"I said don't move!" The woman scowled fiercely at Garrett and gave off an incredibly powerful and threatening aura. Garrett's thoughts were racing too rapidly to really begin to understand what was going on before the woman was right in front of him. Garrett gulped nervously as she grabbed his hands. She began to pull and twist his arms and body around until he was posed like how he was when he came out of the cave, sword drawn and ready to fight. "There! Now don't move," the gray-skinned woman said as she made a small rectangle shape with her fingers. "You're gonna mess up my composition."

"Composition?" Garrett asked, but the woman was already walking away. Nervously, Garrett tried to hold the pose as best as he could, but his attention was more focused on the cave behind him. Had the Darge shifted on him? No, that couldn't be. Caves don't just change like that. Maybe he had returned to a different coffin? That could certainly be the case. If that's how it is, then was it too late to save Cerezie, Min-Tul, and Jerten? He desperately wanted to go back and investigate, but the strength the gray-skinned woman had made him too nervous to try and move without her permission.

After what felt like half an hour, Garrett heard the gray-skinned woman exclaim. "Picturesque!" He heard the sound of her approaching and turned his head to look at her. She was carrying a medium-sized canvas under her arm and a smile on her face. She held up the canvas, which was a painting of, what appeared to be, a duck with a tiara playing basketball with sasquatch. The woman smiled proudly. "Well? What do you think? Great, huh? I think I really captured the shine of your armor, huh?"

Garrett couldn't quite bring himself to say how much it didn't resemble him. He just nodded and turned back to the cave. "Yeah, I'm sure it's great hey listen I have to go bye!" He ran into the cave as fast as he could, ignoring whatever the gray-skinned woman was saying behind him.

"Min-Tul! Cerezie! Jerten!" Garrett shouted as he ran down into the cave, past the blank wall where the coffin room was, and deeper into the Darge. He wasn't even concerned about being ambushed by goblins. His focus was trying to find his companions. "Min-Tul! Cerezie! Jerten!" His voice echoed throughout the caverns as his breathing became more panicked and rapid. "Where are you guys?" He kept running down different hallways, trying to recall the path he and Min-Tul took until he ended up at the top of the room where they had met Cerezie. To Garrett's dismay, there was no elf wearing military clothing perched up there. He took a few moments to catch his breath before heading down the side of the wall to continue on. As he got down to the floor, he noticed something odd again.

The gallows-like structure that had held Jerten before was intact, chains included. It looked like it hadn't even been used. In fact, as he surveyed the room, it didn't look like anything had even happened in here. There weren't any bullet holes or impact craters.

'...Did the goblins fix up this place?... How long has it been?... Am I too late?'

Stolen story; please report.

Garrett shook his head to clear his thoughts and continued running. It was more important to try and find his companions before anything else. As he approached the area that split into four, he immediately turned and went down the path with the minecart. He gripped his sword and prepared himself to face that room again, even with the slim hope that he'd find the bodies of Min-Tul, Cerezie, and-

"Jerten?" Garrett skidded to a halt as he came across a large blue ogre. The ogre turned around to Garrett and nervously held a crossbow. Looking at the equipment and journals that were on the ogre's pack, Garrett could see that this was Jerten, but something was off. "Hey hey, Jerten, it's me, Garrett. I'm so glad you're alive." The ogre gave Garrett and confused look, but still kept his crossbow trained on Garrett. "Oh, right, you don't speak Illiman, and I don't have Cerezie here to translate for me." Garrett set down his sword carefully so not to startle the ogre. "Garrett," Garrett said, gesturing to himself. He then gestured to the ogre.

"Jerten," the ogre replied, still shakily holding the crossbow at Garrett.

Garrrett let out a small silent cheer. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you," Garrett said, miming his words as best as he could. The ogre just gave him a confused look.

As Garrett mimed his actions, he noticed something else strange. The room around them wasn't the room with the large Murder Crystal. Instead, it appeared to be a medium-sized room with minecart tracks on the ground. A sole minecart rested on the tracks, ready to be pushed along to its destination.

"What is going on?" Garrett said, looking around the room.

Suddenly, footsteps began approaching behind them from the direction that Garrett had come from. Jerten aimed his crossbow down the hallway and Garrett grabbed his sword, ready to face whatever might come out. Slowly, a gray-skinned woman wearing an apron emerged from the darkness. Jerten let out a whimper and fired his crossbow. In a flash, the gray-skinned woman grabbed the crossbow bolt out of midair just inches from her face.

"Hey! Watch where you're shooting that thing! You might take out someone's eyes. I kinda need those," the gray-skinned woman said, tossing the bolt to the side. Jerten immediately hopped into the minecart and cowered inside. She began to approach, but Garrett stood between her and Jerten, pointing his sword at the woman. She smiled widely and began to finger frame the scene. "Ah, picturesque!" She pulled out a small notepad from her apron and began to sketch in it. "A bold knight protects a cowardly ogre. Ah, just lovely."

"Who are you?" Garrett asked, keeping his eyes trained on her.

The woman let out an exaggerated gasp and posed dramatically, like a soap opera character receiving devastating news. "I can't believe you haven't heard of me. Frankly, I'm appalled, I'm shocked, I'm riddled with grief!" She let out a small chuckle. "But, you've captured my eye for the arts, so I shall answer you. I am Vanessa Fletcher, the greatest artist the world has yet to know!" She struck another dramatic pose as if she had just come onto the red carpet.

"Vanessa Fletcher?" Garrett said, slowly lowering his sword. "You're an artist?"

"Correct!" She gave Garrett a thumbs-up. "And when I saw you, I just knew that you would be the perfect painting subject for me to launch my career."

"Wait, you aren't here to kidnap Jerten, here? You just wanted to paint me?" Garrett asked, looking over to make sure that Jerten was still alright.

"Correct!" She kneeled down on one knee and looked up to Garrett. She smiled widely and earnestly at Garrett. "Allow me to be your artist to capture your future endeavors in paintings the world will one day know!"