Chapter 128

Jay looked around behind him just in time to see Carly appear through the portal with her pale green robe fluttering behind her. The portal didn't stay open and snapped shut behind them.

Jay looked about and realized that the group was surrounded by a field of tall wild grasses arranged haphazardly in thick clumps. The group found themselves in a cozy clearing, the grass looking trampled under them.

“Well this explains why they gave you a locator for a lighthouse. You'd think you'd be able to see it from a distance – that's the entire point of a lighthouse.” Carly muttered under her breath.

They could hear birds chirping but didn't see any. It was tough to see anything.

Jay realized that with the height of the grasses it made it difficult to see anything but the grass around them and a patch of sky above them. The grass wasn't planted in neat rows but formed patches with small open spaces between them. Jay and his group were in one such space now.

Norri ran a hand down a stalk of grass, “Look, a bug!”

What appeared to Jay to be a ladybug the size of a quarter took flight when Norri's hand got too close to its perch on the grass. It flew away and Norri quickly lost sight of it. She sighed.

“Ok, gather round,” M'redith said with a smile. She couldn't help smiling, this was a lot of fun.

“We're not here to fight things outside of the dungeon, so lets stay quiet and head to the lighthouse as fast as we can. Marching order is me, Norri, Jay, Aiden, and Carly. Any questions?” M'redith said simply.

Carly opened her mouth to speak but caught M'redith watching her out of the corner of her eye and decided to keep quiet. She appeared to reconsider and changed tactics. “Is it always like this?” she asked in a neutral tone of voice.

Aiden laughed. “Only when Jay is involved.”

Jay shrugged and smiled.

“Ok, let's head out,” M'redith said with her head bent down. She was staring at one of the devices the portal mage had given her. She lined up the direction and led the group in to the grass, parting it carefully in front of her.

The lighting was a bit dim thanks to the rather ridiculously tall grass but Jay was still able to keep track of his group in front of him. He had to be careful to stay close to Norri. The grass closed behind them as they moved sometimes making it difficult to keep track of where people had passed.

“This is going to suck to fight in,” Aiden whispered to Jay and Jay grinned. Hopefully they wouldn't have to fight.

Jay groaned quietly, “Why'd you have to go and say that? Now we're definitely going to have to fight!”

Aiden laughed lightly, “Of course we're going to have to fight something. Please don't be spiders, please don't be spiders,” he chanted quietly to himself as they moved through the grasses.

Jay grinned and refocused on Norri in front of him. They'd never let him live it down if he got lost in tall grass.

They occasionally would pause for M'redith to check her device to make sure they were headed in the right direction. The tall grasses made it too easy to drift from the direction they wanted.

“The light on this is getting brighter. I'm pretty sure that means we're getting close.” M'redith said with a grin.

“Are we there yet? How much farther?” Aiden asked jokingly before M'redith gave him a scolding glance.

They got back in line and were about to head in to the grasses when something about the same height as Jay crashed in to the side of M'redith.

Their group scattered.

The creature was brought to a halt as it struck M'redith's side, which activated her Giant Frame ability.

Instead of trampling the small female human the creature's front crumpled like the front of a car in an accident. M'redith did not move and stood uninjured.

Jay thought it looked like an over sized boar only with a large bony ridge along its back. It had short legs but could really run. It's enormous weight along with its front tusks were its main weapons. It crashed to a stop and fell to the ground pawing at the air for a moment while M'redith stood shocked.

She quickly got her sword out of her sheath and scored a long cut across its side as it turned and ran back in to the bushes.

The group looked around them, they could hear the beast squealing and making high pitched screeching sounds but all they could see were tall grasses, some of them stained red from the blood spray of M'redith's first attack.

A loud scree sound came from off to the side of the group and the beast charged through the grasses and attempted to trample Norri.

Norri wasn't facing the right direction and wouldn't see the attack coming. Carly ran for Norri and grabbed her arm as she passed her, dragging her out of the beast's path.

Carly was caught in the side by a tusk and was thrown in to the air, her side sending a spray of blood across the clearing.

Aiden ran for her and immediately put his hand over the gouge in her side. She tried to push his hand away but Aiden was strong and she quickly figured out he was there to help. Once she was patched up and as healed as he could make her they returned to watching the grasses around them.

This time Norri was ready and was facing the right direction. She furrowed her brow and concentrated on the beast's front right ankle. Not the entire beast, just the ankle and surrounding tendons. She used her Class Ability Control Creature and hoped the monster wasn't too strong for it to take effect.

It worked wonderfully and as the beast ran forward it crashed to the ground. M'redith leapt forward and slashed at the creature's neck. She struck true and the monster thrashed as its life left it slowly.

The others backed up and M'redith struck again, this time killing the creature entirely.

They received experience points for the kill and Jay's group mates must have been right on the edge of leveling because M'redith, Aiden, and Norri all hit level 2 at the same time.

“I leveled!” they each said slightly out of sync.

“I want to choose my next Class Ability!” Aiden said and Jay could see his eyes lose focus as if looking at his notifications.

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“No, stop that,” M'redith said as she gave him a gentle push on the shoulder and ruined his concentration. “We're in the middle of who knows where and we just got attacked! Now's not the time to stop – we should press on and choose our abilities when we reach a safe spot.”

Aiden shook his head, “Now is precisely when we need a new ability the most! It won't do us any good if we end up needing an extra ability in a fight but we don't have them because we didn't pause for a few minutes.”

Norri chuckled, “There is no way choosing a new ability will take just a few minutes. Unless you get really bad choices I mean.”

Jay inspected the beast to see if there was anything lootable but there wasn't. No rewards for this fight other than his group mates reaching level 2. Jay smiled.

“M'redith's leader. She says we move then I say we move.” Carly said politely as she offered her opinion on the matter.

Carly bringing up M'redith's status as leader was what did it. No one could argue against that point and so they got in line once more and moved off in to the tall grasses.

A few times M'redith stopped the group and had them drop to the ground when they heard high pitched squeals. In one case they were forced to go the long way around as they didn't want to disturb whatever it was that was screaming between them and their destination.

Their attention paid off and they didn't run in to another creature like the one they had just fought.

There was no warning and so it was a bit of a shock when the group stepped out from the grass. Jay looked out over a huge plain of squat yellow flowers, a thick white lighthouse in the very center.

Aiden made a move to step on to the field of flowers but Norri put out an arm and stopped him.

“What's wrong?” Aiden asked, “If we don't step on the flowers how will we reach the lighthouse?”

Norri shook her head, “Look at the flowers, they're covered in some sort of thick pollen. Look at the ones closest to us, the air around them is thick with pollen, like a haze.”

Carly looked out over the flowers but didn't get what Norri was trying to say. “So? What's so bad with pollen?”

Norri sighed. “Look around. Do you see ANY animals, insects, or birds anywhere near those flowers?”

Jay made a hrm noise. He couldn't spot a single living creature anywhere near the flowers. The grasses had creatures. Norri had even almost touched a ladybug like thing. There had been bugs. Birdsong. Not out here among the flowers. There was only pollen.

“Great. How are we supposed to get across that?” Carly groused.

M'redith raised an eyebrow and Carly looked away.

“I think I know how to do it.” Jay said after a moment's thought. “Drag me back if this doesn't work.”

Before anyone could respond he was moving.

Jay turned on his Tropical Island Aura and stepped out on to the field of flowers. A giant plume of yellow pollen shot in to the air and surrounded him as if it had a life of its own. The pollen had great difficulty in reaching him however thanks to his aura and he left it on as he moved freely. The pollen tried to cling to his shoes but the aura constantly wicked it away.

“But what does it DO?” Carly asked curiously.

Jay walked out of the field of flowers and grabbed a nearby stalk of grass and tore it out of the ground after some pulling. He tossed it out on to the flowers and a plume instantly surrounded it. The pollen descended until it covered the stalk entirely. The group could hear a sizzling sound and watched as the stalk disintegrated and sent wispy plumes of foul smelling smoke in to the air.

Jay looked a little pale. “If my aura hadn't worked...”

M'redith leaned over and gave him a pat on the back, “But it did! Next time wait for feedback! Good thinking, let's head over – you can ferry us over one at a time using your aura.”

Jay shook out of his thoughts and nodded. “Great idea. Ok, who is first?”

Carly stepped forward. “I'll go.”

M'redith narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything.

Jay looked about but no one else volunteered.

“Stay right next to me. We'll go across nice and slow.” Jay said and after he made sure that she was paying attention to him he stepped back out on to the field of flowers.

Pollen filled the air save for a sphere around the two that constantly cleaned the air inside of it. No pollen lasted very long inside that area.

It was about a five minute walk not to mention an uneventful one before they reached the lighthouse. A thick over sized door was shut tight. They stepped off the field of flowers and on to a grassy clearing in front of the entry door.

Jay walked up to the door and checked for traps. Not finding anything obvious he gave the door handle a turn and it turned freely. He left it closed.

“Ok, I'm going to go and get the others. Careful of this door. It's unlocked and we have no idea what is inside.” Jay said in a businesslike tone.

Carly nodded and took a seat in the grass with her back up against the lighthouse.

Jay returned to his friends across the field of yellow flowers after walking through a fog of pollen.

“She pull anything?” M'redith asked when Jay returned before even saying hello.

Jay chuckled. “No, she was as polite as could be. She seems a bit subdued actually.”

Norri nodded, “It's her first time on a dungeon run. I'd be nervous too if we hadn't already gotten out of Ashagi.”

Jay nodded in agreement. “That's fair. Ok, who is next?”

M'redith put herself forward before anyone else could speak.

“Ok,” Jay said with a smile at Norri and Aiden, “I'll be back.”

His aura had been running non-stop as Jay didn't want to take the risk of the pollen landing on him through some streak of bad luck. All M'redith had to do was walk beside him.

She wound an arm around his waist and he returned the favor as they walked quietly to the lighthouse, surrounded by a yellow haze of pollen. It was relentless and continued to try to reach them until they stepped off the flowers and on to the grassy clearing.

They let each other go and M'redith nodded to Carly, “Anything happen while we were gone?”

Carly watched them separate from each other and shook her head, “Just me, the grass, and the door.”

Jay grinned but M'redith remained straight faced. “See you in ten, Jay.”

It was a dismissal and it appeared that the two women were going to have a talk. Alone.

Jay went back out in to the field of flowers. He had begun to wear a path among the thick yellow flowers. It was a boring five minutes and Jay shuttled Norri and then Aiden across without incident.

Jay thought that Carly and M'redith both looked a bit happier when he returned for the last time. He didn't know why and wasn't going to ask. He was just happy to see it.

“Door?” M'redith asked Jay.

Jay nodded, “Checked,clear, unlocked.”

M'redith nodded and lined everyone up again. M'redith opened the door and led them inside.

Congratulations! You have entered The Landlocked Lighthouse!