"Does the meat taste good, I added some extra spices that I thought might make it taste better?" Erich asked as he took the remaining plate of meat and sat down. The others vigorously nodded, as they couldn't speak with how full their mouths were. The group had created several stools from logs Siel had brought back, and were now seated around the fireplace.
"Yeah, this stuff taste amazing, what were the spices that you added?" Robert asked as he finished his mouthful, and took another large bite, causing the meats juices to drip down his chin. The others looked curiously at Erich, as they all wished to know the secret behind such delicious meat.
"Sorry, a cook cannot reveal his secrets," Erich said as he patted his pocket with a mischievous smile.
"I thought that was only for magicians," Sydra said as he finished the food on his plate and got up to get some more. "Anyway, Siel, I was wondering how your going to get back home, after all, we are a long ways from the sea. And it might be a bit dangerous if you head out on your own,"
"Oh, there is nothing to worry about, as there is actually a way to get to the sea quite quickly from here. Do you happen to have a map of the area, I'll point it out," Siel said as he looked around the clearing to try and get an idea of where they were at the moment. It had been a while since he had left the cave, and he needed to remember the way he had been brought here from.
"Will this work, I'm not sure if it shows what you need," Sydra said as he pulled out the piece of map that had the ten ruins located on it. When Siel took it from him and looked at it, his eyes widened and he let out a light gasp.
"Wow, I can't believe you have this. It was one of the things that Louis was searching for, as it is a map of all ten main lands," Siel said as he flattened out the map on a stump that was nearby.
"Do you know why he was searching for this map?" Sydra asked, hoping to get some more answers on where the other parts of the map may be. Siel nodded and began to explain how Louis had come to hear of the map.
"This is the place that both Louis and I came from," Siel said as he pointed to the wave marks that were on the map. The place he pointed out was the same one that the group had been traveling to before accidentally entering the spatial rift. "There is an odd grouping of stones surrounded by sand in this place, that acts as a gateway connecting the forest to the wide sea. On the other side of the gateway is a large island, that sits hidden in a dense fog somewhere in the sea. Traveling those seas is a man named Corbel, who is a pirate captain, as well as Louis's father. Louis's mother was a woman that had been forcefully taken from a traveling ship, and forced to be Corbel's slave. The ship that Corbel had taken Louis's mother from was also the ship where he had found his piece of the map. The back of the map explained how there were four others pieces of the map, and they could find the first one on the other side of an islands gate. After years of searching, the group had managed to discovered the island, and find the gate on it. However, due to a curse that had been placed on the pirate crew, only Louis was able to travel through the gate. Using Louis's mother as a hostage, Corbel sent Louis in his place to find the missing pieces of the map. Louis was meant to come back, and report what he had found at certain intervals throughout the year, but during one of his trips he found out that his mother had passed away, and there was no more reason for him to return. Before leaving the sea forever, Louis captured me and brought me back to his castle with him, " Siel said as the others listened in silence. By now, all the food was gone, and they were just sitting around the fire as the night slowly passed.
"How was his father cursed?" Sydra asked, wondering what kind of curse Corbel had received, and who had cursed him.
"I'm not sure, but I believe there was once a ship that had a person on it who was a curse user, and before he died he cursed the entire crew of the ship. Only Louis wasn't cursed due to the fact that he was too young to be considered a part of the crew," Siel said, before letting out a large yawn, and rubbing his eyes. "Gosh, I'm getting sleepy, all that food and story telling really tired me out,"
"Hmm, in that case we ought to get to bed then, in the morning we will head out to the stone gateway you told us about. We were actually headed in that direction before we came across you in the first place," Sydra said as he stood up and pulled a few straw golems from his Arbor Sanctum, that he would have guard the area while the group slept. After creating some spiders to control the golem's movements, Sydra bid the others goodnight and entered his webbed tent.
The next morning, Sydra woke up to the sound of Erich and Robert arguing outside his tent. They were discussing the best way to cook eggs, and how the others person's way was wrong. Since going to sleep was out of the question, Sydra rolled out of his bed and headed outside.
"I'm telling you, eggs need to be sunny side up, with salt and pepper lightly sprinkled over it. Your idea of scrambled eggs, covered in hot sauce is idiotic," Robert yelled as he watched Erich cover his eggs with hot sauce.
"And I'm telling you, your sunny side up eggs are for pansies, and all real men eat eggs drenched in hot sauce, to wake up their taste buds," Erich yelled, looking appalled as Robert lightly spread slat and pepper over his eggs, causing Erich to sneeze all over Sydra.
"Oh, thanks for that," Sydra said as he wiped spit off his face, before picking up a plate and creating a beautiful looking omelet, filled with delicious looking delicacies. "This is the real way eggs were meant to be eaten," Sydra said as he went to sit down next to Siel, who was eating two boiled eggs.
"Are we walking to the gateway? Or do you guys have a wagon somewhere around here?" Siel asked, before he popped both his eggs into his mouth at once.
"Actually, were traveling in this," Sydra said as he brought the Fluttershi out of his Arbor Sanctum and put it next to the camp. "This is a vehicle that can move without being pulled by animals, all it needs is a bit of sunlight," Sydra explained as Siel looked at the vehicle in surprise.
"Wow, that sort of looks like one of the experiments that Louis was working on. He called it a Crystomobile, and it used crystals instead of animals, to generate energy that moved it. He was almost finished with it, but some complications came up, and he had to scrap the idea," Siel said as he walked around the Fluttershi, curiously studying the blades on the top.
"Hey, where is Cidre?" Sydra asked as he noticed that Cidre hadn't come out for breakfast yet.
"Oh, he is out testing out his new wings, and trying to get better at flying. He has been gone for the past few hours, and it is about time we head out, so I hope he comes back soon," Robert said as he finished up his eggs, and cleaned off his plate with a light sweep of fire.
"That reminds me, I have a new power that I need to test out as well," Sydra said as he remembered the power he had received from the gargoyles and Louis. Activating the aura in his body, Sydra felt a light tug on the back of his leather jacket. Taking off his shirt, two large wings sprouted from Sydra's back. The wings were covered in soft feathered crystals, and when he moved them they lifted him slightly off the ground. "Haha, I guess I can fly as well," Sydra said as he flapped his wings a few more times and shot up into the air.
"Great, that means you can go find Cidre, so we can leave this place," Erich said, as he looked jealously at Sydra, who was maneuvering around the air like he had been flying since birth. Nodding his head, Sydra flew higher up into the air and looked around for Cidre.
"There he is," Sydra said as he saw Cidre standing on top of the cliff a few hundred meters away. Noticing that Cidre hadn't seen him yet, Sydra smiled mischievously and flew quietly up behind him. "What are you doing on my cliff, boy!?" Sydra yelled as he landed heavily on the ground behind Cidre. He had activated his bone armor, and covered his face with a horned bone helmet, which only allowed his glowing eyes to be seen. The large crystal wings added a domineering effect to his appearance, and Sydra resembled a flying bone demon.
"Ahh, I'm sorry!" Cidre yelled in fright as he jumped off the cliff and flew back to the campsite as quickly as he could.
"You think you can get away from me?!" Sydra yelled as he flew after Cidre, pulling out a long crystal sword and waving it in Cidre's direction.