Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 7. The Fog of Despair
Gray begins waking up, being met with the bright morning sun directly in his eyes. He yawns, stands up, and walks over to make coffee. The second he grabs the kettle, he realizes they had all overslept.
Gray: “GET UP!, UP, UP, UP!”
Everyone jolts awake, surprised to hear Gray’s screaming. Soku rubs her eyes, annoyed at Gray’s ramblings.
Soku: “What…are you rambling about…”
Gray: “WE OVERSLEPT! WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE HALFWAY TO VALATROCITUS RIGHT NOW!”
Everyone begins freaking out. They all pack up their stuff as fast as possible while Peter puts the busted-up wheel back on the carriage. Edward shakes Luna over and over, getting her up to pull the carriage.
Edward: “Come on Luna, we gotta go!”
Luna shakes her head, licks Edward’s panicking face, and gets ready. Everyone tumbles into the carriage while Edward jumps onto the front of the carriage.
Edward: “YAH!”
Edward snaps the lead, causing Luna to blast down the road. And due to the messed up wheel, every single time it rolls it bounces, creeks, and barely stays on, but it still works.
Gray: “Do we just, not make it now?”
Rosemary: “Man…and we were so close.”
Edward: “WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT! WE LOST HALF A DAY, WE STILL GOT THIRTY-SIX HOURS TO MAKE IT!”
Soku: “How are we gonna make a two-day trip in half a day?”
Gray: “Just gotta hope.”
Gray looks over at Peter, expecting to find him sulking, but something worse is happening in his eyes. Peter is smirking, a cocky smirk that Gray is all too familiar with. Pride. How ego can shape one's self, and when the ego crumbles, the fall is rough.
All they can do for the following hours is hope they make it. The Walgonian sky drifts away, becoming gray, gloomy, and closed off. Then green in the grass fades as thick fog rolls in.
Gray: “Dude…I’m so done with traveling. We’ve been in the cold fog for what feels like forever…and it’s only getting thicker.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Gray lays on Rosemary’s lap, covered in a thick blanket while Soku lies on the floor, with a pillow and a thick jacket to cover her.
Rosemary: “Couldn’t we just get you a blanket, we have extra.”
Soku: “Na, it’s all muggy, I don’t wanna sweat.”
Gray: “No…sweat…so…comfy.”
Rosemary: “Edward, are you cold out there!?”
Edward struggles to stay awake, as the feeling of the broken wheel shaking against the ground is the only thing keeping him going.
Edward: “I’m…good.”
Gray: “What’s with all this fog?”
Peter: “It’s the guard fog, it’s a permanent fog that sits on the Border of Valatrocitus and Walgonia. But it has an opening in the direct center. Though due to our time restraint, to cut time we have to go through the side of it.”
Soku: “Edward! Aren’t there monsters out there!? I don’t think it’s safe!”
Edward: “Most monsters don’t attack, and if they did the carriage has a spell put on it. The only reason they’d go after us is if there was a huge source of mana on board. Then we’d have to worry about the Deep Bat, slug crawlers, Vole Rats, and the Arc-Gorilla.”
Rosemary: “Yeah, good thing we aren’t carrying…”
At the same time, everyone looks at Gray while Gray begins making a face of pure fear.
Gray: “I’M A HUGE SOURCE OF MANA!”
Right as he screams they hear loud noises outside the carriage, sounds of rumbling movements which shake the carriage. Then a noise of something gently pushing through the thick fog is made by something large, something right outside the carriage.
Now the safe mode of transport has become a cage, trapping them in this demonic situation.
Gray: “Maybe if we stay quiet they won’t attack.”
Edward tries to stay as still as he can, slowly looking to his left to see what’s in the fog.
First nothing, then the horrifically slimy sound of the large grayish eyelid opens right beside him. Panic ensues across Edward’s entire body, his mind filled with the thought of imminent death. The large black slitted pupil tights, growing from the size of an arm to a dime in an instant.
Luna yipes, causing Edward to lose control of the carriage, and mixed with the flimsy wheel, the carriage drifts off the road. Once the carriage drifts off the dirt path it slams against the hard ground, causing the wheel to further damage itself, barely hanging on.
Due to the carriage's sudden movement, the large flying monster screeches and sends everyone into a panic.
Gray: “EDWARD GET IN HERE!”
Edward: “I CAN’T! IF LUNA DRIFTS US OFF COURSE IT COULD CAUSE US TO BE LATE, AND THEN ALL OF THIS TRAVELING WILL BE FOR NOTHING!”
Rosemary: “OUR LIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT!”
Edward: “YOU’RE SAFE IN THERE! I’LL GUIDE US! JUST STAY CALM!”
Edward looks all around him, trying to make sure nothing else is coming for them. This blanket of fog blinds Edward, to the point where relying on the small amount of light coming off the lanterns hanging on the carriage is all he can do.
A small glimmer of light in the middle of the deepest ocean, a signal calling to all the monsters in the area. Gray wraps himself within the cloak of darkness, trying to hide his presence. In the carriage's corner, Peter begins to lose it, falling into despair and lost within this instinctual fear. The fear of darkness, monsters, and the unknown. Whimpering, shaking, cold, everything somebody would feel right before a seemingly emanating death. Rosemary holds him close, trying to console him, but it doesn't help.
Soku: “What if we just fight the monster?”
Rosemary: “It may bring challenges, and we can’t waste time.”
They spend a few minutes afraid for their lives as they continue barreling down the dirt road. But suddenly, everything stops. The noises, the fear, an unforeseen bliss within this eternal misery.
And it all comes to an end the second it started with the crash of something large and heavy right on top of the carriage. It knocks lanterns off and shakes the ones inside. The destroyed wheel splinters, cracking apart, now unable to hold the weight of the carriage. This leaves them stuck, trapped within the fog.
Gray takes a deep breath and hops outside the carriage, surprising the everyone and causing Rosemary to scream out. Now immobile, and being crushed literally and figuratively by this great monster.
Rosemary: “GRAY!”
Unable to move, Edward releases control of Luna. He looks up, and the giant, decaying, slimy, black-ish monstrosity of a spirit creature stares him in his face.
Edward: “A…Deep Bat…”
Luna, unable to pull the carriage, tries to run as fast as possible, but she’s stuck. A fact known by Edward, so he tries to free her, trying to give her a chance to live while he fights. But no. Once the bat creature locks eyes with the dire wolf, its fate is sealed.
Edward unties her restraints the second the bat monster lunges at her, and due to the spirit creature's immense speed, she’s grabbed by its large hands. Then, in an instant, she's swallowed. The sounds of chewing, bones crunching, meat stretching and pulling. Edward watches in horror as the beast turns Luna's body into a red paste, a pool of blood that floods out of its mouth.
Then, they lock eyes once more, both on the same wavelength. A hunger for death.
End of Chapter 7