Book 2: Chapter Three

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The party had been traveling for six days. They were headed towards Ravensong forest, searching for the remaining Heroes. It would mark the end of the quest a dark, cloaked being had shown them. There were no apparent prizes for doing so, but they all agreed that it would be best to complete the quest.

Formula groaned. The job would take weeks. Perhaps months. There were thousands, if not millions, of people in Ardenvell. Any one of them could be a Hero.

Zeko seemingly misinterpreted why he was groaning and grinned.

“Old bones getting at you?”

Formula decided to play along. “Yes. These ancient, creaky joints just don’t work anymore.”

“I see. I know a remedy for that,” Zeko said thoughtfully. “Toss a diamond wafer onto a brewing stand. You’ll get better in no time at all.”

Formula groaned again. “I don’t have a diamond wafer or a brewing stand.”

“Hmm, then you should go find them,” he said, but then frowned mockingly. “Oh… you’ll have to walk to do so.”

Formula glared at him, but said nothing as Zeko grinned maliciously. “Of course, the Nether would also make your bones even creakier. Better if that doesn’t happen.”

Alya decided to join in. “That’s true - creaky bones become even creakier after being in the Nether. It’s common sense.”

Formula wasn’t sure the side she was on. He sensed a small amount of sarcasm in her voice, but it might have been imagined. He decided to challenge Zeko for the sake of restoring his pride after falling into the trap.

“Well, Zeko, your bones are twice as creaky as mine. I heard them from the other side of the camp last night. We didn’t even need a watch duty - the monsters were scared off after you walked out of your tent.”

Zeko was completely flustered at that. Arlo had warned him about the possibility of a monster attack after hearing an abundance of zombie sounds the the west. But when he started his watch, he had heard nothing.

“It was obviously my superior warrior skills. I don’t have creaky joints,” he answered.

Formula smiled at him. “If so, then it was your creaky gear. Creaky gear has roughly the same sound as creaky joints. I’ve heard both out of you.”

There was an obvious flaw in the statement and Zeko quickly tried to exploit it. “I told you, I don’t have creaky joints. How could you have heard both of them out of me?”

Formula was annoyed with himself for not having seen the flaw.

“You’re an idiot,” he declared after a pause.

Zeko grinned again. “Maybe. But I don’t have creaky joints.”

Alya decided to rejoin the squabble, joining as her own side. “Your voices are creaky, along with your joints. If there’s any monsters within a two-kilometer radius, they probably have the new disease: ‘creak-itis’. We could have you both continue to talk and the Eyeless One himself would be banished to the 99th dimension.”

“Your bones are reasonably creaky, too,” Formula said.

Alya knew someone was going to say that. “I’m a Quickfoot. I don’t have creaky bones.”

She seemed to be by far the best at arguing.

Sound decided that the squabble had gone on too long. He desperately looked around for something interesting. He suddenly found it.

“There’s someone in the bushes on the left,” he whispered to them all. “Don’t look immediately. But it looks like a moon elf.”

The group looked at the direction at different intervals. But the elf obviously knew that he had been found out and suddenly dashed away.

“Wait!” Formula shouted.

Alya, Zeko and Sound started running towards him.

Alya smiled at Zeko - who was behind her - and said “Better work on those creaky bones.”

He was flustered again, but he was also out of breath. He collapsed, amazed at how the elf was still running at full speed along with Alya and Sound.

The latter finally caught up to the elf and grabbed his cloak. They both tripped, and Alya casually held him down. The elf seemed to give up.

The Heroes started laughing and she looked at them. “What?”

Arlo explained. “What gave you the idea of chasing after an innocent traveler and trapping him against the ground?”

She suddenly realized that there was no reason that they should have chased him down.

“Well, he’s already trapped, right? Let’s just let him go.”

The elf suddenly spoke. “Wait.”

The group looked at him.

“Can I… join you?” he asked nervously. “I know I just… met you, but I need… a party to be with. To survive.”

Arlo immediately saw the advantage in having another person in the group. In addition, he might be a prophecy hero.

He walked forward and touched him, in which an interface showed up: “Heroes found: 9/10!” The moon elf looked startled.

“He’s a hero! Let’s let him join!” Arlo said. The group chorused in agreement.

“What’s your name?” Formula asked.

“My name,” the elf answered. “is Firefly.”

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