Chapter 12: The Coming Storm

A low, rumbling peal of thunder rolled through the forest, shaking the bamboo stalks in a cacophony of rattling wood and leaves, before descending into a dark crescendo that rattled Owen’s bones. Wind whipped up about him, a quiet tease of the powerful gusts that the thunder promised were coming.

“Steering wheel?” said Cathan, a mixture of perplexion and alarm working its way across his well-defined jaw.

“It’s how I control the van,” said Owen. “But that’s not the real problem. I can always replace a steering wheel.” He turned to Azure. “Just how valuable is a Mana Stone again?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me--”

“Yeah. It’s gone.”

“Shit.” She chewed her jaw for a moment before gesturing to Eolyn. “Can you track which way the goblins went?”

“Not after a thunderstorm, no.” said the hooded girl.

“Can you pick up the trail now, though?” said Azure, the impatience waxing in her voice.

“We need to focus on finding shelter,” said Cathan, rounding the van. “Owen’s steering circle can wait.”

“It’s not about the steering wheel,” said Owen. “It has a Mana Stone embedded in it.”

“That mana stone is what makes the Van soul-bonded to Owen,” said Azure. “Without it, he can’t use any of the magic his van provides him.”

“Oh, that’s definitely a problem,” said Cathan. He turned to Eolyn. “Yes, you should probably find it, then.” Owen couldn’t actually see the girl’s features, but he could practically hear her roll her eyes beneath her hood.

“I’ll go look for it,” said Eolyn, disappearing into the woods.

“In the meantime,” said Owen, “let’s get the van hooked up to the hitch.”

“What about finding shelter?” said Cathan.

“What about it?” answered Azure. “We’re sitting on the bank of a riverbed. Once that storm hits, we’ll be underwater. Let’s get the oxen and the van up to the road before that happens, then we’ll worry about shelter.”

“Right,” said Owen, not waiting for a response. He glanced at the ox-driver. “You got it hooked up for moving?”

“Kind of,” said the man, a stumpish fellow with an eyepatch. “Can’t do much until we separate it from that there rock, now can we? So, let’s start with that.”

“Right,” said Owen. “You need us to help pull the van?”

“Just make sure it doesn’t get caught on anything.”

The ox-driver got to work prodding the oxen back up the hill, standing on a pair of footholds on either side of the hitch like some sort of slow-trodding chariot. Slowly but surely, the van began to separate itself from cracked stone, leaving deep gouges in the dirt where bits of metal stuck into the ground.

“Hold!” Owen called to the ox-driver, even as another gust of wind rippled through the bamboo forest, knocking them together to create long, empty wooden tones. “Cathan and Mr. Metal Armor Guy whose name I don’t know! Try bending the metal pieces to not gouge into the ground.”

A moment after he finished speaking, thunder cracked the sky once more, shaking him down to his core. The bits of window glass scattered across the forest floor jumped in place like a bunch of beans in a pan.

Cathan and the armored man immediately set about to wrenching the metal bits out of the ground. Most of it was just the van’s outer body, but the front axle had snapped and dug into the dirt, as had certain elements of the chassis.Rather than try to bend the hardened steel into place, Owen had them dig out paths in the dirt so that the oxen could keep pulling. Even as they did so, Owen couldn’t help but think his metal mana would be perfect for a situation like this. But given how little he had, he probably couldn’t do anything of use.

Instead, Owen took this opportunity to examine the remains of the wyvern. It gave off a rank odor now that it was no longer held in place by the van, with all of its upper body completely gone. Its legs and lower body, crushed though they were, had remained attached, as had its tail.

That tail was a long, sinuous, almost whip-like apparatus, only forming a bone-edged blade at the very end. The natural weapon actually reminded Owen of some kind of long shiv, the blade itself about as long as his hand.

“Hey, Azure,” he said. “Help me cut this off.”

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“Why the hell do you want that?” she said with a disgusted look.

“I don’t have a weapon,” said Owen. “And I saw this cut through metal. I figure, if we have to kill some goblins, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some something I could stab them with.”

“That’s… actually a good idea,” said Azure, leaning down and sawing through the wyvern’s tail with her dagger. She handed him the slightly bloodied end of the tail-blade. “But how do you plan to hold it?”

Owen considered that for a moment. The base of the weapon seemed a bit duller than the tip as it was enveloped by the blue-scaled sheathe of skin around the bone. He couldn’t make a full handle for the blade, as it didn’t really have a tang. But maybe…

He grabbed a fractured piece of bamboo and pressed it length-wise against the fleshy stub. It didn’t quite fit, so he threw the wood to the ground and picked up another. Once Owen decided on a satisfactory piece, he sought another, finding it a minute later. Then he used Azure’s dagger to carve notches into the edges of the wood pieces, fitted them over the base of the tail-blade, and tied them in place with strips of cloth cut from the sleeves of his tunic.

By the end, he had a manageable handle. It likely wouldn’t hold up very well under pressure, but it would at least let him get a good stab or two into whatever attacked them.

Owen had only taken a brief moment to examine his new weapon when something appeared out of the brush. At the exact moment it did, lightning flashed across the sky. Owen jumped at the sight of what, to his eyes, seemed to be a ghostly apparition.

The light receded quickly, and in the normal view of day, he saw the apparition for what it really was: Eolyn. Crashing thunder followed as Owen tried to calm his nerves, and once it had passed, Eolyn spoke, “I have tracked the goblins to their hole. It overflows with mana.”

“A dungeon,” Azure spat. “Shit.”

“So, does that mean it’s just gone?” said Owen.

“No,” said Azure. “It means we’re going into a dungeon.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Eolyn precisely at the same time Owen said, “That sounds really dangerous.”

Azure glanced between the two of them. “Goblins are just as scared of the lower dungeon levels as we are, so they’re probably on the first level of whatever dungeon they’re hiding in.”

“But it’s a dungeon,” said Owen.

“I’m with the dumbass on this,” said Eolyn. “I have no intention of dying today. And you’re underestimating just how vicious goblins can be.”

“No, I’m not,” said Azure, her face darkening. “I’m acutely aware of the dangers lurking for us in a dungeon.”

“Then you know why it’s a terrible idea for us to go inside one,” said Eolyn. “We’re all only Copper Ranked, Azure.”

Technically, Owen wasn’t even a full member of the Guild yet, and he was pretty sure that Cathan wasn’t either, but now didn’t seem like the best time to mention that.

“Owen’s van is soulbonded to him,” said Azure. “There hasn’t been a soulbonded object for the past hundred years. And it’s tied to the mana stone those goblins took. Imagine what’ll happen if the right demon gets ahold of it. What kind of havoc could it wreak?”

Eolyn growled, but didn’t say anything.

To be frank, Owen definitely agreed with Eolyn over Azure. He couldn’t guess the value of the Mana Stone in his steering wheel, but he could starkly recollect his last encounter with demons. He’d been more confident today since they’d come out as a party. But to go into a den of such grotesque and powerful creatures this soon sounded rather unappealing.

“I know what my choice would be,” said Cathan, who appeared to have been listening this whole time. He stepped beside Azure with his hands on his hips. “We’re all Divers. Let’s Dive.”

Despite himself, and against all logic, Owen found himself grinning at Cathan’s words. While he certainly didn’t have a death wish, there was a beautiful simplicity to Cathan’s reasoning.

What adventure is there without danger to go with it?

On Cathan’s right stood the armored warrior, his sword drawn and ready, as if that were his way of saying, “Let’s go.”

“Alright, then,” said Owen. “I’m in. Let’s go get my damn steering wheel.”

Eolyn groaned. “Dumbasses. Fine. Fine. I’ll take you idiots to the Dungeon entrance. Just don’t blame me when you all die.”

Owen glanced at the oxen. In the time it had taken him to fashion his tail-blade and have this conversation, the others had managed to get the van turned around and its front half propped up onto the hitched axle.

“Will you be okay starting the journey back without us?” said Owen.

The old man’s face crinkled into a frown. “If you’re going to be stirring up a hornet’s nest in a dungeon, there’s no way I’m staying around regardless. I’m not going to be goblin food, rainstorm be damned.”

“We’ll leave you to it, then,” said Owen.

With that, he and the others took off into the increasingly darkened forest, with Eolyn leading the way. Dark, angry clouds blotted the sky as wind ripped and tore up leaves, bending the very stalks of bamboo like vaulting poles. It buffeted Owen, making the ground treacherous beneath his feet.as the first sheets of rain began to pour down.

In the half-darkness of the impending storm, he almost lost sight of Eolyn more than once. Like when Azure had led him back to Ysvale yesterday, he found himself keeping pace just by matching the others. If Owen had been alone, he would have gone much, much slower.

As they went, a strange sense of emotion began to wash over Owen. They traveled uphill, the trees themselves seeming to form a path for them, coalescing as canopies above their trail. A part of him almost expected to see some kind of temple waypoint along the way. The further they went, the more it felt like he could just find their destination on his own.

They reached a natural clearing in the woods, the rain already soaking Owen through his tunic. And yet despite the shivering chills, when he saw the large rock monolith in the center of the glade, he felt an undeniable draw toward it.

The structure was maybe twenty feet tall and utterly bare but for the cavernous opening at its base. Without anybody needing to tell him, Owen knew what it was: a dungeon.

He twirled the blade in his hands and shared a look with the others. “Well, shall we?”

Azure gave him a small grin. “Let’s go.”

And together, they struck out across the field toward the dungeon entrance.