Following The Footsteps Of Danger

The Ice Cavern was the only permissible gateway through the Eastern Mountains for Raine and her gang of misfit adventurers and unfortunately, it was incredibly treacherous for unskilled travellers to pass through unharmed. The many stalactites and stalagmites made purely of ice suspended around and carpeting narrow, brittle walkways were the least of their problems, as the deceptive wonderland had also become home over the years to many species of animals and monsters alike, all preferring the steady freezing temperature to out in the open. Despite this, many experienced travellers often cite the cavern to be one of the must-see locations of the world, mainly due to the sparkling ice-covered walls taking the appearance of diamonds encasing them, though traders and the like usually beg to differ, opting to take a zeppelin through Zephyr's Crossing a little way to the south. Locke approached Raine as she sat on a rock overlooking a cliff a little way away from where they had set up camp for the night, studying a map of their journey so far and polishing off her meagre meal, consisting of some gross looking meat with gravy. Locke and Wurgh had just managed to put Jordie to bed and chained her to some nearby trees in case of her waking and Wurgh, tired after a long day of restraining Jordie from escaping had gone to sleep as well. "Raine? You feeling okay?" Locke asked cautiously. Raine pouted as she discovered his presence, making Locke feel nervous. "I'm fine." Raine said. "It’s just… I've noticed that since Regis-…" "I'm fine! Did Zelph say when they'd be back? She still needs to finish this map" Raine said as she stuck her ladle in her mouth, then pulling it out to point at some white sections on the map she was examining, just next to a green patch that read Bellron Woods. Some gravy spilled over the map. "She didn't say… Don't worry about her though… With Lode around, she should be fine." Locke said as he took the map off her and tried to wipe away the gravy smudge. Raine acted as though she didn't care about it and she glanced around, finally settling on the stars for something to look at. After a few moments, she spoke again. "I swear there's less stars in the sky than when we were back in Gothenburg. Something must be going wrong in the Zodiac…" Raine said dreamily. "Maybe it’s just the time of month that has fewer stars? You know, like the moon." Locke looked over at her, admiring the way the moonlight lightened up her face and sparkled in her eyes as she looked towards its source. She seemed to suddenly snap back into reality and jerked her head to look down into Locke's dark eyes. Raine shuffled a little closer and rested her head on Locke's shoulder, just as his heart began beating a little faster. "It’s getting late, so I think I might go to bed," Raine moved her head so she could face Locke's, "Do you mind waiting up for Zelph and Lode to get back? I need you to tell Zelph to sleep with me tonight so I won't be cold." "Sure thing Raine… Do you mind if I pack this away tonight? I'd like to have a look at Zelph's work so far." Locke nodded, picking up the map. "Do what you like. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." Raine jumped up hastily and walked off through the trees back to the campsite. Locke sighed as he watched her go. The group awoke to the howls of Jordie as her hunger for flesh and blood returned. Even though this had been occurring almost every day for the past month, Lode still felt uneasy and possibly a little scared from this outburst. The only doctor who had been willing to even go near her told them that it was in her genes to evolve into this bloodthirsty beast. His sole prescription had been to kill her before she became out of control, but it was agreed that this wasn't an option and she had been dragged along on this journey, mostly by chains ever since. A loud crash from outside the tent Lode shared with Locke indicated Jordie had uprooted one of her trees. A loud string of curses came from Wurgh in the next tent along

as he hurriedly got up was followed by stifled laughter from the girls' tent. Lode scowled as he got up as well, leaving Locke fast asleep sprawled over his sleeping mat. Leaving the safety of his tent, Lode found Wurgh standing well away from the grotesque monstrous Jordie holding a large branch to her face. "Need any help? We're going to need her if we run into any Yetis inside the Ice Cavern and I don't want to lose her now after so far." Lode walked up next to Wurgh, picking up a similarly large branch which seemingly fell off the tree uprooted by Jordie and began copying Wurgh. Wurgh turned to look at Lode, grunting as he dropped his own branch and jogged over to Jordie's now-useless third chain. As Lode kept Jordie at bay, Wurgh swiftly tied the chain to another sturdier looking tree. Lode groaned as he dropped the branch and shuffled over to the campfire. "Thanks…" Wurgh said quietly. Lode turned around, smiling half-heartedly. "No problems, anytime!" "Really… I'm sorry for all the trouble she's caused. I just wish there was some way I could repay all of you for putting up with her." The two men sat down on a log beside the extinguished campfire from the previous night. "You're repaying us just by travelling with us! Really, you and Jordie are a powerhouse together… A great help during those tight spots." Lode smiled again, trying to lift the other man's spirits. Wurgh simply grunted. The roars from behind them continued and Lode noted Wurgh's expression: His eyes tightly shut, cringing. After a few minutes, Jordie calmed down and Wurgh spoke again. "I had better go feed her…" He slowly got up, strolling over to his tent and returning with his giant axe that he wielded so deftly. Unfortunately, the axe had been chipped since the first Lode had seen of it, but it was still just as deadly to any opponents of Wurgh. The axe was beautiful and, according to Wurgh, had taken quite some difficulty to acquire. The handle was arranged in a double helix pattern, with rose patterns etched done the two bars behind the blade, a gigantic steel beast of a weapon about the size of a deer, its perfect victim. Lode remembered back to the first time they had met Wurgh; they had been in trouble with a quartet of poisonous Mandragora. They had been journeying from the Holy City to their first stop at Rezina and had been almost there when they stumbled across a sleeping Mandragora on the path. Raine ruthlessly approached the monster ready to strike, but suddenly a tentacle revealed itself from a tree on the side of the path, extending to pierce Raine's skin with deadly poison, the young leader falling to the ground. All became chaos as a further pair of Mandragora dropped from trees behind the group and they became outnumbered and surrounded. The three adventurers left standing began to fight against the approaching terror, Registrix and Locke taking one each and protecting the vulnerable body of Raine while Lode himself took two. Being careful not to be struck by the deadly points of the tentacles ensued in Lode being flung around by the Mandragora, with similar events happening to the other two men. Just at that moment, a sickening squelch emitted from one of Lode's Mandragora and it was sliced in two, sticky slime oozing out from the dispatched body. A man with a giant axe, Wurgh stood behind it with a younger girl, Jordie at his side. He then proceeded to sever tentacles and dismember Mandragora bodies as Jordie ran to Raine's side, administering an antidote. The pair of siblings then introduced themselves after the three adventurers had calmed down and, once Raine had woken up and heard of how she was saved by the two, asked them to travel with the group so they wouldn't have any problems with encounters in the future. "Hey Lode, you gonna eat anything or what? We're going to have to move soon… We don't have all day!" Raine was standing in front of Lode as he snapped out of a daydream, a piece of charcoaled toast hanging out of her mouth. Walking for so long everyday was tiring for everyone in the party, Lode had just been feeling the effects of that recently and these lapses in consciousness were common. Lode shook his head.

"I'll wait until we can get some decent food at Yenis… I'm not hungry anyways." Lode shrugged and got up, deciding it was time to get ready. It was a good time to wake up Locke anyway, Lode looked around to make sure he wasn't up already but there was no sign of him. Jordie howled as Lode walked by where she was located... Seemingly, Wurgh had not returned with food yet. Lode looked at her monstrous bull-like face sadly and continued on his way to the tent he shared with Locke. He poked his head inside, catching a glimpse of Locke's eyelid shutting. He smiled slyly as he entered the tent, ensuring to tread his boots all over Locke's sleeping mat. Lode frowned as he heard no signs of annoyance from the sleeping Locke and raised his boot, ready to stand on the vulnerable man's chest. Locke's eyes snapped open and he scurried out of the way as Lode's boot came down onto where Locke had been laying moments ago. "Hey, hey! I'm awake! Watch where you're walking!" Their eyes met briefly as Lode grinned mischievously, though the grin was gone almost as soon as it came. "Come on, everyone's already up. Wurgh just has to prepare Jordie for our venture into the Ice Cavern and then we're leaving. You wouldn't want us to leave that to you, would you?" Lode said as he reached over Locke and grabbed a heavy broadsword. Locke began breathing fast as he nervously watched Lode hover the broadsword over him as he strapped the sheath to his torso. Locke slid out from underneath the dangerous blade and began rummaging in a rucksack near where he was sleeping. Satisfied that everything was in order, he shouldered the bag and left the tent, taking a last glance over at Lode studying his sword closely. Lode instantly snapped to attention, placed his sword down on the ground and dove his hand into his own rucksack. His hand felt what he was looking for and he withdrew it from his bag. It was a small golden, rounded container, rusted at the edges and engraved on the top with the likeness of a great bird with wings made of fire. The bird's crest was made from a ruby engraved into the top of the container and it shone brilliantly as Lode caught it in the shaft of sunlight streaming in from outside the tent. He delicately opened the container, hoping to hear the angelic music playing, but there was none. The music box had broken a few days out from Gothenburg and Lode had hoped there was a blacksmith in Yenis who could fix it. Lode's ears perked slightly as he heard a rustling from outside. Stowing the music box safely at the base of the rucksack, he shouldered it and grabbed his broadsword, sheathing it in its holster on his back. He had one last glance around the tent, then left it himself and ambled back over to where the main party was sitting. Wurgh shuffled uncomfortably, trying to keep as silent as possible. He was lying flat on his stomach in an army crawl, moving towards a deer, his catch and Jordie's food for the day. Prickly bushes stuck uncomfortably into the sides of his ribcage, into his stomach and into any protruding hole in Wurgh's garb that could be found. Just as a particularly painful thorn jutted into his neck, a familiar voice yelled his name from behind him, masking his muffled yelp from beneath the bushes. Wurgh could hear the boots of Zelph crashing through the undergrowth, towards him and his deer. Wurgh could not contain his disappointment as the last hour or so of hunting was to become wasted as the deer ran off. But the deer didn't move from its position and instead stood startled, frozen in place. Zelph came into view, Wurgh chanced a glance upward to see her hand delicately patting the deer's head, the deer accustoming to this change. Wurgh frowned, reaching down to ready his hunting knife; something wasn't right here… "Who are you?" Wurgh revealed himself from underneath the undergrowth, not surprising the girl who looked remarkably like Zelph in the slightest. "I think even you should know that, Wurgh" The girl replied. Wurgh's eyes widened slightly, but he controlled himself and continued his interrogation. "What are you doing here? How did you know our location?" Wurgh said, noticing the girl smiling warmly with a glance at his knife. He eased off his hand. The element of surprise had been lost. There was little chance of danger without Raine present anyway.

"There's no point in trying to throw me off. I can track your every move. Besides, you'll be needing me soon enough. Without me you would have failed already. You and everyone else knows this, so why do you deny it?" Wurgh watched her physical features change before his eyes: Her nose elongated, her chin and jaw moved down her a little to make way for her sullen cheeks, her ears got covered by her hair as it became long and tangled, finally changing colour to a dirty blonde, her eyes began curving upwards and became rimmed by long black eyelashes, finally it seemed, the transformation was complete as her back cracked unlike any human and she bent over like a hunchback. She pulled out a long, slender knife and deftly wielded it with her bony fingers as she slit the deer's throat. Wurgh found it hard to speak as he witnessed this, but finally he found the will to clear his throat and continue talking. "Why did you try to kill Raine before? How do we know you won't try to do it again and succeed? You got close last time." "Because you need to trust me! I have my own reasons to do this, not just those for the Minister. I want to help." She looked down at the deer she had just slain, "Here, you can have this for that beast of yours." "Alright, say I agreed with you and wanted you to travel with us, how do you think I would get the others to agree? Raine's almost certainly not going to forget what you did to her in the Bellron Woods." Wurgh said, picking up the deer without thanking the hag-looking woman. "Oh, you'll see… I'll see you again, young one. Sooner than you may expect." With that, the hag turned her back, walking off through the trees. Wurgh looked after her with distaste. As she disappeared into the dense wood, Wurgh shouldered the deer and began to make his way back to the campsite. As she lay on her back basking in the morning sun, Zelph felt she could hear everything. The cursing of Raine as she burnt her fingers trying to put the campfire out, the roars of Jordie as she eagerly awaited the fresh meat she could smell on the wind, the playful bickering of Locke and Lode as they dismantled their tent… If she listened hard enough, she could just make out the cracking of twigs and the crackling of fallen leaves as Wurgh made his way back to the campsite. A smile broke out on her face despite the circumstances; she was enjoying her travels with her newfound friends and intended to make them feel the same about her. When she was around them she could just be herself and she didn't need to hide anything about herself. She found renewal in her life, as that she had never found before. She sprung up, ready to meet Wurgh as he emerged from the trees with his catch for Jordie. Zelph almost reached the trees when she stopped in her tracks, pausing as another sound reached her enhanced sense of hearing. Just one twig crack and a rustling of bushes from through the trees to her left, but Zelph could tell something wasn't right. She placed her hand on her dagger hilt and held it there, listening hard for any more sounds, but all she could hear were Wurgh's clumsy footsteps through the trees approaching her. She shook her head and dropped her hand to her side as Wurgh came into view, emerging from behind a thick bush clump a few trees into the woods. He gave a small smile as he looked up and caught sight of her face, a huge smile encompassing from ear to ear on it. "Glad to see the real you…" Wurgh said. "Glad to see you too, since when was there a fake me?" Zelph inquired, an innocent grin passing her face. "I ran into that foul shape-shifting hag who's after Raine, Gharnis or whatever… She decided to look like you to talk to me while I was hunting this deer." Wurgh said, continuing to walk, now with Zelph at his side. "How dare her… First she tries to kill one of my best friends and now she impersonates me? I'm definitely going to have to get her back someday." Zelph said, furrowing her perfect brow. "Well that someday might be soon… She mentioned something about 'seeing me again soon,' so I presume she's following us or at least that she's making her own way

to Yenis." Wurgh looked over at the younger girl, trying not to smile as her facial expression made it obvious she was excited. "Great! Until then, we had better keep better watch over Raine… No point in frightening the girl by telling her about it, but she's almost had more near death experiences than she can count on one hand, half of them due to that witch!" Wurgh nodded in agreement to this, but their conversation was cut short as they reached Jordie. "Could you go make sure everyone is ready to go? I don't want to be keeping this girl at bay for longer than I have to." Zelph ran off to go gather up her own belongings and alert the party that it was time to leave. She decided against telling the others about Wurgh's meeting with Gharnis… That would stay a secret between Wurgh and herself. The sun had raised high in the sky before the party eventually set off. They slowly ascended the mountain path toward the entrance to the Ice Cavern, a thin treacherous path that would claim as many unwary travellers as possible. In front, leading the group was Raine with her usual enthusiasm about the journey ahead, making quite a contrast to her temperament a few hours earlier as the others begged her to pack her possessions so they could leave for the Ice Cavern. Right behind her, tracing her steps almost exactly like a lost puppy was Locke, trying to look as if he was thinking of nothing in particular, seemingly not knowing he was sub-consciously staring directly at Raine. Lode lagged a short way behind, walking precariously close to the edge, studying something carefully in the forest below. Finally in the rear walked Zelph and Wurgh, talking quietly as Wurgh pulled Jordie along on her chains, the monstrosity walking drowsily, drugged by medicinal leaves mixed with her food. In this way the party continued, reaching the entrance to the Ice Cavern after nightfall. Raine poked her head inside the narrow entrance, shivering as the icy winds blasted her from the depths of the mountain. She pulled her head out and turned around, face red from cold numbness. "Better rug up! This is colder than winter in Caroi and probably almost as dangerous!" She smiled bravely as she unshouldered her pack, preparing to set up camp for a while until she felt ready to venture inside. The five adventurers sat around the campfire later that night, each using some form of blanket or heavy material to warm themselves in addition to the natural heating of the campfire. Jordie sat slumped against the harsh mountain face, still under the effects of the medicinal leaves Lode and Zelph found the previous night. Conversation had dropped off quite a while ago and they had begun to feel the effects of the day's efforts. Zelph studied their faces quietly, illuminated by the flickers of the flame, each contorted into a stern, solemn frown. Zelph frowned herself; she knew so little about this journey, having joined it much later than the other newcomers, Wurgh and Jordie, in Gothenburg and she felt she was missing something. She went over what she knew in her own head: The Minister's Chosen, Raine and her protectors, Locke, Lode and another man named Registrix travelled out from the Holy City in order to restore hope to the people of the Eight Cities, those being Rezina, Gothenburg, Yenis, Stalinburg, Retroy, Caroi, Natkala and Spiros. Already, they had travelled to Rezina and Gothenburg, picking up Wurgh and Jordie near Rezina and herself at Gothenburg. Registrix had also left them at Gothenburg much to the dismay of Raine and they also picked up another companion in Gothenburg, Gharnis the witch who tried to eliminate Raine in the Bellron Woods. But why? Why would someone wish to rid the world of the only thing that will keep it at peace? Zelph furrowed her brow, not understanding at all what she had just summarised. As she opened her mouth to speak, the wind from the entrance to the Ice Cavern changed direction toward the open flame. A gust of hot embers blew into her mouth, causing her lungs to singe and she heaved a bout of coughs. Perhaps some things were better left unsaid. "Ah! That was ill thought out Zelph! Do you need water to cool your throat? There could be permanent damage if you don't treat it…" Locke said with a tone of alarm

in his voice. Zelph looked up, tears in her eyes and her hand at her throat, but she was glad to see concerned looks meet her from around the circle. "That'll be great, Locke… Don't worry everyone, I'm fine." Zelph's voice sounded hoarse and she looked mildly surprised by it. Locke immediately leapt up from beside the fire, leaving to look through his rucksack for some of the many litres of clean water they had stocked up on in Theant, the small logging village near the Bellron Woods. "What were you wondering about?" Wurgh asked. "About you guys..." She began hesitantly, her voice apparently clearing up a little, pointing her finger at Lode and Raine, "You say you're on a journey to achieve world peace, yet you have assailants such as the witch, Gharnis trying to assassinate you. What for?" She accepted a sack of water from Locke and drank it quickly as she felt her voice became a little accusing, which she didn't mean at all. Raine looked down at the ground, tracing a swirl with her foot. It was Lode who answered. "As I take it, some, especially those from the city of Spiros, disagree with the values and teachings of the current Minister, Cain IX and as such wish to oppose everything he does, including this journey to restore peace to the world. You should ignore them." Zelph looked intently at Lode as he spoke, no one noticing the exasperated grimace on Raine's face, nor the bewildered look on Wurgh's as Lode spoke of the Minister. After this, the group sat in silence, slowly drifting off to sleep after a while until at last the low breathing sounds surrounded the slowly dying fire.