Chpt. 20) Gameday

When Ford awoke the next day, she still lay in the wagon and covered in her blood. She sat up with a groan and placed her hand on her head; it felt like Gimble had stepped on her and then stood on one foot while holding a horse. Then she looked at her shredded, blood-soaked clothes and spent a hundred mana repairing and cleaning them.

She looked around to see where they were when Wrath spoke, “Don’t. Ever. Do that. Again.”

‘On that, we can agree,’ Ford agreed, as she took in her surroundings. They were still on the plains with scattered mossy rocks and trees, and they had set up camp. Then she caught sight of Lilly sitting by a fire staring at it, infatuated by the dancing tongues of flame. Ford climbed out of the wagon and made her way to Lilly; with every step, her boots made a soggy, squelching sound that made Lilly turn to see what caused the noises.

She saw Ford covered in blood and stared for a moment, a little disgusted. Ford looked down at herself, then back to Lilly, “Can you spray me down with a water spell or something?” she asked.

Lilly nodded and said, “Sure, I can do tha’ for ye.” Then she stood and pointed her staff at Ford casting essence thrower with water essence. The water spray felt cold and stung her skin through her clothes, but it did an excellent job cleaning her. Once Lilly finished, she used the essence thrower again with air essence and dried Ford off quickly. She still looked like a mess, but she was a clean mess.

Ford thanked her, sat next to Lilly, and looked at the time; it was six-thirty-four, and the sun hadn’t yet arisen. “How long have I been asleep, and where are we?” Ford asked.

“We’re back at our camp to rest a moment. We decided to leave at seven, so we could all get some sleep.”

Ford nodded, “Well then, let’s get some food going for everyone, and by the time we’re done, we can eat and go. What do you want to eat?” Ford asked.

“I’ll just have wha’ everyone else is havin’,” Lilly said, disappointed.

“Lilly, I know you don’t like meat, but you’ll eat it if there’s nothing else. While I was in town, I bought extra vegies just for you. So I ask again, what do you want to eat?”

Lilly curled her lips in a small smile and said, “Some cruciferous veggie salad, please.”

“Grilled?”

“Aye, tha’ would be nice.”

“You got it,” Ford said with a smile, then got to work butchering a small part of a cow and then grilling sliced meats and chopped veggies on the side of the fire with her new saute pans and skillets. As Ford cooked, the smell of greasy, sizzling meats slowly woke everyone up. All the food finished cooking by seven o’clock, and Ee summoned the bowls and utensils for everyone.

The food wasn’t the best that Ford had ever made, but considering that she didn’t use any seasoning or oils or butter, the meal wasn’t half bad, especially compared to the stews they had been having every day. They all silently finished eating the food, and Gimble asked for seconds, then Morgan, Lilly, Benet, Max, Kii, Mizu, Farah, and Ee.

“No, we can’t right now,” Ford said, failing to suppress a smile, “We need to get moving and put as much distance between Mammoth and us as possible.”

“But it was-” Kii started.

“So good,” Mizu finished.

“I know,” Ford said, not acknowledging their alternating speech, “anyhow, get up all you. Let’s go,” nobody moved. Ford sighed, “The sooner we go, the sooner I cook you all lunch,” everyone rushed into action, breaking down the tents, rangling the horses, and putting out the fire. Then they left the camp behind by seven-thirty.

***

“Huh,” Tanashi said while playing a complicated and accurate game of three dee chess with himself.

“What?” Guargen asked.

“Do you think we could just entice our champions with food rather than a wish?” Tanashi asked.

“No,” everyone said at once.

The three dee chess game collapsed, and Tanashi looked shocked at everyone, “But, what if-”

“No,” Samael interjected.

“What about-”

“No,” Shurma said.

“But-”

“NO!!” everyone said once again. Ending the conversation.

***

As the sun rose higher in the sky and the time ticked by, they entered another forested area that wasn’t as densely packed as the greenwood that Ford had woken up in; everyone quickly got bored and played a card game. Apparently, Ee had several decks of cards, so Morgan and Lilly began playing a gambling game with wood chips and pebbles. Ford watched for a while and couldn’t discern any of the rules, but if the long string of curses that flowed from the Elf’s mouth like water was anything to go by, Morgan had won twenty-two to zero.

Lilly’s losing streak became everyone’s sole source of amusement for a long while, then red dots appeared on Ford’s radar, and she stopped laughing immediately and said, “Heads up. We got incoming.”

Max pulled on the reins stopping the horses, and everyone stood and looked for the enemies, wherever they may be, except for Lilly. A snarl drew Ford’s attention to the left, and she turned to see a massive half man half wolf covered in black and white fur emerging from behind a clump of trees, then two more, then three more, five more. Soon they were surrounded by a dozen wolf-like monsters; Ford summoned her spear and was about to give out orders when Lilly sprung into action.

In the blink of an eye, she reached the first monster, fired an earth spear into the monster’s sternum with her staff, twirled it, and shot another one through the head. The monster collapsed, and several of the others lunged at her. She ducked, bobbed, and weaved through the attacks while elegantly shooting off lances of light, fire, and earth at the monstrous wolves. As each attack landed, a monster fell until only five creatures remained. These five looked to be the sensible ones because they turned and ran away from her. Lilly, however, wasn’t done yet; she collected a massive amount of mana at the tip of her staff and fired a massive beam of pure abyssal blackness at the monsters killing the rest of them.

Ford watched the carnage, and her jaw dropped; Lilly turned around and walked back to the wagon with a swagger in her step that wasn’t there before. As Lilly walked past Ford, she used a finger to close her mouth and said, “Careful, ye migh’ get a bug in there.”

Ford worked her jaw, searching for words, then asked, “What were those monsters?”

“Those were Beowolves,” Lilly answered, “very savage and dangerous to fight.”

As she climbed into the wagon, Ford bent over to Morgan and said, “New strategy. Let the Elf win.”

“DON’ YOU BLOODY DARE!!” Lilly yelled, overhearing them, “I’M GOIN’ TO BEAT YE FAIR AND SQUARE YE WEE MANKY DWARF!!”

“What did she just call me?” Morgan asked.

“I think it’s slang for short and disgusting,” Ford answered.

Morgan looked Lilly dead in the eyes, puffed up his muscular chest, and said, “YOU’RE ON! YOU POMPOUS ELF!!” then he climbed into the wagon and sat down in front of Lilly and began playing again. Ford looked at the time, ‘Ten forty-five,’ she thought, then climbed into the front of the wagon, closely followed by Max, who took the reins and compelled the horses to move with a flick of her wrists.

After another twenty minutes of riding and Elveish cursing, Ford’s radar lit up again. She tapped Max on the shoulder and said, “We got more incoming.” Again everyone climbed out of the wagon and readied themselves. Then an idea occurred to Ford, “Hey, how about we play a game?”

Everyone paused, then Max asked, “What kind of game?”

A smile crept onto Ford’s lips as she said, “Well, the game is simple. Whoever kills the monsters in the quickest and most extravagant way wins. Morgan, you get to go next.”

Morgan smiled a little as six chameleon-like Lazarus beasts emerged from the trees on all sides, their scaley skin changing from a brownish-green to red. Morgan hefted his mighty Warhammer and charged at the first of the Lazarus beasts striking its left side and activating the double impact. The Lizardman’s arm cracked, and it launched into another two of the Lizards. Then Morgan created an ethereal blade out of purple mana twice his size and threw it at the pile of monsters; as the blade made contact with the skin of the monsters, electricity fried and burned their bodies. The stench from the burnt meat made Ford’s nose curl in disgust.

Then Morgan turned and threw his hammer at the Lazarus beasts on the other side of the wagon. The hammer struck one of the beasts knocking it down; then, it flew back to Morgan’s outstretched hand, and he brought it down on the monster’s head, crushing it with a squelching crack. Then he created another ethereal blade and severed the heads of the last two Lazarus beasts with a quick slash.

Ford clapped slowly and said, “Well done, Morgan. And I’m talking about the burnt corpses over there.”

“What was it not good enough?” Morgan asked, a little offended.

“No, it was good. But compared to Lilly’s performance. Lilly’s was more impressive,” Max said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

“Though what was that ethereal blade skill you did?” Ford asked.

“It’s as you said. It’s called; ethereal blade: create a blade out of mana,” Ee answered.

Ford nodded, “Neat. Let’s go a little further and get something to eat.” Everyone agreed, and they set off on the wagon again.

***