Jade felt a lot better now that she did not have a drowning body. There was the icy tunnel that she knew from what Morpheus had shown her. It was cold, but in a pleasant way, it reminded her of home. Her true home. A light welcomed her and she smiled at it. Finally, she was at peace. But then she chocked and started coughing, retching and she fought for air. She water seeped from her mouth and tiny bits and pieces that were not water. Her head was throbbing and she opened her hurting eyes. It was warm, but she was shivering. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Kevins, she could smell his musk through the overwhelming smell of stagnant pond water. She opened her eyes and wished she hadn’t, it was too bright. She saw Kevins looking over her, though he was blurry. She closed her eyes again and coughed some more, she tried to steady her breath and carefully allowed air into her sore lungs. She felt her lungs stretching as if it were the first time she had ever breathed.
When Jade opened her eyes again, Kevins was gone. She felt with her body for tremors, but it was quiet. The hovercraft was parked and she didn’t feel her friends. She sat up, a headache was still nagging her like a tiny pebble inside a shoe. Which was, by the way, another great reason not to wear shoes. Her throat was sore and she wanted to lie down again, but she was thirsty and hungry and she really wanted to know where her friends were. She pushed her body off the hovercraft. Now that she was standing on solid ground, she felt again with her feet. This time, she did feel people moving, not too far away. And by the tremors of it, they were walking on a solid road. That must be where they had gone off to. It was very odd that they had left her here all alone. Perhaps they hadn’t meant to leave her here and something bad had happened. Jade realized her clothes were dry. She must have been out for hours. She looked around and found her short blade and water barrel. First she took a scoop of water from the barrel which soothed her sore throat. After carefully drinking another ladleful, she retrieved the goodberry from her pocket and flicked off a leech before popping the sweet berry in her mouth. Instantly, she felt strengthened. She took a deep breath, careful not to hurt her lungs, before she fastened her blade on her belt and hoisted the barrel on her back. With one last look at the hovercraft, she started her way towards the road.
The first person she saw looked so alien to her, that she forgot to respond to his formal greeting. It was an elf, she thought, but he wasn’t wearing any clothes. That is what she could feel through the tremors in the ground. The second person that walked her by, Jade tried to examine with her eyes and she realized that what she was seeing was part of an illusion. Both elves had such dark skin that they looked like shadows more than people. The light did not reflect off their skin and thus to the eye they were pitch black. Jade followed the road and found herself on a market square, walking among the naked shadow-elves. She let her breath escape in relief when she saw, behind some of the stalls, people that looked more familiar to her. One of them was clearly a Kathra. Jade walked towards the cat and told them about her friends.
The cat answered in a squeaky voice:
“I did see a colourful bunch earlier, not Zauflak and not traders either. I think they went that way, towards the palace.”
“Thank you,” said Jade.
“Care to buy some wood?”
“Nah thanks, I have enough wood.”
“You can never have enough wood!”
“Tell that to my girlfriend.” Jade didn’t know what she was saying, she didn’t have any girlfriend. And even if she did, why would her girlfriend care about wood. She rubbed her arms while being puzzled by her own thoughts. She was probably still getting back to her senses. “Thanks again.” She said and walked away.
She stopped rubbing her arms to look at them and found they were covered in weird spots. She shivered. Leeches. She recalled drowning in the swamp. That had been unpleasant. Yes, she vaguely remembered seeing leeches on her arm as she tried to swim away. Maybe that was just a dream. Or her imagination. In any case, she shouldn’t dwell on it too much. Her priority was to find her friends.
The palace was not hard to find, it was the fanciest place in the town. The only place worth looking into, if you weren’t on a souvenir hunt. She passed guards on the way into the palace, but none tried to stop her, that was a good sign, probably. She entered a very fancy grand hall with in the center a fancy chair with on top of that a very fancy guy, or at least Jade assumed he was fancy, because everything around him was. He didn’t wear any fancy clothes, or any clothes for that matter. But she guessed that was just the Zauflak way, better not question it. Morn liked to walk around naked too, the fact that orcs had nothing to hide between their legs whilst for elves this was considered a ‘private part’, should not make a difference. So this fancy guy was sitting a top a fancy chair with his crown jewels. Jade grinned.
“Good afternoon,” said the fancy guy, “Are you here to bring a tithing? Tithings are tomorrow, but if you want you can present it to the desk on your left.”
Jade looked at the desk, another Zauflak was sitting at it. She wasn’t sure if he was staring at her, because she couldn’t make out his eyes. She scraped her throat and returned to look at the fancy guy.
“Good afternoon to you, I am here for my friends and I do hope that you can help me find them.”
“Your friends, hmm? A colorful bunch among which a rather large yellow orc and a talkative bush?”
Jade couldn’t help but giggle at the apt description and besides, this fancy guy had seen her friends, they were probably alright. “Yes. That’s them.”
“Aha, well, hmm, I have sent them on a mission.”
“That’s good news!”
“Hmm, yes, one would think so.”
“So, eh, where can I find them?”
“Find them, hmm? Oh but you cannot find them. But, I will have you led to them, if you swear on the same oath as they have.”
That was something Jade had not expected. She looked at the desk and the person sitting behind it was either staring back at her, or asleep. Jade returned her gaze to the fancy guy.
“I would like to find my friends. Please tell me what deal they have made with you.”
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