Chapter 13 The Long and Winding Road

We Walked out of the tunnel entrance. I had half expected, when walking in, that we would be running out of that opening, maybe even not coming out. One of us almost didn't. Melfina had collected up her blood, and her teeth, and any other souvenirs had been stowed, and we had simply got up, and walked out. Looking a bit closer at the teeth, they could maybe be used as a decorative handle for a knife or dagger, or perhaps as a defensive additive to something. As the light of the day once again hit us, I closed my eyes for the briefest of moments, just to feel the light. We didn't have any more leads as to what had led up to a shapeshifter posing as Elon. It makes sense as to why, to get information, and be in a place of some sort of power, but what was all behind this? Maybe something can be found in the main tent.
We head over to where the fake Elon had set up his tent, and where all the main plans should be for the entire project. The tent itself has been damaged, some of the tent poles have been snapped, and there are tears in the material. The inside is a mess. Papers strewn about, all the boxes and chests smashed by the hydra. We are able to pick through the carnage of plans and specialized tools, and I manage to find some sort of plans. I can't really tell for sure what it is at a cursory glance, but I will find more time later to look. We did find baseline sketches as to what the plans are for the railroad, but nothing that appears to my mind as a critical plan for the project. We decide that maybe the remaining workers had taken them when they fled the camp. I am able to find various coins equaling to 30 gold, and paper vouchers for 50 more gold when we are able to get back into town, but nothing else. We head to where we had left our mounts, and gathering them and our remaining supplies together, we head back in the direction of the city.
We ride through the afternoon, our own thoughts occupying us, small talk was made, but nothing major, all of us weary from nearly losing Rorin, and my...event. As the evening comes closer, we find a clearing that we can find camp in, and we start setting things up. I try throwing my blanket up, trying desperately to find something to distract me when my eyes fall upon Spike. It seems that he was resting on Melfina's pack, and tried getting off, only to slide down, and land on his shell. I remember as kids that is how we would sometimes play, finding two turtles and trying to pick the one who would flip over first. My thoughts came back to the present, and the magical tent was once again in front of me, and I finally figured it out. Whimsy. I had to think of something whimsical to distract me, and that would make the tent spring to life. Thinking back on playing with the turtles, that wasn't a very nice thing to do, and sometimes kids don't really know better unfortunately. But that means I will have to find someone whimsical to think about. Maybe Aurane or Rorin? They have both done some odd things, but I don't know them very well. Melfina? No. I don't think she knows what the word whimsy means. I know nothing of Marda. And Spike... I think of spike and think of the specter looming above him, and that thought blocks all whimsy feeling out of my mind. We finish readying our camp, eat some leftover food from our supplies, and Marda and Rorin take the first watch. I head into the tent and grab some hot chocolate before going to my room. I glance at the door of unspeakable horror, and pass it as fast as I can without spilling my drink. I don't wish to dwell on the threshold of that door, lest it's essence disturb my slumber. I do still have dreams in the night, involving me throwing bolts of force or light at my enemies while telling my friends to get up, healing wounds with a gesture.
I wake up feeling warmer than usual, but I must have just been using too many blankets. Aurane and I get ready for our watch, and I grab my tools for my nightly ritual for cleaning my equipment. As Aurane and I get situated and settled for the last watch, I get my tools out and go over everything, making sure to clear the blade of my weapons for any nicks that may have been done during battle. I ask him about his fighting style, and if he has thought about doing anything differently. A large two handed maul sits next to him, and I remember some of the warriors I have known. Some of them have used a hand and a half sword with a small shield or buckler which would still allow them use of the second hand while providing a bit more protection. He seems to like the idea, so we talk about that for a little while. Finishing the work on my gear, I offer to go over his Maul, see if there is any work that needs to be done with it. A Completely wooden hammer, not a whole lot of my metalworking skills can be used in this case, but any good crafter knows basic tool work. The handle is worn smooth, but still in fine condition. The head has a few splinters from use, but is from a solid stock, an is firmly secure. Lighter than any metal hammer would be of comparable size, it could probably be swung faster and easier, yet still do a tremendous amount of damage. I consider offering an upgrade to his weapon, but he seems fond of it, and it is serving him well. Returning it to him, we finish the watch by talking about how work has been for the both of us before we were called upon for the job, the early morning silence beyond the firelight oppressive to the attitude.
Once every one is awake, we get ready to continue our journey back. I feel stiff in the saddle. The last few days of adrenaline and fighting have caught up with me, and it seems that Rorin is also having trouble. Eventually we all agreed we needed to stop for nature's call, and we all dismounted and spread out a bit for privacy. Before I could get anything done, I heard Rorin give a shout. He was running away from where he had been standing, without even taking the time to do up his trousers, and crying something about peeing on the wrong thing!
I draw my axe, and take a step towards him, but I can't see what he is being attacked by. I try to stay still to keep from attracting the attention of whatever it is. Marda comes over to where Rorin and Melfina are standing, and draws her swords. Melfina casts a spell at.. whatever it is she sees. I have no idea what effect it could have had. Aurane has moved closer to the others and prepared his weapon as well. Rorin and Marda both attacked something, but due to undergrowth in the way I couldn't see anything. It looked like they were attacking the ground, even punching it really hard, but that would be silly. I draw my one of my hand axes, and stomp on the ground a couple of times just in case, but it doesn't seem to do anything. The wraith materializes out of spike, and swipes at the ground, which must have done something, but I need to get closer to see it. I start getting closer and Marda swipes at some sort of mound on the ground, but I still can't see what manner of beast she is attacking. I figured it can't hurt to throw my axe, but as I pull my arm back it starts to heat up a bit. My prosthetic arm is heating up. That distracts me, and I hurl my axe at the ground, and it nearly hits Marda. Whoops. Judging from the look she sends my way, she both noticed that, and did not appreciate it. I'll apologize after I figure out what is going on with my arm. As I stretch out my arm to look at it better, make sure nothing is on fire, I can see Melfina has spread more necrotic energy into the ground, just like she had with the Hydra, and Aurane has brought his Maul down into the ground, looking as if he is driving in a massive tent peg. As he pulls back, and She straightens back up, the ground follows her arm up, and before I can blink the ground simply opens up, and swallows her whole. Rorin, taken aback to see our compatriot disappear like that, strikes at the ground with his staff again. Hitting the forest floor around us, I see no reaction, but as he goes in for punches, I can see what has eaten our companion. It seems to be a large plant-like creature, one I haven't seen before. My arm, extended out, I try to focus on the force affecting my arm, and two blasts of force shoot out of my hand, and one of them slams into a nearby tree. The second one hits the mound that was attacking us and I can see that it did something to hurt it. I look down at my arm, to make sure there is no damage, surprised as I have never had it have this reaction to anything before. I need to get my head back into the fight. An odd mist is dissipating, and Spike, the turtle is sitting on the ground under the wraith, in said mist. Well, that is... special. I was thinking that it had been in the special sling in Melfina's equipment, somehow it had gotten out. Interesting. The wraith reaches down, and just... Rips apart the ground. As if it was paper. And sitting in a small, now open gooey pit, is Melfina, looking rather surprised at the chain of events that just happened in the last few seconds. I step forward and help her up, asking if she is OK. She stands up, covered in dirt and some sort of white plant goo, and states that she is fine. As I reach down to retrieve my thrown axe, I feel Rorin jump off my back, and he propelled himself towards Melifina. Before I can straighten up, I hear a smack, and find Rorin sprawled out on the ground, and Melfina stalking away. We get ready to head out, the goo slowly drying and hardening on Melfina, and as we ride on to find a campsite, the group once again turnes to small talk, then nothing. Finding a suitable site that we all agree upon, we set up camp, and me my blanket fort. Melfina goes in saying something about cleaning off, and I jokingly tell her not to get all the pillows dirty. I feel like the glare sent my way should have done at least as much damage as the blasts I created. Marda and I agree to take first watch, and I take out the plans I had found. It seems to be plans for a crossbow, but one that would be heavier and fire larger bolts than normal. I am not sure what sort of projectile would be required for this modification, but it does merit some further examination. We pas the watch telling stories about our times in the army, stories about goofy comrades and things we have seen. The sounds of nature, even in the night, can be heard, unlike last night, which was eerily silent. Our watch ends and we head to bed, ready for the next day.
More dreams come to me, but they are filled with mixed messages, showing me things I have never been able to do before. Next chance I get I may have to try to figure things out. In the morning we gather our things gather our mounts and head out. A peaceful ride, we don't encounter anyone else on the road, possibly because anyone heading to the worksite would be waiting to hear news of us. About mid morning we decide to stop and stretch the legs, give a break to the mounts. I get off mittens, and walk to the edge of the road, but before I can make it there, four large birds, beaks looking wicked sharp. Standing a little taller than me, they start advancing towards me.
Drawing my axe, I try to make myself as large as possible, and give off a loud shout, trying to scare the creatures off. Just wild creatures, I don't want to have to kill them if it isn't required, but I'm not sure what these things eat. Three of the four seems a little dissuaded by my atempt to scare them off, but the largest one is still coming closer. Before I can decide what to do, the Wraith comes forth and cleanly decapitates the one in the lead, a lighting bolt from my left, and Melfina from my right. The lightning instantly cooks one of the birds, Melfina grabs the closest bird to her, and deadly energy spears out from her hands and kills it. A large spiritual hammer materializes, and smashes down onto the last one, it's neck bending terribly in 4 places, and it drops lifeless, Aurane calling “Bonk” from behind me. I stand there, briefly shocked at what just happened. But it is done. The others start gathering any usable meat off the bodies and I look around from where the Birds had come from. I find a nest with 5 large eggs inside. Well. I guess we are going to have some new meal options. Hm.
We finish up what we intended to do here, and mount back up, and keep heading back in the direction of the city. Late afternoon we came across the front part of the long supply caravan. We continue on, trying to get to the middle where we can report our success to the leader of the caravan, or at least someone in charge. While passing by various laborers, I inquire about the people from the work camp that hopefully made it back. It turns out that they did, and in good health. We ride on to find the leader of the caravan, Aurane saying his name is Jericho Tinkerbottom. When we get to Jericho's tent a huge wagon, a cottage on wheels really, is sitting nearby. With no one around, or coming to greet us, Melfina gestures that we should go inside. When we walk in, we find Isabella, and a Human and a Tabaxi that we don't know. Before introductions can be made Melfina says the Hydra is dead. The three figures before us are pretty happy with that fact, and we are introduced to Holden Cockswell, the human, and his assistant Oliver Tabert. WE inquire about the owner of the large wheeled house out side, and come to find out it is Holden's home and workshop. Apparently he travels everywhere with it so he doesn't have to be far from his own space. In fact, even in this tent only a few feet away he seems a little anxious. The suggestion is made to confer with him insdie his... Domicile, and we make our way in. A cozy place, there seems to be rooms for both Oliver and Holden, and enough room to cook and work, seems to be an efficient style of doing things. Oliver offers us Tea or Beer, and while Melfina refuses both, I order tea for her, and while Oliver is busy pouring drinks, I tell her it is more for politeness than anything else, and she doesn't really have to drink it. I inquire about the projects that Holden has worked on, and he tells us he has worked together with Elon in the past, and knows about the major parts of the Railroad plan, but nothing of the smaller ideas. Holden seems distant and wooden, almost like he doesn't know how to talk with people. I try to get him out of his shell, and show him the plans I had found. His eyes lit up, and he started getting a little more energy, telling me that it is some sort of launcher, could probably be used for a grappling hook, (who would need a thing like this? Ha). I thank him for the information, and ask what needs to be done next. Instantly he goes back to the wooden state he was in before. The mountain just needs to be drilled out again, and that will allow the track to be laid down, and everything will be set. Melfina inquires to see if anyone else has been abducted from the city, but Holden and Oliver can't tell us anything as they live outside the city. Holden doesn't seem to have anything else he wants to tell us, and we can't think of anything to ask, so we head back to Isabella, and let her know the caravan can head out.
We spend the night with the safety in numbers of the caravan. Not wanting to show of any magical items, we decide to use normal tents. Aurane struggles a bit, and after some threats of divine anger, his tent is finally up. In the morning, most of the caravan is gone, most of them must have worked through the night in order to get everything ready.
The days following were rather uneventful other than our travels. We did manage to befriend a large firey bird, and possible 2 of it's offspring. It seemed to follow us through a few days travel, and at night some of us fed it. I was weary of it at first, but after the third day it didn't seem to want anything. I tried to communicate with it, but it didn't seem to respond in anyway that I could tell.
We pass through Smallville, and so far the folks that disappeared have not returned. Elana doesn't seem worried about them as much as she was. That night we find a bit of trouble. Just inside inside the pillow fort tent, Melfina, Aurane and I are getting ready for bed, drinking hot chocolate in the common room, and we hear some talking outside. We all head to the door, and over hear that some men are telling Marda and Rorin outside that they should join our campsite, and when refused, they press a bit harder. Melfina gets out of the tent, and I stay near the entrance. The new comers seem a bit taken aback by Melfina's appearance. I poke my head out, use a new found ability to extinguish their torch, and tell them to go away, They leave. This close to the city, they may be bandits taking advantage of people who can't defend themselves. During our watch Aurane and I don't see anything during our watch at all.
We finally get back to the city, and present our papers to get in. Taking Mittens back to PETA, I feel kinda bad leaving him. I can't afford to keep him right now, but I may want to visit him if I can. He was a good mount, and while nothing overly special happened between us, I spent the better part of two weeks with him. He was a good... big cat thing.
The next step we can take is to head over to the Cerulean Sanctum, and report back as to what we have found and killed. Maybe they will have some news for us too. We will have to find out.