*~BRRrrrCRrrrr*
Thunder continued to echo through the night as the heavy rain began.
It smells a little more bearable, Asra thought.
She slowly opened her eyelids, revealing her purple eyes as she looked up at the patchy rotted roof above.
The sentient leaves constantly shifted in the roof, fluttering about and covering and holes.
I guess the rain doesn’t hurt them, only the swamp water does? Asra thought. The roof seemed more like a shifting fur coat of some beast, and after watching for a moment she sat up, and pushed open the noon-leather blanket she was still wrapped in.
She glanced around the room.
Now, where is Hegatha?
The only one with her was Red. Clad in shining armor, its ghostly green eyes lay on her, continuing to watch her as it had been commanded.
“Red, where is Hegatha?” Asra whispered. She only expected a head nod or some other unintelligent behaviour, perhaps it wouldn’t even understand her words.
Yet, she was mistaken.
Red tilted its head to the side. Perhaps she surprised it - someone other than Jay asking it questions? How odd.
But maybe Red was just thinking. After a moment, it stepped back, tilted its skull forwards and pointed its sword down at the floor below.
Asra raised a brow, “Hegatha is dead?”
Red thought for a moment, and after the cogs turned in its mind, it lay its sword on the table and then, mimicing Jay, it curled all its fingers into a fist, each of them gently tapping - then, it pointed its index finger out, and pointed down again.
“Oh, I see. Under us.” Asra slowly nodded, and Red nodded back as it reclaimed its sword from the table.
Yet Asra kept looking at Red, into its eyes, and then through them at the star-like traces of light beads moving around on the inside of its skull.
Jay’s skeletons are smarter than I thought… she watched it for a moment longer, then hopped off the table.
What is this witch doing here? She wondered around the room, looking at collections of wriggling organs and other creatures in jars.
The floors were hardwood planks, with more of the tiny sentient leaves jammed between, filling the gaps like a thick clay. Yet with each step she could feel the wood push down slightly and her vampiric hearing would have heard a gentle creak if it wasn’t raining so heavily.
However, the rain provided another advantage - she could smell something strange now that the fog was gone. It was sweet and fragrant, like honey mixed with flower petals.
Following the scent into the corner of the room, the leaves on the wall began to shuffled as she got closer, revealing a large oval shape behind it.
A mirror. Large enough for Asra to see her full body in, though the reflection was not of herself.
The mirror showed a thick fog in a dimly lit room; a few small luminous orbs barely glowing on the opposite side.
She could see Hegatha’s back, but her bulky body was only a dark silhouette, sitting down in front of a large stone, shaped like a pyramid. The stone itself was as tall as Asra, and gave off an alluring feeling - one that was like a sense of adventure, persuading people to draw near and get lost in it, and made Asra want to sit before it like Hegatha did.
Unfortunately, Asra couldn’t see exactly what was on the front face of the pyramid as it was blocked by Hegatha’s enormous body, but there was a stream of smoke rising from somewhere in front of Hegatha.
“Hello?” Asra called, but to no answer.
Some of the smoke passed through the mirror surface, but no sound.
So only sight and smell can cross? Asra thought, stepping closer to the mirror.
In the dark room, she noticed something familiar - a pair of glowing eyes, ghostly and green, staring back at her.
If Sweeper can do it, I can too. Asra shrugged, and then went to step through the mirror - but as soon as her boot touched the mirror, the room turned to darkness.
She didn’t step through the mirror, but found herself in the dark room with Hegatha, holding her boot against the mirror.
Oh, it switched sides like I were a reflection. She turned around, hoping Hegatha didn’t notice her, but there was no chance she would as Hegatha was whispering something
Her voice sounded so sweet and gentle, as if it dripped with honey and perfume, but what she said sent shivers up Asra’s neck.
“Come now, I have a world to show you. Filled with children and things to destroy… Just a little deeper, hidden in the forest. Come, there are many magical treasures, just a little deeper, some powerful enough to open the break, to tear it apart.” Hegatha whispered.
Asra was going to listen for a moment longer, but Red appeared in the mirror. Her eyes widened and she gestured for it to stop, and to stand back.
But Red had already went to press its skeletal finger against the mirror, and suddenly its clicking bones entered the room.
Before Hegatha could turn around, Asra touched it, and appeared on the other side, back in the shack. She blended into the shadows for a moment but then quickly went and sat on the table.
A few seconds later, Hegatha appeared.
“Is everything okay, dear?” she asked, and her voice still sounded sweet and gentle.
Asra glanced at her, and raised a brow, “huh?”
Red appeared again, giving Asra some sense of security.
Hegatha coughed, “Bleh. Me hungry.” Her voice returned to a rough, coarse voice of a pigmanoid creature.
Hegatha grabbed something wriggling from one of the jars, crushed it in her fingers and then disappeared into the mirror again.
Asra continued to stare at the mirror, making sure Hegatha wasn’t about to come back through, and another shiver went up her spine as she thought about Hegatha’s fake voice.
I need to warn Jay.
***
Three young bounty hunters waded through plants in the forest.
Looking out through the thick forest canopy, they headed towards a cluster of small mountains, criss-crossed with streams, valleys and rivers which formed a grand maze of similar hills.
*~Shring*
Linc sliced a giant flying insect into two halves, which spilled green goo on the ground.
“Estra, are you sure? We’re the only ones going this way. Everyone else is going further west.” Linc frowned, and rubbed the edges of his blade across a mossy tree trunk.
“Yes. I hear his heart beating clearly, and who else would it be? Jay was living alone… and apparently he had all his ‘fun’ with Anya at the adventurer association. So it has to be him.” She shrugged.
Linc sighed. “I heard the mage hunters found something interesting that way, but they’re not letting anyone through.”
Vanderby chimed in, “Don’t worry. Once we’re rich, we can investigate all the interesting things we want.”
“Mm. Once we’re rich.” Estra nodded, and Linc marched forwards again, roughly guided by Estra.
