Joy felt that he had a way with people. Everyone just loved him no matter where he went. Joy could tell this from the way people cursed him out, threw things at him, and just how they tried to hurt him.

It just showed that they cared. They cared about his misfortune, but it was care, nonetheless.

The situation between his team and the mysterious crew that they stood across from had been dreadfully boring, and incredibly tense. Two things that Joy hated with passion. So, he decided that instead of having a showdown where the two teams stared each other down and tested the other’s abilities to try and gain a glimpse of their true identity, he would just ask who they were.

What was the worst that could happen?

After Joy’s question, the group of three made a small bow and said, “we are pious members of the Humanists, may we ask who you are?”

“We are just some people that Prince David has hired to help him out here in the frozen wastes.” To which Theo smacked Joy on the back of the head, the blow was weakened by the many layers of cloth separating the hand from the head, but the intent behind it hurt more than any strike could have.

Joy looked with eyes filled with sadness and regret, how could he have deserved this? To which Theo rolled his blue eyes, trying to convey the fact that their mission and their identity were supposed to be secret, not divulged to just any person who walked by them.

The group looked a little shocked, then one of them replied, “are you here to stop the evil mastermind, who is concocting a plan to begin the end of the world?”

Joy nearly asked, ‘what the hell they are talking about’, out loud. But he wisely kept his mouth shut, mostly in fear of another retaliatory strike from Theo. What were they saying though? That was some crazy talk if Joy had ever heard it.

Thankfully this was when Wes decided to speak up. His gift was silence, but silence was best used to accentuate sound, and Wes embodied this concept as a person. He did not speak often, but when he did, it was important and powerful.

“That is one of our goals. This is a big operation, and we are but cogs in the machine.”

Then Vanessa jumped in, capitalizing on the opening Wes had left, “would you like to come back to meet with our boss and get a better understanding of the situation?”

The three Humanists all took a moment to discuss between themselves, the wind providing ample privacy from Joy’s group.

Once they had finished their discussion the three bowed simultaneously and said, “we are your guests. Please lead the way.”

Joy wondered if the three of them had rehearsed this, or maybe that’s what their long discussion was about. They had to time the whole maneuver properly or else it lost the gravitas that came with it.

Anyways, the two groups started following the way back to the prince’s castle. Joy’s group was returning a bit earlier than was scheduled, but they figured that no one would say they were shirking their duties, since they were bringing a potential ally back to the base.

One oddity in the trip was that the Humanists refused to follow in the path that Vanessa carved into the snow. Instead, they used the same formation that Joy had previously seen, where one of them took the front and plowed the snow with their body. It seemed like grueling work, and Joy was thankful that he did not have to do that.

The Humanists were a bunch of quacks, in Joy’s humble opinion. Their belief stemmed from the fact that they felt the god’s intentions with humanity were perverse. How could gods be kind when human lives were just a game to them, a pass time.

The leader, Lemon Drop, of this religion started it because he was worried about what would happen when one of the gods won the game. If all humans worshipped one god and the game ended, what would happen to the humans?

Lemon felt that one of the gods would flip the proverbial board in a fit of rage, and everyone would die. So, the Humanists fought incessantly to keep the game from ending. Their animosity towards the gods was so great, that they would not even use the gifts bestowed upon them. Members with powerful bodies were known to cripple themselves just to spite the god who had given them the gift.

The Humanists did not want to take advantage of a gift no matter how useful, so the three that followed Joy and his group had to make their own way through the snow. This slowed the group down immensely and made a long trip, even longer. Thankfully both teams had overpacked supplies.

Joy tried talking to the group, he was especially curious about what they meant about the end of the world. It obviously had something to do with their religion, but how would they know that this would be taking place on the frozen continent of all places? It wasn’t like the group had any seers they could rely on to get information.

Of course, Joy knew that the Humanists had a seer, but she was just some old lady who threw chicken bones in a pile of ashes and believed that fate was written in their wake. But there was no way the Humanists had built a massive ship, sailed over the treacherous sea, and braved one of the most inhospitable places known to man, just because some old lady said so, right?

Joy’s attempts at conversation were always stifled, the three seemed to be devout believers and were interacting with gifted people out of sheer necessity. Which was a real bummer for Joy since all his groupmates were being really boring on this part of the trip.

The icy domain was filled with silence and boredom as the group of seven trekked along. The food was bland and boring, the snow was cold, the sleeping arrangements were cramped, and everyone was just generally unhappy. Once the team made it back to the castle, they nearly cried.

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In their hearts, the castle was a place of warmth and happiness, the chef was there to prepare food for them, a wind gifted was hired to specifically blow warm air around the surrounding area to make it warmer, and there were toilets, not just baring their ass to the frigid cold.

The three humanists were obviously uncomfortable with the whole setup and its heavy reliance on the gifts that they so abhorred, but everyone on Joy’s team could care less about their gripes. Their refusal to walk in Vanessa’s path caused the trip to take an extra two days.

Joy immediately ran to the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat that wasn’t rations, while the other three members of the group looked longingly at him. They wished they could be so foolish and carefree, but they had duties to attend to, no matter how much they wanted to run and eat something warm and filling.

Theo, Wes, and Vanessa were moving at a slow dirge, moving towards the innards of the castle, knowing they would have to waste time searching for prince David, Ian, or Sam. Luckily, Sam nonchalantly walked out of the castle to greet the group.

Sam was not surprised at all to see the three visitors that they had brought back but did mercifully let the group members chase after Joy to find a warm meal and a soft bed.

Not that the group saw it, since they had already taken off as soon as Sam said they could, but Sam then led the three Humanists to meet the prince and Ian.

Joy had somehow stuffed himself silly before Theo had even entered the dining hall, and instead of trying to find a comfortable place to sleep, he simply laid over his plate, letting his hair fall disgustingly into the remnants of his meal. He was snoring within seconds.

Theo was not too much better, but he had the decency to eat at a reasonable rate and merely jog to find a bed, rather than run.

Nothing could wake the team up; it was the first true moment of rest that they had in nearly two weeks. The cold and Joy’s antics had truly exhausted them, and they were tired.

Joy did not wake up until the next morning, and he was only brought out of his stupor by the chef smacking his upside the head with a ladle. She told him that he was “filthy” and “making everyone else uncomfortable.”

Joy couldn’t understand, he was a delight to be around, despite the mashed potatoes and egg running down the side of his head.

So, Joy headed to the luxurious area provided by the prince, solely because a prince cannot travel without style. There were fruit trees, hanging in a perfectly humid area allowing for a passerby to grab a sweet fruit from their branches. The air smelt of honey and mint, and a sauna was provided to those who had braved the cold for many days.

Joy could feel the golden aura of pure bliss coming from that area, his feet unconsciously moved him closer and closer to the golden doorway, the rich scents and sights nearly made Joy cry.

From the set of golden doors, a man in a towel approached, his piercing blue eyes were relaxed, the worry lines had receded, and Theo looked nearly two years younger than he was. A mere sixteen-year-old boy, set out to adventure the world full of hope and passion. Then he saw Joy.

First his eyes changed from relaxed to shame, then shame to annoyed, then from annoyed to disgusted, then from disgusted to determined. Theo had seemingly come to a decision and briskly walked towards Joy. His feet were still wet from the heated baths and so they made a slight wet slapping sound against the hard earth of the floor, maybe the prince would get someone to install carpets soon.

Joy bounded for the door, he had barely even noticed that Theo had appeared in it, he just wanted into the kingdom. But as he neared Theo the ground beneath his feet seemed to freeze up, and Joy instantly face planted into the ground mere inches from the doorway.

To his horror he found that the floor had magically been covered with ice. And a figure covered by only a towel approached Joy from behind. Theo grabbed Joy by his disgusting mashed potato and egg tousled hair and started dragging him.

Theo froze the path he pulled Joy along so that there was no way for Joy to find the necessary friction to stand up, and all he could do was be dragged along. Not that he didn’t try to escape his predicament. Joy had seen his own personal heaven, and he was not going to be denied entry from it.

His pleas went unnoticed though as his pale executioner brought him closer and closer to the outside. The frigid air started buffeting the two of them as they approached an unheated area, and Joy’s pleas went from insistent to filled with terror. He knew what was coming, but there was no way to prepare himself for it.

Kerchunk.

Joy’s body crashed into the snow outside of the castle, and the shivers started wracking his body. Theo looked down on him from his lofty position,

“At least wash the grime off before going into the nice area.”

Then the stoic man walked away probably to go enjoy the wonders of the golden archway.

Joy shouted, hoping to get the last word in, “I can see your ass,” he paused a moment to let the chills pass through his body, “from this angle.”

Theo uncomfortably adjusted his towel to keep a portion of his dignity as he walked away. Joy simply started using the snow to wash off the sweat and food that he was caked in, not that there was any cake on his body.

Joy moved quickly and efficiently since he didn’t want to catch a cold from being in the snow for too long. He took hunks of snow and used them to wash his body, it wasn’t particularly fun, but it did get the funk off his hunk.

However, out of the corner of his eye he noticed a group of three people also washing themselves with the snow. Their teeth chattered, but they doggedly kept washing themselves. It was the Humanists that Joy and his team had brought back to camp.

This was the first time Joy had seen any of them without the layers of cloth that they used to protect themselves from the freezing environment. Th group was comprised of two men and one woman. The woman had auburn hair and a heavily muscled build, while the two men were a bit on the chubbier side and both had matching dark hair, maybe they were brothers?

Both men were still strong, they just had a layer of fat that protected their bodies, it was a second suit of armor.

The group was still camping and refused to enter the castle for any longer than they had to for negotiations. Joy had to admit that their belief was truly impressive, it was inconvenient and looked painful, but impressive, nonetheless.

Joy did a little tiptoe, trying to touch as little of the unbearably cold snow as possible, as he sidled up to the group.

“How’s it going everybody?” He said with what he felt was a charming grin. Joy was sure that his endless shivers did nothing to reduce his charm.

“Fine.” One of the two men said, before they all went back to cleaning themselves off with the snow.

Well, they wouldn’t be winning any prizes for eloquence. Maybe their religion made them pay donations for every word they said to someone who used their gift.

Joy finished up cleaning himself off, before tiptoeing back to the castle and the wonderful warmth. The halls were a little damp from Theo’s theatrics involving the ice path, but none of that bothered Joy as he followed the trail.

He finally saw the golden doorway, that led to a true paradise. There was warm water, and exotic fruits that he would never get the opportunity to try again. So, he took the first step into the doorway and breathed in the intoxicating air.

Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere. A familiar voice was shouting, “Joy!”

With immense willpower Joy turned to look at who was approaching. Lillian, looking fairly disheveled was near Joy and she seemed far too excited.

“Please, you have to look at my new friend.”

And Lillian grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away from his promised paradise. It wasn’t worth resisting, if he tried to fight his way back in, Fate would simply put something else in his way. It wasn’t his destiny to be rewarded for his hard work.

A stream of tears fell down Joy’s face as he followed Lillian to see her new friend.