"You want to be my artist?" Garrett said, surprised at Vanessa's sudden offer.

"Correct!" Vanessa said with a wide sharp-toothed smile. "My artist instincts are picturesque! I'm sure that I can spread the name and tell the deeds of the mighty and heroic..." She paused for a bit, nervous but still trying to maintain her composure.

"Garrett Bates," Garrett said.

"Picturesque! The mighty and heroic Sir Bates!" Vanessa said, quickly sketching down Garrett's facial features.

Garrett took a sigh of relief as Vanessa didn't seem like a threat to him or Jerten. Speaking of which, Garrett turned his attention to the large ogre that was hiding in a minecart. He gave Jerten a small smile, which Jerten couldn't see since his head was facing the bottom of the cart. "You can come out now. I don't think Vanessa here is going to hurt us." Jerten continued to cower in the minecart. Garrett sighed. "Ugh, if only Cerezie was here. At least she could talk with you. Hmm." He turned his attention to Vanessa. "Hey, Vanessa, you wouldn't happen to be able to speak the language that this big lug is speaking, would you?"

Vanessa gave a curious glance and walked over to check out who was in the minecart. "Ah, an ogre. Well, you are correct! I can speak some Ogerian." She smiled wide, incredibly proud of herself. "And they said that spending that year in the Ogre Kingdom was a waste of time. Well, jokes on them cause Ogres have an excellent artistic sense." Her voice suddenly went deep and she began to speak in a language that sounded like what Jerten spoke in. Slowly, Jerten raised is head up out of the cart and began to talk back.

"What's he saying?" Garrett asked.

"Well, as it turns out, this big guy right here is a treasure hunter," Vanessa said, giving Jerten a gentle pat on the back. "He came here searching for the treasure of Amer-Turul, and he only got part ways in and stuff before you suddenly came up behind him, and then here we are."

"What exactly is the treasure of Amer-Turul? I've heard it mentioned a couple of times, but I don't think I was told what it was," Garrett said.

Jerten and Vanessa conversed for a bit before Vanessa responded. "The treasure of Amer-Turul is said to be an object imbued with powerful Xir and rumored to be powerful enough to hurt Argis the Great. Though it is said to be guarded by one of the Chiefs, so getting it is dangerous trying to go head first." Vanessa gave Jerten another pat on the back. "So, Jerten here was investigating ways to obtain the treasure without alerting the Chief in charge."

"Wait a minute, why are you searching for the treasure in the first place?" Garrett asked.

There was a bit more conversing between Vanessa and Jerten. "Well, this is news to me too, but apparently the Ogre Kingdom has been stricken with a deadly plague. Thankfully, Jerten here was spared, but it appears that the only cure is the Root of Origins, a mystical plant said to restore life and protect from evil."

"Let me guess. The treasure of Amer-Turul is a step towards finding the Root of Origins?" Garrett interpreted.

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"Correct!" Vanessa said, clapping her hands.

"Great," Garrett said, "So, if we meet up with Min-Tul and Cerezie, wherever they are, then all five of us can try and get the treasure. We can use it to get Min-Tul's revenge on King Ewing, which will help Cerezie stop the Colonel from reaching SilentBark, and then use it to find the Root of Origins for Jerten." He confidently put his fist into his palm. "Alright, let's go find Min-Tul and Cerezie first." Vanessa and Jerten both stared blankly at Garrett as if he had just declared that a cat was the president of the United States. "What?"

"Um, Sir Bates?" Vanessa asked, closing her eyes to think. "Who is King Ewing?"

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked back, surprised at Vanessa's question. "He's this really evil king whose men attack Min-Tul's village. Apparently he has someone called the Colonel working under him."

"Look, I may be out of the loop in some of the territories," Vanessa said, "But there's no one named King Ewing in any of the territories, or anyone called Colonel."

"Wait, no, they have to exist," Garrett said. Vanessa translated to Jerten, and he shook his head as well. "I don't think Min-Tul would have lied about something as grave as this. I saw it in his eyes, he wasn't lying."

Jerten spoke to Vanessa and she nodded along. "Jerten wants to know who this Min-Tul person is, and to be fair, I am quite curious myself."

"Oh, he's this large tall leopard man with brass knuckles," Garrett said, lifting his arm up to show how tall Min-Tul is. "He should be coming to explore the Darge soon." Vanessa and Jerten both exchanged concerned glances with each other. "What was with those looks? They weren't good ones."

Vanessa cleared her throat before speaking. "Sir Bates, I don't know how this information has eluded you, but, all of the Anikinds were brutally massacred ten years ago. There's no way that any of them would be coming to explore the Darge."

"Massacred?" Garrett felt a sinking feeling in his gut hit his intestines. "But, that's not possible. How did that happen?"

"Argis the Great," Vanessa said, her tone becoming more serious and losing the dramatic flair that she had before. "The fierce dragon ruler, who leads an army of over a thousand dragons. They were tired of being hunted down and were on the verge of being removed from this world until Argis the Great started leading the dragons. With is might and prowess, most armies fell powerless against him. The Anikinds tried to fight against Argis the Great, but were all massacred to make an example of them." Garrett gulped nervously at the story. "Ever since then, all the kingdoms have lived in fear of Argis the Great and have searched for a way to defeat him and free Asuria."

Garrett stared in disbelief at what he had just heard. There was no way that they were all killed. Min-Tul was alive, he had to be. After all, Garrett came back to Asuria around the same time that he did previously, so why would Min-Tul and his race of people be dead? And furthermore, by a large dragon and not whoever King Ewing was?

Garrett took a seat by the minecart, trying to process everything. Vanessa took a seat down, sketching the details of Garrett's face. After a bit of struggling to process everything, Jerten put his hand on Garrett's shoulder. He didn't say anything but gave a small, yet reassuring smile. Garrett sighed and smiled back at Jerten. "Thanks." Garrett took a deep breath and mentally begun to prepare himself, psyching himself up by pumping his fists downwards.

*CLICK*... *SQUEAK*

Vanessa, Garrett, and Jerten all stared at the parking brake on the minecart that Garrett had unlocked. Slowly, the cart began to move towards one of the tunnel entrances. Before Garrett even had time to think, he had grabbed onto the cart, though it wasn't slowing down, but was rather picking up speed. Garrett felt his feet begin to fail to keep pace with the cart. As his feet gave out, he felt himself get pulled forward, getting picked up by Jerten. Vanessa quickly shot up and jumped, landing in the minecart before it headed into the tunnel, picking up tremendous speed in the pitch blackness.