Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

Nyah pinched the bridge of her nose, "Why can't this family just be normal people?", she shook her head and floated off to go do something that didn't confuse her immensely.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta shrugged. He'd never known what normal was. He resumed his search for Raine, finding her just outside digging a hole in the yard. Another one. He tried to approach from a direction where he wouldn't get hit with flying fdirt, but she kept rotating so it was difficult. Eventually he just called out. "Raine!"

The dirt stopped flying as the tail pointed up before vanishing. Raine poked her head up a moment later. "Yeah?"

"Turac froze his lake with Shuffle in it. Can you look for any signs she got out?"

Raine raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Ah, sure?" She climbed out of her hole and shook herself off before heading off towards the lake.

 

[Darkling0096]

Around Turac's lake it was a winter wonderland. The ground was frozen from the ice in the lake, so it probably wouldn't be good for digging, and frost clung to every plant. The lake itself was opaque, as Turac's ice was rarely clear when it froze, but the hilly terrain to the north of the pool showed just how much dirt and stone the turtle had excavated to deepen the lake. Because of the cold from the frozen lake, any rainfal turned to sleet, and there was actually a growing hump of frozen precipitation growing atop the lake as the weather turned for summer and the monsoons came.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine didn't even get to the shore before turning back. She returned a little later with her kobold-sized coat, custom made and enchanted to keep her warm in cold weather. She stopped at the edge of the ice and looked around. "Why'd he have to make this so big...?" She shook her head and started walking around the lake, looking for any of the telltale signs that Shuffle had been by.

 

[Darkling0096]

Because of the depth, and the nature of Turac's ice, with nowhere for the melted water to drain away Shuffle would have gotten nowhere if she had tried to escape the frozen lake by melting her way back to the surface, so if she had managed to escape she would have had to have dug under and around the ice. Tunneling through caved in soil with nowhere for the dug dirt to go had never presented a challenge for either Raine or Shuffle, somehow, so there could very well be a network of tunnels around the ice from Shuffle trying to get out.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine wandered about the lake shore for a bit. She had to admit the scenery was kind nice to look at. She might've liked it if it weren't so cold. She also had been wondering where Shuffle had gone. It wasn't unusual for her to run off on her own for a few days, so she hadn't thought anything of it. Getting a bit lost in thought, she was caught off guard by falling into a hole. sShe let out a squeak before quickly climbing back out to look at it. Yep, it was about Shuffle-sized. but looking at how the sleet had piled over the turned earth, this hole was a few days old already. So, where was Shuffle?

 

[Darkling0096]

With the frozen rain and sleet on the ground, any tracks that were laid before the last rainstorm were gone, as well, so tracking wouldn't be easy.

Around that time, Jerry stepped out of the house to join Asta on the porch, having finished getting dressed and putting her pretty face on. "I've gotta come outside more often," Jerry sighed when the saw all the holes in the ground, "And I gotta talk to Raine and Shuffle about the holes."

 

[Fangs9090]

Yeah, even Shuffle couldn't track in this, much less Raine. She shook her head and glanced around. Well, she knew Shuffle had gotten out, and that's all she was sent for, so she headed back home. Shuffle could fend for herself and always came back home eventually.


Asta nodded. "At least they don't dig under the house."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Yeah," Jerry sighed and put a wing around Asta as Raine returned, "How'd it go?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"It's freakin' cold." Raine shook her head, carrying her coat in her arms now. "But I did find a hole leading under the lake, so it looks like Shuffle did get out, at least a few days ago."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry groaned, "Of course." She looked back to the house, "There's a mirror on my makeup table, if she's not back by morning, call Roy."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Alright," Raine paused halfway to her den before looking over. "Are you not going to be back by morning?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Probably not," Jerry shook her head, "We're going out."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine blinked before continuing on her way. "I know better than to ask at this point..."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry made a face, "Okay, we really do need to find a new way to kill time."

-------------

Morning dawned on the party, corpse fire still burning, bandit leader still groaning frozen to the wall.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy was the first to wake, despite being the last one to sleep. The growing light of the sun roused him and he sat up, stretching. Nidia had just rolled over and curled up against the sunlight.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jalin woke soon after, coming out of one of the towers with a jump of cheese from his rations. Turac didn't seem to have gone to sleep at all, and was looking very confused at the lack of waking endurance the human body had after three days with no sleep.

"Good morning," Jalin nodded towards the others as he listened to the forest, "I can hear marching in the distance."

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy nudged Nidia awake, making sure she wouldn’t just go back to sleep before addressing Jalin. “Could be the prince already. I won’t complain. Not if it means leaving here early.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Jalin listened around, "I suppose we should wake Emilia and Siege." He paused as he perceved Turac's state, "And get Turac some coffee."

 

[Fangs9090]

Nidia spoke up as she stood. “I can get the coffee.”

Roy gave a nod. “Then I’ll wake Seige and Emilia.” They both headed off to accomplish their tasks.

 

[Darkling0096]

In the barracks, Siege seemed to bee sleeping easier than Roy and Nidia had, on an actual bed, though she had used Sinach's magic abilities to make that happen. She was on her side, hugging the book to her chest as she slept.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy glanced around as he stepped into the room before he whistled. "Hey, it's morning, and Jalin hears marching in the distance. Time to get up."

Emilia grumbled a bit as she looked over from her web.

 

[Darkling0096]

A solid middle finger was Siege's answer as she grumbled and rolled out of bed, fishing around for a hairbrush. "Jalin's hearing is bullshit."

 

[Fangs9090]

"You'll have to bring that up with him." Once he saw that they were both getting up, Roy turned to head back out.

Emilia stretched once she had her feet on the ground, brushing her own hair before gathering up what little stuff she had set out.

 

[Darkling0096]

Siege just grumbled as she got out of bed. it wasn't a comfortable bed, by any means, but it was better than being stabbed in the back by absolutely nothing when you laid on the ground, sleeping roll or no. "We really need a base to go get rocks from," she grumbled as she tossed Sinach back onto the bed and put a hairbrush through her mane.


Outside, Jalin was taking an interest in the bandit captain. His injuries had not been healed and his extremites were severely frostbitten. Jalin wondered if the man would expire soon. "Fortune did not smile on you, did it?"