Ark Lore Part 1: The Goal

An Hour later

"Are we there yet?" Anya whined while pulling on Kaitlyn's arm.

"For the last time, Anya I d-don't know. I-I m sorry," Kaitlyn moaned in defeat. Lars stopped walking and turned around and walked towards Anya. She laid her head down thinking she was in trouble. Lars bent down, lifting her head to make eye contact, he smiled while whipping the smudge off her face. Her red fur still glimmers even though it was covered in shit.

"There's no need to complain, Anya we are here," Lars said with a smile. Kaitlyn turned away and crossed her arms, her gaze meeting with Zac: he just shrugged. Lars resumed his walk forward. This time he was practically running. Everyone ran too to catch up, but it seemed Lars was a bit faster. The irritating and burning smell of piss and shit began to make its move. The stench and clusters of shit got worse as they threaded along, making it challenging for one to run. Zac spoke up and they decided to run a bit slower so as not to accidentally hurt themselves or anyone with his fire magic.

"Huh the sludge stopped. That's fine with me. I was starting to get worried my coat or even my suitcase would get covered in that filth." Raymond said, wiping off his suitcase with a clean hand. Soon after the group heard aggressive banging and crashing noises. The group ran up to find that Lars broke down a wall that revealed a passageway. Black particles swarmed around the axe like bees around a hive once Lars threw it over his sturdy shoulder.

"Hey, what the hell took you guys so long?" Lars said while spinning the Axe of the Oppressed around like a flag.

"Sorry, but you run too fast. You are literally a different species." Zac said while panting trying to catch his breath. He slouched over and took deep breaths of air, but first he made sure his tome was in a good condition. He wiped his glasses off and glanced at Lars.

"Oh sorry, I just got really excited. Sorry you guys are unbelievably slow." Lars said, playing with his axe.

"It's o-okay Lars," Kaitlyn said while crossing the threshold into the passageway. The sewer water and shit began to dry into everyone's clothing, Lars' fur, and of course, Raymond didn't have a spec of shit on him and the shit didn't even sink into Anya's fur. It's as if the clumps were afraid to touch her fur. The air quality was different here and it felt nice for everyone to breathe in, especially Kaitlyn and Zac since they are humans. Everyone else followed after Kaitlyn. After five minutes of walking in a quiet line, they approached a spiral staircase.

"Hey Kaitlyn let me take the lead on this one. Just in case my brother is there," Lars said almost wanting to shove her aside but he didn't.

"S-Sure," Kaitlyn nodded while stepping aside to allow Lars to pass her. His tall figure loomed over Kaitlyn once Lars was in front of her. Every know and then she glanced up and Lars and back down at the metal coated stairs. They began the ascension of the spiral staircase. After eleven dreadful minutes of stepping, Lars halted as he faced what spread to be the backside of a bookcase. Lars felt around for a switch or lever to see if it could be opened from the back side. Lars sighed as his efforts were in vain.

"Of fucking course," Lars said while gripping on to the Axe of the Oppressed. He swung the Axe around, chopping down the bookcase as if it didn't even exist. From the other side a scream rang out. The group filled the room to find an older female ark in fancy clothing who just spilled her afternoon tea on herself.

"Oh Lars my dearest, you nearly gave me a heart attack," she said in a soft, angelic voice.

"Oh mother," Lars said sympathetically as he dropped the Axe of the Oppressed to hug her. The black particles swirled downwards and disappeared, but the diamond still remained black.

"I'm so sorry for not being able to see you at all this year," She said, tears streaming from her eye. Her wrinkled cheeks began to puff and she buried herself into Lars' chest covered in cuts and wounds.