Shiv woke up, a grumpy expression on his face, and glared at the covered-up vent that was supposed to be blasting him with cold air. He scratched his stubbly cheek and tried not to breathe in the horrendous smell that the dead animal above his head was sending off.
He had come to find that the frosty creatures also used the front entrance of their cave as a storage spot for their prey.
Without further ado, Shiv rolled out of bed and walked to his farm, keeping a wary eye out for the many monsters that inhabited these dangerous woods. Just the day before, he'd had to burn a section of his farm to rid himself of a pest in the form of a herd of hungry goats with wings.
For now, he did a quick sweep of his farm, which sprawled over several hills and was hidden beneath trees and behind hills of his own construction.
And then, finally, he began the harvest that he had waited and worked so long for.
He stopped after a few hours when a roar echoed in the distance. "Huh. Sounds like Frosty and his gang are out hunting again." He shrugged and got back to picking more bananas from his Dwarf Iholena plants. The XP gain from each plant picked was less than he expected, but that shouldn't be too surprising, what with all the killing of powerful creatures he had been doing over the past while.
He stopped again when the roars echoed again, and a thought occurred to him. 'Frosty and his buddies are lazy. They never hunt when they already have food… ugh.' He reluctantly jumped into a tree and made his way over to the entrance of the cave so he could check it out.
When he got within sight of the creatures, he sped up exponentially. "What the hell are they doing here?"
He didn't want to do what he was about to do, as it was probably going to result in the loss of his source of air conditioning, but he didn't see much of a choice. He was past destroying the world. He might as well try to save those he could. He wasn't doing this as recompense. He had no chance of ever paying back this world for all the damage he had done to it. But maybe he could do something to make himself hate himself just a little bit less…
He landed on the tree that the Hooligans were hiding on, and quickly surveyed the surrounding area and figured out what had happened and what was going on. One of the Hooligans had been caught, judging by the blood and body parts on the ground below. He didn't dwell on it, instead turning to the surviving kids and putting his hands up in a calming way. I want all of you to stay up here and don't move, OK? I'll take care of the monsters down there and get ya home right quick. No problem, got it?" The kids only stared at him with wide eyes.
He noted with worry that Halestorm and Betty were missing, but didn't want to follow the train of thought that his mind was leading him toward.
Instead, he turned and threw himself down and punched the ground at the base of the tree, activating one of his newer skills: [Seismic Eruption] along with an even newer skill: [Fiery Infusion].
The result was… devastation.
The tree, formerly surrounded by a pack of blue lions, became surrounded by a large circle of charred corpses, trees, and earth. Shiv glanced up to make sure he had avoided the tree housing the children, and nodded with satisfaction. A quick thought later, a set of stairs erupted out of the ground, leading up to the branch with the kids.
They just stood there, staring at it. Shiv looked up at them in confusion. "If you're worried that it's not safe, stop. It won't collapse. Just don't fall off."
"Come now, why don't you make a handrail for them? They are children, after all." A familiar voice called out from a nearby tree.
"If they don't have enough balance to walk down a set of stairs, there's no way they're going to make it long enough to grow up." Shiv countered and crossed his arms. "Are you the one who led these children here and caused the death of my AC unit?"
"Hey, you there! Stop and tell us what ye did ta the children, or I'll gut you like a…" Halestorm's father's voice started strong, then slowed down to a stop.
Shiv looked up just in time to see the scraggly man land on the tree branch with the children and go through hugging them all with tears in his eyes. "Don't you ever, ever, ever go back inta these woods again, y'here?"
Halestorm and Betty appeared from the same direction their father had originated and both sighed with relief when they saw that their friends were OK.
"That's a great plan. Now all of you git." Shiv made a shooing motion at the group above, only to be ignored.
"Give them some time, Shiv. They did just lose a friend and go through some near death experiences themselves, after all." Duncan called down from where he was lazily swinging on several vines that didn't look strong enough to hold him.
Shiv opened his mouth to retort, but stopped when Duncan's words penetrated.
Almost as if on cue, Betty asked, "Where is Perdu?" The name brought to mind the image of the girl who'd asked Shiv to be her father.
Shiv scanned the surroundings, but didn't sense any life forms. "Where did you guys see her last?" He called up.
"She…" That, followed by a slew of sobs was all he received in reply. It was all he needed.
He couldn't stop the dark expression that took over his features. He shouldn't feel bad about a child dying. After all, he'd killed more people than he could count. Why should he care?
An image of Blaze appeared in his mind, and he looked sharply up at Duncan. "Where is she?"
There was no reason to specify. Duncan knew who he was talking about. "She's alive." Duncan looked more serious than Shiv had ever seen him look. "But the church has her."
Shiv relaxed and let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "Willingly?"
Duncan shook his head. "They learned-"
Shiv held his hand up, stopping his old comrade. "We'll talk about the details later. I'm going to take care of these people first."
Duncan nodded and watched as Shiv gathered all of the crying kids, plus Halestorm's father, and led them slowly back to the woods overlooking the village. When he was sure they had made it safely, he turned back to Duncan, who was watching with a thoughtful expression. He put up his hand, indicating he didn't want to talk yet, and began slowly walking away from the village.
Several minutes passed before he glanced back at Duncan suspiciously. "How'd you find me?"
Duncan grinned and didn't respond.
"Figures." Shiv scowled. He snapped his fingers, and a part of the hill they were walking toward slid into the ground, revealing a tunnel. They entered and the wall replaced itself behind them. Shiv took his shoes off and motioned for Duncan to do the same. "What did you and Blaze get yourselves into when I left that got you mixed up with the church?"
"Any number of things. Not many people like the idea of the world getting destroyed."
"You were continuing that ridiculous quest?" Shiv growled in frustration while going about tidying the various things he'd collected since he'd settled down. "Sorry, I don't get visitors… ever." He muttered.
Duncan narrowed his eyes. "Of course we were continuing it. Just like you're-"
"I will not." Shiv replied with intensity, and looked at his hands with surprise when the diamond cracked in his grip. He set it carefully on a stone shelf with a sigh.
"Regardless, we were going around, gathering information on the remaining cities and the people who will…. would… probably be a threat when… if… you go back to destroying the world." He glanced around awkwardly, then asked, "do you have any water? I'm parched." He laughed. Shiv wordlessly pulled a flask out of a cabinet and tossed it to him. "Thanks. Anyway, we were scouting around, and might have gotten a bit cocky, because we infiltrated the big cathedral in the underwater city." Shiv raised an eyebrow, to which Duncan shrugged in reply. "Long story. The important thing is that we were jumped by some church thugs." Duncan paused and stared at Shiv, as if evaluating him, before continuing. "And only barely managed to fight them off. But then that brown-and-sometimes-green eyed blonde chick showed up and captured us both like it was nothing."
Shiv scowled and motioned for Duncan to take a seat on a couch made of animal furs while he did the same in one across from the light-eyed man.
"Then she let me go. I'm honestly not sure why. But I am very sure that we need to go rescue Blaze. We need to."