The Devil's Bane: (slightly more than) a short story

Chapter XVI: The Split-Up

Dess thought about Felix and the bear. He wondered if the bear was really just a fake. He thought all of these things while going through the woods. The leaves around him seemed to sway violently through the treetops. As he wondered how in the world he was going to get out of these forest's alive. As he wondered all this, they came upon a tiny treehouse town-thing. As they gazed upon this, an old lady came across their path. She asked if they could get her up there where the tree village was. They gladly accepted and she grabbed Cade's back as they climbed up to the village.

When they got up to the town, the lady thanked them, and before she walked away, she said quietly, "Looks like you have the Devil's Bane from the prophecy among your group, don't you?"

Dess ignored her and walked on. They all rested in a shelter not far from the tree village. After they arose the next day, they went to the village. They decided to split into two groups: one trying to find the monsters that had attacked earlier (Cade and Gerald), the other getting supplies to keep them alive for a while (Dess, Anthony, and Charlotte). Probably not the best idea...

Cade heard a strange, gurgling sound while he was looking in the forest with his group. He quietly motioned for Gerald to follow him, then they took off in the direction of the noise.

Meanwhile, Dess and their group were looking for a shop or even a trading area. But all they heard while they were walking were the whispers of astonished people. "Is that the Devil's Bane?" they would mumble to each other.

"Yes, I think that is," the other one would mutter back.

"Legend says there are supposed to be seven in the group. I only see five."

"Word around town says that one fell down a pit in another dimension. They haven't seen him since."

"Eh, it's fine. Kids are too sensitive."

Dess and Charlotte pretended not to notice as the group finally found a shop that was called The Lizard's Gizzard. They decided to walk in.

.....To be greeted by a cloud of smoke. There was a fire going on.

"OH GREAT GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE!!" a shopkeeper with gray hair cursed, wading through the smoke. "I USED TOO MUCH GERPLE IN MY INVISIBILITY POTION!!"

"Um, okay, we can help," Dess said. "Anthony, you know what to do."

"Yup!" Anthony agreed, creating a spout of water everywhere the fire was, putting it out immediately.

To make it dry again, Charlotte used her earth powers to get dry soil and soak all the water up, while Dess cleared out any sort of ash or smoke with their fire element.

"Why, thank you for saving my shop, kids! How can I ever repay you?" the shopkeeper said gratefully.

"No need, we're good," Charlotte responded.

"No, I insist!"

"Okay, could we have some money to buy supplies?"

"Here you go!" The old lady gave them a reddish-orange cube. "This is an Import Cube. It is the same as any currency. It has three hundred currency of any kind on it, so use it wisely!"

After the group thanked the lady, they walked to a nearby food shop and bought some chicken, beef, vegetables and fruit. They also went to another place and bought some water. "So, Dess, how have you been?" Charlotte asked awkwardly. "Good I guess. Tired, you know. How about you?" Dess answered. "Good, uh, you know- never mind." Charlotte flushed. Dess shrugged it off and they set off on their way to find Cade and Gerald.

*****

Cade and Gerald were still among the old, tall trees, in the place where they heard the sound. It was a wide clearing in the forest, so they took a moment to rest.

As they were catching their breath, Gerald suggested splitting up. Cade agreed, and they decided that Gerald would go to the area with more trees and plant life, since he would be more sneaky.

While Cade was searching through his section of the forest, he saw a flash of purple. Then he felt a force from behind and he fell to the ground. He screamed and tried to get up, but something, probably a crude metal tool of some kind, hit him in the back of the head.

The last thing he saw was a small dung beetle look up at him like, Haha loser!! Then everything turned pure black.