Quest: 1.11 (Week 2- Early Phase (Pt.3))

--- Jon ---

--- Night ---

He shook his head, (Rogers is a grown man. He can take care of himself.)

Bending down he picked up all of the firewood and began making his way back to the campfire area.

As luck would have it, he arrived right as Miss Edna was bringing something out from the kitchen and placing it on a table someone had set out.

“Uh, Miss Edna!” He called trying to get her attention. “Any idea where I should leave all of this?”

Miss Edna looked at the logs in his arms before frowning. “Oh, didn’t Rogers tell you? The firewood needs to dry out before we can use it.”

Some small part of him felt a sudden irritation he couldn’t quite place.

“Yeah,” He nodded. “but he left these logs sitting out for a fair while.”

“Uh-huh, but the actual dried-out firewood is in the storage shed next to his cabin. These logs are probably for the next bonfire.” Miss Edna explained. “If we used these logs, they’d probably make too much smoke, which would be bad for the campers to breathe in.”

“I see…” (So that means I didn’t actually need to chop firewood, but rather only needed to move the wood he left out last week…)

“In that case I’ll just go take these out to his cabin.” He told her with a smile on his face.

“Alright, but when you’re done switching the wood out, can you go ahead and bring the quartermaster back? It’s almost time for us to get everything going.”

“Right. Sure.” He nodded without letting his smile drop.

The moment he was away from the camp however…

(That son of a…) He audibly growled to himself. (He was just making me do his work for the week so he could go off and get drunk!)

Once at the quartermaster’s cabin, he dumped the wood unceremoniously on the ground, figuring there was no reason the quartermaster couldn’t deal with it himself.

(Now where’s the actual firewood…)

It took him a moment to find it, mainly because he didn’t want to get too close the quartermaster’s cabin; the entire building being covered in weird charms and animal furs.

Eventually he found a storage shed behind the man’s cabin, though he found more than just firewood inside. On the walls of the cabin were even more of the creepy charms that had covered the quartermaster’s cabin and behind them were writings that seemed to give him a headache as he stared at them.

(Wait, is that… is that dried bl-)

He killed that train of thought, grabbed the wood from the floor and promptly fled back to the camp.

(I didn’t see anything. I did not see anything. Nope nothing of note or worth remembering…)

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As he returned to the camp, he handed the wood over to Andy who began to drop to fill the firepit with wood.

“Okay, I can handle the rest from here. Why don’t you go drag the quartermaster back from whatever he’s doing so we can get started?” He must’ve made a face because Andy laughed. “Come on he’s not that scary.”

“Have you seen his cabin?” He wondered a little impulsively.

“Meh, he’s a nature man.” Andy shrugged before giving him a look. “I thought you were a country kid; shouldn’t you be used to the whole wood-and-fur cabin look.”

“There’s a difference between ‘country’ and crazy-axe-murderer.” He pointed out with a glare, while avoiding the fact he and his mom had moved to the city about three years prior.

Andy merely rolled his eyes before shooing him. “Either way, Miss Edna won’t be happy unless everyone is here so, go get him.”

He frowned before shaking his head. “Fine, but just remember it was him that killed me if I don’t make it back.”

“Sure, thing kiddo.”

Reluctantly he started making his way back towards the clearing where the quartermaster had left him, and by the time he found it he had to admit that it was dark enough to light the lantern he’d given him.

Flicking out the camping knife his mom had given him for his birthday, he found a piece of flint and a few long bits of dried grass. Breaking the corner off of the flint, he began to grind the stone against his blade until a few bits of heated steel flaked off and landed on the grass.

Picking the grass up, he began to gently blow at the grass until the embers grew large enough to be considered an actual flame.

(There we go…)

With the flame in hand he lit his lantern before stamping the grass out so it couldn’t catch anything else on fire.

(Now then where did the old drunk end up?)

He set out in the same direction he remembered the quartermaster leaving from, hoping that’d be good enough to spot the lantern the man always insisted on carrying.

As he moved through the woods it began to hit him just how dark and quiet everything was. (Where’s the fireflies, or the birds for that matter?)

There should’ve been some sound, animals, bugs… the wind, something more than this all encroaching silence.

A twig snapped behind him, and it took all of his self-control to keep from jumping. “Come on, quartermaster you’ve played that trick on me already.” (Not that that makes it any less nerve wracking…)

“Lantern broke.” The quartermaster’s gruff voice spoke from behind him.

“You can take this one then.” He told the quartermaster as he turned to the man’s silhouette at the end of his lantern’s range.

“You keep it, might need it on those midnight walks of yours.” The quartermaster told him, before stepping into the light.

“Why are you covered in blood?!” He screeched the moment he caught sight of the quartermaster.

The quartermaster looked down at his blood-soaked flannel before shrugging. “That’s the reason you shouldn’t be going for midnight walks.”

(What the hell is that supposed to mean?) He couldn’t find the courage to ask that question as the quartermaster moved to pass him by, before patting his shoulder with blood covered hand.

“Need to get changed. Edna hates it when people show up covered in blood. Says it scares the kids.” The quartermaster explained, leaving him with a number of horrific questions at the implications of that statement as the quartermaster left him alone in the woods.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Scene Consequences

-Discovered Medium Blades at rank E. (Lv. 5)

-Obtained: Red Lantern

--While in the dark Red Lantern makes objects within a 5M range visible but reduces visibility outside of that range. Additionally, this lantern can contain enough oil to last up to four hours at a time.

-Due everything he’s seen tonight Jon’s fear of the man has been renewed.

-Jon loses 3MHP

---

Eventually he managed to shake off his terror and start making his way back to the campgrounds. (Where there are thankfully witnesses in case, I get murdered.)

Deciding that the (terrifying) man had been right, he went to his cabin and quickly changed into a shirt that didn’t have a bloody palm print on the shoulder. After all he didn’t want any of tonight’s personal traumas hitting the kids.

By the time he made it back to the center of camp, Miss Edna and Ying had set all of the food out, Andy had lit the bonfire, and the various campers were running around with plates of food or gathering around the fire.

As for him he just had to figure out how to take his mind off of… well, everything…