“My sssweet elvess, we will go to the Grove,” she commanded them, “It is a good place to go becaussse there is a reverssse Hellgate nearby.” Aoda then turned to her chosen. Acantha, Morn and Jade stood waiting expectantly. “It will be a long time waiting.”
“Perhaps we can find more, reverse Hellgates I mean, one outside the continent perhaps.” said Acantha.
“Hmm, yesss, good thinking. I like that. Let me know when you found anything of importansss.”
Aoda turned an, together with Effy and Shesha, herded her confused elves towards the southwest. They would go their separate ways and Jade trusted Aoda to bring the people of the clan into safety. Something stuck in Jade’s throat. The Source had shown her something, long ago, the relationship between Totem and elf would always be a difficult one, one being with power and the other with knowledge stored away in their Mind, like a book of secrets that should never be opened. Jade hoped that she made the right decision to trust Aoda with the bucket, with her squig, with the results of her hard labour. Aoda had deserved some of it, keeping them safe in the Grove, but Jade started to wonder if Aoda cared for her best interest at all.
“You wanna come?” Acantha asked Jade and Morn.
“You’re kinda crazy for proposing that,” said Jade with a grin.
“Count me in,” said Morn.
“Thanks for asking, I’ll gladly join,” said Lumira. The three of them turned to face her. “What?”
Jade opened her mouth, but she noticed small groups being formed around her. More groups of stronger people, warriors, who were probably also going to search for reverse-Hellgates.
“Are you going to leave us mid-mission again?” Acantha asked.
“I think you’re going to need my help in here.”
“I think it’s the other way around,” said Acantha, if she could, her eyes would now shoot fire at the elf wizard.
“Lumira has a point,” said Jade, “She can help us fend off daemons.”
“I didn’t say-”
“The more the merrier.” Jade interrupted her.
“I am glad you think that,” said a voice behind Jade, making her jump. She turned to see Kevins, together with the other craftlords. “We would like to join you in the search for a way out.”
“You’re very welcome to join,” said Acantha to Kevins.
“Perhaps in return we can craft you something,” said Black.
“Is there anything that you would like to have?” added Decker.
“Err,” said Acantha.
“I don’t think there is anything that she doesn’t want to have,” said Jade with a grin.
“Food,” said Morn.
“You want fucking food? I can help with that,” Farmer rummaged through his doctors bag and took out a stem with five berries the size of a plum, “You look closely there boy, this is goodberries. You know what these berries are fucking good at? Being fucking good!” A booming laughter rolled over the planes of hell.
“Farmer, keep it down would you,” Kevins said.
“Right, of course,” Farmer said, “Ok, so you can eat one of these and it will make you feel full. That’s fucking good for ya. And the next day it will regrow. Like that. Fucking magic, alright.”
Farmer handed Acantha, Morn, Jade and Lumira one berry each.
“Thanks,” said Lumira with a puzzled look on her face. She was holding the berry as if if was poisonous.
The others thanked Farmer too and he beamed back at them.
“Ok, does anyone know which way is the fastest off the continent?” asked Acantha.
“I hoped Jade would know,” said Kevin with a lazy smile.
“Eh, right, well,” Jade stammered, “I know in the real- I mean, on our plane, I would go north, over the ice. But maybe in hell, it is different.”
“How about this,” said Morn, “I will send out Turnfeather to scout for us.”
“Wow, Morn, thanks, that is a great idea,” said Jade with a smile of relief. “If we go north, I think it will take us six weeks to travel off the continent. Also, what is that?”
Jade had been looking off in the distance where some kind of thunderstorm was raging over the land like a beast hunting prey.
“That, my dear Jade, is magic,” said Kevins.
“Right.”
Jade guided them North and the group, consisting of three Truepath, one Sloan and five craftlords started walking. When twilight hit and the color of the sky changed from crimson to a deep maroon, they set up camp and instead of sleeping in Acantha’s tent, Black and Decker set up a wooden cottage that they could all comfortably fit in. They each found a wooden bed to sleep in and lay themselves down.
“I had expected-” Jade lay in the bed next to Acantha and searched for the right word, “More.”
“Yeah, Hell has been pretty uneventful so far. It’s not at all as bad as I had imagined it to be. No daemons have attacked us and you and Turnfeather have done a good job steering us away from the high-magic areas.”
Morn walked up to them and said promptly:
“The craftlords do not see any need for keeping watch.”
“Huh, ok,” said Jade, puzzled.
“I certainly feel a need to keep watch,” said Acantha.
“Me too.”
“I will take the first, I’ll wake you up next, Morn, alright?”
Morn and Jade agreed to Acantha’s proposal and she contently sat on her bed, which she made into a comfortable little nest with the fabric of her tent and bedroll. She was glad that there are four wooden walls protecting her from whatever Hell had to offer. It didn’t take long before she hears snoring around her. She let her mind wander off and in the comfort of the cottage she experimented with letting her soul reach for the magic power that resided in hell. She tugged on it, like a small child would tug at a tablecloth to get to the cookie jar. She stopped. She heard something. Standing up from her bed she let her senses take in what was happening. There, she heard it again. A scratching of animal paws against a smooth surface. It gave her the creeps. She moved her head to locate where it was coming from. Slowly she walked to where Kevins was sleeping. Next to Kevins’ bed stood his bag, a simple knapsack tied together with a rope so that he could carry it on his bag. She put her ear close to the bag, the sound was definitely coming from there. The scratching stopped and something was beating rhythmically. Acantha swallowed and backed off. She would ask Kevins about it in the morning. Acantha sat herself back on the bed until she figured it was time to wake Morn. However, when her mind drifted off, she heard the sound again and a rush of adrenaline kept her awake. The rest of the night, she was unable to sleep because she kept hearing the sound.
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