All around us were trees… big trees. Kazin, who clearly knew the area well, strode confidently into their midst. The rest of us followed, somewhat reluctantly into this eerie forest. Sarah just wouldn’t give any of us any peace… she kept on ‘seeing things’ moving in the trees, or seeing eyes in the darkness…
“There it is again!”, she whispered in a panic.
By this time there was no point in trying to reassure her. She had said the same thing at least a dozen times and we were starting to get sick of it. We all just turned and glared, well, all of us except Kazin that is. He was just far too friendly, and said he’d walk beside her if it made her feel more comfortable. Mentioned something about setting the monsters on fire if they went near her.
Whhhhhhoooooooossssshhhhhh! This time we all heard it. A slow, whispering sound through the trees, as of something flying. But it couldn’t be. Sarah had just made us all paranoid, there was nothing to worry about! We continued to walk, perhaps picking up the pace a little however.
BOOM! A somewhat frazzled looking bat fell out of a tree. Sarah stood beside it, gibbering like an idiot. Kazin grinned.
“Sorry friends, I thought I should get rid of that one before it became a nuisance”, the mage told us, still grinning. “Did I forget to tell you about the bats around here?”
Jaha scowled even more, and I’m sure that under his breath he was growling. He turned just in time to see the large rat that was about to leap at him and to see Chester kick the rat into a tree. We all looked up at where it landed, and decided that it certainly wouldn’t be coming down from there for a while.
Chester whinnied loudly, “Any more for any more?!!”
Clearly he had enjoyed that immensely, and as if to answer his question, another rat came out from the undergrowth ahead of us, along with three more of those gooey blobs.
“You know what to do”, I told my friends. They proved that they did.
The familiar sound of Jaha’s war cry rang throughout the forest as his axe turned a pile of goo into, well, several less lively looking piles of goo.
Chester, caught up in the moment, plunged his wooden stick into another slimy mess and swirled it around. Swinging the goo-covered stick above his head, he lashed at the air with it and sent the monster to a rather leafy demise.
I was about to go for the other rat, when from behind I heard the roaring of flames. Kazin’s eyes were shut tight and his fingers were weaving what looked like a fireball. I jumped to one side to clear his path. Kazin pulled back one arm, then hurled the fireball at the unsuspecting rodent.
A sort of “Skreeeeeeeeeek!” sound came from the general vicinity of of what was now a burning mass. I sincerely hoped that Jaha might learn from this, and decide not to hold a grudge against our new friend Kazin for much longer.
Right, only one monster left to go now, but once again I was beaten to it, this time by… Sarah! What kind of damage could a healer such as herself do? She stood a short distance away from the blob, and began to motion her hands in a way we’d never seen before. Kazin stood close by, looking on hopefully. He winked at us.
We all saw Sarah’s face drop as she finished the motions and nothing happened. The goo was getting nearer to her, so I rushed in and pushed her out of the way. Turning, I found the goo was almost on me, so I kicked it it back, then with a mighty swing, I hit it with my wooden sword, and the goo was no more. It kind broke down into lots of little bits of goo, and sank into the ground. And that was that.
