Chapter 6

As the light faded, I stumbled forward, blinking against the bright, morning sun. The sharp chill in the air pierced my lungs as I inhaled. I glanced around and realized we were standing near the peak of a massive mountain, almost halfway to the summit. The sky was a pale blue color, almost clear, with only a few clouds drifting lazily above us, crowning the peak.

Finn stretched his arms above his head and let out a satisfied sigh. “Welcome to the top of the world!” he announced, grinning like we were on some grand sightseeing tour.

“Great view,” I muttered, scanning the horizon. In the distance, I could make out a small blue dot. I recognized it as the shimmering lake I’d woken up next to when this had all started. Seeing it from this height made me realize just how far I’d come. Absolutely nowhere close to where I wanted to be; which was in my warm bed back home.

My irritation was not helped by Zeke, who was already pacing the rocky ground and had his sharp eyes darting around in search for hidden enemies. “So, where’s the big evil force we’re supposed to fight?” he asked, bouncing on his heels.

“Calm down,” Finn said, clearly amused. “We need to figure out where we’re going first.”

“Herbert,” Luna said softly, setting the potted plant down on the ground. “Can you point us in the right direction?”

The plant’s branches wiggled, almost excitedly, before one extended out, pointing straight at the mountain peak.

I looked at Finn and he nodded.

“Seriously?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “The Order couldn’t just teleport us to the right spot?”

Finn chuckled, clapping me on the back. “Where’s the fun in that? Besides, the teleportation circles aren’t precise. It’s not an exact science.”

Then he gestured to my clothes.

“Still better than yours huh?”

He laughed. Zeke laughed too but I could see he didn’t get the joke.

I muttered something under my breath about incompetent wizards and started walking the rocky path that was bound to lead us to the up.

The climb was slow and treacherous. The rocky terrain made things worse, and the air felt thinner as I struggled to catch a full breath with every step. I focused on keeping my balance, but my mind kept drifting to the others.

Zeke led the way, effortlessly bounding from rock to rock like he’d done this a hundred times before. He had a cocky grin plastered across his face, but every so often, I noticed him glance back at Luna with an unmistakable look of eagerness. Maybe he was worried about her—or maybe he just wanted to show off. Either way, his excitement was tiresome, not to mention borderline worrisome as well. Would he act the same way in battle? I hoped to myself that Finn would be able to keep him in line because I really didn’t want to be stuck babysitting.

Luna followed close behind me, her movements cautious and deliberate. She no longer clutched Herbert’s pot and had accepted Finn’s advice to let him carry it so she could climb comfortably. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, and the tension in her shoulders was unmistakable. While Zeke was brimming with overexcitement, she seemed nervous, constantly adjusting the bow on her back. But then again it was a more than normal reaction for a young girl on her way to defeat an ancient evil.

Finn brought up the rear, his usual grin firmly in place. His steps were steady and practiced unlike Zeke’s wild gait or Luna’s painfully slow pace. With Herbert’s pot under one arm, he hummed an unrecognizable tune unfazed by the rocky climb. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his head. Did he actually think this was going to go over smoothly, or was he just pretending everything was fine to keep the trainees calm?

Still, I felt certain he’d at least be of some help. He was an outsider like me, but had learned to live in this world. Despite not being very forthcoming about the details of his mysterious past, he was probably the only person I trusted the most since landing myself in this mess.

“This is your first mission, right?” I asked Luna, hoping some light conversation might distract her

She glanced at me, surprised. “Y-yes. Zeke and I have been training for years, but this is the first time we’ve been sent into the field.”

“That’s nice,” I said, at a loss for more to say. I didn’t really have experience hyping up people before they went into a potentially fatal battle.

Zeke snorted. “Don’t worry about Luna. She’s got more skill than half the Order. And me? I’ve got enough talent to make up for the rest.”

“Be careful not to trip on your ego,” I said.

Finn laughed and Luna chuckled. Even Herbert made a strange humming sound which seemed to emanate from the singles red flower at the top of his stem.

Zeke turned as red as the flower and looked at me, affronted. “Don’t worry about me, hero. Just try to keep up.”

As we continued our climb the path started getting smoother which came as a relief to our already throbbing muscles. Finn handed Herbert to Luna and asked her to lead the charge with Zeke. She did as asked and Finn started speaking to me in hushed tones.

“Look I know you’re worried about them, but Zeke and Luna aren’t just any amateur trainees,” he said. “They’re both stronger and more determined than they let on.”

“Is that so?” I said, not really interested but hoping to pass the time.

“Zeke’s family was wiped out by the Void,” Finn said, his tone uncharacteristically serious. “He was just a kid when it happened. Watched his parents get torn apart by Void beasts before the Order showed up to save him.”

I looked at Zeke, chatting it up with Luna about some amazing new skill he’d learned. Luna just smiled and nodded along. I suddenly felt sorry for him. He was only slightly younger than me but had been through much worse.

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“And Luna?” I asked, this time out of genuine curiosity. It wouldn’t hurt to learn more about the people I was going into probable death with. Knowing some background might convince me to risk my life for them if it came down to it; which I hoped it wouldn’t.

“Her story’s a little different,” Finn said. “She was too young to remember much, but her homeland was destroyed by the Void too. The Order found her wandering the ruins and took her in.”

I looked at the shy girl and tried to imagine the horrors she must’ve witnessed It was hard to do so when I saw her laughing at Zeke as he summoned some fireballs and began juggling them to show off. When Lyra had mentioned the destruction that the Void had caused, I hadn’t really grasped the gravity of the situation. But seeing people whose lives had been forever changed because of that one catastrophe, made it all too painfully real; even for me

“And Herbert?” I asked, half-joking. “What’s his tragic backstory?”

“Believe it or not, Herbert’s from another world entirely. His planet was completely consumed by the Void too. He’s one of the last survivors.” God, these kids had depressing lives, made me feel a little better about my own.

I stared at the plant in Luna’s hands, which wiggled its branches in what seemed like amusement when Zeke walked headfirst into a boulder, distracted by his own juggling. “Great,” I muttered. “So, all of these guys have purpose driving them towards battle. And you seem dedicated to it too. Why do you need me then?”

“You’re here for a reason too Sam,” he said, surprising me with the firmness in his tone. “Maybe you don’t see it yet, but I think you’ll make a difference even if you don’t believe that.”

Words failed me so I just shrugged and kept walking.

After a while we took a short break, and Finn passed around some loaves of bread. Herbert sat in the center, basking in the sunlight, consuming his primary source of sustenance; I supposed

Luna knelt next to him, eating bread with one hand and gently brushing dirt off its pot with the other. She had a somber look on her face.

“You two seem close,” I said, hoping to dispel her bad mood.

“Herbert’s been with me since I first came to the Order,” she said, her voice soft, but her face lightened up a little.

“Wait,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve been lugging this thing around since you were a kid?”

“It’s not a thing,” Luna replied, her tone firm. “Herbert’s alive. He’s saved my life more times than I can count.”

Finn nodded. “It’s true. Herbert has consistently been one of our top-performing trainees.”

These people were really off their rockers but to my surprise, I found myself getting used to their absurdities, finding them mildly endearing.

Zeke leaned against a rock and added his two cents, smirking. “Yeah, but he’s terrible at cards. I cleaned him out last time we played.”

I stared at Zeke. “You played cards with a plant?”

He replied with a shrug.

Luna smiled faintly and traced her fingers through one of Herbert’s branches. “He’s more than a companion. He’s family.”

I watched her for a moment. “Well, let’s hope he’s as good in a fight as you say.”

The plant wiggled a branch at me as if to say, you’ll see.

By the time we reached the peak of the mountain, the sun was high in the sky. Herbert pointed at a small structure set into a boulder and I walked towards it. Inside was a large, jagged hole that went straight down some feet, turning into a downward slope .

“This is it,” Finn said, his tone unusually grim. “The monster is somewhere inside.”

“Fantastic,” I muttered. “More walking. Well, let’s get this over with.”

The cave was dark and damp with a suffocating smell of moss and decay which made me feel sick to the stomach. Our footsteps echoed as we went deeper, and our only light sources were the faint glow of Finn’s twin swords and Luna’s bow.

As we walked, Finn started talking again. “There’s a story about this place,” he said. “Centuries ago, this land was ruled by a king who sought to harness dark powers, the kind we’re a little too familiar with. Some say he was the first to notice the Void, and it was this darkness that he wished to control. He sacrificed his people, transforming himself into a monster, and was eventually sealed away by a group of heroes. The pillar that was unsealed was what they had used to lock him away.”

Luna’s voice came out from the dark

“I’ve heard that story. There’s a rumor that it was those heroes that founded the Order of the Veil.”

“Of course they were,” I muttered, not really caring.

The cave widened into a massive chamber, and I froze at the sight before us.

In the center of the room was a giant skeleton, though only from the waist up. Its bony frame was covered in cracks and scorch marks, and its eye sockets held two, gigantic human eyes. A rusted crown sat atop its cracked skull, and as it turned to face us, it let out a deafening roar.

“How on Earth,” I asked, my voice hoarse from the walk and concealed fear. “Is it screaming without lungs?”

Zeke ran at the skeleton without warning, and it attacked just as quickly with its massive hand sweeping through the air like a whip. Zeke dodged with ease, jumping over the hand like an acrobat and launching fireballs at its skull midair. It stumbled for a bit but was otherwise unaffected. Finn angrily shouted at Zeke not to attack recklessly and ran in with his swords to provide cover.

The two began striking the skeleton, attacking in close range to draw its attention when it turned to the other. It was good teamwork I had to admit.

Beside me, Luna set Herbert on the ground and took the bow off her back. She nervously tried pulling the drawstring back with shaking fingers but it kept slipping from her grasp. She eventually managed to draw it, and an arrow made of light appeared out of thin air. It whizzed through the air missing the skeleton’s skull by a wide margin and struck the opposite wall immediately exploded on impact.

Herbert drew its branches out, and they attached themselves to the ground. From underneath the skeleton, thick vines sprang out that wrapped around its limbs, halting its movement. For a moment, it seemed like we might have the upper hand.

But then the skeleton turned towards us, no longer bothering itself with Finn and Zeke. It launched another roar, this one seemingly more powerful than the one before. A force struck the three of us at the same time; me, Luna and Herbert. Somehow, I remained grounded, and so did Herbert, his branches still stuck to the ground, but Luna was thrown against the wall, crumpling to the ground unconscious.

“Luna!” Zeke shouted, abandoning his position to run to her side.

“Idiot!” Finn yelled, suddenly battling the skeleton alone. But the creature swatted him away like a fly, sending him crashing to the floor. Today just wasn’t Finn’s day, or maybe he was used to be being flung around by scary monsters because this was the second time it had happened in the last 24 hours.

I stood still, watching as the skeleton began to break out of the hold that Herbert’s vines had on it. Everything had happened in the blink of an eye, and it seemed like it would end just as quickly, or at least I was hoping it would with minimum damage

Not really knowing what I was doing, I walked forward and tried to summon a weapon like I had done before. Though I had not gotten what I had hoped for last time either, it had still fit the situation. I hoped my luck would work out again. It was worth a try and what other option did we have really?

It would have to be one big weapon though, I thought to myself.

Suddenly I felt something coursing through me. My body surged with a familiar energy source . Power crackled at my fingertips. I felt alive. I could do it. I-I..

The moment passed. And nothing happened. The skeleton broke free completely and raised one hand above its rotten skull, as if to smack at me like an ant.

Well shit.

Suddenly there was a massive rumbling and the mountain began to shake. The skeleton stopped, and looked up at the cave’s ceiling. A massive crack appeared in it and a giant sword flew through, its tip landing where the skeleton stood, splitting it in two. As it landed there was another quake and I fell to the ground. I guess I had managed to summon a weapon.

Then the mountain fell silent, save for the sound of Zeke’s ragged breathing behind me.

Finn staggered to his feet, a grin spreading across his face. “Well, Sam,” he said. “I think both you and the Order are going to have to admit it now. You’re the real deal dude.”

Not what I wanted hear exactly. But as I looked at Luna, still unconscious in Zeke’s arms, I realized that whether I wanted to be or not, I was in this for the long haul. Maybe people should start asking me my opinion before shoving me into earth-saving situations.