//------------------------------// // Chapter Ten: Expedition // Story: Alicorn Kings and Better Things // by RandomCommentor //------------------------------// Focus: Everfree Two days after leaving Adifoll. “Why though?!” Everfree says, laughing at what Livar just told him. “No idea! He even admitted that the spell itself is safe, but he just refuses to teleport! Its ridiculous, even I can do it!” Livar states, laughing alongside the half-spirit. Meanwhile, Ventian is trying his best to ignore the two. Everfree stops laughing and walks over to him. “Hey, its alright. Its all in good fun, ya know?” “Yeah, yeah. I know, I also know I told Livar not to say anything, but here he goes telling the whole world my irrational fear of Teleportation.” Ventian says, frowning. “Well, at least you aren't a person that can control animals and are also scared of one specific kind of them.” Vedaria says from the front of the group. Everfree looks at Vedaria with a warning glare. “Don't you dare…” Vedaria grins back, and states “Everfree here is afraid of -mmmhph!” Everfree quickly places a vine over her mouth. But Rose says from the other side of Ventian “He’s afraid of spiders.” “HA! Thats funny. Now thats an irrational fear, didn't you say you were basically immune to poison?” The male alicorn says. “Yes, but thats not why I hate them.” Vedaria spits out the plant. “Everfree! Don't do that!” Said half-fae just sticks his tongue out at her. Three Hours Later Focus Swap:Ventian “Alright everyone, heres where we get off the path.” Vedaria says after conversing with Everfree for a few minutes as they stopped the group. “The Medovari isn't actually mapped out, and is very hard to trek through. There arent any roads or paths, but there are landmarks. I and Everfree will call out the landmarks as we see them, directing us to where I heard the temple was. Only scouting parties have seen it so far, and I want us to be the first looters there. First come first serve and all that.” She turns to Ventian. “How much can your Bag of Holding hold, exactly?” She asks him. Ventian thinks for a moment. “Uhh… I haven't even filled it halfway, and I bought quite a lot of food in town. Oh! I also recently put a Preservation Array in it so it preserves things for a very long time. Still haven't completely figured out the Time Dilation effect, so its rudimentary. It can also keep cold things cold and warm things warm. Very little energy transfer. I’ll change it when I get the time to.” “Wait, hold on… I thought only the maker of the bag can edit it?” Everfree asks. “Oh yeah, I made this bag myself.” Ventian proudly states, as its his (second)best creation ever. “So you're a Bag maker? Interesting…” Everfree stares at Ventian oddly, probably thinking, and shakes his head. “Alright, good. I know those things are extremely valuable, so make sure you keep it safe.” Vedaria says, nodding. “Yeah, don't worry about that. I learned a… very special spell a while ago. Not telling specifics, but lets just say that I cant lose this thing if I drop it.” “Long Distance Tracking spell? Thats very complex.” Vedaria says, head tilting. “Sure, yeah. Something like that.” No way she didn't pick up on that half-lie. Don't gotta specify though. “Anyways, I need you all to have these.” Everfree says, using vines to carry over… small metal bugs? Rose’s eyes widen at the objects. “Oh. We’re using these things? Thats… huh.” She says, clearly nervous. “These are communicators. They were made by… well, people that I know and trust. The bugs are activated by magic, and since we all are magic users, I suppose we all get one. They are called Globally Active Magical Message Artifacts, or GAMMA for short.” “Can we just call them communicators? Gamma is a type of radiation and calling these that gives it a negative, not to mention superstitious, connotation.” Ventian states, getting odd looks from everyone. “What? Im a nerd. We all know this.” He says with a shrug and a grin. “Alright then. Communicators, or ‘comms’ for short, is an acceptable alternative.” Everfree says. Vedaria speaks up again. “Anyway, Livar is in charge of anti-pest spells as always, Leva is with me doing scouting, Ventian and Rose will be carrying supplies as well as our food and water, and Everfree will reduce the amounts of foliage blocking our path with his spirit powers.” Everyone nods at this, and Ventian looks at the pathless forest they are about to enter. Looks big. Vedaria said the jungle doesn't actually start for a few miles, until then its just regular deciduous forest like the last few days that we've been walking through. Heh, I’m kinda nervous. But thats okay, I have these guys to help me out if I'm ever in danger. And Vedaria put me with Rose, I guess that makes sense. Im good at support spells, things like Transmute and Rune-Crafting, while Rose is good at being a healer, despite the… sub-species difference. I guess the changelings in her hive have more flexibility in their jobs than just the outline of their respective breeds. That doesn't matter though. Maybe I should increase the space in my bag? No, I’m sure theres enough. Plus, the Dimensional Compression array can only be stretched so far… As everyone gets their stuff ready, making sure they have everything, the group moves forward into the forest. Vedaria and Everfree in the front, Livar off to the right side with Leva on the left, Ventian and Rose in the back. Occasionally, Leva stops to look at something and Livar has to get her to move again. An hour passes with nothing eventful occuring. Two hours, three, then four, when finally the forest around them seems to begin to change. Trees begin to rise higher and higher blocking out the sun, plants around them having bigger stems and leaves, bugs and birds and other animals become louder and more colorful and the air becomes not just humid, but very hot as well. Ventian begins to sweat after a few minutes, not used to being in such a hot, humid climate. Rose brings a small towel out from her saddle-pack and gives it to Ventian. “Hhhh, thanks. Its so hot.” He says, huffing in exhaustion. “Yeah, you get used to it. Once we get back to Adifoll in… oh about a month, you’ll think its cold over there.” “A month?! Why would it take that long?” He asks, surprised. “Usually these expeditions last longer than that, actually. We don't just barge into the temple, loot it and then leave. We have to scout it out fully, research the time period it was built by translating the usual hieroglyphs you typically find on the walls, check for traps- and checking for traps takes the longest, as we have to carefully map out every room and the exact locations of the traps- and also setting up camp, make sure the camp is in a defendable location, making sure monsters don't attack, and if anything does attack then we have to usually fight it off. Although traveling is easy, what with Everfree’s power to manipulate plants.” Ventian just looks at her. “Oh. Okay. Thats a lot to do…” A particularly big bird, a rainbow colored macaw, lands on Everfree’s back. “Huh. Does that normally happen?” Ventian asks Everfree. The half-spirit looks at the bird. “Yeah, thats normal. Animals just seem to be attracted to me. Its because the spirit I fused with was a Greater nature spirit, so its influence is very strong.” He says as the bird flies off into the trees. “Huh. Alright then. As long as it doesn't attract monsters like a Hydra or whatever.” “Pfft. You wont have to worry about Hydras, they live in swamps, not jungles. Manticores and Basilisks are the big ones we have to worry about here.” Vedaria says. Ventian’s eyes widen. “Oh. Im beginning to see why Livar was reluctant to come here.” Said unicorn just rolls his eyes. I’ve read about manticores, but I’ve never heard of a Basilisk before. Five hours later After about three hours, Leva and Vedaria come back from scouting for good camp locations, Vedaria informing the group what they found. “A cave, back wall is about twenty meters back with a clear river nearby it. Theres also a cliff-face we can camp next to, easily defendable although theres risk of rocks falling. Theres also the potential to make a tree-fort on a particularly sturdy tree, but that might take too long even with Everfree helping.” “Cave.” Livar says. Nobody disagrees. “Alright, cave it is then, and we don't have to worry about being trapped because Everfree can just dig a way out using his Geokinesis. The cave also happens to be close-ish to the temple, so theres that.” “Its getting night time, we need to set up our stuff soon before it gets dark. You don't want to get lost at night in this place.” Everfree warns. The group follows Vedaria towards their chosen location. As the sun sets, and the dark fills the air, the group gets to the cave just as they hear a roar of something in the distance. “Wow. Someones angry.” Everfree says, sitting near the entrance. “What was that?” Ventian asks quietly. “Manticore. Probably got attacked by another of its kind, that was a battle roar. Hunting roar sounds different.” “Hows it sound different?” “The sound is higher pitched, and shorter length when its hunting, due to it being part cat. Battle roar sounds… like what we just heard. Longer, deeper sound, meant to intimidate.” “Cool. How far away would you say it is from us?” “A few miles. Not too good, but its sense of smell is surprisingly low. It hunts at night, and uses sound and vibrations to find prey.” “So they're nocturnal?” Ventian asks. “Kinda. Despite the cat part, they don't actually sleep much. Most just prowl around their territory keeping other manticores and various threats away. If they sleep too long, they get taken advantage of usually. Its kinda funny when you see one sleep.” Everfree chuckles a bit, probably remembering something. “You’ve been here before?” “Yeah. With Almori.” “Who's that?” “My friend, who happens to be a kitsune. She’s nice, although she tends to be paranoid around alicorns. Took two decades for her to trust Vedaria. You seem likable though, so she may not be too suspicious of you if you meet her.” “Thanks, I try to make friends as best as I can. I mean, these people are the first friends I ever had, but thats because I was way too busy back in Deovardin.” “Hm… what did you do back in the capitol, exactly? Nobody has told me who you are, beyond that they picked you up there.” Ventian hesitates. Rose said he hates my family for some reason, but why? Did my father do something to him? Maybe its like Livar, where its just that the impression of my father makes people dislike me. But also, Rose was scared of him and I meeting, why? She said he has the most reason to hate my family, but that doesn't mean he would hate me. Grr, I want to say something, but I have a bad feeling about it for some reason. “I don't want to talk about it right now, I’m just glad they let me come with.” Ventian says. Everfree narrows his eyes. “I really want to know. Im not asking. What exactly did you-“ “Everfree.” Vedaria speaks up. “Stop pestering him. He doesn't want to talk about it.” “Okay, but why does he know how to make Bags of Holding? Why is everyone so nervous when I'm talking to him? This whole trip, since I joined, has been tripping my ‘paranoia meter’ as Almori would say. What is up with him? Whats the problem?” He asks, standing up and facing the whole group. “Its none of your business. Stop asking about it.” Vedaria says in a warning tone. “Fine. When Almori gets back, she will tell me.” He says, sitting back down. Ventian then walks away from the entrance, and to where Rose was setting up her sleeping bag in the back of the cave. “Hey.” He says, getting out his own sleeping bag. “Hi.” She replies, sitting down facing him. “Long day. Good thing I brought plenty of water.” “Drink sparingly, take small sips every so often. This place may be humid, but its also very hot, I recommend you keep yourself from exhaustion as much as possible. There are a ton of predators in this place that will take advantage of that.” She explains. Ventian then brings out a comically large jug of water labeled ‘Ventian’s comically large jug of liquid.’ Everyone just looks at him in shock. “What? You said to bring water, and I did. I even brought canteens with insulation enchantments.” “Dude… that thing is bigger than the bag opening, how did you fit tha-“ Vedaria says, getting cut off by Ventian’s response. “Muffin button.” “Wh- what? What the hell is a muffin button?” “Its for the water, duh.” Ventain replies. Vedaria just sputters in confusion, shakes her head after a moment and decides to lie down. Everyone else does the same except for Everfree, who is still guarding the entrance. “We take turns keeping watch, Vedaria, Livar and I.” He says. “Goodnight everyone.” Leva says from her bag. Focus Swap: Almori “What do you mean they left?!” She says in anger. “They left a few days ago, talking about the Jungle to the south east of here. The Medovari, I believe.” The clerk says, cringing in fear at the angry fox-spirit. “Hm… I see. Well then, I suppose if they were on a limited time frame then Everfree wouldn't have waited. Understandable, have a nice day.” She says, exiting the hotel that she uncreatively named ‘Hotel.’ Why did I choose that name? Past me was so stuck up, and past me wasn't even that long ago! Whatever, I shall find Everfree, and the rest of the group. I just need to find their scent trail. Should be easy, as Everfree smells like nature itself. Exiting the town, and walking to the south a bit, she finds what she was smelling for and quickly follows the path that Everfree took a few days ago.