//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Perquisition // by Diexna //------------------------------// Perquisition Chapter 10         Stacks of books that’d been untouched and gathering dust for years, papers scattered with no easily observable pattern across the entire basement room, and a complete lack of any system to keep track of any information in there without spending at least a couple of maddening days digging back and forth between piles of unlabeled or mislabeled tomes.         A normal day in the guild archive.         Pledgeword pulled out and dusted off yet another textbook, hoping that it would contain intel she was searching for. She had already spent a number of days down here digging her way through layers of dust and wrongly labeled folders. She cursed the caretaker of the mess.         Master Red Thread.         “‘An organized mess’ she says, ‘nothing to worry about, Pledgie,’” the unicorn mimicked the elder annoyedly. I’m beginning to believe she keeps it like this on purpose, she thought.         Looking at the title of the newly uncovered book, she smirked. ‘Scouting Catalogue - Fourtow’ the title read. Finally, I’m getting somewhere. That just took, what, four days?         Opening the tome, she turned the page to the one containing knowledge regarding the areas close to town. More specifically, plains to the east of town. It contained maps that showed locations of previously explored areas. Pulling out her own copy and overlapping it, it matched almost perfectly, the only differences being the style the maps had been drawn in.         As I thought... every single location we discovered last week was already known about.         Seeing a number tag on one of the caves she recognized, her eyes dropped down to the list below.         ‘Water Dungeon, fully explored by Red Thread - Entrance requires a mushroom, any found in the cave will do. Left path leads to an egg, when destroyed opens a portal further in, and the egg is restored. The next few floors is all part of an puzzle requiring teamwork to continue further, see page 92 for instructions.’         Shuffling pages back and forth both in diligent curiosity and seething anger, Pledgeword found similar inputs for the other locations she and her team had ‘discovered’.         Grabbing a piece of paper, she jotted down some notes on what she’d found before slamming the book back into its proper shelf again - probably for the first time. ö~ö~Ö~ö~ö         The orange mare had just arrived at the scene, where the light gray colt was already waiting. “You’re already done I guess, as always?” Spyglass asked, bringing up a hoof to cover her mouth as she yawned this early morning.         Gearbox nodded, clapping his saddlebag with a hoof as he smiled.         “Did you see Pledgeword already? It’s not like her to to show up after me,” she asked.         The colt didn’t say anything, but instead just pointed to somewhere behind her. Spyglass jumped up into the air to stretch her wings as she turned around.         A purple mare was approaching from behind - dark bags under her eyes - with an even more irritated look than usual. She was already glaring at them from a distance. Usually they had to tell her good morning before that happened.         The pegasus sighed upon seeing her like this. “Pledgeword, did you stay up all night in the archives again? It’s not healthy, you need to get some proper rest... especially before we go out on a mission!”         The unicorn huffed. “Think what you will, Spyglass, but I have a duty as an explorer to find the truth.” She shot them a glare with one eye. “One that I had hoped you two would share with me.”         “This again? Pledgeword... you’re chasing ghosts! Why would the guild be hiding anything in the first place?” Spyglass argued, landing again on the ground after having given her wings sufficient morning exercise.         Gearbox nodded once. “Pointless.”         Giving off a sly smirk, the unicorn pulled out the piece of paper she had prepared a few hours ago. “So you say, but I actually found something this time.” She floated the paper to Spyglass to see with her magic. “This is a copy of my findings. And let me be clear, I triple checked everything,” she said, being very clear on the ending.         Bringing over the piece of paper to Gearbox so both of them could see, her eyes scanned the yellow parchment as the colt next to her craned his neck to see as well. “This... this can’t be true... can it?” Spyglass asked, eyeing Pledgeword suspiciously. “I mean... according to this, Master has been--”         “Lying, yes. Ever since we first started doing this. Every single area we’ve been to to scout for new ruins or dungeons has already been explored. We’ve pointlessly been running around looking for things already known and fully explored,” she growled. “At least we’ve been getting points for all this, but I don’t know if Master will even let us go considering the facts.”         Spyglass cocked her head and frowned. “Sorry, but remind me how the point system works again? I hardly ever hear about it, so I never really bothered since I never thought it would affect us.”         “Honestly, Spyglass,” Pledgeword snapped at her, “don’t you read up on these things? You’re explorer rank for goodness sake!”         “As I said,” she responded while shrugging her wings. “I didn’t think it would ever concern us. So?”         The unicorn sighed. “Fine, but just this once. A group can wish to redeem all their points if they so wish, and then headquarters will be contacted. They will consider a new location for you to be sent to based on your group skills and amount of points gathered. The more points you have and the better the group, the more prestigious areas we get to work with.” She turned her head, glaring into the town. “The problem is that it has to go through the guild master.”         “Confront?” Gearbox asked, still sitting at the same spot with a calm look on his face.         “Soon enough, yes. Once we return from our mission.”         The orange pegasus’ eyebrows furrowed. “But didn’t you say that--”         “I know what I said, Spyglass!” Pledgeword snapped at her again. “But I agreed to do this job and, as you know, I finish my tasks once I’ve accepted them.” Her snout met the sky as she huffed. “What I discovered almost changes the circumstances, but not enough. There’s still a possibility of Master having us out scouting for something, we don’t know yet. Or she’s just gone completely senile. Either way, we’ll complete the task at hand, and then I’ll talk to her.”         Spyglass gave Gearbox a worried look, who just stared idly back. “Riiight... so... are you ready then? That’s why you’re here, right?”         “What sort of question is that? Of course I’m ready!” She started trotting off through the town gate. “Why would I even show up here if I wasn’t ready?”         “Sorry, I just thought that since you... you know, been busy, you wouldn’t have time to prepare,” Spyglass mumbled, lazily flying after as Gearbox followed.         “The only thing I’ve truly lost is sleep, but that’s not important right now. Besides, I have reason to believe that this trip will be much shorter than usual,” Pledgeword said. She floated up another piece of paper for Spyglass to look at. “I took the liberty of copying a finished map once I found the catalogue. All we have to do make sure all the P.O.I’s are in place, and then make a quick search of the general area.”         Gearbox pulled out a stopwatch, pressed it once before letting it hang around his neck. “Time,” he announced as it started ticking. ö~ö~Ö~ö~ö         Kickbolt was flying above the treetops, relieved to use his wings for their actual purpose - not just fighting or swimming. The wind ruffled his mane as he finally stopped to rest on the branch of a particular large tree, closer to his friends.         “So did you see anything?” Sketch yelled from below, facing directly up to get a view of the pegasus.         As his attention turned downwards again, he glided down in a wide circle before landing next to Crimson, who was surprised at the pegasus sudden appearance.         “You’re not used to pegasi, I take it?” Kickbolt asked.         The unicorn blushed. “I-I just l-looked away for a m-moment, and then you w-were next to me!” he stuttered. “I’m used t-to only having to l-look forward,” he mumbled, shuffling his hooves uncomfortably.         Sketch was impatiently tapping her hoof against the mud and wet leaves. “So, did you see anything?”         “Well... I saw... trees...”         The mare rolled her eyes. “And you wonder why nopony ever lets you try on map-duty.”         “I’m no cartographer, why should I have to?” he responded. “Besides, all I really saw was... trees, nothing else.”         “Usually when you’re looking for something, you’re looking for landmarks. I doubt the forest went on forever,” she lectured him.         “But I didn’t see any towns or villages... just trees and a big mountain in the distance”         Sketch facehoofed. “You don’t think that counts as a landmark?” she groaned. “Did you say it was just one lone mountain?” she asked, bringing up her notebook for reference.         The pegasus grinned. “Yeah, and it was huge! Way bigger than any of the mountains surrounding Fourtow.”         Sketch looked up from her book and blinked. “That... that doesn’t make any sense!” She pulled up a world map from her saddlebag. “See this, here?” She pointed towards a particularly large mountain. “If this is the one you saw, ‘High Top’s Hill’, then--”         Kickbolt put a hoof up to her face. “Wait, ‘High Top’s Hill’?” he asked. The mare sighed. “Named after the first pony to actually climb it. It’s the only mountain high enough to ever have been problematic to go up.” Her eyes dropped to the map again.      “Anyway, that means we’re on the other side of Ever City. I’ve heard about dungeons magically transporting you out, but never such a distance!”         Crimson looked over her shoulder. “So... if that is t-the mountain, a-and we’re in a f-f-forest,” He pointed towards one of the two green masses on the map on either side of the mountain. “We c-c-could be in either one of these two?”         Sketch leaned closer and read the names written for the woods. “I guess, yeah... either ‘Glumdeep Forest’ or ‘Halewoods’.” She raised a head and looked at the surrounding tree trunks. Putting her hoof against one of them. “If I’d have to guess by just the names, Halewoods fits this better than Glumdeep. This forest looks perfectly healthy.”         Kickbolt didn’t listen to the last part, but instead was mumbling to himself with his hooves clutched around his head. “Something about those names are familiar... something... important,” he muttered. He let out a groan in irritation and stomped, sending some of the few dry leaves around them flying. “Aargh! Why can’t I remember?”         “So far the only thing you’ve shown yourself capable of remembering is information about monsters,” Sketch snorted. Waving a hoof in front of him nonchalantly. “It’ll come to you, don’t worry.”         The pegasus eyes went wide, and his pupils shrank. “Sketch... what did you say the names were again, Glumdeep Forest and Halewoods?”         Sketch and Crimson shared a look, furrowing their brows. “Yeah.... why? Do you remember anything?”         He suddenly started to look around nervously, the slightest breeze putting him on edge as he flared his wings. He gulped. “I think so. One of those places happen to be the home of very large, very mean and very hungry pony-eating spiders.”         Crimson and Sketch traded another look, this time with a lot more worry. “And... a-and the other forest?” Crimson asked, slowly turning around to view his surroundings as he twitched upon the slightest sound.         “Larger, meaner and hungrier ogres.” He grinned sheepishly. “But... don’t worry! I heard they’re only active during the night!” He laughed nervously. “It’s pretty early in the morning, we should be able to get out of here by then, right?”         A loud snap could be heard behind them. Crimson stood frozen in place as his hoof was shaking, pointing in the direction of the noise. “I-I-I-I-I-I... I-I...” His stutter was acting up so much he couldn’t speak at all. Kickbolt and Sketch looked in the direction and saw a large bald head poking out from behind a couple of trees. The beast was grinning at the sight of the pastel colored ponies - its few pointy teeth more closely resembled rocks. It had almost teared a tree out of the way just to get a good view at them. It stuck out a leathery brown tongue that slobbered all over its lips as it laughed with a rumbling voice. “Heehee... tastee ponee!”                  “Actually... it might have only been the spiders that are active during the night,” Kickbolt concluded with a horrifyingly calm voice considering the circumstances. “You two run, I’ll distract it.”         “But--”         Before Sketch had time to react, the pegasus had already lifted off and was advancing the ogre. He dived towards its face, but the ogre just lazily waved his arms around as if trying to waft an irritating fly away. “Bad ponee! Bad!” it roared, unnerved by Kickbolt’s fearless advance. Kickbolt’s hind hooves connected with the creatures eyes and then he kicked off again. Its eyes were blood-red when it opened them again. After kicking himself away he soared away again and around a couple of trees. Using the broad daylight and his wings to their full extent, he easily avoided the clumsy counter-attacks of the ogre. “What are you waiting for, hide!” the pegasus shouted at the other two ponies, who just stood dumbstruck at what was happening. “Hurry!” He circled back around and landed on the ogre’s head, and used his wing-blades to slice the scalp as best he could. However, the thick skull protected it well enough, only leaving a few thin scratches and even less hair than before. A hand came swooping by just after Kickbolt had jumped away. “Oooooww! Bad ponee! Eat bad ponee!” it yelled, knocking over another tree as it flailed around. The roots snapped as it got pulled right out of the ground by the sheer force. With a slap of her face, Sketch snapped out of her stupor. “That’s our cue, come on!” She grabbed Crimson’s tail and started tugging. “We need do ‘ide!” “R-r-r-r-right!” he stuttered, alternating attention between the ogre’s rain-dance like flailing and the smaller earth pony’s feeble attempts to pull him along. He turned around, forcing Sketch to release her grip on him. “Hee! Got ponee!” Crimson heard as he turned, and he and Sketch both looked over their shoulders. The ogre had grabbed Kickbolt in one of its massive hands. He was struggling to get loose, but his wings had been caught between the ogre’s fingers, and he was unable to move. He fought to get loose as the ogre slowly opened its large grin to devour its newly caught meal. Unaffected by the pegasus’ profanity, it slowly brought him closer to its large gaping maw. “No! I am not about to be eaten by an ogre! I can’t believe this stupid thing managed to catch me! How did it even move its- Mffffmfgghm!” As Kickbolt was brought closer, he suddenly found himself being pressed against a large orange sphere that had manifested itself in its mouth. The ogre slowly raised an eyebrow as it wondered why it couldn’t move its hand any closer to its mouth, but instead just tried repeating the same movement over and over - repeatedly pressing Kickbolt against the orange bubble filling its mouth. Crimson’s horn was almost burning as he focused on keeping Kickbolt away from the mouth the only way he knew - using his magic to cause an obstruction, his telekinesis being too weak to fight against the strength of the ogre. “How-mffgghh-stupid-mfffgfhg-can-mfgfdgh-you-mdfgdgh-get-mdfghdfghfhg,” he managed to spit out between being pressed against the magical force. “Your-mdgfdghdmouth is being blocked!” Finally deciding that something was wrong, it simply tried to close its jaws. When it ‘chewed’ on the bubble, it finally realized what was happening. It brought its other hand up and tried to feel it - being stopped by the bubble again. Now realizing what was happening, it started flailing its arms again, giving Kickbolt a ride. “Aaaaaaahhh aaahhhahhhh!” was the best it managed to get out, unable to move its trapped tongue, its lips unable to shape the sounds around the bubble. It tried to grasp its own mouth, but was unable to; Crimson’s magic was still keeping it blocked. In its panic, it released its grip on Kickbolt just as it was surging the arm holding him through the air, shooting Kickbolt off into the sky. “Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!” Now that the pegasus was somewhat safe, Crimson’s horn died out as he lost his concentration, staggering. “Uhh... d-d-d-dizzy...” Biting down, the ogre broke through the remains of Crimson’s barrier. Realizing Kickbolt was out of the way, it couldn’t help but grin at the sight of the other two ponies. “Haahaa, mouth work again!” it hollered, eyeing Crimson as it licked its lips again with its  thick, brown tongue. “Red ponee look yummy.” Crimson was leaning against a tree, unable to keep his balance at the moment after having exerted his mind so much. “Oh... t-this isn’t good...” He took a few steps backwards, but  after only two he tumbled over. “Ow... n-n-n-not good at all.” The ogre began moving towards him, its heavy steps crushing bushes as though they weren’t even there. It didn’t bother with the rock that hit its forehead either, or the one after that;  It wasn’t until one flew up its nose that it turned its attention to the source of the stony assault. Scrunching its nose, the ogre eyed its assailant. “Hey!” Sketch yelled, throwing a stick instead, as she’d run out of stones around her. “Don’t you want a nice green pony instead? Come and get one!” “Heeee! Get one!” it repeated after her. Now turning towards her, the ogre forgot all about the immobilized unicorn mere steps away. “Green ponee yummy!” It began sprinting, or at least lumbering with its awkward two-legged gait, trying to catch up to the earth pony who was standing a bit further away by now. Sketch quickly turned around and galloped as fast as she could, jumping over logs and roots to get away from the beast. “That’s right, come and get me, you idiot!” she taunted it. Ohmygoodness ohmygoodness ohmygoodness whatdoIdo whatdoIdo? Her heart was beating up in her throat as she ran as fast she possibly could. One single misstep would be all it needed  to catch up with her. Using her size to her advantage she quickly maneuvered around trees to try and confuse it, but the ogre would just mow them down rather than bothering going around. “Come back green ponee! Me hungry!” it bellowed. “As if!” Sketch was moving quickly, but the ogre’s size was more than enough to quickly give it the edge in raw speed. Even with her tricks to outsmart it, it was quickly catching up. There! That tree is way bigger than the rest. It might not be able to just rip it out with its roots, maybe I can use it to- Long before she ever reached the tree she was thinking about, everything went black. “Huh? Where green ponee go?” ö~ö~Ö~ö~ö Everything was dark. All she could feel was dirt and roots stretching all around. Sketch started digging desperately to try and find a way out - suddenly finding herself trapped under the earth after having been chased by a hungry ogre wasn’t exactly calming. It was cramped, she could hardly move around in there. She used her hooves to try and dig herself out the way she thought was up. It only took a few hoof-fulls of dirt before light began to shine through the ceiling. She was almost out. Just a few more and... “Poneeeee? Where green ponee?” The tremors could be felt through the earth as the silhouette of the ogre passed by just outside. Sketch quickly sunk back into the same position she’d found herself in and tried to stay quiet. Then, only a leg’s reach away from her, two large milky white eyes opened. They were almost shaped like cat eyes, but turned to the side. Sketch screeched. Or at least, she tried to. She had only opened her mouth and started to let out her breath before the creature’s claws covered her face. It stared her down and gritted its teeth - its maw glowed the same bright white as its eyes, shining patches separated by thick, parallel black bars. It hissed at her. Sketch couldn’t move; she was being pinned down by the jet-black creature in the small cramped hole. She tried to scream but with her mouth covered she couldn’t let anything but muffled yells out. She struggled and tried to flail her legs around, attempting to free herself from its grasp. It stared at her and continued hissing, Sketch continued to try and scream her lungs out if only she could. Then it stopped. It was still covering her face, but its eyes began to cross down towards its face, as if looking at its own mouth. With what seemed like great effort, it pursed its lips instead. For a moment, it looked as if it was mimicking a fish. “Sshhhh. Quiet! Big-one hear!” it shushed her. Its voice was raspy, and almost sounded as if there were two, possibly three voices speaking at the same time but in different tones. Despite this, it was still perfectly understandable. Sketch stopped screaming, and only blinked in response. “Quiet now?” it asked, still keeping a tight grip around her mouth. Sketch softly nodded, not breaking eye contact. It slowly let go of its grip, and Sketch remained calm. It pointed towards its own face and grimaced. At least she thought it did. “Sorry. Pony talk hard.”         “Y-Y-You... you saved me?”         It nodded, its head jerking as though dislocated at the neck. “Slip through hole. Hard to see.” It grinned, which, considering how its mouth did not have the same limitations as hers, made it all the more creepy. It stretched in every direction, almost making it look wide enough to eat her whole. But the teeth were still in place, if that was what they were.         Sketch was dumbstruck. She kept looking back and forth between the thin hole above them, sunlight barely being able to get through it, and back towards the creature in front of her. “How did you... but...” She shook her head. “One thing at a time... what about my friends?” she demanded. “Are they safe too?”         “Wingy-one fly. Safe,” it responded calmly. At least Sketch thought so, seeing how she had no idea how to interpret its voice yet.         Not satisfied with the answer, she tried again. “What about Crimson?! After that spell he cast, he almost fainted! I had to distract the ogre before it got to him! Is he safe?”         The creature slowly turned its head sideways without saying anything. Sketch assumed this meant it didn’t understand.         “The red pony?”         It continued to turn its head, but instead of just stopping at ‘sideways’, it kept on turning. “Rrrrreeeeeeeeed?” it asked. By now it’s head was upside down.         “The big one! With the horn!” She motioned towards her own forehead upon the last part.         The creature let out a strange wheezing sound. Sketch could only assume this was the equivalent of an ‘Oh’ after hearing what came next. “Clumsy-one! Not know. Maybe safe?”         Suddenly, its neck stretched way further than should be physically possible. In a split second it had forced its head through the crack in the ceiling, peeked outside and then snapped back in without causing any deformation in the earth. “Big-one walk away. Still near, but think Clumsy-one safe. Keep hide now.”         The pony sighed. “So we’re... or at least I am, stuck here for now? At least until that giant lug wanders away...” She reluctantly looked back up at the creature, whose head was bobbing up and down for no apparent reason. “I guess I should thank you for saving me... so... thanks, whatever your name is?”         The response she got was not one that was expected. Its eyes blinked furiously, turning both white, grey and black in different patterns as all around her she could hear a sort of wet whisper speaking simultaneously in five different types of gibberish. Then it stopped and looked at her again with its normal white eyes. “But for pony talk, K’les.” It smiled. It wasn’t as bad as when it grinned, but still enough to give anypony reason to be wary, more wary than they would be around it already. Sketch blinked but didn’t say anything, trying to make sense of what had just happened. It blinked back by switching from white eyes to grey, then white again.                  “So... K’les,” she said. It started to bounce its head again upon hearing being called by name. “Thank you for saving me.” She pointed towards herself. “My name is Sketch.”         “Skeeesh...” it tried. Its head ceasing its jumping as it tried out her name. “Not like. Like Small-one!” it happily mentioned, head bouncing again.         “What,” she deadpanned.         It pointed towards her. “Small-one! And Wingy-one! And Clumsy-one! Better names.”         “What.”         “Small-one bad hearing? Say Small-one better name.” Its head bounced around in the small space for all it was worth. The rest of its body remained oddly still, pressed up against the dirt wall, unaffected by the motion.         It suddenly found itself being the one pinned down. Sketch had forced its head back into its original position, assuming that would be at the top of the body. She held it firmly up against the wall and stared right into the now grey eyes.         Gritting her teeth, she growled right into K’les’ face, “Listen, I do not want to be called ‘Small-one’. My name is Sketch. I can accept my full name, Map Sketch, or nicknames like ‘Sketchy’, but under no circumstances are you to ever call me ‘Small-one’ ever again!”” She forced her own head up against it, staring straight into its eyes. Its entire body shrunk, including its head. “Understood?” she asked, shaking it while doing so. Unable to move around freely, it nodded so quickly it seemed to vibrate. “Good.” She let go of it again, and slumped back into her own corner, crossing her legs while glaring. “Now say it.”         Still a lot smaller than originally, K’les gave a quick - and not very bouncy - nod.         “Skeee... Skeeee... Skeeesh... Ssss... Scary-one,” it whimpered.         She looked away and snorted, still crossing her legs. “Good enough.” Eyeing it suspiciously, she let her legs down again. “So what exactly are you?”         K’les’ amorphous black body reinflated to its previous size, and its eyes began to blink erratically as it hissed incomprehensibly at Sketch.         “Okay, stop stop!” she groaned. She brought up her hooves to rub her temples. “Hearing that’s giving me a headache, sorry.”         K’les’ head snapped back into its neck position, and its eyes turned grey as it faced the floor. “Sorry. No word in pony talk. But hear ponies say shadow. Guess shadow good word?”         “Wait, you’re the one that’s been following us? The shadow that Crimson and Kickbolt have been seeing?”         Its eyes blinked back and forth between white and grey as it alarmingly stared at Sketch for a moment. “Too much! Too much!” it hissed. Then without warning it whisked away through the ceiling, showing no traces that it had ever been there.         As Sketch sat alone in the pit, she could hear a whisper again all around her, but this time she could understand it. “Big-one gone. Safe now, Scary-one. Pony town if walk to mountain. Go there.”         Sketch stood up on her hind legs and started to dig through the ceiling. Considering how most of it was already gone, it only took a few moments before she broke through. Old leaves and grass fell down on her as she pulled herself up.         “Sketch!” could be heard calling, and a few seconds later Kickbolt swooped down next to her, immediately laying his neck across hers in a hug. “You’re safe! How did you do that?! You just disappeared into thin air!”         She pulled herself away and looked around. “Wait, what about Crimson? Is he okay?”         “I-I-I’m fine...” she heard from behind. “W-Whatever you did seemed t-to overwork its b-brain. It f-f-forgot about me c-completely and just wandered away l-looking for ‘green ponee’.”         Kickbolt cut in. “I was trying to catch up when it was chasing you, but then you were just gone!”         “I... uh...” she started. “I think I met your mysterious shadow. The one you two saw before? It... He? She? I’m sticking with he just to make things simpler from now on.” She rolled her eyes, then raised her eyebrows as she looked back. “He saved me.”         The other two ponies traded a look, both of them having a lot of questions, Crimson just nodded slowly for now. Kickbolt on the other hoof didn’t seem as patient. “You met it? Are you alright? It didn’t hurt you or anything?” He moved around her, looking for any injuries.         She lightly whipped her tail at the pegasus as he walked behind her. “I’m fine, relax. I don’t really know how, but he pulled me in...” She pointed towards the pit behind her. “There, without actually opening up the ground itself. He called himself K’les. He was here a minute ago, until I apparently scared him off or something... he called me ‘Scary-one’, and then just ran away when I asked if he was the one that had been following us.”         “Scary-one? Hehe...” Kickbolt grinned. “Did he call me anything? And what about Crimson?”         “You were called ‘Wingy-one’... probably because of your wings. Then he referred to Crimson as Clu-” She stopped herself. “No wait, that’s wrong, haha,” she lied. “It was Hor-” She caught herself mid-sentence. “B-Big-one, he called you ‘Big-one’.” She smiled sheepishly. “Anyway!” She tried to change the subject before any questions were asked. “Right before he left, he said that there was a town in the direction of the mountain, if I understood correctly... mind you, most of his speech was... odd.” She pulled up her map again. “However... I don’t see any towns on the map nearby. Maybe this isn’t the mountain I thought it was?” “Shouldn’t w-we still go towards it?” Crimson asked. “True, without any other points for reference, that’s really all we can do.” She paused, and all three of them took nervous glances around. “Let’s just try to avoid any more... encounters on the way.”          (Author’s note: I’d like to thank ARBPW, LysanderasD and Seven Fates for helping me with editing and making my story readable. I suppose it’s about time I actually start writing something in these notes, here goes. Altough this is written after all the proof reading has been done, so my pre-readers will probably cringe when they see this and all the horrible mistakes i may or may not have made intentionally just because i can. This chapter was a fun one. The start of it is something I’ve been wanting to bring up for a while, but have been unable to because... well... it wasn’t time yet. It’s not the last you’ll see (read) of Pledgeword’s team either! The ogre is negligible. Basically a random encounter, but it was fun to write about something stupid. Even if that stupid is an ogre. So... K’les. (Kuh-LESS). I really liked how he turned out. I was told he was both scary and... adorable in a cute way. Now, please rate, and then you should comment, about whatever thoughts you have about the story from reading this. I actually got my first piece of fanart a while ago, but the artist still isn’t done with it yet so I’m not going to show it until he’s comfortable with it. But still... I GOT FANART! <3<3<3 When he first asked if he could draw my characters I almost freaked out (in a good way). For future references... you don’t have to ask for permission if you want to draw them :P (I’ve also been told some people don’t always share their artwork with the writers, I’d love to see anything that’s been made - if anything has - for myself!) By the way, I want fanart. Draw some for me! There, was that desperate enough?         If you want to talk to me personally, or leave suggestions, you can either reach me through fimfiction or at diexna@gmail.com.         Thanks for reading!)