The next morning Raven and myself were stood out front of Sy’s house like we were in some form of military parade. Sy was stood opposite, his arms behind his back. Last I had seen of Mal and Magenta they were taking a swim on the lagoon like they did most mornings, they seemed to enjoy the water almost as much a Is did.
There was a weird excitement in the air and it felt like I was hyper charged, kind of buzzing to be set loose following the training, my main hope was that it involved no fighting, given how poor I had been in combat training the last few days. I hadn’t slept much, Sy had remained tight lipped over what our mission would be today and it wasn’t like I could discuss this with Raven, she seemed to be going along with it too, despite her side mission ‘whispers’ still being open.
“Ok so here we are, your first quest, this is a pretty important one too as it will show me whether or not you two are going to make it in this world. Simply put, if you make it I will be sixty five percent certain that you are in fact a guardian.”
“And if we don’t?” I asked.
“Well you will both be dead, so there is that.”
Suddenly the weight of the quest felt so much heavier than before, I thought this would be a nothing mission, a kind of time trial or something like that. I wasn’t expecting it to be a dangerous one.
“What do you want us to do?”
“Ok well let’s dive straight into it then, I need you two, to go and retrieve something for me. An ancient artefact called the Orb Of Zephyr, one that has been in place for a long time and I mean a long time. Now this artefact is simple enough to carry but it is getting to it that is going to be the problem.” Sy came across as nonchalant, like what he was telling us was completely normal.
“Why haven’t you gone and got it?”
“Because.” His reply was short and sharp, I knew I wasn’t going to get any more information out of him.
“As I as saying the issue with getting to the orb is where it is exactly. You see it is placed on a stone table at the centre of a labyrinth. And there lies the test that I told you about, finding your way through the labyrinth and retrieving that artefact. Once you have brought it back here, I will explain its purpose, well kind off, there is still quite a lot that we need to go over. But too much information at once is not going to help anyone, for now, you know what you need to to succeed. Be warned though, this Labyrinth is anything but simple, there will be tricks and traps after all its walls are lined with a magic that you cannot begin to comprehend. It isn’t going to be easy by any stretch but I have no doubt that between the two of you, you will be able to pull this off.”
*New Quest*
*Locate The Orb Of Zephyr*
“How about you?”
“Pardon?”
“If this artefact is so important, why can’t you come with us to retrieve it?”
“Because I do not leave this place anymore, there is a reason for that. One that I am not ready to share with your right now, you have just got to trust me.”
It felt like a big ask, telling someone to trust them while at the sometime purposefully with holding information. If we had Sy with us, with his level and his abilities I have no doubt that getting to this orb would be a walk in the park.
“Is there anything else we need to know?” I asked.
“The labyrinth is about two miles south east of here, it is easy enough to find, it’s that big that you can’t miss it. Getting to it will be your first test.”
“What do you mean?”
“All you could take the long hike to it, the scenic route as it were, that route will be safer but it will take you a lot longer to get there. The second route is to travel down the river, that route is more dangerous but will have you at the entrance to the maze in no time.”
Looking down at Raven, her eyes had widened at the prospect of the river.
“How long are we talking?”
“The scenic route will probably take you three to four days to get there and back, the river will get you there very fast, its just you will then have to take the scenic route back as it only kind of works one way.”
“That makes sense. What do you want to do?” I asked Raven.
She made a motion like she was paddling on a raft.
“River it is I guess,” I said, whether we would regret that choice would remain to be seen.
“Great well when you are ready, I will take you down to the river so you can be on your way. Before you go though, how are you for supplies?”
Raven gave Sy the thumbs up, I checked my inventory, I had one health potion left and a couple of stamina potions. “I am a little light.” I said.
“Take these, I will add a couple of health potions for you.” Sure enough as he said, a couple more health potions were added to my inventory.
“How did you?”
Sy laughed, “I can only do it when you are in close proximity because you have added me to your party. Outside of this oasis, you are on your own, I won’t be able to transfer anything to you.”
It was a pretty cool thing to be able to do and felt strange receiving items that I hadn’t physically touched but I accepted it non the less.
“Now while you are out there, I will be able to communicate directly with you. I have plenty of man ate do this. As a berserker your mana levels are low so reserve communicating directly for me for times only when you absolutely need to. To do that just select me on the, menu and you will see an option to contact me.
I took a Quick Look and could see a speech bubble icon next to Sy’s name.
“How come I can’t do this for Fidget?” Because she is not in your party?”
“But she can me?” I said.
“Its complicated, Fidget is a powerful sorceress, its one of her skills that she is using, ‘spectral telepathy’ it grants her the ability to communicate with you through a connection that is far to complex for you to comprehend at this time. Now I am just quickly going to test that our connection is working ok.”
Sy walked around behind his house and out of sight.
“Right, can you hear me ok?” It was like I had a hidden ear piece in my right ear. His voice was crisp and clear as if he was standing right in front of me although there was a slight tiny noice when he spoke.
“I hear you.”
“Good stuff,” Sy went all muffled like there was an interference or something before re-appearing. “Well there is no time like the present, so if you are both good to go, let’s get moving. The sooner you set off, the sooner you will be back.
“You ready?”
Raven nodded and Sy led the way, climbing down to the lower part of the lagoon. We continued to walk through the trees until we could hear the river, it was loud, far louder than I had imagined. For some reason I had pictured us traveling down, in a nice raft, taking in the views. When we go there it was anything but that. The river surged passed quicker than I could keep uptown, turning white where hedge of the waters broke, the water was wild and untamed as if storms themselves pushed it down stream.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“This is as far as I can take you?” Sy shouted, the roar of the water fierce and intimidating. “It’s not too late to change your mind, but as I Sid it is going to a ad a lot of time onto your journey. There is a raft over there, not been used for a long time and an absolute pain in the ass to bring back once you have travelled down river in it. If you could bring it back I would appreciate it.” he patted me on the back, knocking me forwards, the power in his arms almost knocked the wind out of me but as I stumbled forwards I tried to stand it out.
This wasn’t just a river, it was a rapid, and last I heard, if you didn’t know what you were doing with these things they were dangerous, like deadly dangerous.
I went to ask Raven if she was still ok to head down this way but she was already at the raft and starting to pull it towards the edge.
“See you soon,” I said as I went to help Raven out the raft into position.
As we got closer to the rapids I started having serious doubts over whether we were making the right choice here. My confidence was growing and I really did not fancy taking the long route down. Besides how dangerous could it really be?
More like how wrong could I be, Raven hopped onto the raft first, she was easily able to keep her balance as I held it in place, that itself wasn’t simple against the pressing water as it passed hard against us. Not wanting to hesitate and lose my grip I quickly hopped on board landing on my knees with a crunch, it wasn’t dignified nor delicate as I nearly bounced over the other side of the raft and into the water.
We took of at a speed that even I didn’t expect, the swelling waters taking us in one direction and one direction only. The raft was sturdy enough but I was surprised that it was able to hold itself together with the vines Sy had used to find the wooden planks together. I instantly started regretting my decision, my heart beating so hard I feared it was about to burst out of my chest. The raft bounced through the air more than once as we hit what I presumed was a rock beneath us. We both held firm, Raven rode the raft like it was a surfboard, I curled into a ball, gripping the surface as hard as I could with my fingertips, the surface was wet and slippery, a thin layer of grime clinging to the surface like an unwanted blanket.
“Are you ok?”
Raven gave me a thumbs up as water lapped up around us. Calm within the calamity. The raft was big enough, it must have been six feet by six feet and the river itself was wide about twenty meters in width and aside from the speed we moved and how rough the waters were, so far this journey seemed ok and I felt confident that if it remained like this we would be ok.
“What is that?” I called out, pointing at the waters, blue and white frothing waters continue to crash up against the sides of the raft but within it, within the cascade I could swear I could see something within it, poking out of the surface. Then as fast as I saw it, it was gone.
“Did you see that?”
Raven shook her head, remaining focused on the rapids as we crashed over another large rock, the jolt caused me to fall on my side, pain erupting in my elbow as it slammed into the surface of the raft.
As I lay on my side I saw something in the water beside us, moving with the crashing, unforgiving waves of the rapids.
“Is that a fin?” With a splash a blur of blue and white bowled into me, knocking me sideways into a roll. I was grate full I was led down because If I wasn’t I was pretty sure I would be in the water now.
Blind panic consumed me as I gathered my bearings and with no option tried to balance as I stood up, something had forced its way onto the raft and somehow I didn’t think it was here for the ride.
Shog
Level 4
These things are as playful as they are deadly.
The think was terrifying to look at, it was around two foot long, short and stocky, shark like in shape which was insane because we were in a forest. The top half of its body was a dark blue colour, underneath a cream, whitish colour. It had small bone like spikes protruding out of its body mainly around its rear end, its large snarling mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. It looked like a shark, but with four stumpy legs, each ending with a row of jagged claws designed for tearing flesh from bone. Sections of its skin were cracked and scarred from previous fights, and its small blackened eyes gave it a feral look that made my legs go weak. Something was attached to the lower part of its mouth, a rope I think, it trailed into the water.
“Raven, what do we do?”
The shog let out a snarling growl before whipping its head from side to side, it yanked the rope up out of the water to reveal a spike metal ball attached to it. It was like a dog with a rope toy except the last thing we wanted to do was play. It snapped its head back and the spike ball whipped out towards me, I hopped backwards barely avoiding the blow, holding my arms out as I desperately tried to keep my balance.
Its eyes were not necessarily fixed on me but it kept whipping the spiked ball around, making it clear where the scars and cracked skin on its body came from. Streaks of blood and puss oozed from the scars that were like cracked bark, froth foaming in the corners of its mouth. Even now, I couldn’t decide if it wanted to play with us or kill us.
“Where the hell did it get a spiked ball from! And what do we do?” I was frozen, barely balancing on the edge of the raft and for a moment I thought that was it, I couldn’t see a way out of this ridiculous situation.
Raven chartered forward as if she was a coiled spring, her speed was incredible, she leapt through the air into a cork screw kick and two footed the shod in the side as hard as she could. Turns out shots do not do well from side attacks, probably because of their barrel like frame and stumpy legs but Raven sent it rolling like a barrel of cask ale and back into the water.
“That was awesome!”
Raven hopped back to her feet and balanced herself, she had one hand placed to her hip, gripping the hilt of one of her sythes. She eyed the water, untrusting and I wondered if she had come across these things before.
The raft rumbled this time, not like we had hit something that was unmoving but like something had crashed into us. I had no doubt it was thee shot and it was pissed.
Rather than crawling on the raft, I decided to try and take Ravens approach and positioned myself next to her, putting one front in front of the other like I was snowboarding. I had never surfed and I had tried snowboarding once when I was a teenager. My mum had forced me to go with friends, even though I had no interest and by the end of the day that was only solidified further when I was covered in cuts and bruised and a dislocated shoulder. Turns out I wasn’t good at it, at least from that day I roughly knew how to stand and balance, I could only hope it wouldn't end the same day or even worse.
“Where is it?” I called out, readying myself for if it returned, as we continued to travel down the river at speed.
Raven sarcastically pointed at the water with a raised eyebrow, she was infuriating at times but I kind of appreciated her humour, even if she had the timing of a sledge hammer.
She wasn’t wrong however as as she pointed at the water the shot came hurtling out of the water towards us, this one was different though, it was slightly smaller and had an eye missing, replaced with a large jagged scar, like something had raked claws across its face.
It took a bite in the air as it shot passed and I ducked out of the way before it passed over and landed backing the river on the opposite side.
“Shit!” There’s more than one.
As if on cue multiple shots started springing from the water at us, hoping and biting at the air as they tried to tear our flesh from bone. We both ducked, dipped, dived and dodged as they continued to fly out, I had no clue how many of them there were but no sooner had we dodged one, another would spring out from the water.
The raft continued to rumble and sway as they tried to knock us off, I struggled with my balance but Raven seemed to take it all in her stride, unphased by the situation.
“How much further?” I asked as I activated my berserker skill, as a shog came at me from the side. It crashed into me with the force of a boulder but I was able to stand firm, activating my skill just at the right time as it bounced onto the raft. Raven pulled out her sythes and buried them into the show’s stomach before dragging them down, spilling its guts on the raft. There was more water poured out of it than I expected and I was surprised to see a number plate come tumbling out of its stomach. I mean where the hell would that have found a number plate here, were there more people like me, I mean from my world here?
The surface of the raft not only turned red but it also turned my stomach, the smell reminded me of the fish mongers you would find at the market, except this was rotten and rancid. I gagged before staggering forward and kicked the shot as hard as I could rolling it from the raft and back into the water with a splash.
This served to only antagonise the shots more as they started springing out of the water even faster, snapping even harder and taking inspiration from Raven I removed my spirit sword. Another shot dove out this time it was primed for Raven and I stepped forward slicing down on the thing with as much strength as I could call on. It was surprising how easy the blade sliced through the shot and it split in two, the front half crashing into Raven, knocking her over.
She slipped on the thick, slimy blood on the raft, losing her balance and falling backwards, she rolled a couple of times as a shot shot out the water at the back of her, mouth wide opened ready to catch her and tear her to shreds.
“Raven!” I called out as I slammed my sword into the raft and dove forward grabbing hold of her hands as tightly as I could, I held tight as her legs trailed behind her and the shot disappeared back into the water. Raven’s eyes were wide and for the first time I saw a scared kid, she bounced of the raft with a thud and my grip loosed, her hands were covered in blood, os were mine, making it difficult to hold on.
On of her hands slipped free and she slid further away, only stopping when I tightened my grip around her wrist, more around her forearm now. The panic in her eyes was clear and she kicked with her legs as she tried to push her self away from the edge of the raft from the snapping shags. These things were relentless.
A tug on my leg and a sharp shooting pain caused me to cry out, one of the shots had taken hold of my leg, thankfully it was a smaller one. It started dragging me back, which actually helped as it pulled Raven away from the edge. Still in berserk mode I let go of Raven turning and kicking the shag in the face frantically as searing pain travelled up my leg. It was relentless though and wouldn’t let go. Only stopping when raven slammed one of her sythes into its eye. It shrieked and hopped back into the water.
We go to our feet, battered and bloodied, I was barely able to hold my weight when a rock poking oust of the water slammed into the raft sending us hurtling into the air.