Alright, so. I kinda got a hankerin’ for writing again, and I reread the earlier chapters of this story, and I actually thought I didn’t do too badly. So, for those of you who remember, here’s the next chapter.

If you need a refresher, here’s the other parts so far:

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Reference Guide

Pardon the errors in those. I don’t want to go through and fix them. Also, pardon the end of this one. It’s crappy. Anyway, without further adeu, here’s chapter 3. As usual, constructive criticism and comments welcome, and no refunds on wasted time.

Edit: I wimped out and pasted in the original document files for the old parts. Nice and clean.

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Chapter 3

Her eyes fluttered open as sleep released her from its grasp. Her back was too warm from the fire, a sharp contrast to the sharp chill her front felt. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she figured it was close to her watch time based on a quick glance at the moon. ‘The land may be different here,’ she reflected, ‘but at least the moon and stars aren’t.’

Riteye’s empty bedroll confirmed that thought when she sat up. However, when she looked around, he was not sitting in his customary spot by the sparkling embers of the fire. ‘Odd,’ she thought bemusedly. As she scanned the faint ring of light around her, she realized what had woken her – the air was unusually heavy and damp, as if an entire ocean had evaporated into one small area. Her spindly hand hovered over the crossbow by her side, her mind beginning to race.

She heard footsteps to her left, and the crossbow was in her hand and aimed towards the surrounding trees, bolt loaded and ready to fire. A whistle soon followed, and she lowered her weapon as Riteye walked into view.

“Little edgy, aren’t you, Nerri?” he asked softly as he walked into the small encampment. However, she could see that no mirth from earlier in the night resided in his eyes, betraying the almost jest-like comment. “Well, good thing we decided on that whistle to identify ourselves, or I’d be punched full of arrows right now!” He held out his hand to her to help her stand, and then pulled her close enough for their bodies to touch and whispered, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but be ready. Wake up Araneu, but do so quietly.”

He released her as she nodded, and then padded back to the outskirts of the shadowy circle to keep watch. ‘Hmph. Says the guy who can’t even walk quietly,’ she mused, a sarcastic smirk on her lips. She glided over to Araneu’s bedroll and, crouching down, shook the cleric’s shoulder gently. “Araneu… Araneu!” she whispered harshly. “Wake up!”

Araneu muttered something incomprehensible as she weakly tried to brush Nerrissia away. A rougher shake got the mage’s attention, though. She craned her neck, searching for her assaulter, and glared at Nerrissia. “It’s surely not my watch yet,” she crossly said. “You’d better have a good reason for waking me up.”

Nerrissia motioned for her to keep her voice down, and whispered again. “Rit thinks something’s wrong.”

Muttering, Araneu stood and grabbed her staff. “I’ll get Ajema. You can mess with Moon.”

“Love you too,” Nerrissia mumbled, but nodded. She moved to the edge of Moon’s bedroll, and placed a hand over his mouth. She then took her other hand and pinched his nose shut. A few seconds passed, and then his eyes flung open, wildly flailing around. Nerrissia released his nose and mumbled, “Don’t you dare make a sound. Get your bow-”

“Lupins!” Riteye cried before she could say anything else. He backed swiftly into the circle of firelight, wand at ready. Two dozen pairs of glistening eyes reflected the light back, the tips of dark noses and splotches of fur faintly visible. They slowly advanced, banana weapons poised for attack, malevolent eyes burning.

Nerrissia hopped to her feet, Moon a breath behind her. Both had arrows nocked, ready to fire in an instant. On the other side of the circle, Ajema brandished his daggers while Araneu began praying. The air grew even heavier, damper.

Without warning, one Lupin shrieked and flung a banana at Riteye. It hit him square on, causing him to stagger slightly. “Come on!” he cried, regaining his stance. He began forming the complex symbols of a lightning spell with a hand, pointing his wand at a group of the beasts. Small bolts struck the creatures, fazing them, giving Moon and Nerrissia an opening to fire. Ajema ran into the fray, stabbing and slicing in a whirlwind of blows. Araneu hung back, using whatever power her gods granted her to give them faith and strength to win.

The battle raged, back and forth in the ring of light, both sides taking considerable damage. Moon and Nerrissia managed to get surrounded while Riteye and Ajema were occupied with groups of there own.

“Hey crazy lady,” Moon said, back against Nerrissia. “Let’s see what those new arrows I got can do.” He grinned widely, nocked an arrow with an exploding head, and let it fly into a group of Lupins. The resulting blast rolled a few over, giving Nerrissia time to finish them off.

“Neat trick,” she panted. One lunged at her, and she shot a bolt clean through it and struck a beast behind it. Moon continued firing the exploding arrows, while she finished them off. Elsewhere, Riteye and Ajema were neatly taking care of a group themselves.

Within twenty minutes, the battle was over. Lupin corpses lay strewn across the camp, and the group themselves were not unharmed. Araneu went to each one and healed their wounds as best she could.

“Geez, Rit, what’d you do to make them mad?” Moon inquired. He kicked one of the charred corpses that had been a victim of the exploding arrows.

“I didn’t do anything… ouch!” he winced as Araneu bandaged his arm. She glared at him and he let out an exasperated sigh, admitting defeat.

“Lupins are common in these forests,” Araneu said. “They’re known to be very territorial. They probably saw us as a threat.”

“Then we shouldn’t stay here,” Ajema intoned. “Ellinia’s not too far. If we start now, we should be able to make it before tomorrow evening.”

“Leave now? In the middle of the night?” Moon said, flabbergasted. “But I was having such a good dream!”

“Dreams are all fine and dandy unless you’re dead,” Ajema replied.

Moon harrumphed and muttered, “You guys ruin all my fun.”

“He’s right, Moon,” Nerrissia said. “Besides, I’m sure you’d like a nice bed to sleep in. You’ve been complaining about sleeping on the ground.”

He perked up at that comment. “Eh? A bed? In an actual house? Count me in! Let’s go!” He jumped in and cackled to himself.

“We can leave as soon as I’m done,” Araneu stated. “It shouldn’t be much longer.”

The rest of the group nodded. None of them would really miss sleeping in the woods for a night or two.