Novels2Search

16. Outside

At first we just walked in a group away from the city. The area directly around the city was open fields with ankle length grass, but as we got farther away there were trees, and eventually we were walking through an old pine forest. Some of the trees were massive with branches big enough to build a house on. It would have to be a small house, and more long than wide, but you could live in the trees. I was going to ask someone why no one lived in the trees, but everyone seemed preocupied, and I didn't want to disturb them.

Bjorn was in the lead, and he looked like he was completely focused on following whatever path he saw. Marcus talked to Scria about the city, and his favorite spots to go, but she barely replied except with grunts, "ya", and "no". She was focused on everything around us. Every bush, every tree, everything that could possibly hide something. Her eyes never stopped darting from one thing to the next. Just watching her made me nervous.

Lily was the exact opposite. She was practically skipping around to different fruits and flowers to pick them, or just smell them. Sometimes she'd find a flower and cheer out loud before picking it, and sometimes she'd pick a berry and eat it immediately. She did offer me a couple of berries that looked kind of like blueberries, but they were yellow, and tasted kind of like rasberries. I didn't get sick from them or any buffs so I figured they were just food items with nothing special about them.

After about an hour of walking, Bjorn stopped and said, "Alright, from here on out we need to pay attention. I'll lead, followed by Bwyd, Lily, Marcus, and Scria can guard the rear. We are going to a dungeon that isn't too far from here, but there is a chance that wild monsters will attack. If anyone sees anything suspicious then say something."

"Also, buff time!" Lily started waving her hands around, like she was conducting an orchestra, and making bell noises. It kind of sounded like music. As she continued little balls of different colored light started to appear and dance around each of us. Bjorn and Scria got red, yellow, and green lights, Marcus and Lily got blue, green, and red, and I got red, blue, and violet. "There, they will stick around for a while, and I can empower them to increase the buffs for one person at a time."

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Scria looked like she was in a state of complete shock. Her mouth was open, her eyes wide, and she was just pointing at Lily. Marcus took the opportunity to put something in her mouth, which immediately woke her up.

"Oy" she spit whatever it was at Marcus, but he just smiled as nothing hit him. "What the... Did ya stuff dirt in my mouth?" She surprised me by not attacking Marcus, well besides the attempted spitting.

"Of course not, it was illusionary." He smilled, "I would never dream of placing a weapon in your mouth for you to shoot at me."

Bjorn got between them, "Ok guys, lets keep moving, we don't want to waste our buffs."

"Hold up, Lily how'd ya get that many spirits?"

"Fae secrets." She put her finger on her lips and started walking away.

"Yeah, she doesn't tell us either, but she's the best Spirit Caller I've seen." Bjorn jogged to get ahead of Lily, "In formation, lets go."

We all got into our positions, and headed toward the dungeon. It did take us about an hour to get there, and nothing attacked us on the way. The entrance to the dungeon was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be some kind of cave, or ominous door, or dark portal, but it wasn't. The entrance was an outhouse. A random wooden outhouse in the middle of the woods. It didn't even look old or haunted. It looked fairly new, like someone had just decided to build an outhouse and put it next to their favorite tree. I almost expected some old man to step out and yell at us for being in his forest.

"Well, I'm glad to see it's here. I'm not so sure about the people you get information from Marcus." Bjorn walked up to the door and openned it. "Yeah, that's a dungeon. Buffs are still good, lets go."

As he stepped into the door he disappeared. I followed him in, and the moment I stepped insided it felt like I was falling. When the fall stopped I was in darkness.

Then I started to smell something, and the outhouse entrance started to make sense.