We continued making our way towards Moonhelm, Lorraine still leaned on my shoulder, Abby and Funk walked in front of us, but this time they checked on us regularly.

I also kept an eye on our surroundings. “Lorraine, do you know how far the trip is to Moonhelm?”

She nodded, “If we are in luck, we might reach the village by the end of the day.”

Funk called out, “Our road is blocked by a giant rock wall.”

We both looked at a valley in front of us, and the stones that blocked our way, I chuckled towards Lorraine, “You were saying?”

She sighed, she pointed upwards to the valley, I saw train tracks, Abby tried pushing the rocks away, she shook her head, “We are not going to get rid of these rocks.”

Funk started climbing the rock wall, “We can go over them.”

I looked at Funk, “Lorraine will not be able to climb currently, her legs are injured.”

Funk sighed, “Then we need to find a way for all of us to reach this valley.”

Lorraine pointed at a cave, it seemed to be illuminated by blue mushrooms, Abby shook her head, “There will be spiders in there!”

Lorraine and I started walking to the cave, I called out, “You can stay behind if you’d like, Abby.”

She sighed and ran after us along with Funk, as we entered the cave, the light from the mushrooms gave the cave a weird ambiance.

The noises I heard around us were not helping, it sounded like there were frogs, spiders, and other creepy crawlies that lived in here, Maybe even a chomper, as I heard something snapping its jaw shut over and over again.

We slowly made our way through the cave, Funk looked at me, “And what if this cave is a dead end?”

I chuckled, “Then it will be your fault.”

Abby laughed, Lorraine grunted, I put her down against the cave wall, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, my leg just hurts a lot.”

“Can I take a look?”

She nodded and rolled up the sleeve of her pants. “Oh, this looks quite painful, it is also bleeding, Let me patch you up.”

Abby and Funk looked at me, Abby spoke up, “You know how to do that?”

I nodded. Lorraine handed me her bag, “May I?”

She smiled, “of course.”

I rummaged through her bag and found materials to stitch her wound, Funk handed me a wet washcloth, “Thanks, Funk, you are quite a nice fellow.”

He smiled at me, “You are not too bad yourself, either,” I started cleaning Lorraine’s wound and the sounds of monsters came closer, It did not take me long to stitch up her wound.

“Here you go, you are all set” I put my hand on her leg and infused it with energy.

Abby looked at Funk, “Is it normal that the wound looks a lot better now?”

Funk shook his head, “Energy is not supposed to do that, but some beings can use their energy for that.”

Lorraine looked at him, “I really don't mind, that he can use his energy like that.”

As the monster sounds came closer, I drew my sword, little spiders came out of the wall across me, I let out a sigh of relief, “They are just tiny spiders.”

Abby shrieked, “I hate spiders.”

Funk looked at her, “What’s up with you and insects? What have they ever done to you?”

Abby looked at him, “One of them tortured me!”

Lorraine looked at her, “What happened, Abby?”

“This dude betrayed us and I got tortured, do you know how much whip lashes hurt?”

Lorraine looked at Funk, “Is that true? I mean, I saw the wounds on Steve’s back, he never told me Abby got tortured as well.”

Funk sighed, “It was not my finest moment, perhaps Abby may add, I saved her in time to stop her from getting executed.”

While they bickered, I looked at the tiny spiders landing on the mushrooms, A mouth opened up on top of the mushrooms. They started eating the spiders, “Holy fuck, the mushrooms are evil!”

The glowing blue mushroom slowly got up as it used its roots as legs, the others started getting up as well, I helped Lorraine up, “can you walk?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Abby started shooting arrows at the mushrooms that slowly came our way, I yelled, “run through the cave, there are too many of them.”

We started trying to make our way through the cave, Abby soon landed behind me, with Funk taking the lead.

Abby suddenly screamed out, “fuck!”

I turned around while yelling, “Keep going you two, I will help Abby!”

I walked back and saw Abby had been grabbed by one of the blue glowing mushrooms, without hesitation, I dropped my sword and slid towards Abby, and I grabbed her hands. With all the strength I could muster, I started pulling her away from the mushroom, or at least, I tried. “Can you cut the root loose that is holding your leg?”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Abby tried to grab her sword. “Can you spawn a sword?”

She grunted, “No, I do not have enough focus and energy.”

Abby looked at me, “Just go, leave me behind.”

I looked at her, “There is no way in hell I am leaving my best friend behind to get eaten by mushrooms.”

Abby smiled at me, “Well if you have a plan, then hurry it is already opening its jaw and the others have us surrounded.”

As I looked around me, I indeed saw other mushrooms around us, “Abby?”

“Yes?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course, I do.”

“You saw what Alice did, right? Let her energy flow out of her and shake everything?”

Abby nodded while trying not to distress.

“Alright, when I say so, try to do that.”

Abby grunted, “And if I fail?”

“Then we become mushroom food.”

Roots started coming my way as the mushrooms came even closer, “Now!”

I jumped on top of Abby as we got dragged towards the maw of the mushroom, I held on to Abby as we slowly got dragged inside.

Abby screamed and energy started to shake, dark tentacles came out of her and jabbed into the mushrooms, strange colored blood flew around and pieces of mushroom hide scattered around. After the initial shock, I saw juices dripping from the ceiling, and I was not interested in what came out of the mushrooms. Talking about the mushrooms, they all slowly got drained and turned into husks.

As I climbed out of the mushroom, I dragged Abby out of the mushroom, she was totally knocked out, I scanned the bloody and gory surrounding, “That was fucking strange, what did she do? Those dark tentacles, they did not look like energy at all, it looked more like some kind of black blob.”

I shook my head, I have no clue if there are more mushrooms, It is best to get out of this place, I picked up my sword and sheathed it. Then I picked up Abby and hoisted her on my shoulder while picking up her sword.

I started following the cave, one of the mushrooms suddenly jumped out of a crevice, while holding Abby, I cut the root in half that tried to grab me, I saw there was quite some space above me.

I threw my sword into the air, and it started twirling, then I stretched my hand and shot a dark energy beam at the mushroom, It got hit and launched away. Deftly, I caught my sword, then I walked over to the mushroom and stabbed it a few times. As blood splattered around, I chuckled, “damn, I got some skills if I actually focus.”

As I made my way through the cave, I noticed it made a U- turn, in front of me stood a chomper all of a sudden, I just froze. It seemed to be opening and closing its jaw all the time to make an echoing sound, it came close to me and kept opening its jaw and closing it to make a chomping sound. That is when I noticed, the chomper did not really have any eyes, It walked away and picked up a big rock, then it dug into the wall.

It must have not seen me, it did hear me arrive, If I had made more movements, it would have attacked me, after a few minutes, I kept walking and eventually, I saw a stream of light. There were glowing mushrooms and I saw the small spiders come out of the wall, instead of looking at them, I ran as fast I could with Abby over my shoulder.

I eventually ended up in the valley, that is when I saw Lorraine and Funk sitting against the wall. Funk looked at me, “Is she alright?”

“I am not certain.”

Lorraine walked over, “What happened?”

“She got grabbed by one of those mushrooms, there were more of them, I asked her to send energy outward to stun them, that way we could make our escape.”

Funk nodded, “That sounds like a valid strategy, did she knock herself out with that? Yes, I think so. However, it was not energy.”

Lorraine looked at me, “What do you mean?”

“There were these dark tentacles, they came out of Abby, and they slaughtered and drained the mushrooms.”

Funk jumped up and drew his sword.

I looked at him, “Woah, what is up with you?”

He walked over, “She is dangerous, we should kill her.”

Lorraine looked at him, “Don’t be so dramatic, she just used a special technique, even if we don’t know it, it does not mean she has to die immediately.”

Funk shook his head, “You don’t understand.”

I looked at him, “Then explain it to me.”

Funk sighed and sheathed his sword, “There is no use in that, I am telling you, if she is showing any signs of going truly insane and mental, I will have to put her down.”

Lorraine looked at him, “You are a strange fellow, Your actions, and feelings are all over the place.”

Funk looked at her, “You don’t have to tell me that twice.”

I smiled, “There is no need to worry, I am the hero! I am sure of it, even if Funk says I am not, I know that I am.”

Funk sighed, “Fine, make yourself believe that, we should go on,” he started walking through the valley.

Lorraine looked at me and smiled, “I believe that you are the hero, my chosen one, side by side we will fight, now come on, we need to follow that bag of mixed emotions.”