Iris watched as Hero's body wasn't moving. His breathing has slowed down tremendously, and he was groaning as though he was trying to talk.
"He isn't taking any more energy." Iris informed Zeke, a bit nervous about their current situation. Zeke stopped the cart and ran to the back, a container of green energy in his hand. He ran to Hero's side and propped him up as he tried to pour the condescended energy into his friend's mouth.
"Come on, come on. You have to drink this. It's good for you." He told Hero, hoping he would gain some conciseness and consume the energy. Instead, the energy leaked out of his mouth and onto his clothes. It soaked into Hero's clothes and then into his pores. A little bit of color was brought back into Hero's skin, though he was still breathing slowly, to the point where you can mistake him for dead. "How close are we?" Alex asked, "Not even close." Zeke responded. "We have to pass through the city of Cucumberale."
Zeke then went back to the front of the cart and started making the horses move.
"This is easier said than done by the way." Iris and Alex nervously gulped because of this statement.
Soon the group arrived at Cucumberale. The city was guarded by a giant wall surrounding the perimeter. In order to enter you have to go through a large gate that was guarded by soldiers.
"Isn't this kind of cliche?" Iris asked, though no one responded because a guard was walking to their carriage.
"Iris quickly put on this cloak." Alex said, scrambling through her bag to hand an old cloak to Iris.
"You need to hide your identity; don't forget you're still considered evil."
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"Oh yeah I forgot." Iris said, placing the cloak on her head. She then hid among the luggage.
"State your name and identity." the guard asked Zeke. Zeke dramatically scoffed and placed a hand over his chest, offended.
"How dare you not recognize the Hero's best friend and partner."
The guard regained his posture and saluted.
"I'm sorry mister Zeke, I did not recognize you. There's been too many problems going on in the city recently so please excuse my disrespect."
"Only this once, okay. Don't make that mistake again." The guard nodded. He called for more guards to escort the carriage into the city. Soon they were led to an inn. Iris didn't realize how tired she actually was when she made it to the inn. Zeke got out of the cart and picked up Hero, carrying him to their room.
"There's already a room prepared for us in this inn. We're friends with the innkeeper so there's always a room for us to stay in." Zeke explained.
He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of two nicely made beds. Iris flopped onto one of the beds. "So soft, I missed being pampered and waited on hand and foot." She said snuggling the pillow.
"Glad to see that you're comfortable, but can you move to the side a little. I want to place Hero down. This is his bed."
"Augh, fine." Iris said, sitting up and moving to the side. Zeke placed Hero down and went to sit on the next bed.
"So why did you make travelling through here so ominous?" Alex asked.
"This is why." He pulled out a newspaper clipping showing an image of an overly energized cat. It was huge and was blocking the exit.
"This is why. This thing is a job for a Hero." Zeke responded.
"We have no way of extracting the energy from it. If we kill it, the energy will go berserk and blow up the whole area." Iris sat down and thought for a moment.
"So, we just need to absorb the energy from the cat huh. And only Hero can do this right.” Iris got up and placed her bag on the table "This will take at least two days, I’m going to make something that can give Hero a small energy boost, so make yourself busy as I work." she said. A timer appeared over her head signaling the amount of time she has until she's done.
"Where did that come from?" Iris asked.
"Things like that just happen when Hero's around. There's no explanation for it, you just get used to it." Zeke responded. Iris then shrugged and continued to work.