The Stegosorcerers

Chapter 4

     They were weary. They'd been traveling for several days, around 3. At least they were out of the forest now.
"Where do we go?" Asked Gnome. Carp sighed dejectedly.
"I'm not sure," he replied. Where were they supposed to go? They had no leads.
"We should've planned better," added Boris. Socks thought the Stegosorcerers were being harsh on themselves. They weren't doing horrible. Socks was just worried. Worried about his mother. Worried about his father. Worried about his siblings. Most of all, he was worried he'd be caught. If he was, then all of them would be in trouble. He was also worried about his friends and his mentor. Socks thought Cardboard was rude to Gus. It was an honest mistake, burning his stegostaff.
I'd like to see Cardboard do his magic when his stegostaff can be destroyed by his element. It's not Gus' fault! he thought. In Socks' opinion, Cardboard was kind of a dick.
"What do you think, Socks?" asked Nugget, trying to give the apprentice a chance to speak.
"I think we should've helped Gus," replied Socks, glaring at Cardboard. Before Cardboard could reply, a twig snapped (wow! What a shock!) behind them.
• • •
Gus walked over to a stick and was about to pick it up before Mister Hache stopped him.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked Gus.
"I was gonna pick the stick up for the stegostaff," replied Gus. Appendix shook her head as Mister Hache replied.
"You can't use any stick!" he exclaimed, "It has to be a certain stick!"
"How do we know what stick it is?" asked Appendix. She knew they needed a specific kind of stick, she just wasn't sure how to find it.
"It'll let off a bit of heat and glow in the dark, resembling fire." The two nodded. The search began.
They spent hours searching, Appendix and Gus calling Mister Hache over every few minutes asking if a certain stick was 'the one.' (Hint: none of them were) Finally, Mister Hache called the two over, showing them a stick. It looked normal, but they could feel the heat radiating off of it.
"Okay, step one: done. Now step two," said Mister Hache, pulling out a knife. Gus' eyes widened.
"What?!" He exclaimed.
"I just need to get a drop of blood, okay?" explained Mister Hache. Gus reluctantly agreed. Mister Hache quickly pushed the knife onto Gus' foot (cause stegosauruses don't have hands. They hold their staffs in their mouths) until blood trickled down his leg. Mister Hache got a small vial and put the blood in it. "Before you ask, we need to mix the phoenix ash and blood together before we put it on the stick. It's kind of like a glaze or like stain for wood." Appendix couldn't help but love the blood. She didn't like it because it was blood. She liked it because it was such a beautiful color. "Alrighty, we're ready to go!" exclaimed Mister Hache, and they headed off.
They'd gotten out of Lugar de Palo a few minutes earlier. Gus was a little worried.
"What if we can't find the phoenix ash?" he asked.
"Don't worry! If nothing else, regular ash will work, it just won't be nearly as effective," explained Mister Hache.
"Where to next?" Asked Appendix.
"We'll head to Feathers' house and see if she has any idea where to get some," replied Mister Hache.
"Oooh~" Appendix said.
"Shut up!" exclaimed Mister Hache.
"What?" Asked Gus.
"Feathers is his girlfriend!" Appendix replied in a singsong voice.
"No she's not!" her brother exclaimed.
"No, but you sure as hell wish she was!"
"Yeah? What about Shoelace?" Mister Hache threw back. Gus wondered what Boris' apprentice had to do with this.
"I don't like her like that anymore. Besides, she's with Battery," replied Appendix. Wait, so Shoelace, Boris' Apprentice, and Battery, Gnome's apprentice, are together?! It was shocking to learn because the two pairs are constantly trying to prove they're better than the other pair.
"Then what about Gecko?" asked Mister Hache. Appendix stopped.
"Fuck you," she said after a minute. Mister Hache smiled.
"It's getting late, so we'll go tomorrow. We're close enough to the house that we can return there and get supplies before leaving tomorrow," said Mister Hache. The two nodded, their exhaustion finally catching up to them.
The group arrived at the house and said goodnight to one another. Gus laid down, falling asleep almost immediately.