6.5 - Conflict (Patreon)

6.5 - Conflict

Sophia

They woke up before the sun even came up.

Partly by choice. Mostly by sleeping arrangements.

None of them could sleep well. The slopes of a riverbank with all its rocks and brambles and every other fucking thing that dug into their backs and ass cheeks didn’t make for good sleep. The cold of the night, with no fire because of the Goblins in the hills made it worse.  Even Hebert with her silk hammock (The bitch) hadn’t slept well, woken up every few minutes as though checking if someone had spotted them.

So they just… gave up trying to sleep more than woke up really.

Just picked themselves up after a few hours and started hoofing it back. 

Hebert gathered her phase spiders, and the basket of eggs. They reached the barn and picked up the cart. The damn thing was heavy with all the shit they’d gathered from Ethel’s place, the remains around the village and everything else they hadn’t sorted through. They tied it to Sir Loin and kept moving. 

Halsin didn’t set a brutal pace, the guy was obviously desperate to get back but had his head screwed on straight enough to understand that running into exhaustion ran the very risk that they’d never really arrive at all if they had to fight.

And frankly, given all of the foot prints they spotted that weren’t there when they passed through these parts just yesterday it was a very real possibility that they might have to. 

Suckers bet said that the bulk of the fucks that had survived last night had booked it to link up with the group here, no doubt they’d carried word about the bugs and everything else.

So if they got spotted, chances were they were gonna have a fight.

Chances also were that this group might magic up some way to, if not outright counter at least mitigate the swarm of bugs. No reason that this world wouldn’t work the way shit did back home. You got your ass kicked by something you tried to figure out how to beat that something. 

One thing that Halsin did do that no one, not even Hebert could, was lead them through the forest in ways that only someone who lived here could know.

Crossing a stream with the Ox and cart was always a hassle, but Halsin knew a spot that was just an inch or two deep rather than three or four feet. Thick brambles and heavy undergrowth was bypassed with simple ‘beaten paths’ hidden due to that same undergrowth but Halsin parted them with his body, leading the way and just stepping through rather than hacking and cutting. And when that didn’t work the guy just waved his hand, whispered some words and the trees and bushes very literally moved aside. 

It cut the two or three days that Sophia had thought they would have spent getting back, given their earlier pace when Halsin had been absent, into nearly a third.

So, when they crossed the river she’d mentally tagged as the “border” river, that was the last barrier to the Grove, it was nightfall, rather than the next day.

Granted, it was late and they were tired with people rotating turns on the cart, resting there in half hour to hour intervals, only one that still seemed to be going strong was Halsin and Sir Loin. 

As they crossed the river however, even though it was night and they could barely see-

“Jesus.” She couldn’t help but mutter.

The idyllic forest and crags they’d found when they arrived were not what they returned to. The horde of Goblins and their animals had trampled through the forest like a massive walking bulldozer. The underbrush had been trampled underfoot, small trees broken in two and some of the larger trees cut down for any number of reasons.

Behind her, she saw Durge turn to Hebert. “Are they close?”

Hebert shook her head. “Not in my range at least.”

“And your phase spiders?”

“Still following behind at the edge of my range.” She promised. “They can be here in an instant if we need them.”

Yeah, fifty plus spiders kind of made the group hard to miss. 

“That’s good.” Halsin cut in. “Because we’re not far from the hidden door, come.”

The Druid hurried his steps and everyone followed after him. 

They hugged the side of the cliffs, its rocky face was grey with the light of the moon and made her feel… exposed. Hebert said no one was in her range but she still felt like she was standing infront of a blank sheet, where anyone who bothered to look would easily spot her and everyone else with its pale backdrop highlighting them. 

But she didn’t complain, none of them did. In fact, everyone got quieter and quieter the more they walked. As if everyone was dreading the first hint of noise they might make, because it would immediately be detected by the army of little monsters hiding somewhere in the darkness.

They walked and walked, it felt like they walked for hours but her training, discipline and more importantly the position of the moon told her it couldn’t have been more than ten, or twenty minutes tops. 

And then, finally, Halsin paused, stopping at what looked like bare cliff rock. 

“Here.” He said.

She looked, and didn’t see even the barest hint of a door. 

Halsin seemed to brace himself, a light breeze that was either perfectly timed or a result of his magic kicked up, gently caressing Sophia’s cheek before the druid pressed his hands against the rocky cliffs.

The illusion melted away like butter under a blow torch, the rocky cliffs giving way to reveal a flat surface, druidic lines that to her eye, depicted waves or air currents glowed pale blue in the dark.

“Me-lon.” She heard Clements say under her breath. Why was she talking about Melons?

Halsin pressed his hands to the door, and the glowing surface shone brighter for a second before stone ground against stone and the door began to descend into the ground beneath them. 

“Inside, quickly” Halsin whispered urgently and as soon as the door was low enough, everyone began to hop and walk over it, 

When Hebert entered she stood by the door way and Sophia peered out to the night, watching multiple pulses of light flashing through the gloom like camera lights in a stadium, each pulse drawing them closer and closer.

It wasn’t subtle, if anyone was looking in this direction they would see the flashing lights.

But within another heartbeat, the fifty spiders were here and Hebert filed them in. They skittered up and around the others and Sophia saw Madison shudder as she watched spiders as big as medicine balls and small ponies crawl up and over their heads to go further inside. 

Hebert’s own little private mastered army.

Halsin chanted and the door began to reseal.

“No one sees?” The druid asked Hebert and the girl again shook her head. 

“No one within six hundred or so feet.”

Halsin nodded, relieved. “Good, Give me a moment to reapply the illusion.”

And so they waited, Sophia took the brief window of time to look around the cave. There were carvings of eagles, wolves and bears looking down from where they lined the walls, decorative support columns, deeper in she could hear the sounds of an underground river or waterfall. 

The door ground closed the cave became pitch black, the only source of light being Karlach’s glowing flesh.

Then, Gale, Wyll and Durge cast their own sources of light.

There was a shimmer by the door and Halsin sighed, relieved. “Good, we’re not far now.” His voice… sounded like hers, the day she came back after that Behemoth battle. The voice longing for home, no matter how shitty the situation at home was. He turned and with polite ‘excuse me’s and ‘Pardon’ he negotiated his way through the column of people and Ox choking the narrow passageway in order to lead everyone through the gloomy, dark cavern. 

They all followed, and after a second Sophia saw the giant phase spiders lining the walls and ceiling ahead of them, their bodies emiting a faint, bioluminescent glow. 

“That’s… kinda pretty actually.” Madison complemented, Hebert didn’t answer.

Didn’t take her long to realize Halsin’s path was following along the spiders, even after the Cavern opened up into a much wider cavity. Hebert had already found the exit. 

They rounded the corner and came onto a dead end.

No. Not a dead end.

Halsin raised his hand and the stone slab slid open. 

Light, torchlight poured into the cave like a floodlight, making her wince. Someone screamed on the other side. “Who goes there!?”

“Be calm, Findal.” Halsin urged, stepping forward into the room. “It’s only me.”

Sophia heard a gasp, even as the others began following through. “M-master Halsin!?” The… man? She was so over all the fuckig races of this place dude. Send the Nazi’s over here and let them get their minds blown by how much shit there was beyond skin color. Then let them get their asses kicked by those same things. 

.”Aye, along with my rescuers.”

One by one each of them stepped through the strange hidden door, and when it was Sophia’s turn- Nope. Not a man. She was pretty sure it was a… Gnome? Maybe the keebler elf. Guys hair was hiding his ears so she couldn’t tell if it was a Gnome, Halfling, or Dwarf. Why did this place have so many short people anyway?”

The guy actually did start crying, rushing forward he very literally kissed Halsin’s hands. “Sir! Thank Sylvanus! Thank him. But you must hurry, there isn’t much time!”

“Findal, what’s wrong?” The Archdruid asked.

“It’s Kahga!” Short-stuff answered, the name vaguely tickled something at the back of Sophia’s mind. Wasn’t that the bitch that took over with Halsin missing. “Kahga’s gone mad!”

She saw Halsin’s features darken. “What has-”

“She’s initiated the right of Thorns!”

Immediately, just by the big guy’s expression, she knew that whatever that was, it was bad. Halsin went white as a sheet, and then his cheeks flushed with fury and when he walked past Findal, he looked like a bear on a war path. 

Sophia and the others shared a look, everyone seemingly looking at everyone else, wondering if anyone knew what was going on, before they collectively, silently, realized that they didn’t but also didn’t want to miss the show. So they hurried after the guy.

As they followed and drew closer to what must’ve been the main chamber, Sophia could hear the voices filtering through the walls.

‘Kahg… please, she… a child!’

They entered into one more room, and this one she did recognize, Nettie’s healing room, Nettie herself had seemingly been kneeling in prayer, looking up when the door opened only to see Halsin, Sophia saw her whole face crumple in tearful relief, the small dwarf lady beginning to sob as she wiped her tears. 

‘...poison, Rath…  a thief. Bring them in… shelter… and this is how…”

Halsin opened the last door, and Sophia only had a second to take in the scene.

Black guy arguing with a red head chick, a vicious looking snake looking ready to bite a tiefling girl, and everyone else standing around looking uncomfortable.

Halsin’s whole face, at least from what she could see of his profile deformed. The man looked furious. And when he spoke… Sophia thought Durge could make ‘Thunder’

The Dragonborn had nothing on a pissed off druid it seemed.

“YOU DARE!?”

His voice bellowed and she could almost swear that the walls themselves quaked. She was damn sure every other druid besides the black guy and the red headed chick falling straight to their knees were definitely quaking in their boots.

The woman went pale, her mouth falling open, gaping like a fish as she struggled to find the words.

Sophia had the sudden urge to lean back and just take it in… 

She didn’t have much context, but fuckin-A, she had a feeling -this- was gonna be good.

Another short one today, and its not the Emma chapter but I felt this was a good point to cut it off.Next chapter will be the conclusion of Arc 6, which of course leads us into arc 7 where the girls and group will have a bit of proper downtime to finally sit, take stock and "refresh"The deep breath before the plunge, if you will.And for those of you who've played the game, you know where Arc 7 is capping off, the siege of the Emerald Grove.And my god have I been looking forward to that climax for a while. It's gonna be so so much fun, I promise you.But now some aditional news, specifically what happens after arc 7.Well to put it simply, after arc 7 I'll be taking a break from this fic. Not specifically of writing but of this fic. Specifically because I've had Ragnarok sitting about 75% done in my docs for a few days now and I want to focus on it in order to do the ending to that story properly. Endings are always difficult and juggling them with another story is never fun. So focus is needed.After that's done I will return to this fic here along with Three houses which I still work on. I will be posting a poll, some time tonight/tomorrow on if the chapters should be released to the public once I go on break, you all who've been here a while know the drill, if the chapters are released I come back with five updates if not then we start with just one from where we left off and so on.Anywho, read, review and all that fun stuffPS. Who has always wanted to see Halsin rip into Kahga but the game never lets us do it? I know I have, so I'm on Sophia's wavelength, lean back and take it in folks. Big Daddy Halsin's in the house and he brought the belt! xD