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But by this time night was falling & they could hear the hunting calls of a very extremely large band of wolflizards coming closer.

"On second thought, I think these people need all the help they can get," Pirro commented with forced nonchalance, "Hey, Arimi, how many ratlizards typically appear?"

"Zillions!" Arimi shouted back hysterically, "they cover the earth like a thick-woven blanket spreading out from our well"

By now he had approached near enough for Pirro to reply in a normal voice, "Okay, here's what we need to do. Gather everyone into the barracks, it's the only building without windows, yes?" Arimi nodded & seemed ready to raise an objection, but Pirro continued, "Good, bring whatever you do not want destroyed into the barracks with you. Now go!" Arimi scurried off, too nervous to do anything but obey.

He turned to face his fellow adventurers, "Erica, you help Alon pry up a couple of beds & move them near the doorway. I was just in there with Zak & noticed some were empty. One has a dead man on it, lay him in a corner or something, several of the people around here would like him to have a proper burial. Wolflizards are the natural enemy of ratlizards, but I don't want them to decide that human is easier pickings tonight.

"Annie, go cower in the corner across from the doorway, you can lob fireballs at the wolflizards if they break down the door.

"I'll prepare myself to open the gate for the wolflizards, -unless Alon or Rasmus want to take the risk for... feminine admiration."

Rasmus scampered hastily toward the barracks but Alon paused long enough to remark, "I'm probably more suited to your task, but as you know self-preservation takes precedent over charming girls in my line of work, & besides I wouldn't want Erica to miss the sight of my sculpted 'ceps!" he laughed as he headed toward the barracks & Pirro couldn't help joining in.

Before heading to the gate Pirro helped the butler carry Arimi's trunk to the barracks as well as most of the provisions from the kitchen, then he went to the gate & started doing stretches while awaiting the signal to open it.

The wolves were very close indeed by the time all was ready, close enough that Pirro considered using a stick of dynamite to open the gate, but figuring that Anonymous would kill him if he took the time to fix it in the morning, (as any form of decency would demand) decided to take his luck with a shorter headstart. *Wham* a wolf lizard threw itself against the door, *Wham* Pirro deftly opened the lock & started running, *Wha-*CRACK* the door flew against the wall as the wolflizard came stumbling through. Pirro hadn't realized it was possible to run faster. He noticed a myriad of vicious little green heads emerging from the well & discovered that he still hadn't quite reached his limit. He passed the well & dived through the open doorway & Alon heaved it shut *Thwo-*Cras-*YIP!*

~_~_~_~_~

The door held all through the long night, indeed it was barely touched until a couple hours before dawn, & the wolflizards headed back toward their dens after only an hour of bludgeoning themselves against it. Pirro didn't awake until Zak managed to cast a healing spell on him, & then he woke screaming from the pain afflicting every fibre of muscle in his body. He quickly took control of himself, but wasn't able to move until the butler rubbed some unguent into his muscles, -Zak had fainted. Zak was easily brought to by a bucket of water from the well.

The pile of lizard carcasses in the courtyard was quite large & flaming smokily as they made their way out of the encampment in the mid-morning sunshine. Perhaps tehy would return later to make sure that Arimi was dealing honestly, but for now they had a reputed elemental spirit to parley with in the hopes of fulfilling a previous obligation.

It was late afternoon by the time they made it to Eioneus' cave, & they quickly followed the path worn by Bellerophen during his journeys down to Eioneus' place where they spent the night before assaying the next part of their quest.

"So, Eioneus, do you know anything about this firespirit that Bellerophon talked about?" Anonymous asked the free mage before they set out.

"Eh? Firespirit? Bellerophon mentioned it . . . said he had to stand on lava to see it. I think the heat was getting to him personally."

"Stand on lava?" Zak gasped horrified.

"I've heard it can be done with the right boots or a smith's friend potion," Feoras replied.

"Certainly, and as noble heroes, it is our duty to do it!" Anonymous said. He turned back to Eioneus. "I don't suppose you'd happen to have such a potion?"

"You mean you don't?" Eioneus asked in surprise. He had known Anonymous in the Magisterium.

"No, why would I?" the mage answered, seeming confused.

Shaking his head and mumbling something about "crazed pyromaniacs," the free mage rummaged around in his personal belongings for a moment before handing a Smith's Friend Potion to Anonymous.

The mage thanked him and he and the party ventured back up the caves.


After some searching, they at last found an area that seemed to match Bellerophon's description. For a moment, they stood on the banks of a vast of sea of lava. Scanning the glowing liquid, they could see nothing. Casually, Anonymous gulped the potion, waited a moment, and hopped onto the shallow lava pools next to them. A faint glow surrounded him.

Zak would have passed out except that would have required falling on the floor of the cave (and who knew what sort of creatures lurked there?), so he settled for cringing and taking a step away from the lava.

Shading his eyes, Anonymous scanned the sea of lava for a moment before saying, "Ah, hello there, mister firespirit."

Presently, a voice drifted out of the burning sea.

"Greetings, mortal. It is not often that one of your kind visits me. I am Ignae."

"Well, Ignae, we're always glad to be neighborly, as true heroes are supposed to be. Unfortunately, I've got to speak quickly before this potion wears off and I get third degree burns (which I don't doubt will be fatal), so I can't ask you much," the mage replied. "We wondered if you might be able to help us. You see, we're trying to remove some sort of blue monster creature from a mine, but we can't understand what he is saying. The only word we've been able to get from him is 'Jinrai.'"

"You speak of Jhiaxis and Jinrai," the firespirit replied.

"The creature is named Jhiaxis? What is he doing there?"

"Paying the price for attempting to go beyond what he is. Jinrai was his downfall."

"How so? Who are Jhiaxis and Jinrai?"

"Jhiaxis is of the East and Jinrai was of the West. Together they attempted to create balance between East and West, but their peoples wouldn't permit it. Jinrai died, and Jhiaxis mourns her, quite probably until the end of time."

The mage looked crestfallen. The glow surrounding him began to fluctuate as the potion began to wear off.

"So, he's not likely to leave on his own?"

"Not likely," Ignae replied, sounding amused.

"Can you tell us anything more about them? Perhaps about their peoples?"

"That is not a story you are ready to hear, I think. However, I can tell you this: Jinrai spirit lingers still in the volcano in the South. Do what you will with that information."

"Thanks!" the mage replied. He hopped off the lava, just as the glow failed completely. Hurriedly, the group backed away from the lava. After a short conversation, they decided it was time to leave the caves. As they headed toward the exit from the caverns, they discussed what they had learned and debated their next course of action.

Inspiration struck Pirro & he sat up with a start, "I should have quaffed a Smith's Friend & lit myself on fire! I wouldn't have had to run so hard then... hey, where is everybody?"

Eioneus glanced up from his work, "Oh, I thought something seemed odd. They left without you a few minutes ago. Did you mention Smith's Friend? I let Anon take one of mine, but I'd be grateful to have a replacement."

"Grateful enough to work your magic on my sword?"

"D'ya have 2 potions to spare?"

"3 & a couple daggers for a double improvement."

"Very well, but next time you come through, the first obsidian is mine."

Pirro handed Eioneus his sword.

In spite of the fact that the others were going at a slow pace through the slippery tunnels of the cave, they had made it to the entrance before Pirro was able to catch-up.

"There you are!" exclaimed Erica, "We're going to visit the earth-spirit's dead girlfriend at Lands End."

*pant* "sounds good" *pant* "how-was-the-visit-with-Ignae?"

"Rubbish!" declared Anonymous, "He held himself so aloof it's a wonder he didn't blast a lesser hero like Bellerophen to slithereens rather than condescend to speak to him!" He adopted a look of tragically wounded pride which nearly caused Pirro to fall over laughing.

The group had a discussion on which route to take to Land's End. Tiresome as it seemed, going back the way they came was the shortest. This was not an option, however, because Zak flat-out refused to go near the swamp ever again. He went to great effort explaining just why the swamp was deadly, until the others agreed to take another path. This meant they had to go out of their way to reach the main pass through the mountains. They had a walk of a few hours, if they kept up their pace, ahead of them.

They had crossed the mountains and were heading south again when they saw a pack of ruffians. Being realistic in their abilities, they new fighting their way through would not be wise. They also were too scared to run past. But they had to make a decision fast, before the ruffians wandered over and spotted them.

They were seriously considering giving up on their quest and running away, but they discussed all other possibilities as well.

It turned out Alon had dabbled with rocket science a bit in his past. He quickly shuffled through the group's belongings, borrowed some explosives from Pirro and some other cool things, and threw together some jet packs.

The jet packs were really shiny, and the perfect solution to their problem. They would simply fly over the ruffians and land at the entrance of the volcano.

There were a few kinks to be worked out, of course. Only Alon landed anywhere near the volcano, as they did not know how to drive a jet pack. Rasmus landed in the water just west of them, and began wailing that he didn't know how to swim. Erica landed on the roof of Pnyx (she was fine as Trundaylan's body softened the fall). Zak and Pirro seemed to be heading toward Land King Hall. Anonymous got tangled into a tree. Feoras couldn't figure out how to start and first, and when he did aimed for Rasmus to help him ashore, but ended up somewhere near the Tree of Life.

It took all afternoon of jetpacking, but finally the adventurers got the hang of it and met up at Land's End, without having to face any ruffians!

They knew they'd better sleep before searching for Jinny, but would they be safer out here, or inside the cave? They peered into the dark entrance, hearing an ominous scurrying...

A horde of harpys hatched from eggs which Bellerophen had transported to Lands End burst forth from the gaping maw of the mountain shrieking fit to dissolve the souls of even the stoutest adventurers.

Rasmus went into a panic, but luckily it's just what his mind needed to become super logical.

"Hatch-lings! Babies! Lullabies! Sleep!"

Quickly Rasmus began to strum his harp slowly singing loosely what came to mind.

"Go to sleep!" He yelled accidentally, enraging the harpies.

"Oops!"

"Don't make them angrier!" Pirro yelled as he took cover.

Rasmus tried again, softer.

"Go to sleep... go to sleeeeep, go to sleep, go to sleee-eeep, go to sleep, sleep is good so is food, yummy tummy go to sleep.... The end!"

Amazingly the harpies fluttered around slowly before falling to the ground. Some of them threw up.

Anoymous came out of the shadows, "Well! I nearly tore my ears off a couple times it was so bad!"

"Hey!" Rasmus replied in rage.

"Shh! Don't wake them!" Zak warned, waving his hands about.

Anonymous continued in a whisper, "But maybe that's just the kind of music monsters like."


Rasmus swung his harp back onto his back and stomped into the cave with the others, muttering curses under his breath.

Inside was a cluster of giant crabs. Pirro nearly threw a bomb at them from the sheer fright, but on second thought he proclaimed, (with his hands on a bomb & a fire source,) "Rejoice! For we have freed you for the moment from your bitter rivals! Quick block the exit before they recover & return."

The crabs instantly became snoring plots of swampland.

The wannabe's journeyed into the heart of the volcano with the help of Pirro's vast supply of potions. However they were exasperated that every time they needed more potion he was trailing behind near outcroppings of obsidian.

The adventurers got lost in the volcano. Fortunately, boys carry maps in their heads. Unfortunately, each of them had a different map of Land's End. Erica sighed and sat down on the ground while the guys argued about which way to go. It was pretty warm in there, and it was so late at night...

When Erica awoke, she was on Rasmus's back. "Whoa!" she exclaimed in surprise and scrambled to get off.

"I told you it was a bad idea," said Feoras, shaking his head.

Erica landed on some hot lava and cried out again, springing to safe ground.

"Are you okay?" everyone asked as they crowded around her.

"Back off!" said Zak, "I know Lesser Healing!"

Zak healed Erica's minor burn & they continued on.

They finally came to a room with lots lava. "I think this is it," said Alon as they entered, "this totally seems like a good room for a ghost to haunt. And check out that weird altar thing on the other side of the lava!"

"So we have to cross the lava," stated Anonymous. "It's hopeless! We'll burn to death. We'll die in the depths of this volcano and our families will never know. The ghost in the iron mine will live there forever and it will be impossible for any more oboloi to be generated ever again! The economy will be ruined and everyone will starve to death!"

Pirro, meanwhile, was handing out Smith's Friend potions and grinning. "This is going to be fun!" he said.

It took a lot of potions for them all to make it to the other side (extra because Pirro cartwheeled around the middle for a bit), but they made it.

"So how do we get the ghost to talk to us?" Feoras asked.

"Try climbing on the pedestal," suggested Anonymous.

Feoras did so, and to their surprise, the spirit of Jinrai appeared to them.

"We can see you are searching for answers. In order to communicate with the people of the Earth, you will need to learn their language." And with that she disappeared again, and they couldn't get her to come back no matter how many of them climbed on the pedestal.

"Well that wasn't very productive," complained Feoras, "how are we supposed to learn ghost language?"

"Let's please get out of this dangerous volcano," suggested Zak.

"Hold on," said Rasmus. "Perhaps we could reunite these two lovers?"

"How would we do that?" asked Feoras.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this Jinny seems to be tied to this altar."

Erica agreed, "I think you're right. But are you suggesting we move the altar all the way to the mine?"

"Not a problem, with six strong young men in our group!" declared Alon. The mages cast each other nervous glances, but stepped forward to help lift it. "Be very careful," Alon warned, "we don't want to alter the altar."

And so the group began to pass over the lava again with the pedestal, but the group was surprised when Anonymous randomly vanished halfway through. They didn't realize, you see, that this particular lava was lots lava (LOTS lava = Liquid Orange Time Shifting lava), but seeing that Anonymous was gone they all cheered. However, Anonymous had time-shifted only a second into the future, and did not notice that he had; so when he re-appeared, he misinterpreted the reason his friends were cheering.

"Well, thank you!" Anonymous said happily, "you're right, I am the greatest mage as well as the greatest warrior in all of the land, and I am really the heart of this group, and it is very kind of you to recognize that."

The others just sighed.

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 16 December 2010 - 04:09 PM

The group spent some time navigating through the winding tunnels of the smoldering volcano, assuming they would find their way out again as long as they kept moving up; however, it was taking much longer than it had on the way down, and not just because of the massive stone pedestal they were transporting.

Rasmus, Zak and Erika grew tired quickly and so asked for a rest.

Feoras spoke up in the pause, "Well, I'm not one to complain, but doesn't it seem like this is taking too long?"

No one was seem to want to answer the question, and instead finished catching their breath and went back to the pedestal.

Feoras was shocked, "Hey wait! That's it? You're just going to ignore me?"

A few of the other shot him a cold look which he could tell meant, 'Don't ask such depressing questions.'

Feoras stumbled for a minute and went back to help the others, without saying another word.

-----

Erika, now leading the sluggish group, stopped for a moment when the invigorating scent of fresh air tickled her nostrils. "Ah! Everyone! I can smell the outdoors! We're close!"

The adventurers picked up the pace and soon they had finally made it back outside the volcano, altar in hands.

Zak seemed the most relieved, along with Rasmus, that they had not been slowly roasted like a famous Odemia rotisserie chicken, but their relief was short lived as they seemed to be confined to some sort of pit. An impassible stone mound surrounded them in a circular pattern, giving them no idea what lye beyond. All they knew was that they had made it outside, and that is was lovely, sunny weather.

Anonymous paused and looked around, "Hm. Well this isn't good. Looks like we'll have to find a different way out! Onwards!"

"What? Never!" Alon interjected harshly, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I plan to stay out of volcanoes for the rest of my life if at all possible. Not to mention I don't particularly feel like being roasted to death like some Odemia chicken."

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that. Thought Rasmus.

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that. Thought Zak.

Rasmus decided to help the cause, "I agree with my friend Alon on this point. We can figure out another way. Surely!"

Feoras and Erica sighed, but Pirro was fed up, "Think of something else? This whole quest has been botched every step of the way!"

"Calm down Pirro, where there's a will there's a way!" assured Rasmus, also thinking that last bit should be written down it sounded so good.

"What are you going to do, Rasmus? Sing us a song? Play the one you did for the harpies, at least we'll be put out of our misery!" Pirro's last remark created an awkward silence. Erica was about to break up the fighting when Rasmus interupted her.

"Alright then! Yeah, I'll play a song! I'll play the best song ever! And you're just going to love it!"

Rasmus whipped his harp around into his hands and stepped onto a nearby bolder.

*COUGH COUGH!*

"This one's for my dear friend Pirro!."

And with a deep breath Rasmus began to 'sing' and strum his harp violently, "GO to Hades! GO to Hades! Choke and die, you are stu-pid! You smell real bad! You're face is... uh, lame! Blah blah blah blah blaah you stink!"

The group watched, speechless, except for Alon, "It's almost... sad..."

Rasmus continued on, even louder and the lyrics got less and less comprehendible. In his rage he failed to notice the ground starting to shake, violently.

The group scrambled in panic, Rasmus finally shut up.

"W-what's going on?!" screamed Zak, about to lose his midday snack.

"Nothing good!" Alon replied.


Pirro got everyone's attention, "Quickly! Back into the caves!" but it was too late, the entrance had collapsed, and the shaking was so violent now that they could barely move.

They all managed to grab onto the altar, holding tight as they could while the rumbling grew deafening.

Rasmus started to scream and closed his eyes; hee didn't stop for some time, and then he opened his them.

White, lots of white, and.. blue, more blue than white.

"Huh?" Rasmus examined his surroundings more carefully, it was nothing he had seen before, and he felt strange... like he was... falling?

He looked down. He closed his eyes and began screaming again.

-----

Meanwhile, back at the mine...

-----

"Pillow fight!" one of the miners screamed with glee.

"Haha! Oh you!" spoke Amphidamas the mine foreman, "You know this wasn't a bad idea at all, I mean, if we can't work, we might as well have a good time. And you know what! I think I'm gonna let Bob out!"

Amphidamas made his way across the hills of pillows, blankets, other types of soft bedding, and playful miners into his personal quarters where he kept his pet gecko, Bob.

"Today's your lucky day, Bob! You get to play with everyone else!" he spoke, humming a tune to himself.

The foreman returned to his men, and let Bob scamper about while he joined the pillow fight.

The camp was filled with laughs and tra-la-las, until a large *plop* was heard in the corner of thread-count mountain. It was one of the ones who had come once before, the one's clearing the mine of that one ghost.

"Oh! How nice to see you again," Amphidamas said welcomingly, "How did you manage to get there like that thou-"

Another *plop* came before he was able to finish his sentence however, and then another and another and another and so on!

Feathers flew everywhere from the impacts. In the frenzy, the foreman lost track of his beloved pet.

"Ahh! Oh! What? How did we?" Anonymous spoke in amazement, "Oh Amphidamas! Good to see you again! Or... anyone for that matter!"

Amphidamas started to panic a little, where was Bob? He couldn't see him anywhere. "Oh yes-yes, that is good, ummm."

"Are the others here too then?" Anonymous asked, dusting and de-feathering himself.

Amphidamas seemed in a daze, "Oh well, the others, right well.." His heart stopped when he saw his precious friend running in circles on the ground next to the mine entrance. "Oohh, thank goodness." he said with relief.

The feathers had cleared and everyone waved to each other that they were alright.

"Well, good then! We're all here, what about the altar?" Anonymous said cheerfully, patting the foreman on the back.

"What altar?" asked Amphidamas as a loud *THUD* and quiet *splat* came from the ground next to the entrance of the mine.

"B-Bob?!" Amphidamas cried, as all the color left his face.

"Ah good! The altar, and what good timing!" spoke Anonymous with satisfaction. "Who's Bob?"

Pirro laughed, "Looks like that altar has more fighting experience than you now, Rasmus."

The bard shot him a glare for the remark. "Stop this fighting, it's getting us no where!" Erica pleaded.

"Well," Alon interrupted, "Seems to have gotten us here."

The group fell silent.

Amphidamas fell more silent.

The curse of the expert is to think normal intelligent people are idiots. Pirro knew this was true, his commanding officer informed all the new recruits of this, & repeated it every time they learned a new skill, gained a level, or advanced in rank. Yet it's almost impossible to resist goading Rasmus. Pirro sighed, maybe when we get back to Cademia I'll find a girl that can actually appreciate Rasmus' style & introduce them. If only Rasmus would stop singing to bring the mountain down around our ears! Then it occurred to him that Land's End was a Volcano that had been peacefully minding its own business for hundreds of years & -

- "Rasmus! Rasmus stop! YOU'RE AGGRAVATING THE VOLCANO!!!"

But Rasmus was beyond auditory stimulus. Pirro reached for another Smith's Friend & sprayed it across his companions as the ground began to heave. Not very effective, but better than nothing. The next moment they were hurled toward the sky in a plume of ash & magma.

When they discussed it later, they figured that the only reason they survived was that Cythera hadn't been designed with falling damage.

A minute later they were staring into the face of a very angry foreman of the mine. Luckily they were closer to the opening. "Quick! To the ghost!" They grabbed the altar & rushed into the mine mere paces infront of enraged pick-wielding miners.

Delivering the pedestal to Jhiaxus was not easy. The hardest part was passing it through the cave-in. In the end, they were all a lot more tired than they'd like to admit, & their fingers were covered in owwies. Zak only had enough mana left to heal his own fingers, so Anonymous attempted to heal the rest & set Pirro's hands on fire (which Pirro thought was really cool). Feoras considered himself lucky that Nony had only put his fingers to sleep. He hadn't realized Soporiferousness could be used on fingers... good to know.

At long last, they set the pedestal down before Jhiaxus. "Yo, ghost-man!" called Rasmus. "We found your dead wife!"

Jhiaxus stood up. Everyone was very startled, screamed like little girls & tried to hide behind each other. But Jhiaxus did not attack, he only stared quizzically at the altar & said something in ghost-language.

Jinrai's spirit appeared again, and spoke to Jhiaxus in the same mysterious language.

Jhiaxus' face was full of heartbreak. He said a word they recognized, "Jinrai." His voice trembled when he said it. Tears spilled out of his eyes. Well, they weren't actually tears, but dust and dirt. It was pretty creepy really. But still very sad. Jhiaxus shook his head suddenly and ran away, down the tunnel & out of sight. Jinrai's spirit hovered for a moment, then disappeared as well.

Tense silence filled the room. Finally Erica whispered, "that was sad." She sat down on the ground and buried her face in her arms.

The boys recovered much quicker. They broke into a cheer and high-fived each other.

"And to think!" exclaimed Anonymous, "none of you thought we'd succeed! I knew all along that we would be victorious in our endeavor!"

Pirro, Feoras, and Alon had actually started dancing, taking up most of the small room & stepping on everyone's toes.

Rasmus knelt beside Erica. "Do not despair, fair maiden," he said softly, "we have saved Cythera from economic destruction. Now is a time to rejoice!" Erica looked up and gave him a half-hearted smile. Rasmus jumped to his feet & held his hand out to help Erica up, "may I have this dance?"

The dancing lasted a few minutes before Rasmus pulled out his harp, offering to add to the mood (his offer was met was shot down immediately).

When the enthusiasm died down, they all started to get nervous about facing the angry foreman, and reluctantly made their way back to the entrance.

". . . and that's pretty much what happened," Anonymous said, as he finished telling the story of their adventures to Matron Thuria. It had been some days since they had left the Mine, narrowly avoiding being killed by the angry mob that had been waiting for them upon their exit. It was only by telling the miners the ghost was gone (and that they would be removing the pedestal they had brought) that they had been able to save themselves . . . well, that and promising to get Amphidamas a new pet gecko.

They had travelled quickly back to the Land's End Volcano and returned the stone pedestal to its place. The ruffians had been driven from the area by the recent eruption and the trip both to the Volcano and back north had been relatively uneventful. Returning to Cademia, they had gone straight to Thuria and had reported their success.

"Well, that is certainly an interesting tale," the Matron replied, considering their story carefully. Amphidamas had already sent her a report of their success in removing the ghost; otherwise, she would simply have concluded they were all insane. Jetpacks? she thought to herself. They must be somewhat demented.

Thuria sighed. Demented or not, they had still done her a favor and were entitled to a reward. Reaching into a chest sitting next to her, she pulled out a bag with 200 oboloi and handed it to Anonymous.

"What is this?" the mage asked.

"Your reward," she replied, sounding puzzled.

"Reward? Why we are amply rewarded to have done anything helpful for anyone! We work for something higher than mere money! We work for the satisfaction of a job—"

He got no further before Alon and Pirro tackled him and dragged him out of the room. Feoras picked up the money bag and thanked Thuria. Then, he and the rest of the group followed Alon and Pirro out of the room.

Definitely demented, Thuria thought to herself.



Later, the group was sitting around a table in Dares' Eatery. They had just finished dividing the oboloi and were enjoying a well-earned meal.

Suddenly, Erica looked up and asked Anonymous, "Why did you tell Thuria that story about 'jetpacks'? Couldn't you just have told her how we really got to the Volcano?"

"She wouldn't have believed me and we all surely would have been arrested for attempting to cheat the leader of one of Cythera's houses. We would have been locked up for life," the mage sighed.

"He didn't want to admit he started a forest fire," Alon muttered.

"I did not start a forest fire!" Anonymous replied indignantly. "I started a campfire. Zak started the forest fire by running around and waving a flaming branch."

"But you had set my marshmallow on fire," Zak complained.

"Beside the point!" Anonymous replied. "Besides, it was Rasmus who caused that flood."

"I was only trying to get out of that avalanche that Pirro led us into," the Bard protested.

"I was just trying to escape the harpies that attacked us after we escaped from those ruffians that Alon tried to rob," the fighter protested.

"Feoras's short cut led us right into their camp!" Alon replied. "It was a golden opportunity."

"I only took that short cut to escape the fire," Feoras muttered.

"You were right," Erica said to Anonymous hastily, to prevent any further arguing. "Jetpacks does sound more credible."

"Indeed, I am always right!" the mage replied. "Well, almost always . . . anyway, we have succeeded in our grand quest!"

The others cheered, mostly in an effort to prevent the mage from giving a speech. The effort was mostly successful. They were only able to hear the end of the speech.

" . . . but many other battles await," Anonymous finished. "We will not rest until Cythera is safe! Come, the thrill of the unknown lies ahead!"

With that, the mage headed out of the Eatery.

"Couldn't it wait until the morning?" Zak protested as he followed the others out of the building.