Isn't that our base?" Mark asked with a sigh, raising an eyebrow at her. Jasmine rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"No, no, no! Like a base for when we go on quests! You know, like when we go on super long quests and don't have a good place to stay because we're so far from town. That's why we need a base. It'll be just like the movies!" Jasmine replied, rolling her eyes slightly. She didn't seem to understand why he couldn't understand what she was saying.
"Yeah, I know what you're saying but bases like that are hard to find, Missy. And they're so much harder to build," Monet replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly. She made no move to get up but judging from the way that she spoke, she was ready to get moving again. "Plus, I don't think that right now is the best time to be looking for a base. Not while we're on a quest. It'll just distract us from our goal." Jasmine groaned and threw her arms on the ground like she was making a snow angel out of grass and dirt.
"I know, I know, but I still think that we need one. Every time we talk about it, you guys say that! I'm telling you right now that if I find a place, we're making that our base immediately. Okay? Deal?" Jasmine asked, looking between her two companions. Monet sighed but nodded her head.
"Fine. But only if we find one, okay?" Mark said sternly and they knew that the decision was made. If Jasmine found a base on their quest or any quest in the future, they would be making it their base and that was that.
They stayed on the ground for a little longer, letting Mark and Jasmine caught their breath completely before they would continue on their quest. Once everyone was well-rested, they got up and crossed the bridge. But of course, the Jumpy Bridge was a task in of itself to get over. Each brick jumped whenever it felt like doing so and the railings weren't very safe either, which they kept meaning to fix but never got too. They almost fell at least one time and in Jasmine's case, it was almost five times, but there was no way around it. They had to get out of the Whisper Woods and to the castle ruins to complete their quest for the legendary Dragon sword and as far as they knew, this was the only way across the cavern. Once they got to the castle ruins, they knew the quest would only get more dangerous from there.
"What if we made the castle ruins our base?" Jasmine asked as they walked on the path that would take them through the old castle ruins. Two years ago, the castle had been where the people of Blaten lived, under the ruin of a very evil king. When Jasmine, Mark, and Monet first arrived in Blaten, the people had begged them to save them. And that's what they did. Now, they lived in the middle of the Whisper Woods, in a big clearing surrounded by the trees. It was a lot safer there and the people found it a lot nicer. The ghosts in the trees never really bothered the people and most of the time, the creatures that lived in the forest never bothered them.
"Yeah, but the place is so broken up, Missy. I think it would be too dangerous to try," Monet pointed out, gesturing to an old building next to her, one that looked like it had been a shop, that was falling apart. Jasmine groaned and kicked the rocks on the ground, expressing her frustrations in the only way she knew how.
"We need a base!" Jasmine protested, kicking a rock a couple of feet away from here. Monet and Mark didn't respond, letting Jasmine through her fit as they walked, trying to find the end of the castle ruins that would take them to the road. They would take that to read the Mineral Ocean where they would find the flying machine. Well, Mark and Monet were looking for the path in the overgrown grass and weeds. Jasmine was off doing her own thing, most likely just looking for a base. It seemed like that's all she did every time they went on a quest now.
"Guys! Guys! Guys! Over here! Come quick!" Jasmine shouted, waving Mark and Monet over to her. She was ventured pretty far into the ruins, poking around the place while Mark and Monet talked over their map, trying to plan their next course of action. Instantly, the two of them ran over to them, worried that there might be something bad there. That or maybe Jasmine had found something really interesting. No one knew with her anymore. When they reached her side, they found that she had opened a door revealing an empty room that was just big enough to be a base. Of course.
"So, can we have a base now?" Jasmine asked, setting her hands on her hips. She looked at her friends expectantly, waiting for them to agree. Mark and Monet were forced to say yes and she knew it. They would have to if they wanted her to shut up about it for the rest of the quest. But still, as they looked at it, they figured it would make a good place to spend the night at least.
"Okay, fine. We can make it our base," Mark sighed, defeated, as he walked into the room, inspecting it to make sure that it was safe. It had to have been a hidden room in the castle. He knew that because while the rest of the place was falling apart, this room remained untouched. Jasmine clapped her handed together excitedly and laughed, following him into the room, already planning how she was going to decorate their brand new base. Monet followed after her, a little hesitantly, but Mark knew she had no real complaints about it.
"Let's set up base here for tonight," Mark said, setting his bag down on the floor. Jasmine and Monet both nodded their heads in agreement and started setting their bags and extra weapons down on the ground as well.
"Good idea," Monet replied, starting to walk over to the door again. "I'm going to go get wood for a fire. We can go to the ocean tomorrow." Jasmine nodded her head with a smile and sat down on the dirt floor, starting to dig through her bag to set up camp.
"We're going to find that sword and it's gonna be the best thing in the whole world!" Jasmine cheered excitedly, not looking up from her work. Mark and Monet could only laugh and agree before heading off to start setting up camp for the night. The world of Blaten was beautiful and strange and that's what made it the best. It was their world, after all. They could make anything happen.