***
Walking down the road leading outside of the castle always brought with it a wonderful view. Castle Night Thorn was built atop a large mountain which over looked the capital city of Starsera. Although Castle Night Thorn wasn’t the most impressive castle, it was pretty high up. Spires of stone reached up from all around the castle walls like claws pointed toward the heavens. A tower stood connected to the town and rose high up into the sky just barely higher than the castle was, and at its top instead of a roof there was a giant orb of the castle's colors deep sea blue and purple, inside the orb, just barely visible during the day was a yellow glowing light which theoretically came from a super massive aether stone, although since no one could get inside the orb, even through brute force, no one really knew.
The road leading down from the castle walls was large enough for two cars to safely pass by, but on either side of the road were small barriers to keep things from easily falling down the steep Cliff side and into the dense forest below. Although it was still possible to see a few car wrecks down the mountainside if one knew where to look. Rita often wondered if the people in those wrecks had died or not. There were two gate houses still standing on the way down.
The second gate house existed at a fork in the road. One of the roads, the nice paved one, led to Starsera, the other one, the dirt one, had a steep decline down the mountainside and into the Lost Forest. This road was seldom used, but it led directly to Sunny Meadows, one of Rita's home towns.
Walking down the old dirt came with the unfortunate side effect of Wonder complaining about the mud she had to walk through with her new lavender cloak on. Of course everyone laughed it off, but Rita couldn’t help but to shake the feeling that they were walking into something more dangerous than she'd been led to believe, and she was led to believe it was pretty freaking dangerous already.
Going down the mountainside was a little bit challenging as the decline was a little too steep in places with the terrain being all muddy, but it was passable. The Lost Forest swiftly approached them, and then swallowed them as they descended down to the long awaited even leveled terrain. The light was difficult to spot directly through the massive trees, and the ground still had some puddles down here, with lots of grass growing in wild clumps, and patches of snow still hiding in the most shaded areas.
A mixture of oak, pine, and willow trees surrounded them on either side of the road. Often times the trees were so tall and old that they grew over the road itself blocking out all but the most defiant of rays of sunlight. The gloom and darkness of this forest led to a lot of people getting lost in here, and with the large amount of monsters living here, those lost in here usually stayed lost. Many nightmarish tales were told to the children of Sunny Meadows to keep them from venturing inside.
A small feathered raptor ran across the road and passed into some bushes, its feathers all blue and gold. A few more raptors quickly followed it afterwards. Lamont held his fist up, pointed towards the sky indicating for them to all to stop. He glanced back at Wonder. Wonder didn’t need any more prompting, the look on her face after seeing the raptors made her look like she’d just seen a ghost. Wonder pulled out her wand and with a little bit of movement cast a spell enshrouding everyone in an invisible cloak.
Rita couldn’t see anyone, she couldn’t even see herself. Everyone knew better than to try and move. For several long moments they all stood perfectly still, and quiet. Another raptor poked its head out from one of the bushes, this one was larger than the others by a few inches being nearly a full three feet tall. It’s red and brown feather pattern made it look just as dangerous as it likely was. The raptor sniffed at the air, snarled with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and then let loose a high pitched honk.
Five other raptors all came out of the bushes from around Rita’s group. For a moment they stood there, staring at the empty air where Rita’s group had been visible just moments ago. The sound of a cow mooing was heard in the distance. The raptors all stood on their hind legs, looked directly toward the sound, and waited. The leader of the pack honked once more and then ran off like a lightning bolt toward the sound. The other raptors followed suit with just as much speed.
For several long moments they all stood perfectly still. Finally Lamont said in a quiet voice, “You can drop the spell now. They’re gone.”
“And if they’re not?” Wonder’s voice came out weak, but fearful.
“Then we’ll have to fight them either way because they’d already know we’re here,” Lamont explained.
Wonder let out a small yelp as the invisibility cloak dropped from around them. She had moved herself into the middle of the group and was crouched with her knees to her chest. Rita looked around along with the other two, Rita had her hand on her flame revolver already, just waiting. Lapis had her left arm transformed into an octopus arm, and with her right arm she was stroking her fingers through Wonder’s hair whispering, “Shh, we’re safe, see.”
Lamont held his stave strong and shook his head. “I’m glad we didn’t have to fight them. Raptors are smart and dangerous predators. I feel sorry for whatever poor farm animal they're about to catch.”
Wonder stood up on shaky legs. “T-they’re not going to find one.”
“What do you mean?” Lamont asked.
Wonder still held her wand tightly. “That was just an illusion of the sound of a cow mooing. They won’t really find one.”
Lamont’s eyes went wide for a split second, and then he smiled and started walking down the road. “We should hurry up then before they realize that and come back for us.”
Nobody argued with that plan. Wonder still kept herself in the middle of everyone else. If Rita were to guess, it was more due to Wonder’s fear than due to her lack of combat ability. None of them had exactly gotten into any real conflicts since they faced the Fellstalker, and with their old team torn in half after that, they had little idea how effective they could still be in combat together. Rita had no doubts that she could tear anything apart by herself, but working in a team now might prove to be a real challenge.
It wasn’t long before Lamont took them off the main road and led them into the wilderness proper. Going through foliage, walking around deep mud puddles, snow, and even ice, pushing past small branches, and avoiding rocks were all a bit of a challenge. Wonder of course struggled the most with all of these things, as things kept catching on and ripping at her dress. It took a good few minutes before they finally came out to a small clearing.
At first Rita stared ahead seeing the old temple. Its stone construction still held it upright with surprising strength. The glass on the front windows were all broken and gone, but the image of a sun with a crescent moon in front of it were unmistakable. This was an old temple of the sun and moon goddess. People who used to worship Queen Solaria before she outlawed such practices.
Rita couldn’t help but to take a step closer. The grass beneath her crunched under her feet. Now Rita was looking down at her feet, and saw that the grass was all dry and gray. The ground here wasn’t even a little damp, it was dry and cracked. Several skeletons of trees stood in the clearing burnt from too much sun and long since dead. On closer inspection Rita actually found that the trees weren’t just dead, they were petrified.
Rita looked back at Lamont. “What happened here?”
Lamont began walking towards the old temple. “That’s a good question, now isn’t it?”
Wonder was practically shaking. “This place is creepy.”
Lapis was smiling brightly. “Oooo I bet there’s monsters in there.”
A small squeak escaped Wonder.
The others followed Lamont a little closer than before. Rita didn’t hesitate to pull out both of her revolvers. “Good, because my trigger finger’s been itching for a good fight.” It might have been false bravado, but it seemed to set Wonder a little at ease to hear Rita’s mock confidence. In truth Rita was more scared than possibly anyone else there, because she realized the danger of whatever caused the Shadow Sickness. She’d seen what that did to people in person after all.
Lamont was smiling. “It’s time to go explore some old ruins.”
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