Jessica levitated one of the humanoid frog bodies off of the pile and placed it on the side of the road. Aimee took out her focusing rod and drew a mana circle around it, and they both drew mana symbols around the outer edge. Jessica looked at Aimee's symbols and nodded her approval, then they both drew the inner circle with mana and several symbols on the body. They left it dressed, so that when the remnant saw itself, it wouldn't be desecrated by having things taken from it.

It only took a few minutes for Jessica and Aimee to complete the spell chants and the circles, symbols, and then the humanoid frog body glowed green. A moment later, all the glow coalesced together in the center and a nearly completely see-through frog humanoid floated up from the body. It squeaked at them and several of the farmers nearby screamed at the ghostly apparition and ran away. The captain had just stared at the thing.

Jessica ignored their reaction and showed the remnant the body. “Home.” She said to it. “We want you take you home.”

It squeaked again, and she cast the Levitate spell on the body.

“Go home.” Jessica said and moved the body a foot away. “Go home.”

The remnant looked at the floating body and then at Jessica before it turned around and floated down the road. Jessica, Kara, Aimee, Josh, and Evangeline quickly followed it. It went about a hundred feet, then it turned into a field and started to cross it.

“I can't believe this is actually working.” Josh said as they crossed the field fairly quickly and entered the woods there. “How far do you think it'll go?”

“There's only one way to find out.” Kara said.

Surprisingly, it wasn't very far. Barely a mile away in the woods, there was a thicket of trees so dense that there was only space between two of them to go through. The remnant stopped and pointed into the thicket.

“I don't think going in there is a good idea. It doesn't feel right.” Aimee said with a shiver. “What do we do now?”

“We do what we promised.” Jessica said and floated the frog body into the thicket. As it passed between the trees, a gaping black maw opened and the body was sucked in.

“By the Goddess!” Josh exclaimed in surprise.

The remnant, its task done, faded away... as did the gaping maw.

“Did you guys see that, too?” Josh asked and looked at the others. “It looked like a big mouth, right?”

“It did.” Jessica said. “What in the world was it?”

“It's not from this world.” Evangeline said and shivered slightly. “Aimee's right. We shouldn't go in there.”

“I don't feel like being eaten, either.” Josh said.

“I don't think it's an actual mouth.” Kara said. “It's just our minds giving it shape.”

“Well, my mind says it's a mouth with really big sharp teeth.” Josh said. “No, thank you.”

“We need to try and figure out what it is.” Jessica said. “Aimee, do you think we can set up a Truesight spell big enough?”

Aimee looked at the surrounding trees. “Maybe. If we can suspend the rods up high enough.”

“I'll handle levitating the rods into place.” Jessica said. “You start building the spell.”

They both got to work and Jessica formed four long rods out of nearby branches and covered them in her gathered tears to make them shimmer. When they were ready, she used a binding spell on them to make them stay together in a square shape and then levitated it up and held it in place.

“What's the symbol for eye?” Aimee asked.

“It's a squiggly horizontal line with a dot under it.” Jessica said.

“Ugh. So simple!” Aimee admonished herself. “Why can't I remember...”

“You're just learning.” Jessica said with a chuckle. “You can't expect to know everything right away.”

“You do.”

“I've been studying the whole time we travelled in the carriage and I've apparently got a fantastic memory now.” Jessica said. “I'd be completely lost if I was trying any of this stuff back home!”

“I doubt that.” Aimee said. “You've been so strong!” She said, her voice full of reverence. “You even stayed cool and collected when Hunter tripped our horses and we were all hurt.”

“You weren't awake for that.” Jessica said and looked over her shoulder to watch as Aimee added the components for the spell. “How do you know what happened?”

“I used a Before Knowledge spell last night while you were discussing where to put everyone.”

“Aimee!” Jessica said and reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “That's a tier two spell! Nice going!”

“Th-thank you.” Aimee said, her face red.

“You need bark of the pear-apple tree, not the bognut tree.” Jessica said and pointed at the written spell.

“What?” Aimee looked at the spell and changed it. “I need to read the index of the ingredients again.”

“As long as we have some, it should be okay.” Jessica said. “How are the ingredients holding up?”

“We have plenty, since a lot of the spells we use barely have any components.” Aimee said. “It's the big spells like this one that's going to cut into them.”

“We can replace what we need at the next town or when we go back to the last one and return the rented horses.” Jessica said.

“Then we're good to go.” Aimee said and picked up the spell and the ingredients. They set everything out in the proper order and they both started to chant. After thirty seconds, each of the ingredients dissolved in order and floated up and swirled into the space between the rods. When the last item joined the rest, Aimee pointed her focusing rod at the center of the mass and Jessica pointed her staff there, too.

“Don't conceal the truth! Our minds are not that weak! Show us what is real! Show us what we seek!”

The swirling mass spread out and filled the space in the middle of the rods in a square shape, and nothing appeared.

“Toss something in!” Jessica said.

Kara picked up a rock nearby and tossed it into the space between the trees underneath their Truesight spell. The gaping maw appeared and opened up, then it swallowed the rock and disappeared. The view through the square of Truesight however, showed something like a crack in the air. It was pitch black in the center and leaked black vapour out of it. It had opened when the rock went through and showed them something they never would have guessed.

Hundreds of those frog humanoids stood on the other side of it and their blank faces and eyes stared at them.

“Wow.” Josh said. “What do we do about that?”

Jessica put the large Truesight square into her bag of holding. “I think we all know what we need to do.” She said. “We need to ask the Goddess what we can do to shut this doorway.”

“Can't you just dispel it?” Evangeline asked.

“I probably could... if it was a spell.” Jessica said. “That thing is... it's... a crack in the world. I have no idea what to do to try and seal it.”

“Should we gather around it or be near it when we pray for guidance?” Aimee asked.

“No, we should move off a little before invoking the Goddess.” Josh said, sure of that answer. “Kara also needs to stand guard to protect us, in case our prayer does something to it.”

Kara nodded as she drew her sword and they moved away a short distance so that the thicket could still be seen, and Jessica, Josh, Aimee, and Evangeline huddled together. Josh gave Jessica a white robe and they all held hands and chanted. They were covered in a white glow after a few moments, then the thicket of trees seemed to shimmer.

“Hurry.” Kara said as she felt something enter her detection range, then another, then a dozen more. She waited until the frog creatures were close enough and used her Presence to push them all away. The light being emitted behind her grew in intensity and then cut off suddenly. She felt a warmth on her back and turned to see Evangeline. She was covered in white fire, and the others were unconscious on the ground.

“Step aside, Emissary. Your skills are not necessary for what comes next.”

“Yes, Goddess.” Kara said and ducked her head as she stepped aside. Evangeline walked forward and the frog humanoids tried to attack her. As they lunged at her or threw weapons, they were simply wiped from existence. The others were too stupid to learn from this and kept attacking her as she walked towards the thicket of trees. Ten more of them came out of the gaping maw and were erased, then they started to come out in a constant flow.

“Pitiful.” Evangeline said and stepped right up to the thicket, put her hand between the two trees that the frogs kept trying to jump through, then a light so bright that it lit up the entire forest came out of her hand. The ground shook as if something huge had impacted on the surface, then the light faded. The thicket had been crushed flat and the thing that was inside of it was no more.

Evangeline walked over to Kara and smiled. “Tell them not to worry about calling on me so much. I will come whenever I am needed. Be the task big or small.”

“Goddess, can I ask...”

“I cannot participate directly and I must work through others.” The Goddess Chaiya said through Evangeline's lips. “My embodiment seems to have exhausted the others, and I must assume Evangeline will be as well.” She reached out and touched Kara's face. “Ferry them back to the carriage. They will be fine by the time you reach the next town.”

“What about...”

“I have sealed the crack. Unfortunately, there are a lot of others. The next is near the next town.”

“I'll let them know.” Kara said. “How do we track...”

“You will figure it out.” The Goddess said, then the white fire blew out in a gust of wind and Evangeline fell to the ground, unconscious. She had a huge smile on her face.

I guess that means she knows what happened. Kara thought as she picked the girl up and carried her over to the others. She used her Levitate ability to manipulate the Presence in the air and picked up the others. It was a huge drain on her; but, she knew the Goddess needed her to get them all back to the carriage as quickly as possible. She managed to get them all back into sight of the carriage and the people moving the frog corpses saw her, as did Steven. They all ran over to her to help her with her burden.

“Thanks to... the Goddess Chaiya... it's done.” Kara said and dropped to her knees. “No more... frog things.”

The people cheered and she didn't object when one of them helped her stand up. They were all brought over to the carriage and the people helped put them all inside. Allirynn and Imiryl felt much better by this point, even though they were still weak, and they chose to ride on the horses to make room for the others. They left the horses tied to the back of the carriage, so they wouldn't have to worry about trying to control them or keeping up with the carriage.

Kara told the driver to take them to the next town. It would take a day, according to the kid guide, so she sat back and closed her eyes. She should be recovered herself by then and used a mental technique to enter a meditative state. Her thoughts weren't a mess like she had expected, and her urgent need to find Hunter had been sated slightly. She still felt it; but, since she knew where he was going and would be there herself eventually, her heart and mind settled into calmness and she drifted off to sleep.

The only two people still awake were Steven and the lamia, Siada. She had carefully and easily slid over to Steven and onto his lap, as if they were riding a horse together, which gave the others a bit more room. Steven had taken off his damaged armor the night before and stored it with the supplies, so they didn't have any hard surfaces between them. He put his arms around her and held her, and she tried to mime talking to him.

“I was never any good at charades.” Steven whispered. “I have no idea what you're trying to say.”

Siada sighed and leaned against him, so he held a hand up and wiggled his fingers. She glanced at the hand and wasn't sure what he was doing. He tapped one of her hands and wiggled his fingers again. She looked at his face and he smiled.

“You see? I can't even mime hand-holding.” Steven said in a whisper.

Siada raised her eyebrows at him, and he slid his hand under hers and took her hand, then intertwined his fingers with hers. She moved her mouth and asked him something, and he chuckled softly.

“I'm going to take a wild guess at that. No, I'm not crazy. I'm not even from this world.” Steven said. “I've never met anyone like you before and I think you're very exotic.”

Siada tilted her head and looked at him in confusion.

“It means very rare and exciting.” Steven responded. “Hey, maybe I'm better at it than I thought.”

Siada had to smile at him for that. She actually wanted to ask him if he was an idiot. Instead, she put her head down on his shoulder and stayed there until they stopped for food. She resumed that position after they ate and stayed that way until that evening. They stopped on the side of the road and Steven took out blankets for everyone and left them where they were. He took the lamia outside and gave bedrolls to Allirynn and the blue haired girl, then took his own and climbed under the carriage.

Siada stared at him as he carefully laid the bedroll out and then held a hand out to her. She shook her head, so he climbed out slightly and took her tied hands, pat them, then motioned to the bedroll.

“Under the carriage is the safest place besides inside the carriage, and there's no way we're going to have a comfortable sleep in there with so many people.” Steven said. “Unlike what the others think, I'm not going to undress you and feel you up.”

Siada blinked her eyes at him and wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

“It's warmer with two bodies in bed and it's cozy.” Steven said. “Trust me, it'll be nice under there.”

Siada couldn't really object, since she was still a prisoner, so she nodded. He grinned at her and they both slid in under the carriage and Steven let her get in first. She was a little bigger than a normal person because of her tail, so she coiled it up at the bottom of the bedroll and he slid in beside her.

“No, that's not good enough.” Steven said and slid out, then climbed out from under the carriage.

Siada was so surprised that he had left her completely unattended that she didn't even consider trying to escape. Steven came back with a thick blanket and climbed back under the carriage and covered her and the bedroll with it. He climbed back inside next to her and snuggled in close.

“There, that's much warmer.” Steven said. “I told you it was nice and cozy under here.”

Siada looked into his eyes to see if he was trying to trick her, and all she saw was openness and frankness. Something she hadn't seen on anyone's face, at least not before she had met Allirynn and his friends. Tears came to her eyes as she thought about them and what she had done and Steven's hand quickly reached up and wiped the tears away for her.

“Yeah, I know. The situation we're in is pretty scary.” Steven said. “Don't worry, though. I've been assigned to protect you and that's what I'm going to do.” He said with a smile. “They don't call me the Paladin of Light for nothing.”

Siada was sure he was only saying those things to reassure himself, and she didn't care. She put her tied wrists around his neck and hugged him tightly. Steven put his arms around her and held on just as tightly.

The night passed fairly quickly and everyone was up and awake by morning. Kara had worried about the lamia until she questioned Steven about what happened, then she relaxed. They all ate breakfast and Kara told them what the Goddess had told her the day before, about there being another crack near the next town. They packed everything up and Allirynn and Imiryl climbed back inside the carriage because Jessica and Aimee had resumed riding the horses. The group travelled for half the day to get to the town. Once there, they were greeted by a very happy guard at the gate house.

“We're emissaries of the Goddess Chaiya.” Jessica said to the guard on top of the small guard house. “We're here to deal with that large armored monster.”

“You're about a week too late for that!” The guard chuckled. “That Hunter guy cleared out thirteen of them!”

Everyone in their group was surprised to hear that and the guard noticed.

“Yep! He just strode into town with one on his back and asked if there was a bounty on it.” The guard laughed. “He came back an hour later with a dozen more of them and laid them out in the town square! What a sight that was!”

“There's still a threat to the town and...” Jessica started to say.

“You'll be wanting to see the mayor, then.” The guard said. “I'll be right down.”

The guard climbed down and let them into the town and to the mayor's office. Once there, they got the whole story from the mayor named Andora and they told her that more would come.

“If you can stop them from coming back, that would be wonderful!” Andora said. “If you kill any armored creatures on the way, be careful of their tails and their blood. It's corrosive poison.”

“Do you have any of the creatures here?” Jessica asked.

“Only the heads.” The mayor said and put one on the desk. She had them there because she wasn't sure what to do with them. “The armored bodies we managed to cut up and are working to try and make armor out of them.”

Jessica held in her sigh, because she was pretty sure that the remnant spell wasn't going to work with only a head to conjure a ghost from. “We'll try and deal with it as soon as possible.” She said and took the head anyway, just in case.

“Go have fun, you kids!” Andora said and waved them out of the office.

“She called us kids.” Steven said with a laugh.

Jessica and Aimee tried the remnant spell, and surprisingly, a ghostly head appeared above it. They did the same thing they had with the frog creature and followed the remnant for a couple of miles into the forest where another large thicket of trees was and Jessica took out the Truesight square before tossing in the head. They saw the same thing behind it. A gaping black maw opened to accept the head, and through the square, were hundreds of the creatures that just stared blankly back at them.

“They look a lot more dangerous than the frog things.” Josh said as he saw the large armored armadillo things. “We need Steven here at least.”

“I'll stay out of the prayer as well.” Jessica said and cast one of her little communication creatures. It flittered away and Josh, Aimee, and Evangeline started to pray while Kara and Jessica watched them. Steven was there a couple of minutes later, just in time to slash his sword through the head of an armored creature before it reached the three praying people. Kara and Jessica had already killed several others and one had sneaked by them somehow.

Josh, Evangeline, and Aimee managed to conjure up the Goddess again. She inhabited Aimee this time by covering her in white fire while the other two fell unconscious, their energy spent. Steven immediately bowed to her and averted his eyes, and she pat the top of his head.

“I appreciate your extra devotion; but, just unwavering loyalty will suffice.” The Goddess Chaiya said.

Steven chuckled at her joke without lifting his head. “You know you're still my dream girl.”

“You still harbour such lofty assumptions?” The Goddess Chaiya asked.

“Why ask for the world when you can ask for the universe?” Steven asked, and he felt her amusement.

“You should settle for just the world.” The Goddess Chaiya said with a smile and walked by him. She passed Kara and Jessica and they also had their heads bowed. She quickly sealed the crack and went back over to them. “You have done well so far.” She said. “As you retrace your steps to go back to the capital, use those things you carry to find more of the cracks for me to heal.”

The white fire faded and Aimee collapsed into Jessica's arms, unconscious. Jessica and Kara exchanged looks and nods. Some of the carcasses they had stored as proof of their deeds were now going to come in handy in another way. Kara gathered the six creatures they had killed and then they carried the three unconscious people back to the carriage, placed them inside, and went back to the town to let the residents know that the job was done and that they didn't have to worry about the armored armadillos anymore.

They tried to refuse the bounty that the mayor offered them, then Jessica pointed out that they needed to replace some of the spell supplies and would need feed for the horses and other things. The mayor was more than happy to show them around the town and let them spend the money they had earned. The group bought what they needed and left the now very happy town, then started to make their way back to the capital. It was going to take another week for them to get back there with all the stops they had to do along the way to seal the cracks.

Since they were already two days behind Hunter on his journey towards the capital, their only hope was that the Queen of the First Sothen Kingdom and the head acolyte would be able to delay him long enough for them to catch up to him.

Allirynn wasn't very happy, because the last two towns hadn't had a healer, and Josh was exhausted and needed to rest after each time they left the carriage and dealt with the creatures. Neither he nor Imiryl had any healing for the last two days and had to suffer through travelling as well. The more Allirynn was with these people, the Emissaries of Chaiya, the less he liked them. They seemed more concerned over their own needs and fulfilling them than they were for the things they deemed a lower priority. Namely, healing him and Imiryl.

Once they had become mobile, they had been mostly forgotten and were more of a hindrance to them than anything else. Allirynn didn't like that at all. Unfortunately, he was still much too weak to head out on his own. Also, the one named Jessica had all of his things and the belongings of his friends in her bag of holding. He was going to have to wait for a while before he would be strong enough to ask for them back.