The plain stretches out, bland, flat, unending.
Kaline gushes, "I LOVE boring."
Vedette puts an arm around her, making sure her sister is safe. ", too. I just wish boring ca with a carriage. I can’t believe ours was destroyed."
Minette soothes the girls. "Carriages can be replaced. Lightning and Blaze can’t. You can’t. We’ll find a way ho. If we have to, we could ride Lobo, Demos, and Blaze. It will take longer to reach ho, but we can do it."
Demos straightens. [Who am I carrying?]
Gussie flaps about. [I can’t carry anybody.]
Kasz grunts. "Not such a long walk." He points at Lightning. "But Raara is already carrying cubs. She will not carry anyone. "Lightning licks Kasz, and he wipes his moist face.
Kaline and Hans, along with Maartenwitz and Kasz, climb on my back. Four is quite a load, but at least they aren’t too heavy. Vedette and Niall climb on Demos’ back, while Minette and Lamant opt to ride on Lobo.
Lightning, as Kasz says, already carries precious passengers in her belly, so she trots along beside us across the dusty, scrubby plain. No raindrops have kissed this tract of land in years. Odd, because a forest sits right next door. But perhaps it’s System’s fault. Perhaps the darkness next door has ssed with the water cycle.
Sotis the sunlight and the sky turn crimson over the plain, but revert back to normal.
The high afternoon sun dips lower and lower, cooling all of us. Fortunately, Maartenwitz and Niall thought to bring plenty of water, so we won’t wither away. Any foodstuffs lted away in the carriage, and the plain looks devoid of ga or even any kind of edible vegetation. Scrubby grass and nettles don’t count. But this plain can’t go on forever, can it?
Lobo slls the plain. [Well, it almost slls burned out. Maybe poisoned?]
[That’s what I thought. Maybe by System?]
Lobo woofs. [Or its monsters. If they can eat a carriage, they can stop the rain.]
Grim thought. So, nothing is living on this plain except for maybe nettles, grass, and the occasional insect.
Lamant asks Niall, "Do you have any information on this place?"
Niall shakes his head, with a shudder. "All I know is that I’ve never known anyone who has been here. Now I know why."
Hans brushes back his black hair, his hat lost in the forest. "My father ntioned this place. He and Einswine traveled back through here, but they rode in a carriage, and they did not go through the forest. I don’t rember why.
Kaline unrolls a map passed to her by Maartenwitz. We all halt to see the map. Lamant dismounts and hurries over.
The Mushroom Forest, an inkblot on the map, looks fairly contained, whereas the Goldensheaf Plains extend far in either direction, and loop around the Mushroom Forest, where the byway links with the main road. Simple.
"Several hours’ travel out of our way," Niall notes. "But better than getting farther and farther away from the road ho. Besides, we stayed at that inn last night before we reached the forest. We ought to be able to hire a carriage or two."
Our new course is set, and we turn around, heading in a direction that will skirt the horrors of the Mushroom Forest. Thanks to my new family, I am able to navigate this challenge with zero help from System. I will never ask for anything from System again.
Lightning trudges on beside , with frequent water breaks and rest breaks, but otherwise, she is an intentional machine. She has one goal: to cross this inhospitable land and get back to that inn where we passed a pleasant night, and from whence we can hire a carriage or two and journey ho.
At least we found out so information, even if on the surface it all seems fruitless. Everyone else is discussing what it all ans, which keeps them occupied in a journey of unending monotony. I can’t say I bla them. They ca all this way, risked their lives, and for what? To discover that Rosabel was lying, as far as they know?
I hint at having a Divine Vision that indicates that an evil force is at work and I will face it at the Beast Taming Elimination Tournant. Unsurprisingly, this placates no one, least of all Lightning. Again, I can hardly bla them for being sowhat dispirited. I credit the Mushroom Man for facilitating this vision and point out that we were rudely interrupted by the attack.
Vedette slls a conspiracy by the evil forces to thwart whatever ssages I might have received from the Mushroom Man. Hans wants to tap into my vision again, since we are still in the general vicinity of the Mushroom Man. Lamant and Maartenwitz forbid it. I would only be opening myself up to the darkness in that forest. Lightning and the other beasts agree, with Peridot being the only one who thinks it’s a good idea.
My friends and family aren’t wrong.
If I tap into my Divine Vision, System will be waiting for . I don’t trust it not to take over. Truthfully, all of my visions, including the one where I saw myself dying, have been manipulated by System in so way. Even the vision of the beasts frozen in marble, or the vision of Lothair Riddlehoeven’s dark magic. That one might have been a warning. Try and go against the System and see what you get. Turned into a creepy-crawly creature.
I can get along just fine without System.
Lobo woofs nearby. [Pick up your feet. This is killing .]
I grunt. [Oh, quit complaining. We’re all in the sa boat. Demos, you, and .]
[Yes, but only the two of us know just what is at stake. We don’t have a ton of ti until the tournant. Everything is riding on this.]
I give a little "mrrp" of acknowledgnt. [At least we know one thing.]
[Okay, I’ll bite. What?]
[We know that whatever intelligence is behind our pal Mushroom Man is locked in its own struggle against System. Also, that it may even be more powerful than System, because think about it. When has System used an avatar in the ga? It’s afraid.]
Lobo woofs. [Afraid?]
[Yes, of revealing itself. As long as it’s this computer voice that shows you images and displays and text, it’s safe, isn’t it? Almost anonymous.]
Lobo woofs again. [Hidden. Paranoid. And faceless in a way. Cold, even though it smiles.]
I’m so proud of him I can barely see straight. [Smiling assassin. That’s how it fools you, the way it fooled both of us. Well, not anymore.]
It’s been hours. One foot in front of the other. Stopping to rest for brief spells, but then back to the grind. The fading light isn’t a problem with our night vision, but I doubt we want to be caught out here on this endless expanse after dark. Certainly, our tars and the rest of the family would not be pleased.
The horizon blurs before us, and it is all I can do to keep going, even with the fuel of Kaline scratching my ears and Lightning nuzzling . What am I complaining about? She’s walking all this way while pregnant. Her exhaustion is there in the link, held at bay.
[Look!]
Lightning’s words rouse from my walking stupor. Gazing into the distance, I see sothing that makes my heart leap.
Gussie squawks, "The way out!"
Primal Beast be praised! I can see the path! My muscles are reinvigorated, and I speed up, while Lobo keeps pace with , and Demos charges ahead. Lightning is neck and neck with us.
Minette shouts, "Co on, co on, not far now!"
Push on. The dust clogs my nostrils and my mouth, and all the water in the world can’t cleanse it. I’ll bathe in the nearest river when I can. But Lightning goes first. Always.
The path snakes past the forest, making a hairpin turn out of sight, just as the map says. Single file, with at the front of our little parade, we navigate the path. Downward slope. Feel the burn in my legs. Down. Down. It’s as if I’m walking past a graveyard. Shudder. But we’re almost past the forest. A steep incline. Inching our way down to join the original path.
No sign of the mushroom-demons. Kaline holds her nose and points to a revolting puddle of tarry goo in the road. "That’s our carriage?"
"Yes, and thank the gods that it isn’t us," Minette reminds her.
Kaline mutters a little prayer as we file past the black tar patch. Her appeal to the gods seems to work. We pick up speed despite our fatigue.
Shafts of moonlight like pieces of straw are scattered across the path, illuminating our way. They are like a trail of gold leading us to the warm, welcoming lights of the inn. After a blessedly brief final leg of the trip, we arrive at the inn.
Finally, we can sleep.
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