We enjoyed some downtime in the cell of Sector 07. We had to process, this is a safe place. For some reason, we had not slept all night, Funk had tried, but then the clicking noises came. I got up, “Well, we cannot sleep because this place is safe. We should continue and rest when we need it. We might not be able to sleep, but we can rest.”
Lory nodded, “The gem has to be nearby.”
Funk nodded, “I think the gem might be in the elder’s house.”
“Alright, that seems like a good place to start. Shall we pack up and leave this cell?”
Lory stretched, “Yeah, I did rest my eyes a bit, I just cannot feel into a deep slumber in this safe place.”
Funk sighed, “I still cannot believe Stevie died in a safe place like this.” After we packed up, we left the cell and went back to the main square. It indeed looked as if nothing had happened at all.
Funk led the way towards the house filled with shadow twigs. When we walked inside, all the decorations had been turned into ash. Things in my mind had been silent, Captain seemed to be able to heal his arm, painful and slow. The others were still in shock. I heard clicking noises, Lory and Funk looked at me. I raised my hands, “Sorry, this is a safe place.” As the clicking noises faded, I walked into a room and a green prismatic gem sat on a pedestal.
It had a crack in it. I pulled out the salve that Paul had given to me, I rubbed some of it over the gem and the crack healed. The shadows in the room vanished as the gem lit up. I smiled, “One down, six to go. This will be a long and tough journey, where to next, Lory?”
“We should head to Poluma next, it is not a long journey, perhaps only one day of travel. We might need to rest somewhere.” Funk and I looked at each and nodded. “The broken down house, we can stay there.”
Lory shrugged, “I guess that is better than a tent or a tree.” We walked outside, this place started bringing me down already. It has been hostile since I got here. As we started to walk towards the broken down house, I looked at Funk, “Does this remind you of something? Perhaps, when you almost had me and Abby executed? When you made me escape from my cell in my underwear?”
Lory giggled, “Well, at least your underwear looked cute.”
Funk chuckled, “You should be glad I sold you out, Steve. If I had not done so, you wouldn’t have met Lory.”
As we walked into the swamp, I sighed, “He just, I, fuck, he has me.”
Funk crossed his arms, “Good, I win.”
In the swamp, I noticed ravens in the tree, pitch-black ravens, and frogs with a dark skin, small, tiny frogs. Something inside of me feared, there might be a giant frog nearby. We kept on walking, I kept an eye on the tiny frogs, when suddenly the earth shook and out of the swamp water, came a giant frog. Of course, before I could even react, a giant tongue flew towards me and wrapped around my waist. I spawned my energy blade and stabbed the tongue. Funk drew his dark blades and ran over to the giant frog.
Lory started shooting beams at the giant tongue. She looked at me as she kept firing energy, “Why are you so calm, Steve!?”
“Believe it or not, this is not my first time struggling with this frog. I think the shadow world wants a piece of me.”
Funk called out as I saw him stab a blade into the frog, “Every fucking monster wants a piece of you.”
“Yes, I know that. Lory, stop shooting those beams, I have a plan.” She nodded and stopped. I started running towards the frog’s big mouth, I launched myself inside and looked for the thing I stabbed the last time I fought a giant frog, back at the beginning of my journey. When I located the weak point, I stabbed it a few times until I felt that the frog had fallen down. I crawled outside with its blood and gore all over me. I laughed, “That, was fucking amazing, did you see that!”
Funk looked at me, “I think you might have a few loose screws. That was reckless and dangerous.”
Lory nodded, “That was a bit too reckless, Steve, even for you.”
I shrugged, “It worked, I needed to let out some steam, alright.” Suddenly, a big raven swooped down and grabbed my shoulder. “Guys!?” It started flying higher and higher.
I spawned tentacles and wrapped it around the bird, it let me go, but I pulled myself up. I am starting to understand, I am durable, my body will not give up easily, neither will my mind. As I swooped myself on top of the bird and looked at a shadow, it stared at me, I stabbed it and then it fell off. The bird panicked, Quickly, I grabbed its fur and tried to steer the bird. This raven tried to peck at me. “Hey, I am your driver! No pecking!”
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It screeched loudly, “Ah fuck you.” It made a looping and flew upside down, I hung there, looking down at Lory and Funk. I let one hand go and waved. Then I swung myself to the bird’s belly. I started making dumbbells out of energy, the bird got heavier and heavier, then it crashed down, right in the swampy waters. The bird completely shattered, blood, bones, and gore flew everywhere, and I got launched through the swampy water.
While grunting, I got up, my muscles ached, bruises covered my body, and I had a few cuts. Water dripped off me and I walked over to Lory. “Damn, I think that was a bad crash landing.”
Lory put her hands on her waist, “You need to be more careful.”
“Come on Lory, this will be the end of the journey, after this, we are done. We can have a little bit of fun before it ends. Besides, the bird is dead, we achieved our goal, didn’t we? We can now go on to the broken house.”
Lory sighed, “Damn, I hate it when you make a good point.”
Funk sighed, “If you guys die, I am finishing this alone.”
Lory laughed, “We won’t die that easily. We still need to find our lost family.”
Funk grunted, “Come on, you guys! You are as stupid as rocks!”
“What? I am not a dumb rock, you are a rock.”
Lory nodded, “Yeah, rock, what is your problem?”
Funk clenched fists together, “I am fucking stuck with you guys, and you are not taking this serious at all. Neither is it going through either of your thick skulls, that dead is dead. Yes, there is an underworld, yes, Purgatory exists, yes there are storage sites. There is a reason people don’t come back. Once you are there, you are stuck, or the ethereal vortex takes you. Only the strongest beings can go as they please. Your family is gone, just settle down after this and spend your days together. Unless you both die, you are never seeing Haley or your family again. As for Megan, if she is lost in time, and there is not even a fucking book about that place, how many people do you think can go there to get her?”
Either of use tried to say something, but Funk started to yell at us. “There are dangerous Things lurking around here,” I looked around as the clicking noises came towards us. “You guys need to take this serious, and hope Haley finds a motherfucking ancient super god to bring back your family.” I pointed behind Funk, one of the Things, one with brown claws, stood behind him.
Funk turned around, instead of being frightened, he sighed, “I am not in the fucking mood for this. Strange energy lit up his fist and he punched it superfast through the thing’s heart. It completely crumbled into dust.”
Both Lory and I gasped. We saw the one with blue claws come closer, stay away Mara, not now. Funk looked at me, “We are safe, there is nothing to worry about. Nothing just happened, I fucking like you Steve, you are a good friend, a brother even, but fuck you are stupid sometimes. The reason I get angry is that I care. The same goes for you, Lory.” He let out a deep sigh as if he got something off his chest he had been keeping in for a while.
I scratched the back of my head, “Remind to not make you angry again, that looked scary as fuck, also, who is Mara?”
Lory nodded, “Yeah, I did not see that coming. Funk has been holding out on us.”
Funk shook his head, “Ignore that I said that name.”
“I am sorry, Funk, I will be a bit more careful.”
Lory nodded, “Yeah, me too. And we are going to pray that Haley will find someone that can bring her to and back from Purgatory.”
Funk smiled, “I see, I can get through to you. Let’s hope it’ll stick.” He turned around and started walking towards the broken house. We followed him through this safe swamp.
I whispered towards Lory, “What the fuck just happened?”
She whispered back, “I think the power Funk has been showing us all this time is barely 1 or 2% of his true power. I think, he can kill us easily.”
“Oh, that is not good. Then, why is he not taking the lead, or, you know, something?”
Lory shrugged, “Maybe he is just loyal to us, or he just does not care anymore. It is clear, he is keeping a much bigger secret than we had expected.”